"Night Soil Swamps"? Holy shit!
(Oh! I made a pun. Silly me)

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I'd taught my peeps the Western concept [of ninjas] more than the original Japanese idea of one. Why had I done that? Hell if I knew.

Makes sense, after all the western concept of ninjas is centered around entertainment, compared to the boring practical utility of a necessary real life job.

@Geezer-Weasalopes The Filmation live-action series also got a lot of UHF syndication; I remember Shazam and Isis playing on Chicago UHF stations when I was visiting my grandparents in the 80s.

@TheWickerMan said in Water Magician Arc 1 Vol. 2 Discussion!:

@neosovereign You guys are thinking too small scale. What we really need is a 6-week training arc flashback, back at Ryo's jungle home, showing how he developed whatever technique he's going to use to win this fight. Then the 2 weeks of getting to the dungeon and the volume ends just as we return to the present, leaving the fight a cliffhanger for next volume.

That would still progress faster than a certain series I finally dropped a number of volumes back (four words, last one is 'war'.)

@jazzyjeoff
@jazzyjeoff said in Tearmoon Empire Vol. 13 Discussion!:

Tattletales causing Mia trouble in the past timeline? This is how her previous head maid got her captured, right?

When Anne got onto Mia about going full-sloth in front of the palace denizens it brought back memories of her previous attendants spreading gossip about her every peccadillo and even making up stuff.

What happened to her ditzy maid, in either timeline?

We see a divergence in values here with Mia and Citrinna. Citrinna apparently believes that a meaningless life is one of the worst things to happen to a person. In terms of Maslow's Hierarchy of needs, she places a lot of value in the high rung of needs: "Self-Actualization", that finding meaning in life is incredibly important for a person. In contrast, Mia has been entirely focused on providing the bottom two rungs: of Food and Shelter, and of Safety and Security. It makes sense since the Great Famine really changed Mia, while Citrinna is still a high ranking noble who never wanted for food. This is a pretty good avenue for Mia's future character development.

Interesting—but I would argue that you are underestimating the level of Mia’s greed—she values all needs to the max! Yes Mia is a hedonist supreme—but she also has an unquenchable desire to maximize happy endings for everyone (at complete risk to her own personal safety) hardly a bottom tier need.

She tend to infantilize others. When nobles shouted at SEEC kids Mia decide the problem stems from empty stomachs. She sits them down at the table and fills their mouths with yummy food like fussy babies. Philosophical beliefs rarely enter the picture.

It's an interesting approach. It's effective but it often fails because Subjects feel belittled, misunderstood and mocked. But Mia is childlike herself. She doesn't act superior to them. She wants yummy food and a comfy bed too! Like a child she's also intuitive and manage to solve root issues while she and as the acknowledged Wisdom of the Empire everyone believe there's depth to her words. Most important Mia only sees people rather than nobles, commoners, ethnicities, male vs female etc.

Like a child from the Garden of Eden who didn't partake of the fruit of knowledge she wants to return everyone and make them content.

@karasutengu said in Brilliant Healer Vol. 3 Discussion!:

@Geezer-Weasalopes said in Brilliant Healer Vol. 3 Discussion!:

If there is someone in the Black Guild as Dalitz describes, it's Zenos's mentor, no?

Ah! That's quite the suggestion, and one I haven't even considered.

Either Dalitz was totes lying, or it was someone at least Zenos's equal...and given what we'd learned previously that really narrowed the field just a tad.
Especially if you then looked for someone known to have connections to where Zenos grew up...such as his mentor had.
And his mentor having wandered down dark paths was already hinted at.

Tie that in with thinking the author would be more likely to bring threads together than add additional threads at this time.

@karasutengu said in Frontier Lord Vol. 4 Discussion!:

@heimdal7 That's so funny. I thought the same thing. I wonder if that's why Alna sleeps with her head on her arm in order to keep her horn from digging into something (or someone) while she sleeps.

It would be very bad for a Oni to be a restless sleeper.

Heh.
The farming elf is actually a Civ player, to an extent.
One that enjoys tweaking Acer.
Or a Smof that's in it for the oh so very discrete lulz.

"Hasn't been done before" doesn't necessarily equal "can't be done."

One could argue that realizing your being made the leader would hinder the growth of those you led demonstrates having the proper mindset for a leader.

All food is good at the time it tastes good.
It's not always "rice is best."

...it's not craziness to think vibrations can impact the various stages of brewing and ageing alcohol.
Getting someone to fund such research...I can see using crowdfunding for that.
If I'd known about the project I'd have tossed funds their way.
Crowdfunding allows for tracking down nuts like me.

@Libri-Liberorum said in Goodbye, Overtime! Vol. 1 Discussion:

The prince wanting Ekatarina is all but certain, because Tropes, but I can't see this being House Yulmanga's motivation. Firstly, at this point they have at best a suspicion of Prince x Kate, it makes no sense for them to resort to such a drastic attack (and very little time to organize it). Secondly, the attack also happens in the game, where Prince x Kate is not a thing.

I agree, mostly.

Yulmagna might see Ekaterina as a threat just based on her family, so in that sense it is as likely a motivation in the game timeline as in this one, but either way it definitely is too drastic and too early an attack. Also, it threatened the prince himself, who was also attending that class, making the whole thing counterproductive to the effort to get the Yulmagna daughter married to him. Finally, it wouldn't explain the Dragon King connection, which we know is there from the game.

I still think Yulmagna is involved, though. Maybe this was a kind of magic "lab accident" rather than a deliberate attack? That would explain the lack of additional incidents in the game.

I hope that we get at least one non-Ekaterina PoV section on this incident and/or it's aftermath.

Also, the Prince mentioned Flora being safer now that she is officially under the protection of House Yulnova. I think that is probably true, but I still can't help but wonder how the school's Alexei Fan Club is going to react to Flora and her relationship with him. She already eats lunch with him every day (along with his sister, of course), so how could they not be jealous?

@Libri-Liberorum Her objective is to secure her own and her mentor's survival. I don't think she particularly cares about any collateral damage.

@lighthawk96 That makes two of us. I guess it's because we're not Japanese

@neosovereign said in Min-Maxing My TRPG Build Vol. 9 Canto I Discussion!:

@Libri-Liberorum The question is what kind [of monster girl] will it be?

Well, you could look at the cover illustration.

Yes, Marie is there with no visa, Toru sniffed them out, then Toru, knocked Kitase out, Wridra made things worse, Marie didn't help not that it was her fault to begin with, and then they forgot the most important thing...

To tell Kaoruko that Toru was safe and sound. I'm guessing 3 people will be sitting seize when they finally get Toru back from the dream world.

It's nice to have these smaller moments where we learn a bit more about the world, characters, and systems within it.

It's also fun to see how the members of Moon Blossom behave and the new members grow.

Salume having the balls to trick Asura was especially fun. I can't imagine many people in the setting that know her coming up with and executing a plan that costs her. The stakes were high indeed.

Myself, I suspect that maybe some elves getting involved might help calm the Great Fire Spirit.
Which would increase the possibility of visiting their forest.

So, looks like Noor will be (unknowingly) freeing all the slaves in this arc?

@Paul-Nebeling said in The Greatest Magicmaster's Retirement Plan Vol. 17 Discussion!:

I'm wondering if the Ruler will send a message to Alus via a clandestine channel (Afurka, spelled horribly wrong) giving him permission to eliminate Wormruina if he feels it necessary.

That would be the letter of the message, with the spirit being more like "be a dear and crush them for me. I know you want to do it".