Damian's Stuffage

So, briefly, in Gymea, had very little time to actually get work on my assignment done, but I got past my initial roadblock. I might stay up all night tomorrow working on it, but for now I’m going to sleep.

For future reference, I would have talked about advancing cultures and social interactions in relation to both the eras of Freaks and Geeks and Wuthering Heights.
If I find myself without anything to talk about at a time when I’m not so busy, I might come back to this. 

Bye guys, thanks for reading.

I’m totally swamped with Uni work so I can’t take time to write something tonight. Honestly, I’ll probably be cutting it short all week, and I might not even write anything some nights. Oh well, deal with it.

Bye guys, thanks for reading.

THE AVENGERS MOVIE!

I won’t put any spoilers in here, even things which might be gathered just by watching the ads. Umm… I don’t know where to start…

Let’s start off with me bringing up a point that I’ve already talked about. The characters in The Avengers have been around for about 50 years each, with Captain America in particular being created about 70 years ago. Needless to say, there’s not much that hasn’t already been done with them, and people who have been with them for a long time are used to them. Their movies helped bring in a new audience for them, and even existing fans had a new perspective of them, seeing them on the big screen. Then Joss came along, and The Avengers could’ve gone either way, as I described yesterday. 
Well, they hired Joss to do a job. And they let him do it.
It can be hard to have an ensemble cast and not have certain characters be more important or have more screen time than others, but Joss balanced it perfectly so that each person had ample time to shine. Nobody was twisted into the plot either; it flowed naturally, each character helped to form the plot, rather than be carried by it. 

There’s another important point that I should mention - Joss is traditionally best at working with characters who are, at their base, flawed. This is obvious for anybody who’s seen Buffy, Angel, Firefly or Dollhouse. Nobody is perfect, and people have to try to either accept or rebel against their flaws. While this means that most of The Avengers are perfect for Joss (think the Hulk here) he still had to manage Captain America, the one character who is, at his simplest level, a decent human being. He only fights because it’s what’s right, and he only wants to help people. He also happens to be a natural leader. As you can imagine, it would be a little hard for him to get on with Iron Man, in particular, as Stark is a generally an egocentric self-serving prick. Cap is pretty much out of his element for the majority of the movie, trying his best to keep everything afloat, but then he gets his chance and it all comes together for him. He’s the Captain. Accept no substitute. 

Joss might be most renowned for his dialogue, so there’s no point spending time on the writing of Iron Man, who pretty much is a perfect conduit for him. Imagine a super-powered narcissistic Xander. Yup.

We’ve seen a few adaptations of The Hulk over the years, and they’re usually not something to be totally impressed about. This though… this was perfection. When I first heard that Mark Ruffalo was playing Bruce Banner, I was not amused. I didn’t see him as that character. That said, once I watched the movie, I couldn’t imagine a better portrayal of the part. We see a very human man who has seen horrors. He’s accepted the world around him and tried his best to move on, and help people wherever he can. On the flipside, the beast within him is a totally primal being, characterised by the rage that forms him. The special effects used to make The Hulk this time is totally different from what has been used before. Rather than CGI, this was acted out by Mark Ruffalo, and digitally enhanced (I don’t know if that’s the correct terminology). For the first time, we had a hulk which actually resembled Banner. They’re obviously two sides of the same coin. As the Hulk, there’s a man trying to contain himself, trying to guide this raw power towards (kinda) specific objectives. As a man, you can feel the beast inside him, always struggling to release itself upon the world, held in place only by the willpower granted by the morality of the man. This character was also perfect for Whedon, who has had years of practice on this exact issue in the character of Angel. 
Also, I don’t know why everybody assumes that The Hulk is dumb. He’s contained within one of the top ten smartest people in the Marvel universe. At the very least, he retains moderate intelligence. He can usually talk in the comics, putting together coherent sentences. He doesn’t appreciate people calling him dumb.

