An idea - Gran Turismo movie

Image courtesy of www.skysports.com

Hello you, my name is Luca but you can call me Luca. So I am well aware that my last blog post was also on Gran Turismo, but this isn't the exact same sort of idea because in this blog post, I'd like to talk in detail about a proposed Gran Turismo movie by Sony, and how it has the potential and the pressure to be a hell of a lot better than crappy film adaptations of video games that we have become all but used to seeing.

 

So when I say Gran Turismo movie, what springs to mind? If we are going off just the in-game content, maybe a driver who enters into some crappy sub 100 horsepower race called the 'Clubman Cup' before entering more races and eventually racing at Le Mans? Or doing a tedious driving test where you drive forward and pull up, and if the character fails then you hear a certain song by Yello? Yeah that sounds pants. A lot of non story driven video game adaptations do this, take literal elements from the source material that work as an interactive experience and expect it to work for a passive and engaged audience. This isn't the idea I have for the Gran Turismo movie.

 

This is something I know needs to be celebrated and made for the big screen, and I know a lot of you will be amazed to hear this, there are drivers who because of Gran Turismo have gone from sitting on their sofas with their PlayStation controllers to racing against all of the world's best drivers in a variety of different motor racing categories as a result of GT Academy. One such example is the man in the centre of the picture above, Jann Mardenborough.

 

Mardenborough entered into GT Academy during a hiatus from education and ended up beating up to 90,000 entrants to win in the European based competition in 2011, and has since gone on to be majorly successful in championships such as various GT and Formula Three series, winning a race in GP3 supporting the F1 German Grand Prix in 2014 and also in LMP cars at the 24 hours of Le Mans.

 

Coupled onto the other levels of success that GT Academy graduates have had, these drivers are the real deal and are here to stay, and when you also take into consideration the legitimacy that video game racers have garnered in recent years in mainstream thanks to the F1 eSports championship taking place last year, and one of the competitors being a former real life single seater from Turkey named Cem Bölükbaşı, who was signed to a team that two time F1 champion Fernando Alonso bought into, no matter what is said now about video game racers, they have proven themselves and are not going anywhere.

 

So with the rise of video game racers and competitive racing both translating over to real life and remaining within the games themselves, this is the topic and now is the time to make a movie out of this to show any old Joe sitting on his sofa that even a gamer could probably become a pro-racing driver and win Le Mans or the F1 world championship. So with this synopsis in mind, what to do?

 

According to GTPlanet, the movie might be dead which may or may not have been a good thing as of now which means someone with passion can pick it up. May not help considering Sony is looking to sell off its TV and film division, I still think something will fall into place to tell this story because whilst Sony were looking to make it a franchise competing with Universal's Fast and Furious as well as Dreamworks' Need For Speed franchises. I don't know how a GT franchise could work but let's just focus on a standalone now.

 

Okay first let's think of a main character. I'm going to be taking liberties with my idea, but have the main character take elements and characteristics from the real life GT Academy winners, mostly like Mardenborough though, mainly because of who I have in mind to portray this character. The person I'd like to see lead this film, much to the surprise of a chunk of you who believe I'm about to say Taron Egerton, I'm actually going with John Boyega.

 

Image courtesy of www.thedailybeast.com

Most of you know Boyega as Finn from the new Star Wars films, and I'm picking him because not only as we all know that he is one hell of an actor and a very charismatic guy, but also I saw an interview that he did that he apparently has a big racing rig at his home so he must be passionate about racing to some degree.

 

I'd like to see a character portrayed by Boyega as a working class college graduate a bit like Mardenborough who has maybe taken a few years away from education and casually competes in racing on PlayStation games such as Gran Turismo with his typical PlayStation controller as appose to a big simulator rig. His favourite driver could be Lewis Hamilton, since they're both Black British and this is what inspires the character's love for racing.

 

Another great thing that I'd like to see, Boyega actually told his Nigerian father about being cast in Star Wars and in a very strong Nigerian accent, his father expressed his utter delight and then asked what Star Wars was, so maybe Boyega's character could have parents who are just like that in regards to his racing. We could see some minor conflict in regards to his fixation on racing without any major aspirations in mind for his future, with the both of them hoping to see him take up a higher occupation as a result of going to university.

 

Just for the sake of not having to type out 'Boyega's character', I am going to think of a name for him which could be changed in the final version, so I'm going to call him Joshua Zuma and have him be a British-Nigerian with a mother and father who were originally from Nigeria and both moved over at a young age. So as you know these details now, you'll know I'm referring to the character when I say Josh.

 

Josh will be aged around early to mid 20's and be very much a Jack The Lad, likes his partying and hanging with his mates in the evenings, maybe have this over-confident side play into his character and development over the course of the story as it will work against him. He'll be an only child which plays into the flaw of not being able to see past himself, which he will learn when it comes to working with other people especially in the highly demanding world of motorsport.

 

Of course, Josh will have to compete with other potential candidates, and he sees when he makes it to the finals what he's up against, you could have multiple eSports and League racing champions ran by professional teams, with Josh being the only one who doesn't have any sort of major credibility or peak physical fitness. This would be an interesting point to see how Josh would react when he sees these people, making him realise he's out of his depth and begins to doubt himself since he came from a very casual racing background.

 

As far as inspirations go, the character of Josh for me would pull a lot of characteristics from both Mardenborough but also F1 eSports champion Brendon Leigh, the finger waving, impulsive and flamboyant Brit who performed an incredible last lap maneuverer for the lead in Abu Dhabi to win the inaugural championship. Leigh's very impulsive and unrefined approach to racing as well as his attitude outside the 'car' as well as his background not being in traditional simulators, makes him all the more appealing when it comes to the casual audience and that's why I have him in mind when it comes to a character like Josh.

 

Seeing the world of video games and how serious the motor racing side is through all these other characters who Josh will be competing against would be by far the best way to show off this world. I can already think of people who are already very established in competitive league racing in order to create characters for this story to appose Josh in the GT Academy training.

