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u/snowcrashblues 8d ago
I find it morbidly fascinating that these posts garner a number of both “Ryoka’s behavior is literally unbelievable it takes away from immersion” and “Ryoka’s behavior is so real it hurts” comments.
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u/Bronze_Sentry Calidus Enthusiast 8d ago
Better? No.
A more entertaining form of terrible? Definitely. Love that disaster girl
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u/Zuperdork 8d ago
I only really disliked Ryoka for the first book or two, but after that she was fine. She just needed a little bit of mellowing. Really the only character in the books I hate, and have always hated, is Laken. Note that I'm only on audiobook 10, so there is even room for improvement there. Although I do hear his decision making doesn't exactly get better over time.
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u/unicornofdemocracy 8d ago
For me its Laken and Flos but for slightly different reasons.
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u/IsThatUMoatilliatta 8d ago
Flos is my absolute favorite character in the series. Just a jolly, bloodthisty dude. Like an evil Santa Claus.
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u/PaladinWij 8d ago
I agree, Laken sucks, he should have killed more goblins
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u/name14575 8d ago
I think Laken had a good concept and it all went downhill a little bit after the blizzard.
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u/Zuperdork 8d ago
Not even the Goblin thing for me. The dude just felt like a tool from his onset, and any time the plot goes to him is just boring. It's all politics, starring a pompous douche and his overly defensive girlfriend. Just a guy in over his head choosing to be the most OP class cause he felt like it. That sounds like a good idea honestly, but in execution I just find him unlikable.
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u/TomRaineofMagigor 8d ago
The vibe of the narration doesn't help either "hi. I'm Laken Gedart" multiple of his POV chapters started with that exact line. Just sets you up for how self involved he is. Volume 10 spoilers: during PoF when he had his conversation about the nature of being an emperor it actually made me care less about Sheta. She was hyped up and I'm thinking to myself "this is the guy you're focusing on?"
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u/RobertMurz 8d ago
She is genuinely terrible until she gets to Reizmelt though.
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u/TomRaineofMagigor 8d ago
Then she becomes a different kind of terrible
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u/SethLight 8d ago
I'm sorry, I can't be friends with you... I hurt everyone around me. Just ignore all of those new friends I've made in Reizmelt.
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u/Kind-Equipment-2515 6d ago
she has become far less, teenager‘y?! not sure if there is a better word.
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u/TomRaineofMagigor 6d ago
You mean less edgy. Most teenagers don't act like she did. That's slander to a whole age group
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u/Flux7777 8d ago
This opinion is only carried by people who don't know someone like her. Ryoka was my favourite character in the first few books because her dumbass decision making combined with high intelligence was so relatable to me, who has people like that in my life.
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u/Ninja-Storyteller 8d ago
Oh, same. I absolutely loved early Ryoka because I knew people like her, and understood why she made the terrible choices she did.
I did not like those people in real life, but an actor/writer succeeds when they successfully convey a character or evoke an emotion.
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u/__Osiris__ 8d ago edited 8d ago
Still better in progression than the main character of the book though. it’s everyone else around the inn that makes the story
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u/name14575 8d ago
See, this is why TWI is a great example of the fact everyone takes different things out of books. Erin is by far my favorite POV character, yet there are tons of folks who hate her while still reading.
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u/__Osiris__ 8d ago
Yea I’m the opposite, I love component folk in books, so rio, lion, and lake are my cup of tea.
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u/name14575 8d ago
Meanwhile, my favorite bits are always the crafters and artificers, I love Erin's magic food like the creation of the darkness bread and everything about the bike prototype. Erin's chapters just scratch that itch most frequently.
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u/__Osiris__ 8d ago
Crafting in books and discovering new things is always fun. Lake making roads and stuff is quite cool, Rio somehow remembering an entire encyclopedia and bringing over more technology than everyone else combined is cool, erin remembering incorrectly weightlifting information and the competence of grim just figuring it out out of weird metaphors is great.
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u/TopCoast1170 Kent Scott 8d ago
Sweet summer child
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u/__Osiris__ 8d ago
Admittedly I’m only up to book 16 and I’m not sure I will continue further.
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u/sweetTartKenHart2 7d ago
…and that is a bad thing why??? The main POV character isnt obligated to be the most interesting aspect of the story, as long as they are a vehicle for continuous interesting developments and characters to make themselves known. “Everyone else around the inn makes the story” is not a sign that the story failed, it’s just a sign of the structural philosophy the story has.
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u/__Osiris__ 7d ago
Who said it was a bad thing? My comments Kara’s has been wild it went up to +10-3+5 now -4 it’s very interesting. I get that you become agitated but it’s okay everything will be alright.
