I think the dismissal is what led to his downfall. If he had accounted for their being more mages he could have had a more fluid plan. He basically wrote them off as being too dumb to play in his league though.

 

As far as I'm aware, the terms were only in regards to the Northern Campaign, because the Pilgrim could not speak on behalf of the entire Crusade and Cat couldn't speak on behalf of Black or Malicia, either. And, if it did apply to the whole thing, you're forgetting something pretty major, because Black spent literal months sacking cities, so the terms would have been long broken regardless. And that's not even getting into how Cat might have failed to recruit the Dead King, but Malicia succeeded, and gave him permission to pillage and murder innocents as he pleases, and the fact that the Dead King uses demons regularly.

So, no, if the terms are broadly applicable, Cat's side would have broken every rule long ago, and not have been at all above the belt about it.

Also, necessary sacrifices were specifically called out as being part of various heroic traditions.

Going ham is a bad idea, regardless, at least supposedly; doomsday weapons and such are supposed to be death traps for villains.

Also, yeah, the Calamities have been seriously cut down to size now--dunno what Malicia, or Praes as a whole, really has left now.

Well, I think it's still worth mentioning that this 'barest sliver' of the Divine totally wrecked Masego for being an annoyance here.

So probably not.

Yeah, my only real issue, when you get down to it, was the pacing--there was no time to really feel anything when something epic was countered, because it was already being counter countered, and the part at the end kind of felt a bit like:

*God appears.*

Warlock: I'll stop you!

God: Mm.

Warlock: Oh shit, I'm nearly dead.

Masego: Then I'll stop you.

God: Mmmmmmm.

Masego: Oh shit, I'm nearly dead.

*God leaves.*

*Warlock becomes God and also dies.*

it was an awesome series of moments, but we kind of brushed over some big parts of it. Like, both Wakesa and Masego got wrecked in basically blink and you missed it moments.

 

Naturally, despite all the reasons it should have been a horrible idea, trapping the drow in Arcadia and then enslaving them had no consequences. I mean, I think we all knew how that was going to turn out, but it's still dumb as fuck. We also just skipped it entirely, which is a growing trend in this story; have a major moment you've been building up to? Skip it. Warlock's death handled doing that well, but it's really the only good example of it thus far; this is just another major moment brushed over.

Cat's also been running around using her gates to one-sidedly crush drow opposition, and in the process developed that nice 'cut through matter with her portals' trick that she pulled out of her ass and turned it into outright stealing cities. We've also completely abandoned the need for Masego to pull off the Absolute Positioning trick that was previously very difficult, by the way.

Note, that's not even getting into the actually painfully stupid logistics of realistically stealing man-made and geographical structures with portals. Apparently, we're working by rules where literally dropping a structure a meaningful distance--Cat's portals have to be at least as far above the ground as the structure is tall for it to fall through, which is not going to be good for...anything made of large amounts of matter, really--and literally removing it's foundations gets you a workable building, and where literally dropping a lake into another dimension is basically the same as pocketing it.

But for all my many, many, many, well-deserved complaints about the ever-increasing ball of bad ideas that is the drow arc, I'll say this--at least Akua is there. I can't say that, a book ago, I'd have anticipated saying those words and meaning them, but she's kind of the bright point in all of this somehow. Every time she and Cat talk, it's fascinating, though I do think it's sending an odd message that every time she and Cat talk, Akua's kind of clearly made out to be the smart one while Cat is dumb and in denial. I mean, she is, but it's setting an increasingly odd tone.

 

Warlock was right. The Winter arc ate the best parts of Catherine Foundling and eventually spit out this character in the shape of her.

 

So Cat is about to essentially enslave an entire race, cut their home into little pieces and keep those bits as spoils for her own people. And she says these things as if they're so reasonable and matter of fact, like, why wouldn't she do that?

I can handwave the mechanics, I don't care much for those anyway.

I'm just enjoying her descent into absolute evil without her realisation of the fact.

Also, she can do shit like this? Why not ride into Ater and put a hole under the tower?

This arc and the last have been blatant and repetitive in painting her growing used to her near God like powers so I will say it's nice to see her wrap her head around them without worrying too much about the moral side of things.

The further down the path of eldditch horror she goes the more mad empress her plans are becoming and I love every minute of it.

Fckh8rs.

