Posts made by Riddler

@Robby said in Marvel Movies Thread - Holy Shitballs:

Here it's a collection of all the crappy C-list villains that the movies did poorly the first time so there's no twist.

Doesn't this only apply to Taskmaster and maaaaaybe Ghost (though I personally wouldn't call her character crappy)? Yelena and Alexei weren't villains in Black Widow and imo two highlights of the film. And Walker, despite the hate he got from fans, was one of the best characters in Falcon and the Winter Soldier (the episode/scene where he goes berserk and murders that one dude with Cap's shield was probably the best moment in the show).

@Robby said in Marvel Movies Thread - Holy Shitballs:

Just a miss on every possible level and it's both good and unfortunate that it was the last Marvel thing I caught up on because man, THIS is the reason the Marvels flopped. How well franchises do is partly based on how good the movie before them was and after this utter piece of garbage, I can see a LOT of people saying "I'm not watching any more of these. I'll make an exception for Guardians 3 and Deadpool 3 but then I'm done."

I didn't care much for Quantumania either, though I don't despise it as much as you did, but I have to say, I did go watch The Marvels in theaters and found it incredibly meh, personally. The dynamic between the characters was kinda cute, Brie was a lot more charming than in her first film and Kamala was great as always. But the villain was horribly forgettable (I don't even remember her name!), as was the plot. The storyline with the most potential, Captain Marvel been seen as a destroyer by the Kree, which could have been contrasted with Kamala's hero-worshipping and Monica's sort of disdainful opinion of Carol in interesting ways, was outright skipped. The "musical" section was a complete failure that actually made me feel secondhand embarrassment (and I actually like musicals!), the "switching positions while fighting" gimmick also, aside from a few fun scenes early in the film, didn't really live up to its potential either for me.

I dunno, they are both pretty weak and, worst of all, generic Marvel offerings. It's true to a degree, of course, what you said about the previous movie of a franchise partly affecting the success of the next one - Iron Man 3, Doctor Strange MoM and even the first Captain Marvel are all fair examples of that. But shouldn't "The Marvels" have gotten at least some goodwill from audiences after GotG Vol. 3 was received so well, then? I think it would have been at least a bit more successful if people, you know, cared much about any of the characters or if it's trailers looked more interesting, or if had actually gotten good reviews or anything. I think both movies have similar problems in that they just feel pretty lackluster and unimaginative and even, weirdly, kinds filler-ish? I don't mean necessarily just in terms of the greater MCU saga, but even in terms of continuing or resolving character arcs, neither film really accomplishes much. An also rather weak film like Thor LaT at least has going for it that it gives a more satisfying resolution to Thor's and Jane's relationship than what we got in Ragnarok (nothing at all really, that is).

Why is he getting a card now along with the Egghead characters? That seems a tad random.

I dunno. You could say about a lot of scenes or character moments that we didn't need to see them because we can predict how it will most likely go. Any Strawhat fight against the villain's minions could theoretically be skipped because we know our guys are going to win in the end anyway, by that logic.

Personally, I was really enjoying the Labophase Death Game. I know not everybody agrees, but to me, it was a fun scenario and I liked how it involved pretty much all of the crew plus most of the Punks (it would have given us more time to spend with these characters, too). I didn't even mind the twist reveal that the Strawhats had already resolved the situation when we came back to Egghead, that was kinda cool, too, but I was pretty disappointed when we didn't even get a flashback afterwards to show us how it had come to this. And as Zanze said, it's even more disappointing considering a lot of the characters involved didn't get anything to do for the rest of the arc...

I'm surprised anybody could enjoy reading One Piece while apparently completely hating the main characters lol

I love Harrison Ford's "give no fucks" attitude in interviews. I mean, for this role, he probably had to motion capture a a big red angry monster. "Acting like an idiot for money" seems like a pretty apt description for that lol. And he does stress that he had a ton of fun acting in the film and I fully believe him there. He just didn't take it too seriously, which is completely fine by me.

I personally always kinda cringe when interviewers ask celebrities like Ford super nerdy questions like "Who'd be the anchor being of Earth-616"? Does anybody seriously expected him be that deep into the MCU lore to know what the heck that is supposed to mean? I appreciate actors being honest about their work.

Looks pretty cool. I can't believe we are actually getting Harrison Ford as Red Hulk!

@Robby said in Season 2 (and Beyond?) Speculation Thread (Spoilers):

Holding off on Crocodile, Robin,, Hiriluk, and Kureha. Maybe they're not cast yet, or maybe they're saving bigger characters for later. (or they're casting in-sequence and just haven't quite officially gotten there yet.)

How could you forget Vivi

David Dastmalchian as Mr. 3 is fantastic, that guy has been in so much notable stuff in the last couple of years. Interesting that Miss Goldenweek hasn't been revealed with the other Baroque Agents of early Alabasta saga.

We have no absolutely no idea how the WG reacted once Roger became Pirate King and his crew disbanded shortly later. For all we know, they did try their hardest to find and apprehend all of them and simply didn't manage to do so. This isn't a world where every country and island is globally connected and every person has a phone to quickly call the cops in their house once they see a known perp walk by on the street. We have seen plenty of islands that were either a) mostly disconnected from the rest of the world, b) run by criminals and outlaws or c) so huge that it would be really difficult to find somebody on it.

It's simply a baseless assumption that the WG didn't even try to find some of the most notorious criminals of that time period. Like, we could have a line in the very next chapter of one the Five Elders commenting that the damn Roger pirates just managed to evade them again and again, You guys act like we have a complete picture of everything the WG has done in the last two decades, when in reality, it's all been filtered through the perspective of our main characters. Of course we are more aware of what the WG did to capture Robin - we were shown her complete backstory!

