#don't mind me I'm being nitpicky over silly things lol

[torra-and-the-toons]

I'm a little sad the official soundtracks for the reboot took out some of the speaking lines in some of the songs, most notably the ones in the Ancient Roman Emperor and The History of the World because those two in particular, the speaking lines added to the song.

Plus it's just really odd to have these long, silent pauses smack-dab in the middle of the song.

And in The history of the world one, when Yakko almost says "shitty" it sounds sounds REALLY weird without the aliens' interruption there.

"We treated the workers real shi............................................................. [keeps singing like nothing happened]"

The one in ancient roman emperor is just funny as hell and I literally slammed my hand on my desk when they just skipped over it like how can you NOT include the "Um... We're still talking about Nero, right?" that shit was like half the reason that song was funny to me.

It's just a really odd choice to make imo.

[genericpuff]

ULO user here! I recently went back and found several old comments I'd made on LO while I was a huge fan of it in 2019.. so embarassing looking back lol. You mentioned that you used to send a bunch of "fangirl" messages back in the day- would love to see your old thoughts/opinions back when you loved LO to compare as a fun(if a bit melancholic) journey, if you'd be willing to share a few? Your thoughts/analysis are always amazing, but I'm super curious as to how you felt back before you realized what a shitshow it was

Haha yeah, I was a fangirl in the sense of like... always being on time for new updates, even if I was out doing other things, messaging my real life friend who got me into the comic to talk about it. Back then Saturday was the height of my week, sometimes the cliffhangers would get me so excited I'd spend the entire week thinking about what could happen next. I suppose I do still look forward to Saturdays now, but for much different reasons.

It's a lil' shameful looking back but I did used to be one of those "don't like it don't read it" dickheads LOL I also used to "not see the issue" with the age gap thing, not because I was okay with age gaps, but as someone who tends to write about immortal beings, I followed the same line of thinking that "they're gods, it shouldn't matter", until I realize just how silly it was that if that were the case, the comic wouldn't be constantly calling out the age difference and drawing Persephone to look as young as possible. I had to really sit on LO for a long time before I started seeing the issues with it. Ironically what opened my eyes to it was lurking in the #antiloreolympus hashtag every now and then, I'd be reading the opinions like "these opinions suck! they don't get it! they're just being nitpicky/mean/etc.!" and yet I duped myself by doing just that because it exposed me to other points of view which became more and more relevant as the comic declined in quality. I think it was around the trial arc that I started to notice the holes (one of the big tells for me that maaaybe LO didn't know what it was doing was when Persephone chose Hades to be her lawyer despite him being one of the judges and someone she was romantically involved with, like hello?) and then when the series returned from its mid-season hiatus and skipped right over Persephone's time in the Mortal Realm, that was when I realized the criticisms weren't coming from nowhere and I got off the high horse and started to read their points with more of an open mind.

Of course, I can safely say I wasn't as shitty as some of the stans can be, most of my opinions were just in the weekly discussion threads in the LO sub, but I was still giving my opinions on LO as if it was a Canvas comic, failing to recognize that 1.) just because webcomics are a budding industry doesn't mean they should be exempt from criticism, and 2.) LO isn't anywhere near the same level as Canvas, it's a #1 NYT best selling book with a creator who's won awards, so it absolutely should be subject to criticism and analyzing as LO is representing that same budding industry in a lot of ways.

I'm trying to find stuff from my pre-ULO days but unfortunately nothing from my main profile is loading past the last 9 months LMAO But if I do find any specific examples I'll definitely post them so we can roast past me together (*≧︶≦))(￣▽￣* )ゞI definitely remember back when ULO was created, it came at a perfect time I think LOL

[demonsfate]

Hi again! "Not only the whole "IF A MERE FATHER-SON QUARREL IS ENOUGH TO DESTROY THE WORLD, THEN SO BE IT" ---> I'm glad I'm not the only one who thought this sounded weird from Jin's part. I completely agree that was his T6 personality. I truly hope we see good Jin again in T8 because I can't deal with another character assassination. I totally understand what you say about Xiao and Alisa's interactions, at times it seemed like ok this is important for the plot but how much of it do we need? Is not that I don't enjoy these two characters (Xiao is one of my faves), but I think the writing was just plain bad and all over the place. I can’t even remember what was the whole point of them spending so much time together 💀. Other than fighting over Shin(?) And yeah, Jin didn't care about hurting her which, again, kind of strange when you see him being so protective of her in the past??? Like you can be an ass but you can also care about your friends. Tek writers said NAH he's an ass with *everyone* and gives no fucks! Imo, I think his design in Blood Vengeance is a little weird. He looks young and grown at the same time. His neck area throws me off lol

Really, it felt like Blood Vengeance didn't really know what it wanted to be. With the whole Alisa and Xiao thing - it felt like they just wanted a cutesy slice of life high school thing with the beloved cutesy girls of the series - especially with fuckin LEE being like a teacher at the school??? And... g... Ganryu being the principal or something??? IIRC??? Which I wouldn't have mind if they did just create a full on silly Slice of Life thing that meant nothing but only for fun. But it felt like they also thought, "well... this is Tekken. We can't just do THAT, people want ACTION, and they want the Mishimas fighting" so they just came up with a contrived plot to get that rolling, and just to get some forced fight scenes going. And it all just became a boring mess and had the viewer wondering why they're even watching it or what's even really the plot of the movie.

