It's universally agreed among fans of the Netflix Luke Cage show that the first season went downhill when Cottonmouth was killed halfway and replaced by Diamondback. And I'm sorry, but ever since I first watched the show, I've felt the opposite. Here's why I think Diamondback is better than Cottonmouth.

Luke Cage was coming off the heels of two other Marvel Netflix shows, both boasting some of best villains in tv: the damaged but dangerous Wilson Fisk and the abhorrent but charismatic Kilgrave. These villains were unique, deeply engaging, and were credible threats to their equally engaging protagonists. But all throughout Cottonmouth's tenure as the head of Harlem's Paradise, he's a fairly run of the mill gangster archetype: attractive, arrogant, and prone to losing his temper and taking it out on his cronies. 3 times he kills his underlings, and one of those times it was because one of them made a suggestion he disagreed with. And I'm sorry, ever since I was a kid, the first cliche I learned to dislike was the "villain kills his minions for no reason" trope. Compare that to Diamondback, sadistic, playful, but also driven by a fierce anger and pain which he covers up through smiling. In one of his introductions, he cleverly misdirects his underling by making him think he'll be shot in the face, and is instead shot in the leg with a hidden gun. It's a subtle but effective subversion of the aforementioned trope; instead of stupidly killing members of his own gang, he keeps them alive while inspiring fear and paranoia.

I also mentioned that they were all credible threats to their protagonists. Fisk had an entire criminal empire and half the corrupt police force at his beck and call against one lone vigilante, and Kilgrave had one of the most dangerous powers in MCU history: controlling someone simply by talking to them. Luke Cage, being bulletproof and not hiding behind a mask, needed a worthy antagonist that could do damage to him or the people around him, but Cottonmouth doesn't provide that while he's around. He briefly threatens to expose Cage's past but is killed off before he can make good on his threat. Not that it matters, since Cage was preparing to move forward anyways regardless of the consequences. Diamondback, on the other hand, is skilled in combat and holds one of the few weapons that could possibly kill Cage. The result is some actual tension between the two as they tee off. Admittedly, the climax ultimately boils down to a simple beat down between two big guys, an unfortunate callback to the MCU's early tendency to have the bad guy have the exact same powerset as the good guys. But it does have some good banter and is executed decently enough.

Just as important as the threat the villains possess is also the strange chemistry they share with the hero. Both Fisk and Murdock genuinely believe that they're doing the right thing and see the other as an obstacle to be removed, whatever the cost (this is pushed to even greater heights, imo, with Murdock and Frank Castle). Kilgrave genuinely believe he did nothing wrong to Jessica and does everything in his twisted power to win her over. Cottonmouth and Cage, in contrast, have no chemistry or history. It's just a good boy and a bad boy squaring off with nothing else below the surface. While I do agree that Diamondback's backstory is too rushed and his appearance comes out of nowhere, he and Cage have an underlying rivalry that goes beyond a mere bad guy/good guy dynamic. Cage is the son of a Reverend, and Diamondback, real name Willis Stryker, is his bastard child, born out of wedlock while the Reverend was still married. Cage, however, doesn't know this and grows up blissfully unaware that the kid he grew up with is his half brother. Stryker, in turn, learns to resent Cage for his privileged upbringing and ends up framing him, sending Cage to Seagate Prison where he will eventually gain his powers and be set on the warpath against Diamondback, bringing the two brothers to a fateful confrontation. I'm not saying that Cottonmouth needed that same amount of backstory or history with Luke Cage (Murdock and Fisk don't know each other that personally), but there needed to be more of an underlying tension between the two.

I remember watching Luke Cage and hearing about how great Cottonmouth was and how the only criticism was that he wasn't in it enough. And being confused the entire time because he felt so generic and one note. He became more interesting when his backstory was revealed, but he was killed off in that exact same episode. And then, immediately afterwards, a completely different kind of villain shows up in the very next episode. Someone with energy, a bounce in their step, equal parts hilarious and unpredictable, and actually match Cage in a fight. I loved Diamondback! And then I go online and see everyone has the exact opposite opinion. But all these years later, my opinion remains the same. To me, Diamondback stands up with the other great Marvel Netflix villains.

Yes, while the story could’ve been better like all stories in media, and while I do wish that we could’ve seen a bit more of The Ancients in the past flashbacks, I still really like how they’re portrayed as a seemingly peaceful alien race, even though there world got utterly obliterated, the fact that they still decided to make and call an isolated part of the Earth there home, heavily implied and basically confirmed that they were never going to conquer nor disturb any Earthling and just wanted and wished to live in their new home peacefully, I know that having peaceful alien civilizations isn’t anything really new, but it’s still smart as it makes us sympathize with The Ancients and the fact that not all alien tropes do this, heck they were even nice enough to bring all of the wild life to safety, even though they still had The End to worry about and also the fact that they saved the Earth is very ironic, since aliens that were once from a different planet usually in tropes invade the Earth, but this alien civilization did the opposite, not only saving themselves, but the Earthlings that inhabited it, and didn’t even choose to invade and conquer the Earth, and even after trapping The End in Cyberspace, and even though nothing was stopping them now, they still didn’t and chose not to begin conflict with any Earthling, which I really liked, felt a bit fresh to an extent.

We have waited 7 seasons to see Aaravos and the final episode was just a trailer for spin offs.
They built Aaravos as a powerful and a great threat and we didn't see him use his powers. They defeated him with chains and every time he fought someone it was someone else who saved him or defeat his enemy.
And he just gone for 7 years.

In both Ms. Marple and Poirot, the story usually ends with a dramatic retelling of the events of the crime, going over each of the suspects until the actual murderer is reached. However, most of the time the accusations hurled at the accused are based on either circumstantial evidence; both Poirot and Ms. Marple mainly rely on the scandalous nature of the motive of the crime and/or the accused's guilt to get a confession. But if the accused just kept quiet and asked them to produce tangible evidence of what they're being accused of, not only would they take the wind out of the whole theatre the detectives have put on, but they might also get away with it. Instead, they always end up confessing, and if they're more than one killer, one of them tries to tell the other to be quiet but the other says either that they can't live with the guilt anymore and need to confess or that they might as well confess because it appears they know everything. Despite this, I still like the books and shows and rematch them heavily.

Netflix has a very bad habit of cancelling or stalling many shows, particularly infamous with cartoons, and amongst them the worst off are the cartoons they produce. RIP my beloved Inside Job.

All that said, there are exceptions (She-Ra, Voltron, etc). Amongst them, one of my former favorite shows was The Dragon Prince. After a long hiatus and a time skip, Aaron Ehasz (showrunnee), who was already given 27 episodes to finish his first story arc, was given another 36 to finish his story. 63 episodes, ranging from 24 to 33 minutes, with Netflix backing and his prestige from having worked in ATLA…

And this is all that you can provide? Shallow characters, a terribly paced and nothingburger plot, nonesensical morals, lame ass worldbuilding, a terribly written romance and… not even an ending? Like this series ended but clearly you want your last 3 extra seasons for ending an story that only had 3.5-4 decent seasons if you account the good parts of the 4-7th. How can you expect them to renew your show if its this bad? Why couldn’t you even give the characters a CONCLUSION?

so ill try to explain my thoughts and feelings, very very carefully so i don't get misconstrued as some book hater, because I'm really not. while i must admit there are some books i did not enjoy, i really really liked into the pit and some other Fazbear frights books, tales books i found meh, and i did not like silver eyes personally. but just give me a chance to explain myself. also no hate to scott or anyone this is just probably a me thing and yall can disagree with me its cool

so firstly, after the HW 2 update there is no debate, its 100% the books are canon, Glitchtrap was and is the mimic, and everything in tales is canon. and that too me really really sucks for a number of reasons

THE most important thing. why are people ok with it? why are we ok with requiring separate media to understand basic story elements from the game? now i know what people will say "its been like that for a long time now" kinda true, you did not NEED the books. in sl the books could help you understand details better for sure, but you can understand and enjoy the story while also having a coherent experience that left mysteries open, fnaf 1-3 had a pretty much perfect story line that had no books required.

fnaf 6 on the other hand, was basically the ultimate book fantasy world, Henry was pretty much shoed in with no rhyme or reason in the story and felt very very..unnecessary? i personally don't see how its such a "grand and perfect end to the franchise" what? am i crazy? henry literally came out of nowhere, babys entire character and everything that made her cool and interesting was thrown away, afton became a mad scientist moron, honestly i think Michal should have taken the role henry had IMO that would have been a perfect fit. to a normal fan who just wants to play the games and learn the story there, they have no fucking clue what's going on take a look at markipliers playthrough for example, he looks confused through the entire ending

i will admit, it is POSSIBLE to semi understand what's going on in the game alone (probably) since the insanity ending could provide (unhelpful) context

now i was..ok with this, the books provided extra context and help in certain areas of the story, it got overzealous in fnaf 6, but you did not NEED to read the books to understand what was happening...until now

