Anger Beyond Anger

Can't Someone Else Do It?

[satoshi-mochida]

Fairune Collection releases today in North America and the EU digitally for the Switch.

[ultramanismycopilot]

I played the first Fairune game entirely on a whim after randomly browsing the eShop, and fell completely in love with this series right from the start, so I’m genuinely happy to see this collection on the Switch.

Here’s hoping for more entries in the future!

[ultramanismycopilot]

That Is Not Dead Which Can Eternal Lie

It’s been a long while since I last sat down and simply wrote something, so here’s some more scattered thoughts. And since I can’t actually keep a consistent topic for this blog: let’s talk Disney’s Sleeping Beauty.

Everyone and their mothers is already aware of this movie, or at the very least, the story surrounding it, so I won’t waste any time with a condensed introduction to it. Suffice to say, it’s one of the archetypal fairy tales that has existed seemingly forever, and will more than likely continue to exist forever. The Disney version, especially, will likely always be the first version everyone thinks of when they first think of Sleeping Beauty.

A lot of people love this movie, and I’ve certainly seen a fair share of people who dislike it as well. And to be perfectly honest, I used to kind of belong to the second camp. I never outright hated it however, because I simply never gave it the proper attention to even form an opinion about it. For years, I had this strange idea that Sleeping Beauty simply was not worth the time to actually sit through from beginning to end.

I already knew the full story after all, and it’s no secret the early Disney movies aren’t necessarily home to complex characters and ideas. There’s absolutely nothing wrong with that by any means, and I do still enjoy many of the classic Disney movies, but Sleeping Beauty has always been a distant thought in my mind because I simply never saw anything about it that told me “this is something worth sitting through” beyond the merit of its artwork (which is gorgeous, I might quickly add), but those can be witnessed just fine through clips and screenshots.

But recently, I finally decided to hunker down and give it a fair shot. And now I’m kicking myself for ignoring this movie for so long! So I just felt inspired to talk about it for a little while. I won’t be providing any interesting analysis, and certainly bringing nothing new to the table. I haven’t prepared this with any research whatsoever, and it’s just me shooting from the hip about a few thoughts I had while watching the movie.

So, let’s get the obvious elephant in the room out of the way:

Our lead princess Aurora is pretty dull. We’re not given much time with her, just enough that we know she’s a nice and polite girl who dreams of one day meeting a handsome prince to love. It’s standard fairy tale fare, and probably one of the reasons I chose to ignore this movie for so long. If your movie’s lead character does nothing, says nothing important, doesn’t grow or get involved in the story whatsoever only to then fall asleep for the entire last third... well, it’s not really a good tagline for the poster.

And actually watching the movie, much of my preconceptions about Aurora were pretty much accurate. She’s certainly fine for her role in the movie, but there simply isn’t a lot to say about her. The most interesting thing I can say about Aurora is how she didn’t even care about the revelation she was royalty when it meant she had to give up on seeing Phillip again. I thought that was an interesting little detail, but beyond that, Aurora is more of a plot device than a main characters.

And that’s when it finally dawned on me, and the movie threw away my decades long preconceptions about it: Aurora is a plot device, not the main character...

They are.

Now, I’m positive I am not the first person to say this, and everyone who was already a fan of this movie is just rolling their eyes at me stating the obvious, but as silly as it may sound, this really did blow my mind when it finally clicked in my head. We follow the fairies - Flora, Fauna and Merryweather - a lot longer than we do Aurora, and they display nothing if not personality all throughout the movie. They’re the most active characters in the story, being the ones to come up with the plan to save Aurora, and eventually aiding Prince Phillip in his daring rescue for the finale (you can even easily make the argument Phillip would be dragon chow if not for them).

I think that just years and years and years of second-hand information and adaptations of this story had led me to believe the fairies simply didn’t do much besides be comic relief. And while they do have some great comic relief, they definitely have their strong action moments as well, as they follow Phillip all throughout his battle against Maleficent’s dark forces, and eventually, Maleficent herself.

I find it strange I don’t seem to hear much about the fairies. It’s entirely possible I might simply not be paying enough attention, but I can’t help but feel like their role is often overlooked when the movie is spoken in more mainstream discussions. Growing up, I’ve personally always just heard them being described as “the three fairy godmothers” and... that was it for them. Despite being the characters with the most urgency in the entire movie, they’re just eclipsed by Aurora in almost every way outside of their story. Even the title of the movie doesn’t focus on them!

These three are the main reason I wanted to make this post, because I genuinely enjoyed them as both characters and comic relief. They’re easily the ones carrying much of the movie behind their backs, but that is the role of the main characters after all.

