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Avulsion
Feb 12, 2006
I never knew what hit me

Coffee Mugshot posted:

The way he was talking it seems like he was speaking from direct experience, although not necessarily direct experience with Joe.

Urek's backstory is that he's trying to escape the tower, not rule it. He saw Joe as a miniature version of himself, which is why he felt betrayed when Joe gave up on escaping the Floor of Death and made himself a king.

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logger
Jun 28, 2008

...and in what manner the Ancyent Marinere came back to his own Country.
Soiled Meat

Avulsion posted:

Urek's backstory is that he's trying to escape the tower, not rule it. He saw Joe as a miniature version of himself, which is why he felt betrayed when Joe gave up on escaping the Floor of Death and made himself a king.

He probably also realizes that if Joe forgets he had the Red Thryssa and what he did once he obtained it, he would probably feel more content than if he had no power at all like it was at the beginning.

nimby
Nov 4, 2009

The pinnacle of cloud computing.



I like how casual they are about mindwiping the people on the floor of death. Makes me wonder how often they've done it.

hey girl you up
May 21, 2001

Forum Nice Guy

nimby posted:

I like how casual they are about mindwiping the people on the floor of death. Makes me wonder how often they've done it.

I wonder Brad Meltzer's gonna get writing credit on this arc

Hirethor
Dec 16, 2008

You think you know hip?
YOU DON'T KNOW SHIT ABOUT BEING HIP!
http://www.webtoons.com/en/fantasy/tower-of-god/season-2-ep-260/viewer?title_no=95&episode_no=341

Two Tone Shoes
Jan 2, 2009

All that's missing is the ring.
Only expected to get some wind down and setup issues after the craziness that was FoD.

Nice to see Baam continuing on his absurd ascent to godhood.

Bernardo Orel
Sep 2, 2011

This train seriously has no brakes :black101:

hey girl you up
May 21, 2001

Forum Nice Guy

Bernardo Orel posted:

This train seriously has no brakes :black101:

uh its been shown to stop at stations on a number of floors now maybe you should pay more attention

Shugojin
Sep 6, 2007

THE TAIL THAT BURNS TWICE AS BRIGHT...


hey girl you up posted:

uh its been shown to stop at stations on a number of floors now maybe you should pay more attention

Motion is relative, the stations actually speed up!!!

(I wish, that'd be kinda cool)

hey girl you up
May 21, 2001

Forum Nice Guy

Shugojin posted:

Motion is relative, the stations actually speed up!!!

(I wish, that'd be kinda cool)
waiting to find out that's what actually happens, who knows in this place

Gologle
Apr 15, 2013

The Gologle Posting Experience.

<3


Thanks Yuri, I'll do that. :unsmith:

Gologle fucked around with this message at 18:13 on Jul 31, 2017

Jose
Jul 24, 2007

Adrian Chiles is a broadcaster and writer
shame he won't heed urek's advice to just do his own thing

Two Tone Shoes
Jan 2, 2009

All that's missing is the ring.
New ToG for your reading pleasure: http://www.webtoons.com/en/fantasy/tower-of-god/season-2-ep-261/viewer?title_no=95&episode_no=342

Man I feel bad for Endorsi. Can't even get Baam to give her the time of day when Rachel's around.

khy
Aug 15, 2005

I like the top comment on this update.

quote:

This is why people hate Rachel in a nutshell. It's not because she's more evil than the some of the other characters, or because she tried to kill Bam- it's because she doesn't deserve any of what she has. She has no merit or skills that justifies how far she got. All she has done is take advantage of others. That is the only thing she has.

I can definitely understand that sentiment. She's been the one so focused on climbing the tower that her disappearance set the entire story into motion, but every time she encounters an obstacle she bitches about how unfair it is and how hard things are. It's been like that since the very beginning, when Headon gave her the option to take the Ball test, and where Bam simply gave it his best, she sat there and whined. And it hasn't changed. She's still whining.

Two Tone Shoes
Jan 2, 2009

All that's missing is the ring.
There's some irony in her complaining when she's been given more on a silver platter than anyone. At least Baam had to actually struggle and train and fight to get what he has. Endorsi has one of the more depressing backstories. Rachel just gets opportunity after opportunity after team after FUG support every which way you look and her primary character motivation is jealous ambition.

One day we'll get her full story I suppose.

Ytlaya
Nov 13, 2005

But she's a whiner who survives, one way or another.