 

During the GT Academy events, there would be a panel of experts coming from the world of motorsport there to adjudicate the candidates, and I was thinking here we could have a fictitious British racing driver inspired loosely by 3-time F1 Grand Prix winner Johnny Herbert. Having started his career at an age that would be considered way too old and being held back by an injury from a lower category of racing, as a result not being able to be as successful as he could have been and as a result, had a relatively short career. But still very much a happy go lucky character, I was thinking probably Mark Addy for this role.

 

Addy's character that we will call, Anthony 'Tony' Kemp will - as was the case I believe in real life - be in charge of the Brits who made it to finals as the competitors who come from a certain country will be given guidance from the judge who is from their home country. Throughout the competition when the driving, fitness, media training are all piling on Josh, Kemp will be there to help him pull through but will be put under pressure to not have any conflict of interest when choosing the winner after observing the final hurdles for all the entrants.

 

As far as the end game of this movie since Josh would end up winning the scholarship, he would end up on a Nissan racing programme and he could be placed in the All-Japan F3 championship and the Japanese Super GT preparing for an assault on both the F1 championship and an attempt at winning Le Mans, a baptism of fire. I don't know how that could fit into a two hour run-time, something like that would be alluded to at the end possibly a follow-up should this movie do well at the box office then it could become a franchise like Sony were expecting. Whether or not the main elements of the gamer to racer journey doesn't carry over into a second film or not remains to be seen.

 

Former Nissan Motorsport boss Darren Cox stated on the Amazon series 'Le Mans: Racing is Everything' that he knows one day, a gamer will win both the Formula One World Championship and the 24 hours of Le Mans. The unsuccessful attempt at heading up the Nissan LMP1 effort in which Jann Mardenborough as well as another GT Academy winner Lucas Ordóñez along with a bunch of other professional drivers tackled the race in the top class, in a very untraditional front wheel drive Nissan car, the programme itself ended before it had really got going and it was such a shame.

 

The sad fact is, the reality of the situation doesn't align with what I'd hope could be told but rather than base it on one true story that hasn't quite had its moment, instead base it around so many true stories both past and present in an attempt to make a mark on the future. The reality is, we can see now that this pathway elicits pure legitimacy and I agree with Darren Cox, that we will see a gamer in our lifetime win the F1 drivers title and Le Mans, we just aren't there yet in reality. I personally would love to see this dream recognised in the form of this/these movie(s).

 

I'd love to see how the first film does if they do decide to make a franchise out of it, not that I am expecting it to be such a hit that it would warrant a sequel but it would be nice. A definite nice change of pace from the competition, I'm not into the Fast and Furious or Need For Speed films, this sounds like it would be so much more my thing. Question is though, what do you all think? Feel free to leave a comment saying something nice about this whole thing, I do genuinely want to know what you all think.

 

Oh and if you're somehow reading this Michael De Luca, Dana Brunetti, Joseph Kosinski, Jon and Erich Hoeber, all of you being in charge of this movie, I know this can be good so pen a nice script Hoeber brothers and really do try with this vision in mind. Hopefully something materialises.

 

Alright! As for the rest of you, thank you so much for reading what I have to say. If you're new here and want to see more, either follow me on Twitter @TheLucaFormat or put your email in the 'Follow By Email' option if you can see it on the right hand side of your screen.

 

Hope to have you back here soon for my next blog post. So until we meet again.
Luca.

Why I appreciate TomSka

Image courtesy of www.informationsociety.co.uk

Hello you, my name is Luca but you call me Luca. I am not ashamed to admit that I have been following online personalities for a while, some longer than others but undoubtedly the one who was the first for me, Thomas Ridgewell or better known as TomSka.

TomSka is a 27-year old writer, producer, director, actor and filmmaker as it says on his Wikipedia who gained extreme notoriety from YouTube and even before the site was created back in 2005. I first discovered him - like many people did - when my friend Matthew showed me asdfmovie, a comedy animated series that has undoubtedly garnered the majority of Ridgewell's success but alongside that, he has created sketch comedy, action videos and he has also worked on webtoons such as his own Crash Zoom and his late friend Edd Gould's series Eddsworld.

It's safe to say that I highly enjoy what he puts out into the world, but over the years I have come to realise how much as an individual he has really inspired me and taught me a lot in such a short time, and for the most part I never really realised that he had. I thought I'd put this together now, as by the end of this month (providing I do release this in February), Ridgewell will have ended his weekly video blogging series 'Last Week', which he has been doing since the back end of March 2016.

With the current landscape of YouTube personalities being all squeaky clean and disingenuous, it bothers me how we have the odd Jake Paul and Zoella who will get away with doing the most shittiest and immoral things like falsely accusing someone of assault or scam their fans as long as they suck up to YouTube and the corporate greed. Whilst not everyone is perfect, it's nice to know some people try. TomSka is the person who taught me about imperfection, about how it's okay to not force a smile for everyone.

Around 2013, Tom was still grieving the loss of his friend Edd, going through some difficult times in his life and he made a string of videos showing how he wasn't okay, and I was taken aback by this because I was still growing to realise how life was meant to live. After only watching these people who were showing themselves at their best, I aspired to be like them and would often hate myself for showing weakness, that I should always be happy and I just couldn't do it.

Ridgewell has gone through anxiety and depression as well as quite the amount of hardships, along with this he has also made some major lapses of judgement, none of which I would care to bring up in the event he may see this, but I don't think he's afraid to admit any of this. In a world where everyone tries to cover up their mistakes, and bury them and pretend it never happened, it's incredibly refreshing to see someone own up to what they've done and look forward to improve themselves. I admire that greatly. Same with his faults, he never tries to hide them and as a result, it resonates with his accepting audience who see those faults and it adds to his character, if I can quote Kristin Scott Thomas' Clementine Churchill from the new Darkest Hour movie, you are strong because you are imperfect and you are wise because you have doubts.

