#i am an advocate for dark morty

[bubblegumr1ck]

i think about this moment a lot. like morty was genuinely convinced that the laser pistol was real. and he was so pissed he straight-up just shot rick point-blank in the forehead.

i wonder if we'll ever see a direct reference to this moment again, especially in season 7 where it seems morty's starting to approach his wits end/become disillusioned with rick like he was in 2.10/3.01

like could you imagine this scene but it's rick prime instead??????????? i can definitely see it.

also, in general morty has been getting more and more comfortable killing and/or injuring people, especially if they cross him first. i mean, the season 6 finale is the perfect example of this:

we know morty and the president hadn't been on the best of terms for a while, but morty's straight-up ready to murder the guy after the bullshit in this episode.

who's to say the division between rick and morty won't escalate until they're backed into a corner again like in 3.01? i'd be very interested so see how morty deals with the tension

[crystalelemental]

Unit Teambuilding - Grusha

This one's weird. Iono has a lot of popularity and is a Pokemon Company favorite, so it makes sense she gets in as a PokeFair. But Grusha? I didn't think Grusha pulled that much popularity. Then again, I guess he's just "Volkner but a good character," so he's pulling in all the sad boi fanatics. I can't judge. We all know I have my types that get me, too.

General Overview Grusha comes in as an Ice support.  Not just any Ice support though.  This is a man with Ice Zone.  That's right, for the first time in a long while, we have Role Compression Support.  For the unfamiliar, my stance on these kinds of supports is "Automatically excellent."  Being able to remove the need for a Tech pair that supplies the field effect opens up options for debuffers or secondary DPS pairs that really expands your range of effects.  SS Kris, SS Morty, and Ingo were pioneers of this approach, and all three were, and still are, excellent.  Even NC Calem, who I am often shitting on for his buddy move conditional, is fantastic because of this compression.  Grusha doesn't even have the Buddy move hangup, so he's got that going for him.  In addition, he offers some fairly nice tools, including Team Fierce Entry 2 for a pop injection of Atk, team recovery per action under Zone, accelerated gauge under Zone and Revenge Boost 9, Impervious and access to Vigilance on grid, and disruptive effects in Flinch and Freeze from Ice Fang.  His Buddy move, despite its two-turn nature, negates an attack thrown at him before counterattacking, including voiding an entire AoE move against the team, and inflicts a -3 Atk/Sp Atk debuff on the target, which is all great for survival.  So hey, Grusha's set to be top tier.

Except no, he isn't.  While I am a huge advocate for these kinds of compressed roles, Grusha encounters a serious problem on closer inspection.  Consider this: what made SS Kris, SS Morty, and Ingo so effective?  What makes NC Calem so good that the Gamepress tier list ranks him as the third best support in the game despite his many failures?  In all of these situations, they are good on offense.  Kris boosts Sp Atk, Ingo boosts physical attack, and Calem hits both.  Kris is well aligned to her type as many Water types emphasize special, while Ingo is good for Sandstorm as almost everyone who cares about it is physical.  Calem's decisions have some questionable elements, but he better supports physical Water than Kris, while emphasizing the common physical Dark types.  Even Morty, who doesn't do much for offense, is well aligned, as most Fire types have been in a three-year arms race with SS Red for better and better self-sufficiency, and rarely if ever need more than what Morty offers, instead just appreciating that he covers speed.

Now look at Grusha.  +2 Atk on entry if desired.  Dire Hit All+.  Maybe Pep Rally on his TM.  Atk/Sp Atk debuffs. He does nothing for special Ice types, which is for the best as Irida covers that far too well, but it would've been nice to have the option since special ice setup is a nightmare.  But for physical, he's...nothing novel.  Candice's setup isn't entirely solved through him, and he's not a support for Hail, just Ice, so her weather creates the need for Snow Shelter on grid.  Hala's setup is fine, just add Zone, which can be done cheaper with Glaceon eggmon.  Summer Steven honestly wants more help with Atk than Grusha provides.  Silver desperately wishes Grusha would debuff speed with that Buddy move so he contributed something to his nuke.  SS N is the obvious beneficiary, having his sync very well accounted for, but frankly SS N is a better DPS pair and prefers PMUN stackers to blast things apart.  Grusha is maladapted to his type.  You can't even argue the merits of just having Ice Zone broadly, because any specially offensive Ice type is better served by Irida's compression of high DPS, Sp Def debuffs, inclusion of Hail to solve Blizzard accuracy and apply grid multipliers, and freeing up better supports that do more for Ice types' notorious poor setup.