While I could start talking about Maleficent now, I don’t think there’s much point to it. She’s deliciously evil, dangerously alluring, and just a ton of fun to watch. Like Aurora, she’s a simple characters that plays her role, but she plays it extremely well. There isn’t much to say about here beyond that, unless you consider the live action movie canon, which... does anyone do that? I honestly don’t know.

Instead, I want to finish this little rant by talking about Prince Phillip. And boy, if I had the mental image of Aurora as an empty blank slate that did nothing, you can bet I didn’t think much higher of Phillip! But actually, I found myself genuinely liking Phillip for what little there was of his character. He’s still nothing more than a plot device, but give him some credit for displaying more agency and personality than Prince Barely-Appearing-In-This-Movie in Snow White. Phillip even shows off more charm than Prince Charming!

But I think that’s about it for this ramble. I could gush about the beautiful artwork and the great songs and all, but I think everyone knows about all of those already. This was just me wanting to gush about the three fairies a little bit, since they’re the ones that showed me this movie actually does have plenty of substance to be worth sitting through.

I certainly regret passing up on Sleeping Beauty for as long as I have, but I’ll definitely begin cherishing the fact I’ve watched it from here on out. Thank you for your time as well!

(Also, the dress looked better blue.)

[thehirrus]

Necesito un AU donde lex adopte a maeve

[videopayphone]

I don’t care. This never gets old.

[ultramanismycopilot]

Very Important Payment Features

Yesterday, the preview for the new Paladins patch, OB58, aired, and I was honestly looking forward to talking about it. I always enjoy seeing the changes (for better or worse) that are made to game, and I was pretty excited that they had teased some Maeve reworks a day or two before it. And while there were a lot of reworks to a lot of characters, a lot of very good skins unveiled, it’s pretty obvious what the most standout feature of this new patch will be: the VIP currency.

I’m just going to be perfectly blunt and state the obvious here: Paladins now has four types of currency. That is utterly ridiculous, but I’ll at least give them some credit in that this isn’t (technically) premium currency, or earned through some stupid random manner like Essence. VIP points can be earned by simply playing the game, no different than gold, which is always a good model.

However, when you go through how much VIP currency you receive, and compare it to how much your standard item costs in the VIP Store, things start getting skeevy, in a way. For every match you play, you will receive 50 VIP points for winning, and 25 for losing, while quests will offer you 100 VIP points every time, and gambling correctly will give you 50 more points. This sounds reasonable enough on its own.

Obviously you still have a way to boost your earnings: for 200 crystals (5 bucks) you will receive two weeks of boosted earnings for all VIP points (150 for wins, 60 for losses, 500 for quests, and another 150 for correct Esport picks), alongside 20 000 VIP points and five radiant chests, plus the match boosters. All things considered, it’s not a terrible deal. It would have been pretty easy for Hi-Rez to simply make you pay for VIP currency, but they at least threw in those Radiant Chests as a nice bonus. And hey, you’re not obligated to pay, right?

Well, that’s where my main issue with this comes from. I love the fact anyone can just earn these points themselves, but when you actually look at the prices in the VIP Store, it becomes a bit obvious that they’re not being totally fair to players who don’t want to spend money on this system.

The cheapest items shown during the stream in the VIP Store were 15 000 VIP points, and those were just the announcer packs. Skins go from 20 000, upwards to 60 000 depending on their rarity. So, just as an example: assuming you only play five matches each day and win them all, completing all three of your weekly quests, you’ll receive 2050 VIP points; for the cheapest items in the VIP Store, it will take you roughly seven and a half weeks just to get to 15 000 VIP points without a booster pack. That’s a long time just to get a voice pack, and to add to that crunch, the VIP Store has a rotation system for skins and content that is exclusive to the VIP Store.

I think the mind games are very obvious here, and it’s frankly a bit disappointing to see. It’s definitely not the worst system that could be put in place, and they still have time to (hopefully) change things around so the system is a bit more generous to players, but as it stands right now it’s just a very cynical thing to add to your game. For what it’s worth, at least so far the content will only be cosmetic, and I can stomach that a lot more. The Essence system skirts dangerously close to Pay 2 Win mechanics, and I’d hate to see the VIP Store start selling Legendary Cards, or character booster packs or something to that effect.

I understand that Paladins is a F2P game, and Hi-Rez has to make money off of it somehow, but I just feel like this VIP system seems to be designed from the ground up to only give the illusion that it’s being player friendly, and that tends to stick with me. I’m far more accepting of shady practices if they’re at least up front about it, and don’t try pull the “we’re doing this for you” tactic when they’re clearly only doing it for themselves.

