6 minutes ago, Tonbo Karasu said:

i only just noticed. Nerishma's first line in the story is "Ambush! Be ready!"

His flavour text is "It's an ambush! Be ready!"

Does this keep happening to him?

Now I'd like to think it does.

7 minutes ago, kpsmith said:

All this talk about being a bad champion when she is very new to the position...

That can forgive some mistakes, and provide room for growth, but it's also not an all-purpose excuse. The position didn't come by surprise. She's the eldest daughter of the champion, so she's known she'll inherit all her life, and presumably has received some training for the role (even if not much from her father, apparently.) Further, she didn't inherit due to some surprise death before she was ready. Satsume was the Emerald Champion, and had been expected to retire for some time, and was defying tradition by not doing so. He had retired a year and half before the story, his death did not catapult her into her current position.

So I don't think that one explains enough of what we saw in the story. It is, of course, both her first story and the first story of the new line, so I'm open to seeing more depth and more skill from her in the future. But her introduction was not that of an even good clan champion.

1 minute ago, Tetsuro said:

Now I'd like to think it does.

Now I'm envisioning a situation like:

Captain: Who's going to guard this caravan?

Aide: Well, with this caravan we have Takuji, Koichi, Nerishma, and-

Captain: <facepalm and sigh> Everyone be ready for an ambush.

9 minutes ago, agarrett said:

That can forgive some mistakes, and provide room for growth, but it's also not an all-purpose excuse. The position didn't come by surprise. She's the eldest daughter of the champion, so she's known she'll inherit all her life, and presumably has received some training for the role (even if not much from her father, apparently.) Further, she didn't inherit due to some surprise death before she was ready. Satsume was the Emerald Champion, and had been expected to retire for some time, and was defying tradition by not doing so. He had retired a year and half before the story, his death did not catapult her into her current position.

So I don't think that one explains enough of what we saw in the story. It is, of course, both her first story and the first story of the new line, so I'm open to seeing more depth and more skill from her in the future. But her introduction was not that of an even good clan champion.

I didn't take it as lack of experience, but an act of spite. She specifically says it's something her father wouldn't have done, which is why she did it. She is actively trying to be the exact opposite of her father as a clan champion. She isn't thinking much past that at the moment, probably because all her emotions regarding her father have probably flared up with his death.

8 minutes ago, JJ48 said:

Now I'm envisioning a situation like:

Captain: Who's going to guard this caravan?

Aide: Well, with this caravan we have Takuji, Koichi, Nerishma, and-

Captain: <facepalm and sigh> Everyone be ready for an ambush.

Nerishma's ranks in Unluck and his personal mon of a bullseye with the phrase "Here I Am" finally come back to haunt him.

1 hour ago, Tonbo Karasu said:

I only just noticed. Nerishma's first line in the story is "Ambush! Be ready!"

His flavour text is "It's an ambush! Be ready!"

Does this keep happening to him?

This trivia has made the dude my favorite character now. I hope they keep this as a side trope from now on.

1 hour ago, RandomJC said:

I didn't take it as lack of experience, but an act of spite. She specifically says it's something her father wouldn't have done, which is why she did it. She is actively trying to be the exact opposite of her father as a clan champion. She isn't thinking much past that at the moment, probably because all her emotions regarding her father have probably flared up with his death.

I've never been the biggest fan of making a father a 'bad guy' just to elevate their child, especially female children. I can partially understand the fiction as a starting off point for Hotaru but they do need to work on the character in her role. It's almost like the fiction was several chapters into a book and we just missed the proper introduction of her and several other, potentially important characters to that story.

Yeah, I'd be fine with a new serious of paperbacks (or virtual) that each deal with a clan again.

2 minutes ago, Kubernes said:

I've never been the biggest fan of making a father a 'bad guy' just to elevate their child, especially female children. I can partially understand the fiction as a starting off point for Hotaru but they do need to work on the character in her role. It's almost like the fiction was several chapters into a book and we just missed the proper introduction of her and several other, potentially important characters to that story.

Yeah, I'd be fine with a new serious of paperbacks (or virtual) that each deal with a clan again.

It felt like a first chapter to me, just felt more in-media res. It felt like a proper introduction of Hotaru, to me.

17 minutes ago, Kubernes said:

Yeah, I'd be fine with a new serious of paperbacks (or virtual) that each deal with a clan again.

I dunno about this. The Clan War novels are still reoccurring props in my nightmares.

I read the Clan Wars novel of the Scorpion. Quite cool. Read the Unicorn one. By itself not bad but as Clan War novel, bad*. Read later the Crane one which ignores stuff from the Unicorn one . Did not bother reading more.

* would make sense considering the huuuuge role of the Unicorn in the Clan Wars, I guess.

