#this feat is not an asspull

[rmorde]

Ok. I'm off from the former bird's hell site now. I've seen someone said Gojo's win is an asspull (1) while another said that Goji's win was easy because Sukuna is weak (2).

Bad takes are creeping in. I'll check memes later or I'll explode with high blood pressure.

Tbf, JJK kinda needs a handbook about its power system like HxH just to keep track of the rules... or to use it as bludgeon on people who just skims the manga and treat it like an illustrated children's book.

[narhinafan]

Author included sarada for evil sasuke target to mainly obtain ems or rinnegan.

As for the main trio of the story will be boruto, kawaki, and himawari.

Himawari should defeat daemon in the end as he got threatened from her in eida arrival arc.

Himawari had the most potential after boruto in new gen as her being daughter of nh, she can achieve kaguya feats if she doesn't get side linned due to salad's useless ass.

She won't get anything from the fake Sasuke, it would be a complete asspull if it did happen like that. She is doomed to go blind or at minimal lose her Sharingan for good.

Yes Himawari should be second to Boruto in potential and start kicking ass soon.

[dragon-ball-meta]

According to the leaks. Apparently Krillin actually does SOMETHING. Which isn't much of a praise, since literally a scene charge would do this shit arc a favor.

Yeah, but being honest, it's done in such a way that I feel it only serves to really undermine the seriousness of the whole situation. The movie managed to allow everyone to do something in such a way that hammers home "ok, everyone got to put in work and make an impression, but they're still screwed unless Gohan can dig deep one more time". In the manga... a Krillin who hasn't trained much at all post-Cell and an 18 implied not to necessarily be much stronger either (or at least given no indication she's stronger) managing to just clip Cell Max's wings like that kind of... well, undersells him as a threat and appears to have him greatly de-powered. That or he's just asspulling feats for Krillin and 18 now due to the backlash. Not the best choice to make to sell this from a narrative standpoint either way, at least.

[skania]

if Itachi wins I'll roll my eyes with you, did demon slayer not teach anyone what an actual caring brother is like!?! on top of most of his feats are imo asspulls I'm, glad I'm not the only one who doesn't like the character.

I’m right with you on that anon. I'm not sure if I outright dislike Itachi (I am still interested in his dynamic with Sasuke, for example), but as an individual character I sure don't care for him. Sasuke may have forgiven, but I won’t forget. Besides, his writing everywhere else is just one ridiculous feat after another. Like the way we’re told Itachi was thinking like a Hokage when he was basically a toddler. At some point Kishi just really started liking him for whatever reason and it shows 😂

[lesser-mook]

Future State: Immortal Wonder Woman #2 (Wonder woman vs The Anti-Life Equation? Wtf) *spoilers

Not feeling the hamfisted Nubia shit at the end of the comic but-

Wish WW put up more of a fight against Darkseid, nerfed like a mf. In terms of feats punches from her on Darkseid would level that island. 

ESPECIALLY seeing how she basically started a big bang later, SOMEHOW.

And that by itself has to be my biggest issue with the whole thing. That deus ex machina big bang.

And i genuinely don't know where the hell that came from.

I don't have an issue with Wonder woman pulling it off, but the context or foreshadowing of her being capable of that doesn't exist:

Not even in this story, maybe i need to read it again.

Superman cauterizing reality with heat vision is stupid, but it's not too off the cuff. Starting a UNIVERSE with no set up, when you clearly could've used that ability earlier? Yeah, that's a bit much, some My Hero Academia levels of Asspull.

And going by the look on Diana's face (below) she was confused too, so what even was that? You know how much power/energy it takes to resuscitate/populate a Universe with celestial bodies?

So where was all that when Darkseid was fucking shit up?

Also why is Darkseid & Superman's death linked to an exploding Sun, they've tanked far worse, they'd be fighting long after that sun poofed.

Trapping them in the source wall (if it's still there) would've been a better end or Superman fighting & forcing him and himself into the Anti-Life Equation.

Their deaths make no sense, especially Darkseid, he'd arguably outlast Supes after the sun died.

#1's monologue boxes were very eloquent  but much too talkative,

not boring so much as indulgent. 

ie. I GET IT, times are tough, move on.

