Reviews FanficRecs / Saint Of Zero

Saint Georgius is awesome!

The fanfic starts out as an average "Louise summons someone other than Saito" fanfic, but starting at the prologue it stands out with just how well written it is and its more serious tone. The first chapter, starting out with the final chapter of the legend of Saint George (or Georgius, his Latin name), the Roman soldier who traded his life for his faith without regrets, continuing through from the evening before the familiar summoning ritual detailing Louise's apprehensions, and concluding with the summoning of the familiar in this story, is impressively well written, and when Georgius himself appears (and not in the usual explosion!), his entrance into the story is one befitting that of an awe inspiring noble hero.

The story diverges from there, striking out a new tangent from that of the Familiar of Zero canon. This is not a theme park story where the new familiar otherwise generally goes through the motions of Saito. Georgius's summoning changes things from there, from his abilities as a legend, to his personality. Also, from the language of Latin being being known among the Halkegenians as Ancient Romalian, to Siesta's intriguing ancestry and possession of the catalyst that summoned Georgius, there are subtle hints that Halkegenia may have had interesting interactions with the world from which Georgius came. There are hints that the Staff of Destruction is not a rocket launcher, and it stands to play a more important role in the story than it originally had.

Praises for how the author characterizes the characters as well. Putting the spotlight on Georgius, Georgius de Lydda was the archetypal knight (the saint inspired Arthurian chivalry), and the star of this work stands as a noble badass with strong convictions and a humble demeanor (or as Agnes snidely describes him, an old fashioned storybook knight), attributes that color his interactions with the other characters. His Fate rendition is summoned into the story not as a juggernaut Servant, but as a man, and he has strength and special abilities, but is seriously endangered by the weapons of Halkegenia. His faith is central to his character (duh, he's a saint), and part of his interaction with the story is the conflict between his Christian values of everyone being of equal worth, and the belief held by Halkegenian's that those with magic (the nobles) are graced by God (as magic is God's gift) and therefore are inherently more worthy than others.

Georgius isn't the only character to watch here. Fouquet deserves a special mention here, and its intriguing to see how she develops. Agnes together with Georgius make a badass duo, and there is a possibility that their relationship may become more than that. Louise's interactions with him helps her develop into a more confident and mature girl. Tabitha, Kirche, and Siesta add the icing on the cake. Sadly there is not enough space to go over them in this review.

I eagerly look forward to this fanfic's continued development.