Unsorted Letters

So, I want you, the reader, to go to the creative outlet forums, then head to the Library subsection, then choose either Short Stories, Epics, or Comedies. Browse through the written selections there and find a title or author that catches your eye.

...

Take your time.

It's okay, no rush.

That one?

No?

All good.

Found one?

Great!

Now, you read that piece of work, and review it, I don't care what you've found. After you're done, post the link to your review here, and I'll give you an official GS Star through PM! You can even receive TWO GS Stars by writing two reviews!

Spread the reviews for our writers people. Choose the easiest, simplest, shortest story/comedy you can find, it doesn't matter what you read! Every GS Star is the same and everyone wins! (Also you've made one writer very very happy too)  Please give a decent review though, which means at least say if you like it or not. Tell your friends! Tell your enemies! Tell anyone!

Good idea? =D

Well let me know once you're done!

(GS Stars are nonrefundable, can not be used for any sort of credit besides saying you have one. Please do not ask for the review you've given back, in exchange for the GS Star as I've said they are nonrefundable. The size of the review or the quality of the story does not effect the size or quality of the GS Star. Likewise Grant-Sud is not responsible for the story's quality whether it is the greatest thing you have ever read in your life, or the worst thing ever written by mankind. Remember, bad fan fiction and comedies HAVE been known to give readers headaches, stomachaches, gag reflex, cancer, insomnia, delusional and involuntary thoughts and actions, dreams of canon characters acting completely out of character, mild confusion, and in most cases, cause the reader to press the X button at the top right of his or her computer screen and move to the next tab where some other written work is probably much better. GS Stars will not cause headaches, stomachaches, gag reflex, cancer, insomnia, delusional and involuntary thoughts and actions, dreams of canon characters acting completely out of character, mild confusion, and in no case, will cause the receiver to press the X button at the top right corner of their screen in disgust to look at something else. In other words, GS Stars are not in any way like cigarettes or bad fanfiction/comedies, besides the fact that they are addictive and popular. Please share your GS Star with no one else, unless to show them you have one. All rights included and the giving away of GS Stars may or may not soon also include shipping and handling, taxes, choice of insurance for added protection of the GS Star up to one year, research and development and of course tips to me. Please and thank you by the way. (: )

Also though GS Stars are the same, they may come in different colors!

*leaps for joy*

Just having my story Divided We Fall make it into the polls for the Short Story Contest #8: Title Twisters, is more than I ever imagined would happen. Want to thank anyone who thought it was good enough to be placed there, and for the reviews I've gotten. It means a lot. If you haven't read it, or any of the other entries I suggest you do so. There are some pretty darn amazing stories here. Ignition, Dreams of Darkness and All Our Sins Remembered especially catch my eye, but I haven't finished reading the others yet, thus am planning to do so.

Hope the contest goes well for everyone! AND THANK YOU BECAUSE I HAD A BLAST WRITING IT! =D

So yesterday my sister is looking up Skyward Sword Trailers, when she clicks on an AMV for The Legend of Zelda. It was so terribly done. My other sister and myself were in the same room, and we started talking about AMVs we had seen for our favorite series. (Note, AMV stands for Anime Music Video but you can really find them for any series of movies, video games, shows, whatever) We looked through a few of our favorites and found a lot of un-favorites.

We all three agree, there are RULES to making a good AMV and I can't understand how people just don't see it. After discussing it, (my sisters added to this list) the rules are as follows:

Rule # 1: DON'T use pictures of characters, location, etc in the series.

It's a music video, not a slideshow which is different. And if you MUST place images in your AMV, PLEASE refrain from using images that are so common that you can find them on box covers, posters, or any other generic image that people have seen a million times before. The only reason someone looks for an AMV is because they are a fan of the series. If you must use an image, please try Fan Art (GOOD fan art) or Concept Art from the real creators. Don't forget about decent quality. Never blurry.

Rule # 2: Match the tempo of your song with the video correctly!

You start watching, I dunno, an AMV for Animaniacs. While Yakko, Wakko and Dot are bouncing all over the place and causing chaos, the music chosen for the AMV is Dear Prudence by the Beatles. Slow songs with fast videos, or quick hyper songs with slow emotional videos. It just doesn't work. Especially if your video has a ton of action in it, you need to stay with the pace.

Rule # 3: The theme of the music and video should (generally) coincide with each other.

This somewhat ties in with Rule # 2. If you want an AMV that strikes emotion, then you should choose an emotional song with emotional video scenes. Or build up to that climax of emotion. But don't just show all the heart wrenching stuff in random order with no outline given. It doesn't matter how sad the song or video is, bad pacing will completely ruin it. This goes for anything else: action, comedy, character progression, upbeat videos. I speak this in general, because there are some exceptions where people can use, for example, Civil War by Guns and Roses, and not have any action in it at all, instead showing the struggle between two characters. But you get what I mean.

Rule # 4: Try to find good quality.

