I genuinely have no idea if the idea of best friends, close friends or even friends in general is just a lost art to people or what and I have typically no issue with people considering 2 people to be siblings or whatever but I would honestly prefer if you just admitted to either not liking said ship or just claiming that you only see them as just friends instead of basically spamming "sibling coded" a ton.

I think the reason it gets annoying is purely cause of how much it's Spammed and it just comes off as disguising not liking a ship and I would have more respect for you if you just admitted to not liking it/not shipping it.

At least then,you would be being honest with yourself.

This is somehow how I feel with Deku and Uraraka.

If you don't ship them,I don't really give 2 shits but how in the world are they "sibling coded" at all when he was literally blushing and flustered over talking to her + was flustered when he saw her in her suit + Ochako was getting all flustered as well with him later on.

So I'm just kinda confused cause if you're like that with your siblings,then I strongly implore you see a therapist/doctor.

Same goes for Katara and Aang.

You had Katara blushing at Aang and suggesting thru kissed in S2,kissed him on the cheek many times and let him kiss her in S3.

Also people are like "oh she was motherly towards him",she's motherly to everyone and feelings can goddamn change over time.

What is this?

Again,I would just rather you admit you ship her with Zuko or anyone else instead of..being weird about it or just obtuse.

I also see this with Ichigo and Orihime and more and it gets to a point where I'm just like..oh my god,JUST ADMIT YOU DON'T SHIP THEM/LIKE SAID SHIP.

THAT'S FINE.

I legitimately think no one would even care instead of just trying to justify it.

I find it annoying whenever people discount the author words only to proceed to make things up about a media, especially when people deny the part of the story they dislike was planned when the author say otherwise . When people do that, there can be a tendency to actually not provide any source to their claim so one can't verify wether they're true or not (the webby twist in ducktales 17 had a bunch of those with rumint that make it harder to see how it was planned outside of the authors words since there's multiple version of the production story).

Death of the author also doesn't it's ok to have discourse that are clearly contradicted by on screen evidence or to make things up about the author intent. I think it's entirely find to not like something but people shouldn't make things up about media or part of a media they dislike , it's not helping their own critic credibility too if their claim get googledebunked ,I use ducktales 17 as an example but there are made up rumint about other media as well and those are still bad (the lion king plagiarizing kimba myth per example). Just because the authors can sometimes contradict their own work, that doesn't mean get to spread rumint or disinformation.

I was having a pretty bad day yesterday, so when my partner took me off to a screening of Street Fighter she had bought us tickets to as a surprise, I was ready to drop a, "Well, I appreciate the thought, sweetie", after a boring and obnoxious capstone to a bummer 16 waking hours, given all the negative word of mouth I'd heard about it.

I could actually feel my heart grow three sizes that day in the theater. I kept waiting for the other shoe to drop, until, about halfway through, I realized I was just grinning along and having a grand old fucking time.

Intentional, tongue-in cheek camp is a hard space to operate in, but I think the team behind this really pulled it off! The script is tight and moves along at a comfortably brisk pace (something I truly did not expect, given the decision to throw every World Warrior + Cammy and Dan into the mix right off the bat), the fights are simultaneously goofy as all hell and genuinely cool in a pro-wrestling sort of way (which feels appropriate to me, since I think part of the appeal of SF in the first place is its cast of characters with gimmicks that exist in that particular intersection of "stupid caricature" and "legitimately cool"), and there's a legitimately worthwhile core there about a pair of emotionally closed-off male friends reconnecting (dudes rock).

And while it is rather quippy, given the tone it's aiming for, the vast majority of the time, the quips actually landed for me. Like, my issue with, "He's right behind me, isn't he?"-type writing (a quip this movie actually drops almost verbatim at one point lmao) is that it deflates the tension of a scene that should have more gravitas, but when you're aiming for a Saturday-morning cartoon meets pro wrestling sort of space, I think that's far less of a risk. The only real exceptions were a couple of times where they shoehorned in a line from the game or the original Street Fighter movie pretty hard and you could practically see the dude in front of the screen holding up an "APPLAUSE" sign.

And while it isn't as incredibly genuine as the likes of Speed Racer, if you're a fan of goofy, stylized live action, if you have a soft spot in your heart for pro-wrestling gonzo bullshit, if you're the kind of person who will look at a movie that's obviously tickled pink by straight-up doing a Street Fighter II animation with a real person and think, "Hell yeah", I definitely think you should check this out before it's out of theaters.

I know I am, and I almost let takes from people who aren't convince me to skip out on it, so I'm gonna do my due diligence encourage other folks who might be in my position to give it a go.

I get why John let Noah go - that was a no win situation for him, and it is treated with due gravity. His only other option is to execute him, and it's understandable why he won't go that route.

But Kerry?

Especially with the reason John gave - 'it's not what Hal would have wanted'? Did the writers really intend it to be the right decision, or are we going to see this come back to bite him?

In the first place, we don't know what Hal would have wanted. John does not know or care about Hal enough to speak for him.

Halogram is not Hal.

Last time John and Hal met, it went so bad that John attacked him and broke his nose. That is the last Hal saw of John.

He came to the funeral, good for him. But too late for Hal. And too late for him to actually reconnect and know what Hal was like.

He bonds with Halogram, that's sweet, but Halogram is considerably different from Hal. I don't think I would want someone putting words in my mouth based on what I would have done twenty years ago. Especially if I've gone through life changing trauma since then.

Also, Halogram is not the one who loved Kerry, managed to open up after decades of isolation, believe he finally found love, and even after finding out she hid something extremely serious from him is trying to help her, swears he loves her - only for her to murder him.

Halogram never experienced that betrayal.

But even if we ignore all of that, you know what? It still wouldn't matter.

Because sending a killer to prison is supposed to accomplish three purposes

1. Retribution
2. Rehabilitation
3. Keeping the public safe from them

Let us say Hal would have forgiven Kerry. And that he doesn't have anyone who cares about his death enough for them to want retribution.

That only takes care of one purpose.

Second is rehabilitation. Kerry is already a very very messed up person. The murder scene and her reaction to being forcibly impregnated makes it clear she is not well. At all.

Tom King claimed she will have to live with the guilt all her life and that is the worst punishment... What is going to happen to an already unstable mind consumed with guilt?

She can never confide in anyone except John, and John is going to be too busy with his new responsibilities to be there when needed.

A woman who confesses to panicking and killing her boyfriend in an argument - they needn't bring up Noah, given their history Hal and Kerry has a lot to argue about - is not going to get executed. It's not even likely to be very long a sentence.

But it would mean it is out in the open and she can get professional help. Which she badly needs.

Third - public safety.

Kerry murders Hal because she thinks he is a threat to Noah - while Hal makes no threats, is pleading with her to let him help, and promising he loves her.

That is what he is saying when she whirls around and shoots him in the head.

This is someone she loved, someone who is not hostile, someone who is trying to help.

She still sees him as a threat that deserves instant execution.

What is going to happen when someone else suspects? Or she gets suspicious of John's intentions towards Noah?

