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Calef posted:Wildbow has said that Parian’s power is not zombie control of other capes.
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Apr 26, 2018 17:02
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Milky Moor posted:Shameless plug to the link in my avatar. There's very much no anime. Megazver posted:Try The Daily Grind and Iron Teeth. Oh and I guess the Threadbear guy is working on a new story now, but I haven't tried it yet. I’ll check all those out. I’m actually reading Bunkercore (the Threadbare Guy one) too, and I like it but it is a slow starter. Hoping it picks up a little.
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Apr 26, 2018 19:21
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navyjack posted:Double post, but I’m jonesing. I need some more web series to read. I’m on PracGuide, Ward, TGAB, TWI, Taint, MoL, and Worth the Candle. I finished all the rest of Wildbow, And Threadbare and I’m working on Ra. I see The Zombie Knight has not been mentioned yet. Great worldbuilding and a steady but constant power progression. Bad thing is the author updates by page, not chapter, which makes it really annoying to follow on a day-to-day basis. I basically have to let the chapters build up and binge it every few months.
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Apr 26, 2018 20:42
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DarciisFyer posted:I see The Zombie Knight has not been mentioned yet. Great worldbuilding and a steady but constant power progression. Bad thing is the author updates by page, not chapter, which makes it really annoying to follow on a day-to-day basis. I basically have to let the chapters build up and binge it every few months. I kinda hated this after the first, uh, ten chapters. It might get better afterwards, I guess?
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Apr 26, 2018 21:26
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Megazver posted:I kinda hated this after the first, uh, ten chapters. It might get better afterwards, I guess? Its always going to be similar in delivery and the way he sets up plots and whatnot, though the scale of events ramps up pretty far as I recall. To be fair though I have next to no memory of the start of the series because I came back to it after over a year when he went on hiatus and didn't want to start all over I really enjoy Hector's character after a while though. It develops well Jade Mage fucked around with this message at 22:15 on Apr 26, 2018 |
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Apr 26, 2018 22:10
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So what is the Practical Guide about?
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Apr 26, 2018 22:49
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Hrmm, I'd say the basis of the story is that the universe is semi on-rails for story tropes, and the people of the world are aware of this and attempt to leverage it to their advantage. Things like a hero and a villain face off, the villain wins but the hero escapes, there is a second encounter with the villain coming out on top, and the third time they meet the hero triumphs. So knowing they've got no way to win fight 3, the smart villains will attempt to setup an encounter that they can safely lose without much loss. Plot wise, I'm hesitant to really get into much outside of the main character wants to save her homeland. Minor spoiler she chooses to operate within the evil empire, gain power and protect her homeland that way . It has a pretty decent cast of characters, and while not maybe a serious read, I found it quite enjoyable.
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Apr 26, 2018 23:24
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PetraCore posted:So what is the Practical Guide about? An orphan girl in a Good kingdom that was conquered by an Evil Empire 20 years ago becomes the apprentice of fantasy Darth Vader and works to leverage her new position and power to improve the lot of her kingdom. The universe has a fairly unique and meta magic system based around the power of narrative tropes, where characters can come to embody certain cliche Roles and gain a Name which grants them power - the main character's mentor, for instance, is Named the Black Knight. It's good.
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Apr 26, 2018 23:29
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Silynt posted:An orphan girl in a Good kingdom that was conquered by an Evil Empire 20 years ago becomes the apprentice of fantasy Darth Vader and works to leverage her new position and power to improve the lot of her kingdom. The universe has a fairly unique and meta magic system based around the power of narrative tropes, where characters can come to embody certain cliche Roles and gain a Name which grants them power - the main character's mentor, for instance, is Named the Black Knight. It's good. It has some really great characters, as well, which is what keeps me reading more than anything. Some pretty good giant battle set pieces and the mentioned “magic system” are noteworthy, too.
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Apr 26, 2018 23:46
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navyjack posted:It has some really great characters, as well, which is what keeps me reading more than anything. Some pretty good giant battle set pieces and the mentioned “magic system” are noteworthy, too. I totally agree. I realize that using words like "trope" and "cliche" may have come across as negative, but it's probably my favorite serial that I'm actively following.
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Apr 27, 2018 00:04
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Silynt posted:I totally agree. I realize that using words like "trope" and "cliche" may have come across as negative, but it's probably my favorite serial that I'm actively following.
