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navyjack posted:Yeah I don’t “hate” it and it’s competently written, but there’s only room for one super special girl in my life and her name is Erin Solstice 
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Mar 14, 2022 01:53
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navyjack posted:there’s only room for one super special girl in my life and her name is Erin Solstice Is this too long for a thread title?
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Mar 14, 2022 01:59
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navyjack posted:Honestly I’m getting ready to drop it. It was kinda sold as being a “working” mage trying to pay off student loans and I think there are interesting stories to be told in that space, but a fairly short time in and she’s already fell in with the Nikolai Tesla of Inscriptions, discovered immortality juice, invented anti-magic defense nobody has ever thought of, learning to fight in a style specially designed for her and her amazing physical attributes, bonded with her super-special awesome deadly pet, and bootstrapped her way into the upper echelons of mage society through plucky grit. It’s turned into not my cup of tea. Mild patreon spoilers: she's way less immortal than she thought. The iron salve is effective against the sorts of things threatening to normal humans but it doesn't scale up, and it turns out there's a good reason why humans stopped relying on ending-berry juice that isn't that it was too hard to get. Her meteoric rise and sheer specialness is a bit much, but the story has established that she's at most a medium-sized fish in a very small pond.
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Mar 14, 2022 01:59
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I fell off of Millenial Mage it for the same reason navyjack is considering it: she got very powerful very quickly and the theme of being broke never materialized outside of occasionally doing some math before spending money. Before she completed her first round trip, she’d gained powerful artifacts, figured out a magical secret by accident that will get her into the upper echelons of mage society, been inducted into a secret society, gained a patron, figured out something that looks like a secret of immortality, made a pet out of a powerful monster, and learned at least one new discipline at record speed. Her one big weakness is supposed to be debt, but it didn’t seem to actually be a problem. Some things are mentioned as scarce, like how spells have charges that must be paid in gold, but by the time I put it down (probably about halfway through the return trip) that had never factored in because the things that she does regularly don’t seem to have that limitation. She’s also making a huge amount of money on every trip because her skills are uniquely suited to working in a field that makes a huge amount of money. Plus, she keeps getting stuff either for free or on her employer’s dime, which further undermines the premise. I might pick it back up if it looks like she’s actually starting to get into real trouble and is no longer the smartest, strongest, and luckiest person in the world. The writing and characterization was solid and the world was intriguing, so if the story starts presenting its main character with challenges then I’ll have a far better time of it.
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Mar 14, 2022 02:22
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Yeah it's less like a poor working stiff story and more like someone came out of college debt owning a share in a super freighter while also being a ships engineer or something. That's not really anyone's idea of being poor even if it involves a lot of debt. Now, Minimum Wage Magic (which is on Amazon, it's not a serial) is more of the former
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Mar 14, 2022 02:25
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blastron posted:I fell off of Millenial Mage it for the same reason navyjack is considering it: she got very powerful very quickly and the theme of being broke never materialized outside of occasionally doing some math before spending money. Before she completed her first round trip, she’d gained powerful artifacts, figured out a magical secret by accident that will get her into the upper echelons of mage society, been inducted into a secret society, gained a patron, figured out something that looks like a secret of immortality, made a pet out of a powerful monster, and learned at least one new discipline at record speed. As I was reading it, my immediate thought was basically "And readers complained that Zorian got OP too fast?" But yeah, I'm with you. Millenial Mage wasn't a bad story, but the constant succession of incredibly unlikely coincidences making her life a non-stop rollercoaster of excitement on the way to incredible power just kept destroying my suspension of disbelief. I dropped it but have nothing against anyone who decided to stick with it because they found that fun.
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Mar 14, 2022 03:18
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Larry Parrish posted:Now, Minimum Wage Magic (which is on Amazon, it's not a serial) is more of the former any good?
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Mar 14, 2022 03:29
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A big flaming stink posted:any good? i love both of that authors series in the setting but they're fairly light hearted romance novels despite basically being set in Shadowrun.
