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 Ah I miss writing rants, but I just couldn't finish anything lately. The amount of unfinished rants is...well not staggering, just two, but that's a lot of unfinished text to me! Part of the reason December came and went was due to Elsword, a game Akira immersed me into...and just yesterday I began playing Path of Exile with friends. Whilst these things are certainly fun, it does not drive my writing brain like analyzing characters or raging about new episode plots or reading fiction does. Yes, lately I've realized that I do have a writer's brain. Even if I may not write as often as I'd like to anymore, I still see everything in life like a potential plot for...well, a story.

Even in an MMO like Elsword will activate the critic that is my brain.

So let us do just that after I've gone through a few characters and read up on some official manga/some unofficial stuff. Let this be a warning that the following will NOT BE PRETTY.

Raven.

The moment my friend chose Raven as his first character and began poking fun at his design...I wondered. Certainly the concept of an evil robotic arm is quite cool, and a character who has lived through war and hardships will look badass to boot. But my friend, while he may have been attempting to inject comedy into our team-grinding, did have a point. They truly overdid it with Raven.

First, let's compare him with characters I already know. Mokou is a similar character I think, too having a lot of anger inside and having quite a difficult past. The problem with Raven is that not a single thing of his past is his fault. I do harp on the flaws a lot, but a character we can all emphasize with is one who SCREWS UP. We're all imperfect people and we like seeing characters mess up as well. I mean in real life we probably wouldn't want to deal with the result of someone screwing up, but in real life efficiency is how the world goes around and in fiction, it is entertainment. Raven just happened to be a highly talented commoner who rose through the ranks. That is all he did. His backstory simply paints himself as highly successful and the only reason he is where he is is because of highly corrupted nobles. How fragile are these nobles' emotional minds for them to mess up some random, perfectly innocent person's life so much just because they were jealous? Or thought a lowly peasant such as Raven could not share the same dining table as them? The backstory itself is interesting yes, nothing against that, but Raven is made out to be a fine, capable gentlemen without any glaring flaws.

Mokou on the other hand is probably responsible for like...99% of her eternal life. Making a mistake that changes the rest of your life is a crippling yet common thing that could happen to you, and while obviously highly unpleasant is definitely something you wouldn't mind watching. After all if the world is not real, we all want to see it burn, or at least temporarily until the heroes douse out the fire. It's what makes it interesting! Raven however, ends up constantly feeling guilt for no reason and feels his must atone for his numerous, numerous sins. I guess something like that is technically a flaw, but when you consider the nature of the rest of the game...it's a rather tiring attitude.

That is not to say Elsword has terrible characters. Eve for example, too has a troubled past. However, she technically did activate King Nasod so he could revive their glorious race...and look what happened! Now she wakes up in a world where her own kind, which look and act nothing like she remembers, are terrorizing the rest of the world, stealing El thingies that cause people to die and such! Good job Eve. But look, now she's awake and can correct her mishap, and then admirably, despite the disastrous result, tries reviving her race again. While the game tries to amplify her "moe" to attain more gamers, she too has a flawed personality...some say she might be too stuck up, others might be amused at her inability to understand mundane things, and how she may react. Eve is the queen of cakes! Or something to that matter, and so...I can see why everyone likes Eve...obviously her playstyle is very unique, and she's probably a challenging character, but her own story and personality to boot is pretty decent as well! 

So we got that? Raven terrible. Eve good.

My friends probably know my opinion of Chung now, after choosing him as my first character. I named him MizuMax, after Max from Beyblade because honestly that was who he reminded me of at first. Then, despite the obvious coolness that is Deadly Chaser, I chose the Iron Paladin path, so the name isn't especially accurate nowadays, but it's not especially accurate character-wise either. Here we have Chung Seiker, Prince of Hamel. His father was stolen by the demons and turned by them, and now he seeks to grow stronger so he could protect everyone, a desire he's had since he was a child. Does this remind you of anyone? No? I'll give you a hint. He's the lead character in a manga I will never, ever, stop raging about.

Fucking Negi Springfield.

