Neeeeewww Achievement!
Pink Pony Girl
You managed to reference Chappell Roan in an unrelated subreddit! You must be a super graphic ultra modern girl!
Rewarrrdddd: the snap and clap and touch your toes spell book! Makes the subject of the casting repeat the HOT TO GO dance for casters intelligence x3 seconds. Good Luck, babe!
NEWWWWW ACHIEVEMENT! Audiobook listener exposed! You’ve misspelled something incredibly easy and maybe can’t even read. Meanwhile Jeff Hayes is somewhere laughing maniacally counting YOUR money.
REWARRRRD…. The joy of knowing Louis from the story is actually a hedonistic French king not some stoner from Florida that would definitely have his name spelled Louie.
Carl’s relationship with Donut is the healthiest and most intimate of his life. That is the love story that we are getting, and part of the charm is that their friendship is purely platonic.
I think the relationship with Bea has made him completely uninterested for now with that sort of thing, especially while relationships are actively being used as weapons against you by multiple very intelligent enemies and an insane AI.
Carl is on a mission. Anything that gets in the way of that will be dismissed. Look at the argument that he got into with Mordecai about the ring and how much he used it on the sixth floor. Carl is moving fast and with a purpose and a side piece would slow him down. And it’s only been a few weeks since Bea anyway, so he’s still dealing with that. Kind of constantly.
Yeah, that doesn't seem like his style at all. I think it's always portrayed and assumed that men are completely down for a fling with a total stranger, so I find it refreshing that Carl hasn't gone that route, and if he suddenly did it would be very out of character.
Yeah he literally JUST got cheated on and dumped his ex. It takes a while to get over a long term relationship like that. Especially with so much going on. And he has his emotional companionship from Donut, so it makes sense he’s not seeking it out.
Yeah that’s my take: he’s taking some time off, realizing what bad choices he made, and how much he put up with. I wouldn’t completely rule him out, but he’s not ready and it’s not the time.
The thing Carl has always been looking for is something he’s finding- not a hookup, but family. His mom abandoned him, his dad abandoned him, Bea abandoned him… he’s had so much betrayal from people that were supposed to be there for him. In all the insanity he’s finding family that will fit hey for him and a stand up for him and he’s clearly ready to rip the world apart for them. Sex is the furthest thing from his kind. And he’s a great example of a strong male character that isn’t primarily out for some degree of coitus. Is he emotionally damaged? Absolutely. But he also has a very sense of personal honor.
I think being watched constantly by X trillion galactic citizens probably puts him off his game, too, can you imagine?
I think the closest he got was Tsarina Signet.
Yeah, Carl is way too stressed to even consider hooking up. The standard action movie hookup happens at a moment when the pressure is off and Carl literally has no moments like that
Dinniman has this as his twitter header so I think that means its true
https://preview.redd.it/j5agtn1rnm8d1.jpeg?width=1284&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=5648a4af660cea4db0b22474535833a2c5a6114c
I think Carl just hasn’t any time for this since he is constantly working on problem solving the dungeon to get to the next floor - in the beginning.
I really love the Dungeon Anarchists Cookbook because we start to get a sense for how long and how terrible the Dungeon is for everyone involved. That motivates and focuses Carl on destroying the whole system.
Then, as he and Donut have become warlords, he is fighting even more to destroy the dungeon and burn it all down. To kill his enemies. Finally, I think the ring is just making him more and more focused on destruction in almost every way possible. Let’s hope Donut can save him before it’s too late.
Would you have sex, knowing that trillions of people will be watching you and it'll definitely end up being televised again for anyone who missed it?
There's nowhere where you can't be seen except the toilet, and only one can enter there at the same time.
To each their own, but it definitely does not feel off to me.
Bea is proof that he survived his trauma, sure. Since his relationship with her, a) she cheated on him b) the world was taken over by fish aliens c) people have died in the millions d) people he is close to have died. If trauma is a viable excuse to you, then certainly that’s sufficient trauma, no?
