r/CharacterRant

In discussions on TV shows that started out boring and turned out incredible someone always brings up Adventure Time as an example and it drives me insane.

The Seinfeld Effect refers to people who were raised in a post-Seinfeld world thinking "Seinfeld is unfunny" because they don't have the cultural context to understand how influential Seinfeld was. I think the same thing happened to Adventure Time.

Adventure Time was not in any way a normal, boring, standard cartoon for its time. The pilot went viral on YouTube because it was unique and unlike anything seen before. Despite going viral Nickelodeon rejected it, perceiving it as too weird and a huge risk. Weird cartoons with serious themes were not seen as profitable.

Adventure Time was fun, unique and interesting right from the first episode. It's unlike any other fantasy series that happened before, and the creative chaotic atmosphere builds the foundation from which the later lore and character development could happen. The later series world building was possible because the world was already interesting due to years of creative freedom and weird ideas.

The creators who worked on Adventure Time went on to create a lot of other influential cartoons like Steven Universe, Over the Garden Wall, Clarence, and Regular Show. Other unaffiliated cartoons and comics also were strongly influenced by the style of Adventure Time. This has become normal now but it was not normal when it first premiered.

On the other hand Chainsaw Man was influenced by Adventure Time and look at how that turned out.

I think the lore and relationships have taken up too much focus in the Adventure Time franchise, particularly in spin off series like Fionna and Cake, and while I don't want to drop the drama entirely I think the franchise would be better off if it could recapture some of the insanity of the first season instead of 12 hours of Simon being depressed. So that's another reason it frustrates me to see people treating the early seasons like they are unwatchable.

“Forget About Freeman” is the scariest level in the entirety of Half-Life 1, and it has absolutely nothing to do with conventional horror, aka monsters or a scary thing attacking you.

This is the moment where the entire situation at Black Mesa signals the future extinction of humanity, and the worst part is that the military, the people who were supposed to contain this entire mess, are beginning to realize it themselves.

The HECU did not exactly arrive at Black Mesa with a pathetic little security detail and a couple of rifles. These are actual military units equipped with assault rifles, shotguns, machine guns, explosives, armored vehicles, tanks, helicopters, and air support, sent into a research facility with the explicit objective of eliminating the alien threat and silencing the witnesses; they know what they are fightning.

The Marines are clearing rooms, setting up defensive positions, operating heavy weapons, and engaging the aliens with a level of coordination that makes them genuinely dangerous opponents. Sure, they are also trying to kill Gordon Freeman, but that is a separate problem entirely.

But here's the thing. As seen in Half-Life 1 and in Black Mesa Source, they are literally losing, even without factoring you, they are losing. The aliens just keep coming because it is an entire universe vs a few batallions. They do not worry about supply lines, ammunition production, transportation, reinforcements crossing an ocean. They are fighting creatures that can be teleported directly into the battlefield from another dimension, and their apparent numbers are effectively impossible to control through conventional military operations.

Humanity is essentially trying to fight an entire alien ecosystem, an entire universe, not a country, not a planet, a whole ass universe who keeps teleporting things. It does not matter how many bullets you fire if the enemy can keep appearing and has billions to spare, and it does not matter how many positions you secure if the battlefield itself is becoming increasingly unstable.

The wider Half-Life lore establishes that the Resonance Cascade has consequences beyond Black Mesa, with alien creatures and dimensional disturbances affecting places elsewhere in the world, even if the original game does not spend much time showing us the global picture. Black Mesa is the immediate battlefield, but the implications of what happened there are much larger than the facility itself. Humanity has accidentally opened a door into another world, and nobody has a reliable method of closing it.

Then you hear the radio.

"Forget about Freeman! We are cutting our losses and pulling out! Anyone left down there is on his own"

The situation has deteriorated so badly that Freeman is no longer the priority. The military is abandoning the pursuit because it has much bigger problems to deal with, and the people responsible for coordinating the operation are apparently beginning to recognize that the entire mission is going to hell. Their equipment is not enough, their training is not enough, and their numbers are not enough.

After this? You rarely see HECU. You are moving through a military disaster's aftermath. Destroying Black Mesa does not undo the Resonance Cascade, eliminate the existence of Xen, or magically restore the boundary between dimensions. Because the Combine upon seeing this disaster, quickly invade and defeat humanity in seven hours.

I love of orginal ATLA series, hot take I know. Its probably the best cartoon ever made. However, I think that most of the media that comes after the original show is mostly sub par. I wont include the live action stuff as the original creators didn't fully work on those projects.

The media after ATLA are the ATLA comics, The Legend Of Korra, The ATLA Movie, and the Kyoshi, Yangchen, and Roku novels. Besides the Kyoshi novels, I think the rest of these are mid or outright bad. The comics feel like fanfiction, with many plot points resolved in a poor way, or just aren't really that good. Korra has so many flaws, and was screwed over by Nick. It had lots of good points, but so much bad, its still so devise among the fandom. The movie was more enetrating than it was good. Sure, it was nice to see the GAANG come back, the animation, the art, and the humor, but the writing was mid. The stakes werent high as we know what happens after, and since it wasn't mentioned in Korra, it cant be too important. The Denied had way to little and rushed development, Taga was a decent villian, but his twist was predictable. Zuko was complety wasted, as not only did he not do much, him trying to atone for his nation's sins isn't brought up once. You would think Zukos guilt about the fire nation genocide would be mentioned, but it isn't. Not gonna go too much deeper into the movie.

The yangchen novel was ok. It had a decent story, but it failed to really capture me like the kyoshi novels did. The Roku book was mid and even a bit below mid. Roku is not interesting enough to have a novel to me, both because of his personality and time period filled with reletive peace. The only extremely good piece of media to come after ATLA are the Kyoshi novels. I truly think they're basically peak fiction along with ATLA. Kyoshi as a character, as well as her time period are so interesting, and I love how they leaned more into dark aspects of the universe.

