She spends the entirity of the events attempting to stay by Tetsuo even as he abuses her repeatedly, clearly suffering through it all for personal reasons, and rather than being given any release by the end, she's unceremoniously crushed by Testsuo's organs. She died in fear, having been nothing but a whippin girl through the entire thing.
I love Akira, but her death wasn't even necessary. At least if it had ended with her depressed and alone it would suggest hope for her with the remaining survivors. It felt a bit shit.
Warning for any who haven't played those games: 1. Spoilers below. 2. You better play the first three games, or a racoon is going to beat you with a cane! ;p (just the first three)
First, Bentley. For starters, he's an orphan like Sly and Murray(his friends and team mates), but that's hardly uncommon and he does have his friends.
However, he later gets crippled in the second game. You don't find that out until the third game though, and honestly, he kind of comes out better than he was before.
What really gets Bentley though is what happens with him and the other character I picked.
Penelope is the second character who really gets screwed. In the 4th game at least.
In the third game she joins the team after they prove themselves by beating her in a dogfight competition (Airplanes, not dogs).
She later ends up dating Bentley. At the end of the game they are together working in their own lab (I assume in the Cooper vault) and have been left in control of the Cooper Vault (where Sly's family holds all their treasure). Sly and the rest have gone their separate ways and the gang is kind of retired.
In the 4th game, it starts with Bentley and Penelope working in their lab, on time travel. Then, out of no where Bentley finds that Penelope has disappeared and pages in the Thievius Raccoonus (the book that holds all the thieve secrets of Sly's family) is going blank, page by page.
Short story: Bad guy causing tomfoolery in the past using time travel to destroy the Cooper family's legacy.
Anyway, what dose this have to do with Penelope? Well, the gang finds out that Penelope has been helping the villain of the game to destroy Cooper's family. Not only that, but she was the one who gave them the time travel technology and is planning on killing Sly.
Why? Has she brain washed to work for the other side? (the did happen to have another villain who can mind control people like in the second game)
Nope! She's just an evil greedy ***** and thinks Sly is holding Bentley and her back from "making billions in weapons design". Actually, no! When asked if she sold out for the money, she states "It's not about the money! It's about use having the potential to change the world!"
Keep in mind, Sly is no longer with Bentley/Penelope, they are the ones left in control of a vault with literal mountains
of gold inside, and they were working on F@#KING TIME TRAVEL!
Not only does this wreak was was just an alright game, but it messes with the third(and best) game too.
I KNOW, right? That was the main thing about the game that bothered me! Penelope wasn't evil or greedy in the last game, this wasn't like her; and to this day, I say the whole "Black Knight" boss to be a total LOAD.
And while I'm on the subject of characters I once enjoyed getting screwed over, Freaking Anders from Dragon Age 2. This guy was so lovable in Awakening, a sarcastic mage apostate that escaped the Circle Tower 7 times, who while he didn't exactly like how mages did things, he REALLY hated how Mages were treated by the Templars. I still remember finding that tabby kitten and givingit to him.(He named it Ser Pounce-a-lot. So adorable.) If anything, he was more like Varric. And in the first Act of DA2, he DOES act like the Anders I remember. A few things to prepare you for my next statement. 1. Anders had let the Fade Spirit of Justice possess his body to help in his quest etween to free the Mages. Ok, cool, BUT! Anders was lacking when it came to self-discipline, and by his own admission, his anger was what caused Justice to be warped in Vengeance. Not only that, but that very spirit is what screws him over, so much so, in the third act, he goes terrorist, and blows up the Kirkwall Chantry. With the Grand Cleric inside...the only one aside from Hawke that was able to keep the peace between Meredith (Well-intentioned Extremist Templar) and Orsino (First Enchanter of Kirkwall's Circle. Protects against Templars when claimed that the majority are Blood Mages. A real Idealist...and yet, he helps the Kirkwall Killer with his research. Who, if you didn't know or remember, frankensteined your mother with various other parts from women he killed to bring back his dead wife. At Irving's level of credibility, he is not.)
Yeah. The salt in the wound is the boss fight was kind of lame. In fact, most of the game can be summed up saying, "Alright, but not as good as 2 or 3". I noticed this early on, but was forgiving them because it was their first go at a three game long series.
Then we found out about Penelope. -_-
There were some plot holes in other parts too. I was really shocked how bad the story was over all. I mean, it seemed like at least some of the people making the games played/knew about the first ones, but over all the whole thing just feels like someone else trying to make a Sly game. Then not doing very well.
I mean, even the first Sly had better boss fights than this one. Ugh. Enough about that game. ;p
As for Anders in Dragon age. I agree. His betrayal was done well. They took a character we already knew, changed him over time, while letting use see the change(mostly), and gave him understandable(if not really agreeable) reasons that fit what the character had become.
Though, even though I now hate Anders, I don't hate Bioware like I hate Sanzaru Games. Because they made it work with the character. Even in Awakening I can kind of see how Anders kind of was more of an A-hole than I first thought he was.
