Hi Everyone.
I've been meaning to write this for a little while. It concerns what I do in my spare time when I'm not online.
First of all, I'm kinda a casual gamer. I'm not serious about it, I just do it for fun. I'm also stuck in the PS2 era of games. Which means that I mostly play Gran Turismo 4, and several games from the Medal Of Honor series, namely Underground, Frontline and European Assault.
However, I've been playing a pretty different game from that fare (GT4 is a racing game and the MOH series on the PS1/PS2 are World War II games). The game is Hitman 2: Silent Assassin. Not to be confused with Hitman 2 that came out on PC, PS4 and XBox One that came out in late 2018. Silent Assassin came out in 2002 on PC, and was ported to the existing console platforms later that year.
The whole plot of the Hitman franchise of games is that you play as Agent 47, a genetically engineered professional assassin who's known for ultra-stealthy and innovative ways of assassinating targets. 47 is a definite anti-hero, a man of unknown moral make up who performs his contracts to perfection. At least, that's how the story goes.
All Hitman games do, however, especially from Silent Assassin onward, allow the player, on most missions, to fulfill the mission criteria however he or she wants. The emphasis is on stealth, however. Unlike most shooters, but like say the Metal Gear/Metal Gear Solid games, the emphasis is on stealth, not blasting away at enemies. However, like in those games, most Hitman games do give you the option to take down only the target, annihilate everyone on map, and anywhere in between in most missions at your discretion.
There's of course the normal whole range of weapons, from knives and melee weapons, to pistols ranging from a .22 silenced pistol, to a 9mm Beretta 92, to a .357 Magnum revolver, to a Desert Eagle magnum automatic pistol, to Agent 47's signature .45 AMT Hardballer pistols (called Silverballers from Silent Assassin onward, probably due to copyright reasons). There's also submachine guns, namely an Uzi and a standard and silenced version of the MP5, carbine assault rifles like the AKSU and M4 carbine, a M60 machine gun, two double barreled shotguns and a semi auto shotgun, and various sniper rifles.
As far as shooting, it normally works as you'd expect. However, the aiming system is somewhat odd in that the bullets don't always exactly go where you expect them to. This can be annoying in crowded situations, especially when you're trying to minimize collateral damage in a fight. Also, naturally, some weapons are better than others for like say ranged shooting.
Also, though this gets addressed in later games, there's almost no hand to hand combat use in the game, though the developers incorporated a cheat code that allows 47 to deliver a devastating punch that kills anyone who he punches, mostly for dark humor value. Also, several of the ragdoll effects on enemies are overdone to the point where they're humorously absurd.
Also, the game perpetuated an inaccuracy with the Russian PSM pistol. It is depicted, like common at the time, as some kind of super snazzy, super powerful assassination pistol used by the Spetnaz and KGB as an ultra-powerful pistol that can deal with soft body armor, like most Kevlar flak jackets.
The truth is actually pretty different. The PSM was basically a baby version of the Russian Makarov automatic pistol designed as the Russian/Soviet version of the Walther PP pistol firing a unique 9mm round similar to the .380 ACP. In the case of the PSM, it was a 5.45mm caliber pocket pistol for Russian/Soviet Army Generals and some police operatives who needed a very small, modestly sized--and in truth, modestly powerful--pistol.
The 5.45mm round can penetrate certain types of soft armor, but so can 7.62mm Tokarev pistol rounds of certain specs and certain specs of over pressure 9mm Luger pistol rounds designed for submachine guns.
In game, the PSM is similar in power to the 9mm Beretta 92. In reality, the PSM is roughly equal in power to a .22 Magnum or .25 ACP pistol. It was designed to be compact for Russian Army Generals, not as a sophisticated KGB assassination weapon.
Inaccuracies and such aside, Hitman 2 Silent Assassin is pretty good game, given that it's nearly 20 years old now. Biggest issue is, like with any pre-HD TV era consoles, it's hard to play them on a modern HD TV. However, playing with brightness and some additional controls over contrast enhancement and color enhancement fixes most of those issue.
I'll likely later go on with the Medal Of Honor games and GT4 next time I decide talk about gaming. Everyone have a good one :)
Sunday, February 16, 2020
Thursday, January 30, 2020
A Bit of a History Lesson on Italy in World War II
Hi everyone.
This is what I've been working on writing for a few days now. I did mention that I'd be writing about the "junk" of World War II. And one area that was rife with that was the realm of Italian machine guns. These are among the strangest and most awkward firearms ever designed, and as implied, it was not for the better of the Italian Army in either World War.
Granted, I'll be starting with one of the better machine guns designed in the early 20th century. This was the Perino medium machine gun, adopted alongside some Maxim machine guns that the Italians bought prior to World War I. It was operated by a recoiling barrel that unlocked a bell-crank operated breach, and was fed from a box of trays that contained 25 rounds of ammunition each. As for said ammo, the gun was chambered for the standard 6.5x52mm Carcano rifle cartridge.
The only truly "bad" feature of this weapon was that it's original version weighed 27 kg (about 60 lbs), though a lightweight 1910 version cut that figure by nearly half. The Italian Government and Army treated the weapon with great secrecy, and that lead to it being adopted in only small numbers, no matter how effective it was.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perino_Model_1908
Hence, come 1914 and just prior to Italy's entry into World War I, they were left with trying to find something that can be mass produced quickly. The result was a machine gun designed by Italian Army Captain Bethel Abel Revelli, who also designed the Glisenti 1910 service pistol and the Villar Perosa twin barreled 9mm machine gun that was originally an aircraft weapon, but later formed the basis of Italian submachine guns from late World War I until the 1930s.
This Fiat-Revelli 1914 machine gun has numerous strange features that place it in a league of its own as far as strange weapons go. Chambered for 6.5mm Carcano, it operated by a strange mix of short recoil and delayed blowback. The mechanism was essentially an enlarged version of Revelli's Glisenti automatic pistol, where the barrel recoiled a very short distance until a locking block was pivoted out of the way to "unlock" the breach.
Such an arrangement didn't allow for primary extraction (the initial unseating of the cartridge from the chamber to ease extraction), though, for its benefit, didn't use oiled ammo. The gun had tons of entrance points for dust and grit as it was (more on that in a moment), and oiled rounds would've made those matters much worse.
Also, there was a large opening for the gun's "magazine", which had a 50 or 100 round capacity, and was sort of like 10 or 20 Carcano rifle clips welded together, and was ejected out of the right side of the weapon when emptied. The clip arrangement wasn't very satisfactory, since the clips could be easily damaged, and left hung holes in the receiver for all matter of junk to find its way into the action.
Also, the Fiat-Revelli used a charging handled that was attached to the bold that cycled back and forth as the gun fired. This ensured injury to anyone who wasn't careful of where they placed their hands on the grips while firing, and also collected dust and debris. In any case, the gun's action was prone to jamming and stoppages.
Even with that, some examples soldiered on until the end of World War II, though some were modernized or newly built in 1935:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fiat%E2%80%93Revelli_Modello_1914
https://www.forgottenweapons.com/italian-fiat-revelli-modello-1914/
Things were made more chaotic interwar by everyone and their brother seemingly designing a new machine gun for the Italian Army every other week.
