While there are many valid gripes to be had, this isn't really one of them. It was literally stated in the last interlude by a non-Wren POV. People don't hate the world they have, they hate how they got their (by force if not violence), and they hate that things changed (which is, and always will be a feature of human civilization as we know it).
This I most definitely agree with. What actually happened to Winter and Ironwood? Were they just supposed to be eaten by Grimm then? Held captive and blown to bits by the bombing? If Salem doubled down on the prison like she seemed too in the first assault overpowering it's nominal defences and Hunter prisoners AND commando Droid squad (complete with some of the hilariously effective aerosolized mutagen). Hell, not just 'breaking a hole', or 'killing most of the normies', but putting casualties in the Elites (mis-specialized as they were) almost immediately and assigning one of her very few pet Hunter's there. Either Salem was successful (in which case we have a hostage situation or 'body' art left behind to really push Wren's stress while 'dating', or she wasn't and Winter and co. should be out in the wilderness somewhere. Maybe plotting to topple the Schnee oppression...but probably waiting just over a decade or being unnoticed that whole time.
I'm kind of so-so on the pointless argument. He definitely hogs the protagonist role with how proactive Shade SI's tend to be (even when they don't recognize it)...but there's also a lot of dissonance from how dominant the POV is. We simply don't get much information about what others are doing and thinking, and even less shown not told. That we tend to get what we do after major events go down doesn't help for lack of a reference point. This SI is pretty dominating of course, but it was also modeled after a friggin RTS (and if you're not dominating in that, you're building up to it or losing), and even then other characters played important roles and made big decisions, just most of which happened off screen, and even less was visibly beneficial in 'solving' the plot (like tutelage under Polendina, the actual working managers and beuracracy of SDC, Ozpin pulling strings in his Illuminati, or even Sienna Khan trying to cool down fanatics while also making sure Wren is on the up-n'up). Others stories have even more importance in the decisions and contributions of other characters, Shade just prefers unreliable narrators for his own purposes and (in my opinion), a lack of comfort with other POVs.
Huh. Wouldn't have thought it. Not that I didn't like SoMD or this, but aside from 'moar tech = win', they aren't very similar. The AI in SoMD (based off an older book series) has the purpose of preventing the stagnation or decay of civilization wherever possible, and the Rise of Sauron both qualified and was highly likely (canon being essentially a lottery victory). Enter OOC influence. What it wasn't though, was particularly... sympathetic. It gave not two shits about being 'good', it's just altruistic and benevolent actions are better for long term civilization and often short term as well. It also didn't get upset by people being people in the face of disaster, and through it's influence cooled Saruman down as well (very much unlike Wren). Lastly, there's a lot more 'realistic' constraints. Middle Earth is very much less advanced then Remnant, and while magic and fantasy skill might make large leaps possible, they'd be inefficient and ultimately pointless in the face of Sauron's overwhelming logistical advantage. Hence development in more types of technology then just weapons/armor, focus in doctrine, and careful balance of progress to keep on the edge without overextending or being spoon fed answers to all problems. In this story? Polendina made the (very big) tech jump Vegapunk-style, and the MC is excused their own lack of being a super genius via taking notes and 'unlimited' resources. And then his AI start going down the Singularity path (i.e. taking over design from humans) within the literal first generation and resources are never more then a minor issue (the Atlas confrontation being more of a speedbump to Wren and threat to Podunk villages he's only morally obligated to protect, not logistically or strategically. Even Salem doesn't quite count as while she and the Grimm were overwhelming for a while, the SCP was set to snowball production for a long time as well, even should Wren die.) To be fair in contrast, Wren's big hurdle, as noted by many, was always the social side in which he got no handouts (while Saruman's many character faults were mostly dismissed by his mcguffin doing the equivalent of telling him to chill out).
*Catch 22 vibe's of horror and humor intensify*
Perhaps a note in your signature to that effect? (Huehuehue
)Now, all jokes aside, by godly standards the Brothers Binary really aren't all that bad. They never had any truly explicitly malicious intentions, (probably) brought Humanity back after the initial rebellion and wipe out, and even resisted the memetic divine urge to poke things by not judging, interfering, or even observing Remnant so much as once as they promised before 'grading'. It's just that they also had human flaws they didn't recognize, thought of their creations as nothing more then a flawed test to be disposed of and retried, had next to no forethought as God's or scientists on the consequences of making Salem and Ozma immortal as punishment (dooming both to a terrible fate and spoiling the next 'test'). Now, compared to other God's that are either terrible in their alien mindset or absolute demands (looking at you Old Testament) or Human in all the worst ways (narcisstic, megalomaniac, rape-y, cheaty, angry, etc, and often even less self-aware or thinking about the future). Even when they aren't all or some of the above, they probably have some problem or other that causes serious issues easily avoided (Brahma constantly giving demons boons for praying hard, and them immediately turning around to go screw up creation).
