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...Durandal is like the least reasonable person in Team Squirrel Crimes. Even Lucia has doubts sometimes. But yeah, God King's Legacy is great. quote:Someone screamed, but it didn’t last very long because a head flew into the air. Gah! Why is Durandal murdering people!? We just had to silence them! “Wait! Durandal! What are you doing!?”
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Aug 14, 2019 22:19
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He Who Fights With Monsters on RRL is surprisingly good. A transmigration story that doesn't get hung up on random garbage, a LitRPG story with an interesting system and a Xianxia-like world with excellent characters. Finding all three in the same story is like a unicorn.
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Aug 15, 2019 12:20
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KOGAHAZAN!! posted:...Durandal is like the least reasonable person in Team Squirrel Crimes. Even Lucia has doubts sometimes. Nahh hes just a classic murderhobo, he just wants to get more power. Durandal often lacks the creativity of the other party members.
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Aug 16, 2019 16:05
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In Threads of Destiny news, Ling Qi is invited on a snooty hunt for nobles. Ling Qi (and the thread) stress endlessly on what sort of den of villains she is going to descend into! Turns out, instead of a Machiavellian pit of vipers acting out a Hunger Games scenario it’s a bunch of Kung fu redneck kids goofing off in the woods. Ling Qi actually has fun talking to others and interacting with her peers while hunting a displacer beast. What bullshit is this??? Not everyone has a good time as some aren’t overly fond of Ling Qi because *GASP* Ling Qi treats interacting with Emerald Sea nobles as slightly less fun that getting your drivers license renewed at the DoL. Clearly they are all just jelly and should be plotted to have unfortunate accidents in the future Next time, Ling Qi and her mad scientist buddy meet a boooooyyyyyyyyy  Ling Qi: 
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Aug 23, 2019 01:47
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I feel bad for normal cultivators in the FoD setting. Imagine being some grizzled 90 year old veteran being commanded by some overpowered 15 year old. Do we know what sort of upbringings non-noble cultivators have? Aren't even the lowest level cultivators richer than the wealthier non-cultivator merchants? Or do they just grow up in boring villages where they're eating spirit porridge instead of regular porridge edit: Also, I'm curious about how this series is going to deal with barbarians in the longer term. Ling Qi's dreamy assassin tutor guy said something about barbarians not being any different from imperials, though Ling Qi herself obviously has some weird ideas in that regard as she literally thought no differently about killing that one shaman guy than she does about killing animals. It also ties into Sun Liling's deal, since I know that part of why a lot of people don't like her clan is that they use abilities inspired/derived from barbarian abilities. I trust the author to treat the topic well, though. Ytlaya fucked around with this message at 02:26 on Aug 23, 2019 |
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Aug 23, 2019 02:22
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Ytlaya posted:Aren't even the lowest level cultivators richer than the wealthier non-cultivator merchants? Or do they just grow up in boring villages where they're eating spirit porridge instead of regular porridge Yes. So much so that beating people so badly it requires magic to heal them just results in a fine, and not even a fine large enough fine to allow their victim to find a new job (see Ling Qi's newest understanding of what happened to her mom's old job). Ytlaya posted:Do we know what sort of upbringings non-noble cultivators have? It seems like cultivators who get stuck at rank 2 yellow/silver or lower get treated somewhere between minor nobles and completely expendable cannon fodder. The sect mostly uses them for maintaining defenses around the mortal population and gathering common ingredients. This is just speculation, but its possible the reason the common ingredients are common is because outer sect dudes can gather them. Ling Qi is the scout division so we don't get a good look at how they're used in the sect "military" or how you get from being an outer sect member to a military member. Ling Qi's mad scientist friend, Li Siyun, is kind of non-noble. Her dad is first generation Ministry, although vaguely part of a fallen noble house. Scientist friend got exactly zero recompense for losing an eye. World is massively classist. Even the token nod towards meritocracy of the sects is a relatively recent development. All of which is totally in keeping with genre norms and Chinese presentation of their own history so props to the author for authentically representing that. Ytlaya posted:I feel bad for normal cultivators in the FoD setting. Imagine being some grizzled 90 year old veteran being commanded by some overpowered 15 year old. LLSix fucked around with this message at 02:58 on Aug 23, 2019 |
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Aug 23, 2019 02:55
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LLSix posted:You should, but to be fair, this kind of thing is historically pretty common. Even the modern USA military puts barely trained college graduates in command of companies, which means groups of up to 300 soldiers, some of whom are career military and twice the age of their commanding officer. Nope. 16 - 44 != 300
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Aug 23, 2019 04:32
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Ytlaya posted:I feel bad for normal cultivators in the FoD setting. Imagine being some grizzled 90 year old veteran being commanded by some overpowered 15 year old. I think they do a lot of menial magic stuff noble cultivators can't be bothered with, like being ward janitors or running inns with magic soundproof rooms etc... I think the Ma Twins dad was a artisan, making fancy pots for rich folk. Its a weird one because the mortal and immortal economy's don't intersect in a lot of ways.
