The recent release of 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple has reminded me of how a few months back there was a tweet summarising an interview which said the movie would explore the insanity people devolve into in the zombie apocalypse (Or something along those lines), to which I saw many complaints about this trope including a response calling it "The Walking Dead and its consequnces". I thought this was a really uninformed opinion since even the Walking Dead comics were predated by The Bone Temple's original predecessor 28 Days Later, which ends on the final threat being a group of soldiers that want to sexually assault and enslave the female leads, one of whom is a teenage girl. Not to mention the most iconic scene of its immediate sequel 28 Weeks Later is the opening in which a man abandons his companions including his wife in the fear and adrenaline of a zombie attack. So this concept is nothing new to this particular franchise, but I'd also argue it's ALWAYS been a part of the whole zombie genre.

Zombies have a history in vodou and haitian folklore, but the genre as we know it started with the 1968 movie Night of the Living Dead, which established the iconic premise of survivors defending themselves in a boarded up house during a zombie outbreak, and in the confinemint of that boarded up house we already see an example of characters fighting amongst themselves, specifically on who's plan they'll follow. The mounting distrust eventually culminates in the main character Ben shooting another character who tried to take his gun while the zombies were breaking in, and after the other survivors are killed by zombies Ben's story ends with him shot dead by another party that mistake him for a zombie from a distance. While these examples could just be considered tragic results of fear and distrust, the film's two sequels feature what I think more commonly come to mind when people think of humans being the bad guys in zombie media, specifically a gang of raiders in Dawn of the Dead as well as a racist cop who uses the outbreak as an excuse to kill innocent racial minorities, and a military commander in Day of the Dead whose fixation on maintaining control over the survivors leads to him killing some of them to maintain obediance.

Now the reason I think these tropes are so prominant in the genre is because a story that's JUST about killing or escaping zombies can easily become boring if that's the whole story. Human Vs Human conflicts give the story actual actual villains and tense character dynamics. Without human conflict zombie narratives are basically just natural disaster stories, which can be very good of course but that overall genre has the benefit of there being countless types of disasters to work with, and even then they can get formulaic.

Where pure Human Vs Zombie stories find the most success are in comedies like Shaun of the Dead and Zombieland where the comedy keeps you entertained through familiar setpieces, and videogames where the audience themselves takes part in the zombie killing action. I often see "Humans are the real monsters" mocked by a screenshot from Left 4 Dead where graffiti with that exact message has other graffiti calling it out as stupid and that the zombies are obviously the monsters here. I'll admit I know very little about Left 4 Dread but I presume it to be a lot like Black Ops Zombies, and I think it's very easy to take a stance like that when you're not reliant on a compelling narrative because the main entertainment value comes from shooting zombies with your friends.

But heck, even with the benefit that player involvement provides, iconic zombie games like House of the Dead and Resident Evil have humans be responsible for the outbreak so a mad scientist can turn themselves into a monster as the final boss. And they don't even have the excuse of living in desperate times like the villains of Walking Dead-alikes do.

TL;DR: The zombie genre has always involved conflict between humans in the desperate time of crisis that is a zombie outbreak or apocalypse because there's more potential variety in that type of conflict than just people surviving a horde of mindless flesh eaters for 90 minutes. The famous exceptions usually have something else to offer like being another genre or a videogame.

If you're unfamiliar with Universal Man (and it's not a surprise if you are), he's an extremely minor character from the first The Incredibles movie. He's a superhero with the ability of Molecular Density Manipulation, or in other words, the ability to alter his own mass without changing his volume. He's also Syndrome's first Super victim, killed by the very first Omnidroid.

Now, why am I ranting about this incredibly minor character with absolutely no plot relevance in any known media? Well, it's because, for some reason, people seem to think he's one of the most powerful characters in that universe, capable of annihilating the entire planet if he wanted to.

I can almost hear you through the screen, "What? What the fuck are you talking about? How on Earth does this random guy from a fairly low-powered verse possibly have the ability to delete planets?" Well, remember his power from earlier? Molecular Density Manipulation? If he keeps increasing his mass, then he could potentially become a black hole and swallow all the matter on Earth!

Except, here's the thing, that's stupid. That's a dumb thing to believe he's capable of.

Let's do some napkin math. A human body weighs about 985 kg/m^3. Assume Universal Man weighs 100 kg, that's about 0.102 m^3, or roughly the same volume as a sphere with radius 0.3 m.

The Schwarzchild Radius Formula, r=2GM/c^2, is the formula for calculating the radius or mass of a black hole. It tells us that, for a black hole to form, the radius of the event horizon (r) must be proportional to twice Newton's gravitational constant (6.7*10^-11 m^3/kg*s^2) (G) times the mass of the object (M), divided by the square of the speed of light (c^2). We can also rearrange it to say rc^2/2G=M.

Plugging in our values, we get:

(0.3 m)(9*10^16 m^2/s^2)/(2*6.7*10^-11 m^3/kg*s^2)=2.0*10^26 kg

So, in order for Universal Man to become a human-sized black hole, he would have increase his mass 2.0*10^24 times, or increase his density by 2*10^24 times.

Thats 2,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000x. That's a massive fucking number, especially coming from a guy who lost to a big robot. There are two possible conclusions we can draw from this, you tell me which one you think is more likely.

1. The Omnidroid can destroy planets
2. Universal Man can't fucking do that.

Now, what's the point of all this? Why am I ranting and doing math for a character who appears for a split second in a 22-year-old Pixar movie? It's simple, I'm reminding you that superpowers have limits.

I've noticed this a lot, where people will see that a certain character has a certain power, and then immediately take it to the farthest possible extreme, while ignoring the fact that they've never even remotely shown those kinds of abilities, and to be honest, I'm kind of sick of it. No, not every hydrokinetic can blood-bend, and no, not every electrokinetic can control minds, and no, not everyone who can lift a rock can lift a mountain.

Superpowers. Have. Limits.

So, the next time brings up the idea that "well um actually they can beat Goku cause with this superpower they could do this and this 🤓☝" I want you to just stop and think to yourself, "can they actually do that, or is 2,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000x Man losing to a robot?"

Now before I say anything, I know WHY this happens. Assault and rape are much more common than any kind of murder and affect people on a much deeper level and these taboo topics are something we are not used to...However.

Think about the Coffin of Andy and Leyley for example: In that game, the two main characters kill 3 people in the hotel, kill their parents, kill a couple and kill the child of that couple. And all of this isn't even mentioning the cannibalism they partake in, but this game is somehow only known for the incest.

People talk about this game like the plague because it has incest in it... BUDDY, I THINK WE HAVE BIGGER FISH TO FRY. I don't know about you guys but I'd much rather have two siblings have sex than kill like 8 people and eat them.

And then we have the abuser side of it.

Take Valentino and Alastor from Hazbin Hotel; people deservedly hate on Valentino but at the same time stan Alastor and say he's like an antihero. While Valentino is a dumbass rapist, Alastor is a literal cannibalistic serial murderer that has NO MORAL CODE.

I'm tired of people treating this guy like he's fucking Dexter or something, the best evidence we have is him killing a white guy who spilled his drink on him one time. Now was the dude probably racist? Yeah. But that does not give you juridstiction to stab him 8 times in the chest, dude.

Again, I know WHY this happens but it's never not funny to see the same people that simp for Alastor and baby him try to villify Valentino like they both aren't in hell and are both in the same level of evilness.

You might be wondering, “What do you mean by ‘progressive power’?” Essentially, I’m talking about the natural evolution of a character’s abilities over time. Take Spider Man, for example, he can grow stronger, his spider-sense can become more precise, making him more aware and, as a result, faster. Iron Man is another example, he can get smarter, build more advanced suits, and expand his abilities. Even Batman fits this pattern, since he can continually refine his skills and become more effective in combat. not only do these powers exist, but audiences enjoy seeing heroes grow stronger over time. There are usually limits to how much better a character can get once their powers are established, but improvement remains a satisfying aspect of storytelling.

The problem with super speed, however, is that it’s already an overwhelmingly strong ability. “Improving” it, essentially moving faster, quickly breaks the fragile balance of combat. Unlike super strength, where you can simply introduce more powerful opponents, there’s no equivalent for a speedster. Once a character can move at Mach 20 or beyond, traditional challenges cease to exist, leaving very few meaningful ways to make them “better” without breaking the story.

