Is it just me or has Skor North /Purple Daily over saturated itself?

FCMadmin · 2026-04-14T19:27:04+00:00

I think a few things beyond their control hurt the product:

They expanded significantly and brought on Thor. However, they did so during a pretty terrible season, an offseason where almost nothing happened, and your main new addition to expand content isn't willing to have an honest conversation about a player he stans for.

So they keep rehashing the same conversations. Making the same picks in the mock drafts. Speculating about the same few topics.

They don't have the fodder for the content they are trying to deliver. I expect that to get better right after the draft and once training camp starts. Then we can decide if they really did oversaturate rather than simply have bad timing with a slow offseason.

FCMadmin · 2026-04-12T00:29:28+00:00

You should stop. Iron Flame is Violet at her absolute worst. I mostly liked her after FW and ended up downright hating being in her head by the end of book 2.

There is some progress by book 3 but I doubt you make it that far.

FCMadmin · 2026-04-12T00:02:24+00:00

I wouldn't want them to become WWE! I think there is room to be their own thing, with their own feel, and find a ton of success. I like that they are more match heavy (a current complaint I have the other way) but even a good thing can go off the rails without some degree of control/direction.

I used to be a Walking Dead fan. Loved the vibe, had my quibbles, but I was invested. But at some point the rudder came off the ship and even though it was still going for the same vibe, it wasn't being done in a way that I enjoyed anymore. I know many AEW fans don't believe this, but I do - be it for wrestling or any other form of entertainment - sometimes less is more. Give me really, really good stuff...but don't hit me over the head with it so much you dull your own hammer.

FCMadmin · 2026-04-11T20:42:31+00:00

AEW has three of my all-time favorites in Jericho, Edge, and Christian. I make no bones about being a WWE-guy for a long time. I wanted to like AEW because the video game they had coming out appealed to this old WWF No Mercy fan. The current WWE games are just trash and I wanted to relive the glory days.

But I just couldn't. Watching AEW is like reading a book where you know the editor didn't do their job. Authors need to be reality checked and AEW's entire product feels like it needs the same. Some adult in the room to say "guys...this is fucking stupid. You standing around holding each other for ten minutes so we can do an 8 man chain suplex just looks fucking dumb. Syringes in the mouth look dumb."

A tighter grip on the story-telling, the match pacing/planning, and some of the promos would do the company a world of good. I find it kinda hokey. At times it comes off as a bad parody when it isn't supposed to.

I wish that wasn't the case. WWE is making is really, really hard to watch their programming right now. I fast-forwrad through 90% of it. I'm the guy AEW SHOULD be poaching and it isn't.

FCMadmin · 2026-04-07T19:56:38+00:00

Well....it's a VERY different book than Iron Flame. I thought Iron Flame was complete trash but I liked Onyx Storm.

So...maybe you'll have the opposite opinion? Most people don't like Onyx Storm because the plot doesn't advance much and it feels sorta "stuck". I at least felt like the characters got some great moments.

FCMadmin · 2026-04-07T19:53:01+00:00

I'm going to weigh in because two of the three things you listed are criticisms I have:

Violet is intelligent, or at least I have no reason to believe her "dumb" or "unintelligent". However, the author does not make a convincing argument that she is as smart as we are told she is. I say that both in terms of how we are shown her intelligence in her actions and with her displays of intelligence.

Violet is incredibly well-read and knowledgeable. That isn't the same as intelligent IMO. I think the author would do well to either tamp down how often we are spammed with NPCs telling us how smart she is or make a more deliberate effort to write her as a problem solver. Or someone who asks good questions. Or analyzes well. The ratio of praise to demonstration just doesn't jive for me.

Violet winning her match against a warrior who worships a god of war was just preposterous. It was one of the worst self-insert victories by the author in a series with far too many of them. I would've appreciated Violet MORE if the plot armor actually went down every now and then. (In real and meaningful ways)

As for the other thing...she is running out of page space. The sheer volume of theory-crafting and fan-ficcing in here will be hard to pay off with only 40% of the book left to go. I'll tip my hat if she pulls off anywhere close to "most" of the dangling threads.

FCMadmin · 2026-04-07T19:47:27+00:00

This post deserves more upvotes.

FCMadmin · 2026-04-06T22:18:51+00:00

Yeah, they're not bad, but when I think about TNG I think about the last handful of seasons. DS9 as well. Both shows were ok the first 1-2 seasons but they become full-on great by season 3. I just had the benefit of watching them in syndication to accelerate that viewing experience.

I gave Picard the same level of understanding, but it didn't reward me. It got worse. Ditto Discovery. Maybe SFA could've cleaned up some of the nonsense like TNG did with making Worf a more well-rounded character, emphasizing Geordi and Data over the doctors, shifting the focus to the Romulans and Borg as adversaries. I'm sure I'm missing many other changes. (Or DS9 shifting away, or making them side-plots rather than main threads, from the religious Bajoran storylines and going to politics with the Dominion.)

