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awesmoe posted:I’m so down for the story of a damaged cultivator learning to make friends With b-plot of ‘thirsty snake-girl romances spectrum spider’
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May 29, 2021 05:30
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| # ? May 20, 2024 06:43 |
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happy TWI un-hiatus-ing day, Patreon people  this was a fun one. the Thronebearers are delightful, pirateaba really shines at maximally endearing the reader to new characters in a minimal amount of time. honestly, I appreciate the breaks, there's only so much text I can take at once. I'm actually making progress on my book backlog since pirate started taking breaks! that can't be a coincidence
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May 30, 2021 04:56
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Tom Clancy is Dead posted:The first 7 chapters of Peculiar Soul were good enough that I've gone back and started to read TMarkos's older stories. I'm about halfway through Inheritors of Eschaton, and it's also a significant cut above most of what's on RR. I don't want to spoil too much except to say this is portal fantasy done right and to look at the bottom note of the chapters for mixed media in-character addendums. I did the same thing, but picked Grand Design, it seems pretty good so far too!
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May 30, 2021 09:59
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catgirlgenius posted:happy TWI un-hiatus-ing day, Patreon people whereas I'm at the point where I just wanna binge the whole story start to finish and stop waiting. That's the sign of a good book(s)
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May 30, 2021 11:30
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So I decided to read Tower of Somnus because of this thread and man it has some good ideas and all but I really wish the author didn't spend so much time on overly long and complex fight scenes. Like, one every now and then is fine, but it feels like the author is scared to go two chapters without someone getting stabbed. It's a little exhausting.
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May 30, 2021 11:58
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In case anyone has been holding off because of the cost, the entire Cradle Xianxia series by Will Wight is available for free on Amazon today. Truly free for purchase, not just through Kindle Unlimited. Grab them while you can, they’re the best example of the genre, and some of my favorite fantasy in general.
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May 30, 2021 16:22
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Silynt posted:In case anyone has been holding off because of the cost, the entire Cradle Xianxia series by Will Wight is available for free on Amazon today. Truly free for purchase, not just through Kindle Unlimited. Grab them while you can, they’re the best example of the genre, and some of my favorite fantasy in general. Rad. The audiobook is only 2 bucks right now too.
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May 30, 2021 17:10
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TWI 6.51 A - PISCES IS GETTING LESSONS FROM WHO THE gently caress
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May 31, 2021 04:16
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lol at the lord leveling again and again in the Ryoka substory
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May 31, 2021 06:00
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Nettle Soup posted:I did the same thing, but picked Grand Design, it seems pretty good so far too! I think I dropped that at some point because I just didn't like the main characters and wanted them to lose.
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May 31, 2021 07:02
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Peachfart posted:lol at the lord leveling again and again in the Ryoka substory Counter levelling relative to the challenge!
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May 31, 2021 07:15
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PracGuide: Looks like I'm caught with egg on my face, because it seems Catherine actually is going to be Warden of the East. I had replied to someone's comment a few weeks back who predicted this saying that it makes no sense, but it seems pretty undeniable based upon stuff in this recent chapter. It still kind of bugs me, since I'm not sure how "Warden of the East" is a Name that would confer some sort of authority over someone like the Grey Pilgrim (or how it would factor into the role Catherine has had throughout the Dead King war or her long-term goals). It's kind of clever how the "Warden" part will have a different sort of connotation if Catherine gets the role, though (previously we saw Warden of the West used in the context of someone becoming a leader who will protect the West, but if Catherine gets the role she'll be a Warden in the sense of "having control over the East," like a prison warden. Seems like this might be leading to Hanno becoming Warden of the West, since there's obviously some sort of upcoming conflict there. If this happens, I won't be surprised if we see Arthur take the White Knight name.
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Jun 1, 2021 00:11
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Ytlaya posted:PracGuide: Yeah, I don't like it either. It's clashes pretty hard with actual things Cat has been doing; she's had authority over all the villians in the East AND West, she is intertwined with the First Born and the Dominion. It doesn't help that apparently she can't get a Name because she's building this giant Role, but boop, Warden of the West which would have had Cordelia, still hostile to Heroes, is somehow the Easy-Bake opposite. Cat's foils include Hanno and Cordelia, but also include the Dead King and the Bard so having her Name defined as a foil to Cordelia or Hanno seems to be a wet fart of a payoff.
