Review Detail of LightningCatThief in Tanky Mage System

sososooososooso:These “weak amateurs” were all talented aristocrats from high-ranking families. It’s called making connections and growing leeks. Besides, if not for these “weak amateurs”, would he have gotten what he had, as quickly as he had, without their ‘mysterious key’?

LightningCatThief:They may be descendants from powerful families, but they are all weak and have no value in the eyes of their family. It is mentioned that all of them have trouble getting those tokens, which are easy enough to get with money. It is explicitly mentioned that the MC is much more wealthy and has access to more and better resources than at least one of them. So the MC did not join them for resources. Friendship is also out, the way he is described it is probably hard to make friends with him. There is no emotional, nor a logical reason to join this group. They don't make him safer, but instead hinder his ability to move freely. The Key is a plot device used by the author to create excitement and give the MC enemies of his own level despite him goofing around with those noops. Their only purpose is to show just how awesome our MC is.

LightningCatThief:So the only use they have is as a plot devise to give the MC a useful tool and maybe as a "bridge". You just validated my statement, they are useless goofers. It would have been exactly as effective if he just won the key in an auction, or found it in a chopshop with his encounter system. As for connecting him to more powerful people, he is literally a legendary potion maker. He could join any force and be received like a honored guest. In the end there is just no reason for such a power imbalanced team to be of use to the MC. It is not like he is the type to crave social interaction or use others as sacrificial pawns. It just doesn't fit the MC characterization to waste this much time on vague maybe future gains. It is not like he is trying to hide his brilliance, he just doesn't care to deal with the trouble coming with joining a strong force. Imagine just how often he must have joined them to develop such a strong bond that he shares this massive opportunity with them. And don't kid yourself with the idea that he feels like he ows them, the only thing anyone of them has done is make him a target because they were to incompetent to hide their tracks. We already establish that no resources the MC is using are sourced trough them. If the author wanted to make them useful contacts, he could have made his adopted parent less competent or generous. But he has more cloud in the city than all of those aristocratic goofers combined. Another method that could have been used is that the MC is grooming them as his future subordinates/political cloud, but he would have to share resources and knowledge with them. The aothor choos non of those methose or any other Methode to make the relationship believable. Hell, they could have just asked him to join the expedition as backup for a certain percentage of treasures. And because it is a mandatory school excursion he would have nothing better to do. The whole interaction is handeled badly because it rewrites the explicitly stated characteristics of the MC personality and forces a reader to reevaluate everything established about the character. Such a major cock up is a sign that the author either has no understanding of character driven stories, in which case his world building and pase are unsuitable, or he has not planed his story as throughly as he should have if he wanted to create something memorable.

sososooososooso:Dud, i dont even understand what your argument is. You’ve already acknowledged the fact that their existence had given the MC the necessary ‘tools’ to, as mentioned before, obtain a new class and a noble creation. The tool was in the hand of these kids, and that’s just the setting. No use mumbling about while trying to force your alternative onto the book with ‘it could’ve been in an auction’ and whatnot. Their existence also contributed to the world-building, having given us a wider glimpse at the high society’s social structure and the roles/aspirations/responsibilities of young aristocrats. Their existence had also provided the reader with a simple, but effective way to better understand the world’s power scaling relative to age. Besides, near the end, these kids were used to build up tension while foreshadowing at a future conflict (however minor), having been eyed, and even killed by an assassin. It’s fair to say they have served their purpose well, so sit down, bro.

