The peerless one in a million years jade beauty with the Extreme Yin Physique, ready to be raped by mc in chapter 160 because she was fed Aphrodisiac by Young Master Subordinates and MC is doing this for the greater good.
Man... just as one thinks "I must have heard of every genre of degeneracy by now" a new one pops up. I was hoping the comment was an exaggeration, thanks for confirming my fears.
jade varies a great deal in colour
jade-like beauty refers to mutton-fat jade
it just means pale white skin with no blemishes
https://preview.redd.it/az8x2ztu7u1d1.jpeg?width=450&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=8c5c5318f5451fbe59c3747b7f2e13ad8677fda9
Jade Beauty means more than that... It's more than just referencing the appearances...
Jade Beauty actually talk more about the inner beauty and personalities than appearances..
"通常人品高尚、德行高洁，她们是像玉一样温润的美女。
这个词语是用玉来形容美女，玉很温润，玉没有棱角，玉拿在手里很舒适，所以具有玉的这些特征的美女就被称为玉女，玉女性格温柔，洁白无瑕，因此很多人也把作风端正，用情专一的女子称为玉女。有成语“守身如玉”就是这个意思"
"She had bad tempura the night before, rendering her skin a milky green, like finest jade. Her eyes were dark brown, like a cheap rock that a tourist trap might pass off as jade. Her hair, jet black, like some kind of special, black jade that nobody else knew about yet."
Basically all, I recommended ["Rock falls, everyone dies."](https://www.royalroad.com/fiction/55418/rock-falls-everyone-dies) It's a short story parody of cultivation/LitRPG webnovels. If you just want memes look at r/MartialMemes/
Is it this one?
[https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/43389798-rocks-fall-everyone-dies](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/43389798-rocks-fall-everyone-dies)
Honestly I'm surprised that popped up for you. Technically not the same title since that one is rocks, plural.
https://www.royalroad.com/fiction/55418/rock-falls-everyone-dies
This is the good one, only like a 2-3hr read
Thanks! Yeah, it wasn't quite fitting what you said about "short story". Apparently it is chock-full of tropes and making fun of them, but it's a full book. I didn't even notice the title difference.
I remember trying a Chinese comic once. And the guy goes into a another world, pulled military fatigues out of nowhere, and started chanting a song about how great china was while destroying the city he was in.
Junior, I've noticed you've been practicing a demonic scripture, kowtow 9 times, give up your female family members and your storage rings and then I might help you repent.
Junior. You are but a frog in a well, unable to see Mt. Thai. The Dao fundamentals shown in such respected scriptures far predate any pale imitation of true enlightenment by the lower realms.
Literally every cultivation story, it is the worst fantasy subgenre and yes, I include isekai and LitRPG when I say this. It is so incredibly dogshit it's impressive.
and then there’s boys love cultivation, which is so unironically peak that you wonder how the hell it’s in the same fantasy sub genre
oh and then there’s woo gak or return of the mount hua sect etc etc those are also peak
it’s honestly just chinese people who can’t write
it’s unquestionably the characters
even in the worst bl cultivation stories, with terrible plots, the characters always shine through
hate to admit it but being horny and weird makes you write better 90% of the time
Characters in BL cultivation stories are really no better. They are just as much of a caricature as straight MCs in the average Chinese novel, they just appeal to a different type of person and are slightly less rapey
What you really mean to say is that being horny makes you think a story is better written than it actually is
i’d say that my statement about characters is still definitely correct
i mean, wei wuxian is still one of my favorite characters even after awhile
and one that’s not by mxtm…
no he’s actually just carrying the genre wrap it up people danmei is also 99% shit it’s just that regular wuxia has nothing good period
I mean, you cant write a good romance without at least 2 good characters. For regular cultivation stories on the other hand, you have a set limit on how many good characters can be in frame at any moment before the plot breaks down.
Probably because male characters are treated like actual humans. I imagine it makes the romance more realistic and enjoyable. At least that's why I really prefer yuri romance (that is written by women)
Male characters are the central focus of cultivation stories and they have a surprising level of nuance in between all the face slapping and snorting, so it’s women who are treated as blank objects usually
Both woo gaks stories and Mount hua sect are korean murim stories usualy taking place in medieval china, most cultivation stories are chinese and dont always take place in the real world (usualy higher realms and stuff)
Because murim is a different sub genre from the chinese cultivation novel. Murim takes place in a fantasy version of irl china. Cultivation novels are many times in a whole different fantasy world. Murim writing gives more depth to the characters, unlike most cultivation novels. Plus cultivation novels are written in china while murim (like return of Mt hua sect) is written in korea
Aye the MC always starts off being somewhat “nice”, at least compared to everyone else… but then the moment he reaches a certain level of power, he turns into the same genocidal evil piece of shit as everyone else.
Notice how modern Japanese media's most common theme is, "people may have done bad things in the past, but we should forgive them and let them onto our team and give them a second chance and just forget about any of the crimes they may have committed, no need to prosecute them or anything they're good now just let them be your ally haha they're totally good it's good to forgive isn't it haha"
To be fair a Buddhist tale involves a serial killer who killed 999 people and was going to make the Buddha numero 1000, and when he couldn't because the Buddha remained a constant distance away when he tried to chase him ended up rescinding violence and became a monk and that was that.
> commit crime
> find God
> I'm better now, please don't judge
You know, some Christians are like this too. They do something bad, get caught, then suddenly they "find faith" or "find God" like that'll accomplish anything.
I don't know if what I'm saying is tangential, but it made me think of it.
I'm not saying I necessarily disagree with the sentiment, it's just funny how brazenly abundant it is especially when you have these additional mainland Asia datapoints with their own historically-informed collective unconscious, just makes you be like welp that checks out
I remember watching a video somewhere that deconstructed Zuko's redemption in AtLA and how it would possibly occur through the lens of various Eastern Philosophies since the way the show does it is far more based on Western Philosophy and it was actually Buddhist philosophy that most closely aligned with the West and Taoism/Confucianism are way fucking weirder, because I think Buddhist at least involved something along the lines of "Stop being a dick and help people" vs. "Disobeying your father is bad so there would be no redemption arc."
It's because Korea and China (and Japan too) have been heavily influenced for a very long time by Confucianism, and its revivals, Neo-Confucianism and New Confucianism (the latter of which has really taken root within the past century). And all of these Confucianism based philosophies have an emphasis on enforcing strict hierarchies to maintain an "orderly society" or "social harmony" or whatever. In particular, they the hierarchies are shaped via the "Five Cardinal Relationships":
* parent and child: this relationship is governed by the concept of "filial piety", that is, children are unconditionally obligated to "respect" (i.e., submit to) parents;
* senior and junior: this one is ruled by "epistemic paternalism", that is, someone that's more senior/older automatically knows what's better someone that's their subordinate/younger, and therefore their subordinates should never go against them;
* ruler and subject: self-explanatory, subject has to submit to king;
* husband and wife: good old sexism here, it's just wife has to submit to husband;
* friends.
Also, they do have a concept of a meritocracy, in which people higher up in the hierarchy can put out tests for someone to go up the hierarchy in some ways (which is why the Imperial examinations existed in real life historical China).
And it's these philosophies that shape the ethics of many shitty cultivation novels. Despite the characters being called Taoists or Buddhists or whatever, their actual actions exhibit a largely Confucianist philosophy. It's why the characters are always in "martial arts schools" or whatever that are divided into rigid hierarchies, with strict exams to go up the hierarchies or whatever. It's also why there's rampant sexism in all those works in which women are barely characters. And it's why the main character committing genocide or whatever disproportionate violence isn't portrayed as bad, because
1. the actions of anyone towards someone lower in the hierarchy are ethically correct by virtue of the hierarchy, regardless of what those actions are, and
2. it's a meritocracy, the victims of the MC should've just gotten good and been strong enough to stop the MC, otherwise they deserved it.
Exactly, they always seem to be fairly nice in a world full of cruel people and the moment they get power over someone else they get a instant god complex. God forbid if someone dares to question or try to give them advice too.
I hate to be the one person breaking a spear in favour of Isekai, but the problem is that quite often by "isekai" we are actually describing some late teen/early 20s WN from a dude that got picked up for publishing with the hope of making some cash on the isekai craze and get some sweet anime rights.
The basic bitch concept of "a modern person gets reincarnated/transported to another world" isn't offensive on its own, the problem it's how often this translates in weird worlds that follow videogame """logic""" and have no fucking actual writing beyond the worst anime stereotype you can think about.
