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The threat of certain death isn't real, yes, but it matters that characters treat as if it were. We watch her struggle to hold her tongue, and do things she hates because she has very little power. Sherlock, as king poo poo of detective mountain, needs to be cajoled into taking a case, but Mao just gets ordered around. It would be nice to see her paired with a more useful partner at some stage, although I feel like the author intends for her to remain a competent monolith.
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Nov 22, 2018 17:41
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Eventually we get to meet other members of her family who all turn out to be complete weirdoes hyper-competent at one thing and complete failures at everything else.
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Nov 22, 2018 18:09
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Squidster posted:The threat of certain death isn't real, yes, but it matters that characters treat as if it were. We watch her struggle to hold her tongue, and do things she hates because she has very little power. Sherlock, as king poo poo of detective mountain, needs to be cajoled into taking a case, but Mao just gets ordered around. She has the same threat of death looming over her head as someone walking on a sidewalk along a road; she'd have to gently caress extremely (jump into traffic/tell a noble to go gently caress himself) to be at risk of death. The emperor would be the biggest threat but she did him a favor by getting his favorite pair of tits back online. I feel like you've read something that wasn't there. Edit: I totally forgot she's a poison taster when thinking about her chances of death. No one, including herself, expects her to die from it though so its fine. Captain Cappy fucked around with this message at 01:12 on Nov 23, 2018 |
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Nov 23, 2018 01:07
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I just like seeing her do CSI:Forbidden City
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Nov 23, 2018 02:02
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Maomao haters don't read this Maomao owns
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Nov 23, 2018 03:09
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"There's no chance of the protagonist dying" is always such a weird criticism to me. That's, just, being a protagonist in 95% of media
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Nov 23, 2018 03:11
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Captain Cappy posted:She has the same threat of death looming over her head as someone walking on a sidewalk along a road; she'd have to gently caress extremely (jump into traffic/tell a noble to go gently caress himself) to be at risk of death. The emperor would be the biggest threat but she did him a favor by getting his favorite pair of tits back online. I feel like you've read something that wasn't there. I'm not sure about your life circumstances, but in my personal daily commute there are very few people allowed to kill me. I could tell everyone in my workplace to gently caress themselves, but executing me would still be frowned on. I think you're mistaking a limited body count for the absence of danger.
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Nov 23, 2018 04:35
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Squidster posted:Mao is in a political minefield of courtly politics, and could be killed by a rival consort, a noble, etc., with no consequences for those people. Are we reading the same manga? Because none of this comes up. She's friends with 3/4 of the most important people she interacts with daily and hasn't really talked to the other concubine that much from what I read. She has been spoken to by the emperor and could easily get out of trouble. Nobles with attached testicles aren't even allowed to be in the same area as her 99% of the time. You're inserting your fanfiction into your reading of this manga.
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Nov 23, 2018 04:47
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She's a poison tester who is a slave in the Imperial Court. She could: * get poisoned ( she almost died once ) * let a poison pass through ( gets executed ) * be killed by someone covering up a plot ( murdered ) * anger a rival by being too good at detecting poisons ( murdered ) * reject any noble who wants her body ( ditto ) * offend any noble whatsover for any reason ( ditto ) * be sold to any noble ( prob. worse than death ) Royal courts throughout history are insanely toxic hellstorms of cliques, maneuverings and murderings. The current plot arc is about a fellow maid being murdered, and that person was higher ranked than Mao is. All these scenarios are implicit in the setting, and don't need to be explicitly spelled out one by one. I mean, remember when her dispatcher dragged her away, and she just thought "oh, I'm going to be raped now"? That's some serious loving danger right there, and should be a signifier of the level of vulnerability she and the other maids have.
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Nov 23, 2018 05:10
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Captain Cappy posted:Are we reading the same manga? Because none of this comes up. She's friends with 3/4 of the most important people she interacts with daily and hasn't really talked to the other concubine that much from what I read. She has been spoken to by the emperor and could easily get out of trouble. Nobles with attached testicles aren't even allowed to be in the same area as her 99% of the time. You're inserting your fanfiction into your reading of this manga. She's constantly thinking about it every time she encounters someone of higher rank. Every time she gets a request she reads it as "Do this or I will have you killed", to the surprise of her superiors who don't want to kill her.
