Review: Immortals (Film)

>SPOILERS AHEAD<
King Hyperion declares war on the Gods and seeks the Epirus Bow, the only weapon that can free the Titans from Mount Tartarus. Zeus, unable to interfere with humans as a God, chooses Theseus as the champion of the Gods. Theseus seeks vengeance on Hyperion for the murder of his mother and must stop him before he unleashes the Titans.

That's about as trimmed down of a plot as I can make it and really, that is all that happens. This, however, is not a criticism. The fact that you can take such a simple plot and make it so enjoyable makes this a rather interesting movie.

But let's back up for a minute. The film is directed by Tarsem Singh. Not a very well known director, he has three movies to his name, The Cell, The Fall and now Immortals. He is known, however, for being rather surreal and a very visual director, with The Fall, I'm told being "very beautiful." And that shows true in Immortals, where every shot in the film looks like it's a painting. With bright colors and slow motion ala Zack Snyder, every scene is a painting.

That said, Tarsem Singh is a surrealist and he is really in your face about it. A lot of the costumes are really bizarre, from Hyperion and his army's clothing, to the Oracles' funny headdresses. Singh lays his cards out on the table, however, because the first scene is the Titans biting down on a metal rod while trapped in a box. That's really what it is. Theseus even mentions it in the film, saying that the Priest has a "funny hat." This may put you off at first, but it's pretty sparse and you get used to it pretty early on.

Now, onto the story. It's as predictable as you can possible make it. Think Clash of the Titans than you'll know just what's going on, except picture it going very, very slowly. It's a good 30 minutes that feels like 45 minutes of exposition before Theseus' mother is killed and he is forced into action. This kind of dragging on serves a purpose of introducing Zeus, Theseus, Hyperion and the Oracle/love interest-who's-name-I-can't-recall. Lots of characters, lots of ground to cover, so I didn't mind. Mainly because I'm used to and even prefer long beginnings (I love Stanley Kubrick, the King of Slow). But to the main action audience that this is marketed towards, it can be offputting.

And now the action. Have you seen 300? Or any Zack Snyder movie after Dawn of the Dead? Yeah, you know what's coming next. BUT! The main difference is how it's handled. Sure there are moments that are slow, but Singh doesn't rely on it like Snyder does. Instead, he does this very interesting thing where a character will be killing people, and the people he kills move in slow motion. Lemme paint a picture: Ares comes down and kicks a guy over a company of men. This guy starts flying in slow motion over his men as Ares goes to each man and bashes their heads in, causing them to explode. These explosions, after Ares goes to the next guy, continue on in slow motion. So, you've got a room of people whose heads are slowly exploding, a guy flying through the air and Ares with his funny ass hat killing people. It's really cool visually.

And here is the main thing I had with the movie: I wanted to know more about the Gods. If this film was told specifically from the point of view of the Gods, that would have been more interesting. The interplay between the Gods was very interesting to watch and the action scenes were very cool stylistically. The last fight between the Titans and the Gods is so cool with the Titans being killed in slow motion as the Gods move at lightning speeds. In fact, I would say that the plot with Theseus was rather a way to move the side-plot of the Gods forward.

However, the plot with Theseus, though predictable, is still fun to watch. The action scenes are very interesting and unique. In one part of the a long fight down a hallway (in one shot without any cuts, btw), I'm pretty sure he stabs a spear through one guy, breaks the staff, stabs another guy with the broken staff, breaks that staff again, and then kills a third guy. It literally passes you buy and you don't notice it unless you're really watching. And that's what this movie demands: that you really watch it.

Still, it's not without it's faults. The Gods and Titans seem a little bit small compared to how their myths depict them. The Titans all look the same when they were all very different. The only Gods I recognized was Zeus, Athena, and Poseidon. The Ares guy I mentioned earlier killing people in fast/slow motion? Could have been Apollo for all I knew. He did have a funny headdress that looked like the rays of the sun. The romance is unnecessary only for the last scene to make sense. The comical thief character whose name I can't remember is...well, you know what I man.

But I enjoyed it. Even in 3D, it interesting and different. I kind of hope they make a sequel, which is alluded to, of course. I want to see more like this.

Nothing Else Matters

At night, my mind fills with strange thoughts. Thoughts that mainly revolve around what exactly am I doing with my life. Do I matter. Is it all worth it. And all and all, it comes down to the same answer.

No.

