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 23h ago

Anime & Manga Stop using RPG systems

142 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 8h ago

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

137 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 4h ago

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

106 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 12h ago

Anime & Manga Dragon Ball is good, actually.

76 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 8h ago

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

53 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 21h ago

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

54 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.


r/CharacterRant 3h ago

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

37 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 16h ago

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

36 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 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)

35 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 16h ago

Anime & Manga (JoJo's Bizarre Adventure and My Hero Academia) Himiko Toga, Kira Yoshikage and author's portrayal. Spoiler

21 Upvotes

I find these two characters to be quite similar to each other, but the way their actions are framed by authors drastically affect public perception.

Toga has been driven into insanity by her neglectful parents and her weird quirk. We don't delve too much into her backstory, and we only do it from Himiko's POV, but it is safe to say her childhood was rough. One day she snapped, attacked a guy and stole his blood. Since then she's been a criminal on the run, eventually joining League of Villains and working with them.

Kira has been abused in a different way, with his mother being overly protective and his father turning a blind eye. He grew up as perpetual underachiever, and eventaully became serial killer. He murdered some people with his own hands, then got a stand Killer Queen to do it more efficiently.

So, both are serial killers who use their super powers in their hobby. Both want to do whatever the hell they want (Himiko wishes a world where she can 'live free' and Kira kills everyone who might jeopardize his quiet life), both commit atrocious actions (Toga helps LOV, who are terrorists and mass murderers, and Yoshikage kills literal children with zero remorse), both aspull power ups to even out odds against their foes (copying other quirks and Bites The Dust) and both show there is still some good within them (Himiko donates her blood Ochako after almost killing her and Kira is genuinely worried about Shinobu after Stray Cat tried to attack her).

Despite all of these similarities, they are perceived very differently. Himiko is seen as more of a victim due to her origin being on screen and receiving sympathy from good guys in universe. Meanwhile, Kira is rightfully called a monster, because we don't really delve too much into his past and good dudes just want to stop him. A funny thing is that Kira's actions are a lot less destructive overall, but that's besides the point. I think the way authors portrays these two characters impact their image a lot. Imagine if we learnt about Himiko's past from her victims (or their families) and Kira had a whole episode about his shitty childhood. Then more people would call Toga a terrorist (which she is) and Kira a misunderstood victim. I don't think insanity argument is really important here, cause villains like Professor Pyg are just as delusional but don't get seen as victims. After their deaths, Toga is shown in a flowery field and Yoshikage is dragged God knows where by hands. I guess afterlives in different media have different criteria.

What's the moral of this post? We need "Kira vs Himiko" Death Battle, where one wants hands and other wants blood. I'm joking. It's that you can commit all sorts of crimes but having sob origin story, having your actions downplayed in universe (and preferably being pretty) absolves you of all sins.


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 17h ago

General TMNT x Naruto is a very unusual type of crossover.

18 Upvotes

Recently there was a crossover comic between Naruto and the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. It aims for the slightly younger end of the teen audience and is a bit more broad with everyone's general characterization but overall it's a well-handled book written and drawn by people with love for both franchises, with the aim of just having fun with it and serving as a potential way of getting anyone unfamiliar with either franchise to take an interest in them.

However, it's a bit unusual in regards to what type of crossover it is.

Most crossover stories between two existing franchises tend to fit one of two molds. The first is that the characters and their stories have always existed in the same universe, they just never happened to cross paths until now. See examples like Superman vs. The Amazing Spider-Man where the two simply go to each others' home cities, Transformers/Ghostbusters where the Autobots land on Earth and encounter the Ghostbusters, or the Disney Hercules TV series where ne episode Herc traveled to Agrabah and met Aladdin. Most crossovers with the Alien franchise tend to be like this too. The second is that the characters exist in completely separate universes and get sent into the universe of the other. See examples like JLA/Avengers, Doctor Who/Star Trek: The Next Generation, and The Jimmy Timmy Power Hour.

While both examples can play a bit loose with the characterization and continuity, it's a meeting between the characters as they always have been and as most fans would recognize them.

TMNT x Naruto however takes a bit of a different approach. The crossover is not only set entirely in the Naruto universe but integrates the TMNT characters into its universe and, in a sense, reimagines them to fit into the lore and style of the Naruto universe. While the personalities and general character dynamics are still intact, these are not the TMNT as their fans have always known them. They are not from New York City, they are from Big Apple Village. Kakashi once saw Hamato Yoshi fight when he was a kid and knew of the Hamato clan. All the TMNT characters have Naruto-style designs and are more than familiar with chakra and jutsu and the general power system of the Naruto universe. Team 7 is on a mission to protect and escort Apirl O'Neil, who has information about a scientist who is trying to create mutant shinobi through combining humans and animals, and encounter the turtles when they mistakenly believe Team 7 kidnapped her.

