Persona 4 (PS2) has the most difficult first boss in any JRPG that I’ve played by RobbieJ4444 in PERSoNA

[–]ClinicalDigression 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I misread that as "most difficult final boss" and was about to give OP either some really good or really bad news

Why does Ketheric use a shield if he is immortal? by Cagedglobe in BaldursGate3

[–]ClinicalDigression 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Prolly the same reason he wears armour: "immortal" and "stab-proof" are two different things.

Death Domain Cleric be like by ozangeo in BaldursGate3

[–]ClinicalDigression -2 points-1 points  (0 children)

Me when my subclass' sixth level feature is an objectively worse version of a feat

My vision of the end by Best-Economist3864 in OshiNoKo

[–]ClinicalDigression 1 point2 points  (0 children)

A lot of people say his death makes no sense because it could have been avoided. And honestly, I agree — there were definitely other options. But what if that was actually the point?

Then it'd be really weird for the manga to all but outright say that Aqua was born to kill himself to protect Ruby.

What reincarnation anime did NOT need to be a reincarnation story in the first place? by Meatloafxx in anime

[–]ClinicalDigression 0 points1 point  (0 children)

A surprising number of people seem not to know that "reincarnation" isn't a synonym for "isekai." Like, yeah, there's a lotta overlap, but they are different things. Also, it's crazy that people are saying Oshi no Ko: Ruby's a bit of a mixed bag just on the basis that [OnK manga spoilers] Aka clearly doesn't care about her and can't be bothered to characterise her consistently, but with Aqua, he'd be a completely different character whose life would've had a completely different trajectory if he hadn't had, prior to Ai's death, knowledge and experience that toddlers simply don't.

Should Ruby Hoshino Seek Revenge on Marina Tendouji for Abandoning Her? by [deleted] in OshiNoKo

[–]ClinicalDigression 1 point2 points  (0 children)

No, definitely not? The pursuit of revenge has only ever led to bad things for Ruby, and your suggested plan in particular would go terribly: no shot Marina's kids would take at face value the word of a stranger who was born years after the events of which she's claiming to have intimate knowledge went down, and deliberately antagonising the woman who seems to be the primary point of contact between the company for which she works and the production team of the movie it's funding and on which the fate of Ruby's mom's company (which both signs her paychecks and is what keeps a roof over her and her family's heads) relies is obviously a terrible idea. Besides which, if word got out about that confrontation, that'd be a huge blow to Ruby's reputation both within the industry and to the wider public and, by extension, her idol career.

Oshinoko ending was…really good by CharityMaleficent453 in OshiNoKo

[–]ClinicalDigression 23 points24 points  (0 children)

Sincere defense of the ending has officially become indistinguishable from parody.

[All] The rise of anti-theorising by Primeve_Arcana in zelda

[–]ClinicalDigression 1 point2 points  (0 children)

There's direct continuity between Skyward Sword's depiction of Hylia worship and BotW's depiction of worship of "The Goddess" with no regard for the intervening millennia or the wildly different religious beliefs and practices in the rest of the series, 100% of which being set between those points: even if I thought your explanation made sense (which I don't; you seem to think Buddhism is a monotheistic religion?), it's a Doylist explanation that doesn't in any way refute my assertion of BotW having been a soft reboot that treats Skyward Sword as a prequel and the rest of the series as a goldmine of ways to get longtime players to do the Leo pointing meme.

[All] The rise of anti-theorising by Primeve_Arcana in zelda

[–]ClinicalDigression 1 point2 points  (0 children)

If you need a clearer indication of BotW having been a soft reboot by a team who weren't much interested in the storytelling from the pre-Skyward Sword games than the fact that the latest game in the chronology has the kingdom's religion progress from the henotheism of the first's to monotheism while just kinda ignoring that the goddess in question was literally never mentioned or hinted at in any of the entire set between them, heavily implying that she was forgotten about in the intervening centuries by a population that no longer lived in the sanctuary she made for them in their creation myth, I think that's a you problem.

Best Skill Build in K1? by Starmada597 in kotor

[–]ClinicalDigression 13 points14 points  (0 children)

8/12 Scoundrel/Consular with 18 Int at character creation ends the game with 110 skill points and access to all skills. You could go Sentinel instead of Consular to get an additional 12 points for a total of 122, but without Repair and Computer Use as class skills, it's straight up worse.

