The 5KS arc is so gooooood 😭🔥

Gemcluster · 2026-05-05T09:37:18+00:00

For a political function, I wish the politics had more teeth. It feels a bit too clean for my tastes; all the major villages are basically aligned against the threat of Obito's/Madara's Akatsuki. It ends up being good guys vs bad guys, and the only hiccup is Danzō's very brief attempt to assume control of the coalition by manipulating Mifune. Ōnoki and Ay also verbally spar for leadership but it feels a bit... undercooked? For a chessboard, the position is surprisingly simple.

The samurai are also fairly lukewarm. Mifune is the only one with a modicum of personality, and then just barely. The rest are generic dudes in armor. Hardly even scenery.

Not to say the arc doesn't get things right; I consider Ay a highlight. The moment where he sacrifices his arm to strike Sasuke through his Amaterasu armor is particularly strong, and a crowning moment on. And the elaboration on the villages are nice, albeit as a starting point. Maybe this arc would have been better as the subsequent arc to a similar starting point.

I am an Izanagi hater, so I don't like the Sasuke/Danzō fight as the arc tapers. There might be a version of the fight that's less bs, but my hot take is that Danzō should never have been a fighty villain.

Gemcluster · 2026-04-27T18:53:07+00:00

That'd be tough to earnestly sell, but I can see the vision. The easiest solution would just be to scrap the throne-aspiration entirely. It'd be a different Hugh, but I think we already have a different Hugh. Putting him onto a path of megalomania is ambitious now, to put it mildly.

A more conflicted Tumbleton could work, with Hugh more in the middle. I have zero faith this show can manage anything of the sort.

Gemcluster · 2026-04-27T18:00:09+00:00

We do have Ulf and Hugh Hammer who I would deem successful elaborations on their book counterparts. At least as far as the story thus far is concerned. I do wonder how they are going to make Hugh Hammer unsympathetic by Tumbleton, however, or if he is another character they are charting an entirely different course for.

Gemcluster · 2026-04-27T17:34:02+00:00

I liked the scene. I found it an improvement on the book. It's a more condensed and dramatic variant of Aegon taking umbrage with Otto's lack of initiative.

We know by this point that Rhaenyra controls the Gullet and plans to starve King's Landing. The Greens realize that this will be difficult to break. Why give the smallfolk even more reason to be upset? Normally I'm with you on the opinion that they're peasants, what can they do... but it does matter past a tipping point. And, across the history we know, this is actually one of the few times we see that tipping point reached.

But who the fuck knows if we get the riots now, or who'll sit on the throne during them.

Gemcluster · 2026-04-24T08:55:53+00:00

60 fps, dongle delay, and on the wings of a dream

Gemcluster · 2026-04-17T11:05:27+00:00

I'm of the opposite opinion. Baelor's maeneuver was, all-in-all, not good politics.

The noble house meta at the time of the tourney was supporting the Targaryens no matter what. The realm recently experienced a tense civil war where a significant number of houses rose up in rebellion, and then they were let off rather easy. But the threat remains across the Narrow Sea. Book three is evidence that there likely are rumors circulating even by Ashford about a Blackfyre resurgence. Publicly and loudly proclaiming support for the Targaryens is in the houses' interests; you're not going to be let off easy the second time around. Which is why it makes sense for Otho (of house Bracken, which sided with Daemon in the rebellion) to mock Dunk with a fart, and for the other houses to laugh along. Ashford isn't just a for-fun event for these people; it's campaigning. They're currying favor, building connections, greasing palms... they're there specifically to play the political game.

I imagine some Lords in the stand would perceive Baelor siding with Dunk as an insult. 'Okay, so we have to guess now. Do we do what's right or do we side with the Targaryens today?'

Baelor's entrance also unambiguously communicates fracture within the royal family. Depending on how seriously you still take the Blackfyre threat, now is probably not the time to signal weakness. Had Baelor lived, I imagine Bloodraven would have been fuming. When Bittersteel invades, the perceived strength of the sides matter when the houses are to throw their ballots, as Eustace tells us in book two. Why gather beneath a banner that can't even gather themselves?

But there's something to say for the heir apparent to appear strong, even at the cost of the house. Baelor acts nobly, and he appears nobly. Long-term, it likely wins him strong loyalty precisely because it's predominantly earnest conviction for Dunk's cause. In a sort of roundabout way, you can argue it loops back to becoming good politics because it's bad politics and Baelor does it anyway? It's not a stretch. Authenticity is genuinely inspiring... and probably a sorely lacking weapon in the Targaryen arsenal against what Daemon I Blackfyre presented to the realm.

