Week 11 Storytelling - Maxiza

Maxiza

He stands tall. A solid specimen. Six foot one inch. An athletic build. Not too heavy not too light. Two hundred and five pounds of muscle and legend. Like a lion amongst wolves. Surrounded by those wanting his neck. Brave and merciless. Glory conquering. Confusingly honorable and savage. A man only meant for battle and war. Scars throughout his body serve as trophies of combat. Marks of the trade. His skin light brown. Hardened and marked up. Scarred up, tatted up. They cover three fourths of his left arm. Stopping mid forearm. His descendancy of mixed blood. A mutt bathed in the war centric customs of Sparta. His two weapons a gladius sword and Spartan shield. Neither Spartan nor Gladiator. A hybrid. Allegiances to neither. Idolizing no man. Nor any God.

War Machine. A warrior beyond his time. Poetically skillfully. Fluid in movement. Classically elegant. In agility and power. The silver Spartan Shield. Offensive and defensive. Block the slash stab or launch. Bash with brute surface. Angles horizontally at a tilt for piercing brute force. Stuns by hits to the helmet. Concussion giving. Shortly incapacitating. Or acute shots to the unexposed throat. Collar bone crushing. Arm breaking. Femur cracking. The shield was too, offensive. His sword honored. Slashing and piercing. Spartan skill and expertise. Gladiatorial valor and savagery. A professional warrior. Are you not entertained.

He wore a unique helmet. A combination of the classic Spartan helmet. With the red horse hair top. Murmillo gladiator styled top flairs. But an open face so his victims could see his black eyes. An exposed chest challenging his victims to bring him death. Around his left shoulder set a great lion's head. Under it flew out the crimson cape of the Spartan. He had to wear a cape, he was epic. The left side was also his shield side. His left shin covered in metal armor as well. The left side was the guard side. On the right shoulder he wore the classic Murillo gladiator sleeve. A layered metal armor sleeve from the shoulder to the wrist. The right side the striking side. But as you know he could kill from all angles. Responsible for sending thousands to their end. Maxiza! Maxiza! Maxiza!

For Glory

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Author's Notes

Beowulf, Yamato, Makoma and constant reminders of Herculean-like legends and their labors has inspired me to make the most classic warrior of my bunch, and very well perhaps my last warrior of my mythology class writings. I am also inspired by two of my favorite movies in Gladiator and 300. I have taken many art history courses, particularly ones with heavy emphasis on classical antiquity, and the era of the Roman Empire, so I feel well informed by these past experiences, and my mental collection of classical visuals, style, and prestige, all with the possibility of my ability of adding that extra flair with my remixed creativity and modern references. The samurai and the Spartan are my favorite types of warriors ever, and the idea of the gladiator as a classical champion of the arena (some types of gladiators being based off Spartans) is an elegant romanticism of death, honor, glory, and beauty. I hope I captured even a hint of these elements with my classically based legend of a warrior Maxiza.

Coming up with the name for my warrior was really hard. I went through a creative process of brainstorming, name listing, and inspiration. I wanted it to have the reminisce of a strong classical Roman name but also be totally made up and unique to this one character. I also wanted it to either have my name in it (Michael/Mike/Mikey) or at least begin with the letter 'M' as my name starts with an 'M' haha. I also tried a name with the dope letter 'Z' while adding the word dope in the name as well haha and I came up with 'Zadopemus'. I was also influenced by the name 'Maximus', Russell Crowe's character in the movie Gladiator. Mikimus, and Mikimias (inspired from Leonidas the Spartan king, reenacted in the movie 300 by Gerard Butler) also came to mind, but I really did not like those haha. Maxiza became my warrior's name. It sounds like a strong Roman name remixed and I like that feel. Inspired by Maximus, includes the letter 'Z' and still starts with an 'M' - therefore I was content with this totally unique and made up name choice.

I chose to do this style as I feel like it is my strongest and most unique. It is the Michael style haha, a blend of dramatic poetry like lines, fragmented, a little abstract, and bold. The style worked well for me in my previous story Yamato M12. But this time I kind of mixed the poetic/fragmented Yamato M12 writing style with the Makoma, detailed paragraphs style. I also try to add a little satirical slang or modern references as I like this unique mix. I also made the design choice of making the font Times instead my Helvetica like I have used for all of the other stories. Times New Roman is a classically driven font, I mean it even has the words time (timeless) and Roman in it haha. I would keep the title Helvetica bold however, and make the last line about glory italicized, to further unify themes of bold force, and elegant classicism. I just figured I'd try to finish this story off with a bang in all facets.

I almost did not want to include a picture as I wanted this to be my most perfect warrior ever and there just aren't pictures that embody what I aim for in Maxiza. But multiple depictions give a vibe (I do not own any of the pictures I just found and arranged these sources in a aesthetically organized manner) a sort of stylistic mood board for Maxiza, with literal textures, and weapons to visual abstractions; acting as an emotionally charged collection of motifs to help further visualize Maxiza the classic, Maxiza the elegant savage, Maxiza the great.