I can't tell you how many times the video quality of an AMV is just so poor that it ruins the whole thing. I do understand that this one is harder to follow, and finding video quality isn't easy, but try your best to locate it. It'll make a smoother video, and more memorable.

Rule # 5: A Heavy Metal, Rap or Screamo song may be your favorite one. But that doesn't mean it belongs with what you've created here!

It is very very rare, I find an AMV that has a song in those genre, that is actually good. It doesn't mean the songs are bad, but really, if you're going to use a Heavy Metal song, you need a vid that plays CONSTANT action, with no end. Not many people can pull these off and rarely are they done right. (It doesn't mean there aren't good ones, but really these are for the experts) Even Dragon Ball Z AMVs can be ruined by a song like those, no matter how much action there is.

Rule # 6: Using the songs, Bring Me To Life, Kryptonite, What I've Done and New Divide DOES NOT MAKE IT A GOOD AMV.

Agh! I have nothing more to say. These are over done and you can find these songs in AMVs everywhere. They are great songs, but please remember everyone else has used them already!

Rule # 7: TRY to avoid placing romance, or shipping characters in your AMV unless that's the theme you are going for!

I swear these are everywhere. If any AMV is about a specific character, they usually have some other character in it, taking up more then half the main character's screen time and showing all the "moments" they've had together. But the AMV isn't even supposed to be about ROMANCE. That's the main problem. By the way, IF you're AMV is about shipping, please try to avoid songs that don't match with the relationship between characters. (overdoing the "love" they have for each other) Thus, always down tone it imo. It gives a more sweeter tone when you know they are "friends", not just insanely unrealistically madly in love. Also, try to avoid lyrics that  have the cheesy lines...

Rule # 8: Don't have character lip-sync with the music being played!

Period.


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And that's the end of this review for reviewing how to make a good AMV. I also just watch the How Scream Should Have Ended the other day, so I took the same concept. lol Hope you all enjoyed

If you have more rules to add, please do so.

The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword has gotten a 10 out of 10 by Edge, Official Nintendo Magazine gave it a score of 98% (the highest score ever given for a wii game I think?) and GamesTM gave it a 9 out 10. I read the review by Edge and ONM. Need to go check out GamesTM.

Um. I'm going to go hang my head for the next three weeks until this game is released. ;-;

Okay so starting off with this review, I KNOW this is kind of an older show. If I'm going to review a DC animated cartoon I should probably go with the newest one, that being Young Justice. But the thing is, I love Teen Titans and want to review how a great show should be made. So, yes, I'm going to be very biased in the following review. With that said, let's ...



GO!



Teen Titans the Tv Series was one of those shows that got a little criticism upon its arrival. For one, this wasn't the average DC Animated TV show with a mature look and following the canon of the comics. Instead you had five random Teen Titan characters on a team, together despite the varying ages and timelines for each in comic canon, a goofy hybrid western-eastern cartoon animation style and a show that was said to be made for kids. Not a good combination for older fans.



Thankfully, the show started gaining approval. Sure it was made for children, but surprisingly the audience demography started to widen toward the end of season 1. This was because despite the feel good tones and happy endings that kid shows receive, toward the end of the first season, varying episodes became darker. Not too dark really, but enough to say it followed a mature story line (an original mature story line). When you place that with the great voice acting the show had, and smooth, flowing animation that can be either dark or bright depending on the setting, you had one amazing piece of work here. Following that, with an older audience, the show's writers started to create stories with more depth, yet still light enough for kids to relate to and enjoy.



And that's the magic of Teen Titans: It can be any kind of show it needs to be, to bring great entertainment. Depending on the episode the show could be very fulfilling (Sisters), humorous (Revved Up), depressing (Terra), action packed (Winner Take All), mysterious (The Beast Within), dark (Nevermore) and sometimes just plain weird (Bunny Raven … or … How to Make a Titananimal disappear). The best episodes were the ones that were able to bring them all together, and almost all episodes had a message to them.



Teen Titans follows the plot line of five super heroes living together in a tower that looks over the city. The characters here include: Robin, Starfire, Cyborg, Raven and Beast Boy. Their lives are unique and just free. These young teenagers don't go to school, just hang out, eat pizza, play video games, they don't have secret identities and are always on the lookout for trouble. The characters really do make this show. The varying personalities are great, with ups and downs to all of them that just subtly or directly are shown. As the series goes on, though the show manages its plots ep by ep, there is a surprising amount of character development. The show is very unrealistic in terms of setting, yet surprisingly the Titans deal with issues that mirror the problems of real life. You can always relate to one of these characters in some way. And sometimes they'll find the answer to their problem, and other times they just ... won't or can't resolve the issue try as they might. Those thought provoking episodes reach out to me in a touching way. The underlining theme to the show is friendship however. No matter what problems come their way, they go through them together, whether they are serious or hilarious.



Animation is fluid and carries itself with an influenced anime style. Besides that, they look like American cartoon characters. The incredibly high amount of action in this show isn't ruined by the different style, and makes it swifter. Atmosphere, depending on the mood, can be up building or gloomy. Music and sound is also well done. Voice acting plays itself seriously and is superb. There are no short cuts, when they need to be serious, they are. When they need to be funny, certainly so. Background music varies per ep, but there are some memorable scores.