I’m not decrying the VIP system entirely, as I think Hi-Rez has shown to be more receptive to fan feedback and backlash than most other companies out there, so I do believe there is still enough hope that they will rework the system in future patches, or maybe just change how the other currencies work so the game at least appears more accessible (How about just being able to trade Gold for Essence? Or better yet, just get rid of Essence altogether!).

Despite everything, Paladins is still a game I genuinely enjoy. I haven’t enjoyed a game this much in ages, and I would love nothing more than see it succeed and grow bigger and better with time. When I see stuff like this, I just worry about how they might affect the game, and the perception it will give off to potential new players and other outside spectators.

Here’s hoping I’m just putting way too much thought into this, and being overly paranoid.

[ultramanismycopilot]

I just found you from your Galactic essay and saw your DBS posts. One, you know Sean Schemmel voiced Cyrus, right? Two, I advise you check out the Diamond and Pearl Adventure! manga because it's basically the Pokémon version of Dragon Ball (well, some original series and Z hybrid).

I did not know that actually! I stopped paying much attention to the Pokémon anime after the Hoenn seasons, so I actually missed Galactic’s anime arc. That is an interesting bit of trivia though!

As for the manga, I’ve flip flopped a lot in my head as to whether I’ve ever wanted to bother with it. I’ve read a lot of discussions over it, summaries, etc, and I can’t say what I’ve read really managed to draw me in. Part of that may have to do with their version of Cyrus, which is a very petty reason on my behalf I know, but the thought of him being redeemed or giving up on his crusade seems so distant to the version I became fascinated with. Maybe I’m breaking some unspoken fangirl creed by not wanting my favorite character to be redeemed, but Cyrus is just so good of a villain!

Anyway, I’ve always been on the fence in regards to the manga, but I can’t deny that “the Pokémon version of Dragon Ball” is one hell of a sale’s pitch for it. I’ll keep my eyes open, and check it out if I have the opportunity.

Thanks for the reply!

[blackjackgabbiani]

There are two manga that cover the Galactic plot in detail and they have very similar names. One of them is “Pokémon Adventures Diamond Pearl Platinum” and the other is “Diamond and Pearl Adventure!” and the second one is the one I mean.

They cover it in a way that makes sense, and while the ending is super rushed, the framework is there.

[ultramanismycopilot]

Oh. Well, that’s not confusing or anything, haha!

Sure, I’ll keep an eye out for that! Thank you very much!

[ultramanismycopilot]

Team Galactic, Or, How I Learned To Stop Feeling And Love Nothing

Like many people, Pokémon represents a big chunk of my childhood. I was hooked from the moment I placed Pokémon Blue into my Gameboy, and to this day I still hold the franchise very close to my heart.

I’ve played at least one mainline game in every generation, and there are very few of them I’d ever call “bad” (some better than others, sure, but none ever dipping below the “good enough” line!).

The 7th Generation of Pokémon games was an interesting experiment, with Sun and Moon taking a much more character-driven focus to its story, as opposed to simply having a wafer-thin plot to fill in the gaps between Gym Leaders.

I can only speak for myself, of course, but I actually rather enjoyed SM for this. Lillie’s story was very interesting to me, and many were the times were I found myself very curious to see where it was headed. That’s not to say there weren’t flaws, obviously (a cutscene skip option would have been nice), and the story wasn’t exactly to the level of the majority of RPGs out there, but for what it was, I found it rather enjoyable.

This was, in no small part, due to its main villain Lusamine, who I’ve seen quite some fans call her the most complex Pokémon villain to date. And while I wouldn’t take away the fact Lusamine is a very interesting villain in her own right, I feel she has strong competition in terms of villainy in the Pokémon world.

Whoever your favorite villain in the entire series is, obviously, down to personal preference. This is just me gushing about a team and villain that I find to be remarkably fascinating for a Pokémon game, and who I believe to be one that gets somewhat misunderstood among the community.

So, with that (way too long) introduction out of the way, let’s talk about Team Galactic!

Keep reading

[blackjackgabbiani]

Holy cheese I love you. In a purely logical and emotionless way of course.

I wouldn’t say that he exits the plot unchanged. He’s seen that something in his plan was wrong, and in Platinum at least he’s forced to confess that he does in fact have emotions. Even in DP upon his defeat he asks you what you find important, the most beautiful thing. He wants to know, at least for a moment, what drives you and what you see in a world that he views as barely clinging to worth.

I agree about Generations but the misconceptions about what he really wanted predate that considerably (remember what the show had him do? I don’t know who that man was but he wasn’t our Cyrus). And in the only canons where he gets a redemption arc, he’s had to stay alone with his thoughts for some time, so even though the Distortion World isn’t what he wants, it may be what he needs to realize that he had been wrong.

