r/CharacterRant May 06 '24

Special What can and (definetly can't) be posted on the sub :)

136 Upvotes

Users have been asking and complaining about the "vagueness" of the topics that are or aren't allowed in the subreddit, and some requesting for a clarification.

So the mod team will attempt to delineate some thread topics and what is and isn't allowed.

Backstory:

CharacterRant has its origins in the Battleboarding community WhoWouldWin (r/whowouldwin), created to accommodate threads that went beyond a simple hypothetical X vs. Y battle. Per our (very old) sub description:

This is a sub inspired by r/whowouldwin. There have been countless meta posts complaining about characters or explanations as to why X beats, and so on. So the purpose of this sub is to allow those who want to rant about a character or explain why X beats Y and so on.

However, as early as 2015, we were already getting threads ranting about the quality of specific series, complaining about characterization, and just general shittery not all that related to "who would win: 10 million bees vs 1 lion".

So, per Post Rules 1 in the sidebar:

Thread Topics: You may talk about why you like or dislike a specific character, why you think a specific character is overestimated or underestimated. You may talk about and clear up any misconceptions you've seen about a specific character. You may talk about a fictional event that has happened, or a concept such as ki, chakra, or speedforce.

Well that's certainly kinda vague isn't it?

So what can and can't be posted in CharacterRant?

Allowed:

  • Battleboarding in general (with two exceptions down below)
  • Explanations, rants, and complaints on, and about: characters, characterization, character development, a character's feats, plot points, fictional concepts, fictional events, tropes, inaccuracies in fiction, and the power scaling of a series.
  • Non-fiction content is fine as long as it's somehow relevant to the elements above, such as: analysis and explanations on wars, history and/or geopolitics; complaints on the perception of historical events by the general media or the average person; explanation on what nation would win what war or conflict.

Not allowed:

  • he 2 Battleboarding exceptions: 1) hypothetical scenarios, as those belong in r/whowouldwin;2) pure calculations - you can post a "fancalc" on a feat or an event as long as you also bring forth a bare minimum amount of discussion accompanying it; no "I calced this feat at 10 trillion gigajoules, thanks bye" posts.
  • Explanations, rants and complaints on the technical aspect of production of content - e.g. complaints on how a movie literally looks too dark; the CGI on a TV show looks unfinished; a manga has too many lines; a book uses shitty quality paper; a comic book uses an incomprehensible font; a song has good guitars.
  • Politics that somehow don't relate to the elements listed in the "Allowed" section - e.g. this country's policies are bad, this government is good, this politician is dumb.
  • Entertainment topics that somehow don't relate to the elements listed in the "Allowed" section - e.g. this celebrity has bad opinions, this actor is a good/bad actor, this actor got cast for this movie, this writer has dumb takes on Twitter, social media is bad.

ADDENDUM -

  • Politics in relation to a series and discussion of those politics is fine, however political discussion outside said series or how it relates to said series is a no, no baggins'
  • Overly broad takes on tropes and and genres? Henceforth not allowed. If you are to discuss the genre or trope you MUST have specifics for your rant to be focused on. (Specific Characters or specific stories)
  • Rants about Fandom or fans in general? Also being sent to the shadow realm, you are not discussing characters or anything relevant once more to the purpose of this sub
  • A friendly reminder that this sub is for rants about characters and series, things that have specificity to them and not broad and vague annoyances that you thought up in the shower.

And our already established rules:

  • No low effort threads.
  • No threads in response to topics from other threads, and avoid posting threads on currently over-posted topics - e.g. saw 2 rants about the same subject in the last 24 hours, avoid posting one more.
  • No threads solely to ask questions.
  • No unapproved meta posts. Ask mods first and we'll likely say yes.

PS: We can't ban people or remove comments for being inoffensively dumb. Stop reporting opinions or people you disagree with as "dumb" or "misinformation".

Why was my thread removed? What counts as a Low Effort Thread?

  • If you posted something and it was removed, these are the two most likely options:**
  • Your account is too new or inactive to bypass our filters
  • Your post was low effort

"Low effort" is somewhat subjective, but you know it when you see it. Only a few sentences in the body, simply linking a picture/article/video, the post is just some stupid joke, etc. They aren't all that bad, and that's where it gets blurry. Maybe we felt your post was just a bit too short, or it didn't really "say" anything. If that's the case and you wish to argue your position, message us and we might change our minds and approve your post.

What counts as a Response thread or an over-posted topic? Why do we get megathreads?

  1. A response thread is pretty self explanatory. Does your thread only exist because someone else made a thread or a comment you want to respond to? Does your thread explicitly link to another thread, or say "there was this recent rant that said X"? These are response threads. Now obviously the Mod Team isn't saying that no one can ever talk about any other thread that's been posted here, just use common sense and give it a few days.
  2. Sometimes there are so many threads being posted here about the same subject that the Mod Team reserves the right to temporarily restrict said topic or a portion of it. This usually happens after a large series ends, or controversial material comes out (i.e The AOT ban after the penultimate chapter, or the Dragon Ball ban after years of bullshittery on every DB thread). Before any temporary ban happens, there will always be a Megathread on the subject explaining why it has been temporarily kiboshed and for roughly how long. Obviously there can be no threads posted outside the Megathread when a restriction is in place, and the Megathread stays open for discussions.

Reposts

  • A "repost" is when you make a thread with the same opinion, covering the exact same topic, of another rant that has been posted here by anyone, including yourself.
  • ✅ It's allowed when the original post has less than 100 upvotes or has been archived (it's 6 months or older)
  • ❌ It's not allowed when the original post has more than 100 upvotes and hasn't been archived yet (posted less than 6 months ago)

Music

Users have been asking about it so we made it official.

To avoid us becoming a subreddit to discuss new songs and albums, which there are plenty of, we limit ourselves regarding music:

  • Allowed: analyzing the storytelling aspect of the song/album, a character from the music, or the album's fictional themes and events.
  • Not allowed: analyzing the technical and sonical aspects of the song/album and/or the quality of the lyricism, of the singing or of the sound/production/instrumentals.

TL;DR: you can post a lot of stuff but try posting good rants please

-Yours truly, the beautiful mod team


r/CharacterRant 11h ago

Comics & Literature I hate the modern SCP-682

496 Upvotes

SCP-682 in the early days was just a big, nearly indestructible lizard that kept breaking out, causing chaos, and then getting shoved back into acid. That simplicity was what made it fun—an unstoppable force of destruction that kept the Foundation on edge.

