The Quill: Volume 1 Issue 7

Quill The

Eagles Bring Home the Gold The Tri-Sports Tournament by

Win Leelamanthep

AROUNDICS

4 World Scholars Cup

agle Eye 5 E Billy & Alan Dobson enior Session 6 S Moowan Sakulyong

ATHLETICS 7 Eagles Bringing Home

the

Gold

IICS dominates the Tri-Sports Tournament

9 Swim Team Tales 5

March 2014

Volume 1 Issue 7 April 2014

The Quill

Contents

7

AROUND WORLD the

lue Green White 10 B The mysteries of Malaysia Airline Flight MH 380

LIFESTYLE

11 Songkran Recap 13 Samsung’s New

Marketing Strategies Celebrity “Selfies”

13 Ten Tips

for the

7

AP

Exams

OUROPINION 14 In Defense Animation

of

13

EDITOR-IN-CHIEF

PHOTOGRAPHERS

Will Leelamanthep

Pann Sermchaiwong Surawut Withayarukson Time Chaiteerath

Ms. Lissa Scott

EDITORS

ADVISOR

LAYOUT DESIGNER Pann Sermchaiwong Surawut Withayarukson

Young Kwang Shin Poom Sethabutr Prim Thientanakij Khem Somsak

WRITERS Keshav Garg Fayfay Prasutchai Poon Vorapanyaskul Leah Robinson Win Leelamanthep Poom Chiarawongse John Kim Poom Sethabutr Young Kwang Shin

April 2014

The Quill

AROUNDICS

World Scholars Cup Greetings fellow readers. This article will be a mini information guide on the World Scholars Cup. To preface this article, the writer of this article congratulates all participants and victors of this scholarly event. Some honorable mentions include the following: Arb, Koch, Pran, Amy, Tanapoom, Jo, Poom S., Poom C., Win, Tom, John, and Khem. The after effects of the event resulted in 10 trophies and numerous qualifications of the global round at Singapore.

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Q : What is the Worlds Scholars Cup? A : The World Scholars Cup is an international team academic tournament with participants hailing from over 40 countries. The event was founded

by DemiDec (a private educational resource company), and in particular its Founder and current CEO, Daniel Berdichevsky, in 2006. The event consists of 4 main events: The Scholars Challenge, Collaborative Writing, Team

By

Keshav Garg

Debating, and The Scholars Bowl.

Q : What do participants do in each of the events?

A : Each event has its own uniqueness of testing and improving your abilities of reading, writing, speaking, and communicating. However, all events revolve around a central topic.

1. The Scholars Challenge: The participants compete in a multiple choice exam.

Time Limit: 60 minutes.

2. Collaborative Writing: Teammates research on specific topics using the Internet and its services to persuade readers to agree with their viewpoints.

Time Limit: 82 minutes total.

3. Team Debate: A team debates for or against a given topic against other teams.

Time Limit: 4 minutes per student in a team.

4. The Scholars Bowl: Team members work together to answer multiple choice

questions displayed on a large screen.

Time Limit: 15-30 seconds per question depending on difficulty of question.

Q : How can I participate? What do we study on? How will entering benefit me?

Etc. A : Firstly, to participate you must have a team of three. Secondly, you are given certain topics related to different subjects which you have to research and study about. You are also given study materials to read through. By participating in this event, not only do you embellish your college applications, but you are also improving your current communication skills. The competition consists of 3 parts: the National Round, the Global Round, and the Tournament of Champions held at Yale University.

Some past ICS students who not only made it to the Tournament of Champions, but also ranked 14th out of 100 are Young Kwang, Jo, and Khem.

EAGLESEYE

with

Billy&Alan

Dobson BY

Poon Vorapanyasakul

Q: Any embarrassing childhood memories?

Billy: Trying to show off to a girl that I could climb the monkey bar and I fell down and broke my arm.

Alan: I don’t have any embarrassing childhood memories.

Q: If you could only spend one day with your brother before aliens came to whisk you off to separate planets, what would you spend that day doing?

Billy: I would spend that moment with my brother at a soccer game, because that is the place where we get along the most.

Alan: I would spend that day with my brother doing whatever we want to do.

Q: Do you guys hang out and do things together?

Billy: We hang out a lot, especially at cinemas on Friday nights or soccer game on Saturday nights.

Alan: Yes, we hang out and usually we go watch movies together with our friends.

Q: Describe one another in one word.

Billy: Motivated.

Alan: Mean

April 2014

Q: Would you go to your brother for dating advice?