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Apr 27, 2018 02:11
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PetraCore posted:Well, it sounds like the way the Discworld runs on Narrative and the characters are actively aware of this and attempt to use it to their advantage (eg, two police men deliberately handicapping themselves to try to make their odds of a successful shot a million to one, which as everyone knows works nine times out of ten). That about right? Very much so and even more so. It really is very good
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Apr 27, 2018 02:42
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I'll check it out when I'm itching for a thing to read, then! I've seen it be quite high rated on topwebfiction, even pushing down Ward, iirc. It's not often I see something beating whatever Wildbow is actively writing, but I'm actually pretty glad it's happening because it's no fun when there's just one person always dominating. EDIT: Like, I'm a huge fan of Wildbow's stuff, but I don't want him to be the only top-notch author in the community. PetraCore fucked around with this message at 04:09 on Apr 27, 2018 |
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Apr 27, 2018 04:05
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Speaking of the new Practical Guide... I'm really hoping that the grey pilgrim ends up being the first 'True' hero we meet. As in they're not just following like the trappings of good, but instead they're actually good and utilitarian. So fare all the hero's we've met so far have cared more about 'being a hero' than the actual effect their actions would have on other people. Aka they never ask the Callowan people if they actually want to be free. I'm rooting for him to either come to her side, somehow allow her to gain a heroic name, or both. Catherine is already more heroic than most of her callowan advisers (like theif or talbot) If anything she's more just and compassionate than most of the heroes because she actually has to worry about her image. If you're the 'White Knight' and you burn down a few evil villages, you're still the white Knight. You're a hero. Since she's somewhere on the edge between hero and villain she can't afford any chances. There is no reason why she can't be a heroic/good queen besides her own view of herself. SerCypher fucked around with this message at 05:37 on Apr 27, 2018 |
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Apr 27, 2018 05:35
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PetraCore posted:So what is the Practical Guide about? What Fire Emblem Fates: Conquest should have been about.
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Apr 27, 2018 16:24
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So I just started practical guide, and I know the rules probably wouldn't let someone get away with using the wrong name on purpose, but I am half-convinced that the really hard-to-notice woman who everyone calls Scribe is actually the assassin.
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Apr 27, 2018 20:58
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Omi no Kami posted:So I just started practical guide, and I know the rules probably wouldn't let someone get away with using the wrong name on purpose, but I am half-convinced that the really hard-to-notice woman who everyone calls Scribe is actually the assassin. She's the spymaster but close
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Apr 27, 2018 21:01
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BENGHAZI 2 posted:She's the spymaster but close That works about as well... maybe it comes from reading tvtropes too much, but I dunno- whenever a story shows me a nice and surprisingly normal person in a room full of weirdos, I immediately assume that they're the scariest person there.
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Apr 27, 2018 21:11
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Omi no Kami posted:That works about as well... maybe it comes from reading tvtropes too much, but I dunno- whenever a story shows me a nice and surprisingly normal person in a room full of weirdos, I immediately assume that they're the scariest person there. Oh, scribe is by far the weirdest person in that room. Easily the weirdest person in that room.
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Apr 27, 2018 21:25
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Ward 6.5 Every justification Victoria has for why Rain doesn't deserve to be tortured for hurting Cradle also applies to Amy and she realizes it. That's the point where the meaning of this arc clicked to me. Of course, unlike Cradle and Rain, Victoria isn't going out of her way to torment Amy and get revenge, she just wants to be able to have boundaries and doesn't trust that when near Amy. It's not a perfect analogy and it's not supposed to be. It's just supposed to make her think, I think.
