LCD Night Ranger

Discussion in 'Latest Chapter Discussion' started by jacobpaige, Nov 15, 2017.

  1. jacobpaige

    jacobpaige Well-Known Member

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    For those people who come to the LCD forum for links instead of using the search function: http://www.novelupdates.com/series/night-ranger/

    Earlier chapters' comments lost to computer error :(

    C23: Why didn't he just have the official arrest and execute his uncle for murdering his own brother?

    C25: It's really hard to take this seriously when people keep saying a campy name like Masked Twin Blades all the time, especially with all the shallow villains running around.

    C27: Couldn't you also just kill them from behind? Or blindfold them then kill them? Or even just blind them normally? Gouging out the eyes seems unnecessarily extreme.

    C43: Isn't Anna a half-elf? Do half-elves not get night vision?

    C50: It seems that the author forgot that Shadow Step required 2k, not 1k.

    Why didn't he investigate the treasure under the castle? It wasn't likely to take long, and knowing what it was would give him a better idea of who his enemies were.

    C56: "But this time, he craftily removed Masked Twin Blades’s mask and put on a mouth mask! " I thought his basic mask was a mouth mask? I could have sworn it was just a piece of cloth, which basically requires it to be a mouth mask if he didn't cut holes in it. Though, even if that wasn't the case, how many high quality dual wielder rangers does he think this city has?

    C63: I'm pretty sure it'll be a caster class since he's part Numen. Honestly, I'm leaning towards Warlock since he's got the newbie Warlock kit already. I'm just not sure why he'd do it in spite of the calamity.
     
  2. criticalmind

    criticalmind Enter Chunni Name Here

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    Good points. I'm rooting for some kind of shadow mage hybrid
     
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  3. jacobpaige

    jacobpaige Well-Known Member

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    It's the most likely thing really.

    Personally, I'd like something more novel that he could claim as Baron Marvin's main class like a Sun Priest or something. It would give him more credibility as noble, open up a lot more options for him diplomatically speaking, cover some of the weaknesses of his class, and it would actually gain power after the calamity. Also, as long as he was careful with his skill/spell use, it would make it even harder for people to connect his two personas.
     
  4. shinikage

    shinikage Well-Known Member

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    you had my interest until i read it was posted by quidian, then you lost me sorry.
     
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  5. AtratusImperator

    AtratusImperator Well-Known Member

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    As far as the C25 thing, Chinese names all mean something. Any time you see Tian Long or Tian Li, that literally means Heavenly Dragon/Dragon of the Heavens and Heavenly Fire/Fire of the Heavens respectively depending on how you wanna phrase it.

    When you see names for servants that are, say, Long Yi, Long Er, Long San etc... that's just Dragon 1, Dragon 2, Dragon 3. In English, at the very least, we find this very strange, or it sounds very strange, our names don't usually mean things. Jessica is Jessica. William is William. Ryan is Ryan. They are placeholders for individuals. Not words that stand on their own. This is why Translators usually leave their names as Pinyin rather than TL them out.

    I dunno that this is the case here specifically for Masked Twin Blades, but, that's probably a very close direct translation of what is they call him in the RAWs. If they just said he made up an identity as Shuang Daopian (which according to google TL is what Twin Blade is) you'd have no idea why he was calling himself that or what impact/significance that has, or may have, on the story. This is one of the biggest challenges for a TL in my opinion. Some things just do not directly translate or lose their 'coolness' in a direct translation. Are there maybe better choices for his title/alter ego's identity? Sure, there probably are.
     
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  6. Shadowdracul

    Shadowdracul Well-Known Member

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    I feel sad for you.
     
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  7. Anonymousbb

    Anonymousbb Well-Known Member

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    I've noticed that before, the whole thing where Chinese (and I think Japanese as well, maybe most SE Asian names?) are actually words in their languages with other meanings and not just 'names' like in English (and in at least some, if not most, of the other Latin-based languages).