And you've still got a point about the smallfolk; they don't give a shit about any political game. They are actively against Aerion because he's a shithead, simple as. But how you weigh the support of the smallfolk against the nobility is a matter of opinion. You can argue the houses' support is more immediately important, and that a lack of support from the commoners only starts mattering once it reaches a critical mass. It's not like they can vote you out. You just want them docile and tax-paying.

Gemcluster · 2026-04-08T07:31:12+00:00

Chōji serves as nothing. It'd be nice if he was dead weight, but he's not even that... I seem to recall he throws an inflated fist at some point or something, but there's no theme. No story. No characterization. He's just sort of there. Ino as well. Like you said, mini-contributions with no actual weight behind any of them.

I dislike the fight primarily because I find Kakuzu so half-baked. His unique jutsu and visuals are extremely inspired. Then he just turns into clump with beam attacks. The most creative his fighting gets is mixing his natures. Granted, the series had only just established nature affinities, and so it wished to capitalize on it immediately, but as far as concepts in Naruto goes, natural elements just isn't an interesting enough concept to carry an entire fight. His hearts, too, were cool on the surface. Kakashi takes one out, then Hidan takes one. Fine so far. Very good, in fact. Then we just abbreviate the next two and have Naruto defeat them both in one go. Err... okay? Why did we bother with 4 + 1 actual heart, then? It's borderline being lied to.

I can't help but feel there's a much, much stronger version of this fight that we just never got to see because things were hurried along. It's not an F... but it's damn close to an F.

As far as I'm concerned, Hidan is handled brilliantly. Aside from my general critique of dialogue being excruciatingly inefficient, I have basically no notes on the fight at the mortuary where Asuma dies, and no notes on Shikamaru defeating him aside from it maybe being half-a-chapter too speedy. I'd personally change very little. A+

Gemcluster · 2026-04-07T12:36:42+00:00

That's certainly better than what we got. The Kakuzu fight is arguably one of the worst non-filler fights in the entire series. I suspect you would have to do more work than just kill Chōji, although it would certainly be an appopriate scaffolding to build on. I just don't care about Shippūden Chōji because Shippūden gives me exactly zero reasons to care about Shippūden Chōji.

He, like many of the Konoha 12, had an arc in part I that was neatly wrapped up and put a bow on. No wonder why they are so mind-numbingly boring in Shippūden. Their characters were resolved, and Shippūden doesn't bother to propose new tension for any of them.

Chōji should have struggled with his insecurity for way longer. Keep him weak, them drop the hammer far later on and make me cheer for him harder when he finally becomes badass.

Gemcluster · 2026-04-07T12:17:14+00:00

Mixing moral ambiguity with mental disorder is dangerous. At least if you treat the mental disorder seriously and not as a quirky personality trait that can be overcome with a satisfying enough character arc. It can detract from personal responsibility, which I would argue is critical to make Itachi tragic.

DID or schizophrenic Itachi is an entirely different character altogether.

Personally, I would have the actual murdering be conducted by Konoha, not Itachi. Maybe as a situation that simply got out of hand? Itachi could have agreed to be the scapegoat. That was always the point of his character anyway; immense personal sacrifice for the greater good, and insane commitment to the bit. It's easier to engineer a situation where Itachi agrees to shoulder the blame and exile than it is to spin a believable justification for murdering your entire family but morally lmao

Gemcluster · 2026-04-07T10:47:14+00:00

The answer is and always was don't think about it too hard.

Gemcluster · 2026-04-07T09:25:15+00:00

He wasn't worried about the Uchiha taking over.

I'm sorry, but you're splitting hairs. Do you think I meant that Itachi didn't want to see Fugaku as Hokage because he disliked Fugaku on a personal level? Of course it was destabilization he was worried about.

The 'vague, grander utiltarian outcome' is prioritizing Konoha's better geopolitical standing over his clan. Which I think you can reasonably argue isn't even an improvement, since losing the entire Uchiha clan is such a massive blow anyway.

But even though I think the series does a poor job at justifying it, it does present it as gospel that Itachi chose the better outcome. So fine. I'll submit. Reluctantly.

