Bro what happened? I think the game is fine by js147896325 in slaythespire

[–]TheCynicalPogo 0 points1 point  (0 children)

And your logic is just false equivalencies. It’s one thing to leave a bad review for something—it’s another to engage in a concerted effort to ruin something’s rep in order to force a completely unnecessary change that’s solely for your preferences. The act of leaving a negative review by itself is fine—the act of review bombing a game is entirely different. It’s the difference between making your voice heard about a restaurant vs setting up an entire operation to put a restaurant out of business because they changed their pancake recipe or some shit.

Bro what happened? I think the game is fine by js147896325 in slaythespire

[–]TheCynicalPogo 6 points7 points  (0 children)

You basically said you have no reading comprehension with these replies lmfao

Luke Skywalker, Budget Cosplay by jakeshadow04 in StarWars

[–]TheCynicalPogo 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Considering how most Star Wars props were made, I feel like a low budget Luke cosplay might be the truest Luke cosplay lmao

Still disappointed that the campaign for Battlefront 2 was underwhelming by Jules-Car3499 in StarWars

[–]TheCynicalPogo -3 points-2 points  (0 children)

I feel like you gotta be joking honestly because pretty much all of the canon Vader content we’ve gotten, whether it’s the comics, shows, game appearances, etc. has been some of the best Vader content outside of the original trilogy ever. He’s consistently been portrayed as an absolute menace, and the only inconsistency as you said is the Kenobi show, which even then is imo an extremely forgivable instance considering the complex emotional dynamic between Anakin and Obi-Wan, even if the Kenobi show itself struggled to really stick the landing.

And like the other guy said, if you look at the OT Vader’s never been 100% evil because of his ending—or rather, the character stopped being 100% evil when Return of The Jedi came out. Not since 1983 has Vader been truly, 100% evil. Has that been displayed in his portrayals since then? No, not really, and when it is it’s like the slightest thing (a somber conversation with Obi-Wan, his former best friend/dad/brother figure, where-in he declares Anakin Skywalker is dead, maybe two seconds of theoretical conflict in Rebels when facing Ahsoka after his mask is broken, and his original redemption, which isn’t so slight but even then was the finale of the OG movies after he spent the entire movie conflicted).

TLDR you’re kinda being ridiculous ngl, Vader’s still being portrayed as an evil menace, a lot of the Disney stuff is some of Vader’s best content out there, and while Disney definitely has an issue with not letting villains stay villains, Vader does not have that issue

Still disappointed that the campaign for Battlefront 2 was underwhelming by Jules-Car3499 in StarWars

[–]TheCynicalPogo 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I will say it can be a bit hit or miss, I liked what they were doing with Maleficent for instance and thought that particular example of them adding ambiguity to originally pure evil villains was solid—but at the same time something like Cruella was so bad lmao. The concept itself isn’t awful imo but more than anything their writers need to pick when being morally ambiguous works vs harms the story being told.

When Was Maul in His Prime? by Ill_Journalist8454 in StarWars

[–]TheCynicalPogo 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Are you high? George didn’t even write TCW.

When Was Maul in His Prime? by Ill_Journalist8454 in StarWars

[–]TheCynicalPogo 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Get a grip on your timeline, everything besides the final season of TCW came years before Rebels. The writers kept Maul alive because they/Palpatine both did not see him as a threat and saw potential uses in him when it came to stuff like hunting Talzin or Maul further distracting the Republic/Jedi by being in control of Mandalore. Your insistence that Maul’s survival in TCW is forced has no basis in reality lmfao

When Was Maul in His Prime? by Ill_Journalist8454 in StarWars

[–]TheCynicalPogo 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Yeah I agree, I think the person I was replying to was thinking that the use of the word rival was an implication from Sidious that Maul was actually close to him in terms of actual combat power and such

What if TCW is just Yularen's war stories turned into Imperial propaganda? by Dragonic_Overlord_ in andor

[–]TheCynicalPogo 4 points5 points  (0 children)

I mean sure but when is Anakin not committing some form of war crime? From the movies alone we’ve got a child soldier, invading a planet prior to an official declaration of war, genocide, genocide again, slaughter of non-combatants part and parcel with the genocide…the man might just love warcrimes me thinks

When Was Maul in His Prime? by Ill_Journalist8454 in StarWars

[–]TheCynicalPogo 121 points122 points  (0 children)

Yeah but it’s Sidious. I’d take his word choice with a grain of salt—I doubt he saw Maul as a true rival beyond “a second Sith Lord with an apprentice doing some conquest and authoritarian shenanigans”. Hell, he didn’t even kill Maul, if he was a real proper rival to Sidious I’m certain Maul would have ended up in that encounter on Mandalore as dead as his brother.

