Board 8 > Quinton and Leonhart in Different Houses: Magic Fate/Ball Edition [JZLF]

(+) Yeah! (+)

SaveEstelle posted...

This is absolutely proof that nine times out of ten I'm an in-universe chronological order kind of guy, because I love knowing what's probably up there.

Is the tenth time Star Wars? Release order never fails.
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The tenth time is MGS. Jeff Zero absolutely watches Star Wars in chronological order.
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So Star Trek: Discovery. (Yo, @Mac_Arrowny.) If I had to choose a single word to describe my feelings on its first nine episodes, that word would be promising. It shows some pretty stellar signs of promise. It's also got some growing pains to shake off, much like every Star Trek show inevitably does. Two years ago, when a new series was first announced, I expressed concern that Star Trek can't afford to be anything less than great straight out of the gate anymore. Thankfully, I seem to have been mistaken, considering subscriptions skyrocketed for All Access here in the states and internationally speaking it charts at #4 on Netflix. By all publicly available metrics it appears to be doing rather well for itself despite the wrinkles.

We'll start with the good. Lorca is pretty excellent. His chaotic good nature wouldn't work without someone to stand for a more lawful approach, which is precisely what we get through Michael. Michael's got her problems in the writing, I feel, but Sonequa Martin-Green plays off every other actor well enough that I'd still call her a net positive. Tilly is, of course, adorable, and Stamets is just as good. So that's four out of six main cast characters who I think are either good or aces. Not a bad start. Additionally, the production values are terrific. Space feels vast but also less monochromatic than is the case with previous series -- always an improvement. The sets are slick too. I also like Voq and L'Rell, and yes, I'm in the Tyler is Voq theory camp. In fact, I've been there since the fourth episode, and I was astonished to discover that by episode five, so was the rest of the internet.

Then there's the wrinkles. Despite an ever-impressive performance by Doug Jones, I can't help feeling like our ship's main alien rep, Saru, hasn't found his (webbed) footing yet as a character. He shows signs of being a standout character in the (problematic but serviceable) two-hour premiere but he really falls by the wayside thereafter. I'd hoped that the eighth episode, whose preview sported him substantially, would right the course, but frustratingly he was given little more than a garden-variety early Stargate episode plotline that worked more for the mechanics of the narrative than for Saru himself. I hope we get a lot more from this guy going forward. I'm not too keen on Tyler either, although his PTSD angle is fun (perhaps that's the wrong word, but I digress) and if the fan theory holds up, he's golden. The Klingon redesign doesn't really do it for me either but I'm not the type of fan who runs around on the net for months like his head's cut off ranting and raving about how so-and-so ruined my childhood. I just think they look worse now and their new ship designs are kind of terrible. Lastly, the Harry Mudd character never worked for me in TOS and he barely worked for me here, but my roommates both seem to enjoy him (and that schmaltzy utterly 60s ending to his spotlight episode...) so #IsItJustMeOr? 101, pretty much.

Back to the good, though, I want to commend Anthony Rapp's acting in the most recent batch of episodes. Like holy wow. And I salute the writers for killing off Kol at the end of S1 Chapter 1 instead of hanging on to that card until the end because he was effective as a one-note villain but little more than that. The teasers for the Mirror Universe (or something like it) and the fandom figuring out that Lorca may have sent the crew to this new dimension of his own volition are both pretty intriguing hooks.

Episode ranking for Season 1 Chapter 1:

9. The Vulcan Hello
8. Battle at the Binary Stars
7. Magic to Make the Sanest Man Go Mad
6. Si Vis Pacem, Para Bellum
5. The Butcher's Knife Cares Not For The Lamb's Cry
4. Choose Your Pain
3. Context is for Kings
2. Into the Forest I Go
1. Lethe
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BK_Sheikah00 posted...

SaveEstelle posted...

This is absolutely proof that nine times out of ten I'm an in-universe chronological order kind of guy, because I love knowing what's probably up there.

Is the tenth time Star Wars? Release order never fails.

Nope. 1->2->3->R1->4->5->6->7->8 for me!
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Finished up chapter 1 of Professor Layton and the Unwound Future. The game definitely has me sold on the premise, at least. I'm very curious about where everything is headed. And we're about to meet future Luke, so that should be really interesting.

also there's something I've noticed in the Layton games up to this point

Whenever Layton is about to introduce Luke, he never gets to finish telling people who he is before Luke butts in and calls himself the professor's apprentice. It's always like, "This is Luke, my..."

"...I'm the professor's apprentice!" or something along those lines.

