AMC's The Walking Dead (2010 - present)

It's the fourth season of AMC's hit series, The Walking Dead, and yesterday the series finally release its mid-season finale. In a sentence: It's a war of power between Rick and The Governor, resulting in multiple deaths on both fronts. (Oops, spoiler alert!)

I've enjoyed watching The Walking Dead, simply because I love to watch gore movies. But in this post, I will try to delve deeply to the show; and I will put my conclusion as to why The Walking Dead is so popular. TWD is a show that's set in a post-apocalyptic world where zombies are the main cause of the apocalypse. Up until its fourth season, we still don't know what's the cause of this zombie outbreaks in the first place. I am curious, I don't know about others, but it would have been relieving to know why.

Contrary to popular belief, TWD is NOT a show about zombies. The zombies aren't the main characters, they're just means to tell a horrific story. They are tools for us to understand why the characters did what they did. But they are created and developed in such a great way that when they appear on the show, you know things are about to get bad.

TWD starts as a survival story, it's about a group of people who survived the virus' spread and try to live a safe life. But life loves its irony. As it turns out, they didn't escape the virus' effects, they merely delay it. They are not survivors, they are just another undead-to-be. When they die, no matter how they die, they will turn into one of the undead.

I'm quite excited to see how things are going to end. As it appears now, there seems to be no happy ending to the story. I can only imagine if there's a cure since the cause and the patient zero remains unknown until now. But, you don't know what these crazy creative guys will bring in the next episode.

Our Pursuit of Happiness

I think happiness is the most crucial thing in our life. It's the thing we want most from our life, it's the destination of our so tiring journey of life, and of love. And since it's our last destination, it's only fitting if it is also the hardest thing that we might achieve.

Before we delve deeper into the concept, I would like to point out that happiness is a lot different from a happy feeling. Happy feeling is very easy to achieve, we see it everyday, it happens on simple matters. Like when a child gets balloon, when a student finally graduates after 4 year long studies, when a worker gets a paycheck at the beginning of the month. These are happy feelings. A feeling of joy that will last for several hours at most, before it turns to another worries.

The happiness that we seek, is a feeling of joy, of peace, and maybe of freedom, that will stay forever in our hearts. It's a more divine feelings that we can't conjure in days. It requires a very long journey, very long years, to finally achieve it. The path to happiness is not a one-way road, it's tangled with intersections, turns, and dead ends. Every turns, every path is our own choice. There's no right or wrong, no black or white, no certain answers. It's not an exact science that you can count and formulate, it's a journey of hearts, of truth, of self discovery.

Our pursuit of happiness is often clouded by our own limitations. Our wishes, our dreams, our ignorance, our pride, our fears, our will to seek instant happiness. These are our obstacles. We are incapable of ignoring them, we have a giant curiosity to fulfill and we keep pursuing the wrong things and thus dragged further from our true happiness. I think the only person ever to achieve true happiness is Buddha. He is able to leave every distractions behind, and therefore granted an eternal peace of mind.

I believe we all are still struggling on this pathway, trying to find our way around, trying to find our selves. Every turn we choose, every decisions, will likely cost something worthy from us. The journey to true happiness, is the exact same one that will lead us to pain and sufferings. It is our ability to rise above the pain that will make us stronger to keep going. However, we are racing against our own fear, fear of getting hurt, fear of pain.

Our journey to happiness is always be a battle of our bravery and fear. Will we rise or fall? Will we give up to our fear, or will we stand against it?

The Time-keeping Concept

The Befriending Process

So, a while back I was talking to one of my best friend in university. We have been graduated in 2012 and now experimenting the cruel world of reality. I was working in a totally new environment: new city, new job, and what follows next would be new friends. Unfortunately, the last one is not as simple as I thought. Apparently, according to my best friend, people in our workplace are not supposed to be our friends.

Workplace is a place where different people gather together with different agenda. Some pursue fame and popularity, while others pursue wealth. So, by default, the objectives of a working person is always self-centered. Also, there are people with higher grade than us (that would be our boss, senior, manager, etc.) and there are people with the same or below us. All of whom have their own point of views and we might unintentionally step on their toes one chance or another. There's also office politics, which I don't quite understand and don't intend to find out.

For a fresh graduate whose parents have never worked in a company, this knowledge is something new to me. Something I would be happy to reflect upon. I won't lie, but I'm intrigued with the idea. Is it true that our colleagues can't upgrade their status' to be our friends as long as we still worked together under the same management?

