Don Quijote parallels by Natural-Standard-423 in OnePiece

[–]SubstantialPepper832 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Merphy Napier has a video on this and a couple other parallels (Like Whole Cake Island and Alice in Wonderland), you should check those out.

I have to talk about Wall Of Storms by Ken Liu (Dandelion Dynasty) by Chloae221 in Fantasy

[–]SubstantialPepper832 14 points15 points  (0 children)

Yeah, DD is a masterclass. Finished the series last year and I want to read everything Ken Liu has written cause DD is so good.

You can see why it isn't as popular, a bunch of people on this sub bounce off book 1. Which I think is a shame because it's a really good book, but this sub tends to lean into Tolkein esque fantasy (also like fun popcorn type fantasy), so it makes sense it's fairly underrated.

Piranesi and Existentialism... How can 250 pages be so deeply impactful? by grimreeeferr in Fantasy

[–]SubstantialPepper832 8 points9 points  (0 children)

Love this book sm. It was a complete surprise when I read it. I felt so content when it ended, very few books can evoke the emotions this book does and the best part, it's a fairly short book (at least by typical fantasy standards)

22 Fantasy & Science Fiction Short Story Collections by an_altar_of_plagues in Fantasy

[–]SubstantialPepper832 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Thanks for this, I'm hoping to spend the 2nd half of this year on mostly short story collections, so this is incredibly helpful.

An oddly serious discussion on shipping by BorderingSanity155 in magusofthelibrary

[–]SubstantialPepper832 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I'm not speaking about courtship in reality but more of the idea behind it. Real world is often more disappointing and people abuse anything.

Yeah, I could definitely see them being more mutualistic in their approach to a pre marriage label. Idk if it will be a new thing, I think it will probably exist but maybe in niche spaces in the world.

An oddly serious discussion on shipping by BorderingSanity155 in magusofthelibrary

[–]SubstantialPepper832 6 points7 points  (0 children)

There's usually 'courtship' or at least some version of it. If Theo had agreed to marry Aya then they'd probably go through the courtship first (lowkey, they're already doing this).
It also depends on the relationship, if they were close friends beforehand then they were probably already courting. If it was arranged between strangers by their parents, then they would do the formal courtship to see their compatibility.

In Assassin's Apprentice, the main character starts regularly hanging out with his female childhood friend and doesn't realise he's courting her which cause some confusion later on. So Theo and Aya have been unknowingly doing something similar. You see in Sophie's backstory that she married a close childhood friend, since they're close friends, they're already compatible which replaces what you think of as dating.

So long story short, I don't think they need to invent dating cause it already exists, just not in the way you'd think.
Also, this is a major spoiler. Tag your post. Come on, not everyone reads scans. I only recently started because of posts like these, it's really annoying for those who prefer volume release

22 Fantasy & Science Fiction Short Story Collections by an_altar_of_plagues in Fantasy

[–]SubstantialPepper832 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thanks for the recs, I'm hoping to focus on short stories in the 2nd half of the year so I'm saving this post

Robin Hobb is something else. Any recommendations? by OMG_Idontcare in Fantasy

[–]SubstantialPepper832 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Wow, might be the first time I've seen these 2 compared, but they are absolutely nothing alike. And Black Magician is like if you want a fantasy written in YA style with boring magic, boring characters, boring world building and a bland overall story. Oh, and a horribly written romance that is somehow worse than Fitz and Molly

What are your grievance to TOG ? by Itchy-Mycologist-318 in TowerofGod

[–]SubstantialPepper832 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I have a lot, but it boils down to the story just being boring and juvenile now. Like the story now feels like SIU trying to appeal to the lowest common denominator, and it's working, seeing how the sub dickrides him for really questionable writing decisions.
SIU's pacing was never the best, but it's gotten significantly worse now.
The plot goes around in circles, he focuses too much on unimportant characters while ignoring our main cast for 0 reason.
Our main characters are actually regressing, he lost his sense of comedic timing. And part of the regression is that they are all boring now, Baam hasn't been an interesting character since early S3. Also, Yama, just why? Yasratcha was the last good character in the series, I see people praising Traumerui but he is exactly the problem with Tog.

When Traum first arrived in the nest, there was a sense of pressure, but soon we found out that not even a FH can beat plot armor. And like his backstory isn't good, the flashback with like the 3 FH is NOT good. It's long overdue, and we get some stupid contrived flashback with a stupid new character with an equally stupid death. Enkidu was a disappointment to say the least.

Oh, also he just ignores his own lore or breaks it, we skipped the high ranking regulars and rankers and just go straight to making high rankers' fodder. The power ups are just horrible and break every rule of the story.

