Gavin

[font=tahoma,geneva,sans-serif][quote name='The Spectacular Professor' timestamp='1341116284' post='712117'] [font=comic sans ms,cursive]Really the entire thing felt like it was a bunch of good ideas marred by terrible execution. I love the idea behind Amon's identity, but the way they pulled it off just drained him of his dignity as the Equalist figurehead. [spoiler]A self-loathing bender who understands the lengths to which bending can be abused to oppress the common folk makes perfect sense as the leader of the Equalist movement, but Noatak's motivation went right out the window the second he decided to rely on bloodbending so heavily in that final fight. That was when he became an outright, unsympathetic hypocrite. This is a shame because the Equalists have a damn good point and [i]that was never once acknowledged[/i].[/font][/spoiler][/quote] I agree to an extent, the idea of [spoiler]a self-hating bender who sees the danger benders can represent to society when they don't look at themselves in the cold, hard light would've been a nice contrast to Korra's major sense of bending privilege and allow her to understand that being the Avatar is more than just being a bender. This could've been especially poignant if Korra hadn't just magically been able to airbend once Amon took her other bending forms and Aang hadn't magically asspulled her recovery with nothing learned. One of the things I really don't like about LoK is how 95% of the major bender characters in the series look upon losing their bending as a fate worse than death, as opposed to you know, just being like a normal nonbender who manage to live their lives. It's rather a gratingly superior attitude. However, making Amon Yakone's second bloodbending son and using their sob-story upbringing to try to pull a Hail Mary justification of Tarrlok's actions (which apparently worked for a lot of people) stripped away huge amounts of believability and likeability from the character. It brings Avatar back to the "sins of the father/family disputes affect the whole world" tropes that I really, really despise as plot devices. When Amon's identity is revealed, rather that redouble his efforts to maintain the ideology which he's been pushing for, he decides "Screw it, I'll just rely on my bending and completely destroy my organisation's credibility and the hope its members had for changing a flawed society". The shot of all the poverty striken benders and nonbenders living together in perfect harmony is a very clear indication Bryke are just going to ignore the actual credible points the Equalists had with regard to society. Personally I would've much preferred it if Amon had turned out to be the anonymous, burned, nonbender he claimed to be and that his abilities were just chi-blocking taken to its highest levels. Korra would've been forced to actually look at the Equalist ideology and how Republic City works (entirely bender composed governing body, all bender police which had no trouble violating civil rights, most popular sport restricted to benders, military seems bender exclusive or very heavily bender dominated) and come to terms with the fact she is the nonbenders Avatar as well rather than just "Amon is actually a Yakone's super bloodbending son, so all your grievances are somehow illegitimate".[/spoiler] [quote name='The Spectacular Professor' timestamp='1341116284' post='712117']T[font=comic sans ms,cursive]he entirety of the finale just managed to leave a sour taste in my mouth because it left me completely and utterly aware of how much better it could have been. It's like every cool concept they dished out had to be immediately crippled by some intense need to play it safe. Hell, I've spent the last month and a half hating the crap out of Mako, and I can actually envision a perfect way to pick up his character from as late as right before Aang hits the reset button and make him likeable and sympathetic right there. [spoiler]Speaking of Aang and his magical fix everything asspull, that's probably the single most infuriating thing this finale did. It's right up with that one Naruto arc where Nagato killed himself and magically brought back everyone he killed because Naruto had a name that resembled his. Before they did that, there were at least consequences for the events of the story. People suffered, we could relate to the loss the characters were experiencing, and it left open infinite possibilities for continuation. There was so much room to grow for Korra and everyone else with the concept of the Avatar herself losing her bending. It could have been amazing. But no, all we get is Aang popping in and being all CONGRATULATIONS ON CONTEMPLATING SUICIDE KID HERE YOU WIN THE PRIIIIIZE. She just gets everything handed to her because she got sad for a few minutes. Aang had to willingly give up everything important to him to truly unlock the Avatar State. How was this even written by the same people?[/font][/spoiler] [/quote] Yeah, head-canon is a terrible thing. The United Forces seem to have been introduced purely so IIroh could be added to the roster and shown to be a skilled Firebender, and to give the Equalists another military victory brought about by Hiroshi Da Vinci-Stark before they were all inexplicably defeated by Team Avatar, a group of untrained civilians. It would've been far better if the United Forces had been led by General Bumi with Commander Iroh serving under him, and Bumi actually verbally acknowledging how it feels to be a nonbender in a bender dominated world. Heck Bumi would've been the perfect mouthpiece for a moderated nonbender viewpoint seeing as he's the son of the damn Avatar. Also Dante Basco using Zuko's voice for IIroh felt really, really out of place to me. I quite liked Mako at the start of the series but I'd have to agree, he's just a douche. I could sympathise with him up to a point, but when he didn't even bother to try to work things out with Asami and left her utterly in lurch, it was just a **** thing to do. It's a shame because if Amon [spoiler]really was a self-hating bender, then Mako, having lost his parents to another bender, being forced to look after his brother and compete in a bending sport just to make ends meet would've been the perfect character to attempt to sway to his viewpoint to the Equalist cause and give Korra an actual personal stake in looking at its ideology.[/spoiler] I won't even speak of Korra's asspull ending with Aang, suffice to say I found it hilarious her Avatar state wouldn't trigger when [spoiler]she was about to lose her bending, seeing as you know, it's specifically described as a self-defence mechanism.[/spoiler][/font]

