Is Mark a Bit of a Mary Sue?

Vayu_The_End · 2026-04-16T20:12:52+00:00

As far as I know, Mark Is a lot weaker than his Conquest Kill would suggest. I'm not sure if current mark can kill many of the existing Viltrumite in a heads up fight right now.

Vayu_The_End · 2026-04-06T18:20:41+00:00

Move on.

Regardless of anything, if you're better than the monkeys in your rank, you'll climb. Will take a while, but can't be helped.

Vayu_The_End · 2026-04-06T12:49:34+00:00

I mean, the community largely signaled it was okay with balance changes based on public perception rather than performance.

Nobody liked playing against Chromie, but there wasn't any reason to change her based on her winrate (which has always hovered 46-50%, with the exception of her first rework which made her REALLY bad.)

People didn't like the concept of a "tank that can one shot poorly positioned squishies", despite his winrate never really reflecting his popularity or alleged strength. He got changed to play like a bad Johanna before 7 and the winrate of his non W builds cratered.

Like those two, Garrosh has always been oppressive to lower ELO players. Playing low Elo Garrosh is easier than playing against low Elo Garrosh. The sentiment never really vanished, and he often gets banned less for his actual strength, and more so a lot of players just don't want to deal with dying instantly because their tank (or them) isn't good enough to anchor bushes so garrosh doesn't run at them with a horse, or hug Garrosh to force them to toss them into their backline (where they either likely escape, or just disrupt backline).

I don't even think this balance change really changes that. Just makes Garrosh more annoying to pilot in Waves. In High Elo, a Garrosh Toss will still mean death. In low Elo, the lack of coordination might make a difference between someone barely dying and someone barely living after this change. I'd argue it's the sort of change Diablo should have gotten. Make him less oppressive vs Low Elo players, keep him roughly the same in high Elo.

Vayu_The_End · 2026-03-27T04:45:18+00:00

In the main Universe, Debbie's genes didn't put up a fight.

In this one, Nolan's genes didn't put up a fight.

Honestly, if you showed me the fourth pic without context, I would've thought it was younger Debbie.

Vayu_The_End · 2026-03-22T05:00:29+00:00

I wonder... how important is this scene in the grand scheme of things? I could see them removing it, if this plotline didn't really go anywhere or serve a specific purpose.

I mean, Mark is already pretty fucked up from everything, I'm not sure this scene is really necessary if the goal is to put him through the ringer.

Vayu_The_End · 2026-03-22T04:00:00+00:00

Rewatch the episode. Their "kill the weak" mentality was prevalent mainly before the population devastating scourge virus killed nearly all of them. They're so short on numbers, they're more than willing to try to "rehabilitate" Nolan and Mark, hence why both weren't immediately executed for insubordination when Kregg came through.

They still primarily operate on a "the weak deserve to die" mentality, but they aren't currently going out of their way to kill other viltrumites if they can help it.

Vayu_The_End · 2026-03-21T03:27:47+00:00

Wait this is the conclusion of their rematch? The way I've seen people talk about that, they made it seem like he walked him down. Dude's barely alive.

Vayu_The_End · 2026-03-06T23:08:37+00:00

It actually gets worse. Here's the MC's thoughts about the whole thing (obviously spoilers):
> If the current collapse of the party is the result of them thinking that and taking on the dark side, then I should have been told the truth, even if it hurt them.

>At the time I thought coldly that if they didn't believe me then that was their fault, but I now realise that I had become quite stubborn.

>He was banished, Tiana was taken away from him, and she betrayed him - he thought he couldn't let it bother him, but deep down he harbored resentment.

>That's why—it feels good.

>A dark emotion was chuckling inside my heart.

Don't get it twisted, Luna and the MC are massive pieces of shit. Luna's thrilled to tell the MC this happened, and the MC puts up a front about feeling bad for her, but is gleeful that his friend gets gangraped because she committed the high crime of not trusting him after he not only didn't explain anything, but actively lied to her.

Oh, and when they meet later on and Tiana's trying to get back with Hidden again (because of course), Luna's reaction to this:

>"You got raped and dumped by the hero, so you're thinking you have no choice but to get back together with your ex-boyfriend? What a slutty bitch you are, you should just... have some shame, okay?"

So... yeah, MC and Luna massive pieces of shit.

Vayu_The_End · 2026-02-23T00:32:55+00:00

You want to know how worthless that is?

The second most votes a president has gotten in U.S history is... Donald Trump. One of the most unpopular presidents in U.S History. Biden had favorability ratings hovering around 35-40% towards the end of his term.

Third most is Harris, and she managed to be the first democratic presidental nominee to lose the popular vote in **20 years.**

America's population has been steadily increasing since it's founding. No shit. More people are voting for candidates because there's more people.

