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Peachfart
Jan 21, 2017

OscarDiggs posted:

It's okay. We shouldn't expect object permanence from someone so busy despising the fact gay people exist.


wtf

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blastron
Dec 11, 2007

Don't doodle on it!

oh neat a bunch of new posts i wonder if something ridiculous happened in the new worth the candle chapter, i've been meaning to catch up on that but first let's see what the thread thin-- :stare:

Cicero
Dec 17, 2003

Jumpjet, melta, jumpjet. Repeat for ten minutes or until victory is assured.

blastron posted:

oh neat a bunch of new posts i wonder if something ridiculous happened in the new worth the candle chapter
Always.

Actually just today ch 236 dropped as another solo update, but a few days ago in ch 235 there was Amaryllis with the selfcest and self-murder. Never a dull chapter on Aerb!

Also the trip to p-space sounded kind of like PracGuide.

Morphogenic96
Oct 30, 2013

I'm surprised how much I'm liking Only Villains Do That considering how "snarky misanthrope sent to fantasy world" sounds pretty cliched and I couldn't get into TGAB

Mr. Prokosch
Feb 14, 2012

Behold My Magnificence!
The main problem with Mother of Learning is the author isn't great at voice, so most of the characters sound too much like each other. This gets worse instead of better as it progresses.

Plorkyeran
Mar 22, 2007

To Escape The Shackles Of The Old Forums, We Must Reject The Tribal Negativity He Endorsed
Yeah as the story goes on it basically converges to Zorian, Zach, and everyone else. This could be neat if it was a deliberate thing done to emphasize how isolated Zorian is from everyone else to the point where he can't even tell them apart, but it isn't.

DACK FAYDEN
Feb 25, 2013

Bear Witness

Plorkyeran posted:

Yeah as the story goes on it basically converges to Zorian, Zach, and everyone else. This could be neat if it was a deliberate thing done to emphasize how isolated Zorian is from everyone else to the point where he can't even tell them apart, but it isn't.
man that's a lot of wasted potential I hadn't even considered

especially like, dude learns mind magic, maybe he would find himself leaning on it as a social crutch to be able to tell people apart?

Cicero
Dec 17, 2003

Jumpjet, melta, jumpjet. Repeat for ten minutes or until victory is assured.
Today's new Worth the Candle (ch 236):

Well gg I guess. Didn't expect FS to go down that easily, but I guess it's better than a more blatant "now the DM says you die" type of setup.

Pretty excited for what's in the Long Stairs. It's finally happening!!!!

Bremen
Jul 20, 2006

Our God..... is an awesome God

Plorkyeran posted:

Yeah as the story goes on it basically converges to Zorian, Zach, and everyone else. This could be neat if it was a deliberate thing done to emphasize how isolated Zorian is from everyone else to the point where he can't even tell them apart, but it isn't.

To be fair, as someone who recently read MoL, it really did feel like the story was bending over backwards to force Zorian to go out with class president girl, and I was kind of weirded out by it at first. It just turned out there was a reason for that that had nothing to do with heteronormativity or even romance.

Then this thread turned into weird sniping at each other.

Omi no Kami
Feb 19, 2014


Once I overlooked the language and writing issues I really enjoyed a lot of MoL (besides the last 25% and the ending, which were bummers), but learning that the author guy wrote a ton of naruto fanfiction first, and realizing how much of MoL's stuff is just naruto crap with the serial numbers filed off, really bummed me out.

Sailor Dave
Sep 19, 2013

Omi no Kami posted:

Once I overlooked the language and writing issues I really enjoyed a lot of MoL (besides the last 25% and the ending, which were bummers), but learning that the author guy wrote a ton of naruto fanfiction first, and realizing how much of MoL's stuff is just naruto crap with the serial numbers filed off, really bummed me out.

The way I see it, it took a lot of naruto crap for them to figure out an original story that they wanted to tell. If that lets me get a refined and enjoyable version and skip all of the crap that came before, I'm happy with that. I wasn't going to read any of that fanfiction anyway, nor have I seen the show itself except for small parts through osmosis, so it made no difference to me.

Jazerus
May 24, 2011


Omi no Kami posted:

Once I overlooked the language and writing issues I really enjoyed a lot of MoL (besides the last 25% and the ending, which were bummers), but learning that the author guy wrote a ton of naruto fanfiction first, and realizing how much of MoL's stuff is just naruto crap with the serial numbers filed off, really bummed me out.

frankly naruto is so broad that virtually any work of fiction with supernatural powers could be said to contain naruto crap with the serial numbers filed off

Zore
Sep 21, 2010
willfully illiterate, aggressively miserable sourpuss whose sole raison d’etre is to put other people down for liking the wrong things
Yeah, honestly the only part of MoL that really felt like Naruto fanfic to me was all the goddamn clones and dumb bullshit he did with them to powergame and only because that's like literally the most obvious thing anyone who has ever watched a second of Naruto picks up on and decides to write about in their fanfics.

