Talk:Pasta Noir: Dames, Slugs and the Hatchetman/@comment-31077845-20170216013613

When people complain about the writing around here, I say "I realize you sometimes have to sift through a number to get to one that's worth it, but those few are definitely worth it". This is one of those ones.

I may be being bold here, but I think this may be my favorite story I've ever read on here, cause I don't really get creeped out but I can definitely appreciate good writing. Like, no flaws really stand out, and really the only thing I felt might be a little cliche was the swat team getting blown up. I pretty much immediately knew that was going to happen when the scene was described. Also, with the competency of the killer none of the three of them should've ever really been alone for Michael to get murdered (NOOOO! MICHAEL!), being as, again, they were all being trailed by a clearly intelligent murderer.

Other than that I loved all the characters. The protagonists fit the archetypes of "hard detective with a heart of gold hounded by his past" "Young and slightly wet behind the ears detective who represents what the older detective once was" and, of course, "Cute, likeable, yet vulnerable and innocent girl who's important to the case that the manly detectives feel the need to protect on many levels" including subtle romantic undercurrent between the grizzled detective and their vulnerable charge, but he's old enough and too scarred by his past that he remains more of a protector, closer to a father than a lover; all were recognizable, but the story didn't rely on the tropes hard enough that it felt tired or like it was ripping anything off. Unfortunately, following the patterns of these stories also usually leads to the bittersweet conclusion of the protagonist sacrificing themselves to defeat the bad guy, although if I'm not mistaken this one is supposed to be ambiguous as to whether or not he lived.

I recognized pretty much every story, and the one that Sarah/Chloe originally came from (seeing it tie back to the little girl from that pasta was kind of a 'holy crap, that's awesome' moment), the dialogue actually sounded like real person dialogue and they all came off as real, relatable people, none of whom acted ridiculous or did anything stupid just to advance the plot (I refer to that as HSIR, or horror story induced retardation). The killer seemed...a little unrealistic, but not eye-rollingly so.

I could probably go on, but idk, like I said, I thought this was pretty great, and the stories I compliment are tremendously overshadowed by the ones I find picking apart and making sardonic remarks about, so I like to think my calling it great is worth something.