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Larry Parrish posted:this all sounds so, so stupid and like the outcast guy is deliberately trying to see what level of dreck royal road readers will suck up. the sidestory is written by his buddy from what i understand. personally i'm hoping it doesn't interact with the main story at all until the end when rob and jason high-five each other about how they're both badasses now, and that's it. i liked the dinoman stuff well enough even if it wasn't as well-written as the main story, and the sidestory probably should have been left there for a while instead of tacking on 8 chapters describing a full metal alchemist fight
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Feb 23, 2023 21:54
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blastron posted:You forgot that the gods are now terrified of Jason because he saw all of infinity and, rather than being driven insane by the revelation that he's a speck of a speck in an uncaring universe, he turned that into an anime powerup because his strength of will is just that strong.
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Feb 23, 2023 22:35
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I was going to ask if He Who Fights With Monsters changed its title or something. These Jasons are getting out of control.
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Feb 23, 2023 22:46
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Ehh, I see and respect what the Outcast side story was trying to do. Some of my favorite things go over the top and commit to the bit whole-heartedly, and if done right that only gets better as you get further and further into lunatic ideas. Like, the idea of Baker coming back and him and Jason swapping parts so they each get a part of the other's power? That's cool! I like that! Blight Install was a good idea. The guy who defines himself by seeing into the abyss and coming out mostly intact turns that on Jason, sure it'll break him, and in the process he only makes him stronger? Also cool! And I appreciate that Valmight was supposed to be a look at what Leveling High does to people who don't have the will to suppress it, and also that he was supposed to have the right goals (kill the gods) and hosed-up methods (by stripmining most of Earth for EXP). It's just that Going Hog Wild on cool things is easy to mess up, and if you do you just look lame. (And some boring people are going to find it lame even if you do succeed, but that's true of anything.) It didn't really work for me, but the ideas there weren't bad in and of themselves.
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Feb 24, 2023 00:30
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Lone Goat posted:Looks like Is Insanity a Racial Trait is back to the main storyline, can someone give me a sum up of the side story? I've been enjoying it lately (the main story). I think it was kind of spinning its wheels for a while, but the plot seems to actually be moving now. As for the side story, someone already summed it up, but my opinions: - Jason kind of sucks. I don't really like the whole angle the side story took with him. Nothing about Jason's background or personality seems to explain why he'd be able to handle getting some insanity-causing glimpse into infinity or whatever. - Jeanette (Jason's girlfriend) getting the gun was cheesy and dumb - Valmight's abilities he developed were pretty dumb (even though the overall concept of the character was pretty good and his plan was a good villainous plan) - Baker is pretty cool and I like him - Dinoman is also...fine, I guess edit: My main problem with the writing of the side story is that it has this characteristic many web novels share where all the characters feel like flanderized versions of characters from existing "nerd media" franchises. Like they were less spawned from the mind of the creator and their personal experiences and more from some unholy amalgamation of all the low-mid quality nerd media the writer has consumed. A similar problem applies to stuff like, say, the writing in later Blizzard video games. Ytlaya fucked around with this message at 04:33 on Feb 24, 2023 |
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Feb 24, 2023 04:30
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I got stuck on the previous Jason side story for so long that the portion after it has been removed from Royal Road. So I guess I'm not reading that story any more. The new side story sounds even worse, which is impressive. I've caught up to the current chapter of https://www.royalroad.com/fiction/60592/journey-of-the-immortal-grandmaster. It's a pretty standard cultivator story, but it's tolerable. The MC pulls off the occasional scheme but not frequently so they seem more clever when he does come up with one. LLSix fucked around with this message at 04:54 on Feb 24, 2023 |
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Feb 24, 2023 04:49
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Hey sweet! Fox Tongue and Kirin's bone is updating again! Now to try and remember how the gently caress Aaron's family works again.
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Feb 25, 2023 21:02
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Patrick Spens posted:Hey sweet! Fox Tongue and Kirin's bone is updating again! Now to try and remember how the gently caress Aaron's family works again. The way I saw it and makes me laugh is he doesn't have a family tree - it's more of a family bush. That's helped it keep it straight for me. Everyone's a half-something, and everyone's screwing everyone else.
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Feb 26, 2023 17:07
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A family vine "What you mean... it actually grows from the bottom up, and is famous for people swinging?" "No, I mean it was popular for a while, then it was bought out, shut down and replaced with TikTok."
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Feb 26, 2023 19:22
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Pirateaba had to skip a chapter day to do it, but she just dropped the latest TWI update: over 70000 words after editing.
