This weekend was brutal. I spent a majority of my Saturday racking my brain over some ActonScript code that refused to cooperate with me. The original code moved elements in the x-axis. I needed elements to move in the y-axis. The code pretty much labeled everything with a ._x on it so changing every occurrence of ._x to ._y should be easy right? Well, it was the right logic. Unfortunately, after changing all the values, nothing worked. After 2 hours of looking through my original file and the new file and looking all the way back to the first tutorial that taught me the original effect, I finally started understanding what was going wrong. So I corrected it all. Everything. Then, for sure, I knew I had something that would work. Too bad it didn’t and I was getting frustrated. The code was right. Everything was right.

A few hours later, after searching online for solutions, I gave up on them too, because everyone wanted something close to what I wanted, but completely different at the same time. So in an act of frustration, I deleted everything and started all over again. Originally, I had all the designs ready and nice graphics and so forth. I put them all aside and decided to make sure that what I was doing worked first, and then add on the eye candy. I did everything from scratch. Instead of copying and pasting the original ActionScript codes I had from an older working file, I transcribed the code word by word onto the new file. And then I tested the movie. This time, it finally fucking worked. So why didn’t it work before? I have no idea. Then I spent more hours tweaking everything to what I wanted and finally I accomplished what I had set out to do, with enough time to enjoy my weekend.

Here’s the finished result. You might want to resize it to original size.

Project

Well, not too long ago, I wrote that my page was fully validated as XHTML 1.0 transitional. Unfortunately, I stumbled upon a new plugin that I just don’t want to pass up on just because of XHTML correctness. So, fuck that shit, I’m going for what works for me. I guess I should strikeout the other post then. Anyway, the plugin’s called lightbox and it opens up an image right on top of the page so you don’t have to leave the page to view an image and so forth. Very convenient. Screw XHTML. Now I just need to update all my image posts when I get the chance… Well, maybe I’ll just add it in proactively instead of retroactively.

We start out with a look into Kuu’s past where she is in the testing facility looking at Kazuya. As Kyoshiro and Kuu are falling, they are caught and protected by Bastille. Kazuya, in all his craziness somehow is incapacitated by Bastille, as it itself starts to crumble, signifying the end of the world. Kuu tells Kyoshiro that she can stop the destruction of the world. Kyoshiro decides to go help her save the world. A staff appears in Kuu’s hand and a pair of angel wings sprout forth behind Kuu and the two fly off into the air.

I’m not quite sure what they did to Kazuya, but he got knocked out good. Also, it made sense that Kuu would command the same staff that the other Kuu was using since they’re halves of each other.

Kuu uses the wand and gets rid of the red atmosphere and the other Angels are released, destroying Bastille. The other angels fly around in the air as well searching for their companions. Tarurotte with Sojiro, Kaon with Himiko, and well, Setsuna just lands down since she doesn’t have Kyoshiro anymore. Tarurotte and Kaon bring life back to Sojiro and Himiko. Kyoshiro and Kuu fly around the air performing a dance alluding to the dance mentioned in the first episode. And the two then share a kiss. Kazuya, by then, is practically a shell, but he still has the spiritual Kuu to look over him.

So far, this episode is becoming the typical dénouement type of finale. The world is in peril and so the least likely of heroes comes forth to make things better. And after that, everyone and everything is restored to a happy-go-lucky world.

After Kyoshiro and Kuu land, Kuu knows it’s time for her to go, as this is the price for saving the world. Kuu requests that Kyoshiro to turn around and not look at her. Kuu tells him that she’ll surely return to the world and makes him pinky swear to wait for her to return. They share their final moments, but Kuu can’t bear it as she sees herself fading away. She cries out to Kyoshiro to save her, but it’s too late by then as she disappears, leaving a devastated Kyoshiro with only the white horse pendant left.

I couldn’t help but find it hilarious in the scene where Kyoshiro turns around in hopes of saving Kuu. It must have been the subs, but Kyoshiro at first sounded like he was going to accept defeat and the moment Kuu cries for help, he takes it all back and is willing to save her. Anyway, it was funny to me.

Days later, Kyoshiro is ready to set out to search for Kuu. Setsuna cuts off her hair and decides to accompany Kyoshiro on his mission. Everyone else live on peacefully with their lives. Years later, Setsuna and Kyoshiro finally find a younger version of Kuu in a flower field and it’s deja vu all over again for Kuu. The end.

The ending of the series is practically a carbon copy of Kannazuki no Miko. Well, the story did come from the same author, so it’s expected. Although I was never convinced by the development of the characters, if there were any to begin with, I found it nice that everything ended well. No real loose ends.

