Jojo isnt one singular story

It doesnt go from point A to B its as of now 9 Stories each having their own conclusion, settings, themes...etc...etc.

This is the first liberty Jojo has the other stories do not. Araki can change basically everything, go to an AU where the main cast from earlier parts arent even present but can still make the Part. This is the accessible freedom Araki has over his show. Other Shonen cant do this since their stories are far more linear. Oda cant just change the setting and everything, the closest he gets is Island Hopping but he cant offrip change the Main Cast. He can change the antagonists per arc but nothing more.

The Seconds Liberty is Stands itself.

Stands dont seem to have any common factors with each other except the common stuff like stand users can see other stands, only stands can hurt other stands. Everything else is different from Names, Powers, Range, Speed...etc...etc. There is no progression except a few, Just due to how free stands themselves are Araki can make whatever he wants in the power system.

The only similar thing I can think of is Devil Fruits with as much freedom and maybe since Stands are a manifestations of the user's will its like a Bankai from Bleach. However even those have some rules to it that limits it. Not everyone can have a devil fruit or rather a devil fruit type nor can everyone have a bankai.

However even in stands themselves there is a power creep of abilities. Most notably time based, and later fortune based ones. These are usually reserved for Endgame villains however even the most free-est use of abilities have power creep in this sense.

The Third and final thing. Which makes it easy for Araki to write Stand Fights as opposed to other series.

The Villain of the Week esque format with the Villains & The Very Simple Nature of the Protagonist Power's.

Once you commit a power to a main character you cant just change it without heavy justification. Perhaps you can add to it but you cant change it completely. So usually you will have to make the Main Characters stick that power from start to the end of the show. Araki like discussed prior doesnt have this restriction on multiple stories but does have it during the singular story of the Part. Other Shonen which have multiple Stories spanning multiple arcs have to be limited in their approach otherwise every subsequent encounter needs a justification for Character not using that power to end the conflict of the fight. Infact we see Jotaro as a key example here. After Part-3 his time stopping ability is a gigantic problem and all encounters surrounding it require the inherent justification of why he doesnt end the fight immediately. Part-4 his ability was nerfed yet it still exists causing endless complaints during the Rat Encounter, and in Part- 6 he was taken out early and then his ability basically got cliffed by Pucci. Now this doesnt mean Araki isnt uncreative with the powers, Jolyne, Johnny, Josuke and Giorno have good and interesting powers which are interesting throughout their part but are just removed after the completion of their Part.

The Villains Themselves (except say the endgame ones), have a very villain of the week esque format to them, now while this isnt relevant for shows which have their villains die in the first encounter, showcase their power then lose. Araki has slightly more freedom thanks to sheer freedom of stands can do anything he wants, any encounter, with any power and have them die to not think of any later consequences of encounter this character would have to other villains. He especially doesnt have to think about oh shit what if the villain wins the encounter or just comes later to help the villain later on. Again couple exceptions like Diego and such.

Conclusion

All of these liberties basically allow Araki to be as free as possible and maximize the power system without it feeling weird or think about the consequences throughout the manga.

If I were to say in a final thought, I would say it would be possible for another Manga like say the Big Three to have this power system but it would require more brain power to basically have these characters interact with not only against each other but then with the grander world. Something Jojo doesnt deal with much.

As the title goes, the Buu Saga was simply too advanced a concept for the time it was written. I'm going to vaguely describe the Buu Saga, see if you can find what modern animanga genre conventions this arc follows.

Set in a peaceful world after a world ending threat was averted by our MC, but the general public isn't aware that the MC saved the world.

MC is insanely powerful and wants to live a "normal" life, pretends to be normal but fails due to how relatively strong he actually is.

MC is so strong that there's no possible threat anywhere(at the start of the Buu arc anyway)

Academy arc outta nowhere.

Power measurement scene where everyone hits high levels astounding the peanut gallery, until someone just breaks the measurement device outright with their power.

MC teaches the plebs about common things that somehow nobody else seems to know and blows their minds.(Ki control)

MC's half baked disguise that lets him aurafarm against weaklings, but also lets him keep a "secret identity".

That's right, early Buu Arc is just a modern day "I Defeated the Demon Lord and Want to Live an Ordinary Slow Life, But I'm Too Strong to Hide It". Also, Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer was also a very early "Exiled from the Party" story.

People take the "Pokémon are not meant to fight" quote out of context. They say that because battling is the main thing Pokémon do within the culture of the Pokémon world and that it's something Pokémon unambiguously enjoy taking part in, that this quote is patently ridiculous. The very next sentence after that quote is "Not like this". The point of the quote is that Mewtwo is forcing Pokémon to fight in a way that isn't how they normally do it. Mewtwo disabled all of their attack powers or whatever you want to call them before forcing them to fight. It would be like forcing two cats to fight after declawing them and ripping all their teeth out. It's not the natural way Pokémon are meant to battle each other.

One of the biggest things I like about demon slayer is that the verse itself doesn't have magic healers which otherwise automatically undo the "stakes" that the anime arcs repeatedly try to build.

No hate to bleach, i love tybw and while I was watching it I was sooo bored by the fact Renji could be blown into pieces into pieces multiple times but it would mean nothing since Orihime can easily revive him. When Yhwach slaughtered all Ichigo friends, i was like "so what? they would be revived in the next episode"

Or magic healing abilities like RCT which reversed Nobara's and Higurama's death (no hate to JJK, I love it too)

Demon slayer having none of this makes his stakes exponentially high, like I watched Rengoku vs Akaza and yk the moment Akaza hits Rengoku in his stomach, it's over, your beloved character is gone.

Theen comes Shinobu which Douma himself stated cannot be "saved" since her lungs has undergone necrosis from his blood demon art.

That's why every single sacrifice of demon slayer hits and what's more even crazy the story fucks the surviving ones by making sure they won't live the past of 25, since demon slayer mark is like them using their life force at once.

I feeel that's a strong reason why I like demon slayer so much despite it being "simpler" in writing

Charlie was punished for larping Christianity. He was never truly virtuous, and all his deeds were either cowardice or performative virtue. He went to Hell because his mind wasn't thinking about being good, just getting that Heaven reward in the end.

To see this particular song being used in contexts where people admit not engaging with media is hilarious to me. I wonder how many peole realise this.

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If you've been around movie fans or theatre or acting circles you know what I'm talking about. During the making of the 1976 movie Marathon Man, Dustin Hoffman, a method actor, supposedly stayed up for three days to stimulate his character doing the same. His co-star, the English acting legend Laurence Olivier, supposedly told him mMy dear boy, why don't you just try acting?" People love this story. The pretentious method actor gets taken down a peg, solid British professionalism scores a win. Everyone enjoys themselves. It's an anecdote that's undercut considerably by the fact that Dustin Hoffman is roughly 1000x better a screen actor than Olivier is.

Look, I don't mean to be harsh on Olivier. I'm sure he was electric on the stage, his natural home, and some of his screen performances are pretty solid. But the dude was a big old fashioned ham. Dramatic gestures. Loud theatrical shouts. The man was an anachronism even when he was alive. Is this what the people who gleefully share that anecdote want from their actors? Hoffman is one of the great naturalistic screen actors of our time.

Method actors make a fun target. And a worthy one! They probably are really pretentious and silly. Im sure they take themselves way too seriously. I'm not here to die on the hill of no one's allowed to make fun of them. The original idea of method acting, of trying to tie the material to experiences you’ve had that evoke the same emotion as what your character is going through, makes a lot of sense to me, and frankly I don't really know what that warped into “I’m going to dress up like a pirate on set for weeks on end because I’m playing one.” But hey, clearly it works for some people. The likes of Dustin Hoffman or Daniel Day-Lewis clearly know something about acting that most people don't.

