Such a good point about SA being JUST a marker of "extra bad." There is no actual depth or exploration or relevant theme in this book. No reckoning or actual confrontation with the true nature of the act. It's JUST extra bad. And then it's excused and made fine because babies good. Shad's version of exploring the trauma is that Laira just gets panic attacks about sex. It's not something more abstract like general trust issues, just sex. And then she suddenly and completely gets over it because sheer will because it's time for that to happen in the plot. And thats it.
Not to mention, that if he knew anything about Mario, he'd know that she wore that outfit before. She wears it when she rides a bike in Mario Kart, and that's pretty much when she wears it in the film. He was actually getting mad at them for being accurate to the games. And the motive by the creators for that outfit is unlikely to be political. More that there is no practical way to ride a motorcycle in a ball gown, and even trying to depict that would look ridiculous.
@@kylejones8289 It wouldn't even be able to show off how her cycle looks, not only is it practical, but design-wise very efficient. But you're right, it's ridiculous to act as though her wearing a ball gown is better for cycling 😭
@@kylejones8289 He was angry because she might be a bad role model for his daughter. It might teach her that women have worth outside of having babies. Which explains a lot about his book, doesn't it?
I liked exactly _one_ thing in the book: the villain faction's evil plan in the end is pretty hardcore. I love slamming the floating island _full of monsters_ into the city. Like, not only are we gonna kick your shit in but then we salt the earth, so double-fuck-you. I love plans like that. That was it.
"Oh, nonono, you are mistaken. I do not have the patience or the desire to rebuild the city and her people once I am done. I have no choice, but to take the responsible course of action. I'll make it how there will be nothing and no one to rebuild." You gotta love a villain with the balls to not even pretend like surrendering is an option.
31:00 Avatar was mentioned so I have to chime in. Zukos Redemption arc was good, because he came to terms with his flaws and found a way to do better without repeating past mistakes. It also helps, that he (probably) didn't kill like 1000s of people. What Shad did, was basically trying a Redemption arc, in which he tried to redeem Ozai, without changing anything in Ozais character or behavior, really. AFTER he sat the world on Fire with his Comet boosted powers. On that note. I think a lot of people also seem to miss, that Uncle Iroh also had a Redemption arc. Now. I know, he wasn't as bad as his brother and we don't see a lot of his pre war persona. But even him, A fire nation Warlord, responsible for the deaths of so so many people, was able to turn around because he was reflective enough of himself after his inly son died. Can you believe how devasted he could have been, if he would have met his son as a Captn of Pirate ship, telling him, he was his son and than had to kill him. Even if wasn't sure about that? And most of his redemption happened offscreen as well, but with enough bit and pieces sprinkled here and there to get some kind of a picture and understand him if you are really looking for it.
Anyone saying this is a first book as a defense is missing the mark. True, first books aren't perfect but the issue here is this first book is a first book with dangerous and alarming ideas that aren't handled well or even considered at all by the author.
Honestly i hate the "first book" defense in general Its like asking your chef "Where's the rest of my food?" Or "Why is there just chicken when i asked for rice and vegetables?", then they immediately say, "Oh, they're cooking your food still" Bro you gave me an unfinished plate, why do i have to wait for the rest of my food, where is it??
It's a book. He's not advocating for violent things in his fantasy book. It just showed his very poor quality of beliefs. That doesn't mean that he can't change for the better or accept the criticism and adjust accordingly. Whether he's willing to, is up to him.
@@nichoudha he had a decent track record of doubling down or just not handling bad publicity well in general, so theres that Also just because you dont outwardly say "this group of people sucks", that doesnt mean it cant be a result of some sort flavor of ism. Look at JKR, theres themes of racism and eugenics all over the place, now look at where she is
@@nichoudhaHis reaction to criticism regarding his book would suggest he absolutely can’t accept criticism. Besides he argues for (at least, that I have seen) beliefs espoused in the book in his regular media commentary videos, like being staunchly pro separate gender roles for men and women, which makes him even more insidious. In one of his videos on Princess Peach wearing pants he openly says girls like to watch films, where the female character is rescued and boys like characters, who are doing the rescuing of the female characters. In short, he’s a very right ring, religious idiot, who’s also middle aged, so I think the chances of him changing his views at this point is very slim. Edit: Plus, just because something is a work of fiction, doesn’t mean it has no impact on culture. In fact, it’s quite the opposite. Just because his novel isn’t a political manifesto advocating for certain bad things to happen in the real world, doesn’t mean its message isn’t harmful and can’t influence readers in a certain way or reinforce their unethical views.
Also, once something is a commercial product it becomes open to any and all criticism. This isn't some story they pulled out of Shad's desk drawer to roast him for, it's a professional novel that costs money to buy.
I'd personally march Shad to social services and force him to work there for a week and ask him if he still thinks having a baby will fix all of a woman's trauma and if he still believes all women are biologically wired to be motherly
I would report him to Worksafe Australia to be honest. He is now running his channel as a business. He is no longer some boofhead playing in his backyard, he is an employer in a workplace and that workplace is irresponsible as fk.
This is late but given the Mormons I've known, that would change nothing. Having children is the most important thing-even it puts the moms life in danger, even if you can't financially provide for them, no matter *what* children are the most important thing.
I couldn't watch Shad anymore after this book. It cannot be overstated how existentially disturbed I was by this book, not because of the shocking nature of the subject matter, no, but because of the insane mindspace of the author, someone whose work I had and still mostly like, but had some strange religious ideas poking through occasionally, but now all I can see if the depraved and broken utter misunderstanding of redemption and forgiveness and everything else in this absolute failure of a book, which is legitimately the worst book I have ever read. I get a sinking feeling when I think of it. Idk if it's because I liked Shad, or the book itself is just that bad, probably both. It is such a typical Mormon thing to say the bigger problem is when society doesn't forgive the criminal, than is the crime itself.
@@laze4534 well, I don't think it's a veneer or an act. I think the even more disturbing, but likely case is that normal people can assimilate such twisted ideas into their worldview and still remain normal in most other ways, but they simply cannot see how insane this one belief is, or how it twists other things they believe. Just a total blind spot that regular people can have programmed into them. To me, that's much more disturbing than some secret psychopath pretending to be normal. That's a monster, a rare creature in disguise. Whereas, the other option makes us ALL potential monsters.
@@SnakeWasRight That's what I meant by veneer, that our fanciful use of language and depictions of kindness are merely superficial coverings for the ape-brained creatures that we are at our core. I honestly do wonder if even these people who practice extreme meditation, you know, the Zen Masters and all that, it does make me wonder just how well they can bury the egos they were born with that in any normal person, can be pushed to flip out in the most mindless violent manners.
@@laze4534 you can definitely achieve genuine enlightenment and growth, but there is a darkness that lurks in us until we recognize it and learn to not listen to it. The nature of evil isn't even the opposite of good, but a corruption of it. Taking good concepts and using them to brand bad things, taking love of your family and turning it into hatred of others.
@@SnakeWasRight With that response, I have to request for your best description of enlightenment. And I'm curious, why do you suppose something like loving one's family is a good thing? What's the justification for that logic.
You'd be surprised with how many people in eastern european history classes have had uncomfortable feelings to reconcile with when shown a photo of young stalin. He wasn't ugly one bit. Still a genocidal dictator at the end of the day.
I don’t know if you know this, but recently Shad made a video ranting about Silent Hill character who is a CSA victim being not sexy enough, even calling the game developers “satanic” for not making said character hotter.
Okay, speaking as a Christian....HUH!? I mean, I'm not Mormon. I have no idea what they think about sex and SA but....SATANIC? For not being sexier? What is this guy's problem?
Not only that but a CSA victim who has an intense fear of being sexualized (why she wears that big, thick sweater for example) while also at the same time struggling with viewing her own body as something disgusting and ugly, both as a result of her trauma. She also suffers from occasional age regression; often talking in a childish manner before catching herself and even shortly confuses the main character for her mother at one point. Anyone's whose main concern is how sexy she may or may not be should be on a watchlist.
From now on I propose we call Maria - the Master of Literature. She is the only one here with the Masters degree, it goes well with Katie’s idea of creating a cult dedicated to a goddess and she will take away Will’s dream of being a cult leader. Everyone wins
It's funny to me that Shad, who wrote a bad redemption arc about a dude who killed tons of people, is a fan of Sanderson, who wrote a great redemption arc about a dude who killed tons of people. In fact so many things he does poorly in his writing are done better by Sanderson. Magical order of knights? Check. Complex magic? Check.
Sanderson is an interesting point of contrast to Shad in so many ways now that I think about it. They're both openly Mormon, but while Shad chooses to lean into the very worst conservative perspective, Sanderson seems to use his writing to critique religious practices to an almost absurd degree for someone who is religious. Like the villains of about half his books are various forms of priest/preacher/god/religion, he essentially has a evil/morally gray Christ character (if you know you know), several of his protagonists are notably atheist and portrayed positively or neutrally for being so, etc. Even in his very first published novel he writes about Christian missionary-coded characters as being the 'bad guys' despite having been a missionary himself. Some of this likely comes from being very liberal/leftist (at least becoming so in the last decade), but it also seems to be a great deal of self-reflection. All this to say, Shad has none of this perspective. He can't use the excuse of Mormonism, he is a socially conservative bigot who hides behind a shield of religion to espouse his views. Not to say that many typical Mormon beliefs/practices aren't harmful (because they are), but that it is possible to be a Mormon without having/doing those and actually be a decent person, author, and influence on others
The difference is that Dalinar as the Blackthorn was an imperialist conquering bastard who loved fighting and killing so that's was the motivation for his acts of evil and what he had to grow past. Dayless, on the other hand, seems to have been just checking off a list of evil things to do because Shad had to emphasize how eeevil he was without thinking about why he would do those things or what he'd need to become to grow past that because "he was evil and now he's good".
I find it ironic that people would go with the "if you don't like it don't read it" defense when all Shad does now is talk about how much he hates modern movies, TV and video games.
Something I've realized about myself is that the more likely someone's behavior is to be excused in real life, the less willing I am to read about a (somewhat) sympathetic character who does that thing. It's the reason why I'll read/watch stories about serial killers all day long, but when someone's racist or an abuser I'm just like "ew."
It has to be noted that not only is shad a massive fan of AI art and a huge proponent of it. Shad’s sword videos only got popular because endorsement from his brother who is a more popular RUclipsr called draw with Jazza. He likes AI art because his brother is an artist that’s more famous than him
Ngl ai art supporters are SUCH a red flag. If I see someone likes ai art I do not interact, it shows such a lack of empathy for artists that are being stolen from and just tells me that you are lazy.
@@falseprophet1024The AI art generators are taught how to do the art by being shown a catalog of existing art A lot of the art shown in those catalogs was stolen off the web without the creator's permission
@@falseprophet1024 In this instance, it’s not another artist learning to draw from another’s art, it’s more like tracing over one’s art to create your own “original” art piece, which, yes, is stealing
Now I think it would be cool to have a book, where the bad guy is forgiven by the church and made into a punisher led by the god, just to realize at some point that he was used in politics and it was never about a god or his redemption. He was just doing bad things under a different banner
I'm conservative and listening to you guys describe this book disturbed the crap out of me haha. There's conservative and liberal and there is "wouldn't want to meet them in a dark alley."
@@LK1989 I thought you implied it as some people, especially from USA, think that it is. There are many conservatives that believe in libertarianism what is kind of liberalism idea. Tho you probably are not from USA considering your profile image.
i used to watch shad but stopped i think because of this book; I wanted to buy it but as usualy before doing that i had checked goodreads reviews and when i read about his depictions of women i realised that hes not a person i wanted to support in any way. especially since i have been noticing some red flags on his channel for some time at that point. the one i remember most is him getting offended about Netflix's Yennefer in Witcher not being white
I can't confirm if it was factually inaccurate, but I personally disliked his video on nunchucks. He basically kept reiterating the same point while laughing at the same couple of jokes. It was tiresome
Yeah, I've been unfairly judging the HEMA community for years because I thought it was just thousands of Shads going "I know how to use a sword because i've thought about it and come up with the best techniques"
@@Splattedable I used to think similarly about HEMA, but my perception changed when I heard one of my family members, person of mixed race, was solicited to join by a member (of HEMA or a similar organization). Considering how awful medieval online spaces can be, I would have guessed that they wouldn't be interested in any mixed race members, as online they are often seen as anachronistic to the European continent.
As a Hema practitioner. Shad’s stuff was always trash. His sword skills are below novice level. I’ve seen students with less than a year of training who would thrash him. I recommend Skallagrim, Stoccota, Scholagladitoria and Sellsword Arts on RUclips they have good videos and know how to fence.
honestly unfortunately negative reviews will probably always be more popular. Sure because negativity is more eye catching but also if youre talking about a book a viewer hasnt read and you say its good theyre more likely to stop watching to avoid spoilers
This is exactly it. I’ll try to go back and watch after reading the recommended books but by then there’s new content so I might not get to it. Whereas if a book is bad I can hit play unbothered.
