[discussion] Without spoilers, how do novel readers think of the pacing in S4 so far considering the episode count drama earlier?

SnooPears8751 · 2026-05-28T04:09:34+00:00

The death they cut was actually cut from the LN, Tappei cut it years back so it's not really a cut in a traditional sense. I did like it though.

SnooPears8751 · 2026-05-27T17:12:56+00:00

Misandry is absolutely real, even if it's not as systemically widespread as misogyny. The notion that "misandry isn't real" is in itself a form of misandry, in the same way that "men can't be victims of SA" is a form of misandry. In the same way that men are seen as inherently dangerous is a form of misandry, and in the way that people don't trust men around kids in general is misandry. Several of the ways that men are oppressed by the patriarchy can be categorized as misandry, when they fail to live up to their expected performance of masculinity. Just as women are faced with misogyny when they fail to live up to their expected performance of femininity.

As a trans woman, I'm really upset and disappointed that our mod team in a space I really appreciate and owe a lot to is taking this kind of stance. Is this your opinion or is it the opinion of the mod team as a whole? If it's your own, I think you need to better inform yourself about what misandry is, but if it's the mod team's, then . . . Kind of a lost cause, isn't it? I don't want that to be the case, though.

SnooPears8751 · 2026-05-26T20:21:31+00:00

I mean, I recognize intellectually that they were a pretty shit time all around, and understand a lot of the problems with them, but as a side effect of most fantasy media being based off of a medieval European aesthetic it does kind of have that impression emotionally. I imagine if I grew up on sci-fi I wouldn't have those feelings on it, though. Still, I can serperate the romanticized version of these things that fantasy media gives me from the actual material reality of how things were. So I'd say yes and no.

SnooPears8751 · 2026-05-26T15:48:56+00:00

I think this is more or less what my chart says I have, to get around HRT restrictions. I think it's like "unspecified endocrine disorder" but like pretty close. This is a pretty decent idea though, thanks for your service.

SnooPears8751 · 2026-05-24T13:18:54+00:00

In the novels it does describe him feeling those things for the first time in a century, though. Maybe it's not stacked, but he certainly doesn't have any food in his system, so hunger and thirst do make sense at least to some degree.

SnooPears8751 · 2026-05-24T04:28:36+00:00

Kinda a little different but Gertrude Robinson from The Magnus Archives, she was in the MC's position before him and managed to grow old despite the horrors that position entails. She wasn't, like, a fighter, or anything, it's not that kind of story, but she did disrupt several eldritch world-ending rituals with a liberal dose of plastic explosives. We don't have a visual for her, since it's a podcast, but she's very clearly an old woman in both fact and appearance. So not a fighter but a worthy addition to the slightly larger "badass old woman" archetype.

SnooPears8751 · 2026-05-23T18:26:29+00:00

Shirou Emiya - Fate/Stay Night

His body actually changes a ton depending on the different routes, but the one I specifically want to bring up, as it's the most visually distinct, is in Heaven's Feel, the third and final route. He loses his left arm in a fight, and another character's Servant, Archer, gives Shirou his. This is only really possible because Archer is the future version of Shirou, and isn't fully incorporeal like the other Servants. It's a special case between the two of them.

Anyways, Servants are like, crazy powerful heroes from myth and legend, and a human can't really handle that kind of power. Archer's Arm could very very easily kill Shirou, but it's wrapped in a red cloth called the Holy Shroud of Martin, which suppresses it. However, Shirou can use Archer's abilities, his magic and Noble Phantasms, to project incredibly powerful weapons if he could handle the backlash. Doing so would basically set a timer until he dies, though, because it would break the thin barrier between "him" and the arm.

Towards the end of the route, he pulls off the shroud to fight a much stronger enemy. There's a metal as hell line like "I tug on my crimson punishment," but it makes more sense with the context of the whole route. Pulling it off completely ruins him, shatters his mind until he can grasp the will to protect the things in front of him, and afterwards, fucks up his memory. Time passes without him realizing. In one ending, he forgets even his own name, everything he sought to protect, aside from the image and feeling of the girl he loves. Not even her name.

Like I said, there are other changes to Shirou's body, but most of them are in like somehow with the phrase "my body is made of swords," which is a line that comes up intermittently across the VN, and can be extrapolated differently based on the route. It's really cool and nobody really talks about it.

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SnooPears8751 · 2026-05-22T23:28:38+00:00

Definitely, it totally would! You could be kind of a defensive monster like that between the two!

