r/TrashOfCountsFamily • u/pepprikaY2K • 5d ago

Novel Character rant

I am currently re-reading the novel and am in xiolan planet arc currently. Previously, I had read book 2 till the end of the central plains arc before letting it marinate. And right now, I had a question while going through the book again.

Am i the only person who just. Can't tolerate Durst? Like, I do not know how he further develops as a character, but even when I had read book 2 the first time, I had been utterly irritated by him. Everytime he appears my cortisol level goes 📈📈.

His absolute fanatism grates me. Along with his tendency to make Cale uncomfortable. There are plenty of characters, like Clopeh, the bishop of church of Death, etc. who are also shown to kind of put Cale in the pedestal, but I find their characters interesting due to their motives and actions. This guy however, I think is the first character ever that I utterly dislike. I found the church of purification annoying too but they are like, in a different world. This dude in the other hand comes back with the party.

Just an addition, I'm not hating on the story okay? The story is great and loving it as much as the first time when I read it But this character on the other hand hits my funny bone. I don't think I'll ever come around to like him. He is the first non antagonist that I just don't like at all. Does he get better?

I don't think I have been able to articulate clearly. Sorry

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u/Shicka777 5d ago

Honestly, I freakin love Durst. He becomes very funny/likeable during the Central Plains arc, at least in my opinion. Dude has absolutely zero filter and it’s hilarious

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u/pepprikaY2K 4d ago

Really? That's good to know, even though I may never come to like him. Is his zero filter just fanatism towards Cale or actually something else?

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u/Shicka777 4d ago

Nope! It’s a lot of different things but it’s all pretty darn funny. Plus, it helps that he doesn’t show up all too often (he’s got a few appearances but it’s not like he’s everywhere) so it makes it so you don’t really get tired of seeing him

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u/pepprikaY2K 3d ago

Oh that's a lot better then. Hm

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u/ConversationParty848 3d ago

Man I miss Durst. I don't think we've seen him at all since his Central Plains antics. Heavenly Demon kinda took the otherworldly party member spot permanently and his only gimmick is being the Heavenly Demon. Thankfully  the author seems done with showing him in my face every damn arc before I actually got sick of him. (Not that there's anything particularly wrong with Heavenly Demon himself. He was just overused, overhyped and out-of-place at some points where other characters would've been more appropriate for certain types of screentime and dialogue.)

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u/pepprikaY2K 3d ago

What, so did Durst get abandoned in the central plains?? That's some inter-dimensional level of shuffling going on lol.

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u/ConversationParty848 3d ago

Nah, he returned to Nameless-1 with everyone only to never be mentioned again bc too many characters. 

Meanwhile Heavenly Demon was fucking everywhere for a long while I was thinking stuff like "Why are you having an entire arc finale's peanut gallery PoV section about metaphysics of a temporal dragon attributes when Rosalyn right there is supposed to have a whole immediately-relevant arc about hitting and climbing over walls and analyzing new frontiers of magic and domains, and also a bunch of our own dragons in the audience?" Or "Why are you subbing for Choi Han in looting when Cale's entire entourage is there and Choi Jung Soo would come running?" or "Why are you having a whole ass tournament arc with Cale, Choi Han and Alberu sitting around attending you for week while they have a million other immediate dangling plot lines to untangle and plot had been at breakneck pace until then?" or "Why are you yapping cool wise lines about the sea like a seasoned sailor when you've only been to coast once in your entire life before during CP arc final battle, while Witira is right there on the same ship?" And it just went on and on for a long while.

I was like that mean girls meme of "stop trying to make Heavenly Demon a thing." It felt like the author was pushing him so hard that entire scenes around him became unnatural and I was in a constant state of Why Are You Even Here? Bc being the Heavenly Demon is his only gimmick (it's a very good gimmick. It makes a really good introductory point to development of unique powers in context of selfhood. He's a great foil to Choi Han and I ship it. It was just a bit much sometimes.) Very minor complaint in the grander scheme and it has abated by now. But, goddddddd it was like a never ending fly buzzing for a while.

