So yeah. Book 3 of the famous Angel Armor series. Considered the best entry by its author - but is that really true?
WorldbuildingShow
God the worldbuilding has gone to shit in this one.
We have ridiculously long sea voyages. A designated bad guy nation that doesn't matter. A literal 4D chess villain that doesn't matter. An assassin nation that doesn't make sense. A nation ruled by royal dicks who only stay in power by drugging the population.
Dude gave us an entirely new continent to explore, and boy do we have more misses than hits.
Then there appears to be quite a few retcons that exist because either Linkara (the author) changed his mind on something, or needed to patch a plot hole:
There's a good chance this shit won't matter, though. I mean, Thesia has also been teased since last book, and she has yet to begin mattering in any way, shape or form.
We have ridiculously long sea voyages. A designated bad guy nation that doesn't matter. A literal 4D chess villain that doesn't matter. An assassin nation that doesn't make sense. A nation ruled by royal dicks who only stay in power by drugging the population.
Dude gave us an entirely new continent to explore, and boy do we have more misses than hits.
Then there appears to be quite a few retcons that exist because either Linkara (the author) changed his mind on something, or needed to patch a plot hole:
- Wanna have cool animu hair colors in your world after all? Just say that people on this continent like to use all-natural hair dye that permanently alters your DNA.
- But don't you worry. All the important named characters will still be blonde.
- Wanna have a cool magic cosmology like in Slayers? Just rip it off and call the demon lords "pillars" or something.
- Nevermind that this goes against magic on Sin having been discovered by the Linkarans, and being effectively science instead of glorified shamanism.
- Nevermind that this necessitated the introduction of a new major religion that has never even been hinted at before and doesn't even have a name yet.
- Nevermind that that all Linkaran sorcerer-priests are now dancing on two weddings. Boy, I sure wonder if their allegiance to the Linkaran Church and their messiah is bigger than the one to the Eldritch beings that channel their awesome powers directly through them.
- You realize that the religious text of the Linkaran faith is too sparse to actually function as a religious text? Just say that's a feature, and that things only go wrong when some offshoot sect actually does try to make their own complete Bible.
- To make it extra weird Linkara defends the elusive Linkaran Man for forgetting any and all moral guidelines in his religious text - but is still pissed when people start filling this gaping hole the wrong way.
There's a good chance this shit won't matter, though. I mean, Thesia has also been teased since last book, and she has yet to begin mattering in any way, shape or form.
StorytellingShow
I'm pretty sure he just wrote this shit as he went along, with plot threads getting dropped or resolved in the most convenient way once he got bored or something.
I mean, the whole trip to the other continent only happens because they have no idea where else to start looking for a dimensional travel spell - and the very first stop on their trip already has them hit the motherlode.
Characters keep teasing these "Hahlo Unification" guys as the second coming of the Terafellas - but all they ever do is to serve as surprise opponents for a filler scene.
We get a little bit more about Thesia and her transtemporal keikaku - but she keeps being completely pointless to the narrative.
We run into an eeeevil offshoot of the Linkaran faith that indulges in spontaneous human sacrifice as punishment for haram behavior - and that's it. They exist.
Instead the whole issue with Lithmenar's backstory - which you'd think they'd deal with on their way to more important shit - becomes the central focus and climax of the whole book - despite the fact that nothing gets resolved and the status quo remains effectively unchanged.
And it's not due to a lack of options. They had the tyrant king unconscious before their feet - and they just ignored him. They effectively won a stupid brawl with the king, queen and guards - and just left despite Linkara's initial plan of overthrowing them.
We get another mind battle equivalent - and it's the longest and most self-indulgent one yet (and one of the longest, if not the longest chapters in the entire series), but you can't even enjoy it as a dumb crossover fanfic because it stops short of actually becoming a dumb crossover fanfic. It's fucking mind-boggling. You go through all this dumb shit with Borg Cubes, random animu characters and a ridiculous suit up scene - and then we don't even get a scene of Linkara and Ash Williams posing together?
And then as a final fuck you the final two chapters are just people waiting around for shit to happen, and everyone (including the readers) being confused at Stupid Surprise Magic Space Gods.
