Title: What Comes Around
Author: Vathara
Rating: T
Genre: Adventure/Family
Chapters: 23
Words: 235,153
Published: May 30, 2019
Status: Complete
Fandom: Magi/マギ The Labyrinth of Magic
Pairings: Light Alibaba/Morgiana
Summary: Alibaba's life never gets easier. Even in another life. AKA, Magi canon looks like it's going to end up an incredible mess... and the bunnies decided they needed major fixit. As in, reborn in another world level of fixit. ...This is Magi. And Ugo's really, really smart...
Link: FFN, AO3

So Vathara dropped a complete 200K+ word fic on our doorsteps all at once and I went ahead to pick it up because coincidentally I had just finished a binge watching of Magi, so... why not?

The setting is modern day Earth, hundreds or thousands of years have passed since the events of the anime and it just so happens magic is returning to the world and nobody yet knows why. Almost all of the flagship characters have been reincarnated and much of the B-plot is dealing with the fallout of returning memories as much as it is the situation and the villains involved.

So, this is a Vathara fic, to give a heads up, and much of the hallmarks of a Vatharafic™ are present.

Pros:
• Excellent world-building. The world feels real, the situations don't seem completely out there for what is going on, and developments feel like they are natural results of the shitstorm going down. The reincarnated characters have histories, have lives, and they aren't just cutouts copied and pasted into a Highschool AU. Their lives in modern times have changed them and their circumstances feel real somehow.
• Consistent characterisation. With a few exceptions, most of the characters are slightly OOC, but this is handwaved with the fact that most of them have lived much of their modern lives before awakening into their past memories and powers. That said, they aren't completely all over the place and any character development happens smoothly and believably.

Cons:
• The villain is almost nonexistent. Unlike most of Vathara's previous fics (Embers, Shadows in Starlight, Change of Fate, etc.), there is a clear and present danger and it is focused around a single villain rather than a situation. Unfortunately, I've so far read through 3/4s of the story and the villain has literally shown up thrice. It's not even that they are working in the background (although they are, only 2 of the situations that occur in the first half of the story seem to be a direct result of their actions), but the majority of their appearances seem to be reacting in WTF just happened? moments as they spy on the cast awakening to their powers.
• Preachy pseudopsychotherapy. It wouldn't be a Vatharafic™ without it, unfortunately. At least one main character seems to have issues with their reincarnation conflicting with their previous life and the B-plot (or is it A?) revolves around dealing with it. As always with a Vatharafic™, nobody is actively antagonistic, but the cast is split between those who Understand-There-Is-An-Issue-To-Solve and Those-Who-Don't-Quite-Get-Why-It's-A-Big-Deal. Which leads to...
• Oblivious Blithe Spirit. He means well. He totally wants to be your friend. He just can't understand this crazy-strange world or why anybody is worried about something that is just totally awesome and why does it upset them because it is just so cool! and hasn't it always been this way? I don't see what's the big deal? Am I reading about Aang or Aladdin? Yes part of their canon characterisation is to be somewhat naive but I didn't like this aspect in Embers, I don't like it now.

tl;dr - It's a Vatharafic™. If you like or even have a passing tolerance for them you might enjoy this one. If any of her fics made you want to flip your desk, I'd run for the hills.

My personal rec is a 3/5, the writing is top notch and would have gotten an easy 4.5, but... Vatharafic™
(woulda posted in almost recc, but i don't have permissions to do so)



Checked by Minion, July 21, 2016