#knightmeteor rambles

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People sometimes tend to pass Luffy off as a generic, predictable shonen protagonist. 

The guy has led the biggest jailbreak in history within the series’ most horrifying high security underwater prison filed with the most ruthless killers to save one person without a single shred of remorse and he doesn’t have much reservation in brutalizing Marines and soldiers who are genuinely doing their job e.g. protecting civilians from pirates / capturing them.

Also, during the fight against DoFlamingo, Luffy did nothing to stop Law from trying to outright kill the former altogether despite the fact he wanted to defeat him first. Luffy, who usually likes beating the hell out of the people who pisses him off personally, let somebody else attempt to carry their vengeance out even if it meant losing the chance to end the fight himself. I mean, Luffy intervened in the end right after but that’s because Doffy would have killed Law had he not in the last second.

Not to mention in the recent chapters he’s now formed an alliance with one of his rivals (Bege) and an ex-enemy (Caesar) to assassinate (keyword, assassinate, not beat up or defeat) Big Mom and Luffy’s just all like “Oh cool, we can finally take her down.”

I’m sure tons of other people have said this already in different terms but despite his shonen hero quirks and mannerisms e.g. goofball with a big hunger drive who loves his friends, people end up forgetting Luffy’s a criminal and he very well knows it in the manga.

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This was from the newest key visual in last week’s Dengeki issue. I wonder if Kurt x Yuna will be the Kevin x Ries of this game. It’d make for some interesting and potentially hilarious chemistry. 

A son of one of Erebonia’s most elite military families going out with a Crossbellan girl who idolizes the Special Support Section. Character wise, it’d be entertaining to watch it play out e.g. Kurt’s deadpan and all-serious business nature acting as a foil / “straight man” to Yuna’s more brash, outgoing and free-spirited personlity. 

Not to mention Kurt would play a part in helping Yuna see more about what the empire is about besides just Osbourne’s rabid military expansion.

In addition, the thought of Kurt being overly stiff, nervous and formal when Yuna invites him over to her family’s house for dinner during a visit would be kind of cute.

Her family looks like a lot of fun - they’re avid Mishy fans so plus points for that.

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Tales of Berseria and One Piece :: Thematic Parallels

People tend to compare Tales of Berseria to Berserk because of the parallels drawn between Velvet and Artorius with Gutts and Griffith but consider this: One Piece. Several areas might be simplifying things a bit but from how I see it...

Velvet and her party VS The Straw Hat Pirates :: 

Obviously the former uses more morally sketchy methods but both are rogue groups renowned for wreaking havoc and stirring up the foundations of the world they live in for the sake of various motives or dreams. Their leaders admit that they don’t consider themselves heroes and they’re far from being so but they coincidentially always end up helping those oppressed by the Abbey / The World Government / Pirate antagonists simply because their interests intersect. Both Velvet and Luffy are jailbreakers e.g. Velvet insitgating that prison riot in Titania and Luffy leading the biggest jailbreak in Impel Down’s entire history, which houses some of the most vile and evil of the Age of Piracy. Velvet and Luffy have this black and red color motif going for them too so...

The Abbey VS The Marines / The World Government :: 

The Abbey is an organization that claims to bring peace by elminating Daemons. The Marines and by extension the World Government vow to safeguard peace by jailing / killing pirates and quelling the era which started with Roger’s execution. Both groups use questionable and arguably evil methods to their modus operandi. The Abbey is totalitarian in nature where “Reason” surpasses everything and the Marines’ “Absolute Justice” doctrine dictates that anybody who opposes their justice is to be eliminated ASAP. Artorius ushered in the age of the Abbey using Velvet’s brother as a human sacrifce and governing Midgand under an Iron Fist. The Marines and the World Government have protocols such as Buster Call which is basically legal genocide protocol and go as far as being permitted to arrest / murder pregnant women during the investigation of Roger’s unborn child before the beginning of the manga. 

Parallels in themes ::

On the surface level, Berseria and One Piece tackle different elements, motifs and themes. Berseria is meant to be a personal revenge story and One Piece is more like a traditional adventure shounen. However, both pieces of fiction place the motif of freedom on a high pedestal. Luffy chose to become a criminal because he wanted to live life freely. Eizen from Tales of Berseria lives under a similar creed, or as he quotes it “where people have complete control of the rudder of their lives.” The Straw Hats (and by extension the rest of the “Worst Generation” of pirates) represent the roaring tide that challenges not just the Marines but the foundation of the world while Velvet and her party are an antithesis to Artorius’s utopia of reason.