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Nov 23, 2018 05:11
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Squidster posted:She's a poison tester who is a slave in the Imperial Court.  Most of your bullet points are just things you've made up that could happen to her. It's like me saying that you could be killed by someone you pissed off in the McDonald's drive-thru or just swerved into while you were walking down the street because someone wanted to feel the thrill of killing someone. I don't recall her ever showing any restraint besides not calling the emperor a gently caress head and until she starts acting like her life is in serious danger by trying to be more tactful, everything you've stated is just made up head canon you're applying to this detective manga. Until any of this starts happening then it's just your head canon you've made up to justify your "her life is more dangerous than Sherlock Holmes so the story is better" argument. Which is ridiculous now that I think about it considering he solves crimes for a living and probably has to tangle with the 1800's british version of the mob. MonsieurChoc posted:She's constantly thinking about it every time she encounters someone of higher rank. Every time she gets a request she reads it as "Do this or I will have you killed", to the surprise of her superiors who don't want to kill her. No she isn't or she wouldn't drag another concubine's retainer by the hair or threaten them constantly. And while the punishment isn't death, most people would be in serious poo poo if they received a command from a superior and instead of just doing it they reeeee'd on the floor screaming like an autist. It's not remarkable that she does what's she's told and it's not remarkable that the punishment is death, because it's a situation that won't happen. (USER WAS PUT ON PROBATION FOR THIS POST)
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Nov 23, 2018 05:33
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Captain Cappy posted:And while the punishment isn't death, most people would be in serious poo poo if they received a command from a superior and instead of just doing it they reeeee'd on the floor screaming like an autist. 
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Nov 23, 2018 05:34
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Well, you're clearly not engaging with the story as written, but it is always okay to not like things. We live in a golden age of accessible comics, with fresh manga, webcomics and indie comics coming out every day! I'm sure you'll find something you enjoy more tomorrow.
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Nov 23, 2018 05:50
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yy8MUnlT9Oo Edit for real content I guess: I recently reread the Akira manga and man, what a fun ride it is from start to finish every time. Kinda wish they would adapt the entire thing just to see the crazier poo poo in motion. Zeratanis fucked around with this message at 06:11 on Nov 23, 2018 |
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Nov 23, 2018 06:07
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I lightened up on the manga after agreeing with other posters that it is pretty much Sherlock Holmes/Detective Conan/CSI and not any of the things you've imagined up in your head. Not only has nothing been shown that she acts as though her life is in danger, she is a solo protagonist and therefore cannot die, so any death scares are laughable. Regardless, I accept your weakass concession speech.
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Nov 23, 2018 06:12
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Captain Cappy posted:And while the punishment isn't death, most people would be in serious poo poo if they received a command from a superior and instead of just doing it they reeeee'd on the floor screaming like an autist. I do this like every other day at work and it’s not a big deal
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Nov 23, 2018 06:15
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Zeratanis posted:Edit for real content I guess: I recently reread the Akira manga and man, what a fun ride it is from start to finish every time. Kinda wish they would adapt the entire thing just to see the crazier poo poo in motion. The Akira manga is loving good, I could talk about it for hours.
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Nov 23, 2018 07:05
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Zeratanis posted:Edit for real content I guess: I recently reread the Akira manga and man, what a fun ride it is from start to finish every time. Kinda wish they would adapt the entire thing just to see the crazier poo poo in motion. *looks at the monkey's paw and a finger is not curling ...yet*
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Nov 23, 2018 07:25
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Captain Cappy posted:And while the punishment isn't death, most people would be in serious poo poo if they received a command from a superior and instead of just doing it they reeeee'd on the floor screaming like an autist. suddenly less surprised you just threw Mary Sue out at the beginning of all this. gently caress off with this poo poo dude
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Nov 23, 2018 13:59
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Nihilarian posted:"There's no chance of the protagonist dying" is always such a weird criticism to me. That's, just, being a protagonist in 95% of media 
Brought To You By fucked around with this message at 17:08 on Nov 23, 2018 |
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Nov 23, 2018 14:05
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ignoring the fact that yes, death would be possible in Kusuriya, it is kinda weird that we're on this death obsessed track when it seems kinda off to the side of the point of the series. it's "historical" fiction focused on medicine, so the story moves in ways that will let them show off different practices while connecting that to characters.
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Nov 23, 2018 14:10
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To me, the most interesting aspect is her attitude to other people's mortality: There have been multiple cases now where she just ended up keeping the solution to herself because she apparently thinks that whatever heinous things the culprits did would not be enough to justify the punishment they'd get (probably a reasonable assessment in a society where, at least as of the latest chapter, the most positive thing one could say about the ruler is "At least he's not a pedophile like his dad."). It adds a lot of depth to the story that enforcement of the law is not treated as immediately equal to justice. I also really liked the chapter where Mao visited her father; to me at least, that chapter actually did quite a lot to make her hypercompetence believable (well, excluding the modern chemical vocabulary, but that's the sort of anachronism I usually expect from historical fiction). That being said... dogsicle posted:suddenly less surprised you just threw Mary Sue out at the beginning of all this. gently caress off with this poo poo dude
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Nov 23, 2018 15:17
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Nihilarian posted:"There's no chance of the protagonist dying" is always such a weird criticism to me. That's, just, being a protagonist in 95% of media That is indeed true. It's a natural assumption. It's so natural it's pointless to bring it to discussion. It's not Game of Thrones or whatever, it's CSI: Forbidden City. There's no need to pretend Mao² is actually threatened. The narrative tension doesn't develop in that direction.