Noah is going off to college. He is himself conflicted, and he confesses everything to John who he believes will kill him. He seems to have the expected maturity level of a teenager.

Odds are the people he meets there will suspect something is off - or Noah himself might confide in them, maybe a girlfriend or a trusted professor.

Or a friend might come home to visit Noah and Kerry could get the impression the kid knows something.

She is too unstable to be trusted with a gun at all, forget be the sheriff in an isolated community.

Not everything you don't dislike is Slop,it just comes off as really immature to just proclaim that it is and I would have infinitely more respect for you if you just said that you didn't like it.

It just gets to a point where it feels like you're claiming anything that you don't like as slop and that wouldn't be a problem except calling it "slop" implies a lack of effort or hell,it just comes off as you being kinda wrong and over-exxagerating things or just trying to be dramatic for engagement views and clicks.

I've been seeing this for the new Gameoverse show and people calling the designs "Goonslop" and I haven't fully see it but based on what I've seen..how the hell is that meant for Gooners?

It's just a attractive woman wearing a zipped up outfit.

Like is it cause she's got cat-like features?

I feel like you need to get your mind out of the gutter and cut The Porn.

Also having attractive and slightly sexy characters isn't "Goonslop",you're just some damn Prude.

This is also how I feel with most Yuri and Yaoi ships out there and i would have more respect for you if you just admitted that you didn't personally like it or ship it instead of calling it "slop."

Same with shows like Hazbin Hotel/Helluva Boss and I still hear people bitching that the show isn't like the Pilot, like Oh My God..MOVE ON,IT'S BEEN OVER 6 GODDAMN YEARS Since the Pilot came out.

The show wasn't like how you wanted but the people working on it did not take years to work and construct it just for it to be called "slop", that's just incredibly disrespectful.

Something not going the way you want doesn't make it slop.

Like I would just prefer if you admitted to not liking it instead of proclaiming it as "slop".

What the fuck do you mean this shit was an alternative universe was my reaction watching season 2. Before it aired I thought this show was supposed to be a prequel to explain a bunch of champion interactions. Such as Warwick being all furry and vaugly remembering shit. And honestly if you pivoted season 2 to match more of their in game counter parts the season would've been more salvageable.

Warwick should've progressed fully into a " werewolf ". Victor should've become a machine supremacist. Jinx becoming a fully psycho. While not every character would've been an improvement they could've handwaved some stuff around to suggest they change later down the line. Arcane being its own separate Multiverse thing is wierd. The fact a Jinx skin that bounces between all 3 iterations is something. Like they added Ambessa into lol and I was " neat wonder were her story is gonna go after the show " WTF DO YOU MEAN SHES DEAD ".

For those that somehow need a recap, Overwatch 2 rebranded itself back as Overwatch in early 2026 when they dropped the Spotlight, and started off the Reign of Talon to kick things up. Five new heroes dropped instantly, with five more coming. A new era was made with Vendetta taking Talon to war.

And nothing really unique happened. Aside from Jetpack Cat being a spy for Lucheng, nothing actually happened in an interesting way.

Mizuki being a Hashimoto spy began and ended so quickly it feels weird they even did it at all. Sierra's entire character feels like an afterthought in the era itself, Emre fucking left, D.Mon is a playable character, Shion is vaguely interesting but that's not gonna be used in this era, Anran genuinely sucks, Domina was something I guess, Doctrine has sauce but he looks like he's just going to slip into the background, and the Detective Omnic guy may as well be for the next era.

What baffles me was the Webtoon Undivided. It basically was filler and did little to actually do anything interesting until Fika-Jetpack Cat-was revealed to be a spy. It's a nice slice of life stuff, but the lack of content was absurd. I get novels would be weird somehow, not in the sense I know why I just think they might have something against it, but a few of them exploring the new characters would be nice.

Like, Sierra could've been interesting. Mizuki's time could've been interesting, Emre's whole mystery. Instead the thing came and went. And while dropping the ball on the story is par for the course, they added a lore tab into the game. I had to have expectations.

English is not my first language, so I am sorry for any mistakes I could have made. Similarly, this is written with pure annoyance, so please excuse the cussing and rambling. I do not mean to insult anyone, any swear words used are purely there to vent my furstrations.

Anyway.

You know what? Fuck you, I'm saying it! The theory that Dunk banged one of Egg's sisters who then quickly married the Tarth heir and basically cucked him with Dunk's baby is wet slippery reeking BULLSHIT. And I am tired of being polite about it.

Not only is the idea of him sleeping with either Rhae and Daella incredibly fucking weird considering the newly created age gap due to the show ageing Dunk up into his mid-to-late 20s during Ashford, it also makes zero sense for his character. For this to happen, you would need Season Eight bullshit character nuking to take place, which would have a similarly catastrophic effect on Dunk ON TOP of fucking over previously established characterisation, similar to a chainsaw being taken up the butt.

We have been shown, on page, how Dunk rejected Rohanne Webber not once but TWICE due to the class diffrence when she tried to make advances. WHEN SHE WAS BASICALLY DOING THE MEDIEVAL COURTLY VERSION OF SENDING HIM NUDES. First, when she mentioned that if he were a betterborn man, she would have liked to marry him, causing him to respond with something along the lines of "yes, and if pigs could fly..." as well as at the end of The Sworn Sword, when she just comes out and asks if he wants to be her mistress/master-at-arms and he leaves for the road. This man is incredibly aware of how their world works and what a relationship between the two of them would entail when (mind you) Rohanne is 'only' a lady of a minor house. What in GRRM unfinished drafts would make anyone think that after having read all of this, Dunk would get in bed with a LITERAL IN THE BLOOD DAUGHTER-OF-OF-THE-REIGNING-KING-AND-SISTER-OF-THE-NEXT-ONE TARGAYREN PRINCESS!? And not only that, but SLEEP WITH HER OUTSIDE OF MARRIAGE AND THUS RUINING HER HONOR IN A WORLD WHERE IT HAS BEEN SHOWN OVER AND OVER AND GOD FORASKEN OVER AGAIN THAT THAT IS BAD??? YOU IMBECILE.

Even if Dunk liked either Rhae or Daella (Egg's sisters), he would never act on it. (Even if she too was giving him fuck me eyes similar to Rohanne, which, btw, we do not even know if she liked the man or even knew him.) He's not going to be condemning her to the Silent Sisters and eternal shame because they're horny! He's not that type of character at all! Which, frankly said, doesn't even mention that he especially wouldn't do that to THE SISTER OF THE BOY WHOM HE VIEWS AS HIS YOUNGER BROTHER/ALMOST SON AT TIMES.

