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Argue posted:It's not the first time I've seen fantasy people mystified by exercise either. The secondary characters have no idea why the main character of Bookworm does calisthenics in the morning, and in this book series I recently read, Destiny's Crucible, the main character has a running and weight training routine all worked out and he tries to explain it to the townsfolk but they just think it's another of those wacky ideas from the local eccentric. Probably a subtrope of the genre. The milhist and ancient history threads have both discussed historical attitudes towards exercise and this isn't completely a-historical. If I remember right, 30-year war participants like Landsknechts had weapon drills. However, even though they were professional soldiers, they didn't do the same sort of close-order drill and marching practice every recruit gets run through in basic nowadays. They also didn't go in much for weight lifting or aerobic exercises. On the other hand, pre-Roman Greeks had a very good understanding of effective exercise regimes if some curious opinions on diet. For example, competitors for the Olympics would typically train for a year in advance and than for another month on site. Training included a warm-up session, often done to flute music, to reduce the risk of injury. The majority of the people I see at the gym skip stretching and warm-ups even though that's usually the first thing any trainer or exercise book covers. In addition to the wide variation in understanding of and attitudes towards exercise throughout human history; poor people tend to have a worse understanding of health and exercise than rich ones. That helps justify the situation in Bookworm I think. MC's family are far enough in the poor segment of the population that they're only marginally literate. It there are any exercise routines in that world, I'd expect them to be restricted to the nobility in the same way magic is. Edit: Modern exercise regimes really are kind of magical. In a 4 month period I went from barely being able to lift the 15 pound bar to being able to do 3x10 reps of bench pressing 140 lbs which was almost my body weight. That was only 6 hours of weight lifting a week although I did have a great trainer. LLSix fucked around with this message at 22:00 on Apr 22, 2019 |
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Apr 22, 2019 21:24
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Omi no Kami posted:When I was reading TWI, I remember finding the fact that everyone with a crafting skill had the ability to create objects of identical quality and composition to be so weird- it seems like that would explicitly disincentivize innovation, since all you would be doing is pouring resources into a new thing that all of your competitors get for free when it's done. correct. this explicitly happens with all of erin's earth food - she gets an evening of exclusivity for hamburgers and then literally everyone with a cooking skill knows how to make them once they see them or hear of them the planet that twi takes place on has been technologically stagnant since the gods died and the only remaining but still mostly dead god created levels and skills (probably)
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Apr 22, 2019 22:30
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the recent chapter with Octavia had her firebombing her competitors homes for this exact reason: they had figured out how to make matches and made them better. Notably though, this took them months rather than a matter of hours, so it seems the complexity of the substance itself does pose barriers to being recreated.Omi no Kami posted:When I was reading TWI, I remember finding the fact that everyone with a crafting skill had the ability to create objects of identical quality and composition to be so weird- it seems like that would explicitly disincentivize innovation, since all you would be doing is pouring resources into a new thing that all of your competitors get for free when it's done. while this is true, succeeding in making something new confers far greater benefits in terms of gaining Levels than simply reverse engineering does. A big flaming stink fucked around with this message at 22:56 on Apr 22, 2019 |
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Apr 22, 2019 22:52
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Jazerus posted:the planet that twi takes place on has been technologically stagnant since the gods died and the only remaining but still mostly dead god created levels and skills (probably) Huh, where was that covered? I stopped reading it at some point, but at least as far as I'd gotten, all I remember is the beat cop ant guy saying that religions are terrible ideas because there might actually be a god listening, and that the bug guys beat feet away from their old continent to escape their angry/insane god. I don't think I remember anything about skills/levels though, the closest I can recall to those explicitly coming up was Ryoka's fairy buddy going "Just FYI, it's probably a really, really good idea that you didn't take any levels."
