Tu Bian Yingxiong X Episode 20 Discussion

Loli lost everything because of this messed up fight... Her dad and childhood friend are dead, and her other best friend is severely injured and hospitalized. The lengths these big wigs are willing to go to keep trust and fear value on top is deplorable.

Nice being a hero built off of fear and not trust adds another layer to things with him. I guess cruelty's not off the table when its what empowers you.

So epic of Queen and Lucky Cyan to show up when they did. All that was awaiting the combatants was a pyrrhic victory if they kept fighting to the death like that. This conflict might have been swept under the rug, but I don't think our MCs will be forgetting about it any time soon.

The Loli stocks are surging. OG Nice is an actual bum. Her shit was broken and he was still getting dusted.

I don't get it. Has everything been a flashback and NOW we're close to where episode 1 started?

Fwiw I didn't like how Queen just ended everything without the tiniest shred of effort. She didn't look that powerful before and now she's super op.

And I don't understand how Nice and E-Soul got away with things. Loli, Ghostblade and Little Johnny KNOW they're evil, right? Why wouldn't the continue to beat them up or at least lock them up? Expose them to the public? Super weird.

Fwiw, Loli was unrealistically powerful. She had no business beating Nice like that. I hated her character from the beginning, this was too much.

Not sure when Nuono got hurt so badly, we saw her and Loli's father sitting in a circle and they did NOT get hurt. I guess the father got a stab in the back, but nothing life-threatening. Him dead and Nuono badly hurt feels a bit forced.

Oh well. I hope this means next episode goes back to our new Hero Nice who took over in episode 1. Time to bring back the true hero!

Man, what a devasting outcome for Loli. The happiness she found was too good to be true*. And poor Ghostblade at the same time. For both it was shortlived hope for good futures.

Queen. No one should have doubted you; me included. That was a swift end to the outdoor skirmish.

And with one single snap were back to the start in a sense. X is cool and all, but you better bow down to Queen.

Tremendously good episode. And we've got 4 more episodes after this!

*I just watched the end a second time, that's Nuonuo in the hospital bed?

SO MUCH FELL INTO PLACE!
Weird that this felt like a season ending episode. I can't see how they'll wrap things up adequately in the next 4 episodes.

Queen is aptly name. My girl tapped her cane and BAM! I kind of felt sorry for Nice in the first set of episodes. I maybe felt a little sorry for E Soul, but not ny more. They were straight murderers. The only person I feel sorry for now is Luo LI. She couldn't save her dad or her best friend. And her new friend is in the hospital.

I don't get it. Has everything been a flashback and NOW we're close to where episode 1 started?

Fwiw I didn't like how Queen just ended everything without the tiniest shred of effort. She didn't look that powerful before and now she's super op.

And I don't understand how Nice and E-Soul got away with things. Loli, Ghostblade and Little Johnny KNOW they're evil, right? Why wouldn't the continue to beat them up or at least lock them up? Expose them to the public? Super weird.

Fwiw, Loli was unrealistically powerful. She had no business beating Nice like that. I hated her character from the beginning, this was too much.

Not sure when Nuono got hurt so badly, we saw her and Loli's father sitting in a circle and they did NOT get hurt. I guess the father got a stab in the back, but nothing life-threatening. Him dead and Nuono badly hurt feels a bit forced.

Oh well. I hope this means next episode goes back to our new Hero Nice who took over in episode 1. Time to bring back the true hero!

I'm writing this comment to try to understand everything that happened, hopefully someone can help me with the bits I don't get and also correct me if I'm getting something wrong. I haven't kept up with the full timeline as there are many events and characters for me to remember, but I would love to have a perfect understanding of the story. The nonlinear storytelling in this show is amazing and one of the most ambitious I've seen in a while, the rewatch value of this anime is outstanding.

First off, Nice. His persona was somehow created using the power of Fear by Shang De, who started investigating it after Shang Chao's death in E-Soul's arc. Shang De knows about the investigation on the spaceship issued by the commision, which could be a step towards regulating the power of Trust Value and also of Fear. As such, he prompts Nice to wipe out the investigation team. Nice's motivations are clear: he's doing well in the rankings and becoming more popular with each passing day, but if Fear is suppresed this could all fall apart. Nice's real personality is really not nice at all, he's probably drunk with power and popularity, but that makes me think to what extent can Trust Value control the life of Heroes. We know Firm Man couldn't even crouch because his fans knew him as the man who's always standing. Lin Ling's physical appearance was modified as an effect of people believing he was Nice and he also developed an OCD. Ghostblade can't even speak because people think of him as a silent assassin.