My friend said that the time when we're supposed to make friends is during our school time. In a workplace, you're looking for a way to pay the bills, not to play nice with people. "But, isn't it a little harsh?" I think to myself. I have no problem to be friends with anyone, but the thought that I might be thrown under the bus makes me uncomfortable. On the other hand, there is just no way for me to survive without a single friend in the workplace. It's just not possible, especially I'm working on something that requires me to do team work. How am I supposed to do my job without making friends with my team?

I remembered one of my dean used to say that as a designer we are taught to express our authentic ideas in our work. Sadly, authenticity requires solitude. It is our idea and our idea alone that we expressed in our design, causing us to feel uncomfortable working with other designers. But, as an animator, it's our job requirements to make friends with people we work with, because let's face it you can't make awesome 2 hour 3D animation movie alone. So, as an animation graduate, I'm wired to not be able to work in solitude. I have to be able to make friends, even if I'm thrown under the bus once or twice. 

The Talk and The Deed

"It is better to do without talking, than talk without doing."

This weekend, I chose my way back to God by going to Church and participating in Focolare gathering. My life has been very unsettling these last few weeks and I feel that I have to go back and start over. So there I was, sitting in the Word of Life meeting in Pandeyan, Yogyakarta. Word of Life, or in Bahasa "Sabda Kehidupan", is a monthly gatherings held by Focolare movement to support each other in living truthfully according to the Law of God. What we do in these gatherings is we took a phrase from the Bible, and we try to apply those phrase in our daily life during that month.

For those of you who don't know, Focolare is a youth movement all over the world founded by Chiara Lubich in 1943. Its main purpose is to create a united world of people from all age, vocation, religion, conviction, and culture by respecting and valuing diversity. For more information, visit Focolare web page in http://www.focolare.org/usa/en/.

The phrase we took in September is from the first chapter of The Gospel of John, as written in the picture. We were told to 'love thy neighbour', to love without intention, and more importantly, to love in truth and action. A while back, I was strolling through 9gag, and found a post about how we all have this annoying friend who would post Bible passage in social media, while we know that this particular friend lives far away from the Law of God. This sad truth is the proof that not all of us able to love unintentionally, unconditionally, and that most of us choose to love in words, rather than in action.

When we love in words, we show what we do to other people, and we are praised for that. But when we love in actions, most people will not notice what we do, we will not be praised, but the person that receive our love will remember us for the rest of their life. For me, this brings more than enough relief than any praises I might get if I love only in words.

I remembered one of my friend thanked me, out of the blue, for some good deeds that I did two or three years before that. And as I recall, I didn't even do much back then. I teared up, because I was so happy that she still remembered it, and still feel thankful, hopefully, to this day. Because then, I have become God's instrument to bring happiness to others. And to me as a Catholic, being God's instrument is the highest honor a child can get from her Father.

Friends - 10 Seasons in A Glory

So, I was re-watching all episodes of Friends during Eid holiday. The total 10 awesome seasons and I think to myself, "This show has successfully made me laugh every single time I watched them, even though I have already watched them over and over again." This is such a spectacular show that every sitcom after this show, took its parts to be implemented on their own*. Well, at least that's what I thought. :)

So, what made me incredibly fond of this show?

1. The story is so down to earth that it might happen to any of the audiences

I remembered watching a similar series that aired at somewhat similar time, Beverly Hills 90210. This series didn't really 'get' to me, perhaps because their world is just so different. What with the upper-class settings and lifestyle, Beverly Hills hardly make any impression on me, not even a bad one. Friends on the other hand, leave such a strong imprints in my head. I was around 14 or 15 when I first watched it, and like any normal teenager I was trying to find where I'm standing and where I'm heading to. Friends created an illusion of what my future might look like. A bunch of friends in their twenties, trying to make their way through New York, living together in an apartment, struggling to pay bills and help each other in job and love life. It was just so appealing.

2. Each of the characters have these uniquely annoying traits, but they stay together until the end

First, as the main character, there is Monica. She is organized, controlling, and acts as a mom to other characters. If Monica lives in this era, she is what you might call a person with OCD (obsessive compulsive disorder). She is actually really annoying with her controlling habits, but she is also reliable in some situation.

Then there is Ross, Monica's nerdy brother. He is a very nice person, handsome, neat, and smart. He is very nervous around women so it's kinda funny to see him. Ross is Monica's older brother, but somehow he was pictured to be the spoiled one in the Geller family because he was favored by his parents.

