Survival…

Survival…,
this single word pretty much sums up the reason for the astonishing rise of humans since eons.
Survival has driven humans to stand atop the Earth as it’s foremost in intelligence and with the tool called “Technology”, we now stand at an impasse of sheer might that grants us an illusion of supreme control over elements of nature.
True, the most outrageous thing that can possibly threaten man’s survival today is the much bandied term of “Global Warming” and already groups of distinguished people are coming together to combat it in the most unheard of ways; which says a lot about the basic human instinct for survival at any cost, even if the enemy this time is not a fellow specie but the brute force of the earth and its elements itself!


Considering that we have the least minimum awareness about the disasters happening around us, the question that comes to mind is…Is the enemy this time too much even for Humans??

Probing this question and looking into the future through a multitude of lenses are people that come from diverse backgrounds.
The viewpoint of artists is what interests me the most, since well, even if their work does take creative liberties and dilutes the truth at times, the common guy or girl is more likely to be influenced by an artistic masterpiece than a whitepaper!!
The argument is more in their favor if we also consider the number of people that the artist can reach out to, than a conventional report.

There are numerous pieces of work on the subject yet distinguished from one another with just the artist’s touch of elegance, either differing in the context or the way in which the central issue is addressed.
I consider three works from varying sources, them being

1. La Maison En Petits Cubes [the house of small cubes]-a short animated film
2. WALL-E - A hugely successful film by PIXAR
3. HOTEL-A manga, or rather a Japanese comic of 40 page length

I assume everyone has seen WALL-E,

La Maison can be seen here


http://vodpod.com/watch/1668659-la-maison-en-petits-cubes

OR


http://vodpod.com/watch/1652528-la-maison-en-petites-cubes


http://vimeo.com/9768572

OR

http://shortsbay.com/film/la-maison-en-petites-cubes

OR

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uX0Dvtvev1E




The manga HOTEL can be read her, click on the page to get to the next page
Read the panels from RIGHT to LEFT


http://www.mangafox.com/manga/hotel/v01/c001/

Each of these touches the central issue in various ways,


La Maison is a commendable masterpiece for evoking the warmest feelings inside of us even with each second of it portraying the deplorable state of the world, though only as a backdrop!
Here is a film in which the most striking themes are the resolute old man, his colorful past life and the way in which each nostalgic flashback leads to him remembering not the world being engulfed by its own oceans, but rather the sweet moments with his family!

Since his young days show a world that is happy and at bliss, contrasting his old life atop tottering piles of “cubes” amidst the ever rising ocean, this film is a viewpoint to at most a few hundred years into the future only.


Nevertheless, this is a humane approach to the future, which uses global warming as a mere background.




Now, coming to WALL-E
The 1.5 hour movie has its main say in portraying the love story between the lonely titular robot and the highly advanced EVE with the humans being introduced only in the second half of the movie!
Considering the state of the earth as seen in the beginning of the movie, it is around 700 years since the time humans abandoned it.
Now, what’s interesting here is that the humans leave at the end of 21st century due to manic consumerism that has covered the earth in trash, but the point is that since the humans are out of the picture early on and the earth entrusted to “Clean-Up Robots”, the earth as seen 700 years after all this is a steaming wasteland with junk of mega-proportions.
That is, the city is thankfully not engulfed in water but it’s in a debatably worse condition!
For both of the above, we have only the humans to thank, since their departure must have reduced emissions to a certain extent but their past possessions now fill much of the earth.

The story has a highly optimistic happy ending that makes us feel that maybe, just maybe, humanity might learn from its mistakes and start a responsible existence anew!





HOTEL
Finally, the art form that differs is a 40 page comic that takes huge leaps of time as you flip each page….
This story depicts everything that an “indestructible” tower has to go through in the years to come and the years envisioned are not in the scale of hundreds but of several millennia!


The underlying message right from the 1st panel is that humanity is at a dead end, and all its efforts to stay afloat are hopeless.
Much like WALL-E, a space ship does leave earth at the cusp of its destruction, but it is filled with DNA strands of humans rather than humans themselves, with its target being a planet 1.27 Million light years away!


