#taroth rambles

Season 6 Episode 1 Solaricks is such a treat, Rick ends up explaining a plot point in one sentence: "Your Rick? Yeah, not dead, more like not around. I was hoping he might turn up one day."

One sentence and we get an answer to the question, why did Rick pick exactly that one dimension. Why did the series start on Cronenberg Reality.

And why is it actually called the Prime Reality? Because Rick Prime was the first one to invent portal travel. He went around several realities, handing out this technology, seemingly just for his own ego, and C-137 was the only one to refuse, and because he refused, Prime killed his Diane AND Beth, forcing him to become Rick N° 2 to invent portal travel.

Morty C-137 doesn't exist. But Morty Prime, our Morty is supremely special, because he is from the reality where Rick Sanchez invented portal travel.

AND! THAT'S WHY PORTAL TRAVEL IS REGULATED IN THE CITADEL! BECAUSE NONE OF THEM ACTUALLY INVENTED IT! THAT'S WHY BOOTLEG PORTAL FLUID IS A THING, WHY IT BECOMES A COMMODITY AFTER THE CITADEL IS DESTROYED! THEY DON'T KNOW HOW IT REALLY WOKS! Only Prime and C-137 actually know. Only 2 Ricks are actually as smart as they claim, every other Rick got it as a hand-me-down.

And then that finale, not even a finale, it was EPISODE 5! OUT OF 10! AND FOR SUCH A GOOD REASON! Rick got his vengeance, but he kept living, life kept going after his main purpose was fulfilled, just like how the season kept going after the death of the main antagonist.

I love it, it's like, meta narrative resonance or something, it connects us with Rick not knowing what to so with himself after that, because we also have no idea where it could go next.

I'll never hate Rick and Morty, that ship has sailed.

I bet the ending of the series is Rick giving Morty the formula for portal fluid. A full "I trust you'll know what to do with it" passing of the torch.

One thing it does really well is the clear cut objective truth that the villains cannot be beaten by one individual. Every single fight against an Upper Rank demon is never Guy vs Guy, it's always mutiple people against one of them, and I like that very much.

In that vein, I also like a lot the treatment of the nameless numbers of Demon Slayers. The movie being the first thing I watched, it's a testament to the writing that I could feel their increased strength and change in mindset from the previous arc, and how they can contribute in a pretty major way, it's amazing, and if I watch the movie again, I'll be cheering even harder for them

On that note, the thousand year struggle between Muzan and the Ubuyashiki clan is one of the greatest things I've ever seen. Kagaya's hatred of Muzan is the stuff of legends and it's not the "professional hater" kind, it's the "If I could move, I'd strangle you right now and watch the life drain from your eyes", it's scary, so scary it scared the Demon King himself

And as someone with Feelings™ about parenthood, that Kagaya sees the Demon Slayer Corp as his children, and the Hashira reciprocate it, that got me even in the theater with no context for it

This series' biggest strength however is the animation the fact that almost every single demon is inherently sympathetic because they were and are people too. There's no remorse for their actions and having to stop them, but there is so much sympathy for the idea "why would someone become a demon" and that makes the emotional core of this series very strong.

It also paints Muzan's villainy in a much subtler light, because 99% of the people who become demons only accept it because they are in a vulnerable moment in their lives, and Muzan & co take advantage of that for his goals.

And it's funny too. Inosuke is a freak of nature, Zenitsu is annoying but sometimes he hits it out of the park (samisen), and Tanjiro is Country country bumpkin, it's great

To describe it how I described the movie, when I had no context:

I was dating this woman, and took her out to a fancy restaurant. Despite my best judgement, I ordered something that cost almost all the money I had.

Mid-meal she proposed. I thought it was strange, because she had bought a cheap dress the day before, and she had brought it with her, like she wanted to marry on the spot

She told me it was because she couldn't stay. She couldn't handle living in my town and she hated it. So her idea was to marry as fast as possible and leave immediately after, because then, when we met again, our commitment was already settled.

Next thing, it was a mad dash through government buildings for the fastedt marriage ever officialized, and then straight to an interstate bus, where I watched her disappear between the buildings and the road.

I miss her. I hope wherever she is is treating her better than my town could.

He wants to work on himself, build up some stamina, get physically stronger, help people with evil spirits sometimes and tell Tsubomi how he feels (which is in fact the climax of the story)

The plot almost always happens in spite of him, not because of him

The villains' motives rarely ever involve him directly, they just happen to cross paths

If he's busy, he's never going to be like "Sorry I gotta fight an evil spirit" he'll say "Sorry I gotta go pump some iron", and I know this because HE DID SAY THAT

Ramble ahead

The actual scaling is 174. That doesn't mean much if you don't know the math, except that it is 1 point away from being displayed as an S, an insignificant difference.

Is this a developer decision? Was it deliberate to have the game, for all intents and purposes, lie to the player? Did they mean for it to show as S but misunderstood the math of their own game, leading to a mistake of 1 point that shows a whole letter grade? Was it pure accident, and they don't even check this stuff?

This is one of those things that happens in games sometimes, where your experience will be impacted by what might've been a very small decision.

Another example is in Monster Hunter World Iceborne. Uragaan has a tremendous jump in health from High Rank to Master Rank, such that it has more health than some Elder Dragons, which are supposed to be the hardest fights.

Again, all the same questions apply. How deliberate was this, and how miserable is MR Uragaan because of it, what could've been a very small decision in the scope of a whole expansion?