Guest Post: Fullmetal Alchemist!!

Laura from My Baffling Brain is here to talk about my favourite anime show today! Woo! Take it away, Laura.

Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood

First of all, thank you to Allison for having me on her blog, and giving me the opportunity to write about one of my favourite things!

Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood is my favourite anime; I’m currently watching it for the fourth time in less than a year. It really is the best I’ve seen, so far. Here are my reasons:

Characters

There are a lot of characters involved in this anime, but every single one of them is necessary to the plot. The characterisation is excellent; each character has their own distinct personality and style. The villains are also amazing for the same reason – at times you even feel sorry for them, which I think is good in any story. My favourite character is Ed, one of the main characters (I also love Roy Mustang and Lin Yao). I don’t think there are any characters I really disliked, except for the villains (and I had a real love/hate relationship with them!)

I also think the Japanese voice actors do a great job, particularly considering that the two main male characters are voiced by women.

Plot

The pacing is really good – each episode moves the story along, so there are no fillers. I’ve seen it three times so far and there still aren’t any episodes I would skip past to get to the good bits. It can be quite a dark anime, with some really sad, tragic moments, which makes it quite mature. I like the humour that is used to balance it out – it works really well and doesn’t take away the seriousness of the story.

The story is heavily themed around sacrifice, and this is probably one of the reasons I love it so much. Stories with sacrifice are my favourite kinds.

Emotion

So many emotions ran through me while watching this anime, and I think it’s hard to create something that brings up so many emotions. It can make you feel sadness, anger, joy and fear, all in one episode!

Alchemy

I love the concept of alchemy in this anime – it’s such a unique idea, and I really wish I could clap my hands together and change something. Although I think if I could I’d use it for everything, and become really lazy!

I also really like the law of equivalent exchange, and think it makes a lot of sense that everything comes at a cost.

Ending

The ending was great, even better than I had expected it to be, and it tied up all loose ends just like an ending should.

Soundtrack

I love the soundtrack to this anime; I listen to it all the time. It really suits the story, with some dramatic pieces, some incredibly sad (to the extent that when I listen to them I nearly burst into tears) and some very playful.

So if you haven’t seen it yet, I highly recommend it.

Alex Brown talks Joss Whedon's Female Characters

The wonderfully geeky blogger extraordinaire Alex Brown from A Novel Journey, whom I first bonded with over Fringe and Firefly on her blog, is visiting today to talk about a truly awesome subject--Joss Whedon. Welcome, Alex!

Thanks, Alli, for letting me guest post today!

I’m here to talk about one of my favorite storytellers ever. He’s brought us countless wonderful, awesome, I-hate-you-but-I’m-gonna-keep-watching-because-I-love-what-you-just-did things like Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Firefly, Dollhouse, Dr. Horrible’s Sing Along Blog, oh, and a little movie called The Avengers. Maybe you saw it last summer.

So, I’ve been a long time fan of Joss Whedon. One might even say I’m a Whedonite. They wouldn’t be wrong. And there are many things about his shows/movies/online miniseries that I love, but today I’m going to talk about what might be my favorite part (besides the witty banter and the breakaway pop hits).

Today I’m here to talk to you about strong female characters in the Whedon-verse. The idea for this came from an interview excerpt from a few years ago. Joss was asked why he writes so many strong female characters and replied:

“Because you’re still asking me that question.”

Holding for applause.

*waits*

Right then. His answer pretty much made me love him even more – and not just because I’m also a writer who creates strong female characters. When I was growing up it was very difficult to find those strong female characters to identify with. Sure, there were a couple of females on the Power Rangers, but Kimberly (the Pink Ranger)’s arc mostly revolved around boys. Trina (the Yellow Ranger – who was also Asian, and I’m not jumping down that rabbit hole today) was given even less to do. There were also a bunch of Disney Princesses who did a lot of waiting for their Prince to come and have really only started to take charge of their own lives and hey, realize that they can be just as autonomous as their male counterparts.

