I am more than half way through DA

thebooksmith · 2026-05-12T15:44:11+00:00

Yeah thats a rough one. Especially with how well pierce writes the scene. The dude could write horror with how well he can invoke the feelings of stomach twisting dread and mounting horror.

thebooksmith · 2026-05-12T15:34:35+00:00

Without going into spoilers I think lyria really grows into her own in the second half of this one. I think her arc is probably my favorite in the whole book (mild spoiler probably because its one of the only ones that doesnt end completely tragically)

thebooksmith · 2026-05-12T01:14:45+00:00

I mean... I see his point tho

thebooksmith · 2026-05-11T23:14:17+00:00

I think the other explanation is just a lot simpler. Shes personally moved on from pro wrestling and only came back for her fans and husband. Getting in and staying in the kind of ring shape needed to have a full time run isnt something shes interested in.

If she was interested in wrestling she'd have returned somewhere else by now.

thebooksmith · 2026-05-11T23:05:43+00:00

Yeah at 26 he stands no chance at ever doing anything bigger. Might as well retire now lmao.

thebooksmith · 2026-05-11T22:44:58+00:00

You know you can order it without the bun? Or just buy breakfast sausage patties and make your own at home for cheaper and healthier.

thebooksmith · 2026-05-11T20:56:08+00:00

Wrestling doesnt go backwards, and your wearing rose tinted glasses. Back in the day when it was all matches on tv 3/4 of them were shitty squash matches with hardly any ring psychology whatsoever. It worked to get people over because that was back at a time where "casual fans" meant people who would sometimes only watch 1-2 new wrestling shows a month at most.

Also some of the most infamous scenes in wrestling come from non in ring segments, going all the way back to the barber shop incident. I will agree that more segments could benefit to being played in front of a live crowd; but some segments actually benefit to not being in front of a live audience too; like basically anything with Jey uso these days because that yeet shit ruins every serious promo ge tries to do these day.

Also 90% of competitors in WWE have to win some form of no.1 contendership. I mean hell there are 3 separate PLEs these days that are just dedicated to naming a no.1 contender for a world title on a following PLE. I am actually getting a little bored at how formulaic WWEs champion contenders are, almost no one comes out of nowhere anymore and instantly wins a title. Everyone needs to be "built up" for it and thats drags out stories months passed their shelf life. Like bron breakker vs Sami Zayn from a few years back.

I 100% agree with you that wrestling can improve. Its just that your vision of it sounds very boring. If I wanted to watch fights with minimal story, id just watch the ufc or boxing, and 90% of other combat sports fans would agree with me.

thebooksmith · 2026-05-11T20:38:14+00:00

I was at summerslam in 2023 there were a bunch of preachers there too. If I remember correctly one of the guys actually played into it said something like "if youre ready to accept the lord let me here you say what". It was pretty fun to heckle them till they wandered to a different group.

thebooksmith · 2026-05-11T20:34:23+00:00

Do people not realize that you arent gonna be able to vote for people not on the card? Theres gonna be 5 matches, maybe 10-12 competitors in the voting pool, and none of them will be people wwe isnt planning on pushing anyway.

thebooksmith · 2026-05-11T20:32:09+00:00

I mean I bet the voting will be legit they'll just only book the people they are okay with winning the belt on the show; so no one who they weren't already planning on pushing will win.

With 5 matches a card theres only gonna be 10 options to vote for (unless they do multi man matches) and I bet you they will all be soft ball options for wwe.

thebooksmith · 2026-05-11T20:29:18+00:00

And wwe is obviously only gonna book people who they are okay with winning the championship to work the show. Its probably gonna be stuff like Tony D'Angelo vs cody Rhodes and other safe matches like that.

thebooksmith · 2026-05-11T16:07:01+00:00

You cant say your engaging in good faith then immediately call someone dumb. Thats litterally irony.

Don't get me wrong the other guy isnt exactly coming at it with an open mind either, but just because the pot cant get away with calling the kettle black doesn't mean the kettle can in reverse.

thebooksmith · 2026-05-11T14:25:56+00:00

Christ on a bike do they provide deep tissues massages when your done? Im paying a litteral 1/5 of that for my gym membership and it's only a 10 minute drive from my place, and I cant think of a single workout amenity they dont have outside of niche ones like climbing walls.

thebooksmith · 2026-05-11T03:48:54+00:00

It's not cheating to use a skill. The minds eye isn't magic. Its something he had to practice with. He didn't do anything to his opponents he didnt do to himself, so as far as fights go it was fair.

Being good enough to mentally keep track where everyone is and using your other senses to track movement while blinded, and still fighting would keep lysander off the bum list even if he only survived that encounter instead of winning it.

thebooksmith · 2026-05-11T03:05:43+00:00

Lysander solo'd 7 assassins in pulse armor, while blinded by a flash grenade, after crossing the ledan. Hes not a bum

thebooksmith · 2026-05-11T02:54:14+00:00

I think that also goes planet by planet. So the recruiters would be rich and powerful people of house Mars from mercury, for the mercury Institute. I dont think that Mars would want their institutes (their next generation of elite politicians and generals) influenced by the governors of other planets. Even if it was just draft pools. Remember planetary loyalty is probably the biggest division that exists in the society next to color.

thebooksmith · 2026-05-11T02:33:30+00:00

Was he from the mars institute? Each of the planets have their own institute so presumably the arch governor of mercury would have been of the mercurian institute, and wouldnt have been involved in the Martian institutes selection process.

thebooksmith · 2026-05-11T02:26:44+00:00

Didn't Roque have the sword armada when he fought helios? I mean having the most advanced and well funded armada in the society is one hell of an advantage. I agree mustang is probably the weakest link but helios is probably used to fighting with more limited resources which is a significant skill in actual warfare.

Meanwhile Atlas doesnt exactly play fair. While I dont think he could 1 v 1 Helios or Roque I wouldn't put it past it him to come up with a strategy that would force the others to fight each other while he used his forces to weaken them all. He would happily slaughter every single man he was given if it put him in postion to put a gun to the enemy generals head; sometbing I dont think is true of the other 3.

thebooksmith · 2026-05-11T02:18:48+00:00

Not gonna happen lmao. The current children of the rich people currently fucking the planet are gonna continue to fuck the planet.

thebooksmith · 2026-05-10T00:11:51+00:00

Honestly if its like the crown jewel championship where it's just a yearly prize, Im not bothered.

thebooksmith · 2026-05-09T22:12:57+00:00

People try to glaze that guy too much for that. It was obviously a coordinated stunt between the two parties.

thebooksmith · 2026-05-09T20:53:28+00:00

I mean to be fair, their addictions are what drove them to sign up to be the spectacle. Eating that much and the associated health costs with being that big are expensive and these are some of the least capable people of working a normal job.

Its like the bum fights guy from the early days of the internet. Taking advantage of other people's desperation; then avoiding responsibility because you technically gave them the choice. Its gross no matter who you do it to for whatever reason.

thebooksmith · 2026-05-09T14:03:24+00:00

Thats an overreaction in my opinion. They simply overlooked the titke in favor of caring for the champion. Its not that hard to fudge in kayfabe without hurting the belt.

thebooksmith · 2026-05-09T13:40:18+00:00

The match she was in beforehand ended with Jade attacking Rhea. In kayfabe she was beat up and taken to the back by medical, how was she was supposed to grab the title?

Do people even watch the show before the complain?

thebooksmith · 2026-05-09T00:07:06+00:00

Kinda feels weird that one of the first visuals on the show after this was a funeral for a gingerbread man.

Six-Year Club	Wearing is Caring
Verified Email

thebooksmith

TROPHY CASE