The Real FreeSaiyan.
Submitted by Mewski

Being a member of AnimeLeague you probably know that FreeSaiyan is the founder and Head Admin. If you didn't you do now! But that is not what I am going to wind on about for the next few paragraphs. But some of you seem to think he's a bastard, dull, uncool and even think he's too serious. I am here to tell you some true facts about FreeSaiyan. I am here to tell you people about The Real FreeSaiyan.

Many moons again I met FreeSaiyan face to face. I say that like it's been a long time but it has been over 2 years so I'd say it's been pretty darn long since that very first meetup. But lets move away from that because I am here to talk about FreeSaiyan and not about me! He is usually found to be in a black leather coat and the length of this coat depends on the weather as he changes from short in the summer to long in the winter. Yes all he needs now is cool shades but wait he has those kickass glasses that change tint depending on the light so how much cooler could you get? But what about him always being serious, you keep on asking me. Well I can come up with a few examples of his mad antics over the 2 years I have known young man. In October 2005 the UK members of AnimeLeague had a meeting in London where one night we sat together on the bed and sofa and played truth or dare. FreeSaiyan was the one to go for dares and did he do them or did he do them! With style too! How many admins do you know who have done a strip tease wearing a bra, put their hand down the toilet and put that arm around your best mate who missed the ordeal and then become a T-shirt Ninja and roam around like a ninja outside the hotel then jump back into the room via the window? And if you do did they do all this in a single night? I bet not! The stripping has been caught on camera, with thanks to EotW, but has not been uploaded to be publically viewed for reasons which are dialup. So he's cool and can be funny. What else do you need to know? Is he a total bastard, you say? Well... okay I guess this is where it goes from funny to 'aww how sweet' gooey and whatnot. FreeSaiyan has been a good friend to me and always stuck by me when there's a problem and let me consult him when I needed help. But I can't say he hasn't been a bastard. Doh! I say he is more of a great friendly guy than a total utter bastard. If we were to call him a bastard just because we had a fight over who's mobile phone is the best then we may as well call each other bastards as we all do silly things like that at some point in our lives. So the answer to your question is simply he is not a bastard he just a great person when you get to know the dude.

Some of you people will also know FreeSaiyan for his few drinks. As wonderful it would be for me to say 'he isn't that bad' I'd be lying out of my ass there. At ALnet UK Christmas London Meet 2004 we had the gang plus the bonus of Blah and the nights we had were crazy! FreeSaiyan was even mad enough to hide a drink of vodka in a soda bottle when we all went to the arcade center, although he played pretty damn well I must admit. The trouble is I can't really keep writing all this about him and alcohol because he will probably start writing an article like this one named 'The Real Mewski' and note down the times I have been drunk. But then I would have to write about how great and wonderful he is and he would never do something as cruel and nasty to his dear friend, would he now? ^_^;

So let's sum up what we have learnt. Apart from we know FreeSaiyan will do anything under the influence of alcohol we know he isn't boring, uncool or a total bastard. He's got the coat, the glasses/shades, the vodka, the laughs and the kindness that all in all make a Real FreeSaiyan.

Member Focus: FreeSaiyan.
Submitted by Raiji Magiwind.

"Questioning the Keeper of the Kingdom"
--An AL Member Focus involving Free, Head Administrator of AL--

:A dark car pulls up behind Free and several female members of AL exit, rushing Free, blindfolding him, and dragging him into the car. He is taken to a strange hotel where he is led by said ladies to a room, where he is sat in a chair and surrounded by the ladies. There is no escape for him, as the blindfold is removed and standing in front of him is Raiji, ready with a list of long questions. He won’t be allowed to leave till all the questions are answered. The questioning begins.:

1. Well first off I would probably ask you how long you've been an active member of AL, but as Anime League's (AL) Founder, you are it's oldest member. So instead of asking how long, I shall ask this:
What made you think of starting a forum like AL? What was it like to starting up a site, and what sort of problems did you encounter initially? Where there any other person's who helped you get it off the ground? And what of the old "beta" precursor of AL, Anime Legacy?
A sub question, What is AL's OFFICIAL Birthday, for those who just don't have a clue, and for those of our newer members who may be interested in knowing?

