I'm not going to give a review of the past ark because I feel
Karyis gave a pretty good explanation of what was right and wrong with it a couple of weeks back. My problem is mainly with the criticism because it has mainly gone of the direction of what Taylor can or should do, and frankly speaking as some else pointed out previously, it gives the image of people being too spoiled by fanfic Taylor. By munchkin, altpower,
memetic Taylor and out all the critics from this angle there's been one that's particularly bothered me.
I'm sorry for singling you out but from the way your comments for the past month have gone from critical to passive-aggressive to outright mockingly hostile, and frankly demeaning, I feel it needs to be said. People already asked you this before and clearly deserves repeating:
Cookiesndip, why are you
still here?
It's been pointed out multiple times by multiple people already that the direction the story is going with for Taylor is not the one you want in the long run, the idea of Taylor learning to not always take charge of everything alone, to trust that others can either pull their own weight or even deal with the situation alone if or when required, that she doesn't need to take control of everything, is an anathema to you, something akin to, in your own words, "
becoming a bystander" or "
sending her back to the kitchen", you've made that clear multiple times already. All while completely ignoring that it's been the objective from the get go, from multiple statements by the author to the damn
foreword at the
beginning of the story and that it was one of the main selling points to a lot of people here.
People keep bringing the examples like Rin and Shirou vs servants, while ignoring the context behind those fights. From Rin being a much more talented magus with years under her belt coming from a relatively (for Japan) important lineage, to the battles with Archer and Gilgamesh, ignoring that Archer's battle was one of ideals, where he was hoping more to break Shirou's and was handicapped by not having a master and being exhausted after his battle with Lancer and manifesting UBW, to Gilgamesh constantly underestimating everyone till the last second due to his arrogance. Taylor only had 2 years to learn all she could about magecraft, where she probably spent the majority of the first one recovering her mental faculties and relearning her motor functions not to mention the whole psychological issues of losing her home and family, and since she was Marie´s personal choice, supplemented with only what she could bring to her. And learning all she can from Aife or El-Melloi II doesn't mean she'll be ready to throw down with servants or contribute
beyond what a master can and
should do with the short amount of time they have to fix the incineration, no matter how talented the 2 teachers are, even the twins are just learning the basics.
You keep bringing Gold Morning and everything Taylor learned through it, while ignoring that by the end of it Taylor was arguably at her worst, at her most distrusting, at her most controlling. Was it necessary? Maybe. Did the situation force her hand? Arguably yes, especially considering how everyone else was acting, though that a whole discussion rabbit hole of it's own. Did it lead to one best possible outcomes? Absolutely. But it also pushed some of Taylors worse buttons, leading her to a path where she arguably lost everything, friends and compatriots leaving them and herself with emotional holes that may never heal, her home, even her mind albeit temporarily, everything except her father. Are those the lessons she should be taking for this story? Of excelling but taking all burdens and eventually sacrificing yourself, abandoning everything and everyone you know for their sake?
But you know what? At the end none of that matters because it's a fanfic. All these interpretations of Taylor don't matter, because that's what they are "interpretations". So, what if this Taylor is OOC as you put it, "Taylor in name only" fics are a dime in a dozen in both SB, SV and everywhere else. You and others keep bringing Ryuugi, but at the end of the day no matter how much you agree with him, no matter how much you
feel his interpretation of Taylor is the correct one, it's just that,
another interpretation. The only person that can tell you correct canon Taylor is Wildbow himself and people even love to disagree with him based on what they read, whenever Worm itself or just fanfics, and how they
felt about it. I know it can feel frustrating to read a story with a character you like and feel like they not being given what they deserve, but constantly complaining to the author every update despite being told the direction of the story, to the point actively insulting the author by calling
his interpretation of Taylor an SI! or "Ritsuka with a different name" because it doesn't align with
yours is just petty, childish and generally just a dick move.
I hate that at this point I'm basically just telling you "Don't like don't read", but what else can I or anyone else say to you? You don't like what's essentially a core premise of this story and heavily disagree with it, but at this point it's been stated, it's been shown, that no matter what else the author changes, that remains. That the story is not going to go the direction you want. So why continue reading, and worse whine about it? At this point you're just torturing yourself. Yourself and everyone else by constantly bringing down the mood.
So, I ask again,
why are you still here?
One last thing to add…
Taylor went through multiple traumatic, transformative experiences and came out progressively more broken each and every time.
Ritsuka went through a traumatic, transformative experience and came away surer of himself and somewhat more confident.
This is cherry-picking. You cannot compare all of what that Taylor when through with just Ritsuka's experience in the prison tower, hell you can barely compare it to his experiences in the past 4 singularities. Sure, technically the odds where high since he was on a time limit and if defeated he would have been trapped, but that's no different than the aforementioned singularities and in the end, he didn't lose anyone or was injured in any way or had his ideals truly challenged. Even Dantes's note ended up with a hopespot in the form of "Wait and hope". I would hardly call that traumatic. Plus, Taylor's experiences as Skitter alone despite the trauma ended up making her surer and more confident of herself.
I want to go back to France when she tried to fight a wyvern. At least she felt more like herself then instead of the narrative disrespecting her, and Worm so utterly.
P.s: I wrote all of this before your last response to Karyis but frankly that just emphasizes my point because, based on that response, you haven't enjoyed the story since
Orleans.