Billy: No, because he is much less experienced than me.

Alan: Maybe, I might go ask my brother for dating advice. I don’t really think it’s necessary.

Q: How would you rate your brother’s hygiene?

Billy: 4/10 Alan: In my opinion, I would rate his hygiene 3/5.

Q: Who would you say is better looking?

Billy: Me. Alan: To be honest, I think we both look good but we look good in different ways.

AROUNDICS

Q: Funniest memories of each other?

Billy: I never share my toys with Alan, but whenever I do, my toys never came back in one piece.

Alan: Doing random things together.

Q: What do you think your brother should be when he grows up?

Billy: He should be a model.

Alan: A chef.

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SENIOR SESSION BY

Poon Vorapanyasakul with Moowan

Sakulyong

“Congratulations on making it into the Academy of Arts.”

Q: First off, why did you decide to enroll into this school?

Moowan: I chose this school from experience. I spent a summer there and saw how they work, their success, and their teachers chosen directly from the field.

AROUNDICS

April 2014

Q: In regards to choosing colleges, should the drive for college decisions be future job options, or the passion behind it?

Moowan: You are not only choosing a college. You are choosing what you will do for the rest of your life. If I’m going to spend the rest of my life doing something, it’d better be something I love and enjoy. So, it’s passion.

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Q: What made you decide that an arts school was entirely suitable for you in comparison to the many other faculties offered in colleges?

Moowan: I love art. My father assured me that the best thing to do is choosing something that you love and don’t worry about the future. I simply followed his advice on that subject. (I used to want to be a biologist because it was a respectable and useful career.)

Q: What is your favorite thing about art?

Moowan: My favorite thing about art is the ability to express thoughts and feelings in an almost universal way. I also admire the pure beauty and power of imagination of the human mind.

Q: Do you feel that art is the easiest method of expressing your thoughts and feelings?

Moowan: Meaning of art depends on interpretation. The message is never clear because the color black for me could mean peace, while for you, it could mean fear. That’s the joy of art. To simply put it, I can express myself in ways only I can fully understand.

Q: If you could start high school all over again, what would you do differently?

Moowan: I would spend more of my time on art rather than taking math and science classes. I don’t regret the choices I made regarding the classes that are more academic but at least I wish I could have balanced them better with art.

Q: For your fellow underclassmen, what is the best piece of advice that you would give regarding making college choices?

Moowan: The only advice I can give is to take your time to figure out where your passion lies. High school life is the best opportunity to try things out as much as you can. It’s your life. Do what you love. Do what makes you happy.

After all, what could be more important than that?

ATHLETICS The Eagles Bring Home the Gold By

Win Leelamanthep

A few weekends ago, our school held the first Tri-sports tournament, and the results were not at all disappointing. From scoring the first goal, shot, or point to the last, it is safe to say that our school’s diverse athletes earned their gold through each drop of sweat, each muscle strain, each tear

The Quill April 2014

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April 2014

ATHLETICS 0 8

of pain and joy, and definitely their perseverance throughout the seasons.

With Mr. Tim coaching the male team and Mr. Jack coaching the female, the ICS team ended up in first place. Unlike other tournaments, the school has only one team, which consists of players, both male and female, who participates, whether actively or passively, in all of the sports.

The championship was certainly a hard fought one, and as one male player on the team put it, “The tournament was extremely tiring.

I was more tired after the tournament than BISAC or the one in Chiangmai.”

According to another male player on the teams, it was much more fun because he got to play multiple sports in just one tournament, which is very unusual.”

As one of the girl athletes put it, “The tournament was filled with excitement and surprises. You never know who was really going to win the next point, score the next goal, or shoot the next shot to put her team in an advantage to win the game. All you could really do was to play the very best and hope that your team comes out on top.” According to another female player, “I think I enjoyed this tournament out of all the others. It’s soccer, volleyball, and basketball combined! I mean, what can be better?

It was also great because it was both guys and girls, so when the guys were playing we would go cheer for them, and when we played the guys actually cheered for us this time! (Thanks guys ;) ) This made it so much more fun, just the team spirit and seeing the seniors

enjoy their last tournament. Many memories were made, and I’m sure it will stay in our heart for many of the years to come.”

One more group of people who cannot be overlooked are the spectators and fans. According to a fan, “Everyone was overly excited and we really wanted to win.” According to another spectator, “Cheering was certainly the best job anyone can have, well, except for the part where we got the medals.

That is because every player fought so hard to win and they were definitely exhausted.”

