(L) Genjitsushugisha no Oukokukaizouki (A Realist’s Kingdom Reform Chronicles)

[obnuchious]

I already have an image of all three dukes in my mind . . . if they differ from their official illustrations in the next volume ..which I assume they'll be shown.. . . . . .

[Cancel]

I guess they made the characters cuter so the LN could sell well.

[nilocolin]

By the end of this Torgis Republic arc Yuno/Juno, the thief, in that adventurer party Souma is acquainted with as Musashi-boy might end up being his sixth fiancée or at least a romantic interest. She's giving off that feeling.

Spoiler for Spoiler:

Also: Liecia is pregnant with Souma's first child. Which is really good news for Souma politically and personally.

[Breimn]

Originally Posted by nilocolin

By the end of this Torgis Republic arc Yuno/Juno, the thief, in that adventurer party Souma is acquainted with as Musashi-boy might end up being his sixth fiancée or at least a romantic interest. She's giving off that feeling.

Spoiler for Spoiler:

Also: Liecia is pregnant with Souma's first child. Which is really good news for Souma politically and personally.

Seriously? Anything else important happening after he got a zoid? I stopped reading there.

[nilocolin]

Originally Posted by Breimn

Seriously? Anything else important happening after he got a zoid? I stopped reading there.

Spoiler for Spoiler:

Not a lot happens since then.

The major plot point currently is Souma (as Kazuya) with Juna, Aisha, Roroa, Tomoe, Carla, Hal, Kaede incognito and the Black Cats travel to Torgis Republic; because Souma wants the country as an ally and to employ some of their talented people for a project that will benefit Freedonia kingdom. Liecia stays back home for various reasons but ultimately it’s because she was verifying her pregnancy; Souma actually finds out by letter via flyer pigeon and excitedly wanted to return home but Aisha who similarly received a letter from Leicia (who anticipated his actions) encouraged him to complete his mission in Torgis.

After this there’s a lot of meet and greets with the Torgis countrymen. There’s a moment with a naked Juna (with a bottle of wine) and Souma sharing a bath when he gets depressed about the idea of Torgis becoming an enemy and the possibility of him lacking the resolve to carry out his duties as king (compared to the matter concerning the former Amidonia Principality) because he has come to know the people of Torgis intimately. Juna cheers him up; except for some teasing skinship nothing hot-and-heavy happens since Souma passes out supposedly from staying in the bath too long and is nursed by Juna the next morning.

And in the latest chapter, it has Souma’s group, Torgis countrymen, and the four-man adventurer party that Souma’s acquainted with, cooperating to defeat Ogres from a newly discovered labyrinth. Souma mostly cooperates to deepen the relationship between Torgis and Freedonia. There’s a funny bit with Souma still acting under his alias as Kazuya trying to evade Yuno/Juno (the green-haired thief) from realizing his identity as Musashi-boy, Freedonia’s king, and Kazuya, including the reason why he knew her name when he saved her and aided her party in stopping slave mongers in Parnam. Juna gets a little jealous watching their interactions. He promises to meet her (and her party) later on to explain.

There’s also Poncho being the governor of the new port city and he’s more or less considered a hero now because he was pivotal in solving the food crisis in the kingdom. This has made him a marriage target for a lot of ambitious young women. Since he has a timid personality and him being one of Souma’s closest vassals, Souma and Hakuya had the head maid of the royal court (forgot her name) supervise his marriage meetings so he doesn’t fall for a dangerously ambitious woman that could easily manipulate him. He amusingly doesn’t get a fiancée but a subordinate who seems to be a gourmand like him as the result of the marriage meetings.

[nilocolin]

Are there more illustrations floating around? The LN should be available now. I'm interested to see what Hal, Kaede, Carla, and the three dukes (especially Duchess Ecksel) look like.

[Kyureki]

Only illustrations I know of are these two which were posted on Overlap's blog almost 2 weeks ago.

Spoiler:

[rantaid]

Not Sheero : People die when they are killed. Sabre, this deskjob is killing me. kill me please.

Not Sabre : Sheero....~ (Me so hungry)

[larvyde]

Originally Posted by Kyureki

Only illustrations I know of are these two which were posted on Overlap's blog almost 2 weeks ago.

Spoiler:

I left my copy at my desk at work but off the top of my head, besides the color pages and the two you posted, there are:
- one of Juna, looking all idol-y and stuff
- one of Tomoe, looking timid
- one of Aisha holding an octopus looking all zannen, Soma also in the frame
- one of Soma and Hakuya, scheming. Soma is in Gendo pose
- one where Soma was hugging Aisha, who was crying
- one of an adventurer who looks to be about to be having a wardrobe malfunction

[Breimn]

Pls post idol. Dont care about other illustrations.Idol is only one who matters.