Another great thing Ridgewell does in comparison to his peers is treat his audience with a bit more respect and perpetuated maturity. What I mean by that is, he doesn't try to treat his audience like a collective, he hasn't called his fans the Tom Ridgewellers, I mean he did call them a collective name back in the day and realised what was happening as a result.

On one of his sketch videos, a subscriber of his wrote a perfectly harmless but critical comment and a load of the 'Turbofans' - which is what TomSka had been calling his collective fans - attacked him, and kept at him until the guy deleted his channel. Ridgewell decided at that moment to stop giving his subscriber base a collective name and just refers to them as the individual, which would stop the fans who were pouring their whole identity into this collective group and slapping that individuality onto this channel and fanbase. Considering that the groups of fans like the Phandom, the Logang, whatever they call themselves, couldn't give a shit for their respective person as anything more than just someone they fancy or want to get in a photo with no regard for their feelings, I think what Tom did was right.

There are a lot of things to really consider when looking at the landscape of YouTube but mostly when it comes to Ridgewell, it's this. He has not just shown himself at his best, he has shown himself at his worst and when I was 14 or 15 years old, I didn't realise until now how much that Tom being honest about himself really shaped a lot of my own feelings and perspective back in a time that I could not have even thought of myself as anything other than perfect 100% of the time.

Any flaw I had, I'd feel shame and whilst it's okay to carry shame for your actions because it shows you grow and regret, you should never be ashamed about who you are and for me, TomSka is the reason that I know that it's okay to not be okay all the time. In a world with pretty boys and perfect girls leading the young, impressionable and weak onto a path of falsehoods and unfulfilled fake promise, we need more TomSka's in the world to show that it's okay to be you.

Tom, in the slight chance you're reading this, I'd like to say thank you for the growing up you helped me with and the lessons I learned because of you. I am looking to meet you one day so perhaps either by then, you have read this or you are reading this as a result of me asking if you can.

Oh whilst I'm here, there has been this idea I have been wanting you to do for a comedy sketch on your main channel. Based on the Garry's Mod game mode Prop Hunt, have yourself, PewDiePie, JackSepticEye and Markiplier all as soldiers in a private hit squad, looking to take down a menace running rampant, the enemy who have disguised themselves as inanimate objects.

Maybe have the props voiced by Eddie, Elliot, Sammy etc. but keep the reveal of their ability until one of them reveals themselves as a chair or something. The big payoff though is having someone be a bottle of milk and is running away, and this quote I have taken from one of PewDiePie's videos from like 2011 or 2012 that always stuck with me. Here it is. "DIE YOU FUCKING MILK". You can have that one on me, you can credit me, I just want to see you do this.

Anyway that'll be all, thank you again Tom for being you and helping me through some difficult and confusing times by showing me just that I'm okay not being okay and not being perfect.

As for everyone else here, thank you for reading. Hope to see you all soon, and if you want to be notified of all my new blog posts, either follow me on Twitter @TheLucaFormat or put your email address in the Follow By Email option. I hope to see you all soon.

So until we meet again.
Luca.

Gran Turismo Sport - A wishlist

Image is my own from Gran Turismo Sport (Polyphony Digital)

Hello you, my name is Luca but you can call me Luca. I am well aware that I have been absent for a while now, and I left on a very sour note, I can only apologise but it was how I was feeling. But today, I wish to jump back on this train in order to write about something I know I can talk about. So in my downtime, I have been playing a lot of Gran Turismo Sport, and if you read my last blog post about racing then you'd know I have some grievances with it. Well this is an expansion of that plus a few more additions that I think would really help the game.

Okay so first up, one of the best things about GT Sport is the livery editor and its social features. As you can see above, that is a Red Bull livery Aston Martin Vantage GT3 car that I have personally created, and that is just one out of the amazing many types of liveries you can have. I have downloaded liveries that range from a Mercedes SLS GT3 car with the 2009 F1 championship winning Brawn team colour scheme, to a military tank lookalike BMW i3 only just now. I have utilised this editor to create my own personal racing car that you may have seen already, a red/yellow McLaren 650S, as well as my friends Charlie and James who have a blue Audi R8 and a black/green Lamborghini Huracán. You get the picture.

You get the picture. You can create and upload your liveries to be shared with all fellow GT Sport players, and also upload decals that players can download and put on their own cars, like how I have the Pokémon Eevee on my McLaren. It's such a great feature, and if this wasn't in the game, I strongly believe that if this feature wasn't in the game, GT Sport would have died out. Or at least be not as popular as it is at the moment.

The one area that I feel Polyphony really missed the mark, is in helmets and suit designs. Like with cars, you can personalise your racing suit and helmet by giving them certain colours, but if you go to search on the Gran Turismo website for suits and helmet designs, it's tragic. Just all the same pre-set designs with different colours, it honestly is heart wrenching to know what this amazing community could have done!

We could have been able to download a Valentino Rossi replica helmet and overalls made to look exactly like Ferrari's F1 overalls with their Shell, Santander and UPS sponsorship etc., what was stopping them? I would love to be able to go on tomorrow, and make my helmet look like Dino Zamparelli's with my DHL sponsored red and yellow overalls. I really hope this is added in, come on Polyphony.

Next up is a certain car that I know would fill a void in the game, the Formula Gran Turismo.

Image courtesy of KudosPrime.com

This car has been in the GT series since Gran Turismo 4, and has been a car with great potential and concept but a tad underwhelming in execution, and as a result has unfortunately been overshadowed by other similar Formula style cars in the subsequent games, such as the 2007 championship winning Ferrari F2007, the 2010 Ferrari F10 and Red Bull's own Gran Turismo partnership producing X-cars.

However with Ferrari F1 licences running out and Red Bull's X-cars being way too quick to constitute competitive top level racing, I feel especially considering the FIA's involvement in GT Sport, the Formula Gran Turismo needs to return and be done right. Heavily based in design on the 2004 era of F1 cars when they were at their peak in terms of speed, and powered by a 3.5-litre V12 that exceeds 18,000rpm and produces over 900 horsepower whilst only weighing 550kg.

