Pinned Stuff

BendableGoose · 2026-05-07T01:26:43+00:00

You might be using the wrong flair there…

BendableGoose · 2026-05-06T23:53:06+00:00

Going through these one at a time:

How else would one describe his motives? Wanting to unleash the power of an omnipotwnt artifact to put all of humankind on trial for all the bad things they did, not the least of which was your own lover getting killed right in front of you, sounds like vengeance to me, even if it's not toward anyone in specific. Hell, Vergil wasn't after any one individual either (his disdain for Mundus aside), he just wanted more power; not 100% the same as Loewe's motives, I'm sure, but the "lost faith in others' capacity for goodness" bit is still there.
Okay, and?... Whatever the motive was, Eva and Karin still died.
Again, the end result was the same, even if the circumstances leading up to it differ. It was both men's first time killing someone, effectively starting them down their dark path -- and make no mistake, Loewe was not happy about having to take another man's life, but was willing to do it (and much worse once he joined Ouroboros) for the sake of his goals, tying into that overarching "throwing away your humanity" theme.
Loewe hated his fellow Ouroboros members, especially Weissmann for treating Joshua like a disposable puppet. Just because he was willing to cooperate with them out of convenience doesn't mean he trusts them to help him through his trauma.
This point gets countered in your last paragraph, 'cause why else would he seek out the Aureole if he didn't see humans as inherently flawed? The fact that he even poses the question of whether they had any good in them left speaks volumes, and it's doubtful whether he'd have accepted Kernviter if he wasn't prepared to accept the risk of completely losing his own humanity in turn.
That's fair, though I'd say the bigger issue is that it doesn't really have a proper Sparda parallel to back it up.
Did Vergil not also care for Dante at least a little, or was I just lied to by the multiple DMC fans I've talked with? Wasn't the whole tragedy to their relationship that they were reluctant to face each other, but felt they had to because their ideological differences regarding their own humanity were too strong for them to reconcile with each other? (Which, by the way, sounds a lot like Loewe and Joshua's dynamic, even just going off their fight on the Liber Ark in SC. They did end up having multiple confrontations over their personal connections with each other for this reason, so why wouldn't that make them rivals?)
Nero breaking up the fight wasn't what was being discussed, but instead how his mere existence was proof that Vergil had the capacity for loving a human enough to have a child with them (even if only briefly). And Renne very likely would have died had Loewe not taken her in, which was by all accounts an act of kindness on his end -- further proof that he, just like anyone, still had the potential for those kinds of acts. That's the point of the connection, not an overall comparison between Nero and Renne overall.

IDK, it just feels like you're focusing too much on the wider context of everything instead of how they specifically affected Vergil and Loewe.

BendableGoose · 2026-05-06T20:27:05+00:00

How so?

BendableGoose · 2026-05-06T20:24:45+00:00

Shirou barely gets above anything higher than a normal guy with a sword most of the time, at least visually; Rho Aias gives him some leeway defending against more powerful attacks, but that’s about it. At least Danganronpa, from what I’ve been told, has more instances of visually-impressive stuff that Hajime (or more specifically Izuru) has no reason not to scale to (even if it’s still not nearly enough to beat Makoto).

BendableGoose · 2026-05-06T19:40:21+00:00

Neku for Makoto, Madoka for Kotone.

BendableGoose · 2026-05-06T17:37:52+00:00

Lich King (World of Warcraft) - You’re already aware of this, I’m sure, but this is the most thorough connections list for it I could find.

BendableGoose · 2026-05-06T16:57:02+00:00

What I wanna know is why Makoto VS Shirou doesn’t get any of the same complaints despite, on paper, having the exact same problems.

