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I've been reading Vainqueur and its been pretty good so far, I'm dipping my toes into web serials again after burning out about 70% of the way through Worm a few years ago. The only other one I've read is Mother of Learning which was... fine. The total lack of distinctive character voice and limp ending sort of soured me on it though. Anyone have any other recommendations?
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Oct 10, 2020 23:52
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Algid posted:You have an evil god that a cult is trying to break free and enslave with mind magic. A ritual being mentioned that specifically fuses two beings. A mc that depends primarily on his (vastly superior) mind magic, and an author that wrote Natuto fanfic before. It amazes me things didn't end with them failing to contain the Primordial and Zorian being forced to control it with a combination of the shifter ritual and his mind magic. Yeah, there are just a ridiculous number of plot threads in Mother of Learning that never really end up going anywhere and a lot of the resolution is just an asspull. Also everything just working out for Zorian and Zach with uh literally no downsides really made the stakes feel completely flat. No one died because they accidentally were still thinking in time loop terms, the bad guys are utterly foiled and even the single thing that should have been a serious wrench in their plans (the fact demons and angels could enter the equation in the real world and they had no experience with it)... ultimately amounts to nothing because they get a literal 'get out of jail free' card that handles it for them. Everything ends up going way too according to plan and it really sucked most of the tension out of the story because they just came up with bullshit countermeasures to things that they explicitly should have no experience with (like hiring the dragon as a mercenary etc). Also Zorian's progression and accumulation of abilities got way too rapid at the end. He concocts and pulls off his whole plan to defeat the Mind Blank spell and trick an angelic contract like a week after learning about it? While also building a bespoke army of golems, doing novel research into other branches of magic, playing detective and doing all the bullshit they did every month in the time loop. It was way, way too much and just went way too much into the godhood end of the power fantasy pool for me.
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Oct 11, 2020 03:31
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Yeah, honestly the only part of MoL that really felt like Naruto fanfic to me was all the goddamn clones and dumb bullshit he did with them to powergame and only because that's like literally the most obvious thing anyone who has ever watched a second of Naruto picks up on and decides to write about in their fanfics. Otherwise it carves a pretty unique path out tbh and none of the characters are really obvious Naruto expys or anything. Though yeah, MoL really falls apart in the last quarter and the ending is the most  thing.
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May 3, 2021 06:58
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tithin posted:Someone sell me on "Beware of chicken" the blurb above sounds interesting I just binged it, its surprisingly engaging. Fairly typical premise in that a guy from modern earth gets transmigrated into an alternate universe with magic into the body of someone who had briefly died from being part of Cultivator bullshit. He immediately decides to get the hell away from that and starts his own farm while dealing with the repercussions of having a lot of power and how that affects the world around him. Most of the rest of the cast is various uplifted farm animals he accidentally gives sapience to and dealing with that in various ways. If you aren't familiar with Cultivator stuff its basically people going through fairly arcane rituals to gain power/ascend to immortality. Usually helped along by becoming really amoral and murdering the poo poo out of people/creatures in pursuit of power. The work is basically a slightly comedic 'what if you dropped a normal person instead of a sociopath in' take on a lot of the common tropes of the genre that grows in scope over time.
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Sep 12, 2021 12:48
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Cicero posted:TUTBAD 27: Finally some inklings of actual drama. Maybe even an overarching plotline. Might become a Gary or Team Rocket kind of situation? This is pretty clearly Alfric's former girlfriend who stole his meticulously put together original party right?
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Oct 7, 2021 20:00
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I have a really hard time giving a poo poo about Kairos. I just got to the point where we get the interminable sniping and negotiations between his lover and the new wife and it was just so eyerolling and overdone. Does it get better at some point or mostly just continue in that vein.
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Oct 20, 2021 22:13
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I'm not really a huge fan of OG Rou still being there and half aware. Especially because current Jin is completely unaware of him unless he's sleeping and then immediately forgets it. Its a really weird set up and I don't know where its going. Like uh are we going to get into the ethics of bodyjacking and locking someone into a horror movie where they're stuck as a passive observer in their own body at some point?
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Nov 11, 2021 19:51
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My big issue with Tori is probably how much side stuff she's successful at? Like re-creating and introducing modern cuisine is always just the most eye-rolling thing in these kinds of stories but we also did not need her to be running a successful clothing business where she's also doing all the bespoke designs on top of all the plot stuff. It detracts a lot from what started off as a decent underdog story and despite how much we've been teasing it, Tori has yet to suffer any setbacks that last longer than a single scene. I just tire immensely of 'and as I had a hobby in present day I can obviously use this to upstage the idiots in the world I isekai'd to.' for every single thing these people were remotely interested in.