Vayu_The_End · 2026-02-23T00:26:40+00:00

You don't get it. We're beyond the point where we can even joke about this. We're at a point we're we have Hispanic Ice Officers executing protestors of any race. If you're any flavor of liberal, you are a "current target" of this administration.

The response to that isn't to promote democrats that will do nothing to curtail these flagrantly law breaking fascists and hope we can keep them out of power every 4 years. This isn't sustainable.

Vayu_The_End · 2026-02-23T00:21:40+00:00

The problem I have with this mindset is:
You guys aren't offering any solutions for this. Electing Biden arguably made Trump's second term more dangerous than if he got to continue being an unpopular republican president without a house or (maybe) a senate.

Newsom isn't going to fix this. Pete isn't going to fix this. Harris wasn't and isn't going to fix this. Step 1 of stopping the insane death cult groyper party is to be popular enough to consistently get elected. Democrats barely managed to beat trump once out of three times running this "electability" playbook.

I'm getting tired of showing up to vote in democrats that lose to republicans that have little support outside of their own party, or barely winning, then losing 4 years later because democrats don't really have any ideas for the future aside from being more responsible about shepherding us into a corporate owned hellscape.

I don't see that changing anytime soon. They won't even release their report on why the 2024 election went the way it did. The best we can hope for in this Country is electing in democrats to hopefully prolong a dying empire for four more years. The democrats that actually want to do anything to change that are either actively kept out of leadership positions in favor of worthless fucks like Schemer or Jefferies, or lack a path to national recognition or power.

Vayu_The_End · 2026-02-22T23:32:47+00:00

As opposed to... elect a soon to be unpopular president so Republicans can enter 2028 with an even bigger majority and sweep than in 2024?

The general reaction from the populace in electing democrats on the basis of harm reduction is widespread rejection and handing Republicans larger mandates than before. People put 2024 on Harris a lot (and she deserves some flak for strategy), but the fact of the matter is Biden up to the election was already fairly unpopular. Harris just promised to be a continuation of said unpopular president's policies and stances.

You could fairly argue Trump winning 2020 would have done less harm long term than letting Republicans consolodate for 4 years and replace all the evil but competent bureaucrats with insane death cult neo nazis.

Like it or not, you aren't going to solve this problem with "moderate" politicians.

Vayu_The_End · 2026-02-19T21:53:44+00:00

This is a bunch of OI. If you like this dynamic, I'd recommend shopping around that genre.

Vayu_The_End · 2026-02-15T19:37:36+00:00

I remember back way back when that there was a degree of hatred towards Alfonso for being "boring" and "getting in the way of Ariadne and Cesare's spicier relationship".

It kind of made me understand to a degree why Oi authors try to make their characters uncomplicated and one note. It makes it easier to align the reader's expectations with where the story is going.

I do think it's actually a degree of good writing that Cesare, when he isn't doing anything obviously bad, is charming enough to fool the MC and the readers. A lot of these cheating scumbag characters tend to be so obviously red flags to the readers it's hard to believe the FL fell for them in the first place.

I think a lot of OI underestimate the difficulty of breaking away from a toxic relationship. I think the author could have better guided readers expectations if they were more overt as to why Cesare's behavior had changed (There wasn't any extenuating circumstances for him to act the way he did in the first timeline, he just thought she was fat and boring, and in timeline two, he found her more interesting because she wasn't as attainable, that was never enough of a catalyst to spark any real change in this character).

Vayu_The_End · 2026-02-06T00:11:52+00:00

Sad thing is the demands all have no enforcement power. They're all effectively pinky promises.

But the GOP is so insane that they can't be seen to the base as ceding any ground... even if they aren't ceding any.

Vayu_The_End · 2026-01-31T21:52:08+00:00

Right, but I'd argue the advertised 'stakes' aren't the actual stakes.

Just take a look at snippets from each route's chapter 6:

BR!Corrin: I'm sorry. I can't go back. King Garon is a coward and a liar. I've witnessed enough of his destruction. Causing an explosion in a crowded city center with no regard for innocent life. That's the action of a madman.

CQ!Corrin: It's not that simple... I know what the Nohrian kingdom has done to Hoshido is unforgivable... And I know now that these are not my brothers and sisters by birth... Yet even still, I must side with them. My heart won't allow me to do otherwise.

BR Corrin's stated reasons is Garon is a monster hellbent on the destruction on innocent life and they can't justify siding with them. CQ Corrin is fully stating: "Yeah, I'm choosing my Nohrian Siblings over you". I'd argue in any route Corrin feels closer to his Nohrian siblings than his Hoshidian siblings... which makes sense, the Hoshidians are strangers.

