|
The villains in ISSTH are mostly just trying to get ahead. They aren't like the doublehitlers commonly found in xianxia who commit outrages against the protagonist solely to justify their gruesome ends. While there are some individuals who really loving hate Meng Hao, they mostly have good reasons to do so. None of the big clans, schools and such care about those grudges, they just want to kill Meng Hao and steal all his neat stuff.
|
#
?
Nov 7, 2015 01:00
|
|
|
|
| # ? Jun 5, 2024 17:21 |
|
|
The Lord of Hats posted:I like how there's no sense of scale whatsoever in ISSTH. Everything is ludicrously gigantic, and the numbers of everything are ridiculously high, civilization has been going for precisely forever, and the world is downright littered with ancient loot and dungeons made by weird eccentrics. It's fantastic. It's still way more reasonable and consistent than any numbers IET put out, the guy should really just start putting things in scientific notation.
|
|
#
?
Nov 7, 2015 01:14
|
|
|
Serious Frolicking posted:The villains in ISSTH are mostly just trying to get ahead. They aren't like the doublehitlers commonly found in xianxia who commit outrages against the protagonist solely to justify their gruesome ends. While there are some individuals who really loving hate Meng Hao, they mostly have good reasons to do so. None of the big clans, schools and such care about those grudges, they just want to kill Meng Hao and steal all his neat stuff. The sheer number of stupid as gently caress shitheels protagonists run into in Xianxia novels is my biggest pet peeve with the genre. More often than not their only motivation for loving with the MC is to gently caress with the MC. They have no character beyond being awful people with the survival instincts of a crowd of lemmings approaching a cliff. In most Xianxia, if the protagonist runs into an antagonist with a well built character, decent motivations and a modicum common sense, I just assume that antagonist won't stay an antagonist for long, and unlike the rest, it won't be due to a horrible death.
|
|
#
?
Nov 7, 2015 01:16
|
|
|
Cynic Jester posted:The sheer number of stupid as gently caress shitheels protagonists run into in Xianxia novels is my biggest pet peeve with the genre. More often than not their only motivation for loving with the MC is to gently caress with the MC. They have no character beyond being awful people with the survival instincts of a crowd of lemmings approaching a cliff. In most Xianxia, if the protagonist runs into an antagonist with a well built character, decent motivations and a modicum common sense, I just assume that antagonist won't stay an antagonist for long, and unlike the rest, it won't be due to a horrible death. To be fair, lots of Xanxia are not like that. There is a lot of enemies who are actually such because of cultures/clans and they don't really have much choices (E.G blood feuds). Basically the huge majority of enemies in IET webnovels are because of such conflicts, for example. There is also a lot of "MC is a freaking assholes" coupled with "all that fat loot" conflicts in variosu Xanxia (you see this in ISSTH, a lot in DKC, a lot in IET too when it comes to treasure hunting). And, well... those appearls to p&p murderhobos tendencies. I really like Xanxias which have a lot of treasure hunting, especially when the MC is the weakest of the group trying to gather the treasures. ST had some rather amusing parts there, and DKC has basically over a dozen of those.
|
|
#
?
Nov 7, 2015 01:25
|
|
|
History's Number 1 Founder is a series that lampshades the whole Xianxia series. From having game elements to the various trials that a main character goes through, it has it all. It's like reading the Spaceballs version of your typical xianxia web novel. I need to read the Chinese version of it to see how far it goes downhill, but then again it might be decent in a non-ironic fashion.
|
|
#
?
Nov 7, 2015 01:47
|
|
|
I couldn't quite bring myself to read crossover fanfiction of stories that were pretty bad to begin with.
|
|
#
?
Nov 7, 2015 02:01
|
|
|
jwang posted:History's Number 1 Founder is a series that lampshades the whole Xianxia series. From having game elements to the various trials that a main character goes through, it has it all. It's like reading the Spaceballs version of your typical xianxia web novel. I need to read the Chinese version of it to see how far it goes downhill, but then again it might be decent in a non-ironic fashion. This isn't very well written or translated, but hell, for lines like this: Story posted:Even though Lin Feng doesn’t know whether he is carrying an old grandpa around with him, or picked up a super god item outside, or maybe found a godly manual from the crappy books in his parents’ belongings… I'm willing to read it.
|
|
#
?
Nov 8, 2015 05:39
|
|
|
The Turb0 translations for Kumo are stopping, however a new translator has picked up the project. Starting with Oni vs Oni 3
|
|
#
?