I ADORE Xiao - a lot tbh. And tbh, I also liked her much better in Blood Vengeance than the anime, Bloodline. Whenever I complain about Xiao's characterization in Bloodline - people get critical of me and say "well we can't have her be a naive bimbo school girl!! that would look bad!!" And I could get into why I don't agree with that statement itself but it's not just that I didn't like that Xiao wasn't nearly as bubbly/cutesy in Bloodline - it's other parts of her characterization I didn't care for. And Blood Vengeance did her better and I'll say how -

in Bloodline, Xiao was able to DEFEAT fuckin Nina Williams - all on her own. A 16 year old VS a trained assassin. And yes, Xiao is trained, too - but not to kill, I'm sure not as harshly, and also not as experienced. In Blood Vengeance, Xiao struggled against Anna. This is much more realistic. As Anna is quite similar to Nina - trained assassin, more experience, and all that. And many argue that Anna is supposed to be the inferior sister in terms of combat skills. So, it shows just how fierce these sisters are against Xiao (who's 18-19 now, but still) Now this might be nitpicky as hell - but the scene where Xiao "attacks" Jin when they're walking to (or from) school. I guess because she didn't like how injured he looked, and he wasn't talking to her? But it just felt like an example of trying to make Xiao just a "cool female character who takes no shit!11!!" trope. Just because in Blood Vengeance, XIao was a very soft person who understood ppl and never pushed them around just bc she got upset. And in the games, she was also very caring of Jin and wouldn't do that. (hell, in the Pachinkos - she's even very gentle with Devil Jin, going as far to softly touching his face - she only attacks him in self defense.) Anyways - my point is, even if it is just a mere joke and nothing more - it felt very out of character for Xiao, and very forced. And one last example is that Xiao actually showed way more emotion for Alisa's "death" in Blood Vengeance than she did for Jin's death in Bloodline LMAO. Like she screamed, but afterwards - she just sounded more... angry at Heihachi than anything. In Blood Vengeance, Xiao showed she was angry at both Jin and Kazuya for why Alisa had to die. But you could really see her tear up, and crying about Alisa - as well as being gentle with her, and holding her mutilated body. There was a lot more emotion that could pull at your heart strings with Xiao experiencing Alisa's death vs Xiao experiencing her best friend's (and potential crush)'s death.

So, whilst I'd still rather watch Bloodline even if I did think Xiao was a better character in it - because whilst it was boring to me, it wasn't as boring as Blood Vengeance was. Nor did it feel as contrived - it just suffered from expositions and stupid writing choices.

I think the whole fighting for Shin thing was actually just an elaborate plan by Heihachi to get Kazuya and Jin together so he can kill them both and take the power of the Devil Gene for himself, as well as get back the Mishima Zaibatsu. Yes, you see - Shin had an elaborate plan and was playing 4D chess, but Heihachi had an EVEN MORE elaborate plan and was playing 5D CHESS. The thing about Jin in Blood Vengeance is that sometimes he looked fine. But many times he did kinda resemble more of a teenager in the face than his game counterpart does. It's hard to explain, I guess he just looked... more baby-faced, meanwhile Jin in games is "rougher" in the face. I rly don't know how to explain it SDSGJNDFGN.

The thing about Jin being an "ass" before is that whenever he was standoffish to his friends - it wasn't because he's just a jerk, it's because he genuinely cared about them. He apologizes to Hwoarang if he felt he broke a promise they made - he showed concern to Xiao by telling her the tournament is dangerous, and told her to go home. (And in Xiao's TK4 ending, he told her to follow her dreams and make them a reality) Jin may seem cold, but he really shows that he cares for his friends (and his coldness is also just another way to care because he doesn't want them hurt by his dangerous life, or his devil - who wasn't even really in Blood Vengeance lmao)

A good example of just how awful his character has become is in TK6 when he says this to Hwoarang -

or in King of Fighters mobile crossover when he said this...

(annoying little brat - they're literally the same age lmao - nearly the same height iirc) When in TK5, when Hwoarang got offended, and suspected Jin thought he'd found a stronger opponent - which Jin is quick to deny this.

Instead, just telling Hwoarang the truth - life has gotten too busy for him and he can't keep his promise of a rematch (which Jin apologizes for that - twice.) Had this been the Jin in TK6 / other medias, he wouldn't have apologized nor would he have denied Hwoarang's claims. He would've mocked him here. But no - Jin doesn't here because not only does he care about Hwoarang, but because he was also a good person. (Altho not gonna give TK5 all the credit, as they did kinda kickstart TK6 Jin - but who knows if TK6 was actually really planned)

But yeah - I'm just really hoping we see the compassionate, and caring Jin who struggles with his morality instead of the jerk Jin who doesn't give a fuck about anyone else or the world for no reason. He definitely seemed to be better in TK7. Because again, whilst it's hard to really say as he wasn't really in it much. But there was Miguel's ending where he showed remorse, and even wanted Miguel to kill him. (Whereas in TK6 when Miguel confronts him, Jin says "I don't need forgiveness from someone who's about to die.) And whilst they kept his "power is everything" (🙄) and "you're a joke" animations - they did remove his "fear the wrath of god" as well as the smirk pre battle ones. And of course, his determination to kill Kazuya in the end of TK7 for what seems like the better good. So I do strongly believe in TK7, they were already trying to do damage control, and make Jin back to being Better. I just hope in TK8 we get the full on good guy Jin we've always known. The actual Jin, not the cheap Kazuya clone LOL.

Tho I'm also hoping TK8 retcons TK6. At least Jin's involvement in TK6 - so therefore there can be something that can excuse his behavior, and ppl can STFU about him being a villain. Either go with my idea that it wasn't Jin, but just Devil Jin who had completely consumed Jin at the time - and everything he said about "helping the world" was just his way of trying to manipulate good people into siding with him on the war. Or, as I've had someone on here tell me before - have it that Azazel just practically brainwashed Jin. (Similar to how Ogre brainwashed Nina in TK3)

Anyways, this went on for toooooo long - but I tend to get rambly when it comes to Tekken SJNDFJGN