Board 8 > Bolopic 11

(+) Yeah! (+)

AriaOfBolo posted...

. I really hope she comes ba- oh the hell

If it helps there are tons of fans that refuse to believe she is dead and come up with theories on how she is still alive.

Sanji is a really good character when women aren't involved...unfortunately women are often involved.

I really wanted her to either become a great swordswoman anyway, or turn out trans. Heck I would've taken cw suicide over what we got

I think what is bugging me about Earthsea so far (and some other things) is that it's a bit too "zoomed out" in terms of both scale and time. I LIKE that but I also need some emotional touchpoint, and you can't easily get that if every new character and concept is done two pages after introduction. But when I DO have that investment, I love seeing big ol' worlds and sweeping epic adventures. You can even kinda see that in most things I write- my TEW diaries are really light on details because what interests me is the overarching story, and I get the emotional connection from using established characters.

AriaOfBolo posted...

I really wanted her to either become a great swordswoman anyway, or turn out trans. Heck I would've taken cw suicide over what we got

Two of those are common theories actually. A very early theory was that falling down the stairs was a cover story to hide the fact that she killed herself (supposedly that was a common cover story in Japan at one time) and many fans still believe that is the case. And after we learned that people could change their physical gender in the One Piece world that become a super popular theory as well.

The other main one is that she ran away and/or lost her memory and will show up later going by a different name.

I for one think she is dead and it's just a simple tragedy. Even more so because there were multiple ways she could have achieved her dream had she lived.

there are just so many cool directions that story could have gone and instead we just dropped a bridge and moved on

22 Piece: I agree with the assessment that Sanji's cool as long as girls aren't involved. We'll see how that plays out once he's stuck on a boat with Nami all day. This is a fun setup! I kinda like the Baratie guys, ngl.

23 Piece: Man imagine if we got Zeff (and his hat) outta this instead of Sanji. That was a lot of build for Don Krieg just to presumably feed him to this other guy!

Guilty Gear Strive: done got peer pressured by both the trans community and the FWA community. (not to mention all my IRL friends that are into arcsys in general) Had some trouble getting it to read my controller and run semi-decently, but think I've got that sorted. I'm really impressed by the tutorials! Will it be the "real" fighting game I actually manage to learn and get into halfway decently? Odds are better than they've been for all the games with unhelpful tutorials and no trans rep! (and yeah this'll be a queue jumper I GUESS, since it's big on multiplayer I wanted to get in while it was hot)

Zeff and the Baratie chefs are great.

Poor Krieg just has some really shitty luck.

lost a couple writeups but Krieg fight is pretty ok so far

y'know what Earthsea reminds me of, structurally? the parts of the Bible where it's like
"And Jesus went forth to the town of Suchandsuch. He stayed there seven days, healing the blind and curing the sick. Then the disciples said "let us go down to the city." And so they went forth to the next city over. Along the way they met a merchant, for in those days there were many merchants on that road. But when they got to The Next City, which was called Cityville, there were no rooms for them, as the Pharisees had warned all the innkeepers not to give them aid or give them succour. Thus they returned to Suchandsuch, and were sorely vexed."
and there are some stories that get some actual detail but a lot of 'em don't, even moreso in Earthsea I think. The Teranon part was fun though.

Thoughts on Hawkeye vs Zoro? And Nami leaving?

Hawkeye/Zoro was quite fun and I hope he comes back, Nami's left like five times before so meh

I was shocked by how one sided Hawkeye/Zoro was. Love to be able to see the level of power in the world when our crew sometimes seems so strong.

Yeah! Although we have only reeeeally faced one major threat before this so it'd have more impact a bit later.

26 Piece: A tough pirate sacrificing a limb to save an ambitious kid? Well I never!(this is a solid backstory tho)

Guilty Gear: First run through Bridget's story, did worse than previous attempts on the early stages but then rocked it out the rest of the way. Kinda neat that sometimes losing just puts you on a different route! I still really love this, I still really struggle with basic competency, and every so often my computer decides the game needs to run at half speed for a bit.

bought gg the day Bridget was announced but haven't gotten around to it yettttt

it's FUN do itttttt

like even factoring out the rep I am grooving on the characters and music and the relative accessibility and the little low-stakes cosmetic gacha

AriaOfBolo posted...

