Chocolate and peanut butter

A combination I would never smear on my sandwich, but holy cow, best invention ever.

Humanoid robots

I want to be this a thing one day. Robots with actual human intelligence and an actual human appearance. 
Whatever doomsday-outcome it may give, I don't care.

Top 10 guilty pleasures

We all have those things we enjoy, but rather not mention in a conversation. Sometimes it's just not intended for you, it's widely known to be bad, or you just feel conflicted about the artist or the origin.

This is my list of guilty pleasures, going from "most ashamed" to least.

1. K3

It's not something most of you would know about, but this Flemish pop group for little girls is a big hit in the Netherlands. And I'm alright with them, their music is actually pretty nice and upbeat. It's very electronic dance.

But naturally, there is no place for me to listen or talk about them, so I never do so. 

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2. Cinderella 3

 I can go as far as admitting to like this movie, and I already wrote an article about it, but I don't think I can get myself to suggest to watch the movie with anyone older than 12. My friends are out of the question.

Perhaps this is the "My Little Pony" in my life.

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3. Having sweets for breakfast or lunch

My first meal of the day is usually dinner, but before that time I sometimes find myself devouring candy. I can't say I'm doing it on purpose. Everybody loves candy and I just lack the hunger to have a full meal, so it happens that sometimes a chocolate bar ends up being my breakfast.

I'll probably be dead next week.

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4. Stories involving Stockholm syndrome

While I don't want to describe it that way, I am clear-headed enough to realise it is exactly this. Most of us have this guilty pleasure, interestingly enough.
As much as we all love Disney's "Beauty and the Beast", both characters don't exactly have a nice start in their relationship. Gaston was more polite. Yet we were all cheering for this forced relationship between a kind village girl and a giant cursed dog.

I wouldn't look these kind of stories up in a million years, they are complete trash.

I always thought that the concept of a strong character with a weak character being its only weakness was the thing that appealed to me, but I wrote my own share of stories; and I never excluded the strong character being violent or mean towards their love interest in the beginning, therefore, I can only conclude that the Stockholm concept appeals to me, whether I like it or not.

Does that mean I'm looking forward to getting abducted and having to marry the nutcase who abducted me? Who would say "yes" to that. Get out of here.
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5. Pink clothes

It's a strange thing to mention in this list, especially since I talked about the colour pink in my negative blog. And really, it's not the concept of "pink clothes" that interests me, but every now and then I see or wear something pink, and I like it. Nothing else to say about it.

I guess my hatred for pink isn't strong enough.

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6. The fact I draw cartoon characters

Never did people not like what I do, internet and in real life, but there's something about the subject that prevents me to talk about it, or want to answer people's further questions.

While it's all that I draw and love to draw, I guess I feel embarrassed because it's all that I draw and love to draw. I know a bit too much about certain cartoon shows; things most people don't care about, and you have to wonder if there aren't more important things in life I should stuff into my brain.
Concerning art, realism just doesn't interest me and neither do lifeless objects. The question is how seriously people take artists who draw Spongebob, opposed to landscape painters, but I simply don't care about creating art that has no beating heart or is the same as taking a picture with your camera. I want to draw silly things that comes from the mind. Not what already exists in this world. When I draw a human, it has to be a cartoon with floppy arms.

But maybe it's all in my head, maybe I am just as cool as the more serious artists.

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7. McDonald's

Lets stop pretending: McDonald's is not as "bad" as we keep telling each other. Why would so many people eat there if the food truly tasted like old shoe? Not because it's cheap, that's for sure.

While I like to make jokes about the restaurant, I am happy to get invited to McDonald's.

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8. t.A.T.u's "Not Gonna Get Us"

When I first joined Youtube years and years ago, I remember this song having the same reputation as any Nickelback song had, as it's supposedly always heard in horrible fanvideos.
Back then, Nickelback songs were often used in music videos starring Sonic characters, voice clips from Dane Cook shows were thrown together with Inuyasha footage, and the song "Not Gonna Get Us" was used for overdramatic music videos starring animated characters from any movie or series.

People were sick of hearing this song, which really, isn't bad at all.

It's a total bummer, as I always wanted to make an animation with this song, but never did so, simply because the song was overused and considered crap.
I have no idea what people think of it these days, though.
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9. Micheal Jackson

I spent most of my teenage years calling the guy a filthy pedofile, but even if I got proved right by the most undiscardable proof, I guess it doesn't change the quality of his music.

While I still frown in my mind whenever a tribute to the man gets released or little children dress and dance like him on tv-talent shows, as he was still undoubtedly crazy, I guess I value his work over his mental health.
Love "Heal the World".

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  10. Drawn characters that smoke

 

 Very specific and very strange, as I can't say I'm charmed by smokers. In fact, I don't want a cigarette anywhere near me, yet I still find it cool when a drawn character is portrayed with a cigarette.
What's up with that.

