Lurker > ZeldaTPLink

#48: The Beach (3.05)

This is another pure comedy episode doesn't deserve to be too high but kept being bumped up because it's hilarious.

Azula is the star of the episode, because this is the first time we get to see her weaknesses. She has mommy issues. She doesn't know how to socialize outside of the warmonger environment. She can't relate with people her age. She can't even get a boy to like her, because she's crazy. This might be a realistic representation of actual sociopaths. As much evil as they can be, a lot of them probably suffer from it.

Ty Lee being a boy magnet is pretty funny too, and it's nice to see her backstory about having a bunch of identical sisters. And Mai's backstory too. But Mai and Zoko are pretty annoying this episode. At this point, the show hadn't done much to sell the Mai x Zuko thing, so seeing they bickering for dumb reasons made me think "just break up already". Zuko himself is also a brat, randomly screaming with everyone.

The end of the episode is a classic, though. "Party is over".

CHANGE

Sonic Mania

HaRRicH posted...

What's this about a FO:NV rally?

Ulti's daily effort to make us talk about him.

Burns

Oh never mind, thought you were asking why you were still alive.

You guys are missing the fact that if Sonic beats SMB, the difference between Luster and ctes goes down to 1, not stay at 3.

ctesjbuvf posted...

Yeah, but he's three points ahead now. If he gains those two points from SMB winning tomorrow, he'll be five points ahead with the only difference left in our brackets being that I picked Mario Kart to win this round, meaning he'd end up five or three points ahead of me depending on FFXIV/Mario Kart.

Luster picked Uncharted in Round 1, he can't get those points in Round 2 now. While if Mario Kart beats FF14, you do. Add that to that the Sonic points and that's 4 points you can gain over him.

davidponte posted...

If we trust in our hearts KH3 is capable of anything

Chell from Portal is stated in canon to be "abnormally stubborn and never give up".

LinkMarioSamus posted...

Awakening is less so among the core Fire Emblem fanbase.

I don't think the "core FIre Emblem fanbase" is what you see in the Bloodborne subreddit though.

So I'm looking at the rally thread in the DS3 subreddit and half the posts in there are supporting New Vegas.

This is interesting, and very different from what we saw in the Bloodborne match.

Could be a fanbase thing. I'd wager those people have less reason to care about a nintendo weeb JRPG than for another Western AAA game like New Vegas.

Wonder if BB struggles more against RE2 because of that.

foolm0r0n posted...

He was on the way to the waterbending master but he was looking for all 3 masters since he had no time. Remember Haru was also early in S1. The point is that ideally he would have found earth and fire masters on the way to the north pole, then train with all and be done with it. But they had to show why it couldn't be that easy.

What about Haru?

I can see Skyrim vs Journey being a little above 80% and we still won't feel safe because everyone expects Skyrim to be constant. It's TW3 who probably boosted like crazy.

Unless Skyrim somehow goes over 85% but I don't see it happening.

transcience posted...

today makes me feel good about:

Witcher > God of War
Dark Souls > Last of Us
Bloodborne > division 2

That sounds like a list of things that kill my bracket.

Witcher vs BotW who do ya got

This jump was not the DS3 rally. It has 0 upvotes and it's not even appearing in the main page.

It looks like it's DS3's natural strength.

Fallout trying to get inside that rally kill range huh

CHANGE

God of War 75.41%

Season 1 is fiiiiine.

It has a lot of filler but the worldbuilding is superb.

I think it ties with S3 for me.

foolm0r0n posted...

That's pretty illogical. I think that's the whole point of the episode so early on. I remember when I first watched it I was pretty dumbfounded as to how he would ever learn firebending after that. It made finally going into the fire nation in S3 a lot more exciting, and even moreso for Zuko becoming the teacher.

It wouldn't make sense to just randomly never ran into an exiled firebender over their whole journey, despite explicitly looking for one and also being the Avatar with all the benefits that gives.

He wasn't looking for one, though.

He was looking for a waterbending master at that point.

CassandraCain posted...

Nah the fear of firebending was good for Aang's character development imo

I do see where you're coming from though

Yeah I agree it made for a good arc.

But it needed to end sooner. S3 first half is basically a field trip because no one is even considering learning firebending.

Does anyone here actually like Ultimate

Cuz it seems the board's prevailing opinion is "Smash is going to beat Mario, but I wish it didn't"

Is that the site's opinion too

CassandraCain posted...

I was fine with Aang's fear of firebending. It made sense for his character, also it would have made him OP too early. Just look at Korra. They had to nerf her Avatar state bc she was already too powerful from the first season.

I mean he could have just not bumped into a firebending master.

Someone donate me a Switch pls, I need to play BotW.

(kidding, I'm just waiting for price to go down after the pandemy ends)

Ngamer64 posted...

