Oh yeah, I totally agree with that! Ling Qi's character development recently has been top notch! She's really starting to gain the foundation and motivation needed to get to the peak of cultivation and change the world!
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.
Oliver_Twister
Idea-Man, He Who Shits Ideas
- Location
- West Africa
- Pronouns
- He/Him
Honestly, same. But since you just completed a binge, I want to know what narrative choices you disagree with as someone who's been removed from the atmosphere arguments.
Less salt and more seeing new perspectives (framed as salt because it sounds funnier)
Winged One
Not the Simurgh
- Location
- definitely the ground
- Pronouns
- They/Them/It
Well, I don't think most of my perspectives on things are actually new. At least not things you've already voted on (I want to make Liling spit blood by pointing out that her grandfather betrayed her, and see Shao's head explode from Shenhua making him admit it to himself). I have been consistently surprised when voting for risky dice rolls didn't bite you in the ass, though. Although in the case of trying to boost Xisheng from Madame Grey, I'd have been right there with you regarding a refusal to try as worse than the pain of failure.
Winged One
Not the Simurgh
- Location
- definitely the ground
- Pronouns
- They/Them/It
If we could survive the fallout, Ling Qi earnestly (though maliciously) telling him he has no family would be great.
- Location
- Finland
Would probably not work.
Sun Shao is his family, as long as he exists, his family exists, and if he looses Liling, i'm kinda worried he'd just have some kids with the goddess.
Because while i do believe he does care for his grand daughter, i also believe he ultimately sees her as replaceable, what matters is the family, not the people in it.
Which in some ways is almost exact opposite of how Ling Qi sees family.
Managing completely destroy him by convincing him our understanding of family is correct, and his is false, would be sweet though.
That would be spectacularly ironic considering Bai Fuxi saying that to him is what caused Shao to snap and rebel.
- Location
- Finland
Oh yeah, Sun Shao is nothing if not ironic and tragic character.
Sun Shao has become what he hated, in more ways than one.
This seems like a Bai thing but rather than getting lingling to disown her grandfather. They have killed her
I feel that there are important differences between Sun Shao and Bai Fuxi.
The King of the West - Tales of Destiny
Red was the color of sorrow, of the setting sun and endings. The color of blood draining down into the earth. It was the color of the banners raised over (...)
www.royalroad.com
"Grandpa?"
He blinked, looked down to Liling and crouched down, resting a hand on her head. Her hair was just as bright and red as his had been, all those centuries ago. "I'm sorry little one. I was remembering."
She nodded, still sniffling. And he gathered her into an embrace.
He had promised himself to break the world for his family if need be. When the child in his arms finally broke into sobs, he remembered why he did not want to. Why it was his last plan.
Poor child. Her life would only grow harder. Her mother was a soft and petty thing of the court, and would be gone in a fortnight with the marriage broken. Only she could bear their future now. She would need to grow strong indeed. Stronger than he. Stronger than Her.
Such a cruel thing to lay on a child.
If Shao was like Fuxi, he wouldn't have waited with marrying the Sunflower and making Her adopt Liling until he felt he had no other choice.
- Location
- Chicago
- Pronouns
- She/They
This seems very much to sum it up. "Everything for family, sorry this is going to get your mom killed or exiled".
Killed or exiled? My impression was that Liling's mother left for the Peaks of her own accord, now that the marriage contract was ended and she didn't have to stay in the hell jungle anymore.
- Location
- Finland
I kinda ssumed that meant Lilings mother would return to her own clan, where ever that is.
Apart from that, yes, Sun Shao does care about Liling, he still decided to do what he did with no input from her.
Sun Shao's flaws may not be exact copies of Fuxi's, but they are similar enough. and Sun is willing to do to others the same Fuxi did to him, and largely for the same reasons.
Apart from that, yes, Sun Shao does care about Liling, he still decided to do what he did with no input from her.
Sun Shao's flaws may not be exact copies of Fuxi's, but they are similar enough. and Sun is willing to do to others the same Fuxi did to him, and largely for the same reasons.
Alectai
Speaks Words of Wisdom... On occasion
My feeling is that Sun Shaos' fatal flaw is that while he does everything for the sake of his family, that includes sacrificing some for the sake of the many. Because he's coming at family from the perspective of a general, and one who's unwilling to pay a price is a bad one (And we've regularly seen that Sun Shao is entirely okay with grinding his forces to diamond if that means the remainder are strong and thriving).
