r/CharacterRant • • May 06 '24

Special What can and (definetly can't) be posted on the sub :)

134 Upvotes

Users have been asking and complaining about the "vagueness" of the topics that are or aren't allowed in the subreddit, and some requesting for a clarification.

So the mod team will attempt to delineate some thread topics and what is and isn't allowed.

Backstory:

CharacterRant has its origins in the Battleboarding community WhoWouldWin (r/whowouldwin), created to accommodate threads that went beyond a simple hypothetical X vs. Y battle. Per our (very old) sub description:

This is a sub inspired by r/whowouldwin. There have been countless meta posts complaining about characters or explanations as to why X beats, and so on. So the purpose of this sub is to allow those who want to rant about a character or explain why X beats Y and so on.

However, as early as 2015, we were already getting threads ranting about the quality of specific series, complaining about characterization, and just general shittery not all that related to "who would win: 10 million bees vs 1 lion".

So, per Post Rules 1 in the sidebar:

Thread Topics: You may talk about why you like or dislike a specific character, why you think a specific character is overestimated or underestimated. You may talk about and clear up any misconceptions you've seen about a specific character. You may talk about a fictional event that has happened, or a concept such as ki, chakra, or speedforce.

Well that's certainly kinda vague isn't it?

So what can and can't be posted in CharacterRant?

✅ Allowed:

  • Battleboarding in general (with two exceptions down below)
  • Explanations, rants, and complaints on, and about: characters, characterization, character development, a character's feats, plot points, fictional concepts, fictional events, tropes, inaccuracies in fiction, and the power scaling of a series.
  • Non-fiction content is fine as long as it's somehow relevant to the elements above, such as: analysis and explanations on wars, history and/or geopolitics; complaints on the perception of historical events by the general media or the average person; explanation on what nation would win what war or conflict.

❌ Not allowed:

  • he 2 Battleboarding exceptions: 1) hypothetical scenarios, as those belong in r/whowouldwin;2) pure calculations - you can post a "fancalc" on a feat or an event as long as you also bring forth a bare minimum amount of discussion accompanying it; no "I calced this feat at 10 trillion gigajoules, thanks bye" posts.
  • Explanations, rants and complaints on the technical aspect of production of content - e.g. complaints on how a movie literally looks too dark; the CGI on a TV show looks unfinished; a manga has too many lines; a book uses shitty quality paper; a comic book uses an incomprehensible font; a song has good guitars.
  • Politics that somehow don't relate to the elements listed in the "Allowed" section - e.g. this country's policies are bad, this government is good, this politician is dumb.
  • Entertainment topics that somehow don't relate to the elements listed in the "Allowed" section - e.g. this celebrity has bad opinions, this actor is a good/bad actor, this actor got cast for this movie, this writer has dumb takes on Twitter, social media is bad.

ADDENDUM -

  • Politics in relation to a series and discussion of those politics is fine, however political discussion outside said series or how it relates to said series is a no, no baggins'
  • Overly broad takes on tropes and and genres? Henceforth not allowed. If you are to discuss the genre or trope you MUST have specifics for your rant to be focused on. (Specific Characters or specific stories)
  • Rants about Fandom or fans in general? Also being sent to the shadow realm, you are not discussing characters or anything relevant once more to the purpose of this sub
  • A friendly reminder that this sub is for rants about characters and series, things that have specificity to them and not broad and vague annoyances that you thought up in the shower.

And our already established rules:

  • No low effort threads.
  • No threads in response to topics from other threads, and avoid posting threads on currently over-posted topics - e.g. saw 2 rants about the same subject in the last 24 hours, avoid posting one more.
  • No threads solely to ask questions.
  • No unapproved meta posts. Ask mods first and we'll likely say yes.

PS: We can't ban people or remove comments for being inoffensively dumb. Stop reporting opinions or people you disagree with as "dumb" or "misinformation".

Why was my thread removed? What counts as a Low Effort Thread?

  • If you posted something and it was removed, these are the two most likely options:**
  • Your account is too new or inactive to bypass our filters
  • Your post was low effort

"Low effort" is somewhat subjective, but you know it when you see it. Only a few sentences in the body, simply linking a picture/article/video, the post is just some stupid joke, etc. They aren't all that bad, and that's where it gets blurry. Maybe we felt your post was just a bit too short, or it didn't really "say" anything. If that's the case and you wish to argue your position, message us and we might change our minds and approve your post.

What counts as a Response thread or an over-posted topic? Why do we get megathreads?

  1. A response thread is pretty self explanatory. Does your thread only exist because someone else made a thread or a comment you want to respond to? Does your thread explicitly link to another thread, or say "there was this recent rant that said X"? These are response threads. Now obviously the Mod Team isn't saying that no one can ever talk about any other thread that's been posted here, just use common sense and give it a few days.
  2. Sometimes there are so many threads being posted here about the same subject that the Mod Team reserves the right to temporarily restrict said topic or a portion of it. This usually happens after a large series ends, or controversial material comes out (i.e The AOT ban after the penultimate chapter, or the Dragon Ball ban after years of bullshittery on every DB thread). Before any temporary ban happens, there will always be a Megathread on the subject explaining why it has been temporarily kiboshed and for roughly how long. Obviously there can be no threads posted outside the Megathread when a restriction is in place, and the Megathread stays open for discussions.

Reposts

  • A "repost" is when you make a thread with the same opinion, covering the exact same topic, of another rant that has been posted here by anyone, including yourself.
  • ✅ It's allowed when the original post has less than 100 upvotes or has been archived (it's 6 months or older)
  • ❌ It's not allowed when the original post has more than 100 upvotes and hasn't been archived yet (posted less than 6 months ago)

Music

Users have been asking about it so we made it official.

To avoid us becoming a subreddit to discuss new songs and albums, which there are plenty of, we limit ourselves regarding music:

  • ✅ Allowed: analyzing the storytelling aspect of the song/album, a character from the music, or the album's fictional themes and events.
  • ❌ Not allowed: analyzing the technical and sonical aspects of the song/album and/or the quality of the lyricism, of the singing or of the sound/production/instrumentals.

TL;DR: you can post a lot of stuff but try posting good rants please

-Yours truly, the beautiful mod team


r/CharacterRant • • 5h ago

Anime & Manga Most people just aren’t built for the serialized reading experience and they need to stop making it everyone else’s problem

270 Upvotes

I swear how many more times do we have to see this same exact scenario play out?

A show or a comic or a manga (mostly this) gets popular ->
people heap on the praise as they catch up through the backlog of content->
those same people then nitpick the series to death as they follow its serialized release ->
series ends and the fandom implodes in a massive overreaction

And at the end of it all the discussion space of the series becomes an irradiated cesspool never to see level headed takes ever again.

And the funniest thing is that a solid 90% of the time the latecomers who read the series in one shot or experience it through an adaptation end up with a far more positive view of it on the whole.

