I already gave some thoughts in the recommendation listing, but as I said there it's hard to talk about this story without spoilers, so this review will be full of them, and big ones too.
From the very start, Lucki is a carefully-crafted deception. Even the author is a fake; the real author, Farla, created the icemew identity to help hide the fic's true nature. And it doesn't end there; he went so far as to have a friend leave fake reviews to help guide the Intended Audience Reaction. That should give you an idea of what kind of story this is, so stop here if you don't want more spoilers. Otherwise, read on.
Basically, Lucki is a deconstruction of 'middling sue' stories. Farla describes a middling sue as 'a Mary Sue with more foresight', explaining that such stories are set up to avoid the worst characteristics of Sues without actually addressing the real problem, that everything just works out for them. Farla was frustrated with these stories, and especially with the way being fairly well-written hides the Sue-ish aspects, leading to them being praised for avoiding falling into the Sue trap despite not actually doing so.
Farla adopted the persona of icemew, posing as a new writer, and as mentioned before enlisted a friend to leave reviews of the story in order to guide the audience along the intended path. Every aspect of the story is crafted to ensure a specific reaction, and while its true nature sometimes pokes through, the readers tended to gloss over these aspects. Which, again, was intended.
Through the first twelve chapters, everything proceeds as normal, with Lucki building her team and triumphing against the challenges in her path. But then she catches an Absol, and that's when things go pear-shaped. The Absol Fara's presence negates Lucki's, well, luck, and with the Mary Sue elements no longer there to aid her, Lucki's situation goes downhill fast. The specifics of each Pokemon's character and situation, and why they would really be bad fits for a trainer, hit hard, resulting in most abandoning her as the deconstruction hits hard and Lucki's Protagonist-Centered Morality leads to disaster.
It's after this final chapter that Farla reveals the truth: that the whole story was structured to trick readers into siding with Lucki even when she was in the wrong and overlooking the clues that things weren't as simple as they seemed. The whole thing ends with a massive Take That, Audience!"The Reason You Suck" Speech that details the true intent, and frankly, I love it. Farla expertly picks out the unpleasant aspects of a Pokemon world that fics and readers oft gloss over, conceals them until the right moment, then opens the floodgates. The story challenges the standard assumptions like the deconstruction it is, and can easily leave readers questioning everything they previously thought about Pokemon, especially Pokemon fanfics, and I love it for that. So, yeah, this one's a big recommendation from me.
FanficRecs A Spoiler-Heavy review
I already gave some thoughts in the recommendation listing, but as I said there it's hard to talk about this story without spoilers, so this review will be full of them, and big ones too.
From the very start, Lucki is a carefully-crafted deception. Even the author is a fake; the real author, Farla, created the icemew identity to help hide the fic's true nature. And it doesn't end there; he went so far as to have a friend leave fake reviews to help guide the Intended Audience Reaction. That should give you an idea of what kind of story this is, so stop here if you don't want more spoilers. Otherwise, read on.
Basically, Lucki is a deconstruction of 'middling sue' stories. Farla describes a middling sue as 'a Mary Sue with more foresight', explaining that such stories are set up to avoid the worst characteristics of Sues without actually addressing the real problem, that everything just works out for them. Farla was frustrated with these stories, and especially with the way being fairly well-written hides the Sue-ish aspects, leading to them being praised for avoiding falling into the Sue trap despite not actually doing so.
Farla adopted the persona of icemew, posing as a new writer, and as mentioned before enlisted a friend to leave reviews of the story in order to guide the audience along the intended path. Every aspect of the story is crafted to ensure a specific reaction, and while its true nature sometimes pokes through, the readers tended to gloss over these aspects. Which, again, was intended.
Through the first twelve chapters, everything proceeds as normal, with Lucki building her team and triumphing against the challenges in her path. But then she catches an Absol, and that's when things go pear-shaped. The Absol Fara's presence negates Lucki's, well, luck, and with the Mary Sue elements no longer there to aid her, Lucki's situation goes downhill fast. The specifics of each Pokemon's character and situation, and why they would really be bad fits for a trainer, hit hard, resulting in most abandoning her as the deconstruction hits hard and Lucki's Protagonist-Centered Morality leads to disaster.
It's after this final chapter that Farla reveals the truth: that the whole story was structured to trick readers into siding with Lucki even when she was in the wrong and overlooking the clues that things weren't as simple as they seemed. The whole thing ends with a massive Take That, Audience! "The Reason You Suck" Speech that details the true intent, and frankly, I love it. Farla expertly picks out the unpleasant aspects of a Pokemon world that fics and readers oft gloss over, conceals them until the right moment, then opens the floodgates. The story challenges the standard assumptions like the deconstruction it is, and can easily leave readers questioning everything they previously thought about Pokemon, especially Pokemon fanfics, and I love it for that. So, yeah, this one's a big recommendation from me.