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"I Choose Knowledge" Poster-
The second poster in our Predator or Victim
line is "I Choose Knowledge", and
depicts a green snake strategically placed in an apple tree; symbolizing Luciferian wisdom (it goes without saying that intelligence,
by its very nature, is evil).
There have been several people that have told me that they thought it was the snake himself that was saying "I Choose Knowledge".
While this is a valid interpretation, I actually intended the statement to be coming from the onlooker (you), as a reaction to
the snake's presence. You're excepting the snake's rather generous offer.
The snake in the picture was inspired by a real species called the temple
viper (Tropidolaemus wagleri), or sometimes called Wagler's Viper. The temple viper is a venomous, tree dwelling
species that gets its common name from the fact that a multitude of these snakes can be found in a somewhat infamous Buddhist
temple in Malaysia known as The Snake Temple; or sometimes
called "Temple of the Azure Cloud". These snakes are considered holy and are welcome residents of the temple.
Although I realize that Buddhism is a "good guy" religion, from the standpoint of a westerner living in a predominantly Christian
society, there's something delightfully blasphemous about worshiping and keeping several thousand serpents in such a religious
space. This is one of several reasons why I decided to use a temple viper as an inspiration for the poster; another being that
I just think it's a very cool looking snake!
- False Prophet
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Happy anniversary to us!-
Today marks the third anniversary of TwistedJenius.com! Twisty is once again celebrating on the Welcome page, party hat firmly in place! We have plenty of diabolical content in store for you in year
four; including the game that I mentioned in the last sellout copy. You have all been wonderful in supporting our dastardly site
this last year, and this next one should be even more memorable!
- False Prophet
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The Universal AI Starter Kit-
For many months now, we have been occasionally making subtle mention of a major project that we have been engaged in. I'm going
to tell you right now that this project that we have been working on is the first video game created by Twisted Jenius. However,
I'm not going to go into specifics about the game itself right now (you can be damn sure that we're going to be discussing it
to a nauseating extent here on the sellout page, when we are ready).
This post is about a product that came out of this larger game development project. The Universal AI Starter Kit is an AI system that was programmed by my accomplice Vicious, to be used in
our game. However, as an afterthought we realized that this would make a good product for other game developers that are using
the same game engine (Torque) that the AI was programmed for.
We have signed an exclusive contract with GarageGames, the makers of
the Torque Game Engine, to sell The Universal AI Starter Kit as a product in their developer's store. For anyone who is currently
using Torque, or who is thinking about it, I recommend checking out The Universal AI Starter Kit as it is currently the best
and most versatile resource for AI that is currently available to Torque users. And I can tell you that aside from its practical
usage, it's just a lot of fun to mess with!
- False Prophet
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Real Life Super Villains-
I recently heard about an interesting and growing phenomenon involving people donning costumes and becoming Real Life Superheroes. Although very entertaining on its own, this idea naturally caused me to wonder whether
there existed an evil equivalent to these RLSH (besides yours truly, of course).
One rather Villainesque organization which seems to be committed to playing an adversarial role against these heroes is R.O.A.C.H. (ruthless organization against citizen heroes). They definitely seem to have the whole "league
of evil" thing down; complete with branding, recruitment and official roach merchandise. You have to admire that.
On a more serious note, we have two lists of real criminals who would seem to fall under the category of "super villain" much
more than would your average street thug. This first list features seven very famous historical bad guys and provides us with
some possible comparisons to fictional super villains. -
The Top 7 Real-life Super Villains of All-time
Incidentally, my favorite here is number one: Spring Heeled Jack. Although he's often featured in the volumes of parapsychology
and related material, he certainly resembled a real life super villain; assuming that he actually existed, of course. This next
list-
5 Real World Criminals Who Were Certified Super-Villains , consists of more recent criminals, a few of whom I had never
heard of before.
Despite the content of the two lists above, I would like to point out that Twisted Jenius does not advocate, approve of or otherwise
recommend criminal activity of any kind. Of course you know that our reasons for taking this position are purely self-serving
and have nothing to do with a concern for morality. Plus, let's face it; most criminals are utterly worthless and unproductive
idiots anyway. To paraphrase Howard Scott- "A criminal is a person with predatory instincts, who lacks the means to form a corporation."
I agree completely. The most successful villains are the ones who manage to keep their evil just this side of legal.
- False Prophet
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Evil Shop-
You know, if this whole "Internet" thing doesn't pan out, perhaps we'll try opening up a physical, evil storefront.
I always found this clip from The Simpsons "Treehouse of Horror III" to be very inspirational in pursuing an evil business. Remember;
"the Frogurt is also cursed".
I remember watching that when it originally aired and thinking "I want my own 'One Stop Evil Shop'". And it appears that I may
not have been the only one who was thinking that.
