Both the author & characters do a piss poor job at displaying magic as anything but a murder tool. I've seen Frieren use zolteraak onscreen more than any of the casual or useless spells or even anything creative for her supposed love of magic.

Like deadass this manga feels as if the author wanted to write a shonen but was forced to slice of life. I'll even go farther and say Frieren IS a shonen just with good pacing and good female characters. But I digress. Back to the main point:

For a “slice of life” non combat applications of magic are seemingly forgotten almost the instant they are introduced like fleeting mcguffins that only exist for a single episode. And I have to say that it gets weirder to think about with time as our mc supposedly loves magic and it emphasizes she collects and studies non combat spells as a hobby.

You would think a character like that is creative in their use of problem solving with magic…wrong apparently. Frieren and her crew get stumped by mere crossings on a windy day despite handling much worse in combat every other day. Like i shit you not the same fucking episode they fight an flock of dragons, stark literally miles in the air but apparently a bit of wind and distance is too much for this crew.

Serie is supposed to be a foil to frieren; magic for casual vs magic for power. But the author is proving Serie right as in this series magic is seaminlgy fucking useless outside of killing demons or people. Methode dropped the “I love magic” bomb saying her people don't use magic creatively unlike herself, but while she's saying that she's fighting a demon and using energy blasts…you know the most basic non creative magic ever? Like this series says one thing but does the complete fucking opposite its so bizzare. I feel like Freiren repeated there are so many non combat ways to use magic but it's just not shown.

A 1000+ elf who collects spells as much as she eats should be having houses and rooms moving like in Harry potter.

Also Im starting to think Frieren fans are just as bad as one piece fans with marketing their show as well:

“Shonentards dont understand frieren!” When there is literally a fight every other episode and there was a literal tournament arc.

“Yall want this to be dbz so bad” yeah so does the author apparently as the most used spell is basically a Ki blast.

“Its a character drama, not a fight anime” yet there are more fights and emphases on the power system than any of our mcs world views getting challenged for even a second. The narrative and tone just suggest that they are right and any conflict between the crew at all is just used for comedy.

I love Frieren but this show and fans give mixed ass signals.

Many people say the ending ruined the whole movie, that Brian didn't deserve this kind of tragedy, but they're wrong. Brian's explosive ending is actually a catharsis for the audience. The Umbrella Corporation is an extremely cruel, utterly inhuman evil megacorporation, and most of its employees are just as cold-hearted, greedy, and cowardly. When Brian finally reaches the lab after enduring countless hardships, none of the scientists inside care about him. To them, he is just a tool for delivering the antidote, a talking delivery robot—nothing more. In their eyes, they are elite biological scientists from prestigious science universities, the cream of the crop, while he is just an unnoticed courier, a nobody, not worth wasting the antidote on. In particular, the scientists' real goal was probably to use the antidote as a bargaining chip in negotiations with the company, so that the company would send someone to rescue them—and maybe even get them promoted and given a raise. So when I saw the protagonist slaughter them all, I felt an immense, deep satisfaction.

And think about it: such a dangerous and important task was handed to a lowly delivery worker. This is precisely a metaphor for the layer-by-layer outsourcing of work under the modern capitalist system. The protagonist is an ordinary person who follows the rules and never questions the system of his job or his life, yet he is completely destroyed by a zombie disaster brought about by a runaway corporation and elites who never cared about him. This is exactly the social commentary the director wanted to express.

First time posting here. I think this is a pretty unpopular opinion, judging off of how even the main and folk CSM reddits respectively find this ending to be dogshit. I’ve already posted there before, but now I wanna see what non CSM related subs are like in terms of reception. So I may post this in quite a few different ones!

HUGE SPOILER WARNING

I loved it.  Made a big post about it here (which tbh its a bit clunky and outdated, only really addressing people’s complaints about the story and why I don’t find them to be a deal breaker. I am a god awful writer tho either way lol)
https://www.reddit.com/r/ChainsawMan/s/fFc2eiosLu

But to try to summarise my thoughts without wasting too much time:

Structurally creative & unpredictable, with the latter being SUPER important as to how I enjoy a story. The Deus Ex Machina was well done to me, ala David Lynch’s Wild At Heart, WITHOUT feeling like it sacrificed the story’s signature atmosphere and break-neck pacing OR its recurring themes.

I found the reset to be consistent (rather than nonsensical, underdeveloped or out of nowhere) with the series’s established rules AND was even foreshadowed. Denji & Asa escaping this current, shitty world was set up as early as the  Aquarium arc. Then doubly reinforced in Aging Arc, with Denji’s line to Asa.

Hell, the Fake Chainsaw Man says on TV that he will make a “devilless world” where “Adam and Eve” can live. Guess what the REAL Chainsaw Man did to the dynamic Man and Woman duo of the manga.. moments after they shared their SIN of patricide to one another. Pretty blatant foreshadowing there. 

Finally, as a little cherry on top, I’d say it's a sincere, personal and genuine ending from Fujimoto. Pochita literally ends the Chainsaw Man manga by erasing Chainsaw Man, giving the story a bit of self awareness and metaness.

The themes & such throughout the entire part covers many of his recurring topics, from abusive parents, to dreams, to hero and idol worship. Hell, it even ties together his interviews, from the Mongolian Street Child, to Spirited Away, to the Big Lebowski, to the American Sniper (and funnily enough I hate these last two films LMAO). He’s got consistent things he wants to talk about, and I respect that.
I believe this is more sincere and auteur driven than how most shonen stories end, where they its based purely on the characters/plot. 

Extra tidbit: Art downgraded in terms of detail & realism but the final arc has some of the best usages of speed lines and camera work in the ENTIRE manga. Pochita Vs Yoru was great. 