Next, there is Monica's high school best friend, Rachel. Rachel comes from a socialite family and has never live alone before. She is pictured as a selfish little princess that always got what she wanted. But because she ran off from her marriage, she decided to live with Monica and tried to make it on her own.

Chandler is Ross' best friend and roommate in college. He is an office worker, working with something to do with inputting numbers (I don't really get what he did.. :p) and he make a lot of money. He is somewhat bitter and sarcastic because of his broken family but he is funny and always makes jokes when uncomfortable.

Chandler lives with his roommate, Joey, across the hall of Monica's apartment. Joey is an American-Italian actor with not-so-great skill in acting. He is very good looking but also very dumb. Joey eats a lot, most of the food comes from Monica's apartment since he didn't get much acting jobs.
Last, there is Phoebe. Phoebe used to be Monica's roommate but they had a falling out because Monica is too controlling. Phoebe has a lot of unique characteristic and may come off as weird. She sings a lot of depressing and rather odd songs with her unique guitar skill. She used to live on the streets and therefore the toughest of everyone in the group.

3. The group dynamics are incredible

Friends really shows what a true friendship like. Although I have to say that the group is a bit dysfunctional, but these group of six is an illusion of a perfect friendship. Ross and Rachel's relationship reflects a quite traditional fairy tale. A nice and nerdy guy finally get together with the popular cheerleader girl, although there are some unusual situations like when they're sabotaging each other's relationship with other people and when they have a baby together. Chandler and Monica are a surprise. I never would have imagined these two together, but I admit they make a pretty great couple. I always thought that Phoebe would end up with Joey because as we can see they have a great chemistry. But the fact that Phoebe is finally getting married quite satisfy me as an audience. And in such a breath-taking wedding too. :)

Other than happy endings for each of the couples, the character development is also great. I think the most developed character would be Rachel, because when she comes to the group she is this spoiled little princess who can't do anything and even as a waitress, she can't get anything right. After a lot of hard works with ups and downs, she finally managed to be an executive in a fashion industry, a job that she actually  loves. Monica also successfully developed into a loving mother of two with Chandler and she also managed to be a head chef in a classy restaurant. Joey finally get his big break by starring in a WWI movie, while Phoebe finally settle down and get married to Mike. Ross get the girl of his dreams, with a daughter and a son who is raised by his ex-wife.

All in all, to me, this series is the only one that can make me sad when it's finally reached its final episode. It provides a great ending and closure to all of the audiences.

*I was born in 1990, so I haven't had the chance to watch other friendship-based series like M*A*S*H or Seinfeld

Good bye, guys. Good story. :)

The Culture of Cheating

Recently, I have been remembering things from my past. The time when everything was simpler and all I had to worry was homeworks. The first time I cheated was when I sat on the 8th grade. As a student, I considered myself pretty good at every lessons. I managed to get decent grades, even without cheating. I cheated because I wanted to know what it feels like. As many of you know, at the age of 14, everyone follows their friends behavior. That's exactly what I did back then. I cheated because everyone else did.

I personally think cheating is a cultural thing. Everybody who ever goes to school cheats. Well, for the sake of everyone else who doesn't, let's say 90% of students cheat. It's not that they are stupid or doesn't want to try to learn, it's just because everybody else does it and sometimes, the teacher couldn't care less if their students cheat. Many of my friends back in high school studied together. Sometimes, I would join and tutored them a little. Doing our homeworks were easy, and everybody could do it without copying each other. We would share our answers once we had done to double check. But when in test, my friends would copy each other's works. It was like they didn't have the confidence to did the test without cheating. That's why I think that cheating is part of the school culture, just like prom dance, seniority, popular and nerdy kids, etc. It was part of school life, at least from a student's point of view.

I had this one friend, who has the resources to study with private tutors and study groups, but still ended up cheating to get better grades. At another point in my life, I had this one friend who was already the best in some practical lessons, but as it turned out he cheated his way through the theoretical lessons to get perfect score. There are many reasons why student cheat, and nothing can justify them right. Cheating is cheating and it is wrong. It's actually sad that it has become a cultural thing, especially in schools. On the other hand, I didn't think it would be easy to erase the cheating culture.

However, everything is possible as long as we make the first step. I think it will at least reduce the number of cheaters if we start at our self. If I didn't cheat, other people will see my not cheating and hopefully someone will be moved to stop cheating. At one opportunity, one of my friend actually said, "If everybody else cheats, why shouldn't I?"



