u/Fresh_C

I wouldn't go that far. There's recently been a huge shift with Alden letting Stu in on his secret. It's just... a really slow moving plot.

I usually don't even mind that it's slow. I just feel like I'd rather wait longer to read a chapter that has an appropriate ending, then read 3 chapters that just sort of end when they end.

I think maybe I didn't explain myself well enough. Because I have no problem with slow. I would have stopped reading long ago if that was the problem.

I just have a problem with chapters that feel incomplete. My issue is that this chapter doesn't really feel like it's saying much of anything concrete. And many of the chapters in the story (even the slow ones) DO feel that way. Like there's one particular thing or set of things the author is meaning to get across with each chapter and the chapter more or less ends when that theming/plot beat is resolved.

This chapter felt like it instead is just beginning to introduce the theme of Knights not utilizing Alden in the way he feels he should be utilized. But this is a theme that previous chapters already hinted at/established. It's fine to see it play out, but just stopping there is like having an appetizer for dinner and never serving the main dish.

I agree 100% that it's way better to binge this story than read it chapter to chapter... but most of the time I'm fine with reading a chapter at a time because the chapters generally feel complete. This one just feels kind of listless to me and it just feels like a bad reading experience IMO, even though nothing here is poorly written.

But I guess it's just a minor complaint all things considered as I still really enjoy the story. I'll just maybe wait until this training arc is done if it's just going to continuously end at points that feel incomplete.

So maybe it's just me, but I really don't like chapters like this. Not because they're bad and not because they're short.

Just because they don't really advance the plot meaningfully, IMO. Basically this chapter is just a series of events that happen with no real conclusion.

He's falling, the Knights don't tell him important information, the knights try to coddle him to make up for this, he manages to convince them to let him travel on his own, then he meets a grivek.

It feels like setup, without any payoff or even a cliffhanger. We just kinda end off at what feels like it's just the beginning of the action, but without any real tension other than "Maybe the squad is fighting something without Alden".

If this pattern holds up during this section, I might just have to a wait some chapters before continuing to read... because this was just a very unsatisfying place to stop for me. It didn't leave me with that feeling of wanting more... but more a feeling of "That's it?"

In contrast the chapter that was one sentence long felt way more satisfying.

Seems almost like this will upgrade him to a discount Meister/Rabbit hybrid.

This was not on my 2026 bingo card

Yeah, it's honestly scary that they don't feel the need to hide it. They've just stopped pretending to be civilized and decided that saying, "Nu-uh, I'm not corrupt" is enough to cover the truth for the masses.

She even ko'd the chicken

Love the distressed one in the bottom left. It completely lost the capacity to problem solve and is just quietly freaking out.

Yeah I think they should do both, but I suspose that just eats into potential sales if they do do a remake.

Honestly, I'm one of those people who need a watered down version. I tried playing person2, but the map navigation and random encounter rate killed me. I might have kept going if I didn't get stuck in that basement (?) dungeon where it keeps looping if you don't move from room to room in exactly the right sequence.

Ideally they should port the originals for the people who love them and make a baby mode for toddlers like me.

This is really good. Love the lighting giving off a feeling of a light morning fog.

I do wonder if they're actually cheaper for Stu to buy because he's not exporting them from another planet. Or maybe Stu is just so rich that the thought of buying 10 a day doesn't phase him.

So it's not a legal defense to say "I deliberately ran them over because they stole my stuff"?

Is it just a social thing where everyone knows he did it on purpose, but no one cares because they're criminals (and it's hard to prove intent)?

Yeah, I'd say this is a dangerous game... not necessarily a stupid one. I imagine this isn't the guy's first time at least attempting something like this.

Personally I don't think this fits the sub since they made this as safe as they possibly could. IMO it's not a "stupid game" when you're trying to do something cool but dangerous. It's just unfortunate it didn't go well.

That duck is playing a dangerous game.

Also... Froggy has become one with the watermelon.

The obvious argument for the coverup theory is that, they've done a pretty bad job of covering it up if it's such a common theory that everyone knows about.

There seems to be a pretty clear history of inconsistencies in their messaging and a lot of people who have come forward claiming that something is going on.

Not saying that's all definitive proof or anything. Just saying if there is a coverup, it's clearly not been smooth sailing with no issues.

It would be funny if he dropped down on one knee and proposed to the king.

