This writing is absolutely amazing

"timothy drake" hmmm that name sounds familiar, almost as if it also belongs to a certain bird themed superhero lmao

Did Black die? Just asking, I didn’t quite understand the ending

I read this story over the course of a few nights earlier this week, and I waited a couple of days to review because I wanted some time to let the dust settle in my head first. I think this story is very, very good, and I wanted my review to do it justice. So, here goes.

I loved this. This story is, without question, one of the best I have ever read on this site. I appreciate so much the obvious amount of effort and passion that was put into it. The formatting alone speaks to that. I don't know if this makes any sense or not, but to me, this story FEELS like art. I adore the way this was stylized, with the creative line breaks, the flashbacks in first person and present tense, the carefully-chosen quotes at the beginning of each chapter, the multiple plot threads which fit together seamlessly. In my experience, most attempts to use quotes, non-standard line breaks, etc. turn into a pretentious, pseudo-artistic load of garbage. The quality here was so strong from beginning to end that you rose above that stereotype and instead let it elevate you.

I appreciate even more the commitment to what the story is, and not what the world may have wanted it to be. I may be one of the least genre-savvy people in the world. I never, ever see the twist coming, no matter what it is. For an embarrassingly long time while I read this, I was rooting for Black and Cynthia to kiss. I'm so glad you didn't do that. It would have made no sense in-universe. It would have been nothing but a bit of cheesecake thrown to the readers. I have no idea if you ever toyed with the idea or not, but either way, I love that you didn't go there. This story is aware enough of itself to laugh when it needs to, but it knows what it is. It takes itself seriously. It does exactly what it needs to do, and no more. I respect the hell out of that.

I love the ending. Like I said, I'm a fool. I was expecting a happy ending the whole time. You didn't give it to me, and I'm so thankful you did not. It would have been a refutation of everything this story was about, a betrayal of Black's character, and a tacit admission that Cynthia's view of the world was the "right" one. I much prefer the ambiguity. I'm a massive sucker for redemption arcs. I love that you dangled Black's "redemption" in front of me like a carrot on a stick and then pulled it away at the last second. That takes guts. I clicked on Chapter Seven fully expecting Black to have been deemed worthy by the sea god, and I was ready to enjoy a denouement of him making things right with everyone again. I was ready to see him meet Bianca and Cheren again, to go on a date with Susan, to return Caitlin's note. Thank you for not doing that. The ending you actually wrote is so much more powerful because of all the what-ifs.

I love the characterization in this story, especially Cynthia. I adore her as a character, but so many authors portray her as invincible, infallible, and/or nonsensical. You managed to make her powerful and wise beyond her years while still being a very real and very flawed human being, with her aloof, cloudcuckoolander personality still intact. Simply amazing work. Black, as a blank slate, was one of the best no-name everyman characters I've seen. He has a fully-realized, coherent personality and worldview. He's believable. He feels like a person. He doesn't know what he wants to be when he grows up. He swears with his friends. He gets flustered around pretty girls. He doesn't know how to handle this gigantic mess. He never asked for any of it. The inevitable breakdown of his defenses was both excruciating and immensely satisfying. Cynthia was a perfect foil. Their clash in the garden will likely live on in my mind as one of the most memorable battles I've read in fanfiction.

The attention to detail really shows what a labor of love this must have been. The Riches! Throwaway characters from a post-game town! Matt Johansson, the pizza delivery guy! Oh my god. Dive spots. The Abyssal Ruins. The 500-step limit. Largely-forgotten Pokemon like Beheeyem and Carracosta being total badasses. Gracidea flowers. I could go on and on.

Anyway, this was an awesome read and I enjoyed the hell out of it. Thank you so much for sharing it with the world.

A little confused by the ending. Did the protagonist die? Is he still searching? Puzzled.

Other than the ending, great job on the fic. Some nice worldbuilding, character moments, and dialogue, as well as comedic relief.

Awesome. Sort of hoped we wouldve got to see Black destroy Iris in a battle tho

Holy carp. This was a fantastic story. I remember reading some of this years ago when I was in high school.

It's amazing to know this great story has properly concluded. Gave me quite a rollercoaster of emotions reading through it all. Nice to see such a hopeful ending as well. Thanks for sharing this with us.

You finished this a month ago? Wow. What a rollercoaster. This is such a brilliant fic and I'm grateful to you for writing this.

Eh, I would have preferred it if chapter 6 had been the end. This feels more like the first chapter of a sequel. It focuses on a few plot threads, none of which feel resolved by the end.

This story is now, at the very least, in the top ten stories I've every read. Good work man!

I’m too lazy to login but I hope that this helps anyways. This has been one of my favorite stories on the site ever since I found it, and when I saw that you posted a new chapter I was ecstatic. Having just finished it, I felt that I should give you my thoughts on the story. I loved it from start to finish. The character development, the storyline, and the dialogue are all well crafted and clearly thought out. It is lbvious that you took time while writing this, and I am so glad that you did. A lesser writer would have butchered this idea, and I cannot wait to see what else you come up with. Thank you so much for his, and I hope you keep writing!

Oh my gosh, it's finally here! Thank you so much for the ending! I've waited so long for this update that when I saw the email notifying me about the update, I about lost it!

I enjoyed getting a chance to see how the people close to Black reacted to his disappearance, especially Cheren's and Bianca's reactions. The way they so fondly and understandingly reminisced about him after all the flashbacks we got from Black really brought the story full circle. It gave the ending a pleasant human quality to it and helped to shed light on how everyone who had personally met the Hero of Unova truly felt about him (looking at you, Caitlin).

On a slightly less related topic, I thought it interesting how you decided to format Black's perspective like one of his flashbacks and then threw in the bit about alternate dimensions. There's still the same ambiguity about whether Black actually died or not that Chapter Six had been left hanging on, only now the reader has a chance to believe in a happy ending. I can't really tell whether that was intentional or not, but it's still a neat twist all the same.

Anyway, enough of my babbling. Thank you for writing this masterpiece! I thoroughly enjoyed every second of it!

This is a strange, but nice ending.

Tithi: It has been years but thank you for completing the story! This is one of the first fanfics I read and liked!

oh, my
This was certainly a wonderful surprise. It's a very beautiful story you've written, and one I didn't expect an ending for - chapter six was already good enough of an ending for me, to be perfectly honest - but now there is one, and it's really quite wonderful

of course I had to go and reread the entire thing again just to get swept up in all of this - you've got a fabulous way with descriptive words that make them soft and bittersweet and lovely, and the emotional scenes in this fic gently tug around heartstrings, which is just a lovely feeling

thank you for writing this!