The second strand of the story and the focus of the comic is the “HOTEL” that is constructed on Antarctica to preserve the DNA records of the existing species….except that of humans!!
Frankly, considering the selfish nature of man, the acceptance of this proposal is more of a wonder to me, even if this is a fictional comic!
We see another creative liberty taken with names of real world personas being used like Keira Knightley and Louis Armstrong.



The viewpoint is throughout from the “eyes” of “Louis” and it considers Prof.Anno as its father and Keira as its mother!
Curiously, the gradual end of humanity is never shown graphically and it goes by with a montage of “What a beautiful World”, which is pure irony considering the songs up-lifting lyrics.



After this, each panel represents a time leap of a few hundred years that is already out of range for a human to envision.
As Louis upgrades its own parts, which is analogous to a teenager getting college education, it harks back to the finer things in life remembering its father and the marvel called Aurora.
Time leap of 3 millennium later, we see the fabled meteors from outer space raining down relentlessly to pound the earth repeatedly.
The steps Louis takes to combat the current crisis and the way it plans to overcome such problems in the future are so very human, that it is heartwarmingly nostalgic in a way, considering that humans are gone forever now.



As it sets Goals for itself, time passes by like a mirage, ever moving and 120k years later, the tower still stands!
My imagination of an Ice Age was certainly shattered by knowing that its average temp was 245 Celsius!
The time leaps now become exponential and the tower is seen to have a “Mid-Life Crisis” questioning its path and wallowing it its own thoughts.
It makes a final fight-back against the ruthless nature, in its final “Twilight years”, but loses most of its “modules” and all appears hopeless as the miracle of rain jerks it back to reality or rather its imagination!


The final pages of the manga reveal the true passage of time since the 1st page and it would understandably leave one dumbstruck since an average guy can’t even plan ahead for a few days!
Its experienced words of wisdom to the young systems around it serve as the final eulogy for Louis’ Grand lifetime.


Its conclusion reminds of the strong will of humans to survive and imbues me with the hope that things won’t go as bleakly as foretold by these artists.



In conclusion, the way in which an individual reacts or is influenced by these masterpieces may differ, but the underlying core of all these remains the same and in the end, it is my utmost wish that it prods everyone to make themselves aware of which point of history the Human civilization stands at and what needs to be done to ensure its survival.

Udbhav 09....Say it LOUD !!!!

It was that time of the year again, when most of us sleep-walk through our scheduled classes in anticipation of an event that holds a special place in every budding engineer’s heart!
Yep, the event was none other than Udbhav and it rocked and HOW!!

With the new format of having fun events on normal class days and the extended Theme for the day, Udbhav got an unofficial start through the tomfoolery of sponge-race!
[Have no idea what they were doing, actually]
This, in my opinion could only be fun to the actual participants and not to the weary audience who gathered around after a hectic day of classes!
The theme of that day was the Mix N’ Match which required a truly bizarre bent of mind to come up with dresses to wear!
Some uh... people deserved to be lauded for the bravery displayed in wearing some “Creations”!!


The second unofficial day of Udbhav had its theme as Bollywood Retro day, which unbeknownst to me happened to be cancelled... Of course, the reason for its cancellation is still a mystery to me.
Certainly was a tad disappointed that my pseudo retro look was wasted!
Moving on, the fun event for the day was a derivative of cricket, as in Bowl-out’s, a phenomenon crafted out of Indian Premier League.
Now, since my record in cricket is anything but record-breaking, which in itself is a massive understatement, I decided to steer clear of this one!


Three whole days whiled away and the start of the Monday bought with it the key prelim rounds that would decide the participants’ worthy of gracing the finals.
The absolute mania that Sanjay created around me participating in DC is something that will be in my remembrance for some time.
To put it mildly, Sanjay was the one who pumped up me and Kishore into participating and his poor general knowledge on “general knowledge”[pun intended] was to be the undermining factor that would give us a total of o points, and thus a kick in the back out of the prelims itself!



After that rather embarrassing turn of events, the fun events that were Sack-race and Balloon throw were where I frizzled away my time instead of checking out my classmate’s performance in Creative Dance, which I was later, told, to be a superb show!


