Fanfiction Recs

[Der Geist]

While we are at it, I only feel it's appropriate to point out some of the latest contributions from our very own Draconic, the now complete Letters from Tohsaka and its follow-up, Fate: Chaos Spiral.

Letters can be found here:

https://www.fanfiction.net/s/1280186...s-from-Tohsaka

Chaos Spiral begins here:

https://www.fanfiction.net/s/1304069...e-Chaos-Spiral

Drac, seriously, you should advertise here more. This is Good Stuff^TM (Letters is probably one of my recent favorites, I especially liked the way you handled its gradual world/character building) hence you get my +1 on both counts.

[Draconic]

Thank you! I’m really happy to hear that people appreciate Letters From Tohsaka. I’m really proud of that one. I’m less so of Chaos Spiral. I might restart that at some point, but I started that with far too vague an idea of where I was going. Too many incompatible places that I wanted to go with that, and I’ve lost interest in most of the plots except Atalanta’s and Tamamo’s. Even Shirou, Rin and Saber, who I started the story to write about, ended up not having any interesting conflicts directly available to them.

[SirGauoftheSquareTable]

I'm actually taking some plot points from Letters for my own fic, so thanks for that, Draconic.

- - - Updated - - -

Thank you! I’m really happy to hear that people appreciate Letters From Tohsaka. I’m really proud of that one. I’m less so of Chaos Spiral. I might restart that at some point, but I started that with far too vague an idea of where I was going. Too many incompatible places that I wanted to go with that, and I’ve lost interest in most of the plots except Atalanta’s and Tamamo’s. Even Shirou, Rin and Saber, who I started the story to write about, ended up not having any interesting conflicts directly available to them.

Chaos Spiral did get a bit disorganized and all over the place.

[Imperial]

And Hell Followed with Them has really impressed me.

I'm still in the early going, but I love everything it is doing so far. I've never touched FGO, so I can't speak to how valid Big Daddy Hassan's characterization is, but he has been a real treat in his interactions with Shirou. I also like the author has introduced a bunch of changes that seem to stem from the same initial point of divergence instead of throwing in new stuff left and right just because it sounded cool.

This story is doing everything right. Thanks for namedropping it.

[warellis]

And Hell Followed with Them has really impressed me.

I'm still in the early going, but I love everything it is doing so far. I've never touched FGO, so I can't speak to how valid Big Daddy Hassan's characterization is, but he has been a real treat in his interactions with Shirou. I also like the author has introduced a bunch of changes that seem to stem from the same initial point of divergence instead of throwing in new stuff left and right just because it sounded cool.

This story is doing everything right. Thanks for namedropping it.

Been reading through it myself and am enjoying Shirou & Daddy Hassan's interactions. Though somehow I feel Shirou here feels a bit less competent compared to canon.

Though I'm probably wrong in that regard.

Also the cursing and such Rin is doing feels kind of off for her.

[Der Geist]

Regarding Alea Iacta Est, here's a new chapter - we're currently on no. 14.
It feels like much needed decompression after the big rush from the previous one, and in preparation towards the next arc (which, I assume, should take us back to London).

High points:
- The beginning with Rin, we see her starting to move on after the catastrophic encounter with Sakura in Chapter 13. Tohsaka doesn't grind to a halt to mope - while we can feel her distress, even more so after the unsettling, impromptu discovery once she wakes up, she is on her feet and thinking, and she has her priorities straight (first order of business, finding Shirou).
- A much needed bit of comic relief to diffuse tension, with Shirou's perils in Luvia's tent.
- Touko's choice (and preference) of music makes sense in context and with her supposed age. Nice touch (it's probably going to be one of the few things she might agree with Aoko...)
- The breakfast scene, with Luvia spilling out the details for Shirou, showing the strain she's also been enduring for the sake of family ties. How she makes it apparent that the situation is further complicated by politics: both those related to bloodlines (getting the Edelfeldt to agree on accepting Sakura while trying not to get Rin caught in the crossfire) and the Clock Tower, given the weight Touko can throw around for her apprentice (and to further her own interests).

And a question:

- Shouldn't Touko be a bit more concerned about the potential consequences of trying out ancient magic?... (though I get her point of view, and in the Nasuverse putting your own perspective on things has interesting effects). Or maybe we're going to see the fallout once the gang's back in London.

Also, as a bonus, the reference to a certain Avenger of ours (which doubles as a handy-dandy explanation about Roa not being running around).

All in all, a solid chapter that provides a set-up and advances the characters' development in preparation for the next segment.

[warellis]

And Hell Followed with Them has really impressed me.

