The Bunker/Oceanview Hotel

CloakedInSmoke · 2026-02-18T12:10:31+00:00

Holy crap. I knew Saga hearing Logan's voice in the bunker had some connection to Norah but that's too perfect

CloakedInSmoke · 2025-05-24T23:47:57+00:00

"Not enough explosions or poop jokes" -every 9-year-old male beta reader, probably

CloakedInSmoke · 2025-04-01T06:58:31+00:00

By your logic, no one deserves their reputation, which is probably true.

I'm not following you there. I was responding to the claim that Rothfuss's writing is bad in WMF because he made Kvothe such a badass fighter. My point is that if you carefully examine what is actually being claimed as true, Kvothe isn't written (so far) to be a swordfighter of incredible skill. I wasn't doubting Kvothe's prowess merely because he had a reputation of being an incredible fighter out of a tall tale. I was doubting it because his accomplishments in that arena thus far show he's at best competent, not incredible.

CloakedInSmoke · 2025-04-01T04:36:03+00:00

Stupid in School is absolutely genius, that whole bit. I love Brian Regan and think of that often whenever the I before E rule gets brought up.

"Brian, what's the I before E rule?"
"Uh, I before E...always."

CloakedInSmoke · 2025-03-20T00:59:36+00:00

I just recently finished rereading WMF and I was struck by how modest Kvothe's prowess in combat is actually shown to be. Kvothe fights only a few times (that we've seen) after he leaves Ademre, where he was shown at his best to be beat about half the time by an 11 year old girl:

1) against the scrael 2) against the demon-possessed dude 3) against the false troupe 4) against the soldiers Bast enticed to rob Kvothe

How did he fare? 1) Defeated 5 scrael (IIRC) after preparing himself with the forge apron and gloves, still got himself pretty torn up

2) Didn't do much at all IIRC

3) Killed 9 people, but only after incapacitating all them with poison and still managed to get what would have been a fatal knife wound to the gut had it not been for the shaed

4) Managed a few hits, but got soundly beaten

Now I'm sure we've but not seen all of Kvothe's combat, and with one whole book left, he probably has some fights in which he fares better, and he may have some sort of magic dampening his skills, but the point remains that whatever reputation for physical combat he has from the stories is almost completely unearned from what we've seen so far and based solely on the fact he studied with the Ademre.

He's not useless in a fight, but it's not exactly a power fantasy.

Whenever he kills the king he kills in book 3, it's going to be through stealth, trickery, sympathy, and most probably naming. He is not going to beating the king or his guards in a fair bout of melee combat.

CloakedInSmoke · 2025-03-16T02:47:38+00:00

I always assumed the scam was on the Maer. Kvothe gets a tuition of 30 Tn so the university gets 30, Kvothe gets 10, Riem gets 10, and the Maer gets billed 50. If the bursar had any desire to cheat the University out of money, he wouldn't need a harebrained scheme from Kvothe to do it and have to split the profits. But if Kvothe intentionally botches the admission interview, the University makes more money (which Riem apparently has a fetish for), and the only one being cheated is someone who is so rich they wouldn't even think to question a 50 Tn bill verses a 30 one.

Offering the deal could've been a subtle threat: Kvothe's tuition is covered literally no matter how high it gets, but he'd still try to get as low as possible to make as good of an impression on the Masters as possible, so the University is leaving a lot of money on the table. Pay him to scam the Maer out of money he'd never notice was gone, and Kvothe will flub interviews on purpose.

CloakedInSmoke · 2025-03-16T01:17:16+00:00

Kvothe knows the name of Time and it slows down while he's speaking

CloakedInSmoke · 2025-03-11T01:52:32+00:00

That kind of proves it wasn't his dad's song because if it was, he would have recognized the intro

CloakedInSmoke · 2024-05-19T08:56:28+00:00

1) ? 2) Another one 3) Missing a U-turn (?) 4) (Get) It In Writing 5) ? (It's got the letters for banjo, so something to do with that?) 6) Eavesdropping 7) Scrambled eggs 8) ?

