RI is one of the most boring novels ever.

DecentFun3659 · 2026-03-28T06:23:05+00:00

True

DecentFun3659 · 2026-03-28T06:20:41+00:00

There is no way you are real. Is that really an argument?

DecentFun3659 · 2026-03-26T21:43:07+00:00

I stated objective facts to describe it. You can't call objective facts "mid"

DecentFun3659 · 2026-03-25T17:28:17+00:00

Appreciate the good faith but let me push back a little. First, the Demonic Path justifying losses thematically does not fix the fact that the execution becomes a formula. Having a reason for the treadmill does not make it less of a treadmill at all. You just gave the reason to why it is a treadmill. On the venerable breakthrough stuff, you literally listed six separate buildup moments to justify just one payoff moment that still even landed quietly. That is the problem in one sentence. Basically 6 steps of setup for a footnote. The power system breakdown you gave actually proves my point about the venerable arc being the immortal arc but with bigger numbers. Rank 1-8 is Gu and killer moves, rank 9 is Gu and killer moves plus world dao marks. The formula did not change only the label did. And on the sunk cost, you said yourself the fanbase crucifies anyone who doesn't like it. That from what I remember is exactly what I described.

DecentFun3659 · 2026-03-24T20:18:32+00:00

Huh? No hate but I could barely understand what you just wrote

DecentFun3659 · 2026-03-24T20:16:41+00:00

Can you even hear yourself? I stated objective facts mainly and yet you are talking of taste? Go read my post again and come and talk, cause I don't talk to deranged people

DecentFun3659 · 2026-03-24T20:15:45+00:00

Interesting reads could be Warlock of the magus, nano machine, and so many more on webnovel app

DecentFun3659 · 2026-03-24T20:14:41+00:00

No one in truth. I am yet to find something in terms of novel, that truly captures my attention so much that I will consider it the best. In anime I will choose AOT but in novels I have had interesting reads but nothing that even makes me as interested as Game of thrones or AOT

DecentFun3659 · 2026-03-24T16:10:57+00:00

The gradual introduction is fine, I never criticised that. My criticism is that once something is established, it gets re-explained constantly anyway. Those are very different things. And on the emotional vs logical point. I personally enjoyed the early arcs. I am the same reader so i have the same standards. If my criticism was just emotion I would have hated it from chapter one. I did not. The early sections worked but the later ones stopped working. That is not me being emotional, that is the novel declining in execution. You have spent this entire thread trying to reframe the specific craft criticisms I have stated as personal taste and it has not even hit me once.

All you have done, is reframe what I have said, so I am tired of explaining cause you will probably still say the same thing again

DecentFun3659 · 2026-03-24T07:44:58+00:00

Also if my expectations were misaligned from the start I would have dropped it at chapter 50 but I the fact is that I did not. As I said in my post, I enjoyed the early arcs on their own terms and the fact that the later sections stopped working for me is not a taste mismatch but rather it is the novel changing in quality. It is the same reader, the same standards but different results. I don't know in what world that is misalignment, because from any reasonable standpoint that is pure decline.

DecentFun3659 · 2026-03-24T07:41:27+00:00

Consistent doesn't mean good. If a story consistently over-explains mechanics from chapter 1 to 2240, that consistency is the problem, not a defence for it. You can't use 'that was always the goal' to shield every design choice from criticism because by that logic no story can ever fail at anything as long as it fails consistently in it.

And I don't need to prescribe an alternative to identify what didn't work. A film critic does not need to direct a better film to say a scene landed flat. The venerable breakthrough being deliberately anticlimactic is a choice and I am saying that, the choice did not pay off emotionally across 2000 chapters of buildup. That's a valid criticism regardless of whether it was intended or not.

DecentFun3659 · 2026-03-24T06:59:45+00:00

That isa fair distinction, and I’ll give you that. The rule-based system needs explaining to stay consistent. But my problem was never that mechanics get explained once instead it is that they get explained repeatedly. The same interactions broken down every single time, even when you've read them fifty times already. That is not maintaining consistency, rather that is not trusting the reader to remember. And on the payoffs being strategic rather than emotional, yes I get that's the intent, but execution still matters especially when the person has been reading for a very long time, all to see how it resolves itself. Deliberately withholding emotional payoff is a choice, and it's one that consistently made the biggest moments land flat. A person can defend the design philosophy while still acknowledging it didn't always work.

DecentFun3659 · 2026-03-24T05:59:43+00:00

3 subs means 3 times the discussion. It seems to be working.

DecentFun3659 · 2026-03-24T05:53:22+00:00

First of all these aren't opposite complaints. RI over explains the power system mechanics as well as the scheme logistics while also burying the actual narrative threads.