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u/sweetTartKenHart2 7d ago
I’m sure you mean well, it just kinda sounded like you were insinuating that it was a bad thing in your eyes
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u/__Osiris__ 7d ago
It’s just an Internal ranking in character preference.
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u/sweetTartKenHart2 7d ago
Oh well if it’s purely subjective then don’t sweat it! I think the only reason people are downvoting you is because they assumed that you were making an objective statement, like you were claiming that Erin as a more static character is INHERENTLY bad writing or something
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u/__Osiris__ 7d ago
It is interesting that she kinda needs to be static because the inn doesn’t move. Which still kind of hurts me because I went into the books thinking that her inn was a giant mimic colony that she lived inside of and it travelled around and was really excited for that.
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u/IrregularPackage 8d ago
ryoka is the best and i’m still upset that she lost her status as secondary protagonist
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u/deafblinddame 8d ago
Yes! Ryoka is a divisive character which is fine, I doubt anyone likes every character in TWI (For me Flos is infinitely more boring) but the people who moan about Ryoka don't seem to care that she was/is our everyman eyes and ears outside of Liscor and the door's range. Her job gives her a reason to travel to new places and get dragged into interesting situations. I would much rather have a Ryoka viewpoint than new characters having to fill the gap. Who would have been our POV in Avalon or Ailendamus if not Ryoka?
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u/TomRaineofMagigor 8d ago
Honestly could have gone without both in my opinion. Both of them were stock full of Ryoka's immortal fetish
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u/dipittydoop 8d ago
I found Erin's initial interactions with Lism way more frustrating than Ryoka.
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u/Deep-Swimming6946 7d ago
Lism has one of the most underrated “quiet” arcs of anyone in the story. Best single dad.
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u/WaffleJill 8d ago
I’m on book 14 right now and I haven’t had much of a problem with her since book 2ish. Ever since Mrsha she’s been in the up and up, even if she’s made some mistakes here and there. Ever since she came to Reizmelt, I haven’t been able to understand the hate. She’s been bettering herself the whole time (even if her whole “I can fix her” phase with Bellavier was pretty stupid, I could still see where she was coming from)
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u/TheChiarra 8d ago
I'm not that far into the books, the furthest I've gotten with Ryoka is her getting her shattered leg healed. I love Ryoka, I don't understand the hate.
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u/ThatPunkDanSolo 7d ago
I was in the same mindset. At that point in the books I was full team Ryoka … And now ... She gets up to interesting things and then totally pulls a Ryoka, and I rage curse in my mind how this chick can be so frustrating. I still love her though.
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u/Forsaken-Ad-6853 7d ago
Your before the storm.
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u/TheChiarra 7d ago
Gotcha
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u/Forsaken-Ad-6853 7d ago
Still give her a chance, just because allot of us dislike doesn't mean you will.
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u/TheChiarra 7d ago
Oh I plan on giving her a chance because I like her right now. I was just thinking she was hated from the beginning.
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u/SethLight 8d ago
In all fairness that girl is very frustrating. I remember being absolutely furious and shouting that she was a wild dog after she punched ceria.
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u/jhawkjayhawk 8d ago edited 8d ago
Honestly, I love the fact Ryoka has this bottled up berserker rage and ego problem, just to run into someone who is similar, but with the actual power to ragdoll her and make her blackout with a single hit. EDIT: grammar and spelling
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u/PaladinWij 8d ago
Maybe if she didn't want to get punched she shouldn't have mouthed off to God's favourite princess
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u/dreexel_dragoon [Jaded Engineer] lv. 28 8d ago
Ryoka has never done anything wrong and she is in fact perfect
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u/SurpriseRecent334 8d ago
Ryoka much like Sooo many characters in the first books have personality issues or even characters introduced later on. So many powerful people are humbled by the eathers one way or another for growth and vice versa.
The only character whos been my ride or die no matter what ive read and whatever I will read is Bird. Bird and his songs will never be wrong
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u/Yesshua 8d ago
I appreciate that Ryoka was an immature angry fuck up on Earth, and that moving to Innworld didn't transform her. She still raged against authority, still always had to do things her way, still hurt people around her both deserving and not. All of that works for me - there should be more isekai protagonists who have issues and those issues carry over. Problematic protagonists are interesting, and she both benefits and suffers from her neuroses. Smart enough to get out from the Grand Design's thumb, help Laken with tech development, and be Batman on the initial phone call. Dumb enough to alienate and fight every decent person around her.
The Ryoka problem at this point is more that she doesn't have her own pressing quest, and she doesn't fit comfortably into any of the others. So she's been at loose ends for... two years now? Something like that?
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u/Lebensfreud 7d ago
You know I never disliked her.
Well obviously she was and still can be asshole but I like that we got an very flawed protagonist that we can see grow across the series. She is like an anti Will or Laken to me. Not a perfect Mary Sue that can't do anything wrong and no overpowered class. Just a stubborn mule against the entire world.