For both Thor and Loki you wouldn’t be able to follow a lot of what was going on without first having seen Thor (the movie), which covers most of the characters’ motivations. That said, there’s a marked difference between the Thor of 2011 and the Thor of 2012. He’s obviously grown a lot, learning the responsibility that comes with his immense power and the importance of peace. He’s also at the point where, although he still and always will love his brother, he will do what he must to protect innocent lives. Some of the most emotional scenes in the movie were with Thor and his motivations, sometimes just silent in his brooding. Actually, brooding isn’t the right word, but I can’t think of the right one just now. You’ll know exactly what I mean when you see the movie.

Even Black Widow and Hawkeye got their fair share of attention in the movie. Certainly, they aren’t just supporting characters, but they aren’t exactly the figureheads of the team.  They were both represented well, particularly Black Widow with a fantastic performance by Scarlett. I should point out that it was inevitable that she would be one of the best characters in the movie. Any fan worth his salt knows that Joss is a massive feminist, and traditionally gives girls the most kick-ass moments. He doesn’t exactly subscribe to the damsel-in-distress mentality. 

I haven’t yet even begun to talk about the special effects, which were seriously out of this world. Seriously. I’m being serious. They were not confined to this world. Joss was given a budget of $220 million which, for a major blockbuster, frankly isn’t so much. It’s certainly enough, but it doesn’t allow for any excessive spending. Well, Joss is kind of used to working on a tight budget, and you can tell that he hasn’t wasted a cent. The special effects were on par with a movie budgeted twice as high. It looked unreal. Fantastic. Superb. Also, in the design changes from previous movies (most obvious in the Hulk) there was always an improvement. I really, really liked the design of the Hulk in this. It wasn’t just the look of a gigantic bodybuilder with a designer body, all rippling abs with no fat. Rather, it was just a ball of muscle. It wasn’t a body built to look good, it was a body built for absolute power. And, as I’ve stated before, he actually resembled Banner, which is pretty important. 

Obviously I can’t describe any of the jokes without ruining them, so just saying that there were some absolutely hilarious moments will have to suffice. It was also, as a Whedon trademark, organic. There was nothing that was shoved in for laughs and didn’t flow perfectly with the rest of the scene. I won’t go any further in this, in an effort not to spoil anything.

I saw the movie in the midnight premiere, so the cinema was filled with people like me, who wanted to see it as soon as possible, not just common fans. Uberfans, if you will. Anyway, it resulted in a much better vibe than a normal viewing would have. People wouldn’t dare talk during the movie, but there were certainly gasps, laughs, cheers and tears throughout the viewing. People were dressed up and everyone was excited going in and thrilled leaving. 

Overall, it was my favorite movie on the first viewing, a place confirmed upon my second. Serenity is still head and shoulders preferred over everything beneath it, but it is no longer the king of my entertainment castle. 
Everything in The Avengers was perfect, from the opening to the post-credits scene (which I won’t spoil, but it’s fantastic in two ways. One: only actual comic fans will understand it, and two: it’s going to lead on to a ridiculously good material which none of the Marvel movies have touched upon yet).
A character is, of course, Jossed, and like always you don’t see it coming, even when you’re anticipating it. I laughed almost as hard as I ever have during some parts of The Avengers, and watched silently in awe at others. There was significant character development and interaction throughout the movie, and it certainly covered more ground than just blowing shit up.
The “I don’t care for action movies” excuse would be useless here, because it’s not just an action movie. It’s so much more than that. That said, I really wish that it had been released in IMAX here. It would have been so awesome.
I will be incredibly upset if this makes less than a billion dollars, and even that seems low. It hasn’t come out in America yet, so we’ll have to wait and see. From pre-release ticket sales though, it looks like it might have one of the biggest opening weekends of all time, so there’s certainly hope.

From here, the next round of movies for each of the characters is coming, including Captain America 2, Thor 2 and Iron Man 3. I don’t know anything about The Incredible Hulk, but apparently they really want to make a Doctor Strange movie (which I won’t go into now, but it would be awesome). Everyone’s hoping that this next cycle will end with The Avengers 2, which would probably be released in 2014 at the earliest. If that happens, Whedon is being given the open option to write and direct again, which we all hope he will take, but you never know. Again, we’ll have to just wait and see. 

Summary: my favorite movie, perfectly made(I would describe the perfection as ‘unrelenting’), go see it at least 5 times.

