The Control Point Diaries Part 3: Magic

Hello to Part 3 of the Control Point diaries. I’ve reached chapter 13 and I thought we should have a closer look at the magic of the book today. (Without spoiling the plot…it’s gonna be tough but I am trying nevertheless.) While reading the book you – in case you are a little nerd yourself- definitely know that the description of Myke Cole at the end of the book is sooooooooooo true. Especially the part about Dungeons and Dragons. I don’t know who of you have already played role playing games – either the videogame version or the good old pen and paper games – but you usually find most parts of the magic featured in the Shadow Ops series there, too. When you find you party in the games you usually combine warriors, thieves and magicians – healers, elemental wizards, black mages etc. They’ve got different names in the book, featuring the Latin/Greek forms, but if you’re a role player you definitely recognize members of magical schools you’d totally want to recruit for your own team. (for the videogame fans here: Somehow Control Point reminds me on a Final Fantasy 8 for the generation 30+ – soldiers who kick ass and have magical abilities.)
I remember one of my first pen and paper adventures. I was playing an orphaned elf black mage, level two and not the most charming person in the party. But the most clumsy one, mind you. So my black mage tried a summoning which was only supposed spy on a village but turned out to be a level 19 demon that I had no control of whatsoever. (the clumsiness!) Yes, I did manage to wipe out my entire party before the adventure could really start.
And that is where we come back to the book. Here,too, the characters first of all have to learn how to even use and control their magic before they accidently make something go kawoom or everyone gets killed in action. So the reader gets a live in-view into the world of magic, its development and its connection to the person carrying it which brings us closer to each character. Shall we bet that at the end of the book we’ll see some great magical firework? 😉
So yeah, the idea of magic might be an old one – after all you find the stories and sagas about magic in every culture on this planet, every country has their own stories about ghosts, mages, gods and magical items, but its set into a new context. While D&D is set in more medieval world and most fantasy roleplay games are set in a world hardly comparable to the one we live in right now (they are usually on another planet or at least somewhere in the past or the idea of a future), Myke Cole’s Shadow Ops series plays in world we can very well relate to. We see the news each day – countries fighting or threating each other, people not going with the system, people easily stereotyped. The thing that divides the book from our world is the featured magic. And that’s one of the reasons why you MUST read it. It’s not only a first hand experience of a soldier’s life (which the author can tell you a lot about!), it’s the perfect combination of the world we know with a world we love to imagine in movies, games and stories, the magical realm.
On a sidenote: Oscar Britton (see entry 2) really kicks ass!I like how you are allowed to know what he feels and thinks and how he stands in for others because he hasn’t switched off his brains and decides for himself what is right and what is wrong, even if there is a system that tries to put a collar around his neck.

Ode to fantasy

I almost forgot to tell you about something truly wonderful: Final Fantasy IX.
Sure it’s no book and sure it’s a quite old game but I have experienced wonderful hours with it during my last vacation in England, visiting the one person who makes Final Fantasy extra special to me.

Final Fantasy IX is different to the other Final Fantasy games I had played before. It’s somehow funnier at parts even though the storyline is just as deep and breathtaking as within the other parts of the series.
It’s set in a kind of steampunk-renaissance world, with amazingly detailed cities, each with their own charm, airships, art nouveau and as you can guess the characters simply dash into your hearts to never leave from there again.
My favourite character, no surprise, was the little black mage, Vivi, being just as clumsy as the real me and questioning the meaning of life itself and therefore his own existence. (and with him, I love the rest of the black mages,too. Just so very cute…and I felt for them so much.)
But the other charas are great, too, starting from the enthusiastic Zidane with his monkey tail to the clumsy and naive knight Steiner – they all have their own way of being immortal in the heart of everone who plays this game.
(Oh yes, of course the bad guy – who again is not just the average bad guy – named Kuja is worth a post of its own but I’ll spare you…for now.)

It’s a great story about two worlds, about the human heart itself and everything that actually makes us “human”. In the end it’s not the body we have, it’s not where we come from – in the end being human is defined by who we are and especially who we want to be. Family and heritage is not neccessarily something you are born into and have to stay there – sometimes your friends, your soulmates, are your true family.
With Final Fantasy you laugh, you cry, you suffer, you fight, you dance… it just totally involves you.

I am so grateful and happy I was given the chance to play that game and I do hope that we will be able to play more, because the message of it is so true. Thank you.

On a sidenote: The soundtrack contains some really amazing melodies. Definitely listen closely while you experience the game!

Final Fantasy VII will always remain the most special game for me, but Final Fantasy IX has definitely conquered its place in my heart – the true library of Sephiroth Crescent.