What happened today · 2:05am Apr 14th, 2014
"You know, I haven't done a fanfiction review in a long time. Time I remedied that! So let's go look for some fics."
...
"My, there's so many to choose from. No, that one's still going. No, a bit too long for right now. Hmmm, this one seems interesting. Reasonable length, seems to have a lot of upvotes. Interesting title, too. Parting Words. Might be fun to take a look at. No time to look at the author information; I need to buckle in and indulge in the written word."
...
"...Okay, that wasn't fun in the slightest. In fact, it kind of pissed me off a fair bit, and not in a good, righteous way. But maybe it was an early story from someone. God knows My Little Alicorn is full of holes. I'm sure Real-"
"...I just almost reviewed a RealityCheck fanfic."
"I need to take a shower."
I take it that particular writer is bad?
so why don't you like reality check?
2008175
You don't want me to get into that.
2008170
It's more like a "Chatoyance" kind of bad than anything else.
2008178 fair enough. hope you feel better though.
2008178
Ah... good writer, bad plotlines
I personally like realitycheck. However, he does get rather vocal on his blog, which is a bit annoying.
2008170 RC is infamous...
2008225
So... Good Writer, bad plotlines, and no people skills?
2008228 ... Eeyup.
Personally, I liked the climatic kaiju battle between Spike and Garble, but... it was oddly-placed, considering it's in his expansion of the Nyx-verse.
Also, the sequel story to this one is worse, as well as Alicornundrom.
2008248
Ah, no wonder IAH feels unclean
Hey... I loved My Little Alicorn
2008266 So do I, but he's not wrong. Very few stories are perfect.
Going back to my cherokee roots, walking in fire is a good way to clean one's soul from impurities.
2008263 yep. Still, I would reread that Kaiju battle simply for the idea of literal "Spike-Zilla", no matter how stupid it is.
Also, Celestia gets +5 Morningstar of Solar Whimsy. At least, that's what I dub it, from how cheerful she is that some wild dragons were flame-mailed to her.
Hmm... RealityCheck is actually an author I've considered picking up every now and again, if only for the fact he writes spin-offs based on Past Sins -- and based on up-votes, seeming quality work too. Still, looking over his further catalogue now (notably the synopsis for Alicornundrum), I think maybe it's just as well I never found the time.
I'm sure he's perfectly good author, but I think it's likely that the foundation of the philosophy and principles he's building off of wouldn't be particularly compatible with my own.
2008266
I'd wager that every one of us watching IAH here loves that fic to some to degree or another. Still, loving it doesn't mean we need to disavow it's flaws and shortcoming, of which there are a few. No story is perfect though, but for a first effort it was downright amazing.
2008351
Honestly, that really doesn't mean much. Plenty of awful stories get lots of upvotes.
2008266
Dude I loved it so much that it is what caused me to actually finally make an account on this site just so I could officially add my like to it.
2008181
Speaking personally, I have a very huge love/hatee relationship with his stuff. On the one hand-he is pretty good at writing a certain little filly alicorn that I love dearly. On the other, parting Words ticks me off in ways you couldn't believe and there are a few other things in some of his stories that irk me in ways that will make me go on tagents.
2008351
He can write a "reason why you suck speech" that is for sure, just don't expect anypony that has lady parts to do much of anything in his fics...you will be dissappointed. I mean, his prose is good, but the ideals and treatment of certain characters will be something to watch out for. Again, if you like the show because there are strong females who can kick ass, then you are going to be dissappointed. VERY dissappointed.
Ah, Parting Words. One of the greatest exercises in missing the point in all of pony fandom.
Yes, in the real world, it would be stupid to send a student, a farmer, a dressmaker, etc. to go fight an ancient evil tyrant. In the real world, it would make more sense to send in the Army, and launch a few missiles at him as soon as he woke up. But MLP isn't the real world. It's a cartoon aimed at eight year old children, taking place in an alternate universe that isn't like ours. It's okay to have the main characters go on adventures even if the real-world response would be to send a battalion of tanks instead.