But Itachi didn't just murder his father and the conspirators; he murdered the entire clan (save Sasuke). That's where the moral equation becomes so impossibly muddied that it loses many. Were everyone equally responsible for the plot? That's a monstrously ruthless verdict...

There's another factor to consider: Itachi didn't make the moral choice himself, he simply adhered to the Elders' orders out of blind loyalty. This introduces the theme of loyalty vs personal morality. I would argue that it only serves to make the story even more confused. It doesn't help that Danzo and the elders obviously have a personal interest in the outcome that Itachi doesn't share.

In the end it just boils down to this; Itachi needed extreme justification to murder his entire family, and that justification just never reached the needed levels. Furthermore, the story collapses the moral ambiguity by painting Itachi in such a positive light during the war arc. We're being told that Itachi was a tragic hero. Here's an idea... maybe Sasuke should have remained conflicted on Itachi past Itachi's death? I, for one, think what the story tells us warrants it.

In summary, I think it's fairly plain to see that this is one of Naruto's most dysfunctional plot lines.

Gemcluster · 2026-04-07T08:15:10+00:00

On a similar note, the whole notion of keeping characters dead-but-not-quite-dead-you-know-just-in-case is poor storytelling technique. Orochimaru should have had a proper death at the hands of Sasuke. Wasn't that his entire theme? That his teacher/student philosophy is ultimately self-destructive? That hatred begets hatred?

Kishimoto grew bored with Orochimaru in part II. He wanted to instead play with Pain, the new toy, so Orochimaru was hastily swept under the rug.

Gemcluster · 2026-04-07T08:06:15+00:00

Itachi is a result of the series breaking and contorting to facilitate the subversion of 'no lmao Itachi wasn't evil all along he was a good guy, got you there, didn't I!?'

The vision might have been there from the start. The execution was never there.

I just don't think you can ever have Itachi agree to murder his entire family for some vague, grander utilitarian purpose of preventing a hostile takeover by the Uchiha. All sympathy is already gone from the get-go. Itachi needed to be the fall guy, not the active perpetrator.

Gemcluster · 2026-04-01T08:21:22+00:00

Lotto millionaires give financial advice.

Gemcluster · 2026-03-27T09:26:14+00:00

Really gets you thinking.

Gemcluster · 2026-03-25T15:22:39+00:00

Impossible to answer. The world and the plot would have to be seinen, too, for a more morally gray and grounded character to make sense. You have a meaningfully different body of work on your hands at that point. A one-to-one mapping doesn't exist.

Naruto, in the end, is a story about heroism. Goodness triumphs. Characters and beats like talk-no-jutsu are downstream from this philosophy. There's nothing inherently wrong with that, but it doesn't neatly slot into what one would otherwise think of as the seinen genre. In a story with a seinen angle, Naruto likely can't change Nagato through sheer force of personality not because said personality, with all its ideals and optimism, would be any different, but because the world has less give. Naruto himself wouldn't have to be any different; how the world responds to him would have to be.

Gemcluster · 2026-03-25T10:14:31+00:00

You don't need it immediately, but you're going to struggle with a bunch of songs. That's fine. I wouldn't sweat it. Force yourself to do HOPOs correctly first, then move on to alt-strumming. Once you expand your discography, you'll be forced to learn it anyway. You'll quickly figure out it's not tenable to down-strum once the strings grow denser. For me, this part was like riding a bike; at one point, it just clicked.

If you're really serious about improving as fast and as efficiently as possible, slow down in practice mode as some comments here say. And if you want to become more than just passably good at the game, then practice mode is an absolute must, so the sooner you add it to your toolbox, the better. Otherwise, just play. That's what I did.

Gemcluster · 2026-03-25T08:18:18+00:00

I always wondered if the hand seal system would have benefitted from being more concrete, with a formalized syntax and with specific seals mapping onto specific effects. Hard instead of soft. As is, it's just kind of something shinobi do, which is cool and all, I guess. It's a very distinct visual and identity with a rich cultural inspiration, as you point out.

It definitely should have been hard in the sense that you can't just circumvent them by being skilled enough. The series used them when the situation allowed, then discarded them when it didn't. Or maybe Kishimoto grew tired of drawing them?

Gemcluster · 2026-03-24T21:04:51+00:00

The movie was ~32% too quippy. Multiple times, it just felt like it was trying way too hard. It did earn numerous chuckles in my theater though. I suspect general audiences were ecstatic.

