FanFiction.Net
Just In
Community
Forum
V
More
for London Calling

10/4/2015 c1 Jade
London is over 2,00 years old... so America is like a little kid compared to her XD
1/5/2014 c3 felicianavargas98
I literally bought the song cyclone on iTunes to get deeper into the story XD but i thought it was awesome!
10/3/2013 c2 29Stormdragon6
OH GOD MY REVIEW WAS SO LONG IT GOT CUT OFF NOW I HAVE TO COPY N' PASTE THE REST OF IT

WELL HERE'S 2 FOR YOUR REVIEW COUNT

-

I am also intrigued as to how Canada (and Vietnam, to be honest) really got dragged into going, because in my opinion they really wouldn't want to. Canada might be dragged along by more forceful friends, but Vietnam is not weak-willed like Canada can be sometimes. She's quite a loner, but can defend herself as well. I imagine that if someone said "hey gurl you're going to get drunk with us tonight get ur little black dress n let's go" Vietnam would just stare at them with a most unimpressed expression and be like "No and fuck you" and give them a quick, hard beat with her fist or that paddle-thing she sometimes has. The fact that she was ushered into going like an utter pansy makes me think she DID actually want to go. (Tiny sidenote, her hair is not short, she has quite a long ponytail)

Another sidenote, similar to how Alexa needed...less description on her overt beauty, I also did some big mental sighs on how each of the girl's outfits had soooooo much detail added to them. Maybe you felt that was necessary because, hey, girls put on a lot of nice clothes when they go out and it's hard to "leave some CLOTHES to the imagination" but on the other hand, yeah, it's another one of those Mary Sue signals, the "my clothes are the most interesting part about me" thing. I'm not sure which side I'm voting more for on this issue.

I don't feel like I'm EXACTLY following a clear pattern here so let's go to another tangent: another important thing I thought about while reading about the nightclub chapter was: ...is this it? Is this the story? A bunch of fun youthful adventures some OC goes on? She gets in a yelling contest one day, gets drunk on some night, goes out with girlfriends, talks about boys, maybe she'll be pregnant soon and we'll have...fuckin' baby-daddy drama or whatever. I really hoped I didn't get invested in this just for it to be a bunch of stereotypical teen frolicking and shallow wangsting. Up until maaaaybe chapter 5, that IS what I felt I was reading about. I kept waiting for the storyline to come back.

But it did come back. And when it did, it DID. I mean, wow. That is some mothertruckin' Madoka Magica shizz you pulled right there. (Read: to your credit, exactly like the famed Peulla Magi Madoka Magica anime) Tricking me into thinking I was on this fairly innocent, cutesy story about a girl discovering things and having fun and then rrirRRRRRIPPPPPP your soul is torn out and a central character is ripped to bloody bits. Or in this case, burned. I felt like was dropped into a different fanfic completely. I was totally startled, thinking this character was safe and okay and then I turn around the the plot bitchslaps me. And you know, in a story, fanfic, novel or whatever, that is GOOD. Extra credit points for you, Lilith.

Those last chapters being very short, there is not much explanation to be found, which was probably on purpose anyway. At first I thought Alexa was having some flashback to...well I can't remember exactly when, I want to say during the 19th century, there was a MASSIVE fire in London, which it seemed Alexa was remembering, but no, it happened right then. In that moment, in the present time, she...apparently CAUGHT FIRE and is mentally broken from the trauma of it. On top of that is England's inner monologue that his very beloved "doll" didn't turn out quite the right way. And he performs a spell that makes everyone forget her existence I MEAN WHAT THE EVERLOVING FUCK THAT IS SOME DISTURBING SHIT AND OF COURSE THE STORY JUST DROPS OFF RIGHT THERE I MEAN OF COURSE.

And here we are. (And here I am, one hour of writing later...)

This took me much longer than I thought and I have GOT to go grab me some dinner so I'm going to cut this here, maybe save you a few gray hairs from sitting here reading this for such a long, long time. I hope you will take at least a couple nuggets of importance from my massed jumble of blathering. At the very least, I want you to know someone took quite a bit of time to write you about this story, or rather, mostly about writing in general, and all the good stuff you've got going and stuff you can make better with practice and with NOT giving up on it entirely. Good luck to you, authoress, and I do look forward to the chapter coming out this month.

Much love, Storm
10/3/2013 c1 Stormdragon6
I read through all nine chapters before coming back to review, giving the whole fic a good chance before putting down an opinion, and here it is. I have good news and bad news and maybe some uplifting news. I'll start with the uplifting news.

