Savage Divinity

Over the past few years, I've seen stories on RR come and (unfortunately) go, meaning I attempt not to get too attached to them. I've also noticed patterns about how and why some stories enter the Top Weekly/Monthly Fiction lists, top weekly review lists, etc. and this story has me baffled. Savage Divinity has the quality, quantity and update speed (still somehow daily, warning: author may be a robot) to qualify it both for the latter and, despite my best intentions, the former. 

The characters are so fleshed out and individualistic they are beautiful in their imperfections, the power structure cleanly and clearly laid out, the MC strong-ish but by no means "OP," the world-building unique (which I want to emphasize how shocking it was to me given how many stories I've read), the main enemies (minus one hilarious encounter) nowhere close to caricatures (the "enemy's" reason for fighting is so sad I actually empathize with them in their plight, if not their means - we've only had one or two snippets of their POV but it's heart-breaking in-between the lines), the plot organic and believable, and finally, it has DAILY UPDATES.

If this story isn't #1 on the Top Monthly and somewhere in the top 20 for the Best Rated soon, I don't understand anymore. Help this story get the exposure it deserves so the author knows how good it truly is. I hesitate to hope for this given I've seen authors scared away by rude and uncouth commentators, but this story is good enough that I want others to read it for the author's sake.

TL;DR: Story is gold, read it.

This is a story that's been running for a long time, and is very popular, and it shows. The author definitely has a plot in mind, but also really loves all his characters. This is great, and good! However, he loves his characters too much and is obviously trying to pad this out to continue raking in donations and support.

Initial chapters were focused and led somewhere, around the Sansu arc things slowed down. Increasingly, there have been many chapters from the point of view of minor characters, and these are not usually plot driven. The main character has been in a loop for the last 200-300 chapters, being depressed, trying to get past it, then getting depressed again. This is great for someone who's trying to write a realistically depressed person, but it's not fun to read.

Sure, I get it. This is his story and he doesn't owe us anything. But at the same time, I don't owe him anything either. I dropped this story as of now. You might enjoy it. It's well written and has proper grammar. The first few chapters are great to read and enjoyable. Just don't go into it thinking its flaws will improve. The author is aware of them, doesn't care, and they won't improve.

Isekai is annoying, and this should get first prize on that. Skip ten or so chapters you won't miss a bit of story. Everything is a second rate slice of life fiesta with one or two chapter of action or important information or savage cruelty. Author should change the name to "slice of life of a lying confused masochist isekai" and delete the few action and grim paragraphs and paint it all in pink than it would have been a master piece at that. And people will skip who don't like that. But you made the novel as a trap. A misleading name and first 150 chapters of trap to hook stupid readers then bombered them with stupid isekai shit is not cool.

Imagine this, someone starts drawing a well known shounen character. You perhaps know a great amount of said character, know a little bit about them, or know of them but never got into the anime/manga they are from. As you observe them draw you notice they take their time, build up a good foundation with slow strokes, but still hold your interest in watching them draw. Eventually you think to yourself, damn the drawing is probably as good as if the original artist drew it themselves if not better. Then they start adding detail. They already have a good drawing laid out for all to see, but it's not what the artist wants, the artist wants to add their own touches and make it more their own. So they start throwing shading and lighting to the picture, adding more cosmetics, even adding coloring. Unfortunately or fortunately (depending on your view point) the coloring doesn't match the original and eventually the artist changes the looks of the character even further to emphasize their own originality. This isn't a bad thing, but for some like myself it feels disappointing. The detailing and coloring ended up making you like the picture less, you still like it, but not as much as you did before. That's what this novel has been to me.

The author took a widely used concept (MC reincarnation into another body and that MC has to struggle through the new world's rules to become strong and get what he wants)
Maybe you're familiar with this setup, reading tons of xianxia and wuxia novels, maybe you've read lots of fan fictions pertaining this style of setup, or maybe you're new to it.
It's been used over and over again and this novel doesn't do anything new besides being written better than most.
The author made a great start introducing the background and world building through a slower but interesting first 30 chapters or so
The writing has been consistent, allowing for a good flow from the start of a chapter to the finish, unfortunately some paragraphs are often repeated throughout chapters just worded differently
The grammar has been consistently good with only a couple of mistakes in each chapter
Eventually the author puts more and more of what they want into the story, which is fine, it's their story and they have all the reasons to do so, but that's the problem. It doesn't feel as good as it could be. Like the choices the author chooses to make are holding back the novel.

I'll give detailed and better explanation for my score but only through the spoiler as I will need to reference the novel to get my point across. I am currently up to date at chapter 216, so this will showcase what I've read so far.

I just cannot read anymore. It started out soo good. Loved the characters and story but it has gotten really bad as of late. It feels like the Arthur is going just for page length and nothing else. I have to stop or i will hate myself. Shame im doing so but i don't want to force myself to read any longer.

I really enjoyed it when I found this gem on Royal Road. I pretty much marathoned everything in about a month all the way to the latest chapter and I feel like I have to put my thoughts down somewhere because I can't stand it anymore. I hate letting go of something after devoting so much time and emotion into it but I can't stomach what the story has become. First let me say that I appreciate slice of life chapters, sometimes they are enjoyable and it offers perspective on other characters. I enjoy the exciting moments when Rain overcomes a challenge. I enjoy the few times the author takes his work seriously and writes something thought provoking, like the exchanges between the inquisitor and the monk. There's a lot to like but so much more that disappoints.

