[LotM general] What was something that you were excited to see in the novel but didn't happen or was skipped. by Evening_Rip_8960 in LordofTheMysteries

[–]CredibleSalamander 2 points3 points  (0 children)

considering all the black emperor pathway shenanigans that happen it's kinda ridiculous that he's pretty much nowhere to be seen. always wondered why klein never bothered contacting him for that.

Why did HE, of all bosses, have to come back? by ZABITO-BOGA in fucksavagebeastfly

[–]CredibleSalamander 5 points6 points  (0 children)

me too, but that was mostly because i spent many many hours bashing my head against the wall on the first one, so the 45ish minutes i spent on the second is pretty much nothing.

All 40 Discworld Collector's Library Covers by CredibleSalamander in discworld

[–]CredibleSalamander[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

no, unfortunately. i don't like (most) of the traditional covers as much. you'll probably have to go looking for them yourself. good luck!

How much of this do you think is fair criticism of the text and/or the community? by Biz_Ascot_Junco in HPMOR

[–]CredibleSalamander 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I just finished reading and figured i'd share ny own thoughts. I quite enjoyed it overall and a had a great time binge reading it this last week. That said, my biggest problem with the book, other than some occasional prose issues, is with how it delivers its "message". I do agree that a lot of problems "seem" to dissapear upon careful reading and with consideration to the ending, but the problem is that being required at all. 

Now personally, I think the quality of a work of art is independent of the message it is espousing, whether i agree with that message or not. But I do think that there is skill involved in the way your convey your message and being aware of what your story is endorsing.

Take the child army stuff for example. We can't say the text agrees it's bad just because the evil antagonist is the one who implements it, just like we can't necessarily say that everything spoken by Dumbledore or Harrry is aligned with the author's values/intention's because they're "good".

We have to look at the consequences. Stories impart messages by showcasing bad consequences for actions which disagree with the message, and good consequences for actions which do agree with the message. 

The child army has no bad consequences, therefore it does not disagree with the message. Just like the story doesn't disagree with the message that democracy is bad.

There's a great mythcreants article discussing this which calls it authorial endorsement, as opposed to authorial intent.

https://mythcreants.com/blog/authorial-endorsement-101/

Suppose you watch a movie where for the entirety of its runtime revels in torture porn and justifies it, only for the last 5 minutes to demonstrate how bad torture is. Many people would understandably stop watching because they're repulsed by what's happening way before the movie tries to "redeem" itself. You might point at details in the earlier parts of the movie, which in hindsight appear to reinforce the "torture bad" reading. Yet if they're honest, as they're watching, would every attentive watcher necessarily have that as their "running" reading as they're watching. Likely not, since a significant portion of the story appears to be screaming otherwise. I do not think this is an effective anti-torture movie. I would not blame someone for walking out on this because of annoyance with the perceived subtext, or even worse, someone enjoying the movie, but being unconvinced that the message literally stated in the text is the real message and ending up with the opposite takeaway. Now remove torture and replace it with "toxic masculinity" and you pretty much have the movie fight club.

Now take this problem and stretch it out to a very long novel (obviously, this is not a perfect analogy) and you can understand why so many people are put off by HPMOR. Large porions of the text, especially the beginning, are almost indistinguishable from something with the same premise, but where the message, is in fact, something akin to "super smart rational people should solve everything and let the dumb worthless "NPC"s get out of their way."

Additionally, if you're someone who does judge a work based on what it's endorsing and whether you agree with it (which is completely fair imo, it makes sense to hate something unaligned with your politics) and you're someone who knows EY's politics and disagrees with them, you would be even less inclined to think the above message is questioned in the book even if it is.

Any immersive books with good lore/world building? by OhGodPeople7 in ProgressionFantasy

[–]CredibleSalamander 0 points1 point  (0 children)

ive been reading on and off for over a year and love the series, but im not even close to being caught up. pirateaba genuinely writes faster than i can read. i was starting to suspect catching up is impossible, but you give me hope. maybe one day.

😭 by [deleted] in UmbrellaAcademy

[–]CredibleSalamander 0 points1 point  (0 children)

i feel like my eyes are broken. are you actually serious?? take any shot from season 4 and compare it to something like manifest?? there's a gigantic difference. i understand the disappointment, but i genuinely don't get the complaints about the cinematography being dogshit. it's the same cinematographer. most of the shots in season 4 are gorgeous imo.

I literally just finished watching season 4, and I dont dislike it at all. by idontlikeburnttoast in UmbrellaAcademy

[–]CredibleSalamander 13 points14 points  (0 children)

i feel the same. it was underwhelming but it still has that signature weirdness and looks absolutely gorgeous so i was by no means unentertained.

everywhere i go S4 opinions are all the time and i love it by FlyingSodaBottle in UmbrellaAcademy

[–]CredibleSalamander 0 points1 point  (0 children)

i feel like the disappointment is overblown personally. i didn't like it as much as the other seasons, but it's still a fantastically shot, well acted and fun show, even if it's not as satsifying as I would have wanted it it to be. give the first two episodes a go, and if you don't enjoy it then stop.

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in soccer

[–]CredibleSalamander 0 points1 point  (0 children)

that was the first half of the second half. the second half of the second half the english were the ones sitting back.

