aneonfoxtribute

So I finished the climax of Turn Coat, and damnation. I still have the final chapter to go but wow, that was something.

Mouse is a very good boy. Actually top 10 best doggos.

I don't really see that in the Forsaken yet. That will likely change but at the moment, they seem like the least human villains other than Padan Fain (and probably the Dark One himself, but we haven't seen him). The other villains or groups are all doing what they think is right so far. Elaida did what she thought was right, she doesn't like that Siuan was letting Rand run free. The Whitecloaks are doing what they thing right, they are dedicated to the Light and, as delusional, wrong, and trigger happy as they are, they still think they're serving the light and doing good for the world by ridding it of Darkfriends. Bernhard specifically thinks he genuinely will avenge his father by killing Perrin, because he really doesn't know the situation any better. The Seanchan, loath as I am to admit it, think they're right, they were raised to believe that channelers should be leashed and they were raised to believe that their blood is the true blood. The Forsaken so far don't really have any principles, unity, or motivation other than power. This is realistic and human in its own right, mind (thats why Fain is less human than them to me, he's just insane and corrupted by a crazy ghost dude), but I think its the least human of the lot. Religious zealots persecuting people because they think it right and people acting according to their cultural traditions seem more human to me than people chasing power and backstabbing their supposed allies for more power. But these are just my impressions right now. The Whitecloaks and Seanchan will probably remain faceless groups with only a handful of individual characters, while the Forsaken who DON'T die immediately will likely have far more fleshed out motivations.

The Forsaken's interactions with each other are very interesting

I've started Fires of Heaven, probably just gonna read the prologue today. Gonna spoiler mark my comment for the sake of Eluvianni, in case he hasn't read beyond Shadow Rising yet.

To be read soon-ish

I miss the Reaper glitch. He's immune to it in Royal and that is gonna make grinding to 99 a pain

I'm reading Remember11. It's a visual novel, but I'm reading it so I put it here

Hardcover is naturally a lot more sturdy so if you don't want your book harmed too much, then get hardcover. But if you like the European covers and want those, get paperback, because I think they're only in paperback.

You don't need to worry about SP in Royal period and its not because of coffee. Royal SP management is so much better. I beat most of the dungeons in the original needing to leave just because I ran out of SP, but in Royal I hardly ever ran out and if I did it was basically at the end of the dungeon.

Are you playing original Persona 5, or Royal? Edit: Never mind, you're playing original. The Baton Pass comment proves that.

Oh, that's a good idea! I actually didn't think of that

Does nobody know?

If its just based on character dynamics, I literally never thought they were friends, let alone in love with each other. They act like they hate each other. I knew that the intention was that they were in love basically the whole book but I never felt that just based on how they interacted with one another until they actually got to Emond's Field. I thought it was pretty good, though I will say I don't know why, but I feel a lot more tired having finished this book than even all three Stormlight books. This one took me a while. I figured fairly early on that there would be multiple different climaxes, when everyone went to opposite corners of the world basically. I'm more disappointed that Mat/Egwene didn't have a climax. They were just chilling in Cold Rocks Hold while Rand was fighting a Forsaken.

Pretty good. I feel like I remember less from it than the other books though. The two months I took probably has a lot of blame in that, so I'll probably read a summary

Starting Turn Coat

Man I feel like I have to read a summary of Shadow Rising because I feel like a lot of things flew over my head.

And I have now, finally, after two months, finished The Shadow Rising.

And I have now, finally, after two months, finished The Shadow Rising.

Ohhhhh the Gleeman was Asmodean.

The scene at Alcair Dal was so good.

It's not that I find it incredulous. Rand being as strong as he is makes sense. My issue really stems from the Forsaken not feeling threatening. For the Dark One's most powerful, the most feared named characters, the strongest Channelers who know what they're doing, four of them are currently dead, three of them went down no harder than a Myrdraal in the first three books, and of the dead ones only Baalzamon had any sort of presence at all. One more since has been defeated, though seemingly not for good, with no less struggle, the first time she meets Nynaeve when she's not controlling her mind, and she almost loses her power entirely. Yes she is rusty, but how am I expected to take her seriously as a threat now when she inevitably shows up again later? Why should I take any of the future Forsaken as a threat when only two of the ones we've met are still alive, and one of them was beaten so quickly? Even Lanfear, for all her screentime and presence, has done nothing to make me believe she is at all a threat. I only have words of characters that Lanfear is really strong and really scary, but I had that for the three jobbers whose names I don't even remember, all of whom died immediately after they engaged in combat with the main character. It kills the stakes of the story when I'm not afraid that anything will hurt these characters, and with the showing the Forsaken has made so far, the only member of the Dark One's forces I'm actually afraid would be able to hurt the characters (or at least those with the Power, Mat and Perrin are a different story but they have yet to fight a single one) is the Dark One himself. It's not that I don't believe that it's possible, I just expect the most powerful characters in the story so far to actually SHOW that they are the most powerful, to SHOW that they are a threat that I should be taking seriously, and they have failed at that so far. But it's still early on, only the fourth book, and there's a lot more books and a lot more Forsaken to go.

Rand might be strong in power, but so are Nynaeve and Egwene. The difference is in their experience. As has been said a few times, the Forsaken have strength that far exceeds the norm of Aes Sedai of the modern time, and they have greater knowledge about the Power and greater experience to put into practice. There should not be five of them defeated at this point. It makes them seem ineffectual and not like a real threat when half of our main characters can beat one with relative ease, especially when Rand has nobody to learn from so he still doesn't really know how to use it properly and Nynaeve literally cannot use her power at will, and yet they're the two that have defeated every one defeated so far. I did misremember the comparisons between Lanfear and Modhedien though. I thought it was the other way around, that Lanfear was better at manipulating Tel'aran'rhiod and Meghodian was stronger in the Power.

I do hope this isn't the actual end for Moghedien. She was built up way too much recently to just be unceremoniously taken out like that, being apparently stronger than Lanfear, and I'm tired of the storming FORSAKEN being taken out as easily as they are.

I did mention Rand. I also said that he didn't bug me as much. Mostly because he only does it to Moiraine, not to other people who are actually trying to help him like Egwene (unless he thinks Moiraine put her up to it), and he has actual reason to distrust her. I don't agree with it, but I understand it and it doesn't grate on me because it's not because he thinks he knows better. With Faile, Nynaeve, and Elayne, they pull that crap on people they DO trust and have no reason not to listen to. Faile does it mostly towards Perrin because she's being a petulant child about him not wanting her to come with him (though at least she has mostly stopped doing it, she's been a lot better since they got to Emond's Field), and Elayne and Nynaeve do it to just about anybody who disagrees with them with what they want to do, INCLUDING EACH OTHER, for zero reason other than just thinking that she is correct and that any arguments are just "fool decisions by men". It gets exceptionally annoying.