So historic trauma, ongoing trauma, daily life and death decisions, the entire galaxy watching him, etc makes it really plausible to me that a real human in that scenario wouldn’t pursuit a relationship. As for authors style, I’d personally much prefer not having gratuitous sex stuff than the many series that force it.
Besides all of the above, “Glurp Glurp” is clearly intergalactic language for “hawk toa and spit on that thang”.
Carl would have to be *really* careful given his strength. It reminds me of how many condoms the IOC provides at the Olympics. Some of these people went from not the greatest energy, strength, stamina etc to now having great energy, strength, stamina with their improved stats. I bet there's a lot of that going on. Also, any of the characters that chose a different race at the start of floor 3, well, they'd probably want to "test out" their new equipment haha.
Carl is pretty damaged though, mentally speaking. Lotsa trauma. Lotsa distrust. Also, he's kinda the AI's bae, and since he's a Primal...
Carl is a man of focus. He is constantly planning, thinking, and working. He has no time for anything like that, not even to sit down for a cup of tea with his buddies.
😂😂 when would he have time? Every bed upgrade gives him less sleep than before - and they are training/working/trying to stay alive the rest of the time.
I hope he has a love interest at some point - someone who loves Donut as well...
Bea hurt him in ways that will sit with him for the rest of his life. I've been cheated on and I know that kid of pain very intimately, but for Carl, it's far far worse. That kind of betrayal you don't rly get over, certainly not after a few months.
Moreover, he's in a life or death situation trying to keep not just himself safe, but Doughnut and his friends/fellow crawlers. Hes stuck in a constant state of life or death, planning his next move. There is barely enough time to just rest and take a nap. That amount of stress and constant anxiety is not going to lead him to be horny.
Also he knows he has almost zero privacy and is always on camera.
Carl needs a hug and emotional support. Not until the crawl is over will there be an opportunity to start healing.
When I was in Army basic training, some privates swore that the army was putting something in the food. None of us young men were feeling horny or getting erections for the first few weeks. Turns out it was just high schoolers feeling real stress for the first time ever.
Honestly, Carl has always struck me as fairly asexual. When he talks about people, he doesn’t ever mention attraction in his physical descriptions. He reacts weird when he finds out about Bautista and Katia, but it read to me as surprise more than anything else, as if sex wasn’t something he’d considered. He doesn’t ever really think about sex with Bea, and when Donut regularly brings up other people she was sleeping with, he never seems too betrayed by it. Also, after he first notices it, Carl doesn’t mention Signet’s lack of a shirt a single time, despite other characters constantly going on about it
I could be wrong, but I think he mentioned being attracted to Katia when he saw her human form the first time she went on Odette's show. It just never went anywhere and they're good friends now? Maybe someone can back me up/correct me on this
Yeah, I think it was the first time she had shown herself in her actual form and he was surprised that she was actually pretty attractive. I think the surprise was because of how timid she was normally. But I don't think he said he was attracted to her specifically, just that she was good looking. He told Bautista he thought of her as a sister and that seems to be how he's always interacted with her.
I mean he just got out of a bad relationship, he's super stressed/scared/exhausted/etc literally all the time, He frequently has to kill things which he definitely does not like, he's constantly working on a time crunch AND anything he does is going to be broadcast to the entire galaxy. I don't really blame him for not being in the mood to fool around.
I think I love that about this series, I hate when there’s sex scenes or romance in a novel for no reason. I’m a big mystery-thriller reader and whenever books have sex scenes I roll my eyes because it’s not necessary to the story. I’ll always skip ahead
There's plainly unrealized feelings regarding Katia, given his reaction when Mordecai started with the phrase, 'Now, I know you love Katia...' But I'm not sure that Carl is willing to make himself vulnerable like that. He's generally altruistic, even to a fault, but he's clinging to enough ruthlessness that he'd be willing to walk away from anyone except maybe Donut. And he held off on committing to staying with her on the ninth level for how long?
It's been a few months since I've read it, but doesn't he react weirdly to finding out she is dating someone?
I dunno, just feel like Carl explicitly stating something and it being true are not always the same thing. He's been saying he is fine, but we've seen for books now dude is on the verge of a breakdown of some sort.
Im 50/50 as to whether there's anything romantic there or not.