Count 'em. FIVE questions. It's like a buy one get one free offer. I'll answer them thusly:

1. Boredom and curiosity.
2. It was cool. Obviously always something I wanted to do since... a few days beforehand when I first thought up the idea. The major problems we initially encountered were:
a) No free phpbb hosting. We had to use an ezboard to begin with, before we finally decided to PAY for proper hosting that wasn't el cheapo.
b) Lack of many members. Like any forum starting up, the first few months were tough. We had to advertise like hell. Every night we would all descend onto several boards, make chat rooms, and invite people into them on aim. It was fun. We kind of press ganged people into joining us. Kinda like the Borg on Star Trek but more creepy.
3. Yes, there was a small group of about a dozen of us from another board (most of them I had ironically brought to that board). We had grown tired of being overlooked by the Mods there, so we kind of decided to make our own little project called AL.
4. AnimeLegacy was the old ezboard. It's explained in History Trails 2002. (Issue 2).
5. 24th February 2002. We'll be four years old next year.

2. Outside of the questions answered in the first question, are they any other little fun facts about AL's baby steps and freshman year you want to share with us?

Go read AL History Trails in Issue 2.

3. As AL's Founder, what does it take to keep a popular site like AL up and running smoothly. Like how much does it cost to keep AL running? How large of a server does AL need to have just to keep up with the over 14,000 members and the over 500,000 articles that have been written by them since AL's inception?
A sub question, Is there any other things you would like the people of AL to know about the running of the site?

Come on now, admit it. You weren't great at Math. That's another FOUR bloody questions!!

1. It takes work, simple as that. If you're not prepared to put in the hours then it won't get done by itself. At the end of the day if your staff don't do something then you yourself must pick up the slack.
2. Pretty large, but we have more than AL on the server anyway. Animevisions is a major customer and pay toward most of the server cost.
3. It costs about 110$ a month to keep the server up. A lot of this is recouped by hosting other sites (they pay me).
4. No.

4. I assume AL started off kind of slow at first, until people started to learn about it. Do you remember any of the first members or groups of members who joined AL? Are any of them still here today? And of the first members to join, have you become friends with any of them?

Mewski, I hate you for helping her come up with so many questions. The first members to join, most of them aren't here anymore. About half of them left during the November 2002 incident, while the others left thereafter. I was friends with some of them, but not really any of them anymore. Really History Trails is the best place to read up all this.

5. I've heard various responses from persons on what you think of the UK Meetings, but from the horses mouth, what do have to say about them, in your OWN words?

Which ones? The main site ones that I help run, or the AL:UK ones from www.animeleague.co.uk that I stopped attending two years ago? If you mean the former (main site), then I enjoy them. They're fun, informal and just downright cool. We go around a huge convention called the Expo for sci-fi, fantasy and anime, have a laugh, get drunk, play some video games at a hotel and sleep over for the night. It's well worth it.

6. Over the past three years, almost four, what has AL brought to you in your online life? In your real life? What have been the highs and lows of both aspects?

AL IS my online life, simply put. If AL was to vanish then I doubt that I'd stay on the net for anything more than to speak to a couple of people. Regarding my real life, it's made me stay in more. XP Highs and lows? Highs include the feeling of achievement, having people look up to you and respect you, being able to make a genuinely positive change to help people, and so forth. The lows include the drama, the betrayal, and so forth.

7. Ok now the eternal burning question all of ALer's that want to know (or at least most of us). It has become the staple of AL's association with you. And not to mention, your the ONLY person I have know to use it online. What made you decide on the avatar of Rufus Shinra for your AL avatar? Is there some sort of story of just some significance to it?

I joined a board called animeforums. At the time I had a kid Goku avatar. However, these boards were very hard-ass, and I was mocked like hell for having it. After a while I looked through their avatar selection and picked one that I felt looked like me. It happened to be Rufus. That's really all there is to it. Rufus looks tough and also looks like me. XP

8. The second burning question. People have tried to clone you on it and in some cases on AL, worshipped your very AL name. So what is up with the name of "FreeSaiyan"? What made you choose that name? What is the story or history behind it?