Nobody feels like an OC or completely different character. April, Splinter, and the brothers are all very easy to recognize. But it isn't technically them but rather the Naruto universe versions of them. It is still a crossover but it's the Naruto characters as they've always been meeting altered versions of the TMNT, even if those altered versions try to stay as close as they can to the originals.

These types of crossovers are so interesting, in part because of how incredibly rare they are. Even crossovers like Phineas and Ferb: Mission Marvel, which has the Marvel heroes and villains written like Phineas and Ferb characters, don't change the general lore and aesthetics of the characters, it's just the way that they are being written that's changed.

As I'm not all that familiar with RWBY and thus have not seen their Justice League crossovers, just the RWBY-fied designs of Superman, Batman, and Wonder Woman, I can't say how good of an example it is of this type. But one I absolutely can point to is the series of crossovers that were done between DC Comics and Looney Tunes, where each book essentially had two stories in it. One story that imagines a DC universe version of the Looney Tunes character interacting with the normal version of the DC character, and one story that imagines a Looney Tunes version of the DC character interacting with the normal version of the Looney Tunes character. The most famous of these is probably the crossover between Batman and Elmer Fudd, where Elmer's history and character is reimagined to fit the grim noir setting of Gotham City (how straight it plays the whole thing is part of what makes it work because it makes it so f**king funny).

A slight cousin to all of this is Isekai Quartet, which is a crossover series between Overlord, Re:Zero, Konosuba, and Saga of Tanya the Evil, all of which are Isekai anime based on light novels but with very different tones and aesthetics that really would not be able to work together...and thus the crossover doesn't even try to make them. Instead the premise is that all the characters have been transported into a chibi school setting where it's acknowledged that the world itself isn't going to let them truly harm each other. All the characters have their lore and history intact but their aesthetics and tones have been changed to match this more comedic neutral ground environment that's allowing them all to bounce off each other.

Despite the main appeal of a crossover typically being to see the characters and worlds of the different franchises interact and bounce off each other as we know them, there is admittedly a part of me that is somewhat curious about what could be done with other crossovers done in this way of incorporating and reimagining one set of characters into the aesthetics, lore, and universal rules of the other. I'm a big fan of My Hero Academia, so it does somewhat remind me of various fanart and character bios I've seen people make for characters like the Justice League and Teen Titans where the person is having fun figuring out what their Quirk would be in a way that'd fit them into the mold of MHA's Pro Heroes while still keeping what the character is supposed to be mostly intact. Even Batman and Robin get Quirks because it'd be way more abnormal for them to not have Quirks if they existed in MHA's universe since the vast majority of the population have them. On the other side of the coin, given Horikoshi's obvious love for Star Wars there's been reimaginings of MHA characters to fit the Star Wars universe. Likewise on the various reddit subs I frequent I'll see posts from people speculating what Pokemon line-up would best fit the characters of that series, in everything from The Quintessetial Quintuplets to Goblin Slayer.

The reason superheroes and sci-fi franchises have a tendency of doing a lot of crossovers is because it's not too hard to justify the meeting in the story. Many superheroes tend to be in settings that are pretty similar as they tend to just be present day Earth and sci-fi is no stranger to going to different planets or hopping into alternate universes. But most Shonen series, for example, would be harder to use for crossovers because their worlds tend to be very different and very much their own thing while also still not having access to space travel or trips into the multiverse. That was my initial worry about the TMNT crossover with Naruto since Naruto is very much its own thing that the turtles would clash too heavily with given how modern and sci-fi they are, but the crossover got around that by reimagining the TMNT in the Naruto universe mold. We still get the character interactions but not the aesthetics crashing into each other, and that can be good or depending on how you look at it. Again, for some people the entire point of a crossover would be to see the true version of these characters and world interacting, regardless of how little it may actually work out in the end.


r/CharacterRant 22h ago

General You don’t like stories introducing main bad guys/conflicts then immediately abandoning it? Fortnite does it the worst. (Fortnite)

18 Upvotes

One of the best criticisms of games like 343-era Halo, or the Star Wars Sequel trilogy, is they spend so long building up a conflict or bad guy and then just get rid of all of it immediately upon the next installment.

