r/CharacterRant

I tried returning to OP. A serious lapse of judgement led me to reread Wano- the arc that made me drop my once-favorite manga. At first, the reread was going well and fine. Still didn’t vibe with Wano, but nothing too bad.

Then Yamato appeared - hence, an old topic rant.

To preface, Yamato isn't an Orochi (who you're supposed to despise), or a Senor Pink (mid-table guy who doesn't land for everyone), or a Hancock (impressive, but not super special obnoxiously wow wow wow). Yamato isn't even a Sabo. Again, Yamato is NOT a Sabo, though they have similarities- Mainly, he is also a stupid character that we're meant to love. Unlike Yamato, however, Sabo was made somewhat better by a well-executed, extensive look into Luffy's childhood. And more importantly, a decent integration into the story after his stupid amnesia.

Back to Yamato. There are many reasons why this specific character infuriates me. We can start with the sheer audacity of Yamato's existence.

Introduced at the tail end of an overlong arc, set-up complete, final battle impending ("imprisoned, that's the point.........."-it's a dumb point) when there's already an impressive bloat of characters whose struggles we're -somehow- meant to care about. But why focus on them, why even focus on the main crew when this new person can suck away at everyone's panel-time. Yamato is clearly more important, interesting, better.... right?

Of course, after all, Yamato is the HIDDEN CHILD of the BIG BAD EMPEROR! Yamato is also a REBEL (yeah, you go Oden!!!) who HATES BAD VILLAIN DAD. Yamato will join forces with the GOOD SAMURAI and with LUFFY THE SAVIOUR!!!

Yamato also wants to JOIN THE STRAWHATS really really HARD. This stupid character is gunning for a Sunny spot, full speed ahead, I love Luffy I am ODEN I LOVE Luffy.

But that's not all- Yamato has the super super special Mythical Zoan Devil Fruit that's also the GUARDIAN DEITY OF WANO. How cool is that????

You know what else? Yamato has ADVANCED CONQUEROR’S HAKI and is A CRUCIAL, MEGA POWERFUL ally in the Onigashima raid. Great bit of story, much deserved, adore this.

Let's not start with Yamato's design, specifically engineered for one purpose and one purpose only. Selling merchandise.

This is a saga that was built up for an entire decade. Kaido was announced as the upcoming big bad in Punk Hazard. And we have stupid, artificial Yamato popping into existence, becoming a key player during the LAST ACT of the LAST ARC of this DECADE-LONG SAGA.

This character huffs and puffs and sprints through hallways, up the stairs, down the stairs. Panel after panel chapter after chapter. I am Oden, I will join Luffy, MOMO WAIT I'M YOUR DEAD DAD!

Not to forget, we are given a -100%organic foolproof biodegradable- reason for why we should all LOVE Yamato.

And that is Yamato’s friendship with Ace. A dead fan-favorite exhumed so this bland, empty husk of a character can mooch favor with the fanbase.

Nostalgia can’t ever fail. Not cheap, not manipulative at all.

I will say, there was 1 (one) time I was happy to see this stupid character. At the very end, when Yamato announced a desire to remain in Wano.

TLDR; Yamato sucks.

Relatively new to the sub, hope this rant is allowed.

Jedi were absolutely ubiquitous before the Order got wiped out. Even a planet as remote as Prequel-era Tatooine knew what Jedi were. Jedi weren’t some secretive monastic order tucked away on a single planet, they were literally roaming the galaxy by the thousands and were openly getting involved in random planets’ affairs as peacekeepers. They even fought in the extremely public civil war where they got intergalactic fame and acclaim by leading armies and winning battles as generals. We’re led to believe Jedi like Anakin Skywalker were celebrated as famous war heroes and a household name among the Republic. The Jedi are more than common knowledge, they’re a fixture of society.

You don’t go from that to thinking the Jedi are a myth or superstition that never even existed in the 19 years of Imperial rule since the fall of the Jedi Order. 19 years is a ridiculously short time even for ordinary human lifespans but the Star Wars universe is also heavily populated by aliens who have lifespans measuring multiple times as long a human. Most of the adult population over the age of like 25 would have seen the Jedi with their own eyes or at least seen them on news broadcasts. This is not to mention that the Jedi regularly descend on random planets to ask parents if they can adopt their force sensitive kids, so you definitely have people who not only met Jedi but had family who became Jedi. A myth doesn’t take away your firstborn child to be raised as a super monk. By the way, to put into perspective how short 19 years is, the first MCU Iron Man movie will have come out 19 years ago next year. This is like forgetting that the Iron Man movie ever came out because you stopped watching movies. People’s memories are not this short, especially if you’re part of some alien species live for 500+ years.

This is also made even less believable with every new addition to the Star Wars lore that introduces more and more surviving Jedi and force users into the mix. You’re telling me the galaxy forgot what Jedi look like when you have rogue ones like Cal Kestis galavanting around the galaxy in open sight of the public? Inquisitors are also a thing that exists, and there are literally dozens of them that are regularly popping down to a planet and waving their lightsabers around and using force powers. You’re not exactly letting the memory of the Jedi die when there are hundreds of former Jedi actively reminding them of their existence.

The Jedi didn’t just neatly go away, and the Empire sure didn’t do a good job at wiping all traces of them away so how is it that they’re considered mysterious and unbelievable existences to so many people? If it was 50-100 years since the Jedi were wiped out, then I’d understand why people would slowly start to forget. 19 years ago is so recent that the existence of the Jedi should still be fresh memory for even remote places like Tatooine.

First invincible and now the boys.

One of the biggest complaints and videos I have seen about the Boys is why is Homelander so weak now.

Seriously, just look up some videos and you will see people complaining about several things that relate to powerscaling

1. Homelander not being able to cut Kimiko in half despite that fact that he did it in the first episode of the final season

2. Homelander somehow being so slow, despite the fact he kept up with A Train in the first episode and literally flew to space in 2 seconds in the same episode

3. Homelander escaping Soldier Boy and Butcher and Hughie (on temp V) but somehow not being to escape Butcher and Ryan

Oh yeah, and the show heavily implied that V1 made Homelander stronger. You know, cuz he shot up his most powerful laser right after he took it.

Now, mind you, powerscaling is far from the only problem with the Boys final season, don't get me wrong, but you will legit see so many people dislike in part because of bad powerscaling.

