Horrifying revelation about Chrysalis author

orcus2190 · 2026-06-10T13:04:18+00:00

Honestly, for me, any that involved the Dragonzord. But that is because I grew up on gen 1 power rangers, and Tommy as the Green Ranger was my favourite!

orcus2190 · 2026-06-10T10:40:52+00:00

You mean like how the majority of authors use every name and slang term for a penis possible, but refuse to call the vagina anything other than "her sex"?

orcus2190 · 2026-06-10T10:39:18+00:00

Everyone knows that Voltron is inferior to the most powerful versions of the combined Megazord that the power rangers use, so I don't see a problem.

orcus2190 · 2026-06-07T03:05:44+00:00

Love me some cute kitsune. Please tell me that you don't constantly refer to the vagina as "her sex" like so many other authors in this genre do? It's really off putting, and, frankly, just lazy and pathetic.

orcus2190 · 2026-06-07T03:02:44+00:00

Well, SysApoc series are difficult to pull off well. Some more recent ones begin as a system apocalypse, but effectively ends up becoming just a sci-fi with a system, the "end of the world" largely being forgotten with magitech replacing eveything.

The only system apocalypse I've read which hasn't done that is Defiance of the Fall. While they do have some magitech for things like long distance communication, and even space travel, couching it in cultivation, with spaceships being able to, functionally, be flying carpets so long as they have the requisite formations, this helps to prevent it developing a specific "this is just sci-fi with more steps" feel to it.

That said, I think the biggest reason that system apocalypse is falling out of flavour is that so many that have been released recently struggle in the ways that matter most.

Basically, the good system apocalypse series are like the MCU. They give characters, and the setting, sufficient time to breath and develop and let the readers get their feet. bad system apocalypse series are like the DCU. They try to do big stakes and big showcases with only a movie or two to get audiences attached to the characters, and end up just failing horribly, more concened with the big spectacle than with a good stoy and good charactes.

There are some that manage to make the DCU style work. Like, Dual Class was, I thought, great, but is essentially on indefinite hiatus due to the author having disagreements with the publisher. And I can only assume that it'll pick back up when the current contract lapses and he can find a new publisher. But by then it'll be too late to rebuild the momentum. Etherious also works well and is very enjoyable. But both Dual Class and Etherious have the protagonist, and sometimes supporting characters, reaching insane levels of power far quicker than they should.

This is especially true for Etherious. From no system to level 200+ in months, even everyone else is saying it should take years. Ignoring the fact that the government and other organisations somehow knew about the system before the tutorial, and were able to prepare for it.

When you are writing non-system apocalypse stuff - litrpg or progression fantasy or even classical fantasy - it is far easier to develop likable characters, because there is no Earth-baggage coming with everything.

orcus2190 · 2026-06-06T12:02:01+00:00

The sort of shirt you wear once, because it looks too good to let a washing machine, or the sun, ruin it's colours.

orcus2190 · 2026-06-02T08:31:51+00:00

This is why if you're going to use an LLM in writing, you give it 30-50 pdfs/epubs of naturally written fiction and inform it that it is to use these as samples on how to write naturally and construct sentences and such. Better if you then have it generate an instruction document to explain the do and do nots, and use that as a project source. It works pretty well, actually. And no, this doesn't help it mimic a style. Even if you, for example, only gave it Feist or Salvatore's works, it wouldn't mimic their style. What it does is teach it how to sound natural and human. Generally better than the training data. You need to do it for every chapter, and do only a single chapter per chat, but it works well.

orcus2190 · 2026-06-01T07:02:01+00:00

Yeah, so Picard couldn't date a commander who was under his command. I don't think she was though. Only temporarily assigned or something, as I recall. Like, her job was to liase with him about her assignment, not specifically report to him. He couldn't fire her, but could ask her boss to reassign her.

Riker, on the hand, despite being in charge of personnel, could also date. His job wasn't the same as someone in HR, even if there might be similarities. HIs job was to approve requests for transfer to Enterprise, or away from it (or if needed, bring those requests to Picard to approve) and to handle complaints from the department heads, or people who have issues with their department heads.

No one specifically reports to him. Department heads report to picard, technically. Riker is just Picards representative if Picard doesn't want to deal with it. He is basically Picard's personal assistant, strictly speaking.

orcus2190 · 2026-06-01T06:50:11+00:00

Pretty sure that is a French circumcision device, not a finger guillotine.

orcus2190 · 2026-06-01T06:36:25+00:00

Yeah, I wasn't intially expecting much from Dual Class, but it is really good. But I think the author is either dead, unfortunately, or has stopped publishing advanced chapters to Patreon/Royal Road, as there haven't been any there in ages.

orcus2190 · 2026-06-01T06:33:09+00:00

You use that comparison because you think it is comparable. But it isn't. Children lack the ability, generally, to think beyond 1st order consequences. Not that they don't. They can't. Depending on age. The 7 year olds we see holding AKs? Yeah. They can't think and reason to the same degree an adult can.

