First day of Filler!

Now that we are at the end of chapter 1 you are going to have to wait a few weeks for me to get chapter 2 up and ready. In preparation for that I have created a filler strip to keep you all amused, and still caring about my existance.

The Filler strip takes place in a totally different time and place i.e. our good old Earth in modern day. We follow the trials and tribulations of a Japanese foreign exchange student (Nuriko) in the sleepy town of Norfork, MA -- just as magic seems to be trying to worm its way into every day life. Hey, I did write this strip. It wouldn't be a comic by me if it hadn't got some form of magic or cool power, or demonic entities...

Anyway, the filler, Coyote no Kitsune, does have a plot, and hopefully some good characters. I hope that it's a good substitute for regular Gate and Key material.

Other site updates incude having added a picture to my "Creator" page, and fetting the "Character Commentary" up on the fan art page. If you're curious as to what "Character Commentary" is well click here and find out. I'll try to do a commentary for each piece of work submitted.

Sorry for the lateness of this update. It wasn't snow, this time. Google set out to scuttle my attemps to modify my google pages. It happens occasionally. Apparently I need to contact my site administrator (as far as I can tell, that means I need to contact myself) for them to give me access. I have a few tricks to get around Google's malicious stupidity. I log out and wait for a coulple of minutes, and then try again, or I exit all programs, and restart my computer. The first one is easy, but rarely works, and the second snarls up everything else that I'm doing, like mucking around on photoshop.

If anyone can give me a hint on how to prevent this in the future, I would be most obliged.

Finally, my recommendation for today is (wait for it, it's Sunday, and my day for gloomy songs) The Day We Ran. It's a marvelous Gungrave AMV, by Yorae to E Nomine's Das Rad des Schicksals. Waring for sadness. Beautiful timing, and the song will pull at your heart strings, as it's a lament -- the kind of thing you would only really hear at funerals.

Pledge

The NPR pledge season is upon us. I love NPR; I might have mentioned I write my posts while listening to Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me, and Car Talk. However I have this problem where I'm broke, and can't donate to public radio. Please, if you're reading this, donate in my stead. It would mean a lot.

As to the lateness of this post, we had snow yesterday, and a bit this morning, and our internet connection goes out whenever there are clouds in the sky. Today's page is the last page of chapter one -- and there are several drawing errors contained within . And when I reduced the page to the 700 pixel width the font got screwed up. If I ever find time to redo these pages this page will be the first to be fixed.

However, the dialogue is snappy, and it gives you a better idea of Osprey's job -- which is basically doing pretty much anything for money. I hope that you are impressed by Y'Mal's turn of speed. He's good at getting out of situations fast. This will be the last time that we see Osprey until chapter 4 (well, she has a small bit in chapter 2). The plot is about to jump over and deal with Y'Mal for a while, before going back, and delving into L'Zanazei's past, and explaining a bit more about demon-angel race relations.

I hope you enjoy. By the way, the fan art section is up (I have my first piece of fan art, a very spiffy drawing of Y'Mal), and I've done a bit about the setting. That's this week's site updates. I'll be working on making a banner for the Fantasy Exchange, and applying to that. I'm working on my Dominic Deegan fan art, as well, and working on cosplay stuff. If anyone is going to Bakuretsu Con this year I'll probably see you there. I'm currently trying to convince my parents to pay for the Gothic Lolita tea party on that Sunday. Me and a bunch of friends are going. ^^

Finally, my recommendation for today is: Whisper to a Scream. I love the song for it, even though the video is of poor quality. I don't like Naruto as an anime, but I have to say that the AMVs made with the fight scenes from that show generally are fantastically paced, and look great from a timing stance, even if the vid quality is less than ideal.

The Cat likes Coffee

Blackberry was trying to drink my coffee earlier this morning while I was trying to upload page 12. It wasn't pretty as she had been trying to help me type earlier, and DELETED HALF OF THE TEXT ON PAGE 12 -- THE HUMUNGOUS EXPLANATION SECTION!!! >:o Blackberry went into feline aviation mode after I discovered that... But we've made up, and she's now sitting on my lap and sleeping as the keys pound in her ears.