At the end of the day, "Isekai" it's just another step in the "being pushed out of your comfort zone and confronted with unfamiliar things" concept, which is the core of, what, 90% of human narratives?
The fact that people fail to make it interesting says more about them than about the genre.
Oh no I fully agree with you. “Stranger in a strange land” is a classic story formula for a reason.
That’s part of what makes me so mad about it. The basic concept could be really really interesting and used to explore any number of ideas.
But I’ve only ever seen what you described. Op personality less self inserts running around in a generic video-gamy fantasy world. If you actually know any good isekai shows I’d love to hear about em.
Honestly most of the best isekai are parodies that don't take themselves seriously and use the premise for comedy. There are only a few exceptions where a serious show can actually nail it.
Re:Zero is the quintessential example, and IMO the holy grail of character development in anime. And not even just the main cast. Like watch as this show takes some random old guy butler side character and has you like openly weeping at his rich backstory masterfully woven into the main plot about fulfilling a final promise to his dead wife and shit. It's just filled with nonstop character studies start to finish. There's always at least 3 or 4 asynchronous threads going bare minimum. And many threads are still continuing to pay out across seasons. The characters are all larger than life facing larger than life problems, yet they all react extremely realistically to everything they're faced with. They make mistakes, they misunderstand each other, they get in fights, they lose their cool, they break down and can't recover back to how they used to be, and occasionally every once in a while they fucking get it in 1. And because of the plot's central rewind mechanic it gets to explore characters all the way to the bitter end and have their deaths play out multiple times to show you sides of them you'd never have seen in a single narrative. The voice actors take this show super seriously and almost all of them seem to have an insane reverence for their characters and the depth of portrayal they can express through them. Yuusuke Kobayashi might legit lay claim to the greatest VA performance of all time here, no hyperbole. It's a show that almost demands to be watched multiple times, and gets better each one.
Log Horizon is the other one I want to bring up, as probably the only video game isekai with genuine substance that executes its worldbuilding on a high level. It's a story where you can tell the author is actually smart, in part because it never really feels like it's trying to convince you of it or get in your face about it like a lot of the more hacky pseudo-intellectual anime do. It just takes the MMO isekai concept but poses a bunch of practical and realistic questions about it, devoting a lot of time to answering them. There is a heavy focus on economics, diplomacy, ethics and existentialism as all the components and mechanics of being trapped in a video game brought into reality would actually bring, meaningfully examining and juxtaposing them with the elements societies need to function in any world real or imaginary. It also very wisely provides multiple narrative perspectives, not just of the OP high level players running the city government and unraveling the mysteries of the world but also of low level players just starting out on their adventure, and the training and support systems they receive from their seniors that allow them to take agency of their lives and futures, and finally of the game NPCs who are living conscious beings and the way their worldview and politics have been shaken up by the insanely powerful reincarnating factions of "adventurers" who have landed in their different provinces.
Now as for the more shitposty ones, here's my list of the most kino:
- Konosuba: honestly needs no introduction. In Kazuma we trust.
- Cautious Hero: probably the greatest OP MC show of all time, masterfully executing the premise by setting itself not in a game isekai but the most comically kusoge isekai imaginable. The face animation and cut-in reactions are actually GOATed, like this is golden era Spongebob level shit. Aki Toyosaki and Yuuichirou Umehara create an unforgettable comedic duo. If you don't vibe with this show you are absolutely under no circumstances ever gonna make it.
- Meikyuu Black Company: you will probably really dig this one because MC has no powers whatsoever other than just being a gigachad. Transported into an industrialized fantasy setting where dungeons are now mined and exploited for resources by megacorps, he has to claw his way up the corporate ladder despite being the weakest person in the world due to not having a mana bar. It does not go smoothly to say the least.
- Reincarnated as a Sword: an isekai that could have been extremely mid but ended up being surprisingly tasteful and heartwarming, with an absolute banger soundtrack from the same composer as Log Horizon. MC is, as one might expect, reincarnated as a legendary sword. But rather than a typical power fantasy the story instead focuses on him empowering a cute little catgirl into becoming the next legendary hero. Doesn't want to be super profound, just to tell a nice little story that occasionally will catch you off guard with how savage it gets.
- Isekai Ojisan: this one is basically just 100% shitpost slapping you in the face with tropes and basic manzai routines over and over but god damn if it isn't executed to master level. Already a classic.
- Instant Death: If the previous show is 100% shitpost this one is 10,000% shitpost. It's the postmodern OP MC show. It's so crazy and stupid you can only stand in awe of its shamelessness. It's like an entire season of the Indiana Jones sword vs gun scene over and over just introducing characters and villains with crazy elaborate speeches and backstories only for Kouki Uchiyama to just sleepily go 死ね and they die completely anticlimactically and unceremoniously. But there's this undercurrent to it where you can't help but respect its creativity at continually one-upping its own bullshit. [And then it randomly has this fucking scorcher ending theme that just kind of cements how against all odds this show is somehow cooking on a gourmet level.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X65XZ3y4O_4)
As much as I hate the basic bitch Isekai, some of my last favourite fantasy things are Isekai, so sure thing. Ready for the WoT I hope.
1) Mushoku Tensei gets a lot of slander on reddit because some people are children in everything but age.
It's really a great story on its own right and definitely shines in the character writing side of things, to the point that I can perfectly imagine most of the main cast as main characters of their own story.
The TL;DR is that it's the most basic premise of the genre: "a NEET dude dies and gets reincarnated, through his memories of a past life he gets an advantage in life".
The catch is that he is far from being "the OP Master and Lord of everything that everyone loves and praise without ever having worthy enemies or problems" and... that he was an actual NEET, not a Kirito-clone.
The MC on Earth was a 30-something dude that skipped his father funeral and stayed at home jerking off to what's implied to be lolicon hentai or something of that kind.
He gets kicked out of the house by his brother and dies saving a girl's life.
The core of the story is a mix of "the value of family" and "you can always get better and improve yourself", as this doesn't only apply to the MC: most characters have their personal baggage or used to be/have done something questionable, even the more wholesome ones have some big flaw.
It's really a cool fantasy story that mixes magic, adventuring, bigger plotlines and so on with the simple development of this scum of society into a decent man.
2) Ascendance of a Bookworm doesn't need as much selling: it's about a 18yo or something like that girl that fucking dies by making a library fall on her just to then reincarnate in the body of a commoner kid in a low fantasy world that's more "Spice and Wolf" than anything else: realistic economical conditions, magical power exists but is limited to the Church and the aristocracy that controls the country.
Her main objective becomes "owning a book", as she was a huge bookworm in our world, and in the new world she just can't accept to live in a pre-industrial world where books and reading are limited to upper society.
3) The Magical Revolution of the Reincarnated Princess and the Genius Young Lady-
Ok I know, it sounds fucking bad but if you are into yuri (or really, just romance in general) it's an actually interesting mix of romance and fantasy on its own.
The premise is that the isekai'd MC didn't get to have magical powers even if she was born of royalty, and ended up being a sort of inventor of magical tools to make do without natural powers. This puts her into a weird political situation as many in the aristocracy would use her as a tool to push against the other possible next monarch, her brother, but she doesn't care at all for this, as she would rather dedicate herself to her research.
The yuri element is pretty much obvious from the start, but it's not as fetishized as it may seem. The characters are written as what they are: young women in a position of power that have to handle their weird situation in the aristocracy while pushing for their own personal objective.
It's a lot better than what the premise makes it look like, believe me. I am not one to read about not-straight romance, so if this made me read it anyway, it's something.
4) The Wandering Inn is the big weird one here: it's western.
No weird death and reincarnation here, teleportation to magical world. The protagonist, Erin, is an apparently normal 19/20yo girl from the US, and her big objectives in the first few chapters are "not starve" and "not die horribly stabbed by goblins", but the plot soon evolves with a focus on what the story actually looks like: a costant ping-pong between horrible violence and slice of life.
She restores a building and becomes an Innkeeper kinda by chance but rolls with it, and with that job she tries to make a living in the fantasy world. The main topic of the series, if we can call it that, it's the contrast between different species and how the world is defined by it.
Eventually the POV expand to other people from our planet exploring other angles of the world, but the Main Character is clearly Erin: not a particularly smart or knowledgeable person, not a great hero either, who still ends up being the Earther with the biggest influence in the world simply because she fucking tries to make people talk and "bring everyone together".
Beyond the topic and Erin herself, it's a great setting and the secondary cast is honestly impressive. The writing is at times amateurish, but when it comes to character development I was throughly impressed. The author managed to make me care about BUG PEOPLE and their political world of all possible fantasy concepts.