Reincarnation

While my believe in God disappeared, I did believe in reincarnation for a very long time. While it also does not make sense to me now, I still find it a very interesting concept. Moreso than being stuck in an afterlife for all eternity.
I've always been interested in the concept of immortality, and because Earth entertains me so, I do not care to become immortal in some ghost world that either "hands everything to me" or "where I get tortured for all eternity because I touched myself". That's why reincarnation appeals to me.

Though, what's the use if you never remember who you've been and what you've learned in your previous lives? What if your next form is an ant? Your life would be quickly over and no experience would be gained.

But well, the fact people only ever claim to be the reincarnation of a famous person makes the concept hard to believe, and then of course there's the issue that there are alot more people and animals today then there was generations ago.
If reincarnation is a thing, where do all those new "souls" come from? It doesn't make reincarnation needed.

Techno and trance music

It just always gives me a sugar rush when listening to it, which is very helpful when you're a long worker, like I am. Coffee never worked for me and drinking coke at night gives me stomach aches for some reason.

I can understand when people feel like all of it sounds the same, but really, it's a genre; every seperate gerne sounds the same.

I think techno and trance are reserved to having the best recorded melodies in any music genre, and really, don't we all like those remixes of our favourite pop song?

Blue shoes

A little while ago I decided: "You know what, I like blue shoes". 

The end.

Atheist rednecks

It's like walking through a forest and spotting a unicorn.

Classic beauties

These women just radiate power and security. Which is funny, as in that time men were calling all the shots and loved to slap hysteric women in movies. Strange times.

But look at them, they look so untouchable and beautiful.

The look on people's faces after being given praise

Really, we are just like dogs sometimes.

There is nothing more heartwarming than someone's face clearing right up after being given praise.
I guess the best example for this would be those cooking competition shows; where the contestants first nervously stand there waiting for their judgement, but right when the jury compliments them on their work, those faces shine brighter than the sun in the sky.

I could watch those kind of expressions forever.

Clothes with zippers at the front

I really like tops and dresses that have a big, long zipper at the front. I think because it reminds me of Kairi's dress from Kingdom Hearts 2. That dress always intruiged me, and I like Kingdom Hearts, of course.

The 60s Spider-Man meme

Come on, it's really funny.

Science

There is science behind everything, and the term and practice exists because of human curiosity.
I like curiosity and people showing interest in the workings of their surroundings, instead of just lazily sitting on their asses and assuming things that just sounds good to them. If you know what I mean.
The world is a remarkable place, a big wonderful puzzle where all the pieces fit perfectly; none of it ever needed magic to appear "special". There are puzzle pieces we'd rather not have around, but you can't put a leash on nature.

While some of it is too hard for common people to grasp, I don't think that's a bad thing or an excuse to discard a theory. Why should every person on the planet have to know exactly how every single little thing works in full detail?
It doesn't mean that person is stupid, alot of what science shares with us is.. grandiose, I suppose, for lack of better words.

But science doesn't just revolve around the things that already exist, but also science fiction.
What's more thrilling than seeing a documentary on television involving the concept of cloning, growing back entire limbs, making someone's brain downloadable, or creating humanoid robots who are in every way like a real human being?
I'm not saying everyone should love and agree with these ideas, but isn't it interesting, nevertheless?

Science, bitches.

Italian food

It is only the best thing humankind has ever come up with.

It's something I can't get enough of, and if I was given the choice to eat spaghetti every day, I would do so.

Mr. Bean the Animated Series

I actually think this series is very cute, clever and funny. I would've loved to see these episodes acted out by Rowan Atkinson himself, but the man deserves to be released from his simple-minded character.

Mini egg rolls

Yes.

The repetition from Nintendo

I'm completely fine with Nintendo's contineous urge to recycle, mainly their Mario and Zelda series.
Nintendo satisfies those who never want to feel nostalgic. They keep the child in us alive, and they do it well.

Cinderella 3

I have a passion for this movie.

I can't say I don't understand the people who avoid this movie, nor the people who claim it ruins the original story of Cinderella, but I still don't agree with them.
Because we don't like to see original content based on existing content from Disney, fans already tend to be skeptic. And I can't blame them; as Disney sequels are often far from good. The Lion King movies being one of those rare exceptions.

Cinderella 2 is by far the worst sequel, as it consists out of a cheap collection of three different stories, and mediocre animation. It's what made people even less eager to watch the third movie.
Though, it looked like everybody agreed with each other that the story of Cinderella's stepsister, Anastasia, was the by far the best thing the movie had to offer, and I fully believe it is what spawned Cinderella 3.

In many ways, Cinderella 3 looks like a big "sorry, let's try that again" from Disney. There's no doubt that the second movie was a spit in the face of the original classic, but it also seemed to function as a poll, and results showed that people were quite alright with Anastasia's character development. And really, that is why Cinderella 3 stars Anastasia. Besides Cinderella.

