Are readers getting desensitized by cultivation novels?

[greatATTACKshark]

On these sites there are an abundance of cultivation novels, no one can deny that, and im wondering if they are desensitizing people. I’ve noticed people don’t really seem to respect how powerful some things are. For example, the other day i was reading a transmigration story and when the mc met god he kneeled. In my opinion that’s a pretty rational response when meeting the being that literally created you but many of the comments called him a beta mc. I just wanted to see if anyone else have noticed something similar.
I think the conversation went a little bit off topic. I only used that one example because the commenter specifically cited cultivation novels. My point was that people don’t generally respect powerful things on these sites, or don’t realize how truly powerful some things are. I can understand how my example gave people the wrong impression.
For example, if you read about world destroying battles every day you would look down on a sword fight. If you read about a mc that kills millions daily you won’t feel much when a mc kills one person. That’s literally all I wanted to talk about. I wasn’t expecting it to into a religious and cultural discussion.

 

[AdLeto]

In my opinion that’s a pretty rational response when meeting the being that literally created you but many of the comments called him a beta mc.

The readers were atheists and got triggered by mc believing god

 

[StarEis]

in like 70 percent of the novels i have read, the gods in them were just weird y'know, how can a omnipotent make a mistake (still makes for a okey start) then they add a character that is acting like they are meeting with a close friend which makes the start super shit but alot of people enjoy it. calling a dude kneeling before the omnipotent and Omniscience god not beta male? cringe dude, you just said cringe

also can i get the name of the novel? :DDDD

 

[greatATTACKshark]

J

in like 70 percent of the novels i have read, the gods in them were just weird y'know, how can a omnipotent make a mistake (still makes for a okey start) then they add a character that is acting like they are meeting with a close friend which makes the start super shit but alot of people enjoy it. calling a dude kneeling before the omnipotent and Omniscience god not beta male? cringe dude, you just said cringe

also can i get the name of the novel?

Journey Towards Greatness

 

[StarEis]

J

Journey Towards Greatness

damn it's in webnovel, the webnovel people have pretty shit taste no wonder they called the mc beta

 

[greatATTACKshark]

The readers were atheists and got triggered by mc believing god

I failed to take that into account but i did see a comment or two specifically saying that cultivation novels made them feel that the mc was beta.

 

[greatATTACKshark]

damn it's in webnovel, the webnovel people have pretty shit taste no wonder they called the mc beta

I agree completely

 

[CupcakeNinja]

On these sites there are an abundance of cultivation novels, no one can deny that, and im wondering if they are desensitizing people. I’ve noticed people don’t really seem to respect how powerful some things are. For example, the other day i was reading a transmigration story and when the mc met god he kneeled. In my opinion that’s a pretty rational response when meeting the being that literally created you but many of the comments called him a beta mc. I just wanted to see if anyone else have noticed something similar.

Many readers are stupid toxic cunts. Nuff said

 

[Ouroboros]

On these sites there are an abundance of cultivation novels, no one can deny that, and im wondering if they are desensitizing people. I’ve noticed people don’t really seem to respect how powerful some things are. For example, the other day i was reading a transmigration story and when the mc met god he kneeled. In my opinion that’s a pretty rational response when meeting the being that literally created you but many of the comments called him a beta mc. I just wanted to see if anyone else have noticed something similar.

Uh, as an atheist or rather non religious person myself, I wouldn't kneel to some entity claiming to be a God and more likely would bring my guard up. I might see them as powerful or more technologically advanced, but I wouldn't think it was God. Reality parasite is the best I'm willingto do. Too much evidence that we evolved on Earth and it's well documented. I would assume it's lying to me for what I don't know. If you're that advanced why are you wasting time on a pre-FTL species?

Am I getting decentized to the power levels? No, but sometimes the pacing could be better. Power creep can be a real problem. I do find the general goals of cultivation characters to be boring. Power without purpose. They're pointless half the time. Immortality for what? Strongest in the world for what? Usually they have no real reason.

Do I think he's beta for kneeling? No, I think he was fooled maybe, but it is a natural response if you're still primitive like our species. We would be like the islanders being fooled by Columbus about lunar ellipses before a species that advanced.

 

[AliceShiki]

Well, it is important to remember that god in Christian mythos and gods in Japanese/Chinese mythos are beings on completely different scales.

Like... Gods in Shintoism aren't omnipotent nor did they create all life or anything of the sort. They are a lot closer to spirits than anything else.