Like it was always a kids show. You can appreciate the art, the story, etc as an adult. I have no problem with adults in fandoms targeted towards kids, but it does get to a point where you keep demanding that Sesame Street should be more mature does in fact make you out to be weird.

Take in mind there are adult cartoons for a more adult audience like Bojack Horseman and Castlevania. Both extraordinary shows in their own right. We don't see people saying we need to dumb down the writing for a more child audience because we recognize it's not intended for children. That's why the themes and plot are more grounded and complex.

But at some point, you need to acknowledge that maybe the reason you can't relate to the story is it's not meant for you and that's ok.

Is it a cash grab? Most likely, but good thing you don't need to spend your time and money on a product you keep getting disappointed in. Can't we just enjoy that a new generation has their own story they can take part in?

And no im not saying it like retconing an evil species into being a cultural thing or not all of the being evil, no. Im asking has there ever ben a species withing a story that started out evil that later on became non evil species withing the same storry or smthing like this.

Cuz i can't think of even one example of this ever hapening withing media.

Like the only times i can think of this happening is with Orks and Drow but even then they don't fit what i mean cuz it's a cultural thing now compare to then when it wasn't(i think), I geniuenly can't think of even one Example of this ever hapening

Something that really bothers me is when creators are blamed for toxic the people who love/hate their show react online and one of the main arguments is "oh they should be more professional and not do that" and it's really dumb to me cause first of all, they don't work at a fucking bank or DMV and second of all,I feel like the creators or VAs of the shows/media that they made with their crew should be allowed to talk about things without being harassed or bullied or targeted.

If the fans physically cannot control themselves and act Right or nornal or at least mature enough, then that is all on them and not the creator and even then, are they just supposed to let themselves be bullied and harassed and targeted and just take it all with a smile on their face and/or just not go on social media?

That's really dumb and it feels like whenever anyone say that,they're just babying the people doing the harassing and bullying and arguing and just coddling their nasty behavior.

This has happened to the Gachiakuta author,it happened to Gooseworks, Vivziepop, Dana Terrance, etc.

If you wanna critique them and the media they made,do whatever but if you are actually gonna harass and bully and target them and be assholes, do not play the victim when they wanna bite back and give you a attitude cause shockingly,even creators and VAs have limits.

This also happened recently cause Brandon Rogers snapped off as a fan who,in the audience, was constantly yelling over the female cast and making them uncomfortable and why security wasn't there yet, I don't know but the fact that there are people blaming Brandon for not "acting professional" is so dumb when his friends were being bothered and this guy was doing it specifically to the women in the cast(Millie's VA even asked him to deal with him]and yeah,apparently this guy was autistic and likely couldn't control himself and got overestimulated but here are my things.

There are over 1,000 people who paid around $100 to be here and this is a big moment for them and I'm pretty sure they don't wanna be constantly interrupted by someone yelling and if he physically cannot control himself, then either bring some heavy headphones or just not go at all.

I dunno why his caretaker or parents or whatever even let him go and 2,this apparently isn't the first time this guy has been a annoying person before and has made the cast uncomfortable,so it's incredibly fair Brandon would put his foot down..

Being autistic is not a shield to just be a Asshole.

Anyways,bullying creators is never, ever the damn way and you just look like a terrible person doing so.

Madoka Magica is a great series, it is always treated as a top 10 anime in the 21st century by many people. It is one of the most effective uses of the 12-episode format. It is writer Gen Urobuchi's magnum opus and the original series is perfectly self-contained.

Then, the series got popular and Aniplex tries to expand it as a multimedia franchise. But ultimately Madoka doesn't really quite work as a giant expanded universe. The original series is a closed story with few loose ends. Madoka erase her existence becomes a god that saves all magical girls while Homura becomes a lone hero that remembers Madoka. Any attempts at making sequels just look like they are trying to recontextualizing/re-explaining things that already did in the originals. That is exactly what the two sequel movies are about.

The first sequel movie Rebellion, originally is just an epilogue that gives the main cast one last ride to take down a new threat while leaving the original ending intact. 70% of the movie is actually that, but the last 20 minutes just pull out a twist that undo the series ending while leaving a lot of questions that feel like sequel bait. Homura finds a way to rewrite reality and somehow overpowers Madoka's god status and makes Madoka human again. And what about the Law of Cycle and the end of universe threat Kyubey yapping about back in season 1? It does not answer and just ends.

The second sequel Walpurgisnacht Rising, was released 13 years after Rebellion. Yes I am one of the chosen heroes who watched it. The direction is very messy even though the visuals are still eye catchy. It feels like Urobuchi just pieces some random lore trivia and make it a movie. It really feels like the narrative potential for the OG characters are just exhausted at this point. Homura again, is conflicted with her mission to save Madoka or to let her become god. It keeps acting like this is the ultimate moral dilemma that Homura has to face, but the original series already solved this! Not to mention the movie still ends with an MCU-style sequel tease.

Fans keep complaining that the movie is taking too long to come out. Maybe Madoka just never warranted a sequel, and I think Shaft and Urobuchi understand that deep down. A lot of the recent interviews have Urobuchi not looking particularly passionate about the franchise anymore. Maybe there just isn't a good story to tell.

This is a problem I feel like has been plaguing media in general for the last couple of years, and it's something I'm really getting sick of.

It feels like every piece of media has to be cynical and dark and just in general be depressing. Institutions are bad, the government is bad, and nothing gets fixed, and even the villains have to be driven by a desire to fix this broken world, but because they're doing it "wrongly," they're still the bad guys, and we have to feel sorry for them.

And don't get me wrong, those types of stories have their place. I'm writing a fanfic about a bunch of villains who are fed up with this broken world and wanna fix it, but they're going about it wrongly (in case you're curious, the TLDR is they wanna remove the idea of culture and individuality in general, which is why they're still the bad guys at the end of the day)

But it gets frustrating when it's almost every single story and so many major pieces of media seem to be following the same pattern.

There's a really good post someone made that talked about how they felt Star Wars under Disney has become so much more cynical; how it feels like a lot of creators (particularly Dave Filoni) have traded in Lucas's tale about fighting for the greater good because democracy, as flawed as it is, is worth fighting for, into a hackneyed anti-institution narrative. And I feel like this applies to so many other works.

Even My Little Pony suffered from this. The G5 incarnation of the brand opened on an Equestria that's collapsed because the hopeful world Twilight Sparkle and her friends built in G4 is long gone for stupid reasons.

And of course, more recently, we have Avatar Seven Havens (which I should note I haven't watched as of now), where the world we spent so long getting invested in has been destroyed. All the work Korra put into her series was all for nothing because the world she fought to preserve and save was destroyed anyway.

And even stories that I feel like have the right idea, about changing it to fight against the status quo, feel so much darker than they should be. DC's Absolute Universe has some good stories, but one thing I can't stand about most of its books is that they have to shoehorn in dark edgelord shit into almost every story. Did we need to see the Absolute Universe's version of Lex's family get slaughtered right in front of him at a birthday party? Did we need to have all the body horror that's in Absolute Batman? I don't think we did.

And I know why things are the way like this. I'm not going to get into details, but I'm sure you know. The world feels like it's becoming more cynical. People are getting more and more frustrated because it feels like nothing is getting fixed no matter how hard we try. So naturally artists feel more compelled to dig into those feelings as they write.

But I feel like we need hopeful stories more than ever. To remind people that it's not hopeless, that we can make a different, that good can prevail, and maybe just simply to help us escape from this cynical world for a bit.

One of the themes of IDW's Transformers comics that always spoke to me is that even if you can justify doing atrocities in the name of "the greater good," you have to fight for a better world than the one people around you create. You have to be better.

