Another example that comes to mind is that **Jojo's Bizarre Adventure is way more gory than people seen to realize**.
That is a series where people will **throw up razor blades**, **have a artery pulled from their neck and played with**, **literaly start melting** and **have their body deformed in incredibly graphic ways**; a aspect that somehow is not really known by most people that don't directly consume the franchise even though it's a prominent part of most episodes of the anime/chapters of the manga (even more so if you're watching the uncensored version of the anime).
Double so if the thing that did it takes it out and it sends you INTO A WATER TOWER AT 100MPH WITH THE FORCE OF BEING ABLE TO BREAK THE TOWER.
If kakyoin MAY have been able to survive the donut if dios aimed the punch badly. But the impact on his body from the tower sold his fate big time.
Also KC, when he grabs hold of Sticky finga's arm and Bucciarati panics that his arm is going to get ripped off. I just looked over the scene right now and he actually *bends* it backwards against a square pillar, youch.
KC always seemed like a freakishly strong stand to me even if nothing it really does is that impressive brute strength-wise.
It wasnt until i saw like The Boys or Mortal Kombat that i realized a lot of the deaths in Jojo are really just fatalities hidden behind an anime aesthetic.
Hell, even a lot of the **non-fatal injuries** are practically fatalities, such as [Mariah getting every single one of her bones crushed into dust](https://youtu.be/7YK_ymU26N0?t=44s) or [Okuyasu having his guts suddenly explode out of his stomach because he ate some *really good* lamb with apple sauce](https://youtu.be/HucOpykaoRw?t=1m16s)
What really sold me on how powerful Dio was as a vampire was in part 1 where (I may have the details fuzzy) he just basically *scrapes* the top half of a guy's head off.
IIRC, during the part 1 too, he punched someone so hard they exploded. But here's the thing, the force turned their body into a *frag grenade* and the shards of bone from him injured/killed the people behind him.
JoJo’s also has a lot of horror elements too. From Dio’s human experiments to his flesh buds, to Enya’s ghost village, to Death 13, to Enigma and so on. It can definitely border on horror at times in its presentation.
Much worse, and this was weirdly enough something I was thinking of earlier, there are certain characters that stand out based on just how depraved they are. Most of the people you come across are just the main villains or people who are murder for hire, but then you also have J. Geil and Angelo who are on another level in terms of depravity. Violence is a given but it’s rare that sexual assault even occurs but it is there in the story.
I guess from first impressions no one expects a series so fabulous to hit you with the real legit Stephen King shit. But the horror influence is definitely one of the secret spices that makes Jojo so Jojo.
Even after watching the series and reading a couple of the parts, I tend to forget how gory it is. My brain only remembers the goofy adventures with da boyz and not that time someone melted a good chunk of the population of Rome. Or that time Araki made us watch a guy's dental implants rot out of his gums.
I remember reading a small little essay sort of thing about how AJ Phoenix isn't really out of character. He's ALWAYS been weirdly tight-lipped about himself and a bit of a shit-talker, it's just he's also often very concerned about how others view him, so he comes across a bit bumbling. In AJ, he just doesn't care about that last part as much, so he's suddenly this sort of sly mastermind type. When he's back to being a lawyer in DD, he's a lot more "right, gotta be a respectable lawyer" again, so the bumbling comes back. Plus, access to his inner monologue makes it clear he's pretty much ALWAYS got the same kinds of thoughts going on. The few times Phoenix is around and not being controlled by the player, he suddenly seems a lot more straightforwardly competent and respectable.
I like that interpretation a lot, actually. Hobo Phoenix is just the person he would be if everyone else heard the same internal monologues we heard while playing as him. And it's only when we see him talking and acting without getting to hear all the self-effacing things he's thinking that we see how much he is not fucking around when it comes to being a lawyer.
Shout out to the one time you have to face him as Apollo and he's just the absolute most straightforward opponent in the entire series. No fancy gimmicks or intimidation or fucking around and being silly, he's just "oh, hey, that's wrong actually" and suddenly you're on the backfoot.
I like the idea of a character being bumbling not because they don't know what they're doing, but because they know what they're doing so well that they intentionally have to hold themselves back.
It's not QUITE that, he is genuinely bumbling in his own way, but Phoenix's process is basically extremely tangent-driven and made up as it goes along before coming to the truth. Him keeping that process largely hidden means he can seem like a cool mastermind. Having to show it off in court means he seems like a dumbass.
The beauty of Phoenix is that he can, about the same case, both confidently declare that he can get a non-guilty despite a confession under oath *and* deliver the actual narration mid-argument "I was just talking off the top of my head, but what if that's really what happened?"
Tomie first stories has really good black comedy bit, like the students asking each other where they are gonna hide their piece of Tomie's body like it was a school assignment.
A lot of his work can border on straight up silly. I think something like the ending of the slow zombie story was definitely supposed to be intentionally funny, but then you also have the chapter from Uzumaki with hair battles which was just hilarious to me.
uzumaki went mini-shonen for a few chapters with those wind-riding kids. Personally I felt it was a low point for the story, but a lot of those mid-chapters are way out there.
Yeah, gotta say I agree that Uzumaki kind of falls off at a certain point after such a powerful introduction. Still gotta give Ito credit for his creativity though in centering his stories around random spirals. I think even if I brainstormed for a day I would still miss a lot of the motifs he uses in his chapters despite how wild the writing may be.
That’s exactly what I did lmao
I’m looking at a list of the chapters now and some of them I just don’t recall reading at all and I only read it like last year.
I get lots of people found Uzumaki horrifying, but I found it utterly hilarious with how over the top all the horror was. It was like looking at an old cheesy horror flick.
The snails, the wind riding gangs, the womb unbirthing babies, the giant house spiral -- all of it added up to become so in-your-face that it became impossible to take seriously.
Since most people's knowledge of Shirou Emiya comes from the anime and movies and the fact that the Fate route still hasn't been adapted (2006 one aside cuz cmon) people don't know how actually snarky the guy is. That is because most of that snark is inner dialogue which is very hard to adapt in a way that makes sense. Also just how fucked up the guy actually is seems to not be explored as much but I will admit it's been a while since I watched
In Blazblue, I wonder how people know that Jin got over his murderboner with Ragna by the end of the 2nd game (out of 4). It probably doesn't help that gag reels and Cross Tag has him retain it.
Shirou Emiya would be a prominent one. All of the internet memes that have been circulating around him since the 2006 adaptation never portrayed him as a particularly…intelligent character.
With the VN finally getting a proper (*well, let’s see how well translated it turns out to be if it isn’t just somehow an outright copy and paste of the English patch that has been around for over a decades time*) English release, it’ll be interesting to see if that does anything to change the perception of the character.
It certainly changes a lot when you look at Muramasa, Archer or Nameless and realise that they're literally just Shirou's internal monologue externalised more.
Shirou can be one hell of a shit-talker in his mind. He just doesn't say it out loud.
For as much as it's memed about, the FMA dog chimera scene isn't even the saddest scene in that general part of the series. Hughes' death is a far more notable moment in the series and it affects several characters for effectively the rest of the story. Comparatively, Tucker and what he did to his daughter and dog was more or less a one episode ordeal that basically shows the dark side of alchemy and it's research (the 2003 anime gives more time with Tucker prior, but the end result is the same).
Imho the dog chimera isn't memed cause it's sad (it is don't get me wrong) it's memed cause it's absolutely fucked up and unexpected- from the moment we meet Tucker and his daughter we are led to belive that he puts her over everything to then learn that actually no, he's willing to do horrible thing to Nina if it means that he'll be remembered as great scientist and that government would sponsore his reasearch into chimeras.