Whilst doing research for this article, I found that there has been other GT original single seaters but I won't discuss more about them, considering the idea of only the one single seater would avert some confusion. There are some things I would want to change to make the Formula Gran Turismo even better.

The sound of the FGT is incredibly below par, it sounds more like a V6 or V8 turbo at best, not a naturally aspirated V12 screamer so one change I'd make is look to the V12 powered Ferrari F1 cars of the 1990s, such as the 1990 Ferrari 641 driven by Alain Prost and Nigel Mansell, or the 1995 Ferrari 412 T2 driven by Jean Alesi and Gerhard Berger. Have a noise worthy of it being called a V12 like those F1 cars, and whilst you're at it, up the power to about 1,050 horsepower.

Secondly, GT Sport has colour coded tyre compounds which are reminiscent of those that Pirelli provide in Formula One. These colours being green for the Hard compound, yellow for Medium, red for Soft, Purple for Super Soft, white for Intermediate and blue for the Wet tyres, and I'd love to see colours used on the Formula Gran Turismo's own Bridgestone tyres. I would hope Bridgestone would allow this since Pirelli were the one to use colour assigned racing tyre compounds, just a small detail that would make it feel all the more authentic.

Cars like the Formula GT would not exist nowadays due to the increasing concern in regards to fuel and the environment, but in the gaming world we can achieve these incredible speeds and with the potential that the GT Sport game has already proven to have in terms of balanced and competitive racing in Group 3 and 4 racing, a single spec racing just like the Karts in the game but at the top level of racing, would be such a welcome addition.

I know fine well that the inclusion of a single seater in GT Sport would be great for the livery creators, I have already seen a Ferrari F1 livery on an Audi R18 LMP1 car and a McLaren F1 livery on Porsche's LMP1 car, the 919 Hybrid. I'll be creating my own and my friend's cars, fitted with our names on the rear wing like the old MSV F2 cars, and I know I'll be racing my red/yellow DHL sponsored number 56 entry.

Okay next up and this is the one that really is necessary, I spoke about it in my racing game article, the lack of race tracks in GT Sport is abysmal. We have some great tracks in the game, some great original circuits such as Maggiore, Kyoto, Tokyo and Dragon Trail and some great real world circuits like Suzuka, Bathurst, Nürburgring, Interlagos and Brands Hatch. We also have some crappy circuits like the horrendous Willow Springs, and just way too little anyway, we need more!

Image courtesy of gtplanet.net

I am honestly surprised that after GT5 and GT6, the FIA supported game doesn't at least have some top line FIA Grade 1 circuits. In the picture above, that is Gran Turismo 6 at Silverstone, why didn't we already have these types of circuits? We are starved of circuits on GT Sport right now, and with GT5 and GT6 having these top level circuits and the FIA supporting GT Sport, this is just such a huge missed opportunity.

Other than that, another means to put forward just how little tracks we honestly have, we don't even have many Japanese tracks! Normally you'd expect racing games to be full of circuits that are based in the developer's home country, like Forza with American tracks, Assetto Corsa with Italian circuits, Project CARS with British circuits, and past GT games with Japanese tracks, but we only have Suzuka in terms of real tracks in Japan.

So let me make a list of a load of tracks that are from the real world that really do need to be in GT Sport, and in brackets in which games they first appeared in from the Gran Turismo series. A lot of these I can do without but for the most part, the first few are needed for this game.

Silverstone, Britain (GT6)
Spa-Francorchamps, Belgium (GT5)
Circuit de la Sarthe/Le Mans, France (GT4)
Red Bull Ring, Austria (GT6)
Côte d'Azur/Circuit de Monaco, Monaco (GT3)
Laguna Seca, USA (GT2)
Fuji Speedway, Japan (GT4)
Indianapolis Motor Speedway, USA (GT5)
Twin Ring Motegi, Japan (GT4)
Infineon Speedway/Sonoma, USA (GT4)
Daytona International Speedway, USA (GT5)
Tsukuba Circuit, Japan (GT4)
Ascari Circuit, Spain (GT6)
Goodwood Hillclimb, Britain (GT6)
Pikes Peak, USA (GT2)

I originally had Monza on this list but since writing this, Monza was added to GT Sport on January 26th, getting there ever so slowly. Alongside this, I do think we also need a lot of GT original circuits that for whatever reason, are not already in the game already. Here is another list containing some original GT circuits that we need in Gran Turismo Sport. Again, brackets saying which GT game they made their debut in.

Trial Mountain Circuit (GT1)
Deep Forest Raceway (GT1)
Grand Valley Speedway (GT1)
Apricot Hill Raceway (GT2)
Midfield Raceway (GT2)
Autumn Ring (GT1)
Tokyo R246 (GT3)
GT Arena (GT6)
Kart Space (GT5)
Matterhorn (GT6)

There are many examples of circuits that have not been in Gran Turismo before that I feel should be, like Sebring and the London F1 circuit that McLaren, Sky and Santander made in 2012. But honestly the circuits we had here that have been in past GT games, these should be in GT Sport so if no more are ever added, I wouldn't mind.

Last thing I'd like to see added, I complained about it on GT5 due to the oversaturation of them but Super GT cars.

Image courtesy of www.touringcartimes.com

The Super GT series is a Japanese based endurance championship, and is the series that Jenson Button is racing in this year, and consists of two categories of racing, the GT300 category which mainly contains traditional GT3 racing and the category that I am interested in, the bespoke GT500 category.

Since the last Gran Turismo games, Super GT adopted regulations similar to that of DTM and like how DTM in recent years has the big three German manufacturers with Audi, BMW and Mercedes competing, Super GT is made up of Nissan, Honda and Toyota (although competing under the Lexus brand) in its top category.

