Comment by SomeAB on Paranoid Mage - Chapter 109

@SomeAB this whole benevolent mage thing is getting old fast

@Thelunos It makes sense for his character, but the issue is he's undergone absolutely zero character growth and, because of the poorly described power system, it's hard to tell how much physical growth he's gone through as well. Honestly I think one of the big turning points for this novels gradual decline was Callum jumping straight into a relationship with Lucy right after he saved her, and now they're married and expecting a child. Nevermind that Callum is a Widow, or that both of them are on the run, or that we can't tell how much time has passed unless it's expositioned to us because character designs remain mostly stagnant and unchanging. Maybe the novels better, but there was a time where I was engrossed in this manwha and didn't care about it's poor art or the medium magic system because Callum was a captivating character in an interesting world. Now Callum feels like a Gary Stu, in a world that's been underdeveloped and poorly utilized.

@Ronin yeah, it really is disappointing, I really liked Callum's character, and the story itself is separate enough from others

@Ronin

I don't think it's all that bad. I think the major complaint can be distilled down to a lack of chapter opening/closing markers. Essentially, we are in a new "season" of the story which wasn't very cleanly defined. Getting married was essentially the end of the previous season and the timeskip between that and his wife being 6 months pregnant is essentially the start of the new season. Of course there is going to a "winding down" and a "winding back up again" moments and unfortunately for the reader, because they aren't so clearly defined, it feels like a long period of low activity instead of storyline grounding.

I do agree in the lack of power scaling definitions (that seems purposeful in order to give the author room to move) other than "archmage" which is simply "very powerful".  I think that the author also wants to develop the world more and that's why Callum keeps on telling us how ignorant he is to things like other magic or even watching a mage attack team fight.  I would agree with you that the writing isn't as good as it was at the start, but it doesn't seem "bad" yet.  I think it just hits differently because the writer put more effort into certain parts of the story that ended up being so good that now we are judging the parts with lower writing investment as "bad" by comparison. 

@Prinzinc I definitely see what your saying here, and I by no means think this is some bargain bin slop. Just rough going from voraciously devouring chapter after chapter to being indifferent when a new one is uploaded. I think my only argument is that while Callum is ignorant, and we by proxy are pretty ignorant of the magic world, we the reader step away from his POV often enough to have a clearer understanding of the world and power system than him, at least enough to be able to gauge where he is at without needing to compromise his canonical ignorance. Otherwise I agree with everything you said, even the muddily defined power system is something tbat I think would be a key tool of the author if he could use it properly.