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Mar 14, 2022 03:40
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AFAICT the main point of cultivation stuff is to continuously Mary Sue the protagonist without it trivializing everything because there's always a bigger fish.
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Mar 14, 2022 05:01
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Tom Clancy is Dead posted:AFAICT the main point of cultivation stuff is to continuously Mary Sue the protagonist without it trivializing everything because there's always a bigger fish. this is often but not always true. stories do different stuff within that framework...sometimes. but yes, there are an awful lot of stories where the totally shameless dumping of ever-greater techniques and artifacts onto the main character would make goku blush
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Mar 14, 2022 05:11
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Honestly the best use of the trope I’ve seen is in Cultivation Chat Group, where other characters complain frequently that the protagonist is “rich as gently caress” and insanely lucky. Since it’s a comedy, it doesn’t grate that the world is incredibly unfair in his favor. The only xianxia I’ve read that doesn’t do this is Forge/Threads of Destiny, where many characters introduced as Ling Qi’s peers (but who are significantly ahead of her) are still ahead of her hundreds of chapters later.
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Mar 14, 2022 05:35
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nrook posted:Honestly the best use of the trope I’ve seen is in Cultivation Chat Group, where other characters complain frequently that the protagonist is “rich as gently caress” and insanely lucky. Since it’s a comedy, it doesn’t grate that the world is incredibly unfair in his favor. What's hilarious about Forge/Threads is that Ling Qi is obscenely lucky. Her dice rolls on the thread have been ridiculous, and the other characters comment about Lucky Ling Qi not infrequently...and she's still climbing to stand -by- her peers, she doesn't measure up yet at all.
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Mar 14, 2022 06:43
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Go, Elaine! Toss that baby into the fire!
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Mar 14, 2022 15:37
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Somebody pointed out in the Millenial Mage comments that she is basically suicial and she doesn't even realise it. She's much more willing to take risks than anyone else would be, because she doesn't actually care if she dies, and it made me see it a bit differently.
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Mar 14, 2022 17:33
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Nettle Soup posted:Somebody pointed out in the Millenial Mage comments that she is basically suicial and she doesn't even realise it. She's much more willing to take risks than anyone else would be, because she doesn't actually care if she dies, and it made me see it a bit differently. The text pretty explicitly calls that out a few times.
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Mar 14, 2022 20:33
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So, for a completely different take on broke mage with financial trouble, I've recently been catching up on A Practical Guide to Sorcery (not to be confused with that other Practical Guide). Siobhan is a young woman who wants nothing more than to enroll in the local Academy of Magic. Unfortunately, upon arriving to apply she gets caught up in a robbery and now the entire country (and university above all) are after her. She's not going to let that stop her though, even if it means using the mysterious magic book she ended up with in the confusion to disguise herself as a young man, or putting herself in debt to a local gang to get the money for tuition. Soon she's trying to juggle passing her classes with doing (relatively principled) jobs for the loan sharks, all while trying to keep her two lives separate. Especially when some quirks of her unique family magic and a few coincidences result in the growing legend of the "Raven Queen" working for the city's underworld, who most of the citizens believe to be an inhuman creature out of legend but the more educated know is "simply" an incredibly powerful blood sorceress with mysterious goals. Siobhan, it must be stressed, is extremely talented for a first year magic student but not nearly a superpower for the setting, much less a match for the reputation she starts getting. There's a certain level of "comedy of errors" style humor where everyone is coming to the wrong conclusions, and Siobhan is mostly clueless and consistently underestimates how seriously people are taking her reputation, though beyond that it's mostly a serious rather than comedic story. Overall A Practical Guide to Magic somewhat reminded me of The Name of the Wind though in that story the protagonist was deliberately cultivating a reputation and in this one it's mostly accidental. They're also both stories where the finances of the protagonists feel like real challenges to be overcome. I also got something akin to minor PTSD from some of the elements, since Siobhan having to deal with a lack of sleep/preparation for class after a night working underworld jobs is a recurring plot point, and somehow being unprepared for class was much more nerve-wracking for me than things like fighting monsters. Overall I quite enjoyed the story, though part of that is that I tend to like school setting stories. I also though the situation with the dual competing identities was a fun setup for this kind of story, since it meant the plot is neither all school stuff nor all action.