Hopefully one day, I get to rephrase the question and ask,
"If everybody else doesn't cheat, why should I?"

Be who you are

There are literally too many people in the world. Sometimes, it's rewarding to make other people happy. But if you try to please them all, you will never be pleased.

The (un)Fairness of Life

How many times have you said 'life is unfair'? (Probably more than you care to admit. :D) From many people I've met in my life, I learnt that everyone thinks they have the most miserable life when they have a problem. People often think that life is unfair because when they're miserable there are plenty of people who aren't. But the thing is, there's no such thing as fairness. The fairness we want, the fairness we imagine, doesn't exist. Which is why life will never be fair.

Suppose two high school students A and B. A is the usual trouble maker and a cheater while B is the usual nerds who never cheats before. One test, both of them cheat for a different reason. A cheats because he doesn't want to try harder, B cheats because he didn't have the time to study and was doing two part time jobs the night before to help his family. Both of their test got zero because they cheat. B thinks the teacher is unfair because it's the first time he cheat and not for a bad reason. A thinks if B doesn't get zero it means the teacher discriminated him because both of them cheat but he's the only one punished. What's fair for one, doesn't always fair to another.



Life is never fair, but everything has its own consequences.

Fact and Fiction

I might have mentioned before in my previous post that I watch a lot of TV Series, mainly western, and I observe an interesting phenomena (if I might said so, dramatically). There are a lot of characters in TV series that we, the viewers, deeply loved. Some of them are the lead character, while others are more of a sidekick but somehow become way more lovable than the main character itself.

Recently, I realized that there are some people around me who behave similarly to these lovable characters. Do we love them in real life? My answer is no. They are either self-centered, arrogant, or just plain jackass. Either way, I found out that if these characters are presented in front of me I would probably punch them rather than love them and try to understand them like what I think I would do to the TV characters I adored.

Here are some of the characters:

1. Dr. Sheldon Cooper, PhD from The Big Bang Theory

Dr. Sheldon Cooper, PhD (portrayed by Jim Parsons) is one of the character in The Big Bang Theory. The series centered around the life of four physics geniuses: Leonard Hofstadter, an experimental physicist; Sheldon Cooper, a theoretical physicist; Rajesh Koothrappali, an astrophysicist,  and Howard Wolowitz, an aerospace engineer who worked in Caltech University. The main story is about Leonard who falls in love with the new neighbor, Penny, a waitress at the Cheesecake Factory. Their love story focuses on the amusing fact that Leonard, who is  super genius and nerdy, tries to date Penny, who is a high school prom queen with the fame and beauty.

Sheldon is Leonard's roommate. He has certain quirks that drive his friends crazy. He's a genius who realize his power of mind. As a result, he's self-centered, always feels he's better than everyone else, condescending, and loves himself more than anything else. His mom is a devoted Christian so their relationship is funny to watch because Sheldon is clearly an evolutionist while his mom is a creationist. Sheldon can't drive, so his friends have to take him whenever he needs. His impossibly large ego cause him to be unable to care about his friends being. Everyone has to cater to his needs. He has an annoying habit to give lectures to everyone, mainly because he feels like he knows everything. This particular habit forces his friend to follow what he wants just so he would shut up.

2. Barney Stinson, from How I Met Your Mother

Barney Stinson, portrayed by Neil Patrick Harris, is one of Ted Mosby's best friend in How I Met Your Mother series. He has some famous catchphrases, such as: "Suit Up!" and "Tonight is gonna be legend, wait for it, dary!"

HIMYM is a sitcom show about how the main character, Ted Mosby, met his wife. The show has a unique set up: Ted  narrates his love story to his children about how he met their mother which then played by the actors in a series of flash backs. HIMYM characters are Ted Mosby, an architect; Marshall Eriksen, a law student which later become an environmental lawyer; Lily Aldrin, a kindergarten teacher who loves art; Robin Scherbatsky, a Canadian TV reporter; and Barney Stinson, an awesome person (as he always said, because none of his friends seems to know what he did for living, even after the show reaches its 8th season).

Barney is basically a rascal. He keeps inventing elaborate acts to deceive women to sleep with him. He has all sorts of tricks that he put in The Playbook. He never listen to what anybody says. He just act as he wants, whenever he wants. He's the type of person who thinks that women are sex objects. Well, not all women, just bimbos, but still..

