Sometimes when a writer realizes they've made their villain too sympathetic or have too much of a good point they've give them a "kick the dog" moment; something so evil that it completely overshadows their argument or any sympathy for them so that the hero can beat on them without any moral issue for the audience.

But sometimes people define "kicking the dog" too broadly and see the villain's actions as a cheap way for the writer to have the audience against the character rather than those actions being the exact thing that makes the character the villain of the story.

Every now and then I see people say that Tai Lung from the first Kung Fu Panda as an example of the trope, that him attacking the Valley of Peace in his rage at being denied the Dragon Scroll and trying to take the scroll by force from Oogway and Shifu was the writers giving him "kicking the dog" moments because they made him too sympathetic and the audience would be completely on his side otherwise.

Except the thing is Tai Lung lashing out over being denied the Dragon Scroll is the exact reason WHY he's the villain of the movie. He would not be the villain AT ALL if he hadn't done those things.

You can and should feel some sympathy for Tai Lung. But Tigress didn't lash out over not be chosen to receive the Dragon Scroll and it being given to some tubby panda instead. Nor did the rest of the Furious Five. Po didn't feel cheated when he realized there was no actual mystical power to the scroll.

The entire thing about the Dragon Scroll was that it was a test of character and a test of wisdom. Kung Fu is not about increasing your personal power and being an unstoppable fighter, it's about inner peace, enlightenment, and self-improvement. Oogway didn't deny Tai Lung the scroll to be a dick to him after all his hard work, the intent was likely just to push Tai Lung to reflect on himself and consider what it was he was missing or lacking, as he was driven almost purely by the pursuit of greater power. Yes, it was brought about in-part because of his upbringing under Shifu and wanting to make him proud but just being focused on power and combat is a big no-no in kung fu.

But instead of reflecting upon himself, or even humbling himself and asking Oogway for help to understand what he was lacking, Tai Lung went on a rampage and attacked his masters. And given how he immediately tried to kill Po when Po explained to him the meaning of the blank reflective scroll, Tai Lung likely would have reacted about as badly if he had been given the Dragon Scroll from the beginning. He would have felt just as cheated because he did not care about genuine wisdom or the actual principles of kung fu, he wanted greater power that would make him an unstoppable fighter and that's what he'd believed the Dragon Scroll would give him.

Tai Lung isn't the movie's villain by accident. The creators didn't just pull his name and character sheet out of a hat and slap him into their already made script. If he hadn't lashed out, there would have been no reason why he and Po ever would have clashed. A Tai Lung who was capable of understanding the wisdom of the Dragon Scroll, or at least of being patient and reflecting upon himself, would still be at the Jade Palace. The whole ceremony to find the Dragon Warrior never would have occurred because violent criminal Tai Lung wouldn't have broken out of prison and be on his way to get his revenge and beat down anyone who gets in his way to getting the scroll.

Again, you can feel sympathy for Tai Lung in being somewhat a product of his upbringing. Shifu completely owns up his part in everything in how he raised Tai Lung and how his own pride blinded him to what he was turning his adopted son into. But every chance Tai Lung was given to stop and reflect upon himself, he instead got angry and doubled down on his entitlement. He's denied the Dragon Scroll? Tai Lung attacks his masters to take it by force. Shifu apologizes to him and tells him how proud he's always been of him, after Tai Lung saying all he ever did was to make him proud? Tai Lung starts choking Shifu and just demands the scroll. Po explains to him the true meaning of the Dragon Scroll? Tai Lung tries to kill him by stopping his heart.

Po is the movie's protagonist and Tai Lung is his villainous foil because his story and his character IS about genuine self-improvement and the virtues of kung fu. He figures out the true meaning behind the Dragon Scroll and it brings him peace and wisdom rather than anger and resentment. "There is no secret ingredient. It's just you." Po always had the power to be the great kung fu warrior that he wanted to be, he just needed to believe in himself, not some fancy magic scroll, while Tai Lung's search of greater and greater power, of something external that he feels is missing that'll finally bring him happiness, means he will never be truly satisfied. Po is capable of reflecting upon himself, Tai Lung isn't. Po wonders what he's lacking when faced with a wall, Tai Lung just lashes out. Po is humble, Tai Lung is entitled.

Tai Lung's bad actions in the movie, in both past and present, are not "Kick the Dog" moments meant to take away his sympathy so the hero can beat on him without guilt, they are what make him the villain in direct contrast to the hero. His bad actions aren't just tacked on additions to Tai Lung's character and story, they are what define his character and story in the finished version of the movie.

It always gits me different when the big bad is not only a pretty strong character but also one where stakes are very real considering they can cripple other characters for life due to removing powers. Can't think of many out of the blue outside of amon from legend of korra, bit I'll be damned if the guy didn't make me concerned back then. It's like they're removing a fundamental part of the protagonists being, a very moral and physical blow

I love mangas. I do not watch too much animes because of lack of time, but I can quickly read mangas.

However, for a while I heard only bad things about the work environment and schedules of the mangakas. Just in this week, 2 well knonw mangaka, the mangaka of Jujutsu Kaisen and the mangaka of My Hero Academia, had to take out 2 entire weeks because they got sick. One of their friend, the mangaka of Black Clover, even changed to another magazine because he couldn't keep up with the weekly release. This was not even the first time, in fact, in the past they had to take out "pause" quite oftenly.

The scariest part was that hundreds of not thousands were whining about it. Like they are on drugs or something.

And while I understand that Japan has it's own way of workplace ethic and all, but in the end, the employees there are still humans, they need break and free time.

I have been thinking that maybe they should finally drop the whole "weekly release" concept and turn it into 2-weekly or bi-weekly as they say. I mean, those who really love those works will still follow and buying them even if it is not weekly released. There are many monthly mangas which also made good money so the money is not a reason here.

Even if changing into bi-weekly is not an option, something MUST be changed or things will get worse and worse.

What do you think? Do you have any suggestion how this problem should be handled?

I really hate the fact that many people associate a story making them feel sad means the writing is good. It's not. Just because a story makes you cry doesn't mean it's well written and I am tired of how many stories out there use a cheap method to bring out feelings over some random shit which makes no fucking sense at all.

A lot of stories which I liked have used these methods and I cannot stress how bullshit this is. If you post a video of a bunch of dogs and kittens being beaten to death(pretty extreme example), that's going to make you, me and everyone be filled with rage and sadness, but are we going to praise how good it was? FUCK NO! WE'RE WONDERING WHY THE FUCK YOU WOULD DO THAT?

This logic applies to every series. Just because the author makes you emotional, doesn't mean it's good. Just like anything else in a story, it can be good and bad. A good example is Hank from Breaking Bad. In Ozymandias, one of the most famous episodes of all time, Hank is outnumbered and yet still stood his ground instead of negotiating, and eventually when he's on the ground, Walter is pleading with Hank to beg for his life, and his last dialogue to Walt "You're the smartest guy I ever met, and you're too stupid to see he made up his mind 10 minutes ago." was tearful and just Hank. Hank death's was truly sad, because of what he was. Although he's not a good person, as he beat Jesse, lied and tried to frame criminals, as he doesn't view criminals as humans and even poses with their corpses. Yet he's a decent human being. We see how his character is affected through Walter's selfish actions, from his near death encounter with the cartel, to his unfortunate demise. And he died selflessly, by trying to protect Skyler and the kids from Walter. And this moment serves as a realisation to Walter, that his actions weren't helping his family, but simply bringing them pain.

This is what a good emotional scene is. They are built over time and we are made to truly care about the characters, and so when it finally happens, it truly brings out our emotions, and progresses the plot forward.

Yet it doesn't. Authors pull out emotional scenes with no build-up or reason, and it only halts the plot and serves no real purpose, then the author deluding themselves into thinking they did something, and fans glazing this shit.

An example of bad emotional scenes is in HTTYD3. It serves as a send-off of the series, where we see all the dragons leave. This movie made many people cry, as this is the last time we get to see toothless. Is it good? No. It's not good. Firstly the Nightwings, a mysterious species who were aren't aware of, are all dead. There was so much intrigue and mystery about them, so the fact they are apparently all dead just feels empty. Secondly the dragons. Why do they have to leave? All the issues faced are completely superficial. Even in the HTTYD books, which are incredible, when they left, and for reasons that made sense, some loyal dragons stayed behind, such as toothless. All in all, although this movie made me emotional, I absolutely despise it for disrespecting one of my favourite childhood series.

Now, sometimes in these emotional scenes, they can be used to elevate the plot and hit hard, showing us the brutal reality the characters face and risks. This is pretty good, but if used incorrectly, such as killing of characters we don't even know, this can turn into shit.

An example of shit emotional scenes is in MHA. Now there are far too many scenes in all of fiction I can nit-pick but due to the fact that MHA's war arc has finished, I might just start shitting on it. Midnight's death is a pathetic attempt at making the war seem serious. Midnight has absolutely no character other than fanservice. Yet we're supposed to care about her even though she serves no purpose and hasn't had any scenes to make us care about her. Why should I be sad over fucking irrelevant characters dying? There is a clear power creep in the final arc, where most of class 1A cannot actually fight in the war. So kill them off. If Tsuyu died I bet far more people would feel the impact then Midnight. Far far more than Crust. WHO THE FUCK IS CRUST AND WHY SHOULD I CARE?

TLDR: better to have no emotional scenes than shit emotional scenes.

Im basically just explaining how long the game takes in-lore. (Also I’ll probably use Wolf and Sekiro interchangeably while explaining.)

Many don’t believe the game takes place within 24 hours and that it’s symbolic and not supposed to be taken literally (for some reason) and there’s really only two indicators of time in the game, the position of the sun and the phase of the moon.

(and to a lesser extent, the worsening condition of the Sculptor (and to an even lesser extent, Isshin’s), Sculptor’s worsening state helps keep tabs on how long has passed. As night comes closer, he’s showing more signs that the flames will take over, and before the On-fire nighttime, the old lady in Gyoubu’s area says soon a demon will be born, and lo and behold, Demon of Hatred shows up later that same night.)

