Roasting Shadiversity's CREEPY book (Shadow of the Conqueror | Shad M. Brooks)
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 16 ก.ย. 2024
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you say you wouldn't be able to pick shad out from anyone else on the street, but i feel like you would -- he'd be the one wearing a hoodie that's made to look like chainmail.
And one whom police need to drag out of every castle after he pretends to be tourist guide.
I am in no way defending him, but he is a mormen. It is a brainwashing cult, and it explains a lot.
The gambeson STAYS ON.
@@anothercub6958 the actual bark of laughter that I just let out after reading that, holy moly.
it just occurred to me that he's almost definitely wearing magic Mormon underwear underneath his cosplay armor, too. you know, the white cotton t-shirt/clamdigger combo with masonic symbols embroidered over the nipples. what a _weird_ religion, man.
1:06:02 omg imagine the light bringer finds him and leads him on a “quest”that ends with him getting pushed in a volcano as an act of vengeance by the light cuz he’d turned into a shade in sheep’s clothing long ago
This whole thing feels like a D&D campaign Shad kept trying to run, but his players kept bailing because the whole thing revolved entirely around his one overpowered NPC.
Yeah this smacks of the DM's insert character
You wont see this but something few people know is that long before Shad wrote this book he ran a TTRPG stream as the DM and made one of his characters a fully developed alien 9 year old girl who's entire goal was to breed with the player characters. He tried to push it on his brother who was obviously not comfortable at all so Shad ended up making it sleep with one of his own OC characters instead. This book really should have been expected.
WHY. WHY. WHY. WHY. WHY. WHY. WHY. WHY.
-what I would scream at Shad if I could
Somehow, I am 0% surprised
A horrible day to be able to read
His brother Jazza, or another brother?
what in the world
I know exactly who this book was written for: Shad. Shad and every other jerk who wants to interrupt your night of DND fun by interjecting long-winded angry breakdowns of why your human lady ranger shouldn't be able to use her bow due to real world physics or whatever.
So, the EFAP, then.
The very first recorded fantasy story, the Epic of Gilgamesh is about a bloody tyrant on a journey to become a better person by experiencing pain and loss. Here we are, 4000 years later, and people still somehow manage to botch this very basic narrative arc.
The one thing people “know” about modern writing is you have to be “creative” and push untouched boundaries. It doesn’t occur to anyone why tropes seen in stories older than writing have survived this long.
Not to absolve Shad’s views in this book. You can be bad at writing and understand you may not be the most qualified person to talk about trauma or sexual violence.
i love it, like who is the Enkidu in this story?
@@weylinwebber4180lmao
You say "first recorded fantasy story", but I prefer "alpha-test bible v1.0".
Shad fundamentally doesn't understand redemption.
If he wanted to write a story about a person with an unforgivable past finding redemption, he should have had Daylen change his name, fly off to some obscure little poverty-stricken planet, and spend the rest of his days as a monk doing penance for his sins, helping women and the poor and enduring hardship himself in order to offer his own sufferings as justice.
Not "give him a bunch of super powers and make him young and hot."
And also not, as the very last lines of the book is, our horrid main character going "I am definitely a better person now".
My friend told me about this show called Banshee. I guess one of the characters in it was an ex neo nazi and he turned his life around and became a cop.
@@DarksideGmss0513 jackbooted thug puts in great effort to achieve massive personal improvement and growth and become a government-sanctioned jackbooted thug.
He's from a religion which doesn't understand redemption, atonement, and forgiveness. So, it's pretty hard to expect the same from a person who is uncritical of their religion, right?
Pretty much what Joe Abercrombie did in 'Red Country' (redemption done right I mean)
For someone who hates Mary Sues, he sure made a huge Mary Sue
Kind of a theme for conservative authors.
Probably because the Mary Sue is usually a deeply authoritarian character.
He only hates them when they're gurls
If it was called a Michael Steven, he'd be all over it
Mary Sue is when girl.
@@Mercenary0712 It's a Marty Stu
i'm so glad i didn't subject myself to actually reading this, but the comedic timing of me showing up to the livestream more than two hours late with a lukewarm cup of coffee like, "oh hey guys, you're still going?" only to be IMMEDIATELY hit with the soul-rendering pie-to-the face discussion surrounding Shad's rancid takes on motherhood, consent, and babies SURE WAS SOMETHING
That was opportune timing
You had lukewarm coffee? You were not prepared.
Thank you guys for calling out how this book prioritizes the view of the perpetrator instead of the victims. The way people like this author pat themselves on the back for „acknowledging rape is bad“ while absolutely missing the point of whose suffering is of actual consequence in those situations is so demoralizing.
On this note, just want to shout out Chanel Miller‘s memoir „Know My Name“ about her own case, because the way victims of rape are regularly badmouthed and sidelined in their own traumatic experiences by large parts of society is disgusting. She has also published a children’s book (written + illustrated by her!) this year which is what she went to college for at the time of her assault. I doubt many people wrote letters to the judge on her behalf though since poor Brock Turner had such a bright future ahead of him.😒
Ive not read the book but isnt Daylenn still the villain and how on earth is this any different than a show like RIngs of Power turning Sauron into the hero (and yes it does ).Or a far better story like breaking bad which turns walter white into a cold blooded massacering gangster by the end .
@@joshuascott3428,
Dayless was born, entered university as an engineer. Graduated at the top of his class. Then, the Night Fell (Shades turning off the perpetual light of the sun). Turning a great many people into Shades too, his parents who he was forced to kill. During the struggle he met a women, fell in love, and sired a son with her. The nations of the world gathered an army of 100,000 strong, so they could turn on the sun's light. After much fighting a dying, they succeeded 14 years after the night arrived. The arduous task of returning to the surface began, after another year in the caves, only 100 people returned to the surface.
On the surface, the nobles were hoarding food, famine was everywhere. So, he met with other veterans to discuss their options. The nobles sensing this was a good time to strike, attacked. Killing his wife, his son, and new-born daughter... as he and 9 others were able to escape. Angry at the nobles, he incited a peasant rebellion. It was successful. At the end he stood, the leader of the rebellion, in throne room as the king's only child was brought to him. Although she 7 or so, she demanded everyone around her to be executed and demanded where the executioner was. Dayless, kills her where she stood, as she represented everything he fought against.
Then, he sets out to create a "perfect" society in which everyone's needs can be met... but the three nations around him attacked. After much fighting he conquered them, thus the Empire of Light began. As he was reorganizing his new nation, he met a woman. She loved him, he didn't. Realizing that she was talking about marriage, he ended the relationship and picked up a new mistress. She returned, tried to kill his new mistress, so he had her executed.
Over the course of 30 years, Dayless became cruel. He went from barely legal age girl to barely legal age girl, forcing them to parade themselves in the nude, forcing himself on them, as he hurt them for his pleasure. He waged wars with his neighbours, betrayed his allies and conquered everything in his path. With only a handful of nations remaining... the rebellions began... He quickly crushed them... and ordered his siege weapon to _level_ an entire city of 1,000,000 people and ordered his army to kill all those who try to escape.
The Magic Knights had enough... so they declared war on him. Within months his armies were shattered, many of his conquests were in open rebellion... so he fled under an assumed name to tiny village and became a tinker. He was there for 20 years... until his 82nd birthday. He felt old, so old. He wrote a journal admitting all of his crimes (and also used it to pass on lies about people he didn't care for... thinking will believe the lies because of all the other things he admitted to). Then, he took his life by jumping off the edge of the world...
... only to ask for a do-over as he passed through the bottom of the world. At the top of the world, he reappeared as a young man with more powers than _any_ magic knight. Realizing his journal could be found at any point... he runs "home" for his sword (an artifact of great power crafted by him, for his personal use, and is _infamous_ enough to be recognized as _his)_ and for his little badge which indicates he's one of the top 100 swordmasters in the world (despite not practicing with the sword in 20 years). On the way home he goes about being a little arrogant vigilante, using sexual violence on those he catches in the act of committing grape, and slaughtering homeless people who attempt to use violence to force him out of their preferred sections of alleys.
Once he's home, he meets a priest... the priest convinces him the priest must travel with him... despite wanting to go to the capital to forge a new set of ID for himself.
So, no. Dayless is the anti-hero of the story. Not the villain. There are several villains.. but they are all killed by Dayless. *Sigh*
Dayless should have been executed for his crimes... not spared for "his abilities". It's like sparing Mr. A. Hitler because he shows up in the 1960's with magical powers which he can use to save people with. What he _might_ do in the future doesn't negate what he did in the past. That's something Shad failed to consider.