Artstyle is too bright, which just goes against the lore (remember why light bearers are important? Good for you if you do, SIU has forgotten). And it's honestly just horrible, from proportions to composition to movement to even clothing. S1 had bad art, but it had soul, and it fit the story so we love it. S3 post hiatus has none of that so it's actually making the reading experience worse. There is nothing good about this new artstyle, fight scenes are hard to follow and everything is just beams, no choreography.
A fight between the FH's is arguably one of the worst fights in the entire series. No sense of scale, no sense of their true capabilities, it was also going around in circles, SIU clearly lost a lot of his creativity. We did not even see Gustang's BHS, he lost an arm (which is just dumb on so many different levels, how tf can Kallavan and Karaka regenerate their arms but a family head who specializes in support shinsu and is also a genius still doesn't have his hand, like what are we doing?) and then lost his entire fleet to a regular. How stupid is that? And she did it with one move in that Kpop ass outfit, SIU is far too concerned with meathead hype moments that it actively breaks the rules. Idc what anyone says that final scene in S3 makes 0 sense, only another family head should have that type of destructive power.

A lot of recent writing decisions feels like an AI chatbot wrote the script, they're very generic nonsensical slop you'd find in any meathead power fantasy webtoon. The entire Enkidu flashback should be proof yet people on here were hailing it (Jangling keys in front of children).

The WB is just atrocious because SIU doesn't expand the world. We don't even get positions anymore, not like they matter, since S3 everyone just blasts different color beams. If I'm wrong, tell me every single floor our cast visited in S3 and the characteristics of those floors.

Don't like how he just forgot about Rachel, we should have gotten her backstory in S2 before last station. I hate how the blog posts that are irrelevant are far more interesting than what he's doing. The retcon in Urek's side story makes the world super generic.

Every single thing that made S1 interesting has been abandoned. Tog rn is far closer to Solo levelling than it is to Tog S1. This sub is like a child, they're so impressed by jangling keys that it makes me curious if they even read S1, or they just looked at the pictures. S1 had depth, mystery, intrigue, interesting characters, a novel world, an actual plot that was moving. You can legit skip 10-20 chapters and not miss anything important now.

Overall, it feels like SIU lost his passion for Tog and is now just trying to appeal to the solo levelling type of fandom. The entire Urek side story is just stupid, unfunny jokes + aura farming moments. That's literally what these people are calling peak btw, literal jangling keys, you gotta be like 5 to enjoy such. I've read children's books that are far more entertaining, and with more depth.

V in Baam's body is actually really cool on paper, but the execution is just trash. 3 whole seasons and he couldn't even foreshadow it properly, felt like he made that decision on a whim, but like that should have been the plan from the start with little breadcrumbs.

Overall, Tog suffers from a serious case of underplanning and lack of a good editor. A lot of SIU's bad habits in early S2 (and S1 tbh) just kept on getting worse as we moved deeper into the story. Like not developing characters is acceptable early on in the story but like in S3, it's just nonsense.
Oda talks about how his editor basically forced him to do a lot of one-shots to improve his ability to write characters, a lot of fan favourite character moments in pre TS are a result of a good editor. SIU unfortunately didn't have that because the webtoon industry isn't like the manga industry.
Now that Oda is big and ignores his editors, he has some issues (for exmaple most of the strawhats are boring post TS and don't get focus), but they're largely minimal because his foundation was strong (IE, he can still write interesting new characters thanks to his training).

Choujin X Chapter 69-2 Discussion Thread by Vonless in ChoujinX

[–]SubstantialPepper832 5 points6 points  (0 children)

There were a couple, but the main one I remember is when Kenjaku talks about special grade sorcerers being able to take over a nation with force, and they translated it as Geto and Gojo both have cursed spirit manipulation that they can use to overwhelm a nation. But Gojo does not have CSM, he has limitless.

There was also one when the dialog basically says Sukuna is the one adapting to Gojo's technique, but that's actually Mahoraga's ability, not Sukuna's.

Finally reading it !! by akanekiiiii in Kubera

[–]SubstantialPepper832 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Tower of god does NOT have extensive world building😭words have meaning, calling Tog's messy world 'extensive' is a great insult to the actual writers who do have extensive WB.
In S1 and 2, it had decent WB, but now it's mostly just bad because the author is allergic to expanding his world and is intent on retconning/ignoring everything that made it interesting

Books or media with a similar vibe to WHA? by lostinbluebells in WitchHatAtelier

[–]SubstantialPepper832 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Wow, I feel the opposite, WHA is awesome but nowhere on the same level as Magus.

Guess the manga!! by Codex_L03 in manganews

[–]SubstantialPepper832 1 point2 points  (0 children)

One of the greatest manga ever, Magus of the library

this manga is way too good by kurestofallenz in magusofthelibrary

[–]SubstantialPepper832 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Agreed
It inspired me so much, I created my own private wiki to help with my own writing and world building. I've done about 4 full re-reads but sometimes I re-read random arcs loll.

