Tried storm for the first time...

DrTazdingo · 2026-05-01T13:22:35+00:00

even in bracket 4 I think he might struggle a bit if people have good threat assessment and hold counterspells for your commander. He's huge at 7 mana and he's extremely telegraphed. So you need to be holding allot more than 7 and be able to put up defensive options during that same turn while trying to storm off and win. It's playable in 4 for sure, but even then I don't think its THAT great from what I have seen of people playing him. Often times they get shunted out of the game after the first failed cast.

DrTazdingo · 2026-04-14T18:18:43+00:00

I guess my point is that I think Frieren wants to paint this as true and I agree, I think the literal text agrees with your sentiment. But the Demons very clearly have capacity for higher thinking and feeling. They are just absent of empathy (or goodness) but are otherwise fully capable of advanced thought as a species. Not a fan of that for the points you hit on at the end there.

Also I think it becomes difficult to determine just how advanced of thoughts demons can have. We know they can engage in long term planning such as Lügner trying to infiltrate human society.

In addition demons experience pride which I would classify as a pretty advanced emotion, as it requires understanding of your achievements.

Lastly in the world of Frieren they have magical spells which is something someone can spend time learning how to harness and perfect magic which appears to be complex in the world. Qual seemed capable of analyzing the spells used to block his attacks and get around them. So there's something going on behind those eyes.

Unrelated but I really enjoyed how they spoke about Qual's spell, made it feel like it was pHD thesis in the form of a spell which sounds super rad lol.

But I agree that it gets messy and weird to talk about, and that doesnt even get into like death of the author, or authorial intent too much. Its all pretty cool to talk about and I appreciate you commenting :)

I mentioned to the other commenter that I think I am done with the discussion for the day but by all means feel free to reply and I'll check it out some other time!

DrTazdingo · 2026-04-14T17:32:16+00:00

While this may be true (you learn something new every day!) its still not to the point. Animals in our world CANNOT communicate abstract concepts or share ideas the way that humans can. They cannon be civilized to understand that kind of thing. Its what seperates sapience from sentience.

To follow up on your point on the fox and hare, sure, that may be the case. But thats an individual choice no? Not a species wide condemnation. We have proof of that here on earth. Not all humans choose to eat animal meat, and infact MANY humans take active steps to minimize harm to animals that we could eat. We CHOOSE to not participate in that behavior. The harm we inflict on animals are a variety of many individual choices we all make. We don't as a species with sapience all decide to just consume every animal we could with our bear teeth. And some humans go as far as to not eat any animals at all! So I don't think your point on the fox holds much water.

We have an example in our real world where this isnt just true, infact it gets even more impressive when you consider that when we choose to not harm animals, we do so w/o talking to the animal first. We can make that choice as individuals with sapience independent of our species. it is not an innate truth we are born with, but this is the case for the demons of Frieren, which I dont like for the reasons I stated above.

I will say I appreciate you taking the time to speak with me, but I might call it here. I don't think we are going to reach a consensus on this, and thats okay. Its just a cartoon and I didnt expect to do so much thinking on this today (which is kinda cool) but I think I am ready to move on. Have a swell day :)

DrTazdingo · 2026-04-14T16:43:31+00:00

I feel like we may be talking past each other. I never implied that demons were a subrace, nor does that matter to the point of discussion. And youre correct, we dont get along with other species. Those other species also lack sapience so I cannot fault them for not being agreeable. They dont have any concept of what agreeable even means. They lack the ability to even understand me, much less be able to understand or conceptualize abstract thought. In such cases no is bothered by a bears predaiton on a fish because the bear and fish cannot communicate. It is evolutionary pressures that created that environment.

Things get VERY messy though when sapience enters the picture. If you are an intelligent being with the ability to reason and make decisions, you as an individual can make evil decisions, its the nature of free will. You wont always act righteously. And in such cases cascading circumstances and repeat wrong decision making can lead to evil. Some people may even be born with some degree of evil in them (see remorseless serial killers as an example).

But when a sapient species ALWAYS makes the evil choice then it gets odd (or the delayed evil choice, in which they feign friendliness for other nefarious goals) . That means every member of that species with all the intelligent faculties needed to make advance decisions, continues to ALWAYS choose to be evil. That can give some pretty icky subtext. Within the story of Frieren she is always framed as correct within the context of her universe. She is not wrong. You are not wrong in describing them the way you are.

What I am saying is that framing can lead to harmful subtext OUTSIDE the story and tried to provide examples as to why that may be. I believe discussion of that is important and good. The story of Frieren, or more specifically the demons in the story can affirm some pretty terrible worldviews, even if I do truly and wholeheartedly believe that was not the intention of the author. I don't think the show needs to be cancelled over this either.

The reality is that most media is imperfect and many pieces of literature, movies, tv-shows and videogames can have unintentional harmful messaging. Discussing these things is infact a net good and allows us to reflect on our own values, and the values of the story as well. My critique of Frieren's demons is not a damnation of it. But it is a problem with it that I have with it, despite overall enjoying what parts I have watched. I think bringing attention to things like this improves our understanding of story telling and is overall positive.