So that’s why I love Joss Whedon. He has a variety of female characters who are all strong in their own ways.  Here’s my super-quick breakdown:

Zoe Washburne - Firefly

Zoe is the First Officer of Serenity.  She can kick ass, take names, and deliver a witty quip all before she’s eaten breakfast. She says what she wants, when she wants, and will call people out when they need it.  When I think of a “strong female” character, my mind immediately goes to Zoe because she’s tough but she’s also in touch with her emotions. Zoe is totally confident in who she is and what she wants, and won’t hesitate to protect any of her crew members.

She knows who she is, she gets everything done, and she isn’t so damaged or hurt that she can’t love or is angsty all the time (which is an unfortunate common occurrence in female characters that I’ve run across).

She has emotions (as do we all, no matter what gender you identify with), acknowledges them, uses them when she needs to, and can bottle them up when she needs to. She’s pretty much just in control of everything and I love her for it.

One of my favorite Zoe quotes is from an exchange she has with Serenity’s Captain, Mal Reynolds. When they swoop in and save the day in the nick of time:

Mal: Well, look at this! Appears we got here in the nick of time. What does that make us?

Zoe: Big damn heroes, sir!

(This might be my favorite Zoe quote ever)

I really don’t want to get super spoilery about what happens to Zoe, but Joss Whedon I’m still mad at you *shakes fist at Joss* - still, if I wanted to find someone to role model, it would be Zoe Washburne.

Buffy – Buffy the Vampire Slayer

(Spoilers in this one!)

There are SO MANY female characters I could have focused on from Buffy, but I figured if I was going to talk about this show, I should use Buffy Summers. I mean, she did save the world. A lot. Buffy literally went to hell and back and, out of all of Whedon’s heroines, probably had the most on her plate at any given time. Buffy had to deal with a boyfriend who turned evil (and the timing of said turning was quite perfect on Whedon’s part), had to then kill said boyfriend to save the world, had to quit college to raise a little sister, died twice, was an unwilling participant in a musical, and…I could keep going, but I’ll stop the list at the musical.

What I love about Buffy is that she didn’t always do the right thing. She screwed up, she isolated herself, she put everyone at a distance because she didn’t want them to get hurt and she didn’t want herself to get hurt. Buffy had so much to cope with, and, thinking back to when I was 16, she handled all of that pretty well.

One of my favorite Buffy quotes is from Restless. She’s talking to the Original Slayer, and Buffy’s pointing out the differences between them.

I walk. I talk. I shop. I sneeze. I'm gonna be a fireman when the floods roll back. There's trees in the desert since you moved out, and I don't sleep on a bed of bones.

This is seriously the epitome of Buffy.  She’s a normal teenage girl who walks, talks, shops, and sneezes, but she also wants to be a fireman when the floods roll back. Even when it doesn’t seem like people will need her, and that she’ll have outgrown her usefulness, she’s still ready to help people. She’ll wait during the calm periods, until everything dries out and catches fire again, and she’ll be there, ready to put them out.

Or, you know, save the world. A lot.

Fred – Angel

Okay.  So, Fred.  Fred is an interesting character, in that when she first arrives on Angel, she’s very much the stereotype of the “weak female.” She’s very timid, and frightened, and develops a super-fast-crush on a character, and can’t seem to make her own decisions, deferring to other people’s opinions.

But then the show digs a little deeper into Fred’s past, and the viewers discover why she’s this way. To keep a long story short, a jealous guy sent her into an alternate dimension where she became a slave and slowly started to doubt her life in our world had ever happened. So, again, a female character who had to deal with some pretty heavy stuff.

Fred’s also brilliant. She becomes a very good strategist and already had skills in physics and advanced math stuff (and I obviously don’t share said skill). Fred becomes her own person again when she comes back to our world, and I think she’s the best example of the “Sleeper” strong female character. Surface-wise, when she first gets on the series she seems so weak and helpless. But then, if you take a second to look at everything she went through (getting sucked to another dimension that happens to be filled with demons, having to wear a shock collar, starting to doubt the existence of her real life, getting rescued by a vampire) she coped in the best way she could.