At first I thought Elsword, particularly his magic job path would fit Negi more, but then I soon realized WHY Chung annoyed me so much. I liked both characters at the start....for different reasons, but Negi was refreshing. In a world of shounen idiot heroes he isn't one, and his main flaw was his inexperience. But as time went by that flaw disappeared and nothing else replaced it, which was okay for the moment. He had an aggravating flaw of not trusting his comrades to take care of themselves, like they were all babies needing protecting and had no ability to defend themselves. I thought this flaw, though quite annoying, would fix itself when the rest of the characters took leaps through the power levels too. EXCEPT THEY NEVER DID.

So...Negi's so-called flaw ended up almost being justified because he was sole character who could actually fight, the rest of the fighters were nowhere near his level and everyone else, while providing intelligence or support of some sort, still have no ability to actually keep themselves from dying. The amount of BIG DAMN HEROES from the most obvious person over and over again was so old I have no idea why I kept reading, but I still wanted to see the other characters developed at least emotionally. I thought, "Oh, Sayo will get her day in the limelight!" and then the manga ended in the worst possible ending ever, and now I never want to touch that manga again. 

Oh, did I go on a tangent? Well anyway that is perhaps the reason of my undeserved dislike towards Chung, but we already have Raven who seems to be highly talented, and is only where he is because of everyone else. Chung too seems to share this, and doesn't have any apparent flaw. Maybe he's too naive? Maybe he's too straightforward? Golly gee I don't know. Oh sure he's cute and looks like Pikachu, and looks pretty damn awesome (him and every other character) but I mean...if we're meant to identify with him...ehhh. I guess all can do is joke on his feminine-looks and move on. 

Despite how it sounds, shockingly this post is not to bash on all male Elsword characters. The title character himself, despite many believing him to be the obvious shounen lead with the idiotic tendencies, is in fact, not an idiot hero.

Well okay, maybe Sheath Knight is. Damn annoying yell.

But Elsword's biggest flaw is apparently...being a boy. He's not idiotic. The reason Aisha seems to have a problem with him is that he is a BOY. He does not listen and only looks forward! He only wants to find his sister and become stronger. BOYS DO THAT. They don't understand how a girl thinks and a girl does not understand how a boy thinks. Yes he's stubborn and all that, and in the silly 4koma gag comics he seems to be lazy and terrible at studies, but he doesn't seem to be horribly stupid or naive, nor does he have a ridiculously optimistic outlook that brightens everyone else's day. If anything I find Elsword to be an introvert. Sure he befriended Eve in a rather idiot-hero way, but he seems less focused on making friends and becoming COMRADES and more on his task at hand. Elsword isn't especially unique or especially interesting, but he's not...practically perfect like the other two. It feels like Elsword is their failed attempt AT an idiot hero, and instead he's some sort of hybrid between that perfect archetype and idiot hero. Elsword is just a boy, and frankly, compared to most other characters...I like that. Elboy, what a proper nickname.

So we've done four, you get the last two? Chung bad. Elsword good.

You know what? We're continuing the pattern. Yes I praised Eve, but like the males there is only one good female character. Aisha and Rena aren't practically perfect like Raven and Chung, they're just flat. I wanted to like them both, I did. Aisha's backstory while rather short and devoid of much information does have potential. She reminds me of both my fandoms, being a tiny little girl with ridiculous power, so I thought Aisha would be a lock on my like list. Sadly she seems to be forced into the "tsundere" role, and not even a particularly interesting one either. The pairings I hate the most are the ones that supplant character to make the pairing, and Aisha feels like she's only there to be with Elsword really. You can't really define Aisha much without Elsword in there, ruining her day. 

I too wanted to like Rena. She seems to fit the wise-mentor bill which I like as well, if Keine is any indication. But sadly all Rena is, is team-mom with an angry streak, and that is just a trait they seem to be driving into my head with a nail as if it's interesting or something. If anything, Rena could become a character with much depth, if she's experienced the world compared to the rest of the characters, but I find a character like that, while highly rewarding to develop and discover, is incredibly difficult to pull off. Oh, and she's also Miss Fanservice. If Eve is there for moe, Rena plays the more traditional role of having jiggly boobs. How gratifying. And Aisha is there for the lolicons. How else can you explain VP!? 

