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on a totally unrelated note, any editors around, you know, let's, just, chat sometime

So far I own Glomp, Wizwuz, Magnifo, and Niksput, and they are all super fun. Here are a couple little guys I made for fun this morning. Mixels are a lot of fun to build!

And then... And then... I'M ON FRIGGING IMDB. I have an IMDb page. This is real. This is actually happening. Part of me can't believe it. Now let's get this sucker screened at a festival.

Most people on here probably don't know this, since I haven't really had any reason at all to mention it much, but I am an amputee. Not a major one, like an arm or a leg. Just a finger. (However, despite what my aunt says, that does not make me not an amputee.) The accident happened four years ago, on this very day. I don't tell the story much, partially because I'm unsure of how much of it I can tell, but it was a terribly traumatic event that still has its effects on my life. As a result, March 11th has become a sore day for me. (March in general, in fact, feels like a tainted month. I tend to be crabbier and more sensitive during March than on other months.) I become prone to thinking about my accident, and often feel guilt, anger, or sadness related to it. Needless to say, I don't usually enjoy it. For the past two years, however, I've been trying to do nice things on March 11th, to try and ease into changing how it makes me feel. Last year, I watched movies with a friend (one of which unfortunately ended up containing amputation but it wasn't too bad) and went to yoga. This year, I followed the immortal words of Tom Haverford and Donna Meagle: "Treat Yo' Self." As a result, I am now the proud owner of: two large bags of Starburst jelly beans five boxes of Star Wars macaroni RID Strongarm Pokemon TCG Primal Kyogre collection Super Smash Brothers for 3DS Tyrunt plush a clear case for my 3DS XL Generations Windblade (ordered off Amazon so I'm gonna have to wait but it's the thought that counts) then I topped it all off with a lunch from Taco Bell (yes that's treating myself don't judge) and went home to start enjoying my treats. Throwing money onto the problem might seem like a poor decision, but it's not so much about the things themselves as it is about the happy feeling. It's sort of a Pavlovian conditioning of myself, to start associating March 11th with good things, with happy things, so that one day, it will lose its edge. It's a long journey towards truly recovering from my accident. Even though the stump is healed, I still feel the impacts of that day. But I'm beginning to have hope that one day I can move on from this.

From: This Thoughts?