Besides my linked post + everything I’ve written here, I would like to also bring forward these other positive links about the story that I found to be great. 

https://www.reddit.com/r/ChainsawMan/s/nA9DMj7Gnh (Summary/Analysis of all of Part 2 after reread)

-https://www.reddit.com/r/ChainsawMan/s/hsAXDyTRCp (Part 2 Ending thoughts)

-https://www.reddit.com/r/ChainsawMan/s/G5gXNJG1Di (Its time to grow up - the meaning behind Chapter 231)

-https://www.reddit.com/r/ChainsawMan/s/7g9MY0j0jp (Pochita is Denji’s Father psychoanalysis)

-https://www.reddit.com/r/ChainsawManTheories/s/1nnGgBsT9W (long analysis - chainsaw man has a rigorous structure)

-What 'Chainsaw Man' and 'Evangelion' Share in Their Endings https://gizmodo.com/chainsaw-man-chapter-232-ending-evangelion-2000737905

-https://note.com/uzume369/n/n6c7aee488e6b (really good Japanese review about the story, translated it using Google and AI ofc but the meaning should still be retained)

-https://x.com/bpm120run/status/2040710050365559238?s=46 (another Japanese perspective on twitter)

Comments with nice interpretations:

-https://www.reddit.com/r/ChainsawMan/s/I4JesZLi5m (Chapter 219 analysis)

-https://www.reddit.com/r/Chainsawfolk/s/oo11Oyezz4 (Yoru final moments analysis)

-https://www.reddit.com/r/Chainsawfolk/s/fkQiIzVpuv (Theory on Death Devil’s true intentions)

Definitely more out there but these are the ones that stuck with me.

TLDR: Way overblown hate. Worst manga ending of all time is insane. Way worse than Part 1 doesn’t make sense to me. In fact, I can understand hating ALL of Chainsaw Man for being incredibly derivative or for an overall critique on Fujimoto’s writing, rather than hating squarely on the ending.

Have you ever seen a person murdered alive?

A strange question, I know, so allow me to rephrase it: Have you ever seen a fictional character so completely and utterly desecrated, like a Shinto temple with corpses strewn everywhere, while still alive? The original character, their original personality, goals, hopes, identity, the very core of their fictional being obliterated to the point that they are not the same character and have more in common with graveyard ghouls and kudlaks than the original character, much less the facsimile of a living breathing woman???

I have witnessed such an extraordinary act... I have witnessed a fictional character, my comfort character, what was most likely the very first example I had ever saw of a fictional empowered female character be murdered alive. I watched, with my own two eyes, as Katara was murdered alive in the Avatar Aang movie and that's not even the worse part, no, the worst part was the sheer and utter shamelessness as her lifeless body was paraded around the street, for the whole world to see what had been done to her. It was disgusting, horrifying, nightmarish, I'd even say it was phantasmagoric. I did not think it was possible to do to her character what had been done in this movie, but not only was I proven wrong, but now I wonder if this is just the final nail in the slow murdering of her character that has been happening for over 10 years.

Katara of the Southern Water tribe was spirited, driven, her passion only matched by her compassion she showed to other people. She was a survivor of attempted genocide of her people that was carried out by the Fire Nation, making her basically the Last Waterbender of the Southern Water Tribe. She watched her own mother be murdered in front of her, a trauma doubled by the fact that as the new oldest girl in her tribe it was now her responsibility to play second mother to a community of mostly children. Katara is the eldest daughter that was forced to grow up fast, forced to sacrifice her childhood as everyone but her gets to move on from her mother's murder, but no matter how much she sacrificed she never let go of the hope that one day things would get better until they did. Katara was the girl that fought with sexist old men to be treated with the same respect they gave to boys, she was the girl who never backed down from fighting oppressors no matter what form they took, she was the girl who willingly took a stand against generational trauma induced revenge because as much as she couldn't forgive the Fire Nation for what they did she never wished ill on its innocent people either. That's who Katara is.

So, the writers killed her. She was too "angry", too "aggressive", too "selfish" to be the perfect Trad Wife that they always wanted her to be. This is reflected in everything Avatar media after Book 3. Legend of Korra, Katara is a powerless widow that shies away from the battlefield unlike Toph and Zuko and her only function is to be the perfect Grandma and heal people. Avatar comic books, Katara's whole character is adjusting to her new role as a Trad Wife. Natla, Katara's emotions were borderline erased and while her plotlines are similar enough to the original, the writers made sure that Aang disapproves and disparages of every independent action she takes: she's selfish for wanting Pakku to teach her and should stick to healing so she doesn't get hurt, she's an idiot for trying to help refugees and everything bad happening is her fault, etc.

This movie might have been the final nail in the real Katara's coffin, but that doesn't change the sheer sadism with which she was murdered. Every. Single. Aspect. Of. Katara's. Identity. Has. Been. Erased but that she is Aang's Trad Wife. She's a "member of Republic City's council" solely for supporting her husband. She has no hobbies, no side jobs, we don't even see her passing laws like the one where she apparently banned bloodbending. She doesn't even accompany her husband on his trips to Air Temples around the world, she must be a stay-at-home Trad Wife who only exists to encourage her man while her man can't be bothered to support her once. Katara gets one big display of her power, parting the sea like Moses, before she is immediately put into her place with repeated back-to-back defeats served to her by all of the movie's main villains. But at least she can heal her man.

All of this could have been forgiven. Ignored even. I was willing to pull the wool back over my eyes for the sake of nostalgia. But the writers murdered Katara alive. Twice! Katara, a survivor of attempted genocide was told to her face twice that she didn't understand what it's like to survive a massacre, to watch her people slaughtered in front of her, to be the living memory of a forgotten culture when she was the only person who could understand! The real Katara would have clapped back, look at Aang like he had stabbed her in the heart and told off Tagah about how she watched her own mother die protecting her from genocide. BUT THIS IS NOT KATARA!!! I don't know who this witch wearing her skin is, I don't know where this haint came from, it might be Katara's body, but that thing is not Katara. This man says to it that it doesn't know what it's like to survive genocide, and the imposter gives a speech about her husband instead of herself, disgusting!

Katara is drowned, but the body is dry. Katara is buried, but the body is above ground. Katara burned to a crisp, but not a hair is singed. Katara suffocated with lungs full of fake pneuma. Katara was murdered alive.

