|
Ytlaya posted:I used to think that Amy at least had a reasonable amount of guilt and understanding of her role in things, but recent chapters are making me doubt that. To be honest, she seems to blame Victoria more than herself now, and seems to believe that she has done enough to "deserve" Victoria's forgiveness and engagement. As far as I can tell, she doesn't - and never has - come close to comprehending the magnitude of her crimes against Victoria (and now these other people). The thing that made me understand Amy was the realization that she thinks like one of those weirdo Nice Guy types that's well on their way to being a fullblown r/incels shitter. She didn't heal people because she's genuinely compassionate, she did it because it's what she thought would make Victoria like her and think she's a good person. In recent chapters of Ward, she's repeatedly demonstrated that she doesn't care about Victoria's feelings, they're an obstacle to be overcome. Victoria is a trophy to her, an objective. Improvement to her isn't genuinely becoming a better person because she doesn't understand what that means - improving means "whatever it takes to get Victoria to like me again". If you view all of Amy's actions through that lens they make a hell of a lot more sense, and that's loving terrifying because the end result of that mindset with nothing forcing her out of it is her doing the equivalent of shooting up a sorority because her trophy doesn't and won't like her, and because it's Amy that means plagues and brainwashing and who knows what the gently caress else. Fajita Queen fucked around with this message at 05:15 on Jun 27, 2019 |
#
?
Jun 27, 2019 05:13
|
|
|
|
| # ? Jun 4, 2024 10:35 |
|
|
I started reading a few of these stories after hearing about them a while ago, and while I like the idea of them, I'm struggling to enjoy them in practice. I read Worm and found it pretty grim, I liked the parts where the main character was dealing with her relationships with her father and friends, but I just skipped past most of the fights because I'm not really interested in fighting. I tried The Gods Are Bastards, but the writing was so sexist it upset me and I had to stop. I liked parts of the Wandering Inn, especially the blind king character, and those poor kids who got teleported in and were forced to fight, but the main characters are boring. I quite liked Mother of learning too, despite the slow start, but I've caught up now. The earlier parts of Unsong were also very good, but it very quickly changes genre and becomes less interesting, I think the author ran out of ideas or something. I haven't yet tried to other stories recommended in the OP. I want an easy, long read, which isn't so taxing, so I thought this would be a good medium, but I don't want to become upset like with The Gods Are Bastards again, because I'm a bit of a wuss at the moment. I can cope with horrible characters, just not horrible authors! Also, from a few pages back- the Blake Island story is very good. Chatrapati fucked around with this message at 11:01 on Jun 27, 2019 |
|
#
?
Jun 27, 2019 10:57
|
|
|
Given what you've said, I'm going to do the horribly gauche thing and recommend my serial, Not All Heroes, which is presently sitting at #2 Overall on TWF and is really more of a soon to be trio of novels than the usual in perpetua serial fare. Arc 2 will wrap up in about three weeks. It definitely has more of an emphasis towards characters and their relationships and psychology than fight scenes. Also consider Inheritors and Into the Mire, both of which have a similar focus. Milkfred E. Moore fucked around with this message at 11:11 on Jun 27, 2019 |
|
|
#
?
Jun 27, 2019 11:05
|
|
|
Thanks Milkfred, I'll give it a go. I'm not familiar with this scene really having only read the OP, but well done on reaching #2!
|
|
#
?
Jun 27, 2019 11:11
|
|
|
Chatrapati posted:I started reading a few of these stories after hearing about them a while ago, and while I like the idea of them, I'm struggling to enjoy them in practice. If you want to check out the Chinese variety of these stories, try Cultivation Chat Group.
|
|
#
?
Jun 27, 2019 13:20
|
|
|
prac guide's rough on grammar and prose, especially the first few chapters holy poo poo, (welcome to web serials i guess) but it's pretty good on not being sexist or w/e imo. it's the only serial i still follow regularly, and very long. Into The Mire was recced somerwhere here too, it's alright but it updates pretty infrequently and a lot of the earlier chapters feel like half a chapter. Check it out and then maybe put it down for a while if you like it and have a habit of binging. Been noticing a lot of croaking happening for a while now in prac guide, but at least people have started missing beats again. oh yeah and an incantation, a magic incantation, with a badass last line hasn't happened for ages now, i think, it's great.
|
|
#
?
Jun 27, 2019 13:25
|
|
|
I love Prac guide. It's a slow burn to start with but it grows really well, and arguably we're starting to reach the denouement of the series. Six "books" out of 7
|
|
#
?