I always ask "But how is it bad?" with the selfish reason of learning something, or even deciding whether I would bear the grievances lightly myself were I to pick it up. Society is such that no matter how polished a work is, it will always receive a heap ton of trash comments from, at the very least, people not in the target audience. It pays to be discerning when it comes to negativity. Personally I think UTT reads a lot of unpalatable mainstream stuff but that's just a me/algorithm thing.
I appreciate when you guys dont like something, theres validity and solid reasons why and most often times change my mind about something. I feel like my ability to review books gets sharpened listening to you guys talk all the while still being able to enjoy what i'd like to enjoy. thank you :)
Way back when Shad talked more about swords his explanations made me re-think what my charaters' weapons would be. And I appreciate his incite in that regard. Heck when he explained the love at first sight scene in the cinderella remake he told us about how he met his wife and how it felt the same. I wrote the movie off but he showed how there are still plenty of views i didnt consider, which again i do appreciate because i can put scenes like that in my writing. However when he started talking about the book I started watching less and less of him. He explained how his MC wanted to die but basically his body wouldn't let him because he was too good at everything. And his pride wouldn't just let him die to some nobody. Everything went his way, no real reprocussions ever were given and yet even at the end when the MC screams for death, he is too much of a coward to do it himself. Stuff like that, along with the obvious backward religious undertones made me not want to hear his book stuff anymore. But the final nail was when he defended against the comments because the MC's actions would be "historically accurate". Bro the book has airships and magic, historical went out the window with the falling rock that tells time. Then he lost me when he talked about the Peach wearing pants thing and the AI art view. I know he's got a right to his opinion, but I have a right to disagree, because we arent in the mideval ages anymore and any artist will tell you "When you spend your life copying someone else's art, youll never find your own." He chooses to live in the past, but the world keeps turning and there is nowehere else to progress but toward the future.
His Cinderella video was so sweet, and, from what I can remember, really good. I'm not one to believe in "love at first sight." But he almost convinced me when I first watched it years ago.
One of the failures of Daylan as a character is that he isn't even redeemed, he just doesn't change as a person. He learns nothing. His supposed redemption happened off-screen and the entire story is him being just as murderous as he was in his past but against "the right people" as judged by the author. There is never a sense that he turned a new page in his life. That he is no longer the monster he once was. Him taking a new role that wasn't violent would have really helped this story. The idea of him becoming an engineer is a great one. I honestly think that part of the reason Shad didn't go for something like this is that he wanted him to do cool swordfights...which again, could have been done better if Daylan was the son of the Conqueror, not the Conqueror himself. Take Thorfinn from Vnland Saga. Yes, the guy is a victim, but he spent his younger years sociopathically slaughtering anyone that was in his way to vengeance. And then he changes his life. He turns his life around and realizes that the cycle of violence is pointless and harmful. Throfinn's philosophy of "I have no enemies" is the end up this book could have used. Shadow of the Conqueror needed that moment where Daylan realizes "I was a monster. I caused misery to everyone including myself. I need to be better". Hell, This is far from a new concept. Kratos' whole deal in the Norse games is "I was a monster. I need to be better for my son". He still fights, he still kills others, he still has a ton of rage and bad habits, and violent tendencies. But his thing is keeping his rage under control with discipline, refusing to use violence unnecessarily, and realizing that violence is something that sometimes needs to be used and rage can be useful, but it's not something that should define you or control you. He went from a monster to a protector. And the story never goes "Yeah, Kratos you actually did nothing wrong", no, characters could be of the opinion that the Gods had it coming, but Kratos lives in shame for the way he acted and the innocent lives he cut down. He knows he was a monster, hell, he still thinks he is a monster, but he doesn't want that for his son. For him, he has to be better. Why does Daylan want to be better? Oh, he went to his room and thought about what he did and that was enough to turn into magic light Jesus with the purest soul ever!
(the joke is that "A Song of Ice and Fire" is referred to be the acronym SOIAF, while "It's Always Sunny In Philadelphia is referred to by the acronym IASIP. Two five-letter acronyms with three letters in common, but nothing else, both turned into TV shows in the early 2010s, with plots about awful people trying to become rich. So it's funny to compare them.)
He taught me what crenulations were, if I recall correctly. At some point I was subscribed but I was only interested in that sort of stuff. I haven't watched him since well before I found out he was Jazza's older brother and that explained way too many things that I should never have learned about.
Ha! Count me in the same club. In the beginning I was just happy to see some dude talk about different medieval things in an easy to understand way because I was writing my own fantasy stories and comics already then. And then slowly I would just get an off vibe from him, the things he'd sometimes say about women had me going "yeah no I disagree but whatever". Until I just stopped watching him entirely. I kind of just felt like I had seen everything he had to say and he was repeating the same points. And lo and behold apparently he's just a straight up bigot AND a creep? Wow. Makes me feel embarrassed for giving him the benefit of the doubt even back then.
Those who deflect/defend the novel with "it was his first novel" completely miss the point of critical reviews... it's to point out the problems with the novel so that the author, if they ever read/hear the review, can improve their writing for their next book. "Bringing that to the text"... Yeah. I had a person who defended Shad's novel "yell" at me to "use your imagination!" *Shakes Head* This in regards to how a world without sunlight for 14 years (the length of time of the 4th Night lasted for) would result in complete ecological collapse... especially when the world experiences permanent sunlight. His rebuttal was "the darkness was an illusion that only affected the people"... when I pointed out the novel doesn't support that reinterpretation, that's when he said "use your imagination"... and my final response was "It's not my job to write the novel for the author". First comment about redemption. I think that's what made David Gemmel's _White Wolf_ such a great novel. The Damned _knows_ he's beyond forgiveness so doesn't attempt at redemption while at the same time is sincerely sorry for what he did. He also knows what he did can't be undone... so the only course of action he really has is to avoid all possibilities of doing the act again. So the novel _isn't_ written as nor advertised as a "redemption" story even though it's just the first leg of The Damned's journey. To help us root for The Damned's success Gemmel fills the first half with _proper_ flashbacks of The Damned's life. Beginning with his earliest childhood memories and ending just right as the prologue begins. It also helps that The Damned _isn't_ a murdering psychopath whose only emotional response is lashing out in anger (most times with extreme violence) unlike certain Dayless's in the literary world. Continuing... forgiveness _isn't_ required for those who have been harmed to "move on". Some acts are unforgivable, and the victims never forgive the people who harmed them, but they are, with lots of therapy, able to move on from their trauma and have much better lives.
An interesting contrast is Sanderson's (another Mormon author) atheist character Yasnah who does this same thing, where she goes looking for criminals so she can kill them with magic and it's the religious character that calls her evil for doing it even though Yasnah has no war criminal baggage and is simply doing it to help people because the police are corrupt and letting it happen over and over. So it's interesting that the religious character in that would consider Shad's religious character to be evil and more aligned with godlessness.
1:23:32 I think in regards to Sa being different from murder is a bit like the difference between torture and murder. Or at least, it could be closer for people who didn't experience SA, but can imagine having a lot of brutaly things done to your body and mind and you still have to live with it. I mean yeah, you can survive torture, you can also learn to live with the memories, but it can haunt you and and depending where you live, which kind of movies you watch etc. Chances are, you can be reminded of it quite regularly. Murder is kind of an abstract concept. As you said, not many people have experienced it first or second hand in one way or another. But also, as you said, once it is over it is over. Death is a part of life. Sooner or later we all gotta go in one way or another. With SA and Torture it is different. Both are inherently evil acts, because not only are they harming our bodily autonomy (what, you could argue murder does, too) but since chances are that this can happen repeatedly, and even hearing descriptions or just sounds of it, can make, for whatever reason, our toe nails curl, it is something inharently inhuman and evil. Murder... You know, take a gun, shoot a guy in the face, boom, done. There doesn't even have to be a lot of blood or anything. Torture and SA, though? These are crawling. These are vile. And this is something, that someone like Shad will never understand in his pathetic life, because he is too much of Cultish, unempathetic and egotistical nutsack.
man i'm bummed i missed all the religion talk earlier in the stream. i didn't grow up mormon, but i find the overlap of faith and politics fascinating. i went to a liberal church in the bay area growing up, but my mom's christianity was very fox-news-brand, and it was very confusing hearing my school and church friends parroting their parents leftist politics while my mom was constantly conflating her impassioned republican beliefs with all thing Godly and Righteous. now that i'm an adult and have some emotional distance, i think its interesting to look back and analyze how her conservative worldview and christianity both kind of come from this desire to fall under the wing of a loving leader with the power to rid her of shame and guilt and reward her for being good and pious in a way that fits neatly into the clear-cut boundaries of a system she trusts without a doubt to be the unquestionable moral authority of all things. ANYWAYS, that was a lot of personal word vomit about something only tangentially relevant. what i MeAN to say was i thought it was a really good discussion-there's a lot to analyze in how shad's religious and politicial beliefs make his story worse because his narrow worldview from the mormon box he lives in doesn't allow him the breadth of insight to write different cultures with nuance or empathy. When you try to write a sweeping epic fantasy in an echo chamber you just end up with a really weird manifesto with your self-insert DND character as the ideological core. and that's cringe, babe.
One of my favorite redemption arcs is Steve Harrington's from Stanger Things, because he realized what a dick he was being and he joined the "good" side, but he's never rewarded for it. He loses the girl, he's constantly beat up by supernatural monsters (and other random guys), his best friend is a 12 year old, he works a dead end job at a video store... but he's still fighting for the good side because he realizes that's the right thing to do, and I think there's a lot of power in a narrative that doesn't REWARD being a good person. Just do it because it's right. Another media that has a similar arc is the Lockwood and Co series, which is MG and five books but I wholeheartedly recommend it as a halloween read, it's absolutely brilliant and the ghosts are genuinely creepier than anything I've read in any horror for adults. Plus the redemption arc is *chef's kiss*
For a VERY stark contrast to Shad, Brandon Sanderson is basically his antithesis. Both are Mormon writers, both write books with religious themes, however Shad can't separate his personal beliefs from that of his characters, and meanwhile Sanderson has written a plethora of colourful and diverse characters including one of the most authentically and sympathetically written atheist characters I've ever seen a religious writer attempt. Zero strawmanning, and even moreso she actually proposes great counterarguments for why religions aren't real. That's some major writing skill to pull that off when you don't agree with it, and to make it feel both authentic and logical even in a setting that literally has Gods within it. The fact is that with the information the character has access to, the belief in the religion is not justified because it's unfalsifiable.
I would say the same about Orson Scott Card: he's a Mormon, but his arguably best-known characters (from the Ender saga) are either atheist or current/ex-Catholic. I was surprised to learn about his attitudes to queer people (since there was even a very sympathetic gay/bi character in the Songmaster, and also a lot of characters from different cultural backgrounds - even if some aspects were simplistic or tropy, they were convincing characters with understandable and humane motivations, you could sympathise with them and understand their internal conflicts). His books were formative for me when I was growing up and I genuinely credit them with making me a more open-minded and empathetic person.
On Shad and his 40,000 sales on his book: Okay, currently 40,000 more sales than I have and in the modern sales context of books this is nothing to sneeze at. However at the time of his book launch Shad was at his peak and had not really managed to spread his alienation that wide. He had I believe about 1.6 million subs at the time and Shad was (correctly in context) levering his YT views to promote his book. So he sold 40,000. So, if we assume that ONLY his subs purchased his book then he was getting 1 in 40 sales from his fans. I am lead to believe he counted all sales - ebook and physical - in the 40,000 figure. So that means that 39/40th of his fans didn't want to support him with a $10 ebook purchase. So... yeah... I think Shad under sold. Also, where is Book 2? Book 3? Shad? It has been nearly 5 years? Are you an actual author? Or is just another one of your little fads you jump into?
Gosh, so many fads he jumped into. Building castles on land he bought for a medival fair? Land isn't solid enough to support that. Making a shortmovie of his book? Funding stopped midway through, it's stuck in editing. Making a YT channel about GenAI "Art"? Almost no Uploads. His channel for Shorts? Barely any Uploads His channel specific Twt accounts? No updates in half a year, everything is run through his own personal account now. His own merch is barely interesting. His coworkers? From previously 4, there are only 2 left now, one of them having their own succesful YT channel.
I must admit, that your channel has helped me a lot in viewing alternative perspectives on subjects that I attempt to address in my silly little book. It is excruciatingly exhausting to insert into an already "troubled" with philosophical elements book; issues that divide us all in a very serious way. Writing about problems that have plagued society for generations seems impossible, but with the support of critics like yourselves, it feels like one has a chance (apologies for edits :D ).
First books are allowed to be bad, that’s why we don’t publish them. Most writers have written multiple books before they publish one. Trunk novels should stay in the trunk.
