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at first i thought she was so ridiculously, exaggeratedly childish because being reborn affected her cognition. unfortunately that is not the case, and "8 year old on cocaine" is her basic personality except for when it isn't. i could almost believe that it was a commentary on litrpgs, where no detail of a character's character is relevant if the number goes up enough. and boy howdy, does that number ever go up. but no, elaine is supposed to be appealingly quirky.
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Sep 27, 2021 09:52
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Zore posted:Oh we wandered out of what is apparently a dead zone covering everywhere we've been so far and everyone outside is actually way stronger and higher level? No, actually Elaine is 45000% better at healing than they are I haven't read it in awhile. Do they make any effort to explain how Night, who has literally been alive since before the concept of time, doesn't know about the dead zone? LLSix fucked around with this message at 18:14 on Sep 27, 2021 |
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Sep 27, 2021 14:46
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LLSix posted:I haven't read it in awhile. Do they make any effort to explain how Night, who has literally be alive since before the concept of time, doesn't know about the dead zone? She hasn’t made it back to Night since learning about the Dead Zone, so not yet at least.
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Sep 27, 2021 14:51
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LLSix posted:I haven't read it in awhile. Do they make any effort to explain how Night, who has literally be alive since before the concept of time, doesn't know about the dead zone? The deadzone as per a word of god author's note is caused by the giant plant monster in the ocean that prevents them from sailing any distance from the coast. I think the implication is that between that and the formorians he has been penned in to this tiny corner of the world for the duration of existence so far. But part of the issue is that we aren't actually with any of the other characters, for the last few months its been the longest Iona interlude so far and Elaine's adventures with a bunch of dwarves
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Sep 27, 2021 15:50
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I've been reading a few Chinese novels set in modern-ish times, and a lot of them are really annoyingly nationalist and I end up dropping them. Its funny how often the author is really mad at NASA, and try to paint them as complete buffoons while the CNSA is full of super-geniuses. Although, the funniest thing was when one of the authors tried to claim that China would never hurt its own citizens.
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Sep 27, 2021 17:05
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i love when modern-setting chinese webnovels talk about trump. they always characterize him wrong and its always incredibly revealing. like a little window directly into their soul
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Sep 28, 2021 06:00
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IShallRiseAgain posted:I've been reading a few Chinese novels set in modern-ish times, and a lot of them are really annoyingly nationalist and I end up dropping them. Its funny how often the author is really mad at NASA, and try to paint them as complete buffoons while the CNSA is full of super-geniuses. Although, the funniest thing was when one of the authors tried to claim that China would never hurt its own citizens. I find it hilarious how ignorant some of these Chinese neckbeards are. And as a Russian, I am also mildly amused by Americans being shocked, SHOCKED by the exact same thing they do to us being done to them.
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Sep 28, 2021 08:18
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I remember some Korean webnovel talk about how South Korea treats their war veterans horribly. The MC mentioned that as king of a VRMMO realm, he would not.follow their shameful example and instead treat his veteran soliders well and pay them benefits like they do in the United States. Later on, he was also able to use his MMO powers on Earth and the first thing he does is kill Kim Jong Un.
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Sep 28, 2021 11:01
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every country's pop/trash culture has enormous blind spots and unfounded assumptions that reflect their culture's grievances and their mass media consensus how many pieces of western media feature shooting arab "terrorists", a thing that basically doesn't happen and belies a whole other set of assumptions
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Sep 28, 2021 11:53
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Stexils posted:i love when modern-setting chinese webnovels talk about trump. they always characterize him wrong and its always incredibly revealing. like a little window directly into their soul Oh that's interesting, how do they depict him?
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Sep 28, 2021 18:14
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depends on the author. the racists and fascists fawn over him and depict him as the only smart guy in the room (usually translating to either working with the protagonist or being the only one who's capable of threatening their interests). the ones who don't really "get" US politics depict him as basically a normal politician whose rhetoric is just bluster. the completely insane depict him more or less the same way as qanon does, as an outside agent who poses a threat to the entrenched political dynasties.