HW was essentially a soft reboot for the franchise, a way to tell a new era of stories without the past meddling the watters, i personally think afton glitchtrap was a greatsegway, a way to bring afton back that made him Have a cool design, have a cool backstory, and have him not overtake the main narrtive. not only was the game good, and it just made sense without books being needed, it was also just had a good jumpstart to the new era! i was so excited to see where things where going

now security breach, i think the main problem i have with it, is its use of Burntrap and Vanny, IMO and i think everyone agrees here, Vanny should have been the main antagonist who was actively more in the game. burntrap should have straight up not been in it, and glitchtrap should have been a puppet master behind the scenes, that too me just makes more sense? but overall the story of Security breach made no sense, people where not happy, you all know the story

now too me, i still had my hopes i wasn't mad really just hoping that the games branch off from security breach, i was pretty disconnected from the books at this time so i honestly did not pay it much mind, then ruin came out, i was...pretty confused by the mimic to say the least. i mean i thought he was cool but just confused and a little excited, but then i saw the drawings of the other SB endings, they went with princess quest as the ending, so why was there a big fire? whats even going on

so i had to look up some videos, figure out what was going on, there i realized that the mimic is actually from the tales books, and i am..very very annoyed

here we go again with a character being shoe horned in into the past and the present to fill the role of another character, and it makes way less sense this time too. he was built by Edwin in the 70's? (i think) and then his son died, mimic ended up here and he copied afton (for some reason) made glitchtrap and somehow the mimic was smart enough to manipulate vanny, take over her mind, make a new personality from her, controlled the animatronics...why?.....because...he copied...afton? like is that not confusing for anyone else? does that not suck for anyone else, the mimic is a cool concept for sure. but a character you need to do homework for in order to understand the plot of the last 4 games, is completely unacceptable

oh and i know your wondering "why? you watched videos so who cares" i honestly would not care if the books where free, but there not you need to buy separate media to understand basic plot, without it, it makes no sense, the franchise has always been mysteries but to not understand even a single thing that's happening is IMO bad, very bad

yall remember when poppy playtime sold nfts with lore on it, lets be honest here, what is the real difference between the two here. NFTS are scummier yes, but essentially they want you to buy something to understand the main games, that is shitty too me! and how long does this "book canon" thing extend too?

fazbear frights, ill be frank, alot of them really suck, and would be really bad attached to the main story, but they..might honestly be canon it genuinely possible. having Andrew be the child locking afton in hell seems stupid and so infuriating. having so much lore and story ruined ugh its so annoying ill sound like a jerk if i talk about it

i think the game hurt worst by the books, is fnaf 4. fnaf 4 is my favorite game in the series, it has the best story, my favorite protag, my favorite ending, my favorite mechanics i love it alot. its been fucked over so hard these last couple years. the books essentially made it the fart gas chamber for nightmare juice, CC was never there it was michal or some experimented kid, actual nightmare fredbear was a real animatronic! oh they where made up by a indie dev. like its so heartbreaking. i love the idea of this incident with Williams son starting the plot of the main games, its so tragic heartbreaking and cool! and for it to be just dummed down and turned into sci fi garbage is so disheartening

and in HW 2, Glitchtrap is dead. so its all mimic now baby, we are on the book freight train and we are not getting off.

im probably just being a negative nancy, and yall can disagree with me. but i hate that this franchise i love is being kind of..scummy? i guess, or its being very annoying with requiring so much other material and money to understand characters and plots or anything. i only hope for the future that Secrets of the mimic is good and tells the story of the mimic well. thats it though by yall

I’ve ranted about this character before but the recent episode has genuinely pissed me off and made me want to rant about something I didn’t really delve into in my initial rant: Stolas is a cheater and a bad father and the show bends backwards to justify it. It’s exhausting.

By the time “The Circus” came out and it was revealed that Stella was this “born evil” narcissistic abuser who loves beating up Stolas and abusing him, I immediately knew that this cheating plot only existed to create conflict while still not holding Stolas accountable. What I didn’t expect was to have an entire season basically back-peddle on Stolas’s behavior and deny he even cheated on her to begin with.

You would think Stella being an over the top abusive monster would be enough for people to accept that Stolas did nothing wrong, but no, we need Stolas’s completely out of place rant in “Western Energy” where he says he isn’t a cheater because it would imply the relationship is founded on love and trust…. Stolas. That’s still cheating. You can’t just change the definition because you didn’t like that you were called out for cheating. It’s a really bizarre scene that I rarely see discussed more.

And then “Sinsmas” then adds this random sinner who is very clearly a Stella insert who is portrayed as paranoid and insane because she “thinks” her husband cheated on him. Blitzo also weirdly tries to make excuses for cheating? And usually I wouldn’t mind if a demon didn’t hold the same ethics and morals as a human but it’s kind of obvious he’s meant to be a mouthpiece for the writers. That cheating isn’t a big deal if you’re queer and in an unhappy relationship. And of course it leads to that very hokey scene where Blitzo doesn’t kill two fathers because he sees himself and Stolas in them. Sorry show, play the sappy music all you want, it’s still cheating.

As a queer person, I am honestly kind of tired of shows that show queer characters cheating on their partners while “discovering” themselves and the partner is portrayed as the inconsiderate and deranged one. It also just feels like when a really horny fujoshi who scoffs at lesbians but fetishizes queer men is really mad that a gay ship isn’t canon and writes fanfiction where the perfectly fine straight ship is actually loveless and angst ridden and it’s all the abusive wife’s fault. All just so the man can run to the arms of another man.

Stolas and Stella were definitely not a healthy couple. It’s not like I thought Stella was innocent, she’s clearly more hurt that he slept with an imp than cheating on her, but isn’t this show all about writing nuanced and messy characters? Stella can still be deeply unlikable and sympathetic. It had a chance to be nuanced but didn’t. And then the show doubles down further by going “technically it’s not cheating and also if it WAS, you’re the bad one here because you’re in the way of a loving relationship”. As a queer person this feels so incredibly lame and condescending. Like god forbid, queer people do stupid and reckless things too when they’re figuring themselves out and are actually held accountable to it.

And speaking of accountability… I’ve been seeing takes about how Octavia called out Stolas for his actions which means the show will finally hold him accountable… has everyone just forgotten about “Full Moon” and like… literally every other episode that attempts to hold Stolas accountable. It never sticks, it immediately shifts blame onto something else or denies it ever happened.

Stolas cheats on Stella and Ozzie calls him out? Actually it’s fine because she’s ✨evil✨ ooooooo

Stolas makes weird classist and racist remarks? That never happened, Blitzo is just insecure and delusional

Stolas coerced Blitzo into a sexual relationship and basically damaged his self esteem and is finally called out for it? Blitzo is punished so severely by the narrative that he’s basically traumatized into loving Stolas

And god this is like what? The THIRD episode where Octavia calls him out? Does anyone sincerely think this show is going to follow it up with Stolas actually holding himself accountable and making amends for his behavior? His first appearance he promises not to leave her and then goes back to fucking the guy that ruined the marriage. And in his second appearance, Loona randomly shows up to lecture Octavia about how she needs to be nice to her deadbeat dad who literally got too distracted by Blitzo’s stand up to look for his daughter. I mean it’s not like the show is very clearly doing its lazy habit of framing Octavia’s dislike of Stolas as a “misunderstanding”, something the show has already done with Blitzo, Striker and the Imps in general.

And honestly, Blitzo’s writing was just mean-spirited but Octavia feels downright offensive. This show very clearly wants us to feel bad for the guy who abandoned his daughter for someone else. No, I don’t think Stolas made the “wrong” choice by saving Blitzo but this lack of concern for what could happen to his daughter (you know Stella is an abusive maniac and you’re just going to leave her with that woman??). As right as Octavia’s rant is, I honestly think the show wants us to read it the same way we were meant to read Blitzo’s equally accurate tear down of Stolas: a character completely misunderstands his actions and feels highly emotional over it, leading to Stolas in tears.

Queer stories can be better than this, I know they can. I don’t need to be told I have to sympathize with a deadbeat dad who can’t even take accountability for cheating (even if it’s justified!) because he’s sad and gay.

I hate villains who are all like "oh I planned/predicted this outcome" or "oh I planned this" and all that business cause a good 80-90% of the time, it just means "oh I can do whatever I want cause the plot keeps me safe from Ls" and I just find that so annoying.

I basically find villains who plan everything so boring cause their "plan" half the time just means "oh I perfectly predicted the hero/protagonists and the main cast's plan and outcomes and I don't actually suffer any Genuine Ls or setbacks" and that just completely sucks the fun and enjoyment out of said villain when the writer is constantly dickriding them.

Like Aizen from Bleach,he's not a badly written character but the community and I'd argue even Kubota constantly dickride him with the amount of times this man has done and "oh I planned this" "oh I suffer no setbacks or aftual Losses or struggles,i'm so perfect",like sheesh Gege.

You would think that Kubo was Gege with the amount of dickriding he gave his main villains. I'd even argue Kenjaku is more a annoying "Mastermind" mainly cause this man barely put any actual effort in his plans, dude basically waited for the plot to do all the actual work for him. Even the slightest thing going wrong hinders his plans for years, especially Toji deciding to get a job.

And I won't forgive the bullshit he pulled with Yuki, that was so incredibly unsatisfying and lame but whatever.

I'd argue All for One from Mha can fit into that category but at least he slightly worked for some of his plans but even then that's just slightly.

This Isn't about JJK but I have yet to meet a actual good masteemind villain, I like villains who actually have to work for their plans and struggle with them, I like villains who actually suffer setbacks and have to work for their Ws,cause that's actually satisfying and they aren't like "oh glorious author, save me from this L and setback."

That's my problem with Mastermind villains and prodigious villains in general, they don't have to actually work for their Ws and their plans and victories come off more as the plot keeping them safe and protected until the author gets bored wanking them to oblivion.

Basically I hate villains with plot armor,and that's even more annoying then heroes with plot armor cause that just means they weasel out of consequences and losses until the plot is done with them.

The trope of people’s collective thoughts creating gods, their disbelief destroying gods and change of belief reconstructing gods entirely has become the default in a large swath of fantasy. It works in something like American Gods because the story is about the evolution of world culture in America, not the act of worship or higher powers, with, for example, America creating a new Odin who is a charismatic con artist.

The problem is when gods are treated as a higher power when they are just manifested figments of culture. What’s the point of putting a deity in fiction if you’re just going to cheat your way out of engaging with what it means to be a deity? The Ancient Egyptian god Ra was empowered by prayers in his nightly battle with Apophis, Dharmic religions such as Hinduism believe that there are vastly diverse and even contradictory ways to understand the divine, and religions such as Buddhism and Confucianism don’t require belief in gods in the first place, but, as far as I’m aware, there’s no religion that worships something that they believe is made whole cloth out of that worship.

