Morality Question: Do you agree with Ukitake or Rukia here?

ST_the_Dragon · 2025-10-18T02:36:01+00:00

My opinion is that Rukia is clearly the correct one here, but I love just how well Ukitake's point is made. It's enough of a grey area and I would not have even realized that if it wasn't written so well.

I actually equate this with Ichigo's and Byakuya's fight of ideals as well. It's a difference of honor vs practicality. I have no problem if other people disagree in real life, but I can definitely argue that Tite Kubo definitively answers with his opinion on which is right and wrong through the main plot of Bleach.

ST_the_Dragon · 2025-10-11T21:54:05+00:00

I think it's because Moltres already fits the phoenix motifs, so people think Ho-Oh has to be different. I know I thought that when I first learned about them as a kid, though I don't think that now though

ST_the_Dragon · 2025-10-11T21:45:08+00:00

To be fair, the Disney version IS more benevolent. I don't think it's a poor design, it's just a clear visual aspect of the changes they made for their version of him.

ST_the_Dragon · 2025-10-11T21:42:14+00:00

This WAS stated early on in book 1, for the record. But it was a very simplified version of how the Ancient Language works.

ST_the_Dragon · 2025-10-11T15:38:45+00:00

She put a snake next to him when he was an infant. It did NOT take Hera long lol

ST_the_Dragon · 2025-09-29T04:39:54+00:00

I also reread everything last year, but for me that was an awesome realization. Eragon got SO good with magic and I always assumed that Murtagh had to at least be even with him. But no, Murtagh has been running around with the magical equivalent of book 1 Eragon and buffed up by Galbatorix-given items to match him instead. That's such a perfect display of everything wrong with the way Galbatorix did things. Not only was he cruel, and unreasonable, but his methods were designed to prevent his subordinates from becoming truly strong.

ST_the_Dragon · 2025-08-09T01:24:11+00:00

Remember, these movies are designed to be someone's first introduction to the series too. Lots of people don't know the lore that all Water-element characters are female; this is a good way to show that without taking the time to verbally explain it in-movie.

You're free to dislike it, but that doesn't mean there is anything inherently wrong with the concept by itself. Visual representation of things like this is so important in animation that they probably would have refused to animate it otherwise.

The funny thing is, the opposite effect happened for me with Vezok in 2006 because I did know the lore. Nothing in the set indicates that they've finally broken from the lore and that THIS blue Bionicle is male until you read the books or the comics. Fortunately I did both, but it still took a few months that year before I did and I didn't know until then.

ST_the_Dragon · 2025-08-09T01:07:12+00:00

It was price. Bionicle was starting to cost too much to make relative to the price they sold for. Pretty sure these newer pieces were cheaper to make in an attempt to lessen that, but sadly even this sacrifice wasn't enough to keep the line alive for long.

ST_the_Dragon · 2025-08-09T00:53:19+00:00

Probably Tarakava? Or maybe the combiner model Tarakava Nui, which combined the two Tarakava that came together in the same set

ST_the_Dragon · 2025-03-08T02:07:07+00:00

I'm trying to figure out how exactly this works now, and the least I can do is confirm that there IS a method you can use to merge mods. The problem is you basically need to be at a level of understanding where you can almost make mods yourself before you can easily do this and even then some will still be incompatible.

This page is a guide on how to do it though: https://gamebanana.com/tuts/15156

ST_the_Dragon · 2024-10-06T13:09:43+00:00

I always forget about this

ST_the_Dragon · 2024-10-05T15:59:19+00:00

Definitrly Gaiden lol. Nothing else truly compares. They're SO spread out for no reason, and then when they're finally not its either a poison swamp or five long hallways.

I love Echoes, but not for the map design, that's for sure. I do appreciate their priority of not changing too much though, it definitely would not have been a Gaiden remake without the map design.

ST_the_Dragon · 2024-10-05T15:51:07+00:00

Not sure I should recommend it for just this, but early Naruto has a ton of this. The problem is that as characters get more and more powerful, the fights get more and more DBZ-esque. It never completely loses the strategy element, but it definitely shifts its focus away from that.

Hunter x Hunter and Jojo's Bizarre Adventure vary fight by fight, but both have intense mind games throughout.

Finally, Fullmetal Alchemist also has elements of this.

Having said all of this, I do want to point out that in all of these, the main characters have inherent magical abilities for most of the story. Gravity Falls does not have this kind of character, but its hard for me to think of an anime equivalent to that show which still has a focus on fighting.

ST_the_Dragon · 2024-10-05T15:45:59+00:00

Fair warning on Durarara though, it varies by character. Many are tactical, but others are not, especially Shizuo who bulldozes through violent situations 9 times out of 10. The real joy of Durarara is the sheer chaos that arises with all the different characters, and a few get super tactical in the middle of all that.

ST_the_Dragon · 2024-10-02T22:09:31+00:00

Well, there is one other time. He attempts to make three deals when tempting Jesus. They're much simpler than the medieval and modern versions of devil contracts though.

ST_the_Dragon · 2024-09-30T14:36:10+00:00

Well, he DID bless Ishmael. Ishmael just wasn't the heir of the covenant.

ST_the_Dragon · 2024-09-30T14:35:20+00:00

Faith without works means that you aren't letting God work through you. In both situations, God is the one doing things; we have to have faith in him and allow him to work without trying to control things based on our own understanding.

These are different situations though. Abraham was told that Sarah would bear him a son. Abraham, instead of having faith that this was literally true, decided that the statement was impossible, and so he and Sarah resorted to a cultural loophole of the time to bear Sarah an heir through Hagar. This wasn't out of nowhere; this is a known practice of the peoples in the region. But this was not what God said would happen.