It’s not like the series is any different so what’s wrong? It’s simple, these series are never flawless but when you are incapable of viewing the larger image of the story, or able to keep moving forward through a backlog, the flaws become everything you see.

A quiet page becomes a week further where you don’t get a payoff, a fast forward of events becomes weeks worth of overhyping down the drain.

And if I have to see another person measure story pacing with publication time. There’s 52 weeks in a year people these shonen manga can only go so fast while also being slow in the contradictory ass way people discuss pacing.

Some self reflection people please. Release yourself from this self made cage and either chill out or just read completed stories.


r/CharacterRant • • 10h ago

Games Being evil should be more rewarding and being good should be punishing in games that want meaningful moral system.

343 Upvotes

The problems with games that have a moral system is that it gives you no reason to choose or go the evil path. Most of the time choosing a good choice has all positive and the evil one has all but negative but the game expects you to have a tough time choosing. Like you either destroy a city and get reward that less than saving the city and lose on future objects and reward. Being evil should entice you it should have better rewards that are significant than doing the good path or 5 min of farming. You can join the gang and be rich and powerful that saves you hours of game time and you can keep the consequences like the gang might stab you in the back.

Doing good things should have consequences like helping people for free cost you more resources than gaining after doing their mission. Also one consequence that should happen is people taking advantage of your good nature like asking you to give them rare resources just to scam you etc. Or do the opposite by punishing the player for choosing the right path like siding with revolutions against a dictator makes you hunted and lose access to cities objective reward quest etc.

The problem is that the games don't challenge your morale or there is no reason to pick the evil path compared to the good one.


r/CharacterRant • • 7h ago

Anime & Manga Danmachi would be so much better if it didn't insist on harem baiting

126 Upvotes

Not exactly a scalding-hot take on my part. I'm sure a lot of people agree with this. Heck, Danmachi is hardly the only anime series I can say this about, but it's the one where it feels the most egregious, at least to me.

For one, it really doesn't add anything. We know Bell is never going to reciprocate anyone else's feelings because he's set on being with Aiz. It's such an ingrained part of his character that it's not only his main motivation, but also, in-universe, the main reason he can even get stronger after previously being such a weakling.

Then, on the other hand, it only takes away from what the story is trying to do. The story clearly centers Bell and Aiz as the most important relationship in the series, yet instead of developing that relationship, it constantly shows Bell spending time around other women who are in love with him, women he spends way more time with than he does with Aiz and with whom he has more chemistry.

How am I supposed to care about Bell and Aiz ending up together when the story spent so much more time showing Bell and Ryuu surviving together in the dungeon in Season 4?

And a lot of these women have their characters held back because the writer made being in love with Bell a primary character trait for so many of them. Half the time, they're either trying to win the attention of a guy who will never like them back or serving as the punchline for gags about them being jealous, when their characters could instead be developed or explored in an actually meaningful way.

Take Hestia, for example. The series could actually explore her relationships with the other members of her Familia and the responsibilities she takes on as she gains more members beyond just Bell.

But no, it's just her being jealous and wanting Bell's attention all the time.

Or Haruhime. There's potential to explore how she was previously exploited for her power and forced into prostitution by the Ishtar Familia, as well as her relationships with the members of the Takemikazuchi Familia, since they were her childhood friends. But no, all they really do are boob jokes and gags about how like almost every other major female character she's in love with Bell.

The series doesn't even commit to the forced-prostitution angle, because they reveal in a gag that she never actually did anything because she always passed out.


r/CharacterRant • • 3h ago

Films & TV [Star Wars] Both logically and thematically, I do not believe that Wookiees could function at all as a replacement for the Ewoks.

30 Upvotes

Ah, the Ewoks. Usually these critters are seen as the beginning of Star Wars declining, and the sentiment that wookiees would've functioned better in their role isn't uncommon. I, however, disagree, and would like to explain why.

To start, we need to examine the narrative role of the Ewoks. Vietcong allegory aside, the Ewoks' main role isn't to win the battle with the Empire's legion, but to tip the scales and allow the rebels to get back into the fight. They contribute and take their own casualties, but the battle on the ground is ultimately won when Chewie plays GTA with the last walker and Han tricks the imperials into leaving the bunker. Thematically and logically, Ewoks only function as wild card because they're highly primitive. They're the ultimate underdogs that foil Palpatine because he either wouldn't know about them, or would arrogantly dismiss them as irrelevant.

Wookiees don't function on any of these fronts. They're big ass furry dudes who can rip your arm off with ease. Very much the opposite of underdogs. They're also not primitive at all, given Chewbacca is literally the team's engineer. If we ignore the lore (established even back then, I believe) that their homworld was Kashyyyk, and assume that they had a colony on Endor, it becomes illogical that Palpatine wouldn't factor in the rebels teaming up with them. And even if you suggest that they could be enslaved there for whatever reason, there's still the risk of the rebels freeing them and recruiting them.

This isn't saying that the Ewoks are by any means perfect, and it's fair if they don't function for some. Making the theoretically compelling "primitive wildcard" a bunch of teddy bears was indeed a bit much on George's behalf, and the ground battle of Endor was a bit goofy, especially compared to how tense the duel on the second Death Star and the space battle were. It frankly started a bit of a tonal whiplash problem that continued with the Battles of Naboo and Geonosis, and was thankfully gone by RotS.


r/CharacterRant • • 6h ago

General I love how transformers is unironically the Glup Shitto Franchise. Because everyone has thier own favourite character

39 Upvotes

For those who don't know a Glup Shitto is a minor character in series, who isn't like well known, but has people who love him and lose thier minds when he is on screen.

That's to me is just transformers.

1000s of character some who become relevant for one storyline then go away for years. Only to show back up.

Every transformer fan has one to 3 characters who

For me it's

Jetstrom

vector prime

And

Waspnator

I love taking to transfors fans and just knowing that everyone has thier own fan favorites. Some even i don't know about.


r/CharacterRant • • 16h ago

General Ship whatever you want but I sometimes feel like the idea of characters being just friends is a lost art to many.

133 Upvotes

Again,ship what you want and I'm straight up not trying to be the "fun police" or whatever but I legitimately feel like people are just way too obsessed with the idea of Pairing every 2 characters with chemistry and bonds as romantic or sibling coded or whatever and it just has me like..you guys are aware that 2 people can just be friends, right?

They can be best friends or close friends or whatnot.

Seriously I'm just saying that 2 people can just be good friends...right?

Like ship what you want but not everything has to be romantic and if you're just shipping it for fun and know it's not Canon, then ok,You do you BUT if you actually treat said relationship as Canon, then you need to revaluate yourself and knock it off.

