Quiver

I actually picked up volume 1 of Is It Wrong To Try And Pick Up Girls In A Dungeon... which, seriously, that needs an abbreviated descriptor, because I do not want to type that every time. Anyhow, I admit: the title put me off a little, but the first few chapters were... better than I expected, actually. I was surprised at how complicated the magic system and the set-up of the world is; I'm not exactly a fan of Hestia's nickname because of the ecchi connotations, and the same goes for Loki and Aiz interaction... But the main character is actually more likable than I was expecting, considering the title of the series. At this point, I feel like I'm shouting against the wind, since clearly, the stuff I dislike is ingrained as part of LN as a genre; it's recurred across the Suzumiya series, No Game No Life, Dungeon and Goblin Slayer. (And, of course, appears in anime. Light Novels kind of feed off of anime tropes, then get turned into anime which perpetuate those tropes; thus is the vicious cycle continued.) I feel a need to point out This Stuff and that I Think It's Bad... but it's also stuff which appears so often that I have to begrudgingly accept it As A Thing.

That's terrible. Hydra's image color is green, not red. Whoever made that cup has clearly never read the comics.

I shareyour pain far too often.

"Ignorance is bliss, for learning is the highest joy."

Yeah, I actually read No Game No Life's first volume yesterday. I love the concept of that world, and the climax is pretty cool...but yeah, the ecchi stuff is really uncomfortable.

@Darkness Ascendant Following off the above post, I'd really recommend Fate/Zero...but then, I'm a fan of the Nasuverse and the Fate franchise, so. Otherwise...do you have an e-reader? I think some stores should sell digital copies...

Oh whoops, I never responded here. Basically, main problem I have with most anime; fan service. I think Konosuba is generally better than some shows out there in this regard, particularly comedy shows; it doesn't really have the usual pratfalls and excuse plots to flash some skin that other shows do. (Plus, most of the characters tend to present themselves as fan service on their own terms. Darkness masochism is the big example of that, as was the Sucubi episode; both of those feel like parody of fan service, rather than fan service) ...of course, like with Kill la Kill, I'm left wondering how much the parody excuse covers that kind of thing. Excusing that, some of the animation -particularly for opening 1- kind of focuses on that stuff in ways that feels gratuitous. (The introduction and use of Steal is absolutely gratuitous in the worst way of comedy series though) ...but, that's maybe nitpicking a convention ofthe genre at this point.  I don't like it, but the rest of Konosuba is pretty strong. The anime is fluid, and the characters and plots are entertaining; it's definitely a show I'd recommend. I just feel compelled to point that it does fall down in that area from time to time.

It's funny, how the first time you see a cliché reads. Eragon was the first fantasy book I ever read, and I ate that book up. By the time Eldest came around, I was a little better read, and felt the cracks were starting to show; never finished Brinsingr. But yeah, I dislike the books, but I can respect Paolini. Honestly, given how tough it can be to get published, I do afford a certain respect to anyone who makes it that far, even if I don't like their stuff...but the fact that Paolini wrote Eragon at such a young age is something I give him credit for.

I...think I remember seeing a thread about these a while back...but it would have been an awful long time ago. So I feel semi-justifued in starting a new thread...? ...right, okay then. So: anyone here a fan of, or read any, light novels? I've started getting back into anime recently, which led to me realising that an awful lot of shows these days are LN adaptations. And since I like reading the original stuff, that means I've started dipping my toes into the Light Novel genre. So... Yeah. Figured it was worth asking if anyone else here has read stuff or has recommendations?

I wish. Seriously. I've been trying to write a script for a submission to a local company. It's been... Less than promising.

Um, so... I pitched this thing to some people in PMs. Was wondering what people thought in general, if that's okay?

I never even saw the Lego movie, and I understood it just fine.

Agree to disagree. I find DC's books more interesting these days, and the slow burn helps with that. It actually feels like there is an epic plan at work. Whether that succeeds, other story. But Marvel is just racing from event to event without even letting the dust settle.