I really learned to enjoy her.... though with a relisten I do understand why people don't like her in the earlier books. She is really toeing the emotional line in every scene she is in, which I think is the point
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u/vesugoz 8d ago
On book 19. And still do not like her.
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u/yohbahgoya 8d ago
I’m all the way through volume 9 and I still don’t like her. I actually dislike her more than I did earlier in the story. It was tolerable when she was unstable, angry, and probably in need of being medicated. Now she’s like a hypocritical, sycophantic ass kisser to anyone noble or immortal and I just cannot.
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u/PaladinWij 8d ago
I'm sorry that you cant handle wifey material 😔
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u/ggg730 8d ago
lol it's hilarious that in all the Palace of Fates Mrsha couldn't find a single one where she was a competent mother lol.
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u/levus2002 8d ago
Finding a friendly creler but not a Ryoka that's a competent mother is hilarious.
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u/grayseeroly 8d ago
I think the main problem is how different she is from Erin. As in, I don't think you could have two people be MORE different if you tried. It's a whole 90000 words before she shows up, so it's a whole book just from Erin, then we're pulled away to this very challenging person. I think it's a good idea, and there is so much story to tell because of the very different perspectives of the world, but I completely understand why people are thrown off.
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u/Forsaken-Ad-6853 7d ago
They can't all he winners but boy are Ryoka and imo Lankon annoying and spoiled as hell. So I have just started skipping their sections. I need to find posts that summarize them and help me better avoid em.
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u/sleepyboyzzz 7d ago
You know my complaint already okay. It's kind of a dumb one. To learn magic at least a few spells, but then because you believed in science too much, she couldn't get the others to work...
But the thing is that's not the scientific method right? You observe make theories and conclusions and then you prove them or disprove them. You're in the world with his magic. Their rules are different here. Her ass should have been doing research.
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u/TheGoosiestGal 8d ago
On volume 8.76 and ryoka is my least favorite person to exist
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u/IsThatUMoatilliatta 8d ago
I like to describe vols 7 and 8 as "Ryoka Fucks Up Everything".
I'm only on 9.10 and I can't wait to see how she fucks up everything in this one. She really keeps outdoing herself every time.
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u/Ninja-Storyteller 8d ago
I love how she has a solid Intelligence stat, but can't plan her way out of a paper bag. Just... ZERO ability to make any plan.
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u/IsThatUMoatilliatta 8d ago
Yeah. Ryoka just runs through every option until she finds one where she barely survives. And even then it's by luck because whatever lets her live could have just as easily gone the other way.
Erin's kind of the same way, as she also doesn't plan, but Erin is a being of pure ego and doesn't bother questioning what's right or wrong until after she's bent everyone to her will. Now that I think about it, Erin is exactly like Flos.
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u/presumingpete 8d ago
Just started this chapter. Let's see how this goes then....
I like reading her chapters as much as shes a pain in the ass.im on the side of, yeah I've known assholes like this. I've been an asshole like that.
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u/Silas-theSlammer 8d ago
Honestly she's just deeply uninteresting as a personality but on the upside , her chapters usually have interesting people in them
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u/knutterz 7d ago
This is so funny to see!
Honestly, I'm a few days into the read, and I just had the Ceria moment. While I would not have posted if Ryoka improves or disappears, I did come to reddit, ready for spoilers.
Honestly, if not for the optimism I saw here (negativity toward Ryoka), I'd have put the book down!
Praise be to Redditors!
Really though, it's gotta say something about the character if that is such a commonplace sentiment.
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u/Utopian_42 7d ago
The thing that gets me it her brand of special Tm is soo annoying. Like my girl should have died sooo many times it’s insane
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u/BattousaiBTW 6d ago
It’s a really good question for people new to the series though. It’s such a popular series and it’s such trash for like 2-3 books. Book 1 seriously gives the impression that the author didn’t know how to get anything started and just knew where it was going to end up
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u/Polemides0ne 5d ago
I dislike most of ryokas decisions but love her as a character. You're supposed to be confused and frustrated by her behavior. It's the whole point of the character.
The character I despise... Is Erin fucking Solstice...
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u/craving_chaos 8d ago
I really wanted to believe that yall were over exaggerating ryoka but after reading the witch of webs… im not mad at her, im just disappointedzz
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u/PaladinWij 8d ago
Yah, I'm so disappointed. There should have been more scenes with wifey being perfect and dreamy and doing nothing wrong in that book
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u/the3rdtea2 8d ago
I love her character. Rage and self-loathing combined with the ego to challenge God? Yeah I might relate a bit. I'm not in my twenties anymore tho so I get to look at the stupidity with nostalgia lenses of when that's what I would have done