Media channels and platforms

I decided to do an exploration on reality for my final task, since it has been a topic of interest for me for a very long time. Even before the start of classes I remember having a conversation about it and its possible objectiveness or lack of it with some classmates so encountering the topic during the course was delightful. One of my biggest inspirations for this was the book How real is real? by Paul Watzlawick which explores the issues of communication and truth and how these are linked. For instance, he suggests that everyone reality is valid and this can be applied to the intended reading of a media piece such as a film. The director might have one idea of how it should be interpreted but since the viewers lack this knowledge they can give it other interpretations, thus creating new 'truths'. The second influence are perspective sculptures since these appear different depending on the angle that one looks at them from. This is essentially representative of two

So, One Piece is one of my favourite mangas to date, it is one that has been able to keep my attention for hundreds of chapters and never really felt stale. Of course this is partly due to its sympathetic characters, funny aesthetics and constantly changing plot, nonetheless, something that really stood out in comparison with other series was its worldbuilding. The world of One Piece is extremely vast, there are 120 named islands that we know of and each of them is overflowing with life. They are not used as a plot device but rather include interesting characters with memorable personalities, visual quirks of the island itself and even their own customs that add to the feeling that you are truly in the world, adventuring with the Strawhats. Good examples of this are Skypiea and Water 7. Around the former of the two a whole myth has been created with many not even believing the existence of the island in the sky, however, thanks to Cricket, the descendant of a man who went there

I wanted to talk a little bit more about the Bloodborne endings since I only slightly touched upon them on the previous post. These endings are quite deceptive if only looked at superficially as they will transmit the wrong feeling to the player if not further scrutinised. The Great One ending is the hardest of the three to achieve, having to collect three pieces of umbilical chord to get to it. As I discussed previously it seems pretty hopeless as after a great fight with the moon presence you are greeted with the revelation that you have become a slug like creature. From a human perspective this is horrifying, playing of off body horror and losing one's identity, but within the context of the game it means you have ascended. You have gained that what the healing church was unable to by getting the knowledge of the Great Ones and becoming and infant great one in the process. The second ending, which I consider to be the worst one, has you defeat the previous pa

Full Metal Alchemist is a series that knows very well how to provoke emotion in the viewer so it is understandable that its main character would also feel relatable to the audience. Edward Elric is not  a very typical shounen character and I would say that some of the characteristics he has due to that make him much more human. Unlike protagonists from Dragon Ball, Naruto or even One Piece, Edward and his brother are very intelligent, talked about as alchemist prodigies from the start of the series. Meanwhile, other main characters are usually dull witted for the sake of comedy. This lack of intelligence and eating enormous amounts of food go hand in hand in most occasions but this is another trait that the Elric brothers lack. Goku is a character whose purpose seems to be an endless thirst for fighting and every villain that appears is just another obstacle in the way that when defeated serve the purpose of showing him as the strongest being in the universe. A sim

Attack on Titan is a series that I really enjoy and even if what eventually got me to continue watching was the plot or the characters the thing that made the strongest impression was its openings. The first, second and third are absolutely fantastic, immediately drawing the viewer in and getting them hyped for the upcoming episode. Someone even said that the openings made them feel patriotic for a country that does not even exist! In this post, I will only do a brief analysis of the first opening, Guren no Yumiya . The song opens on a chorus sung in German that says something along the lines of "they are the prey and we are the hunters" followed by an image of the walls surrounded by chains which clearly evokes the idea that despite the walls being the protection of the citizens they also serve as a trap that limits their freedom. In many cases Eren, one of the main characters states that they live like livestock inside the walls. Next a shot of the main trio

As I discussed in the Assassin's Creed Odyssey post I do not believe that historical realism makes a series better or worse or that it is even necessary in many cases, however, I think it is interesting to point some things out even if just for curiosity's sake. That said, I do hate the series Vikings just because I find Ragnar to be utterly insufferable. One of the historical inaccuracies in Vikings is their clothes. While it might seem cool to wear a full leather biker-like outfit it is not that much the choice of clothes that Vikings would wear, opting instead for materials such as linen. Also, all their clothes have extremely dull colouring, seemingly the idea that grittier is more realistic has also seeped into the costumes of the show, as their real life counter parts would have worn richer colours like blue or red. In addition, armour is pretty bad looking too, following the leather trend of their usual clothing. They are not wearing helmets which vi

In the recent years the amount of 'live action' adaptations from traditional animation films has seen a sharp rise. This holds true for movies such as The Lion King or The Jungle Book . Others have simply taken an animated character and made a realistic render of it in some live action film such as Detective Pikachu or the upcoming Sonic movie. Now, I do know that incredible amounts of work go into rendering each individual hair on the fur of an animal and a keen eye and a lot of time is needed to model the characters realistically, however, I would like to argue, that these new adaptations are completely unnecessary and even perjudicial if you think about it. Different adaptations of the Jungle Book First of all, these new adaptations in the pursuit of realism devalue the time and work that has gone into their 2d counterparts, it feels as if they are not considered good enough by themselves so they have to be reformed to cater to present audiences. The idea that s

