Guys, there's no reason to bash him like that. Yes, it's narrow minded and a foolish thing to have a phobia but everyone has fears and such. Brow beating someone with words like just is very harsh and doesn't help someone see that there's no reason to be afraid etc. It really is not the way to handle prejudice or phobias because you just make someone back against a wall and there isn't a person alive that can claim they are free of every single prejudice out there. Yes, he made some claims to things that are exaggerated but this is coming from where? Some things have been told to people for years, such as the AIDS stuff. Show him where he's mistaken so he can change because he's actually one of the few people who have posted with intellect and a will to listen to reason, which doesn't that mean he's -facing his homophobia- ? There's no reason to back him against a wall when he's not another person who is just spouting hatreds. Sorry to get on you guys who call him an idiot, but really, the only way sometimes we learn things is through communication and reasoning and no one wants to hear as part of it that they are stupid. I also encourage you to read through the other posts he's done where he does admit to things and see what others are telling him, instead of just reading his first couple posts in here. He is facing his fear so let's not just dump hatred on him.
I think that was the most 'graphic' part of the movie that made me blink at first too and I assumed that's where much of the rating of R came in. That captain was such a jerk for smashing that guy's face in with the bottle. It was really too graphic in a way but other than that, nothing really approached me as so bad I had to go 'woah' at. I see why they showed that scene though to make us understand how much of an arrogant fascist the guy was.
Even if at times we get frustrated, I actually think it is good this topic remains open. Even if we've said some pretty harsh things it hasn't made any of us hate each other for our opinions, right? So in the end, I think it's wise if it does stay open until we can play 358/2 Days and then see how we consider things then. As we've all pointed out, that's when we will know much more than we do now (I hope) and have some blanks filled in as to what the Organization was totally up to. I doubt it's going to change my stance on Sora's own predicament however, considering what he will only know is what happened in KH2. However, some of our own stances will probably change as to how 'bad' or 'good' the Organization was and to what sort of things they themselves are justified in.
Contacts do take a bit of getting used to but they are so much more convenient than glasses. Especially if you get the extended 30 day wear sort I use. I hope they work out for you, Gamefreak. Just remember to only keep them in for a few hours per day as you get used to them and it will become more routine.
I will agree I 'think' that Axel and Roxas are straight or at least not into getting with one another sexually. Their relationship to me didn't seem anything but platonic and too often if men get along with each other and have a good male friend there are people that automatically assume they are gay. I can say the same thing probably happens to two good female friends that have known each other for some time. However, Nomura likes to leave all pairings often as 'non-canon' implying that people can do what they want with their imaginations and say whether two people like Roxas and Axel are straight, bi, homosexual or whatever. He doesn't really care where people go with their imaginations in pairings and I'm pretty sure he leaves pairings often open for debate until he wants to declare something for sure so that it does let people have the joy or torment of deciding. In the end though we can decide whatever and though I feel they were more inclined to have a platonic relationship with one another, I'm not going to say that someone who is fanatical about them being gay for one another is absolutely wrong too. There's no real way to know for certain with how it is left up into the air.
Way to go, Kay! Now your name matches the rest of your blue motif you've had going on forever! A great decision by the forum staff. Hoorah!
I really am not one to believe in 'black magic' and 'white magic' stuff really as most of the time both use drugs, rituals and various things to induce behaviors. Also, some people have tried to use 'black magic' on me or others giving them 'curses'. For example, this one kid who was 2 years older than me cursed me and two friends. The two friends insisted things were happening to them that I pointed out were regular just clumsy occurrences. Nothing bad happened to me that I couldn't rationally explain and I just laughed at the kid and told him to do his worst because I wasn't seeing it. A person in a satanic cult tried to make me turn around and 'feel the power' from behind as he was doing some kind of mental strain. I felt nothing of the power at all, however another person who was more inclined to believe did. There are rituals in voodoo that are done and people believe in them such as someone putting curses on another person or doing some death thing. The mind is a powerful thing and if people are inclined to believe in it, sometimes they seem to make the things come true. Just for knowledge though, if no one in these studies 'knew' that he/she was cursed, there were no reactions, of course. The same thing can be seen for most 'miracles' in Christianity too. The miracle of prayer for example was analyzed and there were people who were in the hospital. A list of the patients was given to a few churches to pray for the people. A list of people went to not being prayed for. Half the list of the patients on the 'prayer' lists were not told they were being prayed for and the other half were informed. The test results ended that people who were not told did about the same as those who were not on any prayer list and that those who were prayed for either did worse in some cases or did better which shows that a person's mind has something to do with improvement or worsening, doesn't it? So in the end, I just term 'magic' as that which is unknown at this time by science. Once it is figured out, it becomes a part of knowledge and the mystery is up. There are unanswered questions out there I will not profess but in many cases I think those that aren't raised to 'fantasy' levels by people that really want to believe, can be comprehended.
