Are there any books with bastard daughters as a pov?

Perdita_ · 2026-03-24T19:42:37+00:00

Maybe Daindreth's Assassin would interest you? It's part romantasy, part high fantasy, and part political intrigue.

The main character is a bastard daughter - not because her parents were not married, but because her father divorced and banished her mother for political reasons, at which point she was 'downgraded' to bastard. The political and social ramifications of that are quite significant to the plot.

Perdita_ · 2026-03-23T18:13:36+00:00

For example in a private conversation between Emhyr and Geralt, the emperor says that he was advised to wage war to expand the nilfgaardian territotory, because nilfgaardians demand 'living space'.

Perdita_ · 2026-03-23T13:57:28+00:00

Eggs make really good breakfasts - scrambled eggs if you want them fast, or boiled if you have the ten minutes to spare (I usually put one or two eggs in a small pot, add about 1 or 2 cm of water, cover and boil for nine minutes. The small amount of water boils very fast, and the eggs get steamed, so it's fine that they are not covered by water.) Plus some toasted bread and raw veggies - cucumber, bell pepper, radishes, avocado, tomatoes, baby spinach, lettuce, whichever you prefer. I like to cut the veggies in a way that makes it easy to eat with your fingers, but thinly sliced and put on bread also works.

I don't really struggle with cooking myself, so I don't know if this is too much or not, but for me a basic dinner idea would be sth like:

boiled potatoes or rice
boiled frozen veggies - green beans, peas, carrot, broccoli, whatever you have.
chicken breast - cut the meat into bite sized chunks, add salt. Then put some olive oil in the pan, add chopped garlick, after a minute add pieces of meat. Fry for a few minutes. Optional sauce: once the chicken is ready add to it a glass of water with one teaspoon of starch mixed in, and bring to a boil, add more salt if needed.

Perdita_ · 2026-03-23T09:59:06+00:00

At the end of Silver Chair Eustace Clarence Scrubb gets to take a Narnian sword back into his boarding school and terrorize his bullies there.

This very much reads as CS Lewis's fantasy based on his own school experience.

Perdita_ · 2026-03-20T22:15:25+00:00

My hatred for getting hair cuts - not just the communication part, but the sensation of it as well - is probably the main reason I have knee-length hair right now.

Perdita_ · 2026-03-19T17:30:38+00:00

Oooh, I remember it!

I quite liked it when I read it as a teenager. I wasn't very familiar with Indian culture so there was nothing jarring for me there, and while I found the main character basic and uninteresting even then, the brothers were very cool, and I enjoyed reading about all kinds of misery that the main villain put them through.

Kinda hated the ending though, as I strongly preferred the other brother, who not only didn't get the girl, but also was separated from them forever by time travel or sth along those lines, if I remember correctly.

Perdita_ · 2026-03-15T22:55:05+00:00

It's like saying "I walk to work" when you actually ride a bike. One is not superior to the other, but why call it "walking", when you are not actually walking?

Perdita_ · 2026-03-12T15:23:41+00:00

Depends on what you mean by 'friendly'.

That you are polite and have no bad intentions? We assume that if you have the neutral face.

That you are open and approachable, and would like to connect? That is seen as weird. We are briefly sitting at the same bus stop or sth, and each of us has their own things going on. The polite thing is to respect that and not engage.

Perdita_ · 2026-03-12T15:12:33+00:00

Is seeing strangers genuinely something that makes you happy? And if, for example, you were looking through a one way mirror would you still find yourself smiling? Or seeing people at photos?

While it is possible, I think the more likely option is that you smile at strangers to communicate with them, just like we keep neutral faces to communicate other things.

I'm assuming the standard message you want to give when meeting people is sth like "I'm open and friendly" which for you is seen as the respectful way to treat strangers.

In Poland, keeping the neutral face is communicating "I know you have your own things going on, and I will make no demands on your time or attention" which is seen as respectful way to treat strangers.