So uhn... It is not thaaaat strange for people to find the guy kneeling weird. I mean, I'd need to know more about the setting and the story to make a proper judgment, but... When gods are actually beings on a reasonable power level, showing them excessive respect in a setting where [showing respect = showing weakness] is understandably something that would weird out some readers.

... That said, I wouldn't really bat an eye at it myself and just move on without caring too much.

 

[Ouroboros]

Well, it is important to remember that god in Christian mythos and gods in Japanese/Chinese mythos are beings on completely different scales.

Like... Gods in Shintoism aren't omnipotent nor did they create all life or anything of the sort. They are a lot closer to spirits than anything else.

So uhn... It is not thaaaat strange for people to find the guy kneeling weird. I mean, I'd need to know more about the setting and the story to make a proper judgment, but... When gods are actually beings on a reasonable power level, showing them excessive respect in a setting where [showing respect = showing weakness] is understandably something that would weird out some readers.

... That said, I wouldn't really bat an eye at it myself and just move on without caring too much.

Yeah, actually most gods and goddesses aren't like the Christian God. Most can even die.

 

[LotsChrono]

On these sites there are an abundance of cultivation novels, no one can deny that, and im wondering if they are desensitizing people. I’ve noticed people don’t really seem to respect how powerful some things are. For example, the other day i was reading a transmigration story and when the mc met god he kneeled. In my opinion that’s a pretty rational response when meeting the being that literally created you but many of the comments called him a beta mc. I just wanted to see if anyone else have noticed something similar.

I wouldn't say desensitization is the main cause. Generally speaking, most readers do not like weak MCs. Immediately willingly kneeling before someone else at the start of a story is a pretty big thing which many may take into their heads with the thought of "If the MC can kneel so easily early on, how respectable will he be as the story progresses?" (thinking of it as a negative, not a positive for growth) Webnovels, in most cases, are written for readers to enjoy, or insert themselves within, and a lot of people don't like following their idea of what is weakness.

Now, taking away from that "psychological aspect", there is logic (1) Was he certain it was a god? And not just a God, but a benevolent one? And (2) Though I don't think desensitization is the main cause, it does have an affect. The norm is an MC who speaks to Gods as if they are humans like himself. That is the norm. If you go against the norm, then it's practically throwing yourself at fate to decide whether people will find a reinforced-status appealing. Then (3) Well, atheists exists like some have mentioned.

As an author, I'm surprised I haven't thought of making an MC kneel in front of a God before. As a reader, I'm not surprised why I wouldn't find it appealing if written shoddily.

But, here's the thing. How did he kneel? Was he forced to? Did he have to? Or is he simply religious?

Though I haven't made an MC kneel before a God, I have made a group kneel before a king while still retaining a layer of dignity and strength. When the King asked for them to kneel, I made the MC essentially proclaim the king not his, and ask for an explanation of what kicked off the story before he could be willing to bow down to anyone. Then, as the tension grew, and the king obligated to explain a bit, while eyeing his knights, the MC also gave in and knelt down in the end. Both, taking what they wanted from each other, an exchange of strengths and weaknesses, analytically speaking.

Pretty much, if you want people to like your MC, give them some level of strength early on as well even when kneeling before another. Being forced to kneel based on circumstances is also different than willingly kneeling. Though, this could also be fixed if the MC is someone deeply devoted or loyal to the person they are kneeling down for; not someone they just met who isn't or will not force them.

 

[Arkus86]

I would say it depends on the whole setting, how the god presents themselves and the MC themselves. If the god is an easygoing dude with no taste for formalities, or serious and overbearing with the power to back it up. If the MC is religious and wat god(s) they follow if they are. What is the place of gods in the world and how they are seen by the people...

My own issue with cultivation novels though, is the power creep that often accompanies them. You start out as more or less regular human. Soon you can beat down entire groups of baseline humans. Then you're flinging around tanks with one hand, while smacking away artillery shells from the air with the other. And before you know it, you punch planets into oblivion.

Uh, as an atheist or rather non religious person myself, I wouldn't kneel to some entity claiming to be a God and more likely would bring my guard up. I might see them as powerful or more technologically advanced, but I wouldn't think it was God. Reality parasite is the best I'm willingto do. Too much evidence that we evolved on Earth and it's well documented. I would assume it's lying to me for what I don't know. If you're that advanced why are you wasting time on a pre-FTL species?

Then again, an omnipotent and omniscient being like the Christian God, which I assume is the definition of God you're working with, could easily fabricate the Big Bang and guide the evolution without leaving any trace of their involvement just to mess with you specifically for their amusement and no other reason. But when dealing with something like that, I guess there's no clear right or wrong answer, just hit or miss.