I also saw it as more of an “oh this shit is pulling NO PUNCHES” moment. From what I remember from reading the manga like 16 years ago, up to that point it had been a wacky battle shonen with the odd well-written heavy bits. Introducing a six year old and doggo just long enough to steal your heart before their own father/owner turns them into an affront to nature that has to be put down definitely took things to another level for me.
Helps that the Warframe community is incredibly tight lipped about spoilers, or at least was when I played. Maybe that changed with the new start, I dunno, but people would actively lie and gaslight newer players if they got seen using spoiler abilities.
>!No no, that anime OC child you saw walking around my stationary frame? That’s just a skin for an ability my Warframe has. Right guys?!<
>!second dream is an open secret at this point, it’s very very hard for new players to not notice players popping into operator to set up buffs/move about but yeah the overall plot is kept very hush hush still!<
* It used to be more the case that a lot of people who only consumed DBZ without seeing original DB or were familiarized with Goku through the English dub would just think of Goku's personality as "anime Superman" as opposed to a bumpkin with a fighting addiction and a hick accent. This is less the case recently (and IMO Super went too hard in course correcting this in a way I didn't like).
* Yu-Gi-Oh wasn't always about the Duel Monsters card game.
People joke about Goku's grandma voice in Japanese, but there's a legitimate reason that they kept the original VA between Dragon Ball and DBZ. Goku's personality doesn't change. He's the same childish character throughout the story. He just gets bigger.
Also, didn't Master Roshi use straight up smut books/magazines to give Goku and Krillin a basic education in the OG Dragon Ball? If there are two characters that definetly should know what sex is, it's those two.
Trunks feeds Mai with a Senzu Bean with his mouth. Goku is shocked by this. Vegeta points out that Goku is married. Goku asks what that has to do with anything.
Basically neither of them use the word kiss, so they're both talking about different things and both of them are confused. It seems like Vegeta is referring to the kiss and Goku is referring to the way Trunks feeds her the Senzu Bean. But because neither of them spell out what they're talking about it's not a super clear gag. Especially in English since the dialog is somewhat awkward to make the joke work.
Except the fact, that in the manga they totally [used word kiss](https://ibb.co/MCWMtpP), even in [japanese](https://64.media.tumblr.com/2745228a47d27b22f3ce039684ec7d24/tumblr_inline_oh4921cJio1rppg4r_540.jpg). And because of that i kinda doubt that in anime it was different joke.
Even in that panel, it could be interpreted that Goku thinks Vegeta is asking him, "You've never kissed a Senzu bean into someone's mouth?" and then getting further confused when he brings up marriage because it would never occur to him to give Chi-Chi a Senzu like that.
I'm sorry, but i find this interpretation to be... a ***very*** big stretch. If the joke really was about misunderstanding, they could use more ambiguous phrasing from the anime, where i could at least *somewhat* see that, but wording in the manga is clearly about Goku never kissing.
[Shrug] Maybe. Not gonna lie and say that couldn't have been the intent. Though, I think it's a bigger stretch that Goku doesn't know what a kiss is after 20 years of marriage and two kids.
The movies came out before the manga but the anime came out after and they remade those two movies into arcs
They came out very close to each other though
Yu gi oh also really dark manga before we getting to card game stuff - often betting on people life - dude practically calculated a plan to set a guy on fire to beat him in one of his “game” IIRC!
Even as someone who didn't watch the original DB first I never really got anime Superman vibes. Besides maybe a few moments he doesn't give off that feeling at all really
I only connected the two really due to their respective popularity. Both are household names in comics
>Yu-Gi-Oh wasn't always about the Duel Monsters card game.
I mean manga has only two arcs fully about it :D Last arc is for example tabletop RPG that anime really badly adopted( full arc is badly adopted ). We can make full essay about all changes( I'm still salty that Death T arc never got good adaptation )and suprises that anyone will get if they go and read manga. From gore stuff like what happened with Malik's father to more interesting things like how first solid vision looked( it was a cube that made hollograms and people just played inside it with normal table set up and it had a kill switch because Kaiba ) to funny ones like yes as a fan of manga I have to mention that Yugi did watch and liked hentai :D
To be honest anime as well has that if you only watched 4kids version, finding out why season 3 of GX got called NGE of card anime or how prevelent is suicide and death in 5DS will get some fans suprised.
One thing about Phoenix is that he’s an *internalized* shit talker. He very rarely will actually verbalize his shit talk out loud, which unfortunately makes him seem less interesting whenever you see him in media where you can’t hear his thoughts.
Peter Parker's arrogance, impulsiveness and harsh side when he was young. And his journey to being a hero was rather long, he doesn't become complete hero right after Uncel Ben's death.
For example in 5th issue Peter is genuinely happy that Doom kidnapped Flash, but eventually saved him of course. Like in 3rd issue he thinks "being Spider-Man is too easy. I almost wish for worthy opponent". Then he gets beaten by Otto and is immediately "I guess, that's the end of Spider-Man", gives up and finds the strength within only after Johny Storm gives motivational speech in his school. Or when he ruins Johnny just because he's jealous.
You can add to this the importance of Uncle Ben. Ben dosen't get mentioned very much in the early issues at all with Peter having The Avengers and The Fantastic Four as his role models.
To be honest I've seen more of the opposite effect now. Like when Kamala Khan made a joke about Peter being broke (which he is) people got upset said "80s Peter would have wrecked her" like Peter should still be as mad. Most "angry peter" momets are followed by a panel of Peter going "man that was messed up for me to be angry"
One Piece powerscalers have overrun the fanbase so hard you'd have no idea that it's actually one of the best political stories ever written.
Like it covers just about every political issue in the book and yet never feels annoying because Oda actually remembered to make his characters characters and not mouthpieces.
Always remember that the strongest character at any time barring the secret shadow government isnt the pirate emperors, or the Marine Admirals. Its Big News Morgan
I mean, it's a very bare-bones and basic political ideology, but yeah it isn't annoying about it in the sense that it isn't beating you over the head with it. It *is* annoying when you realize it's not saying "the problem is with kings" but instead "the problem is that the *bad people* are kings." It's not a problem in One Piece that one person rules a country, it's just that person should be a kind, young, all-loving ingenue without a bad bone in their body.
Also, combined with how Oda flubbed Hody Jones, basically saying "if you haven't been personally harmed by a bad system you can't go against it," I don't think One Piece has the strongest political imaginary.
In regards to the kings I think that's just a factor of the fantasy setting and that the monarchs are meant to be metaphors for the issues faced in their respective arcs. Because that's what you do in writing you take subjects and condense them into characters and themes that way your not being that annoying asshole barking your political beliefs and expecting everyone to listen to you when you're not respecting their intelligence by spoon feeding them what they're supposed to feel.
As for Hody. I know sometimes themes are pretty deep in but text can be as important as subtext and you've just thrown out the most surface level statement about Hody Jones that I'm actually shocked. You say it like he was fighting for equality. He wasn't! Hody Jones was a radicalised zealot who was fighting for fishman supremacy, not equality. He was killing non-racist humans and using the suffering of others as justification for it, when those who have endured suffering just wanted peace. The fishman island arc is about how at the end of the day racism is never going to be conquered by returning hatred towards others it'll be destroyed by getting to know each other and bonding over what we share. Symbolised perfectly by the blood transfusion between Luffy and Jinbei.
