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WISH GRANTED WHAT THE gently caress Edit I'm not fuckin crying it's just very dusty in my bathroom BENGHAZI 2 fucked around with this message at 00:51 on Sep 11, 2017 |
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Sep 11, 2017 00:34
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In a chapter full of just everyone getting poo poo on its the dog that gets me the worst. Rip Hubris. Good dog.
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Sep 11, 2017 11:31
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BENGHAZI 2 posted:In a chapter full of just everyone getting poo poo on its the dog that gets me the worst. Rip Hubris. Good dog. Whst kinda guy names thier dog "Hubris"?
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Sep 12, 2017 10:23
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New Wandering Inn, although I assume Patreon people read it ages ago. More Emperor is always good.
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Sep 12, 2017 17:27
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90s Cringe Rock posted:New Wandering Inn, although I assume Patreon people read it ages ago. More Emperor is always good. I think Patreon is only one or two episodes ahead? I just got the email for 3.12 E a couple hours ago. This doesn't count the side stories like Doctor or Wistram Days, etc. But yes I agree Emperor is great.
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Sep 12, 2017 18:28
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ConanThe3rd posted:Whst kinda guy names thier dog "Hubris"? who cares, i was hoping they'd find a way to work the dog into the team and then he died, rip hubris
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Sep 12, 2017 18:59
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Lone Goat posted:I think Patreon is only one or two episodes ahead? I just got the email for 3.12 E a couple hours ago. Patreon donors get one update more than everyone else, plus side stories which get made public monthly. Important Stuff like Emperor or Horns of Hammerhead chapters count as the main story.
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Sep 13, 2017 00:08
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I am legitimately baffled by the fact that the people in the comments seem to think Ryoka is really cool and awesome. I keep wanting to return to the stuff with Erin and the potential repercussions of teaching these Antinium workers chess. edit: This Magnolia lady is cool though; I hope she continues to own Ryoka.
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Sep 13, 2017 01:51
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I have just finished Unsong and definitely recommend it like the OP. Anyone who wants a plot that actually progresses is going to be sad because the initial assumed story (Aaron's adventures in Name-wielding) are actually just one of four or so subplots going on at different times. But it's mostly pretty good (except when a minor number of times it (possibly ironically, possibly not) namedrops LessWrongers) , it tells a fully self-contained story, and it's complete. And it's 783ish pages long in PDF form and is mostly upbeat, so you can recommend it to someone who wants to try this web-serial thing out instead of the gigantic slog that is Worm. bewilderment fucked around with this message at 03:13 on Sep 13, 2017 |
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Sep 13, 2017 03:09
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bewilderment posted:But it's mostly pretty good (except when a minor number of times it (possibly ironically, possibly not) namedrops LessWrongers) It's definitely not ironically. I bounced off it real fast when it became apparent it was self insert fantasy for Scott Alexander, and he spent the whole time making it clear how much more clever he is than anyone (both as the writer and the character) and how institutions of any kind, corporate or government, only get in the way of his cleverness. Maybe it gets better later, but I couldn't get past the start.
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Sep 13, 2017 04:01
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Tom Clancy is Dead posted:It's definitely not ironically. I bounced off it real fast when it became apparent it was self insert fantasy for Scott Alexander, and he spent the whole time making it clear how much more clever he is than anyone (both as the writer and the character) and how institutions of any kind, corporate or government, only get in the way of his cleverness. Maybe it gets better later, but I couldn't get past the start. I don't know a whole lot about him other than reading his RationalWiki page but from what I can see, despite leaning libertarian himself fairly openly, I couldn't really draw an inherently anti-organisational view from the book itself. Possibly even the opposite. I think the initial story does set it up that way and can easily draw those kinds of parallels at first. Our protagonist Aaron, unjustly stuck in humble beginnings despite his brilliance, uncovers a secret that will let him fight back against the Man and eventually become "Emperor of the World" [sic]. The story swerves away from that pretty quickly as soon as that plan starts moving into motion though, and Aaron from that point on is frequently the least competent person in the room and even in the one memorable situation where he pulls a heroic "i am so smart" move the only thing he accomplishes is distracting the bad guy for the one second it takes to let the more heroic character win. Aaron is also described as annoying or insufferable in some way by pretty much every character he meets, including his 'love'. That said, the 'omniscient narrator' voice is actually still done from Aaron's voice, and that is still full of "i am so smart to see these kabbalistic connections" which can definitely be interpreted to be Scott Alexander wanking over the same. I feel like that's justified well enough both in and out of story as just being totally made up, but I can see where the vibe comes from.
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Sep 13, 2017 04:18
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Prac Guide update. The imitation of Prometheus - twice! - was great. That payoff of the Thief was great. As was Apprentice's Transition - and very well suited given his stated ambitions to break apart the levers behind reality.
