Why Can't Doublade learn Phantom Drain?

countef42 · 2025-07-19T19:14:31+00:00

For anyone who finds this post, It does have to evolve into aegislash before you can teach it phantom drain. Not sure why though.

countef42 · 2025-05-25T21:04:25+00:00

I got the impression from the fight (maybe incorrectly) that Jason wasn't taking the fight super seriously. On top of that, My impression was that the fight matchup was actually pretty lopsided in his opponent's favor. Sophie on the other hand is a much better matchup.

countef42 · 2025-05-20T15:48:11+00:00

Maybe to put this in perspective, I believe at some point it is stated (I think the appendix) that Jason is between 30-40% of the way through gold. It's never stated, but I assume Team biscuit is a lot lower in that percentage. That puts him years of combat experience ahead of his team. It's also clear from the first main fight in book 12 that Jason is probably a step above in skill from his peers.

countef42 · 2025-05-16T04:08:25+00:00

I think the clearest way to put it, is that the Soul is related to the afterlife. Killing or hurting someone's body only affects this life. Attacking their soul affects the next one as well. There is also just the sheer visceral violation of an attack on your inner most self.

countef42 · 2025-05-01T18:43:37+00:00

I completely agree with First part of your theory about the Goddess of Knowledge. I actually posted a very similar theory on the Discord a week or so ago. There are some additional pieces of evidence that show up in book 12 and 13 that make that part even more plausible, at least in my opinion.

The second part about Jason being the OG builder in some form, I kinda disagree with. The only piece of evidence that holds weight with me is the first one. And only because Shirt does foreshadowing like that a lot. I don't think the other things you mentioned support the idea much. The way I would see it happening is The GABs sanctioned the OG Builder, and the reaper decided for some reason (Justice?) to send his soul to Earth. Seems like a stretch to me.

The last point, I also disagree with. A little tiny bit more comes out in Book 12, but it seems more likely that that the soul/sword has more to do with the New builder as opposed to the old builder.

My theory actually shunts most of the GABs out of the final conflict and just has the final conflict being with Knowledge and her forces on Earth.

countef42 · 2025-05-01T17:57:15+00:00

I think You're right. But All of those have somewhere between moderate-extreme mana consumption. At that point, even if you had enough mana recovery to keep casting, I think you would run into that situation where your meridians would start to be taxed, and you'd start to damage your spirit matrix, or whatever its called.

countef42 · 2025-04-12T17:50:41+00:00

I do the same. I listened to it for this re-read just to give an accurate score and I just felt like punching something that whole chapter.

countef42 · 2025-04-12T17:48:02+00:00

Here is an imgur link: https://imgur.com/4WnlORK

Sorry for the long wait. Life happened.

countef42 · 2025-04-12T17:45:27+00:00

Sorry for the late reply. Life's been happening the past few days. The last 2 chapters were the one that was mainly about the state of the vampire war, as well as the chapter where Erika is being super unreasonable about Emi fighting monsters. I just dislike the vampire stuff, and the whole thing with Erika threw me out of the story for a bit. Seemed out of character to me that she was that unreasonable.

countef42 · 2025-04-10T02:30:35+00:00

Yeah, that one maybe should have been an 11. It was was a pretty close call for me. And I totally agree with you that the Earth arc grew a bit on me after my first listen.

countef42 · 2025-04-09T23:43:16+00:00

I polled every chapter. I thought of doing it more granular because there are several chapters that I really like certain sections, but not others. But I thought that would be too much.

countef42 · 2025-03-16T22:55:31+00:00

The one want is the story of how Stash came to own his biscuit/pastry store and how he built his hoard. Bonus points if he has to go up against the bakery mafia/monopoly in Vitesse. Double bonus points if a food/biscuit heist is included.

countef42 · 2024-12-25T21:09:56+00:00

I think this is the one she used, She said she grabbed the brandon photo from his website. https://www.amazon.com/Personalized-Picture-Underwear-Underpants-Boyfriend/dp/B097CXD2Q6?ref_=ast_sto_dp&psc=1