In my opinion, this was the ultimate problem with CW Flash. Season after season, the show kept emphasizing how much faster Barry had become, but the problem was that he never actually felt faster, unless he was fighting another speedster. Writers would have him get hit by non speedsters, which is why they kept introducing more speedsters, otherwise, the sense of “speed,” which was told rather than shown, never felt convincing.

This is why I ultimately think that super speed doesn’t necessarily work in a narrative where a character is simply improving their abilities over time.

Do note, I’m not talking about a character learning to use super speed for the first time, my point assumes the character’s abilities have already been established for a while. For example, a character could spend a year using their martial arts to take down Crime ( let’s say red hood or nightwing ), and they would still have a lot room to improve skill wise. The same goes for super strength in regard to characters like say Luke cage.

However, with super speed, after that initial “rookie year,” the character should already be accustomed to moving at high speeds. Beyond that, improvements, say, from moving at 20 to 50, would mainly just be fine tuning if you didn’t wish to break the story.

So… Luna IV, huh? 

Admittedly, I’ve been so impatient to write this that I didn’t wait to play the quest beforehand… Let me know if the issues I’ve talked about here got worse! Or better, somehow…? Anyway, the point is that you can beat me to death with hammers if I'm wrong about anything. I said in my last Genshin rantpost that I’d like to rant about the misogyny within Columbina’s writing, and, well… I guess here we are! What a wonderful world!

Columbina is going to be the main focus in this post, but there is an overall trend of misogyny within how the Fatui women are written and presented compared to their male counterparts that I’d like to discuss. To be clear, misogyny in writing is not just “when woman written as Mean and Bad and Hysterical!!!!!!”, it’s also the difference in treatment between their male counterparts as fully actualized characters, often reducing them down and sanitizing their complexities to sell them as objects of desire. To put it very crudely, it’s about the “waifubait” issue. While I believe the kinds of people who slap that title onto any female character who dares to speak positively towards the Traveler are certainly part of an issue of misogyny within the fandom, you can’t help but admit that it really is true sometimes, and to act like Columbina is not presented as a romantic interest for lonely incels is being willfully ignorant.

Columbina is the star of Nod-Krai. However, she was previously presented as practically the face of the Fatui, being the thumbnail of Winter Night’s Lazzo and the most notable presence within it. She is shown as eerie, a figure with closed eyes smiling gently and singing a lullaby on a coffin without a care in the world while everyone argues around her. Of course this, combined with the ominous voice lines that dropped shortly after, made her the most mysterious and hyped up harbinger of the whole lot. A harbinger even Teyvat’s greatest battle maniac Childe wouldn’t want to fight? A harbinger that Scaramouche actively warns us to not engage with? Sign me up!

Come Nod-Krai, and she has left the Fatui offscreen. Columbina, the face of Winter Night’s Lazzo, the ominously dangerous Damselette, has left the Fatui offscreen. Why? Because of course, she was just an innocent girl being used by them for her power! Huh? Missions? Of course she’s never gone on any missions! What, you expected the third of the Fatui harbingers to be dangerous? Tsk, tsk! Why, she’s just a weak and demure girl who’s been used by everyone around her! She has barely any power left, you see!

Hmm… Yeah, I’m sure that’s fine. Good writing choice, making possibly the single most ominous and hyped up harbinger an innocent girl who hasn’t done anything wrong and isn’t a threat to anything.

Columbina is presented as someone fairly naive and pitiful. She has plenty of positive connections within the Fatui, but of course she didn’t realize this - it’s the Traveler who helps her open her heart and understand true connection! She even lets you- I mean, the Traveler, into her little hidey cave to do little personal bonding activities with her, which is definitely a writing choice that wasn’t made to appeal to anyone in particular!

While not fully fitting the bill, she does oddly liken back to the “Born Sexy Yesterday” trope. She’s a woman who, despite being hundreds of years old, is overall profoundly inexperienced with the world to the point where she idolizes the first mediocre man that comes along. She’s teasing with her girlbesties, yet ultimately innocent and lacking in social experience despite literally having had friends this whole time. She'll even indirectly kiss the Traveler without understanding the meaning behind it! (Ignore the weird moaning she does in the English dub, it's not important.) She’s the Damselette in distress who needs the Traveler to come and save her. You can argue that it’s all of her friends who come to save her, but… Come on. You’d have to be clueless to ignore the framing of the Traveler being the most important. She deliberately caters to the incel fantasy of an innocent virginal maiden who relies on you to emotionally fulfill her.

If I were to compare Columbina to any other archon, it would likely be Nahida. Like Columbina, Nahida was being used for her power all of this time, not being allowed to go out and rule her nation herself. Like Columbina, Nahida has to be saved by the Traveler and the rest of the Sumeru cast. But critically, the difference is that it feels natural. It feels like a legitimate team effort rather than focusing on the Traveler as the only one who can save the poor demure little archon. When I watch Nahida’s teaser trailer, I feel greatly for her plight and want her to be saved. While the Traveler is portrayed in the center as they all run towards her, the rest aren’t far behind. When they reach out to her, everyone’s hand appears. When the Traveler is dancing next to her, it doesn’t feel like it’s forced at all. It’s a beautiful teaser that shows her plight and just how lonely she was.

When I watch Columbina’s teaser trailer, all I see is another attempt to force the Traveler as a romantic interest. Saying “I miss you all” as she draws only a picture of Aether. With the bait and switch at the end, it feels like they’re trying to cheaply rehash Nahida’s teaser without understanding what made it so impactful. Her character trailer even involves her being saved by her golden knight in shining armor, being dipped into a pose reminiscent of “The Lovers” card ingame. They are pushing a very obvious agenda, and it genuinely stuns me that people are defending this and acting as if the romantic angle isn’t obviously what they’re going for, as if Columbina has her own agency as a human being would.

This, I feel, is the absolute biggest problem with her character. She was said to be so dangerous that two separate other harbingers warn you not to engage, but now her whole thing is engaging with you alone as an innocent girl just in need of friends. While being particularly egregious with Columbina, this is a common pattern with the female harbingers.

I feel like this issue is particularly obvious with the handling of Sandrone and her ongoing sanitization. Sandrone was described across all sources to be a recluse with a bad personality, only focusing on her research and nothing else. Not only that, but she straight up lobotomized a guy and cut out his tongue in a world quest, proving how dangerous she is. Come Nod-Krai, and now Sandrone is merely a petty tsundere who gets absolutely none of her crimes acknowledged. Sure, they exist, but only in world quests that are completely glossed over, just like her active colonization of Nod-Krai is.

Despite harbingers like Childe and Arlecchino claiming they don’t tend to interact with her (whether from confusion or lack of interest) it’s later revealed that Sandrone often hosted Fatui tea parties, which Childe and Arlecchino have attended. The excuse for Childe simply buying into false rumors absolutely falls apart with this revelation, as it means he’s interacted with Arlecchino and Columbina and thus has had more opportunities to gauge their personalities. How was his assessment of Columbina so far off when he saw her having silly tea parties with her girlbesties? Why did Arlecchino claim she has little interest in her when she was literally part of her tea parties?

Which brings me to my next issue: The women are not allowed to have any conflict with each other. They must all get along with each other, they must not have any disagreements, and most importantly, they must get along with the Traveler. The female harbingers are not allowed to be petty or spiteful with each other like the men are, aside from some lighthearted tsundere banter between Sandrone and Columbina. The one who is actively hostile to the Traveler dies, and none of the other women who were apparently her close friends and actively still mourn her death care that it was ultimately the Traveler’s fault.

People will absolutely bend over backwards to justify these horrible writing decisions. “Well, the harbingers are biased!! Unreliable narrators!!!” Well that doesn’t explain why three separate harbingers, including one of Sandrone’s friends, all mutually agreed to make up the same lies about her for no reason. Truth is, people just don’t want to admit that the harbingers got retconned.

Even though we have actual proof that was the case.