So out of the 5 major pieces of media after ATLA, only 1 of them are up to par with the original. Besides the comics, I don't think any of the other media are bad, but they're not up to par with ATLA. Now you could make the argument that ATLA was just so good it makes everything else look worse by comparison, but I disagree. LOK S3 was close to ATLAs level in the eyes of me and a lot of the fandom. The Kyoshi novels were really good as well. I think while Nick hasn't been good to this franchise, the writers have been slacking as well.

I don't really have faith in the new show, as I don't like its concept very much, but the first episode came out today so we'll see. But I have a feeling It wont be that good.

It’s something that I’ve come up increasingly in fandom spaces lately; people just using the most flimsy, surface level reasons for hating something and doing it in a way that clearly shows that they’ve never actually watched the movie and are probably basing their opinions on a TikTok or something that they watched.

This wouldn’t be that bad… except for the fact that a lot of these people are the most stubborn idiots you’ll ever see. They refuse to admit that they’ve never seen the movie, and yet they’re acting like they personally worked on it. Then when you point this out, they don’t admit that they’re wrong or that they just don’t want to watch it, they put up a strawman to make you look bad then block you before you can refute it. It’s frustrating.

It’s fine if you don’t want to watch a movie, I myself don’t want to watch the Odyssey because I simply don’t care about it, but I don’t go around parading it as a bad movie while telling blatant lies about it.

This may sound a bit embarassing, but Monster Musume was one of the very first anime I watched when I was young, I really enjoyed it and to this day I still believe the anime is one of the best Ecchis out there, and not just for the "spicy" content.

I really think the show is funny to this day, and I like how it behaves like a standard harem anime, where the focus is in the relationships between the girls and the main character, it's an Ecchi anime yes, but also has incredibly wholesome moments between the cast that leave you caring for the girls more than you would expect.

After finishing the anime at the time I immediately searched up the manga and I have been reading it since, the thing is, I just can't stand the manga anymore.

For a good time the manga kept following the same standard the anime had, giving cute moments to Darling and the girls, developing the cast, giving focus to the girls who didn't get a lot, etc.

But after a while the structure of the manga started to change, it started with an arc where Darling and the girls get tasked with helping capture three fugitive monster girls and then... that just became the whole manga.

Every arc Smith or some other character comes up to Darling and says "Hey, I have a quest for you!" then the main character needs to find and help/stop some new monster girl with her problems, that always involve something sexual happening between them.

The focus of the manga shifted from romance to random pseudo-cuck sexual escapades between Darling and whatever new species of monster girl the author came up with, or not even that, sometimes the focus just shifts to multi-page illustrations between some background character engaging in sexual activity with a monster girl. The main girls were there when this trend started but nowadays they have become secondary characters in their own manga, sometimes not showing up for entire arcs.

As you can guess from what I have already said the author even discarded the main plot driver of the manga: Darling having to choose one of the girls to marry hasn't been mentioned in like 60 chapters, and the ban in relationships between monster girls and humans got lifted off-screen or something, because now every single background character is always fucking a monster girl every chapter. You could straight up change the title of the manga from "My Everyday Life with Monster Girls" to "Monthly Sexual Misadventures with Random Monster Girls"

And I haven't even mentioned the WORSE part, 2/3 of these misadventures involve LACTATION for some reason, which is a kink I have nothing against but when the "author's not at all disguised fetish" becomes the whole manga of course I'm going to take a problem with it.

I just wish the manga would end, because then even if it's an ass open ending I would stop feeling obligated to keep reading these random anthology stories wearing the corpse of what used to be one of my favorite manga...

My main problem with takes like those is that they usually expose how violent a lot of people would be or become or come off if they ever got pissed off or had to deal with any Injustice or things not going their way and even if you wanna make the argument "oh they're joking" ,that excuse is still really flimsy to me.

Again,way too many people seem to forget that hpe you feel on things can be justified and even understandable but how you handle it is pretty damn awful and that's when it stops being justified cause you can be mad or angry or whatnot but if your first result is yelling or violence or even resorting to murder,mass murder,destruction,etc..is when I gotta take you by the hand and tell you to stop and either go to a entire therapist or just knock it off and people will always almost choose the worst characters people say had a "justified crashout".

First up is Tai Lung.

Yes,working your entire life to a goal and realizing you weren't chosen for it and your adopted Dad said nothing sucks but the thing that people miss is that not only does it not justify Shifu being killed by him[Tai Lung was gonna do so]but it also doesn't justify attacking the entire village and laying waste on the valley in your temper tantrum and keep in mind..all they said was that he wasn't That Guy.

He didn't get his title stripped nor did he lose any privileges or his home or whatnot,all he was told was that he wasn't that special little boy and then he goes and basically proves why he wasn't chosen or ready at all in the very next scene and even you wanna say how he felt was understandable,how he handled it and what he did afterwards makes him the villain.

Up next Is Dracula from Castlevania.

Yes,his wife died due to some douchebags,BooHoo,why he didn't just kill the Assholes who celebrated his wife's death and who killed them is beyond me but the amount of people who have said he was justified or in the right for attempting to wipe out all of humanity and life is crazy and keep in mind..he was more or less already planning on doing so but "oh his lover died,he so sad" And his own Son literally was fine with getting revenge on the ones who killed his Mom but not on all of humanity and he then basically almost kills his son.

Seriously why do people say he was justified or that everyone "had it coming?"

Another example is Jean Fucking Grey from Brand New Day.

I wouldn't even put her on this list but the amount of glazing she gets, the amount of defenders and stans and whatnot she gets who try and justify and excuse every fucked up thing she does is wild.

If she just specifically went after Damage Control People,then I would say she was fair,they killed her sister but not only is her power literally mentally and physically taking over innocent people[and you can't even say that that power is evil or bad cause Martian Manhunter has it and he's a good soul,so it's on the user]but she also drives a entire tank through new York city and constantly puts innocent people in danger and takes over innocent people and uses them as puppets for her own goal..then she takes over M.J and basically makes her Kiss Peter and almost has her jump off a entire building, she ruined the Hulk's life and had taken to a psych ward and ruined all his progress, etc..