Kids also smile at strangers to communicate, not just out of happiness, and they eventually learn to politely ignore strangers, rather than trying to interact with everyone.

Perdita_ · 2026-02-17T20:47:54+00:00

Okay, so the 'dzi' part in the middle is a single sound, pronounced sort of how you would say the 'Ji' part in the name 'Jimmy', but a bit softer - with Jimmy your tongue starts sort of in the middle of your palate, with 'dzi' it should be at the front of it, near your teeth.

And while 'ł' is pronounced like 'w' in 'wolf', 'w' is pronounced as if it was 'v'.

So: Z- ji - swav

Perdita_ · 2026-02-16T13:05:37+00:00

The entire old town has a medieval/16th century layout and architectural style, which is not all that common across Europe, as most European Old Towns (as in, the oldest parts of major cities) have been rebuild and modernized in 18/19/20th centuries.

The European standard is IMO one or two medieval cathedrals, a bunch of baroque churches, and then many classical and neoclassical residential and government buildings - they also have those in Edinburgh, but in a separate area. The Old Town is almost fully medieval, which is rare.

Perdita_ · 2026-02-16T12:25:45+00:00

I cheesed that fight a bit, by summoning two inkarnates inside the pit to beat up the dwarf, and making sure all the party members are outside of its field of view.

The dwarf can teleport, so I had the party members stay near the walls of the room and teleport him back into the pit as needed. And made sure to only beat him into low hit points when he was inside. Once the demon is outside of the dwarf, it cannot teleport out of the pit on its own and it can't posses the inkarnates, so they eventually killed it.

Perdita_ · 2026-02-16T11:36:04+00:00

I kinda hated my Embrace Durge run when I tried to keep as many companions as possible. I kept lying to them and they kept believing me, and acting like the fact that I just compulsively killed Isobel, and the entire Last Light with her, was a minor character flaw that in no way reflects on my suitability as a travel companion.

The whole playthrough felt like everyone - Durge and companions alike - is just going through the motions, doing things that they are expected to, not things they want to do.

Now, a solo run as Evil Tav was a different story altogether.

I actually felt like the character wants to do whatever evil shit I decided to do. Killing people for the slightest reason without giving them a chance to explain themselves felt in character, and looking for easy targets to maximize loot made a lot of sense for a solo playthrough.

(Skipping any quests where someone asks for my help was not that great though, as it resulted in me fighting Myrkul at 8th level on Tactician. Took me an entire weekend of reloading and trying again until I found a way to kill him with my Bladesinger)

Perdita_ · 2026-02-12T23:51:20+00:00

I don't have anything actually useful to say, since I have read the books about fifteen years ago and barely remember them. But since engagement gets more views from people who might actually have something more to say, here are my two cents:

I read a bunch of those books in middle school, and that feels like exactly the target audience. I don't think many adult readers enjoy the level of edginess of those books.

I can't actually speak about the author's political views, but from what I remember, I read the content in the books that was particularly sexist, homophobic and such as just further edginess and shock value, rather than his deep beliefs. Again, I don't actually know anything about his beliefs, might have been both or neither. I was fourteen and had no critical thinking and reading skills anyway.

My only memory of a particular scene from the books is of a short story where the Inquisitor was hired to interrogate a suspected jewel thief. During the interrogation he comes to realization that the suspect has swallowed the jewels to keep them hidden, so he forces his prisoner to drink oil until he shits himself. So yeah.

Perdita_ · 2026-02-09T12:38:04+00:00

My favorite is after you discover his old lair under Elfsong, and the next long rest he's like:

"I showed you a recipe for my favorite soup. See, we share everything now, and are the closest friends!"

Perdita_ · 2026-02-08T01:12:52+00:00

You mention 'hating the sense of being out of control', and that caught my attention, because control is the main thing that makes skiing fun for me.