That's why it just feels like complaining for complaining's sake to me - it's all just based on headcanon, not anything shown in the actual story.

@Alfiere said in Chapter 1116: Inner Conflict:

This 8 year old girl may possibly be able to read an ancient language, based on the fact she lived on the same island as some other people who could, which means that in the case she manages to go around the world visiting all the islands where these ancient stones are located (something that's been done only once in almost a thousand years) may actually discover something about this old story ---> relentlessly hunt her down l, no matter how carefully she hides, and attempt to kill her at the first chance
And
These guys actually went there, learned ALL the story and came back ---> jeez there are a lot of small inconveniences in tracking them down, let's hope they keep the secret...

I already remarked on the differences between Robin's situation (little girl without any money or friends in the world) vs. the situation for Rayleigh and the rest of their crew (powerful, well-connected pirates, probably have some money saved from all their treasures as well).

Is it really that hard to believe that it would be much easier for the WG to track Robin's steps at the time than those of Rayleigh and co.? Not to mention that it would actually be much easier to apprehend Robin than somebody like Rayleigh.

"Little Robin was seen somewhere? Send a group of 20 marines to capture her!"

"Dark King Rayleigh was seen somewhere?! Holy shit, sent an armada of twenty ships and at least one admiral!"

The sheer manpower required to capture someone as powerful as Rayleigh is much more than a "minor inconvenience". Especially if you want to track and follow him over a prolonged period of time.

And while the WG did try to hunt down Robin relentlessly, the bounty they gave her was 79 million. Impressive and scary for such a little kid, but how big do you think Rayleigh's bounty is? 2 billion? Doesn't that also reflect that the WG did see the Roger pirates as the bigger threat overall?

@Alfiere said in Chapter 1116: Inner Conflict:

Crocus had a bounty on his head, and if that remote marine station in east blue had enough intelligence capabilities to know of Koby's past as a cabin boy for the smallest fry pirate crew around, I trust the top dogs of the world police to know about him being in Roger's for however long. Also I may misremember but he doesn't consistently live inside Laboon, he was just in there that one time to give her painkillers, and it isn't necessary to do so anymore since she stopped headbutting the red line.
Warships sailing through the calm belt isn't an excuse at all, those are just the top class military ships, everyone else has to do the classics and once you are there there's only the lighthouse and the lighthouse keeper is someone anyone over the age of 30 has a fair chance to recognize as a Roger pirate.

Abou Ray, even assuming he managed to hide in plain sight, 2 years ago he hindered an admiral,making himself an accomplice to assaulting a celestial dragon, and shortly after raided Marine ford with other two most wanted criminals.
So either the WG definition of "inactive" is very lax, or there something more to it.

Or it wasn't thought out very well.

Lots of little points I want to respond to!

Crocus having a bounty is complete news to me. Where is this information from? I couldn't find anything on the wiki.

The East Blue marines didn't know about Koby's past on Alvida, as far as I remember. One of the marine grunts mentions the possibility that Koby could be a pirate spy, but that is due to Koby clearly being friends with Luffy, who already declared himself to be a pirate in front of them. It would be insane if the marines actually could identify the freaking cabin boys of any random pirate crew. And even if some member of the marines later mentioned Koby's past, remember that Luffy actually told them about it! Back in chapter 7, I think, Luffy mentioned Koby being on Alvida's crew in order to piss him off. The leader of the Navy base chose to ignore it though because he was a cool dude. So any knowledge about Koby's past on their part would not be due to unbelievably amazing Navy intelligence but simply because they were randomly told.

Crocus may not live full-time inside of Laboon, but he did spend enough time in there to build himself a house and paint the inside of Laboon's stomach. And even if you want to argue that he doesn't have a reason to go in there anymore since Laboon stopped hitting his head against the wall, fine. He still has a very convenient and effective hiding place right next to him. The marines can't magically teleport right next to him. He would see their ships from a wide distance, so he could jump into Laboon and have him submerge underwater for a few days. Boom, he's gone. Even if the marines came to apprehend him, they would have to reach the conclusion that the reports were either wrong or that Crocus had left and went somewhere else at that point.

I think you also overestimate how many people actually cross into the Grand Line using River's Mountain on a regular basis. The Grand Line is known as a pirate graveyard - the average person - and probably the average pirate as well - fears it as a very scary place you wouldn't want to visit. Plus, it's dangerous as well to sail up River's mountain - so we can assume that it's mostly used by pirates and perhaps adventurers. How likely is it that a random pirate of one the blues would a) actually recognize someone that was infamous 20 years ago (assuming that Crocus really did have a bounty) b) report it to the government?

As for the people already living on the Grand Line, they don't have any reason to sail to its entrance, since you can't actually leave that way.

Again, where is the information that only the absolute top class marine vessels enter through the calm belt from? That's news to me. Seems kind of shitty to expect average marines to senselessly risk their lives going through River's mountain if there is a much safer way for them to enter.

As for the point about Rayleigh, as I said, he left the island for at least a year after the events of Sabaody arc. Are the WG supposed to just station an admiral on the island indefinitely? Not to mention that Rayleigh, unknown to the marines, has a contact on the island in Shakky who could call him as soon as the coast was clear to come back.