The animation in this movie is just great. Obviously it's not of the same quality as the original, and looks clean like animation tends to be these days, but you can see they've put alot of love into this movie.
The characters we never cared about have a personality now and there are some serious giggles. I find the story to be creative and fun, even though the plot is considered the problem by viewers.

The movie starts off showing everybody's life after Cinderella married the prince, with Cinderella being happy and her ex-family always having way too many dishes for some reason, but then the romantic Anastasia wanders off, discovers Cinderella's secret to her happiness, and manages to get hold onto the fairy godmother's magic wand.
She brings it to her mother, who's inner villain gets awakened, and she decides to use the wand to turn back time and make sure Anastasia is the one who marries the prince.

I found all of this to be just brilliant, and it even makes us forgive Anastasia for her bland hateful behaviour in the first movie.
But, when keeping her original character in mind, does this "new" Anastasia really belong? This is really the only instance where Cinderella 2 comes in, as it stars an Anastasia not too different from the original, but still you see her change into a nicer person. Cue in Cinderella 3.
But oddly enough, considering that movie canon wouldn't make any sense to the overal story, chronologically. When did Anastasia meet up with that baker guy? If it's before Cinderella 3, then why is she even interested in the prince? If it's after Cinderella 3, then why is Anastasia being such a bitch to Cinderella as shown in the second movie?

Cinderella 3 makes a reference to its lazy prequel in the credits, so it does acknowledge the baker Anastasia fell in love with. I don't know how the puzzle fits, but it's clear that Disney listened to their viewers.

Ebeeto

Ebeeto is a wasted Youtuber who could've been something if he cared.

He is one of the first Youtube gamers I followed back in the day, together with Armake21, the Angry Video Game Nerd, Fat Mann Judgeth, and all those other people who were a million times funnier than the young and heavy-accented Pewdiepie.
No offense to Pewdiepie personally, he seems like a decent guy in real life, but the fact I've seen and heard millions like him before makes me even more confused as to why he is as famous as he is. The boy does not deserve over a million views.

Ebeeto was best known for his "Angry Video Game Fag"/Hitman gameplay videos, but somewhere along the way he stopped giving a crap about Youtube, and I believe he disappeared for a whole year or 2.
He sorta came back, but not really, and the issue now is that he is an ancient and faded celebrity most people have forgotten about.

This man is so incredibly funny, it's a shame that he didn't push through when he was still interesting to people. It's an even bigger shame that the few videos he did post gained hardly any views.

Phil Collins

I like Phil Collins, yo.

I never understood how the creators of South Park could bear such a strong hatred for him. His voice is soothing, and his music stayed recognizable all throughout the years.
Really, he's one of the few oldies artists who hasn't inserted dubstep to his music. Or died.

Long haired men

I like men with long hair.

But it's something community decided is just as appropriate for men to have, as being bald is for women.
If a woman is bald, she must have cancer.
If a man has long hair, he must be an unwashed hippy playing in a crappy rockband. Or a wannabe chick.
There is no other reason.

Men used to have long hair back in the days they were "men", so who was it that decided it was anything but manly? Who decided it was for girls only? And why did people agree?
Before you know it we're going back to people saying pants is for guys, and every woman who wears pants will be called a lesbian. It makes no sense.

I will say this, though, it's really just the "concept" of men with long hair I like these days.
It feels like most men are not able to work with long hair anymore, and so I actually have to agree with the stereotype. Besides that most men with long hair I've come across indeed look unwashed and/or play in a rockband, they also tend to have a beard, and I don't dig that Jesus-image.

I don't understand it. Men never seem to do anything nice with their hair. 
They rarely have bangs, or it looks uncombed, or it looks like long fancy pubic hair. It hardly ever look like there was much effort put into it, besides them making the decision to just not cut their hair for a few weeks straight.
Is it because male hair tends to be thicker than female hair? Is that why most can't give themselves a nice hairdo?

I know we can't all be like those kawaii men in the animes, but come on now.

Green eyes and dark skin

I remember my mother saying more than once she found people with blonde hair and black eyes to be very attractive, but I have my personal fascination with people who have a dark skin and bright green eyes.
Honestly, you don't see it that often, and there's such a huge contrast between the two, it makes both skin and eyes stand out. I love it.

Though, it has to be green; I really don't think blue eyes suit a black skin.

Anne Hathaway's "I Dreamed a Dream"

Anne Hathaway's role as Fantine in the musical movie adaption of "Les Miserables" was the only good thing in the entire movie. No offense to the other actors, but I really didn't give a damn about any of them. And it wasn't their fault, really, but rather of the bad writing.
As short Anne's role was, there was more story and emotion in her little performance than in any of the other characters', and to top it off; after Fantine has suffered for who knows how long, she sings us a serious one-shot take of the song "I Dreamed a Dream". And as you follow those watery eyes surrounded by darkness, in combination with her trembling voice, you feel that sadness the character feels. That's how you make people give a damn.
Anne deserves all those awards.