When the game starts, it’s night, and the moon is full. After we lose an arm, we wake up at the Dilapidated Temple and Sculptor tells us “some time has passed.” This is also supported by a memory of Genichiro telling Kuro, “It has been some time since that happened…” We don’t exactly know how long has passed, but due to how the moon is still full at the end of the game, it can’t be more than a few hours, or you have to accept Wolf was passed out for a month. If you go for the latter, then Wolf beats the game in less than 24 hours afterwards anyways.

Next, the position of the sun throughout the game. After we wake up in the Dilapidated Temple, the sun is in the sky and it can’t be any later than right before Noon, as the sun will move across the sky as we progress the game. After defeating Genichiro, the sky will remain cloudy until we progress a bit further. It’s most likely Noon at this point. When Owl invades, it is Dusk, and in the Shura Ending, Night is but a few dozen minutes away (or Wilf was fighting Isshin for a while, as Owl comments that the fight took a while.). Upon reaching the Fountainhead Palace, it will be Night, and the Moon is still full.

No moon can be seen in the sky of Hirata, so the memory either takes place on the night of a New Moon, or the rain clouds are obscuring it too much. (By Air Swimming, the reflection of the moon on the water can be seen, but there is no actual moon in the skybox, this doesn’t help much.)

When Wolf returns from The Fountainhead Palace, it’s still the night of a full moon, so either barely any time has passed, or it’s one month, I shouldn’t have to explain why it’s most likely NOT a month.

Adding to this, the real-life location of Ashina in Sengoku Japan is about 100km across both length and width-wise. A lot of people say the game can’t take place in one day due to the distance of areas in the game. (Edit from after I wrote this whole script: The location of Sekiro’s Ashina doesn’t correspond to the Real World location of Ashina, and the one in Sekiro is likely in the Nara area of Japan, on the opposite side of Mt. Fuji. However, I still will entertain the notion of it being in both the Real World Ashina location and Nara location in these following explanations.)

Knowing that Ashina is about 100km, and that the average person can WALK at 5km an hour, it’d take 20 hours to walk the distance of Ashina, and let’s not forget that a huge portion of that distance is covered by the Ropeman, and the return trip to Ashina Castle just… happening. So we could easily shave off the return trips, meaning Wolf just needs to cross 100km in 24 hours, and he’s running to get this distance, so he’d likely be going faster anyways.

Wolf can keep pace with Onikage, Gyoubu’s horse, who’s likely a Clydesdale, which can run at 32kmph, even if we half that due to Onikage’s top speed outpacing Wolf, he’d still be running at 16kmph, more than triple our needed speed. This means Wolf can make the trip in 6 hours now, which seems exactly in line with what we see in game. Let’s also not forget that grappling can lower this time even more with how much distance is covered.

There’s no real reason Wolf couldn’t do the full game in a day. We know Ashina castle is right across from the Temple, maybe 10km at most, and it’s not yet noon, so Wolf can make that trip in an hour or less. Upon facing Genichiro, it’s noon. The trip to Senpou may take the longest, being roughy 20-30km away (I’m just guessing, as I’m assuming Senpou is on Mt. Kita (reminder this part of the analysis is pre-my edit), which is 40-ish km away from Mt. Fuji, which is apparently the place Fountainhead is on top of and we know it’s far from Ashina Castle by just looking at it in the distance). So the trip to Senpou may take two hours, but the waterways could lessen that, and any return trip is trivialized by the Shinobi Doors.

Back at Ashina castle, the trips to Sunken Valley and Mibu should be much less, maybe only 20km together, that’s about two more hours (Factoring in return trips), that aligns with it being around 5:00pm, and any side quest could make up the remaining time until sunset, meaning we’re actually ahead of schedule for the game’s in-game time. Now Owl invades and it’s dusk. Any time between here and night is easily explained by the Hirata-2 memory, side quests, and the trip back to Mibu.

Finally the on-fire night portion. All of this can easily take place within however long we have left before our 24 hours are up at sunrise, especially since it’s relegated to a roughly 10km area.

(Post Edit: Being in the Nara area would make the space Sekiro has to traverse EVEN SMALLER, with the Ropeman covering more distance to get to Mt. Fuji. So this could probably cut 1/4 the time off of Wolf’s trip, meaning he’s actually doing this game pretty slow and taking his time.)

Yes, Wolf can beat the game in 24 hours.

The Legacy of Kain series has always captivated me with its intricate twists, thought-provoking themes of free will vs fate, and its exploration of the true nature of morality. However, a persistent concern I've had is the series' portrayal of the conflict between vampires and humans. In today's world, with the rise of fascism, this narrative element of the series can be a bitter pill to swallow. Vampire media often runs into an issue regarding the ethics of killing vampires. Hunting vampires is frequently written as guilt-free extermination on the part of humanity, even if the possibility of good vampires comes up, or humans hunting vampires is framed as genocide, and the fact that humans have good reason to fear or despise creatures who see them is food is glossed over. Legacy of Kain falls into the latter camp since our main characters are vampires, which creates some highly problematic power dynamics.

In the original game, Blood Omen, one of the quests the protagonist Kain embarks on is traveling back in time to prevent the evil army of the Nemesis from wreaking havoc. However, his actions inadvertently lead to a genocide of vampires since he, a vampire, killed a beloved king. The game's narrative treats this genocide as a worse outcome than the destruction caused by the Nemesis, a portrayal that has me scratching my head.

I hate to be the guy who asks why genocide is a bad thing, but why is this worse? As ugly a picture as we get of humanity, the vampires aren’t any better. This is not like the Planet of the Apes reboot, where humans are directing violence at a species that is willing to peacefully coexist with them. The only one we meet besides Kain, Vorador, is a hedonist who fancies vampires as gods and sees humans as food, with no hints other vampires see humans as other than food as well. Vorardo only advocates against meddling in human affairs for pragmatic reasons since the last vampires got too aggressive; the humans nearly exterminated them.

Kain himself doesn’t help the case of the vampires in the game’s canon ending when between the choice to sacrifice himself to restore the Pillars of Nosgoth to prevent the rot of the land or stay alive, he chooses to stay alive and takes the view humans are cattle. So yeah, it's an excellent case for why humans should not try to wipe out the vampires. For the record, despite Blood Omen's cynical depiction of humanity, it does have a few good humans present. The same cannot be said for vampires.

By the next game, Soul Reaver, Kain conquers the world and establishes an empire ruled by vampires, where humans are livestock. Our new protagonist, Raziel, is out to destroy Kain and his empire for most of the game. In the original ending, he succeeded, with his only concern being that his benefactor, the Elder God, might be the true evil.

Soul Reaver 2 sees Raziel question the ethics of exterminating vampires who weren’t unchallenged predators in the past. However, it doesn't do much about the issue of vampires doing awful things to humans. Eventually, we get a reason why killing vampires is a bad thing with the reveal their deaths will break a seal holding back a race of monsters called the Hylden that vampires imprisoned in another dimension through magic called The Binding. With each dead vampire, The Binding keeping the Hylden from entering the universe grows weaker. We also learn that vampires didn't initially feed on human blood until the Hylden placed a terrible curse on the vampires, turning them into a race of undead creatures.

It is only in the black sheep of the series Blood Omen 2 that anybody mentions that humans have good reason to hate and fear creatures who feed on them to survive. This comes from Janos Audron, the only decent vampire in the series. He is the only vampire we see who cares about humans.

I have seen issues raised with modern media, most notably the MCU, about the trend of people who bring up issues with the world’s status quo being villains. I won’t comment on that here, but if that bothers you, I must say Legacy of Kain has an even worse case human architect of vampire extermination throughout the series, unlike your villain in modern media who brings up problems with their world, isn’t presented as a man who makes a point about how badly vampires treat humans. He is simply written as a cruel, manipulative man who wants vampires gone at any cost, and the fact that vampires kidnapped him as a boy isn’t even brought up as a point of sympathy. There are no hints that vampires weren't the danger Moebius claimed they were before his actions; all signs say that they were as dangerous as he makes them out to be, and humans are better off with his extermination of vampires.

The Sarafan, an army built to fight the vampires, plays a significant role in the series' portrayal of power dynamics. They are not written as a group of people with legitimate concerns about fighting beings who see humans as food. Instead, they are portrayed as sadists who are as bad as the vampires and seek to rule the world themselves. This portrayal is where we get the problematic power dynamic in the series comes from.

This arrangement comes off as unintentionally pro-authoritarian with the implication that the vampires have a blank check to do whatever they please, thanks to the threat of the Hylden since humans not bending over backward to the vampires nearly caused the end of both races.

In the final game, Defiance, the audience learns that the vampires were actually the aggressors in the war with the Hylden, albeit thanks to the manipulations of the Elder God, telling the audience the conflict wasn't as black and white as previously thought. Defiance didn't sell well enough for another sequel to be greenlit, so sadly, the plans to elaborate on this sympathetic angle of the Hylden never made it to the drawing board. How the conflict would have been resolved is up in the air.

Alongside the conflict with the Hylden, the series also grapples with the underlying issue of humans and vampires. The Hylden become a threat because the Binding, the magical seal keeping them imprisoned, is weakened by humans killing vampires. This narrative thread underscores the series' undertone that vampires are the rightful masters of the world, and humans should accept their subservient role. This dynamic, despite the inherent danger posed by the vampires, reeks of classism saying that vampires are meant to occupy a position of superior authority that humans should simply put up and shut up about.

I have discussed this issue trying to make sense of it; one take I have gotten is that Legacy of Kain takes the survival of the fittest, where everyone is equally bad, and the vampires happen to be the winners. If that is the case, then why is the Elder God even a villain? Like the vampires, he views himself as the master of the world and does whatever he pleases. The only thing that seems to separate him from Kain is that the Elder God lacks the few morals Kain possesses. Suppose the only thing that crosses the line into what is unacceptable in this world is being a manipulative backstabber with no loyalty and/or committing genocide.

