Fanfic It's good
Okay, let's be honest, it's a solid story. It develops the world and several otherwise minor characters more than they got in canon, it features a protagonist who is explicitly a weakling physically and has to rely on his allies and knowledge, and it is *very* good at drama on the appropriate scale. It's the gold standard of One Piece S Is for a reason.
Fanfic Be wary, dear reader;
Be wary, dear reader;
On first glance at this 1.3+ million word count fic on Fan Fiction-dot-net or Archive of Our Own, one may consider: the few tags, the succinctness of summary, the plain facade of this gate into the unknown. it may elicit curiosity, and upon the first few chapters, may not do itself justice. After all, an OC? Being dropped into another world? And so, so many other cliches that have been seen, been tried, been tested, and thereby have been made tired? You may think there is no happiness here. No uniqueness. No worth, even! After all, to you, it may appear to be an entirely self-serving story; a self-serving, massive word count monstrosity not fit for your time.
Do not be fooled.
This way lies a self-insert story unmatched, a drop into the insanity of One Piece that aside from it's scale, does credit to it's canon like few others — credit that one can read in all the love and geeky enthusiasm the writers pour into their language, and that encompasses this beast of a tale.
It's not for everyone, and is far from perfect in it's own right. The way it's told, there is very little backtracking, and very little refresher on tiny details that we, simple readers, might have forgotten in the wake of 30 or 40-plus chapters. It's style might not be easy for some to adapt to.
All that said, I find this is a story that's surprised me, that's kept me awake, laughing and thinking and melancholy and crying and bouncing off the walls for all it's energy — its joy; it's joy!
Be warned, dear reader: it's one hell of a ride!
Fanfic Overly focused on moments at the cost of plot
I used to love this fic, but as time went on, it became apparent to me that the writers were so focused on making specific moments happen that they didn't care how they had to twist things to make them happen. Some worked out well such as Merry eating a Devil Fruit intended for Nero which was completely worthless to literally anyone else but allowed her to survive. But others fall flat and just make it seem like the writers are overly married to canon, like Blackbeard and his crew beating Magellan, someone they only survived in canon due to Shiryu saving them. Or Luffy being attacked by the Kuja, despite being declared an ally, because they're all convinced he tried to kill Hancock even while hundreds of miles away on Sabaody.
Perhaps the biggest example is the Marineford Arc. In canon, Blackbeard barely beat Ace and had to execute a fairly complex plan to get Whitebeard's devil fruit. Here? Blackbeard still wins despite Ace having Squad's and Whitey Bay helping because Aokiji showed up and froze everyone. Then there's Blackbeard beating Magellan easily (again, Magellan wrecked his entire crew in canon with a single attack). Then come the actual execution, despite Whitebeard having more allies, the Marines having lost so many soldiers, and thousands more defecting in the middle of the battle, things go just as badly for the pirates. Why? Because Akainu picked up a few thousand New World fighters that were invented for this story. Even the likes of Shanks, Dragon and his strongest, and all the Supernovas showing up only changes things to the extent that Ace lives and Blackbeard doesn't get Whitebeard's fruit. Does Blackbeard die or get imprisoned? Nope. He's apparently so incredibly powerful that it takes everyone on both sides working together to stop him. Is it a cool moment? Certainly. Does it make any sense given everyone's relative strength? Not remotely.
In the end, this fic ended up becoming like the Fast and Furious franchise. It's entertaining if you just shut off your brain and enjoy it. But the moment you start thinking about things, it falls apart entirely.
Fanfic The Self-Insert Premise done RIGHT
In just about any 'verse, the premise of a Self Insert story is a hard task to write, and all too often, writers will write what is less of a Self-Insert that slowly integrates into the 'verse, and more of a Sue (of varying sorts) that warps the 'verse to integrate around him/her and thoroughly ruin the reader's sense of belief that things would ever go that way.
This Bites! is not one of those SI stories.
Xomniac and his co-writers have constructed an amazing and gripping tale of someone from our world, average in every way except being a fan of Oda's amazing work, being abruptly dropped into the world of One Piece by the hands of a BROB, and only given the chance to return home once he reaches the series's end. And thanks to his writing, that is harder than it sounds.
One main strength is the realism of his SI, Jeremiah Cross. He is your average college boy, no special skills beyond a silver tongue, no actual survival or fighting training, and most importantly, a human body that, when put up against the Made of Iron baseline in One Piece, is downright fragile in comparison. No Devil Fruits, no weapons, no fantastic One Piece fighting styles, which means that most of the enemies he faces are way out of his league. Moreover, the one advantage that he does get, his Transponder Snail Soundbite and his Noise-Noise Devil Fruit Powers, fits right into the 'verse as a power that although basic in its obvious usages, also has the potential to become incredibly useful if used right. But considering Soundbite's mischievous nature, their relationship has to be developed and honed for them to get the full use out of their powers, and the author showcases this development incredibly well.
Although the Narrative gave him the opportunity to travel with the Straw-Hats, where his story knowledge is most useful, it's not the perfect and instant trust right off the bat that other stories may have. Just like the canon crew, they had to slowly get used to Cross's quirks, and he with theirs. But the fact that these interactions are done perfectly in line with everyone's characters makes this integration incredibly fluid and natural. A great example is when Cross joined the Straw-Hats: He may have known that Luffy would achieve his dream as a story fact, but Luffy telling him his dream to become the Pirate King actually made Cross BELIEVE it. That's right, even the SI is not immune to the Magnetic Hero here!
The last story strength is the power of the Butterfly of Doom. Every one of Cross's actions is considered and extrapolated to their logical, often global consequences (and not always for good), and all changes are incredibly believable and not just put in for story's sake. I mean, who would've known that such an innocuous remark could've believably led to a change in the crew's roster?
The mark of a good SI is when they can integrate believably into a 'verse. When you read about Cross's adventures in One Piece, you'll soon believe it too.
Fanfic It's good
Okay, let's be honest, it's a solid story. It develops the world and several otherwise minor characters more than they got in canon, it features a protagonist who is explicitly a weakling physically and has to rely on his allies and knowledge, and it is *very* good at drama on the appropriate scale. It's the gold standard of One Piece Self-Insert stories for a reason.