What's the line between edgy and badass?

Oh you.

I bet you believe a faggot is a bunch of sticks.

Sonic musou when?

user, words meanings change.
If all people in the world decide that edgy means tryhard, it will definitely become the definition, or one of the many for that word.

Edgy has been used in the context OP has been using it in since at least 2005 you fucking dinosaur

Edgy and badass are the same thing except the first one comes off as ridiculous and the second actually works.

Kratos isn't justified, but all he really is is an asshole in a universe filled with assholes. The Gods pretty much kicked the Hornet's nest and had it coming.

If you're playing God of War for the plot you're playing it for the wrong reasons. It's a game built around looking nice and fucking up shit, storyfags need to be gassed.

The protagonist for Shadow of Mordor is edgy, and comes straight out of a bad fanfiction because he is half-man half-wraith.

I'm not, but i still appreciate the storytelling of the first episode, which makes it a better experience overall.
Gameplay-wise Ascension is just glorious but we all know how faulty that game is because of a short plot.

I think the main thing that makes Shadow edgy is just that despite how badass he is, he's still a small furry hedgehog, so it's a little edgy how seriously he takes himself especially if you compare him to sonic. This is common in deviantart drawings, where kids will take something normally cute and harmless, and make it a super badass with a dark and twisted past, etc..

El Donte is on the opposite end of the spectrum, where he's a demon slayer from hell, but tries way too hard to be cool, and failing at it.

Travis Touchdown I would consider a badass of sorts.

Edgy is desperately trying to be taken seriously. Badass is having fun with being edgy and rolling with it.

I could not disagree more. You spend the majority of your time navigating and fighting things, and the plot in the first God of War is far from complex or even all that engaging. The combat and raw gameplay make for a much more entertaining experience overall in either 2 or 3. I've yet to play Ascension, so I can't comment there, but while 1 still holds up fairly well it's just not anywhere near as solid an experience overall as 2.

Travis works because he's a self aware character. He's a fucking dork when you get right down to it, but his cool factor kind of works when it comes in because he's not written in such a manner that you're meant to take him seriously.

Fuck them both, they are similar anyway.

Underdogs are better. Someone with flaws and not OP as fuck, but comes out on top due to perseverance and overcoming his shortcomings. Coming out on top against impossible odds due to wit and or risk.

Personally an underdog is kind of badass. By definition, uncompromising. They don't just give up because they are in over their head.

They don't need to act "badass".

I find really tough characters that can kill 100s effortlessly boring and not badass.

What exactly defines a badass anyways? I think being skilled/the best at whatever they do is a requirement, but that can't be all there is to it.

That is the single most unpolished turn to ever come out of the franchise, even the PSP garbo is better.
The point of it was to be a homage to traditional Greek and Roman mythology, which it does just wonderfully so.
I guess i grew with said mythology so it struck me pretty fucking hard, but still.
Plot: 1>PSP 2nd>2 >PSP 1st> 3> Ascension
Gameplay: 2> Ascension> 1> PSP 1st> PSP 2nd> 3

Anything non-Christian is edgy garbage.

turd*

There are no real strict definitions.
1
chiefly US, informal + sometimes offensive : ready to cause or get into trouble : mean
pretending to be a badass gunslinger — L. L. King
2
chiefly US, informal + sometimes offensive : of formidable strength or skill
such a badass guitar player — N'Gai Croal

adjective, Also, badassed
1.
(of a person) difficult to deal with; mean-tempered; touchy.
2.
distinctively tough or powerful; so exceptional as to be intimidating.
noun
3.
a mean-tempered troublemaker.

The consistent thing seems to indicate trouble making and being mean.

The reason why dante was badass is because he does all this cool shit without cursing or any "adult" stuff like donte does. When dante goes up to cerberus he talks to him like a little puppy, but donte goes up to the sccubus and does the infamous "fuck you" scene.

So edgy?

Pretty much.

Wish there were more games that make you start as an underdog and end up godlike, they usually just settle for a middle ground.
The only one i can think of is Morrowind.
>end game being near-immortal gameplay wise, and immortal lore wise too

Being badass depends on the context of the protagonist. Badass is someone who A) Fights something above their weightclass, but B) Are able to make whatever they're fighitng think twice about fighting them.
The Punisher is a Badass. He is fighting above his weight class (because no lone man should be capable of taking on the mob), but makes the mob think twice about pissing him off.

Thor isn't "badass," but he is "awesome." He's a god so it's never "badass" when he wins a fight. It can be a cool fight, but Thor himself is never "badass." Captain America, Batman, and other folks like that are always considered badass, but usually not people who are explicitly super powerful.

