Vocab Sheet , thank you to everyone who has been helping with this.
We also have an arts sheet if you’re struggling with the in-game version.
Please read the guidelines on the first page before adding any words.
Discussion Guidelines
Everybody should feel free to post and ask questions–it’s what makes book clubs fun! But please do not post until you are familiar with Spoiler Courtesy!
Spoiler Courtesy
Please follow these rules to avoid inadvertent ネタバレ. If you’re unsure whether something should have a spoiler tag, err on the side of using one.
Any potential spoiler for the current week’s reading need only be covered by a spoiler tag. Predictions and conjecture made by somebody who has not read ahead still falls into this category.
Any potential spoilers for external sources need to be covered by a spoiler tag and include a label (outside of the spoiler tag) of what might be spoiled. These include but are not limited to: other book club picks, other books, games, movies, anime, etc. I recommend also tagging the severity of the spoiler (for example, I may still look at minor spoilers for something that I don’t intend to read soon).
Any information from later in the book than the current week’s reading (including trigger warnings that haven’t yet manifested) needs to be hidden by spoiler tags and labeled as coming from later sections.
Instructions for Spoiler Tags
Click the cog above the text box and use either the “Hide Details” or “Blur Spoiler” options. The text which says “This text will be hidden” should be replaced with what you are wishing to write. In the case of “Hide Details”, the section in the brackets that is labelled “Summary” can be replaced with whatever you like also (i.e, [details=”Chapter 1, Pg. 1”]).
Hide Details results in the dropdown box like below:
Example
This is an example of the “Hide Details” option.
The “Blur Spoiler” option will simply blur the text it surrounds.
This is an example of the “Blur Spoiler” option.
Posting Advice
When asking for help, please mention the page number, and check before posting that your question hasn’t already been asked. As the threads get longer, it becomes more convenient to use the Search function, which is located in the upper right corner of the forum. It is the magnifying glass which is near your profile picture! The best way to search is usually to type part of the sentence you are confused about, and select “in this topic”. This will show you all posts within the current thread which has that string of text.
Be sure to join the conversation! It’s fun, and it’s what keeps these book clubs lively! There’s no such thing as a stupid question! We are all learning here, and if the question has crossed your mind, there’s a very good chance it has crossed somebody else’s also! Asking and answering questions is a great learning opportunity for everyone involved, so never hesitate to do so!
If necessary, include an explanation of any discrepancies in the Ebook page numbers from physical page numbers. If there is an easy shortcut for some ebook versions to relate back to physical page numbers, it would be worth it to include it as a third bullet here, or if you want to use chapter page numbers instead of volume page numbers, as is the case with some manga. For example:
Example
For the Kindle version of this manga, the page numbers and the location number are always 3 apart. If you subtract 3 from the location, this will give you the accurate page number!
OR
Please use the chapter page numbers, instead of the volume page numbers. These are located in between the panels!
Discussion Questions
What sentence/passage gave you the most difficulty? Feel free to request some help, or if you figured it out on your own break it down for the rest of us!
What was your favorite new vocab word from this week’s reading?
Was there any passage that you found particularly intriguing? Did it resonate with you (either positively or negatively)? Was it surprising? Offer any insight or new perspective? Was it just beautifully written?
How many times did you get caught (if any)?
What consequences are you expecting from what happened here?
Thoughts on the professor’s request?
Participation
Will you be playing along with us this week?
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I pretty much think the same as ever on pace – I could certainly do more, but I’m content with this at least for this game if it’s what works for you all.
Fort, night
Oh, I didn’t expect the chapter to just cut there. Well we did it! They introduced some drama but the plan went better than expected. I think I was just never a believer in their escape plan, but having help on the inside changes things. Shame we’re back to 2 party members yet again.
I got caught once, only because I went to a gate they didn’t want me to and it was automatic. Actual field evasion went fine. It’s in character, but disappointing that we didn’t free the pirates. Happy to briefly see them again. I started hoping maybe we’d get forced into some sort of situation where we need to take an airship out, and have no choice but to free them to pilot it, or something.
Mainly this week confirms a lot of what we have been speculating since weeks back. I’m really glad the characters themselves witnessed リシャール and the lady whose name I can’t remember so we can move on and have that much out in the open. There is indeed a plot to use the black orbment that is almost definitely happening at the queen’s ceremony; things are presumably coming to a head there.
They really hammer home what an incredible hero Cassius was at every moment. Knowing the villains here are (according to them) looking for him strengthens my belief he is somewhere in hiding, possibly taking further covert actions to prevent / prepare for whatever it is they’re up to. Presumably by some means they intend to undermine the queen, hence pinning crimes on her personal guards and justifying what they are doing with patriotism talk.
