Side characters?

undeniablyevil

Does it bugs anyone else that the author keeps mentioning complaints about there being too much emphasis on side characters and rushing the plot forward because of it? I hate that the author makes interesting characters that have depth, their own personlity, and their own ambitions and then constantly bombarded with complaints about them seeing "too much screen time." The MC's first ability was obviously focused on using those around him to augment his own power, making a need to have others around him. The author decided to make these characters have some depth and now all there seems to be is complaints. Anyone else feel the same?

Ninetieth

Ppls complaining is everywhere. Lets just hope the author stands firm on his way.

frenzy85

It's because the side characters, even with all the focus, still feel insignificant and have no depth.
Focusing chapters on them and giving them depth is very different.

Have you ever felt that Kevin is an important character? Probably not. I have never... all he seems useful for is to emphasize how "great" SXB is, and also to be a superpower cartridge for SXB. Despite the chapters spent on them, they are all still extremely shallow. All those "filler" chapters were simply build up to show off SXB's new power.

Also, pretty much all side characters have so much less talent than SXB that the author is forced to use deus ex machina to make them relevant.
For example, if SXB is left cultivate, he'd break through cultivation realms insanely fast. There's no way for the rest of the cast to keep up with their current talents. That would be contradictory to their cultivation speeds up to this point in their life.

And Kali herself is apparently strong enough that the entirety of Earth is irrelevant to her. If SXB were to match her, then every cast member we've seen so far would likewise have to be made irrelevant... And it's not even irrelevant to the level where 10 Kevins = 1 SXB. More like 1 SXB > 1000000000000000 Kevins.

All this gives readers an expectation of deus ex machina or very pointless fillers. Both aren't things that are generally well-received.

In fact, going by what has happened in the story in the month between your post and mine, I'm pretty sure nobody expects Kevin and Mozzie to be relevant at all in future chapters... maybe Mozzie because of her supposed bloodline, but again, it feels very forced.

'Fillers' add flavor to a story, but properly adding in fillers into a story is difficult. Too little and the story would be quite bland. Too much and it feels pointless and distracting. In this case, I personally feel the author has gone very far in the "too much" direction.

In terms of timing, too, the fillers come in the middle of an arc, and not between arcs. This one is more debatable, but I'm pretty sure between-arcs fillers are much more preferred to randomly having fillers at any point. On one hand, we have OSoC and Kali distressing over how SXB might be OSoC's incarnation, and on the side there are characters growing who probably can't even cut Kali's fingernails even if they used all their strength.

Gyan7

Frankly, I already gave up on this the moment I checked out the novel 'tags' on baka-updates. Thankfully, I didn't have to go too far only to be disappointed!

undeniablyevil

I understand the point of them not being "central" to the story but can you honestly say that if they're going to continue to be a part of the story that it's be better to know less about them? I mean LN's are notorious for having tons of characters with very lackluster motivations, cookie cutter personalities, and no information on them barely at all. I won't pretend that these characters are all deep and fully fleshed out, but it will say these are some of the most interesting characters who have clear motivations and I enjoy reading about more than just a main character and flimsy relationships. You call then filler chapters because they don't focus on our MC and you don't think they push the story forward but I believe that's because LN's don't do character development well in general; and besides love interests very few characters remain important to the story. For now the characters SXB has kept close end up being the reason for most situations to happen the way they did. They themselves are plot points and not just back ground who happens to be there.

TilTan

personally i enjoy those "fillers" because of you read in one go and not 1 chapter each time you will find those "filler" actually good, i read once a week so i read like 10-20 chapters each time and it's much more enjoyable this way instead of getting stuck with cliff hunger than finding out a filler the next chapter after a while of waiting, this way also let you understand some situations much better and makes it more fun. at least that how it is for me.

michaelgoodman

I like all this "fillers" too, my friend