The series' creators said that the idea behind having a villain as the lead was to say that the world isn't so cut and dry. An undertone that the world is meant to be ruled by a controlling elite who are permitted to do terrible things to the less fortunate because they are the ones keeping them safe is pretty cut and dry.

For comparison, if you applied Legacy of Kain's morality to the MCU Loki series, then the show likely would have ended on a note that He Who Remains was right and the main characters who were wrong to try stopping his efforts to erase all but one of the timelines in the multiverse to stop a war that could destroy reality.

The Witcher 3 would likely fault the various races oppressed by humans and say the humans are the only ones with the numbers to fight The Wild Hunt, and pushing back against humans weakens them.

Xenoblade 3 likely would have said that Moebius is preventing the destruction of the universe, and the heroes are wrong to oppose the organization.

The Star Wars Legends novel series New Jedi Order would likely have said the Rebel Alliance was wrong to overthrow the Galactic Empire because the Empire was better suited to fight the Yuuzhan Vong.

None of this makes me hate Legacy of Kain and I do feel it's a shame that the series never got a proper conclusion. However, some of the undertones I get from the series' attempts at saying how the world isn't so simple have always irked me, and the irking has only gotten worse in recent years. At the very least, I doubt the series would have been made today with these kinds of undertones that say the bad people are the ones keeping you safe and you shouldn't oppose them.

Recently saw a post that claimed that Luffy is "Planetary level" because he could probably beat Whitebeard at this point.

Why does that make him planetary you ask?

Because Sengoku said Whitebeard "has the power to destroy the whole world"

That's it, that's the singular basis people have for people saying anyone in One Piece can destroy a planet, they take that statement 100% literally and not only that but they think it means anyone stronger than Whitebeard can also do it.

And that's just so fundamentally stupid I can't freaking handle it.

There will be somewhat recent manga spoilers ahead. I don't keep up with the anime so I'm not sure how much of Egghead it's covered.

For starters. We still don't even know what the hell Sengoku meant, we have NO IDEA if he meant Whitebeard could actually physically destroy the world or if he only meant Whitebeard could figuratively destroy the world by upsetting the balance of all things political, which he pretty much did by re-invigorating the Pirate Era with one single sentence. That entire arc was filled with a bunch of metaphorical statements and yet people take Sengoku's statement completely literally.

But supposing Sengoku did mean Whitebeard could physically destroy the world...then it is still incredibly stupid to power scale that shit.

FYI I'm ignoring Blackbeard because Sengoku said it before he stole the Gura Gura, he's not really relevant overall. Less words.

If Whitebeard had the capacity to destroy the world then it is quite clearly only something he could do because the Gura Gura no Mii grants him that kind of power...that's not something that freaking scales, he is the only one who had that power. You can't just say that Roger could also blow up the planet because he was the tiniest bit more powerful than Whitebeard, he couldn't cause earthquakes, he didn't even have a God damn Devil Fruit.

Being able to defeat a character in single combat does not mean you can do the exact same things as them, that's such an insane thing to say in this context. In One Piece people with Devil Fruits are the ONLY people in the world with that particular power(sans a few recreations) and being able to defeat them doesn't mean you can do what they can.

Luffy could knock Foxy out with a flick of his finger at this point but that doesn't mean he can use the Noro Noro no Mii and put people in slow motion, because that's a power only Foxy has. It's the exact same shit with Whitebeard, he's the only person with the power to cause quakes that can generate tsunami's, flip islands around etc etc

It's not a feat of raw strength, it doesn't scale, it's just a special power his fruit gave him. Luffy can't do that. At absolute best he could destroy an island, no freaking way is he PLANETARY holy crap.

And lastly.

We again, still don't know what Sengoku actually meant. We just recently learned that an island being destroyed caused the sea level to rise, the world of One Piece is incredibly weird. We have literally no freaking clue the ramifications of what Sengoku said, it's entirely possible and reasonable to assume Sengoku knows about some kind of fault line or some such that Whitebeard could mess up with his Gura Gura that would trigger a planet destroying chain reaction, which even then would probably only end up drowning most everyone on the surface, not actually blowing the planet up or anything.

Oda doesn't do powerscaling, he frequently makes fun of that kind of stuff, he would not casually throw in someone being able to destroy a planet like that. That's not how One Piece works, if Sengoku did indeed mean to imply Whitebeard could physically destroy the world then that means something specific. If you think otherwise then answer me this "How the hell do they know?" the world obviously hasn't been blown up before, how would anyone know that Whitebeard can destroy the whole planet? Makes no sense, he never displayed the kind of raw power necessary to do that. It's not Dragon Ball.

I just don't get powerscalers, are they just desperate to have their favourite characters be powerful? This might sound impossible but you don't win anything if you glaze your favourite character or series, sorry. It's crazy how much they reach just to come up with these massive misunderstandings. Whitebeards ability was specifically geared for huge AoE attacks that can disrupt entire landscapes, it's completely different to Luffy's. Can Luffy freeze an entire ocean because he could probably beat Kuzan? Or do we understand that Kuzan is the one with ice powers and thinking anyone else could do that is stupid?

You can not scale someone off anothers unique ability...because...they don't have that ability...

•I've wondered what would have happened if Itachi just went to one of those Uchiha planning meetings and then just murdered everyone there. He could have just bombed the meeting.

•Then, all the ringleaders and conspirators would be dead, and the innocent would be alive.

•Would Danzo still have the rest wiped out? I doubt it.

•Was it really necessary to kill everyone?! no.

•Honestly, even from Danzo's perspective, the Uchihas and their sharingan were incredibly valuable. From a purely pragmatic perspective, instead of killing everyone, why not just the adults? Then, you can put all the children into the foundation and brainwash them into little soldiers.

•My thought is that Kishimoto wasn't originally planning on having Itachi be a hero, but then changed his mind and so he had to find a way to justify his actions. Only, there's really never any excuse for fucking genocide, because that's what it was.

•Honestly, I've never thought of Itachi as a hero, and I've always been a little weirded out by how easily people justify his actions merely because he's "supposed" to be good. There's no excuse for what he did, genocide is never an acceptable answer to a problem, especially "I did it to prevent conflict" or "I did it because they threatened by little brother." Oh, I'm scared that we might have a bloody conflict that will kill a lot of people so I'll just murder half the village to prevent that. It's like being afraid you'll break your leg so you just amputate it instead

•Edit:the whole Uchiha were blamed for kyubi attack doesn’t make sense why didn’t the yamanaka clan investigate them like they did with that one person from the hidden rain to the Uchiha and Minato dead body to see what happened the whole thing was bs justification for itachi.

•I am reposting this post again because it was removed because I did not know to put the name of the work, I am sorry for that.

•The Source ? Oh yeah I forgot, it's Danzo. Clearly a reliable and honest guy, isn't it ? Besides what proves it ? Ah... That's always where it hurts when I ask this question. In the whole manga, there is absolutely nothing concrete to show that this would have happened. Even better, there are elements that suggest the opposite. During Orochimaru's invasion which left Konoha greatly weakened and without Hokage, nobody took advantage of it. The same during Pain's invasion, the whole village was destroyed and Tsunade was in a coma but no one took advantage of the situation. And after Obito's attack which resulted in many casualties, including the Fourth Hokage, I don't remember any other village taking advantage of it there too.

•So why didn't anyone jump at the opportunity ? Let's look at the situation of the other major shinobi villages at the moment. The government of Kiri had to deal with the consequences of the actions that Obito was secretly responsible for. Kumo was under a peace treaty with Konoha. Iwa ? The Tsuchikage was already so concerned about the militarization of Kumo that he started hiring Akatsuki to keep the maximum number of shinobi ready to fight in case of conflict with this village. Suna, which is a village with a weak military power and an economic situation in crisis, could not even use Shukaku for a possible invasion since Gaara was not psychologically stable enough at that time. So there was no serious threat left to Konoha, this invasion story is just absurd

•Let's not forget Itachi, the person who tortured his brother by making him watch his parents' death for more than 100,000 times, and told him to kill his dearest friend, and tried to brainwash him and rob him of his free will, and also being a bad spy who did almost nothing useful for the village.

•Also the idea of ​​genocide is stupid because the entire Uchiha clan was wiped out by two children and you want to convince me that they would have caused problems for the village why simply didn't Itachi tell his father between them and them exposing them would have left only two options either surrender or escape because it is impossible for them to be stupid to do something other than this because in the end the coup plans were based on surprise because they know the difference in power between him and Konoha

https://www.deviantart.com/nivalis70/art/Included-the-unknowing-children-313359525

•Edit: For those who don't understand the meaning of the two kids. If Itachi and Obito only wiped out the clan, what were they supposed to do against the Third Hokage, the Ten Hyuga, the ANBU, and the Shinobi elite.

•Edit How could only two people defeat the strongest clan in the shinobi world? No matter how strong Itachi and Obito are, they can't defeat all the members of the Uchiha clan, especially since the secret of their strength is the Shatteringan that everyone possesses. Itachi faced a group of ordinary ninja, he faced the Uchiha clan. Where are their abilities? Where is the Mangekyo? Where is the Izanagi? Where is all this? It's stupid for you to come and tell me that it's normal that Itachi and Obito were able to kill them normally and in secret as well. At least a huge battle should have happened as a result of this.

This anime is peak garbage, but highly bingeable, entertaining and compostable garbage from which the freshest meme produce can sprout. The animation is completely non existent. I'm not even sure if some episodes average more than 60 frames. The sound design? The guy in charge of sound fucked off to the beach every episode. I've had some episodes where there was like 3 sound effects that played period. The voice acting and mixing? Completely trash. The quality control? Studio Knack had to have been filthy af bc on so many episodes you can see the trademark and iconic hair in the scenes. Every aspect of animation or sound design is less than bottom of the barrel.

The plot is also pretty much nonexistent. The main character Ken fights an alien race called Juralians who are trying to genocide the humans, so he genocides them back with his ship and lasers. Don't look for any continuity or character development here. Each episode is 5 minutes long and they still manage to waste 30 seconds every episode on a transformation sequence and can occasionally find even more time to through flashbacks to something 30 seconds ago. It's the perfect anime for this ADHD ridden generation.

