Yoona: We're back, and we're not excited for what we have.

Neither were we!

Kaze: I chose to follow the Avatar on Conquest because I recognized they want peace and to stop the vicious cycle of battle and vengeance. But of course, everyone is supposed to be the bad guy and pacifism is spineless.
Benny: You can really tell the work of Teenage DDI's spite against any canon points of the gray-on-grey morality of the two kingdoms.

Dumb Young Game Of Thrones Fan Syndrom.

Subaki: Darling, it's at least better than The Road Not Trekked, in which we're constantly throwing around fantasy slurs that didn't occur in canon. Yes, Hinoka and Oboro use the "Nohrian scum/filth" a lot, but it wasn't like we were allergic to working with Nohrians. Silas even earns the respect of both Hinoka and Oboro, and that's not to say of the other Hoshidans such Lord Ryoma. I worry of Boyd and Leliel if they spork that, it makes DDI's Hoshido look progressive in comparison.

Hoo boy. That'd be a nightmare.

Irene: Why is this greasy asshole here anyway? In canon, Garon keeps him around because he's really Anankos being a misanthropic bitter dragon who hates humanity and thinks they just plot and betray each other and Iago is a good example. Why should the "better" Garon be keeping a scheming cowardly mage like him? I know my son already addressed this but it bears repeating.

Because he's there in canon! Honestly, given how Iago was literally forgotten in the epilogue, I feel that DDI didn't know why he was there either.

Irene: Camilla knows Jakob's name just fine in canon, Teenage DDI just can't decide whether he wants it to be edgy or be of low budget comedy.

Honestly, symptoms of edgy teenager a lot.

Irene: Well said, my alternate universe daughter. Krystal would be proud of that. As for why, Teenage DDI seems to be unable to decide whether he wants to make Gritty changes or stick to how things played out in canon. And Shocked Pikachu Face, things go badly!

If I had a nickel for an edgy fanfic that was also terrified of breaking stations of the canon and ends up warping itself to tie into it that I've sporked...

Kaze: I get that there was an attempt at redemption and trying to reform criminals in a way that lets them have honest work but it doesn't work like this! He's not Jean Valjean who was left condemned for stealing bread and trying to escape, which also left him with a criminal record that denied him honest work, forcing him to break parole and impersonate! TVTropes notes that Rape is A Special Kind of Evil for a good reason. It's a sign of someone who is past redemption, past any sense of good left. It's a good thing DDI grew up and realized offhand rape mentions do no favours in edgy media.

For which we are all glad.

Irene: So you'll focus on what makes him more pitiful and pathetic as opposed to the actual crimes he was convicted of. What a wonderful moral compass you have, Corringula.

Quite. It's so, so inconstant, too.

Yoona: You can tell like father like daughter. Corringula doesn't even think about the idea that a bitter convict would want vengeance and exploit a mission to offhandedly do something terrible, like say, murdering one of said maids.
Benny: Her maids not being worth the effort to protect from a known rapist and murderer is really something that doesn't earn affection from the readers. Then again, Teenage DDI likely thought this careless and flippant attitude was something "cool."

I'll bet. This is the kind of thing Higgs Monaghan from Death Stranding would approve of, and frankly, Higgs is an intentional self-parody of edgelords. If this comes off as the kind of thing that would be out of Higgs' mouth...

Subaki: And for that matter, the author himself is that of Hanlon's Razor. Not malicious, just young and with a warped idea of how to do darker reimaginings.

Ironic foreshadowing...