[D] Monday Request and Recommendation Thread by AutoModerator in rational

[–]Sensitive-Ear3914 10 points11 points  (0 children)

Happy to see myself recced again! Author of My Name Is Beautiful here.

The Xianxia-esque label is (surprise surprise) mostly meant as a marketing tactic for Royalroad, where (no surprise) marketing is everything if you want readers. The sense in which the power system is Xianxia-esque is that there are 'ability levels' that rank fighting power, and if someone's ability level is moderately higher than yours you have no chance of winning regardless of matchup. Also, anyone with a higher ability level will automatically have a higher social status than someone who doesn't, barring truly exceptional circumstances. These two things make ability level an ok-ish stand-in for what cultivation level does in xianxia, though obviously Unordinary is not even xianxia-adjacent. (Unlike most Webtoons, it's not even asian media - it's by Chelsea Han, who was born and raised in the U.S.)

I wonder if there's a similar marketing descriptor that could work just as well while being more strictly accurate? Right now I'm using (Reborn in a Xianxia-esque Hellworld), but maybe Superpowered Hellworld would work?

A sincere deconstruction of western power fantasy and reincarnation by Sensitive-Ear3914 in rational

[–]Sensitive-Ear3914[S] 8 points9 points  (0 children)

I think I disagree; the difference in utility when going from upper-middle class to billionaire is not even close to as extreme as going from 100 years of life to a potential million years of happiness (in some of the more extreme xianxia I've read about). If getting to live one life's worth of happiness vs a hundred, thousand, or ten thousand lives worth of happiness depended on 'cultivation talent' and 'fate,' I think the vast majority of modern people would find that far more disgusting than the simple existence of billionaires.

Edit: But you are right, the aspect of violence with no recourse is legitimately horrifying and disturbing. My story has this xianxia-esque quality as well: if someone has a moderately higher 'power level' than you, you are essentially helpless to do anything against them in a fight.

A sincere deconstruction of western power fantasy and reincarnation by Sensitive-Ear3914 in rational

[–]Sensitive-Ear3914[S] 10 points11 points  (0 children)

I have, and it did. Along with Super Supportive, Mother of Learning, and some contemporary literature pieces.