The next day rolled out and the official inauguration involving the top-brass of our college congregating at Hi-tech sem hall was commencing even as I looked forward to the One act-play that started at around the same time.
The time which was spent witnessing the artistes putting out their talents on show around a well structured story and dialogue was the highlight of the day!
The two Kannada plays involved classmates and friends and were far from disappointing!
Murli’s play, in particular was mesmerizing since it weaved through complex poetry-like dialogues and yet emerged to be the best of the around 12 plays that I witnessed that day.
The last play provided the much needed paisa-vasool entertainment, as I call it, by spoofing Prison Break, and boy, did they get it right!
The character introductions itself had me go into peals of laughter and it really was a light-comedic end to an excellent event.
This day had its theme as “Wear Your Music” which led to plain tees featuring printed band artists and rappers or creative ones, one of which was done by Sanjay himself!



The intermediate day of Udbhav is in my humble opinion, an opportunity for MSRITIans to waltz around in their Ethnic garbs while posing for cameras like there’s no tomorrow!
My borrowed Kurta was a pleasant first time experience.
And my meeting with Sanjay’s much-talked about “friend” Arpitha was also a pleasant one.
This meeting and the entire back story that led to it as well as the story that transpired thereafter would require a huge deviation from the topic and thus I leave it at that.

Noon had me going to the SKIT in the small ESB2 hall where the performances were satisfactory at best, but the entertainment quotient was over the roof since the audience, including me were constantly kept in good humor!

As the final day rolled in, I was looking forward to the dance events that would surely set the ball rolling in getting the MSRitians to shake a leg!
The Cool Black T-shirt that epitomized the spirit of Udbhav was the theme of the final day and it was sold out in 1 day itself!!
True to my expectation, the dance events were exuberant and the teams gave excellent completion to one another throughout.
The two teams that struck me with their moves were the eventual winner FTN-Forget The Name and the famous Fire N ‘Ice, who were the runners-up.
Of course, the other teams were superb as well and kept the energy level high and pumping!
The dance event also culminated in your humble writer dancing for the first time ever in his life! ; A feat achieved due to the prodding of none other than Sanjay, something which I am thankful to him for.
The euphoria of the final day stayed long after I exited the college and a fragment of it will always reside in me forever!
In retrospect, having witnessed the BMS Utsav, I must say that even though the crowd control, Event co-ordination and other minor points were lacking a bit of polish; the energy and vibe that the crowd gave out during Udbhav is something will always set my pulse racing!


//A light write-up that I typed up in one go, with not much thought process or framework as its support; I really hope people reading this enjoy as much I did in writing it.

One critique I have for myself is that, this particular write-up is a bit understated, when compared to my usual writing style//

The 81st Academy Awards!

An event of magic, mystique and movies is how people the world over associate the Academy awards, popularly called the Oscars, with.
This year proved no different as the 81st Academy Awards, planned with strict secrecy that was unusual for an event of such magnitude, went underway at the Kodak theatre in Los Angeles, California.

As we get our first glimpse of the stage, two thoughts come to mind in a flash…..
The stage this year is but a few inches ahead of the front seats where the stars grace their presence and that the whole arena is more Broadway than Hollywood!

Starting the show is the charming as ever Hugh Jackman, who many felt lacked the charisma and star power to host the Oscars.
Boy, He certainly proves his detractors wrong as he whips out his repertoire of tricks and sings and dances his way through a brilliantly entertaining opening montage, which outlined the truly global nature of the Oscars.
Even before all of this, his opening lines were outlandishly funny, and genuinely made the audience feel at ease with all the nominations that were to follow.


After all the introductory fanfare, Jackman hands over the stage to the previous winners of the Oscars in the category of “Supporting actress”
This new format of presenting nominees through previous winners is way more nostalgic and a good departure from the old one.
As the nominees were read out, my ears and eyes were reserved only for Amy Adams, the nominee for the film Doubt, who was truly enchanting in her earlier film, Enchanted and of course, the wonderful Penelope Cruz, whose role as Maria Elena in Vicky Christina Barcelona was a delight to watch.
In the brief time that she is on-screen, she unites all she comes in contact with and yet, at the same time is an agent of division due to her warped genius of a persona.
She truly was the spark that gave the film its unique angle, and was justly awarded with her first Oscar.

