Downtown Khazan: Ice Cold Utopia

[grampagen]

i'm in the same camp. like i can enjoy hax power with good presentation and build up but when it's bad, i don't care for it. probably the reason i dont like all for one as a villain.

I think AFO was alright as he was originally presented. In a setting where social value is determined on the internship one gets through innate superpowers, his ability to have all the powers through the means stealing another's validity as a functioning member of society is rather frightening and setting appropriate.

The problem is Shigaraki was set up to inherit an element of this struggle, that element being which subverts the structure of the Hero-based society. As much as All For One vs One for All continues, it's paralleled in Deku creating something out of nothing and Tomura wanting to make nothing out of everything.

Of course, of late Tomura's inheritance of AFO's mantlehas been made quite literal and I think that's where it feels kind of cheap.

[Hiromi]

I gave One Piece a break for a few months, right around the time they got into an extended flashback segment, now I've binged back to caught up and damn this fight is bananas

also seeing Luffy get to trot out the old immune to lightning bit again, near TWO DECADES after Skypiea, was worth a chuckle

[master of read]

I think AFO was alright as he was originally presented. In a setting where social value is determined on the internship one gets through innate superpowers, his ability to have all the powers through the means stealing another's validity as a functioning member of society is rather frightening and setting appropriate.

The problem is Shigaraki was set up to inherit an element of this struggle, that element being which subverts the structure of the Hero-based society. As much as All For One vs One for All continues, it's paralleled in Deku creating something out of nothing and Tomura wanting to make nothing out of everything.

Of course, of late Tomura's inheritance of AFO's mantlehas been made quite literal and I think that's where it feels kind of cheap.

i don't really have much of a problem with his ideals. it's his powers that kind of turned me off of AFO. that and taking over shigaraki's body hasn't been working for me.

[master of read]

I gave One Piece a break for a few months, right around the time they got into an extended flashback segment, now I've binged back to caught up and damn this fight is bananas

also seeing Luffy get to trot out the old immune to lightning bit again, near TWO DECADES after Skypiea, was worth a chuckle

i'm glad it's not just luffy alone facing kaido and big mom. really hits home the generational shift that's happening.

also, i think this is the first time zoro has been really hurt since the time skip.

[Iron_Twister]

So One Piece Bounty Rush released Roger and Oden for the 2 year anniversary of the game.

...Oden kinda is a game breaker already if you know how to play. Roger? He's utterly broken.



...he's literally healing while getting attacked. What? I'm laughing my ass off.

Haven't gotten him though.

[Noldere]

You would have at least signed up for the competition to forfeit.

I would have said I'd enter, then forgotten to do so, stayed in bed on the day of the tournament and then sent a wishy-washy text message about doing my laundry or something.

Hmm... flaking on the flake competition has to at least be worth a special prize, if nothing else.

Also, I now kinda want to start a podcast series title F(l)ake it Till You (Don't) Make It.

IIRC, you live in Birmingham, right?

Nah, Montgomery; two visits to Birmingham was enough for a lifetime for me.

[Laevatein]

It would be tragic if people didn't watch this video:

[Dark Soul # 7]

So recently I've found myself burnt out on Hax-Level Regen Villains. I think Shigaraki was the last of it for me. I just feel kinda bored with the idea.

Anybody else or just me?

I do agree that regen is handed out often enough that it feels kinda samey at a certain point, especially once it reaches certain levels of hax.

However, I don't think that Shigaraki's regen ever reached that level. It certainly made him tougher to take down, but it never really felt like it made him unstoppable. He was still getting tired and all the damage that the heroes piled up on him had a constant effect. Hell, they had him pretty much beaten until the vestige of All For One activated and did the driving for him. Or in other words, the heroes had to push their limits against Shigaraki and it actually had an effect on him.

Compare that to for example Madara from Naruto. The technique that brought him back made him an immortal zombie and all damage against him was quickly negated. And any time anybody tried to seal him away or undo the jutsu that brought him back he just casually powered through it like it was nothing. Then he was brought back to life for real and even the bijuu smacking him around with all of their tails was a minor inconvenience in that he casually had to fetch a new arm. The heroes pushed their limits against Madara and like 90% of the time it amounted to nothing.

In short, I don't think that Shigaraki's regen, or his other new powers, were ever at a hax level, at least not enough to detract from my enjoyment. Your mileage may obviously vary.