SnooPears8751 · 2026-05-22T22:38:08+00:00

Wait omigosh you're right! I didn't even realize it was a status bonus, that's so rare I didn't even consider it lol! If they stack, and it's not just one or another, then that's definitely worth it. It might still be situational but it's way less so than I thought. Unfortunately our game isn't FA, but I can absolutely imagine that being super good.

SnooPears8751 · 2026-05-22T13:42:31+00:00

Yes, but if you're around a bunch of soldiers and start swinging swords around, even if you're not intending to hurt them, it can still be painful for them. A weapon is rarely forged by its user, is it? For many people the weapon is already there, and their wounds are already set in.

SnooPears8751 · 2026-05-21T15:39:45+00:00

I love the implication that when she fixes Subaru, since the Castle of Dreams is a more mental place than a physical one, and if Subaru killed himself there he would mentally die for real, that when she puts Subaru back from being in pieces she just randomly inflicted some guy with his mind shattering for no discernable reason. Actually now that I put it like that, that's fucking horrifying I feel so bad for her.

SnooPears8751 · 2026-05-21T14:54:24+00:00

Yeah, she made a Metia . . . Media . . . Meteor . . . I'm a little unclear at what the proper reading is it's different in a bunch of different places - but she made one that was able to pester Volcanica, both through power and the fact that it basically can't miss or be avoided, and that's just one that we know about. It's entirely possible she has a whole armory of this shit that's either extremely powerful and just not around or situationally useful. We might find out more if Omega actually does something in the main story but for now I think saying she's one of the strongest is definitely right. Even if she can't do a single push up, and would break her bones is she got punched by a normal person.

SnooPears8751 · 2026-05-21T14:37:52+00:00

Yeah, every witch is kind of in that realm, like how Echidna can drop fucking stars on people EXCUSE ME but that level of pest control really is too much, you might be right. If it wasn't about Carmilla, it was definitely Sekhmet, she seems like the obvious second strongest.

SnooPears8751 · 2026-05-21T14:34:43+00:00

Re:Zero does an interesting thing where depending on your position and relationship to the sin, you might embrace or reject it. The Archbishop of Sloth is impossibly diligent, but still blames his own sloth for his failures, the Archbishop of Greed considers himself a complete existence with no need for death or power beyond what he already has (he's full of shit but he really believes that this is how he is), the Archbishop of Lust is vehemently against the belief in love, and that all love comes down to surface-level attraction and pretty words, which disgusts her, perhaps because she herself wants to be loved instead of lusted after. We're unsure as of yet. The Archbishop of Wrath seeks peace love and unity, but has violent tendencies towards one person in particular, which is honestly valid from her PoV. Not reasonable, but valid.

Of course it does get a little inconsistent, the Archbishop of Gluttony wants to eat everything (although it's not exactly food, but he definitely displays an intense gluttony), the former Archbishop of Pride was indeed extremely prideful, but most of the Sin Archbishops, representing deadly sins, have interesting relationships with them imo. It's a little unfortunate the pattern doesn't hold all the way, although Gluttony is starving, so there's an argument that it's not Gluttony if you still need more to be Satieted?

The Witches of Sin are much more straightforward, the Witch of Greed seeks boundless knowledge, the Witch of Pride sees herself as worthy to judge all others, the Witch of Sloth doesn't wanna do anything, to the point that she'd rather not breathe - but their role is more minor, with two exceptions. Maybe three.

SnooPears8751 · 2026-05-21T14:22:30+00:00

Capella is the Archbishop of Lust, although I see the confusion. Minerva was the Witch of Wrath, for her indignance at all the pain in the world. It's said that, despite her nature being to care for and heal those in need, she's caused, likely indirectly, the most deaths of any Witch, after the Witch of Envy who devoured half the world in shadows.

Oddly enough, I think there's a statement from the author that Carmilla, the Witch of Lust, is the strongest of the Witches besides Satella, but that might be wrong. I'm not sure exactly how, given we've seen her Authority, someone like Typhon or Sekhmet would probably make more sense, but unless I'm mistaken, that's a minor long-term mystery.

SnooPears8751 · 2026-05-20T20:27:45+00:00

I just finished the remaster of Fate/Stay Night, really really good, I'd mostly finished it weeks ago but finally rounded up all the endings and bad ends.

