My thoughts on Tooned

Image courtesy of www.imdb.com

Hello you, my name is Luca but you can call me Luca. So I'm somewhat of a Formula One fan, I say somewhat because being on social media during the Grand Prix can be depressing with the amount of toxicity that there is. I can say though with certainty that the best years watching F1 for me, even though the driver I disliked the most was dominating, were the years that Britain's two most recent champions drove for the same team.

Starting in 2010, McLaren had both Lewis Hamilton and Jenson Button, Hamilton having won the championship with them in 2008 (and would later go onto win the 2014 and 2015 championships with Mercedes) and Button coming into the team having won the 2009 championship in complete and utter fairy-tale fashion with the Brawn GP team. From then until 2012 when Hamilton moved to Mercedes, you'd know what merchandise would be sold the most when you went to Silverstone.

Even with arguably, F1's best driver in Fernando Alonso from Spain (The 2005 and 2006 champion) moving to McLaren in 2015 to partner Button, it didn't cause anywhere near as much a stir as the two British champion drivers. I have to admit, when it was announced that Hamilton was moving to Mercedes, my heart broke, and whilst obviously it turned out to be a great move since Merc became the dominating force and McLaren are now, well.. at the back with a horrible Honda engine, the fact that my two favourite drivers would no longer be team mates sucked.

As team mates, Hamilton and Button had a great battle with Button becoming the first team mate to beat Hamilton over the course of a racing season, and their time together was made that even more special when I got home from the 2012 British Grand Prix to find some weird animated segment on Sky Sports F1's broadcast with Hamilton and Button. That being called 'Tooned'.

The formula (Pun intended) was simple, Lewis Hamilton and Jenson Button both muck around at the expense of McLaren's head of engineering Professor M, voiced by British comedian Alexander Armstrong whilst they are testing out a load of high-tech equipment mainly at the McLaren Technology Centre. It was a sitcom during its first season, and it had a great platform on which it could build.

Because McLaren were a British team and their two drivers were not only British, but very contrasting characters, so the Framestore studio and directors Chris Waitt and Henry Trotter had a lot to play with in regards to the British sense of humour considering also they were playing up to a British audience. Even for a pair who aren't normally voice actors, Hamilton and Button took up the series incredibly well, with Hamilton coming off of the back of his cameo in Cars 2 (and will also be in the new Cars 3 movie as a different character) but despite that, Button was much more at home due to his charismatic charm being more prone to seamlessly comedic moments.

It was heading into season two where my problems are brought up, that being in 2013 after Hamilton had left McLaren and therefore Tooned as well, and the man brought in to replace him was Sergio Pérez, who if you can't tell, is Mexican.

Image courtesy of www.framestore.com

I have nothing against Pérez but even if he had not had any characteristics to play upon for the jokes and narrative to play around with, I wouldn't know because Tooned went a drastically different direction for 2013. What they did was, they instead told the story of (Nearly) all of McLaren's champions and its founder Bruce McLaren, since it was McLaren's 50th anniversary that year.

Adding onto the cast of Armstrong as Professor M, along with Jenson Button and Sergio Pérez, there was an old Scottish man - voiced by Brian Cox - who came along to the celebratory event that Professor M was hosting to celebrate the 50th anniversary and took over in order to tell the story of McLaren, as he claims to have been there for all of it. You had an episode focusing on Bruce McLaren, then onto all of McLaren's champions starting at the beginning with Emerson Fittipaldi, then with James Hunt, Alain Prost, Ayrton Senna and Mika Häkkinen. (They couldn't do an episode on Niki Lauda and Lewis Hamilton since they're both contracted to Mercedes, though a parody of Lauda was used in the James Hunt episode).

All the surviving champions returning to voice themselves, and with James Hunt's son Tom and Ayrton Senna's nephew Bruno voicing their father and uncle who are both no longer with us, but I have no clue who voiced Bruce McLaren. Funnily enough, rumours were floating around that Hunt was voiced by Thor actor Chris Hemsworth, who portrayed Hunt in the film Rush, set to be released later that year. This fact however turned out not to be true.