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Mar 14, 2022 21:01
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Bremen posted:Overall A Practical Guide to Magic somewhat reminded me of The Name of the Wind though in that story the protagonist was deliberately cultivating a reputation and in this one it's mostly accidental. They're also both stories where the finances of the protagonists feel like real of story, since it meant the plot is neither all school stuff nor all action.  i sincerely hope it doesnt replicate the horrific tone of notw and the obnoxious levels of "protagonist can do no wrong" that rothfuss suffused his work with
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Mar 14, 2022 21:46
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A big flaming stink posted:
I wouldn't say it does. Siobhan comes off as just someone in a rough spot doing the best she can, to me. But I liked The Name of the Wind (I haven't read the sequel) so maybe I'm not the best judge.
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Mar 14, 2022 21:59
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Bremen posted:So, for a completely different take on broke mage with financial trouble, I've recently been catching up on A Practical Guide to Sorcery (not to be confused with that other Practical Guide). this story is very good and i enjoy it a lot. the only bad thing is that there's a lot of time between updates, but there's nearly 100 chapters already so there's plenty of content to dig into Jazerus fucked around with this message at 23:08 on Mar 14, 2022 |
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Mar 14, 2022 22:29
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It mostly reminds me of Pith
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Mar 14, 2022 23:03
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Larry Parrish posted:Yeah it's less like a poor working stiff story and more like someone came out of college debt owning a share in a super freighter while also being a ships engineer or something. That's not really anyone's idea of being poor even if it involves a lot of debt. The series is real good though! Maybe don't read that spoiler since it's a gradually revealed plot point of the first book.
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Mar 14, 2022 23:50
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A big flaming stink posted:
The tone is much more pleasant than Name of the Wind, mostly because the MC starts out as a criminal and the author keeps this in mind, even if they do seem to be aiming for a middle-of-the-road morally grey MC. Unfortunately, like most things published on RR, there is a very strong "protagonist can do no wrong" energy to it. It does a much better job of presenting institutional bias than most other stories do. The mechanisms and motivations behind the school's discrimination against the MC are well thought out and effectively presented.
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Mar 15, 2022 01:45
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LLSix posted:The tone is much more pleasant than Name of the Wind, mostly because the MC starts out as a criminal and the author keeps this in mind, even if they do seem to be aiming for a middle-of-the-road morally grey MC. Unfortunately, like most things published on RR, there is a very strong "protagonist can do no wrong" energy to it. Siobhan had a pretty major negative consequence for her choices and mistakes recently, though it did take a long time for that to happen.
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Mar 15, 2022 02:28
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Bhodi posted:The character who grew up in a life of unimaginable privilege being the daughter of a literal dragon and ruler of a country-sized cult dedicated to its worship (that, admittedly, she leaves and tries to make it on her own because it's stifling) is not the best contrasting example you could choose here. It's not a great fit either but frankly there's not much good fiction out there about being a poor loser.
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Mar 15, 2022 03:12
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LLSix posted:The tone is much more pleasant than Name of the Wind, mostly because the MC starts out as a criminal and the author keeps this in mind, even if they do seem to be aiming for a middle-of-the-road morally grey MC. Unfortunately, like most things published on RR, there is a very strong "protagonist can do no wrong" energy to it. I think Siobhan is a bit above morally grey. She's flexible in regards to her morality for sure, growing up poor in a world that very much operates on the philosophy that the powerful do what they want, but she wasn't willing to sign on with helping the criminals until she got a guarantee they wouldn't ask for anything reprehensible. Honestly that probably puts her above 95% of the rest of the setting. Similarly the gang she works with are more akin to Robin Hood than anything. They're not exactly heroes but they're definitely the side I end up rooting for.