Fun read, the casual panels are beautiful, action panels aren't as good, basic. Diana herself is gorgeous, i think this iteration might be better drawn than Benes, who loves to showcase ass cheeks lol. This WW is just very fair in the face, very elegant femininity, and i do like that hint of gray in her hair.

Definitely one of my favorite Diana’s visually, reminds me of JLU’s Wonder Woman.

And that first kick Diana got on Darkseid was pretty well drawn, the rest could've used more emphasis of movement, and choreography.

And while i have an issue with that piece of dialogue regarding Diana basically being all Highschool crush on Superman, wondering if his last thoughts were about her? 

I don't have an issue with her loving him, it's canon that she has the hott's for Clark since Action Comics #761,818, etc. possibly predating that, those are just the examples i remember vividly

It’s just those choice of words, just sounds off for Diana.

Maybe that’s just her being blunt in a moment of vulnerability, idk.

But her verbally alluding to her loving him "I loved him all the more for it", not out of character. Because again, it's canon that she does gravitate to his good nature being the anti-thesis to what most Amazons stereotype men to be.

He's the exception and the apex. Why wouldn't their Amazon princess be attracted to a genuinely good man, especially in the End times

.

The execution could've been better by giving this maybe 2 more issues to flesh out some things like Supes & WW current dynamic, the deaths of the other core League members, setting up her being able to start a Universe. Just clean up the rough points.

Honestly all those pages spent shoving Nubia down my throat COULD’VE been a whole comic spent exploring those fine details i mentioned lol.

Just wish that sudden power up could've had some clearer subtext, it's DC & she's a "Goddess", though of WAR, not creation, but it doesn't break immersion too much .

Best interpretation i got is in the void or absence of hope, she embodied Hope and physically manifested it in desperation or some shit. She was the only source of magic left in the Universe so it wouldn't be too big a stretch to just make shit happen and being a goddess could unleash some power she didn't know existed.

I GUESS this is what happens to a god when there's nothing left of creation, she creates. No one left to believe in her, she believes in herself and starts anew, a universe, albeit unintentionally.

And she had Lanterns ring on her, the last Lantern ring in existence so maybe that played a part too. Who knows.

In isolation, if that was the point, then that's actually a really sad, yet beautiful concept. Though it’s kind of lame that the Anti-Life Equation was defeated that easily, of all the heroes to pull it off, glad it was Wonder Woman to get this W. 

Otherwise, not a bad read. Swamp Things death is the biggest tragedy in the book so far, rip.

It’s only 2 issues, i recommend it.

[delku]

oh anti-hacker deku campaign btw in one of the ovas (laugh like you are in hell) deku says he learned how to use computers from kaminari which is 1. an amazingly random and unnecessary asspull and 2. kind of shows that deku cant operate a computer to save his life. for. some reason. its not as if navigating to a website is some astronomically arcane feat of tech knowledge, and its not as if we dont see deku on a desktop computer every time the anime decides we need to see his sobbing little 5-year-old face. really weird moment

[museincarnate]

//In case someone needs to quickly explain godmodding, the best way I can sum it up from experience is: Autohitting someone, metagaming, asspulling feats from out of nowhere, or trying to control someone else's character.

Also evading every attack.

It's a multifaceted subject.

RPing on anon just doesn't make fair play easy for anyone either, because how are we supposed to know anything about your muse without legit work to back it up?

[goddamnwebcomics]

Can you rank all six “Crappiest of Crappiest of Crappy Crap” moments, from least horrendous to absolute worst?

Sure. Granted there’s actually seven of them, but I guess since one of them isn’t really individual moment but rather a realization, we can do six.

6. Little Kit

This is automatically the least worst one because it seems to be all completely made up…I hope. I don’t think anyone has named their child after a character in a lewd furry comic.

5. Michelle Shows First Sign of Sentience

Oh god, this was CoCoC? This was only the beginning, the TIP OF THE ICEBERG of all the shit Michelle would do. So for that reason it’s the second least worst.

