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Unpopular opinions we have on fiction

"Let's go! open up, it's time for Unpop!"
Alright, time for my mandatory Unpopular Opinions Post. Let's get this over with.
"You're late. You know the deal. You can Omelaspost for a Funny, or you can make an interesting post for an Insightful."
Here in Unpopular Opinions Poster Civilisation, no one chooses to make interesting posts. It's better to make the one joke everyone knows for the Funny, rather than risk your entire life for just one Insightful rating.
"Tomorrow you better not be late, or I'll have you posting for Informative reactions as punishment."
"Yes sir, sorry, I won't be late next time."

Down here, us Omelasposters only get one Rating a day. One Funny rating is just enough to get your post:reaction ratio to the next day. But that's the life of Unpopular Opinions Poster Civilisation. If you wanna survive, you have to Unpopular Opinions Post. Every Omelasposter has the same goal, and that's to make it to the top thread, where all the Brothers Karamazovposters live. Except, most Brothers Karamazovposters are born on the top thread. If you're an Omelasposter, there's only one way up, and that is through the Temple of Unpopular Opinions. The Temple of Unpopular Opinions is the only structure on SV that combines the bottom thread to the top thread. To make it up, you have to post an impossibly hard Unpopular Opinion Reply that no Omelasposter has ever completed. And that's assuming you even get the chance to post the reply in the thread. The inside of the Temple is protected by a barrier and the only way an Omelasposter gets past the barrier is if they've earned a gilded post. I've never even tried getting a gilded post before, but if I'm going to rank up to a Brothers Karamazovposter one day, I'm gonna have to.
 
With the caveat that its probably hard to look at Whedon's tv output without reading all the revelations about him into it; but on rewatching the last stretch of episodes in Angel's final season, I realised that I hadn't groked* just how fond Whedon was using 'shades of grey' to have a cast full of characters who are... monsters that don't actually sincerely give a crap about all the suffering they cause.

Angel talks a big game, but his whole conception of guilt and atonement is fundamentally filtered through the lens of Liam/Angelus's nihilistic sadism, and its clear that its that same foundational ego fueling a great deal of his actions (plus the fact that he was canonically 'in love' with Buffy when she was 15); Spike only got his soul back as part of a scheme to convince the woman he stalked, gaslit and tried to rape to date him and outright admitted that even after getting a sense of empathy back he hadn't given a stuff about 110 years of matricide, murder, rape, torture and until another slayer rubbed it in his face (and chopped off his hands); Lorne's a culture vulture who thought it was a great idea to bring humans and the creatures that eat/torture/rape them together in a setting where the later can put on sheep's clothing to lure their prey in outside of Caritas; Harmony's so enthusiastic a vampire her sudden yet inevitable betrayal was factored in; and Illyria was allowed roam free in the corpse of the terrified woman she violated, mutilated and (spiritually) violently tore apart & ate long after she was killable again.

Maybe I'm looking at things too much with hindsight, but we probably should have seen some of those revelations coming.

Also, Boreanaz's occasional attempts at an Irish accent offend me lol.

*Pre-Teen/Teenage me was somewhat distracted by Amy Acker with blue hair and leather catsuit.
 
Ford Prefect said:
Personally I think paragon/renegade is their best implementation, even though renegade really suffers from being tied to the isolation or integration thing. It's not hard to see why this happened, but still pretty funny that there is always a non-zero chance that it's pushing the space racism button.

But mechanically I think it's better because it's too metres instead of a sliding scale. If you're really optimising a playthrough (like in ME2 where it can matter) you won't mix it up but you aren't penalised by using interrupts, and those are good value.
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Mass Effect board game managed to balance Paragon/Renegade pretty well, IMO. Options are Paragon "altruism and harder missions completio" vs Renegade "do stuff quickly, efficiently and ruthlessly" . Paragon gives greater end-game score if completed, while Renegade gives imminent bonuses, like rerolls and stuff.

