#I'm trying not to get too overhyped about this bc. the more hyped you are the likelier it becomes for you to get disappointed

[memento-mariii]

Is it possible to get brain damage (affectionate) (positive) from a book you haven't even read yet?! Read a tumblr post about the book on my dash, did some digging around on it, it seemed right up my alley, and now it's been eating my brain for the last 4 days. Ough.

[daybreakrising]

and now for my thoughts on 3.0

a summary in three words: i liked it

i think not paying too much attention to all the drip-fed info and not getting sucked into the hype in the lead up to release really played a part in my enjoyment of the story this time around. there was a little too much hype (as expected with anything new, i remember penacony being the same from what i saw on the dash at the time) but i think i was able to put that aside enough for it to not massively affect my mindset going in. as someone who gets put off very easily by overhyped things, not consuming every scrap of content fed to us (or coming to it later than most) really helps me to stay interested. i also think pacing myself through the story itself really helped - i was hurrying through penacony a little in an attempt to catch up/avoid spoilers and that definitely affected my enjoyment of it

anyway: story wise, i wasn't sure what to expect beyond the glimpses we got in trailers, and i was pleasantly surprised by how much i got drawn in once it got going. part of that is a weakness for ancient history vibes (sumeru's desert sucked me in for the same reason), and the visuals & music really helped to sell it to me for sure. it was the same with the bygone sea in genshin - the moment i saw the landscape and heard the music, i was sold.

overall pacing wise, i think it's mostly right. there were areas where i kinda got tired of constant combat because there were so many enemies around - and whilst the combat wasn't difficult by any means (thank you, jing yuan), it definitely stalled things a little too much now and then. of course, that's partly my own fault for wanting to explore literally everything instead of just doing what i needed to for the story to progress, but even so. idk maybe they just wanted you to get used to the new enemies?

i'm loving the puzzles, definitely more than the penacony puzzles - messing around with the terrain in amphoreus is less dizzying than penacony and i vibe with it more. again, possibly a few too many in one area now and then, but again i think that was entirely to get you used to how they work and the different things you can do with them, so i didn't mind that so much as the constant enemies.

and in general, the pacing of the story itself feels right, at least to me. there's some degree of yapping, but not too much (yet) - i've talked before about one of the reasons i didn't enjoy penacony as much is bc there was too much yapping which, whilst necessary for the plot, simply wasn't my thing and sometimes it was just hard to absorb everything being thrown at me. there was a fair bit to absorb in 3.0 but i feel like it was delivered in more manageable chunks (at least, for me). it's definitely added to the level of enjoyment i got from the story.

loving all the characters so far, too, and i'm very curious to learn more about them and about the ones we're yet to meet. aglaea wasn't how i thought she'd be (/positive) & mydei in particular is someone i went in not expecting (or trying not to) like too much and he surprised me, too. i'm so, so curious about all of them.

and of course i have a thousand questions about everything that went down in the latter half & cannot wait to see where those threads take us.

a final thing, possibly the only real negative i have (besides the abundance of enemies in already lengthy areas): the herta switch really threw me off. now i want to stress: i'm not complaining about the switch itself. it definitely had its place in the narrative and i enjoyed the glimpse into her & what she's up to, but my issue is that it felt really jarring to just suddenly switch over to her and then switch back. i mean, if that's what they were going for, then it worked beautifully. again, no complaints about getting to see and play as herta (i actually really enjoy her gameplay too) but the timing of the switch just felt off to me. feel free to disagree but that's my thought on the matter.

actually one other slight complaint that has nothing to do with the actual story or mechanics: some of the audio levels felt unbalanced at times. i've never had to go in and tweak the audio before, but particularly during the first scene we meet mydei, the music was either too loud or the voices too quiet and i barely heard a thing mydei said over the music. he's had some quiet lines here and there even after i lowered the music volume so i'm not sure if it's just how he delivered those particular lines, but... pls hoyo, my audio processing is bad enough as it is-

[booksandabeer]

I really like your blog and your fanfiction recs. You've read a lot of Stucky it seems. I'm still pretty new to the ship and it can get overwhelming so for now I'm sticking to the most popular ones. Do you think that I can skip any of the *legendary* fics? Are there any you think are overhyped and not really worth it? A lot of them are very long too. thanks. 🌟✨

Hello anon, thanks for your ask and your kind words. Welcome to the Stucky Experience™.

Now… *big sigh* This ask has been sitting in my inbox for a couple of days now and I have been debating with myself whether to answer it at all. Tbh, it feels a bit like I’m being tested on my willingness to be Messy on Main. But assuming that you asked this question in good faith, I will try to give the best answer I can here. However, if you expect me to name actual titles, I’m afraid you’ll be sorely disappointed.

First of all, 'overhyped' or 'not worth it' are a kinda strong words to be throwing around. Are there so-called “legendary” fics that are (seemingly) universally adored in the fandom that I personally think are only okay to quite good? Sure. Sometimes there are even very good ones, but I still fail to see what all the extreme fuss is about, or why this or that one in particular gets hyped up so excessively. But. Even if something isn’t the be-all and end-all of fics for me personally, I can almost always understand why other people like or even love them. Not everything needs to be for everyone. And if you’re a Stucky shipper, you’re not exactly hard-up for options. You don’t have to read stuff you already know you will most likely not enjoy even if the large majority of the fandom keeps yelling about its brilliance (that being said, try to branch out every once in a while, you might be pleasantly surprised!). I think by now I’ve read almost all the “Big Ones” that I wanted to, but there are a few super-popular fics left I will probably never read because they are simply not for me (bc of tropes, tone, certain ship dynamics, kinks, etc.). And again, that is fine.

I think I can only think of two stories where I truly, genuinely do not understand at all what people see in them. One I think is considered a fandom classic and my general response to it can be summed up as a dismayed “what the fuck, really?” and the nicest thing about the characterizations I can say is that, yes, there are two characters in it named Steve and Bucky. Make of that what you will.

The second one is more complicated. I’m not exactly sure if it qualifies as “legendary” but it is certainly very popular in apparently all corners of the fandom, which is a feat in itself, but even more so for a fic written after 2019, and I. Just. Don’t. Get. It. The thing is, it is very well-written, has an intricate and engaging plot, and it addresses some things that are often glossed over in other fics in a very smart and thoughtful way. And these are the very reasons why I kept reading until the (for me) bitter end. Usually, if something doesn't work for me at all, I just stop reading and move on. But in this case I kept thinking “surely this can’t be it; there must be a twist coming real soon, right?” But no, the central romance really is based on a premise and subsequently a relationship dynamic that to me is absolutely appalling, where Character A gets fucked over repeatedly, and is relegated to the role of glorified servant/caretaker for large parts of the story, while Character B gets to have it all twice over—and then some! And not once does this ever get addressed as even slightly problematic or imbalanced, but instead is celebrated as A Great Triumph of Enduring Love. ...and everybody went BONKERS for it. Meanwhile, I was standing on the sidelines, absolutely baffled, wondering if maybe I just didn’t get the same drugs as everybody else. But you know what? It's fine. Maybe I'm wrong and everybody else is right (sure seems like it!), and I'm certainly not the arbiter of Good Taste in Fanfic. So yeah, it all comes back to 'like what you like and let other people like what they like.' It will make your experience in fandom so much better, I promise.

Anyway, I hope you got something out of this anon, and enjoyed this edition of “J very vaguely rambles on about fanfiction.”