As the show moves onto the screenplay nominations, being presented by the wonderful pairing of Steve Martin and Tina Fey, their witty banter was hilarious to watch, even as they poked fun at the notion of the Alien king Roundelay planting the very first seeds on Earth, a clear dig at the made-up religion of scientology; whose most powerful promoters were seated right before them!
The innovative aspect of this year’s show continued as the screenplay nominations were announced in an exceptional sequence featuring the actual screenplay being typed onto the screen, interspersed with the live footage of the scene in question.
The winner Dustin Lance Black, for the film “Milk” gave a heart-felt speech that mirrored his professed inspiration from the titular character of Harvey Milk himself.

Closely following the original screenplay nominations were the Adapted screenplay ones, and here, the only major contenders I saw were those of Benjamin button and Slumdog Millionaire.
Button, was conceived from a short story from 1921 of the same name, by famed writer F. Scott Fitzgerald….and Slumdog Millionaire was adapted from the novel Q&A by Indian diplomat Vikas Swarup.
The eventual winner was Slumdog for the amazing magic it weaved through its runtime.

After this comes the embarrassing combo of Jack Black and Jennifer Aniston with their awkward and crude jokes.
I felt it was a pity that the Award for Best Animation had to be announced by people of such caliber, what with the eventual winner WALL-E being my favorite film of last year, for it was immensely thought provoking, yet entertaining to the max.


Continuing on, the nominations for Best Animated Short feature included Presto by PIXAR, Lavatory-Love story, This Way UP, Oktapodi and my absolute favorite in La Maison en Petits Cubes.

Sampling the fact that it’s a 12 minute film with a French title and setting, made by a Japanese director was dizzying in itself.
But, in a wonderful artistic approach ,the film is cast in a unique filter that mesmerizes with its grunge feeling and also, while all the other nominees are in 3D,this wonder of a short manages to impress in hand-drawn 2D of yore!
Words would not do justice to the feelings evoked in me by this feature, it truly was a revelation and I clearly realized the power artists have in conveying varied nuances in a mere span of minutes.
The only other film that caught my attention was the very short but delightfully funny Oktapodi!

And the Academy vindicated my euphoria by pronouncing La Maison as the eventual winner.
The director Mr. Kunio Katô took the right moment to say
“Domo Arigatou, Mr.Roboto”, while I would say “Domo Arigatou Mr. Katô” for the lovely pleasure!






Moving on, the pair of Daniel Craig and Sarah Jessica Parker took the stage to announce the nominations for Art Direction and subsequently the nominations for Best Costume Design.
I sensed that Mr. Bond…err...Rather Mr. Craig was rather nervous, what with his frequent mishaps at pronunciation!
No qualms whatsoever that Benjamin Button bagged the Oscar for Art Direction.
The stunning, but complex 18th century dresses of the Period drama “The Duchess” captured the hearts of the academy with an Oscar too, and it truly deserved it as the costume of a bygone era is rather difficult to recreate in its entire splendor; a task done to perfection by Michael O'Conner.


The montage of shots featuring the romantic aspect of films of 2008 set to Coldplay’s “Lovers in Japan” was profoundly touching, encompassing all the trials and tribulations of Romance at its finest.


Ben Stiller and Natalie Portman come up to announce the nominees for the Best Cinematographer, even while Ben is set with his hit-or miss comedy stint that divided people on whether it was plain rude or damn funny.
Seriously, while I found it a little amusing, his impersonation of his peer, Joaquin Phoenix who is unwell, is shocking, to say the least.
I’m also quite miffed that the award went to Slumdog rather than The Dark knight which pulled off the dark moody atmosphere of Gotham in each and every shot!



As the Awards jogged to its middle portion, Jackman comes up with another musical, but this time referring to arcane Jazz musicals and new-age songs that were plain boring, especially if they are held high as dance numbers!
The presence of Beyonce as Hugh’s partner in crime...Umm...Dance did nothing to convince me that this medley of awkward steps would ever do justice to his proclamation that “The musical is back!”…
God, I hope not!