I've never seen or read Les Miserables before this movie, and to be honest, I'm not eager to. This movie alone takes too long with some of its songs, there are too many things going on that are not fully explored, and the romance is so rushed, it would make Disney roll their eyes. It's a pretty bad introduction to a story that might be good.
I understood the book is very big and probably does a better job explaining the characters and their story arcs, as always, but I don't want to read a book that'll probably take me a lifetime to finish.
I'm sure I won't enjoy the broadway shows either, even though there are people claiming the songs are way better. Which I don't agree with, per se.

Sure, you can say the broadway performances are good, but I'm not digging the emotionless standing still like a plank in front of the microphone. If you're going to sing a serious song, you'd better do "something" with those arms. You're not giving people much to look at.

Top 10 Pokémon

Even though I'm not a follower of the cartoon, I do believe I gotta catch 'em all. This is my list of favourite Pokémon:

1. Mew

It's always hard to decide between Mew and Mewtwo; and to be honest, I can't choose. But it wouldn't be fair to place two Pokémon on the same spot. That's not the point of making a list.
I chose Mew to be my number one, as it gains one extra point for its unbearably cute voice.

While there are alot of cat-like Pokémon, Mew is one of the first designed Pokémon in the series, so I don't think it deserves to get noted on that. Just everything about this animal is endearing. I fully believe Mew is the only Pokémon in the series not a single person on the planet dislikes.

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2. Mewtwo

Mewtwo is serious business. I love its design, I love its backstory, and it's an (apparently) even stronger clone of a legendary Pokémon; it doesn't get cooler than that. While you'd expect a total Gary Stu with a character design like this, Mewtwo actually has its limits and it still comes across as a fairly deep character.
Of course, not everyone would agree with me on that, but without a doubt, the story of Mewtwo raises some really important discussions. The day cloning is a success, people will definitely frown upon the scientists, but will the clone, who has nothing to do with it, be accepted in society?

 

Also, Mewtwo is a sexy bitch.

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3. Zoroark

Dude, this guy is fabulous.
I've never heard or seen this character before playing Pokémon X, but apparently it has its own movie. The moment it appeared on my game screen I had to have it in my team forever; even though it's not exactly one of the strongest Pokémon out there. It does have alot of neat tricks up its sleeve.
Besides that, its design is amazingly amazing, and that's pretty much all I care for.

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4. Charizard

I can't forget about my other old favourite. Before Mew and Mewtwo, there was Charizard.

I've always loved dragons, and Charizard was the most awesome dragon the series had to offer back then. And really, it still is the most awesome dragon. Charizard has a simple and neat design, and it always looked strong and unbeatable. And really, it is a very strong creature.

 

 Just don't splash water on him, lizard's made of sugar. 

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5. Furret

Since I've owned countless of ferrets myself, I couldn't miss this one. But never mind my personal experience, Furret is one cute little sock. As silly and clumsy its first form looks, Furret is a delight for the eye. I'd make some sweet coats out of that tail.
The only thing that saddens me is that the creature is not very strong. 

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6. Litleo

Holy smokes, this Pokémon is cute. Just like Zoroark, I've never seen it before Pokémon X, and I certainly enjoyed its presence in my team. Before it evolved. I'm not exactly a fan of the evolved forms, but that's only because this cub is so adorable. The adult versions are not adorable.

Still badass, though.

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7. Magikarp

This fish is a trollmaster and I love it.

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8. Vaporeon

I always had a strange liking for Vaporeon. I found it to be a very graceful creature, and the prettiest evolution of Eevee at the time.

I still think it's one of the prettiest, though I think Espeon and Leafeon are now beating it. But they came way later, and that's not how I roll.

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9. Vulpix

As a child I never really gave much attention to this one, but I can't deny Vulpix is one of the cutest Pokémon out there. And it has an awesome evolution, so it's a win-win.

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10. Jynx

I wouldn't use the purple-faced image if you held a knife to my throat. The lovely Jynx has quite a backstory, and I'm sad they had to change the colour she was born with, but apparently Jynx was offensive towards black people, while Mr. Mime isn't considered offensive towards mimes.
But Jynx, you're beautiful.

By the way, Mr. Mime is an abomination.

The Ape Escape cartoon

Since I had a screenshot of Specter from the Ape Escape anime in my Deviantart favourites for years, a while ago I decided to look up this show instead of staring at a picture for all eternity.

"Ape Escape" was one of my childhood games, if not one of the first games I've ever owned, and the picture looked interesting enough. But in my search, a different video caught my eye: an episode from the Western cartoon series, and watched that one instead. Afterwards I remembered what I was doing, clicked one of the Ape Escape anime episodes, and checked out this masterpiece.

I was bored out of my mind.

The cartoon series was cheerful, silly and insanely cute, while the anime was filled with your basic anime-clichés and looked weird, despite of how accurate it tried to be to the game. But I guess that's a good thing, so I shouldn't really attack it for that.
Anyway, in the episode I watched, Spike chased a monkey for circa 9 minutes. And not much else happened.

