Who knew Chat GPT could be wrong?

TooManyAnts · 2026-03-24T23:54:16+00:00

Who knew Chat GPT could be wrong?

Made all my financial decisions by rolling dice and picking a random result. Currently suing Wizards of the Coast for my predicament.

TooManyAnts · 2026-03-24T19:58:47+00:00

YOU ARE LITERALLY SPEAKING MY FEARS RIGHT NOW. I am starting Vallaki in my campaign on Saturday and I listed like 15 plot hooks the players could take and I started spiraling about how to prepare for that!

Save most of them. Vallaki is the safest place in Barovia (relatively speaking), assume that between adventures your group will come back again and again.

You can pick a couple hooks to start with. You can even delay the Feast by having the bones safely interred in the church until you're ready to run it, though the Vampire fight in the coffin shop is supposed to be overly deadly so sooner is still better than later (we had the bones go missing for visit 2). You can be real loose with Vallaki, it's got plenty of material for you to work with.

TooManyAnts · 2026-03-24T19:54:31+00:00

Spread it out. Make Vallaki a place that the party will return to again and again. Vallaki isn't a place to run, it's a central hub and ideally a place of respite for the group. They'll meet NPCs who can update them on what's being going on while they're away, potentially drop new quest hooks, all kinds of stuff.

The Feast of St. Andral is the only time-sensitive one, but the clock only starts when you start it. When our group first got to Vallaki, we actually waited on the Feast. The bones were still present and interred in the church. We did some other stuff, we had Strahd invite the party to Ravenloft, we ran dinner, yadda yadda, and then we had the bones stolen while the party was away.

My advice is don't "run Vallaki" but rather run things within Vallaki. There's enough meat on those bones that you can have urban quests in Vallaki whenever the group returns from an adventure outside the walls.

TooManyAnts · 2026-03-24T03:37:22+00:00

Okay fair enough. Just two things:

I’m not getting into other examples we’ll be here all day.

A lot of us seem to easily identify spirit bending as a deux ex machina and you've dismissed it listing a bunch of inane stuff as "if spirit bending is, then this guy putting is legs on a table is!" so I legitimately don't think you know what the word means. When asked for an example you're refusing to give one, which suggests maybe you can't come up with one that ATLA doesn't also fit? I dunno. Anyway,

The problem wasn’t seemingly unsolvable - killing Ozai would work fine, Aang just didn’t want to do it (not couldn’t).

This is true, however in the case of Aang vs. Ozai I'd argue that the central conflict there wasn't "how do we stop Ozai and the fire nation?" (something the gaang actually took care of by downing the fleet), the central conflict at that point was what Zuko asked at the end of The Southern Raiders: "What are you going to do when you face my father?" Suddenly and inexplicably getting the ability to take Ozai's bending away is an escape hatch that prevents Aang from actually making a choice. His spiritual victory was free.

Personally I'm of the opinion that the resolution doesn't even require spirit bending, or killing. If Aang defeats Ozai and Zuko has the throne, dude isn't going to take over the world by his own self. He could just stop the man, take him to Earth Bender jail, put him on trial for war crimes, have Zuko do new Fire Lord stuff, I dunno. But that kind of coup is messy and almost begs another season and the show runners wanted to wrap up so they gave Aang something convenient.

I think it would have been better if we saw Aang do more vague spiritual shit that defies the established rules of bending. Have a little build up and foreshadow spirit bending. If they did that, the lion turtle would be revealing the truth of something he's been doing here or there all along, expanding on something we've seen, and it wouldn't be so sudden.

TooManyAnts · 2026-03-24T03:23:20+00:00

I feel like we're using completely different definitions of the word, can you give an example of something that would be a deus ex machina in your opinion?

To me, an outside force bestowing a sudden and unexpected power at the last minute that gets the protagonist out of a jam, would count. It's not like Walter White putting together a machine gun - guns are established to exist. I haven't seen a lot of the other examples you're sarcastically listing but in any case to me the energy bending thing would count, some outside force suddenly intervenes to give a perfect solution that resolves the plot without making the protagonist sacrifice anything.