Kuu continues to look at the white horse pendant as she sets herself into the pod with the other Angels. Kazuya immediately goes on the attack against Kyoshiro and starts talking about how he enjoyed the attention Kyoshiro gave to him when he was young. Kyoshiro continues to head on to where Kuu is while Sojiro and Himiko try to keep Kazuya at bay, while Kazuya taunts them to bring it. Despite their efforts, they are too late from preventing the Angels from transforming Kuu back to her original form.

For some reason, it feels like they nerfed Kazuya quite a bit in this scene. It could also be that Kazuya knows they can’t do anything to him and he’s just waiting for Kuu to turn into Cielo. Finally, it could also be that the instrument can keep him at bay indefinitely.

With all four Absolute Angels combined, they form a large mech known as Bastille. Sojiro explains that is the destructive form of Absolute Angels. It’s purpose is to bring end to the world. Bastille then emits a red blanket over the world freezing it in place. In another dimension, the four Absolute Angels sit on separate pillars in chains. Kazuya’s spiritual Kuu talks to each one telling them that she understands their feelings. So one by one, each of them are chained up to a pillar.

I couldn’t quite understand what was going on in that world where all the Angels were. I did understand that they had to come to terms with themselves and accept defeat, but it sure didn’t look like they accepted defeat at all. Well, maybe Setsuna, but not Kaon or catgirl.

Afterward, Bastille starts breaking apart. Kazuya ties down Bastille trying to retrieve his Cielo while the sky rains down feathers. Kyoshiro heads toward Kuu as well, while the others hold back the dummy Angels. As Kyoshiro advances up towards Kuu, Sojiro, Jin, and Himiko are already defeated. Kyoshiro comes to terms with his life’s misguided mission and decides that Kuu is worth changing all his beliefs for. As Bastille continues to fall apart, Kazuya continues on the attack, but doesn’t stand a chance against Bastille.

You would think that Kazuya knew what he was doing all this time, but instead he’s left trying to tame the giant mech to get his Cielo back. Kind of weird. Then he gets mashed by Bastille’s foot. And just like most shows nearing the finale, all the side characters come in for a final sacrifice to allow the lead character to do what he must do.

Back in the other dimension, Kuu is still not wrapped in chains. She reveals that she still has the white horse and remembers Kyoshiro and therefore she cannot accept the merger with her spirit. Kuu says she wishes to see Kyoshiro one last time, causing that dimension to shatter. Kuu falls out of Bastille’s chamber and Kyoshiro jumps in and catches her as she falls.

I guess this is the one moment where Kuu’s strange personality is able to stop what’s happening. She refuses to accept assimilation with her spirit because her feelings for Kyoshiro somehow produced a spirit of her own. Now that Kuu has returned to her normal self, it looks like the next episode is all about cleaning up the messes.

I can’t believe how far I’ve fallen behind on the times when it comes to HTML and XHTML. 8 years’ worth, but maybe that’s because I haven’t really been paying attention to it all. But I have this feeling that if my page is not XHTML validated, then search engines are going to refuse to list my pages. And in today’s world, it’s all about SEO, no matter how seemingly insignificant things may be. Call me paranoid, but I would like to have a better ranking on Google despite how the current search results on Google lead many to believe that Google sucks these days. I remember when they could find anything and everything. These days, Yahoo! is actually pulling ahead in regards to actually bringing me search results that I actually wanted to find, instead of a front page full of crap from Google.

Anyway, behold! Validated! (as if I just passed my driver’s license test for the first time)

You can check if the current page is validated too. Just look for the “Valid XHTML” link on the right navigation panel. Hopefully, this new page meets the correct coding.

And it took me a couple of hours to get everything “Transitional”. It was good thing, though, that I didn’t have too many posts to go through. While cleaning up my site, I noticed my new theme was causing display problems for a number of my posts, so my next step is to fix those. Sigh. All for the love of perfection.

4-15-07 Update

I decided to use a new plugin, so this information is incorrect at the present time. Oh well. You can read why I threw all the effort out the window.
(http://www.ninenines.net/ninesblog/index.php/blog/2007/xhtml-invalid-again)

Ah yes, it’s another design update to my site. I can’t seem to find one that I like, because everything I use seems to have something great about them, but always lacking in something else. So I spent a better part of today and some time yesterday modifying a particular theme to produce something I was happy with. I’m sure I’ll stick with this layout for maybe a month before I change the header image. And just so I remember which theme I’m talking about, here are some images of what I’m talking about.

Here’s the overall look at the page layout without any of the dynamic text.

Here’s a simplified deep layer of the theme. You can see how many extra parts are included in the final theme.