Except for one part when you're talking to Wynne and he agrees that the cycle just leaving the chantry would be a bad idea. That was really reasonable.
xD Oh the narrative irony.
Also, they really messed up on a few betrayals too. Like Grace hating you even if you're helping the mages, or Orsino killing himself even if you're on his side easily winning the fight. ;p
She spends the entirity of the events attempting to stay by Tetsuo even as he abuses her repeatedly, clearly suffering through it all for personal reasons, and rather than being given any release by the end, she's unceremoniously crushed by Testsuo's organs. She died in fear, having been nothing but a whippin girl through the entire thing.
I love Akira, but her death wasn't even necessary. At least if it had ended with her depressed and alone it would suggest hope for her with the remaining survivors. It felt a bit shit.
OT- I suppose the only suitable character I can think of is maybe Lucy from Fairy Tail.
Sure while she is the useless female character in a shonen show but given that she is the main character (the first character introduce in the very first episode) she should be more useful. So far I am viewing her as the fanservice character (which I don't mind) and also a punching bag. Seriosuly that poor girl, she just get a beating like from Flare and Minvera, she can't catch a break. Ok sure it has been address that she is the strongest Celestial Spirit Wizard there is but she is no where badass compared to Grey, Elza or even Wendy!!
I'm talking about a character in whatever work of fiction that you felt got the short end of the stick, both in-universe or out-universe
maybe a shitty death or not even the privilege of a death at all, maybe they just disappear randomly, maybe they get mangled by an adaptation, mabye they just seriously cannot catch a break
MY example....one that I've been somewhat bothered by after I finished the Star Trek TNG episode :Redemption part 2 (about half an hour ago) is Natasha Yar
who the fuck is Natasha Yar? you might ask...good question, she's a character who was around in season 1 and...around and then she dies, I know the real life reasons as to why that charachter was killed off but anyway:
[spoiler/]Yarr's death was a crappy one (it WAS season 1 afterall) which was bad enough...but then in one of the most memorable TNG episodes "Yesterdays Enterprise" she gets her own moment and a death thats actually fitting...all good right?
WRONG
oh no...see as we find out in the season 5 episode I mentioned she got captured by Romulans and as an alternative to death had to be a Commander's..."consort"...then she has a child....
one night she tries to escape with the child only to be found out (the kid didn't want to go) and executed (the daughter tue to timey wimey whatever is able to tell picard this)
....but she got a baby out of it all right? babies make everything better?
seriously am I the only one not horribly disturbed by this?? maybe that was the point BUT STILL, its almost hilarious how much of a raw deal this character got, when she's not doing not much or giving Wesley saturday morning special talks about the dangers of drugs she's constantly having to reaffirm her heterosexuality (see episodes code of honor and the naked now) if the actress hadn't have bailed in season 1 mabye she would have developed into an actual "strong female charachter" instead of the confused mess
Can't blame Yar's lack of development on anyone but Denise Crosby, who in essence put a phaser on kill and shot the character's future because apparently she was allergic to money. Before you say recast, the series was already a big risk and recasting her may have put TNG in an early grave if they screwed it up. So instead they decided to use her as the "anyone can die, not just redshirts" example. Sucks, but that was how things worked.
Considering all the social and civil boundaries that Roddenberry pushed over the years with Star Trek, I don't believe one can really get down on any of the pre-Abrams timelines for slight missteps they've had. I mean it featured women in high positions, the first interracial kiss on TV, spoke volumes on race relations, politics, etc. (Star Trek VI is one of my all time favorite political commentaries still relevant to today's world).
Anyway, Denise Crosby f'ed up Yar, and the writers more or less did what they could with her in the alternate universe and Sela story. It wasn't pretty, it wasn't supposed to be. It was designed to get in your face and show you how screwed up and immoral the Romulans are.
How come?
Well her legacy of being, and I quote here, ?queen ***** of the universe? got butchered by Blizzard themselves.
For me Kerrigan was a masterstroke in StarCraft and StarCraft: Brood War. Apparently I?m not alone as Kerrigan ranked amongst the highest villains in video game history in several outlets.
SC:HotS changed all that. Before HotS Kerrigan herself was on a merciless killing spree for revenge and control.
HotS destroyed that by blaming the Zerg infestation for her outrages behavior. It was no longer Kerrigan doing all that. They made the queen ***** a manipulated, confused women with love angst on a teen level because they didn?t know how to make their fucked up sequel work with the player being in control of an actual villain.
And I say Kerrigan deserved better than this!
Warning for any who haven't played those games: 1. Spoilers below. 2. You better play the first three games, or a racoon is going to beat you with a cane! ;p (just the first three)
For starters, he's an orphan like Sly and Murray(his friends and team mates), but that's hardly uncommon and he does have his friends.
However, he later gets crippled in the second game. You don't find that out until the third game though, and honestly, he kind of comes out better than he was before.