No, on a relative scale the Brothers aren't bad, not even by the standards of many humans. It's just they've got shit loads of power, and little perspective so 'small flaws' for them at their level include stuff like genocide and immortal torture due to a tantrum.
Yeah, gotta agree here...not least because the 'Singularity' isn't truly present until the very (vague) end. 'Singularity' is a concept in computer science as a possible conclusion to Moore's 'Law' (that the processing capability will double or size halve of a computer every single generation) which mostly came about due to the real observation of that trend (but not enough to technically make it a law). Of course, in modern times we've started to hit roadblocks on that as transistor scale is small enough that Quantum Tunneling of electrons is a problem, Quantum Computing is a near total unknown potential, and software very much does NOT follow the Law, but a few decades ago the idea was eventually things would reach the point of Singularity. A computer is made 'good' enough, that it can design the next generation better and combined with the already superior speed of machine would create a feedback loop to kickstart Moore's law into high-gear and eventually make human-level or superior AI. Post-scarcity and other leaps of technology are closely associated with a potential singularity as a natural use of vastly more powerful computers (a conclusion drawn from their existing effect on science)...but they aren't actually part of it or guranteed. The Singularity is only really hardware and depending on interpretation software and some mat-sci for the hardware. In this story, Stenophylla is technically the start of it's proposed Singularity, but it never seems to go much beyond her, and her resources get progressively more ridiculous. Not just in the sci-fi dust-tech and robotics already pioneered by Polendina, but also how quickly she can go from 'nothing but some inspiration' to 'mass production and integration' for OOC tech Remnant has never seen before. Where's the prototyping? The science and the research? The painful development of simulation capability, or the road block of limited perspective and need for peer review? It's all implied to be there, but almost nothing is shown, just like with the sudden explosion of industrial facilities that can fit a whole vertical line of infrastructure from mining, refining, creation, and assembly of rather advanced electronics (and their finicky components) all in one site. Where the hell did it come from? Obviously the point of the story is about the character development within the style of RTS development, not the tech and uplift itself...but then that makes all the constant push of 'the Singularity' and 'progress' all the more grating. Logical as an idea, and perhaps deeper as a way to 'show' one of Wren's biggest cases of rationalization and excuses for his behavior...but still a little grating to see every other chapter if not more often.
Which leads to this. A lot (or at least the ones I've read more recently) of Shade's SI's are very similar. The consistency on it's its own isn't bad, it is supposed to be technically the same character after all. That the development of the character is often so similar (grimderp protective + sacrificial with sides of humor and hard decisions) can be at times tedious, but again also fits the character and type of story/setting Shade prefers.
The problem here, is that while the internal monologue and narrative of the SI is clearly flawed...it is also very consistent. Character development happens, and it's noticible in their actions, but the steadiness of their internal perspective makes noticing or empathizing with those changes and development difficult, as does the lack of external perspectives and interludes (or at least, lack of them spaced out over the story so change has a clear reference line, not just a bunch after a big event 2/3's in.)
Combined with habit of his SI's working covertly, and the constant Dad-joke humor (not bad humor, but present rain or shine) makes development hard to track. Wren went from a well intentioned insert with the idea to help out however possible...and got drug so hard through the muck of humanity and reality of limitations that he got jaded enough to make the Celestial Emperor jealous. But because he kept the same sort of narrative, the same melodramatic affection of cute imouto/daughteru gags (still humorous to read, not poorly done), feeling that change is difficult. Such that when he does pull the gloves off, or get blinded by his own flaws and ego, it seems to come out of nowhere or have always been there. Which makes empathy difficult unless you're already really sympathetic to the character and their actions (the actions at least, we're not really supposed to be I think).
Obviously chronologically this shift was present at the start of the story, what with little Wren learning about blackmail and extortion, and progressing to assassination...but it happened very early in the story, and there wasn't a lot of distinction made pre and post Jaques experience in the dialogue.
And...that about sums up what I can think of for now. So, cheerio I guess, and remember this is just my opinion and observations, at least something of which i've said is probably wrong because a fact was forgotten or replaced by head-canon.
