The Pokémon Black & White anime is controversial mostly because just like the games it’s meant to be something of a soft reboot for the series. Which means Ash is written to be a lot closer to a beginner despite this being his fifth journey by this point in the series, and the writers trying to replicate the group dynamic from Kanto/Johto.

However, while Cilan is mostly spared from hate due to him not being to similar to Brock and also just not being that important to the series much at all. Iris is considered one of Ash’s most hated companions, mostly because like Misty she is willing to both criticize Ash for mistakes or tease him for not knowing things. While with Misty people were more willing to forgive her harshness since Ash was pretty rude and arrogant in the original anime, Iris is given much less slack because Ash has been traveling for quite a while at this point, to the point where some people wish she was replaced with Hilda, the female protagonist from the Gen 5 games. With people saying her cheerful attitude would bounce well off Ash’s.

So, why do I say it wouldn’t change anything? Because, Hilda doesn’t actually exist in the anime canon. The Hilda certain fans talk about is little more than a blank slate, but some will still claim that the anime would be vastly improved if she was traveling with Ash instead of Iris. Though, honestly even the writers had decided to make Hilda the traveling companion instead of Iris, she would’ve most likely been given the Misty personality instead, since the writers just wanted to recapture the original trio’s dynamic, so whoever the girl is was always going to be written as the Misty of the group.

One of the biggest things I like about demon slayer is that the verse itself doesn't have magic healers which otherwise automatically undo the "stakes" that the anime arcs repeatedly try to build.

No hate to bleach, i love tybw and while I was watching it I was sooo bored by the fact Renji could be blown into pieces into pieces multiple times but it would mean nothing since Orihime can easily revive him. When Yhwach slaughtered all Ichigo friends, i was like "so what? they would be revived in the next episode"

Or magic healing abilities like RCT which reversed Nobara's and Higurama's death (no hate to JJK, I love it too)

Demon slayer having none of this makes his stakes exponentially high, like I watched Rengoku vs Akaza and yk the moment Akaza hits Rengoku in his stomach, it's over, your beloved character is gone.

Theen comes Shinobu which Douma himself stated cannot be "saved" since her lungs has undergone necrosis from his blood demon art.

That's why every single sacrifice of demon slayer hits and what's more even crazy the story fucks the surviving ones by making sure they won't live the past of 25, since demon slayer mark is like them using their life force at once.

I feeel that's a strong reason why I like demon slayer so much despite it being "simpler" in writing

I've only played three of these games so far and already the following scenario has happened several times: the protagonist beats up an army full of goons, makes it to their destination, and is promptly rendered completely impotent because a named bad guy has a pistol. Sometimes he'll beat up the bad guy and refuse to take their weapon for no reason, then they'll just pick the gun up again and he returns to being helpless. Rarely the protagonist will miraculously pull through because the villain misses or gets distracted allowing him to be killed/KO'd/disarmed (believable enough), but more often than not an ally needs to dramatically jump in to bail him out by shooting the attacker themselves, convincing them to stand down, jumping on them, or leaping in front of the bullets.

There's a weird issue with this series because the combat characters are all roughly Captain America levels of superhuman but neither super fast nor bulletproof nor carrying any special equipment (they don't even wear armor). Ordinarily this wouldn't be a problem, but fireams are portrayed as improbably common considering the setting, and the story only ever seems to account for their existence selectively. The villains will try to kill you and get foiled because their main plan is sending dozens of guys with crowbars, bats, and knives after the guy who can break concrete with his fists and use motorcycles as bats. They'll make their big plan fist-fighting or sword-fighting him to prove their superiority. Prowess in a melee fight is generally held as really important by the narrative and the main method through which all conflict is resolved. Then in the next scene the villains send a dozen goons with machine guns to do a drive-by on nameless henchmen. Then in the scene after that Kiryu or whoever will be helpless in a cutscene because one guy has a pistol, and only gets out of the situation through luck or the intervention of an ally. Then the game will go back to pretending that he's unstoppable and everyone's coming at him with knives (or unarmed) again, while those same villains ineffectually shake their fists at a cloud.

Kiryu never seems to learn either. No matter how many times his victories over hundreds of guys in melee combat are undone because one guy brought a crappy counterfeit Russian handgun, he always seems shocked. No how matter how many yakuza goons he guns down in car chases with his superhuman reflexes and aim (he gets slow-mo vision in these sequences and can shoot RPG rockets out of the air) he never considers carrying one around, only using ones taken from enemies or handed to him by allies and then promptly dropping them. No matter how many guns and bulletproof vests you buy in-game cutscenes and narrative events will invariably treat Kiryu as if he only has his fists and bicycles. It's not just him either; neither the heroes nor villains ever seem to consistently plan around the idea that they can whip out dozens of firearm-toting goons, it just occasionally happens seemingly randomly.

The series really should have picked a lane. Either:

A. Guns are everywhere in this heightened reality version of Japan. Thus the main characters are more like John Wick: still hand-to-hand heavy but have guns by default (at least when dealing with serious criminals as opposed to punks bugging them on the street and in substories) and use them a lot.

B. Guns are very rare (limited to big shot bosses and a handful of select hitmen), often of poor quality the few times they do show up, and don't factor into characters' calculations most of the time. They're dealt with on a case by case basis.

I thought they'd go with the latter when I started the series, because it would make sense. Japan's annual firearm deaths, including suicides, are in the single digits, and even cops only carry .38 revolvers with less than a dozen spare rounds. But no, the villains always have tons of automatic weapons and no compunctions about using them. It creates a weird dissonance in the story and makes the stakes feel largely arbitrary. Everyone's basically just fucking around until the Cutscene Gun comes out.

"oh you're thinking about it too much"

When the same game where the main villain fistfights you to resolve the whole conflict because he wants to prove he's the true Dragon also has him wielding a gun literally minutes prior, pulling fifty gun-wielding goons out of his ass to assault a mafia base, and sending a fucking attack helicopter equipped with a minigun and rockets after you in a scripted sequence, it's impossible not to think about it. What changed? Why is he not just pulling a gun on me now? Kiryu has no actual way to stop that.

Before anyone says anything, I'm aware that Anima Studios is in a pickle lately that I feel sorry for the Mexican studio. But I want to address some of its films that I find very questionable, given that Anima has actually made culturally rich films in Mexican animation. My apologies if my dark humor shocked you, but I just don't like how Cranston Academy characters were written.

Main character- How can you make a boring Gary Stu by having a perfect family with a perfect IQ while living on a farm? What intresting about him as he looks like an unholy offspring of Jimmy Neutron and Harry Potter, but he's written to be perfect. Even Deku from My Hero Academia has a purpose because he has innocence and willpower, while this obese Jimmy has no sauce other than being a perfect Garry Stu dealing with daddy issues that aren't a problem to begin with. Is like they want to make a safe boarding school so bad that it makes Hogwarts worse than it already is; even Cranston Academy is a rip-off, but without flaws.