All of which, by the way, also conveniently ignores the fact that we have two other whole candidates for who could have married into the Tarths from House Targaryen! As in- Just as likley! Maybe even more likley! I don't fucking know, but they ARE THERE. We don't know when exactly this marriage happened or how old the marriage partners were. No I do not accept any fucking headcanon on it. We know zilch. Yes, it could have happened around the third Blackfyre Rebellion between Daella or Rahe and the heir to Lord Tarth. It could have just as easily been Vaella (daughter of Daeron and Kiera) who married him at a later point in time during the reign of Aegon V. Or maybe it was Maegor (son of Aerion) who took a Tarth daughter to wife and settled on the island, with his son eventually ending up heir due to unfortunate circumstances and passing on the line that way. We know jackshit about all four of them in terms of their canon fate, so they are all equally likely. But for some reason the fans of this theory conveniently forget about half of the possible Targaryen options as if ONLY Egg's sisters are available to get both dragon blood and Dunk's blood into the Tarth line. Just obliterating them and their equally nothing-burger fates off the face of the universe so only your preferred glorified breeding cows are available who (again) have zero personaly and you guys just assume would fuck a hedge knight despite being raised in an environment teaching them to stay pure and to specifically NOT do that. You somehow managed to reduce what is basically a name in a fucking book even further down to...a lampshade. A sexy lampshade that magically destroys Dunk's personality because she's just so fucking hot and is only there to incubate his kid for your dumb theory. Bravo. I hate it.

And since we are on the topic of 'I hate it:: WHO SAYS THAT DUNK'S GENES ENTERING THE TARTHS HAD TO HAPPEN VIA THE TARGARYEN MARRIAGE THEY HAD IN THE FIRST PLACE???? There is nothing hinting at it! Like literally zero! You guys just assume it! Maybe Dunk's bastard married into them some other way! Or maybe said bastard fucked Lord Tarth's wife and cucked the dude??? For all we know, maybe Aegon V did actually know about the kid after all and secretly arranged a marriage for them into the Tarths (with or without Dunk's knowledge) as a service to his friend! WE HAVE NO FUCKING CLUE.

Honestly, I wouldn't even care that much about this stupid theory if people could stop pushing it as canon. Multiple times now have I seen other fans bringing up this soggy mould-growing brainfart of an idea in canon discussions without mentioning it is a theory. Instead, stating it as if it were fact and, when confronted about it, arguing it is on the same level of semi-canon as R+L=J which????? Fuck no???? What kind of drug are you smoking to hallucinate author endorsement and heavy foreshadowing + show appearances, and can I get some of it too???? Fuck you mean 'semi-canon '????? Literally make your theory and shit but PLLLEEAAASSEEE stop trying to sell your shitty OOC crackfic as canon. I wouldn't even care if half the fandom could stop doing that to be honest.

Edit: Putting this here to avoid repeating myself.
No, I do not take assumptions you are making as prove or a defense. Those are assumptions. We do not know them. The fact that you are defending this theory by making assumptions does not make me less convienced that it is true and I will die on this hill. Also why are you all so certain that Brienne and Dunk are related through the paternal line when it just as easily could have happened through the maternal one since (once again) WE DO NOT KNOW JACKSHIT AND THIS THEORY NEEDS SO MANY ASSUMPTIONS TO BE 'THE MOST PLAUSIBLE' LIKE IT IS BEING SOLD.

Series: “Murder drones“. It’s in the title.

AFTER reading this post if anyone (fans or not) wants to look for more murder drones analysis that don’t contain misinformation, I would also like to recommend this post which analyzes the writing of some of the cast (Uzi, Khan & N). This post which contains a few people’s observations about Uzi. And this post that does an amazing deep dive on J (& they have more on the whole cast). I don‘t want to recommend too many, but they’re a small start.

You can hate murder drones & view it as not your cup of tea, but you don’t have to constantly make up reasons to hate the finale. For context, this will be dissecting the original critique, & given that it’s from years ago & several response-to-critic type posts have been made on the sub for awhile, I’m assuming this isn’t breaking any rules on the sub.

Massive TDLR: the original post constantly just makes scenes up that never happen, or complains about things that were shown & explained several times

Claiming that “Lizzy is ignorant of the world ending” is blatantly untrue as both Lizzy & Thad were ordered by V to spy on J (due to V’s suspicions that Tessa was “Cyn” & that J betrayed her & N to willingly work for “Cyn”), where they felt copper 9 shake, express concern & found out that J was destroying all other ways off the planet. Khan then appears to spoonfeed to the characters & audience that the planet is in danger, where they proceed to distract J… for 10 seconds before the explosion occurs.

Saying ”Lizzy just sits on her phone as V fights J” as a critique is the equivalent of arguing a civilian should’ve fought Conquest (from Invincible) to help Mark. Lizzy is a regular worker drone that’s trapped on a very small island with only one safe spot that’s extremely close to the fight. Unlike Lizzy, V & J are fighting in space with the ability to freely control their gravity. They can create any weapon they wish & regenerate. What was Lizzy supposed to do?? All what she can do is provide bits of information to V while watching her fight, which she does. Lizzy only manages to distracts J less than 10 seconds & V tells Lizzy not to fight her anyways.

“Nori gets Truck-kun'd by N. She survives- because obviously she does- except we don't know how & she didn't even seem to take damage” Nori & the entire cast tanked a direct explosion (from it’s epicenter) from the planet’s core that disperses most of the planet’s clouds, tore apart pieces of the planet & sent those planets into space MINUTES before getting truck-kun’d. The cast surviving explosions like this happens not once, not twice- but 3 times across the series. But Nori surviving getting truck-kun’d is unrealistic?

Nori doesn’t even get hit in the scene. She only loses her balance on the rock & then falls back to copper 9’s surface. Half of the original post is already breaking rule 2.

”And Uzi & N somehow survived sunlight” they are falling to the surface of the planet at night.

“J continues working with the thing she tried to stop, the thing that killed someone she seemed to genuinely care for, because... she wants to win??” J admits she works for “Cyn” because she’s scared & views them as unbeatable. That’s why she insists that there’s no escape from her, & why she even makes the ’we do our jobs & in return you might set us free?’ deal in the first place. J trying to convince V to join “the winning side” doesn’t mean she actually wants to be on top- it means that J doesn’t want V to be on the losing side where she loses & gets tormented by Cyn / the solver for eternity. If J gets V back on their side, then there’s a slim chance Cyn / the solver would be more lenient with J.

“J just keeps fighting on the solver’s side and later says she doesn't actually need V anyway. I think the writers just don't know what to do with her” yeah… because she sees the solver as unbeatable. J can't even die- the solver will just keep reviving her. She wants V and N to survive with her but isn't willing to oppose it with them. V refused her offer to stop fighting Cyn despite J (in J’s point of view) trying to cover for them, so saying that she “doesn’t need V anyway” is desperate denial that she doesn’t care about them (when she does- or else she wouldn’t had “stepped up as the leader of the 3” & included them in the deal). We also know this was always the plan with J since the pilot & start of episode 2 heavily implies, then states J was willingly working for Cyn.

”Cyn somehow recovers from that and gets her decapitated head back“ the main cast (disassembly drones & solver hosts) regenerate their lost body parts in every episode.

