A Collection of Cool Art: Part 3

Book Magic:

Everbody knows that books are portals to other worlds. This picture just puts it into perspective: this is what happens evertime you open one.

;)

So be careful.

The Beast:

A true Wulf in all it's gory glory. This picture reminds me of Gmork in The Neverending Story - and therefore scares the living shit out of me. It is particularily disturbing that the artist managed to capture the fact that whoever is seeing this creature is probably about to die - if they're lucky. Simply the way it stares at you through the picture *shiver*...

Wolf Mother:

Another rejected image to describe my blog name. I guess this is what I hope to become and not what I am at the moment. For those of you who haven't noticed, the woman's reflection is that of a mother-wolf - an interesting representation. I found it from a Native American Art website.

You Are SO My Bitch: This is Starbuck, played by Katee Sackhoff, from BSG again. This is a sceenshot from one of my favorite episodes called "Unfinished Buisness". I basically just enhanced the color a bit and added text. It is my opinion that the look she's giving defines the text. ;)

Firecloud:

This is something I would imagine could be seen between stormclouds and bright sunlight above. I like this picture for it's sheer elemental component.

Forbidden Road:

I believe this was a wallpaper for a video game too, but I can't recall it's name. The image is eerie and shows a deserted trail with a werewolf parked at the end close to the town. I like how strangely this image is balanced. The werewolf almost doesn't look out of place and, at first glance, it doesn't look like a werewolf at all. But when you look again, it's staring right at you!

Growth:

One of the stranger pieces I've seen, this picture shows a meeting of science and nature in a way I've never seen. Notice that there are no humans in the image. An image of things to come, perhaps? We might never know. I keep it for it's creative, but realistic aspect, but I have no idea who made it.

Mine!:

A minny Smog, perhaps? Another member of the "Cute Baby Dragon Club" that I've collected. The mischief is clearly visible in the baby's body posture and eyes. The use of light is particularily well done in this picture.

A Collection of Cool Art: Part 2

Climbing Atlas: A wallpaper from the video game God of War II: The End Begins. This image depicts the sociopathical hero of the game, Kratos, scaling the titan Atlas and fighting the legions of undead blocking his ascent to the world Atlas holds up. The color is brilliant and the brutality of Kratos' character is most appearent in this picture than in any other ones that I have seen.

Death of Samus: At first, I thought I had found this one on deviant ART transfuse's collection page. This artist has a few full colorful, detailed images of Samus Aran from the Metroid video games, but it seems that I'm mistaken and this is someone else's work. Who ever they are, they have my thanks for creating it - this is my favorite image of Samus to date. It shows how tough it is to save the universe sometimes. Fancy armor doesn't save you all the time, but you live, learn and protect what you can... or you die trying.

Lighting Away: This is a wallpaper of Final Fantasy XIV's main character: Lighting. The image itself it actually a still from one of the in game graphic shots sceen in the first trailer, which you can see here at around the 47 second mark. The sense of movement is just so well captured in this image. It's just so smooth.

"Rancor?!": One of my favorite parts of Jedi Knight: Jedi Academy is the mission where you have to free a group of elders from a slaving outfit and one of them tells you that they should get out of here before the rancor comes. "Rancor?!" You're character exclaims and the best roams around the corner in an attempt to eat you. This image captures that moment pefectly - a lone Jedi Padawan against a huge beast native to Dathomir? Omg! I'm in trouble!

Princess Mononoke in the Moonlight: This is an official Wallpaper for Hayao Miyazaki's Princess Mononoke: my favorite film. It shows the fierce similarity between San and her adoptive wolf-brothers with a dark-light constrast that makes the scene breath-taking.

"Sorry, I falls down!" : Cutest picture of a baby dragon that I have ever seen. So small, so fragile, but protected by the snout of a loving parent as it falls. It warms the heart and tickles my artsy side with detail and color.

Man, Woman; Angel, Beast: This is a striking image of the relationship between man and woman. The woman is depicted as an angel-like figure: serene and tranquil, comforting her conterpart. The man is depicted as ugly and corrupted with wings and mind of metal than of beauty and goodness. I'm not sure if I agree with what this image makes me feel, but the concept is very intrigueging and this image is stupedious in design and lighting.

Ghost Unicorn: The eerie shape of red tattoed unicorn through mists of grey. The entire image is just amazing - it has been on my desktop for sometime now. It almost seems to enbody the myth of the unicorn in a disappearing shadow; bright to those who can see it and mearly a shadow to those who can't.

