If I remember correctly, the "marshmallow experiment" was something Kim Yuwon brought up to try to curb Danpung's tendency to eat voraciously without restraint. It was a good while ago, but I believe it was "food is tastier when you work for it / it's given time to be prepared".

It's rather interesting, because the person MC looked up to most was the one who most resembled his father, in a way, and I don't think that was a coincidence. I believe his father does care about the common person, but that care is seen in how he believes martial artists should adhere to a code and the rule of law which would theoretically prevent the common person from being victimized in the first place. This is seen as well when his first response to an influential martial arts family throwing their weight around was to seek out a third party to provide unbiased investigation and judgment; he did not agree with said family acting as they did, and used the methods he felt were necessary.

Unfortunately, those methods failed. The rule of law exists only as much as one is willing to enforce it....

His father strives to live by his ideals. His hands are bound because he believes everyone should act according to the rules of law and order, and he himself is powerful enough that personally acting would be bullying the weak regardless. If he were to strike out and take matters into his own hands, he would be betraying the ideals he believes everyone should follow. MC, however, is placing the outcome before the process. He still upholds his ideals in order to not be swept under by Jianghu's lawless nature—such as requiring a degree of justification to kill or rob people—but without a functioning system to uphold righteousness, he has to adhere to his own sense of righteousness to guide him.

I think his father will be unable to directly assist him in any way at the moment, but the fact he married MC's mother shows he's not completely intolerant. He wished to stop his son out of his love, but after understanding him more, I assume he simply won't intervene save to remind him not to fall too far off the path.

Nah, she likes him, she's just turned off enough by his appearance it tempers it, and she was never particularly great at interpersonal relationships in the first place—remember how she treats her spirit companions? She and Rifenhardt were an item in his past life so there's obviously foundation for chemistry there mentally, but it's hard to get over that physical attractiveness hurdle now.

That's technically what happened, at first. The mimic-body is basically a physical part of the spider itself and wouldn't just disappear, but the form it took from ingesting MC's yang qi was its original, un-mimicked form. It took that form because MC thought that was the most beautiful, so he had to go out of his way to alter his preferences so people wouldn't think he put the spider above Huayin.

Bro actually said "Thankfully, I learn quickly" when his lack of aptitude is a central premise of the story. Dude died forty times and only just now realized his left-handed swings shouldn't be exactly the same as his right-handed swings.

Kind of a curious development, though. The other things he learned could all be pretty naturally incorporated in his combat style, but learning how to use his left hand for swordplay seems much harder to incorporate. There's always dual wielding, but dual wielding would require learning an entirely new combat style, and he seemed pretty inclined towards single-sword combat so far.

For her, not revealing her identity allows her to pretend to be a normal girl with normal girl hobbies and interests, rather than playing the part of Winterbell's Monarch all the time. She wants to get closer to him as a woman to a man, not as one Villain leader to another, and revealing her identity can complicate that. He knows she's hiding her identity for one reason or another, and so is playing along with things for now as well.

If you want a comparison scenario, imagine a situation where a princess sneaks out from a castle, while a foreign prince does likewise during a visit. They both care about and for each other for reasons other than their royal lineage, and exposing their statuses too early can shift the dynamic from "two people having a normal potentially romantic relationship" to something formal and structured instead. Even if both of them know through indirect means, not saying anything about it maintains a tacit agreement to keep things just like this.

It's hard to say what's going to happen. Lunav asked Cyan why he was looking for Lemiraham's power, and she was delighted to find out he wanted to destroy it, if memory serves correctly. In theory, she should want to do the same? The connection to some part of her family also implies something big might end up going down not too far into the future.

The presentation of this arc has been rather lackluster, though, I agree with you there.

"Their gaze is so close I can practically feel it."

Yeah, you're standing on an eyeball, lol.

What the fuck are they feeding it?!

Yes. There are methods to contain or capture something that won't necessarily kill them, and such methods tend to be less risky than a full-on attack. Just using one of the previous chapters as an example, if the two were captured in an array like the one that surrounded the sect, someone would be able to capture them through trickery (getting them to enter and then seal it) rather than through confrontation. Those with high cultivation also tend to have failsafes for their life, that won't necessarily take effect unless or until their life is threatened. Snakey might be susceptible to a poison that renders him unconscious (which many levels of cultivators could presumably use), but good luck to a lower-level cultivator actually killing him once his earth armor activates to reflexively protect himself.