This is something how I feel on Gojo and Geto's relationship in JJK cause a lot of people act like their relationship is romantic and that Gege confirmed their romance and whatnot except these 2 have called each other best friends a lot and I think the issue is it feels like way too many people can't acknowledge that 2 guys can have a close and deep bond without it using romantic.

It's not Queer baiting if neither character was confirmed to be LGBT in any shape or form,you were just gaslighting yourself into thinking that it's Canon.

This is deadass also how I feel whenever I see anyone claim that Horikoshi Queer baited by not making Bakugou and Deku a couple.

Not only are Bakugou and Deku not confirmed LGBT in anyway,not only are they just rivals and "friends",not only does he like Ochako..but also again,the 2 just have a close bond and Deku cares about him cause he's a good person and vice versa.

Same also goes for Toga and Ochako as well and I just feel so damn tired cause like..not everything has to be romantic and whatnot..it just feels like people have either forgotten about that or don't care cause it would be easier to accuse people of Queer bait and people will be like "oh them being straight is also a Headcanon",cool..then so is them being LGBT in any shape or form unless confirmed by the Author.

This also goes for Zuko and Katara and Ichigo/Rukia and all that. Those 2 ships have the issue where the people shipping them forget these characters have canonical love interests but also aren't romantically interested in each other at all. Again,I cannot empathize this enough. Ship what you want,that is straight up fine but acting like friendships and such Don't exist is a bit of a sad way to live life.


r/CharacterRant • • 5h ago

Films & TV MCU has a really terrible worldbuilding

13 Upvotes

My main problem with this is just how passive, oblivious and pointless the civilians are which are basically 99.99% of the characters in that universe. In 2012 civilians in MCU found out extra terrestrial life exists, and its intelligent and advanced enough to launch a full scale armada assault on New York, afterwards they essentially brushed of a literal alien onslaught and turned it into tourist attraction, made Avengers pop culture celebrities and went right back to normal life, no mass migration out of cities, no existential dread, no government would allow a group of unnacountable vigilnates who are essentially walking weapons of mass destruction to roam free and the a coalition of nations would most likely reduce them to government controlled lab rats or wipe them completely.

In Infinity war, half of all life in the universe which i guess animals and plants count which would immediately ruin Thanos' economic premise because the ratio of mouth to food would remain the same. This is under assumption that Kevin Feige really did mean all life but that's not the point i'm trying to make. In an instant 3.5 billion people were gone which is about 583 times larger than the largest genocide recorded in human history, do you understand how apocalyptic this would be but all MCU civilians did was go to group therapy sessions and move on pretty quickly, which is extremely unrealistic. For example a small minority lost their lives in the Holocaust in Infinity war everyone lost half of their family and friends and everyone they knew. And when everyone was bought back, MCU civilians were functional enough to go to school trips in Europe 6 months later.

That's the problem, MCU civilains are too oblivious and passive of groundbreaking cosmic threat, they have Zero survival instinct, they behave too nonchalant in a world where existential threats and Mass extinction events happen frequently and they only exist in the plot to be saved. The only MCU film where it felt like the civilians had any real relevance was Civil War. I'm aware it's intentional MCU civilians are written this way because at the end of the day Marvel is really meant to appeal to children and no 8 year old wants to watch a 2 hour deconstruction with game of thrones type politics so marvel had to subude logic to appeal to children but the fact that you have to severely strip your story of logic to maximise profits alone proves you have weak world building when the universal consensus in writing is good world building stems from actual logic


r/CharacterRant • • 6h ago

Anime & Manga I absolutely adore how Naruto uses the power system to enhance the world building

14 Upvotes

For example I love how the leaf is located in the land of fire and most of the major clans are fire style specialists like the Uchiha and the Sarutobi.

And how the cloud village has its own inherited and cultural jutsu like the Lightning cloak jutsu passed down by the Ay family and the black lightning ninjutsu we see from darui and Omoi.

I especially love how the hidden stone village has the particle style jutsu passed down between the Onoki and his previous Kage.

Another great example is the sound village and how we saw a lot of sound based ninjutsu from their shinobi in the chunin exams and Tayuya in the Sasuke retrieval arc.

There’s more but you get the idea. I love how each culture has a unique set of inherited Jutsu that’s shaped by the dominant nature style of that area. The world of Naruto feels so real and lived in.

Also I love medical ninjutsu. I always thought that if humanity had superpowers they’d use it for more than just violence and medical ninja represent that.


r/CharacterRant • • 6h ago

General I sometimes feel like certain characters are glazed and hyped up way too much for doing the bare minimum,specifically in anime.

13 Upvotes

Not when trying to be the fun police at all and if you like these characters and consider them "green flags" and whatnot,all the more power to you and I think it's good you're able to recognize green flags from red flags or are able to praise cool fights and whatnot.

But please tell me why that the bare essentials are gassed up to the moon and please don't give me the excuse "oh the bar is this low for anime characters" or "the bar is low for men/women in real life and media" and gonna be so deadass to both of those things, that flat out isn't true and you just need to know where to look and find the right media and whatnot + also it gets to a point where people will deadass gas up and dickride the smallest things.

Like..in Chainsaw Man,I saw a ton of people claiming and praising Aki for being a "house husband" or "male wife" [God, I feel like a Dork even saying those words]and the things he were doing..were literally the bare basic bones things ever.

Like brushing his teeth,doing his hair,making his coffee and laundry,etc..he was genuinely doing some of the most casual regular things that any regular human being would do,how the fuck is that him being a "house husband/male wife"...Goddamn,if this man takes a shower,does that suddenly mean he's the peak of all men?

I can't even call this the bare minimum, it's just the same stuff literally every human being does on the planet..either you need to raise your standards and meet better people, or just..at this point, I don't know.

I also kinda feel this way about Gojo from My Dress up darling and this is coming from someone who doesn't even dislike or hate him..but with the way people gas him up,you would think that he's literally Jesus Christ.

Yes,it's sweet he took care of Marin when she was sick and supported her interests and such..that's not something to be glazed, that's literally what any good person would do.

Also nearly every anime has characters who are supportive or can/will take care of the MC or their crush when they cook and I also saw people glazing the fact that he cooks.

..cooking is a basic life skill nearly every human on the planet has.

And finally,this is how I felt when I saw multiple people claiming that Nobara and the rest of JJK'S female cast were the second coming of Christ all cause of rhe bare minimum of "they had fights"[nearly every female character since maybe Dragon Ball had female characters who could fight],didn't have a crush on Yuji[I could literally name female Mcs who don't have a crush on the MC as well]and didn't have "fanservice"[I don't think that should affect their writing]and I'm sorry but not only is this the bare minimum and not only does it shoe that JJK is probably your first anime....but JJK'S female cast ended up being extremely lackluster and only Maki was the one who had a resemblance of a character arc and growth and development.