The only other people are considered Badass are badass solely in attitude. That one I can't define as well, but it almost always ties into the "out of their league" personality. People who don't consider failure whatso ever, and just do their best in a fight are usually bonafide badasses.

edgy is badass that failed.
there's that quote from a writer who worked with tameem that sums it up pretty well where ninja theory wanted a scene with mc stomping on some helpless rando b/c they thought it would make him badass when it really just made him look like a cunt. generally this happens when someone tries to use to superficial qualities of badass without understanding why they worked in the first place.
shadow & kazuya are essentially the same type of character for their respective settings but kazuya actually manages to feel like he has consistent reasons for existing whereas shadow is a checklist of cool things crammed together.
i don't think kratos is necessarily edgy but the conventions of his design aged poorly. more than anything he demonstrates how the line between the two can shift over time. in the early 2000s, that sort of character was the coolest shit but now it just feels laughable. k' is a badass character who aged well imo

i'd say that at some fundamental level it just comes down to pathos.

I agree with this.
If not for anime hair K' would actually pass as a western badass character even today.

I bet Christianity is edgy for a buddhist. All that obsession with nailing people to a cross and drinking metaphorical blood….

This.

Badass is impressing and satisfying

Edgy is just being a tryhard and has no point

Why do you think Japan shoves it into everything? It's like how Americans shove Voodoo into everything

Yeah the difference between edgy and badass is all about context.

Shadow comes off as edgy because he does what he does at the same time you've got Sonic and shit running around and the villains are usually wacky. Shadow fights below his weight class and tries too hard to look cool amongst characters who aren't badass.
Dante is badass because he does shit with style and flair but he doesn't dwell on it or work too hard to do so. He makes quips and shit but he does it while facing guys who are arguably above his weight class. His design philosophy is basically "Hey guess what I'm gonna win" and then he proceeds to win despite the odds being against him.
Donte is edgy and not badass because he is Dante superficially but without proper context or the relaxed sense of style Dante has. He's trying so hard to be cool without ever having a decent reason for it, or justifying it in any way.

The difference is Dante and Donte.
You can even tell it from the way the characters are posed by the creators. Donte is standing there with sloppy, dirty clothing and a tilted smile that makes him look straight from some teen's fanfiction. Same goes for Dante from DMC2, you immediately get the "dark and brooding" vibe from him there. Now I haven't played 2, but from this I can tell what people mean when they say it's probably the worst actual DMC game.
The Dante from 3 shows a playful pose, gun angled downward but still pointing at something. Showing a lack of seriousness, but still willing to preform. Cocky perhaps.
Dante from 4 is completely matured, both in appearance and how he holds himself throughout the game, but doesn't get rid of the playfulness.
He gives off a feeling of a character that's "able to use his sword but keeps it in its sheath" until it's necessary.

I think that's how it's easily summarized. A "badass" character keeps his "sword" sheathed while an edgy one swings it around as if it were his dick, trying to show all around how "awesome" he is. Of course you'll probably be able to find different kinds of badass and edgy, but Devil May Cry as a pretty good example.

Wasn't there also one quote of Tameme interpreting some character as a badass when the writer wanted to show him clearly as being a dick? I forgot what it was. I think it involved the character shooting a person who asked for help.

I have no idea why you think this. I've seen plenty of Voodoo-related films but that is neither common nor a recent fad.

It's the difference between serious and laughable.

Anyone trying to display power and doing it in a retarded, childish, petulant, cunty way to satisfy their own impression of themselves is the pejorative version of 'edgy'.

A badass doesn't need anyone's approval or particularly desire to be seen as cool, they just do what needs to be done.

What did you like so much about Ascension? Its singleplayer combat was just 3's with the other three weapons removed and a bar that, while nice in theory, ends up being annoying as fuck since it forbids you from using about a quarter of your moveset unless you're playing absolutely perfectly. The ability to use enemies' weapons was alright but felt kind of half-baked. Its multiplayer was very good, best part of the game by far, but whenever I played it I did often wonder why they didn't include the swords, spears, hammers and gauntlets in the singleplayer.

I replayed the trilogy not too long ago and found 3's gameplay the smoothest, most varied and most option-rich in the series by a huge margin, I don't see how it isn't the best in that regard.

Return

DMC2 Dante and DMC4 Dante are great examples.
DMC2 Dante is edgy. He's looking away from the camera, he's unfocused. He's got his guns pointed down, so they're out when he doesn't need them, but his finger is still on the trigger. His collar is up so he's hiding his face, and his face screams of apathy. He doesn't like what he's doing, he feels burdened by what's going on.
DMC4 Dante on the other hand is badass. He's looking right at the camera because he loves who he is. His weapons are away and he's got his arms out in a casual shrug, he's drawing attention to himself and his face while simultaneously being ready to face a threat. His face is unobscured and confident, he has a burden but he embraces it because he's a badass. Cocky sure, but cockiness is great when you can back up that cockiness with action.

I think you're right, but while a badass doesn't NEED approval, that doesn't mean they don't want to look cool. Dante is badass and he does what needs to be done while ensuring he looks stylish doing it. A badass however always puts success over appearance, they won't jeopardize their aims just for style points.