I'm still in the early going, but I love everything it is doing so far. I've never touched FGO, so I can't speak to how valid Big Daddy Hassan's characterization is, but he has been a real treat in his interactions with Shirou. I also like the author has introduced a bunch of changes that seem to stem from the same initial point of divergence instead of throwing in new stuff left and right just because it sounded cool.

This story is doing everything right. Thanks for namedropping it.

It's been getting savaged hard on SB, after I showed it to them:

The way it's written feels ridiculously off, for everyone.

It isn't just Rin. Shirou doesn't feel or read like Shirou, neither does Archer. Randomly jumping to chapter 2 or 3 and reading his dialogue and you would never guess it was Archer if it weren't for the fact that the narration tells you that yes, it is indeed Archer.


I will also admit that I just straight up find King Hassan boring, and the premise of chapter 1 reading like "he dumpstered Gil in the final fight of Zero in this cool, casual manner guys" feels like the author is one of those guys that overrate the shit out of him, which doesn't give me high hopes for what the rest of the story will be later on.

He beat Gil? ahahahahaha.

Otherwise yeah I don't see how he'd be all that much fun in F/SN.

King Hassan really just your regular ass Unga Bunga Saber/Berserker doing Unga Bunga stuff

While using "thou" and such, and not shittalking and screaming endlessly like a juggernaut


And occasionaly disappearing


So kinda more boring actually. Or rather "very difficult to make it fun". And since most writers have the skill of a wallnut, that translates into boring.

Change of plans, Rin. We need to leave. We can't go into that blind." He gestured at the bounded field before them. "Whatever that is in there, it's on a completely different level from Lancer."

It feels so awful to be right.

Well aside from the fact we're treading over more HGW stuff and that's sinfully boring, I'll give credit and say it seems to divert from canon eventually.

Skimmed the first half and skipped to the most recent chapter. Already I'm not too big a fan of the beginning, Gilgamesh, while he's a huge dick and arrogant beyond saving, does acknowledge people he deems worthy and going down like he did felt pretty lame. F/Z seems to occur pretty much the same way despite Hassan beyond Gil dying and setting up a future plot (or so it seems according to the most recent chapter). The fire still happens, Shirou still gets saved (somehow? Avalon?) and adopted by Kiri, Shirou still gets shit all training wise and ideals. Yet somehow he still summons Hassan for reasons. Cool, fine, we can hand wave that for the sake of plot, except the author just treats him as the instawin button. He's restricted because Shirou's garbage, but apparently can go all out except Shirou pretty much dies during those times. What's the fun here? Getting Hassan to shit talk everybody? Shirou's also apparently more afraid of pain than potentially having Archer, Rin, and himself dying despite throwing himself into the stupidest amount of situations in the VN despite the pain to save people (c'mon he got bisected night one).


Seems like a setup akin to HF trying to force Shirou into a HGW w/o a servant, but without any additional help towards his own magic this time and a safety net. So far not much has happened though. Like I'm more interested in the fact Medb and Cu will interact together than Hassan. To top all of this off, the author plans on 5 arcs, with the first one still ongoing after 16 chapters. Their writing doesn't give me high hopes to be able to conclusively wrap together that many plot elements together for 4 more arcs after this.

Yeaaah, I'm going to be real and say that after seeing Shirou, Rin and Archer, I am not inclined to wanting to see how the autor handles the Cú/Medb stuff.

Those two aren't like, incredibly hard to get right? In regards to how they generally act, but the issue is that if the author does go into inner character stuff, the bar jumps considerably, and the dynamic and baggage in their relationship is uh.


Basically, the difficulty goes from "have you read SN and GO" to "have you read SN, GO, interludes and hollow ataraxia"?

Bitch please, you love being right.

Especially at the expense of others

Look, I just like consistency in character voice and actions. If you can manage that and make things interesting or cool, I'll totally waive misses you have with mechanics or stretch my SoD unless they are really friggin' glaring issues of "no, this doesn't work like that at all, the very premise here is flawed from the outset".


The issue is that, well, I don't even have that here.


Gil's sendoff already feels unearned, it's just the obligatory "let's hype King Hassan up" scene, and I will give the author that he at least makes the religious nutjob part of King Hassan and his voice feel consistent with how he is generally.


But the main issue of King Hassan is that, well, making him "sound" right isn't hard, because he has very little to work with since his appearances are very limited and he is very "in your face" about the whole Big Bad Assassin Spooky Man. He can have stuff if you look real deep at his My Room lines? But until he gets more exposure (if he ever does), it is largely just a drop in an ocean, even compared to other GO originals because said originals either have extra interludes or just do more in the chapters they are intro'd in, or just have connections with other characters that reinforce them instead of being the boogeyman that scares other Hassans and "give me your head because X" where "X is why you have deviated from the path of righteousness or why the answer you chose was flawed."