 
Now, you'd think that's as close to the game you can get and that's why it should be good, but that's why the game is a game and this anime doesn't work. Looking at someone run after something the entire episode long doesn't add much to the plot. It made me impatient, so I skipped through most of the video, until I got to see Specter. I was not impressed by him, either. It was painful, I always liked that jerk.
The only thing the anime did better than the cartoon was the intro song, but since the cartoon only has a handful of 2 minute-episodes, I guess it isn't fair to expect a full intro.

It was interesting to discover I'm a sad minority on this, but that was to be expected. I seem to be a minority on basically everything in life.
Fans were just enraged by the cartoon series, while I've never seen such an innocent cartoon ever in my life. It's just trying to entertain you with silly stories and isn't forcing any specific emotion on you. I understand that people might not find it "ha ha"-funny, but I've certainly seen worse. At least it presents us with an awesome, funny, sexy caricature of that emo monkey-kid, Specter.
I love him.

Still, fans want to state the obvious that the show "is not canon", or more precisely,"is so fucking bad, they never want to consider it canon for as long they Goddamnfucking live". In reality, this cartoon doesn't offer much that should anger people. At most people should feel indifferent.
I've also seen comments from people who hate it because it wasn't made by Japanese people/isn't anime, including the people who have only seen one screenshot of the show ever.

 

But, even after having said all this, the main problem isn't even the episodes or the nationality of the people who made it: cartoon Specter is considered the cherry on top.

Because cartoon Specter dares to raise his voice in a comedic manner, he's considered an insult to the character from the game, as to the character from the anime.
But I really like his voice. The only other voice I always really liked was the British voice from the first game. If we ignore the fact I was raised with the British version of the game, I think Specter should always be British.

For a game with such a silly theme, you'd think its fans would have an awesome sense of humor. But they don't. They are, dare I say, complete assholes and like everyone else.

I'm pretty sure that if the fanbase was a bit more supporting, this cartoon series would've made a whole lot more clips, and maybe developed itself into full length episodes with a good overdosis of creative humor and storylines. If we look at the amount of episodes they made in total, it's basically one or two full episodes; meaning these people were just getting started.
Yet they were not given a chance because of some crybabies stuck in nostalgia, who portray the game like it's the Holy Bible and demand the creator's head on a pike for touching it.

I wanted to see more of these episodes, I wanted to see this cartoon succeed, I want that version of Specter on a damn shirt. If Flash animation is so bad, then why is My Little Pony popular. Why is Flash itself popular. Everybody wants to have the damn program, yet nobody wants to see the fruits of it, because even though the software is insanely expensive, its products are considered cheap.

I gave both animated series one chance to impress me. It sounds like a lazy way to go, but if a show does it right the first time, doesn't that mean it's a good show? If both shows didn't do it for me the first time, I would've watched more, but I already made it clear the cartoon series impressed me more.
While the anime didn't do it for me the first time, maybe I need to watch the rest to be able to say what I really think. But it's not something I'm looking forward to, so it's probably going to leave my thoughts.

I think if I didn't see so many people passionately hating on the cartoon, I wouldn't have bothered to write this article.

Ed, Edd n Eddy

Sure, there are alot of cartoons I like. Many of them are from my childhood, and most of them make me laugh more than Ed, Edd n Eddy does. But this show always had a charm I could not resist, and that's why I tend to draw more fanart for it than for anything else.
And my mother is actually one of the few mothers on Earth who didn't complain about her child watching it. But really, she let me watch Ren & Stimpy as well.

Why were parents so afraid of Ed, Edd n Eddy? There's nothing controversial going on in the episodes, and the ridiculous gay undertones came way later. Even the episode where Eddy lost his (hinted) porn magazines came later.
The issue was probably that the characters didn't have a clean and innocent design, like the Powerpuff Girls, or even Tom and Jerry; one of the most violent, stereotyping, women-objectifying cartoons around. Yet nobody sees a problem with that show, or the old Disney and Looney Tunes cartoons. But now people speak of the devil if a cartoon character uses a gun or smokes a cigarette.

The effort put in Ed, Edd n Eddy always intrigued me, animation-wise. Sure, you can make the argument that Courage the Cowardly Dog wasn't far behind, and again, Tom and Jerry and similar cartoons had excellent animation; but the difference is that those cartoons began airing in a different time, where it was "normal" to put effort in the animation, and Ed, Edd n Eddy stayed on air for a very long time.
There is no doubt about it, people are getting lazy. Handdrawn animation is disappearing simply because of this reason. While many tv-shows still use 2D animation, alot of them switched over to the cheaper 3D animation.

I still think 3D has no place on regular television.

Ed, Edd n Eddy was Cartoon Network's longest running starters show, and over the years the animation only became better, but still recognizable. It has come to an end now, and while I think it wouldn't have been impossible for them to come up with more episodes, I'm sure Danny Antonucci had a different reason to quit besides having no more ideas. Sometimes you're just done, and you'll have to respect that.
He wanted to do a different show.