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Sep 13, 2017 07:20
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Ytlaya posted:I am legitimately baffled by the fact that the people in the comments seem to think Ryoka is really cool and awesome. I keep wanting to return to the stuff with Erin and the potential repercussions of teaching these Antinium workers chess. Ryoka's a misanthropic badass smart hot asian nerd, she's like a checklist of what awful nerds think is cool and good. Getting clowned on and learning to be less of a shitheel makes her way more tolerable, but up until that point it's kind of ugh. Turns out that even if you're good at punching and running, suffering from impulse/anger control issues just drives people away and makes you miserable, and often less effective than people who make connections and think ahead and have actual experience with the poo poo they're preparing for. Who knew? But even after she starts getting better a lot of her narration is insufferably grandiose.
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Sep 13, 2017 11:45
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She also has textbook ASPD.
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Sep 13, 2017 13:11
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Tom Clancy is Dead posted:It's definitely not ironically. I bounced off it real fast when it became apparent it was self insert fantasy for Scott Alexander, and he spent the whole time making it clear how much more clever he is than anyone (both as the writer and the character) and how institutions of any kind, corporate or government, only get in the way of his cleverness. Maybe it gets better later, but I couldn't get past the start. Unless I'm misremembering, the "protagonist" of Unsong ends up achieving basically nothing by his own merits; all the real work in saving the world is done by other, vastly more capable people, and the culmination of his character arc is his realisation that he's playing a bit part in someone else's story, and is nowhere near as cool or as smart as he thought he was. I think his sole actual contribution (aside from discovering the Vital Name by pure dumb luck) is to survive just long enough that once everyone else is dead they can ride his body. So, maybe give it another chance and enjoy watching this dumb nerd getting dunked on? bewilderment posted:I don't know a whole lot about him other than reading his RationalWiki page but from what I can see, despite leaning libertarian himself fairly openly, I couldn't really draw an inherently anti-organisational view from the book itself. Possibly even the opposite. It definitely read as anti-establishment to me, but I could never pin a specific ideology to it. Some bits read socialist, some were just vaguely anarchist and then there's that one industrialist guy on the boat who seems to be presented as presenting a compelling argument for "Just stand back and let the profit motive save the world, sonny," but then sort of unceremoniously... dies, I think? Gitro posted:Ryoka's a misanthropic badass smart hot asian nerd, she's like a checklist of what awful nerds think is cool and good. Getting clowned on and learning to be less of a shitheel makes her way more tolerable, but up until that point it's kind of ugh. This is true, though I'm still finding her pretty insufferable. Actually a little moreso, now that she's made friends with a group of people who make a point of being institutionally insufferable.
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Sep 13, 2017 13:52
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They may be insufferable but they're easily my favorite part of the cast. e: I mean the winter faeries, not Ryoka. Fajita Queen fucked around with this message at 18:07 on Sep 13, 2017 |
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Sep 13, 2017 14:00
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Man. Wandering Inn is good. Not going to praise it to the skies but that Skinner introduction was real creepy. Besides I like Erin. I totally do not like Ryoka, ugh such a pain to read.
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Sep 13, 2017 15:53
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I get the impression that the author considers Ryoka flawed, but also generally cool/badass. It's a sort of "this person is flawed, but flawed in a way the author and many readers obviously think is totally cool" situation. Like, there's some acknowledgement that she should make friends and be more sociable, but it still seems to be preserving the general portrayal of her otherwise being a badass aloof person.
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Sep 13, 2017 18:05
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Oh no. I just read a chapter about mating habits. The only reason I keep reading this story is the author said it was a "comedy" chapter. But it was just so loving bad and long and cringeworthy. I mean. Ugh. Help me out here please. There seems to be a jump between chapters 2.13 and 2.14 that I don't get? Suddenly Ryoka has a 800 gold contract with Teriach and she's visited him again? Is all that off screen or have I missed something? Affi fucked around with this message at 13:55 on Sep 15, 2017 |
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Sep 15, 2017 13:43
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Affi posted:Oh no. I just read a chapter about mating habits. At the end of 2.12 is when she got the contract.
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Sep 15, 2017 15:57
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Affi posted:Oh no. I just read a chapter about mating habits. Ugh, yeah. There were a few bits that were funny but it was mostly just the worst kind of awful embarrassing cringe. I would highly recommend skipping it to anyone who hasn't read up to that point yet.
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Sep 15, 2017 15:59
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Autonomous Monster posted:
Who, dragons?  Edit: man totally missed a chance to say the bourgeoisie
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Sep 15, 2017 23:38
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Katreus posted:Prac Guide update. I read this and went "huh, sounds fun, I should catch up", and still didn't see the end of the chapter coming.  This remains a solidly entertaining YA ish novel with some interesting thoughts on narrative roles, and Thief is one of the more mostly-mindlessly entertaining bits. I've loved her since at LEAST the revelation that she could steal ships, stick them in her belt pouches, and pull them out for later abuse.