One of the better ones was the Brixia 1920 medium and 1923 light machine gun. It was "better" mostly because it was more conventional. It was simple in mechanism and was reliable given the time it was designed. It used a simple tilting bolt lock mechanism that the only unusual feature was a piece on it that would flip-flop back and forth to act as a bolt accelerator. It was also fed by a simple tray in box arrangement similar to the Perino mentioned previously.
https://www.bevfitchett.us/machine-gun-v1-repeating-weapons/brixia-machine-gun.html
Then there was the Fiat/SAFAT 1924, 1926, and 1928 machine guns. These were all very similar in design, differing in that the 1928 weapon was a belt fed aircraft machine gun chambered for .303 British as opposed to 6.5 Carcano. These were improved lightweight versions of the Fiat-Revelli 1914 with improvements that improve reliability. However, these were still heavy for "light" machine guns, were fed by strange hinged magazines that were usually reloaded by special 20 round chargers (except for the 1928 aircraft model), and were mounted on tripods.
There was also a SAFAT 1928 infantry machine gun that had a quick change barrel and an improved breach locking system. An interesting weapon with few unusual features (aside from using a hinged magazine feed), it wasn't adopted in large numbers.
The aircraft gun didn't fare well, considering that it did tend to jam and was also criticized for it's low rate of fire and difficulties with propeller synchronization gear on fighter planes of the era, so was passed over in favor of the Breda SAFAT machine guns, which were modified Browning 1919/AN-M2 aircraft machine guns.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M1926_machine_gun
http://www.forgottenweapons.com/fiat-model-1924-manual/
And now we're onto probably one of the very worst automatic weapons ever designed, even worse than the 8x50mm Lebel caliber Chauchat machine guns, and as bad as the .30-06 Springfield versions pawned off onto the US Army in World War I until replaced by the far superior Browning Automatic Rifle, or BAR for short.
This is the Breda 1930 LMG. It seems to embody almost every strange feature presented so far into one of the oddest and worst weapons ever designed. Like the Fiat Revelli, it was once again a short recoil/delayed blowback weapon, but instead of a propping block, it was "locked" by a 5 lug bolt. However, this bolt doesn't actually rotate. It interfaced with a rotating locking collar that also interfaced with the breech end of the barrel.
It had the hinged magazine familiar by now to Italian light machine guns, poor primary extraction (which lead in this case to an oiler being gun mounted that oiled rounds when chambered), and tons of places where dust and crap can get into the weapon to jam up the works.
In simple terms, this was a horrible weapon. One saving grace was the quick change barrel. But that didn't help, as unlike most air cooled machine guns that fire from an open breach (the bolt is held back between shots to promote barrel cooling), the Model 30 fired from a closed breach, which made barrel overheating much more likely to set on quickly. Also, there was no carrying handle to carry the weapon with, which made carrying a very hot Model 30 a very interesting experience.
There was also a Breda 1924, also called the Model 5C, which differed in that it was tripod mounted with spade grips, instead of the 1930s bipod and pistol grip. The following links will show photos and a further description of the flawed, bizarre weapon.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Breda_30
http://www.forgottenweapons.com/light-machine-guns/breda-model-30/
Next up is the Breda 1937. This medium machine gun began as the 13.2x99mm Hotchkiss caliber Breda 1931, which itself was basically a license built Hotchkiss 1930 13.2mm heavy machine gun. The Model 37 was a scaled down Model 31 with one rather unusual feature.
As the Model 37 was originally designed as a tank machine gun for armored vehicles such as tanks, it used a strip feed where trays contained the round, and the gun's breach mechanism had to extract a round from the tray, chamber it, fire it, and replace it back into the tray.
The breach, unlike the original Hotchkiss design, had no primary extraction, so like the Breda Model 30, had to use a cartridge oiler to ease extraction. Though the biggest problem overall was that the strips held only 20 rounds, and the gunner had to remove the empty shell casings to re-use a tray.
However, the Breda 37 was well liked and had a solid reputation, and some remained in service after World War II.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Breda_M37
Finally, on the Italian end, there was the modernized Fiat-Revelli machine guns that were rebuilt or built as new from 1935. Among the changes were a switch from water cooling to air cooling, discarding the clip feed in favor of a belt, and changing the chambering from 6.5x52mm Carcano to 8x59mm Breda (as used in the Breda M37).
You'd hope that this made for a better weapon. It did, but not by much. It still fired from a closed breach, like the water cooled version did. But without water to cool the barrel, cook-off and barrel overheating became much more likely unless discipline was use while firing. Early guns also had to have an oiler or rounds greased in the belt before insertion until the guns were upgraded with barrels with fluted chambers that eased extraction and cured the problems with stuck shell casings. Needless to say, it didn't stick around long in the Italian Army once World War II was over.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fiat%E2%80%93Revelli_Modello_1935
Also, the Italian Army during both World Wars also used Maxim machine guns, Vickers-Maxim machine guns, Browning 1895 "potato digger" machine guns, all in 6.5mm Carcano. They also used captured Austrian Schwarzlose M1907 machine guns during World War I, and also received many as war reparations afterward. These were used as substitute standard issue medium machine guns in World War II.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schwarzlose_machine_gun
In all, you can't refute that the Italian designers were trying to design the best they could with what they knew. It's not like today where there's few truly proven ways on how automatic weapons should operate and do so reliably and without frills. And the machine gun was still fairly new equipment and a fairly new concept back then. So experimentation was expected.
Still, this motley, strange collection of firearms show how chaotic Italian Armed Forces ordinance was following World War I and the Fascist era. No to mention that the Italians used numerous different rifle and machine gun calibers during this period. Among them were:
6.5x52mm Carcano
8x50mmR Mannlicher
8x50mmR Lebel (not interchangeable with the above)
7.35x52mm Carcano
8x59mm Breda
7.7x56mmR/.303 British
And lastly, 7.92x57mm Mauser.
Just from the list of cartridge calibers I listed, you can see how hectic things were and how hard a time the ordinance men had, not to mention just the mix of different rifles and machine guns, period.
Nevertheless, this is an interesting field of study. The Italian/Mediterranean theater or World War II is in my opinion underappreciated and understudied. That's in spite of the fact that some of the hardest fought and desperate battles were fought in World War II. Also, Italian fighting vehicles and aircraft are also pretty interesting, and also reflect shortcomings in what the ordinance departments thought the Italian fighting man needed during the war. Logistics and production problems caused great ills within the Italian Armed Forces during World War II, and they suffered according at the hands of the Allies.
In spite of that, once the Italians became Allied Co-Belligerants after September of 1943, they helped push the Nazis and the German Army, and Fascist loyal to the cretin known as Benito Mussolini out of their country and did their part in liberating their nation.
This is just an interesting little list of weird and unusual items used in World War II. For more photos and info, I have these threads:
http://forum.axishistory.com/viewtopic.php?f=71&t=189572&sid=3702a8c8de946a4c4dffcc30dad016b7&start=15
http://forum.axishistory.com/viewtopic.php?f=71&t=166998
This is what I've been working on writing for a few days now. I did mention that I'd be writing about the "junk" of World War II. And one area that was rife with that was the realm of Italian machine guns. These are among the strangest and most awkward firearms ever designed, and as implied, it was not for the better of the Italian Army in either World War.