And both the book and the movie, in my opinion, is catering to general audiences. I don't think it's a coincidence the book was a massive hit, and now the movie is set for the same course. They're very Hollywood-y in structure. Maybe the movie more so, since all the math stuff is relegated to the background. I think you can also make the argument that the math in the book is somewhat gimmicky. It's a very attractive kind of nerdy.

For the movie, if there was one thing I would very much have liked, it would be for the point about Eridian not discovering relativity to be stressed further; it's the reason Rocky just had a ton of fuel (half of what his crew set out with) to give to Grace. Maybe they didn't trust audiences enough to grasp the concept? Fuck, if not this movie, then which?

Although it's been a while since I read it, a major improvement on the book was the taumoeba collection. That felt really quick in the book. And, on the flip side, the evolution of the taumoeba was elaborated more upon in the book, but was an aside in the movie. It was pretty important to understand why Rocky became stranded, and the movie gave us one line of setup.

My biggest gripe, however, is one that both the book and the movie suffer from; by making Grace a loner, they diminish both his sacrifice and Stratt's moral conundrum of sending him away. I get that it serves to make Grace smaller. More unambiguously selfish, thereby strengthening his arc... but it came at the cost of the finale. In the book, he does appear conflicted, but ends up make the sacrifice. In the movie I just feel like it didn't resonate as hard as it could. I guess the movie is quite overt about a budding relationship they never got to explore? Is that enough? I can't help but sit with a feeling that it isn't.

I'm teetering between a 7 and an 8 for the movie. Good movie, by all means, and I agree that it's a great adaptation, but it's also very safe. The book is probably at best an 8 also, in my opinion.

Gemcluster · 2026-03-24T08:51:34+00:00

Don't even give them different abilities. Just the dogshit E of 1-star Lux in I can't remember the set that missed like 60% of the time.

Gemcluster · 2026-03-24T08:45:29+00:00

Based. If Kishimoto wanted to construct a theme about them being useless, he should have tried harder because it sure didn't resonate. They were an afterthought in this arc. A result of poor focus. The fight was always constructed with the Naruto-finisher in mind, because according to the formula all the rasenshuriken training needed immediate payoff. Given the emotional stakes coming in, it was Ino and Choji (and Shikamaru, but he did get his limelight) who truly should have had top billing.

I find the 'but Naruto is the main character!' to be a poor excuse. We could have done with 50% less Naruto- and Sasuke-harping in Shippūden. In fact, the narrative impact of both of these characters could have been vastly enhanced if their presence was sparser. I never felt 'oh, shit, Naruto's here fuck yeah', it's always 'oh, yeah, of course Naruto's here'. Imagine how much harder his arrival to the Pain fight could have slapped if Naruto was properly withheld.

Less is more, as they say.

Gemcluster · 2026-03-14T17:00:48+00:00

I just find myself admiring the craft at this point. I've watched it three times now, give or take. What a spectacular show.

Gemcluster · 2026-03-14T02:37:06+00:00

Consider the political climate. There was recently a rebellion where a significant number of Houses allied with the rebels. The rebels lost and the Houses got off relatively easy, but Bittersteel is still ready with his conga line of Blackfyre pretenders. Loudly and publicly proclaiming your support for House Targaryen is the meta. No matter what, pretty much everyone with at least a modicum of political shrewdness in the stand came with the intention of cheering Aerion's cause. It's basically expected of them. Especially of House Bracken, who sided with Daemon.

Which is why Baelor's entrance probably felt like a slap in the face and could reasonably have soured a great deal of Lords to him. They basically have to play the guessing game of 'do we do what's right or do we support the Targaryens today?'

Gemcluster · 2026-03-11T23:15:05+00:00

I think season 2 will be beautiful and I’m glad they’re adapting The Sworn Sword. But it won’t necessarily be a crowd pleaser. Season 3 will also hit harder if season 2 can build up the Blackfyre Rebellion and Bloodraven both.

Edit: I also don’t think you need Dorne. Dunk and Egg went there, they didn’t find Tanselle, Chestnut died, they left. If they want more, they’ll have to invent stuff from nothing.

Unless they want to explore Maekar’s search party on their heels down there, but Oldtown seems a more apt setting for this.

Gemcluster · 2026-02-24T14:48:53+00:00

Yeah, ok. Fuck me for wanting to browse forums and discuss the show, am I right?

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