'don't do bad things' is a piece of advice with limited utility because yeah you can
stop doing the bad things but at some point you're going to need some good things to do
instead. This video is kind of a rant and I thought I should warn you about that in
advance I'm going to get a little bit exercised just so you know I've been ill for almost
the whole of January at this point and right now as I film this video sword and scoundrel
are doing their axe and shield choreography to prepare for their exams and they're doing
it without me because I'm still not well enough to do eight hours of physical activity for
three days in a row or even one day in a row really but I am upright and that is progress
and I am grateful for progress being ill has had the interesting side effect that I have
had a lot of free time where I was short on concentration energy and patience which doesn't
leave you with a large number of things that you can do so I've decluttered my house because
you can just start and stop that whenever you want and I've also tried to read and watch
things albeit with less success than the decluttering of the house. It was surprising to me how
difficult it was for me to find something that I wanted to read or watch and yet I I
still read the entirety of Brandon Sanderson's Tress of the Emerald Sea in a single afternoon
I really want to abbreviate that to totes I just do so let me set the scene for you
I'm lying in bed feeling sorry for myself my husband comes in and says would you like
a new book on your e-reader? will I like it? I think you will he said and I also think
you will recognize it and I said okay that would be nice thank you I love you and then
I read it and it was indeed fantastic now at first I was thrown off because I thought
that he meant you'll recognize who the main character is an homage to which I didn't.
But I got about a chapter into it and I said I don't recognize who the main character is
supposed to be but it feels very... and then I said two words... in tone. and he said yes
that that was what I meant. I'm not going to tell you what the two words I said were
because I feel like it's just a nice experience to be able to come to that realization yourself
but if you're very curious and you don't want to read the book you can just look up Brandon
Sanderson's author's note online probably full Brandon Sanderson related disclosure
I liked Mistborn and I like Wax and Wayne but the rest of the Cosmere I'm kind of I
can take or leave it honestly I'm just not a big epic fantasy kind of person but I really
liked tress of the emerald sea and I think that if you're a fan of the things that we
do on this channel you will probably also like it and compared to most of his other
books it's not a huge time commitment either so that's always nice and I've been thinking
about enjoying books because in March I have a sponsored video and the sponsorship is for
a book and I've been reading some of that book in January as well which is sort of published
but sort of not you'll see when I do the video anyway the point is I've been enjoying reading
that book too even though it's also kind of not my genre being Slice of Life progression
fantasy what does that even mean I don't really know but I like reading it it's sort of relaxing
even when the protagonist is fighting for her life against some huge beastie again but
I've recently tried to read or watch a bunch of other things and I just kind of went nah
or I gave up very quickly or I gave up before I even started and I think that I figured
out my common denominator. Some things I tried to read or watch and there was just too much
concentration required they were too dense and that was okay I can come back to those
when I'm feeling a bit more energetic but some things... listen. if I'm reading a fiction
book or watching a fictional movie I came here to be entertained so please have the
courtesy to dress up any moralising that you might like to do in a decent story where interesting
things happen with characters that I actually care about. last year I reviewed some armour
sets from the dragon Prince and I said in that video I haven't watched the show and
I'm probably not going to and many people said you should watch the show I think you'd
like it I thought maybe I will. More interesting than that were the two people who said you
should watch the Dragon Prince I think you would like it but only seasons one to three.