Teen Titans is a children's show thick and thin, but it has a lot of heart, with great animation, music, characters and stories. And because of that, it's a show not only anyone can enjoy, but also one that anyone can relate to.

SO, after I told a good buddy of mine that I would, and because I wanted to write some reviews for good shows/games/music anyway, I decided to start off with MLP.



You've probably seen one of those characters above of course if you surf the internet at all. And if that's true, you've probably met the MLP fan boys who constantly rave about the show and claim it's the greatest thing since sliced bread. AND you've probably read all about how there may in fact be more teenage/adult males who watch the show more than little girls whichare the demography the creators were shooting for.

Now if you know all that, then you're probably one of two types of people. You either HATE the show, or you LOVE the show.

This review though, won't get into any of that and it's strictly to talk about the show itself. This is because I believe some fans of the show take it too far in "converting" people, and it immediately turns other people who previously didn't care, to "hating" it. For that reason, the review is for all people who know about the show and for those who don't. This is in no way a rant against anyone.

So with all that covered, let's begin!

My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic to start off with was developed/created/produced (or something like that) by Lauren Faust. You may have heard the name before (and her husband's name Craig McCracken) in other great Cartoons like the Power Puff Girls and Fosters Home for Imaginary friends.

With that said, let me just say the show is produced by people who as we all know, are what I consider experts at cartoon making. They know what they are doing. No one would have thought that three super hero girls at the ages of 8 years old or something, who fly around stopping bad monkey rulers named Mojo Jojo and then getting home before bed time was going to be something that was fun to watch. But the thing is, it WAS fun.

And for this review, that's the point of MLP in my opinion, don't judge a book by its cover.

The first time I watched the cartoon I really only did that. (also for laughs) I shook my head at names like "Twilight Sparkle", "Pinkie Pie" and to be honest I had no idea what Spike was doing there. I was simply waiting for the ending kid show formula of "learning a lesson about friendship" with smiles and hugs, until the NEXT episode which would be about the same thing. And with all that, you have a boring show that no self respecting teenager would watch. I mean hey, by that age you’ve learned all that friendship stuff already so why watch it again but this time covered in pink?

The problem is I really started to laugh. I lol'd at the part in the pilot where Twilight is in bed with a pillow over her ears because all of ponyvile was having a party down stairs in her house. That includes jamming music and lights. I was like, "What's this have to do with ponies?" I also took notice of how when Pinkie Pie began her "song", that all the other characters were rolling their eyes, annoyed and begging her not to get started on that, considering the dire situation they were in. Their response was just what I was thinking at the time, and for that I was grateful the show pointed it out so leisurely. It earned a ton of my respect.

It's a show for kids, so plot wise you can usually see the point and lesson to be learned coming a mile away. But there really isn't anything wrong with the lessons, and they vary per situation. I was impressed by this because sometimes you'll get a real simple plot, like how to overcome arguing between friends. Others though will feature more personal issues about overcoming a fear or even in a very impressive episode concerning a dressed, proper mannered lady, who can handle herself. (In a very non cheesy way might I add) Over all the points at the end of the stories while you’ve seen them before, aren’t done in a bad way. They get the lesson across, but don’t hammer it into your mind like all children shows seem to do. That’s a fantastic feat.

And to be honest it's really the way they reach the end of the story that grabs me. The Characters make this show. Period. With so many different personalities mixing and mashing together in a great way you just can't help but be impressed. Pinkie Pie is hilarious, cheerful and never stops talking, only shushed at the right moments to give everyone watching a laugh. Even Fluttershy the least talkative out of the group is a joy to watch, constantly second guessing herself to the extreme.

I haven't included the thrill seeking Rainbow Dash, the leader and arguably the wiser Twilight Sparkle, the proper Rarity and hard working loyal Apple Jack. And those are only the main characters. Their personalities are just as colorful and random as Foster's Main Characters were, though obviously much more sweet and kind, but just as colorful none the less.

The show is very bright, candy colored, pink, and soft. The animation is fluid, no question, but there is no denying this show was made for young girls and with that, I can see why a ton of people, anyone over the age of 12, wouldn't look twice at the show. They don't have time for another kids show. But really underneath it all is a well thought out piece of work that's FUN. The show doesn't take itself too seriously, at all, and only wants it to be enjoyable for EVERYONE. I completely agree that it has.

So for a final say, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic sets out with a cover to appease younger children, but really that's just with the animation and ending lessons. Plot wise, the story is cheerful and while the lessons aren’t always original, uniquely done to bring out the point. The characters are wonderful and the laughs are many, including smiles. Anyone can watch the show, which is what a good (and granted, adorable!) cartoon is supposed to do.



Recommended Episodes: The Ticket Master, Bridle Gossip, Dragonshy

*Credit to MatoroIgnika for banner.