Le Bird

So I drew this bird. He's red, white and black. Duh. Done with colored pencils and on copy paper. Took not too long. Half an hour tops. Not happy with the branch though. I just needed something for him to sit on. And well, he's supposed to be the main focus, not the branch. If you can even call it that...
As to what species the bird is, I have absolutely no idea. The inspiration was black and white line art and you really can't tell from that what exactly it is supposed to be. I don't even know where I found the inspiration to begin with. Just that what led to it was a lot, and I mean a lot, of googling.
But I'm happy with the way the bird turned out. Looks at least semi-realistic. and that's what I was aiming for. At least semi-realism. Hyper-realism would have been better but I don't think I have the patience to achieve that one. So semi-realism is what I usually hope and aim for.
See ya!
~AnnElfwind

Vampire Boy

It's a little old. Done mostly on a whim. Hell, I wasn't really trying at all. :D But, the thing is, when I'm not trying, that's when my best pieces are created. Like, I got this one work in progress Altair drawing and I haven't touched it for years! I'm trying to persuade myself to try and finish it, but no luck. Instead, I draw these random things without really thinking about what I'm doing. This Vampire Boy is one of the results. Maybe I should have added some blood on the fangs... 

This is done with markers - alcohol and water based - and some colored pencils for the skin because I only have one skin tone marker that would work for this and it's way too dark. And I only got it after finishing this picture. The highlights are done with a white gel pen. A crappy one at that. Now I got a white permanent marker and it works quite a bit better. Still not the best thing I could get my hands on though...

Hope you like the picture. Feel free to comment below. :) 

~AnnElfwind

Something people don't know about me

I have absolutely no idea what to write about. Nothing interesting happened today. Well, maybe something. I bought a new pair of pants. And it's snowing outside. Like, a lot! And it's been snowing for the past few hours. I just checked the topic of the week on blog.cz and can't say I'm interested. Something people don't know about me... Well, they don't know because I don't want them to know. So I'm not gonna tell, but I'm sure there's a lot of things people don't know about me. Or things that only one or two people know. Hell, there's this thing I'm writing and the only person who ever got anything in any detail told about it was a random person from the country of South Africa... Talked to them several years back on Facebook. Don't even know their name anymore. 

Heh, but even they don't know about the written version. Well, it's not really a secret that I'm writing it, it's just the contents that nobody knows about. Just me. And recently, there's been a shift in the universe that forced me to redo the whole thing. Still working on it. Nowhere near where I was before but getting there. And the newer version is better. So. Still not gonna tell you what it's about. Just know that if I ever mention something called the DO, it has to do with this thing I'm writing and never showing anyone. It's for me and me only. Nobody else has any business seeing it. Like, I might let people read it after my death. Would be cool to have it published after I'm dead. Even if only on this blog... :D Still, that's far away as I'm not planning to kick the bucket any time soon. I'm only 26 after all. So there. I guess I had something to write about... Even if I didn't really tell you anything. :D

~AnnElfwind

BTW: I got that pic as my phone wallpaper. :D Usually, I can't stand female characters, this one is an exception. Don't think there are any other exceptions. :D

Blake Crouch - Wayward Pines

So, how come I only just now figured out that it's also a TV series? What gives?! At least I'll have something to watch when done with Kindaichi. But this post is not about the series, it's about the book. Don't know if there are more than one, probably yes, but this post will focus on the first book. Titled Wayward Pines. If I did my translation homework correctly. Because, to be honest, I read the book in Czech. Bought it for cheap in a used books store.

And what is it about? Well, it starts with Ethan Burke [and is it just me who got a flash from Resident Evil 7 after reading that name? I made myself research RE 7 while reading this book]. Ethan goes to a tiny town called Wayward Pines where two federal agents were lost. Or, to be precise, it's the place where the agency lost contact with them. So he goes there, but on the way, he is in an accident, a truck rams into him.

When he wakes up near a river, he thinks something is off. For the town, people act weird around him and he's having a hard time learning anything about anything. He's unable to contact his boss or leave the place. Later, he joins together with a young woman. A woman, that doesn't act like the rest of the town. He also finds his old work partner, but she's older than she should be.

