Mistborn: The Final Empire (Cosmere Book Review)

The Final Empire” is the first book in Era 1 of the Mistborn Trilogy. It was launched on June 17th, 2006 by Tor Books. The book marks the beginning of important storylines in the Cosmere as a whole, and of course, on Scadrial.

The book takes place on Scadrial, a planet covered by ash falls and mists and ruled by a ruthless god referred to only as The Lord Ruler. The general population is divided into Nobles and Skaa, with the Skaa being used as slaves. Their lives hold little to no value to the Nobles, who slaughter them like pests once their value decreases. Noble men often have sex with Skaa women, with the women being killed the next day because the Nobles are not allowed to have kids with Skaa women. This is a surface-level description of how brutal and harsh the world of Scadrial has been for the past thousand years since The Lord Ruler ascended to godhood and built his empire.

The story largely follows Kelsier and Vin and their plot to overthrow that empire. Kelsier is a charismatic Skaa thief who has the powers of a Mistborn, and he recruits Vin because she is also a Mistborn. Together they go after the Nobility, The Lord Ruler, and his Steel Ministry. It is a very well-written plan filled with adventure, twists, and espionage. By the end of it, I got really attached to the characters and mesmerized by the world of Scadrial and how it is shaping up. Sanderson is a master world builder and storyteller, and he excels in this book.

“The Final Empire” does a lot of world-building, and Brandon allows his characters time and space to develop and grow on their own. While the story is mostly standalone, he does lay the foundation for the larger conflict at hand, which plays into the Cosmere story. He also develops characters such as Kelsier, who becomes a prominent part of the larger story. In large, the book is fantastic, and I personally think it is the best way to start Cosmere.

Five games that will define the next decade for me (If they didn’t suck)

As I grow older, I find myself less inclined to follow the latest trendy games and more into games that I find myself comfortable playing, I have been playing Diablo 3 since 2014, Guild Wars 2 since 2012 and whenever I feel the need to play games I actually go to those games instead of the latest story driven multidimensional character outing from PlayStation Studios, and I have been thinking about which games will dominate the next 10 years for me like GW2 and D3 have dominated this last decade and here are my picks, granted if they didn’t suck:

I don’t shy away from talking about Diablo 4, the game seems to be scratching every ARPG itch I have and it seems to be made with love and care with a goal to redeem Blizzard’s reputation, as the game is getting closer to launch and we already have all classes revealed I just keep getting more excited for it, 2023 can’t come sooner.

Ashes of Creation is either going to make or break the MMORPG genre, the hype for this game is something else, and the developers seems to have an excellent idea on what makes an MMORPG work, we are at least 2-3 years away from release and I personally cannot wait to take a week from work and just get lost in this world.

The new game from Warframe developer is going to be an Action MMO with a Souls-like combat and a focus on dark fantasy story telling, where do I sign up? Seriously, what else do I need to be interested in a game? The best part about this whole thing is how Digital Extreme supported Warframe and built it into the great game that it is today, if they take everything they learned from Warframe and apply it to Soulframe I think we will be in for a treat.

The issue with PoE is that I can’t get back into it, there are too many systems at each other’s throat right now and I feel like I need a new fresh start, PoE 2 seems like the evolution the game really needs and I personally cannot wait to play it every league, GGG is one of the top studios in the industry right now and they sure put their heart and soul in their game, can’t see why the next one wont be like that.

I love Survival games but I think they always lacked one crucial element and that is Polish, usually Survival games are made by smaller teams who put together a few niche ideas and they often work well, Subnautica takes survival underwater and it is amazing, Valheim takes it to Norse mythology and adds Souls like bosses and it is amazing, what would Blizzard do with unlimited budget and time? The code named Odyssey is going to be their next big outing, and even major Blizzard hating journalists who have seen the game actually rave about it.

Honorable Mentions:
– Riot’s ARPG Prpject F
– Riot’s Fighting game Project L
– Riot’s MMORPG set in Runeterra
– Remedy Entertainment’s Project Vanguard

A Review Round: The Witcher S2, Resident Evil S1, Barry S3, The Old Man S1, Star Trek Strange New Worlds S1

The 2nd Season of The Witcher takes the already impressive foundation of the first season and basically makes it better in every possible way, better writing and story telling, much better performance especially from Cavil, and an incredible production that takes the series to grand new heights, fantastic second season.

Netflix’s Resident Evil is a mix bag, it is a story of two different timelines one is 2022 and the other is 2036 and it follows Jade and Bille Wesker, the issue with the series is the 2036 story is excellent and fun and action packed, Ella Balinska’s performance as Jade is also very good, while the 2022 story is boring and follows these annoying kids, I really hope if we get a second season we will get a much more focus on future Jade than 2022 Jade, otherwise it is actually a very decent adaptation of the series.

