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Thesarum
Joined: 25 Mar 2022
Posts: 414
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Posted: Sun May 05, 2024 4:35 pm
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FanGamer24 wrote: | Yeah, I thought it was pretty clear that the characters fear death because:
1. Dieing is still scary and painful no matter how temporary it may or may not be.
2. Depending on how and where they die there is no guarantee of their bodies being found and resurrected. |
I think this is true, but at the same time the "stakes" of the Falin encounter were never about death really. We're "supposed" to take death just about as seriously as you do in games. It's a problem, sure, but also not a big one most of the time.
Nev999 wrote: |
But the real horror and tension is what Falin turned into, as others have pointed out. And if she kills Marcille or Laios, even if they come back, that would likely traumatize them (Marcille especially, I feel like)--that was honestly the thing I was most worried about when
I first read that chapter.
The emotional impact is what matters here, and permanently killing off some ninjas we've barely met would feel cheap in comparison of how much it hurts everyone to see Falin like this. |
Yep, what is serious is everything else that's happening in this encounter besides the deaths. The stakes are the impact her appearance (in both senses) has on each of the people present. We've mostly only seen Falin in flashback through the perspective of the regular party, but what we have seen suggests she is gentle and perhaps a little clumsy and spacey. Her grace, power and sheer violence here are clearly a huge clash with that, which has a number of implications. What might this mean for the collapsing relationship between Shuro and Laios? How does this play in to whatever Kabru has cooking (he once again shows himself to be a brutally efficient hunter of humans, even if he's a little incompetent at dungeon delving)? The nebulous threat of the elves and how they might treat this. And more immediately the mad mage himself.
There's plenty for the party to lose even if their lives aren't truely on the table.
On to this week... I thought like pretty much all of Dungeon Meshi's monsters this was a good twist on the doppelganger type monster. Laios realising he had to determine the fakes by observing them when we're now familiar with the fact that he pretty much sucks at reading humans is a good bit of tension and humour. His realisation that he understands their relationships with monsters far better than he understands them otherwise was great too.
Also, Laios getting carried away with being the alpha dog and Marcelle just unceremoniously torching the monster got good laughs.
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Covnam
Joined: 31 May 2005
Posts: 3672
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Posted: Sun May 05, 2024 5:44 pm
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Great episode this week. Dealing with the duplicates was a fun change of pace after the last few weeks.
Re: Death in the series: When Tansu shoved Namari in front of himself and she got taken out with a headshot I thought that was pretty brutal and that he was pretty awful.
Then he brought her back to life in the next scene and while that scene was now more understandable in how it played out, it also said to me that a normally shocking scene like that in most series, isn't very consequential in this one, taking away the impact of any future scenes in this series.
Thanks!
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SaneSavantElla
Joined: 25 Jan 2013
Posts: 230
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Posted: Sun May 05, 2024 8:24 pm
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Hands down the most hilarious episode since the cockatrice one. I didn't think they could top that (but then again, I didn't think the cockatrice episode would top the frog suit episode) - it just gets better and better! How this series can see-saw between grim and zany and somehow still make it work is beyond me.
Would also like to point out that Laios didn't just suss the impostors out because of their personalities (the finalists seem to be very close to the originals in that regard) -- he did it specifically in the context of their behavior in relation to monsters, which makes it extremely consistent with his character in the series so far. After all, Laios is no Kabru; he is, as everybody else notes, not judgmental towards people. And that's partly because, as Kabru later notes, he just seems to care more towards his passion (monsters) that he tends to neglect social intelligence -- part and parcel of which is forming opinions of and behaving accordingly around other people. Talk about neurodivergent-coded indeed.
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FishLion
Joined: 24 Jan 2024
Posts: 26
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Posted: Fri May 10, 2024 11:05 am
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Nev999 wrote: | What I love about the extra info (and also made clear in the show) is despite not remembering details well, Laios is the least judgemental person out of them and generally gets their vibes and overall physical appearance much more accurately (though he is more focused on one aspect of Marcille over how she is most of the time). Meanwhile everyone's especially judgemental about him. Poor guy. But his ability to understand his party without judgement getting in the way is one of the things that makes him best suited for party leader compared to the others. |
It is so emotional to see how judgmental they are of him. It is very fair to say he is reckless and dangerous and doesn't realize how his actions affect others, between the lack of understanding Shuro and Chilchuck having to beg for him to stop mindlessly chasing his goal his lack of social intelligence is clearly not just an awkward trait but a sometimes dangerous one for his livelihood as a person on a team of adventurers. It just hurts so badly to see firstly because it is a familiar feeling and also because the way he sees things so clearly due to his lack of social understanding is also his strength. Not just because his hard headedness and passion make him function as a glue socially in the party, but because in unfamiliar situations his creativity and willingness to think outside the box is what saves members of the party again and again.