Granted, I'll be starting with one of the better machine guns designed in the early 20th century. This was the Perino medium machine gun, adopted alongside some Maxim machine guns that the Italians bought prior to World War I. It was operated by a recoiling barrel that unlocked a bell-crank operated breach, and was fed from a box of trays that contained 25 rounds of ammunition each. As for said ammo, the gun was chambered for the standard 6.5x52mm Carcano rifle cartridge.
The only truly "bad" feature of this weapon was that it's original version weighed 27 kg (about 60 lbs), though a lightweight 1910 version cut that figure by nearly half. The Italian Government and Army treated the weapon with great secrecy, and that lead to it being adopted in only small numbers, no matter how effective it was.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perino_Model_1908
Hence, come 1914 and just prior to Italy's entry into World War I, they were left with trying to find something that can be mass produced quickly. The result was a machine gun designed by Italian Army Captain Bethel Abel Revelli, who also designed the Glisenti 1910 service pistol and the Villar Perosa twin barreled 9mm machine gun that was originally an aircraft weapon, but later formed the basis of Italian submachine guns from late World War I until the 1930s.
This Fiat-Revelli 1914 machine gun has numerous strange features that place it in a league of its own as far as strange weapons go. Chambered for 6.5mm Carcano, it operated by a strange mix of short recoil and delayed blowback. The mechanism was essentially an enlarged version of Revelli's Glisenti automatic pistol, where the barrel recoiled a very short distance until a locking block was pivoted out of the way to "unlock" the breach.
Such an arrangement didn't allow for primary extraction (the initial unseating of the cartridge from the chamber to ease extraction), though, for its benefit, didn't use oiled ammo. The gun had tons of entrance points for dust and grit as it was (more on that in a moment), and oiled rounds would've made those matters much worse.
Also, there was a large opening for the gun's "magazine", which had a 50 or 100 round capacity, and was sort of like 10 or 20 Carcano rifle clips welded together, and was ejected out of the right side of the weapon when emptied. The clip arrangement wasn't very satisfactory, since the clips could be easily damaged, and left hung holes in the receiver for all matter of junk to find its way into the action.
Also, the Fiat-Revelli used a charging handled that was attached to the bold that cycled back and forth as the gun fired. This ensured injury to anyone who wasn't careful of where they placed their hands on the grips while firing, and also collected dust and debris. In any case, the gun's action was prone to jamming and stoppages.
Even with that, some examples soldiered on until the end of World War II, though some were modernized or newly built in 1935:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fiat%E2%80%93Revelli_Modello_1914
https://www.forgottenweapons.com/italian-fiat-revelli-modello-1914/
Things were made more chaotic interwar by everyone and their brother seemingly designing a new machine gun for the Italian Army every other week.
One of the better ones was the Brixia 1920 medium and 1923 light machine gun. It was "better" mostly because it was more conventional. It was simple in mechanism and was reliable given the time it was designed. It used a simple tilting bolt lock mechanism that the only unusual feature was a piece on it that would flip-flop back and forth to act as a bolt accelerator. It was also fed by a simple tray in box arrangement similar to the Perino mentioned previously.
https://www.bevfitchett.us/machine-gun-v1-repeating-weapons/brixia-machine-gun.html
Then there was the Fiat/SAFAT 1924, 1926, and 1928 machine guns. These were all very similar in design, differing in that the 1928 weapon was a belt fed aircraft machine gun chambered for .303 British as opposed to 6.5 Carcano. These were improved lightweight versions of the Fiat-Revelli 1914 with improvements that improve reliability. However, these were still heavy for "light" machine guns, were fed by strange hinged magazines that were usually reloaded by special 20 round chargers (except for the 1928 aircraft model), and were mounted on tripods.
There was also a SAFAT 1928 infantry machine gun that had a quick change barrel and an improved breach locking system. An interesting weapon with few unusual features (aside from using a hinged magazine feed), it wasn't adopted in large numbers.
The aircraft gun didn't fare well, considering that it did tend to jam and was also criticized for it's low rate of fire and difficulties with propeller synchronization gear on fighter planes of the era, so was passed over in favor of the Breda SAFAT machine guns, which were modified Browning 1919/AN-M2 aircraft machine guns.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M1926_machine_gun
http://www.forgottenweapons.com/fiat-model-1924-manual/
And now we're onto probably one of the very worst automatic weapons ever designed, even worse than the 8x50mm Lebel caliber Chauchat machine guns, and as bad as the .30-06 Springfield versions pawned off onto the US Army in World War I until replaced by the far superior Browning Automatic Rifle, or BAR for short.
This is the Breda 1930 LMG. It seems to embody almost every strange feature presented so far into one of the oddest and worst weapons ever designed. Like the Fiat Revelli, it was once again a short recoil/delayed blowback weapon, but instead of a propping block, it was "locked" by a 5 lug bolt. However, this bolt doesn't actually rotate. It interfaced with a rotating locking collar that also interfaced with the breech end of the barrel.
It had the hinged magazine familiar by now to Italian light machine guns, poor primary extraction (which lead in this case to an oiler being gun mounted that oiled rounds when chambered), and tons of places where dust and crap can get into the weapon to jam up the works.
In simple terms, this was a horrible weapon. One saving grace was the quick change barrel. But that didn't help, as unlike most air cooled machine guns that fire from an open breach (the bolt is held back between shots to promote barrel cooling), the Model 30 fired from a closed breach, which made barrel overheating much more likely to set on quickly. Also, there was no carrying handle to carry the weapon with, which made carrying a very hot Model 30 a very interesting experience.
There was also a Breda 1924, also called the Model 5C, which differed in that it was tripod mounted with spade grips, instead of the 1930s bipod and pistol grip. The following links will show photos and a further description of the flawed, bizarre weapon.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Breda_30
http://www.forgottenweapons.com/light-machine-guns/breda-model-30/
Next up is the Breda 1937. This medium machine gun began as the 13.2x99mm Hotchkiss caliber Breda 1931, which itself was basically a license built Hotchkiss 1930 13.2mm heavy machine gun. The Model 37 was a scaled down Model 31 with one rather unusual feature.
As the Model 37 was originally designed as a tank machine gun for armored vehicles such as tanks, it used a strip feed where trays contained the round, and the gun's breach mechanism had to extract a round from the tray, chamber it, fire it, and replace it back into the tray.
The breach, unlike the original Hotchkiss design, had no primary extraction, so like the Breda Model 30, had to use a cartridge oiler to ease extraction. Though the biggest problem overall was that the strips held only 20 rounds, and the gunner had to remove the empty shell casings to re-use a tray.
However, the Breda 37 was well liked and had a solid reputation, and some remained in service after World War II.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Breda_M37
Finally, on the Italian end, there was the modernized Fiat-Revelli machine guns that were rebuilt or built as new from 1935. Among the changes were a switch from water cooling to air cooling, discarding the clip feed in favor of a belt, and changing the chambering from 6.5x52mm Carcano to 8x59mm Breda (as used in the Breda M37).