All in all, the tournament is one of its kind and certainly yields the best of memories. The team was a great representation of ICS.

What has been the most challenging part?

Yu-ho Su: The most challenging part is swimming the backstroke and turning at the end of the line.

Tommy: BISAC seems to be the most challenging for me since this is the first year for our school. Another reason is that we have less experience in the tournament and also less people. If we have the swimming team next year, I really hope to see more people in our team Yu-ho Su: Also the swimmers from other schools are older than we are.

Leah Robinson

What has been the best part of the experience?

Yu-ho Su: The best part was when my teammates and I were practicing together after school.

Tommy: And also in the BISAC during the last event that we did relay together; it still is one of the best memories I have of the whole season.

On What days did you practice?

Yu-ho Su: We practice on Monday, Thursday, and Friday How did you guys do in the swim meets?

Yu-ho Su: We did fairly well in the swim meets. Not the best, but decent.

Would you encourage others to join next year?

Yu-ho Su: I would definitely encourage others to join next year because swimming is healthy for you and it is fun.

Tommy: For the next year... sure, I want to encourage everyone that is interested to join our team next year.

Any advice for those thinking about joining?

Yu-ho Su: Make yourself have a nice 6-pack because the top 5 in the team obviously work out every day. (laughs) Tommy: I’d encourage everyone who is interested to join our team next year. However, you must prepare for the upcoming tryout by eating healthy food, staying fit, practicing on each strokes and trying to beat your own record.

April 2014

Why did you join the swim team?

Yu-ho Su: The reason I joined the swimming team was because I have had experience of swimming in elementary school, and I wanted to have the memory of swimming again Tommy: For me, the reason for joining the swimming team was because I have been doing this for almost 13 years, and I just want to challenge myself and confirm that the time I spent practicing was worth it.

By

ATHLETICS

Swim Team Tales

Any other things you will miss about the swim team when the season finishes?

Yu-ho Su: The thing I will miss after this season finish is competing against Tommy, who has swum incredibly quickly.

Tommy: My BISAC experience with Yu-Ho.

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April 2014

The Quill

AROUND WORLD the

Blue Green White

Friday, not two hours before midnight, you manage to stay awake as the taxi drives you for the airport. You arrive, struggling, fighting with the weight of your luggage. Victorious, you finally drag your belongings out of the trunk. You roll them into the airport, the window-patched airport, towering against the night. It is a beautiful airport, a sleek, symmetrical, brightly lit architecture, a perfect depiction of modernity. The security guard pushes you through a metal detector and your bag through an x-ray machine. Once the bag is picked up, you gloomily get in line for flight check-in and fumble for your passport and pre-printed ticket. When search comes up fruitful, the westerner in front of you is finally done arguing her way to a window seat. The ticket agent calls you in and gets done what she has to get done. At last, you are ready. You succeed in getting lost.

A kind guard, so friendly in nature, points you to the passenger lounge where you wait for the plane to ready itself. You look at the watch on your left arm: 00:18, Saturday. Seven minutes span between the present moment and the scheduled departure, but the passengers are already called in line. You wait for the canes to push the elderlies up to the plane then follow their slow pace. You find

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By

Poom Chiarawongse

your seat, put your luggage over head, and sit. The flight attendant tells you to strap yourself in with the seatbelt. He looks scary, so you do as you are told. The TV shows you what to do when all hell breaks loose. 00:41, the steel bird takes off, swallowed by the dark of the Malaysian sky from which your cries are never again heard.

Such was likely the case of a passenger of Malaysia Airline flight MH370 who intended to travel to Beijing on March 8. The plane went missing along with 227 passengers and 12 crewmembers on board. The last confirmed location of the airliner was in the Gulf of Thailand where it began to turn westward away from the planned route and toward the Indian Ocean. The information was sent by a transmitter-responder on the plane before it stopped operating and the plane ceased all communications. 7:24, an hour after the aircraft’s scheduled arrival in Beijing, the airline pronounced it missing.

“We have to assume,” acknowledged Malaysian Airline, “beyond all reasonable doubt that flight MH370 has been lost and none of those on board survived…we must now accept that all evidence suggests the plane went down in the Southern Indian Ocean.” Such conclusive statements were provided by

Inmarsat, a satellite company with the evidence referred to being the signal intelligence received from the plane.

Oil and smoke and debris are found in the postulated crash area, but their relevance to the plane is never established. Search teams have been sent, but have yet to return successful, as if the plane has simply vanished from the surface of the earth.

