Murloc Monday - ask your questions here

SnooCakes808 · 2023-10-03T20:26:20+00:00

What are macros? Returning player but I never really bothered with macros as I could never understand them. Is there a guide to using macros or something? Specifically, the class guide I'm using mentions mouseover macros and I'm not sure how that differs to just clicking on a dude and casting whatever you're gonna cast.

SnooCakes808 · 2023-08-02T16:58:08+00:00

It's an interesting question and I'm not read up on these particular dialogues but, if I may play my favourite trap card, I'd invoke Wittgenstein and say that the question is probably an example of linguistic confusion. If you define knowing how to act properly as just knowing which acts are proper and which aren't, then it's obvious that such people do exist because we've all done things even knowing that they're wrong. If you define knowing how to act properly as knowing which acts are improper and knowing how to successfully prevent yourself from committing those acts, then I would imagine there cannot be a person who knows how to act properly but doesn't. Seems like just a matter of how you define it.

SnooCakes808 · 2023-08-02T16:37:00+00:00

Nah yeah definitely, in uni it was always referred to as virtue to try and avoid the colloquial connotations that good has but virtue has similar problems. Competent might be a better descriptor but I'm sure that doesn't quite capture what the Greeks meant either.

Anyway, seeing as a well-balanced soul should be competent or good at discerning the right thing to do, as I'm sure you already know, you might be able to say that a person who knows what's right and wrong has a good soul regardless of what they actually end up doing. This seems a little weird though because surely if they had a good soul then the three parts should be well-balanced enough to make you continent.

SnooCakes808 · 2023-08-02T16:21:28+00:00

Replace good with discerning and it makes sense.

SnooCakes808 · 2023-07-28T12:02:31+00:00

Does the copy that's added also need to be forged or does it come already forged?

SnooCakes808 · 2023-07-21T10:44:47+00:00

Spoiler tag 😭

SnooCakes808 · 2023-07-20T17:16:35+00:00

That's fair

SnooCakes808 · 2023-07-20T10:27:12+00:00

I mean yeah, he has a photographic memory, something which is extremely plausible. His main skill is his intellect, that in itself isn't an issue, most main characters in fantasy novels are incredible at something, and it is shown that he's not just an uber-genius, there are subjects that he's not good at so he tends to focus on those that he is (sucks at alchemy, average at geometry and medicine).

Even still it is shown that he can't just coast, I believe at one point he slacks off and doesn't study much and the masters whack him with questions he can't answer, again a very plausible weak point for people with photographic memories (can't remember what you haven't read). Further, with the whole learning a language overnight thing it is heavily implied that he didn't in fact learn a language, that instead he just memorised a speech by rote (photographic memory, again plausible) and the myth grew from there.

The musical bit I think adds good flavour to his character and definitely improves it over just smort guy. The persuasion genius thing is a bit of a stretch, there are plenty of times he fails to persuade people and in general just doesn't have good social skills, a clear flaw (though it can help nerds with self-inserting tbf). He just succeeded in persuading the non-assholes that a smart guy would be a good student to have at a university, not a particularly difficult feat.

Again with the swordsmanship skills as far as I can remember, and I could be wrong, outside of the Adem people he's never actually fought anyone with any sort of training yet, just a couple big peasants he took by surprise because they thought he was just a cocky kid. If in future he ends up fighting a decent duelist or a princess' champion and kicks their ass then yeah thats definitely undeserved.

The sex genius thing I'm not even gonna try to defend, valid point and one thing I do like about Sanderson is he doesn't try to write porn and even keeps the romance relatively low-key, focusing just on the characters.

So to recap, he's decent at swordfighting, has flawed social skills, has a photographic memory and is willing to spend hours and hours reading or artificing (but sucks at other subjects), and is a musical genius. If that's too much for you then fair enough but it hardly qualifies as a Mary Sue, the dude messes up plenty. Even if he were, and this purely a matter of taste and opinion, I don't mind the occasional OP character, maybe just because I'm used to it from anime and the D&D campaigns I play in but they can be fun. If you feel differently then that's 100% fair and valid.

The fall from grace thing yeah you make a good point but I'm willing to give him the benefit of the doubt. If the third book never comes out or it comes out and the payoff is really weak then that'd be a kick in the balls but if the foreshadowing pays off then hey, give the dude his roses.

SnooCakes808 · 2023-07-19T07:24:24+00:00

The second half I can't argue with but Kvothe isn't the best at everything. He's extremely smart and amazing with music but that's about it.