[ultramanismycopilot]

You make some very good points, but I have to disagree with Cyrus being forced to admit he has emotions. Cyrus always knew that he wasn’t “perfect”, and that’s what drove him to try and tame two gods and achieve his goals. His anger towards the end wasn’t so much an admittance on his part, but more of a window for the player to see where his hatred and motivation actually come from. It’s the part in the story where the villain reveals himself to be more hypocritical than he first let on, basically.

It is possible Cyrus may have started to realize his way isn’t as perfect as he once thought, but only for a second. His breakdown at the end of Platinum, I think, is a great scene that shows just how far gone he really is, as he switches from a shouting, furious madman, to frighteningly calm as he simply assures you his possibly decade-long plan being stopped was nothing more than a setback, and he’d simply find another way to finish what he started.

As for the Generations comment, while I know that the anime and manga have their own versions of Cyrus, the draw of Generations was that it was supposed to be scenes from the games being fully voiced and animated, so it was very disappointing to see it portray Cyrus in such a simplistic “I just want to be alone” fashion. It just stung harder than the others for me, silly as it may be, so it was the only one I mentioned.

I personally don’t quite like the idea that Cyrus just needs time alone to calm down and come to his senses, and always felt that in order for Cyrus to have a redemption arc, you need to go the “protagonist tries really, really hard to become buddies with the villain” route. I left out Cyrus’s childhood from my post since it’s very vague, but as it’s implied that he comes from a very neglectful family, I think the biggest impact to Cyrus’s psyche would have to come from someone actively trying to reach out to him.

But that might just be the shipper in me talking, lolidunno!

[ultramanismycopilot]

I just found you from your Galactic essay and saw your DBS posts. One, you know Sean Schemmel voiced Cyrus, right? Two, I advise you check out the Diamond and Pearl Adventure! manga because it's basically the Pokémon version of Dragon Ball (well, some original series and Z hybrid).

I did not know that actually! I stopped paying much attention to the Pokémon anime after the Hoenn seasons, so I actually missed Galactic’s anime arc. That is an interesting bit of trivia though!

As for the manga, I’ve flip flopped a lot in my head as to whether I’ve ever wanted to bother with it. I’ve read a lot of discussions over it, summaries, etc, and I can’t say what I’ve read really managed to draw me in. Part of that may have to do with their version of Cyrus, which is a very petty reason on my behalf I know, but the thought of him being redeemed or giving up on his crusade seems so distant to the version I became fascinated with. Maybe I’m breaking some unspoken fangirl creed by not wanting my favorite character to be redeemed, but Cyrus is just so good of a villain!

Anyway, I’ve always been on the fence in regards to the manga, but I can’t deny that “the Pokémon version of Dragon Ball” is one hell of a sale’s pitch for it. I’ll keep my eyes open, and check it out if I have the opportunity.

Thanks for the reply!

[ultramanismycopilot]

Team Galactic, Or, How I Learned To Stop Feeling And Love Nothing

Like many people, Pokémon represents a big chunk of my childhood. I was hooked from the moment I placed Pokémon Blue into my Gameboy, and to this day I still hold the franchise very close to my heart.

I’ve played at least one mainline game in every generation, and there are very few of them I’d ever call “bad” (some better than others, sure, but none ever dipping below the “good enough” line!).

The 7th Generation of Pokémon games was an interesting experiment, with Sun and Moon taking a much more character-driven focus to its story, as opposed to simply having a wafer-thin plot to fill in the gaps between Gym Leaders.

I can only speak for myself, of course, but I actually rather enjoyed SM for this. Lillie’s story was very interesting to me, and many were the times were I found myself very curious to see where it was headed. That’s not to say there weren’t flaws, obviously (a cutscene skip option would have been nice), and the story wasn’t exactly to the level of the majority of RPGs out there, but for what it was, I found it rather enjoyable.

This was, in no small part, due to its main villain Lusamine, who I’ve seen quite some fans call her the most complex Pokémon villain to date. And while I wouldn’t take away the fact Lusamine is a very interesting villain in her own right, I feel she has strong competition in terms of villainy in the Pokémon world.

Whoever your favorite villain in the entire series is, obviously, down to personal preference. This is just me gushing about a team and villain that I find to be remarkably fascinating for a Pokémon game, and who I believe to be one that gets somewhat misunderstood among the community.

So, with that (way too long) introduction out of the way, let’s talk about Team Galactic!