So Ethan tries to leave the town. And by some miracle, he succeeds. He crosses the river and then climbs over an electric fence that seems to be there more to keep something out rather than in. After he leaves the town and the immediate surrounding area, he's walking through a canyon. There, he encounters weird white-y mutated beings. And while he manages to kill the first as well as outrun the others, he's cornered and his only option is a ventilation shaft that has no place being in the side of a canyon wall.

He goes in. And there he finds the big secret. After going through some corridors and a big warehouse that has anything, from food to different models of cars, he enters a cryogenic chamber. There, he's finally told, that he was sleeping for a really long time. And that the world as he knows it, has ceased to exist. That Wayward Pines is the only oasis of humankind left on earth.

The man behind the oasis takes him out of there on a chopper to show him. To let him see it with his own eyes. And after that, he's on board with the project and replaces the old sheriff that has been thinking of somehow making profits only for himself and climbing to power.

The book reads by itself, it's written in a way that will make it hard for you to put it down. At least the Czech version. Don't know about the original version, but the Czech translation is really great. And as for the cryogenic sleep and the destruction of mankind, you will not be able to guess it till the very end. Like, you will know something's off, but won't guess the exact thing that happened, unless you're very lucky. I expected some kind of a dystopian crisis, but not cryogenic sleep. That's for sure.

The whole thing reminded me of a book I've read some years back. A sci-fi. Set supposedly in space, all the population is fooled but two or so inquisitive younger people. And it turns out they are trapped in this gigantic space ring made of several links, but, the whole thing is sitting on the surface of a planet. Wish I could remember the name of the book... I know the author starts with something close to the beginning of the alphabet... At least that's what my gut tells me... Will have to go and do a bit of googling. Wouldn't mind reading that thing again. 

Back to Wayward Pines. The book is good, I will definitely try to get my hands on the next in the series. Though I'm not getting my hopes up for the TV show. Kinda gave up [at least for now] within the first few seconds. Thing is, The acting of the MC, it seemed like when the Japanese make a supernatural elemented movie or some of the older dramas they made. But the problem is, I don't mind this style of acting when it comes to the Japanese. I kinda expect it from them. But Wayward Pines TV series is definitely not done by the Japanese. So that kind of acting has nothing to do there. Might give it another try if I find myself with nothing to watch, but for now, the show has been shelved. 

Kindaichi Shounen no Jikenbo

Not sure, if I want to post another anime featuring post, but well... Lately, I've been into Kindaichi shounen no jikenbo. And well, since my last post was about Detective Conan and Kindaichi is kinda similar... At least to me, it is, I'm gonna go with it. Like, Kindaichi himself is the equivalent of Conan in Shinichi's body. Kindaichi's friend Nanase is like Ran and their friend Saki is like a mix of Sonoko and the Shounen Tantei Dan - or the Detective Boys if you prefer the English name. Then there's Kenmochi, he's a police officer and he's a lot like Mouri Kogoro, just somewhat smarter and less of an idiot in general. Last but not least when it comes to the protagonists is Akechi Kengo, he's a superintendent and Kenmochi's boss - to put it simply. He's also really smart and somehow, reminds me of both Akai and Zero from DC. A bit more Akai than Zero, but somehow a mix of both. 

Thing is, there are two versions of Kindaichi. One is old, last century thing. that's the one I'm watching now, but before that, I watched the newer one from years 2014 and 2015. The Akechi in the newer one is even smarter. Always several steps ahead of everyone, while in the old version, it seems like Akechi and Kindaichi are more evenly matched. 

Well, that's it for the protagonists, now the antagonists. Even though I would really like it for one of them to be on the other side. I'm talking about the Puppeteer from Hell - Takato Youichi. He's the black org compressed into one person with the added aspect of Magic. The magic reminds me of Kaitou Kid. And that is probably the reason I want him to be on the other side of the law.
Another main villain is the Gentleman Thief. Which, really, just take KID's magic away and change his gender and this is what you'll get. I got nothing against the Kaitou Shinshi (Is that how you spell it?), but the Puppeteer is my favorite bad guy from Kindaichi.

As this is being written is several sessions, I an now at a point in the anime where Kindaichi Fumi, a relative of the MC has made an appearance. And while I said that Saki was a mix of Sonoko and the Shounen Tantei Dan, Fumi is a mix of the Detective Boys and Haibara. She's smart and while she doesn't always arrive to the correct conclusion, she is really useful on some of the cases Kindaichi has to deal with.
I would prefer that the newer version of the anime be longer, but hey, can't have everything. Should be glad that there even is a newer version. If there wasn't, I would have probably never even started watching this... And what a shame that would have been.
This anime is perfect for Detective Conan fans as well as fans of any other detective featuring anime out there. Especially animes that have teenage or younger protagonist detectives in it. Like Detective Academy Q or similar. I think that Spiral: Suiri no Kizuna lovers would like Kindaichi too.