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Sep 28, 2021 21:20
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Stexils posted:the ones who don't really "get" US politics depict him as basically a normal politician whose rhetoric is just bluster. It's also how he comes across when you translate or interpret his speeches into Chinese.
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Sep 29, 2021 11:50
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super-redguy posted:It's also how he comes across when you translate or interpret his speeches into Chinese. It is a known issue with translating Trump, translators tend to tone him down both in how much of a mess his word salad is and how crude he can be. A combination of how do you say what he just said without sounding like you just made poo poo up and not wanting to say how nice the Prime Minister Wife's rear end looks.
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Sep 29, 2021 18:44
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Arrogant Young Master Template A Variation 4 is dumping 71(!) chapters on Royal Road as I post this, almost as many as had previously been available. This story hasn’t been updated in almost 2 years and I personally don’t really remember where it left off, but I remember enjoying its satirical take on cultivation. I’ll probably try to start over and see if it holds my attention up to the new content.
Silynt fucked around with this message at 20:12 on Sep 29, 2021 |
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Sep 29, 2021 20:07
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Fates Parallel is something I was reading over the last couple of days and I have really complicated feelings over it. I have to drop it out of disgust, but it's a shame because the author seems to have realized they've hosed up and tried to correct it going forward (basically by nullifying all the consequences) but the text as written is just not not tolerable. Half the reviews are mentioning the same incident and the author locked comments on one of the worst chapters because they were all talking about dropping the novel. I would have pretty easily recommended it, and I enjoyed most of what came before and after that section, but at the end of the day it's impossible to reconcile that section with the rest of the novel. Since the author doesn't seem to realize the gravity of what they've written - keeping a mind-rapist with no loyalty as part of the main cast of friends going forward, with a minor slap on the wrist - I don't have confidence in the story going forward. Chinese Wuxia/Xianxia usually have MCs who will not forgive the most minor perceived slights, but even the opposite side of the coin - doormat MCs with no self-esteem - tend to have a bottom line. Like "I don't care what happens to me but don't touch my friends/family/lover/etc". Spoilers for about chapter 50 to the end of the second arc: this one managed to have an MC that simply has no bottom line. A new character comes in and mind-rapes both the MC and her best friend/dual-cultivation partner/eventual lover, irreparably crippling both of them (they got better), but then the MC bends over backwards to forgive them and then signs herself (and, by extension, her partner) into slavery for what amounts to a minor favour she could have gotten for free to help the mind-rapist. It neither makes sense from her previous characterization (at least wanting to avoid making trouble for her friends), and her characterization (super naive, generous, and forgiving) already doesn't make sense with her background (street kid who claimed she'd lie, cheat, and steal from the mages). The last arc before the hiatus was a blur of incomprehensible nonsense where, at the time I was actively reading it, I had little idea what was actually happening scene-to-scene. I assumed the author had completely lost control of the story and just didn't know where to go since the last chapter before the break was some kind of soft reset. Even now, before reading the new chapters, I'm pretty disappointed he didn't erase the last arc and restart from the last point where it made any sense.