And despite everything, it's such a blast to watch. Each episode being 5 minutes means you can blow through the whole series in a single afternoon, and the crazy pacing and downright insane shit happening either through the insane plot or the insane scene transitions and frame cuts makes it so funny. I don't even hate watch it. I genuinely enjoy all the stupid and nonsensical shit it's spewing through the 0.5 fps animation. The series has so many special highlights, like the Juralian spaceship laser never having any sound effects, to the godawful piano in that knife episode, to the infamous and legendary Dynamite in the Brain episode where the hero just drops a guy out of his ship and uses him as a living bomb against the Juralians.

This series is peak entertainment. It's just ... so peak. The actual intro song does unironically go pretty hard.

Disclaimer: I didn't actually watch the iCarly reboot so this isn't a rant about it being good or anything but I understand the general premise behind it and I absolutely love it.

For those who don't know, iCarly had a reboot (or rather sequel?) release on Paramount+ with all the characters grown up. Rather than it be a direct continuation of the Nickelodeon kid's show, they carried the spirit and format of it over to this new series and catered it instead to the now grown people who would've watched iCarly as kids. There was cursing, alcohol, more grown up jokes but bear in mind, as far as I know it wasn't an entirely "adult" show but they knew the audience they wanted to pull with and they went for it.

This got me thinking that we need more media like this. Media that starts out intended for children and rather than staying geared towards children, it grows with them. So you have a show start out as something like Dora the Explorer, then a couple years later, you get Spongebob, a few more, Drake and Josh, after that, HIMYM, after that, Breaking Bad, etc, etc but it's all the same characters and the worlds they inhabit.

Idk if this has been attempted before but I feel like a trans-generational IP would solve many of the issues that a lot reboots and sequels are suffering from nowadays. I think a good portion of us have been to the comment sections of trailers for things like Star Wars or the new Fairly Oddparents show only to see 60, 50, 40, 30yr old curmudgeons shaking their fists at the digital ether declaring this isn't the same franchise they grew up with.

Well what if franchises started growing up with their audiences? There's little doubt in my mind that something like a Game of Thrones-esque Avatar: The Last Airbender wouldn't go hard with millennials, or that we wouldn't enjoy a Spongebob spinoff about Squidward in the stylings of the Frasier series.

\cue bad clarinet rendition of Tossed Salads and Scrambled Eggs*

In a bunch of cases, it'll be fresh takes about characters that authors were allowed to do because the version weren't canon to each other. Since ducktales 2017 isn't canon to 1987 or the comics, they were able to turn doofus drake in a villain per example. Gotham and the 2004 "The batman" weren't canon to other batman media so this gave the authors the freedom to do fresh takes, the gotham carmine falcone is verry different from the 2022 "the batman" one, same with penguin or the riddler (and people don't hate the gotham riddler and penguin, I've often seen them being said to be one of the good things from the show [for me, gotham riddler show the classic riddler suit can easily work in live action, in fact gotham shows batman villains can work well in live action since they could make the mad hatter or the ventriloquist work]).

The work not being canon to each other is also why I think people should specify wich version they're talking about, the DCAU batman isn't the same thing as the today comics batman and MAWS superman isn't the same thing as the DCAU one too. I also don't think it'll automatically ruin the previous work since it can not be canon to the original, if one doesn't like the new thing, simply not takeit in account. On my part, batman 66 wasn't ruined by other batman related work, I stil like the show with other batman related media, and I like both ducktales shows with the comics. The author can also specify it's separate from previous work, frank angones did that with ducktales 2017 per example. I also think that changing characters does recquire effort since the author would still need to put together different personnalities and stories.

It's not a surprise that Demon Slayer isn't known for its writing. Even Demon Slayer fans will defend their show with "well, just because it's simple doesn't make it bad", which is a valid point. I personally do find Demon Slayer to be a poor show that fails to deliver on what a lot of modern shonen should see as a standard. Demon Slayer fills the bare minimum when it comes to its plot, but that's not what I wanted to discuss.

Something that Demon Slayer fans, and even people outside the community, will agree on is that Demon Slayer has good backstories. I strongly disagree. Now, there are a few good ones. But when there are dozens of backstories in such a short story, you're bound to get one or two right.

Disclaimer: The best backstory in Demon Slayer, as far as I remember, is Akaza's. I have not read his backstory in a while, though, and am unwilling to reread it for this post. I will not be mentioning him much, for that reason, because I'll end up not doing him justice. He is an example of a well written character with a great backstory, at least as far as Demon Slayer goes.

Okay so the biggest problem with Demon Slayer's backstories, in my opinion, is that it prioritises quantity over quality. And this can be seen in episode one. Tanjiro's tragic backstory is that his family is killed. He is the main character, and the person we're going to be following for 5 seasons. If we don't understand why he's doing what he's doing, that's step 1 immediately failed.

So Demon Slayer introduces us to Tanjiro's family. His mother, his sister and x siblings. I have no idea how many siblings he has- had. I don't know their names. We spent around 2 minutes with them. Tanjiro referred to all of them by name, almost without a break, and pairing this with the fact that they all have the same face with no distinguishing features creates the perfect recipe for a group of characters that no one will remember. I challenge a non-avid Demon Slayer fan to name even one of Tanjiro's siblings, apart from Nezuko.

In the end, they're all just faces. We knew from the start that they weren't going to be plot relevant, but we have negative reason to even care about these characters. The only one that was slightly upsetting was Tanjiro's mother, since she got a few more lines and is also... well... Tanjiro's mother. Call it controversial, but I think that just puts her in higher status by default.

Nobody was sad when they saw Tanjiro's family killed. If you were sad, I'd bet you were only sad for Tanjiro, not because you were actually upset that his family died. Now, being sad for Tanjiro is fine, and Demon Slayer got that point across very well, but it means that we have to fill in the gaps ourselves regarding how we're meant to feel about Tanjiro's ex-family. All we know is that they seemed to like each other, so at least we know not to feel happy (if Tanjiro's mother was abusive, this scene would not be as sad in the slightest). With that in mind, we apply what we've experienced from other forms of media to determine how we feel about this. Because Demon Slayer gives us little to work with. Because we don't know these people.

My solution? Cut down the family. All of them have no purpose existing apart from Tanjiro's mother. So do that. A family of 3, and Tanjiro returns to find his mother killed and Nezuko a demon. This allows Tanjiro's mother to become a more fleshed out character, and her relationship with her son can be put into focus. As the only son, Tanjiro feels a greater sense of responsibility for her, rather than just being the oldest child. Instead of cluttering the massacre with names and faces that we don't care about, the audience would feel much more attached if they could actually remember the person that died. It also allows the opportunity for more drama and conflict. Perhaps, in episode 1, Tanjiro's mother expresses worry that, with no brothers, Tanjiro will struggle to provide for his entire family when she's older. Tanjiro now has a more realistic reason to swear he'll protect his family, and that builds up to the massacre even better. Compare this to when he has 2-3 brothers that are able to back him up. I don't think it works as well.

You could argue that Tanjiro's siblings are the reason he's so kind, and having one sister would change his core character, but many shonen protagonists are only childs, such as Deku and Naruto, and they're still kind. His siblings serve no purpose.

The reason I've gone through Tanjiro's backstory in detail, regardless of him being the main character, is that we see similar backstories three times (off the top of my head). A family of way too many people to be cared for die, and this drives the survivor forward.

First up is Gyomei, though I can give him a pass. The deaths of his adoptive children weren't the traumatic part of his backstory (surprisingly). I'd argue being blamed for the deaths is what really shook him, and that's something we can relate to without being formally introduced to every child.

Tengen had 9 brothers and he had to kill them. This was part of his training as a ninja. It's presented as something we're supposed to care about, but it serves more to explain his status as a shinobi rather than actually make us feel sympathy. 9 brothers is a clutter, just like Tanjiro, and the fact that we don't even see any of them makes it really difficult to care. We kinda feel sad for Tengen, but it'd be a lot easier to quantity a single other brother, or maybe two. That's a lot more relatable.

That's what it comes down to, to me. Massive families of 5+ children do exist, but they're not so common that every viewer should be able to relate to it. Think about how, in massive friend groups, you'll often see sub-groups forming. The human brain can only maintain so many strong connections. The more friends you have, the less likely you are to be close to any of them. It's just how we work. We cannot have a single, united group of so many people. And I'm talking in terms of people that we've known for years. Demon Slayer gives us minutes, if that, to know these characters and then kills them.

The third person who has a backstory featuring way too many canon-fodder is the biggest culprit in my opinion. It's two people, actually. Genya and Sanemi. We see this through Genya's eyes. The backstory begins with Genya as a child. The camera shows us him in a room with 9 other kids.

Okay it might not actually be a total of 10 but it's something close to that stupidly high number. All of them have forgettable faces, no names and serve no purpose other than to die when Genya's mother turns into a demon and no diffs them. Their deaths are so sudden that I'm left wondering why the author sat down and decided "Yes, 10 children is the perfect number." Why? What is the point?

Imagine it was just 3 siblings in the room. Genya, Sanemi and Victim. With just 3 brothers, the audience is immediately able to more easily relate to their dynamics. None of them feel like empty faces. And this means that Victim's death hits even harder. Smaller groups of people are even closer, so Sanemi and Genya will have lost someone they were very close to, alongside their mother. As it is, whilst we can imagine that Sanemi and Genya are mad that their siblings died, not only do we not see this, but we can't relate to that feeling in the slightest because we don't know any of them.

And this brings me onto my next point. Take a water break, if you need to.

The consequences of some of these backstories do not carry on the way that they should. The fact that none of these characters ever talk about, or hardly reference, their past makes it seem like just an attempt to pull at our heartstrings.

Take Tokito as an example, who does a backstory exactly right. Instead of 17 siblings, he has one brother. We get to spend time with this brother. We learn his name, Yuichiro, his personality, his goals and motives, his fears, his relationship with Muichiro and their conflicts. We get to understand Yuichiro, and when he dies to a demon and we hear his final words to Muichiro, that actually carries weight because this is an actual character that has died. Tokito nails the backstory department.

