Secret Santa Contest (2018) Voting and Judging

[Kirby]

The rules remain the same, as usual:

Any member of BL can vote and participate in judging, even if you didn't write anything. If you vote for your own fic (as in, the one you wrote), that vote won't count and will go wasted.

Each voter gets up to three (3) votes, that works by ranking your top 3 fics. Your top fic gets 3 points, your second-place fic gets 2 points, your third-place gets 1 point. Of course, if you don't have a top 3, you don't have to vote for three fics. In the end, all the points are tallied up and whichever fic has the most points is the winner. To vote, post the votes and rankings in this thread.

Voting closes in a little over a week, 1/5. You can also post your reviews in this thread, but it's not required to do so here.

Entries link

[Rafflesiac]

3 pts: Death Parade - Flat is precious. I like how his genuineness and his talent draws out good from otherwise fairly amoral people. The casino ambiance is well-done, and I like the perspective on vampires that informs Van-Fem's character. Is Svelten canonically stated to be a hoary Flying Dutchman? It's a neat take I haven't heard of before. Please finish this.
2 pts: Whittling - Nice references. Also, it comes together well in a way that caught me by surprise, not by its occurrence but rather that it happened right then and right there. Like a well-done jump scare in a horror movie, or a eureka moment when you solve a mystery/pick up on some foreshadowing. I feel bad for Kay and his inability to give his little sister rest.
1 pt: Incurable Poison - I really need to reread Tsukihime so I can get more out of this. At any rate, it felt nostalgic, even though I've never read Kagetsu Tohya. I enjoyed it.

Unnecessarily Long Title: I understood that reference.
Kara-Kara: It didn't grab me, but I don't think you expected it to, unfinished as it is.
Deliberately Short: Nice meme.

[SpoonyViking]

Deliberately Short: Nice meme.

Comedy is hard.

[SpoonyViking]

Let's vote!

2 points to Wonderwall
2 points to Death Parade
2 points to Kara Kara

My reviews:

Wonderwall: I did not expect it, but it was a delight to read! That said, Rin's appearance felt dangling; I think I'd have preferred it if you had either cut her or integrated her better into the story.

Whittling: I liked a lot of things about this fic, from the characters and their circumstances to the story's more introspective tone. This would have been one of the entries I voted for on the strength of Kay's character alone. Unfortunately, the writing needed some refinement, it felt stiff and overly-descriptive at times (and sometimes it showed some mistakes; for instance, why would Harun be sad he "yearned for the days before the 'False Crusaders' attacked"?), which marred an otherwise pleasant experience. If it were possible to give points to a fourth entry, I would have, but alas, I can't.

Incurable Poison: It starts out funny, and I liked the back-and-forth between Arihiko and Nanako throughout the fic (aside: I have read Kagetsu Tohya, but I admit I didn't remember Arihiko had named her Nanako). What hurts it is the transition from comedy to something more dramatic at the end, which felt both jarring and not strong enough. I think what hurt it the most is that the viewpoint character, Arihiko, becomes simply a passive observer, so the story has no strong emotional response for the reader anymore. Also, I can't claim to be an expert on her or anything, but something about Arcueid's characterisation feels a bit off.

Death Parade and Kara Kara: I basically have the same opinion about both fics: they both have excellent writing! Unfortunately, being incomplete means they're both, ultimately, unfulfilling, but I'm looking forward to when they're finished.

[Leftovers]

It's a neat take I haven't heard of before.

Death Parade has and will continue to take substantial inspiration from the trailblazing classic that is Watery Grave.

[Leftovers]

Ah yes, votes.

3 to Incurable Poison for forcefully induced nostalgia, interactions brisk as ever, and an adorable Nanako. Could've been more fleshed out, could've developed more patiently, but what is there is already satisfying.

2 to Whittling because Kay is the most interesting of the tabledudes by far. Same comments as above apply, with the reservation that some of the FGO background may have eluded me (Kay is opposing Sabre Lion who has already appeared and told the tabledudes to decide if they would join her or not, except the ones occupying Jerusalem are the False Crusaders, and Kay the teller of tall tales was the one masquerading as Richard and he mustered his "army" to fight her, so did Kay appear independently before Sabre Lion and the rest of the tabledudes did? Maybe I should go reread.).

1 to Wonderwall because if you cobble that many memes together one of them is bound to make me laugh.

Capslock, manic meta sketches went out of style about ten years ago.

Kara Kara, I wait warmly.

Flakeboys, same but lukewarmly.

[Rafflesiac]

Death Parade has and will continue to take substantial inspiration from the trailblazing classic that is Watery Grave.

o7

[SpoonyViking]

Capslock, manic meta sketches went out of style about ten years ago.

The prompter wanted "Hot Fuzz", I tried to give them "Hot Fuzz". :-)

[ItsaRandomUsername]

yo yo yiggity yo, it's time for some dope reviews

(sorry for the delay, meant to do this waaaaaaaaay sooner)


Three Months Ago In A Teeny-Ass Room Many Miles Away, There Was An Idea, To Bring Together A Remarkable Set of Prompts, To Write The Stories That No One Else Could. But When The Writer Needed Time Management Skills The Most, They Vanished; Three Months Later, A New Prompt Was Selected. While The Reference Book Checked Out For The Old Prompt Is Unfinished And The Odds Of Winning The Contest Are Zero, I Believe That This Writer Can Save His Battered, Pathetic Face. Anyways, Here's Wonderwall.:
In Which the Title of the Fanfic is Longer than the Review itself. I was pretty bummed that my pool didn't get written, but this story's existence and the sheer amount of fun it has was more than enough to make me smile and whisk away the sting. BTW I got those references. Thanks for existing!