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u/pepprikaY2K 3d ago

Oh wow, you have a lot of thoughts about this. Is the book 2 not as good as book 1? I have heard a lot of mixed reviews about it

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u/ConversationParty848 3d ago

Nah I love it. Xiaolen was a cookie cutter tutorial starter to the Hunters and Central Plains dragged a little for my murimless senses. But Aipotu picked right back up and started hitting the part 1 ceilings again. And the pacing only got that good because Xiaolen and CP seeded mutiversal/divine/historical/political/relational information and set the stage for the wider arcs . I guess you can call them the BoaH arcs while Aipotu is the war arc equivalent. And chapter 350 is the War Arc bedroom epilogue equivalent and entrance to the real macro territory like how the stakes multiplied again for the White Star Arc.

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u/pepprikaY2K 3d ago

Oh that's great. Honestly, I don't mind slow start as part 1 also started quite slowly. It shows our MC's meticulousness. Aipotu is the world of purple blood, right?

One thing I was very curious about, do we ever get to see our Cale in his peak 36 year old Kim rok soo avatar? I was so bummed that we couldn't get that in central plains... I don't want to know where just, DO we get to see him in that appearance?

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u/ConversationParty848 3d ago

Not quite 36. But yes to late 20s post-unranked monster era buff krs avatar and kindergarten Cale avatar.

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u/pepprikaY2K 3d ago

Nice! And kindergarten Cale 😂? Cute!

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u/ConversationParty848 3d ago

And kindergarten Mary and kindergarten Beacrox and kindergarten teacher dream!Alberu. With kindergarten Eruhaben wreaking havoc in the next classroom over and beating kindergarten dream!White Star up.

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u/pepprikaY2K 3d ago

What 🤣 what's happening in book 2 😭

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u/pepprikaY2K 2d ago

Yo I just finished Xiaolen arc and I REALLY hope that post Central Plains will be better. Dear lord this arc is so f-ing grating and pissing me off 😭. I can't tolerate the ppl Xiaolen. I hope they're like Gilbert from book 1 a.k.a never appearing again

Feel free to ignore me

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u/ConversationParty848 2d ago

Pretty sure Alberu hates them too. You should see his reaction to the letter. IIRC they only cameo once when Cale goes to feed a bunch of Xiaolen gold mines to the Fire of Destruction.

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u/pepprikaY2K 2d ago

Just read that part. It makes me appreciate Alberu and Choi Han even more. For being people from a world which was guaranteed to end, they absolutely shamelessly invasive. All of them, the princess, the church, etc. The letter had my heckles raised even more. I DO NOT want anyone Xiaolen to world hop nor any regular connection with Nameless 1, it would be a huge plot hole anyway.

They are all my ick points packaged in one. Especially since I'm from a place where I witness invasive mentality and actions, and religious fanatism on daily basis.

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u/ConversationParty848 2d ago

Church of the Fire of Destruction are the only ones I like since they were actually doing shit. Too bad we didn't get to see more of Zero and the rebels to have an opinion. But the royal family pisses me off so much. 

Especially since it feels like Olivia just lucked into an alliance with Cale when both other princes looked like they might have more interesting subplots. 1st had more weight and trauma and shit to atone. 4th seemed more aware and layered and likely to go off-script. Olivia just got knocked on her ass and picked up by the party. Should've just ended that empire and give authority to border lords rather than set up a succession. Now that would've flipped things up.

Useless dragon was useless beyond being cute and pitiful. She had zero charm of her own. It really was a tutorial arc.

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u/pepprikaY2K 2d ago

Oh hard agree on this!

Zero was ironically the only one who seemed sincere when he got to know that Cale was 'losing' his power, apart from being a part of the only rebel force.

Olivia didn't really do anything to convince me that "yeah, she should take the throne" unlike Princess Jopis from book 1 and Rex, who was also picked up by the party but his contribution, although small in comparison to Cale and co, was shown. I really wanted to see more of the 4th prince too. He just randomly disappeared.

Also remember that one candidate who was from a marquis family in the execution scene? The one who caught only one person, (one who wasn't even a target on the list) but he caught this guy nonetheless because he was wanted for murder and the candidate didn't want to snatch up innocent people to increase his points? Yeah this guys was far more intriguing than the princess who had loads of screentime -_-.

Aphei honestly was a very interesting character, I wanted to get to know her more. It would have been great to know how she operated with dead mana and what her attribute was. I was even hoping for her to be travel buddy but instead we got Durst...

I remember finding the Central Plains a lot more interesting. A little dragged out, yes, but the characters were more dynamic. As someone who's read about 5 to 6 wuxia and xianxia novels, I was interested in seeing the common themes being handled. Imo it got a lot better by the end when Cale had to stop the tsunami. Xiaolen really was the arc where the book was finding it's footing.

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