Questionable Questing

That would require I like Sona enough to base a quest in her peerage.

Sadly; she and I don't agree.

We agree on that. Hehehe. It wasn't a premise for a mission but a little joke. Although I admit that it would not be bad as a One-Shot to laugh a little.

Oh I'm sure someone could do it well.

I'm just not good at comedy. At best I can do 'black' humor, but even that needs set up and context.

Sona is one of those characters that benefited from the fanon that made her better in the eyes of the fandom. I personally find it a bit sad that the fandom has exalted her and on the other hand they turned Rias into a bitch.

Rias deserves some flak. Mainly for the 'name' incident, but she isn't half the bitch people think she is.

Evil Rias would be interesting if in addition to completely killing her character they didn't at least make her an idiot

I guess giving someone a pet name is reprehensible. Although looks at her son name, obviously names are not her thing, haha

Eh, her issue was deeper than implied. My big problem with the scene stems from the universal grade idiot ball they hand her AND the rest of the peerage just to make that scene work. Only to have no negative repercussions from it.

What scene exactly are we talking about? Just to make sure that I follow you

I believe it specifically happens in the start of Volume 10.

Lady Phenex calls in to talk to Rias and Issei. She puts Ravel under Issei's charge. She asks him to 'protect' Ravel, and he agrees.

Rias takes the conversation to mean much more than it did to Issei, and starts to question who he'd protect.

He calls her Buchou, as has been the norm since Volume 1, she calls him an idiot and leaves.

It all amounts to stupid drama that fails to properly take care of any of the underlying issues with the protagonist, and instead just makes 'boobs' the answer to his troubles.

But RIas is definitely a bitch in that scene. Alongside the ORC in general.

Volume 10 was the height of bad. Including Issei's alleged PTSD. It was to Rias like the "Goblet of Fire" to Ron.

Ishibumi practically had to act like some things didn't happen after the fiasco that was Volume 10

Yeah. Which only makes it worse seeing as there shouldn't be such a major issue in a single volume.

Dude flubbed it big time there.

The overall literary quality of DxD with the exception of a few volumes is below average but Volunen 10 tried hard to lower the bar. That the author himself has preferred to act as if nothing had happened only confirms it. Honestly despite my words Ishi is more average than a bad LN author, DxD is average compared to other LNs, but that's a pretty black mark.

I'd say he's upper average, but either way.

I feel as if he tried to copy Rowling in her "Murder a character's personality for drama" tactic.

Eh, more that he felt there needed to be conflict, and actually set up a possible conflict, then fumbled at the starting line of the arc.

If the scene had been private, just Issei and Rias, it would have worked.

With the addition of the ORC it becomes a shit on Issei fest that doesn't fit the narrative.

Below average in a more universal literary sense. Now as LN is average. There's honestly so much Isekai crap...

Well that's true.