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Mar 1, 2023 04:32
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That's not a chapter, that's a book
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Mar 1, 2023 04:37
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is pirateaba under a deadline to amass $3 million before 2030 in order to pay off the mafia or something? why
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Mar 1, 2023 05:46
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I'm reading Only Villains Do That, and given that it seems to be connected to The Gods Are Bastards, is it worth giving that a read also? Is it any good?
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Mar 1, 2023 23:08
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The Gods are Bastards is good if you really hate the idea of anything of consequence happening and also are vexed by feminists. Otherwise I can't recommend.
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Mar 1, 2023 23:57
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Patrick Spens posted:The Gods are Bastards is good if you really hate the idea of anything of consequence happening and also are vexed by feminists. Otherwise I can't recommend. I liked it while the ancient wizard principal was clowning on modern governments. After they said she had to adapt to modern times, I dropped it.
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Mar 2, 2023 00:38
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I really, really like OVDT, but the author has described it as sort of a palate cleanser side project, something to bang out quickly to get the satisfaction of making progress on a story. so if you think OVDT is too snappy and too focused, then give TGAB a try.
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Mar 2, 2023 01:10
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awesmoe posted:I really, really like OVDT, but the author has described it as sort of a palate cleanser side project, something to bang out quickly to get the satisfaction of making progress on a story. Did TGAB not go on hiatus and never came back? I enjoyed it well enough that if the story finished I’d give it a shot to take a look
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Mar 2, 2023 01:18
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navyjack posted:Did TGAB not go on hiatus and never came back? I enjoyed it well enough that if the story finished I’d give it a shot to take a look no, still unfinished I believe. I think he's planning on going back to it once he finishes ovdt? This is all from some half remembered patreon updates I no longer have access to so I cant check.
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Mar 2, 2023 01:19
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I really like OVDT, and I used to read TGAB for a long time before I could tell that the author was getting burnt out and didn't know where to go with the story. I much prefer OVDT.
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Mar 2, 2023 01:29
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I actually like how snappy and focused OVDT is, so I'll probably give TGAB a pass, then.
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Mar 2, 2023 01:39
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OVDT is much better written (because the author has gotteb way more experience and also did a lot more planning) but I like the characters and setting of TGAB more than any fiction I've ever read and I hope he does eventually go back and finish it.
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Mar 2, 2023 01:58
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Been binging through Super Supportive this afternoon. It's well written and pretty interesting so far. In a world where everyone wants to be a super hero and a lucky few are chosen, the mc wants to be an effective support instead. The world building is neat where super powers came after earth made a contract with aliens to be (early minor spoilers) property that are given abilities that may be useful to the aliens and then summoned whenever the aliens have use for them. So enslaved but most "chosen" don't seem to care since they get super powers. I really like Gorgon and (chapter 15ish speculation) wonder how he will get his revenge against the system aliens and what they did to him and his homeworld. Interesting he refuses a class but has no problem helping MC chose one? Assuming he wants Rabbit since it fits the description and was also mentioned as an errand class in the chapter after Gorgon suffers backlash to carry the bag.
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Mar 2, 2023 07:17
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i like it when media hits me in such a way that i reexamine my values/do some mental self adjustment (don't we all?). i think the only 3 web serials to do even the slightest bit of that were TGAB, Pith, and Threads of Destiny. TGAB might be a bit preachy, but there is an undercurrent of thoughtful sincerity to the way that its characters are written that really stuck with me. come to think of it, i'm suprised Threads doesn't get more attention in this thread. the worldbuilding is up there with EE's as the best in the game with every new bit revealed being a thrill, the slice of life is fun, and the greater plot is the sickest poo poo, pure K6BD stuff quote:I DO NOT DECEIVE. MY DAUGHTERS MUST KNOW MY TRUTH. THEY MUST LOOK UPON ME AND KNOW THAT HEAVEN IS WRONG. also, i'm honesly burnt out with TWI's "look at how i'm making all of my 138 dolls have tea time and fight" schtick, so i'm pretty happy that Pale Lights and Necroepilogos have been great fun lately. i'm just reading new stuff (and actual books for once!) with all that time instead Ramie fucked around with this message at 23:26 on Mar 3, 2023 |
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Mar 3, 2023 23:13
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Threads got plenty of attention when it was new. Either people have fallen off it (I know I fell behind ages ago), or there just isn't much to discuss. That and I think Katreus was its biggest flag waver, and I've not seen them post in this thread for donkey's.