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Apr 28, 2018 18:25
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Calef posted:Re “Parian’s One True Power would allow her to solo Behemoth”: this has also drifted from the original statement. It’s not that Parian would defeat Behemoth, just that she could get his attention/sufficiently harass him to get him to retreat, iirc. Parahumans can’t really “beat” endbringers. Conversely, the endbringers aren’t really trying to wipe out humanity—they easily could if they wanted to. One thing that annoyed me about the S9000 stuff is that it would totally be possible to defeat Endbringers if you mass-produced people with Foil's Sting shard, particularly if you combined them with people with other powers. In general Bonesaw's abilities I think went much further than they should have been able to. She was able to gain far more control over other forms of tinker tech than should have been possible, IMO. The Shortest Path posted:I think you're reading way too hard into this. I don't actually think it's exceptionally likely there's a Sveta-Teacher connection; I just think that suit is better evidence than the "control over limbs" stuff. builds character posted:Is it not just essentially a mannequin with the appendages and body drilled out and eye bolts sunk into the insides? Seems pretty simple to me, but maybe I'm missing something. Nah, it's pretty complex. Here's Weld's description: quote:“It took some doing,” Weld said. “It took a lot of doing. It’s been a whole adventure to get even this far. It’s not even tinkertech. Regular prosthetics and some inventiveness from some really stellar people. Arms, legs, body, some stuff to keep it upright, some machine learning systems that adapt to meet her partway, and a lot of practice on her part, to operate everything internal.” The fact it was multiple people who somehow had an operation that could make this complex prosthetic suit with machine learning systems...it seems pretty unlikely to find such people, though the main thing making me doubt a Teacher relation is that Weld would definitely be familiar with Teacher, and while Teacher himself doesn't need to directly be involved, I don't see what he'd gain from helping Sveta without using his power on her or Weld. Ytlaya fucked around with this message at 20:36 on Apr 28, 2018 |
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Apr 28, 2018 20:30
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I think I see where you're coming from, and our confusion is based on wording. Teacher's *power* involves granting pseudo thinker/tinker powers, OR he can tweak an existing power to increase power in exchange for decreased control, or increase control in exchange for decreased power. It also has a rider of him being able to manipulate/influence people he's used his power on, can change how his power is working on someone (so he can cut off the tap), and it decays over time. All the signs point to Teacher *not* having used his power on Sveta directly, and there are a ton of reasons why she wouldn't go for it if it was a bigger grey zone. Your point seems to be that the people who provided the suit could secretly (or even not so secretly) be a branch of Teacher's students, leveraging their granted thinker/tinker abilities to create a non-tinker suit. The question of why they'd want to provide the suit seems strange when you ask why they'd want to help Sveta. However, if you think of Weld and his connections with the Wardens, this could be a project to get them influence/good standing with them or even a "good faith" project to establish legitimacy with them. This is actually a pretty solid theory now that you've managed to slam it through my thick skull.
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Apr 28, 2018 22:42
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PetraCore posted:Ward 6.5 I expect the entire arc of the story will revolve around Victoria acclimating to the new normal, both for her personally and to the setting at large. We're starting with small stuff, like accepting that an unpowered day-job is incompatible with who she is, learning to trust her altered powers, finding room in her head for the idea that Amy's situation might be closer to Rain's that she's comfortable admitting. Larter on, I'm guessing we'll move on to the big things, like the fact that playing superpowered cops and robbers is unsustainable in the post-apocalypse, that war is looming on multiple fronts, and that maintaining the moral high ground is unlikely to be a viable strategy in the long-run. I dunno know if Victoria will end up compromising to the same degree as Taylor or Sylvester, but she's gonna have to think real hard about what's she is and isn't willing to abide in the name of being heroic.
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Apr 28, 2018 23:12
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I'm part way through the second arc of practical guide, and don't tell me if I'm right or wrong, but it's kind of annoying me how Kilian might as well be wearing a giant "I AM A SPY" sign around her neck. I'll be delighted if I'm wrong, but the way the camera started giving her focus right after Heiress explicitly mentioned having an informant in whats-her-face's inner circle combined with the way the story keeps reminding us that there are spies/informants around before or after scenes with her is suspicious as hell to the point that it bugs me a bit. If it turns out that she is a spy, I would almost rather this information have been given to us in the beginning; watching a protagonist you like shack up with someone you know is a spy is much more gut-wrenching than trying to make the reader think it's a happy relationship just before revealing a big twist.
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Apr 28, 2018 23:13
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Ytlaya posted:The fact it was multiple people who somehow had an operation that could make this complex prosthetic suit with machine learning systems...it seems pretty unlikely to find such people, though the main thing making me doubt a Teacher relation is that Weld would definitely be familiar with Teacher, and while Teacher himself doesn't need to directly be involved, I don't see what he'd gain from helping Sveta without using his power on her or Weld. For context, I think one of the admins on the IRC is a researcher whose focus does involve applying machine learning systems to gait, or something like that. If you had a couple people with a strong intuitive grasp of the math or techniques needed to build it, it wouldn't be too hard. A Number Man could probably plan it out in a flash, or tinkers, or peak human intelligences. BTW, 4 new Worth the Candle chapters, and a new Mother of Learning tonight.