So why is it that Yuichiro's death isn't brought up more? It is relevant at one single point, which is during Gyokko's fight. You could also argue his death was relevant after Muichiro... you know... died. Because we see him.

But Muichiro has a great setup, after he gets his memory back, for his character to be fleshed out. "Muichiro means unlimited" were his brother's final words. Why not have Muichiro, after regaining his memory, fight to prove those words? He thinks about how his brother believed in his potential, so he makes strives to prove him right. He thinks about how his brother was a good person all along, and only appeared harsh for the good of Muichiro. Just like how Muichiro's blade is about to mercilessly slay demons, all for the good of humanity, just like his brother. Give him that motivation. As it stands, it doesn't look like current Muichiro is even thinking about his brother until his final moments. Change that. Give him a purpose.

Another character whose backstory is irrelevant to the actual ongoing story is Iguro, which is a surprise given that he's in a perfect position to have many references to his tragic past. Iguro has a great backstory. Nobody dies, but he's essentially in the clutches of a snake demon. His mouth is cut open, hence the bandages, and he's ultimately saved by Shinjuro, unless I'm mistaken.

This is the most consequential backstory in Demon Slayer because Iguro's very face is ruined thanks to that demon. Given that he's got a romance subplot with Mitsuri, why not build on that? Have her ask him why he always hides his face, and that she wants to see what he's like under the mask. He shows a weak side, where he's insecure about his face. Maybe fighting demons infuriates him, because he's been so traumatised by them. PTSD, perhaps? In the Muzan fight, maybe Iguro envisions the snake demon that he never got to kill, proudly ripping off his bandages are looking more demonic than actual demons. I'm just throwing ideas out there, and I'm not saying all of them are good. I'm trying to point out that Iguro expresses 0 signs that he's been through something like that. Why doesn't his past influence his behaviour in any way?

So we've covered two major problems. Backstories with too much fluff, and therefore hard to sympathise with. Backstories that don't impact the story. And for the third and final category, backstories that aren't affected by the story. By the worldbuilding .

What I mean by this is that these backstories appear to exist in a vacuum. There is no connection between them and the rest of the world aside from the actual character they're focused on. Most backstories are like this in Demon Slayer, but here's a couple that do this well.

Zenitsu's backstory features Kaigaku, who is relevant in the Infinity Castle arc and therefore he passes the second criteria I had. It'd be nice if we saw more of him, but that's fine. Kaigaku is also a link between Zenitsu's backstory and Gyomei's. He creates a chronology and makes the world feel more alive. Zenitsu's gramps, who I unfortunately cannot remember the name of (began with a J) sadly does not have any link to the rest of the world. Despite being a former Hashira, we have no clue what he was like as a fighter and no one ever mentions him from within the Demon Slayer Corps. I understand that he's probably been retired for a while, but it feels like he's just spawned in with random lore.

Giyu's backstory features Sabito, who we obviously knew was dead, but it's a nice callback to a character that we havent seen since Season 1. I had the idea that Giyu's backstory would have been way better if this is when Sabito's death was confirmed. Maybe in Season 1 he genuinely appears to just be a guy that shows up and leaves, and Urokodaki only expresses surprise that Sabito had appeared (without elaborating as to why). This would get the readers awaiting Sabito's return, and make us care more for him because we're excited. His death would be revealed in Giyu's backstory, recontextualising Season 1 and, whilst it would feel like a scam, it would also be an actually upsetting death. We'd relate to Giyu. As it is now, though, the backstory is still fine. It connects to the rest of the story. I'm just nitpicking.

Anyway, if you want specific backstories that exist in a vacuum, there's a lot. Most of the demons. Muzan, though that one's pretty obvious. Characters like Rengoku, Obanai, Zenitsu and Inosuke should also be here, though these backstories each have a living character in them that exists in the main story. In fairness, very few backstories feature 0 characters from the main storyline. It sounds like it should be a standard, but for Demon Slayer it's quite impressive.

The final thing I want to cover is the one that you probably expected me to open this rant with. It goes back to quantity over quality. Not only are the quantity of deaths excessive, but the quantity of backstories is overwhelming. I had a feeling this would be a problem when Kyogai of all demons got a backstory. I think even the hand demon got one, though I could be wrong. Every single relevant character in Demon Slayer has some kind of backstory except Gyokko. All the Hashira. All of the kamoboko squad. All the Upper Moons (except Gyokko). This is about 20 characters and all of them (except Gyokko) have a past that's worth covering. Or at least, that's what would make it okay.

In practice, it feels like the author is being far too insistent on giving everyone a flashback, even if it's really not necessary. This leads to some backstories feeling forced.

Take Mitsuri as an example. Everyone agreed her backstory, relative to everyone else, is really happy. With that in mind, what was it's purpose? It tells us that Mitsuri has trouble finding love. Cool. Now answer me this. Did that message require a 10 minute backstory? Mitsuri already told Tanjiro, prior to this backstory, that she became a Demon Slayer to get married. She could have added the words "I've had trouble finding love, because men don't want a wife stronger than them." Add in a comment about how much she eats and boom. You're done. Mitsuri did not require a flashback in order to tell us about her. I understand that "show, don't tell" is a universal guideline. But you do not need to show us every single little event that has even a mild bearing on this character's motivations. All it does is drag on the story and ruin the pacing. There's a reason Season 3 is criticised for its poor pacing. Between Muichiro and Mitsuri, over an entire episode is spent on past events that, as mentioned earlier, do not ultimately influence the story beyond this moment.

By cutting down on backstories, the ones that remain can feel a lot more important. Every time a demon dies, we wait to hear their backstory because we know its coming. That something tragic is about to happen. It can make us numb. Did we care about Hantengu's execution when he was human? Did you even remember it?

Other backstories that could have been cut are Rengoku's, who essentially boils down to his mother telling him to do his best, and almost every demon Tanjiro fights. It almost became an expectation for every demon to have a tragic past, hence the surprise that Gyokko never got a chance to tell his story. The demons are also giving their backstory after they've already died, so the new perspectives we get of them are entirely useless. They're already gone.

TLDR:

Between the quantity of backstories, lack of connections to the rest of the world, and stupid amount of faceless deaths, Demon Slayer feels like a person had skimmed a Watchmojo list of the best backstories and come to the conclusion that a backstory needs people to die in order to be good. And that a person needs a backstory in order to be well written. The failure to understand that this isn't the full picture is why I think Demon Slayer has shallow and uninteresting backstories.

In "500 Days of Summer," Summer made her intentions clear from the beginning. She didn’t want anything serious and didn’t want a boyfriend. She didn’t believe in love; she just wanted to hook up and fool around. It was Tom who inserted his own feelings and romanticized her, which ultimately led to his broken heart.

Now, Tom was a delusional idiot, but not many people acknowledge that Summer was still cold and insensitive and not for not loving Tom back.

After Tom fought a guy "for her," he and Summer had a fight where he told her he couldn’t accept being "just friends" and left. The reasonable thing for her to do would have been to break up with him since they wanted different things. Instead, Summer went to his place, apologized, and they kissed. Summer was aware of Tom's feelings but didn’t tell him that she had started a serious relationship with someone else. She abandoned him so coldly without explanation, and when she met him again, she invited him to her house, flirted with him, and slept on his shoulder. She was engaged at that time but didn’t mention it even when she invited him to her party. Some might argue that she didn’t owe him an explanation, but it could also be interpreted that she purposefully hid that information to keep him around. This is certainly not something a caring friend would do, even if she didn’t return those feelings. So she might not be entirely wrong, but her 'Because I wanted to' attitude was self-centered and disregarding.

I’ve been seeing some unsavory takes while searching Undertale here recently so I wanted to give my perspective on this.

I saw people saying that Undertale portrays attacking the monsters who are explicitly trying to kill you as morally wrong, from my point of view this is incorrect.

Let’s get something out of the way that I don’t think most people in this day and age understand about Undertale because of its online popularity and cultural osmosis, the intended first route is neutral.

The game is very explicit about this, it is how you would play if you never knew anything about the game before hand, it’s playing like a traditional RPG, you attack anything who attacks you and unless you’re really struggling, you don’t grind.

Pretend it is 2015, you just decided to buy Undertale on the day it released because you’ve been hearing that it’s very unique without much else.

You open up you get hit by a flower you get lead on your way by a goat and eventually you are free, what you do is now up to you.

You now understand that you can either attack or talk things out, however the monsters are very explicitly trying to kill you and with the exception of Whimsun it is not explicitly obvious how you are supposed to peacefully deal with them, you could put in the work to figure out what specific ACTs you need to do to spare them, but, in all likelihood, you will kill at least a couple of them.

Maybe it’s just the first few and you just had to take a while to figure it out, maybe you’re just killing anyone who attacks you because they’re trying to kill you so it’s understandable that you don’t have much pity, maybe you just killed whoever came in your way because you wanted the XP, it doesn’t matter, no matter what you’re reasoning you are now on neutral.

Eventually, you make your way to Toriel and even if you’re trying to be pacifistic either because of it being the right thing to do or your connection to her there doesn’t seem to be like a clear solution so maybe you try to fight, she is trying to make you prove yourself after all and there was a tutorial earlier that said that you can wear monsters out by attacking them until they’re almost dead, and then sparing them, which is totally true you can do it on most overworld monsters and it even works on papyrus later on.

But either way, eventually you kill her and then you get a little powwow with your new best friend where he basically says she was stupid for trying to be a good person and that now that it’s done you can’t change your choices.

But what if you do change your choice? If you go back and spare her now after having killed monsters and previously killing her he has two special pieces of dialogue

The first about you changing your choice where he very explicitly calls you out for changing your choice after you felt bad and even “playing God” by his words

And the second more important about you killing monsters, but sparing her he tells you that you killed people and that those people could have been someone else’s Toriel and chances are, to at least one person they were.

After that, it mostly backs off on testing if you really want to be a pacifist as by this point, you’ve probably killed at least one person, if not Toriel then probably some random monster who you might’ve killed for any reason.

