Reviews: The Weird and the Wonderful
When they put it that way, I can almost see the resemblance. Stereotypical broody and angsty hero with a love triangle. 😹😹
I have to give a shout out to a reviewer on FFN called Dark Angelx1992 for giving some really nice, detailed reviews, including the criticisms of what I have so far. I won't post them all here, but they're on chapters 5, 8, 12, 16, and 17.
Luckily, most of my reviews are positive and rather detailed. You get the rare snater, as you do, but the constructive ones are kind and helpful when they occur.
There is one user on FFnet (now following my story on AO3) who comments on every single chapter I publish, from my first fic to my current WIP sequel (since 2020! =O)...but it's not just comments. It's a whole damn essay. But they've all been positive - from what they loved about the chapter, and favorite quotes/scenes, to my characterisations, and theories surrounding my plots.
I remember one of those being - and I kid you not - just over 1K words.
Admittedly I'm a terrible reviewer - I try to make an effort and leave a comment, even if it's something as simple as 'I love this!' or 'Great chapter/well done!'. But I hope to be better in doing that one day.
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roguevenus left the following comment on Obscura Nox Animae:
I’ve never been so bewitched by a story before. I read this in less than two days. I was captivated the entire way. You have such a way with words, the way you tell stories is so powerful. Thank you for sharing your talent with the world.
Chapter 4, and this person on Ao3 has developed such powers of foresight that they've somehow predicted the next 24 chapters perfectly, how there's absolutely no character development or reasoning as to why certain characters behave the way they do, nor any context for what Severus is talking about. I haven't been this impressed by someone's deductive or reading comprehension skills for a very long time.
Rezelle on Chapter 4Tue19Dec2023 05:19PMUTC
Well. This was... something.Lily is a vapid bitch, Remus is a two-dimensional chocolate feind prop, Severus is overly self-castigating and refuses to be proactive.
This was the chapter where I gave up on this fic. If I wanted to read about an ineffectual timewaster character who was basically Horatio Hornblower, I'd read the actual Hornblower books.
The early parts of this don't seem to have a plot besides "shit on Snape as much as possible, because." The alluded-to rape of Mary feels less like a plot point and more like a fridged female character so the audience knows mulciber is bad.
I'm finding it really hard to understand how severus is in any way responsible for mulciber's actions, Especially when considering the great pains you seem to be taking to make James, Sirius, Remus, and Peter absolutely blameless angels for attempted murder and accessories to attempted murder.
But hey the little attempted murder group *doesn't use dark magic* so I guess attempting to take another student's life *for a laugh* is handwaved.
I really can't find it realistic that severus would go to dumbledore after dumbledore has treated him like a kicked dog that he will kick again and again to get the results he wants, regardless of how much it hurts and breaks severus.
Basically, these don't feel like the book characters. These feel like one-dimensional props that you have wallpapered over the existing book characters so you can tell this self-flagillation narrative.
I am thoroughly weirded out. The prose and technical writing is solid, but the plot and actual character actions here are skeezy as hell. That this seems to be author handwaved to force the narrative in the direction you want to go because reasons just makes it worse.
/s
I'm honestly impressed by this person's effort put into such a lengthy comment. I have commented many shorter comments on different chapters stating how much I like something about the story so far and sometimes mentioning the things I didn't like but I don't remember ever writing such a long comment especially filled with so much vitriol.
I learned in my teens that I should read a book at the very least half through prior to dropping it to see if I can spot something that makes it worth reading, apparently this person hasn't come to that realization yet. There's also always the option of closing the tab.
"feind, fridged, self-flagillation"
I love it when people go out of their way to sound pretentious, yet can't even spell basic words. This one also doesn't seem to understand concepts like nuance or plot development, so yeah... I wouldn't take anything they have to say too seriously.
Yeah, I posted it here as "weird" because of how bizarre it is. It's like "The Room" of comments, except "The Room" made coherent sense. Although, "fridged" is being used correctly for the Mary section, but the problem is that it isn't true (which makes sense, given how little sense this comment makes). I think the only part that genuinely confuses me is the Hornblower one; I haven't watched the TV series recently, but I'm almost sure this is nothing like Hornblower.
Maybe I am trying to be the devil's advocate but it's not complete hogwash. Different people have different tastes, though they should be mindful of the tags mentioned by the author before getting too invested in the story. Personally, I just don't like to be a negative Nancy and comment on stories even if there are certain parts that I dislike in the story. As for stories that I don't like but still actively chose to read, I avoid commenting in the first place.
As for Gestaltation, I read it on FFN so there weren't many tags present unless I am not remembering it correctly and missed them at the start of every chapter itself. It's certainly an acquired taste, for me at the very least. At start, I was confused but then really got into it. The whole fiasco with Dumbledic-ore was well, questionable for sure. Because, I had read so many stories where Severus would tell everyone and their mum about his future life and wished he would keep the knowledge to himself. Though, I managed to read it all the way until the latest chapters and am now eagerly waiting for the next update, whenever it may be. I wonder how it would all end.
I sometimes use fancy words too, despite not being that fluent or well versed in English so maybe that person isn't a native speaker. Though I am not sure if that person meant frigid, because in my limited understanding that doesn't correlate with the Mary situation either. Or that they meant fridged to describe the coldness? or iciness of the situation.
On an unrelated note, sometimes the writing is on the wall and your sixth sense tells you where the story will go. Ultimately, it's rather pointless to whine about it because you won't be changing the mind of the author. The author has most likely planned the story in advance and they're going to stick to it. Unless they've actively planned on making polls about choices and how certain events will go.
