Random Fate/Stay Night movie

Fate/Stay Night so far

I have lamented, either on this blog but most certainly in my mind, that the series is draaaaaaging. Saber has been sitting on the sidelines for four episodes (including this one) and Shirou has been acting baselessly arrogant. Episode 8 was another one of those "building up the plot" episodes, when it seemed from the previous episode that Shirou and Shinji (Rider's Master) would get into a nasty fight.

Conclusion: No nasty fight between Shirou and Shinji (neither physical, magical or vocal). Shinji, candid enough to admit that he is just as inept a Master as Shirou tries to slither in an alliance between the two of them to screw over Rin. Shirou wisely (IMHO) disagrees. (IMNSHO, anyone who would betray She With The Awesome Legs has his head up his ass).

Shirou is now quite the player. Rin somewhat surprisingly and rudely makes herself at home at Shirou's place and this makes Sakura feel upset. (It also makes Shirou's teacher upset but I never really cared for filler comic relief characters in serious series). Saber finally has the nerve to tell Shirou that he has his head up his ass (at least when it comes to the Holy Grail War, not, as I said before, when it comes to siding with Rin) and does things her own way. We are also introduced to two new Servants, Caster and Assassin. (Technically, Caster was in episode 4 but she doesn't really do anything). The preview promises a huge battle involving Caster, Saber, Assassin and Rider. I hope it's good.

Baby Steps

I am a member, as it were, of the UCSD Pre-Dental Society. I chose Dentistry, in all honesty, because I wanted to be called "Dr." but was discouraged at the difficulty of becoming a medical doctor. However, what I soon learned was that M.D. was one type of "hard" whereas D.D.S. is a totally different "hard."

To my surprise, I checked some statistics from 2004 for dental school admissions. Not a single California school had enrollment in double-digit percentages. I'm the type of person who is easily intimidated by those kinds of odds. However, I learned that the PDS attracts some of the most important people in the business and gets powerful people to do stuff for them for free. (And yes, I am wary of how they manage to do that). The "leader," I guess he is called, Dr. Silverstein, boasts about how being involved in the Society looks good on an application.

I could see why. Many of the hard-core members are practically dentists in everything but title. X-ray certification? Isn't that something they give to professionals? Yet some of these folks are not only that, but OSHA certified. No wonder all the big important people are impressed. I would certainly love to get in on the big action, but just like in admissions, spots are limited and competiton is big. Volunteering is actually easier said than done. Members cannot help out in a clinic unless summoned; other learning and enrichment opportunities have limited space. And there are about a hundred wannabe dentists all craving for the action. A hundred. That's bigger than the entire student body of a dental school.

My plan? I'm already at a huge disadvantage since I've only started attending Winter this school year. Other bastards students have started since Freshman year. (Looking through Frosh-Soph is my reflections on quitting school to become a mime or becoming a Welfare recipient to be a thorn on the .gov's side). I wish I could become a bigshot overnight, but I am reduced to beginning like any beginner does--in baby steps.

Batter up, Rin!

Deity

What's your inner deity? by Eurudite
Name/Username
Godly Name	Mournamune
God/Goddess of:	The Sun
Weapon of Choice:	Broad Sword
Area of Origin:	India
Animal Familiar:	Owl
Weakness:	Ice
Guilty Pleasure:	eating the whole bag of oreos!
Little Personality Quirk:	You are a masochist
Eyes:	Rainbow spirals
Hair:	Black with rainbow streaks
Special Features:	Wings of fire
Quiz created with MemeGen!

Shingetsutan Tsukihime

I admit that my rationale for watching this 12-episode series was... mixed. I wanted mainly to see why some of the people on my forum and other sites like the Twins so much (The one with blue eyes is Hisui, the one with yellow eyes is Kohaku). I also wanted to see the other work by Type-Moon (the one I know of you should all know of if you've visited this blog in the past three weeks).

Seeing as how S. Tsukihime was based on a rather complex story with multiple endings, it would have been difficult to pull off a good, single story tying all the threads together. I did not let that bother me and thus I watched the anime without any reference to any website that would tell the story of the original game.