Thank you Joss

Bye guys, thanks for reading. 

I’m going to start off this very important post by saying that I will almost certainly be unable to properly express myself, because I am very rarely given a task like this which requires me to think of ways in which the English language will allow me to convey my proper thoughts. 
So.

*Note: This post ended up being so long that I’m breaking it up into two segments; the build up, then the film itself. This is, of course, part one.* 
*Second note: I got plans for tonight at the last minute, so I won’t have time for the main post. I’ll do it if I get home early enough, but otherwise it’s coming tomorrow.* 

The Avengers movie. Firstly, I suppose I should explain why there was (and in America, still is) such a hype for this movie. There’s always some degree of excitement when a superhero movie is announced, because there is always an already existing fanbase, no matter how small (like Blade, originally) or big (we’re talking Batman here). So there was Iron Man, one of the most well known and popular Marvel superheroes, in a movie which gave the character his due and helped reinvigorate Robert Downey Jr.’s career. This, the first movie in the Marvel cinematic universe, was a massive success, and the post-credits scene implying an eventual movie on The Avengers got a lot of people excited, and wondering. “Who would be part of the team?” I, for one, thought. The founding members of The Avengers in the comics were Iron Man, Thor, Hulk, Ant-Man and Wasp, with Captain America joining very quickly.

Anyway, Iron Man added a lot of people to the fan base, and was the foundation for every Marvel movie after it. Also, it was almost immediately revealed to be the start of an Iron Man trilogy, so that caused a lot of excitement. When The Incredible Hulk was announced, we hoped that it would be the movie that “Hulk” never was. And it was good. Not fantastic, but it certainly did a good enough job that we could all like it well enough, and it did properly reintroduce the character for The Avengers (which I wasn’t sure it would be a part of until the post-credits scene). As soon as I was aware that he would be in it, I started to imagine what the plot of The Avengers would be. My logical conclusion was that the superheroes (who were not all revealed at this point) would independently try to subdue a Hulk who was raging through the countryside, eventually joining together to bring him down, and make him part of the team. This isn’t at all what it ended up being about, by the way, but it was my concept at the time. Also, I should note that The Incredible Hulk was important as a comic book movie as it was neither a sequel nor an origin story. They just said “you know the character already, here’s a movie about them”. Seriously, most comic movies should be like this. We don’t need 5 origin stories for the same character. You hear me, “The Amazing Spider-Man”?

Iron Man 2 came along, and although it wasn’t as good as the first one (just my opinion, I’m sure that many others would disagree) it was an important film in conveying the nature of S.H.I.E.L.D.
Also, it certainly lived up to its predecessor in special effects and gave Iron Man necessary character development. I would say that in order to see The Avengers, this is the first of the two movies which are absolutely necessary to watch.

The second one which must be watched is Thor, which happened to be the next to be released. By this time, Captain America had already been announced (the two films were very close to each other) and the roster finalized. Out of all the characters, Thor is certainly the one whose film story deviates the most from his comic book counterpart, but it was still a very enjoyable movie, and I could accept that the change was necessary for the screen just as I had with Galactus in Fantastic 4: ROTSS… but let’s not get into that. I heard a lot of people heralding Thor as the best comic book movie so far, but I didn’t quite agree. It was very good, don’t get me wrong, but I didn’t think of it as a masterpiece. This is necessary for The Avengers though, as a huge amount of what takes place in Thor serves as a foundation for The Avengers.

Finally, there came Captain America, the most patriotic superhero of all time… maybe excluding Captain Britain (*smirk*). I liked Captain America a lot, and although it was purely an origin story intended to compress years worth of comics into two hours to introduce the character and allow him to be present in The Avengers, I feel that they did a good job. It was, for all intents and purposes, a very accurate representation of the character, and stuck very closely to the original comics, for what it’s worth.