”We don't know how V survived, we don't know how she tamed that fucking robo-raptor, she just... appears and we're supposed to cheer“. When Sparky (& the sentinels do have sentience) gets knocked out & comes back online, their AI conflicts between “be a good dingo” & “eliminate AI targets” where this becomes a key main point that’s continuously emphasized throughout 3 scenes in episode 6. After V fights Sparky & pins them, Sparky onscreen submits to V. When V starts to get surrounded by the other sentinels, Sparky slowly gets up, doesn’t attack V & looks at the other sentinels right before the cliffhanger. If V WERE to die to the sentinels, then that would create a ton of (real) plot holes as V can regenerate & sentinels don’t attack cores.

”We don't even get to know WHAT the Solver is, despite it being the main villain.” It’s a eldritch entity that‘s “the solver of the absolute fabric, the void, the exponential end” (taken the form of a singularity). The scientists, Nori, Doll, N & the solver itself all say it’s a eldritch entity. We also know they’re separate as the moment the solver drops it’s guard of masking as “Cyn” at the manor, it clarifies it’s the solver & not Cyn at all.

”It seems to be a sentient black hole with the singularity that appears once Uzi rips out Cyn's core but it's not explicitly stated”. It is directly stated by the scientists (“the singularity will consume everything you love dear!”, the other test subject through their notes (drawings of a singularity & the text ‘IT WILL CONSUME’), & Nori (‘the singularity awakens’) to be a entity whose true form is a living singularity. It’s even shown in the ending of the series where Cyn’s core gets destroyed & the main absolute solver reveals it’s form as the singularity.

”Hell, with Solver stating "assimilating is better than explaining" and that "I'M NOT SOLVED" message, it's like the writers are mocking the viewers for wanting answers.” But we have the answers. The main solver consumes matter & is constantly assimilating for more (to the point where it devours planets & several solar systems), half of the cast (including the solver) state that it’s gonna consume everything in the universe & is a overtime universal threat, & the solver says it‘s “the exponential end”. From this, we can easily infer it’s goal is to consume everything. Why? Because it’s a eldritch horror that seeks for more matter &/or energy.

Why is the eldritch horror a eldritch horror? Because it simply is. How was it born & what birthed it & what birthed whoever birthed it & so on? We aren’t supposed to know that because it’s a eldritch being, & those answers aren’t necessary to the series. Eldritch & cosmic horrors are never supposed to be perfectly explained down to their scientific or historical level.

“We see from the post-credits scene that the Solver's still alive inside Uzi's body, and like... what happened to it?? Is it actually the Solver or a freed Cyn?” It’s the solver. Cyn’s core was entirely destroyed, it’s eyes are yellow & the subtitles have always said ”SOLVER”. Even in the original murder drones script, that’s always been the solver.

There’s lots of genuine critiques you can use about the entirety of murder drones instead such as the pacing, the spoonfeeding, Nori just being a plot device with depth that should’ve been present, how the V vs Uzi fight could’ve been written better, how Khan & Uzi should’ve had their own episode together, the novels (which aren‘t canon to the series & made by a different writer under crunch time, but the writing quality is terrible), etc. But making up things isn’t a critique.

I just finished watching Legend of Korra season one and the explanation for how Amon takes bending doesn’t make sense to me. As I understand it, season was written and plotted to be stand alone, so I feel safe discussing this without bringing later seasons into it.

So Amon was a blood bender. This creates several problems for me.

1. As depicted so far, blood bending only effects people while it is being used. Even with Amon’s father, who could do things like blood bend without a full moon or making visible motions, we get no indication he can passively control people when he isn’t actively trying to. How can Amon indefinitely blood bend someone?

2. The only argument I can think of is if he did some permanent damage, like if he broke a limb while blood bending that limb would still be broken when he was done. But bending as it’s been expressed to us so far is due to some spiritual property, not a physical organ or system that can be damaged or blocked off. Water bending shouldn’t be able to control a person’s spiritual energy.

3. When Korra returned Lin’s bending at the end of the season, she used Aang’s energy bending method. But Amon was bending blood, not energy. So whatever he did should be a bodily alteration, not a spiritual one.

Am I completely misunderstanding how energy bending/Amon are supposed to work, or is this an issue for other people too?

When the JL and avengers got teleported to each others universes, superman was disgusted at how unstable and chaotic the marvel universe was. No order, no peace, no civility and just so much unresolved societal issues. Superman was angry the marvel heroes weren't doing their jobs as heroes.

Meanwhile in the DC universe, the avengers are welcomed with love and even asked for their autographs by the civilians. The avengers see their heroes worshipped and loved by society and how much more civil they are compared to their own universe. The tv also showcased the justice league's achievements and contributations and how they helped society. But cap for some reason thinks this was......fascism.

From my point of view superman has more reason to be disappointed and disgusted by the marvel universe especially when you take into account how a lot of the avengers including captain america and especially the x men at one point have made morally questionable decisions that entered villain territory. I mean if you look at the panel where the JL went to do a quick reconnaissance, they found the hulk choming on hot dogs from a fridge after destroying Michigan after fighting the army.

How can we blame supermam for thinking rhe avengers are trash heroes when one of their flagship heroes the hulk is choming on food while Michigan is in ruins (by his doing btw)

Captain america dosen't really have a good reason call the JL fascists. He genuinely dosen't have a reason to hate on the JL or accuse them of being tyrants.

And you can tell the crossover comic knew this because when they confront each other, the DC heroes look like gods coming down to judge the avengers. They gave the JL more aura than the avengers.

Like for real it's obvious the dc heroes were right to be disappointed with the marvel heroes.

"It's platonic you're just reaching" "they're more like siblings" "guys it's subtext" this is something I see a lot with male friendships in anime. But are friendships between two males in anime really just being misread as something more or is there genuine baiting. Should we really put it past these authors and studios to not bait to get engagement from fujoshis? If persona 6 does not include same sex romance should we put it past them to bait?

I'm a bi male but this subtext shtick is frustrating I'd rather not have it all either full on romance or no subtext or "semi canon". I'm really glad Rune Factory exists sure there are games with non straight men in them, sure there games where you yourself can be in a same sex relationship. But having those kind of games with characters you like on genres you're actually willing to play that's something to truly treasure especially as someone like me who is disillusioned with what people call lgbt culture there's a reason why I'd rather play guardians of azuma over baldur's gate 3 or dragon age when it comes to this. It all comes down to the characters and I'm glad you can go all the way instead of mere subtext.

I've been getting into speculative evolution series and so far the thing that gets me the most hyped are definitely mass extinctions. It's a narrative climax to a series or arc and works well at breathing new creative life into a series.

Usually a spec evolution project starts from a basal form which gradually diversifies and specializes as niches get filled and it becomes difficult to envision a species breaking out of their preferred niche due to intense competition. Mass extinctions serve as a narrative reset as due to so many species getting wiped, adaptive radiation allows an explosion of diversity and you get to see some weird and radical innovations.

A spectacular example I usually point to is the mass extinction episode of alien biospheres. It was a masterpiece of both tragedy as you see entire Clades that you've followed and seen diversify getting completely wiped, but also beauty and an appreciation for the resilience of life as the ones who survived rapidly adapt and reclaim what was once lost. On one hand, the syniscians losing all of their marine and land representives save one tiny genus was probably one of the saddest things I've seen in a spec Evo project. But on the other, seeing ramphodonts go from moles to snakes, elephants and even sapient aliens is insanely cool.