I did welcome this concept but with no room left to do typical Tooned, season two left the series in a bit of identity crisis and since Pérez left McLaren after 2013, Button was set to be joined by yet another different team mate for the following year. But the Tooned series stopped and has only kept going in the form of a Mobil 1 motor oil educational series where Button, Pérez and Professor M were joined by three-time NASCAR Sprint Cup champion Tony Stewart, and into 2014 with Pérez's replacement at McLaren, Denmark's Kevin Magnussen.

Image courtesy of www.framestore.com

Having Magnussen play a very level headed 'teacher's pet' if you will made for some amusing moments when Button and Stewart would lark about, made for some great exchanging of dialogue. There was a lot of potential here but the series did seem to grind to a halt and it still is on hold, I do have some news on its future that I will get to soon but I know what's wrong with Tooned.

I've seen this sort of thing before, and I call it an 'Eddsworld situation'. Eddsworld was a web animated show ran by a man named Edd Gould, and it was a simple yet very charming concept where Gould would just draw him and his real life friends, including Thomas Ridgewell (Better known on YouTube as TomSka), Matt Hargreaves and Tord Larsson, and they would go on various adventures that would range from saving Christmas, going into space or heading down the toilet to Atlantis.

The issue with the show arose in 2008 when Tord Larsson didn't want his character to be in the show anymore due to the attention he was receiving from fans, so Edd wrote Tord out and the show became locked in with the characters Edd, Matt and Tom. Ridgewell ran the show after Gould passed away in 2012 after a long battle with cancer, up until last year where he handed control back over to Edd's family and leaving the show.

I think Tooned has a very similar problem, that ever since Hamilton left and there didn't seem to be any opportunity for some comedy but it has not maintained a consistent cast over the years and it didn't maintain a particular method of narrative and style. The contrast between the sitcom style first season and the cinematic season two, I'm not sure if it did any good for the show because if there is a season three, I imagine it will revert back to season one's style but now there's a bigger concern.

Image courtesy of www.mclaren.com

To celebrate 40 years since James Hunt won the 1976 world championship, McLaren put out a special Tooned episode where they pretty much repeated the James Hunt episode from Tooned season two but with Jenson Button talking to Fernando Alonso (fourth team mate in four years) in the modern day as well.

After nearly two years away, McLaren confirmed only a few days before this one-off video was released that Tooned would be making a comeback. With Fernando Alonso, and McLaren's Belgian newcomer Stoffel Vandoorne, maybe with Button involved in some way since he's still contracted to McLaren. I imagine we will see the first episode probably during Sky Sports F1's build-up to this year's British Grand Prix on July 16th.

I'm obviously very happy that Button may still be involved though I believe it will be to a much lesser degree now that he doesn't race in F1 full time, but the fact that he may still be in it means we can laugh since he's proven himself to be very funny quite easily. Alonso and Vandoorne on the other hand? I'd be happy to be proven wrong but Alonso's lines in the Hunt special didn't particularly, flow off of the pages and sound convincing as also didn't Vandoorne's small cameo at the end of that episode.

I want this series to succeed as I love the concept of Tooned, but I do have some way of redeeming it. Having struggled to think of the word all evening, Button carried this series because of his wit and great comedic timing so having him in this supposedly upcoming series of Tooned is a no brainer, but the lack of consistency in regards to the characters and the series' struggle to write around them due to racing drivers not always being naturally funny or even very flowing with what they say, but there is huge potential.

McLaren as a team has proven themselves to very in tune with the future and technology, I saw someone suggest Ferrari should do a show like this and I'm not sure that would work since Ferrari are still fairly old fashioned. Anyway, I got off track there (Pun intended), seeing in Tooned a team that had access to such incredible technology that you'd think would never exist outside of fiction, makes for some great scenes and how they all play off in the actions that Button and Hamilton would end up doing.

But more so than any of that, having a British audience who are accustomed to British humour, with lead characters who can easily commit to that made season one of Tooned work and you never had too much in the way of conflicting elements. Which is why despite the fact that my main pull to this show being seeing my two favourite drivers, I stayed because the comedy and the ability to write around Button and Hamilton as characters and not real life people was why I stayed, and I know for a fact that the reason I was pulled into the show was because of their presence means that what I am about to propose will be negated immediately.