[font=tahoma,geneva,sans-serif]I really didn't like the revelation of Amon's identity, it stripped away so much respect I had for the character.[/font]

[font=tahoma,geneva,sans-serif]Yeah, I'm really hoping Kishi doesn't do an asspull to justify Tsunade and the Kages (or God forbid Tsunade on her own) defeating and sealing Madara when he's been pretty much toying with them since the fight started. [/font]

[font=tahoma,geneva,sans-serif]As much as I like Kirge, I'm kinda glad his fight is done (even if it ended kinda poorly) because it was starting to get boring. As a character he was clearly introduced to hype the Vandenreich Stern Ritter and their Volstandig given he was on a lower level to them and was able to contend with Ichigo (arguably Senior-level now) for an extended period of time. I still reckon the Gotei are going to get decimated simply because there's no other way to introduce the Royal Guard without completely unbalancing the power scales in SS's favour unless there's a heck of a lot more SR than we thought (all 26 letters of the alphabet). [/font]

[quote name='The Spectacular Professor' timestamp='1340565475' post='712085'] [font=comic sans ms,cursive]That finale just could have been so much better. Like, all of it.[/font] [/quote] [font=tahoma,geneva,sans-serif]Good to know I'm not alone in thinking it, they pretty much wasted every strand of possibility they had with that finale. [/font]

[font=tahoma,geneva,sans-serif]Well this week's chapter certainly had plenty of surprises to it, really want to know who Kyoraku is fighting because the dude makes Starrk look like a punk. Figure seeing as Akon won't be able to get in touch with Ichigo we may see Isshin, Urahara and co and the non-Gotei Vizards back in the picture, would love to see Ryuken as well. [/font]

[font=tahoma,geneva,sans-serif]Apparently, although to be honest based on what was revealed this week it's a seriously weird technique. I can sort of understand why it was created, but given Inazagi costs the user one eye for using it what exact circumstances would lead to it been necessary to create. At max someone suffering from the "arrogance" Itachi described would be able to use the technique twice, after which they'd be completely blind. The only reason the tech was even mildly viable for Danzo or Tobi is because they've got a shed-load of spare 3-tomoe Sharingan at their disposal and the Senju DNA to enhance the technique.[/font]

[font=tahoma,geneva,sans-serif]And yet again Danzo proves to have been as bit a detriment to Konoha's safety than pretty much every villain who ever took issue with the village. Seriously what was Sarutobi doing during all of this, the man is looking like the most incompetent, incapable Hokage who ever lived and it's a miracle Naruto didn't turn out to be a monster.[/font]

[font=tahoma,geneva,sans-serif]Sort of surprised, and at the same time, completely unsurprised that Letzt Stil has been brought back as the Vanden equivalent to Bankai. As much as I like the technique it feels sort of lame Kubo can't seem to get beyond the idea of the bad guy groups need to be on roughly the same tier as Captains power-wise and has recycled LS (apparently without the "lose all your powers drawback" though I have theories as to why this is) for that purpose. I much preferred it back when it was speculated the Vandenreich Quincy were capable of breaking/destroying bankai in combat and it would essentially come down to who was the smarter opponent rather than "lulz bankai hax!".[/font]

[font=tahoma,geneva,sans-serif]Got to admit, I really enjoyed this week's chapter. Kabuto's flashbacks were downright eerie (and I didn't think Orochimaru could become any creepier but there you go) and quite sad. I'm left to wonder if Kabuto's current goal of surpassing Orochimaru is based around the goal of stripping any legacy and identity Orochimaru might leave behind, the same way Orochimaru took Kabuto's.[/font]

