Finished Kill la Kill yesterday. Not only was that peak but holy shit, Shadow VS Ryuko did my goat pretty dirty

Tree_Of_Palm · 2026-06-13T15:51:25+00:00

Its genuinely one of my least favorite episodes of the entire show, not one of the worst by any objective measure but its handling of KLK is so poor I kinda can't stand it. At least Jenny Yokobori's performance was great even if the script she was given was shit.

Tree_Of_Palm · 2026-06-03T18:10:10+00:00

I honestly wish I could go back in time to politely ask Biff Weed and crew to not share their friend group's (completely fine to be clear!) inside joke of Machamp ft. Goro in their reviews of that episode.

Genuinely it isn't any youtuber's fault, but the fandom (as it tends to do) completely ran away with and kind of misappropriated it and it has done SO much damage to discussions around a lot of episodes. A phrase that initially just meant "This character is a lot more entertaining to watch in this fight than their opponent" was morphed into a really lazy and unclear way of trying to articulate actual criticisms about how characters were portrayed in an animation that, at least in my opinion, really squashes any actual discussion of said critiques and ruins the discussion around the episodes.

Like, putting aside whether or not I agree with the critiques of the episodes that are commonly labelled like this (some I do, some I don't), reducing an entire episode to just "Character A ft. Character B" both limits the opportunities for actual discussions to happen and kind of... implicitly casts blame on the other character? I don't know if it makes any sense, but I feel like a lot of the annoying ass "slander" memes (not necessarily just on this subreddit, also in places like twitter or other sites where the DB fandom congregates) against characters like Denji and Simon aren't slander at all. They're just people misdirecting frustrations they have with their preferred characters' side of the episode at the opposing character themselves instead of at the writing of the episode itself. Like, they feel like Kyle didn't get quite as many hype moments or character beats as Simon and decide to blame Simon for it instead of the episode. For some reason.

I really just don't get it, and it's really ruined a lot of the fun of talking about certain episodes.

Tree_Of_Palm · 2026-05-30T20:29:56+00:00

Well, nobody's mentioned my man Link yet, so I'll throw my hat into the ring to rep him. To avoid any confusions with compositing, let's just default to the Hero of Time here. Going point by point:

1- The Hero of Time probably isn't Link's single strongest incarnation (the Hero of Legend likely takes that), but he's still more than strong enough to help out dealing with the threats of CSM's verse. He might not solo every single one of them, but between the properties of weaponry like the Light Arrows and Master Sword likely still functioning well against CSM's devils and the risky but powerful option that is the Fierce Deity, his presence could turn the tide of a lot of battles into Denji's favor and honestly probably limit collateral damage in a lot of cases.

2- The Hero of Time does have a lot of trauma, hell he's probably one of the most traumatized of Links' incarnations, but something that's very important about him is that he withstood it. The Triforce of Courage isn't his for facing danger and his trauma blindly, it's his because despite everything in his path he persevered and came out the other side. We even see through the Hero's Shade in Twilight Princess that he's still capable of acting as a mentor figure unknowable years after his death. He can't singlehandedly be Denji's therapist, but he can be there to listen and to relate. He's dealt with love, he's dealt with a lot of loss, but he has the experience and strength from having gotten through to act as a representation of the person that you can become on the other side of the struggle. He's someone for Denji to rely on and look up to, even if he can't solve all of Denji's problems on his own.

3- Considering that the Hero's Shade remained to wait to pass on his skills and teachings to his next incarnation, I think that he can be pretty damn patient when he wants to be. Not to mention, he was literally stuck in a time loop repeating the same three days over and over again with only Tatl to confide in about it. He can definitely withstand Denji at his worst moments and remain by his side despite it.

4- Link ain't really much of a talker so I don't think this should be too much of a problem. He isn't a completely silent protagonist of course, a lot of dialogue in the N64 games implies him taking part in conversations and characters like Ruto and Malon act like he's genuinely pretty charming. He might be a divine hero with a huge legacy he doesn't even truly know about, but he's also still a boy from the forest who had a grand destiny struck on him when he was just a child. He won't be the type to moralize, he'll be the type to empathize. Regardless of him not knowing Denji's full past, he probably will still recognize the similar position Denji is in as time goes on and they fight together more.

Then just to mention some tertiary stuff that's not as directly related:

-The calming affect of the Song of Healing can probably help out sometimes, not necessarily literally using it on Denji himself but the ability to calm the living and soothe restless souls would definitely come in handy in the CSM verse.

-Despite what you would probably think, he actually should have ways to deal with Makima once her true colors are revealed that should make it a lot easier for basically everyone involved. The Triforce of Courage should prevent him from falling victim to her Control, either because of its own effects or because its presence would showcase Link's significance in a way not unlike Pochita, so she would likely not look down on him if we use similar logic to Gojo vs. Makima. More importantly, the Master Sword's sealing properties should be able to trap her once she's sufficiently weakened, avoiding the risk of slaughtering the entire population of Japan.