I want to see a proper Tooned like show, but without any of the real life elements like the real drivers voiced by themselves. A team like McLaren with their futuristic setting, with two British drivers who are written with very contrasting personality traits but meet the expectations of the British sense of humour, and a no-nonsense boffin like Professor M to take a lot of the hits in the comedic scenes.

That way, having fictional characters means you no longer risk losing them if circumstance dictates that a certain person will have to have their character written out. If Professor M had instead been Martin Whitmarsh when Tooned started, he would have been forced out of Tooned then we would have had Ron Dennis but after Dennis left McLaren at the end of last year, we would then have had Zak Brown. See what I mean?

With Button having been joined by Hamilton, then Pérez, Magnussen and Alonso, then Vandoorne joining, it's hard to maintain a grip on a show when the characters keep coming and going. With fictional characters, it won't cause any of those headaches and having a show like this born out of the ashes of Tooned should this show unfortunately fail, I reckon the fictional character version of Tooned would be successful if it shows links to the McLaren version.

So this pretty much is what I think, if Tooned had kept a consistent cast with two British drivers, it would have worked out. I do hope this apparent upcoming season of Tooned with a Spaniard and a Belgian driver isn't what I fear it will be, I am happy to be proven wrong.

That will be all for now, everyone. Hope you did enjoy my article on Tooned, all episodes are available via McLaren's YouTube channel if I'm not mistaken, so go check them out if you aren't already aware of them. Oh one last thing, if Tooned is 'rebooted', could we see that pigeon or parrot brought back in some way, Cosworth was its name I believe, from the last episode of season one. He was a legend.

Alright! If you like what you've seen and want to see more, either follow me on Twitter @TheLucaFormat or put your email in the Follow By Email option that you can find on the right hand side of your screen if you're on laptop. Hopefully, we will meet again.

So until we do.
Luca.

Women in film

Image courtesy of www.spotern.com

Hello you, my name is Luca but you can call me Luca. I'm seeing Wonder Woman today and I am very much looking forward to it, but more than that, I'm hoping it is a success and from immediate reaction, it looks set to be so, with some very positive reviews from both critics. As DC's most prominent character aside from Batman and Superman, you would think that Wonder Woman would have had many other movie adaptations like how Batman and Superman have had many live action theatrically-released movies with multiple different versions of the character. However, Wonder Woman's live action theatrically-released movie track record includes only one movie, last year's Batman V Superman: Dawn Of Justice where of course, she wasn't even a main character.

This is an alarming fact, that for such a beloved character is only now going to be the lead in her own title movie. I mean yes, it was inevitable that this would happen considering that DC wanted to merge all of their characters into one interconnected universe like how Marvel have done with their MCU, but like how Henry Cavill has succeeded Christopher Reeve and Brandon Routh, Ben Affleck has followed on from Christian Bale and Michael Keaton who all were in movies that didn't cross over, surely Gal Gadot would have had some company in the form of past actresses in standalone interpretations of Wonder Woman. But no, only Lynda Carter when she portrayed the character in the TV series, not a movie.

I believe all of this speaks volumes to how the movie industry is, the old fashioned business that it is. I mean, right this second I just had a look on Wikipedia for women-led movies and I got this article 'Women in Refrigerators', imagine the confusion washing over me at that moment. So I clicked on it and it is actually quite a strong example of what I am referring to, as the term refers to a trope that plague women in not just movies but in many forms of media. From the Wikipedia article it reads, women characters who have been injured, killed or depowered as a device to further the plot within various superhero comics.

Now before you roll your eyes thinking I'm some Social Justice Warrior who will try and make any situation about men being pigs or something, I'm not that at all. What I am is someone who watches a lot of movies and doesn't appreciate how the industry seems to have apprehensions about placing women in the forefront. When it happens, notice how everyone is happy and praising the fact that it happens and not just used to it? Many times in the past we have a female led movie, it's mostly bouncing off of men either as source material, the way it is written and even character motivations.

