Game Theory
By:
Immatrael
Who dares stand between a mother and her daughter's life? Precia will do anything to achieve her goals. Even if it means accepting Fate. First of the Gamesverse series.
Rated:
Fiction T - English - Adventure - Nanoha T., Fate T. - Chapters: 16 - Words: 265,002 - Reviews:
284 - Favs: 686 - Follows: 391 - Updated: Dec 31, 2012 - Published: Oct 22, 2011 - Status: Complete - id: 7485060
Impressions before reading:
What is Game Theory? It's a sprawling Lyrical Nanoha AU that not just takes things off the rails, doesn't just dynamite the rails. It dynamites the rails, tears up the rails, melts them down for scrap, and then brings in StrikerS-era elements to nuke the rails from orbit, just to be sure. It has a basic premise completely unlike anything I've ever seen in this fandom, and takes it in wildly original directions. Yes, original. In a
fanfic. I have a very high opinion of this fic.
Let's see how well that holds up.
Review:
Very well, as it turns out. Game Theory is a very fun ride, and mostly for three reasons.
First, and probably the most important, is that Aleph (her SV/SB handle) really knows how to write a character's voice properly. Not only is everyone distinct in their dialogue and their POV, but also feels appropriate to their personality and ages. Nanoha reads exactly like she should: a very earnest and mature nine-year-old. Vesta... is a cat. And I know that's a pretty obvious statement if you read
any of the fic, but every line of dialogue and every scene from her POV emphasizes her inherent "cat-ness". It's really quite impressive. And while Nanoha and Vesta stand out in this regard, it's a consistently a strength of the other characters: Chrono's gruff, try-hard professionalism; Yuuno being in completely over his head; Fate being kinder and softer and yet also still nine compared to Nanoha.
And then there's
Precia. Precia Testarossa is easily one of the most reviled characters in the entire Lyrical Nanoha franchise, and considering she's competing with Quattro, Jail Scaglietti, and the entire Huckebein for that title that's quite an accomplishment. Aleph's version of Precia is largely the same, except for a little detail: she's
just sane enough to realize that while Fate isn't Alicia, she
is her only mobile asset available and that physically abusing her is not a good idea. Don't get me wrong, Precia is still a manipulative, abusive bitch, but it's a much milder and more understandable version of her. The Fate is visibly less of an emotional basket case helps a lot in this regard. It's to the point that by the midpoint of the story you're actively
rooting for her.
Second, there's the fact that Game Theory is a post-Madoka Magica magical girl story and it
shows. Madoka Magica (which I'll cover in more detail later on) has an impact on its genre that is difficult to understate; it divides the magical girl genre almost as starkly as Crisis on Infinite Earths did the DCU, and just about every magical girl story I've seen or heard of since borrows something from that show. Most often, it's the much higher grit factor. Madoka Magica is not nearly the first magical girl show to get really dark: Sailor Moon killed off its entire cast and resurrected them seemingly every season. But where the darkness of, say, Sailor Moon was there to get blasted with pretty sparkles, in Madoka Magica it's both more integral to the setting and much harder to combat.
Game Theory, thankfully, goes deeper than that. There is a higher grit factor, of course. Things go wrong, and Nanoha very much operates on more classic magical girl tropes, to a decidedly mixed bag
1. There's the Jewel Seed monsters, which play a much different and much more Madoka-esque narrative role here than in canon. In canon Lyrical Nanoha, the monsters were a backdrop to the larger plot going on. In Game Theory, and Madoka Magica, that's still somewhat of a thing but now the monsters are once again scary and threatening in their own right. Neither is a more correct approach, naturally, but it makes for an excellent contrast in a fanfic. Hell, there's even moral ambiguity, and the
good kind of moral ambiguity, where both sides of the conflict have points in their favor and are at odds for entirely understandable reasons. Kinda like the recent Doom game
2.
And finally, even disregarding all that thematic and genre stuff I just outlined, Game Theory is a damn solid divergence fic in its own right, with some interesting worldbuilding added, though the latter doesn't really take prominence until the sequel Power Games. Precia's changes set all sorts of butterflies in motion, drastically altering Nanoha and Fate's early interactions until Fate tells of her and her mother's goals and gets Nanoha
on her side. Aided along by Chrono making the mistake of attacking Nanoha in her home for entirely understandable reasons
3, and Nanoha not buying he's a space wizard cop for equally understandable reasons
4. And at that point, Nanoha, being the stubborn girl she is, is not giving up, and neither is anyone else in this conflict, because they all think they're right and aren't entirely wrong. It all proceeds very nicely from the divergence point. Also, Vesta. She's a treat.
As for worldbuilding... well, I'll get to that when I get to Power Games. That's where it becomes important, though it might be a while...
Verdict: Hell yes I'm keeping this. I haven't hit 1000 words with a single fic review in... forever? Maybe?
- Incidentally, that it's a mixed bag instead of flat-out not working is very much a point in the story's favor.
- Yes. Moral ambiguity. In a Doom game. Not with the demons, thank fuck, which is 75% of the reason it works there.
- Nine-year-old AA-rank mages with intelligent devices and actual magical skill are not supposed to be a thing on low-magic backwaters like Earth.
- Black outfit with shoulder spikes + being 14 = Nanoha not at all buying he's a cop.