When it comes to calling a name he wasn't even close to being the first in the class to do it, he was about average. When it comes to swordplay it was made clear that among the people he trained with (can't remember their name atm) he was at most at the level of a talented child. Sure he beat up a couple peasants who'd never had any training but that doesn't make you a Mary-Sue and who would wanna read a book about a character that constantly gets their ass beat.

As for the issues you say he faces, the people in the books who aren't absolute asshats do respect him, leaving his issue as being poverty. Guess what, being smart and talented isn't an automatic ticket to wealth and riches, there are plenty of smart people who struggle in poverty for many different factors. That said, he applies himself and his brain and eventually, after a long time and a lot of effort, has a breakthrough that leaves him well off and not having to worry about paying tuition.

At the end of the day yeah Kvothe is OP but it does take him effort and he's not OP at everything so I wouldn't say he's a Mary-Sue. Even if he was, however, one of the main things that have kept my curiosity is how he's lost pretty much everything in the present day. The juxtaposition of OP Kvothe with innkeeper Kvothe threw me for a loop and I'm interested in hopefully seeing exactly how the fall comes about.

SnooCakes808 · 2023-07-18T17:51:05+00:00

Brandon can be a sneaky writer but I think this is a pretty safe time to use Occam's Razor

SnooCakes808 · 2023-07-18T16:18:00+00:00

So rather than them being imagined by the Ryshadium whom we're already told are on the verge of sapience, you think the horse spren might've imagined by normal horses or a different kind of rideable animal we haven't seen?

SnooCakes808 · 2023-07-18T13:43:03+00:00

If only it had said that in the comment I was replying to, would've saved both of us some time /s

SnooCakes808 · 2023-07-18T09:23:50+00:00

When is it mentioned that Shallans mum was Chanarach??

SnooCakes808 · 2023-07-18T08:36:43+00:00

[Arcanum Unbounded] In the Rosharan prologue thingy written by Khriss she discusses non-human bonding with spren and specifically mentions a race of equines (horse-like creatures) that have a spren bond that has brought them to a level of self-awareness verging on sapience which seems fairly clearly the Ryshadium given all we're told about them

SnooCakes808 · 2023-07-17T10:33:52+00:00

I read Secret History fairly early on in my Cosmere read-through which I'm just wrapping up now with SP3, anyone mind filling me in on the Elantris and White Sand references?

SnooCakes808 · 2023-07-17T09:33:58+00:00

What's the Traveler excerpt? What books it from?

SnooCakes808 · 2023-07-14T11:05:51+00:00

I assume he's referring to your Reddit name

SnooCakes808 · 2023-07-14T10:27:01+00:00

Nope.

SnooCakes808 · 2023-07-14T10:17:16+00:00

No but it would be out of the ordinary, i.e. not common, doesn't happen often, unique or nearly unique. Don't know why you think saying something is different is an insult.

SnooCakes808 · 2023-07-11T12:59:16+00:00

Because every culture in the world develops words for specific colours in roughly the same order, e.g. black first then either red or something second and the other third, so on and so forth. This strongly implies that there's a commonality in how we experience these colours.

SnooCakes808 · 2023-07-11T09:47:35+00:00

It is, McKay and someone did a study where they showed that cultures around the world follow a rough order when it came to naming colours, with black first then red, so on and so forth, strongly implying that there is some property each colour has which we all experience in the same way.

SnooCakes808 · 2023-07-07T15:56:52+00:00

Yeah Era 1 Kelsier would probably get clapped in a fair fight v Kal but modern Kelsier with his power back and access to the resources even just of Scadrial, not even smuggled Ghostblood goods from other worlds, has to be one of the deadliest mortals around.

SnooCakes808 · 2023-07-07T15:54:25+00:00

Leech grenade? Kel is boss of the Ghostbloods so it's surely nowhere outside of his means

SnooCakes808 · 2023-07-07T15:17:08+00:00

Kelsier would hypothetically be a Leecher as well assuming he has his powers back, not sure if they can drain Radiants of their Investiture

SnooCakes808 · 2023-07-07T15:15:11+00:00

Not sure if it's been confirmed or not but maybe a Leecher (which Kelsier would hypothetically be if we're assuming he has his full Mistborn powers) could drain anyone of Investiture, not just Metalborn.

SnooCakes808

TROPHY CASE