Cut & Paste de Kono Sekai o Ikiteiku - Vol. 9 Ch. 71 - The beginning of the End

[MangaDex]

 

[ShinduPK4]

"We don't know how to create an enemy strong enough for someone who can steal skills, so let's create a literal insta-death skill that the enemy can simply get back without any effort even after having it stolen."
Come on lads, one or the other. Insta-death skill? Really? On a divine beast's familiar, not even the divine beast itself?

 

[ToonLinkHox]

I'm very late on this, but it's at this point that I completely checked out. The stakes got raised too high for suspension of disbelief. You've killed your MC. At this point you've got exactly three options : one, you do a timeskip (optional) and basically start a new story in the Bad End arc you've created; two, you don't even bother and end the series right then and there; three, you resurrect them. This series isn't ballsy enough for 1) and there are more chapters after this so it can't be 2), you've got one option left. Indeed, barely two chapters later, he gets back up.

That's the danger of raising the stakes without proper pacing : handled improperly, the tension immediately disappears. He got flat out killed, but of COURSE he won't stay down; that just makes no sense, narratively speaking : you spent all this time setting up a plot and you'll just abandon it right then and there to do something completely different? Unlikely. That line of thinking kills immersion. Once he gets back up, who cares anymore? They've already killed him once, either they never kill him again, which marks the end of stakes (we know he'll never be in any more danger than this), or they do, which also marks the end of stakes (who cares if he dies? he'll just get back up, we've got precedent now). That line of thinking kills investment. You're left with a story you can neither immerse yourself in or get invested in. What's left?

TL;DR : the cheesy story that made a "don't take me too seriously" contract with me tried to do a mid-series shakeup and completely lost me in the process. The plot from here on violently veers off-course and goes on a tangent and it's given me whiplash.

 

[UrAvgReader-v2]

Aw man