I don't know if someone cares about the old literature here, but I just have to get it out of my head.

If you have ever read Stanislav Lem's "Solaris" you know that "The Ocean" and the research surrounding it is the main theme of the book. In the book's universe, countless decades were spent on trying to understand what the heck is happening in The Ocean and why does it act the way it does. And humanity failed to understand anything about it.

I don't want to sound like the book should've been "Humanity F Yeah", but, it feels like Lem just said "We will never make contact with aliens because I depicted humanity failing to do so in my book".

The humanity found out that the ocean takes fragments from their memories and forms something new out of them. So why not try to experiment with different memories? Send a rat there and see what happens. Send a man with amnesia and see what happens. Sand a baby and see what happens. Send a man hypnotized into having a false memory and so on and so on. They even send the Kelvin's (Main Character) brain waves into the ocean and the ocean stopped sending "the guests!". There's so much you can try and experiment but the humanity in the book just... Doesn't do it for some reason!

The ocean itself is made out of something. Why not try to see it's internal structure? I'm sure in the age of space travel the humanity could X-raying the entire planet. They could try to take a small part of the ocean and see if it functions as a proper ocean would. It does? Then investigate it's internal structure! It doesn't? Then there must be some part of it that controls the other parts.

In less then a century neuroscience understood so much about the work of our brains. Yes, we don't know everything about them, but we know what they are made of, how does basic memories work, what happens if certain regions of it are affected. There's always a reason for something happening in real world. Unless the ocean just rolls the dice and does random shit there must be some logic behind it. Why couldn't the humanity replicate the signals that the ocean sends to it's structures and see what happens?

I could go for a long, long time saying how humanity could've understand the ocean. If it didn't want to contact humans -- that would be one thing. But just stating that we fundamentally can't because you wrote a book with your made up scenario sounds like an ocean-sized strawman to me.

P.S. I wouldn't have much of a problem with this book if 1) it didn't state it's ideals with characters just saying them out loud. 2) When someone else (Tarkovskiy) sees that you put a big romantic tragedy in your book and decides to focus on it you trow a tantrum that "this is not what the book is about!!!!".

No problem if you like the book itself, I just hate this smugness.

Now you're probably wondering what? I don't blame you. But this line of thinking did not appear out of no where. Just like energy, it wasn't just created (well it kinda was). But let me explain. When people talk about marvel's big three, pre 2000's, three familiar faces always come up. Hulk, Spider-man, and wolverine. That's not crazy, that's fairly normal.

But it's not. Wolverine and spidey make sense; but why hulk? His comic wasn't doing that well. Sure he was popular, but that was because of an admittedly inaccurate tv show, what about in the comics? He had recently underwent a dramatic transformation into professor hulk, and was basically off doing his own thing separate from any teams.

So what about in universe? Who's the big three there. Obviously it's Iron Man, Cap, and thor. But they aren't popular enough to hold the universe on their own right? Right?

Well here's the thing, the top 6 marvel heroes, who've held their own series without cancellation are those three characters, spider-man, hulk and daredevil. Six different pillars for marvel, and that makes sense. Spider-man the relatable every man who caters to a wide variety of people you could be 50 or 15 and still relate to the issues spidey had back then.

Cap represents a certain rebellious twinge against the government (he had a lot of story lines where he fought against the government), while still holding the moral high ground (even if he did go against the government). Iron Man is the suave power fantasy, and is the character for showing his wits in a bad situation (especially considering he goes on the run almost as much as cap.

Daredevil is for gritty crime stories, Thor is powerscaling slop where the best fights happen, and hulk is the cerebral, psychologically engaging stories. Think I have a few of those mixed up? Trust me, in thor's most clever run by Walt Simonson, the best parts were when he fought larger than life myths like Surtur, or Jormungandr (but even besides that, his comics are only worth reading for the fights, cause his supporting cast is pretty flat outside of loki and odin). And the reason hulk is so deep is because of stories like the crossroads that explore the ethics of sending the hulk off world, the physiological impact of child abuse, and the idea of sacrificing his superego and ego (banner) to just letting his id run rampant. And that's before peter david took over (but that's a rant for another time).

But that's only 6 pillars, and I offered four times that amount. Well have you noticed I haven't mentioned wolverine yet? Well part of it is because he didn't really have an ongoing. He'd have mini series, but for the most part he was part of this obscure little team called the x-men. You could almost make an entire separate franchise off the x-men, and there's an x-men who's a counterpart to each marvel pillar. Pillars of the x-men if you will.

Wolverine is just like spidey, the mascot character who everyone can relate to (short, smelly, never shaves, comic fans amirite~ oh), everyone can understand having a regret in their life, especially over their past. Storm is the rebellious but moral character (who I think was a more capable leader than cyclops), gambit is the suave power fantasy who needs to keep his wits about him, cyclops is the gritty one (he really is, unlike wolverine who's ok with killing, when cyclops has to make a morally grey choice he really has to grapple with it), jean is the power fantasy character who's just there for people who want to see strong feats, and depending on the era either nightcrawler or beast is the cerebral character who has to contend with whether they are a man or a monster. (60's 90's 00's are beast, 70's, 80's, ear;y 10's for kurt, if you're wondering why the 20's are blank I'll get to that).

Is that hamfisted? A bit. You might be wondering where core x-men like rogue, colussus, jubilee, and others are. Well they are closer to secondary characters, like moon knight, black panther, and ghost rider. Popular characters certainly, but they start off not holding their own in a franchise, and they certainly can't cold a franchise on their own. Black panther did, but there was always a bit of unease around him due to sales numbers (which is bullshit because the priest run was really good). Off the top of my head, he's probably the character with the most issues, who isn't in any of the three marvel franchises. Him or Punisher.

Actually wait. There might be a micro piller as well. These aren't really archetypes as their runs get canceled, but if you really want to stretch it, the big six of non ongoing marvel characters who get regulated to things such as mini series, or low sales; it's Black panther, Punisher, Doctor Strange, Ms/Captain Marvel, Ghost Rider , and Misc (It's moon knight, spider-girl, deadpool or luke cage, I mean it's deadpool now for sure, but that wasn't always the case at all and he currently has no ongoings that I'm aware of). Black Panther is the most successful spinoff character, punisher is the most successful anti hero (and second most successful spinoff), Captain Marvel is the survivor of some of the worst character assassination (and a team books thriver), Doctor is for the occult, and ghost rider is the occult but for edgy teens. Misc is whatever flash in the pan character rules the decade. I can't be assed to give them archetypes cause marvel loves screwing them over before they can cement their niche, and why bother, it ends up being derivative anyway.

