Solo Tremaine

[COLOR=#503F86]I am disappointed there are few One Piece fans here >.>; I loves it.[/COLOR]

[COLOR=#503F86]Despite knowing nothing about what anyone's been talking about for the last page or so, somehow it makes slightly more sense than Kishi's current idea of plot development o_O; Are we sure some fanfic writer hasn't hijacked his studio?[/COLOR]

[quote name='Magus']Old man Yama finally stepped in. Hopefully, there won't be anymore time wasted on these fraccions, and we can just get down to the nitty gritty.[/quote][COLOR=#503f86]Yeah, I don't feel I need to know how every single possible fight combination pans out; I just want to see the main, important battles that actually have something to do with the story.[/COLOR]

[COLOR=#503F86]If you put it like that... yeah, I'm still annoyed Kakashi has apparently 'died' over Chouza. But, to be fair, there's been no concrete confirmation that Kakashi is actually dead. It wouldn't surprise me if he was just incredibly near death, enough for Tsunade to worry that he [I]will[/I] die if he doesn't get help now. I don't think him seeing his father is necessarily symbolic of his death just yet, maybe something to do with the Magenkyo, or something. At least, if this were a decent shounen manga, that's what I think would happen.[/COLOR]

[COLOR=#503F86]Actually reading this week's chapter, it's not as bad as I was expecting. But that hold feels tentative at best at the moment ^_^;[/COLOR]

[COLOR=#503F86]Then what the hell was the point in focusing on Chouji's grief? I wouldn't have minded so much if he'd stayed dead. This is so irritating >.>;[/COLOR]

[quote name='Kei'][COLOR=darkblue][SIZE=1]Oh, my. How violent we've become. ;p[/SIZE][/COLOR][/QUOTE][COLOR=#503F86]Eheh ^_^; I was actually thinking more in terms of satsfying plot conclusions. The only way he could really redeem himself as a hero is either by dying or living in exile for the rest of his life after the events of the story (albeit perhaps with Naruto chasing after hm anyway, or something). I still think that image of friendship between the two is an interesting plot element, but it's just a shame it's become so swamped with ridicuous overpowering of said Uchiha and the stagnant pacing of Naruto's parallel story.[/COLOR] [quote name='Kei][COLOR=darkblue][SIZE=1]Kishi is also starting to kill off characters seemingly at random. I mean, was there really a point to Chouji's father dying? He hardly ever showed up before. I realize there's the "Will of Fire" and all, but really. If the character bears no significance, how are we actually supposed to care?[/SIZE'][/COLOR][/quote][COLOR=#503F86]Exactly. We were introduced to Choji's dad for like... a chapter or two in the last siege of Konoha, so as far as I'm concerned it's like "...who died?" Yeah, bad for Choji, but it had no build-up and to me just looked to serve as page filler. It would have been more dramatic if Choji's dad had been trapped and was telling him to go whilst being on the brink of being killed by Pein. So Kakashi in effect was given the lines and role that, for Choji's development, would have been better. But this is obviously the Copy Ninja's supposed swan song, so... eh. I wouldn't be surprised if in however many chapters down the line he wakes up in a hospital somewhere and is just unable to move whilst being told the story of what happened by Sakura, or something. I don't particularly want to see people being killed arbitrarily just because it's perceived as dramatic to do so. I actually find it quite patronising, and I'm getting echoes of Harry Potter Seven with all this at the moment. Asuma, yes, dramatic and poignant; Jiraiya's, dramatic and necessary given there was nowhere else to take his character. Kakashi has so much more potential left, though.[/COLOR]

[quote name='Ace'][FONT=Comic Sans MS]Basically, Nagato's running around somewhere, and he's "using every jutsu" through all the various reanimated Peins.[/FONT][/quote][COLOR=#503f86]You have no idea how hard it is not to misread that "Peins" as something entirely different >.>;[/COLOR] [COLOR=#503f86]I'm a little more interested in these chapters now, but Good Lord, Kishimoto's drawing things out. This last one was messy as well, too much cutting back and forth. I don't even know why Ino's meant to be at the interrogation place. But we've had five-six consecutive chapters which have all said something like 'I'll tell you everything I know about Pein', or 'I've discovered something about Pein', and tell you [I]nothing[/I]. It's getting a bit old now, if I'm honest. But I'm actually rather interested to see what'll happen to Konohamaru. It'd be cool if he managed to defeat one of the Peins, heh. Not that I imagine he would.[/COLOR] [COLOR=#503f86]Kakashi's not actually dead yet though, is he? Have I missed something? Or is it one of those 'not actually confirmed yet' things that's just keeping people on edge?[/COLOR] [COLOR=#503f86]EDIT: By the way, I've decided that Sasuke should be killed. Because it would be cool.[/COLOR]