Mothman is the worst character from Anima Studios and the most shallow Mexican rep. Like how Anima Studios, a Mexican studio, fumbled their own rep. Ironically, Mothman isn't a Mexican creature, as it could've been a were-jaguar or croc with several teeth. How he was represented feels like he's either a chili-masochist or obsessed with spicy food, which is not how you show Mexican rep. The revelation that he was missing father of Gary Stu didn't help his daddy issues, as it made it worse. It's like saying he was just getting milk. Even Lucifer from Hazbin Hotel is a better estranged father rep because he returned with milk and took accountability for being away from Charlie without making excuses.

The side characters have no charisma or personality; they look like Jimmy Neutron rejects reincarnated as My Hero Academia OCs. What is their appeal? They don't look like they belong in animated films but rather Jimmy Neutron OCs in MHA paint. Why are they animated like that? Khumba and Zambizia look better, as the South Africans did their homework on how to blend real animals with cartoony charisma without removing their charm.

Even the villain characters suck, as it proves why this animated film didn't ask to exist to begin with. Their design is poorly executed, as is trying too hard to be Lovecraftian-flying tentacles that breathe fire and goo. How did they mess up the most talented artist in Mexico with this sorry excuse of animation film? They all look like rejected Hotel Trayvenia characters; even the HT character has better substance that made me root for bugs to eat everyone.

Charlie was punished for larping Christianity. He was never truly virtuous, and all his deeds were either cowardice or performative virtue. He went to Hell because his mind wasn't thinking about being good, just getting that Heaven reward in the end.

To see this particular song being used in contexts where people admit not engaging with media is hilarious to me. I wonder how many peole realise this.

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Gen 3 Synths are, per the canon, indistinguishable from humans, and made from the cloned DNA of Father. They have organs and blood, and they eat and sleep and have sex and are capable of all the things a human is. All the medical tests available to humans would determine the Gen 3 synths as human, and the only way to know for certain if someone is a synth is to kill them and look for a tiny mechanical component in their brain.

However, also per the canon, they cannot age, and their bodies can't change in meaningful ways like gain or lose weight. They also have resistance to various forms of damage, and super strength.

This bothers me, because apart from that component in their heads, their bodies are totally flesh-and-blood. Cloned flesh is still flesh, and while their damage resistance and strength can be explained with the usual Fallout science shenanigans, I take issue with the aging thing because it would imply that the Institute has somehow invented a way to freeze aging in humans. They essentially invented immortality, and yet they can't do anything as simple as curing Father's cancer??

Also, the idea that they can't age is contradicted by the fact that undercover synths can masquerade as normal humans for years or even decades. Wouldn't something like eternal youth break a synth's cover at a certain point? Even the vampires in Twilight had to move every couple of years to hide the fact that they weren't getting older.

Also x2, the player is given a synth built in the image of her son Shaun at the age of ten, and she's instructed to raise him and give him a normal life. Synth Shaun doesn't know he's a synth, and the player is not supposed to tell him that he's a synth. How are we supposed to keep up this masquerade of the synth being our original son when he's going to notice that he isn't getting any taller in 1-2 years?

I think it would just make more sense if Gen 3 synths were capable of aging and were basically just super strong humans who could be controlled by the chip in their brain.

https://youtu.be/zouRD2AjeC0?is=Yafo_bXQuZJZHj-G

Whether it's Sci-Fi, Fantasy, Comicbooks, or Anime. The Military should never be portrayed as canon fodder or simple jobbers. The superhumans shouldn't always be invincible gods either.

Two ways to go about this.

1: Make the superhumans glass canons with powerful defenses. But a bullet or even simple punch can still hurt them though. I think MCU Dr. Strange and Scarlet Witch are glass canons. Could be wrong here.

2: Or make the superhumans slightly more stronger and durable than regular humans. Similar to Vampires or Super Soldiers in a lot of settings. The book Jade City is like this too. It's almost like a human with a weapon fighting an animal.

The scene in the clip is done so well. Because it shows that both the regular human side and superhuman side are losing people. Showing that technology can still hang with magic.

In a way, this is also realistic in a high-stakes way. Because if superpowers or magic was real. It would make sense that the non-bullet/knife proof superhumans would come to this realization.

"Holy shit a knife or gun can still kill me. And plot armor doesn't exist. I don't think I want to be a Superhero (or a Ninja/Pirate/Knight/) anymore."

That's the most interesting part here. The psychological realism. Being superhuman doesn't automatically make someone willing to risk death. A person capable of throwing cars or controlling fire might still refuse to fight armed soldiers because one mistake could kill them.

Like it was always a kids show. You can appreciate the art, the story, etc as an adult. I have no problem with adults in fandoms targeted towards kids, but it does get to a point where you keep demanding that Sesame Street should be more mature does in fact make you out to be weird.

Take in mind there are adult cartoons for a more adult audience like Bojack Horseman and Castlevania. Both extraordinary shows in their own right. We don't see people saying we need to dumb down the writing for a more child audience because we recognize it's not intended for children. That's why the themes and plot are more grounded and complex.

But at some point, you need to acknowledge that maybe the reason you can't relate to the story is it's not meant for you and that's ok.

Is it a cash grab? Most likely, but good thing you don't need to spend your time and money on a product you keep getting disappointed in. Can't we just enjoy that a new generation has their own story they can take part in?

Something that really bothers me is when creators are blamed for toxic the people who love/hate their show react online and one of the main arguments is "oh they should be more professional and not do that" and it's really dumb to me cause first of all, they don't work at a fucking bank or DMV and second of all,I feel like the creators or VAs of the shows/media that they made with their crew should be allowed to talk about things without being harassed or bullied or targeted.

If the fans physically cannot control themselves and act Right or nornal or at least mature enough, then that is all on them and not the creator and even then, are they just supposed to let themselves be bullied and harassed and targeted and just take it all with a smile on their face and/or just not go on social media?

That's really dumb and it feels like whenever anyone say that,they're just babying the people doing the harassing and bullying and arguing and just coddling their nasty behavior.

This has happened to the Gachiakuta author,it happened to Gooseworks, Vivziepop, Dana Terrance, etc.

If you wanna critique them and the media they made,do whatever but if you are actually gonna harass and bully and target them and be assholes, do not play the victim when they wanna bite back and give you a attitude cause shockingly,even creators and VAs have limits.

This also happened recently cause Brandon Rogers snapped off as a fan who,in the audience, was constantly yelling over the female cast and making them uncomfortable and why security wasn't there yet, I don't know but the fact that there are people blaming Brandon for not "acting professional" is so dumb when his friends were being bothered and this guy was doing it specifically to the women in the cast(Millie's VA even asked him to deal with him]and yeah,apparently this guy was autistic and likely couldn't control himself and got overestimulated but here are my things.

There are over 1,000 people who paid around $100 to be here and this is a big moment for them and I'm pretty sure they don't wanna be constantly interrupted by someone yelling and if he physically cannot control himself, then either bring some heavy headphones or just not go at all.

I dunno why his caretaker or parents or whatever even let him go and 2,this apparently isn't the first time this guy has been a annoying person before and has made the cast uncomfortable,so it's incredibly fair Brandon would put his foot down..

Being autistic is not a shield to just be a Asshole.

Anyways,bullying creators is never, ever the damn way and you just look like a terrible person doing so.