“This is one of the most demanding and challenging search and rescue operations that I have ever seen,” said search coordinator Angus Houston of the Royal Australian Air Force, “I think probably one of the most complex operations of its nature that the world has seen,”

So far, there have been no major breakthroughs on the location of the aircraft.

With people being people and the Internet being the Internet, conspiracy theories are propagated, some stupider than others. One involved a black hole, and another an alien abduction. The respectable collective intelligence of Reddit necessitates that the plane has been teleported to Mars. More plausible explanations like the plane being on fire or the plane being shot down remain inconclusive.

By

Haripoom Prasutchai

LIFESTYLE Songkran Recap

The annual colorful festivities of the Thai New Year have passed. People all over Thailand have indulged themselves in the exuberant celebrations. Well, maybe not all have enjoyed splashing water on each other, but everybody has enjoyed it in some ways. On the 11th of April, the holiday’s start was marked by the flock of various vehicles struggling to go out of the town no matter what to pay a visit to family or to spend vacation time with friends. Districts of Bangkok have shut the cars out and have exclusively allowed the water-players to make each other wet.

Even though the holiday of fun and joy has come to an end, its vibes are still flowing around, seen easily by our friends’ evident nostalgia over vacations spent with either friends or family. Everybody sure had fun.

Here’s a recap.

Songkran this year started out on a Sunday, an infamously crowded and traffic-jammed day for Bangkok. However, the density of cars in the metropolis was not at all contingent upon the fact of it being holiday season. It is safe to say that the majority of Bangkokians were rushing out uptown to relax. Or they were going to Japan. With the rest left in the “ghost-town”, the fun commenced. Watersplashing and face-painting were popping up all over Bangkok, like at Silom, Siam, Khao San, or even the night life avenue like the Royal City Avenue (RCA).

Even though all the fun was in the same city, playing styles and the vibes were outrageously different. Playing with marl or din sor porng was uncontrollably popular among players in Silom whereas

it was ineffectively prohibited in the Siam area. Players could be armed with a water gun or simply a pail. A lot of farangs could be spotted roaming around Khao San Road due to its international fame. But no matter how you have played it, it should be thoroughly enjoyable and definitely memorable.

Walking down the street where people play, there were some essential phrases to assure your safety. Firstly, never, ever say you don’t want to play. Never.

It is a nationally understood codeword for “Splash me and make me wet”. And because of that, many Bangkokians have preferred to seclude themselves from the madness on the streets and enjoy themselves doing what they like instead of going out and getting wet. And also, you didn’t need to go out to buy things because as long as there is an internet connection, nothing is impossible to do from home.

Besides celebrations going on in Bangkok, one should not forget that colorful festivities exist in every single province of Thailand. Each province has their own distinct ways of celebrating the most significant holiday of Thailand. If you have planned an escapade out of Bangkok, trying out Songkran in other provinces is definitely a must.

One undeniably true fact is that traditions change. Songkran half a decade ago would not be like the Songkran of 2014, let alone seeing people dancing to PSY’s Gangnam Style. With the wildness that happened during 2014’s Songkran, conservatives’ heads might burst off due to the so-called “abominations”. “Men,

women, and even transexuals stripping their clothes off is not something you would see 7 years ago,” said one of the internet critics. However, from a liberal viewpoint, the changes are deemed as spontaneous phenomena that are neither good nor bad. 2014’s Songkran could be a revolution to the age-old Thai holiday or an act of sullying the “beautiful and precious” Thai culture. It is to be reminded that the original concern of Songkran is to visit and spend time with family members.

Despite mixed opinions vis-à-vis how the festival is to be celebrated, there is one consensus amongst all. Celebration of family reunion could all of a sudden turn to a tragic moment for family members whose relatives have lost their lives during the time period that is supposed to be joyful. One thing that has always remained in the traditions of Songkran is the hair-raising amount of deaths by road accidents, and most of them are caused by drunk driving. What was supposed to be a happy time for the whole family would become a devastating grief to cope over.

2014’s amount of accidents and deaths topped the amount of last year’s. Besides the deaths from careless driving, playing Songkran has recently become unsafe. It was reported that a few Songkran players have been deliberately injured.

The most crucial factor to have fun during the celebrations is to always be cautious. Be responsible for yourselves and others. Spare some time from partying with friends and spend it with family. The true spirit of the Thai New Year is nothing but 1 family.

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LIFESTYLE April 2014

post ever in history. The sparkly Note 3 used to take the selfie, the Samsung flagship, indeed was exposed globally through the press present during the Oscars.