Sup. Just replying to your post with a sage since apparently that really bothers you.
Also, there is no meaningful difference between "edgy" and "badass". You call one one and not the other because of personal preference, nothing more.

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Yup. Like I said, he's able to use his sword, and skillfully at that, but keeps it in its sheath. I don't know if I would call uncle Dante cocky though. Maybe somewhat, but Dante from 3 is definitely has being cocky as one of his fundamental traits.

The people in this thread actually contributing beg to differ. Also not at all addressing the point he was making.

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I think he's a bit cocky. He does fuck around with the frog-antennae despite knowing they're a demon simply because he's so confident in his ability to dodge the frog. Like I said he's cocky, but it seems more like boasting because he always backs it up with being exactly as good as he thinks he is.

Easy. Just compare Dante to Shadow the Hedgehog.

Dante is a dangerous and powerful professional yet simultaneously charmingly silly guy capable of doing this cool shit with his weapons and body and pizza because he hunts demons for a living and is a halfbreed of a legendary heroic warrior who fell in love with a human and helps explain both his relatable humanity and inner strength that shows itself in his sense of humor and fallible clumsiness along with his "cool" demonic powers and inhuman physical capabilities. Dante is a character that you're intended to enjoy as you enter a crazy and silly, but rocking world of demons and action that game takes its difficulty from. When intense battle music guitar is shredding as a ridiculously powerful swarm of enemies or a boss is bearing down on you, you're not the kind of character or personality that's going to get serious or need to think about your ideals and reasons for fighting, you're taking on a ride a wild and cocky man ready for literal Hell raising who you're expected to show is hotter and stronger shit than the nastiest nightmares and devils you get your ass kicked by until you learn he's always smirking and talking shit doing this because he jets around and tears them apart like it's all a game to enjoy to him as much as it is to you, which is probably the best explanation for why there's so much stupid and funny nonsense through it all.

Shadow is a failed experiment almost certainly intended to have Sonic appeal to older audiences and evolve as a more serious world by taking a black and red recolor of Super Sonic and giving him a tragic connection to Dr. Robotnik that motivates him to hate humanity and try to destroy them with the iconic Chaos Emeralds when he was originally intended to help them advance through the power of science. Sonic's eariler games weren't exactly menacing, but they did have a distinct alien feel of the world you were in fighting to save the beautiful nature of and the danger that subliminally naturally grew as you got further in the game and faced greater challenge. Just take the music of Angel Island Zone or Mushroom Hill Zone and the regular midboss and boss music then compare it to Death Egg Zone and the final boss theme. It oozes with the feeling of doom and the threat of this villainous and clever fatass at its highest and you fall into the darkness of space as you look at the beautiful bright now doomed world below you or suddenly get ambushed by a security robot designed to make Sonic drop his precious rings protecting him and you wonder what else is waiting for you as this guy has to pull out all the stops to take you down and is apparently going to do just that now that you'l| at his front door and too close to wasting all his hard work. An user above pointed out how Shadow just feels so out of place when you think of everything else funny, colorful and wacky about Sonic the Hedgehog and everything related to him, his actions, his words and his friends. If Eggman took over the world or blew up everyone or city in his way with a giant laser all at once it would just be a really bad thing that made the world not so fun and pretty anymore, it didn't make you actually see and feel those people dying and suffering from that kind of villainy or chillingly being led to that shit outcome because of a perceived threat to someone and what matters most to them like Maria's death and GUN soldiers having no choice but to genocide the ARK because Shadow was feared to become a threat to the entire world.

TL; DR Dante isn't meant to be taken too seriously and that makes the minority of moments where he is actually is meaningful and make him feel more like an actual person because otherwise he's meant just to be fun to control and watch and listen to. Everything about Shadow is meant to be just that and it looks lame or embarassing more often than not when he opens his mouth or shows he got an actual fucking gun at the beginning of an opening to look more mature and dangerous.

You seem shocked that a game that had guns all over the place had a gun on the cover.

The story was there but it wasn't meant to be engaging, it was meant to connect the stages and set the backdrop of why you are 500 feet tall fighting gods in your city. The story of 1 was miles better than 2 and 3 simply because Kratos had a proper reason for his actions. 2 skirted the line between a coherent story and garbage too much for my tastes and 3 stopped giving a fuck. The new GoW seems like they instead pulled a 180 and went full story when a game like that simply doesn't need a strong story, just a believable one.

These 3 anons took the words out of my mouth.

Here it is.

The problem with Shadow is that he only had a purpose in Adventure 2, and he works in that game, but he was clearly a character who was meant to stay dead.
When they brought him back due to fan demand, it's like no body actually knew why they liked him, not the fans or the writers.

Shadow was serious in Adventure 2 but he could also be cocky and a bit of an ass just to mess with Sonic, it was a fun dynamic.
Every time he has appeared since then they default him to just having a permanent frown on his face, where having a few scenes where he shows anything other then apathy would go a long way in making his character more likable.

That's the one. Thanks.