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+--- Thread: Not Really Fic Recs Alpha: Fics that make you go "hmm." (/showthread.php?tid=14210)
Not Really Fic Recs Alpha: Fics that make you go "hmm." - classicdrogn - 09-15-2021
The Name of the Game by literalsin
How to put this... it's not actually a recommendation, because the fic has approximately all the red flags, waves them proudly, and does its best to live up the their philosophical ideals, and yet it somehow kept me going past all the roll-your-eyes-and-scroll-the-page moments through thirty four chapters and ... holy fuck, 688,855 words!? And it only barely gets MC past canon's trailers and backstory into early episodes. Crikey.
Right, so, those red flags. They start strong right out of the gate with the premise being a RWBY/The Gamer/pornworld fusion Jaune In Name Only harem SI, where the sibling fetish is so all encompassing that literally the only ones who (apparently) aren't banging or pining are Qrow and Raven, with a possible exception for Winter due to only appearing in another character's flashback to Atlas' Specialist program training, which is deep into the Nazi Science long grass of mustache twirling evil complete with super-soldier experiments and Dust and drug assisted brainwashing from day one, with removing all previous emotional ties as an explicit goal. Also, out of eight of canon's female antagonists I can think of off the top of my head, three are core members of the waifu squad and one is headed that way if she lives, after being seduced for infiltration purposes.
On the other hand, one early love interest who gets ignored too long calls JINO out on it, breaks up with him, and finds another relationship, which was stable the last I remember seeing it, and is treated IC and in narration as justified and in the right to do so, if overly complacent to a related spy-subplot threat. Leaving the waifus behind to go fight the big bad for their own safety is likewise called out and accepted as having been arrogant and disrespectful and the direct cause of nearly getting killed and not-quite-apocalyptically botching the quest.
Next is the author's tendency to toss in RL politics every two or three chapters, starting at right wing and making bold attempts at achieving incel cuckoolander status, though the affection and tenderness displayed to the waifu squad (who are actually decently believable individuals with their own wants and quirks, not a list of names and haremette tropes) and sincere-at-the-IC-level attempts to just have some female characters be friends leave it falling short of that ... lofty goal ... in practice. The closest I got to dropping the fic was a visit to a Schnee company town where dose happy Faunus singin' in de mines ran off the party with a crowd throwing tomatoes and cabbages followed by rocks, for daring to come and try to offer white- human-folk jobs in de big city, which I am blatantly, shamelessly spoiling as the "savvy" characters (meaning everyone there but Blake) and the narration all treat this as if it was the only expected result. Not phrased so blatantly, and with the justification provided being semi-plausible in context, but considered without narrative immersion that may just make it all the worse after the fact. Honestly, the only good thing about that part is confirming that I still find right-wing stuff as cringey as left-wing stuff, when hanging out on mostly left-leaning sites and getting annoyed by their enthusiasm had me worrying about drifting too far right out of contrariness.
A Penny copy is a literal bind-on-equip Epic Loot quest reward, but JINO assures her that she's her own person who can do what she wants right after equipping her to a pet system slot. (Again, though, IC she gets treated very humanely and like a real member of the team, and not even waifu'd into the harem, though there is some non-sexytimes daughteru going on.)
It's a Gamer fic, so threat escalation is less a matter of power creep and more a power turbolift ride, with frequent soliloquizing about quests, skills, stats, and how quickly they're engorging his clout and/or the best ways to make them bigger faster, with a mysteriously all-encompassing and occasionally directly responsive System driving it all. Inventory based quick-change disguises enable over-complicated multiple identity shenanigans, while Instant Dungeons trivialize a lot of theft and item duping with the copied area's contents. Gamer setting elements are largely absent except for the System itself, and Instant Dungeons/Illusion Barriers are for once nicely integrated into the fusion setting's lore as being the interstitial space where negative emotional energy collects to form new Grimm along with restless spirits too attached to move on. One of which also gets attached to a pet system slot, and is the subject of a long-term quest/subplot to get waifu'd.
And yet.
Despite that.
Despite all of that.
I still want to recommend it, because the technical quality of the writing is decent, the actual plot is engaging, and as long as the fictional character incest and MF/FF bisexuality doesn't squick you out, the porn is pretty hot.
I can't bring myself to do so, but I can give you a couple links, to make up your own mind about.
NSFW, obviously.
Chapter index on AO3
The FFnet version has one less chapter, but a higher word count. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
RE: Not Really Fic Recs Alpha: Fics that make you go "hmm." - batzulger - 09-15-2021
Uhhhh..okay? Are you all right? Do you need help?
RE: Not Really Fic Recs Alpha: Fics that make you go "hmm." - classicdrogn - 09-16-2021
I need more fics that I'm not just tolerating because reading them is better than boredom, I guess? Sturgeon's Law is cruel.
RE: Not Really Fic Recs Alpha: Fics that make you go "hmm." - Bob Schroeck - 09-16-2021
Oh, god, I know that feeling. It's one of the reasons I turned to writing fic.
EDIT: Note to self: Write, damn you.
RE: Not Really Fic Recs Alpha: Fics that make you go "hmm." - classicdrogn - 09-16-2021
Seriously, though. Name of the Game's plot is a really interesting positive-toned deconstruction of RWBY, and I really enjoyed it when it wasn't being used as a mouthpiece for extremist politics. Enough to almost recommend it despite that, and all the other "WTF, Hero?" aspects.
RE: Not Really Fic Recs Alpha: Fics that make you go "hmm." - VincentUrsus - 09-21-2021
I have similar feelings about the Daniel the Black series by E. William Brown (perhaps better known in these parts for his fan fiction handle ShaperV).
It's an Isekai into a setting with kitchen sink mythology. I like mythology and appreciate all the little (and not so little) references in the setting.
I also enjoy the idea that the same skills that make you a good computer programmer make you awesome at magic. He's not the first person to employ that conceit, but he does it well.
But there are more questionable parts.
There's the polygynous relationship with an unbalanced power dynamic. Well, that often comes with the male empowerment fantasies you find in the Isekai genre.
There's the strawman arguments against feminism that comes up as women join his harem.
The bit I found most painful was before our hero gets sent to the other world, there's a blink and (if you're lucky) miss it line where the narrator tells us that racism doesn't exist in contemporary America.
RE: Not Really Fic Recs Alpha: Fics that make you go "hmm." - classicdrogn - 10-18-2021
Versatile Mage has many of the failings of serialized xianxia novels - questionable translation, never using one adjective where two will fit, taking 150 chapters (however short) to really hit its stride, a cultural background that considers several traits that read as negatives in the West to be virtues and make the main character hard to really like - but I have to give it props for one thing at least, and that's lampshading and averting the "girls in refrigerators" trope in the most literal way possible, with MC's ... um... I thought she was supposed to be his sister but there seems to be some less than chaste thoughts going on? Not in a "But Anon, that's my fetish!" kind of way but like the author just forgot she was a relative and started writing her as a haremette candidate, despite calling each other "Brother" and "Sister" in the dialogue right beside it. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
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