I went back and watched Kung Fu Panda and I still think that story is mid. Some people think Kung Fu Panda is this masterful trilogy and I don't think it's even close. All of them have serious issues and while the first movie is the best one, it still drops the ball.
Kung Fu Panda is very direct with what its theme is. There is no secret ingredient; to make something special, you just believe it's special. We can apply this to the dragon warrior. There is no secret ingredient to being the dragon warrior. To be the dragon warrior, you just believe it. This is the big revelation near the climax of the movie.
...it's also wrong.
Tai Lung is one of the biggest contradictions in the movie to this theme. One of his lines to the messenger is "Fly back there and tell them, the REAL dragon warrior is coming home". Later on in the movie when he fights Shifu, he says this "You knew I was the dragon warrior. You always knew but when Oogway said otherwise, what did you do? Nothing". He genuinely believes that he's the dragon warrior and that Po is a fake. So why isn't Tai Lung the dragon warrior if all he has to do is believe? Because it's a load garbage. This is why the theme of the movie is so hollow.
So why is Po the dragon warrior and Tai Lung not or anyone else for that matter? Because in truth, there IS a secret ingredient. Destiny. And that word destiny is used multiple times in the movie. What is destiny? What does that mean?
Destiny: A predetermined course of events considered as something beyond human power or control (edited)
[6:44 PM]
Belief in yourself is something that is in your control while destiny is something that isn't. This is where the thematic contradiction lies in the movie. It doesn't matter if you believe you're the dragon warrior if you weren't destined to be. Winners and losers are picked by "the universe".
I was playing ninja gaiden razor's edge on wiiu and holy crap, that game starts off hard.
I don't know if it has a name but there's an incredibly unique mechanic where if you heavy attack while an enemy is in a grab, you do not just a counter but can also chain instant kills to any other enemies nearby.
the dodge roll is now a slide instead and it can be used to stun enemies in its path.
the use of ki is still there sort of. Instead of charging the heavy attack to absorb nearby ki, your sword has a bloody glow that I guess comes from overkilling enemies or obliterating them with heavy attacks thus giving the charge a speed boost.
the heavy attack outside of the basic Y combo string is now context sensitive so it can do any number of finishing moves.
one downside is how much the camera zooms in during these moments when I still want to see what's going on around me
I might make a video where I just vent about One Piece for an hour.
I'm at the Water 7 arc and it really is the point where the show hits its stride. One Piece is an anime I've struggled to commit to. Multiple times I've found myself either horrifically bored or frustrated with the events occurring.
One Piece reminds me a lot of how I felt watching Dragonball Super. It had good ideas but faltered with poor execution and just stupid moments. Luffy is annoying as hell. He's one of the worst parts of the show. One Piece's "comedy" most of the time fails miserably. There's nothing endearing about the fact that Luffy is stupid.
One Piece however also fails in its action. There are characters whose victories are not earned. What brought me to write this post was how fucking bullshit the battle between Luffy and Lucci was. It's that same bullshit of characters having infinite stamina because nakama power. Look how much I'm yelling. My emotions are so intense for my friends right now. It's just...
I need to take advantage of community posts more. I've been making devlogs in the past month. I posted a smaller update on twitter here: https://twitter.com/torvustalon/status/1721639542535381499