He has some stuff going on, but he largely serves the role of facilitating the path the protagonists have to take and reinforcing the other Hassans with their relationship and the whole "give me your head" rather than the opposite, or cases like Bryn and Sigurd that reinforce each other.


Jump a chapter later and you start seeing the issues with inconsistencies with the characters that do have a background of like fifteen years and two actual full-length VNs and assorted spinoffs to go with it.


King Hassan just isn't a very good protagonist Servant, and he very definitely can't carry a story on his own when everyone else sounds off.

[Leftovers]

I do wonder sometimes if the recommendation thread in spessbattles ever does anything other than link bad fanfiction for people to point out how bad they are for internet likes.

[warellis]

I do wonder sometimes if the recommendation thread in spessbattles ever does anything other than link bad fanfiction for people to point out how bad they are for internet likes.

Honestly it's a discussion thread as well.

I was a little surprised about the issues they were finding, though in retrospect I was having issues with Rin and Shirou's characterization.

For example, Rin felt more...assholish I guess I could say, than in canon.

I had assumed since people here were finding it good that that was a sign of the fic's quality.

[SirGauoftheSquareTable]

Different communities. Also, I frankly don't particularly like the concept, so I don't think I'll read it. Same goes for probably a lot of people.

[Mattias]

Not really so different. We've done our fair share of posting terrible stories to rip apart. Like the entire thread devoted to In Flight, or the negative rec part or the old Recs thread.

[SirGauoftheSquareTable]

As an avid reader of Third Faction, I agree that you totally nail Saber. Actually, most every character has been nailed between the two of you, so kudos, and it has definitely helped me establish a framework for some of those same characters in my own writing.

[Draconic]

Oh, sorry for deleting the comment. Truth be told, TheMaster doesn’t often get the characters right. He has a lot of difficulty when it comes to characters who speak formally. However, he actually writes Rin and Shirou better than I can, and generally can craft scenes better than I do. I get caught up in dialogue extremely frequently.

[SirGauoftheSquareTable]

Interesting. If this is the case, you two make a wonderful team. And I still plan to take pointers from how you two have written Rin, Shirou, Saber, Mordred, and Kairi at least.

[The Name of Love]

Yeah, Jaenera… I've always had my differences with her. I'm a huge Sakura fan myself, but I've never really like how she's written half of the time in her stories. It doesn't feel like her, you know?

[warellis]

Yeah, Jaenera… I've always had my differences with her. I'm a huge Sakura fan myself, but I've never really like how she's written half of the time in her stories. It doesn't feel like her, you know?

Mostly her Sakura is very OOC and generally a means for her to bash Rin. And sometimes get Shirou.

Oh also, she's writing an NTR fic. Using AiE Sakura.

As for a fic rec, well Rodyle has written a Sekirei/FSN crossover that based itself off of the initial seeming premise of Shirou's family essentially finding him, but this time with Rin & Saber there as well: Grey Feather.

For the FSN side, it'ss specifically an Emiya Gohan timeline.

[Draconic]

Rin is actually portrayed very positively in this. Sakura is still OOC, but she's at least interesting, and far less OOC than Janaera's other pics.
Unfortunately, I'm slightly worried that she may be losing interest…
If she did, I'll be very sad. I liked the cast…

[warellis]

Rin is actually portrayed very positively in this. Sakura is still OOC, but she's at least interesting, and far less OOC than Janaera's other pics.
Unfortunately, I'm slightly worried that she may be losing interest…
If she did, I'll be very sad. I liked the cast…

I'm more wary on the NTR fic honestly. Also honestly, AiE Sakura is too much of an asshole who shits on Rin for no essentially no reason on Rin's part, for my tastes.

[Dragolord09]

Well, if people are recommending stuff here, I'll try again with this fic:

Fate Genesis By: Cybertoy00
While fighting against Dr. Eggman, Sonic and the gang are transported to Fuyuki at the beginning of the 5th Heaven's Feel. A Chaos factor like no other has been introduced to the Holy Grail War, and Masters and Servants alike find their plans blown away by a sonic boom!

It's an interesting crossover being formed here, very fun to read like a good book.

[Draconic]

Might have a look as long as it doesn't take itself too seriously.

I'm more wary on the NTR fic honestly. Also honestly, AiE Sakura is too much of an asshole who shits on Rin for no essentially no reason on Rin's part, for my tastes.

Yeah, she basically scrapped all of that and restarted from before Sakura started doing that. Now there's Lovecraftian stuff and a dead apostle hunt. Sakura's still acting pretty jaded, but she's still noticeably less hostile than in the previous rendition.