Team Galactic, for those unaware, is the main villainous team of Generation 4. Their goal, as understood by its Grunts, is the reinvention of the entire universe so that they would be in charge of everything and everyone. They masqueraded as a company devoted to studying alternate energy sources, but behind that lie there were dreams of not just planetary conquest, but of all reality.

This already places them quite a few steps above in terms of ambition from the team before them, and even those that came later. It’s not money they crave like the Rockets, and they’re certainly not doing this out of a misguided attempt at saving the environment like Aqua or Magma.

Galactic’s Grunts, however, could possibly be described as even dumber than any of those teams, and that’s no secret. Despite their lofty goals, Galactic Grunts are dumb as rocks, acting like no more than petty thugs and thieves and bringing plenty of unwanted attention towards their organization. As they are, their sole strength is in numbers, as the Grunts alone would be incapable of staging any of attacks seen throughout the course of the game.

As such, Team Galactic relies on its circle of Commanders to get things done: Saturn, Mars, Jupiter, and Charon (in Platinum). Unlike the Grunts, they manage to be somewhat of a bigger threat, but despite being smarter they still hold much of the same idea as Grunts in regards to their organization and what their goals are. There’s a few exceptions however: Saturn seems to be driven by curiosity; Mars seems to believe Team Galactic is doing the world a favor; Jupiter seems to only care about ruling over Sinnoh; and Charon is only in it for the money.

However, none of them, not even the Commanders, truly understood what their leader had in store, and what is real plans actually were. The man called Cyrus had plans far, far different from what his organization envisioned, and this is where the really interesting bits start to pop up.

Without beating around the bush any longer, Cyrus can be succinctly and quite accurately described in just two words: cult leader.

While Cyrus’s goals towards universal reset weren’t a secret to Team Galactic, what that actually entailed was. Cyrus brought in all of his followers with promises of power beyond their wildest dreams, and a chance to become greater than anything they every imagined. He’d rally them with passionate speeches  about their mission, and the impact that Team Galactic, not just himself, would have upon the planet:

Cyrus: Fellow members of Team Galactic! Hear me! My name, as I appear to you today, is Cyrus. This world of ours is a crude one. In a word, it is incomplete. It has been, and always will be, a struggle to survive in this world. We humans and Pokémon are likewise incomplete. Because we are all so lacking, we fight, we maim... It is ugly. I hate the incompleteness. That we are all incomplete, I hate it with my entire body and being. The world should be complete. The world must change. Then, who will change it? Me, Cyrus. And Team Galactic. Yes, all of you. Together we pored over myths and exposed their secrets. Together we captured legendary Pokémon. And now, Team Galactic has obtained the energy to change the world! The power of dreams is within our grasp! Understand it, fellow members! My long-held dreamworld is on the verge of becoming reality. All those headed to Mt. Coronet, and those who remain here... Though our missions may differ, our hearts beat as one. Let there be glory for Team Galactic!

This was the lie Cyrus told his followers, and while we only see this speech in the game, a post-game interaction with Saturn leaves enough implication this was a common tactic by Cyrus to get people to join him:

Saturn: Our leader, Master Cyrus, hated the very idea of spirit. He hated spirit for being incomplete. And yet, using fiery exhortations, he rallied the spirit of others. What he hated most, he used to control others. Isn't that ironic?

I’ll get to that last point later, but what Team Galactic didn’t realize was that Cyrus had no intention of allowing Team Galactic into his perfect world. Quite the contrary, Cyrus had no respect or use for his minions beyond them being the muscle that carried his plans:

Cyrus: You heard my speech, I take it. Snicker... A big lie, of course. It's true, insofar as my intention is to create a new world. But that world isn't for the likes of Team Galactic. I seek an entirely new world solely for myself. If not, it could never be the complete and perfect world. You've seen my minions of Team Galactic. You yourself must know that they are uniformly useless and incomplete.

Team Galactic were nothing more than pawns, and Cyrus knew this from the start. His entire organization was filled to the brim with morons, as morons don’t ask quite as many questions. But more than that, all members of Team Galactic go against Cyrus’s core belief: that spirit is at the core of life’s whole faults.

I think of one of the key points to try and understand Cyrus is his mention of “spirit”. This can mean many things depending on who you ask, but in Cyrus’s case, “spirit” can just as easily mean emotions and desires, if not the soul itself. Cyrus’s faith is that these things are at the root of all of life’s woes: it is the emotions that govern life that create the problems life faces. So, for example, anger begets violence; avarice begets lies and cheating; happiness and love cloud one’s judgment; etc.

Cyrus is a man who values logical thinking and judgment above all things, and his logical conclusion as to why bad things happen in the world is because “spirit” is the thing that blinds life to a perfect existence ruled solely by what is logical. To put it in even more simply: Cyrus wants everyone to be Vulcans.

