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vainqueur worked because the characters were pretty likable. i didn't care for the MC in perfect run, and once i figured out i wasn't a big Len fan either i dropped it
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Jan 22, 2021 23:45
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meanwhile in katalepsis, poo poo is realllly hitting the fan!
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Jan 23, 2021 09:36
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"Beware of Chicken" is a "twist" on xianxia. The twist being that cultivators are crazy and you should not do drugs. Instead you should start a farm and cultivate rice. This makes it sound more mean than it really is, instead of making GBS threads on xianxia tropes it is mostly a mellow and humorous slice-of-life with a greater story undercurrent. It is now on RoyalRoad. It originates from a seedier site, but is SFW even there.
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Jan 24, 2021 17:35
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Gladi posted:"Beware of Chicken" is a "twist" on xianxia. The twist being that cultivators are crazy and you should not do drugs. Instead you should start a farm and cultivate rice. This makes it sound more mean than it really is, instead of making GBS threads on xianxia tropes it is mostly a mellow and humorous slice-of-life with a greater story undercurrent. It is now on RoyalRoad. It originates from a seedier site, but is SFW even there. Looks like the RoyalRoad page has some content warnings for violence / sexual content. What are the odds it gets more extreme later? EDIT: If "cultivating rice" ends up being like the Sakuna harvest goddess action game that came out a while, I could see that being pretty neat. Traditional farming was more engaging than I expected. Haven't opened the story yet, though. avoraciopoctules fucked around with this message at 20:35 on Jan 24, 2021 |
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Jan 24, 2021 20:31
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Gladi posted:"Beware of Chicken" is a "twist" on xianxia. The twist being that cultivators are crazy and you should not do drugs. Instead you should start a farm and cultivate rice. This makes it sound more mean than it really is, instead of making GBS threads on xianxia tropes it is mostly a mellow and humorous slice-of-life with a greater story undercurrent. It is now on RoyalRoad. It originates from a seedier site, but is SFW even there. Big meti's sword manual vibes
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Jan 24, 2021 20:34
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avoraciopoctules posted:Looks like the RoyalRoad page has some content warnings for violence / sexual content. What are the odds it gets more extreme later? There are plans to put a more explicit stuff on the original website if it comes to that, no idea how far it could go as there has been pretty much nothing so far in any version.
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Jan 24, 2021 20:53
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Gladi posted:"Beware of Chicken" is a "twist" on xianxia. The twist being that cultivators are crazy and you should not do drugs. Instead you should start a farm and cultivate rice. This makes it sound more mean than it really is, instead of making GBS threads on xianxia tropes it is mostly a mellow and humorous slice-of-life with a greater story undercurrent. It is now on RoyalRoad. It originates from a seedier site, but is SFW even there. TBH, this kind of trope inversion is already common enough in xianxia that I think I've read more xianxia stories like this than the straightforward ones that are being twisted here. avoraciopoctules posted:Looks like the RoyalRoad page has some content warnings for violence / sexual content. What are the odds it gets more extreme later? Technically speaking, we've had: that megarat loving the animals up, a whole bunch of third-party accounts of what psychos cultivators can be and that one guy almost raping someone. But I suspect he's mostly covering his rear end. I'd be surprised if it goes really dark. Also, he casually mentioned that he learned about farming from a manga and I looked it up and it's pretty fun, even though I am not really a manga fan.
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Jan 24, 2021 22:16
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A big flaming stink posted:meanwhile in katalepsis, poo poo is realllly hitting the fan! In general I've been super in for allll of the Carcosa content, didn't even get mad at the reveal of Seven Shades' particular interests. 
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Jan 25, 2021 00:57
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Megazver posted:TBH, this kind of trope inversion is already common enough in xianxia that I think I've read more xianxia stories like this than the straightforward ones that are being twisted here. Yeah, this is also true of isekai WNs. I'm actually not sure if I've ever seen an isekai WN "played straight" where a person reincarnates in a fantasy world and has to beat the demon king. Like I remember when people were discussing "I'm a Spider, So What?" and talked about disliking the Shun parts because he was a "stereotypical isekai protagonist," but in reality the complete opposite is true and the Shun parts were actually pretty unique. Most isekai protagonists have ridiculous power that puts them at the pinnacle of their world and have kind of nasty misanthropic/antisocial personalities (because I guess that's the self-insert), so "really nice guy who is kinda strong but far weaker than the real big wigs" was actually very rare and unusual.
