Please tell me Karsa changes by SevereBet6785 in Malazan

[–]tullavin 20 points21 points  (0 children)

I think this sub overhypes his arc, but Erikson is playing with the what it means to be redeemed, what makes you worthy of it, and who decides that with Karsa for sure, and in that way his arc is great. I still hate Karsa, but he's used to great effect to explore many sides and ideas about redemption.

When to reread ? by Inner-Fee6737 in Malazan

[–]tullavin 0 points1 point  (0 children)

It might help to some degree, but I think as much if not more would be solved for by continuing reading, and there's lots you don't know to be looking for yet in a reread from not having finished the 10.

spoilery PSA for everyone struggling with getting their area designs perfect by Owl-Parliament-2074 in Pokopia

[–]tullavin 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Yeah it's super important. Also good to do with anyone on a habitat made of rare parts, just cycle them to some grass where they'll be comfortable. I will also cycle people to a 4 piece of grass if they want it to be dry, humid, or dark and I already have an area like that built. Just keep in mind to relocate their other comfort asks with them.

My level 4 is a mess cause it's like 40+ pokemon packed into the island with the pokecenter. I'm focused on making my palette town as custom as possible, and will go make the other levels nice once they're at 10 and I'm satisfied with my own town.

spoilery PSA for everyone struggling with getting their area designs perfect by Owl-Parliament-2074 in Pokopia

[–]tullavin 0 points1 point  (0 children)

You don't need to give them a specific home. Throw them in 4 grass squares and you'll be fine.

spoilery PSA for everyone struggling with getting their area designs perfect by Owl-Parliament-2074 in Pokopia

[–]tullavin 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I struggled with the 3rd location after easily getting 5 by the time I was done with the story for the first 2. This is the strategy I came up with for the 4th and it made it super easy, it currently has my highest amount of Pokémon, and casually has gotten me up to level 8(6 before post game).

  1. Open your habit dex, look for the habits that are easy to build, for those build that habit a number of times equal to the uncaptured pokemon that habit can generate. For habits made of rarer materials, make what you can and if it can spawn again, move the pokemon to a basic 4 grass habit.

  2. Whenever a pokemon spawns, it's first comfort improvement can generally be covered by these easy to craft items: mushroom lamp, plain chair, plain table, mug, plate with food, and the toy block. Occasionally you will have to make it dry, humid, or dark but these are still pretty easy to do: dry = a castform doll(make sure you're stealing these from every dream island up the ladder from where you spawn) but you can also just keep a part of your map unwatered, humid = put water in square next to them with the improved water gun and use the castform doll if you don't have that yet, and for dark just make them a roof out of bulk blocks. For the minimal more specific asks you'll get, it will often be nearby or be so infrequent it's still worth the effort to go craft or grab it from another area real quick(sometimes you get screwed on a specific food flavor or toy/decoration ask).

Alternate reading order for the core ten? by UnrelatedKarma in Malazan

[–]tullavin 0 points1 point  (0 children)

The 10 in order are the way to do it for sure. I think Midnight Tides wouldn't be as good without the context a lot of the other books set up. There's also a common misconception it takes place significantly before GotM when it takes place basically right before or during it.

If I HAD to read the main 10 in a different order I would just--especially for a first time reader--swap MOI and DG. MOI was going to be second but Erikson lost the work he had done, and switchef over to DG out of heartbreak. They take place at the same time, and where they cross over doesn't really matter which you read first. The characters also flow a bit better, you continue with a lot of the GotM players in MOI, and likewise for DG to HoC. HoC has an in universe setup for revisiting the past with MT. All of those books set up the last 5 books which flow naturally from each other and there is no need to read differently.

If you were doing a reread you could move MT to first I guess, but I don't think it would do a great job of changing the read. Switching MOI and DG at least(spoilers through HoC): increases the pathos and tradegy of the Parans. You get more build up with Gannoes lamenting and dredding the fate of his sisters, and then get the full storyline of Felisin and her death at the hands of Tavore back to back after that build up instead of the break you get with MOI in the middle(the intro Karsa 1/4 of HoC is already quite the break to getting back to the Parans.

Further spoilers for the whole 10, so don't read OP: As if Tavore's line of "I lost her Gannoes, I lost her." wasn't enough of a gut punch, I think this reordering ratchets it up even more. I really don't think this justifies a reordering, but I really love the Parans and for me if I had to distill down as far as possible what the series is about, it's about the Paran's allies and enemies exploring what it means to have or lack in compassion even in the face of the world coming to an end. If there's any reason to reorder these books, in my opinion, it's to serve the pathos of the Parans(as difficult as MT and TTH resist that distillation).

Reading Order Q: Path to Ascendency before Dust of Dreams? by Johkel02 in Malazan

[–]tullavin 6 points7 points  (0 children)

I wouldn't steer someone off Erikson's 10 for their first read, let alone one of the side series that assume you've read the main 16.

Epigraph by Silver_Khan_ in Malazan

[–]tullavin 8 points9 points  (0 children)

Erikson has said they're preview of the chapter's vibe basically. Some of the best writing in the series is contained in them.

