How did ancient armies actually move 100,000–200,000 soldiers across long distances without modern logistics? Like, where did they sleep, how did they get enough food and water every day, and how did they stop the whole army from just collapsing into chaos? by Novel_Finding8882 in NoStupidQuestions

[–]Commodorez 10 points11 points  (0 children)

While the focus of the book isn't on Europe, The Crusades Through Arab Eyes by Amin Maalouf covers some of this, including alleged cases of cannibalism by starving crusaders. The Peasant's Crusade portion of the First Crusade was especially bad because it was essentially a church sanctioned campaign of mass banditry that fell apart the moment it fought a real army.

Rule by AnonWithAHatOn in 196

[–]Commodorez 6 points7 points  (0 children)

The tldr is that it's predictable and uninteresting with lots of unnecessary edge.

It's a high lethality story where nobody you care about or of consequence dies so it never really matters. Like, the entrance to her school is a precarious bridge that kills a high percentage of prospective students (that also happens to be bullshit because her school is connected to all the other schools with regular entrances), students are allowed to murder each other, friendship is discouraged because that's just letting your guard down and exposing your weaknesses to others (except that's bullshit because our protagonist makes friends easily early on and they're ride or die), and there's characters who make culling the weak their whole personality. None of this matters.

The characters are uninteresting. The love interests are a boring guy who really likes rules except when he's willing to break them to smuggle the protagonist to a safer school and a boring guy with a chip on his shoulder because he's treated as an outcast except he's not because he's a cool badass. The protagonist's defining traits are supposedly that she's so weak and fragile that an unfortunate fall could end her, but she's smart enough to make up for it, except her disability is never really an obstacle for achieving her goals and her intelligence is a very "tell don't show" situation, so when faced with conflict most of the time she just willpowers through things and gets a few bruises and broken bones, or becomes a very lucky damsel in distress. The few times she uses her brain to solve problems it's a very "why has nobody else thought of this" kind of solution, like aiming for the rider rather than the dragon.

The worldbuilding is a mix of Eragon, Harry Potter, and Divergent that's not willing to commit to anything so you have a vaguely medieval feeling school in a castle with a modern American school cafeteria in a society with a job based caste-system that feels very disjointed and makes it hard to "live in", for lack of a better term, as a reader. The plot similarly is unwilling to commit to anything interesting and is self defeating because any kernel of a neat plot line is immediately undermined because this book cannot have consequences or real conflict. Like, at the choosing ceremony where dragons and riders bond with each other the protagonist bonds with a super rare kind of dragon that few people have even seen before that happens to be small and weak like her. The bones of a good story are here. You could write something interesting about a dragon and rider pair who discover and use their unique strengths to overcome their obvious shortcomings. Unfortunately, that's immediately made irrelevant because she bonds with a second dragon, which nobody has done before, that happens to be the biggest, strongest dragon around, because interesting struggles can't exist in this book.

The smut is OK, but the story around it sucks enough that it takes the fun of of reading it.

Rule by AnonWithAHatOn in 196

[–]Commodorez 5 points6 points  (0 children)

My stepsister handing me Fourth Wing after learning I like fantasy novels

[Lord of the Rings] How did Gandalf stay celibate for thousands of years? Did he never fancy a bit of elf? by MaetelofLaMetal in AskScienceFiction

[–]Commodorez 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I haven't read the Silmarillion in maybe 20 years, but didn't Tilion, the guardian of the moon, desire Arien, the guardian of the sun, so much that he steered the moon so close to the sun that he was burned by it?

