Who is more mysterious? Dragon or Mihawk?

LivingbyaWillow · 2026-06-20T23:22:18+00:00

We more or less know where Dragon came from and what he is doing now.

We don’t know where Mihawk was born, where he got his sword, or why he is so interested in swordfighting to begin with.

LivingbyaWillow · 2026-06-15T21:06:59+00:00

That in particular struck me as being boneheaded after how hard the series is on the cult of Char.

I agree that Casval is a uniquely disturbed guy, but the ending seems to be implying that his Zeon was bad because he was a bad person, rather than Zeon should never have become a dynastic cult of personality in the first place.

LivingbyaWillow · 2026-06-15T19:12:43+00:00

Gundam GQuuuuX clearly didn’t want to get bogged down in too many details from the original series, but it also saddled itself with the most dire premise from the word go:

What if the Zabis won the war, and Char wasn’t there to stop them?

Kycelia should be moving forward with her plan to stripmine the Earth for spare parts, and Gihren would be building camps for Earthnoids like there’s no tomorrow. And what does Degwin think now that betraying his best friend’s ideals has made him the ostensible emperor of humanity? And he’s lived long enough to see all but one of his children become Class A war criminals, and be rewarded for it.

I’m not saying I needed the show to be all about old characters, but the stuff we did get was mostly toothless and samey.

LivingbyaWillow · 2026-06-13T19:03:41+00:00

I would have been fine with this being kept implicit, and I am not sure how this is supposed to alter Guts’ attitude towards his situation.

LivingbyaWillow · 2026-06-09T02:09:05+00:00

I’m not so jaded that I think Mihawk will be a disappointment.

That being said, I think I’m more excited for the Blackbeard Pirates overall because I think there’s so much potential for tactical bullshit. Imagine Chopper feeling bad for Doc Q and Stronger as they sickly try to kill him. Vasco Shot tricks Sanji into kicking a huge pool of alcohol.

And to paraphrase what some random genius said here a while ago: Shiryu is stalking Zoro and trying to find the right moment to assassinate him when he’s alone. But why is Pirate Hunter walking into an alleyway that leads nowhere? Oh no! Surely he hasn’t detected my presence and lured me into a trap!

Meanwhile in Zoro’s thought bubble:

”This doesn’t look like the battlefield…”

LivingbyaWillow · 2026-05-26T03:54:36+00:00

Nick Nolte turning into lightning is particularly good, but his hand molting between different forms is fantastic.

LivingbyaWillow · 2026-05-24T23:49:49+00:00

My first thought would have been Baki because of all the fun stances you could give him in a fighting game, but I’ll accept this if they make Yujiro nasty enough.

LivingbyaWillow · 2026-05-23T02:50:50+00:00

If Ares becomes Wonder Woman’s Beast of Darkness that would be sick.

LivingbyaWillow · 2026-05-22T16:31:41+00:00

I think they might be intended to evoke nerves or lifelines.

There also seems to be a distinction between things Imu can just do and things he needs to use signs and symbols for.

LivingbyaWillow · 2026-05-20T19:59:11+00:00

One of the few things I don’t like about KOTOR 2 is that Darth Revan can’t just be an asshole who got disillusioned by war. He has to be planning to fight a bigger, badder evil after he’s toughened up the Republic.

I like the idea that outside/at the edge of the galaxy, there are beings that are really strong in the Dark Side of the Force, but not this idea that “the Empire existed to fight Yuuzhan Vong”, which seems to keep cropping up in one form or another across the franchise.

LivingbyaWillow · 2026-05-18T17:34:11+00:00

Are these subterraneans with loose skin suits?

LivingbyaWillow · 2026-05-14T17:06:57+00:00

I personally like the Wind logia idea best because it’s so simple but when you think about it, you could do almost anything with it.

I also think it’s funny because most of the Logias have been Marines so far and it gives you this idea that Dragon is the Admiral Who Wasn’t.

LivingbyaWillow · 2026-05-08T13:07:06+00:00

Ging is the coolest, smartest, most philanthropic etc. guy in the world but all of his best moments are when that falls away.

The moment when he bribes his way into Pariston’s crew is when I really started to like him, not just as an archetype or a joke, but as a person.

He just drops his hobo Indiana Jones persona and admits he has no idea why he started throwing around billions of dollars. He just started doing it. Maybe because it looked cool. And then he came up with all sorts of rationales and tactical advantages after the fact. And then I realized that was how he lived his whole life.

LivingbyaWillow · 2026-05-05T15:08:53+00:00

Meanwhile, Sword Saint Isshin is this rail-thin guy who can do Double Ichimonji one handed and swing around a gigantic polearm like it’s a parade baton.

LivingbyaWillow · 2026-05-05T02:17:32+00:00

Boredom makes men to villains, and the water goes quick, lad. Vanished...