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Dec 17, 2021 00:33
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On another note, I missed you were talking about War Queen too. It rules especially now that the queen has started interacting with a wider group of humans. The latest chapter also gives some great background setting details the pan-human Empire is so awful and dystopian that the subjects have an easier time cheering for a giant bug alien.
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Dec 17, 2021 01:01
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Argue posted:I honestly don't know why readers get so hung up about food in particular in any isekai. It's the best part! If anything is unbelievable, it's the ability to introduce firearms/steam engines/etc with very little effort even when you consider that the MC has some sophisticated engineering background. That stuff really starts to strain credulity for me, but if they show the elven rubes how delicious hamburgers, and crepes are? I will eat that poo poo right the gently caress up. I mean for god's sake Tori is currently resettling 1500 refugees with zero job experience and I don't think being able to make a good burrito is the Mary Sue part. tbf, she's mostly offloading all the expertise for the resettlement with experts and has the personal support of the crown prince. I'm honestly more surprised they're pretending resettling 1500 people is some kind of insane and impossible thing when she has access to those kinds of resources.
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Dec 17, 2021 06:03
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Kyoujin posted:War Queen chapter 24 we are finally past the prologue. I never expected to cheer the giant red soldier turned into a tank A-team style with human armor and body parts to charge down the killing corridor. His confusion at the touching and illogical human interactions in the face of death was interesting too. Really love the alien feel of the colony's point of view. The story does weird things to you when you realize you're cheering for a giant insect who welded dead human bodies onto himself as ablative armor so he could slaughter a bunch of people rebelling against a horrifying empire. I cannot wait for Svera to learn more about why her colony is being set to kill these specific humans and how she ends up dealing with that. Its also interesting to be in another bug's head, especially as they seem to be developing more individuality as their exposure to weird human behavior grows.
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Dec 19, 2021 10:26
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Mulozon Empuri posted:Did that Mother of learning guy ever do anything new or did he stop writing? It's been 22 months since he posted the afterword on royal road, but maybe he's posting elsewhere? He got a publisher and cleaned up MoL and is currently putting it out as books on Amazon. First volume just came out and only covers a fraction of the story so I imagine he'll be busy with that for a while.
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Dec 19, 2021 18:23
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Kyoujin posted:War Queen 25 look down and fear humanites as the colony turns 1 menial to 2 with the power of wheelbarrows! Its a really delightful series where you have wheelbarrows considered as arcane and powerful a technology as laser rifles. And arguably for the humans, far more dangerous to give them access to.
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Dec 22, 2021 08:25
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Kyoujin posted:And the Pod is one of the worst of them. In a chapter filled with hypocrisy this line stood out: Yeah its pretty great. The humans just haven't really bothered to try to actually learn about our protagonist bugs on anything but the most cursory surface level and its really biting them in the rear end at this point. It makes a lot of sense too considering they're a military detachment of a fascist space empire, but goddamn that conversation with Jennifer was good.
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Jan 4, 2022 20:21
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Maguoob posted:Today’s Beware of Chicken I would say I'm on the side of him surviving only because we know that he has some form of possession/body-snatching and it would be really weird to spend so much time establishing that facet only for it to not matter at all. Like there was no reason for him to be anything but a 'normal' arrogant young master for him to fill the role he has so far in the story, but based on his POVs he has a bunch of secrets that haven't mattered yet. Also makes him a dark mirror to Jin who also stole a cultivator's body, albeit unintentionally. I think the Shrouded Mountain Young Master body is toast, but he could show up in a couple different ways as an antagonist in the future. If, for instance, Fa Ram becomes its own school he could show up in a new body as a saboteur. He could try to gain influence to get some of the outside sects to crush Jin etc, etc. Zore fucked around with this message at 06:13 on Jan 11, 2022 |
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Jan 11, 2022 06:09
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TUTBAD lmao, Verity's parents get worse every time we learn more about them. "We need you to get us more money because your father decided to be a greedy gently caress" along with confirmation that they stole all the money she earned from performances when she was younger. I really hope they get kicked to the curb
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Jan 11, 2022 19:03
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Kyoujin posted:On that note I'm scared what will show up in the future for Beware of Chicken. I don't think its really leaning that way? Like if the story was going to go there it probably would have by now. I do foresee a very, very awkward love triangle between the Chicken, Rat and Rabbit though 
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Jan 26, 2022 01:06
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Tagichatn posted:What does it stand for? A Very Cliche Xianxia Harem Story!
