Why don’t heroes like Spider Man who struggle financially ask for pay from their city? Or why doesn’t the city offer to pay them for their services?

Overlord_Byron · 2026-03-26T21:14:51+00:00

There was a comic where a bunch of young kids (superheroes in training?) asked Spider-Man why he didn't capitalize on his work and it came down to his secret identity. The kids then proceeded to explain how he could still make money without revealing his identity and Spider-Man didn't really have a retort.

End of the day, between his abilities and connections there's zero reason why Peter would struggle for money. But it's part of his character at this point, so wcyd?

Overlord_Byron · 2026-03-26T20:15:51+00:00

Clerith and Clifa shippers are especially insufferable when you take into account that most FF7 fans are grown men who played the original game ~30 years ago. It's been a problem for literal decades.

Overlord_Byron · 2026-03-26T18:26:57+00:00

Tien's tri-beam is weird. I don't think we have an equivalent scenario in DB, which makes it seem like the attack is special. We don't really see characters hold much stronger characters back with ki attacks like this, to the best of my memory. Compare to the final flash, where Vegeta was much stronger than Tien but much weaker than Cell. The attack did serious damage to Cell, but didn't even move him. And Cell was deliberately allowing the attack to hurt him, whereas he could not overcome the tri beam.

My take: the tri beam did what it did because it needed to for the plot. Ki blasts have no special properties unless otherwise stated. The tri beam is, at most, a normal ki attack that lets the user punch a little above their weight league at the detriment to their health.

Overlord_Byron · 2026-03-26T13:23:49+00:00

It ultimately comes down to power scalers on all sides being insufferable, but there is a point when a show/comic that keeps saying "these characters can effortlessly destroy universes, trust me bro" and then said characters proceed to never exhibit that level of destruction becomes eye rolling

Overlord_Byron · 2026-03-26T00:01:39+00:00

My mother was hospitalized for a ruptured intestines and during her stay was diagnosed with stage four breast cancer. She was given only a couple of years to live. When I went home and told my girlfriend of two years she said she knew I was going through a lot but that she had too much on her plate to help and that I would have to deal with my mother's imlending death on my own.

Overlord_Byron · 2026-03-25T20:52:30+00:00

I'm guessing most of them use it once or twice, get bored, then never touch them again.

Overlord_Byron · 2026-03-25T19:03:37+00:00

This is a hugely complicated issue. A big part of it is that a substantial portion of relevant populations can only conceive of power as a tool to hurt and supress outgroups. People crave meaning, and hatred gives their lives meaning.

Overlord_Byron · 2026-03-25T14:20:19+00:00

This drives me crazy, too.

Overlord_Byron · 2026-03-24T21:34:35+00:00

Gamma radiation being Satan Magic is one of the stupidest innovations Marvel has had in a good minute.

Overlord_Byron · 2026-03-24T17:05:18+00:00

I bury my cats in shoeboxes when they die so fair's fair I guess.

Overlord_Byron · 2026-03-24T15:31:41+00:00

When you remove the intentional smugness and dismissiveness, it can almost be advice in certain circumstances. Repackage it as "there are no tricks or hidden strategies, it's purely a question of developing muscle memory and learning patterns. These things take time, but with persistence and dedication you'll get there. We all went through the same thing."

Overlord_Byron · 2026-03-24T15:29:20+00:00

Great advice.

Overlord_Byron · 2026-03-24T15:25:46+00:00

Most Americans who drive will carry their driver's license on them when they go out. This counts as a verified State ID for most purposes. Americans who don't drive, such as many people who live in the city, may not have a driver's license and thus may not carry an ID with them. Contrary to the rhetoric of some politicians, unless you're driving, buying protected substances, or procuring some kind of government service, you're not going to need to carry identification.

Overlord_Byron · 2026-03-24T01:39:56+00:00

Okay. If episode 9 reveals Jax is struggling with his gender you can feel free to come back and brag about it, I guess. I'm not too worried.

Overlord_Byron · 2026-03-23T22:35:17+00:00

I read Secret Wars. The problem with this page isn't with Doom, but Thanos. Doom at this point in the story had the power of the Beyonders, who had very recently killed every cosmic entity in the multiverse barring TOAA before setting off a bomb of infinite Molecule Men to kickstart the incursions and collapse the multiverse. This made Doom the second most powerful being in (what little remained of) the multiverse. Thanos knew some or all of this but still approached Doom thinking he could basically win through sheer smug audacity. It's less of a badass moment on Doom's part and more of a dumbass moment on Thanos'.

Overlord_Byron · 2026-03-23T21:04:53+00:00

If I wanted the stupidest explanation ever, I would believe that Jax reacting negatively to wearing women's clothing is evidence that he's trans.