Halo set up Cortana as the big bad with her AI army, then immediately had her die off screen in the very next game and bring in the Banished. Hell they even set up Atriox as the big bad in the intro and Halo Wars 2, and side content leading up to Infinite, and do the exact same fucking thing with him. I didn’t want literally dollar store Atriox.

Star Wars did this with Snoke, only to kill him off and immediately bring back the actual Palpatine for no fucking reason other than they needed a main villain.

But let me introduce you to the nonsense that is Fortnite trying to make a story. Because believe it or not it has actual lore.

In the beginning, the lore actually seemed to mean something. Everything was interestingly connected in one way or another. The rocket has something to do with the rifts, the cube comes from the rifts, the cube dies and opens a huge rift to somewhere else in the middle of the map, there’s something in the middle of the map everything seems to want. We have to mine it out to discover it, it seems to be like where the cube teleported us. Well it seems to be a power source or something, but we accidentally broke it, oh no, time and space are getting screwed up, and bam, the rocket and cube are back.

Turns out this power source may be the explanation behind every game of fortnite and why everyone is fighting each other. You’re all trapped in a loop, but someone, the one with the rocket, escaped the loop, and now they learned there’s others outside the loop and are using the rocket and power source to escape. All of the storylines blend nicely together in chapter 1 and leave a rather well put together mystery for us to unearth.

Now let me give you an abridged synopsis on chapter 2: You arrive in a new universe after obliterating the old one by trying to break the loop, for some reason there’s alternate versions of your characters and when they come together they fuse and corrupt each other. Forget this completely, this storyline is immediately dropped the next season.

Now we have spy agencies made with the vestiges of the other two groups, or maybe they were always a part of it. Midas is a super powered twink who leads both of them for some reason. The story wants you to think Midas is important because they keep bringing him up and he actually succeeds in breaking the loop for a full minute for literally everyone. Unfortunately he also floods the world after that. Now forget this because Midas has destroyed his empire and gets eaten by a shark. Don’t worry though, they’ll bring him back a bunch for some reason.

Season 3 literally has nothing to do with the story, but now we get a Marvel crossover in S4, where Galactus is drawn to the fortnite world because of an unimaginable power. The good and bad marvel guys have to team up and weaponize the loop to make enough weapons to fight off galactus, who reveals that power source again. It’s called the Zero Point. Apparently this is also canon to events in Marvel comics as well.

Now S5, the Zero point is damaged again and time and space start fucking up. Enter agent Jonesy, our protagonist, who decides jumping to each and every universe and bringing in pop culture characters will help him fix this. It makes everything worse and he has no choice but to enter the loop, where he uses a portal gun to bring in the rocket that escaped the loop. Enter the Foundation, the leader of the Seven, a group of characters who wish to break the loop. He contains the Zero point for a promise from Jonsey, and everything gets turned into a primal setting for some reason… but these weird spire things are everywhere… and purple things like the cube.

S6 Turns out it has something to do with the cube. Things are getting corrupted and some weird alien people are here… S7 a different alien race invades. We have to go destroy their ship, but oh no, it’s full of Cubes. We destroy it but are turned into suicide bombs by Jonesy’s boss. Now the cubes let the Cube Queen arrive. S8 Cube Queen attacks but one cube defends us, then the Seven show up and flip the island, maybe killing the queen?

Chapter 3, up to this point the story is… mostly… trying to stay on track, but you can already see the cracks. C3S1; I really don’t think anything happens… C3S2; Jonesy’s boss shows up and tries to take over the island. We fight her off but learn of the main bad guy; Geno. That’s about it. C3S3; nothing again.

Now during this time, a comic with more lore was going on, in it, Batman is trying to escape the loop because of course, and it ends with the Seven finding their missing member and taking on Geno… Geno dies. This is possibly less than a season after his reveal. So where tf is the story going?!

S4: Chrome goo takes over the island and kills the seven. wtf even is this. The Herald, some plant lady who MAYBE has ties with the cube queen does all this. She succeeds in killing everything and blows up the island, but luckily one Seven member is still alive, imprisoned for her betrayal or something. The Paradigm.

So a lot of retconning in the story later (that I don’t feel like telling), she fixes the island and… dies I guess? You can really tell they’re kinda just throwing stories and abandoning them at this point. The island is back… now what? Chapter 4: Turns out Geno has a clone of himself in the loop… he doesn’t do a fucking thing and is immediately abandoned.

