Web Serials: It remains to be seen how important Evanescence will be

The Something Awful Forums > The Finer Arts > The Book Barn > Web Serials: It remains to be seen how important Evanescence will be

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Ramie: Mar 2, 2021

Sailor Dave posted:

I started Only Villains Do That, a few chapters in. Seiji is such an insufferable know-it-all snarky rear end in a top hat, which I guess is the point but I've seen this exact kind of MC in too many stories. Does he get any better about that?

I thought the "prologue", first couple chapters, was the absolute worst kind of reach-around fart-sniffing, only a half-step above poo poo like Metaworld Chronicles, but it gets dramatically better when Seiji gets humanized a bit more. If it weren't for the trust I have in the author to write sensible, kind, thoughtful and human stories, I would have given up on it early. No clue why the early chapters are like that. It might still be possible that lingering memories about TGAB are informing my outlook, though.

As it is, I'm eager to see where it goes. It's nice to see the author having fun with writing again, if nothing else.

Ramie fucked around with this message at 23:32 on Mar 12, 2021

# ¿ Mar 12, 2021 23:29

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# ¿ Apr 25, 2024 18:21

Ramie: Mar 2, 2021

TWI is like if Dragon Ball Z devoted a season's worth of episodes to Piccolo's driving test and a few vehicular adventures besides, with a big war sequence at DMV for the finale of the season. It ends with hundreds of innocents dying, but Piccolo becomes recognized as a licensed driver in the eyes of the whole city and Gohan gets a cool robot eye so it's ok.

Yamcha finds love after giving up the art of punching men and setting up a flower shop instead, also. This takes up half the season.

Neurophage posted:

Unrelated to the Wandering Inn, I recently finished Book 1 of Into the Mire, which was very good and the length of a normal novel. Are there any more web novels like it?

Short answer, no. I don't think there's anything like it out there. There are worthwhile reads and interesting worlds out there, but nothing written in such an economical yet robust way. Maybe a Practical Guide to Evil is somewhere in that vein? I think the Charlatan side-story showcases the appeal of the work pretty well. Everything in the Extra Chapters section does, really.

# ¿ Apr 15, 2021 19:30

Ramie: Mar 2, 2021

Only Villains Do That is really finding its feet, now. It really puts a smile on my face to think of how the author is getting back in the saddle with a story of this quality. Hope he's doing alright. Realizing I was mostly skimming TWI these days cut off my enthusiasm for the medium at the knees for a bit, but between PracGuide, Threads of Destiny, Beware of Chicken and now this, I'm still having fun. How's Katalepsis lately? I lapsed after Tenny got... enfleshened.

Apropos of nothing, today's chapter of He Who Fights With Monsters was the first time in a hundred-odd chapters that I laughed. lmao. that should tell me something

# ¿ Apr 30, 2021 02:09

Ramie: Mar 2, 2021

It might be in the running for best self-contained chapter, imo. It really was extremely good.

# ¿ May 16, 2021 23:26

Ramie: Mar 2, 2021

happy TWI un-hiatus-ing day, Patreon people :toot:

this was a fun one. the Thronebearers are delightful, pirateaba really shines at maximally endearing the reader to new characters in a minimal amount of time.

honestly, I appreciate the breaks, there's only so much text I can take at once. I'm actually making progress on my book backlog since pirate started taking breaks! that can't be a coincidence

# ¿ May 30, 2021 04:56

Ramie: Mar 2, 2021

Argue posted:

Whoa, Agenda of the Villainess updated.

Surely this means that Super Minion is not too far behind! hahahaha

haha

:smith:

edit: this prompted me to catch up with Agenda and that was pretty drat good! wayyyyy better written than most RR junk, and I don't mean to drat with faint praise, it's gonna be genuinely worth keeping an eye on. the author notes are a delight

Ramie fucked around with this message at 17:05 on Jul 3, 2021

# ¿ Jul 3, 2021 06:35

Ramie: Mar 2, 2021

this latest PracGuide chapter is lovely.

quote:

�These are the lives we live, Catherine,� he gently said. �We kill and we win until we lose and we die. We are the children of the knife. And so I still love you, even though I watched the woman who used to bring me lemon tarts bleed out on the stairs. Even though you killed the man who taught me it was all right to be as I am, that I should not be fearful of it.�

It was perhaps the most loving thing anyone had ever told me. The obscenity of it made me want to throw up. I felt my fingers shaking around the grip of the knife. I�d yet to let it go.

