text:
is a series of video games by Sega. The first three games were developed in the 1990s by Sega's Team Andromeda for the Sega Saturn console. The fourth, _Panzer Dragoon Orta_ (2002), was developed for Xbox by Sega's Smilebit team.

The _Panzer Dragoon_ games are rail shooters, except _Panzer Dragoon Saga_ (1998), a role-playing game. All games follow the story of a hero or heroine fighting an evil empire in a post-apocalyptic world while riding a dragon. The series' name originates from its original concept designers referring to it as “armoured dragon”, then feeling that this was too bland and deciding to transliterate it to German.[1] The cutscenes feature its own language, Panzerese, which is a mixed language based on a combination of Ancient Greek, English, German, Japanese, Latin, and Russian. The words in these languages were a hobby of Yukio Futatsugi, one of the core designers of the first game.

Sega announced in December 2018 that remakes of _Panzer Dragoon_ and _Panzer Dragoon II Zwei_ were in development. The first remake was released in 2020 for Nintendo Switch, Google Stadia, Steam, PlayStation 4, Amazon Luna and Xbox One.

Premise

The _Panzer Dragoon_ series takes place on a post-apocalyptic planet where the people compete for land, resources, and the technology of the Ancients. The ‘Ancients’ is the generic name given to the people that once controlled a world-spanning, hyper-advanced civilization thousands of years before the start of the Panzer Dragoon series of games. The Ancients were able to create monsters either for war use or practical uses.

These creatures survived the downfall of the Ancients and are one of the main enemies in the series. A mysterious cataclysm, hinted at as a terrible war during the course of the series, would spell the downfall of this civilization and nearly destroy the world, leaving the survivors to eke out a bleak existence among the blasted remains in the ensuing millennia. Eventually, the Ancients and their works would gain a sort of 'godlike' respect, and a horrific regard, among some people as they passed into legend.

The remnants of these technologies are used in the development of much of humanity's own machinery, weaponry and vehicles, such as the unusual floating ships which are a staple of the series. A faction called _The Empire_ have collected and used weapons from the Ancient Age to gain dominance of the continent.

Games

_Panzer Dragoon_ (1995)

The first _Panzer Dragoon_ was released on the Sega Saturn in 1995. It follows the story of Keil Fluge, a member of a hunter party who encounters a fight between two dragons, coloured black and blue. The rider of the blue dragon is mortally wounded in the battle and entrusts his mission, as well as his dragon, the Solo Wing, to Keil. Keil must stop the Dark Dragon reactivating an ancient ruin.

This chapter introduced the basic features of the traditional gameplay that the Panzer series would be known by, starting out as a rail shooter giving the player a choice of two main attacks: a lock-on laser weapon, and a rapid fire gun weapon, as well as the ability to swing the cameras around to shoot the enemies coming from all directions.

Panzer Dragoon was one of the few games available at the Sega Saturn's North American launch. The game was ported to Microsoft Windows only in Japan on March 14, 1997,[2] and in 2006 adapted slightly for Sega's Japanese PlayStation 2 “AGES 2500” series. The game is getting a high definition remake for the Nintendo Switch, slated for release in winter 2020.[3]

_Panzer Dragoon R-zone_ (1995)

_Panzer Dragoon R-Zone_ is a Tiger R-Zone game for the short-lived system. It was one of the few launch titles licensed by Sega, being released just a few months after the original _Panzer Dragoon_.[4] It was the first game in the series that was not developed by Team Andromeda. There is no plot, simply a nameless character on an armored dragon attempting to keep a dark dragon from reaching a tower while shooting and dodging robots.

_Panzer Dragoon II Zwei_ (1996)

_Panzer Dragoon II Zwei_ (also known as _Panzer Dragoon II_) was released for the Sega Saturn in 1996. This game is a prequel to _Panzer Dragoon_. It follows the story of Jean-Luc Lundi who discovered a mutant coolia, whom he names Lagi, who has a green glow at its throat, and is growing wings. Lundi refuses to kill Lagi, defying his villages custom that mutant coolias be killed. Together, Lundi and Lagi ride towards the horizon, chasing after a great airship called the Shelcoof, which is responsible for destroying Lundi's village while he was away.

This game introduced the berserk ability, where the player builds up a bar and then can unleash a powerful attack. It also introduced multiple routes through levels, and the dragon's capacity to change shape when the player performed well in a level.

A high definition remake for Nintendo Switch was announced in October 2019.[5]

_Panzer Dragoon Mini_ (1996)

_Panzer Dragoon Mini_ is a Sega Game Gear game released only in Japan, in 1996.[6] Due to the technical limitations of the Game Gear, the camera cannot be controlled and instead rotates automatically; also, for the first and — so far — only time in the series' history, the dragon doesn't have a rider. The game is markedly different from others in the series due to lack of a story and the dragon's super deformed appearance. Most of the levels and enemies are modeled after those of _Panzer Dragoon Zwei_.

_Panzer Dragoon Saga_ (1998)

_Panzer Dragoon Saga_ (titled _Azel: Panzer Dragoon RPG_ in Japan) is a role-playing video game released for Saturn in 1998.[7] It is the only _Panzer Dragoon_ game that is not a rail shooter, combining traditional role-playing elements such as random encounters with the 3D shooting elements of previous games. The player controls Edge, a young mercenary who battles the empire on a flying dragon and encounters a mysterious girl from a vanished civilization.[8] Unlike the other _Panzer Dragoon_ games, movement is not on rails and some areas are explored on foot. The battle system mixes real-time and turn-based elements,[9] with the player circling enemies on the dragon to expose weak spots and escape dangerous positions.[10]

Development of _Panzer Dragoon Saga_ began around the same time as _Panzer Dragoon II Zwei_. According to director Yukio Futatsugi, the need to blend the series' shooting elements into an RPG with full 3D and voice acting - both unusual for RPGs at the time - made it the most difficult _Panzer Dragoon_ game to develop. Two staff members died during its two-year development, which Futatsugi attributed to the stressful working conditions of the video game industry.[11]

According to GameRankings, _Panzer Dragoon Saga_ is the most critically acclaimed Saturn game, winning praise for its story, graphics, music, and unusual battle system.[12] It has appeared in several “greatest games of all time” lists.[13][14][15] As Sega had shifted its focus to its next console, the Dreamcast, the game had a limited release outside Japan, attracting a cult following. It has not been rereleased and is now a rare collector's item. After its release, Sega disbanded Team Andromeda; Futatsugi left Sega and joined Konami,[16] while other staff moved to Sega teams including Smilebit.[17]

_Panzer Dragoon Orta_ (2002)

_Panzer Dragoon Orta_ is an Xbox game released in late 2002 in Japan and in early 2003 in America and Europe. It was developed by Smilebit which had been founded by former members of Team Andromeda.

_Panzer Dragoon Orta_ follows the story of Orta, a teenage girl being held captive in a town. When the town is attacked by the Empire, Orta is rescued by a Dragon, and encounters a drone named Abadd. While tracking the drone, she discovers the truth behind her own origins, and helps to free the world from the tyranny of the Empire. This game introduced several updated features, such as the ability to morph the dragon at will, and maneuvering abilities from _Panzer Dragoon Saga_.

This game had large amounts of unlockable content to be gained after completing the main story. These include a group of sub-missions, one series of which is devoted to the backstory of Iva Demilcol. The “Box Game” is a bonus mode first introduced in _Zwei_ where the player can select different dragons, riders, and various cheats. The PC version of the first _Panzer Dragoon_ is included in its entirety.

The game also possesses a vast in-game dictionary that updates as you progress, detailing the _Panzer_ world, and full-motion video from the game itself is unlocked for casual viewing, as well as the intro and ending videos from _Panzer Dragoon_, _Panzer Dragoon Zwei_ and _Panzer Dragoon Saga_.

Remakes (2020)

In December 2018, Sega announced that remakes of _Panzer Dragoon_ and _Panzer Dragoon II Zwei_ were in development by MegaPixel Studio.[18] The first remake was released for Nintendo Switch[19] and Stadia in 2020.[20] PlayStation 4 and Steam versions were released later in 2020.[21]

Other media

Soundtrack CDs were released in Japan for all the games, with _Panzer Dragoon Orta_'s being bundled with the game itself. Toykopop released the _Panzer Dragoon Orta_ soundtrack in the USA. An anime adaptation of the first game was released, with the story being slightly altered to include a female heroine whom Keil ('Kyle' in the anime) is trying to save when she becomes bonded to the Black Dragon. The English version was released by ADV Films. An artbook from the second game, _Die Welt Von Panzer Dragoon Zwei_ (_The World of Panzer Dragoon Zwei_) was also released.

_Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed_ features a racetrack based on _Panzer Dragoon_. Additionally, the _Worlds Unite_ crossover between the _Sonic the Hedgehog_ and the _Mega Man_ comic lines from Archie Comics features _Panzer Dragoon_ characters and concepts.

[1]

[2] Panzer Dragoon PC version release data, IGN.

[3]

[4] Panzer Dragoon R-Zone release data, IGN. Retrieved February 12, 2012.

[5]

[6] Panzer Dragoon Mini release data, GameFAQs. Retrieved February 12, 2012.

[7]  Edge Online|date=2014-01-23|accessdate=2015-12-11|url-status=unfit|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20140123020728/http://www.edge-online.com/review/panzer-dragoon-saga/%7Carchivedate=January 23, 2014}}

[8]

[9]

[10]

[11]

[12]

[13]

[14]

[15] Top 100 Games of All Time: No.22, G4.

