Thaidakar the Ghostblood

This is the place. This is not the place.

Alright, yall

i have seen four of the X-men films now. I intend to watch at least two more. I will also watch X-men origins at one point, if only to laugh at its ridiculousness. 

First and foremost, I have watched the following films: X-men, X2, X-men the last stand, and X-men first class. The next ones I will watch are: The Wolverine and Days of Future Past. 

(hey, you, yes, you. I recommend watching the movies I did before reading this. All of the ones I’ve listed and watched are pretty good, except the last stand, but it’s a necessary evil. X2 is phenomenal.)

Before I get into the meat of what I want to talk about, I will summarize my reactions to the first two of these films.

X-men: this movie was pretty fine. Had some great and meh parts, which was to be expected. Felt like  prologue or first chapter. Highlight of the film was Rogue and Wolverine’s father daughter relationship. 7/10

X2: I loved this movie. This felt like the beginning and middle of the story. This was amazing. The writing was glorious. Cyclops felt more like a human in this one. I actually liked Logan this time. Rogue was great too. Magneto is phenomenal as usual. 9/10. 

the last stand and X-men first class are of very different qualities. While one is an enjoyable, illogical, horribly written romp through a world we love with characters we enjoy, the other is an enjoyable, illogical, well written adventure through a world we love with characters we enjoy. I would call the first two acts of both films of a similar quality from a viewers standpoint. The major difference being that first class felt more intentional with how it was done and with the way they handled the characters. It felt like First Class was respecting the characters and having fun with them. They were making them feel like how they were before and respecting previous writers. X3 was just throwing together characters and respected none of the previous arcs and build up or the characters whatsoever. 

The major differences come in each film’s third act. It is at this point that the differences between the films which I noted before become glaringly clear. One film had a well executed and focused set of action scenes, one film made it grounded in characters, one film sought to complete arcs and do proper moments.

it ain’t the last stand.

the last stand, to be fair, isn’t a bad movie. It’s merely fine. It’s just okay. It’s enjoyable, has shining moments, but ultimately fails in being the big movie it needed to be to be a sequel to X2. 

you need to have good motivations for your characters set out and at least a little relatable if you are going to make your reader, viewer or listener care about your characters and what they are going through in most cases. First class vs the Last Stand is just such a good study for this because of Magneto.

magneto in the last stand felt divorced from the Magneto we got in X2, he felt like ge was doing so many things he just wouldn’t have done without some sort of explanation or reasoning to why, no matter how twisted that reasoning it is. Magneto just did dumb things in the last stand while in First class he did dumb things because it fit his motivation perfectly. The music really helped in first class too, to make those scenes work as well as they do. 

The Last stand is a 5/10. First class is an 8.5/10.

all in all, these movies are worth a watch. They have great parts and things that make them worth while. They’re fun and entertaining with good studies on character. I will most likely rewatch the first two and first class at some point. 

Mutant and proud.

Happy birthday!

happy birthday

Hey yall

it’s my 5000th post (I think). For this post, it’s time for a genuine life update. 

I… I’ve been thinking about my life lately. My life this far has been quite the ride. I’ve met amazing people, I like to think I’ve helped others best I can, I’ve learned, I’ve progressed, I’ve changed.

the one thing… the one thing is that I don’t know if where I am going is where God wants to go. Before this point, I’ve had a weird look at priorities and what I do and how I do it. I’ve put certain things higher on my priorities than others when they certainly shouldn’t be that high up. The Shard and YouTube for example. 

the main thing is that I feel lost in some ways. I don’t know what I’m doing in a way. I could continue doing what I’ve been doing, approaching being a writer. I don’t know if being the best writer I can be, writing in ways that explore the world and different views and experiences in the ways I have before, is what I need to do. I don’t know if this is the right path for me. I don’t know if this is the path God wants for me

i think I’ve known this for awhile now, but I’ve ignored it.

(This next bit is a lot about me and my relationship with god. I ramble a lot lol.)

i can’t anymore. I really, really, really can’t. I’m gonna be real with y’all here, I’m really, really, really am scared of the eventuality that I am asked by God to do what I don’t want to do. I really don’t want to be asked to sacrifice what I love, even if it is required to become what He wants me to become. I want to be what he wants me to be, but I also want to be who I want to be. And yet

And yet

what all this comes down to, what all this is about, is that I seriously am in need of reevaluating my life and my priorities. I need to discover what god wants me to do, where God wants me to go, who God wants me to be. 

I need to remove things out of my life that would stop me from getting closer to what God wants me to be. I’m terrified what those things might be. Sometimes I wish that I didn’t know as much that I do so I wouldn’t be required to do more.

then I remember

yall, conference was amazing. God is real, I promise that. You might not believe me, but I testify that he is real as you and me. There is something I said once in a discussion with a dear friend of mine. I said “What is religion if it does not require anything of you?” I said that to mean that God requires us to sacrifice, even things and ideas which we hold dear. 

Am I a hypocrite?

yeah.

But, our friend Dalinar said something once. A hypocrite is a man in the process of changing.

I’ve resisted it, I’ve fought it, I’ve plead against it, but… but maybe it’s time to change for once. Maybe it is time to let my life be changed for the better, no matter how painful it is.

i don’t know how long it will take, what I will sacrifice, what my new goals will be, but tonight and over this next week, I will be trying to figure my life out. I will be trying to let go of my own desires for once in my life.

So why have I talked about all of that? Why did I drone on and on in agonizing detail?

because I have an itch that the shard might be one of the things I have to sacrifice to change and be the better person than I have been before. 

If I have to leave, I will make a post, hopefully on my shardiversaey, explaining it all and what things will happen regarding a few things. I plan on staying sfrrr that post if this truly goes down for a week or so. Then I’ll be gone.

I’m sorry if that was a confusing post, I don’t know anymore lol. Y’all are great folks and I love y’all. Please send me prayers. I rarely ask anyone for these kinds of things, but… it would be appreciated. 

God be with you. I love y’all. Y’all are wonderful people. Sorry if I bored yall with that long, rambley post.

good night. 

Hey y’all. For conference weekend I’m not going to be on the shard or on my laptop. If you really need to talk to me or get info to me, pm me so I get the email notification. I’ll be back in a few days.

Also, I think I might just take a break over all, besides finishing up the TLT post, until my shardiversary. I’ll check in with y’all on either Sunday night or on Monday about it.