As much I enjoyed the cartoon, though, I do have to mention that the postponed episode "Look Before You Ed" was the most horrible thing I ever set my eyes upon.
I've only seen it once, as I promised myself to never watch it again, but I remember many awkward pauses and it leaving me with an empty feeling. The whole plot was a waste.
The movie wasn't quite what I hoped for, either, but I'll discuss that later on my appropriate blog.

But every other episode kept me entertained, and that includes the widely hated school seasons. The argument was made that Ed, Edd n Eddy was all about kids messing about in the Summer vacation, but I found the school building to be an interesting new setting. The episodes were just as enjoyable, and they managed to pull it off without inserting any students or teachers. I considered these episodes to be a success.

Ed, Edd n Eddy is filled with many unanswered questions, as it never revealed that much about its surroundings, so making fanart for it is an endless task I fully enjoy.

Jontron

Holy Hell, this man. 

I first came across him when watching the series "Game Grumps", and came across those series when wanting to check out how bad the game Sonic the Hedgehog (Sonic 06) really was. And I was not disappointed by him, or the series.
Sadly enough I came across the series when Jontron had already left, and the reason for this is, of course, fans not supporting anything their idol does.

If you come across this article, please do read the previous articles where I discus Video Games AWESOME and the Nostalgia Critic. In both stories I've talked about the same subject, and without a doubt, it's a rotten personality trait within fans that is rageworthy.
While Jontron has been replaced by someone else now and I don't have a problem with it, you can already guess this poor man is going to get compared with "the great Jontron" till the day he dies. So like always, fans are again not satisfied.

Die. Please, all of you die.

But I don't want to fill my tribute to Jontron with pure hate, as he seems to have handled the whole commotion just fine and said farewell to the series so he could continue making his own videos.
Was giving in to his fans' demands like that really the right thing to do? I wouldn't know about that. I guess this issue doesn't really have a right or wrong answer. I would've liked for the boy to stay, but at the same time, his own material is really damn funny, and if Game Grumps took all of his time, then I guess it wasn't wrong of him to leave.
But at the same time, to appear once a week or month should've been possible, right?

Who knows, maybe one day he'll go back again, but I think both Jontron and Game Grumps did good for the moment.

Jontron is a special kind of batshit crazy, but the jokes he writes and the formula of his videos still leave me puzzled:
I've seen countless of "hosted" gameplay videos and video game reviews, and Jontron's script isn't that different from those terrible wannabes roaming on Youtube. In case you disagree with me, just go back to view some of his videos. And try to be objective.
But there is this brilliance inside of him that makes him succesfully perform these otherwise lame jokes. He has the face, the pose, the voice, the editing skills, that man can make anything seem funny. Of course, I'm not saying his jokes are bad, but Jontron is a complete cartoon character, and that helps him earn his points.
He makes his pet bird, Jacques, appear as a talking robot, and lets it happen without any explanation. And I don't need one. Though, I often wonder what's going on in that bird's head while Jontron is doing his thing and screaming at him.

Most likely not much.
Tis a bird.

Mew and Mewtwo from "Pokémon"

I love these guys. Seriously, you guys. These guys.

I remember the first Pokémon I was drawn towards to be Charizard, since I liked dragons. Didn't like Dragonite, though, he looked queer to me. And oddly enough more like an evolution of Charmander than Charizard does.

Anyway, I'm not sure at what point of my life this was, as I've never actually seen the show when I was a child or played the games. Yet I knew about the characters, had the first movie, a few Pokémon plushies, and a poster portraying the first generation, which was the only generation back then.

Still, I couldn't call myself a fan, since I only really cared about a few aspects of the series.
Mew and Mewtwo are by far the most awesome things the series shat out, and even though I can't bare what they've done with these two after the first movie, my nostalgic love for them stays.

Mew is the cutest motherfucker you'll ever see and hear on a television screen, and I'm almost certain Mewtwo is the first Shadow the Hedgehog to exist.
While I'm still wondering why Mewtwo is the only Pokémon in existence who minds being a Pokémon; as he doesn't want to battle for humans, which is basically the purpose of these little monsters, I guess it proves he has a very high level of intelligence.
At the same time, Pokémon are able to fully understand the human language and show human emotions, so where does their intelligence stop?

People have criticized the first movie for its story, but I have to say I'm happy they didn't fully translate it from the Japanese dub.
It doesn't make sense that Mewtwo would scold the human race for enslaving Pokémon, and he in response plans to kill everyone on the planet and keep his cloned Pokémon to be his own slaves, but to say he's angry for not being "created by God", and on top of that, having Mew call him a fake who will never win against the real Pokémon is not really something we should teach children. Or adults. Even if the conclusion of the movie had a peaceful solution.

I'm not sure what the Japanese were thinking, but I was never charmed by this dark plot.