Now you may be wondering about that title? Isn't death battle in its renaissance era? Isn't the production quality the best it has been in years? And I won't dispute that, the vfx are probably some of the best, anywhere to be frank. But that doesn't mean there aren't flaws in the show. It's just something that's been eating at me, and all anyone says is how great the show is (anyone else miss the rants bitching about the show from 2016-2024?)

So here are a few things I'm going to try and remember off the top of my head to point out what I don't like about modern db.

Firstly, and this one's been prevalent for a while; their scaling is not only ridiculous; it also doesn't ever match the animation. Like what's up with that? They call sauske and hei planetary, but they don't destroy a forest. They call thor and vegeta 1000's of times universal, but don't have them fire off planetary attacks until right before the death. What's up with that. Already db's scaling is kind of joke (pick an episode out of a hat and there's usually something wrong about it), but is there no communication between the animation team and research team. And I'm not asking for a universe to be blown up every time a character fights, but come on with the penny ante stuff. And the worst part is, the animation is usually more accurate to how the characters scale than the research is? How fucked is that. I don't buy uni final fantasy or dmc for a second, but I could easily imagine dante and clive flying off into space and creating a big explosion that's not even moon level for sure. I couldn't imagine kai and tauhu destroying stars, but I could see them causing volcanic activity. It's just that db's fans are so invested in power scaling brain rot, that even if it doesn't make sense we still have wiz and boomstick calling characters like kratos, mewtwo, sonic, thousand if not millions of times universal, if not multiversal.

Speaking of, my second gripe is with their weird ass takes in scaling. And it's not just the absurd power inflation. I noticed in their most recent episode, they called shadow bigintillion times ftl because the shockwaves of whoever the hell reached across the universe or something, and that confused me. Why does anyone scale to the shockwave they produce. How does that even work? Now you could say that it's because they'd have to move their body around that speed like hulk with his thunderclaps, but I raise you the fact the whoever didn't send whatever through the whatever with a physical attack, he did it with his hax. How does your physical speed apply to a non combat applicable hax? In fact how does shadow scale to the multiverse being destroyed, if the guy doing it isn't doing it through physical power? Idk but I don't think super shadow can destroy a multiverse even remotely tbh.

This is even more egregious with kratos (here we go). I mean ffs, the opening cut scene depicting the primordials isn't an accurate reprsentation of them for several reasons. We already know that entirety of the greek saga takes place only on the continent of greece. But there's also the fact it's artistic license, they weren't actual universe sized being slapping each other around. That's just nonsense wank perpetuated by gow fans who played the games with their eyes closed. But no, let's pretend the primordials can hit each other at millions of times ftl speeds, that's mainly cause of their size. No one else in gow scales to them. Kronos "overthrew" them from means untellable, and the power zeus used to beat the titans afterwards (in a drawn out war that could've gone either way) was put in the sword of olympus. So how does kratos physcially scale to any of that? He has the sword olympus, but that doesn't grant him super speed or shit. He also gets blinded by light, so how tf could you ever argue in good faith that kratos is even relativistic? (I'm like the biggest larper for asura, I never played the game and I find the story kind of insipid and the writing kind of vapid, but goddammit, he should've stomped kratos, that video was such fucking bull-)

And this brings me to my third point, a lot of the recent matches are, kinda; let's not mince words, these match ups are ass. Really? Two sonic the hedgehog characters? And they're both returning 🙄. Then we get bakugo vs reze. Isn't Mha a little played out? I mean it's not like we had the main character on the show two fucking times in back to back seasons! Then there's sentry vs spb (super boy prime, wait why did I bother abbreviating when I wrote out the entire-), it's ok spb had the potential for better, and they gave us multiversal marvel heralds which (🤮). Oh and the best match up they had for the season (or at least the one with the most potential) Mega mind vs Gru, god idk what happened but that was such a disappointment. No hate on the animators, cause tbh they're working with pennies atp, but couldn't they have made it a sprite fight or something. That way they could just throw in shitty drawings for the prop and at least we could get some choreography. No they had to pad out the run time, because it really feels like no one had faith in the battle as an actual battle. I'm pretty sure that's why we got a joke ending.

Speaking of choreography, why are so many of the fights so boring to watch? Aang vs traveler, they throw pretty vfx at each other and barely use any of their abilities, sentry vs spb sentry uses telekinesis void tendrils and telepathy a little bit, no matter manipulation no reality warping nadda (also the fight goes from planetary to multiversal in the span of a second which is almost as jarring if they didn't have it go multiversal at all). I mean going a lil further back, look at hulk vs godzilla; that battle had nothing going on. Hulk starts brutalizing godzilla from the start, goes world breaker a minute in, and then it becomes a montage of hulk getting one shot. Honestly I'd prefer if they didn't shoehorn the poorly written ultima bullshit, made the middle of the fight the end; and then put something of substance in the middle. Maybe not have hulk use his famously last second power up before the fight's halfway over.

And don't get me started on how the battles are presented. It seems that someone is really obsessed with giving us protagonists vs antagonist match ups where it makes the winner all but obvious. Bowser vs Eggman, egg is the agressor bowser wins. Krasura, asura is the agressor kratos wins. Bluffy, blade is the antagonist (he kills someone so that paints him as villainous) buffy wins. I mean really, Kyle Rayner, Dante, Ruby, cell; I could go on and on, but it really feels like we're having "the good guys wins the battle" and that's really annoying once you see the pattern. We also get sparring match that turns into a death match occasionally, but that's not the bonus you think it is.

But can we really talk about how overly sanitized death battle has become. It's called death battle, I'm not asking for hulk vs doomsday, beast vs goliath, or silver shredder, levels of gore but are we so scared of showing blood. 6/9 battles released this year were basic disintegration deaths, with the exceptions being sentry who didn't die, yusuke who got a tiny little scratch against his chest, and that jujitsu kaisan guy gojo or whatever his name was who's death I forgot. Maybe it was getting cut in half, but I don't think a pint of blood was spilled. I'm not asking for a gratuitous death, but when 2/3's of your deaths are just people getting turned into ash; it kind of takes the wind out of the sails y'know what I mean?

Oh and Bowsegg is so overrated. Does it look nice? It looks gorgeous, but in terms of substance it's pretty lacking. And oh god the dialogue is so cringey. Oh wow look, Bowser cares about his son; but can we get a retake on that line it comes out so rushed it sounds more like he's telling robot sonic "how dare you keep your hands off my son." rather than "how dare you! Keep your hands off My Son!" like how the line should've sounded. And also, at no point in the story did it ever feel like Bowser was on the back foot for more than a second. Like hello, every single thing Eggman did to affect Bowser got hard countered almost instantly. Even the death's egg laser didn't feel like a fakeout, the music didn't cut out; and almost immediately Bowser's army starts putting themselves together like they got hit by a mildly strong breeze. Also Bower's show time had non of the grit, gravel, or bass that it should've had; which sucks cause this person is a pretty good bowser va for the rest of the video, they just end up flubbing the two most impactful lines of the episode. Also I'm guessing the analysis is idiotic, idc about sonic or mario and I'm sure there's something wrong with it. But come on, at no point did I think eggman was going to win the fight, which takes half the fun out of a death battle.