Now you might be wondering how I could possibly squeeze six characters out of the ff with my reductive archetypes. It's simple, the fantastic four franchise has far more than six characters, and each one offers up their own special niche. Now the typical fanfare is here, Reed is rebellious but moral (his enemy is a fascist dictator), Thing is the psychological look at whether he's man or monster, Human torch is the suave power fantasy who is always on his toes.

But here's where things get a bit harder to classify. Who's the strength power fantasy? You might think it's sue, she is toted as the most powerful; but that's a bigger stretch than her husband, the real power fantasy is Doom. B-but he's a villain. And marvel keeps trying to make him into an anti hero, and let's face it. When the words comic book villain are uttered, who else comes to mind, whether you like him or not. He's the face of marvel villainy, he might be the face of comic villainy in general, but one thing's for sure. The most anyone likes him, is for his stupid mary sueness, he's always getting away with shit, and being forgiven for being a heinous asshole. But once again that's a rant for another day.

Sue is actually the mascot. Now that's controversial. But hear me out on this. She's the closest thing to a reader insert, and out of the four, she's the most normal. The most relatable. The guys all have something to set them apart. Reed is smart (which sets him apart from 90% of comic fans-oh), Ben looks like a pile of bricks, and johnny can set himself on fire. That isn't relatable (unless you're a stuntman). But it's interesting, because before Sue could use her force fields, her power was not being seen. That's probably how a lot of kids felt. Especially the types who read comics. They were the ones who perhaps didn't play as well with the other kids. Maybe that's why sue felt so small.

Ah, I'm just messing with you. If that was the reason, marvel comics would've been labeled commie trash, and thrown down the river. I mean she still is the most normal, and that's why I think she encompasses the mascot/relatability role better than her compatriots, even if she isn't as popular as the thing. Ben might be the heart of the team, but she's the soul (ok this might be a stretch, but ben can't be two different pillars, I suppose sue could be the rebellious, moral one; and reed could be the monster/or man archetype. This should show you the flaw of my method of reducing these characters to a handful of tropes and doling them out like candy, but the idea just would not stop bugging me. I had to write it down).

So then who's the last archetype. Who's the final character that represents the grim and gritty side of the fantastic four, while also being recognizable to wider audiences? Why, the silver surfer of course. That response may have killed what little good will or credibility I had, but trust me on this. Norrin is a character who has to under go some of the worst moral implications of all his friends. He has to see the universe reset, his love die (the slot run was really something else), and countless planets be consumed. He has to serve under the ugliest cosmic monster in the universe, all while his sense of self slips away.

And when he finally makes a man out of himself, when he finally grows a conscience, what does he get? The hatred and ire of almost everyone he encounters no matter where he goes. And he does it all, with a smile on his face; just like cyclops and daredevil would. He's also the mascot for marvel's cosmic side, so there's no question on recognizably (he basically had a movie dedicated to him and his boss as well).

Unfortunately, due to the success of the movies, this system has found less and less use. Instead of pushing all sides equally, the micro pillar got inflated, spider-girl got kicked out, the x-men became less relevant, and spidey got dumped down to over expose his relatabilty, ironically making him less relatable. Or relatable in a worse, more hedonistic way (who wouldn't sell their soul to the devil for more of their youth, only to be permanently stagnated, talk about a Faustian outcome). Now marvel is barely recovering, after their purchase of the x-men, but it's nearly shriveled up now. We'll never get the highs of peter david's hulk or Gruenwald's captain america, and the modern stuff is just a pale imitation of what came before. Hell, they even rehashed dark reign with one world under doom (I thought dark reign was pretty fun admittedly with parker robins becoming one of the pillars).

One would wish it could all go back to a simpler time, or maybe they'd actually continue on from the 90's and give proper endings to these characters. But we all know that's never gonna happen. So farewell old marvel. May your shackles collapse, before you do.

I was really into AOT when it first came out, both visual and novel form but really hated the direction it went. I stopped watching halfway through season 3. No particular reason. I of course at the time of the rest of series being released heard about what was going on and it really didn't compel me back to the series.

I hate how the series pivoted to complex geopolitical conflicts with Marley, Eren's whole ouroboros about trying to fight change, etc.

What drove me to love this series initially was the whole post-apocalyptic mystery of the world. Humanity fighting for its survival against monsters. And as the series goes on and slowly points the monsters to being man-made that made it even cooler. The possible authoritarian society established to subjugate the majority of Eldian's through fear, oppression and isolation. Suggesting that this was a sort of ploy from the rich and powerful of Eldian to stay powerful. Perhaps even a punishment from years ago for a potential civil war they created. Or that the corps even have this tier system where the scouts are used as pawns to die while the other corps closer to the inner walls don't come close to the scouts.

It just felt like a whole different series when they involved the Marlians. I'm not even fully against the premise of some sort of war, etc. If it stayed within the themes of what the series was originally.

Some small spoilers for MK1's story.

Despite being the most recent media release of MK, this post isn't about the movie, it's about Mortal Kombat 1. Yes, I am aware I'm late, but only recently did I manage to nab it at a largely reduced price. To touch on the second movie, it's pretty bad, coreography's oddly stiff, pacing's all sorts of weird.

But I as I was playing MK1, I kinda realized what I also realized when I played 11. What is Netherrealm's MK? With Midway, it was somewhat predictable, most people know the early 2D fighters, and the 3Ds usually followed the formula of having multiple styles each character had (I'm writing mostly off the top of my head, but if I remember correctly, some games had 2, others 3.), but ever since MK9, the game's style has been switching up in all areas pretty much every game.

