May Patron Poll Response (Patreon)

Okay, everybody, it is time to close the patron-only poll. And as is usual after I have asked questions, I will also use this time to respond to the answers I received. But do not worry ladies and gentlemen, I will also still be responding to your posts over there today and tomorrow.

Oh, and as an aside, FILFy is finished and sent off to its beta-reader. AGGC was updated yesterday over on fanfiction.net.

First the vote:

As should surprise no one, Making Waves won by a landslide, in the largest victory I’ve seen in any poll in a while. It brought in 2,334 votes. The next closest was Sword, Bow, and Horse with 1560. Bhaalson Remodel brought in a measly 902. I’m getting the impression that a lot of my traditional Harry-enthusiasts don’t like Baldur’s Gate LOL. Or perhaps just all of my swing votes voted for MW this time around. Regardless, I would like to remind everyone that this means that in June MW won’t be involved in the patron-only poll, it will be a straight head to head vote with SBH and BR.

Now onto the questions I asked for your opinions on this last iteration. 

Easiest first: Everyone seemed to approve of the idea of taking out the Long Story poll every four months in order to automatically update AGGC and Semblance of Hope the two small stories I can see bringing to a close the fastest. Niva put it best: this is basically replacing a 40,000 plus story with two chapters of 20,000 length each. This does not mean they won’t take part in the small story polls, but they will be updated then regardless. This is to hurry them along, nothing more.  Otherwise, I will keep the rotation of my Ranma fics on the small story poll – I do have three of them ongoing after all to only two for HP.  Having two HP and two Ranma fics in the poll every month seems to be the best format.

Stallion: I really, REALLY loved the number of reactions and opinions on these questions I got. Thank you all so much for showing that you enjoy my writing to this extent. It was great. I wish I could have done a better job of responding, but I have been so busy trying to finish FILFy, that I relegated reading your responses to my track-machine time LOL.

Anyway:

1. This was the question that garnered the most interest for obvious reasons. I would especially like to mention Tomon (as always love the back and forth, you raised some good points about Nami’s mentality and the lack of heat/weather type fruits although the whole ki interfering with logia powers is indeed a bit of a stretch), Hiryo, Joshua, and Gilicze Lazlo Balazs.  I also want to mention Udodelig Urningin for being the first to mention Makino as an option. I have to admit that I really liked that. But I also have to say that, as Tomon put it, Makino is in no way the weakest of the crew as people seem to have concluded. She could give Zoro a run for his money at this point (can’t mention Sanji due to his… issues) and she would beat on Chopper, Nami and even Robin with ease. The difference is that she is near the top of where she can get with her own natural combat abilities. 

So, what is the verdict you all must be thinking? Well… I still don’t know. I have decided that Ranma will not be getting this fruit. Two reasons stood out to me: the lack of tension in the rest of the story until they get to the New World, and the fact that Ranma doesn’t need it. I don’t want to mess overmuch with the Water 7 arc anymore than I will be already without the Lightning Fruit, and the Enies Lobby arcs 

At this point, the choice is between Nami and Makino getting it. 

Nami: I really liked seeing people thinking about different ways she would be able to use this fruit outside direct combat. I agree she would want to jump on the idea of getting this kind of power up in a way, but I still contend that she would be very leery of it in the same breath since it would push her into the spotlight. In canon she was utterly devastated that she got a bounty, she liked being anonymous. In this fic I’ve sort of forced her to face the fact that can’t last, but I think she needs to show some more in-fic growth before she would willingly take this fruit. I’m not saying she won’t, but I think it will be a few chapters before she does so. For one big reason that no one seems to have mentioned which I will address down below.

Makino: as I mentioned, she is close to the end of where she can get with her natural abilities. She’s not a fighter by nature, and she’s older, unable to get as much out of training as the others. To become stronger she will need either a weapon suited for her abilities, like Nami (which she will be getting) or a Devil Fruit of some type. Furthermore, there’s an amusing point no one seems to have remembered: there’s a chance Shanks has eaten the Rubber Fruit in this fic… LOL. 

And now for the big reason that no one will be getting the fruit right away: Hina and the marines. There is no way that someone who has eaten a Logia type won’t exhibit some bizarre and unusual activities. And right now, if the Marines learn that the crew of Monkey D. Raffy has a Haoshoku user and a master of Haki as a captain and someone else with a Logia fruit of that level, they will mobilize everything including the kitchen sink to sink them. And at this point, the crew would not survive, say, Akainu, Smoker, Several Vice Admirals on Doberman's level, and ten or more galleons coming after them. And whatever else, Hina couldn’t keep that a secret. As much as she likes, even respects Raffy and his crew, it would come out eventually. I could use her attempt to keep it a secret as a means with which she would be punished and arrested herself but that seems cheap to me. 

Another big reason no one will be getting the fruit anytime soon is… there could be more people joining the crew soon who could possibly be better choices for the fruit in question…

2. On Nami and romance. This one seemed to be less of a talking point, but upon reading people’s comments, I have to say that too many people forgot that Robin and Luffy are pretty much together now. So if Nami tries to do a runaround on Robin, Ranma won’t respond well, as Tomon and a very few others noted. So prepare for a bit of drama, a bit of tension, and for Nami to be doing a lot of growing mentally in the next chapter on various fronts. 

3. Here, most people seemed to have equated Foxy with the Davyback fight. Not what I wanted. The Davyback fight is stupid, ridiculous, and won’t be happening. A fight with the Foxy Pirates, on the other hand, will be. Well, I say fight, but it will mostly be a beatdown. Hina and her marines need their own ship after all.

Semblance, and Raven Branwen: everyone seems to have been in agreement that she is a bitch. Several people mentioned redeeming her, others agree that she and Ranma would get on like oil and water. So I think what will happen with her will be based entirely on how they meet. If he meets her at the head of her bandit gang as they attack a village he’s stopped in, then she’s going to get her ass kicked, lose her entire clan, and be forced to run like a whipped dog. If they meet in combat, he might be more amused and taunting of her, maybe even bring up her daughter and their almost-relationship to get under her skin. If they meet as allies somehow, maybe she can be redeemed, if she can kick the whole ‘the strong prey on the weak to prove they are strong’ concept she and the Branwen clan follow. 

Bhaalson Remodel: few people actually mentioned this one, and those who did felt that the dungeon mechanics bar the respawn were good. Let me stress the respawn rate is not going to be something you’ll see in every dungeon. Just those with low-level creatures. And in the main, gnolls are indeed low-level creatures. No one commented on the Dynaheir romance mod, but if anyone has any comments on it they want to pass on, please pm me.

Well, that is it for now folks. Thank you all once again for your thoughts and opinions on these questions. Remember if you have suggestions or questions, you are always free to PM me here or over on fanfic.