I want to matter to some people. I want people to actually enjoy being around me. I want to be invited to dinner with people who call me their friends, I want to actually hang out with the people who say they're my friends.

But they never do. They all just go about their lives and hang out with people who they are friendlier with than with me. The only way people actually invite me is if I tell them I would like to come, which is kind of rude, I think. Otherwise, I'm just a blip on the far corner of their radar screen.

I want people to actually like me. But they never will.

So fuck you all. I hate this. I hate it all. I hate the night but it's all I'm good for. I hate your alcohol but it's all anyone wants. I just hate this place.

Whatever. No one reads this. Fuck off.

Why I don't like getting into long-term relationships

In good old times, remember my friend
Moon was so bright and so close to us, sometimes
We were still blind and deaf, what a bliss?
Painting the world of our own, for our own eyes, now?

"Can we ever have what we had then?
Friendship unbreakable
Love means nothing to me
Without blinking an eye
I'd fade, if so needed,
All those moments with you
If I had you beside me"

One cloudy day we both lost the game,
We drifted so far and away
Nothing is quite as cruel as a child
Sometimes we break the unbreakable, sometimes?

"And we'll never have what we had then
Friendship unbroken
Love means nothing to me
Without blinking an eye
I'd fade, if so needed,
All those moments with you
If I had you beside me now"

I was unable to cope with what you said
Sometimes we need to be cruel to be kind
Child that I was, could not see the reason
Feelings I had were but sham and a lie?

I have never forgotten your smile
Your eyes, oh, Shamandalie

Time went by, many memories died
I'm writing this down to ease my pain

You saw us always clearer than me
How we were never meant to be
Love denied meant the friendship would die
Now I have seen the light
These memories make me cry

"Can I ever have what I had then?
Friendship unbroken
Love means nothing to me
Without blinking an eye
I'd fade, if so needed,
All those moments with you
And see the world with my wide open eyes

Friendship got broken
There's no other for me
Like the one of my childhood days
Can you forgive me?
The love got better off me,
On that day back in old times"


It's not you, it's me. Really. Stay away.

We interrupt our regularly scheduled program to bring you the following Special Bulletin...

Longitude: 74 degrees, 0 minutes, 23 seconds west.

Latitude: 40 degrees, 42 minutes, 51 seconds north.

Follow the sound of sirens...

...god...

Some things are beyond words. Beyond comprehension. Beyond forgiveness.

Where were you?!

How could you let this happen?

I --

How do you say we didn't know? We couldn't know. We couldn't imagine.

Only madmen could contain the thought, execute the act, fly the planes. The sane world will always be vulnerable to madmen, because we cannot go where they go to conceive of such things.

We could not see it coming. We could not be here before it happened. We could not stop it. But we are here now.

You cannot see us for the dust, but we are here. You cannot hear us for the cries, but we are here.

Even those we thought our enemies are here. Because some things surpass rivalries and borders. Because the story of humanity is written not in towers but in tears. In the common coin of blood and bone. In the voice that speaks within even the worst of us, and says this is not right. Because even the worst of us, however scarred, are still human. Still feel. Still mourn the random death of innocents.

We are here. But with our costumes and our powers are writ small by the true heroes. Those who face fire without fear or armor. Those who step into the darkness without assurances of ever walking out again, because they know there are others waiting in the dark. Awaiting salvation. Awaiting word. Awaiting justice.

Ordinary men. Ordinary women. Made extraordinary by acts of compassion. And courage. And sacrifice.

We've voted, and we're going to try to take the plane. It's the only way to stop them hitting washington. I love you.

I love you --

Ordinary men. Ordinary women. Refusing to surrender

Ordinary men. Ordinary women. Refusing to accept the self-serving proclamations of holy warriors of every stripe, who announce that somehow we had this coming.

...Probably what we deserve...All of them who have tried to secularize America...the pagans and the abortionists and the feminists and the gays and the lesbians and the ACLU...I point the finger in their face and I say "You helped this happen."

-- It is God's will that America should fall through their iniquity and their sin --

We reject them both in the knowledge that our tragedy is greater than our transgressions. Bodies in freefall on the evening news. Madness in mosques, shouting down fourteen centuries of earnest prayers, forgetting the lessons of crusades past...

...that the most harmed are the least deserving.

Hi...listen, you shouldn't be here. This isn't a good place for you to --

My...My dad went in there to get something, he said just a minute --

You shouldn't --

-- and if I wait and stay and don't leave he'll be okay, because I'll do what he told me, and -- and -- DADDYYYYY!