And do not give me the bullshit of "oh but you like villains" or "oh do you not believe in redemption arcs" the character and story has to acknowledge they did terrible things in order for any form of redemption arc to take place,ya know.

The story acknowledges people like Tony Stark and Loki did horrible things and held them accountable for it and they apologized for it and got better and even then,they were charismatic or at least likable enough to get the audience interested in them and their movies never apologized for them like they did with her.

If Jean went strictly after damage control people and tried to take them down,then she would've been justified but what did she even gain from going after innocent people and killing a dude and sexually assaulting M.J and not caring about the consequences of her actions.

It's funny cause isn't being a piece of shit who takes away someone's autonomy and sexually assaults people and doesn't care about the consequences of their actions..why someone like Bear from Obsession is hated?

I swear..if Bear was a woman,they would have defenders.

Seriously, I hate when people say these characters have justified crashouts.

It's a vibe at this point with no actual basis, similar to people saying mechas are all about the robots and toys, or that magical girls were all pink sweet stories until Madoka happened.

I have the notion that DBZ gets treated as not that good, a product of its time, and that you typically outgrow it by finding better shonen which built from what DBZ created, which I originally believed with the Big 3 and stuff...

But now decades later I realize, beyond making some tropes popular, mostly combat things (golden forms, rage boosts, energy beams, tournament arcs...) there's not much reason to think DBZ is generic or basic.

I'll count from Z, because that's what 80% of people outside of Japan stated with.

And okay, I'll admit, the characters do tend to be pretty simple and straightforward most of the time, they don't have backstories like modern anime do, and the plot tends to be easy to follow.

And that's it. The narratives Toriyama cooked are anything but cookie cutter stories.

Our protagonist starts the series as a family man presenting his son to his friends (how many shonen with a married man with kids as the MC?), his alien brother randomly arrives and they fight to death, literally, the protagonist fucking died by episode 5 and now it's about the green alien training his 4 yo kid in the desert. And his human friends over the world receiving the news and training for 20 episodes because aliens will invade.

AND THEY ALL FUCKING DIE. The aliens were too strong, all those power ups were for nothing.

So Goku revives and saves the day? Half and half. His own power ups and learned techniques end up being insufficient, Vegeta crushes every single bone in his body by the end. The 5 yo kid, the midget friend, and the fat coward end up saving the day.

Have you seen Ichigo losing and Chad, Tatsuki and Rukia or something finishing off the villain? Naruto losing and Konohamaru, Sakura and Choji stepping up? Hell, Luffy losing but his crew picking up the battle against the weakened boss.

That's what happens a lot in DBZ, Goku pretty much never wins, and when he does, it's a legit team effort in which seemingly useless characters end up contributing a lot. For all the "Goku always saves the day" feel the show has, he doesn't do it alone.

Anyway. Goku is away over half the series I'm sure : dead, recovering or training. Dude spends the entire android saga having a heart attack, wakes up to train, and DIES.

A lot of actual protagonism is given to other characters such as Krillin, Gohan, Piccolo, Vegeta, Trunks, Satan and Bulma. They tend to move the story forward while Goku just swoops in for the big fights.

He never really "gets angry and overpowers the enemy with a new transformation" besides creating the trope when going Super Saiyan, but honestly Frieza was cheating so it's fine. In any other series, the Spirit Bomb would have been the end of the fight, him returning with a Diabolus Ex Machina is rightfully opposed by a Deus Ex Machina, which was actually foreshadowed by Vegeta for the last 50 episodes and it was the culmination of the legend Frieza feared, so it's not really "random angry power up" like most series do.

Cell kicks his ass and he doesn't go ssj2. He arrives to the Buu saga with ssj3 already acquired (and never wins with it).

Also the passage of time. Time FLIES in DBZ. We go from Goku being a 21 yo guy at the start or so with a little toddler, to him being a 40 yo martial arts master and his son pulling ladies in college, and we even get some epilogue episodes with Goku being a grandpa (and the entirety of GT which I love).

Other series do little timeskips of months or 2 years, but in Dragon ball that's just normal and happens frequently. Toriyama didn't artificially make the entire story happen over the span of a year like modern authors would.

Vegeta, "the rival", is barely on Goku's radar after their initial battle. Vegeta is mostly a weird kind of villain just staying allied with the humans and forming a family, but still, he's the reason the planet would have ended by helping create Perfect Cell and Buu.

Everyone gets jobs, families, kids. All within the series, not just some final episode.

Dialogue might be simple, combat system might be simple, the plot is easy to follow. But I struggle to think DBZ is generic or the baseline for shonen when you look at the actual writing of the sagas.

Namek is pretty much a HxH arc, with the weak MCs (Gon and Killua, Krillin and Gohan) playing stealth in enemy territory, and Vegeta/Hisoka just doing his own thing as a third party.

I can't even describe the android / cell saga besides it starting as a nod to Terminator. Goku is dying most of it, an Android gets the hots for Krillin, Cell is drinking people, Vegeta ruins everything, Goku passes the torch.

And the Buu saga starts like some fun high school slice of life / superhero series, only to get a full episode of Spopovich abusing Gohan'a girl friend on the ring as he watches like it's Berserk, Vegeta getting a mid life crisis and selling his soul to the devil, Babidi and Buu murdering entire cities trying to make the Z fighters reveal their location, Satan beating Buu with friendship after everyone else failed, Goku passing the torch to the new generation the new generation utterly failing even with their new powers (fusion / awakened potential)..

Nothing really happens like you'd see anywhere else, DBS is very unique.

The original scene was cool precisely because it was so fucking simple. Shanks shows up, gives the Sea King a death stare, and the thing just fucks off. That's it. You immediately get the impression that this guy is different without needing to know why.