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Jan 25, 2021 04:38
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I mean you havent read them in an isekai cuz I suspect they're originally based on the same poo poo D&D was that they so closely resemble. Portal fantasy, baby. Now those really do have a lot of fairly standard 'guy is in a strange world, and beats the big evil, either by being smarter than everyone or stronger or whatever'.
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Jan 25, 2021 21:50
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Latest chapter of Pith: Here's to hoping that's a fake Maxime Clive. She's way too good a character to die like that. Though it could be Ana trying to take over Commonplace and getting rid of a liability. Speaking of Ana, I'm really hoping that she realizes that Paragon is everything she was fighting against. I know that in the last chapter she saw Grace's memories, but whether she justifies Paragon's actions somehow (they're the lesser evil, it's just a few bad apples, Commonplace is worse, etc.) remains to be seen. And Nell's mom proves once again what a terrible mother she is. It sounds like Nell will have her own Pyre Witch in the next volume.
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Jan 26, 2021 05:39
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Which is better Pact or Twig?
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Jan 27, 2021 12:35
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Pact
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Jan 27, 2021 14:16
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Lot 49 posted:Which is better Pact or Twig? Twig and it's not particularly close. Pact is constantly paced at an incredibly frenetic speed that leaves very little room for characters to breathe. Twig is paced much better and especially the first half of Twig is probably the best thing that Wildbow ever wrote.
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Jan 27, 2021 17:13
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Lot 49 posted:Which is better Pact or Twig? I enjoyed Pact more then Twig, I read it through and enjoyed it. I dropped Twig a bit under half way through. This is going to have very subjective answers.
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Jan 27, 2021 17:33
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Kalas posted:I enjoyed Pact more then Twig, I read it through and enjoyed it. I dropped Twig a bit under half way through. Pact suffers from being 100% frantic all the time, but Twig was really dull for me by comparison. I don’t think Wildbow does intrigue or incidental dialog very well. I did finish and enjoy Pact, while Twig I bailed out on pretty early.
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Jan 27, 2021 18:12
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TWI Patreon: Not a huge fan of Wistram but very much into Teriarch just throwing their entire system out of whack. Can't wait to see what his faction is called.
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Jan 27, 2021 19:22
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I enjoyed both Pact and Twig, though I feel like I would enjoy Pact even more on a re-read. I liked the ending quite a bit, mostly I'm just happy that Blake and Evan got a semi-happy ending of sorts. Twig was very good up until the ending with the massive timeskip into adulthood and forced encounter with the King, which wildbow supposedly didn't want to do originally but was apparently something readers wanted. I just hate timeskips like that, I feel like you miss out on way too much character development and they basically turn into different characters entirely.
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Jan 27, 2021 19:42
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Kalas posted:This is going to have very subjective answers. I understand. I was thinking about starting one and wanted to know if there was a general consensus that one was clearly better than the other but it seems not. Thanks to people who gave input anyway 
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Jan 27, 2021 20:17
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Lot 49 posted:I understand. I was thinking about starting one and wanted to know if there was a general consensus that one was clearly better than the other but it seems not. It might be worth considering what sort of setting and characters you find more compelling as well. I can't really speak for Pact, but Twig has a pretty distinct main cast and setting.
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Jan 27, 2021 21:34
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Pact is the least impacted by the severe structural flaws that mark all of his work, but is probably the most impacted by the severe pacing problems. It's also the closest I think he'll ever come to something that could be turned into a tradpub novel, which puts it head and shoulders above some of his other stories.
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Jan 28, 2021 00:28
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Uldor posted:TWI Patreon: Not a huge fan of Wistram but very much into Teriarch just throwing their entire system out of whack. Can't wait to see what his faction is called. I very much enjoyed Teriarch smacking the pathetic Wistram around, they suck.
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Jan 28, 2021 01:22
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Tried out The Perfect Run, and I like it. Yeah, the gamer reference humor can be cringey, but overall I still find myself enjoying it.