4. Michelle Speaks

Same with this, it was insane when it happened for the first time, but oddly enough, this marked the end of Michelle’s wonder feats because shortly after this she stopped playing that big of a role in the comic due to her birth coming closer and closer.

3. Llew’s Mother Faps to Her Son Having Sex

Twisted, but I still find spanking scene to be worse, but this DIRECTLY followed it so no wonder I placed this tag.

2. Trasik Chel killed was a Mimic All Along

Legit the worst plot twist in this blog’s history. It took Chel’s kickass moment away from her and made the last 100 or so pages completely pointless. Safe to say of all the asspulls in the world, this was the most asspulliest.

1. The Dead Host Is Resurrected As A Good Guy

Is this the worst moment in all of Gene Catlow? Probably not, but it is definitely the most corrupt moral-wise, one of the hosts who wanted to die in Horton’s hands was then resurrected by Friendship “no kill pls” Island as a good guy, meaning that brainwashing via resurrection is a thing now apparently. And it would happen again!

[bloominstorm]

I think the real beauty of this chapter is how Wakui took us back to how Takemichi was in the beginning before the Kiyomasa shit. He deadass used to have so much confidence and was always down to fight. It’s not like he CANT fight, it’s that he lost his will to stand up and fight after Kiyomasa broke his spirit. He became timid, he began to doubt himself all the time which lead to his dead-end life. In every fight we’ve seen so far (not including Tenjiku arc), he’s been scared to fight and would psyche himself out. He just needed that confidence in himself to help him remember how he used to be. This the same dude that was Kaku’s hero, that saved Hina and made her fall in love with him, saved Naoto without hesitation and no knowledge of who he was which motivated him to become a police officer. Not even on some corny shit, but he’s always had this strength in him, he just needed to get his confidence back.

[lurking96]

BNHA362 or the Death of a Character

By now the chapter had been out for a bit. People saw it. People reacted to it. To each in their own reactions and feelings. Now I am not making a secret that I am not a huge fan of the character. So I will put my opinion under a read more. It´s certainly something surprising that happened

Honestly I did not expect Bakugous death. It did feel a bit sudden. Not necessairly random thanks to the situation they were in. But before that chapter it seemed to be expected that one of the Big 3 would die. Not him. Sure he was hurt. But people expected he would make it out. Leak night certainly was special. Especially with not all the info was out. People thought his heart simply stopped. I for one moment thought the stress on his body gave him cardiac arrest. But as more info came out it shifted. His heart got destroyed by ShigAFO. It definitely seems more permanent. Now who knows me knows I am not a fan of death as consequence. I think Karmic consequences hardly work out. That him dying is not a good consequence. But rather something cheap. A martyr death to cleanse the record. To stop people talking bad about a person. However this was not it. The death had a form of narrative message. Overall he had a “Bright Future”. Him wanting his AM card to be signed showed that he was still childish. It´s a childish wish. He didn’t think about family, friends, the person he bullied for years, the apology. But simply an AM card. They are in a war. And war can cut Bright Futures down. You won’t be protected just because you have goals. Just because people have expectations for you. No you can simply die. Not because you are special. But rather because you were in the wrong place at the wrong time. It´s not fair. In the end most that fight on the hero side are first years. Jirou lost one of her ears it seems. Monoma is a vital piece in the plan and their life depends on him keeping up erasure. Midoriya is seen as an asset as he holds OFA. I can certainly see that some may just see him as vessel and not as person. They are not toddlers. But they are still young. Their whole life is still before them. And Bakugous death sets the stage. It shows the stakes. Anyone can die. If for example Ojiro died. That wouldn’t set the stakes as much. He is rather a side character. His death would not shock the audience as much. Bakugou however is popular. He avoided death before. Certainly he had some plot armor. But so far it seems gone now. His death shows that anyone can die. That this is war. That this is not fair. It sets the tone of the future encounters. Do I think he is dead permanently. Yes kinda. So far there doesn’t seem to be a good way out. Some people said Best Jeanist could control fibers to fix his heart. A feat Jeanist never did before. Never fixed organs. And it´s a delicate operation. Doubt ShigAFO will just let them. Others said that Eri will fix him. She is not there. Not close. So far she used her powers to fix Mirio. Not on Aizawa. Not on Mirko. Eri has quite the recharge time. Monoma can copy her quirk but he can not stockpile it. Recovery girl looks tired and she is also is not there currently. Some said OFA is gonna heal him. OFA can not heal. Honestly it rather does the opposite. Kills the quirked user. And the seconds quirk seems to be more combat based. Also he currently is not even close to the quirk. His heart exploding seems rather permanent. About the AM vestige he saw. I honestly don’t think it was OFA. He was not in the OFA space. It was an empty white space. Maybe in the OFA talks he joined Midoriya described the vestige of AM. And his slowly oxygen losing brain made it up in his dying moments. It´s not a vestige. But rather a ghostly form of AM. Honestly not a fan of the idea that he will become an OFA vestige. Midoriya does not need explosion and he doesn’t need the guy around 24/7 in his head. Again. Do I think he will come back alive. Yes it is possible. However it needs to be done well. No cop out, no asspull, no random magic wand made for only him. His revival needs to make sense in the world. And it needs to be explained while it wasn’t done before with other people. Simply put it needs to make sense why he comes back and why maybe only him comes back. it would also cheapen the death a bit. Why kill him when he just comes back. Kinda removes the stakes. Kinda removes the emotions that are tied to it. If it is not done right obviously. The author can always positively surprise us. Overall it seems like a delicate process to write. Many thinks can go wrong either with permadeath or revival. Well we can only see what the future chapters will bring and how they will deal with it. Currently his permadeath holds a message to me. It makes sense to a degree. Do I like it. Not that much. But I can accept it as the writers choice.