Patricia Briggs published her first four novels... Her first was bad, as she overused tropes, cliches and stereotypes, while also not knowing how to actually _write_ a novel. She admits, many years later, that she didn't know how to write a novel until her fourth. *Snorts* She also admitted that she would have made more money selling her novels off of e-bay than going to a publisher, rofl. Her husband called those novels "limited editions". ROFL. Her novels had two things going for them, setting and characters. Her characters are, except the villain in the first novel (he was just a walking, talking cliche), extremely human. She presents her characters in such a way, that it's very hard to _not_ like them (except for the villain in the first novel). Shad's novel has nothing going for it... it's from the start to finish utter garbage.
There's a difference between "first books are bad" because of a lack of writing craft skill, and the author still figuring things out, and "this book is bad" because of issues like racism, misogyny, and whatever other isms it's hitting. The first is something that gets better with time and practice of the craft, and the second is something that requires people to do a pretty big shift in their own perception of the world. As a reader I'm mostly willing to deal with craft issues from a new writer, not so much with dehumanizing politics.
Yeah, pretty sure, the Shad-turned-bad pipeline is what brought me here. But no way to be sure, since rant reviews are my thing anyways, so it could be either or both.^^
Fun fact! There is a religion called the "Bahá'í Faith" that doesnt have religious leaders! And its original holy scriptures are all less than 200 years old and still intact and presered to this day! It started in Iran and one of its founding principles was that due to humanity's educational progress priests and religious leaders are no longer necessary in modern times to read scripture to the majority illiterate population of the past. It's really fascinating! 🤩
I'm late to all of this and haven't read the book, but i was disturbed to see similarities between the light magic system and the beliefs of Mormon serial killer Chad Daybell. He has a scale of light and dark within people and he could look at people and discern their level of light or darkness, for example declaring someone a level 4 dark or light. If you were too dark you were irredeemable at which point the Mormon concept of blood atonement kicks in, where you can posibly be redeemed by being killed. Also, according to the book of mormon if you were bad, mormon god makes you born with darker skin, so there is a literal connection with the idea of blackness and darkness being bad, which ties into the worst curse being to declare something dark or black.
You can write stories about SA, you can write stories with dark themes where SA happens.... HOWEVER, Shad is not the correct person to write these stories, as is apparent from every neutral review I've seen of his book. I have it on Audible, and I have thought about suffering through it at times, but I don't think I will. As someone who loves writing, I'd do a whole lot of research if I was planning on using topics like SA in a novel of mine... And even so, I would probably think thrice before touching such a dark subject.
Interesting that you pointed out how people can like a particular RUclips presenter and then gradually dislike them - this happened with Shad for me. I originally encountered his channel through his Wheel of Time commentary, and as he disliked the adaptation, it was interesting to watch. However, after that, I lost interest, and since becoming aware of his dubious views in his writing (thanks for the roast video - I will never have to read it). Watching you guys review it is much more interesting!
For me theres a few big differences between SA and murder especially in a narrative. Murder/death/dying is a much more intrinsic part of life. EVERYONE dies and when theres conflict between one or more people/countries/groups in a narrative the logical outcome is well... death thats just how life and conflict work on that scale. SA is never a fundamental part of being alive, death is. second is that murder/death has a much more mechanical application, you need that guy to no longer be in your story? well someone kills him You beat the big bad guy, but hes too powerful to put in a prison and you need him out of the story so you can move on? he gets killed, obviously a very boiled down example, But compared to SA? SA very rarely adds anything of substance other than some icky "damaged goods" edgey cringe or as a way to "mature" a character. And the third for me is that SA is a violation of the self, or the soul if you believe in that, where as murder is a violation of ones life, both are bad and i dont think one is intrinsicaly worse than the other, but they both feel VERY different in ones own mind and that has to be factored in with how the topic is handled. When reading we are obviously much more mentally engaged, we are thinking we are interacting on a very emotional and personal level with our identity. SA is a violation and attack on ones identity, where as murder is a more "physical" act.
I really like the discussion about dark fantasy and it put my own writing into perspective. Never published anything though, and the writing is hard now during burnout. :< But still, thanks, it was a delight, even though the topic is utter shite.
I started watching this because I didn't know that Shad wrote a book. I haven't watched him in a while. As someone who grew up Mormon, I'm not surprised by the problems you're describing. I'm still disappointed by it, but not surprised.
He published the novel in 2018/2019. He then promoted his book every chance he had way back then. I bought it. All I felt was anger. I _wanted_ Dayless to die... *Shakes Head* Since then, I'm a bit more collected, and there are oodles of problems with the novel. Characterization is inconsistent, world building/setting is self-contradictory, and the plot is contrived... and that's before we get to theme, story elements, and messaging, lol.
Catholic here 😬 just wanted to say “Just going to confession and then saying a few prayers to be redeemed” isn’t how the Sacrament of Confession works. If it were we would have a very shallow faith indeed. You must truly be repentant of the sins you confess for the confession and absolution to be valid. If you go in arbitrarily because you’re supposed to or out of guilt with no desire to change or sense of remorse in your heart then you need to work on a very thorough examination of conscience as well as get yourself help and in better company to get back on track morally and ethically. Being honest the whole just say a few prayers and you’re just forgiven! Is more of a Protestant thing, more so in modern iterations of Protestantism. Edit: Just for those who may not be Catholic or may be curious.
I’m just seeing this video now but thank you for this comment. People who are not Catholic don’t understand that the regret at committing the has to be real.
I don't really have anything smart to comment about this book, so for the algorithm purpose, I'll say this: If you would like to try the LitRPG genre, try Dungeon Crawler Carl. It's a mix of great comedy and existential horror and even in the first book you can see Carl's slow descent to madness.
14 is the age of Joseph Smith's youngest secret polygamist wife. Maybe thats why 14 is the age of consent in his book? Also, I read and really enjoyed the entire Scythe Series. It's def YA but its still really good. The author put a ridiculous amount of work into constructing an actual utopian society and the effect of cults of personality.
The development of LDS theology vis-a-vis forgiveness stem from the early reaction to Joseph Smith's behaviour. No Man Knows my Name, the Joseph Smith biography, covers the latter in fair detail, & reflecting on this video has given me the chance to reflect on that.
Well... 14 is considered to be an adult for the vast of human civilizations... fortunately, most current civilizations have found that age to be way too low and have spent considerable amount of time protecting the children from abuses they suffered... just 100 years ago.
@@imustremaincivil2932 Thank you for correcting me, as I had had been both half-asleep & half-witted enough to not check I'd the title right before I had commented. I appreciate it.
Disaffected Shad fan here. I watched your first video, and now I'm watching this one, and I couldn't agree more. And BTW, yes his sword videos were always pretty crap. I got into him because of Medieval castle and Conan: Exiles videos. Those were actually very good, but it became more and more obvious over time that his personal biases were immensely over-informing his views on history. That was before the culture war grift started. Now he's just insufferable. Everything is "White, straight men are the most persecuted people in the world." It's exhausting.
I can’t say in good faith I was a fan, but liked him for a few days. I don’t know anything about castles or swords and didn’t watch those videos. The algo recommended a vid he did about medieval literacy when I was looking for like, actual historians with YT channels. I really liked his personality, was interested in the topic, and wanted to look into his source after his video. Watched another one about medieval profanity. Enjoyed that too. He mentioned in the video that he would not actually be cursing, as didn’t align with his religious values. I respect and appreciate that. Didn’t think about it twice. Like literally not even a month later, someone I follow posted a video of him on an unhinged culture war rant. I find it rich that the same man who doesn’t feel comfortable cursing is totally comfortable saying the most unkind, heinous shit imaginable about women who commit the crime of not being attractive to him.
@@CirceWasJustified His transition was really fast, which is why I think he lost so many subscribers and followers. There are some others in the same space who made the same right turn, but they did it more gradually. Creators like Metatron sort of sprinkled in their own ideologies more and more over time. With Shad it was like overnight. Like he'd made reference to being devoutly religious, but as long as they're not preachy, that doesn't bother me. That was about it, though. Then one day, BAM, he's in the middle of a video about (I don't remember the exact tooic, but it was Medieval history related) and suddenly he's ranting about homosexuality. The next video, he was all in on the culture war crap. Then came his podcast Knight's Watch, which is a fun watch if you want to see just how unhinged people can be about straight white cis males being the most persecuted people on the planet. Lol
I believe that it was the artist/person adapting the book to the comic who asked to make those changes, and Shad basically just agreed to it, he didn't come up with the changes.
Lit crit requires a good foundation in reading & literacy skills. And because it's usually assumed that this stuff happens as a matter of course, it's easy to forget that lit crit itself requires teachable skills, such as close reading. But it also ties into the valorisation of talent over skill in the field of writing & the other arts.
Having talent is like having a bonus skill point. Surprisingly, it's the people that already have the talent that get the teachers on the subject they already have a talent in. Everyone else who wants to learn must do it themselves without a teacher and it takes years (not including the emotional baggage) from being kicked aside and pushed to go into fields they didn't want to be in. Obviously the person who is in the field of their desire will be better at the job than a person who didn't get the teacher or the chances.
16:40: I think loving a specific book or series or movie or whatever, and maybe even being a fan of it, should involve to love the medium the way it is, meaning including its faults. Nothing is perfect, every book has its flaws, but loving a book means that you love it with its flaws. When you cannot see or accept these aspects of a book, you don't like the book, you like the mental imagination you created of that book.
I think the book could have been kinda cool, if there had simply been the implication that Daylen is an Unreliable Narrator. Maybe tell his story in 1st Person, and then tell Lyra's story from the third person. And then, the second that Lyra and Daylen meet, you get two perspectives on his behaviour and realise that he is still a genocidal monster. This is one twist away from a really cool idea, I think.
That book was just horrific. I can't believe that Amazon was OK with publishing it... I actually had to stop watching the review video because as a survivor of CSA it made me sick to my stomach.
I paused after the "Dark Fantasy" discussion to bring in this little tidbit. I myself am currently working on my own Fantasy Series, in terms of writing, and I am currently calling it a "Dark Fantasy" mostly due to a lot of the subject matter in it. And I am taking my time, and doing what research I can on a lot of the topics. The three Main MCs all have something dark involved with them in their past that they all are working through. Physical Abuse is one, PTSD is another, and the third is more an emotional depression. But there are a lot of other themes involved in my story, and so I am making sure to take care to not have anything feel like "This is just there to make bad person even more bad" but more of a "This is a reality of this world, and even our own world, and ignoring it is as bad as praising it" type thing, if that makes sense. But I also call it a "Dark Fantasy" because my major objective with it is to turn a literary standard on its head more, and reversing the typical "human good, monster bad" stereotype.
I dropped off from Shad because of his supporting AI for art years ago, I haven’t kept up with anything surrounding him since and I’m starting to think I left at the right time
Re: “Catholic confession is not supposed to work that way”: as someone living in a majority Catholic country, who also would go to confession regularly for about a year in my teens (I’m a happy atheist now) - that’s exactly how confession works in my experience. There’s no reflection, the priest doesn’t ask you to do any soul searching or spiritual repetence. It’s incredibly rote and mechanical - you list your sins, you get told to say 10 Hail Marys or Pater Noster, and you’re done. I’m sure there are SOME truly thoughtful priests, who actually want to make their parishioners better people, but I have never experienced or heard of it. Not to mention catholic priests usually hold incredibly conservative, misogynistic, homophobic and outdated ethical views, so they shouldn’t generally be the arbiters of morality anyway.
I'm also an ex-catholic from a majority catholic country. I have to say that I did have some very good priests when I went to confession. It wasn't a rule, most of them were just rote and harmless, but some were genuinely good. The best priest turned out to be the one I had been scared to go to when I was a child - he was a very old man who used to give very long sermons and seemed a bit severe in public. He ended up being very sympathetic and actually caring as a confessor (he also had a PhD in philosophy, so I guess that's part of what put me off from his sermons, which were quite advanced for my age back then haha) There was one or two priests that annoyed me with their bigotry. And the last parish priest before I lost faith - I used to really like and respect him, he had a lot of knowledge and you could see his personal faith and passion shine through when he prayed and preached. But I did notice that sometimes he'd say some things I disagreed with that were clearly the result of his religious conditioning, which made me sad. Just goes to show that you can be or want to be a good person but sometimes the things you're taught can actually make you preach bad things (even if you wouldn't act on that in actual real life). I left precisely because of that disconnect between what I thought a good person should think and what the Bible and the church were actually preaching.
Speaking of criticizing things you love: people shit on me for saying that High School Musical, no matter how cheesy, is targeted at young adults and tells a valuable story about not putting people in boxes…
If y’all want some more great Shadiversity bashing, be sure to check out some of Westside Tyler’s vids on Shad after you’ve finished with Unresolved’s videos!
@@manolgeorgiev9664 he makes long videos where he calls random right wing grifters autistic. I tried to tell him that is an ableist thing to say, you don’t get to diagnose people as autistic based on them being publicly an asshole. His response was that I’m wrong and also not a real person who should be listened to because I’m autistic. If you can’t recognize the ableism in that I can’t help you. Westside Tyler is an ableist and a fake leftist.