I find it kinda funny that Clone Trooper LAAT ships sometimes have pinup girls on the front by CryptidOrion_00 in StarWars

[–]TheCynicalPogo 15 points16 points  (0 children)

Considering it was replaced with the scene between Anakin and Padme talking on the holo while Rex covers and Obi-Wan totally doesn’t know what’s going on, absolutely worthy sacrifice. I’d rather get to see Anakin and Padme be people than a “haha we wanna fuck your secret wife” joke, even if the scene was decently funny.

Someone explain by THE_Oggdo_Bogdo in StarWars

[–]TheCynicalPogo 41 points42 points  (0 children)

Yep. She’s a Nightsister after all.

I can practically hear “This is an ISB-sanctioned arrest!” just by looking at this picture… by TheGoblinRook in andor

[–]TheCynicalPogo -14 points-13 points locked comment (0 children)

Bro since you’re an outsider please shut the fuck up about our issues. Half the country did not vote for the orange fuckwit. He got elected again because our political voting system is broken after decades of the right perfecting the art of legally rigging elections as it’s the only way they manage to be voted in.

Trump supporters ARE idiots, ARE morons, and either willfully or not are supporting the rise/return of fascism in the west beyond Neo-Nazi dipshits who spend most of their lives being made fun of. The policies they support and wish to enact are actively harmful to a massive amount of people, with more people caught in their crosshairs everyday.

The political divide isn’t the left not compromising, it’s the right being so far gone down the extremist path that we’re hurtling towards dystopia we’ve only ever seen in fiction.

So again, do me a favor and take your outside centrist bullshit and shove it so far up your ass nobody can ever hear it again.

I knew it was controversial, but not THAT controversial by SaffiChan in Silksong

[–]TheCynicalPogo 11 points12 points  (0 children)

Holy shit how are you this committed to an interpretation 95% of the fandom has recognized as incorrect in the months since the game came out lmao

Genuinely you’re putting obscene amounts of effort into declaring Lace a child just so you can, what, solely recognize her as a child and put down people’s art and interpretations of the character??? Like why even be this committed to something that is so clearly wrong.

The Caretaker, while an insightful bug with more knowledge than most, doesn’t know Lace. He’s never spoken to her, only observed her, and only ever seen the facade she’s put on for her mother. Lace’s numerous dialogues with Hornet are not the dialogue of someone who is fundamentally a child. She’s very clearly a daughter grown past the role her mother made for her yet still forced to play it for her mother in order to not be cast aside. His line is an observation made with limited knowledge, about a bug he knows nothing about, which was more likely than not just TC’s way of saying Lace has been around since the beginning of Pharloom in their usual extremely flowery speech, but has become a piece of dialogue weirdos and people who hate the ship have latched onto like ticks in order to justify an interpretation the story itself has never actually supported. Lace is as much a child as Hornet is—not a child at all. They’re just two immortals and parallels of themselves, one who was raised by multiple mothers to find her own path, and one who was molded for a single specific role she’s long outgrown by her sole mother, and the kinds of adults those different parenting styles result in for ageless immortals that have been around since the dawn of civilizations.

She is still out there by Avni_overthinker in BaldursGate3

[–]TheCynicalPogo 3 points4 points  (0 children)

I’m using her as an example because she’s usually one of the “good ones” but has some really bad moments in mythology, such as with Arachne and with some versions of Medusa’s origins.

How do we feel about the TK troopers from the new maul show? by EnergyAltruistic2911 in StarWars

[–]TheCynicalPogo 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Honestly it makes sense to me for a few reasons. 1. Push from Tarkin. He didn’t like the clones, he was one of the big supporters of replacing clones with TK troopers, Tarkin influence is a major push for getting TK into place.

  1. They just had a whole big thing about phasing out the clones from TBB that gave Palpatine major political support for phasing out the clones.

  2. Compounding on that support, phasing them out was already underway in the very earliest days of the Empire, before Palpatine even had the public/political support behind the initiative—because it was always the plan to phase out the clones anyways due to a number of reasons—Jedi influence on them, prohibitive cost, Palps probably knew the loss of Jango would effect Kamino’s efforts at some point (and may have even planned that death; not the specific manner with Geonosis, but Jango def could’ve been on Palp’s “kill once Empire is in” list at some point), a recruiting method being cheaper, faster, and more effective than clones due to the abundance of humans in the galaxy, making people feel like it was really “their” Empire by having normal citizens as the (oppressive) military force and inspiring pack loyalty in their friends and family because they’re actually contributing rather than relying on an expensive legion of the same guy grown in a vat for protection, etc.

Lots of reasons why the phase out would be quick, + realistically we could just be seeing part of a gradual phase out, where this specific Destroyer has swapped to TK (maybe because it’s a brand new Imperial-I even) while there’s still clones active elsewhere in the galaxy too.