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Sep 30, 2021 00:44
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Silynt posted:Arrogant Young Master Template A Variation 4 is dumping 71(!) chapters on Royal Road as I post this, almost as many as had previously been available. This story hasn’t been updated in almost 2 years and I personally don’t really remember where it left off, but I remember enjoying its satirical take on cultivation. I’ll probably try to start over and see if it holds my attention up to the new content. this author really needs an editor. not just a story editor but also a grammar editor. he keeps omitting a "the" from sentences and its incredibly distracting. plus there's way too many pov changes, it's really messy. i thought it might get better after the first few chapters but it doesnt
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Sep 30, 2021 04:07
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I wish er gen thought sexual assault was not funny
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Sep 30, 2021 04:15
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Desuwa posted:Fates Parallel is something I was reading over the last couple of days and I have really complicated feelings over it. I have to drop it out of disgust, but it's a shame because the author seems to have realized they've hosed up and tried to correct it going forward (basically by nullifying all the consequences) but the text as written is just not not tolerable. Half the reviews are mentioning the same incident and the author locked comments on one of the worst chapters because they were all talking about dropping the novel. For what it's worth, that's not how I read the situation at all - Her goal with signing up as a retainer to the other noble was a combination of two things - she and her friend needed protection they couldn't get as independents, and she wanted to be able to offer a "better deal" to the mind controller girl than just turning her friend in and accepting the arranged marriage she'd been trying to avoid. By that point she was well past wanting to show any kindness to the girl, she just saw it as the best of her options to survive. She does end up forgiving the girl much later, but she definitely has to earn it. She definitely didn't seem to consider it slavery, either - later on the noble breaks off the job offer and the MC is unhappy about it, since she saw working for foreign nobility after graduating as worthwhile for being protected from the enemies she had made. Which makes sense to me - nobility and all that goes with it is the only world she's ever known and becoming a vassal of a high ranking noble who will likely end up ruling her country isn't being a slave in that framing, it's an enormous increase in status. She was warned it might see her facing the friends she'd made on the battlefield, but considering she's made friends with students from all three warring powers that's an inevitable result of most of her career choices. Bremen fucked around with this message at 07:33 on Sep 30, 2021 |
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Sep 30, 2021 07:16
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I do have complicated feelings about it and I'm not sure if I want to drop it completely but I'm certainly not reading more right now. I don't necessarily disagree with your take but it is far more charitable than I'm willing to be. Admittedly I'm not caught up on it, stalling out after the end of the second arc (and skimming a few chapters in the third), but even with the author trying to course-correct I'm not sure I can have faith in an author who writes something like that second arc and is surprised by how the audience took it. What they've done once they can do again, especially with them trying to brute-force past it. It was especially jarring in a series that was, for a cultivation story, definitely on the softer side, and the main character's crippling, exaggerated naivety is impossible to reconcile with her background.
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Sep 30, 2021 19:29
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Desuwa posted:I do have complicated feelings about it and I'm not sure if I want to drop it completely but I'm certainly not reading more right now. I don't necessarily disagree with your take but it is far more charitable than I'm willing to be. Admittedly I'm not caught up on it, stalling out after the end of the second arc (and skimming a few chapters in the third), but even with the author trying to course-correct I'm not sure I can have faith in an author who writes something like that second arc and is surprised by how the audience took it. What they've done once they can do again, especially with them trying to brute-force past it. It was especially jarring in a series that was, for a cultivation story, definitely on the softer side, and the main character's crippling, exaggerated naivety is impossible to reconcile with her background. I guess I don't really view Lee Jia as cripplingly naive, and in fact the main reason she agreed to become a vassal was in return for a secret promise that the Yamato group would help if the Qin transfers betray her, which a "what actually happened after the scene cut" revelation later shows Jia successfully predicted way ahead of time. She's just generally nice, and was specifically sympathetic to Yue just because forced marriage/prostitution is her hot button issue specifically because of her background. Even then Jia and Eui actually consider murdering her after the betrayal. Bremen fucked around with this message at 20:27 on Sep 30, 2021 |
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Sep 30, 2021 20:21
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I've been reading this for a while and basically, I love it. I get what you're saying. That situation was written really awkwardly and despite being third person limited omniscient perspective, we don't get to hear most of the people's involved thoughts until later. Basically, the overall structure of it was fine. And while that dreaming poo poo would be really horrifying for anyone else, our two protagonists were always aware it was fake. Plus they didn't just decide to forgive her, the elders made them kiss and make up. My conclusion is that your take is baby brained, basically. Not because it's not understandable or whatever but because the only way you can arrive at it is by just skimming the chapters in the first place or hitting the first stumbling block and getting pissed and not reading from there.