Maybe I am just an insensitive person. But I have never felt that one sex or gender being harmed was worse than another. I think it is problematic to insinuate that something is only bad if your own gender, sex, race, oe culture is affected. Bad things are bad and my interpretation of events doesn't change just because of a particular type of person being the victim. Well, minus behaviors that can be applied universally.
Shadiversity has just released a video on his right-wing political opinion channel called 'Has Brandon Sanderson gone WOKE and BETRAYED his religion?' I would LOVE if you guys covered this video!
I just want to thank this channel for the discussion as someone who is often called overly critical, this podcast is like being a part of book club without having to time manage with other people with schedules. I love what you all had to say about SA and how it is used as a way to make women fearful while ignoring how it relates to men, leaving men who it happens to only bad outlets to deal with and suppress that trauma. Just great discussions, thanks for sharing, and thank you to all the people who can afford to support you.
1:20:00 yes!!!!!! I hate that so much and I keep seeing it more and more! Too many authors act like "bad guy = doesn't respect consent" or "he's a creep so ofc he's a bad guy, no other reason."
My husband reads tons of litrpgs. They are so badly written and full of cutable writing but he loves them so I try to be kind. It's painful when you're constantly hearing character's stats. It's like someone said, wow you know what would make a book more interesting if we put the boring code that makes rpgs playable games and not adults daydreaming in as part of the world building 😂
GET OUT OF HERE?! JAZZA is shadiversitys brother?!!!? edit: this is a harder surprise than when i found out the twokinds creator is markipliers brother
I really enjoyed your video, the discussion on SA was really good, I think it is over used in literature and honestly can only remember maybe 1 time it was used well in one of the Malazan book I think.
50:00 there’s a difference between using religious ideas as plot devices (rules which often get applied arbitrarily and don’t penetrate the dna of the worldbuilding) vs building a world around certain laws of reality that you as the author have decided upon. Tolkien built a world in which God was part of the dna and therefore affected every part of the story; Shad just used “the Light” to pardon his bestest boy and give him superpowers. the first feels more natural because it’s deeply integrated, complex, and allows philosophical questions, just like religion in our world
I just finished reading "Long Live Evil" by Sarah Rees Brennan. It's a portal fantany where someone from the real world ends up in a book. It was better than I expected, although it does end on a cliffhanger. If you three are adding books to your TBR list, that may be a good one.
There's a story I want to negatively compare SotC to, and it's the 1988 manga "Bastard!!". The premise of Bastard!! is that in a heavy metal fantasy world of grimderp, there once was an evil wizard Dark Schneider. Dark Schneider tried to conquer the world, but was defeated and killed. In the modern day the kingdoms of "good" are being threatened by the resurrection of an evil god Anthrasax, so the world leaders find a reincarnation of Dark Schneider and awaken his memories of the past life. For all intents and purposes - it's Dark Schneider sharing the body of a 15 y.o. boy. He's pointed in the direction of the evil god and sent to fight him, with loose constraints keeping him on the goal. On paper, it is a similar premise - a once evil tyrant on a quest to do something good. The difference is in tone and execution. Bastard!! makes no excuses for Dark Schneider. Dark Schneider is an evil selfish asshole who neither wants nor deserves redemption. And the audience isn't expected to judge him - we are here for the ride. It's a "wow this villain is cool!" tone. And that's what makes Bastard!! work. Bastard!! works to its strengths. If we have a villain protagonist - let him be villainous. If it's an overpowered mary sue - go ham and revel in it.
For an EXCELLENT perspective on redemption, I suggest looking at a little vidéo named "Teal'c and Tomin, you will never forgive yourself". It is from the series Stargate SG1. Tomin was a general from a fanatical and genocidal empire, but he truly believed. Until he betrayed them for the good guys. Teal'c is about the same but made his treason in the first episode, and has saved the world on many, many occasions since.
I used to love shad... but his knights watch channel and the Mario movie stuff is why I stopped watching. I myself am an active mormon and a conservative but I hate this online conservative nonsense of the second there is something kinda gay or has a woman as a main character to just immediately call it dei and woke is frustrating. I do dislike woke and dei stuff when it's actually happening and is a detriment to whatever media it's in but otherwise I'm on board with more good representation Edit: you guys should do some brandon sanderson books to see what a good mormon author can do
the point with things important to who the creator is intrinsically seeping through into the work, I agree with. as a queer person unable to live as myself completely openly where I live, the themes of hidden identities, not being accepted or recognized, hated by the society even, inevitably appear in any of my work, whether I was aware of it while writing or I noticed it in hindsight. even if it's not purposefully woven in there, I can't create meaningful art, something that doesn't feel shallow, without those themes popping up anyway.
Suggestion; Add name tags and some info border thing to the stream layout, I think it would be a much neater look for the vod at least. Plus it makes it easier for people joining mid stream to get their bearings if they missed the intro!
i understand that its bad for the channel to make videos that no one cares about but its sooo damn hard to find videos about nonfiction books it would be a blessing to have some good content here and here from book lovers🙏
One thing I noticed is that I did think it was fun to watch this channel at the start but; a lot of the comments made by the casters are actually pretentious and it's hard to listen to repeatedly. I am in no way defending Shadversity but some of the criticisms are just not fully founded.
I came for literature commentary and I learned that socialists are good and conservatives are bad. The level of arrogance the guy in particular shows is off the charts.
I stopped watching shad's videos once his disgusting views starting seeping into his stuff. Big fantasy nerd, but i never tried his book. Glad the algorithm recommended your review of it, i enjoyed it immensely. Your videos are pretty entertaining, i especaily love Katie, she's so expressive. Such a great smile too
If you're interested in exploring some LitRPG, may I recommend the amazing Beers and Beards: An Adventure Brewing by JollyJupiter. I think it has a great example of self reflection and growth in the story, though the dad puns may be off-putting to some.
I think your view of forgiveness is rather simplistic, no forgiveness does not just come from those affected by your actions. There is the matter of personal forgiveness whether or not someone can forgive themselves and move on. Other than that the ‘redemption’ arc is shit, the whole inner light bs is flawed beyond comprehension and the book is really fucking creepy. I had originally watched shad for the sword stuff and lost interest a number of years ago his channels focus shifted too unpleasantly for me. I’ve now subbed to you.
Excuse my long random comments, here I go: 1) Sorry I missed the Livestream, I'm in California and I don't have full cognitive brain function until after breakfast and the feeding of my pets. 2) I'm a woman and a gamer and I've only ever been treated with respect in my gaming experience, except for perhaps twice. I'm glad I'm so lucky. 3) I'm a conservative and while I disagree with many things you guys like in the books you review, getting another perspective really helps me with my own writing and thinking. Thank you. 4) I'm a firm believer that there is no redemption without repentance. You need to feel remorse for your sins, say you're sorry and actively change to be fully redeemed. Then accept whatever punishment is coming your way. (Justice) 5) As to your comments about DEI, I personally don't mind diversity in media. I'm of the stance that it should be newly written material not reworked, recolored and rebranded existing material. 6) My own writing is likely vanilla, I don't like having murder or SA in my stories. You don't need to chose the most horrific thing on the spectrum to depict the difference between good and evil. I much prefer being subliminal. I don't need detailed descriptions of how Sauron mutilated the Elves to create Orcs. The word itself is terrifying enough. 7) I think anyone has a right to criticize a topic and open it up for discussion. Roast or Rant, the only difference is, one can be tasty. Anyway those are my 7 cents. (And a terrible pun.) Have a great day and I look forward to your Savior's Champion Livestream. Thoughts and prayers to you guys, even if (some?) of you are Atheist. 🥰👋🏻 P.S. My black cat is named Mini and he's the sweetest runt that grew into a Panther.🥰
I used to watch him for the swords. I didn’t care if it was accurate or not, just a vid to enjoy someone rant about something they liked. But he went hard with politics and only complaining about things…and that’s when I stopped watching.
It's funny the convergence of people unaware of their privilege and women being catcalled, it made me notice something from my past. A friend with whom I've had numerous arguments about how her privilege, thoroughly invisible to her, kept coloring her perceptions about society (usually cops), one time she and I were walking down a sidewalk at night and she got drive-by catcalled. To her it was highly affirming of her womanhood and attractiveness (she's never been less than highly attractive), and even in the moment it struck me as a slightly odd reaction. Only now do I realize that she's always had the privilege and power that she just isn't on the receiving end of catcalls and similar behavior. A perfect example of privilege blinding her to the demeaning conditions that others endure, so much so that she took what others have as degrading and received it as a compliment, purely because she doesn't have to suffer it when she's unreceptive to it.
So, on Shad... I used to watch his stuff, back when he actually seemed reasonable, and only talked about historical sword stuff. But then something changed AGES ago, like back pre-covid, and I stopped following his channel. Not specifically the anti-woke stuff, just an odd vibe. Needless to say, seeing him crop up among Alt Right sorts in video essays in just the last few months has been insanely disappointing.
It blows my mind that the book got published as it was. Before it came out, Shad was bragging about helping with the stormlight archives, the book was read by Micheal Kramer. You would like to think that the guy who narrated the Wheel of Time would pull shad to the side and go dude. Wtf. Some of his connections would reign him in.
If you hit a lull and want another book that will probably get a lot of views, I think Redemption by Will Jordan would get good traction on RUclips. The author is another failed writer turned right wing RUclips reactionary known as Critical Drinker. I’d probably wait a bit to do that so that the channel doesn’t feel like it’s going too far into RUclips personality takedown content, but maybe eventually.
James Tullos made a video on that one. What I remember most is how even though Jordan is constantly bashing feminism is self insert main character keeps needing to be saved by a woman.
An interesting discussion, though the rather significant emphasis on the the politics of the commentators was a bit annoying. At one point the gentleman acknowledged that those on the left and the right both embrace victimhood narratives, but immediately invalidated that acknowledgement by insisting that when done by those on his side it's justified... Similarly, it was acknowledged that feminists sometimes act badly, but it was then indicated that such people aren't REALLY feminists. All rather self-serving...
In A Song of Ice and Fire the seasons nature isn’t clear, i suspect there’s real seasons within the season, why the North sometimes have snow in summer, I think there’s real seasons might be the natural seasons happening normally within the unnatural seasons
What happened is shad alienated his own fan base including by allowing other creators who had a failing channel come in and take over his channel and spend all his money on bs. Those two friends seem to have dragged shad in to right wing grift content and largely away from normal swordplay content
Ok, around minute 1:40 Maria showed us the majesty of Pumpkin again and we got some kitteh lore, so I will just say I demand moar kittehs in your videos, or I will riot in horrible and as of yet unexperienced ways!
Such a good point about SA being JUST a marker of "extra bad." There is no actual depth or exploration or relevant theme in this book. No reckoning or actual confrontation with the true nature of the act. It's JUST extra bad. And then it's excused and made fine because babies good.
Shad's version of exploring the trauma is that Laira just gets panic attacks about sex. It's not something more abstract like general trust issues, just sex. And then she suddenly and completely gets over it because sheer will because it's time for that to happen in the plot. And thats it.
Watching a grown man fuming over PRINCESS PEACH WEARING PANTS!!!!11 like it's the end of the world kinda opened my eyes.
It was pathetically hilarious, wasn’t it?
Not to mention, that if he knew anything about Mario, he'd know that she wore that outfit before. She wears it when she rides a bike in Mario Kart, and that's pretty much when she wears it in the film. He was actually getting mad at them for being accurate to the games. And the motive by the creators for that outfit is unlikely to be political. More that there is no practical way to ride a motorcycle in a ball gown, and even trying to depict that would look ridiculous.
@@kylejones8289 It wouldn't even be able to show off how her cycle looks, not only is it practical, but design-wise very efficient. But you're right, it's ridiculous to act as though her wearing a ball gown is better for cycling 😭
I just watched three sermons by Shad type pastors warning about the dangers of male skinny jeans. It was quite funny.
@@kylejones8289 He was angry because she might be a bad role model for his daughter. It might teach her that women have worth outside of having babies. Which explains a lot about his book, doesn't it?
I liked exactly _one_ thing in the book: the villain faction's evil plan in the end is pretty hardcore. I love slamming the floating island _full of monsters_ into the city. Like, not only are we gonna kick your shit in but then we salt the earth, so double-fuck-you. I love plans like that. That was it.
"Oh, nonono, you are mistaken. I do not have the patience or the desire to rebuild the city and her people once I am done. I have no choice, but to take the responsible course of action. I'll make it how there will be nothing and no one to rebuild."
You gotta love a villain with the balls to not even pretend like surrendering is an option.
It honestly saves a lot of time and effort to destroy a city too. Lol
@@Ashbrash1998 see you get it 😏
he knows evil, that's for sure.
I find it hilarious because that's literally the evil villain's plan in Neopets the Darkest Fairy!
31:00 Avatar was mentioned so I have to chime in. Zukos Redemption arc was good, because he came to terms with his flaws and found a way to do better without repeating past mistakes. It also helps, that he (probably) didn't kill like 1000s of people.
What Shad did, was basically trying a Redemption arc, in which he tried to redeem Ozai, without changing anything in Ozais character or behavior, really. AFTER he sat the world on Fire with his Comet boosted powers.
