Poltergeist is my fifth character shrine, my third to a Final Fantasy character, and my first to a main character. Construction began in late August of 2007 and was uploaded the same year mid-October (the 12th to be exact). I created this shrine not only because Tidus is probably my favorite character in any game ever, but because I honestly feel like I can identify with aspects of his story and personality. If you visit my other shrines you'll notice this one has a lot more of a personal approach to it. I understand Tidus because he's a lot like me, and I've recently begun to understand myself.
I really would be cheating Aeryvae and Eileen if I didn't thank them here. They were actually excited I was doing this project and inspired and encouraged me to finish it. Aeryvae also deserves thanks for helping me name this thing. Poltergeist was actually one of her suggestions and completely rocked over my ideas, Opus and Reverie. In her words, "I've always thought of Tidus as an unruly ghost who causes massive chaos in a world not his own." The word Poltergeist fits the part of Tidus I wrote about on most of the shrine, and after thinking about it, no other name was good enough.
A little on the layout: This is the fourth version of Poltergeist, and I have to say it was a lot of fun to make. The very green layout on your screen was made for an elemental layout marathon created by Airi for a shrining community that I just so happen to co-maintain, Amassment. Basically what we were supposed to do was choose an element and use it as a focus and inspiration for a layout on a character shrine. I chose Earth, and used a lot of grungy textures and brushes to create a mud, dirt, and moss look in the image. Green and brown were used for obvious reasons, but also because I never really make colored layouts (They always have a white or black background.), and I wanted to try something different. Also, I realize Earth is not one of the elements used in Final Fantasy X. I wasn't really concerned so much with the magic in the game when I was selecting an element, than I was making sure the element I chose fit Tidus, which I feel Earth does. In-game FMV’s were acquired from my affiliate Dream Image, a better shrine than this one. ;) Other resources used came from Own the Sunshine and Echoica. Lastly, I owe Masao, Vicky, and Aeryvae a lot of thanks for previewing and making recommendations while I developed this.
Finally, while the Final Fantasy franchise would be awesome to own, I can't say I do. The geniuses known as Square-Enix created Tidus and Final Fantasy X, and both are property of them, not me. Poltergeist is my (Todd) creation, though, and is part of the Shark Boy collective.