But what makes her a “Sleeper” strong female character isn’t that she coped relatively well.  It’s that she didn’t let it hold her back. She came back to the real world, took a bit of time to adjust, but was able to heal and use her intelligence to help her friends. She acknowledged her pain but fought through it and…well, I’m not going to discuss Season 5. Just know that Fred is awesome.

There are so many more characters I could discuss, but I’m a little terrified that I’ve already droned on for quite some time!  I think I’ll call it a day for now, but if anyone wants to discuss strong female characters and the issues that face people who try to create them (like if people have said: your character is too in touch with her emotions, she needs to man up! Or, I think your character is a manipulative cold B****, or doesn’t your character need to wear a dress all the time and want to have a husband/kids/a family) then you can find me on my blog, or on Twitter!

Or if you want to discuss Joss Whedon (and/or any of his characters) I’d be more than happy to do that, too!

Alex Brown isn't really a fan of speaking in third person, so she's about to switch POV in the next sentence. I'm a grad student in Tennessee but originally I hail from the coast of Virginia, where I hung out with a lot of Canadian tourists during the summers of my youth. *waves to Canadian friends* I'm an aspiring YA writer who mostly sticks to sci-fi but sometimes ventures into fantasy and magical realism. I write characters with a lot of snark, even more heart, and who run the gamut when it comes to diversity. I'm a very big fan of stories with diverse characters in them. I'm a constant user of the Bechdel Test and can never turn my brain off (which is terrible when I'm trying to sleep). You can find me on Twitter or on my blog, where I try my best to be entertaining!

Guest Post: Tyrean Martinson on "Faith in Fiction"

Tyrean is here visiting for the Champion in the Darkness tour. Welcome, Tyrean!

Faith in Fiction: Trust

“All of our lives are lived by faith. We do not live by what we see in front of us.” 2 Corinthians 5:7

Being a Christian and being a writer sometimes can make me feel like I’m sitting at a crossroads. Sometimes I think I need to make a decision about my writing; that I need to honor an integral part of my life by giving my faith more room on the page.

Then I remember that friend of mine who told me, “You are a Christian, you are a writer; therefore you are a Christian writer, even if your stories and your poetry never proclaim it in any noticeable way.”

I digressed from that a bit in my last two posts about Faith in Fiction, because it’s something I think about and something I pray about. How do I include my faith? Should I? How much is enough? How much is too much?

The reality is I spend too much time thinking about it. I need to trust God.

Each character has an individual story to tell. Each plot has its own pacing.

When I write, if I trust in God, the right words are going to come out.

Now that doesn’t mean I don’t think I need editing. That’s so not what I mean because my writing is a mess when I first get the words on the page. I need help getting the plot, and the characters and the words to come together, but I need to trust God and the process of writing together.

Not every story needs to be noticeably Christian to be grounded in my faith. Not every poem needs to include obvious symbolism.

There are awesome writers who show their faith openly in their writing: C.S. Lewis, Michael Abayomi, Ali Cross, and Jamie Ayres.

There are also awesome writers whose faith is in the underpinnings of their writing, but not always on the open surface: Tolkien, Alex J. Cavanaugh, Michael DiGesu, and Orson Scott Card.

Some stories call for openness in faith, and some call for a more subtle approach. Some writers switch from one style to another depending on the needs of the individual story.

We each need to trust in the creativity that God created in each of us. When we do that, our writing will shine.

-Tyrean Martinson

About Champion in the Darkness

The Blurb: Clara is younger than most trainees, but she is ready to hold a Sword Master's blade. While visions and ancient prophecies stand in her way, they also offer a destiny unlike any other. Clara is aided by a haunted mentor, Stelia, whose knowledge of their enemy Kalidess is both a bane and a blessing. As evil threatens their land, Clara and Stelia must find the strength to overcome the darkness.

Champion in the Darkness is YA Christian Fantasy, and is the first book in the Champion Trilogy.  

Author Bio: Tyrean Martinson lives and writes in the Northwest, encouraged by her loving husband and daughters, and reminded to exercise by her dogs and cat. Champion in the Darkness is the first book in the Champion Trilogy, and she has previously published short stories and poetry.