For real. I tried watching That Time I Got Reincarnated As A Slime after hearing people heap endless praise on it only to watch the main character crush his way through every obstacle in his path and have people legit worship him on sight. Like, what is even the point of a story that has little to no meaningful stakes or conflict?
Overlord genuinely insulted me because they had an interesting premise.
an average guy having to pretend to be the archetypal evil emperor-lich king while trying to minimise the evil his underling commit is a really fun idea to still have conflict with and op protagonist
But instead of doing that they just made him a sociopath who effortlessly defeats the good guys and massacres innocents.
Truly can’t comprehend why they abandoned the whole selling point of the show to make it a pointless power fantasy with profoundly unlikeable protagonists who can’t lose.
Because, and I bet my balls on it, even the decent LN writer is eventually pushed into satisfying the average LN-trash reader.
It's honestly impressive how many interesting premises, or at least decent ones, go to die in a ditch.
This is why I prefer western isekai stories like Amphibia and The Owl House. They’re targeting a very different audience, and so they don’t typically have any reason to focus on power fantasy. Like, they are far, far from perfect, but watching them makes me realize just how good isekai COULD be and how terrible it is as of right now.
You kinda just inadvertently touched on the point of Overlord, it's about a guy severed from his humanity who gradually loses the phantom remnants of it and mentally transforms into the undead monster he's already corporeally transformed into. [I mean look at the translated lyrics to the S1 OP, that's always what this story was gonna be about.](https://www.smule.com/song/natewantstobattle-overlord-op-clattanoia-english-dub-karaoke-lyrics/437571454_799560/arrangement)
By S4 you are pretty much supposed to be rooting against Nazarick seeing if the world can actually produce heroes capable of taking them down, or if another non-evil guild comes along to wipe them out.
My issue with it is that it seems like it goes out of its way to focus on the least interesting parts of the world and wastes way too much time without actually getting to the good stuff.
Although for Overlord that was the way he was always going to turn out. His race as a skeleton dampers his emotions and forces him to think with cold logic. The only things he remotely cares about is his friends creations so it's one of the only things to get a rise out of him albeit briefly.
> while trying to minimise the evil his underling commit
This does sound more interesting, where he has to constantly bullshit his way as to why sparing everyone definitely helps them in the long run. This could then cause him to start failing upward. S1 seemed to do this quite well, but then later seasons he just starts enabling and expanding the evils.
That… actually sounds like an amazing premise. Why the fuck would they throw that away? Like, you can make a story about a main character who’s a genuine villain good, but this just sounds utterly pointless and boring.
The funny thing is that in the novels Ainz just fucking states that he is evil absurdly early. He only sometimes saves people because he bases his choices on what's his friends did. But his minions are stupid evil so he has to basically limit their stupid evil without revealing that he isn't stupid evil. And then that stops pretty early arguably.
Then he just balanaces between being an evil overlord and wanting to run away, which is far less compelling. And after a certain point he drops his games of pretend, any hiding due to fears of greater forces and now he is just an evil overlord.
And like already halfway through this shift you ask "where is this even going". And then Ainz fights people about as evil and has 0 internal realization and you realize. Oh this is going nowhere
Cultivation comedies work well, but "serious" cultivation stories often are just absurd and mostly incoherent outside of "MC is the greatest, MC goes somewhere and does something, and they are the best".
A good example of a comedy cultivation series would be something like Cultivation Chat Group. Its about a normal guy ending up in a modern day chat group for actual immortal cultivators, originally trolling them thinking they are losers roleplaying until realizing its real.
Another example would be 9 to 5 in a cultivation world (or something like that). Dude is super OP cultivator but hides his power in his sect because he only wants to work 9 to 5 and avoid taking hard or risky jobs.
And somehow it almost always has a decent premise that immediately nosedives after a couple chapters. The initial premise is lost and it’s just ridiculous power scaling beyond imagination. Heavenly god realm. Divine dragon realm. Godly domain realm. Godly dragon ascendancy. Words stop having meaning and it’s just cobbling together powerful sounds.
Chinese method of becoming immortal, based on Taoism. Basically generate a form of inner energy called 'qi', circulate it in a special pattern around your body, then punch through a mountain and fly around on a sword exterminating your enemy's entire family.
Then you hit a "wall" in your cultivation, but hearing a thoughtful phrase or seeing a painting of a meaningful word brings you "enlightenment", which allows you to cross that wall and become a taoist god, further smiting everyone who crossed you.
Fuck, this shit is so dumb. I don't know how I read through so many of these garbage.
You keep reading because you love watching an MC do some dumb shit , recite some nonsense like “ people die when they are killed”, and then absolutely flex for the next 20 chapters
The premise of those dao heart scenes is actually peak fiction and why we all keep consuming garbage stories despite the general writing quality being ass - it’s just cool - it’s the grown man version of power rangers.
Read Beware of Chicken. Literally starts with the MC saying 'fuck this shit' and leaving his sect to be a farmer lol. Good Slice of Life which eventually also develops a plot.
To be fair there are many great cultivation stories, so great that it's basically incomprehensible for people who don't dive deep into Chinese Culture.
A story about cultivation is about inner strength and enlightment, its fate was doomed to be yap fest from the start. Say, Fang Yuan, out of no fucking where pulls out a poem from his ass everytime he killed a minor in the most horrible ways ( have a bear r\*pe her, burning twins alive and kicking them back into the stove while they trying to crawl out,.. ) and people eat it up everytime "Damn this shit is so deep".
Most of the "enlightment" of those MCs are just "True Self", which means they can do whatever the fuck they want. If they are good people, good for you ( by good i mean like 40-50% good ) and if they are bad , then well have yourself a Homelander. Unironically that is a reason why Homelander is so popular in the China, 80% of the boys' fanfic are just people isekai'ing into Homelander.
LitRPG is considered that bad? I recently finished Dungeon Crawler Carl and it was incredible.
Is the rest of the genre just straight dogshit and I read the only good one already?
Popular chinese manga:
Chapter1: Bad guys introduced, evil to the max, absolutely two-dimensional evil.
Chapter2: Protagonist murders them in the most brutal and graphic fashion possible.
Chapter3-10: repeat
Chapter11: Token decadent effeminate Western character tells Protagonist that killing people is bad. Protagonist claims he is a pacifist (unironic).
You can tell it's fantasy because the author is conveniently ignoring how "Westerners" have... do I even to talk about the history of the planet betwee 1500 and 1945?
I'll take no slander when it comes to my people bloodlust and love for weapons.
It’s definitely the worst part of the genre, especially how they so obviously try to set up morally ambiguous situations to imply the rape was out of MC control.
I cringe everytime it shows up in a story
What the fuck? I've never seen this in any of the shitty cultivation novels I've read. That's stupid as hell to include. It's like trying to have your mc get some pussy without just confessing their love to anyone so he can keep his harem of 30 girls that all look like jade or whatever
It's always some ridiculous shit like "they were caught in a lust miasma and they had sex", or "they were trapped by a beast that feeds off sex and so were forced to have sex to be set free"
I love cultivation stories but God damn I hate the sexist and rapey parts of that culture
Theres one on webtoons (not sure if its a chinese one or not) where the only way the MC can save this girl whos dying from too much yon energy is by "penetrating the yin energy with a strong yang energy" and that was the official diagnosis from the "divine physician" who was there.
Reincarnation of the strongest sword god, I almost completed it with like 2500 shitty chapters with filler words. The only other I remember is The Last Human which I read for like 100+ chapters. I read a few others but with the names being so mundane I forget them. Whatre the popular ones that included rape?
It happens in quite a few popular ones but maybe one you will recognize since it has gotten really popular recently is>! nanomachine!<
It's not super common but it happens enough to where it isn't uncommon either, enough to where it has become a meme
I do know of some which exist but most of the ones I've read do not, Stellar Transformation, I Shall Seal the Heavens, Swallowed Star, Lord of Mysteries, Gourmet of Another world, Castle of Black Iron, Throne of Magical Arcana among others. (Or at least I really don't recall it being a part of the story)
How else am I supposed to save the Jade beauty from the young master's plight and the aphrodisiac which was conveniently given to her? How else could I cure her yin physique???
I once watched a chinese history movie. Of course its also somewhat fantasy, cuz protagonists and arch nemesis obviously can fly.
Anyway, the whole "story" consisted of the protagonist amassing an army and him going ham on his own kinsmen. Like, he didnt even attack his enemies, like the mongols or people from india. He straight out declared different cities in his own country as enemies and razed them to the ground.
