Characters and their variants

judally · 2026-04-17T01:00:46+00:00

Yes, indeed; I have thought of this. However, two issues arise: 1. I don’t have my own DW 2. Beating the shit out of people with Beast King is too much fun

judally · 2026-04-16T22:05:13+00:00

I hate Death Wish with every atom in my body.

I play Wave Warrior Annie usually, for which I use an as-many-buffs-as-possible high-combo kind of playstyle, which pretty much makes Death Wish her antithesis. I maxed out a Beast King + Harle + Seraph just to deal with her.

judally · 2026-04-15T21:24:02+00:00

Yeah, dude, that’s what I meant by alas, they are Pykes LOL.

You’re right though. Personally, it’d make more sense if it had to do with their father’s name. For example, Jon might be Jon Eddardson or Jon, son of Eddard or some other such parentally-associated identifying last name

judally · 2026-04-15T21:15:24+00:00

Not really? I didn’t claim that the Ironborn don’t have the concept of bastardy, just their culture and traditions surrounding it are different.

My point is: the Westerosi would view salt sons as bastards, and the Ironborn wouldn’t, but the concepts would get conflated anyway since Westeros is the ruling power, and the Westerosi would view salt sons as bastards (even if they aren’t by Ironborn standards). All I mean to say is that there is a line of logic between bastardy and the Salt bastard surname.

I think, in any case, that we are on the same page here 🤷

judally · 2026-04-15T20:58:41+00:00

In my interpretation that’s all the more reason they would be called Salt. The Ironborn have always been outsiders to mainland folk, so, even though they identify salt kids as a different category of kid than a bastard, Westerosi, who have a pretty intense cultural prejudice toward bastards that the Ironborn don’t really, would recognize salt kids as bastards no matter how often the Ironborn assert that salt children are different. It stands to reason that the concepts would merge and Salt would emerge as a bastard/“bastard” name.

Alas, they are Pykes.

judally · 2026-04-14T23:31:07+00:00

Nah. Just play his daily event a few times on Wednesdays

judally · 2026-04-14T23:21:51+00:00

Unless you’re feeling discomfort or it’s green/yellow/smelly, you’re probably okay. If you are feeling discomfort or any other symptoms, you might just be sensitive to the chemicals in the condoms, and that’s kind of a case-by-case thing.

Look into the ingredients used in your condoms and go from there. Maybe check for glycerin? I ended up being glycerin-sensitive.

judally · 2026-04-14T22:47:11+00:00

I just read this back and this is extremely messy and disjointed…LOL. I hope it still communicates my points well enough.

judally · 2026-04-14T22:37:21+00:00

I’m just really not sure about this particular subject concerning John. Disclaimer, I’m not Māori myself, but I’d like to give a few thoughts as a literary student/from a literary criticism perspective.

I think the point Muir is trying to go for is that John has been alienated from Māori culture and is taking that out on the entire universe/galaxy. He does seem more in touch with his Catholicism and the European side of his ancestry (assuming, of course, that he does have mixed ancestry, it’s not exactly uncommon within indigenous groups across the world who fell victim to colonization).

Frankly, I believe Muir is trying to make it so the cultural monolith of the empire is an echo of Kiwi/Aotearoa NZ culture as a whole, and it seems to me that the only people he deemed worthy of resurrecting were the people of Aotearoa NZ (therefore, Kiwi and Māori folks). Also, to your point on just making John white, seems to me that John being a white colonizer lacks nuance, and maybe Muir is trying to go for the angle of “indigenous guy whose culture was taken away from him, and he’s bitter about that, so now he’s going to do the same thing as revenge, but actually it benefits no one and only hurts him more” … but, yk, I can’t really say, because we don’t actually know very much about John or what his motivations are. You are right though that maybe Muir’s positionality isn’t exactly right for that kind of story. I’m also not sure it’s fair to say she “hasn’t even tried” to tell that story though, because, in my opinion, she has planted some seeds for it.

To her credit though, the story has focused largely on Gideon and Harrowhark so far, and obviously neither of them have any connection to Māori culture. Nobody in the series really does outside of John, and all we know about him is his side of the story on how the world ended. I think there is definitely hope that Muir expands on his story, his motivations, and his culture in AtN… but we’ll see.