At times, the author also seems to get a bit confused himself - like with Linkara wanting to bring his fellowship along on his return trip to Earth. At times it seems only Indow is supposed to follow him, but then everyone keeps talking as if he expects everyone to follow him.
But then again, why would they go their separate ways? Their are just mindless JRPG party members, forever stuck with the Great Linkara.
Oh, how I wish I was kidding. Previous books where already bad with the fellowship's motivation, like how Lithmenar kept bitching and moaning about how he doesn't wanna go where the others plan to go, but ends up going anyways for reasons he himself doesn't understand. It's so much worse here. Half of Linkara's minions technically have no desire whatsoever to follow him on his wild goose chase to a different continent - but they end up going anyways for no good reason (more on that when I start bitching about individual characters).
I mean, the whole trip to the other continent only happens because they have no idea where else to start looking for a dimensional travel spell - and the very first stop on their trip already has them hit the motherlode.
Characters keep teasing these "Hahlo Unification" guys as the second coming of the Terafellas - but all they ever do is to serve as surprise opponents for a filler scene.
We get a little bit more about Thesia and her transtemporal keikaku - but she keeps being completely pointless to the narrative.
We run into an eeeevil offshoot of the Linkaran faith that indulges in spontaneous human sacrifice as punishment for haram behavior - and that's it. They exist.
Instead the whole issue with Lithmenar's backstory - which you'd think they'd deal with on their way to more important shit - becomes the central focus and climax of the whole book - despite the fact that nothing gets resolved and the status quo remains effectively unchanged.
And it's not due to a lack of options. They had the tyrant king unconscious before their feet - and they just ignored him. They effectively won a stupid brawl with the king, queen and guards - and just left despite Linkara's initial plan of overthrowing them.
We get another mind battle equivalent - and it's the longest and most self-indulgent one yet (and one of the longest, if not the longest chapters in the entire series), but you can't even enjoy it as a dumb crossover fanfic because it stops short of actually becoming a dumb crossover fanfic. It's fucking mind-boggling. You go through all this dumb shit with Borg Cubes, random animu characters and a ridiculous suit up scene - and then we don't even get a scene of Linkara and Ash Williams posing together?
And then as a final fuck you the final two chapters are just people waiting around for shit to happen, and everyone (including the readers) being confused at Stupid Surprise Magic Space Gods.
At times, the author also seems to get a bit confused himself - like with Linkara wanting to bring his fellowship along on his return trip to Earth. At times it seems only Indow is supposed to follow him, but then everyone keeps talking as if he expects everyone to follow him.
But then again, why would they go their separate ways? Their are just mindless JRPG party members, forever stuck with the Great Linkara.
Oh, how I wish I was kidding. Previous books where already bad with the fellowship's motivation, like how Lithmenar kept bitching and moaning about how he doesn't wanna go where the others plan to go, but ends up going anyways for reasons he himself doesn't understand. It's so much worse here. Half of Linkara's minions technically have no desire whatsoever to follow him on his wild goose chase to a different continent - but they end up going anyways for no good reason (more on that when I start bitching about individual characters).
LinkaraShow
Once again everything gets that much worse thanks to our beloved protagonist.
Now it was clear even to Linkara (the author) that he'd have to reign in the self-insert power fantasy excess of Book 2, where Linkara (the character) was effectively Superman in full Superdickery mode swaggering around Sin, brutalizing whomever he pleased.
I fear he course-corrected a bit too hard.
Without any explanation whatsoever, he can now be captured and restrained by people who don't even know his true power level.
Nevermind that Book 2 Linkara was perfectly able to break out of any chains by just flexing his muscles.
Nevermind that the titular Angel Armor was perfectly able to shock or even actively defend against enemies whenever Linkara wasn't conscious - which it also did in this book except for this one capturing scene.
Also without explanation is his sudden 180 turn to suddenly being a pussy and borderline pacifist. The only hint is his promise to reclaim the heavenly mandate of the optimists (God's real chosen people), but that was more in relation to him wanting to stop being a whiny bitch (which he still is, btw.).
So what awaits us in this brave new world? A reborn Linkara who solves problems with words and logic, and defeats batguys non-lethally and with style like some kind of Zorro?
Of course not.
The one time he defuses a situation using his Diplomacy skill only worked out because the guy who led the enemy patrol had secret lie detector powers - and it's all for nothing because his entire team gets killed in the very next scene anyways. That's fucking it.
