Lunaverse Reviews Block 8 · 9:44pm Feb 7th, 2013
A bunch more stories have just finished up, so let's take a look.
(I would have reviewed mogeru's “Dark Tidings,” but I'm still reading through it and want to get these out there.)
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Webisode: The School Talent Show
Written By: Blackbelt
SYNOPSIS:
It's the School Talent Show, and all the little fillies and colts are ready to show off their acts. And this time, Diamond Tiara is finally going to make Scootaloo understand how she feels...if they can survive the night, of course.
REVIEW:
This continues where “Scootalong to the Cheer” left off, and perfectly captures the best parts of that story (Scootaloo and Diamond Tiara, the comedy) and drops what really doesn't (Cheerilee's torment). As a result, it's a very funny, very adorable story, albeit pretty light on the story or plot. The Scootiara elements are also rather subdued, overshadowed by the awesomeness of the acts themselves. If I had to find any fault, it's that the ending scene is a bit forced and not really particularly funny. That, and the story really doesn't lend itself to a solid review. It's good, but it's also really hard to talk about without spoiling a lot of the jokes.
OVERALL RATING: Good/Excellent
I almost wanted to give this one an Excellent, but the ending kind of killed the flow for me. That being said, this is a very entertaining piece, even if you're not a fan of the Lunaverse at large, and you should definitely give it a look. It also doesn't require much knowledge of the previous story, so feel free to just jump into it.
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Movie/Tie-In: Treasure City
Written By: Grass&Clouds2
SYNOPSIS:
Hidden away from the rest of Equestria lies a small village, populated by the strange and the creative and the unique. One such resident, Silver Sculptress, goes through her daily activities, all while praising the pony who made this all possible...
REVIEW:
Just to let the cat out of the bag: “Treasure City” is about Puissance, one of the villains of the Night Court. She herself doesn't actually appear, though. Instead, this is about the ponies she's coerced and, in a few cases, seemingly captured to populate her little artistic community, where a pony is valued only by what they can produce for her. Needless to say, the residents are all blindingly loyal to her, and she keeps them in line by dangling the illusion of artistic freedom and anything they want...as long as they still let her show off.
This story is about Stockholm Syndrome to the extreme, and it pulls it off masterfully. This is one of the most downright disturbing works in the entirety of the Lunaverse, and the sheer horror of it all is that it treats the place like it's a paradise rather than the prison that it is. At a few point, though, it seems that G&C2 kind of let the concept get away from him, as we have things like a half-Windigo and a colt who was taken from his parents. (The original idea apparently was to have his mother be dead, and frankly, it would have been a LOT less disconcerting that way.)
And then there's another issue, but...well, I can't really explain what it is without dipping into the drama well, and frankly we've all had enough of that these last couple weeks.
OVERALL RATING: Good
This is a solid horror story, of that there can be no argument. If you enjoy your creepiness on a subtle level, then this is one to read. But there are still a few points where I don't think G&C2 quite realized how disturbing his concept was, and that kind of undermines some of the enjoyment.
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Webisode: Countdown to Crisis
Written By: RainbowDoubleDash
SYNOPSIS:
Twilight has finally been cornered, and in desperation lets out another teleport spell. Only instead of going somewhere else in Equestria, she ends up breaking through reality and landing in another Equestria. And in this nightmarish world, Corona banished the good princess, her counterpart saved the world from Nightmare Moon, and worst of all, nopony invented the telegraph! THINK OF THE TELEGRAPH!
REVIEW:
“Countdown to Crisis” is a prequel/preview of the upcoming “Crisis on Two Equestrias,” a crossover between the Lunaverse and the Maneverse. To that end, the first chapter is just setting up how L!Twilight got to M!Equestria to begin with, finishing up Shining Armor's story from AtGGG (we'll cross that bridge when we get to it), and confirming that yes, she is still an irresponsible lunatic.
