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Bobulus posted:Parallel will has (somewhat) lived on in the Remnants of the Nightmare (aka those amazing brats), imho. I'd love for them to get a bigger role in the story, rather than just a cameo or two. Novel volume 5, final chapter posted:(Kumoko decided to team up with the demon lord and the vampire baby) ...after which we get the authors afterword saying that the next volume will diverge a lot from the web novel, to the point where it might even reach 100% original content. Tamba fucked around with this message at 18:38 on Feb 22, 2017 |
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Feb 22, 2017 18:26
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You know what I would like to read? A post-apocalyptic Xianxia world caused by cultivators. A world where all the resources are drained dry due to cultivators, and as a result pestilence, death, and famine spread throughout the world. As a result of a lack of resources, cultivators resort to more and more vicious methods to further their own power to reach immortality. From human sacrifices to literally draining the life force out of another living being, there is nothing these cultivator would stop at. The protagonist of the story would be someone that seeks to break the path of cultivation, wiping it from the memory of all people so that there would no longer be such cruelty in the world. Why would I want to read such a story? Because I realized that Xianxia stories are basically a parable of the current state of China's society. Everything is a zero-sum game due to its massive population, from education to finding a life partner. However, instead of the protagonists breaking such a society and remaking it better for everyone, they would instead participate in this violent rat-race, becoming king shithead of poo poo mountain. It's probably why I like My Disciple and Cultivation Chat Group so much, since it deviates from telling us to just shut up and git gud as most other Xianxia stories would.
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Feb 22, 2017 19:15
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Yeah, I think stories where the protagonist strives to a better world, not just a better self, tend to be the best. Some of the Japanese web novels promise that, but then it turns out a "better world" really means "show off how awesome I am by improving technology" and possibly "create a cult of personality around myself".
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Feb 22, 2017 22:10
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I love Bookworm and was excited to learn that this was an entire genre, but then yeah those others were nowhere near as good, for those reasons you mentioned. Bookworm does have an element of "show off how awesome I am by improving technology", but it by no means comes easily; Maine really has to work hard for it, and frequently screws up too. In all the other web novels I've tried, they're born as rich people with a lot of people swooning over them by default, and they keep inventing new things without problems--if someone wants to invent chocolate, they'll have it by the end of the same chapter they thought of it.
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Feb 23, 2017 02:49
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I forget which comedian it was, but he summed it up basically as "everything we use nowadays is pretty much black box to us." And it's true. How do you explain how LCD works in terms low tech people would understand? Can you even explain how to manufacture it? How about something simpler, the toilet? Can you explain how it works without looking up Wikipedia? Running water, which is essential to modern plumbing, can you explain how you pump thousands to millions of gallons of water to those who need it without them having to pump it out of a well? While some stuff you can do at home, the truth is that we are only as advanced as we are because we specialize further and further into each field of study. The things we use, the food we eat, the words we read, it all is the result of endless improvements over the centuries. While having the knowledge of how things work lets you bypass quite a bit of work, you would still have to do endless amounts of it to actually make it usable and commercially viable.
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Feb 23, 2017 03:12
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jwang posted:I forget which comedian it was, but he summed it up basically as "everything we use nowadays is pretty much black box to us." And it's true. How do you explain how LCD works in terms low tech people would understand? Can you even explain how to manufacture it? How about something simpler, the toilet? Can you explain how it works without looking up Wikipedia? Running water, which is essential to modern plumbing, can you explain how you pump thousands to millions of gallons of water to those who need it without them having to pump it out of a well? While some stuff you can do at home, the truth is that we are only as advanced as we are because we specialize further and further into each field of study. The things we use, the food we eat, the words we read, it all is the result of endless improvements over the centuries. While having the knowledge of how things work lets you bypass quite a bit of work, you would still have to do endless amounts of it to actually make it usable and commercially viable. This is something the 1632 series goes into great depth about so if you're interested in something that is very concerned with the limitations of modern knowledge like this that's a good one (though important to note that the first book and thus the tech available to the protagonists predates the modern age of a computer in every pocket)
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Feb 23, 2017 03:18
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Argue posted:I love Bookworm and was excited to learn that this was an entire genre, but then yeah those others were nowhere near as good, for those reasons you mentioned. Bookworm does have an element of "show off how awesome I am by improving technology", but it by no means comes easily; Maine really has to work hard for it, and frequently screws up too. In all the other web novels I've tried, they're born as rich people with a lot of people swooning over them by default, and they keep inventing new things without problems--if someone wants to invent chocolate, they'll have it by the end of the same chapter they thought of it. There are some good ones out there but the genre is pretty packed with terrible novels. As for chocolate? It makes sense for a rich person to invent it considering the kind of growing necessary for it to be available widely. Unless you randomly reincarnate into a rain forest. In which case inventing chocolate is pretty much the least of your problems.