How can something be a higher power beyond humanity and also an entirely dependent byproduct of it? And if gods are essentially the slaves of people, whom we can shape in any way we want just by thinking it true, why don’t powerful factions just put out propaganda to change the gods in such a way as to suit their interests? I suspect the trope of gods existentially reliant on human belief is so prevalent because it is an inoffensive way to include mythical pantheons while avoiding making any statement on the nature of worship. It makes literal the polite rules of secular society, dialoguing not with the content of the religious beliefs of others but only the fact that they have those beliefs. It even sidesteps the controversy of the effectiveness of prayer by making it necessary for gods to sustain themselves.

Ok so this isn't really about Shadow the Hedgehog, but an argument about it inspired me to write this. It's more about the argument that anyone who criticizes weird shit in media is projecting and "YOU'RE the one who is weird."

I have seen this used in regards to video game criticism a lot lately. The pro-woke argument will say something like "stop judging female video game characters by how much you want to jerk off to them" and the anti-woke crowd will say something like "WHOA, who said I want to jerk off to the female video game character? Why are you so obsessed with sex? YOU'RE the weird one." This just comes off as straight up gaslighting. This is the internet, we see how popular the porn subreddits are, we see the NSFW art on social media, we know people are modding the game to make the characters nude. Maybe you personally aren't doing this, but we know for a fact that many, many people are in fact doing this. Here's an idea, why don't you just admit that you prefer your pretend 3D modeled women to be hot and stop making dishonest arguments.

I made a post here about Harry Potter's creepy love potions, which is a pretty easy target for criticism because it's so obviously creepy and fucked up, and I got at least one person saying "you're the one making it weird, this is a story for children and there's no sex!" Anyone who knows even a little bit about the plot should know why this is not a good argument.

I have always felt, even when I was a child playing Sonic Adventure 2 for the first time, that the relationship between Shadow and Maria is strange. I'm surprised the recent movie didn't retcon this at all by aging up Maria or anything. I can't prove in court that their relationship is romantic or sexual, but I know the creator of the characters admitted to basing them on a romance manga and Tweeted about shipping them. There's some disagreement here because Shadow's maturity level is ambiguous due to him being a genetically engineered alien-hedgehog, but Maria is definitely a 12 year old and the whole thing just seems super off. If you think the Shadow/Maria relationship is wholesome and innocent I'm not really going to argue, because the thing that really bothers me is responses I got saying things like "Wow, projecting much? How could you think there's anything sexual between two CHILDREN? Why are you seeing pedophilia everywhere?"

The absolute worst part is I've seen this style of argument extend to real world serious political issues, but I'm not going to elaborate because this is a subreddit for children's card games.

It just seems like a really dishonest and stupid argument and a lazy way to shut down any discussion of issues like sexual abuse, pedophilia and coomerism.

Just finished watching it after hearing so many praises. I know overrated is an overused word, but the Penguin is a bit overrated to me.

I do think that the show is well made and the characters are great. But the biggest issue is that it is not a very good attempt in terms of being a crime/gangster story. There are too many moments in the show where the audience is expected to just accept what is happening on the screen, without giving an explanation of how things are achieved. The explanation of many events in the show are just "you know, its just gangster things ". So, as a result, many scenes just feel like it is an attempt to make a crime story instead of genuinely being one. For a superhero show, you can get away with these kind of writing because it is for setting the mood instead being the main focus. Daredevil for example have a lot of "it just works" moments for anything related to Kingpin. But Penguin is not a superhero show after all.

For example, a story beat is about Oz building a drug lab underground. And he is supposed to be pushed in the corner and being chased by two major crime family while doing it, and it just works. Or at the end, Oz rises to the top of power because he gives a tip to the councilman, surely it just works.

And the plot armor is kinda ridiculous too, a scene in the finale have Oz being tied up and being tortured by a few people in a room. And he somehow just escaped in broad daylight while being obese, stabbed, crippled with one leg and also carrying an old lady on his shoulder.

The stronghold of the show is when they are focusing on character studies instead of doing these moment to moment crime stuffs. Oz's relationship with his mother and Victor is fascinating. Sophia's origin story went hard af and it is great to see her potential appearance in the next Batman movie.

It kinda just makes me appreciate shows like Breaking Bad or Better Call Saul, which make a detailed effort to explain details like how the crime aspects work. And did not just use the "cops are corrupted“ excuse to explain how characters get away with murders.

A lot of this series focuses on political discussion and morality, and it does such a bad job of it it's really incredible. In this season they make it seem like Ezran, the child king, brother of Callum and son of King Harrow who was murdered assassinated, has gone totally mad with power and turned to the dark side. But actually, everything he does is completely reasonable and it's absolutely baffling how much The Dragon Prince makes the bad guys look like the good guys and the good guys look like the bad guys.

I haven't watched the rest of the season yet but if you want to post spoilers I don't care, I'm just so mad I had to make a post immediately. Here are a few things that have happened in just a few short episodes:

• Someone else already made a thread about this, but Runaan, the killer of King Harrow and father of Rayla, comes to the kingdom and is arrested by Ezran. Everyone pleads Ezran to forgive the assassin and is reluctant to arrest Runaan.

• There is a weird argument where they argue Runaan was already imprisoned in a coin for two years and that punishment is enough. For reference Norway with their notoriously forgiving prison system has a maximum sentence of 21 years and a typical sentence for murder is probably about 10 years. Rayla argues that assassins are not murderers and they are good people, Ezran sarcastically says "oh, so he's a GOOD murderer" and everyone just dismisses everything he says and acts like he's crazy.

• Callum helps Rayla break the assassin out of prison and flees the kingdom. He's saving the man who murdered his father to betray his brother. Keep in mind Runaan was only imprisoned for a short period, his punishment had not been decided yet and he wasn't being tortured or anything.

• The whole kingdom of Katolis, who Ezran rules, was destroyed by a dragon and as a result Ezran wants to build up his defensive capacity. The other characters act like he's crazy and say "but the dragon is gone, you don't have to worry any more." Even though they're aware Aaravos was released.

• There's a scene where Aaravos, the big bad evil gaslighting supervillian, has a monologue about losing childhood innocence and "the true heart" and being corrupted by real world traumas. This speech is superimposed over Ezran trying to prevent Runaan from escaping. The whole thing is absolutely 100% treated like Ezran going mad with power. I suppose they want him to remain a naive child who refuses to cancel a lesbian wedding during the middle of a violent fascist uprising like he was during the previous season.

• The violent fascist uprising I mentioned in the previous post? Yeah all the perpetuators of it are instantly forgiven by the queen. Her buddies also try to convince her to forgive her brother who was the leader of the attack, after he tried to use a dragon to burn them all. I can already tell this conflict will be dragged on for several episodes for no reason and it will be framed as the queen being unreasonable for not wanting to forgive him.

• Terry does nothing to stop Aaravos's evil plan to bring about eternal night and generally never objects to any dark magic stuff but he loses it over Aaravos killing a single bird.

I was already mad because in the previous season it was revealed that Aaravos's (canonically autistic) daughter was murdered by the gods in charge of this universe for teaching a human being to make rocks float magically. This series talks so much about how everyone deserves a second chance, but I can bet a million dollars Aaravos will not be given a second chance and I doubt anyone will even acknowledge he suffered an injustice. Similarly, Viren had to sacrifice his life in order to be redeemed. Of course Viren and Aaravos both did bad things but the way the story treats them is inconsistent.

Edit: I just realized I forgot to mention one plot point. The leader of the assassin elves doesn’t forgive Rayla for causing the death of his son and he’s treated like he’s unreasonable. This plot wasn’t done as badly as some of the others though.

Yeah the title p much sums it up.

Before the modern stories with the X-Men, back before they became the cultural force they are now it was known that Stan Lee only came up with the concept of Mutants as a catch all origin for random characters he didn't feel like making up origin stories for, with the explanation of why this or that random So-and-so introduced has powers beginning and ending at "They're a mutant". This was long before the mutant oppression angle swallowed up the franchise.

For a while there were quite a few characters who were confirmed to be mutants but otherwise were completely divorced from X-Men related stories. Notably, Wanda, Pietro and Namor. The former used to be in the brotherhood and were presented as the mutant kids of Magneto, before further retcons completely gnarled that simple premise into a overcomplicated mess later on. Namor in turn only sometimes cares , prob because he was retconned into being one since he debuted long before the concept of Mutants came to the marvel u.

Likewise we had characters like Firestar, Justice, Cloak and Dagger (originally implied to be Mutants but might not be the case anymore), Molly Hayes to an extent, and Pete Wisdom, Franklin Richards (Another character that suffered unnecessary retcons to try and make him not a mutant. It almost seems like the writers who do this resent the characters existing as mutants outside the X-Men stories, so try and make them not the case for no reason). Mentallo, Typhoid Mary and Whirlwind being an example for mutant villains who don't really fight other mutants. But the point is, the fact that every mutant character must be entangled into X-Men affairs no matter what I think is a disservice.

The biggest issue I had with Krakoa era was the fact that I feel like it pushed this to it's fever pitch where there was an entire brouhaha going on with them and it's barely felt anywhere else. And every mutant character was a part of it for the most part no matter if it made sense. In fact characters would routinely poo poo characters like Firestar for daring to have a superhero identity outside of her mutant identity which completely disgusted me.

The complete encompassing narrative of mutant identity just feels so forced a lot of times and I feel like realistically there should be a lot more unaffiliated mutants than there are at this point. Right now they've done their due diligence to hitch Kamala Khan off the broken hopes and dreams Inhumans wagon since I think we can all see they've wiped their hands clean of the other far less popular NuHumans that failed to catch on. They've shoved her into the X-Men shaped box now and already she's had to contend with this when I feel like it's unnecessary.

Overall I just feel it would be a lot more realistic if the writers stopped trying to fit every mutant character into this mold. Let mutants be regular heroes and other characters again instead of always being defined by a flimsy and nebulous mutant identity.