Free=Freespirit.
Saiyan=when I was a dbz fanatic.

Put together, it means that I am a Freespirit and won't allow anyone or anything to tie me down or control me unless I decide otherwise. At the time, when I joined dbz-fan, it seemed good, though nowadays I kinda wish I had picked something a bit less tacky. My one solace is that as dbz continues to lose popularity I'll be able to state my online name on non-anime forums and not be laughed at. XP I keep it since I dislike changing names or anything, since I see it as pointless. What people know me by should remain the same. I also use the names Ferefire and Mikest - the former being RPing name, and the later being my name for non-anime or non-RPing boards.

9. Of all the people of AL, name five members and give a brief description of what you think about them, based on what you know about them.

God no. Scratch that question, I don't have the time for it.

10. Your a Sparer and Role Player, somewhat, if I recall. What are your views about the current role-playing system of AL, and what are some things you might like to implement in the future? Is there anyone you would love to go up against, and why?

I'm reasonably happy with the current RPing system on AL. It has taken a lot of development to get it this way. However, it's by no means perfect. Level system needs work, Momentum needs sorting out, and there's other niggles. I'd like to see ClanNation eventually merged into RR or CS... POSSIBLY. And Avarice sounds good to me.

11. Are there any things you wish to do to make AL even better? Any new things we can expect in the coming year?

Yes, I'd like to bring back the AL emails and web space. Would also like to do the radio again sometime... perhaps.

12. Now a few more interesting questions, so we might get to know the illustrious leader of AL. Let's start with the basics, eh? Like your real name, age and so on? Describe yourself, so that may those who never met you might be able to spot you if they did finally meet you. Tell us a little about the man behind the machine, the face behind the mask. Oh do tell, or I may have to bring in Mewski to tie you to a chair, .

Name: Michael Stuart Towers
Gender: Male
Age : 23

Hello folks, my name is Mike, also known as Michael, though you can call me by any name as long as it's not too offensive. I'm 22 years old, British, and currently live near Cheltenham Spa just within the south west in England. What I mainly do with my time is to administrator and manage this place (animeleague), and sites hosted with it on my server.

I have a lot of good qualities; I can be very charismatic when I actually want to be... there is usually something about me that does endure others to my personality. Additionally, I am a very intelligent person, often TOO intelligent; many times seeing things that others do not, and getting very frustrated when I have to explain over and over again concepts which they can't seem to grasp. Sadly, intelligence did not stop me from dropping out of university, but I hope to rectify that fact one day. I am also a very loyal person, I can be a very brave person when I see the need, and I can be a kind person if something motivates me to feel that way. I can be often quite emotionless and cold, with it taking quite a lot to make me feel. Too often life seems so pointless. Sometimes I feel like life is somehow beneath me. Yes, unfortunately a certain level of arrogance or egotism is part and package of me as well, as is a variety of quiet dominance, where I seek to get my own way through more subtle means than physical or shouting (though I am not adverse to that if someone makes me sufficiently angry enough).

I'm a very complicated person anyway... It's next to impossible to sum me up in a few short paragraphs... a cliché, I know, but in this case probably correct. The more superficial side, which often wins out, enjoys drink, sex, and girls. This unfortunately often gets me into a lot of trouble. Nonetheless, I can be a rather 'pure' person deep down. I always try to do the right thing, being rather moral. I am also a rather spiritual person, but don't confuse that with religion, paganism, or anything of that. To me, those are merely crude distortions of a higher truth, that will one day be properly quantified by science.

Ten Fascinating but Rather Useless Facts about FreeSaiyan.