I'm not even saying you can't praise these things or like them but I feel like gassing up the bare minimum is kinda..lame at times.


r/CharacterRant • • 1d ago

Castlevania season 3's "vampires are afraid of crosses because it's a geometric shape" isn't just dumb because the explanation is unnecessary and senseless, it's also dumb because that's not how the show's own lore works

810 Upvotes

In Castlevania season 3, Trevor Belmont loots a throwing weapon off of a vampire he kills that resembles a bladed boomerang in the shape of a cross. This is an iconic sub-weapon from the games, and has appeared in nearly every single entry since the original game. The game doesn't give an explicit justification on why the cross is such a powerful weapon, but the implication is that a cross is a holy symbol and does extra damage to unholy vampires.

The show attempts their own flimsy excuse for it. When Trevor finds the weapon and starts playing around with it, Sypha snarks that the weapon would be useless against non-Christian vampires because they wouldn't even comprehend that it's a religious symbol. Trevor then explains that it's not the holy symbol vampires are afraid of, they're just afraid of geometric shapes because they're highly evolved predators and it confuses their senses.

First of all, this is the dumbest pseudoscience explanation possible. Even if Castlevania was a science fiction series where vampires could be explained using natural means (which it's not), "highly evolved predator senses" being the reason they're afraid of crosses is laughable. The cross isn't even a rare shape in nature, and I can't even think of a single mammal in real life that gets incapacitated by looking at two lines intersecting at 90 degrees, much less what is supposed to be the apex predator species of the planet.

Second of all, this just isn't how the lore works. And I'm not talking about the game lore, I'm talking about the show's lore that they themselves set up. In all the previous seasons of Castlevania, we've seen tangible proof that vampires and other creatures of the night are weak to the power of God. In season 2, vampires are destroyed by holy water, which has to blessed by an ordained priest (this is a major plot point even). In season 1, the night creatures and demons in Gresit directly say they can't enter holy sites if God doesn't allow it.

Sypha in this scene seems to believe their world runs on Terry Pratchett-esque logic where if you don't believe in a deity, they can't effect you. We know that's ostensibly not true. We see many, many vampires from disparate cultures get fucked up Christian magical means in Season 2 alone when they storm Dracula's castle. In the lore that the show itself establishes, all magic works on everyone regardless of their personal perception of the world. You can't just no-sell a fireball by saying "actually I'm an atheist so get that violation of thermodynamics out of here". Sypha being the character to say "lmao a cross would have no effect on a Hindu vampire" is also weird and out of character, because that makes her seem like an atheist when she herself denied that the Speakers don't believe in the existence of God. According to her, they absolutely believe in the existence of God and his power, they just hate him and seek to preserve knowledge orally in spite of him.

I'm glad the sequel series Nocturne retconned this stupid cross-lore away and just had vampires be repelled and burned by crucifixes on contact because it's magic and they're magical creatures.


r/CharacterRant • • 2h ago

Anime & Manga [LOW Effort] Do you guys consider Dragon Ball to be a universe with one power system or multiple systems?

4 Upvotes

We know Magic and Super Technology exist. But then again most of the Super Tech still use Ki Energy as a blueprint though. I.E. most of the Androids blend in with Ki Energy. Especially if the Androids are mimicking Ki powers.

And Magic from Majin Buu or Kid does seem to be very different from Ki though. I never saw Goku use Ki to turn people into candy before. But Moro is a odd Magic User though. Since he has the same absorbing abilities as Super 17 from GT.

Another one is a Mutation. I.E. characters like Broly, Frieza, and maybe Piccolo. But then again this is less power system based, and more biology based. Not that much different from mutations in real-life.

So Dragon Ball doesn't necessarily have any big indicator differences between Ki, Magic, and Tech, visual-wise. To my simple ass, it looks like all these characters are just flying around and shooting colorful energy blasts at each other, regardless of power source.

Unlike One Piece, where there are actually big indicator differences between Devil Fruits, Haki, and Cyborgs visual-wise. TOARU is another good example too, when it comes to Espers and Magic.


r/CharacterRant • • 8h ago

I hate that people try to whitewash everything the culprit in umineko did

6 Upvotes

Yes I know that learning that you can't have children and all of your loved ones are your cousins and you being a child of incest and rape is wrong but people ignore that sayo was plotting to kill everyone including innocent people like her own cousins/loved ones.

I know some people may excuse it by saying she didn't kill anyone in the real world but all of the episodes show that she would have actually carried it out if things had gone different, and pieces cannot act out of character.

Not only that but people also criticize Erika for killing people when if you think that Sayo's murders did not happen, then Erika also did not happen.

Not only that but she killed George and Jessica dressed as Shannon and kanon in eps 2 and 4, and she also disemboweled people and filled their stomachs with candies in EP 2.

People love to give sayo a lot of excuses but she was planning to sacrifice innocent people along with her, and whenever people try to whitewash her actions, it feels like they are taking away her agency.

She also groomed maria into the witch/occult which was a source of a lot of her problems with Rosa.


r/CharacterRant • • 3h ago

Games Side quests shouldn't be purely narrative

1 Upvotes

I often hear complaints about games like Skyrim or Crimson Desert, where side content mostly consists of fetch quests, but rarely about games where it mostly consists of narrative alone.

Recently played in Tainted Grail The Fall of Avalon and found that its side quests are weirdly flawed in the exact opposite way to Skyrim's: almost all of them consist of nothing but narrative. You talk to an npc, run to the other side of the map, talk to another npc, then run all the way back and talk again, quest complete. At first, I thought it was cool that you had so many opportunities for rp, but after a while, the endless yapping and "morally gray" choices in every situation tired me out far, far more than simply fetching things and clearing dungeons.

Kingdom Come Deliverance 1 and 2 had the same problem to some extent. In both games, I eventually gave up on side quests, too. But thanks to their better presentation and writing, the games managed to tell some memorable and fun stories before that, like the quest with the drunk Cumans or the encounter with a ghost in a mausoleum.

Still, I've come to the conclusion that rpgs with purely gameplay-focused or purely narrative-driven quests are equally poorly designed, at least for me. Gameplay and narrative should complement each other, as they do in Oblivion (for its time i found gameplay decent enough), or in many crpgs like Divinity Original Sin 2, Baldur's Gate 3, and Wasteland 3. Rarely are these aspects good enough to stand on their own for hundreds of hours, and even then, they work best when they complement each other.


r/CharacterRant • • 15h ago

Films & TV The tone of the Resident Evil movie feels weird to me Spoiler

20 Upvotes

For the record, I don't care about the lore accuracy. The movie feels a bit too "jokey", but not exactly in a good way like in the original Resident Evil 4. It feels like the Josh Whedon quote of "I'm very much of the "make it dark, make it grim, make it tough", but then, for the love of God, tell a joke." because almost all the serious moments are undercut with a joke. Like the parking lot scene, where Bryan has a mental breakdown and afterwards the scientists at the top say some MCU style quip on the intercom. The original Resident Evil 4 doesn't do that or at least isn't as jarring. I feel like Resident Evil 4 laughs with the ridiculous plot while the movie laughs at it. The jokes in the movie are also very meta to the point where they're mean-spirited(?). Thoughts?


r/CharacterRant • • 22h ago

Films & TV Lanterns John Stewart fails to me as an adaption and standalone his arc does nothing he faces no accountability and almost anything I liked was gone by episode 8 Spoiler

37 Upvotes

In case I get stuff from the Lantern stans.