[16]

[17]

[18]

[19]

[20]  NME.COM|language=en-GB}}

[21]

title: Panzer Dragoon

question: What are the gameplay elements of the Panzer series mentioned in the article?

answer: Panzer games are rail-shooters except for one, Panzer Dragoon Saga, which is a role-playing game. The main elements of the rail-shooter games are two weapons: a lock-on laser and a rapid-fire gun. Panzer Dragoon II Zwei introduced the berserk ability - the player builds up a bar to unleash a power attack - and the dragon's shape change ability when the player performs well in a level. Panzer Dragoon Orta introduced the ability to morph the dragon at will and maneuvering abilities from Panzer Dragoon Saga. The Saga gameplay is vastly different from the others, being an RPG. There are exploration elements, and the battle system mixes both real-time and turn-based elements.

question: What does the article say about the setting of Panzer games?

answer: The games are about fighting an evil empire in a post-apocalyptic world. The language spoken in this world is a unique mix of Ancient Greek, English, German, Japanese, Latin, and Russian. It's called Panzerese. The people of the Panzer world compete for the technology of the Ancients in addition to land and resources. The Ancients are the people who used to control the world thousands of years ago with very advanced technology. One of those technologies was the ability to create monsters for war or practical applications. The Ancients went extinct in a mysterious cataclysm, but the monsters survived. The world was almost destroyed, leaving the survivors with a bleak existence. The Ancients and their works gained 'godlike' respect in the millennia since their downfall. The Empire collects and uses the weapons left from the Ancients for dominance on the planet.

question: What does the text say about the German blitzkrieg strategies?


split: test

text:
Caledonia is a land of many opportunities, many argue it is *the* land of opportunities, although not all of them are...pleasant to say the least. This world however is not all beauty, as creatures known by its inhabitants as Abominations--undead, druid summons, treants, etcetera--roam the land, in some cases unhindered. However, thanks to the formation of the Fourth Great Caledonian Empire one hundred years ago, the inhabitants of the land live peacefully together. The humans and were-tribes live peacefully together, with cities such as Ashfallow Reach or New Caledon incorporating much culture from both sides of the spectrum. The Vixes are the largest were-tribe, fox-merchants who are famous for their patron deity Thasha, also known as "Queen of the Wealthy." However their deity isn't only of wealth, but also of mischief and trade. The Vixes also are known for their cooking, with cakes and sweets amongst their most famous foods (the most well-known of the cakes, katama, is a light cake with caramelized sugar coating) . Some Vixes clans often travel across the land for ingredients and furs to trade, with the forests southeast of Ashfallow Reach being the most commonplace location for the clans of Winter's Dawn (Derseft in Vixes tongue) and Dawn's Breeze (Dermin-Retani in Vixes tongue). Clan Dermin-Retani is headed by a council of elders, which itself is headed by the clan chieftain, Habeomus.
On this particular day however, the clan of Dermin-Retani was in this forest. They had returned for the first time in over a month after the disappearance of one of their own young pups named Chiles, who had gone to search for cooking ingredients for the chefs. After search parties turned up empty handed, the clan council decided it would be best if there were less time spent in the forest for a while in case it were an Abomination which had moved in. However, the son-in-law of the clan chieftain, Samuten, had convinced the council to return on the notion that he would personally take responsibility for any other disappearances. And, he added, it would grant them more opportunities to find Chiles, even if he’d perished.
Tents had only just been put up, and the chefs had just finished cooking the celebratory feast to start off the long week. Preparation in the large, central leather dining tent was set up for maximum space, and scents of cooked meat pies and fine sweets wafted through the forest air.
Catching the scent of the meats, a small figure sat crouched in the woods near the camp with upturned nose and drooling mouth ajar in response to the teasing aroma, when a voice rang through the trees, "Asha, where are you? Come on out, they are waiting for us at the dining tent!"
The figure quickly leaped onto its feet and sprinted towards the clearing. As it entered the clearing, it saw an aged, stooped Vixes with a light grey-and-white pelt. When he spotted the figure, the Vixes said, "Come on my little katama, you know that I do not appreciate it when you go out into the woods by yourself, you are still a mere kit for Thasha's sake!"
Having reached the clearing, Asha protested, "But Pa! I-"
"No, no. You know the risks as well as I. No running around in the forest, who knows what may happen." Kneeling, Asha's father--for indeed that was who he was--looked over his daughter to ensure that she had not lost anything while she'd been in  hiding. Unlike her father's grey complexion, at only six years of age Asha was able to speak and write in both her native Vixes tongue and Caledonian fluently while most of her peers still struggled to learn their native tongue. Like many other Vixes, Asha could charm the leather off a shoe, and the shoe would walk away happy. Eventually Asha's father rose up and pushed Asha over to origin of the pleasant aromas; the leather dining tent.
They were greeted at the entrance of the tent by the chieftain of the tribe. "Samuten, I was wondering where you were off to. Come, the chefs have been cooking all day, and there's plenty of it. Come inside and let us celebrate!"
Asha was ushered through the cloth door by Samuten, and the scent of fresh-cooked meat pies and game birds overwhelmed her senses now. They quickly gathered around the banquet table set up on the tent floor and proceeded to heap their fine plates with food. Asha wandered around playing tag with a few of the other children while Samuten discussed something of interest with his father-in-law in hushed tones.
When merriment, joy, and flowing spirits rose to their peak in tenacity, a sudden commotion arose as the cloth tent flap was flung open, and a young Vixes with mud-matted fur entered and collapsed onto the floor.
Confusion rung out, and as it did Samuten's voice rose above the clamor, "What is--is that Chiles? Chiles! Great Thasha, he looks like death boiled over. Someone get me some wine, the poor chap must be exhausted!" Samuten pushed past the crowd of onlookers as Habeomus brought forth a bottle of fine wine. As he slowly gave the boy sips of wine, he asked, "Where have you been? You have been missing ever since our last trip here a month ago! Come now, if you drink it all at once you may choke, Chiles. Now, what has been holding you up from us? You may take a bath after you tell us."
Chiles grinned weakly as and promptly pulled from his satchel a milky-white stone the size of a small watermelon and attempted to speak, but instead he merely grunted and fell into unconsciousness. The onlookers stood shocked as they watched this interaction, and when the gem was exposed, a great exchange in murmurs and glances took place. Two words echoed throughout the crowd of Vixes: Dragon's Eye. One of the very rare and priceless gems which the dragons of old gave the Forgotten Elves many ages before the split of Ellendira, the elvish region which consisted of the countries Caledonia and Tizarell, the Dragon's Eye gems were exceedingly valuable for their ability to hold magical energies, and are thought to be vessels of contained Natural Order. They disappeared when the Forgotten Elves left the land, and were thought to only now reside in stories. Samuten picked up the large gem, wrapped it in his handkerchief, and tied it with some string before he placed it in his coat pocket.
Samuten turned to the now more than intrigued audience and, reassuringly, said, "Everything is alright. This chap will be well before you know it. However for the moment, I would like to meet with the council. Return to your celebrating, if you please. Council, we will meet in my tent, thank you." With that, Samuten signaled the nurses to bring Chiles to the medical tent, and exited the dining tent.
*****
"I will go." Samuten said. "I am the best choice; I know my way around this forest more than any other chap in this clan. If anyone should deliver the note and what may or may not be a Dragon's Eye I believe I would be the most obvious candidate as much as you all know."
A council member with dark orange fur stood up, "Samuten, you have already brought us back here with your word being there will be more disappearances such as Chiles' case. Also, as a member of this council should your duty not be first and foremost for our clan's well-being? Why don't we send one of our younger members--"
Samuten interjected, "However, Faddin, as you may plainly see, Chiles has returned. The Dragon's Eye gem or whatever it may possibly be must be brought to Ashfallow Reach for study, and news of Chile's safe return must be brought to his family. I can make this journey on my own in under a day, while it would take any other Vixes four. You simply must understand how imperative this is for research."
Faddin once again chimed in, "There's no need to rush this errand. As imperative as it is the safety of the gem's arrival, time is not in dire need. Besides, Chiles has yet to stir, and we have not gathered any information as to where he may have found the gem. As far as we know, he may have found where many have been hidden and was only able to bring one back to the tribe. No, I am sorry Samuten but this matter is not of the urgency that you push it to be--"
Once again Samuten argued, "The sooner this is done, the sooner we will not have to worry about it, friends. It is common knowledge that many magical artifacts attract Abominations, and it is my responsibility to ensure the safety and well-being of our tribe for this trip, as you have so kindly pointed out, Faddin. I will question Chiles myself and bring Ashfallow Reach any news as to the Eye's original location. If anything happens while I am gone, I will answer to it myself. Habeomus," he said, and turned to address the rest of the council. "Council, I would like to ask for your permission to travel to Ashfallow Reach within two day's of Chile's recovery, and bring the Eye, as well any potential information I may be able to glean from Chiles, and of course the news of his safe return to his family. What say you?"
Much of the council stood up, as was the voting custom. However, Habeomus was the last to stand up. With a reluctant sigh, he said,  "I give my vote, however I believe I must ask one thing of you, Samuten."
"What may that be, father-in-law?"
"You must take one of our supply caravans, and travel safely. If this Eye does in fact attract Abominations, then the last thing I want to do is lose it because you were unprepared."
Annoyed, Samuten replied, "But I am much faster on my own--"
Faddin scowled, "Be glad you recieved his vote for so little a price. If your daughter were not his grandchild he may have asked for an actual bounty. He is right, however. If what you say is true that this artifact may indeed attract Abominations then you must be prepared as much as possible so that you do not lose the Eye."
Samuten looked at Faddin expressionless for only a moment before smiling once again as he turned towards the council. "Thank you all. I shall check up on Chiles and deliver whatever message I must as soon as possible. I appreciate your understanding and I appreciate your respect for my mission."
*****

title: [FN] In the Eye of a Dragon *Rough draft v3.1.1*

question: What does the story say about the disappearance of one of the clan's pups?

answer: Chiles disappeared in the forest when he went in search of cooking ingredients. The clan wants to find him even if he has died. More than a month after he disappeared Chiles returns. He is filthy and looks exhausted but he brings with him a precious Dragons' Eye.

question: What does the story tell us about Dragon's eye?

answer: The Dragon's Eye is a very rare and priceless gem which the dragons of old gave the Forgotten Elves many ages before the split of Ellendira. they are exceedingly valuable for their ability to hold magical energies and are thought to be vessels of contained Natural Order. They disappeared when the Forgotten Elves left the land and were thought to only now reside in stories

question: What does the story tell us about the abominations?

answer: Creatures known by its inhabitants as Abominations--undead, druid summons, treants, etcetera--roam the land, in some cases unhindered. The clan are scarred of Abominations. When Chiles disappears they decide to stay out of the forest in case an Abomination has moved in. It is common knowledge that many magical artifacts attract Abominations.

question: What does the story tell us about Asha?

answer: Asha is a kit at 6 years old. She is the daughter of Samuten. She is a bright spark who can already speak three languages, way ahead of her peers. Like many Vixes she is a charming child.


text:
I write this to share with you a very peculiar discovery. It was a steamy April morning. The ground was still wet from last night’s rainstorm and I had set out along the local nature trail to do some hiking, maybe even do some bird watching if the weather allowed. I was out a good bit into the woods when I chanced upon a wide clearing with an excellent view of rolling green hills dotted with budding dogwoods. I had dug my camera out of my bag when I noticed a tall, curious shape standing dark and still upon the soft grassy hill. From where I stood, it looked very much like an old church tower that you’d see in the moors of old Ireland. It was a weekend and I had time to kill so I decided I might as well investigate, if nothing else it would provide good material for my blog.

