10 KiB
[RT][HF] A Practical Guide to Evil: Book 4: Court I
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Author: u/Zayits *
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URL: https://practicalguidetoevil.wordpress.com/2018/05/02/court-i/
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Score: 80
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Created: 2018-05-02T04:02:02
Post:
Comments:
u/CouteauBleu [+20] We are the Empire. (2 hours later)
Is it me or every single time two noble/aristocrat characters are introduced at the same time in this story, the man is dishonorable, arrogant and focused on shortsighted political gains, and the woman is honorable, humble and focused on enlightened long-term self-interest?
That's not really bad writing, but it's funny once you notice the pattern.
u/TideofKhatanga [+18] (4 hours later)
No need to focus on aristocrats, competence is a feminine trait in the Guideverse. Pick a male character whose name isn't Hakram Deadhand, Brandon Talbot or Amadeus of the Green Stretch, chances are that the guy is either 1/ a morally bankrupt moron, 2/ somewhere on the autism spectrum or 3/ competent in one particular domain and an in-universe joke in every other matters.
This is one of the problem with book 2 IMHO, where the question "wait, where are the guys?" actually distracted me from the plot at some points.
Edit: thinking about it, it's less the men being depicted in a bad light and more the women being generally competent. It's actually hard to remember a female character that got a decent amount of description and turned out lacking in redeeming traits.
u/Razorhead [+20] (4 hours later)
I don't know, the Tyrant seems pretty competent, as does Klaus Pappenheim. Hanno isn't an idiot as well. And we even have the Grey Pilgrim in this very chapter.
u/TideofKhatanga [+19] (5 hours later)
Klaus Pappenheim, like Masego, Ratface or Wekesa is described as "pretty good at what he does but don't let him do anything else". Half his screentime is Cordelia thinking about ways to sideline him before her grumpy old grandfather runs his mouth when he shouldn't.
Hanno is a weird case, half his characterization is he doesn't have one. Outside of his extra chapters, he's just not developped beyond "he's the White Knight".
I'll withold my judgement on the Grey Pilgrim for now (William also looked promising until he never delivered) but I'll admit I missed Kairos and Anaraxes. But as I said in my edit, it's not the male characters being weak, it's the female characters being strong. I can't remember a female equivalent to Mazus or Afolabi, someone who's just there as a roadkill yet still received enough characterization to matter in the plot. Maybe Barika and even then she was Akua's foil.
u/Turniper [+15] (6 hours later)
I actually liked Afolabi's characterization. I thought it was pretty clear that while greedy, conniving, and ornery, he was ultimately a solid general with the respect of his legion. I thought he was a pretty realistic example of a type of person I often encounter in positions of power in real life.
u/Razorhead [+8] (5 hours later)
Yeah, after reviewing there are indeed very little instances of women being incompetent. It's almost always a man.
The only one I can remember is the Augur, since she's only really good for one thing.
u/18scsc [+5] (10 hours later)
Some of Heiress's henchwomen were markedly incompetent. At least when it came to dealing with the likes of Cat.
u/Razorhead [+4] (11 hours later)
Yeah, but can you remember their names? The only one of those who ultimately mattered is Fadila, and that's only because she's still alive.
u/18scsc [+5] (15 hours later)
I can't really remember the names of any of incompetent men off the top of my head either (with the exception of some past dread emperors). The only exception would possibly be William, but I'd argue he's at least marginally competent.
u/Rheklr [+1] (3 days later)
I would also add the King of Winter to that list, and note that the Queen of Summer was completely outplayed.
u/CouteauBleu [+18] We are the Empire. (5 hours later)
My problem is less with the gender roles, and more with the fact that a lot of characters are sticking to their archetype in a way that makes them interchangeable. At some point, I feel the both the "ambitious but pragmatic lady" characters and the "arrogant and overconfident lord" characters blend together.
Like, is there any difference between the characterization so far of Samuel Farron, Baron Darlington, Prince Arnaud and Prince Amadis?
u/TideofKhatanga [+10] (5 hours later)
To be clear, I don't have a problem with it either. It only mattered when it got distracting (when Cordelia was introduced and it felt like there wasn't a single male ruler in Calernia), like when you notice a plot hole and it makes it harder to focus on the plot. It's like how, at some point, it felt like every hero was a braindead idiot and you would wonder why anyone would want their help.