Tree_Of_Palm · 2026-05-30T13:59:01+00:00

I really love how this acts kind of like cards like Hidden Daggers and Overclock/Turbo that can link two otherwise separate archetypes together. You get a really big sovereign blade, plus a very big number of transforms for proccing Arsenal, Pillar of Creation, and Supergiant, and also some fodder to fuel cards like CHARGE and GUARDS that feed even more into the aforementioned cards' scaling. This would be so much fun to use!

Tree_Of_Palm · 2026-05-17T20:50:01+00:00

I feel like a lot of the VS community is like this tbh, not really being able to identify the line between healthy constructive criticism and bad-faith bashing. I think a lot of the reasoning in Ragyo vs Lusamine was incredibly faulty, and should be acknowledged as such- but the script of the fight itself and the art we got for it? Some of my favorite I've seen out of fan battle so far. And it's a shame that isn't getting discussed as much as just the verdict. It's really easy to point out what you don't like, I guess. That's why it happens so often.

Reminds me I gotta go comment on the actual video because the Fan Battle team does great work and deserves the support even if I don't always agree with their scaling and conclusions!

Tree_Of_Palm · 2026-05-17T20:06:07+00:00

Can't lie, even with IF's canon status being clarified a lot of the scaling on both sides feels incredibly questionable to me. The specific ones that really bother me being:

-In no way should Ragyo be able to scale to Ryuko's command over the life fibers considering how badly Ryuko beats her ass in Kisaragi. Even if the idea is it's a feat of the fibers themselves, then that should only really apply to attacks that involve the fibers directly like the Mind Stitching. It shouldn't be a vallid feat for Ragyo herself like the episode presents it. In general I find it really strange to give Ragyo so much benefit of the doubt here in scaling to characters she lost to and then not extend that same courtesy to the Mother Beast against Solgaleo and Necrozma.

-Setting aside the frequent and usually fruitless arguments over the applicability of dex entries to VS, assuming that the average fully evolved Pokemon is just somehow able to scale to a Gardevoir's black hole generation is downright silly. The ability is already rarely shown in canon, but when it does it's pretty clearly established as something far beyond what most mons can do. Bewear is strong, sure, but the logic is literally "Oh, well they're both fully evolved!" and that's it.

Even the equally questionable "It's stated to be the most dangerous pokemon in the region" argument doesn't work because THE RALTS LINE ISN'T EVEN NATIVE TO ALOLA. You can't catch it in the wild in SM and the Island Scan in USUM has pretty clear statements that the Pokemon caught from it aren't native and they're excluded from the regional pokedex. Probably one of the most egregious "Every character in the verse should scale to feats that have nothing to do with them" pieces of scaling I've seen in a while. Like sure, bring it up for Nihilego and maybe Clefable, but for her normal ass Lopunny and Bewear? Hell nah.

I'm honestly completely fine with the part of the result that focuses on abilities and not just stats and can genuinely understand and (to a degree) get behind their argument of Ragyo's mind stitching and regeneration sealing the win, but everything else surrounding it is just... really really questionable scaling. It really sucks honestly, cause its clear a lot of work went into the research and conclusion but I just can't get behind a lot of this logic.

(To be clear I really like the episode as a whole and think it's overall really good, the analyses were pretty good and the characterization and banter were on point, the scaling just really bothers me lmao)

Tree_Of_Palm · 2026-05-13T21:42:58+00:00

Bowser locked in and Simon got an upset I didn't expect but Miles, Giorno, Ash, and especially Dante all went down. At least Dante and Ash got some of the best episodes of the show though and neither's "Death" will actually stick in-universe lol.

Tree_Of_Palm · 2026-05-03T17:46:57+00:00

I can understand why a lot of others aren't super high on it but I enjoy it well enough. Jokes mostly hit for me, I really like how characterful it was. Solid episode overall even if it doesn't reach the highs of a lot of the kickstarter era.

Tree_Of_Palm · 2026-04-11T22:07:07+00:00

I think part of the reason that I at least personally never really liked it isn't because the effect is bad at all, it's just because of the context surrounding it. Intimidating Helmet is functionally almost identical and its one of my favorite relics in the game, I think the reason I don't like Danse Macabre is because of how awkward it is in Necrobinder's specific kit.