There are no words. There are no words. The death of innocents and the death of innocence. Rage compounded upon rage. Rage enough to blot out the sun.

And the air, filled with questions.

Is it going to happen again? What do I tell my children? Why did this happen?

They ask the question. Why? Why? My god, why? I have seen other worlds. Other spaces. I have walked with Gods and wept with angels. But to my shame I have no answers.

He's the only one who could know. Because he's been here before. I wish I had not lived to see it once. I can't imagine what it is to see this twice. I just can't imagine.

What do we tell the children? Do we tell them evil is a foreign face? No. The evil is the thought behind the face, and it can look just like yours. Do we tell them evil is tangible, with defined borders and names and geometries and destinies? No. They will have nightmares enough. Perhaps we tell them that we are sorry. Sorry that we were not able to deliver unto them the world we wished them to have. That our eagerness to shout is not the equal of our willingness to listen. That the burdens of distant people are the responsibility of all men and women of conscience, or their burdens will one day become our tragedy. Or perhaps we simply tell them that we love them, and that we will protect them. That we would give our lives for theirs and do it gladly, so great is the burden of our love. In a universe of Gameboys and VCRs, it is, perhaps, an insubstantial gift. But it is the only one that will wash away the tears and knit the wounds and make the world a sane place to live in.

We could not see it coming. No one could. We could not stop it. No one could. But we are here. Now. With you. Today. Tomorrow. And the day after. We live in each blow you strike for infinite justice, but always in the hope for infinite wisdom. Because we live as well in the quiet turning of your considered conscience. The voice that says all wars have innocents. The voice that says you are a kind and a merciful people. The voice that says do not do as they do, or the war is lost before it is even begun. Do not let the knowledge be washed away in blood.

When you move, we will move with you. Where you go, we will go with you. Where you are, we are in you. Because the future belongs to ordinary men and ordinary women, and that future must be built free of such acts as these, must be fought for and renewed like fresh water. Because a message must be sent to those who mistake compassion for weakness. A message sent across six thousand years of recorded blood and struggle. And the message is this: whatever our history, whatever the root of our surnames, we remain a good and decent people, and we do not bow down and we do not give up. The fire of the human spirit cannot be quenched by bomb blasts or body counts. Cannot be intimidated forever into silence or drowned by tears. We have endured worse before; we will bear this burden and all that come hereafter, because that's what ordinary men and women do. No matter what. This has not weakened us. It has only made us stronger.

In recent years we as a people have been tribalized and factionalized by a thousand casual unkindnesses. But in this we are one. Flags sprout in uncommon places, the ground made fertile by tears and shared resolve. We have become our grief. We are now one in our determination. One as we recover. One as we rebuild. You wanted to send a message, and in so doing you awakened us from our self-involvement. Message received. Look for your reply in the thunder. In such days as these are heroes born. Not heroes such as ourselves. The true heroes of the twenty-first century. You, the human being singular. You, who are nobler than you know and stronger than you think. You, the heroes of this moment chosen out of history.

We stand blinded by the light of your unbroken will. Before that light, no darkness can prevail. They knocked down two tall towers. In their memory, draft a covenant with your conscience, that we will create a world in which such things need not occur. A world which will not require apologies to children, but also a world whose roads are not paved with the husks of their inalienable rights. They knocked down two tall towers. Graft now their echo onto your spine. Become girders and glass, stone and steel, so that when the world sees you, it sees them. And stand tall. Stand tall.

Stand tall.

- From The Amazing Spider-Man #36

About time I put something...meaningful?

Well, it's been a while since I've ever actually put anything on this thing besides the occasional depressing poem that I didn't even write. Going to North Carolina tomorrow so I might as well do something with this.

Anyways, I've spent a lot of time writing for a story I've had cooking up over the year. It's a sci-fi/fantasy mix. That's all I'll say but I like it. I think it has potential.

Also writing a samurai western story in the same vein as Lone Wolf and Cub. Still in the "beyond-beta" stage but I think it also has potential. Typical story about revenge but I think it has different things. For starters the main character wields two revolvers, a katana, and wears a large red hat as he walks across the desert and such. Just starting so it's in the works.