As for the comparison of Robin's and Rayleigh's cases: very different situations involving very different people. At the time of their disbandment, Rayleigh would have been in his absolute prime. So, an extremely powerful, but sociable pirate who traveled across the whole world twice. He knows exactly how the world works, probably has made countless friends in dozens of islands during his travels. Friends that would help him out while he was hiding from the WG. Rayleigh would know exactly where he could go to disappear from the WG's eyes and he would know exactly how to get there; he'd probably have some money in his pockets as well. And even he were to encounter some foes, they would most likely be criminals themselves and thus not exactly likely to report to the nearest Naval base.

In contrast, Robin: she is eight years old, has absolutely no friends, no possessions, no money, has never left Ohara before, and is sailing all by herself ona ruddy little rowboat. Even though she managed to escape from Ohara thanks to Aokiji's help, it would naturally be incredibly difficult for her to continue to escape the government's grasps from there on out, and much easier for the WG to track her movements. Since she is an innocent little girl, at this point, she would of course not to be inclined to seek help from criminals - which is exactly what her flashback depicted. She first tried to hide at random civilians's houses, who would have no qualms of calling the Marines for help - especially with the WG's propaganda machine against the "demons of Ohara" in full swing. The real surprise here is not that the WG didn't manage to find Rayleigh or Crocus in all those years, it's that little Robin was crafty enough to escape on her own for so long.

I'm not so sure, at least in Rayleigh's case, that he was that extremely easy to find. We have no idea when exactly he started to live on Sabaody, only that he was living there under an assumed name (remember, he was using the pseudonym "Ray") when the Strawhats encountered him, around twenty years after the Roger pirates disbanded. He decided to reveal his true identity to the Strawhats but it's not like that was an open secret everybody on the island knew about.

The One Piece world is extremely well-suited for people to disappear - hundreds and hundreds of islands, hundreds of thousands of ships sailing all across the wide open ocean. You act like the WG never tried to find the Roger pirates after they found the One Piece, but that's just an assumption on your part. I don't find it unreasonable at all that it would be really difficult to find some 20-30 odd people after they all went their separate ways, most of them probably laying low.

Of course, things should have been different after Kizaru met Rayleigh on Sabaody - we should assume he told the higher ups about his whereabouts. It would indeed be weird if they couldn't find him on Sabaody in the last few years - but remember that he spend at least a year (I think) together with Luffy near Amazon Lily during this time period. Even if the WG sent troops to capture him after Kizaru's report, he was clearly long gone from Sabaody by then. Sure, he has returned now, but are the Marines supposed to wait there for him two years later still, with no real reason to suspect he might come back at some point? Plus, even though he is an old-timer, he is still an.absolute force to be reckoned with - you would probably have to send an admiral to capture him.

As for Crocus, we have no idea how notorious or well-known he really was as a member of Roger's crew. As was pointed out, he actually lives inside the giant whale half of the time. And I also want to add: government forces cross into the Grand Line via the Calm Belt, so they actually have much less opportunity to accidentally encounter him at River's Mountain.

@Riddler said in Season 2 (and Beyond?) Speculation Thread (Spoilers):

But let's give this a bit more in-depth look at which plot points and characters they need (or will most likely) keep and which might get cut or changed to a fair extent.

Loguetown
[...]

I now want to take a closer look at the other arcs that will be adapted for S2, namely Little Garden and Drum.

Little Garden

So by my previous calculations, the first two episodes should more or less cover Loguetown/Whiskey Peak, which means that Little Garden would start in episode three. And I honestly think that one episode is more than enough for this little arc. I know you can't strictly go by chapter number, as the content of the chapters also matters, but in the manga, the Orange Town arc was around 14 chapters long and was covered one LA episode. The Little Garden arc is just one chapter longer and there is nothing in its plot that really demands further exploration.

The story is honestly pretty simple and straightforward: Strawhats arrive at an island where dinosaurs and two giants live. Strawhats meet and befriend the giants. Baroque Works attacks giants and captures some of the Strawhats. Strawhats beat up Baroque Works and leave. The End. I don't see any reason to extend that to two episodes personally.

I think they'll show the dinosaurs once or twice, but not much more to save budget. It's not like the dinosaurs actually play much of a role in the original story either (seriously, is it just me or did Oda totally waste the story element that the crew was on an island with freaking dinosaurs?? I guess Wano sort of made up for this with all the dinosaur devil fruit users among the Beast pirates...)

Obviously, they'll keep the giants, since they are kind of the main point of the arc. Personally, I really hope they'll focus on Usopp's relationship with the giants and make this his episode. The character really needs some love after he was sort of shafted in S1, and this is a great opportunity to give some spotlight to Usopp, his dream and his skills as well. The fight against Mr. 3 is pretty much about brawns vs. brains. It establishes that Luffy's weak point is enemies that manipulate and use psychological tricks to defeat their opponents. I think they'll keep the part about Zoro, Nami and Vivi being captured (and Sanji being off wherever), so it's finally Usopp's time to shine!

Speaking of Baroque Works, they'll definitely keep Mr. 3 as the villain of the arc, though I wonder if they'll keep his crazy, three-shaped hair lol. That means he needs a partner, unless they ditch the aspect that the agents always work in pairs ( I don't think they will), so Miss Goldenweek should be in, as well. And why not, her powers aren't hard to portray and she's kinda fun! Now, the Mr. 5 and Miss Valentine pair, I'm unsure about. I've left them out of my discussion of Whiskey Peak, as I could really see it going several different ways: I could see them being introduced in Whiskey Peak as in the manga, but I could also see them being introduced in Little Garden alongside the Mr. 3 pair. I could also see them being left out completely, but that would be a bit of a shame: I actually think they are kind of cool and underrated! Plus, it increases Mr. 3's threat level if he has the Mr. 5 pair backing him up.