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Jan 26, 2022 01:49
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War Queen The Sovereignty gets more and more hyper fascism revealed as it goes huh? They're at the point where humans are eungenicing out Peanut allergies and if you show even temporary allergy as an infant you are immediately placed on the 'can never have kids' list. And of course this was after getting rid of every other 'defect' they felt was more important which has just horrifying implications. I do wonder how the conflict is actually gonna develop from here though. Right now the Formites are basically all in on that ideology themselves so I wonder if the captured Coalition member is gonna start changing some minds or if we get all the way up to the flashpoint where 'giant bugs' aren't useful anymore and the Sovereignty starts exterminating them for being different.
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Jan 30, 2022 13:56
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Doctor Jeep posted:i don't see how the prisoner could be changing minds, the bugs are deathly afraid of frenzy and he is seen as the human equivalent of that I mean the whole reason humans showed up to the planet and started shooting in the first place was because they were planning on colonizing it. And the only reason they stopped exterminating them was because Hathan was uncomfortable with it/thought they'd be more useful alive. If that isn't true they are 100% gonna kill em all. Sovereignty is super fasc and you had Aardarsh literally threaten that this chapter.
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Jan 30, 2022 15:46
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Even most of the Reddit comments are raking him over the coals for MoR which is pretty lol
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Feb 14, 2022 20:01
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I enjoy that even Alfric's parents think they probably went a bit overboard with him when he was growing up
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Feb 18, 2022 05:27
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TUTBAD 96- I am now more interested and invested in the plight of Bastlefolk than pretty much anything else about this world. I hope this becomes a sustained arc for Alfric because it will absolutely fit with how his life keeps going more and more off-kilter and that he's becoming more and more okay with that. Also he is gonna make some mistakes soon with Mizuki and I am here for how it all blows up 
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Apr 19, 2022 16:49
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Yeah, honestly you need Lindon beating the hell out of much younger kids to really understand where his absolute despair/drive comes from. Because up until the first novel they could (and had) wiped the floor with him brutally for years. Zore fucked around with this message at 21:17 on May 12, 2022 |
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May 12, 2022 21:14
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Yeah, I really like TUTBAD but honestly since they neutralized Alfric's ex its felt like its tried to spin off into a ton of other background issues. But most of them don't work as well as she did. It also has the issue of bringing up the Bastlefolk stuff for just long enough to get me really invested and then completely dropping it. That was way more interesting to me than anything they're doing now.
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Jun 15, 2022 15:19
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asur posted:If the Patreon is far ahead, does BoC get more interesting? I feel like it dropped quite a bit after the end of the arc and I'm considering dropping it unless it picks up again. Patreon is only 2 chapters ahead.
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Jun 27, 2022 06:16
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Peachfart posted:I am about 100 chapters into A Practical Guide to Sorcery, and I mostly like it, except... Siobhan constantly making terrible decisions is the core of the entire story.
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Jun 30, 2022 03:01
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Anyone else reading Godslayers? Its got a really neat hook (gods are large scale soul parasites and we're following a team from a highly advanced version of Earth who go around different dimensions killing gods and uplifting the worlds.) Its got a very Star-Trekesque thing where they're infiltrating a planet with vastly inferior tech, but god powers and blessings help even things up as they can empower people in much the same way as the protagonist's highly advanced tech. Mostly a fun read that touches on a lot of neat ideas to chew over. Main character can be more than a bit irritating though because she's from our modern Earth about a decade after it was the target of the godslayers and uplifted and she's written as a kinda twee millennial.
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Jul 1, 2022 16:12
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GreyjoyBastard posted:You left out the bit where a big party of how they kill the gods is through applied sociology. Yeah, that's definitely the most interesting part of the setup. They cause gods to completely implode by changing the culture in various ways to undermine their portfolios and some of their ideas get wild. Like their current plan to take out the god with domain over fair competition is to essentially get into the Olympics, cheat outrageously (while also randomly empowering other competitors and crippling others) then blow the whole place up and dedicating the whole thing to him. They're horrible cultural imperialists and it is fascinating trying to figure out if the insane things they're doing are justified or not, even if they are saving people's souls from being devoured.
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Jul 3, 2022 06:43
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Yeah, the side story stuff has been really clearly the future since the first time it was in the story. Like it really could not have been more obvious without a character turning to the camera and going 'AND THIS TAKES PLACE WELL AFTER THE TIME OF ELAINE.' Like even if you're actively skimming it you should still pick up on it because there's just so much that says it outright.
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Jul 8, 2022 00:33
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TUTBAD: Alfric is gonna feel completely vindicated by this and also reaffirm his commitment to never get with Mizuki. Which, honestly is probably the smart choice considering how hilariously this is gonna blow up.
