Just now, DojiZanza said:

Yes, Thank you for pointing this out. I'm good and all with including some changes to characters and adding in homosexual relationships. But this specific change borks up the entire Triangle between Shoju, Kachiko and Hoturi. Not to mention the the now eradicated storyline involving Hoturi's Foxwife. And I guess this means that Kachiko doesn't trick HOturi into murdering the Previous Phoenix champ at Winter Court for "assaulting" her honor?

What it means is they're changing the story. It means, in my opinion, that there's going to be no Scorpion Clan Coup, due to this and the fact that numerous characters who died in the Coup are already dead in the Fantasy Flight-verse. Personally, I'm excited to see where they go. There's plenty of good plot hooks remaining.

And I mean, it doesn't entirely bork the love triangle. Like, it removes some complexity, but the fact is that Kachiko and Hotaru are still lovers while Kachiko is married to Shoju - who, more than likely, is largely unchanged as a character, and so likely still has real feeling for his wife. So like, that's still going on.

2 hours ago, Mon no Oni said:

While I myself look forward to as few changes as possible (and, don't worry, I'm already resigned to be disappointed in that respect) I don't see the erasure of Dairyu as anything major. He was just a footnote character with zero developement. There is nothing of what happened later (False Hotaru) that cannot still happen. Scorned lover ie still one of the oldest motivations in the book.

Dairu was a plot point in the old canon, not a character.

I would like to see him as a character. Now we don't have that chance.

Also, if there is no coup (as I suspect) Dairu could actually grow up. Have further adventures. Possibly even become champ when Shoju passes.

Now... not possible.

1 hour ago, OculusDrake said:

god though i'm not even joking, reading "the man" and "the woman" so many times in the "romance" section of 4e Great Clans made my eyes roll so hard.

Though TBF, heteronormative or not, that book was the only one (to my admittedly inexhaustive knowledge) to definitively suggest that Utaku Battle Maidens do necessarily take a chastity vow, as their title would imply. In context of the fact that the Utaku are a matriarchal family, one could see this in a less misogynistic light: rather than men defining women's worth by the state of their virginity, these women hold themselves to a unique standard which, though it is presumably held by much of the samurai caste, is not a necessary condition for holding titles other than that of shiotome (where I'll just note that the "otome" part carries the same connotations of virginity as does "maiden" itself, but is also similarly not explicit AFAIK).

8 hours ago, Daramere said:

Other new things:

- The Crane are in a significantly weakened position due to a natural disaster.

This is not new. That's exactly where the Crane started in the original storyline back when the game began -- killer tsunamis and a plague had decimated their lands, making it tougher for them to resist Lion and Crab aggression

51 minutes ago, Ide Yoshiya said:

Though TBF, heteronormative or not, that book was the only one (to my admittedly inexhaustive knowledge) to definitively suggest that Utaku Battle Maidens do necessarily take a chastity vow, as their title would imply. In context of the fact that the Utaku are a matriarchal family, one could see this in a less misogynistic light: rather than men defining women's worth by the state of their virginity, these women hold themselves to a unique standard which, though it is presumably held by much of the samurai caste, is not a necessary condition for holding titles other than that of shiotome (where I'll just note that the "otome" part carries the same connotations of virginity as does "maiden" itself, but is also similarly not explicit AFAIK).

I mean, I was mostly irritated by the heteronormativity. Credit where due, L5R's gotten pretty much better about women over time, and the reboot having a much stronger female presence speaks to that.

10 hours ago, OculusDrake said:

I mean, I was mostly irritated by the heteronormativity. Credit where due, L5R's gotten pretty much better about women over time, and the reboot having a much stronger female presence speaks to that.

I always interpreted the heteronormativity of L5R to be "It is your duty to make babies". Love has absolutely nothing to do with their notion of "proper" romance. It is convenient if it happens, but the higher rank you are, the more important it is for you to have a strategic alliance, so love becomes detrimental.

12 hours ago, Isawa Syd said:

No, it's still the sword and the soul

Okay I am pointing out that the soul of Shiba has changed ( it is a 100% fact look up how the soul of Shiba used to function) the sword was only presented to a small amount of shiba Samurai and now needs some kind of ritual in order to pick out it's new host which it didn't need before

1 hour ago, Mirith said:

I always interpreted the heteronormativity of L5R to be "It is your duty to make babies". Love has absolutely nothing to do with their notion of "proper" romance. It is convenient if it happens, but the higher rank you are, the more important it is for you to have a strategic alliance, so love becomes detrimental.