It should be pointed out that Cyrus’s disdain of “spirit” isn’t only aimed towards the human spirit. He has plenty of hatred towards Pokémon as well. His struggle is against all life, rather than just a few portions of it.

But there lies a detail about Cyrus that I feel often gets overlooked, yet is why I find Cyrus to be one of the most interesting, if not complex, characters in the entire Pokémon franchise: Cyrus hates spirit not because he deems himself superior to it, but because he hates himself for being bound to it.

I think it’s a common misconception that Cyrus either wishes to become an all-powerful god or that he himself is already emotionless, when his character’s is more complicated than that. As far as Cyrus becoming a god is concerned, this is only the case in Diamond and Pearl, where the story takes a much different (and weaker, in my opinion) path. There isn’t much to Team Galactic there, and given how Dawn/Lucas meeting Giratina is mentioned in later games, I doubt they’re meant to be canon.

Platinum is where the real story lies, and where I think Cyrus stands in the canon proper. And in Platinum, while Cyrus certainly loves to brag about how he has left behind emotion and sentimentality to become a cold and logical machine, the story is set up to prove this is not the case. Cyrus is just as much a victim of the thing he hates, and this is what drives him above all else. This is the side of Cyrus we see when he gets transported to the Distortion World, and all of his plans start to unravel before his eyes:

Cynthia: ...The places we are born. The time we spend living... The languages we speak... We are all different. But the presence of Pokémon unites us. We share our lives with our Pokémon and our happiness grows as we all become greater than we were alone. That is why we can battle and trade with anyone we choose...

Cyrus: Silence! Enough of your blathering! That's how you justify spirit as something worthwhile?! That is merely humans hoping, deluding themselves that they are happy and safe! The emotions roiling inside me... Rage, hatred, frustration... These ugly emotions arise because of my own incomplete spirit!

This is what separates Cyrus from someone like Ghetsis (who took many inspiration from Cyrus’s plan): Cyrus, ultimately, hates himself just as much as he hates everyone he’s fighting against. He doesn’t want a new world to rule over it as the most perfect being, but instead so he can fix his own flaws and become perfect alongside the rest of the universe.

It is important to note that at no point in Platinum does Cyrus ever make the claim he wishes to rule the world. All of his lines are in relation to changing the world, and turn into a better place:

Cyrus: My aim is to rid our world of the vague and incomplete thing we call spirit. By freeing ourselves of that, our world can be made complete. That is my justice! No one can interfere!

Cyrus doesn’t believe what he’s doing is a bad thing. More than that, he doesn’t think he’s doing it just for his own sake. In his mind, he’s doing everyone a favor by imposing his will and removing all emotion from existence. His introductory line isn’t a lie at all to him:

Cyrus: My name is Cyrus. I want to put an end to pointless strife and hostility.

He’s a man with an incredibly twisted, yet still at its core noble, goal. Someone who wanted to end all strife by causing strife; who used emotions to end emotions, and whose goals began because he felt so strongly about his creed. Cyrus himself is the very thing he hates, as he became the cause of the same strife he championed against by falling victim to the same emotions he fought against. As Saturn put it: “Isn’t that ironic?”

Another common misconception (one sadly perpetuated by the Generations youtube series) is that Cyrus got what he wanted in the end. Ending up in the Distortion World, he was finally in a world free of spirit. This is not the case, as Cyrus has no intentions or desire to remain alone, as the game pointed out:

Cynthia: Why do you seek to change the world? If you hate our world you should just go off somewhere alone. Find somewhere where you can live without seeing others.

Cyrus: Why should I run and hide from the world and have to wait quietly? My aim is to rid our world of the vague and incomplete thing we call spirit. By freeing ourselves of that, our world can be made complete. That is my justice! No one can interfere!

Cyrus quest isn’t one for solitude. He has an enemy, and no reason to stop his goals as long as that enemy exists. After all, what’s to stop another megalomaniac villain to rise up and begins tampering with the fabric of the universe? The Distortion World isn’t immune to this, meaning even if it was his perfect world, it isn’t safe from the effects spirit has on those in the “real” world.

Cyrus is a man obsessed, and more likely than not, one that has plunged too deeply into the madness of his beliefs. This is why the ending to Platinum rings harder in my mind, and Cyrus himself sticks out as a fantastic villain in my eyes, not just in Pokémon, but just in general. Unlike Giovanni, he doesn’t choose to reform and study Pokémon. Unlike Archie and Maxie, he doesn’t see the error of his ways. Unlike Ghetsis, he doesn’t break down and gets captured. Unlike Lysandre, he isn’t presumed dead, and unlike Lusamine, he wasn’t under the influence of an otherworldly creature.