But honestly this video explains it better than I could, I encourage you to check it out: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aj63q307uSY&pp=ygUKaG9keSBqb25lcw%3D%3D](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aj63q307uSY&pp=ygUKaG9keSBqb25lcw%3D%3D)
The monarch as metaphor argument only works if the replacing monarch is also a metaphor, and they really aren't. Like, if we say Crocodile is a metaphor (for what exactly btw? Organized Crime? The Gulf State oil market? Resource extraction? Using power greedily? Honestly these are just things he does, not exactly things he's a metaphor for.), then what does Vivi (or Cobra) represent? Listening to the people? Which, as far as I can recall, is Vivi's only real promise of rule aside from "not actively destroying the country." In the end, Crocodile was a Bad King, and Vivi(/Cobra) is a Good King, and we should have Good Kings and not Bad Kings. [Which is fine, it's okay for a story to be a simple restoration fantasy](https://x.com/headfallsoff/status/1051484419251425280?lang=en). But when basically every One Piece story about Bad Kings is like this (outside of like Drum Island, which does establish a Good King at the end they just don't call him a Good King, and a little bit Wano, where Kaido does represent "might makes right" but is defeated by...someone more mighty. hm.), I don't think it's fair to say that One Piece is one of the "best political stories written."
And often those well-written works of political fiction are pretty explicit. Works like Tehanu, Cat's Cradle, and Animal Farm (hell Animal Farm is pretty explicitly a fable) all basically spell out what they're about. In To Kill A Mockingbird Atticus straight-up sits Scout down on his lap and explains why the people in Maycomb act like they do. The best political fiction is pretty straightforward in its messaging, that's why they're so influential. Works that are more sub textual, like Finnegan's Wake or Fight Club, tend to get their message unheard or misinterpreted. Which makes sense, it's hard to misinterpret Snow Crash's opinion on the police when the police show up in a car that says "1800-THE-COPS, accepts all major credit cards."
I'm aware Hody Jones is a supremacist, I don't think he's right. He's wrong to do what he does and he isn't fighting for equality. He is, however, fighting *against* an unjust system. He's not fighting *for* justice, but he is fighting back against racism. You can do one but not the other. I dislike Hody Jones because he represents the nadir of One Piece's political imaginary, especially pertaining to racism: that racism is an individual action, not a social one. Hody's hate isn't empty. He lives in a system that puts people like him at the bottom as victims of abuse and slavery (and now we know this includes *sexual slavery*). He *was* harmed, he grew up poor and with a fear of the surface. But because no one specific human hurt him, his hate is "empty." It puts the onus on the Fishmen, the *oppressed*, to "be better;" not on the humans, the *oppressors*. It's weak, it's a bad imaginary of racism because that's not how it works, not in the real world and not in One Piece's either. Racism happens because there's a system that puts some people on top and some people on the bottom, and racism is one of the tools the people on top use to keep the people on the bottom at the bottom. An individualistic theory of racism will never be able to stop racism because it can't diagnose racism's root causes.
And that's not to say Oda's not getting better about this: at the Reverie we see that you can't "get to know" your way out of racism and slavery, that you need to use and leverage power (and also violence! Mjosgard is violent against Charlos!) to stop racism. And it's cool that Oda is putting these issues in the biggest young adult comic of the current age (and you're right: the image of Jimbei giving his blood to Luffy is a powerful one; I really like that image and it's parallel to Fisher Tiger but I wish it was attached to an arc with a better understanding of what's happening), but One Piece's political imaginary will always be stuck to Luffy and Luffy only really cares about personal issues, only taking a stand against things affecting his friends. He doesn't stop the slave auction because slavery is bad, he stops the slave auction to save Camie. And that's fine, it's okay that One Piece will only get you to the starting line of a political ideology but I don't think it's fair to position it as some revolutionary political text. Especially when things like HunterxHunter, Delicious in Dungeon, and Beastars exist (again, not to say One Piece *needs* to be like those, just these are works in the same space doing the political stuff (but not all the stuff) better).
A lot of people see the Soulsborne games as the peak of (mainstream) video game difficulty. While most players will point to level design as the “woke” view of the discussion, I actually want to go back to the difficulty because I think there’s a lot to discuss which not even most fans of these games do:
I won’t argue that these games aren’t hard because they definitely are but a lot of people’s takeaway seems to be that it’s based on trial and error and just dodging everything either through godlike reflexes or by plugging yourself into the Matrix. But I think these games are actually a lot more lenient than people give them credit for. If you pay attention to various item descriptions and the environment, you might discover a weakness in enemies like how Revenants crumble to healing or why Gascoigne will melt from fire when he transforms.
But more importantly, you have a ton of options in terms of playstyle and so many ways to make the game easier on yourself. The very fact that you can pick weapons that behave so differently is a huge benefactor in of itself but you can also mix up builds, use items, spells, put on a shield, parry, equip various types of armor with resistances, engage with the upgrade system and even respec in most of these games. Even if you get stuck on a tutorial boss, you can still farm XP for hours on basic enemies. Is that recommended? Hell no, but the point is that it’s *viable* throughout every point of the game but never necessary for most runs.
This is all to say that the most basic and rudimentary mechanics of the game are also the most important in terms of how difficult your experience will be. Even though we all like particular weapon types, magic and fashion which we will rightfully priorities, in a lot of ways, you can choose how hard or easy the game is going to be by just giving yourself the best affordances from the get-go by engaging with various mechanics. I can at least confidently say that’s the case for Elden Ring because I am *not* a god at that game but I’ve (almost) beaten it at RL1 by using almost every build I could think of and “cheesing” every boss.
> a lot of people’s takeaway seems to be that it’s based on trial and error and just dodging everything either through godlike reflexes or by plugging yourself into the Matrix.
To be fair, I hear people say this about any game that requires good timing. I’ve heard separate people make this very comment about fighting games, rhythm games, and pinball.
>While most players will point to level design as the “*woke*” view of the discussion
Huh, that word really has lost **all** meaning by now.
It used to mean "aware of the systemic injustices that black Americans have to endure in their day-to-day life", then it transformed into "tHiS tHiNg CoNtAiNs MiNoRiTiEs, EwWw!", and now you seem to be using it to mean "the most interesting and nuanced way to discuss a topic in the modern day".
I meant it as the “broke” vs. “woke” meme. As in:
“Broke: Thinking the game is all about being hard.”
“Woke: The game has good level design and enemy placement.”
I recently watched The Boys for the first time and it was *way* funnier than anyone talks about
I haven't laughed as hard at anything on television as I did at Deep's dolphin heist in years
Adding onto that, I think from the outside looking in you may have very little idea of how emotionally mature the writing is. It's a show that is very graphic, crass, and vulgar, but it doesn't have the sort of misanthropic attitude that other stories like that tend to employ. The characters all feel very human, their trauma is taken seriously, even when something absurd is happening. The newest episode where Homelander visits where he grew up is a great example of how it can manage to be gorey, funny, crass and tragic all at the same time.
One Piece is a hyper political and anti facist series.
Also people from outside the Fandom criticize the way the female characters are mostly hyper curvy, and think they are just eye candy or window dressing, like how alot of shonnen treats female characters. Without knowing they are probably some of the best written female characters in the shonnen genre.
also, the "all female characters look the same!" meme mostly revolves around three or four characters (Nami, Vivi, Rebecca and a few more) when one piece has a fuckton of female characters with [more design variety than any other shounen I have seen.] (https://www.reddit.com/media?url=https%3A%2F%2Fpreview.redd.it%2Fall-the-women-in-one-piece-look-the-same-the-women-in-one-v0-6g8ji935b9nb1.png%3Fwidth%3D1140%26format%3Dpng%26auto%3Dwebp%26s%3De346429abf077e5955850b83f3420c2169aa2331)
the only thing is that a lot of the actually interesting designs tend to be very minor characters, it feels like the more plot important a female character is the more nami they get
I admit there is a tendency for that but we also have the likes of Big Mom and Ivankov which are definitely important characters so it balances out a little.
Most people who have surface knowledge of the Touhou games, particularly its characters, mostly assume their personalities just by their appearances. Combined with the popularity of the Fumo plushies, for the most part, everyone is portrayed as cute, moe, cuddly critters who sometimes do magic bullets and stuff. There's another side that does dive in a bit more, but they only take flanderized fanon interpretations for the most part too.