Oh - I'm not referring to the 'marraige' section. That I get. I'm referring to the 'courtly love' section, which is a different thing.

13 hours ago, Yogo Gohei said:

Dairu was a plot point in the old canon, not a character.

I would like to see him as a character. Now we don't have that chance.

Also, if there is no coup (as I suspect) Dairu could actually grow up. Have further adventures. Possibly even become champ when Shoju passes.

Now... not possible.

That version of him is no longer possible. But, it is entirely possible that he exists, with different parentage. He can easily be Shoju's legitimate child, raised in the same way as the original, able to grow up and have adventures, possibly even becoming champ when Shoju passes.

If he existed again as he did before, he would still simply be a plot point, whose parentage would eventually be revealed for specific story purposes. Otherwise, it would be background fluff that never became meaningful, such as Bayushi Sunetra/Yasuki Hachi. I love background fluff, but I wouldn't categorize it as something that needs to be preserved when a story is retold, especially when it is clearly intended to differ from the previous version.

5 minutes ago, Kitsuki Edogawa said:

That version of him is no longer possible. But, it is entirely possible that he exists, with different parentage. He can easily be Shoju's legitimate child, raised in the same way as the original, able to grow up and have adventures, possibly even becoming champ when Shoju passes.

If he existed again as he did before, he would still simply be a plot point, whose parentage would eventually be revealed for specific story purposes. Otherwise, it would be background fluff that never became meaningful, such as Bayushi Sunetra/Yasuki Hachi. I love background fluff, but I wouldn't categorize it as something that needs to be preserved when a story is retold, especially when it is clearly intended to differ from the previous version.

Not to mention that keeping his parentage the same would offer very little payoff when it is so well-known among fans of the Old Legend.

20 hours ago, Yogo Gohei said:

Dairu was a plot point in the old canon, not a character.

I would like to see him as a character. Now we don't have that chance.

Also, if there is no coup (as I suspect) Dairu could actually grow up. Have further adventures. Possibly even become champ when Shoju passes.

Now... not possible.

However, as you say, Dairy was a plot point, just a name. That plot point can be easily changed to get the same effect, if desired. He is just not important at all. No more that Shizue's cat.

I'd also would like to have know more about.Dairyu. I followed the old cannon for several decades, so you can be sure I'm somewhat attached to it. I honestly wish there was some way to get more old L5R continuity, but also realize that's highly unlikely; FFG is not going to have two worlds competing with each other; that would make little sense.

49 minutes ago, Mon no Oni said:

However, as you say, Dairy was a plot point, just a name. That plot point can be easily changed to get the same effect, if desired.

They could even make him lactose intolerant this time around and it'd make little difference.

On 7/31/2017 at 10:08 AM, OculusDrake said:

A female Kisada would be awesome and now I'm slightly disappointed they didn't do that, but I don't mind it going to Hoturi. Making the most iconic romance in L5R gay is a move I support wholehartedly, especially with how heteronormative the RPG books could be.

We have one, her name is Hida O-Ushi. The Great Bear is fine just where he is.

Posting for interest.

Shinjo Altansarnai, despite not being Shinjo Yokatsu, does have his three children: Yasamura, Haruko, and Shono. She also had them out of wedlock with Iuchi Daiyu. If this affects the line of succession is unknown but they certainly are not genetically the same.

3 hours ago, Moto Dokomo said:

Shinjo Altansarnai, despite not being Shinjo Yokatsu, does have his three children: Yasamura, Haruko, and Shono. She also had them out of wedlock with Iuchi Daiyu. If this affects the line of succession is unknown but they certainly are not genetically the same.

I thought from the fiction that it expressly didn't effect the succession. Basically, since they were her chosen heirs before she joined the Ikoma, they would be next in line, while Daiyu would run stuff as a Regent (or actual clan champion). Or thus my interpretation from the opening Unicorn Story.

On 8/1/2017 at 6:00 PM, Mon no Oni said:

However, as you say, Dairy was a plot point, just a name. That plot point can be easily changed to get the same effect, if desired. He is just not important at all. No more that Shizue's cat.

For the record, I got as much traffic after "Her Father's Daughter" came out about that silly cat as I did about Hotaru, her gender-swapping and her ongoing love affair with Kachiko. I was...kinda surprised at that.

I guess the Internet really does have a fixation on cats.