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Oct 2, 2021 03:55
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To be honest I don't trust that the author had it all planned that way in advance. I think they hosed up far more than they realized and tried to retroactively make it a less terrible series of decisions from the main character. To me it's very telling that the only canniness our super naive and caring main character has shown since the opening chapter was entirely off screen. I think it's also the only time she's done anything entirely off screen without even a mention, but I haven't gone back to double check that. I did skim a bit of arc 3 and I find her just explaining her own character flaw, and explicitly stating how it impacted her decision, to Hayakawa to be clumsy and seemed like it was trying to placate the audience more than anyone else - trying to force the reader to connect the dots. Though I don't have the full context for that conversation either. I also find it really hosed up that the instructors were aware of the whole thing and didn't step in when their cultivation was crippled but then also expect them to live and work with Yue in a world where it's perfectly acceptable to kill for less. They don't care about students dying in large numbers earlier, but now it's slaps on the wrist and everybody lives, because otherwise Yue would have to be at least expelled. It's one thing to be hands off in a cultivation setting and let your disciples sink or swim, but it doesn't mesh well with "making them kiss and make up," and I don't think they can have it both ways. To me the fact that Elder Qin is forcing them to live together feels like the author is just forcing the issue with a sloppy plot device, painting him as more of a hypocrite or sadist than intended. Maybe I am being unfair, but so be it. You're right, I did hit that stumbling block and got pissed, but instead of skimming the rest of arc 2 I was just not in a charitable mood. I am reading for fun and if an author manages to write something so un-fun to read that it entirely breaks my immersion and I stop trusting them as an author, then maybe it just wasn't meant to be. To be clear, it's not that "bad things happened to characters I liked", it's that the bad things happened due to a character who stuck around but never faced proper punishment and it was made worse by the main character making decisions that I don't think were reasonable or understandable from her character (flaws and all). If I wanted read about lovely things happening to good people for no reason, I'd read the news. I will probably wait for arc 3 to be done, skim around a bit, and decide if I'm going to give it another shot. Desuwa fucked around with this message at 08:33 on Oct 2, 2021 |
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Oct 2, 2021 08:29
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I think it's kind of both. The author didn't really write it well and is having a hard time justifying it after. But on the other hand, the whole sect is basically a joint weapons project. The students aren't even allowed to leave, the mana shield keeps them in. It kind of makes sense that, basically, the elders just shrug and figure as long as none of them actually kill each other, something useful will come out of it. Hell, it's even been proven so far. Just some light mana use by the not-Japan guys makes them way more versatile and papers over one of their only serious weaknesses. The only one who really cares about the project is The Snake, and even then he only cares about results. He doesn't even do a particularly good job of pretending to care about the actual people involved. So I guess it's a stupid situation written badly, but at least part of the aftermath makes sense. And honestly, most of the web novels I try to read are a billion times worse, so a rough patch on an otherwise decent to good story is nothing. You ever try to read dogshit like Randidly Ghosthound? Fates Parallel is godlike in comparison.
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Oct 2, 2021 09:24
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Re: Fates Parallel - The thing that I remember the most about this story was that the author basically had to figure out how to undo his own plot point when the MC swore herself to that foreign noble because of the amount of screaming and bad reviews from rr readers who wanted their independent, OP main character. Too bad; that noble seemed interesting, and there are few stories with a subordinate protagonist. (The Cai decision in Forge of Destiny serves a similar crucible; a significant portion of rr readers just get filtered hard by it, but it comes later in the year whereas Fate Parallel's equivalent came pretty early IIRC.)