@@aralornwolf3140 Sorry bro you described a sympathetic villain not a antihero
@@joshuascott3428 Rings of Power doesn't turn Sauron into a hero. And why are you defending the guy? He starts off a bad guy, pretends to have changed but didn't really. And breaking bad isn't comparable here. Walter wasn't good to begin with. He literally admits to the fact that he started doing it because he liked it and wanted to do it.
@@joshuascott3428,
Sympathetic villain... *Shakes Head*
More like a whiny teenager with anger-management problems with a god complex.
I can't believe Shad's still pushing this book. You mean you guys didn't like Daylen the SA Emperor? Honestly I have to thank Shad. His insistence on pushing this book and in ability to take criticism has done wonders for my channel and entertainment.
You were a TH-camr I was not expecting to see in this comment section. I enjoyed your Shad videos as well--kudos.
Isn't he still working on making it into a graphic novel and film?
@@HelghastEnigma He already made the graphic novel, which from what I can understand changed a lot of stuff.
Mostly to make Daylen look more forgivable.
@@Dylan_Devine I watch a lot of other people who review books. It helps me keep an eye out for books to review and what's going on.
I'm glad you enjoyed my videos!
@@talexratcliffe I'm almost morbidly tempted to see if I can find a high seas option to check it out and see how much was changed, but interesting to know it was made.
So it sounds like Shad just ported a D&D character from a campaign into a novel. And this particular character would be what us D&D nerds would call a "Munchkin", where no matter what happens there is something available to them that instantly makes them OP, able to do the impossible. Every D&D group has that player who has to have a munchkin character and the rest of the group just roles their eyes and tolerates it. It's so ubiquitous that there is a parody game called Munchkin making fun of this fact. Shad apparently wrote a book about his munchkin character.
oh god what if they released a custom _shadow of the conqueror_ expansion for munchkin 😩
@@elen5871that would be hilarious
His protagonist is a classic DMPC aka "dungeon master player character" which is the DM's character (who normally doesn't play their own character; the DM's job is to set the scene and narrate action and roleplay), so as a result, the DMPC can basically do anything because it's the DM's avatar in the world. Such characters are (almost) always a bad idea. So many stories on "r/RPG Horror Stories" revolve around bad DMs and their own DMPCs.
@@charleshartley9597I was gonna say that no DM with a shred of experience would let a character like that in their game, I'd forgotten about DMPCs. . .
@@charleshartley9597those stories are hilarious to listen to....I subscribe to a channel of a guy who is an avid player (he has a vtube avatar of a tiefling, I just can't remember his name) who reads these stories exclusively on his channel.....seriously if anyone remembers his name please tell me I don't wanna scroll through like 200 channels I sub to
I stopped watching Shad a few years ago because he's a religious extremist. Makes sense that he moved to the alt-right grift
So, a fun fact: y'all mentioned Shad's kickstarted comic based on this book. Only the first part of it is out and while Shad has done nothing but fellate his book every chance he gets and scoffs at all criticism, in his comic he's made some Very noticeable changes. The biggest and most obvious change is that Daylen was NEVER a pdf or even a grapist. In the comic he randomly thinks about Lyra (she hasn't even been introduced yet) and how much he cares about her, and regrets how he cast her out of his bed and his life because he was starting to care So Much about her that his enemies would surely use her against him! (Firmly establishing that yes indeed, if he were to write a sequel novel to his book he was absolutely planning to make her Daylen's love interest!) The other big change in the narrative seems to be that "Sure, Dayless committed atrocities, genocide, war crimes, and was a horrid despot, but really the worst crime against humanity he ever committed was COMMUNISM!! Not once, but Twice in this very thin comic book are Dayless' crimes brought up, laid out, and mostly dismissed in favor of ranting about how incredibly terrible it was that he infringed on people's personal freedom.
It's definitely an attempt at rewriting history to make Daylen less disgusting and creepy, but still strangely drips with Shad's political beliefs. And again, this comes with him still publicly denouncing all criticism of his book.
That is an absolutely massive change. It's hilarious in ways, that he won't back off from defending a book he himself seems to realize he shouldn't have written the way he did.
--Will
That’s fascinating and unsurprising-Kt
Heh, I love it when people tell on themselves by being like: “Sure, I guess murder, rape, mass slaughter and dictatorship are all bad, but the true destructive evil is the redistribution of wealth, so that no one is no longer poor.”
@@haggisa And those people absolutely misrepresent what wealth redistribution would look like if done properly. It's not "take all the money from the rich guy's bank account and cold turkey transfer it all equally in a bunch of poor people's bank accounts", it would be more like "tax the rich a lot, like a lot lot, like a LOOOOT, and use that money to create infrastructure, job opportunities, good education so that everybody has a chance to contribute to society and nobody has to live in poverty".
And, honestly, if we took away 99% of Elon Musk's money he would still be able to live in luxury for the rest of his life without having to work a single day, he would still be orders of magnitude richer than the average person. I don't believe anyone needs that amount of wealth and, consequently, that anyone should ever be ALLOWED to get that rich in the first place. Yes, that includes myself, if I ever got the luck of my lifetime and became ludicrously wealthy I think I SHOULD be taxed out of the "ludicrous" part of my wealth
The important thing to understand about communism, is that it's good, and weshpulds do it.
Oh, I remember this one. The book where a guy asks him if he wants to go for a walk and he refuses because he thinks ‘going for a walk with another man is gay’.
Ive already said this in the comments of another review, but its wild to me that the dictator is the actual main character after his suicide attempt, I feel like in any other book the old dictator killing himself because he felt bad after committing atrocities would be like the prologue signaling to the audience that this story is taking place directly after a major historical event, but here its just like "yeah, he becomes young and hot somehow and now hes the protagonist"
The book would be 100x better if it was actually the dictators son who did everything else. (Like the false identity he claimed was his actual identity and the emperor left the son with the sword and shit and now the kid is stuck with the horrible legacy from a worthless bastard of a father)
Hell the kid could have found out who his father was and attempted to kill himself out of disgust and hatred only to find out he survived the same way the MC did and then choose to be better then his father and do good in the world instead. See already 100x better cause the perpetrator isn't playing a victim.
That would also make the title make sense. People living within “The Shadow of the Conquerer”. That even after the emperor is deposed, there are still remnants of them.
Shad’s the type of guy to watch redo a healer and think it’s a deep masterpiece
I have met people like that irl and they disgust me
I remember back then when that anime came out that there was a subreddit for it and people defended and praised it like crazy. How "satisfying" the "revenge" was and crap. The protagonist literally just maliciously did whatever he wanted and killed people and it was portrayed if he "deserves" it because someone tortured him in episode 1.
Redo of Healer is horrible, and the funny thing is that there's a visual novel series that has similar themes that sound horrible on paper, but it's insanely well-written and fun. The Rance series. Rance is literally a rap***, obnoxious, noisy, annoying, a mean bully, delinquent, slave owner, does whatever he wants, chases girls. But it's written in a weirdly comedic way with mature growth moments here and there, cool villains and deuteragonists, nice world building and he effectively ends up as a good father and hero. Would recommend that over Redo of Garbage a thousand times, iirc Rance X was even the visual novel with the highest rating of all time. For anyone who's interested in a story with a straight up evil-ish, self-centred delinquent protagonist who still has his good moments.
To be fair Redo of a Healer is a masterpiece.
I stumbled upon Redo of Healer without knowing what it was or how intense and insane it got right off the bat. It was an experience.
@@treeNash A masturbatory piece you mean.
Shadiversity had the biggest fall-off I’ve ever seen, it’s insane. His videos on medieval weaponry are genuinely really good and informative but the reactionary grift got him.
And the weirdest thing is he did for the longest time to keep his politics out of it, he said so on a sargon podcast
And he was doing it. Dunno why he couldnt shut up about reactionary takes?!
Skallagrimm is wholesome, and tries to not get into drama and, it takes a lot to get into drama with him, its his fault, he could have just shut up
I hate to paint with a broad brush, but I’m never really surprised when a Mormon (especially outside the US) turns out to be a loon.
So he doesn't really know much about medieval topics at least only slightly more than the adverage sword nerd but he presents himself as an authority on the topic and he's arrogant enough that can come across as confident that people end up believing him until they learn more about the topic he's talking about than you learn how little he actually knows
He’s far from an expert in medieval weaponry. He has zero formal training in any weapons. He can only prattle off Wikipedia articles or his on ill-informed conjecture. Anyone with formal weapons training says he’s basically a joke.