As a series, I found it half boring and half interesting. Yes, I know that sounds wierd. I'll try to explain. The boring half consists of the main character (who looks suspiciously a lot like Keitarou Urashima of Love Hina infamy) thinking about things and generally spending time with other people. The interesting half is the fact that many of the characters have wierd backgrounds and everything is not as it seems. Shiki may look like a Gamma (or even Omega) Guy, but he has a kickass power that allows him to obliterate anything from existence by slicing at the thing's (or person's) "death lines." the story begins with him moving into his family's huge mansion with his ice-princess of a sister who from the beginning I suspected was totally fucked up. In the first episode, Shiki already hacks some blond-haired woman to pieces. Then you just get sucked in. We learn a lot of crazy shit about Shiki, and the woman he kills (Arcueid), who COMES BACK IN THE NEXT EPISODE and makes him help her out. Then the two become an item (and we return to the boring part). Then we learn about Shiki and his sister's past. Then a boring part. Then Shiki's classmate threatens Arc. Then a boring part. Then Shiki and Arc have some tender moments together. Wait, that IS a boring part. And we find out indeed that Shiki's sister is messed up, but that issue is never explored deeper. More boring parts. Shiki, sister and friends (and Arc) go to an amusement park. That's boring, but the really wierd people have some friction which is kind of fun and interesting to watch. Then more boring parts, until the end where Shiki has some final battle with a powerful enemy and seriously owns him. And then his classmate (who is really such-and-such a person) take the credit.

By its own merits, the anime is mediocre or barely above average. Had I played the game first I would have been sorely disappointed by the anime, since the anime apparently omits a huge amount of story points and ignores some characters. I don't excuse the short series length--Ah! My Goddess accomplished a lot of exposition, character development and generally getting the audience to like the characters in less than half the time. If some of the "boring" parts were streamlined, I bet that S. Tsukihime could have included some more of the "important" parts they left out.

About the twins. I sort of knew from the beginning that Kohaku was supposed to be this totally evil person, but she doesn't really do anything in the anime... well, she lets Ahika suck blood on her left boob, but I don't think that's really evil. Just... really fucked up (and also the full extent of the nudity in the show--it wasn't even frontal). I would say that the one redeeming quality of the show is giving me the impression of Keitarou slicing vampire out of existence. The cognitive dissonance is simply intoxicating.

One down, more to come.

I completed the BICD midterm six hours ago. I feel I got anywhere between a low B and a low A. However, there were enough weird detail questions that I reckon the mean will be in the high 60's. I am not too worried.

BIMM 100 is coming up. I made the mistake of prioritizing BICD 110 over it (and my stupid essay over everything). One thing I realized myself is that I cannot study any material for more than 2 hours at a time. I could study more than 2 hours in a day, but it has to be interspersed between fun activities. I think I did all I could; in the end, a lot of the stuff is glorified BILD 1 material. And there is always the Final.

Last-minute Triumph

What is it about the moment of truth that brings out the best in people? Since this is Essay Season, I am of course talking about that--but this has happened even before HUM was a thought in my brain.

When I was doing Drama in high school, we could NEVER run through the entire length of the musical in any one rehearsal. Yes, we knew the parts but we never integrated them. But come opening night, the performance is surprisingly smooth.

Perhaps the fear of failure drives us. I will consider this topic in greater length next time.

Two in one, revisited

This time, I will end with a more serious, pressing issue because what you use as end material is usually what is impressed into someone's mind. Therefore, I will talk about Fate/Stay Night first. DO NOT SCROLL DOWN UNLESS YOU DON'T MIND SPOILERS (like me).






















Now that I have spoiled myself with the synopses of the original Fate graphic novel, I can only say one thing--Shiro is BADASS. When I read the different scenarios it basically read like this: 1). Shiro's true power is actually this, which makes him badass 2). Shiro has another power that makes him kick metric tons worth of ass 3). Shiro is even more powerful and can kick so-and-so's ass like it were nothing (the only drawback is that Shiro is now an asshole). If you read the previous post, you would have learned that Archer (Rin's servant) is actually Shiro from the future. Since all the servants are supposed to be legendary heroes (Berserker is Heracles whereas Saber, oddly enough, is King Arthur), this clues you in to how much ass Shiro whips in the end. (It also makes sense that Shiro is Archer, since Shiro is a former kyudo-ka. What doesn't make sense is how he grows a foot taller and gets a bad tan). I now feel sorry that I thought of this series as a glorified version of Pokemon in which the Pokemon attempt to kill the trainers. I also feel sorry that I doubted Shiro and wrote him off as a typical Gamma Guy like all the other male leads of harem anime. (I haven't watched Tenchi Muyo and I frankly don't care to).

The only problem now is how the anime will turn out. It must be a task indeed to consider which scenario and ending to write into the show. Somehow, I think they must find a way to reveal the bombshell secret of Archer's identity no matter what scenario they choose (since after all, this is a one-shot thing and you hope your shot counts).



Now is the serious part. I spent the past several days languishing in despair over my essay. Now that I have three days left (including today), I now feel a sense of strange euphoria. I always seem to have that moments before a critical assignment is due or before a test starts. But before diverting myself to this endeavour, I did what all good essay writers do when making an essay from a piece of written work: SIT DOWN AND EXAMINE THE DOCUMENT, DAMMIT. I have also constructed, in my head, an alternate plan of attack in case I am ultimately dissastisfied with my current work (or more appropriately, if my TA is dissatisfied). Good essay writing, like good science, follows this maxim:

"If my approach fails, I must abandon it and construct a better one."