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Feb 23, 2017 03:26
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jon joe posted:Yeah, I think stories where the protagonist strives to a better world, not just a better self, tend to be the best. Some of the Japanese web novels promise that, but then it turns out a "better world" really means "show off how awesome I am by improving technology" and possibly "create a cult of personality around myself". Argue posted:I love Bookworm and was excited to learn that this was an entire genre, but then yeah those others were nowhere near as good, for those reasons you mentioned. Bookworm does have an element of "show off how awesome I am by improving technology", but it by no means comes easily; Maine really has to work hard for it, and frequently screws up too. In all the other web novels I've tried, they're born as rich people with a lot of people swooning over them by default, and they keep inventing new things without problems--if someone wants to invent chocolate, they'll have it by the end of the same chapter they thought of it.
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Feb 23, 2017 03:27
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Jackard posted:I think having a single protagonist is part of what makes them fall flat - there is some cheesiness in the 1632 series, but having multiple viewpoint characters on opposing sides makes the progression feel more genuine. Not to mention another key element of 1632's technology is 1632's politics; development comes from groups of people working together. Even the individual genius characters (and there are several people way too loving competent in 1632) work as part of a group because the entire series is philosophically opposed to the great man theory of history that is critical to the generally pro-monarchy or pro-dictatorship or hilarious libertarian perspectives of most wn/ln authors (and most manga/anime authors and most western fantasy or scifi novel writers, tbqh)
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Feb 23, 2017 05:16
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Hi I have made very poor life decisions by looking up I'm a spider so what after seeing the manga, then finding blastrons translations, then uuuuuugh.... the turb0 translations. Then I've made things much worse by finding this thread. Hi. So I read the OP. What the gently caress is a 'cultivator'?
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Feb 23, 2017 09:48
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Synthbuttrange posted:So I read the OP. What the gently caress is a 'cultivator'? Cultivators are immortal chinese kung-fu wizards, and usually complete assholes. They pursue immortality by meditating and getting into fights.
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Feb 23, 2017 09:52
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hello friend. this thread welcomes people who make terrible life choices. cultivators are chinese wizards, usually with vague martial arts aspects. they go through a predetermined sequence of exercises and trials to reach various stages of power. they are also frequently worse than hitler, because many wn authors seem to think horrible monsters are heroic somehow.
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Feb 23, 2017 09:53
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Imagine Jafar from the Aladdin movies, except he's the hero.
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Feb 23, 2017 10:13
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Oh those guys? I'm familiar with the character type from lots of old HK movies when I was growing up, just not with the term 'cultivator'.
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Feb 23, 2017 10:19
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What xianxia needs is its own version of One-Punch Man: a story about somebody who reached the top of the cultivation pyramid, and now they're bored as poo poo. Well, okay, it needs more than that. But that would be a good start.
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Feb 23, 2017 14:39
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The Sandman posted:What xianxia needs is its own version of One-Punch Man: a story about somebody who reached the top of the cultivation pyramid, and now they're bored as poo poo. Only if we also get the cultivating equivalent of King, as well.
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Feb 23, 2017 16:02
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jon joe posted:Only if we also get the cultivating equivalent of King, as well. There's already at least one story featuring a guy who people think is stronger than he actually is.
