@IzuOchaSpark It’s the format that hurts it the most IMO.
Darkstalker got away with jumping between 3 PoVs because it was mostly telling one story.
Here it’s three stories and the chapter breaks frequently kill the momentum and the pacing.
@IzuOchaSpark “Face a great evil with talons United or none of the tribes will survive”.
There was always going to be something else, Wasp alone wasn’t enough.
Also, always interesting to see what clues people do and don’t catch on to.
@JEM__stones I almost agree on Cast, but SM is just better.
Better Ash, better developed team and friend group with just as fun a dynamics.
BW has more rivals who are fun in a group, but it also has Trip and Cameron who were poorly handled.
@nwthelonewolf@JEM__stones That makes total sense, Paul was the opponent Ash was the most emotionally invested in beating because he directly challenged ashes entire world view on training.
Of course Ash’s VA would consider that the highlight.
@JEM__stones That’s true from a power scaling perspective, but from an emotional perspective, Paul blows Brandon out of the water.
Brandon was ultimately just a strong trainer, Paul challenged Ash’s principles so him winning feels like a better climax.
@_nuh_uh@aethryael@Yugiman101 Can’t agree, Zexal ruins too many of its villains with rushed redemptions, and the two main villains: Don Thousand and Faker, are snooze feats. It’s the secondary villains that carry Zexal to 2nd place.
@Yugiman101 DM is unrivaled not just in main villains but also side ones.
Other series have individually better villains, but not a whole cast.
Zexal comes the closest, but ruins too many of them with rushed redemptions.
@_nuh_uh@aethryael@Yugiman101 Other series had individual villains who were on par with the original, but the question is about the villain cast overall.
The only weak link among the DM villains are the Waking the Dragons group.
@IzuOchaSpark Have to disagree on it being boring, I loved the book long stealth escape mission and all the great character moments with Blue.
Hope the next book clicks more for you.
@IzuOchaSpark Well yes, there three non combatants on the run.
Also they’ve escaped from one hive and made in halfway to another undetected.
For a stealth mission that’s impressive.