An idea keeps running through my head about an island that rises from the depths of the ocean filled with people that have been living there for years. They all wear masks that allows their minds to connect like the internet connects computers. Another idea is an idea of a psychic detective that battles the otherworldly as they try to encroach upon the realms of our world. Might add it to the other idea of a man who can control space and time, manipulate the course of time to his advantage and can see all possibilities of the world, all the while trying to pave the way to salvation much like God Emperor Leto tries to set humanity on the Golden Path in Dune. Except my guy is fighting Cthulhu demons, not machines (spoiler).

Anyways, that's all I've been up to. Doubt anyone reads this but there you go. My cry for attention.

Night.

To a Tomorrow That Never Comes

Kill one...we kill for today.
Kill two...we kill for tomorrow.
Kill three souls...the blood flows thick.
Hatred is heavy and blood is dark.

Though tears can be hidden, all hearts break.

Starlight seeps into the bone
Blood runs dry in frozen hearts
And night descends on tangled fields.

A homeless journey beyond dark fate.

Lament of wildflowers,
Moan of wind,
Blooming in shadow,
Hell's sweet blossoms.

Eyes fixed on phantoms,
We look to tomorrows that never come.

- Lone Wolf and Cub
Vol. 17: The Will of the Fang
The Eighty-Third: To a Tomorrow That Never Comes

Happy Valentine's Day

"My insides all turned to ash, so slow
And blew away as I collapsed, so cold
A black wind took them away, from sight
And held the darkness over day, that night

And the clouds above move closer
Looking so dissatisfied
But the heartless wind kept blowing, blowing

I used to be my own protection, but not now
Cause my path had lost direction, somehow
A black wind took you away, from sight
And held the darkness over day, that night

And the clouds above move closer
Looking so dissatisfied
And the ground below grew colder
As they put you down inside
But the heartless wind kept blowing, blowing

So now you're gone, and I was wrong
I never knew what it was like, to be alone

On a Valentine's Day"

- "Valentine's Day" by Linkin Park

Have a glorious day!

The 48 Laws of Power by Robert Greene and Joost Elffers

Law 1

Never Outshine the Master

Always make those above you feel comfortably superior. In your desire to please or impress them, do not go too far in displaying your talents or you might accomplish the opposite – inspire fear and insecurity. Make your masters appear more brilliant than they are and you will attain the heights of power.

Law 2

Never put too Much Trust in Friends, Learn how to use Enemies

Be wary of friends-they will betray you more quickly, for they are easily aroused to envy. They also become spoiled and tyrannical. But hire a former enemy and he will be more loyal than a friend, because he has more to prove. In fact, you have more to fear from friends than from enemies. If you have no enemies, find a way to make them.

Law 3

Conceal your Intentions

Keep people off-balance and in the dark by never revealing the purpose behind your actions. If they have no clue what you are up to, they cannot prepare a defense. Guide them far enough down the wrong path, envelope them in enough smoke, and by the time they realize your intentions, it will be too late.

Law 4

Always Say Less than Necessary

When you are trying to impress people with words, the more you say, the more common you appear, and the less in control. Even if you are saying something banal, it will seem original if you make it vague, open-ended, and sphinxlike. Powerful people impress and intimidate by saying less. The more you say, the more likely you are to say something foolish.

Law 5

So Much Depends on Reputation – Guard it with your Life

Reputation is the cornerstone of power. Through reputation alone you can intimidate and win; once you slip, however, you are vulnerable, and will be attacked on all sides. Make your reputation unassailable. Always be alert to potential attacks and thwart them before they happen. Meanwhile, learn to destroy your enemies by opening holes in their own reputations. Then stand aside and let public opinion hang them.

Law 6

Court Attention at all Cost

Everything is judged by its appearance; what is unseen counts for nothing. Never let yourself get lost in the crowd, then, or buried in oblivion. Stand out. Be conspicuous, at all cost. Make yourself a magnet of attention by appearing larger, more colorful, more mysterious, than the bland and timid masses.

Law 7

Get others to do the Work for you, but Always Take the Credit

Use the wisdom, knowledge, and legwork of other people to further your own cause. Not only will such assistance save you valuable time and energy, it will give you a godlike aura of efficiency and speed. In the end your helpers will be forgotten and you will be remembered. Never do yourself what others can do for you.

Law 8

Make other People come to you – use Bait if Necessary

When you force the other person to act, you are the one in control. It is always better to make your opponent come to you, abandoning his own plans in the process. Lure him with fabulous gains – then attack. You hold the cards.