And honestly, I think that's way cooler than retroactively going “yeah, that was Conqueror's Haki.”

Not every impressive thing a character does needs to be part of the power system. Sometimes a character can just be intimidating as hell.

The whole appeal of Shanks early on was that he was this mysterious dude where you had no idea what his deal was. He doesn't need to start throwing around named abilities in Chapter 1 for us to understand that he's dangerous.

I also don't really buy the “Haki was always there” argument. Sure, you can reinterpret the scene as Haki after the fact. That doesn't mean Oda necessarily wrote it with Conqueror's Haki specifically in mind.

Spoilers for Alien Romulus: There's a chestburster in it.

Okay now that we're over that minefield let's talk about it. Putting aside the necessary stupidity that has to happen in an Alien movie for the plot to occur, I thought the group was actually being very sensible. They went onboard the Renaissance to retrieve cryo equipment and they were working fast because they sensed that it was scary as hell on their for some damn reason. Navarro gets facehugged but unlike every other character in the series, they dealt with it very promptly by freezing the creature and removing it. A few minutes later it turns out she was infected anyway and an Alien pops out of her. Bullshit.

Xenomorph biology has always been nonsensical but this takes the cake, the CB wasn't on Navarro's face for more than 5-minutes in-universe but it still had more than enough time to deposit the embryo and feed it enough nutrients that it wouldn't die immediately? In the first movie, Kane was out for a day, and every subsequent film had it take at least a few hours before the infectee naturally woke up and had their ribcage exploded.

I had at least hoped that this would mean the Alien that came from her would be easy to deal with, but no. Just as impervious as the rest of their kind. It's just unfair really, I really thought it was contrived like Kay's death at the end. But this is an Alien movie, they've been contrived for years. Really hampered my enjoyment of an otherwise decent film.

Am I the only one who hates how Back in the Barnyard completely ruined all the charaters from the Barnyard movie? Like.....they're so unhinged and recognizable, that they don't even resmeble their original selves:

1.) First off....what the hell is wrong with Otis? The show gets rid of all his developement that he went through and turns him into even more of an irresponsible doofus.

2.) Why is there no mention of Otis's father, Ben? The show barely mentions him or the impact his death left. nor does it even show how Otis is trying to live up to his father's legacy. Not a mention in passing, a picture, or even a flashback. t's like the creators forgot he existed.

3.) Where the hell was Daisy and her calf, little Ben? whose this "Abby" cow? Did the show writers honestly think that they could get rid of Otis's mate and adopted son (who was named after his father) and we would just not notice?

4.) Why was Miles barely in this series? He was the wise mentor who gave advice in the movie. But the show just sidelines him.

5.) Why did the show turn the Jersey cows from Otis's loyal, ride-or-die homies to toxic, disloyal bullies? They mock and insult him for being a spoils sport and call his Barnyard crew losers (sure, they might tease otis a lot. but they would never insult him like that) and even leave him to the cops after a night of fun in the show.........WTF?!??!?!?! THEY WOULD NEVER DO THAT!!!! The show took the three cows who were there with Otis when he fought against the coyotes and helped saved the barnyard, and turned them into......backstabbers....

6.) Why does Bessy hate Otis and insult him even more? Sure, they didn't get along at first, but at the end, when Daisy's calf was born, they both smiled at each other and became friends. but here......it's a differnet story.

7.) Why is that fat little snot nosed brat still bullying farm animals after Otis and the Jersey cows gave him a good tipping?

Finally...........why would they even make that piece of shit anyway? The movie was goofy, but it had stakes, a plot, emotion, powerful life lessons and emotional scenes. The tv series......it's just nonsense all the way around.

For anyone don't know, the Prime Directive is the most important rule of the Federation in Star Trek. Baiscally the rule is that the Federation and its officers cannot interfere in internal matter of other race and cannot contaminate or interfere with the nature development of culture of other pre-Warp civilizations. The main purpose of the prime directive is to prevent colonialism and exploitation of more primitive civilizations while keeping the Federation out the internal conflicts of other races, letting the other races deal with their own political and culture issues.

The Prime Directive sound good on paper and the reason for it to exist is noble and good. The problem is how the Federation impliment the Prime Directive throughout the series and the justification these implimentations.

In the original Star Trek series, there is an episode where the crews found a generational ship where the people had forgotten that they were on a ship and they treat the ship computer as a god. The problem is the computer was malfunctioned and the ship was on it way to crash into a Federation colony. Kirk, McCoy and Spock debated if they should reveal this to the inhabitants. They agreed that it would violate the Prime Directive as they were interfere with these people culture but that was seen as better than let these people to just all die out. So here we see that the Prime Directive exist as more a guideline for how contact with aliens should be handled but saving lives should take priority over trying to preserve a culture, especially if trying to preserve a culture would lead to that culture demise.

The problem arise in TNG and later series. In TNG, there are a couple "Prime Directive" episodes where the crew usually come to a planet with primitive civilization and the people down there are facing some existencial crisis that could only be solve by the Enterprise crew intervention. The justification for not helping always boiled down to "we shouldn't play god", "we don't know the consequence of our action in the future" and "it was the natural order of thing and we shouldn't intervene". Picard even said that in the whole human history, no matter the intention, contact between a more advance civilization and a less advance civilization always lead to disaster and that is why they shouldn't help. Honestly, all of those reasons are bullcrap.

Picard logic is extremely flawed becayse throughout history, when contact between a more advance civilization and a less advance civilization happen, it almost never happen because of one side want to help the other, it's always because of personal gain and the "help" often come with some conditions. Individual can help people from less advance groups our of the goodness of their heart but institutions like countries or corporations care first and foremost about "what in it for us?" So Picard argument is bullshit because the reason why contact between unequal civilization always ended up in disaster is because the stronger side always aim for exploitation first and foremost. However in Star Trek, the Federation is portrait as the shining example humanity and always do things for the right reason. So no Picard, just helping them doesn't mean you will eventually enslave those people because you and your crews never actually care about exploit these people in the first place.