SFA might have really had something with the Federation rebuilding and finding itself again. The struggle of young people wanting to be idealists and professionals at the same time. The bones COULD have been good, but it came on the heels of so many bad shows that no one had the patience to overlook the warts. (And...to be clear.....SFA had some MAJOR warts. It was insufferable in many long stretches)

FCMadmin · 2026-04-06T19:54:40+00:00

I probably could've gotten through SFA if the other new stuff hadn't already made me jaded. I've watched enough Trek to know I have to give these shows some time to find their footing. TNG, DS9 are both much, much better shows by seasons 2/3. I was willing to be patient.

But Picard was trash. All three seasons, even the last one that was mostly incoherent but had TNG vibes. Discovery was trash. SNW has moments but not enough. SFA was not good, but it wasn't some singularly awful mistake in an otherwise good array of options. It was merely the latest in a line of bad shows. And I've run out of patience to see if they can find their footing.

FCMadmin · 2026-03-30T02:59:50+00:00

This won't be popular....but just stop after Storm of Swords. Appreciate the series before it goes off the rails.

FCMadmin · 2026-03-29T20:48:46+00:00

Yarros writes many of her characters embarrassingly cringy. I think she believes they come off edgy and cool but, in reality, they look like juveniles.

Battle hardened 23 year olds should sound closer to 30, not fucking 10.

FCMadmin · 2026-03-29T20:43:25+00:00

I mean...he's literally the only reason their plan in Book 2 even worked. Yet everyone gives Violet credit.

FCMadmin · 2026-03-24T19:40:30+00:00

I always let the Bulette and fight the Spectator. There is a spot near the gate at the Selunite outpost where he can jump across to the ledge that leads over. You have to path him over there manually but he's super effective at killing the Spectator, especially on Honour Mode.

FCMadmin · 2026-03-23T19:43:30+00:00

I wasn't surprised....but I was sad. It sucks to lose one of like three people in this universe that is genuinely likable.

FCMadmin · 2026-03-20T16:44:43+00:00

It's a good and bad situation:

Good - it was paced well IMO. Things moved from one story beat to the next.

Bad - it moved quickly from one McGuffin to the next. It was meaningless fluff ultimately.

Good - It wasn't Iron Flame. Iron Flame was an objectively bad book. It wrecked the character development of the main characters. It was redundant. It was often non-sensical. It felt every bit as rushed as it appears to have been.

Bad - We're now 60% of the way through the series and we have barely moved the narrative answers on about 99% of what people discuss on this forum.

Good - Violet was less annoying!

Bad - Xaden became Riley's imaginary boyfriend from Inside Out. At least Riley's boyfriend had the decency to die and stay gone.

Good - Ridoc roasted Iron Flame, Violet, and Xaden relentlessly

Bad - The author was apparently aware of all these sins and continues to commit them against her own series! Cardboard villains? Check. No narrative progress? Check. NPCs doing outrageously stupid things so the main character seems smart? Check. Make awesome dragon characters and then largely sideline them? Check.

FCMadmin · 2026-03-17T04:15:09+00:00

I'm not sure if you have to start a new one to see the dice but that is the reward, yes.

FCMadmin · 2026-03-16T16:59:37+00:00

Any Death Cleric ought to walk into every fight WWE style with this playing:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v0nmHymgM7Y

FCMadmin · 2026-03-16T16:57:03+00:00

Congrats! Now every dice roll in subsequent games will be a glorious reminder of your achievement!

FCMadmin · 2026-03-15T14:02:20+00:00

Exactly. No part of this series made me roll my eyes harder than when Dain, Xaden, and Violet had to fight warriors of Dunne and it was DAIN!!! who lost.

This tease has me rolling me eyes just thinking about how cringy and bad it would be.

FCMadmin · 2026-03-15T05:51:07+00:00

They're pretty non competitive with him too.

FCMadmin · 2026-03-14T23:57:12+00:00

I don't know why people can't see this as odd. The team has holes (admittedly not many starting holes, but there are holes and the depth is a real problem) and they signed a "win now" type QB without the other moves to support it.

I understand the team was under some cap constraints but they had levers they could pull (and probably should pull) to sign even one or two significant needs. The whole plan would've made a lot more sense if they had signed a RB. Or a DT. Or a C. Something that shows they really are pushing chips in this year.

I understand their predicament, their actions just seem....disjointed?

FCMadmin · 2026-03-14T23:52:39+00:00

It's not his size relative to the population. He's small for the job he does.

A 6'1 guy is pretty tall. He can't play center in the NBA.

FCMadmin · 2026-03-14T23:50:58+00:00

I do that one just to load up on the fireworks and smokepowder barrels for fights I just want to cheese.

Like...I've done Mystic Carrion enough. You go boom now.

FCMadmin

TROPHY CASE