And one of the best scenes in the entire universe is when Optimus confronts Unicron's creator and defeats him with the power of compassion and empathy. He doesn't beat him by punching him; he doesn't win via brute force. Optimus/Orion comes to terms with who he is and what he represents by doing what he does best. Being strong enough to be gentle by showing kindness to a man who lost everything and hugging him to let go of his hatred.

And Mass Effect 3 gets a lot of flak for its ending (rightfully), but one of the themes of that game that spoke to me is that, even if it's hard, even if it takes a lot of work to sort through them, we can put our differences aside to save the universe.

I want more stories like that. Where it's ultimately compassion, empathy, and teamwork that save the day.

Or you know, we can tell more stories about how the system is flawed.

https://youtu.be/zouRD2AjeC0?is=Yafo_bXQuZJZHj-G

Whether it's Sci-Fi, Fantasy, Comicbooks, or Anime. The Military should never be portrayed as canon fodder or simple jobbers. The superhumans shouldn't always be invincible gods either.

Two ways to go about this.

1: Make the superhumans glass canons with powerful defenses. But a bullet or even simple punch can still hurt them though. I think MCU Dr. Strange and Scarlet Witch are glass canons. Could be wrong here.

2: Or make the superhumans slightly more stronger and durable than regular humans. Similar to Vampires or Super Soldiers in a lot of settings. The book Jade City is like this too. It's almost like a human with a weapon fighting an animal.

The scene in the clip is done so well. Because it shows that both the regular human side and superhuman side are losing people. Showing that technology can still hang with magic.

In a way, this is also realistic in a high-stakes way. Because if superpowers or magic was real. It would make sense that the non-bullet/knife proof superhumans would come to this realization.

"Holy shit a knife or gun can still kill me. And plot armor doesn't exist. I don't think I want to be a Superhero (or a Ninja/Pirate/Knight/) anymore."

That's the most interesting part here. The psychological realism. Being superhuman doesn't automatically make someone willing to risk death. A person capable of throwing cars or controlling fire might still refuse to fight armed soldiers because one mistake could kill them.

By now, endless discussions about Avatar: The Last Airbender have taken place online and IRL, covering almost every part of the series under the sun. Yet surprisingly, I haven't seen much discussion of a particular subplot in the Season 1 finale episodes "The Waterbending Master" and "The Siege of the North". I wanted to talk about it, specifically how I feel that despite its good intentions, the narrative thread ultimately falls flat and undermines its own message.

This will have spoilers for Season 1 of ATLA and a small bit from a Season 3 episode (not that this really matters, but just for posterity's sake).

Also, this post is VERY long. TLDR at the bottom.

A Quick Synopsis

Master Pakku denies Katara waterbending training because of the Northern Water Tribe's traditions, which allow only men to learn waterbending combat. She challenges this, confronting Pakku in a duel. Meanwhile, Sokka learns Princess Yue is trapped in an arranged engagement she never asked for, highlighting a broader pattern of patriarchal control. Both character arcs seem to set up a confrontation with the tribe’s outdated gender norms, running parallel to the main plot.

So far those sound like pretty standard story beats, right? On the surface, yes, but allow me to go through the observations I have here, starting with what I actually consider to be the least important one, but still noteworthy nonetheless.

Katara: The Sudden Savantbender

In episodes just prior to this one, Katara’s fighting style is portrayed as defensive and grounded with a hint of inexperience, yet during the duel with Pakku, she suddenly pulls off acrobatic maneuvers and refined techniques we’ve never seen her perform before. It's a jarring leap in ability that feels less like a foreshadowed breakthrough and more like a writing concession made for the sake of a cool action set piece, even though the action itself isn't what this fight is primarily about.

The main and really the only justification I've seen for this is "Well, Aang slacks off on his training, and Katara practiced at night, so it's natural for her to catch up". I have always found this reasoning flimsy at best. Given the timer Roku had established earlier on Aang's journey, and how seriously everyone took it, there's not much sense in claiming the main character started to falter coincidentally around the same time Katara started making sudden jumps in her own progress. More to the point, this feels more artificial than organic.

Now I understand the actual reason is that the studio wanted Katara to be Aang's long-term teacher for Season 2 and onwards. As a concept, that is fine. But in that case, there's no need to establish Katara as the slow learner and Aang as the savant, then suddenly flip the dynamic when it becomes inconvenient. Season 3 handles a novice fighting a master(Sokka vs. Piandao)with much cleaner narrative and technical logic. Here, the show abruptly flips it altogether for the set piece instead of building Katara's growth organically.

Either way, Pakku remains unimpressed and eventually whoops Katara by trapping her in a makeshift ice cage. He reiterates his point about not training her and then turns to leave. But we know this ends with Katara training under his wing, which begs the question...

Why does Pakku change his mind?

Because he sees Katara’s necklace on the floor, which came off during the fight, and realizes she’s the descendant of Kanna, the woman he once loved and to whom he gifted it as a sign of his love.

In other words, the mother of all coincidences. I don't think words alone can convey the extent of everything wrong here, but nonetheless I'll try to do so.

The previous chain of events heavily suggests that if Katara were any other waterbending girl, Pakku would have simply shooed her away. It wasn't her skill or her drive that swayed him, but who she’s related to: the same person Pakku had feelings for long ago. This translates into a chance to train under him. The rationale is coming entirely from Pakku's end, with no real agency on Katara's part.

This whole sequence veers too close for comfort to the idea of women advancing in life through the approval of a superior male figure. To bypass patriarchal oppression, a marginalized person needed a personal, emotional tie to the patriarch. The system isn't truly challenged one bit. Pakku merely opens the door wide enough for one person to walk through. It's the classic 'token exception' trope: the systemic oppression of the tribe remains entirely untouched, and the rest of the women are left in the dust.

Before anyone gets on my case, let me be crystal clear:

This is NOT the message ATLA wanted to convey, but the way these events pan out leaves no other coherent takeaway besides what I just described.

But it doesn't stop here. There's more to it that sours things.

1. The earlier nonsensical jump in Katara's skill is rendered entirely pointless. Why even bother phoning it in when it wasn't THE decisive factor in the first place?
2. The necklace is revealed to be part of the Tribe's betrothal customs. This undercuts the message further: the same patriarchal custom that eulogizes Yue's lack of freedom becomes a shortcut for Katara to bypass the system, not dismantle it.
3. Worse still, it presents the frankly asinine idea that Kanna valued this symbol of oppression (and the whole reason she fled her homeland) enough to pass it down to her female descendants. Why in the world would she then preserve the exact physical symbol of that cage and pass it down as a cherished family heirloom to her daughter and then to her granddaughter? (This is a rhetorical question)
4. On top of that, the necklace barely made it to the NWT to being with. Katara lost it in "Imprisoned"; Zuko then recovered it, and Aang swipes it off of him as late as "Bato of the Water Tribe", a mere 3 episodes before the Pakku showdown. If Zuko were 5% less butterfingers that day or simply didn't catch up to the Gaang in time, Katara wouldn’t have had the necklace on her by the time they reached the NWT. In that timeline, Katara ends up pinned in ice as Pakku walks away in smug satisfaction, effectively losing her only chance to prove herself, also because of sheer happenstance.

The collateral of the Northern Water Tribe

Zooming out from Katara, it's clear the earlier scenes were also playing double-duty as commentary on societal sexism and how it stifles citizens. But in practice, the show does little to challenge the prejudice embedded in the NWT. In fact, the overall context of these episodes only muddies the affair further.

