《Ancient's Smashing Reviews》Mademoiselle Noir by Borbityborb
Advertisement
This story was quite short, so I will pass on rating it.
The idea for the story is an interesting one. Cendre (Rapunzel), instead of being a bringer of life, is a bringer of death that could kill millions. Two kingdoms are at war and Maelle wants to employ her aid in protecting his kingdom, the same one that caged her in the tower.
This works surprisingly well as a concept because it combines a number of things cleverly. It reverses the fairy tales into something quite dark, it turns the knight's story into a 'making a deal with the devil' archtype, and it makes her story and narrative a question of safety and security vs human rights, not merely for herself but for everyone she would affect. Similar to a person with a disease being quarantined, making it relatable to the recent times, and any time period where people have been riddled with plagues and diseases.
However, it is the execution that could use work because you have two very different, yet interconnected story types and narratives.
Maelle's trope: Deal with the Devil (also called a Faustian bargain or Mephistophelian bargain) requires a devil that can grant a wish for someone in need in return for a price. The bargain is a dangerous one, as the price of the devil's service is usually the wagerer's soul or the soul of other victims to take the wager's place.
This is similar to an aladdin wish with Djinns, but has a couple striking differences. 1. Djinn are bound by a higher power to rules. Devils are not. 2. Djinn's can vary between good and trickster, but never evil. Devil's only seek your destruction or control of you. 3. Djinn's dont have a price to pay, its all free. Devil's have a price.
Advertisement
Cendre, in Mademoiselle Noir, is not a devil so far as intent goes but still fills in the role having a dangerous power he wants to make a deal for. She, whether better or worse for the story, is not interested in hurting or controlling people, but still fails to fill in the role because there is no price for her aid. Its glossed over. He just goes "yeah we need help" and she goes "okay sure."
Cendre's trope: Typhoid Mary, is a plague master type that spreads plague easily while being immune to it themselves. Good ones seek a cure for others from the plague they spread themselves and sometimes may be Patient Zero, acting as the cure because they are immune to their own plague. Bad ones revel in the destruction they cause. Exploited ones are used as tools by a villain unknowingly. So when not being the villain themselves they are a bringer of chaos seeking order, acting as a hero journey.
In this we have that from the start as she is quarantined willingly. She has seen the damage she can do and chose quarantine over death to herself and to others. This brings order from her chaos through containment. This is good. It is also a completed storyline.
However, the problem comes in as Maelle's trope intersects with hers. They are both villains and bringers of chaos in practice, while trying to create order, and also ignoring their own narrative needs.
Cendre had already gone through the narrative in her prologue and flashbacks of creating order from chaos, and reverses this for no reason.
Maelle wants order, but goes about it by bringing chaos. Not temporarily as if "yeah lets fix you when its done" and no price like "yeah ill vouch for you, and if you hurt anyone i will personally drag you back here and kill myself." but permanent chaos with "yeah who cares just spread your plague to our enemy, this cant possibly backfire, and when the war is over you are free to to roam about spreading it further because im a dumbass"
Advertisement
If her storyline and goal of creating order from chaos was not already completed in the prologue, and instead was a completely different Typhoid Mary type (like being ignorant or selfish-villain) then it could work. If either one of them was a villain with the intent to bring chaos, then it could work. If Maelle was sent by someone else acting as the villain to retrieve her and thereby bring chaos, as the Exploited Typhoid Mary type, then it could work. If there was a price and conditions to keep chaos contained inside order, and thereby create tension from the balance and delicacy needed on both of their parts, then it could work. But there is none of this. Its just two people whose method of reaching their intended goals is to do the exact opposite.
As characters I did not mind them. They acted random and contrary to their own agenda, to the point of being completely different people from scene to scene, but I take this more as a confused execution of two advanced narratives being interwoven without success. The author doesn't seem to know what he wants, and so the character's dont seem to know how to act to achieve that.
The way the story was written was rather long-winded. It spent almost all of its word-space on exploring her environment and what I see as useless small-talk, and while this exploring the environment could work if we were staying, we aren't staying. And useless small talk is good in slice-of-life, not this. Many chapters happened with nothing happening to push the story forward. You could easily condense these 8-9 chapters into 3 just based on the story beats. And while the prologue succeeds in setting the scene a bit, it is made pointless because basically all of it is just repeated with substantially more word-space and exhausting exploration later. There is a difference between tension because readers know what the characters don't, and a mystery being revealed from the start but we still have to sit and watch the detective figure it out, which is boring as shit. The prologue also completes her storyline before it begins.