The Hero Affairs Commission. It was created to regulate Trust Value and prevent another Dawnfall. So far the only way they have to prevent someone from getting too much power is the Hero Tournament, which makes the top Hero change after a couple of years. The investigation on the spaceship could lead to a way to regulate Trust Value, as well as Fear.

Now switching to Treeman and DOS. Micky knows Shang De has been investigating Fear for the past three years, so he tells him about the investigation. They also recognize this as an opportunity to crush MG meaning that it's two birds with one stone. If Trust Value is regulated then the Hero bussiness won't be the same and I also assume that they are interested in nurturing fear. With the power of Fear, Shang De was able to create the Phobiaclone (which we first saw in X's PV) and he also sent him (or them) to the investigation site. Whether Nice was aware of this or not I don't know. There's also the whole Spotlight thing with Micky but I don't quite understand (or I don't remember) his motivations or goals because they seem different from Liu Zhen's (Queen's dad) who's also deeply involved. The one thing I can't figure out is why Micky sent Queen to the spaceship (with the whole vacation excuse). He definitely knew Queen would put a stop to the fighting. Of course, in his own words, they have enough influence on the media as to tell whatever story they want after all is said and done, but Queen being there seems counterproductive to me.

Finally MG. From Micky we learn that Zero, the first Hero, was created by Rock's dad, Yan Feng. After Zero accidentally killed a Hero, Fear spread and he lost control starting Dawnfall. This is a key difference between Fear and Trust Value, the latter can modify your physiology and habits but doesn't "make you go crazy". For some reason Rock wants to revive Zero, probably to take revenge for his dad who was held accountable for Zero. Now this is funny because the old E-Soul was part of MG and he was responsible for stopping Zero and saving the world. That is related to why he plotted to get rid of him with the two E-Soul's incident after taking over MG. Rock sent Ghostblade to kill Little Johnny for reasons I don't completely understand, but related to Big Johnny and why he wanted Ah Sheng dead. He also sends Yang Cheng suspecting that Ghostblade won't complete the mission. For me this means that, even though the main Hero agencies can't be called "good", MG is the "evil" organization here, with Yang Cheng living long enough to see himself become a villain.

I'm not sure If I had something else to comment but oh boy the lore runs deep in this anime. It has continuously been the most entertaining thing to watch for 20 weeks straight and I can't wait to see how the last 4 episodes will go down. Right now I'm rooting for the top 10 heroes, excluding those currently in MG (we'll see about Dragon Boy next week) and hoping X can free the society from the shackles of trust.

After the Ruins Incident (39 AC):
- Nice saves the day fighting the "revived" Phobiaclone
- The 20th Hero Tournament is cancelled, meaning that X holds his title for the third consecutive term
- MG loses Ghostblade
- Loli loses her dad, her childhood friend and Nuonuo is heavily injured. She's also recruited by FOMO
- Queen (and possibly Cyan) rises in popularity even further.
- Big Johnny becomes a rival or nemesis (?) for E-Soul. Not sure if anyone can translate the magazine cover at 22:14.
- X is still the goat and his plans are unknown. Is he related to MG and Zero in some way? We have the bit at 23:14 and in the opening we have the frame where he overlaps with Zero and he's also something the commission fears, a hero that's gathering too much power.

I don't get it. Has everything been a flashback and NOW we're close to where episode 1 started?

Fwiw I didn't like how Queen just ended everything without the tiniest shred of effort. She didn't look that powerful before and now she's super op.

And I don't understand how Nice and E-Soul got away with things. Loli, Ghostblade and Little Johnny KNOW they're evil, right? Why wouldn't the continue to beat them up or at least lock them up? Expose them to the public? Super weird.

Fwiw, Loli was unrealistically powerful. She had no business beating Nice like that. I hated her character from the beginning, this was too much.

Not sure when Nuono got hurt so badly, we saw her and Loli's father sitting in a circle and they did NOT get hurt. I guess the father got a stab in the back, but nothing life-threatening. Him dead and Nuono badly hurt feels a bit forced.

Oh well. I hope this means next episode goes back to our new Hero Nice who took over in episode 1. Time to bring back the true hero!

He need to send Queen blind so she could farm all positive reputation from this. We saw how Queens popularity skyrocketed after this

Can someone explain to me what E-Soul was doing there? He's Rock's creature, right? Why did he also want this to fail? Just the general threat to trust and fear like the others but without realizing it'd twist to blame him?

I'm writing this comment to try to understand everything that happened, hopefully someone can help me with the bits I don't get and also correct me if I'm getting something wrong. I haven't kept up with the full timeline as there are many events and characters for me to remember, but I would love to have a perfect understanding of the story. The nonlinear storytelling in this show is amazing and one of the most ambitious I've seen in a while, the rewatch value of this anime is outstanding.

