The way Haibara is framing the choice is similar to the choice Jo Walton explores in My Real Children, a novel about 2 timelines. http://www.jowaltonbooks.com/books/my-real-children/

The idea is that there are 2 worlds, one where the protagonist is personally miserable or less happy but their friends and the world are better. One where the protagonist is happier but the world is slightly worse.

I don't think it is a good framing or premise, and I have hope that the author of Haibara will go somewhere else with all this. There have been hints so far that this may be a false dichotomy.

Too often in stories, a person is asked to give up their magic or personal happiness in order for the world to thrive. Particularly female characters, but in this case a male character.

I am starting to find such stories tedious. I would rather talk about both/and stories than either/or stories.

Bizarre week.

I very rarely drop series, yet this is the second multi-volume series I've dropped this week because of an author's weird plot choices coming across more as personal fantasies and/or desires. Or maybe this was an attempt at fan service by innuendo.

The "doll" in Part 2 seemed unnecessary and tasteless. Maybe the author did something amazing to make the doll the lynchpin to the story, but for me it was the end of a sluggish adventure.

At least I'm finally at a point I do not feel I have to finish reading everything I start--now I just need to trust my instincts and throw in the towel earlier.

@Lex said in Now I'm a Demon Lord! Vol. 17 Discussion!:

I'm still not sure if it's the end or not.

As I saw one person put it recently (in regards to The Faraway Paladin) it's not over until everyone's dead. Life goes on, and there's always another story that could be told.

@arghc I'm expecting the descriptions of the spells to match up with some of her other tales, and them just assuming.

@Tacitus said in EXP Is Golden Vol. 6 Discussion!:

I wonder what the sisters found in the patch notes that they had to discuss asap, even before the game came back up online. Probably not the fall damage change. Maybe the new TP locations?

I'm guessing that they figure that the new TP locations will change the political economy around the portal towns somehow, and met met to discuss how to respond. Leah accelerating her takeover of portal town Kiefer would be part of that response.

I liked this battle scene. Jin had to respond differently which made it interesting even with him decimating their numbers easily. I wonder if dungeons ranking up are a response to mana around them? What if helping the students move their mana led to the surge? Otherwise it's an interestingly timed crisis where he was handily available to deal with it.

@Darkchaser said in Nia Liston Vol. 11 Discussion:

And Nia remember homework is important. No matter how much it is hated and want to run from it.

Probably a result of Lynokis' constant reminders to do it before and after they arrived in Marvelia.

@lighthawk96 And indeed it was pretty lame. Hell, at least Garou had a lv500 summon item and Sasha attacked with the elite White Knights and used a Phantasma-class weapon so Santor's trump card was pretty pitiful in comparison. Perhaps it makes a bit more sense now that we know the centaur nation is even more poor than the human kingdom, but still.

@Hylebos said in Update on Volume 7: The Magician who Rose from Failure:

To my understanding, v7 was delayed indefinitely due to the illustrator's (who is also the mangaka) health problems, so the fact that the author is putting out volumes for other series like After-School Dungeon Diver: Level Grinding in Another World doesn't mean much.

https://gcnovels.jp/blog/316

On top of that, even if he is working on The Magician Who Rose From Failure, the fact that he's working on other series means that he's spending less time on The Magician Who Rose From Failure. So, even if/when the issues delaying that series are resolved, it'll likely be coming out more slowly than it would have otherwise. Of course, the fact that he's working on other stuff shows that he's still around, but it really doesn't say anything about us getting more of The Magician Who Rose From Failure.

Either way, it sure would be nice if he started releasing more of this series - and ideally actually focused on it (IMHO, it's his best series). I can appreciate him wanting to support the illustrator and not drop them, but personally, I'd rather just get more of the story, and I really don't care about the illustrations.

Awww… It’s “Adopt a Slime” week! It even gets an extra-spacious bag to hang out in. :)

"Has Mussel learned self-restraint?" is a very good question, core to his being allowed to return to Lefreya's service.
And Duke Genos is testing this, it would seem.

This has been the most realistic saint-summoned-from-another-world response I've seen. I'd be little more excited than Haruka about suddenly being able to cast magic, tho. Sure, Martina's guilt is a little overdone but she is a youngling yet, so overreaction is standard. 8-)

Nadia giving Haruka a primer on magic is far more than most LNs do wrt training people new to magic (or adventuring). Haruka having a convenient wound saves someone from having to cut themselves.

Explaining that they had no info about saints and that they expected an experienced and skilled holy being just waiting for them to give her purpose should help a little.

@wanderer_1204 said in The Villainess Speaks Not Vol. 3 Discussion:

I am wondering if the general guy who was assassinated in the empire was protecting Edie by putting ideas of marrying into Silvagrandia. As a princess she cant marry "down" a duke's son or something. In any case, it is out of question to marry her into any of the higher infleuntial nobles in politics considering how naive she is.

Depending on the setting and pride of the family involved. Historically they certainly could marry down, and many non heirs have gone off to establish loyalty and blood lines to non prince / princess grade nobility. If you base it off the traditional romantic England extra scions would often take over the duke and marquess positions in the country / empire.

That was a cute, if corny, ending.

That reveal about Earth-chan and our MC's staggering number if deaths was cool. No wonder she's such an odd ball. She's died more than Subaru from Re-Zero!

And so the Laura arc ends with him almost getting killed instead of him getting laid. At least he managed to kill the assassin.

I guess that Souta's suspicions about Apocalypse Nova being created by a Player would explain why the party is so off course from the game. Once again, one of the Players screwed with things (likely for their own benefit) - probably also without considering how it was going to risk disaster by steering events away from what happens in the game.

At this point, you kind of have to wonder if Souta, Risa, and Arthur have any chance of keeping things close enough to the events of the game to be able to actually use their knowledge to prevent the major bad events from the game from happening. Presumably, they'll manage it somehow, since it's usually the case that the good guys win in the end and prevent the really bad stuff from happening, but it sure sounds like they're going to have to do a lot of winging it to succeed (like they're doing now).

When men went to war, they buried their hearts first.

Alas, some never remember where they buried their hearts and are broken forever.

alt text

Just kidding...

@nappingcub yeah, there was a big gap between v9p1 and v9p2. Thankfully v9p3 is already on the schedule for November in Japan, so it seems like part of the hold up was that there was a lot to write and they decided not to cut a lot of it.

@Travis-Butler well sure, if you want to look at it rationally. But you know that is probably going through both girls minds for a half second before they are both just happy no one was hurt.