Cyrus leaves the story the same man he started it. His mentality remained exactly the same, as well as his goals. He had no intention to stop, no intention to redeem himself, and no intention to ever admit he may have been wrong. Instead, Cyrus exits the scene with a (as-of-yet unfulfilled) promise:

Cyrus: I will break the secrets of the world. With that knowledge, I will create my own complete and perfect world. One day, you will awaken to a world of my creation. A world without spirit.

(Thank you very much if you’ve stuck with this post this far!)

[ultramanismycopilot]

"just acknowledge it rather than having Goku disregard the anger of the other universes because he just wants to fight strong dudes". Honestly, that is not new. For example: Goku (and Vegeta) both refused having Bulma locate the DB's to locate Dr. Gero to stop him building the Androids even though F!Trunks warned Goku about them killing his friends and innocents. Goku wanted to fight them himself and trained 3 years for that. A simple wish could've prevented it all but he just wanted a fight.

The two situations aren’t entirely the same here.

With Trunks and the cyborgs, the goal was to prevent the bad future from happening. Goku was shortsighted, certainly, but his thought process was simply “if we get stronger during this time, then everything just will be alright at the end”. Plus, Goku was also going under the mindset of “we can’t punish a guy who hasn’t done anything bad yet”.

With the tournament however, there’s no guarantee things will be fine in the end, because fighting and winning means everyone else dies. And while the Super Dragon Balls are a thing, why hasn’t this been brought up at all? It’s not just Goku here, but every character that wasn’t thinking about all of the death and destruction that will ensue. A simple line like “we might be dooming several universes, but we can just wish them all back at the end” would have been more than enough to alleviate my problems with all of this.

I’m definitely hoping this is their goal at the end, and they’re simply saving this up for the very last minute twist, but it feels like pretty poor characterization. Even if Goku and Vegeta don’t care, why doesn’t Gohan? Or Krillin? Tien? Roshi? And even if Goku’s plan all along is going to be to bring everyone back to life at the end of the tournament, why antagonize all of the universes? If Goku is just playing everybody to get them to go all out, then he’s being a giant jerk.

[ultramanismycopilot]

"How he didn’t seem to understand why it was important for Vegeta to be with Bulma when she was pregnant." Because 1) Goku’s confusion stemmed from the fact that he had been dead and gone when ChiChi had Goten and she didn’t harbor hard feelings over it and 2) Vegeta, even at his most heroic, would never skip training (early in Super he was away from Bulma and Trunks for 6 months training), so it's so shocking that even WHIS shared Goku's same confusion about why Vegeta isn't coming to training.

Goku was there for Gohan, though. One could assume Goku not being there for Goten would be a bit of a sore spot for him as a father. Or at least, I assumed as such. Chichi might not have harbored any ill will due to Goku missing Goten, but you could argue that’s more because he was dead, rather than him just jumping off to train somewhere.

And, yeah, Namekian dragon balls, but something to also keep in mind: even if Goku understands Chichi is fine with his shenanigans, he’s known Bulma since he was a kid, and I think he should be smart enough to realize the two are very different from one another.

I’d have to rewatch that scene, frankly. I hated it when I first saw it, but it’s possible I missed a detail or two, or simply forgot after some time.

[ultramanismycopilot]

Also thanks for answering my asks! Reason why I am sending the asks is not because I want you to like Super (if you still hate Super and give up on it, that's fine), but to point out that it is not as awful as you make it out to be. (Off-topic note: Ever heard of Dragon-Ball-Meta? That Tumblr blog has some really neat Metas)

Thank you for sending them! I always enjoy a good discussion, and like I said, I definitely wasn’t expecting any sort of reply to that post to begin with!

You’re absolutely right in that my post was very flawed, and didn’t give Super the fairness it deserved. If there’s one thing I don’t like, it’s saying something is objectively bad and people shouldn’t be able to find a way to enjoy it. And while I pointed that out in my post, my actual arguments did make it seem very final.

After all, I wasn’t actually trying to go for a review of the show, so there was a lot of blanket tossing. It was a flawed post, but hey, live and learn. From now on, I’ll try to be a lot more careful about this. If I am to be critical, then I should do it right.

As far as Super is concerned, I can only give my honest opinion: the show has some good, but I genuinely believe there is a lot more bad. I know there are people who disagree with that, and that’s perfectly fine. Everyone has a different “breaking point”, so to speak, and everyone looks for different things in their shows to enjoy. I just personally can’t find enough of that.