Nov 9, 2015 17:09
|
|
|
Zahkri posted:The Turb0 translations for Kumo are stopping, however a new translator has picked up the project. Starting with Oni vs Oni 3 Actually three different groups have picked it up, and two of them are even worse than the old machine translations.
|
|
#
?
Nov 9, 2015 18:18
|
|
|
Is the third one decent or is it on par with turb0's?
|
|
#
?
Nov 9, 2015 18:36
|
|
|
blastron posted:Is the third one decent or is it on par with turb0's? About on par, with some misspelled words.
|
|
#
?
Nov 9, 2015 18:39
|
|
|
Serious Frolicking posted:Actually three different groups have picked it up, and two of them are even worse than the old machine translations. How about some links? Where are these translations that are really worse?
|
|
#
?
Nov 9, 2015 21:07
|
|
|
The only thing to do is to encourage Blastron to step up his translation game. He's on 40 or so I think?
|
|
#
?
Nov 9, 2015 21:10
|
|
|
Captain_duck posted:How about some links? Where are these translations that are really worse? Eh? Fine, I guess. https://machineslicedbread.wordpress.com/ https://unlimitedstoryworks.wordpress.com/ http://raisingthedead.ninja/ Raising the dead has the only vaguely adequate translation.
|
|
#
?
Nov 9, 2015 21:50
|
|
|
jwang posted:The only thing to do is to encourage Blastron to step up his translation game. He's on 40 or so I think? Yeah, no, between five chapters of Kumoko a week and trying to build up a buffer for Honzuki, I am at the limit of time I want to spend on a hobby for free. (I'd set up a Patreon and beg for money to work on it part-time, but charging for something that is, in part, someone else's work feels weird to me.
|
|
#
?
Nov 9, 2015 22:03
|
|
|
Serious Frolicking posted:Eh? Fine, I guess. Wow those are loving horrible indeed. Tried to read Oni Vs Oni 4 at https://unlimitedstoryworks.wordpress.com/kumo-desu-ga-nani-ka-oni-vs-oni-%E2%91%A3/ but that poo poo is unreadable.
|
|
#
?
Nov 10, 2015 14:39
|
|
|
Actually, it looks like despite what the other groups claimed about cooperating raising the dead is going to do every chapter. Yay! So, here is a readable version of oni vs. oni 4: http://raisingthedead.ninja/2015/11/11/kumo-desu-ga-nani-ka-oni-vs-oni-%E2%91%A3/#more-1947
|
|
#
?
Nov 10, 2015 18:06
|
|
|
They've done 5 & 6 now. Next chapter is back to following Kumo-chan 
|
|
#
?
Nov 11, 2015 19:16
|
|
|
I love Meng Hao's characterization. He really, really hated all those times he was powerless and could only run away from people early on. It is his entire reason for seeking power. So, when it happened again he immediately did everything he could to shrink the power gap to get even. Meng Hao doesn't really care about this dude in particular, he just won't allow anyone to get away with loving him over. But even then, he is still smart enough not to use the same treasures as Fang Mu as he did as Meng Hao to protect his identity.
|
|
#
?
Nov 12, 2015 15:41
|
|
|
I have found another two decent web novels I'd like to share where the protagonist has yet to turn into a murderhobo and is relatively smart. The first would be Ze Tian Ji in which after 100+ chapters the main character has not even crossed the starting line when it comes to cultivation. It is slow at times but the MC persist through zen like calm behaviour and is incredibly book smart from being a Monk who has done nothing but reading for most of his life. The second is King Shura, a korean web novel which could pontentially fall off a cliff really fast depending on how the author does things but for now its the story about a boy learning the ancient art of Math Fu from Zhuge Liang and will in the future own people with the power of Math. It currently has about 60 chapters released and is quite a fun read in my opinion.
|
|
#
?
Nov 12, 2015 17:57
|
|
|
CVE posted:I have found another two decent web novels I'd like to share where the protagonist has yet to turn into a murderhobo and is relatively smart. Ze Tian Ji is awesome. We had a discussion a few pages back about not-murder-hobo stories, and Ze Tian Ji is pretty much at the top of my list. King Shura is excellent as well, but I'm not sure how bad the perspective shifts will get. The last 10 or so chapters have shifted back and forth pretty hard.
|
|
#
?
Nov 12, 2015 18:03
|
|
|
CVE posted:
I have HEARD, so don't take my word for it, that King Shura MC makes Chu Feng look like a saint. That might be people lying though, or my memory being wonky.
|
|
#
?