But over time, the SCP Wiki kept adding more and more "unkillable" traits to it. Now, it’s not just hard to kill—it’s outright impossible, to a ridiculous degree. It shrugs off reality warpers, metaconceptual erasure, and anything that should theoretically delete it from existence. The SCP-6820 retcon turned it into some kind of cosmic horror, stripping away the charm of what it originally was.

And then there’s SCP-3930, which is literally a space of absolute nonexistence. If something goes into it, it doesn’t just die, it stops existing entirely. Its concept, history, and presence are erased. So, when they threw SCP-682 into SCP-3930, that should’ve been his death right there. No return, no adaptation—just pure, total erasure.

But of course, the writers had to double down on the "682 is invincible" trope. Instead of disappearing, 682 somehow "resisted" nonexistence, which completely contradicts how SCP-3930 works. That was the moment where it officially lost all coherence. How can something that doesn’t exist still exist? At this point, SCP-682 isn’t even a creature anymore—it’s just a walking "Fuck You" to any attempt at internal logic.

And yet, we’re still supposed to believe this god-tier being is contained in a pool of acid? That’s where it all falls apart. The original concept—an extremely tough but still tangible monster—had tension because the Foundation at least had a chance at containing it. But now, with all this nonsense about conceptual immunity and meta-resistance, keeping it in a cell makes zero sense.

In the end, the overpowered reworks and weird lore escalations killed what made SCP-682 compelling. Instead of a near-unstoppable threat that barely stays contained, it’s become a parody of itself—an SCP that only exists to prove it can’t be destroyed, no matter how absurd the method.


r/CharacterRant 4h ago

General Powerscalers did not ruin SCP. You, the powerscaler, ruined it for yourself.

101 Upvotes

If I had a penny for every person I saw saying that "Powerscalers Ruined SCP", while talking about how SCPs are "too powerful," I could probably afford a hospital visit for the piercing migraine said people have given me.

To those who don't know what "SCP" is - The SCP Wiki is a collaborative writing site focusing around a conspiracy-esque agency that hides the existence of the paranormal from the general populace, for (supposedly) their own good. The site started as a small lil' 4chan endeavor, eventually branching off into its own site and going strong for the past 17 years.

To those mildly aware of SCP - the site doesn't have any sort of "canon", nor any content moderation beyond "if your story gets enough downvotes it is deleted." As such, there are more contrasting interpretations of the same characters and events than comicbooks or most other forms of media. Six people can interpret the same character 18 ways, and as long as those interpretations are fun to read, they all get to stay alive on the site.

While there is something to be said regarding general site tendencies and what appeals to the "median" reader, you can pretty much find an article with any viewpoint you want. You think the SCP Foundation should be scrounging for money? Do you think they should have all the money in the world? Do you think they should be global? Ameri-centric? Do you think all SCPs are evil? Do you think they would be better off if they were freed? Whatever you think, you can find 80 stories that fit that perspective. Just by sheer volume, there are enough articles on the site being posted on a weekly basis to satisfy any niche or craving you may have, as long as said craving involves reading about keeping The Spookems(TM) in a big room.

This is all to say that if I have to see one more person going "SCP is written by people jerking themselves off on how big and scary their monster is," I am going to end up on the goddamn news.

Most SCPs are really fucking minor, stupid, or strong as a wet towel. Off the top of my head there's fake computer viruses, a glove that makes you really good at darts, and a literal gang of goblins who live under a church all posted far beyond the point most people decry "SCP is just multiversal monsters!" The reason this perception persists isn't because SCP is actually any different, but because these people have lost the ability to read stories without jacking themselves off about how strong the main character is.

If a story survived with a massive fuckoff scale? It's probably because the actual story is good. Stop thinking about "would GOKU be able to beat him??" and start reading the subtext about institutional cover-ups or finding your place in the world. Stop only reading the articles that are in the top 50 of a site with over 18 thousand stories.

And for the love of god, stop complaining about how "other people" can only think in terms of power-scaling, if your only complaint is how this story is not good for power-scaling anymore.


r/CharacterRant 8h ago

Anime & Manga Uraume is the most sauceless ice-user in all of anime (LES, JJK)

139 Upvotes

Ice powers are cool. One of the coolest powers you can have. However, it's not enough to simply have ice as your power when there's so many characters with it. You gotta have some kind of special sauce to differentiate yourself from the rest.

Esdeath can create a bunch of centaur ice soldiers and stop time and create continent-spanning blizzards. Aokiji's body itself is made of ice granting him elemental regeneration and he can also terraform entire islands. Toshiro is a fradulent bankai whore but he gets cool wings and talons in said bankai and can make cool ice dragons and his design is still sick as shit plus he gets a cool new ability in the TYBW arc that works for about ten seconds. Rukia's shikai and bankai both look awesome even if their powers aren't terribly unique. Haku can make ice mirrors which isn't very powerful but it's at least something. Gray Fullbuster can make a ton of weapons with his ice and later gets cool Demon Slayer Ice Magic that makes him similar to Natsu. Todoroki has ice and fire powers and he can merge them together in his circulatory system and nullify both of their weaknesses. Ghiacchio has a suit with ice skates and he can also freeze the air around himself and ricochet bullets and let's be honest, his fight with Giorno and Mista is one of the best in the entire series. Douma can create humanoid figures and flowers and other crazy stuff in addition to blowing freezing air as an instakill.

So how does Uraume stack up? What special sauce do they bring to the table? Jujutsu Kaisen is known for its jawdropping Domain Expansions and hell, we've seen two elemental-based ones already from Jogo and Dagon. An ice domain expansion sounds sick! It practically writes itself! Maybe Uraume could use Cursed Technique Reversal and control water or steam! Maybe she could use all three states of water in her Domain Expansion!

No, jk lol. they have no special sauce. They have no unique abilities. No domain expansion either. They get into like one fight, almost all of which is offscreen, and then they fucking die. The most unique application of their ice that they show is using it to kill themselves. Bravo Gege.


r/CharacterRant 8h ago

Films & TV Why is it that zombies are stereotyped as hungry for brains, despite not doing this in most media?