At the end of the most recent chapter, you talk of feeling hopeless and dejected with your writing, and wanting to give up not just this fic, but writing, all of WRITING, which to me sounds much worse than just dropping a fanfiction project. Your "Papicio" was right. You can't let yourself give up on something you love so much. Gain your fuel from writing for others instead of yourself, if you need be, as your great-uncle said. Just don't GIVE UP on it, because writing is a fun, powerful experience, a learning experience, and it can only do good things for you, no matter what it is you're writing about. Whatever rut you're in, with your family, health and stressful life, writing's always there and can always be helpful if you're willing to really try it. So keep trying it, Ms. Lillith Graves, or you're doing yourself a great disservice!

Get my point yet? Hope so. Here's another one I ought to make. Er, rather just my introduction. My (site)name is Storm and I give long-ass reviews. So sit your butt down.

I found your story I one or two nights ago while perusing the archives before bed on my phone (which I can't resist doing lately, being on a hhuuuuuge Hetalia kick this past month or so) and it was your story TITLE that caught my eye first. Amongst "damn u Netflix" and "Letters to Doitsu!" and "Can love prevail?", a title that actually sounded like it had a little sophisticated, interesting shit going on was like finding a little oasis in the desert. "London Calling." That's just cool. Mmkay, it's about an OC...ehh...I don't really like the phrase "hell breaks loose" to describe characters being crazy around each other, especially OCs because though it sounds pretty cool it's also ssooooo overused. Like: you know, I may have read six other summaries in the past ten minutes about Hetalia characters who also made all hell break loose, buuuuuutt I'm going to choose to read #7 here, because of its nice title and my philosophy of giving OC stories a chance before I snarl at their uncreativity so it better be pretty effin interesting... And so I read. A little last night, mostly throughout the day in between homework and classes and mostly on my phone. My final impression...well, if I were to give a grade like a schoolteacher, let's say, I'd give a B-. And a lot of that is because your writing is just quite good and substantial. Let us discuss!

I will start with just that: the writing. One thing that really separates your story from a good many others in this section of the site is how detailed and substantial it is. I really like that word. Substantial. What I mean is, you write a lot; your chapters are long, and what's inside them is a lot of fulfilling detail. It's not fluffy, pointless crap you make huge efforts to write a lot of events at a proper, nice pace, with lots of detail for the imagination to feed on. It always feels like you spent a long time writing this, that you had a lot of scenes you wanted to happen and a lot of stuff to do. Even such events as Alexa going to the store, painting her house, get attention and good writing, proving that not the whole story has to be around insanely dramatic twists/actions/super drama. It makes her look more like a person to me, because she does actually do those regular things. All this is a long and large improvement from a lot of Hetalia fics which have unfortunately short chapters, paragraphs less than two lines long and couldn't find their plotline if it bit them in the ass. Axis Powers Hetalia is not known for its grand, enthralling fanfiction. (Okay, I don't think any fandom IS but Hetalia's fanfics are especially low on the scale of "impressive"). And this, all together, is what we call DEDICATION and I like it. Readers like it. As Prussia says, it's makes you fahkin' awesome. Go, Lillith, go.

On the flip side of this, I have complaints about your writing also. Keep in mind I am NOT trying to flame you in the least. This is called Constructive Criticism and it's coming from a nitpicky college student who has nothing better to do with her evening than read fanfics and eat Nutella. Do not be offended at my loser opinions, which are thus:

One flaw in your story, a fatal flaw to some, is London herself. This is potentially "fatal" because OC stories, no matter the fandom, are often labeled Mary Sue before the OC can so much as take a breath, and even if she's good, a lot of readers ignore OCs they don't know in favor of much more established, more loved characters. (Newsflash amirite) There are some ways in which I can see Alexa driving away readers immediately, and that's mostly to do with how she talks about herself. Or rather, what she looks like. Mostly, how she describes her appearance in such long and lovely detail. Extravagant description of hair/exotic details like "electric" blue and "vivid" eyes, "full and curvacious figure". Constant insistence that the character is a perfect beauty. Even saying she has a small nose "that other girls would pay so much money to get" (that last one is just...rude.) It's Classic Mary Sue. At least description wise. Even if the character isn't a Mary Sue, such a description can cause readers to slap the label on them immediately, turn away and never come back.

Something that could really help her out is giving her some, well...actual British characteristics. And the "classic Kirkland eyes and eyebrows", charming and fitting though that is, are not enough. What are some things you can find in London? Does it have some stereotypes? Anything famous? A New York OC might enjoy Broadway, a Beijing OC might enjoy shopping or Beijing opera. Regular characters have got stuff like the "obviously Russian vodka obsession" or "obviously French enjoyment of wine". What about Alexa is really British, really London-ish? I would have no idea she was a Hetalia OC, or even British, if she didn't state it herself!