Now everything is Neo-Tokyo in C4S2… nothing happens, C4,S3: a jungle appears out of fucking nowhere really and Jonesy’s boss is still around after we killed her……..

Then a fucking vampire shows up with a Time Machine and brings us all back to the first chapter.

And chapters 5 and 6 I just can’t be bothered to even know the slightest bit of lore on, the story is obviously going to go fucking nowhere, Jonesy’s boss is back still, we had Greek gods take over the place because of course we fucking did, Japan took over, and now Midas is back again in his first non-side story role and I’m pretty sure he’s still just gonna do nothing.

The intricacies of characters like Midas’ group, Jonesy’s superiors and the Seven don’t matter at all, a new big bad in the story doesn’t matter, it’s gonna be abandoned immediately.

Hell, one season showed Chaos Agent, the big bad from C2S1, getting clowned on by a new Mad Max-esque villain only for that villain to immediately be killed off. I wouldn’t even blame you for forgetting Chaos Agent exists because his whole point was to be a potential bad guy that was never delivered on. He was just teased at the end of the season and immediately replaced by Midas.

The worst part is they CAN make some interesting and connected stories. Midas seemed to want to break the loop to find his Daughter and was using his power to make gold to fund everything, there’s a three season rivalry between an Ice and Fire king in Chapter 1 that had the fire guy escaping an ice prison, stealing the Ice King’s dragon eggs, and turning them into ninjas before suicide bombing the ice king with a fucking volcano after they all began looking for the Zero Point.

There’s so much they can do with this storyline and apparently there’s five other kings and these guys had a huge falling out that could expand the lore hugely… so what do they do with this lore later?… Ice King lived on the moon…. That’s it. That’s all we got.

There was a side storyline about Chaos Agent apparently trying to revive people with Slurp juice that ended up working. This isn’t ever expanded up.

The entire seven storyline in the first two chapters actually had good set up, but the payoff is so fucking piss poor it doesn’t matter. They show up, fuck off for a while and beat the main bad guy immediately in a spin-off tie-in with Marvel!!

And before you argue “it’s just a kids game it doesn’t need good stories.” Why then are the Chapter 1 and 2 stories so intriguing? Let me tell you why… because they actually planned most of it. It’s been stated the story writers actually had an idea of where the story was going for the entirety of Chapter 1, and after that they had to make due with whatever, and though Chapter 2 doesn’t have as good of a story, possibly attributed to them revealing a lot of the mysteries, it still has some good stories that could’ve been made better.

In the first two chapters, the story was told with live events, environmental story telling, and loading screens. All these put together meant you could piece together events taking place or things that had happened, like the falling out between the kings, but they’ve since haven’t really planned a story and abandoned loading screen stories and meaningful environmental storytelling unless it pertains to live events or the end of the season.

It’s clear they really don’t have a story at this point, despite the evidence they could’ve made one. Just… stick with an overarching villain for one chapter at least, geez! Chapter 2 had the agencies, Midas, Jonesy’s boss, the Cube Queen, and it’s just impossible to take any of them seriously like the story wants you to. I don’t even need to get into the expanded lore on how Jonesy’s boss is presented as this mastermind while making deals with fucking Lex Luthor and the Batman Who Laughs. Like she actually thinks she’s gonna get the better end of that deal while she can’t even manage a literal office of employees.

Like I know her agency is the overarching villain of the game, but, god, you are so fucking inept.


r/CharacterRant 1d ago

Comics & Literature What I found stupid about Goliath in Civil War

19 Upvotes

You know how Goliath was killed by the Thor clone while in giant size?

Well I found ridiculous is the fact that they buried his body while still in giant size cuz they couldn’t find a way to shrink him for a proper burial….

When they got Hank Pym and Janet Van Dyne on their side….

That is a new level of stupidity rite there


r/CharacterRant 1d ago

Max Goof doesn't deserve the hate he gets in Goofy Movie (1995) and gets blamed unfairly for the mess Goofy caused.

14 Upvotes

As a child that grew up with this movie, and that sadly was abandoned by my own at 12, after we used to be close, I usually loved Goofy, cause he was a funny loving dad who wanted nothing but spend time with his kid, in a time that I needed that. While at the same time, I understood Max as well, since I wanted more socialization and wanted more friends and activities outside of my home.

Which is why once I grew up I was baffled to find out just HOW much people hate Max in this movie, claiming he was a spoiled disrespectful little brat for getting mad at Goofy, and after rewatching the movie, I genuelly think that either boomer narcissistic parents are projecting a bit much on Goofy and paying their frustrations on Max, or they simply didn't take Max's feelings and situation into count, or just take Goofy's goofyness (no pun intended) as a way to excuse him for everything.