What really gets Bentley though is what happens with him and the other character I picked.
Penelope is the second character who really gets screwed. In the 4th game at least.
In the third game she joins the team after they prove themselves by beating her in a dogfight competition (Airplanes, not dogs).
She later ends up dating Bentley. At the end of the game they are together working in their own lab (I assume in the Cooper vault) and have been left in control of the Cooper Vault (where Sly's family holds all their treasure). Sly and the rest have gone their separate ways and the gang is kind of retired.
In the 4th game, it starts with Bentley and Penelope working in their lab, on time travel. Then, out of no where Bentley finds that Penelope has disappeared and pages in the Thievius Raccoonus (the book that holds all the thieve secrets of Sly's family) is going blank, page by page.
Short story: Bad guy causing tomfoolery in the past using time travel to destroy the Cooper family's legacy.
Anyway, what dose this have to do with Penelope? Well, the gang finds out that Penelope has been helping the villain of the game to destroy Cooper's family. Not only that, but she was the one who gave them the time travel technology and is planning on killing Sly.
Why? Has she brain washed to work for the other side? (the did happen to have another villain who can mind control people like in the second game)
Nope! She's just an evil greedy ***** and thinks Sly is holding Bentley and her back from "making billions in weapons design". Actually, no! When asked if she sold out for the money, she states "It's not about the money! It's about use having the potential to change the world!"
Keep in mind, Sly is no longer with Bentley/Penelope, they are the ones left in control of a vault with literal mountains
of gold inside, and they were working on F@#KING TIME TRAVEL!
Not only does this wreak was was just an alright game, but it messes with the third(and best) game too.
I KNOW, right? That was the main thing about the game that bothered me! Penelope wasn't evil or greedy in the last game, this wasn't like her; and to this day, I say the whole "Black Knight" boss to be a total LOAD.
And while I'm on the subject of characters I once enjoyed getting screwed over, Freaking Anders from Dragon Age 2. This guy was so lovable in Awakening, a sarcastic mage apostate that escaped the Circle Tower 7 times, who while he didn't exactly like how mages did things, he REALLY hated how Mages were treated by the Templars. I still remember finding that tabby kitten and givingit to him.(He named it Ser Pounce-a-lot. So adorable.) If anything, he was more like Varric. And in the first Act of DA2, he DOES act like the Anders I remember. A few things to prepare you for my next statement. 1. Anders had let the Fade Spirit of Justice possess his body to help in his quest etween to free the Mages. Ok, cool, BUT! Anders was lacking when it came to self-discipline, and by his own admission, his anger was what caused Justice to be warped in Vengeance. Not only that, but that very spirit is what screws him over, so much so, in the third act, he goes terrorist, and blows up the Kirkwall Chantry. With the Grand Cleric inside...the only one aside from Hawke that was able to keep the peace between Meredith (Well-intentioned Extremist Templar) and Orsino (First Enchanter of Kirkwall's Circle. Protects against Templars when claimed that the majority are Blood Mages. A real Idealist...and yet, he helps the Kirkwall Killer with his research. Who, if you didn't know or remember, frankensteined your mother with various other parts from women he killed to bring back his dead wife. At Irving's level of credibility, he is not.)
Yeah. The salt in the wound is the boss fight was kind of lame. In fact, most of the game can be summed up saying, "Alright, but not as good as 2 or 3". I noticed this early on, but was forgiving them because it was their first go at a three game long series.
Then we found out about Penelope. -_-
There were some plot holes in other parts too. I was really shocked how bad the story was over all. I mean, it seemed like at least some of the people making the games played/knew about the first ones, but over all the whole thing just feels like someone else trying to make a Sly game. Then not doing very well.
I mean, even the first Sly had better boss fights than this one. Ugh. Enough about that game. ;p
I agree. His betrayal was done well. They took a character we already knew, changed him over time, while letting use see the change(mostly), and gave him understandable(if not really agreeable) reasons that fit what the character had become.
Though, even though I now hate Anders, I don't hate Bioware like I hate Sanzaru Games. Because they made it work with the character. Even in Awakening I can kind of see how Anders kind of was more of an A-hole than I first thought he was.
Except for one part when you're talking to Wynne and he agrees that the cycle just leaving the chantry would be a bad idea. That was really reasonable.
xD Oh the narrative irony.
Also, they really messed up on a few betrayals too. Like Grace hating you even if you're helping the mages, or Orsino killing himself even if your on his side easily winning the fight. ;p
Hmm...How so? While I agree that the "40 Thieves" level could have been replaced with something like say, either the Pirate Cooper or even Thaddeus Winslow Cooper the Third. I mean, could imagine a Sherlock Holmes version of Sly?