The fight itself certainly will have some changes here and there, but I think they'll keep the general gist of Mr. 3 intervening in the giants' fight and capturing most of the other characters in wax to turn them into wax figures. They might skip his giant candle set and his weird battle suit though.

Drum Island

Drum is the first arc of the season that I think needs and deserves two whole episodes, which would mean that by my count, the arc would be covered in S02E04 and E05. That said, while I absolutely love this arc, there is a lot of it you can absolutely change or cut from it. If you think about it, there are really three iconic, important and/or beloved parts of the arcs they absolutely need to keep and nail:

1. Luffy carrying the sick Nami on his back while climbing up the icy mountain.

2. Chopper's backstory

3. Chopper's character and his relationship with Kureha.

These are the things I remember fondly when I think about this arc. Luffy carrying Nami up the mountain is such a character-defining moment for both of them - the fact that Nami not only trusts Luffy this much but is also willing to risk her life this way in order to help Vivi quickly says so much about her bond with the crew and Luffy in particular has grown. And I'll also never forget Luffy, his body already turning blue from the cold, his fingers and toes bloody, doing everything he can to save his crewmember. I think this is absolutely a moment where many readers finally grow to really respect Luffy and fall in love with his character.

I also could see them milking the drama of Nami's illness a bit more. In the manga/anime, she pretty much immediately recovers after the endeavor with the mountain is over. In the LA, maybe they'll have a bit of medical drama, focusing on Chopper saving her life.

So, Chopper. I can make no predictions about how he'll look - nailing Chopper will perhaps be the most important part of S2, really. After all, he has to have the same presence as other main characters in the following seasons, he can't look offputting, he has to be able to perform in action sequences as well. Assuming that they manage to portray him well, obviously his character and his backstory have to be done justice to. In a way, the plot of Drum doesn't really matter that much - it's an arc centered around its emotional moments.

Aside from Chopper, Kureha and Hiriluk are naturally the other two important characters of the arc that need to be captured well. I think they'll soften both characters up a bit and reduce some of their more unlikable traits from the manga - but overall, I think their key characteristics and important emotional moments will be left in.

Everything else about the arc could be changed drastically. The rest of the crew doesn't really have a lot of moments, to be honest. I hope they'll keep Vivi's little moment at the start of the arc, where she teaches Luffy a little diplomacy - I feel in the manga, that's the first time where you really get a good grasp of her character. Otherwise, what else is there? Usopp builds a snowman, Zoro fights a few of Wapol's men, Sanji tries to help and then, once again, is out of commission for most of the action - a lot of the crewmembers really don't get to do much in many of these early Grand Line arcs!

I can see the Lapahns getting cut and Dalton will most likely have a reduced role, perhaps akin to Genzo's role in the LA version of Arlong Park. Wapol and his goons? They'll keep Wapol, of course, but man, who knows how much of the actual conflict and fights will be left in. Wapol is fun, but his powers are absolutely bonkers. His henchmen are completely forgettable (then again, they did leave in the Nyaban Brothers Siblings) and their fight against Luffy and Chopper is nothing to write home about. As much as I like Wapol as a character, he's probably one of the weakest arc villains in terms of fights?

On the other hand, though, he provides an absolutely vile and corrupt, easy-to-hate villain that serves as a nice counterpoint to Cobra's benevolent monarch in the Alabasta arc. So I think they'll keep these aspects of his characters and some of his fighting powers (maybe him turning his hands into cannons or something) but abbreviate the action a lot. That'll give them time to focus on some other things - I'm sure we'll get some scenes of Smoker and Tashigi in the meantime, and whatever other characters they might want to focus on aside from the Strawhats.

On the discord channel, I also brought up the possibility of introducing Ace early by having him meet Luffy at Drum instead of Alabasta. If you remember, in the manga, he shows up in Drum anyway, which makes sense since it was attacked by Blackbeard, but there was no reason given why he then traveled to Alabasta (I know the anime gave a reason in a filler episode). Ace always felt kind of tagged on to the Alabasta arc in the manga to me, he meets the crew and then quickly leaves again. In the anime, he travels with the crew a bit longer, which is nice since both the crew and the audience gets to know him a bit better, but him leaving instead of, you know, helping out the crew in their fight against Crocodile is a tad weird.

If he appears on Drum instead, it makes a bit more sense: you can't really ask him to just travel to a whole other island on a whim, especially if Blackbeard's trail is still hot. This would free up some time for the Alabasta episodes, as you could then basically skip the Nanohana section (the crew could encounter Smoker and Tashigi at Rainbase instead - the two encounters in the manga are very similar anyway).

I'll give my thoughts on how they might handle the Alabasta arc later.

We finally have a date for when the next batch of episodes will air on German TV:

Episodes 1051-1100 begin airing in June

50 new episodes of the German dub will start airing on June 26th!

Whiskey Peak really doesn't have much of a story on its own - it's all setup for the Alabasta saga, introducing us to Vivi and Baroque Works and starting the mission of returning her safely to Alabasta. Little Garden at least has the story of the giants and the unique dinosaur jungle setting to set itself apart from the other arcs.

But let's give this a bit more in-depth look at which plot points and characters they need (or will most likely) keep and which might get cut or changed to a fair extent.