• MK9 is closer to the classic 2D MKs both in gameplay and in story and aesthetics (with that kinda "kusoge" charm, if you're familiar with the term), with some added mechanics sprinkled on top and a justification to continue the story after Armaggedon, marking the first of two reboots between NRS's 4 games.
• MKX expands a bit more, also bringing back sprint and adding stage interactions, being more mechanically complex than MK9. In terms of aesthetic it go for a darker tone, to go hand-in-hand with the Horror Movie DLC Guests. And this happens from every MK onwards, movelists for most characters are mostly, or completely reworked.
• MK11 goes much simpler compared to MKX and 9, the pace is also much slower, the aesthetics are essentially the middle ground between 9 and X, and mechanics are much simpler. Guest Characters are 80s movies and comics (I will never forgive the Ash Williams into Joker fumble). This also marks the second reboot in which at the time was three games in the franchise.
• MK1 is a Tag-Team Fighter, that somehow feels the slowest between the four, added some air combat and removed stage interactions. Aesthetics are MK11 but with saturation turned up. DLC Characters are whatever Amazon show Ed Boon was binging at the time... and Ghostface and T1000. This introduces a multiverse plot.
• Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe is a 2008 crossover fighting game developed and published by Midway Games for the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360. The game is a crossover between Mortal Kombat and the DC Universe, and is the eighth main installment in the Mortal Kombat franchise. The game was released on November 16, 2008. That is all I'm willing to say.

So, how can a series like this retain long-time fans? Every game plays completely different due to changes in the base mechanics, characters you enjoy might play and even look completely differently in the next installment (MK11 Kitana was already perfect you cowards. At least Mileena doesn't have her fuck-ass Dora-looking bob), and the story itself is so messy that it went through two reboots plus a multiverse plot. Personally I jumped ship after the Aftermath DLC in 11, I enjoyed my time somewhat but the main gameplay loop becoming waiting for towers I had done already and for the shop to refresh whenever I wasn't playing Multiplayer made me realize this is the

Now, don't get me wrong, personally I think MK1 at least gets presentation right, a few characters still managed to retain some identity (Namely Liu Kang, Quan Chi, Geras, Ermac and fucking Reiko are big improvements presentation-wise, except for looks for Ermac, Hoodie Ermac still goes the hardest. Sassy bitch Shang Tsung is still pretty good though.), but it seems like MK is trying too hard to be "Hollywood", with these big, sweeping story modes, tackling this big, expansive universe (that really isn't, there's no supporting material to actually expand the Realms), hiring big names to VA (Ronda Rousey and Megan Fox, both misses in my opinion) that they don't have a real vision for the "Game" part, only the "Video". Even then, the writing itself is a mess, villains always look like jokes that constantly fall upward because they can't score a win, dialogue is stiff and unnatural in some points for the benefit of spouting exposition at the player, and characters instantly lose 300 IQ points if they're not currently possessed by the player, with the exception of Dark Sindel, who gets a repeat of her MK9 slaughter but without actually killing anyone.

For being "The Gore Game" that traumatized developers, it's also immensely afraid of killing off characters. At one point in MK1's story, the good guys have the bad guys on the rope, and they just... walk away while the good guys stare. The only characters to die in the entirety of the story are >!Main Verse Sindel, Titan Quan Chi, and Titan Shang Tsung!<, as well as some randos from the alternate universes (except you, Good Guy Ninja Mime, you were taken too soon. Bad Guy Ninja Mime is a bitch though).

Now that I touched upon the story itself, Liu Kang is horribly incompetent as a Titan. What do you mean you allowed Shao Kahn to have a position of power when you stopped Quan Chi and Shang Tsung? What do you mean despite your plans Outworld still seems to be a warmongering, violent place? WHAT DO YOU MEAN YOU TURNED A WHOLE RACE OF PEOPLE INTO A CONTAGIOUS DISEASE? No wonder Jax got relegated into an assist, the fucking God of Time said "Geras and Tanya was enough DEI bullshit for one timeline". He then leaves the hourglass for Geras, who becomes the guardian, which alright, and he gets rid of his own powers? Why? >!No other Titan that appears in the story seems to have done the same thing, what stops you from hanging around with it?!<

Another issue I've been having is with MK Costumes ever since 11 is the "Injustice-Fication" of every woman's costume. Scorpion, Smoke and Sub-Zero gets to have the classic, gi-like clothing since they're all in the same clan now. Raiden gets a more normal-looking re-read on his classic white fit. Kung Lao has the shaolin monk jacket, Johnny gets his sporty look, rain turned into a Mage, Reptile gets a more MKX-lite version of the gi, Baraka gets to have his Tarkatitties out, Geras got a tattoo and a pauldron. Meanwhile, every woman has the Injustice-style bodysuit with multiple-colored segments and a loincloth for the cloth sim, and at most some midriff, bare legs in the case of Nitara and loose sleeves in the case of Ashrah for variation. Where's the variation? Where's the flowy clothes, the Earth characters having casual fits (not that shit from Special Forces), the baggy kung-fu pants? Hell, I'm not even asking for something outrageous, not every skin can be Mileena's Alt Costume in Deception, but damn, something for fuck's sake.

In conclusion, this is all "structured" only in the sense that I used paragraphs, and I don't get Mortal Kombat anymore, and it makes me a little sad because it's a series I've been enjoying since I was a child, even though I most likely shouldn't, on my shitty little Mega Drive.

I guess at least I got to make Baraka the GOAT of the final battle.

General Grevious (Star Wars) vs Adam Smasher (Cyberpunk 2077/Edgerunners) has been making the rounds here on Reddit, which is the only fight where both sides are actually quite evenly matched and could go either way *(not to mention themes and such)*.

Of course on a few subreddits, there’s *those* Star Wars fans who thinks Han Solo has boundless speed and Stormtroopers have grenades that could crack planets in half.

But one of the comments said Big G beats Smasher because “He has access to untold millions of weapon developments” or something similar to that.

Behold the most nothingburger statement of all time. This statement would only matter if it was the only info we had on something, which isn’t the case for General Grevious. And while this statement would be quite scary in real world, in fiction this usually means that guys have laser guns instead of normal guns.

It’s like how a few years ago a character would automatically win because they were considered a god even though you could kill them with drunk driving with the feats they would have.