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Mar 4, 2023 01:08
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There's not enough discussion here usually for Threads so I stopped posting about it. For actual update discussions, the discord works fine. Anyway, in addition to Threads, I've been reading errata's new story. It's not quite as grabbing to me as PGTE, partially, I think, because it is very dense and a very in media res beginning. I do like both protagonists, but the regular back and forth definitely seems to have led to people naturally preferring one viewpoint over the other. I'm guilty of that too. I'm quite fond of Angharad, and I'm tolerant of Tristan and his I'm a super special intrigue spymaster shtick. Sort of like a Lelouch POV from the opposite start, which gets just a little grating when there's too much backpatting going on.
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Mar 4, 2023 02:05
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The thing with the Destiny series is that they're just so slow. I've been waiting for Ling Qi to go off and govern a small polity for ages, and it still is a ways off (on RR, at least). And the quest structure means that half the time, the chapters are mostly about her relationship with a minor character. Which isn't necessarily a bad thing (if you asked anybody "what's good about those books" they would probably mention the sense that every supporting character has their own story and motivations), but does mean there's often not too much to talk about. I caught up with Fates Parallel today so I'm suffering post-xianxia fatigue. That one is still good although it kinda fell into the hole a lot of Western cultivation books do for some reason, where they slow down the MC's progression a lot or only talk about it in vague terms. Oebviously it's not a bad thing for the series to focus on actual good book stuff, but it's nice to have the MC style on someone for being only halfway into the Big Mac realm once in awhile. FP is a really weird series in some ways; it's half YA and half thought experiments on the nature of consciousness. I'm still enjoying it a lot though. Unfortunately I suspect I've read all the good Western xianxia by now so it's probably time I took a break from web serials and read actual books instead. I need to pick up book 2 of Malazan again, I've been putting it off.
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Mar 4, 2023 02:50
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i like threads a lot but it's very much going nowhere fast. i think it doesn't get much play here for the same reason any individual wandering inn chapter doesn't provoke a strong reaction (most of the time). i kinda miss the first book where the setting (the sect) constrained the scope of the narrative and kept things moving at a brisker pace just by virtue of ling qi having a daily schedule to adhere to. but then i think the "school"/"training" part of any martial arts story is usually the strongest section and authors almost always rush out of it too quickly to the detriment of their stories, so i might be biased
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Mar 4, 2023 02:53
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Threads being slower than Forge is very deliberate. The questers in Forge were better at the system (it was run using World of Darkness ruleset initially) than the writer and speed ran the sect, crushing the first two realms of cultivation. So the writer revamped the system going into Threads to prevent most of that and also more than doubled how long it took to do anything. There are multiple lines in Forge about the Green realm (the cultivation realm/tier/power level the MC starts at in Threads) being longer than the first two realms combined. I tend to agree with most thread readers that the faster pace of Forge was more fun to read. In hindsight, it was probably an over-correction, but the writer probably expected the questers to find some way to break the system again and was building in padding with that expectation.
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Mar 4, 2023 03:46
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i dropped forge because it just got boring. i like the worldbuilding and the characters but ling qi herself is less interesting than most of them and it doesnt feel like her supposed flaws and difficulties (low born, bad at interacting and connecting with others) really matter because sixiang is right in her head smoothing over all her social interactions and telling her when shes making any kind of mistake. she just reads as kind of bland. it might just be the really slow pacing but the story just feels dry with no real emotional highs or lows, even in fights.
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Mar 4, 2023 03:48
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Katreus posted:There's not enough discussion here usually for Threads so I stopped posting about it. For actual update discussions, the discord works fine. I like Tristan because the story does a good job of selling how vulnerable he is - the scheming feels like it's something done out of desperation/necessity (and the only "reward" from it is usually his continued survival), rather than him being some sort of mastermind. Angharad can get away with not being like that because she's very strong in combat.
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Mar 4, 2023 08:27
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catgirlgenius posted:Necroepilogos This is rad, and I hadn't heard of it before, so thanks for mentioning it offhand.