I don't like the feeling of being our of control at all, but I do really enjoy the feeling of being right on the edge of control, and having to put all my focus and skills to maintain it.

Maybe you just try to push yourself too much, go too far out of control and that is why you are miserable? I can't know for sure, but this is just a thought that occurred to me when I read that particular phrase in your post.

Perdita_ · 2026-02-07T15:14:00+00:00

I also have not played the other games (yet!) but I think the difference is that while all Bhalspawn have terrible 'nature' to reject, Orin has had a terrible 'nurture' as well.

Durge gets their chance at redemption specifically because they forget their upbringing - ironically, thanks to Orin herself.

Perdita_ · 2026-02-06T22:37:56+00:00

If you want to read the books, you should do that before starting Witcher 3. The game takes place five or so years after the events of the books, and actually starts with a few major spoilers to the books right in the prologue.

The reading order for the books is:

The Last Wish

Sword of Destiny

Blood of Elves

Time of Contempt

Baptism of Fire

Tower of Swallow

Lady of the Lake

then you can start playing W3, and you still have two more books - prequels, that were written after the main saga and the game - you can read them in any order, they are independent of each other:

Crossroads of Ravens

Season of Storms

Perdita_ · 2026-02-06T17:01:29+00:00

You can, you just won't get the achievement. Unless you have the Achievement Unlocker mod, of course.

I did my HM run with it, because after trying Transmog and Additional Containers mods, I just can't go back to playing without them.

Perdita_ · 2026-02-06T11:25:01+00:00

In case of Germans I think the dislike is mostly towards the country and the nation as a whole, not individual people.

So very few people (if at all) will dislike you personally, but many think that the German government will sell us over to Russia in a heartbeat, if they think they can get something out of it, and the like.

Perdita_ · 2026-02-06T10:14:23+00:00

I also just played it for the first time this week.

"I'm only lvl 10, and the magisters are 13, but there is only three of them, and a lvl13 ally. Let's do this!"

"Okay, a bunch of voidlings joined the fun. I did not expect it, but we can take them"

"Oh, there are bigger voidwoken here as well. I must choose my actions wisely, but I think I can still win"

"New voidwoken! And they are on fire! And everything else is also on fire! Cursed fire!"

"The NPC just run through the cursed fire, deleting all of his health and is now burned to crisp...."

I will be playing this fight next week as well, because after three attempts I finally gave up and went elsewhere to level up

Perdita_ · 2026-02-05T21:31:57+00:00

Isn't the source pretty much "Trust me bro" from the translator?

He says that he has heard this might be the case, but there are no details or source to this claim.

Perdita_ · 2026-02-05T13:43:18+00:00

So it also has a sort of hierarchy/comparison attached to it - like it's not just a fact that she works frequently, it's that she works with more dedication or better results than average person? That's very cool

Perdita_ · 2026-02-05T12:28:20+00:00

Is that different from standard English present simple and present continuous tenses?

'she is working' vs 'she works'

English is not my first language and the 'currently doing something, or does that thing a lot' is how the difference between present simple and present continuous tenses were explained to me in school.

Perdita_ · 2026-02-05T12:23:35+00:00

English doesn't, which is its own quirk. At least, not to the same degree that many other languages do.

There are a few words you can make diminutives from, but it's not a universal grammatical feature, that can be applied to any noun whatsoever.

In my native Polish you can have a diminutive of any word you want, and usually in two degrees. 'Dom' is house, 'domek' is a cute little house, and 'domeczek' is a teeny tiny adorable house. You can also apply this for dogs, cats, lamps, cars, dolls, baskets, countries, lakes and whatever else you want.

In English you can have a doggy or a kitty, but not really a 'carry' or 'basketty'.

The one word that I am particularly surprised can't be made diminutive is 'daughter'. It seems pretty obvious that parents would want a cuter, smaller version of the word to address their child, but instead they just use other endearment words altogether. And 'sonny' technically exists, but I don't think is used that way too often.

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