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Jan 28, 2021 01:28
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Omi no Kami posted:Pact is the least impacted by the severe structural flaws that mark all of his work, but is probably the most impacted by the severe pacing problems. It's also the closest I think he'll ever come to something that could be turned into a tradpub novel, which puts it head and shoulders above some of his other stories. I feel like Twig is structured better than Pact except for perhaps the last like three arcs
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Jan 28, 2021 02:29
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Sampatrick posted:I feel like Twig is structured better than Pact except for perhaps the last like three arcs It's been a while since I've read either so I could totally be wrong on the broad strokes, but the main thing I was thinking (spoilers for both) was that Pact has a reasonably coherent narrative spine: Blake's in trouble, he needs to get out. Oh no, now he has a new problem and has to solve it. That's really easy to trim down to novel length without changing much- the only real structural complaint I have with it (besides its length) is the fact that the entire village's behavior is driven by a last-act twist that just kinda comes out of nowhere and falls flat. With Twig, I have a few structural issues. One is that very little of the story actually does anything: the characters are essentially the same people at the end of they story as they are at the beginning without having undergone any actual development, the story itself is broken into three weirdly-balanced arcs that don't conclude so much as just peter out and get left by the wayside, and most of the story is something that happens around the characters, not to them. So much of Twig involves really interesting plot hooks or ideas that never resolve, and it's very difficult to point to a coherent narrative that pervades the entire work and keeps things on the rails. For my money Twig had more interesting ideas but Pact actually had the better execution, even those its pacing issues and the spoilered stuff severely undercut its overall impact.
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Jan 28, 2021 02:34
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Cicero posted:Tried out The Perfect Run, and I like it. Yeah, the gamer reference humor can be cringey, but overall I still find myself enjoying it. It does it better than the other thousand web novels/Kindle novels that do it, anyway. Mostly because he intentionally sounds crazy instead of it being on accident.
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Jan 28, 2021 13:25
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Catching up on many months of Threads of Destiny (I waited longer than usual this time; I think I have literally like 6 months worth to read). I'm bummed out about Shen Hu dying. I liked him. I don't think we ever found out what his second spirit was. It was nice to have another relatively prominent commoner character other than Ji Rong (I'm also curious to see what happens with him, since he seems to have matured a lot). It was interesting seeing what I'm guessing is some form of white people with the blonde ice lady. Fantasy Russia I'm guessing? Would make sense if we have fantasy Mongols. It's also interesting to see a very direct example of the Empire being stupid and pointlessly guaranteeing that enmity of everyone at that meeting, except possibly the fantasy-Russians. Gives some more meat to the whole Cai Renxiang element of the plot.
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Jan 29, 2021 03:09
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Ytlaya posted:Catching up on many months of Threads of Destiny (I waited longer than usual this time; I think I have literally like 6 months worth to read). Check the sidestories in the thread. There is one called Summer's End.
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Jan 29, 2021 04:15
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I enjoyed Beware of Chicken, except for the fighting parts. Which made me realize I'd really like a story focused on farming. Are there any stories like that?
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Jan 30, 2021 00:29
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LLSix posted:I enjoyed Beware of Chicken, except for the fighting parts. Which made me realize I'd really like a story focused on farming. Are there any stories like that? Try https://www.novelupdates.com/stag/farming/?sort=3&order=2&status=1
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Jan 30, 2021 01:06
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Well, there's uh, the Farmer books in KU. They are hideously bad though.
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Jan 30, 2021 03:03
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Pact vs Twig: I read all of Pact and dropped Twig partway through, but what I read of Twig I liked more. The thing I didn't like about Pact was how undefined all the magic was. Once it got past the beginning, I never had a sense of what anyone could do. There'd be a problem, then sometimes they'd easily magic their way out of it, sometimes they couldn't, and sometimes some unexpected weird thing would happen, but never with enough pattern for me to get a sense of what options a character would have in a future situation. I was reading it for a plot driven story (as opposed to like a magical realism atmosphere thing), so having stuff resolve or not at the whim of how to get the next plot beat was unsatisfying. LLSix posted:I enjoyed Beware of Chicken, except for the fighting parts. Which made me realize I'd really like a story focused on farming. Are there any stories like that? Speaking of Beware of Chicken, I liked the part in one of the recent chapters where the protagonist introduces knitting. The native is like "This is slower and worse than a loom, but doesn't need as much equipment and you can do it while traveling, so cool (but the mittens you made are still terrible)". Plus the note at the end about hand knitting only becoming widespread in real world China in the 1920s. That's the best execution of otherworld-protagonist-introduces-technology I've seen.