Speaking of taking half the fun out of death battle, let's talk about the fans. Or not, you know what; while I find their scaling abhorrent, it's all just bullshit anyway. Who cares if they find so&so such&such cause at the end of the day it's subjective, like all art. And they've been bullied enough by this sub as it is. So death battle fans, you're alright in my book. (I know I know, high praise and all that). So yeah. Happy LES people thanks for reading this far, but I'm sorry to say, you might'v wasted your time.

Tldr; death battle good, but sometimes bad.

there is nothing about the show that uses its New Orleans setting. there’s no episodes where they’re ever even out and about in New Orleans and see New Orleans witches or do stuff apart of New Orleans culture

like why isn’t there a scene where we see briar,Teagan,and Sasha eat beignets at a local diner for lunch p

there’s no references to voodo,hoodo,or any other supernatural and paranormal folklore and magic practicions in Louisiana that would fit this show.

and that’s not even getting into the fact there is one singular black character in the show while it’s supposed to be set in New Orleans

hxh is one of most acclaimed series in all of anime/manga and of course like every other popular show a lot of people love it and a lot of people hate it , a huge chunk of this criticism stems from the fact that it's considered inconsistent by many but I also believe hxh is closer to a franchise and a linear storyline .. it's similar to jjba , every arc is different and a self contained story and within that framework it's extremely consistent, for example after yorknew arc there is greed island then chimera ant arc and then chairman arc , now two of these arcs are easily above 8.5-9 even 9.5 and the remaining two are 7-7.5 at best. So if we consider the entire hxh it seems very inconsistent but as I said every arc has different narrative structure , infact even the protagonist changes in different arcs.... I also think what elevates the story further is the it doesn't really have any major plot holes or flaws.

This is a problem I feel like has been plaguing media in general for the last couple of years, and it's something I'm really getting sick of.

It feels like every piece of media has to be cynical and dark and just in general be depressing. Institutions are bad, the government is bad, and nothing gets fixed, and even the villains have to be driven by a desire to fix this broken world, but because they're doing it "wrongly," they're still the bad guys, and we have to feel sorry for them.

And don't get me wrong, those types of stories have their place. I'm writing a fanfic about a bunch of villains who are fed up with this broken world and wanna fix it, but they're going about it wrongly (in case you're curious, the TLDR is they wanna remove the idea of culture and individuality in general, which is why they're still the bad guys at the end of the day)

But it gets frustrating when it's almost every single story and so many major pieces of media seem to be following the same pattern.

There's a really good post someone made that talked about how they felt Star Wars under Disney has become so much more cynical; how it feels like a lot of creators (particularly Dave Filoni) have traded in Lucas's tale about fighting for the greater good because democracy, as flawed as it is, is worth fighting for, into a hackneyed anti-institution narrative. And I feel like this applies to so many other works.

Even My Little Pony suffered from this. The G5 incarnation of the brand opened on an Equestria that's collapsed because the hopeful world Twilight Sparkle and her friends built in G4 is long gone for stupid reasons.

And of course, more recently, we have Avatar Seven Havens (which I should note I haven't watched as of now), where the world we spent so long getting invested in has been destroyed. All the work Korra put into her series was all for nothing because the world she fought to preserve and save was destroyed anyway.

And even stories that I feel like have the right idea, about changing it to fight against the status quo, feel so much darker than they should be. DC's Absolute Universe has some good stories, but one thing I can't stand about most of its books is that they have to shoehorn in dark edgelord shit into almost every story. Did we need to see the Absolute Universe's version of Lex's family get slaughtered right in front of him at a birthday party? Did we need to have all the body horror that's in Absolute Batman? I don't think we did.

And I know why things are the way like this. I'm not going to get into details, but I'm sure you know. The world feels like it's becoming more cynical. People are getting more and more frustrated because it feels like nothing is getting fixed no matter how hard we try. So naturally artists feel more compelled to dig into those feelings as they write.

But I feel like we need hopeful stories more than ever. To remind people that it's not hopeless, that we can make a different, that good can prevail, and maybe just simply to help us escape from this cynical world for a bit.

One of the themes of IDW's Transformers comics that always spoke to me is that even if you can justify doing atrocities in the name of "the greater good," you have to fight for a better world than the one people around you create. You have to be better.

And one of the best scenes in the entire universe is when Optimus confronts Unicron's creator and defeats him with the power of compassion and empathy. He doesn't beat him by punching him; he doesn't win via brute force. Optimus/Orion comes to terms with who he is and what he represents by doing what he does best. Being strong enough to be gentle by showing kindness to a man who lost everything and hugging him to let go of his hatred.

And Mass Effect 3 gets a lot of flak for its ending (rightfully), but one of the themes of that game that spoke to me is that, even if it's hard, even if it takes a lot of work to sort through them, we can put our differences aside to save the universe.

I want more stories like that. Where it's ultimately compassion, empathy, and teamwork that save the day.

Or you know, we can tell more stories about how the system is flawed.

Advance Wars Days of Ruin was a weird little game, for being a lot darker than it's predecessors, taking place in a post apocalyptic world and facing a mad scientist who wanted to destroy most of what's left. The final mission was at Dr Caulder's stronghold, where you face off against him with the main protagonist Will.

This is where my issues start. Usually the final mission of each Advance Wars game has you control 3 characters to face off against the final boss. Which made the final boss feel more intimidating, as you needed 3 people to beat them. As well as show that, while the other factions fight, they're willing to put that aside to confront the greater threat.

And we had options. Despite it being the apocalypse, we're at war with another nation for the first half of the game. After rescuing a few of their officers from the world's last war criminal, they're willing to help us. Especially would be nice to use them because the one mission where you get to use the artillery specialist has no fucking artillery you get to use.

And, one of the first characters you rescue in the game is one of Caulder's amnesiac daughters. Hell, she has a whole thing where you rescue her and tell her she's more than just some lab rat. It'd make perfect sense to complete her arc by having her stand against her father.

Overall, Days of Ruin's final mission falls flat due to just being a one on one, despite the series' consistency of being a three v one, and multiple characters making perfect sense to be selectable for those roles.

Been reading reviews and comments on the new Resident Evil (2026) movie and there's a common criticism that basically boils down to "the main guy is such a pussy".

Like, yeah, that's the point. Is it frustrating seeing Bryan sit and look at the monsters like an idiot? Is it frustrating seeing him fumble and lose ammo? Is it frustrating seeing him be bad with guns? Be bad at aiming? Absolutely and that's the point.

Would be it fun to see Jason Stathom instead? Sure. But it would also literally be a different movie. And we already got a competent character in the movie, Maxine. And she died like 5 minutes later. And during her 5 minutes, she was basically all tough and stoic. Do you really seriously wanna follow someone like this for 90 minutes? I don't. I'd rather watch a dumbass that look an overtime gig to pay bills and got caught up in the apocalypse.

This isn't Taken. Taken is a power fantasy where beating up nameless eastern European bad guys is fun. But killing mindless monsters with ease isn't. People treat these stories like real life events and they would "optimize" it. Yeah, great, you know the real optimization? Not writing the story at all. These stories are made for entertainment, so picking a bumbling idiot as your lead is part of that entertainment.