Page 12, like page 4 with Zanazei and Zen's little talk, has a lot of important information on it about the plot. Notice how Y'Mal doesn't mention angels as well as demons? Is he just ill informed, or is he hiding things? Well, you'll have to read more in the weeks to come to find out.

I've also put up information about what is happening in the plot in the outline. You won't get any future stuff, but a general overveiw of what has happened so far, as well as things to keep in mind for the next chapters. Only one more page until Chapter One is complete, so stay tuned, and ready for a long break until chapter two is inked and colored (there are so many bloody pages in chapter 2).

On a ranters note: half of my favorite AMVs on YouTube are no longer availiable. Luckily I was able to find alernative links, but still why was Waka Laka for Osaka taken down? And Bleeding Soul? Well, I can sort of understand Bleeding Soul, for the violence it contained, but it was artistic, and sometimes violence does happen.

Ranting on a different topic: Back to The Conqueror of Shamballa!

The real problem with the movie, I think, was that it didn't deliver strong characters. Without strong characters you can't have a strong plot, and the problem with these characters were that they just reacted. FMA as a series had characters that were real -- here they seemed rather flat, in the case of Wrath and Envy it was because they were barely allowed any time to say anything, and in the case of Winry and Scheizka because they didn't really have any significance to the plot, other than just being there.

The lack of Al's memories meant that his actions didn't tally with everything that we learned of him through out the series (i.e. everything he's ever said about trying not to hurt people went completely to the wind as soon as he learned some flashy alchemy), and turned him into a very 2D character. In fact the very idea of Al showing off so blatantly with all of his Alchemy is nothing like the practical nice guy that you come to expect in the show. Ed can't move an inch without using some form of Alchemy, but in the show Al combined alchemy with physical power, speech and good timing in order to fight his battles. The Movie's Al seems to have lost all confidence in his ability to understand people, and talk them out of things, and now relies entirely on flashy entrances (a la the tornado in Liore).

Mustang's self exile, although part and parcel with his habit of punishing himself for things beyond his control, was not realistic. While he could no longer be Fuhror, that didn't mean that he would stop trying to keep the State from getting into any more senseless wars. Like Ed, Mustang will strive for his own objectives no matter what. He can't help people out in the frozen North, and that was antithetical to his nature. Luckily he turned around quickly enough at the end of the movie, but you have to ask, how did he know to come back to Central just at the pivotal moment?

My summary: The movie was out to kill all of my favorite characters' personalities in favor of cool special effects.