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Mar 15, 2022 03:26
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Pith was a fantastic story about people constantly being beaten down by a merciless system and clawing their way out of the muck to something that looks like success. It unfortunately went on indefinite hiatus due to the author getting injured, and then it seems like it's been picked up for traditional publishing so it's no longer on the web.
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Mar 15, 2022 03:31
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blastron posted:Pith was a fantastic story about people constantly being beaten down by a merciless system and clawing their way out of the muck to something that looks like success. It unfortunately went on indefinite hiatus due to the author getting injured, and then it seems like it's been picked up for traditional publishing so it's no longer on the web. pith ftw though.
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Mar 15, 2022 03:49
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Yeah, when it comes out in published form I'm definitely picking up a copy.
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Mar 15, 2022 06:35
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TWI Patreon: In which Pirate reveals what a terrible human being they are by microwaving bagels
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Mar 15, 2022 06:37
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TWI 8.72 (seriously dont mouseover this spoiler until you read the chapter): ryoka has broken the mold of horrible decision making and has approached the Singularity of Idiocy jfc ryoka youre a loving unheralded prodigy at terrible decisionmaking
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Mar 15, 2022 08:02
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I cannot wait. I knew things were going too sensibly after Cara did end up hearing her out.
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Mar 15, 2022 08:34
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What a chapter. christ alive.
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Mar 15, 2022 08:54
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Holy crap. Lot to unpack there. Goddammit Ryoka. Eldavin going all Severance. Goddammit Ryoka again Also this one is probably just me but I'd read an entire chapter which is nothing but adventures in deciphering alien instruction manuals
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Mar 15, 2022 09:33
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Christ. (TWI patreon) I can see what Ryoka was trying to do there, and I appreciate it, but I really don't think she considered the full ramifications of failure enough. The level of absolute chaos that's going to ensue from this is going to be catastrophic. I don't think she had the wrong idea, necessarily, but I think she really could've tried some more diplomacy before going for the lightsaber.
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Mar 15, 2022 13:57
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Ryoka absolutely was wrong in what she did not just because the method she carried it out was the dumbest poo poo ever, but also because Cara and eldavin are absolutely right that ailendamus is an expansionistic warmonger and she only likes them because the immortals are just cool, so cool People are loving dying, Ryoka Also, eldavin has a right to life as well. It's Tuvix all over again!
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Mar 15, 2022 22:40
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Seriously though I absolutely love how Ryoka spent several volumes learning and growing, recognizing her former self-destructive behavior, and being shown how her impulse to take every single burden for herself is not just self-abuse but also an extremely bad way to actually solve problems and starting to integrate those lessons into how she behaved. All of it to lead up to this moment where it turns out she's learned exactly the wrong lesson from literally everything that has happened to her. Bravo ryoka bravo.
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Mar 15, 2022 22:43
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Galick posted:What's hilarious about Forge/Threads is that Ling Qi is obscenely lucky. Her dice rolls on the thread have been ridiculous, and the other characters comment about Lucky Ling Qi not infrequently...and she's still climbing to stand -by- her peers, she doesn't measure up yet at all. Which basically makes sense, given you need such ridiculous luck to compete with the resources more high-ranking nobles have. Though she definitely compares very well with her actual peers (as in people of the same age, rather than older people she may have worked alongside). I have a good amount to catch up with, but unless things suddenly changed in the last few months Ling Qi is stronger than all but like 3 people her age who attended the same Sect.
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Mar 16, 2022 00:06
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These spoilers are doing a good job of convincing me that what got me to drop TWI (Ryouka  ) isn't going to suddenly get better if I keep reading.
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Mar 16, 2022 00:16
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Bremen posted:These spoilers are doing a good job of convincing me that what got me to drop TWI (Ryouka she was doing a lot better, i swear
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Mar 16, 2022 00:17
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Bremen posted:These spoilers are doing a good job of convincing me that what got me to drop TWI (Ryouka I haven't caught up in a while but she was a legitimately good character for a couple volumes or so.
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Mar 16, 2022 00:31
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