[xTachibana]

questioning if "Orientiel Dragon in human form from the country of dragons which make contracts with humans and become their dragon in return for children" refers to Carla or another dragon girl later on in the story.

[Shinja]

A basic for a work of fiction to be of a good quality is it's verisimilitude. A story needs to be somehow easily believable. Of course, we can't ask that much from amateur writers, we all know we are not reading George RR Martin works on syosetu but it is expected from this novel to be an exception as it claim to show a realist State reform story.

Unfortunately, it fail completely in doing that, as there is a massive number of small and less small plot holes.

I can explain some of those i still remember and that shocked me quite a bit:

He made schools for either slaves or slaves and commoners, what is so shocking ?

Well, the schools are not shocking by themselves, the schools uniforms are ! Before the industrial revolution, clothes were very expensive ! Most of people used to wear many-times mended clothes made by housewives and other women of their household, and buying clothes is a proof of wealth. Therefore, for a pre-industrial revolution country which had food shortages until one year ago to provide uniforms for students is a ridiculously extravagant expenditure !

I imagine that it was an obvious matter for a modern Japanese guy who seemly never left his own country to associate "student" with "uniform" but the story is suddenly much less believable

It is also obvious that the author know nothing about an actual order of battle:

Amidonian army possess a thousand wyverns but was surprised by the MC's army as they didn't send any scout, and no, their lord being hurried is not an acceptable explanation as a thirty thousand men army possess many lords in it's ranks if it is a feudal army, many officers if it is not a feudal army. In both cases, those people will do their job routinely without waiting for orders as two people are not enough to ensure the whole army's operation. Moreover, as the wyverns unit was left untouched until the final battle, they were expected to carry out the scouting without waiting for command. Think about it this way: They are 10 times faster than their main army (they fly) yet they spent 3 whole days not doing anything. Moreover, even if their lord was very worried about what happening in his own capital, he didn't send them to keep track of the situation !

Now MC's army: they are fifty thousand strong and no actual rearguard, once some cavalry went to stop the enemy cavalry from breaking through, there were no men left to protect the king against a single horsemen ! That's ridiculous ! The royal tent of a fifty thousand strong army posses tens of officers and hundreds of men at any time: Ranks of pikemen, archers (and magicians for a fantasy). Adding to them a flying unit to avoid losing the king in a stupid way by an enemy wyvern sneaking in and bombing him.

It's a medieval country, therefore warfare tactics are not that advanced ? A stupid explanation ! They might be under-developed, but it has never been said that they are stupid and basic (and less basic) warfare tactics are as old as war itself.

This bring us to the weaponry: It has been said that artillery is underdeveloped because it's way inferior to magic. Then what about the anti wyverns weapons with high rate of fire actually being used? Why aren't they also used against regular soldiers ? No one has thought about such an obvious thing ? Again, nonsense.

Well, the number of such plot-hole and misconceptions is massive (Several each episode): The author is adding things only relevant to an industrialized society and the common sense of the characters is often out of the modern Japanese culture or otaku sub-culture.
It would have been fine if only with elements which are relevant in an unindustrialised society but is is not the case.

[Riz]

Originally Posted by Shinja

--skip--

yea, hope MC's gonna do somewhat similar to what this guy do

[rantaid]

Why do after the Battle of Bastards passed, there seems to be so many people who become self proclaimed strategist and tactician in warfare ?

before thinking too much, do anyone notice that sometimes (more so or often) The author quoted a phrase/sentence/saying of any past Military treatise/history before confusing them with others in paraphrasing or even explaining them to the readers wor whether it is just me? i feel like the author often unsure which lesson he should use to lecture us or the character .... which made him sometimes mix one with the others.

[Shinja]

Originally Posted by rantaid

Why do after the Battle of Bastards passed, there seems to be so many people who become self proclaimed strategist and tactician in warfare ?

before thinking too much, do anyone notice that sometimes (more so or often) The author quoted a phrase/sentence/saying of any past Military treatise/history before confusing them with others in paraphrasing or even explaining them to the readers wor whether it is just me? i feel like the author often unsure which lesson he should use to lecture us or the character .... which made him sometimes mix one with the others.

Actually, Battle of Bastards require a heavy amount of suspension of belief: It is impossible to surround an army like it has been done by the Bolton dude. People who usually surround their enemy either entice them into advancing too far into the center or use cavalry or light infantry like Bai Qi in his battle of Changping (the Zhao advanced too far into his center), Hannibal in cannae (Roman too far into his center + better cavalry) or Khalid ibn al-Walid and the last phase of the battle of Yarmouk (Light cavalry + sending cavalry to cut the main path for retreat before the last battle).

BTW, IDK about other people but I'm curious about history, antiquity's and medieval cultures since quite a bit ago.