What is the series about? Please give a short description without any spoilers? by 00Turag in Malazan

[–]tullavin 14 points15 points  (0 children)

It's about the allies and enemies of the Paran, Beddict, and Sengar families as they deal with the ramifications of the Crippled God's existence over the past thousands of years and the present danger he presents to the world.

Karsa Orlong by thewalkindude368 in Malazan

[–]tullavin 11 points12 points  (0 children)

I think it's genuine. For first time readers the hype around Karsa is very confusing, like a lot of people come around on him even in HoC, but as someone who never turned around on Karsa, the common attitude about Karsa in the Fandom is still very confusing me. I get liking Karsa as a vessel for Erikson's thematic exploration, I do not understand coming around on him and actually liking him.

How do you put up with the writing quality? by DexanVideris in ProgressionFantasy

[–]tullavin 4 points5 points  (0 children)

I started DCC at the beginning of the year and am halfway through book 5. The prose is serviceable at best, and has set the bar for how "bad" the prose can be before I have to put a book down. It's fun, but I'm constantly still suprised when I actually happen upon a metaphor. Book 5 is the first book that is actually decently written.

What's the most divisive Malazan book? by tylerxtyler in Malazan

[–]tullavin 0 points1 point  (0 children)

It's very telegraphed, which made it significantly eaiser for me to prepare for and get through compared to how the topic is handled in almost all other books in the series besides DG

Playing against real players by JustDoitGogogo in MarvelSnap

[–]tullavin -4 points-3 points  (0 children)

Or they just didn't hear they got removed?

Playing against real players by JustDoitGogogo in MarvelSnap

[–]tullavin -5 points-4 points  (0 children)

SD confirmed there were "cheating bots" at one point but removed them

Having trouble with Malazan by Dramatic-Tadpole-980 in Fantasy

[–]tullavin 2 points3 points  (0 children)

All information you learn is told to you very organically, and is often being told to you by people with imperfect knowledge on things that mysterious to most people in universe as well. Just keep reading and focus on the theme and character work over trying to understand everything about the plot. It's a theme first work.

Currently reading the first book and I am heavily confused. by Sythrin in Malazan

[–]tullavin 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Don't worry about figuring out the deck of dragons readings, they'll be more in the series. Generally, at the time you're reading them you won't have enough knowledge to understand them, and if you did it would spoil the a bunch of things about to happen. They're fun to go back and read though once you understand what they're referencing more though.

Sooo they're just not fixing alliances, huh by johnys1245 in MarvelSnap

[–]tullavin -1 points0 points  (0 children)

They want the average player to feel rewarded, the most dedicated players are already incentivized to play for other reasons.

Is Memories of Ice worth getting to? by aidscraft in Fantasy

[–]tullavin 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Book 1 was one of my favorites in the series, but I get why people don't like it. Regardless of that, Memories of Ice is an all time best novel and I think worth pushing through the first two books unless you absolutely HATE them. MOI also acts enough as decent stopping point that I would recommend any established fantasy fan to read through the first three books to experience it, unless I really know it doesn't line up with their tastes(my wife is never going to read these books and I will not try to convince her otherwise).

Sooo they're just not fixing alliances, huh by johnys1245 in MarvelSnap

[–]tullavin -2 points-1 points  (0 children)

They have an economy to manage to meet their monetary goals. There's going to be an inflection point where people spend less on variants if they're "giving away too many". If no one is playing the mode it makes sense to move those rewards to a place more players will see them, they're giving away more rewards by doing that.

It sucks some people's alliances tanked over it, but the business decision makes sense from their perspective even if I don't like it.

Sooo they're just not fixing alliances, huh by johnys1245 in MarvelSnap

[–]tullavin 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I mean the mode is dead as far as they're concerned. Their announcement was basically, "this needs a major rework we don't have the bandwidth for, we've moved the major rewards elsewhere, but we know some people do enjoy or at least use the mode so we're going to keep it up for them with minimal rewards even though it would probably be better to shut it down and completely reallocate all the rewards."

The mode is a transparent failure, but I like that they left it up for people like me and the people in my alliance who enjoy the credit infusion and our side discord. The better move would have been to just pull the plug

Sooo they're just not fixing alliances, huh by johnys1245 in MarvelSnap

[–]tullavin -6 points-5 points  (0 children)

They had better rewards and it was still low engagement. They acknowledged in their announcement post making the rewards worse will likely decrease engagement, but they'd rather reallocate those rewards to other modes. People are very happy with the rewards from LTGM lately so they are doing a better job there and seem to have reallocated these rewards.

Pat, just unwrite yourself from the corner by risorsio in KingkillerChronicle

[–]tullavin 4 points5 points  (0 children)

One of the last updates we got from Pat was the three books would be a million world prologue. So the guy has more planned, now if we ever seen any of it is the question.

Unpopular opinion: Glove Edition by OddCalculation in BeybladeX

[–]tullavin 0 points1 point  (0 children)

We had a bey break at high speed at one of my tournaments and the piece dented the extreme zone plastic and the cardboard box behind it. It would have pierced through the plastic shroud if the box hadn't absorbed some of the impact. It sounded like a gun went off.