(Strictly speaking, this is a hypothetical imperative rather than a categorical one, if you would forgive the Kantian vocabulary. But in the middle of this gmish of responsibilities, I am also trying to internalize some readings). My previous approach was thus: Thesis (Candide holds an element of Leibniz's views but ultimately is more compatible with Bayle). Counterargument (Candide rejects Leibniz). Refutation (Candide holds this part of Leibniz). Further topics (Candide's views are better understood in the concept of Bayle, because etc.). The problem I have with this approach is that it seems to have two counterarguments that nullify each other and renders any discussion of Leibniz utterly useless (i.e. Candide doesn't reject Leibniz, but he doesn't affirm Leibniz that much really, so I wasted two pages of my effort and several minutes of your life).

This is another approach, but I may reject this one as well. You will see why further. Thesis (Candide is more like Bayle because etc). Grounding for argument (What is Candide's final understanding?). Comparison to Leibniz/Counterargument. Comparison to Bayle/Refutation and explanation why this is more satisfying. The reason why this fails in my mind is the inherent risk of plot summary, especially where explaining Candide's understanding is involved. Plot summary is just one of many ways to pad an essay. Padding an essay is much like padding a bra--it gives the illusion of substance where there is none.

In the end, rather than rejecting my previous approach, I think it would be better to refine my approach and think of a more satisfying counterargument.

Maybe I should be easier on Archer...

From http://www.geocities.com/max3075/fate/ubw.htm

He was actually Emiya Shirou from the future. The artifact that summoned him was the pendant that Rin used to save his life. He really did become a hero that he wanted to! It was possible for him to be summoned from the future because the heroic spirits are beings separated from the timeline of our normal world. One thing that's different about his case is that he chose to become an heroic spirit himself, so he can help more people. Most of the other heroes are forced to become an heroic spirit because of their fame and power, but in Emiya's case it was out of his choice. He's been acting weird since the beginning of this story, trying to get at Shirou whenever he had a chance. The reason he wanted to kill him was because becoming a hero was very different from his ideal, and wanted to kill his existence beforehand. An hero can only save someone who he swore to protect and many sacrifices were made when he tried to do something. In other words, he was giving up. Through the fight with himself, he is shocked by the determination he had back then. He decides to keep on fighting once again. At the end, he tells Rin with a smile "I've got the answer. It's going to be all right Tohsaka. I'll do my best from now on too" He will keep on being summoned to fight for someone forever, but he's happy to do so because that's the choice he made.

Drowning

I sure do fucking hate the writing process. That is, specifically, I hate the HUM essay writing process. Lab reports, though long and requiring great detail, do not require the same kind of wierd thought that HUM essays do. In a lab report that takes as much thinking and agonizing time as a HUM essay, much more time is spent in the lab report wrting, whereas the HUM paper takes up more time being puzzled and not being satisfied with one's own words. In short, it's pretty horrible.

This is the first time ever in HUM that I both am totally dissatisfied with my work-in-progress and that I can't find enough bullshit to say for the page limit. I should have fucking JC'ed this stupid course. But NOOOOOOOOO! I just thought I could be a man and slug my way through this stupid thing.

Maybe I'm too broiled up about the time I got that C+. I still haven't recovered.

Heh, poor Archer

Two in One

Since I have somewhere to be in less than an hour, I felt I should streamline my thoughts and combine two topics into one post.

First topic: Hum paper due in seven days. You know I am in a Hum class whenever I question my existence on earth and I can't sustain myself without bitching. I was phased, struck completely by surprise when a paper I worked so very hard on recieved a C+. Considering I also visited the TA twice to discuss my thesis, I felt like I had been hit with a Mack truck hauling bricks. Naturally I felt intimidated when the next essay I had to do rolled along, but then I felt a little more comforted when I thought about the prompt and felt I could write hundreds of words explaining quotations--words that weren't fluff. Still, I won't be impressed until it fits the page minimum.

Second topic: I don't know if Fate/Stay Night ep. 5 is out yet, but now I am torn between whether I like Rin or Saber more. On the one hand is the Magi With The Magical Legs (if you don't know who this is, scroll down a few posts and see for yourself). On the other hand, while Saber is not as pretty-looking, I am impressed with her personality. Shiro was warned that Servants devour humans to regenerate mana; but Saber told him that attacking innocent civilians was against her honor. Also, she is serious and caring at the same time. Of course, as episodes progress, we may find out that Saber is a total bitch (ditto Rin). But to say more about Rin, she doesn't seem all that bad herself. She helped Shiro after he was wounded (again) even though the two are locked in a life-or-death winner-take-all struggle. Maybe she is a nice person, or maybe she just wants to kill him with kindness, as it were, so she can take Saber. I don't know. Time will tell.