Just for a change, I thought I might do something nice for someone. Effectively, I'm doing something I really should've done some time ago: I am explaining why my younger brother, Lai: Toa of Shadows, is not a kit thief.

 

First, some background. Lai joined BZPower in mid-2006. Like me, he then got into the comic-making business, but due to his unparalleled laziness, he soon gave up and let his works slide. Two years later, he decided to start comic making again, this time taking leaves out of both my mainstay series. This idea would eventually evolve into The Story of Lai. He, with my assistance at times, spent several months trying to come up with a good all-around idea. We eventually hit on just the thing. He decided to go for an epic arching story with plenty of humour, supported by the fact that it is part of the newly-established canon of The Newsroom.

 

 

Another aspect of the series was determined early on. Everyone who hasn't had their head stuck under a rock has heard of Dark709 and his (horrible) Cheesemore Omega kit. By far, it remains the most populous kit in Artwork III; as such, it seems that comics making use of Cheesemore are instantly popular, whilst comics making use of other, superior kits are typically ignored. Lai and I have often wondered whether or not this is really a coincidence. This curiosity led to Lai deciding on one thing: as a test of this hypothesis, he would use Cheesemore himself, albeit with some alterations. The first of these alterations was using Gerlicky's tri-colour upgrade to the kit as a base. It was the second of these alterations which caused the lies and controversy I am ranting about today.

 

Eventually, his work came to fruition, and in mid-January, he launched The Story of Lai upon an unsuspecting BZPower. Reactions to it were mixed. Most praised it for "awesomeness". Those who didn't were too busy spreading lies about how Lai had stolen his kit. Unfortunately, Lai never got an opportunity to present his defence, and the topic was closed.

 

When Lai told me about this, I was NOT HAPPY.

 

Put simply, Lai did not steal anyone's sprites of any kind. At this stage, I am going to elaborate on why this is so.

 

Now, some background onto the origin of the sprites Lai supposedly stole. Put simply, there's this group of guys I mostly don't like called the North Western Isles Continuity. Fear them and hate them. They too developed upgrades to Cheesemore. Supposedly, Lai stole these from them. Unfortunately for these malicious liars, there are multiple flaws in this reasoning.

 

Firstly, the motivation. Lai lacks it entirely. Like I said, I don't like those people, and as such, Lai also doesn't like them. So the question is, why would Lai steal from someone he doesn't like? Sure, one could reason that he'd have no moral objection to it because he doesn't like them, but this is about using their work. It's kind of like how I don't use Cheesemore myself, simply because I don't like it or Dark709. Lai doesn't like the Continuity, so why would he use sprites developed by them, hmm?

 

Secondly, as illustrated in the header image, there's the sheer impossibility of it. As soon as these accusations started to be laid against Lai, I, to prove my point of the sheer impossibility of the "theft", went through the Brickshelves, Photobuckets and Majjes () of the five members of that possé. Wouldn't you know, NONE of them had these supposedly stolen sprites on any of their Brickshelves. In fact, Lai and I have it directly from one of them - Lewajohnson, FORMERLY one of my friends - that their little ringleader distributed the sprites to them through MSN Messenger or something. Eljay there seems to believe that somehow, Lai hacked into an MSN conversation or something and got them. You don't get more flawed logic than that. Seriously, neither Lai or I have any experience at all with MSN or similar programs, let alone the ability to hack any of their conversations or something.

 

"But Evil Emperor Dlakii", you cry, "Lai could've ripped them from the comics of those five." That's where you're wrong. Firstly, as far as I can see, only two of them have ever actually used the edit - the ringleader and his awesome sidekick Tapika. Secondly, I've gone through all the works of both of them; in the case of the former, my sanity barely survived the awfulness. In every frame using the sprites, the sprite is covered by:

1. Another body part
2. Some special effect (read: MSPaint scribbles ) which renders it completely theftproof
3. More and more frequently, both

Hence, if you really think about it, they kept their sprites completely theftproof. So the question remains, how did Lai steal them?

 

Simple. HE DIDN'T. I myself bore witness to Lai pixeling the kit himself, so I know firsthand that Lai was too busy pixeling stuff to steal ANYTHING, let alone the fact that theftifying that kit is impossible, as I've just explained.

 

 

Furthermore, I think you'll find that I have a fair deal of evidence showing that Lai isn't the "OMG LIEK IZ AWSUM I STEEL NAO" type. Lai, as it turns out, actually does have some imagination, and is very fond of drawing. As such, he likes to practice drawing stuff before making the real thing. So, back to the story I was outlining to being with. As a second alteration, he wanted to make Cheesemore look slightly better, because he tends to be that attentive to detail. So, to further develop the sprites, he spent some time trying to come up with a good quality alteration idea for the kit. He soon came up with a rather good one - MoL-style Matoran. Before he started work on the Cheesemore mods, he sketched out a rough idea as to how he wanted the end product to look, then scanned it to use as a guide while designing the redesign. He has kindly allowed me to put this on my Photobucket, so as to prove his innocence; click the above (colossal ) thumbnail to view the sketch.

 

I, as a footnote, really should add that since unfairly owning Lai, the Continuity has gone on to have, on Gavla's advice, try to track down another BZP member who also "stole" their kits. The thing is, they don't even know who this member is, or if he even exists.

 

So there you have it. I have laid down the evidence pointing to the truth. The odds of anyone actually reading this are slim, but.... I have locked this entry, because I'm kind of sick of having to put with Eljay's doglike loyalty to Rangan being expressed as spammy flames toward Lai at the least appropriate of times. ><