Law 9

Win through your Actions, Never through Argument

Any momentary triumph you think gained through argument is really a Pyrrhic victory: The resentment and ill will you stir up is stronger and lasts longer than any momentary change of opinion. It is much more powerful to get others to agree with you through your actions, without saying a word. Demonstrate, do not explicate.

Law 10

Infection: Avoid the Unhappy and Unlucky

You can die from someone else’s misery – emotional states are as infectious as disease. You may feel you are helping the drowning man but you are only precipitating your own disaster. The unfortunate sometimes draw misfortune on themselves; they will also draw it on you. Associate with the happy and fortunate instead.

Law 11

Learn to Keep People Dependent on You

To maintain your independence you must always be needed and wanted. The more you are relied on, the more freedom you have. Make people depend on you for their happiness and prosperity and you have nothing to fear. Never teach them enough so that they can do without you.

Law 12

Use Selective Honesty and Generosity to Disarm your Victim

One sincere and honest move will cover over dozens of dishonest ones. Open-hearted gestures of honesty and generosity bring down the guard of even the most suspicious people. Once your selective honesty opens a hole in their armor, you can deceive and manipulate them at will. A timely gift – a Trojan horse – will serve the same purpose.

Law 13

When Asking for Help, Appeal to People’s Self-Interest, Never to their Mercy or Gratitude

If you need to turn to an ally for help, do not bother to remind him of your past assistance and good deeds. He will find a way to ignore you. Instead, uncover something in your request, or in your alliance with him, that will benefit him, and emphasize it out of all proportion. He will respond enthusiastically when he sees something to be gained for himself.

Law 14

Pose as a Friend, Work as a Spy

Knowing about your rival is critical. Use spies to gather valuable information that will keep you a step ahead. Better still: Play the spy yourself. In polite social encounters, learn to probe. Ask indirect questions to get people to reveal their weaknesses and intentions. There is no occasion that is not an opportunity for artful spying.

Law 15

Crush your Enemy Totally

All great leaders since Moses have known that a feared enemy must be crushed completely. (Sometimes they have learned this the hard way.) If one ember is left alight, no matter how dimly it smolders, a fire will eventually break out. More is lost through stopping halfway than through total annihilation: The enemy will recover, and will seek revenge. Crush him, not only in body but in spirit.

Law 16

Use Absence to Increase Respect and Honor

Too much circulation makes the price go down: The more you are seen and heard from, the more common you appear. If you are already established in a group, temporary withdrawal from it will make you more talked about, even more admired. You must learn when to leave. Create value through scarcity.

Law 17

Keep Others in Suspended Terror: Cultivate an Air of Unpredictability

Humans are creatures of habit with an insatiable need to see familiarity in other people’s actions. Your predictability gives them a sense of control. Turn the tables: Be deliberately unpredictable. Behavior that seems to have no consistency or purpose will keep them off-balance, and they will wear themselves out trying to explain your moves. Taken to an extreme, this strategy can intimidate and terrorize.

Law 18

Do Not Build Fortresses to Protect Yourself – Isolation is Dangerous

The world is dangerous and enemies are everywhere – everyone has to protect themselves. A fortress seems the safest. But isolation exposes you to more dangers than it protects you from – it cuts you off from valuable information, it makes you conspicuous and an easy target. Better to circulate among people find allies, mingle. You are shielded from your enemies by the crowd.

Law 19

Know Who You’re Dealing with – Do Not Offend the Wrong Person

There are many different kinds of people in the world, and you can never assume that everyone will react to your strategies in the same way. Deceive or outmaneuver some people and they will spend the rest of their lives seeking revenge. They are wolves in lambs’ clothing. Choose your victims and opponents carefully, then – never offend or deceive the wrong person.

Law 20

Do Not Commit to Anyone

It is the fool who always rushes to take sides. Do not commit to any side or cause but yourself. By maintaining your independence, you become the master of others – playing people against one another, making them pursue you.

Law 21

Play a Sucker to Catch a Sucker – Seem Dumber than your Mark

No one likes feeling stupider than the next persons. The trick, is to make your victims feel smart – and not just smart, but smarter than you are. Once convinced of this, they will never suspect that you may have ulterior motives.

Law 22

Use the Surrender Tactic: Transform Weakness into Power

When you are weaker, never fight for honor’s sake; choose surrender instead. Surrender gives you time to recover, time to torment and irritate your conqueror, time to wait for his power to wane. Do not give him the satisfaction of fighting and defeating you – surrender first. By turning the other check you infuriate and unsettle him. Make surrender a tool of power.

