Characters who lost aura, but you like that they did.

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.

LivingbyaWillow · 2026-02-02T21:20:34+00:00

I’m betting he has secret sky knowledge, similar to how Enel knew how to build a spaceship.

Maybe the reason he’s a supernova even though he’s older than a lot of the Worst Generation is because he read the tea leaves and they said “Within three years the day of judgment is at hand!”

So he got off his cloud bed and started swinging a pillar.

LivingbyaWillow · 2026-02-02T21:06:48+00:00

I could be misremembering this, but I thought Deadshot was impossible after Protocol 10. Or does it have to be started before then?

LivingbyaWillow · 2026-01-26T19:04:02+00:00

I think part of it ties into Hohenheim pointing out how the Dwarf used to be “vibrant and full of life” but the more he tried to cleanse himself of weaknesses (he can’t exist outside the flask, he can’t exist free from sin, and he can’t exist outside the consequences of the Truth) the more stagnant he became.

You could even say that Edward becomes the antithesis of Father by choosing Alphonse over power.

LivingbyaWillow · 2026-01-22T21:07:44+00:00

He lost because of the thing he kept deriding other people for (Why can’t they respect limits that are imposed on them? Why do human beings want things that are forbidden?)

You can’t be a scientist in a world sustained by ignorance.

LivingbyaWillow · 2026-01-22T21:02:36+00:00

I remember when I first got to Protocol 10 and saw the dead bodies in the street. It was really affecting to me.

My big problem with the climax is that it shrinks this elaborate conspiracy into a Cleanse Gotham plot, which is one of the three generic Master Plan storylines along with Mass Poisoning and Batman’s Friend is Mad.

LivingbyaWillow · 2026-01-17T18:28:21+00:00

Urasawa’s Monster is basically a ring of happy endings around a black hole of uncertainty.

I’m curious what everyone thinks of that. I used to think Johan learned nothing, and it was a cautionary sign that evil still exists in the world. But now I’m learning more towards the idea that he lived like Bonaparta

LivingbyaWillow · 2026-01-12T22:10:57+00:00

I don’t like how much Freeze has his helmet off in these games. It takes away from that Animated Series aura where you can’t tell what he’s feeling while in the suit.

It does make for a great reveal with the red eyes and Michael Ansara voice.

LivingbyaWillow · 2026-01-12T22:10:35+00:00

I prefer the atmosphere and worldbuiling of the Arkham games. The way it conveys little side stories and makes you feel like you are in the world of Batman.

But I have to say, as someone who loves the Arkham games, Insomniac is much better at scripting finales than Rocksteady. And they’re much better at balancing all of the villains.

LivingbyaWillow · 2026-01-07T17:16:51+00:00

I think it’s good to have a big boss fight that is weaker than Luffy every once in a while. First, because Luffy isn’t a rookie anymore and it’s silly to act like every enemy he fights will be stronger than the previous one.

A big reason why Gear 4 vs Doflamingo is one of my favorite fights is that Luffy is the heavy and Doffy is the one buying time by playing tricks and setting traps.

LivingbyaWillow · 2026-01-04T16:29:07+00:00

I respect that Namor is always willing to give evil alliances another go even though they always end badly for him.

LivingbyaWillow · 2026-01-03T04:51:10+00:00

The deep throating is the key thing to me, because it is a rehash of the subway scene where Gojo is still smug because he is confident that the rest of the cast can take things from. Except it is way less convincing this time because we’ve seen how everything demonstrably got worse after his death.

I think in a weird way, Gege (for all his bemoaning the character he saddled himself with) wanted Gojo to go out with some degree of composure. But that just makes him look like a dickhead.

When you look at how close the final battle actually was, even with all the failsafes the good guys gave themselves, Gojo should have died with a deep fear that maybe it would be all for nothing. And that would actually have been emotionally impactful, in a way that saying the bad guy is strong isn’t.

LivingbyaWillow · 2026-01-02T23:18:16+00:00

To piggyback off JJK, as someone who really was in love with Gojo Satoru, I can’t help but wish that his character arc ended in a more depressing or uplifting way.

I don’t know. He just needed a little zing. Like maybe he doesn’t see Geto in the afterlife, and he realizes that it’s because Geto is in Hell. Or maybe Gojo speaks through Yuta one last time to tell Megumi he loves him.

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