To not have heard about Pewdiepie one must either live under a rock or never have heard about Youtube. He is currently the biggest youtuber on the platform and whether you like him or not, it is undeniable that he has been one of the top and most popular channels for a long time. Due to him being so big, many have tried to decipher what has been the key to this fast channel growth and how he has been able to keep the title of the largest channel for such a long time, after all, there were others before him but they never lasted so long. These examples include Smosh or NigaHiga, two channels that were mainly centered around comedy sketches and which greatly improved their visuals as time went on. However, this was not enough to keep their place so why is it that Pewdiepie is able to do what others could not? I am no expert in the matter but I have some suggestions: In the first place, luck is a great factor but since we cannot control it, I am going to omit this one from the

Into the Wild is a movie about Christopher McCandless and how after having graduated he decides to leave society behind and go and live in the alaskan tundra. The film is an adaptation of the book with which it shares a name, written by Jon Krakauoner and based on a real story. I watched the film some time ago at a point in my life where leaving annoying obligations and the oppressive feeling of society behind seemed very tempting, I am sure that this is a very common fantasy that many have regarded but in the end have not acted upon, as the risk of what we lose in many cases is too large. Into the Wild thus allows us to vicariously live this adventure through the protagonist, one of the major reasons for its achieved popularity. Usually when watching a film we remember the visuals, the soundtrack, the excellently written characters; more technical aspects in general. However, this film, despite not remembering much of what I saw, I would be lying if I classed it as

Not long ago I purchased a copy of Assassin's Creed Odyssey giving the franchise some hope after being greatly disappointed in the games from Assassin's Creed 3 to Assassin's Creed Origins. I thought that I could have wasted my money completely and that I would have to either return or sell the game, however, I was proven wrong. From the moment I turned on the game it took a hold of me and did not seem to want to let go. It was revealed that you could play as either a male or a female protagonist, and as it usually happens in these kinds of situations, ridiculous amounts of criticism towards being able to play as a female not being realistic ensued. Ubisoft was blamed for trying to further an 'SJW' agenda, some fans giving ridiculous arguments as to why this was true, and, of course, the fact that Kassandra, the female protagonist was the canon one, did not help. So, it is obvious that Ubisoft saw the inclusion of a female protagonist as risky and

SpongeBob aired in 1999 and has had incredible longevity, still being aired today and being given more attention than any other nickelodeon shows. Any other cartoon show aired during a similar time does not even come close to catching up to the time that SpongeBob has been on air, for example, Johnny Bravo aired in 1998 and was finished in 2004. Even outside the show itself, a myriad of memes, reaction images, vines and references come from the series and are nearly impossible to miss in any social media feed. This show has always been popular, getting youtube videos many views and retaining audience even when they grow up, maintaining its relevance over the years. And in a more empirical manner, we can see the shows popularity translated into revenue, as since it aired, it has produced around 13 billion dollars including merchandising for Nickelodeon, making it much more understandable that it has had such a consistent and long lasting airing time. It could even be said that Spong

The original version of Johny Johny was nursery rhyme. Even then it was popular with numerous views on the video but just from a very different audience than the one it gained traction with more recently. If you don't know what meme I'm talking about you can have a minute to watch it: Usually it could be said that it is very hard to determine why a meme gains recognition since there is such surplus of content on the web these days and the memes that become most known seem to be chosen randomly. However, there are some aspects that definitely contributed to Johny Johny being regarded as a popular meme. The first point would be the fact that internet celebrities referenced the meme, exposing their audience to its existence who would then continue distributing it. One of these people is known as Dolan Dark , a youtube channel who is one of the biggest creator of memes and has a over a million subscribers in the present. Furthermore, another reason that the masses may h

Bloodborne is one of the best games that I have ever played, having a variety of factors that contribute to it and all of them being stellar in my eyes. Mind you, I am not a hardcore gamer, I only pick up the controller occasionally so in theory Bloodborne would be one of those games that completely put me off, after all, the Souls' series infamous difficulty has been commented ad nauseam. Lady Maria, one of the first hunters. You start the game as a foreigner who has travelled to the city of Yharnam to receive a cure for your ailment after hearing about the miraculous properties of the healing blood produced there. Of course, this blood also has the minor side effect that it makes people turn into beasts. Thus, you are cured but in return you must become a hunter of Yharnam, killing beasts until the night comes to an end. The first area where you get to play you are met with a dark and oppressive atmosphere at Iosefka's clinic and as you read the short tutor