 

Oh, sure. As long as you ignore the fact that it doesn't make an sense logistically or factually, how it betrays most of the principles Cat has claimed to have, how it falls into a pattern that every villain, up to and including the Dead King has called a death sentence and which Cat's both been warned of and sworn off multiple times, how it's inconsistent with her previous actions and capabilities, and how just plain bad it is in terms of storytelling for us to be skipping this shit, it's almost decent.

It's really hard to ignore all of that, though, for reasons that only just begin with the fact that we essentially brushed over the part where Cat enslaves multiple demigods. Worth noting: Callow's military power has at least quintupled based just off of what happened off screen, in a scene that was dumb to begin with. What, did they get cold? Because I just went back to went back to Cat's fight for her Mantle and it happened on a glacier, against a guy controlling wind, and she was impaled on ice multiple times--and she doesn't even mention the cold. And that was when she was a joke to what these guys are.

 

Pretty much yeah, Sir killjoy.

 

Mr. Killjoy, please. Sir Killjoy is my father.

 

Used to be on the side of "Ryuugi is a killjoy", but I'm growing increasingly disappointed with the Guide. We've skipped climax after climax, and Cat is just making me sad. It was only two chapters ago that we had this interaction:

Since then, Cat has used portals to cut through a column (a property previously not shown), flood a city, drain a lake, and is now considering using it to steal precious mineral deposits and full on fortresses for battlefield deployment. You sure are showing us those "basics" Cat. Not acting like a megalomaniac who will be put down like the monster they've become. Not. One. Bit.

How is this in any way a positive development? She now has a "Peerage" of bound Mighty who: one, hate her guts. And two, she's not sure she could win a fight against them:

I don't think I can emphasize this enough. She has a band of monsters she can't take in a fight, bound to her will through oaths. I don't care how carefully you word them, the narrative demands they break free and go for your head at the worst possible moment.

Cat is begging to die even more than Black was with his invasion of Procer, but we both know how that turned out, because consequences are for lesser Named. Not our two protagonists...

 

I’m with Seratin, I'm along for the ride no matter how crazy. I'm also personally liking Cat getting more inventive with her Winter abilities. I'm looking at it as she's learning new applications and ways to use it.

 

I'm just so bored with the Underdark. It's dragged so hard.

Also, I think I missed how there's light down there in a previous chapter, anyone got a quote?

 

I quite like the part where she gleefully steals landmarks. I feel like protagonists who imitate Carmen Sandiego are doing the fun thing.

Now, go steal time, Cat.

Also really liking Akua interaction.

Basics refers to how she needs to not get into fights in the first place and focus on planning how to avoid that, instead of depending on brute force fightings. Which... Mission success, I suppose.

 

Why?

Like, even leaving aside the number of people we've seen and heard escape from Arcadia, why? I mentioned this before, but in order to return, they have to swear themselves into slavery, for the right to then risk their lives and potentially die at the hands of people they don't give a shit about. They're returning to the Everdark for nothing of value here.

Why?

Like, seriously, what broke these guys to sell themselves into slavery in a fucking day?

It only took a week for all these guys to just give up and become slaves? Like, the oaths we saw gave Cat multiple ways to murder all of them; this is not a minor loss here.

Sweet Christ, really? This is their idea of holding out?

Suck my dick, story. No, seriously, suck my fucking dick on this--are you kidding me? Am I expected to have just forgotten all of Book 3 or something? Am I supposed to have forgotten every fight the Fae had in this series? Because unless the guy who found them was the Winter fucking King, this ends horrifically for the Fae. Urulam was more dangerous in a straight fight then any Fae we saw go all out expect Sulia and the Queen.

'Oh no, the Fae might find us?' Bullshit. This is even dumber then I thought, which is saying something. You're telling me these guys found native life in Arcadia and responded with surrender?

I see the story is bending over goddamn backwards for Cat again today.

Why? Are we pretending this is fucking slavery here?

And the number of drow bound by absolutely nothing and heading towards Callow rises even more. Still a brilliant idea.

Also, Cat's been told that two hundred drow, many with mobility that matches her own and all with the outlook on life of fucking Ranger are coming with her. They make up one of the oldest Cabals in the Everdark and have a single form of recruitment--kill and eat your predecessor, ensuring that any new additions are both stronger then who they replace and that they add the ones who died to their own power. They have been doing this for probably over a thousand years.