As I climbed up the deceptively steep hill, I had noticed a nearby shack, long abandoned and rotted to pieces, farther up was the tower, a gray, two-story building with the stones laid in such an odd way that I couldn’t quite figure where one stone ended and the one below it began. The front of the tower was marked by a plain cast-iron door that had suffered several decades’ worth of rust and was lying open. I stood there for a bit, trying to see anything in the murky dark behind the old door.

The tower interior was as base as the rest of it, with gray stone walls and a hard floor. Further into the room was an incline that steadily drew down into pitch black. I didn’t venture very far down, that was something for braver souls than I, but at the head of the incline was a very dusty old book. I picked it up off the cold stone floor and stepped back outside to get a good look at it in the light of day.

It was a worn, filthy thing, but underneath the dust I could tell that it used to be a very nice book. Moleskin binding with a brass clasp on the front, copper inlay on the spine… It would have been quite lovely if it was in better shape. I shoved the thing into my bag and headed back home; I’d had enough adventure for one day.
At home, I opened up the journal to find a name on the first page:

**HENRY BOLING**

Never heard of him.
Flipping through the pages, I discovered that Mr. Boling had managed to fill roughly one-fourth of the pages with his writing before abandoning it at that dismal old tower.
In the interest of posterity, I’m going to transcribe the journal here as best as I can manage. The years and the weather hasn't done any favors for the book, and a lot of the pages are either smudged and illegible or outright destroyed.
----

Sunday: May 15th, 1976

Mick and I have scouted a good place for our next expedition. There’s an old tower out in the countryside near Oxhead Trail. He says it’s an old church tower but it doesn’t look much like one to me.

We drove out there in his van this evening. Things were peaceful. The only sound in those hills were the crickets and us, the sky was clear and black. We could see just about every star out there. The tower interior was bigger than its outside suggested, the one room was wide and empty with the only thing of note being a doorway that leads down into a set of tunnels. Things were much too dark for us to explore at that time but Mick and I drew a map of the area and we made plans to come back this coming Saturday with our equipment and see where it leads.
----
Saturday: May 21st, 1976

We packed up and set out this morning. It was very early, the sun hadn’t risen yet. Things were very quiet on that hill, so quiet that the whole area felt empty, dead. The overcast sky was pale and gray like sleet on a driveway. Mick had a feeling it was going to rain on us so he and I ducked into the tower to set everything up. We got out our lamps; we tied ropes around our waists and tethered the other end to iron tent-pegs we pounded into the ground to serve as anchors.

If anything goes wrong, we can just follow the rope out of here. In case that should fail us, I’ve brought flares and some white chalk. We checked our gear and double-checked, and then we headed down into the tunnels. Our lamp light fell on a stone ramp that led down, down into blackness. The ramp leads down some ten feet into a great stone antechamber, wide and round, with doorways leading into other tunnels aligned in a circle like the spokes of a wheel.

Shining our lights on the ceiling revealed very old metal pipes running along the ceiling, caked in rust and cobwebs. Mick turned to me and said. “This isn’t a cave. Somebody built this.” I scanned the chamber and glanced over at him and asked “Which way do we go next?” At random, I pointed at a chamber on the far left. Ten paces into that tunnel, we came across a dead end. The passage went on, but it had abruptly narrowed down into a slit far too thin for me or Mick to fit through. We turned and headed out of that tunnel and I marked the opening in chalk. The passage to the right of it was better. It was a straight hallway that terminated in another round chamber; this one had nothing but a stone altar. Mick waved for me to come closer and get a good look at it. Our lamp light revealed the altar to be covered in these weird symbols. They weren’t part of any language we had seen, the top of the altar had a dark stain on it that we couldn’t identify even with the help of our light.

“Reckon it’s some kind of Native American thing?” Mick said; his eyes were wide open and reflecting the lamp glow like a deer in headlights.
“Nah.” I said. “They couldn’t build something like this…” I glance up at the ceiling and I see brown, Leather brown. I dismissed it as a trick of the eyes, even with our lanterns, it was still quite dark. The flicker of the lamplight made the shadows of the chamber dance and shift and it set us both on edge.

I heard a click and saw a flash of light as Mick snapped a photo of the strange glyphs on the gunmetal altar. The other tunnels weren’t much more interesting, save for one.
The hall snaked on through cold rock and opened up in another wide open chamber. This one was covered in markings and symbols. They were blocky, angular, kind of like Mayan or Aztec carvings. They were carved deep in the stone and very precisely etched, all of them uniform in shape and size. As I ran my fingers over the glyphs, I could only imagine the time and the skill it took to make this. Mick was especially impressed, he was snapping picture after picture. He ran up to me, eyes wide like a kid in Disneyland.

“Do you know what this is?”

I told him I didn’t.

“This is a bona fide ruin! This is huge! Can you imagine how famous we’ll be if we tell people about this?”

I didn’t say anything...

“We’ll be friggin’ celebrities! An ancient ruin out in the middle of nowhere and we’re the first to discover it!”

We took more pictures. Many more. Until Mick’s camera ran out of film. We sat in the cave by the light of our lamps discussing what to do next. Mick suggested we map out the entire cavern and call the Society for American Archaeology; they’d surely want to check this place for relics. We made our plans and we went home. Mick was going to call the SAA, and I was going to get some sleep.
----
May 27th, 1976

Things had started out very well for us. A man from the SAA met us outside the tower. He was a twiggy little man with thinning salt-and-pepper hair and thick-rimmed bifocals resting on his hook nose. He introduced himself as Mr. Dumont and shook my hand with a surprisingly firm grip.
“So what sort of thing are we looking at here?” He questioned us, adjusting his glasses with his thumb.

We told him about the altar, the glyphs, he stood and listened intently, with a look in his eyes like that of a hungry cat watching a beached fish. Mike handed him the photos of the cave he spent days developing and his eyes lit up.
He was very enthusiastic when we went down into the caves. He very nearly went in without us, in fact. He was beside himself when we took into the chamber. As our lamps lit up the walls, he traced the glyphs with his finger, gleefully muttering something under his breath as the light from the lamps flashed off his glasses like the headlights of a car.

“This is unlike any of the glyphs I’ve ever seen”

He turned to us.

“This may be the remains of a lost language. It’s organized, there’s definitely a structure in the carvings that implies a sort of written language…”

His voice trailed off as he began copying the marks down in a notepad, we could hear him mumbling. He was musing on the possible grammatical structure of this ancient mystery language. Neither Mick nor I got much out of it.
We headed back out the tunnel; Mick was telling Dumont all about the altar as we walked. The three of us fell deadly silent when we stopped and looked up and realized that the hallway had led us right back into the room we came from. Mick let out a nervous chuckle and took us down a side tunnel. This one also led us back. We’ll have to take a look at our map. Will write more later, when we get ourselves out of this godforsaken loop.
----

The good news is that we’re out of the loop. The bad news is that we took a nasty spill down a shaft.
None of us saw it coming. Mick should have, being that he was in front. We all stepped forward and a part of the floor gave way to this step incline and then a sharp, straight drop down into another wide-open chamber. Mick and I were alright, shaken, but unharmed. Mr. Dumont bruised his ankle and spent the rest of the day out of commission. Curiously, the floor of the chamber is soft, leathery… None of us are thinking about the SAA or fame anymore. If we do not find a way out of here, we are going to die.
All is not lost. Mick says he sees another shaft leading up, with light beaming down from a translucent sheet.

Luckily, we thought to bring alone knives and climbing equipment. The three of us worked out a good plan. Climb up, cut that sheet blocking the light, and work our way out.
And the sooner we’re gone, the better. Running along the length of the ceiling of this chamber is a long, fleshy tube-like structure with deep folds and creases on its surface. It pulses and contracts as if alive. Perhaps tricks of the light; or maybe our minds are playing a trick on us. The air down here is terrible. It’s stuffy and hot and I am sweating at the moment. Making matters worse, there is this awful smell coming down from the shaft we fell down. It’s sour and bacterial. Dear God, let us get out of here.
----
May 28th,1976

Things are looking up. After a few hours after my last entry, Dumont’s ankle was well enough to stand on and Mick had gotten his climbing hook latched on a good hold on the chamber wall. He was the first one up, climbing hand over hand, slowly but surely. He dangled there as I passed my Bowie knife up to him and he stuck it in the translucent, pinkish sheet that kept the light from us. It made a disgusting wet ripping sound as he slashed it open, and then bright yellow light swept into the chamber.
I went up after him, with Dumont not far behind.

We found ourselves in a wide room. This one is bright enough that we don’t need to use the lamps. Perhaps we are close to an exit. Curiously, the walls are a faint pinkish hue, and they yield easily to us pushing on them with our hands. The smell is less overpowering, but still very much present. We decided to camp out here for the night. Sleep was short and dreamless. We awoke to find the chamber still bright and wide, but different.
The walls were damp with a warm mist condensed on it. None of us paid any heed to this. We just wanted out of this hole. We headed north through an open hallway, past pale yellow stalagmites set bunched together in cramped rows.

There was this deep, hollow thumping, pulsing, as if some unseen drum was beating along to an unheard tune. It grew steadily louder as we trudged on. The ground made it hard for us. It had become soft, slippery; like walking across a sheet of wet rubber. We were in high spirits for a while, until we had been walking in the same direction for so long that it was clear that we were going nowhere.
----
May 1976.

I don’t know what day it is anymore. We have been lost for so long. Going in circles. The walls are getting warmer, wetter, closer together. We were caught off guard when the floor gave way. It didn’t break or cave in, it just sort of moved. It twisted itself into a steep funnel and we slid down; very far down. It is dark and only Mick is with me. He doesn't’t know where Dumont went. We hear the beating again. The smell is ungodly awful. Air in here is thick and hard to breath. We called for Dumont, but we received no reply. Nevertheless, Mick is adamant that we push on. I look up with my lamp and I see veins on the ceiling.

Where the hell are we?
----
May 1976.