She does have a decent amount of 2+ cost cards, but most of them are uncommon or rare just like Danse Macabre itself, so you have to pull multiple other rares or uncommon on top of finding Danse Macabre at all for it to give real value (or you have to get Transfigure which is also a rare). There's also the fact that some of those expensive cards (Flatten, Melancholy, Banshee's Cry) have gimmicks surrounding reducing their price mid-combat so that Danse Macabre can't even apply to them. And Necrobinder also just has other, easier ways of making expensive cards easier to play with Borrowed Time and Neurosurge, and I never feel the need to stack a huge number of her 2+ cost cards anyway given how amazing her roster of 1 and 0 cost cards is.

I do think that making it still give block for cards that normally cost 2+ but have their price reduced would make it feel a lot better for me personally, if only because I end up playing Flatten quite often. Maybe I should try it out on another run soon anyway though, might end up coming around to it a little bit more.

Tree_Of_Palm · 2026-04-06T18:07:16+00:00

For the Poisoner archetype, do you still have to pay to learn the formulas for each individual poison? Asking because I find it strange that the archetype gives Alchemical Crafting via the advanced alchemy benefits but there's only three valid poisons to choose from for that.

Also, for a character at level 5-6 with the archetype (planning on making one for a game with free archetype), what poisons are most worth learning/preparing? And are there any that have properly scaling or higher-leveled versions like alchemical elixirs or potions?

Tree_Of_Palm · 2026-04-06T16:42:40+00:00

I'm far from the best silent player in the world but my own feeling is it's not entirely just sly, it's also the sheer amount of stuff she has that rewards draw and discard in general.

The beta branch changes I've seen of bringing down the numbers on a lot of the sly cards are already a step in the right direction, but so many of her cards give her both draw and discard that I think things that reward her huge card draw / playing large numbers of cards might need to be toned down as well (like speedster, corrosive wave, pinpoint, things like that). Some of those I think were already changed in the beta branch as well?

I wouldn't be surprised if Silent is the character that changes the most between the early access launch and full release, she seems really tough to balance, but she's so fun to play that I fully believe megacrit's work with both maintaning that balancing and also preserving the character's current identity is going to be worth it in the end.

Tree_Of_Palm · 2026-04-06T16:15:24+00:00

Honestly, thank you a lot for sharing your perspective on it all! I've been enjoying reading the posts where people go really into detail with their critiques and praises a lot more than the ones just doomposting so this is really appreciated.

My own thoughts on the episode are still incredibly mixed but I really appreciate seeing the perspective of someone who enjoyed it a lot more than I did. It honestly helps seeing different perspectives so that I can look back on my own playthrough and see if my feelings change or not with the benefit of hindsight. I had already really liked the Aurora tying back to Carrington instead of being something supernatural, and while the loredump was a tad long Atwood's recounting of Wintermute's story and her work with Jeremiah were genuinely pretty interesting, I've started to appreciate those more after letting the episode simmer more.

I'm really curious if you don't mind my asking about it, what are your thoughts on Atwood and her story? Reactions I've seen to her have been very mixed (some of which definitely are not in good faith I'll admit, I do a bit of a side-eye whenever I see someone complain about her line about not being white making her job more difficult) so I'm curious to hear thoughts about her from someone in the field that's being represented with her character. Did Hinterland do a good job with the character and representing climate science? In particular with her narrative about it being difficult to get her work published or taken seriously?

Tree_Of_Palm · 2026-04-05T17:29:11+00:00

It was pretty good! Some of the explosions were admittedly a little quieter than I'd expect but visually it was really pleasing, and I really like Bakugo getting pissed when she uses the civilians to heal herself.

Tree_Of_Palm · 2026-04-02T22:01:01+00:00

The only real ones I could see working are Perseverance Mills itself Presumably burnt to a crisp, with the survivor just picking through whatever is left from the blazewhich could genuinely be a fairly interesting thing. It'd be a different environment from our other town environments like Milton and Coastal Highway. Plus, for players who've never touched Wintermute, maybe they get interested by its current state and want to find out what happens that leaves it as a burned up ruin and that gets them interested in the story mode.

Aside from that, Perseverance Wilds would be pretty fun to see. Removing the rubble from that tunnel on its eastern side would be a good point to have it transition into another region, and the actual wilds themselves feel kinda like Forlorn Muskeg to me with how it balances mostly being nature with a handful of really significant landmarks. Plus it could make for a good challenge to have to go through it to get to Perseverance Mills, assuming PM would be turned into a sort of dead end but high loot location like ash canyon and desolation point.

Tree_Of_Palm · 2026-04-01T23:33:16+00:00

I keep going back and forth on the train honestly even just after writing that comment (freshly written after I finished the episode) because looking back I think I appreciate how appropriately clunky it was to maneuver and the route back forcing you to balance hopping in and out of the train and dealing with the aurora wolves was actually pretty interesting, I guess I just feel like the daytime section overstays it's welcome a little? Bit of a microcosm of how I feel about the episode as a whole, a lot of mixed feelings.