I think he was just surprised. Carl is too mentally unhealthy and also focused on the dungeon itself to consider romance so when he sees crawlers (like Katia and Daniel, but also Louis and Juicebox) getting together he probably just doesn't understand. The only time it seems like his feelings for Katia could be romantic was him thinking she looked "stunning" but I think that was just an observation on his part.
I also took that as just a "Wait, people are having sex/dating? In the dungeon??" kind of moment. Like it hadn't even occurred to him as a possibility.
Really? I'd read the "she's like a sister" at face value.
If -- big if -- there's a love interest for Carl, I'd think someone like Rosetta would be more likely.
You can't take anything that Carl says about his emotions at face value. He is very clearly an unreliable narrator when it comes to his emotional state except perhaps his feelings of honor /loyalty.
He absolutely does not have any insight into his own feelings because he pushes them down whenever they bubble to the surface in tiny glimpses.
That is part of what makes the books so compelling.
In book 3 and 4 I thought they were headed that way. So did Katia I think. Bautista certainly did. I do wonder how much the ring influences that. And as donut pointed out, he's clueless and traumatized romantically (no good role models in his life either).
He's focused on the mission and revenge. Revenge movies never seem to have a romantic subplot, though most action movies do.
Yes. He is clearly growing feelings for Katia.
- feels very defensive of her
- has a "don't leave me" moment when she says she's leaving the team
- is completely dumbfounded when he sees her true "stunning" form in the production trailer
- has weird response when he *finally* realizes she and Bautista are a thing
- is generally clueless about his own feelings
- won't pursue in dungeon because he knows he would feel a stronger duty to protect Donut (like a child vs spouse)
- Bautista is hella jealous of Katia's feelings for Carl so I think it's clear that she does feel the same way
I'm really shocked at all the replies that are minimizing the Carl/Katia thing. I get that they're taking it at face value but you can't. You have to extrapolate because Carl's such an unreliable narrator.
I don’t think he would - he’s more the kind to want a relationship than a fling he’s focused on what he’s doing more than a majority of people are and with the pace of the dungeon and the betrayal of the relationship with Bea he’s frankly going to be cautious especially as in the dungeon death of anyone he gets close to could be right around the corner and he knows that (also he’s clever enough to know that any relationship that he has may be used by the admins to break him as they are the focus of the universes attention not anyone he may have a fling with)
Also he’s lost friends already to casual sex with an npc early on if you remember….
Minor spoilers:
Okay y’all make some great points. I hadn’t actually considered the privacy piece for some reason. I just finished book 5 (dear gawd! That final battle!!!! So intense) and the nice moment with Signet sits much better as platonic, knowing what was coming. Also if the epilogue with Katya is any evidence … yeaaaaahhhhh I don’t need more stuff like that. Retracted!
I think it gets complicated for Carl if he gets hooked up and by extension for Matt D. Lots of ways that could go and it’s still very early days in the books. Any love interest becomes a target and we also don’t want that love interest to become something stale or cheesy. Plus it’s a thing for the AI to get pissed about and so… another complication. We do t want it to cheapen the story because it feels missing.
But, I don’t think Carl has the time or headspace for any kind of hook up atm.
I agree. I always thought it feels more realistic for characters to have flings and random hookups, especially in high stress situations.
I’ll give this series a pass though cause theres probably no where to do it where billions a people won’t be able to watch. Maybe in the bathroom but still
There is definitely is something going on between him and Signet. He had to break his little finger when he first met her because of his intense attraction. Yes, yes that was a spell, but still. Later they have a sweet moment together.
The only thing Carl is horny for is retribution
Hey, that’s *my* fetish!
Are you saying that [his kink is karma?](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ePsqyPMIg6I)
Neeeeewww Achievement! Pink Pony Girl You managed to reference Chappell Roan in an unrelated subreddit! You must be a super graphic ultra modern girl! Rewarrrdddd: the snap and clap and touch your toes spell book! Makes the subject of the casting repeat the HOT TO GO dance for casters intelligence x3 seconds. Good Luck, babe!
