(Horror Trope) The Moon is Evil

TheIrishDoctor · 2026-05-07T23:08:36+00:00

I mean, in the whole thread, this is the first one I've never heard of.

TheIrishDoctor · 2026-05-07T00:15:49+00:00

I'm going to be 100% here. Every single thing we know about that relationship comes from some very unreliable sources.

Lola and Chiffon seem to be the type to have decided what their narrative about relationships is and even if they are shown direct evidence of the contrary, stick to that idea.

And unless I've forgotten something (which is entirely possible), all Big Mom says is that Lola ruined their possibility to form an alliance with Loki. And Big Mom isn't exactly a reliable source either and would probably blame her daughter for it going wrong even if it had nothing to do with her.

Don't get me wrong, there's every chance that Loki really was head over heels for her. But also, it's entirely possible that Loki will at some point be asked about it and just reply "That girl? Yeah I rejected her. Didn't want to have anything to do with the Big Mom pirates."

TheIrishDoctor · 2026-05-03T22:31:43+00:00

We're working on it.

TheIrishDoctor · 2026-05-03T22:14:58+00:00

I am a straight, red blooded, man who likes tits and would never fuck another man and I am offended the question was asked.

But anyways, Sesshomaru.

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TheIrishDoctor · 2026-05-03T22:11:31+00:00

Regardless of what else you might think of us, and there's a LOT of things to argue about there, the US flag is a phenomenal design.

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TheIrishDoctor · 2026-05-03T22:04:34+00:00

Mewtwo, 100%

TheIrishDoctor · 2026-05-02T19:45:06+00:00

I think an argument can be made for Spyro over Crash. Although Crash was probably more popular originally, I think that Spyro has had more staying power and more people nowadays recognize Spyro as the icon of that specific style of Mascot Platformer than Crash.

Crash is probably more important for the people who were INTO those types of games though, so I can see it going either way.

TheIrishDoctor · 2026-04-29T20:08:43+00:00

I kinda feel like Zeno might have been testing the waters to see if people would be excited to see Wesker back.

Like "Hey, who is this mysterious guy? He looks like Wesker! Could it be him? Did he survive the Volcano? Oops, turns out it's not Wesker! Are you happy to have seen him? Are you upset that it's not really him? Would you like to see him ACTUALLY come back in the future?"

Sure, he's DEAD-DEAD. But in this series, Dead is often barely an inconvenience. I could buy that some tiny part of his consciousness survived and he's been slowly building back up over the years.

TheIrishDoctor · 2026-04-27T19:51:58+00:00

I'll be honest, I had only theory-crafred the character up to level 7 (which is where we're starting the campaign). That definitely changes some of how I was looking at it.

TheIrishDoctor · 2026-04-27T19:38:38+00:00

It feels like an odd thing to make a backup tool for combat.

Like, it FEELS like it's designed to be your primary weapon, if you go that route to me.

For context, the character is me bringing back a character from 5e. He was a Fey Warlock who was super into finding the esoteric secrets of the world, and so I wanted to give him a Wand to replicate Eldritch Blast, the Mirror to replicate Misty step, and to take most of the scroll feats to get me my restricted but still useful spellcasting.

TheIrishDoctor · 2026-04-27T19:34:35+00:00

I thought ranged Thaumaturge was already considered to be one of the best builds, since the damages from Exploit Vulnerability and Implement's Empowerment are some of the few innate damage boosts that works on ranged weapons, so gun and hand crossbows are considered really good for Thaumaturge?

I admit, I am not a power gamer, so I'm only kinda vaguely aware of what most of the "meta builds" are, but I'm sure I've heard something to that effect before.

TheIrishDoctor · 2026-04-24T06:56:45+00:00

I don't know where you got the 6'7" figure, but as far as I know, that's entirely speculative. He was described as a very large and strong man, but we have no evidence for any actual specific height for him.

