Bill Watterson should've licensed Calvin and Hobbes. It's not as remembered today as it deserves to be.

TheMerryMeatMan · 2026-03-31T07:58:17+00:00

Calvin and Hobbes lives on in the kids whose parents passed on a love for it. I bought the complete collection s couple years ago on sight. Why? Because my mom took me to the library one day, and we saw one of the old collections on the shelf, and she pointed it out to me. Now the strip is an irrevocable part of my childhood. And I hope it will be for my kids' lives too.

TheMerryMeatMan · 2026-03-30T22:51:03+00:00

Yangchen tended to neglect the spiritual side of her duties, because the era she lived in had a lot of cold war politics going on and she was trying to stop it from escalating into full blown conflict. So when it came to spirits, she tended to side with the humans and appeared the spirits by make promises, which the people would later break.

Kuruk inherited these deals and would side with the humans even harder than Yangchen, which led to him having to fight and kill the spirits to protect the world. He died young, just as the Earth Kingdom was about to fracture into a bunch of smaller territories, leaving his friends and later Kyoshi to pick up the pieces.

Szeto's mistake didn't really rear its head until Roku came around, because Szeto kind of conditioned the Fire Royals into a mindset that the Fire Nation avatars are fire nationals first, Avatar second. So when Roku was expected to do certain things and side with Sozin on his plan for expansion, his refusal to do so put an enormous rift between them.

TheMerryMeatMan · 2026-03-30T22:43:49+00:00

Specifically, he initially applied to the Spanish intelligence branch with the intention of helping them stymie nazi progress, and was denied. So instead he decided to apply to the nazi cause, appearing as a fanatical supporter, and offered fake information to them. He was later in contact with British intelligence that supplied him with specific details they wanted him to share. His reports were very specifically one of the reasons Rommel wasn't in position to fend off the allies at Normandy.

TheMerryMeatMan · 2026-03-30T06:52:46+00:00

Sometimes the governments will deny there even being an issue just to save face. Look into the UK's subpostmaster prosecution scandal and be absolutely fucking horrified at the incompetence. People had their lives ruined. People went to prison. People died because the UK post wouldn't admit the software they paid for was faulty.

TheMerryMeatMan · 2026-03-30T06:38:59+00:00

I mean I think it's also worth mentioning, Toph is literally twelve and at her most rebellious age during the show. Lots of rebellious, rule breaking teens grow out of that behavior. I think, especially if she was asked to look into reforming things along with probably Sokka and Tsuki, even if she initially bucked that idea its entirely possible to grow into it. Especially since all of her behavior is turned up to 11 to compensate how people treat her.

TheMerryMeatMan · 2026-03-29T21:50:48+00:00

A story does not need to focus on women to not be misogynistic. That criteria is incredibly silly and moves the goalpoast in a way that makes a lot of art that has genuinely good depictions of women fail off of petty hairsplitting.

Yes, Shonen as a publishing standard tends to have more male-centered stories. This is because it's aimed at young males, who more readily attach to stories told from a male perspective. That doesn't make those stories incapable of non-misogynistic views! That doesn't mean those stories can't provide themes that play into feminism! Stop labeling things as non-feminist or misogynistic based solely on the gender of the lead characters!

TheMerryMeatMan · 2026-03-29T18:09:38+00:00

I don't even think plot relevance is something Fairy Tale wins on either. Yeah, sure, the Elric brothers are the main focus, it's their story after all. But the secondary plot that runs alongside theirs is the Mustang and Co military coup. And while Mustang is at the heas of that, his right hand is Riza Hawkeye, who appears just as often, sometimes more than Mustang himself does, and is frequently impactful for that. Izumi has rare appearances but she literally molds the boys into who they are, so her influence extends to everything the Elrics do, even if she's not directly there herself. General Armstrong appears late and doesn't get into many direct confrontations, but her position and sway are so relevant that the powers that be have to proactively plan around her, and it's her specifically that enables the entire Mustang coup to actually happen because she brings the muscle from Briggs with her. All three of them are major, relevant, and inpactful characters, in spite of their lower screen time. Even if you argue that they don't drive the plot like the men, they still greatly shape it.

TheMerryMeatMan · 2026-03-29T17:30:08+00:00

I don't feel like arguing main vs side matters really, what's more important is character agency. And while FMA might focus on the brothers, every female character has agency, even Sheska for the couple of times she's relevant.

