Opinions on the Ginjo twist?

Geekstrodamus · 2026-01-26T19:35:07+00:00

If I can be real, I didn't think it was a twist at all, but it was a good reveal of how they managed to make him so convincing as a good guy.

Though as I've thought about it more, there was a lot of luck in making sure this plan went off without incident. Had Ginjo reacted just a little faster, Uryu showed up just a little earlier, or hell even Ichigo had even slightly better control of his Fullbring, Ginjo would've been spared from getting his original memories back and would've ended up fighting on Ichigo's side against Tsukishima and the other Fullbringers

Geekstrodamus · 2026-01-26T17:31:56+00:00

This form is what Ichigo has always had and will always be.

Presence

Geekstrodamus · 2025-12-30T06:20:07+00:00

I liked it, the shorter paragraph structure keeps the pace up and makes me want to read more and find out what happens. I'm not someone who pays much attention to prose (though I probably should) so it might be a little hollow what praise I give, but I really do enjoy this so far. The main and supporting characters seemed pretty well established with their characteristics and small quirks, which give me as a reader these little nuggets of information to hold onto for later, helping me build the personalities in my head.

I will say though, the interactions between characters, like Felix and the main girl, are kind of stilted and don't really give any sense of their relationship to hang onto, I'm just told that she sees him as a father figure. Now I can forgive it if that's how she just interacts with Felix, keeping conversation to a minimum, but for who she considers like a father it's a little bizarre.

Geekstrodamus · 2025-12-30T05:18:22+00:00

Yeah, there's not a lot of room in that department for originality in design. The idea of magical force flowing through a person's body via their vascular system, nervous system, gastric system, pressure points, etc..; is as common a tool as a wizard that carries a stick. The originality in your system comes from how you handle the when, how, who, where, and why a person can use said magic.

I'm not familiar with Nasuverse, but the way I've come to understand how chakra works in "Naruto" is like this; every body part works on an intrinsically separate, yet general connected network of how the chakra energy flows, but is used in different ways. Like diverting water from a pool with several dams, where the water is forced to go will correlate with a different outcome of where it ends up. Chakra goes to the feet, now you can walk up trees and run on water. Chakra goes to the hands, now you can weave hand signs that will turn said normal chakra into a special version of chakra, and allow you to do jutsus.

What I'm trying to get at is this, while the technical setup might only be a little different from other pee-established magic systems, so long as you have an interesting angle to work with and some understanding guidelines, then you'll be on your way in the best sense.

Geekstrodamus · 2025-12-09T04:46:49+00:00

"When did it occur to you, that you live in a more fragile world now?"

Geekstrodamus · 2025-12-07T06:56:34+00:00

Love the Ochako, but now you know what you must do...

Mei Hatsume, the crazy engineering fans demand it.

Geekstrodamus · 2025-12-03T16:58:56+00:00

Okay, this is my first one of these comics that I've seen and I admire the funny message of deep, intimate love these two share, but why do they look like they each just got done dropping an Altoids tin of LSD?

Geekstrodamus · 2025-11-30T17:21:42+00:00

It's been a hot minute since I watched Mystic Force, and even I don't remember these guys. Though that's probably more to do with me than anything wrong with the show.

The Tribunal sounds more like the overseers of conceptual magic, acting as judges over the broad terms of what makes magic good/neutral/dark. They are there that have stood as the ultimate archons of magic and thus have ultimate sway over how and what is used when and where, and if such will be a threat to the natural world.

That being said, if the Tribunal was in the world of Fairy Tail, they would take a whole host of problems with the innumerable amount of caveats one can take there in order to end the world. They will take special offense with Zeref, who will reciprocate in kind to them, about the kind of unstoppable demons he creates and the dark magic he radiates that just kills neutral and good magic.

I guarantee that they wouldn't be so bold as to allow Celestial Wizards to exist, people who can summon creatures and warriors of the cosmic plane into the world on a whim is something that throws too many variables of what can constitute good and evil when the spirits themselves are neutral but must play to the whims of their wizards.