Next we have the "natural order" argument. Now replace "nature" with "god" and you will get the "god work in mysterious ways" argument. The crew always said that they should not interfere with the "cosmic plan of the universe". Then I can ask the same question back: what if it is the cosmic plan for you guys to show up and help these people? The characters in the show seem to think that there is some cosmic plan and that it would be hubris to intervere with the cosmic plan. By that logic the humans should stop having doctors as doctors entire job is to defy nature and prolong someone life.

And then we get to the "unknow consequences" reason. This bring us to the Voyager era. There is one episode where Tom Paris and Janeway stranded on a planet where the natives are using a technology that could wipe them all out. Janeway forbid Tom Paris to warn these people . When Tom pointed out that changing culture is better than complete destruction, Janeway basically told Tom to shut up and this is an order from his captain. No debate. Just follow orders. Don't question anything. The Prime Directive was then basically a dogma. You not suppose to question and debate with it, you just need to follow it. Janeway view that they can't foresee what the future might lead if they help these lesser culture. What if these people due to the Federation influence become a galatic conquest empire? And again, by that logic you can ask what if those people turn into a race of peace-loving space explorers due to the Federation? The Federation basically rather let 10 peaceful civilizations die out than let one bad one raise up. They let the unknown future dictate their actions, prevent them from stopping known future disasters.

And finally, we get to Enterprise and the infamous "Dear Doctor" episode where the captain and the ship doctor let a species die out despite having the cure for their disease. Not only the episode has some of the worst misconception of evolution (a species can only evolve and advance if the other dominant species on the same planet all die out), it also justify the genocide of an entire species and then pat the characters on the back for such a great job of not helping. The main argument from the doctor character is that this is this planet nature order and they should not intervere, let the majority die out so the minority could rise up and take their rightful place as the superior species. That should like something an Eugenic supervillain would say, not the heroes who suppose to represent the bright future of humanity. Oh and better yet, in a later episode, the heroes basically intervere to save the native of another planet from an internment camp because they like the natives. So it not okay to intervere to save another species because that would interfere with nature but it's okay to intervere in a civil war because you like one particular group.

My point is that the Prime Directive should be a guideline, not a concrete, inflexible rule that the officers have to follow to the teeth even when it is in conflict with morality. What the Prime Directive actually is now is a way for the character and the Federation to avoid responsible. Helping mean becoming responsible for the people they save, for both the good and the bad. But by inaction, the Federation basically can wash their hands without looking like the bad guy for letting billions died out.

This is something that came to my mind after seeing fans continually talking about how they want Star Wars to take place in a new era. I do agree with it. I would like to see them explore a new era of the Star Wars universe.

At the same time, it is difficult to actually make a canonical story set in a new period when the galaxy saw nothing but two distinct periods for most of its history. For a thousand years, the galaxy was largely at peace and saw very little war. There is a reason why the High Republic multimedia project is not all that interesting, since that period is supposed to be the uninteresting, stagnant time. That's the thematic point.

Beyond that, you had basically one unified faction that is the Galactic Republic, reigning for 25,000 years, fighting occasionally against the Sith, and it all had the very well-established Star Wars conventions and iconographies. There was one upheaval called the Ruusan Reformations that restructured the Republic, but it is still the same continued civilization with the same ideals. KOTOR2 does delve deeper into the creative, unique edges this period can provide, but The Old Republic later demolishes it, making that Sith War era more generic. The chronology before the Prequels is quite well established at this point, which is that it is still largely the Republic backed by the Jedi versus the Sith Empire.

Star Wars is a very American mythology for a reason, which is about one superpower that is at the center of the world, concerning its stable liberal democratic norms, with a daily life that mirrors the modern world. The Galactic Civil War doesn't feel like a revolution, but a mere restoration back to the norm. Even the technology level remains unchanged, limiting the potential for how new technology can shape political, social, and economic revolutions. Star Wars draws an obvious parallel from Ancient Rome, but without the same level of dynamism that makes Roman history interesting. Compare the history of the Galactic Republic to something like the dynamic, mysterious, wondrous nature of Legendarium, Westeros, Dune, and Legend of the Galactic Heroes, where each era feels like it's reinventing itself with the interesting power dynamics.

That's the past. Looking beyond the post-Original and Sequel era, you have no potential. It returns to the same status quo: the Republic returning again, backed by the Jedi Order again, destroyed by the Imperial Remnant backed by the dark siders (not "Sith"), then the Rebels winning again, the Republic returning, backed by the Jedi Order again... So, let's say you want to make a Star Wars Game of Thrones or Three Kingdoms spanning across feudalistic dynasties (remember D&D's Star Wars project?) that many fans want to watch... You can't because there is no room for that in the Star Wars chronology. Every period of history, you just have the Republic + Jedi being the good guys who are in charge, and the Sith being the bad guys.

There is a reason why Star Wars: Visions is treated as non-canon. They don't fit into the Star Wars canon at all, but that's why it is able to put forward pure unfiltered creativity and expression, free of the shackles of the Canon and conventions. The episodes feel larger than life. They delve into the new territories. They tackle different genres. They are created with a certain "vision" and culture. Each episode has an ethereal, cerebral sense to the whole thing, as well as an exploration of the heightened emotions and themes.

Do you think the same, or is there a way the creators could branch out and experiment with the eras and powers while still being canon?

Like I can't prove it but I can't help but feel like the creators of Arcane frequent too much of the fandom spaces. That's the only reason Jinx had a complete character reversal from season 1 to season 2.

They didn't just rewrite Jinx, they completely changed her character from the ground up. What happened to her mental issues from season 1? What happened to her unpredictable violent tendencies? They just sorta went away for some reason.

It's not even just that, the people of Zaun were terrified of her. And rightfully so, she may have been brainwashed but at some point she just really liked blowing things up. And the story just kinda forgot that and everyone just forgot that Ekko was the true hero of Zaun.