Jun 27, 2019 15:45
|
|
|
Chatrapati posted:I tried The Gods Are Bastards, but the writing was so sexist it upset me and I had to stop. I'm curious about what particularly stood out to you here. I know the author has talked about struggling to portray sexist characters without making it seem like the narrative was supporting their worldview, but a few parts of the story came across as kinda trying too hard to sell the unreliable close third person view, such as most of Shook's chapters. Was it that or something else?
|
|
#
?
Jun 27, 2019 16:16
|
|
|
Milkfred E. Moore posted:
They said Worm was too grim, so you recommend Inheritors? yikes
|
|
#
?
Jun 27, 2019 16:39
|
|
|
The Shortest Path posted:I'm curious about what particularly stood out to you here. I know the author has talked about struggling to portray sexist characters without making it seem like the narrative was supporting their worldview, but a few parts of the story came across as kinda trying too hard to sell the unreliable close third person view, such as most of Shook's chapters. Was it that or something else? Shook was shocking, it's true. The descriptions of him gripping spongey asses could have been dealt with better, and the succubus scene was awful, but it's not as bad as how the author treats women in general throughout the story. Many women are depicted as being very sexy. I like sexiness, but it seems like the only time characters get described is when they're wearing skin-tight suits, are naked, or have curvy figures. Men are rarely described at all. Compare the amount of detail poured into how mind-bogglingly sexy the succubus was compared with the incubus who I think is in the next scene- I think he gets half a line compared to multiple paragraphs of sexual power fantasy. Recently in the story, the god of keeping women in their place was introduced. I'm guessing so that we could have another bad guy who can leer at women and we can have descriptions about how good their arses look in an 'acceptable' way. I'm not sure why this character needs to exist, but I'm sure the feminist good guys will save the day, and we can have a tidbit on the morality of treating women like people until the next villain comes and starts pinching bottoms or whatever. The whole dynamic of men and women is treated as if men have no agency over their sexualities, and women are sexual objects first, and people second. If men aren't leering at women, then there's usually an explained reason why, or its a struggle to resist. This would be okay in isolation, or very occasionally, but it happens frequently enough that it's suspect. Despite being a patriarchal world, every third character seems to be a lesbian, which again, would have been fine if not for the fact that it had been established that this world's patriarchy seems to mirror our own. One of the last chapters I read had a super-cool and sexy woman consider flirting with some other woman to 'lure' her into femininity or something like that. The main character's religious order, is obviously rife with lesbianism, because I guess that's what happens when a bunch of girls all get together- maybe they can't help it! As of yet, there's been zero indication that men can fancy other men, nor any meaningful romantic interaction between sexes. It's almost as if gay women are 'safer' to depict, since they're so inoffensive to patriarchal mindsets. The whole thing reads like a thirteen year-old boy's fantasy at times. Any one of these things in isolation would have probably been fine, it's just everything all together is too much, and none of it seems to be treated respectfully. Sorry for the rant. Honestly I was surprised this story was suggested in the OP, and maybe I'm somehow reading it wrong. This is just how I exprienced it, and it did upset me. I'll give Practical Guide a go if I don't end up liking Not All Heroes.
|
|
#
?
Jun 27, 2019 20:17
|
|
|
Practical Guide also has a somewhat implausible number of lesbian characters -- or at least, it sometimes seems that way -- but on everything else is sounds much better than what you're describing. There are some gay dudes around, men also sometimes get ogled, and really the world/story as a whole seem to have very muted sexism. There's some there, but it doesn't seem to come up much. It looks more equal than IRL, actually.
|
|
#
?
Jun 27, 2019 20:30
|
|
|
Cicero posted:Practical Guide also has a somewhat implausible number of lesbian characters -- or at least, it sometimes seems that way -- but on everything else is sounds much better than what you're describing. There are some gay dudes around, men also sometimes get ogled, and really the world/story as a whole seem to have very muted sexism. There's some there, but it doesn't seem to come up much. It looks more equal than IRL, actually. I also get this impression, and my cynical interpretation of it is that it's because the author is a straight male* and found it easier to focus on the protagonist's attraction to women than men. It's a pretty minor thing, though. Overall I'd say PracGuide is the most solid "normal" web serial, in that it feels like it has the most coherent plot and themes and doesn't have the aimless feel a lot of other web serials end up with. I personally like FoD a bit more, but FoD isn't a typical web serial (due to the player choice stuff and mechanical aspects). * not sure if this is actually true
|
|
#
?
Jun 27, 2019 21:08
|
|
|
PracGuide's author is male, and I'd be pretty shocked if he wasn't straight. Cat supposedly being bi but having exclusively female partners in the actual story (her past male partners don't even get names) mildly annoys me out of principle, but it's not exactly a major part of the story.
|
|
#
?