This is by no means an insult to Toriyama or db in general

But more of a topic of powerscaling, statements and how the narrative of a story can be destroyed by the way that its presented

We all know this right?

"Goku its the best martial artist in the world", "Goku knows every martial artist", "Goku kicked my dad in the Nuts"

This type of comments are always mentioned when discusing Dragon Ball's H2H skills and prowess

And while i dont doubt that Goku is intended to be the best martial artist in DB the way that its shown its frankly, stupid

Not even once Goku has done anything other than Ki bullshit or Striking, no grapling, no takedowns, no nothing

Martial arts in DB its pretty much who can scream and punch the hardest, and while this in onitself not a problem since the focus on Martial arts in db itd anecdotical at best

But when the Powerscaling fandom gets involved everything goes well, to shit

We throw any type of logic or goodwilled argument through the window the moment that any

Goku Vs X martial artist match up appears in a straight H2H

Sometimes i believe that im crazy since aparently im the only idiot that doesnt believe that Goku would Stomp characters like Yujiro,Batman or Garou

Again i get what the narrative of DB intended but if so what?

Im supposed to ignore tons of feats of the other guys and give the win to goku simply because he has trained his whole life (the other guys too) was trained by gods (gods that Freezer can one shot excluding the last one) or "knows every martial art in the world" (not once has he done anything other than throw a punch)

I was recently thinking of a what if scenario where Zaun becomes independent under Silco's terms and what it would be like for the undercity. Imagine that at the end of Season 1, Jinx was stopped before she was able to bomb the council building while the council was about to grant Zaun independence. I feel like Zaun would not have been in a good place after and probably worse off.

Lets not forget that a significant percentage of the population is addicted to Shimmer and even though Silco promised to stop manufacturing the drug, you would still have plenty of people suffering from withdrawal and in desperate need of medical attention. Silco and his cronies would probably need to deal with a massive humanitarian crisis in their new nation I don't think Piltover would be inclined to help.

There is also the fact that the closest thing to a government down in Zaun are the Chembarons. These guys are ruthless drug lords and industrialists who would immediately get about to exploiting their own people even more now that they don't have to worry about Piltover getting in their business and the Enforcers no longer having jurisdiction there.

Considering how unpopular Silco was with the Chembarons near the end of the first season, there is a good chance that he would have been overthrown and a power struggle would have occurred. We see this in Season 2 as when word reaches the undercity of Silco's death, the Chembarons immediately turn on each other and turn the Lanes into a war-zone.

Child labor and illegal human experimentation already run amok down in the Lanes, and with even less government oversight in an independent Zaun, would only continue to get worse. if Silco had his way Zaun would have been a failed state shortly after its independence and I don't think any free trade deals with Piltover or access to the Hexgates would have fixed it.

The only hope would be if Ekko and the Firelights were somehow able to overthrow the Chembarons and slowly start reforming the undercity into a better place. Considering their small numbers and lack of resources it would be an incredibly daunting task for them to enact any serious change in Zaun.

According to Rayla, an assassin is someone who is simply doing a job and is a good person while a murderer causes senseless violence and is a bad person. As a failed assassin who thinks murder is wrong, Rayla knows what she is talking about.

Rayla is arguing for the release of her father Runaan, an assassin who murdered Katolis's king. She makes this argument of how he's suffered enough in front of Ezran, the king's orphaned son. Rayla brought Runaan to Katolis to see her boyfriend. Rayla is very wise.

Rayla left her boyfriend for 2 years to get milk and never apologized, but her boyfriend still agrees to break Runaan free. He would do anything for her. The boyfriend is Ezran's half-brother. The Dragon Prince taught me that hoes truly come before bros.

After getting his husband and daughter back, Runaan tells Ezran that before killing his father the king, he made a squawking sound. King Harrow's soul was swapped with that of a bird's. King Harrow is not dead. Rayla's boyfriend is absent for this series finale revelation.

The Dragon Prince taught me how to waste my fucking time.

Welp. It's finally out.

After nearly 11 years since the series started, and roughly 8 years since the last comic, TF2 finally got comic number seven.

It's great. Sure, there's about one thing I dislike about it, but otherwise, everything is top notch. The art is good, the writing is good- sure, I wouldn't exactly say it's been worth the nearly 10 year wait, but hot damn, it's just plain old good.

Not "Thank god they didn't faceplant" Nor "Well, it's better than being in limbo forever" it's just unambiguously a good ending to the series. It's wacky, it's hearfelt, it doesn't leave any loose ends unless you really want to talk about God, it doesn't have clear signs that it took forever to release...

There's only so many ways I can say that it's good, just go read it. https://www.teamfortress.com/comics.php

Unfortunately, I also think this is either the subtle announcement, or preparing the TF2 community for the announcement that TF2 is going to officially going into maintenance mode.

MINOR SPOILERS FOR THE ENDING:

They have the characters do a "very special thanks to the players" moment, they unambiguously kill off one seriously major character, one minor one is permanently a ghost haunting a brick, and the comic's final line is "Who wants to live forever." Also the theme of the comic is also all about "learn to let go ya dummy."

I genuinely cannot see this as anything less than them soft-confirming that TF2 is genuinely in pure maintenance mode now. It's like, it's right there.

For what it's worth- I really do not think TF2 seriously "needs" a CONTENT update. Definitely should keep squashing bugs and cheaters, and maybe a few standout weapons should be dealt with in terms of nerfs/buffs, but otherwise?

As all things go- having this as a finale isnt' a bad way for a game to end.

Spoilers Herein. It's a great series and I think it's an extremely compelling dual narrative (possibly tri-narrative if we ever get the Yuu/Twilight PoV), so if you haven't read it, I'd encourage you to do so before reading this post.

What specifically sparked this post is the newly released extra-Volume chapters. I'll get into those details a bit later on.

So, "It's a Little Late, but I've Fallen in Love with My Childhood Friend" is a lighthearted and charming story following the adventures of Hikari, a girl who as of a few months before the series began, realised that she's developed strong romantic feelings for her childhood friend, Yuu. (Note that she calls Yuu "Ta~kun", that's just her nickname for him)

And from there we follow her bumbling but heartfelt attempts to confess her feelings to him and establish a proper romantic relationship. It's cute, it's sweet, it's lighthearted fluff.

The big twist that the entire series pivots around happens when Hikari makes big dramatic plans to invite Yuu to her school's festival and confess to him at a romantic moment there. As usual, things go awry, nothing works out quite like she intended, and she's left trying to track him down as the festival winds to a close.

Which leads her back to her classroom, where Yuu's waiting for her. Except, unexpectedly, she finds Yuu inside, with one of her best friends Ayami, in the midst of an intensely personal discussion..

Ayami slaps Yuu. Yuu tries to talk to her. She screams at him to shut up. A moment passes between them like that... And then suddenly Ayami's pulling Yuu towards her and kissing him with all her might.

And Hikari's left outside, looking on with this absolutely iconic expression.

From there, the story pivots to a flashback, showing what happened a year and a half earlier, long before Hikari ever had romantic feelings for Yuu, where a chance meeting between him and Ayami drew them both into an intensely passionate, but painfully short lived relationship, one that we see meant the world to Ayami, and most likely almost as much to Yuu.

However, what I find really interesting about that scene of Hikari finding them, is that her shock isn't centered quite where you'd expect.

See, when you read the manga and you see that face, you think that she's staring in shock and disbelief that the man she loves is kissing another girl. She's stunned and hurt and confused. All makes sense, seems reasonable.

Yet, when you read the companion Web Novel, you get a lot more of Hikari's inner thoughts, and you can see the biggest part she's shocked about isn't that it's Yuu she's seeing, but Ayami.

Both of their voices, voices I knew so well, were echoing in my mind, over and over.

Ta~kun...

And... and... Aya-chan?!

No, nonono, I'm wrong, this can't be right!

The boy might be Ta~kun, but the girl -- it's not Aya-chan. It can't be.

...But even if it's not her, what does that change?

That boy over there is definitely Ta~kun, no doubt about it.

So why am I so hung up on whether or not the girl is Aya-chan?

Would it be such a big deal if the other person was my best friend?

Wait, no, that's not it. It's not Aya-chan. It can't be.

Ta~kun even said it himself.

That's Yami-senpai, that's what he called her. It's someone else. A different person.

It's not Aya-chan...

It's not... Ayami-chan...... right?

She's shocked to see Yuu with another woman, but that's not what's left her staring in disbelief, she moves past that quickly, the vast majority of her focus is the fact that it's Ayami that he's with. Hikari can envision a world where Yuu kisses a woman that's not her, but she fundamentally can't make sense of a world where Ayami kisses the man she loves.

She's far more upset about her best friend kissing the man she loves, than she is about seeing the man she loves kissing her best friend.

That's really interesting to me! I like that!

And we see more of this with the two new extra Volume chapters that have been released. They're not up on MangaDex yet, but in brief

First: Ayami trying to confront Hikari about the name she heard on their group chat during Hikari's theme park "date". This is where Ayami realises for sure that the guy she used to date, the guy she still loves, is the same guy that Hikari's in love with and trying to get with. It ends with her encouraging Hikari that Yuu definitely loves her too and she should just confess already, then walking away cursing her fate and trying not to cry.

Second: A sleepover at Hikari's place a short time after Hikari realises her feelings for Yuu. Mostly just the girls chatting, but this is where Hikari thinks about how of all her friends she's got the strongest bond with Ayami. To the point of thinking how she prioritises this friendship over the feelings she's got for a "guy she only just fell in love with.", she monologues about how she wants to be friends with Ayami after graduation and from then on.

The reason I'm so interested in this is because from a lot of the discussion I've seen, it seems that a when the flashback is done and we return to the present, a lot of people seem to be assuming that Hikari will have a huge blow up, that she'll feel betrayed by Yuu and be hurt by seeing him with another woman and so on.