Law 23

Concentrate Your Forces

Conserve your forces and energies by keeping them concentrated at their strongest point. You gain more by finding a rich mine and mining it deeper, than by flitting from one shallow mine to another – intensity defeats extensity every time. When looking for sources of power to elevate you, find the one key patron, the fat cow who will give you milk for a long time to come.

Law 24

Play the Perfect Courtier

The perfect courtier thrives in a world where everything revolves around power and political dexterity. He has mastered the art of indirection; he flatters, yields to superiors, and asserts power over others in the mot oblique and graceful manner. Learn and apply the laws of courtiership and there will be no limit to how far you can rise in the court.

Law 25

Re-Create Yourself

Do not accept the roles that society foists on you. Re-create yourself by forging a new identity, one that commands attention and never bores the audience. Be the master of your own image rather than letting others define if for you. Incorporate dramatic devices into your public gestures and actions – your power will be enhanced and your character will seem larger than life.

Law 26

Keep Your Hands Clean

You must seem a paragon of civility and efficiency: Your hands are never soiled by mistakes and nasty deeds. Maintain such a spotless appearance by using others as scapegoats and cat’s-paws to disguise your involvement.

Law 27

Play on People’s Need to Believe to Create a Cultlike Following

People have an overwhelming desire to believe in something. Become the focal point of such desire by offering them a cause, a new faith to follow. Keep your words vague but full of promise; emphasize enthusiasm over rationality and clear thinking. Give your new disciples rituals to perform, ask them to make sacrifices on your behalf. In the absence of organized religion and grand causes, your new belief system will bring you untold power.

Law 28

Enter Action with Boldness

If you are unsure of a course of action, do not attempt it. Your doubts and hesitations will infect your execution. Timidity is dangerous: Better to enter with boldness. Any mistakes you commit through audacity are easily corrected with more audacity. Everyone admires the bold; no one honors the timid.

Law 29

Plan All the Way to the End

The ending is everything. Plan all the way to it, taking into account all the possible consequences, obstacles, and twists of fortune that might reverse your hard work and give the glory to others. By planning to the end you will not be overwhelmed by circumstances and you will know when to stop. Gently guide fortune and help determine the future by thinking far ahead.

Law 30

Make your Accomplishments Seem Effortless

Your actions must seem natural and executed with ease. All the toil and practice that go into them, and also all the clever tricks, must be concealed. When you act, act effortlessly, as if you could do much more. Avoid the temptation of revealing how hard you work – it only raises questions. Teach no one your tricks or they will be used against you.

Law 31

Control the Options: Get Others to Play with the Cards you Deal

The best deceptions are the ones that seem to give the other person a choice: Your victims feel they are in control, but are actually your puppets. Give people options that come out in your favor whichever one they choose. Force them to make choices between the lesser of two evils, both of which serve your purpose. Put them on the horns of a dilemma: They are gored wherever they turn.

Law 32

Play to People’s Fantasies

The truth is often avoided because it is ugly and unpleasant. Never appeal to truth and reality unless you are prepared for the anger that comes for disenchantment. Life is so harsh and distressing that people who can manufacture romance or conjure up fantasy are like oases in the desert: Everyone flocks to them. There is great power in tapping into the fantasies of the masses.

Law 33

Discover Each Man’s Thumbscrew

Everyone has a weakness, a gap in the castle wall. That weakness is usual y an insecurity, an uncontrollable emotion or need; it can also be a small secret pleasure. Either way, once found, it is a thumbscrew you can turn to your advantage.

Law 34

Be Royal in your Own Fashion: Act like a King to be treated like one

The way you carry yourself will often determine how you are treated; In the long run, appearing vulgar or common will make people disrespect you. For a king respects himself and inspires the same sentiment in others. By acting regally and confident of your powers, you make yourself seem destined to wear a crown.

Law 35

Master the Art of Timing

Never seem to be in a hurry – hurrying betrays a lack of control over yourself, and over time. Always seem patient, as if you know that everything will come to you eventually. Become a detective of the right moment; sniff out the spirit of the times, the trends that will carry you to power. Learn to stand back when the time is not yet ripe, and to strike fiercely when it has reached fruition.

Law 36

Disdain Things you cannot have: Ignoring them is the best Revenge

By acknowledging a petty problem you give it existence and credibility. The more attention you pay an enemy, the stronger you make him; and a small mistake is often made worse and more visible when you try to fix it. It is sometimes best to leave things alone. If there is something you want but cannot have, show contempt for it. The less interest you reveal, the more superior you seem.