Champion in the Darkness can be found at these links:
Amazon | Nook | Kobo | Smashwords | Goodreads

Tyrean Martinson can be found at these links:
Blog | Twitter | Facebook | AuthorsDen

Guest Post - Alex J. Cavanaugh!

The ninja captain himself is here to talk about the April A to Z Challenge in geeky style! Welcome, Alex!

Geeky Topics for the A to Z Challenge

If you haven't heard about the A to Z Challenge, it's blogging the letters of the alphabet every day except Sundays. It's twenty-six days/twenty-six letters, starting with the letter A on April 1. You can go with a theme or wing it, but each day the post and/or topic must begin with the corresponding letter. You can get full details and sign up at the A to Z site or at my blog.

A theme isn't necessary, but it sure helps. (My first year, I winged it, and it was a struggle to come up with a topic for each letter.) Themes can be a lot of fun, especially for us geek types, as the topics are limitless.

Need some ideas? Here you go:

• Comic books - DC Superheroes, collectible issues, Spiderman facts, etc.
• Apps for smartphones and tablets
• Computer and console games
• Science fiction and/or fantasy - movies, shows, books, etc.
• Stars! Star Trek, Star Wars, Stargate, Starcraft, etc.
• Role Playing Games
• Monsters and creatures - favorites from movies, RPGs, etc.
• Collections - posters, figures, memorabilia, etc.
• Models
•  Computer and tech stuff - just keep it simple for all to understand
• Cosplay, SCA, etc.

Think you could find a subject that works for you out of that list? I bet you can!

Are you participating in the A to Z Challenge? Can you think of any other geeky topics?

Alex J. Cavanaugh
Blog | Twitter

Alex J. Cavanaugh has a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree and works in web design and graphics. He is experienced in technical editing and worked with an adult literacy program for several years. A fan of all things science fiction, his interests range from books and movies to music and games. Online he is the Ninja Captain and founder of the Insecure Writer's Support Group. The author of the Amazon bestsellers, Cassastar and CassaFire, he lives in the Carolinas with his wife.

Woohoo! I (Allison) am super excited about the A-Z Challenge, as it is my first time. I certainly plan on a geeky theme.

And as long as we're talking about Alex... Today is also the day to reveal the cover for his upcoming book, CassaStorm!!

 

Tadaaaa. I think it might actually be my favourite of the three. Here's a little more info to get you even more excited about the release:

A storm gathers across the galaxy…

Byron thought he’d put the days of battle behind him. Commanding the Cassan base on Tgren, his only struggles are occasional rogue pirate raids and endless government bureaucracies. As a galaxy-wide war encroaches upon the desert planet, Byron’s ideal life is threatened and he’s caught between the Tgrens and the Cassans.

After enemy ships attack the desert planet, Byron discovers another battle within his own family. The declaration of war between all ten races triggers nightmares in his son, shaking Bassan to the core and threatening to destroy the boy’s mind.

Meanwhile the ancient alien ship is transmitting a code that might signal the end of all life in the galaxy. And the mysterious probe that almost destroyed Tgren twenty years ago could be on its way back. As his world begins to crumble, Byron suspects a connection. The storm is about to break, and Byron is caught in the middle…

Release date: September 17, 2013
Science Fiction - Space Opera/Adventure
Print ISBN 9781939844002
E-book ISBN 9781939844019

Congrats on the awesome cover, Alex, and thanks for stopping by!

Ellie Garratt Guest Post - "My Geeky Bucket List"

The fantastic sci-fi and horror writer Ellie Garratt is taking over my blog today! Welcome, Ellie!

My Geeky Bucket List

One of the films that consistently sells where I work is The Bucket List, a Jack Nicholson/Morgan Freeman film that follows two old fiends as they work through their list of things they want to see, do, or achieve before they die. I'm not sure if everyone has such lists but I have a few - places I'd like to go, people I want to meet, and things I'd like to own. I achieved a couple when I turned 40 last year. I'm now the proud owner of an orange space hopper and Beaker from the Muppets.