And of course, that'll be a thing, she's gonna have a whole lot of hurt feelings. But after all this, I think the vast majority of the focus is going to be around

• Hikari feeling absolutely crucified by Ayami's actions.
• Ayami's guilt at what she did in the spur of a moment.
• The friendship that possibly will no longer exist anymore.

Because ultimately, (contrary to the opinions I see on MangaDex) Yuu didn't betray Hikari at all. He has never been in a relationship with her, the time he was dating Ayami she didn't even like him and she's never actually managed to get her feelings across to him. He's absolutely free to be with anyone he wants.

But, these extra chapters hammer home both how strong the friendship between Hikari and Ayami is, and that Ayami knows for sure that the guy Hikari likes is Yuu, the same guy she used to date.

Ayami absolutely did betray Hikari. She knew for a fact that Hikari was intending to confess, she even tried to stay out of the way to ensure she wouldn't meet up with Yuu and wouldn't cause any problems, she wanted the confession to happen and wanted Hikari to be happy. And yet, by a twist of fate, she wound up meeting with him anyway, and her lingering feelings got the better of her.

TL;DR: Most people (myself included, before I read the WN) expected Yuu to be at the centre of the incoming dramatic shitstorm when the flashback sequence is over. But it seems like the series is instead gearing to put the focus heavily on the feelings and emotions between the two female leads instead.

I would like to get a Twilight/Yuu perspective to go with Light/Hikari and Dark/Ayami, but I doubt it'll happen.

In Chapter 698 of the manga, Naruto finally manages to convince Sasuke to stop being a gigantic a-hole and they officially become friends again; one chapter later, Sasuke returns to Konoha... and then, literally as soon as his crimes have been pardoned, he elects to depart, refusing to wait even long enough to give Tsunade the time to build him a prosthetic arm (this, BTW, is the canonical reason why Sasuke still lacks a left arm by the time of Boruto).

That's borderline hysterical to me: you've been waiting over 500 chapters (and, if you've followed Naruto in real time, an entire decade) for Sasuke to finally return - and the literal first thing you see him do after his return is explain that he's leaving again; frankly, it's bonkers.

Now, I'm sure some of you are already typing "But he explains why he's doing it in that very same chapter!" Ok, great, let's say I buy it: can we please still acknowledge that, from an out-of-universe perspective, it's bonkers to wait a decade for something to happen and then reveal that, for all intents and purposes, it may as well not have happened?

But ok, fine, maybe him leaving is just a very temporary thing and he'll be back in six months or so - had things gone like that, it would have been more acceptable (although still pretty dumb); instead:

• In the epilogue he's, once again, not at the Village, and the last thing we see him do in the original manga is walk alone in a forest - BUT it's also established that him and Sakura have had a daughter, so maybe he actually spends most of his time in Konoha and it just so happened that he wasn't there that particular day; that'd still be more or less fine.
• In The Last, it turns out that, two whole years after the War arc, Sasuke still hasn't returned; he does it during the movie itself to save the Village from some meteorites - but then, as soon as the crisis is over, he immediately departs again, not even stopping long enough to say hello to Naruto and Sakura. Ok, now we're getting into "this is really dumb" territory, but hey, we know him and Sakura need to get together at some point, so he'll have to properly return to the Village sooner or later, right?
• Then there's Naruto and Hinata's wedding, which I think is emblematic of this entire thing: three different media portray this event (the credits for The Last, the novel Perfect Day for a Wedding and the final episode of Shippuden) and all three of them agree that Sasuke wasn't there for the big day of his "best friend"; yeah, it was really worth it to bring him back to Konoha, those five minutes he actually spent there must have been really intense.
• Then, as explained in the Sarada Gaiden, instead of Sasuke finally returning to the Village to be with Naruto and Sakura, it's actually Sakura who departs to travel with Sasuke, and it's during this time that their daughter is born; after her birth they return to Konoha together (FINALLY!!) - and then, some time later, Sasuke leaves again (WHAT?!!) to do some Vague Offscreen Stuff; he leaves so quickly, in fact, that a decade later the grown-up Sarada has no memory of him, and when they meet again he doesn't even recognize her at first (during this time he also manages to miss Naruto's OTHER big day - his inauguration as Hokage).
• AND THEN, after the family has been reunited at the end of the Gaiden, Sasuke departs AGAIN (for, if my calculations are correct, the 87th time) after spending less than a week at the Village.
• Finally, some time later, the main events of Boruto begin, at which point Sasuke starts to actually spend some time in Konoha.

I don't have much of a deep point to make with this; I just find it hilarious that, after seeing Sakura tearfully beg Naruto to bring Sasuke back to her, after seeing Naruto go into hyperventilation over him, after seeing Kishimoto write hundreds of chapters about the quest to save Sasuke from himself - the end result is "and then, in the course of the next fifteen years, he spent maybe three weeks at the Village, so that Sakura barely sees him and for Naruto he may as well be dead at this point".

TLDR: What the hell were you smoking, Kishimoto?

So i recently caught up with Undead Unluck and while i do love it, i think Unfair is an extremly boring Negation that takes all the steam out of an otherwise fun villain and ally.

Keep in mind this is all my opinion, and while i personally don't like it, i dont think any of this is badly written, quite the opposite actually, it's one of the stronger parts of the series, and fits quite nicely together.

Consider this more of an excuse to hear me ramble about personal prefrences :-)

!! MAJOR SPOILERS FOR UNDEAD UNLUCK !!

In case you dont know the powersystem in UU is based around 'Negations' Undead negates Death and thus can't die, Unburn negates things catching fire, Unrepair negates wounds healing, etc etc. This is a very unique power system, save for one, Billy Alfred and his negation Unfair:

Unfair allows the user to negate the Fairness of every Negator having only one ability by copying the negations of others, the activation condition changes throughout the series, but the first condition used is that the copied must view the user as a threat.

When Billy is first introduced he pretends to be the negator Unbelievable, which lets him always hit his shot's no matter what (this is later revealed to just be a natrual part of his mercenary training), and we only learn of his true negation when he betrays the Union and decide's to take the main villain on on his own, he does this in the most threatening way possible in order to make sure Unfair can actually activate, but he's a good guy at heart.

So....admittetly, this is not the worst execution of a copy ability, it is interwoven with his motive's in a clean way, has a unique limitation and makes for a great threat in what is now the series primary antagonistic force, so whats my problem?

1. It's Busted

In a series whose tagline seems to be ''if everyone's overpowered nobody is'' Unfair stands out as one of the few that's distinctly above everyone else.

This is of course by the simple fact that it can just copy the three most OP people in the verse and then solo the main villain, which is not a new observation because that is basically Billys entire plan. It became even more busted once the condition changed to simply acknowleding someone's strenght, great.

The only thing holding back Unfair from being story-ruining levels of overpowerd (besides the activation condition) is that billy has no idea how to use half of the abilities he copies, he needs to figure it out himself, for instance in chapter 231 he mentions having never used Unjustice against a UMA so he's basically useless in that fight. It is also stated that only the orginal user can bring out the full potential of a negation, with Billy's versions being less refined, but with the sheer number of abilities he has, this is more of a band aid fix than anything.

An ability being OP is not an inherent problem, but the way it is used in this story takes all the steam out of the fights for me, i know Billy is never in actual physical danger because we see him copy Undead, the most OP Negation in the entire series, i know he's never gonna be beat in a fight because he copied half the characters in the series. The Union never actually beats him, he wins the first fight due to the element of suprise, wins the second fight, enters a truce partway through his third fight, and never fights with the heroes again before becoming an ally again during ragnarock, where, suprising no one, he basically singlehandedly beats the 'main' villain of that arc.

2. It allows for Insane Asspulls

All of Unfair's uses throughout the series are from the other negator's we've met, exept for two, Unbalance and Undefinition.

Two Negator's we never see, whose abilities are never set up, only used once or twice and then never seen again. This makes sense in the story since he basically loses access to them, but it still bums me out because like...why bother? Why bother giving him two new abilities we've never seen before just to throw them away? Why not have him use one of the already established abilities in a fun way? Sure it makes the world feel bigger beyond the walls of the Union, but that dosent make me like it more.

Unbalance i can somewhat forgive since he uses it a couple times, Undefinition however is only used once to solve a very specific problem, never used before and never used again despite it definetly being a useful thing to just have on hand, litreal definition of an Asspull.

Side note: i am aware that the new 1 hour special might show us Unbalance, and i am extremely hyped for that, but since it aint out as of writing i can't really make accurate judgement as for what this might mean for the unfairness of Unfair. Also even if it's canon it still wasn't in the original manga.

3. BOOOORING

I dont like copy abilities, they are boring and at worst basically just ''do anything'' magic in a setting where that is not supposed to be a thing. I will not explain this point further.

4. Unbelievable better

Hot take number 4 i think Unbelievable is the infinetly more intresting power even if we only go by what was said in the story.

Unbelievable is both an absolutely hilarious concept and absolutely terrifying, which works with both billy's goofier hero side and his menacing bad guy persona. It's hard to give concrete examples of where unbelievable would specifically be more fun / intresting to watch, because, natrually all of billy's fights center on Unfair.

Allowing Bullet's to always somehow ricochet into their targets is fucking hysterical especially considering Billy is blind, it is stated that shots can still be blocked which prevents it from being too op while also not losing it's threat factor, and like, could you imagine a villain that just never misses? That would be actually terrifying and i can only think of a few Negators in the series that could counter it once in motion (Undead, Untouchable, Unmove temporarily and possibly Unchange and Untrust).

5. ''That's the point'' / ''It's supposed to be Unfair''

Shocker, the Unfair power is unfair, while this is a valid defense against most of the points brought up, i personally think that having something be justified in universe does not automatically make it better. And in the case of Unfair, it actually make's me dislike it way more although i can't reasonably explain why.

So yeah i think Unfair is the lamest of all the negations.

Don't mind all the grammatical errors, ive never really written a long rant before.