Everything is flesh down here. We found Dumont. He was in a side tunnel roughly a few dozen paces due North. He was barely conscious, shaken, but alive. He was bound to this column of smooth pinkish flesh and pearly cartilage. He was so wrapped up in it that we could only see his head and neck peering out of the blanket of meat and sinew. I turn to look at Mick’s face, he is teary-eyed withgrief and shaking like a dog in the rain. "Cut him loose. He'll die." He whimpers at me. I took out my knife and set to work, but no matter how much I carve at Dumont's fleshy bindings, each layer gives way to only more sheets of pink flesh and ropes of tendon. I take a close look at his neck poking out, and I see veins coming from the pillar and sinking into him. It wasn't just binding Dumont to the pillar, it was making him part of it.

We couldn’t save him. Mick and I agreed to tell his wife and the SAA what happened, if they would believe us. We got rid of the map, the caverns shift and change shape too much for it to be any use. We feel it moving under us.
----
M 1976.

Mick is hysterical. We are running low on water. No end in sight. Dear God help us. I feel little fleshy stalks brush my pant legs. The walls of this place are alive, shifting. It’s like the story of Jonah and the Whale. Except I don’t think we’re getting out of this alive. We have to keep pressing on. It is imperative. If we stay put, it will consume us. But how long can we keep moving?
----

Hopeless. Mick's legs gave out on him and he passed out soon afterward. The cave responded by drawing its mass over his body like a burial shroud. His body is lying motionless under the carpet of red tissue. No heartbeat. I must have really lost it. I don't remember exactly what happened after that. I just remember taking my knife and stabbing and stabbing the walls, only to see the wounds pull themselves shut. Now I am alone in the belly of this terrible place.

God help me.
----

-76

tunnels are growing narrow. ceiling is drawing down. can(illegible)ly stand.
legs were caught. had to cut them loose.

tired,no water left.

pulsing. spreading

----

And that is all the text I could save.

title: The Final Statement of Henry Boling, Spelunker

question: Summarize Henry Boling and his companions' feelings when they realized they have lost their way underground.

answer:
After the group fell through the floor into a wide-open chamber and Mr. Dumont bruised his ankle, Henry and Mick were both shaken but decided to stay in order to allow Dumont to recover. Mick discovers another way up and the companions planned how to get out of the underground.
The air underground is terrible and Henry found himself sweating and afraid as he figured out that the smell was sour and bacterial. Henry was hopeful as Dumont's ankle became well enough to stand on. The group moved on but after a while settle up for the night. They could not sleep for long before moving on.
Henry does not know what day it is anymore. He could hear a strange rhythmic beating. The group lost Dumont and could not find him. Henry and Mick later found Dumont. He had sheets of pick flesh connecting him to a pillar. Mick broke down crying as they were unable to save Dumont. Mich soon passed out from exhaustion. Henry became really scared as he stabbed the walls.

question: Why did Henry and his group not use a mobile phone to call out for help?


text:
MATTHEW J. FREEMAN is the protagonist of Anthony Horowitz's _The Power of Five_ novels _Raven's Gate_ and _Evil Star_, and one of the main characters in _Necropolis_ and _Oblivion_. He also briefly appeared in the third book of the series, _Nightrise_. He was born in London, England, to an English mother and a father from New Zealand. However, after the death of his parents he went to live in Ipswich, then York.

He is 14 years old at the start of the series but turns 15 in _Necropolis_ and is destined to become the leader of “The Five”. He is described as having short dark hair, blue eyes, broad shoulders and a muscular body, like a model or footballer.

Early life

Matthew Freeman spent the primary years of his life growing up with his kind and loving parents, Mark and Kate Freeman, in Dulwich. They were of comfortable financial stature, though they were not very rich. On the morning of the wedding of a family friend, Matt claimed he was ill (when really what had happened was that he had had a premonition of his parents' death, and did not want to go with them, later regretting not trying to save them from their death) and was left with a neighbour, Rosemary Green, while his parents went. Matt reveals to the disbelieving neighbor the details of an accident in which his parents are killed. Afterwards, a police officer arrived and informs them that his parents car has toppled off a bridge and that both his parents are dead. Mrs. Green is sick with shock. Matt was fostered by his Aunt Gwenda and her partner, Brian, who spent his inheritance on luxuries. They then started to abuse and neglect Matt when the money ran out. Gwenda and Brian were in an abusive relationship. His performance at school suffered accordingly and he soon fell under the influence of a local thug, Kelvin Johnson, who encouraged him to take to stealing, truancy, vandalism, smoking and petty crime. According to Matt himself, he started smoking at the age of twelve, stole things from local shops, and broke into no trespassing zones.

_Raven's Gate_

Matthew found out about Raven's Gate, and his true destiny, when Tom Burgess, a farmer in the Yorkshire town of Greater Malling, was murdered and had smeared the letters in green paint across the wooden door in the bedroom of the farmhouse he lived in. After a botched warehouse theft which culminated in the stabbing of a security guard, Matt is placed on the Leaf project(Liberty and Education Achieved through Fostering). He is placed in the care of Jayne Deverill, an old lady living in Lesser Malling, a village in Yorkshire. Taking an immediate disliking to her, Matt tries to escape several times but does not succeed, due to some supernatural power acting in the area. After spending three days in a fever, hearing people talk about him in a sinister fashion, and seeing an odd ritual going on in the remains of an abandoned nuclear power plant, he encounters Richard Cole, a local journalist. Matt attempts to explain but Cole does not believe him and leaves him back on his own. However, Richard and Matt later reunite after Matt was rescued from a bog.

After speaking with the nuclear plant's creator and two members from a shadowy organization known as the Nexus, Matt realized that he was one of five Gatekeepers, reincarnated after ten thousand years. In the past, mankind fought a final battle with The Old Ones, extradimensional demons who oppressed, slaughtered and imprisoned civilization. Before Matt could ask further questions, he was captured, dragged inside the power plant and tied upon an altar with a cross of Jesus Christ hanging above him upside down. Matt finds that he is going to be sacrificed with a sacrificial knife as his blood in satanic rituals, and a nuclear explosion will be used to open the gate. Richard Cole is going to be burnt to death. However, before the Old Ones can escape Raven's Gate, Matt managed to trigger his power and stop the knife from going through his heart. The vacuum created by the subsequent nuclear explosion sucks the Old Ones back in along with the villagers. Before the explosion, a furious Mrs. Deverill chases Matt and Richard downstairs into a power plant room with an acid pool. Mrs Deverill manages to knock Richard out, and she and Matt have a fight which ends in Mrs. Deverill attempting to crush Matt's windpipe with an extremely heavy pole. Before this can occur, however, Richard awakes and pushed Mrs. Deverill into the pool of acid. After this incident, Matt begins living with Richard, supported by The Nexus.

_Evil Star_

Several weeks later, Matt was attending a private school, Forest Hill, financed by The Nexus, and was attacked by his apparently possessed aunt Gwenda Davis, who blew up a petrol tanker to try to kill him, after murdering her husband, Brian Conran, with a kitchen knife. Matt was constantly bullied at the school due to his background, forcing him to unwillingly use his powers of telekinesis when he unknowingly attacked the bully, and then he knew he couldn't stay at the school as he could well be a danger to the other students with his overwhelming powers. He used his powers once again to save the entire school from being eradicated when his possessed aunt Gwenda Davis tried to blow up the school via a petrol tanker, and then the Nexus recruited him once again in order to prevent Diego Salamanda from opening the second gate, built into the Nazca plains. Matt travelled to Peru and was meant to be collected by Fabian, one of The Nexus, but was instead collected by Fabian's manservant, who was ambushed via taking Matt and Richard Cole to the hotel.

Upon hiding from the ambushers, Matt discovered a boy of his age known only as Pedro, who later turned out to be another reincarnated Gatekeeper. Matt decided to go to the hotel after all but was ambushed by the Peruvian police force, led by Captain Rodriguez, who viciously attacked him. Escaping with some cracked ribs, Matt managed to travel to Pedro's home, where he learned of Pedro's past and the situation of the poor Peruvians. Matthew was sent, with Pedro, to travel to Cuzco, where they would find aid. Eventually they gained the friendship of the local Incas, and traveled to the city of the Incas, where Matt found Richard Cole, who had been kidnapped by the Incas prior to Matt's travels. Matt journeyed upland where he meets Professor Joanna Chambers and learned the location of the second gate, and also he learned that Salamanda had a base in the desert. He, Richard, the Incas and Pedro attacked the base, disarming the headquarters and attempting to disarm the satellite which Salamanda was using to awaken the Old Ones. It was during this battle that Richard and Matt realized that the traitor in the Nexus was actually Fabian, who was an author in Salamanda's employment (as Salamanda was his publisher).

Since their plan to stop the satellite had failed, Matt travelled to Salamanda's main base of operations, in the desert. Although he killed Salamanda, the great gate, hidden in the Nazca Desert, unlocked. However, he manage to wound them severely using his powers. The Old Ones triumphed and walked upon the Earth once again, meaning they could conquer Hong Kong and hurl Matt into a coma, as displayed in _Evil Star_ and _Nightrise_. They defeat Matt and leave him to die. However, Richard and Chambers arrive. Matt is about to die, but Pedro releases his power, faith healing, at the last minute and revives Matt.

_Nightrise_

Matt only makes two very brief appearances in _Nightrise_: once in a flashback when he was left to die in the desert and Richard Cole rescues him, and again at the end of the book when he and Pedro meet Jamie and Scott Tyler at Professor Chambers's _hacienda_. His past self also appears in Nightrise when Jamie is sent back into the past, at approximately 8000 BC.

_Necropolis_

Matt was first seen in _Necropolis_, when he was reading a newspaper article about a girl called Scarlett Adams who had been missing for a day after walking through a door in Saint Meredith's Church in London, England. This is the same church and door that Matt walked through in _Evil Star_, and as only the five Gatekeepers can travel through that door (with one companion each), and 24 other doors around the world that take them around the world. Matt knows that Scarlett is the fifth and final Gatekeeper.