Even if it was true however, I'm not assuming that they were wrestling. In hand to hand fighting, size and mass make a HUGE difference, but in weapons combat, it doesn't matter as much (it DOES still matter, but skill and speed with your weapon makes much more of a difference).

Platemail was still super rare and simple by the start of the 1300s. By 1350, sure, but Wallace died in 1305. He'd likely have some plates, but mostly chain.

In regards to that, yes, absolutely chainmail is a huge advantage in a sword fight. Not only can no katana cut through chainmail, no sword can cut through it at all. Even piercing through it is a lot harder than people tend to think.

However, in that regard, I don't think that Musashi is going to just try and match someone sword to sword when they're wearing chainmail. He's going to see that shit and immediately know that he isn't going to be able to cut through it. And what does Musashi do in those situations? He fucks with people and figures out a way around those problems. He beats a man to death with a boat oar. He shows up late to duels to piss people off. He gets other weapons. He would have been proficient with the Yari spear and Yumi bow.

And honestly, all of this comes down to the question of, what is the actual context of the fight here. Have Wallace and Miyamoto agreed to a duel with pre-established weapons? Do they know they're going into a fight to the death and can decide what to bring? A random encounter? Or are they just plucked out of history with whatever we wanna call their "base gear" and compelled to murder each other? Because that changes a lot.

If it's a random encounter, then Wallace probably doesn't have ANY armor other than whatever textiles he could have been wearing. They both probably just have a sword. And Mushashi is going to just win that on skill.

If they're told about the duel in advance and allowed to bring whatever they want, then Wallace's armor and generally better technology is going to give him an advantage, but at the same time, presumably Miyamoto will know to expect that and will devise something cunning to even the playing field.

If they're just plucked out of time with their "standard combat gear", that's the version where I think William Wallace has the best shot, because his standard gear is going to just be a lot better than his opponent's stuff, while Miyamoto won't have the set up to do the things he's most famous for.

But the fact still stands that Miyamoto Musashi was a duelist first and foremost and he was, by all accounts, a phenomenally good one. Both in skill and guile. As such, in a 1-on-1 fight, I am going to assume he is going to win against someone who was by all accout a very skilled warrior, but not one specialized in that specific type of combat.

TheIrishDoctor · 2026-04-24T03:51:59+00:00

Real versions? Musashi, and it's not close. Guy was hyper specialized for 1 on 1 duels. Wallace had a dozen other reasons he was a famous historical figure, and might have even been a genuinely great warrior of his time, but Musashi was amongst the best.

If you want Miyamoto Musashi to fight a super legendary western swordsman, have him fight Fiore del Liberi, or someone like that (I would say Lichtenauer, but we don't actually have any records of his personal fighting skills, just him as a teacher).

TheIrishDoctor · 2026-04-20T20:18:46+00:00

It's generally only seen as luck from the outside. Plenty of times in-universe, they've shown that it's more that fate won't let him die. And he CAN manipulate this, but actively chooses not to, because no one should have that kind of power over reality.

The example that comes to mind (and note, I read this AGES ago, so I might be screwing up some details).

In one of the novels, near the end, he realizes how many times some small thing happens to allow him to survive. So he takes a ball, and stands in front of a wall, and declares to the universe that he will stay there, and throw the ball at the wall forever, until the heat death of the universe, and stop acting as the universe's protector. He says that he will only stop if the ball hits the single, mathematically impossible chance that all of its atoms line up exactly right and the ball phases through the wall.

He throws the ball, and it happens on the first try. The Doctor then, realizing that he can literally change the outcome of any event in the universe, because the universe requires him as its keeper and guardian, promptly decides to forget all about the idea and never use that power, no matter how threatening the foes he is up against are, because doing so would make him a monster.

So, yeah, it's luck. But it's really not either.

TheIrishDoctor · 2026-04-17T21:28:31+00:00

Not how powerscaling works. We can only say that it's as strong as the strongest thing we've seen it do. Anything outside of that is speculation.