A Wizard of Earthsea: It's...not grabbing me yet, actually, and I'm a ways in. I feel like I haven't been given a reason or opportunity to really start caring about this character or this world we've spent half the book setting up. Feels a bit like the first book of Discworld (we just go a bunch of places and meet a bunch of people and do a bunch of stuff without really giving any of it space) without the humor. I liked Lathe of Heaven and everybody likes LeGuin though, so I'll stick it out.

i never got into AWOE. also want a huge fan of left hand of darkness, but i did like it more - and its exploration of gender identity might be more up your alley

AriaOfBolo posted...

26 Piece: A tough pirate sacrificing a limb to save an ambitious kid? Well I never!(this is a solid backstory tho)

Ok so this one is a really interesting change in the anime. In the manga he doesn't lose his leg saving Sanji underwater. He cuts his leg off on the island and eats it to survive.

One Piece manga can be dark and the early anime was not ready for that.

Hades: 2 runs, 2 asphodel wipes. Slowly building stuff up though at least!

27 Piece: Love a good tweener, grooving on the Ghin fight. That said, at least give the mask to Sanji or something, bruh.

28 Piece: Don Krieg fight is a goodun! Another really good showcase for Luffy and how he operates.

Earthsea: Ged defeated his Shadow and obtained a Persona or whatever, good on him. I wonder if there's ever romance, I could see this build into Vetch OR Yaro for Ged except for the age gap I assume that would create. The world may never know. Won't make it to library for a few days so who knows what'll be next!

SeabassDebeste posted...

and its exploration of gender identity might be more up your alley

duly noted, thanks!

I'm starting to wonder if I'm actually a sci-fi person instead of the fantasy person I always thought I was.

Krieg doesn't get enough respect. Guy is a legit strong pirate.

If he had some more info on the grand line and didn't have the horrific luck of running into Hawkeye in his first week they could have done been fine on the grand line as low level pirates. I mean most his crew is pathetic but Gin and Krieg at least could hang with most first half grand line pirates.

For none One Piece discussion, I have to be in the mood for sci-fi but I do really enjoy both sci-fi and fantasy.

29 Piece: That wraps up Krieg (for now?) I reckon! Nami time coming up?

Touhou Labyrinth: Explored a hefty chunk of 4F! Picked up Aya and I betcha I can get Eirin and Wriggle now. I've about given up on recommended boss levels- I have a hard enough time at full power, and a couple of them I think would be a struggle to even REACH at the correct level. Mokou in particular can just....wall my entire team, lol.

Chrono Trigger: Masamune get! Also met Ozzie. NGL, looking forward to Flea.

30 Piece: Sanji sendoff was nice. NOW it's Nami time. Maybe.

31 Piece: Already kinda sick of Sanji's Nami thirst and she's not even here lol. Also man I feel like we're really into the "beating up our weak ally so they don't try to actually fight" trope, the kid Nami smacked is like the third time......and fourth and fifth with Zoro and Usopp. I've heard the name Arlong but I don't think I specifically know him. (Wifebolo's excited for his seiyuu, tho)

West of Loathing: Beated! Not 100% because I think some of the rest of that was gonna be pretty annoying, but this was a good place to cut it I think. Kinda figured we'd need a big clash with the necromancer or something, but I guess the goal was just Frisco.

Whats a seiyuu?

voice actor

Playing Chrono Trigger? Cool!

32 Piece: I liked the hippo :\ Also Nojiko callin' me out with the kid as a proxy. Zoro and Nami established as early OTP just on that one scene with him jumping in the water. Good facials and lighting this episode.

Pokemon Infinite Fusion: probably taking over the "I don't feel like doing anything" slot post West of Loathing. Have beaten Brock, but it's harder than vanilla! I have a Bulbasaur/Nidoran F, a Mankey/Pichu, a Pidgey/Kakuna, and an Igglybuff and a Meowth that I want to use but don't yet have plans for.

33 Piece: Usopp's dying this episode let's goooo. More importantly, I like Nami's shoes. (more seriously I do like this arc, it perhaps loses some impact knowing that Nami is still gonna be part of the famsquad afterwards but I do love a good triple agent inner conflict bit) Also we watched the ED for the first time and it's a goodun!

34 Piece: Hachi is fun. Still kinda wish we could jettison Usopp, and Sanji's libido.

Hickory Dickory Dock- Agatha Christie: I've been holding off on mystery audiobooks (not sure I trust my auditory ability for all those details) but I am running out of available speculative fiction that catches my eye. But, this is fun! Been a while since I've done mystery anything, and I miss it. Strong characters, which is nice and not always a guarantee.