3 hours ago, Tonbo Karasu said:

I only just noticed. Nerishma's first line in the story is "Ambush! Be ready!"

His flavour text is "It's an ambush! Be ready!"

Does this keep happening to him?

Where can I check out Daidoji Nerishma's card?

9 minutes ago, Ide Yoshiya said:

Where can I check out Daidoji Nerishma's card?

It's on the Crafting a Dynasty article.

Or here

3 hours ago, Tonbo Karasu said:

I only just noticed. Nerishma's first line in the story is "Ambush! Be ready!"

His flavour text is "It's an ambush! Be ready!"

Does this keep happening to him?

The people he is facing in the card art are samurai (Scorpions by the look of it) not peasants, so you can count those as two separate instances already.

The evidence starts to pile up.

On 5/17/2017 at 3:51 PM, Tetsuro said:

I'm fairly sure if the original story had 11 pages dedicated to developing Hoturi's character pre coup he would have been depicted almost exactly like Hotaru is here, even being giddy and lovestruck over Kachiko.

There was young Hoturi fiction in the first winter court book. If memory served the characterization was different, he and Kachiko wreaked havoc on the winter court in a sort of social fu courtship/ on upmanship/ childish game thing.

34 minutes ago, Doji Tori said:

The people he is facing in the card art are samurai (Scorpions by the look of it) not peasants, so you can count those as two separate instances already.

The evidence starts to pile up.

Clearly, after the incident with the caravan and the Clan Champion, Nerishma went to study and master ancient Daidoji scouting techniques from Akubaru-sensei.

32 minutes ago, Doji Tori said:

The people he is facing in the card art are samurai (Scorpions by the look of it) not peasants, so you can count those as two separate instances already.

The evidence starts to pile up.

I recall the 24 TCG having cards where the artwork and quotes both matched the title but not each other. That wasn't an FFG design, of course, but it could be a similar situation here.

5 minutes ago, Ide Yoshiya said:

I recall the 24 TCG having cards where the artwork and quotes both matched the title but not each other. That wasn't an FFG design, of course, but it could be a similar situation here.

Well, but even if you link the quote to the story and leave the artwork alone, he is still depicted surrounded by enemies, and of the clan most likely to use an ambush. I would say we can still count two instances.

Actually the quote on the card is slightly different from what he says in the story. And the quote and artwork are not linked to each other you say? Then make that three ambushes .

Nerishma can be like Jonah the Burglar, an ongoing storyline character from Warlord (another ex-AEG TCG. Coincidence?). Jonah kept putting himself in awfully complicated situations because his dumbness and unluckiness, and several Warlord cards referenced him.

We always wanted a character card for him, but it was never done. Shame.

2 hours ago, RandomJC said:

It felt like a first chapter to me, just felt more in-media res. It felt like a proper introduction of Hotaru, to me.

Exactly. Not so great introduction for the world or even the Crane clan, but perfect for Hotaru as a character.

What did people think of the story opening with an action sequence? I thought it was a good choice, but that the enemy was too underwhelming for it to serve as an effective Ice Monster Prologue . IMO a Crab story would have been a better starter fiction in that regard.

4 minutes ago, Ide Yoshiya said:

What did people think of the story opening with an action sequence? I thought it was a good choice, but that the enemy was too underwhelming for it to serve as an effective Ice Monster Prologue . IMO a Crab story would have been a better starter fiction in that regard.

It's what we'll most likely see in the Crab fiction. Either from the point of view of a random scout, generic crab samurai, or the Great Bear.

12 minutes ago, Ide Yoshiya said:

What did people think of the story opening with an action sequence? I thought it was a good choice, but that the enemy was too underwhelming for it to serve as an effective Ice Monster Prologue . IMO a Crab story would have been a better starter fiction in that regard.

I actually rather enjoyed the opening action sequence. I was just a bit disappointed we didn't find out anything more about the ronin, and Hotaru's "effortlessly take out everyone single-handedly" made her come across a bit Mary Sue-ish. Then the story started to drag once they got into the city.

I'm hoping Nerishma survives many more ambushes in fiction. I actually liked him, and so far he's probably my second favorite Crane ever (behind Daidoji Gudeta, who may or may not exist, currently)!

25 minutes ago, JJ48 said:

Hotaru's "effortlessly take out everyone single-handedly" made her come across a bit Mary Sue-ish.

What's funny is I hear you say that, while others complain that she suffered a scar in her fight with the ronin. So, not a "Flawless Victory," to quote Shao Kahn.

42 minutes ago, JJ48 said:

Hotaru's "effortlessly take out everyone single-handedly"

The heimins with no real, even less champion level, fighting training?

I'd just like to have Mary-Sue never brought up again. I am very tired of hearing it.