In anticipation for the Wonder Woman movie, YouTube personality Jack Howard uploaded a video pretty much saying what I'm going to say, but I promise you it isn't plagiarism! Jack pointed out how last year, we had a Ghostbusters reboot and we are going to have another Ocean's movie but with women characters. The Ghostbusters movie was hated but not always for having women as the leads, I believe a large portion of the audience would have hated it just as much had they casted Channing Tatum, Chris Pratt, Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Anthony Mackie instead of Melissa McCarthy, Kristen Wiig, Leslie Jones and Kate McKinnon. But because nobody wanted a Ghostbusters reboot anyway, have it with women and watch the audience try and justify not liking it because apparently that makes them sexist, or if it doesn't work out then instead of blaming it on the fact that nobody wanted a Ghostbusters reboot, blame it on the fact that it was women instead of men. You can't help but make comparisons but I'll get to that bit.

As for the Ocean's film, after the trilogy with George Clooney, Matt Damon and Brad Pitt leading the charge, 2018's Ocean's Eight will feature Sandra Bullock, Cate Blanchett, Helena Bonham Carter, Anne Hathaway and even Rihanna! Now I haven't seen Ocean's Eight (Because it isn't out yet) - I know already if it is bad, we will have some Hollywood executives believing that "Oh, women as the lead? That's why it did bad surely!" - and it could turn out good for all I know, but here's my issue. Spring boarding off of the name recognition with the original Ocean's trilogy as well as the original Ghostbusters, why must a female led movie have to be latched onto something that was already well known?

I mean yes, the new Wonder Woman movie is an adaptation of the DC comic book character but that's not what I am referring to, when what I mean is could you honestly look at those two examples and tell me how to explain it to someone who has seen the Ocean's trilogy and the original Ghostbusters. Because all I can think of is, "It is Ocean's and Ghostbusters but instead of men, it is women" and that's it! They exist just to have women instead of men, and it's shallow thinking and rather unfair frankly. Later this year, there will be a movie called Atomic Blonde, this example is different to the other two because whilst a lot of people have seen the trailer for it and said that it looks like the female version of John Wick, it has not got any comfort of being able to fall back on that name for the sake of brand recognition, it has earned that audience comparison alone just by what we have seen from it.

Having made a point like this before in an article talking about what I'd love to see from a Queen & Country movie adaptation, my point is if you're going to pave the way for more women led movies, you don't immediately latch onto something insultingly close in comparison deliberately for the sake of name recognition. This Queen & Country comparison being born out of the call for the next person to take up the role James Bond to be a woman, and I've already said my shit about how it would go against what the character stands for but I know I'd be called a sexist misogynist piece of shit if I said that, I know I'm not so deal with it. But having a Jane Bond instead of a James Bond would just show that the big wigs have no faith in something with a woman in the lead standing on its own.

That's before we get into characterisation of most women in film, I mean all that I have just said, that's a lot on just one subject! But anyway, the general vibe from most women in movies as in how they're written, they are written to be very typical and have no extra layers other than just being a woman, and that rings true to more than just women too. Speaking to a friend of mine whose name I will refrain from saying for personal reasons, she is obviously a woman as you can tell by the pronoun, but she also is a part of the LGBT community, and she wasn't happy about how they handled a major character in this year's live action Beauty and the Beast movie.

Disney decided to make a big deal out of the fact that they had decided to make Josh Gad's LeFou a gay character, who had a bit of a thing for Gaston. In the end, I think them making a big deal out of it probably did more harm than good because in the film, it's strongly hinted at but never explicit, and my friend never particularly liked how they decided to pin the homosexual tag onto a character whose name quite literally means 'The fool' just to appease those calling for a gay character. I for one would like to have seen Finn and Poe Dameron from Star Wars be gay, not because I fantasise about seeing John Boyega and Oscar Isaac doing it and want to read Tumblr fan fictions about them.. I mean it may or may not be fitting personally but they could write around it and have it flow.