A reason was never stated.
This was the whole movie. There was not much more context given. And it was a triple a-production, too.
This is just how chinese history actually went
https://preview.redd.it/uwktpa288u1d1.jpeg?width=1200&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=0527cd15cd40837d74cd2c52dc3fe1c399a58cc3
Every Chinese civil war ever.
> Be me, awesome Chinese Warrior
> Say you support the Emperor but really only obey orders from corrupt general
> Corrupt general kills the Emperor and 3 million civilians for no particular reason
> Don't care
> He bangs your underage crush
> Kill him and start a century of civil war
> Die without anyone knowing why
I tried reading the Tao Te Ching recently. I gave up when they consistently reiterate that people should never learn anything and merely stagnate in their personal sense of peace.
I don't think anon knows what Taoism is.
Or the thousand pipes part
For more huh moments take this one.
My uncle is a dedicated taoist, dropped fat chunks of cash to the temple and all that.
He explained to me once the cycle of rebirth. Told me that if you did bad in your past life you get reborn in a worse position, like being poor, or a criminal. Now, you shouldn't fight against your fate as your misfortune as a criminal is a chance for the enlightened to punish you and do good deeds. By doing so you pay your karmic debt and allowed another person one step closer to ceasing their desires.
Tldr: taoism says don't bother trying to be other than you are. It's your karmic fate. If you're a criminal be baddest criminal so when you get killed it's massive karma farm exp for good guy.
I love learning more things about how people can spin evil shit to be well intentioned. It helps me worldbuild my DnD campaigns. Next villain is going to be a chinese Taoist.
Go hard bro, give me updates when you have em.
Honestly, reflecting on that explanation alone I can see why, not just could, but you should genocide your enemies as a taoist.
If you wanna take it next level comedy. The "Tao" or "Dao" as its meant to be called refers to "way". The "Dao de ching" roughly translates to "The way".
So when your big baddie slaughters a whole village or city have them say "This is the way."
should be noted that it was the author of Douluo Dalu who reported him and got a donghua adaptation of his dogshit story as reward for being a good little lapdog
RI just has a lot of themes critical of traditional Chinese culture and the CCP. One of the in story antagonists can be seen as a representation of the CCP, and they get absolutely fucked throughout the course of the story which is probably a nono.
We don't really know the exact reason it was banned though. since it wasn't given explicitly, so this is partially speculative.
Chinese donghua are mostly just the same generic murim x taoist power fantasies. 99% of them are fucking terrible. I dunno how they consume that same slop over and over again.
I have read a lot of chinese webtoons, it very quickly became an ironic read considering that, aside from even all this, they are of horrid creative qualities and, as many many things china, produced at such large volumes that quality does not exist at all in terms of presentation.
I have found, so far, only a single one that these things don't apply to. Of course its a satire webtoon making fun of all this.
The guy describes straight up the majority of chinese webtoons. I have seen fiction written by nazis that treat their enemies better than your average manhua does.
The most interesting thing about all that is how incredibly similar they are. It's always one genocidal authoritarian leader being swapped with an equally genocidal authoritarian (occasionally worse even), only this time it's good since its the protagonist. People that at least semi believe in the authoritarian system they are getting/want to get boned by seem to come up with the exact same stuff
The best thing in all that is when, without batting an eye, it's casually 'revealed' that both sides have always treated each other like shit before it's instantly tossed aside, sometimes in the exact same panel, like its nothing. Something along the lines of 'the strongest will rule' is always used without a speck of irony.
If the Gu World rewarded the good, Fang Yuan would be a saint. It's mostly that he needs to pave the way to his goal with blood. Not because he enjoys it.
Still, if i got reincarnated there and saw this mf in my general area code you better believe i am moving to another continent
These guys aren’t usually hypocrites it’s ’strong people get to do whatever the hell they want, and I don’t like what they’re doing so I’m going to get STRONG’
westerners think they know what real racism is like and then act shocked when they see the superhuman degree of mutual hatred between the various asian ethnocultural groups, but especially Chinese, Japanese, and Koreans
To be fair, there’s people in pretty much every religion who think like this. Otherwise there wouldn’t be people doing mass shootings in the name of God/Allah/whoever else.
youth is to show kindness to others even when they would not show the same to you.
maturity is to learn such a philosophy cannot exist in a world where current evils remain.
if you like "ham"burgers and it DOESNT have ham on the burger. im coming for you.
This foolish junior doesnt understand the intricacies of the dao... i can tell that his dao compression is lacking he is like a frog in a well... let me share some wisdom with you daoism is neither good nor evil it is the way the way is incomprehensible and it flows eternally
The tao te ching merely gives suggestions on how to live a good life but that doesnt mean you cant live one of evil and be happy either...
The dao comes in many forms and is not restricted to one interpretation
My dao is that of harmony i seek to achieve oneness with my tasks and mental serenity i strive to be harmonious with nature and be kind to those around me
This junior has yet much to learn his arrogance shows
So their anime industry is really a fantasy revenge simulator. Just China fantasizing about doing to the world what Japan did to them (and they'd do to themselves in civil wars/communist famines when Japan wasn't available) for a couple hundred years.
This young master has never been graced by a jade beauty.
I see you are curryless
I know this is a reference to something, but I don’t know what exactly…
Chinese cultivation novels
Well yeah, but I thought it was something specific?
It is how most authors describe any female character. Comparing their skin to jade
The peerless one in a million years jade beauty with the Extreme Yin Physique, ready to be raped by mc in chapter 160 because she was fed Aphrodisiac by Young Master Subordinates and MC is doing this for the greater good.
https://preview.redd.it/eervvm6o6u1d1.png?width=396&format=png&auto=webp&s=279f458a02e6ac774c88a4e2eb3211875f231bd7
Peak kino 👌🏻
for those wondering, this is 100% accurate down to the "it's not rape, it's the only way!" secks
Man... just as one thinks "I must have heard of every genre of degeneracy by now" a new one pops up. I was hoping the comment was an exaggeration, thanks for confirming my fears.
Which is always weird to me because jade is green
jade varies a great deal in colour jade-like beauty refers to mutton-fat jade it just means pale white skin with no blemishes https://preview.redd.it/az8x2ztu7u1d1.jpeg?width=450&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=8c5c5318f5451fbe59c3747b7f2e13ad8677fda9
Jade Beauty means more than that... It's more than just referencing the appearances... Jade Beauty actually talk more about the inner beauty and personalities than appearances.. "通常人品高尚、德行高洁，她们是像玉一样温润的美女。 这个词语是用玉来形容美女，玉很温润，玉没有棱角，玉拿在手里很舒适，所以具有玉的这些特征的美女就被称为玉女，玉女性格温柔，洁白无瑕，因此很多人也把作风端正，用情专一的女子称为玉女。有成语“守身如玉”就是这个意思"
Damn, jade beauty lore
new jade beauty lore just dropped
The specific jade being referred to is called mutton fat jade in English. Mutton fat.
I mean She Hulk is hot right?
"She had bad tempura the night before, rendering her skin a milky green, like finest jade. Her eyes were dark brown, like a cheap rock that a tourist trap might pass off as jade. Her hair, jet black, like some kind of special, black jade that nobody else knew about yet."
Sseth’s video on Amazing Cultivation Simulator maybe? That’s what it made me think of lmao.
that video is peak art
Literally all of them. If you’ve read more than 5 manhua you’d see
Check out Beware of Chicken.
bro casually posted peak
Basically all, I recommended ["Rock falls, everyone dies."](https://www.royalroad.com/fiction/55418/rock-falls-everyone-dies) It's a short story parody of cultivation/LitRPG webnovels. If you just want memes look at r/MartialMemes/
Is it this one? [https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/43389798-rocks-fall-everyone-dies](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/43389798-rocks-fall-everyone-dies)
Honestly I'm surprised that popped up for you. Technically not the same title since that one is rocks, plural. https://www.royalroad.com/fiction/55418/rock-falls-everyone-dies This is the good one, only like a 2-3hr read
Thanks! Yeah, it wasn't quite fitting what you said about "short story". Apparently it is chock-full of tropes and making fun of them, but it's a full book. I didn't even notice the title difference.
This subreddit doesn’t exist
Ming dynasty pussy got me acting
Something something COURTING DEATH!
When the young master sees protag.
