Guilty Gear Strive: Dual Rulers Episode 2 Discussion

James-LastOmnic said:
AAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHH MY FUARKING GOAT AXL LOW, THE GOAT OF ALL GOATS, THE STRONGEST CHARACTER IN THIS ENTIRE FRANCHISE BAR NONE, THE SAVIOUR OF THE UNIVERSE (literally) AXL FREAKING LOOOOOOOOOWWWW!!!

To be honest this was far better than the first episode which was terrible in all instances, Sol had like one hella cool shot which is more than what I was expecting. Still most of the show looks bad and incredibly stiff, a shame for an anime sequel to one of the fastest paced fighting game ever conceived.
The overall writing is keeping that very dishonest way of just explaining everything as fast as possible and relying A LOT on the fact people should already know those characters personality, it's reasonable considering the purpose of this anime to begin with but I don't get why apart from Sin, all other characters talk like placeholders of themselves.
Just take this moment from the beginning of Xrd story mode and it's flagrant how different Sol's personality is to what he is in Dual Rulers right now, he lost a lot of his arrogance, abrasivity, stubborness yet goodwill and heavy maturity. For those who dare to respond to me he has "changed", Sol's entire character is based on the fact he has lived for 180+ years and he's sick of mankind's bullshit yet keeps on living for the fun of it. Sol post Strive is the same as Sol pre Xrd, I wouldn't say it's terrible but it just doesn't feel as honest as it could (probably because Daisuke isn't writing it).

Compared to last episode this episode basically had 0 lore inconsistencies but the thing it implies might come later.
My complaint is more on the premise execution, this is so forced. Last episode was accused of being "Guilty Gear fanservice", but I disagree, it was fan-disservice for me with how many elements were brushed aside, this episode however, reeks of fanservice, Strive fanservice in particular.
I'm not going to sugarcoat it any further because it's obvious, Bridget's and Baiken's only reason be here is marketability, as they both are 2 of the most recognizable and popular character in the entire franchise outside of the GG fanbase, I'd say Bridget in particular is more popular than Guilty Gear itself at this point.
What bothers me is that the show DOES NOTHING with them despite shilling their presence hard.
Bridget never disappoint as always by providing nothing to the story like she did since her debut in XX when she was still a boy, she's here to be paraded and have as much cute shots possible to farm twitter pfps and just saves a background character, completely pointless inclusion for pandering.
Baiken as well is hilarious, we don't really have a timeframe for WHEN this takes place after Strive. A couple of months? A year? No idea. The last time we saw Baiken she promised Delilah to take care of her night and day. She also came to terms with giving up her desire of revenge against That Man, so why is she still roaming the world like that? She says the US government is paying her but that goes against her character anyway to be doing anything for money, she's not a bounty hunter like the others.
Now I wouldn't have any problem with them being present if at least they could explain why some characters ARE NOT present because WHAT DO YOU MEAN GOLDLEWIS AND GIOVANNA AREN'T HERE TO PROTECT THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES WHEN HE'S GETTING ATTACKED, THAT'S THEIR ENTIRE JOB, THEY LITERALLY DID THAT THE LAST TIME THE WHITE HOUSE WAS ATTACKED, ARE THEY ON HOLIDAYS?!
Most characters aren't there not because it wouldn't make sense for them to there, like why is ABA totally absent from the entire story, that's logical because she has no reason to be there during Xrd events at all. They aren't present because they just didn't have the budget to animate them or include them, but the characters that would generate money like Bridget and Baiken are here, even if they are useless, that's completely enraging.
I want also to talk about Bridget and Baiken knowing each other. If you do not know XX story mode, it feels insane because Bridget has talked to like 3 characters total in the entire franchise so far cannonically but in the many XX arcade stories, Bridget does encounter Baiken.

I'm also very confused as to why the show refers to the events of Strive's story mode a couple of times but also seem to not really acknowledge them? It's weird, "it's a story for another time", no you're wrong Sugita Tomokazu, it's "a story we already know".

Why is Sol using random ass gadget to fight? Asuka removed the "Flame of Corruption" from his body. What this actually means is pretty vague but we know for a fact is that Sol is still a Gear but is no longer immortal and is weaker than before, but he can still use his old magic, why he relies on weird ass gadget weapons? He uses the Outrage afterwards anyway, I just think they didn't want to give us some VOLCANIC VIPER animation, really regretful.

So I guess this episode also soft confirmed Unika is Sin's daughter? or sister? She is obviously related to him and will be another addition to the gigantic Sol/Justice family tree, I'm not a big fan of this, I expected a newcomer to be really totally separated from what we already knew like GL, Gio or Nago, but eh whatever. People were already theorizing she was related to Dizzy because her eyes were exactly the same and the first teaser showing her was referencing Justice first appearance in The Missing Link. Very predictable but not totally uninteresting.

Seeing GG characters dealing with random human bums is so funny, Ram could wipe them all in a fraction of second. Once again apart from a couple of "weaker" characters most of them are SO ABOVE a regular human in sheer power it's like comparing Mr Satan to Vegeta.

The guy Unika is calling father is Nerville, obviously. I would be surprise if he wasn't.

BUT WHO THE HELL CARE ABOUT ANY OF THIS, WHAT IS IMPORTANT IS THAT AXL FUCKING LOW IS IN THE EPISODE FOR 15 SECONDS AND IS THE GREATEST CHARACTER IN ALL OF FICTION AND WASN'T PRESENT IN THE POSTER AND CAST ANNOUNCEMENT. THIS MEANS THERE MIGHT BE OTHER CHARACTERS WHO WEREN'T ANNOUNCED WHO WILL APPEAR AT SOME POINT AND THAT'S HYPE BECAUSE BRIDGET IS A REDDIT-AHH CHARACTER I DONT CARE ABOUT, GIVE ME CHIPP, GIVE ME SLAYER, GIVE ME NAGO, GIVE ME GREATNESS. (That or this was just a cameo and Axl will not reappear again and I will rage endlessly about it)

XArceusX said:
I wish Sin would do something to make me like him as a main character. His personality doesn't match his buffed-up body.

I don’t get why there were so many stalled images during the fight, but whatever. At least we finally saw the busty Baiken in action—would’ve been better if they jiggled, though. Such a disappointment.

This Unika girl is annoying. Girl, if the war isn’t over yet, instead of acting like a terrorist, prove something, like any normal person would.

asbest0sdust said:
@CrazyButNot4U
MAL forum posts so transphobic theyve started 'he/him'ing unika aswell u cant make this stuff up

asbest0sdust said:

because it was you who 'he/him'ed unika? if you mean the @ part i think it just adds that automatically