Makes me wonder what the real story is there. I imagine we'll get the answer at some point, but yeah.
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Whenever Layton is about to introduce Luke

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boy I wish

the Luke in these games isn't nearly as great as that one

edit: I saw that...!
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LeonhartFour posted...

boy I wish

the Luke in these games isn't nearly as great as that one

Oh wait, the link did work! What the heck. It didn't display right for me. I'll edit it.
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Still best Luke
https://78.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lrqayh9e5l1qi7rrx.gif
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Oh I missed the Chrono Cross discussion last topic.

It's actually been a while since I've played it. Not being part of a relevant series with rereleases makes it hard.

I usually replay things when new editions come out these days.
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My original party was like Serge, Kid, Razzly. Which also happened to be one of the two possible combinations for a triple tech!
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pjbasis posted...

Still best Luke
https://78.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lrqayh9e5l1qi7rrx.gif

I like Tales of the Abyss but NOPE
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Okay, Yu Yu Hakusho is finally complete! The Demon World Tournament concludes, and the winner is...one of Raizen's buddies who we never saw fight for even a second! Well, he makes a law that Demon World can't interfere with Living World anymore, so I guess it turned out all right. Koenma tries to thank Yusuke for what he did, but he says he can't take credit for it because it wasn't like he planned for this to happen. He just got lucky. Then we have a time skip where everyone reunites at Genkai's place, and Yusuke finally returns for Keiko! Isn't that sweet? Kuwabara's apparently become quite the ladies' man, but he still hasn't won over Yukina, and Hiei still hasn't told her the truth. Oh well.

There are some OVAs, but I don't think I'm gonna watch them. They seem to be a mixture of clip episodes and silly parody things, so I think I'll be all right without them. All in all, I'm glad I watched Yu Yu Hakusho, but I will probably never watch it again.

Now for the final rankings! Not going to be exhaustive here since there's a ton of characters; just going to rank the major ones.

Kurama > Kuwabara > Hiei > Yusuke > Botan > Genkai > Koenma > Yukina > Mukuro > Ogre > Toguro > Yomi > Keiko > Raizen > Shizuru > Sensui

Yukina probably could've taken top girl if she'd had more screentime, or if they had followed all the way through on either a Kuwabara romance or reuniting with Hiei (or both!), but alas.

Now to finally put a YYH character on the female character rankings!

Nagato > Yakumo > Kurisu > Chizuru > Yukiko > Aqua > Makoto > Mitsuru > Yui > Yachiyo > Shiori > Eru > Wagatsuma > Ritsu > Akane > Pepper > Amy > Namine > Botan > Yurippe > Mikasa > Eureka > Art3mis > Valentine > Zelda > Vera > Elizabeth > Cora > Kotori
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That's about where I figured the show would land for you: liked it/will probably never watch again. I'm glad you enjoyed it though! I will never stop wishing there were one more season. I feel like it could have been really epic. Oh well. I like Seasons 2 and 3 a lot so I'm thankful we got those.

I've watched enough episodes of FSN now that I'm two episodes into Season 2! So I think I watched like 5 or 6 today, including a double-length season-ender. Shiro and Rin is a solid romance. I'm glad they spent so much time together in episodes 12 and 13, even if it left poor Saber feeling a little like a third wheel. It's night and day seeing these lead characters versus Fate/Zero's. I can't stop saying that. There's good chemistry between them and I'll be crushed if that's taken away. (Unless it's taken away in a thematically and dramatically poignant way.)

This Archer guy, let me tell you. It's possible he really is just some guardian spirit kind of dude with no direct ties to preexisting characters. And hey, that'd be cool, too. But he gives off so many vibes of either being Kiritsugu or some bad-future Shiro himself or something. I don't have any real previous basis for that being how things work in this universe but what if Kuritsugu became a heroic spirit somehow, you know? Or Shiro? Or what if Shiro's powers are so mysterious because he is one? What if Kuritsugu turned him into one? What if... ahh, this paragraph is nuts.

I'm surprised Caster is still kicking. Seeing her rise in relevance at the end of Season 1 reminded me of Caster in Fate/Zero and I thought it'd go down similarly. But she's still at it. Man, she killed the new Archibald jerk, huh? These Archibalds are officially the Game of Thrones' House Frey of the Fate universe. I kind of want a bit of a bloodbath sometime soon though if possible -- a lot of folks are still in play.

You know who's not in play? Rider, that's who. You people saying he's just as great in Fate/Stay Night! You are the worst people! She died in like ten seconds! Either you played a cosmic joke on me or our beloved Rider 1.0 is going to burst through a church wall and expose Kirei for what he is. Any second now. Tick. Tock. Come on...