Yeah, and it certainly doesn't help he's wearing a Tevinter robe later on. Or that he suddenly gets serious in a conversation with Varric in the third act. Or to be honest, practically ANY party conversation with Anders during this act. You already have a bad feeling of where this guy's head's at now, especially when you find out the real reason he had you get those ingredients. Because when I first found out...I was frakking horrified. This guy you've come to like, suddenly bombing a church to incite a war between the Templars and Mages. And let's not forget, this goes BIGGER than the Circle Tower takeover by Uldred, this is become a full-out WAR. And, the first tiem through, I couldn't kill Anders and sided with the Mages. But last time? I killed Anders. I saved this bastard from the Templars, destroyed his phylactery, defended him from the A-hole Templars that tried to kill him, gave him that cat he loved so much, and THIS is how he repays me?! REALLY?! URGH! (Throws hands up) I'm sorry, it just...bothered me so dang much. No kidding,the irony there. Not to mention the juxtaposition of the kind, experienced Wynne, with the Sarcastic, likeable, yet somewhat head-strong Anders.
How was Sly Cooper: Thieves in Time (Sly Cooper: TiT ;p) less than the three games that came before it?
Well, there's the general "feel" of the gameplay. Was a lot more fluid in the others. For one, they had triangle work as a changed attack AND the button to hit the enemy up. In TiT, you have to get close enough to the enemy for it to hit up when you press triangle. In two an three you could just hit triangle when you wanted and this let you even "juggle" the enemy.
In Tit, you have to be close to the enemy or it just starts charging. There's more but I'll just give you a list.
The gameplay, the villains, the levels, the story, the upgrades, the combat, the boss fights, Bentley's hacking mini games, and pretty much anything you can name. Was better in the other games.
That's not to say that TiT was "bad", just not as good. Except the story. That starts out alright, but goes very bad around the black knight level and after. I liked the ancestors (favorite was Tennessee Kid Cooper) and the abilities of of the outfits, but that's the only pure good they had going for them.
As for Anders, the war didn't actually even start right after what he did anyway. It quieted down for a while, then kicked off later.
In the comics they explain. It involves Wynne and that meeting she was talking about in Awakening. You also have Shale, Leliana, and Wynne's son.
Spoilers ahead.
Wynne's son helps her figure out what the circles want to do. Break away from the chantry or stay.
Along the way, they also find a way to reverse tranquility, and we find out that Wynne had her son with a templar.
In the end, Wynne dies to save her son Rhys's templar girlfriend and Rhys takes over her spot in the College meeting.
Wynne was against separation Rhys was for it. Though, he did come to see it Wynne's way before she died.
However, he reluctantly agrees that the circles should leave the Chantry.
The head templar there tried to kill them all because they found a way to change tranquil mages back to "normal"(not sure it they can use magic again, or if they just get to have feelings again).
He is later presumed killed by a sprite that was helping Rhys during the story. That or it possessed him. Kind of a cliffhanger ending on that.
I'm talking about a character in whatever work of fiction that you felt got the short end of the stick, both in-universe or out-universe
maybe a shitty death or not even the privilege of a death at all, maybe they just disappear randomly, maybe they get mangled by an adaptation, mabye they just seriously cannot catch a break
MY example....one that I've been somewhat bothered by after I finished the Star Trek TNG episode :Redemption part 2 (about half an hour ago) is Natasha Yar
who the fuck is Natasha Yar? you might ask...good question, she's a character who was around in season 1 and...around and then she dies, I know the real life reasons as to why that charachter was killed off but anyway:
[spoiler/]Yarr's death was a crappy one (it WAS season 1 afterall) which was bad enough...but then in one of the most memorable TNG episodes "Yesterdays Enterprise" she gets her own moment and a death thats actually fitting...all good right?
WRONG
oh no...see as we find out in the season 5 episode I mentioned she got captured by Romulans and as an alternative to death had to be a Commander's..."consort"...then she has a child....
one night she tries to escape with the child only to be found out (the kid didn't want to go) and executed (the daughter tue to timey wimey whatever is able to tell picard this)
....but she got a baby out of it all right? babies make everything better?
seriously am I the only one not horribly disturbed by this?? maybe that was the point BUT STILL, its almost hilarious how much of a raw deal this character got, when she's not doing not much or giving Wesley saturday morning special talks about the dangers of drugs she's constantly having to reaffirm her heterosexuality (see episodes code of honor and the naked now) if the actress hadn't have bailed in season 1 mabye she would have developed into an actual "strong female charachter" instead of the confused mess
You have to admit though that death by execution is still better than death by blob monster like a bloody Red Shirt
Happiness Assassin said:
Most examples I was going to go with have already been chosen, so I will go with one I just became aware of.
I recently ran through Sword Art Online and I got to go with Asuna in the second half of the first season. Going from the 3rd most powerful character in the show to a straight up damsel-in-distress (though with a lot more sexual assault) was just awful. She does NOTHING the entire time she is captured, only escaping once to be promptly captured again by the tentacle monsters (who, while on-screen, I was just hoping they would refrain from yet more sexual assault or worse). This was just one of the many problems I had with the second half, I would have to say it is one of the biggest (along with the creepy as fuck sister/cousin/whatever subplot).