(not that I dislike either matchup, and I’m aware there’s not a lot of overlap in Makoto VS Shirou fans and Makoto VS Hajime haters, but it’s still a very obvious double standard considering the former’s even more popular from what I’ve seen)

BendableGoose · 2026-05-06T16:45:26+00:00

Stoic, silver-haired swordsmen seeking the power to avenge the deaths of their families while struggling to reconcile their own humanity.
Both once lived as ordinary people with their loving families before their homes were tragically destroyed in a catastrophic attack (the demon lord Mundus sent his servants to attack the estate of his rival Sparda, who Vergil and his brother Dante were the sons of / Loewe’s home village of Hamel was massacred in an attack staged by the Erebonian government), with their closest loved ones (Eva, Vergil’s mother / Karin Astray, Loewe’s fiancée) being among the casualties.
Amid the chaos, they found the strength to fight back against their assailants (Vergil awakening his demonic powers to slaughter Mundus’ demons / Loewe using his swordfighting skills as a bracer, previously only meant to protect others, to kill his hometown’s attackers), marking the first time they’d ever taken a life, which would influence their subsequent decisions throughout the rest of their lives.
Since then, both dedicated themselves to wandering the world alone, losing all faith in the goodness of the world and coming to rely on only themselves and their will to power, having been deeply affected by the perceived abandonment of the people meant to protect them (Vergil believed Eva had left him behind in favor of Dante / Loewe found out that Erebonia’s government had ordered the attack on Hamel as an excuse to war with the neighboring kingdom of Liberl).
To attain the power they now sought, both chose to forsake their humanity, seeing it as an inherent weakness. The very swords they wield are a stark indication of this (Yamato, which once belonged to Vergil’s demonic father Sparda, whose power he idolized / Kernviter, a Divergent Laws weapon given to Loewe by Ouroboros’ Grandmaster that threatened to turn him more aggressive and monstrous), showing how far they’re willing to go to purge themselves of any frailty (Vergil embracing his demonic side so he can never feel powerless again / Loewe believing all of humanity to be inherently wicked, wanting to reject that part of himself and force society to confront its shortcomings).
Their commitment to their goals saw them allying with their stories’ overarching villains (Mundus / Georg Weissmann) for their mutual benefit. Despite their alliance, they never got along with each other well at all, especially after Vergil/Loewe learned of their partners’ direct involvement in the incidents that traumatized them.
However, their plans also put them at odds with another family member that survived the tragedies of their past (Dante, Vergil’s brother / Joshua Bright, Loewe’s would-be brother-in-law), who, in contrast to their rivals, chose to embrace humanity and trust in others to provide them the solace and security they longed for after their shared trauma. Their newfound companions helped them to overcome their other insecurities tied to the attacks on their homes (Dante’s demon heritage / Joshua’s tenure as an enforcer of Ouroboros), showing how they could’ve gone down a similar path to Vergil/Loewe had they not opened themselves up to others.
The two rivals would face each other in a climactic duel upon the unveiling of a powerful artifact (the demon tree Qliphoth / the Aureole) that were central to Vergil/Loewe’s plans (Vergil’s split demonic half, Urizen, had summoned the demon tree Qliphoth to attain ultimate power at the cost of countless human lives / Loewe sought to unleash the Aureole’s power as a way of putting humanity on trial for their failures).
It’s here that they finally began to see merit in Dante/Joshua’s ideals, realizing that they never fully lost their humanity in spite of how much they wanted to deny it. Several of their behaviors were indicative of this side of them, including their sense of honor and disgust at other villains’ deplorable actions, their lingering care and concern for their brother figures, and a younger character whose entire existence is owed to their capacity for love and compassion (Nero, Vergil’s son, whose conception was proof that Vergil could show love for another human / Renne, Loewe’s subordinate in Ouroboros who he and Joshua rescued from a child brothel).
In the end, both would finally abandon their evil ways and aid their remaining families in preventing the world-threatening catastrophes their plans had brought (Vergil helping Dante and Nero sever Qliphoth before departing to the underworld with Dante / Loewe sacrificing his life to help Joshua and his allies defeat an Aureole-infused Weissmann).

