Many Girls und Panzer fics fall into an unfortunate tendency in which the authors tend to enjoy writing tank battles, including technical details about tanks and shoehorning in World War II references more than making an interesting story or deep or well developed characters. Despite a somewhat innovative premise, Born of Iron ultimately fails to deliver on many of the essential aspects of storytelling, making it difficult to enjoy or get invested in this fic.
The fic takes place after the series ends, when Miho realizes that Oarai will have to win another tournament to stay open. In this fic, they're fighting alongside Mother Maria, a school whose tankery team is perhaps even worse off than theirs is, in a South American tankery tournament known as the Queen's Coronet.
The tournament is fairly creative, and an interesting change of pace, but there are a few problems with the setting. For example, it's said that the judges install the carbon lining, which should be on the tanks all along, and it's mentioned in passing that Saunders manufactures its own tanks (the BD booklets say almost all tankery tanks are refubished). Since many parts of the story rely on the author's Fanon or disregard for canon, many of the developments come off as forced and unnatural.
Most of the canon characters are pushed to the side, even when they would be relevant to the plot, as Miho does surprisingly little to run the team despite being commander. As for the OCs, they are not very well developed, and the author seems more interested in showing them dealing with the various aspects of their quartermaster job than developing them well. Perhaps worst of all is a disabled crew, which, for a group that seems uninterested in academics, are quite obsessed with the physics behind the incident that cost them several body parts. If the OCs intend to supplant canon characters, they need to be more interesting, and this group fails miserably.
The pacing is quite uneven, to put it mildly. There are often many walls of text regarding relatively unimportant things such as the acquisition of a tank, but other, important scenes, like Oarai arriving at Mother Maria, are quickly glossed over. There's also a heavy emphasis on quartermaster dealings and the below-decks work, with very little focus on tank battles or Character Development. As a result, the worldbuilding is good, but it hardly seems like much of a story.
You might be wondering why I'm not asking why this fic is on the Fanfic Recs page, and that's because I'm fairly certain of the answer- the author put it there, since few others would likely choose to do so.
FanficRecs A Original But Ultimately Soulless Gu P Fic
Many Girls und Panzer fics fall into an unfortunate tendency in which the authors tend to enjoy writing tank battles, including technical details about tanks and shoehorning in World War II references more than making an interesting story or deep or well developed characters. Despite a somewhat innovative premise, Born of Iron ultimately fails to deliver on many of the essential aspects of storytelling, making it difficult to enjoy or get invested in this fic.
The fic takes place after the series ends, when Miho realizes that Oarai will have to win another tournament to stay open. In this fic, they're fighting alongside Mother Maria, a school whose tankery team is perhaps even worse off than theirs is, in a South American tankery tournament known as the Queen's Coronet.
The tournament is fairly creative, and an interesting change of pace, but there are a few problems with the setting. For example, it's said that the judges install the carbon lining, which should be on the tanks all along, and it's mentioned in passing that Saunders manufactures its own tanks (the BD booklets say almost all tankery tanks are refubished). Since many parts of the story rely on the author's Fanon or disregard for canon, many of the developments come off as forced and unnatural.
Most of the canon characters are pushed to the side, even when they would be relevant to the plot, as Miho does surprisingly little to run the team despite being commander. As for the OCs, they are not very well developed, and the author seems more interested in showing them dealing with the various aspects of their quartermaster job than developing them well. Perhaps worst of all is a disabled crew, which, for a group that seems uninterested in academics, are quite obsessed with the physics behind the incident that cost them several body parts. If the OCs intend to supplant canon characters, they need to be more interesting, and this group fails miserably.
The pacing is quite uneven, to put it mildly. There are often many walls of text regarding relatively unimportant things such as the acquisition of a tank, but other, important scenes, like Oarai arriving at Mother Maria, are quickly glossed over. There's also a heavy emphasis on quartermaster dealings and the below-decks work, with very little focus on tank battles or Character Development. As a result, the worldbuilding is good, but it hardly seems like much of a story.
You might be wondering why I'm not asking why this fic is on the Fanfic Recs page, and that's because I'm fairly certain of the answer- the author put it there, since few others would likely choose to do so.