Silver2195 posted:

I didn't read that far into Pact, but from what I remember, Blake was a fairly conventional good guy who was a "diabolist" only by chance. I guess you could say he's morally in the wrong for not just letting his enemies kill him early on because of the potential threat he posed just by existing, but that's a very harsh standard to hold someone to. (Maggie, on the other hand, was pretty dark. Is she really supposed to be a YA novel protagonist?)

21 Muns posted:

New chapter's out, by the way.

BENGHAZI 2 posted:

Mlekk was the best hashtag free mlekk

Jade Mage posted:

Weaver dice is a fun concept, but he clearly is a writer not a game designer. That said, I've played it a few times and had a blast, so maybe I'm not giving him enough credit

Silynt posted:

I very much enjoyed the most recent Practical Guide, specifically the back and forth between Squire and Warlock. I thought the dialogue between them was some of the best in the series. And I'm intrigued by the hypocrisy in Warlock's stance on Cat - not the one she calls him out on, which is totally justified (he is every bit the monster he accuses her of being) - but that he seems to hate her for the threat that she represents to his best friend through her existence as his "replacement". How is that situation any different from Apprentice and Warlock? We just saw Apprentice transition into another Mage name, so why would he not assume that she could or would do the same? He claims that she will be the death of Black, but Masego wasn't the death of Warlock.

Affi posted:

Honestly it's either Black Queen. Because she is going down that path herself. In which case Black Knight is probably spared.

Possibly Black dies and she takes his place.

More probable is she becomes White Knight because that is probably the only way her side will "win". gently caress the gods game just flip over the table.

Tzarnal posted:

I think one of the limitation of squire means she cannot step into Black Queen even if it is a new one. That doesn't mean she can't transition into a new Knight title though. Winter Knight has a nice ring to it.

I'm honestly much more concerned with Killian, I'm really hoping that goes somewhere else than "and then I stopped and never loved again because woe is me I'm so sad and a monster and doomed to make the same mistakes as Black".

lurksion posted:

Practical Guide
No longer Squire I'm going to say

Also now strongly suspecting Black in the takedown of the old guard generals. Clean slate for Cat.

Autonomous Monster posted:

Practical: I hope that wasn't supposed to be your killing blow, Cat. No one's ever dead if you didn't see the body.

Tom Clancy is Dead posted:

Prac Guide. Holy poo poo.

Autonomous Monster posted:

e: I wish Anaxares was the main character, frankly.

Milky Moor posted:

It's a criticism of Wildbow's writing (and a lot of web fiction) in general. It happens a lot in Worm too, but people explain it away as a function/side effect of the Queen Administrator shard.

Omi no Kami posted:

I think it can work, but it has to both suit the work and have a reader who enjoys it. DBZ's plot is goofy and stupid but I enjoy it, because it's explicitly written around "Big, dumb, affable guy gets stronger to fight stronger enemies". Likewise sports underdog stories are explicitly designed around getting awesome and overcoming bigger and bigger odds, so they work.

With something like Practical Guide though, that's not the story that I personally wanted to read; it was entertaining as heck, but if I wrote my own personal practical guide fanfic it would focus on the politics and on Catherine's coming of age story as told by her rise from gladiator kid to military officer to politician, and the way those transitions color and change her opinion of the very world view and ideals that motivated her to get there. There's room for fights there, and I thought the early legion battles were fantastic, but even though I can see and appreciate the Calamities/Woe parallels and stuff related to dealing with the universe's story fixation, I don't really care that she's become a one-woman wrecking crew who can jump into a city full of demons and singlehandedly fight her way through literal hell to beat up the jerk who busted the place up. There's nothing wrong with that, but it's not the kind of story the first book had me anticipating.

Omi no Kami posted:

This is purely head canon, but in worm I always thought that Jack's actual shard being the broadcast one, and his power technically being to broadcast knives across long distances was kind of bizarre.

Ytlaya posted:

I thought that the thing Citrine mentioned about "normal" capes being inherently inclined towards combat/conflict and Cauldron capes basically being the exception to that kind of interesting. It might make sense, depending upon whether the aspect of the shard that encourages conflict remains active with the Cauldron formula capes*, though Citrine is making a pretty big assumption with the idea that Cauldron capes aren't affected by this. In general, Cauldron formulas have always been kind of weird; I don't really understand how they managed to create them, given I don't think Contessa's power should work with entity-related things, including creating the vials. How do they deal with the absence of that weird brain organ natural parahumans have? I just don't see how these weird multidimensional shard things that connect with a special brain organ the entities create in the brains of potential parahumans are somehow converted into drinkable vials.

* I feel like this tendency to act in a way leading to conflict is a big reason that it's a terrible idea to give a lot of power/authority to a natural parahuman like Tattletale; even if her intentions are good, there's a good chance her actions will end up somehow leading to more conflict.