[quote name='Magus']That was some punch though. I don't know how long I was staring at that one frame. I thought I was seeing things but turned out that her side was actually missing... Poor Matsumoto.[/quote][COLOR=#503f86]I'm glad I wasn't the only one. I was pretty damn shocked to see [spoiler]that massive chunk taken out of her, and for him to be actually holding it a few pages later... urgh, it's really disturbing[/spoiler] o_o;[/COLOR] [COLOR=#503f86]And leave Hitsugaya alone, you bigots. There's nothing wrong with him.[/COLOR] [COLOR=#503f86]But to be honest I want everything to get a move on. I'm glad the secondary characters are getting some time but there are so many that getting any pages with them actually doing anything interesting can take weeks >.>; As much as I like Ukitake, he looked about as unimpressed as I felt reading those few frames. It was rather boring.[/COLOR] [COLOR=#503f86]I'm still hoping Hinamori will upset the balance of the fight when Aizen eventually escapes from that fire prison, in a way that goes against the Shinigami. I'd always root for them, but things are getting to be a bit predictable now:[/COLOR] [COLOR=#503f86]-Espada/Fraccion vs Shinigami[/COLOR] [COLOR=#503f86]-Both mouth off (or at least Espada does)[/COLOR] [COLOR=#503f86]-They fight, not to full capacity[/COLOR] [COLOR=#503f86]-Espada uses Resurrecion[/COLOR] [COLOR=#503f86]-Shinigami has problems[/COLOR] [COLOR=#503f86]-Shinigami releases Shinkai (or starts trying generally)[/COLOR] [COLOR=#503f86]-Shinigami 'unexpectedly' wins. [/COLOR] [COLOR=#503f86]-Cue next fight.[/COLOR]

[COLOR=#503F86]Haha, I honestly didn't mean that in any sense of obscure fetishism ^_^; I just meant that what we see is never her true form bearing in mind how old she is, so if she has to fight to full capacity again a la when against Orochimaru and Kabuto before the timeskip, then she'd probably not be able to maintain her venir.[/COLOR]

[COLOR=#503F86]I actually quite liked this chapter, although I'm getting a little irritated with some of the plot holes that are appearing in various places (like Tsunade's failure to detect anything weird, the lack of sentries (unless you presume Pain killed them all)... Still, here's hoping either Konoha will be decimated before Naruto gets there (setting him out on a revenge mission and cheating Sasuke out of his own), or that Tsunade and Pain destroy each other. Or at the very least she has enough taken out of her that we see her 'real age' soon. 'Cause that'd be interesting.[/COLOR]

[quote name='Gavin'][SIZE=1]I think it's just the emotionally cold, prodigy archetype of his character is something I dislike in literature. Even though Ichigo is cut from a somewhat similar cloth, while he is emotionally distant, we at least know underneath it all he is very concerned with the welfare of his friends and allies.[/SIZE] [SIZE=1]He's not particularly annoying but the way in which he conducts himself and speaks often has an edge of condescension I think seems almost ridiculous from someone his age and relative inexperience. It's also the fact every time he's threatened someone (Gin, Aizen and Luppi) he's ended up getting beaten. I know he didn't technically lose to Gin, but I don't think Gin was fighting at full strength there either and he is yet another prodigy.[/SIZE] [SIZE=1]And no Hugi, there's no jealousy there. (And that wasn't a typo for your name) :p[/SIZE][/QUOTE][COLOR=#503F86]That's fair enough, but I've never really seen him as condescending. He's just more of a realist than perhaps some of the other characters are. He's not that emotionally distant; certainly Ichigo's are bubbling much closer to the surface in the way he acts, fights and reacts to everything that's thrown at him, it's still obvious that Hitsugaya cares not only for Hinamori and Rangiku, but also that he felt completely betrayed by Aizen and Gin; you can tell that when he tried to murder Aizen for attacking Hinamori, and for lashing out at Gin for believing he corrupted her. But yeah, he doesn't give off the warmest of auras, but then he is an ice-wielder, so it's almost in his nature anyway :P Heh, people in Sixth Form used to call me Hu-Gi-Oh ^_^; I'm used to the Yugi puns. With regards to his strength, he actually seems like one of the weaker captains when you put it in perspective, and that's probably indicative of his age (I don't often remember details like timelines, so thanks for pointing out how long he's actually been there, heh). But then his battles have always had him up against people vastly more powerful than he is. I guess in a way I'd prefer it if he had better technique as Ichigo but perhaps didn't have the raw power. That would be a fair compromise in my eyes. I think it was a little indulgent for him to have his own movie though. I haven't seen it yet, heh. Or the first one, for that matter...[/COLOR]