I've seen so many animes that some of them seem to blur together, but I'm sure that there's more detective anime than this. And I'm not talking about Nogami or Matantei Loki Ragnarok, those have way too many supernatural elements. While the DC  pseudo-science is a bit farfetched as well as the addition of the character of Akako, the self-proclaimed witch, it's still a lot more realistic than Nogami or Matantei. Same goes for Kindaichi, for that one has no supernatural elements at all, just a lot of pseudo-science, but the science kinda makes sense when you watch the anime, so there... I guess it always makes sense while watching. You just can't think about it too hard after you're done watching.
Well, maybe it's not really pseudo-science for Kindaichi, just a lot of superstition and well, there might be some pseudo-science, but Conan is lot's more heavy on it. Apotoxin anyone? Still, Kindaichi is a great anime. I just wish that the newer part of it was longer. And that Akechi was super smart in both the old and the new, not just the new. I mean, he¨s smart in the old too, but not super smart. I mentioned at the beginning of this post, that in the newer version, he's like 10 steps ahead of everyone, Kindaichi included, well, that's true. It's just, in the older version, he's lucky if he's two steps ahead... Usually, he's more or less evenly matched with Kindaichi. Too bad there's only so many episodes that include him...
The one saving grace is the movie for the newer version that focuses mainly and mostly on Akechi. His younger version, but still.
Just, you know what? Go watch the anime and make up your own mind about it, okay?
~AnnElfwind

Detective Conan Movie 22 - Zero the Enforcer [2018]

Finally! The 22nd movie came online. The Japanese people need way too long for the anime movies to come out on DVD or Blue Ray. Or on some other media. But that's not the only problem, it came out in October, the problem is, that then we had to wait for worthwhile subs to be added. But, the day before yesterday, it finally happened! It was added to OtakuStream. And I just know that Otaku Stream would not upload it unless the quality of the subs and the whole thing was good. 

So I watched it. BLOWN AWAY! After watching the 21st movie, I was quite disappointed, because movies 18, 19 and 20 were awesome! I mean, 18 is the best, simply because it finally confirms the alive status of one Akai Shuuichi! Simply by making Subaru Okiya open his eyes. So that one is great. Movie 19 is great too because it has Kaitou KID. And Any KID movie is great. And 20 gives us Furuya Rei and Akai Shuuichi out of disguise working together, so also awesome! But then we get some weird love story with Heiji and Kazuha in movie 21 and that's lame... Like, don't misunderstand me, I watched it too and enjoyed it, just not as much as movies 18, 19 and 20. So 22 was a pleasant surprise. 

The main focus is on Zero, aka Furuya Rei who is from the NPA, Japanese Secret Police. Don't ask me to decipher the abbreviations, I didn't do my homework on that, but it's a section of the police force. 

The movie takes place during a time where an unmanned capsule is supposed to come back from the outer space and the main culprit's goal is to use it to blow up the police headquarters, but this comes to play way way later. There is also going to be a summit of the World Leaders of some sort. The who is not important. The important thing is, that the venue is blown up and Zero is caught in it. Then Mouri Kogoro is framed and Conan tries to uncover the truth. At first, he doesn't know that Zero tapped his phone, but when he finds out, he uses it to his advantage. 

And then Conan and Zero have to work together to alter the path of the capsule to avoid it smashing into the location where everyone has evacuated to from the area around the police headquarters. In the process, Zero's car is totaled and he gets injured, but the injury is minor and the car can be replaced. The important thing is, they manage to save the day and they do it by working together. 

However, I was thinking and the one thing I would love to see, is Akai, Zero, KID and Shinichi working together, I mean, that would be awesome and I just know that they would be able to take down any threat. However, it doesn't seem like they will make an episode like that. Or god forbid a movie... Hell, I even kinda hate the whole Ran/Shinichi romance... He's way more suited to be together with Kaitou KID. But again, if I want that, I have to go and read fanfiction.
My fanfic search purposefully excludes any Ran/Shinichi pairing tagged fics. I won't read those. Unless it's a fic that starts with this couple and then follows with Ran!Bashing and then KaiShin.