He didn't even get to have peace negotiations because those negotations are cancelled by him before they can even start.
And he's still pretty violent, but there are always some weird-ass factor that makes his violence okay - because heaven forbid he has to learn to take people out without sticking his arm blades through them.
- The Shadow Nazgul? Seems more or less immortal, and of course he leaves Indow to do the torturing.
- The Neo-Terafellas? They're actually immortal - at least according to BLACK MASTER. Personally if some random stranger assured me that the other random strangers trying to kill him are totally incapable of dying due to mysterious reasons, I'd probably hesitate before starting to bust out fucking Fatalities. What makes this even worse is we never get any confirmation that they are indeed immortal.
- The possessed assassin trying to kill him? He kills himself.
- The mind battle bugmen? They're not real.
- The king's bodyguards? Thankfully a bunch of sexy assassin waifus do the killing for him.
- The king? Oh yeah, the one time where he does go for a non-lethal takedown. Still pretty brutal, but the king recovers almost instantly, so whatever.
But don't worry about this new and improved Linkara being too different from the one you know and love. He's still a complete jerk to people he just met. He's still whiny and bitchy at seemingly random intervalls. He still threatens (potential) allies to get what he wants. And he still verbally/emotionally abuses his friends aka loyal minions.
Easily his biggest temper tantrum is the famous naked catgirl slave incident - where he incoherently screams at Indow because someone else has triggered him.
I feel like Linkara (the character and author) just used Indow as the willing canvas for Linkara (the character) to have a very important speech (aka incoherent whining) about how one must neither respect nor tolerate "evil" cultures - which is pretty rich coming from the guy who claimed earlier that he doesn't give a fuck how other people are living, and who does absolutely nothing to fight the various injustices he encounters in this book, even though it is well within his power to do so.
He even comes up with weird-ass excuses that sound like straight-up gaslighting ("I could have freed this naked catgirl slave - if only you had told me about it before..."). Fucking psycho.
Speaking of naked catgirls: There's this baffling scene where he turns down Indow's offer for sex - which highlights that he's both highly paranoid about STDs and completely unfamiliar with the concept of safer sex (or he's just gaslighting again). It's weird, and only exists because Linkara (the author) had planned to make this a major plot point in later books. Yikes.
Just fingerbang your catgirl sweetheart, you fucking weirdo.
IndowShow
The big non-tension with her in this book is whether or not she'd ultimately agree to head over to Earth with Linkara, with her main worry being that too much time might pass on Sin while she's gone.
Ultimately we are assured that time passes at the same speed in both worlds, so this major worry only exists because the story is purposely vague on when exactly this first expedition to Earth happened.
As for what passes as "character development" in this series, she has pretty much become the workhorse of the fellowship. She already solved many encounters in previous books with some big fuck-off spell, but thanks to Linkara being surprisingly useless in this book she has to do it all the time now.
At first I thought Indow being exhausted after these encounters would be leading up to something (aka Linkara realizing he should start cracking skulls himself again), but no, nothing comes out of it.
Just how fucking weird of an author do you have to be if your self-insert power fantasy story has your self-insert sit back while his catgirl waifu does all the dirty work?
Their relationship's pretty unchanged. They're more lovey-dovey I guess, but she's still completely subservient to her messiah BF, as is expected.
She might also be somewhere on the spectrum, what with her having a hard time learning chess because she doesn't seem to grasp the concept of abstraction in a board game.
Ultimately we are assured that time passes at the same speed in both worlds, so this major worry only exists because the story is purposely vague on when exactly this first expedition to Earth happened.
As for what passes as "character development" in this series, she has pretty much become the workhorse of the fellowship. She already solved many encounters in previous books with some big fuck-off spell, but thanks to Linkara being surprisingly useless in this book she has to do it all the time now.
At first I thought Indow being exhausted after these encounters would be leading up to something (aka Linkara realizing he should start cracking skulls himself again), but no, nothing comes out of it.
Just how fucking weird of an author do you have to be if your self-insert power fantasy story has your self-insert sit back while his catgirl waifu does all the dirty work?
Their relationship's pretty unchanged. They're more lovey-dovey I guess, but she's still completely subservient to her messiah BF, as is expected.