I would say Riku grew the most as many others have said before me. He had gone through so much and learned he could wander down a path of darkness and do some rotten things but chose to rise above it and use darkness and all for a better purpose. He also overcame disappointment and shame in himself for his acts and supported his friends despite the fact he may not have been able to return with them if they held animosity towards him. He took a lot of responsibility for his actions both in the present scenarios of the game and also for his past deeds and made peace with himself. As for others who grew up... I'd say Axel matured a lot from being scheming and determining to do things in a wrongful harmful manner because he had no emotions to really care how others might suffer for his schemes. He rose up beyond that and even apologized to Sora and asked him to tell Kairi he was sorry. At that point he really had made accomplishments that no other Nobody seemed capable of, to include thinking of the repercussions of his actions. I do think Sora and Kairi grew up too but not so much and both kind of get shielded by their friends a bit too much. I did see some changes such as Kairi standing up more for herself and Sora did try to reach out and help people even though they had used him. They both have a ways to go though and I'd expect in the next game perhaps they will both have matured some more.
I would say that Ansem the Wise died in that scene at the end of the game. I think the point was symbolic that he was done with revenge and also had come to peace within himself which when a death scene is going to happen, that sometimes is the way to go. Maybe he went on to the cycle of life etc but it seems that he's well gone from future games as I doubt his physical body made it through that explosion. Riku was knocked down and took the second most blunt of the attack and it cleared the form of Xehanort's Heartless from him so I'd say at least there Ansem lost his physical body. As for why it was left to some 'vague' mystery with no body laying there...if Ansem had died with an end speech ala Axel, his body was material. Axel is a part of a somebody which is where he returned to. When the Nobodies 'die' they lose their physical forms as in they vanish since that which held it together is no longer able to. With Ansem, if they had killed him and he died saying words and all, his body would have remained there because he was human, like Sora or Riku, so the body wouldn't have been able to feasibly break apart as the Nobodies had who had lost their original bodies. Hope that makes sense.
I don't mind Donald and Goofy. At first in KH, I was not that happy but they grew on me and became pretty cool as characters for the story. They have some good character development and yet keep true to their original characterizations too.
I kind of get bored of girls with little personality in video games that are always the damsel in distress. However, at the same time, they don't have to turn all 'Alice' either. Kairi in KH2 was better to me as she was willing to stand up and finally told Sora straight out she wasn't being left behind again like he did to her after Hollow Bastion. A couple people mentioned Yuna, for fears that would happen to Kairi and I really didn't think Yuna was that great in either game really. She was better in FFX than FFX-2. FFX-2 seemed to be the game where it was designed as a sexy game rather than anything I could take serious. Girl power with a pink ship included. *shudder*. I would hope that doesn't happen to Kairi. I know girls that absolutely hate the color pink and the way they see females get portrayed too often and it would be nice to see a female that acts more like one instead of either too butch or too feminine. She doesn't ever have to be 'super warrior Xena' chick, but it would be nice to see her with the two other characters and doing things, fighting, and learning more abilities to be a worthy part of the team rather than just as a cheerleader. Also, giving her a bit more of a personality so we see more of her likes and dislikes and attitude would be pleasant. I really think Nomura should focus on Sora still but also develop Riku and Kairi more and let them actually -be- the other two main characters instead of forcing them into the background. It's pretty sad that Roxas got more time in the one game than Riku and Kairi combined in just about any of the games.
