Reviewer: It Was Me Signed [Report This]
Date: August 25 2023 7:58 PM Title: 3:10 to Rain's End

There are trains now?! I absolutely love the western flair of Amazon Country, and this chapter brought a lot of that to this story as well. Train "robberies," blown bridges, demon-possessed trains: All classic western tropes! I still remember the first movie I saw where John Wayne stared down that demon train.

But seriously, the way you blend fantasy and western styles seamlessly is really impressive, and having a lizardfolk summon a demon to possess a train is great example of that. I'm eager to see what exactly our demon friend is going to do.

I also really like the way Annie is developing. She's shown herself to be smart, yet naive, nervous about her future but supremely confident when it comes to what she wants, namely Clyde. It's only been three chapters so far, but it feels like we've been with these characters for a while, so it took me a minute to realize that this was actually the first time Annie has fought as an Amazon. Seeing her have a sense of invincibility only to do something stupid at the end of the chapter makes a lot of sense, not only because of her overconfidence but because of the pedestal she's put amazons like Palledia on as well. She truly felt unstoppable, right up until Tebryn shattered that false reality for her. It should make for a great learning moment, assuming she survives, of course.

Clyde has also been pretty interesting to follow. On the one hand, he has kind of become that puppy dog Palledia said he would become. He was devoted to Annie before, and pelvis-shattering sex has only strengthened that feeling. He's also adapted well to Annie being bigger and stronger than him as well. Yeah, he had that lack of confidence in the last chapter, but he hasn't really seemed to be emasculated by his lover at all. Even when Annie joked about him becoming her official foot masseuse, other than being given that title, he didn't really seem to mind it. But despite meeting Palledia's idea of a "proper man" in some regard, he's also proven himself to be extremely useful both in planning and in combat (as shown in this chapter). He hasn't let that submissiveness with Annie actually change who he is. Instead, the fact that he can still be the brave knight when needed but choose to put aside his pride to make the woman he loves happy makes him a really likeable character.

I'm also enjoying the side journey of Svetlana's sex tour. It seems that wherever she goes, she gets drunk, finds dudes to shrink and fuck, and changes their lives forever. Sometimes she even remembers to grow them back!

Our favorite dark elf also continues to play dual roles in this story, serving as both comic relief and confidant to Palledia. Every time the two of them are together, it shows a different side of Palledia, whether their joking about Annie handling Clyde's sword or talking about the disgraced ex-noble's past, these scenes really humanize Palledia, even if they're brief, as it was in this chapter.

Tebryn and Allister's conversation was interesting. Having seen the lizardfolk mainly through an amazon lens up to this point, it was different to see an imperial official not only dealing weapons to them but also be willing to cooperate with them in a plan that would kill imperial citizens as well. Well, I guess that's SOME form of equality?

And it was good to see the revolving guest cast continue, this time with good ole' Tom Cat himself, someone who has actually dealt with Palledia before. It kind of makes sense that his first reaction was to draw his gun on her, but at the same time, she has basically served her sentence from the Queen already, so she really wasn't doing anything wrong here. Of course, it makes sense that Tom's ego would lead him to automatically assume that she was there for him. But it was also interesting to hear Palledia judge him for his cattle rustling and criminal past. That sure didn't seem to bother her when she was in charge of Rain's End and he was one of the hottest pieces of ass in town.

In any case, it seems as though Palledia's secret is about to come out (it already kind of did, as I'm sure Annie will have some questions about her mentor stealing gold mines now). The next chapter should be a fun one!

Author's Response:

My first demon train was in Final Fantasy VI many years ago lol. I like the idea of mixing western and fantasy tropes, the trains are a new thing in this setting, but used to a fairly classical effect in this story. Amazon Country in particular seems to lend itself well to western stories.

I imagine if most of us ended up at twice our old height and ripped we'd feel a sense of invincibility too, unfortunately for Annie Tebryn is very skilled at dealing with Amazons, including more skilled and capable ones than her.

Clyde is still very much himself, whatever interesting kinks he's discovered in the bedroom. He still loves Annie and wants to do right by her, yeah he's been overshadowed as the best knight by the up and coming Amazon noble lady, but he's still getting everything he wants, he's happy, Annie's happy, and he's willing to kick ass to keep it that way.

Svetlana is a good confidante because despite how silly she is, she's actually pretty capable when she gets serious. Palledia could have used a voice of reason like her in the original story.

Palledia will have some explaining to do, don't worry she's coming clean soon.

The Imperials have the Queendom between them and the lizards, it's easy to pretend they're not so bad (they really are obviously). To return to western tropes, the railroad exec is always corrupt.

Tom and Palledia are obviously hypocrites in their accusations against one another. Both of them have shady pasts, maybe Tom got to a better place before Griselda, but yeah she's completed her sentence and is in theory free and clear. As the Imperials keeping tabs on her shows though, sometimes your past can still follow you outside the law.