What are you reading?

[Jason_Miao]

http://www.fictionpress.com/s/2961893/16/Mother-of-Learning updated

[Anastasia]

http://www.fanfiction.net/s/8699874/1/The-Priest-of-Zero

Kirei Kotomine as Gandalfr. Interesting premise. The writing's...I'm sure if it's charming or flawed, but it's something. It starts getting good in chapter 4, when Kotomine has his first real chance to work his talents.

[Jason_Miao]

http://www.fanfiction.net/s/7870920/5/Honor-Thy-Masters also updated on the 2nd.

[Dracos]

Kind of a neat chapter of Honor Thy Masters.

[thepanda]

He Who Fights Monsters is complete.

[Merc]

I'm a little disappointed that Hokuto's plot didn't even play into the story at all, but seems like Gate and Drac called it. I'm okay with it not delving into the season 2 material, but still think it's a lost opportunity to not see what happened with the original series' main antagonist. Hopefully one of the side stories (if they ever get written) cover that.

[Dracos]

Eh, it kept it concise.

It's a well delivered story of a normal person descending into madness from attempting to adapt to a violent environment.  Going further would be telling a different type of story.  Certainly, it could be continued from before the timeskip as such, but it wouldn't be the same type of story.  It certainly would've had trouble delivering the kind of bittersweet "I'm the real monster" note it ended on.

It very much was clearly going for a "When you stare into the abyss, the Abyss stares into you' vibe, and it delivered it quite well.

[alethiophile]

So this thing exists.

It's somewhat cracky, but amusing and rather cute.

[Jason_Miao]

IMO, six of one, half dozen of the other.

I think that after following through most of book 1, including the non-confrontation with the Witch Hill, leaving out Hokuto seems strange.  Given that Tsukune has so drastically changed from the original version, and given how unimpressed he was with the headmaster, this last chapter could have been a climax and not a denouement.

That said, that's not something to half-ass either, so if the writer really didn't want to write that scene, it's better to end it this way than to flub it.  Writing one-chapter too much can screw up all of the interest of tens of previously well-written chapters.

On the balance, I think he should have written Hokuto, or if not that, written II.  The writer did a pretty good job of making up his own characters, scenarios, so even if he couldn't stand R+V II (I don't blame him for this; I didn't bother to finish it either), he could have written his own plot.  Perhaps Tsukune would have joined Hokuto?  And Tsukune never really did get hit with the consequences of his choices; the "bully who used to pick on him" in the last bit was kind of weak. Having him interact with the families of the children he killed?  Wow.

Maybe it'd go the way of Dark Lords of Nerima, and maybe the fact that Tsukune's friends are new characters might drag it down, but I think it'd be worth a shot.

edit:

ale: I've been reading that.  It's just as you say: cute.  It's also much less Itachi-centered after the first few chapters than the title would suggest.

[alethiophile]

This is also a thing.

OC-centric HP fic, with the stated goal of telling an unrelated story that crosses the HP plot only incidentally. Nicely done. Manages to have an entire chapter full of basically inane small talk between two people on a date, and remain entertaining throughout.

[Grahf]

So, I read He Who Fights Monsters mostly out of curiosity, very well done. I guess though, that I shouldn't have read it before trying to read the source material. Even though I knew it was going to be very different I wasn't expecting it to be that jarring. After reading the first couple of chapters of Rosario + Vampire I'm left unsure of what to think of the actual canon material in comparison to this. Even knowing that the canon itself heads in a more serious direction later on kind of boggles my mind.

Granted, I still know a lot more about the story than I should, thanks mostly to idle browsing of Tv Tropes. I'm kind of curious as to why the author hates the second season so much, but I'm not even sure I'll get far enough to find out.

[Merc]

Grahf: It's because the genre shifted.

First season was comedy+harem genre for the most part, even with the battles that occured with increasing frequency as the season progressed. It relied almost entirely on Moka taking care of battles.

By the second season, the comedy+harem aspect was getting phased out in favor of focusing on the battle aspect. It's become a more traditional shounen battle series, with Tsukune getting power-ups and clearly not being just a human character anymore, as Moka gets downgraded to damsel in distress.

[Grahf]

Those changes sound fairly disappointing.  I mean, the whole "Magical Moka Unlock: Aggravated Asskicking" thing seems to be one of the primary points of the manga, or at least the few early chapters I read. To think of her as being sidelined as a token distressed love interest just isn't appealing at all.

[thepanda]

Is it the second season manga or the second season anime he doesn't like?

[Jason_Miao]

Grahf: If you don't dislike Ranma crossovers, try Big Human on Campus as well if you have not already read it.