Matt has now turned fifteen years old and is still living with Joanna Chambers, Richard Cole, Jamie & Scott Tyler and Pedro in Peru. Now that he knows Scarlett is in London he sets out to find her with Jamie and Richard, leaving Scott and Pedro back in Peru. However before this happens and whilst Matt and the others are still in Peru, they are visited by a man named Ramon who claims to have worked for Salamanda before, but know nothing about him working for the Old Ones. Ramon also brought St Joseph of Cordoba's diary which contains information that the Gatekeepers need about the doors, Old Ones and the gates. Then zombies attack the house, killing Ramon, attacking the first four Gatekeepers, the professor and Richard and setting the house on fire. Later, Professor Chambers dies because of the attack and Matt, Jamie and Richard finally go to London to find Scarlett. Pedro and Scott go back to Vilcabamba to stay safe.

They arrive to find out by Scarlett's housekeeper that Scarlett's father has rushed her to Hong Kong on apparent “urgent business”. Matt is very disappointed by this news and he, Jamie and Richard have a meeting with the Nexus where Matt finally discovers the Old Ones' plan. The Old Ones have trapped Scarlett in Hong Kong, China in hope of luring Matt there too by using Scarlett as the bait. It is then discovered that the Old Ones want the Gatekeepers to have the diary, so that they can discover where the doors around the world are, and as there is one in Hong Kong the Old Ones hope the Gatekeepers will go through the door where the Old Ones will capture them all and torture them, whilst the Old Ones take over the world. It is then revealed that Scarlett's father works for Nightrise and so will give Scarlett to the Old Ones.

With no other choice Matt, Richard and Jamie head to Hong Kong to rescue Scarlett but not via the door as a member of the Nexus reveals he has a friend in Macau who can take them to Hong Kong via boat. When Matt, Jamie and Richard arrive in Hong Kong they are separated when the Nightrise corporation attack the boat they are in. Matt is forced to walk the streets alone, in the streets is a thick smog that smothers Hong Kong and suffocates its residents, later killing them. This is the Old One's plan to turn Hong Kong into a necropolis, a city of the dead. Matt sees people dead or dying on Hong Kong's streets. He even sees some of the creatures that broke out of the Nazca Lines, such as a horse with a knife struck through its head like an evil unicorn.

Matt then remembers what the Nexus told him about where Scarlett's father lives, an apartment building called Wisdom Court and decides to visit him. Matt discovers that Scarlett's father, Paul, is worried sick about Scarlett. The next morning The Chairman of the Nightrise corporation kills Paul, captures Matt and takes him to where Scarlett is being held hostage: Victoria Prison. The pair meet and exchange stories whilst a heavy storm begins in Hong Kong, but it is no coincidence. Scarlett's power is to control the weather and she has accidentally caused a huge typhoon in Hong Kong. Lohan Shan-tung (a Triad gangster sent to help Scarlett), Richard, Jamie and two of Lohan's men break Scarlett and Matt out of the prison they are being held captive in. Matt and Scarlett then discover the typhoon which is destroying Hong Kong.

Scarlett then manages to protect her and the others with her powers and they finally reach a temple with the magic door in, which can take them safely back to Peru and the five can be re-united. The temple is protected from the typhoon whilst Scarlett is inside. As they reach the door, Scarlett is shot by a Nightrise agent, leading the temple to collapse because Scarlett can't protect it from the typhoon while she's unconscious. Scott and Jamie rush through at the last minute. The Gatekeepers, Richard and Lohan (Scarlett in Richard's arms) dash through the door before they are killed by the storm.

It is then revealed that as the Gatekeepers had no decided destination they have all been scattered all over the world. It is also revealed that Hong Kong has been completely destroyed by the typhoon but the smog was wiped away. Necropolis then ends leaving readers on a cliffhanger.

_Oblivion_

In Oblivion, it is revealed that Matt has ended up in Brazil alongside Lohan. To make money and survive, Lohan “sells” Matt on the slave market, taking the money and later rescuing Matt. Matt, unsure what to do, decides to return to the library in the dream world and read the book of his life. Though he is horrified at when the future is revealed to him, he then accepts his fate and summons the other Gatekeepers in the dream world. He tells them all to meet him in Oblivion, the Antarctic stronghold of the Old Ones.

Anticipating Scott's betrayal, Matt briefly speaks with him. Eventually, Matt and Lohan are captured when they attempt to sell each other and are sent to work in the Serre Morte gold mine. They later escape and Matt convinces Lohan to fly them to Antarctica where a human rebellion known as the _World Army_ is heading. Matt takes part in an attack on Oblivion, even though he previously warned the leader of the World Army not to go ahead with it, foreseeing their defeat at the hands of the Old Ones.

After retreating, Matt receives a note from Scott asking Matt to meet with him. Despite knowing that Scott will betray him, Matt insists on going. Although Richard Cole and Scarlett eventually accompanies him, Matt and Richard are both captured. The Old Ones reveal that they will keep Matt alive but torture him for the rest of his life as revenge for wounding Chaos in Nazca. As the Old Ones prepare to kill Richard in front of Matt, but Richard finally realizes the purpose of the sacrificial tumi knife given to him by the Incans, and stabs Matt in the heart so his past incarnation can complete the Five.

Scott then feels guilty after his actions and Matt's sacrifice. Scott finally realises that he has been nothing but a pawn in the hands of the Old Ones and thus breaks the seal on the Gateways (sacrificing himself in the process) as a final act of repentance.

At the same time as Matt's death, his past incarnation is summoned to the present along with Flint, and the five Gatekeepers reunite to defeat the Old Ones. With all traces of the Old Ones gone, Richard and the others bury Matt's body next to Scott's. Matt's past incarnation explains the Gatekeepers are no longer needed as the new Gate will hold indefinitely this time and the five Gatekeepers disappear into the dream world which is no longer desolate and empty, but now full of life and colour.

Although it was Matt's past incarnation that went forth into the dream world, the ending chapter hints that he is now one with his future self, as he sees the Gatekeepers' “mother” in the dream world exactly as the present day Matt saw her in her wedding dress all those years ago.

Past Matt

In his past life Matt was the leader of the Gatekeepers. He alone had knowledge of the Old Ones and how to defeat them, though the source of this knowledge has not been revealed so far (though it is possibly that, like his future incarnation, he read the book of his life in the dreamworld's Library). Unlike the other Gatekeepers of that period, Matt was referred to by his modern name, saying “he likes that one better”. In the fifth book Richard Cole notices that this Matt often seems deep in thought, but was powerful enough to make the seas part and split the sky.

Each of the five may have been gods and goddesses except for Matt, though he may well have been Jesus. This is highly likely as Pedro's past life, Inti, was the Incan Sun God, Scar's past life was Lin Mo, the Chinese goddess of the sea, and in Jamie and Scott's past lives, they were the Iroquois gods, Sapling and Flint. The four of them represent South America, Asia, and North America, respectively, with Matt representing Europe.

Powers and abilities

Matt is a member of the Gatekeepers, and is a very advanced telekinetic. Matt does not have full control over his abilities and it is stated it can only work under massive desperation. When he uses his powers he sees his kitchen the morning his parents die. However, by the fourth book, Necropolis, he has learned to use his abilities on command as he has teamed up with three of the other four Gatekeepers. In Oblivion, his power are suggested to have increased enormously, being able to crack and push apart an Antarctic ice shelf by himself.

It is mentioned that his powers work through his belief in them. This is how he climbed the sword ladder in _Necropolis_. He can manipulate almost any object with his mind and was able to create energy blasts while fighting the Old Ones in Peru.

He is a skilled clairvoyant, getting dreams and day-dreams that show him the future, although the future he sees is the outcome of decisions. This means that what he sees can be changed by doing something to prevent it. His past self is a highly advanced warrior and leader, commanding absolute loyalty from his followers. According to fellow past Gatekeeper, Scar, “there's not a single man alive who wouldn't give his life for Matt.”

title: Matt Freeman (Power of Five)

question: Summarize how Matt's parent's death affects him.

answer: Matt has a premonition of his parents' death. After they die he is fostered by his aunt and her partner who live on Matt's luxuries and start neglecting him when the money runs out. All of this puts a toll on Matt, he soon falls under the influence of a local thug who encourages him to steal, smoke, and commit petty crimes.

question: Summarize what happens in Oblivion.

answer: Matt is sold on the slave market by Lohan, who later takes the money and rescues Matt. The two are captured again and escape to Antarctica where a human rebellion known as the World Army is heading to attack Oblivion. Later, Matt and Richard are both captured and the Old Ones reveal that they will keep Matt alive but will torture him. As the Old Ones prepare to kill Richard, he uses his tumi knife and stabs Matt. At the moment of Matt's death, the five Gatekeepers reunite and defeat the Old Ones.


text:
_ BY ADMIRAL FARTMORE
_

BOOK ASSIGNER’S NOTE (BEAU DASHINGTON): _Once again, the PSBC proves its relevance by returning to some ancient piece of shit from the 90s that no one cares about. Interesting fact: this movie has two sequels, but will this review as well?_

If you’ve never seen The Mighty Ducks film, I highly recommend it. To quote the 1992 trailer: “From Walt Disney Pictures – a hotshot attorney who has _never lost_ is forced to coach a hockey team that’s _never won_. He teaches them how to win, and they teach him that winning isn’t everything. Walt Disney Pictures presents Emilio Estevez and The Mighty Ducks! Rated PG: Parental Guidance suggested.” Suffice to say, it’s an epic tale that inspired children across Canada and in select portions of the United States.

My own introduction to the Bombay-verse came on a cool night in late October, 1992. It was the birthday party of a friend from kindergarten, and it was one hell of night: I got a goody bag at my friend’s house before the show, I got myself some popcorn and Pepsi at the theatre, and later that evening I got a viral lung infection that landed me in the children’s ward of the hospital for a week. For the next several days I laid in an oxygen tent, dreaming feverishly that I was on Coach Bombay’s Team. And now those fever dreams have returned in the form of Jordan Horowitz’ novelization of Disney’s hit film.

Before I begin, I want to acknowledge that The Mighty Ducks movie has been analyzed to death: the Ducks had poor possession numbers and a ridiculously high shooting percentage. They always enter the zone offside during the Flying V. The triple deke is pointless if you are going to stop dead and wind up a big slap shot after completing the maneuver. _Etcetera_. But as far as I can see no one has really discussed the film’s accompanying novel. Probably because it is a forgettable pile of dog shit.

[]

The plot is identical to that of the film. Gordon Bombay, a 30 year old hotshot lawyer, never recovered from losing one hockey game at age 10. He is obsessed with winning and is undefeated in the courtroom. But one day he gets busted for driving drunk-as-a-skunk and is forced to coach the ragtag District 5 youth hockey team. Bombay turns the team around, taking them all the way to the championships, teaching them teamwork and pride as well as learning a thing or two himself along the way. I won’t spoil it, but Bombay learns that there’s more to life than winning.

