It also helps if you think of Part 2 as an exploration of what happens after you find out it was all just a dream.
@I Like Crows: Well, yeah. I tried to allude to that a bit (though I probably failed), but you can't put spoilers in a review. Also, your link is showing.
Personally, I don't think Part 2 in particular needs defending. It's all the same story, and while maybe the transition could have been smoother, there was enough foreshadowing to know that something was up, if not to know exactly what. YU+ME is a lovely story, even more so after it's revealed what's going on. Not enough works of fiction give gay characters this much development and enough of a story besides coming to terms with their sexuality.
@72.171.0.147: Beware the Fan Dumb!
(Same UT as above) I'm part of the Fan Dumb? I don't have any problem with other people not liking YU+ME, or not reading it anymore after the plot twist. Some people just can't connect emotionally to certain types of stories, and if they like realism and can't stand fantasy, it's not like a moral failing as a YU+ME reader. Hopefully they won't think the story is horrible, but why read it if you're no longer into it?
My point was that it wasn't horrible, regardless of whether people are still into it. Megan Rose Gedris did a good enough job writing it so that the plot twist makes sense, especially on a second readthrough. It's obvious it was planned all along, and not just an Ass Pull (although I'm not quite convinced that the Mary arc was planned, and I still enjoyed it). While the nature of The Reveal is shocking, anyone more genre savvy than a grapefruit could tell a reveal was coming because Lia's mysterious problem was still a mystery. The idea wasn't inherently bad, and the writing got really good as the story went on, and the story had a lot of other good things going for it too, like the treatment of a lesbian love story as more of a love story than a very special issue.
I don't like military stories, for example. You could present me a very well written military story that, by the standards of military stories, did everything right. I wouldn't really be interested in reading it, because the subject matter just wouldn't appeal to me. But I shouldn't say that it's bad, just for being a military story, if that makes any sense, and that's the context in which I'm defining YU+ME. If you like what it is, you'll like it. If you're neutral toward what it is, the good writing and pretty art could probably draw you in. If you don't like what it is, you won't like it, and that's okay— but that doesn't mean it sucks, either.
Have I seen you around on the YU+ME forum?
- "defending", I mean. Not "defining". Gah.
You can edit your posts.
@67.142.130.23 ...I just realized how bad calling it a Fan Dumb sounded... I don't mean that people who don't like part two are dumb, not at all. But some of the things they do sometimes are dumb. If a person doesn't want to read a story right now. I'm sure you've seen what happened on the Bad Webcomics Wiki...
And I fully agree with you on that with the military story thing, too. I know, I know. I was just kinda being an idiot when I typed that.
And yeah, you probably have. I use the same Alias for pretty much everything. And if I may ask, who might you be?
Yeah, I remember the Bad Webcomics Wiki thing. The review was so mean-spirited, and the girl who wrote it could just as easily have written a critical review where she talked about how people who hate fantasy should avoid it, or that she thought the original story was a better idea and she wasted it. But I think the YU+ME fandom (whoa, are we a fandom now?) is being a little hard on people who stopped reading, or at least we're giving out the impression that we think they couldn't have had a good reason to make that choice.
I sort of want to write my own YU+ME review, on the lines of who will probably like it and who might do better to avoid it. Would you mind?
My forum username is Mrs. Abject. I'm the one that brings up her fandoms at completely inappropriate times, and gives love advice to sad people.
@67.142.130.23: I know, we are. I suppose I didn't really help at all did I? ^^;
And I wouldn't mind at all. I don't run any sort of a review monopoly or anything like that.
Ah, I know you ^^ (I don't think your fandoms come up at inappropriate times at all. But that's just me.)
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Post Plot-Twist Praise
Most readers of this story will likely agree on one truth of this comic above all else- the twist at the end of Part 1 was a complete and total shock. For some, it was a Wall Banger, and the abrupt, seemingly out of nowhere Genre Shift that accompanies it were just too much, and they stopped reading. But... really, was it all that bad?
First of all, it was intended from the very beginning. There's a lot of stuff that actually makes much more sense, like Lia's reasons to not be with Fiona and Conscience's (Or shall I say, Mary's)... entire existence.
And that's before you even get into the amazing Character Development that happens post-twist. We learn that there's more to each and every character than meets the eye. It adds depth by simply showing who they really are underneath the surface they (willingly) hid under for all of the first part. Enemies become friends, friends become... not friends, and we still don't know the fate of a certain character that we're all on the edges of our chairs for.
Sure, there's still a lot of stuff that doesn't make sense quite yet. But that's because it's a story, and one that still isn't finished at that. It'll inch along at it's own pace, allowing us to take it all in slowly as the characters grow and develop, one Monday/Wednesday/Friday at a time.
And isn't that what all webcomics, regardless of plot or lack thereof, are all about?
So please, read it. It hasn't gotten any worse, in fact, I'd say it's an improvement. If you still dont' like it anyway, that's cool. You certainly are under no obligation to. I'm just saying, it's likely worth it.