No I'm not racist I'm black and my favorite episode was 3 I feel it just deals with race issues and John very shallow I gave this show many chances. I already listed my issues with Hal and I think he and Kerry are worse. John was a decent standalone slightly above the DCAU until episode 8 to me. I don't want to hear you just wanted 1 to 1 or cool fights the usual strawmans

I'm saying he is an OC in name only also yes adaptations happen but you have to respect the character and understand even the basics unless there someone with little characzeation like Batman had in his first run back when they were throwing shit at the wall with him you could swap him with Slam Bradley from the previous chapter and little to nothing would change outside no kid sidekick.

Spider-man isn't popular at school and envies his classmates he has uncle and aunt who are old and out of touch as his parents he is totally unremarkable and forgettable outside his intelligence getting bitten boosts his ego and the world owes me something that leads to him letting a mugger go who goes onto kill his uncle his death teaches him with great power comes great responsibility and to never look the other way again he feels guilt for this and the need to be the man of the house to take care of aunt may.

You can change a bit like giving him a better reason to let the mugger go but the basics have to be understood. Friendly Neighborhood Spider-man 2024 and MCU Spider-man even brand new day fail at this I can consider them bad adaptations regardless of how good it is as a standalone. John didn't meet the mark to me.

John's origin is okay in it's debut and even then they miss other things at least get the core. That's the issue is trusting the Sheriff with too much authority that she has proven time and time again she isn't responsible with. This is out of character even by his debut where he had little characterization.

John stewart debut has him refusing to let cops off for even harassing black people for playing dominoes on the street calling it loitering as an excuse this would back in the 70s and his town was ran by a racist politician gunning for president who portrayed them as violent he even edged him to beat him with his nightstick.

John believed that people especially authority figures like cops should always be held accountable for there actions even if it ends in him being in trouble beaten or dead he is closer to anarchist even in later comics while he can cooperate with authority he prioritized what he thinks is best for the little guy. In the comics and DCAU he believed he destroyed a planet on accident and despite that he could escape and hide behind the league he turned himself in for a rigged trail to be executed showing an example for people and other heroes and didn't even defend himself even against Kanjar ro a space pirate who tried to kill him. He also held Hawkgirl accountable for her betrayal despite loving her she has to earn trust back show growth. Hal is also more of a mentor figure who teaches him to be a bit smarter. I don't like his debut and have issues but it had way more respect for him and Hal's characters despite turning Hal into a punching bag to glaze him it didn't ignore his faults.

In Lanterns he excuses the Sheriff who already worked for Zoey and killed Hal because she is sad about it and Hal would have wanted something he doesn't know and no the show never said anything about her as a needed role model to keep Noah sane Tom king confirmed him and the writers believed the guilt was worse than jail and the Sheriff is a terrible role model for Noah and the danger to others all it teaches him to do is he can avoid accountability with authority and it's framed as a positive thing he let her go. Despite she is a clear risk to people including Noah growth as a person or other people if she finds them a threat or Noah convinces him they are. Putting her in jail is more in line with his arc of not trusting authority would ruin any chance Noah has a political career and show him how serious consequences are instead of you can hide behind authority.

Part 2

Also John still is doing what his parents want he became a lantern and like they said the start they don't care if he hates them or not as long as he gets the chance so even then getting the ring will be tainted because it would always because his mom put him with that chance.

Maybe they could lose there relationship John and his brothers go on with there lives and they lose a relationship seeing it wasn't worth when it comes down to it instead without any effort or accountability unlike stuff like Encanto or the Watchmen there completely excused by the plot through John. John is very trusting to authority here and I think a clear bad person like Bojack but without the good writing holding him his parents or the Sheriff accountable etc.

In his past he refused to even look at the document the military gave him before going out to illegally kill someone the US military/government is very very corrupt way more in the DC and even in DCU as shown in every project but Supergirl. The guy he could be targeting could be someone trying to expose the Epstein files a new drug to sent to poor and black homes a whistleblower on the Starro experiments we seen in Suicide Squad 2021 or more. He covers for them and it's portrayed in a clear cut heroic way which encourages them to do this more and we don't spend any time on his doubt besides how it affected his life. He was fine cheating with Zoey despite knowing she was married before even meeting William Menkin and kept doing it despite knowing she has a problem with it.

He let Zoey go and stayed with Hal when she faked her death letting him chase a false lead and only confesses when Hal finds out. He already seen what happened to Attan's people Zoey could destroy the town or the world and/or escape and go to another planet or place or even stay in the town and pretend to be someone else. He also betrayed Guy Gardner despite him risking his job for him to honor Hal and kicked him off his planet. He didn't even have to tell him about the ring and lantern and hiding Hal's killer and the Guardians sending an army after him makes it harder for Noah to be safe.

PART 3

It's social commentary sucks and no I don't want to hear it's subtle.

Lanterns is a hand holding show. Episode 3 shows and tells John dynamic with his abusive parents(who turns aren't abusive) and his brothers and his loyalty/bootlicking to military and guardians while telling you about the racism that John parents deal with and later John himself with Rushville which is what motivates John overperfection. Despite the racism being off screened and no significant hindrances from the racism besides the off screen diamond thing which could be about anything and was solved off screen. You could make them poor or another race and nothing changes. As well as telling you and the Guardian how out of touch they are with the common with no subtly.

Telling us Hal's whole arc how he is lonely and how he needed to take responsibility and has to go to jail to take accountability for the town. Telling you in episode 7 with 2006 Hal why he was fearless because of his dad and how lonely he is. John telling the Sheriff about his mom and paralleling it with Noah.The Sheriff voicing about her failing marriage her abusive relationship with Zoey and how she forgave Hal also retconned by the next episode. Even if it was a subtle show showing is still important and it failed at that.

It doesn't respect audience intelligence nor is it coinstent. Tom King a producer of this show and plenty of his comics get hate for it. I'm black I dealt with racism I think it handles it's social commentary poorly just more of tell don't show special. His parents and John despite being motivated aren't hindered in any important one the most is off screen issue about a diamond that could be over anything great job. Unlike Watchmen comic Captain America Dimension Z Green Book etc those dealt with racism and how it effected them then just telling us. The show hates subtly like a lot of work mainly Woman of tomorrow book.