He has literally built a safe haven for the people and has fought the enforcers and Silco's thugs, but apparently he just lost all his members and he still never lost hope.

If Ekko is Malcom X, Jinx is King Von after blowing up the White House. There's no way you can try and rewrite history to make his(her) actions sound justifiable.

Like yes, we, the audience know she's a tragic character, but there's no in universe explanation as to why the people would think so.

How many orphans did Jinx help create? And how many orphans did Ekko save? Also she was unintentionally helping in child slavery. Again, this is what happens when the creators frequent too much of fandom spaces. Because that's the only explanation why they did this.

I also really hate how the fandom gives her so much grace and infantilizes her actions while demonizing the people trying to right her wrongs.

That's not to say I 100% support how Caitlyn went about trying to capture her, but an attempted assassination attempt and several terrorist bombings later we should be glad she didn't send the whole military after Zaun.

Tbf season 2 should've either have just had Ambessa and Noxus take over in episode 1 of season 2, or just not have had Noxus there at all. But they tried to have a little bit of everything and it surprisingly didn't work.

At the time I didn't see the issue, but after thinking on it for a while, the last season was just a bunch of interesting ideas cobbled together into a mess of a story

Maybe it's cause Media has been taken longer to come out or maybe it's cause media literacy is just..fucking dying and I hate saying that and I dunno but I think a huge issue with a lot of discussion nowadays is that a lot of people just confuse Fanon..for Canon.

Like they take the fanon version of characters and their relationships and just heavily ignore the Canon or convince themselves that it's Canon and gonna be real, that is super annoying and just comes off as really foolish.

Cause maybe you forgot about the character's Canon relationship with another person or just forgot that character's Canon personality and who they were or just forgot what their flaws were,I dunno but I just wish people understood that their fanon doesn't mean it's Canon at all.

I think Dragon Ball Z suffers from that a lot but way too many people seem to think that Gohan despises his dad and doesn't see him at all and just sees him as a monster and hates training with him when that Couldn't be far from the truth.

Gohan has actively described Goku as a "angel" and looks up to him,he enjoys hanging out with him and spending time with him and has a lot of respect and admiration for him and the dude doesn't hate fighting, the man was a superhero and had a whole persona,man just hates death matches and having to die each time and hell,if you really watched Dragon Ball Z,you would find that Goku does love his family and hang out with them quite a lot,and way too many people act like Chi-Chi and Gohan and Goten just resent him and have nothing good to say about him when Chi-Chi is the same woman who stayed Loyal to him even after the man DIED.

You could even make the argument that those 3 would be the first ones defending him from the Bad Dad Slander.

Another example is the MCU with Peter Quill/Star Lord..now,you've seen it..a lot of people were mad at him for hitting Thanos when they were "so close"[even though Dr Strange said that there was only one reality where they won]and I also have seen multiple people claim that he acted "out of character for the plot"..when the guy was always emotional when something bad happened to the people he loved.

Did we not forget he literally shot his Dad multiple times after hearing that he gave his Mom a Cancer Tumor and she slowly died?

Like I would argue this was incredibly in character.

(Plus let's be real,why nobody who wasn't holding Thanos didn't stop him is beyond me]

And now..Hazbin Hotel.

I've seen a lot of people say that Charlie acted "out of character" in S2 and this show already has a ton of stupid criticisms and complaints and Bullshit it faces and this is coming from someone who knows it isn't perfect.

Like..if you guys watched the Pilot and S1,you would know that she acted in-character.

She always had these flaws and issues she was struggling with and let's be so honest..considering the fact that Vox was harassing her with his business and works for God knows how long and whatever.

Like in the pilot,she literally let Alastor in depsite Vaggi telling her how shady he is[sure it worked out for the long run..kinda but still]and I'm not saying you have to like her but way too people are deadass treating her like she was a member of the Vees.

She messed up but acting like she's just done for is crazy when..there are 3 seasons left and S3 is gonna be the juicy one.

So I just feel like we need to relax and chill and quit acting like this woman is literally worse then Hitler when at the worst, she was just kinda insensitive and prideful.

Basically please read the stories you claim to love so much and stop speaking out of your own Ass.

The New 52 reboot of the DC universe came with a lot of changes, primarily to the timeline. Decades of DC history got truncated to having happened within just a 5 year span, and all the characters became younger with new designs meant for the "modern era".

Aside from surface level changes, it also came with a couple of characterization changes for the DC big names. Some characters, like Batman, basically survived the reboot with minimal changes to how they were characterized and written. Other characters, namely Superman, underwent a pretty marked change in personality as DC editorial tried to use this reboot as a chance to retool the character.

The New 52 reboot happened in the early 2010s, when cynicism and edgelord content was still at the height of their powers. Superman was considered doddering and old-fashioned, boring and preachy. In the eyes of Superman detractors, he was like their boomer dad lecturing you on his Kryptonian soapbox. DC decided that Superman needed to be younger, more edgier, more sarcastic and arrogant, more modern and with the times.

Meet New 52 Superman, a version of Superman with all of the same backstory elements and relationships with his parents, but is inexplicably way more of a dick. He's brash, arrogant, isn't afraid of using his full strength, intimidates people and quips A LOT more. Previously, Superman wasn't really known for throwing verbal jabs while fighting, but New 52 Superman was a real chatterbox in that department and came replete with an arsenal of Joss Whedon-ass one liners. If you've ever seen an anime where there's one really strong guy that completely dominates fights and knows they're untouchable and is flippant about that fact, that was the vibe of New 52 Superman. He was more Gojo Satoru than paragon symbol of justice.

Alongside the personality changes, they also did away with his classic suit and gave him a more armored, sleek design where his costume gained a lot of weird techno-lines running across his body and most importantly, they ditched his speedo in favor of a belt.