If you like Super, then I hope you keep doing so for the duration of its run!

[ultramanismycopilot]

"Who also repeatedly kept trying to evade his job, even going so far as to try and leave the planet behind Chichi’s back just to go train." True, but he is slowly getting better. In episode 77, he sold crops (and the other people in the Farmers market love him and his crops), collected money without losing it, drove his car without crashing it and without getting bullets in it. Without complaint and Goku only left when the Bandit shot him and made he realized he is getting behind in training.

That’s true, but I’d honestly have a hard time describing this as organic character development. Sometimes Super does manage to eek out that little bit charm, but I honestly feel it’s just too few and too spread out to make much of a difference.

This mostly came around with the Tournament of Power arc, where I just stopped liking Goku (Super’s Goku, anyway) altogether. It’s not that I want Goku to be a flawless main character, I’m aware of the “venom” that’s existed in him throughout the series, but Goku still had a lot of virtues mixed in with his faults. Virtues which, lately, don’t seem to get a lot of spotlight in my honest opinion.

[ultramanismycopilot]

"Goku never disapproved of Gohan’s life style in Z, so that’s not necessarily a Super thing." True, but the reason I brought it up is because when Gohan told Goku that he couldn't come to the U7/U6 Battles because of work, Goku was perfectly fine with it.

That’s still something carrying over from Z, since Goku never really tried to push Gohan into a life of fighting. It was always Gohan who wanted to join the fight in one way or another.

Goku as a father and husband is something I do really enjoy watching, but it’s one of those things that takes several bumps on the road here and there, mostly due to how Toriyama sees Goku. I still absolutely despise the fact Goku doesn’t know what a kiss is, and how he didn’t seem to understand why it was important for Vegeta to be with Bulma when she was pregnant.

I realize these are minor details, but Goku is past his 40′s during Super, and he feels like a more immature character than during his time in Z.

[ultramanismycopilot]

"Pretty much the entirety of the Tournament of Power arc has, so far, made no real attempt to show the characters actually dealing with the implications of the tournament itself." Well what do you want them to do? Go into despair and just lie down and die? There is nothing Goku and Vegeta (and everyone else) can do to change it but just go along with it, finish it quick, and worry later once they get the Super Dragon Balls (or lose).

Far from it. I’m not saying the arc needs to move a lot differently from how it’s going now. In fact, everything could go as it did, and you only needed to add one scene of the characters having some reservations about this tournament.

There doesn’t need to be any despair involved, just characters somberly discussing how their survival would mean the deaths of countless innocent beings across multiple universes. And then you can just have Goku or someone else cheer everyone up with something like “we’ll figure out how to fix things, like we always do”.

The best way I can describe it is: characters are missing humanity. You don’t actually need to make the conflict a central part of the characters during the arc (you definitely could, and I think it would be something interesting to explore, but it’s not absolutely necessary), just acknowledge it rather than having Goku disregard the anger of the other universes because he just wants to fight strong dudes.

[ultramanismycopilot]

Piccolo did nothing wrong.

Piccolo is pure dad.

[ultramanismycopilot]

"Characters are unlikable for a good chunk of the cast, and even if a character is likable, any flight of fancy by the writers will shatter it for an episode or two, either out of convenience, or just for a cheap gag" How?

Pretty much the entirety of the Tournament of Power arc has, so far, made no real attempt to show the characters actually dealing with the implications of the tournament itself.

Nobody’s stopped to consider, or even mentioned the millions of innocent lives that are about to be erased off of existence. Goku has acted especially callous towards all of this, so focused in his want for a good fight that he ignored his son’s strategy to ensure everybody survived. More than that, he at first was uncomfortable with the strategy itself, and didn’t think it was fair to gang up on someone in a fight, despite him doing that several times in the past against strong opponents.

Vegeta also went about his Saiyan Pride to ignore the strategy, even though he’s also fought people with people before, and attacked people behind their backs. I‘m willing to give Vegeta some leeway here, since he’s always been an idiot like this, but I always figured he’d have wised up after his sacrifice against Buu. It just feels like he’s going backwards as a character in this arc despite Super actually doing a really good job in advancing him up until this point, but maybe it’s my own fault for presuming too much.

You know, I’m sure that in my mind, I thought I was chock full of examples for what I said, but I’m suddenly drawing a blank. It’s possible I exaggerated that claim, since I can point to a lot of likable characters, and my biggest gripes and up turning back to Goku, so maybe that should have been the focus of that sentence.

Another mistake of mine, I’ll admit. That is the last time I let myself start typing for the sole sake of doing so, I can say that much. Too many errors, overstatements and negativity.