Pokemon Infinite Fusion: Decided to just go ahead and fuse Igglybuff and Meowth for a pure Normal debuffer. I also actually bought the Magikarp, figuring fusion would make it less of a liability and I could get a relatively effortless Gyarados. I fused THAT with Cleffa and...it still sucks, but maybe slightly less than either one on its own, and I bet Gyarados/Clefable is gonna be pretty nuts. Also it crashes a bunch :\

35 Piece: We both love how Luffy just kinda no-sells social cues. Alright I want a Cocoyashi prequel spinoff after about five seconds of flashback. After five minutes of flashback I no longer want such a thing. This is a rough arc, man.

One Piece can get dark and incredibly sad.

If it helps Usopp does get better, it just takes a few seasons >_>.

Maniac64 posted...

One Piece can get dark and incredibly sad.

I'm, uh, picking that up! Didn't expect that going in

It can be super silly and fun.

But it has also made me cry more than other other media.

36 Piece: Ah, what a nice and lighthearted way to start off the week! AU where Bellemere just pulled the dang trigger when she had the chance.

Pokemon IF: Progress on Mt. Moon is slow but non-zero. Caught all my mons up to the vague level of the area (I very quickly started missing Exp. Share) but the ones with crummy stats (for now!) still struggle a lot, and I don't have a ton of great type matchups here. I have a Sandshrew that I'd like to use, but he's yet another Pokemon with good Body stats and I'm out of good Head candidates for the moment. Oh, and evolved my starter to Ivysaur+Nidorina.

Hickory Dickory Dock: This is kinda my jam- you've got a lot of big characters, all of whom have at least a shred of opportunity and motive. My current ideas, most of which can't co-exist:
-Colin did it, manipulating her to some sort of end and then "taking charge" of her and bumping her off when she came clean.
-Somebody needed to disguise themselves as a girl, hence the lightbulbs and all the feminine items
-The "ruined" papers are faked, they were swapped for the actual papers and messed up to cover it up
-The scarf and rucksack were used for some sort of transportation between the houses (there's gotta be SOME kinda architectural shenanigans with that setup, right?)
-The motive was to drive down demand for the rooms
-This other guy from the previous police incident probably has to factor in somewhere?
-The murder was a botch, the morphia was in all the coffee but takes a while to activate
-Geronimo did it. I don't actually remember what my reasoning was, I'm pretty zonked and having brain farts.
-On a related note I decided it would be a good idea to google "Hickory Dickory Dock victim" to remember the name and the first dang link was the culprit's identity. >_> I scrolled down a bit and saw that several times and still don't remember the poor girl's name <_< rookie mistake!

Amusing 4kids note.

As you may know the 4kids dub of one piece had some...interesting changes (marines use cork guns) and some just plain terrible. In the 4kids version they cut the gunshot and add a line of Bellemere being taken to a dungeon.

That is the last we hear about her. They didn't bother to add anything to the end of the arc so apparently she is just left in the dungeon and forgotten in that timeline.

37 Piece: That's right Sanji, this isn't about you but you get in there and make it about you. Man I thought we were gonna be done with EMOTIONS for an episode or two but geez. Real good build, let's see the blowoff (ideally while it's still hot)

Hickory Dickory Dock: "Funny thing, a pronoun." Anyway so far I am giving myself very partial credit on a few ideas I had but mostly I am way offbase and there's no way I'd have guessed the culprit at this point. Still not entirely sure how or why, anyway!

38 Piece: Poor Momoo, he didn't do anything (onscreen, at least) :(

Pokemon Fusion: Finally got to Cerulean!Also grabbed an Exp. Share, which should expedite things slightly. I think I might make the trek back to Pewter to resurrect the Helix fossil, though- Omanyte seems a decent option for a Head so I might stick him with Sandshrew in yet another attempt at a mixed sweeper. That'd give me a full team of 6, but I'm considering ditching my Pidgeotto/Beedrill. Didn't realize it'd lose Shield Dust, and there are other bug and flying types that I could slot in instead. I also might at some point get tired of having Igglybuff AND Cleffa AND Magikarp all represented, lol, so just because I have A full 6 Fusion team doesn't mean it's THE team for the rest of the game.