You'd hope that this made for a better weapon. It did, but not by much. It still fired from a closed breach, like the water cooled version did. But without water to cool the barrel, cook-off and barrel overheating became much more likely unless discipline was use while firing. Early guns also had to have an oiler or rounds greased in the belt before insertion until the guns were upgraded with barrels with fluted chambers that eased extraction and cured the problems with stuck shell casings. Needless to say, it didn't stick around long in the Italian Army once World War II was over.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fiat%E2%80%93Revelli_Modello_1935
Also, the Italian Army during both World Wars also used Maxim machine guns, Vickers-Maxim machine guns, Browning 1895 "potato digger" machine guns, all in 6.5mm Carcano. They also used captured Austrian Schwarzlose M1907 machine guns during World War I, and also received many as war reparations afterward. These were used as substitute standard issue medium machine guns in World War II.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schwarzlose_machine_gun
In all, you can't refute that the Italian designers were trying to design the best they could with what they knew. It's not like today where there's few truly proven ways on how automatic weapons should operate and do so reliably and without frills. And the machine gun was still fairly new equipment and a fairly new concept back then. So experimentation was expected.
Still, this motley, strange collection of firearms show how chaotic Italian Armed Forces ordinance was following World War I and the Fascist era. No to mention that the Italians used numerous different rifle and machine gun calibers during this period. Among them were:
6.5x52mm Carcano
8x50mmR Mannlicher
8x50mmR Lebel (not interchangeable with the above)
7.35x52mm Carcano
8x59mm Breda
7.7x56mmR/.303 British
And lastly, 7.92x57mm Mauser.
Just from the list of cartridge calibers I listed, you can see how hectic things were and how hard a time the ordinance men had, not to mention just the mix of different rifles and machine guns, period.
Nevertheless, this is an interesting field of study. The Italian/Mediterranean theater or World War II is in my opinion underappreciated and understudied. That's in spite of the fact that some of the hardest fought and desperate battles were fought in World War II. Also, Italian fighting vehicles and aircraft are also pretty interesting, and also reflect shortcomings in what the ordinance departments thought the Italian fighting man needed during the war. Logistics and production problems caused great ills within the Italian Armed Forces during World War II, and they suffered according at the hands of the Allies.
In spite of that, once the Italians became Allied Co-Belligerants after September of 1943, they helped push the Nazis and the German Army, and Fascist loyal to the cretin known as Benito Mussolini out of their country and did their part in liberating their nation.
This is just an interesting little list of weird and unusual items used in World War II. For more photos and info, I have these threads:
http://forum.axishistory.com/viewtopic.php?f=71&t=189572&sid=3702a8c8de946a4c4dffcc30dad016b7&start=15
http://forum.axishistory.com/viewtopic.php?f=71&t=166998
Friday, January 3, 2020
Hi--Say Hi To My Little Friend (Fan Fic Character)
Hi everyone.
One of the things that I was struggling with recently was pinning down a name for my fan fic character. She's existed for a while, but I kept trying to change her name to something else.
I originally wanted her to be a tribute to Victoria Justice and some of her film and TV characters. As a character, she is that, but that's where the hang up on the name began. Originally I was going to make her name a composite of VJ's character names. So for a while I settled on Naomi Ramona Vega. I then decided that I wanted something a bit more original sounding. That's where I finally settled on her name.
So now, allow me to introduce my little friend, Ashley Naomi Bonner.
First, her appearance. If you've seen any photo of Victoria Justice from 2010-present, or watch an episode of Victorious or the film Naomi and Ely's No Kiss List, that's basically what Ashley looks like. She's moderately tall for a woman, slender yet toned and somewhat shapely, with high cheekbones, long dark brown hair and chocolate brown eyes.
Ashley has an eclectic sense of style, like Victoria, Tori and Naomi. She'll wear just about anything if she likes it or thinks it's comfortable. She's very much a T-shirt/tanktop/jeans/sneakers/Vans/flip flops girl. She likes getting dressy on occasion, and loves wearing nail polish and doing her hair.
As for her most important aspect, personality, again, look at VJ, Tori or Naomi, especially Victoria and Tori. However, she does have an edge. She's normally overwhelmingly nice, courteous, generous, and has an infectious smile and brightens the morale of people around her easily.
This is actually where we slightly get into supernatural aspects. Her creation was influenced by the Twilight Saga and the Japanese manga and anime series Bio-Booster Armor Guyver. Which isn't much of a surprise, given that my fan fic are based on Twilight and Guyver.
Ashley is part human, part vampire. In specific, Ashley is 3/4 vampire, and 1/4 human. Her biological father is fully vampire, her mother is a vampire hybrid. Getting into that, her biological father is Joham from Twilight, an amoral "scientist" who breeds part vampire children. Ash from the start developed (even in the womb) a disdain for her father. She's on excellent terms with her mother and adoptive father, though, as well as her siblings, though she likes some better than others based on personality.
As far as special talents or abilities, Ash can influence the mood of people near her, and she can also read minds to an extent. She also, even compared to vampires and other hybrids, does poses above average strength and agility. She's also excellent with handling weapons like knives, swords and firearms.
That said, she abhors violence, and will only resort to such actions only when necessary. She also gravitates to people with similar thoughts and virtues. She's an extremely peaceful and pleasant person. That being said, don't threaten her, or especially her family or loved ones. Or any innocent people, for that matter. That side of her does intimate others, especially those who aspire to do evil to others. Her physical beauty also intimidates others, even with her exceptionally kind and gentle nature. Granted, once befriended, Ashley shows that no one under normal circumstances has any reason to fear her.
That all being written and said, don't do anything to make her extremely angry or upset. She's got a very low tolerance for innocent people being victimized, and one way or another, you'll regret gaining her ire.
That's Ashley's place in the canon of my stories and what led to her creation. Also, as a lot of you know, I have this huge crush on Victoria Justice and have for over a year now. And prior to that I was a casual fan of hers dating back to 2015. I originally had an idea as kinda a tribute to her by making her and her characters into a composite named Jennifer, a character from Twilight that was mentioned in the text of Breaking Dawn. But then I decided to make her an all original, stand alone character. Basically a clean slate.
So that's what lead to the creation of this character. I hope you like her :)
One of the things that I was struggling with recently was pinning down a name for my fan fic character. She's existed for a while, but I kept trying to change her name to something else.
I originally wanted her to be a tribute to Victoria Justice and some of her film and TV characters. As a character, she is that, but that's where the hang up on the name began. Originally I was going to make her name a composite of VJ's character names. So for a while I settled on Naomi Ramona Vega. I then decided that I wanted something a bit more original sounding. That's where I finally settled on her name.
So now, allow me to introduce my little friend, Ashley Naomi Bonner.
First, her appearance. If you've seen any photo of Victoria Justice from 2010-present, or watch an episode of Victorious or the film Naomi and Ely's No Kiss List, that's basically what Ashley looks like. She's moderately tall for a woman, slender yet toned and somewhat shapely, with high cheekbones, long dark brown hair and chocolate brown eyes.
Ashley has an eclectic sense of style, like Victoria, Tori and Naomi. She'll wear just about anything if she likes it or thinks it's comfortable. She's very much a T-shirt/tanktop/jeans/sneakers/Vans/flip flops girl. She likes getting dressy on occasion, and loves wearing nail polish and doing her hair.
As for her most important aspect, personality, again, look at VJ, Tori or Naomi, especially Victoria and Tori. However, she does have an edge. She's normally overwhelmingly nice, courteous, generous, and has an infectious smile and brightens the morale of people around her easily.
This is actually where we slightly get into supernatural aspects. Her creation was influenced by the Twilight Saga and the Japanese manga and anime series Bio-Booster Armor Guyver. Which isn't much of a surprise, given that my fan fic are based on Twilight and Guyver.