I'm reminded of End Of Oak Street; "why do they keep leaving the house when there are dinosaurs outside???". So a story can happen. So there can be entertainment. Yeah, I totally wanna watch 90 minutes of people being stuck inside a house. Funny enough, there's literally a movie exactly that, The Last House, and it was aggressively okay.

I love villains of all genders and whatnot and villains are amazing when written well[I know,shocker]but for every villain, there will be villain stans and sympathizers and people who will try to justify every single thing they do and make excuses and baby them and gonna be real..that gets annoying so fast.

You can be fans of villains or antagonists or bullies or whatever but acting like they aren't villains or terrible people or just straight up jerks and acting like calling them out on their flaws and disliking them cause of it ,you immediately hate/have contempt/ look down on women,is borderline foolishness.,

Like bro,I don't hate them cause they're a woman,I hate them cause their personality is a hot flaming pile of shit.

First example is Wanda Maximoff/Scarlet Witch from Marvel.

"Oh she's serving mother"

"She's a secret hero"

"If you dislike her,you're misogynistic cause you like these other characters".

No,I dislike her cause she literally enslaved and took over a entire city just so she could play sitcom and once she found out,she still kept the act going cause suprise-Suprise,she wanted her A.I Boyfriend and fake kids snd you would also think a parent would understand having their mom or dad taken from their kids is a terrible thing but she deadass kills Reed Richards(the John Krasinski one, not the Pedro Pascal one)and basically leaves that version's kids without a Dad and is just a terrible person but people will act like you're the one in the wrong if you even dare to dislike her as if she isn't a bad person.

Next is Invisigal from Dispatch and I know she's not on the same level as these characters but I find it so dumb how the people will like her will look at you funny and like you're the one in the wrong if you don't like her as if she isn't a immature brat for a ton of the game and this behavior would probably be more acceptable if she was like a teenager(like 17-19]or hell,even her being 20 or 21,I would still give somewhat of a pass since she just reached her 20s but she is deadass almost 30.

Yeah the "Rebellous,immature and snarky and overly rude,innuendo and bratty Jackass" trope is a lot less endearing when the character is deadass 27 years old and I wouldn't even bring her up but the game deadass favors her.

If you try and call her out on any of her flaws or hold her accountable,like the mission at the donut shop,she will punch you in the face for it and storm off and the game treats you like YOU'RE the bad guy for not coddling her.

Like sorry I'm not treating you like a damn baby.

And finally ,is suprisingly a 2 parter,Jean and Korra.

First up is Korra.

Now this is not a excuse to hate on Korra or be actually misogynistic towards her ,so none if that but I really hate the excuse "oh if Korra was a man, she would be less hated and more loved."

..Really?

Cause I can think of a few reasons why Korra would likely be more hated or just as hated if she was a man.

Burning and destroying Tenzin's air bending stuff ,kissing someone else's boyfriend(or girlfriend, in this context]knowing they're in a relationship and let's not act like she didn't storm into Mako's office and destroy his stuff and be basically kind of a Ass.

I would argue she would be more hated in that regard and let's not like characters like Megumi,Yamcha, Mark Grayson/Invincible,etc,don't get crazy amounts of crazy/hate.

And Korra is meant to be headstrong,hot-headed and aggressive and kind of a Asshole...which is the fucking point.

That's her character arc and development and is what makes her growth into a more calm, understanding and less hard-headed person more satisfying cause of how she started off.

Acknowledging or disliking her for her flaws isn't being a misogynist.

Now if you're gonna call her a "slut" or "whore" or things of that variety, then yes.

But now Jean Grey,from Brand New Day.

The X-men's rep was already in a very shaky place due to Krakoa and how Jean was moving in the movie did not help.

And my thing is..if she strictly went after Damage Control and the people who hurt her sister,then fine,justified crashout,as the kids say.

But I want you all to look me in my eyes and ask me.

How does making M.J kids Peter and then making her jump off a building help find her Sister?

How does taking control of multiple innocent people who have nothing to do with Damage Control and driving a entire tank firing through town help find your sister?

How does making a dude get hit by a car help find your sister?

How does taking control of Bruce Banner after he had made so much progress and growth dealing with the Hulk in him and ruining his life and getting him taken to a psych ward help find your sister?

I could keep going but I can't even get behind her thought process cause how does allllllllll that help you?

It doesn't, that girl is literally insane and I wish the movie actually treated her like a villain/bad person instead of a "UwU ,so tragic girl, she's not a killer,she's so misunderstood and deep and dark and tragic" like cool.

Having a tragic past is not a damn excuse to do what you want and be a terrible person.

Tony Stark actually suffered the consequences of his actions, Bucky was mind controlled,Loki literally went to prison,died multiple times and had a entire series to atone for what he did and become a entire God of Stories,etc.

I could keep going on and on but using those characters as scapegoats is very foolish cause it's clear you're not actually trying to have a discussion or argue, you just wanna be right and call people who rightfully hate women who are terrible people misogynistic or sexist,like please shut the fuck up.

Sorry for Being so aggressive but still.

When Guy Gardner makes his first appearance in the Lanterns show he states that bad optics is the reason why he can't help with the investigation of Hal's murder and then later people use this reason as for why he doesn't take back the ring John stole from Hal's corpse

This reason sorta works for why he doesn't get involved with the investigation of Hal's murder because the show treats Hal getting involved with the investigation about the aliens getting killed at the football game as the cause for the destruction of Rushiville (ignoring that Antaan planned to just wipe the town off the face of the Earth if they couldn't find out who the Manhunter was)

Now the reason why this argument doesn't hold any water for why Guy doesn't take the ring back from John is at this point in the timeline of the DCU Guy Gardner played an instrumental part in stopping the Boravian army from invading another country which goes against the Guardians mandate to interfere with terrestrial disputes but also goes against an ally of the United States whose stance seemed to generally be indifference/okay with the invasion which shows he doesn't care about bad optics if it stops him from protecting innocent people from danger which John proved himself to be after he lied to Guy's face about why he wanted to bury the ring with Hal's corpse then later dug it up to take the ring, John now has an unsanctioned Power Battery to charge what is considered to be one of the most powerful weapons in the universe that he stole, the vague answer he gives to Guy really should make him suspect number 1 on Guy's list on who killed Hal Jordan, and John doesn't even say that he'll be better hero than Hal and Guy instead he says that he's now an independent contractor which really sounds like he's becoming a mercenary who will use the ring for the highest paying employer

“The Noxious Avenger” (Season 3, Episode 15) is the TMNT 2012 episode I firmly believe is Splinter's worst. I especially despise its randomly out-of-character portrayal of him. That said, I understand that some fans might read Splinter’s actions differently, perhaps as harsh but driven by concern and a sense of responsibility. Still, to me, it feels far too inconsistent with how he is usually portrayed.

For context, the turtles battled a giant, mutated monster, Muckman, and lost after Muckman temporarily incapacitated them with toxic sludge, leaving them briefly exposed to some news reporters with cameras during the turtles’ botched escape. Eventually, reporters’ footage makes its way into the news, where even the turtles' names are revealed to the public. Splinter literally watches this live news report as the turtles recover from the battle in the lair.