As we've seen, while this mindset makes sense in a limited context, the fact his own direct blood lineage has been largely reduced to Liling sort of says that it's not sustainable in the long run. Every single step he made is logical after all, so the fact his family is still dying can only be because of enemy action.
(And that's how you get someone who's plotting to attack the foundation of a Founding Clan despite the fact it would offend everyone around them. All of the problems they've suffered have to be the treachery of the Bai!)
As we've seen, while this mindset makes sense in a limited context, the fact his own direct blood lineage has been largely reduced to Liling sort of says that it's not sustainable in the long run. Every single step he made is logical after all, so the fact his family is still dying can only be because of enemy action.
(And that's how you get someone who's plotting to attack the foundation of a Founding Clan despite the fact it would offend everyone around them. All of the problems they've suffered have to be the treachery of the Bai!)
- Pronouns
- He/Him
I don't know if this is necessarily true. He never knew Fuxi's sovereignty or what was really going on in his head. Now, his idea of family was compatible with the Bai philosophies on family in general (aside from them not counting non spirit-blooded), but we don't know what Fuxi's personal idea of family even was.
It looks like Sovereignty and Law can still change to some extent at Violet.
The Precipice - Tales of Destiny
Red was the color of exhaustion. It was the color of faces flushed and ruddy with exertion, of eyes rimmed and veined in crimson from the endless pouring (...)
www.royalroad.com
Manicured fingers tapped on woven wicker as the Duke considered him. In his mind's eye, Sun Shao saw his lord through senses unclouded by expectation. Fuxi was a machine of interlocking blades and gears, oiled in venom, a metal serpent with a hundred heads whose fangs were spears fit impale the leviathans of the deep. It had no sympathy. It had no love, only the memory and echoes of these feelings wielded like theater masks.
This creature saw the sacrifice in his soul and thought them cut from the same cloth.
"Your family is a particular misfortune, but you are young for one of such stature. A new wife of good blood will be found. You have many centuries to sire new sons and daughters of your line. The House of Sun will continue to stand high."
Sinew snapped, bone splintered, and his heart pounded with the boiling of blood. A Law, bent and tarnished, snapped into a new configuration. The Sovereignty of War burned on his brow, greedily consuming this new fuel.
Family is Everything.
These words stood at his core. He had believed all of the Thousand Lakes to be kin, ruled under sometimes imperfect wisdom but unassailable strength. They were one people and one land, something greater than a mere province of the Empire.
He was wrong.
The Bai were not Family, but Other. He and his, the unscaled, those who had descended too far from the blood to even stand among the gray, were not their kin. They were tools at most, trash and debris at worst. To the Other, they were just clutter and mud on the serpents' shining streets.
There could be no friendship with those who were not kin. Not Family. At best, there could be mutual exploitation for temporary goals. The interests of one's own could never remain aligned with the that of the Other forever.
Everything for Family.
Before Shao realized what Fuxi truly was, he thought of the entirety of the Thousand Lakes as Family.
Oliver_Twister
Idea-Man, He Who Shits Ideas
- Location
- West Africa
- Pronouns
- He/Him
Yeah, it's unfortunate that the hest options are always the risky ones. Also, I will 100% back any option that causes Liling to spit blood
Winged One
Not the Simurgh
- Location
- definitely the ground
- Pronouns
- They/Them/It
Ah, there is one other thing. How sure are we that the reformers' Pure Way isn't a death cult like the late-Weilu version was?
Cause the reformists are isolating themselves away in dream palaces and are actually reaching out to the world. Plus we may influence them to head towards uncle skelington's heresies that we've seen hints of in the tribulation and elsewhere. Heck according to the mist in the rootways side story the elder who basically founded the Meng reformist faction realized that certain heresies (probably from uncle skelington) he read in his youth were right.
Will be completing this update tomorrow morning. You can blame this one on @Black Noise and an amazing little story called Nowhere Stars
- Location
- United States of America
Yeah, that story will sucker you in and keep you there.
- Location
- foraging for beans
Yeah, that one's good shit.
<The Tyrant Progress, the Builder and Breaker of Thrones>
<REVOLUTION>
<REVOLUTION>
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