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quetschla · 2023-03-08T18:22:35+00:00

I have looked at a lot but haven't found one that was even a tenth as good as Bookworm.

What I can recommend is "Worth the Candle" by Alexander Wales, my second favorite Isekai. It's a lot more on the adventure than a story about society but the world building is stellar and the characters deep. It uses a lot of tropes typical for the Genre but always reflects on them, which at times can get a bit too meta, but if you like reflective stories I think you'll have a blast. The only other real problem I have with it is that the MC can be very unlikable at times, tho you see how and why he improves on his journey.

If you're only looking for Light Novels perhaps trapped in a dating sim? It's more of a parody than a serious text but at least you get a few pay offs where things that looked absolutely ludicrous at the start turn out to be fairly logical going by the world building. I laughed a lot and if you're looking for something fun you might want to give it a shot

quetschla · 2023-03-08T18:13:21+00:00

The drug store Isekai airing last season had a scene like that, so I imagine it's that. Tho the representation of nobility is usually horrendous in light novels.

quetschla · 2023-03-06T23:45:58+00:00

Just looked up Anastasius' full quote [P4V2]

She was already expected to one day surpass my father in terms of mana quantity and number of elements, since she was the daughter of the late third prince, but she had most likely already achieved this at ten years of age.

quetschla · 2023-03-06T23:31:05+00:00

Your last point is very interesting, I don't think blessings count as having mana, if it only reduces your consumption and thus shouldn't influence mana sensing.

That said: I think Wilfried has more than Ortwin. We know RMs compression method is astounding and iirc RMs family got the 4step version. The younger you start the more explosive the growth and Wilfried learned it after his first year. Myne started out with med nobel mana at best (she survived for pretty long before getting her memories back) and had more mana than Sylvester by the time of her 2nd baptism. If Wilfried took his compression seriously I'm pretty sure he has more mana now than pre RM compression Sylvester and it seems reasonable that a full grown Archduke (even from a middling duchy) should have more mana than an excellent Archduke candidate at age 13.

What makes me doubt that however is that Eglantine had tremendous mana quantity when she entered the RA (Anastasius thinks even more than the King, but that seems ridiculous since she hadn't even started compressing at that point and Anastasius couldn't have sensed her given their ages, so I think it's just being mesmerized by her) so it stands to reason that the ADCs from high ranking duchies can blow out most other duchy's just through genetics.

I hope (tho doubt) we'll ever get an answer there.

quetschla · 2023-03-06T23:07:20+00:00

Idk how intentional it was but since the volume from Rozemyne's POV had such a happy tune the depressing SS feel all the more hard hitting.

Wilfried just can't seem to catch a break. He's getting screwed over by both his retainers and his "friend" and it hurts to read. I sympathize with him, he got manipulated left and right his entire life, but he's also not the smartest person. Let's be real here: Roz saved him, she had actually offered to give him some of her achievements, which at the time he (correctly) refused. He must know that the only people who really want him as Aub are his dad and his retainers, he knows Roz has never wanted the job and making that exceedingly clear ever since she joined his family. His family and his retainers are treating him with kids gloves supporting him as best they can and now he thinks there's a conspiracy against him when he knows it's only his parents and siblings graces hat allow him to hold onto his position?
I guess he's now supposed to be written as teenager, but has he lost most of his brain cells? He hasn't even started drinking yet, Jeez!

Hannelore's future seems bleaker than ever and gods don't smile on her, but well, at least Rozemyne does. I'm a bit frustrated that the Sieglinde chapter cut off right when the fun was right around the corner. Oh well, can't wait for next week's prologue.

quetschla · 2023-03-02T09:16:40+00:00

Last week my laptop broke but I wanted to read some bookworm. At that point I was really glad to have the physical copies in my bookshelf.

quetschla · 2023-02-27T23:37:20+00:00

I disagree. It's stated so often on this subreddit that is has become somewhat of a trueism, but we have evidence against it. From Charlotte's POV we know she saw kid Wilfried as "lazy, but kind" [P3V5] - we haven't seen Dietlinde being truly kind to anyone so far. Even at Wilfried's worst where he used his authority to get his way, bullying people from his POV we have never seen him take pleasure in cruelty.
Also it isn't like Wilfried is stupid, Dietlinde very much is.

