kintsugi
the warmth of summer in the songs you write
- Joined
- May 9, 2013
- Messages
- 1,971
- Reaction score
- 1,064
ohhhhh man. the meme, the myth, the legend. spoilering the rest of this review just in case.
I wish I could've offered you the reader experience of not knowing what this reveal was going to be and/or not expecting it, so I could provide better context for how believable it is. Without the benefit of being blind, I really can't say, but I think it worked. The callbacks you have about all the strange shit, and the general structure of how En's backstory got coaxed out, make it clear that this was intended from the start. There's enough finer details -- the fixation on Enmity, Ribbon's unease, and even the ones I didn't notice like Haley's hair color -- that this all fits together in hindsight. I wish I could help you more as far as telling you how it would've fit together in foresight.
but anyway. This is a fic that was a pleasure to read from finish (oop) to start to finish. I think a lot of the details that I worked through in my big-boi review for letters 5-26 hold here, so I don't want to bore you with repeating, but now that everything's come together it's nice to see how well you crafted your details and your characters to matter. I thouroughly enjoyed reading. I wish I had more to say.
On closing thoughts: I have a rough time trying to compile my thoughts on this fic, which is somewhat of a first for me and reviewing lol. I think for the most part it's just hollowness: I wanted a happy ending for these fucks and this is bittersweet, and I know ultimately in the framework you presented this was the only real solution for them but I still wanted them to get something better. Enmity's letter is a whole bunch of foregone conclusions and sad things given voice, and it works, but goddamn does it feel like a gut punch going through it the first time. Mark is dead indeed.
This is the one bit I don't get -- I imagine the psuedonym is mentioned just so that guards don't wonder why Mark is writing to Mark, but are we also supposed to think that Mark is one of the characters we've seen throughout the story? Is he Kenneth?? Ribbons????Mark adopted a pseudonym, for a while. He wrote to me. Much like you. Too afraid to approach anywhere near Lumiose, then Laverre once I transferred there. And I? I was incapable of leaving the prison freely like I can now, thanks to my unevolved form.
oop. first typo I've caught from you in a while loluntil my competency hearing came and weight
This is a really interesting take on pokeballs that I haven't seen before and I like the originality. I think it has some weird implications though? I think some of them are intentional/in-line with your fic, so I'm mostly trying to digest it more clearly -- "will to live" implies severe inhumane problems with catching pokemon, but Markus casually lets his pokemon rot and Haley's reaction is a "oh no, that's so sad" instead of what I would've expected, so it looks like this is standard? I dunno, I think I'm reading too far into it, but like with the change to the Xerneas mythos I'm interested to see if this was an intentional darkening as well.
me in chapter five: oh yeah this was probably just a throwaway line and I bet it's not going to develop into a commentary on how the pokemon-human master-trainer dynamic is actually horrificStill, it would mean that Donmel is capable of the same, and that he’s failed to help his pokémon reach that potential in favor of neglect.
but anyway. This is a fic that was a pleasure to read from finish (oop) to start to finish. I think a lot of the details that I worked through in my big-boi review for letters 5-26 hold here, so I don't want to bore you with repeating, but now that everything's come together it's nice to see how well you crafted your details and your characters to matter. I thouroughly enjoyed reading. I wish I had more to say.
On closing thoughts: I have a rough time trying to compile my thoughts on this fic, which is somewhat of a first for me and reviewing lol. I think for the most part it's just hollowness: I wanted a happy ending for these fucks and this is bittersweet, and I know ultimately in the framework you presented this was the only real solution for them but I still wanted them to get something better. Enmity's letter is a whole bunch of foregone conclusions and sad things given voice, and it works, but goddamn does it feel like a gut punch going through it the first time. Mark is dead indeed.