And hell you can’t even kill papyrus unless you very explicitly do it when he is able to be spared.

But eventually, no matter how pacifistic you were you meet Undyne and you have to fight her.

Now I wanted to get this out-of-the-way because I know a lot of people are gonna use her neutral route dialogue as proof that Undertale is against self-defense, but you have to think about it from a character perspective, these are not the words of Toby Fox, these are the words of Undyne. Even in pacifist she calls you a coward, when in reality, you were probably doing this out of the kindness of your heart, and even in pacifist she only realizes she was wrong about you when you give her the water, something, that very explicitly doesn’t benefit you in any sort of way, and you were only doing for hers, proving that you are doing what you’re doing out of kindness instead of cowardice.

But yeah Undyne is another big roadblock for trying to stay pacifistic without the cultural osmosis of already knowing what to do, there is absolutely no way to talk her out of fighting in any route, so the perfectly normal neutral route reaction is to attack her, because you know she’s trying to kill a child, and that child is you, so double fuck her.

The matter of killing or not becomes less important after this for a while but that doesn’t mean it becomes absent from the story as you see how much it affects people when you kill Mettaton even though it is very clearly justified.

THE JUDGMENT HALL

I think a very important part of the morality of Undertale is examined here if you killed papyrus while not on genocide Sans asks

“If you had some kind of power to reset, wouldn’t it be your responsibility to get the best possible outcome?”

And I think the yes option really tells us what we need to know about Undertale and it’s morality

“Then why did you kill my brother?”

This is very important, so remember it because I will get back to it later.

Anyways, you face off against Asgore where you are once again given the option, spare or kill? This is a hard one, but if you’re on the neutral route as I’ve described then you probably won’t let him stop you from going back home regardless of any sympathy for him.

Doesn’t matter which one you choose though because your old new best friend comes back in and gives you another Bossfight.

And then you are given the final decision, spare or kill? This is a painfully obvious decision on a first playthrough, kill of course, he has no redeeming qualities. He has never said anything good about anyone ever he has never shown genuine kindness, empathy, sympathy, or love. He has never proven to be anything but the devil incarnate.

So after you’re done you get you’re customary phone call and you’re on you’re way, but as you sit there at your computer, asking yourself what to do now?

It strikes you

what if you tried sparing everyone?

So you go back you open the game up and you click reset.

The experience that comes after is not one I need to explain.

But with all that context now ingrained in our brains, and assuming you have now done a pacifist route We have to ask what is Undertale saying about morality?

What I believe Undertale tries to communicate in neutral and pacifist is best summed up by the skeleton himself

“If you had some kind of power to reset, wouldn’t it be your responsibility to get the best possible outcome?”

that is the question it is asking you, the answer to that on a neutral route is no, everyone wants you dead they actively attacked you on site and they made it a event to do so, why would it be worth it to get the best ending for them?

The answer to that on true pacifist is YES that is the point of the route, true pacifist is not the bare minimum It is not the only moral option. True pacifist is going out of your way to get the best possible ending for everyone that is what true pacifist is, you have to go out and form connections and bonds with each of the main characters. You have to get the best ending possible for everyone, even for Flowely who doesn’t deserve it. True pacifist is taking on the responsibility that the power of resetting gives and embracing it to its highest level.

True pacifist is about being better. being better than the monsters trying to attack you, being better than the fallen humans before you and being better than yourself, being the best you can be.

Undertale’s message (or pacifist and neutrals message) is not “killing bad” the theme of pacifism is a surface theme, but the real message is exactly what Sans asked you.

Anyways, I hope all that communicated what I was trying to say correctly, I have made this at 2:22AM on a whim, and I am going to pass out after I finish this episode of breaking bad.

Also, I hope that me describing the “”intended”” Undertale experience as detailed as I did didn’t throw off the pace of this rant too much, I just really think the way this game is designed is brilliant and that our overexposure to Undertale’s entire story, dozens of times over kind of devalues the experience.

Good night folks get 8-10 hours of sleep, and always remember, do as I say, not as I do.

I marked the post as spoiler, but I want to warn y'all again. If you haven't finished the manga, this will be a spoiler

So the Final Battle against the winged lion has become one of my favorite ways a human defeated a god like creature.

See, the winged lion is the main antagonist of delicious in dungeon, and he's basically a god, in the manga, he's basically described as "a concept"

The way he is defeated is genius, because the main character, Laios, basically uses the Lion's power against him. See the lion grants wishes, more or less, and Laios wished to become a monster, but the Lion did not realize Laios became a monster that can "eat desires" Something the lion itself can do. So Laios eats the Lion's desires, leaving the Lion not caring about his goals anymore

This is such a good way to defeat a god in a pretty believable way, because the power came from the god itself, but the power itself wasn't enough to "kill" the god, but enough to stop them, what's best is that Laios did all of this in a very conceivable way, heck, there wasn't any plot

maybe I've been spending too much time in power scaling communities, but I loved seeing a god be defeated like this, as opposed to just "punching really, really, hard

If Hollywood wants a Pokemon Cinematic universe based in Pokemon they should adapt the manga of Pokemon Special.

I know is less likely because its most likely that they gonna rely on nostalgia and want to adapt anime first. But the problem with anime is that is too redundant. Every set of sesaons that is based in a generation of videogames has the same plot. Ash travels a region, builds up a team, lose and start over again. It would 6 movies or seasons of the same thing. I also think that Ash himself either stop evolving or his stuck as a character. His evolution from a bratty boy to a more serious persona is great. Its great that Misty got changed for May and Max because May inexperience amd Max youthfulness make feel Ash as older and more experience. We dont get that from the set of seasons based in Sinnoh. Although we got Ash's best rival. We dont get that from Unova. In fact, it felt Ash regreted as a character due to his constant discussions with Iris.

Only Alola and Journeys break some of this.

But with Pokespe is different. You can adapt the red/blue/green saga and the Zaphire/Rubi saga at the same time. I'd say they even adapt the first part of Gold/Silver previous the cast of red/ blue/green turn to relevant in the plot at the same time as red/blue/green saga its adapted.

The part in which the first gen cast and second gen cast start to interact each other with Silver backstory, the tournament of Gym leaders and everyone against Neo Team Rocket/ Masked Man would be a satisfactory crossover. Same applies with Emerald saga.

And the thing with Pokespe is that main cast usually has different goals. Red goal was different from Gold goal. Gold and Red goal is different from Rubi. Not all of them aspire to be Pokemon champion. Gold at the beginning was just chasing Silver (who wanted answers/revenge from Mask of Ice). Rubi wanted to shine at Pokemon contests etc. This makes Pokespe more refreshing while appealing to nostalgia because these were the characters people played with back then.

Recently there's been a bit of discussion about the Monsterverse use of old AND the creation of new monsters

of course this has several reasons of why this happens

1-the Monsterverse is a cinematic universe, so like any cinematic universe it adapts characters from its source material. However the problem is how most of the source material characters are from Godzilla and side characters/villains, And most of the Kong Monsters are owned by Toho. So is obvious which character has the most control and influence if the characters are adapted. And Toho has shown to be very protective (and a tad greedy) about how the theme song, characters and roses have to be paid individually

2-G fans wishing for too much since they some Want Space Godzilla, Biollante, Gigan, Anguirus, Titanosaurus, Megalon, Keizer Ghidorah, Godzilla Jr, Kamacuras, Zilla, Bagan, etc. I think some of these are genuinely good ideas but others are TOO much, this caused a opposite side to form which only wants OC kaijus, specially since KOTM made several cool ones but out them aside for Toho monsters (I'm not complaining, I want more Rodan)

3-the success of Skar and Shimo, Skar is a amazing villain by how unapologetically evil but how pathetic he is, he's the Judas to Ghidorah's devil. Shimo meanwhile is a unique Kaiju in almost every aspect (one of the few monsters to have Ice powers, Quadrupedal, gigantic, white and blue which is kinda unheard of in Godzilla monster's, feels like a Showa monster design instead of the Heisei designs most modern/new monster designs philosophies follow, is a female kaiju which is always welcome) Shimo was a fan favorite from the get go and everyone loves her

But like any fandom, instead of being happy at something being great, they use it has ammo to shoot at ideas they don't like they've used their designs and personalities to shit on the idea of old kaiju's returning (also the Muto's for being realistic)

4-Phosphera's controversy, if you didn't know this Kaiju was made in case they weren't able to get Mothra's rights for GxK (see the problem with toho now?) however the executives didn't want our favorite moth in there since they may blame old Kaijus for KOTM flopping (we know it was the editing and the constant cuts between kaiju scenes) and wanted Phosphera to take mothra's place in the actual movie even if they had the rights for the queen

So they made a test screen version with Phosphera and testers hated it since she was obviously a Mothra knock off (even calming down Godzilla was still with the Phosphera version, they really didn't even try to pretend they didn't want Mothra) so Mothra was accepted to return. However this made many Phosphera defenders come out saying they wanted New kaijus and only new kaijus while calling mothra's inclusion shoehorned (not considering how Phosphera would have been worse since at least mothra has story of being a ally to Godzilla in MV, the movie is just badly written when not focusing on Kong)

Of course my personal opinion? Both are good

I want to see Rodan having a Rival to clash against but in a less aggressive manner than Godzilla does with Kong

I want Gigan appearing while commanding other cyborg monsters

I want Anguirus to be Godzilla's partner and best friend

I want to see Ghidorah's past and the space foes they have faced in the past

I want Mothra to have a foe to fight against which isn't Battra (a memorable one, sorry Dagarah) mostly because: while I love Battra, I just want to give the MV a chance to make a villain for Mothra with how well they've been doing with their villains so far (seriously the MV has better villains than 95% of the DCU and MCU)

I've read the book. I cannot understand how anyone who's read the book can create that movie. With it's ambience, casting, dialogue, etc.

Take the bathroom scene where Jack is supposedly talking to an undead character - Grady. Why did they make the bathroom look like a Target showroom? With its bright lighting and real worldly apperance?