Nitori Kawashiro the cute blue-haired shy kappa engineer? She's not shy because she's a shrinking violet who lacks social skills, she avoids the protagonists because she's racist, and she's a hardcore ultra capitalist on top who will maximize profits as much as possible.
Flandre Scarlet the powerful younger vampire Scarlet sister who is trapped in the mansion basement for hundreds of years? Is she just a misunderstood and mistreated little girl and is psycho due to the isolation? No, she's fine staying in the basement, the sun hurts her, and she has everything she needs in the basement and is well-accommodated. She does pretend to be crazy, but so that she can forever stay down there and be well-pampered. She boasts nothing, let alone a door could keep her locked up, she just chooses to stay a stress-free life.
Sakuya Izayoi the cool-ass white-haired maid with DIO's time manipulation powers? Is she an aloof mostly silent badass who's also always elegant? Well, she is mostly elegant, a badass, and backs up her reputation with skills, but she's also a big dorky goof. She doesn't know certain words like "mastermind", doesn't know what space is, accidentally opens the window while they're in a rocket ship, and loves having an excuse to go out and explore the world.
Cirno the funny ice fairy? Is she stupid? Well, actually yeah this one checks out in all interpretations, she is stupid.
There's a lot more to talk about and list down, but yeah the large size of the cast and the large amount of fan-related work really took a life of its own for the series.
Sakuya "Remind me what oxygen is again?" Izayoi. Sakuya "opens a window in a pseudo-rocket flying through space" Izayoi. Sakuya "Weird mushrooms must taste good" Izayoi.
Yup, specifically to get that sweet sweet anus ball/shirikodama. She has also off-handily mentioned inventing something that efficiently extracts it from humans.
Beyond that, while the official works rarely spell it out directly especially with named characters, a large demographic of the youkai population in general needs to eat humans, and to that extent certain species of them can be assumed to have eaten humans in some way.
It's said Yukari Yakumo usually handles these matters to not put harm into the human village by literally just spiriting away humans from our world. She justifies it that the humans she takes are mostly "humans no one would care about such as criminals, or the ones who are already seeking death/suicidal".
It doesn't come off often, but there are always nuggets that pop up every now and then about how dark Gensokyo can be, and despite everyone being humanized as cute girls, they very much still are true to their darker folklore origins.
Yeah, but the amount of named youkai in touhou that we know for a fact eat humans is like, a single hand count. Off hand, I can only remember Rumia, Nitori, Yamame and Yukari. If you wanna count the Scarlet sisters as man-eaters too, but iirc Flan has no part in actually killing them and Remilia was not good at the whole feasting part.
Yeah, the only one that I recall that can be added to that list is Touhou 11's Kisume, the mid-boss of the first stage. She even throws the skeletal remains she has on other humans for fun. Iirc Flan isn't even really aware she's eating humans. Flan just eats what's prepared for her without her own input, which is Sakuya and the maids' job.
It’s very easy to tell what Star Wars fans have and haven’t read any of the legends stuff they talk about. That goes for legends haters and supposed legends fans
One of the biggest things people cite as for why Legends was horrible is Luuke. A evil clone of Luke Skywalker that had a dumb name. Which is a ridiculous concept BUT he’s introduced in one of the most critically well-regarded books in legends, Last Command the final book in the Thrawn trilogy.
The clone is mute and is there in the story as a way to wrap up Mara Jade’s character arc. He’s not even called “Luuke” in-story, that’s the name given so Timothy Zahn’s didn’t have to write “Luke’s clone” twenty million times. So when people act like he’s one of the worst things ever I just roll my eyes
As for Legends “fans”, it is completely ridiculous when they claim continuity was 100% perfect. Sure a lot of writers would make retcons and excuses to fix plothole and things that didn’t match the prequels lore. But even after the prequels, TCW REALLY started messing with Legends continuity. This is often ignored and if George Lucas didn’t sell, he would’ve made a sequel trilogy that also officially decanonized all of it anyways.
But yes let’s complain about Disney changing Ki-Adi-Mundi’s age! “How could they break such important lore introduced in a CD-ROM?? George would never!!!”
Most ridiculous fan controversy I’ve seen in a very long time
>As for Legends “fans”, it is completely ridiculous when they claim continuity was 100% perfect.
A claim which is immediately hilarious as well considering Legends Star Wars has one of, if not the most extensive canon hierarchies out of any fictional universe only possibly being beaten out by Warhammer 40k.
You don't need something like that if your universe's canon is perfectly clear and understandable.
> George would never
ah yes the dude who grabbed 2 action figures from very different points in time and went "theyre friends now" cause theyre both red or some shit is the best of arbiter of canon
For some game that got canceled george lucas walked into the studio, grabbed 2 figures of re aliens that would.never have met and went "theyre friends now, write that into the game"
In Infinite Stratos, Ichika is a very well-known dense motherfucker in the general anime fandom that can't see that his harem would want to jump on him at any time.
What most people (even the anime's fans) doesn't know is that in the novel, his thoughts indicate that he DOES know that his harem wants to get it on with him. What stops him from reciprocating their feelings is that he fears that if he chooses one, the others might go berserk (which isn't really a stupid conclusion in context, some of them are absolutely violent and clingy to the point of yandere-ish, plus the fact that they are representatives of their respective countries means diplomatic nightmares can ensue).
Not to mention, he is actually quite the snarker in that head of his. The anime, for some goddamn reason, refuses to voice his thoughts outloud.
> Not to mention, he is actually quite the snarker in that head of his. The anime, for some goddamn reason, refuses to voice his thoughts outloud.
This is a weirdly common problem in anime adaptions in general. The most cited example is probably Shirou Emiya
I'm 90% convinced the only reason Death Note put in the effort to keep all the internal dialogue is because, without it, the story is only one-tenth the length.
There is an edit somewhere on youtube of a conversation between Light and L where they removed the internal dialogue but keep the editing in real time.
The LOOOOONG pause is so awkward that it makes perfect sense why L suspected Light in the first place
Most people already know about >!Aerith's death!< in Final Fantasy VII, which has caused that to overshadow the actual plot twist of the game, which is >!Cloud's identity!<
Another example that comes to mind is that **Jojo's Bizarre Adventure is way more gory than people seen to realize**. That is a series where people will **throw up razor blades**, **have a artery pulled from their neck and played with**, **literaly start melting** and **have their body deformed in incredibly graphic ways**; a aspect that somehow is not really known by most people that don't directly consume the franchise even though it's a prominent part of most episodes of the anime/chapters of the manga (even more so if you're watching the uncensored version of the anime).
People meme doughnuts, but forcing your hand through another person's body just by raw strength is a really gruesome way to kill someone.
Double so if the thing that did it takes it out and it sends you INTO A WATER TOWER AT 100MPH WITH THE FORCE OF BEING ABLE TO BREAK THE TOWER. If kakyoin MAY have been able to survive the donut if dios aimed the punch badly. But the impact on his body from the tower sold his fate big time.
The way KC doughnutted bucciarati was also bad. It was like a slow push through
IIRC, you could hear the bones creakinh in the anime
Also KC, when he grabs hold of Sticky finga's arm and Bucciarati panics that his arm is going to get ripped off. I just looked over the scene right now and he actually *bends* it backwards against a square pillar, youch. KC always seemed like a freakishly strong stand to me even if nothing it really does is that impressive brute strength-wise.
Yeah, he's like the other side of close range stands. The big number vs the usual do combo
And the reason why something like Star Platinum or The World are so busted is because they do both.
It wasnt until i saw like The Boys or Mortal Kombat that i realized a lot of the deaths in Jojo are really just fatalities hidden behind an anime aesthetic.
