Fall of Falcon Scott had the best writing. SS is dying

Everything after was mid at best. Let me explain.

When sunny left for Antarctica we had real stakes and conflict. His conflict with Neph, The Sovereigns(wait he didn't really have conflict with these guys it was inserted Neph joining Valor freed sunny from the conflict). Anyway sunny also had issues with cassie and His feelings for Neph and his lack of any experience with intimacy made him such a solid character.

His decision to join the government faction improved the world building and the cast. Getting to know Jet, The Government and The Masters and the tech used in the campaign kept the story full and grounded.

We got to see sunny mature...he learned to be a responsible adult. Unlike who he was in the forgotten shore. From crazy selfish hired gun to a selfless leader... His relationship were so transactional back then and he trusted no one. By the end of the second nightmare he learned to trust his cohort.

We also saw other characters show his capacity for empathy and sympathy like rain, and his new cohort. Samantha, Luster,Bell,Kim all of the lot really completed Sunny and added to the story. The team work was to die for.

Also the Antarctica arc as a whole did something what later arcs failed to do....and it showed us what mastery is we saw why it was important to master your aspect it's abilities and possible applications,essence control and battle tactics before ascension. Without the serpent and the usual guys we saw and understood why nightmare gates, creatures and seeds are so terrifying.

Also since the Antarctica arc happens on earth sunny doesn't run into hax/broken/OP abilities every 10 chapters like he usually does. So for a while the system rewards him like it would a neph or a Modret. So the stakes are real every fight looks bleak. LO49 gave us Amazing stakes. Fiend v Sunny delivered. Sunny v Goliath and Sunny v winter beast were phenomenal.

When get first pitched Antarctica the dialogue was amazing. When Sunny and Kai spoke god. So many quotes... Effie and Sunny were so compatible, sunny and Cassie were awkward Neph and Sunny were perfect mirrors of each other. Modret was such a presence even when he wasn't there. These characters had goals and felt alive.

I could go on but now let me prove why everything else was mid bullshit immediately after.

So immediately after the fall of Falcon Scott sunny immediately and I mean immediately reverts back to the forgotten shore version of himself. He goes straight to neph and undermines chain of command for what???? Because there is a war coming really... Really that was so cheap. He had issues with Neph and cassie...he had people to protect. Not even Kai and Effie got on that train. And these are the same characters who joined the campaign for the exact reasons sunny did. Him going back to neph did so much damage to the story, and took away any autonomy sunny had as a character. From now on everything would be plot driven.

That's why Effie falls pregnant in the middle of a war(a character who spent seven years in the forgotten shore) a veteran decides to shag in the middle of a natural disaster . (Tell me how many of you would have sex during an earth quake, or a wild fire or a tornado? )Then she falls pregnant and keeps her mouth shut. The same woman who lost her first cohort to the dream realm .after Effie the characters assassinations and intelligence debuffs spread to every aspect of the story.

Kai and Jet literally spend the rest of the story loitering and lurking doing nothing but committing Suicide 💀💀💀. Then they acquire oblivions domain and we never see them again

Then the scaling fell of... Shadow dance became a thing again(I don't like Shadow Dance...why??cause it's six pages of BS every time ...it's like saying copycat with extra steps. it has no limitations cause sunny has the thickest layer of Plot armour ever. Not only that no one can explain shadow slave no one knows how it works we just know it does.its literally built on suspension of belief and runs on it too in story.

Now him and Neph do their shadow bond thing and kill a saint and what not.... See even as you read this you've fatigued too cause you remember that BS and what followed so I'll make it quick.

Then they get to the nightmare desert and skin walker debuts (skin walker carried the entire desert arc(mini arc)) then Neph as a master kills his avatar mind you he's a great terror and she kills 2 of his avatars which saints sweat against. Effie does that too and sunny takes out a supreme too and there are time loops and time travel shenanigans which keep the whole third nightmare stagnant so sunny can be a hero while other characters glaze him. Jesus Christ Modret and Kai did nothing for eight months. Effie was now annoying.

sunny betrays the cohort and he's bombarded with rewards by the system and the story goes to utter SHYTE .. the throne war happens and so much logic is sacrificed for cool moments,boom boom time and fan service regardless if it breaks lore and logic *cough cough 13 saints.. A lot of important stuff is now skimmed over or happens behind the scenes. The cast is useless and every chapter is milked with details about walls or just flooded with recaps.

And here we are reading detective stories and running off nostalgia and the hope that SS will return to being SS. Cause it really has lost its identity.

Antarctica was the soul of SS it was honest and authentic with SS and gave the whole story an identity. G3 and the filler...aaah you know what I'll let someone else argue with you guys I've said my piece and I've found peace too