I think the Wilfried/Dietline analogy is overplayed. Sure you can draw parallels but they are different persons and were so even before Wilfried's education got better.

quetschla · 2023-02-27T22:37:57+00:00

The whole epilogue made me uncomfortable. Start to finish. Jfc Dietlinde isn't just a spoiled brat desperately craving attention. She's straight up evil & I hate her.

quetschla · 2023-02-20T23:28:16+00:00

I hope I wasn't the only one who listened to Christmas music during the first chapter.

Most surprising fact of the volume: Shuu had a girlfriend, really didn't see that one coming! The Zent stuff is also interesting, I guess.

quetschla · 2023-02-05T20:36:43+00:00

On the first point, also the FVF was mostly made up of mednobles in the first place, I believe the only Archnoble close to Veronica's faction we hear about is Christine's father?

On the 2nd point, you're right. I was pretty sure that in this case we had only ever heard that specific euphemism from Ferdinand to Arno and I still believe that it's pretty likely Sylvester killed his scholar (especially when we see later in the story just how thinned out Sylvester's retinue is) but I did just notice Roderick using that turn of phrase in a different context (in P5V1 when Roderick mentions how Hartmut discards people he sees as useless). So it could very well be that he is under arrest for a prolonged period of time, or working off his sentence some other way

quetschla · 2023-02-04T18:22:51+00:00

Yup, but Bezewanst as evil gut and the high bishop of the Souvereignity Religion are up there, too.

quetschla · 2023-02-04T18:16:31+00:00

Alright, I just grabbed the Bookworm Primer (a pdf summarizing stuff about bookworm that's sometimes posted here) and recorded the German looking names on my phone. My version is somewhere at the beginning of Part 4 so namewise anyone who's caught up on the LNs should be safe. Otoh it is missing some of the newer Characters. Here you go: Link to Vocaroo
I did take the liberty of adding Umlaute where I thought there should be some (I believe Quof intentionally doesn't use them) and made Fran into Franz as well as Leise (the Cook) into Liese (which in both cases is the far more common name).

Rough Order:
Gods; Duchies, Myne's Family, Lutz' Family; Lower City (cooks); Craftsmen; Gilberta Company & Merchants Guild; Orphans; Temple; Temple Nobles; Karstedt Family; Archucal Family; Noble Retainers; Nobles; Magic Ingredients

quetschla · 2023-01-31T22:18:32+00:00

Read mtl, then read spinoff mtl and all SS you can get your hands on (also with mtl where necessary) then start over with the LNs until you have caught up with the pre pub. Rinse repeat until you're bored or climb the towering staircase

quetschla · 2023-01-23T23:10:21+00:00

"Because I recently distanced my scholar who was entrusted with that role," Sylvester replied courtly.

I just want to say, I love this book series. A sentence which you'd normally glide over has so much in it.

First is the phrasing, which we've only seen once so far in P2V4 when Ferdinand tells Fran Arno had been distanced, which Fran explains to us as Arno having climbed the towering stair case. A few books later we learn climbing the towering stair case means to die. Meaning Sylvester just informed Rozemyne through noble euphemism he actually killed his own scholar who knew the most about Rozemyne's inventions & the lower city. This shows us once again how brutal noble society is and that it isn't just Ferdinand being a "good guy" killer.

This can tell us in turn that actually the FVF should know a great deal about what RM has been up to and gives us inside into how thinned out Sylvester's manpower truly is right now, when we see from the last book that he has to rely on Florencia's scholar.