First off, Nice. His persona was somehow created using the power of Fear by Shang De, who started investigating it after Shang Chao's death in E-Soul's arc. Shang De knows about the investigation on the spaceship issued by the commision, which could be a step towards regulating the power of Trust Value and also of Fear. As such, he prompts Nice to wipe out the investigation team. Nice's motivations are clear: he's doing well in the rankings and becoming more popular with each passing day, but if Fear is suppresed this could all fall apart. Nice's real personality is really not nice at all, he's probably drunk with power and popularity, but that makes me think to what extent can Trust Value control the life of Heroes. We know Firm Man couldn't even crouch because his fans knew him as the man who's always standing. Lin Ling's physical appearance was modified as an effect of people believing he was Nice and he also developed an OCD. Ghostblade can't even speak because people think of him as a silent assassin.

The Hero Affairs Commission. It was created to regulate Trust Value and prevent another Dawnfall. So far the only way they have to prevent someone from getting too much power is the Hero Tournament, which makes the top Hero change after a couple of years. The investigation on the spaceship could lead to a way to regulate Trust Value, as well as Fear.

Now switching to Treeman and DOS. Micky knows Shang De has been investigating Fear for the past three years, so he tells him about the investigation. They also recognize this as an opportunity to crush MG meaning that it's two birds with one stone. If Trust Value is regulated then the Hero bussiness won't be the same and I also assume that they are interested in nurturing fear. With the power of Fear, Shang De was able to create the Phobiaclone (which we first saw in X's PV) and he also sent him (or them) to the investigation site. Whether Nice was aware of this or not I don't know. There's also the whole Spotlight thing with Micky but I don't quite understand (or I don't remember) his motivations or goals because they seem different from Liu Zhen's (Queen's dad) who's also deeply involved. The one thing I can't figure out is why Micky sent Queen to the spaceship (with the whole vacation excuse). He definitely knew Queen would put a stop to the fighting. Of course, in his own words, they have enough influence on the media as to tell whatever story they want after all is said and done, but Queen being there seems counterproductive to me.

Finally MG. From Micky we learn that Zero, the first Hero, was created by Rock's dad, Yan Feng. After Zero accidentally killed a Hero, Fear spread and he lost control starting Dawnfall. This is a key difference between Fear and Trust Value, the latter can modify your physiology and habits but doesn't "make you go crazy". For some reason Rock wants to revive Zero, probably to take revenge for his dad who was held accountable for Zero. Now this is funny because the old E-Soul was part of MG and he was responsible for stopping Zero and saving the world. That is related to why he plotted to get rid of him with the two E-Soul's incident after taking over MG. Rock sent Ghostblade to kill Little Johnny for reasons I don't completely understand, but related to Big Johnny and why he wanted Ah Sheng dead. He also sends Yang Cheng suspecting that Ghostblade won't complete the mission. For me this means that, even though the main Hero agencies can't be called "good", MG is the "evil" organization here, with Yang Cheng living long enough to see himself become a villain.

I'm not sure If I had something else to comment but oh boy the lore runs deep in this anime. It has continuously been the most entertaining thing to watch for 20 weeks straight and I can't wait to see how the last 4 episodes will go down. Right now I'm rooting for the top 10 heroes, excluding those currently in MG (we'll see about Dragon Boy next week) and hoping X can free the society from the shackles of trust.

After the Ruins Incident (39 AC):
- Nice saves the day fighting the "revived" Phobiaclone
- The 20th Hero Tournament is cancelled, meaning that X holds his title for the third consecutive term
- MG loses Ghostblade
- Loli loses her dad, her childhood friend and Nuonuo is heavily injured. She's also recruited by FOMO
- Queen (and possibly Cyan) rises in popularity even further.
- Big Johnny becomes a rival or nemesis (?) for E-Soul. Not sure if anyone can translate the magazine cover at 22:14.
- X is still the goat and his plans are unknown. Is he related to MG and Zero in some way? We have the bit at 23:14 and in the opening we have the frame where he overlaps with Zero and he's also something the commission fears, a hero that's gathering too much power.

@Bio he was just doing as he ordered by Rock. As Rock lost his trust in Ghostblade, he wanted to finish him off using E-Soul and he wants the Johnnies to be eliminated since they were thorn in his path right from the beginning since the incident with Johnny's father and Big Johnny being an alien. E-Soul was willing to 'cause that would be one less person to climb over the rankings.

@sosu3 whose agency does Phobiaclone belong to ?
Who sent him there ?