Off-Topic General Discussion - Page 1429

On March 15 2014 08:47 red_ wrote:
One of these days, a multi page major topic in this thread will be one that I am familiar with and can contribute too... one of these days.

On March 15 2014 08:47 red_ wrote:
One of these days, a multi page major topic in this thread will be one that I am familiar with and can contribute too... one of these days.

On March 15 2014 08:47 ComaDose wrote:
im playing heroes of the storm and its fun /brag

On March 15 2014 09:08 Parnage wrote:
Also, how do you get advantage in that game if you have no items/xp is shared no matter what.

On March 15 2014 09:01 Requizen wrote:

You can always start collecting 40k and then talk about that with me!

also i h8 komadote

On March 15 2014 09:08 Parnage wrote:


I am watching people play this and the best part so far is naming the origins for the placeholder icons. So far the only one I don't know is the DragonKnights Q.

Also, how do you get advantage in that game if you have no items/xp is shared no matter what.

On March 15 2014 09:12 Alaric wrote:
Tbh FMA (before it went to shit near the end) and some arcs of One Piece have themes far deeper than what shonens got me used to.

On March 15 2014 10:05 Alaric wrote:
My favourite part about FMA is the whole thing about Ishbal. In the end because of the motives of the primary antagonist the reasons are pretty simple, but the way it's treated for most of the manga (as what's basically ethnic cleansing of part of the country's population) goes pretty far. The flashback regarding the civil war has a very serious tone and some strong scenes (I remember being impressed by the short scene (maybe 3 panels?) where Armstrong breaks down, unable to handle the atrocities they're asked to commit as he holds an Ishbal child's corpse in his arms. The contrast with how he's been portrayed up till there and the drawing style of Urakawa made his helpless look striking).
I chuckled a bit at the back cover notes the author had sometimes, like wondering about what the library workers thought when she regularly went and consulted books about medical experimentation on PoW, anatomical books and such. She did a good amount of research before writing it and I appreciate that. I was surprised to learn that the Ishbal war's background is apparently based on the Union/Confederation civil war, though.

Another point I really liked, but that doesn't necessary tie with the shonen/seinen distinction is how she treated secondary characters. The way Sig, and the Curtis/Sig relationship in general is portrayed, the role given to seemingly useless characters like the chimeras who switched sides, etc.


The Marineford arc in OP didn't strike me that much. I mean, sure, characters' deaths make people emotional and such, but you find that in any genre. The background regarding Fisher Tiger, Jinbei, and the fishmen in general had really deep undertones and the treatment was really good I felt, including the whole ties with the fishmen island. It also gave a lot of depth to characters such as Arlong (Fisher Tiger's last words were great in a character exposition way), it's really too bad the "new" generation (they're still in their 30s) ended up that shallow, and the princess revelation + Show Spoiler + really broke a lot of the situation's depth.
Some scenes before the timeskip, esp. when Kuma disperses the crew, struck me too because contrary to a lot of shonens where the feeling of helplessness and abandon of the protagonists feels artificial, these were more genuine and dire.
Then you have stuff like the flashback concerning Sabo and the garbage dump he lives in. It's already really dark for a shonen, but when you realise that it rings true because Oda drew most of its inspiration from an existing place and doesn't hesitate to mention it in the published reader's letters, reading his allusions to the real world in his stories often gives a pretty bleak feeling that you wouldn't expect from a shonen.