The Origin of BB-8

That is the question. I have always found Wookiepedia a very reliable source of information regarding anything (obviously) Star Wars related question I may have had, but this time I was left scratching my head. It seems that I can't find a straight answer for who was responsible for the design of BB-8, design, not the actual building of the droid. Who drew the first preliminary sketch of BB-8? J.J. Abrams? Neal Scanlan? All different names pop up regarding this fact, but I'm still at a loss for a definite answer for my question.

So what exactly made me even question this? Well, coincidentally I purchased a Star Wars manga in December 2015, the same month Episode VII was released. The album I own is the Finnish edition of 2007, published by Pauna Media Group, but the original English version was published by TOKYOPOP in 2006 and the earliest date associated with this particular story of my interest, is 22 December of 2005. Star Wars Manga: Silver, as it was called, consist of five varying short stories. There was something that caught my attention in the second story of the album, Oh!! Jawajawa drawn by Hitoshi Ariga, known for his work on Mega Man and Pokémon series.

What caught my interest in this comic without any dialog was a background droid that appears in three panels in total. The resemblance between it and a certain BB unit is undeniable.

The comic droid does absolutely nothing, besides getting wrecked.

When there are thousands upon thousand pages worth of information within the Star Wars universe, I can't say, because I don't know, if anything like BB-8 has made an appearance in the Expanded Universe (or Legends now....) before this comic was even published. Or maybe something resembling BB-8 has been seen in the Mega Man universe? (I know absolutely nothing about  Mega Man so I can't tell)

Not that I'm accusing anybody of anything, I was just really surprised by finding something like this when I didn't expect it. Ashamed, I'll admit it took me over a month to find the time to sit down a read the whole thing. By the time I first read the comic, I had already seen the Force Awakens.

So I guess my real question would be, that whoever came up with the design of BB-8, were they even aware of this 24 pages long comic from Japan? Or perhaps I should ask if Hitoshi Ariga knows of his further contribution to the SW universe?

Pokémon Y

Edit 01.03.2016 So, I finally learned that the legendary is actually called Yveltal and not Ylvetal as I've previously misread the name. I'll probably still get it wrong in the future as well.

Well, happy new year and stuff!
The most exciting thing I got for Christmas last year, was the money I then used to by my Pokémon Y version. Choosing between the games, funny thing is, that I always imagined myself getting the X version, because I like the letter "x" more than "y" and I like Xerneas' design more and Xerneas is blue! My favorite color! It wasn't until I found out what the two main legendaries represent that I shifted towards getting the Y version instead, so here we are! Yveltal is freaking DEATH, how could I not choose it?! Furthermore, as I checked out the other version exclusive Pokémons, or rather, two specific Mega Evolutions, only confirmed my choice.

No matter how popular they are, I see no reason why Charizard and Mewtwo got two different looking Mega Evolutions. Fine, I can maybe accept why Mewtwo got them, being a legendary and all makes him special (apparently not special enough....), but why Charizard?!? Maybe I better not start a rant about this.... so in short, I like Mega Charizard Y better because it kept Charizard's original coloring, the wings look better and no weird spiky shoulders. As for Mewtwo, I don't really like either of the designs, but I find the sleeker design of Y version more tolerable than the Mega Mewtwo X, which only uglified Mewtwo beyond repair.

With that out of the way, what do I think of the game so far? As far as the game play goes, I have nothing to complain about (yet). As for the story and characters, that's a whole different topic......
I'm so bored!!! I've been playing for nearly 30 hours and I still have no idea what's going on with the story, I've beaten all my friends/rivals at least once, and had the first encounter with this in-game hyped Mega Evolution (very nicely force fed, thank you very much).

Professor Sycamore is okay, but why did he have to live in Lumiose City? That place is most aggravating on every level! Team Flare's grunts are funny, even though I still have no idea what their motivation of being evil is. By far, the worst part of the game  so far are my friends/rivals punching bags. Never have I missed Gary/Blue so much! At least he had the decency to at least act like he was a better trainer than me, even if he lost our every encounter. Shauna, Trevor, Tierno and Calem.... stop making me feel like a Mary Sue! I wanna be the underdog, not a damn Mary Sue!