Barry has returned to dominate, just like how it was with S1 and S2 the third season of Barry is impressive, perfect performance from Hader and Winkler and a very thrilling and funny season, Bill Hader also directed 6 of the episodes of this season and he did a perfect job, Barry is still top tier TV.

A big surprise to me, Jeff Bridges owned the screen with a magnetic performance in The Old Man, it is a show that is so well produced that reminds me of the highest caliber spy thrillers on the big screen, also it helps that one of my favorite actors John Lithgow is a big part of this show and he is giving an amazing performance.

Star Trek Strange New Worlds renewed my love for the classic Sci-Fi series, Captain Pike was one of my favorite additions to Discovery S2 and I loved him on this show even more, he is an impressive character played by a great actor, the show follows an episodic format with each episode having a brand-new story with an ever present larger story in the background, this is the best Star Trek release since the 2009 reboot and I have seen them all.

F the Celestial Dragons: One Piece Chapter 1022

One Piece chapter 1022 titled The Stars Take The Stage is out and in it we get a clear look at the state of the fight

  • General Updates: It looks like Luffy is done eating, We also get the confirmation that the Tobi Roppo are without a doubt done and out of the fight I don’t think we will see more from them even though personally I think Jenbi will still have another fight with Jack but we will see, There seems to be a Ninja fight happening at the same time and it is very fun to see what will happen there.
  • Onigashima is now floating above mainland Wano and it looks like we only have 15 minutes left before it reaches Flower Capital, we don’t know if that means the final fight will only take 15 minutes or not we will have to wait and see
  • Killer vs. Hawkins fight is progressing and that fight is getting even more interesting with Hawkins using Kid as a meat shield, how is Killer going to take care of that fight is remains to be seen
  • Marco is done fighting King and Queen, and he gave one of my favorite Panel of the chapter:

I don’t know what the rest of his role in the fight will be, perhaps he will join Chopper and help heal the wounded.

  • Nekomamushi started fighting Perospero to protect Sanji and he is taking revenge for Pedro
  • Zoro and Sanji said the most important line that I have been saying from the second Big Mom and Kaido alliance was formed, this Arc will not just end with Luffy getting a Bounty increase, this arc will end with Luffy being recognized as a big name in the world, a man to be feared by Blackbeard and The world government, and that is why I think the arc to follow is not going to be The Straw Hats getting attacked by either Blackbeard or Marines, and the final panel is one of the greatest the series has produced so far:

This was an amazing chapter, no break next week.

F the Celestial Dragons: One Piece Chapter 1021

One Piece chapter 1021 titled Demonio is out and it was a very action packed chapter with some notable development in the story, here are the highlights:

  • The fight with Black Maria continues and OMG did Robin just destroy her, we got a good look at Devil Robin which is taking the One Piece community by storm and we don’t even know what is it, is it her Haki? Is it her illusion? Since she said illusion doesn’t work on her, maybe her Devil Fruit gives her that sort of ability? I don’t know, but the fight was amazing and I think this concludes the Topi Roppo and they should be all out of the fight
  • Brook had a smaller fight going against Black Maria’s subordinates and I especially loved it when he told Black Maria “Black Maria-san you keep saying moronic things, If I were you I’d make myself scares yohoho” when she was taunting Robin, because for a while there Robin kinda looked like she was losing the fight, I still hope for a Brook vs. Apoo fight maybe this will still happen.
  • The final bit was huge, for quite a while “Adult Momonosuke” was a theory in the community and it is appearing to be happening, a lot of people have very different opinions about this and how Jewelry Bonney will come into play her but I personally think Momonosuke is going to have to grow up and lead Wano but against someone like Kaido he can’t do it as a kid so he will have to do it as an adult and this time literally, I don’t think we will see more of this in Chapter 1022 but we could see Luffy, who is now eating a ton of meat thanks to Caribou, will be riding an adult Eastern Dragon into battle when the time is right.
  • One last thing, in Chapter 310 that came out on February 16, 2004, Oda had this spread in it:

And Right now this is destroying the community, The Samurai Theme, the Kozuki Clan Logo on Luffy’s leg, The Pink Easter Dragon in the back. it is just obvious that Oda had this in mind 16 years ago and he was working towards this all this time.

One Piece Chapter 1022 is coming August 20th, 2021.