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Sep 16, 2017 00:46
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I got to poking around Royal Road in the course of getting more exposure for my serial (1.6 just went up) and, whooo boy, who knew that there was such a market for Trapped In An Anime Video Game stories. edit: Also, submissions to WebFictionGuide are sloooow. Milkfred E. Moore fucked around with this message at 01:20 on Sep 19, 2017 |
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Sep 19, 2017 01:17
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Milky Moor posted:who knew that there was such a market for Trapped In An Anime Video Game stories. You can blame Sword Art Online for that tripe. Amazon's Kindle marketplace is buried under it and other LitRPGs, which are mostly god awful.
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Sep 19, 2017 02:38
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Kalas posted:You can blame Sword Art Online for that tripe. Amazon's Kindle marketplace is buried under it and other LitRPGs, which are mostly god awful. Audible might be even worse. Like a solid 1/4 or 1/5 of the sci-fi fantasy coming out now are LitRPGs and since a lot of them are from the Russian scene it's mostly people playing a game...they arn't even stuck...or portaled into the fantasy world nope...just playing my video game. The backlash is starting to kick in though and for the last few months the newer books have been getting poo poo ratings...for the most part.
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Sep 19, 2017 18:00
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Twig so good today. Those of you not reading it should catch up. I think we might be coming to the end...
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Sep 24, 2017 13:58
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I agree, this most recent chapter was a ride, and I'm on the freaking edge of my seat.
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Sep 24, 2017 16:14
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Interesting cliffhanger in Twig. The offer to become Nobles, combined with Avis thinking that Fray was going to destroy everything except humanity, reminds me of the Mass Effect 3 ending of all things: do they enslave the Nobles (the Lambs' current course of action), kill the Nobles, or become the Nobles? That's neither a praise nor a criticism, just something that amused me. I like Fray admitting that things didn't go remotely according to the original plan. She isn't Contessa, after all. Someone in the comments suggested that the original point of the fake expiration dates was to encourage them to take Fray up on her offer when Gordon's expiration date was approaching. This means that Gordon's death is partly Fray's fault, although that's far from the worst thing Fray is responsible for.
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Sep 24, 2017 23:51
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I'm rather enjoying the latest villainous interlude in Practical Guide to Evil. I really should have seen that twist coming, but either way Anaxares has been one of my favorite characters.
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Sep 25, 2017 19:49
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I've read the cleaned-up Amazon version of [url=http://www.ironteethserial.com/web-serial/The Iron Teeth: A Goblin's Tale[/url] and it's pretty simple, but enjoyable.
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Sep 25, 2017 21:03
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avoraciopoctules posted:I'm rather enjoying the latest villainous interlude in Practical Guide to Evil. I really should have seen that twist coming, but either way Anaxares has been one of my favorite characters. I loving love the Fantasy Democratic Communists in general and their POV character in particular. Even before this chapter. Also the Tyrant does a good job of synopsizing why the Bard may be the worst and most terrifying monster in the story. 
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Sep 25, 2017 22:16
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In the latest chapter of Twig, it looks like another "god" is dead. It felt fairly shocking even though Hayle himself had explicitly acknowledged it would probably happen. I feel like Mary and Lillian will end up killing Sy. He seems pretty far gone at this point.
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Sep 26, 2017 21:14
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There's really a motif in Wildbow's works in writing from the perspective of people who would absolutely be villains in other stories. Blake is a goddamn diabolist and Sy is kind of a bastard at the best of times.
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Sep 27, 2017 00:42
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GreyjoyBastard posted:There's really a motif in Wildbow's works in writing from the perspective of people who would absolutely be villains in other stories. 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?)
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Sep 27, 2017 01:18
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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?) Written with the right focus, without Blake in the story, Maggie would basically be Harry Potter with a constant stream of fart jokes.
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Sep 27, 2017 03:54
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NinjaDebugger posted:Written with the right focus, without Blake in the story, Maggie would basically be Harry Potter with a constant stream of fart jokes. Halfway through year one Dumbledore convinces Harry to let the troll kill Hermione for the greater good, hijinks ensue. I don't remember, Maggie recovered her name from the elf right?
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Sep 27, 2017 05:21
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q_k posted:Halfway through year one Dumbledore convinces Harry to let the troll kill Hermione for the greater good, hijinks ensue. I don't remember, Maggie recovered her name from the elf right? Nope, she loses the name pretty much forever. She dows end up cobbling together a new version of herself, though.
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Sep 27, 2017 05:48
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pirateaba just posted 3.17 T. You know what that means!!!
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Sep 27, 2017 18:37
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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?) Blake spirals into systematically loving everything up and causing enormous amounts of chaos for the perfectly understandable reason of "would rather not die because his ancestors were fuckers". A lot of the other players aren't particularly nice people either, and Blake's good intentions work pretty okay in the long run in a lot of cases, but if the story were written from a number of the other perspectives (see Alistair!) he'd be pretty alarming for an awful lot of it.
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Sep 27, 2017 20:44
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