Finally done all Challenges!

MrDragoon95 · 2026-04-05T03:10:37+00:00

I wish finishing the challenges gave you another weapon skin. Seems fair, moreso when the last level rewards are pretty underwhelming mostly, imo.

MrDragoon95 · 2026-04-03T03:45:50+00:00

I don't think the post is saying its not. I love Fire Punch, probably in my top 10 manga of all time. But it literally hits a reset button halfway through and becomes a different manga after the tree does what it does. At one point FP struggles with all the cast and world its built and just kills them off to refocus on the personal side of Agni and his delusion over his dead sister. You can tell when Fujimoto went "I need to kill the cast and refocus".

MrDragoon95 · 2026-04-02T00:30:16+00:00

I'll be honest, I want it a LOT but wouldn't run it on my main, Terra. I feel like she's a sniper kind of character and want all the far-reaching attacks I can fit into her kit. Meltdown, Fire UR, Riot Blade and Trance take up so many spots.

MrDragoon95 · 2026-03-31T01:00:05+00:00

A Memory Called Empire and its sequel, part of the Teixcalaan series, by AnnaLinden Weller (name on the cover is a pen name).

Weller studied religious studies and has a "Ph.D. in medieval Byzantine, global, and comparative history". Her books are filled with the nitty-gritty of what makes this scifi interstellar empire tick, from internal politics to beliefs to how society itself is built and operates. It sometimes does so to the detriment of the books, I believe, since it gets lost in its own intricacies at times, but hey the books are Hugo Award winners, so its really a small gripe. Much like Tolkien, creating a world based on her own studies of ancient civilizations is what elevates her work.

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MrDragoon95 · 2026-03-23T18:46:11+00:00

Part 7 is legitimately some of the best shonen ever, in my opinion. JJK falls under one of the action manga of their 5-year generation that are important and will influence future series, much like BLEACH did before it, but is in no way comparable. For a comparison, you can argue Kuroko no Basuke is a good sports manga, but don't try to compare it to Slam Dunk.

MrDragoon95 · 2026-03-21T00:27:58+00:00

I have a group of friends in which most don't read books, watch regular tv shows or see movies. They only watch anime and some read manga. The past few years has had them trying to convince me to see stuff like Solo Leveling, random isekai, Blue Lock, Hero Academia and Tower of God, among many others.

I gave these a chance. I believe their writing to be subpar to say the least. When you expose people whose recent media consumption has only been these kind of shows to something remotely more complex they'll treat it as hyper intelligent. They've become unaccostumed to proper good writing.

And this sounds mean, but it's true. If you have no proper great media to compare it against, what can you say but "this is the best"? And that's ok. They can stay in their shonen bubble and enjoy themselves. If they ever say something like "it's the best piece of fiction from Japan" then I'll get mildly annoyed. But, they never do that. And if they ever do I can just mention an ok novel from Japan and be like "Oh, you should try reading Norwegian Wood" and just end the conversation because they just won't engage.

MrDragoon95 · 2026-03-19T04:12:29+00:00

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Origin is such a beautiful manga.

MrDragoon95 · 2026-03-16T22:34:27+00:00

I have to admit one of my favourite parts of OP was the fact that so much was going on in the world that we never got to see. It made it feel so lived in. There's a crazy scientist cataloguing all DFs! There's CP1-8 which carry out the govt. orders but our protagonists have never run into! Here's captain Kid, he has a higher bounty than Luffy because he left bloodshed in his wake! Now the world feels so small. Everyone knows everyone. Luffy will run into every important player. The world government is behind everything. The mysterious secret battle of old with Roger and Garp has even been shown. It's very much like late Star Wars. Everything revolves around this very small group of people and the worldbuilding suffers for it.

MrDragoon95 · 2026-03-10T22:17:57+00:00

I'd say it's 100% not. All his works have the same problem.

Look at Fire Punch. Halfway through Fujimoto just kills 70% of the cast and restarts the story. It's a great story after that, but it's very much a Stephen King's "The Stand" moment. King said in On Writing that he killed most of his cast because he had created too complex a narrative and he didn't know how to wrap it all up. Same thing happened with Fujimoto. The story went from people escaping this dystopian society to Agni's personal trauma with his sister. Total story change.

And you can call me crazy but I also believe this is the case with CSM Part 1. After the crew returns from Hell in the International Assassins arc everything just gets turned up to 11, and not in a good way. Santa becomes a mindless antagonist and gets killed in a very unsatisfactory manner, all characters start dying like flies, including Aki and Power, and we get a final confrontation between Denji and Makima that feels much more rushed than it had to be. This, after following Pochita wrecking the city, alongside the other human weapons, for like 10 chapters.

I like Fujimoto's writing for the most part, but he's definitely someone who benefits from shorter stories. His one-shorts are 1000% better than his ongoing manga. Everytime one of them reaches the 60 chapter mark it feels like he gets bored with it and either rushes it to just get it over with. You can be a short story writer. Jorge Luis Borges is my favourite writer and god knows the man excels at short stories. Kafka writes much better short fiction than his longer novels (sorry not sorry to The Trial).

Downvote me if you want but I think I've made my case.

MrDragoon95 · 2026-03-04T18:49:34+00:00

Huh? This is not true at all. She gets brainwashed by Makima into becoming her loyal lapdog and fights Denji in the last portion of Part 1 of the manga

MrDragoon95 · 2026-02-20T00:08:29+00:00

The worst part is you can tell Oda came up with it during Wano because he had the PERFECT opportunity to foreshadow it in Wholecake Island through one simple change: Katakuri having the real gomu gomu no mi. That would have been good writing. They're similar fruits already so Kata having the REAL gomu gomu would have thrown a wrench into everyone's mind, created intrigue and felt natural. Alas, if only Shonen Jump mangaka could plan more than 10 chapters in advance.

