The End Of The World As We Know It

So we survived the Mayan prediction of needing to change our calendars!
The Mayan Apocalypse happened and we were none-the wiser. Maybe it was less and insta-kill and more the initiation of a D.O.T. effect (Damage Over Time). I guess we'll never know. Even if the world ends a year from now we'll have forgotten about the Mayan prophecy and moved on with our lives.

I wonder what it'll be next. I mean, this year we've seen two raptures and an apocalypse (seriously, our civilisation is of hardy stock to be able to survive an apocalypse AND two raptures).
But after that, what could possibly be next? World war three?  The rising of the old gods? cthulu? the zombie apocalypse?

I'm hoping for the Zombie Apocalypse, so long as its the slow shambling kind. As I already mentioned; I'm getting prepared for the Zombie Apocalypse, though my bow is at my friend's house 114 miles away so maybe wait for me to get my bow back before I have to defend myself against any zombies.

All joking aside; there was never going to be any apocalypse. not only did the Mayans never predict the world ending, but there's some speculation as to whether 21/12/2012 is the same for us who reset our dates based on the supposed birth of a christian Deity they wouldn't knwo about and for them. Although it's worth pointing out that if they were seeing into the future then it's possible they glimpsed a calendar.

The Mayan's didn't predict the end, tehy simply stopped predicting. I can think of a number of reasons they'd do that. They saw this time as so far in the future that they didn't need to calculate any further for a while. They were attacked and killed by the spanish. their early predictions didn't come true so they decided it wasn't accurate and scrapped the project.

Who knows why, but we can see, quite conclusively that it wasn't because there would be no world left on the 22/12/2012.

This-is-how-you-should-feel-every-time-you-enter-a-room
- James

Twenty-Two of Fifty-Two

Comics

Battle Royale

My only problem with Battle Royale is that it's a rip off of Hunger games. This is a major concern, except I've never seen/read Hunger Games, from what I've heard Battle Royale is better and Battle Royale came out first, by quite some margin.

Battle Roayle is out in three mediums, Book (original), movie and Manga. I've read the manga and watched the movie (and its sequel, but the sequel was not a good movie).
The premise of the book, and thus the movie and manga (which is the reason we're here) is that all the young people of Japan became too unruly. It became so bad that the government had no choice but to initiate the program. A state sponsored TV show where a class of year nine students are chosen at random to be taken to an evacuated, undisclosed location, given weapons and forced to kill each other. If they don't? The collars that are attached to their necks are blown and they die.

Bet you're looking back on your school years more fondly now?

Can you imagine being taken to an island and being told that you have to kill your friends, otherwise either they will kill you, your brand new fashion accessory will  kill everyone or someone in your class you aren't so chummy with will do it.

It's an emotional story that goes into the characters histories in a way that the movie overlooks.  The main character, Shuya Nanahara, chooses to help a girl to survive. Through a series of unlikely alliances they try to survive and take the establishment out while they're at it.

The Manga is gritty, gruesome, emotional, dark and thoroughly entertaining.

It's definitely worth a read, though it's fifteen volumes and thus quite expensive. Still worth a read.

Battle-Royale-Movie-Trailer
- James

P.S. I'm caught up, and just in time for the Mayan non-apocalypse.

Twenty-One of Fifty-Two

Books

Republic and Imperial Commando series

These books were a very interesting take on the star wars universe that I had never seen before. From the point of view of a small group of elite soldiers, the Republic Commando books showed the nitty-gritty side of the Clone wars, the perspective of the clones.

Everyone knows how the Jedi fared in the Clone Wars, and we know what happened to the clones at the end, but what about up until that point?  Were they just mindless flesh robots unable to emote, or were they something more? It asks questions like 'does a clone have a soul?' and 'does DNA determine your personality?' and answers them quite spectacularly.

It shows how the Clones are treated in day to day life, shows how they are considered expendable, and are sacrificed if their injuries are too severe. It's an amazing set of books that does characterisation really well. After all, if every character looks the same then the character is what has to set them apart.

The books are loosely based on the game of the same name, but focussing on a different squad of commandos (though the squad of one of the characters, Darmun, is mentioned in the first level). The squad from the game show up a couple of times but they aren't the sole focus.
The books follow a squad formed of the survivors of other squads, hastily packed together to form an elite squad right before the assignment and one padawan who doesn't seem very good at anything, though as a Jedi she is put in charge. As the books progress more characters come to the fore front, but for the most part these five characters are the primary focus.

Usually I would take a moment to plead with you to read these books, but I'm not going to do that. They were really good and I wouldn't have missed reading them for anything, but a couple of years ago Lucas arts retro-actively changed everything about a prominent race in these books, making it impossible to continue and making these books non-cannon, all to make a single episode of Star Wars Clone wars cartoon series.
It was awful, they did bad and should feel bad, but regardless Karen Traviss was removed from the star wars writers list and the books stopped without a conclusion.

They were great, but don't bother if you need an ending.

Angry-Star-Birds - James

Twenty of Fifty-Two

Characters

L

L is, simply put, awesome. He's the Sherlock holms of Anime. Autistic, brilliant and rich with a major sweet tooth, L - we never discover his real name - is a consulting detective who finds solving crimes fun, much to the distaste of the police he is working with.
For his entire career L has remained un-seen, communicating with people through audio chats and via his butler. Nobody has ever met him, until the case of Kira and the Death note when he approaches the Japanese police, realising that he must become more involved to find this killer.

In only a few hours L discovers more about Kira than the police had in the entire investigation. He and Kira spend the first half of the Anime and the Manga in a dangerous cat and mouse game. L makes a move and Kira counters it. L even goes as far as to invite Kira into the fold to watch him closer.
Eventually Kira, the main character does outwit L, but not before he discovers his identity.

The reason I like L is because he's not the normal anime good guy. He's weird, a little creepy, he has obsessions that go beyond sexual - in fact he's not remotely interested in sex as far as I could tell - He's brilliantly intelligent, forcing us to think on our feet as we try to keep up with him and Kira's incredible battle of wits and he doesn't care what people think. He's just in it for the mystery.
L is the opposite of Light Yagami and yet so similar to him in many ways. If it weren't for the death note the two of them would likely have become great friends.

L really is a great character and Deathnote is worth watching/reading if only for him.

Musical-Suicide-Video
- James

P.S. Just so we're clear, this isn't just the 'of 52' blog now. I'm just trying to catch up with what I missed. Usually I'd just do two a week or something to catch up, but I have a Christmas film scheduled for Christmas week and want to write it for Christmas week!