F the Celestial Dragons: One Piece Chapter 1020

One Piece chapter 1020 titled Robin vs. Black Maria is out and it was a very action packed chapter with some notable development in the story, here are the highlights:

  • Yamato we now know what Yamato’s devil fruit is, it is not a Kirin or a Kitsune it is actually Inu Inu no Mi which translates to the Dog Dog Fruit, and it is the model Makami which is a Legendary Japanese dog, finally the Straw Hat’s ship is getting a dog, at this point Yamato feels like an even better Carrot for the crew and I couldn’t be happier about it, she is also holding Kaido off pretty well it is more than likely that Yamato will be the left hand of Luffy which Zoro is the right hand because right now I don’t see any other Straw Hat matching her power.
  • Luffy is recovering but still a way to go he needs more meat, and it looks like we will get to see Luffy riding a dragon into battle, it is going to get nuts in a few chapters.
  • Robin and Brook’s fight took the majority of the chapter, we are seeing yet another of the smaller fights moving forward which we will probably see it concluding soon as well, Black Maria tried to trick Robin with her memories and I loved how she didn’t fall for any of it and, and she unleashed a massive attack at the end of the fight which we will get to see more of next week, Brook is taking a smaller fight going against three members of the Beast Pirates even though I am still hoping for a Brook vs. Apoo at some point, it is noteable that Robin really solidified herself further as one of the crew, calling Luffy the Pirate King for the first time and showing Black Maria that her tactics of making her feel like she is a burdern is not working on her anymore and she is past that.

For a while Robin felt like a very odd member of the crew, but now she is one of the wings that will help the Pirate King to Soar, No break next week.

F the Celestial Dragons: One Piece Chapter 1019

One Piece chapter 1019 titled Heliceratops is out, and it was yet another action packed chapter focusing on Franky, and we also got a few major updates, here are the highlights:

  • Luffy is waking up and screaming for Meat, we also got a glimpse of what is like to be a member of the Heart Pirates on the Polar Tang, and it seems like they depend on Law for everything they are really an incompetent bunch.
  • Zoro‘s treatment is underway as well, I expect him to return to the fight in the few upcoming chapters (if we didn’t get a flashback)
  • Franky is basically done with his fight and took out one of the Flying Six in a spectacular Franky Fashion, the fight wasn’t that interesting, but it was very funny, and Radical Beam remains one of the most powerful attacks in the series
  • Yamato vs. Kaido’s fight seems to be progressing with Yamato finally showing her Devil Fruit Transformation which is still not confirmed what it is, there is a speculation that it is a Kirin, or it could be a Kitsune, but what is interesting is that Kaido went through a great deal of trouble to find this fruit and it seems like he starved her to force her into eating it, it seems like Yamato always hated Kaido and she always opposed him so I doubt she would have eaten the fruit on her own, I think this will continue being one of the main revealing story for the rest of the year and how Yamato’s fruit will function as a memeber of the Straw Hat Crew.

Chapter 1020 is scheduled to for July 30th, 2021.

Quick Anime Reviews (86, Dr.Stone Stone Wars, SK∞)

86 – is a Military Mecha anime about a distopean future where humanity is fighting an unstoble machine army, the anime deals with the horrors of war and race issues among humans and how it always plagued socity, for an 11 episode anime it has a slow start and even slower middle but picks up steam around episode 8 and it has a very sad impactful ending, the anime borrows too many elemetens from Attack on Titan for my liking but it was generally good and the setting is interesting and well build. (8/10)

Dr. Stone Stone Wars – is the 2nd season following the acclaimed first season which is adapted from the popular manga series and the event of the 2nd season are fun and fast and well animated, it gives much more depth to the relationship between Senku and Tsukasa and fleshes out the characters and the world building, if you liked the first season then it is a no brainer but if you didn’t then I don’t think this season will change your mind even though it is a lot more action packed and builds up a very nice premis for the upcoming 3rd season. (9/10)

Skate The Infinity – is an original anime by Studio Bones and I was very excited about it when it was revealed, I was a big fan of Air Gear back in the mid 2000s and I don’t understand why Skating is not more present in Anime and SK8 did a good job with it, it is about the love for Skate and the passion for following what is fun and Studio Bones’ slick animation is right there smacking you in the face, it is just too bad the story is not that good and it is too basic. (7/10)

F the Celestial Dragons: One Piece Chapter 1018

Chapter 1018 is out titled Whos-Who vs. Jinbe and it was an action packed chapter with a few important development and am action packed fight at the end, and here are the highlights of the chapter:

  • CP0: We’ve been asking for a while “what is CP0 doing in Wano?” and which side of the fight they are on and now it is clear they are here to assiassinate or confirm the death of Whos-Who who is a rouge goverment agent, personally I think X-Drake is in Wano for the same reason and Whos-Who might know some juciy World Goverment secrets, and who knwos maybe he has already told Kaido these secrets and it is not just the Gomu Gomu no Mi related things.
  • Tama: it looks like Kaido’s forces are dropping in numbers as we expected which is why Tama is at Onigashima in the first place, the current tally is 16,000 vs. 9,000
  • Nami: it looks like Nami and Zeus’s relationship is improving and she is calling him partner now, this is good for Nami and I am looking forward to a more badass Nami on the strawhat crew from here onward
  • Jinbe: what can I say about the fight with Whos-Who other than Jinbe beat the living crap out of him, I don’t think this fight will go further than this chapter or maybe a few panels next chapter because Jinbe crushed him already, I think we will have some more clarifications from Whos-Who in regarding of the Gomu Gomu no Mi but that is probably it, we also now have the confirmation that Shanks did steal the fruit which was a bit of “maybe he stole it from someone who stole it from Whos-Who” but no it was Shanks.


    Personal take: I think this is Confirmation that shanks targetted the Gomu Gomu no Mi is still giving me the same idea that I had last week, I still think that the world goverment mistook Gomu Gomu no Mi for the Yami Yami no Mi and I think the goverment realized that the fruit Whos-Who lost was Gomu Gomu and not Yami Yami and they didn’t care anymore that is why the CP0 said whatever Whos-Who has is dated and won’t cause any issues to the goverment or at least that is what they are speculating.

    One Piece Chapter 1019 is coming out on July 16th 2021.

F the Celestial Dragons: One Piece Chapter 1017

Chapter 1017 of One Piece came out and this was an informational/update on the smaller fights that we have going around Onigashima with no updates on the big fights (Yamato vs. Kaido, Kid/Law vs. Big Mom) and we got Tama finally changing the tids of war by making a large number of Kaido’s forces switch side which we all knew it will happen sooner or later, We also got some updates regarding Zoro and Luffy’s statues who I think will still be out of the fight for the next 2-3 chapters, but this chapter was very important because we got two big infromation pieces on Queen and Luffy and here are my thoughts on the development of the story

  • Regarding Queen: We now know that Queen worked with Germa 66 at some point and it seems like he is holding some sort of grudge againts Judge that is why I think it is a fantastic paring with Sanji, we also saw the final look of his Cyborg form as the fight is moving forward, this could also lead us to figure more about the Pacifistas which could open the door further on Vegapunk which we know at one point he worked with Germa 66 and Queen as well.
  • Regarding Luffy: we now know that Who’s-Who was a big shot at CP0 and a rival to Rob Lucci and he lost his goverment job because he failed to protect a certain Devil Fruit that was important to the world goverment which was later eaten by a certain Monkey D. Luffy, now there are a lot of speculation about this matter and also confusion which adds many questions to the over arcing storyline and our main character in particular, such as:
    a- what is the importance of Gomu Gomu no Mi to the world goverment? does it contain a cerain power that Luffy hasn’t unlocked yet?
    b- Did Shanks know about this power? did he steal it from the world Goverment to keep it off their hand?
    c- Did the world Goverment know who stole it? since now we kinda know that Shanks and the world goverment have some sort of a connection why did he steal it from them?
    b- did they confused Gomu Gomu No Mi with the Yami Yami No Mi since they look very similar??
  • Gomu Gomu No Mi
  • Yami Yami no Mi

and since they look so similar it could be that the world goverement thought they had the Yami Yami no Mi which seems to be a devestating power but infact they had the Gomu Gomu no Mi which is nothing but a basic paramecia type fruit.
d- did Shanks popursly put the Gomu Gomu no Mi within Luffy’s graps knowing he will eat it? I don’t see this being talked about a lot within the One Piece community but maybe Shanks wanted Luffy to gain this power knowing Luffy wanted to become a pairate and him having the Will Of D. and what he can potentially do with this power?

Personal take: I believe the confusion between Yami Yami and Gomu Gomu could be real, the goverment thought they had Yami Yami which they only had Gomu Gomu, and I believe that Shanks attacked the Goverment ship because he wanted to keep Yami Yami from falling into Marshall D. Teach’s hands, Shanks had the scars when he first appeared in the story which means he had his run in with Teach before that, it is all possible that Teach told Shanks what he is looking for and what he wants to do with it since Shanks knew Teach and it is possible that they had a friendly chat before they started fighting, I also think it is possible that Shanks attacked Teach after this friendly chat when he learned Teach’s plans.

One Piece Chapter 1018 is coming on July 2nd 2021.