It turns out this remarkable stratagem played out by Samsung was a huge marketing success.

Oh, did I not mention that the selfie is now the most retweeted post in history?

Samsung’s incessant efforts to expose their products in selfies of celebrities did not end here. The Boston Sox baseball player David Ortiz snapped a controversial selfie with the President at a White House event using a Samsung phone.

When the selfie became viral on twitter, Samsung retweeted the photo on its official account as an ad. Although Ortiz first told the press that the selfie was not a premeditated marketing ploy, he did later admit to the Boston Globe that he signed “a deal”

John Kim

with Samsung a few months ago.

The White House was not very elated to be cleverly played by the baseball star and Samsung; the counsel office of the White House is known to have had “conversations” with Samsung after the selfie was taken and posted on twitter.

Samsung, the world’s largest maker of smartphones, is making a name for itself as an aggressive, off-beat marketer.

In its latest fiscal year, Samsung spent roughly $4 billion only on advertising, which is about four times as much as its rival, Apple.

The success of the “celebrities’ selfies on twitter“ strategy has manifested in the numbers of retweets each selfie has achieved.

As the “selfie” culture perpetuates itself in our SNS prevalent society, it is quite apparent that Samsung will continue to make use of the trend for its benefits in the advertisement sector.

April 2014

Recently, a viral hoax posted on Facebook suggested that the American Psychiatric Association (APA) has come out and officially declared taking multiple selfies to be a mental disorder. Although this post was debunked by a myriad of press agencies, the sizable number of users who deemed the post interesting testifies for the fact that this new trend is deeply rooted in the daily cultures of the United States. And as for hefty companies such as Samsung, the new trend was just another opportunity to exploit and promote their products.

One example of Samsung’s exploitation of the selfie trend was the selfie of Ellen DeGeneres, the host of the Oscars 2014. Gathering Brad Pitt, Julia Roberts, Jennifer Lawrence, Meryl Streep, Kevin Spacey, Bradley Cooper and Angelina Jolie, Ellen took a selfie live during the show, achieving the most retweeted

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LIFESTYLE

Samsung’s New Marketing Strategy

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April 2014

LIFESTYLE

Ten Tips for the AP Exams 1. Start studying now The exams may not be here until late May, but it takes plenty of time to prepare. If you think you can just cram an entire school-year’s worth of information the week before the tests, you’ll be in for some trouble. China didn’t build the Great Wall the night before the Mongols got there now did they?

2. Notecards are your new friends Write down tidbits and small facts onto notecards and take these everywhere you can. Pull them out whenever you have free time instead of pulling out your phone and wasting an opportunity.

3. Take practice tests Whether you have bought a help book or not, you can find practice tests scattered through the internet.

Set aside time from your busy and excitement-filled lives and sit yourself down to take one. Tally your score up and see what you got, then look back at what sections you need a refresher on.

4. Find a buddy Get a friend from the same class to help share your pain. Preferably someone on the same on the same level in the subject as you. Talk to each other and understand what the other has trouble with. Now try and explain or quiz each other on your respective weaknesses. If you know

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By

Poom Sethabutr

something well enough to teach it, you know it well enough.

5. Make connections while you study As you read, try to see how each separate lesson and topic fit in with each other. You’ll get a better understanding of each topic and also make it easier to remember each individual chunk. As any six-year-old can tell you, it’s easy to find a single red Lego in a box of Legos when it’s stuck to 20 other pieces.

6. Read the whole question Especially during the multiple choice, many brave warriors have fallen prey to their own haste. Don’t just glance at the question and find the gist of it; actually register every word in both the questions and the choices.

You don’t want the feeling of having walked out of the testing room to realize you missed the word “NOT” on question 27.

7. Avoid extreme answers When you are unsure, try to avoid multiple choice answers that indicate “all” or “none”. A situation without an exception is more rare than a student who reads this magazine, so eliminate choices like these if you can.

8. There are no penalties for guessing, so guess intelligently The difference between a good man and a great man is that the great man

knows that they make mistakes. You are not going to be absolutely certain about every single question, so be prepared to take risks. When all else fails, start eliminating choices you know cannot be the answer. Even if you can only get it down to two, that’s a 50% chance coming from a 20%.

9. Knowledge is not foolproof; confidence is Walk into that room looking like you are the most prepared person there. Being confident puts you in the mindset that allows you to do the best you can. If you don’t want to look like a snob, just do it to get rid of all nervousness, the bane of performance. If you can spare 12 baht, go buy a pack of gum. It’ll calm you down and give you minty fresh breath at the same time.