Apollo Justice: I immediately understand the appeal of Klavier, especially to Wifebolo. Got through Stickler. (at least I hope so, goodness) For a sec I was hoping Meraktis was the pervy doctor guy, but alas he appears to be alive.

Pokemon IF: Did indeed get my Sandshrew/Omanyte, and also evolved Mankey/Pikachu. Got soloed by Gary's Pidgeotto so uh I guess we're not doing north of Cerulean just yet. Did the gym instead, and in grand tradition, Ivysaur is the only reason I had a chance in hell. Also got Magikarp/Clefairy. Starting to be a viable team! Just a team that's weirdly underleveled and I suspect will remain so all game at this rate.

39 Piece: 3 swords vs. 6 swords, did Lloyd Irving write this ep. I don't actually remember what happened to Zoro's other swords, but hey, Johnny and Yosaku get to be useful. And it's time for UNDERWATER FIGHTING, go waterball go!

Hawkeye broke his other swords in their fight.

Small update on Elden Ring: Did a ton of leveling, and defeated Maliketh, The Black Blade, and the next boss after him too, Gideon Ofnir.

Other games I'm playing too: Resident Evil 2 Remake, Shining Resonance Refrain

Also, purchased Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night on PSN. Can't even play it yet though, download sits approximately at 60% finished.

In RE2 Remake, I'm finished with Scenario A for both Claire and Leon. And in Scenario B, quite far in Scenario B with Leon, while only minimal progress has been made on Claire's Scenario B.

In Shining Resonance Refrain, I'm up to beginning of the Chapter 4 portion, with about 13 hours, while character levels are between 22-30.

Pokemon IF: Evolved Meowth/Jigglypuff, got an egg, and managed to beat the rival fight this time. (with a non-zero amount of luck) Teleport works like Dig now and deals damage, which means that Gary's Abra is a challenge instead of free. Also got Bill done.

40 Piece: Sanji+Usopp ep. Nami ep next tho!

Hickory Dickory Dock: Beated, was a lot of fun! I would've been nowhere close, I think.

Finally finished the download to Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night, and began...

BRotN: Right from the start, the game gives the player the selection of three characters, so I began with the first character, Miriam. The game even kind of warns the player to play as Miriam over the other two, so I went with the that first choice.

Similar to Castlevania, the map works very much the same, however, the challenge is definitely there, even for this early in the game. I've already died a few times, mostly to the game's introductory boss, which is this combination humanoid-ish kraken hybrid. I had to do a little bit of leveling to finish off the boss.

It has a pretty nice graphic style, and the overall presentation works well too. The oldschool 2D game style mixed with the 3D elements in the graphics adds that extra bit of flair to the game.

Pokemon IF: Made it to Vermillion City, and working on the SS Anne. There's no truck to obsess over, sadly, but I can heal on the ship so that's nice. Hatched the egg I got, it was an Igglybuff/Xatu that I unfused. I'd kinda like to use Xatu or the Farfetch'd I got and maybe bench Beedrill/Pidgeotto, but I don't yet have something else I'd like to fuse in there.

41 Piece: oh just kidding it was an everybody episode. I hope Nami gets to do an action but at least she got to stand up for herself? Meanwhile, Luffy/Arlong should be good.

I'm just going to go ahead and warn you that Nami will not be fighting any Fishmen.

She is not strong enough for that right now. Until she gets a new weapon I wouldn't expect her to fight more than henchman.

Pokemon IF: Evolved Beedrill/Pidgeotto and Sandslash/Omanyte. SS Anne done, backtracking to see what I can find with Cut and hit a few fetch quests and such.

42-44 Piece: Was a good fight! Was hoping Nami would get to be a factor, but it worked this way too. Was nice! I'm gonna miss Nojiko and Gen, sure we can't trade Usopp and Sanji for 'em? Wish we coulda gotten more Bellemere somehow, too.

The 12 Labors of Hercules: Sticking with the Christies for a while I think, had a good time and there's a lot more at my library. We've knocked out the Lion and Hydra already, both a bit silly but fun. I'd rather have a longform than a bunch of short stories, but whaddaya gonna do. I had the right idea on the first one, but was oversimplifying the method.

12 Labors: Deer didn't really grab me. Boar seems like it's gonna be fun though! Early guess is the guy isn't even at the lodge with 'em, possibly he was the guy on the train.
Update: I probably shoulda had that one but I sure didn't. Stables are next, seems like a really weird setup.