�I thought we would win,� I croaked. �That I�d get to keep him. That we�d all get to go home. And instead, Gods��

EE is good at writing a lot of things, but the intimate pains are always his best. dude knows the ways the human heart breaks.. the Charlatan arc still lives rent-free in my head

the latest Worth the Candle chapters are real good too! really leverage the overthink-y-ness that suffuses the work as a whole, but towards a gentle purpose. never thought it would take a turn for slice of life, and so fun too

# ¿ Aug 6, 2021 05:24

Ramie: Mar 2, 2021

I thought maybe at least one person in this this thread might appreciate this litrpg microfiction as much as I did:

https://twitter.com/tragickalbooks/status/1440421672163500037

quote:

At first, me and Jetty didn�t punch anyone. It isn�t easy going up to strangers and using your knuckles to collide with their bone geometry and seeing what they�ll do in response, all the faces people make, and it�s worse if they don�t get mad, just really pathetic and sobbing and freaking out. But we got so hungry we were actually like, wow, starvation real. This actually happens to people. So we lay down in a ditch and punched each other ten times.

# ¿ Sep 22, 2021 18:10

Ramie: Mar 2, 2021

Forge of Destiny has the TWI/TGAB/Beware of Chicken thing going on where every alternative POV is a highlight, and imo it is also the only work in the webserial sphere that comes close to Katalepsis' mastery of esoteric imagery, albeit much more sparingly used. The world-building is unmatched

# ¿ Sep 23, 2021 16:36

Ramie: Mar 2, 2021

Neurophage posted:

Elfface: I would recommend into the mire, but it has been taken down. Practical Guide to Evil is not as good, but better than TGAB and TWI.

I tried to read Pale and Wildbow has gotten worse since Worm. Unbelievably bloated(more than 2k words in one chapter of a girl mowing a lawn!), way too fixated on 13-year-olds undressing and featuring an abusive father who feels like a parody.

I come back to Pale every week to see if there's any cool supernatural fighty/lore stuff going on, because when there is it's usually worth the trip, but every time a Wildbow� Logic Engine starts talking my eyes glaze over.

Zed, John and Ray are the only engaging characters in there, and it's kind of funny that two of them are famously wooden in-universe, but they outshine everyone else in my eyes by virtue of having an actual character voice or whatever you wanna call it

Breastbiter has done more to endear himself to me than the main trio, and 60% of his dialogue is a joke that wasn't funny the first time

Ramie fucked around with this message at 17:15 on Sep 23, 2021

# ¿ Sep 23, 2021 17:12

Ramie: Mar 2, 2021

EE is probably the web serial author most likely to get me hyped for a conversation between characters. the amount of anticipation I felt for our last big Black/Cat and Hakram/Cat interactions was insane

also, KamikazePotato, that little thing you did for the raffle winners was just the sweetest. it was the second random act of kindness to get me crying in the car in as many days (might be a commentary on my mental state but,). thanks for making the current state of The Everything just a little more bearable.

you, and every other web serial author reading this. keep killing it, please.

# ¿ Oct 1, 2021 04:28

Ramie: Mar 2, 2021

I think it's going through the same thing KILL 6 BILLION DEMONS is, where a portion of the audience is in danger of extended, acute gravitas poisoning. updating on web serial/comic time just does no favors for the pacing.

it will probably all read better in a single sitting. I'm considering taking a break from both until such a time that everything stops happening at once forever.

edit: for people like me at least, it's very easy to recommend each work to fans of the other. I love the epigraphs in particular

quote:

�Remember, oh student, this above all other laws: the grip of a sword is suffused with a deep and powerful poison that rots to the bone. It can never be rid of once touched, no matter how much you wish otherwise.

The sword does not kill. The hand kills. The hand is the most beautiful part of a human being, and is capable of nearly infinitely other things than parting men from their ghosts. Once you touch the sword, a terrible tragedy will occur, and your hand will slowly lose this ability. Over time, it will cease to be a hand, and become a sword.�

Ramie fucked around with this message at 19:19 on Oct 1, 2021

# ¿ Oct 1, 2021 18:57

Ramie: Mar 2, 2021

quote:

�Yes!� said Xy. �That�s absolutely the kind of thing I would love to have. Of course, half the fun is just playing around with them, so I guess I�ll talk to your guy and see if I can do a bit of that too.�

�Oh, Alfric isn�t,� said Verity. �He�s not really my guy. Just a party leader.� This felt, in immediate retrospect, like an inane and stupid thing to say.

lmao. gay gay homosexual gay

# ¿ Oct 30, 2021 20:24

Ramie: Mar 2, 2021

It turned a one-note, albeit charming, character into someone I want to have as much attention as the main cast. Lovely stuff.