Politically and philosophically I disagree with him on most points. He is fairly uneducated and most of the times when it comes to politics he is just parroting low grade youtube personas. BUT Im 100% against of canceling him because of his ideas. His normal channel content remains clear of politics, so if you cant enjoy it anymore the way you did, then the problem is on you, not on him. Separate the art from the artist. Or the content from the creator.
I am an ex-mormon myself, and this book really made me think "wow. he really drank the kool-aid" because there are so many little details that only someone who attaches to the most toxic aspects of Mormonism would genuinely believe. There's something to be said about the death of the author but when the author's most negative attributes permeate their books it's hard to separate them.
If nothing else, I suppose this book and Shad himself are at least a reminder of what I could have been if I hadn't "joined the woke mob" (read: started to empathize with other people and accept myself)
Shad's decisions make a lot of sense when you factor in the mormonism. eg I remember seeing someone say that, coming from a similar background, they absolutely understood why he 1) included the weird sex stuff and 2) made it that extreme. Because those kinds of mormons are absolutely fixated on the matter and see ALL levels of "deviance" as the same, hence the extreme guilt around what we'd call a non-issue like "pornography addiction" (which to them, could just be... simply liking porn). So you get all these these people who are horrified at what we'd consider natural and normal urges, who place it on the same level as the WORST thing they can imagine, who think that means there's a possibility that THEY are capable of the worst thing they can imagine, and, in Shad's case, want to imagine a scenario where it does happen, but they can still "redeem" themselves.
This is such a great comment! 👌
But the point is any redemption, doesnt have forgiveness guaranteed, and should be tried regardless.
With introspection.
You can have done the worst and that happen.
Like ras al ghul in the superman story where he lived long alone and regrets destroying the world He helped superman because, ok company, but he really regrets and tries to atone. See possible😅
Mormons see “consensual sex without a ring” on THE SAME level as “you brutally unalived someone while they begged for mercy” and NO IM NOT KIDDING
-source: was born and raised as a Mormon, broke out as a teenager
@@marocat4749 except that his character didn’t really redeem himself. He just used the depraved violence against his own ex-subordinates and then everyone suddenly forgave him for what he did.
@@marocat4749 Shame that, as someone who wrote the book, he absolutely bungled that. Compounded by the main character saying at the end that he is, in fact, a better person. The one who has committed the heinous acts does not get to make the judgement call on whether they have become better or not.
Shad put four bonds into mormonism and videogames before writing this book.
I think one of the biggest issues is that Shad's writing seems to be based in the moral standpoint of "There are no bad actions, only bad targets." The protagonist of the story doesn't actually change himself in any way, he just changes who he targets with his horrific actions. It doesn't matter that he's still doing most of the same terrible things with the same narcissistic and self-righteous attitude, because now he's doing them to the "bad guys" (and of course, he conveniently receives the power to judge who is objectively a bad person and it just so happens to be anyone who does anything that Sha-I mean "Daylen" doesn't like). It can be hard to redeem a character in the eyes of the audience if literally nothing that made them immoral has changed save for where they direct their immoral behavior. Whenever the Joker fights another villain, people don't suddenly think he's a good guy just because his enemy is a bad person.
This story COULD have worked if his character arc was him actually coming to realize that the problem ultimately comes from within himself rather than from the external judgements of others. Y'know, he gets reborn, wants to change himself and become a better person, but fundamentally doesn't understand what makes people "good" and just thinks that it's about vanquishing those that society calls "bad" because that's how HE was stopped. So he finds a way to tag along with the person that overthrew him in the hopes of finding another grand evil to vanquish so he can be "good," but along the way begins to realize that while people are grateful to his usurper for overthrowing a tyrant, they love him because of the kindness and compassion he has for the people around him even when they've wronged him. And by the end of the story Daylen comes to realize that he can never find redemption in seeking the adoration of those around him, but instead by actually devoting himself to trying to help others regardless of how it benefits him personally and developing empathy for those around him.
But nah, that's too hard and not enough of a power fantasy. Just have him continue being the same scumbag, but now he gets praised for it because he aims his violence at people who make decisions that the author doesn't like or agree with (and also the occasional person who does in fact actually do terrible things).
It would have been a cool plot twist - his "ability" to see the light in people to be actually just a delusion of Daylen, to justify his own action. And, throughout the story, we start seeing two viewpoints - Daylen's and those around him. It would have been much more interesting, but it won't be a redemption story (not that this one is).
So the reason that it wasn't the son. Is because this book was written to win arguments that Shad had. He wanted the book to show that anyone, even H--ler and S--lin could be redeemed after all their atrocities.
And he thinks he was wildly successful in proving that point. He thinks that the MC was fully redeemed by the end.
I think it’s because Shad subconsciously knows he is a terrible person. So he wrote this thinking if magical Hitler can be redeemed then I am a good person by proxy.
He failed horribly and can’t fathom how disgusting his character is.
Another thing I want to point out about how this book's worldbuilding is fucked? Because of the specific details about how the Light works vis-a-vis "people think it's how good you are but it's more how certain you are in your beliefs"?
Someone who was utterly self-assured in their own righteousness but is now filled with guilt & self-doubt, and is thinking "what have I done, how could I have been so blind"... *is going to have less Light in them.* So they're going to look *MORE* evil to anyone who can see that.
Introspection is for evil losers, real good guys never self examine!
Its actually a core tenet of mormonism. People can "know that mormonism is true by the conviction the holy ghost brings." When asked about why other people in other religions have the exact same experience and conviction its because "The light of christ is showing that individual things in their religion are good, but not that the entire thing is true, like it does for ours, despite literally being identical". Its crazy how fallacious it is and he put it into his book.
The weirdest thing about Shad to me is that he's art TH-camr Jazza's brother...
And a big fan of AI, if I recall correctly?
@@elenabarbieri1286yeah, Shad calls himself an “AI artist” or something cringe like that
@@samfann1768 wow now I'm even more disgusted
Who also thinks he is brothers equal in art, even before AI. The video where they are naming themselves in an RPG with Shad arguing he should have the same Art skill score as Jaz is painful to watch. You clearly see Jaz going “brother, I love you, but…”
@@snimmo Shad has a lot of shame. He seems to be super hypersensitive to criticism. That’s why he snapped at Jazza and could not handle any comments around his art. I think him growing up Mormon has filled him with a lot of shame and fears that are reflected in his attitude towards AI art, his book, and anti woke grift.
Shad did not understand the assignment of redemption. He is a mormon, which I want to be clear, im SPECULATING, but it is a VERY strong pattern in mormonism that NOT forgiving a criminal or villain is actually more disruptive to the community than the original crime, leading to victim shaming. And this is what we see in the novel: that society cant just get over it and let Daylen just do good stuff now, theyre actually preventing him from helping people by holding him account for all his crimes.
That’s such a destructive philosophy, that puts on the onus of acting “moral” on the victims, rather than expecting the perpetrator to actually change. Gross.
@@haggisa precisely. But it is the logical and inevitable outcome of putting forgiveness in the sole hands of God (the Light, in the story) which is actually just human church leaders in reality.
Think of it like they do: a doctor or policeman, a family man, is caught doing something horrible. But God forgave him. It's done. Let him continue his good work (the main theme in Shad's book, let him be good.) Now, you're the one causing a ruckus trying to tear this guy down and prevent him from saving lives?? How dare you!
Obviously this is sick and insane, but when you accept the first premises, it's inevitable.
As an ex-mormon I can confirm this. There have been countless cases where church leaders have known about sexual assault and other crimes, but did not report it because they wanted to "bring them to repentance" even the crime was still ongoing (particularly when it came to them continually molesting children. Yes this happened) There are even more cases where bishops have gone to court as character witnesses to try to get the perpetrators off. I have never heard of one case where they got up on the side of the victim to argue that the person belongs in prison. Not on.
@@SnakeWasRight Oh, believe me, I get it.
I live in Poland, where we have had plenty of catholic priests and bishops being exposed for sexually assaulting, grooming and molesting children (it still happens of course - priests getting girls pregnant and then being moved to a different town is not surprising to anyone anymore) and the Catholic Church has always hushed it up, and when they couldn’t, they would publicly advocate for the perpetrator to be forgiven/treated with sympathy, because “he is a good, valued person”, even when the criminal in question had sexually groomed multiple children for years. It doesn’t matter how harmful, disgusting, immoral the behavior is, what matters is if the perpetrator is part of a group the church considers “respectful” and him being exposed upsets the social hierarchy.
Meanwhile pregnant teenage girls are regularly harassed in hospitals by priests, who threaten them with eternal damnation, if they’ve considering an abortion. That’s fine and acceptable, because women are (socially and morally, on their view) inferior and sinful.