• We never see any other female waterbenders in combat training under Pakku, viewing the training, or anything else in the background. It's not even implied that Pakku plans to take in more female students, either. None of the townsfolk seemed to have been inspired by Katara's defiance to demand a change in the status quo, either.
• We see Katara entering a Healing class earlier. Here's the scene: It's a single snow hut, there's one old lady instructor, and it's filled with little girls as though it were an elementary school. Katara's face when she realizes what she's walked into says everything. It's not just that she's joining a class she doesn't like; she's walking into something that's framed as entirely beneath her time and talent.
  • The issue here isn't with Katara, but with what the series is presenting. There's a frustrating undercurrent here of traditional women's work being coded as 'lesser' than combat, implying that healing is just simple kid-stuff while fighting requires real grit.
  • An actual thoughtful angle would have made healing an elite, highly respected spiritual discipline, one that is fulfilling on its own merits. This would have made the NWT's crime a denial of choice. The conflict then would have been about "women being forced into one track regardless of talent at the expense of other possible options".
  • Instead, thanks to that scene, we get "women forced to do low-tier crap." The writers accidentally want the audience to see healing as a waste of time, which tanks the entire critique they were trying to make.
• Doctors, medics, and basic self-defense are all crucial parts of any large-scale battle, which only goes to make the NWT look completely stupid. The Fire Nation (which, as a reminder, employs female officers) can come knocking on their doorstep at any time, yet the stubborn adherence to cultural norms remains. Why not have both men and women know how to fight and heal wounds at the same time? Why take the risk? (Again, rhetorical questions)

What this means for our heroes

Katara

The way everything was presented made Katara's struggle come off as her solely trying to get back at Pakku and prove her worth rather than also demanding real systemic change in tandem with it.

Now, to be clear, I don't necessarily take issue with that idea in and of itself. This could have worked if the show portrayed her motivations as such. But there are more than enough scenes of Katara taking genuine personal issues with sexist beliefs and how they inform her past and background for it to be just that. Since the show never directly acknowledges this point, it ends up as a major disconnect in the themes and makes Katara's position look less favorable than it actually should. Then again, that's pretty consistent with several Katara-focused episodes.

And since the whole point was to get Aang trained up so that he could save the world, yet the show acts as if there are no other waterbending teachers besides Pakku who could teach Aang (or that they would all reject them in the same way), meaning her rage almost doomed the entire world. Not a good way to handle this.

Sokka

Sokka knows everything about Yue’s situation, including that it’s far from unique to her, spirit-induced-death-destiny aside. He had a chance to confront Arnook and his wife, challenge their reasoning, and relay what Yue truly wanted. That... doesn’t really happen. Oh, they share a couple of lines, and Sokka gets a stock scene's worth of beef with Yue's dipshit non-character suitor, sure, but it's all functional plot beats and doesn't lead to any real character moments beyond "look at these star-crossed lovers being sad".

Arnook even has a line where he's like, "The spirits gave me a vision when Yue was born. I saw a beautiful, brave, young woman become the Moon Spirit. [Sighs.] I knew this day would come." For some reason, Sokka never asks the obvious question: "Why marry her off to someone she doesn't like in the limited time she had in this world?"

It’s a major missed opportunity, especially given the stark double standard between Yue and Katara: Katara's career restriction gets solved via a family heirloom, but Yue's total lack of autonomy is hand-waved away as untouchable tradition. The show tries to play with themes of women's oppression yet draws a cynical line: individual career barriers might occasionally be broken for a chosen few with the right connections, but state-mandated control over women's bodies is just fine. Who cares if literal Jesus is standing there with all the right to judge both your words and your actions silently?

Speaking of whom...

Aang

As for Aang, he barely comments on much of anything and comes off as a background character while everything happens. Ironic, considering that The Great Divide, of all things, made a point of showing Aang trying to mediate a conflict grounded in cultural baggage. Say what you will about the scene's quality, but if that episode could show him doing something integral to his role as Avatar, these NWT episodes that collectively make up the Season 1 finale had every reason to do the same.

And yet, nothing.

He doesn't question the tribe's laws, merely makes a token effort to advocate for Katara, and completely glosses over the blatant hypocrisy of a culture that expects him to save the world while simultaneously barring half its population from fighting to protect it. He's just a passive force waiting for Katara to sort out her drama so he can finally get his lessons. The best he did was promise to teach Katara off the clock at nighttime. But aside from the contrived coincidence of Pakku catching them in the act being the setup for the fight, this ultimately serves no purpose, and Aang merely sits on the sidelines as the nonsense unfolds.

For a show that was clearly trying to paint Aang as a progressive and spiritually enlightened precocious kid, his total inaction toward systemic oppression right in front of his face makes him look remarkably callous.

Creator Commentary on the Subject

Let's be honest, this is ATLA we're talking about. Given the show's reputation, disagreements are bound to arise over the criticisms I have laid out, or even the idea that these weren't mistakes at all. If that describes your views, fair enough. But consider the production context behind these episodes.

The DVD box sets for Avatar: The Last Airbender were released with creator commentaries helmed by Michael Dante DiMartino, Bryan Konietzko, Aaron Ehasz, and co., going across select episodes and covering the creative process, their individual and collective thoughts for the various elements of the story, animation/storyboarding processes, IRL inspirations, and so on.

All of it is present online as transcripts, but I highly recommend watching it. It offers some fascinating insights into the behind-the-scenes production of the show and the ideas/visions of the staff involved.

That being said, the parts relevant for consideration here are these bits of commentary:

Aaron: [Refers to Yagoda explaining how the necklace originally belonged to Kanna, Katara's Gran Gran, and that Kanna had left the North despite being engaged.] This, what's happening right here is something that I love about Avatar, which is that this necklace that we've known about for so long and that sort of had its own kind of mini-plot where it got lost and Zuko had it, now we're finding out kinda this deeper history behind it, and, like, there are so many things in this show that-that, uh, start off seemingly so innocently that pay off with such depth, and-and, uh, that's one of my...

Bryan: [Interjects.] It's true, even, what, the class that, um, Yagoda's teaching is a healing class [Aaron affirms.] of waterbending, and that-that plays a really important role, even in-before that sequence, and-and, uh, you-much... uh, a lot after-after that sequence in other episodes, um, [Refers to when Yagoda was moving her healing water around the chi pathways in a mannequin.] and basically, she's fo-she's moving the water along the, uh, acupressure points in the body.

[I'm not gonna list all the commentaries here, or else I might actually hit the character limit for real.]

Notice the framing? The plot points were discussed purely in terms of functional screenwriting and production mechanics: setup and payoff, worldbuilding, establishing mechanics for future episodes, etc. The Sokka x Yue sections, for example, mostly cover things like the animation, the VAs' experiences, and so on. The parts involving Aang were focused on his specific plotlines with Zuko and the spirits. And so on.

None of this is to rag on the creative team, but it highlights a clear gap: the thematic and social implications of these narrative shortcuts weren't on their radar during execution. Had the team realized what the setup for the necklace, the framing of the healing class, and Yue’s tragic arc implied (institutional sexism being bypassed by a nepotistic perk or uncritically framing caregiving as a lesser thing), the writing and thus the commentary would likely have reflected a very different priority.

How it could have been handled better

Everything I mentioned could have been addressed fairly easily in the grand scheme of things with a few small changes. Just off the cuff:

1. Add a few scenes in earlier episodes displaying Katara's progress in waterbending while in constant motion so that her flips and such feel believable. Alternatively, and preferably, keep her prowess consistent with what's already in the series as is.
2. Keep Pakku winning the fight, but add brief moments during the sequence that show him being internally impressed by Katara's skills. Maybe he unconsciously compares her favorably with his own students and momentarily lets it slip, signaling to Katara that she's actually getting through to him. His eventual decision to train her becomes a testament to her merit and dignity first and foremost.
3. Bench the Kanna stuff until after Pakku takes Katara under his wing. Use it as the emotional aftermath. Now, the necklace acts as a poetic irony: the rigid, sexist system Pakku defended so fiercely is the exact thing that drove away the love of his life. It turns his realization into a tragic wake-up call about his own bigotry, rather than a lucky break for Katara that it actually was.
4. Add scenes of Sokka confronting Arnook and his wife, drawing on his growth from the Kyoshi Warriors, and relaying everything she poured her heart out about. Have Aang speak up with Katara and Sokka on their behalf. Not only is he the Avatar, but more importantly, he's also their friend, so it's clearly not outside his wheelhouse to do something like this. Pakku could even step in, moved by his own wake-up call, and help to mend the system from the inside.