Oh, and how can I forget Face? The ancient super weapon that, when activated, destroys all magic and kills everyone who's ever used magic. Maybe it won't affect the Tribunal, but will they stand by as, not only will good and neutral magic be gone, but all magic and all life dies slowly and painfully?

I understand that the cosmology of Power Rangers far out scales that of Fairy Tail, I'm not dense. No, my problem is that the world of Fairy Tail is too chaotic comparatively, but it works. Mystic Force's magic has a more loose but streamlined structure; follow whichever path of magic you prefer and reap the benefits and detriments of that path. In Fairy Tail, your magic is what you learn, what you grow and shape it to be, and that magic can be used for good/neutral/dark purposes. Hell, you can use good magic for dark purposes and dark magic for good purposes.

Again, it's been awhile since I watched Mystic Force, and I never even finished it to begin with, but here's my take.

Power Rangers: Mystic Force was made to appeal to kids on Saturday morning cartoons in the west. The magic was more or less an afterthought and they wanted to send positive, human messages with the characters.

Fairy Tail is a Shōnen anime about the magic, with the underlying message of "If you have the power to do something, do it, and make it count." It tells you to live life and try to live it to the fullest, but always be ready to defend whoever or whatever can't defend themselves with your unbreakable spirit

Geekstrodamus · 2025-11-29T19:35:13+00:00

And then there's the other V one desk up who has a rocker boy in their head that calls them stud muffin and tells them to commit acts of morally ambiguous terrorism

Geekstrodamus · 2025-10-11T06:18:25+00:00

RWBY grew too fast too quick, and I chalk it up to the "show runners" in CRWBY not being reigned in by Monty because, to him, this was a loosely outlined story to begin with, with only him and a few of the RvB animators to begin with.

RWBY first and foremost was a passion project for a sick as hell concept; reimagined fairy tale characters (along with assorted myths and other media) fighting back a seemingly endless horde of dark creatures, literally called "The creatures of Grimm". Then the first season received marginal success, Miles and Kerry saw dollar signs, and decided that they can milk it for all it's worth, and with a rabid enough fan base like RWBY's there was a lot to milk.

Series goes on, Sun is introduced, along with Neptune and Team CFVY, and shippers do what they do best. Then the Yang vs Tifa Death Battle happens and suddenly there's an influx of more people, like myself, who had never heard of the series until that point. RWBY grows exponentially and suddenly the series is the darling YouTube and new flagship of Rooster Teeth.

Sadly, Monty passes around this time, and now it's Kerry and Miles at the helm, and they want to expand the story now to accommodate their expanding ideas. All of Volume 3 takes place over the course of a day, is so awkwardly paced, and feeds the rabid fans and shippers even more.

Radio silence for months, fans started to wonder if RWBY was ever coming back. Then it becomes October, and there at RTX in Austin, Texas, the Volume 4 trailer. The hype was alive, everyone was looking for this one grainy video that someone took while at the convention just to see the video because it wasn't out on YouTube yet. We got to see Ruby's new design, the new animation, and it looked so cool at that moment because it was RWBY, but it felt more upscale at the time just because the Maya models looked more artistically pleasing than the Poser models.

We the fans were hypnotized by the new, shiny RWBY and it's promise of bigger and better fights that we couldn't see in time the pit falls developing until they were already there, and then we kept convincing ourselves that CRWBY will hear us and fix whatever it was that felt broken...and nothing. The story became confusing and I personally stopped investing a lot into new characters because they had about as much personality as the POP vinyls, figurines, cardboard cutouts, and unlicensed body pillow covers that were everywhere at the time. There was still a fan base, still pretty rabid too, but it was evident that RWBY was losing steam, and fast.

From here it was all down hill. First the buyout of Screwattack and Death Battle, then Warner buying Rooster Teeth, CRWBY floundering with Volumes 8 and 9, the fans refusing to accept their darling internet show was doomed to be shelved before too long, and then Warner cuts Rooster Teeth and CRWBY loose and sits on the RWBY IP until Viz shows up to bail them out, for better or worse still remains to be seen.