1. Acid, probably. It was never really made an official element, but we know it exists in the BIONICLE universe and it's not covered by any other elemental powers. That or animal life. Conjuring vines to attack your opponent is about as believable as doing the same with fire or water. But conjuring monkeys feels considerably more ridiculous. 2. Some of them I really like, namely Lightning, Plantlife/Jungle, and Iron. Those are all cool! They're naturally occurring materials or forces that aren't really covered by other elements. They are very visible and concrete, and feel like something a pre-industrialized society might consider building blocks of nature, much like the original six. As far as naming is concerned, I really like the names Lightning, Jungle, and Iron, though Metal is also acceptable for the third of those. I generally dislike elements like Sonics, Gravity, Magnetism, and Psionics which represent abstract or invisible forces. Magnetism also feels annoyingly redundant if you have an element of Iron/Metal, which makes a lot more sense as an element to me. I'm not fond of Plasma since it is something you do not regularly encounter in nature except in forms like lightning and fire that already exist as elemental powers of their own. After all, where would Matoran of Plasma even live? 3. Hard to say. I do not think the existence of other elements is harmful, but I think some were added without putting a lot of thought into how they fit in with the established world. Elements in BIONICLE are not just superpowers — they are defining aspect's of the world's culture, its geography, etc. There was never any compelling reason given why none of the secondary elements were represented on Metru Nui, for instance, or what kind of environment Matoran of Gravity would live in. Secondary elements' color schemes were also often contrived, and tended to overlap with existing elements far too frequently. Ninjago has recently introduced a lot of elements of its own in the "Tournament of Elements" arc, including some weird ones like speed. But of course, it never had geography or culture defined by its elements like BIONICLE does, so new elements can be inserted without much difficulty (and the writers have named them very poetically). 4. Neutral, I think. The world could have done without those elements, but the 2003 and 2008 story arcs remain some of my favorites. I think it got really convoluted in 2008 when Greg had to explain how "moral light" and "moral shadow" were different from elemental light and shadow, yet still somehow connected, and how light could regenerate automatically unless a mental barrier was in place. But the elements were still interesting and believable, I think. 5. I think I answered this in question 2. 6. Generally, yes. Jungle is a more natural fit for Lewa's environment and color scheme than Air was. And his jungle powers still seem to include air powers, kind of like the element of wood in wu xing philosophy (or, for that matter, the Megaman Battle Network games ). I am a bit bothered that the Stone and Earth elements were left alone, when this could have been a prime opportunity to change them. There has always been a lot of weirdness surrounding those elements, and the new story makes it even more confusing by making a lot of the Stone characters' weapons and powers sandstorm-related (when loose sand is normally something you'd think of as Earth rather than Stone), while still using crystals as a defining trait of the Region of Earth. 7. Carrying on from the last point, I'm not quite sure what I'd do to fix the confusing nature of these elements. Swapping Stone for Metal/Iron would seem like a smart move (many personality traits of Stone like unyielding resolve could just as easily be applied to Metal), but on the other hand, that would mean dropping one of the excellent environments for those two elements (since neither a desert nor an underground cavern really evokes the element of Metal). Treating Earth as organic material and Stone as inorganic material seems like an easy solution, but doesn't work out very well in practice. For starters, most soil is a combination of the two — only very fine clay or sand will be purely one or the other. Also, where does it end? Sure, it makes sense for Earth to allow controlling clay and maybe even coal, but what about other fossil fuels like oil and natural gas? Are these also "Earth"? What's more, the powers of the Earth element have long included earthquakes, but seismic activity is usually generated by movements in the bedrock, not simply by shifting soil. Doing as the Bara Magna sets did — substituting Rock for Earth and Sand for Stone — works just fine for the characters' powers and environments, but not at all for Onua and Pohatu's personalities. Sand is not stubborn, unyielding, or dependable the way Stone is. I suppose the simplest solution is just to think of the Toa's elements like Pokémon types. That way, Earth (Ground) continues to include moves like Earthquake, Dig, and Mud Shot, while Stone (Rock) includes moves like Sandstorm, Rock Throw, and Rock Slide.

It isn't so much Western culture corrupting Easter philosophy as it is Western philosophy fundamentally differing. Look as far back as Beowulf and the idea of light=good dark=bad is already well-engrained in our culture. I do agree that it is overplayed at this point - which is why it is a shame they pulled the original plot with Makuta being good out from under us.

The number of fanfics that have been begging me to write them for the past I-don't-know-how-many-years that would've done just this... Takuma Nuva

I am jelly. *Snaps fingers*

I have no idea why but the figure on the far right (Emma) reminds me of Leslie from Parks and Recreation. Maybe it's the hair color. Also, on your last point...you say that like people getting trapped in hats isn't something that happens here. In fact, just the other day I had to drag my idiotic friend out of a fedora he trapped himself in. Used ram's blood and everything. Do your research!