But you know what? I guess asking for character from a bloody MMO is pointless. It's an MMO. You play for gameplay. The characters could all be mustelids or something and we'd still play if we get to kill things in flashy ways. The problem is one of Elsword's catchphrases or whatever for advertisements is "play your manga!" and I would NOT read a manga like this. The only thing manga-like about it besides the animesque design is how overdone their costumes are. It's like you're playing Final Fantasy if they were manga characters because belts are everywhere and everyone must have the coolest attire, like ever. 

Now that that is done with, here is the transition into a My Little Pony rant. Because we all love MLP. 

This is hopefully to make up for the lack of episodic reviews, which I highly regret not doing for Sleepless in Ponyville. That episode is definitely one of the best of the series. Unfortunately I can't say the same for the rest of season three so far. Magic Duel was pretty good, had an interesting twist at the end and while reforming Trixie seemed rather pointless, it wasn't done badly or anything. But this week, or the last, Discord was recently reformed...in quite possibly the most abrupt way ever via Fluttershy. Now granted Fluttershy truly is a powerful weapon for pulling you away from the dark side, what with her being even sweeter than cookies, but writing-wise that episode was just bad. Discord did seem in-character, but the rest of the characters felt like they were less like themselves and forced into a role. Rather than the characters writing the episode (something I immensely enjoy from MLP) it was more like the plot wrote the characters, and forced them into the roles they had. 

Ultimately I feel that episode only existed because they wanted to bring John De Lancie back. That's it. There was no other reason for it to exist but for the voice to be heard once again. If one of the more seasoned writers had wrote it, and given it a two-parter to give the character of Discord some justice it might've felt relevant to the show, but because it was only one episode and forced into twenty-two minutes, they didn't have enough time or put enough thought into how they'd properly return such a celebrated villain. Oh well. Perhaps they're running out of ideas for Fluttershy episodes since most of them have similar concepts, or they could've had a RARITY episode this season instead of a Fluttershy one since they apparently enjoy writing her and she makes some amazing episodes. What I miss the most from season one are episodes that focused on two characters and their relationship with each other, like Green Isn't Your Colour. I've mentioned it before but it seems all the episodes revolve around one character, and just them, or that character and a bunch of new characters, but never with another one of the Mane Six. God forbid their friendship be improved or developed! One of my favourite fanfictions (I'm reading again, why else am I able to rant?) I've read was a simple slice-of-life story between Rarity and Pinkie Pie after the events of The Last Roundup. It was touching and just like an episode I miss from MLP. 

In terms of individual characters...I thought quite a bit more of Wonderbolt Academy and actually, I think I'll have to knock down a few pegs. Initially I quite liked the episode, but then realized Rainbow Dash was a little too heavenly and saint-like than usual. It's like Mare-Do-Well's lesson worked SO WELL that Dash could become the very image of modesty or something. An episode like this after that one is actually one of my many fears for MLP, that because every episode is based on a moral, all the flaws the characters had start becoming less like flaws, and then they aren't themselves anymore and have developed as far as they can and the show ends. It's okay if it happens gradually, but it happened so abruptly for Dash, it's not like throughout the episodes in-between she became a better person, did she? Maybe reading Daring Do books helped out or something, but the character development was not shown. In Spike at Your Service she seemed to be written as especially cocky again, so I have no idea. RD sadly does not have a lot of good episodes at all, even Sonic Rainboom, her best episode, still had the problem of vilifying Rarity way beyond her character. (Seriously, she's a fashion designer and what she wore does not look good in any circumstance through any sane person's eyes) Yes, Rarity adores attention, but that outfit she wore was so god awful and off-character it kind of screwed everything up.

I still think RD has potential to be a good role model because well, Sleepless in Ponyville, but if you've dreamed FOREVER to be in the Wonderbolts I don't really think, despite what happened, she would be noble enough to drop that dream so easily because of how the Academy was being run. Maybe such a result would be more believable if it didn't all take place in a bloody week, but throughout like a whole year's worth of training or something. Another case of shoving a huge Aesop in a tiny, tiny timeframe.

But man do I love Sleepless in Ponyville. They definitely did Scootaloo justice!