Jan 19, 2025
I really enjoyed the setting in this one. There were a few entries with 'floating cities' but this one actually had them be a vital part of the story rather than a random cool visual to keep in the background. Since I'm a cringe nerd I kind of lost my suspension of disbelief whenever anything got explained (flying at 8 km elevation lol, I don't think anyone's arms would take catching someone at terminal velocity gently, even with the city...? Being at 1/4 gravity or smth.) (Where is this set again?) (Does the wing surgery make their bones hollow or.). The visuals of the floaty huge skyscrapers and farms beneath was nice nonetheless.
I liked Arwain a lot. He's probably one of my favorite mcs this honeyverse. 10/10 himbo energy from beginning to end. Very shounenpilled. No thoughts head empty, single braincell turns on and off at random intervals, objektifies himself before anyone else can. Parent death also has an actual effect on the character rather than being tragic backstory no.89568596 which is not only rare but nice to see.
I kind of agree with what other people are saying, kind of not. I mean, it's a sub 50k word story with a sizeable cast. It's impossible to meaningfully develop all of them, or even a handful. For what they were, I thought they were cute and likeable, though Jester and especially Sarge were kind of sidelined a lot while farmboi and gacha gamer girl got most of the side character spotlight. Jolly was just kinda... there, I guess. For some time I thought she and Arwain would fucc so she would be elevated to Girl status, but it is what it is. At least she was conveniently there for the finale.
It's kind of interesting that the villain 'won' despite what happened to him. I was a bit ??? on his motivation the entire time until this chapter. Not sure if I agree with his ultimate thesis (he is the antagonist who did Bad things so I'd be shocked if the story agrees with it) but I finally saw where he's coming from. Still... I don't know. I've seen you mention the story became a vent dump regarding recent elections, but to me it kind of reminds me of the way tech grifts get shoved down our throats and we're meant to adopt them or else. People who just want to chill with their 'traditional' lifestyle get ostracized by a vocal minority of weirdoes, and then the us vs. them mentality grows. Speaking of which, WAS that ever resolved? I know you mentioned he got arrested with little fanfare, but surely the news of what happened would spread anyway, right? Does no one have anything to say on the subject? Might've been a plot point that got dropped due to time/word count issue but it still makes me wonder. It's still Harmonic Future(TM) so it has to be happy and kawaii or else, but it's still kind of a shame. I don't know. 'Real world doesn't work like that' but this is a story where physics goes brr and men are objekts so whatever
The thing I wanted to mention since the beginning was the constant telling. At this point it's probably just part of your writing style, but it kind of disappointed me to think of a theory or mystery just for you to outright explain character motivations, thus killing any subtext. For some time, I thought this was omniscient POV since everyone's thoughts and backstories were dumped like a videogame screen in an RPG (same as the setting, legit felt like a loading screen at times), but as the story went on it shifted to Arwain's (and Daedalus for a couple scenes) perspective almost exclusively? So which is it? But anyway, not a criticism exactly, moreso a nitpick. Really not a fan of mostly tell not show. I could see it working in a manga or an audiovisual medium which might've been your intention, but this is in written form dammit.
But yeah. I liked the 'nothing' SoL moments between characters the most. It really felt like zooming through a floating city at times, so it was very fun to read. I liked this a lot more than Grace (I know people loved that one don't crucify me), but like Stew said I'm not sure if it's what they're looking for harmonic future? idk the high energy floaty setting would be fantastic for an anime, but I digress. In a way it reminds me a lot of 00s shounen, back when the obsession with subversion and ep 1 twists to desperately attract as many monke brains as possible wasn't so... obvious, I guess. If nothing else, it was a cute nostalgic trip with a strong message about the way those in power exploit our us vs. them mentality to suit their agendas (a.k.a. politics in a nutshell). Again, it's a shame the ending was kind of saccharine in that sense, but I get why it had to happen. no poLITICS IN MY ENTERTAINMENT GRRR