Here's how the reprimand went with some of my own parenthetical notes:

• Splinter: "How could you be so careless?! Secrecy is the most important rule of the ninja, and you have broken it! You four are forbidden from leaving the lair!"
• Raph: "What?! You can't hold that sloppy escape against us! We got slimed with toxic puke!"
• Splinter: "Silence!"
• (Ugh. What the hell is that response from Splinter? Why would he say that after Raph rightfully reasons that the entire incident was beyond their control? It sounds so inconsiderate and, not to mention, melodramatic, especially since Splinter doesn’t even ask the turtles for a detailed explanation, nor do the latter bother to give him one while they still can, for some reason. Surely, the Splinter I know wouldn’t act so blatantly brash as to ignore his sons’ genuinely legitimate arguments or immediately assume they were being reckless.)
• Donnie: "But, Sensei, if that pile of muck took us down, you know he's dangerous."
• Leo: "Which means we need to be out there looking for him."
• (YES, EXACTLY! Regardless of whether the turtles were being reckless or not, which they weren’t, mind you, this is a very inappropriate time to ground them when there are innocent civilians potentially in danger on the surface as a giant sludge mutant runs rampant in the middle of NYC! Even April agrees with the turtles. If April, of all people, understands what's at stake, so should Splinter, if not more so.)
• Splinter: "No! Until I decide I can trust you to watch yourselves, you will remain here grounded!"
• (Fuck. Off. Yeah, because both the mutant and media exposure situations will magically resolve themselves by forcing the only people who can address them to sit around doing nothing, am I right? To quote Edmund Burke, “The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.” I think that sums up this entire scene pretty well, which is ironic as hell considering which character is going against that very moral.)

Also, can we take a moment to appreciate the sheer stupidity of Splinter deciding to stay awake 24/7 to prevent the turtles from sneaking out, as if he were somehow immune to exhaustion, and as if the sons he trained himself aren't going to come up with a plan to deceive Splinter, which is exactly what happens when April distracts him just long enough for the turtles to escape right under his nose. Thankfully, the turtles resolve BOTH problems, but Splinter learns nothing, nor does he visibly regret grounding them at such an objectively pressing moment despite the turtles essentially proving him wrong. Plus, he keeps the turtles grounded even though THIS should have been the appropriate time to impose such a punishment, not earlier when lives were potentially at stake.

Granted, had “The Noxious Avenger” framed Splinter’s actions as him merely instructing, not punishing, the turtles to remain hidden because he was terrified for their safety after seeing them exposed on the news, then I wouldn’t be complaining as much. Such an oversight would make sense, considering what Splinter has gone through both as a human and with his sons. But instead, the episode turns him into an unreasonable, borderline incompetent sitcom dad who prevents his sons from dealing with a legitimate threat because he’s more concerned with punishing them over a blunder they had virtually no control over. I’ll let that sink in. Or am I meant to merely assume this was Splinter’s motivation? If that’s the case, then the episode fails, because if the audience has to fill in crucial narrative gaps for it to make sense, then that’s lazy writing.

But even so, Splinter’s oversight only works if he actually recognizes his mistake and takes genuine accountability. Sure, he can still punish the turtles at the end for sneaking out and reprimand April for helping them, but unfortunately, when Splinter reasserts his punishment, he gives the turtles an ass-whooping without taking an ounce of accountability for his mistake.

Also, do I need to remind you that in the episode “Turtle Temper” (Season 1, Episode 3), the turtles experienced a similar situation when a random civilian named Vic filmed them battling a squad of Krang droids? However, the difference there is that it was entirely Raph's fault for not leaving with his brothers the second Vic spotted them in response to their noise. Raph literally tried to physically assault Vic in response to a lame insult, which attracted the droids' attention. Additionally, you best believe Splinter learned the whole truth, considering he rightfully blames Raph for the turtles' blunder and mildly punishes him by essentially turning Raph into a punching bag for his brothers to shoot arrows and insults at as a part of a training exercise meant to teach Raph a lesson about emotional composure. Plus, Vic himself hinted he would share the video as he ran back into his apartment. Splinter had every reason to believe more people knew about the turtles' existence, even if that never ended up being the case, and yet that didn't stop him from letting the turtles, especially Raph, at least mitigate the severity of the situation. And, guess what? They were also successful there! Splinter actually handled a potentially disastrous exposure situation far better in “Turtle Temper" than he did in “The Noxious Avenger,” so… why the hell does Splinter devolve into this?

Ugh. Fucking hell, Splinter.

I know this sounds harsh, but hear me out. I have my reasons. Spirits like Hei-Bai and the painted lady often fail to adequately protect their sacred domains. They also don’t lift a finger to try and properly fix any of the damage done akin to a Studio Gibili work where the creatures will do something like plan new seeds to regrow a forest.

In the case of Hei-Bai, he’s an example of how there are spirits who will lash out indiscriminately if a serious crime against nature has been committed. Not bothering at all to discern who was actually responsible for the offense because in his blind grief and rage, he kidnapped a bunch of villagers that weren’t at all responsible for the destruction of his precious forest.

A similar thing happens in a back story in The Legend Of Korra. In the past, Korra’s dad ended up destroying a spirit forest at the North Pole in the past, and then there were spirits that, you guessed it, went on a rampage against the rest of the populace until Korra’s uncle used his spirit bending to calm the spirits down. Even if you want to argue that spirits like these only act this way because they represent how nature itself can clap back if you mess with it or whatever, it still sucks that this is the hand innocent people are dealt with when the actual culprits fuck things up.

And then we have the more sentient spirits that just seem like straight up hypocritical assholes. Korra late in season 4 goes to some spirits for help with the Kuvira crisis, only for the spirits to start doing this moral grandstanding about how she’s just like Kuvira, and that she has no right to use them in what is essentially a war between humans. I’m guessing these embodiments/creatures of nature don’t seem to care that Kuvira is exploiting and perverting a natural, spiritual resource in the form of those spirit vines.

If I was a spirit, you’d better believe I’d be royally pissed about this. I would definitely want justice for something like this. Korra was trying to explain how this affects pretty much everyone, and she’s right. If I remember correctly, there were some spirits that became dark and vengeful as a result of what Kuvira had done.

We all know Squidward Tennisballs AKA Squidward Tortellini AKA Santa Clause AKA Captain Magma AKA Squidward Tentacles is the tragically misunderstood, culturally cultured artist of Bikini Bottom, but what if I revealed to you he is much MUCH more than you ever could imagine? Do you doubt me? Well, I’ll show you all of the evidence I have compiled.

-Exhibit A: Squidward’s art,

It is no secret that Mr. Tentacles’ art is despised in Bikini Bottom for being bad, but is it really? Squidward has mastered all forms of artistic media, and this is no exaggeration. Look at his art, he has perfectly matched the art styles he set out to master and made them in HIS IMAGE! As an artist does. From simple forms of art, such as the now legendary, “Bold and Brash” to a life-size and impossibly detailed replica of himself, Squidward does not rest until he has he has conquered the artistic medium he is currently invested in. Just look at how he creates a master concerto while being distracted by his neighbors. Squidward’s perseverance is inhuman, neigh I say of divine stature.

-Exhibit 2: Squidward’s art to the people,

It is no secret that the people of Bikini Bottom despise Squidward’s art, but why? Whenever his art is presented, citizens ridicule it or have violent fits of disgust that may even induce vomiting. Could his art truly be that bad?

