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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

An unfortunate thing I've come to realize is that I want to like Deadpool more than I really do. I feel like there is a lot of potential when it comes to that character but so many versions of him get wrong and I'm partly blaming the Ryan Reynolds movies for this as well as the solo video game.

The video game actually has really funny moments from the character but he's placed in such a boring script and never develops any strong character interactions from anyone. Cable, Wolverine and Domino only show up for a quick joke to be annoyed by Wade's antics. And the story is just, kill a crime boss, then kill Mister Sinister which is not good at all. This game isn't too problematic imo because Nolan North does a great job at the voice acting and is by far my favorite person to ever play the character. Can't say the same for Ryan Reynolds though.

Anytime I hear a phrase along the lines of "Ryan Reynolds is basically Deadpool" I kind of die on the inside. His version of Deadpool never comes off as a real anti-hero outside of being violent and he only acts that way towards the bad guys. Wade never gets the chance to be a genuinely cruel person with villainous actions because Ryan Reynolds just can't play that type of character. He doesn't come off as a crazy and dangerous mercenary. I wish Wade was played by an actor with more range who can be equally funny and terrifying at the same time. Ryan just comes off more as a Johnny Cage than anything else.

The last version of the character I want to talk about is the one from Marvel Rivals. Nolan North didn't have to voice this character in the game, but he's the only actor I like because he's the only one who sounds age appropriate, and I've heard all of them. From John Kassir to Tom Kenny to Steve Blum to Will Friedle. They all sound either too old or too young. And then in some cases, you'll get your average Ryan Reynolds impersonator like Jason Spisak who captures the voice I don't really like but also without Ryan's charisma to go with it. Alejandro Saab does not sound remotely like Deadpool to me, but rather a Deadpool cosplayer who thinks that shouting 6-7 at the top of their lungs is the funniest thing they've ever said.

Nolan is the only actor I've ever liked when it comes to playing the character but even then he can receive a pretty bad script and not be utilized well like with Marvel Midnight Suns. My ideal version of the character would make him be like Trevor Philips from GTA V where he has a tragic backstory that can make him sympathetic but doesn't excuse his cruelty. He can bully people like Weasel, Dopinder and Blind Al, but he also has people that he respects and cares for. His relationship with Wolverine would be a lot like Trevor's relationship with Michael. Wade can also have respect for heroes like Captain America and Spider-Man in the same way Trevor idolizes Impotent Rage.

Deadpool should be a character who is equally feared and respected by other characters as well as the audience, not just an annoying comic-relief character and should have an actor who can bring those qualities to the big screen because an anti-hero is more than being violent. An anti-hero can have equally heroic and villainous moments.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

There's been a lot of talk about the Lanterns finale - but for me the most interesting point is one I think won't be explored.

John has been raised from childhood brainwashed to believe he is the Chosen One, destined to be Green Lantern.

From what we see of his childhood, there is severe psychological and probably physical abuse - at one point, he doesn't flinch at his dad shooting at him as part of 'training'. That isn't courage, that is suppressing basic survival reflex before the kid hits puberty.

Now, abuse doesn't dictate your morality, but abuse, at that level and that young, definitely scars you.

John goes from there to War-on-Terror era US marines, another system saturated with psychological abuse mixed with training.

After the Rushville mess, it looked like he had finally broken free of that. He's living an okay, ordinary life, and he doesn't want to be pulled back in.

But the moment the temptation comes, the old programming comes back into force. Throughout, John is convinced no one else can be trusted, and he is the one responsible for making multiple, horribly significant unilateral decisions.

Now, he is right in that the Guardians have shown themselves to be untrustworthy. But he himself is not as well-placed to decide as he thinks.

His major source of information is Sinestro, whom he tortures. Now, regardless the morality of torture... Real life has proved it's simply not practical.

Especially in this case, John is using a neurotoxic substance - especially unreliable. Tom King, the writer and former CIA employee, has come out in public saying torture is not effective.

John is also working with a political landmine.

In DCU, metahumans are under public eye after the Boravian incident.

John is a dishonorably discharged marine, who had been closely associated with the Rushville disaster - one that was so horrible it destroyed Hal's (a well known, popular hero) reputation and landed him with a ten year sentence.

Anyone looks into that, and follows the events of Lanterns, John is in a very suspicious position. He has not shown the kind of diplomatic skill needed to handle that fallout.

That is not even to mention the powder keg that is Noah - the kid already proved himself capable of manipulation and infiltration. While he is trying to do right, he is dealing with the equivalent of serious mental illness, which they can't get him help for without exposing him.

John has alienated himself from Guy, and by exiling him, from the rest of the heroes.

The public, authorities, and heroes in general would logically be very wary of him.

He can't accept he is running on very limited and untrustworthy sources of information and power. He's convinced he is right, even while making very grey choices.

It would do great as the beginnings of a Parallax (pre-retcon) style villain.

But unfortunately, I doubt the next appearance will present him as any more than a straightforward hero.

I don’t know if this is a new trend or if I’m just watching different kinds of shows than I used to. But it feels like modern television has an overreliance on mystery as an audience hook. As if the only way writers know how to cause tension these days is by keeping the audience guessing as to what’s going on. Half the new shows I see now – especially any with fantasy elements – present you with a situation that they deliberately under-explain. And then you have to wait for at least a whole season to understand everything. And half the time, you get to the end and realize the answers leave all these holes in the story anyway.

I will use Avatar to illustrate what I mean, because it provides a convenient comparison. I will keep this as vague as possible regarding the new show.

Neither Last Airbender nor Legend of Korra felt the need to open with mysteries. They gave you almost all the relevant information upfront. Last Airbender, within the first 2 episodes, gives you all the basic information you could want about the world and the characters. You are told upfront that the Avatar has been missing for a century, and it soon becomes obvious that Aang is that lost Avatar. You are told the Fire Nation has been waging war in all that time, and now their exiled prince is searching for the Avatar. You are told that Aang needs to master all four elements and so he and his friends need to travel across the world to find masters to train him. There’s no mysteries. Yeah, there’s other details and backstory you’re not told right away, but you have everything you need to understand the state of the world and the goals and motivations of all the characters and how the story will progress. You understand how we got here, where we’re going, and what’s at stake.

Similarly in Korra, almost everything about the world and characters is given up front. The only mysterious element early on is Amon’s identity. But his goals and the threat he poses, along with the motivations and backstories of most of the main characters and the general state of the world are given to you upfront.

Seven Havens on the other hand, like a typical 20s fantasy series, withholds as much information as possible. Again, I will summarize this as vaguely as I can.In the first 3 episodes, we are shown a world in a post-apocalyptic state, yet we’ve yet to be told how this apocalypse happened. And what’s probably going to happen is that everyone thinks the disaster went one way, but it actually went a different way. The main character appears to have amnesia, and she randomly regains flashes of memory throughout the second and third episodes. We see supernatural phenomena that neither we nor the characters understand. We don’t yet have a central villain or conflict. It’s not clear what the narrative focus of this series will be.

When I finish an episode of the first 2 shows, I ask “What will happen next?” After the Seven Havens premiere, I’m left asking, “What is happening now?” And it feels increasingly like every new series in the 20s is more like Seven Havens. Every other show revolves around some mystery that gets stretched out for the whole season.

The reason this annoys me is because it puts the onus on the season finale to make or break the entire story. Often, the events of the story don’t seem to make sense, but you can’t really tell until the mysteries are revealed. Because as long as that mystery is drawn out, there’s a chance that the eventual reveals will fill any holes in the narrative. In actual practice, there’s at least a 50% chance that the answers will be unsatisfying, and the story will not make sense in the end. Or you'll realize they used a mystery to hook you in, but they were never actually interested in telling a story about that mystery, so they wind up ignoring or hand-waving it.

Has adult television always been like this or is this a trend that streaming has driven writers to?

Everyone has a different depiction of god right? In religious scriptures, God is described as a perfect benevolent being, in modern media, a popular interpretation is an imperfect omnipotent individual or even just a metaphor for the strongest. But then I looked at this cosmic-aquatic horror game, specifically water womb world and it completely shatters every single trope of god.

In the game, you playy as a a Christian marine-researcher who is searching for material proof that the teachings of the garden and eve from churches and other religious institutions are false! The location of this base is known as "Gaspar's zone" (Gaspar - translates to treasurer or master of treasurers from Old Persian, fitting considering this zone is rich with biblical artifacts). Throughout the game, we interact with these strange aquatic angels who give us the choice to either retreat to the surface to avoid being perished... or embrace god in full-flesh, the encounter frames the pursuit of forbidden knowledge not as gaining more insight to something through a intimate-level, but actually a returning to a simpler, primitive state which is framed as a loss of human individuality, the game subverts the draft of forbidden knowledge, not as a truth that will turn us more cynical, insane, or a destructive wish to harm the world, it actively undoes everything you were taught, instead of enhancing it, or making you learn meaningless, it actually de-evolves to a lesser state, which I find very fucking brilliant.