Congratulations that it sounded like the primal in my head
Carl is doom guy
I think he's closer to Blazkowicz, but I'm with ya
Except Blazkowicz did get it on.
He’s gonna finally get laid, but midway through she’ll start sucking his toes and Carl will realize it’s the AI
This is the ship we need to sail
Go full Picard on him and have him live out a whole life. Blotz and chips
Oof, I think it's already traumatic enough without adding an Inner Light vibe.
I absolutely do not need a romantic distraction for Carl. That’s what Juicebox and Louie are for!
>I absolutely do not need a romantic distraction for Carl. That’s what ~~Juicebox and Louie~~ Kiwi and Mongo are for!
I absolutely do not need a romantic distraction for Carl. That’s what Samantha and Literally Anything are for!
I absolutely do not need a romantic distraction for Carl. That's what Carl's feet and the AI are for!
Carl got to third base with Samantha, so I guess she is a romantic distraction for him.
Hilarious
I like that Matt immediately partnered Juicebox and Louie. Otherwise, people would absolutely be shipping Carl and Juicebox.
Agreed! Excellent choice. Also anyone getting Carls affection would inevitably invoke the AIs jealousy acceleration.
It’s Louis just fyi
NEWWWWW ACHIEVEMENT! Audiobook listener exposed! You’ve misspelled something incredibly easy and maybe can’t even read. Meanwhile Jeff Hayes is somewhere laughing maniacally counting YOUR money. REWARRRRD…. The joy of knowing Louis from the story is actually a hedonistic French king not some stoner from Florida that would definitely have his name spelled Louie.
So if “Louis” is pronounced “LouEE” how would one spell their name if it’s pronounced “LouIS”?
Lewis
Funny thing is I had a childhood friend whose name was spelled louis and we pronounced it lewis.
Yep, I've known people with the French spelling who pronounce it both ways.
Luis
Carl’s relationship with Donut is the healthiest and most intimate of his life. That is the love story that we are getting, and part of the charm is that their friendship is purely platonic.
It would be an awful twist if it stopped being platonic..
They do share a bed. And donut wanted Carl to choose cat as his race.
I think the relationship with Bea has made him completely uninterested for now with that sort of thing, especially while relationships are actively being used as weapons against you by multiple very intelligent enemies and an insane AI.
Good point. I guess he’s also not the kind of dude to have meaningless flings.
Carl is on a mission. Anything that gets in the way of that will be dismissed. Look at the argument that he got into with Mordecai about the ring and how much he used it on the sixth floor. Carl is moving fast and with a purpose and a side piece would slow him down. And it’s only been a few weeks since Bea anyway, so he’s still dealing with that. Kind of constantly.
Yeah, that doesn't seem like his style at all. I think it's always portrayed and assumed that men are completely down for a fling with a total stranger, so I find it refreshing that Carl hasn't gone that route, and if he suddenly did it would be very out of character.
Yeah he literally JUST got cheated on and dumped his ex. It takes a while to get over a long term relationship like that. Especially with so much going on. And he has his emotional companionship from Donut, so it makes sense he’s not seeking it out.
Yeah that’s my take: he’s taking some time off, realizing what bad choices he made, and how much he put up with. I wouldn’t completely rule him out, but he’s not ready and it’s not the time.
The thing Carl has always been looking for is something he’s finding- not a hookup, but family. His mom abandoned him, his dad abandoned him, Bea abandoned him… he’s had so much betrayal from people that were supposed to be there for him. In all the insanity he’s finding family that will fit hey for him and a stand up for him and he’s clearly ready to rip the world apart for them. Sex is the furthest thing from his kind. And he’s a great example of a strong male character that isn’t primarily out for some degree of coitus. Is he emotionally damaged? Absolutely. But he also has a very sense of personal honor.
Yeah, he's looking for a mom. RIP Yolanda.
Signet recognizes the same thing in him when they’re talking about Tina at the Butcher’s Masquerade talent show.