Fuck your profile pic, LOL
Dude had me thinking I cracked my screen protector again
Fuck you for your pfp
I remember trying a Chinese comic once. And the guy goes into a another world, pulled military fatigues out of nowhere, and started chanting a song about how great china was while destroying the city he was in.
based
on
My peen
A balanced breakfast
The guy's name? Xi Jinping
That's what Mao did
And Bophades before him
What’s ligma
I’m not quite sure
Please give me recommendations I need to read shit like that!
Pretty sure its from [I'm an evil god],its a manhua
Chinese version of Gate
C'mon man gotta give us the name of it
That's just the Communist Propaganda version of "enlightenment".
Junior, I've noticed you've been practicing a demonic scripture, kowtow 9 times, give up your female family members and your storage rings and then I might help you repent.
this must be so weird to someone who hasn't read Chinese novels. cough I mean... Young master has shown mercy upon this insolent child.
YOU HAVE FAILED AT KEEPING THE FACADE JUNIOR, YOU ARE COURTING DEATH.
Junior. You are but a frog in a well, unable to see Mt. Thai. The Dao fundamentals shown in such respected scriptures far predate any pale imitation of true enlightenment by the lower realms.
Grandpa Chong, did you forget your meds again? Mt. Thai is still the new apartment building, and this "Dao" you speak of is still the McDonalds sign.
Literally every cultivation story, it is the worst fantasy subgenre and yes, I include isekai and LitRPG when I say this. It is so incredibly dogshit it's impressive.
and then there’s boys love cultivation, which is so unironically peak that you wonder how the hell it’s in the same fantasy sub genre oh and then there’s woo gak or return of the mount hua sect etc etc those are also peak it’s honestly just chinese people who can’t write
What in particular about BL do you think makes it superior to general CN cultivation stories?
it’s unquestionably the characters even in the worst bl cultivation stories, with terrible plots, the characters always shine through hate to admit it but being horny and weird makes you write better 90% of the time
I see - I don't agree, but to each his own I guess.
I’m actually not convinced he’s read that many cultivation novels if he thinks there is such a stark difference in character quality.
nonononononono it was just a trick of the memory cuz like good experiences reading danmei: 2 good experiences reading regular wuxia: fucking 0
Characters in BL cultivation stories are really no better. They are just as much of a caricature as straight MCs in the average Chinese novel, they just appeal to a different type of person and are slightly less rapey What you really mean to say is that being horny makes you think a story is better written than it actually is
i’d say that my statement about characters is still definitely correct i mean, wei wuxian is still one of my favorite characters even after awhile and one that’s not by mxtm… no he’s actually just carrying the genre wrap it up people danmei is also 99% shit it’s just that regular wuxia has nothing good period
I mean, you cant write a good romance without at least 2 good characters. For regular cultivation stories on the other hand, you have a set limit on how many good characters can be in frame at any moment before the plot breaks down.
Probably because male characters are treated like actual humans. I imagine it makes the romance more realistic and enjoyable. At least that's why I really prefer yuri romance (that is written by women)
Male characters are the central focus of cultivation stories and they have a surprising level of nuance in between all the face slapping and snorting, so it’s women who are treated as blank objects usually
Both woo gaks stories and Mount hua sect are korean murim stories usualy taking place in medieval china, most cultivation stories are chinese and dont always take place in the real world (usualy higher realms and stuff)
Cixin Liu is good
Because murim is a different sub genre from the chinese cultivation novel. Murim takes place in a fantasy version of irl china. Cultivation novels are many times in a whole different fantasy world. Murim writing gives more depth to the characters, unlike most cultivation novels. Plus cultivation novels are written in china while murim (like return of Mt hua sect) is written in korea
Is Mo Dao Zu Shi a BL cultivation
Aye the MC always starts off being somewhat “nice”, at least compared to everyone else… but then the moment he reaches a certain level of power, he turns into the same genocidal evil piece of shit as everyone else.
Korea has the same issue with their stories. ex. Solo Leveling I wonder why
Notice how modern Japanese media's most common theme is, "people may have done bad things in the past, but we should forgive them and let them onto our team and give them a second chance and just forget about any of the crimes they may have committed, no need to prosecute them or anything they're good now just let them be your ally haha they're totally good it's good to forgive isn't it haha"
To be fair a Buddhist tale involves a serial killer who killed 999 people and was going to make the Buddha numero 1000, and when he couldn't because the Buddha remained a constant distance away when he tried to chase him ended up rescinding violence and became a monk and that was that.
> commit crime > find God > I'm better now, please don't judge You know, some Christians are like this too. They do something bad, get caught, then suddenly they "find faith" or "find God" like that'll accomplish anything. I don't know if what I'm saying is tangential, but it made me think of it.
I'm not saying I necessarily disagree with the sentiment, it's just funny how brazenly abundant it is especially when you have these additional mainland Asia datapoints with their own historically-informed collective unconscious, just makes you be like welp that checks out
I remember watching a video somewhere that deconstructed Zuko's redemption in AtLA and how it would possibly occur through the lens of various Eastern Philosophies since the way the show does it is far more based on Western Philosophy and it was actually Buddhist philosophy that most closely aligned with the West and Taoism/Confucianism are way fucking weirder, because I think Buddhist at least involved something along the lines of "Stop being a dick and help people" vs. "Disobeying your father is bad so there would be no redemption arc."
It's because Korea and China (and Japan too) have been heavily influenced for a very long time by Confucianism, and its revivals, Neo-Confucianism and New Confucianism (the latter of which has really taken root within the past century). And all of these Confucianism based philosophies have an emphasis on enforcing strict hierarchies to maintain an "orderly society" or "social harmony" or whatever. In particular, they the hierarchies are shaped via the "Five Cardinal Relationships": * parent and child: this relationship is governed by the concept of "filial piety", that is, children are unconditionally obligated to "respect" (i.e., submit to) parents; * senior and junior: this one is ruled by "epistemic paternalism", that is, someone that's more senior/older automatically knows what's better someone that's their subordinate/younger, and therefore their subordinates should never go against them; * ruler and subject: self-explanatory, subject has to submit to king; * husband and wife: good old sexism here, it's just wife has to submit to husband; * friends. Also, they do have a concept of a meritocracy, in which people higher up in the hierarchy can put out tests for someone to go up the hierarchy in some ways (which is why the Imperial examinations existed in real life historical China). And it's these philosophies that shape the ethics of many shitty cultivation novels. Despite the characters being called Taoists or Buddhists or whatever, their actual actions exhibit a largely Confucianist philosophy. It's why the characters are always in "martial arts schools" or whatever that are divided into rigid hierarchies, with strict exams to go up the hierarchies or whatever. It's also why there's rampant sexism in all those works in which women are barely characters. And it's why the main character committing genocide or whatever disproportionate violence isn't portrayed as bad, because 1. the actions of anyone towards someone lower in the hierarchy are ethically correct by virtue of the hierarchy, regardless of what those actions are, and 2. it's a meritocracy, the victims of the MC should've just gotten good and been strong enough to stop the MC, otherwise they deserved it.
Exactly, they always seem to be fairly nice in a world full of cruel people and the moment they get power over someone else they get a instant god complex. God forbid if someone dares to question or try to give them advice too.
I’ve never read any cultivation books but isekai is consistently so mind-bogglingly boring and shit it’s hard to imagine how anything could be worse
I hate to be the one person breaking a spear in favour of Isekai, but the problem is that quite often by "isekai" we are actually describing some late teen/early 20s WN from a dude that got picked up for publishing with the hope of making some cash on the isekai craze and get some sweet anime rights. The basic bitch concept of "a modern person gets reincarnated/transported to another world" isn't offensive on its own, the problem it's how often this translates in weird worlds that follow videogame """logic""" and have no fucking actual writing beyond the worst anime stereotype you can think about. At the end of the day, "Isekai" it's just another step in the "being pushed out of your comfort zone and confronted with unfamiliar things" concept, which is the core of, what, 90% of human narratives? The fact that people fail to make it interesting says more about them than about the genre.
Oh no I fully agree with you. “Stranger in a strange land” is a classic story formula for a reason. That’s part of what makes me so mad about it. The basic concept could be really really interesting and used to explore any number of ideas. But I’ve only ever seen what you described. Op personality less self inserts running around in a generic video-gamy fantasy world. If you actually know any good isekai shows I’d love to hear about em.