After that downturn of events, we come to the nominees for the Best actor in a supporting role….yes; it finally is the turn of The Joker, played to the core by the late Heath Ledger to get his due.
None of the other nominees can hold a candle to Ledger’s magnificent portrayal of a twisted, chaotic genius as The Joker in TDK.
Honestly, the movie was immensely entertaining, yet profoundly deep due to the very antics of the inane antagonist, and not the eponymous Batman himself.
The Audience was in tears as his family came up and accepted his award on his behalf, their short speech truly gratifying.


Shortly after, Will Smith presented the adrenaline inducing collage of shots of all the pumping action in the movies of 2008, set to some rocking music.
With Smith presenting, the award for Visual Effects rightly went to the team behind the essence of Benjamin Button, for his age reversal process showed onscreen in a superbly incredible way!

Since I had the sheer pleasure of enjoying TDK in a good plex, I can say that the Award for Sound editing rightly went to the damn good sound effects in that slick film.
Likewise, the heady blend of sound and music in Slumdog was recognized by an Oscar in Sound Mixing category.



And finally, the moment Millions of Indians the world over were waiting with bated breath for, the Nominees for Best Original score was laid out.
Indians must have been jumping with sheer joy as the Maestro Rahman was handed the Oscar.
The dance sequences that followed felt a bit rushed though their brilliance was never in question, with Rahman leading from the front!
The song Jai Ho swept the arena as the Oscar went to the collaboration of Rahman and the magical Gulzar.

Following all the elation was the nominees for best foreign film.
Now, here was where I wound up short, since these films save for “Waltz with Bashir” were nowhere to be found for my viewing pleasure.
The award went to the Japanese “Okuribito” translated simply to Departures, a film I’m sure none of those congregated at the ceremony had even heard of.
It really was quite an upset, since Waltz with Bashir; already having a trail of awards behind it was a favorite to win.

The show revved up to full gear once again as the award for Best director went to Danny Boyle,who accepted it in the spirit of Tigger from Winnie the Pooh, giving a magnificent speech full of the rush one can only get from holding the Golden Guy in your hands.

The award for leading actress rightfully and finally at that, went to Kate
Winslet for her daring role as a former Nazi in “The Reader”
Her thank you speech was the best of the evening, even with her getting heady due to her 5 nominations finally culminating to a win!

I certainly can’t say anything about the award for leading actor going to Sean Penn for his role as Gay rights activist Harvey Milk in “Milk”, since I really haven’t seen the film.
However, having seen the other favorite nominee, Mickey Rourke in The Wrestler, it’s safe to say that if Sean Penn’s act was better than the bloody brilliant performance put by Mickey as the Ram in The Wrestler; then it’s safe to say he deserved it.

The ultimate climax of the night pounces upon us with the award for Best picture going to Slumdog Millionaire, something that can only be attributed to the universal theme of enduring quest for ones love portrayed in the film.
True, the other nominees were done meticulously to detail, but Slumdog kept us on our toes, enchanting us with its journey of its protagonist from a mere slumdog to a reluctant millionaire, all while searching for his one true love.
To say it shortly, it was bloody entertaining! ; Which sadly cannot be said of the other films………..



And thus the 81st Academy Awards ended with history being written as Indians celebrated with much pomp and gaiety for the triumph of Rahman and Resul Pookutty.


The spotlight seems to be on India, and specifically Bollywood, but the question remains to be seen if it will ever grow up, developing more brilliant movies rather than doling out “inspired re-makes” of successful foreign films, usually masked in the premise that it’s being molded for Indian sensibilities!


Here’s Hoping to more Sensible films of all flavor in 2009, world wide!

Will the Real Pakistan please stand UP?

Image courtesy of the BBC

“It is very shocking to hear that girls can’t go to school, they are taking us back to the Stone Age.”

These are the innocent, yet courage-filled words of an 11-year old girl on the outskirts of Islamabad, the capital of Pakistan.

It is an outrageous issue that hundreds of schools in a former tourist haven are being bombed under the pretense of Islamic law, albeit one twisted to nefarious ends.

