My Little Reviews: GTVS

GTVS: The Great Teacher Vinyl Scratch by Mariacheat-Brony

Plot: A humanized (and surprisingly exotic) Vincenza 'Vinyl' Scratch has found that the music industry isn't loving electronic music as much as it used to. Seeing that her daughter is falling behind in funds, the DJ's mother steps in and tells her of an old family friend who has a rather interesting job offer for her. Vito Philharmonica offers Vincenza the opportunity to teach at Celestia's Royal Academy as the new music teacher, a school in which Vito's own daughter, Octavia, is currently an attending student. Although she doesn't believe she's best suited for the job considering she never even fully made it through high school, Vincenza agrees to the proposal and takes up residence within Vito's own home in order to be closer to the school itself.

With a drop-out and now former nightclub DJ as the new teacher for the most prestigious school in all of Canterlot, what could possibly go wrong for her or her students?

...

Yes, yet another Octavia+Vinyl fic on the fimfiction website. Surely it's original, right?

Well, I'd argue yes.

The story is based on a manga called Great Teacher Onizuka. While I do enjoy manga, it's not a story I've read or even heard of. However, after reading this story, a part of me WANTS to read GTO just because I know it will be similar. The story is yet to be finished as of the day I'm writing this, and I'm very much hoping it doesn't end any time soon. I started reading the 100k word fic about 2 days ago and I couldn't help but groan when I found that I was on the most recent chapter and would have to wait before the story could continue.

99% of the OctaScratch stories that I see on the website all pretty much follow the simple "opposites attract" thing that the two background characters have going for them, and because of this they usually all end up being the same thing. This story, however, gives them enough difference that it can really form new personality traits between them. Vinyl and Octavia are not the same age in this story (Octavia has only just had her 18th birthday in some of the most recent chapters, while Vinyl is in her early twenties). