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WIP Rurouni Familiar by Slavok - T - Familiar of Zero/Rurouni Kenshin

Discussion in 'Almost Recommended' started by Nemrut, Jun 2, 2018.

  1. Nemrut

    Nemrut The Black Mage ~ Prestige ~

    Joined:
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    Title: Rurouni Familiar
    Author: Slavok
    Rating: T
    Genre: Adventure/Fantasy
    Status: In-Progress
    Library Category:
    Words: 73,404
    Summary: It's a dangerous business, becoming a wanderer. You step onto that road, and there's no telling where you might end up. But for Soujiro, it was never about the destination, it was about finding the truth, and if he finds it in Halkeginia, that's perfectly fine.
    Link: ff.net

    It's pretty hard to be into anime fanfiction and not having come across FoZ fanfics as by its very premise, it is something that is almost tailored for crossover fanfiction. The original story, in which a girl living in a medieval magic world, who is considered to be a failure of a mage, who is being crushed by the expectations that her society, her family and she herself have set for her that she is unable to meet, tries to summon a magical familiar and instead summons a regular boy from our world who then proceeds to be the harem protag of the show.

    The source material is pretty bleh, to be honest. I never read the light novels nor did I watch the anime nor am I ever going to do that but I've read dozens of fanfics. FoZ crossovers are something of a guilty pleasure of mine and are usually decent time wasters.

    There are thousands of stories in which Louise, the girl, summons a lot of different people. I have seen Shirou, Cell, pokemon, warcraft acolytes and whatnot. You name it and it probably has a crossover somewhere and if not, most likely just a matter of time.

    The bad thing is, those stories tend to be rather formulaic and run out of steam relatively soon. You thought altpower Taylor Worm fanfics suffer from repetitive elements? They absolutely do but FoZ has been haunted by that for years longer than Worm, so finding good stuff there after a while becomes hard.

    It's not that this story avoids those usual problems per se, it's that it makes everything such a joy to read by making the summoned character such a delightful one and his every interaction with basically everyone just pure fun.

    The writing is pretty good, it has a lots of entertaining scenes and memorable conversations. The Soujiro views the world is just utterly fascinating and entertaining. It's not a crack story but it's also not 100% serious either. It's a bit hard to describe, really.

    Soujiro, as a character, is just such a fresh breath of air, at least to me. He has a very distinct perspective, one that makes him weirdly suited for this story. At the end of his story in Kenshin, he is trying to find meaning and it is at that point that he is summoned, something that he personally doesn't mind, which isn't true for most characters. Usually when someone basically kidnaps you from your world and makes you their servant, most people would object but Soujiro doesn't really, because why not give this a try, maybe he will learn something.

    You don't really need to know anything about FoZ, I think. Maybe a quick wiki crawl. I do think you need some familiarity with Soujiro though, for his character to make sense but maybe it will work there as well. What he is and can do should be apparent pretty soon anyway.

    Story is still getting updates and check out the other works of the author as well, particularly the RWBY x Fate Stay Night crossover which was also pretty entertaining. Over all, the author is rather competent in writing light hearted stories with fun dialog but this story was my favorite of his.

    It's also getting regular updates still, not a weekly schedule or anything but a few times over the year at least.

    It's not the most amazing story ever and probably more fit for the almost rec section but I am not really sure what that means anymore so, just going to throw it out here. Outside of Soujiro, there isn't that much to the other characters and there are definitely stories out there that did much more with Louise but since this is mostly Soujiro's journey, it's something I can live with.

    3.5-4/5, if only for the fact that I must have read it four times or so by now and it has been a blast each and every time, grinning whilst reading it.

    I'm sure it's not for everyone and there will be flaws when looking closer at it but if you have any interest in the characters, Soujiro in particular or concept, it's a really fun way to spent an afternoon.
     
  2. Shouldabeenadog

    Shouldabeenadog Death Eater

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    I got a good ways in, and I agree it's well written. But soujiro is too passive as a character to impact and change things. We get insight into his chatter, and everyone else is phoning in their personalities. 3/5. You have to really really love soujiro to like this story.
     
  3. Otters

    Otters Groundskeeper ~ Prestige ~ DLP Supporter

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    Soujiro is an interesting pick for a character. I found this to be a really interesting read because of how different his perspective is to most fanfiction protagonists. He is genuinely happy and polite. That really stands out amongst the banal repetition of rudeness masquerading as 'snark' and petty emotional issues for angst being used as a substitute for genuine conflict.

    The story suffers from the same issue every alt!summon FoZ crossover does. It's paint by numbers for fanfiction. The same things happen in the same order, with only the choice of what colour to put between the lines ever changing.

    Enjoyable enough for what it is. I'd recommend it to anyone who isn't burned out from reading cookie-cutter FoZ fics.

    3/5
     
  4. Zombie

    Zombie Black Philip Moderator DLP Supporter

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    I've never actually read FoZ fics. I've had them rec'd to me all the time, but I've never taken the time to read the. I felt that I should atleast understand the source material to be able to read them. But, I read this one, and then I went to SB and read a couple of the popular ones there that I kept seeing crop up.

    I guess I could see how the summon aspect is an interesting concept to use, but over all I didn't get anything from this. No joy. I think that the formulaic quality of these types of fics is what does it the most disservice. It shows that the author lacks inspiration, and if anything is writing it for the character insert. I grew tired of those types of fics a long time ago where X is put in Y universe and we get to see what kind of things they do different -- which ultimately its never too terribly much.

    The Worm fandom has suffered from the same things done to this series from the get go. I thought that I could read this without being too judgemental, but I just couldn't. I was unable to engage with the characters themselves -- which having no back story to go off of, I feel like is an important thing to be able to do -- and I found myself skimming after a certain point.

    For the experience, since this is my first fic in this universe, I'd give it a 3/5. I feel like I could be harsher, but its hard to cite any one thing that I felt I disagreed with, it was just a multitude of things, and ultimately it ended up being a time waster.
     
  5. A Lizard By

    A Lizard By Any Other Name

    Joined:
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    On a rock under the sun
    Decent enough. Enjoyed Soujiro's interactions, the author nailed his character I think. Unfortunately, there weren't many opportunities for him to show off, which is basically the only reason to read these FoZ insert a character canon rehashes.

    Not sure if I'll continue as the appeal wears off pretty quick, although the author does seem to have somewhere he's taking the plot, what with Shishio also being brought over and the others trying to escape from hell. I'm assuming that's why he's trying to blow through canon, even skipping over some commonly written parts of canon. Actually I'd say my biggest issue is that the author still decided to give Soujiro fucking Derflinger. I hate that piece of shit sword finding it's way into every fic for some reason. Adds nothing to the plot and makes no sense for him to randomly pick it over everything else cuz it's "a real sword." Soujiro spent his life using Japanese Marianas. What the fuck does he know about western swords? Let alone magical ones.

    Anyway, I'll give this a 3/5 for now, we'll see if the author takes it somewhere interesting.
    --- Post automerged ---
    Marianas. Definitely not katanas.

    In other news my edit button is missing...
     
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