[greedeisland]

If you could check this out it'd mean a lot to me, I spent a lot of time on this.

>>MAJOR CHIMERA ANT ARC SPOILERS<< 

"What's so great about him, he just had his rage moment?" After tons of buildup and foreshadowing. It's the perfect reflection of his character, he didn't go Super Saiyan, he sacrificed everything he had for that one moment. All of his fury and rage exploded, in an extremely unhealthy outlet. He wanted someone to feel the pain that he felt, he didn't know what to do. But in the end, Pitou was the winner in that battle. They achieved everything they wanted, protecting the king. They were satisfied with dying knoWing that Gon wouldn't be able to use this power on Meruem. Physically, they lost. But mentally they were the clear victor. Killing Pitou didn't take Gon's pain away, it just made him feel empty. 

It almost killed him, too, if not for Alluka. In the Yorknew City arc we learn about covenants and restrictions in a healthy (or not so healthy) introduction from Kurapika. Wing TELLS Gon that he should never do that, he WARNS him. Gon puts them on himself because he doesn't know what to do, he's terrified and he blames himself for Kite’s death. Gon doesn’t know what to do with this guilt and it’s eating him alive. “isn’t it a bit of an overreaction, he barely knew Kite!!” that’s just due to madhouse’s garbage handling of Kite. in chapter 1 of the manga, we see Kite rescuing Gon. compared to when we see him in episode 76, Kite leaves a much larger impact. Kite is the one who tells him about his father, Kite is the hunter who saved his life and he never forgets. 

https://imgur.com/a/a8FnshZ 

You see this? Gon recognizes Kite immediately. He only met Kite once, years and years ago, yet Kite’s name and face have been engraved in his mind. Kite is the reason the whole story began. He gave Gon the motivation to go seek out ging, after Aunt Mito claims that his father is dead. In a way, Kite is the driving force behind the story. And when Kite dies, Gon breaks.There’s also more foreshadowing for Gon’s transformation, It wasn’t an “asspull” Togashi did for the plot. If it was, it would’ve been used against Meruem instead of Pitou. Pitou’s death was basically inconsequential, Gon didn’t kill them because he needed to, but because he wanted to take out his rage on something, and Pitou just happened to be there. It didn’t help, either.Back to covenants and restrictions, the reason why Gon became so powerful was because he gave himself such a strict restriction and such a consequential punishment. In trade for his nen and for his potential for growth, on top of the fact that it would’ve killed him if not for Alluka (his covenant), Gon gained the peak strength he could’ve obtained if he trained vigorously for all his life. The restriction was that he gained this power only until he defeated Neferpitou. It in no way was an asspull, in doing this there were serious consequences that would affect him for the rest of his life. He gave up everything he loved, adventuring and growing stronger, in exchange to let out his fury in an unhealthy outlet, which in the end didn’t make him feel better at all.In Chapter 51 of the manga, after Gon's first fight with Guido, Wing worries that he has awakened some kind of monster. and he has. Wing stated that not many people know about nen, because if it went into the wrong hands it would be an extremely dangerous tool. In that superhuman state of his, Gon was a monster. Perhaps Wing blames after learning about Gon's incredible feat, because he was the one who taught it to him in the first place. not only for the fact that Gon gave up everything, but for the fact he unleashed such a dangerous force on the world. 