Yeah it was kinda crappy that they reduced Asuna to damsel in distress in the second half, since she was one of the most badass characters for the first half. However she was one of the most defiant badass damsels in distress I've ever seen.
As for the whole cousin thing, yes it was kinda weird, but I just had to keep in mind Japan.
Lives in a self inflicted hell with a wife obsessed with appearances and an apathetic daughter, and when things finally start to turn around, he's murdered by his homophobic neighbour.
[spoiler/]
Randy's pressured by the police into being a witness for a crime. The police don't keep it confidential, due to one asshole cop. Randy's foster mother is hospitalized. He's sent back to the group home, where he gets beaten and harassed for being a snitch. You see him a season later, and he's a cold, hardened, violent thug.
Michael joins the gangs to get rid of his abusive stepfather, Dukie has no place to go and becomes a heroin addict. Really, only one of the kids (Namond) gets a happy ending, and you really see the kind of struggle that takes place for him to leave the urban crime environment.
[/spoiler]
I'm not saying the show did a bad job. It's just... those kids certainly didn't deserve what they got.
Saruman also deserved way better than his non-appearence in Return of the King. I know this gets fixed in the extended edition, but still. This was arguably the main villain in the preceding two movies, you can't just handwave him like that.
I assume you know the technical reason to Saruman being cut like that, the length of the film, having to cut out stuff that doesn't directly affect the story, blah blah blah, but anyway. I'm gonna go and put this in a spoiler, in case someone hasn't read the books yet, and wants to do so without having their shit ruined.
After Saruman get's exiled from Isengard, he actually proceeds to go and terrorize the Shire (probably got a thing against hobbits by now), and there's a lot more character development. He is then, at the end of this little spin-off story, murdered by Wormtongue, as in the extended edition of the film, and his tyranny is put to an end at last. He doesn't fall off a huge fuck-off tower landing on a spiked grindstone wheel (or whatever). But like Tom Bombadil, the arguably most powerful thing in all of Tolkien's universe, he gets the boot because it doesn't directly involve the overarching story. The only glimpse we get of this is when Frodo peeks into the mirror of Galadriel
Just wanted to throw myself on the TNG-train, having after all managed to watch all seven seasons of it. And I can say that after having watched all that, I never want to see it ever again. It was exciting at first, I remembered how much I liked it when I was younger, and saw occasional episodes that popped up on TV, and decided it was finally time to watch. I wasn't immediately disappointed, there are some really good bits, but they're more than overshadowed by what I believe to be the biggest fallacy of the entire series. I suppose it comes down to formula, but it gets so predictable it's disappointing.
The formula of Star Trek: The Next Generation being this: Every episode sets up a villain, be it romulans, klingons or space itself. And they have exactly 42 minutes to get trapped, figure out the problem, and then return everything to status quo. Even in the above average interesting encounters with the Borg they do this, although stretched out over two episodes, so it can get some proper fleshing out. Everything else gets shamelessly stripped down to its bare functional elements, so very little flesh remains.
The episodes with Q, the aforementioned Borg, and the times when they mess up time and space completely were the really golden moments for me, for instance the episode where several hundred thousand enterprises from parallel universes appear at the same time because of several spectacular cock-ups were hugely interesting, and I felt the series truly come alive at that point, actually dealing with the UNKNOWN, rather than some far-off settlement that is being terrorized by some menacing klingons or romulans. I actually cheered every time the borg showed up, because I knew shit was about to go down.
To sum it all up, I had some fun with the series, but towards season 5 I started to get the feeling that I'd seen it all before, and the imagination of the series had long since run out. I feel slight disappointment, because of the wasted potential of the series, having so many threads to yank on, but only using the most boring and predictable ones. Of course Q can't be in EVERY episode, that would probably kill the character completely. I think they should have run cross-episode events, flesh out the story some more, so the ending didn't feel rushed, which it does at times. Very often the whole setup of the episode takes so much time they have like 5-10 minutes to solve everything and carry on with their journey, the villain often becomes roadkill instead of having some interesting way to solve the situation.
In an episode where Q is supposedly punished by the Q continuum, and sent to be human on the enterprise, where they deal with an asteroid threatening to wipe out an entire planet. The episode is meant to be more for Q, giving him some character development and a bit of screen time, but like other episodes, it pulls the fast one at the end, where Q is restored to his position in the continuum, and pulls an ex machina out of his ass and saves the planet, by playing havoc with the laws of physics.
We're given an example of how powerful Q can be, but it would be more interesting to see where the limitations of his powers lies. I suppose that's the thing with the Q continuum though, they don't really have limitations. They're extradimensional entities that can move back and forth in time as they please, seldom offering a thought to anyone in the universe. Some has theorized that it was because of Q that the Borg found earth in the first place, their first encounter with them was thanks to Q knocking the ship some 8000 light years off course to introduce them to the Borg, all because Q wanted to give Picard a serious challenge.