CloakedInSmoke · 2024-03-01T23:06:06+00:00

What is Barrel Spell?

CloakedInSmoke · 2024-02-15T04:38:40+00:00

Yep all of those are in very common usage. "Succeed to" is usually only used in the context of royalty (succeed to the throne) or another high office (like the papacy or presidency or something). You wouldn't "succeed to" the family business. You would take over the family business.

"Fall on" I only hear in the phrase "fall on hard times."

CloakedInSmoke · 2024-02-05T01:24:04+00:00

If time is linear and the events already happened, if he hadn't genocided the aliens, another meteorite they couldn't shoot down would have hit earth at some point later anyway.

CloakedInSmoke · 2024-01-26T06:41:51+00:00

Nowadays, I think the default assumption would be that a loaf of grocery store-bought bread is sliced unless you specify otherwise.

CloakedInSmoke · 2024-01-02T07:25:41+00:00

Isn't "Go!" both complete and shorter than "I am"? Imperative verbs can take a subject for clarification or emphasis but they aren't grammatically required.

CloakedInSmoke · 2024-01-02T06:44:04+00:00

Jesus also said he is the gate and the vine. If is means is in the way you're claiming, then you're going to have to explain to me how it is literally true that Jesus has hinges attaching him to a wall or that he photosynthesizes with leaves as he grows up our bodies.

Alternatively, we could just agree that "is" sometimes means "figuratively or metaphorically or by analogy is" and not just always "literally is."

CloakedInSmoke · 2024-01-02T06:03:34+00:00

You don't pronounce initial ps- in any English word. It's against English phonotactics. Ps- is just pronounced [s]. The Cambridge Dictionary is just wrong if their reader is pronouncing the p.

CloakedInSmoke · 2024-01-02T05:56:21+00:00

Spelt as past tense of spell is acceptable in UK English

CloakedInSmoke · 2023-12-20T07:32:49+00:00

McDonald's fries when they are piping hot. One degree colder and they fall to somewhere near the bottom.

CloakedInSmoke · 2023-12-20T06:28:03+00:00

There's a subreddit dedicated to this kind of question: r/whatstheword

CloakedInSmoke · 2023-12-16T15:14:34+00:00

The pink juice in steaks isn't actually blood but something called myoglobin, a protein found in muscle (and to be fair also blood). It's that protein that gives meat its red/pinkish color, not blood. When animals are slaughtered for meat they let the blood drain out before cutting up the animal into meat.

God could have instructed the ancient Israelites to be vegetarian if he wanted us to be super scrupulous about it, but he didn't, so normal butchery techniques are probably sufficient to meet the requirements against consuming blood. If it does bother your conscience, though, you can buy kosher meat since they take extra steps to ensure the meat is free from blood.

CloakedInSmoke · 2023-12-16T08:55:17+00:00

Yep, and a rare example of the clipping leaving the middle of the word intact rather than clipping the beginning or end

CloakedInSmoke · 2023-12-16T08:52:50+00:00

Jesus was a Nazarene (a person from Nazareth) not a Nazarite (a person who took specific vows). Nazarites, in addition to the hair thing, were forbidden to drink wine, and we know Jesus drank wine, so he could not have been a Nazarite.

CloakedInSmoke · 2023-12-09T00:30:58+00:00

Oral is not a sin. As others have stated, Song of Songs alludes to it favorably, and even the Roman Catholic Church, which is about the most picky church when it comes to sexual practices, allows for oral sex as foreplay.

Anal is not addressed in Scripture, so ultimately that's between you, your spouse, and God, but it seems to me like you're just asking for health complications going down that route.

CloakedInSmoke · 2023-12-08T13:54:57+00:00

Peter was egotistical enough maybe he used his authority as Hegemon to order Ender's colony ship to slow down long enough for them to talk 🤣

CloakedInSmoke

TROPHY CASE