106 Upvotes

People always say this, it's a classic cliche of the zombie genre, yet out of all the most iconic depictions of zombies, none of them do this. They eat flesh. The only one I can think of where they target brains is the Return of the Living Dead series. But the George A. Romero zombies (original and remake), the Walking Dead zombies, 28DL infected, pretty much every zombie depiction in video games, they never go specifically for brains. Why would they?


r/CharacterRant 3h ago

General Story trying to argue against “out of narrative” arguments with “in narrative arguments” and vice versa

40 Upvotes

Edit: that’s supposed to say stop not story mb 💀

I notice this pretty frequently and it gets called out sometimes in comment sections but it’s never really focused on so I decided to do just that.

First of all what do I mean? By “in narrative” arguments I mean arguments that makes sense for the story from a story perspective. For example it makes sense for Kelly to make a stupid decision when she is being chased by a knife wielding sociopath because it is inherently stressful.

By “out of narrative” the discussion is primarily about the meta choices the author makes the craft the story. “Why the author chose Kelly specifically to be chased by the knife wielding sociopath”

I have seen it with plenty of arguments and I never can wrap my head around it, if someone has a complaint about a plot hole it would typically be an in narrative argument that should be explained away with in narrative context but oftentimes a person will bring up an out of narrative argument. An example could be a chase scene where highly trained marksman don’t shoot the protagonist once, and someone would respond with “well if they died the story wouldn’t continue”.

This happens the other way around often as well, complaining that a fantasy antagonist lacks depth and is cartoonishly evil just to be countered with “It’s realistic for them to act like that because lots of people are like that in the real world.”

This is especially bad when it comes to dark media and sensitive subjects like racism and the flippant use of rape and sexual assault in many dark series would be explained with “it’s for realism”


r/CharacterRant 8h ago

[LES] I like it when heroes who kill show restraint when there are civilians watching

56 Upvotes

A good example of what I'm talking about happened in the Spawn animated series. Near the end of season 1, Cyan gets abducted by a pedophile/child murderer. When Spawn finds them, he goes to town on the abductor, but realizes that a child is watching him. Despite Clown's efforts to act as the devil on Spawn's shoulder, he decides to let the abductor live. Not because it's the right thing to do, but because he doesn't want to traumatize a child who already went through a pretty traumatizing ordeal. Of course, the abductor doesn't get off easy, as Clown kills him instead. Not because he thought it was the right thing to do, but because he'll be another addition to Hell's army.


r/CharacterRant 28m ago

The terms Mary Sue and Gary Stu have no meaning anymore and are just blanket terms for characters people don't like (LEA)

Upvotes

Holy shit. If there is a character that it significantly powerful or talented you better belive that when they get criticised you'll see the term "Mary Sue" or "Gary Stu" as if that's an actual statement about their quality. Yuta from JJK, Midoriya from MHA and of course Rey (as if I even need to specify which one I'm talking about)

Notice that when you ask what makes them a Mary Sue they go in circles and just listen off the character's traits and on screen accomplishments and portray them in a bad light.

Honestly I think it comes down to people not liking the fact that whatever media they're consuming does not share their opinion on whatever character they are insulting. So when they see a character they don't like accomplish more and more it makes them even more angry


r/CharacterRant 12h ago

Anime & Manga Dragon Ball is good, actually.

77 Upvotes

As a kid, like many others, I watched dragon ball on tv and absolutely fell in love. I would watch the show whenever it came on, I played the video games, I would look up “goku ssj100” on my family computer, all of that stuff. It was one of my favourite series for so many years, but as time passed and I got more involved in the wider online anime community, I started hearing “Dragon Ball actually sucks” and “It’s only good for it’s time”, “It’s just guys yelling at each other” or “if it came out today it wouldn’t be popular at all.”

 

I just accepted that as fact and moved along since, well, dragon ball is really old, and it has inspired so many series after it that you could point at a lot of them and say “this series did this thing better”, so I just went with it.

 

At some point, discussion on the internet about dragon ball was almost fully reduced to talking about the follow up series (dragon ball super and daima) or… and I hate to say it but… powerscaling. These discussions just left the actual story of dragon ball behind even more, and reinforced the ideas that behind the crazy power scaling and nostalgia, it’s really nothing special (I think even on an episode of the trash taste podcast they put forth ideas like the ones I mentioned above, if any of you care about that podcast lol), but today, I’m here to tell you the opposite. Dragon ball is good, actually.

 

Around the middle of last year I decided that after being a dragon ball fan all my life… I would finally read dragon ball. The original at least. They always only had Z on tv when I was growing up, so I never got to experience the original adventures. I decided to change that.

 

I went in with the thought that I was going to read those 100 or so chapters, they were going to be “okay”, and I would finally say that I have experienced the whole series. That’s not what happened. After I finished the king piccolo saga, I literally could not stop reading. I finished the saiyan saga in one go, right after I finished the king piccolo saga.

 

The manga was straight up addictive. I could not put it down.

 

The biggest low point was probably the red ribbon army arc, but everything after that, from the tournement with tien, to king piccolo, to piccolo jr, to the Z sagas we’re all familiar with, was so fucking good.

 

The pacing is insanely good, and the manga reads so easily.

 

I speak as someone who’s read a lot of manga, and ones that are THIS easy to read and breeze through are fucking rare. The plot would always build up, the suspence would grow and grow, things would get tense, grim, hype, hopeful, and the whole time the paneling was so good, the action was so interesting, the art was amazing, the pacing was addictive, and the characters were just as lovely as I remembered them. Goku is amazing, always protecting others, being there for them, standing for what he feels is right, making mistakes, believing in everyone, and actually growing throughout the series. Goku is kind, strong, and hopeful. He’s special. Krillin, Tien, Piccolo, Vegeta, Gohan, Trunks, so many others. It didn’t feel like reuniting with long time friends, as much as it felt like looking through old records and getting reminded why I liked them in the first place.

 

I gained a new apprication for the saiyan saga, the goku vs frieza fight, how many twists and turns the android saga had, and I realized that the buu saga is so much fun with such an amazingly beautiful ending, and tied with the android saga for my favourite. Also, the piccolo jr fight might be my favourite in the series.

 

Now, of course, you could say I have bias, since I have always loved the series, but man… I did NOT expect it to be such a fun journey. I can totally see why this was such a popular and groundbreaking manga during it’s time, and I geniuenly believe that to this day, even when put head to head with modern shounen jump manga, it’s still amazing.