If the world could only take a peek into the life of an average guy in the pristine SWAT valley, it would encounter radio broadcasts warning of deadly acid attacks on girls who “dare” to go to school, just one among the many shocking events of daily life over there.

Certainly, the fact that an average Fatima or a Begum, still maybe at an impressionable age, has to cower in fear at the thought of school is very well achieved by such hideous threats.

Add to this, daily public hangings, decapitations and day-long power cuts, the former glory of the “Switzerland of Pakistan” is being torn to tatters.

The handling of this situation that has been snowballing to the world’s attention since 18 months has been pathetic, to say the least.

And the situation is not set to improve, especially since the ever-smiling Mr. Zardari, the supposed president, has said that making a peace deal with these murderous thugs and militants is a necessity of the times!

The conundrum of making deals with someone and consequently describing them as thugs is sheer mockery of all forms of Justice that the citizens of Pakistan expect from their elected representatives.

The people made sure of their writ when they collectively denounced the religious parties that participated in the elections of 2008.

And yet the elected reprensentatives, instead of heeding the citizen’s call for a uniform justice system that is swift and just, caved in to the religious hardliners and gave them authority to rule and give out justice in the valleys of SWAT, in the name of the Holy Islamic law called the Sharia.

Even if one could stomach the brute imposition of an out-dated system of codes like the Sharia, the one being implemented is a twisted version with deep roots in medieval edicts wherein women are subjugated and everyone who doesn’t agree with the religious figureheads is considered an “infidel”!

The most ironical of all these events is that the Civilian government is using the former militant, the septuagenarian Sufi Mohammad, as a mediator for talks being held with the Taliban leader Maulana Fazlullah.

Now, factor in the fact that the Taliban leader who has swathes of Al-Qaeda and the Afghan forces under his command is the son-in-law of Sufi Mohammad, and that Sufi Mohammad himself, commanded large forces to fight against the US invasion of the Talibanic Afghanistan around 2002,and was miraculously released on pardon just last year!..Truly mind-bending.

Furthermore, there is a real chance that the isolationist policies of Sharia may give further impetus for brain-washed militants to take-over even Islamabad next…….and they certainly don’t lack the military or the economic strength to achieve this, since the Taliban’s main channel of profit is the worldwide Opium trade.

Even conservative estimates say that 90% of World-wide Opium trade is controlled by Taliban, which goes to say that this keeps the Military machination of the Taliban well-oiled and raring to go.

The proximity of the SWAT valley to Islamabad doesn’t exactly give comfort to anyone, as it is just 100km from the capital city!

Imagine, Just 100km apart is a deep chasm in socio-political environment;

Islamabad with its Elected Authorities, and SWAT valley with its Feudal lords…..

.

Even if the Taliban aren’t thinking of taking over Pakistan, it sure is one of their primary objectives to annex the disputed state of Kashmir, and the handover of the SWAT valley to the Taliban gives them a direct and unchecked[one might add] corridor from the Afghan frontier to the door step of the Indian controlled Kashmir. This scary proposition requires deep analysis and is best left to the intelligence personnel of India.

Even as militant leaders celebrated the hand-over on the open streets; Caught in the dichotomy are the poor people who live their daily lives in confusion, not knowing who holds sway over his destiny, since their liberty is not protected by any sovereign authority.

It is a no-brainer that the current state of affairs is only due to a clear lack of “political will” and nothing else, since even the might of the Taliban fails over the towering Army of Pakistan, one of the largest in the world.

Thus, the dearth of action or even inadequate action has had devastating effects on the nation state of Pakistan.

As the man in the street cries out for help,

Will the civilian government realize that they are just playing into the hands of the Taliban, and that the Taliban which promises to help with all its might in case of an Indian invasion is just laying the traps of appeasement for hardliners in the army and ISI, large parts of which are already alleged to be in collusion with the Taliban.

The question is…

Will the Real Pakistan please stand up?

One Trilogy to rule em' all !

Prince of Persia-

The trilogy that evokes a feeling of EPICness in whatever breath it is mentioned!