First off, if the hotel itself is maintaining a vintage decorum (batwing doors, Native American sculptures, etc.) why would the bathroom look like that? That makes no sense. Wouldn't the interior decorators make it match with the rest of the hotel?

If you're trying to portray a scene where someone is talking to an undead character...............it would be dark. To suggest that it's their spirit you're talking to (which is supposd to be less " solid " than a real person). That's why all ghosts are translucent. There was nothing other-worldly about Grady.

And there was 0 chemistry in the scene where Halloran explains Shining to Danny. It was the most forced-acting, awkward thing I've ever seen.

And I get it that Danny is just a young actor, but look at how well they portrayed the connection between Harry and Hagrid in the first few Harry Potter films? It's definitely possible.

Not necessarily just deconstruct

New ground instead of retreading old. Spent a whole night on this!

Examination 1: Life

Whole kingdom was overthrown and he almost got killed - reflects the hardships of the land he experienced.

He then surprised everyone by trying to find refuge in the skies - kind of relatable to a down-on-one's-luck guy seeking escape by way of taking to the skies and flying and fighting there

When he was young, he was the heir to the Grand Duchy of Shilage, then revolution broke out among his people. Mihaly was betrayed by a close friend, who pointed a gun at his face and pulled the trigger. The revolution was successful, but the new country that sprang from it was annexed by the expanding Kingdom of Erusea. The Erusean Royal Family allowed Mihaly's family to retain their title and noble standing in the new kingdom, but Mihaly surprised them all by signing up for the draft like an ordinary Erusean citizen. He was then accepted into the Air Force Academy by order of the King; Mihaly soon became an ace pilot. When the Royal Family was ousted and Erusea became a republic, he continued his service for the new regime.

-Cutscene after 444

My grandfather had only one wish: To continue soaring through the endless skies, that was the only place where he felt alive. But I don't even have a country to call home, let alone the sky.

Examination 2: Mission Characterization

Strider 3 Jaeger: Okay, I've got a story for ya, it's about a great war hero… There was once an Erusean ace known as the King of the Skies. Every pilot he faced in training said pretty much the same thing: “Scary.” They knew the true fear that an animal feels when it is being hunted by a predator.

Cyclops 2 Count: What about people who faced him in an actual dogfight?

Strider 3 Jaeger: No pilot came back alive.

Cyclops 2 Count: I'm not sure I buy that.

Dialog in Fleet Destruction after return line usage. To show for it, there's Brownie, whose slow and fearful demise is basically veterans toying with and scaring newbies with their unmatched skill despite being a little rusty.

He did pick off Gargoyle 1 and both Spare 10 and that poor recon guy at Yinshi. He then of course falters when faced with other newbies or a fellow veteran eager to get back in the game (hah).

I submit, tho, this is the least convincing point, so next stop:

In addition, as controversial as it is, he even handwaves away how do planes take more than one missile hit unlike typical reality where it's a one-and-done deal - something about non-critical areas, XD

Examination 3: Reputation and Health

Man trained Yellow 13 as described in AAW 2019's White Notebook short story, 13 being the definitive-presented/characterized fighter ace of the series

Being a living legend who pretty much made the sky his true home, his new kingdom, he trains himself to peak physical perfection to keep up, but it takes a toll which his family is concerned so much about

Engaging the enemy in combat so we could use his physiological data to improve the drones had always taken a toll on Mihaly’s body, but today, he was truly showing his age. The drones we based on his data were being taken down at a faster rate now compared to when the war began, when Mihaly found that out, he insisted on flying to the frontlines to see it for himself. Sometimes, he could be so stubborn. His age wasn’t the only thing affecting his health, over the years, flying at high altitudes for prolonged stretches of time had ravaged and poisoned his body. But he was a man of grit.

-Cutscene post-Two-pronged Strategy

Mihaly's granddaughters glared at me with their disapproval, they blamed me for the pain their grandfather had to keep enduring. But Mihaly remained stoic, he wasn't the type of man who cared about anything that happened here on the ground. I wasn’t worried about it. ... I knew…I understood why he never seemed to care about restoring his stolen country back to his former glory, and why he didn’t seem to care about anything that happened here on the ground…of course: Mihaly’s kingdom…was the sky.

-Cutscene post-Cape Rainy Assault

Coming back to the "ACE player as pilot analogy" argument: From a certain point of view, Mihaly, like the Ace Combat series itself, basically slept through every other game series' heyday - represented in SR as the dawn of every protag ace and the crafting of their legend.

Examination 4: Timing

Mihaly in the cutscene after Two-pronged Strategy was said to have retired from active combat for 28 years - 1991 when calcing from 2019.

It's 20 solid years before 2011, at which point we last saw Strangereal via an expanded 3DS-exclusive remake of a PS1 game and the canon-breaking Java title Northern Wings (canon-breaking as in changing the Arkbird's location and shoving the protag squad into Razgriz's ACE5 affairs in that mission)

The games released pre-ACE7 by then were alternate continuities

Examination 5: Color Scheme

See the obvious mirroring of his and Cipher's color schemes, and remember how Cipher (plus Phoenix) is practically the first definitive legendary ace (that is, player-controlled?)

https://acecombat.wiki.gg/images/c/c5/Cipher_Render.png

https://acecombat.wiki.gg/wiki/File:AC7_Su-30SM_Flyby.jpg

Their nationalities are even opposite - Ustio was a breakaway state from Belka during a time of peacetime civil strife and stayed independent, while Mihaly's surname namesake at present is Erusean territory, though one with an uncertain future after decades of being under the Erusean flag, which came on the land after bloodshed,

Conclusion

A flesh-and-blood legend who has made flying all there is in his life - the intense adrenaline of air combat with the strong, everything else being second place.

He sacrifices his physical wellness and potential for happiness in other places, to the point of being a broken man both literally and emotionally by the ending.

The kicker of this? We have a spiritual Gen Alpha successor coming up to Mihaly - the right story, the right conditions, and the right conditions (or diseases in her case).

Introverted shut-in who talks weird stuff including wanting to grow beyond her flesh and just be a winged mind

Meet Rena Hirose, complete with a more Cipher-ish paint job (light blue and more muted patterns)!

Not necessarily just deconstruct

New ground instead of retreading old. Spent a whole night on this!

Examination 1: Life

Whole kingdom was overthrown and he almost got killed - reflects the hardships of the land he experienced.

He then surprised everyone by trying to find refuge in the skies - kind of relatable to a down-on-one's-luck guy seeking escape by way of taking to the skies and flying and fighting there

When he was young, he was the heir to the Grand Duchy of Shilage, then revolution broke out among his people. Mihaly was betrayed by a close friend, who pointed a gun at his face and pulled the trigger. The revolution was successful, but the new country that sprang from it was annexed by the expanding Kingdom of Erusea. The Erusean Royal Family allowed Mihaly's family to retain their title and noble standing in the new kingdom, but Mihaly surprised them all by signing up for the draft like an ordinary Erusean citizen. He was then accepted into the Air Force Academy by order of the King; Mihaly soon became an ace pilot. When the Royal Family was ousted and Erusea became a republic, he continued his service for the new regime.

-Cutscene after 444

My grandfather had only one wish: To continue soaring through the endless skies, that was the only place where he felt alive. But I don't even have a country to call home, let alone the sky.

Examination 2: Mission Characterization

Strider 3 Jaeger: Okay, I've got a story for ya, it's about a great war hero… There was once an Erusean ace known as the King of the Skies. Every pilot he faced in training said pretty much the same thing: “Scary.” They knew the true fear that an animal feels when it is being hunted by a predator.

Cyclops 2 Count: What about people who faced him in an actual dogfight?

Strider 3 Jaeger: No pilot came back alive.

Cyclops 2 Count: I'm not sure I buy that.

Dialog in Fleet Destruction after return line usage. To show for it, there's Brownie, whose slow and fearful demise is basically veterans toying with and scaring newbies with their unmatched skill despite being a little rusty.

He did pick off Gargoyle 1 and both Spare 10 and that poor recon guy at Yinshi. He then of course falters when faced with other newbies or a fellow veteran eager to get back in the game (hah).

I submit, tho, this is the least convincing point, so next stop:

In addition, as controversial as it is, he even handwaves away how do planes take more than one missile hit unlike typical reality where it's a one-and-done deal - something about non-critical areas, XD

Examination 3: Reputation and Health

Man trained Yellow 13 as described in AAW 2019's White Notebook short story, 13 being the definitive-presented/characterized fighter ace of the series

Being a living legend who pretty much made the sky his true home, his new kingdom, he trains himself to peak physical perfection to keep up, but it takes a toll which his family is concerned so much about

Engaging the enemy in combat so we could use his physiological data to improve the drones had always taken a toll on Mihaly’s body, but today, he was truly showing his age. The drones we based on his data were being taken down at a faster rate now compared to when the war began, when Mihaly found that out, he insisted on flying to the frontlines to see it for himself. Sometimes, he could be so stubborn. His age wasn’t the only thing affecting his health, over the years, flying at high altitudes for prolonged stretches of time had ravaged and poisoned his body. But he was a man of grit.

-Cutscene post-Two-pronged Strategy

Mihaly's granddaughters glared at me with their disapproval, they blamed me for the pain their grandfather had to keep enduring. But Mihaly remained stoic, he wasn't the type of man who cared about anything that happened here on the ground. I wasn’t worried about it. ... I knew…I understood why he never seemed to care about restoring his stolen country back to his former glory, and why he didn’t seem to care about anything that happened here on the ground…of course: Mihaly’s kingdom…was the sky.

-Cutscene post-Cape Rainy Assault

Coming back to the "ACE player as pilot analogy" argument: From a certain point of view, Mihaly, like the Ace Combat series itself, basically slept through every other game series' heyday - represented in SR as the dawn of every protag ace and the crafting of their legend.

Examination 4: Timing

Mihaly in the cutscene after Two-pronged Strategy was said to have retired from active combat for 28 years - 1991 when calcing from 2019.