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Aug 24, 2019 00:40
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LLSix posted:Yes. So much so that beating people so badly it requires magic to heal them just results in a fine, and not even a fine large enough fine to allow their victim to find a new job (see Ling Qi's newest understanding of what happened to her mom's old job). A detail, but part of that plot was that Ling Qi realised that low level cultivators who beat up non cultivators actually got a much harsher punishment than non cultivators that beat up other non cultivators.
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Aug 24, 2019 12:50
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Furious Lobster posted:Nope. 16 - 44 != 300 you think captains are any better? 
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Aug 24, 2019 14:08
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atelier morgan posted:you think captains are any better? ¯\_(ツ)_/¯. All I know is that captains aren't fresh out of college .
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Aug 24, 2019 16:40
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I have been reading Savage Divinity that was on the book barns web serial post and enjoying the fact that the MC is really good at things (because he is absolutely terrified of the world he lives in) but also very mentally traumatized and just trying to keep his poo poo together.
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Aug 30, 2019 19:20
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I fell off once his split personality/possession thing took over. Just felt viscerally uncomfortable with him and how the harem thing was progressing.
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Aug 30, 2019 19:39
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Yeah, Savage Divinity had a strong start then turned into harem menagerie slice of life. I really wish it went in a different direction.
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Aug 30, 2019 20:01
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7c Nickel posted:I fell off once his split personality/possession thing took over. Just felt viscerally uncomfortable with him and how the harem thing was progressing. Split personality is what killed it for me too. Everything about that arc was deeply stupid.
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Aug 30, 2019 20:51
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I've been continuing to catch up with FoD, and I like the thing with Xiao Fen and her commoner guy friend/love interest. It was also neat seeing that one girl who Ling Qi did a rank battle thing against show up again.
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Aug 30, 2019 21:06
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Ytlaya posted:I've been continuing to catch up with FoD, and I like the thing with Xiao Fen and her commoner guy friend/love interest. I don’t even remember who Xiao Fen is. Is she the Wood element healer whose staff Ling Qi sold twice?
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Aug 30, 2019 21:37
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She's Bai Meizhens handmaiden.
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Aug 30, 2019 21:52
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LLSix posted:I don’t even remember who Xiao Fen is. Is she the Wood element healer whose staff Ling Qi sold twice? Full name is Bai Xiao Fen, she's Bai Meizhen's handmaiden who is currently at the outer sect and acts as a liaison between Gun Guangli and Cai Renxiang. Ling Qi also likes to flex her 'senior sect sister' status on her.
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Aug 30, 2019 21:53
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She took her lessons with Elder Jiao very seriously, even if not perhaps the points he wished to be taken seriously (hahah no, he definitely wanted Ling Qi to teach like him).
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Aug 31, 2019 00:13
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A role model worth emulating IMO
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Aug 31, 2019 00:58
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I also like that apparently the Cai matriarch's deal is guillotining all the corrupt cultivators and providing social welfare programs in a setting where this is apparently unheard of. I have warmed up to this idea of Ling Qi choosing the "political change" side instead of the "totally immerse yourself in mystical stuff" side of being Jiao's disciple (though I still personally liked the idea of going off with the Golden Fields guy, since I find that whole region the most interesting of the ones we've read about).