[Dark Soul # 7]

So... imma talk about Shigaraki for a sec here.

The thing is I was already sold on Shigaraki being threatening since that sequence with him and Deku in a mall or whatever. Dude could kill literally anyone by grabbing them. That was a strong powerset, it was scary and pretty engaging, Deku and literally anyone in grabbing range was in imminent and real danger. Meanwhile, Deku was, eventually, going to learn absurd strength but that would still require him to get close to his nemesis and put himself in danger. Solid setup for the series right?

And then...

Shirageki gets an upgrade on the level of killing an entire town by touching the ground and also gets ridiculous regen and other powers and also he's ALL FOR ONE now esentially so I'm like... no.

And Deku gets two new powers with at least four more on the way and i am like "Why should I care about any of this stuff? He's not doing anything to earn this, it's just happening when it feels convenient,"

You already did enough to make me invest and now you've egged it so far and made the villain literally different character so I just don't care any more?

While I can understand feeling a certain... escalation fatigue (I certainly felt that in Naruto when you had to be able to blow a mountain to be halfway relevant) it should be pointed out that Shigaraki gaining has been kinda built up throughout the series.

What with all the Nomu, Gigantomachia and Nine (the main villain from the second movie) being experiments for grafting multiple quirks onto one person, and AFO just straight up being able to move quirks around between people. All For One even kinda mentions Shigaraki getting more quirks when he blew a hole through Best Jeanist. So it didn't come from nowhere is what I'm saying. Not that that probably helps with frustrating regarding the development.

And it's not that Shigaraki is All For One, it's that All For One took over his body, which is a development that I didn't forsee or really want to be honest. But I do still care about Shigaraki, mainly in that I now want him to break free and reassert himself over All For One and tie that into Deku's thoughts of saving Shigaraki in some capacity.

As for Deku and his quirks. He has four currently, the stat booster, Black Whip, Float and he unlocked Danger Sense towards the end of the war, it seems to basically be what it sounds like. And he earns all these quirks by mastering them even as they complicate his learning process, kinda like Aang with the elements. I for one enjoyed that development, it gives a more mythical feel to One For All and does give Deku some nice variety to his abilities.

Besides, even if Deku only had the stat boosting aspect of One For All towards the end Shigaraki would need some kind of buff. Because the last time Deku was able to go 100% against an opponent that could kill you by touching you he smashed that dude into the air and then into the ground. It would've been a bit anticlimatic if that happened to Shigaraki in the end as well.

[Dark Soul # 7]

I think AFO was alright as he was originally presented. In a setting where social value is determined on the internship one gets through innate superpowers, his ability to have all the powers through the means stealing another's validity as a functioning member of society is rather frightening and setting appropriate.

The problem is Shigaraki was set up to inherit an element of this struggle, that element being which subverts the structure of the Hero-based society. As much as All For One vs One for All continues, it's paralleled in Deku creating something out of nothing and Tomura wanting to make nothing out of everything.

Of course, of late Tomura's inheritance of AFO's mantlehas been made quite literal and I think that's where it feels kind of cheap.

It was a bit disappointing that for all his talk of letting Shigaraki inherit his hate, ambitions and everything else, All For One mainly meant it so that he could take over Shigaraki's body. But as I said before, there are intriguing elements to it.

I generally have mixed feelings about it and will see how Horikoshi handles it going forward.

[Sharpandpointies]

The temp outside is 14F or -10C. I hate the cold. Anyone else have colder temp?

Yes. Yesterday was -18 C w/o wind (there was win). Today is...-18 C.

Officially -26C with wind.

[Nik Hasta]

While I can understand feeling a certain... escalation fatigue (I certainly felt that in Naruto when you had to be able to blow a mountain to be halfway relevant) it should be pointed out that Shigaraki gaining has been kinda built up throughout the series.

What with all the Nomu, Gigantomachia and Nine (the main villain from the second movie) being experiments for grafting multiple quirks onto one person, and AFO just straight up being able to move quirks around between people. All For One even kinda mentions Shigaraki getting more quirks when he blew a hole through Best Jeanist. So it didn't come from nowhere is what I'm saying. Not that that probably helps with frustrating regarding the development.

And it's not that Shigaraki is All For One, it's that All For One took over his body, which is a development that I didn't forsee or really want to be honest. But I do still care about Shigaraki, mainly in that I now want him to break free and reassert himself over All For One and tie that into Deku's thoughts of saving Shigaraki in some capacity.