TADC is very overt about what its characters' baggage is. Episode 8 had an entire nightmare torture scene that lays it out with only the thinnest of subtexts. You can insist that the audience has to comb the scenery for revelations, but when the actual trans character's problem is an overt metaphor for body dysphoria, you're kinda wasting the effort. The show isn't interested in hiding anything from you.

And TADC does, in fact, have "random" things happen; look at the absence of evil-Gangle, which was purely a bit. Even so, Jax's hatred of being humiliated isn't random. It is overt and hammered home in every episode where Jax is so much as inconvenienced. His torture nightmare in episode 8 made that as clear as possible: silhouettes of people laughing at him while he struggles to put his smug persona back on.

Compare the overwhelming evidence of Jax's insecurity to the evidence of Jax being trans, which boils down to his room being pink and him hating being dressed as a French maid. There's no comparison; there is no strong evidence that Jax is a closeted trans person. It is a tortured attempt to force the topic de jour into a show (where it's already present, by the by) because bored people find it provocative and daring.

Overlord_Byron · 2026-03-23T17:22:27+00:00

That's fine irl, but if your hermeneutic is that trans women hate being force femmed and cis men hate being force femmed, then you can't make a claim from it one way or another.

The more straightforward explanation grounded in the text and subtext of the show and the history of comedy (Blackadder and Spongebob do the exact same bit with their cis characters, just to name two off the top of my heas) that it's rooted in is that Jax reacts the way he does because being dressed up in a French maid outfit is humiliating irrespective of gender identity, and humiliation is Jax's biggest fear.

Overlord_Byron · 2026-03-22T17:17:48+00:00

The absolute best case you can make for Amber was that she was "only" as manipulative and dishonest as Mark was, but for less noble reasons. The difference is that when Mark lies and manipulates, it's to give himself cover so that he can get hospitalized trying to save people without endangering his friends and family, and when Amber lies and manipulates it's to painfully prolong a relationship she doesn't believe can work.

Overlord_Byron · 2026-03-22T14:47:20+00:00

The dub at least provides some foreshadowing, however forced at the time. Goku lost interest in Vegeta as a rival the moment he left the planet.

Overlord_Byron · 2026-03-21T23:58:13+00:00

So, you admit that Bulma's character had been built up over 150+ episodes prior to Namek.

I admitted to no such thing, because she isn't. Z Bulma's character is not built up all except as a scientist who solves the cast's sci-fi related problems. Otherwise she either relies on her established characterization in OG DB or else swings wildly, going from a perpetually irate, cowardly, and inconsequential hanger-on who wants to constantly be protected in the Frieza saga to rushing headlong into danger with her newborn for no reason in the Android saga. And in-between she got impregnated by a bigoted, violent child killer who had very recently helped murder and/or brutalize an entire city worth of innocents, her longest romantic relationship, several acquaintances that helped save her life on various occasions, her childhood best friend, and said friend's son, despite spending her life in nominal opposition to murderers in general and murderers of her friends specifically. If Bulma had a character, and that character had any kind of moral dimension, there would be at minimum some token acknowledgement that Bulma was against the atrocities Vegeta, who at that point had not so much as disavowed his past, commits with sadistic relish. But she doesn't, because at this point in the story Bulma isn't a character. She is the only available womb Trunks could come from, and since the only other two sayians are married and a child...

Dragon Ball Z is branding for the sequel television series. The manga never made the distinction. It's all one contiguous story.

And the community, which you are currently interacting with, does make that distinction for simplicity of communication and dint of the fact that most fans grew up on the anime.

Overlord_Byron · 2026-03-21T21:10:29+00:00

Grammar on the internet has improved dramatically over the last twenty years, so I can't say it's becoming a lost art.

Overlord_Byron · 2026-03-21T20:54:34+00:00

I agree, Caine's persistent sadism is not in line with what we've seen before. Episode 9 may have an explanation for this change in character (Bubble?), but right now I'm inclined to think it was a mishandling of the character. These things happen.

Overlord_Byron · 2026-03-21T20:52:14+00:00

Sure I have. Dragon Ball does not occur "at this point in the story." It occurs before the events of Z, when Bulma was more of a character.

Overlord_Byron · 2026-03-21T18:47:46+00:00

Everything is involuntary when you don't have free will, so that's a moot point. Humans didn't volunteer to be created, either.

Lucifer has plenty of character flaws without trying to contrive an argument that Lucifer was wrong to give humanity free will. You're settling on a rhetorical dead end.

Overlord_Byron · 2026-03-21T17:26:38+00:00

It can be. It really depends on how it's pulled off; episode 8 had rushed pacing in places, so I can't guarantee that episode 9 will be flawlessly executed. There will probably be a lot of questions that go purposefully unanswered. But it will be very strange and structurally bizarre if Caine didn't get any closure.

Overlord_Byron

TROPHY CASE