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Mar 4, 2023 15:17
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LLSix posted:Threads being slower than Forge is very deliberate. The questers in Forge were better at the system (it was run using World of Darkness ruleset initially) than the writer and speed ran the sect, crushing the first two realms of cultivation. So the writer revamped the system going into Threads to prevent most of that and also more than doubled how long it took to do anything. There are multiple lines in Forge about the Green realm (the cultivation realm/tier/power level the MC starts at in Threads) being longer than the first two realms combined. fwiw forge of destiny lasted a little bit less than two years whereas threads of destiny has been going for over four years now and ling qi is barely halfway through green and while i have no issues with slowing down the pace sometimes... it feels like shes been stuck in place for a very, very long time
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Mar 4, 2023 16:52
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shades of blue posted:fwiw forge of destiny lasted a little bit less than two years whereas threads of destiny has been going for over four years now and ling qi is barely halfway through green and while i have no issues with slowing down the pace sometimes... it feels like shes been stuck in place for a very, very long time Holy cow. Has it been that long? I feel old.
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Mar 4, 2023 18:37
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Stexils posted:i dropped forge because it just got boring. i like the worldbuilding and the characters but ling qi herself is less interesting than most of them and it doesnt feel like her supposed flaws and difficulties (low born, bad at interacting and connecting with others) really matter because sixiang is right in her head smoothing over all her social interactions and telling her when shes making any kind of mistake. she just reads as kind of bland. You've caught onto a plot point by the way. The co-dependency that Sixiang and her have is a problem, which in Threads recently came to a head in a tribulation. I can't speak to tone. I am a huge fan of Michelle Sagara's Chronicles of Elantra series, which is similar to Threads, right down to the musings on the power of words or, in Ling Qi's case, more abstractly, the power of communication and the power of creating a movement. Personally, I love that Ling Qi's goal is to create peace through a diplomatic summit while she has to deal with a very flawed, xenophobic empire. That does lead to a lot more talking than just the normal, straightforward conflict I frequently see in stories. I love that Ling Qi has to talk with a lot of people to get their perspective and goals in order to get them to support her endeavor. I love that Ling Qi has to find a way to work within the constraints of a system and not just throwing a tantrum and leaving. I love that she's engaging with someone like Jiao, a bitter reformer who failed, and laying out her own philosophy - that reform is incremental, that lasting reform is creating a movement, not just relying on a singular "great person," and that ultimately, reform may even fail but that even it did, it would still matter for those temporary years of peace. And I love that this came about organically because Ling Qi was forced to confront via Cai Renxiang as to whether she was happy to leave the world as it currently is, because Ling Qi was forced to confront via underground reconnaissance and the caldera that "barbarians" are "people" too and that they are not monolithic and have factions as well, and because Ling Qi was forced to confront via liminal the nightmare of conquest. shades of blue posted:fwiw forge of destiny lasted a little bit less than two years whereas threads of destiny has been going for over four years now and ling qi is barely halfway through green and while i have no issues with slowing down the pace sometimes... it feels like shes been stuck in place for a very, very long time I don't really understand this type of line of thinking. R/progressionfantasy does the same thing, which, I guess, makes a bit more sense given their focus. I just don't really think that cultivation in and of itself with respect to advancing through stages (as opposed to cultivation as character development or ideal development) is that interesting. It reminds me of someone complaining about, for example, a protagonist being stuck at the Captain rank in a space navy series when I'd be like, yes, that's the perfect stage for a lot of adventures. The ensign and lieutenant stage are fun enough for initial books, but the captain rank is perfect for having enough authority and power to have some independent action, but not so authoritative and powerful that they're stuck managing a fleet in a static location like an admiral would be. Similarly, Ling Qi is at the perfect stage. She gets to engage with a bunch of older cultivators at a stage when such interaction actually benefits her because her domain and way can still be changed whereas at the higher realms, everyone would be interpreting through their Way. She's not powerful enough that engaging with her is an endeavor in itself (as it would be for someone like the Heron General) and that she just literally can't move around without causing issues (a la the Duchess), but she is powerful enough to go on adventures by herself or with her friends in the liminal and around the fief. When she hits cyan, I fully expect that she and the Cai group will be traveling the Empire to see the other provinces, which is also the perfect stage for that. Ytlaya posted:I like Tristan because the story does a good job of selling how vulnerable he is - the scheming feels like it's something done out of desperation/necessity (and the only "reward" from it is usually his continued survival), rather than him being some sort of mastermind. I'll agree that he's vulnerable theoretically, but he has not really been placed in a situation where he's actually vulnerable. But I don't really buy that because it's pretty clear that even if it weren't necessary, he'd be like that anyway. He's also surprisingly arrogant in his thoughts, which, granted, is no different than others' arrogance. Tristan is just a curious, nosy guy, and he's rewarded for that. Angharad is just flawed. There are noble-likes who can intrigue. There are even noble-likes who are strong and can intrigue like Tupoc. Angharad is a character that's blinded by her cultural upbringing. Katreus fucked around with this message at 18:50 on Mar 4, 2023 |
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Mar 4, 2023 18:39
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Part of the problem is that while Ling Qi has intermediary goals, she doesn't really seem to have a concrete overarching goal or objective. Another part is that yeah, it started out feeling very much like progression fantasy, what with so much training and frequent power ups or new skills. But then that slowed to a crawl and it became much more about political maneuvering and talking to people, endless talking. Obviously some people like that, but it's just become a very different story from what it started out as (Delve did something similar but possibly even more severe). Any time an author radically shifts focus of a story, you will probably upset (or bore) a lot of your early readers, which is no surprise.
