The Other Side of the Fourth Wall

Spoilers for Jojo's Bizarre Adventure: Battle Tendency follow You may notice that this is a recurring trend for these blog entries. This blog entry will focus on another character who gets the short end of the stick- Lisa Lisa, one of the few prominent heroines in the saga of Jojo's Bizarre Adventure, and a major character in the second part, Battle Tendency. Who Lisa Lisa Is Lisa Lisa is actually Elizabeth Joestar, Joseph's mother, George's wife, and Jonathan and Erina's daughter-in-law. Her real name and true identity remain a secret for much of the series, especially from Joseph, who assumes that his mother died in the war. The reason is because George found out a zombie had infiltrated the Royal Flying Corps, but since he couldn't use Hamon, the zombie killed him. Elizabeth then set out to avenge her husband, and killed the zombie, but ended up being caught in the act. As a woman who killed a British army officer, she became an international fugitive, and ha

 Newer Persona fans may not realize this, but in the original version of Persona 3 and the FES remake, you could only control your player character, and could only give general instructions to your party members(for example "Conserve SP"). All this changed in the fourth game, which gave players the ability to control all their party members, a feature that caused some controversy when it was included in Persona 3 Portable. I'm firmly on the side of it being a good thing, as well as a necessary part of gameplay. Part of the problem is that the AI party members don't always make the best decisions. It can be hard to tell what their priorities are without investigating the game's code, but they often choose their moves poorly. One meme involves Mitsuru using Marin Karin instead of healing the player, resulting in a Game Over. To elaborate, Marin Karin is a move that has a low chance of charming the enemies and making them your allies. It sounds good in theory, but th

Final Fantasy VII was a step forward for the franchise in many ways, from graphics to storytelling, but it seems rather dated nowadays, especially after the release of the Remake. However, there is one thing that the original does better than the remake- how it introduces main antagonist Sephiroth. Building Sephiroth Up The first time Sephiroth is mentioned is during a flashback to Cloud and Tifa's childhood, when Cloud informs Tifa of his decision to join SOLDIER. He says he hopes to become a hero, just like Sephiroth was, showing that people in-universe hold Sephiroth in awe. Just before Cloud sets the bomb in the second reactor, he has another flashback, this time to five years before the start of the story. He watches as Tifa kneels over her father's corpse, asks if Sephiroth was responsible for his death, and declares her hatred for him, Shinra and everything else. This is a short and relatively cryptic flashback, but it hints that Sephiroth may become a significant antago

 Once again, I will be looking at characters that get the short end of the stick. This time, I'll focus on Nico Robin from One Piece, one of the best characters in the crew, who has gotten lost in the shuffle over the years. Who Robin Is Nico Robin was, at the time of her introduction, the least likely Straw Hat recruit. Most people who join the Straw Hats have all of the following, and I will use Sanji as an example. A dream they can achieve by fighting alongside the Straw Hats. Sanji is searching for the legendary sea, All Blue. A flashback arc establishing the character. Sanji's flashback about meeting Zeff was shown during the Baratie arc, although more details of his past weren't shown until Whole Cake Island. A role they can play in the crew. Sanji plays the vitally important role of a cook, making nutritious food for the Straw Hats and putting his skills to good use at the climax of Whole Cake Island. Now consider Robin, and how she's atypical of the Straw Hats i

 Like most consumers of works of fiction, I have my own ideas as to how things could have been done differently. In fact, I wrote a blog entry about how to improve Octopath Traveler's final dungeon , albeit one that mostly leaves the story unchanged and only expands on some plotlines while making the game less frustrating. That said, one has to wonder whether these visions, from a list of ideas to "fix fics" that rewrite the story according to the author's wishes are necessarily able to surpass the original. Like most ideas, they can be done well or done poorly, but even the best ones have a few recurring problems that are inherent to the concept. To examine this phenomenon, I will look at the Stalking Zuko series, an Avatar: The Last Airbender fanfic trilogy of Stalking Zuko , Not Stalking Zuko  and Not Stalking Firelord Zuko . Here are the basic facts about the trilogy, and why it makes a good case study. It takes place from just after when Zuko joins in "The W

 When the anime adaptation of Tonikawa: Over The Moon For You(also known as Fly Me To The Moon) aired almost immediately after the first season of Rent-A-Girlfriend ended, it was only natural that people would compare the series, both romcoms with significantly different premises. The main characters couldn't possibly be any more different, with Rent-A-Girlfriend's Kazuya being a loser, while Tonikawa's Nasa is nearly flawless. Unsurprisingly, Kazuya is rather divisive while Nasa is well-liked, but Kazuya is ultimately the better character. Life Stories First, let's take a look at the protagonists' life stories. Kazuya , the scion of a family that runs a liquor store, has mostly lived an ordinary life, but has not had much luck with the opposite sex. All that changes when he meets Mami Nanami, a girl who seems to be interested in him... then dumps him after a month, merely because she was done using him. Even with Kazuya's many flaws, which Mami cruelly brings u