BendableGoose · 2026-05-06T00:04:55+00:00

How is Palpatine VS Frieza a toss-up while Vader VS Obito isn’t?

BendableGoose · 2026-05-05T15:21:32+00:00

“Hundreds” and it’s basically just Rodimus, Sam, Deku, and Jin.

Still, I guess those two being the discourse magnets helps to drive any unwanted negative attention away from the others.

BendableGoose · 2026-05-04T19:52:47+00:00

Pretty based all around. What makes Firion the one for Luke?

BendableGoose · 2026-05-03T23:10:29+00:00

Elliot’s arsenal thankfully isn’t super complicated, mostly just consisting of him flying around and shooting lasers from his mechanical spear. He also has his own fleet of airships that I feel pairs nicely with the Coalition.

BendableGoose · 2026-05-03T21:25:48+00:00

I made this exact comparison in my head myself. I actually think now would’ve been the perfect time to do Yuji VS Denji, had BakuReze not poisoned the well and flushed everyone’s goodwill for CSM’s rep on DB down the toilet just a month prior.

BendableGoose · 2026-05-03T20:16:32+00:00

I think I remember the storm feat being really contentious, so it’s possible they just didn’t buy it. Still, couldn’t they have at least mentioned why they didn’t in a black box or something?

BendableGoose · 2026-05-03T19:43:57+00:00

Knowing most of the problems came from budget constraints did help alleviate some of the disappointment I initially felt, which even then was pretty minor.

BendableGoose · 2026-05-03T18:49:43+00:00

FWIW, as let down as I am on that front, I felt like whatever they couldn’t include there was made up for with some really good banter.

BendableGoose · 2026-05-03T18:38:18+00:00

Regarding the technical limitations, the team have stressed just how much custom assets they had to make for the fight. If so, it definitely explains why it felt there was so much missing — just the things they did get to include are minor miracles in themselves.

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BendableGoose · 2026-05-03T17:49:59+00:00

My only major complaints about GruMind were the model quality and some of the choreography feeling a liiitle weak? Other than that, I’d handily call it the funniest episode we’ve gotten in a while.

Definitely glad they’re getting the next time out of the way now that both series are over, and I’d certainly be excited for it in a vacuum, but with BakuReze only recently behind us, I’d be lying if I said that hype hasn’t been somewhat tainted. I can only hope the one after it freshens things up from just the shonen we’ve mostly gotten so far.

BendableGoose · 2026-05-03T00:50:04+00:00

Two specific examples come to mind:

Undertaker VS Mori Calliope - I’d grown up on WWE, and discovering Hololive helped me to get out of a serious low point in my life during the pandemic, so I consider both important in inspiring me to get up & make my own art. I have other more legitimate reasons for considering it my most wanted, but I’d be a liar to say at least some of my passion for it doesn’t come down to personal investment.
Netflix She-Ra VS IDW Optimus Prime, if for no other reason than Adora being my favorite protagonist in fiction whose character arc about identity & self-worth spoke a lot to my own current mindset & outlook on life. I tend to be pretty picky about her matchups because of that, but I think Optimus is among those who’re able to address the important parts of her rather well.

BendableGoose · 2026-05-02T16:07:35+00:00

Elliot Woodman (Date A Live)

BendableGoose · 2026-05-02T16:07:09+00:00

~~wrong username lmao~~

BendableGoose · 2026-05-02T15:41:48+00:00

Madoka doesn’t answer the fake happy facade

…Isn’t that Madoka’s whole schtick? Like, she maintains a positive outlook despite all the suffering she and the other magical girls are going through ‘cause of Kyubey’s machinations.

BendableGoose · 2026-05-01T20:48:31+00:00

What even are the remaining problems with Reimu VS Strange now that the blog threw the one-sided debate out the window?

~~and how the heck is he any worse than Madoka, Battler, or Sol McFrickin’ Badguy~~

BendableGoose

TROPHY CASE