[font=tahoma,geneva,sans-serif]Lot of things going on in that chapter, but still quite decent overall. The session with the VCs was good, Kira proving rather insightful as to the goings on of the 12th. Mayuri and Yama's chat was quite interesting too, bit surprised how blasé the massacre of 28,000 people was taken as, but I guess the maintenance of the balance of souls remains SS's top priority. Only thing I didn't really like is the idea Buckbeard is a thousand years old, if only because I liked the idea these Quincy were the end result of a goal rather than the originators of it. Hopefully we get more answers next week.[/font]

[font=tahoma,geneva,sans-serif]Yup, never really understood why people can a **** about Halibel's fraccion but apparently they do so I'm forced to sit there and read as they run their mouths off before likely getting utterly fodderised again and needing a rescue. I still find it somewhat strange that Halibel somehow inherited Hueco Mundo from Aizen (or any Espada inheriting it) because Aizen's claim to the throne was based entirely on his personal strength without establishing a "dynasty" for the lack of a better term. Plus to the best of my knowledge there were other VLs still out there who hadn't been recruited yet into Aizen's army who would likely contest Halibel being declared Queen of Hueco Mundo.[/font]

[font=tahoma,geneva,sans-serif]It does feel quite a bit less intuitive by comparison I've found, but as the old saying goes when you haven't horses you must plough with asses. I was more so annoyed that you have the play the multiplayer in order to access the "best ending" via "galactic readiness", which was a pain for those of us who aren't into that horde mode style multiplayer. Not so enthused by BioWare's "extended cut" DLC, even free which it had to be, I seriously doubt without quite a bit of new content it'll make up for the mess that was the original ending or truly satisfy players the way it should have first time around.[/font]

[font=tahoma,geneva,sans-serif]A lot of people seem to think he'll have a new released state or something like Segunda Etapa but honestly I'd be really surprised if he did. I mean Ulquiorra having one was intended to set him apart from all the other Arrancar and Grimmjow while a decent character never had anything alluded to him being special like that. [/font]

[quote name='Shinmaru' timestamp='1333383525' post='711232'] I've read up a bit more on that theory ... it's definitely interesting and would explain a lot about the ending, but not everything. (Is the whole point of showing the Illusive Man's behavior throughout the game just to feed into this [spoiler]Reaper-induced vision[/spoiler] at the end?) And as you write, a major flaw is that there is no real ending with this theory in mind ... it's not really the type of event that [i]should[/i] be the ending in that case. Of course, it hasn't been proved by any stretch that this theory is accurate (there are rumblings here and there that it isn't the ending BioWare had in mind, though of course they could change their minds along the way). [/quote] [font=tahoma,geneva,sans-serif]Possibly, I think it's as likely to be intentional of showing Shepard that [spoiler]there can be no alternative path to defeating the Reapers other than destroying them completely. Saren proposed Synthesis and in the name of fusing the organic and the synthetic was turned into a creature very much like a husk, while the Illusive Man advocated control but is continuously shown losing that control to the Reapers themselves due to his exposure to their technology. In the end he becomes so blinded by his desire to control that he essentially attempts to give the war to the Reapers (telling them the Citadel is the key) than lose his chance to control them. If the indoctrination theory wasn't what BioWare had in mind then I'm honestly shocked because there's literally so much stuff subtly there that for it to be a coincidence would beggar belief.[/spoiler][/font]

[font=tahoma,geneva,sans-serif]Regarding the ending, I really suggest everyone watch the following Youtube video (it's over 20 minutes long but really worth it) and then decide what you think of it. [spoilerblock][/font] [center][media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ythY_GkEBck[/media][/center] [/spoilerblock] Of course the major problem with that is that it means [spoiler]we never actually got an ending, as logically the proper ending would take place after Shepard having fought off the effects of indoctrination and then getting to the Citadel and activating the Crucible proper. On the other hand, it's a massive feather in BioWare's storytelling cap to have been able to do something like that so subtly that 99% of people missed it (not that BioWare helped us by making it seem like it was the ending).[/spoiler]

[font=tahoma,geneva,sans-serif]Watched the first two episodes and while I'm disappointed Tim Curry has been replaced by Steve "Every character I voice sounds the same" Blum i quite enjoyed it overall. Tenzin is probably my favourite character so far, if only for the little whirlwinds he stirs up when he swishes his cloak.[/font]