Genocyber
Jun 4, 2012

khy posted:

I like the top comment on this update.


I can definitely understand that sentiment. She's been the one so focused on climbing the tower that her disappearance set the entire story into motion, but every time she encounters an obstacle she bitches about how unfair it is and how hard things are. It's been like that since the very beginning, when Headon gave her the option to take the Ball test, and where Bam simply gave it his best, she sat there and whined. And it hasn't changed. She's still whining.

That's a pretty garbage comment, imo. She may be receiving a lot of outside help but so has Bam, and it's not like most of the other characters don't possess unfair advantages. They've got this far through hard work, yes, but also pure luck, family advantages, and innate talent, none of which Rachel has. Which is an important part of the overall point the comic seems to be making, a criticism of stratified meritocracies like the one in the Tower or more relevantly, a lot of modern societies. A point that comment misses entirely when it claims "she has no merit or skills that justify how far she got," which is all the more hilarious given the chapter couldn't have made it clearer by placing her up against a literal-chosen-by-god heroine. Nevermind that Rachel has shown herself to be a somewhat shrewd manipulator, if not on the same level as someone like Khun.

The dregs in the comments hate her because she's a woman who is in a largely adversarial position and who does not have any traditionally appealing qualities like beauty or being a badass, full stop.

Two Tone Shoes
Jan 2, 2009

All that's missing is the ring.
Some people hate Rachel because she's an awful person who does awful things to otherwise good or likable people. I certainly don't like her personality or actions in isolation even if I think she's interesting to the story. Some people can't get past that first part.

Two Tone Shoes fucked around with this message at 19:37 on Aug 7, 2017

Ytlaya
Nov 13, 2005

Two Tone Shoes posted:

Some people hate Rachel because she's an awful person who does awful things to otherwise good or likable people. I certainly don't like her personality or actions in isolation even if I think she's interesting to the story. Some people can't get past that first part.

Hate towards her is definitely disproportionate. Rachel is a bad person, but so are many others in this setting, and an uncomfortable number of comments about Rachel mention how ugly she is.

Jose
Jul 24, 2007

Adrian Chiles is a broadcaster and writer
I'd just like her to not be so prominent in the story for a while now that baam has moved on

Two Tone Shoes
Jan 2, 2009

All that's missing is the ring.

Ytlaya posted:

Hate towards her is definitely disproportionate. Rachel is a bad person, but so are many others in this setting, and an uncomfortable number of comments about Rachel mention how ugly she is.

I think the ugly thing is because the comic itself called her ugly constantly. It was a pretty constant thing and it just stuck. Most of the insults people call Rachel she calls herself, it's not much of a reach.

Jose posted:

I'd just like her to not be so prominent in the story for a while now that baam has moved on

Baam has so clearly not moved on. If he had he'd have left her dead. Even beyond that if he had he wouldn't be humoring her want to take his Thorn from him.

Wrist Watch
Apr 19, 2011

What?

khy posted:

I like the top comment on this update.


I can definitely understand that sentiment. She's been the one so focused on climbing the tower that her disappearance set the entire story into motion, but every time she encounters an obstacle she bitches about how unfair it is and how hard things are. It's been like that since the very beginning, when Headon gave her the option to take the Ball test, and where Bam simply gave it his best, she sat there and whined. And it hasn't changed. She's still whining.

Rachael isn't a whiner, she's realistic. It's just that everybody on Bam's side is insanely overpowered and lucky. She's doing what she is to climb the tower incredibly quickly and using/abusing others to do so, while Bam and pals have practically effortlessly coasted throughout floors that are supposed to be so difficult to climb that entire towns have popped up on them like with that one loan shark controlled floor.

Also, you should take another look at the first few chapters if you think that's how it went. She objected that the "test" was bullshit because it was literally assisted suicide, Hedrom even says as much to Bam when he offered it to him. It's not meant to be beatable, it's to keep people out which is why the few irregulars that make it through are insanely powerful people that can disrupt the entire tower. Even then, he only beat it by being stupidly lucky and having one of the strongest princesses give him one of the strongest weapons we know of and then got even more lucky by having it take a liking to him and ignite.

Rachael's done some heinous poo poo and I'm not defending that at all but she's essentially just been making her own luck since she doesn't have the insane skills/brute force to fall back on like everyone else seems to have.

Shugojin
Sep 6, 2007

THE TAIL THAT BURNS TWICE AS BRIGHT...