    I also agree with the TL thing. A lot of Chinese translations I see will leave something untranslated with a note that then gives a translation for it, and I can only think 'Then why didn't you just translate it in the text?'. Some things are the 'they kind of mean this, but not quite', which I'll usually just equate to whatever the thing was (though I understand why it's left untranslated). I really enjoyed Lil' Bliss's translation of A Slight Smile is Very Charming because of how they TL'd names. In-game names were the English translations (which made sense to me and fit a game well), while the real-world names were left in pinyin.
     
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  8. lafiel11

    lafiel11 Well-Known Member

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    It's great story. But I want the author to put some focus on why Mc reincarnated into this world. Why use this setting only for knowledge cheat?
    Yeah if you can ignore this plothole ,the story is quite enjoyable ,but I prefer to have a solid backstory as well.
     
  9. jacobpaige

    jacobpaige Well-Known Member

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    Actually, English names mean things too, it's just that they frequently mean things in other languages or are references to famous people or places. William, for instance, can roughly translate to "resolute protector" in archaic forms of German, Jessica is a reference to the Bible (or maybe Shakespeare), and Ryan is "little king" in Irish (not sure if that's modern Irish though).

    Sometimes they even mean things in English like Jade, Summer, Chastity or Joy.

    Though, more on topic, I would have been fine with the pinyin and a footnote for the English translation, but I can understand why they did it the way that they did.

    I'd give up on ever expecting that to be explained. I've yet to see any series that bothered if they didn't mention it in the first 1-2 chapters.
     
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  10. AtratusImperator

    AtratusImperator Well-Known Member

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    Very few people know those meanings. And those words don't actually mean that in English. Its what they TL to in older/ancient languages. Ryan is just Ryan. Long literally means Dragon in chinese. English words have meanings as related to how languages evolve but the Chinese language operates drastically different from English.

    Basically if you were TLing an English story to Chinese you'd carry the names straight over. You wouldn't TL Ryan as XiaoWang.(little king) that wouldn't make sense. It doesn't mean that in English, its just a name. In ancient german, hebrew, gaelic or whatever language it might mean something but in English it doesn't. My surname/lastname is "Gagliardi" and in old italian it means vigor or great strength. My first name Stephen, comes from 'stephanos' which means Crown/that which surrounds in Ancient Greek. My name is not Great Strength that surrounds or Crown of Great Strength. Or Vigorous Crown. Its just Stephen Gagliardi. A placeholder for a person.


    This is closer to how the Chinese names/language works but still not really the same because it would only apply to their first names in this case.
     
    Last edited: Nov 15, 2017
  11. jacobpaige

    jacobpaige Well-Known Member

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    Why was the idiot surprised by his speed if he was expecting him after a week? He took 2 days to get to the city, 1 day to deal with the plague, at least 1 day to go through necromancer territory, 1 day for the dragon, 3 days in the village and another 2 days for the air balloon ride, for 10 days in total. Even if some of those weren't full days, it'd still be more than a week. Honestly, I'm not sure why he's being so relaxed about this since his brother is likely dead either that night or the next.

    I wonder if he'll go on an assassination spree before or after he cures his brother. I figure he'll at least wait until he's got his class advancement if he's not stupid, so it should be after, but you never know how much the author is going to care about maintaining internal realism in their story.

    Actually, if he was really smart, he'd just let it go. After all, it's not exactly difficult to tie Masked Twin Blades to Baron Marvin, and with him defending himself in spectacular and distinctive fashion with the same pair of uncommon twin blades as MTB uses, people would have to be particularly stupid to not realize that the two might be one and the same. And if people make that connection, the wizards will come to destroy his territory. Best to wait until the wizards lose most of their power and his territory has stabilized and expanded to the extent that he can afford the distraction of wiping out the remnants of a clan that will likely have destroyed itself due to it's most powerful members either dying or turning into monsters that kill everyone around them. Honestly, letting them live through that hell is likely worse than just killing them now, and as long as he withdraws his brother from the academy (which he should regardless), there's not much reason for them to bother him anymore.
    And when people talk to each other, do they actually think, "I'm talking to the second dragon to have ever existed," or do they think "I'm talking to Long Er," the same as an English speaker wouldn't think that "Jade Smith" was someone who crafted jades for a living? I'm pretty sure it's the latter. That being the case, simply leaving it as pinyin with an author's note explaining why people are calling him that would be enough. Though honestly, it's not that important, and it's way off topic for this forum.
     