(I wrote this rant months ago when I first watched the movie so it's kind of unhinged, but I still stand by what I said)

Most live-action shows nowadays borrow EVERYTHING from the comics and just produce it live. What's the point? We already know the plot from the fucking comics, why should I watch the live adaptation? It kills creativity. Invincible is a prime example of this; other than a few character quirk changes, NOTHING of the original plot from the comics has been altered, and we know that eventually Invincible will win all of his battles because the "writers" are just straight copying the entire comic script.

Live adaptations/animated adaptations of comics should only use the characters from the comics that they're adapting and nothing else. Come up with a new, interesting plot. I'm tired of watching the same old good-guys-defeat-the-bad-guy-because-the-bad-guy-forgot-how-to-use-his-powers-for-plot-convenience trope. Even if they're adapting a certain plot, they should spin it creatively to make something new and unique instead of recycling.

Now I realize that many people probably don't read the source material of said adaptations and the adaptations are entirely new experiences for them, still they're bound to come across something on the internet that will spoil the rest of the show for them.

The so-called writers or "creative" directors should be making an effort to branch away from the source material instead of straight-up copying it, now borrowing some key narrative plot points or arcs is fine but stealing the entire plot is just straight up boring and an insult to artistic values. A character, narrative arc etc being "comic-accurate" should be an insult not a compliment. Just because it's comic accurate doesn't mean it's good.

The Boys did well initially because of how Kripke diverged from the original narrative and did his own thing with his creation, at one point people believed that The Boys will ruin what Marvel and DC had built over decades with its unconventional take on superheroes. Too bad the show ended the way it did, I barely ever hear anyone even talk about that show anymore which is sad given how it was all that people COULD talk about when the show was in its second season.

Clark from the Backrooms movie is unironically one of my favorite characters, and I’d argue he’s one of the best fictional characters ever written. His whole life is turned upside down because he refuses to change, which is probably why he likes architecture so much: it’s uniform. He likes things the way he likes them, and when met with adversity, either leaves or fights it. He finds something of an out in the Backrooms, a dimension of what he hopes he can make into uniformity, and he takes finding this place he could have only dreamed of as a sign he doesn’t need to change. He slips deeper into his self-destructive habits, refusing to stop even as people he cares about die from his actions.
The Backrooms, just like his whisky, is an addiction.
Yet despite this, despite his verbal abuse to his wife and despite causing the death of two innocent young people, there’s still something very moral deep within him. He understands the Backrooms can fix things, but doesn’t understand how, so he keeps Kat’s head in the fridge in hopes she can somehow come back.
The dinner scene might be the best example of his character change, though. He holds power in the situation, and attempts to intimidate Mary into saying what he wants to hear, to confirm that he’s not doing anything wrong. Yet when she refuses, and even insults him, he seems to quite directly feel shame for his actions, even asking how he can change for the better for, presumably, one of the first times in his life. He even releases Mary, despite having (from his perspective) reasons not to.
Then, Captain Clark appears. He’s everything Clark was, a violent, angry fool who looks like a violent, angry fool. He shares the same key characteristic of Clark: a refusal to change. It’s only after Clark realizes his error, and even seems to want to change, that Captain Clark appears, and is driven to anger to the point of violently killing Clark. I myself don’t believe Clark meant it when he said “we don’t have to change”, I think he was simply afraid, and had already accepted that he needed to fix himself.
I love Clark, and for a terrible reason, I find him relatable. He’s angry and unwilling to change, which for a long time, I was like, too. But despite his violent demise, he still realized he had to change, and that small thing gave me a great sense of both hope and urgency.

After Ichigo Kurosaki uses the Final Getsuga Tensho (Mugetsu), Aizen is overwhelmingly beaten in sheer physical and spiritual power. However, because Aizen had fused with the Hogyoku, he remains immortal. His body regenerates, and he fully expects to evolve further and finally destroy Ichigo.

Instead, a strange spell suddenly activates inside his body**:-** (99th Style Seal), placed by Urahara. Urahara reveals that he planted this seal inside another Kido spell earlier in the fight. It only activated because the Hōgyoku began rejecting Aizen as its master, weakened by Ichigo's strength and Aizen's own subconscious doubts.

As the seal begins consuming and binding him, Aizen completely loses his cool

After this,Urahara confronts Aizen's and says this

"I despise you, Urahara Kisuke! With your intellect, why don't you take action?! Why do you submit yourself to THAT THING?!"

To add on to add I'll explain why he says this

Aizen spent his entire life in absolute isolation because no one possessed his level of strength or intellect—except Kisuke Urahara. Aizen respected Urahara's genius above all others.

However, Aizen's life goal was to overthrow the Soul King (the "thing" he refers to), whom he viewed as a mindless, hollow lynchpin maintaining a stagnant, broken world. To Aizen, anyone with supreme intelligence should naturally want to rewrite the universe and take control.

When Aizen realized Urahara—the only person who matched his intellect—knew the truth about the Soul King but chose to preserve the status quo, Aizen saw it as unforgivable cowardice and betrayal of intellect

The conversation continues on and Aizen's says this

"Without the Soul King, Soul Society would split apart. That's just how the world is."

"A victor must not talk about how the world IS, but how the world SHOULD BE!!"

THis interpets that

1)Aizen’s Mindset (The Ruler): True intellect means imposing your vision on the world to correct its flaws, no matter the cost.

2)Urahara’s Mindset (The Guardian): True intellect means understanding the boundaries of existence and protecting stability, even if the system is imperfect.

Both know the truth both The Soul King yet their paths varied differently,One choose to oppose Soul Society and the world,And the Other one Choose to side/ally with it and confront the other

FURTHER MORE TO ADD,WE'LL AIZEN REASON FOR WHAT HE IS

A. Loneliness at the Peak

Ichigo reveals that when their swords crossed, he felt nothing but loneliness from Aizen's Soul. From the day he was born, Aizen was vastly stronger and smarter than everyone around him. Because of this gap, he could never relate to anyone as a peer.

B. The Desire to Be Normal

The Hogyoku does not just grant power; it manifests the deepest desires of the user’s heart.