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Apr 30, 2018 11:00
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I've been reading more Ward, and I'm to the part with Valefor now. I like how they gave Valefor's power the limitation of "if you get pushed or something, a suggestion to stop will be weakened/removed" because it seems a little overpowered otherwise. I'm a little confused why he doesn't just yell "Everyone who is attacking the Fallen, kill yourself" though, or why his self-command to enjoy being Fallen wouldn't also get broken in the same way as the people who get jarred out of the "stop" suggestion. For the same matter, I don't see why Mama Mathers doesn't just deliberately expose herself to the attackers in some limited way (like through video or something), given it seems like a relatively brief exposure is enough to totally gently caress you up, given what happens with Chris and the bikers. Chris is definitely kinda hosed up, given his reaction to Mama Mathers (I guess she can make you see anything, not just herself?). I guess it's not entirely impossible that his lack of a strong reaction is tied to him recently coming out of Dark Introspection form (which lets him separate his mind from his body/senses), though that's its own sort of issues. As an unrelated comment, while this battle directly brings up how dangerous guns are to many/most capes, it also makes me unsure why having more capes would necessarily make Earth Bet folks such a big threat. It seems like most capes could be dealt with by a concerted effort by the military to kill them, and the people with some way to deal with this are few enough in number that some way could be figured out to deal with them as well (Strangers like Imp, Blindside, or August Prince would be annoying, but people could still figure out a way to deal with them). I guess it's true that combining Thinkers and some other parahumans with a military would act as a huge force multiplier (precogs in particular would be strong against a society without many precogs of their own). Doctor w-rw-rw- posted:For context, I think one of the admins on the IRC is a researcher whose focus does involve applying machine learning systems to gait, or something like that. If you had a couple people with a strong intuitive grasp of the math or techniques needed to build it, it wouldn't be too hard. A Number Man could probably plan it out in a flash, or tinkers, or peak human intelligences. I forget if she got the prosthetic body before or after the apocalypse, but if it was afterwards it's very strange people with that sort of expertise wouldn't be tied up doing other stuff (not to mention it would take a lot of direct work and time to get the things working with Sveta's unique type of body and need for control mechanisms). The combination of the code, electronics, and machinery/engineering would represent a significant project, and basically the sort of thing you'd have a group at a university or research laboratory working on for at least months (unless such technology already more or less existed in this setting, which is possible). Even if someone was doing research in that area, applying it to this specific thing would never be a trivial task, particularly due to the need for it to be a collaboration between people of different disciplines (the machine learning person likely can't also design the prosthetic body, etc). So it's doable by regular humans, but it's a big question mark how they'd rope in people for what must have represented a very significant time investment.
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Apr 30, 2018 18:25
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Ytlaya posted:I forget if she got the prosthetic body before or after the apocalypse, but if it was afterwards it's very strange people with that sort of expertise wouldn't be tied up doing other stuff (not to mention it would take a lot of direct work and time to get the things working with Sveta's unique type of body and need for control mechanisms). The combination of the code, electronics, and machinery/engineering would represent a significant project, and basically the sort of thing you'd have a group at a university or research laboratory working on for at least months (unless such technology already more or less existed in this setting, which is possible). Even if someone was doing research in that area, applying it to this specific thing would never be a trivial task, particularly due to the need for it to be a collaboration between people of different disciplines (the machine learning person likely can't also design the prosthetic body, etc). So it's doable by regular humans, but it's a big question mark how they'd rope in people for what must have represented a very significant time investment. IIRC Sveta didn't have anything like the suit when she pulped Doctor Mother which happened during the series of events that makes up Gold Morning. So it must have been built post apocalypse, but we don't know exactly when the design work happened. It could have been a work in progress already. tl;dr: I don't disagree that it's a time-intensive piece of work and while getting it repaired and rebuilt in the case of breakage shouldn't be too bad now that it's designed, the design work itself is impressive. I'm just saying that we've got an example of someone we know is getting above-the-board help of a similar intensity level already in Ashley, and that I think Sveta would have been prioritized for the same reason Ashley was, in that it's dangerous if she isn't. PetraCore fucked around with this message at 19:27 on Apr 30, 2018 |
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Apr 30, 2018 19:25
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all of the people on that team are regarded as dangerous and important to contain, as shown by how they met. if the quasi state entity is paying attention to their mental health it makes sense they are too the physical also
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Apr 30, 2018 20:14
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Just started on the third arc of Practical Guide and I love it all except for that annoying habit it has of stringing several barely connected interludes together. Ah well, doesn't seem like that's going away any time soon.