The way that the DTM and Super GT cars are designed make them almost similar in cornering capabilities to lower tier single seaters, which is why I believe having the Nissan GT-R, Honda NSX GT and Lexus LC 500 Super GT cars would be a very welcome addition. Although with it, I'd hope we could have more Japanese circuits.

Back on GT5 when there was nothing like the Group 3 and 4 categories like in GT Sport, Super GT was the only type of racing we had and it was always something I wasn't at peace with. I have this major need for authenticity, and that's why I'd never want to race Super GT cars on anything other than Japanese circuits.

Not to say it's impossible to imagine a Super GT race on any track of course but I would much prefer having a wide selection of circuits in Japan to race these on, at least as far as non GT original circuits are concerned. I have mentioned circuits from previous GT games like Fuji and Motegi but I'd also hope the heavily underrated Okayama circuit would make its Gran Turismo debut.

Well anyway, these are just some of the things I believe we need in GT Sport to make it that much better. I do enjoy the game and as far as GT games go for the future, the ideas and execution for a lot of balanced racing such as BoP and the categories make this the best GT game of the bunch, it just really lacks content. It'll get there eventually, but this game as I have said before, feels less like a game with add on content but more an incomplete puzzle with pieces being given back over time. Could be worse though, I am glad the content being added back is not monetised, that would have been taking the piss.

Alright! Those are my thoughts. What are yours? That will be all from me for today, and if you'd like to tune in for more of my nonsensical rambling then either follow me on Twitter @TheLucaFormat or put your email in the 'Follow By Email' option on the right if you're on a computer, to have my articles sent straight to your inbox.

So until we meet again,
Luca.

Hopeless

Hello everyone, I'm Luca. No funny intro, no quirky lines from me, I'm hoping to put forward a serious tone to you.

So this is in someway, my 56th entry on this blog if you discount my 'update' (By the way, my internet is fixed) and also an article I deleted that I wasn't proud of that I'll attempt to redo soon. 56 is my favourite number, so you'd think my '56th' article would be a positive one, and whilst negative is what I'd expect something that wasn't positive to be, I'd say it was real perhaps?

2017 was a year of realisation for me, and not for good. We all go into the following year with a resolution and it's always something we know we won't complete, that won't be the case for me as I'll always be striving to be a better person, you can hold me to that word. So it isn't self realisation that's bothering me at the moment, it's the realisation that the world is dominated by evil.

I have always refrained from using labels like that because I still truly believe that calling something all good or all bad is a weak thing to do, to pour all that's wrong with the world into whatever you disagree with and live in ignorance. Because what I have realised is that we can scream bigotry and human rights all we want, that whatever we have been told is morally right, that from an early age we are placed in front of the television or we listen to our elders and are taught to be respectful, what good is it?

Realising a lot of things in 2017, from something as personal as a director of my favourite movie really screwing with the fans of that movie, to also seeing how close we all are to seeing that moron in the white house really screw with us.

Having seen Star Wars: The Last Jedi for the second time today - I have some issues with it but overall it's a really great movie - but when I was watching it, I remember thinking about what the basic formula of a Star Wars movie has always been, the very basic premise of good vs. evil, the grey area inbetween the light and the dark and what makes either side of the coin. It began to hit me, what makes good and evil, doing good is fighting for those who can't fight back, and evil is doing whatever it can at the expense of those who can't fight back. Having asked myself that for years, I now know the truth.

I don't want to spoil the Star Wars movie for you guys incase you haven't seen it, so if somehow you haven't then slight spoiler warning ahead, the Resistance is down to only a few members by the end of the film. However despite that, you hear throughout the film that there's still hope even after what they all go through, that there's always hope that the Sith, the Empire, now the First Order will be taken down, they will not win. We lose ourselves in this arrogant view of "We will win against evil", but really, will we?

Back in around 2015 or 2016, I went to see Dave Gorman and we were treated to a supporting act from a comedian named Nick Doody, and he was brilliant. He spoke about the 7/7 bombings in London, something which hits home for me as my parents were there a year before that happened and could very well have been there that year instead for the same reason, and how the British spirit keeps hope alive, and I loved hearing that. But having seen terror attacks happen this year especially, I won't hold back when I tell you just how scary it is, but not just terror attacks but also the people that are in charge.

In America, you have a president who quite openly is discriminative against LGBT people, believes black people who protest against the American flag because of police brutality are sons of bitches and Charlottesville racists have some decent people, and also who has now deprived the poor of health insurance and will openly allow them to die because of poverty, what is America exactly? Is it its people or its money? Because I have yet to find a redeeming quality about the Republican party, no matter how hard I try.

I have come to realise just how this world really is ran by evil, that evil is defined by doing what you can but at the expense of someone who is unable to fight back. A cowardly way of winning. It saddens me, because along with that nutter known as Trump doing all of that, we also have legitimate fears that Kim Jong-Un is going to go to nuclear war with Trump, and I can't bare the thought of it.

The other thing I realised this year, your heroes can be just as egregious. Matthew Vaughn could do no wrong in my eyes, but it's almost as if he tried. After I found out he killed Roxy in Kingsman and the manner in which he did, I won't mince my words when I say that I did cry, a lot. I broke down in public, I had to go to a private place and get my mum on the phone, I was a helpless mess. You have all heard enough from me about my reasons for being so passionate about Roxy in Kingsman to last a lifetime, and whilst my petition is fast approaching 700 on its way to 1,000 I still can't help but feel helpless still and hopeless.

It still disgusts me how the Kingsman official Twitter accounts have joked about the demand to see Roxy, the Kingsman mobile game Twitter account even used Roxy as a means to entice people to play the game, saying "She is still kicking butt in the Kingsman mobile game". They know that they fucked up! I know of some people who have confronted Matthew Vaughn but they have been civil with him, like he's going to listen to someone like that. Mark my words, I will confront that sexist troglodyte one day, but the fact I say it means I have to act on it and I am going to find that difficult to physically do. I won't have any issue going up to him in person, I just have to find a way to see him in person.