It’s all the same morality based on feudal, bigoted ideology, where the powerful in group must be protected and the powerless in the out group doesn’t matter and should get in line, forgive their abusers and be the meek little sheep they’re supposed to be. In summation - organised religion is a disease. 😊
See that’s wild bc both the biblical AND dictionary meaning of repentance is to MAKE UP FOR and PAY FOR the crime that you have committed, both in the eyes of the Lord AND in the eyes of the law. Your repentance is either incomplete or insincere if you are not willing to face the legal and moral repercussions of your wrongdoing. So where the f*k is their “repentance” if they’re constantly shielded from having to feel too guilty for what they’ve done, NEVER MIND answer for it.
This sounds like an even worse version of Terry Goodkind's "Wizard's First Rule" books.
What's extra hilarious about this tragically awful book is that Shad is one of those guys who starts calling a female character a "mary sue" the instant they display any level of competence at anything, yet the author-wish-fulfillment main character of this is the Gary Stu-est Gary Stu who ever Gary Stu'd.
Couple this with his delusions of adequacy regarding AI "art" and you have someone who is probably absolutely exhausting to be in the same room with.
Watching him argue about his artistic prowess with his brother, an actual artist, was exhausting enough. If I had to share a physical space with this asshole weirdo, I'd probably grind my teeth to dust.
I have just discovered that my long-time friend gave this 5 stars on Goodreads and I don't know what to do with it...
Talk to him? Distance yourself and warn any mutual friends who are women?
Accept that different people can have different tastes and don't worry about it?
Gotta throw the whole friend away m8 😂😂
@@finncullenthis is an extreme of different tastes, it's a book where someone keeps being violent and evil but is framed as a hero. It is not just a person into metal being shocked a friend likes Taylor Swift, it's like finding the friend is into NSBM.
@@dorianleakey it's just a book, ain't that drastic. Equating something like being an active participant in a neonazi group to giving 5 stars to a weird shitty book is like saying having a mild headache on a Friday morning two weeks in a row is a clear sign of a brain tumor. Maybe the guy just liked the swordfight scenes; maybe he liked Shadiversity's sword videos on YT but hasn't actually read it; maybe he has a side gig inflating Goodreads ratings for groceries money; maybe he found out his ex, who he blocked everywhere else, still stalks him in Goodreads and wanted to troll them. My point is, a book it's not enough to pair the guy with literal nazis. However, if he started to make weird comments about or towards women, or express views in accordance with those in the weird shitty book then ye... distance is a decent response.
This author has children. That's a scary thought. And as for it not being for "anyone"? It's obviously for folks like Shad.
Mormonism pretty much promises you a wife. I’m thinking if he wasn’t a Mormon, he’d be an incel
It's surprising how a guy who judges media by whether it's "woke" or not is a terrible writer /s
And he actually has a 'mary sue' protagonist
Much of entertainment is trynna be woke now it's true and I say this as a gay man 😅
Let's be honest Shad, and the Drinker by the way, wrote fanfiction abou themselves.
I mean his books title is:
Shad(ow of) the Conqueror 😂
37:00 Shad tried HEMA, but he's too much of a narcissist to accept that he's a beginner at it and so when he gets corrected on improper form that could lead to injuries, he will argue if he can land a light touch on someone and "win", thinking that if he can "win" then it's a proper form. He made a whole video about that (upon which people in HEMA clubs of Australia commented for a better perspective), and later made a video calling HEMA "elitist" around 2020. He has then been in a beef with EVERY major HEMA content creator (Matt Easton, Skallagrim, Sellswords Arts, etc.) and is seen mostly as a joke in the field.
So this is not surprising that, through his Gary Stu character, he would LARP as an expert swordsman that can beat everyone without any practice. This is clearly what he seems to think about himself.
I thought he AI:ed his sword fighting. I mean, he is a good artist, AI is just a great tool for helping.
@@fornamnefternamn1532 lol
"The Light is in everything"
Me: Having a migraine would be terrible in this world.
Man, a story where a tyrant has to live life under the unjust rules he’s created sounds neat
Man thinks he's Brandon Sanderson. Turns out he's actually Russell Brand.
At least he's funny to laugh at.
Funny you should say that, because, Brandon Sanderson, being part of the same Mormon circles, supports and has endorsed Shad's work claiming he oftentimes reaches out to Shad as a "consultant" on medieval fantasy topics, despite Shad's reputation in HEMA and medieval history circles being treated as a joke at best. This hilariously out of shape man who gets winded ranting about "wokeism" in Star Wars, or whatever, literally molded two swords together in an abomination that looks like it's going to fall apart as he's holding it, and claimed he's some kind of master swordsman with that sword-staff thing and makes fun of HEMA and medieval history TH-camrs criticizing his form and advising him to stop further digging his reputation down under with his cringe rants against the world videos.
There's no world in which Brandon comes out looking good in this. Either he seeks consultation from a ridiculously incompetent LARPer who fails to condemn PDFilia and SA in his boring 5-star "magnum opus", or he hasn't done his due diligence about the guy, which, given his status, he absolutely should have. That's as if Steven King said in an interview that he oftentimes contacts his good personal friend Alex Jones for consultations about political climate in his newest upcoming novels.
@@dahakaguardianofthetimelin4780 Oh damn, knew he was Mormon himself, but hadn't seen Sanderson mention Shad before. Tragic. Fuckin Mormons. (Or more accurately, fucking Christian sects of any kind)
@@dahakaguardianofthetimelin4780I guarantee it's because both BranSan and Shad are Mormons. If Shad was Catholic or Hindu or an atheist, BranSan wouldn't've given him the time of day.
My parents moved back to their hometown around an hour away from where I live and I try and visit them on weekends when I'm not working. Listening to this podcast has become part of the driving ritual and I am so glad I've got you guys to keep me company
When it first came out, all his loyal fans were leaving absolutely glowing reviews, praising it, etc...... When I read it for myself, I literally could not believe how attrocious it was. Like, did we (I and his fans) read the same book?! You guys (his fans) really thought that was good?! Am I going insane?! I was trying to express to them how it was a piece of shit and they be like "nah it's good bro what're you talking about?" So it's really vindicating to find other people over the years coming out with proper reviews of that book and coming to the same conclusions as myself (i.e. it's rubbish).
I had a discussion with such a fan and the guy was litterally rewriting the book to defend it and deny it's flaws.
Even youtubers like Daniel Greene seemed to have been pro the book until the public got their hands on it and realised what it was actually like
@@katamattyon He is entitled to like it. That doesn't make it good. That just makes it to his liking.
@@odojang Yeah people can disagree about the book but it felt more like he and a few other trusted book youtubers didn't do their due diligence
@@katamattyon Agreed. That being said, there are subjective appreciation (liking it) and objective appreciation (story structure). That,s where we can also evaluate criticism as well as the work itself.
“I changed!” Daylen continues to do what he always done for the last hundred years or so.
Shad should have wrote the book as an unapologetic villain novel. But dude is so deluded he doesn’t even realize that was what he’s writing because of his own warped beliefs.
Given what I know about Shad and his politics... I don't feel like Dalen being EIGHTY EIGHT at the start is probably NOT a coincidence...
I don't get it. Would you mind explaining it to me?
@jorenvanderark3567 The eighth letter of the alphabet is "H"
So 88 is HH, which stands for "Heil Hitler."
@@jorenvanderark3567 88 is a neo nazi thing for HH
@@jorenvanderark3567 H is the 8th letter of the alfabet, 88 (HH) is therefore shorthand for a certain phrase used in a dictatorship that lasted till 1945
Oh god the bloody dogwhistle. Didn't catch it till now
The whole concept of this novel reminds me of how the LDS church (Mormons) would perform a postumous baptism ritual for dead people like Hitler.
They do WHAT
@@happytofu5it's true. It's why they have some of the best genealogy records in the world. They also baptized all the victims of the Holocaust into Mormon Christianity several times.
@@happytofu5yup.
@@CD-zd6zr Despite people of the Jewish community specifically asking them not to. One other funny story - One of the "prophets" of the mormon church claimed to have a vision where the founding father requested to be baptized, so he went ahead and did that with his counselors. But as it later turned out, the founding fathers had already been baptized for the dead, several times....
Lol I misread that as "LSD Church". ..
You know what, that would actually make perfect sense.