3. Gregory House, from House M.D

Gregory House, portrayed by Hugh Laurie, is a medical doctor specializes in diagnostic. He has his own team consists of 3 young doctors: dr. Allison Cameron, an Immunologist; dr. Robert Chase, a Surgeon and Intensivist; and dr. Eric Foreman, a neurologist. The story is about House, a diagnostician working with his team to diagnose patients that come with strange symptoms. The show is set up like many crime-solving series, so it's interesting to watch. House is working for a hospital in New Jersey under hospital administrator and Dean of Medicine, dr. Lisa Cuddy. His ability is off the record, he is the best in his field. However, his personality often causes him troubles among his colleagues.

House rarely talks to his patients because in his mind, everyone lies. He diagnoses patient based on their medical records and his keen insight. He is like Sherlock Holmes of medical world. His treatments are often controversial. He doesn't quite care with hospital rules and often disobey them to get what he wants. He thinks unexplained diseases are like puzzles. He has to know the answer and he doesn't care if he have to manipulate patients' families as long as he got the answer he needed. He's a genius, and his lack of social skills probably works effectively in his field. But what would you do if you meet an actual person with his personality?

Branded

As you may know, I'm a bit of a movie freak. I watched a lot of movies and TV series of all genre (preferably thriller, :D). This time, I want to write about a particular scene of a famous 2002 movie called The Pianist. In short, it's about the life of a Jewish Pianist (portrayed by Adrien Brody) in the middle of German invasion. You may have heard in your history class before about holocaust or Nazi. There are actually several great films about the holocaust, one of which is The Pianist, the other is Schindler's List, and another movie that you may have seen not too long ago is Inglorious Bastards.

To me, the holocaust is a horrible tragedy and people need to see the real conditions during that time so that nobody would want to do such thing ever again. The way the Germans treated Jewish people really got me mad. Some of their acts are really violent, inhuman, or pure evil. If you watch one of these movies and feel nothing, perhaps you should see a therapist to check if you have psychopathic tendencies.

Okay, back to what I was about to write. The movie portrayed the life of Jewish people in Poland. During that time, German government published an article in the newspaper about branding the Jewish people so that they are known among the crowd. They were ordered to wear a white linen on their right sleeves with a Star of David symbol sewn to it.

Because of this brand, Jewish people were easily discriminated. They weren't allowed to eat in restaurants, use public transports, even walk on the sidewalk. In the end, the Germans built a closed housing complex and put all Jewish people inside so that the city became Jewish-free. This complex was what caused the rebellion later on.

This maybe is a movie-plot, a story written by someone and then put nicely in big screen. But this is really what happened. Years ago when the Germans think that they are part of superior race and that everyone else are beneath them. Sadly, in this era there are still some people who think they are above everybody. Aryan Brotherhood is an example although they are no longer focus in racism but more in the criminality to obtain more money.

They say we should learn from history, and we did. We can't tell people to sewn a white linen with distinctive symbol like what the Germans did. But we learn to brand people in more subtle way. We meet new people almost everyday. We see, and we brand them by the way they look, the way they walk, the way they smell, the way they talk. These days, our brands are not as simple as a distinctive symbol. We brand with words inside our head. Handsome. Beautiful. Smart. Elitist. Egotist. Religious. Liar. Et cetera, et cetera.

Are we better than the Germans during holocaust? Most definitely! We don't brand people to be killed later on, we brand them following our specific criteria. Then, we decide whether or not we want to know them, to be friends with them, to help them when in need. What I'm saying is that we can't stop branding people, and we'll definitely be branded by those people around us. I just hope that the brands we're giving to people will not come and bite us in the ass later.

Bullying and The Act of Suicide

I am subscribing to a YouTube series called Teens React. The show is incredible and the concept is really great. Basically, they film a bunch of teens’ reactions to certain events or person like YouTube artists (NigaHiga, Pewdiepie, etc.), Gangnam Style, Newton school shootings, U.S. president’s election, and the one I’m about to share, Amanda Todd’s Suicide Video Note.

See more of their videos, here:Teens React Videos

Amanda Todd was a 15 year old student who committed suicide because of a cyber-bullying back in 2012. She posted the video a month before her suicide, it’s a black and white video with her standing and flipping papers containing her story.

Please watch her story.