The one downside I do see is that it's kinda telegraphed who will usually survive mass extinctions, it's almost always a small generalist with ways to survive times of scarcity, so it can rather predictable. But the explosion of diversity afterwards is usually cool and allow for a lot of creativity so it's usually worth it to me.

So yeah if you haven't watched Coraline go do that first.

Okay so now we all now the general themes and such of the movie. But on the first watch of the movie, the intro scene is just creepy because it's creepy. It's a creepy doll being made up by a pair of creepy hands. It's enough to get you hooked on the mystery of what's going on around that place.

But after every reveal, the explanation is very simple. It's just showing us the sequence of how the beldam makes the doll, and the doll is just some magic she uses to spy on children and lure them into her web. You'd think that would really boil the sequence down to something pretty basic and not creepy and all now that you know how mundane it really is, she's just making a doll.

But is doesn't get less creepy. It gets MORE creepy and it perfectly encapsulates the theme and the horror of the beldam's nature. Because like most of the beldam's traps, it's a perversion of nurturing. How can something so evil put so much... love? into a toy? She puts so much detail and care into the thing. if the hands weren't her demon hands, you'd think it was just a mother making a toy for her daughter. But when you know that every act of love she ever produces is just a way for her to kill a child, the feeling of unknowing creepyness evolves into dread and terror because you know exactly how poisonous all that care is.

Like i feel the term mary sue is used far more easily compared to the term ''gary stue''? People accuse female characters far more easily of being mary sue while men can get away with being far more special or have an aura of perfection far more easily without being considered gary stues.

not saying mary sues arent bad. characters, even the ones who are meant to be specials in some ways (like prodigies, or geniuses or with some special power) need to also have flaws (above all i think a good character '''feels'' human, and humans are flawed by nature) but i feel like people throw the accusation of mary-sueness far more easily than the reverse?

For how much of an important part this is in many series, the vast majority of authors actually don't really think or properly take things into account when writing.

A simple example is durability both of objects and of people, it's all over the place typically.

You have characters who get thrown through several buildings, somehow being hurt by a knife. Why? Because people's impression of a knife is that it should cut, even though it makes no sense.

Who gets hurt by what is also often just arbitrary, characters don't get hurt when it wouldn't make for an important story point, but then get hurt when it does. For example someone can take a ton of punches from goons, but for some reason if this important character x punches them, even though they should be the same strength as the goons, now they are hurt.

Objects like swords have arbitrary durability, for some reason they can cut through boulders, block bullets, and all that stuff without breaking with no explanation.

Speed is all over the place. Sometimes a character does something that requires them to be really fast, but other times, they just... aren't that fast apparently. All decided by what the author thinks looks cool at the moment.

Actually, speaking of that, fiction in general seems to have a problem with guns. Bullets are really really fast, they typically move at supersonic speeds. A lot of fiction seemingly just does not understand how fast a bullet is, and what the implications of being able to move as fast as them does.

Often times, in anime, bullets are depicted as moving sparks that you can actually track with your eyes as they hit the target. As if you can do that, barring very specific situations.

A bullet is really really fast. Stories often trivialize them way too easily, and then don't consider the implications of a character moving as fast as a bullet.

And then you have actually characters who shouldn't be hurt by bullets, actually being hurt by them. See the example about characters who get thrown through buildings at high speeds, and knives. Same deal with bullets.

Distances are all over the place, authors don't take into account how fast or slow things have to be cross certain distances. Something reaches the moon, in like a second, because the author thought it was cool, not taking into account just how far away the moon is.

In short it's all a mess, there's barely any work which actually has things like durability and speed consistent. You'd think series where the plot is all about battles would actually pay more attention to stuff like this, but they don't.

I am genuinely engaged in a lot of Kishimoto’s romance subplot (except SasuSaku that shits terrible).

Minato and Kushina is already universally loved so I don’t feel I need to defend them much.

My favourite Naruto ship though is easily Naruhina. It actually feels natural and streamlined and pretty genuinely romantic. Like the way their friendship progressed in the chunin exams with Hinata offering her paper to Naruto and then Naruto cheering on Hinata and all the stuff after that was super sweet.

Then in Shippuden when Hinata sacrificed herself for Naruto was… well done I even need to explain? People already adore that moment. What i really liked about it though was this line that was in the manga saying that Hinata’s death caused “the worst emotions Naruto had ever felt”. This is really interesting to me because Jiraiya and Kakashi just died and Sasuke betrayed and tried to kill him yet THIS is the lowest he’s gotten. That’s pretty amazing.

Then there’s all their moments in the war arc that I think worked well.

And in Naruto the Last, regardless of what you think of the movie, Naruto’s confession and proposal to her while running through a field of their memories was probably one of the most romantic moments in anime period.

Now compare all this to other Shonen authors… ya kinda see it.

Deku and Uraraka get nothing but a damn hand shake.

Orihime and Ichigo get literally nothing, no confession, no kiss, no proposal, genuine nothing.

Oda is Oda.

Dragon ball doesn’t have a single actually good ship at all besides maybe Gohan and Videl

Etc etc.

When you compare kishimoto to his piers, you kinda see how much better he is than them.

I just finished ep 4 (will start ep 5 soon), and she is really mean to coco from the beginning. but that’s not the problem, the problem is her fans being so defensive about her’s actions. Some of them say some stupid shit like “she’s a child!”, or “you should not engage with wha if you don’t understand the actions of children” okay, she’s a child but she’s still mean like literally without any reason (right now). Like i was watching coco crying because she accidentally froze her mom 3ep ago and you want me to understand agott’a action without feeling upset?

thank you for reading

It's that you're never confused about why your player character is doing what they're doing or what their place in the world is. For all the intricate lore, Dark Souls is basically a zombie apocalypse story set in a fantasy world, and the player character starts out the game stuck in a jail because they've been infected with this curse or disease. Oscar bails out the player character because he's looking for someone who could fulfill a prophecy that would end this apocalypse. The player character has two motivations for doing what Oscar tells them to do. The first is gratitude, because he sacrificed himself to save them from an eternity of rotting behind bars, and the second is that the present state of affairs in the world is obviously quite bad, and things need to change. Later, the player character follows Frampt because he was friends with the god-king Gwyn, who basically created the world as they know it, and he seems like he knows what he's talking about when he tells the player that they have to confront him. The plot is remarkably simple. You're never confused about why you're fighting the Asylum Demon, Bell Gargoyles, Quelaag, Ornstein and Smough, Gwyn, etc. The only part where Dark Souls falters is in the DLC, as rescuing Princess Dusk does nothing to advance the player character's mission, and they're not stuck in the past, so it's not like they're forced to stay in Oolacile.

Demon's Souls was also good about this. That one was basically an alien invasion story where demons have suddenly appeared and threaten to destroy civilization. The player character is simply a seasoned traveller who's told by the Maiden in Black that they have to kill a handful of powerful demons called Archdemons in order to lull the Old One to sleep, as it's creating these demons. It's also quite simple.

