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Threads Of Destiny(Eastern Fantasy, Sequel to Forge of Destiny)

Voted best in category in the Users' Choice awards.
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opentom341 said:
While I agree with you, I'm fairly sure this punishment has run it's course. Wouldn't be surprised if the guy has pretty much broken already.
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I also agree. Basically, my prefered option would be something like:
[] To a point. The man had made his choices and here they led; some crimes deserve a fate more than death. But not forever; even just retribution should have an End.
 
[] No, a death could be deserved, but not this torment. This shouldn't go on, it was harmful to Zeqing and Hanyi as well.
I don't see how this could be harmful to Hanyi, it can be argued that it eas beneficial since it gave her a sort of fatherly influence and even a safe refuge fro her mother's mood swings.
He also intended something a lot more lasting than death for Zeqing.
It should end soon, I agree, not from any issue with deserving but from being unnecessary, since it's likely that we will take Hanyi with us and Zeqing would benefit from cleaning the house of her daughter's childhood toys.

[] She could, the man had made his choices and here they led. She only worried that holding on to him like this hurt Zeqing.
Overall, I lean towards this option, although not quite exactly. The guy deserved what he got, just as we would have deserved what would have happened to us if we had pushed the "Mother" role on Zeqing, or tried to fight the Stag King, or had made any mistakes in dealing with powerful spirits. It's only that the punishment has continued for too long, leaving aside the effect on Zeqing
 
TehChron said:
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Hmm

Im under no illusions which way the vote is gonna go, because of the word 'virtue', naturally, but one does need to account that in many ways a punishment is about the transgressor, and not the victim. The scales of justice aren't a simple thing. Yes, you kill a person and they cease to be a problem forever, but what the dude tried to pull was to use Hanyi as a method to bind Zeqing into literal slavery.

And such an abhorrent act is far crueler than merely death.

For an existence such as Zeqing, having her nature warped for a lie, and then being entrapped even after the lie had been revealed...While watching the man she had loved gleefully abandon her to be with a human woman, another woman, that received the genuine thing while Zeqing herself received nothing save as a showhorse, a pet, only trotted out for special occasions and to fight the man's battles for her.

Indeed, this is harmful to Zeqing.

But for the sake of his ambition, that guy was a monster. Far more than Zeqing ever could be. And his punishment is ultimately an ironic reversal of what he had intended for Zeqing herself all along. The man deserves it for trying to pull what he did for the sake of petty, base ambition. As the vote option says, he made his choices and there they led. Anyone with a lick of common sense would have known what he was playing with, that he got freezerburn is the price he should have been willing to pay when he decided to sit at the proverbial table.
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As some people have mentioned, at this point it's more about how maintaining this has become excessive and harmful to Zeqing and Hanyi.

A mortal lifetime, even an immortal's lifetime of agonized servitude would have been an appropriate punishment. No one is debating that he did not build both the house and the bed he's lying in, he has been made into a pet, a thing, to be brought out at Zeqing's whimsy and to serve at her pleasure. While I would hesitate to say the man is more of a "monster" than Zeqing ever could be he was most certainly more of one than Zeqing has either eluded to or demonstrated to us so far.

The man earned his suffering, but now at this point the agony is almost pointless and is nothing more than a hareshirt for Zeqing. Zeqing sees the world through the lens of her Domain, seemingly a freezing black hunger beneath a fair facade. Yet she had stayed her hand from crushing that "spark of life amidst the broken fragments of a soul" , even now she is refusing to let go of her "Husband" after all these years.

Zeqing is not a mortal, she cannot change so easily through even a normally formative experience. At this point though, learning to let go of that painful reminder and the past would serve both Hanyi and Zeqing better going forward.
 
[] No, a death could be deserved, but not this torment. This shouldn't go on, it was harmful to Zeqing and Hanyi as well.

Remember folks, Freedom Lets Go. This message is approved by the Silent Wind.​
 
Interesting. If we take Xin as an example, we know that relationship between a human and a spirit changes the spirit so that it's closer to the human.

Can this torment be the result of Zeqing growing closer to her husband's true nature?
 