Not to mention both groups are pirates.

Just felt like typing this out.

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Me: DLC smh. Back in our day, we had everything included on-disc and much more.

Also me: *buys entire DLC pack of Fate/Extella costumes for Jeanne, Medusa, Liz, Arturia, Nero and Altera*

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New Danganronpa V3 thoughts

Well, if there’s one piece of comfort I can take home from what I’ve just witnessed... (( MAJOR NEW DANGANRONPA V3 ENDGAME / VITAL SPOILERS BEYOND CH 1 BELOW ... CLICK AT YOUR OWN RISK ))

It’s that since this game is a confirmed alternate timeline...then we can all probably assume that Kaede, Shuiichi and others are alive, happy and well post Future Arc of the main/original DR timeline.

That doesn’t change the fact that first execution was emotionally painful to watch. Kaede was built up as such a likeable character then we get this slapped onto our faces. I need to unwind lmao. Still, Kaede’s execution blows Kuwata and Teruteru’s from the first two main games out of the fucking water. And here I thought Kuwata’s was brutal. This takes a 100 and gears it up to a good 100,000.

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I spent the first 3 hours of Valentines Day reading Ichi the Killer out of all the manga out there. Ichi the fucking Killer.

I only stumbled upon this by accident because I was looking up yakuza themed movies and discovered the trailer for its film rendition. Then I found out it was a manga.

Ichi is probably the most fucked in the head manga protagonist I’ve seen by far lmao

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Regardless of what peope may think of the new artstyle or the comedic direction the show is going, least it looks like Ash still some of his skills carried over for his post-Alola-reset if that bit in the latest preview about Pikachu taking out three Salandits at once is anything to go by. Going by the first Sun / Moon promo from weeks back, those Salandits probably belong to those Team Skull grunts. 

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333 VS 844

Luffy’s reaction to a crewmate going against him went from this...

To this...

Yes, I do very well know that Usopp and Sanji’s circumstances during their conflicts were two different things and the former had way more agency and power over his decisions than Sanji has during this arc but there’s a reason why this parallels speaks so loudly to me.

Pre-timeskip / during Water 7: although Luffy valued his own comrades from the get-go, he placed plenty of emphasis on his role as a decisive leader and the ambitions of his crewmates and his own. It’s as Zoro said at the end of Luffy’s fight with Usopp: if they dont have a decisive leader, who can they rely on? This is further stressed again at the end of Enies Lobby when Zoro goes on about how a crew is bound to fall apart if absence for respect towards their captain is evident and he just lets others walk on top of him.

After losing Ace, Luffy went through a change in my view that people tend to overlook. Aside the fact he values his comrades much more than ever before, he’s incorporating his own decisive style of leadership without the respect in the crew falling apart.

Rather than shutting Sanji off like he did with Usopp in Water 7, Luffy turned himself into an unmoving stone wall. While at first glance the chapter consisted of Sanji just one sidedly beating the shit out his captain, Luffy won the fight emotionally. Luffy knows that Sanji is lying and he isn’t taking the bait presented to him. That kind of resistance alone enforces his dominant role as captain of the crew. In other words, as his close friend and captain: Luffy was going to have none of that shit. Even if it means turning the other cheek.

Zoro’s emphasis on respect towards the crew surfaces through Nami’s actions in the chapter when she slaps and rejects Sanji completely; heartbroken and convinced that he really doesn’t give a shit about them anymore. Luffy wants to keep his stance as a captain his nakama can rely on, but at the same time he no longer wants to lose any of his friends. 

Luffy knows that difficult decisions would have to be made as captain. The fact that Luffy (you know, the same Luffy who eats everything in site) is going as far as a HUNGER STRIKE speaks a lot of layers. Luffy loves his crew more than anything else and in turn, he takes on this resisting/unmoving stance against Sanji’s farce that managed to convince even Nami (who is regarded by Oda to be one of the most intelligent characters in the manga) because he knows very well that there’s more behind the story. He’s very well aware that respect has to be maintained to enforce the strong mutual bond they have but now he wants to become more understanding of their circumstances; not to forfeit authority/respect but to enact his duty as a captain who wants to keep his crew together.