Law 37

Create Compelling Spectacles

Striking imagery and grand symbolic gestures create the aura of power – everyone responds to them. Stage spectacles for those around you, then full of arresting visuals and radiant symbols that heighten your presence. Dazzled by appearances, no one will notice what you are really doing.

Law 38

Think as you like but Behave like others

If you make a show of going against the times, flaunting your unconventional ideas and unorthodox ways, people will think that you only want attention and that you look down upon them. They will find a way to punish you for making them feel inferior. It is far safer to blend in and nurture the common touch. Share your originality only with tolerant friends and those who are sure to appreciate your uniqueness.

Law 39

Stir up Waters to Catch Fish

Anger and emotion are strategically counterproductive. You must always stay calm and objective. But if you can make your enemies angry while staying calm yourself, you gain a decided advantage. Put your enemies off-balance: Find the chink in their vanity through which you can rattle them and you hold the strings.

Law 40

Despise the Free Lunch

What is offered for free is dangerous – it usually involves either a trick or a hidden obligation. What has worth is worth paying for. By paying your own way you stay clear of gratitude, guilt, and deceit. It is also often wise to pay the full price – there is no cutting corners with excellence. Be lavish with your money and keep it circulating, for generosity is a sign and a magnet for power.

Law 41

Avoid Stepping into a Great Man’s Shoes

What happens first always appears better and more original than what comes after. If you succeed a great man or have a famous parent, you will have to accomplish double their achievements to outshine them. Do not get lost in their shadow, or stuck in a past not of your own making: Establish your own name and identity by changing course. Slay the overbearing father, disparage his legacy, and gain power by shining in your own way.

Law 42

Strike the Shepherd and the Sheep will Scatter

Trouble can often be traced to a single strong individual – the stirrer, the arrogant underling, the poisoned of goodwill. If you allow such people room to operate, others will succumb to their influence. Do not wait for the troubles they cause to multiply, do not try to negotiate with them – they are irredeemable. Neutralize their influence by isolating or banishing them. Strike at the source of the trouble and the sheep will scatter.

Law 43

Work on the Hearts and Minds of Others

Coercion creates a reaction that will eventually work against you. You must seduce others into wanting to move in your direction. A person you have seduced becomes your loyal pawn. And the way to seduce others is to operate on their individual psychologies and weaknesses. Soften up the resistant by working on their emotions, playing on what they hold dear and what they fear. Ignore the hearts and minds of others and they will grow to hate you.

Law 44

Disarm and Infuriate with the Mirror Effect

The mirror reflects reality, but it is also the perfect tool for deception: When you mirror your enemies, doing exactly as they do, they cannot figure out your strategy. The Mirror Effect mocks and humiliates them, making them overreact. By holding up a mirror to their psyches, you seduce them with the illusion that you share their values; by holding up a mirror to their actions, you teach them a lesson. Few can resist the power of Mirror Effect.

Law 45

Preach the Need for Change, but Never Reform too much at Once

Everyone understands the need for change in the abstract, but on the day-to-day level people are creatures of habit. Too much innovation is traumatic, and will lead to revolt. If you are new to a position of power, or an outsider trying to build a power base, make a show of respecting the old way of doing things. If change is necessary, make it feel like a gentle improvement on the past.

Law 46

Never appear too Perfect

Appearing better than others is always dangerous, but most dangerous of all is to appear to have no faults or weaknesses. Envy creates silent enemies. It is smart to occasionally display defects, and admit to harmless vices, in order to deflect envy and appear more human and approachable. Only gods and the dead can seem perfect with impunity.

Law 47

Do not go Past the Mark you Aimed for; In Victory, Learn when to Stop

The moment of victory is often the moment of greatest peril. In the heat of victory, arrogance and overconfidence can push you past the goal you had aimed for, and by going too far, you make more enemies than you defeat. Do not allow success to go to your head. There is no substitute for strategy and careful planning. Set a goal, and when you reach it, stop.

Law 48

Assume Formlessness

By taking a shape, by having a visible plan, you open yourself to attack. Instead of taking a form for your enemy to grasp, keep yourself adaptable and on the move. Accept the fact that nothing is certain and no law is fixed. The best way to protect yourself is to be as fluid and formless as water; never bet on stability or lasting order. Everything changes.