 

[Ouroboros]

I would say it depends on the whole setting, how the god presents themselves and the MC themselves. If the god is an easygoing dude with no taste for formalities, or serious and overbearing with the power to back it up. If the MC is religious and wat god(s) they follow if they are. What is the place of gods in the world and how they are seen by the people...

My own issue with cultivation novels though, is the power creep that often accompanies them. You start out as more or less regular human. Soon you can beat down entire groups of baseline humans. Then you're flinging around tanks with one hand, while smacking away artillery shells from the air with the other. And before you know it, you punch planets into oblivion.



Then again, an omnipotent and omniscient being like the Christian God, which I assume is the definition of God you're working with, could easily fabricate the Big Bang and guide the evolution without leaving any trace of their involvement just to mess with you specifically for their amusement and no other reason. But when dealing with something like that, I guess there's no clear right or wrong answer, just hit or miss.

I agree that it depends on the setting.

Reality parasite then. ?‍ But I don't buy it. There's no value in tricking a race as insignificant as ours, no Picard setting out into the wider galaxy, and nor are we amusing enough. We just aren't important enough to warrant that level of expenditure and attention for an entity that's playing on that level. We haven't even left our planet. They could do better than us I think than our shit. ? Now if you want to roll with the bored eternal/Q continuum entity fucking around pretending to be your Christian God on a whim? Fine. I still would not think you're anything but powerful, but stupid and pointless. What a waste of your abilities.

 

[greatATTACKshark]

I think the conversation went a little bit off topic. I only used that one example because the commenter specifically cited cultivation novels. My point was that people don’t generally respect powerful things on these sites, or don’t realize how truly powerful some things are. I can understand how my example gave people the wrong impression.

I wouldn't say desensitization is the main cause. Generally speaking, most readers do not like weak MCs. Immediately willingly kneeling before someone else at the start of a story is a pretty big thing which many may take into their heads with the thought of "If the MC can kneel so easily early on, how respectable will he be as the story progresses?" (thinking of it as a negative, not a positive for growth) Webnovels, in most cases, are written for readers to enjoy, or insert themselves within, and a lot of people don't like following their idea of what is weakness.

Now, taking away from that "psychological aspect", there is logic (1) Was he certain it was a god? And not just a God, but a benevolent one? And (2) Though I don't think desensitization is the main cause, it does have an affect. The norm is an MC who speaks to Gods as if they are humans like himself. That is the norm. If you go against the norm, then it's practically throwing yourself at fate to decide whether people will find a reinforced-status appealing. Then (3) Well, atheists exists like some have mentioned.

As an author, I'm surprised I haven't thought of making an MC kneel in front of a God before. As a reader, I'm not surprised why I wouldn't find it appealing if written shoddily.

But, here's the thing. How did he kneel? Was he forced to? Did he have to? Or is he simply religious?

Though I haven't made an MC kneel before a God, I have made a group kneel before a king while still retaining a layer of dignity and strength. When the King asked for them to kneel, I made the MC essentially proclaim the king not his, and ask for an explanation of what kicked off the story before he could be willing to bow down to anyone. Then, as the tension grew, and the king obligated to explain a bit, while eyeing his knights, the MC also gave in and knelt down in the end. Both, taking what they wanted from each other, an exchange of strengths and weaknesses, analytically speaking.

Pretty much, if you want people to like your MC, give them some level of strength early on as well even when kneeling before another. Being forced to kneel based on circumstances is also different than willingly kneeling. Though, this could also be fixed if the MC is someone deeply devoted or loyal to the person they are kneeling down for; not someone they just met who isn't or will not force them.

He was an old war vet that hoped to be reunited with the love of his life and his brother in arms. It’s been a while but I believe he was paralyzed from a bullet lodged in his spine that caused him constant pain. I’d say that the man had good reason to hope for a god.

Yeah, actually most gods and goddesses aren't like the Christian God. Most can even die.

That doesn’t mean that they don’t deserve respect.

Uh, as an atheist or rather non religious person myself, I wouldn't kneel to some entity claiming to be a God and more likely would bring my guard up. I might see them as powerful or more technologically advanced, but I wouldn't think it was God. Reality parasite is the best I'm willingto do. Too much evidence that we evolved on Earth and it's well documented. I would assume it's lying to me for what I don't know. If you're that advanced why are you wasting time on a pre-FTL species?

