What are you reading?

[Arakawa]

Dungeon Keeper: Ami update. Not much of one, felt the author just wanted to get something out sort of update.

Interesting look at how Ami decides to punish blatant insubordination.

Spoiler: ShowHide

I was thinking that she might have added: "Or, if when it comes time to punish you again I have my hands full with something else, I could just make you remember."

[Anastasia]

That it is. I don't have a lot of commentary beyond that, but it's nice to see Ami using her head.

[Brian]

I thought based on the title that this Haruhi fic would be hilariously bad:

http://www.fanfiction.net/s/8174440/

It was slightly worse.

[Jason_Miao]

If anyone is still following it by this point: http://www.fanfiction.net/s/6892672/8/Haigeki

[Brian]

Ko mentioned that in the Haigeki discussion thread.


You guys are totally giving me a, "Someone read this for me and tell me how bad it got; I can't stomach more," vibe. >_>

[Anastasia]

Something like that. I posted it for the sake of anyone following it, though I'm not even curious as to what's happening now.

[Arakawa]

You guys are totally giving me a, "Someone read this for me and tell me how bad it got; I can't stomach more," vibe. >_>

I made it about half a paragraph in, and realized that if the guy was going to be this unpleasant, I may as well be reading something more educational.

Like a casebook of psychotically suicidal mental patients, or Erowid reports of people ingesting lethal doses of DMT, or something.

Moral: if your main character is going to attempt to hang himself and you want to explore his emotions in graphic detail, give the readers a reason to care first.

[Anastasia]

Holy jumping shitfucks, Batman!

Seriously, I didn't even read the few lines in to see the suicide attempt.

[Jason_Miao]

You guys are totally giving me a, "Someone read this for me and tell me how bad it got; I can't stomach more," vibe. >_>

Chapter upon chapter of torture tends to do that.

This kind of lead-in doesn't help:

Author's Forward – Not much to say. If you have made it this far, you can make it the rest of the way.

[Arakawa]

Author's Forward – Not much to say. If you have made it this far, you can make it the rest of the way.

Yeah, point. But my reason for not reading this chapter wasn't "I'm not going to read more because watching Ranma be tortured viscerally bothers me" (if it did, I'd have dropped the fic 3-4 chapters ago), it was "okay, this has officially gone beyond the insane".

[Jason_Miao]

Yeah, point. But my reason for not reading this chapter wasn't "I'm not going to read more because watching Ranma be tortured viscerally bothers me" (if it did, I'd have dropped the fic 3-4 chapters ago), it was "okay, this has officially gone beyond the insane".

That sort of thing in a story doesn't bother me per se.  The first couple of chapters of Her War has Onna-Ranma in Musk prison getting put through systemic torture-rape.  But if you've read that fic, you'll likely agree that there's pacing (and if you haven't, and don't mind reading Ranma fics, I'd recommend it).  Her War has plenty of angst and brainwashing, but it isn't just scene after scene of it.

At first, given the care which the writer created the whole magic system, I thought this was going to be a story about magical-girlhood with a hardcore/sci-fantasy spin angle.  At this point, it feels like the torture/Onna-mindfuckery (either forced or self-inflicted) itself is the point - and much like the Ukyou tickle-fetish story that was posted recently, I'm not into that.

[Yuthirin]

That sort of thing in a story doesn't bother me per se.  The first couple of chapters of Her War has Onna-Ranma in Musk prison getting put through systemic torture-rape.  But if you've read that fic, you'll likely agree that there's pacing (and if you haven't, and don't mind reading Ranma fics, I'd recommend it).  Her War has plenty of angst and brainwashing, but it isn't just scene after scene of it.

Wow, thanks for the warning. I was just thinking about finally reading that. Glad I don't have to now. O_o;

[Jason_Miao]

Wow, thanks for the warning. I was just thinking about finally reading that. Glad I don't have to now. O_o;

Mind you, I picked Her War as a contrast with Haigeki for a reason.  Usually, when you see a description like that for an manga/anime-based story, you'd expect something that's either most shock (e.g OMG!  Rape!) or some cheap hentai-manga plot knockoff (description: humor + tentacles), and it is not like either of those at all.  I think it's a pretty good read, overall.

But it is what it is.  If there's a story about something that happens in the settings of WW2 Nanking or the Holocaust, then terrible things are going to happen in the course of the story.  If you aren't inclined to read a story of that sort, then you probably shouldn't read this one.

[Anastasia]

Read Hill of Swords tonight. With a disclaimer that I'm not familiar with the FoZ, I give it about 6/10.

[spoiler]

It was an interesting fic, but one that I felt was hobbled by the a few choices the author made. I don't really enjoy Shiro still worshiping Saber and would have preferred an entirely different tack there. Okay yeah, I'm all for loyalty, but this didn't do much for me. The author's notes at the end said he was planning to write a Saber/Shiro fic while I was more interested in the FoZ relationships.

Hated the epilogue for reasons more or less connected to that. The bit about Shiro's child was completely a cop out, too. At least sack up and answer it, the whole snicker/laugh/I'm not telling routine isn't the least bit interesting or endearing.

Then again, I'm not familiar with FoZ, plus I'm not a big Fate fan (and not a huge Saber fan either, though I like her on the whole), so maybe my opinion is completely borked here.

[alethiophile]

I also felt that Shiro's continued fixation on Saber was the weakest element in that fic. The first time I read it the whole epilogue kind of squicked me out, like most together-in-death sort of resolutions; then I realized that according to Nasuverse canon, Shiro and Saber do actually get an afterlife together, which helped somewhat. Of course, I'm a huge fanboy of everything that guy ever wrote, so my assessment is likely overgenerous on an objective level.

That was also my intro to ZnT, and it did a good job of hooking me on the universe. Now I'm kind of leery of reading the canon; abusive-mostly-tsun female lead and extreme-doormat male lead isn't a dynamic I'm too happy about.