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Essays, Not Rants! 109: For Want of a Glass of Water Kurt Vonnegut once said, “every character should want something, even if it is only a glass of water.” This piece of advice functions as a very simple and straightforward way to ensure a character has some semblance of depth. What's important about a goal? A goal gives a character purpose and gives an audience a reason to invest. In Star Wars, Luke wants to leave Tatooine. In How I Met Your Mother, Ted wanted to meet the mother (or at least we thought he did). In Pirates of the Caribbean, Jack Sparrow wants his ship back. As viewers, we want characters to want something. It’s dull if a character just exists with no want (i.e. Ted for many of the later seasons of Mother). Chuck begins with a very complacent Chuck who’s just floating through life. Receiving the Intersect gives him a purpose too. Characters then have to do something about it. Solid Snake crawls trough a microwave chamber in Metal Gear Solid 4 to stop the Patriots. Katniss famously volunteers as tribute. Taking a proactive role about their goals is what separates Katniss from Bella Swan. The former may want Edward and/or Jacob, but she just sits around; Katniss actively fights for not only her life, but for those of her friends. It’s not enough for a character to have a goal, they have to do something about it. Jack Sparrow spending two hours talking about how much he wants the Black Pearl would be a terribly boring movie. Those are the fundamentals of having a potentially interesting character. Following that we need conflict. There has to be something stopping the character from getting what they want. Harry wants to be a wizard with the sense of family and acceptance it entails, Voldemort wants him dead. That conflict of interest fills seven books. This so called ‘external conflict’ as your High School English teacher called it can be far more subtle. In The Last of Us, Joel’s goal becomes to protect Ellie whereas her goal is to make her life count. For the most part the goals don’t interfere, but when they do we get some magnificent, quiet drama. Additionally, having the protagonist conflicted makes them that much more interesting as we get to watch them change or resist it. Columbus in Zombieland already has the zombies interfering with his goal of staying alive. His emergent want to win Wichita’s heart, though, also screws with his sense of self-preservation. Suddenly, Columbus has to make a choice: what does he value more, his life or Wichita? A conflict like this forces the character to change. Columbus has always been a wimp, someone who’d rather cower than take action. His interactions with Wichita force him to nut up and grow. But what if she doesn’t get the water? Sometimes the most interesting thing to happen in a story is for the character to not achieve their goal. Tom’s goal in (500) Days of Summer is to win Summer’s heart, then to stay with Summer, and then to win her back. It’s his proverbial glass of water and what the film centers on. Tom, however, doesn’t end up with Summer. The complete destruction of his goal forces him to reassess everything and, eventually, gets him back on track to doing what he wants in life. Losing the goal he thinks he wanted reveals what he really wanted. Like a conflicted desire, it gives added layers to his character. Conversely, achieving a goal may crush the character. Zero Dark Thirty ends with Bin Laden dead and Maya Lambert successful. She’s achieved her goal, but her goal was all consuming. The film leaves her suddenly aimless and without purpose, adding a sense of somber hollowness to it all. Just as giving a desultory character a goal yields interest, so does robbing a purposeful character of hers. Wants and goals fuel stories. Look at Game of Thrones, everyone wants something, almost always at the expense of someone else. These goals breed conflict and add depth to characters. Just make it more than a glass of water.

Happy Easter everyone! Went by incredibly fast or maybe I'm just getting old (gulp). As for retirement my dad retired from the Navy last Friday and guess who was one of the people to congratulate and wish him luck? The one and only Michael Dorn (or Whorf)! So that was some Easter.

Today marks the 10th anniversary of Code Lyoko's first broadcast in the US. The episode was Teddygozilla, and it was weird. I didn't know about it at first. I'm not sure exactly when I discovered it, but I remember the scene that introduced me: Odd was fighting a Blok in the Forest sector. He jumped over it and shot it and it blew up. It was just on TV and it looked cool. I'm really glad I found it when I did. This show was my late childhood. Finding out there was going to be a second season was a huge deal. I lost track of it a bit in season 3 I think, but season 4 got me back into it. It's a shame the execs at CN screwed it up so much.

Remember when this was what Lego blasters looked like?

Hey, folks. I thought I pop in and share how my B-Day went today. Really there is not much to say. I didn't exactly do anything special. I mostly just treated it like a normal day. Well, I should say a normal weekend day as otherwise I would been at work for most of the day. But anyway, I basically I just watched a lot of Star Trek: The Next Generation today (I am currently on season 3.). So yeah, I wouldn't say it is very productive or eventful day. Not that I am complaining though as I like chill days like this. Hm...What else should I mention? Well, I got some cards from relatives and I also got two gifts from a friend of mines. Uh...I had some cake with my dinner. I unfortunately don't have a picture of it though. It basically looks like an Easter Egg, if you really that curious. Oh, and I have some chocolates too. That's all I really have to say about my birthday. As a side note, yesterday was my 4th anniversary of being employed. I don't really anything say about that, beside obvious that I am rather graceful to still have this job. In other news, it seems that next Saturday (April 26th) my friend and I are going to check out the public day for Philly BrickFest, so that I should be a fun little trip (Its much shorter trip than one to BrickFair VA.). I'll be sure to take a bunch of pictures from that to show you folks. Oh, and if you are also going, I probably be wearing my BZPower shirt, so I probably be easy to notice (Whether or not I can buck up courage to introduce myself to anyone is the real question.). Alright, that's enough from me for today. I apologize if this was kind of boring read. I hope you all have a great day and thank you for taking the time to read this. Talk to you later, BZPers. - JMJ 2014

They're nifty little models, but I'm really feeling like mocing them into mechs, that seems cooler to me than chibi fighters, even if I am pretty fond of the chibi Millennium Falcon. I definitely have enough pieces I can use as joints in the X-Wing to give that one leg and shoulder joints.