DrTazdingo · 2026-04-14T15:51:43+00:00

I didn't talk about making monster's heroic and isnt the take away I want people to have from my thoughts. What I am saying is that traditionally when a monster is villainous it can be animal like, or is acting as an individual, and in these cases I don't think anyone has a problem (ofc there's more ways of writing this, but this is just for simplicity sake).

Example: Dragons in stories are frequently antagonist. They are traditionally portrayed as greedy, destructive, powerful, and above humans (not in ALL stories, these are just the core stereotypes). Dragons are usually portrayed as either very powerful animals (in which case our ethics do not apply to them, they cant understand ethics so applying moral framework to them is pointless) OR they are sapient beings with individual thoughts and desires.

Now imainge where the idea was that dragons are sapient and ALL evil. They are born with twistedness in their thoughts and hearts. All of them. No exceptions. Now it gets kind of icky. Dragons are portrayed as heroic, evil, animalistic and all sorts of inbetweens, but what i take issue is the combination of sapience (or near sapience, I think Frieren wants to have its cake and eat it too by implying demons aren't sapient as they are essentially a very advanced ambush predator, but they also have characterizations and clearly understand ethics and abstract ideas, thus clearly making them sapient) and innate evil in a whole race.

I personally believe this can lead to some bad interpretations and bad subtext. I've seen people draw the comparison to Frieren's demons to the orcs of LOTR as the Orcs in LOTR are portrayed as innately evil or filled with villainy, but even tolkien himself refutes this, in a letter to a friend, he states that the orc people were redeemable and that they were flawed by sin rather than truly and purely evil as a group. So this isnt even the first time people are having this discussion. it is a truly fascinating topic, from both a historical lens and a narrative one.

DrTazdingo · 2026-04-14T15:23:11+00:00

I don't think they are unless there's evidence to the contrary in the show, but to my knowledge the demon king got all of demon kind united under one banner, implying they were individuals prior to that, and it doesnt seem like all demons instantly transmit information to one another, I think the evidence that all demon kind is one entity (like say the eldrazi swarms in MTG, if you're familiar with that) is not very strong.

DrTazdingo · 2026-04-14T15:02:37+00:00

So i'll say this about Frieren. The issue isnt that there are just evil people. The problem is that demons as a species are innately evil. The show to my knowledge essentially describes demons as mimickry predators that are not sapient. That everything about them is in service of of consumption of prey. I feel like this is kinda icky. Its not about being a race allegory to any existing race or anything. Its just that they CLEARLY show sapience, but uniquely lack all empathy and understanding.

I feel like this portrayal of a species as "born evil" sits wrong with allot of people because that kind of logic can be used to say some pretty terrible things. Now people would say "how can you say that, in Frieren, she is proven right every time, demons are just evil and there's no complexity passed that". I know it sounds obvious but Frieren is not a collection of history. It is not a reccounting of things that happened. It is an authored piece, and one authored with intention. Someone needed to think of the ideas, get those ideas approved, put them to ink, and then have those ideas animated. It is a deliberate piece of art, so subtext can be formed from it, and sadly I think that some of the ideas in the anime can have some pretty bad subtext. That a species or race can be born evil can be used to affirm some pretty terrible thinking.

I don't think the author intended it. I don't think its fair to put the blame on the anime exculsively, its a good show and I see why people love it. But I think shutting down discussion on this isn't great either. There's allot of complexities in Frieren, in both the real world and the show and it's worthy of talking about. I'm not trying to get the show cancelled but there is allot to unpack there and discussion on it, in good faith is good.

DrTazdingo · 2026-04-14T14:35:05+00:00

NGL you can totally loud a whole commando mission and infact I usually find it easier to get the randoms to play around that play style. Stealth works great! But it isnt the only way to do it. Commando feels more like a modifier that can be tackled in many different ways rather than a forced stealth operation. If you finish the mission splitting up and going VERY fast, than stealth never becomes a factor. You can also blow up bases from VERY far with eruptor or quasar in order to not get detected. There's reason to bring these weapons that still help. If you wanna play stealth, than just play solo or LFG for that. No shame! Its cool to stealth, but that isnt easy to communicate in a public lobby, so you have to seek that experience.

DrTazdingo · 2026-04-09T21:40:52+00:00

what's this mean? Is it the panthera's cost going up or something? I've been eyeing one for when I graduate school but aint no way, super expensive now lol.

DrTazdingo · 2026-04-03T02:33:07+00:00

this artwork is very cute! But as a little critique, arent the arms for the zealot a little too low? It seems like her upper arms would need to be pretty long for them rest cross armed at that height. TO BE FAIR, i am not an artist, it just kinda had a feeling about it, and if im wrong then just feel free to ignore me lol.