Hell, even a lot of the **non-fatal injuries** are practically fatalities, such as [Mariah getting every single one of her bones crushed into dust](https://youtu.be/7YK_ymU26N0?t=44s) or [Okuyasu having his guts suddenly explode out of his stomach because he ate some *really good* lamb with apple sauce](https://youtu.be/HucOpykaoRw?t=1m16s)
What really sold me on how powerful Dio was as a vampire was in part 1 where (I may have the details fuzzy) he just basically *scrapes* the top half of a guy's head off.
Yeah he literally just swoops down and drags his fingers through the top half of a dudes skull
IIRC, during the part 1 too, he punched someone so hard they exploded. But here's the thing, the force turned their body into a *frag grenade* and the shards of bone from him injured/killed the people behind him.
Man, Part 1 was high-key fucking wild.
To be fair I think people are probably desensitized to that as it's a pretty common kill move in anime
JoJo’s also has a lot of horror elements too. From Dio’s human experiments to his flesh buds, to Enya’s ghost village, to Death 13, to Enigma and so on. It can definitely border on horror at times in its presentation. Much worse, and this was weirdly enough something I was thinking of earlier, there are certain characters that stand out based on just how depraved they are. Most of the people you come across are just the main villains or people who are murder for hire, but then you also have J. Geil and Angelo who are on another level in terms of depravity. Violence is a given but it’s rare that sexual assault even occurs but it is there in the story.
Jojos has a shockingly high amount of pedophiles compared to what you'd think going off all the meme stuff
I guess from first impressions no one expects a series so fabulous to hit you with the real legit Stephen King shit. But the horror influence is definitely one of the secret spices that makes Jojo so Jojo.
Even after watching the series and reading a couple of the parts, I tend to forget how gory it is. My brain only remembers the goofy adventures with da boyz and not that time someone melted a good chunk of the population of Rome. Or that time Araki made us watch a guy's dental implants rot out of his gums.
People forget how much Araki loves cheesy, gory grindhouse horror movies
Jaded Apollo Justice Nick is great cuz he just stops censoring himself. He no longer gives any fucks
I remember reading a small little essay sort of thing about how AJ Phoenix isn't really out of character. He's ALWAYS been weirdly tight-lipped about himself and a bit of a shit-talker, it's just he's also often very concerned about how others view him, so he comes across a bit bumbling. In AJ, he just doesn't care about that last part as much, so he's suddenly this sort of sly mastermind type. When he's back to being a lawyer in DD, he's a lot more "right, gotta be a respectable lawyer" again, so the bumbling comes back. Plus, access to his inner monologue makes it clear he's pretty much ALWAYS got the same kinds of thoughts going on. The few times Phoenix is around and not being controlled by the player, he suddenly seems a lot more straightforwardly competent and respectable.
I like that interpretation a lot, actually. Hobo Phoenix is just the person he would be if everyone else heard the same internal monologues we heard while playing as him. And it's only when we see him talking and acting without getting to hear all the self-effacing things he's thinking that we see how much he is not fucking around when it comes to being a lawyer.
Shout out to the one time you have to face him as Apollo and he's just the absolute most straightforward opponent in the entire series. No fancy gimmicks or intimidation or fucking around and being silly, he's just "oh, hey, that's wrong actually" and suddenly you're on the backfoot.
And this is him *holding back*
Virtually everybody involved EXCEPT Phoenix says Apollo couldn't have done as well if Phoenix were actually trying properly. Even Apollo himself.
I like the idea of a character being bumbling not because they don't know what they're doing, but because they know what they're doing so well that they intentionally have to hold themselves back.
It's not QUITE that, he is genuinely bumbling in his own way, but Phoenix's process is basically extremely tangent-driven and made up as it goes along before coming to the truth. Him keeping that process largely hidden means he can seem like a cool mastermind. Having to show it off in court means he seems like a dumbass.
The beauty of Phoenix is that he can, about the same case, both confidently declare that he can get a non-guilty despite a confession under oath *and* deliver the actual narration mid-argument "I was just talking off the top of my head, but what if that's really what happened?"
Tomie first stories has really good black comedy bit, like the students asking each other where they are gonna hide their piece of Tomie's body like it was a school assignment.
Most of Junji Ito's works have a good amount of black comedy but people tend to ignore it and just go "ah but the body horror is so fucked up!!!!"
A lot of his work can border on straight up silly. I think something like the ending of the slow zombie story was definitely supposed to be intentionally funny, but then you also have the chapter from Uzumaki with hair battles which was just hilarious to me.
uzumaki went mini-shonen for a few chapters with those wind-riding kids. Personally I felt it was a low point for the story, but a lot of those mid-chapters are way out there.
Yeah, gotta say I agree that Uzumaki kind of falls off at a certain point after such a powerful introduction. Still gotta give Ito credit for his creativity though in centering his stories around random spirals. I think even if I brainstormed for a day I would still miss a lot of the motifs he uses in his chapters despite how wild the writing may be.
There's definitely a point where you can just kind of zone out until the finale starts up.
That’s exactly what I did lmao I’m looking at a list of the chapters now and some of them I just don’t recall reading at all and I only read it like last year.
I get lots of people found Uzumaki horrifying, but I found it utterly hilarious with how over the top all the horror was. It was like looking at an old cheesy horror flick. The snails, the wind riding gangs, the womb unbirthing babies, the giant house spiral -- all of it added up to become so in-your-face that it became impossible to take seriously.
I always felt kinda bad for laughing my ass off at the "My love will stop that car!" bit from Uzumaki.
Most of Junji Ito's works have a good amount of black comedy but people tend to ignore it and just go "ah but the body horror is so fucked up!!!!"
Since most people's knowledge of Shirou Emiya comes from the anime and movies and the fact that the Fate route still hasn't been adapted (2006 one aside cuz cmon) people don't know how actually snarky the guy is. That is because most of that snark is inner dialogue which is very hard to adapt in a way that makes sense. Also just how fucked up the guy actually is seems to not be explored as much but I will admit it's been a while since I watched
Yep. It's noteworthy that Emiya is like that because he doesn't give a fuck about having a brain to mouth filter anymore.
Shirou's hate for capitalism is something I wish anime-onlys knew.
[THAT MEME WAS ABOUT GUNDAM??](https://www.reddit.com/r/Gundam/comments/y6c1le/love_all_the_new_fans_gwitch_is_bringing_in)
In Blazblue, I wonder how people know that Jin got over his murderboner with Ragna by the end of the 2nd game (out of 4). It probably doesn't help that gag reels and Cross Tag has him retain it.
Man Jin really got a lot of character development over the series.
Shirou Emiya would be a prominent one. All of the internet memes that have been circulating around him since the 2006 adaptation never portrayed him as a particularly…intelligent character. With the VN finally getting a proper (*well, let’s see how well translated it turns out to be if it isn’t just somehow an outright copy and paste of the English patch that has been around for over a decades time*) English release, it’ll be interesting to see if that does anything to change the perception of the character.
He's also rarely perceived as snarky and sarcastic. Shirou is just too polite. If he weren't, he would have the same amount of sass Rin and Archer
He also keeps most of his sassy thoughts to himself which the anime rarely adapts so its not surprising a lot of people don't know that.
It certainly changes a lot when you look at Muramasa, Archer or Nameless and realise that they're literally just Shirou's internal monologue externalised more. Shirou can be one hell of a shit-talker in his mind. He just doesn't say it out loud.
For as much as it's memed about, the FMA dog chimera scene isn't even the saddest scene in that general part of the series. Hughes' death is a far more notable moment in the series and it affects several characters for effectively the rest of the story. Comparatively, Tucker and what he did to his daughter and dog was more or less a one episode ordeal that basically shows the dark side of alchemy and it's research (the 2003 anime gives more time with Tucker prior, but the end result is the same).