Now Shiro and Rin (who I need to remind you are adorable together, bless) are off to see Illyasviel at the Winter Palace. That's what I call that place because seriously. Anyway, Gilgamesh got there first and killed her doll maid things. Looks like we're getting a Gilgamesh versus Berserker fight. Saber is in, uh, certain poses back at the church now that she's under Caster's control (sorta). And Shinji is Shinji. OP2 and ED2 are great!
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who said F/SN Rider was as great as F/Z Rider?

well maybe some people who've played the game but I dunno that anyone claimed UBW Rider was great!

they might have said Lancer because F/SN Lancer is pretty excellent
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LeonhartFour posted...

who said F/SN Rider was great?

well maybe some people who've played the game but I dunno that anyone claimed UBW Rider was great!

they might have said Lancer because F/SN Lancer is pretty excellent

I think maybe I misinterpreted you, actually

Because you said like "Rider's still my favorite though" as you were watching F/SN and I thought this meant he would be in this too somehow

Given that I thought Archer looked a lot like Gilgamesh for his first few minutes of screentime and then I saw Saber next, I was beginning to wonder if everybody would come back, but I guess it's only just the few servants from Fate/Zero who survived, which makes sense
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No, I mean F/Z Rider is still my favorite character between both shows despite liking UBW better.

Also, I think heroic spirits can be summoned over and over again, regardless of whether they die or not during a Grail War. It's just that there are a lot more heroic spirits than there are classes, so they don't overlap that much.
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F/SN Rider is much better in other routes but is still never really a top tier character imo
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It's worth noting that in the VN after UBW Rider is the only Servant whose true identity is not given in the in-game reference.
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LeonhartFour posted...

Not going to be exhaustive here since there's a ton of characters; just going to rank the major ones.

How about a blurb for our main dudes
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pjbasis posted...

LeonhartFour posted...

Not going to be exhaustive here since there's a ton of characters; just going to rank the major ones.

How about a blurb for our main dudes

Okay, sure.

Kurama - Excellent throughout. Almost always good. Conflict between his human and demon attachments was compelling. Usually had the most entertaining fights.

Kuwabara - Could be a little overbearing at times, but his heart was always in the right place. It's a shame he had to be the butt of the joke so often, but it made the moments when he actually came through that much more effective.

Hiei - Basically a male tsundere, so he's more up Jeff Zero's alley than mine. He was really good in season 4 though, as I've said. He was always the best at working quickly when it came to fights, so I appreciated that!

Yusuke - Kinda hard to root for sometimes because he's supposed to be the hero but he almost never wants to be one. I'm not a huge fan of hotblooded leads or blood knights, and Yusuke happens to be both. He is very self-aware though, and those moments when he shows that he's more mature than he lets on are nice. For all the flack I gave the Dark Tournament, the fight with Toguro absolutely delivered, so I'll give him major props for that.
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Sceptilesolar posted...

It's worth noting that in the VN after UBW Rider is the only Servant whose true identity is not given in the in-game reference.

Huh, interesting.

LeonhartFour posted...

Yusuke - Kinda hard to root for sometimes because he's supposed to be the hero but he almost never wants to be one. I'm not a huge fan of hotblooded leads or blood knights, and Yusuke happens to be both. He is very self-aware though, and those moments when he shows that he's more mature than he lets on are nice. For all the flack I gave the Dark Tournament, the fight with Toguro absolutely delivered, so I'll give him major props for that.

TIL what a blood knight is
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well it's always good to keep learning new things as they say
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"The older you learn, the younger you think you feel"

-William Shakesner
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SaveEstelle posted...

Sceptilesolar posted...

It's worth noting that in the VN after UBW Rider is the only Servant whose true identity is not given in the in-game reference.

Huh, interesting.

Well all this really means is that (minor spoilers I guess but not really) Rider's identity isn't revealed until the Heaven's Feel route/timeline.
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"Violence is one of the most fun things to watch."

-Quentin Tarantino
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Anyway, I finished Chapter 2 of Professor Layton and the Unwound Future. I think I am officially sold on this game, although the deeper I get into it, the more I wonder how they're going to rationalize away how none of this is real when all of it being real would be so much better. Maybe they'll surprise me! Anyway, we meet Layton's old mentor Dr. Schrader, who's now an old man, and we meet the future Laytonmobile, which is little more than a hunk of junk now.

Then we finally meet future Luke, who seems to be the real deal. He challenges Layton to a battle of wits to prove he's the real thing, which was a neat sequence of events. He mentions that Don Paolo is a master of disguise, so it could be him. I'd already suspected that there was a Layton clone running around considering the townsfolk are scared of Layton when they see him, and I figured it'd be Don Paolo, but apparently not! Future Luke says the overlord of future London who's ruling from the shadows is...Future Layton! Man, that image of future Layton popping his collar with an evil grin was amazing. Apparently, Future Luke believes Present Layton is the only one who can stop Future Layton, so this should be fun!