Ashley is part human, part vampire. In specific, Ashley is 3/4 vampire, and 1/4 human. Her biological father is fully vampire, her mother is a vampire hybrid. Getting into that, her biological father is Joham from Twilight, an amoral "scientist" who breeds part vampire children. Ash from the start developed (even in the womb) a disdain for her father. She's on excellent terms with her mother and adoptive father, though, as well as her siblings, though she likes some better than others based on personality.
As far as special talents or abilities, Ash can influence the mood of people near her, and she can also read minds to an extent. She also, even compared to vampires and other hybrids, does poses above average strength and agility. She's also excellent with handling weapons like knives, swords and firearms.
That said, she abhors violence, and will only resort to such actions only when necessary. She also gravitates to people with similar thoughts and virtues. She's an extremely peaceful and pleasant person. That being said, don't threaten her, or especially her family or loved ones. Or any innocent people, for that matter. That side of her does intimate others, especially those who aspire to do evil to others. Her physical beauty also intimidates others, even with her exceptionally kind and gentle nature. Granted, once befriended, Ashley shows that no one under normal circumstances has any reason to fear her.
That all being written and said, don't do anything to make her extremely angry or upset. She's got a very low tolerance for innocent people being victimized, and one way or another, you'll regret gaining her ire.
That's Ashley's place in the canon of my stories and what led to her creation. Also, as a lot of you know, I have this huge crush on Victoria Justice and have for over a year now. And prior to that I was a casual fan of hers dating back to 2015. I originally had an idea as kinda a tribute to her by making her and her characters into a composite named Jennifer, a character from Twilight that was mentioned in the text of Breaking Dawn. But then I decided to make her an all original, stand alone character. Basically a clean slate.
So that's what lead to the creation of this character. I hope you like her :)
Saturday, November 30, 2019
Hi--New Post
Hi everyone.
Finally a new post. About freakin' time, I know. I've just been really busy, and for those of you who know me from Facebook, I've also recently been in a lot of pain.
On November 20th, I had a wisdom tooth extracted. Since then I've been in varying, but often time, significant pain. I thought that I had an infection or dry socket. I went back to my dentist last Wednesday (day before Thanksgiving) to look at it. He says that it's healing fine, but it'll take a while to heal completely because of how big a hole got left in my mouth. I'm also a diabetic and diabetics often take longer to heal from bleeding injuries or bruises.
That said, nothing much helped my pain, not even Aleve did the trick. And because of opioid addiction being a big problem, the Mansfield area being no exception, the dentist didn't prescribe me anything, and when he did, it was an antibiotic, not pain meds. I've since been using an off the shelf oral anesthetic/antibiotic and ibuprofen. Both seem to be working much better and I've been in much less pain the past couple of days.
I'll still probably see my dentist again if things don't improve significantly with healing in the next few days. Right now most of the pain/irritation is in the right side of the socket where the wisdom tooth was, just behind the tooth ahead of that wisdom tooth. That's what I'll tell him to look into.
Now on to more pleasant stuff. Thanksgiving was great, I'm a year older now, I have left overs and bought plenty of sugar free candy at Walmart yesterday.
Also, as doubtlessly several of my friends know, I'm actually pretty interested in women's nail art and them doing their nails. I've always been kinda fascinated by that and women's fashion in general.
Full disclosure, I did crush on Victoria Justice because she's very positive, cheerful, peppy and stuff I wish I was more of. However, if I were a woman, she'd be my fashion muse, too. Not her fancy dresses she wears to events, but her everyday style. She's a T-shirt, jeans and sneakers girl most of the time when she's not attending a public event or doing filming. I'd probably dress like she did for her dance rehearsal vids I posted from Victoria's YouTube page that I posted on my FB timeline. Which, basically, was a tank top. workout sweatpants and sneakers.
That being said, even Victoria can make something as mundane as that look ultra glamorous LOL. And VJ has always been interested in doing her nails and such, even though she's also for the most part pretty low maintenance. She probably got that interest from her late grandmother Libby, who was a Puerto Rican immigrant who lived in New York City and was a nail tech. So I guess it can be said that runs in the family.
So that's what has been going on with me and what I wanted to write about today.
Everyone have a good one :)
Finally a new post. About freakin' time, I know. I've just been really busy, and for those of you who know me from Facebook, I've also recently been in a lot of pain.
On November 20th, I had a wisdom tooth extracted. Since then I've been in varying, but often time, significant pain. I thought that I had an infection or dry socket. I went back to my dentist last Wednesday (day before Thanksgiving) to look at it. He says that it's healing fine, but it'll take a while to heal completely because of how big a hole got left in my mouth. I'm also a diabetic and diabetics often take longer to heal from bleeding injuries or bruises.
That said, nothing much helped my pain, not even Aleve did the trick. And because of opioid addiction being a big problem, the Mansfield area being no exception, the dentist didn't prescribe me anything, and when he did, it was an antibiotic, not pain meds. I've since been using an off the shelf oral anesthetic/antibiotic and ibuprofen. Both seem to be working much better and I've been in much less pain the past couple of days.
I'll still probably see my dentist again if things don't improve significantly with healing in the next few days. Right now most of the pain/irritation is in the right side of the socket where the wisdom tooth was, just behind the tooth ahead of that wisdom tooth. That's what I'll tell him to look into.
Now on to more pleasant stuff. Thanksgiving was great, I'm a year older now, I have left overs and bought plenty of sugar free candy at Walmart yesterday.
Also, as doubtlessly several of my friends know, I'm actually pretty interested in women's nail art and them doing their nails. I've always been kinda fascinated by that and women's fashion in general.
Full disclosure, I did crush on Victoria Justice because she's very positive, cheerful, peppy and stuff I wish I was more of. However, if I were a woman, she'd be my fashion muse, too. Not her fancy dresses she wears to events, but her everyday style. She's a T-shirt, jeans and sneakers girl most of the time when she's not attending a public event or doing filming. I'd probably dress like she did for her dance rehearsal vids I posted from Victoria's YouTube page that I posted on my FB timeline. Which, basically, was a tank top. workout sweatpants and sneakers.
That being said, even Victoria can make something as mundane as that look ultra glamorous LOL. And VJ has always been interested in doing her nails and such, even though she's also for the most part pretty low maintenance. She probably got that interest from her late grandmother Libby, who was a Puerto Rican immigrant who lived in New York City and was a nail tech. So I guess it can be said that runs in the family.
So that's what has been going on with me and what I wanted to write about today.
Everyone have a good one :)
Monday, November 11, 2019
Hi--What's Been Going On With Me
Hi everyone.
Sorry for not being more active on my blog or even on Facebook recently. But I've been busy the past week or so.
I've had some stuff with Best Buddies at OSU and work. I'm also starting to get up early in the morning to help with my home's wood stove, since it's gotten insanely cold pretty early in November. I've also had my last day at work possibly until next spring on Thursday.
This all being said, I'm actually happier now than I've been in a while. This past year or so I've been happier since I can remember, in all honesty.
I've been able to meet and socialize with people who like and accept me for who I am. I no longer care about trying to be "typical" or "normal". There's really no such concepts in reality.
I'm really glad that I'm able to talk with and hang out with people who like me for who I am and we can identify with each other. That's becoming more important to me to try and branch out and get some local friends around here.
I know that I did somewhat explain some of this stuff in a Facebook timeline post I made last night. However, I did feel like writing a bit more about it and let everyone know that you making me feel accepted and happy is the best thing that's happened to me.