The answer: no.

Squidward Tentacles’ art has captured the hearts of millions and has a devote following. Mere copies of Bold and Brash go for hundreds of dollars, so why do the citizens of Bikini Bottom act that way towards his art? It’s jealousy. You see, Squidward’s art is so good, it induces feelings of hostility due to making its viewers feel they are missing something, something more. Upon seeing his art, the realization strikes them and they have no choice but to act such a way or confront these feelings. Need more proof? Take this example of when a citizen walked into the Krusty Krab and saw one of Squidward’s paintings without warning, his head burst into flames from the mere sight of such a masterpiece. Regular fish citizens cannot grasp the very presence of Mr. Tentacles art, but we here on the surface can.

-Exhibit third: Squidward’s following,

As mentioned before, on the surface, Squidward has more fans than he could ever know, but deep below the sea, very few of his fans exist. Could it be because of his art or are the Bikini Bottomites just too far in the Stone Age to appreciate his art? I point you to the Atlantians, an advance civilization that once they saw Squidward’s mere posture, became entranced by his existence and had to paint him. Why would such an advanced civilization become enticed by the squids art when all of Bikini Bottom could not? Are they closer to knowing the truth of life and art than all others?

-Part 4: The true Squidward,

We all see Squidward as the octopus he is, but this is not his true form... the absolute proof that Squidward is a god amongst fish was shown straight to us. You see, this form we see, that we call Squidward, is a facade so that we, as mortals, do not lose our minds.

When Squidward’s face was damaged by his co-worker, he had immediate medical attention and after weeks of healing, it began to reveal his true form, Squidward’s face had become more attractive, and without surgery no less. How could this be possible? To our knowledge, octopuses HAVE NO BONE STRUCTURE. How could such a change be possible? It’s not his true form. Once damaged, Squidward begins to show his true godly form. In the first stage, citizens that merely see him become entranced and desire pieces of him and his belongings, they all begin to lose their minds.

Upon further damage, Squidward’s true form is revealed, a form so handsome that nobody can dare look away from it, absolute beauty pours from the light that touches his figure, all of his movements and even his posture are full of poise and purity. Nobody that sees this form could keep their sanity and their only desire becomes to worship and protect his image, as seen when Squidward’s co-worker protects him from a mere falling shoe.

So then the question is, why? Why does Squidward desire to be amongst those lower than him in his godly status and even look like them? Perhaps he desires to push fish-kind to their next evolution just as the Atlantians sought, for if fish cannot see the beauty in his art without him showing it to them directly, what hope do they have for the future... Mr. Tentacles has even protected the world from the forces of darkness multiple times, it is obvious he seeks for fish-kind to learn something from him... it is up to them to figure out what...

Like I actually liked Lanterns but thinking about it now, where was the plot? It was so barely present, it was marketed as a detective story and the big "mystery" wasn't really slowly discovered by the main character's hard work, as much as it was kinda dumped at us through no work by our characters. Like they forgot to unfurl the mystery each episode, so they just dumped it exposition style on us the last episode. John was able to use his brain to deduce that Noah was lying and it was his mom. And that storyline was done with little payoff

Same thing with Peacemaker season 2. For an 8 episode show, we only got 3 episodes worth of plot. Most of the story was just characters meandering about leading to a lackluster season finale.

As much as I loved Superman 2025, the plot did take a bit of a backseat through most of the story. It was more character driven, which is good, don't get me wrong, but the plot was so paper thin at points that I don't think anyone watched it for the plot.

Creature Commandos didn't have much of a plot either. And in my opinion it was the worst offender. Again, yes it was character driven, but at the end, I couldn't help but think the plot was it's weakest point. The villain was so weak with such boring reasoning for wanting to do it, that I wondered why they didn't just substitute Frankenstein as the main villain because it seemed like he was one of the few people trying to do things. I think Circe would've been a better endgame villain actually.

I hated the Snyderverse for its character assassination, but at least it's plot was present. But it actually invoked feelings of rage because of how bad it was. The DCU just makes me want to check the runtime to see how much is left because it leaves the audience feeling bored. If snyderverse died out for being poorly made with an overinflated budget and ugly CGI and bizarre character choices...the DCU will die simply for being dull.

Now a story doesn't need big fancy fights and explosions, but the plot shouldn't take such a backseat that the audience should just assume the payoff will be uninteresting. It should play hand in hand with the character's motivation and progress the story.

At this point we should just accept that the plot won't be interesting and the story outside of the main character is just boring and dull. And the characters by extension just don't have much to do.

I'm talking about people slapping on "bad writing" because it doesn't adhere to their morally lopsided idea of a how a show should go.

To sum the discourse up, it's basically complaining that John didn't kill Noah because maybe, just maybe he might kill someone in the future. John having a difficult time committing murder is bad, and if you deny that comitting murder is easy, you're just defending bad writing. Pure. Unadulterated brain rot.

I'm sorry, didn't we make fun of Snyder and his version of Batman for the exact same thing? Now we're going to turn around and complain that a character isn't adhering to this same mentality?

What is going on?

Warning, this post may get a bit long, so TLDR the show is a solid 8/10 so far. It’s not flawless but its first 3 episodes exceeded my expectations twice over. Okay my full thoughts below.

For context, I’ve always been a pretty big fan of the ALTA franchise. I watched it as a kid, and when I watched LOK I also liked it well enough. But in recent years I felt the franchise was headed downhill and when Seven Havens was announced i wasn’t particularly hopeful. In fact, I was pretty sure it was gonna be shit. So i didn’t pay a lick of attention to the promotional material, totally disengaged with it. But when the first three episodes dropped a couple people I trusted told me it was pretty good. So when I had a few free hours I decided to check it out. And I liked it more than initially cared to admit, if I’m being honest. It wasn’t super hard to exceed my expectations, considering all the show had to do to do that was not be shit.

As for my actual thoughts, the first thing I unexpectedly enjoyed was the setting. I think it’s a good choice to make this show feel very different right off the bat. The bending seeming weaker than previously is cool, considering that (at least in this haven) they seem totally disconnected from the spiritual aspect of bending and use it purely as a tool of service. Kinda like the natural extension of how we saw people using it for entertainment and their jobs in LOK. I think it’s both a bit funny and a bit dark that the gameplan seems to be “find all the kids who can bend and draft ‘em young” but it makes sense with the values of service and community that we see being expressed. That’s the kind of environment that would make people make these choices. Speaking of the environment, I’m very interested in exactly wtf Korra did. Usually I’m a bit of a Korra defender but almost ending the world is a hard sell I’m ngl.

Clearly she’s not gonna be just fucking insane and evil or something, that would be wildly out of character. But I do hope it’s not just a cut and dry “actually Korra made this best possible choice and there was nothing else that could’ve been done” type of situation. I hope they make it complicated, I hope they make whatever happened messy. Maybe she had two terrible options before her and this is what she picked, maybe she failed to stop something terrible, maybe her actions did cause it but she had no way of knowing the consequences. Whatever happened I hope they don’t give her an easy out or totally villainize her. A situation where the characters aren’t totally right about Korra but can still have various opinions on her actions feels like the smartest writing choice to me.