Deep down, behind all his god-complex rhetoric, Aizen wished to simply be a normal Soul Reaper—or at least find an equal who could stand beside him. When Ichigo surpassed him, Aizen’s subconscious desire was finally fulfilled: he was no longer uniquely isolated at the top. The Hogyoku recognized this suppressed desire and stripped away his god-like powers, allowing Urahara's seal to take hold

So yea,I REALLY REALLY LOVED THIS SCENE,I just wanted to make a post about it,i know many people tend to call Aizen'"Hype and Aura" Villain but I think he's way more than that

This is a script for a video I'm working on!

Introduction

In my opinion, Death Battle is one of the best shows on YouTube, a series about analyzing lore and science to determine which characters would win in a fight. Death Battle has been put through the wringer, starting from a side dish on ScrewAttack, and rising from the ashes of RoosterTeeth to become independent, all due to the support of a massive community that loves what they do. 

After many controversies, they are going to tackle one of the biggest matchup debates out there with one of their most anticipated video yet. Goku vs. Saitama. 

The video is set to come out this Sunday and will be animated by the ever-so-talented MORØ, who has his own crossover series in the works. 

Both characters hold a very infamous spot when it comes to Death Battle. Goku’s only other matchup on the show is Superman, a more controversial matchup. Dragon Ball in general has a very polarizing place in Death Battle due to how many Dragon Ball characters have often lost their matchups, angering much of the fanbase. The Death Battle team themselves are huge fans of Dragon Ball. 

Saitama is also a weird case, because despite being One Punch Man, his only episode is a defeat, and most likely he’ll be joining the 0 - 2 club with Lex Luthor and Darth Vader. Hulk recently left due to winning his first battle in years. 

If you want to know why exactly, stick around to the end! 

Bear with me, please; I am not a superfan of either character. I’ve seen both shows, and I am aware of their feats and abilities, so I’m just going off my own research. I apologize in advance for any details I get wrong. 

Saitama as a “gag character”

Saitama, known by his hero name, Caped Baldy, and by other characters as One Punch Man, is a very polarizing character in the powerscaling community. 

The anime/manga itself is often considered well-written and decently done; Saitama, by all means, is a good character. But he’s one of the main reasons why powerscaling is considered a terrible way to consume media. 

People often wank him up, both jokingly and unironically, as one of the most powerful characters in fiction. There are hundreds of comics showing Goku and Superman teaming up only to constantly lose badly against him.

The main reason is that he is ONE PUNCH MAN, meaning he can win the majority of fights with one punch. He did a daily military training regimen that would cripple most humans, but it extended his limits to the point where it seems like he has no limits. 

It’s because of this that most people often call Saitama a “gag character” and use that as the reason why he’d win most matchups. The author of the series, ONE, mentioned that he always wanted to be a “gag manga artist.” The illustrator, Yusuke, was asked if Saitama is a gag character or a parody character, and he answered “yes.” 

When it comes down to it, yes, technically, he is a gag character, but… I don’t think it’s that simple. 

One Punch Man was designed as a satire of shonen power scaling; that doesn’t mean that he is instantly going to KO everything. The idea is the consequences behind it. Think of it this way: he went through an off-screen training arc that would eventually lead to him becoming one of the strongest heroes alive, but he never actually had a hero’s journey no massive adventure or overarching goal; he got what he wanted: to be a superhero. But by doing so, he feels aimless and depressed, no longer feeling the thrill of the fight because no fight actually is a challenge for him.

At the same time, the series doesn’t always take itself seriously; he pulls off wacky and absurd feats for the lols and has ridiculous anti-feats. Which is why most people agree that One Punch Man is both a gag series and a serious one. 

That’s why when it comes to Saitama being a “gag character,” it doesn’t mean he can win every fight. When it comes to looking at his feats in comparison to Goku, you can see why I personally don’t think he’d win. 

If you made it this far into the video, comment your favorite episode of Death Battle!

The Impossible Fight

I’m going to say it. It. Yeah, laugh it up... 

Saitama is not winning. THERE! I know the 3 people who will see this video are planning my lynching the very moment they hear those words, but please bear with me! 

I don’t believe that Saitama can beat Goku. To explain why, I’m going to go over three different reasons. 

1. Power Gap
2. The Punch
3. Versatility 

Power Gap

Saitama’s strongest feat is his Serious Punch Squared Clash when he fought Cosmic Garou, which generated an explosion that erased entire systems. Which is pretty impressive. Now, one of Goku’s feats is when he fought Beerus; their fight caused entire universes to shake, not systems. 

Note that I say “one of” and not “strongest,” because that isn’t even Goku’s best feat, and yet he already caps over Saitama. 

The power gap between them is far too wide; Saitama can fight beings who threaten the universe, but Goku fights beings who threaten the whole of the multiverse or Macrosom. 

Now, I can already hear the counterargument.

"But Toaster, Saitama grows stronger during his fight with Garou! His strength has no limit! If Goku doesn't kill him immediately, Saitama will eventually surpass him!" First of all, that is SIR Toaster to you. Second of all… yes? And no.

During his fight with Cosmic Garou, Saitama's strength increases at an absurd rate. The more intense the fight becomes, the faster he grows, eventually leaving Garou behind despite Garou's ability to copy his power. But just because Saitama can grow stronger doesn't mean he can grow infinitely within any given fight. There’s no reason to assume he could grow that quickly in strength to match Goku’s level of power.

As I said before, the gap is insanely wide; Saitama’s fights are multi-galaxy, but Goku is multiversal. Sure, I could imagine that Saitama could surpass Goku in a certain level of power… if the fight lasted three hours, which it obviously won’t. 

If we're going to account for Saitama's ability to grow, we also have to account for Goku's combat experience, his ability to adapt, his transformations, and the possibility that he could end the fight before Saitama's growth becomes decisive.

The Punch

This brings us to the next section: whether Saitama can even hit Goku. The answer is most likely no. Ignoring that Goku is definitely faster (Saitama can’t fly; he just jumps), he could just activate Ultra Instinct. 

Ultra Instinct allows Goku's body to react to threats without requiring him to consciously think through every movement. Rather than deciding how to dodge an attack and then moving, he can respond instinctively. Even if Goku gets tired, Ultra Instinct will manifest into a giant him and keep fighting. 