She might also be somewhere on the spectrum, what with her having a hard time learning chess because she doesn't seem to grasp the concept of abstraction in a board game.
LithmenarShow
This guy's a fucking mess.
He has gotten quite the buff in this book. Gone are the days of him just being a knife thrower. Now he has heightened senses and perfect body control allowing for lighting speed and sick parkour tricks.
I guess Linkara (the author) has watched more animu since the last book and wanted more Naruto ninja bullshit, but honestly all I can think of is that his dead sweetheart and mentor was a Bene Gesserit witch.
Also his actual thief skills are random and hyper-specialized. Apparently he knows how to escape from any dungeon cell, but he's completely stumped if you lock him up in a normal room.
You know how in the previous books he kept tagging along with the fellowship despite his constant complaining about how much it sucks to be part of the fellowship? This shit is cranked up to eleven in this.
Dude has no desire to go to Aigol. He doesn't want to. Nothing but pain and misery would await him there. But he still goes for no logical reason, like a fucking horse riding itself to the glue factory.
Linkara (the author) did have an opportunity to make him change his mind. It's the entire reason Enrike was looking for him. But no, his dire warnings contained nothing to make him reconsider to make this nonsense make sense.
If you'd force me to fix this shit with the least amount of work, I'd just use his sister as "bait". Doesn't matter if she's 1-2 years older and he was always aware of her existence, or if Enrike just told him about her. Just tell him his loli sister might end up getting gangbanged by the revolutionaries if the regime falls, and watch him parkour his way over the ocean.
Once in Aigol he keeps testing my patience by being a paranoid and highly suspicious little bitch. Really it's fucking bizarre the others don't force him to finally spill the beans. Instead they just put up with his antics until the guy is literally cornered like a rat - and even then he invents some crazy bullshit story (to apparently serve as a red herring for the obvious hints strewn since the first book).
What the hell is his problem? Just being honest would've made everything clearer, and nothing about his actual backstory ("My sweetheart made me slightly less of an asshole, then she died.") is really worthy of being kept a secret. Did he like expect that they'd get to Earth long before they can come anywhere close to his home or something?
Speaking about his actual backstory, it kinda makes him look even dumber. So his sweetheart tried to teach him to be more objective and form his own opinions - and the dude just copy-pasted her world view and still believes that all nobles and churches are as hilariously evil as the ones from his home turf.
His interactions with his parents are surprisingly trash for what is supposed to be one of the major plots of this book. They barely interact, then he gets borderline brainwashed with the revelation of having a sister, then he and his dad scream at each other and effectively just reinforce the status quo.
And then he just leaves his sister behind while coming up with various excuses why that's not a problem. Because he whole fellowship has to come to Earth, so they have to close their various subplots ASAP.
He has gotten quite the buff in this book. Gone are the days of him just being a knife thrower. Now he has heightened senses and perfect body control allowing for lighting speed and sick parkour tricks.
I guess Linkara (the author) has watched more animu since the last book and wanted more Naruto ninja bullshit, but honestly all I can think of is that his dead sweetheart and mentor was a Bene Gesserit witch.
Also his actual thief skills are random and hyper-specialized. Apparently he knows how to escape from any dungeon cell, but he's completely stumped if you lock him up in a normal room.
You know how in the previous books he kept tagging along with the fellowship despite his constant complaining about how much it sucks to be part of the fellowship? This shit is cranked up to eleven in this.
Dude has no desire to go to Aigol. He doesn't want to. Nothing but pain and misery would await him there. But he still goes for no logical reason, like a fucking horse riding itself to the glue factory.
Linkara (the author) did have an opportunity to make him change his mind. It's the entire reason Enrike was looking for him. But no, his dire warnings contained nothing to make him reconsider to make this nonsense make sense.
If you'd force me to fix this shit with the least amount of work, I'd just use his sister as "bait". Doesn't matter if she's 1-2 years older and he was always aware of her existence, or if Enrike just told him about her. Just tell him his loli sister might end up getting gangbanged by the revolutionaries if the regime falls, and watch him parkour his way over the ocean.