This leaves Grusha to the role of generalist, where he under-performs compared to Winter Sycamore who just left. Sycamore does exactly what Grusha does, but with better gauge, and with Rebuff to negate the common Extreme Battle condition of Acute Senses, and allows you to take "No Field Effect Change" in CS for a nice chunk of free points. Honestly, without any substantial healing under his belt and a two-turn move, he's arguably worse off than Halloween Phoebe, who I absolutely did not respect. So if he's not useful to his type, and he's not a great generalist, what is he? The fourth Ice Support for a hypothetical Ice High Score. You're getting him in case they only make five supports by the time that type drops. Is this a worthwhile concern? Not to me. But then I don't invest in the good Ice types, only the bad ones because it's funny how hard Irida carries.

EX, Role, and Move Level? Support, so 3/5 recommended. Especially with his base kit being so generally poor, give him the help he needs. 5/5 gets nice traits, but oddly no Zone extension. Role is Tech, just for stats, don't think it's worth it.

Team 1: Grusha, SS N, Colress Realistically, this is what Grusha is built for. SS N wants every aspect of what Grusha puts down, particularly for his sync nuke. I personally think this is less advantageous to N compared to PMUN stacking via NC Rosa, but to each their own. Colress should bottom out defense so N can contribute the most.

Team 2: Grusha, SS Silver, Masked Royal Grusha can attempt to salvage Silver, who can grid Pinpoint Entry for the sure hits. Grusha gives crits, and Masked Royal gives team speed, which can conserve Silver's Buddy move nuke for when it's ready. Problem: the condition is max HP. Grusha cannot heal him. I think this is honestly the worst drawback because it renders Silver a relatively poor choice overall.

Team 3: Grusha, Candice, Summer Steven It's really hard to get a good F2P team going. Candice is the obvious nuke, appreciating the Zone boost tremendously, as well as the +2 Atk that removes a turn of her buffing. Summer Steven has the DPS inclusion for if you want to let Grusha sync first, though you are then reliant on a quad queue or a denial/flinch. Best of luck.

Team 4: Grusha, Irida, BP Candice If you really want to pair Grusha with Irida, for whatever possible reason, it's best to run another Hail setter like BP Candice. Alignment with Sinnoh and all. The thing is, I don't think this is optimal. I'm just saying you can use the other two to alleviate Irida's setup. If you want.

Team 5: Grusha, NC Red, SS Hilbert This is what I think is better. Irida and NC Blue can operate independently, and I think that's legitimately for the best. They're strong enough to clear on their own. In this case, Grusha is sensible as a partner with Red on his own, thanks to application of the Zone for him. Admittedly I struggle to think of a sane third, but SS Hilbert converts to Ice, and has Sp Def debuffs and the third rebuff, so like...sure?

Final Thoughts Grusha can participate, and a multiplicative field effect is never strictly bad. But this feels like an ongoing bit where DeNA keeps making Ice types kinda bad for no real reason. Maybe they just don't like Ice. It's winter, so I'm inclined to agree with them for the next three months.

[thaddeusmike]

I started watching Inhumans and The Gifted. Thoughts below the cut.

The Gifted looks good. It’s dark, but has some nice lighthearted moments. I loved the ringtone being the X-Men theme. I’m very interested to see what they do with the prosecutor dad guy. I don’t want too much focus on him, but through two episodes I am intrigued by how they’ve handled him. The prison shower scene might have been more powerful if I could tell the color of hair in that lighting. I could tell dye was being washed out, but her actual hair color wasn’t apparent to me until later scenes in better lighting. This show is very political. I could do without calling it the second patriot act, but the portrayal of the police and prosecutors as Not Your Friends and Bad People is one I’m not going to complain about.

I have a lot more to say about Inhumans. It started bad, but might be getting better. Even if it doesn’t, it is still entertaining. I like the actor playing Blackbolt and how he handles nonverbal communication. I love the Hawaiians. That’s the nice thing I’ll say for now before I devote most of the rest of this post to ranting about politics:

WTF are this show’s politics? Like, Maximus is a creep and somewhat excessive with the whole murder thing. But, the good guys are for a hereditary monarchy and a system that has been described as both a rigid caste system and a rigid meritocracy. It seems like status is handed out based on what powers people get, except the royal family?

