Ehh I hated Purple Days. Endless repetition of the "purple agony" line, shitty writing, and the endless Yi Ti arc..

 

I understand where you're coming from. I wasn't fond of the Purple either, but the way the author used it to shape the story further in, well, that's something I wasn't really expecting to see. Yi Ti arc isn't all that long once you get past it, but it's that first time reading it that makes you want to just rush through, because nothing really outstanding is happening there, except for the building of Joffrey's character.

 

Random complaint about ASOIAF fanfic.

It amazes me, that with all the many possible divergence points in Canon, the rich story, etc. that authors still choose to blindly follow stations of canon.

And the same super creepy, disturbing pairings: Sansa/Tyrion, Sansa/Clegane, in the midst of otherwise not so bad fiction.

Ugh.

 

It's because they don't know how to write, not truly. To them, a divergence is a change in behavior of some character or another, knowledge of events from the future-that-may-be, maybe a switch up in pairings, but everything else follows the same line from the books because they can't reasonably put themselves into the mindsets of their characters and think how they might adapt to the altered situations at hand.

In my opinion, it's more or less because they don't really care for exploring the multitude of 'what if' that a divergence offers, so much as cram their own dream narrative into the setting, no matter how ill it might fit.

 

Pretty much this. There aren’t many true ‘single point of divergence’ pieces that really do anything original.

It tends to be “something changes” and everything else is the same, because we aren’t actually plotting.

 

First time dealing with that site? There’s an unwritten law of fanfic on AH: The bigger a thread gets the more rabid the fan base. I see nearly 2,000 replies to a 9 chapter story. That’s all I need to see know that no criticism will be accepted by either the fans nor the author.

 

No, I've been there for about 4 years, I just don't interact all that much with the people. But let's be honest, any fic might end up with a rabid fan base, regardless of quantity or quality of words contained therein. I've caught flak on SV and SB as well, though SV the least of the lot.

Anyway, tried reading that Son of Mannis fic and dear God, it's just plain terrible. Not only does the SI happen to know how to invent canons and design ships that beat all the others in the setting, but they also happen to find a super secret ancient vault built by Targaryens on Dragonstone that contains tons of gold and a veritable hoard of Valyrian steel. And they caught the attention of some deity, so he now crackles with lightning or something? I don't know, I couldn't stomach reading any further and even reaching that point was a monumental task unto itself. Reading "Yeah" being spoken in an ASOIAF fanfic is jarring as hell.

 

Can I get some fic rec's for stories told primarily from one person's POV?

"Life and Honor" and "The Black Prince" are both very much stories about their protagonists and their character arcs and only cut to a different character's perspective when it serves the main plot or to give an outsiders perspective on the main character.

Currently 15 chapters deep into Purple Days and it has the same thing as what I'm looking for, but the characters come off as more of caricatures of their canon counterparts

 

The writing gets better as you go on.

 

Honestly? After I posted the comment I started CH15 and the bit with the lemons from the last chapter carried over and i just dropped it then and there. I'll suffer through it a bit more and hope you're right.

 

Purple Days is the perfect example of a beginner writer growing to a pretty damn good one as the story goes on.

Still, there are cringe-worthy chapters here and there and the never-ending Yi-Ti arc that you can basically skip without missing much in the plot. After that it's pretty good. Though recently he's been going through a cringe-worthy phase, because it's supposed to be the last jump. He's making it a little too... eh... "Go Team Humanity!" I guess?

It's like Captain America!Joffery or something: speeches, be all you can be, look at me I'm awesome, etc. It's becoming repetitive to me and thus I'm bored.

 

He had a good thing going with the creepy ethereal Sansa shit. Should have kept with that kind of thing for the end, IMO.

But his writing is damn good at this point. The imagery is impressive.

 

It would've been predictable if I'd remembered what I was reading. I was vaguely confused until about halfway through the chapter before I recalled exactly what fic I was reading.

I've never read Purple Days. When does the writing improve?

 

I don't remember exactly when (what chapter) but when he actually starts doing something that doesn't involve instantly dying and being typical Joffery like the first dozen or so. I think it was started with the intention of being crack, but then evolved. If not then that's what it appeared to be anyway. The chapters started getting longer and more involved, with an actual method beyond, with less comedy and more seriousness.

Still, it's basically him eventually learning over each trip back, improving himself, weeding out the flaws. It's not very realistic if that's what you're shooting for.

I mean he's young, too young to be pulling off some of the physical things, but it doesn't become too noticeable in later chapters, until it nears the end. I think I tended to forget he was physically incapable of some feats by then. Or at least I hand-waved it in terms of disbelief.

 

I think he's referring to this, which I need to get back to. Or maybe this, which is a lot of shit I need to also get back to.

I wrote the damn thing as an excercise and I wouldn't recommend it to anyone, lol.

Tries indeed.

 

Purple days is some of the most unpolished shit I've ever read to conclusion.

The author doesn't even use speech marks correctly until ~Chap 20. The First few chapters are just gratuitous Joffrey Torture Porn. The moments of catharsis are so emotionally clumsy and the big reveal behind the time loops was pretty WTF as well but not in a good way. It doesn however have moments of nuanced character insight and interesting plot development which saves it for me.

 

The Prince that Didn't Come

"Arya Stark does not visit the Crossroads Inn in Season 7, and the world of ice and fire is changed forever."

-not the most groundbreaking fic, and set in the show-verse, which sucks, but it features an Arya Stark who reunites with the Starks way later than canon. Basically, an Arya who goes South before she goes North. I think Arya is well-characterized as an Arya searching for a purpose after getting her revenge on the Lannisters, the Freys, etc.

Kind of bleak, but actually pretty interested to see where this goes.

for something more light-hearted:

The Dragon and Her Wolves
Jon Snow/Dany/Sansa OTP

"When the truth of Jon's birthright is revealed, control of the North and Daenerys's claim to the Iron Throne are both called into question. To preserve their tenuous alliance and secure her rule, Daenerys puts aside her personal feelings to arrange a marriage of political convenience between Jon and Sansa Stark. Yet matters of the heart are complicated, and as they work to save the Seven Kingdoms from the Night King and Cersei Lannister, the three of them find that it isn't easy to keep their emotions in check."

 

I think Leech Lord is great, Hash. One of the few SIs I really liked. Still eagerly awaiting for the theoretically Drobb sequel.