Hoss
Make America's Team Great Again
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Dungeon Crawler Carl
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Woefully Inept
Silver Baron of the Realm
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Hoss
I left the original item description in the comments, the point I’m making is that Matt took something that had been defined one way, and rewrote it with a funny idea in mind, with a paper thin narrative for why it could work, in my opinion it’s because he came up with this idea, and decided to work it in, after the fact.
I know he’s a “pantser” and that’s how he writes to begin with, but this is where it gets thin—because it doesn’t strike me as clever, if you make up new rules half way through the game for the sake of an idea.
He could later say that the AI did this on purpose because he wanted Carl or…Prepotente to abuse it, but if the narrative is that he wants entertainment he probably wouldn’t have wanted his highest level boss completely neutralized.
It’s sillier still, that the child of a major divinity wouldn’t have sapience, let alone the Big Bad itself—animals are dumb and can often be thwarted regardless of strength, you can scare off most animals with a damn fire. How often are dragons dumb beasts?
No one regularly puts a dumb animal as the final boss, especially one that is supposedly responsible for carrying out this sophisticated wave of nine tier attacks—Scolapendra is supposedly a representation of the Eulogist , krackaren (I don’t know the book spellings) the Apothecary was talking, why would the mega AI be a dumb beast?
Maybe there’s an opening where whomever (the AI, or the Syndicate) made Scolapendra was indeed making a point that the AI itself was not a sapient organism…even though it represents itself as being an intelligence…or rather that it was asleep, when it was attacked, but it would still mean the final dungeon boss was always going to be outsmart-able. To me it just feels like retconning something existing to make a funny ending.
Maybe probably he will go the route of claiming it was the AI’s intent to help Carl and crew all along hence, seeing the shine on the glass container in level 3 , the weird nonsense with donut that happened when the ogre knocked them out also on level 3, Peter Cole…yes I know he’s the AI’s pet, maybe it’s building to that
I know he’s a “pantser” and that’s how he writes to begin with, but this is where it gets thin—because it doesn’t strike me as clever, if you make up new rules half way through the game for the sake of an idea.
He could later say that the AI did this on purpose because he wanted Carl or…Prepotente to abuse it, but if the narrative is that he wants entertainment he probably wouldn’t have wanted his highest level boss completely neutralized.
It’s sillier still, that the child of a major divinity wouldn’t have sapience, let alone the Big Bad itself—animals are dumb and can often be thwarted regardless of strength, you can scare off most animals with a damn fire. How often are dragons dumb beasts?
No one regularly puts a dumb animal as the final boss, especially one that is supposedly responsible for carrying out this sophisticated wave of nine tier attacks—Scolapendra is supposedly a representation of the Eulogist , krackaren (I don’t know the book spellings) the Apothecary was talking, why would the mega AI be a dumb beast?
Maybe there’s an opening where whomever (the AI, or the Syndicate) made Scolapendra was indeed making a point that the AI itself was not a sapient organism…even though it represents itself as being an intelligence…or rather that it was asleep, when it was attacked, but it would still mean the final dungeon boss was always going to be outsmart-able. To me it just feels like retconning something existing to make a funny ending.
Maybe probably he will go the route of claiming it was the AI’s intent to help Carl and crew all along hence, seeing the shine on the glass container in level 3 , the weird nonsense with donut that happened when the ogre knocked them out also on level 3, Peter Cole…yes I know he’s the AI’s pet, maybe it’s building to that
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Hoss
Make America's Team Great Again
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I left the original item description in the comments, the point I’m making is that Matt took something that had been defined one way, and rewrote it with a funny idea in mind, with a paper thin narrative for why it could work, in my opinion it’s because he came up with this idea, and decided to work it in, after the fact.
I know he’s a “pantser” and that’s how he writes to begin with, but this is where it gets thin—because it doesn’t strike me as clever, if you make up new rules half way through the game for the sake of an idea.
He could later say that the AI did this on purpose because he wanted Carl or…Prepotente to abuse it, but if the narrative is that he wants entertainment he probably wouldn’t have wanted his highest level boss completely neutralized.
It’s sillier still, that the child of a major divinity wouldn’t have sapience, let alone the Big Bad itself—animals are dumb and can often be thwarted regardless of strength, you can scare off most animals with a damn fire. How often are dragons dumb beasts?