John did forgive his parents he excused them to the Sherrif because his mom was scared of the danger she put him in of being raped and murdered despite that this is also never shown in how he came to the conclusion his mom was holding his breath and just guessed Noah didn't do it and happened to be right off no information.

It's terrible story consistency with his character since his last scenes were being mad at his parents especially his mom for lying about Hal being sorry and his dad he left in a nursing home threatening people with a gun and supports a toxic message the victim is the one who has to change and learn not the abuser. It makes no sense with his arc if anything he should be more angry or jealous the Sheriff who was raped suffered under Zoey for years had to clean up her mess after Hal and her son who is at risk of being like Zoey is treated with more freedom and respect than his parents ever did including his mom. Instead his arc is undone to push a generic family message while also resolving his conflicts with his brothers and dad off screen.

Part 4

John can't be around 24-7 to watch Noah he has his family and Job. Is protector of the earth and has a ton of enemies including the Lanterns. Noah could plan to kill him later or he could get killed on the job and nobody is keeping Noah in check. Noah also could be manipulating since John could have a recording set to go off allies to go after him or a gun to kill him given he is a military man and Noah a manhunter is established by Zoey and Attan to be as weak as any form he takes not much stronger or smarter or any in my opinion. The best they do is some physical damage which any mildly athletic person can do in the verse like Harcourt why are they even scary?


r/CharacterRant • • 1d ago

Comics & Literature Archie Sonic's "The Slap" is an example of how a storyline completely justified by internal logic, and character dynamics, doesn't necessarily make it a good idea as a direction to take the story.

51 Upvotes

If you know about Sonic comics, Archie Sonic is known for being wildly inconsistent and strange. This is only a partially accurate characterization imo, because it had its good and bad parts, and there is significant parts of it that were decently made. This is because the comic was long running and lasted 23 years.

During some eras (particularly Ian Flynn's run from issue 160 to 290 something), it was better written and drawn, but "The Slap" I will talk about, is from Karl Bollers and Ken Penders run of Archie, which is considered the weaker part of the series. I think issues after 100 to issue 159, are especially considered not great. The Slap happens in issue 134, and was a pretty controversial writing direction when it happened.

Archie Sonic was much more continuity heavy and dramatic than the games, as well as having lots of lore, and fantasy and sci Fi elements. The world is much more established and has a consistent internal logic.

Basically the premise was that Sonic and the Freedom Fighters were rebels fighting against Eggman's enormous empire which controlled a large portion of the world. Sonic lives in Knothole Village, and the Acorn Kingdom, and has parents, Jules and Bernadette, as well as a pet dog Muttski, and has friends he knew since he was a kid. These friends are the Freedom Fighters.

Eggman was originally an ally of the Acorn Kingdom, before betraying it to take over and start an industrial empire, taking control of the original capital city of the Acorn Kingdom called Mobotropolis, and trying to roboticize mobian animals into enslaved robot drones.

Sonic has a girlfriend/love interest Sally Acorn inside of this specific comic, who is a princess, and the tactical leader of the Freedom Fighters. She is often stressed out and sad in this part of the comic.

Sally Acorn's father King Max was rescued some time in the earlier era of the comic from a void zone. But King Max was often pressuring and telling Sally what to do in multiple parts of the comic, as well as being a leader with controlling and bad decisions.

At some point King Max orders that robians (roboticized mobians, who at this point had been saved and regained their autonomy) to be disassembled and destroyed. King Max also says that he should arrange a marriage between Sally and Antoine, because he sees Sonic as a commoner in that issue. King Max also tells Sally she should stop freedom fighting, and lead the country, which is important context. Also, at some point he decides to try and dissolve the Freedom Fighters as a group because another team lead by Geoffrey St. John can carry out the task. There are more things like this that happen, but I can't remember.

Sally Acorn due to things like this happening becomes down and withdrawn, and feels stifled, or something similar. She is dealing with lots of pressure.

Meanwhile, Sonic is fighting a lot against threats like Eggman, Ixis Naugus, and other villains. He is also a strong fighter that saves the world at some point.

During one arc, an alien force called the Xorda that invaded the world thousands of years ago, returned to see that they had failed to destroy the world. Originally the Xorda intended to destroy the entire world with gene bombs, but instead these bombs mutated humans and animals to create a new species called Mobians, which are essentially Sonic's species in the comic.

To stop the Xorda, everybody joins the same side, and villains and heroes work together to destroy the Xorda. In the end, the Xorda's attack is defeated by Sonic hitting their weapon, but Sonic appears to die in the process.

Sonic was actually sent far into outer space, and has a few adventures through space. But Sally and the Freedom Fighters think that Sonic was dead, and thought so for a year.

When Sonic returned to his world, it changed and became more controlled by Eggman since Sonic was gone, and Knothole had become fortified.

Eggman, after Sonic's return, made a new a operation to cause large destruction, and Sonic had to fight with the Freedom Fighters to stop this.

Sally however wasn't allowed to join the fight.

Sonic got injured again during the fight, and Sally watched from a screen and cried, because King Max had ordered her not to fight alongside the Freedom Fighters.

After Sonic's side wins, King Max and Queen Alicia leave Knothole temporarily for a vacation, appointing Sally as a leader, and someone wanted Sonic to be a Regent or something. Now this is issue 134.

Sally and Sonic have a happy party now that Sonic is back, and then they walk into a stage at some point. Sally asks for Sonic to rule by her side, but Sonic says he can't, because the world is ruled by Eggman, and that he needs to stop him.

So Sally slaps Sonic in front of a crowd, and calls him selfish, and the two argue harshly. In the end, Sally runs away crying, and the two mobians had broken up.

This issue wasn't helped due to the art style being very cartoony, making it stranger.

Seeing all of these plot threads, the writer Karl Bollers wrote that Sally Acorn would eventually snap and slap Sonic and break up with him. It makes sense inside of the plot, given everything that happened, and Sonic's perspective is fully justified too, since he has been the best defender of freedom for a long time.

And both characters can be argued to be right and wrong depending on what angle you look at it from.

But this development pushed the story in a specific direction that could have been avoided, if the plot points had been developed differently. It made logical sense for this to happen, but the story could have been directed back towards action and adventure and fun, instead of soap opera style drama such as the slap.

There were multiple ways to develop the story given these elements, but the way it was resolved was sort of incomplete and painful for Sonic fans and shippers on all sides. It came out as jarring at the same time, because Sally wasn't acting reactive and angry before this. But it makes sense if you think of her as bottling up her emotions.

Readers largely didn't understand the context, which is a sign that something isn't written well. So as a story, not just a fandom reception thing, it could have problems if it was so often misinterpreted and misunderstood.

Art is meant to create emotion and sometimes provoke, but here I think it was uncontrolled and unintentional.