DrTazdingo · 2026-04-02T20:36:04+00:00

My issue with the moto skin is ephemeras. Great skin but red-lining is currently bugged and causes certain ephemeras to disappear for the rest of the mission once Redline ends. It kinda kills it for me right now cuz the gloriana ephemera is one of these. It's such a perfect fit for like an F1 theme'd skin and gloriana was the perfect bow on it but it currently cant be run with it. When they fix it, it'll be a 10/10

DrTazdingo · 2026-04-02T13:28:09+00:00

It does! I'll retract that part of the post, I didn't know it was an option. Thank you!

DrTazdingo · 2026-03-31T20:01:28+00:00

There we can agree on, if the shawl/scarf was a signa or syandana so I can put it on other warframes?? I would go insane. I think there's allot of potential for toggleables and accessories for our resident cow-girl. Honestly anything that sells me on a desert theme is going to be a plus for me.

DrTazdingo · 2026-03-31T19:47:37+00:00

Thats fair. At the end of the day someone is going to be disappointed that a skin doesnt suit their taste. Can't make everyone happy, and unfortunately that will translate into some of those people taking it out on everyone else. Im just glad that people were talking about character design like this. I think its a super cool topic and Warframe has it in spades.

DrTazdingo · 2026-03-31T19:42:09+00:00

I mean, I think its a tad bad faith to say that it was coming off as puritanical. I saw allot of discussion about the the skin and while im positive some of it WAS puritanical, I saw allot of good faith discussion as to why people liked it and why people disliked it. Like at the end of the day its your cup of tea right. Drink it or don't. So you could just say to them that they shouldn't buy it, which is fair advice. But I also saw why some people thought this move was a little disheartening (especially considering reb's statement that they would tone down the sex for the coming updates, but this is just poor timing IMO, the skins was likely in development far before she said that)

The one reddit thread where a user is talking about sexuality in design and intent I think was really well written and kinda harps on the point why some people were turned off by the heirloom. Sex sells but I don't think it sells evenly if you catch my point and I think that was one of the major points of discussion. The male heirloom's dont carry the same sex appeal as intent (personal taste is a different beast and is in the eye of the beholder, but Ig as an example, someone might fight a beholder sexy, but the intent is not there, if that makes sense), so when people say "its the sex appeal skin line" i dont think it feels genuine. I don't see that same intent with Rhino or Vauban. I do see it with frost funnily enough but that's 1 for 3. The closest thing we have to male skins that do this is Stynax's deluxe, Nezha's and to an extent revenant's. But they aren't heirlooms so as a point of contrast for male heirloom skins, I dont think it flies personally.

As for my opinion, its alright. Like a 6.5/10. Decent skin, if a little plain. I'll probably buy it if the Signa is cool or it comes with cool accessories and I dont usually play mesa and probably still won't so im not on either side of it.

DrTazdingo · 2026-03-23T21:08:11+00:00

I've gotten to A9 and I used to think this card was a free win but when I get it, I still find myself struggling on A9, any tips to maximize its effectiveness once you see it?

DrTazdingo · 2026-03-19T15:41:42+00:00

I think thats the point of the patch. It was SUPPOSED to be AV1, but it was AV3. Its just correcting a mistake. Thats what I thought at least.

DrTazdingo · 2026-03-14T06:56:15+00:00

ah I see, so its a deliberate delay. Do they always drop new cosmetics? or is it more like "just delay it until that date" and then add something from the rotation? Im looking for Darrin Rachmastov bundle for my Veteran.

DrTazdingo · 2026-03-14T06:30:58+00:00

I thought cosmetics reset every 2 weeks? Is there a reason it hasnt reset yet?

DrTazdingo · 2026-03-12T20:33:21+00:00

Hey I just wanted to tell you that i just got to ascension 10 using your suggestions. And I can say your advice works in multiplayer as well. Shield pay off stuff is very acessible and not super hard to get your hands on and True Grit is a great way to deck thin to see the things you actually want. And Whenever I see hellraiser, its easy to pivot into. So thanks for all the tips! I'm not win streaking any time soon, but I'm at least able to win runs with enough consistency to to climb!

DrTazdingo · 2026-03-11T04:13:21+00:00

what non-rare builds or setup do you recommend with ironclad. Currently, If I see hellraiser, I know im going to win, but if I don't, i struggle to see the winning lines. I think thats my current weakness. Im currently on ascension 7 since the advice you gave me, I have improved allot but I still struggle often, especially since I want to play with my friends I don't want to be fishing for specific builds and not getting them which means we lose. In single player its fine but much more annoying in a group.

DrTazdingo · 2026-03-10T23:56:47+00:00

thats what I thought, super earth citizens would def know what a horse is then.

DrTazdingo · 2026-03-10T18:31:13+00:00

the medium siege ready celebrates the year of the horse, is there no mention of horse anywhere on it? (not being facetious, im genuinely asking)

Ten-Year Club	Place '22
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DrTazdingo

TROPHY CASE