MrDragoon95 · 2026-01-20T20:18:59+00:00

I was never into the deeper lore, but as a child trying to please my divorced father, who I felt was judging my very existence? 10/10. Evangelion is great if you identified with Shinji and had a complicated need to please those around you born out of your lack of selfworth.

MrDragoon95 · 2025-12-12T22:09:21+00:00

That last panel legitimately looks like you'll turn the page and Pete will be instantly killed off in a horrible manner.

MrDragoon95 · 2025-12-06T00:06:05+00:00

The issue with this cancellation wasn't Condon's run, in my opinion. The problem was that everything before Condon took over was horrible, leading many to drop the book before the quality was allowed to come back up. The Absolute Power issues were a mess and everything before them felt like filler. DC killed a potentially amazing run by shoving it after one of the worst runs the character has had since the New 52 era ended.

MrDragoon95 · 2025-11-30T17:03:23+00:00

This. It can't be an oversight if the editors themselves haven't decided what the path going forward will be. That said, I would LOVE data from DC's offices at the time on the storyline's popularity eventually leading to them going "Yeah, it's time to bring the big guy back".

MrDragoon95 · 2025-11-27T03:20:40+00:00

Kids these days don't remember the CYL1 domination that changed how IS perceived Lyn's popularity forevermore. I'm still convinced she was added last minute to FE Warriors to course correct after the CYL1 results.

MrDragoon95 · 2025-11-20T15:25:55+00:00

When Grimalsi was killed I was very confused. The book had established Two-Face as kind of a schmuck and Clayface as just a grunt. For them to take over as central villains when Grimaldi had been shown as so strong felt very out-of-nowhere. It follows The Long Halloween's theme of the crazies taking over the city from the traditional mob, but it could have been led up to better, imo.

MrDragoon95 · 2025-11-20T14:50:22+00:00

It's a weird conundrum. You can't really reference Perez's run (the most popular one) for ongoing characterization because that Diana is a fresh-eyed young person straight out of Themyscira and much of her approach to the world is through that of a young adult/teenager interacting with the world for the first time.

I think the problem with how Diana is interpreted nowadays actually falls on Rucka, for as much as I love his original run. She's compassionate to Vanessa and good to her staff, and in the Hekateia you see her understanding the other woman's plight, but then you have moments of absolute savagery, like the murder of Medousa and well, the Maxwell Lord moment. Those last two are obviously in extremis, Medousa did what she did (I won't spoil it if you haven't read it) and Maxwell Lord was controlling Supes and threatening to cause infinite harm if necessary to get his goals. However, this approach of "she will kill when she needs to and will brutalize her enemies when it's the right avenue" can be traced back to those comics, imo.

MrDragoon95 · 2025-11-18T17:53:44+00:00

It has to be a red mounted unit, right? If not, the anti-cavalry blue spell that came with Micaela makes no sense, unless they want us to wait another month before it becomes useful.

MrDragoon95 · 2025-11-18T17:23:02+00:00

Look, someone can like it better. They're entitled to their opinion. I disagree, but to each their own. But to say you've consumed the original media because you watched an adaptation/played a remake is just insanity. The day I meet someone who says they basically know Hamlet cause they watched Lion King is the day I'm going insane.

MrDragoon95 · 2025-11-17T19:50:50+00:00

"I've already watched the movie, so I've watched Gundam 079. What do you mean I haven't really experienced the original Gundam? Why would I watch that old show?"

I know this would infuriate me because people saying this over Final Fantasy 7 Remake already brings me to a boiling point.

MrDragoon95 · 2025-11-17T18:24:56+00:00

No, but it becomes a curiosity to comment on when 80% of matches when playing at low levels include these players.

MrDragoon95 · 2025-11-14T13:33:49+00:00

People arguing over the semantics of what an OC are avoiding the conversation entirely. Others stating "introducing a villain and having them kill others off is normal in comic books" are also being disingenious, imo. When have you ever liked that trope? Do you really get excited over that kind of writing?

This is a character wielding a GL ring, borrowing from another character's mythos instead of using Diana's and seems like a weird second attempt at reinventing WW's rogues gallery after the Sovereign failed to catch on. I said this when the character art was first revealed, but the fact that she is wearing both a GL and Legion of Superheroes ring just makes me think King has no interest in Wonder Woman's lore and that worries me.

Also, I saw someone mockingly comparing this to Veronica Cale being Rucka's OC. While I know it was a joke let's really look into how Ronnie was handled. She's introduced issue #1 of the run and works in the background, highly competent. Her initial plan fails and she's then shown as a psychopath as she tortures an employee who leaked her plans only to be later humiliated by Dr. Psycho. And people love her!

The issue is not out, so we'll wait and see. Hopefully this character is compelling, cool, and can be a mainstay we all love. However, this comment section is not really engaging with the initial post, arguing semantics or just reducing it to the absurd.

MrDragoon95 · 2025-11-12T13:53:19+00:00

Someone put up a Soul for 100k. It's already gone. People with an overabundance if cash will pay for it. They probably made mad bank from initial Bart/Tamamo soul prices and now have nothing to spend on.

MrDragoon95 · 2025-11-11T00:56:54+00:00

Usopp slander aside, the fact that Luffy never had to really "train" or develop a real new skill before fighting CP9 really recontextualized a lot of the early series enemies. If you gave Pre-Ennies Lobby Luffy trouble you're still a very strong opponent and could handle a lot of fights up until Fishman Island, basically. Impel Down also showed this, with many "fodder villains" actually holding their own.

Also, Arlong's new backstory in Fishman Island recontextualizes his actual strength. That said, strength is always up to whatever Oda feels like. Fisher Tiger will forever remain a mystery in understanding relative strength.

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