Eddie's Monthly

I WAS SO BUSY THIS MONTH AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

The Assassination of Fred Hampton – Jeffrey Haas

I was not expecting the angle to be: following the lawyer trying to bring justice to the murderers. I was kinda puzzled when Fred Hampton was killed, and we were only 10% though the book. Despite my surprise, this was a very effective way to show how the system was stacked against black people, and people trying to even nudge the racial status quo in the US.

Man, it was so depressing to see what the FBI and police got away with. Every time I thought it couldn't get worse, it just got worse. In the end, even if Jeff and associates won the case, it barely made a difference after almost a decade and a half.

The book was well written, but there were some times when the author was just name-dropping for 4 pages, and then acronym dropping... Not the most riveting, but you gotta put the context somewhere. I am incredibly ignorant about the justice system in the US, but it looks like an absolute joke. How in the hell do judges have so much power?!

It's also wild to see how different people/society was back then, and it only amplifies the common modern adage: “Nothing ever fucking happens [anymore]“.

Howling Dark – Christopher Ruocchio

My man Hadrian has had a lot of stuff happening to him. He and his pals are looking for something, but everyone in the empire knows this thing as a myth. Will he manage to find his holy-grail or will finding it even help him at all?

I still can't get into it. I have started this book and then let it sit on my nightstand for two weeks, without ever wanting to pick it back up. I know that means I should probably give up, but the story is good, it just doesn't click. We still have the Dune easter eggs, which are everything but subtle, like the adage from his mentor: Fear is the mind killer a poison. All of my praise from book 1 stand here.

Hunter X Hunter – Yoshihiro Togashi

Chapter 51 – 95

All of my objections and criticism should be void/resolved with those chapters according to the Hunter fans. Let's review a tldr from my criticism of chapters 1-50:

• Killua and Gon are unnecessarily strong, and we don't know who or why. It makes it boring.
• Secondary/tertiary characters are here only to marvel at their strength.
• Some situations make no sense and are only there to showcase how strong Gon and Killua are.
• World building is completely destroyed just to show how strong and special those two kids are (the hardest exam know to man: it feels easy to two 11 years old, they even find it boring. The tower of doom and death, where only the strongest of the strongest come to duke it out: Killua climbed it when he was 6 years old.)

Does what happens in chapters 51-95 confirm the points above?

Point 1 and 4: Gon heals life-threatening injuries in one month, when the doc said it would take 4. Gon and Killua learn Gyo (a technique that takes years to master and yadi yadi yada) in less than a day. Killua can withstand one million volts. Killua has survived life-threatening situations since he was 3. I think my arguments still stand.

Point 2: We are introduced to more people, that actually matter in the story, and while there are still people on there to marvel at the kids' strength, we have other interesting characters (both protagonists and antagonists). This argument is invalidated

Point 3: There is nothing that I can remember that is even 10% as stupid as the weight incremented doors this time, so I'll say the argument is invalidated.

Half of my critiques of chapters 1-50 are thankfully not valid here, but my main complaints, point 1 and 4 still are. We will talk about it more later.

Some random notes: wtf, aura and nen is recorded by camera and computer code?! I hope it doesn't become like Hamon and stands in JoJo part 3 where, they could do everything. York New... really? Kurapika is a dude?! Wait, unlike One Piece, it actually gets good?!

You've heard correctly ladies and gentlemen, it gets good. When the POV shifted to Kurapika, I thought I was in for a snoozefest. She He barely had any development, and his red eyes just looked so gimmicky, like it was only there to get all the kids to think he's cool. I was thoroughly mistaken. Even the artstyle kinda changes and we get some great looking panels. The character building of the troupe and the fucking fight against the mafia's “super-strong” goons were awesome. We finally get characters that are stronger than the two 11-year-olds we've been following. And when it's time for Kurapika to fight the super strong guy, he prevails, but not because he's naturally gifted, or because he went to the locker room for 5min to practice and master a technique that takes 6 decades to even grasp. No, he's strong to begin with, but he would have gotten steam rolled, if not for the super particular technique with a specific sets of condition that would literally kill him if he misused it. Now that is an interesting protagonist, he's OP but only under a certain set of circumstances, namely against the troupe. Kurapika made it even clearer how flawed the kids' writing is.

I don't understand why the kids are made out to be so strong, even when it doesn't matter. And then why they have to be so nonchalant about the literal godly feat they perform. And why the hardest/strongest [insert event/person] known to man is beaten easily by a 6-year-old or 11 years old that are just naturally gifted, with minimal training — it just completely ruins the immersion and worldbuilding. What's the point? Why do the kids need to be so god-damn strong for no reason, they could have had a flaw or just be toned down, and the story would have been the same (but better imo). Technically, there are still about 25 chapters I need to read through that will completely alleviate my criticism (I hope).

PS: Announcing you got a kid in your manga; based.

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Thanks for reading my logorrhea, Eddie