Baam also got through that by being a loving crazy person who throws the notion of his own safety away at the drop of a hat. Evan saw that there was one path but figured no one would take it so he didn't say it, then was stunned that Baam just let the eel eat him so he could get a good stab in at its mouth.

khy
Aug 15, 2005

Wrist Watch posted:

Rachael isn't a whiner, she's realistic. It's just that everybody on Bam's side is insanely overpowered and lucky. She's doing what she is to climb the tower incredibly quickly and using/abusing others to do so, while Bam and pals have practically effortlessly coasted throughout floors that are supposed to be so difficult to climb that entire towns have popped up on them like with that one loan shark controlled floor.

Also, you should take another look at the first few chapters if you think that's how it went. She objected that the "test" was bullshit because it was literally assisted suicide, Hedrom even says as much to Bam when he offered it to him. It's not meant to be beatable, it's to keep people out which is why the few irregulars that make it through are insanely powerful people that can disrupt the entire tower. Even then, he only beat it by being stupidly lucky and having one of the strongest princesses give him one of the strongest weapons we know of and then got even more lucky by having it take a liking to him and ignite.

Rachael's done some heinous poo poo and I'm not defending that at all but she's essentially just been making her own luck since she doesn't have the insane skills/brute force to fall back on like everyone else seems to have.

I think a lot of it is in the fact that it feels like Baam, Khun, and the others may be crazy stupid powerful but in a way it feels like they 'earned' that power by taking risks, working hard, and making the attempt. Yeah, they had the advantage of being born to a special family, or being an irregular, or whatever - but they weren't really just handed victory as much as they fought and earned it.

On the other hand Rachel has bribed, backstabbed, betrayed, manipulated, and coerced her way up and now has been given what appears to be some kind of strong-rear end invisible weaponized fish thing without having put in the effort to earn it. It's like seeing a TV show or movie about an underdog working hard and battling his way to the top only to be met there by some rich kid who bought his way to his position. Since the audience feels like "Oh he didn't put in the effort" they feel like he's reprehensible for being where he is. Which, now that I typed it up, makes it feel super similar to Prince and how he was despised before he joined Team Sweet and Sour and started pulling his own weight to advance. Since she didn't advance on her own power the audience gets a feeling that she cheated her way up, and while 'manipulation and coersion' is its own form of strength it's one that people look down on. She's a cheater, she's a leech, etc.

khy fucked around with this message at 00:00 on Aug 8, 2017

Wrist Watch
Apr 19, 2011

What?

Oh no, I totally agree. It's what makes her character so interesting to me.

I like the complaint she makes in the current chapter that she and Endorssi basically have just as much blood on their hands as the other does, because the only real difference is that Rachael never got any powerup from doing so. That's just her entire life. She's got a bunch of advantages from doing so but in exchange is basically constantly living on a knife's edge where she's constantly being used in return, nearly everybody she knows hates her or would kill her the moment she stopped being useful, and she can never ever stop because the stakes have simply gotten too high at this point.

It might have stemmed from petty, selfish origins, but Baam's refusal to let her go isn't the most pure thing in the world either. It doesn't help that despite her throwing her pride away to progress, Baam keeps showing up and accomplishing her dream with zero effort (as it appears to her anyway, the audience sees what he has to do to get there).

Ytlaya
Nov 13, 2005

But Baam is way more of a "rich kid" in this scenario than Rachel. While he's brave, he's benefitted greatly from luck (which makes sense, since it's literally his destiny to succeed). You could even argue that stuff like committing murder and being hated is a "cost" Rachel is willing to pay, since it clearly is really hard for her, at least in the case of that guy from team sweet and sour (and it's not like murder is totally beyond the pale in this setting).

Rachel literally can't compete with Baam unless she relies on others; it's impossible for her to become that strong. None of this makes her not a bad person, but I would much rather be Baam than her as far as climbing the tower goes.

khy
Aug 15, 2005

Ytlaya posted:

Rachel literally can't compete with Baam unless she relies on others; it's impossible for her to become that strong. None of this makes her not a bad person, but I would much rather be Baam than her as far as climbing the tower goes.

The difference is that Baam puts forth the effort while Rachel gives up without even trying. It's one thing to try and fail, but it's another to give up before even making the attempt. Remember, Rachel and Baam were both outside the tower - doesn't that mean she's just as 'irregular' as he is? She may lack his bloodline but that doesn't necessarily mean she can't have any power of her own.

