The "Every Show Has One" Grid | Obstacle Edition

[azn]

Perhaps I'll do a version of this but w/ competitors but in any event, here's another grid idea that I found from many strolls down many subreddits:

The Fan Favorite - ?	Made to be hated - ?	The Nicest Looking One - ?
The Only Normal Obstacle - ?	"uh, what's your name again?" - ?	The Ugliest Looking One - ?
The Ninja Killer - ?	Just Straight Up Evil - ?	No Screen Time, All the Plot Relevance - ?

Like my previous grid, you don't have to copy this format, I just made a grid for aesthetics. Unlike my last one, this is basically a fill in the blanks kind of thing, where you're basically filling up each individual section with an obstacle that best describes that trope. Some of these tropes are also different compared to a traditional "Every Show Has One" template, and that's mainly because they either don't make that much sense to me, or they sound completely similar to other tropes in this grid.

Here are my choices (as well as some explanations for each trope that I think would benefit from having one)

The Fan Favorite - Warped Wall

Made To Be Hated - Backstream

The Nicest Looking One - Chain Reaction

The Only Normal Obstacle - Quintuple/Sextuple Steps

"uh, what's your name again?" - Circle Hammer

The Ugliest Looking One - Curtain Slider

The Menace to Society (an example whose sole existence is to create problems) - Cliffhanger Dimension

Just Straight up Evil (an obstacle that inflicts pain) - Rope Glider

No Screen Time, All The Plot Relevance (an obstacle with heavy influence, even if it was never attempted) - Sending Climber

[dakohosu]

Man, I did not need more procrastination from work but I guess here we go......


The Fan Favorite - Agree on Warped Wall, especially as the other two of the big three are the Salmon Ladder that's been pretty ineffective compared to its initial role on Stage 2 for years now, and the Cliffhanger which has just become a huge point of controversy these days. It's iconic in the sense that Sasuke/NW is the first thing you think of when you see it, it's done a good amount of damage across its entire tenure, and it's generally just a dope concept.

Made To Be Hated - Backstream is a good one (arguably the most common answer) based on the fan sentiment and the controversy caused by it in 29 which left a bad taste in most people's mouths. I'm personally going with Silk Slider because it almost single handedly contributed to the 3+ hour slogs of Stage 1 edits that we've been seeing for the past four tournaments, as it facilitated comedians etc. to get way farther into the course than they had any right to, resulting in loads of drawn out runs, massive pace breaks, etc. The actual obstacle itself is quite inoffensive, but what it represented and what it resulted in has made it quite hateful amongst the fanbase.

The Nicest Looking One - I've always liked the Wall Lift. Aesthetically you love it or hate it; it's in theory just three walls, but to me it was more about what it represented; the final set of heavy a** gateways to Stage 3. Not an obstacle but I also think Stage 2, for all its flaws, has always been the coolest looking stage for me. From the church-like theme from the Golden Era, to the mechanical blue-lit onslaught of Shin-Sasuke, and so forth. 

The Only Normal Obstacle - I guess the Rope Ladder? Mainly because those kinds of things are pretty standard across obstacle courses of all variants. The steps obstacles to me are still quite synonymous with Sasuke.

"uh, what's your name again?" - Most bridge obstacles, even to this day I get mixed up between which name corresponded to which obstacle, and what tournament they were on. They mostly kind of just mesh into the same thing because they all have similar functionalities, none of them have been notably effective, and they're always between two much more memorable obstacles (e.g. Rolling Maruta and Jump Hang).

The Ugliest Looking One - Reverse Conveyer. It's literally just a tube with a conveyer belt inside it, granted there aren't many ways to glamour something like that up. 

The Menace to Society - Think Cliffhanger Dimension is the only good answer here. Has pretty much hardlined majority of the current cohort's maximum potential, while making the majority of Stage 3 results quite predictable and monotonous. The added RNG for 41 has also caused problems for those who could reliably clear it (e.g. Yuuji and Yoshi).

Just Straight up Evil - Rope Glider is a good one due to the injuries it caused, but I'll go with something different; 32-34 Stage 3 back half. The fact that they went from Crazy Cliffhanger and Vertical Limit Kai straight into directly connecting buffed versions of those obstacles is really beyond me, especially 33 which decided to also remove the rest before the Pipe Slider, only because Drew managed to clear one out of those two obstacles. It could've legitimately ended the show if they'd not added the green resting bar for 35, because it would've been literal years of Stage 3 endings otherwise. If we're going by injuries then I'd also add Shoulder Walk as well, by pure virtue of the fact that there could've been a good chance that if someone had fallen in, that they'd be welcomed with a 40kg weight smacking them on the head; classic Higuchi-level of safety concern right there.

No Screen Time, All The Plot Relevance - 25-26 Flying Bar. Had a huge impact on international shows as they frequently used that version on their Stage 3 equivalents where it was a well-known killer, and obviously laid the foundation for the Flying Bar we've seen from 32 onwards on Sasuke (albeit in heavily nerfed form). But was obviously never used in its original form on Sasuke.

Ninja Killer - Yusuke Morimoto. Pretty much the sole reason that Stages 3 and 4 are as hard as they are, vanquishing anyone else's chances at Kanzen due to how far ahead of the pack he is, being the considered benchmark for difficulty spikes. If I'm being serious though, as I've already put down the Dimension, I'll go with Vertical Limit BURST, because I do think it has the potential to end quite a few chances amongst the "true" Ninjas of Sasuke of making it back to the Final/Kanzen.

[sackeshi]

The Fan Favorite - Warped Wall agree

Made To Be Hated - Quad Steps absolute worst starter obstacle it basically allows for runs that fail the first obstacle to take forever and is absoletly awful to look at as well. Its an awful ANW knockoff obstacle.

The Nicest Looking One - Half Pipe attack the coolest looking obstacle especially when you have the fire look.

The Only Normal Obstacle - I'd say the OG hill climb because its the one most likely to be tought up by any person blindly when asked to create an obstacle course.

"uh, what's your name again?" - Curtain Swing a random 1 time obstacle

The Ugliest Looking One - hands down the Circle slider just looks ugly and like it was a last place addition to the course

The Menace to Society (an example whose sole existence is to create problems) - Cliffhanger Dimension have to agree instead of focusing on changing other things the whole shows budget is devoted to that one obstacle. I hate it so much.

Just Straight up Evil (an obstacle that inflicts pain) - The Ballance tank had hands down the most painful falls. I think only once did someone fall without getting hurt.

No Screen Time, All The Plot Relevance (an obstacle with heavy influence, even if it was never attempted) - Sending Climber half to agree if only because its supposed rules led to it being changed before being attempted, though don't know why they changed the name of it.

[azn]

Nov 20, 2024 13:38:36 GMT -5 dakohosu said:

Ninja Killer - Yusuke Morimoto. Pretty much the sole reason that Stages 3 and 4 are as hard as they are, vanquishing anyone else's chances at Kanzen due to how far ahead of the pack he is, being the considered benchmark for difficulty spikes. If I'm being serious though, as I've already put down the Dimension, I'll go with Vertical Limit BURST, because I do think it has the potential to end quite a few chances amongst the "true" Ninjas of Sasuke of making it back to the Final/Kanzen.

I totally was meant to delete this from the initial grid and replace it with The Menace to Society trope...totally was supposed to do that...

Welp, given that my incompetence has done it again, I think I'll just add in my obstacle for ninja killer, which is the Rolling Log. The first iteration of a ninja killer, and imo, the best.