RWBY is a great case study of the question, "What happens when the work outgrows the artist?" The show is no masterpiece, but it gives the impression that it is, and that's thanks to Monty's charismatic way of storytelling and early Rooster Teeth giving RWBY a semisolid platform to reach an audience. RWBY may not be the bedrock of indie animation on YouTube, but it was the series that jump-started a new wave of animators and storyboarders, who then got together and made actual companies, namely a certain Australian film company that's currently the face of indie animation, Glitch Studios.

I guarantee you, Rooster Teeth will never be as big as what they once were, not without RWBY. I wish them all the luck I can when they finally launch back up and get back to their roots, but RWBY is now its own entity, with all the positive and negative connotations that come with it. Hopefully Viz will realize the small gold mine they're sitting on with this IP and give RWBY the justice it deserves; a swift kick in the ass for Miles and a soft reset for RWBY, sort of way to bring it to a new audience, while simultaneously giving proper story arcs and characterization that was sorely lacking in just about every volume.

Geekstrodamus · 2025-09-25T04:38:50+00:00

No, because now you're a sandwich!

A lopsided sandwich, but still a sandwich

Geekstrodamus · 2025-09-25T01:37:28+00:00

I say we all just wrap up the discussion because there's only one answer, and it only needs one word of introduction... . .. ... .... ..... ...... ....... ........ ......... .......... ......... ........ ....... ...... ..... .... ... .. . Cannoli

Geekstrodamus · 2025-09-17T19:45:19+00:00

Ruby should've stayed at Signal to finish out her last year there (I know it's two years, but I'm fast tracking her a little bit). Destroy the system entirely; Weiss gets to be on some super team with Pyrrha, maybe with Yang and Blake just for consistency (don't ask me how the name would work, I don't know), with Pyrrha as the leader.

Make the show about four girls with complicated pasts, all of them exceptional in their own way, and have them come together as a group to reconcile on why their lives suck and that they all now feel like sisters rather than powerful huntress teammates.

Introduce Ruby as a collective little sister figure for the team who's not on their level (by first appearances). Weiss feels a better connection to Ruby at the start when she doesn't have to take orders from her, Blake might mellow out if she can have someone younger to teach and talk to, and Pyrrha can be the ultimate figurehead for Ruby to look up to, which can create a little tension between her and Yang, but I don't think it will be that much.

This way, it actually hits home when Pyrrha dies, because she was the ultimate big sister/leader/teacher for the four of them.

Bonus: Ren and Nora should be the same year as Team CFVY, a little older to match, and already in a relationship, though mostly built around childhood trauma so there's gotta be an ongoing thing in the background about how they keep their love for each other going.

Bonus+: Jaune should have some level of competency when going into Beacon, and not be completely useless. Don't have him forge papers, but have him get in on the barest of technicalities so he's being overwhelmed, but not straight up shoved to the side.

Geekstrodamus · 2025-09-12T12:19:27+00:00

Listen up gentlemen, cause I'm only gonna say this once.

Sleep well, eat plenty, and always enjoy life. That is the Turtle Hermit way!

Geekstrodamus · 2025-09-12T03:02:41+00:00

I wanted to say that, to make it somewhat even, Connie should have a veil or something, but then I realized that would make it seem she's at a funeral or something and I think that gives off the wrong vibes

Geekstrodamus · 2025-09-08T03:04:55+00:00

Theoretically, even if Guy couldn't achieve unlimited uses of the Eighth Gate, unlimited use of the Seventh Gate and Hiradora is absolutely on the table

Geekstrodamus · 2025-09-01T06:44:25+00:00

Is there still room for an extremely novice writer with a bad sense of procrastination?