"Andor" is by far the best live-action show Star Wars has produced and one of the best pieces of live-action Star Wars period. But as much as I like it, its fanbase does an incredible job at making me want to hate it out of spite, largely because they tear down everything else to elevate it and tolerate no criticism or even personal negative feelings or nitpicks. Which isn't me disagreeing with the fact that some of the criticisms are pretty stupid. (cough the Empire doesn't tolerate this cough)

For some reason, Andor fans get extremely defensive when you point out that Andor bears little resemblance to the Star Wars saga beyond the themes of anti-authoritarianism and persevering with hope against insurmountable odds, even though Andor is a completely different genre from the saga and is made by someone who has openly stated that he doesn't like Star Wars. Star Wars has a complex identity due to the many inspirations George Lucas drew from, but it's very much an epic, larger-than-life space opera, with young knights going on spiritual journeys and wise old wizards and dashing Rogues and Princess Generals and gradiose dark lords and more. It can be dark and have things to say, but it's also unabashedly cheesy, earnest, and sincere, which is a huge part of its charm, whimsy, and fun. Andor is a gritty, grounded espionage thriller about how regular people fare under tyranny, with emphasis on the banality of evil and no interest at all in the spiritual or metaphysical aspects of the saga. They're so different, it's not even funny.

And this is very much NOT a critique of Andor. Star Wars can and absolutely should try new things. The Expanded Universe dipped its toes into so many genres, it's not even funny; from medical dramedies, to military fiction, to zombie horror, high fantasy and more. George Lucas saw the universe he created as a tapestry on which any type of story could be told, and he constantly pushed the various writers to be more original and try new things. He wanted them to grow beyond his own stuff and not just rehash what he did. But Andor stans become offended if you point out that the show barely resembles Star Wars and could be made into an original work without changing much.

And you know what? it's also fair for someone to look at Andor and say "This is well made but not what I come to Star Wars for". It's fair for me to say that while Andor is more consistent and technically better made, I subjectively prefer something like Rebels or maybe the Knights of the Old Republic comics because they're far more fun and Star Wars-y while still being really good. It doesn't mean I lack intelligence or maturity. It's fair to point out the poor handling of aliens and what a missed opportunity it was or how the use of real life curse words rather than in-universe ones is immersion breaking, while acknowledging that these are ultimately nitpicks and don't diminish how good the show is. It's fair to point out that Tony Gilroy doesn't actually like Star Wars and has no interest in the universe beyond how it could service his story, because there's nothing wrong with that. The man did his homework and made a great show that, intentionally or not, reasonably fits well with the themes and universe George established in his saga. Him being able to create a good Star Wars show despite his disinterest in the saga and the universe is an exception, not a rule.

"So you want someone who's more "passionate" about the saga like Filoni who creates slop and cameo fests?"

My brother in christ, Filoni's output post 2020 isn't bad because he's a fan or because it's too Star Wars-y. It's bad because it's bad. And Andor isn't good because it "doesn't have The Force and lightsabers" or because it's oh so serious and "mature", it's good because it's good. It's a good Star Wars show inspite of the lack of traditional Star Wars elements, not because of that absence. The things things that made Star Wars what it is aren't what's holding it back. A lack of direction and poor writing are.

I never quite understood this meme, or the whole sub genre of horror behind it, why would seeing horrors beyond my comprehension make me go mad or gouge my eyes out, they are beyond my comprehension, I'm not afraid of Cthulhu because he is a cosmic horror beyond my comprehension he is a scary guy because he is a giant monster that can make my head explode by looking at him, I'm not scared of IT because he is a cosmic entity I couldn't possibly began to comprehend I'm scared of him because the motherfucker wants to eat me, what makes them scary to me are like actual tangible things.

Whenever any discussions surrounding Deltarune come up, W.D. Gaster is likely to pop up. There's always discussions about him on r/Deltarune about how important he is, what he is planning, etc.

However, there's this weird idea that Gaster is too complicated to introduce in Deltarune due to all the "Gaster lore" that somebody would need to know in order to appreciate his appearance. And I'm just left confused because there is no actual "Gaster lore".

All that we know about Gaster in Undertale is that he was the Royal Scientist before Alphys, and created the Core. He "fell into his own creation" one day, either literally or metaphorically, leading to nobody acting as Royal Scientist for a time. Asgore remembers him, having waited to confirm a replacement. He speaks in WingDings font exclusively. He used the True Lab, experimented with dark fountains and knew two people he considered worth getting second opinions from.

That's all the information available on him in Undertale. In Deltarune he hasn't made any appearance, but so far he is heavily implied to be running the experiment that encompasses Deltarune and seemingly his voice has appeared so far in Chapter 1, 3 and 4.

Yes, that's all the hidden lore we know about Doctor Gaster. There is no hidden ARG you need to look through, there's no hidden files you need to meticuously analyze to know about him, there's no book that you have to read in order to understand how he's involved in Deltarune. He is just a scientist whose conducting an experiment which involves the player (you, the one reading this).

This isn't me saying that Gaster will make an appearance in Deltarune where he will say "It's me Wing Gaster, the royal scientist whose the uncle of Sans and Papyrus", but he isn't some complex character that only obssesed Toby Fox loreheads will understand. If he does actually make a substantial appearance in Deltarune he will be explained beforehand for all the casual players and explaining his whole deal will take like 10 minutes at most.

And I don't even think that he will physically appear in Deltarune, its just that saying that he's too complicated to be introduced naturally is silly considering how Asriel was introduced in Undertale

When you boil down the story to its core elements, it's actually a pretty simple cop movie. Two detectives (a younger and more fiery cop teaming up with a more cynical older one) partner to catch a serial killer who is basing his crimes on the Seven Deadly Sins.

Nothing here is truly original, but elements like its characters and the philosophy it conveys elevate it from a simple movie to an all-time great. The dynamic between Mills and Somerset instantly draws us into their story. We want Mills to live a happy life with his wife and become a father; we want Somerset to enjoy a happy retirement and gain a more optimistic view of the world, but unfortunately things are never that simple.

Now, bleak and dark themes aren't exclusive to this movie; heck it's the basis of the noir and later Neo-Noir genres but Sev7n takes this thesis of an unfair and cruel world and cracks it up to eleven. The victims of Doe shouldn't have suffered those fates, but at the same time you can't really say they are good; heck, no one in that city is shown to be truly altruistic.

And finally there is the ending. Mills learns what's inside the box and kills John Doe in rage with his pistol and gets arrested, finally completing Doe's Magnum Opus is so bleak to the point that it never feels cheap, it's a genuine heartbreaking scene watching Mills destroy his own life and being manipulated by a man who also saw himself as a sinner and someone who believed to doing the work of an higher power in exposing the Sin in the scene.