A Collection of Cool Art: Part 1

I am currently working on a full book review of the Mistborn Trilogy by Brandon Sanderson, but I figured I should probably put something up here in the meantime.

So here are a few of my favorite images that I have collected.

None of them are mine, but I enjoy looking at them.

They are in no particular order.

Wind Okami: Okami is a video game I have never played, but the artwork alone from this game is unique and inspiring - I will have to find it someday. The game follows the mission of Amaterasu, the sun goddess, of her quest to save the world from a dark deamon using the Celestial Brush. Strange, I know, but a cool concept. Throughout her quest, many deities help her. In this image, she is in a form guided by the diety of the Wind.

Dragon Fire: I like the amount of detail in this image. The dragon's design is simple, but well shadowed. The deep red goes well with the beam of fire coming out his mouth and the dark background lights the dragon up in a contrast I don't see very often. I have know idea where I got this one. I think I just searched "dragon" and google images got me this one at somepoint.

Okami Soaring: An other Okami picture. This time in her own form. This picture reminds of my dog - cept the ears aren't big enough. I love the coloring and the style - both make for a powerful presentation in color and shape.

Fantasy Dragon: I find this picture particualrily eerie, but magical at the same time. The ambiant light is superb and the creature in question makes me think of the Owl from The Secret of NIMH - very cool.

Starbuck's Recuiting Bid: Yes. I'm obssesed with BSG (Battlestar Galactica). I am certainly very fond of Katee Sackhoff's character in the new series Captain Kara Thrace, or her viper-pilot call-sign "Starbuck". I found this poster sporting the character's final words of Season 2 ("fight 'em until we can't") on a BSG fansite and imediately fell in love with it.

It would cerainly recruit me into the Colonial Fleet. Wouldn't it do the same for you?

"Those Dang Fireflies": I found this wallpaper on deviantart somewhere and it was posted as my wallpaper for the majority of my exams in university because it embodied all of my emotion at the time: complete and utter misery. The cat's face is priceless and the fact that it's raining is the whipped cream on top. Brilliant design, great color - I love it.

Paint the World: I don't even know where I found this one, but I like the idea regardless. For me, it's implying that you can change the world with art - fill in the blanks in human understanding with beauty from yourself in every stoke of a brush. It's a calm, beautiful image - something that makes me feel better.

White Wolf Spirit: One of the images I could have put on my earlier post about my blog name, but thought it was too calm for what I wanted to exlplain about myself in that text. I found it on a site full of Native American Art. It's a majestic picture that proposes nobility and vigilence of self.

Why Wyfwulf? Etymology of the Blog Name

Strange how I immediately started talking about Transformers and I didn't explain anything about my name. I guess I just didn't think anyone would care.

I suppose I should explain it though. It took me about 20 seconds to name it, but people keep asking me what it means. It's not that hard really:

Zachara was my name way back when I was playing Jedi Knight 2: Jedi Outcast. I just wanted something different that sounded cool. I had made it up with no true connection to any real name. The closest English variant to Zachara is an English feminine form of the name Zechariah, which comes from the Hebrew name זְכַרְיָה (Zekharyah) meaning "Yaweh remembers" and the Arabic name Zahara meaning "shining".

I figured this was appropriate considering this blog is going to be talking about memories and illuminating certain theories and criticisms on topics of my choosing. I'm not really that religious, I'm curious about what other beliefs have to offer and I respect most peoples' beliefs, but I focus mostly on the 'remembering' part of the name and less on the 'Yaweh'.

Wyfwulf is an Old English word that many people have trouble deciphering. People immediately associate it with the word "werewolf" to which - for me - it does have some connection. A werewolf, as most people know, is a man who can take the form (or demi-form, enlarged-form, etc.) of a wolf. The term is literal and has roots in Germanic languages and especially Old English. "Wer" means "male person". "Wulf" means "beast" in it's most ancestral core meaning and, in later versions of the word, directly refers to the animal of the "wolf".

"Wyf" is the Old English word for "woman" and the core of the words like "wife" and "woman". Originally there was "werman" and "wifman", both later became "man" and "woman".

The term "wyfwulf" has not actually been used all that often. In most cases, people refer to women who can turn into wolfs as simply "female werewolves" - which makes no sense when you think about the word: female man-wolf? "Wyfwolf" or "wifwolf" is the proper term for women with the ability to turn into a wolf, or wolf-like creature. "Wyfwulf" is closer to meaning "woman-beast" than "wifwolf"; suggesting that the woman can turn into a beast, or is very beast-like.