Loguetown

I think they'll keep the arc structure mostly intact with some smaller changes here and there, similarly to how they covered the Romance Dawn arc in S01E01. So, we'll get Zoro buying his cursed sword, we'll get the introduction of Tashigi and Smoker and of Logia powers in general, we'll get Buggy and Alvida trying (and failing) to murder Luffy (because Buggy is awesome so of course he'll be back asap), and we'll get Dragon saving Luffy. Some details will be chhanged, naturally, but it will be mostly the same as the manga was. But the thing is, that's not much story? How long does it really take to tell the story of this arc? 30 minutes or so? I'd say that's enough, especially since they already did the "vow" scene in S1. Will they give Sanji, Nami and Usopp something to do? I doubt they'll cover any of the filler stuff from the anime.

I could see them having a scene or two with Garp, Koby and Helmeppo for the premiere - their roles will certainly be reduced in comparison to S1, but I'm sure the writers will want to check in with them a few times so audiences won't forget the characters exist. Maybe Garp will be informed that Smoker is now trailing Luffy and tell Koby how dangerous he is or something, to hype the character up. Oh, this might also be a good way of showing us the Calm Belt without having to make it a plot point that the crew needs to go there and see the giant monsters for themselves. Nami explains to the crew why they can't just sail straight into the Grand Line but have to go through River's Mountain instead. Then we cut to the Marines sailing across the Calm Belt - we see giant monstruous shadows swimming underneath the ships, Koby is scared and Garp explains why the sea kings won't attack Marine ships or something along those lines.

Anyway, even with these extra scenes, I'd say we still have a good 10-15 minutes of screentime left to cover the crew finally sailing into the Grand Line. I think it's indisputable this needs to happen in the first episode of the season.

Laboon/Whiskey Peak

Either this all be placed in episode two, or some of the Laboon section will already be covered by the end of the first episode. Either way, in contrast to Loguetown, there is soooo much they could potentially cut from this arc. Laboon and Crocus will be there, certainly, since they are necessary for Brook's backstory later on. But will the crew still be swallowed by Laboon? Will they keep the fact that Crocus basically turned Laboon into a living submarine from the inside, with painted on walls, tunnels and stuff? I doubt it - that stuff is really insane and out there if you think about it. As is Luffy actually fighting against a giant whale and ramming the ship's mast into its body.

Maybe they'll just have Crocus saving them from being eaten by the whale, he tells them Laboon's backstory and then Baroque Works attacks and the Strawhats save everybody. Crocus still needs to explain how the Log Pose works, of course.

So, our introduction to Baroque Works and Vivi...will the crew even sail to Whiskey Peak. Maybe they'll connect Laboon's section and the Whiskey Peak section of the plot more closely and have everything take place at the same location? Whiskey Peak is a cool place, don't get me wrong, but it's not exactly iconic or unique. They might change a lot about this story. The whole part with the Baroque Works agents acting like harmless citizens and getting the crew drunk might be cut - it's all fun stuff, to be sure, but it's not really integral to the plot, you know? I bet they'll keep Zoro taking out most of the agents by himself. It's an amazing action sequence and they already handled Zoro's fight scenes pretty well in the first season.

Luffy's and Zoro's fight, I'm pretty sure, will be cut. It's funny, but in a crazy, cartoon-y kind-of-senseless way. Luffy not trusting and actually trying to murder Zoro is out-of-character even for manga-Luffy - can you really see the somewhat more sensible and relatable LA-version doing this without completely alienating the audience? I feel like it would seem lees funny and more like Luffy was completely deranged and unlikable if he just started attacking his friends on a whim, just like you can't have LA-Nami beating up Luffy all the time.

Again, I wonder how they'll handle the rest of the crew for this portion of the story. Nami gets stuff to do, but Usopp and Sanji would basically sit out the first two episodes if they keep things close to the manga.

Vivi and the other Baroque Works agents in Whiskey Peak: There are a multitude of ways they could handle this. First of all, I doubt we'll get much of Miss Monday and Mr. 9 - they are pretty tertiary characters overall, at most they'll be extended cameo characters that quickly get defeated by the Strawhats. Vivi herself, well, here's the thing: the whole Miss Wednesday thing always felt a little weird to me. It's a cool out-of-nowhere twist but it kind of falls apart once you get to know Vivi. She's just such an honest, kind and genuine person that it seems unbelievable in retrospect that she managed to convincingly act so villainous and mean-spirited. So either, they'll show some early signs of her being a good person to better setup the reveal, or they'll just skip the whole Miss Wednesday thing and just have her be a prisoner of Baroque Works or something that recently got caught trying to uncover the boss' identity.

Karoo and Igaram - I hope they keep Karoo - I love that duck! - but I can totally see them cutting him for budget reasons Aas for Igaram, it could go either way - I feel like you need the shock of Robin seemingly murdering him to sell her as an untrustworthy person and apparent villain. One of the few times were a character being revealed to be still alive actually makes sense.

Obviously, they also need to include the whole reveal about Sir Crocodile being the head of Baroque Works and their goal of taking Vivi home to Alabasta as their main goal for the season. Looking at things like this and depending on how much they keep from Whiskey Peak, they'll probably either need 1 1/2 or two whole episodes for this part of the story. I'll share my thoughts on Little Garden, Drum and Alabasta later.

I'd be shocked if they go that route. How would that bode for the future of the show then? They would have to split up so many arcs into multiple seasons that we'd be looking at a 20-season series! That's even more inconceivable than what we have to start with if we expect each season to cover roughly one major saga.

Plus, it just would make S2 seem so lackluster. I like all of the Grand Line arcs pre-Alabasta well enough, but aside from Drum, none are outstanding, and Drum, which would then mark the season finale, is completely disconnected from the Baroque Works plot and suffers from a rather weak villain (I love Wapol but an intimidating foe, he is not).