Would this book have been more intriguing if it was written from a different characters perspective and opened with us believing that teenage Daylan was the tyrant's son, and we don't get the reveal until later that he is really the Conqueror and then we're wondering is he trying to take over the world again 🤔
1:03:20 I really like the idea Maria had
I think there’s an interesting conflict in the idea of a character developing a friendship/relationship with this kid who seems to be trying to do good, and then revealing that he was actually this tyrant who did horrible things in the past, and grappling with questions like, “was it all an act? can i stand by a person who did horrible things in the past if i genuinely believe they have changed? is it even possible to atone for certain acts? if you can’t be granted forgiveness by those you’ve wronged, but genuinely want to do better, where do you go from there?” but you’d need a much better writer and an understanding of restorative justice that is just clearly lacking here.
The amnesiac idea reminded me a lot of the BG3 Dark Urge origin- your character wakes up with no memory but have these intense compulsions to violence, and as the story progresses and you learn more about your past, you can either give in to the “urge” or decide to fight them and choose to be a better person. I would argue it’s a much more interesting take on “truly evil villain gets a second chance at redemption” than… whatever this was lmao
So basically MC has a power of light...of gaslight.
This book kind of reminds me of a married couple I used to play D&D with who would make these really edgy as fuck characters to play as and then would go out of their way to justify their actions so that they aren't "evil". This dude's character used to kill anyone who would have sex with his mother, he killed 300 people during a spy mission and his relationship with one character made her go literally insane. He was rewarded by the end of the campaign by becoming the God of death and moving from "chaotic Evil" to "chaotic good" and any attempt to point out how this character was a literal homicidal, borderline genocidal maniac would be shot down because as long as someone has a reason for their actions, they aren't a bad person. These were the some type of people who say how mature and edgy they were but they couldn't deal with their characters being seen as pieces of shit.
Where were you guys all my life before this podcast, I love you even though this podcast made me read Shadow of the Conqueror. This analysis and breakdown of why things are bad and don't work, and what the metanarrative is saying even when the characters are pretending something else is happening, is fantastic. C'est magnifique!
Where were you guys when the Westfield fell?
Fun fact: shad openly admits to not having an editor for his books. It's just him.
A feature length roast.
I will never not love people roasting Shad for being such a weirdo with his fetishization of SA and "um, akshually" about age of consent. But another thing I love almost as much is that there's an entire sub-genre that genuinely does just use video game logic and stats and such: LitRPG. He could've just written for that sub-genre and outright been like, "I've infused my Perception stat with light so it's increased by 50% now and I can see further!" or whatever instead of hiding behind these really bad abstractions.
This wouldn't have fixed any of the critical issues with the book, but it would've at least made this part of it thematically consistent.
Always here for a good Shad roast, no matter what subject.
Is it just me or does 'sunickles' sound a bunch like testicles, so in essence Shad is obsessed with dudes testies???
Wait, any Stormlight Archives readers in the comments? Because listening to the summary feels like the author read Dalinar’s arc in the Stormlight Archives and said “okay, but what if I made it way worse, turned him into a s*x predator, and then remove any character growth to instead magically turned him young for weird wish fulfillment.” Not to mention the world some of the world building elements (an order of knights absorbing specific light magic to utilize powers that are contingent on them making and keeping specific vows, bonded weapons and armor that can be summoned to the owner, the entire scene with the main character debating whether to kill a kid in a royal line because the cycle of violence with surely continued) seem straight up ripped from that series, especially when looked at as a whole. I think Shad might be the Evil Brandon Sanderson???
It might because both are mormons. And drew from a same weird mormonisms in different ways?
Or maybe its shads fanfic. Ok shad might did stormlight archives fanfic
Oh, I 100% got "Dalinar but written by an author who doesn't understand how redemption arcs work" vibes from this character. Lol
Fun fact: Shad has an acknowledgement in Rhythm of War for being a "primary historical martial arts consultant."
This book reads like Diet Brandon Sanderson.
The thing about Stormlight is that at the very least a huge part of the redemption was a) the character taking full and total responsibility for his actions, actively denying any attempt at deflecting blame, b) Brandon does the exact thing Maria suggests by having the character lose his memories, thereby keeping him more sympathetic and having him discover the truth alongside the audience, and c) fully laying down his arms and (as far as I can remember) never physically fighting his opponents after the first book. There are valid critiques to make of the character, but at the very least it commits to the bit of making him terrible and then actively changing himself to a more diplomatic role, whereas Shad seems to have missed that entire point and just. has him keep doing the exact same things he'd been doing all along.
Isnt Shad friends with Brandon?
Boosting his abilities sounds like he’s just in the DnD world and casts Guidance on himself *cough cough* sorry… uses the power of the Light
I genuinely read this book with an open mind. I hate Shad's stupid political opinions, but I thought if there was one thing he could do well, it would be fantasy writing. That was literally what got me watching his channel all those years ago before he went all culture war. The guy knew his fantasy, he knew his Medieval history. I even owned some of his merch about castle building. Did this book reflect any of that knowledge? No. It read like an AI fan fiction.
Scotch by definition is made in Scotland. So Scotland is in this world? If it isn't Scotish, it's CRAP!
Wait a second...
A world of basically eternal day? The enemies are called Shades and they can only survive in the darkness??
Did Shad just rip that right from Nier: Replicant??? Because thats literally just the setting of the game wtf
"Good artists create, Great artists steal, bad authors get caught."
@@CillranchelloI love that quote.
I am speaking as an exmormon. Shad has admitted in his videos that he is Mormon. Listening to this podcast has been interesting as I can see several correlations between Shad's artistic expression and things I was taught in church both from leaders as well as common members trying to make sense of those beliefs. For example, Shad speaks about lots of sa and the obsession with sexuality. In my generation of Mormonism sex outside of marriage was seen as being next to murder in terms of sin severity. There is also a belief that in the next life we will be resurrected in the prime of youth. So for me this correlates well with his ideas in the book. I've tried my hand at amateur writing back when I was practicing Mormonism and it was difficult to not interject Mormon philosophy in my fantasy. A lot of traditional conservative society stereotypes seem to be represented too.
Also an exmormon. Yeah, Mormonism infects everything. Especially if you're a creative person (not in Shad's case). It warps how you see reality and what you create.
I can third this. It feels strange that the character seems to justify himself sleeping with 14 year old girls. Is it a coincidence that Joseph Smith took a 14 year old child bride in secret and any mormon who learns about this has to figure out some kind of moral justification???
37:19 I regularly practice sword fighting. I am 37 years old. When I return to our club after missing training sessions for two weeks, I get destroyed by everybody. Nobody beats a trained fighter if they haven't been practising consistently. Also, repeating forms is not sufficient. You have to spar or pressure test.
Shad doesn’t know this, cos Shads never actually fought. He got his ass handed to him by HEMA and has had a vendetta against them ever since.
Write what you know. Well Shad knows nothing.
YES. I never thought this day would come. I hate this book so much and I was dying to see it get the treatment it deserves from you guys, but I didn't think this book was even on your guys' radar. Thank you for enduring this piece of work for my enjoyment.
Likewise to will, i found about this shad guy through an interesting series he did measuring how well castles are built and situated in fantasy media but then later on i checked out his reaction to arcane or something and realized the vibes were off. Strapping down for this roast (honestly wasn't interested in a review for a book of his until i read the title lol). Thank you for the treat you three!
EDIT: it's so disgusting how a woman who was sa-ed by this MC is being possibly set up as a love interest without her knowing the full picture.
One thing (of many) I really don't like about this book is that we are told Daylan is so so very intelligent, but he keeps doing and saying such stupid things 🙄 "Smart" characters who aren't actually smart is a pet peeve of mine.
It's a good test of an author's skill to see how they write smart characters.
Instead of "Batman but without the no kill rule" you might wanna switch over to The Punisher for a simile^^
Oh, shit! You guys actually did it. I’ve been wanting you guys to review this book because there was no way I was gonna read it.
I saw Shad in the thumbnail and as a gay guy, I immediately clicked. Watching his book get torn apart was a true joy and pleasure to listen to.
We understand...your tribalism ("as a gay guy") is good, Shad's (Mormonism) is bad. Way to take the higher ground there bud.
lmao.
Also way to show how not be an example.
@@therealcirclea762
Yeah, nice false equivalency
One is a member of a group that wants to live, love and be largely left alone
The other has called the first group abominations, freaks of nature and god, and has convinced them that they are wrong simply by existing. -source, was a Mormon for the first 15 years of life
And you really want to say they’re the same thing. Clack your brain cells together and *try again*
Always roast Shad. Roasted Shad is my favorite flavor of Shad.
@therealcirclea762 You spelled "I'm a bigot and a troll" wrong, sorry mate.