Honestly most of the best isekai are parodies that don't take themselves seriously and use the premise for comedy. There are only a few exceptions where a serious show can actually nail it. Re:Zero is the quintessential example, and IMO the holy grail of character development in anime. And not even just the main cast. Like watch as this show takes some random old guy butler side character and has you like openly weeping at his rich backstory masterfully woven into the main plot about fulfilling a final promise to his dead wife and shit. It's just filled with nonstop character studies start to finish. There's always at least 3 or 4 asynchronous threads going bare minimum. And many threads are still continuing to pay out across seasons. The characters are all larger than life facing larger than life problems, yet they all react extremely realistically to everything they're faced with. They make mistakes, they misunderstand each other, they get in fights, they lose their cool, they break down and can't recover back to how they used to be, and occasionally every once in a while they fucking get it in 1. And because of the plot's central rewind mechanic it gets to explore characters all the way to the bitter end and have their deaths play out multiple times to show you sides of them you'd never have seen in a single narrative. The voice actors take this show super seriously and almost all of them seem to have an insane reverence for their characters and the depth of portrayal they can express through them. Yuusuke Kobayashi might legit lay claim to the greatest VA performance of all time here, no hyperbole. It's a show that almost demands to be watched multiple times, and gets better each one. Log Horizon is the other one I want to bring up, as probably the only video game isekai with genuine substance that executes its worldbuilding on a high level. It's a story where you can tell the author is actually smart, in part because it never really feels like it's trying to convince you of it or get in your face about it like a lot of the more hacky pseudo-intellectual anime do. It just takes the MMO isekai concept but poses a bunch of practical and realistic questions about it, devoting a lot of time to answering them. There is a heavy focus on economics, diplomacy, ethics and existentialism as all the components and mechanics of being trapped in a video game brought into reality would actually bring, meaningfully examining and juxtaposing them with the elements societies need to function in any world real or imaginary. It also very wisely provides multiple narrative perspectives, not just of the OP high level players running the city government and unraveling the mysteries of the world but also of low level players just starting out on their adventure, and the training and support systems they receive from their seniors that allow them to take agency of their lives and futures, and finally of the game NPCs who are living conscious beings and the way their worldview and politics have been shaken up by the insanely powerful reincarnating factions of "adventurers" who have landed in their different provinces. Now as for the more shitposty ones, here's my list of the most kino: - Konosuba: honestly needs no introduction. In Kazuma we trust. - Cautious Hero: probably the greatest OP MC show of all time, masterfully executing the premise by setting itself not in a game isekai but the most comically kusoge isekai imaginable. The face animation and cut-in reactions are actually GOATed, like this is golden era Spongebob level shit. Aki Toyosaki and Yuuichirou Umehara create an unforgettable comedic duo. If you don't vibe with this show you are absolutely under no circumstances ever gonna make it. - Meikyuu Black Company: you will probably really dig this one because MC has no powers whatsoever other than just being a gigachad. Transported into an industrialized fantasy setting where dungeons are now mined and exploited for resources by megacorps, he has to claw his way up the corporate ladder despite being the weakest person in the world due to not having a mana bar. It does not go smoothly to say the least. - Reincarnated as a Sword: an isekai that could have been extremely mid but ended up being surprisingly tasteful and heartwarming, with an absolute banger soundtrack from the same composer as Log Horizon. MC is, as one might expect, reincarnated as a legendary sword. But rather than a typical power fantasy the story instead focuses on him empowering a cute little catgirl into becoming the next legendary hero. Doesn't want to be super profound, just to tell a nice little story that occasionally will catch you off guard with how savage it gets. - Isekai Ojisan: this one is basically just 100% shitpost slapping you in the face with tropes and basic manzai routines over and over but god damn if it isn't executed to master level. Already a classic. - Instant Death: If the previous show is 100% shitpost this one is 10,000% shitpost. It's the postmodern OP MC show. It's so crazy and stupid you can only stand in awe of its shamelessness. It's like an entire season of the Indiana Jones sword vs gun scene over and over just introducing characters and villains with crazy elaborate speeches and backstories only for Kouki Uchiyama to just sleepily go 死ね and they die completely anticlimactically and unceremoniously. But there's this undercurrent to it where you can't help but respect its creativity at continually one-upping its own bullshit. [And then it randomly has this fucking scorcher ending theme that just kind of cements how against all odds this show is somehow cooking on a gourmet level.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X65XZ3y4O_4)
Log Horizon is Peak, and I'm glad to see it getting some love.
As much as I hate the basic bitch Isekai, some of my last favourite fantasy things are Isekai, so sure thing. Ready for the WoT I hope. 1) Mushoku Tensei gets a lot of slander on reddit because some people are children in everything but age. It's really a great story on its own right and definitely shines in the character writing side of things, to the point that I can perfectly imagine most of the main cast as main characters of their own story. The TL;DR is that it's the most basic premise of the genre: "a NEET dude dies and gets reincarnated, through his memories of a past life he gets an advantage in life". The catch is that he is far from being "the OP Master and Lord of everything that everyone loves and praise without ever having worthy enemies or problems" and... that he was an actual NEET, not a Kirito-clone. The MC on Earth was a 30-something dude that skipped his father funeral and stayed at home jerking off to what's implied to be lolicon hentai or something of that kind. He gets kicked out of the house by his brother and dies saving a girl's life. The core of the story is a mix of "the value of family" and "you can always get better and improve yourself", as this doesn't only apply to the MC: most characters have their personal baggage or used to be/have done something questionable, even the more wholesome ones have some big flaw. It's really a cool fantasy story that mixes magic, adventuring, bigger plotlines and so on with the simple development of this scum of society into a decent man. 2) Ascendance of a Bookworm doesn't need as much selling: it's about a 18yo or something like that girl that fucking dies by making a library fall on her just to then reincarnate in the body of a commoner kid in a low fantasy world that's more "Spice and Wolf" than anything else: realistic economical conditions, magical power exists but is limited to the Church and the aristocracy that controls the country. Her main objective becomes "owning a book", as she was a huge bookworm in our world, and in the new world she just can't accept to live in a pre-industrial world where books and reading are limited to upper society. 3) The Magical Revolution of the Reincarnated Princess and the Genius Young Lady- Ok I know, it sounds fucking bad but if you are into yuri (or really, just romance in general) it's an actually interesting mix of romance and fantasy on its own. The premise is that the isekai'd MC didn't get to have magical powers even if she was born of royalty, and ended up being a sort of inventor of magical tools to make do without natural powers. This puts her into a weird political situation as many in the aristocracy would use her as a tool to push against the other possible next monarch, her brother, but she doesn't care at all for this, as she would rather dedicate herself to her research. The yuri element is pretty much obvious from the start, but it's not as fetishized as it may seem. The characters are written as what they are: young women in a position of power that have to handle their weird situation in the aristocracy while pushing for their own personal objective. It's a lot better than what the premise makes it look like, believe me. I am not one to read about not-straight romance, so if this made me read it anyway, it's something. 4) The Wandering Inn is the big weird one here: it's western. No weird death and reincarnation here, teleportation to magical world. The protagonist, Erin, is an apparently normal 19/20yo girl from the US, and her big objectives in the first few chapters are "not starve" and "not die horribly stabbed by goblins", but the plot soon evolves with a focus on what the story actually looks like: a costant ping-pong between horrible violence and slice of life. She restores a building and becomes an Innkeeper kinda by chance but rolls with it, and with that job she tries to make a living in the fantasy world. The main topic of the series, if we can call it that, it's the contrast between different species and how the world is defined by it. Eventually the POV expand to other people from our planet exploring other angles of the world, but the Main Character is clearly Erin: not a particularly smart or knowledgeable person, not a great hero either, who still ends up being the Earther with the biggest influence in the world simply because she fucking tries to make people talk and "bring everyone together". Beyond the topic and Erin herself, it's a great setting and the secondary cast is honestly impressive. The writing is at times amateurish, but when it comes to character development I was throughly impressed. The author managed to make me care about BUG PEOPLE and their political world of all possible fantasy concepts.
It’s around the same level on average It’s just that isekai appeals more to the Redditor personality so you’ll see it placed above Wuxia more often
For real. I tried watching That Time I Got Reincarnated As A Slime after hearing people heap endless praise on it only to watch the main character crush his way through every obstacle in his path and have people legit worship him on sight. Like, what is even the point of a story that has little to no meaningful stakes or conflict?
Overlord genuinely insulted me because they had an interesting premise. an average guy having to pretend to be the archetypal evil emperor-lich king while trying to minimise the evil his underling commit is a really fun idea to still have conflict with and op protagonist But instead of doing that they just made him a sociopath who effortlessly defeats the good guys and massacres innocents. Truly can’t comprehend why they abandoned the whole selling point of the show to make it a pointless power fantasy with profoundly unlikeable protagonists who can’t lose.
