Monday, January 27, 2014

Book club: The Name Mix-up by LadyandtheTurtleDuck

The names Levy and Lily sound similar when people are drunk. Gajeel knows this.


Book club:


Fandom: Fairy Tail

This story was short and fluffy. And sometimes that’s a problem because its easy to be cliché.
But this one?

I’M GONNA SQUEAL.

It was short and sweet, uncomplicated by heavy description or fancy word play – this was bare knuckles, romantic fluff that didn’t destroy Gajeel’s badass character. Only highlighting the fact that he’s secretly adorable.

As it was a short oneshot, there isn’t much else to say other than how the characters themselves behaved and what exactly happened.

SPOILERS BELOW!

 The story takes place at the guild after another round of heavy celebration which is typical of Fairy Tail. (√)

Everyone is wonderfully wasted and in hilarious situations left to our imagination because no one was named or described as the main focus was on Pantherlily, and his attention of his two favorite people: Gajeel and Levy. (√)

Our lovely couple is trying to sleep on the floor because they’re just too drunk to go home and find a comfortable bed so they make do like everyone else apparently. (√)

Gajeel, who in head canon, is a major cuddler, requires his pet cat to make sleeping on the floor less of a pain in the ass and because he’s drunk, he thinks his cat is Levy. (√)

Levy, being in love with him, only struggles slightly before accepting her fate. (√)

The cuteness doesn’t end there, oh no!

If anything, morning afters are just as cute. If you’re lucky.

As usual, Mira is the one to discover them and Gajeel reacts like Gajeel and refuses to believe he initiated cuddles. With three against one, the odds aren’t in his favor and he decides that either Levy or Lily must change their name for the sake of his reputation. (√)

I promise it’s cuter than what my summary is.

But basically everything that happened made absolute sense from setting to character reactions.

What I loved the most was the simplicity of the story – it’s all about Gajeel getting his cuddle on, and how it happened as well as how it was handled when he was caught was done so adorably well, even if it was horribly written, I’d probably still enjoy it.

The dialogue was pretty standard, they definitely sounded like themselves, but the punctuation needed work and when dialogue happened there was an unnecessary need to add He said/She said afterwards.

As for the characters themselves: it was an impressive portrayal considering the amount of cuteness in the fic, Gajeel was still sourly and grumpy, and then just confident and cute at once – my favorite! Lily was pretty basic as was Levy, and Mira made somewhat of an unnecessary appearance, but she was also very familiar.
I loved the story just the way it was regardless of everything I just said above.
There’s your example of a successful fluff fic without over fluffing!

And here’s a word to the wise for those attempting fluff:
KEEP IT SIMPLE AND DON’T LET THE CHARACTERS OVERREACT.

Brownie points:
Gajeel loves cuddles = WIN
Characters-in-character

Health deductions:
NONE. ENJOY WITH CAKE.

Red pen level: 8/10
A few missing words and punctuation missing (a comma or two), there’s also an issue with dialogue, but nothing alcohol can’t fix.

Characterization: 8/10

Plot: 9/10
Kept it simple and took it home for cuddles!

Overall: 8/10

Recommendation:
Clean up dialogue and you’re good to go!

Have you read this fanfiction? Do you think I got it right, or are we going to agree to disagree? Review the fic in question or leave me a line below.


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