Essays, Not Rants! 108: Interconnected I’ve been waiting for Agents of SHIELD to really get into its groove proper. It finally did last week, courtesy of some major plot points from Captain America: The Winter Soldier. Which is kinda odd, really. A feature film bearing a different name affecting a TV show that much. I mean, it makes sense within the universe they’re creating, but from a meta perspective, it’s terribly uncommon. And that’s one thing I love about the stories Marvel Studios’ been telling. They’re all connected. This was a gamble. Back in 2008 when Iron Man came out and Nick Fury mentioned the Avengers Initiative, Marvel was asking audiences to wait a few years and watch a few seeming unrelated movies in hope of a big team up coming out later. It could have failed, some of the movies could have sucked, but they took the risk to try and build their cinematic universe. Seeing as The Avengers made what businesspeople call a ‘crapload of money,’ it paid off. Not only that, but it was a legitimately awesome film. Best of all, it stood alone. You didn’t have to have seen any or all of Iron Man, The Incredible Hulk, Iron Man 2, Thor, or Captain America: The First Avenger to get it. Sure, watching those movies helped, but it was great on it’s own. Each Avenger was quickly and succinctly introduced enough for a new viewer to get what was happening. Every Marvel movie works that way. Someone can see The Winter Soldier on its own, or after having only also seen The First Avenger, or seen all the films in the Marvel Cinematic Universe chronology as well as Agents of SHIELD and enjoy it. There’s a decided effort for each film to be able to stand on its own and yet play with the others around it. They compliment each other but are not dependent on the others. It’s a fun sort of storytelling; you follow a group of independent characters and then see them all in a big event, then see them apart again. Marvel’s asking viewers to embrace a sort of storytelling not really seen in film (or TV, really). Outside of the occasional Alien VS Predator, having independent franchises team up like what happened in The Avengers just doesn’t happen. Though it does in the comics. Their Guardians of the Galaxy title may intersect with the Avengers title, but you don't have to be following both to understand what's going on. Does it help? Sure, but it's not a requirement. Consider the last episode of Agents of SHIELD, "Turn, Turn, Turn." What happened in The Winter Soldier directly affects the show in a massive game changing sort of way. Like in the comics, they’re weaved together to stand alone but also enhance each other. “Turn, Turn, Turn” offers a different perspective on what happened in The Winter Soldier and the film shows the big picture of the events in the show. This also makes great business sense. See, Marvel’s smart; they know that not everyone will watch every one of their movies. It’s to their benefit for every film to be as stand alone as they are. It allows them to remain accessible to anyone. Winter Soldier deftly sets up Steve Rogers as being a man out of time who feels a bit lost in a way that doesn’t feel obtrusive to someone who’s seen the prior movies, yet so that someone new can follow what’s going on. It plain works. Add in the fun of getting more understanding the crossovers and Marvel’s market expands. I’m so glad Marvel managed to pull this off. Things like seeing Bruce Banner at the end of Iron Man 3, references to Stark tech in The Winter Soldier, and Sif showing up in Agents of SHIELD remind me of the Iron Man and Spider-Man cartoons I’d watch as a kid where anyone could and would show up. Somehow, Marvel did it: they made a cohesive cinematic universe. Now I really wanna see what happens next in that world.

MATANUYAMAJAI - THE LEGEND Ivaha vahai, Mata Nui ini-wahi uvoya; Nohi-artakhai akoa, Matoran roya, karaya. In the time before time, The Great Spirit descended from the heavens, Carrying us, the ones called the Matoran, To this island paradise... - Oa kaitura, maitura; Mata Nui i-Haua-Ngavongu, Kaita, Maita, Vaita, Oai takaya. We were separate and without purpose, So the Great Spirit illuminated us With the Three Virtues: Unity, Duty, and Destiny... -- Oa i-Hau kouya; Ihahla, oa Mata Nui Inohi-reahi rokha; Nga i’Amana rohi. We embraced these gifts, And in gratitude, We named our island home Mata Nui, After the Great Spirit himself... -- Oa-hahli rhourakha: Mata Nui-ro, nga Makuta, Suva vorakha, akai guurakha. Makuta ikouka Mata Nui zya. But our happiness was not to last. Mata Nui's brother, the Makuta, Was jealous of these honors and betrayed him. Makuta cast a spell over Mata Nui, who fell into a deep slumber... -- Makutaka nohi maya, Itaua bo-wahi jutlamoya, Avotaka kokha, Hau-raga ceuraya. Makuta's power dominated the land, As fields withered away, Sunlight grew cold, And ancient values were forgotten... -- This was originally posted via tumblr over the space of a few weeks, and now that it's complete, I thought I'd share it here. It's a rough translation of the Legend of Mata Nui, and if you've been following along with the last three posts, you may recognize a few things. I'm considering posting a full gloss once I find the time. Currently, a continuation is in progress: The Prophecy (of the Toa), the first few passages of which have already found their way online. Enjoy.