Otherwise it carves a pretty unique path out tbh and none of the characters are really obvious Naruto expys or anything. Though yeah, MoL really falls apart in the last quarter and the ending is the most :effort: thing.

Josh Christ
Dec 24, 2020

by Fluffdaddy

OscarDiggs posted:

It's okay. We shouldn't expect object permanence from someone so busy despising the fact gay people exist.

This seems like an overreaction to someone being a garden variety rear end in a top hat.

Selkie Myth
May 25, 2013

Plorkyeran posted:

Clearly you should post the spreadsheets for the latest set of patreon chapters so that we can find all the irrelevant math errors and the places Elaine has failed to properly optimize.

too many spoilers in my spreadsheets

Scaevolus
Apr 16, 2007

Jazerus posted:

frankly naruto is so broad that virtually any work of fiction with supernatural powers could be said to contain naruto crap with the serial numbers filed off
Beneath the Dragoneye Moons feels like a Romanized Naruto fanfiction for the arcs where they're a supernatural military team running around doing missions and solving problems with MAGIC and VIOLENCE and FRIENDSHIP, but that might be more of a reflection on my own media consumption-- special ops hijinks are fun to read about, and is kind of the standard fare of fantasy murderhobo bands.

Bremen
Jul 20, 2006

Our God..... is an awesome God

Scaevolus posted:

Beneath the Dragoneye Moons feels like a Romanized Naruto fanfiction for the arcs where they're a supernatural military team running around doing missions and solving problems with MAGIC and VIOLENCE and FRIENDSHIP, but that might be more of a reflection on my own media consumption-- special ops hijinks are fun to read about, and is kind of the standard fare of fantasy murderhobo bands.

This makes me glad I never watched Naruto, since apparently it means I can enjoy Mother of Learning and Beneath the Dragonseye Moons in blissful ignorance.

asur
Dec 28, 2012
Prac Guide I was not expecting that. Hanno vying for Warden with Cordelia is an interesting take and throws a wrench in a lot of Cat's plans for after the war.

Jazerus
May 24, 2011


Scaevolus posted:

Beneath the Dragoneye Moons feels like a Romanized Naruto fanfiction for the arcs where they're a supernatural military team running around doing missions and solving problems with MAGIC and VIOLENCE and FRIENDSHIP, but that might be more of a reflection on my own media consumption-- special ops hijinks are fun to read about, and is kind of the standard fare of fantasy murderhobo bands.

the greatest sin of naruto is that it didn't lean into the special ops hijinks and instead went full dragonball, so i think it's okay for people to take that idea and run with it

Silver2195
Apr 4, 2012

Jazerus posted:

the greatest sin of naruto is that it didn't lean into the special ops hijinks and instead went full dragonball, so i think it's okay for people to take that idea and run with it

It didn't lean into it as heavily as a story in a different genre would, but by shonen battle manga standards I'd say Naruto characters tend to be especially underhanded in their tactics.

Cicero
Dec 17, 2003

Jumpjet, melta, jumpjet. Repeat for ten minutes or until victory is assured.
Yeah I enjoyed how strategic many of the characters in Naruto were (especially Shikamaru).

Jazerus
May 24, 2011


Silver2195 posted:

It didn't lean into it as heavily as a story in a different genre would, but by shonen battle manga standards I'd say Naruto characters tend to be especially underhanded in their tactics.

oh for sure, i meant in terms of story structure - you don't see many "normal" ninja missions

90s Cringe Rock
Nov 29, 2006
:gay:
Latest Tower of Somnus is extremely good and powerful.

LLSix
Jan 20, 2010

The real power behind countless overlords

90s Cringe Rock posted:

Latest Tower of Somnus is extremely good and powerful.

The interlude? :raise:

The one before that was pretty earth-shaking.

90s Cringe Rock
Nov 29, 2006
:gay:

LLSix posted:

The interlude? :raise:

The one before that was pretty earth-shaking.

Cat princess power go

Plorkyeran
Mar 22, 2007

To Escape The Shackles Of The Old Forums, We Must Reject The Tribal Negativity He Endorsed
I've certainly read some series with a concept worse than that of Chibi Princess Cats.

Cicero
Dec 17, 2003

Jumpjet, melta, jumpjet. Repeat for ten minutes or until victory is assured.
Started reading Tower of Somnus, up through ch 33 now, and you guys weren't kidding, this is good poo poo. The combat scenes are very well done, reminds me of Cradle but more...clinical.

Josh Christ
Dec 24, 2020

by Fluffdaddy
Sometimes I read big long fantasy series because I want to read an epic tale of struggles against god

Sometimes I do it because I want to read about an ant man threatening to murder a bunch of cops, wandering inn is great

Edit: following up the adventures of giant ant in celum with a D chapter is a crime. The doctor sucks.

