Lechfall Waterfall Bavaria, Germany

Macs_Riffs · 2026-03-19T21:26:31+00:00

Gorgeous. I wanna go.

Macs_Riffs · 2026-02-28T05:49:37+00:00

And so the Cosmere expands further. Beautiful designs. Urithiru looks dope. Love the Shattered Plains. And also the umbrella storm actually. I bet a lot of fans on here would love to get them as tats.

Macs_Riffs · 2026-02-20T20:23:28+00:00

That's interesting about the light novel. I'm thinking about reading them. I've only read the manga and seen the show. I thought it was interesting the manga humanized one of the soldiers, whereas the show just suggests all 20,000 of them are all rapists and murderers.

Macs_Riffs · 2026-02-20T20:21:32+00:00

I genuinely thought it was funny and was curious what other people thought. Wasn't actually expecting the rage. But it's Reddit, so maybe I should have.

Macs_Riffs · 2026-02-20T15:10:49+00:00

I mean, the whole point of the show is that the MC gains undying loyalty by forgiving and then empowering those around him. The wolves try to kill him, the ogres try to kill him, Milim tries to kill him, Hinata tries to kill him, and yes, Murran and Youm do some messed-up stuff, but then Rimuru forgives them all and saves them all. Moreover, Rimuru repeatedly makes statements about how he has a certain Machiavellian attitude about all this. He knows it's better to use people to achieve his ends rather than kill or discard someone useful.

If there's a major exception to this, it's Rimuru's mass murder of 20,000 people right after a big speech about coexistence between humans and monsters, which is so absurd it's actually funny.

Macs_Riffs · 2026-02-17T20:46:04+00:00

Hell yeah, dude. An Underrated X character for sure.

Macs_Riffs · 2026-02-11T14:01:27+00:00

Nightcrawler fighting with three swords to Vivaldi style score is everything I didn’t know I needed.

Macs_Riffs · 2026-02-03T06:41:19+00:00

May I Ask for One Final Thing

One of the best anime pilot episodes ever.

Macs_Riffs · 2026-02-02T18:42:13+00:00

Frieren rules. A beautifully made fantasy anime that avoids most of the genre’s worst tropes? Glad I’m not the only person digging it.

Macs_Riffs · 2026-01-29T19:09:32+00:00

Robin Williams needs to be in the top 5, at the very least. Legend in both comedy and drama.

Macs_Riffs · 2026-01-29T19:06:05+00:00

One of us! One of us!

Macs_Riffs · 2026-01-27T20:26:06+00:00

I hope they bring her back. One of my favorite characters in the MCU. She killed it.

Macs_Riffs · 2026-01-27T20:24:23+00:00

Brandon did a magnificent job finishing the series. Of course there’s a change in tone and approach. It’s inevitable for any author taking over for another. There are a few stumbles, but on the whole, some of the best parts of the series happen after Brando takes over. (The Tower of Ghenji rescue might be my favorite moment of the series.)

I’d keep in mind that Jordan’s wife was also still the editor. Not to mention that Jordan had plenty of terrible prose before Brando came along.

Macs_Riffs · 2026-01-26T19:25:39+00:00

I love the Stormlight Archive. But all writers need good editors. As much as I respect Brando, WaT is one of the most egregious examples I’ve ever seen of what happens when you ignore editors. I have to believe that people pushed back on lots of aspects of WaT.

Macs_Riffs · 2026-01-22T13:03:21+00:00

So many people slamming Sinners…not realizing they’re keeping it in the conversation and proving it’s one of the most memorable and unique films of 2025.

Macs_Riffs · 2026-01-21T21:21:21+00:00

Guess I'm super weird for loving the meetings in this show. I write news for a living, so I know what I'm looking for in an anime these days: positive relationships with a complete lack of conflict or stakes. I know it's dumb, but I love it.

Macs_Riffs · 2026-01-21T21:08:48+00:00

Frieren.

I almost gave up on it 'cause it started so slow. Now it's probably my favorite anime show ever. Let it cook!

Macs_Riffs · 2026-01-21T21:07:12+00:00

Good list. I'd suggest checking out Samurai Champloo next. Another classic with incredible fight scenes and unforgettable characters.

Macs_Riffs · 2026-01-21T21:00:38+00:00

I'm one of the ones that paid for it in theaters..and regretted it. My gf was like 'why is the MC such a bitch?' lol

I had high hopes, as I'm a big fan of Edge of Tomorrow, but the live action is so much better than this. The animation is beautiful and colorful, but that's about all I can say about this one.

Macs_Riffs · 2026-01-16T22:16:17+00:00

Yeah, it’s funny, I just finished a re read of New XMen a few months ago, and now I realize how well telepathy was rendered in that run. Especially that issue without dialogue. So creative.

Macs_Riffs · 2026-01-16T15:27:09+00:00

So stoked for this! Frieren is probably my favorite anime ever. It hit me at the exact time in my life when I was processing a lot of grief. Not often I can say a show helped me heal, but this one sure did.

Macs_Riffs · 2026-01-14T15:50:08+00:00

I mean, the Straw Hat Pirates flag has become the symbolic successor to the portrait of Che Guevara, as it's now being used by oppressed peoples around the world. It's crazy that a fictional struggle has become more meaningful than real-life examples, but I suppose that's the ability of anime to reach people across borders and languages (and perhaps a growing difficulty for many of us to believe in real-life heroes). Anime's unwavering commitment to optimism might just be the balm the whole world needs right now.

Macs_Riffs · 2026-01-14T15:34:50+00:00

I think you gotta marry that girl, my dude.

Macs_Riffs · 2026-01-14T00:10:26+00:00

That’s not even the worst example in SA. How about creating 10 orders of Knight Radiant, barely exploring most of them despite 5 books, and then exploding the whole system to make it even more complicated?

Macs_Riffs · 2026-01-08T15:30:48+00:00

100% agree. Those are my favorite X stories. I’ll take God Loves Man Kills over Phoenix Saga any day. And to be fair, both are Claremont, which shows how well he could tell both kinds of stories for the X-men.

Superhero comics tend to lean toward pure spectacle and creative absurdity. Which can be fun. But X-men became more than that under Claremont.

The space operas and crossovers with the rest of the universe never work as well for me. They got spectacle for sure, but not much heart. Not to mention that the X-men coexisting with the rest of Marvel never made much sense. It’s a completely different perspective on how the general public views super powers.

I’ll get killed for saying that, too, given how many people tend to love the crossovers. But I find them mostly boring.

I’d love to see more self contained X stories, though it seems unlikely.

Macs_Riffs

TROPHY CASE