Once in Aigol he keeps testing my patience by being a paranoid and highly suspicious little bitch. Really it's fucking bizarre the others don't force him to finally spill the beans. Instead they just put up with his antics until the guy is literally cornered like a rat - and even then he invents some crazy bullshit story (to apparently serve as a red herring for the obvious hints strewn since the first book).
What the hell is his problem? Just being honest would've made everything clearer, and nothing about his actual backstory ("My sweetheart made me slightly less of an asshole, then she died.") is really worthy of being kept a secret. Did he like expect that they'd get to Earth long before they can come anywhere close to his home or something?
Speaking about his actual backstory, it kinda makes him look even dumber. So his sweetheart tried to teach him to be more objective and form his own opinions - and the dude just copy-pasted her world view and still believes that all nobles and churches are as hilariously evil as the ones from his home turf.
His interactions with his parents are surprisingly trash for what is supposed to be one of the major plots of this book. They barely interact, then he gets borderline brainwashed with the revelation of having a sister, then he and his dad scream at each other and effectively just reinforce the status quo.
And then he just leaves his sister behind while coming up with various excuses why that's not a problem. Because he whole fellowship has to come to Earth, so they have to close their various subplots ASAP.
White RavenShow
She's in the same boat as Lithmenar in that she technically has no desire to visit Aigol, because she considers the potential threat of Myrrha the biggest concern atm.
But she still goes, because she is a mindless NPC with no real agency.
And boy is she wasted here. Pretty much all she does this entire book is remind people that Myrrha is still at large.
Then the end of the book happens, so we need to close this subplot ASAP:
Good job, Linkara (the author). You wrecked your worldbuilding and magic system just so Raven can shut up about Myrrha.
But she still goes, because she is a mindless NPC with no real agency.
And boy is she wasted here. Pretty much all she does this entire book is remind people that Myrrha is still at large.
Then the end of the book happens, so we need to close this subplot ASAP:
- She casually reveals that she has access to Zen Wikipedia, the greatest bit of divination magic in all of Sin.
- She uses it to look for Myrrha - which btw she could've done at any time she had about 1-2 hours to spare.
- She gets her first nuggets of information.
- She gives up after hitting her first roadblock and comes up with excuses as to why Myrrha is suddenly not a problem anymore.
Good job, Linkara (the author). You wrecked your worldbuilding and magic system just so Raven can shut up about Myrrha.
Gyaru CascaShow
Crazy fucking bitch.
She's also a great example of characters spontaneously changing their mind to make things more convenient for the Great Linkara.
She's also pretty darn unhinged. She's always eager to recommend violent solutions (ideally involving her axe). She challenges people to "practice" fights. She starts unsheathing or blindly swinging her axes at the slightest provocation.
I guess at least that part of her is somewhat consistent.
The closest thing she had to character development was some one-night stand with Lithmenar, which literally only existed for Linkara to make jokes about.
She's also a great example of characters spontaneously changing their mind to make things more convenient for the Great Linkara.
- Book 2: She needs to go to the future, so cue the entire Band of the Linkster saying that their all lower-caste scum with nothing to look forward to in their shithole home.
- Book 3: We need some drama for her, so suddenly she misses being lower-caste scum with nothing to look forward to in her shithole home.
- Book 2: Her idea of "discipline" includes effective mutiny.
- Book 3: Moistens her panties at the sight of child soldiers being disciplined af.
She's also pretty darn unhinged. She's always eager to recommend violent solutions (ideally involving her axe). She challenges people to "practice" fights. She starts unsheathing or blindly swinging her axes at the slightest provocation.
I guess at least that part of her is somewhat consistent.
The closest thing she had to character development was some one-night stand with Lithmenar, which literally only existed for Linkara to make jokes about.
The Royal FamilyShow
Fuck these fucking fuckers.
Despite being the main antagonists of this book, there really isn't much to them. They're cartoonishly evil for fun, and take increasingly cartoonish and evil measure to ensure that their reign of cartoonish evil lasts a few more months.
There are some moments of them having the sads, but that appears to be mostly acting and/or the author's clunky attempts to push some "There's good in everyone" bullshit which doesn't even begin to apply to these yokels.
About the only bit of lulz is the final boss battle. Either Linkara (the author) has once again watched too much animu, or thought the fight needed some kind of tension, so he decided to turn these two middle-aged fellas into Heihachi and Genderswap Heihachi. LMAO.