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Apr 22, 2019 23:30
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Omi no Kami posted:Huh, where was that covered? I stopped reading it at some point, but at least as far as I'd gotten, all I remember is the beat cop ant guy saying that religions are terrible ideas because there might actually be a god listening, and that the bug guys beat feet away from their old continent to escape their angry/insane god. I don't think I remember anything about skills/levels though, the closest I can recall to those explicitly coming up was Ryoka's fairy buddy going "Just FYI, it's probably a really, really good idea that you didn't take any levels." It's been mentioned here and there that the gods were dead/missing but they left the System (whatever it is) behind to manage things on their way out. The fey are alien to the world as well, I suspect if Ryoka leveled in Inn-world it'd have locked her out of what she got out of the fey. That or she just wouldn't be unique/interesting enough anymore. Note what Erin got from her fey interactions was Inn-world centric.
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Apr 22, 2019 23:54
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A big flaming stink posted:Pisces did mention that he learned how to lipread without using a Skill and its portrayed as a pretty out there idea for him. there's also how nothing in the world manages to outlast the lifetime of its creator because they almost universally depend on their Skills without actually learning how to create it most of the time. Or more precisely, they never bother to teach the underlying theory because teaching a little bit is likely to convey Skills upon leveling. Laken for example vaguely explained how to construct a trebuchet and one of his engineers became an Engineer almost immediately and then intuitively understood the extremely complex physics behind the construction. the goblins are good at this specifically because it's the only collective society shown so far, so they're able to quickly communicate what they need and all of rags' crafter goblins get together and start work immediately without arguing about money or whatever. even the antinium dont count because most of them aren't sapient and cant think on their own
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Apr 23, 2019 00:02
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Omi no Kami posted:Huh, where was that covered? I stopped reading it at some point, but at least as far as I'd gotten, all I remember is the beat cop ant guy saying that religions are terrible ideas because there might actually be a god listening, and that the bug guys beat feet away from their old continent to escape their angry/insane god. I don't think I remember anything about skills/levels though, the closest I can recall to those explicitly coming up was Ryoka's fairy buddy going "Just FYI, it's probably a really, really good idea that you didn't take any levels." it's never been explicitly stated, but that's how i interpret the bits and pieces about the system that have been dropped so far. i'd have to reread the whole story to give you the exact details on why i think so tho the system is a means of control and the only spooky-bizarre-evil thing in the world, on a large enough scale to be running the system, is the god under rhir who makes eternal monster hordes. the demons that the blighted king is fighting are the latest horde, the antinium were the previous one, and apparently there were several before them too. i figure that interacting with the system is metaphysically similar enough to worship to sustain the god in its role as game master, if the entire world is doing it, which is presumably why it's not dead even though everyone is atheist
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Apr 23, 2019 00:11
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Jazerus posted:it's never been explicitly stated, but that's how i interpret the bits and pieces about the system that have been dropped so far. i'd have to reread the whole story to give you the exact details on why i think so tho Huh, I missed a ton of that in my read-through; thanks for the summary!
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Apr 23, 2019 02:02
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Jazerus posted:it's never been explicitly stated, but that's how i interpret the bits and pieces about the system that have been dropped so far. i'd have to reread the whole story to give you the exact details on why i think so tho the demons of rhir are actually shown to basically be the same as regular people in the clown chapters. Moreover, the antinium's god is nowhere hear strong enough to be the source of Levels and Skills. If a singular agent is the cause of these things, we're talking a god on the level of YHWH. A big flaming stink fucked around with this message at 06:48 on Apr 23, 2019 |
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Apr 23, 2019 06:43
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A big flaming stink posted:the demons of rhir are actually shown to basically be the same as regular people in the clown chapters. Moreover, the antinium's god is nowhere hear strong enough to be the source of Levels and Skills. If a singular agent is the cause of these things, we're talking a god on the level of YHWH. of course they're the same as regular folks, so are the antinium. we don't know enough about the power of a single god in innworld to make the judgment that it can't be the game master. i wouldn't be too surprised if the system has a different origin, but the god under rhir is the only extant divine power, it's known to be evil/insane, and the fairies are certainly of the opinion that leveling puts you under the thrall of something very nasty, so it seems like the most likely option to me with what we currently know. i doubt that the explanation for the system, when it comes, is going to rely on a bunch of stuff that we've never been introduced to before - that's not really pirateaba's style.