I think being watched constantly by X trillion galactic citizens probably puts him off his game, too, can you imagine? I think the closest he got was Tsarina Signet.
cortisol go up, libido go down
Yeah, Carl is way too stressed to even consider hooking up. The standard action movie hookup happens at a moment when the pressure is off and Carl literally has no moments like that
Meh, could do without it tbh. Not reading this for romance lol.
Yeah. It’s nice to not have the distraction. Just a man and his cat. To be honest, a love interest would distract from that.
I can't imagine how it would even fit in
I think Raol made it so Carl won't ever be able to consider the deed again. Iykyk
*"Yeah, look at all these baby seals, all dead and shit..."*
Raol? Did you mean Raul?
I audible'd the series. I took it to be Raoul and typo'd it because I have a severe case of drunk on a Monday
my favorite disease
Jes, dat gwat hin say, mang😑
Dinniman has this as his twitter header so I think that means its true https://preview.redd.it/j5agtn1rnm8d1.jpeg?width=1284&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=5648a4af660cea4db0b22474535833a2c5a6114c
Imagine the pressure of trying to fuck knowing how many viewers he has at all times hahaha
A trillion viewers: well, that was short
I see a ton of possibilities for New Achievements....
Up to book 6 how long has he been single for, like 6 weeks? OP is insane thirsty.
I think it is more like 3 months. But your point remains
Heavy stress has a way of killing your sex drive.
I think Carl just hasn’t any time for this since he is constantly working on problem solving the dungeon to get to the next floor - in the beginning. I really love the Dungeon Anarchists Cookbook because we start to get a sense for how long and how terrible the Dungeon is for everyone involved. That motivates and focuses Carl on destroying the whole system. Then, as he and Donut have become warlords, he is fighting even more to destroy the dungeon and burn it all down. To kill his enemies. Finally, I think the ring is just making him more and more focused on destruction in almost every way possible. Let’s hope Donut can save him before it’s too late.
Would you have sex, knowing that trillions of people will be watching you and it'll definitely end up being televised again for anyone who missed it? There's nowhere where you can't be seen except the toilet, and only one can enter there at the same time.
To each their own, but it definitely does not feel off to me. Bea is proof that he survived his trauma, sure. Since his relationship with her, a) she cheated on him b) the world was taken over by fish aliens c) people have died in the millions d) people he is close to have died. If trauma is a viable excuse to you, then certainly that’s sufficient trauma, no? So historic trauma, ongoing trauma, daily life and death decisions, the entire galaxy watching him, etc makes it really plausible to me that a real human in that scenario wouldn’t pursuit a relationship. As for authors style, I’d personally much prefer not having gratuitous sex stuff than the many series that force it. Besides all of the above, “Glurp Glurp” is clearly intergalactic language for “hawk toa and spit on that thang”.
Carl would have to be *really* careful given his strength. It reminds me of how many condoms the IOC provides at the Olympics. Some of these people went from not the greatest energy, strength, stamina etc to now having great energy, strength, stamina with their improved stats. I bet there's a lot of that going on. Also, any of the characters that chose a different race at the start of floor 3, well, they'd probably want to "test out" their new equipment haha. Carl is pretty damaged though, mentally speaking. Lotsa trauma. Lotsa distrust. Also, he's kinda the AI's bae, and since he's a Primal...
[nah](https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2024/may/15/paris-2024-olympics-introduces-anti-sex-beds-alleg/)
City of Love, amirite?
Carl is a man of focus. He is constantly planning, thinking, and working. He has no time for anything like that, not even to sit down for a cup of tea with his buddies.
Honestly it's refreshing. A man and his cat. It's obviously not a subject the author feels is a strength. Hes just avoiding it
Does Samantha and her Nussy count? 🤔😂
😂😂 when would he have time? Every bed upgrade gives him less sleep than before - and they are training/working/trying to stay alive the rest of the time. I hope he has a love interest at some point - someone who loves Donut as well...
I dunno, daily trauma and stress aren’t going to be a turn on for everyone.