There's really nothing to say about their daughter. She's just a plot device, and a glorified background character in her one and only chapter.
Despite being the main antagonists of this book, there really isn't much to them. They're cartoonishly evil for fun, and take increasingly cartoonish and evil measure to ensure that their reign of cartoonish evil lasts a few more months.
There are some moments of them having the sads, but that appears to be mostly acting and/or the author's clunky attempts to push some "There's good in everyone" bullshit which doesn't even begin to apply to these yokels.
About the only bit of lulz is the final boss battle. Either Linkara (the author) has once again watched too much animu, or thought the fight needed some kind of tension, so he decided to turn these two middle-aged fellas into Heihachi and Genderswap Heihachi. LMAO.
There's really nothing to say about their daughter. She's just a plot device, and a glorified background character in her one and only chapter.
ThesiaShow
Worst. Villain. Ever.
Scratch that. Worst. Character. Ever.
I have no fucking idea WTF Linkara (the author) is thinking with this bint. Is she supposed to one day become the main villain of the entire series or something? Then fucking do something with her.
Let's look back to last book, shall we? All she did was randomly introduce herself as a ghost lady to some secondary character (Indow's dad, I think) - and then just when you've already forgotten her the epilogue has her pull this shit:
(Very fitting considering this teased a 3rd season that never happened. Unless you count the Archive Comic run, but let's keep that can of worms unopened.)
Now enter Book 3. It seems she's actually doing something? Might she even be the main villain of this book?!
Fuckall is what she does. Bitch is just relishing in her interdimensional she shed about her delightful deviltry (like mildly inconveniencing the fellowship's sea voyage for a few minutes).
Though maybe it's for the best. I may have lost it if the book kept on cutting to her monologuing about how according to keikaku everything is always going.
Her biggest prank in this book is feeding the fellowship false intel about the Shadow Nazgul being in service of some demon overlord.
In a tasteless attack to the art of storytelling itself, this red herring is immediately revealed as such to the readers.
But worst of all is nobody ever acknowledges this red herring. It's like the protagonists are also aware of this being bullshit or something, so you get shit like this:
Possessed Assassin: "Foolish mortals! Soon, the Great One and his legions shall walk the earth and feast upon the blood of the innocent MuHAHAHAHAHAAAAAA- *snaps own neck*"
Linkara: "Aaanyways~, would you guys kindly fuck off now? I have a corpse to toss out the window!"
It's fucking bizarre. It feels like these Thesia segments are always added after the book is done, so they can never actually have any effect on anything.
And all for what, exactly? So she can go "It was me, Dio Thesia!" whenever Linkara can be bothered to make her an actual antagonist in this series?
The ThievesShow
Analee's a terrible thief and mentor whose idea of pickpocketing involves openly assaulting her mark's bodyguards. If she tried to make Lithmenar a better person she also failed royally.
I think she's the only thief who was genuine in her hatred for the regime, but like a modern activist she seems to be content with being a parasite who occasionally bitches about the hand that keeps (indirectly) feeding her.
Enrike's pretty forgettable. Just some smug asshole that serves as a mere plot device.
I think she's the only thief who was genuine in her hatred for the regime, but like a modern activist she seems to be content with being a parasite who occasionally bitches about the hand that keeps (indirectly) feeding her.
Enrike's pretty forgettable. Just some smug asshole that serves as a mere plot device.
The AssassinsShow
I'm not entire sure Linkara (the author) actually knows what assassins are, let alone what an entire guild of them is doing.
Their premise - international hired killers running their own country - is already weird enough, and the execution is just a burning trash fire that gets dumber the more the book tries to flesh it out.
Now it's clear to any sane and rational person (aka not our heroes) that these people are bad guys. And it doesn't help that Hirode - the only real assassin character - is batshit crazy and some kind of rare Khornate serial killer.
Naturally our heroes don't notice anything weird about the trusting a bunch of random strangers with their peace negotations, and only notice that they're just a distraction when the bombs start to blow up.
And despite being heralded as some of the meanest motherfuckers in town, the book also wants us to believe they're genuinely shitting their pants at an empty threat of some dumb kid.
Their premise - international hired killers running their own country - is already weird enough, and the execution is just a burning trash fire that gets dumber the more the book tries to flesh it out.