I'd agree that Drum needs two and Alabasta 3 episodes, but Logue Town, Whiskey Peak and Little Garden all fit into one episode per arc nicely. Have people forgotten how low on plot these three arcs really are? Loguetown is literally just five chapters in the manga. Five! Does that even need a whole episode to itself? They can (and should be) at the very least at Laboon's at the end of episode 1. Whiskey Peak is just them partying, Zoro kills everybody and the Baroque Works/Sir Crocodile reveal plus Robin showing up. S1 had to introduce 5 main characters, all with their individual backstories, set of side characters and their respective arc villains in 8 episodes. The only new characters that need this much attention in S2 are Vivi and Chopper. Just the fact that they don't have to tell a full backstory every second episode for a new main character will give them plenty more time for the main story.

Not to mention that characters will be cut and storylines will be changed or abbreviated , just like they were in S1.

Wish was probably one of the most generic, unengaging films I've ever seen in the cinema. Not even entertainingly bad or anything, just absolutely unremarkable and uninteresting in every way. "Feels like it was written by A.I." really is the most apt description, sad as it is.

It's really about time we get a good Poison Ivy on the big screen. Such an underrated Batman villain - she was one of my favorites in the animated series. An extremist climate activist as a villain would be really topical as well and could bring up some interesting moral questions, if written well and with some nuance.

That's actually one thing I do like about the anime. Massive pacing issues aside, you usually do get the impression of much longer traveling times between arcs (or in some cases like Alabasta, even inside arcs) than what comes across in the manga. The Post-Alabasta fillers are a perfect example of that - since the crew has multiple small scale adventures on different islands in the anime, it feels like at least a week or two pass between the end of Alabasta and the start of Jaya.

I have never seen the original show and thus have absolutely no nostalgia for this...and I still think this looks freaking awesome!

I just love Jon Stewart so much I recently downloaded a torrent containing ALL of Jon Stewart's episodes of the Daily Show (I also downloaded all of the Colbert Report while I was at it) and am now slowly making my way through the whole show. I used to watch single clips back in the day on the official website, but it has become a bit of a mess to use and I think many clips/episodes aren't available anymore? At least they weren't last time I checked, which admittedly was a while ago.

Anyway, Season 4 (which was Stewart's first season after Craig Kilborn left) is pretty rough to watch. Jon is already pretty likable, but it's a far cry from the clever and hilarious satire the show would become famous for later on. The humor is a lot broader and also feels a lot more mean-spirited, especially as it's not targeted at people who actually deserve it at all. It's still interesting to go back to the beginning and see how everything evolved.

I also bought The Daily Show: An oral history as a companion book while watching the show.

@Nobodyman said in What Are You Watching? (Live-Action Edition):

Been watching Twin Peaks and, yeah, the show holds up really well. Episodes 7 to 9 of Season 2 are peak (haha) television.

I recently watched Twin Peaks for the first time, too. Probably one of the scariest (and yet, at times, most hilarious) shows I've ever seen. I actually got nightmares from watching certain episodes, in which I saw Bob creeping closer and closer to me...Fire Walk With Me is also really messed up.

I still have to check out the Return, though.

That's super great news!!

I like that you acknowledged Dellinger and Gladius as formidable (and in Dellinger's case, even kinda scary) enemies. The Doflamingo pirates are nowadays looked down upon as a villain group, but some of them had a pretty good showing. I haven't reread Dressrosa in a while, but I distinctly remember Dellinger mowing down one colliseum fighter after the other while barely breaking a sweat.

I have to shamefully admit that I disliked She-Hulk, too, when I first watched it. I wouldn't go so far and say I hated it, but it just didn't work me and I didn't feel like I was part of its target audience. But I rewatched it recently with a friend who hadn't seen it yet and surprisingly enjoyed it this time. It's still just sort of alright for me, but it's fun enough and is a nice change of pace from the usual MCU and superhero fare. I'm still not sure how I feel about its finale - on the one hand, I dig how it goes full meta and dares to make fun of the typical MCU clichès. On the other hand, it at the same just kinda lazily swipes away all the plot points and storylines set up throughout the season instead of actually resolving any of it. So, it weirdly feels like smart and lazy writing at the same time to me.

A show I've kinda soured on, on the other hand, is Ms. Marvel. It starts of with a lot of potential. It's tone and visual style in the first two episodes is really promising and fresh and I also find myself interest in Kamala's cultural background. Kamala and her family and friends are also all really likable. But from episode 3 on, it just feels like I'm watching a completely different show and none of the characters or storylines focused on from episode 3-5 is all that interesting or well-developed. I mean, the villains are easily the weakest the MCU has ever had; I couldn't make sense at all of their purpose and plot, nor did I really care. There is also some random organization introduced midway through the season who are the sworn enemies of the villain group (I guess), but then they don't really end up mattering at all and disappear from the show as abruptly as they were introduced. It's all very messy and really drags the show down for me.

I'm in for just recasting him instead of throwing all previous plans over board. Sure, the actor did a good job in the role, but I don't think anyone will blame Marvel for recasting him because of his legal issues, and the fact that his character is all about the multiverse and different variants, and that we've already multiple instances of variants of the same character looking completely different, really gives them an easy out here from a storytelling point of view. Sure, he played a big role in Ant-Man 3, but it's not like that many people really care about that movie or have even watched it, if we are being honest.

