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Top Level Canon Reviews - relaunched!

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Warning: What did I just say about spoilers? See you next week.
  • Staff Post
    • Jcogginsa said:
    I meant you saying that you didn't understand what Bradley's power is. It spoils the fact that there isn't a proper explanation of the ability. Saying what doesn't happen is as much of a spoiler as saying what does
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    SwiftRosenthal said:
    I just finished the series a few days ago and Wrath's is the one Sin Inc special power that I couldn't explain if asked. :oops:
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    veekie said:
    Also a problem with that is that Mustang's fighting style is very distinct and very very loud.
    Dude won't go down quietly, and it's not anywhere near certain that Scar could off him before the fight has an audience of the entire city.


    Its just the shonen aesthetic, keeping in mind the target audience is in theory tweens to teen boys, emotions are overwrought, everything has to be declared, possibly with big title cards.

    What we've seen:
    -Lust - 'low' power, other than the base homunculus template stuff and her Maximum Fingering Penetration, but has no severe psychological issues.
    -Envy - Extremely versatile shapeshifting, would make an amazing infiltrator except they have no impulse control, and will break cover to get their jollies if triggered.
    -Gluttony - Combat monster, he fights like a boss monster. But he's literally retarded, and has impulse control problems.
    -Wrath - Very much human template, his special power is basically the Sharingan(at least before they put bells and whistles on), and he's visibly stable even in long term engagement with people.
    -Greed - Adamantium Exoskeleton, but otherwise more or less standard human template. Is fairly sane and stable, able to philosophize and decide that no he's not going along with the plan. He's like the inverse of Lust really, his special power is a one trick super defense, just as Lust's is a one trick super attack.
    -Sloth - ???
    -Pride - ???

    So we see that the more powerful ones are also the ones with stability/control issues, the ones closer to human template are the ones who are...well they aren't particularly exceptional people outside of being regenerating super strong monsters, but they also are fully human smart.
    Also considering the gender balance of Amnestris' military, I suspect the main reason Lust isn't the Fuhrer is she has boobs. Envy would make a terrible Fuhrer, they enjoy themselves too much.

    This IS the same guy who moves fast, strong and precisely enough to sever a weapon threatening him in the instant of its approach without the attacker realizing it until they moved and the weapon fell apart.

    Somehow I doubt it'd be happening short of an artillery or alchemical assault, except the Fuhrer there is the guy with the armies of alchemists.
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    what did i just say about spoilers? see you next week.
    There is now a spoiler thread The Leila Hann Let's Watch Spoiler Thread: Seriously, Stop Spoiling Stuff SPOILERS
     
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  • Staff Post
    • Leila Hann said:
    He said he has "the ultimate eye." He didn't say what it did.
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    veekie said:
    Thats all I was going on really.
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    I don't know whether or not what @veekie said was a spoiler because I haven't watched/read FMA, but they might be doing what they do in their quest reaction posts where they state their speculation/educated guesses as facts rather than flagging them as theories.

    EDIT: Apologies, somehow missed the day-old mod post :confused:.
     
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    CallMeIsmail said:
    I don't know whether or not what @veekie said was a spoiler because I haven't watched/read FMA, but they might be doing what they do in their quest reaction posts where they state their speculation/educated guesses as facts rather than flagging them as theories.
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    :wtf:
    Bradley/Wrath: "I may not have the potential of your Ultimate Shield, but I clearly see your weakness with my Ultimate Eye."
    So yes, it wasn't a spoiler.
     
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    Sydonai said:
    :wtf:
    Bradley/Wrath: "I may not have the potential of your Ultimate Shield, but I clearly see your weakness with my Ultimate Eye."
    So yes, it wasn't a spoiler.
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    ...I believe I see the problem here. Looking up the relevant fight scene on YouTube (would not recommend for Leila as there is the risk of spoilers), it becomes clear that the quote you just made is from the English dub. Leila (I think) watches these episodes subbed wherein Wrath kind of does and does not say something to the same effect without actually alluding to what his power does.

    This might have been a misunderstanding (though I would recommend people who have seen FMAB double check any assumptions they make in regards to what has and hasn't happened yet, though I choose not to talk about it just to be safe).
     
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    WorthyAlchemist? said:
    ...I believe I see the problem here. Looking up the relevant fight scene on YouTube (would not recommend for Leila as there is the risk of spoilers), it becomes clear that the quote you just made is from the English dub. Leila (I think) watches these episodes subbed wherein Wrath kind of does and does not say something to the same effect without actually alluding to what his power does.

    This might have been a misunderstanding (though I would recommend people who have seen FMAB double check any assumptions they make in regards to what has and hasn't happened yet, though I choose not to talk about it just to be safe).
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    The exact quote in the sub is "Just as you have an ultimate shield, I have an ultimate eye." from what I can find.
     
    Well, gotta say I like the things you write here, @Leila Hann. While I don't necessarily agree with some of your points, they're so fun to read. I've been watching this thread for quite a while, so I'm looking forward for more.
     
    Leila Hann said:
    Mustang replies that Hughes decided to take an early retirement, and moved his family out to his ancestral home in the countryside.
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    To be fair to Mustang; he is living in a brutal military junka which suffers from a frighteningly high "disappearances" that affects well known and protected military scientists and officers. This honestly sounds like Mustang trying (and failing) to say "he got disappeared", while avoiding outright stating it.