One of my lists is what I like to refer to as My Geeky Bucket List, and I’d like to share it with you.

In no particular order:

1. Own a Lego Millennium Falcon. When I was a young child all I ever wanted was a Millennium Falcon and Storm Troopers. Unfortunately, I got Barbie. I traded it at school for marbles and conkers. Needless to say I was grounded for a long time.

2. Go to Space Camp. I recently found out that Space Camp USA do an adult space camp. Now all I need to do is find the £1000 needed for my plane ticket and entrance fee. Donations anyone?

3. Have an official Star Trek uniform tailor-made for me, preferably from the Original Series or Voyager. Oh, and pay no import duty.

4. Date Sheldon from The Big Bang Theory. Come on girls, you know you want to.

5. Stay on the International Space Station. Okay. Perhaps that and number 4 are taking it a little to far.

6. Be an extra in a zombie movie or TV series.

7. Meet William Shatner. Hang on. I did. Check!

8. Read every Science Fiction Masterworks book. I'm about 25% there so far.

9. Name a ginger cat Beaker.

And finally,

10. Publish a science fiction novel. I have the first draft, so I’m well on my way.

So that was my geeky bucket list. What about you? Do you share any of my wishes, or have you been to Space Camp already? Do you own a Star Trek uniform? I’d love to know what’s on your geeky bucket list.

As always, live long and prosper.

About The Author

A life-long addiction to reading science fiction and horror, meant writing was the logical outlet for Ellie Garratt’s passions. She is a reader, writer, blogger, Trekkie, and would happily die to be an extra in The Walking Dead. Her short stories have been published in anthologies and online. Passing Time, her first eBook short story collection, will be published on March 11th this year, and contains nine previously published strange and macabre tales. Her science fiction collection Taking Time will be published later in the year.

Author Links: Website | Twitter | Facebook | Goodreads

Top 10 VG Countdown - #3: OCARINA OF TIME

We have a guest poster with us today to tell us about the awesome Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time. Welcome, Jamie Gibbs!

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In my humble opinion, The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time revolutionized the console RPG and enabled those with a joypad rather than a keyboard and mouse to enjoy an immersive experience in a rich and detailed world. Back in 1998, you had to be a PC gamer to have access to any RPG worth its salt, and then Ocarina of Time entered the scene and changed all that for the better.

Ocarina of Time is the fifth installment of The Legend of Zelda series, which was exclusively available on the N64 at the time. Nowadays you can get it on the collector’s edition of Wind Waker for the Gamecube, download it on the Wii store, and get the remake for the 3DS. In it our hero Link is summoned to protect the land of Hyrule from the evil Ganondorf, collect the relics that form the Triforce, and rescue the princess Zelda. Throw in some hefty dungeon crawling, side quests and an excellent system of in-game time travel, and you’ve got yourself a winner right there.

Ocarina of Time doesn’t exactly have the best graphics in the world, and they’ve not aged well. Granted, there is a definite nostalgic retro charm about it, but you can’t overlook the blocky characters and blurry textures. Nintendo had a more powerful console than its rivals, but were limited by the capacity of the cartridges. Given the massive, sprawling scale of Ocarina, something had to give, and the visuals ended up lacking somewhat.

However, just as a person with no sight is better able to use their other senses, Nintendo mastered the other aspects of gaming with Ocarina of Time. The music score, for one thing, is nothing short of a thing of beauty. I’ve got The Legend of Zelda official soundtrack, and the songs from Ocarina perfectly capture whatever area or dungeon Link is in. You’ve got the playful tunes of Kokiri Forest, the sweeping epic overture of Hyrule Field, and the downright haunting Song of Storms. You could play Ocarina with your eyes closed and know exactly where you were in the game. That’s storytelling.

Speaking of storytelling, Ocarina of Time was a game that got you involved with the story. The entire scene with the Great Deku Tree is pretty heavy for your standard adventure game (I know a fully grown man who openly admits to weeping when he played that scene). It’s a game that makes you emotionally invest in the characters, even if that emotion is a murderous rage (the words “Hey, listen!”still bring out the veins in my forehead to this day).