Nov 12, 2015 19:59
|
|
|
Arkeus posted:I have HEARD, so don't take my word for it, that King Shura MC makes Chu Feng look like a saint. That might be people lying though, or my memory being wonky. I mean being called a Shura or Asura usually means you are a murder-hobo so you might have heard correctly which would be a shame because currently it's quite interesting. Then again I like a lot of starts/beginnings where people first come into power and tend to zone out the further along it goes if the power creep simply repeats itself. CVE fucked around with this message at 20:29 on Nov 12, 2015 |
|
#
?
Nov 12, 2015 20:26
|
|
|
CVE posted:I mean being called a Shura or Asura usually means you are a murder-hobo so you might have heard correctly which would be a shame because currently it's quite interesting. Then again I like a lot of starts/beginnings where people first come into power and tend to zone out the further along it goes if the power creep simply repeats itself. To be fair to Xanxia webnovelists, they need to sustain such an insane rhythm of writing that you can't really blame them for the quality of later arcs to dive. This is why IET stays one of my favorite- sure, the later arcs of probably all of his stories lose focus and get boring, but he at least gets out a coherent handful of multi-arcs plot before that. He also seems to improve as he writes more, which is always nice. .. I think ISSTH is fairly impressive so far because it seems like it has a over-arching arc that seems planned and not padded.
|
|
#
?
Nov 12, 2015 20:44
|
|
|
Arkeus posted:To be fair to Xanxia webnovelists, they need to sustain such an insane rhythm of writing that you can't really blame them for the quality of later arcs to dive. Yeah their production rates are insane. So far I really like Tang Jiao San Shao with the exception of Mad God. Then again if the worst thing to happen to me is getting less enjoyment towards the ending I still got a lot of it for something that is basically free entertainment.
|
|
#
?
Nov 12, 2015 20:59
|
|
|
Arkeus posted:This is why IET stays one of my favorite- sure, the later arcs of probably all of his stories lose focus and get boring, but he at least gets out a coherent handful of multi-arcs plot before that. He also seems to improve as he writes more, which is always nice. Serious Frolicking posted:I love Meng Hao's characterization. He really, really hated all those times he was powerless and could only run away from people early on. It is his entire reason for seeking power. So, when it happened again he immediately did everything he could to shrink the power gap to get even. Meng Hao doesn't really care about this dude in particular, he just won't allow anyone to get away with loving him over. But even then, he is still smart enough not to use the same treasures as Fang Mu as he did as Meng Hao to protect his identity.
|
|
#
?
Nov 13, 2015 00:03
|
|
|
Algid posted:The events in book 1 also mean that he has much more combat experience and a higher body count than pretty much anyone in his generation. Killing people isn't actually normal and Meng Hao worked through most of that in the first book because he was stuck in a wizard school that encouraged fratricide. This is another reason why I really like ISSTH, as in most Xianxia, schools seem to encourage murdering fellow cultivators, even of the same school, which just seems utterly retarded. ISSTH actually makes the point that the entire reason for Meng Haos original sect being poo poo was that they tolerated such behavior. Well, that, and the Patriarch.
|
|
#
?
Nov 13, 2015 00:51
|
|
|
Book 3 of ISSTH has been really great. Meng Hao definitely earned the vacation of just relaxing and making pills all day. The most recent event specifically, the tenth Dao pillar is a bit of an eye roll, given that he already has a Perfect Foundation, but it's still been great overall. I just can't wait for him to reveal himself in front of everyone at some critical juncture. The cries of MENG HAAAAAAAAOOOOOOOOOO!!! will be glorious.
|
|
#
?
Nov 13, 2015 02:06
|
|
|
I'm just waiting for the violet fate sect rage. That'll be amazing. Also he still hasn't done anything with the gold spear, has he?
|
|
#
?
Nov 13, 2015 02:09
|
|
|
The gold spear is just a spear that happens to be made out of gold. Unless the design/patterns on it is somehow significant since he copied it from the one Patriarch Reliance had, it's shouldn't do anything. I'm just wondering what the Black Sieve Sect was thinking the first time Meng Hao visited them. Even for a group ruled by a ghost council comprised of body snatching liches, trying to find something called 'Ultimate Vexation' that's been locked in a sub-sub-sub-dimensional prison seems like a bad idea.
|
|
#
?
Nov 13, 2015 02:22
|
|
|
It doesn't do anything, no. But it means a whole lot to some people in the violet fate sect.
|
|
#
?