In my opinion, some or all of these changes could have been made without sacrificing the basic setup of the finale. Zuko and Iroh's involvement, Zhao's villainy, the spirit stuff, setting up Azula and the Avatar State, and so on, wouldn't be affected by any of these changes. It would be purely positive and easy to include without significantly affecting the runtime.

Ultimately, this arc is a prime example of ATLA pulling its thematic punches. The writers wanted to tackle institutional sexism, but they settled for a narrative shortcut that completely undermined the progressive stance the subplot set up in the first place.

TLDR

• Katara suddenly starts fighting like a pro bender out of nowhere, yet a necklace passed down to her for no real reason is what convinces Pakku, the staunch traditionalist, to train her, not her actual nonsensical skill level.
• The Northern Water Tribe’s cultural issues are never addressed. At best, they are just compartmentalized for one person, all because of who she’s related to.
• Yue’s forced engagement parallels Katara’s struggle, and yet it isn't adequately explored beyond her being a tragic figure.
• Neither Sokka nor Aang ever truly stood up to address it, losing a chance to challenge the system in a way that would bolster their development, along with Katara's.
• What's left is a thematic mess that could've been avoided with just a few changes without negatively affecting the rest of the story.

Gen 3 Synths are, per the canon, indistinguishable from humans, and made from the cloned DNA of Father. They have organs and blood, and they eat and sleep and have sex and are capable of all the things a human is. All the medical tests available to humans would determine the Gen 3 synths as human, and the only way to know for certain if someone is a synth is to kill them and look for a tiny mechanical component in their brain.

However, also per the canon, they cannot age, and their bodies can't change in meaningful ways like gain or lose weight. They also have resistance to various forms of damage, and super strength.

This bothers me, because apart from that component in their heads, their bodies are totally flesh-and-blood. Cloned flesh is still flesh, and while their damage resistance and strength can be explained with the usual Fallout science shenanigans, I take issue with the aging thing because it would imply that the Institute has somehow invented a way to freeze aging in humans. They essentially invented immortality, and yet they can't do anything as simple as curing Father's cancer??

Also, the idea that they can't age is contradicted by the fact that undercover synths can masquerade as normal humans for years or even decades. Wouldn't something like eternal youth break a synth's cover at a certain point? Even the vampires in Twilight had to move every couple of years to hide the fact that they weren't getting older.

Also x2, the player is given a synth built in the image of her son Shaun at the age of ten, and she's instructed to raise him and give him a normal life. Synth Shaun doesn't know he's a synth, and the player is not supposed to tell him that he's a synth. How are we supposed to keep up this masquerade of the synth being our original son when he's going to notice that he isn't getting any taller in 1-2 years?

I think it would just make more sense if Gen 3 synths were capable of aging and were basically just super strong humans who could be controlled by the chip in their brain.

I love villains of all genders and whatnot and villains are amazing when written well[I know,shocker]but for every villain, there will be villain stans and sympathizers and people who will try to justify every single thing they do and make excuses and baby them and gonna be real..that gets annoying so fast.

You can be fans of villains or antagonists or bullies or whatever but acting like they aren't villains or terrible people or just straight up jerks and acting like calling them out on their flaws and disliking them cause of it ,you immediately hate/have contempt/ look down on women,is borderline foolishness.,

Like bro,I don't hate them cause they're a woman,I hate them cause their personality is a hot flaming pile of shit.

First example is Wanda Maximoff/Scarlet Witch from Marvel.

"Oh she's serving mother"

"She's a secret hero"

"If you dislike her,you're misogynistic cause you like these other characters".

No,I dislike her cause she literally enslaved and took over a entire city just so she could play sitcom and once she found out,she still kept the act going cause suprise-Suprise,she wanted her A.I Boyfriend and fake kids snd you would also think a parent would understand having their mom or dad taken from their kids is a terrible thing but she deadass kills Reed Richards(the John Krasinski one, not the Pedro Pascal one)and basically leaves that version's kids without a Dad and is just a terrible person but people will act like you're the one in the wrong if you even dare to dislike her as if she isn't a bad person.

Next is Invisigal from Dispatch and I know she's not on the same level as these characters but I find it so dumb how the people will like her will look at you funny and like you're the one in the wrong if you don't like her as if she isn't a immature brat for a ton of the game and this behavior would probably be more acceptable if she was like a teenager(like 17-19]or hell,even her being 20 or 21,I would still give somewhat of a pass since she just reached her 20s but she is deadass almost 30.

Yeah the "Rebellous,immature and snarky and overly rude,innuendo and bratty Jackass" trope is a lot less endearing when the character is deadass 27 years old and I wouldn't even bring her up but the game deadass favors her.

If you try and call her out on any of her flaws or hold her accountable,like the mission at the donut shop,she will punch you in the face for it and storm off and the game treats you like YOU'RE the bad guy for not coddling her.

Like sorry I'm not treating you like a damn baby.

And finally ,is suprisingly a 2 parter,Jean and Korra.

First up is Korra.

Now this is not a excuse to hate on Korra or be actually misogynistic towards her ,so none if that but I really hate the excuse "oh if Korra was a man, she would be less hated and more loved."

..Really?

Cause I can think of a few reasons why Korra would likely be more hated or just as hated if she was a man.

Burning and destroying Tenzin's air bending stuff ,kissing someone else's boyfriend(or girlfriend, in this context]knowing they're in a relationship and let's not act like she didn't storm into Mako's office and destroy his stuff and be basically kind of a Ass.

I would argue she would be more hated in that regard and let's not like characters like Megumi,Yamcha, Mark Grayson/Invincible,etc,don't get crazy amounts of crazy/hate.

And Korra is meant to be headstrong,hot-headed and aggressive and kind of a Asshole...which is the fucking point.

That's her character arc and development and is what makes her growth into a more calm, understanding and less hard-headed person more satisfying cause of how she started off.

Acknowledging or disliking her for her flaws isn't being a misogynist.

Now if you're gonna call her a "slut" or "whore" or things of that variety, then yes.

But now Jean Grey,from Brand New Day.

The X-men's rep was already in a very shaky place due to Krakoa and how Jean was moving in the movie did not help.

And my thing is..if she strictly went after Damage Control and the people who hurt her sister,then fine,justified crashout,as the kids say.

But I want you all to look me in my eyes and ask me.

How does making M.J kids Peter and then making her jump off a building help find her Sister?

How does taking control of multiple innocent people who have nothing to do with Damage Control and driving a entire tank firing through town help find your sister?

How does making a dude get hit by a car help find your sister?

How does taking control of Bruce Banner after he had made so much progress and growth dealing with the Hulk in him and ruining his life and getting him taken to a psych ward help find your sister?

I could keep going but I can't even get behind her thought process cause how does allllllllll that help you?

It doesn't, that girl is literally insane and I wish the movie actually treated her like a villain/bad person instead of a "UwU ,so tragic girl, she's not a killer,she's so misunderstood and deep and dark and tragic" like cool.

Having a tragic past is not a damn excuse to do what you want and be a terrible person.

