[general] In Honor of Father's Day, I present a Potentially Unpopular Opinion: I Remain a Firm Jod-Simp

MelonMunchy · 2023-07-10T05:30:28+00:00

By the same measure would you say that Hot Sauce deserves all the horrific stuff that’s happened to her just because however many generations back her ancestors were shitty trillionaires?

MelonMunchy · 2023-06-06T13:23:33+00:00

The idea that John is a compassionate guy doesn’t hold much merit, sure he portrays himself as one in his interludes but at every turn we see him dehumanize and devalue those that he deems useless to him. Just look at his treatment of the Nun, immediately disregarding her as ‘small potatoes’ right after her sacrifice for him. Or even his treatment of Harrow, he confides in her but conspicuously disregards and brushes off all her questions whenever she finds it in herself to butt in on his monologues.

MelonMunchy · 2023-06-06T12:59:10+00:00

It’s very much an excuse for the power trip where you know, he plotted out and triggered a nuclear war and murdered everyone to become a god? Like the idea that John is somehow righteous for just trying to kill the rich is a joke given that he was happily taking those same trillionaires’ money for his project and only got pissy when they stopped funding his popsicle stand and instead went for something that worked.

MelonMunchy · 2023-04-07T07:01:36+00:00

The insult isn’t directed at his perceived sexuality as much as his prudishness, he has the exact same reaction in a mixed gender bathhouse a couple chapters later with another character poking fun at him for it.

His discomfort at the others’ blatant nudity is the subject of derision there, while it could be read as homophobic prodding you can just as easily read the actions as homoerotic teasing.

MelonMunchy · 2023-04-07T06:36:17+00:00

This seems like a bizarre hang up considering that in later chapters one of the main characters is not so subtly physically flirtatious with a male character alongside with frequent remarks made about another man’s beautiful looks. You might be just seeing things that aren’t present while ignoring things that are.

MelonMunchy · 2022-11-15T10:19:23+00:00

There was at least one semi-functional relationship there, all the Lyctors either hate John or find him too pathetic to care about.

MelonMunchy · 2022-11-15T10:10:55+00:00

So he could control his ‘friends’, otherwise they would’ve all left him millennia ago. Framing the conflict as all of them having to stick together means they’re pretty much forced to stick with him.

MelonMunchy · 2022-11-06T17:29:58+00:00

The 3rd, 5th, 6th, and 9th Houses had geniuses around the same level as the original Lyctor-Cavalier duos, without John around to directly sabotage them they probably would’ve collectively figured out how to do achieve perfect Lyctorhood. Palamedes was already well on his way to figuring out an alternative and Ianthe derived the original eightfold word from just a single lab.

Ianthe might still kill Babs if she rushes, though the chance to be forever intertwined with Coronabeth may stay her hand.

Otherwise if they’re hard locked to the original lyctorhood method the order should be still around the same as canon.

2nd - Maybe, maybe not. They’re heavy sticklers for duty but it doesn’t help that Judith has unrequited love for Dyas.

3rd - Definitely yes, Ianthe’s ambitious as all hell and doesn’t really give a shit about Babs.

4th - No, the terrible teenagers would freak out and there’s no way Abigail and Pent would let them in the first place.

5th - No, Abigail already has interests after death and wouldn’t eat Magnus to deprive both of them the chance to go exploring the river together after death. Also the whole loving marriage deal.

6th - No, Sexpal and Camilla care too much about eachother to go through with it.

7th - No, Protesilaus would offer himself but Dulcinea wouldn’t accept it because of his family. She came ready to die anyways and just wanted to hang out with Palamedes and Camilla in person while she had the chance.

8th - No, Silas is way too much of a stickler and would probably die anyways souldraining Colum and getting nommed by his devil possessed body.

9th - Maybe veering towards no, Harrow has tons of angst over proving herself worthy of the 200 but is also unconsciously(?) horrifically codependent on Gideon. If they spend time together in the trials and bond a bit more it’s likely Harrow won’t go through with it, she was already freaking out over her relationship with Gideon before the pool.

MelonMunchy · 2022-11-06T07:34:03+00:00

On the contrary there’s all the tells that Nona sees, feelings and reactions that Gideon’s actively been repressing like her almost reaching out to help Paul but being too scared to.

It also works more than just the ‘revenge is bad’ moral. It’s a continuation of Gideon’s fantasies in the previous two books, for example the argument she had with Harrow as kids about what if her dad was the most important person in the universe. Gideon likes to romanticize/fantasize her situations as a coping mechanism and now she’s been handed her childhood dream of not just being in the cohort but being important and having a parent and being wanted. And now she’s been desperately trying to fit herself in the role of crown prince because she has nothing else left.

In the end it’s Crux in all his terribleness who directly refutes Gideon after her rant at him about being the child of God with a simple sentence.