Anyhow, my point with this, and it applies to all minorities, the industry is desperate to play catch up with society and tries to throw in elements that they think will empower such groups but do it in a very shoddy manner. They take characters that could vary from not developed enough to maybe even fully fleshed out, but add on the fact that they're let's say, a woman, black, Latino, homosexual just to be all like "Hey! Look at us! We are all inclusive!". In the end, a character should be fully developed and have everything written to be a fully fleshed out a character, adding in a minority aspect to it to ruin the flow comes off as lazy. Plus like in real life, gender, skin colour, sexual orientation is not all a part of someone's identity, and focus should be to have well fleshed out characters that diversely represent society rather than making characters just to tick boxes

But more than that, the way these characters are written also is very much flawed because as well as being very bland and cookie cutter, and most of this is down to in the early years of writing films, it would be mostly men in the writing room who wouldn't know how women would behave other than the typical stereotypes. A film I saw recently illustrates this perfectly, 'Their Finest' which stars Gemma Arterton as a Welsh screen writer who is tasked with writing a film to help keep the public's spirit up during a wartime Britain. At first, her role demonstrates the lack of power a woman had in those times and how often the men around her would underestimate her, and be surprised that she would ever propose that the female characters in the film she was helping to write ever do something other than sit there and be pretty?! It's an amazing watch by the way, it taught me a lot about the need of studio interference in movies. Go watch 'Their Finest' when you can.

Now onto the main bit, I am frankly very surprised I had enough to talk about here before getting onto who you see at the top of the page! If you have known me for any amount of time, you will probably know that I am an absolute fanatic about the movie Kingsman, and the person you see in the picture is none other than Roxanne 'Roxy' Morton, portrayed by Sophie Cookson.

Whilst not the main character of the first film, Roxy played a surprisingly large part and made the story play out a bit differently than what we expect. Roxy was a candidate for the Kingsman agent role of Lancelot, since the previous person who had that title was killed and Roxy won that despite the focus being on the main character, Gary 'Eggsy' Unwin.

Roxy was received unbelievably well by audiences and critics alike, they praised how she wasn't introduced to be someone for Eggsy to save constantly, or someone for Eggsy to just fall in love with, she displayed a level headed and focused nature yet with some vulnerability to make her believable as a well grounded character, she and Eggsy quickly become close friends. It was such a breath of fresh air to have a character like this where she could stand on her own two feet and merely not provide a motive for Eggsy.

I even saw an article posted by a Sophie Cookson fan account on Twitter which reads: A damsel out of distress, actress Sophie Cookson is a femme fatale who sucker punches her way into the big screen and pulls all the cookie-cutter cut-outs back to the drawing board with her role as the gun-toting heroine Roxy in Kingsman: The Golden Circle. This couldn't be more true, but why am I bringing this up?

The trailer for the upcoming Kingsman: The Golden Circle was released not that long ago, and I was obviously excited and after watching it multiple times, I started having some concerns. The synopsis for the film is that the main antagonist of the film Poppy, destroys the Kingsman Headquarters which forces the Kingsman to have to seek out their American cousins, the Statesman, and this is obviously shown in the trailer. Before we see that, we see Eggsy arrive at the tailor in his brand new E-Type Jaguar and walk into the meeting room where he is greeted by the new head of Kingsman along with Roxy, but after the Kingsman HQ is destroyed, we see very little of Roxy.

This thought has me awake at night, I know that's a bit pathetic to say that but from now until September (When the film is released), I am petrified at the thought of Roxy being killed off due to how she was portrayed in the last film. This may all very well be all smoke and no fire, as my friend told me, they could be hiding her to prompt conversation and discussion, not playing the card to get as many people talking about the film. I certainly hope this is the case and in the next trailer, we see her playing a big part.

With all that being said, it wouldn't be a surprise given how bold Matthew Vaughn (The director and writer of both Kingsman films) has proven himself to be. But this would be too much, given how Roxy hasn't even been explored as character and for her just to be killed off, going against all that she stands for as a character and the role she is playing in this Kingsman franchise, and what she represented in the first film, it would be a massive step backwards.

I want to say something just slightly off topic. Not too long ago, I was scrolling through Instagram as I do so often, I came across a post of a product advertisement with a family playing together in one of those blow up pools, and you had the father, mother and three children. Then it showed the same advertisement but from Saudi Arabia, the mother was replaced by a ball.. This is upsetting for me.