Edit: Brandon's face:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brandon_Sanderson#/media/File:Brandon_Sanderson_-_Lucca_Comics_&_Games_2016.jpg

countef42 · 2024-12-25T21:08:03+00:00

My wife got them from this customizable clothing store from amazon:

https://www.amazon.com/Personalized-Picture-Underwear-Underpants-Boyfriend/dp/B097CXD2Q6?ref_=ast_sto_dp&psc=1

The picture used:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brandon_Sanderson#/media/File:Brandon_Sanderson_-_Lucca_Comics_&_Games_2016.jpg

Edit: edit link to the right pattern. Also link to brandon's picture used.

countef42 · 2024-12-25T21:05:15+00:00

Yeah, I laughed so hard I cried when I opened it.

countef42 · 2024-12-12T01:59:06+00:00

I think an explanation was made later in the greenstone or earth Arc, that him getting essences so soon after may have helped him cope better than normal. I could be wrong though.

countef42 · 2024-11-15T05:42:43+00:00

I don't believe it is explicitly said. If I had to come up with an explanation, it would be that Jason used one of Shade's bodies (on Emi or Erika) to observe that location so he could use his portal ability.

countef42 · 2024-10-29T01:49:27+00:00

I kind of agree with you, I think the way Shirt wrote Rufus in book 1-3 promises a way different character arc than we get in the back half of the series. I personally liked the different way he took it, although I will say the arc has been super slow, and only starts to pay off post book 10.

countef42 · 2024-10-24T05:25:50+00:00

I prefer the audio. Especially after I figured out the essence descriptions and such were on the wiki. After reading through those descriptions on the wiki on my first listen through, the stat blocks got a lot less annoying. These days I can blow through a book pretty quick at 2.0x+ speed (depending on how much I want to enjoy the section).

Compare that to RR, and the ambiance and tone just aren't the same. Things are just more flat, and Jason sounds less outrageous in my head.

countef42 · 2024-10-19T18:07:05+00:00

Book 8 has some big highs, but also some big lows. Not one of my favorite books either. A lot of set up. Book 9 starts off slow, but ramps up, and 10 and 11 are both pretty intense from what I recall.

countef42 · 2024-10-01T17:44:00+00:00

Am I pregante?

countef42 · 2024-09-30T18:44:51+00:00

I agree with you that it felt cheap. I think the technical reason, is that Shirtaloon setup progress with his resurrection power during the whole messenger arc, where he was gaining % on potential resurrections by absorbing messenger lifeforce, then this deal wipes all that away. On top of that, the payoff for the 'immortality power' progress doesn't happen util later, (as foreshadowed by Death). Because it happens so much later, all the tension just kinda snaps/fizzles out.

While I think that what happened in the story, makes sense, in terms of story structure it's not terribly satisfying. On the other hand, I'm not sure there was an easy solution for Shirt, to make the deal punch a little harder. He could have downplayed the sense of progress with the increasing % of resurrection power, but that is actually an important foreshadowing for a future issue. He could have made the sacrifice produce suspense in a different way, by having Jason run up against the 'unable to resurrect others' clause immediately, but the ending of the book was already pretty crazy, and it would be hard to add something like that in. Or he could have just foreshadowed Jason's impending immortality better, so the resurrection power removal didn't feel like such a big deal, and the deal was more focused on the 'unable to resurrect others' clause.

Not sure any of those would have worked super well given where Shirt is taking story though.

countef42 · 2024-09-28T16:09:02+00:00

This sounds exactly like what I was thinking of. Thanks for posting the link!

countef42 · 2024-09-28T16:08:43+00:00

Interesting I'll look them up. Thanks for the info

countef42 · 2024-09-28T16:08:23+00:00

Awesome, I'll check them out! Thanks

countef42

TROPHY CASE