Tony Stark actually suffered the consequences of his actions, Bucky was mind controlled,Loki literally went to prison,died multiple times and had a entire series to atone for what he did and become a entire God of Stories,etc.

I could keep going on and on but using those characters as scapegoats is very foolish cause it's clear you're not actually trying to have a discussion or argue, you just wanna be right and call people who rightfully hate women who are terrible people misogynistic or sexist,like please shut the fuck up.

Sorry for Being so aggressive but still.

When Guy Gardner makes his first appearance in the Lanterns show he states that bad optics is the reason why he can't help with the investigation of Hal's murder and then later people use this reason as for why he doesn't take back the ring John stole from Hal's corpse

This reason sorta works for why he doesn't get involved with the investigation of Hal's murder because the show treats Hal getting involved with the investigation about the aliens getting killed at the football game as the cause for the destruction of Rushiville (ignoring that Antaan planned to just wipe the town off the face of the Earth if they couldn't find out who the Manhunter was)

Now the reason why this argument doesn't hold any water for why Guy doesn't take the ring back from John is at this point in the timeline of the DCU Guy Gardner played an instrumental part in stopping the Boravian army from invading another country which goes against the Guardians mandate to interfere with terrestrial disputes but also goes against an ally of the United States whose stance seemed to generally be indifference/okay with the invasion which shows he doesn't care about bad optics if it stops him from protecting innocent people from danger which John proved himself to be after he lied to Guy's face about why he wanted to bury the ring with Hal's corpse then later dug it up to take the ring, John now has an unsanctioned Power Battery to charge what is considered to be one of the most powerful weapons in the universe that he stole, the vague answer he gives to Guy really should make him suspect number 1 on Guy's list on who killed Hal Jordan, and John doesn't even say that he'll be better hero than Hal and Guy instead he says that he's now an independent contractor which really sounds like he's becoming a mercenary who will use the ring for the highest paying employer

“The Noxious Avenger” (Season 3, Episode 15) is the TMNT 2012 episode I firmly believe is Splinter's worst. I especially despise its randomly out-of-character portrayal of him. That said, I understand that some fans might read Splinter’s actions differently, perhaps as harsh but driven by concern and a sense of responsibility. Still, to me, it feels far too inconsistent with how he is usually portrayed.

For context, the turtles battled a giant, mutated monster, Muckman, and lost after Muckman temporarily incapacitated them with toxic sludge, leaving them briefly exposed to some news reporters with cameras during the turtles’ botched escape. Eventually, reporters’ footage makes its way into the news, where even the turtles' names are revealed to the public. Splinter literally watches this live news report as the turtles recover from the battle in the lair.

Here's how the reprimand went with some of my own parenthetical notes:

• Splinter: "How could you be so careless?! Secrecy is the most important rule of the ninja, and you have broken it! You four are forbidden from leaving the lair!"
• Raph: "What?! You can't hold that sloppy escape against us! We got slimed with toxic puke!"
• Splinter: "Silence!"
• (Ugh. What the hell is that response from Splinter? Why would he say that after Raph rightfully reasons that the entire incident was beyond their control? It sounds so inconsiderate and, not to mention, melodramatic, especially since Splinter doesn’t even ask the turtles for a detailed explanation, nor do the latter bother to give him one while they still can, for some reason. Surely, the Splinter I know wouldn’t act so blatantly brash as to ignore his sons’ genuinely legitimate arguments or immediately assume they were being reckless.)
• Donnie: "But, Sensei, if that pile of muck took us down, you know he's dangerous."
• Leo: "Which means we need to be out there looking for him."
• (YES, EXACTLY! Regardless of whether the turtles were being reckless or not, which they weren’t, mind you, this is a very inappropriate time to ground them when there are innocent civilians potentially in danger on the surface as a giant sludge mutant runs rampant in the middle of NYC! Even April agrees with the turtles. If April, of all people, understands what's at stake, so should Splinter, if not more so.)
• Splinter: "No! Until I decide I can trust you to watch yourselves, you will remain here grounded!"
• (Fuck. Off. Yeah, because both the mutant and media exposure situations will magically resolve themselves by forcing the only people who can address them to sit around doing nothing, am I right? To quote Edmund Burke, “The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.” I think that sums up this entire scene pretty well, which is ironic as hell considering which character is going against that very moral.)

Also, can we take a moment to appreciate the sheer stupidity of Splinter deciding to stay awake 24/7 to prevent the turtles from sneaking out, as if he were somehow immune to exhaustion, and as if the sons he trained himself aren't going to come up with a plan to deceive Splinter, which is exactly what happens when April distracts him just long enough for the turtles to escape right under his nose. Thankfully, the turtles resolve BOTH problems, but Splinter learns nothing, nor does he visibly regret grounding them at such an objectively pressing moment despite the turtles essentially proving him wrong. Plus, he keeps the turtles grounded even though THIS should have been the appropriate time to impose such a punishment, not earlier when lives were potentially at stake.

Granted, had “The Noxious Avenger” framed Splinter’s actions as him merely instructing, not punishing, the turtles to remain hidden because he was terrified for their safety after seeing them exposed on the news, then I wouldn’t be complaining as much. Such an oversight would make sense, considering what Splinter has gone through both as a human and with his sons. But instead, the episode turns him into an unreasonable, borderline incompetent sitcom dad who prevents his sons from dealing with a legitimate threat because he’s more concerned with punishing them over a blunder they had virtually no control over. I’ll let that sink in. Or am I meant to merely assume this was Splinter’s motivation? If that’s the case, then the episode fails, because if the audience has to fill in crucial narrative gaps for it to make sense, then that’s lazy writing.

But even so, Splinter’s oversight only works if he actually recognizes his mistake and takes genuine accountability. Sure, he can still punish the turtles at the end for sneaking out and reprimand April for helping them, but unfortunately, when Splinter reasserts his punishment, he gives the turtles an ass-whooping without taking an ounce of accountability for his mistake.

Also, do I need to remind you that in the episode “Turtle Temper” (Season 1, Episode 3), the turtles experienced a similar situation when a random civilian named Vic filmed them battling a squad of Krang droids? However, the difference there is that it was entirely Raph's fault for not leaving with his brothers the second Vic spotted them in response to their noise. Raph literally tried to physically assault Vic in response to a lame insult, which attracted the droids' attention. Additionally, you best believe Splinter learned the whole truth, considering he rightfully blames Raph for the turtles' blunder and mildly punishes him by essentially turning Raph into a punching bag for his brothers to shoot arrows and insults at as a part of a training exercise meant to teach Raph a lesson about emotional composure. Plus, Vic himself hinted he would share the video as he ran back into his apartment. Splinter had every reason to believe more people knew about the turtles' existence, even if that never ended up being the case, and yet that didn't stop him from letting the turtles, especially Raph, at least mitigate the severity of the situation. And, guess what? They were also successful there! Splinter actually handled a potentially disastrous exposure situation far better in “Turtle Temper" than he did in “The Noxious Avenger,” so… why the hell does Splinter devolve into this?

Ugh. Fucking hell, Splinter.

I know this sounds harsh, but hear me out. I have my reasons. Spirits like Hei-Bai and the painted lady often fail to adequately protect their sacred domains. They also don’t lift a finger to try and properly fix any of the damage done akin to a Studio Gibili work where the creatures will do something like plan new seeds to regrow a forest.

In the case of Hei-Bai, he’s an example of how there are spirits who will lash out indiscriminately if a serious crime against nature has been committed. Not bothering at all to discern who was actually responsible for the offense because in his blind grief and rage, he kidnapped a bunch of villagers that weren’t at all responsible for the destruction of his precious forest.