At this point the fans, both new and old, knew the characters and people were excited for The Avengers, with everybody having their favorites and looking forward to different aspects of the movie. I, for one, am a major comic book enthusiast, and despite this what I was excited most for wasn’t any of the characters. No, despite their presence, I was by far the most excited by the inclusion of Joss Whedon, our geek lord and entertainment saviour, who was signed on to both write and direct. When that was first announced I had what can only be described as a nerdgasm. If I had people around me at the time, they would have certainly noticed my reaction. It was both extremely visual and very loud. I won’t bother to go into Joss here, as I’ve talked about him a lot in the past, but I’ll mention one important point: Joss might be the best writer there is at taking existing characters who have been around for a long time and making people care about them again. He did it in Astonishing X-Men, and I was oh so hoping that he would be able to do it here. 
It really came down to one thing: when he is hired to do a job, they’ll either let him do it, or they won’t. That’s what we were all fearing. Also, I was wondering who would be, inevitably, Jossed. If you’re associated with him well enough, you should know what that means. 

So now the pressure cooker was on. The Avengers release date was steadily approaching, and we waited.

Bye guys, thanks for reading.

I haven’t gotten around to my Avengers post yet, but don’t worry, that’s coming tonight. For now, I just wanted to bring something up. It came to my attention that I actually have a lot more internet usage that I originally thought, so I decided to splurge a little on the downloads. In the process of doing so, I was browsing the internet to find lists of the best TV shows of all time, in case there was something that I hadn’t heard of, thought of, or had forgotten. 
In the process of doing so, I found a page in Paste (I’ve never heard of it either) which had a list of the 20 best TV shows of all time. They actually have a few very good lists, looking around, and they explain why each item is on the list. On the list was, of course, Buffy The Vampire Slayer. I’m not surprised that it’s on there, rather, I’d be surprised if there were a list of this sort that it was excluded from. No, the reason that I’m mentioning it is because the description they gave to the show is one of the best, most intelligently thought out descriptions of the show that I’ve ever come across.
So, in essence, I’m writing this post just for you to read that description, which I’m about to paste below. The only changes I’ve made are deleting a few sentences with spoilers for anybody who hasn’t watched it yet. If I’ve tried to convince you to watch it before and haven’t gotten through to you, hopefully this article will do the trick:

Buffy the Vampire Slayer had it all: Romance, drama, tragedy, suspense. The show took the teen-soap formula and elevated it to an art. It was a unique combination of tragic romance, apocalyptic fantasy and the clincher—emotional realism. It also featured the most serious and realistic depiction of human loss ever witnessed on the small screen (*spoiler emitted*). Humor? The writers understood the campy sheen that must accompany any show named Buffy. They also knew how to use snappy dialogue and uncomfortable situations to full effect. Complex characters? You’d be hard pressed to find another program that had the same range and consistency of character development. Everyone matured (or devolved) at his or her own realistic rate. As some feminist writers have argued, TV had never before seen the complexity of relationships among women that you saw with the likes of Buffy, Willow, Joyce and Dawn. Plot? The writers employed elaborate multi-episode, multi-season story arcs. People and events of the past always had a way of popping back up, the way they do in real life. Philosophy? Series creator Joss Whedon was all about the “meta”—the ideas and story behind the story. Each season had a driving concept, and he explored an astonishingly wide range of topics. Quick asides referencing Sartre or Aquinas were as at home as the pop-culture references. The show spawned an active academic community around it (see “Buffy studies” at Wikipedia.org). Whedon wanted his heroine to be iconic. As he put it, “I wanted people to embrace it in a way that exists beyond, ‘Oh, that was a wonderful show about lawyers; let’s have dinner.’” He succeeded, creating a WB/UPN show that bears closer resemblance to the works of Dostoevsky and Kafka than 90210 or Dawson’s Creek. Tim Regan-Porter.

He’s a good writer. I’m impressed with him. Anyway, that’s all for now, I’ll get back to you later tonight.

Bye guys, thanks for reading.

I planned on spending some time tonight to write something thoughtful out, but then Stewart called me and I spent the night hanging out with him and watching Freaks and Geeks. Fantastic show about school in the 80s. He had never seen it before, and I only had memories of it from when I was younger, so it was a great experience for both of us.

Sucks to be you if this actually affects your life, but I’m tired now and I’m going to sleep. I’ve got all day tomorrow, so one would assume that I’ll get around to filling you in.

Bye guys, thanks for reading.