I think the last line by Somerset describes the movie perfectly: "Ernest Hemingway once wrote: 'The world is a fine place and worth fighting for.' I agree with the second part." The world is indeed a cruel place filled to the brim with horrible people, but that shouldn't make you stop fighting for a better tomorrow and stop people like Doe from reappearing in the future, because even in the middle of all that darkness there are still people who deserve to live a good life.

Gonna type this all at once I've wanted to make this rant for a while now but FUCK this transformation (TRANSFORMATION TRANSFORMATION) it's used so badly I hate this shit so much.

Ultra Instinct is the successor to Super Saiyan Blue, meaning that it had a very low bar to clear to be considered remotely good. It's also a "technique" that's supposed to evoke the idea of "Mushin", which doesn't strictly apply to Martial Arts, but basically is of the idea of doing something without actually thinking about it. To sever one's body from one's thoughts so completly as to let the former react spontaneously and automatically to danger. On paper, it isn't a bad idea to have Goku's next power-up involve something else than training hard and tap more into the spiritual side of martial arts. And in execution, it's hard to deny the form didn't cause a massive amount of hype, so it did its job for the execs.

But as applied, it's FUCKING ASS. Ultra Instinct's main selling point is obstensibly being able to dodge good but there's only one fight in the anime where Goku being able to dodge good actually matters and that's Kefla. It's the one fight where Ultra Instinct kind of work as what it's supposed to be in that it dodges good and move fast but doesn't hit that hard and Goku has to manoeuver his way to Kefla and land a point-blank Kamehameha to actually beat her. It's made crystal clear that Goku's only able to win due to UI allowing him to dodge the onslaught.

In fact, UI Omen in the anime is unironically more in tune with the whole idea than its completed form just because Goku actually does dodge stuff in this take. It's "mastered" form in the anime and the manga is where it gets ass and that's because, simply put, the whole dodging thing is a worthless gimmick. The strength, speed and durability it gives Goku are ultimately what matters, like any other transformation. The dodging thing is just an extra bonus that Goku can use to look cool but that doesn't actually win him any fight if you think about it. In fact, Goku's dodging is largely irrelevant when facing an equal or superior, where you'd think that it'd be handy. Why? Because they're faster, so his skill is worth jackshit.

The one time that Ultra Instinct's ability "matters" is at the Moro's arc where it can dodge his energy absorption (even when he has a passive AoE) but that's useless because Moro just beat Goku's ass with regular hits. What even is the fucking point, then? If Goku's still slow enough to get hit consistently, what even is the point of being able to dodge well if you CAN'T dodge? You'd think UI would be an opportunity to showcase Goku's lauded "skills" but he use it like any other form. It just makes him objectively stronger and faster, and when those benefits come up short, he's shit out of luck. Dodging good isn't even that much of a "skill", as demonstrated plentily through the show, if you're stronger than someone, you're faster than them and can dodge them all day. UI's gimmick completly useless because it just allows you to do what you could already do if you're stronger than your opponent, but if you're at their level, they can literally just tag you and you're shit out of luck. Even Goku, whose fans swear up and down is extremely good at fighting, basically end up missing the whole point and try just powering-up like a brute when cornered against Moro.

Hell, Goku basically gets angry against Jiren at the end of their anime fight and overpower him through this like always. Using a technique who's whole thing is "haha i work through skill and letting the body do everything on its own. You'd think being angry would make it worse but no, it doesn't. And when Goku naturally fails to finish the job, it's because the technique's toll is too much, not because he misused it.

Ultra Shitstain see some development against Granolah where its use is a bit elaborated upon - it can get more accurate when Goku uses Super Saiyan forms and he can use it to slightly counter Granolah's eye powers. All good but nothing that really matters. There's an attempt at making clear Goku's still only a scrub at it (so much for "mastered") and that he needs to forge his own version, which is whatever it is he does against Gas. Once again, Ultra Instinct's dodging abilities are meaningless, it's just a transformation buff. When Gas catch up in speed, it's once again fucking useless and it basically get one-shotted by Frieza later.

Side note on Frieza but his intervention at the end is so fucking bad. The fact he trained is meant to show the difference between an hard worker and people who just coast by on wishes but it functionally isn't any different from Gas wishing for more strength offscreen. They both show up stronger than the heroes, there's no difference. Frieza's "toll" and hard work is meaningless because as far as we can see in the narrative, his and Gas's power-ups are no different. And at least Gas didn't have the audacity of returning with a transformation somehow uglier than Golden Friezass.

"Well, Goku can't do much with a power gap", sure, but wasn't there a chance to try their hands at making techniques that only increase parts of your stats massively? The big hype of UI is that it's a technique from the angels, why make it functionally just another Super Saiyan stat boost instead of trying to make it a transformation more focused on speed and agility?

Because the franchise was creatively bankrupt long ago and knows it cannot actually depict skill in any way. Because you can't pretend to have characters shoot beams and fly but then use anything remotely applicable to the real world. Because, again, every character functionally work the same way and there's few moments overall where skill is of any use compared to sheer power, as much as the franchise and its fans attempt to deny it.

Ultra I-stink is a fraud. It hides itself as a "technique" when it's basically Super Saiyan Silver or whatever. You can probably easily find tons of other techniques in comics or manga where someone fight "without thinking" and they're probably legitimately more skillful than UI because it actually doesn't make them hit stronger. If anything, the fact that a technique like this is some god-tier shit that not even Beerus can attain just show everyone is bad at martial arts in this.

Anyway, I'm gonna read more shonen where everyone punch super fast and everybody is like "their skill is immense!"

TL:DR: Ultra Instinct is just a transformation with a worthless gimmick and it sucks.

I finished chapter 5 recently and wanted to see what people on the internet think about it (rookie mistake). I have mixed feelings on this chapter, but I quickly noticed that people dismiss a lot of criticism of this chapter (and the game as a whole) by saying “Well Undertale did it to and you LOVE Undertale don’t you?”

And to that I say [title of the post].

1.Undertale takes a few hours to finish, even when you account for backtracking needed to get True Pacifist.

Deltarune, including Chapter 5, takes at least 20-30 hours to finish, easily more if you want to see everything. It will probably reach 40h or 50h mark when the full game is released.