More concrete example, is how one mission requires you to bypass lockdown. You discovered there are refugees. Renegade option is to bypass the security and peace out before Reaper forces overrun the site, so you can push deeper into the site. Paragon is to help refugees to flee, but you are on timer. Succeeding in Paragon or Renegade gives a buff, but running out of time means you don't get any bonus. You can succeed in primary mission, but failing Paragon while not taking Renegade option means you don't bonuses.
 
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Axslashel said:
Light side Sith: I can't be bothered to kill this man. I'd rather invite him to a pub crawl.
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Nah.

'Light side' Sith: "I will systematically and consistently overlook the crimes of the innately fascist regime I am working for and personally benefit from. I will further the operation and monstrosity of the aforementioned fascist regime with a smile and constant appeals to civility. Insufferable cringeworthy historically illiterate teenagers and veiled supremacists of the future will pleasure themselves to and uphold my name as a paragon as a Trojan horse for generations to come.

I am the average RNC elected official."

:V
 
Miath said:
I'm of the opinion that everyone experiences things differently which devalues the idea of 'spoiling' a thing, you're still going to see/read/listen to the thing for the first time yourself no matter the opinions of others. Yes, even if you value those opinions.
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I used to agree with this, but the thing is, spoilers also take you out of the context in which something was intended to be experienced. Sometimes this is just an inevitability, you can't always see something in theaters, or it has been spoiled due to entering the cultural consciousness, 'I am your father', and just has to be worked around.

But other times it's needless. And the order in which was experience something does actually matter, as much as we may insist otherwise.

king of hybrids said:
I mean, that fits the most begin end of the Empire fanboys (especially the Felpire fans) too
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I get the appeal of wanting 'Good Imperials'. Palpatine was very good at getting people invested in his project. And cognitive dissonance + propaganda is a HELL of a drug. But especially in current canon, the last point where anyone could fairly jump off the train was just after Endor when operation Cinder was activated.

There's a certain reality that Star Wars could have explored, before committing to the First Order, that sometimes you have to make peace with awful people and let the less blatantly evil ones walk away. It's not good, but sometimes making it tomorrows problem is the price you pay for a tomorrow for it be a problem in.
 
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One thing I really like the Inquisitor for is that there's lots of room to play a chaotic neutral who just in the Sith game for the prizes and to not be a slave with zero compunctions about fucking over the empire. You even get a pirate love interest if you play a woman.

It just can't really last because as you get to big expansion storylines your character having a dog in galactic politics is a given.

Speaking of the BioWare tradition of starting you with a normie dude sidekick I think this something that weakens Mass Effect in hindsight. Kaiden is alright but he's still a spin off the Carth formula of normal, mundane dude made more "interesting" with a fucked up backstory. And he and Ashley exist mostly to set up the big hard choice. This is fine for a Mass Effect where a sequel wasn't a sure thing but in ME2 and 3 it robs both of some of their character because they need to be interchangeable.

Jacob in ME2 was the same kind of thing and it doesn't really work. Then in 3 they do it right with Vega, just making the standard dude character simple and fun. He has a great dynamic with Shepherd, being the pure Blast Hardcheese action guy to highlight Shepherd's leadership role in contrast.

Miranda is also more interesting than Ashley, but her character suffers from not getting a lot of breathing room before getting into her backstory in 2, and in 3 she's a guest star who's plot is all about resolving that backstory.

If I had a chance to go back and time and magically rewrite the series through the power of hindsight I might have Vega be there from the start as more of a rookie character who grows more seasoned over the series. Or even have Miranda be there in place of Ashley as a deep cover Cerberus agent.
 
Triggerhappy said:
I used to agree with this, but the thing is, spoilers also take you out of the context in which something was intended to be experienced. Sometimes this is just an inevitability, you can't always see something in theaters, or it has been spoiled due to entering the cultural consciousness, 'I am your father', and just has to be worked around.

But other times it's needless. And the order in which was experience something does actually matter, as much as we may insist otherwise.
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I don't understand why I was quoted over an opinion. We're obviously going to disagree and I don't want to argue over something so petty as this.
 
Reveen said:
One thing I really like the Inquisitor for is that there's lots of room to play a chaotic neutral who just in the Sith game for the prizes and to not be a slave with zero compunctions about fucking over the empire. You even get a pirate love interest if you play a woman.