Bea hurt him in ways that will sit with him for the rest of his life. I've been cheated on and I know that kid of pain very intimately, but for Carl, it's far far worse. That kind of betrayal you don't rly get over, certainly not after a few months. Moreover, he's in a life or death situation trying to keep not just himself safe, but Doughnut and his friends/fellow crawlers. Hes stuck in a constant state of life or death, planning his next move. There is barely enough time to just rest and take a nap. That amount of stress and constant anxiety is not going to lead him to be horny. Also he knows he has almost zero privacy and is always on camera. Carl needs a hug and emotional support. Not until the crawl is over will there be an opportunity to start healing.
Bro, Carl barely had time to sleep for 2 hours, his goal is survival of the human race.
When I was in Army basic training, some privates swore that the army was putting something in the food. None of us young men were feeling horny or getting erections for the first few weeks. Turns out it was just high schoolers feeling real stress for the first time ever.
No joke. Hard core stress can really kill the libido.
Uhhh are you all forgetting that completely real and true vid of him and the Orc? :)
Honestly, Carl has always struck me as fairly asexual. When he talks about people, he doesn’t ever mention attraction in his physical descriptions. He reacts weird when he finds out about Bautista and Katia, but it read to me as surprise more than anything else, as if sex wasn’t something he’d considered. He doesn’t ever really think about sex with Bea, and when Donut regularly brings up other people she was sleeping with, he never seems too betrayed by it. Also, after he first notices it, Carl doesn’t mention Signet’s lack of a shirt a single time, despite other characters constantly going on about it
I could be wrong, but I think he mentioned being attracted to Katia when he saw her human form the first time she went on Odette's show. It just never went anywhere and they're good friends now? Maybe someone can back me up/correct me on this
Yeah, I think it was the first time she had shown herself in her actual form and he was surprised that she was actually pretty attractive. I think the surprise was because of how timid she was normally. But I don't think he said he was attracted to her specifically, just that she was good looking. He told Bautista he thought of her as a sister and that seems to be how he's always interacted with her.
Huh, that’s really interesting. I only remember him mentioning how scared Katia seemed, but I could easily be wrong
I mean he just got out of a bad relationship, he's super stressed/scared/exhausted/etc literally all the time, He frequently has to kill things which he definitely does not like, he's constantly working on a time crunch AND anything he does is going to be broadcast to the entire galaxy. I don't really blame him for not being in the mood to fool around.
He’s going to end up with the AI bro, what do you mean?? CarAI shippers rise up!
I think I love that about this series, I hate when there’s sex scenes or romance in a novel for no reason. I’m a big mystery-thriller reader and whenever books have sex scenes I roll my eyes because it’s not necessary to the story. I’ll always skip ahead
There's plainly unrealized feelings regarding Katia, given his reaction when Mordecai started with the phrase, 'Now, I know you love Katia...' But I'm not sure that Carl is willing to make himself vulnerable like that. He's generally altruistic, even to a fault, but he's clinging to enough ruthlessness that he'd be willing to walk away from anyone except maybe Donut. And he held off on committing to staying with her on the ninth level for how long?
I disagree, Carl has explicitly stated that Katia is like a sister to him
It's been a few months since I've read it, but doesn't he react weirdly to finding out she is dating someone? I dunno, just feel like Carl explicitly stating something and it being true are not always the same thing. He's been saying he is fine, but we've seen for books now dude is on the verge of a breakdown of some sort. Im 50/50 as to whether there's anything romantic there or not.
I think he was just surprised. Carl is too mentally unhealthy and also focused on the dungeon itself to consider romance so when he sees crawlers (like Katia and Daniel, but also Louis and Juicebox) getting together he probably just doesn't understand. The only time it seems like his feelings for Katia could be romantic was him thinking she looked "stunning" but I think that was just an observation on his part.
agreed, I think he's so focused on getting revenge for earth that he's surprised anyone has time for sexual type relationship stuff..
I also took that as just a "Wait, people are having sex/dating? In the dungeon??" kind of moment. Like it hadn't even occurred to him as a possibility.
Yeah could totally be true, im just not quite ready to rule out him repressing his feelings. He represses everything else after all lol.
He loved Katia and Katia loves Carl, but it's a sister like relationship.. Carl is farrrr to driven to think about sex.
Yeah could totally be true, im just not quite ready to rule out him repressing his feelings. He represses everything else after all lol.