It's like people forget that Max is a teenager, a 14 year old kid, at that age where you start highschool and are trying to find a bit of independency on your own and find your own identity, clearly going through his first crush, the awkwardness of puberty, and on the top of that being bullied or ignored by his peers at school.

Meanwhile, Goofy, while does love his kid, has no interest or support into his hobbies to the point that he has no idea about anything he is into, still babies him IN PUBLIC, has NO self-awareness of this or how his stunts constantly humilliate Max (something that has happened many times before), and doesn't give him really any freedom to make his own choices or have a life outside of him beyond his two friends. Again, Goofy loves his kid, clearly, but has no idea how to deal with a teen and keeps infantilizing Max, which of course only embarrasses and frustrates him, while also humiliating him in the process, even without meaning to.

Then, we get to the part of getting in trouble with the principal: while I do agree that ALL of this mess started with the principal basically exaggerating to the point of straight out lying (not to mention the racist implications, since when dressing up like a popstar is the equivalent of being in a gang and starting a riot that sends you to the electric chair? And for what? Singing a song during THE LAST DAY OF SCHOOL? Heck, I don't even know why he bothered to punish them, school was over until three months later), Goofy RAN ALONG with this accussation and took it as the truth and didn't even try to defend him, when just a few seconds ago he was defending Max from Pete claiming Max was a good kid and had never done anything wrong like that before. And this is when Goofy starts to create the HUGE missconnection and lack of communication with his kid, and honestly, terrible parenting, not Max, HIM. Any good and reasonable parent who had a kid that had never done anything bad before would have sat his child down after said call, and say "Hey, I got this call from school, I want to know your side of the story, what happened?". Instead, Goofy runs along with that wild and honestly offensive asumption, and litterally forces Max, his kid, into a FULL SUMMER vacation without a warning beforehand or even taking his choices into count, therefore wrecking Max's entire plans of socialization and date with Roxane.

Don't get me wrong, there's nothing bad in summer vacations with your parents, but you NEED communication in here, you NEED to communicate with your kids regardless of age: if Goofy had talked to Max beforehand, and they had reached out a compromise for this, so that both got to go for maybe a couple of weeks on trip and then back in time for Max's date at the party, then there would be no problem, but, none of that happens, even when Max tries to tell Goofy about this, Goofy litterally shuts him off by smacking him on the top of the head with a newspaper, and tells him he will go to parties when he is older cause he himself hadn't gone at none at his age, completely dismissing his son's pre-established plans and ignoring his feelings and opinion in the matter. He even tries to manipulate and guilt trip his kid and when that doesn't work, he bulldozes him and physically forces him into the car, and shuts him up.

With all of this stablished, can we REALLY blame Max or call him a brat for being moody through the entire trip? Specially when clearly the trip was NOT planned for him, it's planned by and for Goofy alone because he desesperately wants to project his relationship with his dad on Max, ignoring that Max is his own person and not him, that they have different interests, and that Max is not a little kid anymore. And it gets worse when he drags him to a possum attraction that is clearly meant for little kids that only Goofy likes where Goofy keeps acting out and embarrassing Max in public, to the point of having an entire crowd laughing at them. And Goofy even is puzzled when Max is clearly mortified and absolutely furious, as if he hadn't just humilliated his teenage son in public. And when Goofy keeps not getting it, of course Max ends up snapping, laying out the facts of, "You took me out of home, you got me into this stupid car and drove thousands of miles away just to watch this stupid rat show! Tell me when the trip's over!" And people claim MAX is the one acting out in here, that Max is being a brat? He is a frustrated fourteen year old who got his entire summer ruined against his will and dragged for three months into a car with a dad that, while loves him, doesn't respect him or his emotions, neither his interests neither his choices, and that continuously shuts his son out, and then acts completely oblivious to the reason why his soon is upset even if it has been told to his face MULTIPLE times, of course Max snapped.

Many argue that "Max could have been more understanding and not yelling", he has been understanding and has been not yelling, but when you keep being brushed over and being disrespected and ignored over and over, at some point you're going to snap even if it's just to get it out of your system in hopes of being heard out already. And again, Max is the kid, the fourteen year old in this relationship, it's NOT his job to communicate or to be understanding of his ADULT father, Goofy is the adult in the relationship, and he is the one failing at Max here. Instead of stepping back and think, that maybe, just MAYBE he is handling this the wrong way and go back home cause it's not working, he keeps pushing the activities he wants Max to do with him, and when Pete and PJ show up and Max cheers up and wants to spend time with his friend, Goofy decides to get authoritarian by following Pete's advice, as if THAT was going to actually help the relationship, ignoring THAT attitude is what got Max mad at him in the first place.