2008357
There is some truth to what you say, but at the same time he's got multiple fics with over 1000 likes. Admittedly, that technically only speaks to the "popularity" of his work and not the actual quality. Generally speaking though, that popularity had to come from somewhere, which infers that in theory at least, he has to be doing something right and that there is some audience that consistently finds his work appealing.
I'm still angry at him over the fact that he treats people who live in monarchies as idiots for not removing the crown from their monarch's head, also that he finds that everyone owning and using guns at the ruler as more morally superior than having a strong leader to the country.
2008170
"I WILL SHOVE MY WAY OF THINKING DOWN YOUR THROAT, AND YOU ARE GOING TO LIKE IT, LESSER CREATURE. BE GLAD THAT I EVEN GRACED YOU WITH MY SUPERIOR PRESENCE OF INTELLECTUAL MIGHT".
...that's pretty much Reality Check.
Well, as I've observed, that's pretty much what Less Wrong is about.
2008453
I'm starting to figure that... yep that would be a lack of people skills
Seriously, I used to like his fics involving Nyx, but his attitude, conflicting morals and hypocrisy ruined my enjoyment.
Also, he refuses to put Spoiler Alerts in his blogs!
2008178 Yeah we do.
You just need to find something more fun to read.
I still suggest McPoodle's work, especially The Best of All Possible Worlds since it's probably one of the best portrayal of Celestia I've seen out there!
Based on this, I'm guessing you don't think too highly of this RealityCheck person. This is the first time I've heard of them so I'm completely clueless about this writer's reputation.
I sort of liked the first chapter of "Parting Words" when I thought it was going to be some kind of comedy or something. I was kind of expecting Twilight's rant to end and Celestia to do something like, I dunno, pull a Morgan Freeman and give Twilight control of Equestria for a week and see how much spare time she has to deal with every last little dragon or chaos god that breaks loose while still having to handle paperwork, present a calm face to the public, maintain the stable orbit of the Sun, and deal with Luna's mood swings.
Perhaps an (intentional) body-switch would be done, for extra comedic value.
But then it got all heavy and...meh. I still read it through to the end, but it was just kind of unremarkable and forgettable.
2008537
Imagine a male, conservative version of Chatoyance (i.e., the author who's almost single-handedly responsible for the bad rap the Conversion Bureau gets)
In fact I have a theory that he is the nega-version of Chatoyance, and should the two ever meet, the universe would explode, or else they'd cancel each other out, merge, and form a single balanced individual.
2008537
Decent author...
Loves to soapbox his flexible and situational "moral superiority".
2008178
Hey now... lets not say things we can't take back...
RC doesn't deserve that comparison, its illegal in 49 states.
2008587
It would take about 20 RCs to equal out THAT amount of Crazy Chat lady.
Odds are high you have heard of her before TCB, you just didn't know it.
Looking into her past is like looking into a Twilight Zone Episode...
2008587
I haven't heard of Chatoyance either before this point but I have heard about the bad rep the Conversion Bureau has; though, to be honest, I never understood the bad rep because the premise didn't really sound like something that could drive so much negativity and hatred. I'm guessing this "Chatoyance" person must have done some pretty stupid shit in order to be mostly responsible for the Conversion Bureau's bad rep.
2008627
On a fundamental level, there's nothing wrong with TCB's basic premise, and it has some...okay stories. Not my cup of tea, but it is an interesting enough premise and I'd be lying if I said I hadn't ever thought about how a TCB story I wrote might go.