1. FreeSaiyan was derived from Freespirit and from Saiyans from dbz. Freespirit represented Mike's freespirit and wish to be unconstrained, whereas Saiyans represented Mike's pride and self-dignity.
2. FreeSaiyan has two alternate names; Ferefire and Mikest. Ferefire is derived from his RPG character, while Mikest is short for Mike Stuart Towers. FreeSaiyan is used on anime communities, Ferefire is used on role-playing communities, whilst Mikest is used on all other communities.
3. FreeSaiyan has used the same avatar for the last 3 and a half years. He knows of no one else whom has used the same avatar for this long.
4. FreeSaiyan is short sighted and wears glasses a lot of the time, except when he's trying to impress. He once wore contacts, but they irritated and hurt his eyes too much, so he gave up.
5. The username FreeSaiyan is unique and used ONLY by Mike.
6. FreeSaiyan has written three epic pieces of dbz fan fiction, with a combined total of almost one hundred chapters of writing between them. He has also written other stories as well. At one time he was considering trying to become a professional writer.
7. FreeSaiyan has never asked anyone on AL to be part of some kind of online 'family' that you see so much of. He sees it as a rather pointless and superficial exercise, and has better things to do with his time.
8. When drunk, FreeSaiyan likes to go and torment the #animeleague chat room. It is not supposed the chat room appreciate this too much.
9. FreeSaiyan has had probably about a dozen internet only relationships or flings based off Animeleague since it started. In his life, he's had about the same number as either real life or long distance relationships. He has had sex with five girls.
10. FreeSaiyan's phone number is +44778049. Despite the fact he repeatedly advertises this fact, no one rings him. On the other hand, people ALWAYS harass his aim and msn names. This goes to prove that the vast majority of ALers are either tight bastards or simply dislike using the phone.

13. What are at least three colors you identify with and why?

Blue cause of AL. Yellow cause I liked it when I was a kid. Black cause it's just nifty.

14. What are some of your hobbies? Interests? Give a little detail about them.

Interests: Animeleague, internet, writing, television, politics, soccer, science fiction, anime, fantasy, strategy gaming, role-playing, sparring, drinking, sex, food, sleep, reading, socializing, psychology, spirituality, Buffy, Angel, Lexx, Red Dwarf, comedies, are you still reading this? you sad bastard!

15. What are your plans for the future, if any? Not just in real life, but for AL as well?

Dunno, I don't really have plans. Just take it as it comes.

16. If there was any character from an anime, manga or video game, and so on; or even a person, living or dead who would best personify you and why? Or why would you wish to be them?

Maybe Vash the Stampede from Trigun. Perhaps. He tries to be good and pure, but he ends up hated. XP

17. An interesting question most people ask the anime crowd, but what got you into anime per say? What are some of your favorites? What are some of the anime you like now?

DBZ got me into anime. My brother whose 20, got me hooked. Favorites are Full Metal Alchemist, Hellsing, and Trigun in that order.

18. Now for some of the fun stuff. What is your most embarrassing moment or moments? In real life? Online or on AL? Any dares you took on that you care to share with the people of AL?

Most embarrassing moment: When I was given loads of drinks by friends in a lap dancing club and then dragged up on stage by three busty females and stripped naked in front of 200 people. The dance they did was nice though, and damn they were HAWT! O_O

Dares? Yes, I did a strip tease for a male ALer called Shinji (AL name) at the last UK AL convention. It was his birthday! Lucky him!

19. Well I think Mewski might chase me around with a rubber mallet if I don't ask this, so to answer the question, and settle the burning debate and end the stalemate on it once and for all...on Mewski. How did you meet and get to know each other? What is she like? What are your thoughts on her?

Ask her.

20. Do have any last words for the people of AL?

God no. I've answered 1,000,001,001 questions already. You trying to kill my keyboard or something?

:After the fun and pressing questions are answered, Free is re-blindfolded and taken from the hotel, where he is driven away and dropped on his doorstep, with fuzzy recollection of what happened for the past several hours. Raiji though finishes typing the final draft of the results of the questioning, which you are reading now, here in this edition of the AL Legacy.:

--Raiji Magiwind

Past Issue Member Focus.

Focus on Altergeist
Focus on Inoko
Focus on Armisael
Focus on Paladin101.
Focus on Yusagi.