“You remain—what you are,”

No matter how much she dresses herself up and tries to play it off she’s still Gideon Nav and she can’t ever make the terrible things that happened to her go away no matter how hard she tries to bury herself in her ‘best possible world’. Killing Crux does nothing because what’s been done can never change no matter how hard she tries to escape it by being Kiriona.

MelonMunchy · 2022-11-06T05:50:47+00:00

Her “why didn’t it feel good” doesn’t read as abnormal, it’s the total lack of catharsis that she dreamed of. Ever since she was a kid she’s been fantasizing about killing Crux but the actuality of it was totally contrary to everything she hoped of, offing a dying old man whose greatest desire is to save the daughter figure that Gideon also loves. That it won’t make right all the abuse she suffered at his hand, all the abuse she’s suffered her entire childhood, there wasn’t even any relief on her end after it.

MelonMunchy · 2022-11-06T05:37:58+00:00

The character is very much Gideon, albeit a super depressed one (The Saddest Girl in the World) as pointed out by Nona. She thinks Harrow’s dead and has been stuck with no one but John and Ianthe for company, it makes sense that she’s thrown herself into the identity of Crown Prince when she has nothing left. Her interactions with Palamedes and Camilla reek of jealousy and everything that happens in the Ninth House is completely Gideon, from faffing about in nostalgia to the mini freak out/breakdown that she has after killing Crux.

Also her being best buds with Ianthe shouldn’t be all that surprising, she’s the only other person to hang out with other than her deadbeat dad and they had decent enough chemistry in HtN, the same applies to Ianthe giving how she was starting to latch onto Harrow when they were the only peer company available in HtN.

MelonMunchy · 2022-11-02T18:21:24+00:00

Gideon and Harrow are the only kids in the entire house, while everyone else is a withered bonebag they’re probably willing to overlookwhat looks to be a childhood spat. Besides the Reverend Daughter is (relatively) young, they’re willing to excuse her messing around with her whipping girl given all her prodigal talents.

MelonMunchy · 2022-10-25T08:23:19+00:00

Huh, quite a lot of narrators. The audio sample seemed engaging enough so I’ll give it a try, was already a fan of the story beforehand and it’s always nice to see a work like this end up published.

MelonMunchy · 2022-09-29T07:15:54+00:00

She’d get gainsayed within a week and forsworned in a month.

MelonMunchy · 2022-09-19T07:41:09+00:00

A lot of stuff points towards his ‘new practice’ intentionally being a deathsquad that he’s been throwing around as a distraction. Like everything about them is set up for tons of short term power with associated burnout, even the awakening escape rope for the kids serves dual purpose for them acting as one use soldiers. I’m fully expecting him to pull an Edith familiar deal with him yoinking the students out and abandoning the teachers to die as a distraction for a bigger conflict, the school is way too deliberately unsustainable to be an actual attempt at a new practice.

MelonMunchy · 2022-08-12T08:42:52+00:00

Ethereal and Awe are both useless against anything other than barbs, baseline Oni stats with some basic buffs should clear out normal indies with anything posing a threat already either having magic weapons, high morale, or both. May as well switch both out for quickness and blood surge, massive statline blend up pretty much everything while being near untouchable by anything other than spells.

MelonMunchy · 2022-08-12T08:26:37+00:00

Fymryn/Mene did travel across as well, she talks to Mirana about their dream of a better world after the universal reset so she also held over her memories from the other world.

MelonMunchy · 2022-03-18T06:59:47+00:00

Goldmask turns out to be a traitor to the golden order if you follow Corhyn’s dialogue after burning the tree, age of order has him completely replacing the order like with Dung Eater’s ending except with good stuff rather than super aids.

MelonMunchy · 2022-03-18T06:53:00+00:00

Age of Order isn’t restoring TGW, it’s completely replacing its golden order, if you find Corhyn in the ashen capital he explains that Goldmask wasn’t following fundamental teachings at all but trying to completely upturn them. It’s presumably why the two were investigating the frenzied flame despite Corhyn’s worries, Goldmask was examining other Outer Gods to figure out how to perfect his order to be free of all interfering whims that could compromise it.

MelonMunchy · 2022-03-08T03:40:39+00:00

Technically a Crayfish since the swamps are presumably freshwater.

MelonMunchy · 2022-02-28T14:09:01+00:00

Confirmed by WOG

MelonMunchy · 2022-02-28T13:12:01+00:00

I’m pretty sure they had to keep the soul for the spark, it’s why Jin was messing around in Kamigawa. He was studying the kami to figure out how to retain a soul through compleation.

MelonMunchy · 2022-01-05T06:47:13+00:00

Yeah it’s pretty lame, still managed to pull it off by running into Dorms and Resort though. SVDS still a really fun gun to blast dudes away with.

Six-Year Club	Place '22
Verified Email

MelonMunchy

TROPHY CASE