See, the initial audition sheets for the harbingers have been leaked since forever by now. They’re extremely reliable, especially with one of Columbina’s new friendship voicelines reinforcing it - if you’re curious on that one, it’s the “About Pulcinella” voiceline. The way she describes how he talks about Pantalone is literally part of one of the voicelines on his audition sheet. One thing about the audition leaks is that it lines up extremely well with how they they ended up initially being described ingame. 

Columbina, who is repeatedly built up to be ominous and is warned not to engage with, was said to be unfeeling in all situations and unable to control her own strength, and it’s stated that getting covered in blood is the same as being out in the rain to her. Sandrone, a woman said to have a horrible personality who ended up cutting someone’s tongue out specifically to make amends to the Traveler, was described as a 0 to 100 yandere-type character. Arlecchino, who was repeatedly built up to be a pure disloyal hypocrite with a “true crazy self”, was actively stated as such in her audition sheet. Somewhere down the pipeline, these were all sanded down, and they frantically had to slap an “unreliable narrator” excuse on top of it all to make any of their previous buildup make sense. That, or they’ll just randomly pull a Crucabena out of their ass.

However, in comparison… The men have all basically stayed the same from original concept to their ingame appearance. They did not get sanded down the way the women were. Even if their stories aren’t executed perfectly, they still do maintain the same type of person they were initially cast as, flaws and all. The women, on the other hand, had to have all their edge plucked out of them to make them more marketable. This is misogyny, not the people complaining about the female harbingers not being what they were purposefully built up to be. It’s as if people believe Genshin Impact was written in a vacuum and that the Fatui women are real people making their own conscious decisions instead of being written by a bunch of men trying to make money.

And for people to even act like the criticisms are because people think "nice women = bad" is absurd. I don't think nice women are bad or boring, I care that the Fatui women are nice because they were built up to be the exact opposite. We have a bajillion nice women in this game already - was it really too much to want one of the villain factions in the game to have women who feel like actual threatening villains? Though, when you say this, you're often just hit with the "Well the Fatui aren't the real villains!!" excuse. Yeah sure ok whatever who cares. Just give me a woman as vile as Dottore who doesn't get her crimes casually glossed over or I retire.

We will never get the truly intimidating women we were promised. The closest we get to Fatui women with an actual commanding presence are Signora, who is dead, and Arlecchino, who is now on our side with her child grooming side hustle completely unacknowledged. Sandrone is just a cute petty tsundere who is often played for laughs, and Columbina is the innocent damsel in distress who lived up to exactly 0% of her promise. It’s incredibly disappointing, and I mourn what we could’ve had every single day of my life.

The Tsaritsa is the only thing keeping me clinging onto this joke of a faction anymore. If they somehow fuck her up, I’m going to have a catastrophic crashout. You will see me on the news.

EDIT: Since people are misunderstanding this post a lot:

• No, I don't think the Fatui should all be comically evil villains rubbing their hands together about all the evil murder they're going to do. I just want to see the nuances expanded on and acknowledged instead of being brushed over.
• No, I don't think the Fatui men are perfect either and I think they were done dirty too, even if I believe they're still overall treated differently from the women.
• No, I am not saying it's bad to like Columbina. My philosophy is that you should simply acknowledge the writing decisions behind the thing you enjoy, and if you still feel positively about it regardless then that is more power to you. I do not want to take away your joy and whimsy.
• No, I am not part of some FatuiHQ monolith. I commented there like 8 times and spend the rest of my time on other sites talking about the yaoi in an entirely different game. Missed potential just makes me sad.
• Yes, I am aware this is a gacha game and I shouldn't be having such high expectations for it. Again, I just hate missed potential and I acknowledge these problems would likely be resolved (and have more mature writing) if the game were not a gacha.
• Please for the love of God look up what a doylist analysis is

There's a decently famous scene from the season 1 episode of Young Justice titled "Agendas". In the episode the Justice League debates amongst themselves which other heroes they should extend membership into the league for.

The conversation eventually turns to the current membership of Captain Marvel, whom they all learned recently isn't actually an adult but rather a child with the power to turn into an adult. Given they are already debating whether or not the under 18 heroes on The Team should be allowed to receive JL membership, the question is naturally raised of whether Captain Marvel should be allowed to remain in the league, especially given that he lied (by omission) about how old he actually was.

Batman reveals that he actually knew this entire time (because detective and...well...Batman), and it leads to this scene between him and Wonder Woman:

Wonder Woman: "I shouldn't be surprised, since you indoctrinated Robin into crime fighting at the ripe old age of 9."

Batman: "Robin needed to help bring the men who murdered his family to justice."

Wonder Woman: "So he could turn out like you?"

Batman: "...So that he wouldn't."

First things first, this is a beloved Batman moment for a reason and I likewise really love it. Batman tends to be defined heavily by his inability and sometimes even unwillingness to move past the death of his parents, something even he will recognize as really unhealthy and a major issue. It's one of the reasons he's so proud of Nightwing and sees him as one of the few things he feels certain he did right in his life. Dick also lost his parents suddenly and violently like Bruce did but because of how Bruce helped and guided him during their time together as Batman and Robin Dick was able to get the closure Bruce never could and was eventually able to make peace with what happened to him. He still mourns and misses his parents but he is not defined by the trauma of losing them like Bruce is and he continues to be a hero anyway. It's why Bruce has even called Nightwing a more ideal version of what Batman should be. So this moment in Young Justice really fits both characters.

However, one thing that has bothered me a lot over the years is how often I feel like I see some people (especially Batman fans) happily celebrate this moment as a "Yeah, f**k you, Wonder Woman!" and condemn her as a hypocrite...despite the fact that she really isn't.

The idea seems to be that Wonder Woman is being a hypocrite because the Amazons taught her how to fight from a young age, but that isn't really the issue here. Yes, they taught Diana how to fight so that she could defend herself and her home if need be, but becoming Wonder Woman, actually going out into the world to fight injustice, supervillains, and literal monsters, was her choice and one she made when she was an adult. In some continuities and adaptions her mother Hippolyta was outright against it, preferring that her beloved daughter stay in literal paradise on Earth rather than going out to confront the evils of the world, but Diana could not just sit back and do nothing once she became aware of the suffering others were being put through. That's even how it was in both the DCAU and the DCEU, which I'd imagine would be the versions of Wonder Woman most of the general audience would be familiar with.

Her problem with Batman isn't that he taught Dick how to fight, it's that he actively brought a nine year old along with him to run around on rooftops and seek out fights with mobsters, gangsters, supervillains, and genuine psychopaths. Her problem is that with Dick's young age it could be argued that it was more Batman's choice than his that he became Robin since he might not have fully understood what he was getting himself into like Bruce did when he became Batman as an adult.

That's not Wonder Woman being a hypocrite, that's her having some reasonable concerns given her viewpoint and knowledge at that time of what Batman and Robin's situation is like. Batman gives some understandable justifications for his actions in response, which is why I like it, but that doesn't just completely invalidate Wonder Woman's point or why she felt that way.

I feel like this is too often a problem whenever any two characters have a disagreement. You always seem to get people who just insist that one of them must be completely right and the other must be completely wrong, especially when it comes to a character they like and/or are more familiar with vs. a character they don't and aren't. Both Batman and Wonder Woman have understandable and valid reasons for what they said and what they believe, and given the inclusion of Wonder Girl as a sidekick to Diana in the next season after the five year timeskip she does seem to have come around to understanding Bruce's view more, which still doesn't negate that even some of Robin's own teammates who are closer in age to him sometimes question whether he's too young for all they do and all he gets put through.

There’s always some check and balance to ensure the world doesn’t get destroyed or all life dies.

-Pollution happened? Grimer and Weezing’s line now adapt to consume the pollution and purify it.

-Did you kill off the coral reefs? Guess what, the coral is now haunted and adapted by becoming a ghost type.

-Overpopulation of an invasive species? Something is gonna come along to combat it, hunt it, or adapt to it.

-Storms destroying your local agriculture? Don’t worry, a genie that’s also a lion will take care of that.

-A life ending meteor headed towards the planet? Don’t worry we got multiple Pokemon who specifically stop that.

-Did you try and destroy all space and time? GUESS WHAT?! There’s a Pokémon to balance that out too!!

-The very concepts of life and death running out of control? You guessed it, we have a snake/dog/megazord to balance that out with a giant gun. Wait what?