As for Deku and his quirks. He has four currently, the stat booster, Black Whip, Float and he unlocked Danger Sense towards the end of the war, it seems to basically be what it sounds like. And he earns all these quirks by mastering them even as they complicate his learning process, kinda like Aang with the elements. I for one enjoyed that development, it gives a more mythical feel to One For All and does give Deku some nice variety to his abilities.

Besides, even if Deku only had the stat boosting aspect of One For All towards the end Shigaraki would need some kind of buff. Because the last time Deku was able to go 100% against an opponent that could kill you by touching you he smashed that dude into the air and then into the ground. It would've been a bit anticlimatic if that happened to Shigaraki in the end as well.

I think you're slightly talking about a different thing. I don't think it's unbelievable or immersion breaking or tonally dissonant for Tomura to have gotten a bunch of new powers and so on, my issue is more that the base conflict between Deku and Tomura and their abilities wasn't really established or used to its fullest potential and adding these new powers doesn't add anything to their development. It's like a hat on a hat.

Like, this point here:

Besides, even if Deku only had the stat boosting aspect of One For All towards the end Shigaraki would need some kind of buff. Because the last time Deku was able to go 100% against an opponent that could kill you by touching you he smashed that dude into the air and then into the ground. It would've been a bit anticlimatic if that happened to Shigaraki in the end as well.

I feel this is a very unimaginative perspective in it. It would be very easy to write scenarios wherein Tomura remains a threat even with Deku being much stronger than him. He could use clever strategies, he could get to Deku in other ways, he could use that squad of interesting henchmen that he has to even things up.

Heck, the manga could explore the fact that while Deku could kill him if he hit him at full power, he doesn't want to murder him he wants to bring him to justice.

There's dramatic tension in that dynamic that has been completely thrown away in favour of Tomura and Deku both getting a bunch of new powers so they can have a big dramatic spectacle battle. As someone who has been reading manga for decades at this point, I am less interested in a big spectacle fight if it's not supported by interesting writing and character development.

I also disagree with your comparison to Aang. Aang's whole story was that he had to go and learn to master these abilities which were a massive part of the setting and culture he existed in. He had to find teachers and train with them therefore the pursuit of his powers fed into his relationship with the supporting cast; strengthening and changing his relationships with Katara and Zuko and introducing Toph into the story naturally. Aang's powers were intimately tied into the progression of both his story, the world's story and his relationships to the cast.

Deku's black whip power came out of nowhere and now, a low number of chapters later, he has effectively mastered it on his own largely offscreen. He gained and mastered float mid fight and had to do nothing to earn it or be taught how to use it. Danger sense as well, he just has that now. His powers are internally gained, require no real inter-character work to master and are completely unique to Deku. It doesn't tie him to the world, it doesn't impact his relationships to anyone except maybe Bakugou (whom I have a whole other set of issues with) and it just feels flat to me.

Like, I don't think MHA is bad or anything but it really irks me how much it's just... squandering a bunch of its potential in the pursuit of power scaling.

Also, Deku and Bakugou are largely not very well written for my money but that's more taste than anything.

[Nik Hasta]

Unrelated to my above post, housemate has made a new video.

Ya'll should watch it because it's very good.

[Cthulhu_of_R'lyeh]

I find the initial comparison of the enemies in 1886, to BLM somewhat ... okay more than a little, lacking. Primarily in that, while ultimately proven somewhat justified (which in no way exonerates the actions leading up to this revelation); the rebels were actively carrying out (or at the very least attempting to carry out) political assassinations. It gets even more complicated when the Halfbreeds (Werewolves/Vampires) themselves are... not particularly disenfranchised? Like, two of them are revealed to be (in one specific case) in a position of power enough to influence politics and governmental agencies (the Order itself).

I'm only about halfway through, though so... opinion could change.

But it's kind of the smack in the face to say a group of largely peaceful protestors who have been subjected to far more police abuse than is deserved or warranted, is comparable to what is probably more closely comparable to the Capitol Rioters some of whom attempted somewhat haphazardly to carry out political assassinations.

[Tami]

Yes. Yesterday was -18 C w/o wind (there was win). Today is...-18 C.

Officially -26C with wind.

So that's about 0 degrees F to -15 degrees F. I've experienced 0 degrees once or twice, almost never below that. I don't know if I could handle temps that cold.