and the intrigue of that plus the large number of people who were just like you like the
Dragon Prince was enough to get me started watching it season one as advertised takes
a little bit of time to find its feet but considering that it's a children's show it's
pretty good it's very watchable and I watched season two and that was good too and I watched
season three and I was like alright and it came to a sort of satisfying arc-finishing
conclusion and that was great and I thought to myself...maybe these two people are incorrect
let's give season four a go let's just watch the first episode and see. to the two people
who told me that I should not bother with the Dragon Prince beyond the end of season
three you were unequivocally correct in your interpretation of my personal tastes and I'm
a little bit concerned by that but well done 10 internet points for you and five internet
points for everyone who told me I would like the Dragon Prince because I did until the
end of season three you know why? I watched three episodes of season four and the third
one I only watched because it was a cliffhanger at the end of episode 2 and Rayla came back
and I was like Rayla yes maybe she will make something happen but she did not nothing happens
nothing okay a couple of mildly perilous things happen to minor characters but everything
else is in-world politics and in-world lecturing. episode one of season four nothing much happens
there is a proposal scene which turns into a very amusing fight scene so that was quite
funny but overall it's kind of slow and mostly people just talk to each other and that's
okay because we've had three seasons and two years have passed between the end of season
three in the start of season four you've got to figure out where everybody is that's okay
maybe it's just a little slow to start episode two the only action is with the villains all
our heroes do is talk and talk and talk at length and give long impassioned speeches
to crowds about how war is bad okay and forgiveness is hard but it's necessary and there's a subplot
leading on from the proposal scene about how these two characters want to get married but
everybody else is like no you shouldn't get married because of the symbolism or something
they don't seem to care that the two characters are together that's fine they just don't want
them to get married because symbolism or something., season four of the Dragon Prince or at least
the three episodes that I saw is exactly like latter day Honor Harrington where you have
to wade through 200 pages of treaty negotiations or wranglings in the House of Commons before
anybody blows something up. I mean some people are into that but I am not into that so I
just go and read on basilisk station again so yeah the first three seasons of the Dragon
Prince in my estimation may be worth a watch you might be into that I enjoyed them after
that I would recommend that that you just go watch Avatar with The Last Airbender or
The Mask of Zorro because you know what it's fun and you know what isn't fun? being lectured
by a fictional nine-year-old about how war is bad. I'm sneaking in my actual recommendations
very subtly aren't I yes no one will ever know. it's currently very popular on YouTube
to rag on things which are bad and it's particularly popular at the moment at least in my circle
I think to rag on rings of power and say why it's bad I haven't watched rings of power
I'm not going to I don't care I'm not going to say I couldn't care less because I probably
could if I tried really hard but I don't really care but the reason YouTubers make those videos
is because people will click on them the general YouTube audience likes listening to people
who are talking about something that they know about and think is bad and why it's bad
it's much harder to get someone to click on a YouTuber they've never heard of and listen
to them talk about why something they've never heard of is good I used to do a show called
stuff you like which was about my favorite things and why I thought they were good but
in order to grow an audience you have to tell people why things they already like like are
good and then maybe you can tell them about stuff they've never heard of it's much easier
to tell them about why things they don't like are bad I'm not saying that I'm necessarily
any different in my viewing Habits by the way but if you find someone whose good opinion
means something to you treasure them and support them the algorithm will not necessarily support
them because negativity sells. as an example I don't know how well this video is going
to do but give it a couple of weeks and then compare the view count of this where I'm strictly
speaking shouting about things to videos where I talk nicely about things except I am sneakily
telling you about things I actually do like under cover of ranting about things I don't
like so maybe I've cracked the secret YouTube code we'll see. I'm currently back to making
videos rather than working on the fantasy heroine book which is currently entitled One
Crisis at a Time. There is a lot of work to do on it because I currently have a first
draft but you know what they say about those. you can read the first draft if you are a
patron or a channel member and you can now get like a free trial of patreon so if you
want to you can read it for free you just have to sign up for patreon and then remember
to cancel but but I hope that even if this novel goes through however many drafts and
still turns into kind of a subpar book it will at least do the thing that I set out
to do with it which is entertain you for a couple of hours because it's a novel that
is its primary job I make my living as a YouTuber and so I have things that I can sell you if
you want to buy them like I'm wearing my just stab me now hoodie at the moment and you can
buy that if you want or not if you don't want and at some point I hope there will be a book
and you can buy it if you want or not if you don't want your choice you can buy a hoodie
or a mug with a mildly amusing slogan you can buy a novel which may or may not entertain
you but I absolutely promise you that it will not have any of the characters lecture you
at any point on why war is bad because I assume that you already know that. So as my parting
plea for engagement but also because you know we try to be positive around here that's that's
kind of our thing please tell us in the comments a piece of media that you come back to over
and over again if it's something that is easy to watch when you're sick then so much the
better but it doesn't have to be my go-to when I'm not feeling very well is The Mask
of Zorro because I feel like if I can't follow the plot of The Mask of Zorro I should probably
just be sleeping and also it's just fun and sometimes you just want to have fun while
lying very still feeling a bit sorry for yourself so tell us about your favourite things and
tell us about why you like them because the thing is if you hated rings of power apparently
a lot of people did it doesn't matter if you tell us about that because that doesn't get
us better stuff the only thing that's going to get you better media better books better
movies better TV shows is supporting the stuff that you like not complaining about the stuff
that you don't because complaining about the stuff that you don't is still giving it publicity
and air time right because as interesting as it is to pick apart stories and figure
out what worked and why that worked and what didn't work and why it didn't work the only
way we're going to get better media is by supporting media that is already good I mean
I'm not going to stop making Armour reviews where I laugh at things which are kind of
silly because it's funny. but it's of limited actual value unless you balance it with talking
about things which are actually good and why they're good don't do bad things is a piece
of advice with limited utility don't do this try this instead is much more helpful.