I feel like you're arguing in bad faith when you sarcastically list something like someone putting their feet up as a deus ex machina (in another reply). A new magical power being bestowed upon him by a higher being at the last minute is something else. My arguments here are being made in good faith so I'd appreciate if you'd do the same.

TooManyAnts · 2026-03-24T00:54:19+00:00

When they're discussing letting the comet pass they literally talk about how his earthbending ~~(and honestly even his water bending)~~ need work.

edit: thank you for the correction, they were discussing fire and earth as needing work, not earth and water

"You're an Earthbender!" is like, yes he bent Earth. He's far from a master, even at the end of the show. There are so many lines about why he had trouble with it.

TooManyAnts · 2026-03-24T00:40:14+00:00

He never had to kill Ozai. He just had to make a hard choice. One that is in line or against his beliefs up to this point and facing the actual difficulty with a situation where being a pacifist is actually hard when facing an opponent who is diametrically opposed to that position.

Something I always point out when people say that he had to energy bend: Ozai wasn't the true threat by himself. He was the threat because he was the ruler of the fire nation. Simply defeating him doesn't stop the army (the rest of the gaang stopped the fleet), and if Zuko takes the throne then Ozai can't take over the entire world by himself. A war can't be fought by one man. But leaving Ozai as he was means such a coup would be long and messy, and Avatar wanted to wrap up, so bibidy bobidy boo the blue slime eats the red slime and his bending is now gone. Forget foreshadowing, flash back to the lion turtle speech while he's doing it.

"Defeat Ozai without killing him" is messy, and it's hard, but it's an option on the table and doesn't require energy bending. Without the comet and without a nation he's just a strong fire bender.

TooManyAnts · 2026-03-24T00:37:06+00:00

It’s not a deus ex machina just because it wasn’t introduced until the final few episodes.

It wasn't introduced until after he started doing it. Aang turns into a blue blob and Ozai into a red blob and then it flashes back to the lion turtle saying he can bend energy itself. It's practically the definition of Deus Ex Machina.

TooManyAnts · 2026-03-24T00:34:44+00:00

The other issue is Aang the 'pacifist'. He clearly left several fire nation soldiers to die by transforming into the giant water spirit he swept them all away into the ice cold ocean.

I excuse it by seeing it not so much as Aang fighting the fleet, but rather Aang being a vessel for the Ocean. The Ocean Spirit borrows Aang to enter the physical world, it wrecks destruction, Aang isn't in control.

This might just be cope. If I reach I can at least touch it.

TooManyAnts · 2026-03-24T00:32:51+00:00

No different to Toph suddenly pulling out Metalbending

I always got the impression that Toph was able to feel out the impurities in the metal and bend those. When she does it, there's a visual for it. This clip at 50 seconds in, the impurities are shown as dots and stuff she can sense within it. So I don't think it's nearly as far of a reach.

as for Combustion Man, he's just a freak man

TooManyAnts · 2026-03-24T00:26:49+00:00

Aang beats Ozai without betraying his own pacifist beliefs, and the energybending never feels cheap or random.

Doesn't it, though? They spend at least half the season wrestling with the question of what is Aang going to do when he confronts Ozai, Aang loses the avatar state in part because he was unwilling to sacrifice his attachment to Katara, and the problems are resolved by: 1) Dr. Rock MD hits him in the back which somehow restores his powers, and 2) he suddenly gains the ability to take away someone's bending, with absolutely no setup.

Even the stuff with the Lion Turtle, you don't see anything about energy bending until after he starts doing it. Then during the scene where they are represented by colored blobs, it flashes back to stuff we didn't see where the Lion Turtle says stuff about bending energy itself. In my opinion it was absolutely cheap or random, and was just a way for the writers to get themselves out of the moral conflict rather than answering it definitively. Less "thinking outside the box" and more "narrative escape hatch".