https://imgur.com/a/Gp9TZfi 

In chapter 88 of the manga, Zepile notices Gon's immorality. He has a strict moral code, either you are “good,” or you are not. Gon is probably one of the most childish and selfish characters we’ve seen. He sees things in black and white, there is no “gray area” for him. It doesn’t matter how morally correct you are, if you are useful you are good and if you aren’t you are bad. Gon becomes friends with people like Killua, who are objectively bad, because Killua is good to Gon. He doesn’t care about how many people he has killed, he has already decided that killua is “good.” Zepile notices this, and realizes how dangerous that makes him. In the anime, he says something similar. “He didn’t react with accustory glares or by plotting his own evil deeds. His reaction was very simple. innocent curiosity! He opens his mind to everything that impresses him, right or wrong. Which means that he’s dangerous…”. This is a perfect summary of Gon’s fucked up moral compass. His “innocent curiosity” is childish, because Gon is a child. 

Gon is extremely selfish. He hurts so many people, especially Killua. Gon can’t see past the outer layers, that’s why he says to Killua that he doesn’t care. Killua does care, he would die for Gon in a heartbeat. But because of his cool demeanor, because he doesn’t react in the way that Gon would react, Gon assumes that he doesn’t care. so why should Killua interfere with his business with Pitou if none of this means anything to him? Gon can’t see that people react in different ways to things. He has a lack of empathy. 

But doesn’t this make him a sociopath, or other terms people like to toss around? No. It makes him a kid. Gon sees things the way a child would. If an average twelve to fourteen year old was put in the situation Gon was in, they would react in a similar manner. We’re used to shonen main characters being righteous and good. However, that is extremely unrealistic in the real world. Gon is morally ambiguous, even if he sees his way as “good”. That's what makes him such a great character, so relatable. Gon is human.

[narhinafan]

Now that I finished rereading Naruto manga for the first time in almost a decade I can say for certain that Sakura is one of the most insufferable characters in the entire Naruto franchise. A person that is a bad person can still be a well-written character but Sakura isn't one of those characters. Here are my 3 biggest issues during the final Arc with Sakura's character that really pissed me off when I reread it.

1 The 100 healing is such bullshit Sakura should have never obtained such a feat how did she do it why if she was able to do it did she use it sooner it would have been extremely helpful her having it is a plot hole speaking of plot holes.

2 during the final fight with Madara she should have died when she got stabbed even with 100 healing I wanted to face pawn when I read it it was so dumb.

3 Sakura's hesitation nearly doomed the entire world the very fact that she hesitated to destroy Madara's Rinnegan was an act of pure stupidity.

I can list more but that would turn this entire thing into an essay the very fact that Sakura is even considered a smart character is laughable considering the stupid action she takes throughout the series.

I know her getting 100 healings was an asspull more so with that timing and it shortchanged Shizune who has been Tsunade's student far longer then Sakura has.

Then the timing of it was just too convenient you can tell it was done in the moment to make Sakura more involved in the war cause she can't do anything other wise.

Yes Sakura should have died when she got stabbed its a big plot considering that staff was a truth seeker orb it should have vaporised anything that it comes in contact with and negate chakra. Sakura should have got split in half instead of hanging in the air.

What makes it worse is that Naruto and the others don't know Sakura's stupidity almost lead to the world ending.