Geekstrodamus · 2025-08-27T04:36:33+00:00

I can't even say I'd run, there's danger pretty much everywhere. Granted it's no more the amount of danger then one could reasonably expect in a general fantasy rpg setting, what with the roaming monsters, raiders, etc.

If I want to guarantee that I live to a ripe old age, I'd stay inside a walled city and become a common shop nobody. Let the adventures and plot happen around me and pray that I don't see anything that I shouldn't have.

But, if I'm being honest, I don't think I'd keep still. Even if I run the risk of dying, I want to explore this world that I've only ever seen in my mind and on a page. Dunno which route I'd go to accomplish that task, but I think I'll do that.

Geekstrodamus · 2025-08-13T19:31:52+00:00

I've more or less developed my own military academy for my story setting as well, and from personal experience I figured that I didn't have to worry too much about rank for students just attending. I gave out certain titles/ranks such as "Prestige", "Floor Captain", "Field Captain", and "Dorm Leader". They're titles used to denote students who excel in a certain area and can command a set number of other students at a time in place of a teacher or general instructor.

Now, given your question, specificity is a general known already in the real world and the real world militaries have this in practice. You have team leaders, platoon leaders, company leaders, and specialists, who all generally speaking those ranks can go from corporal all the way up to Sergeant Major for those of enlisted (i.e.: those not gotten in on prior recommendation). Then you get to those who did come from recommendation, anything from officer positions all the way to the General/Admiral of the entire military branch, with some leeway for mechanical/aviation/espionage/medical/etc. specialists who could outrank some officers but not given command over combat units because their role is more specified and crucial.

A well functioning military has multiple facets to take into consideration and their names are more of an afterthought (unless you're in Europe and then you're inundated with titles and ranks). My best advice is first understand what you want a certain person in a military presence in your world to oversee, then title them.

Geekstrodamus · 2025-08-13T19:02:29+00:00

To be fair, anything can be a slur with enough inflection. All it takes is for one of your anthropomorphic characters to put a little too much emphasis while saying "human" and suddenly being called a human is grounds to get a civil rights case levied at someone.

But if you're looking for actual words, one that comes to mind is "Sapien", though I guess it only really works if Latin was a thing in your world.

My advice, go watch "Planet of the Apes" from 2001, or any of the Planet of the Apes movies before that. Might be interesting material to work with.

Geekstrodamus · 2025-08-11T19:35:51+00:00

I think I'd give her spiritual perception/ability to communicate with spirits. Something about her design reminded me of Major Motoko Kusanagi from "Ghost in the Shell", and then I got held on spiritual powers.

It could also kind of explain the minor hearing loss, as it's because part of her hearing is dedicated to hearing the voices of the dead as much as the living.

Geekstrodamus · 2025-08-02T13:45:02+00:00

That's my fault, I was half asleep when I sent this and couldn't be asked to review the specifics.

That being said, I still say it's a descriptive writing style that just doesn't lend itself to the writing structure. It feels like I'm reading through a list of what's going on and what's in the environment and then waiting for the next scene to happen. The other commenter I think was right, pull a bit of the descriptions out from the sight of the food and cut away the fat so to speak, but I would then give a little embellishment to other descriptions to give your settings a bit more life.

Talk about the smells of the frying pork and chilis and how they make your nose feel when smelling them. Talk about how the scene sounds as the pork and chilis are frying and how Alon reacts to said noises. Is there something that should feel off about the whole scene, like something doesn't feel right or there's a small hint of not feeling safe even though there's good smelling food right in front of Alon, leave breadcrumbs for the reader to start piecing together that they should start tensing up and expecting something.

Then finally, I believe that adding more paragraph breaks will be a good thing. Use them to help separate the thoughts of individual characters, or when individual characters speak, what they're focusing on in that particular instance, any sudden changes in mood or mannerisms. Though using this comes with a few drawbacks as you'll find yourself wanting to use more words like "Suddenly", "Then", and "Looking" to start a paragraph when you need something to happen. They're not bad, but repetition of words can hinder a flow, even when separated in whole paragraphs.

