Honestly if youre a fan of So Im a Spider So What you need to read this story now. Please go read it if you havent. Go on get. There are spoilers ahead Im serious. 220https://media.discordapp.net/attachments/856563801192136745/857753520841555978/unknown.png?width=949height=676 The Skeleton Soldier Failed to Protect the Dungeon is if youll pardon the mild pun revivifying to say the least. It takes several unique genre conventions monster protagonist video game mechanics timeloops adventure fantasy subversion etc. weaves them together and has an absolute romp with them. I was so enraptured by this story that I powerbinged through it to catch up within a handful of days. The protagonists relationships with each of the characters every time he meets them in a different life are enthralling. They evolve further and further shattering expectations that theyd reset with the premises promise of timeloop grinding. And honestly they have to be at least this good because the protagonists care and love are the core motivation for why he seeks to get stronger for why hes chosen to game the system as much as he does/did/will do throughout the story. At this point in reading Im up to Chapter 146 my favorite is the protagonists dynamic with Isaac. It holds the most twists and turns though honestly our skeleton and Isaacs relationship is emblematic of the storys character dynamics. But frankly it would be misleading if I did not say why the relationship between our skeleton and Isaac is so rewarding: it would not be this rewarding to see the promise of Isaac and our skeleton getting to a true friendship if it wasnt for the narrative groundwork put in by our skeleton learning about and befriending Lena someone the status system warned would betray and backstab him if she saw the opportunity. Like reallife relationships each character dynamic bleeds into the others. Each character appears to be a fantasy archetype only for later runs through everything to reveal more at play. With every character introduced. Youll read a story that the skeleton is being told in a natural conversation thinking that its just lore because its presented like plain quest text in an RPG. Several chapters later the main character of that story will be here in the flesh snarking and just allinall living their best life. My only critiques with this storys characters are in a character that hasnt been fleshed out to the extent of the others yet. However she warrants a warning to anyone sensitive to this kind of character though frankly if she does get explored and fleshed out to the extent of other characters as well as the story giving other transcoded characters to balance out her portrayal then I will be editing this review to curb some of my criticism. Laura is a hard character to really read. This story has had villains be flamboyant and overthetop before: Isaac is our huge exhibit A for that right there and he even gets a pseudo redemption arc up until he gets a fullblown saviors sacrifice weve yet to see the ultimate payoff of that sacrifice and how it affects the story going forward so Im hesitant to call it a redemption arc. But Laura has yet to be treated with the same sort of framing as Isaac. Her design has no real inherent flaws with it placed within the spoiler bubble below but the writing around her is just...hard to digest? You can see the drag queen inspiration very clearly but the writing very much pulls away from that. I dont know if the way characters treat her is because the people in the medieval fantasy setting dont know how to handle transition or if the framing overall is going to be Like This but every time Laura is either referenced by her chosen pronouns or feminine title earlier on there are air quotes around them. The last chapter Ive read even goes so far as to deadname her. She uses femininecoded actions to get in peoples spaces and threaten them with her power and just the feminine actions. I understand that shes a villain and if she were designed in a more passing body type I wouldnt even blink at this because itd be very normal to see a Femme Fatale. Ive been expecting a Femme Fatale since Lenas timeline got shifted drastically. But the way Laura is treated from a Watsonian angle leaves this sort of pit of anxiety in my gut. That this story which has thus far handled everything with care and respect without downplaying any of the weight of the plot will fumble this. I want to be wrong because as obvious from above I am very much into everything else this story has been putting down. Maybe if there were other characters who didnt have their gender nonconformity framed as predatory Laura wouldnt make me feel anxious like this.