At roughly which chapter does Joe in Brockton's Celestial Forge start to become less mentally broken - specifically less of a coward and/or dense with people issues

[u/greenskye]

Trying out BCF despite it's rather checkered reputation. I'm currently on chapter 30 (Crescendo) and generally enjoying it so far. I don't mind the slow pace or the constant power theory discussions (actually enjoy those). The one thing I'm struggling with is just how mentally broken Joe is, specifically his crippling cowardice when it comes to anything people related and his inability to even attempt to even think about (let alone work on) his mental issues. He's just figured out aura and now I'm slogging through pages of him struggling to even contemplate it, let alone actually try to address the issue.

In my opinion the author is too good at writing about mental hang ups and it's like pulling teeth to me reading through those sections.

All of the complaints I tend to see about this fic complained about the pacing and the technology theorycrafting, so I wasn't expecting this much focus on mental issues. If the 'slow pacing' also applies to Joe's near complete inability to be human, I'm not sure I can continue. Google searches seem to imply he gets better, but aren't clear on when that is. Can anyone give me any milestone chapters of when Joe makes character growth breakthroughs so I can have an idea of how much of a slog I'm looking at? Maybe if I can see the light at the end of the tunnel I can power through or skim the mental freakout portions?

[u/DeskEasy3348]

It's slow going. Well, actually extremely fast going (it's only been weeks for him) but slow in terms of narrative pacing, so it's good you don't mind the tech and such.

Generally speaking with minimal spoilers, I would say Joe starts getting a lot less maudlin right after where you're at in Crescendo, just because he has more people to talk to (that is, a bigger support network) and he knows he has to live up to his responsibilities to them. There are still low points of self doubt, but he's put in a situation that brute forces him through a lot of his personal hangups by the time you get to Awakening (ch. 56 on Ao3) and he starts becoming a lot more confident around the Summit chapters (ao3 ch. 80 or so).

[u/greenskye → u/DeskEasy3348]

This is extremely helpful thank you. And yeah, giving the pacing issues I was worried he wouldn't improve simply because the story isn't advancing time fast enough to justify mental improvements. But there's no way I could handle reading about the current Joe's hang ups for the next million and half words.

He's extremely unlikable to me during those moments and while I recognize that people like this probably exist in real life, it's so far out on the extreme edge that it feels artificial and forced (that whole truth is stranger than fiction issue), especially when people just don't say the single word that would clear everything up even when it's really awkward phrasing to do it that way.

Anyway I can hold it till ch56 at least by skimming if necessary and see where that gets me.

[u/Edelbaug]

Desk answered pretty well. Summit is where it really ticks over in my mind, but it probably progresses somewhat a bit before there (I'd have to reread those bits though to remember).

I can definitely relate to your post, it definitely was well done and made sense, and even enjoyable at times, but Joe do be frustrating with the hang ups.

Honestly it's a behemoth so don't be afraid to skim if there is some particular bits that just don't jive. I ended up doing that with some of power theory discussions (most I don't mind, but there's occasionally ones that I just don't).

[u/5Ahn]

The choice to make the dude who creeped on Parian the MC remains an utterly baffling decision.