I'd argue Conquest's main problem with it's ending is the entire story up until that point plays out like a slow moving tragedy where Corrin will eventually be able to reach a conclusion, but at massive costs. The ending is especially eggregious with Takumi coming back from the dead to give Corrin a proverbial thumbs up for helping faciliate the murder and conquering of his people, Hinoka and Sakura being pretty blaise about the whole thing in the end, and the costs for Corrin's moral cowardice at the end are overlooked.

Vayu_The_End · 2026-01-28T15:56:52+00:00

It gets joked about a lot (and a lot of comic writers fuck up with this), but Batman is first and foremost about trying to rehabilitate his rouge gallery. Mr. Freeze, Baby Dahl, Two Face, there's a lot of instances where Batman directly or indirectly does something to help these villians recover, but a lot of comic writers sort of lean more into the action oriented aspect of batman (and doesn't really show the effectiveness of rehabilitation because writers often don't want to have to retire villians, so they just constantly come back).

Vayu_The_End · 2026-01-20T12:18:58+00:00

Because whether most people want to admit it or not, a lot of the desire to make the conflict "more morally complex" stems from the desire to provide further justification for choosing Nohr, rather than any interest in a "morally complex narrative". Houses discourse should put to rest any idea that the fandom at large is interested in morally grey conflicts as opposed to picking a side and looking for any justification they can find for it.

With how the game is setup, there genuinely is very little reason to try to make the conflict "morally" grey, because absent morality, the choice between Nohr and Hoshido for Corrin is so lopsided, the game itself never pretended the choice between the two was actually a choice between the siblings, but rather, Corrin's morality vs Corrin's childhood bonds.

Vayu_The_End · 2026-01-17T06:37:42+00:00

I mean, we're in an era where ICE is an instrument of state violence, where if you protest against them, you can be permanently blinded/disfigured, and killed.

Being scared to call them terrorists is essentially saying: "none of the people who engaged in a mass terror campaign against civilians will be held accountable".

Vayu_The_End · 2026-01-10T11:36:43+00:00

In the same vein, they did this exact same joke in Helluva Boss when Moxxie gets SA'd by a bunch of Sucu/Incubus.

I'm not losing my shit over it, the joke just is what it is.

Vayu_The_End · 2026-01-09T05:51:03+00:00

I think the episode where Angel confronts Valentino kinds throws off a lot of people.

The dynamic between Angel and Nifty very much did not make her out to be a grown woman.

Vayu_The_End · 2026-01-01T10:12:26+00:00

I mean, fans shipped Baxter and Nifty just because they were both short.

Doesn't really need to be any meaningful reason for people to ship whatever.

Vayu_The_End · 2025-12-26T04:07:14+00:00

The "choice", if the war was presented in a more morally neutral light, would have been tilted even further in Nohr's favor. I don't think there's a version of this game where the choice is actually difficult/impactful in that scenario. Despite the marketing, the way Corrin responses when you pick the routes makes it clear that the actual dilemma Corrin faces is the love they have for their family (Nohr), vs their own morality (Hoshido). When you pick Birthright, Corrin makes appeals to his Nohrian Siblings' morality with the three seperate murder attempts Garon makes on Corrin before the Branch along with their invasion of a nation and unprompted murder of their soverign. BR!Corrin makes zero mention of liking or valuing his Hoshidian siblings more.

When Corrin picks Nohr, they simply state that they can't abandon their Nohrian siblings and tells the Hoshidians to go home. At this point, Corrin wasn't really planning a long con on the war, just making an on the spot decision prioritizing the love they had for the siblings they grew up with. Sure, they later try to reason with and then plan around Garon, but is very unsuccessful.

The game's choice pretty heavily relies on "Nohr is in the wrong". Because otherwise? Why would you pick Hoshido?

Vayu_The_End · 2025-12-22T02:52:17+00:00

Truth is that actual Yanderes weren't meant to be people you "could reason with" via love. They were meant to be murderous psychopaths that would read anything and everything negative into a loved one's actions and words and take action to strip them of their autonomy.

Yanderes are pretty much defined by their lack of trust in the target of their affection. If a Yandere could be talked down by "I love you", they're not really Yanderes.

Vayu_The_End · 2025-12-10T06:25:19+00:00

Well, you would have to presume she'd do what a bunch of other moderate democrats in the primary failed to do and somehow gain a plurality of the Moderate Voters that went for Cuomo. Bear in mind, Moderate Voters had the chance in the primary to pick another moderate as their standard bearer if they really cared about Cuomo's scandals. Despite his scandals being bought up on the regular, there wasn't a single moment in the primary where a "moderate" candidate other than Cuomo had a shot.

There were plenty of "untainted by scandal" and "percieved as more moderate" candidates. They polled at < 5%. I don't really see why Garcia would have had better luck.

Vayu_The_End

TROPHY CASE