It's probably a good thing that I've never watched Familiar of Zero. It never seemed like an anime I'd enjoy. Gabriel seems to be writing for an audience who isn't familiar with Familiar of Zero, so my ignorance with the anime probably makes me far more forgiving about any related setting and character problems.

In that case you might appreciate his latest author's note:

The newest chapter has several glaring errors in it (eg. of/off, one/won), but it seems that they're about to get curbed.

 

This story is finished now, for anyone who was waiting for it to be.

 

I wonder when he's going to get back to writing 'Ruinous'...

 

I believe he said somewere in one of his A/N that he was considering in making a Xover with Fairy Tail. Thus I believe it might still take a while (or maybe never) until he returns to Ruinous.

 

The ending just hurt my head >_>. To big of a time skip, not enough details.

 

You've got to be kidding me! Ruinous is one of his best pieces!

 

The ending was painfully forced and almost melodramatic.

 

The ending was good; the epilogue was painfully forced and almost melodramatic.

Like the HP7 epilogue, I find it incredibly easy to ignore.

 

Like some of the previous posters, I can't say I agree with the author's interpretation of the Nasuverse magic system, and the extent of Shirou's ability to call upon the various powers of the NPs from UBW. And the epilogue was a complete flop.

But overall? Not bad for a time waster. Certainly no masterpiece, but definitely a good time waster.

 

The ending may have sucked that is true but overall its a great story.

 

Is it just me, or are epilogues in HP7's style always a bad idea?

 

The "what happened to everyone in 10 years time" style of epilogue is supposed to give a sense of closure to the audience. I'm struggling to remember ever seeing it done well in a novel or fic.

 

Not sure how well you would count it, but the last chapter of FMA had a nice (semi epilogue.

 

The Lord of the Rings had a pretty good 10 years later kind of epilogue.

As for The Hill of Swords: good story, rushed ending.

 

Needs more Ruinous.

 

This is gonna be a shorter review because it's been a long while since I read this story to completion, but I've read a few starting chapters recently.

It's probabaly the best Fate/Zero crossover so far (that is Fate/StayNight and Familiar of Zero), in a sense that great care was taken to balance Shiro powers to that of the local mages (at least in a sense that people are able to defeat him). I do not know much of Familiar of Zero, but from what I know, this adaptation is rather faithful.

Shiro is interesting, his decisions are sometimes weird and his attitude and sarcasm are usually out of place, he butts head with the setting of Familiar of Zero and remains stubborn until it gives way. He's too willing to murder to get his way, though, I'd expect canon Emiya to have loads of problems with this Shiro's approach.

It's been a guilty pleasure for me, but I remember liking it overall.

3/5

 

The reason for that is that this Shirou was supposed to be about halfway to Archer. I think the author described him as EMiyA. It's a lot less 'save EVERYONE in front of me' and more 'save as many as I can.' Or something; it's been a while.

Honestly, my memory of In Flight is fresher, so some of this may come more from that than this story.

I remember liking it at the time. The problems I have with the author's stories--mostly this and In Flight--come from gabrielblessing's bad habits of info-dumping and too many characters. There's usually FAR too much exposition, going on and on about every little thing. The worst part is that it is usually Shirou giving the explanations. By everyone and their mother's opinion, Shirou isn't a very bright guy. He's actually pretty simpleminded, and he's the one that needs exposition given TO, not the other way around. Magical theory is very much not his thing, so he shouldn't be able to give a speech about how the Zero fighter is only going to be able to do its thing once.

Granted, some level of exposition is often necessary in a crossover with a lesser-known series, since not every reader would know about that world's setting, and the Nasuverse in particular is often unnecessarily complex, but Gabriel often goes too far.

The problem of too many characters for Gabriel Blessing's works is that if there are eight characters in a room, then eight characters are going to have dialogue. I've got a clearer memory of a scene of In Flight where all six or so Sekirei give their opinions on Shirou's actions, most of which are their character's equivalent of 'What is irony? Is it good to eat?' As if they are just going around a circle, waiting for their turn to speak.

The weird thing is, that he somehow gets worse at this over time. In Flight was superbad at this, Honor Thy Masters could drag on at times and definitely had the same problem, and it wasn't quite as bad in Hill of Swords. Back in the days of Ruinous and On Four Legs, the exposition was to the point, with exactly as much detail as necessary. The worst part is that he doesn't need to do this; Debt of a Sword is one of the best oneshot romances I've seen (though how much of that is the story itself and how much of it is my residual memories of the Shirou/Miya relationship from In Flight, I can't say.). He can write good stories, he just lets his style get away from him.

Anyway, I think this story was pretty good overall. There aren't a ton of memorable moments that stuck in my mind, but this story made Henrietta one of my favorite characters in FoZ.

3/5

 

I'm not sure even EMIYA would casually joke about offering to kill people for his master (or be serious about it in some places). Yes, he did off quite a few people with his counter guardians profession, but he still had some form of his ideal in heart. The spirit had principles.

You could achieve the same effect of path towards EMIYA without over the top viciousness.

 

Frankly the worst part about GBrou is how edgy the author makes him. And his characterizations on Rin & Saber are even worse.

I still remember that bit where GB had Shirou of all people, the same Shirou who was more than willing to throw himself in front of Gilgamesh to save Illya or the same Shirou who threw himself in front of Saber to take a blow from Berserker, telling kidnappers on how to kidnap his own newly found sister.

What. The. Fuck!?

Gabriel Blessing claimed his Shirou was from the "UBW Good End." He lied I think. He really wanted Shirou from the HF Bad End, Mind of Steel. It would've fit better.

Heck, Ars Poetica does a great takedown on stuff he disliked about In Flight:
https://forums.spacebattles.com/thr...-an-idea-thread.301761/page-582#post-42922139