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Mar 4, 2023 19:52
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Katreus posted:You've caught onto a plot point by the way. The co-dependency that Sixiang and her have is a problem, which in Threads recently came to a head in a tribulation. the problem is that concurrently with the focus shifting away from 'number go up' (although i dont think it was ever that even when things were happening much faster), everything else happening in the story also started happening much, much slower. the story is at wandering inn levels of glacial slowness. we will hit turn 18 soon. turn 14 started at the end of 2021. i loved forge of destiny and i still like threads of destiny but with the way that yrsillar has decided to write threads it will literally never be finished. ling qi will probably literally never make it to cyan, let alone anything after that. i just dont really understand the appeal of the never ending story with constant little drops of foreshadowing of a greater plot that might eventually be addressed. there is no appeal to me in a story that will last over a decade.
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Mar 5, 2023 00:05
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Yeah I enjoy reading Threads, and I'm enjoying the meandering pace of it because I generally like all the side characters, but Ling's big overarching goal right now is help Renxaing overthrow and kill her mom and at the current pace that won't even be remotely possible until like, the 2040s?
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Mar 5, 2023 00:53
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Patrick Spens posted:Yeah I enjoy reading Threads, and I'm enjoying the meandering pace of it because I generally like all the side characters, but Ling's big overarching goal right now is help Renxaing overthrow and kill her mom and at the current pace that won't even be remotely possible until like, the 2040s? But why? Last thing I read was the ice witch adventure and at that time Renxiang's mom is right. You don't get revolutionaries when everything is going well enough, and the Imperial system is bad. The current Empress is somewhere between incompetent and selfish. She abandoned her predecessor's sect system which was slowly but safely centralizing power in Imperial hands. Shifting it away from the great families and at least creating a possibility of future improvements. She also completely failed to do anything about the whole Bai situation. As long as the country is stuck with a might-makes-right feudal system, life will never improve for the average person, and the current Empress apparently can't even administrate that system effectively.
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Mar 5, 2023 01:29
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Yeah but, The final part of Mom's plan is her own destruction to make way for someone with a different kind of cultivation more capable of just rulership. In order to be the instrument of her revolution she needed to turn herself into a monster who would just become another tyrant, or even an omnicidal husk. Her Way doesn't allow for compromise or restraint, and she's boxed herself into a corner. So before she takes the final step and cuts out the last vestige of humanity that lets her recognize the problem she planted the seeds of her own destruction. The plan isn't to overthrow her before she does her thing, but after her usefulness to humanity is over.
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Mar 5, 2023 01:55
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LLSix posted:But why? Spoiler from Interlude: Truth quote:I DO NOT DECEIVE. MY DAUGHTERS MUST KNOW MY TRUTH. THEY MUST LOOK UPON ME AND KNOW THAT HEAVEN IS WRONG. To climb the realms toward ascension is to become less mortal and human and mutable and to become more and inflexible until you can only see and act through the words that are at the center of the Law you wish to impose upon the material world. shades of blue posted:the problem is that concurrently with the focus shifting away from 'number go up' (although i dont think it was ever that even when things were happening much faster), everything else happening in the story also started happening much, much slower. the story is at wandering inn levels of glacial slowness. we will hit turn 18 soon. turn 14 started at the end of 2021. i loved forge of destiny and i still like threads of destiny but with the way that yrsillar has decided to write threads it will literally never be finished. ling qi will probably literally never make it to cyan, let alone anything after that. i just dont really understand the appeal of the never ending story with constant little drops of foreshadowing of a greater plot that might eventually be addressed. there is no appeal to me in a story that will last over a decade. Threads will be finished at the end of the diplomatic summit. The summit is the culmination of Ling Qi's inner sect journey and her departure from the Sect for a goal of her own choice. Katreus fucked around with this message at 03:45 on Mar 5, 2023 |
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Mar 5, 2023 03:39
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