Sakura is book smart that is all in the real world she fails hard.

[lunaneko14]

I never understood how sakura is irreplacable because she got the byakugou seal if hinata replaced her she would get it too?? Logically main character get more power ups and since sakura is one of the weakest mc she could easily be replaced by someone like hinata or karin who have potential to expand on tsunade's teachings and surpass her. (Tbh that moment where sakura awakens the seal was already a complete asspull)

Yeah when you have to asspull something on the spot just to make her match up to Sasuke and Naruto, you KNOW she can be replaced especially when two other females (Hinata and Ino) have shown far more impressive feats even with the byakugou

[ngame989]

Destiny vs Free Will - What Does it Mean? feat. Knight Shift

Obviously everyone is all aflutter about the segment as a whole, and especially its ending, and especially especially the symbolism/teasing with a potency like smellingsalt for the heart.

Or more precisely, two hearts, if you include the shadow.

Now clearly this is a very great and wonderful and intimate Starco moment (and segment as a whole) but there’s one very clear and specific thing I want to point out that makes it unique, and gives it a very clear purpose within this specific arc - let’s talk about that arc first.

Obviously Star and Marco are fabulous partners for each other, the show has made that clear over and over again, and has given us moments where they showcase how much they care about each other. And it’s not a stretch, not at all, to read into that as foundations for a deeper love - that’s why Starco shippers ship Starco, in most cases. And having such incredibly strong moments near the end of S3, which were tinged with overt romantic implications between them (the kiss, the blushes in Divide) made many, myself included, hope that resolution was imminent. Clearly that isn’t the case, and I still have my issues with the overall decisions they’ve made for progression (and I’m sure many of my followers do too), but let’s set all that aside and just work with what the show has given us for a moment. 

Curse set us up for an arc of “destiny vs free will” for the remainder of the season/show in the words of Brian Kim himself. But really, the Blood Moon itself was honestly a minor part of the episode, as an entity - so what did it represent? Earlier in the episode, we had Marco crying to Eclipsa over his feelings, and Star feeling awkward and tense and maybe even guilty over her own when Tom brought them up. They just learned about the possibility of a curse causing it that day, but those feelings were there beforehand - the love is real, but Star and Marco (as people) associated it with pain and guilt and frustration, to the point where Marco liking everything about Star was something he didn’t even think was good. So they broke the Curse, and “destroyed their feelings”, and as I’ve discussed before I do genuinely think (whether it was actually the curse, or whether it was just a strong placebo, leaning towards the latter) that they do genuinely feel as though they’ve put their explicitly romantic longings for each other behind them, right now, although the concept of “romantic longing” is very very very heavily detached from emotional depth itself in this show.

So “a curse forced them to have feelings for each other” is... dumb, and an asspull in all ways, if taken literally. And while the show still has time to do something with it and make good on it, I’m still very miffed they actually still ended the episode believing that is the case. BUT, thematically speaking, it’s directly attached to the much more accurate idea of “Star and Marco know their overall friendship is real but feel hurt and confused by the deeper romantic feelings for each other that they developed out of their control, without asking for them.” Then free will manifests itself as the alternative to this - Star and Marco accepting that they love each other because they want to love each other, because they fully understand that love is the natural result of the joy that their own relationship brings to their lives, free of conflicts and pain and romantic drama. This is why it’s widely speculated that Beach Day would be a very important moment of development for this, Star and Marco just loving life spending time together.

The symbolism in Knight Shift is unique, and an incredibly strong windup to this arc, because it’s a moment for them, free of any and all conflicting romantic feelings, or pain, or hurt, or pining, where they can simply express how much they mean to each other and how much they want to continue being together (in some way shape or form) forever. So to take something like that, a moment PURELY focused on Star and Marco and their friendship, and slap a giant pile of overt “this is the stuff love is made of” symbolism on top of that without muddying it with unrequited romantic pining or tension or awkwardness in the slightest, is largely a first for the show and provides one of the clearest and most unambiguous Starco moments yet. 