Being racist pretty much just has negative connotations to me. It doesn't matter what a person's ethnicity is, though some people try to insist that the 'underdog' can't be racist because they are getting picked on more. Anyone can have prejudice to another group, though I find it silly, based on stereotypes, listening to others who are racist, or having a bad experience with one person so it slides off to blame the whole group of people generically. I also believe racism is there when people try to give a 'race' characteristics in the positive such as saying 'all oriental people are more polite and benevolent than western people'. No one can really know that for sure and there are just nice people wherever you go and also some jerks. There are things people look at that I don't consider racist, such as local traits in a population, studying the difference between frizzy and straight hair, features that are genetic phenotypes etc. That really is just examining things but when someone tries to use it as a reason to consider a 'race' lesser human, it is obviously racism. Anyone can be racist, even if they don't say anything obnoxious to get a fight out of someone. Racism is a fear and can grow to a hatred, just as homophobia can grow to hating homosexuals. People who consider that a person is so different from him/her and it is intimidating or angering to that person, that person harbors some form of racism. Only really through interaction and acceptance and seeing how similar people really are does it stop. Ethnicity certainly doesn't mean that there are bound to be more 'bad' people because of it. In a way, racism I think stems from the old trait that humans have of protecting your local people from outside threat. Those who have risen above and also claim people of different color skins etc in their group obviously aren't racist anymore. Those who continue to see them as outsiders, whether they live right next door or not, they have some work to do.
Yeah as you are saying there have been historic real people who did imbibe blood or even bathe in it. Vlad Tepes Dracul was a real figure but he didn't seem to take on the features of a vampire really. He was just a really bloodthirsty guy who had a super craving to impale people on pikes and ruled with an iron fist. Elizabeth Bathory is another one who helped propel the vampire legend in modern times because she would bathe in the blood of young women. Ironically she was found to have relations to Vlad the Impaler and the Bathorys were involved in things pertaining to him. Both enjoyed the suffering of others purely for the sake of it. I don't believe they were vampires though and they are kind of what propelled the modern day view of vampires today. Blood has often been seen as a spiritually powerful substance in many traditions and the occult and there are many rituals surrounding the use of it.
Magic by meaning really seems to be that which yet cannot be fully understood or explained. So by the meaning, sure, it exists, but the hocus pocus stuff I believe is mostly for show to baffle the viewers and there aren't such things as fireballs happening from 'spells' or 'magic missiles' etc. Obviously stage magic is going to refer to people like David Copperfield. They are actually very scientifically minded people, working up tricks and all to bedazzle people. They have skills too, such as some are also very good at contortion or breaking out of bonds etc. However, is it all pretty 'humanly' possible? It seems so. We just don't know the 'trick' of all of the 'magic' used. The next kind of magic, which I 'believe' in to a limited scope any way is that there is an energy field which seems to also be detected with science. It is also known as Chi or ki to those familiar with the terms. Since I've 'felt' it and it makes sound sense to me, that is about the only 'magic' I can say I believe in that is 'real'. Other things such as drugs have been used to make people believe in the 'unexplainable' while they are hallucinating or do some things that are bizarre. I think a lot of people added flavor to it by making up things to explain the unusual but in time scientifically I can see that it probably can be explained as time goes on and then it won't be so 'magical'. Surely, someone brought from say the Dark Ages or even past Puritan times to today could look at what we have and immediately call such fascinating technology 'magic' so I tend to look at the word that way as it is just something as of yet unexplainable but if it is a thing that happens, sooner or later we have the chance of coming to know how it works.
I don't think vampires or werewolves exist since we really have no proof to show for it. Of course, if we did, people would panic and act all sorts of stupid probably. Vampires are very romanticized now and the current view of vampires I pretty much dismiss outright. But the oldest legends of them had them looking much uglier, kind of like the walking dead zombies that are in movies now, like Resident Evil or something. There are signs archaeologically that even neanderthals over 40k years ago buried their dead and tied them up to possibly prevent them from 'getting up'. One of the reasons I think people fear the dead rising is that bodies after they die, if a person presses on the abdomen/chest of one, the body will exhale the last breath which can sound like a moan. I learned this in forensics class and it was pretty weird. Also the other reason is like Darkwatch said...that sometimes people assumed someone was dead and he/she wasn't. There are also people that have injuries where they are 'going to die' but still are moving and such and just not expiring when some others figure they should and it's horrible to watch. So vampires and zombies seem pretty explainable to me, until I see something to show otherwise. Werewolves aren't really the only 'shape-shifter creatures out there. In legends there are many assorted kinds such as were tigers, were bears, were jaguars, were hyenas, were coyotes, and the list can go on for some time. I do ponder that people feel connected to nature and relate to some sort of animal because it 'relates' to them most. I don't think people really change into animals though and vice-versa. If I see it, I'd believe it but for now I think it's mainly just people reaching out to their wild side, choosing an animal to say they are most like and feeling the bond with nature sort of thing. I know quite a few people like this. I also know a couple people that think they are lycanthropes but they are stuck so they can't fully change for some reason. There are quite a few other creatures that no one can ever seem to record or capture clearly which aren't part of being connected to humans, like the chucacabra, yeti, bigfoot, etc that I just leave to mystery because no one can seem to prove they do exist or don't exist fully. We get some video but it is -always- super blurry so until I actually have more proof, some signs, dna, a body etc, I just am not putting too much faith in it, but in some cases I'm not really ready to totally write them off either and just leave it open as I don't know.