I think its the way John De Lancie sold it that really gave it so much humour, though he played Q really well overall, heck he knew the character better than some writers, some of his improvs were far better than what was written and suited the character better.
Its a shame Voyager reduced Q to jar jar binks levels of played for cheap laughs.
She spends the entirity of the events attempting to stay by Tetsuo even as he abuses her repeatedly, clearly suffering through it all for personal reasons, and rather than being given any release by the end, she's unceremoniously crushed by Testsuo's organs. She died in fear, having been nothing but a whippin girl through the entire thing.
I love Akira, but her death wasn't even necessary. At least if it had ended with her depressed and alone it would suggest hope for her with the remaining survivors. It felt a bit shit.
OT- I suppose the only suitable character I can think of is maybe Lucy from Fairy Tail.
Sure while she is the useless female character in a shonen show but given that she is the main character (the first character introduce in the very first episode) she should be more useless. So far I am viewing her as the fanservice character (which I don't mind) and also a punching bag. Seriosuly that poor girl, she just get a beating like from Flare and Minvera, she can't catch a break. Ok sure it has been address that she is the strongest Celestial Spirit Wizard there is but she is no where badass compared to Grey, Elza or even Wendy!!
Hopefully they'll do something with her now since it seems she has Aquarius's magic.
OT: For me it has to be Vegeta. This is a character who constantly get shit on through out the series, He trains harder than anyone else and yet he constantly falls behind Goku and Gohan. During the Cell fight he see his own flesh and blood get killed off in front of him and yet he only get slightly stronger. Gohan see the android he barely knew get killed and that was enough to make him ascend. Vegeta should at least have been able to reach super saijin 3 during the buu saga.
I don't remember my reaction, but it was certainly out of place.
Ratty said:
This always bugged the hell out of me, it's actually soured me on the movies quite a bit. Since I think the actual ending of any story is a pretty important part of it. Leaving the Shire untouched takes away from the impact and bittersweetness of the ending. Which originally showed even the innocent childlike Hobbits suffered and died because of a war they had nothing to do with. Also without the need to stay behind to rebuild the Shire Frodo's long stay in it after coming back doesn't make much sense. Saruman wasn't the only one to suffer from that particular edit.
There is a mountain of things they could've done different during filming. For my part, the one thing that grates me most of all is the casting choice of Elijah Wood as Frodo. To me it just seems sort of wrong, Frodo goes through one hell of a transformation during the story, and turns out to be quite a durable hobbit. Elijah Wood doesn't fit that part, Frodo doesn't come off as a durable character the way Wood plays him, he strikes me more as a weak sickly thing that needs someone to hold his hand all the time, and I truly don't like that. He sort of lacks charisma, and Frodo is a character we're supposed to like.
A complaint I saw someone make in an IMDb-comment was that they found the decision of making the dwarfs essentially scottish really weird. The language used by the dwarfs in Tolkien's world exists, and according to the commenter the accent would have been very different if they'd considered this. Another one found it annoying that Gimli was basically turned into the comic relief of the story, whereas in the book that part is filled by Merry and Pippin (IIRC).
Star Trek TNG's formulaic nature is mostly a product of its time. You saw 1 episode of a show a week. Unless you had the bread to shell out for VHS copies of shows which were rare and expensive. (Even blank tapes were expensive, about $6 a pop, probably more like $9 adjusted for inflation. And the quality went to hell if you wanted to record more than 2 hours on one.) TNG was made in such a way that the episodes could be watched out of order and still make sense. And you basically knew what you were getting into when you sat down to watch it. This kind of formula definitely isn't for everyone but I don't think it's fair to criticize any one show of the time for it specifically.
You might like to try Deep Space Nine if you haven't already. When it first started out it was episodic and somewhat formulaic as well. But by about the 3rd season, corresponding to the mid/late 90s, it had its sea-legs and become much more serialized. With a huge overarching plot and many long running subplots that lasted the rest of the show. This, along with an overall darker tone and themes, led it to be more of a cult series. Because it was not very accessible to people who might want to just catch the occasional re-run.
Sounds interesting, I'll consider giving it a shot. Your explanation of it's formulaic nature and format makes sense, I suppose it's more of a first-world problem of having the time to actually watch a whole lot of series and expect a certain kind of continuity in them. I want to say that series having a connecting story line from one episode to the next is a new thing, but I know that's not true. The original Dr. Who-series that ran from the 50's to the 80's had one storyline connecting sequential episodes, together in couples of 3-6 or something like that (I recently glanced over a list over old episodes, didn't look too carefully at it).
I suppose with modern technology that allows recording of episodes at basically no expense, along with Netflix, HBO, Hulu and other less honest options allows people more freedom to watch the series they want to at a time that suits them, makes it easier to follow the plot of a series more thoroughly.
Zipa said:
I think its the way John De Lancie sold it that really gave it so much humour, though he played Q really well overall, heck he knew the character better than some writers, some of his improvs were far better than what was written and suited the character better.
