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434411423124222344 Complete Arse(nal) Since: Jan, 2015
Complete Arse(nal)
07/20/2015 21:13:48 •••

A Dark Fic that thinks it’s a Deconstruction

This fic has had tons of shilling on This Very Wiki, calling it ‘tragic’, a ‘brutal deconstruction’ (paraphrased), and I must admit that the early chapters were pretty cool. They showed a realistic view on how an average teenager would fare in Gensokyou, with the denizens being true to their original characterization (the little there is, anyway). There were a few headscratchers (why would Shiki not guard such great power with something that couldn’t be gotten rid of with a single Master Spark?), but the general story was great. I was on the edge of my seat the whole time, binging episode after episode.

There was, however, a problem. Brolli had basically taken control of the entirety of Gensokyou, and indeed was far above the level of most Gappy Stus played straight. So how can the story be a Deconstruction if the realistic outcome was utterly happy and insipid?

The answer: It can’t. Spatzique, no amount of magic mist that disables Brolli’s powers forcing him to look at his true self will make a Deconstruction. A deconstruction always has to be natural. You let Real Life write the story. It just pisses me off to read Space Whale Aesop after Space Whale Aesop get praised as a “deconstruction”.

And then there’s Spatzique’s constant shilling of the Touhou characters to the point where they match or even exceed Brolli in terms of Sueness. Maybe he should have stopped Diamond in the Rough halfway through so he could go back to putting Family Guy voices on Walfas pics and calling it a “sketch”.

Spaztique Since: Jan, 2015
07/20/2015 00:00:00

Thanks for the review. You'll be happy to know that these are actually the most common complaints I get about the story: that it's not quite as much a deconstruction, or that it breaks its own point of trying to be a deconstruction.

I mention in the production guide to the story that the original Dit R was much darker: it basically just ends in Brolli going to hell and smash-cutting to black. The new ending was made with the help of the audience (though, I still had the final say: I didn't want it to be 100% happy).

As for the treatment of the Touhou characters themselves, a great part of Dit R was to make audiences, specifically fanfic writers, squirm: to show what happens when you make a Touhou fic where the entire Touhou cast are given secondary roles or are utterly miscaste. I mention this a lot of place elsewhere, but I actually prefer vanilla comedy Touhou stuff to the events of this story.

Again, my apologies for your reaction, but luckily, you're not alone. I set out to make a very polarizing story, so naturally, it always gets a passionately polarized reaction: people either love it or hate it.


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