In other words, he doesn't have to play the same game as someone who relies primarily on conventional attacks. A major advantage against an opponent whose most iconic method is punching things really, really hard.

Now, obviously, Saitama isn't limited to walking up to someone and throwing a straight punch. He's shown incredible mobility, creative applications of his strength, and the ability to adapt to unusual situations.

And Ultra Instinct isn't an invincible shield, either. It doesn't mean Goku can dodge every attack forever, regardless of his opponent's speed, his own condition, or the circumstances of the fight.

But it does give Goku another way to control the engagement.

He can move through the air, attack from a distance, and combine his physical abilities with ki-based techniques. Saitama can do some surprising things himself, but Goku has a much broader established toolkit for fighting opponents at range. Which matters because the fight wouldn’t just be a contest where both characters stand still and trade punches until one of them falls over. Goku can change the distance or the pace, and force Saitama to respond to different kinds of attacks.

Could Saitama eventually adapt? Possibly.

Could he land a punch? Probably.

I'm not arguing that Goku can spend the entire fight dodging without any possibility of getting hit. I'm arguing that Goku has more options for avoiding attacks and controlling how the fight unfolds.

Versatility

And this brings us to the final point: versatility.

Saitama's fighting style is largely built around his physical abilities. He's so strong that he rarely needs complicated techniques. He can jump enormous distances, withstand devastating attacks, and throw punches with absurd amounts of force. When that's all you need to win, why bother learning anything else?

But Goku is different. He's not just powerful. He's also a martial artist who has spent his entire life fighting, training, and learning from other combatants. He can fight at close range, attack from a distance with ki blasts, fly, teleport using Instant Transmission, and use transformations that dramatically alter his combat capabilities.

Goku also has experience fighting opponents who possess unusual abilities and fighting styles.

Saitama is capable of improvising, and raw physical superiority can overcome a lot of technical advantages. But Goku has more tools available to him, to the point where Saitama would always be playing catch-up. 

If hand-to-hand doesn’t go his way, then Goku can just back up and use ranged attacks. If his opponent tries to overwhelm him with speed, he has techniques that help him react and reposition. If he needs to increase his power, he kaioken get it done. 

And if he needs to adapt to an opponent's behavior, he's spent decades of in-universe time learning how to do exactly that.

Saitama can certainly adapt during a fight, but Goku's experience and broader range of techniques give him more established options from the beginning.

So in conclusion... Goku wins. If you all want to kill me, at least do it after I get my first paycheck.

Whenever you make criticism of a poor writing decision there's bound to be someone defending it by saying "Well, but that's realistic". Well, I don't give a fuck if it's realistic, fictional characters and fictional worlds don't have agency, everything that happens in a story happens because the writers made the decision that it would happen, so something being realistic is irrelevant because the writing decision was bad.

A good example of this is in the Injustass Gods Among Us comic, in which Nightwing falls over and breaks his neck on a rock. Is this a realistic death for someone who is a human being without powers? Yes, lots of people die in similar way. Does this change the fact that the writer decided to give one of the most beloved DC heroes a very anti-climatic death? No

Another aspect of it is that very often when this sort of argument is used is the fact that said realism is unintentional, some times the writers make a decision and it just happens to be realistic. A good example of this is shown in Cobra Kai and Ben 10, both having the respective main character getting their character arcs undone so they can learn the same lesson over and over again. This could be argued as being realistic, since people irl will take multiple times to actually learn and internalize a lesson, and actually changing our behavior is more complex than learning a lesson. In Ben's case even more so since he is a kid, which make the same mistakes more than once. But then we have to ask ourselves the following, did the writers make it like that to showcase how IRL we have to learn the same lesson multiple times or did they do so because they ran out of creativity and decided to do the same shit over and over again? To me it's very clear that it's the latter, so it doesn't matter if it is realistic

Fans tend to treat characters as if they're not "real", but is that a correct viewpoint? Characters are real in the minds of their creator. Any worthwhile creator -- ie, any creator who has the talent to create media a large number of people will consume will create characters that are "real" in their mind.

Any worthwhile creator will at least have an idea of the character's lives outside of the narrative. Their childhood and family circumstances. Their hobbies, likes and dislikes, friends and enemies, etc. The narrative is the focus, but the characters participating in it are not just cardboard cutouts / AI chatbots. Some examples:

The Joker: most of his time is spent doing logistics and people management. Meaning he has a huge amount of charisma and people skills. Where did he develop those skills? He must have a network of people he trusts and who trust him. He must occasionally do favors for others. We get glimpses here and there into these topics, but I get the feeling that in the minds of most fans this doesn't exist at all; he's just a plot-mover for a given storyline and nothing beyond that exists.

Sauron: the god-king of a HUGE tributary empire spanning most of the civilized world. Fans seem to think he's just hanging around Barad-dur doing evil plotting. He undoubtedly does do a lot of plotting, but about WHAT? The narrative focuses on the journey and experiences of the Fellowship, but Sauron is running a huge empire and he's been a fixture to most of humanity for THOUSANDS of years. He has an army of courtiers, MANY officials and nobles from his tributaries going back and forth constantly. Political marriages, rewards, punishments, special events, all the politics around slaves, war, rivalries, trade, etc and so on. Yet fans seem to NEVER consider WHY Barad-dur is so massive, what is actually happening in its "many" halls, etc

And not just antagonists. Even the main characters have lives and backgrounds outside of the narrative.

Batman: fans NEVER wonder why he has such a severe trust issue. Normal people completely trust Superman and other major superheroes because those heroes have proven themselves constantly. But there's something about Bruce that makes it VERY HARD to trust. He must have experiences something in his life which made it him like that. But since the narrative doesn't address it, fans don't even consider it; it's nothing more than a chatbot parameter, a character setting.

Professor Xavier: he freely tramples on people's minds. He won't hurt anyone, but that's not the point. WHY does he think he CAN or even WANT to do that? Something in his long life happened, possibly a compounding string of life events, led Xavier to develop this mindset.

