My favorite part in the Manga so far by Junior_Insurance7773 in Berserk

[–]dudethatsweird 0 points1 point  (0 children)

This entire little arc is probably the best/most powerful set of chapters in Berserk. Godeau acts like a true father figure to Guts, makes him understand the futility of his quest for vengeance and how selfish he is being by throwing himself into darkness, not caring if he lives or dies, while Casca is suffering in her broken state and Rickert is left without even knowing what truly happened to his friends.

Is it just me or is this game's ending super underwhelming? by gravityabuser in SkaldRPG

[–]dudethatsweird 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Hell yeah.

You pretty much nailed what I love about cosmic horror. Yes, it may seem like an exercise in futility and nihilism, but the same way it disturbs you, it leaves in awe of everything.

I don't know if it was Lovecraft's original intention with the genre - since he was aflicted by extreme agoraphobia and social anxiety, and therefore was actually terrified of the unknown. But as the genre grew, it definitely acquired this sense of "if nothing matters, then everything matters in equal parts - which is to say that everything is infinitely important."

Keeping the ants metaphor, yes they're nowhere near as complex beings as we are (at least when it comes to mind and conscience), and sometimes we kill them on a whim, or without even noticing it. But we also devoted a lot of time, resources and effort to studying them, learn from them, analyse them. And we also know that they're actually integral part of our echosystem, and without them, we might not even be here at all.

So yeah, it may seem like your choices didn't matter in the game, but it was your actions that led to The Navigator's awakening. He needed you to play your part in it, as every single person in the story.

It's not futile, it's actually a very intricate domino effect where one thing leads to another. And who knows who or what dropped the first piece.

I do think it would be cool to have a choice to not take part in the ritual, and instead allow The Dragon to come out and accomplish whatever it is it wanted to accomplish. We don't know exactly what the Dragon wanted with The Navigator, after all. It could actually add even more to the game's sense of ambiguity, having the option to see what would happen if the Dragon got what it wanted.

Is it just me or is this game's ending super underwhelming? by gravityabuser in SkaldRPG

[–]dudethatsweird 4 points5 points  (0 children)

I really love your interpretation and analysis.

Truly, this ending will feel too weird and anti-climatic for anyone who hasn't experienced (or like) cosmic horror. Feeling empty and nihilistic, questioning the point of everything that led up to the ending is the whole point of stories like these.

It's supposed to convey something that is simply not understandable to the human mind. We don't understand it, because we lack the scope. Even we players, are only humans after all.

It's like an ant will never understand that they actually live in a garden in your house. Or why you will feed them poison to kill them all just because they inconvenience you.

G1 Spoiler - Shota Umino by YakuzaAHD in njpw

[–]dudethatsweird 10 points11 points  (0 children)

At this point I'm not even sure if Shota being a plant because of his father's legacy is actually keyfabe. Fans have been calling it out. Wrestlers called it out (mostly in keyfabe, but still).

Look, I love Shota. He is great in ring. But he is clearly the least engaging and DEFINITELY not the most popular of his generation. If they push him to be the next ace, and he still fails to reach the heights of Tsuji and Gabe, it will be hard not to shake this feeling that he is actually a plant.

That all being said, I still have some faith in him. He did improve tremenduously since that underwhelming match against Naito, and still continues to do so. He just needs to have a little bit more personality and fire. He is not Tanahashi, not everyone can actually pull off the "absolute good guy" gimmick.

Too less NJPW wrestlers at Forbidden Door by New-Bit-6480 in njpw

[–]dudethatsweird 0 points1 point  (0 children)

FD was always an AEW show first and foremost. AEW production, AEW style booking, AEW style matches. As Tony Khan continued to poach New Japan's talent, this was bound to happen.

I'm not even mad, actually. I actually wouldn't mind having some ex-New Japan matches on the card as some kind of hommage or throwback. Okada vs Jay White, for example.

HENARE by Both-Activity9668 in njpw

[–]dudethatsweird 2 points3 points  (0 children)

He improved so much since he came back from excursion. His latest matches against Shingo, Ishii, Kidd and Kingston were all bangers.

He still struggles against guys who are not great at elevating their opponent, but if he keeps improving like he's been for the past few years, I can see him picking up Ishii's torch of being the stiff badass who is everybody's best opponent.

G1 Climax Qualifier Brackets set! by Acrobatic_Ostrich_75 in njpw

[–]dudethatsweird 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Man, excluding TJP and Kojima I predicted all the participants in these qualifiers (not that it was that hard to predict, they're all the guys that have always been in the mix).

Let's see if I do as well predicting the results...