Nov 13, 2015 02:25
|
|
|
The iron spear didn't "do" anything either.
|
|
#
?
Nov 13, 2015 02:39
|
|
|
Cynic Jester posted:This is another reason why I really like ISSTH, as in most Xianxia, schools seem to encourage murdering fellow cultivators, even of the same school, which just seems utterly retarded. ISSTH actually makes the point that the entire reason for Meng Haos original sect being poo poo was that they tolerated such behavior. Well, that, and the Patriarch. It's actually lampshaded that the Patriarch purposefully made that rule in order to ruin the sect and trample on the Demon Sealing Sect's honor.
|
|
#
?
Nov 13, 2015 04:04
|
|
|
Cynic Jester posted:This is another reason why I really like ISSTH, as in most Xianxia, schools seem to encourage murdering fellow cultivators, even of the same school, which just seems utterly retarded. ISSTH actually makes the point that the entire reason for Meng Haos original sect being poo poo was that they tolerated such behavior. Well, that, and the Patriarch. It's not just tolerated, Patriarch Reliance deliberately implemented the system to weaken the sect so that he could eventually escape from his seal. Serious Frolicking posted:It doesn't do anything, no. But it means a whole lot to some people in the violet fate sect. At this point I think he's done more to help the Violet Fate than he ever did to hurt them. All he did was rip off a couple of outer sect idiots for a few thousand spirit stones and some high quality newbie gear. That whole bidding war had me crying tears of laughter. The best part of that exchange was that Meng Hao never actually consented to the trade.
|
|
#
?
Nov 13, 2015 04:16
|
|
|
I had no idea that a 10th dao pillar was previously unheard of. Though, anything that reaches perfection tends to call down tribulation lightning, and tribulation lightning is vexation's favorite food. This could all go very wrong.
|
|
#
?
Nov 13, 2015 04:28
|
|
|
Serious Frolicking posted:I had no idea that a 10th dao pillar was previously unheard of. Though, anything that reaches perfection tends to call down tribulation lightning, and tribulation lightning is vexation's favorite food. This could all go very wrong. My biggest annoyance in ISSTH is how many of those 'never heard of' things Meng Hao stumble on for no reason. I really hope they are all things that are pretty common elsewhere, because it's geetting super-grating how much the setting seems to rely on people having really low quality cultivation so that Meng Hao stumbling on better quality makes everything much easier. At least there is some kind of philosophical bent for Alchemy/enlightenement where he seems to actually have to look for answers.
|
|
#
?
Nov 13, 2015 04:53
|
|
|
Arkeus posted:My biggest annoyance in ISSTH is how many of those 'never heard of' things Meng Hao stumble on for no reason. Well, the author stated in several places that his incredibly cultivation feats were more common (but still rare) in the far-flung past, so he's not treading new water here. He's just a big fish in a small pond right now, but that's never been a secret.
|
|
#
?
Nov 13, 2015 05:07
|
|
|
I don't really have a problem with Meng Hao coincidentally finding special stuff. There are a bunch of plot hooks in place which are frequently how he survives and profits from those situations. I imagine cultivators run into weird poo poo all the time, only they end up dying, running away or just flailing randomly at it. The rope thing was a good example, as those dudes had no idea what the hell they were doing but they kept pulling the rope because nice stuff kept popping out. Though, the 10th pillar thing is a horribly contrived event that wasn't foreshadowed at all. It is a bit much, you know? Also, I want the dog to come back already. I liked the dog.
|
|
#
?
Nov 13, 2015 07:11
|
|
|
I mean, if you're okay with the Mirror he finds early on, by chance, you should be okay with the everything else that happens, considering the mirror is basically the most broken thing he has obtained by a mile and he got it all the way at the start of the story. Without the mirror, there would no Meng Hao. Well, and no imploding asses, which might be more important to this discussion.
|
|
#
?
Nov 13, 2015 13:25
|
|
|
|
| # ? Jun 5, 2024 17:21 |
|
|
Isn't there that whole vague subplot being hinted at about that ji or li clan or something like that who overthrew the heavens and sealed the higher tiers of mortal cultivation in the past presumably to stop someone else doing to them what they did to the previous rulers of heaven. I'd guess that all of the heaven defying cultivation methods Meng Hao is running into are setup for future conflict with the rulers of heaven when he eventually reaches divinity.
|
|
#
?
Nov 13, 2015 19:29
|
|