On that note. I think a lot of people also seem to miss, that Uncle Iroh also had a Redemption arc. Now. I know, he wasn't as bad as his brother and we don't see a lot of his pre war persona. But even him, A fire nation Warlord, responsible for the deaths of so so many people, was able to turn around because he was reflective enough of himself after his inly son died.
Can you believe how devasted he could have been, if he would have met his son as a Captn of Pirate ship, telling him, he was his son and than had to kill him. Even if wasn't sure about that?
And most of his redemption happened offscreen as well, but with enough bit and pieces sprinkled here and there to get some kind of a picture and understand him if you are really looking for it.
Anyone saying this is a first book as a defense is missing the mark. True, first books aren't perfect but the issue here is this first book is a first book with dangerous and alarming ideas that aren't handled well or even considered at all by the author.
Honestly i hate the "first book" defense in general
Its like asking your chef "Where's the rest of my food?" Or "Why is there just chicken when i asked for rice and vegetables?", then they immediately say, "Oh, they're cooking your food still"
Bro you gave me an unfinished plate, why do i have to wait for the rest of my food, where is it??
It's a book. He's not advocating for violent things in his fantasy book. It just showed his very poor quality of beliefs. That doesn't mean that he can't change for the better or accept the criticism and adjust accordingly. Whether he's willing to, is up to him.
@@nichoudha he had a decent track record of doubling down or just not handling bad publicity well in general, so theres that
Also just because you dont outwardly say "this group of people sucks", that doesnt mean it cant be a result of some sort flavor of ism. Look at JKR, theres themes of racism and eugenics all over the place, now look at where she is
@@nichoudhaHis reaction to criticism regarding his book would suggest he absolutely can’t accept criticism. Besides he argues for (at least, that I have seen) beliefs espoused in the book in his regular media commentary videos, like being staunchly pro separate gender roles for men and women, which makes him even more insidious. In one of his videos on Princess Peach wearing pants he openly says girls like to watch films, where the female character is rescued and boys like characters, who are doing the rescuing of the female characters.
In short, he’s a very right ring, religious idiot, who’s also middle aged, so I think the chances of him changing his views at this point is very slim.
Edit: Plus, just because something is a work of fiction, doesn’t mean it has no impact on culture. In fact, it’s quite the opposite. Just because his novel isn’t a political manifesto advocating for certain bad things to happen in the real world, doesn’t mean its message isn’t harmful and can’t influence readers in a certain way or reinforce their unethical views.
Also, once something is a commercial product it becomes open to any and all criticism. This isn't some story they pulled out of Shad's desk drawer to roast him for, it's a professional novel that costs money to buy.
I'd personally march Shad to social services and force him to work there for a week and ask him if he still thinks having a baby will fix all of a woman's trauma and if he still believes all women are biologically wired to be motherly
He would just blame the women for not being motherly and the trauma is somehow their fault.
@@mommyofkittens4809 "Well not THESE women, NO! I meant MORALLY GOOD ones. Who just happen to be very pale and wealthy."
It's that trauma that Shad sees as normal and no big deal. It's the same mentality of people who don't think ADHD is real
I would report him to Worksafe Australia to be honest. He is now running his channel as a business. He is no longer some boofhead playing in his backyard, he is an employer in a workplace and that workplace is irresponsible as fk.
This is late but given the Mormons I've known, that would change nothing. Having children is the most important thing-even it puts the moms life in danger, even if you can't financially provide for them, no matter *what* children are the most important thing.
I couldn't watch Shad anymore after this book. It cannot be overstated how existentially disturbed I was by this book, not because of the shocking nature of the subject matter, no, but because of the insane mindspace of the author, someone whose work I had and still mostly like, but had some strange religious ideas poking through occasionally, but now all I can see if the depraved and broken utter misunderstanding of redemption and forgiveness and everything else in this absolute failure of a book, which is legitimately the worst book I have ever read. I get a sinking feeling when I think of it. Idk if it's because I liked Shad, or the book itself is just that bad, probably both.
It is such a typical Mormon thing to say the bigger problem is when society doesn't forgive the criminal, than is the crime itself.
Makes you think, doesn't it? What lurks beneath the veneer of personality you're presented with when you speak to people.
@@laze4534 well, I don't think it's a veneer or an act. I think the even more disturbing, but likely case is that normal people can assimilate such twisted ideas into their worldview and still remain normal in most other ways, but they simply cannot see how insane this one belief is, or how it twists other things they believe. Just a total blind spot that regular people can have programmed into them.
To me, that's much more disturbing than some secret psychopath pretending to be normal. That's a monster, a rare creature in disguise. Whereas, the other option makes us ALL potential monsters.
@@SnakeWasRight That's what I meant by veneer, that our fanciful use of language and depictions of kindness are merely superficial coverings for the ape-brained creatures that we are at our core. I honestly do wonder if even these people who practice extreme meditation, you know, the Zen Masters and all that, it does make me wonder just how well they can bury the egos they were born with that in any normal person, can be pushed to flip out in the most mindless violent manners.
@@laze4534 you can definitely achieve genuine enlightenment and growth, but there is a darkness that lurks in us until we recognize it and learn to not listen to it.
The nature of evil isn't even the opposite of good, but a corruption of it. Taking good concepts and using them to brand bad things, taking love of your family and turning it into hatred of others.
@@SnakeWasRight With that response, I have to request for your best description of enlightenment.
And I'm curious, why do you suppose something like loving one's family is a good thing? What's the justification for that logic.
RUclips viewer in the 2010's: "This Shad guy seems to know a lot about weapons. Would be cool if he wrote a book."
Shad: "What if Stalin, but hot?"
That would make a hilarious dark comedy.
You'd be surprised with how many people in eastern european history classes have had uncomfortable feelings to reconcile with when shown a photo of young stalin. He wasn't ugly one bit. Still a genocidal dictator at the end of the day.
I mean, avatar: legend of Korra had "what if hitler but SUPER hot in Kuvira" and she's super popular so there is precedent
Also realizing he basically just repeats Wikipedia and doesn’t actually do any martial arts
@@rikimaru700 Kuvira isn't anything like hilter tho...
I don’t know if you know this, but recently Shad made a video ranting about Silent Hill character who is a CSA victim being not sexy enough, even calling the game developers “satanic” for not making said character hotter.
😳 Jesus Fucking Christ. Seems the guy is getting more and more unhinged.
p...pardon
Yeah, he's outgrown his knee-caps.
Time to send in the knee-repoman.
Okay, speaking as a Christian....HUH!? I mean, I'm not Mormon. I have no idea what they think about sex and SA but....SATANIC? For not being sexier?
What is this guy's problem?
Not only that but a CSA victim who has an intense fear of being sexualized (why she wears that big, thick sweater for example) while also at the same time struggling with viewing her own body as something disgusting and ugly, both as a result of her trauma. She also suffers from occasional age regression; often talking in a childish manner before catching herself and even shortly confuses the main character for her mother at one point. Anyone's whose main concern is how sexy she may or may not be should be on a watchlist.
From now on I propose we call Maria - the Master of Literature. She is the only one here with the Masters degree, it goes well with Katie’s idea of creating a cult dedicated to a goddess and she will take away Will’s dream of being a cult leader. Everyone wins
It's funny to me that Shad, who wrote a bad redemption arc about a dude who killed tons of people, is a fan of Sanderson, who wrote a great redemption arc about a dude who killed tons of people. In fact so many things he does poorly in his writing are done better by Sanderson. Magical order of knights? Check. Complex magic? Check.
The big thing was Dalinar was likeable and also took responsibility for his actions. Not so much with daylen.
Sanderson is an interesting point of contrast to Shad in so many ways now that I think about it. They're both openly Mormon, but while Shad chooses to lean into the very worst conservative perspective, Sanderson seems to use his writing to critique religious practices to an almost absurd degree for someone who is religious. Like the villains of about half his books are various forms of priest/preacher/god/religion, he essentially has a evil/morally gray Christ character (if you know you know), several of his protagonists are notably atheist and portrayed positively or neutrally for being so, etc. Even in his very first published novel he writes about Christian missionary-coded characters as being the 'bad guys' despite having been a missionary himself. Some of this likely comes from being very liberal/leftist (at least becoming so in the last decade), but it also seems to be a great deal of self-reflection.
All this to say, Shad has none of this perspective. He can't use the excuse of Mormonism, he is a socially conservative bigot who hides behind a shield of religion to espouse his views. Not to say that many typical Mormon beliefs/practices aren't harmful (because they are), but that it is possible to be a Mormon without having/doing those and actually be a decent person, author, and influence on others
Westside Tyler defined Shadow of the Conqueror as “the Mein Kampf for libertarians” and I think he hit the nail on the head.
The difference is that Dalinar as the Blackthorn was an imperialist conquering bastard who loved fighting and killing so that's was the motivation for his acts of evil and what he had to grow past. Dayless, on the other hand, seems to have been just checking off a list of evil things to do because Shad had to emphasize how eeevil he was without thinking about why he would do those things or what he'd need to become to grow past that because "he was evil and now he's good".
@@nont18411
Eh, Westside Tyler reference… :)
I find it ironic that people would go with the "if you don't like it don't read it" defense when all Shad does now is talk about how much he hates modern movies, TV and video games.
Something I've realized about myself is that the more likely someone's behavior is to be excused in real life, the less willing I am to read about a (somewhat) sympathetic character who does that thing. It's the reason why I'll read/watch stories about serial killers all day long, but when someone's racist or an abuser I'm just like "ew."
That’s why I agree with the sentiment that the book should have just been about Daylan’s son, not Daylan himself
in his most recent review of Rings of Power he used his book and Brandon Sanderson in the same sentence as examples of “good magic systems”
Delusional
It has to be noted that not only is shad a massive fan of AI art and a huge proponent of it. Shad’s sword videos only got popular because endorsement from his brother who is a more popular RUclipsr called draw with Jazza. He likes AI art because his brother is an artist that’s more famous than him
Ngl ai art supporters are SUCH a red flag. If I see someone likes ai art I do not interact, it shows such a lack of empathy for artists that are being stolen from and just tells me that you are lazy.
@@redlikeroses1062
How are artists being stolen from?
@@falseprophet1024The AI art generators are taught how to do the art by being shown a catalog of existing art
A lot of the art shown in those catalogs was stolen off the web without the creator's permission
@@zinkheroofyoutube8004
Is that really stealing? Like, if one artist learns to draw by copying existing art, did they steal from the original artist?
@@falseprophet1024 In this instance, it’s not another artist learning to draw from another’s art, it’s more like tracing over one’s art to create your own “original” art piece, which, yes, is stealing
Now I think it would be cool to have a book, where the bad guy is forgiven by the church and made into a punisher led by the god, just to realize at some point that he was used in politics and it was never about a god or his redemption. He was just doing bad things under a different banner
I'm conservative and listening to you guys describe this book disturbed the crap out of me haha. There's conservative and liberal and there is "wouldn't want to meet them in a dark alley."
Liberal is not opposite of conservative, progressive is.
When did I say it was the opposite?
@@LK1989 I thought you implied it as some people, especially from USA, think that it is. There are many conservatives that believe in libertarianism what is kind of liberalism idea. Tho you probably are not from USA considering your profile image.
Okay conservative and liberal lol.
To be fair i think about 90% of people who are able bodied could beat shad to a pulp in said dark alley😂
i used to watch shad but stopped i think because of this book; I wanted to buy it but as usualy before doing that i had checked goodreads reviews and when i read about his depictions of women i realised that hes not a person i wanted to support in any way. especially since i have been noticing some red flags on his channel for some time at that point. the one i remember most is him getting offended about Netflix's Yennefer in Witcher not being white
Fun fact about Shad: His sword content was pretty garbage too.
I can't confirm if it was factually inaccurate, but I personally disliked his video on nunchucks. He basically kept reiterating the same point while laughing at the same couple of jokes. It was tiresome
@@lightningninja6905 yeah, his nunchaku thing was pretty wacky
Yeah, I've been unfairly judging the HEMA community for years because I thought it was just thousands of Shads going "I know how to use a sword because i've thought about it and come up with the best techniques"
@@Splattedable
I used to think similarly about HEMA, but my perception changed when I heard one of my family members, person of mixed race, was solicited to join by a member (of HEMA or a similar organization).
Considering how awful medieval online spaces can be, I would have guessed that they wouldn't be interested in any mixed race members, as online they are often seen as anachronistic to the European continent.
As a Hema practitioner. Shad’s stuff was always trash. His sword skills are below novice level. I’ve seen students with less than a year of training who would thrash him.
I recommend Skallagrim, Stoccota, Scholagladitoria and Sellsword Arts on RUclips they have good videos and know how to fence.
I don't about anyone else, but I, a conservation Biologist, would actually love listening to you guys talk about a non-fiction science book 😂
I wish I had committed to your profession, we need more of you!! -Kt
@@unresolvedtextualtension
I second this!