Wouldn't it be amusing if we found out later on that Rachel has nearly the same power that Baam has, but because she never actually put any effort into using it or learning it that it never matured? That she could have been as powerful as Baam from the get go if she'd actually had a spine and put forth the effort, but because she didn't she'll likely never catch up to him?

Wrist Watch
Apr 19, 2011

What?

khy posted:

The difference is that Baam puts forth the effort while Rachel gives up without even trying. It's one thing to try and fail, but it's another to give up before even making the attempt. Remember, Rachel and Baam were both outside the tower - doesn't that mean she's just as 'irregular' as he is? She may lack his bloodline but that doesn't necessarily mean she can't have any power of her own.

Wouldn't it be amusing if we found out later on that Rachel has nearly the same power that Baam has, but because she never actually put any effort into using it or learning it that it never matured? That she could have been as powerful as Baam from the get go if she'd actually had a spine and put forth the effort, but because she didn't she'll likely never catch up to him?

If Rachel had the gung ho just do it attitude Baam had, she would have died before chapter 1 doing the ball test because she didn't have a princess to swoop in and save her. Baam's bravery only worked out because of extreme coincidence back then, and his continued headstrong nature only works because he outclasses everyone around him by like 50 floors. He can afford to stick his neck out because he's carrying an assault rifle to a fistfight, essentially.

Also I sincerely doubt it'll turn out Rachel has the same powers Baam does because the only original "powers" he has are learning things very easily and being good at controlling shinsuu, both things that we know she isn't good at doing because she's painfully average in every way. Baam never even had to put in significant effort into learning most of his stuff either, it all either came naturally after being shown or after getting hit with it. He spent like a day trying to learn how to make black holes, then gave up and just told the dude to hit him with one because he didn't have time to sit around and learn properly.

Irony.or.Death
Apr 1, 2009


Rachel is by far the most interesting character and SIU gets huge props for ignoring all the complaints about her presence. And I love her invisible bullshit fish too.

Mulva
Sep 13, 2011
It's about time for my once per decade ban for being a consistently terrible poster.

Ytlaya posted:

But Baam is way more of a "rich kid" in this scenario than Rachel.

Nobody in the entire loving Tower not a family head is as blessed as Rachel. Emily alone is more control than any single group in the entire thing wields, and it fell straight into her lap with zero effort. That's the most bullshit part of her claims, she's not an average person. An average person is one of the nameless and faceless horde that, say, get in debt and die trying to climb the Tower because they just can't hack it. That's not her. She isn't normal, she isn't average, and her only loving complaint is she isn't the most important person in all reality.

Boo hoo hoo.

Genocyber
Jun 4, 2012

Mulva posted:

Nobody in the entire loving Tower not a family head is as blessed as Rachel. Emily alone is more control than any single group in the entire thing wields, and it fell straight into her lap with zero effort. That's the most bullshit part of her claims, she's not an average person. An average person is one of the nameless and faceless horde that, say, get in debt and die trying to climb the Tower because they just can't hack it. That's not her. She isn't normal, she isn't average, and her only loving complaint is she isn't the most important person in all reality.

Boo hoo hoo.

Not on its own. Emily is a useful tool for manipulation and information gathering, but there's so many places in the tower where that just isn't going to cut it (The Floor of Death being a good example).

That said, I agree with your point in that she got it without effort. Which I think is the point, it's Emily and the other boons she's gotten from FUG that allow her to be competitive with the other viewpoint characters. To a greater or lesser extent it matches their innate abilities or family connections, and it's the only reasons she's even able to be a main character. Yet a lot of readers perceive her stuff as unfairly gained in comparison to everyone else, which is completely ridiculous.

Ytlaya
Nov 13, 2005

khy posted:

The difference is that Baam puts forth the effort while Rachel gives up without even trying. It's one thing to try and fail, but it's another to give up before even making the attempt. Remember, Rachel and Baam were both outside the tower - doesn't that mean she's just as 'irregular' as he is? She may lack his bloodline but that doesn't necessarily mean she can't have any power of her own.

The only time I can think of that you could be referring to here is the test on floor 1, and Rachel unquestionably made the correct decision there. Baam would have also died if Yuri hadn't shown up and given him Black March (and then Black March responded to him). Both Baam and Rachel have their own advantages, though I would say Baam's ultimately outclass Rachel's.