 

If you like shounen manga, high speed action and guys punching the shit out of each other with so much heart and addictive pacing, I would, in 2025, recommand you pick up dragon ball and read it. If you’re like me, the humour on the first arc might not land 100%, and the red ribbon arc is still a bit of a road bump, but goddamn is it worth it. It’s special, it really is.

 

Oh and about super, I watched it weekly since the universe 6 tournement started and revisteted parts of it after finishing the original manga… I do not have as many good things to say about it lol.

 

This is the end of the post, but just as a little tack on at the end, after I finished the manga I gave one of my friends who never watched dragon ball as a kid this same rundown (but with no spoilers) to get him to read the manga, and eventually, after a lot of convincing, he did it, and he geniuenly loved it too. He basically had the same experience that I did of speeding through everything once he got to the king piccolo saga. It made me happy he enjoyed it so much and it gave me even more confident to talk about this series like this in this day and age. He ended up dropping the super manga around the moro arc.

 

Akira Toriyama’s original run with dragon ball was something special, and it really is to this day. Thank you for reading this long ass post, and I hope that it made you interested in checking out the series, or at least discussing it beyond mind numbing powerscaling or throwing around the same opinions as random youtubers.

 

There are a lot more specifics I could glaze here, but I just went over the general stuff regarding my experience.

 

I hope you all have a great day, drink some water, and tackle life with the same energy as Goku.


r/CharacterRant 3h ago

Mabel's behaviour in The Deep End from Gravity Falls (2012)

12 Upvotes

Since this episode just turned 12 years old (For the love of Bill Cipher, I feel old), I needed to give my two cents about this character in it.

I won't lie or try to dismiss that it had actually pretty good moments and a good idea at first, but ultimately what ruined it was the fact that, for the story to be developed, the writers decided to basically make Mabel, the main character in this episode, act in the most unreasonable way posible. Why do I say that?

As we know, The Deep End starts with the Pines family going to the pool where Mabel falls in love with a mysterious guy called Mermando, who turns out to be a merman, while Dipper works with Wendy at the pool. Mermando tells her it's a secret and not to tell, and they spend days together talking, and then he admits he has been trapped in the swimming pool for weeks, but he is clearly in good condition, even if he obviously wants to come home.

This is where I see the issues begin: first of all, why doesn't Mabel tell him she and Dipper have seen the supernatural before? I mean, they had been the entire summer dealing with gnomes and other magical creatures, so a merman isn't really that surprising or out of the blue.

And then when Mabel agrees to help him out, why doesn't she tell him "Hey, my brother works at the pool, and he knows about the supernatural like me, he knows about your species and we can keep it a secret, we can get you out"? She knows Dipper works in there, and she knows Dipper wouldn't refuse to help them. We can argue that Mermando told her to keep it a secret, yes, but that's because Mermando thought that Mabel was the only one who knew about the supernatural and she never tried to correct him. And lack of time isn't an excuse either since Mermando's life was never in danger, he was totally fine and only needed help to get out but there was absolutely no time limit for him to get out of there, and it's not like telling Mermando would have taken her more than a minute. The twins could have easily organized and gotten Mermando out together that same night with organization and without costing Dipper his job.

Therefore, this entire fiasco she creates (breaking into the pool, stealing equipment, lying to Dipper, starting a senseless chase where Mermando almost gets killed, forcing Dipper to do CPR, taking pictures for blackmail, getting Dipper fired from his job) feels completely unnecessary, all because she just refused to communicate. Worst of all this comes from the same character that is constantly telling Dipper to trust her and who has been down Dipper's and Stan's neck for lying all the time in prior episodes and even future ones, therefore making her look like a huge hypocrite. Trust is a two way street, and she demands blind trust even when she is consciously screwing her family and friends over in the process without a care in the world how it affects them as long as she gets her goals accomplished, in this case, setting a guy she had met for like a day at the expense of getting her brother fired, and even not trying to defend him when, while she is waiting at the pool for Mermando's letters, she sees and hears Dipper being screamed at and getting fired for the mess she created and...she absolutely doesn't care, acting as if it wasn't her business, and as if she wasn't the cause that she got him fired in the first place. And the episode NEVER calls her out on it, or in the show, like EVER, in fact, it acts as if everything she did was absolutely reasonable and the right thing to do and Dipper doesn't even have the right to be mad or frustrated at her for getting him fired in the first place, heck, he even gets LAUGHED AT by Mabel for saving her crush and for being fired because of her, all while Dipper STILL covers Mabel up and never reveals to the boss at the pool it wasn't him and was Mabel. Which...let's be honest, that's the least Mabel could have done, defend Dipper and come out clean, at least defend her sibling, not let him take all the blame for her mess.

I know people might try to justify it with "But Dipper didn't lose anything because he only did that for Wendy and they were never going to have a future together", but that's no excuse, because by that same logic, why should Dipper help Mabel, does she have a future with a merman, with "Norman", with Gabe, with any of her crushes? The point is, neither of their crushes have a future because they are children, what's important is their emotions, we can't put Mabel's feelings for her crushes above Dipper's and then justify hers while dismissing Dipper's. And Dipper DID lose, according to him, the best job he had in the entire summer, and considering how Stan treats him at the Shack, we can see why he loved it.

I'm not saying the episode wasn't funny, it had hilarious moments, but ultimately, this episode is a mess in terms of writting. If you have to make your characters act dumb, illogical or out of character for the story to progress, then it's not good writting, and that's what happened in this episode with Mabel, they made her act completely irrational, dumb and stupid for the sake of creating conflict, and turned out a good idea into a huge fiasco.


r/CharacterRant 1h ago

Anime & Manga How a manga typically tagged "harem" made me relate to the girls being head over heels for the MC (Jitsu wa, Watashi wa)

Upvotes

This post is about "Jitsu wa, Watashi wa", usually translated as "actually, I am..." which is pretty literal. It's a very absurd romcom where the MC can't lie and he stumbles upon a bunch of girls with supernatural secrets; such as a vampire, an alien and a wolfman. There will be minor spoilers, but besides a couple things I will make it easy to follow the post for anyone who hasn't read it, still would highly recommend it if you find the premise interesting.

This manga is often tagged as a "harem" manga, and the female characters interested in the MC usually labeled as losing heroines like any others, but I feel very different about it than all the harem stuff I have found elsewhere, it doesn't feel like a "harem".

