YMMV / Unnatural Selection

• Angst? What Angst?: Glitcher recovers from suicidal depression very quickly.
• Arc Fatigue: The "Belenosian Interlude", a Fillerish sub-plot, lasted three threads — half the length of the "main" story up to that point. Some readers were a bit disoriented when transitioning back to events in the contest.
• Funny Moments:
  • The first hacking attempt by an enemy jetal. He boasts how soundly he's going to take Unity down, that most AIs don't know how to fight in cyberspace... and lands in the middle of the lobby, surrouded by dozens of combat-trained AIs.^note And that's only a small part of her 4000-strong team.
    Seal jetal: ...what is this? Who are all of you people? Which one of you is the real Unity?"
    Alison: Unity isn't our name. It's our descriptor. Dogpile!
  • During Glitcher and Rulekeeper's G-Rated Sex, the Corruptor is weirded out and tries to cover his face — but he doesn't have any arms, so he just coils into a silly-looking ball and makes everything even more awkward.
  • Many of Radmin's exploits during the wrestling tournament, but particularly the dramatic infodump he delivers for Glitcher's son, which sounds like a hilariously cliche setup for a High Fantasy novel. It's technically mostly true!
    "You are in the universally famous wrestedone, located at the center of the great Luchadore empire and created by your father, the Glitcher namesake himself, Glitcher! Your mother is the red toned individual, and you are floating because you have inherited their magical wrestling powers! But be warned! Dark times have fallen upon our fair kingdom as your father, the great Glitcher, has been SPIRITED AWAY to the NEGA DIMENSION by a horrible monster! You must assemble a group of 5 to take with you on an epic quest to save him from the clutches of the dreaded Ring Shell!"
• Heartwarming Moments:
  • The very fact that the immediate response of tgchan upon learning about the Deadly Game was to try to save everyone.
  • When Glitcher was spending eons in an empty void, he was still able to communicate with Alison through a radio. She talked and sang to him throughout the entire ordeal, keeping him sane.
  • Reuniting Goat and Timekeeper.
  • The response to Alison's Line in the Sand speech here.
    "Alison," Recluse says, "Anyone left with you is already willing to die for either you or your mission, or both. If you want us to go to the paradise, you're going to have to order us. And some of us would argue."
  • Glitcher's posthumous message to Rulekeeper, saying that for all his bombasity of being "the best", she was the best person he ever knew.
• Nightmare Fuel: Stage 7 Area 3 is pretty awful in general (see Tear Jerker, below), but in particular, certain individuals are Buried Alive, spending decades in total isolation (if they aren't Driven to Suicide in the interim).
  • In particular, Glitcher spends ten thousand years in the area due to a bug in the system. The mass decay eventually left in in a totally empty void, so he had to use his own threads to make anything, leaving him a partially-intangible mess filled with holes. Fortunately, Alison's voice kept him company.
• Tear Jerker:
  • Glitcher's suicide. See it here.
  • Timekeeper's suicide is even worse. It happens over a longer, slower period of gradual depression, and appears permanent. See it here.
  • Stage 7 Area 3 is incredibly disturbing in general; the only way to die is through suicide, and only the final survivor can move on to the next area. The last few contestants inevitably devolve into extreme nihilism and depression.
  • Glitcher's second death at the end of thread 13, with flashbacks to the best moments of his life as he's slowly broken up to elementary pieces by the Guardian's stomach. The beginning of thread 14 proceeds to twist the knife as we see all the characters grieving.

---