Obviously, the truth of these questions boils down to what is in the minds of the characters' creators. As fans all we can do is look for clues that the creators added to figure out these backstories. It seems like that most fans DON'T look at any further than the surface narrative; no curiosity or even an understanding that the characters they're watching / reading exist outside of the narrative.

Basically every single time that dudes conceived something its irrelevant. If u ask someone on the street who's wolverines biological kid. There gonna say Laura( the clone) and that is amusing. Because the rest might as well not be worth shit.

Did you know the fucker has an actual kid with Jean Grey. Of course you didn't Shine basically just cried blew up some shit and hanged out with May one time.

Then if being irlevent isn't bad enough. Sabertooth is gonna fucking show up genuinely cut you to pieces and spell out pieces of you're body in the Snow. This isn't to say Logan Doesn't work as a paternal figure. They made a whole TV show off this in Evolution. And he's got a sweet relationship with Jubilee most of the time. And offers good advice to some of the younger X-Men. But basically anything that is directly convinced by him might as well be worth shit in the eyes of the writers and casual fans.

Spawn is the ultimate masterclass in style over substance. He became a global icon purely on a heavy-metal look while being completely hollow inside. His seven-foot frame and ridiculous 40-foot cape completely contradict his whiny, pathetic behavior.

Al Simmons fails completely as a protagonist. He acts like a toxic, codependent stalker rather than a tragic romantic hero. He even disgustingly shape-shifts into her new husband just to sneak into her bed.

His entire hype is a 1990s marketing illusion. The artists hide him in pitch-black shadows to mask his total lack of character growth. If a regular guy acted like this, he would be universally clowned and hit with a restraining order.

Necessitating characters with rapid healing to drink blood to heal is the best kind of healing factor. Firstly, it keeps stakes high whilst giving the action freedom to be as violent as possible. Dio gets to aurafarm by scratching his own face, but there's still the threat of not reaching Joseph's blood in time. Getting hit matters because every drop is precious, and fighting becomes inherently more desperate.

This works great with games too, like in Ultrakill; you have to drink blood to heal, which means you have to get up close where it's riskiest. Additionally, the amount healed is proportional to stylish play. This means quickly dodging attacks and trying new weapon combos. In other words, blood healing facilitates risk-taking creative play and sets the pace of combat.

Healing via vampirism also naturally sets a strong dynamic between walking blood bag and bloodsucking leech. Vampires like Alucard in Hellsing suck not just the blood but also the souls of those they consume. Ingesting blood isn't just a way of increasing physical but also spiritual power. Subjugator/subjugated, predator/prey, battle fiction is nothing but another form of drama.

There's also the sexy vampire stuff, although that's more of a general vampirism thing. V1 and Gabriel from Ultrakill are widely shipped due to the whole testing to kill each other but V1 healing and feeding off of Gabriel thing. Alucard from Castlevania also fits the bill, although Symphony doesn't do this particularly well. There's one spell, and only a few enemies actually bleed. Great game though.

Unfortunately real life examples are much less glamorous. Old people siphoning young people's blood to 'reverse' aging is as close as it gets. Most other vampirism is just regular parasitism. When a lamprey learns to grow its entire tail back, maybe I'll appreciate it.

In conclusion, the Wolverine should start slurping people or something.

With Minus one zero coming out i wanted to talk about the Godzilla franchise and the general and how much I appreciate Godzilla franchise.

Sometimes I hear Godzilla is destructive force and nothing more which is far from the case.

We have had many Godzilla films over the years ranging from interesting and thematic,action pack,silly,good,bad,and everything in between.

Godzilla has many interesting comics and has seen and literally done it all.

Very few characters could boast about Godzilla and how he has endured in pop culture and I have seen some question why or has this radiation breathing dinosaur has endured for so long.

I think their are many reasons but one being the power fantasy aspect one being his design. Godzilla has a great and memorable silhouette by combining the aspect of various different animals mainly being mutiple species. You can easily look at just Godzilla silhouette and recognized his character.

The other reason is Godzilla is just a appealing character too many younger audiences. He combines two aspect that children tend to like superpowers plus a dinosaur. Godzilla basically being a superpower dinosaur allows him to have a big appeal to kids and seeing fight is just fun for many people.

The power fantasy and spectacle aspect is very important and allows for a pretty large reach for some people.

Though the next aspect that helps Godzilla is well Godzilla himself. Godzilla throughout the franchise does have a character and yes animals can be characters while he doesn't talk he very much is a character in his own right.

His character has varies throughout the franchise in 1954 he was vengeance towards humans for mutating him and destroying his home, second Godzilla started off almost as destructive force as his predecessor but after a talk with mothra and facing a greater threat in Ghidorah Godzilla has a change of heart and becomes a protector.

Heisei Godzilla was even more destructive then showa counterpart. He was once a regular dinosaur like creature mutated by humanity action and thus turns his wrath towards human kind once more. However heisei Godzilla despite being wrathful is also lonely creature having no one but himself and does long for connection. A interesting moment is when he meets Biollante and doesn't attack her at first. Godzilla even seem to attempt communication as Biollante does share DNA and is a chance for Godzilla not to be alone in the world and unfortunately Biollante attacks and thus Godzilla turn to the path he has always chosen wrath and sees Biollante as a enemy. Godzilla however starts to somewhat mellow out upon meeting jr giving Godzilla something to care about and a connection. Heck as far as I know for a full year which Godzilla vs Space Godzilla takes place a year after vs mechagodzilla heisei Godzilla hasn't attack anything showing Jr positive influence. Unfortunately Godzilla loses everything in vs destroyah as his own power begins to destroy him and he loses the home the island him and Jr made. Godzilla goes back to doing what he has always known lashing out and in the final act Destroyah kills jr. Ironically Destroyah did to Godzilla what Godzilla did throughout the heisei series hurt others. Heisei Godzilla is not a hero heck after killing Ghidorah he immediately went to rampage on a city killing a lot of people who no doubt lost loves ones to Heisei Godzilla rampage. Heisei Godzilla in a truly ironic turn was forced to feel the same way as to the countless humans himself he hurt throughout the years. Godzilla ultimately while he weaken Destroyah to the point the humans can finished him off ultimately his enemy death means nothing as Godzilla dies thinking everything is lost. Godzilla doesn't even get to see Jr alive Godzilla dies alone and in pain. It's beautiful work done for a animal non verbal character. It's plain to see if ones willing to dig in and look into Godzilla character beyond the surface.