Through the first two episodes, we see one or maybe two people on Maximus’s side use powers, whereas the whole royalist side have useful powers. On the one hand, I’m not watching a show about people with superpowers for the guns. On the other hand, I realized this makes sense if the people without cool and powers are the ones Maximus can rely on because they want to not be low class laborers who live miserable lives in the mines. If you had more reliable supporters with useful skills, you might have not sent four mooks with rifles to try to take down a combat thinker. There needs to be some explanation to justify why the show so often passes up the opportunity to show people with superpowers. I’m watching this show because I thought it would have tons of people with superpowers.

As political allegories go, Maximus could be Trump. He’s a creep, dishonest, and a rabble-rouser. Also the symbolism of his supporters being miners. In which case, the royal family are ... the Clintons I guess? Definitely defenders of the status quo. Also racist. Did I mention that the first insult thrown at Maximus is “human” because he lacks powers? Yeah, not liking this one.

Maximus could be the leftist revolutionary while the royal family are centrists. This theory makes too much sense and I’m kinda uncomfortable with it. Like, yeah Maximus goes overboard and is clearly evil (it’s clear he’s evil before he speaks or does anything. His costuming, especially his facial hair, mark him as such). On the other hand, he uses his privilege to advocate for the lower class. He tries to comfort and defend a kid who gets sent to the mines, even before learning that the kid has an incredibly useful power. Meanwhile, one of our first scenes is the royal couple ignoring incoming calls (about incredibly important things like the fact that earth might now have evidence of their home on the moon) to have super-powered sex. Excesses of the ruling class and whatnot.

I’m currently watching episode three, and we seem to be getting more villains with superpowers. Also wholesome villains who love being on earth. And Mortis, who I assume I am going to love. Yeah, the morality of this show is probably fucked.

[typologycentral]

[Tritype] Am I 6w7 or 7w6?

Okay, I have been long debating what my personality type is. I've spent a lot of time in trying to figure mine out, as I have a love for psychology (what I'm planning to major in). I'm not trying to figure my personality out because I'm filled with anxiety or anything. I just feel like knowing your personality is important because it helps you better understand yourself, which is something I really need right now. Something everyone needs in my opinion. Anyways.. to start, I had a best friend who was an ENTP, & after seeing her as well as a series of events that happened to me shortly after.. I started scoring ENTP & ENFP on 16 personalities. Honestly, it started depending on the day & how I felt. In turn, I can't figure out which I am anymore. I've been on multiple forums where it has stated that after a series of traumatic events, your personality can change. I lost my best friend, things happened at home, etc. Well, last night I took the Enneagram test & I scored 6w7, but now I'm more confused than ever. I have lots of anxiety, but I'm debating on whether it's more of a 6w7 or 7w6 type. I know for a fact that I'm ENxP. I just dont know if I'm a thinking or feeling type. - which seems to be the case for my results overall. I don't see myself as a negative person, but I do joke about my fears a lot. (for example the show Rick & Morty does the same thing. That's my favorite show because of the morbid humour). I have a lot of self doubt, but I suppress it as much as possible as I feel like self loathing gets you nowhere. I'm generally seen as a very likeable person, someone everyone feels comfortable around. Lord knows why because I'm the most sarcastic person youll ever meet. 😂 However, in some instances I can be sensitive, it just depends on who I'm talking to & the situation I'm in. I see myself as a manipulative, devils advocate because I know how to get what I want in a sense, but in other instances I take people's circumstances into consideration when planning on going out with friends. I somewhat feel as if it is just partly my love for understanding others to begin with. In conituation... As I was reading about 6 on the Enneagram description, I do tend to have manic tendencies & I could see myself becoming addicted to drugs or alcohol 😅. I do have a dark side, but everyone has one, right? I dont know guys, I just wanted input to see what you thought 🤔 So maybe I can have a little peace of mind. I'm just so in between everything 😅 If you also have any questions, feel free to ask me as I'm open to what everyone has to say. http://www.typologycentral.com/forums/enneagram/91245-am-6w7-7w6-new-post.html?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=tumblr