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  12. gary0044187

    gary0044187 Well-Known Member

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    I have really enjoyed this one. A very interesting tale so far.
     
  13. Narcox

    Narcox Well-Known Member

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    Anna is the main heroine or is another girl?
     
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  14. jacobpaige

    jacobpaige Well-Known Member

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    Regardless of who started the fight, the fact that he killed not just the fighters, but even the apprentice, instead of disabling them, even though disabling them wouldn't have been hard for him, would definitely upset the mages of the school. The mages of the school have nobility ranks that far exceed his own and that are far less empty than his. Even if they agreed that the apprentice was in the wrong, they would still kill Marvin for disrespecting their authority and killing their people, especially since he did it on their doorstep in front of so many witnesses.

    I am so very tired of being told that brain dead stupidity is actually badass awesomeness. I can't decide if it means that the author is a moron or if he just thinks his readers are. Either way, the only reason the MC will survive this is excessive plot armor, and I absolutely hate plot armor.

    It's also worth noting that anyone with a brain will know that he's MTB within a week, but I seriously doubt that will ever matter, once again due to plot armor.

    "Without a magic staff, his casting speed was doubled at least! " Then why take it away from him?
    She's certainly the most likely, but I'll be at least mildly surprised if this doesn't turn into a harem. Most series that expect you to think that a short-sighted, short-tempered, egotistical moron is a badass genius will have a harem.
     
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  15. TheGamingNerd

    TheGamingNerd Active Member

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    By the way Numen in latin mean Divine Mind pretty much it's power coming from the mind it's not coming from the Wizard shit whatever (don't remember that shit that mages use mana from) He could become a caster ,Illusion master or something. But in my opinion i think the divine mind *Numen* could be a related class somewhat similar to gods in the novel (this is just my imagination don't think it will actually happen ) XD
     
  16. jacobpaige

    jacobpaige Well-Known Member

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    You may be right about it being an illusion caster of some sort, I was only assuming Warlock because he had all the books already and wouldn't need to find a teacher until it came time for his third class, and I'm sure his new necromancer friend could have helped him by then. Whatever it is though, it'll probably just play a support role in setting up his melee range assassinations. The series is a bit monotone in that regard.
     
  17. gary0044187

    gary0044187 Well-Known Member

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    I think they meant to say that his casting time is doubled, not speed.

    As for his actions. He IS a Baron. Becoming a Baron was inherited from his grandfather becoming one due to his accomplishments. Not because the grandfather was a mage but because he was a mage with great accomplishments, great enough that his descendants received the honors given to him. Thus it is not guaranteed that any of the students here actually have a title. As such, them acting out against a titled person is pretty much challenging the rule of the wizard alliance.

    Remember, these wizards have families as well and cannot live forever. An organization like this would protect the descendants of wizards, especially powerful or accomplished ones, specifically because they would want their own descendants protected as well. Thus it behooves them to support the rights of anyone with a title instead of always favoring the mage.

    This kid went too far trying to frame the MC who is a Baron with an inherited title. The MC went too far as well, but it is apparent from his behavior that he may be somewhat in his right and that as long as the leadership at the tower is not overly corrupt they will take his side on it. Even more importantly, it may force the real opponent out into the open.
     
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  18. Albedos_Ahoge

    Albedos_Ahoge Well-Known Member

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    Thanks, i only come for the link.... just no time to participate in forum.
     
