Threads Of Destiny(Eastern Fantasy, Sequel to Forge of Destiny)
- Thread starter yrsillar
- Start date
- Original Users' Choice!
Voted best in category in the Users' Choice awards.
kfrar
Aspiring Encyclopedia
Honestly, even ignoring questions of accuracy, I like the exploration of the first option more than the second. See, the second option is about Isolation Bad, which is the same conclusion we reach with all of our Isolation investigations. There's nuance, of course, but the idea of someone thinking Isolation makes him strong and being wrong about it doesn't do much to expand the ol' brain.
The first option, though, is about Community Bad, which is much less common observation for LQ. Because while we're presumably not going to agree with Yan Renshu, given that we aren't utter clowns, we'll still need to talk about the ways Community did genuinely fail him to understand how he extrapolated from his legitimate grievances to his actual clownshoes Way.
And LQ knows that Community can fail people, since, you know, her entire background, but she's never actually incorporated those experiences into her Community cultivation, with pretty much all of her negative past experiences getting pawned off to Isolation instead. Being forced to explicitly confront the idea of Community as the enemy seems important, to me, to ensure the Concept is resilient to stresses such as the many failures of Imperial society, or such as her own worst memories.
- Location
- United States
[X] His grudge is against community itself. He thinks it's contracts and strictures as false and hollow as his own dealings. That he is superior for seeing this, where others do not. (+1 Community XP)
[x] His grudge is against community itself. He thinks it's contracts and strictures as false and hollow as his own dealings. That he is superior for seeing this, where others do not. (+1 Community XP)
BagFullOfLizards
Some bag, mostly lizards
- Location
- A bag
[X] His grudge is against community itself. He thinks it's contracts and strictures as false and hollow as his own dealings. That he is superior for seeing this, where others do not. (+1 Community XP)
NaanContributor
Provider of delicious flatbread, and nothing else.
- Location
- Hawaii
[X] His grudge is against community itself. He thinks it's contracts and strictures as false and hollow as his own dealings. That he is superior for seeing this, where others do not. (+1 Community XP)
One thing about Yan Renshu that I'm sure others have pointed out is that he's a pretty good foil to other characters, but mostly Ling Qi and (especially) Li Suyin. All three are prodigies, but while Ling Qi made friends and had the System work in her favor through luck and a lot of efforts, Yan made enemies and was crushed by it. And while both he and Li Suyin are production-focused cultivators who were maimed by arrogant nobles and chose to pursue vengeance, Li Suyin dealt with things in a much healthier way and actually went after the people who hurt her. Hell, according to one of the first omakes for this quest to be made canon by Ysrillar, the arrogant young master who crippled him is completely fine, though I'm sure Yan Renshu has some elaborate revenge fantasy to enact against him... eventually. It seems that his grudge is more against the system rather than specific people, so while both options are viable, the "community" choice fits a bit better.
Anyway, now that I got that out of my chest:
[X] His grudge is against community itself. He thinks it's contracts and strictures as false and hollow as his own dealings. That he is superior for seeing this, where others do not. (+1 Community XP)
Anyway, now that I got that out of my chest:
[X] His grudge is against community itself. He thinks it's contracts and strictures as false and hollow as his own dealings. That he is superior for seeing this, where others do not. (+1 Community XP)
- Location
- Earth
[X] His grudge is against community itself. He thinks it's contracts and strictures as false and hollow as his own dealings. That he is superior for seeing this, where others do not. (+1 Community XP)
- Location
- South Africa
[X] His grudge is against community itself. He thinks it's contracts and strictures as false and hollow as his own dealings. That he is superior for seeing this, where others do not. (+1 Community XP)
dpara
slightly confused ascendant
That's a good point, but there is another key difference, Suyin had friends that caught her when she was at her lowest.
I don't think Yan Renshu ever had friends or people he'd consider his equals.
I think this was also why he was blindsided by Meizhen*, he never even considered that they might be friends and even now probably thinks "LQ must (have been)/be amazing at liking boot".
*in the sense that he tries to avoid getting on the bad side of nobles.
[X] His grudge is against the world. He is alone, and wears his isolation as a crown. He deems this strength. Every time he is proven wrong, his grudge grows. (+1 Isolation XP)
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