Now I'm not saying that having a fictional character killed off in a film is the same as for example, not having the right to vote or having to cover your entire body. It just sucks that there are varying levels of oppression and non representation for any minority, not even just women.

Starting this article off, I was thinking I just wanted to talk about how I don't want Roxy from Kingsman to be killed off, not even just because she represented a rarity in film and media, but also because she's such a likeable and interesting character. I can very well think of how to further explore her character in further Kingsman films, with Eggsy being a rather reckless and funny but well meaning character and Roxy being - and the pun here is completely intentional - the 'straight man', being more focused on the job at hand.

I say all of this because I saw a video by one of those big movie talk channels on YouTube detailing the 'Seven things we want from Kingsman 2' and one of them was, more of Roxy. I peeked down in the comments section and they said "All of them apart from number (Whichever one that 'more of Roxy' one was)" followed by a few sexist remarks, and I went to town on them. I can't remember what they said but they were genuinely sexist, didn't want a woman to have any part in it. I was disgusted by it.

That's all I can say on that, and it's a lot, I am very aware. I couldn't let this one go unnoticed, I want to see this ship pointing in the right direction to help women and other minorities to be represented in more flowing and centred stories. I am also very aware that I can't single handily achieve this with this single blog post, but it was something on my mind and I just hope you enjoyed reading.

Last thing before I end this off, the friend I have constantly referred to in this article, I am not naming her but she knows who she is. I am unbelievably grateful for her contribution to this in the many ways that she has done so.

Anyway that will be it from me. Check back in September for my inevitable article on whether Roxy is killed off or not, let's hope it is the latter. In the meantime, as ever you can follow me on Twitter @TheLucaFormat or type your email address into the Follow By Email bar if you're on desktop. So until we meet again.

Luca.

Religion - Taboo topics

Image courtesy of www.gothictimes.net

Hello you, the name is Luca but you can call me Luca and religion is a thing that's a thing, isn't it? Well, everything is a thing, a thing is made up of matter and it has to exist to be a thing.. okay I'll shut up. This is meant to be a serious article, I've fucked that up already.

Anyway, religion has been a very complicated thing for me growing up and I have come to my own conclusions about it, and I thought I'd detail a lot of what I have to say about it having experienced what I have. Plus I feel a lot of what I say will resonate with some of you at the very most.

So if I remember correctly, my family practiced Church Of England during my early years, but we stopped doing so for whatever reason, I think it's because I always threw a tantrum for being pulled away from my toys. I was sent to a Church Of England primary school, and thankfully I was very unaware of the religious influence but didn't know any different outside of the heavily religious environment.

Going into secondary school, it wasn't centred around a religion and I started thinking about being a Christian, and I would wear a crucifix but only because I used to see Michael Schumacher (Who was making his F1 return) wearing it, not that he's my hero or anything but I latched onto that. This was a huge learning point in my life, I began placing all of my individuality into this religion, and people used to make fun of it, not that my secondary school peers would have short on reasons and motives to do so anyway.

I grew out of it eventually thankfully, it was a phase in my life like any other as simple as wearing a scarf, fingerless gloves and a trilby (Yes, I used to wear those un-ironically), but looking back on that point in my life, I remember thinking about what religion prompted. Let's just say after thinking back on that, I realised why religion as a concept is so negative.

Coming in and out of college and afterwards, I could see how religion seems to differ and how individuals who assign themselves into these religions are so extreme. The YouTuber Thomas 'TomSka' Ridgewell - who is mostly known for asdfmovie - made a video talking about how he met a public preaching Christian evangelist who he described as incredible with his public speaking and knowledge of the bible. For context purposes, Ridgewell grew up practicing as a Jehovah's Witness because of his parents and despite not agreeing completely with this man, he was in awe of him.

Afterwards, Ridgewell walked up to the man and told him how incredible he was and the man was very humbled by Ridgewell's words, but it was when he told him that he was a Jehovah's Witness that the man's look of joy turned into a sympathetic smile and he said to Ridgewell, "Well my brother, you're going to hell". This was followed by the man trying to convince Ridgewell to convert to his religion or he was going to spend the rest of eternity suffering at the hands of the devil, and from that point on, Ridgewell's faith died and he was no longer a Jehovah's Witness.