See Teens React on Amanda Todd's story here: Teens React on Amanda Todd

Bullying has been an international issue for as long as I can remember. Typical school bullying involves physical and/or verbal abuse which then causes the victims to withdraw socially. Victims of bullying usually keep to themselves mostly because they feel embarrassed to tell anybody that they’re being bullied. I once saw an episode of Oprah which features parents of bullied children who ended up committing suicide. One of the parents didn't even notice that their child was being bullied. They thought that it was a usual teenager’s prank. It’s so sad to hear that.

A bully or a prank?

Teenager or even some adults have a tendency to pull pranks. To me, the idea of a prank is a simple joke played among friends to trigger some laughter. You pull a prank by putting a fart cushion on a chair, patch a “Call me stupid.” sticker on the back, or hide each other’s phones. It’s funny but it doesn't damage any of the participants in any way.

Bully on the other hand, brings laughter only to the bully. The victims feel helpless, tortured, which then lead to depression. A teenager with a depression is the perfect suicide recipe. Many people or parents don’t realize the importance of standing up against bullying. People always think that bullying is a part of growing up. Well, pranks are part of growing up. You can't have friends without having to prank each other. Bullying IS NOT a part of growing up. It's an issue that has to be dealt with before it's too late.

The danger of cyber-bullying

Being a victim of school bullying is bad, but being a victim of cyber-bullying is thousand times worse. When you're being bullied at school, you can probably find other friends outside your campus. Also, not all students on your campus will be participating in the act of your bullying. Some students probably don't know you, or they just don't care.

In this era, almost all of the students join in at least one social media. That's when cyber-bullying really affect your social life. People who don't know you personally, may be your facebook friend or twitter follower. The previously school-limited bullying become a social phenomena. Everyone in your social circle knows.

Victims of cyber-bullying feel depressed and under pressure because they think that they have nobody to turn to. Practically everyone in their social life become their bullies, one way or another. They feel cornered and alone, which is why lots of them can only think that death is the perfect way out. No more pain, no more embarrassment, no more pressure.

Be the survivors

I'm not agreeing that suicide is the right answer. I'm merely stating the fact that these victims do believe so. If one of your friend is being bullied, please be there for them. At the very least acknowledge them. These victims are feeling helpless and alone every minute of every day. Being acknowledged can reduce the pain they're feeling.

If you're a victim of bullying, talk to your parents or your best friends. Go somewhere crowded, take a vacation out of town, or enjoy a walk in the park. Minimize the time when you're alone. If all else fails, contact suicide support groups or suicide hotlines.

Read this link to find out more: Suicide Is Not Chosen

Watch this video to find out that you're not alone: 

Deadly Game

Around a month ago, I did a Saw movie marathon on a lazy Saturday. I have already watched the first movie, but didn't get to watch the rest. Over the years, it’s said that Saw franchise was the most thrilling and gore movies. Some of my friends have already watched the entire series. Some recommend it; the others can’t stand to watch it because of the blood and eeriness of the scene. Now, I have a habit to Wikipedia certain movies which I find mind-blowing. Saw is on the top of my list at that time.

So, the antagonist and main character is John Kramer. John is an engineer; he builds a lot of tools and traps for his victims. He or his disciples drugged them and put them in a situation which then his victims have to choose between life and death. He began by putting a recording of Bill the Puppet saying “I want to play a game.”

“Live or die. Make your choice.”

To live, the victims must overcome sets of traps before the time runs out. These traps will sometimes cause the victims to sacrifice part of themselves, or others. John perceived his games as a test for the victims to prove that they are worthy of the gift of lives. He thinks that people waste their lives by doing wrong things to others. They don’t embrace the gift of lives, so they now have to be tested to redeem their right to live.

Oddly enough, all of the victims chose to live. I had thought that if I were put in that situation, I might choose to die instead of having to sacrifice my body parts or others. In essence, what I get from the movie was nobody wants to die. It sounds like a good thing when there is one victim trying to survive. But then on one of the episode, it’s amazing how fast people turn on each other when faced with death.

On one of the episodes, John had already said that he wants the 5 victims to work together. He even said that they will eagerly want to betray each other selfishly, but he insists for them to do otherwise. Yet on every stages of the game, one of them is sacrificed by others because of their own selfish mind. It’s uncanny how this John character can predict human nature to the point where he doesn't even need to be with them to know what they would do.

It makes me think though, is human behavior really that easy to predict? Would you sacrifice a drug addict to save your own live? Would you rather die or live with only one arm? Would you kill someone to protect others and yourself? Would you die willingly if you know you had done something terribly wrong in the past? What do you think?