I watched The Avengers again today.
I thought that I’d mention that, and you guys would be interested to know it.

I’m not putting up a proper post tonight though, because the first thing I want to talk about will be The Avengers and I still haven’t fully clarified everything I want to talk about in my mind yet. I’ll probably give a proper review tomorrow night.

Bye guys, thanks for reading.

Okay, so because The Avengers has already premiered in some special viewings over the world, I’m minimising my internet viewing for today in an effort not to inadvertently see screenshots or a gif or a quote or something. I really want to keep as much of the movie a mystery as possible.

Youtube doesn’t really count, by the way. I’ve been watching lots of the Tobuscus minecraft videos, which are seriously just the most hilarious things ever. That man is seriously ridiculous. I can’t imagine knowing him without wanting to be best friends. It’s not just a kind of good joke every few minutes, it’s constant laughter for 10 minutes. This includes him doing improv songs, character skits from creatures and objets he runs into and just generally talking. It’s really hard to pinpoint what he does that makes him so funny.

I heard about a Punk’d episode today which I really want to watch, but was never aired because of the content. It was on Zach Braff, and they got a 12 year old to spray-paint his car. When he saw this, he grabbed the kid and beat him up. This was, of course, caught on film, which was trying to just get a horrified (but not horrific) reaction from him. I might not have that totally right, I heard it all second hand. This does raise the question though, at what point are you allowed to hit a kid? I’m not saying beating him up, but one punch. Spray-painting your car? Maybe not, but there’s no way that you’re letting them off with a warning for that.

I’m going to go to sleep now, because I want to have as much energy as possible tomorrow so I’m fully and totally awake still at midnight tomorrow. That said, I’m sure that I’ll have so much adrenaline that any sleep that I’ve had in the last week will be irrelevant in comparison.

Bye guys, thanks for reading.

I’m still in my pajamas. One of those days.
I think that I’m going to watch Puss In Boots tonight, or maybe just a whole bunch of TV. There’s some South Park for me to catch up on. I’m technically planning on having an early night, but that just means that I’ll be in bed by 22:00. I’m sure that sleep will come by a little past midnight. 

Also, Eureka season 5 has started, which is awesome. It seems like a really long time since season 4 ended, and it had a major cliffhanger. Anyway, the first episode is going well (I’m watching it while typing this) so… yeah. They handled the cliffhanger well. 

Who else wants ice-cream? All of you? Well, I only have enough for… well… me. Yeah. Just me. But certainly enough for me.  Mmmmmmmm… Ice-cream. I think that it’s macadamia and caramel flavor, from memory. I haven’t been in the freezer for a while. Or I could just have a frozen juice box, which I love. Those things are pretty much the perfect snack/dessert. I either have apple juice or orange juice available, I’m not sure, but I’m happy with either. Fantastic.
This isn’t too food-centric, is it? Or is it not enough? People seem to love spending time on food. I mean, apart from eating it. Thinking about it, and its variations. Mmm… Food.

I’m considering starting to watch Torchwood. I’m sure it’s good, but I don’t know what the vibe is compared to Doctor Who. Also, I like Captain Jack, but I don’t know if I’d like the other two in his crew. They’d probably grow on me, if I didn’t immediately like them. Also, I’ll be curious to see who Jack is more sexual towards. That beast. Do you guys I should start watching it now?
I know you’re not going to answer me. Nobody ever makes comments towards me on Tumblr. Just keep in mind that you’re free to. I won’t bite.

Ok, I shouldn’t have brought up ice-cream. I want it now.

Bye guys, thanks for reading. 

Well, I just wrote my post for tonight and my browser reset the page. Cruel and unfair, I know, but I’m not typing it out again. I’ll sum up:

Worked on boring group project

Watched part of a Scrubs marathon

Why Scrubs was a fantastic show

How It Should Have Ended, a YouTube channel 

So… yeah. That, with filler, was the short of it. Just imagine the above if it were 5 paragraphs, and that’s more or less it. 

Bye guys, thanks for reading.

