TM Fanfics Index: Recommendations & Discussion. Updates never

[arsdraconis]

I'm just basing it on Archer's statement, honestly didn't really notice any point of connection between the two beside the two weapon being polearms until You brought up the "never miss" aspect of both weapon.

[You]

Where are you getting that Gae Bolg is descended from Gungnir?

The damage and form both come close to that of "Brionac, the Roaring Five Stars" possessed by Lugh, the Celtic God of Light, but its ability of "striking an opponent no matter how many times it is dodged" makes it closer to the chief god of Northern Europe, Odin's "Gungnir, Declaration of Great God".

remembered it wrong. Thought it was "from" rather than "close to." However,

So yeah, lol Mirror Moon I guess. The "striking an opponent no matter how many times it is dodged" is from Gungnir. Which would imply it's the original?

- - - Updated - - -

Oh hey, it was already on fuyuki.

Damage and form are approaching that of Lugh's Brionac, but the power of "striking the enemy no matter how many times he may dodge" comes from Odin's Gungnir.

feels kinda redundant opening my copy of the game now.

[arsdraconis]

Title: dul thar am
Author: infamousplot
Link: http://archiveofourown.org/works/3591474
Synopsis: A "missing scene" short about Lancer's final thoughts and the last conversation he will ever have (Fate route)
Review: I find myself being drawn to straightforward character work lately. Balls-to-the-wall action and clever premises are still fine, but those don't amount to much if you miss the essence of the characters that make us keep coming back to these stories. And infamousplot captures Lancer's essence quite nicely.

By the time we start the story, the battle is already over. Lancer is bleeding out. Saber and Shirou are long gone. Gilgamesh is insurmountable. Death is inevitable.

So it becomes a story less about a last stand and the kind of person who would make one. What does it mean to be a hero?

It's fascinating. Lancer gets dumbed down a lot to jobber or Kirei's reluctant enforcer or that kooky guy who flirts with Rin, so it's refreshing to see him played as both the paragon and the rebel that really made him one of my Type-Moon favorites. He has a noble soul, even if he doesn't share Arturia and Diarmuid's rigid sense of chivalry and spend so much time talking about it, but he's also entirely self-motivated. infamousplot strikes a wonderful balance, and it really shows through as early as the third paragraph, as Lancer muses he didn't attack Gilgamesh to buy Saber and Shirou time. He's not trying to save anyone. He's simply honoring the heroic ideal and carrying that standard (and if he gets to stick it to Kirei one last time in some small way, so much the better). It's the heroic thing to do, and so he did it. The consequences don't matter. It's the defiance of the impossible and the actions one takes, however fleeting or doomed to be just another moment in time. He knew the life of a hero would end in misery and blood -- twice now -- but he did it anyway because he embraced that lifestyle, with all of its bumps and warts, when he was still a child.

Archer doesn't even show up in the story, but it's a nice counterpoint to him and really underscores their rivalry. Archer was appalled by what heroism really meant and is mired in regret, while Lancer carries on, knowing it couldn't have gone any other way and letting it wash over him with a zen-like grace.

And while it's the Lancer show, Gilgamesh comes through nicely, too. He's imperious, haughty, condescending -- none of that watering him down so the author can make him a viable love interest for Saber or someone's BFF. He's a dick. He's always going to be a dick. But infamousplot teases at something more than a one-dimensional mongrelbot and maybe even some tenuous interest (but not any real respect, because Gilgamesh doesn't just hand that out) Gilgamesh found for Lancer at the end in what is clearly a throwback to Zero Rider.

Short version: It's Lancer done really, really well.

It's a bit too heavy on the purple prose for me to really enjoy, and frankly I just didn't find it nearly as enjoyable as Lancer's talk with Shirou in Hollow Ataraxia as far as looking in depth into his character and legend. I get that the author is trying to write a descriptive piece, unfortunately a good bit of the writing is just redundant that stop the entire thing from flowing well.

[Bloble]

+1 to dul thar am

literally lancer

[Rafflesiac]

I'll give a +1 to dul thar am.

I'll also rescind my recommendations of Like a King and It's Tanabata, and what is a Lonely Little Sister to do?; the jokes aren't funny to me anymore.

[pulsor93]

What is The Magnificence about?