[quote name='Gavin'][SIZE=1]Either way...I just really want to see Halibel kill Hitsugaya, because if she doesn't it ranks his power above Ichigo in Vizard form and that I just refuse to accept because it then completely screws up the power rankings I've worked out. [/SIZE][/quote][COLOR=#503F86]Poor you. I really don't see why he's so annoying. He's just a very serious young man. He hasn't done anything particularly obnoxious during the series. Do I detect jealousy much? Why would it be unrealistic for him to be more powerful than Ichigo anyway? He's been a Shinigami for hundreds of years; personally I'd be more disappointed i Ichigo were to ace absolutely everyone on the first go, much like some other God-Modding manga characters we could care to mention. Apparently he overtook Ichigo as the #1 favourite character in Bleach a short while ago (but then, I did read that on the internet so it's probably wrong), so I don't think he'd be dying any time soon.[/COLOR]

[COLOR=#503F86]Somebody update me! I need to know how things are in Kubo-land. [I]One Piece[/I] has me all wrapped in a bundle of nerves after the latest chapter but I've not been able to find out what's happened recently in [I]Bleach[/I], if anything.[/COLOR]

[COLOR=#503F86]This sounds awful. I'm glad I'm not reading it.[/COLOR]

[quote name='Gavin'][B][SIZE=1]Mitch, Alex and Altron specific to their repeated bannings.[/SIZE][/B][/quote][COLOR=#503f86]Major props for remembering Altron there, Gav. He was very frustrating.[/COLOR]

[quote name='Sara'][FONT=trebuchet ms][B]Pop[/B] vs. [B]Soda[/B] is a big debate every September where I live... the freshmen come into the dorm and all hell breaks loose when the Minnesotans and the Wisconsinites meet each other and inevitably clash over carbonated beverages.[/FONT][/quote][COLOR=#503F86]South of England doesn't tend to use either term; 'soda' referes to 'soda water' and pop is more used in the North, I think. We just tend to refer to the drinks by type (lemonade, coke, etc). Collectively they're just 'soft drinks'. Makes things easier but more complex, I guess.[/COLOR]

[quote name='MistressRoxie'][COLOR=#9933ff]Or it can be more international, like calling a washcloth a flannel (it took me AGES to figure out that's what they meant, XD).[/COLOR][/quote][COLOR=#503f86]We have flannels! I thought you meant 'dishcloth' at first. There's usually a distinction between dishcloths and tea towels in England. Dishcloths are disposable and used for washing up, tea towels are used for drying and normally have some quaint English design on them with flowers or rural patterns.[/COLOR] [COLOR=#503f86][quote name='DeathKnight][COLOR=#dc143c']I say bloody sometimes. Bloody this. Bloody that.[/COLOR][/quote]I do too, but then, being English it's probably a bit less unusual :P I get through most of the common British colloquialisms: Blimey, Crikey, Crumbs, Gordon Bennett, Bloody Hell, Good Lord, stuff like that. Occasionally I'll call toilets 'dunny buckets', because it's funny.[/COLOR] [COLOR=#503f86][quote name='James][FONT=Franklin Gothic Medium][COLOR=#000000]The front is a bonnet and the rear is a boot (rather than a "trunk").[/COLOR'][/FONT][/quote]Yeah, that's the same here ^_^[/COLOR] [COLOR=#503f86]I can't think what I use that isn't typically English; some of the words get absorbed from other languages so quickly they're 'English' before you knew they came from somewhere else in the first place.[/COLOR]

[COLOR=#503F86]I generally prefer bacon to sausage. I've had so many sausages which just taste like rubbish stuffed into a skin. Bacon is bacon is bacon, generally. Unless it's crappy reformed stuff. It's much easier to find decent bacon than it is to find decent sausage. Cumberland's nice, though.[/COLOR]

[COLOR=#503f86]The frogs are blatantly just old hippies trying to get Naruto onto questionable substances. I bet it's Methylated Spirits.[/COLOR]