As for the nobles... Amadis might surprise us but the others are basically plot devices to make other characters look better (Brandon Talbot and Princess Rozala, here). Those two chapters were a bit too on the nose on that front, EE is usually better at making characters stand out.
u/18scsc [+5] (10 hours later)
I mean to be fair, I'd imagine that on the balance the GuideVerse is more patriarchal than the modern world. Those women who have managed to find themselves power have to be smart, otherwise they wouldn't be in power.
u/Razorhead [+11] (11 hours later)
So far 5/7 rulers have been women: Malicia, Cordelia, Ranger, Catherine (and Kegan if we count Daoine, which in my opinion we should) vs Kairos and the Dead King.
Women are far more prevalent as rulers than men are in the Guideverse, as least those revealed.
u/Sarkavonsy [+3] (21 hours later)
5/8. Don't forget the king of the Dwarves.
u/Razorhead [+6] (a day later)
Fair enough. I'd seems I'd forgotten him because he's only mentioned once, and is never relevant to the story. But I'll give you that.
Although the possibility exist that while the Title is male, it's bearer could be a woman, just like the First Prince of the Principate. I don't think EE would use the same quirk twice, but the possibility exists.
u/hoja_nasredin [+0] Dai-Gurren Brigade (6 hours later)
yep it is pretty heavy in its SJW ways.
Any new group of characters is always 50% 50% male female. Warlock comments about how "genders are too fluid of a concept to be used in rituals" etc.
I do find it funny
u/Cariyaga [+6] Kyubey did nothing wrong (a day later)
SJW's kind of meaningless as anything but an insult.
u/earnestadmission [+1] Singular "they" user (2 hours later)
There are many aspirants to “antagonist” for dread empress Malicia.
u/haiku_fornification [+20] (4 hours later)
Goblin Conspiracy Plot #1
The Empire got their second Red Letter in Book 1, due to goblins' research. What if this was intentional?
By forcing the second letter, the goblins wield an incredible amount of influence. If they sit on designs which are particularly advanced (this seems likely) releasing them would mean the Empire is fucked. They have the nuke Malicia was dreaming of - only it's contained to Praes. Conspiracy #1 is based on the idea that the Tribe near Marchford will foolishly create and plant some designs in the old settlements, leading to all of the old goblins and the Tower getting bombed.
u/LordSwedish [+6] Q Continuum (18 hours later)
The problem is that nobody knows what the gnomes think. Will they know that the goblins did it intentionally and just go and bomb them to shit to show that you can't manipulate the gnomes? What if they just wipe out half the continent?
Don't mess with the crazy luddites with an air force unless you can get flak guns up in time.
u/OmniscientQ [+7] (18 hours later)
It gets even worse than that. Not only do the gnomes have no presence in the world - no embassies where you can politely ask for permission before doing something - but the gnomes somehow knew of the goblin chemistry research even when it has been explicitly stated that scrying doesn't work underground. The goblins are in the running for the most secretive race in all of Creation, and the gnomes still found out what was going on in some random dead-end tunnel of the Grey Eyries.
u/cyberdsaiyan [+16] (2 hours later)
Wow, so the great goblin conspiracy is real.
I wonder what would happen if the goblin males started a rebellion-within-a-rebellion...
u/WalterTFD [+3] (9 hours later)
Guh, looks like it isn't just the Crusaders who have some internal intrigue going on. The upcoming battle has a lot more than 2 sides.
u/UPBOAT_FORTRESS_2 [+2] (16 hours later)
Jesus, I only just started reading this a couple days ago -- and when I ctrl+F down the front page of the sub, 11 new chapters in 21 days?! Is this a typical pace for this story?
I guess it's only a hair faster than Wildbow's work, but I fell off that wagon partway through Twig, and I've apparently grown soft on the monthly update pace for Origin of Species and Mother of Learning
u/Zayits [+7] (16 hours later)
The author had enough backlog built up during the month off for that pace not cath up with him, and some said that the initial chapters where the story was stil speeding up to its usual pace could easily have been condensed ino fewer without the narration losing its consistency. But yeah, given that the progression suggests that this book will last for a hundred or so chapters, I'm a little bit worried.
u/Razorhead [+5] (17 hours later)
It used to be twice a week, but recently the author hit the final milestone on his Patreon - and now it's three a week. He's only been at it for a month, so let's see how he keeps this up.
u/OmniscientQ [+1] (18 hours later)
The chapters of A Practical Guide to Evil tend to be shorter and more easily digested than Wildbow's work. Or at least they feel that way.