Apparently, future Layton has become obsessed with time travel, and he's sheltered the dude from the beginning whose time machine blew up in order to help him complete it. I would guess the reason why Layton would be obsessed with time travel would have something to do with that flashback we encountered of him and some unknown girl, whom I guess is a former one true love who met a tragic end. That flashback was actually really neat because it felt so disarming to see Layton nervous and not in complete control of a situation. It made him feel like a real person, so that was cool.
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GranzonEx posted...

"Violence is one of the most fun things to watch."

-Quentin Tarantino

if only Tarantino were less of a blood knight I might want to watch his movies
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I'm sure the pending Tarantino Star Trek movie will be subdued

under the crushing weight of his blood knight ambitions
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What's your ranking of the four YYH arcs, Leon?

And Jeff, my DIS thoughts are fairly similar to yours, though I'd definitely say that so far, its first season is superior to any Star Trek's other than the first. Other than the (IMO) terrible two-part premiere, the show has been very enjoyable. Good cast mix and a bunch of interesting plots. The new Klingons are lame though, for sure. And I think I'd say the only really great character so far is Lorca? We're still early though. Maybe Airiam will turn into the robotic wonder all great Star Treks need.
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Mac Arrowny posted...

What's your ranking of the four YYH arcs, Leon?

3 > 1 > 2 > 4, I guess.

The way 3's ended left a bad taste in my mouth, but the rest of it was really good.
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I think Discovery's first season is probably better than any other Trek spinoff's, too, yeah. Unless the second chapter somehow completely derails things (it won't) I'll give it that nod. TNG's is pretty dreadful, DS9's makes strides near the end but is rough overall, Voyager's is... honestly surprisingly decent? But not quite this decent. Enterprise's is a lot better than folks say, IMO, but still held back by a barrage of story-loose and wooden episodes in the middle.

I didn't find the premiere episodes terrible but I was definitely glad to discover (heh) they're the weakest links. Especially in hour 1 ("The Vulcan Hello") there's some absolutely amateur directing, pacing problems galore and some of Michael's dialogue is stiffer than a dead Jem'Hadar.
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Brave Shine is an excellent song.
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The Vulcan Hello sounds like something Heero Yuy would do to Duo
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I'm watching an episode of Friends and Chandler is playing Crash Team Racing
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Shadow Dino posted...

Brave Shine is an excellent song.

I'm gonna go listen to it in full here in a few moments!

GranzonEx posted...

The Vulcan Hello sounds like something Heero Yuy would do to Duo

...yes, yes it does.

LeonhartFour posted...

I'm watching an episode of Friends and Chandler is playing Crash Team Racing

oh wow
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yes you'd think he'd be playing Mario Kart 64 instead since that was much better
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Sony likes paying people to play their games in TV shows. The Vita scene in House of Cards is a classic.
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my personal favorite is Final Fantasy VIII in Charlie's Angels being played by two people button mashing
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reminder: Gundam Wing's dub is a national treasure

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WD2346AopZA
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"Hey I'm having a birthday party this weekend and you're invited"
"I'll kill you"
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GranzonEx posted...

"Hey I'm having a birthday party this weekend and you're invited"
"I'll kill you"

oh I have to link that now too good eye

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0LHgZUHiWwA
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wait Kiritsugu is a Gundam character too?
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whoops that's not quite what I was looking for but well played youtube well played
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LeonhartFour posted...

wait Kiritsugu is a Gundam character too?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jziJsTK_tNI
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LeonhartFour posted...

the fight with Toguro absolutely delivered,

Yeah. I mean I'm obviously higher on shounen fights than most, but it's a 10/10 classic. Up there with Goku (and co.) vs. Vegeta, Kenshin vs. Shishio, Kenshiro vs. Raoh.
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Kenshin v. Shishio OH YAAA
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actually I guess I should start asking for recommendations again

preferably something with fewer than 100 episodes
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One Punch Man or Mob Psycho 100

12 episodes each
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Kageyama Shigeo, a.k.a. "Mob," is a boy who has trouble expressing himself, but who happens to be a powerful esper. Mob is determined to live a normal life and keeps his ESP suppressed, but when his emotions surge to a level of 100%, something terrible happens to him! As he's surrounded by false espers, evil spirits, and mysterious organizations, what will Mob think? What choices will he make? The anime based on the original story by ONE, the idol of the webcomic world and creator of One-Punch Man, is coming your way with animation by leading animation studio Bones!

sounds like I should just watch Haruhi Suzumiya instead if I want stories of espers and mysterious organizations
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