Its a shame Voyager reduced Q to jar jar binks levels of played for cheap laughs.
I haven't seen anything of Voyager past the first half of season 1 or something (I think it was dropped from screens in this country), and with that description, I never will.
Saruman also deserved way better than his non-appearence in Return of the King. I know this gets fixed in the extended edition, but still. This was arguably the main villain in the preceding two movies, you can't just handwave him like that.
I know I'm going to be alone in this, but I actually prefer the theatrical version where you don't see him at all and his fate is left somewhat undecided. In the extended edition they just kill him off and never mention him again. I mean, he was basically the main antagonist throughout the first two films, and beyond that he was the head of Gandalf's order. And yet nobody so much as utters a word about it after he gets killed. You'd think this would have some kind of impact on the characters or events, but no.
And apart from that the actual exchange between the characters feels very flimsy, too. In the book you get a real sense of how dangerous this conversation is, because even defeated Saruman can fuck them up with his voice alone.
Shitty as the extended edition closure may be, it still is some form of closure. It took two whole movies to get to Isengard and best all of Saruman's power, and when they finally ride to the bottom of the tower they just look up and Gandalf goes "On second thought, let's not go up there. He's not a threat any more". All that was missing was a song-and-dance routine about Isengard and you get that one Monty Python joke about Camelot.
A few months ago, I watched an anime on Netflix called Kaze no Stigma. Overall, I think the show was mediocre at best, and I would have stopped watching it pretty early if I hadn't liked the main character, Kazuma, so much; the dude was a grade-A badass. Short version: He was born to a family of fire mages, but he couldn't firebend, so his family disowned him. He disappears for something like a decade, then returns as a preposterously powerful wind mage who can kick a person's ass without even taking his hands out of his pockets. He was also a snarky troll who had a sarcastic quip for just about everything. The father (or maybe grandfather, I can't remember) of the show's female lead (I can't remember her name, so I'll just call her "Stereotypical Hotheaded Tsundere Would-Be Love Interest") tries to play matchmaker and pair up his (grand?)daughter with Kazuma. Stereotypical Hotheaded Tsundere Would-Be Love Interest, being a stereotypical hotheaded tsundere would-be love interest, pretends to hate Kazuma and lashes out violently at him for the slightest perceived transgression, but she can never lay so much as a finger on him because the dude so vastly outclasses her in combat skills. What's more, Kazuma will say and do things to intentionally make Stereotypical Hotheaded Tsundere Would-Be Love Interest fly off the handle, because her impotent rage amuses him. Here's an example: Kazuma says a thing, S.H.T.W.B.L.I. takes offense and tries to kick him in the face, Kazuma catches her ankle with one hand, then comments on how it might be a bad idea to try to deliver a high kick while wearing a skirt.
So in answer to the original question: I think Kazuma deserved a better anime to star in.
Kazuma would be a good character that deserved better... if he was actually "fixed". The reason I actively disliked Kaze no Stigma was that the protagonist was an inconsistently written asshole. The writer tried to create this "jerk with a heart of gold" character, but in the end he just ended up constantly contradicting himself and changing his personality up in every second scene to the point of DID...
As for actual characters I think would deserve better...
Well, there is Kotonoha from School Days (the game, not the anime version). She is a nice, slightly socially anxious girl who gets into a relationship with the protagonist... who is a spineless, indecisive cheater, and his actions (and the scheming of the other heroine and some others) drive her crazy (sometimes quite literally). She just deserves to be in a better story with a different male lead.
Then there is poor Jurgen from the Ciaphas Cain novels. He is the aide of the titular comissar and HERO OF THE IMPERIUM, a Blank whose mere presence is enough to sort out psykers and make demons run home to mommy, he is one of the best drivers in the army and he runs around with a melta gun that he uses on several occasions to save Cain and kill anything and everything from Necron Warriors to Pure-Strain Genestealers... And he is left out of all official records talking about Cain, sometimes obviously on purpose, just because he is unsightly and has personal hygene issues (which he may or may not adopted on purpose to mask his Blank status). Sure, Cain and his closest allies appreciate him enough, but the poor guy can never catch a break.
Well, first on my mind is that Anders from Dragon Age really didn't deserve turning into Whiny McHatesTemplars in DA 2. He seemed like such a cool character in Awakenings. Wait, scratch that. Justice deserved this even less.
Justice was a cool guy. His companion quest was helping a grieving widow. He was a stand-up dude, representing everything about his name. Then the sequel happened. Anders and justice "fused" together for some stupid reason, and was corrupted into a spirit of Vengeance which doesn't make any sense to me. Wasn't how the fade works is that Demons are always bad and Spirits are always good? Are there any good demons? no. So why should there be bad spirits? It doesn't even matter any more. Instead of incorporating both peronalities, the final character didn't seem like either. Just an idiot doing stupid things and refusing to follow Hawke's advice.