Imho the dog chimera isn't memed cause it's sad (it is don't get me wrong) it's memed cause it's absolutely fucked up and unexpected- from the moment we meet Tucker and his daughter we are led to belive that he puts her over everything to then learn that actually no, he's willing to do horrible thing to Nina if it means that he'll be remembered as great scientist and that government would sponsore his reasearch into chimeras.
I also saw it as more of an “oh this shit is pulling NO PUNCHES” moment. From what I remember from reading the manga like 16 years ago, up to that point it had been a wacky battle shonen with the odd well-written heavy bits. Introducing a six year old and doggo just long enough to steal your heart before their own father/owner turns them into an affront to nature that has to be put down definitely took things to another level for me.
I feel like people outside the Warframe community don’t really understand how much horror shit happens in the games.
Helps that the Warframe community is incredibly tight lipped about spoilers, or at least was when I played. Maybe that changed with the new start, I dunno, but people would actively lie and gaslight newer players if they got seen using spoiler abilities. >!No no, that anime OC child you saw walking around my stationary frame? That’s just a skin for an ability my Warframe has. Right guys?!<
Still see that happening and it saved me a bunch of
>!second dream is an open secret at this point, it’s very very hard for new players to not notice players popping into operator to set up buffs/move about but yeah the overall plot is kept very hush hush still!<
* It used to be more the case that a lot of people who only consumed DBZ without seeing original DB or were familiarized with Goku through the English dub would just think of Goku's personality as "anime Superman" as opposed to a bumpkin with a fighting addiction and a hick accent. This is less the case recently (and IMO Super went too hard in course correcting this in a way I didn't like). * Yu-Gi-Oh wasn't always about the Duel Monsters card game.
People joke about Goku's grandma voice in Japanese, but there's a legitimate reason that they kept the original VA between Dragon Ball and DBZ. Goku's personality doesn't change. He's the same childish character throughout the story. He just gets bigger.
But sadly. He just got uber dumber. Even as a bumpkin he should have enough experience to know what kissing is damn it.
He does. The joke in that scene is Vegeta misunderstanding him.
Also, didn't Master Roshi use straight up smut books/magazines to give Goku and Krillin a basic education in the OG Dragon Ball? If there are two characters that definetly should know what sex is, it's those two.
What's the misunderstanding? I remember thinking it was dumb but don't remember the exact dialogue.
Trunks feeds Mai with a Senzu Bean with his mouth. Goku is shocked by this. Vegeta points out that Goku is married. Goku asks what that has to do with anything. Basically neither of them use the word kiss, so they're both talking about different things and both of them are confused. It seems like Vegeta is referring to the kiss and Goku is referring to the way Trunks feeds her the Senzu Bean. But because neither of them spell out what they're talking about it's not a super clear gag. Especially in English since the dialog is somewhat awkward to make the joke work.
Except the fact, that in the manga they totally [used word kiss](https://ibb.co/MCWMtpP), even in [japanese](https://64.media.tumblr.com/2745228a47d27b22f3ce039684ec7d24/tumblr_inline_oh4921cJio1rppg4r_540.jpg). And because of that i kinda doubt that in anime it was different joke.
Even in that panel, it could be interpreted that Goku thinks Vegeta is asking him, "You've never kissed a Senzu bean into someone's mouth?" and then getting further confused when he brings up marriage because it would never occur to him to give Chi-Chi a Senzu like that.
I'm sorry, but i find this interpretation to be... a ***very*** big stretch. If the joke really was about misunderstanding, they could use more ambiguous phrasing from the anime, where i could at least *somewhat* see that, but wording in the manga is clearly about Goku never kissing.
[Shrug] Maybe. Not gonna lie and say that couldn't have been the intent. Though, I think it's a bigger stretch that Goku doesn't know what a kiss is after 20 years of marriage and two kids.
i mean didnt the manga for super come out after the anime, also iirc theyre treated as mostly different canons due to a buncha differences
The movies came out before the manga but the anime came out after and they remade those two movies into arcs They came out very close to each other though
Yu gi oh also really dark manga before we getting to card game stuff - often betting on people life - dude practically calculated a plan to set a guy on fire to beat him in one of his “game” IIRC!
Even as someone who didn't watch the original DB first I never really got anime Superman vibes. Besides maybe a few moments he doesn't give off that feeling at all really I only connected the two really due to their respective popularity. Both are household names in comics
>Yu-Gi-Oh wasn't always about the Duel Monsters card game. I mean manga has only two arcs fully about it :D Last arc is for example tabletop RPG that anime really badly adopted( full arc is badly adopted ). We can make full essay about all changes( I'm still salty that Death T arc never got good adaptation )and suprises that anyone will get if they go and read manga. From gore stuff like what happened with Malik's father to more interesting things like how first solid vision looked( it was a cube that made hollograms and people just played inside it with normal table set up and it had a kill switch because Kaiba ) to funny ones like yes as a fan of manga I have to mention that Yugi did watch and liked hentai :D To be honest anime as well has that if you only watched 4kids version, finding out why season 3 of GX got called NGE of card anime or how prevelent is suicide and death in 5DS will get some fans suprised.
One thing about Phoenix is that he’s an *internalized* shit talker. He very rarely will actually verbalize his shit talk out loud, which unfortunately makes him seem less interesting whenever you see him in media where you can’t hear his thoughts.
Peter Parker's arrogance, impulsiveness and harsh side when he was young. And his journey to being a hero was rather long, he doesn't become complete hero right after Uncel Ben's death. For example in 5th issue Peter is genuinely happy that Doom kidnapped Flash, but eventually saved him of course. Like in 3rd issue he thinks "being Spider-Man is too easy. I almost wish for worthy opponent". Then he gets beaten by Otto and is immediately "I guess, that's the end of Spider-Man", gives up and finds the strength within only after Johny Storm gives motivational speech in his school. Or when he ruins Johnny just because he's jealous.
You can add to this the importance of Uncle Ben. Ben dosen't get mentioned very much in the early issues at all with Peter having The Avengers and The Fantastic Four as his role models.
If you face the Iron Boy Jr crowd with this info they actually self destruct.
To be honest I've seen more of the opposite effect now. Like when Kamala Khan made a joke about Peter being broke (which he is) people got upset said "80s Peter would have wrecked her" like Peter should still be as mad. Most "angry peter" momets are followed by a panel of Peter going "man that was messed up for me to be angry"
One Piece powerscalers have overrun the fanbase so hard you'd have no idea that it's actually one of the best political stories ever written. Like it covers just about every political issue in the book and yet never feels annoying because Oda actually remembered to make his characters characters and not mouthpieces.
Always remember that the strongest character at any time barring the secret shadow government isnt the pirate emperors, or the Marine Admirals. Its Big News Morgan
I mean, it's a very bare-bones and basic political ideology, but yeah it isn't annoying about it in the sense that it isn't beating you over the head with it. It *is* annoying when you realize it's not saying "the problem is with kings" but instead "the problem is that the *bad people* are kings." It's not a problem in One Piece that one person rules a country, it's just that person should be a kind, young, all-loving ingenue without a bad bone in their body. Also, combined with how Oda flubbed Hody Jones, basically saying "if you haven't been personally harmed by a bad system you can't go against it," I don't think One Piece has the strongest political imaginary.