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Nov 23, 2018 17:52
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I think speculation can be fun, especially for a series like Kusuriya, because, as the Squidster said, it's not so much the fear that "Oh no, she gon' die!  " being a thing that happens and more that it serves as a... I dunno, catalyst? Motivator? So Mao² is motivated to get poo poo done as a way to keep her head attached to the rest of her body because, as it's been mentioned, poo poo is flimsy at the court.And yeah, so far it's been a fun/interesting read.
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Nov 23, 2018 18:46
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I'd be interested in where that dude got his hands on a Braille version of that manga, cause from what he's saying about it, it's functionally impossible that he's actually ever looked at it.
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Nov 23, 2018 19:43
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based on the comment about stopping due to her freckles being fake, they only read like six chapters
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Nov 23, 2018 20:09
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Nihilarian posted:"There's no chance of the protagonist dying" is always such a weird criticism to me. That's, just, being a protagonist in 95% of media Everyone is an expert in stories. It is an impossibility to not be, as humans narratives are a constant in our life. But most people are not experts in storytelling. But it is an easy delusion to fall into to believe that you are one, especially these days with such a focus on the meta of stories (with things like TV tropes or cinemasins). Anyway this just leads to an attitude of creating rules that need not to exist and a belief that these rules must be enforced.
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Nov 24, 2018 01:15
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I'm an expert, ask me anything.
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Nov 24, 2018 04:09
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Sharkopath posted:I'm an expert, ask me anything. How do you write one of those scenes where two construction workers are carrying a pane of glass and someone runs through it?
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Nov 24, 2018 04:11
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Sharkopath posted:I'm an expert, ask me anything.
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Nov 24, 2018 04:13
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Snooze Cruise posted:How do you write one of those scenes where two construction workers are carrying a pane of glass and someone runs through it? I think its funnier the more contrived you craft the scenario to be, like putting them in a place they dont belong, really play up the absurdity and the classic gag nature of the two men carrying a glass plane.
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Nov 24, 2018 04:17
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Also, what are some of your favorite panel and/or page transitions in manga?
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Nov 24, 2018 04:21
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Sharkopath posted:I think its funnier the more contrived you craft the scenario to be, like putting them in a place they dont belong, really play up the absurdity and the classic gag nature of the two men carrying a glass plane.
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Nov 24, 2018 04:29
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Wark Say posted:Also, what are some of your favorite panel and/or page transitions in manga? I'm the most impressed by the panel composition in detective conan altho thats not a seinen, its just such a good use of space and filling in simple classic square panels with occasional diagonal cutins. I made a bunch of posts about it somewhere.
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Nov 24, 2018 04:35
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Sharkopath posted:I'm the most impressed by the panel composition in detective conan altho thats not a seinen, its just such a good use of space and filling in simple classic square panels with occasional diagonal cutins.
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Nov 24, 2018 04:37
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Another point to the Kusuriya manga adaptation is that the art is really good and the expressions for the characters, especially for MaoMao are A+.
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Nov 24, 2018 04:44
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it became one of my favorite mangas after the chapter where mao hides the reason for the sleepwalker's actions until she can be reunited with her lover. it's par for the course for detective protagonists to be obsessed with revealing the truth at all costs, so it's nice to have one that actually thinks about the consequences of her actions for once. it reminds me of the last case of phoenix wright 2, tbh
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Nov 24, 2018 10:06
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That is a very common and quite old narrative tool in detective stories, when the detectives job and the truth conflicts with their conscience. Its an easy twist to include but the finesse is in the execution, it shifts the mystery into a character drama that involves the investigator as a possible accomplice, which is a chance to flesh them out more, and possibly set up a chekovs gun for later.
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Nov 24, 2018 12:20
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Rigged Death Trap posted:That is a very common and quite old narrative tool in detective stories, when the detectives job and the truth conflicts with their conscience. See also Murder on the Orient Express.
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Nov 24, 2018 15:27
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Rigged Death Trap posted:That is a very common and quite old narrative tool in detective stories, when the detectives job and the truth conflicts with their conscience. in that case, it became one of my favorite mangas because im an easy mark for detective tropes
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Nov 24, 2018 19:18
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