Can't blame Yar's lack of development on anyone but Denise Crosby, who in essence put a phaser on kill and shot the character's future because apparently she was allergic to money. Before you say recast, the series was already a big risk and recasting her may have put TNG in an early grave if they screwed it up. So instead they decided to use her as the "anyone can die, not just redshirts" example. Sucks, but that was how things worked.
yeah the character could have gotten better had Crosby stuck it out...everything was shitty in season 1, Yarr stands out because it was season 1 (though she wasn't handled that great but more on that in a sec) but no one had much faith in season 1 at the time...in retrospect it wasn't the best career move on her part but how would you know that at the time? whos to say TNG wouldn't get passed 2 seasons and be known forever as a bizarre joke? (or "I don't know I kind of liked it" at best")
[quote/]Considering all the social and civil boundaries that Roddenberry pushed over the years with Star Trek, I don't believe one can really get down on any of the pre-Abrams timelines for slight missteps they've had. I mean it featured women in high positions, the first interracial kiss on TV, spoke volumes on race relations, politics, etc. (Star Trek VI is one of my all time favorite political commentaries still relevant to today's world).[/quote]
I won't comment on the original series but in regards to TNG...
Roddenberry had some nice ideas...but thats what really what they were.."ideas" [footnote/](in fact I once saw an interesting review saying Roddenberry has the same "idea" of the federation as Worf does of the Klingon Empire...they believe in the idea, but don't see what they actually are...I thought that was fitting)[/footnote] his characters were still subject to all kinds of BS (not solely the fault of him of coarse) particularly the female characters I mean don't get me started on the baby episode or the "fight in the arena" episode
[quote/]Anyway, Denise Crosby f'ed up Yar, and the writers more or less did what they could with her in the alternate universe and Sela story. It wasn't pretty, it wasn't supposed to be. It was designed to get in your face and show you how screwed up and immoral the Romulans are.[/quote]
I did say that Yar's best moments came after she died...look I LOVED yesterdays enterprise, and I have no problem with the romu-yar thing, [footnote/]excpet for the "you did this Picard" part since while he did the circumstances were...different[/footnote] its just that I'm personally a bit disturbed by the implications, I tend to find rape and servitude a bit upsetting...hell that was probably the point wasn't it? my issue was that Yesterdays enterprise gave a nice sense of closure for the character whereas redemption 2 (for me, my opinion) undid that
I'm not blaming anyone in particular, this is really just me
Sounds interesting, I'll consider giving it a shot. Your explanation of it's formulaic nature and format makes sense, I suppose it's more of a first-world problem of having the time to actually watch a whole lot of series and expect a certain kind of continuity in them. I want to say that series having a connecting story line from one episode to the next is a new thing, but I know that's not true. The original Dr. Who-series that ran from the 50's to the 80's had one storyline connecting sequential episodes, together in couples of 3-6 or something like that (I recently glanced over a list over old episodes, didn't look too carefully at it).
.
there are some connecting storylines...and in a way I actually find the formulaic nature....sort of comforting in a way, just something you throw on on a sunday night or after work to watch for 40min, its definitely outdated I suppose (for the reasons stated) but in a way it doesn't mean you're dying to binge on it in one weekend, you think "oh whats this episode going to be about?....oh Picard and his archeologist girlfreind?....meh skip"
So I assume people here are watching the tv series The strain at the moment so major spoiler for the end of the series so don't read if you haven't read the books
Dr. Ephraim Goodweather, the man starts out being trodden on by his boss but builds him self up to be a leader during the initial stage of the vampire out break but by the time the third book roles around he has fallen into depression and alcoholism (which he had struggled with before the books beginnings) due to the abduction of his only son, the turning of his ex-wife and the destruction of pretty much all of human society. Basically the third book starts out with his friends just bitching about him behind his back and in the last chapter of the book after he has sacrificed him self during a last stand, two of the other characters have a kid and name him Ephraim but pretty much say thank good he isn't taking after his name sake
I'll admit its mostly my overactive imagination, can you just imagine living on a planet of people who probably don't like you, having to have sex with a guy you hate (even if he is nice about it and gives you nice shit its still rape) having no freinds, no one to turn too.... you still keep the starfleet communicator with you...some nights you hold it in your hand and try not to cry...for what you used to be...and for what you are now...
Yes, but Wesley led to the rise of Will Wheaton, our Hallowed Nerd God. He was like a sacrificial lamb unto us.
...or ponies.
Piorn said:
Kirk has got to be one of the biggest contesters for this thread, I'm sure.
Sure, he needed to die one way or the other I guess, but he should've died as a captain, doing something Captainy only he can do, not in a fist fight with some guy in the desert.
I'd settle for him going out in an actual fight, even.
There was someone else who went out in a very similar fashion to Kirk, and I'm trying to remember who. Though since you mentioned Data, he's certainly a contender. I just tend to forget Nemesis.
This site uses cookies to help personalise content, tailor your experience and to keep you logged in if you register.
By continuing to use this site, you are consenting to our use of cookies.