Thanks everyone.
Sorry for not being more active on my blog or even on Facebook recently. But I've been busy the past week or so.
I've had some stuff with Best Buddies at OSU and work. I'm also starting to get up early in the morning to help with my home's wood stove, since it's gotten insanely cold pretty early in November. I've also had my last day at work possibly until next spring on Thursday.
This all being said, I'm actually happier now than I've been in a while. This past year or so I've been happier since I can remember, in all honesty.
I've been able to meet and socialize with people who like and accept me for who I am. I no longer care about trying to be "typical" or "normal". There's really no such concepts in reality.
I'm really glad that I'm able to talk with and hang out with people who like me for who I am and we can identify with each other. That's becoming more important to me to try and branch out and get some local friends around here.
I know that I did somewhat explain some of this stuff in a Facebook timeline post I made last night. However, I did feel like writing a bit more about it and let everyone know that you making me feel accepted and happy is the best thing that's happened to me.
Thanks everyone.
Sunday, November 3, 2019
Hi--What's Been Going On With Me.
Hi everyone.
Some of you are probably wondering what's been up with me, seeing as I haven't written in nearly a week. Well, I've been having some stuff going on, all of which isn't necessarily good.
Over the past few weeks, I've been doing a lot of stuff. On top of working, I've done stuff like the OSU Trunk of Treat, an outing after work, a ton of running around, and trying to figure some stuff out as far as stuff that I want for the home.
Although I've had fun doing stuff, it's also been taking it's toll on me. Trying to figure out how to do this stuff, namely trying to get to and from places since I don't drive, being really active and thinking about stuff has had an effect on me.
It kinda came to a head on Thursday when I attended a Halloween party at work. While attending this party, I started to feel overwhelmed, almost as if I was having a panic attack. I just started to feel really stressed and run down. I never really recovered during the day, and I felt like crap Friday and most of Saturday.
The weather change also probably bothered me. I don't do well with rapid and sudden weather changes. I don't tolerate heat and cold very well generally. And it gets worse when such changes happen suddenly. It usually does its damage physically, though, not so much emotionally or mentally.
Thankfully, as of this morning, I'm starting to feel better. Things are starting to look better. There's now sort of a plan to get the new living room TV paid for by hopefully early next month. I hopefully will be attending a Best Buddies function on Tuesday. And I'll probably be coming to an end of my temporary employment within the next couple of weeks. I was due to work for sure until 10/28, but I was allowed to volunteer to stay on for a time afterwards.
I'll probably be done after I put in my next two weeks, though. I'll be needed to help out with stuff at home soon. And to be honest, I'd rather do that than do my current job. Maybe by next spring I might decide to return to work if they have something for me, or maybe look for employment elsewhere.
However, I've also made a new friend this morning and I talked with her for a while. I also have an appointment with one of my doctors this week, and I'll let her know that I've been having bouts of depression and low energy.
Everyone have a good one :)
Some of you are probably wondering what's been up with me, seeing as I haven't written in nearly a week. Well, I've been having some stuff going on, all of which isn't necessarily good.
Over the past few weeks, I've been doing a lot of stuff. On top of working, I've done stuff like the OSU Trunk of Treat, an outing after work, a ton of running around, and trying to figure some stuff out as far as stuff that I want for the home.
Although I've had fun doing stuff, it's also been taking it's toll on me. Trying to figure out how to do this stuff, namely trying to get to and from places since I don't drive, being really active and thinking about stuff has had an effect on me.
It kinda came to a head on Thursday when I attended a Halloween party at work. While attending this party, I started to feel overwhelmed, almost as if I was having a panic attack. I just started to feel really stressed and run down. I never really recovered during the day, and I felt like crap Friday and most of Saturday.
The weather change also probably bothered me. I don't do well with rapid and sudden weather changes. I don't tolerate heat and cold very well generally. And it gets worse when such changes happen suddenly. It usually does its damage physically, though, not so much emotionally or mentally.
Thankfully, as of this morning, I'm starting to feel better. Things are starting to look better. There's now sort of a plan to get the new living room TV paid for by hopefully early next month. I hopefully will be attending a Best Buddies function on Tuesday. And I'll probably be coming to an end of my temporary employment within the next couple of weeks. I was due to work for sure until 10/28, but I was allowed to volunteer to stay on for a time afterwards.
I'll probably be done after I put in my next two weeks, though. I'll be needed to help out with stuff at home soon. And to be honest, I'd rather do that than do my current job. Maybe by next spring I might decide to return to work if they have something for me, or maybe look for employment elsewhere.
However, I've also made a new friend this morning and I talked with her for a while. I also have an appointment with one of my doctors this week, and I'll let her know that I've been having bouts of depression and low energy.
Everyone have a good one :)
Sunday, October 27, 2019
Halloween Media Recommendations
Hi everyone.
Here's some recommendations of stuff that I have some experience with as far as Halloween related media. Or, at least stuff that might go good with Halloween.
Full disclosure, I don't watch many movies or TV shows. Most of the stuff I watch are stuff related to media franchises or people or stuff that I'm following or interested in. Or, sometimes stuff that I've had exposure to when I was younger.
I'm betting that most of you know of stuff like the Charlie Brown or Garfield franchise Halloween cartoons, and most of the mainstream horror franchises. A lot of this list also doesn't really deal with that. Most of the items on this list probably aren't also what you automatically think of as far as horror related stuff, sans one or two things.
Now here's my list of items for stuff I'd recommend for Halloween-flavored media that I've been exposed to.
The Boy Who Cried Werewolf (2010 Nickelodeon TV movie)
I've mentioned that I watched this movie recently when Teen Nick aired it, and because it had Victoria Justice in it, I decided to give it a try. And this was with me going in knowing that it was a kids/family movie, and hence would maybe feel similar to a Halloween episode of Victorious or Zoey 101 (this was filmed between the end of Zoey 101 and the start of Victorious, interestingly). And considering what I've said, it was a decent movie. Being a 32 year old man, I wasn't the target audience (also, the movie had been out since 2010, about 9 years ago), and it had a lot of trappings of Nickelodeon's TV shows that were also aimed at kids and young teens.
Granted, that's not necessarily a bad thing. If you like Victorious, you'll probably like The Boy Who Cried Werewolf, though the only relation that the two have is that Victoria Justice portrayed the lead character on both shows and lean towards being kids/teen/family sitcoms. It's also not overly scary for young kids and there's very little objectionable content in it, too. And IMO, it was good for what it was. No masterpiece, but what Nickelodeon or Disney Channel stuff aimed at kids and teens is? Don't take it too seriously and just have fun with it.
Eye Candy
If you want to see Victoria in something that's not a family friendly teen or kid's sitcom and demonstrate that she's got some dramatic acting chops (at least in my opinion), you'll also want to check this out. Also, if you just want something creepier than The Boy Who Cried Werewolf and aren't afraid or turned off by PG-13 rated content, this also might be for you.
Basic plot: a young woman (portrayed by Victoria Justice) who's a talented computer hacker is stalked by a serial killer and uses her hacking skills and a somewhat uneasy alliance with the NYPD to track him down whilst also trying to track down her sister, who was abducted a couple of years earlier.