Okay. I'm gonna go and do something else now. Like rewatch some Conan movies. And wait for the newest SAO Alicization episode. Which has nothing to do with Conan. But hey, SAO fan here. Though I hate Asuna. Nya!

~Bye.

Charmed [2018]

So, I just wanted to go complain to my dad about something and he's not home. So I will rant here. I recently found the new Charmed reboot. Quite accidentally. I saw the title "Charmed" and thought that someone uploaded the old show and so I thought I would watch it again. Well, turns out that it's a new reboot. New cast, college-aged witches... Lame whitelighter. Seriously, they copied absolutely everything... Dead mother, the charmed symbol, even the powers, exactly the powers... Only, the sisters have names that start with M and are not Halliwells. 

The least the producers could have done is to not re-use the old name... Couldn't they have used some kind of a variation? So that I and many others wouldn't be misled by the name? I thought it was the old show, I didn't look at the picture, just the name... 

If they made this show without associating it with the original Charmed, it would have been kinda good, but that association ruined it. I grew up watching the original Charmed show and now, I'm comparing the new one to it and keep finding flaws and stuff that makes me cringe when I remember how it went in the original... 

Like, if you've never seen the old show, it's not too bad, you will probably even enjoy it, but I just can't. I keep ripping it apart, thinking it should happen differently...

I don't even have words for this. They messed up and I just couldn't keep quiet. That's it.

~AnnElfwind

P.S. I added pictures with similar settings from both shows. Just for comparsion.

Resident Evil 7

Well, just recently I installed the Resident Evil 7 game and played up until the big main hall of the main house. Then, I decided to do some googling about the game itself. And I have to say that RE7's 'New Game+' sucks. You don't get to keep any of the gear and only the unlockables or something like that. So I said scratch that and uninstalled the game right after reading that. I love RE games for their New Game Plus feature. In RE4 and RE6 it was done right. Can't speak for RE1 as I didn't play that. I would have played RE2 - Leon, but the graphics are horrible, well, it's old. I'm gonna wait for the remake. I played a bit of RE3, but it has no Ada or Leon and I'm not that big fan of Jill Valentine. So I uninstalled that. The same problem was with RE5, but it at least fit into the storyline. 

As for RE7, it doesn't seem to fit anywhere, even though it could technically take place after RE6. But then there's another problem. As far as I know, Chris Redfield does not work for Umbrella Corporation. But at the end of RE 7, they are flying in an Umbrella chopper. So what gives? 

And as for the whole RE7, you could have guessed it, but I watched the whole thing on youtube as a playthrough without commentary. The person who filmed it decided to save Mia so I don't know anything about what would have happened if Ethan saved Zoey, but maybe I will go watch that ending too, not now though.

Like I said, I played the beginning of the game myself. Unlike all the previous RE games, this one is from first-person point of view. Like... I have nothing against first-person games, but it just doesn't fit with the Resident Evil theme... Also, the E-virus, aka what Eveline is, that's so far removed from all the other viruses (or plaga), that it maybe saw them out of a window of a moving train. And that's me being generous. Even the fricking RE6 styled regenerators that are named something completely different, made more sense than those black sludge creeps that Eveline made with the E-virus powers. 

And yes, I'm calling it the E-virus for simplicity's sake. I'm not even sure what it is actually called. and I'm not gonna go and find out. To me, it's E-virus and that's that. 

Now, what I wanted to really say, is that the first chapter of the game, the guest house mainly, reminded me of the Slender games. Mainly the long-ish one with the flaming forest near the end and two different endings based on what difficulty you're playing at. BTW: I didn't play it, just saw it on youtube cause I had a phase where I needed to know anything and everything Slender related.

Back to RE 7. The main reason I didn't like it, well, I'm an Ada and Leon sucker. If a Resident Evil game doesn't have at least one of them, I'm probably not gonna like it. Some people may think that these characters are overused, but I think that they are classic. And hopefully, if there shall ever be an RE8 game, they will bring them back. But for now, there's at least the RE2 remake to look forward to. I'm definitely playing that one. 

And now I'm deviating from RE7 again. Oh well, that's what you get when I decide to talk [write] about a game that I didn't like and it's part of a series that has games I adore. Though the one thing I do have to give to RE7 is that the graphics are really fantastic. Scenery, atmosphere, great, but to me, it just doesn't really fit into the RE universe. 