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Apr 23, 2019 12:46
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So uh, PracGuide. I think everyone's been assuming that the 7 princes and 1 crown due were going to be Procerean. But I just realized that there are also 7 cities in the League. Though they aren't exactly princes (and who would be the crown? Hierarch certainly refuses one, but he's the figurehead as a technicality). Or maybe Tyrant as crown (he wears one quite happily) + a bunch of Procerean princes? EDIT: It will be absolutely hilarious if Cat presents that book with a gargoyle strapped to it off as a prince. lurksion fucked around with this message at 04:31 on Apr 24, 2019 |
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Apr 24, 2019 04:06
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And now we get to see who are the ones to get offed.
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Apr 24, 2019 06:06
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Silynt posted:Is the implication of the final scene that Erin’s new friends also have [Wondrous Fare]? Or something similar? The use of the word wondrous seemed very deliberate, but Erin got that skill from serving non traditional magic food to the Fairies and I thought the implication is that it’s very rare/unique. Interested to see where that storyline is going. Just read it and that word isn't used in the chapter; maybe pirateaba edited it? They do say that others call them "magical" though, which makes me think they have Magical Cooking, the name for Wondrous Fare before pirate edited it out---and which was later established to be some kind of upper tier skill among high level food people.
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Apr 24, 2019 07:05
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Argue posted:Just read it and that word isn't used in the chapter; maybe pirateaba edited it? They do say that others call them "magical" though, which makes me think they have Magical Cooking, the name for Wondrous Fare before pirate edited it out---and which was later established to be some kind of upper tier skill among high level food people. I just went and looked, and interestingly yes it was edited. The line previously was “Some call us magical. But I prefer wondrous.”, and now it’s “Some call us magical. But I prefer amazing.”
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Apr 24, 2019 12:44
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It's funny, I read the wondrous version and didnt think that at all. I figured they were just implying they knew she had to have a specialized high level class and that they did too. A bunch of characters in the book have them and they tend to be pretty secretive about specifics.
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Apr 25, 2019 11:50
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Anybody read and can recommend any translated web novels? Been digging through a lot of Korean and Chinese web serials in an effort to just see something different but it's so hard to find one that has the bare minimum of an acceptable translation. I've only found a couple so far that are capable of actually being read in English without either knowing enough about the original language to work out the meaning or spending a whole lot of time just adjusting to the format and sentence structure of a more direct translation from those languages and I seriously doubt any web novel is worth that level of effort. Edit: Forgot to mention I'm mostly after fantasy/sci-fi stuff. I don't know what the fascination is with fairly targeted romance novels out of that area but it's a bit crazy. nessin fucked around with this message at 20:53 on Apr 26, 2019 |
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Apr 26, 2019 20:47
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nessin posted:Anybody read and can recommend any translated web novels? https://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=3793167
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Apr 26, 2019 22:17
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nessin posted:Anybody read and can recommend any translated web novels? Been digging through a lot of Korean and Chinese web serials in an effort to just see something different but it's so hard to find one that has the bare minimum of an acceptable translation. I've only found a couple so far that are capable of actually being read in English without either knowing enough about the original language to work out the meaning or spending a whole lot of time just adjusting to the format and sentence structure of a more direct translation from those languages and I seriously doubt any web novel is worth that level of effort. I've mentioned this a few times in the thread; Ascendance of a Bookworm. It's not big on high fantasy adventure, though it takes place in a fantasy world. It's largely preoccupied with reinventing technology from earth (something this thread has discussed a lot, I think), and then later on with exploring their society and politics. There's magic and monsters and stuff but when those things appear it's more of a special event and not something the main character deals with on a day to day basis. Definitely not for everyone but it's my favorite non-English web novel. ... only 103 of its 700 or so chapters are translated though.