LightningCatThief:You missed the point entirely. My problem with them is not their characters or that they do not contribute to the story. Trough their contributions are very minor compared to the amount of effort necessary to make this grouping convincing. My problem is that it breaks the established character of the MC to join this particular group in this situation without a good reason. If the MC had been established as a week beginner, a poor genius or any other type of character with a flaw or a need for backup, it would have been alright. Heel, a reason like he needed a certain grade in class and team of at least 5 are mandatory or him owing them a favor would have been enough. I don't want to repeat myself, so read my other comments why it is such a bad match-up. There is also no real emotional connection before the expedition, so their deaths are entirely useless for character building. Their deaths can show aspects of the character, but emotional reactions are hard to justify if there is no connection beforehand. Imagine this, you wake up in a strange world, no prior connections, no foreknowledge of any kind. You will feel disconnected and if everyone around you is killed, you won't care because you don't have a sense of shared identity or connection. You might be shocked, horrified even and then you would move on. This is literally what happens in wars. As long as none of the people you know or care about are being hurt you won't go out of your way to do something about it. Now add to that a world where dozens of the people around you die each day and where fighting, killing, looting is part of your every day. This is what the novels world is like and it is explicitly stated that the MC was only abel to join the group because he had proven his strength previously. They used him, it is as simple as that and they all were aware of the risk of death. They even went close to a certain death zone. It makes absolutely no sense at all for the MC to care about them in any way, because there was never any trust in their relationship in the first place. If you need more, remember how the MC explicitly did not sleep, despite others keeping watch, while also explicitly not telling them about himself being awake. The MC treats them like temporary distractions who are just as dangerous to himself as they are to possible enemies. I do not hope to show you the way, everyone can and should have their own opinions, but please consider that not everyone shares your point of view. A review is a personal impression of a book and as such prone to intentional and unintentional biase. I myself hate storytelling in which a main character gets miss characterized in such a fundamental way and my intention in writing reviews is to warn those who might feel the same.

sososooososooso:“...they are useless goofers.” “Their only purpose is to show just how awesome the MC is.” Considering your own words, no, i did not miss the point here. I’ve responded as deserved. Moving on, how does joining this social group break the “established character” of the MC? Yes, he was never described to be a social butterfly, but i do not believe he was explicitly shown to have a lone mentality either. There’s no conflict between the action of joining this ‘club’ and his personality. Besides, you had previously mentioned that the MC did not join them for resources, but chapter 5 seems to disagree: “...these rich descendants of aristocratic families were people with a huge amount of resources... Gurney had been able to exchange for many useful resources from them in the past.” Considering this, what “established character” had been broken? There’s a clear motive here. You then mentioned that their deaths are useless to character building. But when had i ever said their deaths had been useful to character building? When had i ever mentioned how this would impact the MC? I didn’t. I only said they served to build up tension for the reader, and to move the plot along. And as mentioned before, this just goes to show that they aren’t “useless goofers”, but a well-used plot device that is both reasonable and logical considering the points and quotes raised and given above. I honestly don’t quite understand what exactly your problem is with these kids. They weren’t particularly annoying and have served a clear purpose in advancing the story. And just for emphasis, as said multiple times before, no established character has been broken with the MC’s association with them.

sososooososooso:Dud, i dont even understand what your argument is. You’ve already acknowledged the fact that their existence had given the MC the necessary ‘tools’ to, as mentioned before, obtain a new class and a noble creation. The tool was in the hand of these kids, and that’s just the setting. No use mumbling about while trying to force your alternative onto the book with ‘it could’ve been in an auction’ and whatnot. Their existence also contributed to the world-building, having given us a wider glimpse at the high society’s social structure and the roles/aspirations/responsibilities of young aristocrats. Their existence had also provided the reader with a simple, but effective way to better understand the world’s power scaling relative to age. Besides, near the end, these kids were used to build up tension while foreshadowing at a future conflict (however minor), having been eyed, and even killed by an assassin. It’s fair to say they have served their purpose well, so sit down, bro.