Anyway, small little tangent there, but overall, powerlessness. Going back to the Republicans, when they passed that bill that deprived 13 million people of their health insurance, I remember seeing a video of a few protestors who said that Republicans were laughing at them, one even trying to have a conversation with another Republican politician and they ran away. A great irony of the Republican way is being a heavily religious Christian party, when Jesus Christ even says "Heal the sick, feed the hungry, care for the weakest among us".

I'm well aware that it may sound like I'm trying to do a hit piece on all Republicans, I'm sure there are some people out there who have either voted for the Republican party in America or identify as a Republican that don't vote that way just at the expense of anybody who can't fight back. I always want to see the good in everyone, I'm just struggling with those sort of people who don't have basic decency like that.

I say this knowing I'm not perfect. I have gone through life making shitty slip ups at the expense of people and I can't live with myself, and I say I'm going to be better not because I don't think I was not deserving of any sort of criticism, but because I want to continue to improve. It would be wrong of anyone to believe they have peeked, and I will always focus on improving myself, it's just incredibly discouraging to know that there are people that do wrong in this world.

Not really the people who do despicable things, but the ones who have the power and abuse it for their own good, we have seen more than the fair share of that in 2017. I am all out of hope for the better of this world, I will continue trying to be a decent human but I know that more people are going to have to die in order to satisfy the greed of these abusive people of power, and that upsets me, not because only is it happening but nothing can be done about it.

You elect a person of the people, there will always be conservatives with some legitimacy somehow, and the many bigots who we turn the left shoulder on and pretend they don't exist when they still do.

You trust someone you idolise to do something decent and they'll exercise their ego at the expense of a beloved character in a movie which on face value, doesn't matter but it really does to some people, myself included.

You have hope, that tiny little spark that will light the flame that will burn down your enemies, they still live in that similar bubble that means they'll continue to fight in the same way you will. In the end, we don't matter to anyone who doesn't care about us? Pass a law that will allow another corporate tycoon to buy another yacht at the expense of the health and pension of a Thomas, Richard and Harold, what can we do about it?

Write a blog post about how pissed off you are, what will it do? Don't be naïve. At the end of the day, what is it that makes us believe that we matter to them? We don't and we never will, we can't win by spirit alone, what is there to do? No point getting all wound up about it, we have no power. Remember my blog post about a voice with no power, Heyday films did respond to me and tell me they'll keep me in mind but honestly, I doubt they have, they probably just told me what I wanted to hear and dismissed me.

I'm sorry if this is bringing you all down, I needed to get this off my chest and tell you all that I feel hopeless. Another case of injustice in America is the FCC most punchable face guy repealing net neutrality, he made a very condescending video that used Star Wars in a segment, and that was when Mark Hamill (Luke Skywalker) went to town on him, saying how the Jedi would fight for good and for people who couldn't fight back. That parallels really well with a casino scene in The Last Jedi that whilst a bit meh in execution, still showcased how people make their money at the expense of everyday folk.

This is why I feel lost, and almost devastated at the state of this world. I have a lot of good in my life, great friends and a supporting family who are very well off, and I know I haven't done perfectly in my short 21 years in life but I want to be better. I want to do good in the world, and that's all I can say to all of you, do good and do what you think is good, do good by your fellow person and when you see something wrong and the whole world is telling you that it's right, plant yourself like a log and do, not, budge.

That's the note I want to end this on, that evil exists and just do what you think is right. You have some amazing people in this world, like Edward Snowden who is in exile in Russia because of his 'crimes' when it wasn't a crime, Snowden exposed an invasive NSA practice of spying on everyone, and he did it because he knew it was right. Be good people, even when you're all out of hope like me, just do what's right.

Thank you all,
Luca.

Temporary delay

Hello everyone.

I know I haven't posted in a couple of days and that's because my internet for some reason isn't hooking up to my laptop.

I'm typing this on my phone incase you're wondering, downloaded the Blogger app. We got a new internet provider whose name I won't say as I don't think it's a fair reflection on them, and it connected to my phone, PlayStation, all of my family's devices but not my laptop.

Hopefully it'll be sorted soon and I can get back to posting articles for you lot. So if you don't hear from me beforehand, Merry Christmas everyone!

Until we meet again,
Luca.

Why I love Eevee

Image courtesy of http://pokemonwikia.com

Hello you, the name is Luca but you can call me Luca. So I bought into the Pokémon franchise back when Diamond and Pearl came out, and literally none of the others afterwards, and I had such a blast! I don't play the games anymore but if I did, I have my dream team which consist of the following; Lucario, Absol, Blaziken, Milotic, Togekiss and last but not least, Eevee.

Probably an odd choice considering the fully-evolved, cool and elegant Pokémon that you see one like Eevee, but there's a lot of person sentimental value in my choosing of Eevee, allow me to take you on a history lesson. Beginning when I first got into Pokémon, I really do wish I was able to tell you all how I saw Eevee for the first time but I can't but I will try.

When generation four material began hitting the forefront of my awareness, I had been watching from a distance at my brother playing all the generation two games (and subsequently having a Level 100 Feraligatr as a result) as well as all my other friends, I decided I'd give it a go. My parents bought me an out of date Pokémon game guide that went up to Generation Three and I gave it a flick through, and very few Pokémon really stood out to me. This was until I found Pokémon number 133, that being Eevee, the evolution Pokémon. (My mum believes it was because of my brother allowing me to have his Pokémon cards and an Eevee was in there, I honestly can't remember.)

What was it that caught my attention at first? Bare in mind I was a barely 11 probably at the time but I've just turned 21 now and my opinion is no less true, I just thought Eevee was the cutest thing I had ever seen. I adore its design, with the rabbit ears, thick mane, big eyes, tiny legs and paws as well as its big fox tail, there is nothing in Eevee's design that holds it back in my opinion.