It just can't really last because as you get to big expansion storylines your character having a dog in galactic politics is a given.

Speaking of the BioWare tradition of starting you with a normie dude sidekick I think this something that weakens Mass Effect in hindsight. Kaiden is alright but he's still a spin off the Carth formula of normal, mundane dude made more "interesting" with a fucked up backstory. And he and Ashley exist mostly to set up the big hard choice. This is fine for a Mass Effect where a sequel wasn't a sure thing but in ME2 and 3 it robs both of some of their character because they need to be interchangeable.

Jacob in ME2 was the same kind of thing and it doesn't really work. Then in 3 they do it right with Vega, just making the standard dude character simple and fun. He has a great dynamic with Shepherd, being the pure Blast Hardcheese action guy to highlight Shepherd's leadership role in contrast.

Miranda is also more interesting than Ashley, but her character suffers from not getting a lot of breathing room before getting into her backstory in 2, and in 3 she's a guest star who's plot is all about resolving that backstory.

If I had a chance to go back and time and magically rewrite the series through the power of hindsight I might have Vega be there from the start as more of a rookie character who grows more seasoned over the series. Or even have Miranda be there in place of Ashley as a deep cover Cerberus agent.
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I feel bad for Vega, and a lot of stuff from Mass Effect 3 that I feel gets overshadowed by the ending being bad. The rest of the game is pretty great, though not without its flaws. I do think Vega works well as a new guy reacting to being drawn into Shepard's story, could have been played up more even.
 
Triggerhappy said:
I used to agree with this, but the thing is, spoilers also take you out of the context in which something was intended to be experienced. Sometimes this is just an inevitability, you can't always see something in theaters, or it has been spoiled due to entering the cultural consciousness, 'I am your father', and just has to be worked around.

But other times it's needless. And the order in which was experience something does actually matter, as much as we may insist otherwise.
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At present, I don't extend authors the kind of trust that would be necessary to think that the way something is "intended to be experienced" is especially desirable...
 
MysticKnightJoe said:
I feel bad for Vega, and a lot of stuff from Mass Effect 3 that I feel gets overshadowed by the ending being bad. The rest of the game is pretty great, though not without its flaws. I do think Vega works well as a new guy reacting to being drawn into Shepard's story, could have been played up more even.
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My issue with Vega is just that as a new character showing up out of nowhere in 3, I kinda... didn't bring him on missions when I could bring my old favorites instead? So he might be cool, but I don't think I know anything about him other than "soldier guy who is working on a jeep down in the garage".

To be fair I also didn't bring the returning Kaiden-or-Ashley anywhere, I never got that attached to any of the default human sidekicks for similar reasons.
 
Honestly, low key a big issue ME3 has is how much it is the finale of the trilogy over being its own story. There isn't much time to introduce new elements when so much is spent wrapping up various plots. The best counter example is maybe Javik, but his own presence is itself a conclusion to the mystery of the Proethans, giving you a living member to see what they were actually like.

Actually, it's kind of a funny jump going from the character focus otherwise wheelspinning plot of mass effect 2 to like, we need to wrap up every plot thread in this game of 3.
 
I also did not have the dlc when I played 3 and so I don't know if javik was good or not. I know there were complaints about that being kinda part of the story carved out for day 1 dlc but I can't say his absence felt too obvious?

As you say, 3 is spending so much time trying to roll up every plot thread or character from the past of the series that it's pretty stuffed. The fan favorite dlc is even more of that stuff too, so it really seems like they could have stuck with that instead of trying to jam in New characters too much.
 
NemoMarx said:
I also did not have the dlc when I played 3 and so I don't know if javik was good or not. I know there were complaints about that being kinda part of the story carved out for day 1 dlc but I can't say his absence felt too obvious?

As you say, 3 is spending so much time trying to roll up every plot thread or character from the past of the series that it's pretty stuffed. The fan favorite dlc is even more of that stuff too, so it really seems like they could have stuck with that instead of trying to jam in New characters too much.
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Javik is good but he was a blatant example of the whole idea they had of cutting out parts of the game to sell as DLC that came free with preorders or new copies as a way to discourage buying the game pre-owned, which really sucked.
 