Reception was mixed, but as the 2010s wore on, people really started to turn on this version of Superman. People missed the classic personality and look of Superman and wanted him back. DC started to backpedal and slowly began to change how they wrote New 52 Superman. He started acting a lot more like his pre New 52 self. They started to hone in a lot more on classic Superman elements, like giving him a relationship with Lois Lane, which had previously been replaced in the New 52 with him dating Wonder Woman. Soon, DC fully gave up and just killed New 52 Superman off entirely and replaced him with his literal pre-Reboot self from another universe, complete with his own Lois Lane who he was married to. New 52 Superman sucking so hard was unironically the catalyst for DC Rebirth, a second round of soft reboots that aimed to restore elements of the pre-reboot comics that people liked.

So after all that, people were worried when they started to reveal details about the brand new Absolute Universe's version of Superman. All of the elements that made New 52 Superman fall flat on his face were seemingly making a return. His suit looked more techno-armor than ever before, with speedo once again being replaced by a belt. His hairstyle and general vibes felt like a return to the 2010s edge, and he was described as a Superman with less love and hope than the mainline one by DC editorial. People were immediately against him on principle, and everyone braced for what seemed like New 52 Superman Take 2.

Then the Absolute Superman comics actually came out and they somehow made the character work. Just like people thought, this version of Superman is a lot more brash and confrontational than the mainline Superman. He's younger (both in age and vibes) and has a more brooding vibe than the clean cut Mr. Sunshine vibes of the original. He is a bit edgy and moody, and he has a bit more of an arrogant streak than traditional Superman. So far, this is sounding like a repeat of New 52. So what actually makes him work?

I think what makes this characterization of Superman work while the New 52 one fell flat, is that he has a different backstory and role in the wider universe. New 52 Superman nominally had the same backstory as the old one. He was still raised by the Kents, and still inhabited the same structural role of being the paragon hero who sets the standard for heroism. Superman being kind of assholey while still being in the same position felt incongruent. The Absolute Universe made sure to deviate Superman's role in this new universe far enough away so his new characterization actually makes sense in context.

They basically made Superman into a vigilante that fights against the system instead of defending the system as a champion hero. Superman isn't accepted in the Absolute Universe, he's a fugitive actively being hunted for being an "illegal alien". His main foes are corporations and mercenaries working for said corporations. His entire backstory recontextualized his parents as working class people who suffered under the oppression of a fascist ruling class, and he himself grew up in that society instead of being a newborn sent away on the eve of its destruction. It makes sense for this version of Superman to have more of an edge than the mainline universe Superman because he personally witnessed profound tragedy. Superman traditionally has a pretty cushy childhood and grew up in a positive and nurturing environment. He knows Krypton exploded, but he's too young to remember anything and his parents are just a recording, not people he knew enough to properly mourn. He had a good support network of people who accepted him and showed him unconditional love. It's hard to believe any person raised by the Kents can grow up to be anything other than a good-natured guy. But Absolute Superman, the refugee of a fascist planet who saw everyone he loved get constantly beaten down by authorities until the whole planet blew up; that guy I can believe would have some rough edges.

Basically, they made a punk version of Superman, the real definition of punk instead of the performative punk Superman they made for the New 52 to revamp his public image.

Listen, I'm a Blue Lion fangirl, but is everyone going to forget that the Holy Kingdom of Faerghus committed genocide? The Tragedy of Duscur is called a tragedy because of the death of Faerghus' nobility, which is dealt with half of the Blue Lions (Felix and Ingrid for Glenn, Dimitri and his family, Annette for Gilbert's absence). And then there's the Duscur victims, which is only Dedue, who has to deal with his entire people getting wiped out. Like don't get me wrong, I'm not invalidating that Dimitri, Felix, Ingrid, and Annette had it pretty rough. But holy fucking shit, being at ground zero of a mass extermination seems too much to unpack for a single character. It doesn't help that Dedue's missing for half of the timeskip for the only route he's in. He even loses his retainer status in the narrative to fricking Gilbert. Not even all of Dedue's paired endings mention Duscur for some reason?

Maybe it's not that relevant to the story Azure Moon is trying to tell, which is Dimitri's character arc.

Except Crimson Flower deals with a very controversial invasion against Faerghus. You think someone from Duscur (not even necessarily Dedue, just someone from Duscur in general) would have a pretty damn good reason to invade the Kingdom. Edelgard's whole thing is dismantling corrupt systems, and a nation has to be morally corrupt to do something as drastic as mass murder. It seems like a good way to explore the cycle of violence, where the attack on the Royal Family led to a genocide, then led to a war that ended up hurting Dimitri and co, who weren't even directly at fault, but have to carry on that legacy anyways. Then deal with the fact that TWSITD started this entire thing in the first place.

Maybe make someone from Duscur go Silver Snow, so they could deal with TWSITD. Someone from Duscur would know the cost of war and would want to stop it by any means necessary. Plus, the main characters in this route (Seteth, Flayn, Rhea) are also genocide survivors!
It's kinda dumb that Flayn and Dedue actually have a support chain, but don't really deal with it. I know Flayn's hiding her identity as a Nabatean and all, but you think that she'd be the most empathetic to Dedue for being a genocide survivor considering she went through a similar situation.

Hard sell? Then what about Verdant Wind, the route that has a theme about overcoming prejudice and isolation, especially when people are so racist to Dedue for being from Duscur?

I don't know. Poor Dedue.

Okay so like spoilers for Night In The Woods and Fall of Porcupine if you even care (I ADORE the former despite its flaws, the latter too to a lesser extent)

So I've finished Fall of Porcupine and wow what a game. Compared to Night In The Woods I feel like its ending was better, but it ran into the same pitfalls as NITW

That is to say they are both very character-focused, but steer hard into what I like to call "Deep Plot Stuff" territory in the last stretch of the game, and then end very abruptly in an open-ended manner

>The Possum Springs cult in NITW >The mass sickness in Porcupine and the hospital being shady due to Theobald being blackmailed in FOP

Can I just say I lowkey hate when a character-focused story suddenly becomes plot heavy, yet decides to not even address said Plot?

