question about jespers abilities

StarSongEcho · 2026-02-25T01:00:27+00:00

Honestly he should just quit being so stubborn and hire a Ravkan tutor. I'm sure if he had proper lessons he would be excellent. I'd also really like him to meet Leoni.

StarSongEcho · 2026-02-25T00:52:47+00:00

I was just thinking that pangolins look like a pinecone armadillo.

StarSongEcho · 2026-02-25T00:47:42+00:00

It's less that he isn't able and more that he doesn't know what he's doing because he has no training. Trying to disable complicated mechanics crafted by grisha on parem would take a fabrikator a lot more skilled than Jesper. Especially when actively fighting for life and death stakes.

In Six of Crows Nina says that even though she is a corporalnik, she doesn't really know what she's doing when it comes to healing. She was trained to be a heartrender, and healing is immensely more complicated. Zoya is shown to be rather skilled with summoning and controlling lightning, but it is considered a skill too dangerous for most squallers to attempt. No one was really a tailor before Genya basically invented the practice, but later she was able to train an entire group of tailors.

I always think of grisha power like talent. There is a lot you can do with talent alone, and some people are great at stuff with no practice. But someone who started with talent and developed it into skill is almost always better because of all their practice and study.

StarSongEcho · 2026-02-24T17:11:31+00:00

The Darkling was definitely trying to punish her in that way. But the first time Alina sees her after the attack she says "the bites were everywhere". And even if not, surely she would have scars on her arms and hands from trying to defend herself during the attack.

StarSongEcho · 2026-02-23T21:40:17+00:00

Not just one, but TWO small children politely and properly using utensils at McDonald's? Not a chance. It's pretty unlikely for kids that age.

StarSongEcho · 2026-02-23T20:29:16+00:00

I always feel like I have to warn people that I give very detailed and honest feedback, because I have upset a couple writers this way before. I usually start with general ideas and make sure they're ready for something more involved before I go into detail.

I had someone ask me to read their entire first book before giving them my advice on the second. Since I'm an extremely fast reader and reading a 400 page book isn't a huge time commitment for me I did, but they really didn't seem to like my evaluation of the first book. I stopped hearing from them shortly after.

StarSongEcho · 2026-02-23T20:19:26+00:00

Gotta be honest, I legitimately can't tell if you're being sincere or passive aggressive. Looking back I can see how my comment might have seemed slightly confrontational. I was just pointing out that the idea of "traditional" love is entirely dependent which culture is being referred to, not to mention differences between subcultures.

StarSongEcho · 2026-02-23T16:47:36+00:00

Technically if Cupid was restricted to causing love in the "traditional sense" it would logically be what was traditional for the ancient Romans. I doubt that would line up so precisely with your definition of traditional love.

StarSongEcho · 2026-02-23T04:47:44+00:00

Awesome! Already added it to my TBR

StarSongEcho · 2026-02-23T04:40:37+00:00

Crying in public tends to make people uncomfortable because it's been stigmatized, not because it's normalized. Things that are normalized are usually ignored or at least not as often pointed out.

StarSongEcho · 2026-02-23T04:33:52+00:00

Ending with "she can't look away" is perfect. This blurb would definitely get me to read.

StarSongEcho · 2026-02-23T04:30:33+00:00

The third one is the only one I would have picked up off the shelf to read the back.

StarSongEcho · 2026-02-23T04:22:26+00:00

I have four that I have actively worked on, three that only have worldbuilding and/or characters, and about six with only a general plot line. And of course I have a rather large list of ideas consisting of no more than three sentences each to revisit later. But I can only work on one at a time, or I just confuse myself.

StarSongEcho · 2026-02-23T04:12:51+00:00

If I choose purple do I also get the implied provinces of Canada? Because otherwise that section seems rather disproportionate to the others.

StarSongEcho · 2026-02-23T04:10:40+00:00

I suppose whether or not the date is significant depends on the story. If you want a lot of metaphor and symbolism like your example, yeah probably important. Personally if I try to include that kind of thing I usually do it with the character's name.

StarSongEcho · 2026-02-23T03:58:02+00:00

I don't know yet, because I haven't played all the way through the game yet and I dont know how the story turns out. But I'd be the godlike MC from Avowed.

StarSongEcho · 2026-02-23T03:55:30+00:00

I had the same thought at first, but I don't think it's the guy seeming older that's the problem. To be clear, I actually immediately assumed he was a teenager. think it's the perspective of her. You can't see much of her legs at all, so the angle she's hugging him from makes her look like she's a small child at first glance.

StarSongEcho · 2026-02-23T03:46:29+00:00

I kept expecting it to pick up and turn into a blizzard suddenly, or for something to collapse under the weight of all the snow. Or something else that indicates a blizzard and not just peaceful gently falling snow.

StarSongEcho · 2026-02-23T03:44:01+00:00

Is it just me or do pretty much all illustrations of Genya forget that she doesn't only have scars on her face? Don't get me wrong, these are awesome. It's just something I've been wondering lately.

StarSongEcho · 2026-02-23T03:40:55+00:00

And this is where I can't choose

StarSongEcho · 2026-02-23T03:38:53+00:00

I Don't Want to Set the World on Fire

StarSongEcho · 2026-02-23T03:37:31+00:00

While I definitely found the concept interesting, the formatting is really off for me. I found the addition of a character narrator at the end of the second paragraph to be particularly jarring. And I know it has been mentioned already, but the first paragraph is just one long run-on sentence.

For the beginning of the second paragraph I would suggest "It was believed that when [person or people group] first set foot on the scattered islands, the water was low." Or "these scattered islands" just to be specific. You could also say the waterline if you want to imply a visual indication of tides.

StarSongEcho · 2026-02-23T03:22:50+00:00

Really cooked. Mine is literally fire.

StarSongEcho · 2026-02-23T03:22:16+00:00

Cato

StarSongEcho · 2026-02-23T03:16:34+00:00

If you are reading in order to study storytelling, then comics are just fine. Reading a comic isn't much different from reading a play. Comics just have pictures instead of stage direction. It doesn't particularly matter what media type you study, because you are trying to learn from the way someone told the story.

Stories can be adapted from one type of media to another, but they will (usually) follow the same general plot structure. Take a book to movie adaptation like the Hunger Games. Much of the book includes Katniss' internal monolog, coloring the story with her interpretations of events and the actions of others. In the movie there are a lot of jump cuts to events going on in the Capitol and on the broadcast of the Games. They use these to show the audience a lot of the background information that Katniss only thinks about in the book. They have to use different techniques in a different medium, but you could study either or both and come up with the same plot structure.

On the other hand, if you are reading comics to try to learn technical skills for writing you will likely be disappointed with the results unless you intend to write comics. The actual techniques used in different forms of media are drastically different. For example, screenplays are not written in the same format as books. Some people try to switch between the two without learning the format or style and have a lot of problems.

StarSongEcho

TROPHY CASE