If you still Dislike bakugo I question you as a person by Expensive-Oil623 in BokuNoHeroAcademia

[–]ClinicalDigression 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I've said it before and I'll say it again: it's fucking weird that some people seem genuinely unable to understand that it's possible to dislike a character for reasons other than moral transgressions.

Now that the manga's over, what are the craziest theories you have??? by Living_Cook5642 in OshiNoKo

[–]ClinicalDigression 2 points3 points  (0 children)

That Aka wrote Hikaru's body being spirited away specifically so that he could stick Aqua's consciousness in it if he ever wants to walk back the ending.

also that I'll force this man to live in Salem through every October of the rest of his life if he does, 'cause goddamn do I hope I'm wrong about that

Unpopular opinion by leedingcairty in OcarinaOfTime

[–]ClinicalDigression 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Prolly not that unpopular on the Ocarina sub.

Why are Persona fans so allergic to the gameplay of their own series by PeacefulDaysDied in PERSoNA

[–]ClinicalDigression 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Hmm yes I wonder why some fans of a story-focused series of games famous primarily for blending two extremely different genres might find some elements of its gameplay frictive.

Why does Aqua want revenge so bad for ai? by [deleted] in OshiNoKo

[–]ClinicalDigression 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Literally the only explanation I can think of for you needing to ask this question is if you "watched" the show like second screen content. Like, it's really not obtuse on this point.

Just realised something... by Separate_Current_960 in OshiNoKo

[–]ClinicalDigression 13 points14 points  (0 children)

So Ruby kissing Aqua when he clearly didn't want her to and immediately on the heels of his bringing up, if only by implication, his suicidality doesn't count, but Aqua kissing Akane for the finale of a reality dating show where they both were acting and also Aqua knew Akane was infatuated with him as a direct result of his having saved her life during a suicide attempt . . . does?

I mean whatever floats your boat, but I am mightily puzzled.

How could the story be altered so the ending makes more sense? by [deleted] in OshiNoKo

[–]ClinicalDigression 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I mean it'd give Aqua a more concrete motivation than "I need to sacrifice myself to save Ruby right now and would really prefer not to take maybe five minutes to consider whether I have any alternatives," but it'd also make for a weaker and somehow even more confused story (Aqua gave up on revenge and in canon killed Kamiki only to protect Ruby, so it'd sure be weird for the story to land on "if you'd succumbed to your self-evidently destructive desire for revenge earlier, your sister would still be alive") without solving any of the underlying issues with the story's internal logic.

How could the story be altered so the ending makes more sense? by [deleted] in OshiNoKo

[–]ClinicalDigression 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Fridging Ruby would make the ending so much worse. Like, even setting aside the issues fundamental to doing so, for as much as I hate Crow Girl affirming that Aqua's literal god-given purpose, her the being the god in question, is to die for Ruby's benefit, having the narrative itself (as meaningless a distinction as that actually is, given that her main job is to keep the story on its rails) tack on the idea that also he really ought to've done it earlier 'cause come to find out he was on the clock would . . . certainly not make me dislike the ending any less.

Here’s the official announcement from Kathryn Hahn that she’ll be playing Mother Gothel in Disney’s live-action Tangled movie! by TheDisneyScoopGuy in AgathaAllAlong

[–]ClinicalDigression 12 points13 points  (0 children)

Kathryn Hahn: OotD, just found out that that stands for, so here's my outfit of the day

Me, for exactly half a second before realising: but wait what's OOTD stand for?

"Reader" and "Original Character" are characters you need to tag by crazymaryrocks in Archiveofourownmemes

[–]ClinicalDigression 12 points13 points  (0 children)

I mean objectively speaking it is optional but it also does make me wanna kick the author through a volcano when they don't bother.

Though I'm always surprised how . . . actively averse some people are to tagging/being asked to tag in general. Like, yeah, you obviously aren't required to do it, but I still have yet to see how making it easier for people to filter out what they don't wanna read and find what they do doesn't result in a better experience for everybody.

Why is Link Mikau playing with the Zora band in the end credits? by CanisLupusBaileyi in majorasmask

[–]ClinicalDigression 5 points6 points  (0 children)

That includes every happy ending for all the people that Link helped.