Here's a dark little shop that I stumbled across, which seems to be in the same vein. It's called The House of Oddities. At Twisted Jenius, we support the small evil-business owner.
- False Prophet
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Villain Gaming-
As you may have discerned from several of our Evil
Rants, we hear at Twisted Jenius are into video games (and we're about to get even more "into" them, but you'll find
out what I mean by that, soon enough). So, seeing as how this is the week of E3,
I thought that we'd bring you a few Villainesque offerings from the gaming universe.
First we have a virtual booth featuring new additions to the Overlord
franchise. Considering that we are talking about a game where you are obviously a villain who commands hordes of evil minions,
it's really difficult to be much more Villainesque than this!
Next we have an evil-themed game developer, Supervillain Studios. I'd say
they have the right idea. And finally, we bring you a gaming news sites which has a bit of Villainesque flair, Evil Avatar (I personally don't think that gaming avatars should come any other way).
And if that's not enough Villainesque action for you, check out this
Star Wars: The Old Republic trailer (you can never see it too many times; the Dark Side compels you!).
- False Prophet
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Villainesque Webcomics-
This may come as a bit of a shock, but there are other villain themed webcomics besides Villains & Heroes: Illustrations of Immorality out there. And perhaps even more surprising, some of these
are actually pretty entertaining. I'm normally not the type to assist the competition, but I'm going to go ahead and offer you
a couple of my personal recommendations (we villains should stick together... for now, Muahahaha!).
First we have The Antagonist, a cynical and subtly
humorous webcomic about a villain who must deal with some of the more cruel and mundane elements of life. Villainy isn't always
about dark, gaudy costumes and secret lairs, but as Neil Zawacki once said- "Listen, if being evil was easy everyone would do
it".
Next we have Evil Inc., a comical look at the business
of villainy. It goes without saying that we here at Twisted Jenius are great fans of corporate evil; so we may be a little bias
in matters pertaining to malevolent industry.
And speaking of our personal bias and malevolent industry, you're going to be receiving a new installment of my favorite Villainesque
web comic next week. Enjoy!
- False Prophet
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The Elrod House-
As some of you know from my Landscapes rant, I enjoy
interesting environments. And what's better than an interesting environment? An interesting, evil environment!
So, as you can imagine, I was very pleased to come across this home which is definitely fit for a villain. In fact, it was actually
used as a villain's lair in a Bond movie; it's hard to get more Villainesque than that!
Aside from being featured in a memorable fight scene, in a 007 film, this house is also visually and architecturally unique;
as it was designed by a one time protégé of Frank Lloyd Wright (and it was used in several Playboy photo shoots as well).
Below I provide two links to articles about this residential masterpiece known as "The Elrod House". All I can say is: "I want
one!"
http://www.palmspringslife.com/Palm-Springs-Life/February-2009/Daring-Design/
http://www.madamelamb.com/2008/07/john-lautners-elrod-home.html
- False Prophet
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Villain Links-
Here are two more villain links that we will be adding to the
Villainesque page in the near future.
The first is Villain Abode, and it is slated as "the biggest and
most in-depth villain index on the web". It's certainly the largest that I've seen (and, if you'll pardon me for saying so, I
do consider myself a bit of an authority on the topic; it's kind of my thing). I was actually impressed by the massiveness of
this index as well as its attention to detail. It has obviously required a lot of work to put together. I'm definitely sensing
a genuine commitment to villainy here.
Next we have a site that is still a-work-in-progress, but one that I have high hopes for. In fact, it's designed to always be
"in-progress"; it's a Wiki! Villains Wiki, to be precise.
Go check it out and see if there's any villainous information that you would like to contribute. The presence of evil continues
to further manifest itself on the Internet and as always, Twisted Jenius will be right there with you to enjoy it!
- False Prophet
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See, this is exactly the kind of thing that I'm talking about when I say "Villainesque entertainment". This is also further evidence
that Joss Whedon is not only a creative genius, but that he also "gets it". Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog is an excellent example
of the Villainesque spirit! Click on the link below and scroll down towards the bottom of the page to watch: http://doctorhorrible.net/watch/
I have to say that Dr. Horrible's achievement is of no small significance to us. While we're discussing Villainesque entertainment,
I should mention that we have a new Villains & Heroes comic
up for you. This particular installment was inspired by persistent rumors being circulated about a "Venom" (of the Spiderman
franchise) movie being planned and the many individuals who claim that such a superhero movie would not work, due to the fact
that Venom is essentially a villain.
My response to this is that, while a superhero movie starring Venom may not work, a Villainesque movie certainly would. And as
Thing O' Wickedness pointed out in this comic, I believe that audiences are ready for a villain in a starring role. After all,
that's what we're all about here at Twisted Jenius.
- False Prophet
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