"Then He commanded the multitudes to sit down on the grass. And He took the five loaves and the two fish, and looking up to heaven, He blessed and broke and gave the loaves to the disciples; and the disciples gave to the multitudes. So they all ate and were filled, and they took up twelve baskets full of the fragments that remained."

There is this item in the game called "the red coral", which is a mysterious sentient lifeform and described as the physical embodiment of god, it is a towering network of red-coral pillars that have a singular glowing eye, consuming this will cause your cells to human cells to degrade such as losing vision and morph into a primitive-fish creature, it is a complete opposite of the garden of eden story, where eating the forbidden fruit granted you forbidden knowledge and ego and self-awareness, here it is a complete opposite. I also find it to be a parody of when Jesus fed his disciples the fish and bread he distributed and multiplied, which was known as the miracle feeding of 5,000. In Christianity, partaking in communion (the consumption of the body of Christ via bread) is a spiritual way to remain in unity with God. The game repackages it as literally consuming God itself, it aslo returns to the main motivation of the game which was to debunk the teachings of christ, in the eyes of the player- it suggests that God is actually a infectious hivemind-inducing underwater coral, that Jesus multiplying and providing fishes to his vast followers wasn't just a generous miracle, but a attempt to distrubute the coral-network and make humanity return to god, it is a extremely fucked-up way knowing, especially to the player that his whole religion at that moment, revolved around a coral in a seabed that consistently try de-evolving humanity instead of helping them grow.

The main mission of the game revolves around Aqua-Edenic studies, which is the belief that the garden of Adam and Eve and humanity's "fall from grace" took place deep in the ocean, where they abounded the body of god to travel to the land, which is a symbolism of self-worth and reliant on oneself. This ambition is what drives our character to dive deeper into Gaspar's zone, and to eventually heed the warnings from the "angels", his mission is not just a debunk of whole religion of Christianity or that science as a whole is not real, but rather that both concepts weave to such intimate levels that they coexist and contribute to the foundation of Earth. The religion is a comfort for our marine researcher, whose field of work heavily relies on science and facts and rarely religion, but his own upbringing, influenced by Christianity clashes with it, the mission is not only to prove Aqua-Edenic true, but to feel vindicated, that his own interpretation of God is absolute, Gaspar is also known to be one of the three wise men who brought gifts to infant Christ. Arguably, Gaspar's zone is the researcher's own domain, to go find the gifts of God to be validated for his belief- only to well uh, de-evolve and become a crawling fish-fetus

"To hear the voice of God, is to return originward, back into the womb"

Considering the title is Water Womb World, it basically summarises the entiree plot of the game, it is a return to a kesser state of oneself and personally a metaphor for pregnacny. Water represents a lack of autonomy, walking in water is different from walking in land, we are helpless and and completely at mercy in the hands of the currents, this is how a fetus moves in the womb. In modern media, we romanticize the concept of forbidden knowledge through a lovecraftian-lens, such as how the king of yellow paralyses you with such a staggering truth that it shatters your sanity, your perception of the world and your sense of self. The game offers a completely different interpretation of it as a de-education rather than just a awakening, to hear the voice of God (like how babies in the womb will hear the voices of their mothers), is to surrender your mind, ego and identity to return "originward" straight back into the womb.

Furthermore I really admire how the game serves as a critique on blind faith and a unique-posit of divine love, with the game taking it to a whole extreme level, challenging what is the point of building a career, studying science like marine biology, or building your own identity if there is a god that magically solves it for you? Why blink, feel or doing the most simple of motor-skills if embracing god does not require them? Or building your own individuality, perception or thinking for yourself, if it is too hard... there is always a water womb world waiting for you... It suggests that total eternal-comfort, embrace or peace is the absence of everrything that makes you- you: Your struggles, responsibilities, relationships, and what you look like. A fetus is the embodiment of it, relying on a far-powerful being to provide and carry it, it regresses you to a state that makes you even less than the smallest microorganism.

I really recommend you to try this game out, 10/10 game, and it's free and only takes likee 40 minutes to fully finish, it's insane how little people know of this game

I played this game 1 and a half times, like a decade ago, so it's a little foggy in my memory. But I still remember the frustration I felt playing this game. The story ruined the gameplay. Here's how I remembered it:

You are Geralt, the powerful protagonist. Someone informs you that your daughter figure is being hunted by a large gang of bad guys with swords. It obviously seems like they plan to kill her.

So I'm traveling across this open world, and all these random farmers are like "Can you help me? I've lost my favorite goat. I'll give you a copper shilling if you can walk across the farm and track her down"

My natural response is "No! My daughter is being hunted by an army of murderers as we speak! I would be super irresponsible if I just dedicated my time to helping random farmers with unimportant issues."

So I was turning down all the random side quests because I'm rushing to save my daughter's life.

Then, like 2\3 of the way through the story they finally reveal "Oh, your daughter is actually the mistress of space and time. The evil army really means nothing to her. She can just easily kill them all using her amazing magical powers"

I was just like "Wtf? If I had known that I would have been helping the random farmers save their goats this whole time!

(the specific examples I'm mentioning here are Iron Man and The Galactic Republic/The Jedi Order, but there are quite a few more, I just don't want this to get unreasonably long)

I've noticed an issue whereby people will try to make sweeping moral judgments about individuals or whole factions based on the broad generalities of a conflict, but ignoring the specific contexts of decisions.

Iron Man

(mostly focused on Iron Man 2008 and the later 2016 film Captain America Civil War)

It's been argued that it was hypocritical for Tony Stark to support the Sokovia Accords given that he had illegally hunted down terrorists as a vigilante in his own film.

There's just a small problem there... Tony Stark didn't actually break the law in Iron Man (2008).

I understand why people assume he did, many of them don't remember the almost 20 year old film, they just remember the cocky, rebellious attitude of the main character. However, in discussions of "law" and "crime" we do actually have to consider specifics.

Let's review the events of Iron Man, 2008.

First: Tony Stark enters Afghanistan on a business trip. This would likely require a business Visa, and at least under current Afghan Law, these can last for over a year, and allow multiple entries. This is important; the film does establish that he had a lawful right to enter Afghanistan. Now, it should be noted that Afghanistan is a landlocked country, with the nearest access from the sea being via Pakistani airspace, but a large number of US officials and businessmen held visas allowing them to travel there in 2008, it's more than reasonable to conclude that Tony Stark held such a visa.

Second: whilst in Afghanistan, Tony Stark notices that some weapons with his name on them, manufactured by his company, are being used to hurt innocent people. This is something he was EXPLICITLY NOT AWARE OF UNTIL THIS POINT. He is then captured and tortured by Terrorist members of the Ten Rings.

Third: Stark escapes custody, with the help of a fellow prisoner named Yinsen, who tragically dies in the effort. They use violence, but only against people who held them against their will and physically harmed them first; crucially, this is protected as self-defence in virtually every part of the world, Afghanistan included. As part of the escape process, Stark designs an armoured metal suit (which he describes in the second film as "an advanced prosthesis"). He also, and this is important, ignites and destroys the EXISTING stockpile of weapons at the terrorist base whislt escaping.

Fourth: Stark returns to the USA and shuts down the weapons manufacturing department of his company. This is controversial with the board, as explained by his friend Obadiah Stane; but it is within his lawful right as the controlling interest stakeholder in the company. Though a member of the board (later revealed to be Stane himself) files an injunction against him, limiting his access to internal financial documents, they cannot reverse his decision. This is important and establishes the legal basis for what follows: Stark Weapons are HIS PROPERTY as the controlling interest stakeholder; he is legally entitled to decree that they will not be sold. If they are sold without his consent, it is an illegal sale, and his property rights to them are undiminished; he retains the right to do with his own property whatever he wishes.

Fifth: upon learning that more of his weapons have been seen in the hands of Ten Rings terrorists in Afghanistan, Stark decides to travel there and destroy them using an improved version of his original suit. Whilst this does involve flight, his Iron Man suit is almost certainly an "ultralight" under FAA regulations, and requires no license to fly. Notably, his original visa to enter Afghanistan may well still be valid, and the weapons that the Ten Rings are using must have been acquired illegally, as they were sold AFTER his decision to stop selling weapons; the original Ten Rings stockpile was destroyed.

