Anypony read Brust? · 2:47am Mar 11th, 2013
That would be writer Steven Karl Zoltán Brust, author of Jhereg and the other books of the Vlad Taltosh series, along with quite a few others, but it's the world of Dragaera I'm concerned with right now.
If you haven't I suggest them, but that's not why I'm writing this blog.
I'm writing because of this post on his personal blog - which is entertaining in it's own right.
At first I just laughed, especially as you see Mr. Brust become increasingly uncomfortable in the comments, but then I started thinking, as I am wont to do, and it started making a little too much sense:
You've got Humans (short, hairy, life expectancy of less than a hundred years)
and you've got elves (Several feet taller, live for at least a thousand years, much easier access to magic, call themselves humans for some reason)
The power imbalance reminds me of ponies and alicorns, and from there all sorts of other details start falling into place...
But it leaves me with a question: so what?
Is this worth exploring? Is there any good reason to even try either a cross-over or a ponified fan-fiction other than to know that it will make one of my favorite writers be torn between amusement and being disturbed?
Do any of you fine folk even know what the buck I'm talking about? Is there a better place for me to be asking this question?
I am a simple sentient, I just want to write about oranges.
For most of your questions, I've not an answer that's positive. I've never read anything by that author. I've no idea what you're talking about. And I've got nothing to say in whether or not you should or shouldn't do a fanfic about that idea.
I'm doing a fanfic that takes place in Sword Art Online's timeline instead of novels 9 through 11. The original name of that arc is Alicization. Ergo, I instantly though Alicornization. I'm still trying to decide whether I just do a straight-up rewrite, but pony, or if I should change specifics of the story grandly to better include ponies. For instance, should Kirito be a pony to begin with, or should he still be a human but put into the body of a pony? That kind of question is why whay I've written so far doesn't have any allusions toward his appearance.
Gaahh, I spoke too much...
907398 Not at all, this is exactly the sort of thing I wanted to discuss
Haven't read SAO, but the wiki makes it sound interesting and gives me a vague enough clue to see the attraction of it as a story setting.
)
Sounds like you have an opportunity to explore the boundaries of consciousness, identity, and consensual reality.
What if this 'Under World' game is populated by both humans from Future-Japan and the dreaming minds of Equestrian Ponies?
Or at least both groups think that's who they are. I dunno, you've probably already considered the matter (just found your blog post, I'm not about to read 138 comments, sorry
In fact, this setting could actually explore the philosophical divide the the first Matrix movie teased and the second and third completely ignored
"Am I a butterfly dreaming it's human, or a plate of sashimi dreaming it's a bowling ball?"
I guess the only thing for it is to read the comic and see what you come up with
I am an avid reader of the Taltos novels (been following them for gods I have no idea how long, but I love Vlad and particularly Loiosh, among others). I also follow Brust's Twitter and so saw this when he tweeted about it the other day.
It strikes me that it could be something to work on, either as a crossover or as simply a ponified fanfic version, or maybe even a little of both. It'd be tricky to do - the very premises are very different (I mean, seriously, even at it's least bloody, Vlad still kills a lot of people.) But it might be worth exploring. The question more lies on, is the time spent worth it?
The comparison between ponies/Easterners and Alicorns/Dragaerans is not a bad one, though. Certainly at least in basic power levels, lifespans, etc, they definitely "read" as similar. I would think that a ponyfied fic version might work better and might allow for more exploration of the ideas. Although the thought of Spike as Loiosh still strikes me as utterly hilarious.
907520 .... Comic?
....
Oh, that's rich, man! Ha-ha, no, it's a series of light novels, and the first four novels have been turned into an anime. The anime's just plain awesome, but, of course, it leaves out some rather good information.
Red text used for Anime info, regular black text used for Novel info.
For example: In one episode, the group is discussing how to deal with a Boss monster, and Asuna (female lead) starts saying "We should let it into the town, and while it's killing NPCs, we can attack its unprotected back!" Kirito, the main character, objects by saying that they're not just objects like rocks or trees, but <<living>>. He sees the NPCs as a "shadow" (no better term for it, that I can think of) of the person with the same name in a different reality, and killing this version is just as bad as killing the original or actual. What happens in the novel is the two duel, and Kirito wins. Asuna, while brooding over her loss later that night is approached by one of the NPCs, a little girl who calls all the players Onee-chan or Onii-chan. She asks "Can't sleep either?" And then starts singing a lullaby that has the words "~even the steel-faced worm falls asleep~". When one of the players plays the song, the rest are able to climb over the beast;s back and slay it without endangering the NPC villagers.
