Nov 14, 2025
Well, since ZNF was brave enough to do a deep critical analysis, I figured I'd give it a try too(I was a bit unsure before). This is just the subjective opinion of a humble, amateurish writer, so take it with a few grains(or spoonfuls) of salt.
Truth be told, I have pretty mixed feelings about this story overall. That might come as a surprise, given that in my previous comments I avoided mentioning the things I was cross about, since unsolicited feedback can often come off as pretentious.
Beyond the inconsistencies in prose(which I won't get into), I felt there were just too many characters for me to care about any of them. The only one I remotedly cared about was Reinhardt, and he, Akemi and Riefenberg were the only ones with plotlines that felt meaningful.
Everyone else who was given POVs, a privilege usually reserved for relevant characters, just felt like they didn't really do anything other than go on with their lives until the inevitable end.
Yeah, I guess you could argue that showing the mundane lives of many people, and how they slowly disintegrate as the end approaches, can be an effective narrative technique.
But with how uninteresting most of them were, what point was there for it? With some chapters jumping across 4 or 5 different POVs, it was almost impossible for me to feel a connection to any of it.
Then the deaths started. But, like, I'm not gonna cry for the chinese friend who had maybe 15 lines of dialogue, or Linda who, despite having some backstory, basically existed just to deliver a flower and die in a beautiful and well-written but ultimately hollow scene.
That said, there were some definite strengths. Many scenes were strong on their own, but when read in the context of the whole story, they often didn't carry the emotional weight they should have. Usually the buildup makes a climax hit harder, but here even the most beautiful scenes were undercut by the lack of investment in the characters.
In the end the potential was there, but it was just so diluted in secondary plotlines that it was like having a small spoon of delightful honey inside a 5 liter bottle of plain water.
Anyway, as I already mentioned, focussing on a big cast with mundane lives might still be a solid strategy, maybe it's just me who doesn't connect with it(Meg seemed to like it, and they're a very skilled writer). But in my subjective and prone to error opinion, I believe that the story would benefit from a more limited, focussed cast with interwoven plotlines that allow the characters time to develop meaningfully.
That's it from me, congratulations on getting to finals, and good luck with your future works.