Also, keep in mind various characters we're familiar with have probably murdered way more people than Rachel. Take Ran Khun for example; I'm sure that guy's killed more Tower randoms than Rachel. Killing is a matter of course in the Tower, and the only thing Rachel has done that's really beyond what you'd normally do is betray Baam (since he was her team mate).

Anyways, Rachel is a good/interesting character. As I said before, she's not a good person, but her motivations are interesting and she's a much better villain (of sorts) than some random powerful sociopath or something.

edit: And there's no reason to think Rachel has power like Baam. She apparently had to train to achieve average-ish skills as a light bearer (as shown in her little fight with Khun a while back), and we've been given no other reason to believe she's secretly powerful (while there are plenty of reasons for that to be the case with Baam).

Wrist Watch
Apr 19, 2011

What?

Mulva posted:

She isn't normal, she isn't average, and her only loving complaint is she isn't the most important person in all reality.

Boo hoo hoo.

So what about her is above average, exactly? Besides her intellect or skill at manipulating people? Because all her allies at this point except Karaka are explicitly weaker than Baam. She has nothing to use against him except Emily and the information about that other dude's painting which is a bluff. She herself pales in strength to Baam, and Khun beat her in a battle of wits. The only thing separating her from any other random person is her connection to FUG and newfound monster thing, except Baam is now interested in climbing to find the truth for himself now instead of just chasing her, so her relationship with them is also most likely even more tenuous than it was before.

I'm not trying to get a sick own here or whatever and I'm not excusing any of her actions, I'm honestly not sure how she doesn't come across as average or at the very least incredibly sub-parcompared to the rest of the protagonists, especially considering the other side here is creating quantum teleportation cages or creating black holes. She's not even winning in intellect which is supposed to be her strong suit. How is she somehow on the level of the rest of the cast in your eyes?

E:

Ytlaya posted:

Anyways, Rachel is a good/interesting character. As I said before, she's not a good person, but her motivations are interesting and she's a much better villain (of sorts) than some random powerful sociopath or something.

This is really all I'm trying to say here. I'm not trying to excuse her actions or anything.

Two Tone Shoes
Jan 2, 2009

All that's missing is the ring.

Wrist Watch posted:

Rachael isn't a whiner, she's realistic. It's just that everybody on Bam's side is insanely overpowered and lucky. She's doing what she is to climb the tower incredibly quickly and using/abusing others to do so, while Bam and pals have practically effortlessly coasted throughout floors that are supposed to be so difficult to climb that entire towns have popped up on them like with that one loan shark controlled floor.

This isn't really true, though. Rachel was plainly invited to join this group of super talented people to climb the Tower. Baam and Khun and even Androssi at the time would've accepted her with open arms -- she was one of the people on Khun's original list of people to take up the Tower, after all.

Rachel's pettiness and jealousy led to her selling out all these people to FUG because they could offer her more power. This is long before Baam's super genius powers showed up, long before she even knew enough about Khun or Princesses to be envious of how "lucky" they are (when all of Khun, Androssi, and Anak have been through far worse than Rachel from what we know). She could've had access to these amazing people and their amazing growth. Shibisu and Hatsu etc weren't all super powerful worldbeaters from the start. They had to improve as they climbed and Rachel could've done that with them.

Instead she was happy to conspire things such that she gets dragged up while doing nothing but feigning injury and, when that comes undone, she jumps ship to a super powerful FUG team to drag her up while she does nothing to improve herself. If Shibisu, a person literally introduced to the story as the averagest Joe around with a good head on his shoulders, can be a core member of a fast climbing team, why couldn't Rachel? We all know she's at the very least clever and manipulative. Maybe not to Khun extremes but not everyone has to be Khun to climb the Tower. She had the chance, she just hates the idea of being "normal" and having to do things the hard way. She takes the easy out at every turn. She thinks the only way to get more powerful is to get some ancient artifact rather than ever try to improve herself. Lucky as Baam is at least he actually trains.

I want to see her get a Thorn only to show she can't possibly use it. Baam, with all his extreme talent, could barely control and use his when he first got it despite all his extremely advanced (for the floor) shinsoo manipulation skill he had.