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Oct 2, 2021 17:07
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Katreus posted:Re: Fates Parallel - The thing that I remember the most about this story was that the author basically had to figure out how to undo his own plot point when the MC swore herself to that foreign noble because of the amount of screaming and bad reviews from rr readers who wanted their independent, OP main character. Too bad; that noble seemed interesting, and there are few stories with a subordinate protagonist. Same here. I read the chapter and thought "huh, this author is trying something different than 99% of the stories with a
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Oct 2, 2021 17:54
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I never got the impression that people were rioting just because Jia signed herself away to a noble, and I think it's a strawman to say that's what the reaction was about. To me it was an incredibly contrived and forced scenario backed by inconsistent actions from the characters. The Cai decision was very different and perfectly acceptable where in Fates Parallel Jia signed her life away for a minor temporary favour when she had multiple other more reasonable options, including just waiting. It also meant that Hayakawa was flagrantly taking advantage of her desperate situation, which doesn't paint either of them in a good light. Now she's not just signing herself to a noble, she's signing herself to a noble who has shown they'll take advantage of her at every turn. Sure the author tried to make it less lopsided retroactively, but it didn't work for me for the reasons I've already outlined. If she had pledged herself to Eunae, who she was already close and friendly with, for political protection I imagine it'd have garnered a very different reaction from the readers as a whole. But still, even though I was perfectly fine with it I can see both sides even for FoD readers. It was a very heated vote that, excluding character creation, was going to set the direction of the entire series going forward more than any other vote to that point. Though I'm actually really behind on FoD and am long overdue to catch up, so I wouldn't know if anything bigger comes along later.
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Oct 2, 2021 18:19
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Desuwa posted:I never got the impression that people were rioting just because Jia signed herself away to a noble, and I think it's a strawman to say that's what the reaction was about. To me it was an incredibly contrived and forced scenario backed by inconsistent actions from the characters. The Cai decision was very different and perfectly acceptable where in Fates Parallel Jia signed her life away for a minor temporary favour when she had multiple other more reasonable options, including just waiting. It also meant that Hayakawa was flagrantly taking advantage of her desperate situation, which doesn't paint either of them in a good light. Now she's not just signing herself to a noble, she's signing herself to a noble who has shown they'll take advantage of her at every turn. Sure the author tried to make it less lopsided retroactively, but it didn't work for me for the reasons I've already outlined. If she had pledged herself to Eunae, who she was already close and friendly with, for political protection I imagine it'd have garnered a very different reaction from the readers as a whole. Eunae had no power (well, no political power, or spiritual power that she's willing to use), and thus couldn't offer meaningful protection. Hayakawa was the only option in the academy that could offer protection that mattered (basically, that going after Jia would start a war), and IIRC it was specifically Eunae that advised her to take the Hayakawa option. And how was waiting an option? Yue had Eui and was likely to go to the Qin group and turn her in at any time, which also would have resulted in Jia being accused of murder and brought back to Qin, which would mean her death. Jia got herself in way over her head and knew it - she needed an ally powerful enough that the people that wanted her dead couldn't touch her. The only other options I could even think of would be going to the non-Qin instructors, which would have condemned Eui to death, as she was already taken from the academy and not a citizen of any of the other empires, and only protected Jia until she graduated, if that, as Qin had instructors too. Basically it seems like there were lots of reasons, but you appear to view them as all the author trying to justify the decision they took because... well, that part I'm not quite getting, unless it's because it's the decision you didn't want the main characters to take. Bremen fucked around with this message at 19:10 on Oct 2, 2021 |
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Oct 2, 2021 19:07
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Generally speaking, readers don't participate in Quests because they love being deprived of agency.
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Oct 2, 2021 19:15
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Megazver posted:Generally speaking, readers don't participate in Quests because they love being deprived of agency. Fates Parallel isn't a quest, it's a webnovel. Which I'm glad for, a lot of the stuff I disliked about Forge of Destiny comes down to it being adapted for a quest/CYOA whatever.