(Unmarked spoilers ahead, I’ll try to keep them…light.) I read Mr. Thornberry’s blog entry and it got me thinking about Kingdom Hearts well more than usual. The representation of light and darkness in Kingdom Hearts is…mixed, I guess. If you just take a cursory glance at the series, it’s the good guys keeping light safe from villains wielding the forces of darkness, and that’s not wrong. Heck, that’s literally the mission statement of the old Keyblade order as we find out in BBS. (Granted the game implies that order has some grave flaws, which might be why it ends up destroying itself…) But the series does try to say that darkness is not inherently evil, you just need to know how to use it. In , about 19:21, Xemnas asks Sora, Riku, and Mickey why they hate darkness, and Mickey and Riku say that darkness is a natural part of the world and there’s nothing wrong with that; the problem is that people just love to abuse it. (Sora just stands there trying to look menacing with his anime key, his major is in friendship not darkness.) The first game is pretty black and white on the subject, but since then they’ve tried to take a more neutral approach, primarily through Riku’s character arc: in the first game he fell to darkness and was possessed by Ansem, and ever since he’s been trying to make up for his mistakes and come to terms with the powerful darkness inside of his heart. This really comes to a head in Kingdom Hearts 3D, where he and Sora take the exam to become Keyblade Masters. Riku is using this as a chance to evaluate himself on a more personal level—is he really fit to wield the Keyblade when his heart was so weak in the past? (Of course if he wasn’t then it wouldn’t have still been with him, in-universe mechanics work like that, but he needs a little more than that, I totally don’t blame him.) The game answers with a very clear YES by having Riku succeed in becoming a Keyblade Master (the first new Master in about a decade) while Sora, due to having no experience with darkness, nearly gets dragged into a situation even worse than the one Riku found himself in during the first game. Riku, with his mastery of darkness, is essential in saving Sora, and the villain in this game (a new form of the villain who possessed him), outright says that Riku can now trap darkness in his heart and can no longer be manipulated. (I like to think that was a huge spirit-booster to him but I digress.) Riku made some mistakes with darkness, but he learned from it, and now he’s one of the best heroes we’ve got because of how good he is with darkness. So that’s a plus. It’s not just Riku, though. The first Keyblade we see Mickey wielding is a Keyblade from the Realm of Darkness (so far the only one from that Realm we’ve seen, and he doesn’t always use it, but he still has it); the Gravity and Magnet magic players can use are said to be dark spells, and you’ve got Ventus using them even with his heart of pure light; and, again in 3D, the Dream Eaters in the Realm of Sleep are made of darkness, and while some of them are evil, there are at least as many friendly ones that join Sora and Riku as Pokémon-esque party members. (And they’re adorable.) There are plenty of instances proving that Dark is Not Evil in Kingdom Hearts…but, they’re not entirely unbiased. For one thing, we haven’t really gotten to Light is Not Good at any point. The villain, Xehanort, likes to say this, but, I mean…he’s the villain. You could maybe cite Roxas, who controls Light and works for a villainous group for a time, and maybe Eraqus, who firmly believes Light is absolute and attacks his student (and adoptive son) Terra when the latter becomes soaked in darkness, but neither of them are really evil, and are almost always portrayed sympathetically. (I know Roxas is super-popular, and I can’t bring myself to hate Eraqus since he’s a Jedi Samurai Paladin who looks like Hironobu Sakaguchi and is voiced by Luke Skywalker.) Maybe you could even mention Sora’s Heartless from Re:coded, which is behind all the chaos going on in the datascape and, while it is made of darkness (being a Heartless), it does use some light attacks in its battle with Data-Sora. But it’s Re:coded, so who cares? Plus, pretty much every villain in the series does use darkness to some extent. I mean, the very first villain is Ansem, Seeker of Darkness, and now they’re calling the new Organization the XIII Seekers of Darkness, and their plan is to unleash a flood of darkness upon the world, and the apocalypse in the origin myth was all about the birth of darkness, and then there’s Vanitas, and…yeah, there’s actually a lot. It’ll be interesting to see how this plays into Kingdom Hearts X, the (currently Japan-only) browser game set at the time of the origin myth. The world is filled with light, but people are fighting over it, and while it hasn’t gotten too bad yet, the myth tells us it’s only a matter of time. The Foretellers, leaders of the various factions fighting over the light, all have a symbol associated with darkness on their Keyblades, so it seems like they may very well be villains in disguise. This could be a case of Light is Not Good villains…but, the game also says to watch out for “seekers of darkness disguised as guardians of the light”, so the reveal might be that they’ve been going for darkness this whole time instead. We’re gonna have to wait and see, I guess. So basically, KH says and I think definitely believes and means that Light and Dark are not necessarily associated with any particular moral stances, but the archetypal associations you’d expect are still very, very much there. This might change after Kingdom Hearts III, which is supposed to be the end of Xehanort and his Seekers of Darkness, but for now our main example for stepping out of these associations is Master Riku. He does a heck of a job, though. Related: while The World Ends With You doesn’t have thematic light and darkness like Kingdom Hearts does, a certain character who is up to no good does have powerful light-based abilities. He’s not evil, but he’s an antagonist, surely. Make of it what you will.

oh boy "JOIN THE BAD SIDE" "'Kay." "JOIN THE GOOD SIDE" "'Kay."

Well, Voxumo. It looks like you... Lost control.