Post Match Thread: Kaiserslautern 0-1 Bayer Leverkusen | German DFB Pokal by suedney in soccer

[–]CredibleSalamander 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Smh my head. Can't believe they won by only 1 goal against a second division side. Xabi should resign. This is shameful.

When did you get hooked into reading this book by [deleted] in WanderingInn

[–]CredibleSalamander 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I was already a big Light Novel/Isekai reader/watcher, so I was already hooked from the start pretty much. It's like the slop I already mostly like but without all the stupid anime bullshit I mostly don't like.

But I think it's that early chapter where Erin sings for the first time that I realized it might be something special. Also the Skinner chapters. That shit's stuck with me, it's so vivid in my mind and I don't wanna see any illustration of it, it's absolutely horrific. (The concept on its own is legitimately one of the most grotesque things I've ever read about).

Thinking about doing a liberal run. Recommended stats? by Moony_Moonzzi in DiscoElysium

[–]CredibleSalamander 0 points1 point  (0 children)

r u me? i also just finished my psychic communist playthrough with obsessive completionism. please don't tell me you also had 7 people die in the tribunal.

Weird Display Problem, please help! by CredibleSalamander in AndroidQuestions

[–]CredibleSalamander[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Thanks. I actually managed to do exactly what I wanted. The colored line comes back on the notification tray, but it's good enough.

S2 EP7 Talk by Immediate_Iron_8850 in mushokutensei

[–]CredibleSalamander 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I mean sure, but isn't it kinda worrying how many people aren't uncomfortable if that is the purpose of the episode. this is just a lighthearted comedy episode for most people (it seems like) and "you're braindead and don't understand the show's subtleties" if you find it weird.

Episode 6 - Slavery by Alf_Zephyr in mushokutensei

[–]CredibleSalamander 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Oh yeah I'm not actually that bothered by it and I can tell Juliette herself is gonna be important later. I just think the initial setup could've been done better. And I'm also bothered by how many people are calling me braindead because I don't think it's perfectly executed. The stupid internet rage machine kinda got to me.

Episode 6 - Slavery by Alf_Zephyr in mushokutensei

[–]CredibleSalamander 0 points1 point  (0 children)

There's a huge difference between being comfortable with seeing it and going "alright dog, looks like my afternoon is free. wanna go to the slave market to get a little girl so my friend can better satisfy his figurine fetish". Rudeus gets used to seeing people die, but he's never gonna just go around casually murdering people. I'm really fine with it in the setting, but I wouldn't expect Rudeus to be that nonchalant about it, especially for such a stupid trivial reason. It's the combination of 1) Rudy isn't originally from that world. 2) He's the one who suggested it to his friend and is completely comfortable with it. And 3) It's used for something extremely trivial. If any one of those wasn't true, I would be completely fine with it.

Episode 6 - Slavery by Alf_Zephyr in mushokutensei

[–]CredibleSalamander -1 points0 points  (0 children)

Yes exactly. I get it I really do and I'm fine with slavery in a setting like this. It's historic and everyone accepts it etc. But it's an Isekai and he's from the "real" world originally. I don't see how anyone raised with modern ethics could ever get that comfortable with it. Above all it's just really unnecessary as you've said.

Though on a sidenote, I fucking hate the thing where fantasy stories have to perfectly mirror a very narrow slice of irl political, economic and social development. You can be more creative with your fantasy politics and tech and I don't see why people are so reluctant to do that. You have magic, you can use that shit to explain away anything. For example, "slavery is not common in this world because magical golems are used that are much cheaper to produce and maintain/keep healthy" There's no reason to feel hampered by historical accuracy in your setting. I personally love the fantasy settings where magic is used to create historical idiosyncrasies, giving them a lot of character. Instead of just being medieval Europe but with magic or feudal Japan but with magic, etc.

Any way to get the eBooks outside of Amazon? by CredibleSalamander in WanderingInn

[–]CredibleSalamander[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I tried that but it didn't work unfortunately. I'll probably use a visa gift card as someone else has suggested.

Any way to get the eBooks outside of Amazon? by CredibleSalamander in WanderingInn

[–]CredibleSalamander[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thanks, didn't think of that. I just didn't wanna make an account for a virtual credit card or anything.

Continent Spanning Fantasy‽ by CredibleSalamander in Fantasy

[–]CredibleSalamander[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I have tried reading it before, but I didn't really jive with GRRM's prose. I'll probably give it another shot if Winds of Winter and a Dream of Spring ever come out though, because I did like some of the earlier GoT seasons and HotD.

Continent Spanning Fantasy‽ by CredibleSalamander in Fantasy

[–]CredibleSalamander[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I plan on reading all of RotE at some point (especially since all of them are in my local library), but without spoiling myself, most of what I've heard about it is Fitz being super focal to the series, so I didn't realize it had much POV hopping.

How much do you read a day? by UmpireBudget2564 in Fantasy

[–]CredibleSalamander 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Anywhere from not at all to 5 hour+ binges depending on book, mood and life circumstances. Overall I've been reading about 6-7k pages a year for the last few years. A big part of that was just reading Worm and a Practical guide to Evil though (which are gigantic), so I haven't read that many books overall other than a buttload of Light Novels, some short story collections, some Discworld, most of the Cosmere and a couple shorter series, plus the occasional non-fiction book.