It’s like comparing a movie to a show with multiple seasons, or a short story to a 1000 pages novel. You can’t apply the exact same rules to both and expect it to work just as well with how different the scopes are.

2.Undertale was a full game on release. Deltarune is a chapter-based game with each chapter released every few years over 8 years so far.

Once again, a self-contained story that you can finish in a few hours after its release MUST have a different pacing and story structure than one with multiple separate chapters that were released years apart. Deltarune is de facto a series of games rather than a single entity.

On this note, I HATE the argument that Deltarune is supposed to be experienced as a whole, so we should just ignore the fact that there have been multi-year long breaks between chapters and treat them like they were all released at once.

Maybe it was Toby’s intention for the whole game to be released at once, but this is not the reality we are living in. Most people will experience Deltarune in the form of multiple chapters released over a decade with long breaks between them, not as one long game with each chapter happening right after the last one. If waiting is part of the experience, then it has to be accounted for when judging the game.

I’m sure that in 2030 we will get video essays saying how much better the game is when you don’t have to wait for new chapters, but that time has not come yet.

3.Undertale wasn’t perfect.

Yea, it’s a good game, but the story certainly isn’t the most amazing thing written in all of human history without a single flaw. There are parts that could be improved, and you would expect an author to get better at his craft after over a decade of work. Pointing out that both games have the same flaw doesn’t instantly absolve Deltarune of its problems.

The sonichu comics aren’t even about sonichu. They’re about Chris, and him becoming Chris Chan sonichu.

Everything is plagiarized from an already existing IP. Sonic, Pokémon, transformers, my little pony.

There’s a lot of porn for some reason

Chris just writes about things that are happening in his life and then draws himself winning. It’s the ultimate form of arguing by yourself in the shower.

Sonichu has no character development or personality. He’s just like yo waddup I’m Sonichu, I’m gonna glaze Chris for no reason

Chris isn’t even a real Cherokee, and that’s like part of the lore or some reason.

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Just to preface, I have only watched seasons 1 and 2. I know a bit about season 4 and some bits from the light novel but i won't bring them up in this argument.

I have 2 main issues with Re:Zero and I'll try to discuss them here at length and I hope to be as clear as possible.

- - -

1. Re:Zero insists upon itself and constantly affirms it's moral viewpoint.

What I mean by this is that Re:Zero prioritizes driving the point home rather than leaving it linger in the viewer. It constantly ensures that the viewer knows why the characters behave in a certain way and leave no room for actual thought.

For example, when working in the mansion, Subaru constantly overworked himself so that Rem and Ram don't kill him or on a more fundamental level, so others can accept him. He portrays himself as this sort of "dumb" butler just so he doesn't get killed. Of course this puts a tremendous strain on both his physical and mental well-being, he's playing a role thats just not himself. Yet, the story doesn't let you figure that on you're own. It reaffirms it every single chance it gets by how Subaru repeatedly says "This makes me sick" (or something along the lines) or how he vomits etc..

The part of him saying that this action makes him sick is unnecessary, it's already self-evident from his actions that he's clearly uncomfortable. Or even when he figures out that Ram is the one who keeps on killing him, he went on a monologue on how they taught him all sorts of things and how much he's grateful for them.

The story cannot risk the viewer feeling ambiguous towards Subarus feelings, it needs to insure that whatever Subaru is thinking, you're thinking about that too. When he went on a monologue at the cliff before he jumped off, this was Tappei's way of making sure you are both emotionally bought-in and can easily recognize Subarus motivation. Subaru is weak, pathetic and at times very miserable too and the story knows that all too well, so in an attempt to make the audience sympathize with Subaru it has him say every single emotion out loud.

This problem persists with how when Subaru makes a mistake, other characters like Rem, Ram and Emilia go into this verbose extensive monologue detailing explicitly why it's bad for Subaru to hate himself. This would be fine but not with how fast Re:Zero deals with it. Because at times it poses a question which it then immediately gives an answer to, leaving the viewer no actual stance on the matter. This is shown by the fact that when Subaru went on a monologue detailing his mental state in-length, Rem had an answer ready immediately. The dialogue often functions less as actual human one to one communication than as just a means for thematic resolutions.

Normally humans don't behave like that, we don't go on extensive monologues and the ones we're talking too sure as hell don't go on their own monologue refuting the first. Simply, it's just not realistic, it's just a tool to make sure that you're on the same level as the story.

It's like Subaru argues Thesis A, but then Rem delivers Counter Thesis B, detailing reasons X, Y and Z on why Subaru shouldn't be sad. When real human discourse happens, usually it's awkward and when a person trauma dumps like that they aren't immediately presented with a speech, rather with shock. Which the other party tries to carefully calm down the other party. Yet, Re:Zero falls into this error a number of times, the one in EP 18 as stated above, when Emilia lashed out at Subaru when he embarrassed her in the selection, when he tried saving Beatrice, when the witches were talking to Subaru and so on and so forth.

The characters just feel like mouth-pieces to reflect what the story is trying to deliver, deconstructing any viewer interpretation or any actual agency on how the viewer should feel. And at times it does *show* how characters are feeling and why they act out certain actions, but then it ruins all that and goes on to extensively*tell* why characters act.

And even though I dislike bringing in other series as comparison, I will mention a couple here just to further reiterate my point. Such examples of shows handling deep issues like this is Neon Genesis Evangelion and it really drives home the fact that human interaction is very *very* awkward and messy and doesn't fall back on extensive monologues except maybe in the last two episodes but I'd say that's a fair exception if you're familiar with NGE. Another example is Monogatari, and this one is ironic because Mono is well-known for it's intense monologues but any viewer knows that's it's just not as straightforward as Re:Zero and gives the viewer quite a bit of agency.

- - -

2. Re: Zero is at the core a very repetative story

This point is pretty self explanatory with the main differentiating factor of the story is RBD, literally just reseting the world everytime Subaru dies. Yet, I want to expand on it a little more especially regarding Subarus character development.

As stated before, Subaru is pathetic, weak, miserable, and "talks big game" to quote what he says. The story does a very good job at exploring this. Nonetheless, the way the story treats his character is more like a reset point to fall back on. At the beginning of every arc, it feels like he's become a dunce again literally overshadowing every single advancement that's been made.