When it did call on people's personalities -- like Hohenheim's death scene -- it would concentrate on one character while leaving everyone else to fend for themselves. The strength of the show was the multitude of characters and how they interacted with one another. Hohenheim's death is another place where you need to have some stuff added, and his death soliloquy could definitely have been paired down and put into a tri-alogue between Ed Envy and Daddy dearest.

~~~

"What? Aren't you going to beg for your life, old man?" Envy's voice hissed up through his gullet, as he carefully kept his mouth from moving too much against the rotten and bleeding wedge that was Hohenheim.

"Now why would I -- want to do that?" the ancient alchemist gasped around the blunt fangs that punctured his rib cage. "I've lived a fuller -- and longer life -- than I've needed," air poured from his mouth, turning into a wheezy sigh. "Aren't you supposed to be killing me, son?"

"DON'T CALL ME THAT!" the steel jaws clamped down in Envy's anger, before the abomination realized what he was doing as blood coursed into his mouth. "Oh no, none of that you bastard," he hissed, "you're going to stay alive for a long time yet."

"You're lucky that they've all gone home for the night," Hohenheim observed weakly. "After that display they'd probably stick more pins in you."

He heard a ripping sound as Envy bunched his great serpentine length against the harpoons anchoring him to the raised platform. He could not help smirking as dragon's body shivered in pain. Hohenheim guessed that the abomination had torn his own skin and muscles by doing that.

"Amazing what humans can do, isn't it?" the former alchemist observed to his captive captor.

"Shut up, old man," Envy snarled. "Humans are worthless creatures on either side of the gate. All that they have going for them is numbers."

Hohenheim sighed again, feeling the blood seeping from his rotted chest begin to congeal. "Your moter really did teach you well, didn't she? Or were you the one who taught her? I've always been curious about that fact."

"Dante was a bitch, Hohenheim, and an idiot. What does it matter who taught who?" Envy snarled. "Besides, you could have found out if you'd just stayed with us," the former homunculus mocked his father, before turning serious. "I may not be able to take anything else from you right now, but I can keep you from gaining any more knowledge."

"Hitting me where it hurts, now, are you?" Hohenheim asked, feeling muscles ripling over him, as Envy's reptilian lips curved upward.

"Why not? You and I both know that's all you really care about in the end. Trisha, the pipsqueak, the tin can -- they were all just enjoyable distractions for you. Your interest in humans is as little as mine -- less so, even. At least I admit that I see no use or merit in their pathetic actions."

Hohenheim's response was unexpected, and unwelcome. "You'll never understand, Envy, that's why I pity you."

"You pity ME?" Envy thrashed against his bonds again in his anger.

"Yes."

"You're a broken, decaying corpse, who can't face his own family out of fear of them seeing you for what you really are!" Envy's angry hiss echoed around the circular room. "If anyone is to be pitied here it should be you!"

"I didn't spend four hundred years of my unnatural life plotting revenge on a man who wronged me no more than my mother did," Hohenheim retorted.

"Dante was a fool, old man! She didn't even know where to begin when it came to hurting me!"

"Wrong. She gave you that name," Hohenheim twisted painfully, to look up at Envy's red eye glowing in the dark. "Whether you like it or not, humans do have power. Much of our power is invested in words. She named you as a sin before you had a chance to discover other possibilities for yourself. You were damned by her from the moment she named you. Each one of the homunculi that she gathered to her, she damned. You were just the first."

The man could feel the great serpent breathing heavily. Finally, a retort emerged deep from within Envy's anger towards the world. "But you were the one who left me. She may have manipulated every day of my existance, but you were the one who left me to be manipulated."

"True. I've been trying to learn from that mistake," Hohenheim conceeded.

Envy was quiet, allowing both captive to hear voices echoing up from the floor below, coming towards the circular room.

"That's Eckhart," Hohenheim said, listening.

"I can tell that, you fool," Envy hissed, his eyes glinting with malice for the useless human female. "The son that you love is with her."

It was Hohenheim's turn to be quiet.

"As you can see," the precise German voice of the scientist echoed around them, "your father is serving us in a different capacity."

Light flared, and Hohenheim found himself looking down into Edward's startled features.

"Dad?"

Envy made a muffled noise of contempt laced hatred.

"The great serpent would only calm down when we gave your father to it. Luckily for us, Hohenheim seems to be rather resistant to death."

"Hello, Ed. I personally find this position rather ironic. I suppose they want you to open the gate?" Hohenheim asked.

Ed didn't respond at first, horror was only too clearly written on his features. Hohenheim could hear Envy's quiet snigger echoing in his ears. Ed looked down and stuck his hands in his pockets. "Yeah, that's what they want."

"I want you to do it Ed," Hohenheim told him.

"What!" Ed looked up again, aghast. "I'd have to transmute you!"

"And Envy, here."

Envy snarled, and began to thrash again, shuddering in pain as he did so.

"Please Ed. I want you to go home, and there's nothing that you can do for me or Envy. They've pierced his spine in several places. You wouldn't believe the pain he's in," Hohenheim told Ed.

"Dad, he's a homunculus! A monster! Just because he's stuck in the shape of a big snake doesn't mean that he's not the same creature that killed hundreds of people! He's going to kill you!" Ed cried. "He doesn't derserve your pity!"