Repliku should because he was a poor messed up person totally screwed over. =:/ Alas he's not in the Org as a member Nobody so... I'd say Xemnas would be rather impossible because his Heartless (Heart) was destroyed by Riku ultimately so it would seem rather not likely. As for any of the others, they 'may' be possibilities. Axel seems the most likely and we already know Roxas is Sora's Nobody and Namine is Kairi's. We know for near certain Axel's Nobody went back to his Heart and he would become whole again. Whether he actually remembers his time as a Nobody though remains to be questioned. As for any of the others, it could happen that they come back as whole people and it would be a curiosity if actually any did and would they recall the events or not. I won't judge though on 'who' should get the rights to come back or not, because their crimes as Nobodies may not equate to what they did as whole people before they lost their hearts.
Also, how does someone kill someone in cold blood that actually enters a fight willingly and is armed? That is impossible. Sora didn't do anything underhanded in the battle. As said before, Demyx, having no emotions, could have ignored Sora's taunt and continued to run away. He did not and he engaged in combat with Sora. There is no right or wrong person in that fight. They both agreed to it mutually. Cold blooded murder would imply that Sora went behind Demyx, swung his blade and left Demyx a mess on the ground, or somehow beat the crap out of a defenseless person ultimately who was not aware the person's intents were that. Demyx and Sora both knew what they were doing. Also, Kairi got away from Axel. Saix picked her up after and took her to the Castle Oblivion when he could have let her go. She was bait to torment Sora and that is that. Saix has no ground to stand on for what he did at all. He was manipulating Sora from the beginning. He also had every opportunity to talk to Sora and be straight out and not play mind games. There is nothing showing he had any intentions of 'helping' Sora as you like to say at all. He was very dubious by nature. I think he's cool, but really, I can't get where you don't see he was a mental sadist who was willing to play with Sora's heart merely because he had one. His own statements to Sora indicate he had no qualms about hurting a heart. Of course, having said this, I should save some of this stuff for the court room, because much of what the dispute is can easily in any court of law be refuted.
Reading back through your comments, I have to say I am sorry for what you are going through. It's very stressful. However, I want to assure you that if your step dad does decide to divorce your mom, you are right that forcing your mom and dad back together won't probably happen and would just make things rougher for you. I also want to assure you that though things may be hard for your mom, she has places she can go for help to get money to take care of you guys and not have to work herself to the bone. For the new child, she could get WIC, which helps women without support to get food, some money and such for young children and babies. She can also get help with food stamps from the government and some help with things like her electric bill. Depending how old you are and if you are willing to help her, you could possibly help babysit when you are home, but also there is assistance for day care if she needs it too. There are things out there to help her in her hard times if this guy is going to bounce out on her, plus he would owe her some kind of child support as well. So, don't worry too much about the 'money' side of things. The more difficult thing is the personal barrage it places on you and your siblings and also her. Having been through one divorce already, it's rough to imagine having to endure it again. Hang in there though and I hope you can still see your mother and father, despite the fact they live apart. They do love you and this step dad seems to need to grow up some and get his priorities straight, but if he can't and is drinking all the time and refuses to work things out, then it may be that your mom is better off without him. She will need support as will you through this so help her out if you can. You aren't going to be a burden financially if she does the things she needs to. Help is available to her and these are exact reasons why it should be used so don't think that way. I think you and your mother and siblings may need to stick through a lot and come together and maybe this step dad will work things out and perhaps he won't, but if I were you, I'd support your mom's side and let her know that you are there for her, if you can. Your step dad is obviously going through some negative feelings and insecurity and I hope he wises up but the sad truth is sometimes people ust won't. I wish you luck and hope things resolve as well as they can. Sorry though that there isn't much else I can think of to do.
It seemed to fit. I don't know why.
I'd go with the 80 gig PS3. It has backwards compatibility and more space etc.