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Aug 31, 2019 18:36
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A Kung fu version of the Mummy in Golden Fields with Gu Tai would have been good times it’s true. I wonder how the quest would have been been run, with Ling Qi now having far less incentive to socialize outside her circle as she can give far less shits about what some rando Emerald Sea viscount scion thinks about her.
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Aug 31, 2019 20:45
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On his blog, Will Wight has announced the the preorder for Uncrowned will be going up on September 5th and has revealed the cover. He is deliberately vague about the actual timing of the release. All of the previous books have released on the first of a month but the vagueness seems to imply that it won’t be October 1. Perhaps he’ll be doing an early release Kickstarter like he mentioned a few months ago? Only time will tell.
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Aug 31, 2019 21:39
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Ytlaya posted:I also like that apparently the Cai matriarch's deal is guillotining all the corrupt cultivators and providing social welfare programs in a setting where this is apparently unheard of. I have warmed up to this idea of Ling Qi choosing the "political change" side instead of the "totally immerse yourself in mystical stuff" side of being Jiao's disciple (though I still personally liked the idea of going off with the Golden Fields guy, since I find that whole region the most interesting of the ones we've read about). To each according to their needs, not because of compassion, but because non-maximum utility is an irritatingly inefficient use of resources?
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Aug 31, 2019 22:51
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Ytlaya posted:I also like that apparently the Cai matriarch's deal is guillotining all the corrupt cultivators and providing social welfare programs in a setting where this is apparently unheard of. I have warmed up to this idea of Ling Qi choosing the "political change" side instead of the "totally immerse yourself in mystical stuff" side of being Jiao's disciple (though I still personally liked the idea of going off with the Golden Fields guy, since I find that whole region the most interesting of the ones we've read about). The revolution will not be televised
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Sep 1, 2019 01:44
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OddObserver posted:To each according to their needs, not because of compassion, but because non-maximum utility is an irritatingly inefficient use of resources? It’s funny Mamma Cai has people singing her praises for performing a pogram when for her it was like her rose bush needed pruning and each part she cut was hundreds if not thousand of lives dying.
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Sep 1, 2019 04:45
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Its Rinaldo posted:It’s funny Mamma Cai has people singing her praises for performing a pogram when for her it was like her rose bush needed pruning and each part she cut was hundreds if not thousand of lives dying. Well I mean, we kinda need to know how bad the people she executed were. Like are we talking just anyone performing suboptimally, or are these all a bunch of actually corrupt upper crust cultivators? Mainstream cultivator society also doesn't really have a problem with killing people and letting large swaths of their mortal popular live in squalor, so a few hundred/thousand managerial cultivators is a small price to pay for a functional society. The more questionable parts of Cai's vision are the implication that people won't have much in the way of freedom to choose their own careers, plus it not being democratic at all (though that's another issue the status quo cultivator society has, since we're comparing her ideas against regular monarchy).
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Sep 1, 2019 04:56
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Yeah we don’t know what threshold Momma Cai used to disappear people. Which is why it was sort of weird even when people were mending about it whenever said “haha yeah go Shenhua although kinda horrifying” people went “no it is actually cool and good they had it coming”. Did they? Who knows! I’m not taking the word of a lady who edit outs the parts of her child’s personality she doesn’t like.
Its Rinaldo fucked around with this message at 22:37 on Sep 1, 2019 |
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Sep 1, 2019 21:36
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I mean Shenhua is obviously a sociopath and bad person, but she does seem to be better at running a society than the rest of the status quo. I like the idea of Renxiang ending up doing a more "empathetic" interpretation of the idea her mom is aiming for. Another thing I'm curious how the story will address is the general topic of barbarian tribes. While everyone in the empire is obviously going to think that they're a bunch of savages, that's almost certain to not be an accurate representation of things.
