u/vivvav

Art style feels very reminiscent of Sonic Battle.

Because this is medieval fantasy and not modern war? And as a player half the fun of a dungeon is discovering stuff as you go along and surprises make things interesting?

A while back the Pokémon Company was selling this simple brown leather wallet with images of Charizard subtly embossed on one outside corner and an inside fold. You have to look pretty close to see it, so I get to rock a fun nerdy wallet that looks like something basic with six card slots and a decent amount of room for cash if I so choose to carry some.

I don't think it's ever happened in my life.

I think the main difference is scale. The main characters in A:TLA were displayed to be generational talents with immense power and skill. The scene where the Gaang storms the Earth King's palace and blows through a small army of earthbenders is something we just don't see in Korra. Even in season 4, the way an old Toph far past her prime creates a wave of earth to save her family is so far beyond what we usually get to see in the show. It feels like a sufficiently powerful earthbender moving the ground should've been able to stop Kuvira's mech from reaching Republic City. Like if prime Toph or original Bumi had been on that battlefield, it just would've been getting knocked over in a way that would be too hard for Kuvira to keep making it stand up from.

Bending fights in Korra are smaller scale, partly because of the setting. A place like Republic City has bigger concerns with property damage. Most of the main benders who aren't Korra are used to bending in a limited capacity. Bolin and Mako are both talented, but the pro bending rules they operate by give them a boxing-based style that requires bending small amounts of material at once and fighting at a specific range. Lin metalbends with a very specific tool used for a very specific purpose. It's really mostly Tenzin's family and, of all people, the Red Lotus who show off some bigger feats that feel more in line with the epic fantasy feel ATLA reached in its biggest moments.

And the thing is, the scale of the fights reflects the plot. Korra is a different villain every season, a different narrow-minded individual with their own particular scheme, taking place in a handful of key locations. ATLA is a big epic story of war that spans the entire globe. The world needed Aang to come back in his time and save them. Korra winds up in the position of a world that doesn't seem like it needs or even really wants the Avatar's guidance. Aang had grand purpose, so he got these grand displays of power. Korra faces the world a day at a time, so she gets these more personal, close-up intensive fights.

Fuck no, you picked the three weirdest dudes in the land.

Why do you even have the blue box in the key?

Honestly by the end of Season 1, outside of the times they make a direct reference to it, you forget that her voice is a joke and it stops being weird.

I don't really play Spyro for the story, because the story of the original games was always incredibly bare bones. Sure, they had humor, personality, and a lot of fun characters, but most of those characters have less than 5 minutes of dialogue probably.

I'm not saying I don't like it, I am saying I would hope that over 25 years after Year of the Dragon, if Spyro is making a real return with an actual new game that they've learned a little bit from the past quarter-century of advancement in video game storytelling. I'm definitely not asking for it to be something like God of War, but if the story got like, 50% of the way to Sly Cooper's level, that'd be a nice upgrade.

I'll be real I've never really thought about it at all and even now with you asking me my brain's still going "What is that? I've never seen that before."

I've been playing it on Switch for the past week. I'll warn you, I just got to the postgame today, and it's fucking agonizing. There's still a lot of characters to unlock if you're going for completion, but the costs of continuing to get shit done goes up astronomically. That's not an issue for Beri 'cuz you'll be making that shit hand over fist, and it's an inconvenience for the hearts, but there are only so many ways to get coins, and the further you get into the game the longer it takes to get more of them.

I am so fucking sick of these shitty Tiktok edits of clips. Some random song thrown in there to try and throw the copyright bots off the scent, auto subtitles that always get something wrong, it's just worse than the original clip.

Needs more One Piece but a good start.

It's surprisingly rare for my favorite character in a series to be the actual main character. Usually it's one of the main characters but not the poster hero, or a notable member of the supporting cast. Once in a while a villain, but not often. I like Toph more than Aang in Avatar, I like Murray more than Sly in Sly Cooper, I like Piccolo more than Goku in Dragon Ball.

Luffy is... actually not my favorite character in One Piece. Franky is. The guy just speaks to my soul in a unique way. But the major difference between Luffy and all those other protags I mentioned is that, even if he's not my personal favorite, he is unquestionably the BEST character in all of One Piece. I cannot think of another series where the entire heart of the thing is as defined by its main protagonist as One Piece is. An absolute masterpiece of a character I'm so glad I get to follow the story of in my lifetime. What a ride this series has been.

She became one of the most interesting characters in the series in this episode. It really is an antagonist born from a kind desire. The thing I love about the reveal is that it doesn't feel out of line with the generous woman who's one of the hearts of the community we saw in the earlier episodes. I really hope we see a lot more of her.

All those likes and dislikes are valid but I distrust anyone who is a self-described intellectual.

While I wasn't a big fan of the art rehaul, that IS Bruce Wayne right there.

So it's an animal sidekick that's also character so you can hang with them AND a normal villager at the same time, got it.

Ok wait, I didn't watch the Showcase. What's an Adventure Companion?

There are actually a lot of more recent shows filled with political elements and societal commentary than I think most people give credit for, especially stemming from the 2010's as a Golden Era of animation, especially on Cartoon Network. The big one that comes to mind is Gumball, both the original "Amazing World of Gumball" series and especially the revival seasons, "The Wonderfully Weird World of Gumball", which just does not give a fuck about the establishment's feelings when it comes to their jokes.

Adventure Time was at its height a very nuanced show that really explored the main character's emotional growth in complex ways that didn't always spell out everything or give clean answers. Plus it's the origin of the famous clip of Jake explaining how the law works.

Regular Show isn't overtly political but it was a kids show where all the main characters were adults and it did a lot to highlight problems adults face and how much grown up life can suck. This is especially prominent with the character Benson, who as the series goes on basically gets portrayed as an alcoholic, with barbecue wings being the stand-in for alcohol that gets the characters loopy and sloppy.

I think the thing that gets me is people are always like "This era was better because it wasn't afraid to treat kids like they were smart" and on the whole I feel like most animation I've seen from across the eras isn't afraid of that. At least not the stuff that has something to say. The 2017 DuckTales reboot introduced the character of the Duck triplets' mom and had a few episodes exploring the concept of "how does a parent who's been missing your entire life find a way to fit into the family dynamic when they finally return?" The 90's cartoon Recess took the prison movie tropes and applied it to the schoolyard, complete with an oppressive teacher and corrupt principal who loved to punish kids and different groups of kids basically functioning as prison gangs with highly specialized knowledge and skill sets in the form of cliques.

So yeah, I'm not so sure it's "would never dare touch" as much as you're not watching the shows.

I do think Lex has the all-time great monologue between the two of them, though. One of my all-time favorite moments in TV.

This is the thing I've NEVER gotten. If your DM agrees to it, in D&D you can play a paladin or cleric of Jesus Christ who slays demons with holy magic. Sure, most players will NEVER want to do that, but specifically when some fundie finds out "you can fight demons in it" shouldn't that be a GOOD thing to them? That the demons are the bad guys and you stop them from doing their demonic evil?

And grass type is weak to ice type in Pokémon. Winter kills plants. It's a well-known thing.

Fuckin' long-ass over-complicated shaggy dog nonsense, wasting my goddamn time with this chicanery, long fuckin' walk to a damn monkeyshine.

I approve. Great work.

Because they have no actual principles and don't care that they're hypocrites. They're giant fucking babies who want the thing they want RIGHT NOW in EXACTLY the way they want it no matter how illogical or impossible it is and nothing else matters.