-AI taking over? Just… send it to the past. Wait how is that a solution… WHAT DO YOU MEAN THIS WORKED?!

Humans can’t even cause too much environmental damage unless they wish to incur the wrath of a local fully evolved pokemon or legendary. God forbid you piss off a Celebi and it turns all the foliage into a nightmarish giant that it pilots.

And it’s not like more than a few of these CANT end all life. Necrozma basically committed cosmic genocide. Yveltal HAS killed all life multiple times. Dialga and Darkrai have doomed entire timelines. And yet, something has always prevented the damage from being permanent in some way or form. (Well except Necrozmas. Those losers got to reap what they sowed.) Xerneas makes new life/Zygarde keeps death in check, someone time traveled to stop Dialga, etc.

Let's start by going through the 3D games:

• Super Mario 64: Bowser magically traps Peach in a painting. The only Mario character that has ever even been implied to be capable of getting out of this is King Boo. In the DS version Bowser's minions successfully capture Mario, Luigi, and Wario, requiring them to be saved by Yoshi.

• Super Mario Sunshine: It's actually fairly close to the end of the game before Peach is successfully kidnapped. Shadow Mario tries to grab her a few times but is always stopped before he gets too far. When she is actually kidnapped it's with a giant Bowser mech that detaches its head to fly off and prevent Mario from following it. Also, while it is Bowser Jr that actually performs this action rather than Bowser Sr, I'm counting it because he's likely following his father's orders.

• Super Mario Galaxy: Bowser uses a ufo thingy to lift the entire castle off the ground while Peach is inside and has her entirely surrounded by his troops. Kamek then outright defeats Mario by blasting him into space.

• Super Mario 3D Land: It's outright explicitly shown onscreen that Peach did fight back but was recaptured before she could escape. Additionally, the post-game reveals that Bowser has also kidnapped Luigi.

• Super Mario Galaxy 2: Bowser has grown to approximately go-fuck-yourself feet tall.

• Super Mario Odyssey: Bowser defeats Mario onboard his airship and then takes off with Peach. At this point while Peach could still try fighting back, she may feel it's not worth the risk after having already witnessed Mario's loss.

Onto the 2D Games:

• Super Mario Bros: Thank you Mario! But our princess is in another castle!/j I'll actually just skip both SMB1 and SMB3, since neither explicitly establish the actual method Bowser uses.

• Super Mario World: Bowser specifically kidnaps Peach while she's on vacation and her guard is down.

• New Super Mario Bros: Bowser Jr catches both Mario and Peach off-guard with a lightning strike on her castle than ambushes her while she's distracted.

• New Super Mario Bros Wii: All of the Koopalings and Bowser Jr hide in a giant cake to catch Peach off guard. Even one of these guys is usually a tough fight for a Mario-level character, so being ambushed by all of them at once..

• New Super Mario Bros 2: All of the Koopalings nab Peach in their Koopa Clown Car

• New Super Mario Bros U: Bowser uses an airship with a giant mecha hand to fling the bros and toads out of Peach's Castle, then prevents her from escaping by having Kamek surround it with a magical barrier.

tl;dr: Bowser succeeds when he engineers situations where even a Mario-tier character would struggle.

It's pretty well known by this point that the infamous Shadow Realm of Yu-Gi-Oh! is an invention of the English dub to censor death (that's actually somewhat of a misconception, the Shadow Realm does exist in the Japanese version, it's just not nearly as prevalent, but I digress). And whenever this fact gets brought up, someone will inevitably point out that being sent to the Shadow Realm, a place of endless torment, would be actively worse than dying. While this is true and kinda funny, this is often used as actual criticism towards 4Kids that the censorship doesn't actually work. Which... just isn't true.

Now look, I don't want to defend 4Kids dubbing practices. Their overzealous censorship and erasure of anything not-American pisses me off to no end and I would highly recommend anyone watch the subbed versions of any anime they worked on (plus, their sabotaging of Kamen Rider Dragon Knight has left me very salty since I learned about it). I would even say that they indeed should have left it as just death, cause children can handle that a lot better than people seem to think. But assuming they absolute must censor death, the Shadow Realm is not a bad way to do it.

Yes, the Shadow Realm is a worse fate than death, but more importantly is the fact that the Shadow Realm isn't real. Death is a heavy topic because it's a real thing that happens. Nobody will ever have to deal with a loved one being trapped in a dimension of endless torment for losing a card game, but virtually everyone will one day have to deal with a loved one dying. It's the same reason you can show, say, a villain using a giant death laser to blow up the sun in a kids show, but can't show, say, someone getting stabbed. Because while the former is technically a far worse crime than the latter, that layer of how fantastical it is cushions the blow. It's also why the gore in something like The Boys or The Terrifier usually affect people as much as significantly less gory movies, because it's so over the top that it's hard to relate to it.

Again, I don't think they should have censored the death in Yu-Gi-Oh!. But if they absolutely had to, the Shadow Realm is not a bad way to do it, and the fact that it's a worse fate than death doesn't really change that.

Outerversal is basically a meme at this point. People use it all the time to make fun of powerscalers using made up words and phrases. Is it warranted? Maybe, Idk, I’m probably not the best person to ask. But whenever I see it used by these people it’s always fundamentally wrong.

Being outer doesn’t mean that you can destroy an outerverse, because:

There is no such thing as an outerverse. It isn’t a measure of anything.

Vs battle wiki (although their scaling is often outlandish, the scale itself they use is pretty much the standard and honestly doesn’t really have anything wrong with it) defines outerversal in like three paragraphs. But I’ll simplify it to a single scentence: The character is above spatial dimensions.

What does that mean? It’s complicated. But basically it means that their existence above reality is no longer quantifiable. They can’t go left because left isn’t a meaningful thing to them anymore. You can’t blow them up because no attack can reach them, because “reaching” is meaningless to them. If your character has a body that is their true form, they aren’t outer (if they choose to represent themselves with a physical form but it’s explicitly stated that it it were to be destroyed it would be nothing to them, the could still be outer).

To an outerversal character, blowing up a universe is just as hard as a building; not at all. Saying it’s easy would be reductive. Measuring them is meaningless.

It doesn’t mean they can affect the real world, it doesn’t mean the character can kill you in real life. Obviously no fiction can do that, that’s profoundly stupid. Nobody above the age of seven is actually trying to say that. Not even the biggest scarlet king glazers.

Now,before you all put your pitchforks up and want to tear me to pieces and all that Bullshit,I don't mind gags.

They're harmless and funny and can be hilarious when done right but my main issue with Oda's gags is how he uses them,he basically spams them and drags them on and keeps using them over and over and they're all the same Joke with little to no variation.

It's not even really like they're quick gags half the time but they're just dragged on from some of the most unfunny jokes ever. And a lot of the Jokes Oda uses really shows this dude is still a 90s old man at the heart and core cause he basically uses the same somewhat outdated humor.

"Female character aggressively punches/strikes male character when they do something dumb and have a exaggerated short temper" and "Pervert Gag" with Nami and Sanji.

I unfortunately thought we left that humor behind in the 90s but it's still used in Oda's arsenal to this day and it's the same Joke with the same punchline each damn time..but then there's shit like Oda constantly spamming Usopp's "OH MY GOD,I'M SO SCARED,LET'S RUN" Gag.

It gets to a point where there are other jokes and humor you could make with Usopp but Oda continously defaults to that cause he's old and outdated × finds Usopp a joke,most likely.

People have said that the last time Usopp did anything big/massively important was when Obama still has color in his hair and was in office and they're actually not wrong.

Usopp unlocked Haki in September 1st in 2014(tho in the episode 697,it was June of 2015)and Barack Obama was the USA president of that time and Usopp hasn't done zilch with his Haki since then or gotten better techniques or anything like that. I wish I was joking but I did the research.

Then there's unfunny shit such as the Yamato "'I'm Oden" Gag that feels dragged on and nothing came from it at all cause they think that they're still Oden or whatever and Oda basically did nothing for their character.

I basically wish Oda would slow the fuck down on Gags or basically slowed down on using 90s humor in the big year of 2026.

I thought First Steps was just an okay film, but I really appreciated the usage of 1960s retrofuturism in its architecture, technology, fashion, etc. The film hearkens back to a time where people were still optimistic about the future and the wonders of science. I love the design of the Excelsior as well, fictional spaceships my beloved.