LightningCatThief:Your last comment has been deleted, so I can only assume you have changed your mind, but in case it was deleted because of outside influence I still want to answer. First, if you think the death of people in close proximity to a MC automatically has an effect on them or the reader, then I would like to bring your attention to numerous evil/dark MC stories. But in case you ment people close to the MC, then one might imagine that you would have a point, from a distance. But and this is important, they have to matter or need to be simmilar in a significant way to more important characters, which could die in the same way. This is clearly not the case here. That doesn't mean that deaths of NPC are useless, they can have a lot of uses, like establishing a villains personality or creating plotlines down the line. Foreshadowing means a warning or an indication of a future event. Those deaths were not a warning of a future event, but they would have been a warning of present danger if they were in any way close to the MC power. They weren't, so they were more a motivational boost to permanently deal with the szenes antagonist. If you want a foreshadowing, it would be the szene where they discussed going into a certain death zone. A very blunt case of foreshadowing. You said "We have already established the fact that their existence has brought numerous benefits to the MC". I disagree. Numerous benefits mean more than 3 and I can only think of two possible things: The resources and the Key, or in other words, neboulous past benefits of uncertein value and the plot device, not very good examples. Again, the resources. If these aristocrats had any good resources, why would they buy the MCs leftovers? Cohan has managed to gain access to resources which were immedeatly sought after by those aristocrats. There is only a single one of them who is mentioned to have access to a technique of a similar level, which means that non of them has better resources than our MC. Here you can also see that Cohan does not hide his capabilities from the MC, maybe he hides from others, but we just don't know. Another thing, guarding against other in a dog eat dog world is common sense and there are way more things someone can do than just kill you. Theft, sabotage and blackmail are just some of the many dangers in such a situation. Imagine the MC had left them behind in a dangerous location. The next argument can be debunked in one word, status. People with status are always in the eye of the public and even the most untallented aristocrat has money and influence, simply because of their family name. Their family might think them useless, they may be weak, they may be lazy, they may even be disgusting examples of the worst of humanity, but in the end they will always have access to more money than most commoners. And money makes the world turn, even more so in a world where money can buy strength, power and lifetime. Any commoner, much less an orphan mixing with them will cause speculation. I stand by my opinion, which doesn't mean that I can not be persuaded. I can understand that you want to see these people as something with value, because that would give the MC a more diverse personality and motivation. But please understand that not everyone can simply imagine a better, more intersting story when the novel just doesn't cut it. I will not continue to read or care about this novel, but if you can find me examples in the novel in which the MC gains tangible benefits from the association with those children (Except the Key of course, that is just a tool to further the plot) I will correct my assumtion and add another review.

sososooososooso:It’s still there.

LightningCatThief:Your last comment has been deleted, so I can only assume you have changed your mind, but in case it was deleted because of outside influence I still want to answer. First, if you think the death of people in close proximity to a MC automatically has an effect on them or the reader, then I would like to bring your attention to numerous evil/dark MC stories. But in case you ment people close to the MC, then one might imagine that you would have a point, from a distance. But and this is important, they have to matter or need to be simmilar in a significant way to more important characters, which could die in the same way. This is clearly not the case here. That doesn't mean that deaths of NPC are useless, they can have a lot of uses, like establishing a villains personality or creating plotlines down the line. Foreshadowing means a warning or an indication of a future event. Those deaths were not a warning of a future event, but they would have been a warning of present danger if they were in any way close to the MC power. They weren't, so they were more a motivational boost to permanently deal with the szenes antagonist. If you want a foreshadowing, it would be the szene where they discussed going into a certain death zone. A very blunt case of foreshadowing. You said "We have already established the fact that their existence has brought numerous benefits to the MC". I disagree. Numerous benefits mean more than 3 and I can only think of two possible things: The resources and the Key, or in other words, neboulous past benefits of uncertein value and the plot device, not very good examples. Again, the resources. If these aristocrats had any good resources, why would they buy the MCs leftovers? Cohan has managed to gain access to resources which were immedeatly sought after by those aristocrats. There is only a single one of them who is mentioned to have access to a technique of a similar level, which means that non of them has better resources than our MC. Here you can also see that Cohan does not hide his capabilities from the MC, maybe he hides from others, but we just don't know. Another thing, guarding against other in a dog eat dog world is common sense and there are way more things someone can do than just kill you. Theft, sabotage and blackmail are just some of the many dangers in such a situation. Imagine the MC had left them behind in a dangerous location. The next argument can be debunked in one word, status. People with status are always in the eye of the public and even the most untallented aristocrat has money and influence, simply because of their family name. Their family might think them useless, they may be weak, they may be lazy, they may even be disgusting examples of the worst of humanity, but in the end they will always have access to more money than most commoners. And money makes the world turn, even more so in a world where money can buy strength, power and lifetime. Any commoner, much less an orphan mixing with them will cause speculation. I stand by my opinion, which doesn't mean that I can not be persuaded. I can understand that you want to see these people as something with value, because that would give the MC a more diverse personality and motivation. But please understand that not everyone can simply imagine a better, more intersting story when the novel just doesn't cut it. I will not continue to read or care about this novel, but if you can find me examples in the novel in which the MC gains tangible benefits from the association with those children (Except the Key of course, that is just a tool to further the plot) I will correct my assumtion and add another review.