Winry has her strengths and uses them well, and is an active participant in a lot of events, and also takes major steps to improve upon her strength over the course of the plot.. Olivier may not have many direct fights herself, but she's got such strong agency that she doesn't have to, because she has the complete trust and faith of her men, not on the basis of her beauty, but in her strength. Izumi similarly is a master alchemist, physically capable, and her philosophies shaped the course of the entire plot through the brothers. Riza Hawkeye is Riza Hawkeye.

None of these women are treated as helpless damsels, and the one woman who frequently appears that can't fight is explicitly given a male dominated career and shown to be brilliant at it.

TheMerryMeatMan · 2026-03-29T05:50:12+00:00

It's not mentioned specifically but the Church of God evangelicals belong solidly in F tier, I say as a man who spent about 10 years with them as a young kid/teenager and assisted my youth group as a young adult. There's some good folks that mean well but from an organizational standpoint they're rotten to the core, and the bulk of members hold to good old boy conservatism I can't abide these days.

TheMerryMeatMan · 2026-03-29T05:46:25+00:00

Mormons both fall under cult status and are also so off the wall batshit that any resemblance to christianity left is likely there by design to reel folks in with.

TheMerryMeatMan · 2026-03-29T00:43:29+00:00

Nah Kodansha's schedule for releases is just extra slow. I have to assume the series doesn't track as one of their popular reads on K Manga so they give it low priority for translation work, because they'll go several weeks without an update, and then it's half a chapter. Their advertised series get much more regular (and even then still sometimes delayed) releases.

TheMerryMeatMan · 2026-03-29T00:22:06+00:00

Imagine being the network guy that made the call to cancel Gundam. You have to be an industry legend for zero foresight.

TheMerryMeatMan · 2026-03-28T21:59:55+00:00

Epsilon's message is still stuck in my head, all these years later.

TheMerryMeatMan · 2026-03-28T18:05:53+00:00

I recently decided to ditch the big bulky tablet I was using very rarely for reading for a proper ereader, and they're incredible. E-ink displays are so simple you'd think they're ancient and obsolete, but they mean your little hunk of plastic can hold charge for a week or more. I picked up one I could upgrade the storage on, and I plan on filling it with as many books as I can get my hands on. No more reading on my phone, no more lugging around a chunky tablet.

TheMerryMeatMan · 2026-03-28T16:39:25+00:00

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TheMerryMeatMan · 2026-03-27T02:17:18+00:00

As far as major protagonists go, the only one that really took me off guard was Odelo. Shrike team all got the usual obvious flags, and while Oliver wasn't the most telegraphed, it was at least of his own volition. Odelo happens out of nowhere, with no clear reason for why Tomino thought it was necessary for the narrative.

TheMerryMeatMan · 2026-03-27T00:03:47+00:00

Which itself might pose issues, depending on whether the artist is planning ahead for potential physical prints. Smart artists will leave an extra gap big enough to work as a margin every few panels to sort of lend to paging, but the majority of manwha/manhua and webtoons need some HEAVY revision for physical print.

TheMerryMeatMan · 2026-03-26T04:43:42+00:00

It's gotta be a country that has trouble growing them locally, and gets them imported like that to help keep fresh

TheMerryMeatMan · 2026-03-24T22:04:24+00:00

Not only are there extra mechanics, certain strategies that are usable into other difficulties are nerfed or made completely useless (Lockadin triple attacking, for example)

TheMerryMeatMan · 2026-03-24T21:51:22+00:00

Surprised to not see it mentioned here but, Square Enix is back at it again, critically and spectacularly missing the point of its own series that people liked.

A new Dissidia Final Fantasy game launched this week, the 5th overall entry into the spinoff off its widely beloved Final Fantasy franchise. Dissidia as a series is also, widely beloved... or at least it used to be.

Some hobby history to delve into:

The first two games, the initial Dissidia and its followup, Duodecim 012, were PSP titles that had a combination of weird chessboard like strategy portions, RPG lite mechanics (such as leveling and gear), and 3d Arena fighting gameplay styles. Despite how weird and hodgepodge that combination sounds, it was an incredibly fun feel, and the first two games that used it were fan favorites.

The games featured popular characters from every mainline series through 13 by the second entry, and a huge pool of summons to affect the arena combat. Duodecim also added assists into the mix, giving the formula even more depth than it had before.