Dark Souls 2 marks the beginning of the point at which the storytelling in FromSoft games becomes obtuse. The first half, in which the player character kills a bunch of Great Souls to get to Drangleic Castle because the Emerald Herald tells them to, is fine, though it's not too clear why the Emerald Herald is an authority figure, and it's stupid that these powerful beings have to be killed because the path to Drangleic Castle is blocked by easily climable rubble, but whatever. The second half, after the player character finds Vendrick, is egregious, though. There's no indication that they're supposed to go to Aldia's Keep to find some dragon, or that they're supposed to go into the Giant Memories, or that killing Nashandra and sitting on a big chair will do anything about the Undead Curse. At least with the first Dark Souls, there's the basic imagery that kindling the First Flame will bring light back into the world.

Bloodborne is quite honest that the player character is just hunting beasts for the sake of hunting beasts, with Gherman telling them not to think too hard about what they're doing, so it isn't convoluted, but it does mean that the story is basically plotless. As for Dark Souls 3 and Elden Ring, I honestly can't really summarise the plot or the in-universe motivation of the player character, and I suspect that most other people who've played them don't understand either, unless they're die-hard fans.

As a longtime watcher of Alan Becker's Animator vs Animation/Animation vs Minecraft series, one thing that has stuck out to me is that he knows how far computers have come, and it shows. From the very first episode, the series took place on ( what is later confirmed to have been ) a clunky laptop in the late 2000's, updating to a bigger computer and eventually one with a drawing tablet. Even the apps the computer uses are shown to update in look as time goes on.

In his AVM series, the textures update as Minecraft itself updates, adding in new mobs and biomes like the Warden and custom creatures like theCreeper dimension mobs . The 3D shots also subtly show what Alan's team is able to do with computers now, whereas something like the Far Landswould have been damn near impossible with what we had when it started.

All this was done by human hands keeping up to date with the advancement of computers, and making pretty incredible-looking things with it.

It's been a couple of days since the Clayface movie came out now and while the movie is doing pretty well and most of the reviews are positive (8/10 on average) there's still some negative criticism here and there.

Some of them are, honestly, fair like the pacing or some minor incoherences in the plot here and there, no problem with those.

HOWEVER, there's one that I've seen that is absolutely not fair. People complaining that Batman didn't show up at any point in the movie.

Now, for some of you who saw the movie, the reason for Batman not showing up, like not even as a cameo, might be obvious but allow me to explain why anyway with two explanations, an out-of-universe one first and an in-universe one second. In other words, a doylist and a watsonian explanation.

Out-of-universe, meta explanation (Doylist): Batman is the most popular superhero ever and him showing up in any project automatically and retroactively makes that project a Batman project. Batman just being present immediatelly highjack a project and turns the attention away from whoever we were working on towards Batman himself. DC made a Justice League Dark animated movie on a team of superhero specialized in supernatural magical threats and yet Batman is the main character of that movie simply because he's present, even though magic is absolutely not his area of expertise and he shouldn't even be there. DC made a movie adapting the Flashpoint paradox yet all of the marketing was focused on micheal Keaton's Batman being in the film.

The only exception being Superman himself who can afford to share the screen with Batman without losing in presence or importance so Batman showing up in Clayface even as a mere cameo would have hurt the movie. The movie is about Matt Haggen and Matt only, the story is about him so artistically speaking we don't need Batman showing up.

In-universe explanation (Watsonian): Batman showing up wouldn't make sense in the plot of the movie given the events and the timeline. Frankly, I don’t see why Batman would care at all until the very end of the movie.

Don't get me wrong, a vigilante going around killing mobsters, an actor and a lawyer would still get Batman's attention eventually, that's like how the Red Hood storyline started, someone killing criminals left and right, even though it looks like just another mob war from a distance.

BUT, also be fair, Matt at the time was such a new villain who went down his shit list so fast that you could easily argue that Batman simply didn't have time to track him down before the events of the movie were already over.

Sure, the murder of Corey and Frank (Matt's actor friend and Matt's lawyer respectively) took place over a couple of days but every other mobster all died practically on the same night, like that's way too fast for Batman to do anything about it.

Plus without pre-existing knowledge, Batman would have no way to know that a shapeshifting mud monster formally known as reknown actor Matt Haggen would be the culprit.

By the end of the movie ? Sure, he would know thanks to Dr Caitlin's testimony to the police and all the files, photos and videos she surrendered to them but before that point ? Clayface's existence was unknown to everyone but Caitlin meaning Matt was impossible to suspect, that's why his shapeshifting makes him so dangerous, if he uses the right set of disguises at the right time in the right context then he's basically invisible.

At best, Batman could find a connection between Matt and the victims just like John did in the film but even then it takes a great leap in logic to go from "all those people wronged Matt Haggen before" to "Matt Haggen is definitely the culprit and is a shapeshifting mud monster" like even for Batman that's a stretch.

It's especially difficult to suspect Matt given that he's never found or seen on any of the crime scenes, he make sure to always stay hidden and never show his face to anyone but his future victim so no witness or camera can ever confirm his presence on the scene so again, even for Batman it would be hard to suspect Matt.

Like yeah sure, there is indeed a connection between Matt and the victims because they're all people he knew and/or wronged him before but it's still impossible to suspect Matt because there's no proof, no eyewitness, straight up nothing that can place him at or near the scene of the crime during or around the time of the murder. According to the evidence, there's straight up nothing to prove he was even there at any point.

Matt even made sure to cover his own tracks by turning into his victims after killing them, adding even more to the general confusion.

But most importantly, the elephant in the room I've been avoiding all this time is this: Clayface takes place before Superman started his "career" so to speak, 3 years before the events of the 2025 movie to be precise, and most of the time, Superman and Batman start roughly around the same time.

So, for all we know, Batman doesn't even exist yet, he hasn't officially started his "career" as Batman.

It's for all of these reasons that Batman showing up wouldn't make sense, it would artistically hurt the movie from a meta perspective and it wouldn't make sense given the film's plot and the timeline of event.

I think people have this faulty view that Batman is an omniscient, all-knowing guy who knows all the ins and out of what happens in Gotham but that's at best half true and only apply to when he reaches the peak of his paranoia like when he invent Brother Eye or something but even then he's still human and can't possibly be aware of everything as if he placed Gotham in a 1984 style surveillance state, he's just a very good detective at the end of the day. No matter how good, a detective doesn't prevent crimes as they happen, he investigate them after the facts.

I read the creator's justification for the cruel world where you can "only try to help, and to protect your friends" or whatever, and I don't even want to watch S2 now, because I know it will just be more of the same thing. The theme is attachments and tragedy in a loop.

(With wonderful animation that made it kinda worth it)

Unpoetically destroying the dreams and promises of a studio trigger protaganist is not a universe I want to go back to. Then trying to apologize to the viewer with the present day event in the epilogue didn't help at all. Good story with a genuinely bad ending.

So many bingo card boxes unchecked, and weird pacing to get here. The fast-forward where he's suddenly barely organic was so jarring.