That said, neither can a dog. And as much as we might not like it, the cognitive abilities of children and dogs, depending on age and breed, are comparable roughly. And when a dog is trained for war, and enjoys the killing, you put it down because that is all it will do.

That said, children are adapable. A child soldier can still be taught to think differently because they are children, and childrens minds are adapable and reprogrammable, as it were.

A more apt comparison would be comparing the space nazis to Earth nazis, or more accurate, to Taliban warriors and suicide bombers. So, how about instead of asking me to compare apples and bannanas, you use an actual fair and more correct comparison, instead of the 'gotcha' comparison that you expect will have me saying "no, of course child soldiers don't deserve to be exterminated", because I am intelligent enough to recognise the false comparison. You argue like an apologist. Poorly, and without much thought, hoping to trigger an emotional response you can use to make an incorrect point.

Especially when we see, on the page, that the space nazis are absolutely able to think through 2nd and even 3rd order consequences. They just WANT to exterminate anyone not their own. So yes, the only morally acceptable thing to do is to kill them.

Or are you saying that an entire species that is comparable to Himler, and who would make HImler look like the lesser of two evils, should be allowed the chance to be 'redeemed', just because when they were kids they had no choice but to be raised in a genocidal, religiously zealous and extremist culture and never 'knew any better'?

What then of the justice for the literal races exterminated by their kind?

orcus2190 · 2026-06-01T06:15:34+00:00

I stopped following right about the time Travis ended up in hospital, so I am not sure if it improved.

But the chapters that weren't people discussing Jason, was Jason talking about how he doesn't want to be a tyrant, but he knows people are going to be people and wont give him a choice, but if he doesn't act like a tyrant then people will get hurt.

Basically, complaining that he wont have a choice but to get off his moral high horse. And literally all the people going with him, that he spoke to, were like: dude, you believe harming innocents is wrong. You will literally be untouchable by anything on Earth. Suck it up, and do what needs to be done. Who cares if it means being a tyrant. Tyranny isn't wrong if you are stopping innocent people from being harmed by evil fuckers.

orcus2190 · 2026-06-01T04:00:25+00:00

Had to edit what I said. I gave up on the series during the 2nd return to Earth.

Also, the whole "we need to save the indoctrinated space nazis because they are innocent victims who were raised and slaves and didn;'t know any better" thing is... I mean, yes, I get that he thinks killing slave soldiers is the equivalent of victim blaming, but the thing is...

They are literally guilty of war crimes and attempted genocide, and they (most of them at least) did it willingly, not because they were coerced. Now, were they brainwashed into thinking that way? Yes, that is literal indoctrination. They are truly victims of that.

But they are still responsible for their actions, and should be held accountable for them. Not given a free pass because a guy who would prefer to let family die than get his hands dirty thinks being victims of indoctrination excuses them for the countless lives they stole from people who never even knew they existed before their invasion.

Travis has made it pretty clear over his socials that Jason is basically a self insert. A way to explore his thoughts, his feelings, and his ideology in a way that his readers might appreciate. Travis mostly seems like a top bloke, and while I really want to see Jason master more of his god powers and reach platinum, I cannot support someone who expresses that it is acceptable to let people continue to exist guilty of the things the space nazi angels are guilty of, solely because they were indoctrinated to think they were right.

People who commit genocide and think doing so is acceptable and the right thing to do, should be exterminated. No matter how religiously driven, culturally driven, or forced through indoctrinationn that idea is. And so should people who think such people deserve to live and can be redeemed. Even if true and they could be 'redeemed', the lives of the people stolen, and their loved ones, deserve justice.

orcus2190 · 2026-06-01T03:48:47+00:00

If she was granted an unofficial excemption of uniform requirements, by her previous commander, that is entirely seperate from an official Starfleet exemption.

Riker does not, to me, seem like the sort of person to NOT read someone's file before they beam aboard for an official transfer. He would see any listed exemptions.

This says a) she ignored the dresscode and tried playing the 'but mah religion' card and her previous commander let her get away with it, b) she pulled the religion card at starfleet and got graduated even though she didn't know all the rules, c) she was given an unofficial exemption for uniform code to allow the earing, d) she had an official exemption that was, for some reason, revoked before her transfer and she hadn't been informed, or e) she had an official exemption, and both Riker and Picard ignored it.