  19. jacobpaige

    jacobpaige Well-Known Member

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    Wasn't Hathaway supposed to be in closed door cultivation until she hit legend? Wasn't that the reason why she wasn't bothering to save his brother even though she's sworn to fight against the evil cults and to protect her students, either one of which would have obligated her to step in and save him? So why is it that she can't be bothered to save his brother, but she can be bothered to run around pretending to be a little girl in exactly the right time and place for her to witness the MC being bullied? And I'll be shocked if she doesn't side with the MC in spite of the fact that he ruthlessly and needlessly murdered one of the students under her protection for what was, as far as he can prove, a relatively minor mistake that could easily have been due to incompetence rather than malice and would have resolved itself once a more competent person reviewed the case (or so would argue the apprentice's family, friends, teachers and other connections).
    I wasn't saying that the apprentice was a noble, I was saying that the people in charge of the academy were nobles, and that their ranks were most definitely higher than Baron. The apprentice himself was their representative, and if Marvin was willing to whip out that medal to deal with the situation, then he could have resolved it all without bloodshed and likely forced the apprentice to pay massive amounts of restitution. Even if he didn't want to use the medal, he could still have incapacitated all three of them without difficulty. The fact that he chose to kill the representative of higher ranked nobles instead just shows how little regard he has for said nobles, which nobles never take well, especially ones as well connected and individually powerful as those at the school would be.

    I do get what your saying, and I totally agree that they should protect the descendants of mages to encourage loyalty in current mages, but there are reasonable limits to that, and the MC passed those limits the moment he sunk his knife into that apprentice for no good reason.
     
  20. gary0044187

    gary0044187 Well-Known Member

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    Yeah I posted my response before seeing the chapter where he whips out the medal. I think from the POV of the MC the fact that this kid already had the gall to claim that his very real baron's medallion was a fake meant that the dude would have done the same to his medal as well. Note that the only visible guards were that dude and his minions. He detected that the dude wanted to harm him, if he pulled out the medal and was weak that dude would have possibly used the same excuse "it's a fake". Author probably should have had the MC force the doorman to tip his hand a little bit more before taking action against him, but TBH, they moved to draw weapons on him and arrest him already when he started taking action, perhaps in this world quickness to violence is more expected .

    Or my guess is that he is used to handling situations after the magic towers became impotent. Perhaps he is used to more lawless society so he is used to acting instead of plotting? This leads to two more thoughts.

    1) He relied upon the medal this time because it was a 3 time use get out of jail free card. This goes further, he knows someone poisoned his brother, and the moment he came to the tower someone tries to arrest him on baseless charges? This proves that this person is involved at least tangentially in his brother's poisoning. He knows that he has 3 uses of this medal and that this dude is an enemy, and that the medal will not be of any value really soon. So just like he says in the chapter, might as well use it now and reduce his enemy's power a little bit.

    2) As I mentioned before, the medal will be useless soon. This ties into another line of thinking, the negative side of the argument. The medal will be useless because the wizard's alliance will be useless soon. This means that the negative of potentially offending them will be quite largely negated. He can afford to offend the wizards because they are going to have a hard enough time just staying alive soon enough. It behooves him then to get as much benefit as possible out of his interactions with them now while they are still strong.

    Those two combined, medal as a get out of jail free card with limited utility now and none later, and wizard's alliance being strong now, but useless later, probably leads to him believing that the course of action he took will be the best for him. Couple that with the relatively lawlessness of the apprentice doorman having his goons draw weapons on a Baron of the alliance, the witness of the tower master, and reducing the enemy in the dark's available forces seems to me to make his solution very ruthless but rational.

    Finally, a bit more conjecture: he probably still thinks in some ways that they are npcs, which ought to lead to some sociopathy in interactions with them, and is used to post cataclysm conflict resolution, namely the kind of raw violence players cushioned from the effects of death by respawn and merely interacting with the world, not being part of the world, would be capable of using.

    I do see your point though, but we are early in this story so I am trying to throw the author a bone and try to make the character's actions seem reasonable. It's mostly conjecture though.

    Edit: wow, I did not intend to write an essay about this. I didn't really organize my thoughts so some of the supporting arguments might have gotten lost in the weeds.