Good lord. Marvel, you exhaust me. Okay, so. For those unfamiliar with comic terms, there is a thing called "event comics". Think of them as the equivalent of the Summer blockbuster; a big storyline that usually has it's own, dedicated series separate from the main books, while still impacting them. Typically, an event comic signals a huge shift in the status quo (at least temporarily) and tends to involve at least one hero being killed off to raise the narrative stakes. They also tend to spike sales, so Marvel and DC are incentives to do lots of event comics. The fact that this dilutes the impact of the event is an irony that is lost on the marketing department. ...but damnation. Marvel is really taking it too far this time. See, due to the need to advertise,hype and market, events are built up way in advance. In fact, a cryptic title and teaser dropped today for "Summer 2017", labelled "Generations". Why has this induced a sigh of frustration from me, you may ask? Well. Firstly, Marvel only finished it's last Summer event last month. Civil War II was created to bank on the hype of the then released Captain America: Civil War movie. Schedule slip meant the bloated, nine issue series only ended around January. Barely had Civil War II finished when Monsters Unleashed began, a book pitting the heroes of the divided MCU against the kaiju of the MCU. In the background, Spider-man has an event comic which just wrapped up, called 'The Clone Conspiracy'. And the X-Men and the Inhumans are currently engaged in 'Inhumans vs X-Men'. And we know the Secret Empire us dropping early this year; thats story where Cap is ousted as an Agent of Hydra. Then we have Generations dropping. I mean...good lord Marvel. Have you ever heard of breathing space? I kind of suspect Generations might be a line rebranding, alá the similarly themed Resurrexion relaunch, but still. The amount of stuff they just throw at us right now is absurd, and supports my belief that they are flailing desperately for direction.

...Huh. So, that has the implication that there are temporary ranks? Are they talking about the rank that people who haven't yet got those ranks (ie: Kenton) are at? Or is it something analogous to the Highprinces of Roshar, where someone might be given a title related to something during a time of duress?

Haven't read Warbreaker in a while, but... I think the fact that there is a Returned baby to begin with indicates that we don't actually understand Nalthis magic system entirely. A Returned baby is a weird thing all on it's own; after all, the appearance of one is taken as a sign that it's time to retire the old God King. Maybe someone who does know more about stuff can shed better light on this? but right now, I think the answer is "We don't know, it's a weird thing that Brandon will probably RAFO"

"Hello! I'm your physician, Doctor Sparkles! I have a Phd in Glitter, and Invasive heart surgery!" See, now I'm picturing that scene for Doctor Strange, where the villain remarks on how it's a strange name.

Think we'll have to disagree there: I found the action scenes in that movie interminably dull. Anyhow... I'm still trying to get caught up in the DCCW. I am losing credibility as an Arrow-fan. Besides that, though, mostly been watching anime lately. I've finally started Jojo's Bizarre Adventure after having had it recommended for a while, and this season I've been watching Konosuba and BanG Dream.

The Faceless Young Girl Who Less Than Secretly Takes Pictures Of Epics now has a face! Good for her. So, courtesy of @The Honor Spren, Lyla now actually has an appearance. Which means I'll probably be trying to integrate that into my posts from now on... which also means the way I've been writing her persoanlity might shift a little. Er. Sorry about that? Also, I object to the Shiny/Shiny shipping. I mean, what would that shipname even be? Sparkle Funtimes?

@The Honor Spren Considering my mental image was "Is a girl", I'd say you didn't do too bad a job I actually like the pig-tail look; I had had a vague idea of, like... short sort of short hairstyle, but a pigtail definitely gives her a different and more distinctive silhouette. ... Man, I hate commenting on art. I always feel like I should say stuff, but... I'm not an artist, so I feel especially unqualified to comment on things. So far as Lyla goes, though, I like it. I actually find the fact that you used purple amusing. I'm sure there's some color theory thing on why it works well opposite green... but I find it funny since Green/Purple are the two colors associated with Lex Luthor. Lyla's whole deal is that she's an MLP expy is drawing from superhero motifs; the camera is meant to be from Jimmy Olson (or, I guess, Peter Parker), and her surname is Robins (as in...that Robin), so having a color scheme linking her to Lex is a pretty neat thing. Thanks! And sorry for how long it took to get back to you with this.

Hah. Horror films. This was a video we watched as part of a class at Uni:

I am Quiver the Sliver. That is all.

Yeah, I don't see that happening. But...my view comes from the books (already changed) and is colored by the likes of poorquentyn, so. I could/probably be wrong.