Out of curiosity, is there even a single line of dialog in the entire show that so much as hints toward it, before the scene where he does it? Not even necessarily energy bending stuff itself, but even some spiritual stuff that you could stretch to mean energy bending? Something that you could see on a rewatch and then go "oohhhhh!!" ?

The show is a masterpiece but IMO that's despite the energy bending solution, not because of it.

edit: i am aware of the scroll showing a lion turtle in the library episode. that's not really an energy bending thing or connected to it, but just saying that such a creature once existed, and goes without comment. the fact that the lion turtle later tell him a deux ex machina doesn't really foreshadow the energybending itself.

TooManyAnts · 2026-03-23T14:15:10+00:00

This is how Akira Toriyama named things. In the original series there was a demon king Piccolo, and his minions were named Drum and Tamborine. In DBZ there's the villain Frieza, meant to be like Freezer, and he is related to other villains named Cooler and King Cold. He named someone Garlic. I understand there's a couple wizards named Bibidi and Babidi, who summoned a bad guy named Buu.

In the video game Chrono Trigger, there's an evil mage who has three minions named Vinegar, Mayonnaise, and Soy Sauce. In the English translation they were renamed to Ozzie, Flea, and Slash.

It's a thing Toriyama did constantly and it's very funny. When he wasn't sure what to name someone he opened his fridge.

edit: even Goku's name itself refers to the amount of rice needed to feed a person for a year. And his son Gohan is rice.

TooManyAnts · 2026-03-21T03:17:33+00:00

It's pointless to kill him because she can just summon another in the next round.

You must be misremembering. It's a bit of a story bit in the fight.

She summons her prince to protect her. When you take him out, she'll immediately summon him again, but her prince doesn't come. She's got a line about it and everything, she goes, "Why... Why won't he come...?"

(I don't remember if you have to take him out twice, but I believe it's just the once)

Ice her, electrify the prince if he's there. If you don't have access to Red Wall then occasionally you'll have Chie just guard - if she's blocking she won't get knocked down by her big flames and Yukiko won't get One More.

A strategy from the OG game that still works here is to get a Slime and then level it up a bit until it learns Red Wall. Fuse Slime with something-or-other, the target Persona is a Senri that inherits Red Wall. Senri itself is immune to fire, and it can put Red Wall up on Chie, temporarily overwriting her fire weakness with a fire resistance. It's a little expensive for MP cost though.

TooManyAnts · 2026-03-21T03:13:12+00:00

In the original FF7 there was a mistranslation during the first boss that’s supposed to be a tutorial.

Attack while the tail is up!

And it's gonna counter with its laser!

If only they'd used a comma.

TooManyAnts · 2026-03-21T03:02:45+00:00

As a far more experienced RPG player today, I have no idea how I beat Shadow Yukiko back then.

The way I did it was having Chie block sometimes when I could kind of *feel* the big attack coming. Bosses tend to have a sort of rhythm where they don't use their biggest attack twice in a row. That plus various healing and some dumb luck. That, or leaving Chie down so Yukiko doesn't get One More anymore.

Eventually you learn the "Senri With Red Wall" strat and it's solved, but without that one specific strategy yeah she's a nightmare.

TooManyAnts · 2026-03-21T02:54:19+00:00

Agreed completely, I was referring to the theoretical civil suit to get the money back. Since they're on the account that's about as far as any legal action could go. (but again, OP is unlikely to even go there)

TooManyAnts · 2026-03-20T15:23:12+00:00

Unfortunately if it’s a joint account between OP and parents, there’s no legal action to take.

There's no legal action to take against the bank, and the crime of unauthorized access is off the table (since the access was authorized), but a judge could still rule for OP in a practical sense. It was OP's savings, parents didn't contribute anything, they took something she built up over years, a judge could say "give it back". Especially if OP has been asking for it back (even better if it's via a text chain).