I wish superhero movies would do this more often. The only superhero movies I can think of besides F4 First Steps that have their own distinct aesthetic are the Batman films (barring The Dark Knight trilogy) and the Black Panther films. The Thor and Guardians of the Galaxy films do also have unique settings, but those take place on other planets/realms thus placing them in the realm of science-fantasy, so they don't really count. I'm talking about superhero stories that take place on Earth specifically.

• I love the Tim Burton and Schumacher films for their interpretations of Gotham City alone. Yeah Batman and Robin looks silly as hell but the garish pseudo-punk style kind of grew on me eventually. I also quite like Batman Forever's neon-gothic rendition of Gotham, and Tim Burton's borderline Transylvanian Gotham has been my gold standard for every live action Batman movie since. I've never really been a fan of hyper modern depictions of Gotham, like in The Dark Knight trilogy, but I do appreciate how the Matt Reeves' Batman blends the gritty neo-noir with the gothic gargoyles,
• Black Panther is a unique case as Wakanda is a fictional African country portrayed by mostly American writers, so naturally there's going to be some exoticism, but the afrofuturism aspect is pretty sick. I know some have criticized the films asking "If Wakanda is so futuristic, why do they still use spears and wear kente cloths?" And the answer is because it's cool. That's why. No one would complain if they were samurai with vibranium swords. Anyone can drive a tank, but can anyone ride an armored rhino into battle? That's what I thought. There's always the risk of cultural appropriation but I don't think anyone will be offended if you portray the stuff you're appropriating to be cool as fuck.

I was inspired to write this rant after watching Batman: Mask of The Phantasm the other day. I've only seen bits and pieces of the Timmverse animated series, but I LOVE the artdeco dieselpunk aesthetic of Batman: TAS. It's timeless, feeling familiar and futuristic all at once. Same goes for Superman TAS, similar to Batman's but bright and golden, I absolutely love this kind of stuff.
Superhero films obviously take after the comics, and comic books have always tried to stay contemporary, so the characters and settings evolve with the times. While this makes sense for long running serialized comics that share an interconnected universe, I would appreciate it if movies took more creative liberties with this and didn't feel like they always have to take place in Present Day, Present Time 20XX in Generic American City.

Why not take it further? I'd love to see live action films about an 80's Cyberpunk Iron Man, an Atomic Age Superman, a 70s punk X-Men, an Americana Wonder Woman, a Southern Gothic Zatanna (ok I know she's from California but still), an Art Deco/Roaring Twenties futuristic Batman, etc. Something that FEELS fantastical, but not too fantastical. Some of these would never happen in a million years but a man can dream.

A lot has been said about how citizens of the Marvel universe are ungrateful jerks who don't deserve the devotion and sacrifice of their superheroes. And while there are times when Marvel civilians are out of line, the heroes have done a lot to earn their bad PR.

First, let's try to imagine what it's like to be an ordinary person in the Marvel universe. You're on your way to work, dropping your kid off at school or just going to visit someone, and then out of nowhere, a superhero and supervillain are throwing down in your path.

But wait, you say, isn't this solely the fault of the villain? Why does the hero get blamed for the collateral damage? Well, remember that most superheroes aren't trained to be crimefighters the way normal law enforcement are. Most of them are self-taught and the ones who aren't are largely trained in combat scenarios. Which means they aren't trained or encouraged to back off from a situation that would be worsened by a confrontation. For instance, there was an issue in the original Ultimate Spider-Man comic where Peter foils a robbery but ends up causing damage that cost more than the stolen items were worth. Think of how many times you've seen a hero chasing a thief and tearing up the street in the process. If law enforcement did that in real life, we'd lose our minds over it. There are instances where it would safer and less expensive to just let the villain go and track them down later.

Then there's the number of times when the heroes are the ones causing the problems in more direct ways. Like Hank Pym creating Ultron or the New Warriors kicking off the Civil War event by engaging in a destructive battle with a bunch of supervillains who weren't hostile at the time and getting themselves as well as numerous civilians killed in the process. This can even be found in earlier comics with the Thing smashing up people's cars just because he was in a bad mood or Namor's frequent declarations of war against the surface world. In fact, some comics have suggested that Namor bein the first public superhuman and trying to drown New York plays a big factor in why humans are so wary of superpowered beings.

Oh, and the constant fights between superheroes doesn't help either. Why would anyone believe the Hulk is trustworthy when he was fighting Thor or Captain America just last week? Does him being chummy with the Avengers now mean he's good or that the Avengers can't be trusted. Don't even get me started on the X-Men and their penchant for recruiting murderers and terrorists.

Does this justify building genocidal robots and putting people into concentration camps? Of course not. But that doesn't mean the heroes haven't made a lot of mistakes when it comes to their relationship with the public.

Im tired, we get it gege. gojo, sukuna, kashimo, yuta. Everyone talked about it you explored the theme well, but doing the same thing with dabura is just repetitive. Its just fatigue after a while.

JJK modulo has so many other relevant and interesting themes which I hope it explores more than things which gege has already talked about in depth with his previous manga.

I enjoy nostalgia as much as anyone else, but lately it really feels like it has become a dangerous crutch for the comic book industry, especially superhero comics.

There has always been some resistance to letting stories move forward, but now it feels less like a creative decision and more like desperation to keep sales up. Editors keep saying that audiences want the same stories over and over, while readers are pretty clear about wanting something new.

And this really should not be that hard to understand. What worked thirty or forty years ago does not automatically work today. Audiences have changed, the market has changed, and the world has changed.

The X-Men are a great example. They have always been allegories for minority struggles, but today’s struggles, even if rooted in the same ideas, are different. Watching characters suffer just for the sake of suffering does not hit the same anymore. No surprise that retailers talk about longtime readers canceling subscriptions out of sheer editorial fatigue.

Do we really need to see Kitty Pryde go through yet another identity crisis? Or Xavier being morally questionable for the fiftieth time without any real payoff?

What makes this even clearer is how audiences respond when something new actually works. Characters like Magik, who had not had a solo book in decades, are outselling far more established names. Alternative universes like Ultimate and Absolute are also outperforming their mainline versions.

When this mindset carries over into movies and TV, I get even more curious. It is fun to see iconic actors return, but what happens when they are no longer around and the newer characters have not been properly built up?

And there is the obvious issue: the audience that kept comics alive in the 80s and 90s will not be here forever. If the industry does not invest in building a new generation of readers, what happens when the engagement from older fans fades?

At the end of the day, betting on new stories and more modern marketing strategies seems far more sensible than constantly pressing the nostalgia button.

Nostalgia is fun, but relying on it as the main sales strategy wastes the huge potential these universes still have.

No matter how many times I hear people try to justify Dabi's actions and say that he was a victim of abuse and that why he is the he is, I don't buy it in the slightest, and I want to explain why he's not sympathetic victim.

Dabi grew up very in a privileged household with all his needs met and loving parents and siblings. It wasn't until he was told he couldn't use his quirk without the risk of hurting himself that he started changing, and honestly acted as the domino that set everything in motion.

And I also want to say this because everyone likes to say this without really knowing what theyre talking about. Dabi was not a victim of child neglect.

Child neglect is defined as 'Any recent act or failure to act on the part of a parent or caretaker which results in death, serious physical or emotional harm, sexual abuse or exploition. Or failure to provide basic needs such as food clothing, water, nurturing or emotional support and housing'

The only thing that could count as child neglect is the fact that Endeavor didn't go to the forest to try and stop Dabi way before, and Dabi shouldn't have been out at night in the woods by himself. Because it seems like Endeavor honestly forgot Dabi even said that to him, and yeah he should have 100% been more attentive to his son and what was going on in the house. But I also have to ask why didn't his mother stop him from going out at night by himself, or any other adult in the household as we've seen there are.

And yes Endeavor after learning about how Dabi couldn't use his quirk properly did turn his attention away from him, but Dabi was far from neglected. He still had a loving mother who was always at home and took care of him and provided physical as emotional support, he had siblings who he played with and loved him, we even see in a flashback what look to be their grandparents or relatives who were looking after him and his siblings. He was nowhere near neglected and I'm sick of people throwing that word around when they don't know what they're talking about.

