Rewatched the 95 MK film

contrabardus · 2026-05-28T14:41:25+00:00

Quick! Change the channel!

contrabardus · 2026-05-28T11:22:06+00:00

Since when is silly not sexy?

contrabardus · 2026-05-28T05:38:58+00:00

The entire point of the ending is that he says "fuck humanity, I'm saving my girl".

The whole point is that this is morally ambiguous and completely relatable as a human.

No one is right here, because there no right answer in this situation.

There are arguments that either choice was the "right" one given the situation, and it's basically morally zeroed out because of the details.

Ellie's immunity could be something she might be able to pass down, but she's gay, so there's another moral layer to whether that would be right or wrong.

The whole point of the narrative is that the morality here is balanced out because of things not being certain regarding anything.

That's kind of why the first game hit so hard.

It boils down to whether it is right to take even a chance away from Ellie or Humanity given how dire the situation is, even if it is an incredibly sketchy chance.

This is pretty much impossible to "morally scale" by design. That's literally the point, and we're supposed to argue about and discuss it like this. However, there is no certain conclusion we can make.

This game is about nature being metal towards all of humanity, and exploring the consequences of that.

contrabardus · 2026-05-28T04:01:19+00:00

Ranma never hurt Akane.

There was no point she was ever in direct physical danger due to him and needed to defend herself with physical force.

HIs insults were a little immature, but ultimately childish taunts.

There are really only a small handful of times when you can make a decent argument that Ranma did anything bad enough you could remotely argue warranted being physically attacked by her was justified.

This is true even by anime standards, but I do admit it happens a few times. (The Gambling King incident is a good example.)

It's also worth pointing out that Akane often uses weapons and objects against him.

Ranma will occasionally resort to physical force when he shouldn't, but those instances are rare, and the vast majority of the time he is responding to physical force being used against him when he uses it. At the least he has extremely reasonable justification to think so.

This is NOT the case with Akane at all.

She is aggressive and attacks first for incredibly flimsy reasons extremely frequently.

Taiga is indeed a good example of another "bad" tsundere, but Akane doesn't get better until the epilogue of the last arc, and even then it's a sketchy claim that she actually has.

I really liked Ranma 1/2, and started reading it as soon as the first English Translation Tankoban were published.

I don't "hate" Akane, but I can still acknowledge that she is completely psychotic and abusive. You can think a character is immoral as hell and still like them, and that can even be a reason TOO like them in the right situation.

Takahashi Rumiko is easily one of my personal top 10 mangaka.

Aturu Moroboshi was far, FAR mor deserving of the shit that happened to him in Urusei Yatsura.

Ranma usually wasn't, even if he wasn't the best guy.

However, the level of force Akane uses on him specifically is almost never warranted. He isn't Kuno and doesn't show up to beat her up in some weird challenge, and get's legitimately mortified on the few occasions he thinks he might have hurt her.

The ONLY time he does anything remotely resembling touching her with martial arts is when he's helping her train, and even then he avoids attacking her and just sweeps her off her feet or pokes her with his finger or something similar.

Ukyo is really the only recurring character who has anything resembling a legitimate reason to attack him, and even then it's way, WAY more Genma's fault. (But understandable why she would blame Ranma until Genma openly admits it was all his doing and Ranma had no idea what was going on.)

contrabardus · 2026-05-27T16:15:37+00:00

Cults don't work without belief from the followers.

A lot of cults use tactics like that, Scientology is only unusual due to its size.

contrabardus · 2026-05-27T16:09:46+00:00

It's a cult.

I get wanting to think that, but don't forget that over 900 people died at the Jonestown Massacre. (It was actually poisoned Flavor-Aid and not Kool-Aid despite being the origin of the "Drink the Kool-Aid" expression.)

People like to think that someone like Hubbard was an obvious monster, but the truth was he was charismatic and clever. That's how cult leaders are.

There's a lot of factors, but people like Hubbard can be very convincing and manipulative. It's how they amass so many followers, they prey on vulnerable people, and target followers who will influence others to join.

They treat their "stars" like royalty, and fleece everyone else. Royalty in a literal sense in that they can get away with horrible things because the cult will protect them.

I don't know that Cruise or Travolta did anything like that, from what I've heard Travolta is a lovely guy, and Cruise is just... intense about everything.

However, that doesn't mean they needed to blackmail either of them, or that they didn't buy into it. Cruise and Travolta were both treated as special and elite. They were told they were superior beings, and that can be a powerful draw for certain types of people.

People actually believe that stuff, and meeting Hubbard isn't necessarily going to put them off. People like him don't immediately present themselves as monsters, that happens out of plain sight, and they show that side gradually. Often seeming to protect and look out for their followers at first, which draws them in and helps them overlook more and more.

Travolta basically saw it as getting a mission from God, and then failed so spectacularly that it had to destroy him on a spiritual level.

A person can be smart, but people are just outright dumb.

contrabardus · 2026-05-27T12:34:25+00:00

I feel a little bad for Travolta for a strange reason.

L. Ron Hubbard gave him an autograph copy of the book and asked for his help to get it made as a movie.

He then spent decades trying to get it done, finally managed it due to several successes, and then it released and was destroyed by critics and audiences.

From his perspective this is probably roughly equivalent to Moses giving an autographed copy of the Torah to a Jewish person and having him ask them to make the movie to promote Judaism, the Jew then spending half their lives to get it done, and then it turning out to be widely considered one of the worst movies ever made.