Or non-fiction books in general. Just interesting stuff.
honestly unfortunately negative reviews will probably always be more popular. Sure because negativity is more eye catching but also if youre talking about a book a viewer hasnt read and you say its good theyre more likely to stop watching to avoid spoilers
This is exactly it. I’ll try to go back and watch after reading the recommended books but by then there’s new content so I might not get to it.
Whereas if a book is bad I can hit play unbothered.
Not just that, but bad book + bad author = GREAT review
I always ask "But how is it bad?" with the selfish reason of learning something, or even deciding whether I would bear the grievances lightly myself were I to pick it up.
Society is such that no matter how polished a work is, it will always receive a heap ton of trash comments from, at the very least, people not in the target audience. It pays to be discerning when it comes to negativity.
Personally I think UTT reads a lot of unpalatable mainstream stuff but that's just a me/algorithm thing.
@@Werewolf.with.Internet.Access Now that is exceedingly true! :D
I enjoy negative reviews as a writer because it feels much more thought provoking to me and helps me think more critically about my own work.
Responding to the comments starts here: 28:50
I appreciate when you guys dont like something, theres validity and solid reasons why and most often times change my mind about something. I feel like my ability to review books gets sharpened listening to you guys talk all the while still being able to enjoy what i'd like to enjoy. thank you :)
Way back when Shad talked more about swords his explanations made me re-think what my charaters' weapons would be. And I appreciate his incite in that regard. Heck when he explained the love at first sight scene in the cinderella remake he told us about how he met his wife and how it felt the same. I wrote the movie off but he showed how there are still plenty of views i didnt consider, which again i do appreciate because i can put scenes like that in my writing.
However when he started talking about the book I started watching less and less of him. He explained how his MC wanted to die but basically his body wouldn't let him because he was too good at everything. And his pride wouldn't just let him die to some nobody.
Everything went his way, no real reprocussions ever were given and yet even at the end when the MC screams for death, he is too much of a coward to do it himself.
Stuff like that, along with the obvious backward religious undertones made me not want to hear his book stuff anymore. But the final nail was when he defended against the comments because the MC's actions would be "historically accurate". Bro the book has airships and magic, historical went out the window with the falling rock that tells time.
Then he lost me when he talked about the Peach wearing pants thing and the AI art view. I know he's got a right to his opinion, but I have a right to disagree, because we arent in the mideval ages anymore and any artist will tell you "When you spend your life copying someone else's art, youll never find your own."
He chooses to live in the past, but the world keeps turning and there is nowehere else to progress but toward the future.
His Cinderella video was so sweet, and, from what I can remember, really good. I'm not one to believe in "love at first sight." But he almost convinced me when I first watched it years ago.
One of the failures of Daylan as a character is that he isn't even redeemed, he just doesn't change as a person. He learns nothing. His supposed redemption happened off-screen and the entire story is him being just as murderous as he was in his past but against "the right people" as judged by the author.
There is never a sense that he turned a new page in his life. That he is no longer the monster he once was.
Him taking a new role that wasn't violent would have really helped this story. The idea of him becoming an engineer is a great one. I honestly think that part of the reason Shad didn't go for something like this is that he wanted him to do cool swordfights...which again, could have been done better if Daylan was the son of the Conqueror, not the Conqueror himself.
Take Thorfinn from Vnland Saga. Yes, the guy is a victim, but he spent his younger years sociopathically slaughtering anyone that was in his way to vengeance. And then he changes his life. He turns his life around and realizes that the cycle of violence is pointless and harmful. Throfinn's philosophy of "I have no enemies" is the end up this book could have used. Shadow of the Conqueror needed that moment where Daylan realizes "I was a monster. I caused misery to everyone including myself. I need to be better".
Hell, This is far from a new concept. Kratos' whole deal in the Norse games is "I was a monster. I need to be better for my son". He still fights, he still kills others, he still has a ton of rage and bad habits, and violent tendencies. But his thing is keeping his rage under control with discipline, refusing to use violence unnecessarily, and realizing that violence is something that sometimes needs to be used and rage can be useful, but it's not something that should define you or control you. He went from a monster to a protector. And the story never goes "Yeah, Kratos you actually did nothing wrong", no, characters could be of the opinion that the Gods had it coming, but Kratos lives in shame for the way he acted and the innocent lives he cut down. He knows he was a monster, hell, he still thinks he is a monster, but he doesn't want that for his son. For him, he has to be better.
Why does Daylan want to be better? Oh, he went to his room and thought about what he did and that was enough to turn into magic light Jesus with the purest soul ever!
(the joke is that "A Song of Ice and Fire" is referred to be the acronym SOIAF, while "It's Always Sunny In Philadelphia is referred to by the acronym IASIP. Two five-letter acronyms with three letters in common, but nothing else, both turned into TV shows in the early 2010s, with plots about awful people trying to become rich. So it's funny to compare them.)
I must be one of those rare ex-Shad fans AND an existing UTT fan. Is great to see you guys got such good views for your Shadow review.
He taught me what crenulations were, if I recall correctly. At some point I was subscribed but I was only interested in that sort of stuff. I haven't watched him since well before I found out he was Jazza's older brother and that explained way too many things that I should never have learned about.
@@vapx0075 lol. Yes, same... I learnt that term from him also.
Ha! Count me in the same club. In the beginning I was just happy to see some dude talk about different medieval things in an easy to understand way because I was writing my own fantasy stories and comics already then. And then slowly I would just get an off vibe from him, the things he'd sometimes say about women had me going "yeah no I disagree but whatever". Until I just stopped watching him entirely. I kind of just felt like I had seen everything he had to say and he was repeating the same points.
And lo and behold apparently he's just a straight up bigot AND a creep? Wow. Makes me feel embarrassed for giving him the benefit of the doubt even back then.
really like how you guys each wore the powerpuff girls colors
Those who deflect/defend the novel with "it was his first novel" completely miss the point of critical reviews... it's to point out the problems with the novel so that the author, if they ever read/hear the review, can improve their writing for their next book.
"Bringing that to the text"... Yeah. I had a person who defended Shad's novel "yell" at me to "use your imagination!" *Shakes Head* This in regards to how a world without sunlight for 14 years (the length of time of the 4th Night lasted for) would result in complete ecological collapse... especially when the world experiences permanent sunlight. His rebuttal was "the darkness was an illusion that only affected the people"... when I pointed out the novel doesn't support that reinterpretation, that's when he said "use your imagination"... and my final response was "It's not my job to write the novel for the author".
First comment about redemption. I think that's what made David Gemmel's _White Wolf_ such a great novel. The Damned _knows_ he's beyond forgiveness so doesn't attempt at redemption while at the same time is sincerely sorry for what he did. He also knows what he did can't be undone... so the only course of action he really has is to avoid all possibilities of doing the act again. So the novel _isn't_ written as nor advertised as a "redemption" story even though it's just the first leg of The Damned's journey. To help us root for The Damned's success Gemmel fills the first half with _proper_ flashbacks of The Damned's life. Beginning with his earliest childhood memories and ending just right as the prologue begins. It also helps that The Damned _isn't_ a murdering psychopath whose only emotional response is lashing out in anger (most times with extreme violence) unlike certain Dayless's in the literary world.
Continuing... forgiveness _isn't_ required for those who have been harmed to "move on". Some acts are unforgivable, and the victims never forgive the people who harmed them, but they are, with lots of therapy, able to move on from their trauma and have much better lives.
An interesting contrast is Sanderson's (another Mormon author) atheist character Yasnah who does this same thing, where she goes looking for criminals so she can kill them with magic and it's the religious character that calls her evil for doing it even though Yasnah has no war criminal baggage and is simply doing it to help people because the police are corrupt and letting it happen over and over.
So it's interesting that the religious character in that would consider Shad's religious character to be evil and more aligned with godlessness.
1:23:32 I think in regards to Sa being different from murder is a bit like the difference between torture and murder. Or at least, it could be closer for people who didn't experience SA, but can imagine having a lot of brutaly things done to your body and mind and you still have to live with it. I mean yeah, you can survive torture, you can also learn to live with the memories, but it can haunt you and and depending where you live, which kind of movies you watch etc. Chances are, you can be reminded of it quite regularly.
Murder is kind of an abstract concept. As you said, not many people have experienced it first or second hand in one way or another. But also, as you said, once it is over it is over. Death is a part of life. Sooner or later we all gotta go in one way or another. With SA and Torture it is different. Both are inherently evil acts, because not only are they harming our bodily autonomy (what, you could argue murder does, too) but since chances are that this can happen repeatedly, and even hearing descriptions or just sounds of it, can make, for whatever reason, our toe nails curl, it is something inharently inhuman and evil.
Murder... You know, take a gun, shoot a guy in the face, boom, done. There doesn't even have to be a lot of blood or anything. Torture and SA, though? These are crawling. These are vile. And this is something, that someone like Shad will never understand in his pathetic life, because he is too much of Cultish, unempathetic and egotistical nutsack.
man i'm bummed i missed all the religion talk earlier in the stream. i didn't grow up mormon, but i find the overlap of faith and politics fascinating. i went to a liberal church in the bay area growing up, but my mom's christianity was very fox-news-brand, and it was very confusing hearing my school and church friends parroting their parents leftist politics while my mom was constantly conflating her impassioned republican beliefs with all thing Godly and Righteous. now that i'm an adult and have some emotional distance, i think its interesting to look back and analyze how her conservative worldview and christianity both kind of come from this desire to fall under the wing of a loving leader with the power to rid her of shame and guilt and reward her for being good and pious in a way that fits neatly into the clear-cut boundaries of a system she trusts without a doubt to be the unquestionable moral authority of all things.
ANYWAYS, that was a lot of personal word vomit about something only tangentially relevant. what i MeAN to say was i thought it was a really good discussion-there's a lot to analyze in how shad's religious and politicial beliefs make his story worse because his narrow worldview from the mormon box he lives in doesn't allow him the breadth of insight to write different cultures with nuance or empathy. When you try to write a sweeping epic fantasy in an echo chamber you just end up with a really weird manifesto with your self-insert DND character as the ideological core. and that's cringe, babe.
One of my favorite redemption arcs is Steve Harrington's from Stanger Things, because he realized what a dick he was being and he joined the "good" side, but he's never rewarded for it. He loses the girl, he's constantly beat up by supernatural monsters (and other random guys), his best friend is a 12 year old, he works a dead end job at a video store... but he's still fighting for the good side because he realizes that's the right thing to do, and I think there's a lot of power in a narrative that doesn't REWARD being a good person. Just do it because it's right.
Another media that has a similar arc is the Lockwood and Co series, which is MG and five books but I wholeheartedly recommend it as a halloween read, it's absolutely brilliant and the ghosts are genuinely creepier than anything I've read in any horror for adults. Plus the redemption arc is *chef's kiss*
For a VERY stark contrast to Shad, Brandon Sanderson is basically his antithesis. Both are Mormon writers, both write books with religious themes, however Shad can't separate his personal beliefs from that of his characters, and meanwhile Sanderson has written a plethora of colourful and diverse characters including one of the most authentically and sympathetically written atheist characters I've ever seen a religious writer attempt. Zero strawmanning, and even moreso she actually proposes great counterarguments for why religions aren't real. That's some major writing skill to pull that off when you don't agree with it, and to make it feel both authentic and logical even in a setting that literally has Gods within it. The fact is that with the information the character has access to, the belief in the religion is not justified because it's unfalsifiable.
I would say the same about Orson Scott Card: he's a Mormon, but his arguably best-known characters (from the Ender saga) are either atheist or current/ex-Catholic. I was surprised to learn about his attitudes to queer people (since there was even a very sympathetic gay/bi character in the Songmaster, and also a lot of characters from different cultural backgrounds - even if some aspects were simplistic or tropy, they were convincing characters with understandable and humane motivations, you could sympathise with them and understand their internal conflicts). His books were formative for me when I was growing up and I genuinely credit them with making me a more open-minded and empathetic person.
On Shad and his 40,000 sales on his book:
Okay, currently 40,000 more sales than I have and in the modern sales context of books this is nothing to sneeze at.
However at the time of his book launch Shad was at his peak and had not really managed to spread his alienation that wide. He had I believe about 1.6 million subs at the time and Shad was (correctly in context) levering his YT views to promote his book.
So he sold 40,000.
So, if we assume that ONLY his subs purchased his book then he was getting 1 in 40 sales from his fans. I am lead to believe he counted all sales - ebook and physical - in the 40,000 figure. So that means that 39/40th of his fans didn't want to support him with a $10 ebook purchase.
So... yeah... I think Shad under sold.
Also, where is Book 2? Book 3? Shad? It has been nearly 5 years? Are you an actual author? Or is just another one of your little fads you jump into?
Gosh, so many fads he jumped into.
Building castles on land he bought for a medival fair? Land isn't solid enough to support that.
Making a shortmovie of his book? Funding stopped midway through, it's stuck in editing.
Making a YT channel about GenAI "Art"? Almost no Uploads.
His channel for Shorts? Barely any Uploads
His channel specific Twt accounts? No updates in half a year, everything is run through his own personal account now.