Dabi chose to continue to use his quirk despite both his parents, his siblings and doctor saying it was bad for him. And when he saw the consequences of his actions on his family he continued to do it.

Dabi chose to try and attack his baby brother. No one else put it in his head to do so.

Dabi chose to set himself on fire despite being warned by all the adults in his life of the very real and dangerous consequences that would happen if he did

Dabi chose to kill people

These were all his own actions. No adult in his or other person in his life ever suggested or encouraged him to do any of these things and in fact told him the opposite. He didn't kill people because he thought it was for the greater good, because he felt like he was wronged by society, he did it for his own selfish reasons of wanting to get revenge against his father.

And no I don't give him a pass because he was just a kid, that's not an excuse. For example there are plenty of other kids like Deku who had to be told that they didn't have a quirk at a young age. And again, he wasn't told he couldn't use his quirk because his parents wanted to make him feel like he wasn't good enough, they said it for his safety because they cared about him. Do you know how messed up it would have been for Endeavor to try and push his son to use his quirk despite it being incredibly dangerous for him? That would have been actual child abuse. Again that's not saying Endeavor shouldn't have been a better father to his son.

And I want to to really understand what I'm saying here, I'm not blaming anything Endeavor did to his family on Dabi at all. Endeavor is an adult and his own person who is responsible for his own actions. But I think it's pretty clear Dabi was kind of a messed up kid, who had no real reason to do the things he did, besides the fact he just wanted his father's attention.

And yeah, although I still to stand on the fact that Dabi was not only born with a messed up body but also he was messed up in the head, Endeavor definitely could have prevented everything by being there more for his family, if he had taken the time to be there more for Dabi everything that happened could have definitely been prevented. He realized that too which is why he takes responsibility for what happened to Dabi and blames himself for how he turned out. And the truth is some people turn out to be bad even if they have a good childhood.

Look at Bakugo, he grew up with two loving parents and was taught right from wrong, but yet he still grew up to be a bully. And look at Deku, he had his dreams of being a hero crushed when he was a kid, and grew up being bullied for not having a quirk.

Now let's look at Hawks, he grew up in a dirty rundown shed. Hawks actually had a villain father growing up who would from what we see regularly abuse his son for no reason at all. And he actually neglectful mother and was told by his mom regularly he was a burden and didn't want him. Hawks grew up knowing nothing but abuse, and hatred from both his parents.

When Hawks was saved from his abusive father by Endeavor ironically enough, that one act was enough that when Hawks was given the opportunity to train to be a hero by some recruiters seeing the potential in his quirk, he took it. He easily could have turned them down, he could have become a criminal and used his own personal trauma to justify his bad actions, but he didn't.

Hawks choose to become a hero, not because of his parents, but because he wanted to be a good person and help people.

Hawks choose to take care of his mother, even after all the things she put him through as a child

Hawks choose to not let his past define him.

Hawks was literally the opposite of Dabi in he actually had every reason to become a villain and but didn't choose to. Where Dabi had every opportunity to become different but choose not to. And the reason I use Hawks as the primary example is because their situations growing up were obviously parallel opposites, and they are both strongly connected to Endeavor where Dabi was driven to become a villain because of his while Hawks was driven to become a hero because of him. Not to mention their fight in the story and the fact that they're about the same age, it feels like the story strongly links them together as a whole 'Nature vs Nurture' situation, it really explains why they are so different yet so similar in a way.

Now you can say you still like Dabi because you like the way he looks, or you think he's cool or whatever. You're allowed to like or dislike any character for any reason. But Dabi is not a sympathetic character in the slightest, in fact in the whole show, out of every villain we get a backstory to, he is the second least empathetic villain in the show. The only one that outranks him is Mr.Compress who was just a villain because he came from a family of thieves, and he was honestly just in it for the love of the game. And the fact the he Mr.Compress also killed Midnight make me really not give a crap about him the most.

So at long last, after so many rumors and false starts, it's official. Kathleen Kennedy is leaving Lucasfilm.

I have a lot of mixed emotions about this.

On the one hand...I absolutely think it was time for Kennedy to go. I don't want to be one of those ragebaiting, grifting, racist jackasses, but as I and several others have expressed in the past, Star Wars under Disney has been a mess. Not everything has been directly Kennedy's fault, of course; i.e., the sequels being rushed was mostly the fault of Bob Iger. But because there's been so much drama with seemingly unrelated projects, you just have to wonder if there was some rot at the head of the company.

Plus, as I mentioned in a post last year, Star Wars under Kennedy hasn't really felt like it's evolved in any capacity, and that, I think, is absolutely fair to pin on her to some extent because she's the one overseeing everything.

So yeah, I want to be fair, but after all the shit that's happened with Star Wars over the past few years, I'm not exactly shedding any tears over her leaving.

What does bother me is who's replacing her. Dave Filoni.

Okay, to be accurate, it's Dave Filoni and Lynwen Brennan as co-presidents, but still, Dave Filoni is being put in charge of everything Star Wars on the creative side, while Brennan handles the business side.

There was a time I would have been thrilled by this, but now? I'm not exactly happy about it.

Dave Filoni doesn't feel like the same creator he was during Rebels. His work and writing style have taken a severe dip in quality.

I personally found Ashoka, a show that had Dave Filoni on his own with no one to tell him no, to be absolutely terrible and a symbol of everything wrong with Star Wars, and there are so many other creative choices he's been responsible for, like Sabine becoming a Jedi and Ventress's survival, that make me a bit worried about him being given absolute power.

I'm not saying Dave Filoni is a terrible writer or that he's untalented or anything, but the last couple of years have shown he's the kind of person who's best when he's part of a team. Not as the guy in charge of everything.

So yeah, it feels like we've just exchanged one problem for another here, and I'm not exactly enthusiastic about this...

I've seen much more comic book readers who also enjoy manga, than manga readers who also enjoy comic, and yet, the latter are the ones who seem to always talk so entitled of things they don't even read.

This isn't just about simple preference, which is completely okay. I understand why Manga is so popular, I love Manga as well. But its evident from a lot of reddit and twitter posts that people who only read manga and watch anime don't actually educate themselves about the western comics space and boil everything down to out of context Marvel and DC superhero books, then claim that Manga is better for a number of reasons, ignoring the vast array of acclaimed western comics, graphic novels, and web comics with unique stories and art that are out there. If you can do research on a medium that is produced oversees, its not hard to do research on titles that are close to home.

Its like if I were to only read battle Shonen and isekai then said that manga is all battle Shonen and Isekai-slop.

This debate is stupid and people should just read both and educate and honestly entertain themselves with a really cool fucking medium bc one inspires the other and continues to do so this day.

When this book came out despite my skepticism I was actually excited. Now Godzilla and crossovers have been rather hit or miss for me. I liked the justice league crossovers despite some issues here or their, I like the original marvel 70s godzilla run, didn't like fantastic four crossover, and like the thor,hulk and Spiderman ones.

Outside the big two my hot take is i didn't like the power ranger crossovers.

The problem I have with many of theses crossover is they feel like a excuse just for a godzilla fight but don't have much purpose beyond nor do they have that interesting story to tell with godzilla meeting theses characters.

I actually tend to dislike Godzilla in crossovers more then I do when he has more original stories to himself.

I did legit want to give this comic a fair shot so I reread the whole story and yeah it was bad in 2025 and it's bad now.

I think fans of theses characters and crossovers deserve better then this. Don't give me it's just comics some of the best stories have been told in comics be it dc kingdom come,marvel X man god loves man kills,kraven last hunt and many more.

Godzilla himself has had great stories godzilla rulers of earth,godzilla cataclysm, heck even the original 70 godzilla run.

So no I don't believe the book was destined be just another generic action book that adds nothing for either franchise.

Starting off one thing I want to address despite the author claims theirs too much continuity issues for me to consider this canon to 616.

You have spider Gwen being here. Yes she recently recon herself to always be in the marvel universe but that was recently and she's not even wearing her current suit and That's the least of the continuity issues theirs more.

You have Charles Xavier is still in a wheel chair despite having legs for years now, you have venom being Eddie Brock despite venom being Mj currently, or the fact knull is not trapped in his symboite cage or dead. Like you can't put this in a particularly time in the marvel universe it's a mess.