The anime only shows the initial argument, and not even the duel. It then goes onto something completely different, leaving the viewer with a slight feeling of "what the hell, hero?" because it seems as if Kirito thinks the NPCs' lives are more valuable then the players who would surely die if they tried to attack normally. Heck, you don't even get to see the Boss monster in the anime.
<<UnderWorld>> Could definitely have both humans and ponies, sure. Heck, I might make it so that it's actually backwards. Instead of landing in the human empire, he lands in the <<Lands of Darkness>> beyond, which is where the ponies and the rest all live. And he's the one who gets Celestia and Luna on the throne, eh??
907542 Nice to meet another fan
I see what you're saying about 'work', but there are plenty of violent pony-fics out there (granted, I'm not really interested in wanton violence
)
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He only kills, what 40 people professionally? Allow for twice that many while being hunted by the house after his disgrace, and maybe twenty during his stint in Morrolan's army and that's... enough to count as a mass murderer, ok, I get it
And yes, Loiosh is best jhereg.
907638 Hehe. As for official 'work' - no, not that many (but still quite a few). I dunno exactly how many ('work' or not - it's been a while since I've done a reread, maybe I should do a count.)
There are plenty of violent fics. Heck, some of my favorites count among them (including one that I just read the latest update for, Dusk's Dangerous Game). I have nothing against them, they're just a little harder to work together than otherwise and should be handled carefully (there's a lot of violent fics that are, IMO, just not worth reading or are outright bad). But then, it's like almost any story - there shouldn't be violence for the sake of violence. Also, ponyfied versions tend to be tricky because it's too easy to just do name-replacements and call it done - obviously, that wouldn't even start to work here (replacing Loiosh with Spike might be doable, but it'd take some serious, serious work to make Vlad into Twilight).
907579 Well, color me corrected
Those may take a little more time for me to get around to reading... since I'm still backlogged on ponyfic and other fictions... not to mention the studying I should be doing
On the other hoof, I really don't like to watch a movie/anime after reading the book, for exactly the reason you mentioned - I hate watching and thinking to myself oh come on! That's totally not what he was thinking/did.
907665 Huh, ok now I see what you're talking about.
No, I wouldn't even try to make it work like that: Twilight is Twilight and Vlad is Vlad.
If you ignore the cold blooded murder and sword that annihilates people's souls, Vlad's inherent character isn't very far from being a pony to begin with:
ran out of shoulders.
he loves fine cooking, has a snarky attitude, makes (serious) mistakes in his personal relationships which he (eventually) tries to fix or at least acknowledge. He cares about his friends and family, adopts small dangerous lizards, and has an ... interesting fashion sense. Granted, if he were inclined to break into impromptu song and dance numbers it would severely cripple him in his chosen profession, but I can easily see him as a unicorn with mustache and a chip on his shoulder, and a poisonous carrion eater on his other shoulder, ... and another one on his... wait
907676 Aye, aye... I read the novels after watching the Anime, and I've done it in small increments. Actually, it does a very good job at following along the plotline, it's just some of the less plot/story-significant side chapters and minor details that get lost in transition. For example, The Raid Party leader wanted the rare drop from getting the last attack on the first floor boss. In the anime, it was clean, cut-and dry, simple as that. In the novel, he'd tried to buy Kirito's sword so as to make sure Kirito couldn't get the Last Attack instead. In both, he ended up getting it anyways. It's a small detail that wouldn't fit into a 30 minute time slot, but it's an interesting fact nonetheless. They took out a side quest that Kirito did with Asuna as well. They reenacted the Wizard of Oz, to a degree. The <<Witch of the West>> stole a <<Werelion>>'s mane, a <<Living Armor>>'s gemstone heart, and a <<Scarecrow>>'s brain. Asuna just powered ahead to the fight to save Dorothy from the Witch, and the three NPCs realized they didn't need those items, because what they represented was already a part of them. **Spoiler**Kirito talks with the Lionman NPC and asks him about his courage before they get to the Witch's castle, and the reply he gets is whether it was ever there even when he had his mane. Kirito questions whether he really loves Asuna for a similar reason. Did he actually feel love, or was he just playing pretend for her sake? It isn't until after they get back and he finally performs the in-game marriage rites with her that he decides that, like how the lion always had his courage, he always had the capacity for love, and he was truly happy to share it with Asuna.**Spoiler**
907711 I burst into giggles at the song and dance comment.
Put the chip on his back, then you've got room for both lizards! I do agree with your comparison, though. They are, in many ways, very similar. And people have made harder things work!
Also, Vlad's dagger is more dangerous than the sword. But still awesome.