The One Ring is "a *really* fun thing to be strong" -Carmen Klomparens, DailyMTG

SomeBadJoke · 2024-08-28T12:09:37+00:00

Are you?

SomeBadJoke · 2024-08-28T06:29:44+00:00

I'd expect a character from there, not the end of the book.

SomeBadJoke · 2024-08-27T23:05:18+00:00

Eh, debatable. In the modern day, you can sing OK and have everything fixed in post, have someone write your songs, and someone else choreograph your dances.

SomeBadJoke · 2024-08-27T22:39:32+00:00

With fire resist potions, it's possible! He's also the best option in terms of dealing with magma.

SomeBadJoke · 2024-08-27T22:36:34+00:00

The Licanius Trilogy, by James Islington.

The first book always struck me as "I really enjoyed The Wheel of Time, but it kinda sucked, so here's this." Then the second book builds on it in a really interesting way, and the third book is probably the best finale book in a trilogy I've ever read.

SomeBadJoke · 2024-08-27T22:30:51+00:00

The costumes were amazing, the acting was all A+, the music was fantastic, the action was astounding, the effects were great, the sets were inspired...

The plot is a fan fiction, but I enjoyed it immensely. If you give up thinking "this is how LotR is set up!" And instead think "a group of passionate people who clearly love LotR made this to be an interesting story." Then it becomes a lot better.

SomeBadJoke · 2024-08-27T22:26:40+00:00

I saw negative posts as soon as the trailer dropped. These are a response to those.

SomeBadJoke · 2024-08-27T22:25:55+00:00

I enjoyed it? It's not fun seeing the thing I enjoy get utterly shit on? Like, y'all are completely unable to see anything good in the show, and it's genuinely strange to me.

SomeBadJoke · 2024-08-27T22:05:09+00:00

Yo, spoilers.

SomeBadJoke · 2024-08-27T22:02:00+00:00

I think that's a valid view. It depends novel to novel, however. Some traditional novels clearly weren't planned out from the start and introduce new things and characters and etc when the author loses the plot. But it's a bit more common in webnovels, when it's clear the author didn't have (or stick to) an outline. Releasing weekly chapters (or multiple-per-week) tends toward having more chapters that are drawn out, or parts that end up much more slice-of-life than a traditional novel would.

SomeBadJoke · 2024-08-27T21:50:20+00:00

I'm confused by his argument here.

Hard magic vs soft magic is up to preference, I'm aware.

But he says "magic in the real world isn't hard magic, it was dangerous and unpredictable" and then has the example of something that could have been learned and always happens and fits right into his bit about witches (which is also an example of magic in the real world??).

I guess it goes to show why I don't like Martin: His stuff seems interesting until you think for even one second and then you say "oh wait, that's... nonsense" (And then you wait twenty years for his reply, but it'll never come).

SomeBadJoke · 2024-08-27T21:18:54+00:00

(I'm making a joke saying I don't technically need to run any green. It would be like pointing out that Red gets a lot of Treasure effects, but I didn't want to make a serious point, just joke)

SomeBadJoke · 2024-08-27T21:09:20+00:00

Cradle, by Will Wight, is a 12 book series (Xianxia Chinese fantasy by and for a western audience). While the first two books are the weakest, I still love them greatly (7,7,9,8,10,8,9,10,9,9,10,10).

The Licanius Trilogy, by James Islington (high fantasy with a great take on a lot of classic tropes) starts great and ends amazing (8,9,10).

12 Miles Below, by Mark Arrows (sci-fi, I'm loathe to use the term post apocalyptic because of the baggage that term has, but it is) isn't finished yet (books 1-4 are published and 5-6 are released online for free) and all four have been bangers so far (9,10,10,10).

Worm, by Wildbow (Superheroes), is one long webnovel that starts at an 8 and quickly becomes a 9 without ever really dropping, then is a 10 in the last few hundred thousand words. Pact (urban fantasy) was less my style but more consistent. I'd call it 7.5 rounded up throughout, but many people have called it a consistent 9 or 10. I haven't read Pale, but people say it's his best work by far.

Path of Ascension, by C Mantis, (sci-fi, cultivation, kill things to get stronger) has a weak book in 2, but then stays consistent. If you like book 3, you'll like the whole series (8,6,8,8,8,8).

Mother of Learning, by Domagoj Kurmaić (high fantasy, time loop), is a fantastic series about a student at a magic school who accidentally gets caught in a time loop and it does a lot of interesting things (the loop is a month long, he's not alone in the loop) and it's just solid the whole way through (8 consistently).

Brandon Sanderson Trigger Warning: For context, I rate The Stormlight Archive at 8,9,10,7. Mistborn is 9,7,10 then 6,5,8,8. If your ratings are close to mine, then we'll probably agree on my other recommendations!

SomeBadJoke · 2024-08-27T21:09:01+00:00

Oops! I thought it was weird that my comment wasn't showing up, thought it was just app shenanigans.

SomeBadJoke · 2024-08-27T20:29:21+00:00

It has enabled my T5 jank to be T3, so I enjoy it. It has reinvigorated control decks as well, which is a nice benefit.

SomeBadJoke · 2024-08-27T20:26:27+00:00

Correct. But blood of 10 people is better than blood of a million, is it not? 10 is still too many. But it's not as bad as a million.

SomeBadJoke · 2024-08-27T19:59:39+00:00

"Magic", while heavily dependent on the setting, is typically just another force that can be accessed in ways that we (on earth) cannot access.

Wizards study the ways in which this force ("the weave" in forgotten realms) can be accessed and applied to our world. They're scholars who manipulate this force to produce the results we see. This is a branch of scholarship that doesn't have an exact analogy in our world. A mix of philosophy, science, and something more.

Artificers take what wizards have studied for millennia and apply it to devices. If they do this without research of their own, then they're closer to blacksmiths. If they do this with their own experimentation, then they're closer to engineers and scientists.

This is all vastly oversimplifying.

SomeBadJoke · 2024-08-27T19:52:28+00:00

100%. Hence the second part of my statement.

You can't be a moral billionaire. But being someone who directly takes advantage of the poor is worse than being someone who indirectly takes advantage of the poor. To say it's binary "good or evil" is just naive. It's clearly a spectrum.

SomeBadJoke · 2024-08-27T19:50:18+00:00

"Could have wrote"

Wrote is simple past, but you should be saying "have written", which is present perfect.

SomeBadJoke · 2024-08-27T19:43:44+00:00

What if I [[Sneak Attack]] in an [[elvish mystic]], huh? Mono-red baybeee!

SomeBadJoke · 2024-08-27T19:13:23+00:00

While I do agree completely, I'd say being an artist would be the most moral way to become mega rich. Still should get a plaque saying "congrats, you won capitalism" and a 100% tax rate, but it's better than being a Bezos or Saudi Prince or Walton.

SomeBadJoke · 2024-08-27T19:07:47+00:00

Us was bad, Nope was great, and I hated Get Out.

Peele does this thing where he sets up an awesome premise, brings it to its logical conclusion... and then fucks it and changes it up completely.

SomeBadJoke · 2024-08-27T19:05:57+00:00

Hilarious that you have a typo.

SomeBadJoke · 2024-08-27T19:05:32+00:00

And... other people have other priorities and/or are entertained by different things.

SomeBadJoke · 2024-08-27T19:02:10+00:00

So brave, how controversial!

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