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Oct 2, 2021 19:18
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Bremen posted:Eunae had no power (well, no political power, or spiritual power that she's willing to use), and thus couldn't offer meaningful protection. I only brought up Eunae because I don't think it was a black and white "unfettered murderhobo or bust" that the audience didn't like, not that I thought she'd be a good solution to the particular corner the author had written themselves into. I'd have seen it differently if Jia had begged or bargained for a faster decision, then Hayakawa had given her an ultimatum she felt forced into accepting. Though that'd make Hayakawa clearly unfriendly, at least for this arc, and the author seemed to both want Hayakawa to take advantage of Jia while not being an antagonist, and I don't think the two can happen at the same time. And yeah, I do feel the author wanted to write a scene they knew would be unpopular and worked backwards to try to justify it, and I feel they failed. With a few characters (Elder Qin, Hayakawa, and especially Yue) they have them do unforgivable things to the protagonist, but then there's no comeuppance or later catharsis. The author forces them to "kiss and make up" through force majeure or sweeps it entirely under the rug. I am not going to lie; I do not like that, I do not enjoy reading it, and that's really what it comes down to. I'd have different feelings if they were all clear antagonists because then, even if not immediately, I could depend on them eventually getting theirs. I don't actually trust that the author won't write more similar things in the future because they don't seem to realize what they wrote or why people don't like it.
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Oct 2, 2021 19:32
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This is a big issue with serial fiction in general. When editing a larger work, it is common to find out that a particular scene or plotline may need removal or extensive revision as the work evolves and changes. You can't do that when the work is published serially, which is a big reason why established authors don't use the format very much unless they are forced to.
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Oct 2, 2021 19:45
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Zore posted:The main storyline is also at a point where I struggle to carebecause Elaine is with another new cast of nobody Dwarf characters doing nothing and wandering around while there's an actual interesting storyline involving all the characters we're invested in happening almost completely offscreen. I haven't read this story so I can't speak on it but i've seen more than one long-running series just completely torpedoed by trying to transplant the protagonist into a different setting nobody cares about, it never turns out well. e: Release That Witch managed to recover from it but still kept trying to go back to craptown and nobody ever liked it Yinlock fucked around with this message at 08:09 on Oct 3, 2021 |
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Oct 3, 2021 08:04
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Are you talking about the bizarre dream reality thing in Release That Witch that wasn't real but sort of was? That was what made me stop reading it.
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Oct 3, 2021 08:26
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yeah it's pretty obvious that Elaine is gonna go explore for a loooong time but it's like. i don't give a poo poo about these people. i want to go back to wacky cosplayer rome. unfortunately Elaine is the most annoying character in the story and unlike the wandering inn, doesn't have a massive cast to insulate me from that fact.
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Oct 3, 2021 08:43
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That series jumped the shark once it became about fighting demons rather than using magical powers to bootstrap the industrial revolution. It is unique in that the MC drops hints to the main female love interest about starting a harem, she actually says no, and he agrees and has a monogamous relationship with her.
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Oct 3, 2021 09:13
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in the webtoon version the author clearly prefers nightingale and has her show up more than any other witch including anna, the supposed main heroine. so, maybe it will be a little less monogamous than the wn.
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Oct 3, 2021 09:38
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I liked the alternareality in Release that Witch, fight me. It also all made sense in the end. Re: harem, I've heard that the author's actual partner was like I AM ANNA RIGHT, RIGHT? ANYWAY gently caress YOU NO HAREM.
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Oct 3, 2021 10:10
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Konstantin posted:That series jumped the shark once it became about fighting demons rather than using magical powers to bootstrap the industrial revolution. It is unique in that the MC drops hints to the main female love interest about starting a harem, she actually says no, and he agrees and has a monogamous relationship with her. the fighting demons part is fine because it gave an excuse for more magical industrial bootstrapping(and gave battle scenes that weren't just complete stomps), the dumb alternate mind dimension suuuuucked Sindai posted:Are you talking about the bizarre dream reality thing in Release That Witch that wasn't real but sort of was? That was what made me stop reading it. it goes back to the original world after a little while and is good again but every trip to the dream sucks rear end gimme the GOD drat candy posted:in the webtoon version the author clearly prefers nightingale and has her show up more than any other witch including anna, the supposed main heroine. so, maybe it will be a little less monogamous than the wn. it's implied in the wn that the protagonist and nightngale kind of have a Thing going on with anna's consent, it's never stated outright though beyond that though there's no harem shenanigans and the series is better for it imo Yinlock fucked around with this message at 18:23 on Oct 3, 2021 |
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Oct 3, 2021 18:20
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On the Fates Parallel talk--I actually really hate mind control content for the most part. I've not read the story but it might be up my alley. I've got a few questions though. Don't mind spoiling me, I don't care about them. Do use spoiler tags though! 1. Like, what goes down with the mind control stuff? What prompted it in the first place? What sort of consequences result from it, for the controller and the controlled? 2. What sort of position does mind control as a thing occupy in the narrative? Is it portrayed as something acceptable and understandable in many cases? Always wrong? Somewhere in between? 3. How common is mind control content in the story in general? And, as part of number 2 I guess, how is it normally presented? Sorry for the questions but I had this down as a thing I might read soon, and if I should just drop it now it'd be good to know. And I'd rather not just run face first into something that'd cause me to just drop it, because I honestly have a really low tolerance for certain types of mind control content. I don't especially care if the protagonist swore to some noble or whatever, so long as the noble wasn't the one that mind controlled her. Which it seems like isn't the case?