Meanwhile, Threads Of Destiny reminded me why it is one of my favorites

quote:

The words die in her throat, even now she cannot speak them. Not in Mother�s presence. Not at all. The certainty that she had found seemed so far away. That Mother was imperfect, wrong, that her own path would differ, however little it would be.

�A good attempt,� said the empyreal light, in a voice of gods, all consuming and stripped of the mask of languid humor. �You are not wholly broken. That is well.�

You do not feel the divan under you any longer, nor the crackling hearthfire. Colorless radiance is your world, and her eyes burn you. Score, a hundred, a thousand of them, from faces of platinum and white jade, carved in expressions of fixed emotion, shifting in an incomprehensible pattern of divine order. Two eyes are greatest of all, light overwhelming, portals to a thing of obliteration and beginnings.

SPEAK THE QUESTION.

You are on your knees, hands pressed to nothing. Memory comes. Terrible, unwelcome memory. The loom, the needles, the shears. Scraps of fabric left on the cutting floor, each a piece of a child who saw the truth of heaven and was broken by it. More recent, fleeting, like mist in the morning came another memory, an embrace, cool and dark against the light.

And you, Cai Renxiang, spoke the question she had never dared to ask.

�Why?�

I DO NOT DECEIVE. MY DAUGHTERS MUST KNOW MY TRUTH. THEY MUST LOOK UPON ME AND KNOW HEAVEN IS WRONG.

You could taste blood in your mouth, coppery and hot, so like that day. The radiance faded, and you were once again in that little room, and Mother�s hand rested upon her your head, a terrible weight despite the gentleness of her touch.

Mother�s voice tickled her ear, small and human. �Happiness cannot be yours darling, nor Tienli�s nor any other of my get. Rage is the soul of progress, contentment its bane. You must look upon heaven and see the ugliness that drips from every throne. I can feel your anger, darling. I have never been more pleased.�

It takes time to blink the spots from your eyes, to swallow the blood, to hear over Liming�s shrieks of renewed hate. You feel exhausted, hollow. �I am still doing as you want.�

Your voice sounds dull to your own ears.

�Yes!� The Duchess laughs, her hand patting your head one more time. It is like an iron spike driven into your skull. �You understand, at last, some part of my children�s role. I am pleased indeed. Tell me, Renxiang, you have seen my truth, you have seen my outer self. The Tyrant Progress, the Builder and Breaker of Thrones.�

These titles reverberate in the air, far more than simple sounds.

�Do you remember darling, what word it is I bear at my center?�

You are not a child any longer, the memories of that day are still pain, renewed by the glimpse you were again given at the heart of her power. You see the outer words. Progress, Renewal, Truth. You shudder as you find the last and most true. It is light and fire, rage and yearning. It falls from your lips and the room quakes with the reality of it.

REVOLUTION

# ¿ Nov 16, 2021 09:12

Ramie: Mar 2, 2021

Has Amber Skies been brought up in this thread yet? I just got into it and I can't believe I don't see more people trumpeting how good it is

quote:

"Oh my daughters! Come quick, come see! You have a baby brother and he is just perfect!"

That was the memory. Crimson eyes and grey limbs staring down at the pathetic fleshy thing in the cradle. It was nothing. A blind deaf digestive tract that could only move by writhing against the hot concrete floor in search of food. Epsilon tried to touch it but it bit her. Mother let it starve. "Oh dear, Oh dear." She said as she watched it shrivel and die, "Oh dear, oh dear, oh dear." The teacher remembered the panic in her mothers voice. She cared, but she didn't know what was wrong. "I suppose he wasn't perfect after all." She said. "I'm sure the next one will be just perfect!"

The next few years were nothing but maggots. Huge, man-sized maggots. Mother tried big ones, small ones, ones with eyes, with ears, with big brains, small brains, tongues, teeth, even voices. Mother liked the voices. Epsilon had noticed that some of them could drink the industrial runoff from the rest of the factory, and pleaded with mother to let them live. "I suppose they can help keep the place tidy. You can have them, but only if you promise to feed them and walk them twice a day!" Epsilon didn't know what mother was talking about, but the maggots were released from the cradle, and that was what mattered to her. The voices did make them useful. Anytime something wandered in to the factory they would raise a long trumpeting cry and fall upon the intruder. They were slow, but there were so, so many of them.

Mother kept iterating. The new broods got stronger, added to the gene pool, and started to eat the old ones. Sucker-mouths gained crushing muscle, so entrails gained a layer of defensive fat. Crushing muscle gained three-pointed jaws, so skin gained a hard keratin armor. Inedible armor gained stomach acid that caught fire when it touched the air. Those soft pathetic things became the sentries, the armored and fire-breathing gastropods that clung to the factory outskirts. Some had hands, fleshy and useless things, the leftovers of some ancient genetic memory that wasn't properly filtered out during gestation. They were easy. Crack the shell and they spill out like water.