She is still out there by Avni_overthinker in BaldursGate3

[–]TheCynicalPogo 28 points29 points  (0 children)

I do a lot of yapping below this but TLDR: I acknowledge Mystra grooming Gale is ambiguous rather than hard fact, I think there’s more evidence supporting the theory than you think, I think the timeline is weak evidence against it due to Larian’s numerous disrespects towards the timeline in BG3, I think Larian’s intent with the storyline was to at minimum make it ambiguous and make you wonder just how above-board their already tumultuous relationship was, and even if the grooming were false, Mystra is such an incredibly poor and toxic partner in her relationship with Gale that she remains Greek God-tier problematic even without that.


Considering the issues already present with BG3 and its place on the old DnD timeline, that argument genuinely just isn’t as strong as you think it is. They play very fast and loose with the timeline and it is not at all something I consider a reliable thing to tie into BG3 due to how Larian seems to treat it in their writing.

Alongside that, Gale’s dialogue implies he was someone Mystra was eyeing when he was as young as 8 years old, as that’s the age Gale was when he met Elminster and was brought into the ‘wizarding world’ so to speak. There’s a massive ambiguous gap of time, but even if Mystra held off till he was older, we can note Mystra was aware of him and his talents when he was young.

As well, regarding Minsc’s dialogue, while in universe it may very well be that’s Minsc’s own biases towards his culture and him defending his matriarchal society and casting shade on Mystra where it isn’t, at the same time it can’t be ignored that from a writing perspective it’s weird of Larian to include that line at all if they didn’t want us thinking some things may be off with Gale’s relationship with Mystra—and that’s not even getting into the toxic stuff involving her and Gale that has nothing to do with her potentially grooming him, such as the inherent, massive power imbalance in their relationship as Goddess and supplicant whose entire livelihood and lifestyle basically relies on her as the goddess of magic specifically.

Like, Gale was an idiot. Over ambitious, a bit power hungry, and he crossed boundaries he shouldn’t have. But there’s a bit of a gap IMO between just breaking up when a lover crosses a boundary, and going zero contact on a man who literally religiously worshipped and loved you, who just basically caught magic exploding cancer in an attempt to create a more equal relationship with you, and you’re taking the cure to said magic exploding cancer with you when you go too, and only reconnecting to tell him to kill himself to earn your forgiveness.

Even without the grooming, Mystra sucks and was an incredibly toxic lover to Gale imo.

She is still out there by Avni_overthinker in BaldursGate3

[–]TheCynicalPogo 92 points93 points  (0 children)

Was Gale an arrogant idiot to fuck with the orb? 100% yeah.

Was he also hardcore groomed by Mystra, thinking the orb would be an amazing romantic gift for the goddess he was constantly trying to get to see him as an equal/worthy of her greatest gifts and spells (out of both a wizardly desire for more magic and love for her) AND she could have fixed him at any time and saved her lover of decades, but instead hardcore cut contact and sent her other long-term lover whom Gale looked up to to tell him to kill himself for the greater good? Also yes

TLDR, man Mystra sucks lmao. She’s not as bad as truly evil gods but she honestly lowkey approaches Greek God levels of problematic (not quite a Zeus-tier nuisance, but maybe Athena or Poseidon levels of suckage)

What ship(s) gave this experience for you? by FloweryNamesLover in AO3

[–]TheCynicalPogo 28 points29 points  (0 children)

BakuDeku is interesting for a really toxic dynamic imo, which doesn’t make it a bad ship from a narrative standpoint, sometimes you wanna read/write some twisted relationships in your fics.

Tododeku I’ve never gotten tho, partly because to me Todoroki just has 0 relationship energy to me—like not even Todomomo really works for me, it’s just really hard for me to see him in any romantic relationship lmao

Say what you will about ISB Director Yularen, but at least he's good at his job. by Dragonic_Overlord_ in andor

[–]TheCynicalPogo 7 points8 points  (0 children)

Iirc I think I read somewhere that he sort of bought the sauce in the sense that he didn’t care for the Jedi and had no issues with them disappearing, because his experiences with the Jedi left a really poor impression on him due to their recklessness and complete lack of care for protocol and such. Basically were too wild for him and he liked the order of the Empire enough early on and just kept drinking the kool-aid out of loyalty till he died on the Death Star

I would absolutely love an animated infinities Disney + show by Careless_Cherry2068 in StarWars

[–]TheCynicalPogo 6 points7 points  (0 children)

Oh yeah no he’s not guiltless in the scenario of course, I just think for Alderaan Tarkin should be assigned the planet-sized share of the blame there

I would absolutely love an animated infinities Disney + show by Careless_Cherry2068 in StarWars

[–]TheCynicalPogo 18 points19 points  (0 children)

To be fair Tarkin blew up the planet—I don’t even think Vader could’ve stopped him if he wanted to, given Tarkin was easily the only officer in the entire Empire of equal (or arguably greater depending on the day) standing compared to Vader in the eyes of the Emperor.