Im extremely media illiterate so if this is all wrong feel free to boo me of the stage or whatever.

Man growing up with the micheal bay transformers movies was a treat, as a kid, I would always watch them with my older brother late at night. At first they were my only exposure to the transformers universe but as i got older, i started to explore other parts of the franchise and across the different continuities i think the forest fight is a really good display of both optimus and megatrons characters.

I'll start with how it summarises optimus's character, in almost every continuity optimus has always been a good guy be it G1 dad like optimus, animated's inexperienced but good hearted cadet or IDW's police officer he is always depected as on the side of good Bayverse just takes his kind nature to the extreme a bit ; firstly, why is the fight happening? because Optimus is trying to save sam, his dear friend and someone he has great respect for. he is willing to fight tooth and nail(or the cybertronian equivalent of those) to ensure his safety up to the point he even dies for it and how can i forget the legendary exchange between him and megatron

"is the future of our race not worth a single human life?"

"you'll never stop at one, I'LL TAKE YOU ALL ON !"

This is optimus prime !, not only is he rebuking megatron and calling him out on his bullshit, he is also stating that no matter how many decepticons come he will fight them all to protect life and is also the moment when he begins to fight more ruthlessly in the fight, but his compassion is ultimately his undoing in this fight as he stops to look for sam and ensure he is safe it allows megatron to take a sneeak attack and kill him.

Now onto megatron, basically since the beginning megatron has always been one of transformers main villains and has come in many different takes whether it be the saturday morning cartoon villain of G1,the scheming mastermind of Animated, or the freedom fighter, turned genocidal maniac of idw. In the micheal bay movies megatron(or how ive come to interpret him over the course of the movies) seems to both be power hungry and have a genuine love for his homeworld; he wants to see cybertron restored and be the one in charge of it and does not care how many lives he has to destroy,kill or manipulate to get there. Its also clear he holds pretty big grudges as seen with how he deals with sam just before the forest fight happens; he is terrifying and very aggressive with him, having resentment for his death at his hand's in tf 07.

Now onto his actions in the forest fight, he is the one that initiates it as he is the one to chase down optimus and sam and when he sees he is being ovrwhelmed calls for back up from his decepticons, showing he is not afraid to use any advantage he has to get what he wants. During the fight he tries to get optimus to see his side of things, to take advantage of optimus's more compassionate side and to think of the people of cybertron.

"There is another source of energon hidden on this planet, the boy could lead us to it!."

"Is the future of our race not worth a single human life?"

he is not only trying to manipulate Optimus but goad him as well, megatron is a conniving, slimy bastard and is taking every oppurtunity he can get to try and make optimus see his side of things or just kill him in the process which is what he does when after Optimus kills Grindor he sneak attacks and kills him and his final words in the fight to him;

"You are so weak"

Contrary to popular belief, he isn't mocking Optimus for his fighting ability, he is mocking his compassion and care for what he perceives as something inferior to them, throughout the bay movies Megatron makes it clear and doesn't even attempt to hide that he despises humans and sees them as nothing more than insects, hell he calls them that almost any time he interacts with one so when he sses Optimus not only fight to protect one single human, And die for it, he hates it and mocks Optimus for it

P.S sorry for any spelling mistakes

let me know your thoughts on the forest fight and what it means for transformers as a whole.

Hello it’s me, the “I hate elves” guy, for me to be defending an elf you gotta know it’s fucked

This is about baldurs gate 2 the 24 year old game that has been largely overshadowed by its sequel and honestly wasn’t as popular as the first one, like a middle child.

Anyway not to assume you know what I’m talking about because the game is 24 years old.

Jon born as Joneleth Irenicus was an elven mage and pretty good at it, was in a relationship with the queen and whatnot etc etc, he’s up , but as all mages who are enjoying life do he gets arrogant and decides to try siphoning power off the tree of life to become a god. He gets caught in the act and brought infront of the elven pantheon of gods who don’t take kindly to him overstepping his stations and so decide to fucking obliterate his soul and cast him out into the wilderness to die.

One could say “it’s because the act was endangering every elf in the city” as they are all connected to the tree of life, but like he definitely wasn’t planning to kill everyone he loved at the time and was also the best elf wizard alive I highly doubt anything would have happened but also nothing did happen so punishing him as if the worst case scenario came true doesn’t make sense.

And on that level the elven pantheon has done infinitely worse than anything Irenicus could have ever dreamed of pulling off so it’s like being judged by hitler for attempted murder, why the fuck are these guys judging anyone on a moral stance, didn’t they condemn an innocent unborn race to eternal suffering and hate just because they wanted the land promised to them? why are these guys the moral arbiters?

Anyway in the forgotten realms when you die your soul goes to whatever afterlife you worked towards but if you’re soul was obliterated you just cease to exist upon death, on top of that having your soul obliterated fucking chunks your lifespan hard

Consider that this guy jon is an elf wizard who because of this has a lifespan in the thousands if not possibly multiple thousands, his lifespan was cut down to a human one.

It also severely weakens you when it’s done and also you slowly start to loose your humanity seeing as you’re soulless and all. So they throw this weak soulless guy (and his sister who they did the same thing to for assisting him) out into the forest obviously to die and cease existence.

Considering they could have just executed them all moved on it’s a punishment just dripping with unnecessary cruelty. Why just kill him when we could obliterate him, why give him a quick death when it could be drawn out over days of starvation and terror in the monster filled woods, and if they survive that they will die slowly as all feelings drain from their soulless husks, Jon actively laments this, he has tried to hold on to feeling emotions like love for as long as he could but he has no soul so there’s nothing he could do. Are we meant to root for the elven city here? Just kill them normally if you must.

But Jon has that dog in him and spends the remainder of his shortened lifespan trying to get himself and his sister their souls back or a new soul or something and no longer bound by ethics or emotion his process is evil as all hell. But once he gets a soul (from the protagonist, he’s finished) but also consider that the same soul removal cuts the protagonists lifespan to mere days if that, just to put the punishment on a human scale. First thing he does is teleport back in the elven city and decide to actually drain the tree and kill everyone this time and they kind of deserve it.

Honestly the scene that started this rant was the elf queen (his ex lover) seeing him, she said “you could have worked your way back into the city instead of this” bullshit, they erased his emotions, cut his lifespan to what is the equivalent of days, weakened him and then threw him into a monster infested forest in exile and you want to gaslight us the player into thinking that “oh Jon just could have tried really hard and gotten back in” you gave that guy a worse than death sentence and wanted him to suffer while it happened but now he’s in a position to harm them they pull a “you could have tried to come back” fucking knife ears, I hate these guys.

Anyway post punishment Jon was completely valid in taking his revenge against the city and probably the pantheon afterwards

I never realized HOW bad it was until someone pointed it out in detail.

Here's a list of ALL the fakeout deaths we;ve gotten from 1997/98-2024:

1. Kaya's butler- brutally sliced up by Kuro, he's okay later, some how

2. Ussop- "stabbed" by Nami in Arlong park, takes 2 chapters for it to be revealed that Ussop is alive and that Nami stabbed her own hand

3. Gin- inhaled deadly poison gas, revealed to be alive during Vega punks long ass speech (20 years later)

4. Igaram- clearly killed in whiskey peak, he comes back later unscathed, Is he immortal?

5. Pell- center of nuclear blast, survives with just crutches, Clearly he's immortal

6. All of the people fried by Eneru- they just kind of walked it off, Like it's no problem

7. Conis dad - sacrifices himself to save his daughter, blasted directly with lightning, survives inexplicably

8. Bellamy - seemingly killed by doflamingo, confirmed alive much later in the story

9. Dr Hogback- stepped on/squished by a rampaging Oz, but is later seen escaping on a boat

10. Shelly- long horse the crew met on Long ring long land, Shot by Foxy, comes out of it fine

11. Franky family - entire franky family declared dead by marines, turns out they were just wrong, typical marines

12. Lacuba- Slave pirate that bites off his tongue in the auction house, choosing death rather than becoming a slave, he collapse and you assume he's dead, but Na he just fine later on

13. Bon clay- stays behind to save luffy, Magellan is clearly about to kill him before it cuts away, somehow survives, and now rules the hidden level in impel down, good for him what a goat

14. Pound - seemingly sliced by Oven, survives

15. Vander Decken - impaled by hody jones with a trident, i don't even remember how he survived this honestly, probably some BS

16. Sabo - got headshot by a world noble and left to drownd, If only he had stayed dead, It would have been peak

17. Law - arm sliced off, beaten, a clip of bullets unloaded onto him, Doflamingo even says he's dead but Na he survived somehow and quickly recovers

18. Doflamingo - decapitated by kyros, only for it to be a string copy

19. Old Man Hyogoro (anime only) - super punched by big mom, goes limp in luffy's arms, luffy is filled with regret and sadness, turns out hyogoro was just pretending or something who knows?

20. Gecko Moria - Doflamingo attacks moria during marineford with heavy hinting that he has intent to kill, especially his line (paraphrasing) "I'll tell them you died a warrior's death..." However, Doflamingo later states that Moria escaped, which is confirmed to have been Absalom's doing

21. Gas victims - the poison gas is explained to freeze people in place so that they cannot escape and are forced to breathe the gas and die, many marine soldiers are stuck like this left to suffocate in the poison gas. after they get rid of the gas, they just break the soldiers out of their casings and they are fine.

