I have just finished reading the wandering inn (up to the newest chapter) and its one of the most ambivalent stories I have ever read. Seriously, the writing is 10/10 in some chapters and 2/10 in others, the difference in quality between chapters/volumes are insane.

Reading volume 1, I thought it was a masterpiece. Like a genuine Masterpiece, like Lotr, Berserk, Foundation by Asimov etc. When Skinner appeared that was the highlight of the series for me, and I was convinced that the wandering inn would be one of the best things I have ever read. Except for Klbck being revived, which I thought sucked, I thought volume 1 was perfect.

From Volume 2 onwards the writing gets a little worse (I read of course the rewritten volume 1), but I still thought most of it was excellent. Volumes 2-5 were really only subpar in 2 aspects: some horrible pacing occasionally, and the introduction of Laken whose Pov chapters are some of the most boring stuff I have ever read. Otherwise, I thought Vol. 2-5 were almost as enjoyable as vol 1.

 After volume 5 the story starts shifting heavily from a mainly slice of life story towards a epic fantasy story, and this is where the ambivalence starts to get biggest in my opinion. The thing is, I am a big fan of epic fantasy, and I usually don’t like slice of life stuff all that much, but in the wandering inn, it’s the complete opposite. I think that the slow, slice of lifey beginning of the wandering inn is far better than the later, more epic fantasy heavy stuff. Honestly, I would go as far as to say that the epic fantasy stuff in the wandering inn is pretty mediocre. Its not bad by any means, and some of the stuff, like Skinner, the Siege of Liscor and Ryokas run to save Tyrions children is amazing. But all in all, I think piretaba writes epic fantasy much worse than slice of life. The slice of life stuff and most characters are excellently written, some of the best stuff I’ve read, but the epic fantasy stuff is just plain average, the same stuff you could read in a million other fantasy stories.

What I find confusing is that from what I have seen, in the fandom my opinion is pretty unpopular. The common opinion seems to be that the wandering inn starts to get good only if you’re well into the story, and the beginning is seen as mid, and something you just kind of have to read thought to get to the really good parts, while I feel the absolute opposite way. I still think Volume 1 is a masterpiece, yet it’s considered by most fans of the series to be average at best, while the parts I think are the worst part, are considered to be the reason why you should read this series.

Reasons why I think the Wandering Inn has gotten worse post volume 5:

Erin becomes a generic overpowered isekai protagonist and a worse character. She’s supposed to be an innkeeper, not some chosen Hero who saves the world single handedly by battling her foes in a 1vs1 epic battle. At least, that was what got me into the series in the first place. An Isekai, but instead of the Main character being a Chosen overpowered Hero who is destined to beat the Demon King, like in 100 other generic stories, she just becomes an innkeeper. That’s cool. Now she’s literally the chosen one and the most important person in the world. That’s not that cool. Also, her character got worse, this guy summed it up perfectly:

“My view has always been that Erin has undergone "Flanderization" in which her most popular characteristics have. over time, become her dominating ones. I felt like she was a more real and complex character at the very beginning, back when she had to constantly fight for her life and establish herself in Innworld. Now, the title of "crazy human troublemaker" defines her almost completely.”

(Stolen from Blizzgrarg ;  https://www.reddit.com/r/WanderingInn/comments/imb90p/erin\_character\_progression/)

Many of the epic fantasy arcs are contrived and cliché. The Volume 9 ending was just horrible. Erin gets kidnapped by Roshal at the end of the solstice. That was a very exciting and dramatic twist. I wonder how its gonna go? Well, what happens is that after being in captivity for only half a chapter, she just pulls some demons out of her ass, frees herself, and defeats a ship full of slavers single handedly. Like no biggie, what Roshals best planned this move meticulously for months, whatever. Then she thinks she’s luffy and decides to join a war, manages to assemble an army out of thin air, is the reason a second war starts inside this war, smokes ships full of actual pirates like no one's business, and kills the Big Bad of the Arc in an epic 1v1 fight. It’s like one piece except its forced as shit and makes no sense.

Also, The Grand Design, the literal fabric of the Universe, is biased towards Erin because it thinks, she is quote on quote “interesting”. That’s some Kirito level shit.

The village of the dead arc was set up perfectly, but the ending is just contrived beyond belief. Oh the village of the dead is too much for us after all, there are like a thousand of undead that we cant defeat. Oh how lucky, the undead sword saint just decided to kill all of the other undead single handily and then he decides to die.

In Volume 7, Wouldn’t it be cool if there was an epic battle between an army of assassins and an army assembled by Erin? No that’s not cool and it doesn’t make any sense. Why the fuck do assassins have an army? Also, why does the door allow you to teleport literal armies? Erin brings a drake army and an antinium army straight up into the heart of a big human city instantly.  That should have some political insulation. Nope, never gets mentioned again.

Volume 9 Solstice battle, there are like 100 named characters participating and most of them got like Max of five sentences to describe what they were doing the entire time.

There is so much stuff like this that happens in the fantasy parts and it really bothers me. I don’t see how people hate the beginning of WI, yet think that that the later parts are amazing. I don’t get it, and it does make me sad that the series which I really loved in the beginning starts to go more and more into a direction I dislike.