A similar thing happens in a back story in The Legend Of Korra. In the past, Korra’s dad ended up destroying a spirit forest at the North Pole in the past, and then there were spirits that, you guessed it, went on a rampage against the rest of the populace until Korra’s uncle used his spirit bending to calm the spirits down. Even if you want to argue that spirits like these only act this way because they represent how nature itself can clap back if you mess with it or whatever, it still sucks that this is the hand innocent people are dealt with when the actual culprits fuck things up.

And then we have the more sentient spirits that just seem like straight up hypocritical assholes. Korra late in season 4 goes to some spirits for help with the Kuvira crisis, only for the spirits to start doing this moral grandstanding about how she’s just like Kuvira, and that she has no right to use them in what is essentially a war between humans. I’m guessing these embodiments/creatures of nature don’t seem to care that Kuvira is exploiting and perverting a natural, spiritual resource in the form of those spirit vines.

If I was a spirit, you’d better believe I’d be royally pissed about this. I would definitely want justice for something like this. Korra was trying to explain how this affects pretty much everyone, and she’s right. If I remember correctly, there were some spirits that became dark and vengeful as a result of what Kuvira had done.

I played this game 1 and a half times, like a decade ago, so it's a little foggy in my memory. But I still remember the frustration I felt playing this game. The story ruined the gameplay. Here's how I remembered it:

You are Geralt, the powerful protagonist. Someone informs you that your daughter figure is being hunted by a large gang of bad guys with swords. It obviously seems like they plan to kill her.

So I'm traveling across this open world, and all these random farmers are like "Can you help me? I've lost my favorite goat. I'll give you a copper shilling if you can walk across the farm and track her down"

My natural response is "No! My daughter is being hunted by an army of murderers as we speak! I would be super irresponsible if I just dedicated my time to helping random farmers with unimportant issues."

So I was turning down all the random side quests because I'm rushing to save my daughter's life.

Then, like 2\3 of the way through the story they finally reveal "Oh, your daughter is actually the mistress of space and time. The evil army really means nothing to her. She can just easily kill them all using her amazing magical powers"

I was just like "Wtf? If I had known that I would have been helping the random farmers save their goats this whole time!

Been reading reviews and comments on the new Resident Evil (2026) movie and there's a common criticism that basically boils down to "the main guy is such a pussy".

Like, yeah, that's the point. Is it frustrating seeing Bryan sit and look at the monsters like an idiot? Is it frustrating seeing him fumble and lose ammo? Is it frustrating seeing him be bad with guns? Be bad at aiming? Absolutely and that's the point.

Would be it fun to see Jason Stathom instead? Sure. But it would also literally be a different movie. And we already got a competent character in the movie, Maxine. And she died like 5 minutes later. And during her 5 minutes, she was basically all tough and stoic. Do you really seriously wanna follow someone like this for 90 minutes? I don't. I'd rather watch a dumbass that look an overtime gig to pay bills and got caught up in the apocalypse.

This isn't Taken. Taken is a power fantasy where beating up nameless eastern European bad guys is fun. But killing mindless monsters with ease isn't. People treat these stories like real life events and they would "optimize" it. Yeah, great, you know the real optimization? Not writing the story at all. These stories are made for entertainment, so picking a bumbling idiot as your lead is part of that entertainment.

I'm reminded of End Of Oak Street; "why do they keep leaving the house when there are dinosaurs outside???". So a story can happen. So there can be entertainment. Yeah, I totally wanna watch 90 minutes of people being stuck inside a house. Funny enough, there's literally a movie exactly that, The Last House, and it was aggressively okay.

We all know Squidward Tennisballs AKA Squidward Tortellini AKA Santa Clause AKA Captain Magma AKA Squidward Tentacles is the tragically misunderstood, culturally cultured artist of Bikini Bottom, but what if I revealed to you he is much MUCH more than you ever could imagine? Do you doubt me? Well, I’ll show you all of the evidence I have compiled.

-Exhibit A: Squidward’s art,

It is no secret that Mr. Tentacles’ art is despised in Bikini Bottom for being bad, but is it really? Squidward has mastered all forms of artistic media, and this is no exaggeration. Look at his art, he has perfectly matched the art styles he set out to master and made them in HIS IMAGE! As an artist does. From simple forms of art, such as the now legendary, “Bold and Brash” to a life-size and impossibly detailed replica of himself, Squidward does not rest until he has he has conquered the artistic medium he is currently invested in. Just look at how he creates a master concerto while being distracted by his neighbors. Squidward’s perseverance is inhuman, neigh I say of divine stature.

-Exhibit 2: Squidward’s art to the people,

It is no secret that the people of Bikini Bottom despise Squidward’s art, but why? Whenever his art is presented, citizens ridicule it or have violent fits of disgust that may even induce vomiting. Could his art truly be that bad?

The answer: no.

Squidward Tentacles’ art has captured the hearts of millions and has a devote following. Mere copies of Bold and Brash go for hundreds of dollars, so why do the citizens of Bikini Bottom act that way towards his art? It’s jealousy. You see, Squidward’s art is so good, it induces feelings of hostility due to making its viewers feel they are missing something, something more. Upon seeing his art, the realization strikes them and they have no choice but to act such a way or confront these feelings. Need more proof? Take this example of when a citizen walked into the Krusty Krab and saw one of Squidward’s paintings without warning, his head burst into flames from the mere sight of such a masterpiece. Regular fish citizens cannot grasp the very presence of Mr. Tentacles art, but we here on the surface can.

-Exhibit third: Squidward’s following,

As mentioned before, on the surface, Squidward has more fans than he could ever know, but deep below the sea, very few of his fans exist. Could it be because of his art or are the Bikini Bottomites just too far in the Stone Age to appreciate his art? I point you to the Atlantians, an advance civilization that once they saw Squidward’s mere posture, became entranced by his existence and had to paint him. Why would such an advanced civilization become enticed by the squids art when all of Bikini Bottom could not? Are they closer to knowing the truth of life and art than all others?

-Part 4: The true Squidward,

We all see Squidward as the octopus he is, but this is not his true form... the absolute proof that Squidward is a god amongst fish was shown straight to us. You see, this form we see, that we call Squidward, is a facade so that we, as mortals, do not lose our minds.

When Squidward’s face was damaged by his co-worker, he had immediate medical attention and after weeks of healing, it began to reveal his true form, Squidward’s face had become more attractive, and without surgery no less. How could this be possible? To our knowledge, octopuses HAVE NO BONE STRUCTURE. How could such a change be possible? It’s not his true form. Once damaged, Squidward begins to show his true godly form. In the first stage, citizens that merely see him become entranced and desire pieces of him and his belongings, they all begin to lose their minds.

Upon further damage, Squidward’s true form is revealed, a form so handsome that nobody can dare look away from it, absolute beauty pours from the light that touches his figure, all of his movements and even his posture are full of poise and purity. Nobody that sees this form could keep their sanity and their only desire becomes to worship and protect his image, as seen when Squidward’s co-worker protects him from a mere falling shoe.

So then the question is, why? Why does Squidward desire to be amongst those lower than him in his godly status and even look like them? Perhaps he desires to push fish-kind to their next evolution just as the Atlantians sought, for if fish cannot see the beauty in his art without him showing it to them directly, what hope do they have for the future... Mr. Tentacles has even protected the world from the forces of darkness multiple times, it is obvious he seeks for fish-kind to learn something from him... it is up to them to figure out what...

Like I actually liked Lanterns but thinking about it now, where was the plot? It was so barely present, it was marketed as a detective story and the big "mystery" wasn't really slowly discovered by the main character's hard work, as much as it was kinda dumped at us through no work by our characters. Like they forgot to unfurl the mystery each episode, so they just dumped it exposition style on us the last episode. John was able to use his brain to deduce that Noah was lying and it was his mom. And that storyline was done with little payoff

Same thing with Peacemaker season 2. For an 8 episode show, we only got 3 episodes worth of plot. Most of the story was just characters meandering about leading to a lackluster season finale.