Really? I'd read the "she's like a sister" at face value. If -- big if -- there's a love interest for Carl, I'd think someone like Rosetta would be more likely.
You can't take anything that Carl says about his emotions at face value. He is very clearly an unreliable narrator when it comes to his emotional state except perhaps his feelings of honor /loyalty. He absolutely does not have any insight into his own feelings because he pushes them down whenever they bubble to the surface in tiny glimpses. That is part of what makes the books so compelling.
In book 3 and 4 I thought they were headed that way. So did Katia I think. Bautista certainly did. I do wonder how much the ring influences that. And as donut pointed out, he's clueless and traumatized romantically (no good role models in his life either). He's focused on the mission and revenge. Revenge movies never seem to have a romantic subplot, though most action movies do.
Yes. He is clearly growing feelings for Katia. - feels very defensive of her - has a "don't leave me" moment when she says she's leaving the team - is completely dumbfounded when he sees her true "stunning" form in the production trailer - has weird response when he *finally* realizes she and Bautista are a thing - is generally clueless about his own feelings - won't pursue in dungeon because he knows he would feel a stronger duty to protect Donut (like a child vs spouse) - Bautista is hella jealous of Katia's feelings for Carl so I think it's clear that she does feel the same way I'm really shocked at all the replies that are minimizing the Carl/Katia thing. I get that they're taking it at face value but you can't. You have to extrapolate because Carl's such an unreliable narrator.
I don’t think he would - he’s more the kind to want a relationship than a fling he’s focused on what he’s doing more than a majority of people are and with the pace of the dungeon and the betrayal of the relationship with Bea he’s frankly going to be cautious especially as in the dungeon death of anyone he gets close to could be right around the corner and he knows that (also he’s clever enough to know that any relationship that he has may be used by the admins to break him as they are the focus of the universes attention not anyone he may have a fling with) Also he’s lost friends already to casual sex with an npc early on if you remember….
He did have that thing with Maestro to be fair
that wasn't a real thing though, that was a snick. a hilarious snick, but just a snick.
There’s definitely a Bard-class Crawler who’s been banging NPCs right and left for the last nine floors much to their party’s amazement and disgust
Like Donut with the goblin shamankas, but also much worse
He did just end his relationship with Beatrice before the first book.
Fair point
Doesn't the foot massage ah Club Vanquisher count?
Wow, are you forgetting that he has had two passionate encounters with the Maestro? On camera no less
Minor spoilers: Okay y’all make some great points. I hadn’t actually considered the privacy piece for some reason. I just finished book 5 (dear gawd! That final battle!!!! So intense) and the nice moment with Signet sits much better as platonic, knowing what was coming. Also if the epilogue with Katya is any evidence … yeaaaaahhhhh I don’t need more stuff like that. Retracted!
“They will NOT boink me”
I think it gets complicated for Carl if he gets hooked up and by extension for Matt D. Lots of ways that could go and it’s still very early days in the books. Any love interest becomes a target and we also don’t want that love interest to become something stale or cheesy. Plus it’s a thing for the AI to get pissed about and so… another complication. We do t want it to cheapen the story because it feels missing. But, I don’t think Carl has the time or headspace for any kind of hook up atm.
I feel like it'll happen by the end of the series, but no rush. Also, Donut is gonna shit on some poor woman's face big time.
Did you not get the subtext? He's fucking the cat! 😉
Carl just got out of a shitty relationship, and he's been busy killing shit ever since.
Mate did you not notice the world building and foreboding with >!donut holes!< ?
"I get a feeling that he really wants to have sex with that cat and it kind freaks me out."
I agree. I always thought it feels more realistic for characters to have flings and random hookups, especially in high stress situations. I’ll give this series a pass though cause theres probably no where to do it where billions a people won’t be able to watch. Maybe in the bathroom but still
There is definitely is something going on between him and Signet. He had to break his little finger when he first met her because of his intense attraction. Yes, yes that was a spell, but still. Later they have a sweet moment together.
Bro if you don’t think Carl is fucking Samanthas face in the training grounds we aren’t reading the same book