Hell, even the fricking live action movies fit in better than this... Their feeble attempt to tie it into the series by bringing Chris Redfield at the end of the game, well, it seemed cheap. Seemed like an afterthought. 

Sorry, but RE7 did not sit well with me. However, if you liked it, that's your choice and I'm not trying to tell you it's the wrong one. I'm just saying that I picked differently and I'm not gonna change my mind. Also, if you came here to learn more about the story itself, well, tough luck. I'm not spoiling any more than I already did. Which, I don't think I spoiled much... 

So, some conclusion... I did not like it. It has no Ada or Leon. The first person style doesn't fit with the rest of the RE series and the 'zombies' in this one were weird. Too weird. I wish they would hurry up with the RE2 remake so that I may overwrite this thing from my brain. If you have different opinion, I would love to hear it. It will probably not change my own, but hey, feel free to share.

~AnnElfwind

The Real Villan in Harry Potter

Yep, I'm back, so let's get to it.

Most people would think that Voldemort is the bad guy in Harry Potter. The Ultimate bad guy. With mini bad guys thrown in the mix in the form of Umbridge, Lucius Malfoy, and similar characters, but I'm of the opinion that that's just wrong. You're probably wondering what the frigg I'm talking about right now, correct? Well, to me, it seems that the real bad guy is none other than Dumbledore. 

DUN DUN DUN! 

Yeah, I mean that. One reason for this is me simply not liking him, but there is more. In book six, when he goes to the orphanage to talk with young  Tom Riddle, he already at that point thinks that Tom's evil. Only because he can talk to snakes. As for Tom using magick on the other kids in the orphanage, that's a whole another can of worms. Kid just defended himself. Since none of the adults would stand up for him, he did it himself. And if it was a bit too violent? Well, it's not like anyone taught him better right? 

Back to Dumbles. He also has a connection to Grindelwald and more than likely was actually his lover. J.K. confirmed Dumbles being gay. Don't know if the "being Grindelwalds lover" is a real thing, but I don't think it's taking it too far. 

For the Greater Good is a phrase that originally belonged to Grindelwald. And when Dumbles defeated him, he took it for his own. However, after defeating Grindelwald, he no longer had a villain to fight and therefore his fame and glory would fade, so what does he do? He makes another villain. Tom is an orphan and if he goes and becomes a Dark Lord, who will miss him? The muggles that run the orphanage? Nope. They would probably be happy to be rid of the unnatural kid. 

And the whole Harry Potter thing? That's a whole another mess to blame on him. I'm pretty sure Dumbles was in on the Secret keeper thing. So he probably knew that Sirius was innocent. I'm not saying that most of this has any real support to stand on, apart from the whole Tom and the orphanage thing. I'm simply writing this the way I see it. Also, the fact that I'm a huge fan of Voldemort helps. 

Back to Harry. Why would Dumbles put him with his muggle relatives? Ones that hate magic and want to be as normal as possible. Well, it's pretty simple. He wanted a sacrificial lamb. Someone he could use to get rid of Voldemorts Horcruxes and then let Voldy kill him only to finish the fight himself. Thing is, he didn't account for the curse so he died in book six. Honestly, we're probably better off without him though. Now, if only book six wasn't so bad! The whole thing was written for the sole purpose of killing the old dipshit. 

Okay. that's it. You can kill me now. Just remember, this is simply the way I see it. If your opinion is different, I'm not trying to convince you to change it to agree with me, maybe you even have a great argument that would make me change my opinion. Feel free to share what you think about this. 

Though remember, Voldemort lover here that was heavilly influenced by pro-Voldemort fanfics that ship Harry and Voldemort as a couple. 

I could keep going. And switch to ranting about Ginny, another character that I don't like. With one notable exception being her portrayal in Batsutousai's Abandon and Reclaim fanfics. Really Harry, mummy complex much? Ginny looks like Lily Potter and frankly, it's just creepy to see him marry a girl that resembles his mother so much. Not to mention, yaoi fan here so there! Deal with it, you wanna ship them, ship them, but don't expect me to like it and start shipping them too. 

Bye, Have a nice day. I should probably go before I start ranting about something else that pisses me off about Harry Potter. Like the Cursed Child book. 

~Nya!