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Juliana Haygert

You are here: Home / Archives for Model Monday
Categories: Blogging, Entertainment, Me, Model Monday, Music

Model Monday #05: Prince of Persia

I was going to do a post on Soundtracks and was playing Prince of Persia’s soundtrack on the background … of course, that would be one of the soundtracks mentioned on the post … then, since there are so many more things I like about Prince of Persia, why not to give it its own post?

So here it is.

Um, let me tell you. This is going to be one very long post, not because of the text, but because of the pictures and videos. Believe me, I’ve trimmed it down. My will was to include dozens of pictures and dozens of videos.

It is that good!

To learn about Prince of Persia (if you don’t know and I can’t believe you don’t know!), you can visit their website or Wikipedia.

 

The Forgotten Sands is the name of the latest game

 

Where to begin?

Perhaps from the beginning? Duh!

Prince of Persia started as a game, a 2d game for MS-DOS, and I was about 10 years old when it went out. I played it at that time. And it was AWESOME!

 

This is how it was.

 

The  Prince of Persia brand grew and became a franchise. A big one.

PoP first developer is called Brøderbund (now extinct). Today, the franchise belongs to Ubisoft (the same game developer of Assassins Creed, another game I enjoy).

The franchise grew and Ubisoft began releasing a new version of PoP every couple of years–each time improved, of course, following the available technology.

The latest game, released in 2010, is called The Forgotten Sands.

This is how it looks right now:

Better, uh?

 

What I like about Prince of Persia ins’t only the fact that it’s an awesome game. I like it all.

The story behind the game, the magic, the characters, the setting.

The Prince’s character (note that in the games he doesn’t have a name. he is called Prince. Period). He is serious, focused, charming, good-looking, hot, a silent bad guy. A tortured hero. And he is a master when it comes to fighting. He is “the man.”

 

Pictures from several game versions

 

I know, you’re gonna tell me I’m obsessing over a drawing. But, come on, he is a hot drawing!

And, if I want to give him a face, I can think of Jake Gyllenhaal (scroll down if you’re impatient and want to see him).

 

Here are some videos about the latest game:

 

 

Then, they made the movie.

Ah, the movie.

 

 

I went to watch it at the theater. I’m a movie lover and usually I like the movies I go see. But this one, I don’t what happened, my hubby and I left the theater and I asked to go back, to buy another ticket and go see it again. Seriously.

Of course, my hubby thought I was kidding and we went home.

Do you know what I did home? I wrote the whole outline for an epic fantasy novel that reminded me of the setting and the emotion of Prince of Persia. That night, I even drew the map for this new world.

I downloaded the movie soundtrack and began writing. I wrote 120,000 words in 2 weeks. That’s how inspired and excited I was.

However, I didn’t finish that story. Yeah, 120k words and not finished. That’s why I stopped. I would end up with a book of 200k and then would have to cut half.

So I chose to give it some time, let it simmer in, then go back to it and re-write the whole thing.

I’m still waiting to go back to it lol To give that MS some time, I started another. When I finished that one, I already had an idea for another. So I wrote it. And that’s how it went. And that’s how it has been.

I’m waiting for the day I have more time to go back to my epic fantasy, cause you know, epic requires major brainstorming time. But I love it. I love my idea. My trusted beta-reader said it was my most original and exciting story so far lol

Just FYI, my epic fantasy is not like LOTR or Game of Thrones, with many plots and subplots and characters. I like to think of it more like Graceling and Fire—less characters, fewer plots, a main romance, but similarly exciting.

Anyway, back to the movie.

I love it. I truly do.

It has action, a noble cause, a hot prince, a fearless princess (or high priestess), bad and powerful guys, romance. It’s perfect. Everything in the right dose. Perhaps only the romance could have been upped a little, but I’ll take it the way it is ;)

And now videos to keep us entertained!

 

 

Finally, the topic that inspired this post: SOUNDTRACK.

I love writing while listening to soundtracks, and Prince of Persia is a great one.

It’s exotic and magical. Just like the game. Just like the movie.

 

So, to finish this post, here are some songs from the movie’s soundtrack:

 

 

Did you watch the movie? Did you like it?

Hope you enjoyed my *obsession* of Prince of Persia =)

 

Cheers,

Categories: Blogging, Entertainment, Me, Model Monday

Model Monday #4: World of Warcraft

I love epic/high fantasy.

I even have some ideas and outlines to write one (or two, or three), but, because of the complexity, I always end up delaying it …

Today’s post will be short on purpose. I could rave about World of Warcraft, which is IMO the best game ever, well, forever though I’m certain nobody will read me rambling about it forever =)

 

 

I was addicted to WoW, very bad.

Unfortunately, now I don’t play it anymore … if I start it again, I won’t be able to stop, so I keep it away from my computer lol

It is that good!

 

Here I give you the cinematic trailers for the game and the 3 expansion sets.

Note: just because I don’t play it anymore, doesn’t mean I don’t know what is happening in that world ;)

 

World of Warcraft Cinematic:

 

Burning Crusades Cinematic:

 

Wrath of the Lich King Cinematic:

 

Cataclism Cinematic:

 

 

The graphics are perfect, the soundtrack is topnotch, and the plot is compelling and engaging.

Now tell me, by watching those, don’t you want to dive in? To be a part of it? To play it? To write about something like that?

I do!

 

Cheers,

 

Categories: Model Monday, My writing

Model Monday #3: Assassins

I love stories about assassins who, deep down, are good people and are the hero/heroine of a very intricate story.