"Edward -- look at us. Have you ever read Frankenstein? Victor Frankenstien was a doctor who set out to cheat death with science. The man he made was a monster, and he ran from it. It followed him over years, and ulimately laid the reckoning at his door. Every sin that the monster commited was his creators fault in the end for the creator would not take up the responsibility for his own creation. Dr. Frankenstein was the beginning of his monster, and the end of it."

"I did take the ethics course at the university for a semester," Ed grimaced. "And you forgot that the monster was a better person than Frankestein. Envy certainly isn't better than you. He may be as bad as you, but he's not --,"

"You're not listening Ed. The beginning and the end. I've lived countless years. And I've been running away for most of them. But my mistakes started with my wish to make my first born son come to life again, and they will end with the monster I turned him into."

"The ouro boris," Ed whispered. "The serpent that eats it's own tail. The mark of a homunculus -- and that's all that Envy is."

"So I'm to die as part of this basard's attempt at atonement?" the monstrous serpent hissed.

"No, you're going to die so that Ed can get back home," Hohenheim replied.

"What?!" Ed and Envy shouted at the same time.

"Please. Just to open the gate," Hohenheim said. "Kill me," he reached out, and began to shut the serpent's jaws.

Destroying the Faulty links

I have almost gotten rid of all the faulty links on the comic pages. If you run into problems, still, just go to the archive and choose the direct link to the page. Everything works perfectly on the Archive page, it's just the "previous" and "next" links that have a few problems... -.-' I don't know why, really. I've been going over the coding as closely as possible, and everything seemse to be alright now, but if you run into a problem, please contact me ^^.

Wow, I Need to Get on top of the Ball

I'm afraid that I haven't been so good about updating. Last weekend, although I got Saturday's page up and linked I forgot to change the "New" link so you couldn't directly access it, I didn't create a post telling everyone that it was up, and I didn't even get a page up on Sunday.

I have a good excuse, though! (Sort of.) On Saturday I was fixing crashed links, creating a character profile for Y'Mal, and playing with my cat. She now has an "Official Name!" She is Blackberry, because she's sweet, and yet has thorns. Yay for kittens. Anyway, on Sunday, well, the weather was super super good, and I kinda went walking instead of working, and when I got back I became immersed in Dominic Deegan. That web comic will be the first comic going up on my recommendations page. I love that story so much. I should get over my nerves, and write a fan letter to Mookie. I've already made some fan art, and (as a sneek peek) when I go to Bakuretsu Con over the first November weekend and I can't update, my filler picture will involve one of Gate and Key's characters Cosplaying as a character from Dominic Deegan. Glee.

Anyway, my Video recommendation for Last Saturday, when I forgot, is Better Days. I love the song, and think it's a pretty gorgeous. No fight scenes I'm afraid; it's all angst. Errrrr, if you're not okay with implied yaoi (a male/male relationship) don't watch this. The anime is Yami no Matsuei, and the song is the Goo Goo Dolls "Better Days."

Last Sunday's recomendation is If You Were Gay. It's a funny funny song. The clips are all FMA, but please don't take this to mean that I support the pairing used in here. I like this song, as to me it's a parody on all of the crazy yaoi obsessed fan girls (and a few guys) out there. This is just a funny, light hearted vid that has no objectionable content whatsoever -- it just implies it with clever twists and turns of the English language (something I really appreciate as a future English major).

Speaking of FMA, before I get to today's recomendation, I spent last night watching the end of the series and then switched directly to the Movie: The Conqueror of Shamballa. I was frankly disappointed by the movie. Fullmetal Alchemist has been my favorite series since I discovered it last year. I was expecting a movie that had the same plot development, and quality of characters, and was really just a two hour long episode. There were several good points of the movie, but not enough to make up for the failings in the points just mentioned.

Before I go on, if you haven't seen the movie, or haven't gotten to the end of the series and don't want to read spoilers: DON'T READ THIS POST! I need to vent, and unfortunately I can't vent without mentioning specifics.

Okay. There was a lot of good stuff in this movie. I have to say my favorite character in here was Fritz Lang, or the alternate Furhor King Bradley. He was wonderful, and any scene with him in it was bound to be good. Pride as a kindly movie director was just too cool -- especially as I just came off of seeing the Furhor strangle his son, and cut Mustang to little pieces.

I liked the idea of Wrath's redemption, and getting rid of Gluttony. I really admired how they managed to take all of the loose ends left by the final episode, and tied them up. What I disagreed with was the way in which they were wrapped up.

If I had been in charge of the movie the first thing I would have changed would have been Izumi's death. Oh, she would still be very much dead. But I would have changed the scene where her husband is telling Winry about her death by adding a moment with Wrath at the grave in order to help build up his character to the point where it made sense for him to sacrifice himself. Wrath made the Gate possible, and was huge part in this movie. So why does he have less than six lines, and no real character development? When we left him at the end of the series he was half insane and broken for want of a mother. When did he gain the mental experience in order to decide that he wanted to give up his life?

So, here is my addition to that scene:

~~~

The grass was long enough to come between Wrath's metal and flesh toes. It was soft, and under other cicumstances Wrath might have enjoyed it, and the bright sunlight. But other circumstances did not happen in grave yards.

He looked down at the strangely unreal headstone infront of him. The letters swam in front of his purple eyes, as he tried to read the name. The homunculus bit his lip with sharp teeth. He could only make sense of the first name on the tombstone, "Izumi," and only because he had heard her first name before.

He really couldn't read. He'd been working on it over the last three years, but it was hard without that Aunt Pinako person helping him spell out the letters, as he was recovering from the shock of having the Automail attached. Looking at that tombstone, and all tombstones that littered the cemetary, Wrath wondered if he should have stayed with that family long enough to learn how to read. These people had been loved by friends and family, and perhaps he should know what those friends and family actually had to say about those who had departed.

"This is pathetic. I only know your first name," he told the tombstone, his voice cracked and sounded as rusty as his automail. His body was growing up. He didn't think he would age past his prime, but nonetheless he was growing older. It also didn't help that he hadn't spoken in weeks.

"Ed and Al -- they knew their," his voice faltered, "mother as Mother. She didn't have a name to them. She was a part of them. I tried -- I wanted to be part of her too. But I knew her as Sloth. It didn't work. It never could have. I was just too desperate. I should have been more like them, shouldn't I?"

He slumped in the grass, the rust on his automail screaming. "I've hated you for so long. I don't even know why. You banished me to that Hell in the gate -- but that's not exactly why. I think its because you were afraid of me. You sent me there because you couldn't face me," Wrath's face contorted with anger, and his voice grew stronger, as he tried to yell at Izumi's ghost.

"My first memories are of being sent back to that Hell because you were afraid of the monster that you thought I was! Just because I didn't look like a normal child! That's why I hated you," his tone softened. He was learning moderation and control at last. "But -- you gave up your organs in exchange for what you thought was a monster. You lost your ability to have children -- you're to be pitied, I think. You couldn't stop making mistakes.

"Maybe I hated you because you gave that to me. I couldn't stop making mistakes, could I? I trusted you, and you tried to kill me. I believed that human limbs would make me human. I believed that I wanted to be human -- for no real reason.

"What's so great about being human? What do you have that I don't? After knowing Mothe--Sloth, and you, and Ed, and Lust," he paused his mind skipping tacks."I feel love. I feel hate! I feel sorrow, and pain, and joy, and happiness just like you humans!

"I don't know what a soul is. Envy said that we don't have them, but I don't know any more. That doll Tucker made had no soul. We can all agree on that. I'm nothing like her. Perhaps it's the feelings that are a person's soul. The ability to respond, to think and feel, maybe that's a soul.

"If it is, what use is it?" Wrath looked up, as if expecting an answer. "I've walked all over this land since Sloth was sealed. I've seen love and misery, bitterness and fear, joy and exultation. I even watched a baby get born. And at the end of it all -- all I am is tired," he sighed, and looked down at the marker again. "I'm not smarter or better. All I am is tired.