His own merch is barely interesting.
His coworkers? From previously 4, there are only 2 left now, one of them having their own succesful YT channel.
It's like Shad is trying to achieve every single form of misogyny.
I must admit, that your channel has helped me a lot in viewing alternative perspectives on subjects that I attempt to address in my silly little book. It is excruciatingly exhausting to insert into an already "troubled" with philosophical elements book; issues that divide us all in a very serious way. Writing about problems that have plagued society for generations seems impossible, but with the support of critics like yourselves, it feels like one has a chance (apologies for edits :D ).
First books are allowed to be bad, that’s why we don’t publish them. Most writers have written multiple books before they publish one. Trunk novels should stay in the trunk.
Thing is, Shad claims that he DOES have trunk novels. Whatever he’s written over the years, THIS was what he chose to finally put forward.
@@GodKingReiss oh god. Well we never want to see those. If only they had all stayed in the trunk.
Patricia Briggs published her first four novels... Her first was bad, as she overused tropes, cliches and stereotypes, while also not knowing how to actually _write_ a novel. She admits, many years later, that she didn't know how to write a novel until her fourth.
*Snorts* She also admitted that she would have made more money selling her novels off of e-bay than going to a publisher, rofl. Her husband called those novels "limited editions". ROFL.
Her novels had two things going for them, setting and characters. Her characters are, except the villain in the first novel (he was just a walking, talking cliche), extremely human. She presents her characters in such a way, that it's very hard to _not_ like them (except for the villain in the first novel).
Shad's novel has nothing going for it... it's from the start to finish utter garbage.
There's a difference between "first books are bad" because of a lack of writing craft skill, and the author still figuring things out, and "this book is bad" because of issues like racism, misogyny, and whatever other isms it's hitting.
The first is something that gets better with time and practice of the craft, and the second is something that requires people to do a pretty big shift in their own perception of the world. As a reader I'm mostly willing to deal with craft issues from a new writer, not so much with dehumanizing politics.
Yeah, pretty sure, the Shad-turned-bad pipeline is what brought me here. But no way to be sure, since rant reviews are my thing anyways, so it could be either or both.^^
Fun fact! There is a religion called the "Bahá'í Faith" that doesnt have religious leaders! And its original holy scriptures are all less than 200 years old and still intact and presered to this day! It started in Iran and one of its founding principles was that due to humanity's educational progress priests and religious leaders are no longer necessary in modern times to read scripture to the majority illiterate population of the past. It's really fascinating! 🤩
I'm late to all of this and haven't read the book, but i was disturbed to see similarities between the light magic system and the beliefs of Mormon serial killer Chad Daybell. He has a scale of light and dark within people and he could look at people and discern their level of light or darkness, for example declaring someone a level 4 dark or light. If you were too dark you were irredeemable at which point the Mormon concept of blood atonement kicks in, where you can posibly be redeemed by being killed. Also, according to the book of mormon if you were bad, mormon god makes you born with darker skin, so there is a literal connection with the idea of blackness and darkness being bad, which ties into the worst curse being to declare something dark or black.
You can write stories about SA, you can write stories with dark themes where SA happens.... HOWEVER, Shad is not the correct person to write these stories, as is apparent from every neutral review I've seen of his book. I have it on Audible, and I have thought about suffering through it at times, but I don't think I will.
As someone who loves writing, I'd do a whole lot of research if I was planning on using topics like SA in a novel of mine... And even so, I would probably think thrice before touching such a dark subject.
Interesting that you pointed out how people can like a particular RUclips presenter and then gradually dislike them - this happened with Shad for me. I originally encountered his channel through his Wheel of Time commentary, and as he disliked the adaptation, it was interesting to watch. However, after that, I lost interest, and since becoming aware of his dubious views in his writing (thanks for the roast video - I will never have to read it). Watching you guys review it is much more interesting!
For me theres a few big differences between SA and murder especially in a narrative.
Murder/death/dying is a much more intrinsic part of life. EVERYONE dies and when theres conflict between one or more people/countries/groups in a narrative the logical outcome is well... death thats just how life and conflict work on that scale. SA is never a fundamental part of being alive, death is.
second is that murder/death has a much more mechanical application, you need that guy to no longer be in your story? well someone kills him You beat the big bad guy, but hes too powerful to put in a prison and you need him out of the story so you can move on? he gets killed, obviously a very boiled down example, But compared to SA? SA very rarely adds anything of substance other than some icky "damaged goods" edgey cringe or as a way to "mature" a character.
And the third for me is that SA is a violation of the self, or the soul if you believe in that, where as murder is a violation of ones life, both are bad and i dont think one is intrinsicaly worse than the other, but they both feel VERY different in ones own mind and that has to be factored in with how the topic is handled. When reading we are obviously much more mentally engaged, we are thinking we are interacting on a very emotional and personal level with our identity. SA is a violation and attack on ones identity, where as murder is a more "physical" act.
I really like the discussion about dark fantasy and it put my own writing into perspective.
Never published anything though, and the writing is hard now during burnout. :<
But still, thanks, it was a delight, even though the topic is utter shite.
I started watching this because I didn't know that Shad wrote a book. I haven't watched him in a while. As someone who grew up Mormon, I'm not surprised by the problems you're describing. I'm still disappointed by it, but not surprised.
He published the novel in 2018/2019. He then promoted his book every chance he had way back then. I bought it. All I felt was anger. I _wanted_ Dayless to die... *Shakes Head*
Since then, I'm a bit more collected, and there are oodles of problems with the novel. Characterization is inconsistent, world building/setting is self-contradictory, and the plot is contrived... and that's before we get to theme, story elements, and messaging, lol.
Catholic here 😬 just wanted to say “Just going to confession and then saying a few prayers to be redeemed” isn’t how the Sacrament of Confession works. If it were we would have a very shallow faith indeed. You must truly be repentant of the sins you confess for the confession and absolution to be valid. If you go in arbitrarily because you’re supposed to or out of guilt with no desire to change or sense of remorse in your heart then you need to work on a very thorough examination of conscience as well as get yourself help and in better company to get back on track morally and ethically.
Being honest the whole just say a few prayers and you’re just forgiven! Is more of a Protestant thing, more so in modern iterations of Protestantism.
Edit: Just for those who may not be Catholic or may be curious.
I’m just seeing this video now but thank you for this comment. People who are not Catholic don’t understand that the regret at committing the has to be real.
Hell yeah jack saint support! he really does slay imo
I don't really have anything smart to comment about this book, so for the algorithm purpose, I'll say this: If you would like to try the LitRPG genre, try Dungeon Crawler Carl. It's a mix of great comedy and existential horror and even in the first book you can see Carl's slow descent to madness.
14 is the age of Joseph Smith's youngest secret polygamist wife. Maybe thats why 14 is the age of consent in his book?
Also, I read and really enjoyed the entire Scythe Series. It's def YA but its still really good. The author put a ridiculous amount of work into constructing an actual utopian society and the effect of cults of personality.
The development of LDS theology vis-a-vis forgiveness stem from the early reaction to Joseph Smith's behaviour. No Man Knows my Name, the Joseph Smith biography, covers the latter in fair detail, & reflecting on this video has given me the chance to reflect on that.
Well... 14 is considered to be an adult for the vast of human civilizations... fortunately, most current civilizations have found that age to be way too low and have spent considerable amount of time protecting the children from abuses they suffered... just 100 years ago.
@@victoriafelix5932 No Man Knows my History*
@@imustremaincivil2932 Thank you for correcting me, as I had had been both half-asleep & half-witted enough to not check I'd the title right before I had commented. I appreciate it.
@@victoriafelix5932 You're welcome!
Disaffected Shad fan here. I watched your first video, and now I'm watching this one, and I couldn't agree more. And BTW, yes his sword videos were always pretty crap. I got into him because of Medieval castle and Conan: Exiles videos. Those were actually very good, but it became more and more obvious over time that his personal biases were immensely over-informing his views on history. That was before the culture war grift started. Now he's just insufferable. Everything is "White, straight men are the most persecuted people in the world." It's exhausting.
I can’t say in good faith I was a fan, but liked him for a few days. I don’t know anything about castles or swords and didn’t watch those videos. The algo recommended a vid he did about medieval literacy when I was looking for like, actual historians with YT channels. I really liked his personality, was interested in the topic, and wanted to look into his source after his video. Watched another one about medieval profanity. Enjoyed that too. He mentioned in the video that he would not actually be cursing, as didn’t align with his religious values. I respect and appreciate that. Didn’t think about it twice. Like literally not even a month later, someone I follow posted a video of him on an unhinged culture war rant. I find it rich that the same man who doesn’t feel comfortable cursing is totally comfortable saying the most unkind, heinous shit imaginable about women who commit the crime of not being attractive to him.
@@CirceWasJustified His transition was really fast, which is why I think he lost so many subscribers and followers. There are some others in the same space who made the same right turn, but they did it more gradually. Creators like Metatron sort of sprinkled in their own ideologies more and more over time. With Shad it was like overnight. Like he'd made reference to being devoutly religious, but as long as they're not preachy, that doesn't bother me. That was about it, though. Then one day, BAM, he's in the middle of a video about (I don't remember the exact tooic, but it was Medieval history related) and suddenly he's ranting about homosexuality. The next video, he was all in on the culture war crap. Then came his podcast Knight's Watch, which is a fun watch if you want to see just how unhinged people can be about straight white cis males being the most persecuted people on the planet. Lol
Oh hell yeah Jack Saint shoutout! He's fantastic. Found him about four years ago and it's genuinely impressive how consistently great his work is.
I believe that it was the artist/person adapting the book to the comic who asked to make those changes, and Shad basically just agreed to it, he didn't come up with the changes.
Lit crit requires a good foundation in reading & literacy skills. And because it's usually assumed that this stuff happens as a matter of course, it's easy to forget that lit crit itself requires teachable skills, such as close reading.
But it also ties into the valorisation of talent over skill in the field of writing & the other arts.
Having talent is like having a bonus skill point.
Surprisingly, it's the people that already have the talent that get the teachers on the subject they already have a talent in. Everyone else who wants to learn must do it themselves without a teacher and it takes years (not including the emotional baggage) from being kicked aside and pushed to go into fields they didn't want to be in. Obviously the person who is in the field of their desire will be better at the job than a person who didn't get the teacher or the chances.
16:40: I think loving a specific book or series or movie or whatever, and maybe even being a fan of it, should involve to love the medium the way it is, meaning including its faults. Nothing is perfect, every book has its flaws, but loving a book means that you love it with its flaws. When you cannot see or accept these aspects of a book, you don't like the book, you like the mental imagination you created of that book.
I think the book could have been kinda cool, if there had simply been the implication that Daylen is an Unreliable Narrator. Maybe tell his story in 1st Person, and then tell Lyra's story from the third person. And then, the second that Lyra and Daylen meet, you get two perspectives on his behaviour and realise that he is still a genocidal monster. This is one twist away from a really cool idea, I think.
That book was just horrific. I can't believe that Amazon was OK with publishing it... I actually had to stop watching the review video because as a survivor of CSA it made me sick to my stomach.
I paused after the "Dark Fantasy" discussion to bring in this little tidbit. I myself am currently working on my own Fantasy Series, in terms of writing, and I am currently calling it a "Dark Fantasy" mostly due to a lot of the subject matter in it. And I am taking my time, and doing what research I can on a lot of the topics. The three Main MCs all have something dark involved with them in their past that they all are working through. Physical Abuse is one, PTSD is another, and the third is more an emotional depression. But there are a lot of other themes involved in my story, and so I am making sure to take care to not have anything feel like "This is just there to make bad person even more bad" but more of a "This is a reality of this world, and even our own world, and ignoring it is as bad as praising it" type thing, if that makes sense. But I also call it a "Dark Fantasy" because my major objective with it is to turn a literary standard on its head more, and reversing the typical "human good, monster bad" stereotype.
I dropped off from Shad because of his supporting AI for art years ago, I haven’t kept up with anything surrounding him since and I’m starting to think I left at the right time
"The entire power structure exists to protect abusive pieces of shit?!"
"Always has." - astronaut with gun meme
Re: “Catholic confession is not supposed to work that way”: as someone living in a majority Catholic country, who also would go to confession regularly for about a year in my teens (I’m a happy atheist now) - that’s exactly how confession works in my experience. There’s no reflection, the priest doesn’t ask you to do any soul searching or spiritual repetence.
It’s incredibly rote and mechanical - you list your sins, you get told to say 10 Hail Marys or Pater Noster, and you’re done.
I’m sure there are SOME truly thoughtful priests, who actually want to make their parishioners better people, but I have never experienced or heard of it. Not to mention catholic priests usually hold incredibly conservative, misogynistic, homophobic and outdated ethical views, so they shouldn’t generally be the arbiters of morality anyway.