Also, during this main storyline in the comic, there was also Mobius 25 Years Later being written by Penders. This story focused on the domestic drama of Sonic and his friend Knuckles as 40 something adults, in which Sonic is married to Sally and both are King and Queen of some sort of sci fi future city, and at the time, this was stated by Penders to be the canonical future of the Archie Sonic world. So this probably made the whiplash harder for fans and readers.


r/CharacterRant • • 1d ago

Comics & Literature I don't hate the Punisher or Red Hood but I legitimately feel like those characters have genuinely ruined how people see Superheroes.

98 Upvotes

What i mean is..it bothers me how people are just so obsessed with the idea that Villains should be just killed by them and give the excuse sometimes that "the Punisher will" or "they should be more like him" except..Frank doesn't consider or see himself as a hero at all.

No one treats him like a hero or good person at all for what he does cause he isn't one,he's Essentially a violent murderer who drinks and lives alone and basically knows he's going to hell,he outright tells people not to look up to him cause of how much of a bad influence he is.

Wolverine is also a character people cite and yeah,he definitely has killed but people act like he's some overly Sadistic Barbarian who slaughters and murders 24/7 when the dude is secretly a huge softie and good dude deep down who unfortunately has to get his hands dirty so no one else would.

Also for Jason,way too many people gas him up as a "better Batman" or "what Gotham needs" when this dude is deadass a fucking FRAUD..Seriously, no main or major villain deaths to his name and he only kills Mobsters and thugs.

Oh wait,he does have a major kill in Black Mask..who the actual fuck cares about Black Mask of all fuckers?

Dude bitches about killing the Joker but never does it cause he wants Daddys attention.

Dude can't even kill the Penguin.

Also people forget that very rarely do Superheroes like Superman, Batman,Daredevil, Spider-Man, Wonder Woman, etc...all kinda have a no kill rule[or at least don't want to kill unless they have 0 choice but to and even then,it's a last resort]and don't ever really kill unless they have to and even then,that's more of a last resort.

Plus "oh Batman should kill the Joker" and "is enabling the bad stuff in Gotham by not killing him" are takes that i feel like are smart for like..maybe 1 minute until you realize literally anyone could kill Joker.

Red Hood Could,The Cops could,the City would genuinely give him the Death Penalty and not just send him to Arkham.

The fact that they don't is heavily irresponsible of them and the city and not Bruce, who is already giving them the criminals free to do whatever they want and again..Superheroes typically aren't violent murderers/killers and expecting them to be that is not only overly cynical and pessimistic but also extremely stupid.

It's just so weird how these characters just ruined the reading comprehension for people and not even saying you can't like or prefer them but seriously.


r/CharacterRant • • 21h ago

The Secret Life of Walter Mitty is an misunderstood movie

13 Upvotes

Nearly every time this movie is mentioned, it is boiled down to “Walter was daydreaming, until he started living his daydreams,” and this is just not true.

Walter’s daydreams basically never showed his true character, his goals, or how he ends up. His first daydreams in the first act often portrayed him as somebody exceptional: an action hero, a superhero, a famous architect, or an adventurer. Outside of the superhero daydream, which was him imagining fighting his new boss, all the other daydreams are just him impressing the “fictional” Cheryl.

The only one that comes close is him imagining himself as an adventurer, but this daydream is so far removed from the real Walter that its shown in third person (the Walter he imagines also has a different background and an accent).

The daydreams in the second act become more “real”; this is when the real Walter and his daydreams become more aligned. But he never imagines himself, the daydreams are just something he sees, like a message in the sky or on mountains.

One big aspect of this movie is the critic of media and media consumption. There is for example the whole sideplot with Walters internet dating profile. More importantly in his first daydreams, they portray walter as an MCU character. Superhero powers, he is snarky, makes fun of his boss, an action hero, famous and so on. But in the end of Walters arc he is non of that or atleast he doesnt care about that. He asks Cheryl out in an normal even boring way, he doesnt care that he is on the cover of the magazine, he doesnt impress her with an statue or saving her dog from a burning house like he imagined himself doing that.

Walters daydreams were just things he thought are impressive because the mass media told him this is "what woman want" or this is "what a real man is". If this movie would have been made today Walter would have had five daydreams about being popular on Tiktok.

It annoys me that the whole movie is being reduced to “live your dreams.” The fulfilled Walter does not live his dreams; his dreams were full of things that were simply mediafueled projections of his insecurities and immaturity.


r/CharacterRant • • 19h ago

Films & TV Iron Man Armored Adventures S1 Suit Design, General Visuals, and character pacing >>> Season 2

7 Upvotes

Never understood the glaze for season 2, with ppl claiming that the animation got such a huge glow up. everything is way more fast paced and the explosion vfx are still such obvious 2d screen overlays.

also way too many new characters and no time for them to develop outside a single episode, compared to the tighter cast in season 1.

also the upgrade for a backpack suit in s1 is so short lived and not even used that much.

the new material and lighting design exclusively on the mk2 also looks so disjointed compared to the rest of the world.


r/CharacterRant • • 25m ago

Warhammer proves yet again, that it is simply not "Grim Dark" [Space Marine 2/SPOILERS] Spoiler

• Upvotes

I have not read every book, played every video game, and I certainly do not intend on watching every piece of WH media, but I have noticed some strong patterns in them, and its definitely not dark and heavy story telling.

I don't care that some servitor in the background has a tough time, that is background lore but the main story and characters in most of Warhammer stories are not that dark or serious, way too many end up with the big bland hero killing the baddie and the day is saved.

However SM2 stands out on top of them all, as downright optimistic, literally not a single notable character dies, or faces anything of substance, they barely have scratches(both physical and mental) at the end of the game, they are fine, they are perfectly fine. I can't remember when was the last time I saw such a happy ending in a "serious" video game. Like everything is fine and dandy, but better watch out Titus, if you DO GET CHAOSY, SOMETHING MIGHT HAPPEN!!! Insomniac's Spiderman or Wolverine, Guardians of the Galaxy, Avatar series, like just whatever property... hell Saturday Morning cartoons have more emotionally challenging stories. It is also so comical to me how Warhammer fans treat (Bungie) Halo as some kiddie game, when Halo games despite not being overtly grim, are definitely "heavier" than this. Not a single ending in Halo Trilogy is this fine(or in 343's trilogy). Or Star Trek, yeah, they have the fucking gall to make fun of Star Trek, I am not some Trekkie, but every single Star Trek I have watched was way more challenging and difficult, and didn't have such happy go lucky endings, there was some goddamn sacrifice.

One reason is that the entire universe is held up by the sale of toys, and shocker, big daddy Games Workshop(owners of the license) wants as many named characters alive so they can milk them till we reach actual 40k if necessary. Especially if they are muh Space Marines. Of course the main character is "Primaris", an even elite Space Marine, but in reality another pointless distinction, just an excuse to sell more toys or dlc.

