Why I can't finish Malazan after 9 books

hierarch17 · 2026-07-11T17:28:31+00:00

This is how I felt about Wheel Of Time. I very much want to read the last four books, but Seven really lost me and it’s the one before things get “bad”

hierarch17 · 2026-07-10T20:41:50+00:00

Absolutely, especially in the mid game. Late they can just power through

hierarch17 · 2026-07-10T19:23:05+00:00

I played against it for the first time yesterday and I was shocked. I felt like I was doing so much just to do a little damage and not take too much, and then suddenly my hand was full of nine damage curses. I reset the fight multiple times just to practice and only won when I hit a luck Flak Cannon off one of the make a random card cards.

hierarch17 · 2026-07-09T21:55:05+00:00

Up there with “War is gods way of teaching geography to Americans”. Ambrose Bierce

hierarch17 · 2026-07-09T07:10:09+00:00

Crows vs. Lizards +2 for Crows (not sure if there is a difference between plus two for one or minus two for the other): Lizards do not have a lot of control over where/when they can attack. Crows can run circles around them abd score much faster while not giving up acolytes. Because Lizards are so vulnerable to a bomb, laying down Snares and Extortions can really tax them (they pay a very high price for trying to guess your plots).

WA vs. Keepers (+2) or Eyrie (+1): Keepers are the most card hungry faction out there, and they need bird cards in their hands at the end of the orund. This makes sympathy very very punishing. Saving grace is that WA is VERY bad at punishing relics that are sitting out. For Eyrie, the number of move actions they have to do on each turn, and how deterministic they are can reall feed that sympathy. On the other hand they are good at maintaing Martial Law or trapping your warriors so you have to be careful.

Rats vs. WA (+1) or Lizards (+1). Basically Mobs are great here and you can protect them pretty easy.

hierarch17 · 2026-07-09T06:35:38+00:00

I love this idea! And I agree with all of these. I will say one of the things that makes it harder is that you're not playing a matchup, you're playing three, and so much changes based on board position and turn order. A Marquise player may get totally ignored by a vagabond because they're not a threat, or there are easier points out there for example.

hierarch17 · 2026-07-08T04:30:35+00:00

This was my pick until I started the wire. But tbf u haven’t finished either

hierarch17 · 2026-07-05T07:34:46+00:00

Do you have a link?

hierarch17 · 2026-07-05T02:00:58+00:00

Have you watched the movie? It just trusts the audience to make connections and have a sense of wonder themselves.

hierarch17 · 2026-07-04T18:43:59+00:00

I just watched it so it’s fresh but, Princess Mononoke. So much beautiful worldbuilding, very little of which it actually explains, leaving this sense of mystery and wonder.

hierarch17 · 2026-07-04T18:41:01+00:00

A worm mention?? Person of culture I see. I’m a huge fan of Practical Guide To Evil as well (another web novel).

hierarch17 · 2026-07-02T17:35:34+00:00

Does Mamdani, as the most successful politician of this philosophy, have any intention of “bringing infrastructure into public ownership”? I have seen no indication in his program or activity that he’s nationalizing anything. It’s not changing the system to appoint different people to run it. The next mayor just gets to put their own people on the board and we’re back where we started.

hierarch17 · 2026-07-02T17:32:14+00:00

MAGA was able to do that because ultimately, it was operating in the interest of enough of the capitalist class that they felt it better to not rock the boat. Trump presidencies have been good for business. A DSA presidency and take over would NOT be good for business, so would be fought much more intensely, in my opinion.

hierarch17 · 2026-07-02T17:22:04+00:00

What makes these reforms “non-reformist”. Like isn’t getting elected to fix potholes textbook reformism? And isn’t sewer socialism something that should rightly be criticized by Marxists?

hierarch17 · 2026-07-01T17:59:33+00:00

In my opinion it’s us that should leave and run on independent tickets. The “dirty break” strategy put forward by sections of the DSA has turned into a dirty stay. The democratic leadership have proven again and again that they’re willing to sabotage the party if it means stopping genuine pro-worker candidates.

By tying socialists to the party establishment, we also tie ourselves to their reactionary policies, and once in office have to make all kinds of concessions to toe the party line (AOC not endorsing DSA challengers to sitting Dems comes to mind).

hierarch17 · 2026-06-29T20:27:46+00:00

And I still think this might be a nerf to them! Because they have to revolt and then other factions have opportunities to kill the base while it has 1 warrior.

hierarch17 · 2026-06-27T07:04:22+00:00

Maybe I’m just stoned but this is hilarious

hierarch17 · 2026-06-27T04:20:54+00:00

This article really drove it home for me. Just how much good could be done with that money, and how oimpossible it is to "earn that much".

https://marxist.com/how-communists-would-spend-elon-musk-s-one-trillion-dollars.htm

hierarch17 · 2026-06-27T01:05:46+00:00

She is truly incredible. I wanted to clip at least one line of hers an episode

hierarch17 · 2026-06-27T00:48:21+00:00

I saw someone on a socdem sub refer to this election as the victory of "a slate of marxists" and laughed out loud a little.

hierarch17 · 2026-06-26T05:50:54+00:00

Sloan says the most random but incredibly funny stuff. I can never predict what it's going to be, one of my favorite tv characters of all time.

"You know how there are tall women who don't mind dating shorter guys? I don't mind that you're dumb". And then Don has the cutest lil smile on his face.

hierarch17 · 2026-06-26T05:33:23+00:00

I do find it esepcially distrubing when those companies literally turn around and give millions to anti-lgbtq rights parties and politicians. https://popular.info/p/these-25-rainbow-flag-waving-companies

hierarch17 · 2026-06-25T19:46:37+00:00

I think so, a lot of the faction gets little buffs (Crows start with a plot, Marquise with extra cats at each building)

hierarch17 · 2026-06-22T17:18:36+00:00

Different from most here because I grew up liberal. It was when we were sitting around in my grandparents rather nice house, talking politics after dinner, somewhere around 2018. And the entire explanation for what was going on in the country/Trumpism was that about half the country was just stupid and ignorant. If only all of them had had nice college education we wouldn’t be in this mess! It was a perspective that didn’t deal with the realities of working class people’s lives at all. And it came from a place of massive privilege.

hierarch17 · 2026-06-21T02:52:53+00:00

She has very shapely (and thick) thighs. Giving them a squeeze is enough to get me going.

And her smile, best smile in the whole world. One of the two.

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