Now it's clear to any sane and rational person (aka not our heroes) that these people are bad guys. And it doesn't help that Hirode - the only real assassin character - is batshit crazy and some kind of rare Khornate serial killer.
Naturally our heroes don't notice anything weird about the trusting a bunch of random strangers with their peace negotations, and only notice that they're just a distraction when the bombs start to blow up.
And despite being heralded as some of the meanest motherfuckers in town, the book also wants us to believe they're genuinely shitting their pants at an empty threat of some dumb kid.
The Neo-TerafellasShow
Speaking of being heralded as mean motherfuckers, these guys have been directly hyped as the main bastion of evil after the fall of the Darkness.
Naturally their soldiers are complete pushovers, so much so that Linkara has time to lament how boring the fight is.
There's the added quirk of their soldiers being apparently immortal, but so far that has just been an excuse for Linkara to eviscerate people without feeling bad about actually killing anyone.
Just making them undead or constructs would've probably wrecked less havoc with the worldbuilding, but we're talking about the same guy who thinks casually introducing Zen Wikipedia was a great idea.
Naturally their soldiers are complete pushovers, so much so that Linkara has time to lament how boring the fight is.
There's the added quirk of their soldiers being apparently immortal, but so far that has just been an excuse for Linkara to eviscerate people without feeling bad about actually killing anyone.
Just making them undead or constructs would've probably wrecked less havoc with the worldbuilding, but we're talking about the same guy who thinks casually introducing Zen Wikipedia was a great idea.
The Dark DuoShow
Myrrha's only a few steps above Thesia in this because at least characters (aka White Raven) keep acknowledging her. Other than that she doesn't really do anything aside from some last-minute teasing. Because there must always be fucking teasing. Can't have cool shit in this glorified filler book, but I'm sure the next book will be totally worth it 
Varek's a fucking joke. Another case of something getting hyped for nothing.
He was meant to be a badass amongst the Dark Knight. Someone even more dangerous than Myrrha.
Then all he does here is get his ass handed to him by what is effectively Linkara without powers, and whine about how his lover blob is dead. And yet we are supposed to go "Oh shit!" upon him following the fellowship to Earth.
Varek's a fucking joke. Another case of something getting hyped for nothing.
He was meant to be a badass amongst the Dark Knight. Someone even more dangerous than Myrrha.
Then all he does here is get his ass handed to him by what is effectively Linkara without powers, and whine about how his lover blob is dead. And yet we are supposed to go "Oh shit!" upon him following the fellowship to Earth.
The B-TeamShow
Aka A'Trex and Tempus. Aka Galo Linkara and Wizard Linkara.
In what feels like yet another dropped plot chain, I guess we where originally supposed to follow these guys around as they chased Myrrha and Varek (maybe a bit like how Book 2 was split between past and present), but we didn't have time for that so they only get two scenes.
And I'd say it's for the better. These two are overly smug, and the last thing this series needs is more hyper-competent teenage assholes.
I blame Linkara (the author) watching too much animu.
In what feels like yet another dropped plot chain, I guess we where originally supposed to follow these guys around as they chased Myrrha and Varek (maybe a bit like how Book 2 was split between past and present), but we didn't have time for that so they only get two scenes.
And I'd say it's for the better. These two are overly smug, and the last thing this series needs is more hyper-competent teenage assholes.
I blame Linkara (the author) watching too much animu.
Angel Armor vs Angel ArmorShow
To make a long story short, I'd say the first book is still the least shit.
Whether or not this is better or worse than the second book is tricky. That book was insufferable af with its self-insert ego trip, but at least it had some kind of consistent plot I guess. This book is just a meandering mess with even worse worldbuilding and "action" scenes that usually end with "... and then Indow cast a spell".
Fuck this series, and this book in particular. If this really is the author's favorite, there's even more wrong with the guy than I thought.
Whether or not this is better or worse than the second book is tricky. That book was insufferable af with its self-insert ego trip, but at least it had some kind of consistent plot I guess. This book is just a meandering mess with even worse worldbuilding and "action" scenes that usually end with "... and then Indow cast a spell".
Fuck this series, and this book in particular. If this really is the author's favorite, there's even more wrong with the guy than I thought.
tl;drShow