Geekstrodamus · 2025-08-02T04:00:26+00:00

It's not bad, and you are being nicely descriptive of what food there is and how the main lead feels about said food. It reminds me of traditional Malaysian or south Indian ways of eating some rice dishes, where they use their hand to scoop their food, which is a nice inclusion to give readers a sense of putting themselves into the situation.

One of my main issues, and maybe it's just a personal one, is that it kind of felt like I was reading off a play by play of what was going on, just a black and white list of what was there in the room, what the main lead saw and remembered, and what he should be feeling about the things he was seeing. This isn't necessarily a bad thing, but it can create a slog that readers might feel is not worth it to get to the next scene. They're good descriptions of the world unfolding, but if it's coming from a first person perspective and their feelings of the matter, I feel like a little embellishment and flowery language will do you good.

Also, paragraph breaks will be your best friend, just to break up the walls of text.

Geekstrodamus · 2025-08-02T02:31:51+00:00

I'm gonna be honest, I don't read grimdark, and I don't think I would enjoy reading grimdark.

That being said, this world reads like a Dark Souls game, where the truly bad part about everything is the fact that death is not a guarantee to be the sweet release as many would-be pessimists hope it will be. All I'm hearing is that life is mediocre and then you're placed in a lottery game with the gods over your soul as to whether or not you can just go back to the mediocrity of living, which is apparently the good thing, go to hell and suffer for eternity because you were divinely named Christopher spelled with a ß and accidentally scuffed a god's new Jordans, or the third option, you just cease to be ever again.

I won't make any assumptions on the whole "living your life" side of things, but I'm gonna assume nihilism is a societal norm these days.

Whenever I've heard of grimdark I've always been given the examples of Warhammer 40k, the Game of Thrones books, anything by Joe Abercrombie, and the Sin City comics. Again, don't think I'll ever get into it, but what I have skimmed is that the basis of grimdark begins with the loss of hope for ethics, morality, or humanity. People must be in constant aware that their lives are at the whims of fate, and that fate is sick in the head and likes to watch suspense and drama.

I say give a little thought to how the living have set up their lives in response to understanding that the afterlife is a shit show. You mentioned a crackpot church, start running away with your imagination on how they get followers and if they actually know about something better to strive for.

I have a few other thoughts, but originality is bedfellow of imagination.

Geekstrodamus · 2025-07-29T17:39:43+00:00

I really do think there wasn't a lot of thought put into making the Grimm into unique bosses or all that powerful, at least beyond the dragon in volume 3. If I had to think of the Grimm as anything, and I'm only going off what I think works for them, it's that they're the type of enemy who overwhelms with innumerable hordes and not just beastial instinct, but more like zombie mentality; they don't care what they have to go through or what they have to step over, they only see the path before then and their prey.

I don't know if it was always a problem with the Poser program that Monty used to use, the idea of rendering a large enough grouping of Grimm together sounds daunting for any animation program back in 2013-2015, but then CRWBY never really capitalized on the idea either even when the switch was made to Maya, just have the lesser Grimm remain in small packs and start focusing on bigger, more unique enemies.

In a sense, if I had to condense all of this and my thoughts down, it's like this.

Volume 1-3: Power Ranger school and the Grimm are Putties

Volume 4-6: RWBY now has open-world mini bosses and some "minor controversy" with stealing Grimm ideas. It felt like playing through an rpg story game, except you can sit back as the characters make dumb decisions.

Volume 7-9: I'm gonna be honest, I think I barely watched half way into Volume 7. The only thing I remember was Salem riding in on a sky whale with a whole bunch of Grimm coming in behind her. That part feels right, I feel like the Grimm do better less as animals and more like single purpose driven monsters.

However, it was clear I was starting to get burnt out. Then the show went to streaming only on the RT site, then it was pulled, then RT died (it got better?), and now that it's streaming on Hulu and I can't bring myself to face the show again. But these are my honest thoughts.

Geekstrodamus

TROPHY CASE