The punishment isn't eternal. Zequing is going to die eventualy only great spirits live forever and there's like no chance of her ascending. A thousand years of servitude for a thousand years of servitude seems balanced in my eyes? Like, we know that the dude was at least a cyan cultivator when attempting to bind her since it's incredibly difficult to bind someone of a higher level.


As an aside, that whole binding someone with their children thing might explain some stuff about ancestral guardians.
 
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First off, holy shit, that was some truly stellar writing. There was a very strong sense of tone and atmosphere that was established immediately, and it only got stronger from there.

[] No, a death could be deserved, but not this torment. This shouldn't go on, it was harmful to Zeqing and Hanyi as well.

This is what I'm leaning towards, because holy shit there arguably aren't any crimes that deserve this level of punishment. I'm not at all confident in this, because there's a strong sense that we are walking on a razor's edge here, and saying the wrong thing will fuck us. Coming in from an argument of sympathy for the person she hates and hates and hates might be that wrong thing, but our human perspective might be the golden ticket for her to let it go with her vengeance satisfied. She could grow from that diversion of her nature.

We are probably in the midst of Tribulation already, step lightly.
 
he tried to bind her for the duration of his lifetime so she turned it around and bound him for the duration of her lifetime, hers is just a lot longer. Talk about a fate worse than death.

It is still very cruel and additionally it also goes directly against her nature as a spirit, so it should end now and both choices say this.

The question is if Ling Qi feels he deserves this and just going by her reactions in the chapter, the emotional response would be 'no'. On the other hand, she should care about Zeqing a lot more than about that dude, so the first choice could be justified in-character too.
 
[] It is justified, but hasn't it gone on long enough? It could not be helpful to Zeqing or her daughter

Yes, this third choice is exactly what we were talking about, and will have my vote.

Do any of you think that if somebody hurt one of Li's important people, she wouldn't do something worse than death upon them, if only she could? (for instance, if Yan Renshu had killed Zhengui?)
 
[] She could, the man had made his choices and here they led. She only worried that holding on to him like this hurt Zeqing and Hanyi.
[] It is justified, but hasn't it gone on long enough? It could not be helpful to Zeqing or her daughter

Inclined to go for one of these. Eye for an eye. Inclined to even go for the first one, as the cultivator would've doubtless kept Zeqing bound for his entire lifetime, so the reverse of that happening seems fair.
 
I'd say he deserved it for:
  • Trying to lie to her about his intentions
  • lying to her about his feelings
  • manipulating her feelings
  • creating an entire life! just to enslave another
The question is: Is tormenting him causing harm to Zeqing or Hanyi by causing them to dwell on his betrayal?
 
[X] No, a death could be deserved, but not this torment. This shouldn't go on, it was harmful to Zeqing and Hanyi as well.

At this rate Ling Qi is never going to get invited to the annual Xianxia protagonist potluck.

What sort of Xianxia protagonist doesn't enjoy some good old fashioned torture of their enemies? It's unnatural I say!
 
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We recently had an arc about how justice is only what people make it. Here, we have a question: Does Ling Qi think this punishment is justified? What does Ling Qi think of as justice? I think we should answer accordingly.

¢2
 
There are some weird things going on with how punishment is determined. Normally, in modern society, death is considered the ultimate punishment, even life in Prison is considered more lenient than death.

But here, death seems to be considered the lighter punishment. That the ultimate ending is a release rather than a punishment.

Can eternal torment be justified in a world of monsters, enslavement, and immortal spirits? Ling Qi has already disagreed with the crippling of a foe so that he can't strike out at us, but that is subtly different than a person who concocted a plan to enslave for perpetuity you, and presumably your family. If we caught Yan Renshu in an act similar to what Zeqing describes... how far could Ling Qi justify a punishment?

I think that Ling Qi couldn't justify the eternal torment. She would stop at death because that removes the threat and anything else is gratuitous.
 
query said:
[] No, a death could be deserved, but not this torment. This shouldn't go on, it was harmful to Zeqing and Hanyi as well.

At this rate Ling Qi is never going to get invited to the annual Xianxia protagonist potluck.

What sort of Xianxia protagonist doesn't enjoy some good old fashioned torture of their enemies? It's unnatural I say!
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To be fair, the people who attend never bring anything worthwhile, because why would you give the good stuff to your potential rivals?

:bigbrainthink:
 
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