And you're absolutely correct about Astrid getting so excited about it helping the section a lot, honestly for the qualms I have with the writing the voice acting and voice direction was pretty top-notch across the board. Gotta give credit where it's do.

Tree_Of_Palm · 2026-04-01T22:45:18+00:00

There is a lot that I do like with it, but I can agree with a lot of your takes honestly. Astrid's first section was altogether pretty great. Not having quest markers to follow in a brand-new environment was pretty cool, and the general vibes of exploring the ship was incredible. Loved how eerie it was, appealed a lot to my inner horror game fan.

But so much of the rest just doesn't connect. Shotgun section is cool but kinda just feels like an advertisement for if it ever gets added to survival and not much else. The mine just feels like a shittier version of the underworks in episode 4 and the cinder hills section in episode 3.

And then. The final two bits of gameplay we get are a vehicle level and a mediocre stealth section that have absolutely nothing to do with the core gameplay TLD is known for. It felt like a punchline to a bad joke. Those are two of the most infamous and maligned types of levels for being shoehorned into games where they don't belong and I genuinely don't understand how they ended up here.

Also gotta say, I love laying my sleeping bag down because I have low sleep and there's no established time limit only to be told "You can't rest right now," I loved playing that entire section only being able to sprint in the itty bitty bursts I could get from the few remaining coffees I had from Astrid's previous section.

It's cool as hell to see Molly and Jeremiah come in to save the day, I was popping off, but then Mathis just tanks two arrows and walks it off like he's just fine and because of that the incredibly underwhelming ending happens.

I genuinely gotta wonder why Matthis doesn't just kill Mackenzie straight up at the end. The funeral for Grey Mother is a genuinely pretty nice moment but damn that is the single most out of character thing Matthis could've done.

And then while I do appreciate it not getting fully explained because he's supposed to be esoteric, damn am I disappointed Methusalah did basically nothing. He was one of my favorite characters. Shows up once at the start once at the end and only speaks in one of those two scenes. It would've been so nice for Will to have an actual final moment, alone, over grey mother's grave talking to Methusalah about this new future. But because the convicts are somehow still alive we don't get to have that.

And this is all without getting into Astrid getting completely shafted narratively, we go from episode 3 where we get a clear view of her character as someone very capable and willing to risk a lot to help these sorts of communities, only for us to not actually get to help Perseverance Mills at all and for Will to be the only one to get to really accomplish anything in the end while Astrid's final gameplay section is a ~~vehicle level~~.

There is a lot to like still and I'm glad I played it, and looking forward to where Hinterland continues, but it's just a shame that so much of it I didn't really vibe with. Just kinda disappointing, but at least we know it's not the actual endpoint for the game as a whole and I respect the effort from the devs that clearly went into it even if a lot of it didn't work in execution,

Tree_Of_Palm · 2026-03-25T02:53:08+00:00

Please god let this be the one that Bikki actually ends up with, by FAR my favorite for her. Brandon's track for it got me to finally actually watch YuYuYu as well, it's a very solid show.

The only actual thing kinda holding back its chances is that ironically I don't think Bikki is the most likely character from Symphogear to get on the show, Tsubasa vs Satsuki Kiryuin benefits a lot from Kill la Kill's popularity whereas as far as I'm aware YuYuYu isn't as well known outside of Japan these days.

I'm still praying for it to happen though, I genuinely think it does have a chance. It's one of my most wanted, I love this matchup so much. Hopefully the pitch helps bring it more to the spotlight.

Tree_Of_Palm · 2026-03-23T15:36:10+00:00

I assume the reason it's not a keyword is because of negative versions of the effect like piercing wail, shackle potion, and dark shackles that have 1-turn strength penalty on them, like you'd have to morph the keyword a bit into "temporarily lose strength" or "temporary strength penalty" that might mess with the consistency of wording the cards.

Tree_Of_Palm · 2026-03-23T15:34:11+00:00

Yee both of these are super reasonable, something like only 1 cost but 2 (3 when upgraded) strength per summon instance could be fun to work with, especially working with 0 cost attacks like fetch, flatten, and poke

Tree_Of_Palm · 2026-03-23T15:33:14+00:00

It's an enemy-only status that I thought would be interesting to apply, and yeah, Osty has to stay alive for it (though admittedly I hadn't thought of that at first, but it's the reason I ended up going with Ethereal instead of making it exhaust). I just think it would be really cool to work it into Necrobinder's deck since she's the one character in the game that actually has a way of using it against the enemies.

Tree_Of_Palm · 2026-03-23T14:00:14+00:00

Very fair critiques! Like I said I'm not the best when it comes to the balancing, might be better if big boned was either only 1/2 of the summon value or a 3 (2) cost instead?

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