[quote name='Phenom'][COLOR=navy]Solo - To each their own. I admit that I haven't actually went back and watched any of the old stuff outside of Superman, Spider-Man, X-Men and Batman from time to time. (Don't feel like wasting money on it.) But at the same time, the remakes to the older series are fairly poor.[/COLOR][/quote][COLOR=#503f86]Oh, remakes? Yeah, I can see your frustrations there :p Every time a franchise gets rebooted it has to change in some way, either visually or in the writing, and it can take away from what originally made it popular in the first place. But if a series stayed the same forever, it may never attract new audiences and would only appeal to the fans it already had. As far as I know [I]Scooby-Doo[/I] hasn't changed one iota since its inception, and to me it's one of the most banal pieces of television ever created. But it's simple enough that kids can get into it at any point, so it actually works quite well in that sense.[/COLOR] [COLOR=#503f86]In comparison, something like [I]Pokemon[/I] also hasn't changed since it first aired, but its influence has diminished quite dramatically. While [I]Scooby-Doo[/I]'s continuance probably rests on its existing reputation to a degree (parents sitting their kids in front of it, or whatever), [I]Pokemon[/I] I hardly hear mentioned now, outside of the cards or video games. Because the series has some kind of overlaying story (albeit very weakly), it still isolates people who come into it part way through and don't know what's going on. I doubt [I]Scoob[/I] has any complex, over-reaching story arc to confuse people with >.>; [/COLOR] [COLOR=#503f86]It's funny, I know loads of people who've bought the DVDs of [I]Transformers[/I] out of sheer excitement that they could own it all, but nobody who's actually [I]watched[/I] it again. [/COLOR] [COLOR=#503f86]It depends why a series is made. I can't name even half of all the CN franchises popping up now, and none of the new ones look anywhere near as good quality as [I]Fairly Odd Parents[/I], so I get the impressions they were started as schedule filler under different remits ("okay, we need a sci-fi, something set in a school, etc..."). And the lack dedication to its own quality is really evident if you can't get into it despite knowing the premise is actually quite intersting. I think with comic book series the reboots are that much more jarring if they don't work properly. For the record, I really liked [I]Justice League[/I] ^_^ [/COLOR] [COLOR=#503f86]And actually, [I]Thundercats[/I] had incredible animation compared to its bretheren. I'm impressed every time I catch the opening sequence to that. To make a point, a favourite series of mine that I still adore is [I]Mysterious Cities of Gold[/I], which was made in 1982.[/COLOR] [COLOR=#503f86]I'm glad I'm not the only one who thinks [I]Futurama[/I] is better than [I]Family Guy[/I]...[/COLOR]

[quote name='Phenom'][COLOR=navy]Cartoons in the 80s and 90s were great, and nowdays, cartoons aren't about squat except for being quirky and "original". But then again, me and the word "quirky" don't get along anyway. I think the only type quirky cartoons I watched back then was Scooby Doo, Looney Toons, (Bugs and Daffy.. Anything affiliated with them) Animaniacs, and Tom and Jerry. And then there was Darkwing Duck and Ducktales. (Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles triumphs all)[/COLOR][/quote][COLOR=#503F86]I knew this argument was going to come up: "Cartoons today are all rubbish!" No, they really aren't :p I'm shocked at what I used to consider amazing. I used to love the Turtles and He-Man and Thundercats but watching them now, God they're embarrassingly poor. I can appreciate decent structure and writing in a series, but some of the way these series were done were apalling even by old standards. I can't actually watch the old series of [I]Transformers[/I] or [I]Turtles[/I] because of how badly they've aged and how much more I expect of my storylines and episode structure. Blimey, even my all-time favourite series I used to completely adore above all else, [I]Visionaries[/I], after watching an episode again I'm mortified at how badly it compares to a lot of stuff about nowadays. I don't like some shows for their animation style; I also don't like some shows because they're trying to ride on the success of the channel, animation company or another similar show. But animations have been doing that for decades already anyway. Knee-jerk "It's new, it's rubbish, give me back what I'm used to!" reactions in response to cartoons and things really are a bugbear of mine, heh. I like, aside from [I]SpongeBob[/I], [I]Fairly Odd Parents[/I]; I used to love [I]Hey Arnold![/I] and occasionally [I]Doug[/I]; [I]Tiny Toon Adventures[/I] and [I]Animaniacs[/I] were amazing (I still have a soundtrack for [I]Animaniacs[/I], heh. [I]Baby Looney Toons[/I] is quite fun as well, actually. I haven't watched any of the more 'serious' animation that appears on Jetix or CN for ages, though, so I can't compare much of those. Except [I]Beast Wars[/I] and [I]Beast Machines[/I] Amazingly underappreciated.[/COLOR]

[COLOR=#503F86]I love SpongeBob, I don't care what anyone else says ^___^The relative immaturity of some of its moments aside, there's some incredibly sophisticated humour in there. I'd be perfectly happy letting my kids watch it, if I had kids.[/COLOR]

[COLOR=#503F86]I think it's been said that self-esteem isn't an academic qualification in its own right, like SATs. It isn't a stepping stone to higher grades. I think it's wrong to try and make someone believe they can do something if they aren't being given the proper skills to actually support their learning. Likewise, it's equally wrong to convince someone they're going to fail if they're actually doing pretty well. Self-esteem is a completely organic... thing, so it can either affect or not affect people in different ways. If I'm confident then I may be more willing or able to take on information than if I'm worried I'll fail. But considering how it's more related to personality and emotion it's hard to prove exactly what, if anything, it actually does to academic study.[/COLOR]

[COLOR=#503f86]But I'd be contradicting myself if I started Font Wars and it actually worked :P[/COLOR]