But there was more to Eevee than just being cute, as I have already said that it's known as the Evolution Pokémon. Evolving in Pokémon is something I believe a lot of you will know very well but for those who don't, allow me to teach you; depending on particular circumstances, a Pokémon will evolve and result in becoming an all new kind of Pokémon, such as with the one that everyone knows being Pikachu, which evolves from Pichu if the bond between Pokémon and trainer is maximised and then can go on to become Raichu should it be exposed to an in-game item called a Thunderstone.

Different Pokémon evolve in different ways, mostly from levelling up as a result of winning battles but in most cases, the evolved forms always result in never steering too far from its previous form in regards to type. The Pikachu family remains Electric-Type throughout and it's very rare that you see a Pokémon have a vastly varied evolution chain, which is why Eevee is so unique.


Image courtesy of www.game7.de

Eevee can evolve into one of as of now, eight different kinds of Pokémon. Initially back in the first generation of Pokémon, the Normal-Type Eevee was joined by its three vastly different evolutions, which were the Water-Type Vaporeon, the Fire-Type Flareon and the Electric-Type Jolteon, all of which evolved from Eevee when exposed to a Water Stone, Fire Stone or Thunderstone. Followed up in the second generation, the Psychic-Type Espeon and Dark-Type Umbreon, both of which evolved when the Eevee has fully bonded with its trainer although it would evolve into Espeon during the day and Umbreon at night.

Skipping a generation and we arrive at four, and added to the list were the Grass-Type Leafeon and the Ice-Type Glaceon, which would evolve from Eevee should it level up within the vicinity of a Moss or Ice Rock located on a Pokémon game's map. Finally we find ourselves at the Fairy-Type Sylveon, the generation six addition that Eevee would evolve into should it know a Fairy-Type move and have at least two levels of Affection points from Pokémon-Amie game mode.

Eevee evolutions or as the portmanteau is, 'Eeveelutions', are incredible and if I had to pick a favourite out of the eight, it would probably be Espeon though I may have a different pick each day. It is said that Eevee's unstable genetic code results in its many different evolutionary forms due to the need to adapt to harsh surroundings, which is fascinating to me even though it's fictional.. sadly.

Also what is to say that with the juggernaut that is the Pokémon franchise at this point, that Eevee won't get more evolved forms? We may see a Dragon-Type called Dracoeon, a Poison-Type called Toxiceon or a Ghost-Type called Spookeon. But whatever joins the Eeveelution tree, one thing won't change, that being how I wouldn't evolve my Eevee.

I have always pictured myself as a Pokémon trainer with an Eevee perched up on my shoulder, because we can dream right? Boy wouldn't having Pokémon be real just be awesome? We have all had that thought, haven't we? I'd have my Eevee as my starter Pokémon, and yes I am aware of how much of a child I sound. But that never stopped me.

I'm also very aware of how much of a weird vibe this gives off because Pokémon has always been seen as a kids game, and I'm gawking over a Pokémon that is traditionally seen as quite girly since I'm only really supposed to like the cool Pokémon like Lucario, Absol and Blaziken. But I am not ashamed, because as I write this, I have my Build-A-Bear stuffed Eevee under my arm (Build-A-Bear is incredible by the way), and on my walls I have two separate Eeveelutions posters, and a few letters from my close friend Nadine. We both love Pokémon.

We will be meeting in June when I go over to her home country of the Netherlands to watch the MotoGP with her and I am so excited to finally meet her! She has drawn me a picture of an Eevee which looks incredible, she has also drawn us both as Pokémon, me as a Riolu (The pre-evolved form of Lucario) and her as an Eevee since I gave her the nickname Eevee. One time being in a Christmas card which looked like it was done very impromptu but still unbelievably detailed and emotive, and another time she drew a picture for my birthday last Monday that she has made plans to make it look even better so we can take it home and frame it.

Oh and lastly, I got her a Build-A-Bear Eevee wearing pajamas that its ears and tail can stick through that is actually sat on the end of my bed and we will be sending off to her house for Christmas. I have no clue where I was going with any of this now, I just wrote it all down and I don't want to get rid of it.

My point is, I'm not ashamed with how much I love Eevee. I used to get weird looks from my peers back in primary school but it's over 10 years later and will be another ten years and I doubt I'll grow out of it. After all, it's not how old you are but how you are old!

Finally as cheesy and cliché it may sound, I saw a fan edit of Eevee back when I was just getting into Pokémon, which was really inspirational to me. It was a load of clips from the anime revolving around episodes to do with Eevee and the Eeveelutions, and it was set to this song called No One by Aly and AJ, and seeing it as a 10 or 12 year old (Maybe even 11 lol), it was something I sat on at that point in my life.

The lyrics went something like "And I ask myself, who do I want to be? Do I want to throw away the key, and invent a whole new me? I tell myself, no one but me", and the song really suited the idea of Eevee as a whole. You have a Pokémon that has so many paths to go down in regards to what it can become, and whilst the whole world may tell you to be one thing, nobody should feel obligated to become anything other than the best version of themselves.

Ending this off, I want to know what is your dream pick of six Pokémon? If they were real, ideally what would be your selection and which one would be your main one? As you know, for me it's Eevee of course, Lucario, Blaziken, Absol, Togekiss and Milotic.

Also I highly recommend everyone goes to experience how Build-A-Bear makes their stuff. It's incredible to witness the amount of love, care and detail goes into making a Build-A-Bear, having made my Eevee when I went to Scotland having been really upset after finding out Roxy's fate in Kingsman to be cheered up with my Eevee cuddly plushie, it warmed my heart so much. I'll be heading back up to Build-A-Bear to have mine fitted with a sound device to make the noise an Eevee would.

I know it's seen as girly and childish but I'm a 21 year old man and it makes me happy. I will not compromise myself to maintain an image of forced societal manliness and close off my emotions for anyone, heck I've never held back before so why should I stop now? Eevee is one of the few things that never fails to make me happy, and if that makes me seem like less of a man then so be it.