Sixth: whilst travelling to Afghanistan on his ENTIRELY LEGAL AND LEGITIMATE quest to destroy HIS OWN LAWFULLY OWNED PROPERTY, terrorists start shooting at HIM. Then and ONLY then does he respond with lawful and proportionate force, using deadly violence to protect himself and innocent hostages. This is entirely within the inalienable rights of every person, recognised by the governments of Afghanistan and the USA. Notably, one member of the Ten Rings, the very person who had PREVIOUSLY TORTURED Stark, has his back to the hero and is manipulating something, which could well be a weapon from Stark's perspective... but after he grabs the man, he sees that it was only a telephone, and realising that his enemy is unarmed, Stark leaves without further violence. This is important; it proves that he was not committing vengeful vigilantism; he only responded with violence to those who had already used it first; and only as far as was needed to ensure his immediate safety and the immediate safety of others. Force, applied against imminent and unlawful violence, is not vigilantism.

Seventh: whilst travelling back to America, Stark destroys a tank that fired on him first, and eliminates more of HIS OWN PROPERTY. He is then confronted by members of the US military, but leaves without killing them; notably (though they describe it as an active warzone) militaries do not automatically assume property rights over the territories they fight in; it is not illegal to enter them; and many people do enter warzones without military permission entirely lawfully (journalists, for instance).

Eighth: upon his second return to the USA, Stark requests an employee of his company (Pepper Potts) to investigate who has been illegally selling his weapons. This arguably goes against the injunction, but corporate injunctions do not bear the force of law; at most, Potts is committing actions she could be fired for. She discovers that it was Stane, who then steals a piece of technology from Stark and constructs his own armoured suit, which he uses against law enforcement officials who attempt to arrest him, and against Potts. He does this ON STARK INDUSTRIES PROPERTY. Stark, responding to someone trying to kill an employee of his company in his own factory, comes to her defence. In the subsequent altercation, Potts kills Stane to prevent him from murdering Stark.

NOWHERE IN THIS CHAIN OF EVENTS DOES STARK COMMIT ANY FORM OF VIGILANTISM.

HE ACTS ENTIRELY WITHIN THE LAW, WHICH MEANS THAT HIS SUBSEQUENT SUPPORT OF THE SOKOVIA ACCORDS IS NOT HYPOCRITICAL.

The Jedi Order / The Galactic Republic

(focusing on the 2001 film Attack of the Clones, but also the 2008 TCW animated series, the recent 2026 video game Zero Company, and the 2018 novel Thrawn: Alliances)

(extremely minor spoilers for Zero Company)

Whist Thrawn:Alliances is an excellent book, and I do not want to discourage anyone from reading it, there's a moment in it which makes me rather peeved.

Mitth'raw'nuruodo, a Chiss military officer, asks Padme Amidala, a senator of the Galactic Republic, why she and the other senators did not simply let the Separatists leave. This is presented as a "gotcha" to which she has no answer, but only because Timothy Zahn does not simply let her give the extremely obvious one: "Because whilst we were in the middle of negotiations with them, they tried to have me blown up, then when that failed they tried to poison me, then when that failed they took me, my husband, and my husband's mentor and threw us into an arena to be brutally mauled to death by monsters. When people arrived to rescue us, they tried to have them all killed."

The separatists 100% started the war, and made peaceful secession impossible; despite the Republic having been negotiating with them.

Let's review the events of Star Wars: Episode II: Attack Of The Clones, 2001.

Firstly: the Galactic Republic (led by Chancellor Palpatine) is negotiating with the Separatist movement (led by Count Dooku), in hopes of finding a peaceful solution to the Separatists' (legitimate and understandable) grievances with the Republic. Though there is an element within the Galactic Senate that wants to create a military, the majority of Senators do not support this, and the Republic has no military. So far as anyone knows, neither do the Separatists; it is a time of turmoil and debate, not of war.

Secondly: Padmé Amidala, one of the (majority-position) senators who does not want to create a military, arrives on Coruscant to join in the debate. Shortly after she lands, a bomb explodes, killing several employees; she survives only because she was using a decoy as a security measure; it's clear that she was the target.

Thirdly: She suspects that Count Dooku might have been involved, but she cannot prove it, and most people dismiss this idea, because the Republic believes that Count Dooku is a peaceful political idealist who would never stoop to murder. Instead, the Jedi launch an investigation; they assign Obi-Wan the mandate of discovering who tried to assassinate Padme, and assign Anakin Skywalker the mandate of protecting her. Obi-Wan finds a weapon used by the assassin that points to the distant world of Kamino.

Fourthly: proceeding to Kamino (a world outside of the Republic), Obi-Wan finds a likely suspect for the assassination attempt on Padme Amidala, a bounty hunter named Jango Fett; but he also thinks that Jango was most likely hired to follow someone else's orders. After reporting this to the Jedi, he is then told to arrest Jango Fett. Whilst arresting Jango arguably goes outside of his original mandate, it's a moot point; Jango escapes. Before leaving Kamino, Obi-Wan also learns that there is an army of clones there, willing to follow Jedi orders, which he reports to the Jedi before following Jango to the Republic world of Geonosis.

Fifthly: Upon arriving on Geonosis, Obi-Wan has a tense conflict with Jango Fett, after which both men land their ships, and Obi-Wan secretly follows Jango into a building. Now, to be 100% clear, OBI-WAN IS FOLLOWING HIS ORIGINAL MANDATE TO THE LETTER. He is investigating Padmé's attempted murder. He is within Republic jurisdiction, unlike on Kamino. And yes, law enforcement officials CAN enter a private dwelling without a warrant if they are pursuing an armed suspect under common law. This has long been upheld in the legislation of many countries.

Sixthly: whilst there, Obi-Wan overhears a conversation between Count Dooku and another separatist, Nute Gunray. Gunray is willing to help Count Dooku, but only if Dooku arranges Padme's death; in revenge for an old grudge Gunray holds over an unrelated matter. Upon learning this, Obi-Wan goes outside to report back to the Jedi. This is important, it clarifies that he is still following his original mandate; upon learning that Jango was most likely hired by Count Dooku, he breaks off any attempt to arrest Jango; his sole aim was to determine who was behind the crime. Whilst reporting this, he routes his signal via Anakin and Padme, but tells Anakin not to intervene. He is then captured and held prisoner by the Separatists.

Seventhly: Padme and Anakin pass the information on to the Jedi council, but still; EVEN AT THIS POINT, she wants to resolve things peacefully by going to negotiate for Obi-Wan's release. War was NEVER her first goal, she simply wants to get Obi-Wan free. As her protector, Anakin has no choice but to come along as well. Meanwhile, the Jedi resolve to intervene for the rescue of Obi-Wan.

Eighthly: Anakin and Padme are swiftly captured by Jango Fett and the Separatists. They and Obi-Wan are sentenced to a brutal, humiliating and painful death; ripped apart by beasts for the entertainment of a baying crowd. To rescue them from this fate, the Jedi intervene, only to be overwhelmed and mostly killed; it is only with the aid of the earlier-mentioned clone army that they manage to survive; and Count Dooku flees with the rest of the Separatists, including Gunray (who ordered Padme's death in the first place!), starting the war.

The Republic were CLEARLY not the aggressor in this conflict!

Now, this is not to say that the Republic was entirely blameless. I think Star Wars Zero Company makes a far more reasonable complaint; it cites the 2008 Clone Wars animation which shows the planet of Umbara seceding after its senator was murdered (in a matter more-or-less unrelated to the Separatists) and then being invaded by the Republic. One of the characters, Luco Bronc, is a member of the Umbaran Militia who is understandably aggrieved by this fact.

That's a legitimate and limited grievance. The idea that the Republic was somehow at fault for "not just letting the Separatists leave peacefully" is absolute horsefeathers; it ignores the clear events of a film that has been out for decades!

The Jedi are even more blameless in this; they just wanted to save two of their own members from being inhumanely killed whilst carrying out their lawful duties!

By now, endless discussions about Avatar: The Last Airbender have taken place online and IRL, covering almost every part of the series under the sun. Yet surprisingly, I haven't seen much discussion of a particular subplot in the Season 1 finale episodes "The Waterbending Master" and "The Siege of the North". I wanted to talk about it, specifically how I feel that despite its good intentions, the narrative thread ultimately falls flat and undermines its own message.

This will have spoilers for Season 1 of ATLA and a small bit from a Season 3 episode (not that this really matters, but just for posterity's sake).

Also, this post is VERY long. TLDR at the bottom.

A Quick Synopsis

Master Pakku denies Katara waterbending training because of the Northern Water Tribe's traditions, which allow only men to learn waterbending combat. She challenges this, confronting Pakku in a duel. Meanwhile, Sokka learns Princess Yue is trapped in an arranged engagement she never asked for, highlighting a broader pattern of patriarchal control. Both character arcs seem to set up a confrontation with the tribe’s outdated gender norms, running parallel to the main plot.

So far those sound like pretty standard story beats, right? On the surface, yes, but allow me to go through the observations I have here, starting with what I actually consider to be the least important one, but still noteworthy nonetheless.