22. Mocha- she sacrifices herself by swallowing all the poison Candy, only to be completely fine in the end

23. Brownbeard - shot point blank in the face by a shotgun-wielding gigantic yeti and survives

24. One of big mom's sons - entire lifespan retracted, falls over. somehow fine days later which just completely defies any logic, Like wtf

25. Pekoms - filled with bullets, falls into shark infested waters, apparently he was saved

26. Jack - fell into the sea as a devil fruit user, devil fruit users can't swim, later it says he is actually a fish man so he just breathed through his gills and i guess somebody went to save him

27. Spandam- Robin cracks his spine, He reappears completely okay later in the story

28. Wyper - Reject dial is a dial that releases a massive amount of energy at the cost of the user. Most people cannot withstand its power Wyper uses it 3 times and just has to wear bandages on his arm

29. Babanuki- A shell containing 200 concentrated doses of the deadly mummy virus explodes inside of his body, He's completely fine a while after

30. Kanjuro- Defeated by the Scabbards, left in a pool of blood, and one of them places his hat on Kanjuro's body, He returns later to harass the Scabbards

31. Kinemon- Takes Two lethal blows and a chapter or two later he's running around making fart jokes, peak Oda writing

32. Orochi- Decapitated by Kaido, Returns later, head reattached, Another immortal

33. Saul- hit with Ice Time as a final attack by kuzan, left frozen on an island that was getting bombarded to the point that the whole island was on fire, somehow survives

Bitch that's over 30 fakeout deaths. And the hypocritical part of all this is, that people will clown on Hiro Mashima for all the fakeout deaths he made in fairy tail on top of the other poor writing decisions......

.....

And yet when Oda does it, everyone drops to the floor an worships the man like the messiah and drools for the OPPORTUNITY to lick his forskin????????

You can't call out fairy tail's bad writing and then act like One Piece's bad writing doesnt fucking exist. At least when Hiro Mashima does a fakeout death its still bad but its not overdone (its been years since i've read fairy tail so lemme know how many fakeout deaths there are in totality), plus when Hiro Mashima WANTS and ACTUALLY kills off a character you know without a shadow of a doubt that they are D.E.A.D

When Oda kills a character there's a monkeys paw involved: They're either gonna be brought back, or they're dead but you've seen so many fakeout deaths you don't care anymore.

When someone says One Piece has no stakes, this is exactly what they mean. Hell Blue Dragon had more fucking stakes and only did a fakeout death ONCE and ONLY once, and yet when someone dies in that series you know they're gone for good and you have gasp EMOTION OVER THEIR DEATHS!!

Bitch Bo-Bobo-bobo-bo-bo has more fucking stakes than one piece and that series is literally drinkable meth

I don't care if a OP character dies unless Oda himself 10000% confirms it, and even then its not a good feeling when the bar is so low that you need the creator to flatout SAY that the character is dead, and EVEN then there's a chance that he'll change his fucking mind!

Pedro is STILL alive, mark my words in a SBS he'll MIA but JUSSSSTTTTT fine.

The fakeout deaths cheapen and ruin One Piece as whole due to all the negative consequences that comes with them

Obviously I'm in the minority here, but damn it feels like if I tell people this, it's hard to get a decent and civil discussion with anyone.

Before I go any further, I know part of the reputation, and in this post allow me to share my own perspective.

I personally don't indulge in putting down any DC films that doesn't involve Snyder, I just don't watch it, that's it, I don't even encourage boycotts and all that bs. I just enjoy his films for what it is, heck in that Zack Snyder reddit that everyone seems to hate, I made a post of how Snyder shouldn't be doing everything in the film, from directing, producing and writing, and storyboarding, which is probably what lead rebel moon to become as disjointed as it was, and believe or not, majority of people there agreed.

I also don't appreciate that being a Snyder fan automatically means being looked at like some sort of cult, like first of all, no one is coercing anyone to become a Snyder fan, nor are we forced to give up our belongings, or forced to donate to suicide prevention.

As far as the ultra defensive nature of the fandom, I mean I look at it like this; I said I wasn't the biggest fan of rebel moon and wished he didn't do borderline everything, which I think is a fair critique, but you see a lot of videos saying this man should stop making films, like who do you think you are to tell another man what to do? Remind you, some of these guys already hate him prior to rebel moon, so if they hate a director this much, why you still making videos of his movies? It just doesn't seem good for their mental health, and it doesn't seem likethere is no constructive criticism to go by.

Notice that I don't talk about the review for his DC movies and largely just about rebel moon, which I didn't like that much, is because it's discussed enough (woo, superman breaking neck again), and there is enough bitching as it is in the post.

Why this post, why here? Well, I think it's good to see other people's perspective on things, and the other reason, you know how the Snyder cut mods are.

That's all for this post, I kept this as civil as I can, and I have to get things off my chest. What are your thoughts?

The essence of Itachi’s character is to highlight that the Shinobi system is inherently flawed and unsustainable, a system that Naruto—the child of prophecy—is destined to change. By portraying Itachi as the “perfect Shinobi,” his story exposes the hypocrisy of a system that forces individuals to sacrifice their morals for duty. Hashirama and Hiruzen’s praise of Itachi as a “greater Shinobi” with a Hokage mindset emphasizes this critique. The contradictions of the Leaf Village further illustrate this broken system: enslaved Hyuga clan members, children risking their lives in the Chunin Exams, Danzo’s dark dealings within the Foundation, Kakashi’s father being disgraced for choosing comrades over mission success, and Itachi’s descent into criminality to protect the village. These elements connect to Madara and Obito’s argument for the Infinite Tsukuyomi as an escape from this flawed world.

While Itachi’s loyalty to the village was significant, his love for Sasuke always came first. If Sasuke’s life had been directly threatened, Itachi would have abandoned his duty to Konoha without hesitation. His ultimate goal was not just to protect Konoha but to ensure Sasuke’s survival and future, even at the cost of his own life and reputation. Itachi’s struggle was made even harder by his natural kindness and sensitivity as a child, which clashed painfully with the Shinobi system’s brutal expectations.

Itachi’s bond with Shisui, one of the few meaningful connections in his life, also shaped his ideals. Shisui’s selflessness and sacrifice for peace deeply influenced Itachi, and his death became a turning point, reinforcing Itachi’s belief that personal sacrifice was necessary to protect the greater good. However, this belief led him to make tragic mistakes in how he treated Sasuke. By prioritizing Sasuke’s strength as a Shinobi over his emotional wellbeing, Itachi manipulated his brother into hating him, believing that hatred, the key to a strong Sharingan, would make Sasuke strong enough to kill him and restore honor to their fallen clan. Itachi envisioned Sasuke becoming the “hero” who defeated the traitor, Uchiha Itachi.

Itachi’s actions, though noble in intent, had unintended consequences, pushing Sasuke further into darkness and perpetuating the cycle of hatred. His life reflects the tragic irony of a man whose sacrifices for peace inadvertently caused more pain. Torn between light and darkness, clan and village, humanity and duty, Itachi’s struggles embody the Uchiha clan’s duality and the flaws of the Shinobi world.

In the end, Itachi finally understood the cost of his beliefs and entrusted Naruto with the task of changing the broken Shinobi system. His faith in Naruto and Sasuke symbolizes his hope that the next generation could break free from the cycle of hatred. Sasuke later honors Itachi’s memory by vowing to create a world free from the suffering that destroyed their family.

On the surface level, it might seem like the author favors Itachi a lot by having other characters praise him, even his biggest victim, Sasuke calls him "perfect", and that annoyed me for a long time. However, if you think more about the revolution that Sasuke pulled out in the end, it makes perfect sense. It's been shown multiple times in the series how kid Sasuke idolized his brother. Sasuke calling Itachi “perfect” despite the trauma he caused reflects his deep admiration and love for his brother, which persisted even after learning the truth. While Itachi called himself a failure, Sasuke continued to idolize him, seeing him as the epitome of strength and selflessness. This reverence drove Sasuke to take Itachi’s ideology of sacrifice to an extreme during his revolution, seeking to reshape the Shinobi world by bearing all hatred himself. Sasuke misunderstood Itachi’s true intentions, amplifying his methods and ideals despite Itachi’s own regrets, showing how deeply his brother’s legacy shaped him.

It's also worth noting that not only did Kishimoto wrote Itachi embodies both hero/villain traits (good intentions, bad choices), but there are tons of dualities in character's personality as well: Arrogant Yet Humble (Exudes confidence and superiority in battle, yet sacrifices his reputation and never seeks recognition), Genius Yet Stupid (A tactical prodigy, yet blind to the emotional consequences of his actions, especially with Sasuke), Calm Yet Hides a Storm Inside (Always composed outwardly, but carries immense guilt, grief, and inner turmoil), Selfless Yet Selfish (Sacrifices everything for others, but imposes his vision on Sasuke, disregarding his brother’s autonomy), Idealistic Yet Cynical (Dreams of peace and a better world, yet accepts violence and sacrifice as necessary evils.).

By indirectly calling out Itachi’s bad actions through the consequences and using other characters to highlight his good intentions, Kishimoto created a nuanced portrayal. Which might mislead some readers and many might not see the real essence of the character. I personally wish Itachi’s actions could be called out alongside with the story so its more clear that those actions are wrong but I appreciate this writing too. Fans and haters often focus on just one side of this duality, leading to both admiration and hatred for the character.

Kishimoto was undeniably ambitious with Itachi’s character, layering him with extreme moral complexity. The Uchiha massacre alone was enough to showcase Itachi’s duality as both a hero and villain, critiquing the flawed Shinobi system and portraying his tragic sacrifice. However, adding the "bad brother" angle—his manipulation of Sasuke—made him even more morally ambiguous, reinforcing the idea that even love can be flawed and destructive in a broken world. While this ambition risks overcomplicating his character (and it did drive me crazy), it also deepens the story by making Itachi’s relationship with Sasuke the emotional core of the series, driving Sasuke’s arc to its fullest. For some, this ambition feels overwhelming, but for others, it’s what makes Itachi an enduring, multi-dimensional character.

DISCLAIMER: My intent in this post was to explore how Kishi portrayed this character, since for a long time I thought the character was retconned. I do not ask for any sympathy for the character nor try to justify character’s actions, I personally think a crime is still a crime no matter what reasonings are, his crimes are unforgivable and Itachi character also didn’t deny or try to ask for mercy.

Hi, I'm the person who said that Magic users are the most overpowered in Superhero settings for a number of reasons (Crowd Control, Plotbooks that give them asspull abilities, the fact that no one resists them but other magic users).