Josh Christ fucked around with this message at 09:28 on May 7, 2021

Argue
Sep 29, 2005

I represent the Philippines

Josh Christ posted:

Sometimes I read big long fantasy series because I want to read an epic tale of struggles against god

Sometimes I do it because I want to read about an ant man threatening to murder a bunch of cops, wandering inn is great

Edit: following up the adventures of giant ant in celum with a D chapter is a crime. The doctor sucks.

Geneva is cool but 4 of those 5 D chapters are about Niers' students :ssh:

Larry Parrish
Jul 9, 2012

by Jeffrey of YOSPOS
Geneva sucks because she's very depressing to read lol. probably the most grim dark side story in twi so far.

M. Night Skymall
Mar 22, 2012

Geneva's arc is annoying at first for the same reason Ryoka's was to me. She has this super uptight morality thing going where she's the only one that knows what's best. Eventually that tones down and she improves, but it takes a while, and it's probably more that her story spends less and less time on her as it goes on tbh. I do find her "Actually I'm the smartest person in any room, any where, any time," schtick a lot more realistic in a med student than I did in Ryoka though. Not that she is the smartest, but her unshakeable belief in it. Still annoying to read though and I skimmed a lot of her chapters after the initial ones.

Josh Christ
Dec 24, 2020

by Fluffdaddy
I really just don't care about her or the UN or any of it, it's the least interesting story at all. At least Laken you got to watch some fumbling as he learned to actually be in charge and he was at least somewhat close to the main cast, her story is so removed in plot and location that I just don't care.

You might be thinking josh what about the clown crew, since they're so far away, clown rules that's what.

tithin
Nov 14, 2003


[Grandmaster Tactician]



Clown had the potential to be so so bad

I'm glad that he is instead, the funniest person in innsworld

Larry Parrish
Jul 9, 2012

by Jeffrey of YOSPOS
I absolutely hated his first few chapters but the other ones pwned hard.

Josh Christ
Dec 24, 2020

by Fluffdaddy
The only thing that can stop a gigantic dullahan: children

The students need their own chapter letter thing, because this is way better than I had hoped.

90s Cringe Rock
Nov 29, 2006
:gay:
Lozzie is pure fanservice at this point and I am that fan being directly targeted by her.

Hungry
Jul 14, 2006

90s Cringe Rock posted:

Lozzie is pure fanservice at this point and I am that fan being directly targeted by her.

I don't know if you're on the discord, but somebody made a Lozzie emote with the letters 'ACAB' above her head.

90s Cringe Rock
Nov 29, 2006
:gay:

Hungry posted:

I don't know if you're on the discord, but somebody made a Lozzie emote with the letters 'ACAB' above her head.
I am not but I love it and them.

Plorkyeran
Mar 22, 2007

To Escape The Shackles Of The Old Forums, We Must Reject The Tribal Negativity He Endorsed

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Ytlaya
Nov 13, 2005

I've been reading more of The Last Ship in Suzhou, and I feel like the writing improves a lot after the first few chapters. It feels like the author was kind of "trying too hard" in the first few chapters (with excess detailed descriptions of things), but the pacing becomes better later.

It's really interesting gradually getting an understanding of what's going on. It seems like the protagonists, for whatever reason, seem to have a deep intuitive grasp of the nature of cultivation in this setting, but don't realize that their understanding is something exceptional and don't understand the system of cultivation the rest of the world uses. I just read the chapter from the perspective of Jiang Sanli (the waitress/prostitute) and it finally revealed that apparently the protagonists weren't entirely just fooling the earlier townspeople and are easily recognizable as higher-level cultivators to other people (and that they're completely oblivious about this). The whole angle of the protagonists simultaneously having some deep understanding and wisdom about "cultivation/the Dao" while also being teenagers who feel like fish out of water is pretty interesting, and I like how David and Alice seem to have a different sort of wisdom/intuition (and very different personalities in general). It seems like a much better way to make the protagonists more "powerful" - the power doesn't stem from some sort of direct martial blessing, but instead from a weird intuitive understanding of the world's metaphysics.

I'm also curious about the broader setting. There are apparently different realms (I get the impression that there are more than just "the mortal realm" and "the realm of great spirits/immortals"), and there's some implication that there's a relationship between our world and this one (since Daji, the god/spirit Jiang Sanli communicates with, was familiar with one of the poems David knows).

One other thing I like is how the protagonists very quickly became open about their romantic interest in each other. Alice also mentions at one point how them dating probably wouldn't have worked well if not for the whole "them being isekai'd together" situation.

edit: Hm, I'm kind of wondering if the story might lead to a falling out between David and Alice at some point. It seems like there's a big difference in Alice's attitude/worldview and David's, particularly with the part where Alice mentions not viewing the world/people as real and the way she got some sort of thrill from violence and is obviously kind of manipulative.

Ytlaya fucked around with this message at 23:42 on May 10, 2021

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