I'm perfectly fine coming to my own conclusions and not getting all the answers to a story; I care less about "the lore" of a fake world and more about the characters

But it's these pivots to Deep Plot Stuff that ends up taking away from the characters, and the anticlimax of said Plot Stuff makes it seem like "Okay why did we even do it then???"

Like NOBODYYYYYY forced you to make the stakes that high gang 😭

NITW's hurts me so badly because the series is literally made for me. From the writing, the artstyle, the sense of exploitation/lived in world, the music oh my lord the MUSIC (it's peak)

And Mae's entire character is perfect for me. She's flawed and allowed to be unlikable but deeply relatable. And her relationship with her family and friends is sooo good, I really felt for her when she was venting about her struggles with mental health and self worth

AND THEN HERE COMES THE PLOT WITH THE STEEL CHAIR!

BOOM there's an oldhead cult in Possum Springs that is the reason Casey is missing/dead and people are going missing

who is Casey you may ask? Oh yeah it's the guy that was missing when Mae got here

Now does the game actually do anything with the fact that Casey is gone? Develop who he was as a person? Give us any reason to even SLIGHTLY care about this cult plotline? Make us care about him, like, at ALL?

No! It doesn't!!!!

Gregg is my favorite character in NITW. But when he was crashing out over the cult killing Casey for being worthless to society, I just felt nothing because I dont CARE about Casey. And he's the only emotional connection we even have to this damn cult plotline

These are a bunch of faceless crazy oldhead mooks that we don't know and don't care about because they're written in such a way that anyone who even has a slight conscious would hate them

Like yeah man I don't think people should be sacrificed to The Hole just because they "don't serve a purpose in society", these guys still suck and bring down the story's quality 👍

Plus there's such thing as bad open-ended. And:

>Who was Casey and what is up with this Possum Springs Cult

>The entire town becoming sick after complaining about the hospital being poorly run

Are those things

Fall of Porcupine is even more frustrating than NITW, and is the entire reason this rant post even exists

Because at LEAST you can make a ThemesAndSuch argument for the cult in NITW; they parralel Mae in that they are people who were promised a future that they couldn't get cuz their lives were rigged (capitalism/industrialization with the oldheads, mental health with Mae)

I STILL hate it and think it ruins a perfect game, but you can make that argument!

FOP on the other hand has an empty net with no goalie and somehow, SOMEHOW by God's grace manages to miss and score into its own goal

The series had the perfect escalation of the themes of medical care and the health industry with Irma's death. With multiple people getting (understandably) riled up and wanting answers, even if it was done by bad actors like Ralph

That even if our cast is good hearted and genuinely want to help people, the systems at play incentives profit over care. If the hospital wasn't so run down, and that leak never happened, Irma COULD have recovered and still been alive

That's so cool! And complex! And genuinely interesting because both sides have understandable grievances about their healthcare

Too bad none of that matters because all the protestors randomly get sick and need to be hospitalized enmasse!

I THINK it was food poisoning from the soup of the Hibernation Festival, that was something I naturally inferred based off of the fact that Finely said the fountain water was stale. I remember Finley and Co. Didn't really get to eat any Soup

(and it doesn't take a rocket scientist to know that eating soup made of fountain water that comes out of century old pipes MIGHT be contaminated!)

But then that begs the question of how come the effects only started kicking in NOW? And how come all these super smart doctors NEVER came to the conclusion that it was food poisoning? Finley and company don't even feel the need to mention the Hibernation Festival soup as a potential cause? Hello??

Why are they treating this like it's some mysterious virus contagen? Bro this isn't the Rosalia Virus from Trauma Team, this is FOOD POISONINGGGG

WHERE DID EVERYONE'S BRAINS GO????

And wouldn't there have been alot more of the people we know infected?

That would've certainly made the ending more personal rather than taking care of Faceless Mob #247

And if they were just going to evacuate people to the gym because the 5th floor randomly caught on fire, then couldn't they have done that in the first place???

The only reason we even went to the 5th floor is because the the hospital was running out of space and would start denying people if need be. If that were the case, we could've JUST used the gym in the first place and avoided this whole mess

"But Karl said it was like a whole protocol thing for if the building catches fire"

Bro.

It's a Mass Food Poisoning situation in the town, and they're running out of space.

I dont think the school would care about technicalities right nkw.

Especially if their own students, who WERE present for the Hibernation Festival like Larissa btw, were critically ill as well

Normally stuff like this would just be nerd crap I don't care about, some "Boy I sure hope someone got fired for THAT blunder!" type stuff

but BECAUSE the characters I care about are TIED to said nerd crap, I have to think critically and more indepth about the logistics

Not to mention that Gregor, the janitor/general handyman of the hospital, just dissappears??

Like during Irma's funeral he was hiding in the back because he felt such immense guilt for the hospital being run down and The Leak happening. That if he had been better at his job, Irma could've still been alive to this day. He could feel everyone starinf at and judging him, so he hides in the back of the bar

A small bit of characterization and sympathy for a character who has been written to be very abrasive up to this point, and I really liked that

Too bad he just dissappears! Into thin air!

Like not even something small like "I'll try my best to repair this keep this hospital running" or "I'll make sure the School Gym has ample cooling and electricity"

Nope, just vanishes into thin air!

And Theobald infodumping about being blackmailed before sacrificing himself just felt hollow to me cuz I knew he was gonna die. He had done nothing for most of the story, he was either super turbo evil and caused said mass infection, or was going to die

I liked Fall of Porcupine. And I feel like it does the "repetitive gameplay to passby life" mechanics better than NITW (because you're a doctor, of course you'll do checkups every day consistently)

I just felt like the ending left alot to be desired just like NITW

Which is funny cuz FOP is clearly inspired by that game

I dunno man it just really frustrates me when a story makes up a dragon for the narrative to slay, when they already have a perfectly fine dragon right there (St Ursula in FOP, and Mae's poor mental health and lack of purpose in NITW)