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Apr 30, 2018 21:01
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Jade Mage posted:Just started on the third arc of Practical Guide and I love it all except for that annoying habit it has of stringing several barely connected interludes together. Ah well, doesn't seem like that's going away any time soon. That's about where I'm at too. The narrative feels like it wanders a bit, and I personally wish it was more of a low fantasy setting since the names/roles stuff is the least interesting part of the story for me, but I still really enjoy the main plot. However, I've gotten to the point where I scan the first few paragraphs of each interlude for the names of any characters I care about, and if they're not around I just skip the whole thing.
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May 1, 2018 02:31
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Two new TWI side chapters just got pushed to patreon subscribers and it's CLOWN  E: Also holy poo poo Pirateaba is making $3400 a month, that's fuckin rad.
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May 1, 2018 07:38
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The Shortest Path posted:Two new TWI side chapters just got pushed to patreon subscribers and it's CLOWN I hope there are more Clown chapters incoming, because otherwise these two feel like a waste. 20,000 words of navel-gazing and repetitive "I'm not insane! Yes I am! No I'm not! Yes I am!". Nothing happens at all until the last 10% of the second chapter.
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May 1, 2018 12:28
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twi patreon discussion Silynt posted:I hope there are more Clown chapters incoming, because otherwise these two feel like a waste. 20,000 words of navel-gazing and repetitive "I'm not insane! Yes I am! No I'm not! Yes I am!". Nothing happens at all until the last 10% of the second chapter. lol yeah I was completely over them as a character until the very end
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May 1, 2018 14:03
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Ward 6.6: I'm glad the battle parts are winding down, and I overall enjoyed the chapter, but oh man-that trope where someone goes 'Okay, I'll tell you everything that's going on', then the camera skips ahead to after the explanation so the protagonists can act on that knowledge without telling the reader what the heck is going on bugs me so much.
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May 1, 2018 18:55
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Ward 6.6 So who do we think gave the Fallen their weapons? As per Victoria, this is NOT hunting rifles and the family gun, they had matching weapons and equipment of real quality to bring to bare for the fight and that can't be easy after the apocalypse likely took out or cutoff most manufacturing centers on Bet. My money is on Earth C, using the Fallen to soften up Gimel and would tie into the looming war we keep hearing about. Also, where the heck is Love Lost?? She seems the absolute LEAST likely to let this go Re: Rain
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May 1, 2018 19:43
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Uldor posted:Ward 6.6 Possibly Teacher and Earth C working together. Earth C was receiving powers from a mysterious source that Sveta suspected to be a remnant of Cauldron, and Teacher got the last surviving stockpile of Cauldron vials. Also, I don't know about Love Lost, but I got the impression that the real problem in the cluster was Cradle; Love Lost was the one who had the best reason to go after Rain, but I don't think she was really the leader of the anti-Rain efforts.
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May 1, 2018 21:30
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Omi no Kami posted:That's about where I'm at too. The narrative feels like it wanders a bit, and I personally wish it was more of a low fantasy setting since the names/roles stuff is the least interesting part of the story for me, but I still really enjoy the main plot. However, I've gotten to the point where I scan the first few paragraphs of each interlude for the names of any characters I care about, and if they're not around I just skip the whole thing. To contradict myself though after I just read two such interludes, every chapter I've ever gotten from the perspective of Robber and/or Hakram has been a goddamn masterpiece. Hakram is probably my favourite character in any web serial I've read in a long time.
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May 1, 2018 23:00
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WTC: Uther being monstrous In multiple ways was surprisingly upsetting.
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May 1, 2018 23:30
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Jade Mage posted:To contradict myself though after I just read two such interludes, every chapter I've ever gotten from the perspective of Robber and/or Hakram has been a goddamn masterpiece. Hakram is probably my favourite character in any web serial I've read in a long time. Both excellent points- Robber is the hero (well, villain) this story needs, and I will never tire of scumbag goblin antics. I like Hakram, but he hasn't really hit me for entertainment value as hard as some of her other staff members. I'm a big fan of Juniper because of how consistently she plays the straight man to Catherine's weirdness, and watching Aisha continuously try and fail to teach her that "subtlety" is a word most diplomats know is great.
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May 1, 2018 23:56
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Anias posted:WTC: Uther being monstrous In multiple ways was surprisingly upsetting. Yeah. There been some hints he would not be the Arthur that Joon remembers but after those last few chapters I'll be surprised if he's not an antagonist.
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May 2, 2018 01:21
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