I'm also an ex-catholic from a majority catholic country. I have to say that I did have some very good priests when I went to confession. It wasn't a rule, most of them were just rote and harmless, but some were genuinely good. The best priest turned out to be the one I had been scared to go to when I was a child - he was a very old man who used to give very long sermons and seemed a bit severe in public. He ended up being very sympathetic and actually caring as a confessor (he also had a PhD in philosophy, so I guess that's part of what put me off from his sermons, which were quite advanced for my age back then haha)
There was one or two priests that annoyed me with their bigotry. And the last parish priest before I lost faith - I used to really like and respect him, he had a lot of knowledge and you could see his personal faith and passion shine through when he prayed and preached. But I did notice that sometimes he'd say some things I disagreed with that were clearly the result of his religious conditioning, which made me sad. Just goes to show that you can be or want to be a good person but sometimes the things you're taught can actually make you preach bad things (even if you wouldn't act on that in actual real life). I left precisely because of that disconnect between what I thought a good person should think and what the Bible and the church were actually preaching.
Speaking of criticizing things you love: people shit on me for saying that High School Musical, no matter how cheesy, is targeted at young adults and tells a valuable story about not putting people in boxes…
If y’all want some more great Shadiversity bashing, be sure to check out some of Westside Tyler’s vids on Shad after you’ve finished with Unresolved’s videos!
If you like some ableism against autistic people, sure. But if you are not interested in ableism don’t give ableist people views.
@@comradeRat8545 Tyler wouldn’t want me defending him on his behalf, so I’m not going to. VODgang.😎
@@comradeRat8545 When and how has he been ableist?
@@manolgeorgiev9664 he makes long videos where he calls random right wing grifters autistic. I tried to tell him that is an ableist thing to say, you don’t get to diagnose people as autistic based on them being publicly an asshole. His response was that I’m wrong and also not a real person who should be listened to because I’m autistic. If you can’t recognize the ableism in that I can’t help you. Westside Tyler is an ableist and a fake leftist.
@@manolgeorgiev9664 🤐
Maybe I am just an insensitive person. But I have never felt that one sex or gender being harmed was worse than another. I think it is problematic to insinuate that something is only bad if your own gender, sex, race, oe culture is affected. Bad things are bad and my interpretation of events doesn't change just because of a particular type of person being the victim. Well, minus behaviors that can be applied universally.
Shadiversity has just released a video on his right-wing political opinion channel called 'Has Brandon Sanderson gone WOKE and BETRAYED his religion?' I would LOVE if you guys covered this video!
When Will just continued talking for waay too long he dedinitely put two out of four of his bonds into lung capacity lmao
Daylen is Shad's OC Do Not Steal ™
I just want to thank this channel for the discussion as someone who is often called overly critical, this podcast is like being a part of book club without having to time manage with other people with schedules. I love what you all had to say about SA and how it is used as a way to make women fearful while ignoring how it relates to men, leaving men who it happens to only bad outlets to deal with and suppress that trauma. Just great discussions, thanks for sharing, and thank you to all the people who can afford to support you.
I really like your takes on SA in Fantasy Literature
1:20:00 yes!!!!!! I hate that so much and I keep seeing it more and more! Too many authors act like "bad guy = doesn't respect consent" or "he's a creep so ofc he's a bad guy, no other reason."
My husband reads tons of litrpgs. They are so badly written and full of cutable writing but he loves them so I try to be kind. It's painful when you're constantly hearing character's stats. It's like someone said, wow you know what would make a book more interesting if we put the boring code that makes rpgs playable games and not adults daydreaming in as part of the world building 😂
GET OUT OF HERE?!
JAZZA is shadiversitys brother?!!!?
edit: this is a harder surprise than when i found out the twokinds creator is markipliers brother
I really enjoyed your video, the discussion on SA was really good, I think it is over used in literature and honestly can only remember maybe 1 time it was used well in one of the Malazan book I think.
50:00 there’s a difference between using religious ideas as plot devices (rules which often get applied arbitrarily and don’t penetrate the dna of the worldbuilding) vs building a world around certain laws of reality that you as the author have decided upon. Tolkien built a world in which God was part of the dna and therefore affected every part of the story; Shad just used “the Light” to pardon his bestest boy and give him superpowers. the first feels more natural because it’s deeply integrated, complex, and allows philosophical questions, just like religion in our world
I just finished reading "Long Live Evil" by Sarah Rees Brennan. It's a portal fantany where someone from the real world ends up in a book. It was better than I expected, although it does end on a cliffhanger. If you three are adding books to your TBR list, that may be a good one.
There's a story I want to negatively compare SotC to, and it's the 1988 manga "Bastard!!".
The premise of Bastard!! is that in a heavy metal fantasy world of grimderp, there once was an evil wizard Dark Schneider. Dark Schneider tried to conquer the world, but was defeated and killed. In the modern day the kingdoms of "good" are being threatened by the resurrection of an evil god Anthrasax, so the world leaders find a reincarnation of Dark Schneider and awaken his memories of the past life. For all intents and purposes - it's Dark Schneider sharing the body of a 15 y.o. boy. He's pointed in the direction of the evil god and sent to fight him, with loose constraints keeping him on the goal.
On paper, it is a similar premise - a once evil tyrant on a quest to do something good. The difference is in tone and execution. Bastard!! makes no excuses for Dark Schneider. Dark Schneider is an evil selfish asshole who neither wants nor deserves redemption. And the audience isn't expected to judge him - we are here for the ride. It's a "wow this villain is cool!" tone. And that's what makes Bastard!! work. Bastard!! works to its strengths. If we have a villain protagonist - let him be villainous. If it's an overpowered mary sue - go ham and revel in it.
For an EXCELLENT perspective on redemption, I suggest looking at a little vidéo named "Teal'c and Tomin, you will never forgive yourself".
It is from the series Stargate SG1. Tomin was a general from a fanatical and genocidal empire, but he truly believed. Until he betrayed them for the good guys. Teal'c is about the same but made his treason in the first episode, and has saved the world on many, many occasions since.
The grifting comment feels like projection. "We know shad is grifting but you are too!!1!1!"
I used to love shad... but his knights watch channel and the Mario movie stuff is why I stopped watching.
I myself am an active mormon and a conservative but I hate this online conservative nonsense of the second there is something kinda gay or has a woman as a main character to just immediately call it dei and woke is frustrating.
I do dislike woke and dei stuff when it's actually happening and is a detriment to whatever media it's in but otherwise I'm on board with more good representation
Edit: you guys should do some brandon sanderson books to see what a good mormon author can do
the point with things important to who the creator is intrinsically seeping through into the work, I agree with. as a queer person unable to live as myself completely openly where I live, the themes of hidden identities, not being accepted or recognized, hated by the society even, inevitably appear in any of my work, whether I was aware of it while writing or I noticed it in hindsight. even if it's not purposefully woven in there, I can't create meaningful art, something that doesn't feel shallow, without those themes popping up anyway.
Suggestion; Add name tags and some info border thing to the stream layout, I think it would be a much neater look for the vod at least. Plus it makes it easier for people joining mid stream to get their bearings if they missed the intro!
i understand that its bad for the channel to make videos that no one cares about but its sooo damn hard to find videos about nonfiction books it would be a blessing to have some good content here and here from book lovers🙏
I thought about reading shads book when her first talked about writing it. I hadn’t gotten around to it but it sounds like that’s a good thing.
One thing I noticed is that I did think it was fun to watch this channel at the start but; a lot of the comments made by the casters are actually pretentious and it's hard to listen to repeatedly. I am in no way defending Shadversity but some of the criticisms are just not fully founded.
I came for literature commentary and I learned that socialists are good and conservatives are bad. The level of arrogance the guy in particular shows is off the charts.
I stopped watching shad's videos once his disgusting views starting seeping into his stuff. Big fantasy nerd, but i never tried his book. Glad the algorithm recommended your review of it, i enjoyed it immensely. Your videos are pretty entertaining, i especaily love Katie, she's so expressive. Such a great smile too
If you're interested in exploring some LitRPG, may I recommend the amazing Beers and Beards: An Adventure Brewing by JollyJupiter. I think it has a great example of self reflection and growth in the story, though the dad puns may be off-putting to some.
I think your view of forgiveness is rather simplistic, no forgiveness does not just come from those affected by your actions. There is the matter of personal forgiveness whether or not someone can forgive themselves and move on.
Other than that the ‘redemption’ arc is shit, the whole inner light bs is flawed beyond comprehension and the book is really fucking creepy.
I had originally watched shad for the sword stuff and lost interest a number of years ago his channels focus shifted too unpleasantly for me. I’ve now subbed to you.
Excuse my long random comments, here I go:
1) Sorry I missed the Livestream, I'm in California and I don't have full cognitive brain function until after breakfast and the feeding of my pets.
2) I'm a woman and a gamer and I've only ever been treated with respect in my gaming experience, except for perhaps twice. I'm glad I'm so lucky.
3) I'm a conservative and while I disagree with many things you guys like in the books you review, getting another perspective really helps me with my own writing and thinking. Thank you.
4) I'm a firm believer that there is no redemption without repentance. You need to feel remorse for your sins, say you're sorry and actively change to be fully redeemed. Then accept whatever punishment is coming your way. (Justice)
5) As to your comments about DEI, I personally don't mind diversity in media. I'm of the stance that it should be newly written material not reworked, recolored and rebranded existing material.
6) My own writing is likely vanilla, I don't like having murder or SA in my stories. You don't need to chose the most horrific thing on the spectrum to depict the difference between good and evil. I much prefer being subliminal. I don't need detailed descriptions of how Sauron mutilated the Elves to create Orcs. The word itself is terrifying enough.
7) I think anyone has a right to criticize a topic and open it up for discussion. Roast or Rant, the only difference is, one can be tasty.
Anyway those are my 7 cents. (And a terrible pun.) Have a great day and I look forward to your Savior's Champion Livestream. Thoughts and prayers to you guys, even if (some?) of you are Atheist. 🥰👋🏻
P.S. My black cat is named Mini and he's the sweetest runt that grew into a Panther.🥰
I used to watch him for the swords. I didn’t care if it was accurate or not, just a vid to enjoy someone rant about something they liked. But he went hard with politics and only complaining about things…and that’s when I stopped watching.
It's funny the convergence of people unaware of their privilege and women being catcalled, it made me notice something from my past. A friend with whom I've had numerous arguments about how her privilege, thoroughly invisible to her, kept coloring her perceptions about society (usually cops), one time she and I were walking down a sidewalk at night and she got drive-by catcalled. To her it was highly affirming of her womanhood and attractiveness (she's never been less than highly attractive), and even in the moment it struck me as a slightly odd reaction. Only now do I realize that she's always had the privilege and power that she just isn't on the receiving end of catcalls and similar behavior. A perfect example of privilege blinding her to the demeaning conditions that others endure, so much so that she took what others have as degrading and received it as a compliment, purely because she doesn't have to suffer it when she's unreceptive to it.
Wait is Data a Cybersix reference? Is he named after Data 7?
I'm so mad i found this channel 1 day after the live stream. I subscribed because of this book review.
So, on Shad... I used to watch his stuff, back when he actually seemed reasonable, and only talked about historical sword stuff. But then something changed AGES ago, like back pre-covid, and I stopped following his channel. Not specifically the anti-woke stuff, just an odd vibe. Needless to say, seeing him crop up among Alt Right sorts in video essays in just the last few months has been insanely disappointing.
It blows my mind that the book got published as it was. Before it came out, Shad was bragging about helping with the stormlight archives, the book was read by Micheal Kramer. You would like to think that the guy who narrated the Wheel of Time would pull shad to the side and go dude. Wtf. Some of his connections would reign him in.
If you hit a lull and want another book that will probably get a lot of views, I think Redemption by Will Jordan would get good traction on RUclips. The author is another failed writer turned right wing RUclips reactionary known as Critical Drinker.
I’d probably wait a bit to do that so that the channel doesn’t feel like it’s going too far into RUclips personality takedown content, but maybe eventually.
James Tullos made a video on that one. What I remember most is how even though Jordan is constantly bashing feminism is self insert main character keeps needing to be saved by a woman.
Commie
An interesting discussion, though the rather significant emphasis on the the politics of the commentators was a bit annoying.
At one point the gentleman acknowledged that those on the left and the right both embrace victimhood narratives, but immediately invalidated that acknowledgement by insisting that when done by those on his side it's justified...
Similarly, it was acknowledged that feminists sometimes act badly, but it was then indicated that such people aren't REALLY feminists.
All rather self-serving...
In A Song of Ice and Fire the seasons nature isn’t clear, i suspect there’s real seasons within the season, why the North sometimes have snow in summer, I think there’s real seasons might be the natural seasons happening normally within the unnatural seasons
I only watch yall on 2x speed and when it reverts back to 1x it feels like you're drunk 😂
What happened is shad alienated his own fan base including by allowing other creators who had a failing channel come in and take over his channel and spend all his money on bs. Those two friends seem to have dragged shad in to right wing grift content and largely away from normal swordplay content
Ok, around minute 1:40 Maria showed us the majesty of Pumpkin again and we got some kitteh lore, so I will just say I demand moar kittehs in your videos, or I will riot in horrible and as of yet unexperienced ways!