@@therealcirclea762 weird. The Mormon wasn't mentioned. Weird thing to jump on
Shad makes a lot of emphasis on having a hard magic system in his novel. It's arguably his most prominent selling point. Yet, it is inconsistent, ill-defined (despite the massive info dumps), illogical, badly explained, superficially integrated in the worldbuilding, and worst of all, an obvious cope-out/deus-ex-machina plot device like the worst of them. I guess Shad was so engrossed in his power fantasy that he forgot the cardinal rule of his mentor Brian Sanderson: just like flaws for a character, what makes magic great and compelling are its _limitations._
Worst of all... His Gary Stu violates the magic system... thus... it's not hard. It's Shad who misunderstands what "Hard" means. It doesn't mean "having rules to follow" it means, "can be studied like every natural phenomenon"... Like physics.
@@aralornwolf3140 Indeed. A hard magic system is like gravity; with established principles, defined mechanics, specified conditions and influencing factors to both enhance or hamper it. But most of all, _both story and characters stick to it_. like if pushed, they fall. It's meaningless to have 1000 rules and then change, alter or ignore them at the author's convenience. The author doesn't necessarily have to explain it all in-story; as long as he/she knows, understand and follows them consistently, readers will understand it makes sense. Failing to do so, readers will find it and call it out. This is where Shad completely missed the mark.
@@odojang,
You mention gravity... did you know Shad redefined gravity in his novel (to explain why people fall to the bottom of the world and stick to the top of the continents)... and then he contradicted the definition within a couple of chapters?
If Shad can't even keep his own world consistent, do we expect him to get his _magic_ system correct?
@@aralornwolf3140 Quite right. It's not the redefining that is a problem; that's what fantasy is. It's being inconsistent and worse, altered gratuitously to solve (or actually make!) bad plotting. It's the hallmark of bad writers and is the main reason some people dislike or even despise fantasy. Good fantasy is not a question of hard or soft magic systems but of coherence with setting, plot, characters and most of all itself. Shad fails utterly in this and, as you point out, not just with his magic.
I always say the question to ask in world building isn't "how does the magic work?" But "what does the magic mean?" What kind of metaphor is the magic expressing? In star wars it's about learning your true self. In lord of the rings it's primarily about connection to nature, as the world is inherently magical. In earthsea its about understanding, as the main conflict in the first book is resolve by careful study and speaking to the threat. In My Hero Academia it's just a metaphor for growing up. Shad could have done something really clever with a story about contrasting light and dark impulses with people and a magic system and world entirely based in light, but apparently he just wanted to write non-con fetish porn.
And this is why I know I can rely on you guys. I have _zero_ intrest in reading this one, but it pops up in my Sci-fi/Fantasy feed on occation. A break down like this was exactly what I was looking for. I like Daniel Green's "Fantasy News" show, but I've come to the conclusion that I should NOT take his recomendations seriously.
I was so disappointed when I watched his review of this book
@whiteraven562 to be completely fair Daniel was basically being overly optimistic in believing that a lot of the issues would be addressed in the next book and he made the review before Shad went off the deep end. Also he's stated that he has changed his opinions from that period of time. I agree he should have been harsher anyway.
32:00 "That's incorrect but go ahead" fucking lost it because I had the same reaction
😂 A very measured reply to a ludicrous statement, lol
This book is sooooo bad and soooo cringe! And the dude who wrote it calls himself both writer and artist (he makes AI-"art"). Dunk on this all you like. This roast will be hilarious.
All of the ego and overconfidence of a narcissist. None of the skill to back it up.
I heard a rumor. Shhhhh. Shad provides the other mormon fantasy author--not Joseph Smith, with weapons expertise in his writing.
I looked into that and it seems to have been confirmed by Brando himself.
This explains so much...
@@spiderlegspinch9001 hard gag..
Not a rumor. As I told another commenter, he has an acknowledgement in Rhythm of War (Stormlight Archive #4) for his historical expertise lol
Let’s not compare the two though. By all accounts, Brandon is absolutely nothing like Shad in terms of personality or values. Or if he is, he hides it extraordinarily well. For a Mormon, Sanderson seems remarkably liberal.
Shad can't write a redemption arc beecause he has such a massive victim complex.
Perhaps you address it later, but the "women wear clothes so men aren't constantly aroused" verges on "men can't control themselves when women aren't covered". So yeah, Shad trying to argue both sides is weird.
Like saying, obviously men are horny when women show skin, but if women walked around nude all the time men would be less horny.
He's literally saying its cultural and men can control themselves but also defending men who don't at the same time.
Men aren't accountable for their actions, its the clothing's fault SA happens. Women are walking around in wrapping paper and I'm just supposed to not unwrap it. And if women weren't covered, then i wouldn't be horny. So it's not really our fault if you think about it
Except they are horny when the woman is covered, too
2 hours and 18 minutes into this video you reached the point where i stopped reading the book. I just couldn't care anymore, and I was struggling to care to begin with.
What made you push through for that long?
You say Batman, but MC gives me Rittenhouse vibes. Where he wants to kill people but needs a justification. And so looks for situations that provide just enough justification.
Its like if Superman left a purse on a bench so he could kill anyone who took it.
And there's the irony that he feels murder is an acceptable punishment for thieves, but he, a guy who did every crime, deserves only the worst fate. Living until he dies of old age like everyone else.
Like really. Petty criminals die immediately but your punishment is retirement.
This isn't just a power fantasy, it's a no accountability fantasy.
Edit: You guys address this too.
Shad's brother is a well-known artist on TH-cam. This was all for him to prove to himself that he's creative too. You know, in addition to the book being a CRAZY power fantasy.
From watching the video, I've come to the conclusion that two things are necessary for a satisfactory redemption arc or story: the character has to at least try to act better, and their past actions cannot be forgotten, ignored, or justified. Extra points if your character has a backstory that explains but does not excuse their behavior and if it is acknowledged that the character doesn't automatically deserve forgiveness just because they are better now or because they could have been worse before.
For a good example, watch Avatar: The Last Airbender. For a bad example, read this book (or don't).
I'll even add something that I learned from video essayist @PrincessWeekes. And it's that willingly sacrificing themselves to save people does not in and of itself redeem a character for their wrongs. We have to see them do the work.
See, my problem comes in with things like Daylen still being a smirking jackass at his trial about those noblemen he claimed having sex with goats, making that mental observation about "wowie, these women who didn't get kids from rape hate me more than the ones who did", and him self-proclaiming himself to be a better man after his trial. This is not the signs to me of a repentant person. He's still a jackass.
oh man. I knew the book was bad, but that last bit about the women talking about the children is just....disgusting and vile. I used to watch Shad's videos back when his channel was still small and when he just talked about medieval stuff and swords. He had a good thing going there, should have stuck to his roots. But over the years, more of his conservative and political views came through with his content. This book is just the nail in the coffin.
That’s the true tragedy; he’s still a lot of fun when he’s testing out weapons & techniques from pop culture. His core content was and still is entertaining. I won’t be so hypocritical as to tell him to keep his political views out of his work while praising Lindsey Ellis for inserting hers into her work…but he really let it derail his content.
Shad, just go back to lighting IRL swords on fire to cut shit half while you and your buds play fantasy warriors in your home made castle. That stuff is a blast to watch. You don’t need to screech endlessly on and on about the “feminist evil!” of the Mario Bros. movie on loop for half a year
I greatly prefer the authors who want to write a video game who just write freaking LitRPG.
Shad is the older brother of Jazza, but they seem to be exact opposites.
Apparently Jazza got all the talent and Shad got the...
That's because Jazza and Shad experienced religious Trauma... Shad retreated to narcissistic traits to feel adequate...whereas Jazza just retreats to his room and cries about how inadequate of a person he is for asking people to donate money to him... so he could have this really cool studio where he could produce these really cool art concepts and create YT videos in.
Jazza is self-aware. Shad refuses to be.
What's worst is that (I think) he has a video breaking down why his character ISN'T a Mary Sue
Let me guess, he says something like; "fer stahtah's ee's ah MAN!" Then he laughs.
@@grahamstoner,
Nope!
"Mary Sues are like by everyone they meet. Dayless can't be a Mary Sue because he's disliked by everyone for all these grapes!"
Seams something that someone who wrote a Mary Sue/Gary Sue would do.
@@aralornwolf3140 and thats not even true, every Mary Sue character that I have seen has a bunch of enemies who are jealous and are punished by the story (so the Mary Sue can stay innocent).