Granted, we’re still a ways off (potentially until near the finale, imo) from Star and Marco actually truly feeling and embracing romantic love fluttering in their hearts again (free of conflict or uncertainty this time), and that’s its own can of worms. While I still am incredibly disappointed and frustrated that Starco and the concept of true love are being put on such a pedestal by the show here, where they essentially need to solve every single problem with their own hearts and minds and maturation and fully understand everything about what they want in life forever JUST to realize “hey maybe we want to kiss”, I can also acknowledge that they are taking the time and energy and care in solving every one of those problems, and that their endgame “happily ever after” will have a foundation to its confidence and permanence that far surpasses 99% of the uses of the trope, and we may as well at least try to look at the glass-half-full perspective. And my conclusion is that while the glass may only be half full, what’s there is absolutely delicious.

Also, bonus points for symbolism:

[mikami]

Is there any deus ex machinas or plot armors in DN you can list? If so, do you think they were good for the story at all? And those two in general?

I mean, it’s kind of hard to write a detective story without contrivances. In the end stories are made up of events that connect in possibly implausible ways to make up one coherent narrative. In that sense, I always find it hard to really point out what I feel is ‘plot armor’ versus what is normal, haha.

There’s a few things in Death Note though that really require me to throw my suspension of disbelief out of the window. Namely:

Mello’s goddamn missile. Literally nothing will ever be as much of a non-sequitur as that missile. There is no logical reason Mello would be able to own it! Investigating its origin would be the most obvious clue towards Mello! And yet the story just… forgets about this thing. The missile is the biggest asspull in all of Death Note, even if it makes for a fun moment on first watching/reading.

Near finding Mikami. Characters in Death Note often pull off incredible feats of intelligence, effort and attention that wouldn’t be possible in real life. That’s fine. But watching world-wide news broadcasts with audio in multiple languages all at once while also understanding all the audio? That’s a lot. And then picking only a single suspect out of every single person on Earth who’s been on TV in the last year or so? And that suspect is actually luckily the right one? That’s a whole lot.

The finale - almost. You have to accept a whole lot of idiocy from both Mikami and Near to take it played straight. Mikami not checking the notebook after going to the bank knowing he was followed? Dumb. Near not anticipating Mikami doing that and thus not taking any precautions? Also dumb. I can take either in isolation, but the combination makes me want to tear my hair out. However, I don’t mind this one much, because with the Near-killed-Mikami theory, canon provides a satisfactory explanation for me that I can opt to believe and explain this with.

Otherwise, Death Note has usual plot contrivances where things happen with pretty convenient timing: Light runs right into Naomi, Matsuda happens to infiltrate Yotsuba at the exactly right time, Shidoh shows up to reclaim his notebook just when it’s stolen…. All that stuff is pretty pervasive and all that stuff is really good for moving a story, so I don’t think it’s an issue.

So do I think there are any issues? Honestly, not really.

I think Death Note subverts any expectations of plot armor really well with L’s death and from that point the stakes are high for everyone at all times. So plot armor really doesn’t strike me as an issue here.

The deus ex machina nature of the missile will forever bother me, but it’s an isolated incident so I think it is negligible enough. Even if infuriating.

Also if you’re asking me how I feel about plot armor and deus ex machina in general, unrelated to Death Note: depends heavily on the show and its genre. I always like subverting expectations, but in the end I’m also someone who will happily watch the same formulaic story play out the same formulaic way again and again as long as the execution is well-done, haha. 

[taiblogcomics]

Learn to Thrace Your Fears

Hey there, cheap-ass bread. We got one more for this pony miniseries, and we're gonna finish it today. I hope you're into it~

Hope you're into this cover:

Because, honestly, I'm not. It's another friendly groupshot of the Student Six, and that's all. Honestly, the covers of this series have been their weakest point. To be fair, you probably don't pick up issue 3 of a miniseries if you weren't into issues 1 and 2, so there's probably not that much need to draw in the customer. But if you put all three covers together, you probably can't tell which is which. You can only win a medal if you're not on the left side of the cover!