In regards to the kings I think that's just a factor of the fantasy setting and that the monarchs are meant to be metaphors for the issues faced in their respective arcs. Because that's what you do in writing you take subjects and condense them into characters and themes that way your not being that annoying asshole barking your political beliefs and expecting everyone to listen to you when you're not respecting their intelligence by spoon feeding them what they're supposed to feel. As for Hody. I know sometimes themes are pretty deep in but text can be as important as subtext and you've just thrown out the most surface level statement about Hody Jones that I'm actually shocked. You say it like he was fighting for equality. He wasn't! Hody Jones was a radicalised zealot who was fighting for fishman supremacy, not equality. He was killing non-racist humans and using the suffering of others as justification for it, when those who have endured suffering just wanted peace. The fishman island arc is about how at the end of the day racism is never going to be conquered by returning hatred towards others it'll be destroyed by getting to know each other and bonding over what we share. Symbolised perfectly by the blood transfusion between Luffy and Jinbei. But honestly this video explains it better than I could, I encourage you to check it out: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aj63q307uSY&pp=ygUKaG9keSBqb25lcw%3D%3D](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aj63q307uSY&pp=ygUKaG9keSBqb25lcw%3D%3D)
The monarch as metaphor argument only works if the replacing monarch is also a metaphor, and they really aren't. Like, if we say Crocodile is a metaphor (for what exactly btw? Organized Crime? The Gulf State oil market? Resource extraction? Using power greedily? Honestly these are just things he does, not exactly things he's a metaphor for.), then what does Vivi (or Cobra) represent? Listening to the people? Which, as far as I can recall, is Vivi's only real promise of rule aside from "not actively destroying the country." In the end, Crocodile was a Bad King, and Vivi(/Cobra) is a Good King, and we should have Good Kings and not Bad Kings. [Which is fine, it's okay for a story to be a simple restoration fantasy](https://x.com/headfallsoff/status/1051484419251425280?lang=en). But when basically every One Piece story about Bad Kings is like this (outside of like Drum Island, which does establish a Good King at the end they just don't call him a Good King, and a little bit Wano, where Kaido does represent "might makes right" but is defeated by...someone more mighty. hm.), I don't think it's fair to say that One Piece is one of the "best political stories written." And often those well-written works of political fiction are pretty explicit. Works like Tehanu, Cat's Cradle, and Animal Farm (hell Animal Farm is pretty explicitly a fable) all basically spell out what they're about. In To Kill A Mockingbird Atticus straight-up sits Scout down on his lap and explains why the people in Maycomb act like they do. The best political fiction is pretty straightforward in its messaging, that's why they're so influential. Works that are more sub textual, like Finnegan's Wake or Fight Club, tend to get their message unheard or misinterpreted. Which makes sense, it's hard to misinterpret Snow Crash's opinion on the police when the police show up in a car that says "1800-THE-COPS, accepts all major credit cards." I'm aware Hody Jones is a supremacist, I don't think he's right. He's wrong to do what he does and he isn't fighting for equality. He is, however, fighting *against* an unjust system. He's not fighting *for* justice, but he is fighting back against racism. You can do one but not the other. I dislike Hody Jones because he represents the nadir of One Piece's political imaginary, especially pertaining to racism: that racism is an individual action, not a social one. Hody's hate isn't empty. He lives in a system that puts people like him at the bottom as victims of abuse and slavery (and now we know this includes *sexual slavery*). He *was* harmed, he grew up poor and with a fear of the surface. But because no one specific human hurt him, his hate is "empty." It puts the onus on the Fishmen, the *oppressed*, to "be better;" not on the humans, the *oppressors*. It's weak, it's a bad imaginary of racism because that's not how it works, not in the real world and not in One Piece's either. Racism happens because there's a system that puts some people on top and some people on the bottom, and racism is one of the tools the people on top use to keep the people on the bottom at the bottom. An individualistic theory of racism will never be able to stop racism because it can't diagnose racism's root causes. And that's not to say Oda's not getting better about this: at the Reverie we see that you can't "get to know" your way out of racism and slavery, that you need to use and leverage power (and also violence! Mjosgard is violent against Charlos!) to stop racism. And it's cool that Oda is putting these issues in the biggest young adult comic of the current age (and you're right: the image of Jimbei giving his blood to Luffy is a powerful one; I really like that image and it's parallel to Fisher Tiger but I wish it was attached to an arc with a better understanding of what's happening), but One Piece's political imaginary will always be stuck to Luffy and Luffy only really cares about personal issues, only taking a stand against things affecting his friends. He doesn't stop the slave auction because slavery is bad, he stops the slave auction to save Camie. And that's fine, it's okay that One Piece will only get you to the starting line of a political ideology but I don't think it's fair to position it as some revolutionary political text. Especially when things like HunterxHunter, Delicious in Dungeon, and Beastars exist (again, not to say One Piece *needs* to be like those, just these are works in the same space doing the political stuff (but not all the stuff) better).
Early series Yami was not a Jigsaw like sociopath.
A lot of people see the Soulsborne games as the peak of (mainstream) video game difficulty. While most players will point to level design as the “woke” view of the discussion, I actually want to go back to the difficulty because I think there’s a lot to discuss which not even most fans of these games do: I won’t argue that these games aren’t hard because they definitely are but a lot of people’s takeaway seems to be that it’s based on trial and error and just dodging everything either through godlike reflexes or by plugging yourself into the Matrix. But I think these games are actually a lot more lenient than people give them credit for. If you pay attention to various item descriptions and the environment, you might discover a weakness in enemies like how Revenants crumble to healing or why Gascoigne will melt from fire when he transforms. But more importantly, you have a ton of options in terms of playstyle and so many ways to make the game easier on yourself. The very fact that you can pick weapons that behave so differently is a huge benefactor in of itself but you can also mix up builds, use items, spells, put on a shield, parry, equip various types of armor with resistances, engage with the upgrade system and even respec in most of these games. Even if you get stuck on a tutorial boss, you can still farm XP for hours on basic enemies. Is that recommended? Hell no, but the point is that it’s *viable* throughout every point of the game but never necessary for most runs. This is all to say that the most basic and rudimentary mechanics of the game are also the most important in terms of how difficult your experience will be. Even though we all like particular weapon types, magic and fashion which we will rightfully priorities, in a lot of ways, you can choose how hard or easy the game is going to be by just giving yourself the best affordances from the get-go by engaging with various mechanics. I can at least confidently say that’s the case for Elden Ring because I am *not* a god at that game but I’ve (almost) beaten it at RL1 by using almost every build I could think of and “cheesing” every boss.
> a lot of people’s takeaway seems to be that it’s based on trial and error and just dodging everything either through godlike reflexes or by plugging yourself into the Matrix. To be fair, I hear people say this about any game that requires good timing. I’ve heard separate people make this very comment about fighting games, rhythm games, and pinball.
>While most players will point to level design as the “*woke*” view of the discussion Huh, that word really has lost **all** meaning by now. It used to mean "aware of the systemic injustices that black Americans have to endure in their day-to-day life", then it transformed into "tHiS tHiNg CoNtAiNs MiNoRiTiEs, EwWw!", and now you seem to be using it to mean "the most interesting and nuanced way to discuss a topic in the modern day".
I meant it as the “broke” vs. “woke” meme. As in: “Broke: Thinking the game is all about being hard.” “Woke: The game has good level design and enemy placement.”
I recently watched The Boys for the first time and it was *way* funnier than anyone talks about I haven't laughed as hard at anything on television as I did at Deep's dolphin heist in years
Adding onto that, I think from the outside looking in you may have very little idea of how emotionally mature the writing is. It's a show that is very graphic, crass, and vulgar, but it doesn't have the sort of misanthropic attitude that other stories like that tend to employ. The characters all feel very human, their trauma is taken seriously, even when something absurd is happening. The newest episode where Homelander visits where he grew up is a great example of how it can manage to be gorey, funny, crass and tragic all at the same time.