10. Mark it down and move on During the exam, time is a resource more precious than water. For this reason, you should NEVER sit and stare at the same chunk of words for longer than you need to. If the answer doesn’t immediately come to mind, skipping it is a legitimate course of action. Just mark down the question number and keep moving. Come back when you are finished, so that you can have all the time you

OUROPINION Waikay’s Corner In Defense Animation of

By

Young Kwang Shin

The medium of animation has never really bathed itself in the mainstream. It barely clung (and clings) to the loyalty of fringe nerds who were derided by their moviegoer and gamer friends for obsessing over ‘kiddie stuff’.

Actually, ‘kiddie stuff’ seems to be the go-to reason to avoid animated TV series and movies. Then it should be no surprise that it will be the moniker Waikay attempts to dismantle under 800 words in his (hopefully) long awaited return to the paper.

In both the East and the West, the majority of animated products released for public viewing are manufactured by corporate giants specializing in entertaining children: Studio Ghibli and Disney/Pixar come to mind, respectively. No matter how dark Mufasa’s death or Princess Mononoke’s imagery may be, it cannot be denied that these movies target a younger audience than most. It is no surprise, then, that the masses retain the stereotype that animation in general is for kids, and thus is immature.

Of course, tumblr and Reddit may occasionally pay tribute to these kiddie movies and shows, citing ‘nostalgia’ and ‘mah childhood’ as reasons on their stock copy-and-paste memes and axioms, but that is about the peak of respect afforded to animation by the masses.

This phenomenon reminds Waikay of another storytelling medium mocked in the past: picture books.

I meant comic books. But think about it: they’re more or less the same medium. Both utilize sequential pictures to tell their stories, with words being at most complements. But the former causes one to envision a colossal red canine stupidly obeying a child’s orders; the latter would probably

cause hardcore DC and Marvel fans to collectively wet themselves and enumerate ‘deep’ and ‘awesome’ moments from their favorite franchises.

But a bystander wouldn’t understand, even as he/she gets the towels to clean up the mess in their geek friend’s pants.

The only real way, then, to convince someone of animation’s potential is to expose him or her to examples that live up to it, the same way the general public only admitted comic books’ place in contemporary fiction after closing the covers of Maus, Persepolis, Watchmen, and The Dark Knight Returns. However, Waikay can’t do that. Such an action would clearly violate copyright laws, a deplorable deed Waikay righteously conceals in the privacy of his house. But that doesn’t mean Waikay cannot argue his reasons why animation is such a potent force of storytelling that is being ignored by the tasteless.

Animation allows the expression of stories that would otherwise be too difficult to express in words and over-the-top to be put in film.

Every frame of an animated television show can be changed to precisely reflect the desires of the creator in a way that cannot be accommodated by theater or film that depend on real actors and real places to articulate fiction. Of course, CGI can go a long way to maximize the amount of creativity that can find voice in film, but from a pragmatic standpoint, is far too costly to employ effectively, especially for budding directors and filmmakers.

Moreover, animation dominates the department of visual subtlety. A film can communicate bucket loads of information without dialogue by simply showing a scene.

However, filmmaking is constrained

by the places of the world, modern technology, and the budget in trying to communicate ideas implicitly. In animation, as every tidbit of the scene is modifiable, the setting itself becomes a participant of the act and is capable of reaching a ‘deepness’ that at times cannot be afforded by its live-action counterparts.

All of these perquisites permit animation a niche in contemporary storytelling that no other medium can properly fill. Of course, that does not mean every piece of animation to enjoy the limelight can use its medium’s specialty as an excuse for poor storytelling. To be sure, animation can screw up, and at times screw up hard. But the same applies for books, comic books, movies, and television.

To our massive dismay, we’ve all read the angst-ridden teen bop vampirewerewolf-zombie-mummy-demigodkraken ‘young-adult’ romance novels, all seen the films and TV shows filled with pretentious and juvenile philosophizing and explosions that seem only to eradicate any semblance of depth in the experience, and all skimmed comic books/picture books that prove the cultural elite of the 50s right when they said comic books were childish escapist fantasies for those weak in mental constitution.

TL;DR: I don’t think the specific, bad examples of animated stories at all discredit the medium as a whole. Thus the least I can hope is that people open their eyes to the possibilities created by animation, and until then, this defense does not rest for the sake of the fringe nerds everywhere.

Except for bronies. Not even Waikay can defend THAT.

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