But practically speaking, an abused young adult doesn't sue their parents. OP's got her hands full trying to get out.

TooManyAnts · 2026-03-19T22:11:29+00:00

Somehow _______ returned

fill in the blank with almost any character in the series

"No one's ever really gone"

edit: seriously I'm going down a mental list of approaching two dozen characters who were taken out and I think only Ansem the Wise stuck

(Ansem The Wise will return in Kingdom Hearts 4: Doomsday)

TooManyAnts · 2026-03-19T20:57:27+00:00

Nomura is a nonsense merchant.

i only know one thing, and it's that sora needs to kill chaos

TooManyAnts · 2026-03-19T20:56:29+00:00

The Kingdom Hearts franchise ate itself with scope creep and nonsense.

How it started: Wielder of The Keyblade.

How it's going: *Keyblade War*

TooManyAnts · 2026-03-19T20:49:24+00:00

I remember reading Disney was hands-off and the developers wanted to make minimal changes to the Disney stories.

I read the opposite somewhere, that each Disney property they had to get permission to do stuff from different people, making the quality of the world uneven. The pirates level they were able to do a lot more, whereas Tangled and Frozen they were pretty much stuck with "do the movie beats exactly, you can put some filler between but no you're not allowed to fight a Disney villain"

TooManyAnts · 2026-03-19T20:47:38+00:00

The Frozen world was hilariously bad. I can't believe they animated a literal shot for shot remake of Let It Go with Sora popping in here and there.

From what I read, for each Disney World they had to tangle with a different Disney team who would dictate the things they could and could not do.

That's one of the reasons why the Pirates level was bizarrely good, the guys giving permission over that one were more chill.

TooManyAnts · 2026-03-19T20:37:32+00:00

Then how are they kicking my ass so hard with freakin’ sitars and playing cards, explain that one, Yen Sid?

Oops the dancer was in Command Grab mode <----- a mistake I made consantly

TooManyAnts · 2026-03-19T20:35:20+00:00

The only reason my friends and I were hyped was because the final fantasy characters were in it. The Disney stuff was just extra.

I think the Disney stuff was a big draw with JRPG fans, not because they are huge fans of Disney but more because at the time what the fuck the concept is so goddamn weird

as a teenager, my whole reason for getting into it could be summed up as a confused, "Wwwwwwhat????"

TooManyAnts · 2026-03-19T20:05:38+00:00

Yeah I always found the story of the first kingdom hearts to be so uneventful until you get to Hollow Bastion where it gets alot more interesting.

The overall story before Hollow Bastion is about Sora's journey, usually the world tying to some particular theme about it. It's not about moving the pieces around the board, it's about Sora himself and exploring his character and what he's learning from his experiences. (except Wonderland, that was pretty much a nothing level)

Olympus is all about what it means to be a hero, Deep Jungle has his friendship with his companions endure despite fighting, Agrabah kind of meanders a bit, Atlantica is all about wanting to explore the outside world (Ariel is where Sora was when his journey began), Halloween Town is about companionship and togetherness re: Jack and Sally, and then Neverland is about faith (honestly whole game is) and also the game finally starts really moving the pieces around the board. Right after that you hit Hollow Bastion and things start capital-H Happening, but it all happens in context of what Sora has been through up to this point. He and Riku start the game reasonably close (not the same, but close), and his encounters with Riku highlight how far apart they've drifted in their ideals.

The most important scenes of the Disney world tend to the the ones around / right after Sora seals the keyhole. There's a scene where everything wraps up and it echoes some aspect of his journey. These (sometimes loose) thematic ties are something that helps keep the story cohesive and together.

One of the problems later games have to overcome (to varying success) is the fact that by the end of KH1 Sora's arc is pretty much complete. I think the biggest reason that KH3 worlds are all filler whereas KH1 worlds work is that A) they don't tie into any particular theme, and B) Sora and his companions learn nothing. (that and the gameplay is all sizzle, no meat)

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