    All said; I found this particular episode was lacking in the editing & pacing wise, Hughes really needed to be better woven into previous episodes. IMO; FMA:B kinda suffers in that it is a pseudo-sequel to the first half of the first FMA anime and that source manga is long as fuck.
     
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    Xon said:
    To be fair to Mustang; he is living in a brutal military junka which suffers from a frighteningly high "disappearances" that affects well known and protected military scientists and officers. This honestly sounds like Mustang trying (and failing) to say "he got disappeared", while avoiding outright stating it.

    All said; I found this particular episode was lacking in the editing & pacing wise, Hughes really needed to be better woven into previous episodes.
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    Given that the official story is that Hughes was murdered by an unknown third party, and he had a full on military burial and posthumous promotion, that's pretty clearly not how it's being treated.

    Although Mustang choosing this particular absurd lie rather than a different one might be because of him being used to the state telling it about other people. So, it was the first thing that jumped into his mind when Edward asked and he repeated it on reflex, even though it wasn't an appropriate or convincing story for this occasion.

    Again, very stupid of him, but it's a kind of stupidity that makes sense for the character.
     
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    I originally complained about @Leila Hann's reviews on QQ in the thread for venting about content on SV, knowing that posting here wouldn't contribute anything to the discussions of people who were enjoying her content. Leila however has made it clear she is extremely receptive to feedback, to that point she would rather necro a two month old post in order to call me a liar rather than let any criticism stand unaddressed.

    Seeing as Leila has now expressed such deep interest in engaging with criticism that she managed to get topic-banned by a mod, I see no harm in posting my views to the main thread.

    MinorGryph said:
    I am confused as to why people keep paying Leila Hann real money to "review" anime.


    She is media illiterate (at least with animation) to the point almost every update in her Let's Watch thread is followed by multiple posters popping in to explain obvious shit she completely misunderstood, such as Edward Elric is not being portrayed as a die hard Hitler Youth in FMA:B. Or 90% the update will be about how she didn't like this one joke, a really bizarre political reading, or explaining how X scene/character offended her personal taste and thus ruined everything. Her takeaways are frequently so disconnected from anything happened in an episode they're basically paying her to let people explain the show to her afterward.

    It'd be one thing if people were there to +1 about how bad the show was, there's a solid market for hatedoms and B-movie riffs. But people keep paying her to watch anime they genuinely like, and then get defensive or apologetic about "making" her spend 30 min watching something she didn't like by giving her money.
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    Leila Hann said:
    Lmao.

    For those curious, this is the passage of mine that Gryph is referring to.
    I guess I can't blame Edward for being vulnerable to this mind screw of Shou's, though. He's very young, and immersed in an authoritarian culture that he has yet to really question. In a worldview in which where something can only be "wrong" because the authorities say its wrong rather than because of its own moral consequences, there really ISN'T much of a moral difference between Shou and Edward. They both broke the human transfiguration laws, and are thus equally guilty in the eyes of the only arbiter of right and wrong that matters (the state). If Edward wasn't a Fantasy Hitler Youth who's been taught to see the world this way, I imagine Shou's vapid attempt at drawing moral equivalence between the two of them would have bounced right off of Edward. As it is though, Edward has been confronted with the hideousness of what Shou did AND been presented with an argument that should, if he takes his own belief system seriously, mean that he's just as evil himself.
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    I did do Edward a disservice there by not talking about how his own rebellious nature stands in defiance of his culture, sure, and I probably overstated the case in general. But he's also a teenager, and not a particularly self aware one at that. Shou's argument makes sense according to the Amestrian party line, and at that point in the story Edward had never consciously rejected the state's ideology even if he didn't quite internalize it either, so it's logical that Shou's argument might appear valid enough to get under his skin.

    I mean, maybe I'm still completely off base in that reading of the scene. But if so, it's not in the way that's being suggested.

    Also, fucking lol at your implication that I've been panning FMA:B while people tearfully beg me to please see reason. I've been praising this show almost nonstop from the pilot onward.

    If you think I'm a shit critic, you're welcome to that opinion. But it's kind of hilarious to see you stooping to the level of dishonesty and willful misrepresentation that you accuse me of while expressing it.
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    MinorGryph said:
    In what way have I misrepresented your reviews? You quoted yourself doing exactly what I criticized. You ignored literally everything else in the scene to laser focus on your opinion that Shou's argument was vapid so it was unconvincing, then went on a tangent about Edward being a hitler youth who doesn't question authority.

    Trying to argue that your take makes any sense because Edward never explicitly said he rejected the government's ideology only underlines my point. To make that take you didn't extrapolate off what the show already set up such as Ed's rebellious nature and anti-conformist visual coding. You deliberately ignored it and worked backwards from your declaration that the only possible way Shou's argument made sense was through an authoritarian lens, so therefore Ed must have been raised a blind authoritarian hitler youth.

    I don't care if you end the review praising something or panning it, my criticism is that your reviews are so full of nitpicking and threadbare tangents they end up saying nothing of nothing of substance about the episodes you're supposed to be reviewing. Most of the discussion in your Let's Watch thread centers around people expressing confusion over your latest hot take or discussing content from other posters who shared their thoughts on the episode for free.

    And you are in fact illiterate when it comes to animation. You criticize any experimentation with art style as a failure of animation, get confused by basic visual gags, don't know enough to notice when the animation is impressive on a technical level, and half the time you misread basic stage directions. Your reviews are worthless on the animation level and frequently boil down to pointless nitpicking on the writing level.
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    I'd rather we talk about Dragon Ball than anything related to QQ, but okay.
     
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