Chatoyance...I don't even know where to begin. Um...she deletes posts on her blogs or stories that don't agree with her or say something negative about her or what she's writing ("negative" here being defined as "any form of criticism at all"). She is misanthropic to the extreme: humans are evil evil bastards and Celestia and ponies can do no wrong. The Conversion process in her stories brainwashes you to being unable to experience any negative emotions and makes you loyal to the Princesses. She considers large swaths of the TV show itself to be non-canon (including any episode that features any kind of post-Renaissance technology like, say, a lightbulb, or oven, and any episode that shows Celestia to be anything less than an all-powerful goddess); basically imagine all those people who consider Faust to be able to write no wrong, and then imagine the super-hardcore-Waco Texas-Fundie version of those people, and then multiply by ten, and you're approaching the event horizon of the supermassive black hole that is her crazy (especially since her vision of what the show is supposed to be like goes against many of Faust's original concepts anyway)
Her stories basically are responsible for the "Xenolestia" version of Celestia floating around in TCB lore (short for Xenocide-Celestia; Celestia in her stories is basically intentionally trying to ponify humanity and wipe out human culture, societies, and technology. And - here's the thing - she portrays this as a genuinely good thing).
She sort of once launched a coup to try and gain control of the Conversion Bureau group; when it failed, she stormed off and formed her own TCB. Only with no blackjack or hookers.
She had something like a dozen dummy-accounts in order to upvote her own stories.
And so on.
2008627
2008655
This is all actual events that occurred just in the MLP fandom.
It sounds like an exaggeration, but it is actually and horrifically quite true.
Now realize shes been doing this for almost 30 years.
I'm not kidding when I say a quick overview of Chat's history is an acid trip to make Lewis Carroll jealous.
2008655
Damn.
It's people like that which make me glad I don't usually decide to randomly venture out into the dark corners of FIMFiction.
2008683
30 years?
2008738
Close to it. Been a Kook since the 80s. Chat's 60 or 70 sir. Created the COGNI (an apparently rigged gender identity test), and has been caught in (and creating) more drama than Congress across boards and fandoms since the internet was made public.
This is a lady that currently believes testosterone is a biological poison, and is in a polyamorous relationship with a guy, a girl, and another TS.
Tip of the Iceberg.
Acid trip.
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2008415
For what it's worth 'Parting Words' and 'The Audience' both seem to have started off as a framework in which a 'why you suck' speech could be placed. The Parting Words-verse just suffered from being turned up to 11 and getting a bit silly although its sequel remains the best and least contrived version of his 'immortality vaccine' idea.
The Audience, oddly enough, is a good example of how a story can get away from you. Where it is now is not what he had intended to write. The characters have just sort of gotten away from him and are telling their own story.
"Nightmare Night and Nyx" is very good; "Nyx's Family" sort of loses way half-way through and swaps plot lines. It suffers for it. "Cherilee's Class" started super-adorable in concept but jumped the shark and, I think, would benefit from a complete rewrite to improve its focus. "Alicornundrum" is currently floundering and, once again, needs some attempt to refocus.
Yeah, Reality is a very strongly-opinionated writer and I don't think he really likes any kind of negative review that strays onto his own personal philosophy. This seems to have got measurably worse some time during the writing of "Nyx's Family" and, this is an odd feeling I've got, I do wonder if he's planning on abandoning the fandom as all his extant stories are floundering and only rarely updated with little progress on the story.
2008757
COGNI test? TS?
2008799
Chat's a transexual. Was a guy now a girl. Did it in the eighties.
And after her grand life experience created a test that, by all accounts is unscientific and rigged, to spread the joy that is transexual.
That... isn't a joke either.
Look her up. Her online infamy is Lewis Carroll's acid trip with a shot of Lovecraftian goodness.
And her old webcomics have such wholesome messages...
2008828
oookaaaay.
Parting Words...
You know what? I actually agree with him here concerning Celestia's actions during the Crystal Empire two-parter. Lord knows during season three that was the beginning of my need to throttle her and rip her a new one.
2008351
I followed RealityCheck for a time, and while I found his incredibly self righteous attitude off-putting, it was something I could deal with. However, he both got to were he got utterly intolerant of any viewpoint that he did not share, and would get insulting to those who attempted to argue/discuss said viewpoints, and his stories gradually turned into author tracts to tout those viewpoints. In particular, he never forgave FiM for portraying a monarchy as a positive thing, and more and more he spent time bashing Celestia and her government in story. I finally stopped part way through Alicornundrum.