"Oh my daughters! Come quick! I think I've just done it! You have a new baby brother and he is just perfect!"

These were bad. Little skinless quadrapeds with too many bones and too many faces. Maybe quadraped was the wrong word. Mother had heard of "legs" but she didn't know what legs were exactly. They had four hands, and the claws grew out of the wrong places. They screamed. They never stopped screaming. By this point mother had learned that she could speed up the process by creating whole broods at once. "Oh dear." said mother, as the little things began to devour each other. "Oh dear, oh dear, oh dear." The teacher remembered the distress in her mothers voice, she almost incinerated the little things. She remembered how her mothers voice trailed off when she realized that there was only one of the little things left. One balanced on its foreclaws that screamed up at the bright bright light until its little belly was full and it was silent. "Not perfect. Not yet. But I'm getting closer!" Said mother. It was mother who gave the thing free reign of the factory. Her daughters were to follow them, observe them, see if they survived. Humans were good at surviving, it would help her make humans again.

quote:

Deeper. The city grew cooler. The first sign of life was a demon. The student spotted it from far away. They hushed the group and pointed to the form keeping low in the bramble of hair along a train track. It seemed to be the same species at the one she met in the tunnels beneath the housing block, but this one was younger, an earlier stage of its life cycle. It was much smaller, only about as big as Nico, lacking the layers of grey leathery nercroflesh, the chitinous bone armor, or the biological wrist blades. It was soft, so pale white it was almost blue. The tiny armblades were barely enough to support its weight and it moved with an awkward hobble. It reminded the sorcerer of a child wearing their mothers heels. The student knew the signs in how it moved, the careful and un-sudden pace of a hunter tracking prey. It had something.

A pale little hand reached out from the bramble of hair. It was connected to a fleshy prehensile arm which dragged the thick fleshy body into the open air. The student recognized it as one of the worm demons. It crawled on its belly, attempting to drag itself as fast as it could from the bramble of hair. It never had a chance. The long wormlike abdomen was still partially hidden by the brush when the hunter-killer fell upon it. It pounced with a tiny snarl, leaping into the air to fall upon its prey with its entire bodyweight, slamming into its soft flesh blades-first. The pierced thing screamed. The student felt the bile rise in her throat. The little thing writhed and spat at its attacker, wads of feeble stomach acid scarred concrete and flesh but the hunter-killer did not relent. The hungry and desperate thing snapped at the screaming fleshy neck over and over again but its tiny mouth was too small to find purchase. So it stabbed. It stabbed over and over and over again, like catharsis, like a tantrum, tiny dull knives into a cut of fatty trash meat like the skinny wrists of a child against the inside of a locker, like an apology, like tears on the lid of a coffin. It cried as it ate.

The student couldn't hold the bile in the her throat. She vomited.

# ¿ Feb 3, 2022 04:56

Ramie: Mar 2, 2021

I AM misrepresenting it just a tad. It is only about 5% earnest horror per pound, give or take. The author is as good at horror as they are at portraying the close emotional bonds that are part and parcel of writing what is basically "the Fellowship of the Ring traveling through Qud".

But horror is punchier.

quote:

It was a grisly scene. A cyborg, a mutant, and a who-knows-what, crouched over a mangled corpse as if they were teenagers on an interrupted road trip, staring at a mysteriously non-functioning engine and doing their best to sound like they do, in fact, know what a carburetor is, what it does, and where it is located. It was a bonding experience. They were bonding.

�Query: liver?�

�Wrong again, its a gallbladder. Teacher has you zero for six.� Said the student, resigning the gallbladder into an open sterile container full of mysterious liquid.

�You are very bad at this.� Said the teacher, using her foot to draw another tally mark in the dirt.

�Statement: I do not have organs. I am at a disadvantage.�

�Just because you have organs doesn�t mean you�ll know what they�re called.�

�Indeed. It�s not like they come with nameplates.� said the teacher, nodding.

With a small noise of effort, the Student held aloft another organ.

�Query: Kidney?�

�Lung?�

�Lung. Point Teacher. Aaaand that was the last major organ I could salvage so I think the game goes to Teacher.�

The Teacher made another victorious tally mark in the dirt. �Consider this revenge for your victory at rock-stack.�

The Student took a quick stretch break, rolling her arms and neck. �Head comes next, you done with the brain yet? I don�t want to start unscrewing the implants until the delicate stuff is done.�

�Statement: Nearly. There is very little in the way of information stored here, but the architecture is fascinating. Very efficient. Please ensure that you do not damage it upon removal.�

�Huh. Well get what you can and wipe it when you�re done. I�ll try to save what hardware I can, but its tough to do all this without my right arm.� She said, waggling the stump.