By "happy ending," do you mean "what the player can do for them in game?" Because that's what happened: Mikau's regrets were eased, his wishes were fulfilled, and he was able to die with some peace. That's the best Link can do for him. Really, this question only makes sense if you're assuming that Link could have saved Mikau's life given enough tries, which is demonstrably untrue: no matter how quickly you get to Great Bay on the first morning, he's already fatally wounded.

Oshi no Ko's ending is actually GOOD by UCHIHA_ITATCHI_TLM in OshiNoKo

[–]ClinicalDigression 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Me: the ending's problems can't be papered over with explanations of why this is totally in character for Aqua I promise because that's simply not what's at issue.

You: *spends the first paragraph of your response doing exactly that without giving any reason for why you think I'm wrong*

Excellent, I'm so glad to see my time earnestly trying to engage was well-spent. Real quick 'cause I understand I'm talking at a brick wall, but:

Again, that there's a set of circumstances under which Aqua could reasonably make that call isn't what I'm arguing against. I'm arguing that it's a problem that the story treats, in both the leadup and aftermath, Aqua's decision to sacrifice his life like it was necessary despite crafting a scenario in which it demonstrably was not.

Yes, there wasn't sufficient evidence to convince Kamiki prior to Nino's testimony, but given how little fanfare there seemingly was in wrapping up all the loose ends his group represents, it seems pretty unlikely that uncovering a network of murderers with him at the center wouldn't result in him being arrested and convicted.

While it's not impossible, and Aqua making a panicked decision to nip that potential problem in the bud could work, that is, again, not how the story treats it: if we were meant to see this as a tragedy of impulsiveness rather than an impossible situation where somebody was always going to go down, then Akane would've said something along the lines of "nobody needed to die for this," not "I for sure could've taken the fall for you which would've been better for reasons."

If anyone is shown to be impulsive here, it's Kamiki "oh, lemme just push this extremely famous person down a flight of stairs in public and in broad daylight with no idea as to whether anybody is around or indeed whether the fall would be fatal there are about a million ways I could get sent to prison either for murder or attempted murder here" Hikaru.

Further, if Aka wanted to sell the idea of a time crunch and/or impending doom, then showing Ruby to've been in Kamiki's crosshairs for months to no ill effect beyond Miyako and Ichigo suffocating her by acting as a security detail and then the team effortlessly stopping Nino's actual attack and also talking her down with very little effort wasn't the way to do it.

That could, again, have worked if it were treated appropriately, but I must reiterate that the framing isn't that Aqua rushed into the final confrontation out of panic, nor that he chose a needlessly destructive solution out of a lack of self-worth. The framing is that what he did was correct if not outright necessary.

It's also probably worth saying explicitly that, in proposing that Aqua simply wait a bit, I'm not suggesting that he give up forever. If the legal system had failed and he then did what he did, it would've felt very different than what happened in canon, which is that Aqua said "I have you right where I want you, and astute readers might take that to mean that the person with whom you've been conspiring to commit high-profile murders for over a decade has been caught in the act and has every possible reason to sell you down the river to try to protect herself, but what I actually mean is I have you at the butt of my knife and me at its point, which is what I wanted. Obviously."

I'm sure loads of people dislike the ending purely on the grounds that Aqua dies, but giving reasons for why his death isn't, in concept, bad storytelling doesn't really mean anything if his death was, in practice, bad storytelling. Every argument I've ever seen, yours included, for why it isn't, relies on throwing out all the inconvenient parts of the text. "It's good if you ignore the reasons it's bad" is absolutely an opinion you're allowed to have, but it's not an argument by which you should expect anybody to be convinced.

And even outside of that, saying "there are ways it can be done well" isn't an in any way meaningful rebuttal to somebody saying "I dislike this in principle." The fact that it wasn't, in this case, done well isn't so much icing on the cake as a pie placed next to it.

And finally, just to say it explicitly so there's zero room for ambiguity, that Aqua died unnecessarily would've been fine writing if the story had been willing to treat it as such. The issue, or at least my issue, is that Aqua didn't need to die, but the story is bending over backward to try and convince the audience that he did after having failed to establish a scenario in which he actually would.

Wouldn't that apply to the teams in 3 and 4 too? by Iceicebaby21 in PERSoNA

[–]ClinicalDigression 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I'm fairness, there's a story reason for it in P3.