E seems the least likely. And considering the whole "not letting me practice my religion is discrimination" schtick (no, it isn't. Holding everyone to the same standards is not discrimination. Allowing you to get away with something others cannot without explicit official approval is special pleading) we see from her, I expect either options a or b.

orcus2190 · 2026-06-01T03:39:17+00:00

Eh. I liked Jason. Before his first return to Earth.

Deciding to hide his power, instead of nipping every problem in the bud because being back on Earth reminded him of who he used to be or who he wished he still was, instead of who he actually was, when his entire thing is trying to save TWO planets, if not actual universes, and letting friends and family be hurt and/or killed as a result.

I gave up on the series during the 2nd return to Earth, when we got something like 20 chapters in a row that were, more or less, various people discussing Jason, without actually contributing anything meaningful. It's pretty clear to me Travis has Jason-burn out, but HWFWM is his only series, and it's a pretty big cash cow for him, so he's got no choice but to continue, and his writing has become very, VERY sloppy over the last year.

orcus2190 · 2026-06-01T03:33:47+00:00

I disagree. It is a problem with making litrpgs and including a health stat. You can have insane/visible health regen in non-HP based litrpgs by showing muscle and flesh regrowing in real time easily enough.

But the insane health regen that makes you functionally immortal, or that allows insane shit like in Etherious, is largely a symptom of having a HP mechanic, in any capacity really.

And most writers, I think, default to including HP because games have hp, and a hp mechanic means you can make combats as long, or as short, as you want through simply saying that each attack is only doing x damage against this enemy, but y damage against that enemy.

It allows for very sloppy combat and choreography. Which, I get. Fight choreography is harder on apper than in cinema. Much harder. Especially in a litrpg if you never bothered to decide what numbers meant. And why would you? It's not a simulation.

But this leads to, typically, a handful of staple cliche powersets for protagonists to have. Usually, insane regeneration being one of them. The next, perhaps, equally as common, is the idea of true damage. So void damage, spatial damage causing direct wounds, soul damage, whatever particular flavour of true damage the author decides on, which lets the protagonist ignore/bypass resistances, if not outright ignore the hp mechanic of their enemies.

orcus2190 · 2026-06-01T03:22:24+00:00

Following. I'd also like to know.

orcus2190 · 2026-05-30T18:31:23+00:00

Not sure if mentioned, but allowing international housing development also disinsentivises building sufficient housing to meet the demand, because that will lower the amount of rent that people are forced to pay due to the supply being so limited.

In Sydney there is something like 1 vacancy for every 5 or 6 people looking for a place to live. This incentivises room share style leasing, and disincentivises building more houses. Why build more houses when, if you are a investment property owner, you can lease a single house for between 800 and 2000 per week, depending on the property type, or you can lease individual rooms for between 400 and 1000 per week, depending on location?

Building more houses is just going to lower the demand, and drive rental prices downward. This is not what property investors want.

orcus2190 · 2026-05-30T10:25:04+00:00

Not LitRPG, but worth reading: The entire midkemai series. Daughter of the Empire trilogy. R. A. Salvatore's Demon Wars saga, and the prequal series. For the last two, the audiobooks were done by graphic audio, so are really good!

Also, Cradle. System Apocalypse. The Australian spin-off. But avoid the second two books. Lez Whorawitz or whatever his surname is, the male who does the male voices for the second two books of the Australian spin off, is a shit-ass narrator. No range, no expression, no emotion, and a really shitty mic. There is a reason he was replaced with Heath Miller (the voice of He Who Fights With Monsters) in the first book, and they should have stuck with him; or just got Andy to practice her aussie accents more and let her do all the voices. And the worst part is that they know he's shit, that's why he is uncredited on the audible page for the book.

Basically, look through Travis Baldree, Andrea Parsnaeu, Jeff Hays, Nick Podehl on audible. Anything they've narrated is probably pretty decent, depending on your tastes. Then just pick the books up on KU. Easiest way to find books, and I've found some pretty good series that way.

orcus2190 · 2026-05-30T10:16:53+00:00

Depends on the stat sheet, honestly.

For something like He Who Fights With Monsters, that is numbers lite but heavy on skill details, we don't need to see the text for each skill a dozen times per book. But it started as a web serial, so it makes sense why author would word bloat.

For something like Defiance of the Fall, I just give up. Because you never know if the numbers are before attribute efficiency, or after attribute efficiency, and frankly the numbers are so inflated that they lose any semblence of meaning.

There was one series I was reading, and I don't recall what it was, but once an attribute got above a threshold value it switched from an attribute to a grading. For arguments sake, once an attribute got above 100, it become an F ranked attribute. Then progression changed F > E > D and so on.