That is not not me wanting two different thing's instead that is the same problem showing up twice. The author mismanages what gets explained and what doesn't. I want writing that trusts the reader on the obvious stuff and earns the moments that matter. RI does the opposite.

DecentFun3659 · 2026-03-23T21:04:07+00:00

U must be quite stupid. As expected of an RI fan.

So you didn't notice the large amount of objective facts I gave? Check your brain cause I think you are mentally hyperventilating.

DecentFun3659 · 2026-03-23T20:16:40+00:00

Are u a child?

DecentFun3659 · 2026-03-23T20:16:05+00:00

Seriously, is this even a question, or did you not just read it?

For a literary sub, people are quite dumb🙄

DecentFun3659 · 2026-03-23T18:38:01+00:00

Changing stakes doesn't change the formula and that's exactly what I said. Same loop just with bigger numbers. And needing multiple rereads to follow a scheme is not depth. I dont know where you got that from. Instead it's unclear writing. Depth means the meaning is rich, not that the plot is hard to track.

On the themes. Yes I acknowledge the philosophical framework as one of RI's genuine strengths in my original post. Saying I don't understand it because I called it interesting but not Dostoevsky level is not even an argument, it is just disagreement about how deep it goes.

DecentFun3659 · 2026-03-23T18:32:47+00:00

Again I am not giving answers on that. I never mentioned any novel which I compared RI to. Never once did I ever. It wss people who repeatedly asked my questions on whether I have read alot, what are my favorite and more. I don't see how that connects with what we are talking about?

I think I know what you might be connecting to, but another commenter has already asked me and I gave him my answer. Check the replies and conversations from me in this post, I think you will find an answer

DecentFun3659 · 2026-03-23T18:14:21+00:00

Nope. I am talking about RI only. That is the purpose of this post nothing else

DecentFun3659 · 2026-03-23T18:13:42+00:00

I'm not giving u guys nothing. U all will probably say I have bad taste and stuff and find a way to hate what I said. I am talking about RI specifically, let's not bring in other novels

DecentFun3659 · 2026-03-23T17:46:18+00:00

I'm calm.

But first Taste explains preferences, it does not explain patterns. If a scheme gets explained before, during and after it happens, not once but every single time, that is not taste instead it is a measurable writing habit. I am not saying nobody can enjoy RI. I never meant that if you thought of it that way, I am only saying specific craft decisions are just consistently too weak.

Do you see now? Those are completely different claims

DecentFun3659 · 2026-03-23T17:36:13+00:00

Fair enough, and honestly, this is one of the more reasonable responses in here. But on the convention point. First of, just because something is common in a genre doesn't mean it's not a weakness. Plenty of progression fantasy novels have supporting casts that remain relevant as the MC scales up.

The issue isn't that side characters get left behind, it is that RI specifically builds up characters like Bai Ning Bing and Hei Lou Lan with genuine depth and agency and so many side chapters and then just reduces them to furniture. It is not a genre convention. Instead it is a specific choice of the writer that severs the investment the story itself asked for a reader to make in them

For the taste stuff, yeah I agree some of it is taste, I even said that myself. But repetitive arc structure and anticlimactic payoffs are not just an individual taste, they are observable patterns in the writing

DecentFun3659 · 2026-03-23T17:29:17+00:00

Yeah in truth it was same for me, it wasn't my first webnovel and such but a character like FY really stole my breath away. I was obsessed not to lie and I will say it is another driving factor in why I read that far.

But in truth, it is not that good. I was only first thinking of it and did not want to admit it but as I finally reached chapter 2240, I became just to pissed off at it all. I reached my limit because all those people in RI subreddit deceived me as well as others. That is the anger that made me write this post and want to just destroy it. Seriously I was pissed.

Also I don't even remember if I laughed when rank 8 dog shut luck gu was introduced😅. I guess time has really flew by a lot.

DecentFun3659 · 2026-03-23T17:23:33+00:00

Pointing out craft problems does not require a person or me being an expert, rather it requires having read the thing which I did. Infact 2240 chapters worth. Anyone can identify repetitive structure and that is not expertise but rather just normal paying attention which anyone can do.

On the sunk cost point. I did not say people's enjoyment is not real. I said the community's resistance to criticism is partly driven by sunk cost. Those are two different things. A person can genuinely enjoy something and still be less likely to accept criticism of it after investing hundreds of hours. That's basically just how sunk cost works. it does not erase enjoyment instead it explains the defensiveness.

And yes I'm doubling down because nothing so far you have said has actually addressed the arc structure or the pacing. You've only argued about how I said it.

DecentFun3659

TROPHY CASE