The pop culture references and memes aren't funny. They are cringe and stupid. Sometimes I enjoy when Rain uses a modern expression and no one understands what he's talking about, but most of the time I have to roll my eyes at how inappropriate and stupid they are. Comparing his gear to MMO purples and whites and making Game of Thrones references in the middle of battle is just not funny and detracts from the seriousness of the situation. It was bad at the beginning but I expected it to go away as Rain develops and grows into a man but it never goes away. If you don't like these kinds of garbage jokes I urge you to not bother with this story because it's obnoxious and sticks around forever. Shut up about floofs. Ugh. Sigh. Whatever.

I hate the way the characters speak, but mostly Rain. He sounds like a passive aggressive ex-girlfriend. Ugh. Sigh. Whatever. Erm...yeah? Keep in mind that this character was a 30+ year old man reincarnated into pre-teen, and most of the story takes place while Rain is 15 - 20 years old. Ugh. This does not make dialogue more organic. Sigh. This is just cringe and stupid. If you hate this kind of thing, don't bother with this story. Rain never develops or grows out of it. Whatever. 

The pacing is abysmal. It was bad when I had hundreds of chapters to binge on and it's worse when I'm going week to week. There are too many chapters about only his dumb pets and they dominate too many other slice of life chapters. If you see a Song chapter come up you know it's just going to be about pets. If you see a Rain training chapter you know it's going to be about his pets. That or about how his harem loves his cooking. One reviewer called this story a lesson on speedreading and that is absolutely the truth. I can believe it from Chinese webnovelists but I absolutely didn't want to believe a western webnovelist to be the kind of person to milk his donators but there are just too many chapters that either serves no purpose or just regurgitates facts. Sigh. Whatever.

The author constantly fixates on making Rain non-OP. One reviewer said something I agree with in that he's constantly trying to justify ways to make Rain an underdog. Take one step forward and two steps back. This makes for a frustrating read because there's always a feeling of constantly losing no matter what happens. I think it's fine to have a weak protagonist but there also needs to be a feeling of catharsis. Rain needs to win something occasionally otherwise his ordeals are pointless. You might as well have made a harem slice of life story where Rain stays at home making dumplings for his wives. But for every one chapter where Rain defeats a worthy foe we get two more chapters explaining how Rain was just lucky and Mila is the real number one talent of the People. For every new skill he learns and uses to defeat a champion it turns out the skill is useless against real opponents and it's never as powerful again and by the way did you know Mila is the real number one talent of the People? For every increase in his reputation we get more chapters on how his titles are meaningless and oh yeah did you know Mila is the real number one talent on the People? It feels obnoxious the way the author wants Rain to constantly be beneath everyone else but he shamelessly makes everyone around him to be the OP munchkins he's trying to avoid. Ugh. Sigh. Whatever.

Rain is an annoying contradiction. He has no self-confidence, he's shy, he's timid, he avoids people, but he's also suave and charming enough to create a harem of wives who are all more talented and stronger than him. He is a militant atheist in a world where reincarnation, immortality, and magic exists. He knows in his head he is an old man in a young man's body but he's always acting like a child, never taking responsibility, never making his own decisions, always following orders and complaining about it. Even after coming to terms with his bloodthirsty side, even after multiple awakenings, even after many life or death moments, he's still the same whiny baby he was at the start, always quipping with pop culture references and dumb memes and always weaker than everyone else.

I think, from the start, the author wanted to write a story about how an optimistic man-child survived in a grim deadly world just from the sheer power of dumb jokes and memes, but nearly 500 chapters later, that joke of a premise has gotten old. It got old for me at least. I am unsure if I can go any further. The author writes the story for a certain kind of audience and that audience certainly isn't me.

What was once a promising novel has mostly devolved into a story about pets and depression. The MC is constantly under doubts, constantly depressive and a font of negativity like no other, getting worse and worse as chapters go by. My recommendation to the writer would be to make only one chapter per week to improve on the quality , and if you want a multiple P.o.v with characters that grow , improve , and make sense you could look up pirateaba's The wandering inn, a good example how its done right. Read on Brandon Sandersons blog on how to write characters, the sistems of magic and rest that you need help with the man is an exemplar. Dropping the fiction for now, but i hope Ruff will improve one day, and will transcend his excuses for worsening his writing.

I got to a hundred and I can't take how much he is constantly steped on as a reaction to his words and deads. It is frankly to annoying and aggrivating. I can't deal with it anymore. I can't stand the other peoples reactions, his to the women around him, his stupid thoughts at time that are made to push the story in the auther intended direction and the bull shit he has to deal with.

For all that i generally enjoy the story and some characters here.. what happens when the mc.. main character.. main.. is a paranoid idiotic and sometimes naive person.. 

And feel certain parts pushed into him.. like how many girls there are after him.. or the reasoning behind them..

Nevertheless.. grammar good.. story works.. fine..

The characters not the highlights of the story

Never understood how people like a story with a stupid mc.

As much as I liked this story (gut Till chapter 194) my predecessors already said everything...

It is a great story, but the MC is written really bad...while he has his moments, mostly he cries during them...while everyone else thinks he is the genius of the Millennium...

A normal character progression would ne perfect. I would skip work dir the mehr few Weeks if the MC got rewritten...