Two Tone Shoes fucked around with this message at 06:40 on Aug 8, 2017

zerosix
Jun 22, 2012
At a guess Rachel knows what Baam is. Far as i can tell he is an empty vessel made to house... Anything? He drinks in skills, powers, Abilities, even freaking fragments of administrators without a pause to belch.

there were points she cursed the name of his 'Mother' shortly after our learning of it. She knows more then she lets on.

There is a plan for Baam set in motion before his conception. Maybe she just dose not want him to end up were the tower is pushing him to.

zerosix fucked around with this message at 06:35 on Aug 8, 2017

Two Tone Shoes
Jan 2, 2009

All that's missing is the ring.

zerosix posted:

At a guess Rachel knows what Baam is. Far as i can tell he is an empty vessel made to house... Anything? He drinks in skills, powers, Abilities, even freaking fragments of administrators without a pause to belch.

there were points she cursed the name of his 'Mother' shortly after our learning of it. She knows more then she lets on.

There is a plan for Baam set in motion before his conception. Maybe she just dose not want him to end up were the tower is pushing him to.

There's something more to it than that. As Khun said, Rachel could've killed Baam not too long ago.

Maybe it's something as simple as if she killed Baam FUG would've turned on her and she's truly petty without any backstory to color her actions but I'm guessing it's something to do with her backstory, especially after the Arlene reveal.

Two Tone Shoes fucked around with this message at 07:03 on Aug 8, 2017

Gologle
Apr 15, 2013

The Gologle Posting Experience.

<3

Two Tone Shoes posted:

This isn't really true, though. Rachel was plainly invited to join this group of super talented people to climb the Tower. Baam and Khun and even Androssi at the time would've accepted her with open arms -- she was one of the people on Khun's original list of people to take up the Tower, after all.

Rachel's pettiness and jealousy led to her selling out all these people to FUG because they could offer her more power. This is long before Baam's super genius powers showed up, long before she even knew enough about Khun or Princesses to be envious of how "lucky" they are (when all of Khun, Androssi, and Anak have been through far worse than Rachel from what we know). She could've had access to these amazing people and their amazing growth. Shibisu and Hatsu etc weren't all super powerful worldbeaters from the start. They had to improve as they climbed and Rachel could've done that with them.

Instead she was happy to conspire things such that she gets dragged up while doing nothing but feigning injury and, when that comes undone, she jumps ship to a super powerful FUG team to drag her up while she does nothing to improve herself. If Shibisu, a person literally introduced to the story as the averagest Joe around with a good head on his shoulders, can be a core member of a fast climbing team, why couldn't Rachel? We all know she's at the very least clever and manipulative. Maybe not to Khun extremes but not everyone has to be Khun to climb the Tower. She had the chance, she just hates the idea of being "normal" and having to do things the hard way. She takes the easy out at every turn. She thinks the only way to get more powerful is to get some ancient artifact rather than ever try to improve herself. Lucky as Baam is at least he actually trains.

It's basically this, if you want an explanation for all the Rachel hate. She had a shot of progressing up the Tower with a group of people that trusted her, liked her, and would, in Baam's case, happily and proudly sacrificed themselves for her, but because she's just a lovely, jealous person she rejected that and landed herself in the pickle she's in now, surrounded by people who don't really care about her well-being, are just using her as a means to an end, and in several cases want to murder her for the poo poo she's been a part of.

I think, to try to make it even simpler, Rachel is a user. She uses people and when they are no longer valuable to her she throws them aside to get better tools. She has traits that in another setting, if handled better and shown in a better light with a better personality could easily get her main character, heroine, whatever status. But she's also a very selfish girl. Baam never intentionally uses anybody for his own gain, in fact, his entire motivation for gaining strength is to protect the ones he loves. Now being a user isn't too bad a thing, Khun for example is also a user. Most of Season 1 can be described as "Khun's Wild Ride." But it is shown in Season 1 and constantly in Season 2 that he genuinely cares about his friends and Baam in particular. He is devoting all his resources and energy to insuring that someone other than him (Baam) climbs the Tower. He is a user for an altruistic purpose. Rachel is a user for her own selfish purposes.

It seems we are all in agreement that Rachel is a crappy person, but some can't understand the level of vitriol being directed at her, when other characters are shown/heavily implied to be just as bad in different ways, and I think this is basically the reason. She uses people intentionally, Baam never asks any of his friends for anything, they kind of just give their support to him without being coerced or forced into it.