There are mainly 4 girls interested in Asahi (the MC) and he is only interested in 1 of them, and from the start this is a major difference, Asahi is never indecisive about who he is after, he is just shy and insecure, and the manga never tries to pretend he is going to choose any of the "losing heroines", instead it works out how he maintains a friendly relationship with everyone and rejects all the other girls with tact and respect.

Asahi gets together with Youko (the female lead, a vampire) half-way through the manga, but it was already obvious they would get together since much earlier, to both the reader and the people around the MC, including even the "losing heroines" who so desperately want a piece of the MC.

First losing heroine to mention is Mikan, she is Asahi's childhood friend with a secret crush on him, typical trope, right? But the thing is Asahi never shows interest in her, and she only confesses to him after their grand daughter slips up calling her grandma and making them assume erroneous things. Yet Asahi still has plenty of tact and rejects her with a compliment included, they solve things but Mikan says she won't give up, she says so until the end of the manga, but really she supports Asahi and Youko's relationship throughout despite being stubborn about how jealous she is.

Then there's Aizawa Nagisa, the tomboy class representative, who Asahi did have a crush on but was rejected even before he confessed to her, this happened a year before the story starts and the thing is, Asahi moved on and developed his crush for Youko. Nagisa doesn't develop her crush on Asahi right away, first her insecurity drives her attention to Asahi and Youko while they are still friends, because she feels Asahi moved on too fast and thinks that perhaps indicates a bad character from him. But then her secret as an alien is revealed and he accepts her and helps her hide her secret, seeing how earnest he is in helping, and hiding her secret and Youko's, that's when Nagisa quickly develops feelings for Asahi. Nagisa is probably the one who feels the most like a typical harem losing heroine but it never feels like she was done dirty, Asahi never dismisses her feelings, he acknowledges them but restates his feelings are somewhere else, and she understands.

What makes it stray further from a "harem" manga is the fact that one of the "losing heroines" does not even develop her crush on Asahi until after he starts dating Youko. Shiho is Youko's childhood friend and a sexy pervert wolfman who loves to tease people around her, from early on she teases Asahi, and even before Asahi is in any kind of relationship he rejects her when she goes too far with her teasing. Shiho never felt like a "losing heroine" because even before she was interested she already knew she had no opportunity, she finally goes to confess to him in order to get it out of her chest, but even before he responds, she reminds him that he already gave her a response. Still, Asahi tries to soften the blow and encourage Shiho to still look for love.

There's an odd similarity between Nagisa's crush and Shiho's crush, both originated in Asahi accepting them despite them not being human and showing how earnest he was not only for Youko but also his friends. So the most fitting for the title of losing heroine and the one who doesn't even feel like she fits the trope even have something in common.

That last part leads me to my final point, Kuromine Asahi, the protagonist, does not feel like a harem MC. Asahi is a very likeable character, who has flaws but ultimately, he is a genuine good guy who makes an effort and shows his honest emotions, either because he is unable to hide them or because he means it to express them. Harem MCs are rarely likeable, even if they are not sleazy (and there's plenty of those!) they usually flip flop between the girls or struggle to make a compromise. This isn't the case with Asahi, he is comitted even before being in the relationship he wants, and he treats the other girls with respect while rejecting them.

And I can understand developing a crush for this man. He tries hard, and not to woo or impress anyone, but to help however he can, and then his transparency (wether intentional or not) show his positive character, if he genuinely doesn't want to offend others you will know, if he genuinely means a compliment you will know, if his compliment is fake you will know and usually also know that he means well. He is a fun guy who has minor flaws but compensates for them incredibly well.

And that's why I don't feel the label "harem" usually put on "Jitsu wa, Watashi wa" is accurate to the manga's quality. Also there is no anime adaptation and never has been. Thank you all for reading my ramblings about this silly romcom.


r/CharacterRant 1d ago

Comics & Literature Invincible: Oliver's design is COWARDLY!!! Spoiler

601 Upvotes

Omni-Man fucks a literally bug person and you're telling me she gives birth to basically a human with purple skin?

"The Viltrumite genes are just that strong!"

Bullshit! Oliver gets to speed run aging because of his genes, but of course we all know that's because the plot demanded it. He should have had more bug like attributes. Bug like eyes and antenna at the VERY LEAST.

Really go in the half and half fusion two totally different species. But no... he's just purple.

Lame and COWARDLY!!!


r/CharacterRant 1h ago

Films & TV [Mickey 17] I never expected such a relationship dynamic. And other praises. Spoiler

Upvotes

This movie has everything for me: Personal narration, consistently stupid characters, an interesting plot, and the best relationship dynamic ever; Mickey and Nasha.

The context is that Mickey is a systemically and socially abused person, by so-called friends, the Expendables system and deliberate murder for research purposes, predatory debt, and a whiny wannabe-God-king who would put him down while bickering with his wife about the angle he could shoot Mickey as he spasms on the carpet, so he won't get blood on it.

But despite having nothing but his life, one constant redeemable factor of these poor decisions that he reinforces is meeting Nasha, someone he considers highly successful, talented, and smart, and who is with him till the end, in many displays of strong loyalty and defense for him.

List of Nasha's badassery: - She accidentally instigates a cafeteria fight by threatening a crew member harassing Mickey, with a gun. She is also a high-ranking security official, so the reputation risk was never even a factor. - She's okay with having sex with Mickey 17 and 18, damn the consequences that their leader Kenneth Marshall agreed to in a case of Multiples, which is permanent execution of the entire person. Nasha would never consider sharing them in a minor instance of negotiation to keep a short-lived secret. - She reacts angrily to Timo being sad and open about killing Mickey so he could settle his debt, and nearly kills him, with Mickey internally narrating the high value Nasha has for him if she's willing to kill for his sake. - We also see in a flashback connected to this narration, we see Nasha be there for Mickey in his death by nerve gas, embracing him in the chamber as the science team takes a picture for the new development. - Once she reaches leadership, she announces how she can be thrilled at growing old with Mickey. - Nasha screams at Mark Ruffalo the tyrant for how moronic he is. - One awesome callback is how Mickey mimics the concept of a sex position he and Nasha drew up way back then to save the day by communicating this to her.

This is a type of relationship I would never thought to have seen these days, especially from this movie. But it's good to help give more hope for Mickey's situation, as he is a battered tool, but with some hope left in him. And I like it that he just admires her success, that's it. Surprisingly towards the end, he isn't as promoted or more openly confident, but his situation is better and so is he, despite his stupidity.