Unfortunately, knights are bound tightly by procedure. There's a reason he had to make such a huge production in front of the building demanding for Black Bear to come outside, or else he would go in and get him (and kill him). Vlad coming back a day later over a "personal grudge" would go over even worse than what he did right now. A knight's actions are never not official business.

It's already been shown in a previous chapter that his days don't require his death in order to repeat, even though that's the most common trigger for it. If this was a wall he has to overcome and fails to do so, the witch intervening won't stop it. The witch only intervened when it seemed like the MC was about to lose, too, so in a timeline where the MC would win, the witch wouldn't interfere at all.

It requires too much power and risk to manifest big miracles, and the era of doing big things passed once the continent semi-stabilized and borders were drawn. This is the reason the gods affect their will through subtle ways, and since those who already believe require less persuasion to go along with the gods' plans, it's just more efficient to concentrate their efforts on things other than making atheists believe.

As for why this matters in the first place given the big waves in the past, well, I'm sure turning water to wine, walking on water, and rising from the dead (among many other things) are very persuasive... but that's just a story by this point. Even assuming such things are historically accurate, the long span of time apart and advancement of understanding and skepticism makes it pretty normal to disbelieve regardless. It seems very normal for there to be nonbelievers in this story, especially those (like alchemists) who often push their understanding of the world (and thus skepticism) the hardest.

The artifacts from the golden age (or whatever it's called) are actually super high-tech rather than magical. The artifact MC got, for example, may as well have just been a VR device commonly used to help teach students in the past. It being a computer/technological means Sayer's Eyes are from that era.

While you're correct about the people with power finding a way to avoid any real consequences for themselves, keep in mind that that doesn't necessarily apply to high-ranked military people. They are under the command of the ruler / king, and failing to do their job carries serious repercussions for them. Just because the strategists/commanders are higher-ranking and "more important" than the rank-and-file doesn't mean they're at the top of the food chain—those people (like the king of Cronos in this example) rarely step anywhere close to the battlefield in the first place, and have others risk their lives in their stead. Sometimes the battlefield commander is as helpless against the orders of a higher up as the common foot soldier is, if not more so since desertion would be considerably more noticeable.

It's because of how valuable a competent strategist or commander is. It's a huge time and resource sink, so it stings particularly hard when they're lost. The reason it's agreed upon not to kill noncombatants or destroy civilian infrastructure isn't necessarily because of some kind of morality, but because of the steep ramifications it will have on the country's future in terms of development and prosperity. And allowing soldiers to surrender gives the defeated army an "out" which reduces the casualties on both sides, otherwise all soldiers will feel the need to go out in a blaze of glory because they'll die anyway.

War crimes are less modeled on morality than they are on reducing the "cost" or "bitterness" of war. It tries to avoid a situation in which both sides lose, where the cost of winning is too large to have been worth it (Pyrrhic victory).

My dude, look at the inward-facing angle of his sword and his grip. He wasn't aiming for his shoulder, he was aiming for an angled slice entering the side of his neck, on the side of his broken hand and opposite his greatsword so as to give Istvan the lowest possible chance to block it. The attack earlier that Istvan blocked was aiming for his less-armored waist. Neither of them are holding back.

https://i.postimg.cc/9fvrtBPd/i.png

Actually, in a fight like that one where there are many important things on the line, I don't think it was possible for Vlad to hold back. Showing mercy on someone is difficult, especially so if they are equal or greater in power, where slowing your blade down even slightly could be the difference between a victory and a quick defeat.

Vlad had to strike with the intent to kill, and he was only able to do that precisely because Godwin would step in if things got too heated—something the knights on Vlad's side would have done as well if the shoe were on the other foot. It was thanks to Godwin's presence and the statement of intervention ahead of time that allowed Vlad to attack without concern for the political repercussions for if Istvan died.

Not just that, but it also helped establish a bit of world-building, too. The angels are very capricious and arrogant, but more than that, they 1) have a "Head Angel" that keeps them in line with an emphasis on maintaining an appearance in front of the humans, and 2) have an insect pit punishment/torture for those who step out of line, using fear to cow obedience. Although it took up a fair bit of chapter space, it established a hierarchy and inter-angel tensions, and I wouldn't be surprised if Black Scythe took advantage of it in the future—such as making a deal with Priscilla to fuck over Olive.

Yep. Their powers are keyed into an emotional state, and use of their power will cause that emotional state to become more and more pronounced and exaggerated. This is the reason Driver goes absolutely crazy tinkering with technology whenever he removes his metaphorical limiter and goes all out.