I have chosen the word "wyfwulf" as the mythical creature that writes in this blog because I think it's suits my personality. I'm not claiming that I can turn into a beast of some kind, but I think no none is really be "human" until they have trained and controled this "wulf" within them. I am no different, though I am having a particularly hard time with my "wulf".

Thus, I am what I am: Zachara the Wyfwulf, a nostalgic, curious beast-woman.

Transformers 2: Revenge of the Fallen *Recommend*

"Fate rarely calls upon us at a time of our choosing..."

In short:

It was a fun summer movie - worth the whatever I payed for to see it. The fight scenes are amazing, the characters funny and believable, and the plot drove the movie forward as needed. All good signs considering the large fanbase. There were things that bothered me, but they didn't ruin the experience.

It will not win any academy awards - perhaps it has a chance in the Special Effects or Sound department, but I doubt it will be recognized - but it was still very enjoyable.

In long:

I have always enjoy new concepts in filmmaking. We are now at an age in the world where giant-sentient-transforming-alien-robots have the ability to be real personalities on camera. However, these Transformer movies were wise in telling the story through the eyes of human personas like Sam (played by Shia Laboeuf). Doing so gives the audience a grounding-effect to the intergalactic war going on in the films. This was really the only connection in the first film- because humans were basically bystanders in a war for the All Spark - and it thankfully expands into a more balanced relationship in the second.

Story: Contains the contents of the entire

movie, read at your own risk

The introduction to the second film has the voice of Optimus explain what will eventually drive the plot of the movie by showing pre-civilized humans being attacked by Decepticons. An interesting reveal of the leader of the Decepticons is revealed and the words "Our peoples have met before..." echo. Then, we find ourselves back with the autobots in present-day China. The Autobots remained on Earth and are working with (I hesitate to say the world governments because the only sign of this is an english accented soldier who appears randomly...) the american strike forces to eliminate Decepticons who are popping up all over the world.

Meanwhile, Sam is off to college... and thus does the plot follow a rather unimaginative version of the Hero's Journey: Sam wants to be normal again; is called to action by the transfer of the All-spark's info into his head; refuses the call to action and still wants to be normal; Optimus dies, forcing him to action ; secondary characters added throughout (Agent Simmons is back and a new college/friend/student named Leo is caught in the fray to aid in the quest) including an old-man autobot for the role of the Guide in all of this; and, of course, his girlfriend is about and the two of them ague on who will say 'I love you first' - yay romance.... Through a series of adventures, they find out that they can bring Optimus back to life by using the Key of Leadership, which is also the key to using a device that sucks the energy out of the sun and turns it into life energy for Cybertronians. This machine was contructed after the All-spark-cube was lost and the Cybertronians were looking for alternate sources of life in far away systems. The Primes, the leaders of Cybertron, agreed to use these machines only if the systems held no life - one Prime disobeyed this promise, and was forever after named the Fallen because he tried to kill Earth's sun in 170000 BCE. Thus, we have the name of our super-villain/true leader of the Decepticons and the reason for naming the film. Together, the remaining autobots and their human allies attempt to defeat the Fallen and his followers, including a resurrected Megatron. There's only one problem: the Fallen can only be killed by another Prime and Optimus Prime is still dead. But low and behold Sam is able to impress the dead spirits (yeah, you read right) of the Primes who sacrificed their bodies to seal the Key into a phalanx of protection. This "sacrifice" allows for Optimus to be revived. With the aid of the Old-Man-Robot's parts, Optimus gains the power to defeat the Fallen. And while Megatron and Starscream still live to fight another day, the humans and autobots have won this war for the time being. Sam and Mikaela finally confess their true-love for one another and all is again well on Earth.

Major Fun-factors:

New Robots:

There are a few cool new robots in this film: female motocycle Autobots, small twin Autobots, little toy-truck Decepticon who switches sides, an enormous combo Decepticon made for consuming large bits of earth in order to excavate the hiden Sun-killing-machine, a hudge leech-like Decepticon who attaches himself to military satellites for information, a femme-fatal/terminator Decepticon that disguises herself as a human in order to try and capture Sam in college, plus a few original-concept Decepticons who have not been hiding on earth, therefor, don't need disguises - their designs are much like Megatron.