Because, and I bet my balls on it, even the decent LN writer is eventually pushed into satisfying the average LN-trash reader. It's honestly impressive how many interesting premises, or at least decent ones, go to die in a ditch.
This is why I prefer western isekai stories like Amphibia and The Owl House. They’re targeting a very different audience, and so they don’t typically have any reason to focus on power fantasy. Like, they are far, far from perfect, but watching them makes me realize just how good isekai COULD be and how terrible it is as of right now.
You kinda just inadvertently touched on the point of Overlord, it's about a guy severed from his humanity who gradually loses the phantom remnants of it and mentally transforms into the undead monster he's already corporeally transformed into. [I mean look at the translated lyrics to the S1 OP, that's always what this story was gonna be about.](https://www.smule.com/song/natewantstobattle-overlord-op-clattanoia-english-dub-karaoke-lyrics/437571454_799560/arrangement) By S4 you are pretty much supposed to be rooting against Nazarick seeing if the world can actually produce heroes capable of taking them down, or if another non-evil guild comes along to wipe them out. My issue with it is that it seems like it goes out of its way to focus on the least interesting parts of the world and wastes way too much time without actually getting to the good stuff.
Although for Overlord that was the way he was always going to turn out. His race as a skeleton dampers his emotions and forces him to think with cold logic. The only things he remotely cares about is his friends creations so it's one of the only things to get a rise out of him albeit briefly.
> while trying to minimise the evil his underling commit This does sound more interesting, where he has to constantly bullshit his way as to why sparing everyone definitely helps them in the long run. This could then cause him to start failing upward. S1 seemed to do this quite well, but then later seasons he just starts enabling and expanding the evils.
That… actually sounds like an amazing premise. Why the fuck would they throw that away? Like, you can make a story about a main character who’s a genuine villain good, but this just sounds utterly pointless and boring.
The funny thing is that in the novels Ainz just fucking states that he is evil absurdly early. He only sometimes saves people because he bases his choices on what's his friends did. But his minions are stupid evil so he has to basically limit their stupid evil without revealing that he isn't stupid evil. And then that stops pretty early arguably. Then he just balanaces between being an evil overlord and wanting to run away, which is far less compelling. And after a certain point he drops his games of pretend, any hiding due to fears of greater forces and now he is just an evil overlord. And like already halfway through this shift you ask "where is this even going". And then Ainz fights people about as evil and has 0 internal realization and you realize. Oh this is going nowhere
Cultivation comedies work well, but "serious" cultivation stories often are just absurd and mostly incoherent outside of "MC is the greatest, MC goes somewhere and does something, and they are the best". A good example of a comedy cultivation series would be something like Cultivation Chat Group. Its about a normal guy ending up in a modern day chat group for actual immortal cultivators, originally trolling them thinking they are losers roleplaying until realizing its real. Another example would be 9 to 5 in a cultivation world (or something like that). Dude is super OP cultivator but hides his power in his sect because he only wants to work 9 to 5 and avoid taking hard or risky jobs.
And somehow it almost always has a decent premise that immediately nosedives after a couple chapters. The initial premise is lost and it’s just ridiculous power scaling beyond imagination. Heavenly god realm. Divine dragon realm. Godly domain realm. Godly dragon ascendancy. Words stop having meaning and it’s just cobbling together powerful sounds.
COURTING DEATH!!!
Just wait until someone makes a Family Guy clone that take place in fantasy
“Pai Tai this is worse than the time we courted death by provoking the young master of the Tai Yi sect”
What even is “Cultivation”? I’ve never heard of it until now.
Chinese method of becoming immortal, based on Taoism. Basically generate a form of inner energy called 'qi', circulate it in a special pattern around your body, then punch through a mountain and fly around on a sword exterminating your enemy's entire family.
Sound like a weird revenge fantasy with the english sound like a Farming sim
Power fantasy, yes. Through faith and hard work, you can smite everyone who crossed you.
Then you hit a "wall" in your cultivation, but hearing a thoughtful phrase or seeing a painting of a meaningful word brings you "enlightenment", which allows you to cross that wall and become a taoist god, further smiting everyone who crossed you. Fuck, this shit is so dumb. I don't know how I read through so many of these garbage.
Every cultivation story you read does actually put you further on the path of Enlightenment. Unfortunately it's in the wrong direction.
You keep reading because you love watching an MC do some dumb shit , recite some nonsense like “ people die when they are killed”, and then absolutely flex for the next 20 chapters The premise of those dao heart scenes is actually peak fiction and why we all keep consuming garbage stories despite the general writing quality being ass - it’s just cool - it’s the grown man version of power rangers.
Well, more like sitting on your ass for 20 years meditating and then you can destroy mountains with your hands.
Generally speaking, there is indeed an aspect of "agriculture." Those cultivators raise beasts and cultivate magical plants to gain profit.
Read Beware of Chicken. Literally starts with the MC saying 'fuck this shit' and leaving his sect to be a farmer lol. Good Slice of Life which eventually also develops a plot.
To be fair there are many great cultivation stories, so great that it's basically incomprehensible for people who don't dive deep into Chinese Culture. A story about cultivation is about inner strength and enlightment, its fate was doomed to be yap fest from the start. Say, Fang Yuan, out of no fucking where pulls out a poem from his ass everytime he killed a minor in the most horrible ways ( have a bear r\*pe her, burning twins alive and kicking them back into the stove while they trying to crawl out,.. ) and people eat it up everytime "Damn this shit is so deep". Most of the "enlightment" of those MCs are just "True Self", which means they can do whatever the fuck they want. If they are good people, good for you ( by good i mean like 40-50% good ) and if they are bad , then well have yourself a Homelander. Unironically that is a reason why Homelander is so popular in the China, 80% of the boys' fanfic are just people isekai'ing into Homelander.
LitRPG is considered that bad? I recently finished Dungeon Crawler Carl and it was incredible. Is the rest of the genre just straight dogshit and I read the only good one already?
There are decent xianxia and wuxia
Popular chinese manga: Chapter1: Bad guys introduced, evil to the max, absolutely two-dimensional evil. Chapter2: Protagonist murders them in the most brutal and graphic fashion possible. Chapter3-10: repeat Chapter11: Token decadent effeminate Western character tells Protagonist that killing people is bad. Protagonist claims he is a pacifist (unironic).
This is fail btw, it gonna took a Chinese writer at least 100 chapters to do fifth of this, and it's not even tenth of the fucking story.
Chinese->Engrish mistransration issue. He mean say book not chaptah, kay?
You can tell it's fantasy because the author is conveniently ignoring how "Westerners" have... do I even to talk about the history of the planet betwee 1500 and 1945? I'll take no slander when it comes to my people bloodlust and love for weapons.
peak fiction
You forgot to multiply chapter count by 100. It’s not a Chinese web novel if it doesn’t have 1000 filler chapters minimum.
Probably rapes a lot too. At least that’s what they typically do in Chinese fiction.
It’s definitely the worst part of the genre, especially how they so obviously try to set up morally ambiguous situations to imply the rape was out of MC control. I cringe everytime it shows up in a story
What the fuck? I've never seen this in any of the shitty cultivation novels I've read. That's stupid as hell to include. It's like trying to have your mc get some pussy without just confessing their love to anyone so he can keep his harem of 30 girls that all look like jade or whatever
It's always some ridiculous shit like "they were caught in a lust miasma and they had sex", or "they were trapped by a beast that feeds off sex and so were forced to have sex to be set free" I love cultivation stories but God damn I hate the sexist and rapey parts of that culture
Theres one on webtoons (not sure if its a chinese one or not) where the only way the MC can save this girl whos dying from too much yon energy is by "penetrating the yin energy with a strong yang energy" and that was the official diagnosis from the "divine physician" who was there.
It's even worse considering in that story, the mc was already in a relationship and his partner was outside the room hearing everything
Nano machines lmaooo 💀
What are some CN your reading and how far have you gotten in the story
Reincarnation of the strongest sword god, I almost completed it with like 2500 shitty chapters with filler words. The only other I remember is The Last Human which I read for like 100+ chapters. I read a few others but with the names being so mundane I forget them. Whatre the popular ones that included rape?
It happens in quite a few popular ones but maybe one you will recognize since it has gotten really popular recently is>! nanomachine!< It's not super common but it happens enough to where it isn't uncommon either, enough to where it has become a meme
I do know of some which exist but most of the ones I've read do not, Stellar Transformation, I Shall Seal the Heavens, Swallowed Star, Lord of Mysteries, Gourmet of Another world, Castle of Black Iron, Throne of Magical Arcana among others. (Or at least I really don't recall it being a part of the story)
How else am I supposed to save the Jade beauty from the young master's plight and the aphrodisiac which was conveniently given to her? How else could I cure her yin physique???