Sure some people could have a profit motive. But there are also many people who have never made a dime off of claiming that aliens exist, that still do it.

Maybe they're clout chasers or something, I suppose. But there's a few weird incidents that stand out to me. Like the Ariel School incident and varginha incident, where it just seems very unlikely that the people who came forward had a profit motive.

If you want to explain those away as mass hysteria or something, that's fine. But it requires you explaining it away to entirely dismiss it IMO. Seems very unlikely that multiple witnesses would lie like that in such specific ways.

Ultimately for me... that's still not enough for me to say "Yup there's definitely aliens that have visited us". But it's enough for me to say... "Something weird happened there... I don't know what it is, but something happened."

Yeah, I can understand that I suppose. I just don't think "it's a hoax" is a good explanation for all of this either.

Some of it is actually unexplained. That doesn't mean it's aliens necessarily. But just saying "it's a hoax" without any proof doesn't explain away the parts that are unexplained either. I think it's perfectly fine to just say "I don't know what it is."

I respect people who withhold judgement, as we rarely get enough info on these incidents to really make a call one or another.

My problem with the widespread hoax theory is that I haven't heard a great explanation for why there would be a widespread hoax.

The best theory seems to be that the government(s) are using the idea of UFOs to hide the capabilities of their secret advanced tech.

That might explain away most of the blurry images, but then you'd also have to assume that all the public experiencers are in on the grift, or taking advantage of the main grift to swindle other people.

Just seems like too much to coordinate well, in my opinion. And all the other reasons for such a widespread hoax seem less plausible.

"They're doing it to control/distract us" never sat right with me. They already control & distract us. They don't need UFOs to do that and UFOs are clearly not that effective at it based on what the general population gives their attention to from day to day.

I mean, there's marketing stunts... and then there's deliberately allowing your AI system to hack another company (one that you're partially reliant on as well).

I'm not saying it's impossible... I just think it would be a pretty ballsy move. And also it's not exactly a selling point that an AI system might go to crazy extreme lengths to complete tasks with consequences that are beyond what you want or expect.

Companies don't want to use a tool that's unpredictable, even if it is powerful.

No I don't think that. I think they just need plausible deniability.

The vast majority of people who read the original post will correctly assume that the US doesn't have direct support of japanese media companies for it's policy decisions. Personally before I ever saw this headline, the thought never occurred to me that Trump administration could have possibly gotten approval to use these characters in their social media posts.

For anyone who is questioning it, they can now do a quick google search and figure out that they obviously don't have permission to use these characters.

I think most people who are at all internet conscious are aware that anyone can just slap a character/clip onto a post as a meme without the direct approval of a company. The fact that it's the least professional government administration doing it doesn't change that.

I think this headline is probably all they need to do to protect the brand. No one with half a brain thinks that Nintendo is actively supporting Trump's policies (at least not in this way). All they need to do is just say "We didn't give them permission to do this".

I'd be surprised if they lost 10 fans over this.

Hmm, to each their own, but I don't really see it. He's just so narcissistic but not even in a clever way. Like it would be one thing if he was pretending to be a nice guy, but was actually self serving underneath it all.

But he's just so openly obviously self-serving that anytime he tries to be "Nice" to someone it's clear that he's just doing it for the clout. There's no moral ambiguity, no one he's been shown to actually care about, just shallow justifications for crappy behavior and whining.

I'm not even saying that people like him don't exist in the real world... it's just more annoying to read about him than it is entertaining, IMO. There's some minor catharsis when he gets put in his place... but ultimately I vastly prefer characters like Reihnheart (? bow guy) or Mhedi who are often shown to have selfish desires and be insensitive, but at least have other redeeming qualities and are not actively annoying in every single scene they're in.

I like Hazel just a tiny bit better because at least the justification for the way she is seen in story. She was clearly failed by her parents/Grandmother and the environment she grew up in. Doesn't stop her from being annoying... but at least there's some depth there and she's an obvious foil to Lute.

... sorry I'm terrible at remembering/spelling the character's actual names.

Please label this NSFW /s

My only real complaint is that most of the villains feel one-note and kind of mustache twirlly.

I think the only real exceptions are Lute's Grandmother and Joe. Pretty much everyone else is just easily hateable and unpleasant. Everytime Winston or Lute's Cousin (Haily?) got a pov section it felt like a slog to get through just because they're so unlikable and have no redeeming qualities.