I’ve watched the entirety of Buffy through about 4 times, with individual episodes being viewed much more often, but for some reason I’d never watched Angel before. It could have had something to do with how I had a wrong perception of it; that it was a totally different style to Buffy and didn’t fit in the Buffyverse properly. Maybe it had something to do with how I just never really liked Angel that much when he was on Buffy. Maybe I just wanted to know that there was more to it, that I hadn’t seen it all, that there was something for me to look forward to.

It doesn’t matter, the fact remains I hadn’t watched it. As I’ve been working my way through it, I can appreciate how good it is. That said, I don’t think that waiting was such a bad thing. While airing originally on TV, it came directly after Buffy every week and, very occasionally, had a cross-over with it. As such, watching Buffy you’d occasionally only get one side of the story. You didn’t ever feel as if you were missing out on anything, but there was certainly some stuff going on that you didn’t fully get the story of. 
I feel that watching the two shows together would actually ruin the experience. While they’re in the same world and occasionally cross over, they’re very different shows following totally different stories and the effect of watching one apocalypse unfold is probably kind of reduced by watching a different one directly afterwards.

So I think I had the best possible experience watching Angel. I know every episode of Buffy well enough to be able to know what was going on in Sunnydale while watching the events in LA. I think that, frankly, it works best that way.

Joss took characters from Buffy into this show, even ones who were directly unlikable, and made their characters develop in such a way that you have to root for them by the end. 

So, seeing as I just watched the last episode of Angel, there’s a few things that I have to talk about which I’ll try to do without any spoilers.

It’s a Joss Whedon show, so you know 2 main things about any finale he does. Firstly, it’s going to be amazing and totally unforgettable. The last second will fill you with incredible emotion. Which emotion is up to Joss, but it’s usually a kind of sad-but-happy-but-nostalgic-but-progressive-and-I-want-more-but-this-is-perfect. He might not always be the best at intros, but Joss is definitely the best at endings.
Secondly, people will die. Joss hates his fans, in such a way that they’re never allowed to be happy. He’ll build up the happy more and more until somebody dies. I’m not talking “Oh, we’ll just revive them” dying or “Oh, who cares about that character” dying, I mean he’ll cut you up inside from the hurt of seeing that friend go. I expected it to happen (but not necessarily to who) and still my heart ached in their final moments.

After the last scene (which was INCREDIBLE), after the “Created by Joss Whedon”, there was a short montage of scenes from throughout the entire show, with a voiceover saying, more or less (from memory): “He’s been alive for 277 years, thank you for sharing the last 5 with us”. That montage was enough to get me to the edge. Not quite crying, but almost there. Then I hurt inside for a little while knowing that it was over. I wish that I had somebody to share this with.

They should be so lucky. I annihilated 3 boxes of pocky throughout tonight’s events.

Then I started typing up on my night, first AC:R, then this. I know that this post was really delayed following my last one, but Safari quit on me halfway through and it was a hassle to get it started again, but I eventually got what I had already written back.

That’s all for tonight, but I think that this was the most I’ve ever posted in one day, so I hope you’re happy. I certainly feel better.

Bye guys, thanks for reading.

Tonight I finished Assassin’s Creed: Revelations. Then, just now, I finished Angel. It’s been an extremely emotional night for me.

I could probably write for hours explaining exactly why AC:R is so important, not only to me, but to the history of video games in general. In an effort to not do so (I’ve also got to spend some time on Angel) I’ll try to be brief. 

This post is for AC:R, I’ll do one for Angel shortly. 

When the first Assassin’s Creed game was announced in 2006, I saw the trailer and thought that it was the best thing that I had seen in my entire life. It was amazing. At the time, I can’t remember wanting something more than that game. I bought it the day it came out, and finished it quickly. Then I did it again. And again.
The game has a detailed overarching story in the modern day as a framing device, but that’s not so relevant to what I want to talk about. Primarily, you play as the ancestor of this modern day character, an assassin from the 12th century, in the Middle East. This assassin’s name was Altaïr ibn-La’Ahad. The game had its flaws, but overall it was an extremely progressive game which incorporated vast amounts of plot into a game where most expected running around and killing with a basic string story.