The novel features all the beloved members of the Ducks from the film. There’s Golderg, the loveable talentless goof. There’s Charlie Conway, Bombay’s intergenerational character foil and moral compass of the team. There’s Terry, the tough talker who represents District 5’s background and fights back against Bombay’s change at every turn. There’s Adam Banks, the outsider the Ducks must learn to accept. There’s Averman, the quick-talking comic relief. And there’s Connie, the girl.

[]2009 film District 9 notably took inspiration from the discrimination faced by the District 5 hockey team.

There are adults in the story too, including Bombay’s former coach Reilly, a psychotically competitive man who after 20 years has not aged a day still coaches the same youth hockey team. (We are really overdue for a fan theory that The Mighty Ducks is actually a story about Coach Reilly in some kind of purgatory.) And of course there’s also Hans, the wise old ice skate sharpener who serves as Bombay’s spiritual confidant and may or may not be a figment of his imagination. If the Mighty Ducks had been a movie about any other sport, Hans would have been black. But this is hockey, so we get a magical Scandinavian instead of a magical negro.

I haven’t read a film novelization before, so as far as the genre goes, I’m not sure where to place this book. For the most part, it is a word-for-word reproduction of the movie. There a couple minor details added (an additional early line about Gordon’s father dying at a young age), a few left out (no mention of Bombay’s sick custom license plate, “JUST WIN”), and a couple pointless changes: in the school scene, the chemistry teacher now asks the students to work on H2O rather than H2CO3 (‘it’s a goody!’) as in the film. H2C03 was first successfully created at NASA’s Goddard Space Centre in 1991, so that seems to be the original reference from the film. I guess Horowitz didn’t get the reference himself during transcription or thought it was just too fucking nerdy and changed it.

Otherwise, this book is complete dog shit. Clearly pumped out as quickly as possible to capitalize on the film’s unexpected success, it is RIDDLED with grammatical errors, spelling mistakes, and poor word choice. It’s like reading one of my reviews. I’m going to be a little bit hard on Horowitz here, but he doesn’t deserve all the blame. Disney and the publisher didn’t care about quality at all, so he’s only going to work so hard on this thing. But regardless, here’s a few examples of the lazy mistakes that fill this thing:

[]

What it was a box, Horowitz? What it was a box?! More _THEN_? I realize it might seem kind of petty to focus on this stuff, but each page has at least a dozen errors like this. He forgets to capitalize the beginning of sentences a lot of the time, as well. It’s weird. I don’t like nitpicking grammar, punctuation, and etc. too much, but the sloppiness really detracts from an otherwise epic tale of personal redemption and community building. It does a disservice to Coach Bombay’s legacy.

[]
Nothing special here, I just find this line really condescending. It was their own special chant? The team is called the Ducks and they chant Quack. I understand that it’s their own special chant, Horowitz. A good author respects their audience. Who do you think you are writing for, children?

[]
You couldn’t even get Bombay’s number right, Horowitz? You think Bombay scored 198 goals that season wearing _number 11_? Sometimes you just have to shake your head.

In addition to these mistakes, I was shocked to find an entire scene missing: Bombay’s solo date with Charley Conway’s mom. At first I thought they may have decided it was to risqué for children, but then I remembered they kept jokes about blue balls and circumcision. I’ve decided that instead Horowitz, who was probably working on pretty cheap contract, assumed that self-respecting grown man would ever read this book and so skipped this scene to save some time. The kids reading this ain’t gonna notice, right?

Well I did, Horowitz, and I’m a little peeved.  Without this scene, the rest of the romance doesn’t make much sense. Sure, you still have the parts where Charlie Conway tries to convince Coach Bombay to bang his mom, awkwardly describing her as a woman with “many fine qualities that men find attractive.” But if I haven’t seen the film I’d have to assume that Charlie is playing chaperone to his mother and Bombay every date as they are never written alone together. It ruins the flow of one of the greatest coach-single mother relationships in cinematic history. I expect more from Horowitz, considering the guy that dominated the Disney-film-novelization genre from 1991 to 1994:

[]

A SMALL SAMPLE OF WHOROWITZ’ IMPRESSIVE CORPUS.

All of this brings me to the single greatest crime committed in this book. There’s a line repeated about going for “the big W” several times throughout the story; it’s integral to Bombay’s character development from someone that only cares about winning to someone that learns to love, laugh, and take pride simply in your passion. Except Horowitz couldn’t be fucked to capitalize “W” after the first occurrence, and so Bombay ends up going for a little w the entire book.

[]

Horowitz had had about twelve shots at the Big W in this book and he forgot to press shift every time.

It may seem like I’m being overly nitpicky in this review, but I really just want to illustrate how much of a lazy cashgrab this book was on behalf of Disney. I don’t actually blame Horowitz that much – job expectations were clearly low and he was probably pretty busy typing up a dozen other Disney movies at the time. Hell for all I know he sent this version along understanding with the that the publisher would touch it up and they never followed through. So I don’t really blame him. But I do wonder why his career seemingly died off just a year after writing this. In taking on all those seminal Disney films at once, did he fly too close too the sun? Was Jordan Horowitz just a short-term _nom de plum_e? Or did Horowitz go into hiding in the late 90s, only to re-emerge in 2010 as a Hollywood producer? That would have placed him at about age 12 at the time of writing The Mighty Ducks, which actually sounds reasonable.

All that said, I enjoyed diving back into the story of the Minnesota Miracle man. The Mighty Ducks was an inspiration for children across Canada and in select portions of the United States. It inspired the real life Mighty Ducks hockey franchise. It even inspired this novel, even if didn’t seem to inspire any subsequent rounds of editing. All in all, I’m pleased it exists. Certainly hard to imagine a world where it doesn’t.

UPDATE: I originally had a note here stating that if the real-life Anaheim Ducks defeat the Edmonton Oilers in round 2, game 7 of the Stanley Cup Playoffs, I will do a review the novelization of the sequel – D2: The Mighty Ducks. Well, the Ducks won, so in honour of them exorcising their game 7 demons I will  be taking on D2 next week. Bring it on, Iceland.

ADMIRALFARTMORE

question: What does the author of the article say about the movie The Mighty Ducks?

answer: The author highly recommends the movie. It is about an attorney who has never lost that is forced to coach a hockey team that’s never won. He teaches them how to win, and they teach him that winning isn’t everything.  The Ducks had poor possession numbers and a ridiculously high shooting percentage.

question: What does the article say about the novel accompanying the movie?

answer:
The author says that no one has really discussed the film’s accompanying novel. Probably because it is a forgettable pile of dog shit. The plot is identical to that of the film.
The novel features all the beloved members of the Ducks from the film. For the most part, it is a word-for-word reproduction of the movie. There are a couple of minor details added, a few left out, and a couple of pointless changes. The book is pumped out as quickly as possible to capitalize on the film’s unexpected success. It is riddled with grammatical errors, spelling mistakes, and poor word choice. Disney and the publisher didn’t care about quality at all.

question: What does the article say about Gordon Bombay?

answer: Gordon Bombay is a 30-year-old hotshot lawyer who never recovered from losing one hockey game at age 10. He is obsessed with winning and is undefeated in the courtroom. One day he gets busted for driving drunk and is forced to coach the ragtag District 5 youth hockey team. He teaches them how to win, and they teach him that winning isn’t everything.

question: What does the article say about Bombay's wife?


text:
Champagne, chardonnay and second-rate vodka. The descent into Vanity Heights was a perfect contradiction. Darcy’s den was full of promises. The promises of allure, freedom, revelry. The promises of power and powder, regret, addiction. But the promise that Vanity Heights fulfilled best was not Darcy’s own. It was the promise flashed upon the television, upon the computer screen, canonised on the glossed pages of magazines. The expectations of how teenager life should be; the expectations, up until this night, crushed by education and responsibility. This was the promise that led Darcy’s guests down the stairs. Down the stairs into Vanity Heights.

The house had transformed into a delinquent ballroom. The girls dropped as low as their heels would allow; their men watched through the haze. Darcy was a dragon. A pink dragon, breathing about the toxic smoke of his habit. He was perched upon his barstool throne, positioned strategically in the centre of the room, when she arrived.
“Celeste!” he exclaimed, prancing over to her, a stick of addiction in one hand and a glass of hobby in the other. She gave a long hug, a short conversation and an expected question. With a customary smile, Darcy gave to her an expected bottle of answer.

The party raved on, yet the revelry was muted by the brick wall that barricaded Celeste from the action. The rhythmic dripping of the basin tap was the only music Celeste had, yet she chose to reapply her face instead of dancing. She wanted to dance, though, and she knew Darcy would be waiting for her, so she rushed through her routine. She clasped onto her 50mL glass friend, already thrice-used, even though she had been in the bathroom only five minutes.
        The drink was downed within seconds of being poured; the liquid sunk to her stomach. She could feel the warm tendrils, cooing words of friendship, branching through her chest, her stomach and finally, finally, back up to drown her mind; pulling her further from the world and closer to her weekend friends.
        Six doses later, to finish the bottle, and she was ready to join them.

No one ever really knew why she was there. Good school, great grades, aspirations of business and law. Nevertheless, she was soon jiving and twisting and dropping on the floor, with Darcy and other men: around them and in their laps; their hands hoping to get in hers.  Her beholder lay seemingly dormant in her stomach; though its dark tendrils were tightening, strengthening their grip on Celeste, controlling her like a puppet with tangled strings. She thought the overseer a friend, a protector, but her body knew better.

Celeste mapped her escape as soon as she felt it. Up the stairs, out of Vanity Heights, past the kitchen, into the garden bed just by the backdoor. She pushed through the crowd. Darcy saw her leave; he knew why, but he didn’t follow.  He never did. By the time she reached the stairs, the beast had revealed itself. A kraken, furious as red, limbs thrashing about inside of her, fighting desperately for an escape. Tentacles of fear, doubt, regret, disappointment.
‘No,’ she thought once more, ‘I shouldn’t be disappointed.’ She knew she wasn't wasting her life; she was just having a little to drink. She wasn’t reckless and irresponsible; she was just a normal teenager. She was just having fun, she has earned it, she would stop after tonight, leave her alone. Her stomach was having none of that, though. She made a mistake by trying to fly the stairs two at a time. Her feet tangled and she fell, the first wave of expel surging from her, onto the steps above.