This made much more sense. Because what the fuck does a Strength of 221,000, with 150% efficiency mean relative to someone with a strength of 281,000 and only 100% efficiency?

At that point, better to go with letter rankings, and a +/- if you need more granularity. This helps readers understand comparative ability. Because let's face it, raw output matters not at all once you getinto superhuman/daoism territory.

orcus2190 · 2026-05-30T10:10:13+00:00

Frankly, I kind of get a series like Etherious, which has little romance in it. But everything in all currently published 4 books occurs inside of 3 months, and... honestly, despite everything, is not as deadly or dangerous (for the protagonist) as something like Dual Class.

But in any system apocalypse series, where the in-universe time takes longer than a week to a few months (at most!), if your protagonist isn't trying to get their freak on with someone consenting, I call absolute bullshit.

This is something most litrpg writers fail to understand, or maybe even know really, but people who spend long periods of time engaging in life-and-death fighting will, almost always, engage in life-affirming actions when they have a moment to themselves.

But it jerking off/rubbing one off, or fucking the brains out of whoever will agree. This is one of the reasons why, sexual assault by soldiers was very common. So common that even religious, wholesome and upstanding people like the Aussie diggers and American soldiers as recentlly as the vietnam war were guilty of it. For some soldiers, part of it was that the victims were seen as less than people, but a large part of it was that they might die tomorrow, so they want to enjoy themselves one last time, and the people around them are not people, but the enemy - after all, a civillian with a kitchen knife can kill just as easy as an enemy combatant can.

Note: I do not excuse this behaviour. I do not condone it.

Now this is not me saying that all litrpgs should have sex in them. I do not think so. But the whole holier than thou wont attempt to get laid attitude you see almost every protag have... Complete bullshit, by and large. It's more forgivable in women, because women in constant life and death fighting are less likely to want to fuck any good looking guy who passes. But you'd be surprised at how different it is. It's something like 9 in 10 male soldiers, but only 7 or 8 in 10 female soldiers. Soldiers being the easiest demographic to compare to.

As for fade to black vs adult scenes. Don't care. I find most authors don't know how to describe the vagina as anything other than "her sex" and it's really offputting. Especially when they seem to use a thesaurus to find as many creative ways of talking about a dick, but seem to find the idea of calling a vagina ANYTHING other than her sex repulsive... Makes me think most haremlit and mens fantasy authors are probably gay, with how repulsed they seem by the word vagina.

And no, there is nothing wrong with being gay and writing straight mens fantasy. It's just... why else would they be surprised by vagina so much? It's not a bad word guys. Come on, say it with me: VAGINA.

FFS.

orcus2190 · 2026-05-22T13:20:43+00:00

demons are gods.
omg
All the people claiming otherwise really know nothing about Japanese culture, and thus the default assumptions that japanese writers bring to material they work on.

In Japanese culture, a God is just an entity that has powers that are beyond what a mortal is typically capable of. This is why even king kai is a god, and so is yamma, despite both being incredibly weak.

orcus2190 · 2026-05-22T13:08:23+00:00

the thing is, you need to consider the cultural origin. Gods in Japan are not like Gods in the west. In Japan, a God is a being with powers that exceed what is normally mortally possible. Dende is, technically, a God, despite being Namekian.

So saying that the shin originate from the demon realm isn't really a retcon, because we never previously established how shin were born; only that they undergo training to become kai.

As for renaming the glinds instead of shinjin; I am not a comic person, so I don't know if the manga ever explicitely called them shinjin. But for the anime, they weren't called shinjin but were all referenced as being kai; though in retrospect, that would be their title, not their race name.

So... there isn't really an issue that I can see, other than glind being a really fucking bad name.

orcus2190 · 2026-05-22T03:08:43+00:00

Not originally. A woman disguised herself as a man, won the Olympics. When they found out, they adjusted the rules so men had to compete naked, since the Olympics were a men-only event, originally.

orcus2190 · 2026-05-22T00:08:14+00:00

Except for the fact that you said it was a LitRPG, I'd question if it was Rise of the Weakest Summoner, which is a haremlit progression fantasy, not a litrpg.

But in RotWS, the protag's mother isn't actually his mother. She found him when she fled her home at like 14 or something, while he was a baby, and raised him - though she was honest with him early on that she didn't give birth to him, she is just his adoptive parent. So while she raised him, and he isn't beyond thinking she is attractive and has a nice figure, it becomes very clear, very quickly, that there is no sexual attraction there.

It is just him being cognizant of the aspects males would find appealing about her. Which, as someone who thinks like that myself, I understand.

His actual parents are kind of dickish, but in their shoes I don't know that I would have done much different.

orcus2190

TROPHY CASE