It is very upsetting to see that is their strongest memories of him even if the impressions are not entirely unfair, and he proves this mindset is unfair by using his unconventionality to save everyone again. At the end of the day he has no less expertise than anyone else, it is just in a field that makes people think he is a weirdo. He's not that different from Marcille in that regard, Marcille simply has experience in something that is easy to measure the value of due to the sought after nature of magic as a tool and practice besides her socially devalued knowledge. while Laios has something that would never get him anywhere on a resume yet keeps the party afloat all the time.
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bravenewdust
Joined: 20 Jun 2023
Posts: 5
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Posted: Mon May 13, 2024 9:02 am
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I'm disappointed in this week's review. There was a lot to discuss but this article feels like someone had to meet a minimum wordcount for homework. The opening line is "Episode 19 is another fun two-parter that introduces a bundle of fun ideas wrapped in a charming package." So... a fun episode with fun ideas? The review is short but it literally begins and ends with "the episode was fun". It actually uses the word "fun" five times. It reads like a first draft.
I know this sounds snotty, sorry, I just think there is a lot to dive into with this show and it's being ignored. I love ANN and I come here for the thoughtful analysis and humorous critiques. However, this review simply feels phoned in.
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Sasuke149
Joined: 09 Sep 2009
Posts: 60
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Posted: Mon May 13, 2024 9:08 am
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I am so amused with this series because the only panty shots we get are from Senshi. Idk why but it's so funny.
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malvarez1
Joined: 17 Nov 2008
Posts: 1704
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Posted: Mon May 13, 2024 10:40 am
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This was a really good episode, but it’s also the first time I felt that they didn’t even try creating a transition between the two chapters they adapted.
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FishLion
Joined: 24 Jan 2024
Posts: 26
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Posted: Mon May 13, 2024 11:31 am
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I love firm dad friend Senshi, I hope they keep this dynamic going
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OpenYourEels4TheNextFeels
Joined: 14 Nov 2023
Posts: 60
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Posted: Mon May 13, 2024 2:51 pm
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Reviewer wrote: | Laios fears his constant failures in living up to anyone's expectations |
This description completely ignores the very obvious worries Laios has about being unable to understand other people.
Like, take this line from the Nightmare version of Laios's ex-party member who pretended to still be recovering to get more money from Laios & became a black-market dealer:
Quote: | "Just like back when you were gold-peeling, your comrades will deceive you and take credit for your achievements. Because you're clueless when it comes to reading people." |
That's not problems with "living up to expectations", that's problems with picking up on social cues.
This trend of the reviewer completely glossing over how extremely Neurodivergent-coded Laios is has me very concerned for how things will go later in the series/in later seasons.
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Aezreal
Joined: 05 Apr 2016
Posts: 28
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Posted: Mon May 13, 2024 7:02 pm
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This episode's rendition of the climax of Marcille's dream was beautiful! I continue to be impressed by the sound cues and background themes of this adaptation.
Unfortunately, I have to continue echoing what other folks have said about the reviews. I don't know what's the background for this decline but there have been several episode reviews lately that read like first drafts. For Grant's caliber of writing, they're just plain uninspired. I used to love reading his tweets dissecting One Piece when I still used twitter (and I don't even like OP!) and more recently I still greatly enjoyed his article about Toriyama. So I bear him no ill-will, quite the contrary. Coming from someone who likes his writing when his soul is in it, I've been disappointed by the surface-level commentary and repetitive wording employed.
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Gina Szanboti
Joined: 03 Aug 2008
Posts: 11396
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Posted: Mon May 13, 2024 9:00 pm
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He's also back to calling Marcille "Marceille." Since he finally got her name right last week, it's frustrating to see him relapse.
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