I'm astonished this thing is supposed to end in roughly 6 chapters. I guess the author got tired of writing it and wants to move on? Did he fall in love with the idea at ending it at 100? There's easily enough room for 20 chapters I felt, after finishing this last one. You can barely wrap up the conflict and write a proper epilogue in sixish chapters. He's severally underestimating the amount of crap he has to write, or we're in for a lot of heavy-handed summarizing. It makes little sense to me, since it's taken us years of build up to get to this point, so why would you just...end it so quickly. I'm hoping the author will realize there's no way six chapters is enough room to pace things correctly. Even at 60k words, which is not what I'm expecting from this author, you don't have a lot of room to work with without being very selective on descriptions.

As already stated, there are even a lot of student characters we had some development for in the story's beginning and then dropped off (let us not forget a certain animated spider girl), and it sounds like we're not going to be seeing much of them after 94. Seems like a lot of wasted writing was spent on them, I expected them to be puzzle pieces that fit into a larger resolution. There was quite a bit of world building that went underutilized, too. Unless we're going to see a sequel or another story in this universe, I can't help but prematurely cry 'wasted potential'.

 

Whilst an ending in 6 or so chapters seems unlikely (and I suspect it'll run over) I don't think it's entirely impossible for it to be. When it gets down to it the conflict between Red Robe and Z&Z won't last long really? Like put that as 2 chapters max really. 1 chapter resolving Veyers talking to them now, 1 chapter on the soul cage and 1 chapter on why Zach was timelooped and by who would be 5 in total.

Whilst I don't think the endgame should be short or unreasonably abrupt, I think dragging it on too long would be just as bad. I get the feeling he's just going to skim over some/most of his interactions with his classmates which while disappointing isn't unreasonable? They aren't the immediate concern, the Primordial is.

That said I would love to see a sequel covering what happens to Z&Z afterwards. Preferably not from their point of view and that just has them as secondary background characters as I feel their "story" would be done if that makes sense?

 

New update. Has an interesting twist, but I didn’t necessarily love it. Still curious to who Red Robe is.

 

I actually really liked the twist myself.

It answers a lot of questions I had looking back, granted a few new ones were added by SB but overall I really liked it.

I'm pretty sure at this point Red Robe is confirmed, but we could get a twist I suppose.

 

Confirmed who?

 

I really like the twist.

Spoiler

Especially how it explains Zach's behaviour we took for granted in this kind of character at the beginning, like trying to stop the invasion all alone.

Once again, as the readers, we miss a chance to meet the headmaster. Is he really not that important?

 

Oof that’s so true. With staples like Ozpin and Dumbledore it kind feels almost insulting that the headmaster isn’t someone.

 

Henry Fogg (Dean of Braekbills)?

 

Well, to some extent that is the problem with this type of writing, you can easily end up with quite a bit of stuff that in a more traditional work would hopefully be cut during editing. If you publish stuff chapter by chapter without editing the existing body as you go you are far more likely to end with a lot of characters, plots and scenes that didn't pan out or which don't really contribute a lot to the overall story.

 

hmmm, wellp the new chapter did make an interesting point

Spoiler

Soo I did posit that Jornak could be red robe (boring theory but kinda worked, soul removing veyers to stop constant interaction w/Zach)

However, the Zach is red robe might be explained that maybe both the Angels AND the Demons have a dog in the fight. Maybe the time loop had an evil Zach who managed to break into the good Zach's loops. We still don't know what the deal with the missing gods is nor have any inklings w/regards to power levels of the Angels/Demons

 

Spoiler: Red Robe theory

I maintain my theory that Red Robe is a version of Zorian from earlier in the time loop, who got a temporary mark and somehow broke the limits - meaning there were two versions of him in the time loop. We more or less know Red Robe broke a temporary mark. It is a small jump from simply extending the time limit somehow to allowing multiple version of a person. Or, hell, maybe he starts each loop as a ghost and has to possess someone. That could be how Veyers fits in - a easy target for possession, his wild magic making him uniquely vulnerable.

The strongest evidence for this theory is Red Robe's apparent mind powers. We know he messed with Zach's mind and Zorian is the only human psychic of great skill we've seen so far. Sure there could be more (and likely are at a world building level) but this is a story.

I think this works on a thematic level, too. One of the big things in Mother of Learning is Zorian's growth as a character. To start off with he is a real jerk, stewing in self-pity. But he gets better, makes friends and growths. Red Robe!Zorian would be a version who never went through that or went through it differently.

 

My main issue with that theory is how towards the middle-end of the loop whenever they encountered Red Robe he ran the fuck away because he was scared of Zorian wrecking him in the mental 1v1.

 

Spoiler

Well, with his shitty disposition before his soul-meld with Zach making him more personable, he would be less inclined to help/rescue Taiven, particularly after he was embarrassed by her laughing in his face at his crush. And even if he did, he'd be less inclined to reach out to the aranea for a number of reasons, particularly understanding the whole situation, and not grasping at straws for any possible help. Thus, less developed mind magic, more along the lines of a talented normal person.

It all kind of fits, and he's dropped hints all along about how different he is after this experience, wondering how the old him would handle situations. There are quite a few hints that make me lean in the alternate!Zorian direction.

 

Spoiler: Red Robe theory

Mmm. Jornak theory
1. Veyers proximity + already a cultist member. Allows quicker access to robe if you are already a member.
A. Access to the lich. Probably via the cultist network. The quickness that the Invaders had access to loop knowledge means there wasn't a lot of lengthy I'd check.
2. Pre-loop mind magic capability. Mind magic is fairly rare iirc. As he isn't a natural empath, his mediocre proficiency in the mines fight makes sense because vs normal mages his mind magic is probably considered good/great.
3. If you want to bypass an unfavorable deal, who do you consult? A lawyer.

 

Spoiler

Another darkhorse candidate for Red Robes would be Briam. He and his firedrake are always impacted by Veyers's interruption, so it would be in his interest to remove Veyers from the loop. I'm sure there are several holes in this theory (for one, why wouldn't he just stop coming to class), but I wanted to look at it from another angle.

 

https://www.fictionpress.com/s/2961893/96/Mother-of-Learning UPDATE.

And what an update it is.
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Spoiler

Well, RR's out. Jornak was always the most likely candidate - including the possible motivation desire to see Cyoria burn. Good to see that he's not just a dick though. The time loop can be such a source of corruption...

Angels seem more reasonable than expected. However, what with ZnZ being severely limited by this new truce.... They'll need every advantage they can get.

 

Spoiler

The angels are reasonable, and actually being able to physically help in the fight for the primordial is more than I was expecting. I'm assuming Oganj is the demonic equivalent of the angel ZnZ talked to?

It does look like it's just the final fight remaining. I expect one more twist however. I'd personally guess that it would be something like preventing any higher entities from interacting with the material world at all - no primordials, no celestials, etc - which would tie to the force which blocked them off from the loop. Might even be one of the failsafes from the old ones mentioned in this chapter.