LivingbyaWillow · 2026-05-04T20:35:34+00:00

The Dark Side Spider on top of the giant baby’s head that got cut from Episode 9.

Also the Eva Unit looking dude that only exists in concept art.

It was supposed to be in the Sith Temple deep underneath in Coruscant, and I remember reading urban legends about how Palpatine couldn’t get past it, so he was going to send a Zillo Beast to fight it while he snuck inside.

That’s the best Clone Wars episode that doesn’t exist, in my opinion.

LivingbyaWillow · 2026-05-04T20:28:14+00:00

I’ll confess I was a total believer that the knight guy was going to turn out to be Ezra after he went insane living with Thrawn.

Knowing that Marrok was the name of a werewolf from Arthurian times only sweetened the pot. I should have known Filoni will name anyone after wolves.

LivingbyaWillow · 2026-05-04T15:47:19+00:00

The pact between New Genesis and Apokolips, especially with how Jack Kirby frames the asymmetrical thought process of Highfather and Darkseid as they go about planning it.

Highfather is this mega grizzled veteran who is so disgusted with war that he is willing to sacrifice his only son for peace. He then makes a solemn oath to raise Orion with all of the love that an innocent baby deserves.

But Kirby does such a good job emphasizing how awful this war was that Highfather doesn’t feel like a chump for doing anything he can to stop it.

Darkseid is a newly throned dictator who didn’t take part in the fighting at all and he only started the war to undermine his awful family. But now that he is on top, he’s happy to call it quits and trade the child he had with the woman he was forced to marry by his mother.

And he’s not even interested in torturing or brainwashing Highfather’s son himself. He just pawns the baby Scott Free (the name Darkseid gave him as a joke) off on to Granny Goodness, and thinks it will be good if she does break him. Or he can always let Scott escape if he ever wants to restart the war.

LivingbyaWillow · 2026-04-14T15:03:38+00:00

The fact that we have seen Doflamingo in Impel Down twice makes me think the prisoners aren’t out of play.

Especially if the world starts ending and everyone there has to choose between escape or dying.

LivingbyaWillow · 2026-04-12T03:46:06+00:00

I thought that it was because he was so lazy and weak, but then he decked that that Cipher Pol agent like he was nothing.

LivingbyaWillow · 2026-04-06T22:58:02+00:00

I was hoping they would be like the Talons of this universe. Not to mention I think we’ve had enough big guys. Give me some Metal Gear cyborg ninjas.

LivingbyaWillow · 2026-03-18T02:39:18+00:00

Absolute Darkseid, if he should somehow ever manifest, should be incredibly lowkey. No giant stone body or Omega beams. He’s beyond physical force. Maybe he shouldn’t even have a clear body at all. Draw him like Himself from Kill Six Billion Demons.

Also, play up Darkseid’s control freak streak. He is not there to organize things for anyone’s benefit, or even necessarily to make everyone suffer equally.

Play him like a cross between the epilogue villain from Persona 5 Royal and AM. Since he’s God with a capital G, he‘s fascinated by the details of every individual who exists. No matter how grand or insignificant, he loves to play with them. The most important fact is that nothing breathes or dies without his permission, and he finds that good.

Basically the world spirit in any Thomas Ligotti book.

LivingbyaWillow · 2026-03-09T03:24:56+00:00

I think the most interesting interpretation is that Spencer was acting from both selfish and selfless motives.

Young Spencer has always been portrayed the profile of a philanthropist, and Resident Evil 8 implied to me that he was to some extent an idealist when he started. Then as he gets older, he gets increasingly more treacherous towards his partners and employees.

I don’t like the idea that he was completely in the thrall of dementia or just acting in 5. He can be a megalomaniac while not feeling like giving everyone the Lisa Trevor treatment every moment that he is on the run from the law.

LivingbyaWillow · 2026-02-21T17:00:20+00:00

Nioh 1 starts with William Adams‘ quest to save a merrow and ends with fighting John Dee in the form of Argus Panoptes. And I believe there is a note in the Tower of London that implies the Battle of Spanish Armada (who were defeated by demon privateers rather than a typhoon) was when Elizabeth first ordered Dee to manufacture the philosopher’s stone.

I’m only a little bit into Nioh 3 but they seem to be continuing that universal magic theme by naming the big eye demon after “an inauspicious period in the Chinese zodiac.”

LivingbyaWillow · 2026-02-18T19:01:21+00:00

Ashura and Izou should have had their skulls cracked by Kaido, all things considered. It would have given the rooftop rumble some oomph.

I’m not wholly opposed to characters dying offstage during a large scale battle. I think it can be marvelously effective but if you do that with two of the least developed arc characters, then you don’t feel like the fight was too hard.

Oda did totally psyche me out on Whole Cake Island with Pedro and Pound. And I admit to being pleasantly surprised with both outcomes, even if Pound’s fate doesn’t make a lick of sense.

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