No one regularly puts a dumb animal as the final boss, especially one that is supposedly responsible for carrying out this sophisticated wave of nine tier attacks—Scolapendra is supposedly a representation of the Eulogist , krackaren (I don’t know the book spellings) the Apothecary was talking, why would the mega AI be a dumb beast?
Maybe there’s an opening where whomever (the AI, or the Syndicate) made Scolapendra was indeed making a point that the AI itself was not a sapient organism…even though it represents itself as being an intelligence…but it would still mean the final dungeon boss was always going to be outsmart-able. To me it just feels like retconning something existing to make a funny ending.
Maybe probably he will go the route of claiming it was the AI’s intent to help Carl and crew all along hence, seeing the shine on the glass container in level 3 , the weird nonsense with donut that happened when the ogre knocked them out also on level 3, Peter Cole…yes I know he’s the AI’s pet, maybe it’s building to that
It's not really neutralizing scolopendra though. The 9 tiered attacks are still happening every 30 hours and now if this level 1 crawler dies, they all go off at once. I'm not sure there was ever any more to scolopendra than the 9 tiered attacks. Hard to say since no one has ever gotten there and she was turned into a bed and breakfast over the milllenia.
Void
Yeah, and?
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I'm not saying your reasoning is or isn't sound, but essentially you are arguing that Batman's "carefully laid plans" to eliminate Superman are all bullshit and wouldn't actually work. I would agree with you on that premise, by the way, but it doesn't matter because the author at the time (of the comics or this book) decided it worked that way, so we can argue all we want but it doesn't change the reality of what they want to happen. We can complain that it is dumb or doesn't make sense or should never have been written...but it was. Batman would be a smear on the floor of the Batcave before he even knew Superman had turned evil, but apparently that's not good for the "story" the way the writer(s) wanted it, so here we are. You can call it lazy or inconsistent, but unless you stop reading, it doesn't matter.
I left the original item description in the comments, the point I’m making is that Matt took something that had been defined one way, and rewrote it with a funny idea in mind, with a paper thin narrative for why it could work, in my opinion it’s because he came up with this idea, and decided to work it in, after the fact.
I know he’s a “pantser” and that’s how he writes to begin with, but this is where it gets thin—because it doesn’t strike me as clever, if you make up new rules half way through the game for the sake of an idea.
He could later say that the AI did this on purpose because he wanted Carl or…Prepotente to abuse it, but if the narrative is that he wants entertainment he probably wouldn’t have wanted his highest level boss completely neutralized.
It’s sillier still, that the child of a major divinity wouldn’t have sapience, let alone the Big Bad itself—animals are dumb and can often be thwarted regardless of strength, you can scare off most animals with a damn fire. How often are dragons dumb beasts?
No one regularly puts a dumb animal as the final boss, especially one that is supposedly responsible for carrying out this sophisticated wave of nine tier attacks—Scolapendra is supposedly a representation of the Eulogist , krackaren (I don’t know the book spellings) the Apothecary was talking, why would the mega AI be a dumb beast?
Maybe there’s an opening where whomever (the AI, or the Syndicate) made Scolapendra was indeed making a point that the AI itself was not a sapient organism…even though it represents itself as being an intelligence…or rather that it was asleep, when it was attacked, but it would still mean the final dungeon boss was always going to be outsmart-able. To me it just feels like retconning something existing to make a funny ending.
Maybe probably he will go the route of claiming it was the AI’s intent to help Carl and crew all along hence, seeing the shine on the glass container in level 3 , the weird nonsense with donut that happened when the ogre knocked them out also on level 3, Peter Cole…yes I know he’s the AI’s pet, maybe it’s building to that
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That's reductive, it's a forum, voicing your opinions on the subject matter is literally the purpose of the thread.
Hoss
Make America's Team Great Again
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Versus, not having to face a level 500 boss, I'd say it's pretty neutralized. Sure, they'll approach the issue of the other 7(?) attacks, but that would have probably been immediate death for all of the crawlers otherwise.
You say level 500 boss that'll squish you. I say level 500 air BNB party house that will never give you your deposit back.
We have evidence for one of those scenarios and none for the other.
I don't think it was meant to be easy to defeat. But no one has ever gotten close and they probably nerfed it for the party.
We have evidence for one of those scenarios and none for the other.
I don't think it was meant to be easy to defeat. But no one has ever gotten close and they probably nerfed it for the party.