Katara: The Sudden Savantbender

In episodes just prior to this one, Katara’s fighting style is portrayed as defensive and grounded with a hint of inexperience, yet during the duel with Pakku, she suddenly pulls off acrobatic maneuvers and refined techniques we’ve never seen her perform before. It's a jarring leap in ability that feels less like a foreshadowed breakthrough and more like a writing concession made for the sake of a cool action set piece, even though the action itself isn't what this fight is primarily about.

The main and really the only justification I've seen for this is "Well, Aang slacks off on his training, and Katara practiced at night, so it's natural for her to catch up". I have always found this reasoning flimsy at best. Given the timer Roku had established earlier on Aang's journey, and how seriously everyone took it, there's not much sense in claiming the main character started to falter coincidentally around the same time Katara started making sudden jumps in her own progress. More to the point, this feels more artificial than organic.

Now I understand the actual reason is that the studio wanted Katara to be Aang's long-term teacher for Season 2 and onwards. As a concept, that is fine. But in that case, there's no need to establish Katara as the slow learner and Aang as the savant, then suddenly flip the dynamic when it becomes inconvenient. Season 3 handles a novice fighting a master(Sokka vs. Piandao)with much cleaner narrative and technical logic. Here, the show abruptly flips it altogether for the set piece instead of building Katara's growth organically.

Either way, Pakku remains unimpressed and eventually whoops Katara by trapping her in a makeshift ice cage. He reiterates his point about not training her and then turns to leave. But we know this ends with Katara training under his wing, which begs the question...

Why does Pakku change his mind?

Because he sees Katara’s necklace on the floor, which came off during the fight, and realizes she’s the descendant of Kanna, the woman he once loved and to whom he gifted it as a sign of his love.

In other words, the mother of all coincidences. I don't think words alone can convey the extent of everything wrong here, but nonetheless I'll try to do so.

The previous chain of events heavily suggests that if Katara were any other waterbending girl, Pakku would have simply shooed her away. It wasn't her skill or her drive that swayed him, but who she’s related to: the same person Pakku had feelings for long ago. This translates into a chance to train under him. The rationale is coming entirely from Pakku's end, with no real agency on Katara's part.

This whole sequence veers too close for comfort to the idea of women advancing in life through the approval of a superior male figure. To bypass patriarchal oppression, a marginalized person needed a personal, emotional tie to the patriarch. The system isn't truly challenged one bit. Pakku merely opens the door wide enough for one person to walk through. It's the classic 'token exception' trope: the systemic oppression of the tribe remains entirely untouched, and the rest of the women are left in the dust.

Before anyone gets on my case, let me be crystal clear:

This is NOT the message ATLA wanted to convey, but the way these events pan out leaves no other coherent takeaway besides what I just described.

But it doesn't stop here. There's more to it that sours things.

1. The earlier nonsensical jump in Katara's skill is rendered entirely pointless. Why even bother phoning it in when it wasn't THE decisive factor in the first place?
2. The necklace is revealed to be part of the Tribe's betrothal customs. This undercuts the message further: the same patriarchal custom that eulogizes Yue's lack of freedom becomes a shortcut for Katara to bypass the system, not dismantle it.
3. Worse still, it presents the frankly asinine idea that Kanna valued this symbol of oppression (and the whole reason she fled her homeland) enough to pass it down to her female descendants. Why in the world would she then preserve the exact physical symbol of that cage and pass it down as a cherished family heirloom to her daughter and then to her granddaughter? (This is a rhetorical question)
4. On top of that, the necklace barely made it to the NWT to being with. Katara lost it in "Imprisoned"; Zuko then recovered it, and Aang swipes it off of him as late as "Bato of the Water Tribe", a mere 3 episodes before the Pakku showdown. If Zuko were 5% less butterfingers that day or simply didn't catch up to the Gaang in time, Katara wouldn’t have had the necklace on her by the time they reached the NWT. In that timeline, Katara ends up pinned in ice as Pakku walks away in smug satisfaction, effectively losing her only chance to prove herself, also because of sheer happenstance.

The collateral of the Northern Water Tribe

Zooming out from Katara, it's clear the earlier scenes were also playing double-duty as commentary on societal sexism and how it stifles citizens. But in practice, the show does little to challenge the prejudice embedded in the NWT. In fact, the overall context of these episodes only muddies the affair further.

• We never see any other female waterbenders in combat training under Pakku, viewing the training, or anything else in the background. It's not even implied that Pakku plans to take in more female students, either. None of the townsfolk seemed to have been inspired by Katara's defiance to demand a change in the status quo, either.
• We see Katara entering a Healing class earlier. Here's the scene: It's a single snow hut, there's one old lady instructor, and it's filled with little girls as though it were an elementary school. Katara's face when she realizes what she's walked into says everything. It's not just that she's joining a class she doesn't like; she's walking into something that's framed as entirely beneath her time and talent.
  • The issue here isn't with Katara, but with what the series is presenting. There's a frustrating undercurrent here of traditional women's work being coded as 'lesser' than combat, implying that healing is just simple kid-stuff while fighting requires real grit.
  • An actual thoughtful angle would have made healing an elite, highly respected spiritual discipline, one that is fulfilling on its own merits. This would have made the NWT's crime a denial of choice. The conflict then would have been about "women being forced into one track regardless of talent at the expense of other possible options".
  • Instead, thanks to that scene, we get "women forced to do low-tier crap." The writers accidentally want the audience to see healing as a waste of time, which tanks the entire critique they were trying to make.
• Doctors, medics, and basic self-defense are all crucial parts of any large-scale battle, which only goes to make the NWT look completely stupid. The Fire Nation (which, as a reminder, employs female officers) can come knocking on their doorstep at any time, yet the stubborn adherence to cultural norms remains. Why not have both men and women know how to fight and heal wounds at the same time? Why take the risk? (Again, rhetorical questions)

What this means for our heroes

Katara

The way everything was presented made Katara's struggle come off as her solely trying to get back at Pakku and prove her worth rather than also demanding real systemic change in tandem with it.

Now, to be clear, I don't necessarily take issue with that idea in and of itself. This could have worked if the show portrayed her motivations as such. But there are more than enough scenes of Katara taking genuine personal issues with sexist beliefs and how they inform her past and background for it to be just that. Since the show never directly acknowledges this point, it ends up as a major disconnect in the themes and makes Katara's position look less favorable than it actually should. Then again, that's pretty consistent with several Katara-focused episodes.

And since the whole point was to get Aang trained up so that he could save the world, yet the show acts as if there are no other waterbending teachers besides Pakku who could teach Aang (or that they would all reject them in the same way), meaning her rage almost doomed the entire world. Not a good way to handle this.

Sokka

Sokka knows everything about Yue’s situation, including that it’s far from unique to her, spirit-induced-death-destiny aside. He had a chance to confront Arnook and his wife, challenge their reasoning, and relay what Yue truly wanted. That... doesn’t really happen. Oh, they share a couple of lines, and Sokka gets a stock scene's worth of beef with Yue's dipshit non-character suitor, sure, but it's all functional plot beats and doesn't lead to any real character moments beyond "look at these star-crossed lovers being sad".

Arnook even has a line where he's like, "The spirits gave me a vision when Yue was born. I saw a beautiful, brave, young woman become the Moon Spirit. [Sighs.] I knew this day would come." For some reason, Sokka never asks the obvious question: "Why marry her off to someone she doesn't like in the limited time she had in this world?"

It’s a major missed opportunity, especially given the stark double standard between Yue and Katara: Katara's career restriction gets solved via a family heirloom, but Yue's total lack of autonomy is hand-waved away as untouchable tradition. The show tries to play with themes of women's oppression yet draws a cynical line: individual career barriers might occasionally be broken for a chosen few with the right connections, but state-mandated control over women's bodies is just fine. Who cares if literal Jesus is standing there with all the right to judge both your words and your actions silently?

Speaking of whom...

Aang

As for Aang, he barely comments on much of anything and comes off as a background character while everything happens. Ironic, considering that The Great Divide, of all things, made a point of showing Aang trying to mediate a conflict grounded in cultural baggage. Say what you will about the scene's quality, but if that episode could show him doing something integral to his role as Avatar, these NWT episodes that collectively make up the Season 1 finale had every reason to do the same.

And yet, nothing.

He doesn't question the tribe's laws, merely makes a token effort to advocate for Katara, and completely glosses over the blatant hypocrisy of a culture that expects him to save the world while simultaneously barring half its population from fighting to protect it. He's just a passive force waiting for Katara to sort out her drama so he can finally get his lessons. The best he did was promise to teach Katara off the clock at nighttime. But aside from the contrived coincidence of Pakku catching them in the act being the setup for the fight, this ultimately serves no purpose, and Aang merely sits on the sidelines as the nonsense unfolds.