The original prince was a nerve-wracking 2D plat former that had the classic story of poor-boy to the rescue of the princess, a formula that worked perfectly due to the genius of Jordan Mechner

Ubisoft took up the franchise and gave it a look, feel and dimension that were uber-cool in “The Sands of Time”.

The central theme of the trilogy, making its inception possible is the mystical sands themselves and its related lore

The first game was something of a revelation to me as I played through it;

It captured me by its glowy design, the prince and his free-flow movements, the music and of course the story!

The Prince and the female protagonist Farah go on the journey through the games interesting levels together and the game ends on a happy note for all

If one thought that was the end of it,Ubisoft came up with the 2^nd game “Warrior Within” that looked and felt like it had no connection to the first game other than the involving the sands and the Prince himself.

In a radical move, Warrior Within took the puzzles in the TSOT to a new level while maintaining a “dark grunge” feel to the entire game.

And the best part of it was the combat which was a treat to execute; the various combos beautifully orchestrated much to the brutal decapitation of the prince’s opponents!

Though the music in the game is all hard rock/metal which I didn’t exactly favor;

It does fit in with the biggest change WW has compared to TSOT…that’s right, the eponymous Prince himself.

This prince is featured as brooding, aggressive and furiously at loggerheads with his impending fate of doom in the form the Dahaka, a fearsome guardian of Fate embodied by the Sands themselves.

The game is set entirely on the island of time where the prince seeks to undo his mistakes and conquer his fate. This seemingly impossible task is further impeded by the actions of one knows as the Empress of time. Also, the characters revolving around the empress including her agent known as Shadee provide for sexual overtones not found in the previous game.

The game as such involves large amounts of back-tracking and the end is at sight only after about 16 hours of game play.

Thus, though the second game takes giant strides concerning the stylized violence, the overall experience does get a bit underwhelming.

Now, taking any of the two epilogues in WW,it looked as if the story had finally ended in the Prince’s favor ; that fate is certainly not written in stone and one willing can change it for the better.

Certainly, no sequel would be possible under such circumstance if not for the premise “Time is an ocean in a storm and quite unlike a river”;

Riding on this Ubisoft gave us a shocker in the 3^rd and final Game “The Two Thrones”.

Two Thrones is best described as a treat for all senses as it combined the best of the both WW and TSOT to create a truly magical adventure

Taking the alternate ending of WW as its canon, the game opens with the prince returning with the Empress, Kaileena to Babylon, and his home. But alas, he returns to find his beloved city besieged by forces unknown; his own ship attacked and torn asunder.

The Prince is washed ashore and he watches helplessly as Kaileena is taken captive.

The tired and confused prince sets out to uphold his promise that no harm would befall Kaileena in Babylon. He reaches the palace courtyard and there he meets up with his primary nemesis, the Vizier.

Kaileena is “killed” before his very eyes and immortality is injected through the sands to the Vizier, but not before the Prince regains the falling Dagger of Time, his last hope against the power of the sands.

The prince also finds a dagger tail enmeshed with his right arm; a strange glow abound it with the sands affecting it.

With vengeance on his mind, the prince seeks the Vizier again to make him pay.

Along his journey, he learns of the Dark personality bestowed in him by the sands, a Dark Prince that preyed on his rage and willed and goaded him to recklessly pursue his goals at any cost. Though water purified the corruption temporarily, the Dark Prince would whisper in him to do deeds of the most selfish nature, making the Prince blind to the plight of his kingdom and the city’s people.

The Prince goes against the wishes of his alternate persona and Dons the role of a protector by taking down the monster Klompa, in the grand Arena thus liberating many of his people.

He frees Farah from the captivity of the vizier, albeit unknowingly and eventually meets her on the rooftops of Babylon’s markets

His chance encounter with Farah, whom he only remembers causes her to view him with suspicion, even more so since he declares himself as the Prince.

She agrees on seeing his combat skills against the soldiers of sand that he would be a reliable partner to hunt the vizier with.

The Prince who still has feelings for Farah cannot help but feel nostalgic, though he knows that Farah does not retain any of the things that they went through together.

As they move together helping each other through the city to get to the vizier, the Prince sees the trail of destruction and death done by the Vizier, now in his immortal sand form.