Tarrant
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I think something we may be missing is, she's not "Scolopendra" shes "SEXY Scolopendra". I'm not saying that matters, but it could mean the attacks could be different now. Also, I'm sure there's about to be some crazy dynamic between her and Carl and I'm sure it'll lead to some sort of shenanigans. I think her being the final boss of the dungeon is irrelevant at this point. After the acendency for the next book, I think the fall out from that and rolling through the floors as quickly as possible while the whole dungeon collapses will be what the challenge of getting out will be. Also, the fact that Louis skipped floors instead of going to the Pinapple Cabaret, when you aren't supposed to be able to skip floors at all, is going to be a huge plot point in the near future.
All in all this book, honestly, wasn't very good. Other than the last 3 hours of it (if you aren't audio booking this you are missing out) it was probably bottom of the heap for me. The last 3 hours, though, were so crazy, it saved what was overall a pretty mid floor/book (when comparing it to the rest of the series).
All in all this book, honestly, wasn't very good. Other than the last 3 hours of it (if you aren't audio booking this you are missing out) it was probably bottom of the heap for me. The last 3 hours, though, were so crazy, it saved what was overall a pretty mid floor/book (when comparing it to the rest of the series).
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Hoss
Make America's Team Great Again
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Oh, I'm not forgetting it. I'm very much looking forward to the sexy scolopendra cosplay. But you make a good point. It may lead to the final fight being a crazy love scorned bitch.
Wait, he did? Remind me how that happened. I need to get the pdf of this book so I can look shit like that up.
Tarrant
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Yes, at the very end of the book (epilogue, I think?), when he wakes up he finds himself in Sheol, which is on the 15th floor because they needed him there to fight.
Edit: Which now that I think about it, means that this insinuates that in whatever pocket space the Cabaret exists in, they are able to travel to whatever floor they want to from there. I should also note that at the end of the book from Carl's perspective, he talks about how they are going to get out and as far as he knows, skipping floors isn't allowed. So I'm sure this will play some sort of part in how things wrap up.
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OU Ariakas
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My favorite part of his writing was the "we're in a crazy MMORPG where anything can happen" style that the first 5 books really put on display. It has morphed into a universe-spanning political/technological struggle of the crawlers and AI vs. the outside universe. I think you and I liked the books for the same reasons, Tarrant, and the thing about this one was that there was almost 0 of the MMORPG stuff....and it looks like there will be less and less in these last 2 books because the floors that should be the MOST like endgame MMORPG are going to be rushed through. I still like the book and the series as a whole, but really wonder how great it would have been to have a book about almost every floor and seeing our main characters become godlike entities that the galaxy had never seen.
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Tarrant
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Yeah, the RPG elements have taken a back seat, more so in this book than the others before it. Class choices, spells, and abilities are pretty much just glossed over instead of going into in larger detail.
And that's okay, but at this point its beginning to cross over into a normal Sci Fi/Fantasy crossover than a LITRPG. Which is also fine, but I really dug the LITRPG setting it was more in a few books ago, is all.
And I get the reason for that evolution, it has to happen for the direction its taken. The AI is basically trying to make its way to the center system to presumably carry out the Primal's vision of ending all life in the galaxy has caused that. But I am curious how Carl is going to be able to do anything about that, since none of his stuff works outside the dungeon? I dunno, there's a lot to wrap up in just 3 books.
And that's okay, but at this point its beginning to cross over into a normal Sci Fi/Fantasy crossover than a LITRPG. Which is also fine, but I really dug the LITRPG setting it was more in a few books ago, is all.
And I get the reason for that evolution, it has to happen for the direction its taken. The AI is basically trying to make its way to the center system to presumably carry out the Primal's vision of ending all life in the galaxy has caused that. But I am curious how Carl is going to be able to do anything about that, since none of his stuff works outside the dungeon? I dunno, there's a lot to wrap up in just 3 books.
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Hoss
Make America's Team Great Again
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His stuff will work in the dungeon's enhancement zone, wont it? The goddess of chaos showing up at the gas station shows the enhancement zone is expanding.
Tarrant
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Yeah, they CAN work in the enhancement zones, but they can also be shut off, or at least were by the show runners in the past before the AI went fully rogue. So I'm not sure how that will work I guess.
I'm (also) wondering if Samantha if going to play some sort of larger part simply because we wouldn't see it coming due to the non serious nature of her character. Like, she has already been noticed doing things she shouldn't be able to at times, like when Carl noted her flying around and then talked to her about it.
I'm starting to wonder if she's a Risidual and will play a part in freeing the Eulogist, maybe? I dunno, I think she has a much larger part to play in all this and have for the last few books.
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