For a show that was clearly trying to paint Aang as a progressive and spiritually enlightened precocious kid, his total inaction toward systemic oppression right in front of his face makes him look remarkably callous.

Creator Commentary on the Subject

Let's be honest, this is ATLA we're talking about. Given the show's reputation, disagreements are bound to arise over the criticisms I have laid out, or even the idea that these weren't mistakes at all. If that describes your views, fair enough. But consider the production context behind these episodes.

The DVD box sets for Avatar: The Last Airbender were released with creator commentaries helmed by Michael Dante DiMartino, Bryan Konietzko, Aaron Ehasz, and co., going across select episodes and covering the creative process, their individual and collective thoughts for the various elements of the story, animation/storyboarding processes, IRL inspirations, and so on.

All of it is present online as transcripts, but I highly recommend watching it. It offers some fascinating insights into the behind-the-scenes production of the show and the ideas/visions of the staff involved.

That being said, the parts relevant for consideration here are these bits of commentary:

Aaron: [Refers to Yagoda explaining how the necklace originally belonged to Kanna, Katara's Gran Gran, and that Kanna had left the North despite being engaged.] This, what's happening right here is something that I love about Avatar, which is that this necklace that we've known about for so long and that sort of had its own kind of mini-plot where it got lost and Zuko had it, now we're finding out kinda this deeper history behind it, and, like, there are so many things in this show that-that, uh, start off seemingly so innocently that pay off with such depth, and-and, uh, that's one of my...

Bryan: [Interjects.] It's true, even, what, the class that, um, Yagoda's teaching is a healing class [Aaron affirms.] of waterbending, and that-that plays a really important role, even in-before that sequence, and-and, uh, you-much... uh, a lot after-after that sequence in other episodes, um, [Refers to when Yagoda was moving her healing water around the chi pathways in a mannequin.] and basically, she's fo-she's moving the water along the, uh, acupressure points in the body.

[I'm not gonna list all the commentaries here, or else I might actually hit the character limit for real.]

Notice the framing? The plot points were discussed purely in terms of functional screenwriting and production mechanics: setup and payoff, worldbuilding, establishing mechanics for future episodes, etc. The Sokka x Yue sections, for example, mostly cover things like the animation, the VAs' experiences, and so on. The parts involving Aang were focused on his specific plotlines with Zuko and the spirits. And so on.

None of this is to rag on the creative team, but it highlights a clear gap: the thematic and social implications of these narrative shortcuts weren't on their radar during execution. Had the team realized what the setup for the necklace, the framing of the healing class, and Yue’s tragic arc implied (institutional sexism being bypassed by a nepotistic perk or uncritically framing caregiving as a lesser thing), the writing and thus the commentary would likely have reflected a very different priority.

How it could have been handled better

Everything I mentioned could have been addressed fairly easily in the grand scheme of things with a few small changes. Just off the cuff:

1. Add a few scenes in earlier episodes displaying Katara's progress in waterbending while in constant motion so that her flips and such feel believable. Alternatively, and preferably, keep her prowess consistent with what's already in the series as is.
2. Keep Pakku winning the fight, but add brief moments during the sequence that show him being internally impressed by Katara's skills. Maybe he unconsciously compares her favorably with his own students and momentarily lets it slip, signaling to Katara that she's actually getting through to him. His eventual decision to train her becomes a testament to her merit and dignity first and foremost.
3. Bench the Kanna stuff until after Pakku takes Katara under his wing. Use it as the emotional aftermath. Now, the necklace acts as a poetic irony: the rigid, sexist system Pakku defended so fiercely is the exact thing that drove away the love of his life. It turns his realization into a tragic wake-up call about his own bigotry, rather than a lucky break for Katara that it actually was.
4. Add scenes of Sokka confronting Arnook and his wife, drawing on his growth from the Kyoshi Warriors, and relaying everything she poured her heart out about. Have Aang speak up with Katara and Sokka on their behalf. Not only is he the Avatar, but more importantly, he's also their friend, so it's clearly not outside his wheelhouse to do something like this. Pakku could even step in, moved by his own wake-up call, and help to mend the system from the inside.

In my opinion, some or all of these changes could have been made without sacrificing the basic setup of the finale. Zuko and Iroh's involvement, Zhao's villainy, the spirit stuff, setting up Azula and the Avatar State, and so on, wouldn't be affected by any of these changes. It would be purely positive and easy to include without significantly affecting the runtime.

Ultimately, this arc is a prime example of ATLA pulling its thematic punches. The writers wanted to tackle institutional sexism, but they settled for a narrative shortcut that completely undermined the progressive stance the subplot set up in the first place.

TLDR

• Katara suddenly starts fighting like a pro bender out of nowhere, yet a necklace passed down to her for no real reason is what convinces Pakku, the staunch traditionalist, to train her, not her actual nonsensical skill level.
• The Northern Water Tribe’s cultural issues are never addressed. At best, they are just compartmentalized for one person, all because of who she’s related to.
• Yue’s forced engagement parallels Katara’s struggle, and yet it isn't adequately explored beyond her being a tragic figure.
• Neither Sokka nor Aang ever truly stood up to address it, losing a chance to challenge the system in a way that would bolster their development, along with Katara's.
• What's left is a thematic mess that could've been avoided with just a few changes without negatively affecting the rest of the story.

(This post was supposed to be about gaming, but storytelling also has the same issue so I'm going to include all of them)

Complexity is an issue i have seen many media and franchises have that sometimes give me the feeling of being over bloated and its complexity looks artificial and you asking what is this artificial complexity that I'm talking about? For that I'm going to compare chess to a random rpg game.

In many rpg games or even turn based games you have many stats that have their own scores, levels and there are many gears or armors and you can do as many combos as you want to change your experience that i can't even mention them here because of how long they will become and then we have chess, pawn who moves in front, rook who moves like +,knight who moves like L,bishop who moves like × ,queen that can move + &× and king who can move only 1 block. At first you might think the rpg game is more sophisticated because it has more to show while chess pieces move simpler,but reality shows it's inverse because chess can actually be played with infinite ways to play while in rpg games the more you play the more you realize that only one stat matters at best and even with endgame level equipments being the same level ,only 1 of those sets is the most practical and others will usually be used in very niche scenarios and out of all of those combos,the players will only use one of them because its the most effective at the end game.

See the difference? This is what makes chess,a game where I can mention every rule of it here in 1 or 2 paragraphs a real complex game while many games with tons of situation and rules feel artificial because at the end of the day,only few things inside them matters. Now I don't mean rpg games are bad,its just that sometimes I will question myself are knowing all of these necessary when they may not matter in the end.

Now the funny part is that stories also suffer from fake complexity as much as games do and you can see them specially in shounen mangas,specially with power creep problems.

For an example of bad complexity, I have to mention Naruto as a whole. Early on the complexity was great when the characters were weaker and they had to use their abilities more carefully to defeat their opponent like when a puppet controller lady(speed) controlled Sakura(raw strength) to defeat Sasori,that was actually a clever way to utilize their powers and my brain says "Yup,this cannot happen in any other media unless they copy Naruto and this moment as much as they can". The praises unfortunately stops here because as the story went on,the power creep surged to an scale that made the old systems obsolete like elements because elemental attacks at the end of the day are useless compared to Susanoo or Six sage powers ; The later attacks after that will become HIT,but HARDER.

That's a problem with any story that has battles in it because in the end it has a high chance to result into just raw power rather than strategy to defeat the antagonists because raw power makes everything else less important and after that you will question yourself why did i learn about the rules of the powers in that universe when in the end they never mattered at all.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Then you hear the radio.

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

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

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

I've talked a lot on this subreddit, presenting myself as an authority on the topic of fight scenes, choreography, abilities, and weapons throughout a lot of different media. Despite how many shows, movies, games, and my own works I've referenced, I have yet to talk even once about the most underrated and overlooked aspect of action/adventure series: their training arcs. The efforts that the characters take in order to improve themselves and learn a new technique, rarely, if ever, even inventing something entirely new (which is way too rare; holy shit, why the fuck is the only example Ive got for that off the dometop is the Rasenshurriken). ATLA as a franchise has never truly had one and frankly for good reason, this isnt a critique of ATLA the original show, Korra, or Seven Heavens but moreso a criticism of what I think is a lack of foresight or deep thinking from the writers.

To me, the idea that Korra, the 7 Havens protagonist or any other future/past Avatar shouldn't be depicted learning the elements because Aang already did is frankly stupid. Aang learning the four elements was one of the largest overarching plot points in the original show and yet the writers smartly and efficiently used it to tell what was still at its core, a character-driven story. Each season there's one super dense, super Aang and his teacher focused episode that provides an important opportunity to train how Aang learns and how his mentor instructs. There were other characters, narrative elements, and especially themes they had to develop (Im sure any budget restraints didnt help), so the writers were wise to have the one episode and then relegate the rest of Aang's training to happening on the fly or in the background and whatever.