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Apr 27, 2019 06:38
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I think I've missed a few things in what happened in the last prac guide chapter
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Apr 27, 2019 06:55
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tithin posted:I think I've missed a few things in what happened in the last prac guide chapter From a comment: She gives the “seven crowns and one” to Larat. Larat uses those to establish a new Fae Court of the shard of Arcadia. The new heroic-band (GP, SoS, Rogue Sorcerer, Cat and Karios) kill Larat and take his stuff.
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Apr 27, 2019 07:26
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GlassElephant posted:From a comment: I got most of that (bar the "heroic band" because jesus christ what heroic band would have the tyrant in it) but I'm wondering what the proposed purpose is, sure they then control a shard of Arcadia - or it begins to collapse rapidly because the rightful ruler's dead as a doornail).
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Apr 27, 2019 10:41
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i think the heroic band would have to be adjutant saint pilgrim tyrant and the rogue sorcerer because cat isnt actually named
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Apr 27, 2019 11:18
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kind of a boring WI chapter but whatever. i like olesem.
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Apr 27, 2019 17:15
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Cat really is a horrible villain, she's stopping Hierarch. 
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Apr 27, 2019 17:44
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nessin posted:Anybody read and can recommend any translated web novels? Been digging through a lot of Korean and Chinese web serials in an effort to just see something different but it's so hard to find one that has the bare minimum of an acceptable translation. I've only found a couple so far that are capable of actually being read in English without either knowing enough about the original language to work out the meaning or spending a whole lot of time just adjusting to the format and sentence structure of a more direct translation from those languages and I seriously doubt any web novel is worth that level of effort. So, usually people will recommend web serials in response to a question like this, but for something different I'll recommend some of Sugaru Miaki's stuff - https://www.novelupdates.com/nauthor/sugaru-miaki-fafoo/ They can be kinda navel-gazey (I think "mono no aware" might apply to the whole feel they go for), but I liked the ones I read and they have pretty good translation quality (Three Days of Happiness, Starting Over, Pain Pain Go Away, The Place You Called From). tithin posted:(bar the "heroic band" because jesus christ what heroic band would have the tyrant in it) The best heroic band
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Apr 27, 2019 18:42
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violent sex idiot posted:i think the heroic band would have to be adjutant saint pilgrim tyrant and the rogue sorcerer because cat isnt actually named nah, she's still narratively important enough despite not being Named, she's the Grey Pilgrim's counterpart after all
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Apr 27, 2019 19:01
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tithin posted:I got most of that (bar the "heroic band" because jesus christ what heroic band would have the tyrant in it) Him being in the band is good for Cat, from another comment: "Plus Kairos being in the group means Cat can’t be the traitorous “bad guy” of the group. At worst Cat is the gritty anti-hero with methods other members of the party don’t like. (Plus of course Archer appearing as the 6th Ranger to save her virgin Damsel in Distress from the clutches of the monster. Saving Masego from possession with True Love’s First Kiss)"
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Apr 27, 2019 20:17
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Larry Parrish posted:kind of a boring WI chapter but whatever. i like olesem. shut up you. Ilvriss and Erin tearing up because he had to finally leave was precious  Also LOL that Erin thought he was proposing to her
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Apr 27, 2019 22:34
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A big flaming stink posted:shut up you. Ilvriss and Erin tearing up because he had to finally leave was precious I'm pretty sure that's just her joking to her self.
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Apr 28, 2019 00:24
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That was an incredible chapter in Prac Guide. And then, the curtain fell. Shall we post predictions? Kairos as traitorous backstabber who's going to be taken care of by circumstance / dead king. ALA the zombie survivor who's in it for himself. Laurent as violent extremist. Will go out in a blaze of glory - has been set up by Cat unknowingly, because the violent extremist in the story band never survives. Rogue sorceror (was he ever given a name?) prudent survivalist. Will survive to see the next story beats, potentially as the next antagonist? Pilgrim will take a wound, survive, and bow out, but will do so with massive regrets. Won't survive the end of the narrative arc long. I'm conflicted on who the fifth will be, if it's named it has to be Adjutant, otoh, if story weight is sufficient for narrative purposes then it's going to be cat.