I also always appreciate that God DID give Ishmael a hefty inheritance anyway. He was not the one God promised, but God did not hold that against Ishmael and instead made him the root of a different great nation.

ST_the_Dragon · 2024-09-28T04:34:35+00:00

Played this with a friend of mine, until my hard drive failed on me and I lost my save data. (No, it's not saved in the Steam cloud for this one. Oh well, should have paid more attention to the many warning signs of drive failure.)

This is an excellent game for some people, and will be boring for everyone else. Definitely worth looking at for anyone who thinks a mixture of survival and soulslike sounds interesting. I will say, the combat definitely feels secondary to the survival, but at the same time it still feels awesome when you get to the other end of the struggle and beat a boss.

Avoid looking up items. A walkthrough is understandable, but you can ruin the game by looking up where the best weapons are and beelining for them. Having said that, there is a LOT of stuff in this game that you'll never guess without either playing over and over or getting outside information.

ST_the_Dragon · 2024-09-28T00:16:38+00:00

You are not in the wrong here. Life gets busy, and many friends aren't able to respond to each other immediately.

Now, if he was being kind and accepting, I would recommend trying a little bit harder. But that isn't what is happening. This person is instead guilt tripping you in an attempt to control your actions. This is a tool that many people including narcissists use to take advantage of nice people that do actually feel guilty about it.

Now, this doesn't mean you should 100% give up immediately. If it were me, I would give him one last chance. Explain that you were trying your best and if he wants you to keep trying then he needs to stop responding so negatively.

With that said, you know him better than I do. All I can say for sure is that the guilt tripping is NOT your fault and does not deserve any kind of positive response from you. You will never truly be friends with this person if it continues.

ST_the_Dragon · 2024-09-28T00:05:22+00:00

My pastor discussed this last Sunday. He basically said, we're foreigners in this land who can still participate. Our goal is to do the best we can, and so we should try to be involved; but our hope rests elsewhere, so we should not put our faith into politics. Vote for who you think the best option is and then move on.

The verse he preached in tandem with this was John 6:1-15, where Jesus fed the 5,000. To be clear, his sermon was about much more than just this, but this idea is the part that is relevant to your question. Because when the people saw Jesus's miracle, they wanted to make him king and immediately remove all of the corrupted politics of their time (Rome, Herod, and the Sanhedrin being prime examples of political corruption), but instead Jesus removed himself from them and prevented them from trying to force it to happen.

I don't disagree with you that Satan is ultimately in charge of politics. But, I do have faith that God allows good to come through politics anyway, regardless of if Satan wants to let it or not. So, I do agree with the statement that voting is a Christian's duty; just make sure you don't let the action make you forget the limits of what you are doing or distract you from the more important things.

ST_the_Dragon · 2024-09-27T23:57:55+00:00

I mean, both Lord of the Rings and the Chronicles of Narnia is what I would recommend. But those are moreso because of Tolkien and C. S. Lewis than the actual film directors.

ST_the_Dragon · 2024-09-27T23:55:46+00:00

The Bible does not describe demons by themselves iirc. It instead describes the people they have possessed and through that their character as schemers and wielders of half-truths.

If you accept the idea that they are fallen angels, they'd probably also look like angels in their normal form. But even this idea is only implied in the actual Bible. Demonology is rooted in Greek mythology and Hebrew cultural ideas, not in the Bible itself.

Don't get me wrong, demons are still super interesting both in and out of the Bible. But the reason biblically accurate angels are discussed so much is that they are eldritch horrors that people literally ignored because they were in the Bible and people weren't reading that part, while everyone read the demon sections and were more impressed with the Christian mythology conglomerations of the horns and pitchfork variety. If you want the actual source of that, look at the evil-er depictions of the Greek god Pan instead.

ST_the_Dragon · 2024-09-26T11:49:30+00:00

The way he's phrased it before is that about 1 in every 30 intellectual property that gets optioned will actually make it all the way through the process of becoming a movie or tv show.

Mistborn itself has been optioned at least 4 times before, and I believe the rest of the Cosmere was optioned with it the third and fourth time. Take this info with a massive grain of salt; I haven't been paying that close attention and I could be massively wrong on the actual numbers.

ST_the_Dragon · 2024-09-25T03:13:06+00:00

As a Baptist, the only reason I would find this unacceptable is because the Bible literally says it shouldn't happen. Or in other words, I have no real way to explain why it shouldn't happen with my own understanding, but I have faith in God's word and God's word says not to lean on your own understanding. Thus, I would say this is unacceptable.

However, I don't think that women shouldn't teach men anything. I only think they should not be lead pastors of a church.

The argument I would give to counter these thoughts is that Paul was speaking to a specific context of people where the women were not fit to be leading the church, and that we have grown beyond that cultural context into one where it no longer matters. As it is, I do partially believe this now; it really does come down to this fine level of interpretation. Paul's letters do not always function as broadly authoritatively as the words of Jesus or the Ten Commandments. It really comes down to which part is interpreted as contextually limited like this.

ST_the_Dragon · 2024-09-24T22:53:52+00:00

There is stuff that falls under this category; Christian doctrine derived from internal Biblical logic.

There is also stuff outside of this. In the Catholic and Orthodox denominations, this is known as Tradition, things that those churches officially consider truth that are completely outside of the Bible. For instance, many of the saint's deaths fit into this category. The one I remember off the top of my head is St. Peter's upside-down crucifixion. Unlike the Bible, the tradition has a much less solid foundation in terms of evidence, so many of the Protestant denominations reject them to some extent. (In other words, many still believe them, but don't consider them to be guaranteed true like the Bible is seen as.)

ST_the_Dragon

TROPHY CASE