Jun 27, 2019 23:39
|
|
|
she's had two partners on screen i think. pretty small sample
|
|
#
?
Jun 28, 2019 00:20
|
|
|
Plorkyeran posted:PracGuide's author is male, and I'd be pretty shocked if he wasn't straight. not sure how bi erasure here is better but get annoyed i guess "i DEMAND the main character gently caress a man" lol
|
|
#
?
Jun 28, 2019 00:54
|
|
|
Lone Goat posted:not sure how bi erasure here is better but get annoyed i guess It's more that it can be a thing for straight men to fetishize lesbians and/or to write lesbian characters in order to avoid having to describe attraction towards a male character.
|
|
#
?
Jun 28, 2019 01:03
|
|
|
Piell posted:It's more that it can be a thing for straight men to fetishize lesbians and/or to write lesbian characters in order to avoid having to describe attraction towards a male character. Yeah, I wouldn't comment at all in the first place if the author was of the same gender/orientation as the character being portrayed (and even as is I wouldn't really go as far as to even call it "problematic").
|
|
#
?
Jun 28, 2019 02:11
|
|
|
The Wandering Inn is the only web serial I know of whose author is a woman and it's noticeably better with respect to its depiction of women in the story than most of the others that get discussed in here.
|
|
#
?
Jun 28, 2019 03:43
|
|
|
Piell posted:It's more that it can be a thing for straight men to fetishize lesbians and/or to write lesbian characters in order to avoid having to describe attraction towards a male character. Yes, and sometimes those characters are bi entirely because the male author wants to imagine himself having sex with them. I don't think there's anything that suggests this in PracGuide, and I don't think there's anything particularly "problematic" with how it handles sexuality. There's just the minor annoyance of "bleh, is this story I enjoyed really going in this direction?" that isn't retroactively erased by it not going that way.
|
|
#
?
Jun 28, 2019 04:50
|
|
|
Cat does ogle dudes (see her reaction to Warlock for instance), even if she focuses on women more. RE lesbians in the story: I feel PracGuide has more gay dudes (even in bit roles) in it than lesbians; probably EE trying to avoid the flaw of trying to have an inclusive story and yet only having lesbians. SITB fucked around with this message at 13:16 on Jun 30, 2019 |
|
#
?
Jun 28, 2019 08:08
|
|
|
Prac guide has two explicit Bi women (Cat and Archer) and one lesbian woman minimum who hasn't been seen in like 3 books (Killian) - it's kind of daft to say it has more lesbians than is plausible. Cat frequently ogles dudes who are good looking but it all pales in comparison to her one true love The Deadhand Snark. Anyway; no spoilers in regards to the most recent chapter except to say that's one hell of a way to start a courtship. e: sorry, 3 bi women, including malicia - though this is only really mentioned in passing. tithin fucked around with this message at 08:51 on Jun 28, 2019 |
|
#
?
Jun 28, 2019 08:47
|
|
|
straight men can only write straight people is a great way to reduce representation in fiction, if that's your goal
|
|
#
?
Jun 28, 2019 13:56
|
|
|
It's just a minor gripe but I am so tired of PracGuide pulling the "omg something super cool and important just happened, time for multiple chapters about side characters doing things at the same time! No you don't get to see the immediate aftermath because <insert reasons that keep changing here>"
|
|
#
?
Jun 28, 2019 15:13
|
|
|
tithin posted:e: sorry, 3 bi women, including malicia - though this is only really mentioned in passing. I vaguely recall a conversation with Akua in the previous volume where she said that Wastelanders will hook up with anyone regardless of gender because sex, like everything else in their hosed up society, is just another tool of manipulation and power. I don’t remember it being presented as “every Wastelander is bi”, but it’s been a while.
|
|
#
?
Jun 28, 2019 17:58
|
|
|
TWI Patreon: holy poo poo Antinium heaven exists
|
|
#
?
Jun 29, 2019 20:21
|
|
|
TWI Patreon: Also holy poo poo Pawn got a heal spell, Minor wounds but drat wasn't it explicitly said those haven't been seen in ages?
|
|
#
?
Jun 29, 2019 20:44
|
|
|
Burning through Metaworld Chronicles, it's a fun read overall so far, kind of similar to Threads of Destiny, but wow, these Vietnam War parallels are making me uncomfortable. edit: it's like threads of destiny crossed with maybe mother of learning (not in its central gimmick but kind of like world/theme/style?) crossed with attack on titan/kabaneri (albeit much less depressing than those).
|
|
#
?
Jun 29, 2019 22:39
|
|
|
Cicero posted:Burning through Metaworld Chronicles, it's a fun read overall so far, kind of similar to Threads of Destiny, but wow, these Vietnam War parallels are making me uncomfortable. Wait till you get to Burma
|
|
#
?