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Jun 1, 2021 01:51
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I finished the first volume of Pith and liked it a lot. Thanks, madwhitesnake! I enjoyed the magical battles and the mysteries being set up, but I think what I liked the most is the way the viewpoint characters are allowed to be wrong about things. Silver2195 fucked around with this message at 03:57 on Jun 1, 2021 |
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Jun 1, 2021 03:53
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Brain Candy posted:Yeah, I don't like it either. It's clashes pretty hard with actual things Cat has been doing; she's had authority over all the villians in the East AND West, she is intertwined with the First Born and the Dominion. Yeah, I mean it's still possible that this might not be the case, but it's kind of hard to interpret that one paragraph any other way. It's weird since throughout the rest of the story I can't really think of any situations where someone getting a Name felt wrong/hamfisted (and the author has successfully managed to avoid a bunch of the extremely dumb things that the comments section wanted to happen Name-wise).
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Jun 1, 2021 04:43
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Silynt posted:In case anyone has been holding off because of the cost, the entire Cradle Xianxia series by Will Wight is available for free on Amazon today. Truly free for purchase, not just through Kindle Unlimited. Grab them while you can, they’re the best example of the genre, and some of my favorite fantasy in general. grabbed these while they were free. i'm enjoying them but they really put into perspective exactly why genre-typical xianxia protagonists are so loathsome with passages like this  i keep expecting this kid to find literally anything that he values other than power but nope, not happening
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Jun 1, 2021 04:55
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Ytlaya posted:Yeah, I mean it's still possible that this might not be the case, but it's kind of hard to interpret that one paragraph any other way. It's weird since throughout the rest of the story I can't really think of any situations where someone getting a Name felt wrong/hamfisted (and the author has successfully managed to avoid a bunch of the extremely dumb things that the comments section wanted to happen Name-wise). The only part that doesnt make sense is the authority over Good Names. Everything else aligns with the world and the story. The world naturally divides East and West with the same split for Good and Bad. Her accords set two figureheads over the Named. Both sides coming together to face the Dead King. Why she needed to come back to Praes for the name. If anything the overpowering Name Cat seemed setup to get that gave power of Good Names is what didn't make sense. Cordelia getting the corresponding name first actually makes sense because at the time she had aligned not only the nations but the Good Names as well which Cat has failed to do so far.
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Jun 1, 2021 05:10
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Jazerus posted:grabbed these while they were free. i'm enjoying them but they really put into perspective exactly why genre-typical xianxia protagonists are so loathsome with passages like this I think this is somewhat unfair. There are people he cares about (including his family/clan, even though they mostly don't deserve it). Unless you mean that he doesn't have, like, hobbies that don't contribute to his becoming stronger, which I guess is true.
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Jun 1, 2021 05:44
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Jazerus posted:grabbed these while they were free. i'm enjoying them but they really put into perspective exactly why genre-typical xianxia protagonists are so loathsome with passages like this I dunno man. If an angelic messenger were to descend from the heavens, save my life, and visit upon me a vision of an apocalyptic future that only I could prevent then I'd probably go power mad too.
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Jun 1, 2021 06:59
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I think the thing that bugs me about many/most Xianxia is that growing strong is basically entirely dependent on privilege/luck and you can easily permanently handicap yourself and limit your potential by doing something suboptimal as a teenager. It's like if you took being a striver young adult in the real world and magnified all the bad and unfair aspects by 100. Not only do the children of privilege get better resources/training, but it's literally physically impossible for someone to reach their level unless they have extremely good luck as a young teenager. It's not an inherently negative idea for a setting (if anything, the comparison with the real world has the potential to be interesting), but most of the time the core assumptions of the setting are just taken as a given and exist as an excuse to make the protagonist feel even more elite.
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Jun 1, 2021 09:40
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Other than the pursuit of power, Lindon is very much not a genre-typical Xianxia protagonist.
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Jun 1, 2021 10:10
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Ytlaya posted:I think the thing that bugs me about many/most Xianxia is that growing strong is basically entirely dependent on privilege/luck and you can easily permanently handicap yourself and limit your potential by doing something suboptimal as a teenager. The entire point of Cradle is that he got a raw deal and had to scrape by with cunning until he lucked into finding someone who could actually teach him properly. The newest book has him going back to his home village and everyone treats him like dogshit still because they refuse to believe he isn't the powerless child they remember, despite him being literally steps away from actual godhood It helps too that he wants power to save the world and the people he loves and not just to become king poo poo magic kung fu man
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Jun 1, 2021 11:02
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Thought I'd check out the web series Melas recommended by pirateaba in their latest patreon chapter, and it's bad. It's not good. And then midway through chapter one they put up a big sign that says "buy the rest of book 1 on amazon!" so I did because I was interested and I wish I could refund it. It's utterly insipid. The main character is utterly awful.