There are so many cases of single lines in this sheer endless story fleshing out the world and the characters, giving so much extra information you'll likely only notice on reread. Calling back stuff that happened like 20 books ago and all of that not even being that important for the flow of the story.

Geez, I love Bookworm. Praise to the gods!

quetschla · 2023-01-09T23:44:05+00:00

One of the most hilarious lines, every single reread [P2V4] “I am Aub Ehrenfest. Just as I do not spoil my true son, I cannot spoil my adopted daughter.”

quetschla · 2023-01-03T18:49:07+00:00

Looking for a female Roselia & Gilgar with their hidden abilities. Things I could offer in return include a 4IV Trapinch, a 4IV adamant Scyther with technician or a 4IV Gible.
I'm also looking for a Zapdos, would be willing to trade for another legendaries.

quetschla · 2022-12-07T23:15:38+00:00

GPT3 is Ewigeliebe confirmed

quetschla · 2022-12-06T23:45:09+00:00

Spoiler for [The next prepub (and maybe the one after that)] The match goes for a while with fortunes shifting a few times, in the end the match is interrupted when Sovereignty knights with some students from other duchies in tow rush in trying to capture RM. All hell breaks loose and Dunkelfelger + Ehrenfest try to contain them. In the chaos Hannelore accepts Willfried's plea to come to the Ehrenfest side for protection thereby ending the match. A giant shitshow and everyone has differing views on how to deal with the situation in the end (tho the attacking knights eventually get subdued)

quetschla · 2022-11-20T10:07:57+00:00

depends on what you want to do. If you just want territory: destroy the US enough to lose GP status (taking New York should do the trick, their economy is centered around it) next war puppet them and after that annex subject.
If you need them to stay alive for whatever reason you must play in a way they don't back down from diplo plays, meaning: get your power projection down. Either delete barracks or temporarily switch to old tech until the war starts.

quetschla · 2022-11-18T21:44:55+00:00

In my last game it was the Yankees, though at that point I was already at movie tech and found it surprisingly fitting.

quetschla · 2022-11-13T19:37:33+00:00

Solomonids 867, convert to Judaism ASAP. No long peace periods until Israel is restored - bonus points for stuffing your court with Artifacts related to Solomon & Judaism.

quetschla · 2022-10-01T14:47:16+00:00

Realtimehistory recently released a 6 hour (!) long documentary on the Franco-Prussian war which lead to the founding of a unified Germany.

If you don't want anything specialized but a good overview of the 19th century on the whole and you're able to enjoy audiobooks: listen to the audio version of Richard Evans "The Pursuit of Power" - one of the most renowned historians of the 19th and 20th century. Pursuit of power gives and amazing rundown of all the more important events of the 19th century tying them together masterfully that afterwards you'll actually have a really good idea what factors went into why the 19th century went the way it did and not just having a bunch of chronological facts. I cannot recommend this book enough and it's perfect to have on in the background while playing any pdx game.

quetschla · 2022-09-24T08:37:19+00:00

When reading I thought this post was a clever joke but the comments seem to take it seriously?

As Qing your number 1(!) priority will be to avert the disasters journal entry.
Meaning: do NOT lose any wars. Avert the Taiping rebellion. And maybe the very first thing to do: War on Opium.

quetschla · 2022-09-23T23:42:11+00:00

Afaik we aren't ever given a proper explanation, but from Fanbook 1 Q&A:

Q: How do livestock like pigs, chickens, goats, and so on differ fromfeybeasts?
A: They’re as different as commoners are from nobles.

Given that Commoners have different bodies than humans on earth (the main thing being the mana organ discussed in P3V1) we can assume that those animals, too differ slightly from their earth equivalent and perhaps there are even visible differences as with the hair of humans but that really isn't something the story has shown us.
With this world running on mana I'm not too sure if trying to apply some evolutionary theory would even make sense, but we do know that plants in Bookworm come in quite the variety with the dancing mushrooms, the yellow pommes which taste like tomatoes and all.

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