For the longest time, if you asked me to make a list of the most op powersets it would go something like:

1. Magic Spellcasters

2. Psychics (they have similar problems as spellcasters imo)

3. The highest end of Super Durability

4. Everyone else

Notice how there's a lot who don't make the list (Speedsters are overrated as heck in my opinion, and in the shows I watched I would only rate them like a A or even B tier in terms of power). Most importantly, "martial artist" would not be anywhere near top tier.... but that was before rewatching these shows when I realized how wrong I was. Martial artist are overpowered.

1. They have superpowers

You know it, I know it, we all know it: the so called "powerless heros" have superhuman strength, speed, and durability. Is it on the same level as Flying bricks? No, but they have just enough to outclass every single normal human on the Planet (Example: 03 Robin and the steroids he takes).

I'd like to take a moment to acknowledge that their stealth is actually the most superhuman thing about them: what do you mean Batman can dissappear from view while wearing a giant black bat costume in a well lit white room? What do you mean guards can't see them sneaking around them in well lit rooms as they wear all black??

2. Jack of all asspulls

I always thought magic users were the most versatile superheros, and they still are, but Martial Artists are the second most versatile in ridiculous ways.

Firstly, they know every martial art technique known to man and can perfectly execute them every single time like starting and stoping a heartbeat is easy! Why do all of them know how to do that, were they all taught by the same Chinese philosipher? well knowing Batman characters they were but thats besides the point

Secondly, those gadgets they have in infinite amounts brooo. Why do they all have those balls that explode a sticky liquid that instantly becomes hard? And why dafaq are those balls able to work on everything??? And this isn't even touching on all the asspull ass gadgets they literally pull from their ass like smoke bombs, fire bombs, explosives, freeze bombs, sleep-gas bombs, and more????

Plotbelts have got to be even better than Plotbooks!

My new list for most overpowered characters in Superhero settings:

1. Magic Spellcasters

2. Knock-offmen and Rip-offs

3. Psychics (I should talk about this sometime)

4. Everyone else

This is about the 2017 run of Marvel's "Runaways" comic, btw.

Anyway, here's a quick explanation if you haven't read The Runaways (which is most people ig). A group of teens find their parents sacrificing homeless kids to a trio of old gods in return for sparing their children when they eventually get around to consuming all of humanity.

due to this, they ran away, hence the name. All you need to know for this post is;

1. that Alex betrays the main group, "borrows" their power and tries to solo the old gods to save his parents and gets fucking obliterated off the face of the earth, I mean it's the definition of 0 diff the old gods didn't even move iirc.

2. They didn't ever actually beat these guys, they just transported them to a different point in time Alduin-style and called it a day.

Anyway, imagine being Alex sent straight to hell where he finds the children of the old gods finds out that their parents were displaced in time and also hears their plan to just pick up where their parents left off. So he hatches a few plans to crawl out of the pits of hell, he does it a couple of times but always with strings attached. when he escapes with 0 strings attached he runs over to his old group to warn them that those guys are back. They don't believe him at first which is completely fair he did do the whole betrayal thing (twice if you count that other time but he didn't have a choice and tried to help as much as he could get away with ) but once they appear like 10 mins later and once everything he says that you think is a lie keeps happening you gotta like back it up for a min and entertain the idea that not everything this guy says is bullshit

also just keeping it a buck, when alex betrayed them he never lied to their faces he just didn't tell them things, what they should be worried about is never him just lying but him leaving something out they may need to know. I digress

they eventually go through all their options and realise that they are kinda cooked because the old method they used years ago isn't working anymore because the time machine is gone. now here is the meat of the post, the child old gods left the youngest (and weakest) among them to keep watch of the group so they don't run away and tell the Avengers or something Alex finds a ritual in which they can kill this guy and drain his powers to become strong enough to fight the others off, the only problem is that over the past week or so the rest of the gang has become friendly with their jailor and so they are loathe to sacrifice him.

Are you fucking kidding me, keep in mind this is the fate of the world in your hands, 1 evil and very much unsustainable life (the old ones are sustained by eating souls) to save everyone else on earth and beyond but doing that is out of the question because you fucking hung tinsel on its horns?? also keep in mind that they don't have any other plan but the one Alex has proposed. Is there an element of mistrust? of course, but its a magic spell that he showed to all of them when the plan was proposed and the main girl of the runaways also just happens to be a professor at Dr. Strange's academy so Nico should by all means be able to tell what the spell does and is for. The plan is entirely sound, the chances of betrayal are slim to none and the only counterargument is that they kinda like their executioner now? and that is weighed heavier than the fate of the entire world and its inhabitants?

anyway in the end they power of friendship the youngest old one to join their side and then still basically almost lose but plot armour is strong

Alex Wilder fits the same kinda vibe Constantine did during the early Hellraiser comicsjudge him morally off that description alone but his plans are pragmatic and realistic

This is just how I reacted to watching the show. I don't know if it gets better later. The first arc ends with them defeating Turbo Granny, getting Okarun's package back, and a promise that they'll still be friends tomorrow. All plot threads that currently existed were wrapped up. I thought that was really weird. This show just started, man! It feels way too early to be acting so conclusive!

Then in the next episode, it was like I could feel the author panicking that he accidentally wrote himself into a corner when it comes to continuing the story. So he reaches for some stuff that I feel like a lame sequel would do. He, uh, he got the twig back... but the berries are still missing! And he somehow didn't notice! Which is incomprehensible, of course. Also, Turbo Granny survived somehow! And now she's a snarky animal sidekick! And Okarun gets to keep the cool transformation!

This is a very awkward way to get things started to me, but I can forgive it if this is just to establish the premise for the story. But they don't seem to have an overall goal to strive for, they just live their lives and encountering ghosts and aliens is just part of that now. They have the goal of getting the rest of Okarun's bits back, but it doesn't really seem like that big a deal to me? The first arc was the only time when they had a thing they really needed to get done, and ever since they've just been reacting to stuff that happens, and dealing with new characters that appear as an added source of drama. Getting his bits back doesn't seem like a huge huge deal, it's just a thing they ought to get around to doing sometime soon.

And then we straight up had a "Buh, buh, I can explain!" (does not explain). An incredibly cheap source of drama you would expect from a terrible rom com.

This all gives me the feeling of a story that was over right after it began, and we've just been in sequel land ever since, just trying to find things for these characters to do. Which makes me a bit sad. The animation is gorgeous, it clearly has a budget and is using it well, the music is great and I do find the characters endearing.

Is this just me thinking about this show wrong? Am I coming at it with different cultural expectations that it isn't designed for? I think I'm realizing that a lot of anime/manga will just pick a status quo and stick to it because that's what the central concept of the story is to the japanese audience. Meanwhile, I'm expecting the status quo to change because that's what a western show would do. I think I was just mentally categorizing Dandadan in the wrong genre. Like, I would be stupid to watch Ranma 1/2 and expect any sort of status quo changes, right?

I’ve seen stories that have characters that the story and fans will describe as beyond good and evil like Galactus or Unicron. They’ll talk about how human morals couldn’t even approach their ways of living or thinking and I look at them and they just don’t care. They don’t have a mode of thinking that beyond human understanding. They just don’t care about human lives or are too enraptured with other things than people. No idea where this whole “beyond good and evil” stuff came from. Like if I were a giant, and I stepped on someone and didn’t care about the person I stepped on, that would still make me an asshole.

Just to get this out of the way, I think David Corenswet was a perfect pick for the man of steel. He totally embodies both sides of Clark and Superman. Nicholas Hoult is also a solid actor, so I can’t wait to see what he does with Lex. I know it’ll be better than whatever Eisenberg did. Ultimately, I’m genuinely excited to see where Gunn takes Superman and the DCU going forward. It’s obvious he’s calling back to the classic Chris Reeve films while it’s still being modern in its own way.

With his costume, I don’t mind it, except for one glaring feature: the S symbol. It just looks like a line now and it doesn’t feel like the definitive S that we all know and immediately recognize. Even with the modified S symbol in man of steel and the new 52, it still felt like the proper icon.

When it comes to other characters coming in (Guy Gardner GL, Hawkgirl, Metamorpho, Mr. Terrific) I fear the same mistake with the DCEU might be made: introducing too many characters just to set up their own movies/shows. When those characters take the screen (e.g. Wonder woman in BvS) it takes away from what the main character(s) is going through.

While I respect the fact that Superman’s origin story won’t be shown, I wouldn’t mind flashbacks shown to what Krypton was in this continuity. One thing I liked about Man of Steel was that Krypton felt like something out of Avatar’s Pandora. I’m hoping whatever Krypton footage is shown not only gives us a better idea of the planet, but also fleshes out more of Superman’s past.

This segways into my next topic: Antagonists. In the new trailer, we see Clark fighting someone in a black uniform, but, as a comic nerd myself, I don’t recognize him. Since Lex is in the movie, I believe he might be the main villain and the guy in black is his underling (probably the one who beat him up in the start of the trailer). I’d be okay with that at the end of the day. Just don’t bring back Zod or Doomsday. They’ve been used enough.

However, my personal antagonist preference would be Brainiac, a villain long overdue to be in a live action Superman movie. If Brainiac were the main antagonist, he would definitely be not only a planetary threat, but also bring a forced connection between Superman’s home and his heritage since Brainiac is sometimes said to have played a hand in Krypton’s destruction. If a sequel gets green lit by Gunn, I’m hoping he puts in Brainiac as the main villain.

Finally, something not everyone is talking about is that there’s no title card at the end of the trailer like there is for all other trailers. That just really confused me and ground my gears a little.

Ultimately, I’m excited to see where this movie goes even if I have mixed feelings about it. I’ll give this a shot, and if it does well, I’ll eventually get used to a lot of what I said before. Right now, my fingers are crossed for the movie to be the start of something great and something better than what came before.