Jun 29, 2019 22:57
|
|
|
Uldor posted:TWI Patreon: Also holy poo poo Pawn got a heal spell, Minor wounds but drat wasn't it explicitly said those haven't been seen in ages? Seeing Yellow get resurrected was awesome. Pawn is probably the only person in the world with a heal spell at this point. Something horrible is going to happen isn't it, to make up for this happy time.
|
|
#
?
Jun 29, 2019 23:50
|
|
|
Would've thought the cockblocking in PracGuide was finished last week. Oh well. At least we get a bonus chapter. lurksion fucked around with this message at 06:32 on Jul 1, 2019 |
|
#
?
Jul 1, 2019 06:22
|
|
|
Starting tomorrow, I'm going to be putting up a chapter a day of The Lightning Brigade on the website and RR. We'll see if that gets some traction. Might bump it up to two a day like the original plan but that wouldn't leave me a lot of wiggle room.
|
|
#
?
Jul 1, 2019 06:30
|
|
|
lurksion posted:Would've thought the cockblocking in PracGuide was finished last week. Oh well. Yeah, I mean what does learning that it was a slightly different magical rear end in a top hat that ruined crop production in the past actually change?
|
|
#
?
Jul 1, 2019 06:37
|
|
7c Nickel posted:Yeah, I mean what does learning that it was a slightly different magical rear end in a top hat that ruined crop production in the past actually change? The wiki.
|
|
|
#
?
Jul 1, 2019 07:49
|
|
|
i love reading roman sounding names this chapter was one of the best in the whole work gently caress you all
|
|
#
?
Jul 1, 2019 12:02
|
|
|
lurksion posted:Would've thought the cockblocking in PracGuide was finished last week. Oh well. quote:“I present you General Abigail of Summerholm, in command of the Third Army,” the Deadhand said. “You may have heard of her.” Edit: 7c Nickel posted:Yeah, I mean what does learning that it was a slightly different magical rear end in a top hat that ruined crop production in the past actually change? i dunno, i think discovering that the central economic problem for Praes is both structural and surmountable might be important but more narratively the Seed chapters are likely to be the story of how Alaya's and Black's conspiracy overthrew the previous Dread Emperor Goatse James Bond fucked around with this message at 14:41 on Jul 1, 2019 |
|
#
?
Jul 1, 2019 14:30
|
|
|
practical guide to evil posted:Huh. She’d not expected that to work. Did praying to people actually change things? She’d heard that there was talk about making the odd offering to the Crows these days, which she didn’t entirely disapprove of. The Gods Above asked for a lot, birds were probably much easier to bribe as far as deities went. Alms took hard coin, but you could get dead rats from any poorly-kept cellar. I hope this works out for her.
|
|
#
?
Jul 1, 2019 14:34
|
|
|
Abigail is the best
|
|
#
?
Jul 1, 2019 14:51
|
|
|
https://lightningbrigade.home.blog/2019/07/01/volume-2-act-2-chapter-13/ https://www.royalroad.com/fiction/25027/the-lightning-brigade/chapter/377712/act-2-chapter-13-the-weight-of-legacy Chapter 13 is live. A new update will go up every day for the rest of the week, and then every day next week as well, so I won't bombard the thread with it. I recently got a new banner for Brigade as well that I'm pretty proud of, though it's not entirely accurate yet. It'll get fixed later. Working on proper cover art as well, instead of just a character piece about a character who won't even show up until volume 2. Lots of lore and the build up of the new threat, so I hope ya'll enjoy. Pushing myself to meet the one a day stuff has been a challenge, but a fun one.
|
|
#
?
Jul 1, 2019 20:02
|
|
|
All hail Dread Empress Abby of Praellow
|
|
#
?
Jul 1, 2019 20:31
|
|
|
|
| # ? Jun 4, 2024 10:35 |
|
|
I think I've almost finished Not All Heroes. I've just finished the chapter where Jack visits Sam's corpse. I can't believe she died, I wanted her and Jack to have a happy ending more than anyone else.  .It's entertaining anyway, so thanks Milk. A slow start, but really picks up at or around chapter 3 I thought. It's very similar, in regard to both the story and the world, to Worm. Is it supposed to be an homage? Going to try Cultivation Chat Group once I've finished this. Edit: Oh drat, that ended sooner than I thought. I should have checked the dates in the corner. It seemed like everything was drawing to a conclusion! Chatrapati fucked around with this message at 22:54 on Jul 2, 2019 |
|
#
?
Jul 2, 2019 21:25
|
|