@@aralornwolf3140 By that logic, Ebony Dark'ness Dementia Raven Way isn't a Mary Sue, because she's hated by Snap and Dumblydore.
1:50:09 What do you mean that's weird? A Mormon wrote this, and Mormons view wives and children as personal property. Very Mormon-normal.
Some do. Some mormons are more like normal people, and then alot of them leave the mormon church because they realize it is untenable and immoral. Like I did.
People comparing it to Stormlight Archives and all I'm thinking is, "oh this is like those Chinese webnovels, but 100x worse"
Funny how Shad (Mormon) and Jenna Moreci (“woke”, let’s pretend we all know what that means) both write books in which the severity of judgement the book bestows upon its characters is fully dependent on if the characters are “good” or “bad” people is amazing. Truly illuminating!
This is unuronically a good example of horseshoe theory, which is that the extreme left and extreme right approach each other (like ends of a horseshoe) and become very similar.
We see this with communism and fascism both leading to authoritarian regimes and dictatorships, for example.
Shad and Jenna, despite being on opposite political sides, both have a shallow and pathological understanding of the world that leads them to similar views on various topics.
@@Dylan_Devine I was aware of the theory but didn’t want to write about it cause I just know it on the surface level :)
Yeah they are both severely on opposite sides of a social and political spectrum but unironically they practice the same habits of being overly preachy and perverted
I'm not interested in responding to a giant comment thread but I feel the need to correct some false beliefs people have, so I will just post this and peace out.
I will keep this as simple as I can,
For a society to be considered "Socialist" it needs 2 things:
1. The means of production are controlled by the workers.
(This means that there is no top down power structure and that choices made about what items to produce, how much each roll is paid, who is best to perform that roll, etc, are democratically voted on by the workers rather than a boss that has the final say.)
2. The abolition of the commodity form.
(This means the value of something would come from its utility, not its rarity. And would not be able to appreciate in value.
Things like houses would be bought by people who want to live in them rather than by landlords who hold onto it and wait until they can sell it for more.)
Now, for a society to be considered "Communist" It first has to be a socialist society, then you just need 3 additional things:
1. The abolition of the state.
(This means that there would no longer be a formal government, or boarders, or any kind of centralized power structure. Decisions would be made by regular everyday people democratically voting.)
2. The abolition of classes and class structure.
(There are only 2 classes, the Bourgeoisie and the Proletariat (Or in modern language, The Owner class and the Working class). The key difference is how each make their money.
The worker has to perform some kind of task, they get paid only if they add something of value to the society, while the owner class uses their existing wealth to generate even more wealth without lifting a finger or adding anything of value.)
3. The abolition of money itself.
(This means exactly as it sounds, there would be no money. And while there would still be jobs, nobody would get paid for their hard work.
And at first glace this seems like a "pie in the sky" type of thing, nobody would work if they weren't paid ! But.........
that didn't seem to bother you when your grandmother asked you to set the table...... or when your best friend asked you to help him move......)
Communism seems a whole lot less scary once you realize you've been doing it for the people you love.
@@Ballpython50001There is a huge difference between doing something for people you love versus doing something MANDATED by your government. Which, yes, under communism you would still have a government. It doesn't just cease to exist.
2:11:04 - Shad wrote it as the first part but now claims (most likely because he is not as blind to the reception of the book as he acts like) that it was always just open ended and he would just another one if he felt like it. So he paddled back from it being a first part to "it was never planned to have a second part, but I wanted to keep the option open".
It's got such huge "gap year" energy. If it's been *five years* and he hasn't begun any new drafts for book two, there's never gonna be a book two.
Probably to most unhinged self-insert character ever written
Right? Making your self-insert character a serial rapist who is preying on young girls has to be a top 5 wildest choice ever made by an author.
Let me get the marshmallows for this roast! 😈🔥Right now this book holds the title for the worst thing I've ever read (though TSS put up a tough fight and didn't want to let go of the champion's belt). It manages to be full of itself, thinking it's some deep introspection into human nature and redemption, while actually wearing horse-blinders. Everything in it is surface-level, lacks empathy and is often times contradictory within its own lore.
So what you're saying is that the TV Tropes poster who did tons of worldbuilding without any plot ideas finally wrote his book. In that sense, of course the main character has to know about every piece of magic and every machine. How else would Shad get to tell you about it? Context is for the woke.
This sounds like every low budget 80s sword and sorcery movie I have ever seen
As a person who loves 80s sword and sorcery movies i assure you even the worse ones (Conquest hmmm) arent this badly written
They were much better than this, it sounds like you don't like the idea of those films, those films would have Shads main character still ruling and killed by an oily muscled dude.
Him turning young and hot would maybe happen in the middle of their fight when he seems defeated.
calling dalen Shad the Impaler is too good a pun.
Aside from being in egregiously piss poor and downright harmful taste, the SA plotline in this book actively brings it down from a character construction perspective. Daylen's biggest problem that he should be working on is his temper. It constantly compromises his judgment and has him reacting with disproportionate violence often. That should be what hes working on, considering its still having more immediate consequences on him and his decisions but of course shad doesnt think of it as a character flaw beyond wanking it for sympathy and then in the same breath using it to try to make Daylen's ultra violence look cool.
OK, I haven't yet listened to the roast, just wanted to write something and then see if you've said something similar.
I didn't read the whole book - only the free chapters. I was terribly bored and really disappointed.
The most boring part was near the end of those free chapters, and that was him learning about his powers while in freefall. It read as a weekly report from a science lab - and not on a week when they made a groundbreaking discovery. He thinks of some aspect of his powers that he is not yet clear on, makes an experiment, files away the result. Bor-ring.
Compare this to the book “Off to be a wizard”, which also features a protagonist experimenting with his new powers. He starts off by accidentally making himself a little bit taller, without even noticing. Then he goes to the bathroom, and while doing his business he notices that the top of a small drawer there is dusty. He does clean his apartment regularly; but he doesn't always clean that particular surface, because he can't see it. He then spends a few moments trying to process that contradiction, until noticing that he's peeing on the floor.
Later he figures he can teleport. He tries to do so, moving just a few meters (he's not unreasonable). It works, but he was sitting when he started; now he is in a sitting position without any support. So, he falls and hurts his ass.
Later yet he tries to teleport a meter above. It also works, but gravity works too; he falls a meter down, fails to keep his balance, falls and hurts his ass again.
This goes for a while; but it's always attempt-setback, attempt-setback. Shad's protagonist, on the contrary, goes attempt-success, attempt-success. He doesn't understand that what makes things interesting is failure. Nobody cares about a superhero walking home from a party, stumbling into a couple of robbers, and beating them up; what's interesting is a superhero walking home very intoxicated, stumbling into a couple of robbers, and getting his ass profoundly kicked. Or, alternatively, it's also interesting to read about a couple of robbers who made a smooth escape, but then randomly stumbled into a superhero who wasted no time beating them up.
Prior to that, there was this duel scene, with the main guy, who is still near death, challenging a younger dude to a duel to teach him a lesson. This is especially frustrating, since Shad actually knows a lot about swordfights - or appears to know. Even I could think of a couple of ways how this guy could compensate for his age. He could, for example, choose a location creatively, so that he stands on a smooth rock, while his opponent is constantly tripping on an uneven terrain. Or he could fight so that sun blinds his opponent - well, I understand that in this world there is no sun, and light just comes from everywhere, but still he could, for example, fight near the edge of a forest, and stand facing the forest, which would be naturally darker. Anyway, by being creative he could do something interesting. Instead, the guy just soldiers up and pushes through it. I am willing to believe that an old, frail guy can win a duel with a young, strong, but inexperienced opponent; but I can't believe something when there is nothing to believe in. As a smart woman once said, “Don't give me songs, give me something to sing about”.
Anyway, that's my rant. Watching now.
Update: oh, there is a sun? I might be misremembering it. Sorry, it's been a while.
Yep, him having to resort to trickery and getting lucky , could really be interesting.
To show how old he is, and in duels only winning really counts, but him barely lucks winning could be fun.
And like thats usually the other dead
Listening to all this stuff reminded me about his video on Goblin slayer. In the video talk about how the party of young adventures went to kill goblins but they were killed and eaten alive. One girl from the party got ganged r*** by the goblins (and if a woman gets pregnant by goblins their offsprings will eat their mother, xenomorph style) she had it "better" because she's alive and still achive happines or whatever. So she had it better then her boyfriend who was eaten alive in his opinion.