The shame is he really is a good author, and when he would segue his viewpoints into stories cleanly they were enjoyable, but once he got to where he would just cram them down your throat, story be damned, it was too much. And god forbid you call attention to it. His story, he does what he wants was the answer.
2008351
On the upside, he writes Nyx VERY well, and "Nightmare Night and Nyx" is a strong favorite of mine. He also has written one of the very few OC characters for the purpose of shipping him with Twilight who actually is a good character.
Hey... I just realized you were the one who wrote My Little Alicorn
2008924
Agreed, he is a good writer, but his tendency to shoehorn his POV about certain matters on his stories tends to be tiresome, that, and his stories tends to suffer of too much plotlines to the point of being confusing.
2008915
2008924
I've only really read 'Parting Words' and while there are some bits of it that I like I'm very much just "meh" about it, I could never get into his other works either even the Nix stuff as I'm not interested in that... Huh I just realized I don't know the proper way to defines those types of stories, Subsection? AUs? Series? Collection? Could someone please tell me the proper word(s)?
Anyway I don't really fallow his blog or story, and the only time I see him sometimes is when he posts in comment sections so all I really see him as is just some rude guy who wrote a story I read and has political and moral beliefs that he is very vocal and jerky about.
2008828
2008655
0_0
i.imgur.com/9HY53al.gif
NOPE!! NOT TOUCHING THAT ONE WITH A 10 METER LONG RUSTY HALBERD! NOPE!!
2008967
The term you want is Recursive Fanfiction I believe.
2008418
Doesn't help that said student is the most POWERFUL unicorn on the planet, said dressmaker is dang good at precision, animal caretaker can talk down dragons, speedster is cabable of breaking the speed barrier, farmer is super strong, and Pinkie Pie. Isn't that like having the Avengers and sending out the cannon fodder instead?
Not to mention, but we already see that Sombra is capable of subduing Unicorns like nothing, was able to put in enough traps that the trapmaster is taking notes, and is a smoky abomination. That fic is not just missing the point, the fic is being written from the perspective of someone who watches Iron man and asks, "Why send out the guy with heart problems against the giant machine, why not send out the guard."
2008775
Ok, I only read one chapter of Cheeriee's class, how did it jump the shark? And yeah, Alicornrundum is kind of sad in its excution.
2009165
While his actions were good...the presentation failed hard. Twilight came off as a whiner and a crybaby who doubted herself. She came off as a a child who was just given another tough assignment and didn't want to do it anymore. I personally wanted, when she got her army, for the men to DIE! Yeah, I wanted mass excutions and Twilight to look on in horror as her mistake is brought to light.
Every line that Twilight gave, every word got me more and more mad at her. I felt like writing a rebuttal fic where Celestia takes every one of her points and calls her a CHILD on it. Because that was what she sounded like, a child. I had an entire twitter rant about WHY she failed in her argument. If she had talked to me, I would've put her mind into a world where she did get what she wanted and then see the horrifing consqueces of her actions!
Like I said, he tried to do a good point, but its excution was not only lacking, it made the main character come off as a whining little crybaby who needed to be hoofheld through the tough battles.
Please note, nothing is wrong with what you just said, I just needed to unleash my rage on that JERK! This fic ticks me off everytime
2008924 the problem is that he never segues into those view points cleanly. He always, always sets up a situation where he can launch into a "this is why you suck speech." Character always blows their top, and reality steps in to rant.
It got to the point of every other chapter this was happening in Nyx's family. And I've stopped counting with alicornundrum.
2008450 his popularity comes from competently writing Nyx and started doing so shortly after Pen finished releasing the original version of Past Sins.
2009165 can you tell me how she failed in her argument. I always wondered about that so I really would like to know.