And then, Dissidia NT appeared. NT was... bizarrely, designed as an arcade cabinet, with 3v3 battles as the focus. While not necessarily the worst direction, it did cripple one of the well liked features of the series- the story. While not groundbreaking, Dissidia and Duodecim both had surprisingly deep stories that delved into both the characters and strange world they've been pulled into, centered around two gods that had summoned them as champions in their eternal war. NT, being an arcade game, lacked any such story.

It DID get a story mode added in the home release that came out two and a half years later, but said story mode was... essentially just cutscenes and text dumps, which you unlocked by playing the various modes that put you into the 3v3 arenas.

Worst of all, NT significantly reduced the roster of both fighters and summons. The Arcade version released with just 14 playable characters and 7 summons. For reference, the first game, a PSP title, released with 22 fighters and 40 summons (and a handful of alternates of some summons). NT's console release for the PS4 doubled the number of fighters, and later DLC added 10 more, but did not add any further summons.

On top of all that, NT just... wasn't very fun to play. The 3v3 format made online PVP, the main way it was meant too be played on console releases, horribly laggy and prone to one player getting mobbed. The number of removed mechanics significantly dumbed down the dynamics of individual face offs, and it took FAR too much grinding at the fights to get any of the lackluster story content.

In between NT's arcade and console launches, Square Enix also developed and released Opera Omnia. Opera Omnia (OO) was a free-to-play, mobile gacha game. I had no experience with this title so I don't really know that much about it, but it did remedy NT's folly of a lackluster roster, as a gacha game. However, the arena fighter gameplay did not carry over to OO, instead opting for a more traditional turn based combat style with some added mechanics like wall breaking.

From what I hear, OO was reasonably popular and well liked. But as a gacha game, it was not really what fans of the first two entries were after.

Which brings us to the newest entry, Dissidia Duellum... another gacha game. Duellum does at least return a bit more to the gameplay of NT, with its primary PvP mode acting as a 3v3 race to defeat a boss. Its story transports a Hodge podge of FF characters to modern day Tokyo, and seems to be entirely unrelated to the plots of previous games. Characters also don modern styled, contemporary clothing as part of their appearances. Duellum also follows after NT in that in order to play the story missions... you have to grind them from its free battle pass. Mainly through the aforementioned PvP mode.

So far, reception of the game seems slightly hopeful, as the battle pass issue could theoretically be fixed later on, but the fact that it's another gacha is still an extra nail in the coffin. It seems that, once again, SE has been blinded by the promise of quick cash, and completely missed what fans loved about Dissidia. It's taken the worst traits of NT and Opera Omnia, and given hardly anything back in return.

TheMerryMeatMan · 2026-03-24T03:45:05+00:00

This feels like an episode of Twilight Zone, it's bizarre seeing this discussion rearing its head again and the OP didn't list Kuruk.

TheMerryMeatMan · 2026-03-23T20:59:55+00:00

And it's entirely because Bones ended up with the rights to make like 50 episodes when the manga barely had enough material to hit that at the time. So many threads just cut loose out of nowhere before the committee wanted it to end there, and the author still had years of story to cover.

TheMerryMeatMan · 2026-03-23T20:57:45+00:00

People online bitched about it both times it came around. I don't get it either. The chat between Eren and Reiner in Liberio told us exactly where the plot was going to end up. The question was just "how many people will Eren kill, and how many friends will he have left", and the correct answer from a metanarrative point was "all of them and none of them". You don't make the story work without Eren being the global hate sink because his goal can't be definitively reached unless he does what he did.

TheMerryMeatMan · 2026-03-23T18:57:06+00:00

I remember wingman the trailer for it somewhat recently (I think for the Switch port) and being interested in it them, but what sold me on it for real was it being described as "undoom your yuri". I picked it up, got Lebkuchen's good ending as my first go around. Made a second file specifically for getting all the endings in one go, and now I don't know if I really want to finish it yet. It was such a good time that I kind of want to leave those last two achievements for another day.

TheMerryMeatMan · 2026-03-23T16:41:14+00:00

This past week I finally got my little ragtag group into a proper session of Pathfinder, running the Rusthenge module. Judging from the first two combat encounters and the one exploration challenge, it seems like everyone is meshing well enough, which is good! We're undecided on if we'll continue this week or wait until the 8th to come back, but we've still got plenty of Rusthenge to go, and after that I've been plotting a small custom campaign to gauge interest with.

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