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Oct 3, 2021 18:54
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SerSpook posted:On the Fates Parallel talk--I actually really hate mind control content for the most part. I've not read the story but it might be up my alley. I've got a few questions though. Don't mind spoiling me, I don't care about them. Do use spoiler tags though! Fates Parallel spoilers: 1)The second book introduces a new character, the sister of a boy that died in the first book (in a way that made it really look like the MC did it, even though she didn't). Rather than being a physical fighter, she uses an ability that traps someone in a dream while she can move their body like a puppet - it's really more of a body control than mind control, if that's a relevant distinction to you, and she can either put the controlled to sleep or keep them in a dreamscape and talk to them. Potentially this could be used in ugly ways but she never tries to torture anyone with it. The first time she meets the MC + her partner she uses it to trap her while they talk things out, and eventually accepts the MC didn't kill her brother, while also making it clear she could dispose of them if she needs to. They come to an agreement to work together, though it's definitely some degree of "we don't like each other but we can both help each other". They spend some time on that when something happens to make the sister panic and think she's going to be cut out of the deal, and she controls them both again but knows she's going to have to keep up appearances for some time by pretending to be the MC. As part of this she tries to break the mental link between her and her partner, but (and it's clearly unintentional) this proves massively traumatic to both. Eventually a friend figures out the MC is being puppeted and the sister kidnaps the partner and runs off, at which point both sides abandon any pretense of being friends but the MC eventually agrees to go back to the original deal to get the partner back. At the end of it the sister is forced to abandon her cultivation and go back to stage 1, and as punishment to both one of the elders forces them to live together under house arrest - the sister apologizes and basically becomes a voluntary slave, while both the MC and her partner clearly loathe her and consider if they could get away with murdering her, but after some other adventures accept that the sister is honestly acting repentant and become sort of friends. 2) The technique itself isn't seemingly regarded as evil at all, and eventually the main character even starts to learn it herself (from the sister). The sister uses it pretty frequently in the tournament arc to do things like force her opponent to say "I yield" and though it's regarded as a bit dishonorable by the losers it's considered a valid use of the ability. Though as noted the person remains conscious and basically just loses control of their body, and it can be resisted with enough power and/or training. 3) There's also another character in the story with true mind control (or rather soul control, which is supposed to be impossible according to other characters but clearly isn't). That character supposedly used it remorselessly as a child to make everyone love her but gave it up and is now dead set on never using it on people, and is a close friend of the main character. Her ancient ancestor used it in the basically neverending wars between the countries and it was so terrifying the other countries still seem to be traumatized about it. And no, the swearing to be a vassal was free of mind control, but arguably under considerable duress (which the noble picked up on and was unhappy about, wanting the deal to be made and accepted in good faith). The noble has no mind control abilities whatsoever, and is purely a physical brawler type. Sorry about the massive block of spoilers, but the questions are inherently kind of spoilerish. Bremen fucked around with this message at 20:21 on Oct 3, 2021 |
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Oct 3, 2021 20:15
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