This video described pretty much what I had been feeling for years, that religion unites people for all the wrong reasons, it perpetuates mob mentality and oppression and for what reason? Because apparently if we all don't believe in a certain religion, we are all destined for hell, there's so many religions that if you don't believe the right one, you'll rot in hell with all the murderers and rapists. That's the vibe that I am getting at least.

But how can anyone be certain about what happens after death? I certainly don't and the thought terrifies me. We walk on such metaphorical tightropes because most religions can be separated by the most minor of details, such as whether it is okay to use a condom or not, or if Jesus died on a cross or something else. In the end, I don't identify with a religion because there's too many extremes and if there is an afterlife, I'd hope whoever the person up there is can understand where I am coming from, I do believe in a higher power.

I realised that what I am about to say extends beyond religion and into pretty much anything, the second you identify yourself as a part of any sort of group, you begin relying on everyone else and your label as a shield. Whether it is religion or political group, or even something as seemingly harmless as which out of the PS4 or the Xbox One or whether Marvel or DC is better. All of this prompts such toxicity.

You see so many religions be incorporated into someone's life so early on that it really messes with them, like those extreme Christian families who will then force their ideology onto their children and then as a result, these children then know no better. They'll be raised with the idea that homosexuals are even worse than murderers, or that any major disease will be cured by prayer and not medicine, but the second you begin attempting to criticise that belief, you're seen as personally attacking them or being the devil tempting them out of their faith. This by the way, isn't me trying to say all Christians are like this, I'll get onto that as a whole.

Basically, what I see faith and organised religion as, it's a self sustaining bubble of ignorance and sensitivity. I no longer want to be religious because I'm just overwhelmed by the vast scale of religions as a whole, and how on earth anyone can know with 100% certainty that their religion was the right one and someone else's wasn't? It's mostly based on what happens after death anyway.

Here's what I think might hit home for a large portion of you. There are so many religions out there, and so many groups of people who force their children to go by that religion and how dare they deviate? Because if they do, not only will they disown their children, they'll spend the rest of eternity suffering in damnation.

How can someone be certain that their own interpretation of an ancient book means that they'll be accepted into wherever we go after we're done fucking around here? That they hold the key to eternal salvation and that everyone else is wrong? Surely some interpretations are lost in translation. I mean, with all of these many variations of the countless beliefs what billions of people throughout history have believed in, that one single belief apparently results in either salvation or damnation, who is anyone to believe that they alone hold the key to the truth?

My personal belief is, I'm not going to glue myself to any one group and just hope that my actions as an individual mean that I am a good person. Believe me, I don't think I'm the best example of a good person just yet, I know I've done wrong in my life and I seek to be unburdened as not a man of religion, not a man of a particular political party, not a man of anything, just a man. I believe there's a higher power, and not only speaking for myself here, I hope that the many people out there who have ideologies forced upon them and know no better, they are not turned away at the pearly gates because they "Led the wrong life".

We all have a life here on earth, lead it and be as good of a person as you can.

Let me just say right here, I fully respect anyone who practices their religion. As long as it isn't a religion that involves hurting people or being a bigot who hates someone for their skin colour or sexual orientation, and as long as you don't force anyone into that religion, then you do that. This is aimed at those folk I like to call the 'Religiously aggressive'.

I'm going to end off with a quote that was said in one of my favourite films, Kingsman: The Secret Service by Colin Firth's character Harry Hart. He was attending a hate group rally whilst seeking the main antagonist and got up to leave, but a bigoted church woman tried to stop him and what follows is the most amazing thing ever. He says to her:

"I'm a Catholic whore, currently enjoying congress out of wedlock with my black Jewish boyfriend who works at a military abortion clinic. So, hail Satan, and have a lovely afternoon, madam."

 

Anyway, that will be all from me. If you're new here, I don't particularly talk about this often but every so often, there's that one thing that'll be out of the ordinary for me that I will need to write about. In the end, just be the best you possible.

 

Until we meet again,

Luca.