Ottservia

Well if we’re gonna go with shounen manga themes perhaps a shinigami samurai banner? I mean we already have pirates and Ninjas it only seems fair.

That’s kind of how I always interpreted it honestly

You completely missed the point of what I was trying to say. Like Jotari said you confusing power scaling with what Power levels are supposed to represent within the confines of the narrative. The only characters in dragonball who care at all about their power level are villains. They flaunt their power level. They view their power level as something to be feared. The heroes aren’t like that. They don’t flaunt their power levels. To them power levels are simply just a number that doesn’t reflect the quality of who they are as people. To the villains power levels are everything. It defines them. You notice that when Vegeta becomes a good guy he stops giving a shit about power levels and starts to care more about protecting his new family which is the whole point of his character arc. You’re not supposed to take Power levels as this hard mathematical rule. That is how the villains view power levels and you’re not supposed to agree with the villains that’s why they’re villains. The point of power levels as a narrative tool is to show how little they actually matter because they don’t reflect who a person truly is. Like even in older manga like kinnikuman you see this trope where characters with supposedly high power levels are beaten by characters with extremely low power levels because the point is that power levels aren’t everything and you shouldn’t let yourself be defined by them.

How does that prove me wrong exactly? That doesn’t undo the fact that the only characters in dragonball that give a shit about power levels are villains and guess what they’re supposed to be wrong. This is even reflected in how a lot of the “good guys” are able to hide their power levels because they don’t flaunt it like the villains do. Power levels in dragon ball have never really mattered and that’s kind of the point because it’s supposed to show that one’s power level doesn’t reflect the quality of their character.

Here’s the thing about power levels in dragon ball though they never mattered. You notice that the only characters who care about power levels in the series are villains who are supposed to be wrong.

I don’t understand why people like to dunk on the power of friendship so much. If anything I personally find it to be one of the most meaningful and heartfelt messages you can put into your story especially nowadays with everyone cooped up inside. It’s more realistic than you think. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve almost given up if not for my friends belief in me. I know that sounds corny but I feel like we take for granted the people in our lives. Think about what loneliness would be like. What it would be like to never have a shoulder to lean on. No one to talk to. No one to rely on you. No one to confide in or to ask for help. I dunno about you but that sounds like a terrible place to be. What I like about the power of friendship in fiction is that it basically gives those feelings an exaggerated physical form be it through a literal power up or something smaller like one character never giving up to protect or help a friend. Or throwing their life away for them. Or hell, a character realizing they view another as a friend and deciding to run in and help them. Moments like that create for some of the most emotional resonate moments in storytelling if you ask me and it’s something we can all relate to some extent cause we all know what it’s like to have a friend or to want one. Humans are social creatures. We don’t like being alone.

Not like I disagree, I just personally feel there are bigger issues to criticize about SoV’s storytelling than Zofia’s succession issue(Like Conrad’s pointless role in the story for instance). Speaking of where is stated that Conrad is the older brother? I always thought he was the younger sibling.

I mean there is a such thing as show don’t tell though. There are some things the author doesn’t need to outright explain because that can be inferred through context clues and other subtle pieces of information. Not everything about a story’s world needs to be info dumped to the reader like they’re children. Hell, even stories made for children understand this(i refer you to the entirety of shounen jump’s library for this). Sometimes information like this isn’t necessary to explain because it’s not important. Also every story, especially fantasy, stories all operate under their own rules which are never 1:1 with reality. You’re correct in that it’s a story’s job to explain those rules but the only time that becomes a problem is when a story breaks its own rules not the rules of reality. Stories will never fully follow the rules of reality. They construct their own rules within their own world. If the story’s world is established to have some grounding in reality then yes those differences should be explained to an extent. But stuff like a character bleeding gallons of blood only for them to be completely fine afterwards is not something that needs to be explained as it was an exaggeration for the sake of dramatic or comedic effect. I could go but I’m rambling at this point and I’d rather not derail the thread. tl;dr I both agree and disagree with you here. There’s just a lot more nuance to that discussion than what you claim.

https://youtu.be/a2GujJZfXpg

That’s kind of like every tsundere ever though. Or at the very least the well written ones. That’s kind of how you play the archetype straight. The only time a tsundere’s tsun side isn’t treated as a flaw is when the character is a highly fetishized caricature used for harem bait

Well like the thing about Japanese is that usually you refer to someone by their family name unless there’s a level of familiarity between you. Or it could’ve been an honorifics thing which doesn’t translate well into English. I would assume in Japanese she referred to him with the honorific “kun” or even “niichan” which would make his outburst a lot more understandable considering those honorifics are really only used with people you are close to and are pretty rude(or just weirdly fetishistic in the case of the latter) otherwise.

Not necessarily that depends on the story and message it’s trying to tell. If the story puts heavy emphasis on such things to tell its larger message then yes it does need to explain those things. In situations where it’s more of a footnote, I don’t believe it to be necessary. That sort of stuff is best left to supplementary material like artbooks, anthology comics, tie in novels, etc. where those things can be freely explored without bogging down the overarching narrative. World building isn’t the end all be all. In my experience it’s probably the least important aspect of storytelling but that’s just me.

While I completely agree with this sentiment, it’s not wrong to feel the way he does about this. I mean I wouldn’t call it valid or constructive criticism at all because I don’t think it is but nothing wrong with airing personal grievances with a story so long as one understands that the quality of the work is not dictated by one’s personal preferences.

I mean to be fair adding an explanation for it wouldn’t bog down the story too much. At most it would be just be a couple lines of dialogue. Personally, it’s that kind of information that makes for good base conversation or support material.

Does the story really need to though? I mean if you can come up with a reasonable explanation then I think it’s fine cause it’s not like it’s that big of a plot point or anything. It’s not like Vallite curse where a detailed explanation for how it works would make the story less confusing. The only thing something like that would add would be to add more depth to Conrad’s character. I mean granted he does need a little more fleshing out because as it stands he’s about as interesting as stale white bread(like the majority of SoV’s cast). But I dunno it just seems like a minor thing that wouldn’t change much even if it was added. Like my philosophy towards these sorts of things is that if it doesn’t add anything of note to the story then it’s not needed. If it doesn’t add anything or make the story more interesting then I don’t see why it’s necessary.