Image is my own

Alright! That will be all from me, thank you all for reading and I hope you enjoyed it. If you want to see more of my stuff then either follow me on Twitter @TheLucaFormat or have my articles sent straight to your inbox, go to the 'Follow By Email' option if you can find it to the right of your screen.

So until we meet again!
Luca.

Making enemies

Hello you. My name is Luca but you can call me Luca. So I would be very naïve to say that this world was only ever full of love, it's unfortunate but we know fine well that there are bigots among us, and don't get me wrong, I will not stand for bigotry or discrimination in any way. But we are very quick to label someone as the enemy, and I do think it's wrong.

I won't go full Donald Trump and say "There are some fine people" among the Charlottesville protestors (Because really, there wasn't from what I could see), but I do believe the attitude of always labelling the slightest bit of opposite thinking as wrong, it isn't healthy. I remember watching a video with I believe John Cleese in it, and he spoke about how the most popular groups of people are the ones who rile people up with their opposing groups, and how the neutral middle man won't ever get anywhere near the support. This does ring so true.

Allow me to be transparent. I am a UK resident born in late 1996 so my first general election was 2015, and in both elections that have taken place whilst I can vote, I have voted for Labour in my region and I don't want anyone of you to send me an email saying how I've given power to the anti-Christ and that I'll be murdered by them because of it and I should have voted Conservative, none of that bullshit thank you.

This year's snap election was infuriating for me, not for the result but for the lead up to it, reading the very obviously biased newspapers and there was one columnist who had wrote an article pretty much demanding parents to prevent their children from going out to vote for Labour, which is disgusting. If I ever have children who don't vote for the party I vote for, the only thing that will make me question their choice is why they're voting for them.

In conversation with a close friend one time regarding the confusion over free speech and hate speech, it was really screwing with my head, but she told me something really clear to me that I honestly wish was so clear to me before. With all these people trying to legitimise a lot of hate speech and pass it off as "Oh you don't think they're entitled to being able to say anything, are you an advocate for censorship?". The very fact that this sentence was uttered is such a huge issue.

But whilst the most complicated questions in life should never have a simple answer, my friend really helped me here. The very clear answer to this question was, that unless what someone says is infringing on the rights of anybody, discriminating against them or just plain thinking that they are superior because of their race, gender or sexual orientation, that it's free speech.

I had been sitting on what she told me for a while and came to realise how toxic every environment can be due to the applied logic that everyone who doesn't confine to your beliefs is always the enemy, is just really self destructive. I find that hearing opposing views can help you see past the confines of your own echo chamber, as I do believe that it's quite destructive to only listen to people who agree with you and as a result, you could go your whole life doing wrong and you would never know by a count of your ignorance.

It's honestly quite sad that people who are on one side, seeing the other side as the enemy all the time in every case without fail. I for one am not going to become friends with someone, find out that they are Conservative party supporters and cut all ties with them, only if they were racist, sexist, homophobic, that's when I'd take an issue and I don't think it's wrong to think that way.

Another thing, why is it seen as wrong to try and think about something? If we always acted very impulsively without looking at the evidence, so many innocent people would be in prison. I am of the mentality that if something is everywhere, then it's also nowhere, that we become so desensitised to hearing an accusation that may very well be true, be we are always so ready to burn someone immediately even if it isn't true.

If let's say you're a strong Republican party supporter in the USA, I'm not trying to make you vote otherwise as this can be said for all parties as well, why do you support them? I know in the US, the Republican party are attempting to pass a bill to privatise healthcare which I think is an absolute disgrace. I don't think there's any excuse to deprive someone of healthcare just because they can't afford it, and having heard stories about people being unable to have treatment and dying as a result of not being able to pay for it, means that from an outsider's point of view at least, that the Republican party don't like the American people.

Then of course you have the people who voted Republican who are strong white supremacists, who are against LGBT rights, who want to defund or outright remove healthcare funds for anybody who can't afford it, who want to remove women or transgender people from the military, who discriminate against anyone who do not share their religious beliefs, you can't deny their existence. But at the same time, if someone voted for Trump to be president last year, you had people like that but then you had people who just needed an income, and we all need to sit back and think about why we support whoever we do.

If any of you out there vote for racists, or anyone who wants to redefine rape, or deprive people of basic rights just because of who they are, I don't put this lightly at all but shame on you if that's why you voted for them.

At the same time, not all political parties are perfect, like how the Democratic party in America are apparently more in line with sorting social issues as appose to getting the economy going for the good of the country, I believe in a good combination of both but definitely not at the expense of anyone for whatever they are. The fact that we have a president in office right now who is freely reposting stuff from a hate group is inexcusable, and I'm not going to give him the benefit of the doubt because we have seen people act impulsively and attack him for something that wasn't true. Again, if something is everywhere then it's nowhere.

But there's no excuse for hatred and bigotry, and the very fact that people in this world are of that mind-set and are so normalised in their own mind, that we are apparently wrong and unaccepting. To this I say, imagine yourself as the sort of person you hate for whatever reason, who you think you're better than, to think you don't accept them just because of what they are, not who they are, how would you feel?

Give people basic respect and basic rights. Treat others how you want to be treated, and don't stand for hatred in any form. Judge people on who they are as a person, not for their sexual orientation, not for their religious beliefs, not for their race, because everyone really is the same race, the human race.

The very fact I have to say it when it isn't just basic knowledge, it's unfortunate. But if I can end this on any note, it's just letting you know that you're entitled to any view you like as long as it isn't at the expense of anyone's basic human rights. Not everyone is your enemy, know what will constitute an actual bad person over just an opposing viewpoint, because these undermining efforts don't help anyone. When it's everywhere, then it's nowhere.

Alright! Thank you all for reading. If you're new here and fancy knowing when I next post, you can follow me on Twitter @TheLucaFormat or if you want all my blog posts sent straight to your email inbox, look for the 'Follow By Email' option if you're on a desktop or laptop as I don't believe it works on the phone.

Hope to see all of you back here soon, so until we meet again.
Luca.