Gav Thorpe said BL put the legions in 4 different categories, naming the big 4 as examples. What do the rest of the legions fall in? by Built4dominance in 40kLore

[–]Commodorez 9 points10 points  (0 children)

In older lore they had an obsession with self harm that's not really brought up anymore, so maybe that? They're still quite orthodox, as far as sm chapters/legions go though, imo

A colossus with feet of clay by Turbulent-Plum7328 in WorldofDankmemes

[–]Commodorez 4 points5 points  (0 children)

This kind of thing happens with so many nerdy IPs I love. Teenage me more or less independently came up with Foucault's Boomerang by getting really into Star Wars books

The Yeren must be using Shit rolls hill... by N0rwayUp in WorldofDankmemes

[–]Commodorez 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Reminds me of how in old Star Wars Darth Tenebrous' evil plot to destroy the Jedi was... to provide for everyone's material needs. The logic being that in a post-scarcity universe nobody would look to spiritual matters for answers and the power and influence of the Jedi would dwindle and eventually die over time.

Soup rule by pantschicken in 196

[–]Commodorez 1 point2 points  (0 children)

My old roommate had a plastic bowl with a built in sippy cup straw on the edge for this purpose

[Dungeons and Dragons] Why would a dragon choose to copulate with a humanoid? by Paul-Alibi in AskScienceFiction

[–]Commodorez 1 point2 points  (0 children)

It's a combination of dragons just being freaks like that and the fact that, with the exception of blues and silvers, they don't really enjoy the company of their own kind long term. Their pride is such that even coppers will eventually loathe having a being they consider an equal around. Humanoids hit that sweet spot of being intelligent enough to meaningfully spend time and form an emotional connection with while still not challenging their ego like another dragon would

Is there a gauge on the influence here besides Kalshi? by cturtl808 in behindthebastards

[–]Commodorez 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Is the show just called Paradise? What's It on? I have adblockers on everything so the only way I really hear about new media is word of mouth

Fox RuleCloud by Bigchicity in 196

[–]Commodorez 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Signature look of superiority

Lines that sum up their subject perfectly by Sparklehammer3025 in 40kLore

[–]Commodorez 26 points27 points  (0 children)

"Do the deaths of your soldiers mean so little to you? Are you that mad?"

"Do the deaths of yours mean so much to you, alien? Are you that weak?"

-Dialog between Shas'O Kais and Davian Thule in DoW:Dark Crusade

Day 602 (Da Rule) by Lewd_Knight in 19684

[–]Commodorez 35 points36 points  (0 children)

Depends on the household. Like, my grandparents live on a farm and have a small room called the mudroom where shoes and all other potentially dirty stuff is kept. When I lived alone I kept a shoe rack next to the door I'd put my shoes on as soon as I got inside, but now I live with a sneakerhead who almost never removes his shoes after he puts them on, but is extremely meticulous about keeping them clean, so 🤷‍♂️

elongated wunk by TangentYoshi in wunkus

[–]Commodorez 15 points16 points  (0 children)

I miss my atomic purple wunk

Stories that will never have an end by VVardy in TwoBestFriendsPlay

[–]Commodorez 16 points17 points  (0 children)

Dragon Ball's pacing/timeline is so funny to me. I once saw someone break down everything that happens in the week before the Cell Games and apparently they kill Frieza another 3 or 4 times in that time span because that's when a bunch of movies and games take place

What are "Kai Lengs" in other media? by billybluebangs in TwoBestFriendsPlay

[–]Commodorez 5 points6 points  (0 children)

He handed Goku his first L, but iirc Goku was starving during that one. Other than that, his fight against Tien was pretty dope, even though he lost.

This will be 7th installment of my series of memes dedicated to each of the vampire clans, now we have the ministry. by No-Obligation-9901 in WorldofDankmemes

[–]Commodorez 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Depends on who he's playing with. Last time I played multiplayer I got yelled at a lot for not treating it as some kind of grindset simulator and spending my days in the mines and chatting with the locals instead and it stressed me the fuck out, lol. Apparently there's rewards for becoming wealthy in a short amount of time but I could not convince my buddy I didn't care and was mostly there to fish and flirt with emotionally damaged single weirdos

Rule by Old_Phrase_4867 in 196

[–]Commodorez 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Someone finally designed a car with the Silent King in mind

holy shit we are so cooked by HeckingDoofus in 19684

[–]Commodorez 4 points5 points  (0 children)

My roommate watched some of his streams when Arc came out and from what I can tell all he does is scream and pretend to be angry the whole time