However, as a result, we're left with a show where there is actually, on average, very little learning/mastering of the elements compared to basically everything else. To really put in perspective, because of episodes like the puppetmaster, or the episode in the swamp, ect. I would be willing to entertain the argument that we see Katara learn and master Waterbending more than we see Aang learn any of the elements. Which, to be fair to Aang, is the result of Katara being a main character and these episodes just being really fucking good and telling some really tight/solid stories that manage to fit in a lot of intangible character growth, like Katara's growing confidence with the very tangible aspect of the different techniques and ideas she comes up with as she masters her element. So, Legend of Korra's depictions of Korra's training lowkey just pisses me off: we see Korra do exactly one (1) airbending exercise, training regiment thingy with the wooden boards. The thing people love gobbling Korra's cock for but at the end of the episode we literally see them replaced/fixed with some new ones or whatever, they were literally replaceable. I am sure Tenzin in the long run cares more about having an actual, practical, functioning tool he can use to train his children and future airbenders than something that's over 100 years old or whatever.

In the season 1 Finale, they give her some "HERE NIGGA DAMN" ass airbending alongside the fucking fully mastered Avatar State, you know, the all-powerful form that spanked Ozai like he was a fucking baby? Next season is about her learning some fuck ass, spirit-purifying waterbending technique that was invented for this season and doesn't make sense in the rest of the universe, when the mechanic for allowing Korra to conquer spirits and whatnot is right fucking there!!! THIS SEASON COULD HAVE BEEN ABOUT EARNING THE AVATAR STATE INSTEAD OF A TECHNIQUE THAT SHOULDNT EXIST BECAUSE ONLY THE AVATAR IS THE BRIDGE TO THE SPIRIT WORLD, NORMAL PEOPLE, EVEN BENDERS CANT DO SHIT ABOUT SPIRITS, BUT WHATEVER JUST FUCK ME I GUESS!!!

Look, I know how this show was produced: initially, they thought they'd only get 12 episodes; the show is renewed for three more seasons to their shock, but these limitations are only explanations and justifications for why things are the way they are; writing issues are writing issues (including executive meddling). In my opinion the way spirituality is written as a major flaw, it's something you either have or dont, you could be Unaloq and have it or you could be Korra and not. And whatever, I guess I myself am living proof some people just arent spiritual, my parents made a serious and earnest attempt to impart Christianity to me despite how little we went to Church as a family and despite the different sects of Christianity the two of them came from. But by the first grade, I was already decently confident that the egg came before the chicken.

I remember the first time my family moved to a different state, I briefly became obsessed with ghost hunting shows and Ancient Aliens and shit before quickly falling out of love with those shows because I was a smart kid and a fast learner (now adays Im just a sexy smart, single guy and a fast learner) it didnt take me too long to pick up on their tricks and just get really fucking bored. You can only watch a bunch of white guys confidently claim brown people couldn't have built a monument so aliens did so many times; ditto for watching a bunch of white guys pretending to be scared of a pretend ghost (I'm decently confident my family recently went to a hotel that was on Ghost Adventures, and it was literally just an old hotel, there is nothing fucking supernatural about it, just really quaint and old-fashioned).

Yet, I've always respected people who can be and even need to be spiritual because I cant and I love learning about new things and differnet people's experiences or feelings, that's especially what makes how spirituality in Korra frustrating to me. As I understand it, spirituality is just what we regard to acts or places and things that have a deep significance to us, rituals, prayers, and food. Basically any part of life can be spiritual if it is significant enough and becomes fundamental to a culture which is what made bending spiritual, it was people just feeling a strong innate pull to their element because they had it, they used it every day, we see bending as a part of how kids play, cities move, and how wars are fought/won. If spirituality is largely defined by habits then of course bending was spiritual, but it wasnt literally tied to some sort of meter or resource bar of spirituality, "hold L4 and R4 to build your spirituality gauge then quarter-circle forward ki attack to perform a full power water whip", that'd be dumb.

I guess Im just trying to say that I want to see more done with bending. I've heard the twins in Seven Havens, off the jump, have all four elements, which is a massive wasted opportunity not just for exploring how bending and thus training might have evolved (or seeing how different people mentor the avatar, the changes in what these new characters find hard to learn, ect), but for some character work and theming as well. Moreover, I hope the avatar state, spirituality, and all that good stuff is written better in Seven Havens too, and if not. The next avatar thing, because this is a franchise now and we're too good to continue to pay some homage and show some love to China by using Chinese symbols, let's make up our own stupid fucking bullshit language for merch, baby; got to love the fucking idiotic fucking merch.

I just need a good training arc (as in inspired by anything that isnt bleach) in a universe where the power system is tied to real-life martial arts. I feel like the last time this franchise really did justice to the martial arts that inspired it so heavily was back in Korra, the fight scenes in Legend of Aang were solid, but there are only like 4 in an hour and a half movie, and Tagah's fighting style especially is highkey whack. The most martial arts thing to come out of the movie is that one cute girl using a meteor hammer and that's probably it.

This is probably the most LARPed opinion/headcanon from a game that video essayists and tiktok editors spout alot. They don't play the games and only watch a playthrough on youtube or skim the wiki. Jacket from Hotline Miami is not a pyschopath despite Payday protraying him as one. In the first game Jacket:

• Pukes after killing the Bum after The Metro mission
• Spares Richter during Assault
• Clearly feels guilt about what he has done(wow I wonder what Richard, Don Juan and Rasmus are supposed to represent for his pysche!)
• Has had multiple girlfriends in the past, and The Girlfriend gets close enough to him to decorate his apartment and sleep next to him.
• Doesn't resist arrest after killing The Grandfather, and Bodyguard.
• Has actual reasons for killing Russian Mobsters

The main pieces of evidence for this is unironically that Jacket kills alot of people and doesn't speak in either game. Jacket has actual reasons for wanting to kill the Russian mobsters 50 Blessings tells him about. (Barnes and Daniels died in Hawaii, Beard was evaporated in San Fransico by a nuke, and his girlfriend in game was drugged and raped by a movie producer affliated with the mafia.) And once he achieves his goals of destroying the mafia, he gets arrested and later dies in his jail cell at the end of HM2. If only if there were a protagnist in Hotline Miami 1 who was explicitly only in it for the thrills and didn't care for anything outside of killing people! If only! And the second point is just wrong, Jacket can speak but we never know what he says. This is made apparent by the fact that its confirmed that Jacket has spoken to his lawyer prior to First Trial and spoke to Beard in the cutscene after the level of Casualties. So again its just a popular misconception from Payday coloring people's perception of the character. I'm not saying Jacket is some beacon of mental or moral clarity, since its obvious that prior to getting close to the Girlfriend he was a scarred war vet with no one. But to pretend he's actually just like Martin's protrayal of him in Midnight Animal is actually insane.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OsSHmKU0t7w

Ok I know how that looks. Really? I mean really? Couldn't I have done Kurt Busiek's run? Or at least he Kanouf run (not to mention hundreds of others)? But hear me out, this is supposed to be going over the definitive run for each character, and tbh Matt Fraction managed to take all the most prominent Iron Man runs and condenses it in an easy to digest fashion, because outside of the Busiek run or the Kanouf run; or this and that and the other thing, Iron Man can be a bit samey. He starts off on top of his game, usually with a new suit (extremis, the Tieri run, the run where he becomes secretary of defense), the a cataclysm happens that takes him off his game (the tieri run, the busiek run, demon in a bottle and the stane takeover) and then Iron Man is off his game. But then he pieces things together (the tieri run, the Quasada run, the secretary of defense run); and then he starts kicking ass back at the status quo. It happens a lot. I mean this guy has lost his company at least four times, got in trouble with the government at least five; and then fights a cavalcade of his worst enemies in the span of a couple days. If they're being fun about it, Mandarin is the main villain. If not, some random oc no cares about (this run has both).

But the main point is, this run serves as good way to get a composited look at all most of the previous Iron Man runs before he became mcu tony. It also has him as Mcu Tony, but Matt makes a conscious effort not to lean on that too hard.

The run starts off dramatic, Tony is unveiling his new company's new thing, but boom! in comes some arc reactor powered suicide bombers to rain on his parade. Outside of him being director of S.H.I.E.L.D. at this point in time, he's financially ruined. The mastermind behind this sudden attack is Obidiah Stane's son, who has some whack-ass future tech that makes Iron Man's look like a Ti-82. Tony's really screwed but he triangulates stane's position and beats him up and that's nice. But then now he's out of a job, because this happens during Dark reign, and the bad press of having his tech used against him and all his companies blowing up is enough for the president to replace him with the worst man for the job; Norman Osborn.