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Jun 1, 2021 11:24
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Did they recommend it? Linking without endorsement is like a big warning sign that says "this is bad".
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Jun 1, 2021 13:03
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mossyfisk posted:Did they recommend it? Linking without endorsement is like a big warning sign that says "this is bad". When you see the next Patreon TWI chapter release, check the art section. That will explain Pirate's link. I liked Salvos more then Melas, another work from the writer. I won't say it was good, just I enjoyed it better then the first volume of Melas.
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Jun 1, 2021 14:45
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tithin posted:Thought I'd check out the web series Melas recommended by pirateaba in their latest patreon chapter, and it's bad. It's not good. And then midway through chapter one they put up a big sign that says "buy the rest of book 1 on amazon!" I couldn't quite get into it myself and dropped it maybe a dozen chapters in, but that was a little while ago when more of the first book was up, before it had to be taken down due to Amazon's publishing policy. I also wasn't a fan of the main character. Then I came across Salvos a while later when I was browsing on my Kindle, a work of the same author though started more recently, and actually like it quite a bit. It's made me consider giving Melas another go, but the MCs are very different so I probably still wouldn't enjoy it even with more time to get into the story. Salvos is a litrpg (which is the main reason I haven't already mentioned it) from a monster's perspective, but it's not a reincarnation story nor focused on a monster becoming a human. It is a summoning story, though not in the normal portal fantasy manner. At least for the MC. A side character could be a semi-traditional summoned protagonist if it was their story. The MC, Salvos, is a demon and the story starts with her ... spawning I guess would fit best? She spends some time finding and losing companions, fighting enemies (preferring the mindless Wild demons) and evolving in the demon's realm, until poo poo Happens and she winds up summoned and stuck in the mortal's realm. The story's main concern is Salvos getting back home to the friend she left behind, but she also makes new friends and wants to help them. The thing is, while she's incredibly naive, she's also got a different sense of morality, being not a human and starting life in a kill-or-be-killed world. Salvos mostly comes across as childish, single-minded and impulsive instead of anything really unique or alien, but she's not evil nor overly malicious and seeing her and her friends bounce off each other is fun. She's fiercely protective of them and usually makes the wrong, murderous call before being called out. Sometimes the writing is a bit rough (more slightly above par for the course for web fiction than anything truly bad), though I mostly read the early drafts posted on Patreon. I don't really go back to the edited chapters to see how they shake out past the first volume (which is competent enough) since I read that off Amazon. Edit: And then I was beat by Kalas. I wouldn't say Salvos is great, but I also wouldn't say it's bad. More middle of the road, if I was forced to make a call. 
Onean fucked around with this message at 15:28 on Jun 1, 2021 |
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Jun 1, 2021 15:25
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"Start as close to the end as possible" is less applicable to web serials than traditional novels, but a weaker version that does fully apply is "Start as close to the start of the story you actually want to write as possible". Usually web serials violate this with things like pointless long prologues, but in the case of Melas it's like two whole books. The impression I got for the story was that the author wanted to write about Melas after she'd overcome a difficult childhood and became powerful but felt obligated to write the whole path there even though it wasn't what the story was supposed to be about. All the ANs about "don't worry this is the darkest part of the story and it gets happier from here" just sort of scream to me that if you like the first book you won't like the later ones, and if you don't you might like the later ones... but who's going to read the later books if they didn't like the first one? Never even making it to the thing which was the original concept for your story seems to be a pretty common trap for first-time authors and Melas runs into it hard. Salvos isn't anything special, but it's definitely much better than Melas.
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Jun 1, 2021 17:10
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In the latest TWI, it seems strange that Teriarch doesn't appear to have known this new guy that doesn't like Ryoka existed.
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Jun 1, 2021 17:24
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Josh Christ posted:The entire point of Cradle is that he got a raw deal and had to scrape by with cunning until he lucked into finding someone who could actually teach him properly. The newest book has him going back to his home village and everyone treats him like dogshit still because they refuse to believe he isn't the powerless child they remember, despite him being literally steps away from actual godhood The thing in Cradle isn't just that he found someone who could teach him - it's that he found someone who could teach him who had unique insights into how to cultivate in ways that enabled Lindon to become stronger than most other people. This doesn't bug me that much in Cradle specifically, though it is kind of funny how you're basically hosed if you're born into some clan with a sub-par path. And this isn't an issue with Lindon or other protagonists, but more one with similar settings as a whole basically letting people permanently ruin their prospects of advancement if they're taught the wrong way as a teenager.