CHANGE
I would like to back off my bold choice of

Fallout: New Vegas

and turn that into a

BANK

Did my crew write-up scare you lol

DS reddit has 1200 people online and Bloodborne has 1400. It's possible Bloodborne might actually generate the stronger rallies.

Sharinnegan posted...

the bloodborne reddit had around 1.5k people online througout that day mostly (even right now it's at 1.2k). youre probably confusing it with the octopath / shovel knight ones. those were more in the 100 ~200 range.

Dark Souls 3 subreddit is bigger than Bloodborne's also.

Yeah add one zero to that number I guess.

In recent contests I've come to realize subreddit size isn't what really defines a rally's success. It's the level of engagement of the community.

The bloodborne and souls reddits aren't that big, they have 100-200 people online at a time each. But they put out a 2k vote rallly. Everyone who came in, voted. It had 800 upvotes.

I'm worried it might bandwagon, especially with 3 soulsborne games in the bracket. Heck, they could try to rally in both subs at once. Or a discord. Or get a dev twitter. Sky is the limit. Or maybe Link is.

Burns

PunishedBen posted...

Ember Island Players somehow still did it better than M Night Shamalayn though

A random comnercial for ATLA does it better, tbh.

#49: The Deserter (1.16)

In the last third of S1, we get this weird S3 tease. Aang randomly bumps into a firebending master, and decides to, why not, learn firebending from him. But DESTINY does not want Aang to change the natural sequence of the elements, so as soon as he starts bending fire (and showing that he is great at any element not called earth), he accidentally hurts Katara. This results in a show-long trauma that scares the kid away from learning firebending until episode 3.12, after they try to abuse a solar eclipse but DESTINY once again intervenes to force Aang to go back to his normal path.

Honestly, I didn't like the firebending trauma that much. I think it's partly responsible for the first half of S3 being full of filler, because Aang wants to avoid firebending, and it also results on us seeing very little firebending by him in the show overall.

The other thing I didn't like about this episode is how Sokka reacts to the event. Aang hurts Katara, and his first reaction is to throw him onto the floor and scream at him like he's some random fire nation soldier. I mean I get it, he is very protective about his sister, but like the Bato episode I already mentioned, it's weird when those kids react violently to small or honest mistakes, while worse things in other episodes don't cause the same reactions.

The episode is not that bad, though. First, the concept of a group of firebender deserters who got tired of using it for violence is pretty cool. Next, I like how it tied to Zhao's arc, and how Aang defeats Zhao by realizing that his biggest weakness is not really controlling the fire he creates, so he baits him into burning his own ships down. It's a nice touch, and adds some character to what is otherwise a rather generic Season 1 villain.

#50: The Ember Island Players (3.17)

This episode kept being bumped up as I worked on the list, but eventually I had to draw a line for this obviously filler episode. It's the quintessential breather episode before the final battle.

It's pretty funny, actually. Its whole point is to show exaggerated versions of the protagonists, that are not entirely honest but are not completely wrong either. Katara is very emotional, even if she isn't really a drama queen. Aang is a clown. Sokka can't stop making silly jokes. Zuko in Season 1 was veeeeery monothematic. And Toph might as well be a 2 meter tall hulk. I loved how Toph actually enjoyed it though, and so did Sokka, once his actor started using "real Sokka jokes".

In the middle of it, we get Aang awkwardly trying to get shipping closure from Katara, only to hear a "maybe after the war is over, kid". Not one of the best romance scenes of the show. And Zuko angsts over his guilt about what he did to Iroh, which is well done but not very novel since this is like the 4th time he does that.

The end of the episode features a clever moment in which Ozai and Azula win the final battle, and the crowd cheers. That's when you remember that for the Fire Nation, the good guys are their royalty, while the Avatar is the bad guy. Really puts things into perspective.

This episode is entirely skippable, but it's good overall. Just felt unfair to put it above episodes that actually move the plot or character arcs forward (except for the Aang/Katara scene, but I can do without it).

#51: The Warriors of Kyoshi (1.04)

This episode is... okay? I can't think of anything bad to say about it, but it feels like a pretty basic episode. It's the first Sokka centric episode in the show, and it does that job pretty well, forcing Sokka to face the fact he sucks and humble himself to learn how to fight from someone better, even if that's a woman.

He succeeds and gets a kiss, while Aang gets a cool little fight against Zuko, after learning a lesson about how it's not polite to stay in towns for too long when there's a violent and angsty FN prince chasing you. Oh, and we get to see Aang trying to ride some giant monster because why the hell not.

Another episode that feels like it should be higher but there are so many great episodes that I don't see how it can be much higher than this.

KamikazePotato posted...