�Statement: Oh. Right.�

�Something wrong?�

�Statement: To be honest I had forgotten about your arm. I apologize. I did not mean to rush you.�

�Nah don� worry about it.�

�Confirm: Really?�

�Don�t you worry wirehead, I got a plan.�

The Student winked at the Sorcerer, who did not react. There was a moment where the Student realized that her eye guards were up. She retracted the left one and winked at the Sorcerer, who did not react again. The Student realized that because they could only see one eye, it appeared as if she had only blinked. She retracted both eye shields, and winked a third time. The Sorcerer did not react, because they did not have a face. The Student figured that they got the picture and moved on.

�Yeah its good don�t worry.�

dangit I forgot the link. this concludes my lovesick advertisement

Ramie fucked around with this message at 06:06 on Feb 3, 2022

# ¿ Feb 3, 2022 05:32

Ramie: Mar 2, 2021

my only possible complaint is that this means that we are not ending the story on Chapter 69

unless....?

Ramie fucked around with this message at 18:09 on Feb 18, 2022

# ¿ Feb 18, 2022 18:07

Ramie: Mar 2, 2021

I can't get behind the complaints for the Fifth Defiance because endings that leave me wondering is actually you know, what I want out of endings. And this one puts the pedal to the metal in that respect.

The problem with Mass Effect was that all the ending choices sucked rear end and meant a lowering of the bar. Diminishing things.

Winnowing down the TFD ending to something more pedestrian constitutes such a diminishing of the work, for me, that I genuinely can't understand why anyone would ask for it. I really would like to hear people articulate what they don't like about it, exactly. Was it just too brusque? I guess I can see that

# ¿ Feb 25, 2022 14:11

Ramie: Mar 2, 2021

i could write essays about my issues with Wildbow's writing, what i think are tragic, pervasive, and intentional self-owns, but i have never felt such empathy for an artist as i did then.

if i ever had my work misunderstood so badly the resulting impostor syndrome would snap my ego in half. i would assume that my fans hate me or that i'm so catastrophically bad at my craft that i should be a cautionary tale.

# ¿ Mar 11, 2022 07:29

Ramie: Mar 2, 2021

the worldbuilding can be jump-out-of-your-seat good but half the characters are Wildbow Logic Engines™ or annoying teens (or both!) and the other half deserve to be free and in a better serial

# ¿ Apr 18, 2022 06:10

Ramie: Mar 2, 2021

it's really hard to blame people for not wanting to be starving artists when i know so many artists who are y'know, starving.

if you make that much money you better be tipping 100% whenever you go to a coffee shop to do your work, tho

# ¿ Apr 19, 2022 16:22

Ramie: Mar 2, 2021

TWI 9.01

this might be The Wandering Inn's most specific achievement: perfectly replicating the general mood that comes over you when you step out of a party and people come looking for you
the atmosphere in this chapter was perfect, and unexpected

# ¿ Jun 11, 2022 22:03

Ramie: Mar 2, 2021

tbf if my audience was seemingly "every user on RoyalRoad" i wouldn't trust them either :v:

# ¿ Jul 29, 2022 03:54

Ramie: Mar 2, 2021

aww man, DriveThruRPG is showing warning signs too? i only keep up with ttrpg news secondhand but that seemed like a promising lifeboat

art is getting choked out of the world so fast it's a miracle we still have anything at all. all the more motivation to work on my own craft, i guess

# ¿ Oct 29, 2022 08:57

Ramie: Mar 2, 2021

i tried to like Ar'Kendrithyst but i feel like the whole thread of it is "this week's made-up solutions to made-up problems"

that's describes just about any story that takes place in a constructed fantasy world but the veil just seemed particularly thin for me here. i probably just don't get it. somehow Erick feels like the only real character

i would totally like to hear what people like about it though!! some aspects of it do seem like a step above certain other works

Ramie fucked around with this message at 07:26 on Nov 3, 2022

# ¿ Nov 3, 2022 07:24

Ramie: Mar 2, 2021

it was just too good for this earth, RIP. i think i checked for updates twice a week for at least 6 months.

# ¿ Nov 3, 2022 18:09

Ramie: Mar 2, 2021

my eternal vigil is over. god.

# ¿ Feb 9, 2023 07:37

Ramie: Mar 2, 2021

is pirateaba under a deadline to amass $3 million before 2030 in order to pay off the mafia or something? why

# ¿ Mar 1, 2023 05:46

Ramie: Mar 2, 2021

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.