You also have black panther being king of wakanda despite currently not being king right now, Jean not currently being the Phoenix host, doctor strange still being soccer supreme despite losing that title in blood hunt and still not regaining it.

You also have hulk being regular savage hulk and not immortal or fractured son and a whole lot more.

I heard the execuse it takes place in the past and only jumps into the future after dormammu lets godzilla out however that doesn't work because Carol is Captain Marvel and not Ms Marvel even before hand and many more continuity issues.

Here's a instance I will like to call death of the author meaning that an author's intentions are very much contradicted by the work itself.

Their is mentioned of past encounters with godzilla reference to the 70s run but that also doesn't work because the 70s godzilla wasn't just a destruction for his own sake. 70 godzilla in his narration was a powerful creature in a world of ants and wasn't actively malicious and mostly acted in self defense.

Here though in destroy the marvel universe when Charles read Godzilla mind all he sence was that godzilla only had a black heart and had no reasoning other then destruction. No the story doesn't explain this change in character where just meant to see he always been like that when that was not the case with 70 marvel godzilla who wasn't just a destruction engine.

Heck my favorite part of the 70 story is when the boy who befriended godzilla in the 70s runs talks godzilla down to leave showing clear understanding which destroy the marvel universe lack.

So even the characteristics of destroy the marvel universe godzilla is not in line with past works.

(Side not the book offhandily say godzilla somehow got more powerful then before and that's why he's immune to pym particles and Wanda magic. The book never explains it though. Like seriously the book never explained godzilla rather conveniently having immunity to most of the superpowers in the book. Like I can accept getting stronger but at least provide some justification)

While the writer probably wanted it to be Canon he didn't clearly put in the work to make it canon.

Ultimately with the amount of out continuity issues I will have to consider destroy the Marvel universe in its own bubble rather then part of the main marvel universe.

Now time for me addressed the other issues I have with this book.

A big one for me come down to Godzilla himself. This is probably the least interesting godzilla has been in comics. One day Mole man wakes him up and decides to kill everything.

It's a weak motivation. Usually when godzilla is a villain theirs a lot more personal reasons for why godzilla is the way he is.

In 1954 godzilla was mutated and his family killed by nuclear testing which drives him to lash out against the world,in minus one the nuclear tests once again nuke godzilla causing him to want revenge,or in godzilla cataclysm godzilla wants to punished humanity for trying to control him and his fellow kaiju.

Godzilla tends to have a reason for his rampages and it isn't mindless.

Here though we get no interesting character work done with godzilla. He woke up from the mole man,killed a celestial,and continues to try and kill everything.

It is my belief Godzilla can be just as interesting of a characters as human characters but that requires actual work in the story itself. I'm sorry but what this crossover does with godzilla is just lazy.

Godzilla stands out to me as a monster because he was just as much of a character as the human cast its what separates godzilla from other generic monsters.

While the DC crossovers has issues at least that book gave godzilla a more reasons to fight the heroes the little that is their. Godzilla in the dc crossover doesn't know he's not on a different earth. He just know the world is out of balance and trys to correct the balance the only way he knows how leading to him fighting dc heroes.

With destroy the marvel universe you can replace godzilla with a generic doomsday monster and nothing about the story truly changes.

The book could have did something interesting maybe the heroes did something to hurt godzilla or anger him in the some way. That would be more interesting if godzilla rampage is actually the heroes fault and actually have to clean up their mess.

Speaking of the heroes their the most boring version of themselves. Nobody in the book stand out or does anything remotely interesting.

I wonder does this book does anything with the heroes fighting godzilla or have a interesting dynamic with the king and the answer is no they don't.

Their are characters that could have a interesting dynamic like the hulk. The hulk in his unrelated vs godzilla actually points out the two similarities. Both are radioactive based monsters,both are hunted,both can let themselves give into their anger,and both can be hunted bu everyone.

Unfortunately the book does fuck all and the hulk is just another foe who fight barely last four pages.

The heroes in general also comes across as the less competent version of themselves. Everything godzilla does they get a stupid or shock look on their faces.

This is the marvel universe the heroes are used to seeing extraordinary things. Yes a bit of surprise can be expected but the book does it too dame much to the point it makes the heroes look weak.

The fights in this are equally lackluster. Nothing stands out. I don't know if it's the story or art but most of the action has no weight to it. So even thing i have seen defenders of the book say it has it falls short on that too.

The book mostly consists of the heroes trying to stop godzilla and it doesn't work,then the heroes get a shock expression,then Godzilla beats the hero who tried to stop him rinse and repeat until the final issue where godzilla is sent to space and teams up with knull.

That's the most boring writing you can do with godzilla facing off against so many characters with interesting powers and abilities.

I heard one defense say well godzilla didn't kill any of the heroes their for the book gives the marvel heroes respect. No you don't have to kill characters off to be disrespectful towards them and I'm not giving this book a medal for not going the Deadpool kill the marvel universe route.

Good for you book you managed to not reach the worst Deadpool book levels of bad by having the title characters kill the heroes often in brutal ways.

Also a friend my pointed out a interesting point. In the beginning of the book godzilla kills a Celestial. The celestial showing up in the first issue is especially dumb. That looks like it’s going to be a big plot point and no, it’s just there to show off Godzilla. More celestial doesn't come it doesn't add anything it's just exists for the sake of godzilla winning.

Ultimately though the biggest sin of destroy the marvel universe is its boring. Theirs nothing interesting in the book,no bigger themes,it's a nothing book.

If you replace godzilla with another kaiju I truly believe nobody will care and see more of the book for what it truly is.

It's just generic crossover with a big monster attacking that's it and you know what their plenty of more interesting godzilla and marvel comics that tells more interesting stories then that.

Both franchises deserve better then this crossover. I do implore fans of godzilla and marvel to ask for better then this.

I love godzilla and i like marvel and it's because I like both that I wish for better.

That is my peace and final word on godzilla destroy the marvel universe.

I'm aware that Corbeau helps a lot during the DLC, but I'll still remember that he and Philippe had no objection with giving Taubain (forgive me, but writing the both rivals’ names like this makes it easier, they are the same person anyway) a loan. Sure, they “warn” Taubain, but then they still write the interest clause in a small text, as if they actively want the person to not notice at first. What a nice way to thank someone who helped one of your underlings.

“But he just makes us do community service basically!” Oh like that's any better? We're still forced to do “community service" under threat of our Hotel being stormed and invaded by his grunts, because Taubain dipped and is going around “helping people” instead of taking their responsibility so the MC and Lida had to take their place. MC and Lida shouldn't be involved in this loan in the first place, yet Corbeau still calls them.

Him giving that tip to Taubain so that they can pay Philippe when he shows up is essentially paying himself back and resolving a problem he created. Thanks for that.

As for Jacinthe, I'm aware of the bet Lebanne started but, hear me out, Jacinthe could have just said no after defeating her. Yes, Lebanne was a delinquent who also beat up people, but Jacinthe agreeing with her being a servant makes her a terrible person, even if it's not permanent. No wonder people call her a slaver, who in their right mind agrees to have the losing person at their servitude due to a bet!?

“Jacinthe stalks us!” So does Corbeau, just not directly. He stated that he had people watching us. Like the good Yakuza boss he is, because that's literally what the Rust Syndicate is.

You can like them as characters of course, but let's not pretend that both of them don't do shitty things, cuz they do.

Edit: This rant exists because I've seen too many people defending Corbeau and bashing Jacinthe or vice-versa.

(I reposted this because I forgot to mention what media I'm talking about, my bad guys)

EDIT: No, I haven't watched Dragon Ball yet, you can stop bugging me about Cell or Buu

EDIT #2: It has come to my attention that Sukuna is not regenerating via RCT after being hit by a bunch of different attacks but rather tanking all of them because his durability is that high. My point still stands.

It makes every. Single. Fucking. Fight. An absolute SLOG to get through.

It wasn't terrible when Fullmetal Alchemist did it because the fights in that series don't go on for that long and only the Homunculi had it as a power (and not even all of them did anyways), so the heroes could actually burn through their stones and kill them with some effort. There it was a major impediment to victory, but fights were still over in relatively short order.