Omi no Kami posted:

I can't remember where in the text this is touched upon, but she very explicitly had a trigger event and is interfaced with a Thinker shard. I believe there's mention of the entities conquering cybernetic and otherwise technologically-augmented races prior to humans, so I always assumed the connection was technobabble lifted from one of those civs.

SITB posted:

Prac guide: until Cat and Masego wake up.

builds character posted:

SerSpook posted:

More Practical Guide: Anyone else getting the sense that part of Pilgrim and Saint's plan is to try to turn Catherine? The Heavens have tried it once already after all, and the exchange late in the interlude about how what's going on isn't a villain's story and then Saint questioning Pilgrim if he's sure of what he saw--sure that she desires peace--suggests that's something being considered at least.

Tzarnal posted:

snip a whole lot of dumb poo poo ranting about Black

SITB posted:

Prac Guide: Akua fully leaning into her Cat roleplay and enjoying this poo poo was great. Particularly her attempts to articulate the correct counter taunt.

EDIT: and Akua dunking on (possibly) not-Dreseden

Ytlaya posted:

My mind was blown at the revelation that Juniper has hair.

Catherine occasionally mentions how she has to remind herself that, despite being likeable, Black is bad. But I'm not really seeing what Black is doing wrong in the specific context of their world, and I get the impression that he would be okay with less executions if it could produce the same outcome. It's not clear to me what Catherine would do differently.

Cicero posted:

Black's evil doesn't even sound very evil most of the time. Most of the political fights and sniping each others' Named are things that both sides engage in, Black is just better at it.

Affi posted:

I agree for the most part. However the gods below are obviously order and not chaos. Easy mistake to make because you usually think chaotic evil and lawful good. I do at least.

Above: different choirs with different agendas and methods, procer is a tangled mess of small kingdoms, hordes of throw away named. Wandering bard throwing wrenches everywhere. Bumbling conjurer, rogue sorcerer (just the names really) It goes on and on.

Below: devils are lawful, the tower is order, gods below have no obvious schisms. Small close knit teams of named or even solo named.
The legions. Black is self evident, he’s described as a methodical machine. Warlock and hierophant (categorising and trying to figure out how he world works) (compare it to rogue sorceror, bumbling conjurer, witch of the woods) (name wise it reeks of chaos)

I’m counting demons as outside the whole devils and angels (and I think the story also mentions this)

Autonomous Monster posted:

We're talking about a world here where there is an entire nation dedicated to building flying death palaces and shouting "Your doom is upon you, fools!" and "Who dares?!" from the tallest tower.

builds character posted:

Prac Guide RIP Black https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WChTqYlDjtI

tithin posted:

Two new Prac Guide out, one interlude one main chapter. main chapter's shorter than I'd like but something struck me about it after the recent development

I reckon that at some point Akua and Cat are going to merge into a single person back into being a human

Vateke posted:

Prac Guide: Was that a new aspect for Masego? What have we seen from him before?

Velius posted:

So we see Keter and the Dead King’s rose, where he willingly sacrificed his whole kingdom for his advancement. He’s clearly intended to be the Villainous inversion of Cat, who at least declares her motivation to be protecting her Kingdom even at cost to herself. Somehow he’s beaten the various narratives/stories that would have caused his fall, so he must be similarly savvy to this setting and it’s ideas.

lurksion posted:

Bard's back too.

builds character posted:

They talk about self image being the determining factor for black and cat I think. Presumably all of her recent self doubt is causing some issues. I don’t remember the hero/villain aging thing other than black explicitly not aging because of the self perception thing again. Maybe I just missed it though.

Silynt posted:

I like the implication of Traitorous’s Law at the start of the chapter, that he pretended to be redeemed by a Choir and then betrayed them too. Truly, Traitorous and Irritant were the greatest of Emperors.

Ytlaya posted:

the protagonist had a cape called "the winter mantle" and that this actual physical cape conferred powers.

tithin posted:

Man, I caught some real Tyrant shades from her that entire chapter, just, the same level of insanity.

violent sex idiot posted:

the tinker gun didnt do anything, the reason scion died was he was mercilessly bullied about his beloved counterpart dying because she was on the phone while driving, then foil shot him in the fuckin head with sting and he let it hit him

Milkfred E. Moore posted:

what in the

Omi no Kami posted:

When you add the fact that emotionally abusing a weird eldritch being just doesn't make much sense to me, it just feels like there are too many weird beats in that rush to cross the finish line.

I think it's just one of those bumpy plot beats, like Cauldron's master plan, where the concept is solid and interesting (alien's unbeatable, let's find a non-punchy resolution), but the actual plan and the way they go about it feels kinda contrived.

Ytlaya posted:

The first concern is completely off-base, the second has some validity to it. Though the main difference between PracGuide and the sort of thing you're mentioning is that Evil isn't portrayed as really being better than Good either.

edit: I should probably add that I'm the sort of person who has little tolerance for the vast majority of web serials/novels, including stuff like Wandering Inn, and PracGuide is a cut above most.