Ytlaya
Nov 13, 2005

Rachel clearly has some sort of conscience though. Killing that bald guy from team sweet and sour clearly really bothered her*, so even if she's doing these evil things she's not a total sociopath. I also feel like we're probably going to learn more about Baam's situation and Rachel's connection to it later that makes her motive more understandable. At the very least, we don't know enough right now to say for sure that her decision to not hang onto Baam's coat-tail was wrong.

*I would go as far as to say that she inherently has more of a conscience regarding killing than most people climbing the Tower. I really doubt Khun or many of Baam's other companions would give a gently caress about killing someone who wasn't part of their team.

Wrist Watch
Apr 19, 2011

What?

Two Tone Shoes posted:

This isn't really true, though. Rachel was plainly invited to join this group of super talented people to climb the Tower. Baam and Khun and even Androssi at the time would've accepted her with open arms -- she was one of the people on Khun's original list of people to take up the Tower, after all.

Rachel's pettiness and jealousy led to her selling out all these people to FUG because they could offer her more power. This is long before Baam's super genius powers showed up, long before she even knew enough about Khun or Princesses to be envious of how "lucky" they are (when all of Khun, Androssi, and Anak have been through far worse than Rachel from what we know). She could've had access to these amazing people and their amazing growth. Shibisu and Hatsu etc weren't all super powerful worldbeaters from the start. They had to improve as they climbed and Rachel could've done that with them.

Unless I'm misunderstanding that one chapter recently, it's established that Rachel knew Baam was the ~chosen one~ all along, the whole reason she started climbing the tower without Baam is because she wanted to fill that role instead. The irony is that he was so attached to her that he never probably would have cared about the tower at all if she hadn't left him. Rachel could never climb with Baam, replacing him is literally her whole motivation for being there. Consequently, chasing her was Baam's selfish reason for gaining power and climbing. Up until they got on the train the first time he couldn't have cared less about the tower at all, he just wanted her to come back with him.

Gologle posted:

It seems we are all in agreement that Rachel is a crappy person, but some can't understand the level of vitriol being directed at her, when other characters are shown/heavily implied to be just as bad in different ways, and I think this is basically the reason. She uses people intentionally, Baam never asks any of his friends for anything, they kind of just give their support to him without being coerced or forced into it.

Pretty much, yeah. I don't disagree that she hasn't done terrible things. I just feel like Baam draws people to him because he's insanely strong, and people want to tag along to see where his journey goes or because they know he's a fairly safe bet. She doesn't, and in order to climb at that speed without some kind of insane talent it seems like using people is kind of the only option in this setting. It just feels like other characters are forgiven for using and climbing over others to get where they are as long as they try their hardest from then on, but her doing the same makes her irredeemable because it's to characters we like. I keep seeing people say she didn't work for anything, but she also doesn't really have anything besides Emily or this new fish thing compared to the rest of the cast and has to put herself at significant risk to get anything new. Like, Khun stole that one briefcase from his dad or whatever and is a genius, then got gifted a special pocket and trained to use that teleportation cage thing. I just don't get what Rachel undeservedly got outside what I mentioned that deserves this level of vitriol compared to even that.

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Mulva
Sep 13, 2011
It's about time for my once per decade ban for being a consistently terrible poster.

Wrist Watch posted:

So what about her is above average, exactly?

Her narcissism and luck, obviously.

quote:

Baam.

Again, literally the most important person in the Tower at this point. That's her complaint: She isn't literally the most important person that there ever was.

What the gently caress does that have to do with the other 99.99999999% of the Tower? How exactly is she just a normal ol powerless girl when the only real thing in her way is the greatest monster the Tower has seen and her own innate stupidity? Any other person in the Tower, including basically every single one of the protagonists, would die in her situation. Some of them did, all of Baam's chosen one bullshit hasn't kept Rachel from killing a bunch of his friends. Brutally at that. Rachel though? Always gets a way to keep on trucking. Not even finds, because often she's just handed some brutally useful thing to keep going. If at any point after reading that you thought "well so has Baam" you should be reminded, again, that Baam is the most special person in the Tower. At the point you are being compared to the most special person in the Tower, you should probably cut the poo poo and stop pretending you are average.

Ytlaya posted:

so even if she's doing these evil things she's not a total sociopath

He said, of a girl that viciously tortured someone into a cripple for the crime of not bowing to her whim. BUT REALLY SHE HAS A GOOD HEART!

Nah, she's just a petty loser that is going to kill herself because she can't live in a world where she isn't special.

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