I would love to write a story about an assassin (or many), but it seems that all the explanations I come up with for why the MC became an assassin are cliches …

Until I come up with some incredible idea, I have fun with these:

 

Sydney Bristow (Alias)

 

Elektra (same actress … coincidence? =P)

 

Assassins Creed (love me some games!)

 

Dark Angel (not exactly an assassin, but …)

 

Katsa (MC from Graceling by Kristin Cashore)

 

James Bond (Idk about you, but I like Pierce Brosnan more than the other actors)

 

Kitana (Mortal Kombat)

 

Jason Bourne

 

Raizo (Ninja Assassin)

 

And just for the eyes (because I couldn’t resist!) here is Rain–the actor who played Raizo in Ninja Assassin =P

 

La Femme Nikita

 

Alex and Nikita (one of my favorite shows of the moment!)

 

Michael, played by Shane West (because I had to finish with a hot male =P)

Aren’t they dangerously sexy? So much fun …

Hope you enjoyed it!

Cheers,

Categories: Model Monday

Model Monday #2: Zuko

I love Avatar: The Last Airbender and, although I don’t think it’ll be as good as the first, I’m looking forward to watch the sequel, called The Last Airbender: Legend of Korra, promised to start at some point next year.

My favorite character from The Last Airbender? Zuko, by far.

He has an incredible arc during the three seasons of the show.

First, he is the villain. A bad guy trying to capture the Avatar to redeem his reputation before his father. During the second season, he is a fugitive, trying to fit in, but he can’t let go of the past, nor can he imagine the future. He is changing, but not much. And finally, at the third season, he realizes he is a good guy at heart and helps Aang (the Avatar) to defeat his evil father.

Yay for Zuko!

But the cool stuff is during the many episodes of each season. We see Zuko making others suffer, we see him witty and snappy, angry, hurting anyone who dared to cross his path. We see him learning and struggling with that. We see him helping others. We see the hate and anger confined inside of him, the way he wants to blow up and take everyone with him. Then we see him changing, learning to control his anger. Zuko makes new friends, finds out what really matters …

I love that he is so not perfect. I even love his scar. He wouldn’t be the Zuko we know without it.

Another thing I love about him is his girlfriend, Mai.

Mai is kinda of a brat, very spoiled and cold. But, IMO, she is important to the story. Through flashback, we learn Mai is Zuko’s love interest and that they sorta dated when he was a prince.

During the first, second and half of third season, Mai is banded with Azula, another villain of the story and Zuko’s sister. She is an awesome fighter.

At some point, Azula is about to get Zuko (and, more important, the Avatar), but Mai helps them escape. She chooses love over duty, love over her freaky friend. And I love that!

In the end, Zuko becomes Fire Nation King and Mai becomes his queen.

Great, great characters. Great, great character arc.

Roman, from the Georgina Kincaid series by Richelle Mead (first book here), reminds me of Zuko.

He begins as a villain, on a killing spree, but then falls in love and realizes he can change. And his development continues throughout the series.

Gotta love the  bad-turned-good boys =)

Don’t you want to write about them too?

 

Cheers,

 

Categories: Model Monday, Music, My writing

Model Monday #01: Polo

In trying to change and improve my blog, I came up with a new kind of post I’ll publish every Monday.

It’s called Model Monday.

On Model  Mondays, I’ll reveal things that inspire me, that inspire my writing. You’ll see anime, songs, real people, books, games, sentences, etc …

 

Today, it’s about POLO.

 

When I first saw the music video for Radar by Britney Spears I immediately fell in love with it.

 

 

My iPod marked I listened to this song more than 400 times in 7 days. Yeah, kinda of crazy, I know, but I couldn’t get enough.

An idea for a book surged up while listened to the song (over a year ago).

Of course, the idea was around polo.

While researching about polo and learning how to play polo, I found this guy:

His name is Facundo Pieres, 25 years old, and he is a famous polo player.

Let’s forget he dates a pretty model/actress and learn more about him.

Currently, Facundo is ranked number 4 in the World Polo Tour (he reached first a couple of years ago). His older brother, Gonzalo Pieres Jr, almost as cute as him, is the current number 1.

And that’s a cool fact: Facundo plays with his family—two brothers and one cousin. And his father, Gonzalo Pieres Sn, a famous retired polo player, is their coach.

They own a ranch nearby Buenos Aires, Argentina, where they train and breed horses for the game. When it’s time for big Cups in Europe or US, they are invite to integrate other teams, which helps in their ranking.

Neat right?

Isn’t he hot even in uniform? *fawns*

If you want more pictures from him, you can check his Facebook fan page.

Facundo was promoted to handicap 10 at age 19, being the youngest 10-goal poloplayer.

From Wikipedia, here is what a polo handicap is:

A polo handicap is a system created by Henry Lloyd Herbert, first president of the United States Polo Association, at the founding of the USPA in 1890 so that teams could be more evenly matched when assessing players of varying ability. The players are rated on a scale from minus 2 to 10. Minus 2 indicates a novice player, while the player rated at 10 goals denotes the highest handicap possible. So difficult is it to attain a 10-goal handicap that there are fewer than a dozen in the world today, and about two-thirds of all players handicapped are rated at 2 goals or less. Handicaps of 5 goals or above generally belong to professional players. It is not (nor has ever been) an estimate of the number of goals a player might score in a game, but rather of the player’s worth to his or her team. It is an overall rating of a player’s horsemanship, team play, knowledge of the game, strategy and horses.

Those facts (and a few others) gave me a hero for my story.

It’s awesome. The guy is awesome. Polo is awesome.

Now I just need to find time to finish this story ;)

 

Does this inspire you too?

 

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