Hades: Two runs, two fairly decent middle-Elysium finishes. Last of the mirror perks grabbed, and the Athena prophecy finished!

45 Piece: Oh man, Kaya (and some other folks) sighting! ....Why are we doing Fullbody again tho, he wasn't a threat the first time and has fallen off since. Hawkeye though. SHANKS THOUGH.

Pokemon IF: I think it's crashed on me one too many times, probably moving on to some other source of "I just wanna veg out with low expetations"

Hawkeye and Shanks the buddy comedy we all want.

I love whenever we check on people from past islands. One Piece might be the only series where I'm excited for the time between arcs because it often means checking in on people or seeing world events.

46 Piece: Buggy ep? o_O Both Wifebolo and I have forgotten what happened to his torso, lol. I was not at all expecting treasure box guy to come back O_o Hey, a new lady!

Aeon's End: It has a really strong reputation but didn't really grab me. Seems like quite a learning curve to play well, and I'm not sure I'd like it as much as Dominion or Ascension vs. AI if I slogged through that. I probably should try it with a different setup than I did before I write it off, but the first impression is poor.

47 Piece: I did not have Cabaji v. Mohji in a wrestling ring on my bingo card. I extra didn't have Richie winning. (and then jobbing to some locals) The subs don't localize Buggy's puns at all. :\ Buggy's transformation sequence was flashily great. Jury's still out on the new sexy lady, she hasn't actually done or said much. We sneaked a peek at the new OP, think I liked the first better despite my taste for para para. They gotta stop puttin my dead faves in these man.

So the Buggy eps are from the first cover story. So each chapter would have one page of the story.

There are a bunch of these throughout, showing what villains (and occasionally allies) are up to after their arc. Weirdly after the first couple they stop animating them so people just reappear later in different situations. Like Buggy would just have that lady with him the next time you see him with no explanation. It's always been a weird decision to me.

And watching openings are generally fine as long as you don't mind seeing what new characters look like or what powers they might have before they appear. There is one big exception, don't watch the opening starting at episode 116. Of course if you hate spoilers it's better to just skip them.

aeon's end is better than dominion or ascension imo but i understand that it may not be your cup of tea

Aeon's End: Played a simpler setup (1 mage, actually picked the setup this time), understood a bit better but it still just....didn't grab me. I don't have a specific complaint about any of it, but I also didn't see anything that makes me interested in playing it again. And I love deckbuilders, especially ones that figure out a way to be different than the other bajillion I've played! I don't understand where it went wrong, but it doesn't get the "kill time" slot, at any rate.

12 Labors: Stables and Birds didn't grab me, I'm not really into the "there was actually a mystery but you didn't know it, and Poirot solved it offscreen" format. Bull is interesting though.

48 Piece: I appreciate that we made time for Nami to try on some outfits. Another girl appears and doesn't get a name....but does resemble Kuina. Smoker seems cool but we sure didn't work very hard on naming him.

Given your love of Dominion I'm surprised you didn't like Aeon's end more.

Ah yeah the first "Kuina is alive" theory has been met. I love the idea that Smoker was named that by his parents and some marine person probably gave him the fruit cause it was funny/appropriate.

Karma total is at 5959 today.

I thought that was interesting. [Or, that means I've been around GameFAQs for too long!]

I wouldn't know anything about being here too long, lol

49 Piece: I'm a big fan of Sword Nerd Girl, but yeah I guess she's probably not actually Kuina

12 Labors: Today on Hercule Poirot, a Very Special Episode about cocaine.

50 Piece: Daddy the Parent. Daddy the Parent. Daddy. The Parent. Daddy Masterson (The Parent). Daddy "The Parent" Masterson. The animation seems a bit off this episode somehow. Carol is amazing.

51 Piece: Wow, I hate this episode even before we got to the title. The character of the day (Carmen) is a woman, but at what cost?

So what you are probably noticing on 50 is that it is the first episode to not be based on manga pages. It's not true filler though as Oda says the stuff with Daddy was something he wanted to include but it ended up cut from the manga.

51 is basically just filler. 52 is back to canon.

54-60 is the first true filler arc of the series if you want to skip it. Though 55 has a bit of canon and 61 has a tiny bit of the filler arc. It's not bad just mediocre imo.

Too long is subjective though. Everyone has their own concept of *too long*!