Orlion Blight

Once again, for something to be grimdark, you have to have a "grim" outlook. "Things suck, but you can still make the world a better place and find happiness even if you have done terrible things" is not a grim outlook. That's also why I wouldn't use grimlight to describe Sanderson's work, any grim outlook is a challenge to overcome because of hoope and warm & Fuzzies and PG luv. Whatever happens, there will be a happy ending. Grimdark also tends to be more descriptive about dark acts. Merely mentioning "adolescent girls leased for sexual pleasure only to be executed" is not the grimdark way. That's skimming over it, grimdark revels in the dark acts it chooses to depict. And @Dannex is correct. Rick and Morty have a lot of the characteristics I've mentioned, but nobody would call it grimdark.

How grimdark is Brandon Sanderson? Not very. Gritty tone does not grimdark make. As mentioned before, grimdark takes place within a particular tone, a very nihilistic one at that. Essentially, it does not matter what characters do in their individual stories, it's all meaningless over all. (I.e. You managed to defeat a horde of Chaos demons. It doesn't matter, because the entropic nature of the universe means they will continue to pour into this dimension until it is consumed. You did not prevent defeat, merely postponed it) All of Sanderson is pervaded with hopefulness and abundant opportunities at redemption. In grimdark, damnation is the default state and redemption is out of reach or only obtained through horrific and atrocious acts...which, of course increases your damned state driving you to further and more extreme violence against the universe and your soul. Until maybe one day the character dies and is torn apart by demons for eternity...a fate that awaits the vast majority of people in the grimdark universe from the innocent to the guilty. And besides, Brandon barely qualifies as "having gritty elements"

Went ahead and watched Raya and the Last Dragon because I'd rather pay for that than watch Avatar the Last Airbender. And I stand by my choice!

Oh boy, bizarre songs!

Currently reading: Einstein's War: How Relativity Triumphed Amid the Vicious Nationalism of World War I By a so-called Matthew Stanley

@Random Bystander You'll have to ask the Turks about that. Only they know enough to help you. Or you could always go to....:

I honestly figuratively vomited a little on reading those Wilson selections. Look, I get that poetry can't ever truly be translated. And I get that sometimes people want to recreate how a listener of the original would feel without somehow imparting the various experiences and environment those listeners would be in and how that's impossible... And I also get that liking the Samuel Butler translation kinda disqualifies me from having an opinion..but...um...well... kinda lost my train of thought there. Well, I guess what I'm trying to say is That's all I'm really trying to say...

My weight. Guffaw! I'm soooo funny!

Currently reading The Poppy War by R F Kuang. Not to be confused with The Puppy War.

Publishing is weird and book sales aren't as indicative of whether someone has a future or not. Also, I suspect part of that talk is because of fandom's martyrdom complex. You know, "I don't understand why this series isn't more famous" and such. Barring that, Bakker has spoken of the series as consisting of three sub-series. He's also said The Unholy Consult ends his original vision for the series. So I also don't think he's in a rush. As far as the mixed reaction? That's a fandom quality as well and you can see it with each succeeding volume of the Stormlight Archive. The Aspect Emperor is good, you just have a bunch of armchair philosophers playing at being etymologists for years between books being somehow shocked that their less-than-amateurish attempts weren't reflected in the final product. It also looks like some of the lore fiends weren't happy with the copious amount of answers Bakker did provide. An odd complaint, but some folks really wanted a book full of the pov of a phallic demon from outer space, I guess *shrugs* There are two things that will determine your enjoyment of the series. First, if you like stylistic prose. If you use the term "purple prose" as a pejorative, you won't like this series. Full stop. It's not your fault, the genre-publishing machine has punished this style of writing and encouraged a culture that overly values glorified radio dramas. Second, it is grimdark. That means no happy endings. Like, the best you can hope for is something like, "and the character enjoyed a lick of ice cream that wasn't the flavor he wanted before the Savior of the world smacked it into some sewage. Also that character will be tormented forever in Hell once they die like everyone else. The End." In other words, those who don't understand why this series isn't more popular are denser than a collapsed super massive star.

Second, if I recall correctly

And this topic rises again like Mog-Pharu! Just finished The Unholy Consult. Yeah, yeah, I had to be in the right mood to start The Aspect Emperor, so that's what took me so long. The right mood? Apparently, getting let go from stable employment and existential dread over the future during a pandemic! Perfect mood to breeze through the first two books I then got employed, so the final two were interspersed until I finished the final book. And I really liked it. It is grimdark to the nth degree, but I think that also is what's appealing about it. Apocalypses are almost never treated with the gravitas they should be in fantasy literature... mostly because they are outward manifestations of the too often YAish character having anxieties about growing up.

I have never seen it categorized as "Western". Of course, that is a fairly broad category. Sometimes it refers to Roman influences (which Christianity has its origins within the Roman Empire and Islam does not) other times, it goes for a more European influence (a lot of Christianity that exists today, particularly Catholicism and Protestantism falls in this category. The Eastern Orthodox tradition would not, and I have seen some practitioners of this form claim they are not "western" as a result).

Speaking strictly about this story? I don't think you are supposed to. Right now the only reason folks would have a problem with him is because of the comics... and honestly, they should know better by now that the MCU plays fast and loose with the comic source material.

Woot! I just got my first Pfizer shot and the second one is scheduled!

*Looks at cat, looks at name chosen, laughs knowingly and returns to the Abyss*

Something new to me that I discovered through a wonderfully weird YouTube video

Would you believe that before tonight I had never seen My Neighbor Totoro?

Episode 1: Hey look, it's the Falcon! And hey, look! It's the Winter Soldier! And that's not Chris Evans! It's probably Mephisto in disguise!

It's not too confusing. I think season 1 and 2 are the worst, but I didn't have too much trouble thanks to binge watching!

I just started season 4 of ye olde Clone Wars. Something you might be interested in, if you continue, is to look up what the proper watch order is. Disney+ has them in a weird non-chronological order. Like a side character will die in one episode and appear several episodes later.

Samesies! Or, rather, I was also raised LDS and came to the conclusion that I would likely not be religious again. And you are correct. Moral actions are what make a person good, not their accepted spirituality (or lack thereof).

A good way of thinking about it is that agnosticism deals with knowledge and theism and atheism deal with belief. Maybe belief plays little to no role for you, so agnostic would be your best descriptor. If knowledge and belief are equally (more or less) important, you can combine terms: agnostic atheist or agnostic theist. What's the opposite of agnostic? There really isn't one in popular usage. It depends on what you identify as your epistemological structure. I would label myself a Kantian atheist, which tells a lot of people almost nothing *shrugs*. Another adjective could be "empirical", as well as "rational" or "ideal".

After a work related break, I'm finally reading The Unholy Consult, the final book in R Scott Bakker's Aspect Emperor series!