Almost every arc in Re:Zero is as follows:

1. Subaru acquires a flawed mindset (self-hatred, dependence, idealism, etc.).

2. His flaws lead to catastrophe.

3. He emotionally breaks down.

4. Another character gives him emotional reassurance or guidance in very verbose monologues.

5. Subaru reaches a revelation.

6. He overcomes the immediate crisis.

7. A later arc presents another variation of a similar psychological problem.

Re:zero is quite flawed in how it deals with character progression, and at it's simplest there's two problems.

1. He dances around the same problem.

He's always reset to a similar emotional state, whether it be him hating himself(which is at most times the case), him not being able to depend on others, him thinking that he's not good enough etc...

The story deals with these issues in each arc yet it feels like they're all basically the same issue i.e him hating himself, yet the story always frames it as this revelation and achievement. This refutes the rebut that it's small progress, because the story sure as hell doesn't treat it as such. In EP 18 it feels like all of Subarus self-hatred issues were washed away, the story doesn't articulate this part but it sure as hell feels as such.

Each arc adds a nuance, but they just feel like iterations of each other and no new advancement has been made.

2. Character progression feels too rudimentary

As stated, each arc handles a different issue and then solves it. Which is a problem in of in itself because real character growth shouldn't be defined that easily, it should feel natural. Anyone arguing the case for Subarus development can very easily just point to one example and say "See, there he developed" as is the case with, of course, EP 18 and many others.

Unfortunately, natural character progression doesn't work like that. Development is where when inspecting the same character you can notice behaviors that he wouldn't do before or when he mentally matures. It should feel like a never ending steep slope, where the character is just progressing bit by bit, because truly there is neither an end goal nor is there a definite checkpoint (**cough cough** looking at you RBD). Rather, Subarus development feel like concrete steps, as if he's actually climbing a set of stairs. (Anyone else felt Deja Vu? Yeah it's ironic)

The framing of these breakthroughs can make them feel more concrete than Subaru's later behavior justifies.

In defining these crucial moments where he develops, it overrides the fact that a major issue with Subaru is that he's flawed and often falls into the same issues again and again. It created a dissonance because with each issue that arises, I can't help but ask "Didn't we just deal with that?"

- - -

In conclusion, these are just a few critiques I had while watching and I hope I was able to deliver my points clearly.

Thanks for reading!

Hello guys, today I think I'm going to do something a little different with my posts, everyone loves top ten lists, and everyone loves super heroes, so why not combine the two?

10. Something from the x-men. Idk, all their movies suck except two of them, split it between dofp or fc cause they're both tripe, but less tripe than the others. I'd go with fc cause it doesn't have wolverine in it.

11. Blade, Blade is so cool, he goes like fwoosh, with his big ass coat kills some fools.

8 7 & 6. Since MIB is a marvel property they count here, I like all 3 a lot but my favorite is 3 because I felt sad when J's dad died in it.

5. Ironman 3 or avengers. Just like the x-men, all the mcu films are incredibly tripe, so it's one of these two, the least tripe in the selection. IronMan 3 is interesting because it puts tony in an out of the norm position and puts him out of the comfort zone and into the danger zone. Also the twist with manderin was something straight out of the comics.

4 & 3. Spider-man 1& 2. Come on.

2. Dark knight. Like dude.

3. Spider-verse. Lots of pretty colors.

This happens way too often, especially in isekai anime and manga (and it especially occurs with Fantasy genre based on Roman or Medieval era). The willing slave girl tends to be played for either comedy or sexual content. I would say this archetype has caused problems for the isekai genre, especially when we see modern characters partake in slavery as a result. I understand that it might be impossible to level the entire system and free every slave (that takes a lot of societal effort and may be beyond the scope of a single adventuring party) but modern characters partaking in slavery is awful unless that character is already a villain. 

The willing slave girl archetype tends to happen in one of two ways. 
One: Life debt. The MC saved her life, so she pledges herself to him to satisfy all of his needs. The best way to fix this is to absolutely never call it slavery. Pay and wages also fixes this; when the party gets money, this girl also gets a share to spend on what she wants. 

Two: Manhood awe. The girl pledges herself to the MC because of… well that. This tends to occur with R18+ works, but there is room for character backstory here. Maybe an attractive girl born in poverty and wanting a way out… with a good man who can take care of her. It’s better than the other alternatives. 

Three: Learned Helplessness. Someone who wants to be taken care of that badly. Could overlap with part two (except this one is taken more seriously and not for R18+ humor). 

This is one of the archetypes that’s really hard to write properly. My take is because willing slave girl tends to become fetish fuel, especially in the isekai genre. A fast fix is to remove the modern character. There are many ways to make a “chosen one” without resorting to “literally from another world”. Morality may be a social construct, so characters of that time period who do not know other ideologies partaking in this kind of behavior are more excusable than someone who knows different/better. Alternatively, pay. That’s it. A share of the pay. That helps a lot. And never call this slavery at all.

What do you think?

This isn't really a rant or anything, just an observation that i made based on a recent watch of the 6 JoJo parts and, something that struck me is that :

Part 2 is legitimately good, like, really really good, it has a good cast, an extremely charismatic protagonist, a good villain, a lot of good fights and a lot of heart in it, but also

The rhythm of the anime, it is fast paced, like, fast paced in the sense that there is very few filler moment and most of the episodes are spent with character progression and story happening. I remember that the reason why part 2 was a bit faster was because due to it not being popular they tried to speedrun through the non-stand parts of JoJo to get what the fans actually wanted at the time

Here comes JoJo part 3 and ... it's good, especially the final 8 episode run and the legendary Jotaro vs DIO fight, a classic fight in the same vein as Goku vs Perfect Cell or Naruto vs Neji or Naruto vs Pain or Gojo vs Sukuna

BUT, and that's a big BUT

The rhythm of the anime is damn, long, there are way, way too many episodes, and a lot of time spent doing nothing. Of course, watching Polnareff's shenanigans is fun, but is it really necessary to spent 5 minutes showing us Polnareff trying not to stick his tongue on a toilet while being manipulated by an old hag?

And that's the thing, the monster of the week formula is a classic, and i get it, it was cool in the 90s, and i'm sure it was cool in 2014, but in 2026 it feels... alien to me? too slow? i dunno

I do think Part 3 is amazing pay no mistake, but in term of how fast and enjoyable it is, i think part 2 has aged way better than part 3 due, in part, to the decision to cram as many panels as fast as possible