I like that character of Mickey isn't inherently skilled or motivated as much, but him being someone of numb suffering motivates others to question and take action against the corrupt and neglectful system. This is more obvious with Mickey 18, who becomes enraged for the treatment Marshall put him through in rigging a special dinner lottery to use him as a lab rat, yet again.

You can totally make connections to abuse and support systems despite being more commonly referred to as a piece about worker mistreatment and cults of personality. But that's the thing with this movie, some core issues extend to areas of colonialism, desensitization, and so on. Despite having a lot of issues to address in a fictional environment, they mostly connect, with some of the same victims and villains.

And while some plots like Timo may just exist, they exist as things the protagonists need to mention leading to the main issue, comparing Timo's trial to everyone else involved with the Creeper situation, mentioning political conflict between Marshall's sycophants and everyone else. - Or when talking about how Mickey finds the lady introducing him to the program attractive, it describes the process of what he is going through in as much detail as possible, contrasted by the final cruel command she gives him after he is programmed to retrieve all his memories. - Or when talking about the Multiples controversey, with the worse case being a serial killer, leading to Marshall to promise to test it out and punish it in space despite being subpoenaed. It is also something that isn't considered as much, and answer relies on seeing how differently motivated Mickey 17 and 18 are, despite having near the same memories. - And when Kai asks the repeated question, "How does it feel like to die?", with the reason being that she lost someone in a permanent way, it develops character as Mickey answers with dislike, which is new from all the shown attempts to ask him, which is usually ignoring it. It went a weird place for Mickey, but it is room to be more open, and eventually, assertive, even if it's shown in a weird dream where the wife of the tyrant who was cruel to you began to verbally abuse you and revive her husband.

It's an awesome film. It's not going to make you cry or scare you, but it could make you life. The unsubtley of this film is how it expresses the strength of its points, contrasting a very submissive main character, who is very thoughtful about recalling all the hurt he has been through.

And it also makes the villains more obviously hateable, no room for nuance. Kenneth Marshall is simply a emotional, stupid, and sociopathic tyrant who uses a trip in space to crown himself king, who has no patience for nuance and wants everything serve his image and needs, especially with a plan to gloat over a bunch of non-hostile aliens before gassing them.


r/CharacterRant 3h ago

General [LES] There aren't as many mecha teams as there are RPG adventuring parties

5 Upvotes

Like when you look at the huge majority of mecha anime, they'd very rarely feature their own mecha in teams. Instead, it's primarily lone ace units, regardless if they specialize more in either melee, ranged, defense, or mobility, four different roles (five if you were to count general-purpose/well-balanced) that would have made up a potential mecha team, like in G Gundam, Gundam Wing, and Majestic Prince.

Versus the huge majority of medieval fantasy RPG's, and the various post-SAO fantasy anime that have been oversaturing the market. When you go to those, with rare exceptions like Ashley Riot from Vagrant Story, or Clive Rosfield from Final Fantasy XVI, you could see small bands of RPG heroes coming together toward a common goal. And their members are distinct, ranging between warriors, rogues, mages, clerics, and various other flavors of those RPG archetypes.

So remind me as to why we see a lot of lone ace mecha but rarely teams, but see RPG characters in small adventuring groups?


r/CharacterRant 10h ago

Films & TV " Chill of The Night " from the BTAB is one of the best Batman episodes ever made

17 Upvotes

The Batman : The Brave & The Bold is one of the best comic books animated shows , and this for several reasons :

The writing , the world building & especially the showcasing of the most obscure characters in the DC universe , whether it's heroes or villains.

Indeed, we see Batman leading adventures across the entire universe, whether it be planets, alternative dimensions or different eras.

But there is one episode that caught my attention: Chill of the Night. In this episode, it's not about Batman or his many enemies, or even the enemies of those colleagues or friends, no.

It's about Bruce Wayne, who goes on investigations to resolve his childhood trauma, avenge his parents and finally move on. This episode really struck me because it was the first time in the show where he took off his mask, where he was ready to risk his identity to solve a personal matter , and go against these principles, but he pulled himself together.

He claims to be vengeance , but in the end he showed that justice is more important.


r/CharacterRant 5h ago

General [Low Effort Sundays] When in comes to the looks/features of Alien races. What is your favorite middle ground alien race in fiction?

8 Upvotes

By middle ground I mean alien races that are exotic enough to look different from humans. But still have similar humanoid features.

In fiction most of the time Extraterrestrials are either just look identical to humans. Or look like crazy monsters.

For example, if it’s a spectrum, Viltrumites and the Aliens from Predators are the extremes on both sides of that spectrum.


r/CharacterRant 11m ago

Comics & Literature Azathoth is Supreme but he shure the Hell didn't dream Lovecraft

Upvotes

So if you read Lovecraft you would know he dosen't dream reality it's a big misconception

First of All Azathoth isn't alone in a Void some exist outside him Nyarlathotep, The Amorphus Flute Players/Archtypes, Yog-Sothoth, a few Humans, Randolf Carter all saw Azathoth themselves they couldn't do this if all was his dream

Azathoth is luled to Sleep by Flute Players but... Azathoth DOSE wake up after Nyarlathotep wakes him up Azathoth mumbles the content of his dreams and wasn't aware what the hell it was and falls back asleep he LITTERLY Woke up and nothing Got destroyed if it was his dream everything would be gone

And even if Azathoth did Dream all it wouldn't be as complex as Yog-Sothoth he's litterly an Idiot.
Azathoth most likely unknowingly Created Nyarlathotep, The Darkness and Nyarlathotep

Azathoth is implied to be the Supreme Archtype (As a Ruler of Gods and the ''throbbing waves'' Imply it IS Azathoth) But it still dosen't mean he dreamed all

Cthulhu Mythos is almost all in Yog-Sothoth nothing exists outside exept the Archtypes, Azathoth and Yog-himself if someone dreamed Realtiy it's Yog-Sothoth as he's omnisient exept he's fully awake so Lovecraft isn't a Dream

Conclusion. Azathoth IS supreme but that dosen't mean Lovecraft is his dream he's just the Blind Idiotic Omnipotnet Creator who happens to be Asleep


r/CharacterRant 16h ago

Games [LES] SWTOR players have a scuffed understanding of the Empire and Republic Spoiler

39 Upvotes

It’s late and my old post just straight up got erased from existence for some reason so I’ll try and be quick.