I would probably play it a little safe and at least replace him with an actor that looks somewhat similar. I honestly don't think casual viewers will even notice - I've actually started rewatching the MCU with someone who has never seen it before recently, and she honestly didn't even notice that Rhodey was played by a different actor in Iron Man 2 Even though Terrence Howard and Don Cheadle really look nothing alike. And anybody who cares strongly enough to really notice would probably know about the recasting in advance any way.

Maybe we should just have a general reread thread where everybody can post his or her thoughts on any arc, chapter or volume of One Piece they have just read again? We don't really have a thread to talk about old arcs in general, right?

How are they still improving after all these years?? This one was fantastic! Marx won with his brutal last verse imo. I hope this is a sign of things to come and we'll get more battles soon

@Captain-M said in Volume 107 Prediction/Discussion:

You have to wonder if the series' sheer length makes that kind of setup inevitable, from early releases not quite feeling out the tone, a lurch forward, and then settling into something that better reflects its growing legacy. Do other languages have similar stories?

I think Detective Conan, as another super long-running manga series, actually had the same German translator throughout its run so far, who, I have to say, has done a really good job the whole time. (Not quite as good as the translators of the anime though. I really love the German Detective Conan dub )

Man, I just quickly researched this information to make sure I wasn't making things up, and found out that the German translator of the DC manga died a couple of months ago :-( That's sad.

@The-Light-of-Shandora said in Volume 107 Prediction/Discussion:

Not sure if Carlsen Manga will do something in Germany, though we have the 3in1's for Naruto, Bleach and Dragon Ball. And those are nothing special, they have the same dimensions of a normal volume, though they are 3 times as thick.
Maybe One Piece will be different, the only good thing about One Piece in Germany, is that it's the same translator for all the volume, besides 1-3 volumes where someone else did the translation. Though there are other issues we have with the One Piece translation, Laughtale has a different name same as the whole issue around Yamato.

That part about the German translator being the same for almost all of tje volumes isn't actually true though. Just from memory, so the volumes may not be exactly right, I think we are on our fourth translator:

1. Translator: Volumes 1-33, I think. Pretty bad translation, if you ask me. Often left out key Information from the dialogue and had every single character speak like a braindead 13-year old. She's responsible for translating Raftel/Laughtale to Unikon and misrepresenting poor Chopper as a moose instead of a reindeer.

2. Translator: Volumes 34-45, so basically Water 7. An improvement of the first one, as the stupid youth slang was finally gone, but lots of translation errors. She often got bounties wrong. I just read volume 44 again and it features one of my favorite translation mistakes: when the (200?) Marine captains attack the Strawhats on the Bridge of Hesitation, they are called admirals, which then gets extra weird when someone comments "That's the same rank as Smoker!"

3. Translator: volumes 46-50. I'm a little unsure about this one, but I think we had a translator who only covered the Thriller Bark arc and then left again. Seemed fine to me overall.

4. Translator: the current and imo best of the bunch. Very accurate translations that usually capture the personalities of the characters well. Actually my favorite way to read One Piece. I usually enjoy the chapters the most when I read them again after a year or so, in volume format and in my own native language.

These morons online are the worst. I guess they have been wishing for a MCU movie to fail foe years now - I feel like there have been "This movie is going to be a terrible flop for Marvel" videos on YouTube before the release of every Marvel movie released in the last couple of years, and now they are ecstatically creaming their pants because they finally happened to be right for once. Especially since it is starring the much reviled Brie Larson. It's just all so pathetic.

From their point of view, this proves their narrative right that Marvel is doomed because they "went woke" - that whole "go woke, go broke" idea. I wonder if they have any explanations for why other movies starring white male superheroes like the Flash also flopped, or why a movie like Black Panther 2, with mostly black and female leads, did pretty well financially and with audiences and critics alike...

EDIT: Weird, my text behind the spoiler isn't displaying right.

New EDIT: Ok, my response is only displayed correctly if I leave out your quote. Weird bug.

The difference is that they were villains, not the main stars on which those movies or shows were centered around.

Just saw The Marvels. It's alright, nothing special to be honest. The dynamic between the three main characters was fun enough and I finally grew to like Brie Larson's Carol Danvers, who finally got to show off her natural charm in the role. Captain Marvel had a kind of cool, laid-back older sister vibe in this film and I quite enjoyed her interactions with Monica and Kamala, who is just the biggest sweetheart. The real scene stealers were Kamala's family though, I really liked all of their scenes.

But I couldn't really get into the story at all. It featured a lot of vaguely explained scifi mumbo jumbo and felt like it was just meandering along. I think my problem was that the film simply lacked highlights, really strong, memorable or innovative scenes, be it dramatic, comedic or action.

Just like the last Ant-Man, it's just an ok superhero movie with likable characters.

Yeah, I can kinda understand Venom, since he's really popular and has become more of an anti-hero anyway...but there is a reason these guys are villains and not main characters with their own comic book series. It's just a bad idea in general and an especially bad way to try and emulate the MCU's success by building their own shared universe of Spider-Man villains (that don't even get to meet or interact with Spider-Man in these films). Where are movies centered around characters like Morbius or Madame Web supposed to go, really?

I thought Afterlife was generally pretty well-received? Hmm just checked Rotten Tomatoes, I guess it was one of those films were audiences and critics were pretty divided, as the critic score is only 64%, while the audience score is at 94%.

I would love to participate, but I'm such a slow reader that I would probably fall behind after, like, two days. Also, I'm actually currently on a reread of the whole series - I'm starting Thriller Bark right now. I could try to read up to the timeskip in time for AP reread, but again, slow reader...But very cool idea nonetheless!

Oh true, I forgot there was a European politics threads. I think it's fine though since it's just as much about what's happening in Israel as its about what's happening in Germany, so not strictly European.