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/poll/6951-best-of-2017-indies

Cuphead's legit. Cuphead has been consistently mentioned as potentially the strongest indie game in the bracket in every conversation I've seen so far...until today, when Cuphead being good is bad for brackets.

I honestly am not sure if there's a result today that will make GTA5 seriously. Its GTA and people picked Persona so there's nothing it can do to change people's minds.

Well none of the other Mario > Smash brackets have GTA or Xenoblade winning the division and I have 3H, so I might as well just root for GTA here!

Imagine if someone had picked both GTA and Mario to win their divisions, though. They'd have a clear path to victory.

I thought it was funny but doesn't really register as "one of the best in the series" to me, tbh.

RDR has actually brought this under 200. I think we have a match now.

#52: The Western Air Temple (3.12)

Another box checker. This episode is important plot wise because it's when Zuko finally joins Team Avatar, though his actual conversion to good happened in the previous ones. The episode itself is mostly a sequence of awkward attempts by Zuko to convince them that he is now good, in a way that is so sloppy it almost feels 4th wall breaking. It is pretty funny, though. There is an action sequence in the end against Combustion Man too, which I'm glad was the last one because Combustion Man is kind of lame. He only has one move!

After watching the show, I've come to the conclusion Zuko's biggest weakness is emotional intelligence. If this was DnD, his dump stat would be Wisdom. He just isn't good with people, he doesn't know what to say or how to please others or how to read others, and this episode shows. Heck, the rest of the season keeps showing it as Zuko becomes the default target for jokes.

But Zuko is fundamentally good, he has a moral compass that shakes but ultimately doesn't break, and he doesn't want to hurt people unecessarily. That's what makes him the best firebending master for Aang.

The other interesting thing about the episode is how Toph tries to reach out to Zuko more than the others. Which makes sense, since she didn't spend a full season being hunted by him. She makes some solid points, and even tries to meet him by herself, though Zuko blows it again by accidentally burning her feet. Well, in the end it works out, and that's the phrase that best describes this episode.

SeabassDebeste posted...

is 3x01 the one with the weird cersei/jaime vibes between azula and zuko

Hmm I think so?

Starting to have a hard time deciding the order of the episodes, everything here feels like it's too good to be in the 50s.

Man, what a good show.

#53: The Awakening (3.01)

Another fodder episode, the main plot has Aang waking up, getting exposition from the stuff that happened so far, seeing characters we haven't seen in a while, yadda yadda. It also has him doubting himself and blaming himself for the fall of Ba Sing Se. It's decent writing, but not very memorable. The whole episode feels like it's just here to check some boxes, and tell us what the season is going to be about.

It has a sequence where they fight against a Fire Nation ship, only to be bailed by a giant monster. Okay, I guess.

The highlight of the episode is the Zuko side. Here, we learn that Azula told her father Zuko killed the Avatar, after realizing Zuko has reasons to think he's alive, just so the whole situation can blow up in ZUko's face later on. It's deliciously evil, and shows what a true psychopath Azula is. It also helps set the last arc of Zuko's development in motion, as he gets the first sign that his new life in the Fire Nation is actually very fragile.

CHANGE

The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt 74.25%

The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt 76.25%
Super Mario Galaxy 2 72.69%
Dark Souls III 51.22%
God of War 63.41%

Persona 5 72.73%
Sonic Mania 50.21%
Portal 2 65.97%
Red Dead Redemption 2 62.52%

Dark Souls 78.51%
Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain 52.62%
Batman: Arkham City 61.64%
The Last of Us 70.62%

The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim 80.02%
Mario Kart 8 54.41%
Pokemon HeartGold / SoulSilver Version 74.35%
NieR: Automata 73.55%

CHANGE

Fallout: New Vegas to Dark Souls III

The beauty of Division 4 is that even if you get it wrong, there are so many possibilities for a division winner that it might not affect your bracket that much.

Like not many people have Xenoblade winning anyway.

ZenOfThunder posted...

i'm on r/futanari right now mashng F5

We don't deserve Zen.

We just don't.

Yay go my RDR

It sucks because I had Xenoblade in my initial bracket but the whole board convinced me it was huge.

(not that I'm blaming anyone, I was also convinced when I remembered Shulk being shit in 2018, but still...)

inchbytes posted...

are the brackets fixed? why were the two biggest switch games besides BotW on the same division? why were two rockstar games and the two biggest nintendo jrpgs also on the same division? that's too much of a coincidence

It's likely the site owner wanted to quarantine all nintendo games in the same place so it's a less nintendo dominated contest.

Ok so now Ori needs 63.33% on OW.

A man can dream.

I picked GTA > RDR because at least it's (mostly) guaranteed to be there.

I feel so happy for doing that.

Eh are we sure Ori can't just be stronger than Overwatch