Even Monsterverse Godzilla has a lot of appeal to me. Monsterverse Godzilla is the second most benevolent Godzilla next to his Showa counterpart. He has shown himself as intelligent adapting and learning while fighting his enemies. Unlike past incarnation he doesn't tend to care make humanity pay more focus defeating the threat to the planet. While he does have some connection to ancient human and it has become strained in the modern era though occasionally he can also show appreciation like when he looked down on the humans in kotm and giving them a look of almost thank you. He also took the iwi hollow earth warning about skar king very seriously. While mostly benevolent he does also have some negative quality mainly he has a lot of pride in his power and he does hold grudges for better in the case of king Ghidorah and against apes as a whole in the case of Kong species. So aggressive is Godzilla is he will try to settle scores with thoses that are deem rival and enemies. Though ultimately he is more a net good for the planet protecting Earth from threats on it like the case of the mutos and skar king and beyond like King Ghidorah. When it comes down to it even put grudges aside against a common threats like his team up with Kong. While not a complex character he works well for this action and adventure series.

Through it all Godzilla has some core traits mainly he does not back down and push through towards obstacles to the bitter end be it when he's a anti hero or villain.

Godzilla is a character in his own right which makes him easy to root for or against.

I think another core strength with Godzilla is he can be used to tell so many different stories making him very versatile. You can tell war world 2 drama movies like 1954 and minus one, Action and adventure movies like the monsterverse,and sometimes even boarder on horror if you wish to tell that story.

The skys are the limits of what you can do with Godzilla.

Godzilla can also be used to tell various messages and themes mainly protecting the environment which films like Godzilla vs Hedorah tackle, anti war and post war guilt as seen in minus one ,and tells stories of human resilience. When Godzilla is a foe he truly can test human characters be it are ability to try to come up with plans to destroy him or how much can we endure him before he breaks us physically emotionally as seen in minus one. Godzilla as a villian can be the ultimate test.

Though a big theme with the monsterverse which they ask is coexistence possible between humanity and nature which the monsterverse answer is yes but ir requires humanity to swallow their pride and admit the universe doesn't revolve around them alone.

You also have nature vs technology and scientific responsibility. Often times in the Godzilla series it gets questioned the price to pay for such technology. The nukes almost regardless of continuity either awakens or mutate Godzilla and ultimately Godzilla would either never have existed or would have stayed indefinitely in slumber if not for humanity opening Pandora box. Sometimes the best intentions can have devastating consequences like for example in Godzilla vs destroyah the Oxygen destroyer created Destroyah arguably one of the most evil kaiju in the franchise or at least in the top ten. Daisuke Serizawa had no idea his invention would create something so terrible when he killed the first Godzilla in that verison of continuity heck even in the 1954 film he absolutely didn't want the Oxygen destroyer to fall in the wrong hands but regardless Serizawa creation still had horrible consequences.

Though another theme is man arrogance which you can see throughout the monsterverse. Throughout that particularly continuity we see time and time again when people let their egos control their decisions and it leads to terrible consequences.

Kong skull island the bomb a island and disturb the peace putting everyone on the island in endangered. Then Packard not being able to let go of his hatred towards Kong gets more of his men killed and ultimately gets himself killed because of his stubborn pride. 2014 the military has a plan to nuke all the monsters which wouldn't even work but in their arrogance they put a whole city full of people endangered, the military again thinking they know best intervenes in Godzilla and Ghidorah fight resulting in Godzilla out of commission and King Ghidorah taking over the world,then in Godzilla vs Kong despite Godzilla not disturbing anyone the CEO not standing Godzilla being on top makes mechagodzilla and uses Ghidorah skull to kill Godzilla and pays for it as Mechagodzilla goes Rogue and trys to kill everything.

Time and again Godzilla shows the folly of man arrogance and pride which can lead them astray.

Ultimately I think the Godzilla series has a great core appeal his versatility,the themes,and overall just being a fun series.

I think the Spectacle aspect has their place in this franchise as their is a Godzilla you film you can watch for just fun action. I think sometimes people get caught up with movie must always have something deeper to say and I disagree i don't believe everything in fiction has to get you thinking sometimes you can just have a fun time which the Godzilla does offer with some entrys of the franchise.

With that said but if you want something thematically rich then you watch 1954 and minus one. Godzilla is partially so great for the amount of stories you can tell with him he's not limited to just one story.

Godzilla has and will continue endure and I think because of how he adaptable he is in this ever changing world Godzilla will always have a place in it and we will be telling stories with the atomic dinosaur for generations to come.

Real talk.

I hate loser Mcs/Characters and I just mean MCs and other characters who are literally such losers that it makes me wonder why they're even on screen and I'm trying not rip my ears and eyes out.

But the problem isn't just that they're losers or unlikable losers or whatever ,it's just the fact that they're not interesting or likable or just anything in sort of way and you can have a loser MC Or a MC that's a Bum or a Jackass or what but you gotta make them interesting in some shape or form or at the bare minimum, just make them a good character.

Like Bear from Obsession is a massive loser who can't talk to women and is a terrible person all around but that's the fucking point..he's the villain and while he does have his fair share of good traits[not a lot but..they're there]he is objectively a awful human being and that also helps by the actors performance by making him so hateable and slimey and a sniveling coward that he's a good character,he's a loser MC[you can be the protagonist and the villain]done right.

The Deep from The Boys is also another example of a loser character done right cause him being such a bum who can't take accountability to the point where he literally screams NO at the thought of changing as a person is actually funny in a pathetic sort of way + him being this much of a loser contrasts heavily with A-Train's arc on growing and becoming a better person.

But Kazuya and Saira or Sarah or whatever the fuck her name is from Lesbian Space Princess are genuinely loser MCs done wrong cause they are just both so goddamn annoying and not even in a "love to hate them" way but they're both just so..so goddamn annoying and not even in any sort of fun or endearing way.