Advertisement
- In Serial9 Chapters
Records of The Last Land
Once the land spread far and wide and the world was bathed in sunshine and life, but, this is not the story of that land. Many say the corruption is a curse called down by Sol when he saw how humanity ravaged the land and how the other gods allowed this to happen, but, this is not sol’s story. The last land is all the druids could save from the corruption and even now, 2000 years later, they fight on however the kingdoms within the last land have forgotten what lies outside and they fight internal wars and struggle for power. Nihe is little more than a tool. Raised to fight in the gladiator arenas as an interesting experiment by his owner he knows little else than fighting. Danen is running from the ker-ja kingdom unsure of what lies ahead but knows he can hide from what is behind him if he joins the druids order. Lara is the genius of the druid fort Hac-Lu regularly boasted about by her father as a one in thousand year genius. Oh how she hates his boasts, hates the gazes of admiration, hates the title and veneration that cost her happiness This is their story
8 280 - In Serial39 Chapters
Besotted
Jericho never thought about gaining superpowers. Like everyone else in society, he simply expected his abilities to manifest on their own, but they never did. With the help of his doctor, it looks like Jericho finally hit a breakthrough, and after a few years of being powerless, things might start looking up for him. Join Jericho and others as they interact in this world where everyone has extraordinary abilities. ___________________________________________________________________________________________________ HIATUS NOTE (Please read): Starting June, I will be going on a summer hiatus (around 3 months) to focus on my future career and set myself up to succeed in school. I will still be writing in the meantime and creating a backlog, but I won't be posting chapters. I apologize for this. I wish there was another way. Note: This story has multiple POVs, but the main one is Jericho. The MC grows and develops throughout the story and isn't instantly OP. I try to write ~1500 words per chapter but I write according to what I feel is suitable. (Could be more. Could be less). The content warning tags are mostly for flexible writing, but do expect it or something of the sort. This is a story suitable for older teens and adults. Schedule: New chapter every other Sunday (sometimes Monday if I'm a bit behind).
8 380 - In Serial7 Chapters
The Storyteller: Fires in the Sky
[First story complete. Put on hiatus until the next story in this series starts going up.] Come children, gather round the fire and listen to stories of when the earth was young. Of when mankind stood high above all of creation, and proudly ruled the land, sea, and sky. Of times before the storms and the hunters. Who knows, maybe you'll learn something from the past that will help guide your future. Now grab a warm drink and listen on a cold night to how the heavens themselves came to be. The first in a series of short stories about ancient mythology set in a post-apocalyptic world that's just trying to make sense of natural phenomenon and how mankind fell from grace. Our first tale is about two siblings, the Sun and the Moon, and how rivalry, jealousy, neglect, and fear led them straight to the jaws of death.
8 224 - In Serial12 Chapters
Death Note : A New Story
What if the 'Death Note' was given to someone other than Light? How would the incidents progress? Would there be havoc and chaos or peace and prosperity? Find out in an alternate story of the franchise 'Death Note'.
8 186 - In Serial7 Chapters
The Town Of Fairview
They say if your looking to disappear, money, power or even a good time if you look hard enough you'll find yourself at the town of Fairview a cesspool of sin, violence, greed and supernatural beings both physical and metaphysical here in this lovely town you will find what you are looking for but be warned everything has a price and if your not careful the town will eat you alive both figuratively and literally but then again when you're group consist of an apathetic demon possessed smith an entomologists wet dream a Scottish lass that can throw fireballs capable of burning through steel a British enchantress that may love her weapons a little to much and a Chinese alchemist a little too cheap for his own good the question is no longer can this group survive Fairview it becomes can Fairview and its supernatural inhabitants survive this group of destructive inhuman badasses the answer to this question is very simple put twenty on number two also do you guys sell cigarettes. Author note: Good news everybody a friend and I are working on our very first book that we hope you guys will love first I would like to point out that we were inspired to start writing this book after reading prehistoric barbarian our goal chapter wise is at least one chapter a week as were very busy with real-life events. But we do have goals such as maybe opening up a Patreon and even move our stuff to Amazon but that is a long road ahead and we may never even get there but I have my fingers crossed now before ending this author note not only do we welcome criticism we know it's the only way to improve and prosper anyways we hope you guys enjoy and we definitely hope we get far. A very big warning we don't constrict ourselves to a moral compass we will not limit our writing for any reason if we believe it entertaining it gets uploaded. besides it's all in good fun who doesn't like a good joke right. We also will not be pushing any type of political narrative to our story's this is just for entertainment.
8 112 - In Serial19 Chapters
" Always and forever"
Бейкон Хилс-город, который притягивает сверхьестественных существ. Оборотни, вампиры - все это реально и все это обитает в лесу . Что произойдет если в этот лес ночью зайдут подростки....
8 82

