Entry #9: Today's Media: A Mixed Bag with A Lot of Bad Apples

     After researching for this last essay about the "Power of Media", it didn't really change my view on media. In fact, what I researched was what I was expecting since media in different forms has been going on a degrading path for the past couple of years. For examples, for what I've been researching, entertainment media has been going "woke" and trying to diversify anything, which isn't bad unless its not implemented well. Especially in established shows, movies, and games, well-known characters have had their race changed or they are now considered gay. Companies blatantly make it obvious that they just want to get brownie points for inclusivity instead of making a good piece of media. They could make a new character that fits their inclusive criteria and make it mesh well, but they don't. We all hear of the joke that Netflix has to put the "obligatory gay character" that only has the personality of being gay. It dehumanizes the person in question and it just seem lazy.  Along with that, these forms of media aren't good most of the time since many heads and directors play it safe. There don't want to do anything outside the box, it is very contained. This can also relate to being safe, but companies also rely too much on existing properties, sometimes even beloved ones, to make the big bucks. For example, Disney now pumps out Marvel content every year, and as each movie comes out, the quality of it goes down (Just look at Dr. Strange: Multiverse of Madness, or She-Hulk). It seems like companies now  either leech off of nostalgia to make a quick buck or make something that isn't notable and is mediocre. There can be a good piece of entertainment, but finding it at times can feel like a island in a sea of mediocrity.  

     When I was researching for my essay, I found some Twitter links for a show (specifically Lord of The Rings: Rings of Power), and I decided to look at them for a bit. Now, I don't have Twitter and I have heard all of the rumors of Twitter being a really unenjoyable place, and I can say this: its pretty much true, but I will assume it depends on the topic. Looking at the comment section, it was very toxic and divided. I thought to myself "Why are people like this? Why do they feel the need to start a digital fight JUST for a TV show"? Even though I am not researching about social media specifically, I wanted to point this out. I grew up during the rise of social media, and I never saw a point to it other than to communicate to other people. When I see what people say and do in these comment sections, I feel like a divide is growing in our communities and even the U.S based on certain events. Especially, during the BLM riots of 2020, people on both sides were being disrespected based on their opinion of the situation. People can't have a opinion that isn't the majority opinion, because if you do, then you either get shut down or cancelled. It's really stupid, because every persons' opinions count. They might have some valid criticism or arguments, but that gets overshadowed by bandwagoners and people following a trend. Politics especially are something that divides Americans, whether it is on social media or not, but I'm not going to get into that. That's a WHOLE other can of worms. The whole point is that social media makes people take sides, and I really hate that, and the fact that future generations might grow up in this environment is frightening. Not all social media is bad though. You can meet so many people around the world, with their own interests and hobbies. They can cosplay their favorite character, show off a collection of something they collect, the sky's the limit. That's the social media that I really like, but I feel like that gets overshadowed by the negatives sometimes. 

 

    I know that this blogpost seemed like a rant, but to me, media now makes me sad. Entertainment isn't really something to look at as companies just care only for money, and the fact that social media isn't really the magical place that the future said it would be. There needs to be a change to media, because otherwise society and the people within will start to get ugly and nasty with each other. 

Entry #8: A Simple and Clean Intro to Kingdom Hearts

     It's rare for a game series to be considered part of my top favorites. It is always reserved for the games that impacted me in some way, emotionally or gameplay wise. Kingdom Hearts used to be a series that I have not touched in a while until recently of this year, and after playing through ALL of the games, I have made this one of my favorite game series of all time alongside Halo and Silent Hill. Its story was very intriguing, the gameplay was really satisfying, and the music was masterful. Before that, I remember buying Kingdom Hearts 2 for my PlayStation 2, and playing up until the midgame, in which I stopped playing, not because it was hard, but because I had no idea what to do next. Eventually I got the first Kingdom Hearts game, and played even less than KH2 because I couldn't defeat a boss that was hard for me at the time. After that, I hadn't touched the games until I bought the entire series on Xbox, and let's just say that I went on a journey, an emotional journey of friendship, loss, and the battle between light and darkness. 

    With that out of the way, let me introduce you to what the games are about. Kingdom Hearts, in concept, is the idea of "What if Disney characters interacted with Final Fantasy characters?" Pretty weird idea (Fun fact, the whole idea of Kingdom Hearts was conceived in an elevator ride with Disney and Square Enix employees, since they shared they were located in the same building)but it did work out, so much that it has become one of the most iconic game series of all time. As of this time, there are thirteen games. They consist of the main story and side stories that take place during or even before the main storyline. Even though the side games don't seem like they matter, they actually do, so you actually need to play them in order to understand what is going on (thankfully, the series is more accessible with the existence of the collections on current platforms). 