Am I getting decentized to the power levels? No, but sometimes the pacing could be better. Power creep can be a real problem. I do find the general goals of cultivation characters to be boring. Power without purpose. They're pointless half the time. Immortality for what? Strongest in the world for what? Usually they have no real reason.

Do I think he's beta for kneeling? No, I think he was fooled maybe, but it is a natural response if you're still primitive like our species. We would be like the islanders being fooled by Columbus about lunar ellipses before a species that advanced.

The man he kneeled to never claimed to be god. Besides god could be from a technologically superior race but that doesn’t mean he doesn’t deserve some respect.

Well, it is important to remember that god in Christian mythos and gods in Japanese/Chinese mythos are beings on completely different scales.

Like... Gods in Shintoism aren't omnipotent nor did they create all life or anything of the sort. They are a lot closer to spirits than anything else.

So uhn... It is not thaaaat strange for people to find the guy kneeling weird. I mean, I'd need to know more about the setting and the story to make a proper judgment, but... When gods are actually beings on a reasonable power level, showing them excessive respect in a setting where [showing respect = showing weakness] is understandably something that would weird out some readers.

... That said, I wouldn't really bat an eye at it myself and just move on without caring too much.

Even if it wasn’t the christian god that doesn’t mean that they shouldn’t be given any respect.

 

[kkarakk]

Cultivation novels don't originate from western culture, they originate from eastern culture(webnovels and novels about wuxia and xianxia - yes i know they're different but even the original culture mixes the two genres up freely like cocktails nowadays).
ANY kind of average idea you've thought of has already been done so much there and in such quantities(1000+ chapters) that everything is treated as a cliche.
Any one with any sense will read those older stories coz you will get coherently written consistent stories with clear power leveling. A lot of them are enjoyable.
HOWEVER in comes human nature - we don't want to read old stories, we want to read stories as they're being written. we want them to adhere to "our" cultural standards (older chinese cultivation stories treat backstabbing and sexual abuse as a side plot, this shocks more sensitive young readers from today). We want "current" cultural references for eg talking about facebook instead of tiktok makes ppl feel alienated.

Stories have to move fast and with impact to be heard above the constant din of better written older works being recommended. Readers have no patience coz they've either read it all or have read enough cliches that they know instantly which direction a story is going. This is always true. A masterpiece has to satisfy both new and veteran readers.
Writing a good cultivation novel is trying to hit a moving target.

 

[greatATTACKshark]

Technically you guys are proving my point. You are telling me that if you died and woke up somewhere completely foreign and magical you wouldn’t give the being, god or not, a high amount of respect? People kneeled for nobles for less, which are just people with a high amount of political power. Plus they just brought you back to life.

 

[greatATTACKshark]

Cultivation novels don't originate from western culture, they originate from eastern culture(webnovels and novels about wuxia and xianxia - yes i know they're different but even the original culture mixes the two genres up freely like cocktails nowadays).
ANY kind of average idea you've thought of has already been done so much there and in such quantities(1000+ chapters) that everything is treated as a cliche.
Any one with any sense will read those older stories coz you will get coherently written consistent stories with clear power leveling. A lot of them are enjoyable.
HOWEVER in comes human nature - we don't want to read new stories, we want to read stories as they're being written. we want them to adhere to "our" cultural standards (older chinese cultivation stories treat backstabbing and sexual abuse as a side plot, this shocks more sensitive young readers from today). We want "current" cultural references for eg talking about facebook instead of tiktok makes ppl feel alienated.

Stories have to move fast and with impact to be heard above the constant din of better written older works being recommended. Readers have no patience coz they've either read it all or have read enough cliches that they know instantly which direction a story is going. This is always true. A masterpiece has to satisfy both new and veteran readers.
Writing a good cultivation novel is trying to hit a moving target.

I wasn’t saying cultivation novels are bad, In fact I read many frequently. Im just saying im seeing a rise of people not fully respecting certain things which coincide with certain values shown in cultivation novels.

 

[LotsChrono]

He was an old war vet that hoped to be reunited with the love of his life and his brother in arms. It’s been a while but I believe he was paralyzed from a bullet lodged in his spine that caused him constant pain. I’d say that the man had good reason to hope for a god.

Then I'd say that's an acceptable reason to kneel, especially if he's hoping for the God to intervene and help him in some way.

 

[GDLiZy]

I also don't believe in Gods, but if one were to stand in front of me after resurrecting me from death, I'll also kneel before them. It's delusional to still think otherwise that Gods, or whatever supernatural beings you want to call it, still don't exist.

Call me shameless all you want, but you can't exactly do that since you just pissed these godlike beings and died a dog death.