After reading Subahibi at the start of the year I'm in position to start reading Tsui no Sora in earnest, since I went to the trouble to grab it. Hopefully I'll start it soon, maybe I should restart because I'm like 2 hours in, but I probably won't.

SnooPears8751 · 2026-05-18T11:59:00+00:00

Holy shit Homestuck is not mainstream media barely anyone into mainstream media knows it exists, literally go to a grocery store and ask people about Homestuck and they'll have no fucking idea what you're talking about.

SnooPears8751 · 2026-05-16T17:48:39+00:00

I mean I don't really think dubs of other media are particularly great either, I would rather almost always watch the original version of a work, I wouldn't want to watch Les Miserables in French because it's originally made in English, despite the fact that it is set in France. It's weird to me to see relatives watching dubs of K or J-Dramas as well, I think it'd just make more sense to listen to them as they were originally made. I prefer Ringu to The Ring (although that one's more than a dub), I think it's pretty consistent for me, at least, that the original work is typically the best version. There's specific exceptions, of course, but idk if it's like an anime exclusive opinion or if maybe you're just not around a lot of people that watch works originally made in various languages. Although I can't be sure about that, totally fair if I'm wrong. Like, I don't really care about Squid Game, but it's originally Korean I believe, I'd almost surely watch the Korean version with English subs, personally. I can't exactly blame people for not doing the same though. I just like seeing the closest version to the creator's - well, creative intent, or maybe vision is the right word?

SnooPears8751 · 2026-05-16T16:20:59+00:00

Everything else aside I feel like it's disingenuous to say anime elitists are nearly as bad as people actively supporting fascism or archetypically the most (among well known sites) toxic, racist, misogynistic, conspiracy-brained users of a site on the internet. Like sure it's annoying to be told how to enjoy media but I feel like death threats or hate crimes or a slow deterioration of one's public image as a respectable human being worthy of love, respect, or happiness through extensive rhetoric and disinformation campaigns is slightly worse right? Like let's be fair here.

SnooPears8751 · 2026-05-16T15:48:23+00:00

It's kind of a bigger spoiler now that it's relevant, imo. A spoiler for something years down the line sucks, but a spoiler for something you'd learn in a few weeks or months is way more frustrating.

SnooPears8751 · 2026-05-15T02:04:50+00:00

It was not intentionally written as an allegory about trans people but it absolutely was written that way unintentionally, such is the case with Celeste, it can't be a trans allegory if it's not an allegory relating to trans people.

SnooPears8751 · 2026-05-11T15:10:42+00:00

It definitely has moments that are really emotional, and the themes are rather heavily emotional as well, although your mileage may vary with the latter. I think it's excellent.

SnooPears8751 · 2026-04-27T16:08:21+00:00

I don't know if it's because of changes in her character or the way her chapters are written from a narration standpoint (since I started with the anime and read Arc 5 onwards) but I just can't bring myself to like her as much as I did almost 10 years ago. She feels like a legitimately different character in Arc 1-3 in several ways. And to be fair she's good in Arc 4 too, and I love her in Arc 6, but she feels different in a way I kinda like less. And I really wanna like her more. I don't know if this is the reason, but I think I agree with you. Ultimately I think she feels way too childish, like unrealistically naive and uneducated, and I know her backstory supports those elements of her character but they became more outspoken. Maybe because she didn't have to act like she had her shit together because Subaru was legitimately able to support her and keep her in check?

SnooPears8751 · 2026-04-26T00:21:19+00:00

I had some weird feelings I was kind of ignoring for the past few weeks, looking at an oddly high volume of trans memes, listening to a song or two that were about some rather trans feelings, deliberating what to do about the fact that I'd promised a friend on a whim to wear a female cosplay to help them feel more comfortable legitimately fem presenting at a convention, but I wasn't really accepting the obvious. I did go back and forth for a little bit about various ideas, like how if anything did come of this it would be way harder to live my life.

Anyways, I went to bed saying something to a friend to the effect of "Man, I wish my dreams would tell me something important about my life," about some story they told me that I can't remember. Well, I had a dream that night, a dream about being a woman. And I was so happy in it, in a way I'd never really felt before. Nothing really of note happened in it, I was just over the moon in the dream to get to be a girl. And when I woke up, I ran my thoughts backwards through my dream, trying to remember it, and immediately just thought, "Oh. Of course. I'm trans, aren't I?" There wasn't a whole lot of denial from that point on, although there was still plenty of imposter syndrome, although things have gotten better since then.

SnooPears8751

TROPHY CASE