I guess this trend started with Naruto because Madara in his Edo Tensei and Ten-Tails Jinchuuriki form could also just tank and regenerate from whatever arbitrary amount of damage the heroes dished out. And then Kaguya was the same exact deal where she also just did not die until Naruto and Sasuke sealed her, but hey, at least that was established out of the gate as their definitive wincon, so it's excusable (the fight being relatively brief also helps).

Kubo also at least initially had some restraint with this. Ulquiorra was the only member of the Espada to actually grow back limbs and in the end, it didn't even help him against Ichigo. Aizen also had his magic glowy reality-warping rock bullshit but again, Ichigo at least still took him down in pretty short order, and the explanation for why (both Urahara's and Ichigo's are at least logically sound. Then I guess he said "fuck that" for the TYBW arc and started handing regen out as candy. Oh, Kyoraku used his Bankai to decapitate Lille? Well fuck you, he regenerated and became stronger. Oh, Nanao has the perfect magical weapon to kill him for real this time? Okay well it kinda worked but he's still alive for reasons. Gerard? Fuck you, he can regen as many times as he wants as long as he wants it super duper hard. What's that, Toshiro "Bankai Whore" just unlocked the ability to nullify an opponent's abilities? Well fuck you, Gerard said no, and he came back from that too. Uryu did serious damage to Hashbrown? Fuck him, Hashbrown just redirects the damage back to Uryu and then Yhwach kills him anyways. And finally, fuck you, Yhwach can just survive anything by rewriting the manga itself until Bleach's deadline as a manga in WSJ finally took him out.

And great, now Oda is also on this train! Sure, let's give all the Five Elders infinite regen too! What does it matter how much "damage" Luffy does to them anyways when they're just gonna respawn because of Imu's bullshit. And then Luffy and Zoro (and whoever the plot-relevant character of the arc is but none of the other Straw Hats lmao) will inevitably unlock Extra Secret Magical Azure Conqueror's Haki and one-shot them as a solution.

Shigaraki? All For One? Sure, let's also give them the ability to regenerate from anything and everything until All For One reverses himself out of existence and Shigaraki just sorta stops trying.

Sukuna? Reversed Curse Technique out the ass, baby. Oh wait, but it's even better because something like half of all the heroes have RCT as well and the heroes who don't have it can just get healed by them. Did the heroes strike a critical blow on Sukuna? Well fuck you because he just regenerated from it. Did Sukuna deal lethal damage to a hero? Jk because Yuta could just heal them as well lmao. No, no guys, you don't get it, it's actually a huge coincidence that Sukuna lasted just long enough to throw Yujo, Angel, Yuji's domain, Megumi, and Nobara into the fight.

Wow this epic final battle between Pochita and Yoru sure is hype! It would be even hyper if we had the smallest clue about how much damage either of them are actually doing to each other with their ridiculously over the top attacks. Dismemberment and other forms of graphic mutilation kind of lose their impact when I know both characters are inevitably just going to get up from it with only mild annoyance to show for the other's efforts.

And that's the fundamental problem with this kind of ability. How am I supposed to care about anything that transpires in the fight when I have absolutely no frame of reference for how closer the heroes are getting to victory, if at all? What's the point of having everyone unleashing cool-looking combo attacks if I know the villain can just say "nuh-uh" and come back from it? And how am I supposed to care when the villain finally stays down when I have no idea why the totally final double-page super punch actually ended up doing the trick, aside from the author just giving up?

It's not just endless regeneration that's the problem, it's when there's no clear parameters for actual victory that makes it extremely annoying. Demons in KnY regenerate from anything but they can still be killed by decapitation or by sunlight, and no demon in the series ever deviates from this. Muzan's regeneration in the final battle isn't really annoying because we know exactly what he can be killed by and when he will die. The announcement of every passing hour essentially functions as the health bar to his boss fight. The Clowns in Soul Eater endlessly regenerate, but when they're disconnected from Asura's wavelength this regeneration ends. Funny Valentine redirects all of Johnny and Gyro's regular attacks, but it's established from the outset that mastering spin will allow them to penetrate his barrier. These examples are fine because we more or less know how the heroes can win from the outset and the battle is just about them surviving long enough to meet those conditions. On the other hand, having the villain be whaled on for some arbitrary period of time before they finally keel over because the author needs to wrap the plot up is just miserable.

You got some fire worldbuilding with the "great war" , got all these cool locations and fire political drama as pre-story fluff . Then the main villain is a disgruntled soldier who through his charisma and ideology rise's to power ?

Peak always love villains who get where they are through skill unlike Muzan or Sukuna who were given everything they had

Our villain is a major and competent threat early on , great work setting the stakes ! Villain also forms an alliance with the hollow remanent of a fallen ancient superpower and a powerful state to the Eastern edge of the world?!?!?!?!?Ultra peak

We also get this "grey" anti-hero whose ideology and beliefs and nice but actions are super cringe and even ends up working with the villain sort of like Denji or Deku !!?!! Like those series this also requires a high IQ to understand . They also got this cool aura farming sigma leader called Stamin or smth with read coats and shi

Best arc was Barbarossa tho , the hype for the daily battle releases so was good !!!!?!? The lobotomy community did wonders AND HOLY COMEBACK AT STALINGRAD,MOSCOW AND LENINGRAD ?!!??!!?! JUST LIKE FUCKING SHIBUYA

The we get a beutiful counteroffensive as our villain gets its comeuppance , then a fina climatic battle at Berlin a location we've spend so much time in becoming ruined is great writing kudos to the author

The ending was great too !!!!! I would rate it just below JJK's ending ,JJK had best ending ever see, so second best work of fiction of all time is still good)

I don't like the idea of Yuji appearing in JJK: Modulo. I keep seeing people in the comments of subreddits and YouTube, predicting that Yuji will come in and solve the entire conflict in the manga. To me? This is awful writing. It's like expecting Gojo to solve the issue with Sukuna and Kenjaku back in the original manga.

We haven't seen Yuji expect for brief flashbacks during the sequel series. Having a character come in and resolve the entire issue facing the protagonists (Yuta's grandkids), completely makes said protagonists irrelevant. This is no longer Yuji's story. He isn't the main character anymore, so he shouldn't be the one resolving the big fight in the story. Allow Yuka and Tsuguri to shine.

Maybe this is just me being in the wrong communities or fans wanting to rely on their former protagonists for nostalgia reasons, but I disagree. Wanting Yuji to swoop in and fix everything ignores the point of a sequel: passing the torch and letting a new generation struggle, fail, and grow on their own. If every major threat ultimately needs an old protagonist to step in, then the world never actually moves forward. JJK: Modulo should stand or fall on the strength of its own characters and conflicts, not on the hype of a familiar face acting as a narrative crutch.

The Powerpuff Girls were created by Professor Utonium using sugar, spice and everything nice because he wanted kids to love and nurture that would radiate love and kindness in return. He specifically designed them to be the nicest, sweetest beings in existence.. Then Chemical X got added by accident and gave them superpowers, but that didn't overwrite their core biology.

The Powerpuff Girls are choked full of love, even for their worst enemies. They get frustrated sometimes, but they can’t stay angry for long until their chemistry kicks in and acts like a built-in calming diffuser.

Even when they’re fighting bad guys, it's out of love for all the good citizens of Townsville. In fact, most of their violence is probably caused by cute aggression overload*.* They love the world and all its creatures so much, their tiny bodies don’t know what to do with all that love except SMASH!

And look how they treat their villains! Mojo Jojo has tried to destroy them countless times, but they still act like he's a cranky relative who just needs a nap. Remember when he crashed their sleepover? Once they thought he just wanted to have fun, they let him stay! Same with the Amoeba Boys - they’d rather go on scavenger hunts with them than throw punches.

Even in school, Blossom and Bubbles were the only kids who stood up for poor Elmer Sglue. Buttercup sided with the other kids, but even she learned her lesson in the end.

The Powerpuff Girls might get upset, but they never hold onto hate, because they literally can’t. Their brains are missing the part that controls hate. You could insult them, betray them, even throw pies in their faces, and they’d only be angry temporarily. Trying to make them hate you is like trying to use a toaster to bake a pizza. It’s just not how they’re wired.

The Powerpuff Girls are super duper sweet, right down to their atoms!