"Stand among the ashes and tell me if honour matters" would have been a much better line than the trillions of souls because congrats, that's an unfathomable statistic.
 
NemoMarx said:
I also did not have the dlc when I played 3 and so I don't know if javik was good or not. I know there were complaints about that being kinda part of the story carved out for day 1 dlc but I can't say his absence felt too obvious?

As you say, 3 is spending so much time trying to roll up every plot thread or character from the past of the series that it's pretty stuffed. The fan favorite dlc is even more of that stuff too, so it really seems like they could have stuck with that instead of trying to jam in New characters too much.
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The DLC is it's own little thing. He has a couple comments/interactions outside of it of course, but they are by and large inconsequential to the larger plot. Think like some of the DLC companions in 2. It's interesting to get a better view on what the Protheans were like, especially one that reveals they were not really like how they were sometimes portrayed in 1&2. But by it's nature it's not something where there's an absence if you don't have it.
 
Triggerhappy said:
There's a certain reality that Star Wars could have explored, before committing to the First Order, that sometimes you have to make peace with awful people and let the less blatantly evil ones walk away.
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There was some of that in the X-Wing novels, with the rebellion (if you still call it that) working with Warlord Zsinj against a common enemy, with the understanding that a reckoning would come later. (Which couldn't actually be final in the X-Wing novels, because it had already happened in another worse-written book, something I have Strong Opinions about.)

-Morgan.
 
Morganite said:
There was some of that in the X-Wing novels, with the rebellion (if you still call it that) working with Warlord Zsinj against a common enemy, with the understanding that a reckoning would come later. (Which couldn't actually be final in the X-Wing novels, because it had already happened in another worse-written book, something I have Strong Opinions about.)

-Morgan.
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You remember incorrectly. Warlord Zsinj was the common enemy; they worked with the actual Imperial Remnant to hunt him down.
 
foamy said:
You remember incorrectly. Warlord Zsinj was the common enemy; they worked with the actual Imperial Remnant to hunt him down.
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Huh. I coulda sworn he'd made some kind of contribution to stopping Isard before that. It's been quite a while since I read those books though.

-Morgan.
 
NemoMarx said:
My issue with Vega is just that as a new character showing up out of nowhere in 3, I kinda... didn't bring him on missions when I could bring my old favorites instead? So he might be cool, but I don't think I know anything about him other than "soldier guy who is working on a jeep down in the garage".
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It always kind of gets me that Paragon Lost came out after ME3. I don't know that it would have necessarily helped that much because the portion of even big fans who engage with the side materials like that is relatively small, but it certainly wouldn't have hurt. As it stands he's more there so Bioware could tout their getting Freddie Prinz Jr. Real different time in that regard lol

In saying that I do think Vega is a decent addition to the cast, and he has a lot of fun interactions with the other characters. I also didn't bring him along that often because Garrus is such a beast in the squad and from there it's mostly juggling the biotics and tech characters, but like everyone he does benefit from ME3's more talkative team.
 
I think that something a lot of writers tend to forget when making fight scenes or "badass" characters is that them struggling is extremely important. Seeing characters barely scrape out a win makes it feel all the more earned. One sided stomps can be a good introduction, I guess, but it loses its novelty if it happens all the time.

Just for example, people wouldn't have loved Goku vs Freeza or Goku vs Vegeta as much as they do if Goku just slapped them without any effort. Nor would it feel as good when Goku became a Super Saiyan if we didn't see him get pushed to the absolute brink by how strong and cruel Freeza was.
 
Honestly, for Old Republic, Light Side Inquisitor was my favorite. Mainly because half the lightside choices feel like they should come with a rant on "why are you fuckers so stupid. Do any of you realise that stuff happens more than five minutes from now?"
 
Lightside Jedi Consular and Light side Inquisitor were the two I found the most fun and interesting as far as force classes went, light side jedi consular was allowed to pull the wise troll bit especially while the light side Sith inquisitor is indeed evil but a bunny ear lawyer.

They also both seemed to especially annoy the Sith Emperor if for different reasons.
 
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