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Feb 23, 2017 16:12
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Kaja Rainbow posted:There's already at least one story featuring a guy who people think is stronger than he actually is. Cultivation Chat Group, yeah, and it's pretty good!
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Feb 23, 2017 16:18
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in xianxia someone being stronger than everyone else usually means it is time to pursue petty grudges, steal everything they ever wanted and work on growing their harem. even if someone literally transcends into godhood there is no overcoming that petty materialism because petty materialism is the entire point of the story. i think the best it gets is when i eat tomatoes' protagonists give away the stuff they don't need any more because they have already found the next ridiculous stash of treasure. at least issth gives all-consuming greed a humorous bent.
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Feb 23, 2017 16:35
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Cultivator - Chinese muscle wizards that are usually assholes of the nth degree. If there is something scummy that can be done, they usually probably would or have done it. Protagonists that are cultivators tend to work towards being King Shithead of poo poo Mountain. Have ridiculous lifespans, so the only way to get rid of them is to call in an exterminator. This is the primary reason that the only Xianxia stories I can really recommend are My Disciple Died Yet Again and Cultivation Chat Group. In My Disciple, the protagonist is pretty much a pacifist (who pacifies with fists at times). She genuinely is trying to make a world a better place, while the typical xianxia MC character-types would be mucking it up for her. As for Cultivation Chat Group, the guy just wants to quietly and peacefully cultivate without harming anyone else; unfortunately, he always gets dragged along into some crazy shenanigans, like Tractor Initial D Racing (with Mario Kart thrown in for good measure). Most other Xianxia stories are pretty lousy, and I only read them as a guilty pleasure.
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Feb 23, 2017 17:04
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Someone should write a scholarly paper on how Chinese, Korean, and Japanese web novels are reflective of each country's respective cultural ids. I feel like, before the web, publishing companies mandated some level of respectability, but the internet has allowed people to read the things they really want to read - power fantasies about being showered with riches, women, and praise. I'm imagining there being some sort of textual analysis to find how often different types of rewards (money vs. praise vs. women, for example) are received by the protagonists of each country's respective web novels.
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Feb 23, 2017 22:23
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Ytlaya posted:Someone should write a scholarly paper on how Chinese, Korean, and Japanese web novels are reflective of each country's respective cultural ids. I feel like, before the web, publishing companies mandated some level of respectability, but the internet has allowed people to read the things they really want to read - power fantasies about being showered with riches, women, and praise. China: Money & Praise Japan: Women & Praise Korea: The highest level in a video game
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Feb 23, 2017 22:50
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I give The King's Avatar the credit of dropping the bullshit and just making a story about a dude that is playing a video game. Instead of bending your fantasy world to "I am stuck in a VR game" or "It has mechanics like a video game because evidently the gods are inexplicable bastards" it's just flat out a pro gamer playing a video game, and that's it. You are reading a story about a dude playing a video game. He's not even new to it or anything, it's just the story of some guy attempting to level back up to the top with a weird rear end class build in a video game he's already the best player in the world at because his retarded pro team dropped him because they are retarded. He doesn't even meaningfully have any opposition, because the pro team that dropped him loses to loving everybody and are poo poo without him. So you just have a dude that is awesome at a video game, which is evidently what the audience really wants. Whatever, as long as it gets people reading.
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Feb 24, 2017 00:09
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Ytlaya posted:Someone should write a scholarly paper on how Chinese, Korean, and Japanese web novels are reflective of each country's respective cultural ids. I feel like, before the web, publishing companies mandated some level of respectability, but the internet has allowed people to read the things they really want to read - power fantasies about being showered with riches, women, and praise. Strikes me as reductive, tbqh Fanfiction is not the emodiment of america's cultural id that's trump but rather the embodiment of a particular subset of people, who are mostly women and mostly marginalized I'd like to see papers on that from chinese, korean or japanese scholars about the subcultures that end up generating those works, but I do doubt that it is at all nationally representative
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Feb 24, 2017 00:10
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UberJew posted:Strikes me as reductive, tbqh Yeah, I wasn't actually being serious; obviously this stuff is targeted at a specific sub-culture within those societies. Though it might be interesting to look at why there are specific differences between roughly the same "young nerdy male" sub-cultures between each country.