All this means you're pretty much shooting Alexa in the foot before she even gets to start her tale. My recommendation is to go back and lessen her description some. I don't have to have a full biography of the girl the minute I meet her. I could learn about how she loves dancing by how she loses herself and has a lot of fun at that party. I could learn she has a big bust by how that AJ twat stared at her instead of having Alexa forcefully remind me herself as well. THAT'S more fun and interesting than...having it shoved down my throat at the very beginning. Y'see?

Okay. Spent more time on that than I meant to. Next? The meeting. That was FUN. I almost didn't expect it to be because I could see it being the same "everyone's yelling whoo sure didn't expect that" shtick that's in every episode and every fanfic that features the World Meeting. But I liked London ignoring the screaming and choosing to draw a picture, and Russia being a creep and her calling him "human giraffe." I actually laughed aloud at that, a little bit. I also laughed at the chapter ending with "Nothing, Daddy." I don't even know why that was funny, really. Something about a daughter being sugary-sweet to her dad? I don't even know. I liked it.

Small mistake in your chapter, though (remember I am nItPICkY aS fUCk), when Belarus called Alexa a "bitch" in Russian for being near her brother. You wrote "сука" which is CORRECT but in the wrong format. That's the Cyrillic spelling of the word, not the romanization, which essentially means "how the pronounce the word in English." It's pure coincidence that the Cyrillic happens to look like the real pronounciation, "SU-ka", but generally an English speaker can't grasp the pronounciation of Cyrillic words with just the Cyrillic. I would not expect a non-Russian-speaking dude to see "доброе утро" on a piece of paper and they would just understand "oh yeah obviously that's pronounced like "do-brey-ooh-troh". Simply put, you should have made Belarus say "suka" so a reader actually can READ the word, and maybe had the Cyrillic character and translation at the bottom of the chapter for reference. Trust me, this looks a LOT better than just sticking a funny foreign alphabet in the middle of an English story. It proves you know what word you're talking about AND how it's pronounced. It's like, BAM. 5 intelligence for the author.

(but the obvious implication that Alexa knows Russian swear words was pretty funny)

I liked the party, too. I did. Unexpectedly, because I am the very opposite of the partying type and thought to myself I would soon be scowling and annoyed that all my favorite characters were about to suddenly turn into drunken fools grinding each other like college or high school kids in a nightclub. Not exactly what I like to see. But as things progressed, I was VERY surprised to find myself kinda having fun reading it. It reminded me of the one time I ever had fun dancing myself, which was at my brother's wedding, and reading it and thinking about that simultaneously actually kinda made me feel like dancing, though I'm sure I'm little good at it. You also re-introduced me to the idea of AmericaxVietnam, which I remembered seeing a long time ago and suddenly remembered, oh yeah. That's cute. The fact that America also seems to like her is intriguing, I wonder how they met, how he came to be attracted to this shy Asian woman instead of some American stereotype of beauty/attraction like maybe a busty blonde or somesuch? Awwgod I need to find some fanarts of this pairing later.

I am also intrigued as to how Canada (and Vietnam, to be honest) really got dragged into going, because in my opinion they really wouldn't want to. Canada might be dragged along by more forceful friends, but Vietnam is not weak-willed like Canada can be sometimes. She's quite
10/3/2013 c9 Guest
Please update, it's a really good story3
9/26/2013 c9 Guest
UPDATE PLEASE FOR THE LOVE OF ALEXA. AND MATTHEW. AND THE STORY. PLEEEEEASE -cries-
1/7/2013 c9 Guest
Come back sooooooooooon! TTTT Poor Alexa! What happened to her?! Sounds like the fire of London or something but recent! Forgive the ignorant American!/head desk/
1/7/2013 c5 Guest
What are you TALKING ABOUT?! This was the best chapter yet!
1/7/2013 c2 Guest
TTTT Poor Prussia...
11/17/2012 c9 8Littlecosma001
It's cool! Finals are important. Happy Turkey Day! *gobble gobble*
11/17/2012 c9 12hetaliaforever123
Well, good luck on your finals Can't wait for you to get back!

I'll be waiting
-Forever
10/30/2012 c8 hetaliaforever123
Lonnie, why? What happened? It was so happy and then.. *sob* Lonnie, get better soon! And Matt, aw! He's so concerned! :)
10/30/2012 c7 hetaliaforever123
...C***. WHAT HAPPENED TO LONNIE? Sorry for not reviewing... :( But Lonnie, get well soo! (Lonnie is my nickname for London, BTW)
10/30/2012 c8 14animeduchess14
Omg! Alexa :( I hope she's gonna be Ok D: I hope the next chapter has some father/daughter moments :'(
10/30/2012 c7 3Yanelle
ouch... Arthur created Alexa to be like Alfred...
37 Page 1 .. Last Next »

Twitter . Help . Sign Up . Cookies . Privacy . Terms of Service