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Sep 2, 2019 07:44
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my personal ~fanservice~ for the setting would be some sort of Daqin-equivalent that never gets visited, but that everyone keeps projecting their own version of an 'ideal' society onto
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Sep 2, 2019 08:07
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Did any of you guys notice Princess Mononoke showing up at this hunting trip in ToD?quote:One stood at the edges of the group, fussing over the half dozen odd other spirit beasts present, a mixture of stags and horses of varying breeds. She stood out from the other disciples by her scandalous garb. She wore a white sleeveless and backless garment and dark grey pants, and a thick cloak of white fur hung from her neck, covering her shoulders and back. She had short brown hair and skin of a similar tone to Ling Qi. Two red tattoos, shaped like fangs marked her cheeks. edit: lmao this badger owns - quote:“Hello!” Gui greeted with some cheer, poking his head out of his shell, to look down at them. “I’m sorry if you were hungry too! I already finished eating.” edit2: One other takeaway from the recent content is that I'm happy to see some acknowledgement of Ling Qi having been kinda a condescending standoff-ish prick, with some development in the direction of realizing that you can have honest/genuine interactions with other people while still keeping some sense of potential deception and other social machinations. It is completely reasonable for these characters to be put off at her obviously forcing herself to be around them. That one Grinning Moon/Wind cultivator guy seemed like he went in the direction I kinda wished Ling Qi had gone in, by the way (in terms of his particular wind "interpretation" plus focusing on the Grinning Moon). I enjoy how all these new characters keep getting added. One thing FoD/ToD is really good at is creating a sense that the world is full of a bunch of real people whose lives just happen to intersect with our protagonist's. Ytlaya fucked around with this message at 22:55 on Sep 3, 2019 |
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Sep 3, 2019 17:01
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Princess Mononoke showing up is Cool and Good. Some people were annoyed Alingge looked like San. Those people are clearly Bad and Dumb and I want to take Alingge to a moon rave where she can drunkenly dance with our turtle snake.
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Sep 4, 2019 00:38
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I've just accepted that random characters being roughly modeled off of other characters from shows/movies is a minor "easter egg" sort of thing the story does. I could understand more if people whined about Cai Renxiang, since she's a major character (though in her case there's enough differences from the Kill La Kill character that it's a pretty loose connection), but this is just a very minor acquaintance Ling Qi met once. By the way, what is that Luo guy supposed to look like again? I remember he was described when he first showed up, but I forgot how.
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Sep 4, 2019 02:25
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Ytlaya posted:
If you mean Liao Zhu, he is a Bloody Moon + Reflective Moon cultivator. E.G, 'kill the sinners but give them a chance to repent first'. He was shirtless yummy with a demon mask on his face.
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Sep 6, 2019 22:38
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Arkeus posted:If you mean Liao Zhu, he is a Bloody Moon + Reflective Moon cultivator. E.G, 'kill the sinners but give them a chance to repent first'. I do not mean Liao Zhu, I mean the guy from the hunting trip who was engaged with the girl with spectacles. Ling Qi said she smelled the Grinning Moon from him and that he felt like a spring breeze or some such. He punched the cat in the face with a wind fist. Speaking of that girl, are we supposed to assume those spectacles are some kind of talisman, because I'd imagine that cultivating fixes your eyesight.
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Sep 6, 2019 23:07
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Ytlaya posted:I do not mean Liao Zhu, I mean the guy from the hunting trip who was engaged with the girl with spectacles. Ling Qi said she smelled the Grinning Moon from him and that he felt like a spring breeze or some such. He punched the cat in the face with a wind fist. I think so. The same point was brought up for Fan Yu (I think I got the information broker in FoD's name right).
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Sep 6, 2019 23:48
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On a watsonian level, yes eyeglasses existing is a bit of parallel teching to reality, where it just a very convenient shape for talisman's which affect eyesight. The doyalist reasoning is of course, because it gives me another minor detail to differentiate characters appearances with and because I find them to be aesthetically pleasing accessories.
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Sep 7, 2019 00:04
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Sunglasses existed in China as early as the 12th century. Wikipedia says they were used by Judges to hide their expressions during court which was a cool wrinkle I did no know. 7c Nickel fucked around with this message at 00:24 on Sep 7, 2019 |
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Sep 7, 2019 00:21
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Note that these were (like Nero's gladiator-watching sunglasses) made out of highly polished smoky quartz rather than glass, since China lacked good glass technology (since porcelain was so useful for most things other people used glass for)
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Sep 7, 2019 00:31
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