We do have further confirmation that while that military guy from chapters back hated Bracers, he wasn’t a bad guy. I guess wrapping the operation up this way works… surely the army tightens its watch against Bracers moreso however possible, but stealing back their hostage isn’t exactly something to go open with. Of course, everything might be about to change given whatever their plan is is implied to be a very public, open incident.
Tita’s goodbye was sweet, and even Agate is lightening up a bit.
Yeah I’m the same page pace-wise, maybe finish this game at this pace and then reconsider if we decide to continue with the sequels? Obviously given the number of games in this series we’ll probably want to seriously speed up at some point…
Admittedly I could easily go much faster… if I didn’t pick up a new book club every other week.
We went through the same thought process! I also keep expecting Olivier and/or Sherazade to pop out at any moment.
I don’t understand why Estelle and Joshua would be safe after the escape though. The pirates recognized them and there’s no reason to expect that they wouldn’t talk to the army?
They were also seen by the masked guys and it wouldn’t be too difficult to figure out who the two young bracers who traveled all over the place with Tita and Agathe were.
Yeah I didn’t think about bringing it up when making my post but I had the same sort of questions about it. Even more directly, the soldiers we had to fight can describe us and we’d be found out pretty quickly. We haven’t exactly kept a low profile. Does feel like kind of a weak excuse to re-split the group. Maybe not even one that’s necessary if they pushed on the importance of quickly informing the queen and said Tita and Gramps needed to be taken away to hide somewhere else?
I kinda hope these two have just been on their own elaborate adventure this whole time.
I got caught like 3 or 4 times – fight with soldiers, go to harbor, passing lab. Not sure how many guild points were deducted.
All in all, this week ends unexpectedly quickly and no real big boss?
Not sure what happened in background. Still possible that they talked or hinted, but the army doesn’t take action yet, like not reaching the actionable head yet. Or the head wait-and-see for the other parties in the kingdom.
Not sure about the position of masked guys, or how open they are, with the full time army personnel.
Peaking into the beginning of Chapter 4 (so that I can walk and talk to someone in town)…
I’m ok with the pace as is! The longer weeks (10-12k) are a bit difficult, but I can keep up fine.
… well hello there, fellow souls/ring fan
week 35
I got caught once, probably on the same bridge/gate that got @Daisoujou— that was such a trap! Shamelessly reloaded an earlier save to save the BP
I knew I had a good feeling about that 少佐 guy. My cynical heart doesn’t love that he turned on the army so easily, especially after that talk about how there’s no room for disobedience etc. etc… but whatever keeps Estelle & co out of jail, ya know?
Not sure what to expect in terms of retaliation. Like y’all have said, the pirates could tell リシャール about who was wandering around the base, easily. I could absolutely see this coming back to bite the gang in a bad way next chapter. OR getting spotted by guards turns out to be non-canonical and the pirates don’t betray them for some reason. Hard to tell. When we ran into them I thought for sure they were going to be involved in our escape somehow, but since they weren’t, I have to think revealing the gang is the reason for that whole bit. It wasn’t just for comedy, surely? Though I did think Estelle’s attitude was funny, like in 3 chapters she’s evolved beyond petty bickering with pirates!
I’m pretty interested in Russell’s request to meet the queen. I figured we’d be meeting her eventually but I’m mixed on what to expect at this point. The beginning of the game has characters talk about her like she’s amazing but as the story has progressed we’ve had clues that suggest otherwise. For her to allow bribery and embezzlement to go unchecked in the military, is she ignorant, brainwashed, corrupt, or what?
I have to admit to feeling like the only person who liked ER significantly less than stuff they’ve made in the past… generally speaking I think From is moving away from my tastes over time, but I did really love some Souls games, Bloodborne, etc.
This week thing
You know until you all mentioned it, I didn’t even consider there’d be points loss for getting caught. Oh well, we’re not perfect.
I’m hopeful the pirates are showing up again soon, like this was a quick update on where they are now so they can be written into the story at an upcoming point.
I just checked and apparently you lose one bonus BP (up to a maximum of 3) everytime you’re caught. I wonder if that scripted sequence that triggers when you come close to the bridge counts, that feels unfair.
Actually now that I see the Japanese in your post I think I have done it, I just skimmed through the dialogue so fast that I forgot about it. I think I must have lost the bonus BP as a result though.
There are layers, it’s an Elden ring joke within a Fortnight joke… or maybe vice versa? When ER was new, the English speaking audience put “fort, night” messages just about everywhere. Since messages cross over into different language regions, there was a lot of funny international confusion about what they meant. There were some popular Chinese jokes that went over our heads too like “grass” and “no horse ahead”.
I haven’t checked to make sure, but these are the same devs that have you backtrack several maps during in-story emergencies to talk to trivial npcs for secret books. 100% I believe they’d deduct points for that
and no real big boss?