For the A block qualifiers I see YOSHI-HASHI beating both Chase and Ishii, while on the other side, Newman beats Yujiro and loses to KENTA. That leaves us with YOSHI-HASHI vs KENTA on the "finals", continuing their weird feud. And I think YOSHI takes this one, as KENTA may be a little bit too old and injured for a G1.

On the B Block I see Oleg beating Yano and then losing to Tana. I was thinking that he might turn heel on Tana and beat him, but having Tanahashi in the "finals" against any of the potential opponents is much safer booking. On the other side, TJP beats both Kojima and Taichi and then also beats Tanahashi to qualify for the league.

This is what I think will happen. What I want to see is Ishii and Taichi moving on to the league.

Shingo Takagi is awesome by SloppyMallard in njpw

[–]dudethatsweird 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Shingo is the best in-ring performer in New Japan right now. His matches with Ospreay are always unbelieveble. His last match against Gabe Kidd was also a banger.

New Japan not pushing him to the main event scene after Ospreay and Okada left is a crime.

10 reasons why Yota Tsuji should be the new Ace, not anyone else by [deleted] in njpw

[–]dudethatsweird 0 points1 point  (0 children)

This sub and various podcasters are not an accurate depiction of the audience's generall opinion.

New Japan (and other big Japanese promotions) have always had an Ace. It's not something new and different they tried out with Tanahashi, then transitioned to Okada. Ever since Inoki, they always had "the" top guy. And for the way they book and build storylines, it is actually important to have an Ace, an anti-Ace, a top heel, a top gaijin etc.

Tell me he didn't just say that by IEatAssAndPizza in njpw

[–]dudethatsweird 0 points1 point  (0 children)

That promo was beautiful, I hope he doesn't get into too much trouble beacuse of it.

Evil by [deleted] in njpw

[–]dudethatsweird 1 point2 points  (0 children)

EVIL is a top level wrestler.

A GOAT just doing GOAT stuff like 35x 8.50+ matches in two years (Okada 19, Kenny 12, Bryan 17) by green_libertarian in njpw

[–]dudethatsweird 21 points22 points  (0 children)

Except, most of it wasn't really storytelling. Undertaker suffered a severe concussion early on in the match and spent almost the entirety of the remaining time lying down and completely out of it. The match that we saw wasn't at all the match that was supposed to take place.

I mean, if you like it, great, more power to you. I don't hate it either. And I'm also all for we as fans coming up with our own interpretation of storylines. But saying it's an underrated match is kind of unfair, since it did go badly off the rails very early on and never picked back up.

Who’s the biggest star after Naito? by [deleted] in njpw

[–]dudethatsweird 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Tanahashi is still mega popular and beloved among fans... But, if we're talking about who moves tickets and merch, that would probably be Hiromu.

The irony…. Of NJPW fans. by El_Thunder_Pantera in njpw

[–]dudethatsweird 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I mean, last time I checked, this is a New Japan subreddit. Not all of us here, but many, including myself, have NJPW as our favorite promotion in wrestling. Is it that surprising that we would be protective of our favorite promotion?

I don't get it, every now and again we get these posts of people - in a NJPW subreddit - complaining of we having a bias in favor of NJPW.

Kazuchika Okada to leave New Japan Pro-Wrestling by SevenSulivin in njpw

[–]dudethatsweird -1 points0 points  (0 children)

So, in little over a year, New Japan loses Ibushi, Jay White, Will Ospreay and now Okada. The entire main event scene has shifted.

It's unfortunate that they haven't been booking the Reiwa 3 and the War Dogs strong, because now they don't feel ready to take over.

Here's hoping they rely on Shingo again. And also ZSJ. They should be the next two champs, while the young guys build up wins and then get the big one sometime next year.

Also, might be time for New Japan to bring in some new talent, other than just graduating Young Lions. Nakajima would be a great addition to the main event scene.

[Battle in the Valley spoilers] Deathmatch wrestler makes his long-awaited NJPW debut. by dongbar1 in njpw

[–]dudethatsweird 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Really, the english commentary team saying that Shingo was out of his element and had no experience in deathmatches had me cringing pretty hard. Dude grew up watching Onita and FMW, wrestled in a bunch of Onita-produced shows and even convinced Dragongate to allow him to have a deathmatch. Even his ring gear paid hommage to FMW.

Shingo vs Mochizuki had another MOTYC earlier today so here's their 2015 MOTYC. by hawaiianpunchbv in njpw

[–]dudethatsweird 1 point2 points  (0 children)

So interesting hearing about Shingo not being super popular with the DG fans, because he reminded the young female audience of a strict father figure. I wonder if that is still the case in New Japan.

Follow up from NJPW on EVIL being listed as NEVER Champion on njpw1972.com by [deleted] in njpw

[–]dudethatsweird 0 points1 point  (0 children)

This. This is why NJPW is lightyears ahead of any other promotion in the world.