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waltzoidIf I could describe A Brighter Dark in two words, I would choose "inherently contradictory". For every point it wants to make, the writing goes out of its way to nullify it.
The title implies that even in the darkest of times, things will always get better, but the story itself has this pervasive melancholy tone where almost everyone is angry and/or miserable, and even its few moments of levity don't do anything to lighten the mood in a world where death is always around the corner.
It wants to tell a tale where no one is the bad guy, but it spends most of its time following a protagonist whose actions regularly prove her to be more villain than hero, in spite of the narrative saying otherwise.
It wants to show a more logical and grounded side of a war between two countries, but by removing and/or ignoring large portions of lore crucial to Fire Emblem Fates' story and replacing it with the "real world" equivalents, the story ends up looking less logical in the process.
Much of my criticism of Dark's story in its first half remains true of its second half. Corrin is slightly less of a jerk but still as violent as she ever was, and ends the story (such as it is) as a clone of Garon, fully willing to commit atrocities in his name. Nohr only gets out ahead in the war because Hoshido is too busy eating itself to make significant strides to counterattack. The POV shifts get more frequent and absurd as time goes on. Sakura is still the only character I can root for.
Between its grimdark tone, wildly inconsistent voice, unrelatable lead character, and an overall message that seems to always be at odds with itself, I can't honestly find much to recommend in A Brighter Dark.
Despite my negative experience reading this story, I think there are some things that could have worked with it.
The title implies that even in the darkest of times, things will always get better, but the story itself has this pervasive melancholy tone where almost everyone is angry and/or miserable, and even its few moments of levity don't do anything to lighten the mood in a world where death is always around the corner.
It wants to tell a tale where no one is the bad guy, but it spends most of its time following a protagonist whose actions regularly prove her to be more villain than hero, in spite of the narrative saying otherwise.
It wants to show a more logical and grounded side of a war between two countries, but by removing and/or ignoring large portions of lore crucial to Fire Emblem Fates' story and replacing it with the "real world" equivalents, the story ends up looking less logical in the process.
Much of my criticism of Dark's story in its first half remains true of its second half. Corrin is slightly less of a jerk but still as violent as she ever was, and ends the story (such as it is) as a clone of Garon, fully willing to commit atrocities in his name. Nohr only gets out ahead in the war because Hoshido is too busy eating itself to make significant strides to counterattack. The POV shifts get more frequent and absurd as time goes on. Sakura is still the only character I can root for.
Between its grimdark tone, wildly inconsistent voice, unrelatable lead character, and an overall message that seems to always be at odds with itself, I can't honestly find much to recommend in A Brighter Dark.
Despite my negative experience reading this story, I think there are some things that could have worked with it.
- If Corrin is supposed to feel guilty about being a villain, let some of that guilt stick instead of brushing it aside to get to the next plot point.
- Let Hoshido win occasionally. If Nohr is supposed to be the underdog in the war, they shouldn't be able to roll over the Hoshidan army as easily as they do despite their frequently cited food and supply issues. Either that or have both sides close to even strength from the start.
- Using real-world logic is fine, but when writing a story about a video game, you still have to do research on that game to make the story more believable.
no subject
Date: 2021-08-31 01:36 pm (UTC)Sounds like the author wanted to have their cake and eat it too. Nohr is the poor downtrodden woobie, but they MUST be made to look as good and tough as possible so actually having them lose is not an option. Especially for Corringula the Bloodthirsty.
Back in 2011 there was a hot trend in FE fiction to add as much Realistic Logic as possible and it came off as incredibly pretentious and ruining the setting for the sake of the authors stroking themselves. This fic makes those look tame by comparison.
no subject
Date: 2021-08-31 01:49 pm (UTC)The story repeatedly brings up the virtues of Nohrian architecture and defensive composition, which now leads me to believe that Garon and the Nohrian kings before him have been putting all of their eggs in the wrong basket if the situation in Nohr has been allowed to deteriorate to where it is. The protagonists don't seem to have much trouble getting food and rations, though.
There's a scene early on in the story where Flora prepares a nutritionally rich but otherwise completely disgusting meal for Corrin. Given her personal feelings about the princess, I wouldn't be surprised if she was trying to poison Corrin.
And I didn't bring this up in my review because it doesn't pertain to the plot, but did you notice that of all the "fun facts" dispensed in the author's notes, almost none of them have anything to do with the story or the game?
no subject
Date: 2021-08-31 04:10 pm (UTC)If only. THAT'S something I'd demand to know every last detail about if BD were an actual canon because this version of Corrin is horrible and Flora would be well within her rights to poison her.
The "fun facts" just seem to be the author showing off their knowledge for the sake of it, or overexplaining things in the vein of JKR going OH BTW THIS THING ABOUT HARRY POTTER IS X. (There's a reason her reputation was on a downswing before her transphobia...)
no subject
Date: 2021-08-31 05:05 pm (UTC)If I had to hazard a guess, I think Nohr is actually showing off its defensive boner not for Hoshido's sake, but for the surrounding tribes whose tributes they depend on for survival. The Ice Tribe learned the hard way that Nohr expects everyone to fall in line, lest they be crushed like grapes. In Garon's mind, everyone NEEDS an iron-fisted dictator watching over them because they're too weak to fend for themselves.
And being a royal maid, she would be used to knowing how poisons work. It's the perfect cover!
Definitely the former. I'd prefer the latter, because then we'd get some insight into why Corrin is a nutcase, or why Nohr thinks trial by combat is an acceptable substitute for even the most obvious of "sham trials".
As for Rowling tapping into her inner Ishida over the past few years, maybe this is another point in A Brighter Dark's favor: the stupidity is confined to the internal politics of the BD-verse instead of external ones.