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Apr 29, 2019 11:25
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tithin posted:That was an incredible chapter in Prac Guide. I assumed it was going to be cat, and that one reason she set it up this way was as backstabbing insurance, since there's almost no narrative the pilgrim could spin that would let him preemptively betray or murder a member of his own heroic band. I'm not sure how the mechanics of her pact with the goddesses works, but if that prevents her from receiving a proper name it would also make it safer for her to insert herself into a troubled antihero/bad guy gone good role just prior to forging the accords without actually getting sucked up into good's web. In a lot of ways, she's turned "The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few" into an explicit threat.
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Apr 29, 2019 16:28
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Screw all that, i can't wait for the outcome of Tyrant's plot. I think this is going to come to fruition, and I think his plan is for Hanno to declare that he only carries out the judgments of angels, at which point Hierarch will force them to appear and be judged themselves.
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Apr 29, 2019 19:27
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One sort of theological question about PracGuide's setting - are Angels/the Choirs beings that just sort of represent Above, or are they Above themselves? I'm assuming the former, since they're basically the equivalent of Demons for Below. Recent events make me interested in what the deal is with Rogue Sorcerer. I hadn't really picked up on the whole "he's fought powerful enemies without getting hurt or using a single aspect" thing, and he's now part of this group where every other person involved is some major top-tier player. edit: It was also nice to get some more insight into Saint of Sword's perspective, though it feels like the kind of obvious counter is that Catherine isn't technically a Named or villain anymore (or at least I thought others were aware of that by now). It also seems like someone like Pilgrim could have vouched for that Alchemist guy having designs on becoming powerful, whereas he's at least willing to vouche for Catherine's good intentions, even if he doesn't think her existence is worth the risk (so there's no risk that Catherine is doing all of this out of some long-term evil scheme). Ytlaya fucked around with this message at 22:38 on Apr 29, 2019 |
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Apr 29, 2019 22:34
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NinjaDebugger posted:Screw all that, i can't wait for the outcome of Tyrant's plot. I think this is going to come to fruition, and I think his plan is for Hanno to declare that he only carries out the judgments of angels, at which point Hierarch will force them to appear and be judged themselves. Tyrant always has at least one first phase going, and he's on the side of the story's actual protagonist (Anaxares) because he correctly thinks it's hilarious. I think your particular hypothesis seems plausible.
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Apr 30, 2019 00:22
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I feel like this story has varying levels of meta-aware characters. First there's folks like Black and Pilgrim, who just treat story tropes mechanically and like they're physical laws. Then there's Catherine, who has a special talent for seeing how the "big picture" looks from the story perspective. And then there's Tyrant, who is basically like a SomethingAwful poster who happens to live inside the story and just wants to see what kind of crazy stuff he can do.
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Apr 30, 2019 02:19
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Ah poo poo hes totally an SA poster isn't he
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Apr 30, 2019 04:27
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And, like all of us, he has wisely decided to align himself with Anaraxes and the only righteous state, the Republic of Bellerophon.
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Apr 30, 2019 04:30
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Anyone picked up on the fact that yet again, Cat has pulled a heroic move here with the reveal to the Seven crowns? Showing the allies of your enemy, just what your enemy really thinks of them (in this case, that all of the heroes view them as entirely expendable and don't care about their authority / power structure) is a very heroic move - turning your enemies alliance against one another is not something villains *get* to pull off. I actually think Cat has transcended the story in a lot of respects here.
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Apr 30, 2019 10:11
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I super hope that, when Heirarch judges the Choir of Judgement, Cat gets to the Executioner. It fits major themes of the characters so well, with how Heirarch is about holding everyone--even the gods themselves--accountable to law, and Catherine is about killing gods. And then everyone lived happily ever after...
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Apr 30, 2019 14:52
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I liked the extra chapter this month in Practical Guide. It took me a second to process that it was the extra chapter, I thought they might be waking him up for the trip. Do we know the history of the seven Princes and One? I know that it involves Callow killing a bunch of Procerans, but how is that related to creating a new Arcadia?
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May 1, 2019 14:40
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