ENDA Episode 04→ The time when the Endless Apprentice met the Grand Line of VFX (Part 1)

The day when I left my country in the East Blue of VFX, I knew the trip would be full of dangers and great learning experiences, but nothing would prepare me for the things I would experience in the first part of the Grand Line known by two names: Paradise and the Cemetery of Artists.

This first part of the Grand Line of VFX is called Paradise because, in comparison with the second part, it is easy when you look at it from a retrospective, but that’s the key: from a retrospective. First, you need to pass it and easy will it not be.

This “Paradise” is dangerous because of its unstable weather, its dangerous islands, and the competition of all the players.

The unstable weather: will be translated into: strikes that could paralyze the industry for months, the unexpected closing of studios, massive lay-offs, the sudden reduction in credit tax incentives, the changes in immigration laws every year for the temporary residents, etc.

The dangerous islands will be the places where you’ll end up visiting believing you have found a job in the industry or a good place to study VFX, only to be either exploited or scammed of all your savings.

The competition will come from all the players that came from the 4 seas with the same goal as you, all have ambitions and different motivations for entering the Grand Line and by extension different Devil Fruit’s abilities. This will be the moment when you realize that the “competition” you had back home was just a Play-Off Round and that the real challengers are here.

However, if we recall this place has another name that it is not without a reason: the Cemetery of Artists. That is because until now we have only talked about the newbies (the ones that first entered the Grand Line), but we must remember that here is the place where we find those who by a series of circumstances, didn’t have enough to complete the second part of the Grand Line: the New World.

Newbies just like us who had the talent, force, drive, and abilities to conquer the Grand Line of VFX, but due to adverse circumstances were crushed and sent back to climb the ladder again.

That’s why this is the Cemetery of the newbies who were broken and buried in the place where they started. Some of these old newbies will have a hostile attitude toward the new ones and will either try to discourage them or make them quit. Some others will see it as a humiliation and live bitterly for the rest of their lives. Some others will take the fall as a sign to quit the Grand Line and either get another job or go back home.

Of course, not everything will be negative. There will be also those who completed their journey and will return to “Paradise” to either prepare the newbies or help those in the Cemetery to get back to the New World if that is still their wish. The key to that will be the VFX Haki.

What is the VFX Haki? Well, that’s for the next update.