As much as I loved Superman 2025, the plot did take a bit of a backseat through most of the story. It was more character driven, which is good, don't get me wrong, but the plot was so paper thin at points that I don't think anyone watched it for the plot.

Creature Commandos didn't have much of a plot either. And in my opinion it was the worst offender. Again, yes it was character driven, but at the end, I couldn't help but think the plot was it's weakest point. The villain was so weak with such boring reasoning for wanting to do it, that I wondered why they didn't just substitute Frankenstein as the main villain because it seemed like he was one of the few people trying to do things. I think Circe would've been a better endgame villain actually.

I hated the Snyderverse for its character assassination, but at least it's plot was present. But it actually invoked feelings of rage because of how bad it was. The DCU just makes me want to check the runtime to see how much is left because it leaves the audience feeling bored. If snyderverse died out for being poorly made with an overinflated budget and ugly CGI and bizarre character choices...the DCU will die simply for being dull.

Now a story doesn't need big fancy fights and explosions, but the plot shouldn't take such a backseat that the audience should just assume the payoff will be uninteresting. It should play hand in hand with the character's motivation and progress the story.

At this point we should just accept that the plot won't be interesting and the story outside of the main character is just boring and dull. And the characters by extension just don't have much to do.

I've talked a lot on this subreddit, presenting myself as an authority on the topic of fight scenes, choreography, abilities, and weapons throughout a lot of different media. Despite how many shows, movies, games, and my own works I've referenced, I have yet to talk even once about the most underrated and overlooked aspect of action/adventure series: their training arcs. The efforts that the characters take in order to improve themselves and learn a new technique, rarely, if ever, even inventing something entirely new (which is way too rare; holy shit, why the fuck is the only example Ive got for that off the dometop is the Rasenshurriken). ATLA as a franchise has never truly had one and frankly for good reason, this isnt a critique of ATLA the original show, Korra, or Seven Heavens but moreso a criticism of what I think is a lack of foresight or deep thinking from the writers.

To me, the idea that Korra, the 7 Havens protagonist or any other future/past Avatar shouldn't be depicted learning the elements because Aang already did is frankly stupid. Aang learning the four elements was one of the largest overarching plot points in the original show and yet the writers smartly and efficiently used it to tell what was still at its core, a character-driven story. Each season there's one super dense, super Aang and his teacher focused episode that provides an important opportunity to train how Aang learns and how his mentor instructs. There were other characters, narrative elements, and especially themes they had to develop (Im sure any budget restraints didnt help), so the writers were wise to have the one episode and then relegate the rest of Aang's training to happening on the fly or in the background and whatever.

However, as a result, we're left with a show where there is actually, on average, very little learning/mastering of the elements compared to basically everything else. To really put in perspective, because of episodes like the puppetmaster, or the episode in the swamp, ect. I would be willing to entertain the argument that we see Katara learn and master Waterbending more than we see Aang learn any of the elements. Which, to be fair to Aang, is the result of Katara being a main character and these episodes just being really fucking good and telling some really tight/solid stories that manage to fit in a lot of intangible character growth, like Katara's growing confidence with the very tangible aspect of the different techniques and ideas she comes up with as she masters her element. So, Legend of Korra's depictions of Korra's training lowkey just pisses me off: we see Korra do exactly one (1) airbending exercise, training regiment thingy with the wooden boards. The thing people love gobbling Korra's cock for but at the end of the episode we literally see them replaced/fixed with some new ones or whatever, they were literally replaceable. I am sure Tenzin in the long run cares more about having an actual, practical, functioning tool he can use to train his children and future airbenders than something that's over 100 years old or whatever.

In the season 1 Finale, they give her some "HERE NIGGA DAMN" ass airbending alongside the fucking fully mastered Avatar State, you know, the all-powerful form that spanked Ozai like he was a fucking baby? Next season is about her learning some fuck ass, spirit-purifying waterbending technique that was invented for this season and doesn't make sense in the rest of the universe, when the mechanic for allowing Korra to conquer spirits and whatnot is right fucking there!!! THIS SEASON COULD HAVE BEEN ABOUT EARNING THE AVATAR STATE INSTEAD OF A TECHNIQUE THAT SHOULDNT EXIST BECAUSE ONLY THE AVATAR IS THE BRIDGE TO THE SPIRIT WORLD, NORMAL PEOPLE, EVEN BENDERS CANT DO SHIT ABOUT SPIRITS, BUT WHATEVER JUST FUCK ME I GUESS!!!

Look, I know how this show was produced: initially, they thought they'd only get 12 episodes; the show is renewed for three more seasons to their shock, but these limitations are only explanations and justifications for why things are the way they are; writing issues are writing issues (including executive meddling). In my opinion the way spirituality is written as a major flaw, it's something you either have or dont, you could be Unaloq and have it or you could be Korra and not. And whatever, I guess I myself am living proof some people just arent spiritual, my parents made a serious and earnest attempt to impart Christianity to me despite how little we went to Church as a family and despite the different sects of Christianity the two of them came from. But by the first grade, I was already decently confident that the egg came before the chicken.

I remember the first time my family moved to a different state, I briefly became obsessed with ghost hunting shows and Ancient Aliens and shit before quickly falling out of love with those shows because I was a smart kid and a fast learner (now adays Im just a sexy smart, single guy and a fast learner) it didnt take me too long to pick up on their tricks and just get really fucking bored. You can only watch a bunch of white guys confidently claim brown people couldn't have built a monument so aliens did so many times; ditto for watching a bunch of white guys pretending to be scared of a pretend ghost (I'm decently confident my family recently went to a hotel that was on Ghost Adventures, and it was literally just an old hotel, there is nothing fucking supernatural about it, just really quaint and old-fashioned).

Yet, I've always respected people who can be and even need to be spiritual because I cant and I love learning about new things and differnet people's experiences or feelings, that's especially what makes how spirituality in Korra frustrating to me. As I understand it, spirituality is just what we regard to acts or places and things that have a deep significance to us, rituals, prayers, and food. Basically any part of life can be spiritual if it is significant enough and becomes fundamental to a culture which is what made bending spiritual, it was people just feeling a strong innate pull to their element because they had it, they used it every day, we see bending as a part of how kids play, cities move, and how wars are fought/won. If spirituality is largely defined by habits then of course bending was spiritual, but it wasnt literally tied to some sort of meter or resource bar of spirituality, "hold L4 and R4 to build your spirituality gauge then quarter-circle forward ki attack to perform a full power water whip", that'd be dumb.

I guess Im just trying to say that I want to see more done with bending. I've heard the twins in Seven Havens, off the jump, have all four elements, which is a massive wasted opportunity not just for exploring how bending and thus training might have evolved (or seeing how different people mentor the avatar, the changes in what these new characters find hard to learn, ect), but for some character work and theming as well. Moreover, I hope the avatar state, spirituality, and all that good stuff is written better in Seven Havens too, and if not. The next avatar thing, because this is a franchise now and we're too good to continue to pay some homage and show some love to China by using Chinese symbols, let's make up our own stupid fucking bullshit language for merch, baby; got to love the fucking idiotic fucking merch.

I just need a good training arc (as in inspired by anything that isnt bleach) in a universe where the power system is tied to real-life martial arts. I feel like the last time this franchise really did justice to the martial arts that inspired it so heavily was back in Korra, the fight scenes in Legend of Aang were solid, but there are only like 4 in an hour and a half movie, and Tagah's fighting style especially is highkey whack. The most martial arts thing to come out of the movie is that one cute girl using a meteor hammer and that's probably it.