The gameplay managed to combine the action/adventure genre with elements of an RPG that hadn’t really been seen on a console before, at least in the West. Final Fantasy brought the 3D RPG to us a year before, but Ocarina’s real-time combat and in-depth story made it a favourite amongst non-gamers as well as the hardcore. On the surface, Ocarina of Time is your basic dungeon crawler - find three magical objects to save the world and blah blah blah. But look deeper and you find that the beauty of Ocarina was that the gameplay was to an extent non-linear. You could choose to go off the beaten path at any time and explore Hyrule if you wanted, or you could spend your time running errands for the Happy Mask Shop, or finding the gold skulltulas that are tucked away in the far flung corners of the world. It was this aspect that had you coming back to Ocarina time and time again, losing sleep, weight and friends in the process. For me, it was my Skyrim before I’d even heard of The Elder Scrolls, and it was beautiful.

If you still have the means to do so, dust off that old N64, give the underside of the cartridge a gentle gust of air to bring it back to life, and settle yourself in for a few hours of pure gaming bliss. Ocarina of Time defined a generation of gamers, and it’s no small wonder that it’s been given the title of ‘greatest video game of all time.’

Jamie Gibbs is the caffeine addled bibliophile from the fantasy blog Mithril Wisdom. When he’s not nose deep in a book, he’s usually rocking out to fantasy-inspired heavy metal and playing with Lego like all grown ups should.

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Thanks for stopping by, Jamie, and putting to words what makes this game so wonderful! I have such great memories of Ocarina of Time. I've gotta get this for my Wii and play it again now.

Top 10 VG Countdown - #5: FINAL FANTASY IX

We have a guest poster visiting today to tell us about one of my favourite games, Final Fantasy IX (which is, incidentally, where my avatar comes from). Big welcome to Jeremy from Geeky Tendencies!

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Final Fantasy IX is a fantasy role-playing game, and the ninth game in the series. It was released in 2000, and was the third and last Final Fantasy game in the main series released for the PlayStation. This one is my favorite of the Final Fantasy games.

The main protagonist is Zidane Tribal; a thief, member of the Tantalus Theater Troupe, and womanizer. At the start of the game, the Tantalus group is hired to kidnap Princess Garnet til Alexandros XVII. Zidane, in charge of the kidnapping, finds that Princess Garnet is more than willing to go with the theater group. Garnet is worried about her mother, Queen Brahne, and the wicked changes the queen is going through, and seeks help from her "Uncle Cid," who hired the Tantalus Theater Troupe to kidnap her. During the operation, Vivi Orunitia and Adelbert Steiner become involved, much to Steiner's disdain.

When trying to escape, the Tantalus airship, the Prima Vista, is shot out of the sky and lands in the Evil Forest. This begins the group's quest to find out what is behind the Queen's changing personality, and to try to stop a full-out war.

Each character has a character class and a unique set of skills that can be learned. For instance, Vivi is a black mage and Freya is a dragoon. You can expand on their classes by equipping new objects to characters. Objects carry abilities, and equipping them makes the abilities accessible. By battling, you earn ability points (AP). If you earn enough AP while an object is equipped, the character masters the ability, and doesn't need the object anymore in order to use it.

I love this game because it was made to be a salute to the Final Fantasy series as a whole. The creators have included multiple references to past Final Fantasy games, and it was meant to have the Final Fantasy feel that the earlier games provided. It was also a delightful step back to the fantasy genre after the past two games had more of a sci-fi feel to them.

Although the art style and gameplay has reverted to that of earlier Final Fantasies, the storytelling has not. The plot explores many emotions and ideas such as fear, death, hope, and my favourite, the nature of existence.

Overall, I loved the storyline, the ability system, and the labyrinth-like dungeons. There is not much you can complain about in this game except for the graphics, but they were terrific for its time. Final Fantasy IX is a must play for any RPG fan.  

Jeremy is a science fiction and fantasy addict. If he is not nose deep in a book, you can usually find him playing video games or practicing juggling.

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Thanks for stopping by, Jeremy! Inspired to play some Final Fantasy now? I certainly am.