    

    The first Kingdom Hearts game was released all the way back in 2002 on the PlayStation 2. In the debut game of the franchise, we follow the story of Sora, a boy who lives on the Destiny Islands with his best friends Riku and Kairi. They are in the middle of building a raft to sail off to new worlds together, but then one night the islands are coated in darkness, and Sora goes to investigate. He then sees these dark creatures known as Heartless, and as he is about to get attacked, a Keyblade appears in his hand and he is able to kill them. He also sees that Kairi gets kidnapped and Riku is acting strange in an evil way. After the confrontation between Riku and Sora, Sora is then swept away by a vortex, where he ends up in a new world, a place called Traverse Town. Its at this point where he meets Donald and Goofy, and together they set off to find Sora's friends in different Disney worlds while fighting off the Heartless. It's a pretty simple story but it was a good start for a new franchise. It helped introduce concepts like the Heartless, Keyblades, and other things that would be relevant in the future.  

    Even though this game is called Kingdom Hearts 2, its technically not. The actual second game would be Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories (Yeah, I know it must be confusing, and this is a trend for most of this series), but anyways, more on that later. Kingdom Hearts 2 is one of my favorite games of all time. It introduces many new characters, new Disney worlds, and a great plot that kept me at the edge of my seat. The soundtrack is amazing, so much so that from time to time, I listen to some of my favorite songs from the soundtrack. The combat is also perfected in this entry, with its very fast paced combos, along with the introduction of forms like Valor and Wisdom forms, which create variety in the way you play. Even though I really love this game, it does have its faults, because everything has to have a negative. I didn't explain any plot for this game just because if you guys want to try it out.

    One of the things that keeps people from playing the game is the storyline and the way Square Enix handled it. As I mentioned before, the way Square Enix orders the games is confusing. For example, Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories is the actual sequel to the original, not Kingdom Hearts 2, and like I said before, this affects the rest of the series. This is why some people would get confused with things like when a character from a side game was introduced into the main storyline. Along with that, before the collections were a thing, in order to get the whole story, you would have to own six systems, which was ridiculous. The solution to this problem were the collections released for current platforms that had all of the past games. This makes getting into the franchise much better for newcomers, and it was especially helpful for me to understand what is going on. In my humble opinion, the Kingdom Hearts storyline is not confusing, its pretty straightforward. Some parts lore wise to the Kingdom Hearts universe might be confusing, like certain concepts, but other than that, it's pretty understandable. 

   To conclude this very in-depth but understandable intro (I hope), the Kingdom Hearts series is a game series that I was never expecting to play again, and when I did, I told myself "Why didn't I play these games earlier?!" Because of that, I consider this one of my favorite game franchises and I will remember these games for a long while. I hope you enjoyed my long but detailed blog about a Disney game with anime characters sprinkled in. 

  
   

Entry #7: The Digital Tic-Tac-Toe Board

     The hashtag is something that I barely use unless I want a post that I made to be seen by more people, but even then, I just started to use hashtags a couple of months ago. Basically, a hashtag is a way to connect your many social media posts to different topics. For example, say that you are into shoe culture. In order for your post about the new Air Force drop that you received to spread around Instagram, you would use hashtags like #shoeculture or other related terms that the community uses. Some of the popular hashtags that people use throughout social media include #love, #fashion, #memes, and #art. Even though the whole use of a hashtag sounds tame and kind of mundane, it is also used for serious topics, like world events or certain movements. For the Russian/Ukraine War, people on Twitter would use the hashtag #ukrainewar or #stopwar to protest their feelings towards the matter. For movements, a well-known one is the hashtag #FakeNews, which is used on posts that either are fake news, or used on posts that protest the abundance of fake news all around the internet. Now that you have understood what hashtags are and the power that they hold, here are some tips to help effectively use them. Something to take note is that the less wordy a hashtag is, the more people will use it. Why use a long hashtag when you can use a short and sweet hashtag? Another tip is that you should make the hashtag memorable to the users. Remember #Maythe4th? While it was used when Star Wars: The Force Awakens was announced, the hashtag is now used to commemorate a dedicated Star Wars day (it also sounds like May the Force so it's pretty catchy, even though it's a pun). The final tip for this post is to not add hashtags into EVERY single post you make. It makes you sound pushy. Use them when you feel like it would benefit or create value for you. Hashtags is such an interesting little symbol. Who knew that a tic-tac-toe board would be used for world issues someday?