The show is definitely more mature than The Boy Who Cried Werewolf, and is aimed at the older teens who wanted a more realistic thriller series. And IMO, Eye Candy delivers. It's pretty creepy, not in the least that such things have been known to happen in the online dating world. And that adds another dimension to the story of Eye Candy, in that it's somewhat rooted in reality. Like other shows made by MTV (both Nickelodeon and MTV are owned by Viacom), it's a bit cheesy and corny, and is no Emmy winner by any means.
But then again, I have to admit that I do find a lot of modern TV shows and such to be crap, especially on MTV. Only two real good things that IMO came from MTV over the years were Eye Candy and Beavis and Butt-head.
But that's not selling Eye Candy short, as it's fairly creepy, even if you've seen spoilers, you'll still want to see what happens in each episode and especially how things get resolved. Also, it does show that you can't just pigeon hole all actors or actresses who featured on kids or teens show or family sitcoms as not being very good. As with Victorious, Ms. Justice was almost every critic's favorite part of Eye Candy, and she's not just eye candy as an actress.
The Twilight Saga
Remember what I said earlier about not watching modern TV shows or movies that often? Again, full disclosure, I didn't know much about Victorious or Eye Candy when they were brand new. I did catch some episodes of Eye Candy when they were new, but just a few, and I only recently started watching reruns of Victorious on Teen Nick. This isn't helped by the fact that though I've sort of followed her a bit since 2014-2015 time range, I only seriously crushed on Victoria Justice over the last year or so. And I really wish I crushed on her back in 2015 or earlier seeing what she's done with acting and singing/songwriting back then, though she's still working on various TV and musical projects to the present day.
However, I did follow The Twilight Saga films when they were basically new, and when the novels were still popular. Again, we're not exactly dealing with award winning content here, and we're dealing again with stuff marketed to teens. And with all book to film adaptions (aside from Marvel Comics properties especially being really good ones who stick to source materials and rarely take liberties), stuff gets lost or altered in translation.
That all being said, I loved and still really like the Twilight films. The main cast did the best they could with what they were given as far as scripts go. I know that Melissa Rosenberg is an acclaimed film and TV writer, but The Twilight Saga films aren't her best work and she was often criticized for taking too many liberties with the source material. But the writing and such was far from the end of the World, and I've seen tons, tons worse (cough, cough, Slender Man--stay away from that pile of bovine excrement). The films were good for what they were, and made the likes of Kristen Stewart, Rob Pattinson and Taylor Lautner millionaires many times over.
It also saved Summit Entertainment from filing for bankruptcy. And the previous controlling owners of Summit might not have sold controlling ownership and made more of profit when Lionsgate offered to buy majority ownership of Summit. Face it, if not for The Twilight Saga, we possibly might not have John Wick.
Also, Twilight is a bit more "kid" friendly than the relatively creepy by comparison Eye Candy TV series mentioned and reviewed a bit above. I wouldn't recommend it to very young kids because it does deal with mature themes and such. But it's not ultra scary or creepy.
Bio-Booster Armor Guyver /The Guyver: Bio-Booster Armor(OVA series) and Guyver: The Bio-Boosted Armor (TV series)
OK, I know that some of you want something a bit more hardcore than Eye Candy or Twilight and much more so than The Boy Who Cried Werewolf. And you'll probably find it here with this sci-fi action/adventure series.
Based on a long running (though on long term hiatus) manga called Kyōshoku Sōkō Guyver
(literally in English Strength Boosting Armor Guyver, usually Romanized as Bio-Booster Armor Guyver) written and illustrated by manga artist Yoshiki Takaya, who was heavily involved in the production and writing of the OVA anime and the TV series anime, Guyver was one of the first manga/anime properties I was exposed to in my youth.
Full disclosure again, I'm not a big manga/anime/comic book fan. My older brother, however, is. The Dragon Ball series, Batman, Spider-Man, Superman, Deadpool, Avengers, The Punisher. Those are just a few of the comic book and anime series that my brothers are actually into. I'm not, but Guyver is one that I'm into.
Basic plot: an organization run by alien beings operating under the cover of an international corporation bent on ruling the world, recovers three alien artifacts. These artifacts get stolen and lost, one of which is found by a high schooler who accidentally merges with it, turning him into an unwilling armor-plated superhero. Naturally with a manga that goes back to before I was born (Guyver was first released in February of 1985), much chaos ensues.
Guyver is probably the least mainstream item on this list, and probably the most violent. Alien creatures getting slashed and blasted apart, eviscerated, and sometime flat out vaporized. Granted, the violence in either Guyver series isn't very special by today's standards when it comes to anime or even live action films. However, the first Guyver series was released in Japan from 1989-92, got released in North America in 1992-1994. It sort of set the standard for blood and gore in anime at the time as well as a few others of the same era. In some ways, Guyver can maybe be compared to a cross between Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers and Mortal Kombat.
Guyver also was one of the first anime or manga titles to get mainstream success in North America and part of Europe at the time. So as far as the popularity of anime and manga outside of Japan, Guyver is one of the properties we can thank.
It should be noted that there's two series of Guyver anime. The OVA (original video animation, AKA, direct to video), which ran from 1989-1992 in Japan and was released in North America from 1992-1994 by US Renditions and 1996-2006 by Manga Entertainment. The TV series was released in Japan from 2005-2006, and released in NA in 2006.
The basic story is the same, but there are big differences in presentation. The OVA focused more on action, and each episode was 25-30 minutes long, and there were 12 episodes. The TV series focused more on story telling with toned down violence, were about an hour (counting commercials) and there were 26 episodes. So which you prefer is up to your tastes, if Guyver is to your taste, to begin with.
I do hope that I covered as many bases as I could with this list. From kid/family friendly, to kinda creepy stuff aimed at teens, to less creepy, more light hearted teen stuff, to something along the lines of what a lot of us have come to expect from some of the more mainstream horror franchises, yet isn't very mainstream, at least outside of a dedicated audience.
And also, these are just my personal recommendations. You can take them or leave them, like them or loathe them, or not have an opinion on them. This is just a list, after all.
However, I do hope that if you read this that you'll at least be reasonably entertain and maybe learn something new.
Everyone have a good one :)
Here's some recommendations of stuff that I have some experience with as far as Halloween related media. Or, at least stuff that might go good with Halloween.
Full disclosure, I don't watch many movies or TV shows. Most of the stuff I watch are stuff related to media franchises or people or stuff that I'm following or interested in. Or, sometimes stuff that I've had exposure to when I was younger.
I'm betting that most of you know of stuff like the Charlie Brown or Garfield franchise Halloween cartoons, and most of the mainstream horror franchises. A lot of this list also doesn't really deal with that. Most of the items on this list probably aren't also what you automatically think of as far as horror related stuff, sans one or two things.
Now here's my list of items for stuff I'd recommend for Halloween-flavored media that I've been exposed to.
The Boy Who Cried Werewolf (2010 Nickelodeon TV movie)
I've mentioned that I watched this movie recently when Teen Nick aired it, and because it had Victoria Justice in it, I decided to give it a try. And this was with me going in knowing that it was a kids/family movie, and hence would maybe feel similar to a Halloween episode of Victorious or Zoey 101 (this was filmed between the end of Zoey 101 and the start of Victorious, interestingly). And considering what I've said, it was a decent movie. Being a 32 year old man, I wasn't the target audience (also, the movie had been out since 2010, about 9 years ago), and it had a lot of trappings of Nickelodeon's TV shows that were also aimed at kids and young teens.