[font=tahoma,geneva,sans-serif]I have to admit, I was a bit surprised it was confirmed Vandenreich actually steal as opposed to seal/destroy bankai. Logically in order to steal a bankai you'd have to steal and subjugate the entire zanpakuto as opposed to just one form, unless it's something like Wonderweiss's Extinguir but even that had to be specially designed as opposed to just a generic "lulz stoll ur bankai!" On a slightly positive note this probably means we'll get to see Sasakibe's bankai, but unfortunately it'll be wielded by one of the Vandenreich guys. [/font] [font=tahoma,geneva,sans-serif]Credit where credit is due I thought Kubo handled Sasakibe's funeral brilliantly, Byakuya's internal eulogy was a really nice touch along the panel of Yamamoto openly mourning the lost of his friend. I do agree with you about Pesche as well, there was no real need for him to arrive and say exactly what Nel could've said by herself, but I'm also kind of annoyed Nel is still in her child-form which logically a session with Orihime should've fixed. I suppose though having Nel in adult-form would pretty much rule Grimmjow out of being King of Hueco Mundo (which is pretty much guaranteed to happen) given she's likely quite a bit stronger than him. Not looking forward to going back to HM so soon (and a pity Ichigo wasn't at Sasakibe's funeral because it'd be good to see him with the Gotei again) but the pace seems to be significantly quicker this time around so hopefully we won't be there 4 years this time.[/font]

[font=tahoma,geneva,sans-serif]Yeah I'm really not impressed with the recent chapters featuring the brothers and Sasuke's massive personality shift. I get that he might be a bit calmer around Itachi but that last chapter featured him being downright normal. Maybe this is supposed to signify just how much of a sociopath/psychopath Sasuke has become given how normal he can act around people he likes vs the sadism he showed to people he doesn't care about/hates. [/font]

[font=tahoma,geneva,sans-serif]That they did, that they did.[/font]

[quote name='Boo' timestamp='1332962343' post='711109'] Didn't we have an ME thread once? [SPOILER]*SALUTE* Also: Legion galore! *confetti* But I was really happy with my decisions too. Afterwards I read the forums and I saw people who made like one wrong choice in the dialogue and completely got either one killed. :( [/SPOILER] [/quote] [font=tahoma,geneva,sans-serif][b]MORE BIG SPOILERS[/b] [spoiler]It's actually impossible to get the good ending if you don't import an ME2 save where Tali wasn't exiled and you settled Legion and Tali's argument. I think how you resolve Legion's loyalty mission also have an effect, not sure which is the right choice though, I rewrote the Heretics rather than destroy them and still managed to establish a peace. You also need to disable the Geth fighters and save Admiral Koris.[/spoiler][/font] [font=tahoma,geneva,sans-serif][u][b]MASSIVE SPOILER[/b][/u] [spoiler]I became rather choked up when Legion realised he had to sacrifice himself to give the other Geth true intelligence and the dialogue that followed between himself, Shepard and Tali. Like Shepard for a brief second I thought he'd just downloaded into a new body before that hope too was cruelly dashed. [/spoiler][/font]

[quote name='Boo' timestamp='1332895422' post='711087']Silver Mech: [spoiler]Though I thought it funny how they made Shepard sound like Jesus. And "could you tell another story of the Shepard, grandpa?" "Have you bought the DLC, kiddo?" "No, not y-" "THEN NO! GTFO"[/spoiler] [/quote] [font=tahoma,geneva,sans-serif]Gotta love how unsubtly that statement was included in the game. [/font]

[font=tahoma,geneva,sans-serif]Just finished the final episode of Bleach (man that feels weird to say that), really liked the way the structure the last quarter of the episode and the "ending", felt right. [/font]

[quote name='James' timestamp='1332833572' post='711046'][font=palatino linotype][...] I've become fond of the characters and the game world itself. This is one franchise where I'd be quite happy to see a second trilogy, I think.[/font] [/quote] [font=tahoma,geneva,sans-serif]Agreed, depending on how the ending issues are ultimately resolved I think there's plenty of potential to go on and tell another compelling story without the need for an overall "big bad" in the Reapers. I'm certain I'm not alone in being very intrigued to see how the galaxy would deal with the aftermath of the Reaper invasion, and the home truths learned from it. The only major issue I could see cropping up would be the necessity to set a concrete canon for major choice events in the ME universe (I haven't read the novels so I'm not sure if they do that already) as personally, the vanilla/non-imported stories in ME2 and ME3 are nowhere near Paragon enough for my tastes.[/font]

[font=tahoma,geneva,sans-serif]Now now James, don't be stingy with details.[/font]