In 2009, Assassin’s Creed II was announced. This was to follow a different ancestor of our protagonist, this time Ezio Auditore da Firenze. The setting was now Renaissance Italy, 15th century. When first hearing about the setting, I wasn’t totally thrilled. I love Italy, don’t get me wrong, but Altaïr was awesome. I felt as if nobody could take his place. I didn’t know Ezio at the time.
The story now followed Ezio from birth, deeply delving into his origins as to why he became an assassin, and the parts he played in the world. Taking you all over Italy over a period of 50 years, the game was epic in scope. It wasn’t just great views either, the plot was incredible. Ezio became one of my favorite characters (in any medium) extremely quickly, my affection growing for him as I watched (and, to some extent, experienced) his life play out. Political intrigue, family loyalties and hidden intentions ran deep in this story, and so Assassin’s Creed II was exceptional. It didn’t just push the boundaries of graphics and gameplay, it helped redefine what a game is. Ezio’s story was better than some of the best books I’ve read by leagues. This game said that a person should be totally immersed in their experience. They should feel what the character feels, they should laugh when he laughs and cry when he cries.

To my surprise (and everybody else’s, I suppose) the next game to be announced wasn’t Assassin’s Creed III, but rather Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood. It continued Ezio’s story from the moment the last game ended, and was totally crucial to the story. Despite not being a numbered title, this wasn’t just some ordinary bridging game, it truly had a lot to add. Focusing on Ezio’s dealings with the Borgia, the plot, albeit slightly smaller in scope, still packed the same punch as its predecessor. The gameplay wasn’t exactly the same either, which is another mistake some developers often make with non-numbered games. They added a new element which wasn’t just a gimmick, it fully enhanced the experience while being relevant to, and even assisting the plot. As you learn more of Ezio’s later years you can feel true character development at play. It’s hard to say more without giving away any spoilers, and so although I don’t think it would matter if I did, I won’t go any further.

Finally, Assassin’s Creed: Revelations was announced. This game would not only finish the “Ezio trilogy”, but also follow the rest of Altaïr’s story. Primarily, I suppose they had to do this to allow AC III to be what it needs to be, but still it was sad knowing that, after we played this, Ezio and Altaïr would be gone for us forever. Even though it had been a long time without our Arabic assassin, I think that nobody had ever fully counted him out. 
The conclusion to Ezio’s story was extremely touching. It was, to say the least, perfect. Believe me when I say that there isn’t a word that’s really strong enough to describe it.
Experiencing the end tonight was major to me. I had a lot emotionally invested in him, and the ending was exactly what I needed, if it really needed to end. 99% of games will show you a snippet of the protagonist’s life, only something really special will let you have the whole thing, and have every second be immersive and fascinating.
By this point Ezio is, of course, advanced in years. Throughout the games the story does, occasionally, skip a few years at a time, but not often and not by much. As such, you barely notice the changes happening to Ezio, and you take him as he is for granted. I see him in my mind’s eye as he appeared in the ending of Revelations. When I sat down at my computer a few minutes ago, I looked up and saw the little statuette I have of Ezio which I got from the AC II special edition. It’s of him as he appears near the beginning of that game, as a young man. I managed not to get weepy while watching the ending, but seeing that comparison made me tear up a little. I (and millions like me) have grown to love him as both a brother and a father. I was incredibly satisfied at the ending, but when I set down the controller I sat for a moment and reveled in the thought that I’d never play as Ezio again. It was a significant moment. Sure, I can replay the games, and there’s still some clean-up to do in terms of side quests, but I’d never again experience being Ezio in the proper capacity.

At the end of this year Assassin’s Creed III is coming out, this time focusing on the American Revolution. It will wrap up the story of Desmond, whose ancestors we’ve been following, but it won’t end the franchise. It’ll continue being a series with a yearly release, just with a new framing device (or rather just new protagonist). I’m sure it’ll always be modern day and following ancestors, and this means that they could go to a totally different location and time period every year. Assassins versus Templar Samurai in Asia? Maybe a pirate story. They could do whatever they want. 

Well, that’s it. I hope I managed to express the importance of Assassin’s Creed on the definition of gaming, and its significance to me personally. And yes, I was trying to be brief just then.

Bye guys, thanks for reading.