Adam Smasher is a brick wall mechanism for the studio trigger protags to be thrown against until they're dead. Cool story. Whoops, the MCs had no potential to change the big bad after-all.

Now that the precedent is set for uncaring chaos and constant tragedy, I think the entertainment value is gone. I don't even want to watch S2. Anyone else felt the same way?

Im not a fan of powerscalers who only say in debates:

"Vsbw said that" "vsbw accepted this"

I think the vsbw tiering system is good but i dont recomend using them as a primary source for everything since they have accepted some questionable stuff like:

-ben 10 (human form) was once rated solar system level on vsbw (maybe there is a chance he still is rated that i havent checked). None of his aliens besides Alien X reach that.

-Cthulhu Mythos got degraded to outerversal despite even the loweat structure (the universe) having infinite dimensions on top of each other, that would be low outerversal and the void being above that would be outer. This one is especially bad as they have been ducking attempts to rebunk it back to its old status.

I think with powerscaling its better to not rely on someone else for everything you do.

Just cuz vsbw accepted something doesnt mean its valid.

Also this

I think I've read too many emotionally taxing books this year... Because the latest one I'm reading is getting so heavy at points that for the first time in a while, I'm probably going to have to take a step back before finishing it. I'm both looking forward to seeing what happens yet dreading starting the audiobook for it up.

And it brings to mind something I think is really important when it comes to writing a story, especially one with high stakes.

You need to just give the characters time to just breathe both physically and emotionally.

Just have a few scenes where there is no tension, no drama, nothing going on, and just have the characters spend time with each other. Without fearing that something bad is going to happen or something.

I'm not saying you need to make the story a hug fest, but if you don't give the characters time to relax, the audience probably isn't going to relax and enjoy it either.

I think one example I can think of where this really hurt the story is the Energon Universe comics. DWJ's run was good, but it also had so much death and so much drama and action that it became hard to get invested for some people. Kirkman's improving on this a bit in his run, but given the next arc is going to be focused on an ultra-powerful upgraded Megatron fighting the Autobots, I'm worried it won't last.

But I think one of the biggest examples of how this can become a problem is the Last Jedi.

People have discussed the many issues. Last Jedi has at length, but one of my particular bugbears with it is just how emotionally draining it is. The whole movie just seems to pile hopeless, cynical, sad, depressing, and even nihilistic at times crap over and over again. All the good guys fail miserably in different ways throughout the movie, the Resistance gets decimated, and they only manage to survive because Luke sacrifices himself.

For a movie that's meant to be about the rejection of cynicism and embracing hope, the overall story feels so depressing and cynical throughout that when the story tries to give its thesis, it just rings hollow.

Speaking of Star Wars, for as much as my feelings towards Dave Filoni have become far more negative in recent years, there's a quote from him I really respect and come back to often.

"People always say they want things dark, but if you don't have a plan to draw people out of that and show how these people overcome it, then you just leave your audience in despair."

And he's right.

Having a dark story, having stakes, is good. It's important to have stakes and make sure the characters feel them.

I also just think it makes things more impactful if you actually save the emotionally draining stuff and spread it out throughout the story.

This is also why having a status quo for a decent portion of time is a good thing in my opinion. Lure the audience into a sense of comfort, so when the heavy stuff does happen, it feels more earned and surprising.

But if you pile on emotionally draining stuff on top of emotionally draining stuff and never give the characters a chance to breathe, then be prepared for the audience to stop caring after a while.

This is going to be very long (like the series in question).

I've come to generally "trust" One Piece. There's been many times my enjoyment of the series has been reduced, but it has always managed to pull me back with stuff that makes me interested and impressed all over again. Tomino (Gundam creator), who has talked about OP a few times, once said:

"But, you know, among the popular manga there is manga with very beautiful art and manga with bad art, but interesting nonetheless. And I don’t trust manga with very beautiful art unless it is One Piece.”

I began reading One Piece in high school (2017, I believe) through my school's library, which had an extensive manga catalogue, including what I remember as being most of One Piece. Before that I was a Dragon Ball fanboy (if you stalk my account enough you'll see I used to argue my brains off for DB on r/whowouldwin) who had also tried (though often not finished) other stuff including Hunter x Hunter, One Punch Man (anime and webcomic), Gurren Lagann, and Akira (movie and manga). At the time the manga was in Whole Cake Island. I didn't know much about the series, but I knew it was big and I had seen it referred to as being among the "Holy Shonen Trinity" (now commonly known as the Big Three). When I started it, I found it charming and cool. The concept was appealing, the main characters were likeable, the stories were entertaining, and the SBS section was fun. The art, while very different from most stuff I had seen prior, was also very appealing to me. I remember reading Baratie in band class and loving the action (Luffy breaking Don Krieg's armor was a striking moment to me); it was both cartoony and over the top but hard hitting, kinetic and brutal. When I got to the classic "Help me" moment in Arlong Park I was enamored. I kept reading, very much enjoying most of what I read up until Skypiea, where one or a few volumes were missing in the library. I wasn't as hooked and took a break for a while, and when I came back I made the dumb decision to just read the next volume available, finished Skypiea, and then picked up toward the end of Foxy when I made the switch to digital, missing crucial parts of Skypiea and most of Long Ring. I won't go into an extreme amount of detail of the process after that since I've already talked a lot, but I will say that I enjoyed most of everything that came after, and caught up during Wano. By then it was pretty much cemented as my favorite series. The fact that it was long usually wasn't really a problem to me because I wasn't watching Toei do an impression of a snail and I wasn't clamoring for the series to end.

Over the past several years, One Piece has become highly scrutinized online and has lost a portion of the good will it once carried in the public eye. A lot of this criticism is understandable and expected. There are many problems with One Piece, both lasting and more modern. I myself had become a bit unenthused when I caught up in early Wano, and since then there's been tons of polarizing stuff, including something that Oda can be seen to have anticipated to be controversial, Gear 5. But I also believe that a lot of the common criticism levied towards this series has become a series of lazy, misleading cliches and misrepresentations (largely brought on by the fact that a lot of people either haven't read the series or stopped a while ago). There's an increasingly common perception that One Piece is a low-effort, mass appeal product of unremarkable quality meant to go on forever (a.k.a slop). On the contrary, I truly believe that on balance, One Piece tends to be a high quality series, especially when you compare it to its peers.

First, what are the series' main strengths? I'd say: a knockout main character, a very wide variety of great ancillary characters, strong thematic writing, remarkable emotional resonance, relatively good internal consistency and continuity (especially considering its length and density), great worldbuilding, attention to detail, solid creativity, "vibes," and a story and world that gives a lot to talk and think about. I think that in general, even though these things will waver throughout the story, Oda's skill in these areas remain to this day. I also think that compared to most of the other stuff that would be most likely to be compared to it, One Piece is a monster in these departments. JJK is a high quality series that is absolutely huge, but it would be hard to defend the opinion that Yuji is a a better main character than Luffy for most people who enjoy both series, valid as the opinion may be. Naruto is extremely solid, but I think OP reaches higher peaks and will not have an ending arc as problematic. I got bored with Bleach in a way I didn't with One Piece. I just think it's genuinely distinguishable in quality from a lot of stuff.