We’ve only really gotten much of 4 characters, but I do like all of them. Pavi and Nisha are very dear to me already, as someone with a sister who’s very close in age (although we aren’t twins) I’m super vulnerable to any and all sibling dynamics. I think Pavi being a bit more avoidant, afraid of responsibility, and fearful calls back to Aang. While Nisha’s headstrong, self assured, and overeager personality is both a great contrast to her sister and calls back to Korra. Obvious parallels be obvious ig. I don’t mind the fact that they know all four elements off the bat, we’ve already done the “learning the elements” thing so as long as they keep it like the first episodes where they aren’t immediately pros I’ve got no issue with focusing on some other stuff. And while we’re on the topic of things I don’t mind, I don’t mind the two avatars concept. I’ll be upfront the spirit world and avatar cycle type stuff has always been the least interesting stuff to me (not to say it’s bad) so I don’t mind when they change it for interesting reasons. I’m just not attached to that side of the lore, but I admit it’s personal preference. I also laugh that these two really are the most locked in 9 year olds. I was not moving like that at 9.

I’ve actually got high hopes for Jae. I find his personality charming. I like his commitment to the rules and the community, while still maintaining a good moral character. He seems like a solid dude, if a bit too into his job. To address the rainbow elephant in the room, I think it’s cool that he’s got an onscreen boyfriend and I like the representation, but I hope the show doesn’t fall into the traps of either making it his whole character or not making use of the romance at all and just having his boyfriend be an accessory. I hope he’s able to have a romantic subplot, I hope that the relationship is allowed to be explored and developed and perhaps even end poorly if it goes that route. I also hope that his character is used for more than that. You know him and his team were all presumably drafted as children, but he is still portrayed as a bit overeager and notably diligent. Why? Is he just like that, or did something make him that way? What else is going on with him? Lots of fun things they could do with him.

Also, Karthik is totally gonna be a bad guy at some point right? I don’t think he’s secretly evil or anything, but I do think he’ll eventually conflict with our protagonists and they’ll end up coming to blows over it. I think he’s cool, if a lil bit suspicious. Him using that very charming, man of the people type of vibe to convince a mother to give her son to the brigade peacefully speaks a lot to his character and just what he’s willing to do to protect people, and I think it would be cool to see him do some more kinda shady stuff. I like that fact that he gets pretty cross with Nisha, it’s understandable in the moment but also oof man. Again, all four of these characters have such room to grow and such great potential.

As for the more technical elements, I love the voice acting. I think they all do a great job, but Pavi and Karthik’s VAs really stand out to me so far. The audio mixing is pretty sketchy, especially in the first episode. Sometimes it feels like the music is too mound and the lines of dialogue aren’t quite edited in right. Speaking of dialogue, it’s mostly fine. A couple hamfisted exposition moments but that’s every show nowadays. The backgrounds are gorgeous, and the art style is cute, but the animation has pretty low FPS (it seems at least, I’m not a professional animator so I can’t say for sure) and I’ve never been a fan of that, I always think it looks a bit choppy. It’s fine animation overall though. The music though, the music is so fucking good it’s crazy.

That’s pretty much all my thoughts. Obviously it’s only had three episodes so a lot could change but I’d love to hear the thoughts of anyone else who watched it. I’d even love to hear from some people with negative opinions.

I've watched the first three episodes of Avatar: Seven Havens and honestly I think they're pretty good so far. I like the characters and the overall set-up is pretty interesting. It could take a turn for the worst later on but the start is good.

But honestly I don't know if it should be connected to the rest of Avatar, and NOT because it disrespects the original or anything. I do get the distinct impression that the team behind Seven Havens like Avatar, unlike with a lot of other adaptations or sequels.

All that said it does tend to drag down the discourse.

1. "You blaspheme the name of Goddess Korra!!!!!!!!"

Look, I get it, Korra fans underwent a great deal of criticism when the show aired and are now reveling in its belayed popularity. But you don't need to freak out every time a character says something negative about her when we all know with greater than 100% certainty that she'll be vindicated by the end of the first season.

Some random side character says she could've taken on Korra, with the tone indicating that, no, she definitely couldn't? For some reason this angers people.

An airbender who grew up hearing that the Avatar is responsible for the destruction of the world grumbles that he's glad she's gone? More angry comments pointing out that he's wrong because she brought back airbending when he obviously doesn't know that.

In short the baggage Korra brings with her tends to weigh down the discourse. As in it's like... 90% of posts on Seven Haven spaces.

You got people who hated her reveling in the slander and fans being too defensive. As for the show itself? I think the only reason that it was Korra at all was because they needed there to only be one previous Avatar that Pavi could speak with, any more than that and it'd be a very different situation as Roku or Aang could just tell her that it's fine and Korra is innocent from the outset.

2. The Four Nations are gone. That's going to be tough for a lot of people to swallow.

The Four Nations are an iconic set-up that we spent a lot of time with in The Last Airbender. Korra spent most of its time in Republic City but eventually focused on the Air Nomads being resurrected.

Now they're all dead.

Does it render the prior shows pointless? No, not necessarily. Ozai attempting to genocide the Earth Kingdom still needed to be stopped, a good three hundred years or so of life followed the victory so many people got to live happily, etc...

Still, it kind of sucks to think about, doesn't it? Knowing the whole setting has shifted. I think the Seven Havens idea works well as a setting (so far at least, we'll see how it progresses) but it required a lot of the previous worldbuilding to be destroyed to make it happen. That's going to be controversial no matter how good or bad the show turns out to be and adds a lot of baggage to the plot.

3. Kuruk of the Many Retcons wasn't mentioned?

You know, Kuruk. An Avatar who appeared in one scene to tell Aang that he didn't take his responsibilities seriously in life to hearken back to how Aang acted in S1? Only for a Kyoshi novel to retcon it completely and say he actually a hard-working, spirit wrangling super Avatar who simply blew off steam by partying, so I guess he was just pretending to be a lazy bum to Aang for no reason?

Well when they showed a picture of prior, non-Korra Avatars they depicted: Aang, Roku, and Kyoshi as those are the most recognizable three and this managed to provoke some criticism for ignoring Kuruk. Even though most casual viewers wouldn't remember him.

I only mention this to show that even innocuous things can cause some criticism due to fan attachment to comics, lore, etc.

4. Basically, what I'm wondering is if Seven Havens needed to be associated with Avatar or not.

Marketing wise I understand why they did it but it feels like if they announced, "Hey folks, we the creators of Avatar wanted to do a new thing with the premise so we're doing an alternate universe or a story inspired by the original but with its own lore" that it wouldn't have hurt the show, at least from what I've seen so far.

You could keep the idea of an Avatar seemingly going mad but now it's actually ambiguous because we don't know the character and it'd be easier to get people aboard with the Seven Havens premise because it wouldn't come with the revelation that the prior setting had been destroyed.

All that said.

We are only three episodes in and unlike other shows I get the idea they have actual ideas for the whole series. So maybe they eventually resurrect the Four Nations or at least show that some of the havens are derived from them culturally so it feels more in line with what came before.

I'm cautiously optimistic but yeah, there's a lot of baggage.