It's like he read the first half of _Way Of Kings_ , got a headache, and thought "This sucks! I'm going to write a BETTER version of this, that doesn't hurt my head!"
as The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe comes to a close, Edmund’s scrimmage with evil has led him to wisdom he did not have before. it's thanks to Edmund, and his knowledge of the White Witch, that Aslan’s army is able to overcome her army before Aslan’s arrival and rescue. Edmund is even willing to risk his life to do so, following the example of Aslan. a child's redemption arc, completed in a ubiquitous children's book, itself based on (arguably) the fundamental founding myth of Western society. all these examples and still, he fumbles it. in blue hair.
Yeah I think the guy who made a love letter to AI would have some pretty fucked morals
1:11 Really thought Will was going to say "I pick books because I'm a masochist"
makes it funny now when you look back at Shads reviews of Star Wars some of his points were valid (disappearing dagger, guards attacking one at a time etc) but I remember thinking when he was complaining about Ray that parts of it sounded like he just believes no female character should ever beat a male character (unless they are anime wifu)
There were plenty of times when Rey "won" fight she should have lost. Pretty much, all of them in fact.
@@aralornwolf3140 I didn’t say otherwise but shad is hardly one to criticise does his character ever lose even when 90 years old?
@@deanmottershead9208,
First, he was 82. Second, the only fight he lost it was to the priest who found it in his heart to forgive him (for murdering everyone in the metropolis his family resided in while he was away), so he didn't kill him. He became his greatest advocate at his trial...
So... even worse than Rey, lol.
@@aralornwolf3140i said worse than Ray
Why do people think hating ray means star wars fans hate women?
Like Ahsoka or leia doesn't exist now lol
Gender or race isn't the issue it's if the character is likeable or not, and ray is simply not likeable unlike Ashoka
What is this, some Gary Stu Isekai bullshit?!
That does appear to be the case, yes. Hopefully Shady's taste can eventually evolve past middle school, but I wouldn't hold my breath.
I'm so disappointed, I had no idea what his views were or even what this book was really about. I just knew Shad from his videos about weapons and armour etc, and I really like them and always found them super informative. Not sure I'll be able to watch them now.
Worst part is, you can’t even watch those videos for truly accurate information. Shad has had conflict with HEMA ever since he found out he’s not THAT good compared to actually trained sword fighters.
Shad book unironically uniting everyone about how bad it is. Is weirdly wholesome in a way. Like we all got traumatized together at least.
Rip weapon/historical community. I still remember when I followed Shadiversity (and Metatron) before I learned about how their political views affected their content in a bad way.
What's Metatron's deal? He gave me bad vibes but he's not as infamous.
@andyenglish4303 First. Thank you. I unsubscribed a long time ago from Metatron. So your comment made me look him up again. And lo and behold. He got worse.
TLDR : Like Shadiversity. Metatron fell for the right wing grift. He was always politically right but now it's becoming more and more obvious that despite him pretending to be neutral and objective. He is biased, cherry pick and misrepresent a number of subjects. Watch Terry Duke videos debunking Metatron. From his second channel Duke it out "The TRUTH About METATRON - Once & For All"
I don't agree with all of his opinions. But he cite sources and base all of his arguments on facts and things Metatron said. He's a really small channel but boy he put in the work. The one I cited is about 1 hour. Terry Duke also assume that he is a leftist.
I left when his video about Nordic runes "The Mysteries of the Runic Alphabet: Norse Mythology and Archaeology." Just retold the old myth that they were inherently magical. Which is just false.
(check out Jackson Crawford TH-cam channel and his videos.
"Runes: A Free Course, pt 1"
He actually studied the subject and got his PhD in Scandinavian studies from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and his M.A) Linguistic from the University of Georgia. He did a ton of video on runes, debunked myths and give plenty of resources. In recent years he has been an old Norse language and runes consultants. Helping with project such as Ubisoft Assassin's creed Valhalla and Disney Frozen.)
I won't go too much into a long post explaining why. But basically runes are an alphabet. They aren't more magical then the letters I am using to write aka the Roman alphabet. Runes can be used for magic. Like any other alphabet can. For example. Abracadabra.
I just used the Roman alphabet to write a magic word. But that doesn't mean the alphabet itself is magical. You get me ?
Well. Metatron did not say any of that which showed me he didn't do his research correctly. And to his credit (for once) he made a recent video about how he unlisted some of his old stuff
"Why Did I Unlist/Private These 300+ Videos? What Happened?"
The rune video included, because the information were wrong or outdated.
But it doesn't fix the main problems he has. Which is presenting himself as neutral and factual. While he clearly has a right wing bias, and doesn't treat subject considered left wings as objectively as he claim.
The worst example is his video on ancient Greece.
"The TRUTH About LGBTQ+ in Ancient Greece - Once and for all"
TLDR : He claim that LGBT were not accepted at all in ancient Greece or that some common figure we think of as gay like Achille and Patroclus weren't. Handwaving everything that prove him wrong and cherry picking a lot of things. Showing only one side and very few example that could prove him wrong. Yet claiming again and again that he is neutral and for the viewers to make their own choice.
For example he basically cited one philosopher, Xenophon, homophobia as evidence. But didn't spend any time on the dozen of other contemporary figures that were queer themselves and not homophobic. Such as Plato, who he quickly dismiss as weird even after acknowledging he openly had gay lovers. Or Alexander the great lover, Hephaestion, and how both would compare themselves to Achille and Patroclus. Or even the poetess Sappho of Lesbos. Which yes, it's where the word lesbian come from. Or heck, the sacred band of Thebes. Who was a troop of elite soldiers made up of 150 pair of male LOVERS. I can go on and on.
We can also talk about how Metatron constantly criticize casting POC actors to play historically white figures. Presenting it as him caring about historical accuracy. But don't do the same so passionately about any other kind of historical inaccuracy. Or far worse movies. Once again showing a big double standard.
Way before that. I remarked several red flags that now I should have listened to. The fact he often use "woke" unironically, how he talk about how Hollywood and academia have an "agenda" to misrepresent history, the fact he sometime used conservative sources only, multiple time only debated against one article (that he often also misrepresented) without including others point of view or digging in deeper, him being often too overconfident in his claims despite not being an historian, and his comments section often giving off extremely right wings vibe with people thanking him for fighting the good fight against the wokes.
The runes video was just the straw that broke the camel back for me. Because surprise surprise. But that whole "runes are magical" myth own a lot to far right ideologies. I know this because I also follow the pagan community. And they themselves will tell you. That a subsection of modern Norse paganism has a problem with far right practitioners appropriating it. (So a small group. Norse pagan that aren't bigot are the first to complain about them trust me.)
Because of, yes, you may have guess it, but Nazism. Which is why even today, countless right wing groups like to appropriate Nordic symbols. (The swastika was the first unfortunate victim. But now that it's basically a detah giveaway. They like to use other symbol to try and stay under the radar.)
The most recent example being that infamous dude (Jacob Chansley) wearing an animal headdress with horns that stormed the Capitol. He has a walknut, three triangle interlocked, tattooed on him. And it's not a racist symbol at all, it's just from Nordic mythology.
Metatron isn't a nazis. That's not what I am saying. He strike me more as a relatively moderate right wing. But that runes things was still the most massive red flag for me that he may really be adjacent to alt right. And after seeing all those flags pill up. I just rose my hands up and said. Nah. Unsubscribe.
Anyway. If you read all of this and like me. Still love history channel. I really recommend to look for specialists. Channel that talk about a very specific things like weapons or a specific period. I learned the hard way that the more general, the more likely it's bad. Like real bad. Also. No reliable sources (in the descriptions). No trust.
@@asterya6913nice novel, too bad it's left wing grifter propaganda
We’re roasting Shad on a spit more like
OMG...I'm 45 minutes into this video and there are so many cooler ideas here, if only the book wasn't so trash. What if the whole concept WAS that amount of light equals amount of moral value and Daylan was revitalized but, because of his shitty past, he becomes a shade? And then the book is about him becoming an evil monster that can't even control his evilness because he succumbed to evil in the past. What if he is revitalized because taking one of each stones across the barrier de-ages you by, like, an hour or something, and he gets caught in a falling loop through a cavern and it takes him so long to figure out how to get out of the loop that, when he finally lands, he's young again? Then he has learned a real thing about the world, it explains why this isn't a thing literally everyone does when they don't want to die, and you can still do the "except he turned himself into a shade" plotline. I kind of want to write a better version of this trash...except I have my own books to write.
This is ✨cinema✨
Ive watched hours of people shitting on this book, aint stopping anytime soon 🔥🔥🔥
Shad is an awful writer, not because he’s an terrible, bigoted person. But because he is an awful writer that’s writes power fantasy.
Why not both?