You can taste blood in your mouth, coppery and hot, so like that day. The radiance fades, and you are once again in that little room. Mother�s hand rests upon your head, a terrible weight despite the gentleness of her touch.

Mother�s voice tickles your ear, small and human. �Happiness cannot be yours, darling, nor Tienli�s nor any other of my get. Rage is the soul of progress, contentment its bane. You must look upon heaven and see the ugliness that drips from every throne. I can feel your anger, darling, and I have never been more pleased.�

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

# ¿ Mar 3, 2023 23:13

Ramie: Mar 2, 2021

3rd Voice is just starting out, by the guy who did Vattu and Rice Boy, Evan Dahm. you can also read it the normal webcomic way though so i dunno if it counts

https://mobile.twitter.com/3rdvoicecomic/status/1632777107368443910

could turn out to be his best work, if it stays consistent, which his work historically always is

# ¿ Mar 12, 2023 19:10

Ramie: Mar 2, 2021

that Super Supportive chapter was worth the wait, and by chance, we just got a Super Minion update too!

good time for superhero serials, even if the fame seems to be a bit overwhelming for both authors

edit: the new cover for Super Minion was made the artist for Romantically Apocalyptic????

Ramie fucked around with this message at 13:46 on Mar 27, 2023

# ¿ Mar 27, 2023 13:28

Ramie: Mar 2, 2021

They really are! All of the assorted worthies we meet over the course of Ling Qi's travels are people that have gone through as much adventure, personal troubles, and fated meetings as she has. If they hadn't, we wouldn't be meeting them, and they might not even be cultivators at all

The metaphysics of the setting does mean that uniqueness is encouraged, though, so that removes the need to justify the "everyone's a Main Character" of it all

quote:

They hummed, continuing to trace the contours of the bark. ��I� is malleable. A sharp blow, a trauma, may remake a man entire. An extended hand might do the same. Or it may not. You may observe a mortal throughout their life, and there will not be a single moment which you can isolate and say: This is the truth.�

Ling Qi listened as Shu Yue mused.

�A cultivator is different. Ultimately, what we seek is to freeze one single moment, one unchanging �I,� and burn it into the world that we may never be forgotten.�

�You make it sound�� Ling Qi hesitated. �So domineering.�

�What is power, Ling Qi?� Shu Yue asked, turning to face her.

I'm still thinking of how Cai Renxiang went from being the most wooden character of them all, to maybe my favorite side character in a web serial, period. The slight changes in the way she interacts with Ling Qi since their meeting are simultaneously the subtlest bit of character work in the serial, and maybe the single most hard-fought victory Ling Qi has achieved since she stopped being a gutter rat.

Can't believe I'm hooting and hollering when a teen noble deigns to make not one, but TWO slight jests over the course of a single conversation. She even sassed our main character! Once!

re: TWI. I'll also note how pirateaba decided we didn't have enough main characters so they introduced (latest Geneva arc spoilers) literal clones. we split up one character into into a half-dozen, basically. To their credit I do think their perspectives could be fascinating! I really think pirateaba could stand to really hone in on one or two character for a couple months. Over the past 20 updates or so the best chapter was also one of the very shortest, and even that one had some questionable detours. did the unicorn fight even mean anything? that could have been a single sentence mentioned in passing.

Ramie fucked around with this message at 18:03 on Apr 17, 2023

# ¿ Apr 17, 2023 17:53

Ramie: Mar 2, 2021

There's not even any worth in reading it for a laugh at how bad it gets because it's so consistently awful that it's boring

If you told me the first pass of every chapter is written on an AI trained on the past 600 chapters I would believe it. Some of those broody diatribes have got to be copy-pasted. How many times has Jason traumadumped to a stranger? It's so absurdly self-referential

# ¿ Apr 26, 2023 16:23

Ramie: Mar 2, 2021

The Meizhen subtext honestly flew past my head my first time reading through Forge, so it was pretty easy to understand Ling Qi's viewpoint.

Speaking of lesbians, Necroepilogos has to be the work I most look forward to every week. For the longest time I kept forgetting that it updated on Thursdays so I would feel the same thrill of surprise at breakfast time every. time. I just don't get that happy to see any other web serial update. Okay, maybe I'm 75% as happy with a couple of em.

When it comes to descriptive writing, Katalepsis always punched way above its weight, when compared to basically the entire genre, but the nigh-on slapstick relationship antics were just never all that fun for me. I just wanted to learn more about the world! And Necroepilogos delivers on the beautifully textured character/environmental work that I so appreciated.