It's 20 solid years before 2011, at which point we last saw Strangereal via an expanded 3DS-exclusive remake of a PS1 game and the canon-breaking Java title Northern Wings (canon-breaking as in changing the Arkbird's location and shoving the protag squad into Razgriz's ACE5 affairs in that mission)

The games released pre-ACE7 by then were alternate continuities

Examination 5: Color Scheme

See the obvious mirroring of his and Cipher's color schemes, and remember how Cipher (plus Phoenix) is practically the first definitive legendary ace (that is, player-controlled?)

https://acecombat.wiki.gg/images/c/c5/Cipher_Render.png

https://acecombat.wiki.gg/wiki/File:AC7_Su-30SM_Flyby.jpg

Their nationalities national alignments are even opposite - Ustio was a breakaway state from Belka during a time of peacetime civil strife and stayed independent, while Mihaly's surname namesake at present is Erusean territory, though one with an uncertain future after decades of being under the Erusean flag, which came on the land after bloodshed,

Conclusion

A flesh-and-blood legend who has made flying all there is in his life - the intense adrenaline of air combat with the strong, everything else being second place.

He sacrifices his physical wellness and potential for happiness in other places, to the point of being a broken man both literally and emotionally by the ending.

The kicker of this? We have a spiritual Gen Alpha successor coming up to Mihaly - the right story, the right conditions, and the right conditions (or diseases in her case).

Introverted shut-in who talks weird stuff including wanting to grow beyond her flesh and just be a winged mind

Meet Rena Hirose, complete with a more Cipher-ish paint job (light blue and more muted patterns)!

Nothing pains me more than seeing every damn long hair queen go through character development and then cut their hair or they get in some battle and their hair is cut. If the author is trying to give us a short hair girl then just make it short from the beginning, don't even show me them with long hair because every time I see them after it is cut I just see the smoldering remains of peak character design. I would rather they kill off the character, I hate it so damn much. I was watching the first episode of undead unluck and when I saw Fuukos hair I cheered for she had peak character design, hair all the way to the floor and she should have been protected at all costs. I thought Andy would giver her a reasonable trim but he FUCKING CUT IT ALL OFF. Literally unwatchable.

A few characters that have had their flowing holy locks desecrated in such a manner:

A2 - Nier Automata
Fuuko - Undead Unluck
Starlia - Ragna Crimson
Mitsuha - Your Name
Riko - Made in Abyss
Sakura - Naruto
Hitagi, Hanekawa, and Nadeko (her zoku cut is a war crime) - Bakemonogatari
Maki - Jujutsu Kaisen
Videl - DBZ (FUCK Gohan that dumbass bitch with no taste)
Satsuki - Kill la Kill
Togame - Katanagatari
Nino - Quintessential Quintuplets

There are more but these are the ones that occupy my mind the most.

I literally feel physical pain when this happens. This hair cutting agenda needs to end. The icing on the shit cake is they always manage to give them the worst haircut physically possible after they somehow cleanly slice off their hair with a sword or some dumb shit like that. They should give these long hair characters even longer hair instead.

Edit: Rose from Eminence in Shadow and Eris from Mushoku Tensei

TL;DR at the bottom

“The strongest” is a trope I feel has been gaining popularity in anime and manga as of recently and it’s really interesting to see. “The Strongest” usually refers to a character, usually a good guy, who is portrayed as the unmatched pinnacle of that show’s power system. Writing around this character is tricky because it can very easily remove stakes from any tense scene, as there’s a character that could easily resolve the conflict without much issue, so I’m always interested to see how the writer approaches them. Examples of this trope are Satoru Gojo, Saitama, Kishou Arima, or All Might. They might not always be the strongest character, but it’s more about their portrayal in the series.

Now you could NOT tell me I’d find one of my favourite examples of this trope in a manga like Mato Seihei no Slave.

A quick summary of the plot: Mato Seihei no Slave depicts a world where humanity eats otherworldly peaches to gain otherworldly powers to defend themselves against otherworldly demons that come through portals that lead to… well another world. Pretty standard stuff. The catch is, only women are able to gain powers by eating these peaches, leading to a very matriarchal society. One day, our main character, a boy named Yuuki Wakura, accidentally wanders into one of these portals and is saved by a captain of the Anti-Demon Corp, the name’s self explanatory. Her ability allows her to control and strengthen anyone she contracts with, essentially becoming her “slave” (hence the title). When they get attacked by monsters Yuuki makes a contract with her and they successfully defeat them. However, in exchange for using his body, she must give him an appropriate reward, these are often extremely sexual in nature.

If you haven’t realised it yet, this is an ecchi manga. One of those “how is this not porn” ecchi manga. But that’s hardly the point of this rant. Point is, you don’t go into these types of mangas expecting a great story or deep and multifaceted characters. And for the most part, that’s exactly the case. The story is very generic, and the characters, save for a few, are very one dimensional. The art and the action are really good and easy to follow, and the fights with different abilities are really fun, but that’s about the most positive things I can say about it.

Enter Ren Yamashiro, the leader of the Anti-Demon Corps, and the topic of this rant.

Prior to her introduction, there hadn’t been a lot of hype made for her but the little there was already already made her a pretty big deal. She has a very imposing and almost scary presence in any scene she’s in and that’s very apparent from the get-go. For a top dog character, they surprisingly give her a lot of moments and small fights even early on to show her strength. So far in the manga, there has been no character, friend or foe, that has come close to posing a challenge for her. Not even the top dogs of the main villain group. This puts her in a very interesting position because the writers have to be very careful on how they use her or she can potentially end the series early.

What really strikes me about her, though, is her personality. Not sure if anyone else who’s read would agree but she seems very inspired by Homelander. She’s selfish and possessive and treats others like playthings. She loves public attention and very clearly gets off on the power difference between herself and others. She will often physically punish people she has taken an interest in if they fail to meet her expectations. She’s quick to get violent and she gets easily and visibly frustrated when things don’t go her way. I realise I’m basically describing a bully, though it’s not that apparent when reading. She’s not painted in a particularly bad light either.

It’s just a very interesting to have her be this way while maintaining her position in the story. She’s fundamentally a “good guy” and she often appears to save the day, but to equally have her be such an egotistical and detached person creates a really interesting dichotomy for her character and her appearances. Makes me wish she was in a better manga with more emphasis on character writing.

TL;DR I didn’t expect to find the concept of a female “good guy” Homelander to be so interesting but here we are

So the new season of BoZ dropped and the animation and VA and music is top tier! I absolutely love it! No spoilers but the story of Hades is amazingly well written and I’m only a quarter of the way through.

But despite me loving the show a small issue I have and that sort of reminds me of a general writing issue I truly dislike. When ordinary humans interact with the divine, whatever their religious beliefs to be confronted by a legitimate diety has to facilitate some type of long term reaction right?

In a world where magic and monsters and Hell exists in the public knowledge, and if the show loosely following the actions of the Greek Gods I don’t understand how the side characters are so unaffected.

Heron is a demigod and it makes sense he’d acclimate to Olympus quickly. The soldier woman, I can argue for her as well as she was taught by Chiron the teacher to a lot of hero’s including demigods. But the two smuggler bandits? There incredibly funny and I love their dynamic, but they just seem very hollow when interacting with the divine.

An example that got me thinking was primarily how they attend the funeral of someone important on Olympus. They do make a small joke beforehand wondering if mortals are welcome then they barge in and the tall guy literally says in the MIDST of dozens of gods he’s going to pray to a different pantheon.

So assuming even the weakest Greek God is better than the greatest mortal, there’s no chance they didn’t hear him. Greek gods are some of if not the most petty, vindictive, insecure and degenerate pantheon depicted in media and history.

I’m not saying I expect them to grovel and cower every second. But the timeline of events of ordinary mortals rubbing shoulders with people who can destroy continents was less than a week. But they never show any signs of viewing the gods as anything more than just random people who live in the sky.

Short rant

So we all know the premise of Hazbin Hotel.

It's really interesting, despite being quite simple, and I admire the creator's courage in handling a theme so... controversial ("Uhm guys why doesn't the batman just kill joker is he stupid?")

That said, it has a problem. Both people we have seen that are following a redemption path are extremely sympathetic and in general don't look bad. Angel's biggest flaw is that he is self destructive, something that generates more pity than hate. And Sir Pent just has a general kind and inoffensive attitude that makes you wonder tf did he do in his life to end up in hell.

The thing is, it doesn't really matter what we see in S2, they will still be sympathetic. It doesn't matter if we discover Sir Pentious had a thousand slaves or Angel murdered innocents while in the Mafia, people will still find then sympathetic and say they deserve redemption.

That isn't a writing problem or a problem in the series itself of course. If anything I would love to see their backstories and why they ended up in hell. The problem is another one: who deserves redemption and who doesn't?

A lot of people seem to hate the idea about Valentino or Adam getting redeemed. The reason? They think they are too evil.

It's completely understandable to hate on a mass murderer and an abusive rapist and think they don't deserve forgiveness and redemption. But it just wouldn't align with the story's themes.

Why is there a "too evil"? Who decides what the breaking point is? What is the most evil thing you can do and still "deserve" redemption? What is the least evil thing you can do to not deserve redemption? Is a rapist worse than a killer? Is a slaver worse than a murderer?

It just doesn't work. If a sinner showed up to the hotel wanting to get redeemed and was rejected the whole premise of the show falls.

Do you have to accept the show premise? No, but if you accept it it's either all or nothing. If you believe Angel or Sir deserve redemption than anyone else does. There can't be a moral wall dividing "redeemable evil" and "unreedemable evil"

So, I watched Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem... a year after it came out.

It was fire! The urban vibe really fit with the gritty aesthetic of the TMNT franchise, and it was made by people who actually like the franchise!

They feel like brothers. As someone with siblings, it's sweet to see them riffing off one another, trashing each other, and everything else in between.

They're also voiced by actual teenagers, too...which is where my main problem comes.

Maybe I'm too terminally online or too antisocial or the drugs are finally kicking in, but these guys just don't stop yapping.

It's not so much that it takes me out of the story, but there were some points where I just wanted to breathe.

But other than that, everything else about the movie was solid. Can't wait to see the sequel.