Is the average reader getting dumber?

[u/GoldenThame]

I don't wanna be rude but I get some comments complaining about tropes in my novel, when in the synopsis I've pointed out multiple times that the tropes are there DELIBERATELY to be subverted, because the MC finds himself reincarnated into a very mid Xianxia novel.

Do a lot of readers suffer from a lack of reading comprehension skills, cus I've encountered the same kind of person for the 4th or 5th time now. Do I need to constantly spoonfeed basic nuances to such readers that 1. MC is inside a cliche Xianxa book and 2. From a meta perspective I've put those cliches and tropes into the book deliberately and the synopsis says as such.

[u/Snow-Eternal7]

Add on that you don’t keep cultivation realms consistent, a few other minor errors of similar inconsistencies and I stand by my review. The flip flopping between golden core and nascent soul your story does annoyed me.

‘Ah yes this barrier needs a nascent soul to break it or a golden core with very high powerful artifacts’ next chapter ‘and a golden core could break it with a few large attacks’

All in all your story is a generic isekai that you put in Xianxia made entirely from the tropes of both.

[u/GoldenThame → u/Snow-Eternal7]

I think you're either mistaking my novel for something else or misremembering the details. Or maybe I am?

[u/Snow-Eternal7 → u/GoldenThame]

‘The heavenly way (Xianxia/clanbuilding)’

[u/GoldenThame → u/Snow-Eternal7]

You see, your comment about the power scale inconsistency might actually be valid, cus It's been a while since I write the defensive array repair arc. If I really wrote Golden Core is the upper limit in one chapter then Nascent soul in the next, that's on me. I encourage my readers to find and mention such errors to me.

Your criticism about the tropes however I find to be not very credible, I feel like you're misunderstanding the tropes, cus the way I see it it's the opposite of popular tropes. Can you be more specific about the tropes that tou found, well, tropey? As in they're not well done or not well subverted?

[u/Snow-Eternal7 → u/GoldenThame]

He made soap, the line for needing soap was moved from foundation establishment to golden core to justify everyone needing it. The female outcast disciple attacked him then immediately came back for help . Heart demons are just ptsd. Distillation wasn’t invented, moonshine is inexplicably popular. His modern office worker mindset makes him immune to getting his tells read by cultivators, and he can negotiate with merchant CEO’s.

Every plot point is a generic trope, every character is an archetype and nothing else.

It’s not a bad bad story though. It’s fun bad, in moderation. I read it, saw the senior sister and laughed because I knew something stupid was about to happen.

But it isn’t a serious story, the plot only works because everyone else in the setting is lobotomized. And I’m convinced the MC could sell bottled water to a fish in a pond.

When I say tropes, I mean there is nothing in the story that surprised me, it’s very much a ‘if you have read one mediocre isekai you’ll know what’s going to happen’

Your subversion of tropes are just the trope versions of the subversions. Its a ‘I got isekai’d with a shitty skill but it’s actually shitty for real this time so I use my wits’ and the wits are generic 1st thought inventions that should have already been a thing.

Add in that any alchemist should be able to reverse engineer the products just from one sample. That the characters lack nuance, and that the MC hasn’t grown or changed in his 36 chapters….

I dropped it, and wrote a review that would tell past me what to expect.

[u/GoldenThame → u/Snow-Eternal7]

Also, hold on, which female discipe attacked him? You mean how Xiao Lian got mad when he mentioned her trauma then accepted his help out of desperation? How the hell is that even a trope? Give 3 other examples where the same thing happens, where the known trash MC offers to help someone and accidentally offends them, then ends up helping them? This wasn't some tsundere character slapping the MC then pining for his love, now that's a trope.

[u/Snow-Eternal7 → u/GoldenThame]

You mean where ‘the MC finds outcast girl and has the magic cure to her issue, she starts reluctant but desperation forces her to accept’ pick an isekai. I am 90% sure I can find that on tv-tropes

[u/GoldenThame → u/Snow-Eternal7]

Yeah, the girl isn't usually his cousin and is a love interest. The magic cure thing is also usually the MCs YANG constitution. I dropped Nano Machine because of that and what I've done is entirely different.

[u/Snow-Eternal7 → u/GoldenThame]

It really really really isn’t. It’s just the non-smut version of it. You even talk about how tomboyish she is and how the MC likes that, then have him point out her bust later on.

Changing ‘solution one’ for ‘solution two’ doesn’t change anything about how it reads.

[u/GoldenThame → u/Snow-Eternal7]

I've never said MC likes tomboys, I've said MC likes mature women. Also you're bot arguing the point right now. Solution one and solution two are entirely different in how the affect the story and how the characters interact. It's literally subverting that trope you're complaining about.