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Jun 1, 2021 18:26
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Ytlaya posted:The thing in Cradle isn't just that he found someone who could teach him - it's that he found someone who could teach him who had unique insights into how to cultivate in ways that enabled Lindon to become stronger than most other people. I mean this isn't dissimilar to every society that has existed on earth. Poor? You will almost certainly die poor. Mentally ill? Enjoy the carceral state!
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Jun 1, 2021 18:37
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shirunei posted:I mean this isn't dissimilar to every society that has existed on earth. Poor? You will almost certainly die poor. Mentally ill? Enjoy the carceral state! Yeah, there's nothing inherently wrong with a story having a setting like that; it's more having a setting like that without ever really confronting the nature of it. It's also a little awkward to simultaneously be like "cultivation is the process by which you can become a wise Great Spirit with a deep understanding of yourself and the world" and also have cultivation be something that disproportionately consists of people lucky enough to be born into major cultivation families who can afford the huge amount of material resources necessary to ascend. I like how Forge/Threads of Destiny at least seems somewhat interested in exploring how the cultivation process of the Empire isn't the only or correct way to cultivate, with different cultures having different ways.
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Jun 1, 2021 19:33
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Isn't it more than hinted that (cradle slight spoilers) Emriss tried to educate everyone globally and was murdered for it? The powerful maintain the status quo just like our world. We also see Mercy rebel against it somewhat and may be related to Eithan's plans to tear down the current rules.
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Jun 1, 2021 19:58
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Ytlaya posted:The thing in Cradle isn't just that he found someone who could teach him - it's that he found someone who could teach him who had unique insights into how to cultivate in ways that enabled Lindon to become stronger than most other people. I will say that I enjoy Cradle a lot but I enjoyed the first couple books a lot more, when he was basically a baby bumbledicking his way through the world and having to outsmart people who can blow him to pieces without blinking. I think if the book had stuck with him learning to harness illusion madra or whatever and becoming a trickster god it'd be way cooler; there's enough people who can brute force poo poo. It does rule that there's a character who is literally Goku, though. Not an exaggeration or a joke, he is quite literally Goku. Josh Christ fucked around with this message at 20:30 on Jun 1, 2021 |
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Jun 1, 2021 20:27
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Gnoman posted:In the latest TWI, it seems strange that Teriarch doesn't appear to have known this new guy that doesn't like Ryoka existed. Technically a Patreon spoiler but the character has appeared before He doesn't really have a reason to; it's some noble from Ailendamus and Teriarch doesn't really keep tabs on "regular" players, or hasn't started to until now. And I don't think Teriarch's been specifically apprised of Ryoka's jaunt into their treasuries so he doesn't have any reason to think they're mad at her.
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Jun 1, 2021 20:37
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Also Teriarch has completely forgotten he's a dragon so he might have those memories in his dragon body
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Jun 1, 2021 21:13
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While still acting as a dragon, Teriarch has ruminated on the remaining dragons in the world. He doesn't know about the two kids in Izril, which is understandable. He didn't mention anything about this guy, and it seems like he should know about another adult.
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Jun 1, 2021 21:21
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Gnoman posted:While still acting as a dragon, Teriarch has ruminated on the remaining dragons in the world. He doesn't know about the two kids in Izril, which is understandable. He didn't mention anything about this guy, and it seems like he should know about another adult. im pretty sure this guy isnt a dragon, but rather just some rando rear end in a top hat nobleman?
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Jun 1, 2021 21:24
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Okay, I went back and checked and it's never actually stated, but there's strong sentiment in the comments that the Duke is probably a dragon. In any case, it seems Teriarch has explicitly said (to Rags) that he doesn't know how many dragons there are left, nor does he care to find them, and of the four adults left that he actually cared a whit about, one is dead and two went missing.
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Jun 1, 2021 21:42
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Josh Christ posted:I will say that I enjoy Cradle a lot but I enjoyed the first couple books a lot more, when he was basically a baby bumbledicking his way through the world and having to outsmart people who can blow him to pieces without blinking. I think if the book had stuck with him learning to harness illusion madra or whatever and becoming a trickster god it'd be way cooler; there's enough people who can brute force poo poo. Which character is the Goku character? The main reference that I can think of is Reigan Shen having Gate of Babylon.
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Jun 2, 2021 00:00
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| # ? May 20, 2024 06:43 |
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I think he means Uncle Fury
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Jun 2, 2021 00:21
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