So we rejoin the comic where we left off, with Swift Foot having destroyed the friendship between the Student Six. She's admiring her handiwork, and yet somehow feels empty inside over the whole thing. This triggers a weirdly tinted flashback. Heck, I might even go so far as to bring back the Purple Flashback gag just for this. It's way out in the Thrace Kingdom, in Swift Foot's bedroom. Swift Foot's twin sisters, Shining Light and the improbably named Blonn Di, show up to tell Swift Foot that their dad's looking for an audience. Of course, to stir up trouble, they've taken their time delivering the message, just to show you how unpleasant their family is.

So the head of the royal guard is also one of King Thrace's daughters. Nepotism runs pretty rampant in the Kingdom of Thrace, it seems. Like, this guy has four daughters and no other subjects. And if you thought Blonn Di was a dumb name, let me introduce you to Terri Belle. Augh, you people have some stupid and terrible names. Anyway, Terri reports than Princess Twilight is holding an inter-species contest to demonstrate the merits of friendship. King Thrace declares friendship to be silly pony lies, and sends Swift Foot as an infiltrator to ruin friendship for them. And that's how we've gotten to where we are today!

So here's Swift Foot in the present. She's a little shaken, because here's a group of folks who made her feel more welcome and nice than her own family has. But they've all fallen prey to her preconceptions and proven friendship is a lie. But that's when suddenly Silverstream attempts to reason with Yona by speaking Yak to her. She's so bad at it, though, that Yona suddenly stops being mad and laughs. Her hovercraft is full of eels, or thereabouts. They wanted to surprise Yona by learning her language and making her feel more at home, but they haven't had time to learn in between school and the Olympics and so on~

From there, the other friendships begin to repair as well. Sandbar apologises to Ocellus for bullying her into shapeshifting, and she in turn apologises to Silverstream for being so jealous. Shapeshifters have to stick together, after all. Gallus promises that if anypony has a problem with Ocellus, they have a problem with the whole group. He apologises for being a bad leader, and Smolder in turn apologises for butting heads with him over it. Swift Foot is visibly shocked by the revelation that friendship can be repaired as easily as it can be destroyed~

And the group also apologises to Swift Foot, sorry that she had to see them like that. She's still stunned, but they explain the usual thing about how friendship can be messy, but you don't stop trying to make it work. And they then resolve to just go out and do their best, since friendship is more important than winning. They even invite Swift Foot to come along, and she almost breaks down in tears at the notion they'd still want to hang out with her after all she's done. But of course, they don't actually know that she's done anything wrong.

And so the group, now reunited in friendship, head out to tackle the final feat. Which, after some preamble from Twilight, turns out to be: can you fight this hydra? Fortunately, while they had the chimera last issue, they're not foolish enough to actually bring a real hydra into a crowded stadium. It's just a high-quality illusion. So Ocellus decides to show them what a real hydra is like, leading to the absolutely wild image of a giant bipedal dragon with four snakey necks, each topped with Ocellus' head. Each head carries a pair of the team, and the remaining head just headbutts the hydra. The pairs each jump on another head of the hydra and pin it to the ground. Winner, by pinfall or submission: the Student Six!

The group all celebrate, and the ceremonies are held later that night. The Student Six actually make second place overall (probably due to poor showing in the bridge event), and they mention that Swift Foot is not with them They tried to delay to allow her time to show up, but... Sandbar is especially disappointed, still harbouring that crush. We cut over to Swift Foot walking out of the town. She thinks they've earned their place up there and she hasn't. She has learned that friendship is real and true, and plans to return home to persuade her family to see this as well. And if she can't... she'll fight for her friends' safety anyway~

This is not a bad miniseries, and I still maintain that its weakest point is the covers. The rest of it is pretty all right. The ending is just a little weird to me is all. Like, it doesn’t really feel like the comic resolved anything. The Kingdom of Thrace is kind of an asspull retcon, and the ending doesn’t really feel like it dealt with that in any significant way. It feels more like it’s setting itself up for a sequel. And I promise you, this is only three issues. This is the finale. Other than that, though, story’s pretty all right. Poor ol’ Sandbar got his heart broke, though, and that doesn’t feel too good. I genuinely felt bad for him at the end, mostly because of the way his dialogue was written.

If you like the Student Six, I encourage you to seek this one out. If they’re not your favourites, though, this story might not be your favourite either~