Granted, that's not necessarily a bad thing. If you like Victorious, you'll probably like The Boy Who Cried Werewolf, though the only relation that the two have is that Victoria Justice portrayed the lead character on both shows and lean towards being kids/teen/family sitcoms. It's also not overly scary for young kids and there's very little objectionable content in it, too. And IMO, it was good for what it was. No masterpiece, but what Nickelodeon or Disney Channel stuff aimed at kids and teens is? Don't take it too seriously and just have fun with it.
Eye Candy
If you want to see Victoria in something that's not a family friendly teen or kid's sitcom and demonstrate that she's got some dramatic acting chops (at least in my opinion), you'll also want to check this out. Also, if you just want something creepier than The Boy Who Cried Werewolf and aren't afraid or turned off by PG-13 rated content, this also might be for you.
Basic plot: a young woman (portrayed by Victoria Justice) who's a talented computer hacker is stalked by a serial killer and uses her hacking skills and a somewhat uneasy alliance with the NYPD to track him down whilst also trying to track down her sister, who was abducted a couple of years earlier.
The show is definitely more mature than The Boy Who Cried Werewolf, and is aimed at the older teens who wanted a more realistic thriller series. And IMO, Eye Candy delivers. It's pretty creepy, not in the least that such things have been known to happen in the online dating world. And that adds another dimension to the story of Eye Candy, in that it's somewhat rooted in reality. Like other shows made by MTV (both Nickelodeon and MTV are owned by Viacom), it's a bit cheesy and corny, and is no Emmy winner by any means.
But then again, I have to admit that I do find a lot of modern TV shows and such to be crap, especially on MTV. Only two real good things that IMO came from MTV over the years were Eye Candy and Beavis and Butt-head.
But that's not selling Eye Candy short, as it's fairly creepy, even if you've seen spoilers, you'll still want to see what happens in each episode and especially how things get resolved. Also, it does show that you can't just pigeon hole all actors or actresses who featured on kids or teens show or family sitcoms as not being very good. As with Victorious, Ms. Justice was almost every critic's favorite part of Eye Candy, and she's not just eye candy as an actress.
The Twilight Saga
Remember what I said earlier about not watching modern TV shows or movies that often? Again, full disclosure, I didn't know much about Victorious or Eye Candy when they were brand new. I did catch some episodes of Eye Candy when they were new, but just a few, and I only recently started watching reruns of Victorious on Teen Nick. This isn't helped by the fact that though I've sort of followed her a bit since 2014-2015 time range, I only seriously crushed on Victoria Justice over the last year or so. And I really wish I crushed on her back in 2015 or earlier seeing what she's done with acting and singing/songwriting back then, though she's still working on various TV and musical projects to the present day.
However, I did follow The Twilight Saga films when they were basically new, and when the novels were still popular. Again, we're not exactly dealing with award winning content here, and we're dealing again with stuff marketed to teens. And with all book to film adaptions (aside from Marvel Comics properties especially being really good ones who stick to source materials and rarely take liberties), stuff gets lost or altered in translation.
That all being said, I loved and still really like the Twilight films. The main cast did the best they could with what they were given as far as scripts go. I know that Melissa Rosenberg is an acclaimed film and TV writer, but The Twilight Saga films aren't her best work and she was often criticized for taking too many liberties with the source material. But the writing and such was far from the end of the World, and I've seen tons, tons worse (cough, cough, Slender Man--stay away from that pile of bovine excrement). The films were good for what they were, and made the likes of Kristen Stewart, Rob Pattinson and Taylor Lautner millionaires many times over.
It also saved Summit Entertainment from filing for bankruptcy. And the previous controlling owners of Summit might not have sold controlling ownership and made more of profit when Lionsgate offered to buy majority ownership of Summit. Face it, if not for The Twilight Saga, we possibly might not have John Wick.
Also, Twilight is a bit more "kid" friendly than the relatively creepy by comparison Eye Candy TV series mentioned and reviewed a bit above. I wouldn't recommend it to very young kids because it does deal with mature themes and such. But it's not ultra scary or creepy.
Bio-Booster Armor Guyver /The Guyver: Bio-Booster Armor(OVA series) and Guyver: The Bio-Boosted Armor (TV series)
OK, I know that some of you want something a bit more hardcore than Eye Candy or Twilight and much more so than The Boy Who Cried Werewolf. And you'll probably find it here with this sci-fi action/adventure series.
Based on a long running (though on long term hiatus) manga called Kyōshoku Sōkō Guyver
(literally in English Strength Boosting Armor Guyver, usually Romanized as Bio-Booster Armor Guyver) written and illustrated by manga artist Yoshiki Takaya, who was heavily involved in the production and writing of the OVA anime and the TV series anime, Guyver was one of the first manga/anime properties I was exposed to in my youth.
Full disclosure again, I'm not a big manga/anime/comic book fan. My older brother, however, is. The Dragon Ball series, Batman, Spider-Man, Superman, Deadpool, Avengers, The Punisher. Those are just a few of the comic book and anime series that my brothers are actually into. I'm not, but Guyver is one that I'm into.
Basic plot: an organization run by alien beings operating under the cover of an international corporation bent on ruling the world, recovers three alien artifacts. These artifacts get stolen and lost, one of which is found by a high schooler who accidentally merges with it, turning him into an unwilling armor-plated superhero. Naturally with a manga that goes back to before I was born (Guyver was first released in February of 1985), much chaos ensues.
Guyver is probably the least mainstream item on this list, and probably the most violent. Alien creatures getting slashed and blasted apart, eviscerated, and sometime flat out vaporized. Granted, the violence in either Guyver series isn't very special by today's standards when it comes to anime or even live action films. However, the first Guyver series was released in Japan from 1989-92, got released in North America in 1992-1994. It sort of set the standard for blood and gore in anime at the time as well as a few others of the same era. In some ways, Guyver can maybe be compared to a cross between Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers and Mortal Kombat.
Guyver also was one of the first anime or manga titles to get mainstream success in North America and part of Europe at the time. So as far as the popularity of anime and manga outside of Japan, Guyver is one of the properties we can thank.
It should be noted that there's two series of Guyver anime. The OVA (original video animation, AKA, direct to video), which ran from 1989-1992 in Japan and was released in North America from 1992-1994 by US Renditions and 1996-2006 by Manga Entertainment. The TV series was released in Japan from 2005-2006, and released in NA in 2006.
The basic story is the same, but there are big differences in presentation. The OVA focused more on action, and each episode was 25-30 minutes long, and there were 12 episodes. The TV series focused more on story telling with toned down violence, were about an hour (counting commercials) and there were 26 episodes. So which you prefer is up to your tastes, if Guyver is to your taste, to begin with.
I do hope that I covered as many bases as I could with this list. From kid/family friendly, to kinda creepy stuff aimed at teens, to less creepy, more light hearted teen stuff, to something along the lines of what a lot of us have come to expect from some of the more mainstream horror franchises, yet isn't very mainstream, at least outside of a dedicated audience.
And also, these are just my personal recommendations. You can take them or leave them, like them or loathe them, or not have an opinion on them. This is just a list, after all.
However, I do hope that if you read this that you'll at least be reasonably entertain and maybe learn something new.
Everyone have a good one :)
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