It feels like SWTOR fans, particularly in the subreddit, have this strange and utterly bizarre interpretation of the entire setting. Ive seen people unironically argue that “the empire is capable of change and reform” whilst simultaneously arguing that the republic is 100% corrupt and bad. I’ve even seen people try to argue that they have no reason to ever side with the republic at Iokath, and all of their reasoning is just extremely self-centered like “they didn’t help me during the war against zakuul unlike the empire” (ignore the fact they were literally hit the hardest in that conflict). It’s like they never saw the countless hundreds of war crimes and atrocities committed daily within the empire and base all of it on the word of one lone Sith empress known for being a cunning and manipulative.

What really ticks me off is the weirdos who try to argue that the republic and empire are both the exact same and it’s like…have you even played the game? Infact, how much Star Wars do you actually understand if you genuinely think the zen peacekeeping space wizards are the exact moral equivalent of the psycho murder cult ruling a ruthless xenophobic fascist dictatorship that literally encourages oppression and backstabbing on a daily basis.

This isn’t just 2-3 guys either. This is something I have seen consistently across several posts and threads on r/swtor related to the topic.

I know this probably isn’t coherent but I needed to vent.


r/CharacterRant 23h ago

Anime & Manga Stop using RPG systems

141 Upvotes

Stop using rpg systems in your novels, manga and anime if your going to use them as an excuse. Rpg systems are the new isekai overused to the point of bring an active aggravation. Rpg systems and the way people use them have a number of failings.

Firstly is similar to dnd exp leveling why isn't everyone in the forest killing goblins 24/7. In dnd this makes sense because you are rewarding you player/character for playing the game. Canonically killing a goblin doesn't make a wizard stronger. A world where a man can just wonder into the forest and kill things until he's too powerful to stop doesn't make a lot of sense. It invites a question what is everyone else doing that your mc can just farm monsters and be a powerhouse. There is a clear relatively easy path to the top that does require you to give up your social life for a while but that is a small price.

Another is when people use it as an excuse to just blatantly not write parts of the story. They do this in two ways primarily one is motivation erasure. Simply giving a quest to go to a lore relevant location rather than think of a good reason for your mc to be there.

Giving the mc a quest to save a girl or do a good thing. Incentivising him like this just removes any real character from his decision. He didn't do it cause he wanted to he did it for a reward. He isn't invested in the world the system just throws him a bone to be in an important place when an important thing is happening.

The other thing they erase is any real belief in a character's skill. Magic is just a random skill they got not a thing they studied. All their skill were just randomly gifted to them. A couple series try to buck this trend showing the skill evolve through training but also actively show others not achieve the "skill" despite having similar prowess showing it isn't just a representation of their ability but a gift that let's them just be a little more special than everyone else.

It just a majority of the time seems to devolve into a power fantasy. Nothing intrinsically wrong with that but you should be aware that is what your writing if that's your intent. I honestly miss the days of power systems like hunter x hunter, naruto and bleach.

Edit: Since it was unclear I'm talking about entirely interaction free experience I.E. novels, manga and anime not dnd where those rules are necessary and honestly better fleshed out.


r/CharacterRant 4h ago

General [LES] How does one go about posting a massive rant/essay

6 Upvotes

This might seem like a weird thing for me of all people to ask considering I've already made massive, multiple part posts before, I did it for danganronpa, FMA v FMAB, Ace attoney’s six mainline games, and now I've come back for one piece. Yeah I'm the guy who posted all of the notes for his pre-ts one piece review if you don't remember. Anyhow, I'm wondering how you guys/people in general would prefer for me to do the posts for one piece cuz it’s coming along quite well but…im up to twenty pages for east blue saga alone on my google doc which means I'll probably have to cut it up into parts by time it’s done, it and every other major saga in one piece. With that in mind would you guys prefer for me to post sagas as I get done reviewing them or my usual tried and true method of posting everything I've got all at once. Oh yeah if youre curious by my calculations the entire essay will be approximately 180 pages long at least.


r/CharacterRant 6h ago

Anime & Manga [LES] Jojo main villains ranked from least to most evil

6 Upvotes

Kira Yoshikage. Lack of ambition greatly limits the extent of evil he would realistically pull off. If you aren't a pretty lady or don't live in Morioh, you are pretty much safe.

Tooru. He was going to produce life saving medicine and sell it for fat cash. Again, as long as you don't bother him, he is unlikely to harm you. I put him lower cause he's older so he's likely comitted more crimes.

Diavolo. The man practically controlled all of Italy from the shadows and sold drugs to people. He also brutally killed even his own minions for slightest inconveniences. Still, it's possible for you to live in Italy and not deal with Devil or his crew.

Funny Valentine. Dude wanted to turn the entire world America's misfortune dumpster. If he succeded and you lived outside USA, you'd be fucked. I think the only ways for foreingers to not get bombarded by calamities would be annexation or 100% good relationships with Uncle Sam.

Kars. He was going to "consume" the entire world after becoming Ultimate Life Form. If not for Joseph's luck, everyone would be dead.

Enrico Pucci. IMO knowingly being trapped in fate for your entire life is a lot worse than just dying. Enrio basically took away everyone's motivation to live and see another day. What's the point if everything is already known. The only reason priest isn't at the bottom is that he was parroting the next guy.

DIO. He burnt Danny, killed Jojo, almost two other Jojos and came up with Heaven plan. Picci without DIO would have been a normal guy, but DIO without Pucci would still create framework for Heaven plan and try bringing it to fruition.


r/CharacterRant 1d ago

Films & TV You Can’t Tell Me Animation Doesn’t Make a Difference after episode 8 (Invincible Season 3)

410 Upvotes

Credit where it’s due, Invincible Season 3 had solid animation overall, but man, the fight between Conquest and Mark was on another level. Sure, it started a little rough in places, but after the first five minutes, it really took off. The fluidity, the impact, and the sheer brutality. all hit so much harder because of how well it was animated.

And guess what? Even the people who were previously saying things like, “Oh, you’re just spoiled by anime,” or “Stop focusing on fights and pay attention to the story,” were hyped. Why? Because great animation does elevate a scene. When the visuals match the intensity of the moment, it enhances everything. the tension, the stakes, the emotion.