"I wish that I had seen you one last time," Wrath added quietly. "I wish that we could have just talked. I wish I knew what a soul really was. I wish I knew why you had to call me a sin before I had done anything sinful. I wish I knew if you really wanted to take me back from the gate after you flung me into it. I want to know -- did you love Ed and Al? Why them and not me?! Was it because you were like Envy, and you didn't believe that I have a soul?!"

Gears screamed again as Wrath's fist pounded into the ground. He was breathing hard again. "Did you love me, or am I just a mistake, Izumi?! What the Hell am I supposed to call you, anyway? Are you really my mother, or is Sloth? She loved me! She cared! Or was I just a replacement for her sons? Am I always going to be a replacement?"

Wrath stopped, breathing heavily. His lon hair fell in his eyes, as his eyes burned. "I've been wandering for such a long time. I'm so tired. I just want to go home. I want someone to go home to. I'm tired of wandering. I'm tired of being a replacement. A failed replacement. I'm sick of being alone, Mom."

He rose, breathing in deeply and swallowing the lump in his throat. It wouldn't budge, no matter what he tried. He looked away from the headstone, telling himself that his eyes were tearing up from the bright sun. Over by the gate of the cemetary he could see the shape of someone coming up the hill. He recognized the hair. Winry.

Suddenly he had to leave. He ran towards the woods boardering the cemetary. And just as he reached the cool shade of the trees his leg buckled, and he slumped against a tree.

~~~

I'll have more changes to the movie tomorrow. Heck. I might even turn it into a fanfic. Tomorrow I'll give you a new version of Envy's attack, and the death of Hohenheim. That was handled badly, as well. The character devlopment of Envy was flat, and Hohenheim's death was all on Hohenheim's part, when it should have been between Hohenhiem and Envy.

Anyway, today's video recomendations are: Lullabye for Fullmetal (again) in combination with Wrath's Song (yet again), Sailor Song, and When You're Evil in honor of the end of a great series.

Pretend that this is Sunday

Okay, I know, I know, I was supposed to give you a blog post on Sunday to go along with the update. I forgot, I'm sorry.

News: Well, we at least now know that the intruder isn't Zanazei. But what's green, has red eyes, and pointy little teeth? Hint: It's usually only green in my crazed imagination.

Our little intruder is going to become pretty "key" to the plot, so keep an eye on him. He doesn't tell Osprey his name until chapter 4 but he does do an internal monologue in chapter 2 which will reveal his name. I'll tell you now, just 'cause I'm a nice author like that. His name is Y'Mal. <.< I've really got to put up the naming traditions under the "Other" thread, because no one will understand how much that tells you about him until I do...

Y'Mal is one of my favorite characters, actually. He's fun to chibify, and he allows me to add a level of zaniness to the comic, which otherwise couldn't be present. For example, he's the only charachter who could get away with cross dressing.

Not that I'd ever do that to him. This is just something I thought of in anticipation of my first fan art. The wonderful Mimi-chan wants to "bishify" Zanazei, and apparently this involves sticking the poor fire demon in a dress. We'll have to see how that turns out, personally I'd rather see Y'Mal in a dress (wouldn't he look cute in a kimono?) but Mimi-chan wants "Red" (her name for Zanazei -- so I tried to make him color co-ordinated, big deal!) to get stuck in frills and lace.

I realize that Y'mal really looks ugly in this first picture, however, he gets cuter in a puppy-dogish way as my art progresses. I promise.

Now that I've discussed yesterday's page with y'all, I should say that site stuff is going well. Chapter 1 is going to end soon, so hold onto your seats. I have the first three days of filler ready for you, and I'll be inking and coloring Chapter two as fast as possible. Chapter Two is longer than chapter 1, so I'll be working as hard as possible, to get it fully colored promptly.

Finally, here's my AMV recommendation: Avatar Evolution. The music is awesome, and the clips are so well timed that it makes me wish that I actually watched Avatar: The Last Airbender. I fear however, that the dialogue wouldn't be up to the hopes that this AMV has raised in me.