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Jul 15, 2022 03:53
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Piell posted:TUTBAD: Well that is certainly a shakeup What the actual gently caress Verity. I uh, don't really know how they continue on from here
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Jul 22, 2022 16:39
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Peachfart posted:The thread's opinion on Wildbow has changed a lot of the years. Originally nearly everyone thought he was amazing and the best writer of all time, and it has slowly moved towards distaste for many as time as gone on. Its pretty good. The middle book feels pretty fillerish but the 3rd book has finally started hitting some serious payoff and its going to a more interesting place.
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Jul 22, 2022 22:57
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Peachfart posted:Speaking about Dungeon Crawler Carl, I loved the book during the first few floors, and thought it started dragging on the train floor. I flat out dropped it for a few months after that, and then he pulled all his older content off Royal Road. Anyone still keep up with the story? Is it still enjoyable? I liked it up until the end of the last book which had some absolutely eyerollingly stupid poo poo that really bugged me. Katja has actually been a secret drug addict this whole time and due to being a drug addict out of nowhere completely fumbles something stupidly obvious and will now be forced into a kill or be killed situation with Donut on Floor 9 Its incredibly hamfisted and jarring and goes up against another, better executed, addiction plotline for Carl. Also she's been removed from the main cast again so it lacks the impact I feel like it should have had, especially since Carl and Donut aren't even going to be on the same floor as her in the upcoming book as they managed to sequence break a floor ahead with best-boi goat. Zore fucked around with this message at 05:34 on Jul 23, 2022 |
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Jul 23, 2022 05:31
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Eh, the real world sections are mostly there due to cargo-culting from older isekai stuff. Except the reason it was in them was because almost all of them ended up with the characters eventually returning to the real world as their ending, having grown and changed by their experiences. Modern isekai mostly seems to have completely gone all in on 'you're here forever!' so the pre-isekai part is vestigal and usually detrimental to the story being told. Because almost every isekai protag is a black hole who has negative emotional attachment to their previous life outside of using it to wow the locals with their amazing invention of ice cream or whatever. Zore fucked around with this message at 19:55 on Aug 15, 2022 |
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Aug 15, 2022 19:52
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TUTBAD I love Ria and her thoughts on Alfric and Mizuki "There was a viciousness and violence to Mizuki that Ria liked" "Alfric was somewhat famous within the family for not swearing: he’d been taught, when he was four, that certain words were bad words that you weren’t supposed to say, and he’d never said any of them in front of anyone, going so far as correcting others with a particular sort of insistence. At fifteen they’d explained to him that it was okay — and expected — to let loose a stream of curse words at times, but he hadn’t budged much."
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Sep 30, 2022 00:20
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Honestly I think my biggest issue is all the loving math and people optimizing their build like they're in an MMO. Its exhausting and I just cannot possibly give a poo poo. This aspect does thankfully start falling by the wayside after a while, but holy poo poo are the opening chapters a slog. I also think everything around Familiars in the story is ill-considered and incredibly stupid. It meshes horribly with the inbuilt anti-slavery aspect of the setting and seems to argue that infants/children aren't real people and abusing and enslaving them isn't an issue until they grow older and develop further which feels very strange considering everything else in the story.
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Nov 3, 2022 16:33
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Peachfart posted:Early on, most familiars aren't people, they are more equivalent to pets. And many people have told Erick that when his familiar becomes a person, it was be incredibly difficult for him. Right that's sort of my point though, Familiars are more analogous to children than pets as their expected course of development has them recognized as people after fairly short timeframes! Its not an aberration for the Familiar to become a 'person', its what happens with Familiars, which frames the whole segment of their life where they are treated as bonded slaves (to use the work's own internal ideas) sort of horrifying? Erick is repeatedly forcing his child into suicide bombing runs.
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Nov 3, 2022 17:05
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BadMedic posted:I think it's fine? In the story familiars are literally part of your soul, and only become real when that part of your soul fragments off to be a new person. Yggdrasil is a special case cause god magic is keeping him stapled to Eric's soul, but as far as I can tell the moment they *actually* become sentient is the moment they are not familiars anymore. The abuse I'm talking about is mostly the 'constantly sending them into certain death' thing where they then die. Which is almost all of what Erick uses Ophiel for as he brute forces a bunch of experiments and goes into combat with him. And Ophiel is expressing preferences and the ability to make decisions that aren't Erick's almost from day 1 so it feels even weirder and worse. Ophiel is also depicted as being able to feel pain for some reason just so we really know at 'best' Erick is cloning and torturing his pet over and over until it hits a sufficient level of intelligence for the gods to give a poo poo. Zore fucked around with this message at 17:23 on Nov 3, 2022 |
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Nov 3, 2022 17:18
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I think the only thing that does it moderately well is Konosuba, and that's mostly because its a comedy and the setup for the main character's death is a joke that sets the tone for the series.
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Nov 23, 2022 21:40
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