Very powerful and clear statement by German Vice Chancellor Robert Habeck. He voiced perfectly how I feel about, well, basically everything related to the current situation in Israel. He has my respect for speaking openly and honestly to the public, something that Scholz seems to be completely incapable of.

@onemoment said in American Politics: A Brand New Day:

@pariston_hill said in American Politics: A Brand New Day:

Pro-Palestinian protests, much of which are being done by jewish americans, are equal to Charlottesville neonazi marches.

I really wish the U.S would stop vilifying protestors. It's so disappointing we can't tell who the real good guys are.

I don't get everything about the conflicts in Israel (because the people around me seem to demand a history report when I talk about it), but I'm pretty sure these people just want to avoid civilian deaths. In that respect, it seems simple.

Personally, I find some of these Pro-Palestinian protests for peace rather cynical, as they conveniently ignore that Israel's actions right now are a direct response to Hamas brutally massacring over a thousand Israelis just a couple of weeks ago.

There is nothing simple about this. Israel HAS to retaliate against Hamas for the sheer reason that they have an obligation to protect their citizens from future attacks from Hamas. I absolutely agree that Israel has to adhere to the Geneva conventions like any other civilized state, but protesters are basically asking them to just turn the other cheek and stop attacking Hamas and then, I guess, just passively wait for the next time Hamas feels like massacring their citizens.

It's very easy to demand for Israel to stop attacking the Gaza strip and Hamas, but then what? How are Israelis supposed to ever feel safe again when their neighboring country is run by a horrifying terrorist group whose only clear goal is to exterminate as many Jews as possible? No matter how much you might dislike or outright hate Israel, nobody in their right mind can seriously be fine with Hamas just being left in peace after what they did.

That's what troubles me about these so-called peace protests. They are putting all of the blame and responsibility for the current situation on Israel's shoulders and might just as well ask of them to stop fighting back against terrorists and let them slaughter their people in peace.

That's just so sad. As probably many here, I grew up watching Friends and have rewatched it many times since. Chandler was always my favorite character from the show and Matthew Perry's comedic timing outstanding.

I'm currently rewatching it with a friend who hadn't seen the show before, and man, that will be weird from now...

Oh man, it's just such a sad end to a life that had been basically ruined by heavy drug use..

What are the chances of him rejoining the Daily Show?

@Gizmo said in Marvel Movies Thread - Holy Shitballs:

Guess it’s a question as to what “receptive audience” means. The new movies have been doing badly financially as of late (exception being Gunn’s last hurrah and Spider-Man), and I don’t even think a lot of them in phase 4 were bad.

Have they, though? Thor 4 made about as much money as Thor 3, Doctor Strange 2 almost made a billion and thus a lot more than the first one, and while Black Panther 2 wasn't as successful as the first one, it almost made a billion as well. And in contrast to their predecessors, none of these films were released in China.

If your measure of success is that a movie has to make at least a billion dollars to be considered financially successful, than that's a) kinda crazy to expect every single movie in the MCU to make Avengers-like numbers b) and also would mean that both GotG Vol. 3 and a lot of the movies in Phase 1-3 have done poorly as well.

The only stinker at the box office so far has been Ant-Man 3 (and some of the movies released in the midst of the pandemic that were simultaneously released on Disney+, so it feels kinda unfair to count those). None of the Ant-Man movies were particularly impressive financial successes, and the recent one in particular got abysmal reviews.

That said, I agree the MCU needs to do something because I also feel interest is overall waning. But I'm not sure a soft reboot is the right way to go here. The problem imo right now is that MCU feels swarmed with disconnected characters. During the first three phases there was a feeling of having a clear main cast of characters - namely, the Avengers, particularly the Big 3 - that served as a connecting thread throughout all films. I often hear people say that the MCU lacked focus during phase 4 and wasn't building to anything, but I don't think that is completely true. I feel like the multiverse served as a common thread throughout a lot of the recent movies and shows.

I think the feeling of a lack of focus comes from a lack of clear main characters at the moment. It used to feel like we were following Iron Man, Captain America and co. on their journey, from beginning to end. Now that they are gone, nobody seems to have taken their place. During Phase 1-3, you basically had these characters pop up in a new movie every two or three years. Between 2012 (first Avengers film) and 2019 (Endgame) Iron Man appeared in movies in 2013, 2015, 2016, 2017 and 2018. Captain America appeared in 2014, 2015, 2016 and 2018. Thor appeared in 2013, 2015, 2017 and 2018. See what I mean? We constantly spent time with these characters.

So to me, the real solution is not to just be lazy and do a reboot, but to find new main characters as replacement. It's not like there aren't contenders. Spider-Man and Doctor Strange come to mind first, but right now there aren't even any new movies in production featuring those characters. Same goes for newcomers like Shang-Chi, Kate Bishop or Moon Knight. I like all of those characters well enough, but why care if it takes such a long time to see them again, if ever?

There are too many characters and projects right now to really give strong focus on any character in particular, and I think people are starting to feel exhausted by that.

I didn't know where else to put this:

Simply amazing! This aired live on a very well known German late-night show (ZDF Magazin Royale) a couple of days ago.

Ahh thanks, that makes sense!

Thanks mates! I think I'm wrong about the placement of "Gotta Feed the Brain" - I was thinking Episode 1 because that's where I remember the line from, but after listening to it again, it doesn't really sound like it's from that scene. Maybe I'll actually have to watch the show scene by scene and simultaneously compare the music in the scenes to the tracks on the soundtrack.