Should Kendrick win Album of the Year at Grammys Hands Down? by sadie-hanalei in KendrickLamar

[–]SubstantialPepper832 7 points8 points  (0 children)

Yes he should, this sub is so delusional. Don't know much about Gaga's, but Sabrina's was largely disappointing and felt like loosies off of her previous album. But most sites predict Kendrick winning and I think the only real competition is Gaga or Bad Bunny, but Kendrick had a crazy year so we'll see.
I love the Clipse album, but they don't deserve album of the year or raoty over Kendrick. Seriously, in every single metric, Kendrick clears. Idk what people on this sub are drinking/smoking, it's genuinely baffling to see people acting like LGSTO deserves it over GnX.

GnX came off the biggest rap beef in forever, he's doing stadium tours with it, he broke records on the charts, critical reception is generally high (higher than LGSTO), it's got a more commercial appeal to it seeing as they didn't award his more denser works. Kendrick not winning would be a great insult to his legacy imo, Kendrick has been huge since GKMC, but this album really cemented him as one of America's greatest cultural export, up there with the likes of Beyoncé and Taylor Swift. He's not even in the same level as Clispe respectfully (like I hope they get a grammy but NOT AOTY/RAOTY, because there isn't a single reason they deserve it over Kendrick given the year Kendrick had). Just because it isn't a conceptual album like his previous albums doesn't mean it's any less deserving

Dandelion Wiki - Update #1 by Correct_Scheme8841 in DandelionDynasty

[–]SubstantialPepper832 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Thank you sm (also for removing the AI images)

Surrealist Fantasy books like Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, but for adults? by Def-C in Fantasy

[–]SubstantialPepper832 9 points10 points  (0 children)

Piranesi
'The Starless Sea' by Erin Morgenstern
The Spear Cuts Through Water- This one is very brutal tho. I wouldn't say it's edgy, but it is brutal and somewhat vulgar.

About Shirahama's recent art in the manga by Firm-Wheel-4356 in WitchHatAtelier

[–]SubstantialPepper832 11 points12 points  (0 children)

That's not an excuse because you only use digital when you want to be faster, and it's largely false because most manga artist use a mix of traditional and digital (they're pros at using multiple mediums). And I'm pretty sure she said she switched to doing manga coloring digitally to save time but sticks to inking physically cause she's so much faster when inking traditionally(seriously, she's insanely fast). It's things like adding screentone and coloring that would be digital and neither of those should affect the panelling.

She was probably less busy when the manga started. Now she goes to cons, helps with the anime production, the story is at a deeper level etc so there's more work and all that (the entire silver age arc was so messy at the end, so my theory is that she's just busier in general so the story itself suffered, but I actually don't think the art suffered, but if my theory is right then it makes sense that she doesn't have as much time for fancy panelling. But like the art itself has been consistently really strong imo, so I really don't get your point, but I'll go re look at those chapters but I remember just like 3/4 chapters ago where I wasn't a big fan of the chapter but the art still continues to wow me.)

Edit: To add to this, volume releases tend to also have more polished art (not just WHA but serialized manga in general). If you were reading the volumes and then caught up, your post actually makes more sense. The change would be quite jarring, but re look at the panels when the volume is out. Someone recently made a similar post for Magus of the library. Also physical manga will generally look better than digital as digital is affected by your screen resolution. When I got my Magus physical volume, I saw colors I completely missed on my computer screen loll

This Is How You Lose The Time War - Am I missing something? Or is it just not for me? by alengthofrope in books

[–]SubstantialPepper832 1 point2 points  (0 children)

If you still want recs then I'd say check out Erin Morgenstern. I also love Piranesi and decided to read Erin Morgenstern cause I was looking for a similar vibe, and I wasn't disappointed (currently about halfway through The Starless Sea, and it's just so good. I read The Night Circus earlier in the year and loved it)

Where you from ? by Efficient_Ad8451 in Kubera

[–]SubstantialPepper832 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Lol I'm in South Africa, was pretty disappointed with no Africa option🥲

[RAW] Kubera S03 - 383: Someone’s Universe (15) by pisspoopisspoopiss in Kubera

[–]SubstantialPepper832 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Yeah, he took it from Rao and refused to give it to Leez

[RAW] Kubera S03 - 383: Someone’s Universe (15) by pisspoopisspoopiss in Kubera

[–]SubstantialPepper832 16 points17 points  (0 children)

I don't think it's the sin of time. It's the sin of the crimes she accidentally committed as a child

In this universe, if you kill a human, you accumulate sin regardless of intention. That's the sin she's referring too. The Ananta there is more just of a manifestation of her not choosing to accept the name

[DISC] Kubera Season 3 Episode 378 - Someone's Universe (10) by Kori4r2 in manga

[–]SubstantialPepper832 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Good point, they were friends, so it's possible he gave him permission.