The Fantasy Will Live On

I woke up this morning at around 5 am to do my morning prayers, and also to finalize my 10th episode of To The Moon video on Youtube before going back to bed since I was also recording at 2 am before that. And I thought I'd open my Facebook while I was at it.

Then I saw Markiplier's post about something that I just couldn't believe. That is, until I checked out the official page of Rooster Teeth, the creative production studio responsible for award-winning online videos, in case you have no idea who they are. And there it is, the headline that I don't want to see this soon:

"Our friend, inspiration and co-worker Monty Oum passed away yesterday afternoon at 4:34 PM surrounded by people who loved him very much."

I fell silent right there. I mean, I was aware that ten days ago Monty suffered a severe allergic reaction during a simple medical procedure that left him in a coma, and has been hospitalized ever since. But I believed that everything was going to be alright, and he would just get back up and start being awesome again as usual.

For those who are not aware, or simply don't know about the guy's name himself, Monty Oum was an American web-based animator. He was known for his crossover fighting videos, starting with Haloid, a video of Master Chief from Halo series destroying an entire Covenant batallion, having a skirmish with Metroid's Samus Aran, and then teaming up with her to fight the incoming Covenant reinforcements. This video alone gained him amazing popularity, and put all heroes in action movies to shame mainly because of one scene: a motherfucking shotgun kata.

If any of you male viewers didn't get a boner from this scene, you're impotent

He made another series called Dead Fantasy afterwards, a story where the characters from Final Fantasy series (plus Kairi/Naminé from Kingdom Hearts) are duking it out with the characters from Dead or Alive series for some reason that nobody gives a damn about because it's awesome. But seriously though, if I get to see hot chicks fighting with sweet badass moves and cool CG effects, to hell with the plot. The series got postponed after episode 6 though, and Monty said that he would continue them one day. One day that will never come in the end.

But in no way I'm saying that he hasn't done enough yet

He then was employed by Rooster Teeth Productions to animate for their Red vs. Blue series, a story about the neverending conflict between the 'Reds' and the 'Blues' in the Halo universe that is filled with comedy and other shenanigans. It was made entirely by using the game mechanics from the Halo series, until Monty came along and wreak havoc with sheer awesomeness for the rest of its seasons.

And later on, he made his original series, RWBY (pronounced 'Ruby'), an anime-style animation series about a fantasy world where 'magic' exists in the form of Dust energy, and the Hunters who fights against the forces of darkness called 'the Grimm' with exquisite weaponry. I mean "exquisite" because all of their weapons could transform into a melee and into a ranged version of it, or both.

Yes, three gifs, because just one couldn't contain the awesomeness and Ruby's cuteness.

The series also has only reached Season 2, with a cliffhanger ending and some new characters just got introduced near the end. Now with him - the main director and animator - gone, and not to mention he also voiced one of the character himself, I don't know if Rooster Teeth would continue the series or not.

Nevertheless, there's nothing else we can do now except to offer our deepest condolences for his passing. I may not be an animator myself, but I deeply appreciate creativity, and his works has always been one of my favorite of all time. He single-handedly made me compare every CGI generated combat scenes in any movie with his own, and he also made me recoreograph every battle scenes for the stories in my head.

The world has lost a great talent. But even then, his works will live on forever.

May you rest in peace.

"I wasn't dreaming when they told me you were gone,

I was wide awake and feeling that they had to be wrong."

- Red Like Roses, part II