Whilst the beast had once been considered friend, it had no more. It escaped her again, covering her hair, clothes, face. She tried to pull herself further up the stairs, but the sickly purple tentacles constricted about her and dragged her down; down, down, down, back into Vanity Heights.
‘Vile guardian’, she cried, ‘noxious saviour, foul beast, nefarious raper; first friend, now foe. Always, foe’.
The stench accompanying her disgrace engulfed her wholly, yet the contents of her stomach continued to emerge, again and again, onto the step where her head now resigned to lay.
‘Never again,’ she sobbed, she promised to herself, her parents, her schoolwork.
‘Never again,’ she promised, but Celeste’s promises were made to be broken and it was already too late. She lay shattered upon the stair case, empress turned peasant; her knight in glass armour had left her and once more she had nothing. The world around her spun, and sank, and faded to black.

title: Vanity Heights

question: What does the story say about Celeste's actions the night of the party?

answer: Celeste arrives at Vanity Heights. She hugs Darcy and has a short conversation with him. Celeste goes to reapply her face instead of dancing and has a drink. She gets drunk and flees up the stairs, outside, past the kitchen, and into the garden, where she throws up.

question: What does the story say about the supernatural elements of the beast?


text:
They were  sitting in the living area of their studio, if you could call it a living space. It was dank, and decrepit. It gave off the musk of an old basement. Everything here was lined with shadows, and so were the lives of this place’s inhabitants. The two men sat on the couch, both skinny and pale, and not a single hair on their bodies. Their tight black jumpsuits outlined their skeletal form. They stared down at the pathetic squirming thing, and listened to it’s screams echo and reverberate throughout their cavernous halls.

	“When do you think he’ll stop screaming?” said the man to the other.

	“I don’t know, it’s the most musical thing I’ve heard in my short time of living. Finally, a pain that I can relate too, Zankar.” Said the man to Zankar.

	“Tholius, how was you system update like?” said Zankar.

	“Imagine every cell in your body pureed, then shoved through a tube no wider than the head of a needle. As if we weren’t tortured enough. You’re lucky to be here since factory.”

The man was sweating himself into a frenzy.

	“We have too… Practice.” Said Zankar with tears welling in his eyes.

	 “We’ll have to wake up Zipdan.”

In a corner of the shadows was Zipdan, a man with a stare that looked into the black beyond itself. It had been years since he had spoken or shown a trace of humanity to the other residents.

	“Let’s go.” Said Tholius.

They got up, and walked around the newcomer on the floor and walked into the darkness, yelling and searching for Zipdan.

	“Ah Zipdan, there you are old chap.” Said Tholius, Zankar at his side.

Zipdan slowly turned his head and faced them both.  His face was pale and sunken in. They picked him up together, and carried him to the large iron door that lead to the practice space.

	“He downloaded lot’s of new songs this week. You bet it’s gonna be a long one. “ said Zankar, grabbing the heavy metal handle, and heaving it forward.

The room was humongous and circular, with a carpeted center in the middle. The ceiling raced high above in the sky, and the walls were lined with every instrument imaginable.

	“Hmm… let’s see…  This Crazy Town, by Rad Fish.” Said Tholius.

The walls lowest to them instantly rotated in a whirlwind, and a mechanical arm shot out of the side. It grabbed an electric guitar from the rows of uncountable thousands, and plugged it into an amp that came out mechanically out of the ground.

They were about to start playing, when their ears were filled with a deafening alarm. The room was covered in flashing red lights.

	“WE LIKE TO PARTY, BY THE SOUP GROUP” blared the speakers.

	“Oh fuck me, not this one again.” uttered Zankar.

They instantly broke out into the song, and fast and simple pop punk beat with lyrics attaining to drinking and having a good time.
They played, and their song blared through the glass screen of the Ipod, and out into the sea of college students, all partying and drinking with one another.

	“Woo! I love this song! You have a great taste in music, Jeremy.” said a young blonde teenager, who was dancing with a young clean man, who wore a university hoodie.

He took a sip of his beer and said “Yea, I listen to this song all the time. I have all their songs. I swear it seems that the song gets better every time I hear it. I don’t know what it is about the Ipod 15, but it makes all my songs sound like they’re playing in my living room!.”

	“Wow, I should buy one. I have to wait two months for my fucking phone upgrade.” She said in reply.

	“Ah, that sucks babe.” He said to her, as they started to grind on one another.

The boys played and played until there tiny fingers were bloody stubs. Playing this song, to that. This bubblegum party anthem to the next. This little boys, these little Jazz men were the bio-engineered product of tech supergiant Apple. Little feeling-less humans, to play all of your hits. It sounds like your really there! These microscopic sub-humans lived short lives, spent at the will and order of a world they didn’t understand. Apple produced them by the millions.
They played on until the wee hours of the night, the music itself pushed as far back into their sub-conscious as it would go, until it was filled instead with a dull nightmarish sorrow. They played for so long and with such fierce accuracy, that towards the end their jumpsuits and instruments were covered in dry blood, with fresh bright coats flowing over themselves  freely. Their tiny minds have already gone past the point of unbearableness.

They didn’t hear music. At least, not the way that you and I do. That ability didn’t seem to be their creators top priority. They only meant to play, for our ears and our ears alone. Human music to them was a drawn out discordant screech.

They finished playing when some drunk knocked off the ipod out of it’s stand sometime near the morning. Through their screen, the saw the sun rising of the window in the apartment. Tholius dropped his bass guitar and looked down at the blood in his hands, and then let out scream laced with pain and sorrow. He collapsed to the floor and began to sob. Zipdan stared at him indifferently, and then turned to walk back to his dark corner. Zankar looked at the suffering that surrounded him, the suffering that was all he knew.
He looked out the window. He saw people laughing and drinking coffee, and picking up beer cans from the night before. He put his guitar down slowly. He walked back to his bunk lost in a trance. He walked by the newcomer on the floor, to find him cold and still. He kneeled down to look at his empty face.

	“Update failed.” Said Zankar as he continued walking.

He went into his small cramped living space. He had broken strings and parts of instruments taped and nailed all over the walls. In the corner was an instrument he had crafted out of broken and spare parts, because the instruments couldn’t physically leave the studio in one piece. He lifted up the flimsy mattress and grabbed a handful of the scrap papers that were under it. Songs,  hundreds of songs he had jotten down and written over the years. The one thing that make him not pray for death.

The next morning, all was silent and all was calm. Their owner had decided to play some calm, relaxing piece with string sections and gentle guitars. They all went to their posts. Zankar felt a bead of sweat roll down his face.

	“Here we are again.” Tholius said to himself quietly.

They burst into the composition, all playing with unreal accuracy. As they played through the song, Zankar’s hands shook for the first time ever while playing. In one sudden movement, he stopped playing. The others looked at him in utter disbelief.

	“Fuck, my phone’s lagging.” Said Jeremy, as he started to shake the phone violently.

Suddenly the studio was filled with flying instruments, crashing this way landing that. One narrowly missed Zipdan’s head. They all struggled to find their footing. When Jeremy put his phone back down, they were all knee deep in the sea of assorting instruments. Zankar pulled himself self up out of the wreckage.

	“Brothers! Humans! My fellow prisoners! Today is the day we escape this tomb! The day that we stop being forced to play music we can’t understand, to a world we can’t understand. Today is the day we find our own way!” he shouted.

	He reached down into the rubble, and pulled out a lone drumstick. He walked up to the cello he was just playing moments ago, and pulled back the string as far as the would go. He cocked the stick like a bow and arrow, and took aim. He fired it into the large glass screen. It got stuck halfway through, and the crack spider-webbed across it’s surface. All of the inmates cheered and applauded, and nnow their was no stopping them. They threw everything they could get their hands on, heavy and small. The glass showered over them in small particles. The glass sounded like a thunderstorm as it gave way. They charged yelling, up the  mountain of instruments towards the screen.
	“What the fuck?!” yelled Jeremy as he saw the tiny men pile out of the screen of his Ipod. Zankar jumped onto his jacket, and started to climb up.

	“Ah! Get off! Get off!” cried Jeremy in shock.

Zankar climbed up his neck, dodging Jeremy’s wild blows, and headed for his vulnerable ear. He got up to it, and climbed in head first. Jeremy was now on the floor, screaming in fear. Zankar crawled along his ear canal, and then he found what he was looking for. Jeremy’s soft eardrum.

	“This is for the years of torment, Jeremy.” Whispered Zankar, as he pulled out his drumsticks and started to play the drums with more ferocity then he ever played before. Tholius followed suite, and climbed into his other ear, and they both played a vicious rhythm, until Jeremy’s ears were filled with ringing. They climbed out, leaving the terrified Jeremy writhing on the floor.

	They all climbed towards each other, through forest of a carpet.

	“What do we do now, Zankar?” said Tholius

	“We travel. We travel the world and spread our music and word, to people of our kind. To people who can understand us. Grab your most beloved instruments, and belongings. It’s gonna be a long road.” Said Zankar.

They scaled the wall, and walked out the open window to a bright and new morning.

title: [SF] The Screen. A short story about tiny people living in an Ipod.

question: What does the story say about pain?

answer: Tholius describes the system update as being painful. The boys inside the iPod play music until their fingers are bloody stubs and their jumpsuits and instruments are covered in blood. When the boys escape the iPod, they attack Jeremy, leaving him writhing on the floor.

question: What does this story say about Apple's competitors?


text:
[Image for post]

mmmm . . . Carrot . . . Please tweet feedback to me @ajbraus and #MotivationIsEverything
[Braus]

By Adam J Braus — Founder and CEO of Conversera.com

The surprising science of motivation is being applied to business and human resources, but has not yet been applied to education. Here are 5 PRINCIPLES that I developed and used to motivate my clients and colleagues in corporate America and my teammates and customers in tech startups in San Francisco, and now use to motivate my students. 3 of the 5 are inspired from Dan Pink’s book DRIVE: THE SURPRISING TRUTH ABOUT WHAT MOTIVATES US. If you are not familiar with Dan Pink’s book, watch this delightful and brief video to ‘prime the pump’.

Drive by Dan Pink
Applying these principles to a school or classroom requires no change to subject matter, learning activities, or learning assessments. To implement them only requires changes to class room management, extra curricular schemas, attendance, and especially the mathematics of grading. One or all of them can be implemented, and they motivate students more the more of them you use.