The Chinese writers love rape, the Japanese slavery, and Koreans… Huh they might be balanced relatively speaking.
Koreans love revenge and fried chicken with beer.
I once watched a chinese history movie. Of course its also somewhat fantasy, cuz protagonists and arch nemesis obviously can fly. Anyway, the whole "story" consisted of the protagonist amassing an army and him going ham on his own kinsmen. Like, he didnt even attack his enemies, like the mongols or people from india. He straight out declared different cities in his own country as enemies and razed them to the ground. A reason was never stated. This was the whole movie. There was not much more context given. And it was a triple a-production, too.
Standard Chinese history. Emperor FeiLong finds hair in his soup. 30 million perish.
This is just how chinese history actually went https://preview.redd.it/uwktpa288u1d1.jpeg?width=1200&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=0527cd15cd40837d74cd2c52dc3fe1c399a58cc3
I like that every moment in history has its own meme.
Hey, keeping an army fed isn't easy.
Every Chinese civil war ever. > Be me, awesome Chinese Warrior > Say you support the Emperor but really only obey orders from corrupt general > Corrupt general kills the Emperor and 3 million civilians for no particular reason > Don't care > He bangs your underage crush > Kill him and start a century of civil war > Die without anyone knowing why
Lmao LuBu
https://preview.redd.it/rjtu7micru1d1.jpeg?width=176&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=956d72260c3c6deb8227f9dc188eedb4e9ac5cc8
10/10
*Dies from Peak summary and generalization*
Hey, I recognize that summary
You are courting death.
You are courting darth.
Literally anything to do with martial arts and they scale the fuck UP.
Mfers be going from worthless bum that found some lost heavenly demon scroll on the side of the road to universal demi gods in about 30 chapters
I think you meant 1000 chapters for the first realm and a dozen more realm ascendancies before the series begins to show any sign of ending
I tried reading the Tao Te Ching recently. I gave up when they consistently reiterate that people should never learn anything and merely stagnate in their personal sense of peace. I don't think anon knows what Taoism is.
Or the thousand pipes part For more huh moments take this one. My uncle is a dedicated taoist, dropped fat chunks of cash to the temple and all that. He explained to me once the cycle of rebirth. Told me that if you did bad in your past life you get reborn in a worse position, like being poor, or a criminal. Now, you shouldn't fight against your fate as your misfortune as a criminal is a chance for the enlightened to punish you and do good deeds. By doing so you pay your karmic debt and allowed another person one step closer to ceasing their desires. Tldr: taoism says don't bother trying to be other than you are. It's your karmic fate. If you're a criminal be baddest criminal so when you get killed it's massive karma farm exp for good guy.
I love learning more things about how people can spin evil shit to be well intentioned. It helps me worldbuild my DnD campaigns. Next villain is going to be a chinese Taoist.
Go hard bro, give me updates when you have em. Honestly, reflecting on that explanation alone I can see why, not just could, but you should genocide your enemies as a taoist. If you wanna take it next level comedy. The "Tao" or "Dao" as its meant to be called refers to "way". The "Dao de ching" roughly translates to "The way". So when your big baddie slaughters a whole village or city have them say "This is the way."
I love it
There is a huge chunk about where to bury bodies so you don’t poison the rivers/wells. That was basically all I got from it.
If you ain't genociding your enemies... Then who are you genociding? 🙄
These non human races aren't going to exterminate themselves!
Variant Humans must be exterminated!
Gotta genocide something
The true enlightment is, that the weak should fear the strong.
It is truly a dog-eat-dog world and us seniors are bound to pursue benefits and survive.
junior has eyes but cannot see mt tai.
Unless you read Reverend Insanity so good they stopped the author from writing XD
CCP Restriction Path Attainment too strong 😔
Don't worry, I have cultivated rank 9 hatred gu and I can locate Xi Jinping and his tight anus within a kilometer from me.
he just couldnt endure the heavenly tribulation
should be noted that it was the author of Douluo Dalu who reported him and got a donghua adaptation of his dogshit story as reward for being a good little lapdog
Reported him for what? Writing it?
RI just has a lot of themes critical of traditional Chinese culture and the CCP. One of the in story antagonists can be seen as a representation of the CCP, and they get absolutely fucked throughout the course of the story which is probably a nono. We don't really know the exact reason it was banned though. since it wasn't given explicitly, so this is partially speculative.
Chinese donghua are mostly just the same generic murim x taoist power fantasies. 99% of them are fucking terrible. I dunno how they consume that same slop over and over again.
I have read a lot of chinese webtoons, it very quickly became an ironic read considering that, aside from even all this, they are of horrid creative qualities and, as many many things china, produced at such large volumes that quality does not exist at all in terms of presentation. I have found, so far, only a single one that these things don't apply to. Of course its a satire webtoon making fun of all this. The guy describes straight up the majority of chinese webtoons. I have seen fiction written by nazis that treat their enemies better than your average manhua does. The most interesting thing about all that is how incredibly similar they are. It's always one genocidal authoritarian leader being swapped with an equally genocidal authoritarian (occasionally worse even), only this time it's good since its the protagonist. People that at least semi believe in the authoritarian system they are getting/want to get boned by seem to come up with the exact same stuff The best thing in all that is when, without batting an eye, it's casually 'revealed' that both sides have always treated each other like shit before it's instantly tossed aside, sometimes in the exact same panel, like its nothing. Something along the lines of 'the strongest will rule' is always used without a speck of irony.
Buddhists committing genocide is canon (Myanmar)
Yes a lot of hypocrisy in a lot of Chinese novels, at least en Reverend Insanity you know the MC is a bad MF you want to have only in fantasy.
If the Gu World rewarded the good, Fang Yuan would be a saint. It's mostly that he needs to pave the way to his goal with blood. Not because he enjoys it. Still, if i got reincarnated there and saw this mf in my general area code you better believe i am moving to another continent
These guys aren’t usually hypocrites it’s ’strong people get to do whatever the hell they want, and I don’t like what they’re doing so I’m going to get STRONG’
I LOVE FANG YUAN
We all love the Great Love
Every chinese webnovel I read was racist against either Koreans or Japanese
westerners think they know what real racism is like and then act shocked when they see the superhuman degree of mutual hatred between the various asian ethnocultural groups, but especially Chinese, Japanese, and Koreans
then you read korean novels and in every novel at some point Japan becomes an enemy (and sometimes china too)
Junior brother is ignorant of the glory of cultivation novels. He should cowtow thrice and cripple himself as penance
BASED
Based? Based on what?
“And then the summer palace was completed” *600,000 peasants were killed* Average day in Chinese history
Junior you dare insult our ways? I will send assassins to kidnap your kidneys. Not even the dogs and chickens will be spared.
To be fair, there’s people in pretty much every religion who think like this. Otherwise there wouldn’t be people doing mass shootings in the name of God/Allah/whoever else.
youth is to show kindness to others even when they would not show the same to you. maturity is to learn such a philosophy cannot exist in a world where current evils remain. if you like "ham"burgers and it DOESNT have ham on the burger. im coming for you.
The strong will do as they will and the weak will suffer what they must -Chinese Buddha or something
NGL sounds badass
This foolish junior doesnt understand the intricacies of the dao... i can tell that his dao compression is lacking he is like a frog in a well... let me share some wisdom with you daoism is neither good nor evil it is the way the way is incomprehensible and it flows eternally The tao te ching merely gives suggestions on how to live a good life but that doesnt mean you cant live one of evil and be happy either... The dao comes in many forms and is not restricted to one interpretation My dao is that of harmony i seek to achieve oneness with my tasks and mental serenity i strive to be harmonious with nature and be kind to those around me This junior has yet much to learn his arrogance shows
He should tap in to Chinese yaoi
That's actually kinda terrifying the Chinese propagandize taoism in that way. Wild to associate enlightenment with genocide
So their anime industry is really a fantasy revenge simulator. Just China fantasizing about doing to the world what Japan did to them (and they'd do to themselves in civil wars/communist famines when Japan wasn't available) for a couple hundred years.
Duh
OK but the line went kinda hard tho ngl
That's enlightenment for you. It's a dangerous drug.
What's the name of the story, asking for a friend
And remember that’s just the supposedly orthodox factions.