Site: AO3.Org Genre: TV Shows, Movies Fandom: The Avengers (Marvel Movies), Pacific Rim (2013) Ship: Thor/Loki Characters: Thor, Loki, Tony Stark, Steve Rogers, Natasha Romanov, Jarvis (Iron Man Movies), Phil Coulson, Clint Barton, Nick Fury, Frigga Rating: Explicit Word Count: 13,920 Warning: Graphic Depictions of Violence
Site: AO3.Org Genre: TV Shows, Movies Fandom: The Avengers (Marvel Movies), Pacific Rim (2013) Ship: Thor/Loki Characters: Thor, Loki, Tony Stark, Steve Rogers, Natasha Romanov, Jarvis (Iron Man Movies), Phil Coulson, Clint Barton, Nick Fury, Frigga Rating: Explicit Word Count: 13,920 Warning: Graphic Depictions of Violence
I think a portion of me wanted to keep my mission of ten posts for July, even if four of them only count for this blog. So I reached back into my list of fics to be reviewed and found this one from 2013. Remember when everyone had a Pacific Rim AU? Yea, this is one of those.
So in "Into The Breach", Thor wants to be a Jaeger pilot, and somehow manages to make it by a random stroke of luck. While learning to about Jaegers, he comes across the story of the missing child, Loki Laufeyson. Thor makes it his mission to find Loki, but what he finds is more than anyone could imagine.
I have a love/hate for this fic. On the one hand, it's legitimately a good story. Like, it's basically a movie. On the other hand, I take issue with quite a few of the author's choices, and that's without me having to pick apart the story itself.
I'm going to keep it simple though, because I want to have this posted before AMC reruns the season finale of Preacher.
I think that Loki's plot was very interesting. The world-building done in that particular section of the fic was very inspired. I like that in the end, he comes back, not because he wanted to be saved, but because he wanted to see his mother. It's kinda hard to talk about it without giving away the whole thing, but Loki's plot makes the whole fic worth reading. It's the only reason that this review could be called a recommendation.
With that being said, I have to say that the use of Jarvis over Rhodey was entirely unnecessary and a bit telling. And it wasn't even the real Edwin Jarvis; the author, Rory, decided to make a human persona for Tony's AI. Any other fic writer would have used Tony's actual human friends, but this one decided that the human version of what essentially is a robot would be a great candidate for Tony to drift with. So what does that say about the state of Tony Stark's mental health in this fic? I'm not even going to talk about the fact that Jarvis is supposed to be brain damaged and a platinum blonde.
I will however talk about how the author chose to emphasize the emotion behind particular phrases. Most people choose to italicize, capitalize, or even embolden a word depending either on artistic choice or whatever is already going on with the text. This author decided to do all three, because why not? And then threw in some ellipsis to top it off. I don't know if I'd noticed this during my first read, but only Loki's plot kept me going once I became aware of it.
So who is this written for (because this is supposed to be a recommendation)? This is for people who want to read an Avengers fic with appearances from Sif, Frigga, and Bucky Barnes. This fic is for people who've forgotten that Tony Stark has actual friends. This fic is for people who like a good take on the Pacific Rim AU, and are willing to take hits for a good story.
To be honest, I don't know why I'm so salty about this fic. 2013 was a whole other time; I didn't know that I could want better in my fics. Admittedly, even then I would have read the author for these style choices, but I don't know if I would have been so harsh. However this is not the worst that I could be.
For all I know, Rory probably grew to be a better fic writer since then. I didn't bother to check, but I've never been one to knock people's fic writing dreams.