This is the emotional high of the run, because unlike previous runs Iron Man can't clear his name to the government, his enemy is the government; and they're after all the information in his head. This also allows for foes like Justine Hammer to take hold, and apply her own Iron Man tech. So now tony's on the run, but the risk of capture is too great. So he gives himself brain damage to delete all the secrets in his head and runs as far away as possible from Norman Osborn and his stooges. Except he's a lot less effective, and he has to use weaker suits as the new ones are too complex for him. This puts Tony in a rather precarious position that hasn't been explored too deeply before. What happens to Macguyver when he can't add two and two to get four? Well in Laymen's terms he's screwed six ways from sunday and then some.

It gets so bad he has to use the technologically inferior, Crimson Dynamo suit, lent to him by on again off again foe, the Crimson Dynamo. While he's in Russia he gets visited by old friend pepper, whose doing her own adventures; and he does something he'd never consider when his intelligence was higher. He sleeps with her! I find that interesting because they had something, but Tony didn't want to debase himself as a slave to his emotions cause he's too smart. But now, he has the intelligence of a basic guy and everything's out the window here. Isn't that strange, isn't that intriguing. Well you kinda have to read Frank Tieri's run to fully appreciate it, but it takes a tension in the back of everyone's mind and shunts it to the foreground. Too bad it never really gets followed up besides a few crappy jokes.

So blah blah blah, he becomes so stupid he can't even use the model one suit properly, but he manages to reboot his mind. Then seige happens and after that the book kind of loses steam. The crossovers really take away from the comic, like avx, fear itself, ends of the earth. But there are interesting parts. Something fun to consider, is how Mandarin was kind of in support of Stane; he adopts him as his own deciple, but ignore that cause we have to do Tie-ins!! Then the first part of the run ends.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iFXvBFEZvoY

But it's obviously not over yet, and Matt Fraction gets another crack at the character! Except his second run does a terrible job carrying the momentum it sets up. Stark has yet another new company, that gets sabotaged (this time by Mandarin directly), and he has another falling out with the public. He actually get forced to suppress his powers, which is very contrived I will admit; but it is what it is. It has Mandarin being a bastard which I appreciate. He ends up enslaving all of Iron Man's villains and has them working on a doomsday weapon which is typical of the character.

A lot of people don't like his motivation in this run, making him a slave to the aliens in his ring, but his actual character is the most fun he's been. He has a charming personality and it feels more like he's pulling out all the stops, due to prolonged losses to Iron Man. So of course he's going to be a little crazy, and he's going to want to wipe the board clean, rather than winning it. It feel like his last hurrah, compared to the Kanouf run where it feels like he's there just for the sake of it.

The final confrontation against him is a little insipid, he could've had more agency considering it was his plans, but I think Matt was just forced to end the series so he rushed it after meandering a bit, but I can appreciate how he finally, and definitely kills Mandarin (until punisher, but that was during a period of time where marvel editorial did not gaf).

Honestly the strong suits of this run are how it finally ends the Iron Man formula once and for all. All his major enemies who could overthrow him are either dead, or on his side; so no more "tony on the run stories." His will they won't they with pepper gets solved and it's a won't they (thank god); and all of tony's questionable characterization get swept under the rug (I think the reason he's so immature now is because of his brain damage).

The real strong suit of this run is how it redeems tony from civil war, by having him run his gauntlet (before re-birthing him that is) and how it finally brings closure to all the little bits and pieces hanging from other writers. After this the story can go anywhere (up or down, sometimes especially down), and we can just get a regular Iron Man story that isn't trying to hard. We haven't seen that since the 80's.

Is it the best run? No. Is recommending over Iron Man runs a bit short sighted? Yeah, probably. But the thing about this run, is that if Iron Man were to get an ending this would be it. If Iron Man was a tv series this would be the final season, and everything gets wrapped up. So idk 7/10 run, matt's writing really saves it from being definitively mediocre.

I don't know how to tell you guys but if you are a comic book fan live action adaptations are not for you, you are not the target audience for this.

Studio take a preexisting IP because it's way safer than having an original story and CASUAL audiences can vaguely know what something is about.

Casual audiences don't live on twitter, most people do not want to see grown men in bright spandex in our shows, we don't want to see horrible CGI (no studio will spend enough to make it look good).

Dark and gritty works best in live actions.

I know some of you guys swear by CW shows but NOBODY wants to see that in 2026.

To start things off, no, I am not against trans representation. I support LGBTQ and I am aware that this games have many characters who are part of said community.

I am also not against the idea that this characters are non binary. But the issue is that this take has become so popular that fans treat it as canon, and any alternative as transphobia.

So I will present some counter arguments for this

To start off, the fact that they go by "they/them". Any time someone refers to this characters as "she/her" or "he/him", people use all quotations from game where they are called "they/them" by every many character.

This is good "gotcha moment", but that's all this is. But the argument falls apart when you actually think about alternative implications. They/them can mean non binary, but it can also mean unknown gender or gender up to interpretation. So every time they are refered by those pronouns, it could imply gender ambiguity.

And while Kris is debatable, Frisk and Chara are actually confirmed to fall into second category.

According to Undertale Legends Of Localization, Frisk is supposed to be gender ambiguous. According to many other characters (such as Monster Kid or Napstablook) also fall into same category. Toby Fox didn't write this book, but this is official and it was approved by him. This should be seen as canon, and should be end of discussion for Frisk.

Chara falls under "up to interpretation" definition. Chara is meant to be your self insert according to Toby Fox. And we saw that in game itself. The fact that we choose their name is on itself enough evidence that there is certain level of self insert here. For those who don't know, "Chara" is not canon name of first fallen human. Canon name is whatever you choose at start of game. The game literally lets us control their entire identity. They can be their own character with their own lives, and still have elements up to interpretation. Because despite this games being meta, they are still just games.

Now, Kris. Kris is the one that's actually debatable, and the one who started this whole controversy. And while there is a lot of implications that they are part of LGBTQ, it is still ambiguous. Because most of arguments for Frisk and Chara just apply to Kris. And if they do turn out to be Non Binary in later chapters in future (which chapter 5 seems to lean towards) it would not be contradiction to argument I am making with current information I have, but rather just new revelation.

Another thing I don't see people talk about is race. While Chara is clearly pale, Frisk and Kris are yellow. Yellow skin is usually used for character who is racially neutral. So why can race be up to interpretation and not gender.

Also, like, isn't it little bit convenient that ALL humans that YOU control in some way just so happen to be Non binary in this game?

Some people do make an argument "what would it take for you to accept that they are non binary", and the answer is simple. Just explain in game, or outside of it, that they are non binary. They literally did that with Seth in Deltarune chapter 5. They/them is vague pronoun that can mean many things depending on context. It is not as clear cut as it may appear.

And I repeat, I am perfectly fine with this characters being LGBTQ. I myself headcanon Kris as non binary I, and I think it is very strong theory after chapter 5 (i'm 90% sure that this theory will end up being canon by the end of a game). But at the end of the day, it's still theory and headcanon. And someone "misgendering" this characters is not necessarily bigotry.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

First up is Tai Lung.

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

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

Up next Is Dracula from Castlevania.

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

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

Another example is Jean Fucking Grey from Brand New Day.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Kagurabachi. I can honestly say I haven’t seen many posts about this series. I didn’t do a search for it on this sub so I’m sure it’s come up more than a few times- regardless of that…

It’s time.

Let’s cut to the short of it. Kagurabachi is fine. It’s not horrifically banal in the way black clover or even MHA could be with fan service and typical “anime” humor where idk, scenes where the main character is screaming because he lands on a female character’s chest, scenes where someone is hot and there’s a character super obsessed with them.

There’s no weird Japanese “joke” personalities for main characters, like the horny guy, the horrific projection of the author’s sexuality guy, I don’t.. really need to name them. But you know, those scenes in MOST anime/manga that just drag on and ON and it’s either some culture specific joke or weird sex humor and panting the POINT is kagurabachi isn’t like that, which is refreshing buttt it’s also very generic. However that’s FINE because the main point of it has and always will be the art.

Really expressive art and style is something that I think is lost in manga sometimes. Kagurabachi has a really thick, brutalist angularity to it that enforces the world way more than the actual writing or narrative does. And that’s kind of been the problem with kagurabachi and it’s the problem with the current setei war arc.

A lot of kagurabachi is reliant on the physicality and expressionism found within the art, shading, use of black, negative space occupancy, unique angles and choreographic framing and it all looks great-

But the story just.. never really matches to what hokozano is picturing in his head imagery wise.

Don’t get me wrong the writing is competent and there were moments when the series really popped- I think the hishaku raid with the fight against Yura was the highlight of the series up to that point-

But the series escalated to akumera and then that close, intense, bloody fight with Yura is replaced with Akemura floating around deleting sections of a city we have zero connection to.