Every damn time I meet up with any of these guys they talk like they're expecting me to beat them! How is this supposed to make me feel like a winner? If you'd be training as hard as you're wasting time giving me compliments maybe you'd at least be a challenge! I'm so sick of all these buddy-buddy rivals in these games. Why can't we have a dick like Gary was for a change? Yeah yeah, I already know the answer to that, because we need to think about the kids.  God forbid, if the children ever find out that in the real world they are more likely to meet people acting like Gary than those goody two-shoes rivals. The beginning of the game was a nightmare, especially when I was resetting for a female Fennekin with the nature I wanted something like fifty times in a row. These guys, and choosing a nickname I didn't even want in the first place...... ugh.


I'm probably letting all these little things that bother me add up! I shouldn't judge the game so much, before I've played it the whole way through at least.
Here are my current team members and stats:
Badges: 4, Time 26:40, Pokédex: 208

female Delphox Lv. 39 (starter)

Moves: Flame Charge, Psyshock, Mystical Fire, Lucky Chant

Fennekin was without a doubt the cutest starter, which is why I chose it. I was surprised how much I ended up liking Braixen, but Delphox..... nope!  It's too human like standing on two legs with that dress shaped fur. Contradicting myself much am I? I don't know why these same things don't bother me with Braixen, but on Delphox they do. Another thing is, like Gardevoir, I see Delphox as a Pokémon that should be solely female, but because it evolves from a starter Pokémon 87,5% of them turn out to be male. Because I wanted to end up owning a female Delphox I had to suffer through the company of those bumbling idiots one time too many. 

male Greninja Lv. 39 (Wonder Trade)

Moves: Water Shuriken, Smack Down, Surf, Quick Attack

I didn't choose Froakie as my starter simply out of the principle that it is a frog, and I can't stand frogs. Very early on I ended up getting a Froakie from Wonder Trade, so why not use it? At least I'll admit that Greninja is the best looking final evolution out of this Gen's starters. Still, I'd say Frogadier is the most appeasing to look at in this evolutionary line.

male Chesnaught Lv. 38 (Global Trade Station)

Moves: Leech Seed, Needle Arm, Seed Bomb, Bite

There's no way to say this nicely, but I hate this thing and its pre-evolutions. On a good day I might find Chespin kinda cute, but Quilladin, that thing is an abomination! I hated every minute I had to use it in a battle and couldn't wait for it evolve from its deformed state. Unfortunately,  it just got from worst to bad, Chestnaught is the ugliest Grass starter final evolution. Despite what I like about this thing's appearance, it has never let me down in any battle (to my infuriation). I'm still waiting for an excuse to come along to enable me to dump this thing into the PC. 

female Vivillon Lv. 39 (caught)

Moves: Draining Kiss, Struggle Bug, Stun Spore, Bug Buzz

I thought I was just gonna evolve my Scatterbug to fill the Pokédex and the leave it to mold in the PC, but dammit I couldn't! Vivillon is just too damn adorable! I never planned to keep it in my party, but I find it hard to let it go because it's one of the few Pokémon I genuinely like so far. 

male Amaura Lv. 42 (Global Trade Station)

Moves: Avalanche, Ancient Power, Thunder Wave, Return

It was hard to choose between the two fossil Pokémon, but Amaura won mainly for the reason that it reminds me of my Meganium back in Gen 2. Even though I chose the Sail fossil in-game, I traded for an Amaura in the GTS because I figured Amaura was going to be one of those Pokes that takes forever to gather the Xp to evolve it, so the added Xp traded Pokes gain didn't sound too shabby. Apparently, I've learned too late that Amaura only evolves at night at lv. 39.

female Haunter Lv. 36 (Wonder Trade)

Moves: Shadow Punch, Mean Look, Sucker Punch, Shadow Ball

Poor Haunter's time is running out! I haven't had much use for it and it's slowly starting to fall behind the other party members. The prime candidate for being replaced in the very near future.