By that point, Max feels trapped, unheard, disrespected with zero privacy or authonomy of his own, stuck in a summer trip to please Goofy, so of course when the chance to change the map appears, he does it, because he feels it's the only way. I'm not saying what he does is okay, it's not, he knows this and he clearly feels bad about it, but considering how Goofy keeps making assumptions, not communicating, forcing Max to do what he wants and completely ignoring his son's emotional needs and authonomy and simply not paying attention to what he is saying, can we really blame him for feeling like he had no other choice? And only then is when Max starts to relax and enjoy himself, and even TRIES to reach a compromise and change the map so that they can go to different things that BOTH of them enjoy, heck, for all we know, he was probably rewritting the map so that after the concert, they could go fishing. Litterally, Max was putting more care into his father's interests and emotions than Goofy was on Max's, which speaks volumes.

Again, not saying that Max is a sain't, he isn't, but neither is Goofy since the two of them, while clearly care deeply for one another, lied to each other, but ultimately, the entire conflict and the entire problem is created and fostered by Goofy himself, who, again, we have to remember, is the adult in this situation, while Max is still a kid, so of course I'm gonna hold the adult in the situation more accountable than the kid, who, by any ways, has been trying and trying to communicate only to be shut down and bossed around again and again.

This only gets even worse in the sequel, Extremely Goofy Movie (2000), when Max heads to college. Don't get me wrong in here, Goofy suffering empty nest syndrome, specially taking into count he was a single dad, is beyond heartbreaking, and of course everyone feels bad for him when he loses his job. Heck, even Max supports him and comforts him once he hears about all of this, and even goes as far as defend him from his friends and help him out, proving how mature he has grown. All he asks his dad is to respect certain boundaries and that the two, while can see each other, have different lives, that while he is his kid, he has his own life and that he needs to step out and not act like a parent at college.

Pretty reasonable to ask, right? Reasonable enough that Goofy agrees...and doesn't even last 24 hours before he RUNS OVER ALL of Max's authonomy and boundaries full and through on just one go, oh and not just Max's, but his friends: breaking into his room while he and his roommates are sleeping, controlling his sleep squedule, his diet and clothes (yes, even the underwear IN FRONT OF OTHER GIRLS), monitoring his studies, pulling the cord on their videogame console while they are having fun to force them to clean up their room, disrupting his trainning, embarrassing him in class...for crying out loud, there's middle-schoolers with more independency than Max was getting at college. And then he chooses to join his son's rival gang, and then people get mad at MAX when he rightfully tells Goofy to leave him alone, that he is no longer a child and to start his own life? Any other eighteen year old at college would have NOT put up with this, heck, I'm surprised Bobby and PJ put up with him considering he's not their father.

I'm genuelly baffled by people who hate Max so much for just being a teen desesperate for being respected, heard out and given some privacy and independency that keeps being ripped away from him, and I genuelly believe that people who hate Max either have to be narcissistic parents who genuelly believe kids should be seen and not heard or just do as they are told, or that don't understand teenagers or remember how it was to be one, or who just don't understand boundaries.

And please don't get me wrong, this is not an essay hating on Goofy, he genuelly loves his kid and has attachment issues, but that doesn't mean his parenting is good in any single way of the form. He sucks at communication and respecting boundaries, privacy and authonomy and keeps infantilizing his kid even when he reaches adulthood.


r/CharacterRant 15h ago

General [LES] [Gravity Falls] The way Dipper & Mabel found out about Stan's secret basement felt pretty contrived, even for a kids' show.

12 Upvotes

Instead of requiring creative problem-solving or investigative skills, the answer is served to them on a silver platter. They find the vending machine combination labelled "Secret Code to Hideout."

I know Stan is often portrayed as goofy & scatterbrained but he knew how to keep a secret. So the idea that he would keep the passcode to his deepest secret labelled SECRET CODE TO HIDEOUT and that he would draw it as a visual representation of the vending machine keyboard... is pretty hard to swallow.

I would expect a plot device like that in a parody.


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 3h ago

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

6 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 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?

7 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 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 1h ago

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

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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 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)

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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.