Cat views this as a great opportunity to get more slaves, rather then the utter fucking nightmare it obviously is. In any logical universe, this dumb decision is followed shortly by her brutal death, but that would require things to go badly for her when they should, people to behave logically, and for actions to have consequences, which this chapter has already made a joke of.

(Seriously, it took three goddamn days to sell yourself into slavery? Are you fucking kidding me?)

TL;DR: This chapter was the first in awhile that didn't just disappoint me, but actually pissed me off. Skipping the Peerage being made was irritating. This was infuriatingly stupid.

 

“Irritant’s Law: inevitable doom is a finite resource, and becomes mere doom when split between multiple heroic bands. Nemeses should never simultaneously engage a single villain.”

Save yourselves some time.

 

Not gonna lie, that chapter was dogshit.

 

Yeah... didn't even need Ryuugi to point out all the flaws. It's so boring.

Someone recently imparted on me the necessity of choosing what scenes to give attention to. I think this guy needs the same courtesy. The entire chapter could've been skipped over without losing much.

 

I'd love to read an edited version of the Guide. One where Errata has more than two goddamn days as a deadline. He's a good enough writer that I know he could fix a lot of the problems, like the typos, chapter bloat, extraneous scenes, and especially the skipped scenes. Some of them are tougher, like the ridiculous drow power creep and Black cheapening Akua's death (it led to a fine moment in its own right, but when Cat said that Akua wasn't really her rival she was full of shit), but if that easy stuff could be fixed then the last book and a half would be so much better.

I still like this series, but oh my god please pick up the pace and end this painful drawn out conquest of the drow. Just get to the Sve already.

 

Honestly? I stopped reading after Errata decided to update three times a week. Just like so many other authors that don't edit their work or have a blinding fast update schedule Errata didn't realise that spewing out plots is not how good work is made. They should edit their work and run it by others so they can be told shit's shit. Before getting through a million words of dribble drabble.

 

Aye but dat patreon tho.

 

Chapter was okay. Truth be told, I pretty much always love chapters about Cat and Indrani talking; even the one at the end of Book 3 where everything past the climax felt like a waste of time, I enjoyed them sitting on a log talking. They're consistently some of the best introspective chapters and Cat even kind of calls it out, with how Indrani's always there.

It's just nothing ever seems to come from it, so while I enjoy the chapter itself, I'm left disappointed in the aftermath. This chapter could change all that and break the trend, but any time we have a chapter for quite introspection, Cat tends to go back to acting the same regardless.

Still, it's an interesting chapter, at the very least, and while I remain pissed off that Cat still isn't responding to the idea of two hundred drow with the mentalities of Ranger and probably a thousand years of hunting for power with sheer fucking terror, I at least appreciated the token mention that, yeah, if she had the army she currently does in any fight she'd been in prior to this, she'd have casually massacred anything in her path. That doesn't make me forgive the story for then brushing over that army, but I appreciate the mention. Not if only she would connect the dots and go 'Now that I think about it, I'm leading this army against one that make every foe I've ever fought up to now look like a dumb child; maybe I should rethink this.'

The mention that Sve might be ascending to godhood would be interesting, but it's also kind of obvious? Like, supposedly, even the mightiest drow fears the dwarves--Ivah said that and I believe him. I'm still not clear on why, because again, there are two hundred something Ranger-lite drow and that's a fraction of the blades involved here; unless every dwarf is strong enough to beat a dragon to death with his bare hands and their Named are all full gods, I'm not sure what the plan is. These Mighty are demigods already--Sve is the source of all the power and Night in the Kingdom. Quite frankly, she's already the strongest thing we've seen shy of the Dead King yet just by rep. If this makes her any stronger, she's going to eat the continent, but the drow could already do that if they wanted to.

I also appreciated Cat owning up to what she's been doing, to a point, but then they went 'It’s a little to the north of slavery, I’ll give you that, but it’s in the same kingdom and we’re not exactly intending to make exceptions.' And I was like, no, no, it's just flat-out slavery. Like, arguably more than slavery, because they'll die if they break the oaths and one of the oaths is to do everything she says, and that's not even getting into the greater oaths that she has as contingencies. Deny it or own up to it, but don't fucking half-ass it. I don't care whether she's a hypocrite or if she's actually honest, but I loath it when she's wishy-washy.

Other than that, not much to say. Chapters honestly not bad, but I have past grudges that make it hard to enjoy, as much as I love this pair. You burned me after the Battle of the Camps; once bitten, twice shy.