Berserk is more funny than people generally seem to bring up. Yeah it's very dark but there's a lot of humor still too
One Piece is a hyper political and anti facist series. Also people from outside the Fandom criticize the way the female characters are mostly hyper curvy, and think they are just eye candy or window dressing, like how alot of shonnen treats female characters. Without knowing they are probably some of the best written female characters in the shonnen genre.
also, the "all female characters look the same!" meme mostly revolves around three or four characters (Nami, Vivi, Rebecca and a few more) when one piece has a fuckton of female characters with [more design variety than any other shounen I have seen.] (https://www.reddit.com/media?url=https%3A%2F%2Fpreview.redd.it%2Fall-the-women-in-one-piece-look-the-same-the-women-in-one-v0-6g8ji935b9nb1.png%3Fwidth%3D1140%26format%3Dpng%26auto%3Dwebp%26s%3De346429abf077e5955850b83f3420c2169aa2331)
I will admit every female background character is an hourglass
the only thing is that a lot of the actually interesting designs tend to be very minor characters, it feels like the more plot important a female character is the more nami they get
I admit there is a tendency for that but we also have the likes of Big Mom and Ivankov which are definitely important characters so it balances out a little.
Yeah but thats 2 compared to like 10
Most people who have surface knowledge of the Touhou games, particularly its characters, mostly assume their personalities just by their appearances. Combined with the popularity of the Fumo plushies, for the most part, everyone is portrayed as cute, moe, cuddly critters who sometimes do magic bullets and stuff. There's another side that does dive in a bit more, but they only take flanderized fanon interpretations for the most part too. Nitori Kawashiro the cute blue-haired shy kappa engineer? She's not shy because she's a shrinking violet who lacks social skills, she avoids the protagonists because she's racist, and she's a hardcore ultra capitalist on top who will maximize profits as much as possible. Flandre Scarlet the powerful younger vampire Scarlet sister who is trapped in the mansion basement for hundreds of years? Is she just a misunderstood and mistreated little girl and is psycho due to the isolation? No, she's fine staying in the basement, the sun hurts her, and she has everything she needs in the basement and is well-accommodated. She does pretend to be crazy, but so that she can forever stay down there and be well-pampered. She boasts nothing, let alone a door could keep her locked up, she just chooses to stay a stress-free life. Sakuya Izayoi the cool-ass white-haired maid with DIO's time manipulation powers? Is she an aloof mostly silent badass who's also always elegant? Well, she is mostly elegant, a badass, and backs up her reputation with skills, but she's also a big dorky goof. She doesn't know certain words like "mastermind", doesn't know what space is, accidentally opens the window while they're in a rocket ship, and loves having an excuse to go out and explore the world. Cirno the funny ice fairy? Is she stupid? Well, actually yeah this one checks out in all interpretations, she is stupid. There's a lot more to talk about and list down, but yeah the large size of the cast and the large amount of fan-related work really took a life of its own for the series.
Sakuya "Remind me what oxygen is again?" Izayoi. Sakuya "opens a window in a pseudo-rocket flying through space" Izayoi. Sakuya "Weird mushrooms must taste good" Izayoi.
Gotta love our elegant maid goofball.
iirc, Nitori is also in the very small club of "confirmed to have eaten human"
Yup, specifically to get that sweet sweet anus ball/shirikodama. She has also off-handily mentioned inventing something that efficiently extracts it from humans. Beyond that, while the official works rarely spell it out directly especially with named characters, a large demographic of the youkai population in general needs to eat humans, and to that extent certain species of them can be assumed to have eaten humans in some way. It's said Yukari Yakumo usually handles these matters to not put harm into the human village by literally just spiriting away humans from our world. She justifies it that the humans she takes are mostly "humans no one would care about such as criminals, or the ones who are already seeking death/suicidal". It doesn't come off often, but there are always nuggets that pop up every now and then about how dark Gensokyo can be, and despite everyone being humanized as cute girls, they very much still are true to their darker folklore origins.
Yeah, but the amount of named youkai in touhou that we know for a fact eat humans is like, a single hand count. Off hand, I can only remember Rumia, Nitori, Yamame and Yukari. If you wanna count the Scarlet sisters as man-eaters too, but iirc Flan has no part in actually killing them and Remilia was not good at the whole feasting part.
Yeah, the only one that I recall that can be added to that list is Touhou 11's Kisume, the mid-boss of the first stage. She even throws the skeletal remains she has on other humans for fun. Iirc Flan isn't even really aware she's eating humans. Flan just eats what's prepared for her without her own input, which is Sakuya and the maids' job.
It’s very easy to tell what Star Wars fans have and haven’t read any of the legends stuff they talk about. That goes for legends haters and supposed legends fans One of the biggest things people cite as for why Legends was horrible is Luuke. A evil clone of Luke Skywalker that had a dumb name. Which is a ridiculous concept BUT he’s introduced in one of the most critically well-regarded books in legends, Last Command the final book in the Thrawn trilogy. The clone is mute and is there in the story as a way to wrap up Mara Jade’s character arc. He’s not even called “Luuke” in-story, that’s the name given so Timothy Zahn’s didn’t have to write “Luke’s clone” twenty million times. So when people act like he’s one of the worst things ever I just roll my eyes As for Legends “fans”, it is completely ridiculous when they claim continuity was 100% perfect. Sure a lot of writers would make retcons and excuses to fix plothole and things that didn’t match the prequels lore. But even after the prequels, TCW REALLY started messing with Legends continuity. This is often ignored and if George Lucas didn’t sell, he would’ve made a sequel trilogy that also officially decanonized all of it anyways. But yes let’s complain about Disney changing Ki-Adi-Mundi’s age! “How could they break such important lore introduced in a CD-ROM?? George would never!!!” Most ridiculous fan controversy I’ve seen in a very long time
>As for Legends “fans”, it is completely ridiculous when they claim continuity was 100% perfect. A claim which is immediately hilarious as well considering Legends Star Wars has one of, if not the most extensive canon hierarchies out of any fictional universe only possibly being beaten out by Warhammer 40k. You don't need something like that if your universe's canon is perfectly clear and understandable.
> George would never ah yes the dude who grabbed 2 action figures from very different points in time and went "theyre friends now" cause theyre both red or some shit is the best of arbiter of canon
[удалено]
For some game that got canceled george lucas walked into the studio, grabbed 2 figures of re aliens that would.never have met and went "theyre friends now, write that into the game"
People don't know that Clone Palpatine from Rise Of Skywalker was an Legends concept
In Infinite Stratos, Ichika is a very well-known dense motherfucker in the general anime fandom that can't see that his harem would want to jump on him at any time. What most people (even the anime's fans) doesn't know is that in the novel, his thoughts indicate that he DOES know that his harem wants to get it on with him. What stops him from reciprocating their feelings is that he fears that if he chooses one, the others might go berserk (which isn't really a stupid conclusion in context, some of them are absolutely violent and clingy to the point of yandere-ish, plus the fact that they are representatives of their respective countries means diplomatic nightmares can ensue). Not to mention, he is actually quite the snarker in that head of his. The anime, for some goddamn reason, refuses to voice his thoughts outloud.
> Not to mention, he is actually quite the snarker in that head of his. The anime, for some goddamn reason, refuses to voice his thoughts outloud. This is a weirdly common problem in anime adaptions in general. The most cited example is probably Shirou Emiya I'm 90% convinced the only reason Death Note put in the effort to keep all the internal dialogue is because, without it, the story is only one-tenth the length.
There is an edit somewhere on youtube of a conversation between Light and L where they removed the internal dialogue but keep the editing in real time. The LOOOOONG pause is so awkward that it makes perfect sense why L suspected Light in the first place
Most people already know about >!Aerith's death!< in Final Fantasy VII, which has caused that to overshadow the actual plot twist of the game, which is >!Cloud's identity!<