Poor communication, an impulsive outburst (e.g. Luffy telling Usopp to get out) and lack of understanding between both of them is indirectly why Usopp decided to leave in Water 7 and duel Luffy (again, Usopp had much more agency in his actions at the time but you get the picture).

tl;dr Luffy’s a fucking great protagonist and he’s much more complex than a lot of people give him credit for. This chapter fucking tore me apart lmao.

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Fucking stoked for the upcoming IM@S Cinderella Girls Theater anime. I’ve always loved the official 5komas and I have two of the physical print volumes. I enjoyed the 2015 anime (albeit it had its bumpy flaws) but really excited to see a Cinderella Girls anime that’s purely just about the gags and laughs.

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Uhhh...Multiple porn blogs have apparently liked that one long text post I made about Keijo for some reason.

Thanks I guess haha.

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Finished Thunderbolt Fantasy just now. The entire thing was fucking amazing. To anyone who follows me, watch this show. It’s good quality stuff.

Second season is coming soon too.

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Sun and Moon anime Trailer 1st Impressions

Artstyle still feels a little weird to me but I dont hate it either. As for the animation, aside a few far away lack of detail shots, it looks better in action. Expressions and movements feel more fluid and they’re going for much softer colors this time around. Then again for a lot of people, XY/Z’s darker/crisp colors and artstyle is going to be a tough act to follow. I’m curiously excited only to see where this goes. And points for Team Skull not taking 2-3 years to show up in the anime! I have a feeling it’s Aether Foundation we wont see until the last stretch like with Team Flare in XYZ.

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Sun and Moon anime first impressions

I wonder if the “school” setting in the Sun and Moon setting will be something like the “field studies” in Trails of Cold Steel 1 / Sen no Kiseki 1. Where the school in the first island will be some kind of hub the cast returns to and they’ll travel to the other islands for adventure purposes or whatever or meeting the Captains and Kahunas of the other islands. Sort of like a regular field trip where the Island Trials will be implemented. And it looks like instead of “traveling companions”, we’re getting Ash plus Lana, Mallow, Sophocles, Kiawe and Lillie as part of the core cast. 

This has a lot of implications with how the formula of the show changes. Instead of just “travel to gym with various filler in between”, we might get something more arc or character based at least. Like several episodes dedicated to Lillie or to Kiawe, etc, etc.

On one hand, I’m not sure what to think of this especially with the “lighter” artstyle compared to X and Y but on the other hand I’m glad they’re changing the formula a bit. I’ll take this over the endless amount of Junior Cup filler tournaments we got in Best Wishes.

Hau or Luna aren’t in the key visuals but they could always show up later. The game’s protagonists aren’t from Alola and Hau is the grandson of one of the Kahunas so he’s bound to show up eventually.

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Velvet x Eleanor

At first I couldn’t really imagine Velvet being romantically involved with anyone at all considering she seems more goal driven than anyone else in the cast from what we’ve seen. Then I keep seeing her interactions with Eleanor unfold in screenshots/trailers and how their ideals and views contrast so much with each other and how evident that is even after the latter joins the party. 

I’m probably not the first person to think about this but since Zesty gave us the 1st canonical gay couple in the series (Sorey/Mikleo), bonus points if Berseria pulls of a well written canon lesbian couple as a first for the series while avoiding repetitive “Bury Your Gays” tropes or the whole thing isn’t too fetishized.

No idea how big the chances of this are happening but Velvet x Eleanor could have potentially great character chemistry if done right. There were Alisha/Rose subtexts in the end-game DLC but nothing was ever confirmed on their end.

I’d be fine with whoever Velvet ends up with the end (with Eleanor or Rokuro being a 2nd choice if bamco goes het, he seems really loyal to Velvet but it’s probably gonna be nothing more than a “you’re in my debt” best friend relationship) as long as it doesn’t end up being awkwardly or poorly written. 

Though Velvet riding solo and single once the entire thing is over with her character growth is more of a possibility if there isn’t any romance involved. We’ll see.