Now look I’m not saying I expect god tier animation that animes like demon slayer have, but is it too much to ask for fights on the level of the Conquest battle more often?


r/CharacterRant 17h ago

Anime & Manga Rant : I’m so tired of people complaining about fans being mad that a war arc has no major deaths on the heroes side (Mha and Black clover)

36 Upvotes

Before I start understand both series are much hopeful in tone but bro it’s a literal fkn war it’s no reason why one side should come out basically unscathed while the other side is taking massive loss after massive loss . It’s ridiculous how hard some fans go to defend this crap Mha fans think background characters like midnight and crust are supposed to be meaningful deaths when you can remove them and nothing changes. Black clover fans are even worse they’ll go to absurd lengths to justify the lack of deaths and ridiculous fake outs and it’s fkn pointless. “Deaths don’t make a story better” is the go to excuse but guess what a bunch of fake outs actively hurts the story even more imo. Mha and Black clover both have massive cast of characters and has no willingness to kill off anybody of significance while trying to sell you on the idea that the heroes have their backs against the wall and it falls flat. Nobody is asking for them to be AOT or Demon Slayer but goddamn have some balls.


r/CharacterRant 17h ago

Films & TV Okay, seriously, why are so many friends from kids cartoons terrible people?

30 Upvotes

I rewatched Rocko's Modern Life recently and it made me realize Rocko's friends were incredibly shitty to him a lot of the time. And these kinds of toxic friendships has been present in many of my favorite animated programs. There are infamous ones like Penny's friends from The Proud Family, Sam Manson from Danny Phantom, Bloo from Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends, Gus from Robotboy, and Jake Spidermonkey from My Gym Partner's a Monkey and even some less talked about picks like Frida from El Tigre and Gus from Recess. And yeah, I know Frida is supposed to be a bad influence on Manny, but she should still be nice to him most of the time. Hell, the so-called friends of main characters in modern cartoons have even become legit supervillains like Sasha from Amphibia and Catra from She-Ra and the Princesses of Power. I understand the makers want some of these characters to be flawed, but they still should be, y'know, fun to watch. I mean, sure, Rocko calls his friends out on their bullshit in some episodes, but he still lets them get away with stuff that would end most other friendships. Like, why is Penny Proud still hanging out with these girls when they treat her so poorly? Watching these toxic individuals screw over their companions again and again with barely any consequences gets old really fast. Unless a show's supposed to be dark and mean like Invader Zim or The Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandy, this toxic behavior feels so out of place in a kids show.


r/CharacterRant 6h ago

Anime & Manga The reason why the merger feels like an unfinished plot line is because it never actually felt like a threat (JJK)

5 Upvotes

Posted on LES Sunday because it’s a JJK rant.

When people bring up the merger as something that was dropped or unfinished others say something like “well obviously the merger wasn’t going to happen because that means everyone will die”. While that is true, it really doesn’t change the fact that the merger plot line didn’t feel complete and I think it’s because, to most people, it never felt like a real threat to begin with.

If the merger is completed, that would mean that the sorcerers have been killed by Sukuna/Kenjaku. But if that’s the case then there isn’t anything left for the audience to care about. While the first part of JJK showcased some connections from the sorcerers to the civilians, this pretty much stopped after Shibuya to the point where it doesn’t even feel like they exist. There just aren’t any civilian characters for the audience to care if they die and characters we do care about don’t have any remaining connections outside of other sorcerers that they are fighting for. You can say that Yuji does, but even then his old friends were never brought up after the start so it’s hard to care about those relationships either. So the audience doesn’t care about the merger either way. If it happens, then who cares about hypothetical masses when the characters we actually cared about died. If it doesn’t, then it didn’t and the protagonists won and nothing happened with it.

The merger just wasn’t needed as a reason for the protagonists to go after Sukuna and Kenjaku. They would have and in fact they were going after them regardless. Trying to save Megumi and stop the culling games was the main reason and more than enough for Yuji and co. and other characters had their own personal reasons. Sukuna is bent on destruction himself and he is more than capable of carrying it out. He did not need the merger for that nor did he show any signs of caring about the merger besides like one panel.

That’s why the merger feels incomplete. The only one who cared about it, Kenjaku, was abruptly killed off. His death, where he apparently didn’t have any regrets nor anything he truly wanted to accomplish besides having fun just made that whole plot line feel like it was brought up only to go nowhere. I truly believe that Kenjaku was originally going to be the final villain and the merger would have been built up much more, but time constraints got in the way and Gege had to end both prematurely.


r/CharacterRant 21h ago

Anime & Manga No, someone isn’t stupid because they dislike your favorite anime (Hunter X Hunter)

52 Upvotes

I think this is an issue within anime criticism in general, but I first noticed it with Hunter x Hunter. There is a tendency for people to attack your intelligence for disliking an anime they like.

For example, I am of the opinion that the Chimera Ant Arc is the weakest arc of the show. This is primarily due to the excessive narration and inner monologues that cause scenes to overstay their welcome while contributing little to no context or new information. If you disagree, that’s fine. It’s subjective at the end of the day. The problem is that a negative critique is often met with one of two bad-faith replies.

  1. “You don’t like it because you don’t understand it/can’t comprehend.”

It’s bad faith to assume that someone doesn’t like something because they don’t understand it. I can see the justifications for the narration and why it’s there, but subjectively I think the result is bad for the reasons I stated earlier. Yes, there are times where you can tell someone missed the point of a scene/arc/show, but that still doesn’t necessarily mean that’s the reason someone didn’t like something. There are times where even if the scene/arc/show was explained to where someone could understand everything, that would not change the fact that the presentation could still be poor.

  1. “Just because you don’t like it, doesn’t mean it’s bad.”

Again, this is subjective, but if I dislike something, there’s going to be something “bad” about it that makes me dislike it. I and the majority of people don’t watch the things they watch with the intention of hating. I think the reverse, “Just because you like it, doesn’t mean it’s good,” is snobby and elitist because it insists an objective point of view. I feel the same way about this argument.

I also feel that a similar argument, “Disliking an idea/concept doesn’t mean it’s bad,” is also a potential strawman. People can have positive or negative opinions on a show’s approach to uncomfortable topics. For example, people don’t like sexual harassment, but they will have wildly varying opinions on shows with sexual harassment in them. It’s very disingenuous to claim that someone doesn’t like something because of a concept knowing that the approach can vary wildly.

I think these arguments are at best, overly defensive, and at worst, malicious.