[Imperial]

What is The Magnificence about?

Is it shilling if I'm the one to answer this?

It's what happens when you take a cinematic classic like Akira Kurosawa's Seven Samurai, run it through a Nasu filter and turn it into a mediocre fanfic. Instead of samurai, it's magi. Instead of bandits, it's vampires.

It's only a few chapters long right now, and it's still in the putting-the-band-together phase. While there will be some magi-on-vampire action down the road, it's deliberately styled after Seven Samurai in general structure as well as premise. SS has some tense, brutal fight scenes, but those don't show up until the movie is well under way. The first part is all about bringing the seven together and the place and time these samurai inhabit. The Magnificence isn't a period piece, and I don't claim to be able to craft my characters as well as Kurosawa. But I would like to give the readers a sense of who these people are before I throw them to the

vampires

wolves

.

[Seika]

I'll also rescind my recommendations of Like a King and It's Tanabata, and what is a Lonely Little Sister to do?; the jokes aren't funny to me anymore.

Alas, such is the fate of meme 'fics.

[Fafnir]

They were funny back then and they are funny the first time you read them, and that's enough for me.

[Kirby]

+1 to dul thar am

If there's one gripe I have about it, it's that it's written in the present tense. I mean, yeah, there are times when present tense works better than past, but personally I don't think this was one of those times.

[Seika]

If there's one gripe I have about it, it's that it's written in the present tense. I mean, yeah, there are times when present tense works better than past, but personally I don't think this was one of those times.

Time exists only for this moment

Obviously you can't just stop feeling that, but I think it works with what the author was going for.

(I admit to being an unabashed fan of present tense vignettes, though, even if I'm not ready to recommend this one).

Meanwhile, +1 to Dullahan's One Week. It's very typical Dullahan in its readiness to talk about itself, as it were, and that makes for an interesting read even as the week spirals outrageously out of control. I'm not convinced by the trip to the alternate universe, but it's otherwise a very funny, utterly absurd, and surprisingly intelligent 'fic (even if that intelligence had taken a few drugs beforehand).

[Dullahan]

Obviously you can't just stop feeling that, but I think it works with what the author was going for.

(I admit to being an unabashed fan of present tense vignettes, though, even if I'm not ready to recommend this one).

Meanwhile, +1 to Dullahan's One Week. It's very typical Dullahan in its readiness to talk about itself, as it were, and that makes for an interesting read even as the week spirals outrageously out of control. I'm not convinced by the trip to the alternate universe, but it's otherwise a very funny, utterly absurd, and surprisingly intelligent 'fic (even if that intelligence had taken a few drugs beforehand).

One Week is basically pure word-vomit...is what I'd like to say, but the truth is I do put some effort into it. Probably more than it deserves. Thank you anyways.

Also, present tense is best tense. Charles Stross' Accelerando (all present, all the time) was a big influence on me. Gearing back into past-tense for writing Kleio - for that nineteenth-century novel mood - was really tough.

[mAc Chaos]

What do you like about present tense?

[Siriel]

It lives in the moment so it's never dated.

[Arashi_Leonhart]

It lives in the moment so it's never dated.

A+ response, will read again

[mAc Chaos]

Personally I find it to work much better in conjunction with first person PoV, especially for readings where being able to preserve the mystery of the future state of the narrator would be crucial.

Also yeah, in a sense what Siriel said: you're reading something that is "happening" now, so you might be able to feel more invested.

The problem is that, at least for me, it makes reading fighting sequences a huge mess if the writer feels like being descriptive.

The FSN VN does it all in present tense but combat still feels pretty good.

[Tobias]

Hell even nasu doesn't actually show the fight and instead just gives impressions of what's going on.

I might go so far as to say you can't do a properly choreographed fight scene in present tense. Well maybe you can, but I can't.

[mAc Chaos]

Do you need to though. Impressions are enough.

[I3uster]

Just, you know, cut on the metaphors, hyperboles and similitudes.

are you uh, are you sure

[Tobias]

Do you need to though. Impressions are enough.

Iunno, impressions have their place (I mean hell, I use them myself) but sometimes you actually need to see the full exchange. If not, you don't have enough actual material to work with to get the good impression. Otherwise, at least to me, you are over relying on their imagination to shore up your innate limitation