# ¿ May 4, 2023 02:59

Ramie: Mar 2, 2021

I earnestly believe that EE (Pale Lights, PracGuide) is the most technically proficient writer in the webserial sphere

As an aside I think the Emerald Seas author has a real talent for gesturing at the background of a world, drawing the reader in. Same thing I like about Necroepilogos! Pretty necessary skill to have, when you are setting your work in the world that remains after multiple post-post-post apocalyptic civilizations accreted in the same planet for millenia.

quote:

�Ikoshpiil is an informal sword-art developed by riverkin boat-traders which specializes in feints, sleight-of hand, and grappling techniques to subdue opponents through trickery. The style is looked down on by many sword-masters, who consider it a rude and deceptive practice, unworthy of the title of sword-art. These men are fools. Pick any modern naval gun-and-blade style, and you will find the influence of ikoshpiil�s advanced footwork and disarming techniques.

Its most authentic form is practiced with the kruko, the cross-handled river hook, a small blade which can easily be concealed in clothing, and thrown with surprising accuracy. Surprise is an essential element of the style. Those attempting to face a practitioner should know that novices carry no less than three blades, and masters carry as many as eight.

Its title, Ikoshpiil, is a rude term. Though it literally translates to hook play, the term also carries connotations of trickery, stage plays, and sexual activity. A more accurate translation would be hookfuckery.�

� The Sword and its Shortcomings, Strikes-From-Horizon, former Sword Saint

quote:

Lilly: Good morning New Babel, you�re listening to Screw Loose, your favorite early-morning exo rig and rig maintenance rig show this side of the white river, I�m Lilly.

The Bear: And I�m the Bear, and you- are on the air. What can we help you with?

Caller: Howdy girls! Togen, from the South Teykile. I�ve got a bit of a mystery for ya, I was hoping you could help me solve it.

Lilly: Oh lovely! I think we�re ready to sleuth.

The Bear: What the problem doll?

Togen: So I�m a boatwright. About a month ago, I�m on the job in a Wylan Mastiff UD-940. I�m lifting a panel of ship-chitin that weighs maybe 1000 kilograms, and I can feel the exhaust channels getting hot.

The Bear: Uh oh.

Lilly: Uh oh indeed.

Togen: I figure I�m overcycling, but the Mastiff can pull 1000kg easy right? So I put down the panel, and suddenly, BOOM! Radiator explodes right out of the chassis! I can hear the I-bolts ping against field tech�s facemask!

[Both hosts begin to laugh]

Lilly: Huh!?

The Bear: Okay okay hold on a second-

Togen: I�ve got an insulated undersuit, but the radiator is just full-on burning at this point. Now, I�m not about to jump into the Occimedian with my rig on, so I slam the emergency kill. So now I�m lyin there, facefirst on the dock, hollerin for the other idiots to put me out!

The Bear: You had an extinguisher right?

Lilly: Maybe someone had a drink?

Togen: Well�Okay so get this. The yard has an extinguisher. That�s union. But before someone could grab it, one of the boys uh, relieves himself, on the radiator.

[The hosts are silent for a moment, but can�t keep it going. Lilly snorts loudly as she laughs.]

Togen: Hey it worked! Problem is, the drat thing hasn�t been running right ever since. I replaced the radiator that evening, but for some reason I�m only getting about 70, 80 percent torque when I lift, but its only from certain positions. I�ve taken the thing to two different shops at this point, and they both said that everything looked fine. I�m at the end of my rope here ladies, can you help me?

Lilly: Sleuthing hats on!

The Bear: Well sir, I think I know what your problem is. You set yourself on fire, and then someone pissed on you.

Lilly: Yeah! Just tell the boys at your local rig shop, they�ll know what to do.

[The hosts pause for a moment, deliberating]

The Bear: Well drat Togen, you�ve given us two mysteries for the price of one.

Lilly: First, we gotta figure out why your radiator exploded. Then, we gotta figure out why your lift capacity is damaged. Okay, replacing the radiator was the right call, did you have them look at the recycler?

Togen: Yeah, when the first guy said it was fine, I took it to the second shop, and they said the recycler was probably running cold in the early morning air, you know, building up heat in the radiator.

[lilly scoffs]

The Bear: That guy didn�t know what he was talking about. The recycler generates a ton of heat. While your rig is live, they�re actually floating in coolant because they generate so much heat.

Lilly: Hmmm. Did you have any custom work on the Mastiff before it exploded?

Togen: Yeah. Lets see�I had the 8-cell replaced with a 10-cell, added a fluid circulator, and full weatherizing. Tubes, seals, soles, the works.

The Bear: The weatherizing, synthetic or biosynthetic?

Togen: Biosynthetic ma�am.