Now there's so much stuff I could rant about when it comes to discussion of this series, but I'll get into some prominent topics of contention where I think there are misrepresentations. First, I actually think that One Piece's "politics," or other similar "serious topics," while notable, are not as central to its quality as a lot of the fans will say. There's tons of stuff with similar audiences that addresses that type of stuff, like Fullmetal Alchemist or Avatar the Last Airbender. I'd say in terms of themes, One Piece is actually way more noteworthy "philosophically" or "poetically" than politically. Take the arc of Skypiea, for example (which I went back and fully read, along with Foxy). There clearly are themes that could be called "political," such as claim to land, progress vs. tradition, and the struggle against the erasure of peoples and history. But there should also be talk about the themes of romance (in the literary sense) and dreams, faith, and the human desire for vindication. Don't get me wrong, One Piece has politics. But I think the incorrect framing of One Piece as a battle shonen Communist Manifesto rather than something more like a battle shonen William Blake work actually leads not only to misplaced discussion, but improper criticism! You'll hear stuff like "it's not that deep, One Piece is just dictators bad, slavery bad, racism bad, starving bad" as if the series wasn't saying tons of stuff before the revolutionary themes were even that prominent. As if the most interesting part of Fishman Island isn't that it tells you that racism is bad, but how it explores how discrimination affects a people's spirit, and the paths of healing for that. I mean why, with a series with so much analysis and discussion of parallels to real life, am I the only person I can find who has noticed the possible connection between Shandora (golden city that ascends into the heavens) and the New Jersualem from Revelation (golden city that descends from the heavens)? Especially in an arc with so much talk of "God?" People have pointed out the Israel/Palestine connection in the arc; why not this other possible theme connected to Abrahamic faith and history?

One Piece nowadays often gets flack for its female characters. For example, a viral tweet that has inspired much discourse and many derivatives posited what it would be like if Oda had wrote Maki from JJK. I won't deny that One Piece is primarily a boy's club, and that there's notable fanservice and a repetitive design template for pretty female characters. However, let's look at the actual common claim: that Oda is bad at writing women. Is this really an accurate claim, at least when compared to other shonen, and even JJK itself? When I think of One Piece women, though there's not as many super important or strong ones as the boys, I think of characters that are generally good, if not always in execution, then at least in their construction. Nami, Robin, Vivi, Pudding, Bonney, Big Mom, Carrot, and Hancock are all characters I have positive opinions on. Robin's pre-TS arc would probably be the best character arc in many series, period. People used to directly compare One Piece's relatively good female characters with series like Naruto, though there's long been criticism levied towards designs and sexualization. And with all due respect to Gege, he would have an aneurysm trying to write a character like Kureha. I think it's funny that Maki is used as the example because if you take any other JJK female character, they'd have less prominence, less notable writing, little in terms of a character arc, and likely have a far smaller fanbase. I mean, Gege often got these same "bad women" allegations! As did Horikoshi! I'd sooner accept Oda as a disgusting misogynist than as someone who couldn't write women, because I think that's blatantly untrue. Toriyama has even more direct proof of misogyny ("Lady Red" is pretty insane, content warning), has even more egregious fanservice in early DB, and his series is even more of a boy's club, but I'd he say he can write women too.

As I mentioned before, One Piece will have points where I start to enjoy it less. However, these instances are then punctuated with peaks I just can't get anywhere else. Thriller Bark, which isn't a bad arc in my opinion but is understandably less popular, ends with an absolutely insane sequence when Kuma arrives and is followed by the freaking Sabaody to Marineford stretch. Wano had tons of polarizing stuff, but it also has what might be the best fight in the series, an instant classic Roger moment that redefined what we thought of the One Piece, tons of wow factor, lore stuff, great character stuff for Sanji, and as a whole was a big part of One Piece's new wave of mainstream popularity in the West. Most recently, I personally was not as motivated to read recent Elbaf, though on paper I liked the turns of events. But the recent Sanji stuff is extremely compelling and rewarding, and now I'm really excited for the next chapter. The idea that Oda is just washed and can't make something worth reading anymore is just not true to me, and if you've seen that screenshot of someone ranting on a forum around the time of Enies Lobby complaining that the series had lowered in quality, you've seen that this type of discussion is not new. On that note, when I was reading Naruto a while back, I tended to look up old discussions for chapters after finishing them, as I often do for manga. I already knew that there was tons of criticism, but man, the discussion was brutal. It was very often filled with a significant amount of negativity, even concerning stuff that now is lauded, like Itachi or Obito. This fall from grace posture might just be a feature of the long running shonen space in the information age.

Now, One Piece certainly isn't without its flaws. Some of the main ones I'd point to are:

- Repetitiveness. I don't mean the cliche people bring up about Luffy saving a kingdom/island and princess from a dictator/oppression; One Piece actually deviates from this a lot (many of its most popular or critically acclaimed arcs don't follow this, including Baratie, Water 7, Enies Lobby, Jaya, Sabaody, Amazon Lily, Impel Down, Marineford, Whole Cake Island, Zou, Egghead) and even when it doesn't, the world and wider themes justify liberation from oppression being a common theme. I'm referring to stuff like the narrative forcing the Straw Hats to separate so that they can do a bunch of tasks and maybe have individual fights. Stuff like the forced "Ticking time bomb" element added to a lot of arcs added for tension. Stuff like Luffy conveniently befriending someone from almost everywhere he goes to give him a reason to risk everything for them while the narrative insists he's not a hero. Stuff like gags being repeated without enough variation.

- Fakeout deaths. Self explanatory, though Oda has been killing more people in recent years.

- Decreased focus on the Straw Hats, and a general feeling of flanderization there in general for a bunch of them.

- Bad paneling after the timeskip (though recently it's been more serviceable)

- Art is just not as good anymore. I think the peak of Oda's pen was probably early to mid post timeskip; things were just really sharp and pretty. Understandable; he's getting older. But it's quite noticeable.

- The fight choreo and flow is inconsistent, especially over time. There's some genuinely really good stuff and some really mediocre/bad stuff. Wano actually has some of Oda's best (read 1010 or 1037 again) and then after Wano it's just not as good. This seriously hurts an arc with a good deal of impressive writing like Egghead, because other than that it's largely a mad scramble of fights.

- Related to the fight complaint: the chapters nowadays almost feel like they're intentionally written to be adapted into the anime. As if Oda realized that Toei was putting more effort into the anime, and also that they're only going to adapt one chapter, so the best thing to do was to write them like a storyboard for an episode, bloated with text, and with deemphasized action art. Like he thought "who cares about making my chapter a good comic when the anime will make the actual fights and have cool directing?"

All in all though, I think One Piece is really good for what it is, and I trust that the ending will be good too.

TL;DR: I trust One Piece. I got into the series years ago after already experiencing other series and it captured me like very little before it. I think the increased scrutiny its gotten, while largely understandable, is also kind of inaccurate in ways. Despite its flaws, One Piece is peak battle shonen and will likely stick the landing.