I'm also happy that the deleted scene where Mewtwo befriends his maker's dead daughter stayed deleted.
As touching people found this scene to be, it had no place in the movie. We shouldn't have to "feel sorry" for the scientist or Mewtwo; he's an enraged creation of science, only brought to life to fight for the villain of the series. Either you think he's justified for being angry, or you don't. No need to insert a sob story that probably won't return anywhere else in the movie.

And for Pete's sake, the girl had green hair. What's up with that. Stop giving characters impossible hair colours, animes, I can't take a girl with pink hair seriously.

You may say the movie had its little flaws, but I would disagree with you. It was the best portrayal of Mew and Mewtwo in the entire series. I love the movie.
I was sceptical about the introduced "mega evolutions" of Mewtwo; where he'd transform in a completely different Pokémon for no reason, and becomes even more overpowered, but I'm okey with it now. I own the game Pokémon X where you see him transform in one of his two forms, and it's kind of cool.
I'm still confused how this kind of information is in his DNA, as Mew doesn't have this ability, but I don't have the motivation to care anymore.

I'm playing my Pokémon X, and have a Mew and 4 Mewtwos. And I'm feeding them cupcakes. Really, my life is complete.
I'm happy the creators allowed Mewtwo to return in his end-game cave, and still hasn't been forgotten after all these new Pokémon hit the scene. And Mew is still unobtainable by any normal means, like tradition goes.

Video Games AWESOME

There seems to be this theme where the people I disliked at first gain my daily attention and loyalty in the future.

Just like the Nostalgia Critic, the guys from Farfromsubtle didn't interest me at all at first. Though, I never "despised" them like the Nostalgia Critic, I just found their show "AWESOME Video Games" to be badly acted and boring. The only good thing was the intro song.
But they were obviously having fun.

The first thing I ever saw from the channel Farfromsubtle was actually the small animations starring these characters who have an electronic bassline for voices, and I loved those, but I never bothered to check out anything else from them at the time. But one bored day, when browsing through the Angry Video Game Nerd's subscriptions (I wanted to look for more Youtube gamers), I got introduced/reminded by them again, and while I was still busy looking for a decent AWESOME Video Games episode, no offense guys, they suddenly lauched the first episode of a new show "Video Games AWESOME".

Not to be confused with AWESOME Video Games.

The fact these guys decided to sit down on a green-screened couch, play video games and say whatever comes up in their minds, is brilliant. Back in those days you didn't really see that many people just boot up a game and (successfully) talk over the gameplay; everything had to be acted; everything had to be an Angry Video Games Nerd parody or rip-off. Good times.
Interestingly enough, though, host Fraser is a better "angry video game nerd" than James is. His anger has always been legit, and his rage earned its own title by fans; "frage".

To hear these guys make better jokes live than when holding a script in their hands was strange, but I fully welcomed it. They are honestly funny people and I watch their videos every day.
Though, many old fans preferred the first show and didn't really welcome it at all. I guess I was the only one who didn't like AWESOME Video Games.

The thing with these guys is that they remind me of my friends. And they'll remind you of your friends as well. And if you don't have any friends, they'll be your friends.
They are so involved with their viewers, it's hard not to like them just for that.
I'm still sad that the original team is hardly ever complete anymore, as Kyle and Deacon tend to be too busy to join the show's recent gameplays, but even when it's just 1, 2 or 3 instead of 5 sitting on the couch, the head man, Fraser, still manages to entertain you.

Fraser is what keeps this show alive. He and his girlfriend Becky have always done their best to hear out their fans and keep the show running.
Becky actually used to be active in the background, answering live comments, and seeing her face appear on the screen for the first time needed some time to get used to, but she grew out to be a very comedic person, and she's the show's official costume maker as well.
It stays a strange feeling to introduce these fellas to other people, as you're showing a bunch of guys sitting on a couch wearing the craziest costumes in existence, but in combination with their voice acting for text-based games, you can't deny it is a playful introduction.

Though, it often saddens me there are alot of people criticizing Fraser's behaviour and gaming skills, and it makes me wonder why they even call themselves fans if Fraser can never do it "right" according to them.
Of course, the show always has those moments where you try to direct or correct them, even though they can't hear you; but there's always someone on the couch or in the live chat who says exactly what you're screaming at your computer screen. And it's always acknowledged.
Everything is always acknowledged. So why are people still so angry?

Video Games AWESOME is top entertainment, and Fraser is more intelligent than people give him credit for.
And Kyle is funnier than people give him credit for.

The intro to "Elfen Lied"

Besides it being an awesome intro and series by itself, it's also an intro that doesn't contain a single anime cliché.

You know that animes tend to have the same kind of intro formula; where characters epicly walk on an empty field, stick out their hand towards the camera, or open their eyes at you and give you that badass stare, all this while some badly sung Japanese pop song plays in the background.
And I've had quite enough of that. As decent a series may be, the intro is just as important, but it seems like it's the element that keeps getting glanced over by animators.

