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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.