Most notable are the Fallen and Jetfire, our Old-Man-Robot.

Fallen is particularly terrifying in his regard and he brings some very potent fire power to the battle scenes. Voiced by Tony Todd (Stargate SG1 as Lord Haikon), he reminds me of the Emperor from Star Wars, only much, much stronger. He is vicious and destructive the only way Decepticons know how to be and does a good job at being the main villain.

Jetfire's character, however, reminds of my grandfather. He's an old Cybertronian who was sent to Earth to look for the Key ages ago and now he's rusting and falling apart. He used to be a Decepticon, but switched sides when he realized that he was aiding in such needless destruction. He's has the demeanor of an unstable old war-veteran and is depicted well; walking around with a part of his disguise - a SR-71 Blackbird - as cane and mumbling about the war he was in.

Fight scenes:

These are the main reasons anyone should see this movie. Every single fight scene is spectacular - there is nothing better than watching 15 meter-tall robots kick each other's ass.

My favorite battle is the final 'boss-fight', if you will, with Optimus vs Megatron and Fallen at the same time. It one of the sorter fights, but it delivers some ridiculous close quarter scenes that shame the first movie's fights to tears.

Comedy:

Better than the first film - if you can believe that. Both human and robot deliver some fancy one-liners that make you burst out laughing and there's some classic slap-stick with the twin autobots and Jetfire.

Favorite lines:

1. Twin #1: "Ow, that hurt!"

Twin #2: "It's supposed to hurt; it's an asswoopin'."

2. Jetfire: "Blasted door! Open!" *tries to fire a missile, nothing happends* "Open!" *a missile comes out and fires in the wrong direction.*

Human-factor:

Humans play a more active role in the fight against the Decepticons in this film. In the first movie, humans are clearly bystanders in the war for the All-spark, connected to it only by Sam. In this film, humans are very clearly the Autobots' allies and they need our help for the most part.

I like this idea. It gives the film a sense of unity within the film - a sort of comrades in arms mentality that drives the whole 'save-the-world' business home.

Major Down-factors:

Predictability:

The film's plot is ridiculously easy to guess.

Even though the scene of Optimus' death is quite well done, I didn't believe he was really gone for a second. I believe the main reason for this was because of how easily Megatron was resurrected so early in the film.

The same could be said for Sam's death' scene. It was painfully obvious that something spiritual had to happen to Sam in order for him to retrieve the Key, the fact that it was the Primes that he saw and not simply Optimus' spirit was the only surprise since there was a more personal connection between the two than with the Primes. What made their appearance so confusing for me was that the Primes were never mentioned as having mystical properties to them. Jetfire seems to revere them, but their entire appearance in spirit-form seemed so completely out of place that it broke the flow of the movie - leaving me, the two strange nerd-like males who watched me as much as they watched the movie, and probably half the theatre with our eyebrows raised and then frowing confusion.

Acting and script:

I have no beef with Laboeuf (pun intended), but someone needs to give female leads something other than their bodies to show off. Not that I mind watching Megan Fox because she is terribly attractive, but most of her lines were delivered as if forced or restricted. I'm not sure if this was the product of the script or her, but every part she was in made me want to skip to the next scene or mute it and just watch her.

The script itself was slightly better than the last one, but relied heavily on comedy to keep it afloat. Fortunately, great voice acting and amazing special effects allow for the longer dialogues and monologues to work well and inform the audience of special events and key story parts. There are still a few lines that seem out of place and forced for the majority of the human characters, but the robots dialogue is well rehearsed and easily believable.

The Hero's Journey:

As I mentioned before, the Hero's Journey is followed quite openly in this film. That's usually not a bad thing, but if you can pick up the steps to a Hero's Journey and match each part of the movie to it without any effort at all; something is wrong.

It worked in the original Star Wars films because each episode was long enough that it could flow without cramming the movie.

Transformers tries a bit too hard to follow the steps of the Hero's journey though. Everything that happens is in the exact same order; right down to the Woman as the Temptress (the 'Terminator' Decepticon that tries to woo Sam). The only thing that seems to be left out is the Return phase and I believe there is a reason for that: Sam's not actually returning to the world he once knew since the films are not over, I'm guessing that's why it's so quick and easy for him at the end.

If you would like to see the steps of the Hero's Journey by Josheph Campbell click here.

In conclusion: go see the damn movie. It's fun, it's popular and there are a lot of cool things to see in it. Just don't think too hard or you might disappoint yourself.