Sonic Boom

Getting it out here before it turns old news:
Sega is making a fresh attemp at a Sonic game, again, as it took them a while to realise that no one was really digging their human-kissing, goody-two-shoes Sonic and the overdramatic and badly acted games he starred in.
But, not going to lie, I liked the Sonic X series based on what I saw.

Without a doubt they are trying their best to appeal to the audience, as Sonic games are pretty much being shat out by the second, and there is one fact everybody can agree on: that the trailers and visuals they show for these games have always been awesome.
But, the games themselves always end up disappointing fans. But really, Sometimes high expectations can make a game seem worse than it really is.

I only have a few Sonic games myself, and I found myself disliking Sonic Heroes, but liking Shadow the Hedgehog and Sonic Unleashed, even though those games are called pieces of shit as well. I'm not going to claim these games are perfect, but then I'd only be talking about the story. I've never had much trouble with the gameplay of either games, or the levels where Sonic runs around as a werewolf in Unleashed. That's actually my favourite part.

But back to the original subject of this article; "Sonic Boom", the name of the upcoming game and tv-series Sega has planned for us.
Honestly, I won't give my opinion about the game right now, as the trailer has the same formula as all their previous trailers, so the game can actually still fail. Don't like Knuckles big, clumsy appearance, and Sonic has a scary face in the cutscenes, but those are little aspects you shouldn't judge an entire game for.
But then there's the tv-show, which can be a more difficult project to perform than a game, but seeing what I saw, I am not turned off. I want to see this and I want to see this succeed. Sonic deserves success, if only because of the fact he survived all this time. 
Doesn't that mean his fans want him to succeed as well?

The Nostalgia Critic

I despised this guy before I loved him.

Before knowing who exactly he was, I saw GIFs of him float around the internet.
Then I bothered to look him up, and the first review I saw of him was "Pokémon: The First Movie", which wasn't really the best choice, because when you don't agree with someone, that's not a good first introduction. After all, I like that movie.
Afterwards I wanted to give him another shot, and I actually ended up watching a video where he badly parodied the Angry Video Game Nerd, for comedic purposes, but I clicked it away before he could finish his act.

When thinking back to all this, I wonder why I came back to watch more of his videos. There wasn't much reason for me to, so it seemed. But I probably saw another movie in the list I would actually agree on was terrible, watched it, and felt entertained.
But well, this was all years ago, so I don't know for sure what I was thinking, but till this day I regret nothing.

Over the years I saw many great videos, and actually saw the guy grow in quality. Even though I can't say he was bad to begin with. The Nostalgia Critic is the type of guy who always stayed the same, and wants to stay familiar.

But even when having that said, I should mention the failed project the poor guy tried to launch.

At one point Doug wanted to leave his act "the Nostalgia Critic" behind and start a whole new series, using hired actors. I believe it was called "Demo Reel".
I actually bothered to watch these videos, and I can say that I was far from interested, though, the series was still new, so I was willing to let it grow. The rest of the world did not.
Doug and his new employees recieved alot of hate on their roofs, just because they tried to do something new. The thought that Doug had replaced the famous Nostalgia Critic for a terribly acted movie-parody show was just intolerable for these people.

I felt incredibly bad for the man. He did not owe anyone anything, and the fact his own fans didn't allow him to experiment, didn't allow him to do something HE really wanted to do, was hard to swallow.
And really, that's not the first time fans showed their true colours; the Video Game Nerd and his friend, Mike, are being scolded by their fans as we speak. James for not making any Video Game Nerd videos and Mike simply for existing. As James is occupied with other things, he hasn't made a new video for a while, and instead posts simple gameplay videos of his friend, or the both of them playing together, and people are really giving Mike alot of undeserved hate.
What the fuck, people, let them do what they want. They were not put on this Earth to entertain you. Mike is a good guy, and actually funnier than James. James enjoys his friend's company, and so should you. Do people on the internet ever feel something else besides disgust and hatred?

Anyway, after a few episodes of Demo Reel, Doug released a video showing his homesickness for the Nostalgia Critic, which was quite a piece of art itself, and Doug revealed the return of the Nostalgia Critic and the death of Demo Reel. Should've satisfied people, right?
Not as much, as Doug just couldn't say goodbye to the Demo Reel people he had already made a promise to; and he decided to make them part of the new Nostalgia Critic series. Fans saw them as the Nostalgia Critic's "Mike", and were still not satisfied.
At this point I was just sickened by the fandom and their lack of support. The Demo Reel crew proved themselves to be very funny and talented people, and actually fitted in. Doug always made sure he was still in the center of attention as the Nostalgia Critic.
I never understood the problem, anyway, he's done crossovers before, why would including these people be that much of a disaster? Doug had already sacrificed so much, and the fact he came back means he cared enough. But I'm happy he still knew his boundaries and didn't get rid of the Demo Reel crew, just because of the huge negativity.

And this is exactly who Doug is. A funny and clever guy who gives a shit.
Keep your Jack Nicholson-face on, boy.