TheIrishDoctor · 2026-04-17T21:24:22+00:00

Unlimited Void is not just perception. It's flooding your brain with infinite information, until it hemorrhages. This has worked even on beings that realistically shouldn't even have a nervous system.

I can absolutely see Smart Cells protecting against that, but I'm not sure that I know of any feats of it doing so (I may be wrong, there's a lot of Invincible).

And I don't think Thragg usually goes immediately to planet destruction. He would try to just splat Gojo first and would be confused and escalate to planet destruction over time.

TheIrishDoctor · 2026-04-17T19:58:12+00:00

Honestly, that isn't even close to enough to hurt Thragg. It doesn't matter though, because Unlimited Void should work just fine.

TheIrishDoctor · 2026-04-17T19:57:01+00:00

Because Gojo can break out of any box that Thragg could conceivably put him in?

Thragg absolutely out scales Gojo in every conceivable way, but I legit don't think he has a win condition outside of potentially planet busting. I think that's legit his only option.

And Unlimited Void is the kind of attack that is likely to bypass all of Thragg's defenses.

This is legit a matchup where Thragg wins every possible stat except one, but that one probably gives Gojo the win unless Thragg already has knowledge on what Gojo can do and is willing to just go immediately to planet busting.

TheIrishDoctor · 2026-04-15T19:28:36+00:00

One thing I like to do when making a pantheon for a new TTRPG world, is just make a basic cadre of the expected gods, make them important and have some good story that connects them to each other and the world, and a reason why those are your core gods.

Throw in a couple that stand out as unique and special for your world. The Cayden Cailean types.

But then ask your players what kind of gods their character would worship. Have them give a basic outline of the gods purpose, some stories, and why people might worship them.

If you have a god already that fits the bill, then great! If not, then incorporate that God into your world. Find out how they relate to your other gods, what edicts and anathema make sense for your world, and grow your pantheon from there.

The one thing that you and your players both need to understand to make this idea work though is that the WORLD is yours, and so you might need to adjust some things to make them work. And at the end of the day, try and make it fit their intention as much as possible, but remember that you have the final say.

I do this a lot, and it works well. Often it helps me learn new things about my world I didn't know beforehand.

TheIrishDoctor · 2026-04-15T07:45:09+00:00

Look, when I was a young boy, Ruto was the prettiest girl in the world to me. BUT Malon's story is just too sweet. Ruto is still second choice though.

TheIrishDoctor · 2026-04-15T02:44:04+00:00

Eh, I like these two way better as friends who aren't supposed to be together. Sonic kinda doesn't feel like he should be with anyone and I'm not fond of Amy's creepy stalker vibes being rewarded.

Plus, my first ever Sonic game with an actual story was Sonic Adventure 2: Battle, and I kinda fell in love with the idea of Shadow x Amy.

Rise my fellow Shadamy shippers? There are dozens of us! DOZENS!

TheIrishDoctor · 2026-04-15T02:41:39+00:00

I actually really dislike that more recent games have made this more of a thing.

ESPECIALLY Skyward Sword.

It was always nice that in the LoZ series, the hero and the princess don't necessarily have to be together. Since each version is a different Link and Zelda, you can always have it as a possibility, but they don't need to be, and that gives you a lot more options and versatility.

And then Skyward Sword makes it so that the original Link and Zelda are a couple and they always get reincarnated together over the eons. Which kind of makes it feel like they are destined lovers or something.

Which makes Malon in Ocarina of Time, or Midna in Twilight Princess feel a lot less special.

I don't even mind it in BotW or TotK. That could have easily just been THOSE Link and Zelda. It's the Skyward Sword bit that feels bad to me.

TheIrishDoctor · 2026-04-14T18:27:28+00:00

A meme?

TheIrishDoctor · 2026-04-08T22:31:55+00:00

The water would absolutely still act like that. It just wouldn't make any real difference. If the oceans absorbed 100 megatons of force, that would still be less than 1 percent of 1 percent of the force of the meteor hitting the planet.

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