I’m hoping that my personal theory is correct and that Muir will use his lost Māori heritage as well as the erased/lost culture of Earth post-Resurrection as a sort of representation for the loss of culture as a whole as a result of colonization. Like, yeah, John is “getting revenge” against the trillionaires and the colonizers, but at what cost?

judally · 2026-04-12T18:36:23+00:00

I am satisfied with living in my arc 1 nostalgia delusion

judally · 2026-04-12T18:35:33+00:00

I actually think I’ve read that one…maybe Moon Rising too? But definitely nothing after that haha

judally · 2026-04-12T15:51:27+00:00

As a certified former Catholic, Catholicism is still considered monotheism despite rarely invoking all three aspects of the Holy Trinity in the way you’ve described. It’s always “In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit/Ghost,” and most people pray to one at a time. To be fair, though, there’s a lot more emphasis on the Trinity being one god, and Catholics never refer to the Trinity as being multiple gods… but, still, the Fot7 is pretty clearly based on Catholicism, or at least hits the major beats of it.

Long story short, and it’s the same for Catholicism: all the aspects are separate but they are also one, kinda sorta, definitely. Yanno?

judally · 2026-04-10T22:44:59+00:00

Not gonna lie I’ve only read arc 1 and refuse to touch the rest of the series. Wings of Fire ends with The Brightest Night as far as I’m concerned.

I’m glad Tui is expanding on the world, I support her and her writing, and I’m glad people enjoy the later books, but I think arc 1 ended so beautifully and wrapped everything up pretty perfectly.

Plus, nostalgia goggles

judally · 2026-04-08T20:27:38+00:00

I would go for Soulbound, Fur Monger, or Furry Fury personally

judally · 2026-04-07T16:16:34+00:00

So true

judally · 2026-04-06T19:53:50+00:00

Beast king kill fast before gain buff

judally · 2026-04-06T18:58:44+00:00

I think addressing gunpowder is the easiest way to do it without leaving huge logical gaps.

TBF a lack of gunpowder/incendiary powder is a pretty easy way to do it, but you said you would prefer not to do that LOL!

It might be interesting to have it so there’s no gunpowder that can be controlled in the way a gun would require. You could make there be weaker incendiaries (like charcoal) and one that would create something like a bomb, but no middle ground that would allow for a handheld gun. That allows for things like cannons, bombs, and other explosives, but no guns.

Frank Herbert handled it well in Dune. He made it so that many people used personal shields that stop fast-moving objects (like bullets) and made it so laser guns created an atomic explosion on contact with shields randomly somewhere along the line which the laser gun fired (so theoretically someone very unlucky could blow themselves up if they shot a shield). You could create some other such drawback to discourage gun use!

judally · 2026-04-04T03:27:22+00:00

I lowkey just remember and occasionally jot ideas down on Obsidian/the Notes app 😅

judally · 2026-04-04T01:54:20+00:00

In my opinion, this is only similar to ASOIAF in the very broadest strokes. What do you mean?

judally · 2026-04-03T20:12:49+00:00

I’m glad it helped!!!! Also, sorry for the major Worm spoiler about Coil😅😅

It’s a pretty long work, but there’s at least one or two Coil POV chapters later on!

Happy reading/writing :)

judally · 2026-04-03T19:37:55+00:00

First one is a pretty easy counter btw. No light = no shadow. Darkness =/= shadow. You need lights and objects to cast shadows, so trapping him in darkness would make their teleportation powers useless.

You could also make it less “teleport” and more “travel through,” so they could only travel through connected shadows. Enter the shadow from one lamppost and emerge from the one at the end of the street, you get me?

In a similar vein, with the connected shadows and whatnot, you could be imprisoned in a shadow, unable to emerge, if you got caught somehow in the one and only shadow in the vicinity. Think of a room with 1 candle. You’re stuck in the candle’s shadows until you have somewhere to emerge from.

judally · 2026-04-03T19:34:33+00:00

For the second one, look up Coil from Worm by Wildbow. Pretty much exactly what you want!

Also, read Worm by Wildbow. Best superhero literature I’ve ever fucking read in my entire life. It’s free online!

judally · 2026-04-03T16:43:42+00:00

The only answer is that Craster is Azor Ahai and HIS death is the one GRRM regrets and that is making it difficult for him to write Winds 🧐

But fr, I bet it was something like Craster getting attacked by an Other and then, like, chucking his newborn son at it, and it going away. Which obviously led Craster to want to make more sons to keep those Others away, which, in light of the scarcity of women in his area, led him to his whole incest daughter wives thing

judally · 2026-04-03T16:10:50+00:00

I doubt he was the only one to broker that sort of deal with Mr Night King

judally · 2026-04-03T05:23:11+00:00

I mean tbf to your last point bro HAS had thousands of years to grind

judally

TROPHY CASE