I'm sure someone's done it before, but I'm ditching my Nuzlocke in favor of a more interesting Smearglelocke of my own design. Nuzlocke rules, but every time I catch a Pokemon, I must immediately trade it for a level 10 or below Smeargle. Smeargle only learns Sketch. Once Smeargle uses Sketch to copy a move, he only learns Sketch again every ten levels. So, unless I make it to the move relearner with super low-level 'mons, no one on my team will even know four moves until level 31. These are randomly bred Smeargles, of course. No hidden ability Moody, just a 50/50 shot at Own Tempo or Technician. Random IVs and natures and all that. And I can only Sketch what I find, no importing a Darkrai to learn Dark Void. I, for one, am super-hyped to accidentally Sketch nothing but stat-boosting moves. Log Entry 1: My Smeargles and I have braved Satalune Forest and the Bug Gym. Being constantly surrounded by needy Smeargles is a feeling perhaps akin to that of the cliche cat lady. My team thus far: Sasha, Lv. 13, replaced my starter. She served me well but has largely been surpassed by Ketchup as my physical damage-dealer. >Tackle: Learnt from the first Caterpie I encountered. Learning good moves is hard, going without any moves is harder. >Endure: Learnt from a Riolu. It turns out that it's actually tough to wait around for a wild Pokemon to use the move you want to Sketch when your only stalling tactic is switching out every turn, hopefully this move will alleviate that. Rafael, Lv. 13, from Route 2. A female, inappropriate name notwithstanding. Taught me to be careful when using Sketch. >Harden. Useful if I want to turn Rafael into a pseudo-stall Pokemon, but boy was Rafael useless until she learned a second move. >Poison Sting. Yeah... Only made Rafael slightly less useless. She's a trooper, though. Trevon, Lv. 15, from Santalune Forest. My first Technician Smeargle, and proof that Smeargle can be made into a Special Sweeper, given his speed-boosting nature. It's not Timid, but Sassy is close enough. I knew there were Pikachu with Thunder Shock around and that I could sketch some other offensive coverage eventually. I have big dreams for this guy. >Thunder Shock >Ember Wilhelm, Lv. 12, from Route 3. Oh, Wilhelm. I had such high hopes for you, with your Technician and excellent stats. >String Shot. Be careful when you use Sketch, kids. >Sketch. I'm saving this Sketch to get something awesome in the next areas. Wilhelm can be redeemed! Ketchup, Lv. 15, from Route 22. Ketchup has become everything I wanted Wilhelm to be. You can only make base 20 attacking stats hit so hard, but Ketchup manages to pull his weight. He almost single-handedly defeated the first gym through liberal use of Rollout. >Tackle. And easy Sketch of a common enough move, but between Technician and STAB it's one of the best moves available in the starting area. >Rollout. As soon as I encountered a Dunsparse with this, I knew I had to Sketch it. I leveled up Ketchup specifically to learn another copy of Sketch for that purpose. It was a little perilous--I had to kill Dunsparse quickly before his Rollout became too powerful--but it was worth it. Noteably, the first couple turns of Rollout are boosted by Technician.

I actually switched her hair with the series minifig mermaids from a while back. Also, stories about Sumiki's hat piles do not count.

You gave me Riku feels.

Yeah this doesn't bother me. You bring up Ying/Yang, which is cool, but isn't a philosophy BIONICLE ever tried to adhere to (or at least I can't recall any instances) so it's moot. It's also a toyline meant for kids, and having distinct good and evil is easier to understand than morally ambiguous characters. And since darkness is strange and scary and light is warm and comforting, it seemed like the obvious thing to do. Star Wars does this as well, where bringing balance to the force means wiping out all Sith. It's not a wrong convention, just a different way of thinking about it.

It's funny how BIONICLE really tried to get at this, but just couldn't make it all the way. Kingdom Hearts is doing relatively okay with it, too; the main bad guy is trying to abolish what he calls "the tyranny of light", which is a fascinating way of putting it. But, all the same, darkness represents the unknown, and subsequently the negative. Obviously Yin and Yang exist throughout assorted cultures and mythologies, but stories are told from the majority, which is light.

nothing left to say now

well that just hurts my feelings oh well

Ghidora he is literally the only person giving a full entry here You're not exactly gonna be lacking for time during judging -Tyler

I decided that everyone who did enter made a great effort, so I'm going to still do prizes. A main prize and a runner up prize. I will announce these within a couple of days.