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Jan 30, 2021 07:29
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I got caught up on The Gods Are Bastards and had a major deja vu attack at the 'country slipping into fascism' thing so lol. But I'm not shocked that the author was like 'I dunno where I'm going with some of this'. Really good, though. Theres very few parts of it that I think are pointless or should be cut, but then again, huge sprawling fantasy epics are kind of my jam. Especially cuz of the painstaking detail to make it feel like a real place. Almost nothing feels like it's weird or out of place, which is tough in fantasy settings. Probably the only thing I think sucked was the latest side story featuring seven year old children having a forthright conversation about emotional motivation that I don't think most adults could have that eloquently. But you know. Everyone in books sounds twice as intelligent as they should, kinda like how everyone in movies is twice as smooth just by virtue of the pacing being exact.
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Jan 31, 2021 23:39
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Larry Parrish posted:I got caught up on The Gods Are Bastards and had a major deja vu attack at the 'country slipping into fascism' thing so lol. But I'm not shocked that the author was like 'I dunno where I'm going with some of this'. It's still one of my favorites, even with the direction it's going in being up in the air at this point. I adore several of the characters, and you're totally hitting it on the nose with the detail making it feel real. There's so much development to lots of small things that make the whole feel better for it.
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Jan 31, 2021 23:55
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Using a bag of holding at a buffet? Wistram does have some terrifyingly smart mages after all.
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Feb 1, 2021 12:40
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90s Cringe Rock posted:Using a bag of holding at a buffet? Wistram does have some terrifyingly smart mages after all. It was almost a trope in Azarinth Healer before I stopped reading it about the protagonist always whipping out five star meals from her bag of holding.
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Feb 2, 2021 15:19
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She still does that, and who wouldn't, if they had access to the resources she does.
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Feb 2, 2021 15:33
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something something metaworld pallet of spam
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Feb 2, 2021 16:46
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I'm rereading Practical Guide to Evil and the second arc is the weakest. Weaker than I remembered. Pretty much everything with Heiress is dumb. I think that's by design, because old Villainy is all about grandiose, impractical plans, but it's still not fun. The biggest problem for me is the supposed rule of three between her and the MC, Cat. The bard says the first two encounters were a victory on the Blessed Isle and a draw in Marchford. Even if we consider those to be the only two encounters, that's not how I'd describe them. On Blessed Isle (this is when Heiress tries to bribe Cat into giving up the Squire name) Heiress claims to want to get rid of Cat and Cat wants to kill Heiress for trying to murder her. Neither get what they want. Surely that's a draw? It's certainly not a win. Heiress doesn't even come close to losing anything she cares about. The second encounter, in Marchford, is when Heiress shows up to trap a demon after setting it loose. Heiress is at no point in anything remotely resembling danger. Meanwhile Cat loses a third of her name, all of her wounded and a bunch more legionaires. She also loses a bunch of civilians. Surely that's a clear win for Heiress, no matter what the lying liar says? But that's hardly the only two encounters the two have had. Heiress shows up constantly. 1) She nearly gets Cat killed by the other Squire claimants. Cat survives so call that a win. Win. 2) Blessed Isle, Heiress tries to bribe Cat, Cat refuses, both walk away having neither lost nor gained anything. Draw. 3) Heiress baits Cat into injuring one of her idiot followers in the Tower. Everyone agrees that Cat lost that one. Loss. 4) Cat wins the war games anyway and gets the legion command she wanted despite Heiress trying to murder her again on no less than 4 occasions and other assorted villainy. Win. 5) Heiress tries to bribe the Quartermaster into denying Cat and her legion supplies. Cat breaks two of the Quartermaster's fingers. If Cat was a good guy, this would be a clear win because her needless brutality would turn the nobles against her. It's not and the nobles are already against her. Since she's a villain working with villains, they probably respect her more for being cruel. Win. 6ish) Heiress has her army rape and pillage through Southern Callow while Cat is elsewhere. Cat considers this a loss even though she's nowhere near. Loss? 7) Marchford. As described above, Cat gets her rear end thoroughly kicked. Loss. This is as far as I've gotten in my reread, but from what I remember there's several other minor skirmishes leading up to the final clash in Liesse. And Heiress successfully escapes from Cat's army at some point. Shouldn't that be the fated third loss?
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Feb 4, 2021 03:11
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iirc in Creation, only direct, mano e mano clashes count for the rule of three, I think, not negotiations or things besides physical conflict. Cat's encounters with the Lone Swordsman fit pretty neatly into this, despite her also technically having more than 3 encounters with him.
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Feb 4, 2021 20:45
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