The Bear: Here�s what I think happened. Whoever shopped your rig under-tightened the bolts, and used overripe sealant. See, the biosynth sealant that Wylan uses is self-repairing, and it feeds on heat. I bet that when they replaced your power supply, they left a gap, so the sealant started growing into your radiator channel, sealed it up like a pressure cooker and BOOM.

Lilly: Okay love, when you try squatting to pick something up in the rig, is there chugging from the leg hydraulics? Or is it more like the force just hits a wall at 70%?

Togen: There�s definitely chugging.

The Bear: Have you checked the tubing rings? You might�ve vented some heat onto them during the explosion, caused a hairline breach?

Lilly: Bearie dear I have a hunch. If he burned the rings he�d know. They�d pop right out as soon as he tried to squat. Follow me here.

The Bear: Uh oh.

Lilly: [starting to laugh] No! Listen! Okay you said you added a fluid circulator right?

Togen: Yes ma�am.

Lilly: Listen! Okay! Love! Here�s what I think happened! So urine has both salt and uric acid in it right? Both corrosive substances. I�d bet my bonnet that when you hit your kill switch, it took a moment or two for the circulator to spin down. There was probably already some urine in your radiator. That urine had enough time to get circulated into your hydraulics, where it�s been sitting, corroding your internal glide sheathes.

The Bear: [laughing] Oh my lord that has to be it. Yes. Yes! That has to be it! Here�s what you�re gonna do, doll. You�re gonna take it to the local garage. You�re ask them for a total flush. Your biosynthetics should heal within a week.

Lilly: And while you�re there, have them check the I-bolts on the new radiator chassis!

The Bear: How�s that sound doll?

Togen: Well gosh ladies, I�m gonna be honest. The boys at the shop yard have a betting pool on just what was wrong with the rig, and I think all of us might owe the two of you some money. Thank you so much!

[The hosts laugh]

The Bear: Good luck doll!

Lilly: Thanks for your call!

[The show transitions to commercial]

The main work is only on AO3 because the author doesn't really know anything about web publishing. There's also the unrelated, previous work in the same world and the first draft of the story, which might get deleted at some point

# ¿ May 26, 2023 19:56

Ramie: Mar 2, 2021

oh, and Tales of Destiny is required reading after finishing Threads, for much the same reasons detailed above. Love that heap of worldbuilding

# ¿ May 26, 2023 20:03

Ramie: Mar 2, 2021

Ytlaya posted:

I mostly agree. I consider PracGuide to be the best web serial overall, but not so much due to technical proficiency (since I've definitely read others with similar quality writing, if not actually better in terms of avoiding typos/grammar issues). I think they just take advantage of the format best while still telling a memorable story that works very well as a serial. They have a remarkable talent for just whipping out high quality short stories about any random character, and can create the sort of scenes that really stick in your head.

that's mostly what I meant by proficiency, hah. just a very good understanding of what makes a story palatable to the reader, how to lead them, ability to not pigeonhole oneself too much or overrely on flourishes (TWI gets really bad about this when it comes to the world "glory"). Pale Lights is at the precise upper limit of complexity that a web serial can have before it buckles under its own weight imo, and it holds itself at that level pretty consistently

my biggest complaint about PL is that for someone that has Spanish as a first language and knows a little bit of Nahuatl/Chinese, the naming schemes are a little silly and surface-level. the China stand-in is literally named Tianxia, the Aztec guy is named "Warrior", etc.

# ¿ May 26, 2023 23:18

Ramie: Mar 2, 2021

kinda crazy that the Super Supportive author is getting slightly more money out of Patreon per month than Erratic Errata. that's what all those Royal road eyeballs get you I guess

# ¿ May 31, 2023 06:33

Ramie: Mar 2, 2021

that post threw me for a loop because "girl steals mysterious book in the post-apocalypse" describes my favorite webcomic atm

https://twitter.com/3rdvoicecomic/status/1663193744961675267?t=_q9eahKVrSKt5UGAYFy_gg&s=19

a bit off-topic but I think some people in this thread would enjoy it

# ¿ Jun 19, 2023 22:27

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# ¿ Apr 25, 2024 18:21

Ramie: Mar 2, 2021

I finally bit on the Patreon and I feel like I got my money's worth. Like buying a coffee and sitting for an afternoon with a good book, I guess!

This arc works really well as a single big chunk

edit: vv I'm not really seeing it but sure!! I'm not sure arcs is even the structure we are working with here. so if you are reading this rest easy knowing you don't know because i don't know either

Ramie fucked around with this message at 05:39 on Jun 20, 2023

# ¿ Jun 20, 2023 05:16

The Something Awful Forums > The Finer Arts > The Book Barn > Web Serials: It remains to be seen how important Evanescence will be

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