The second chapter is mostly her reaction to the changes between worlds, and to the story's credit, it goes out of its way to set up exactly how the two Equestrias are different, from the technology to the government, and of course, with what happened in both “Boast Busters” and “Boast Busted.” Granted, a lot of the issues with M!Equestria's government, its expansion and tendency to get taken by surprise in wars is portrayed quite negatively, but I can just write that off as L!Twilight's skewed viewpoint. Unfortunately, since this is a prequel, it just...ends, and we won't get to the actual story until AtGGG ends.
OVERALL RATING: Good
On its own merits, the first chapter is just meh, while the second really sells the upcoming story and makes things interesting. If you're like me and looking forward to “Crisis,” then you really need to read this. Otherwise, just wait and see if RDD can pull this off...
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Group Collab: Longest Night, Everypony's Day
Written By: A Lot of People
SYNOPSIS:
Stories set in and around LNLD about the other characters.
REVIEW:
I've been told time and again that I need to review this, so here's my opinion: I don't like it. I didn't enjoy any of the stories, couldn't stand the setting, and reading every chapter was like trudging myself through waist-deep muck. It's not even really the fault of the stories; most of them are pretty well put together. It's the fact that it's tied directly into LNLD, a story I've already gone on record as hating, and parts of several of the stories (especially the opening of the Rainbow Dash one) feel like celebrations of the very things that pissed me off about it.
So no, I am not giving these a review, nor will I ever contribute to it. And now I never have to talk about it again. See you next time.
when you say ending, do you mean the ending, or the the stinger at the end there?
805581
The stinger at the spa.
For what it's worth, I'm changing the bit about Iceheart's mother (so that she's dead, or at least Iceheart thinks and says she's dead) when I update the story this weekend. (The primary purpose of the update is to change the Discordian character into something else, based on Fizzy's and Emeral's comments, but I figure I might as well do that while I'm there).
I can see, in retrospect, how it would work better if the mom were really dead.
805583
That's fair. I admit, the stinger was more for me. I thought it was hilarious, and in fact that was the first joke I came up with when I first conceptualized the story. That, and I love brick jokes.
Anyway, I'm really glad you liked this one.
One of these days, when I'm bored (possible) and have free time (HA!), I'm going to do that "special edition" of LNLD that I threatened once, in order to fix its problems. Mostly pacing issues, but yeah, I could have handled the characterization a bit better than I did.
Given that all this thing is, on a fundamental level, is just a big infodump so that I can glance over the topics in "Crisis" itself, "Good" is actually much better than I was expecting. Yay!
L!Twilight's viewpoint does skew things, yes.
(I'm also a little confused as to what 'the other issue' is. Twilight isn't there, the Duke isn't there, the Gala isn't mentioned... what else is there? I'm not mad or upset, just honestly curious.)
805610
It's something I can only get into when we review AtGGG. It's a personal problem, so don't worry about it, k?
Treasure City was pretty good I thought, and definitely really creepy.
CTC gave me some Twilight time, finally, and for that I liked it given I'm quite thoroughly a Twilight fanboy. Can't wait for Crisis!
You know what IAH? you're right. the stinger isn't all that funny, and it isn't in the same tone as the rest of the story.
I'm removing it.
I thought Countdown to Crisis was great. And I never got the idea LTwilight was thinking the Maneverse was so horrible. It just felt like she was shocked to me, as though the idea of things being done differently was impossibly strange
And I'm sure that G&C2 did not mean Treasure City as horror or even really about Stockholm Syndrome.
806428
Aww... but it kind of needs to be soewhere I think. Maybe a bonus chapter on Scootalong?
806639
I think that was what was being suggested as something of a problem. The fact that it works so well as pseudo-horror story, but might not have been intended as such, is a wee bit disconcerting.
It's too bad nothing interested you in Everypony's Day, but I'm glad you mentionned it's existence and that's all I could ask for. Thanks!
IAH -- just letting you know that I changed Treasure City so that Iceheart's mom really is dead. In case you care. :-)
(Also switched Bounty to a 4-winged pegasus, at the request of Fizzy and Emeral).
805615: Now that AtGGG is done and the review is up, I'm still kind of curious what the other issue with the fic was, if you're willing to talk about it.