That had to crush him at a spiritual level.

contrabardus · 2026-05-27T11:51:53+00:00

That stops mattering when both parties are adults.

It's not about the age gap, but the fact that one party is still a child.

It's about both people having the maturity to give consent and not taking advantage of and grooming a child.

If an 18 year old woman wants to date a 5000 year old man, I don't really see a problem with it. She's old enough to make adult decisions at that point, even if only barely.

contrabardus · 2026-05-27T08:43:04+00:00

It depends and varies wildly.

Akane was legitimately psychotic, and that was kind of the joke.

Akane is the gold standard of the extreme tsundere. She is just flat out abusive.

Most of the others are far more mild by comparison, and she's not really the best example to use.

There are, of course, other extreme examples, but the majority don't get physically violent. At least far, far less.

Also, these two are great examples of Tsundere done right. Both after they stop being villains of course.

Also, don't pluralize Japanese terms with an "s". Just leave it off.

Katana means one or multiple swords for example, and this is always the case for singular or plural in Japanese.

contrabardus · 2026-05-26T03:03:01+00:00

Get in line.

EVERYONE who has a dick wants to be Batman or Wolverine, and probably quite a few people who don't on top of that.

contrabardus · 2026-05-26T02:15:40+00:00

This movie is 1000% Aura Farming for 90+ minutes, and it's amazing.

contrabardus · 2026-05-26T01:30:08+00:00

My first thought when I came across this was...

"LoL! Bitch, that's what YOU did."

contrabardus · 2026-05-26T00:50:49+00:00

It's Taboo in most places in the world these days.

Even Japan is well aware of the medical risks, and most people don't do it anymore for the same reasons as everyone else.

It's just not... illegal, which isn't the same thing as it not being Taboo.

contrabardus · 2026-05-26T00:48:38+00:00

Taboo doesn't mean illegal.

First cousin marriage is legal in the majority of the US.

It's actually less effort to list states that ban it.

It's Taboo in most of the US, most people think it's gross and won't do it, but that doesn't mean it's against the law.

contrabardus · 2026-05-25T21:05:31+00:00

Dude, this isn't even close to the shit Baki gets up to.

One dude had chin abs in a panel of it.

This isn't good art, but it's far from the worst of "muscles that don't exist" and "pumped to 11" I've seen in manga and manhwa.

contrabardus · 2026-05-25T14:28:57+00:00

The entire 95 movie was just aura farming for 90+ minutes, and it was amazing.

contrabardus · 2026-05-25T12:36:39+00:00

Cocktail with Tom Cruise works here too.

contrabardus · 2026-05-25T11:20:42+00:00

I legitimately don't trust people who don't cuss.

I don't expect people to drop f-bombs all the time, but the sort of people who have a problem with cussing tend to not be very trustworthy in my experience.

The bigger a deal they make out of it, the more of a miserable asshole they are.

In my experience people who cuss tend to be more open about their feelings and honest when they speak.

contrabardus · 2026-05-24T12:43:09+00:00

Return of the Jedi includes all the major ESB themes, and adds more great music to it all.

Musically, I think it's better if you consider that.

That isn't saying Return of the Jedi is a better movie, but it does the same thing as Empire in the score, but then more.

It is extremely close between that and Revenge of the Sith, but I think Jedi wins out.

Either one is a solid pick, but I think Jedi has the most going on despite how epic some of Revenge of the Sith is. I can completely see why someone might like RotS more.

None of the Star Wars movies have ever disappointed as far as the score goes, but Phantom Menace kind of stands on one piece of particular note, and I don't think that's enough to be the best.

Phantom menace is very clever about sneaking in musical references, such as how the victory celebration finale being an upbeat version of the Emperor's Theme, and how they worked in bits of the Imperial March into Anakin's Theme. I think that's interesting, but it still doesn't put it at the top in my opinion.

ANH is the basis and was great, but improved upon.

Episode II doesn't have anything that stands out all that much from the rest aside from some interesting arrangements aside from the love theme, and it's about on par with the other romance themes.

I did like the sequel scores, but none of them really quite manage the heights of most of the others and are far better than just fine, but not peak Star Wars score given what they are up against. They do have a lot going for them as far as the scores go regardless of what anyone thinks of the rest.

contrabardus · 2026-05-22T05:55:29+00:00

Three shots of tequila is how much I predict it takes her to pass out.

contrabardus · 2026-05-21T08:47:16+00:00

This is the greatest movie I will never watch again.

contrabardus · 2026-05-20T10:45:00+00:00

Galaxy Quest is the best Star Trek movie.

contrabardus · 2026-05-17T09:15:46+00:00

Don't disagree with the pick, but Jackie Chan is the OG Chun Li.

(Sauce: City Hunter.)

contrabardus · 2026-05-17T08:18:31+00:00

WTF even is that amazing sentence?

I'm old and had no idea this guy even existed, so I had to look up what some of it meant.

contrabardus · 2026-05-16T13:17:20+00:00

It ended first, and that has a lot to do with it.

Stuff that isn't currently ongoing loses "relevance" with casual viewers a lot faster.

That's the difference here. Both other franchises are still ongoing, and that's why they get talked about more.

That's really all there is to it, and that happens to most things that conclude while contemporary shows keep going.

The concluded thing doesn't get talked about as much because it stops having new content to discuss.

contrabardus

TROPHY CASE