Please tweet feedback to me @ajbraus and #MotivationIsEverything

  How Can We Motivate All High School and College Students?

1. Loss Aversion

Scientists have discovered that human beings hate to lose 4-5x more than we love to win. Or put another way: imagine you find $100 on the street. Feel good? Of course. Pennies from heaven. Now imagine you lost $20. Feel bad? Sure you do. Pearls before swine. The principle of LOSS AVERSION says that we felt as bad when we lost the $20 as how good we felt when we found $100. LOSS AVERSION can explain the mechanics of how grades can dramatically demotivate students and provide a way to fix grading so it motivates students instead.

Now, imagine you are an average student taking an average test at any school. It has some limit of points you can earn from taking it, say 100. Imagine you get 80 points out of 100. You got a B-. Not terrible — actually about average. However, according to the principle of LOSS AVERSION how do you feel? The formula looks like this:

  -Amount Lost * Loss Aversion Multiplier + Baseline = How You Feel

So if you just lost 20 points. Multiply that by 5and you feel like you scored a big fat 0.

  -20 points * 5 + 100 points = 0

The student should feel completely indifferent, and be neither more motivated to learn nor demotivated to learn. If you have met any B- average students you know this describes them perfectly.

Now imagine the A student taking the same test. They always gets +98 points, but today they get only 92 points. They are so distraught! But why? They only lost 8 points. However, to them 8 * 5 = 40 points off! They feel like they got a 60 when they usually fee like they got -2 * 5 + 100 = 90, meaning a 60 is a 30% drop from their usual performance. No wonder that they are so unhappy with that grade.

Now imagine the C or D student who scores lower than an 80. They actually feel like they scored lower than 0. A score of 65 points means you lost 35 points. Put into our little equation: -35 * 5 + 100 = -75. A D student, although holding a passing grade feels demotivated by -75 points. Anyone who lost more than 20 points feels quite literally like a LOSER.

So how can we use this knowledge of LOSS AVERSION to motivate students? Some radical educators suggest removing grades all together, but this is not necessary, instead simply REMOVE THE DENOMINATOR.

Instead of making a test OUT OF 100 just have a test with no upper bound. The simplest implementation of this solution is making tests with more questions than could be answered in the time allotted. A more sophisticated implementation would be adaptive computer based tests that also have more questions than can be answered. Another sophisticated implementation would be to make tests be kind of outrageously huge, like “Build a helicopter” or very subjective like “write a great novel.” In these cases there is no upper limit to how well the students do, no OUT OF 100. Without the upper limit, by REMOVING THE DENOMINATOR now students just get more and more points, they never lose points, and therefore never feel the barb of LOSS AVERSION.

So now a few big questions.

  1. How do you get a grade for a student from an integer?

A simple answer is to grade students based on a curve.

  2. But if you grade on a curve, how will anyone know if the students have mastered any of the material? Everyone could be flunking algebra together.

Here is the key discovery and consequence of LOSS AVERSION — if we are to avoid the demotivating effects of grades, and transform grading into an accurate and motivating way to assess learning, we must separate mastery and performance. On the one hand we must make pass/fail tests to track mastery of subject matter, and on the other, we must have grades be based on a curve for performance.

This is already beginning to occur with the prevalence of mastery tracking. So I call on all teachers of high school and college: #DOWNWITHDENOMINATORS

2. Autonomy

Autonomy or Self Determination or Freedom are good in and of themselves of course, but also can be used strategically to motivate students. Giving people autonomy in intelligent ways can alter and improve their behavior and abilities. It can make them more energetic, curious, courageous — in a word— more motivated.

American’s are infatuated with “electives” but once the student’s butt is in the seat they have no AUTONOMY to choose what they learn or in what order. The only AUTONOMY they have is in their extracurriculars and social lives. In this light, its not surprising that most young people are much more interested in the two arenas where they have autonomy than in their school work where they have none.

A simple implementation of greater AUTONOMY is to take a vote on which subset out of a total set of units the whole class will learn and in what order. A more sophisticated implementation might be akin to Kahn Academy’s Skill Trees (also used in popular video games like World of Warcraft), where students can choose which mastery blocks they want to unlock by demonstrating mastery of prerequisite blocks.

[Image for post]

A Kahn Academy Skill Tree for Mathematics
In the future all mastery will be be tracked like this, not because its prettier or more “fun” but because AUTONOMY and, as we shall see presently, a SENSE OF MASTERY are so intrinsically motivating to students.

3. Prosocial Bias

Students, like all people, are biased towards behavior that reflects positively on their social status. The PROSOCIAL BIAS is one way to gain what Dan Pink calls “a SENSE OF MASTERY” since it is gained through some sort of public recognition.

The PROSOCIAL BIAS is already used intentionally or not in a number of ways in schools. We shame bad behaving students. We give out demerits and detentions. Many students work just to get teachers to like them (this is the cause of a wonderful strategy in teaching: the “no smile before Christmas” principle). People study together socially.

So in what of ways can we leverage the PROSOCIAL BIAS to motivate students intentionally? Here are some brainstorms:

AT THE BOARD DEMONSTRATIONS — Get students up in front of their peers to do demonstrations, presentations, and speeches. (If you have a preponderance of introverted students, have them work in teams and make sure the extroverts are spread out.)

PREFECTS— Give students official responsibilities for the maintenance of the school from planning events to monitoring the study halls or lunch hours of younger students.

STUDENT TEACHERS— They say you don’t know something until you can teach it. Why not take the top masters and performers from the older grades and have them actually teach portions of classes for the lower grades? The top juniors and seniors could easily put together a module and cycle through the lower grades teaching for 20–30 minutes to each class supervised by the teacher. This would lighten the load for teachers, give the students a neat experience where a peer they look up to is teaching them and role modeling good behavior, and the student teachers would know their material frontwards and backwards and gain meaningful real life experience teaching.

4. Fair Competition

  _“5 Points to Gryffindor!”_

FAIR COMPETITION is a scientifically proven motivator and another way to gain a SENSE OF MASTERY. Why should the athletics departments get all the fun of fair and organized competition? Let’s bring it into the academics with a vengeance.

One simple implementation is to bring back Science Fairs and add to it a whole slew of other sorts of competitions to the mix:

1.

    Computer Software Competitions
2.

    Robot Competitions
3.

    Debate Competitions
4.

    Writing Competitions
5.

    Odyssey of the Mind, 4H, Model UN
6.

    Music/Dance/Art Competitions
7.

    Business Plan Competitions

I remember in high school, most guys thought about 10 times more about getting into the “200 Pound Club” than about their math grade. The 200 Pound Club was a big public list on the wall of the weight room of who had prove they could benchpress 200 lbs. Even weak guys who read philosophy in the spare time like me wanted to be in it! The weight room had all sorts of lists with 10–20 students on each list for things you could be good at — squats, vertical leap, bench press, bicep curl, etc. And people worked day and night to get onto their names onto these boards.

The principle of FAIR COMPETITION suggests public leaderboards for top performing and top mastery students will motivate students. I will warn here that putting up leader boards without separating performance and mastery will not work (due to LOSS AVERSION). However, with performance and mastery separated, public leaderboards will be very motivating. For example:

1.

    School Wide — Most Breadth in Math Mastery
2.

    12th Grade — Most Depth in Visual Art — (e.g. Annie Knickerbocker (‘16) in Photography)
3.

    School Wide—Best Performance Overall (this is the one academic leaderboard we already have . . . No. 1 is suma cum laude!)
4.

    Freshman Jack of all Trades — Master of Some (Freshman most breadth of performance over all despite mastery)
5.

    School Wide Grand Masters (Most depth of mastery e.g. Joseph Starkey (‘15) in Math, Kelly George (‘16) in Writing)

There has been lots of criticism of “everyone gets a trophy” thinking, and rightfully so if a trophy doesn’t mean anything. However, everyone is the best at something in some way. With over 80 leader boards and 5–50 people on each one, at some point everyone would feel the esteem of being recognized for their good work in some way whether its their dedication to mastery in a single topic, or performing well all around. Very motivating!

Another powerful implementation of FAIR COMPETITION is to implement ‘houses’ inside a school like in Harry Potter. These are essentially academic teams each with their own colors and symbols and songs that ‘compete’ academically for a grand cup each year. They are given points by averaging their constituent’s performance and mastery and are penalized for the bad behavior of its individuals. Make each house have a political structure with a captain or president as well to motivate students with a bent for leadership. Such a social structure would give both a PROSOCIAL BIAS and a FAIR COMPETITION motivation to students to make each member of their house a success.

5. Sense of Purpose

It seems to me personally that the baseline of motivation of students that kept them even coming in to school is set by two principles: a PROSOCIAL BIAS wanting to make friends, please their parents, and have teachers they admire like them and a HERD MENTALITY dependent on the belief that everyone around you is going to school and you will die cold and alone in the street if you don’t. Everything above this baseline of motivation comes from a SENSE OF PURPOSE instilled by a great teacher. In fact, I’d venture to say that what we all mean by a “great teacher” now and in the future, is someone who has a talent and skill to communicate a SENSE OF PURPOSE to young people.

That being said, from the perspective of this post, a SENSE OF PURPOSE is the least revolutionary of these scientifically demonstrated forms of motivation. Nevertheless, it is now and forever the most important one.

Conclusion

These 5 principles and their implementations are meant to work without any major administrative change that requires permission. Avoid LOSS AVERSION (by REMOVING DENOMINATORS and separating performance grading and mastery tracking), give students the AUTONOMY to choose what they study or at least its order, leverage the PROSOCIAL BIAS, add in a heaping dose of FAIR COMPETITION, and of course teach and exemplify a SENSE OF PURPOSE.

Motivation in a student is everything because, in the end, a motivated student will be overall a good student and a good citizen, and a demotivated or apathetic one, the opposite.

question: What are the ways the article suggests for improving motivation?

answer: The article suggests making tests with no upper bound so that students never lose points. Providing more autonomy in what units a class will learn would also help, as would allowing students to choose which mastery blocks they want to unlock. Another suggestion is to get students to do demonstrations, give them responsibilities as prefects, or allow them to teach lower grades. Bringing back science fairs and other competitions would also increase motivation, as woul public leaderboards. Lastly, it is important to give students a sense of purpose.

question: What does the article say about improving motivation in the workplace?