First up, Kazuya..he is genuinely such a loser,such a bum,such a goddamn DORK that he literally was jacking off to the idea of his girlfriend(or Ex,can't remember clearly but still, the point stands]getting fucked by someone else and he does this not only once but twice where he literally got a BONER at His Ex being cracked by someone else.

And it's also the fact that he literally not only pays someone to be his girlfriend but also is paying what is basically over thousands of dollars to do so and tells others and I'm not someone who should force romance and if you don't romantically like someone,you shouldn't force yourself to be with them..But it actually gets fucking annoying when there are women who actually want him for free and whatnot but instead, he keeps on bending over backwards for a girl he barely got a kiss out of and even when they kissed,she still doesn't want to be with him and it has been years(GTA 6 has been accounted and a release date,presidential elections and more]since this manga was going on and there's still little to progress.

And gonna be so deadass when I say..that this is the authors fault cause this man has admitted(wife and kids,BTW]to being in love with Chizuru and going out on a date with her and even made the MC look like him.

And I wanted to ask..does this man have no editors or assistants or anyone who is willing to tell him "hey,this is goddamn stupid?",like what kinda Dark blackmail does he have on his editors and such to get them to let all the BS he's doing slide?

And Kazuya could either have grown as a person and stopped being such a pathetic loser or he could be used as a cautionary tale for people who refuse to grow up and gain any self respect for themselves.

Or anything is better then what he's doing.

Now..Lesbian Space Princess.

The title alone is already extremely ridiculous and dumb ans makes me feel like this is Satire and it's crazy how this form of media was so bad that it had fandoms uniting and forming a alliance and there are people who are like "oh this movie isn't that bad,y'all are larping" or "this is just a game" and..No,this movie is pretty fucking Awful.

Saira is such a loser who cries and is trying to rescue her ex-girlfriend she was dating for 2 weeks and actually gets a new baddie in Willow(who is one of the very few tolerable characters in this movie,purely cause she wasn't annoying the hell out of me]and they actually form a relationship and do the old Devils tango and etc and you would think that this would lead to her gaining self love and finding a partner who actually loves,respects and cares for her and whatnot and in any good media,this would but nope..she full on DUMPS WILLOW and leaves her on a planet to rescue and get back with her ex..who didn't even want her and whatnot and it just has me asking what even is the FUCKING POINT.

Genuinely, who is this movie even for?

Like this movie feels like something The Boys of Family Guy would Paraody and people will say "oh its Satire" or whatever but isn't Satire supposed to be fucking funny?

Only times this movie made me even chuckle is with the straight white Maliens..which is actually funny to think about it.

The characters people seemed to love[..ok,Love is a stretch,Tolerate/didn't hate]the most were the villains you weren't supposed to like and that's something beautifully funny about that.

Lesbian Space Princess deadass feels homophobic.

So yeah,if you're gonna make a character who's a loser,pls do it right.

I don't want to come across as hating on the Energon Universe or something. I do like the EU overall, and despite some missteps, I'm glad we're finally getting a proper Hasbro shared universe.

But at the same time... I still really miss IDW.

IDW's comics just had a really big depth of setting and scope that I feel is just missing from the Energon Universe. You can tell the writers behind IDW had a lot of passion for the universe and wanted to explore so many different aspects of Transformers lore.

It also managed to balance out having huge casts and still managed to make sure most of the main characters had a presence.

But most of all, especially when you compare it to Skybound, they managed to get character deaths right. They usually happened to nobodies people didn't really care about, or they did it after giving the characters time to shine so the death felt impactful. They didn't just kill off the popular guys for shock value.

And when deaths were reversed, they didn't happen often. Off the top of my head, I think the only major death reversal was Nightbeat.

Now to be fair, I do think if there's anything the Energon Universe is doing better than IDW, it's the human cast. IDW Spike is pretty widely hated across the board, and Hunter was totally wasted. Verity and Marrissa are probably the only major IDW humans who managed to have a satisfying story from start to finish.

I just feel like under IDW, Transformers felt more complex and interesting. Skybound's simple "back to basics" take isn't bad, but it's still lacking in a lot of respects, particularly with handling its cast.

Again, I'm not trying to turn this into an Energon Universe bashing party. I do like it overall. I guess when it comes down to it, I think IDW did a better Transformers story, whereas Skybound is doing a better Hasbro Shared Universe story.

Ark, the dinosaur/prehistoric creature and monster survival game recently released a version with dragons and the designs are straight up ‘we have toothless at home’ levels of towing the legal fine line between inspiration vs copying.

Obviously this has been talked about in the game fan base but as a casual fan of the game who only learned about this recently I think it’s pretty fair to bring some external judgement onto this situation because what are we actually doing? This looks like mobile game ad on TikTok levels of plagiarism. They wanted cross IP partnership models without having cross IP partnership budget. Ark has a particular design philosophy for the bulk of its creatures and love or hate them they have some good designs and usually try give their own spins on stuff or avoid tropes (they have sabretooths long tails, were one of the first big consumer media to present a 4 leg walking spinosaurus even if that’s now outdated) so to see a rip this egregious is just a bad look and I hope to not see that kind of thing again.

"Diana" from lights-out has two major glaring weaknesses that are so, so very obvious that once you think of what the two weaknesses are, the movie becomes a lot less scary.

(1) she cannot harm you in the light.

(2) she depends on the mother's psychiatric illness.

With two obvious weaknesses like that, they could have literally defeated Diana without anyone of the main characters dying.

It's really frustrating (and sad) that Sophie had to exit the movie to get rid of Diana, when the solution was a lot less drastic.

Literally all Sophie had to do to make the demon stop attacking her children, was to take care of her mental health.

That's it. Instead of only deciding to try to get better in the middle of a blackout when the demon is in full power, all she had to do was to take her medication on a brightly lit day. The demon cannot come out in daylight.

It's so simple.

We clearly see this when she attempts to take the pills and the demon throws away the pill bottle.

This literally means that, if Sophie gets up in the morning, opens all the windows and takes her medication...the problem is immediately solved.