As for the author, he's only using two books as references: The Prince and the Art Of War and he more or less do understand them but he leave to a side whatever seems too immoral in The Prince to keep the MC likeable for the biggest part of the audience (I don't really like that thought...)

[rantaid]

Bai Qi in Changping was due to him being overly outnumbered. welll like most of his battle if i recall.in his battle against the 240,000 men from the alliance of Han-Wei led by Gongsun Xi, he decided for swift maneuvering due to Gongsun Xi underestimated him (70,000 cavalrymen of his elite). Changping was almost become attrition if not due to Lian Po being dismissed by Fan Sui's scheme (which Lin Xiangru was too late to intervene)...:P

Hannibal was annoyed by Fabian.... Khalid who is he? Sword of the Prophet?

yep, i guess, it can be put that way... i dunno about Battle of Bastard plausability though....

As for the author, he's only using two books as references: The Prince and
the Art Of War and he more or less do understand them.

well, there seems to be some citation from De Principatibus or whatever title also, and some Chinese history trivia (would be good if he read zhanguoce or shiji first though). but whether he understand or not is implaussiblity for me seeing one or two he contradict his explanation... that is what i feel.

ps. imo, Gaugamella was better to identify the importance of formation and maneuvering. i recall hammer and anvil were used to surround and encircle.


oh also, you should check Chu-Han contention where Han Xin used ambush from all side to destroy Xiang Yu's army in Gaixia. seeing you bring up Bai Qi, often used for comparisson with each other,

[Shinja]

Khalid was nicknamed the sword of god, De Principatibus IS The Prince, for the contradictions, i'm not sure, if you still remember the chapter's number, i can check it.

At Gaugamella, the Achaemenids did tried to surround Alexander but they dispersed theirs forces too much, their formation was heavy, too ritualised and manoeuvring theirs forces was way too slow. As for Xiang Yu, he bringed his downfall to himself.

And the battle of bastard is implausible, the forces bringed by Davos were much lighter than Ramezy's infantry and moved at the same time yet they only watched as they were getting surrounded by slower than them. There is another big flaw but can be explained by the hurried advance of Jon's cavalry:

If two armies were to fight without forming tight ranks, the smaller would be massacred, therefore, armies, including cavalry will advance in a tight formation, the smaller army can avoid being massacred in a melee and the bigger avoid seeing it's ranks being cut. During a traditional battle, both armies will never mix with each others... And the fight won't be that impressive, actually. first rank of each army will face the first enemy rank, if the army is too pressed and things things seems turning bad, most of the men will be able to retreat safely.

[rantaid]

okay, duly noted. sometimes i mistook Khalid as Ali bin Abi thalib, the fourth caliph.

i must have mistook it with Discourse of Livy. the contradiction i meant is how the author used one passage of Il Principe or Discourse and even sometimes sun zi, then on another point he was bit hesitant and added up other passage from different verse which should be inteprete separatedly.

for example, latest chapter where he brought up Speed is the essence of warfare (which should be about maneuver), he used it to illustrate ongoing campaign (folly in haste, no wisdom in protracted battle) => i am not sure wheher one should compare "On Waging War" and "On Maneuvering" with "9terrain". which made me question the author comprehension on said treatise. on Il Principe i forgot which i should use as illustration, but it was also the early chapter of said wn.

did not Gaugamella was stafted by the deployment of catapracht light infantry as ruse to bait Darius's vanguard, followed by flanking with Iskander's light cavalry followed by chariot to embank them?

about BoB

If two armies were to fight without forming tight ranks, the smaller would
be massacred, therefore, armies, including cavalry will advance in a tight
formation, the smaller army can avoid being massacred in a melee and the
bigger avoid seeing it's ranks being cut.

Benefit of doubt, one can say that there are several factor to overrulle this. 1st is the difference in army quality. Tormunds wildling can be said as more experienced in killing, while The joint Bolton-Karstak-Umber had the problem of esprit de corpse, experience in combat due to their background (yes, they just had five kings war, but... wildling was always implied as frightening killer) then terrain which look muddy swamp (unfit to effective cavalry battle and infantry battle). also desperation to survive.

but overall, it is hard to deny the whole point.

[Breimn]

Speaking of that episode i will never understand why they never went with night raids instead. It seems like wildlings would be better at that and since they are smaller in numbers they should avoid upfront fights. And giving that giant some weapon/armor would turn him into a god war. He has already shown how strong he was when he repelled quite a few zombies with that tree. And why the hell is the author making literally all the rulers girls?
Aniway someone that has novel illustrations? Or that can tell us what is happening in raw?

[pervypig]

I'm surprised our so-called realist never quoted Chairman Mao: "Power grows out of the barrel of a gun."