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Feb 24, 2017 00:35
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Wow latest chapter of seoul station necromancer He's not playing clash of clans, he's literally playing warcraft 3. Oh korea
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Feb 24, 2017 12:34
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Dunno if this is really the thread for it but does anyone know how the official English Index novels compare to the old fan translations or more importantly to Railgun cause I still really want more Railgun but I couldn't get through Index when I tried years ago.
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Feb 28, 2017 18:44
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I've read the first... four? of Yen Press's Index releases and they were better than the fan translations of it I'd read previously. I'm not sure I want to say by leaps and bounds, because there's only so much that can be done with the material to begin with, but definitely less stilted and with more sensical grammar. What exactly do you mean by comparing it to Railgun? Or which bits of Railgun do you want more of? Because you're probably going to be disappointed. 
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Feb 28, 2017 19:22
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if you go into index looking for more railgun, you are absolutely going to be disappointed. actually if you go into index looking for anything good you are probably still gonna be disappointed.
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Feb 28, 2017 20:06
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Okay so this prompted some thinking about what I like about Railgun cause being aware of that is not my strong point and I'ver concluded that I won't be reading Index for now, maybe I will at some later point in time to try and analyse how&why it's different because quite frankly I don't know if my memory is faulty or what but I'm actually starting to think someone is ghostwriting Railgun so lol e: I'm hoping someone will tell me it's cause Railgun is a manga because quite frankly if it's not that I'm gonna have to go with the ghostwriter thing Absum fucked around with this message at 21:51 on Feb 28, 2017 |
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Feb 28, 2017 21:47
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the index guy comes up with all sorts of neat ideas but since he is a terrible writer he fumbles most of them. to some extent railgun is better because it simply lacks the worst poo poo from index. for example, touma, his harem, and his terrible preachy speeches. oh, and everything to do with magic. as for whether someone else is writing railgun, i dunno. it might just be heavily edited unlike the light novels.
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Feb 28, 2017 22:09
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Index is objectively worse because the headcrab is annoying, and quite possibly the worst character in the series.
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Feb 28, 2017 23:58
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it is pretty funny how the series is named after an incredibly minor and useless character no one likes.
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Mar 1, 2017 00:02
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gimme the GOD drat candy posted:the index guy comes up with all sorts of neat ideas but since he is a terrible writer he fumbles most of them. to some extent railgun is better because it simply lacks the worst poo poo from index. for example, touma, his harem, and his terrible preachy speeches. oh, and everything to do with magic. as for whether someone else is writing railgun, i dunno. it might just be heavily edited unlike the light novels. ironically touma is a fantastic character in railgun index is objectively terrible but i enjoy it anyway because im garbage, i will make no attempt to defend myself on this
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Mar 1, 2017 00:04
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Yinlock posted:ironically touma is a fantastic character in railgun this is the thread for garbage people who enjoy garbage fiction, friend.
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Mar 1, 2017 00:08
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gimme the GOD drat candy posted:this is the thread for garbage people who enjoy garbage fiction, friend. Web Novel megathread: Garbage People Reading Garbage Fiction
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Mar 1, 2017 22:22
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We now have our next thread title. All web novel genres are garbage, with few exceptions. Shows how having an editor look over your work can really improve the quality of your writing.
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Mar 2, 2017 02:58
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uh oh, looks like kumoko might be in a pinch! lol no she is unleashing a terrifying spider apocalypse that covers the sky
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Mar 8, 2017 02:20
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Whoa, Kumoko! Okay, yeah, I realize she's been trending towards the 'eldritch horror' school of godhood for a while, but 'cracks in the sky, filled with eyes, that devour all they see' is pretty freaking Lovecraft. I wonder if Kuro will point out that by the end of this fight, Kumoko will have probably absorbed enough energy to save the planet without any of the big sacrifices that were planned. Now if anyone can convince her to voluntarily give it away!
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Mar 8, 2017 05:13
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The official English release of KonoSuba was pretty good.
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Mar 8, 2017 06:18
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