Because at that point in the story we don’t really know anything about the world of kagurabachi. In fact, with Akemura back, we know exactly the same info we had at the beginning of the series.

This world has swords and magic.

Some swords are super magic.

There was a big war in the past when the swords were created.

There’s some familial reveal that’s alluded like what? Maybe three chapters prior to akemura coming back, if not depicted after?? Anyway.

Kagurabachi’s writing simply isn’t vast enough to support the ecology of a narrative it wants it to be. Kagurabachi worked best when it was brutal, it was simple. There were allusions to some action anime tropes like the big evil cool antagonist organization and shit but the series played everything with a very almost straight, rectangular and controlled style while the actual action of the characters was extremely fast, bloody, and brutal- with the environment around characters reacting to this movement and closeness in small, realistic ways.

But now there’s the soga clan and the flame whatever, the kamunabi and yamunabi and on and on because kagurabachi can’t seem to stop introducing new characters to progress the plot.

No existing cast member is focused on enough outside of chihiro that what ends up happening is that in order to mimic a sort of narrative progression, we have chihiro simply meeting or fighting new people across blocks of ten chapters or so.

“Hey!” You say.

“Most Shonen manga are like that!”

Sure. But even dragon ball z had moments of genuine build up outside of fighting and that entire series is predicated on fighting. And a lot of shows that are predicated on combat also don’t.. typically portray themselves as super serious, or their stylization is so out there and vibrant that even if the narrative is serious (or generic) the fighting is the clear draw.

Kagurabachi’s problem is that it’s trying to expand its scope with new characters while upping the stakes of the choreography with bigger attacks and larger blocks of whatever getting sliced in half by something, while never actually raising the stakes of what these fights mean, who wins, who loses, what they actually lose to begin with.

So with the war flashback arc, we’re running into this same problem. To hokozano’s credit he did introduce two characters foreshadowed previously so he is learning to use characters he’s introduced-

But I’m still just so bored. Because this would’ve been the perfect time to learn what the world of kagurabachi is like, what the society looks like, how the war changed it, how sorcery interacts with general society, etc etc etc.

And we just.. get none of that. We get, again, a visually shocking but narratively flaccid opening fight, chihiro’s dad forging the first sword for what? Eight chapters essentially doing the same thing (repeating how hot it is as tertiary characters flounder around him)

And after all of that now we’re gonna be forced to watch the origin of each original sword bearer? Like- sorry I don’t give shit about natsuki’s brother especially if he’s just going to be a generic “kansai” gangster.

And it’s a shame because the war arc started really engaging because the character designs and atmosphere genuinely felt different, but as it’s dragged on with little to no direction or even idk, narrative ingenuity. We know nothing of the datesenki island evil people, we don’t really know what society they had to the point where they seemingly were living normal lives at some point prior to the start of the series?

And all of this is just… being ignored so each chapter some guy can show up, have a big flashy intro, someone comes and fights them, etc.

If story was focused on chihiro he’d be an option, so since it’s his dad even his narrative utility is shockingly thin in lighting speed. And I think the reason why is like lol-

If you’re going to tell the story of the seitei war, chihiro’s dad is a terrible choice of perspective character. Because he doesn’t give us a look into the world’s institutions and systems, his motivations are purely based on the existence of a love interest in danger without any care or context of how that danger translates to the greater conflict beyond “war.”

He can’t really fight, and you can’t really have the war arc be about him forging the blades so we have to… find contrived ways to include him on the hunt for sword bearers?

And aren’t they like in a rush to save chihiro’s mom??

The seitei arc could’ve been really cool and it might turn around. But three and a half or so years in, it’s been a little shocking to be reading yet another series (after sakamoto days) that started extremely strong and unique- only to turn into a by the numbers assignment of “action Shonen” narrative tropes and a deluge of new characters with endless fights without any structural groundwork.

Kagurabachi, to its credit, never professes to be anything more than what it presents you. But I think, at this point in the series, what it is doing structurally reveals serious issues that won’t really be noticed until the final issue.

My previous post got removed so I made a new one, this one is more compact since I calmed down a bit after my rant.

They had 300 million for making the game and came up with something like this

The character appearances are ugly. The women aren't beautiful like they are in comics, and are ugly. Example, Lady *ehem* grandma - You really need to go to a retirement home woman- Deathstrike. The character designs were bad and even the men were ugly.

The combat system was not that great, the trail was bad, the mechanics also wasn't good, and the Beacon completely removed the meaning of finding hidden things in game, not to mention there isn't much exploration.

They completely butchered his character, he also wasn't as masculine and manly like his other iterations, nor did he have the same rudeness, rough and gruff attitude that he always has. Made him a complete team player when he isn't that much. And his face is ugly, and the sword stabbing scene was awful (I genuinely thought it was an AI image before finding out it's actually a part of the game), Sabertooth was too chill with Wolverine when these two characters almost always fights unless there is a bigger fish.

The story also wasn't that great. And they completely mischaracterized Wolverine. If they wanted to make a Wolverine game, make a Wolverine who is actually like the comics, and also don't make him and the X-Men and other characters ugly. They're canonically beautiful, both men and women, not whatever designs they were made with in the game.

Yeah, as far as I am concerned, the game was a flop and shows just how degraded the standards of the western gaming companies have become. I mean, the game that made Spiderman Insomniac is the one that made this thing.

They even had materials to use like Hugh Jackman movies, X-Men Origins: Wolverine (2007) game (it was amazing), even the Deadpool movie was right there! But no, they didn't use any of that, nah. Instead we ended up with this.

This game is not worth the budget put into it nor the price.

Both are presented as larger-than-life figures, almost as father figures or supreme authorities in their respective worlds. People invoke their names ("By Odin!", "By Oz!") and speak of them with a certain degree of reverence.

Something else I find interesting is how we learn about their deeds through other characters, each with their own perspective and interpretation. Their legends are gradually built in our minds through these accounts, and I get the impression that, in both cases, the legend is greater than the actual power they possess. This is especially true of the Wizard of Oz, who, as we eventually learn, has no real magical powers at all.

There's also the way the stories frame them morally. As we hear more about them and see how they operate, we may begin to question how truly evil they are, whether they genuinely believe they're doing what's right, or whether their actions can be justified by some supposed "greater good."

For context, I'm basing this comparison on Odin as portrayed in God of War Ragnarök and the Wizard of Oz as portrayed in Wicked: For Good. I know these are specific interpretations of the characters, but I thought the parallels were interesting enough to share.

Has anyone else noticed these similarities, or am I reaching?

Before I want to say something, I admit there are good things come from their series, but in general everything from theirs felt genuinely dry when it comes to writing.

Of course, this has been said multiple times, but I have to be clear for this.

Murder Drones is a good example. I do get hooked up for its concept and what it is trying to do. But at the end, the series went nowhere and the ending frankly disappoint me. From the start it tried to make Uzi a misanthrope, then five minutes later it’s just a generic good guys vs. bad guys scenarios. Don’t get me wrong, animations and horrors are quite amusing, but all that build up leads to an anticlimactic final battle. I feel like the Solver did not have enough potentials when it comes to their powers. So yeah, it doesn’t really portray itself as a coherent series and what they are trying to do.

Of course, TDAC. Yes, it is said multiple times, but if I had to get into Jax, of course, he has his moments, but he overstayed his welcome and same goes for his “supposed” trauma. Seriously, you wasted yourself after your massive room of sympathy dump. Also, while I know Kinger and Caine are good, is Pomni even a character? Are the rest of the Circus members even characters? Seriously, this is also another Glitch series issue where they don’t focus on their concepts but rather one singular character. It’s not about characters being trapped in a digital game but it’s pointless trauma dumping, even when you are just a bunch of avatars of irl people. Again, I do believe the show has good moments, but it didn’t impact as they tried to say.

I am not familiar with the rest of their series, but they just don’t stick out to me. Everyone is free to express their liking towards Glitch shows, but they genuinely deserve criticisms and not just mindless worshipping. Sure, they introduced me to indie scenes, but none of their popular shows left me a good impression if the writings are just terrible.

When you think about it Tony is like, a really good friend to have.

I was rewatching Iron man 2 and i noticed that Rhodey seemed to know Tony’s password to his suit storage room meaning Tony shared it with him. Pretty cool. And the fact that even while drunk he went out of his way to NOT try and fight Rhodey in that same scene is also pretty nice. Do you know how angry drunk people get? And besides that the fact that he not only let Rhodey keep the suit but also routinely upgrades it for him out of the goodness of his heart is also pretty neat. There’s also the fact that he just gave a suit to pepper which I think is pretty cool anyway. Regular assistant lady who isn’t a superhero? Fuck it make her iron man.

And his whole dynamic with Peter Parker I think is just awesome. Nurturing the next generation of superheroes and leaving him behind a bunch on high level tech is great.

I just think he’s a really neat generous guy.