As they sneak into the palace, they hear desperate pleas for help from afar…..and the Prince decides to ignore it now that the Vizier is within reach. Farah is disgusted and parts from him to help those in need. The Prince eventually argues out with his dark side and goes after farah, thus leading to his encounter with mahasti,a female assassin.

During the fight, he changes completely to the Dark prince, thus allowing him to defeat mahasti. This transformation is seen by Farah and she is utterly shocked of this particular aspect of the Prince and huffs off in anger.

The Prince follows her, but to no avail and ends up in a trap involving a burning building filled with people. The Prince masterfully uses the lever system to break down the huge door using the marble statue of his father as the primary pointing force.

This is witnessed by Farah and she comes back at a critical time to save the Prince during his fight with the charioteer twins.

Now truly united, both of them try sneaking into the inner palace, but are intercepted by the full strength of the Viziers army.

As things stand grim, a glimmer of hope arrives in the form the last remnants of the city of Babylon, its People.

Armed with sticks and whatever arms they can muster, they rush out hopelessly to protect the prince and to give him time.

The Prince and Farah navigate through the mechanical marvels in the Hanging gardens and reach the top of the palace. There the Vizier lies in wait and using his newfound powers, captures Farah and hurls the Prince down a seemingly endless pit.

The Prince wakes up in utter darkness, and he knows he is in the Dry Well of the Ancients where he is only alive because of his transformation.

As the Dark prince taunts him on his actions, the prince comes upon his father’s glowing sword in a cave of darkness. Even as he wondered about its origins, he saw his father lying motionless by its side. Besieged by grief, the prince vows to do what’s right after accepting his fate. This redemption purifies him and the dark prince is quelled for the time.

The Prince sets out with his father’s sword to rescue Farah; he valiantly mounts the outer walls of the palace tower, with the city of Babylon stretched for him to see.

The Prince finally overcomes all of the towers traps and comes face to face with the Vizier who is in the process of turning Farah into a sand princess of sorts!

With the aid of the Dagger, and by his own battle-worthy skills, the Prince manages to land one final deadly strike into the Vizier, but not before a long battle.

Even as the Vizier crumbles to sand, it glows with abandon eventually appearing as the ethereal form of Kaileena.

She blesses him with the words “Your journey is now at an end” and goes on to peace

The Prince however must face one last challenge in the form of his latent dark persona, who now traps him in his own mind, inciting rage and malevolence from the content prince.

Even as the prince goes after the dark prince with fury, Farah’s kindred words of soothing pacifies him and makes him learn that the dark prince’s downfall lies only by quelling his rage.

And thus, the Dark Prince, now devoid of the vehemence that once drove the Prince dies a slow and lonely death.

As things stand at the end, the Prince is with his beloved Farah who still hasn’t deciphered the mystery of the Prince calling out her name the “first time” they met on the streets of Babylon.

So, the prince, now learned in the ways of Time, begins his story that pan through all of his adventures with the words.

”Most people think time is like a river, flowing swift and nimble in one direction, but they are wrong….Time is like an Ocean in a storm…Come, and I will tell you a Tale like none you have ever heard……

In this way, the story captured me with its many mystical and heart-warming elements.

Soulful and ethereal music, by Stuart Chart wood was a delight as the prince went about his task; The Combat though a bit scaled down from the fierceness in WW, still holds merit due to the speed kill mechanism.

The sheer thrill of looking down upon ones enemy just moments before slicing him to oblivion is indescribable!

The Dark Prince has skill that proves valuable in beating down hordes of enemies, though at the time cost of his very essence.

The inner monologue provided by the Dark Prince is full of malice, albeit coated with dry sarcasm and cynicism.

Art design of the game makes a comeback to the first game, although it leaves behind the mystic glow found in TSOT.

The Character of the Prince completes a full circle,

Starting out in the first game as a young and ignorant lad only out to please his father, he learns the true meaning of fear and grief in the second

In Two Thrones, he matures and accepts his mistakes, while living and fighting for the present and thus is truly wise.

Thus, Two Thrones represents the pinnacle of the trilogy standing for a wondrous experience of my life!