Whittling:
A short work about Kay interacting with the human elements of a singularity, and how that tempers his resolve to stand against the Lion King. I like how they aren't all potrayed in an unambigiously positive light, and yet it's because of those human imperfections that would suggest that said imperfect human element is worth preserving, or nurturing for the future. Aside from that, the true meat of the story is Kay's relationship with Artoria and how that shapes his stance towards her Goddess Rhongomyniad-self, which rang with a genuine feel. Also, you really stuck that Dad Joke pun with Sub/Add, so a gold star for you.

Incurable Poison:
A cocktail of nostalgia, ambiguity, and contradiction. Can't have the laughing mask w/out the sad one, or sweet and sour sauce w/out either the sweet or the sour. The biggest ruse was thinking that Arihiko was the protagonist when the protagonist was actually Nanako??? Eleventh Night of Dream, a weaponized Senpai wielded by another weaponized Senpai having a confrontation with a weaponized vampire fairy princess. Crisp dialogue, pretty fun, it was a close call but I gotta hand the point to Whittling, it did a little more with a little less. You get points in my heart, though.

Death Parade:
It was a brilliant and creative play to marry the prompt with one of Flat's many-mentioned and colorful never-seen background adventures. The content, coupled with the Very Good wordweaving and narrative control made this not only the most interesting premise of the 'fics, but also one of the most interesting to actually read, make this one deserve top billing, Eye Em Oh. Even in its incomplete state it doesn't feel like it's wanting--it feels like a cliffhanger.

Kara Kara:
There is a lyrical quality to the writing, albeit one confounded by the obtuse size of the paragraphs that definitely made me work for the meat of the story. To each their own.

A DELIBERATELY SHORT THREE-ACT, FIVE-CENT TRAGEDY OF COMEDY:
I had a few chuckles here and there, so I'll give you credit where credit's due. Nice and bite-sized, but not the comic darling of the contest.


tl;dr
3 Points: Death Parade
2 Points: Three Months Etc. Etc.
1 Point: Whittling

- - - Updated - - -

Actual GGWP to the writers, and a sardonic, yet hopeful, ggwp to the Wall of Shamers. Best of luck to all ya!

[Leftovers]

Thread moved to Fanfics because no one actually browses Events and Gatherings.

　

[You]

3: Incurable Poison
2: Death Parade
1: Eurobeat

[SpoonyViking]

People keep mentioning Wonderwall's references. What references? What did I miss?

[ItsaRandomUsername]

You had to be there.

[TwilightsCall]

I didn't write anything for the contest this time, so least I can do is throw an extra six points into the ring.

3 Points - Whittling
2 Points - Death Parade
1 Point - Incurable Poison


I normally try to write at least a short review for at least the top three picks I make, but I'm having difficulty finding enough that's worth saying about each of the fics, besides boring stuff like "It was interesting" or "better than the others". I can at least say that I don't get the titles for like any of them. I mean, I guess Kay whittles stuff? I don't feel like that related to the story in any way though. There was something sort of death parade-y in the second one, but I feel like we didn't actually get to see it, so I'm not really sure why it was the title. Incurable poison...I mean okay, I guess there is supposed to be a parallel between Nanako's curse and poison? I don't know, I feel like I'm missing something with basically all of them at this point. Didn't really affect my scoring though.

The other thing I can say is that none of them struck me as easily better than the others. I waffled quite a while on which should get first and second place, but in the end I went for Whittling as it had an actually self-contained story. Death Parade probably would have come out on top if it had reached an actual conclusion of some sort. Incurable Poison was alright, but I feel like Arcueid's involvement wasn't really properly explained or justified, and too much of the story revolved around that to be overlooked.

The Narbareck story's author demonstrated a clear and commendable talent, but there isn't enough story there to warrant points.

And a special mention to the Ciel fic at the end for giving me an idea for a fic, even though it seemed the author decided to skip writing the actual story part of their story.

[SpoonyViking]

Ouch.

[Prix with a Silent X]

Voting because why not even though I only understood, at best, half the context of any of the entries. I beta'd one of them, but I have done my best to view them objectively.

[3 Points] - Death Parade - If it's Tsukihime, why is Flat in it? I don't really know or understand. I read Tsuki no Sango one time, and that was as close as I got to Dead Apostles in my canon familiarity. However, I really liked the overall tone of this, and it seemed skillfully written even when I didn't get it. It was compelling, clearly took a while, and it was cool.

[2 Points] Whittling - The one I helped beta. I really love the atmosphere in it, and I enjoy the details of the characterization of the barkeep. I feel like there is a lot of genuine emotional carriage in it, both for things I understood and didn't understand in terms of their context. Since it was Fate-related, at least, it felt more like home to me. I'll admit that when I was reading it I forgot the different between Kay and Galahad, mythologically, for the first little bit and was really confused about characterization - then I realized, and all was well.

[1 Point] Kara Kara - Admittedly doesn't feel like a finished product but feels like some kind of log or epistolary fiction along the lines of Dracula but less boring to me than when I read Dracula in high school. Interested in what is there. It carried weight.

[Dullahan]

all my points to death parade since - though i don't care for flat escargot - it fulfilled my prompt

[Prix with a Silent X]

The story certainly wasn't hurt for having a sympathetic child character in it, and I think it is commendable to use someone canon rather than OC. Not sure what the call the mention not caring for a character included was.

[Leftovers]

The writer had a preexisting fic idea that aligned with the prompt and asked the prompter if they could bend the prompt's requirement of No Fate, which the prompter graciously allowed. The writer nevertheless wanted/s to write something to the prompter's liking, which the final version will strive to become.

[Prix with a Silent X]

Are you referring to yourself in third person?