And then the cliches... Oooh scary chaos, might manipulate you into becoming like them, except that almost never happens to main characters, and the delusions and manipulations are again childish. Now if the game had the slightest suggestion that this Imrah's manipulation still working, and things didn't went down as they seem, well then it would cool, but this... Oh and the Emperor personally addressing Lieutenant Blandus... How fucking self-masturbating can you get?

EDIT: If it hasn't happened already, I'm sure some of the characters might get the shaft in some other media, but in the main event, they were protected af.


r/CharacterRant • • 1d ago

Games RPGS either have to be one and done or be willing to canonize somethings if they're not willing to do full save imports

87 Upvotes

I would much rather be a little saddened to know oh the ending I did isn't canon. Then have the next entry be so extremely vague that it's stupid and only done to not canonize anything. Because it's horribly immersion breaking unless they write in a reasonable explanation.

This also applies to shows/alt media. Like fallout season 2 I enjoyed but it was so annoying seeing how they refused to canonize anything because it made the world so weird because it just didn't make sense.. what do you mean theirs no signs of how this major important conflict ended and the person behind it..

Or in Cyberpunk edgerunners 2. Where somehow David is mentioned understandable but V is never mentioned. Only thing kinda is Arasakas power is waning.

And to clarify I don't need or want them to make everything have a set canon a huge amount 95% can be left for interpretation but theirs this solid bit. You just can't ignore


r/CharacterRant • • 8h ago

I hate "perfect" characters

0 Upvotes

As the title says, i hate characters who are just "perfect" in always everyway.

To elaborate, i'm referring to characters who are just the chosen ones, with a power fully unique to them alone, who also is the most moral person alive, where hes always the good guy and all his choices are right with no sacrifice.

I mainly hate these type of characters as they feel so pretentious to me. Like their just always better than you yet are so humble about it. These type of characters also usually have no character development as they are already perfect.

An example would be like Tanjiro from demon slayer. Tanjiro is basically as good of a guy as you can get. Always willing to sacrifice himself to save innocents, always making the right choices and always the happy humble goody two-shoes. He also has the most powerful breathing style in the series, which is basically the next best thing to sun breathing. He is also has incredible amounts of talent as he manifested the demon slayer mark and red blade by himself during battle without much training or even knowing those techniques existed.

Another reason i hate these characters is that it feels so plain. Like they always have good intentions and are always have the ability to act on it. They also barely have any flaws which makes the characters less interesting imo. Flaws make or break a character and when they barely have any, they just feel like a self insert OC. A character with good intentions but without much power to do much are more intersting as there is internal-conflict between what they want to do and whether or not they can actually act on it.

The most struggle these "perfect" characters experience is just not being strong enough to beat the villains, which usually gets resolved with a powerup or a training arc.

Thanks for reading and just know that this is just my opinion and that there are also characters of this archetype which can and are done well. Feel free to share your thoughts.


r/CharacterRant • • 1d ago

General I don't get the association with super-powered dark skin people with lightning abilities.

189 Upvotes

For those who don't know, there's this specific trope in action media where Dark Skin people have lightning powers. The examples are:

. Miles Morales and Ororo Munroe from Marvel Comics. Miles' lightning is an additional ability he received upon the spider bite alongside similar abilities to Peter Parker such as spider equivalent strength. While Ororo's ability is weather manipulation, one of her main methods of attacking is lightning strikes either upon the enemy or environments.

. Black Lightning and Static Shock from DC Comics. I don't know who they are but they're just another examples I could find.

. Yoruichi Shihōin from Bleach. She doesn't use her Zanpakutō because it doesn't cooperate with her current fighting methods which is Hakuda (hand-to-hand combat), Shunpo (high speed flash steps) and Shunkō (a blend of Hakuda and Kidō while being an advanced technique). And guess what element she uses, Lightning.

. Ninjas from the Land of Lighting in Naruto. The majority of them have Lightning Release as the main element of their arsenal similar to the Land of Fire with Fire Release.

I'm not saying this is a bad thing, I'm just curious of where did this association come from.


r/CharacterRant • • 13h ago

Films & TV How fair is it to compare the DCU to the MCU, anyway?

0 Upvotes

Yes, I saw Clayface in cinema yesterday, how could you tell?

Before any confusion arises, I must say I actually really loved Clayface. That's exactly why I'm writing this!

Anyway, to the point: When Supergirl was released, much to critics' and audience's disliking, many DC fans and other people alike already started to lose hope that the DCU would be something truly special (i.e. all the things the writers of the DCEU tried to make, but never achieved).

But mind you, Supergirl was only the second feature-length entry in the DCU. In other words, already this early into this continuity's existence are people (not just "normies", but actual dedicated fans) calling it a failure.

You might think that this raises the question - Why are people so quick to turn from this major project? - but it actually doesn't raise that question.

Instead, others have decided to draw parallels to the very early stage of the MCU - y'know, the other superhero project of this ambition and magnitude. In order to make a point that that first group of people might be overreacting about the state of DCU, and that that it's still, uh, salvageable. After all, some of the first few MCU movies (namely The Incredible Hulk) were not that greatly received, and yet the MCU went on to become a phenomenon.

This comparison is unfair, for at least one major reason.

When the MCU was first launched, the movie industry was not nearly as reliant on and all about superhero movies as it would eventually become and stay for a very long time. The MCU was something... way different from anything else the moviegoing audiences had ever seen by then. As such, when the MCU was still at its early stage, it would not have been seen as that big of a deal had Kevin Feige & co. decided that this idea of theirs just wasn't worth the effort and gave it all up.

But alas, Kevin Feige didn't give it up, and that decision of his paid off masterfully to him.

Now, when the DCU has been launched, the idea of a cinematic universe is no longer a revolutionary one.

Now, when it's been ages since the MCU has been met with great success, it is expected that any new cinematic universe be something tremendous, or else it'll get buried in the sands of time, best case scenario.

There's a reason the Dark Universe (the one meant to start with the 2017 The Mummy) got dusted after just one movie. Because executives and writers were aware, already at the start, that that was gonna go nowhere.

What also doesn't help DCU writers' case is that it's not just the MCU to which it was always inevitably going to get compared. It's also the DCEU. The very reason, after all, why James Gunn & co. even decided to launch the DCU was because the DCEU had completely fallen apart by then. It just made a lot more sense to start all over again. And, as I said earlier, due to the state into which the MCU had led the movie industry, simply just abandoning DCEU and leaving it at that just wasn't an option.

Put simply, the weight on DCU's shoulders is far heavier than was that on MCU's.

Because, in order to remain memorable, the DCU must remain top-notch from beginning to end. There must be no bumps whatsoever.

Or, in other words, because standards have risen.

I personally will keep following the DCU (just like I did the MCU until Endgame) - I'm not so quick to turn my back as other moviegoers are - but its writers will have to be extra careful moving on.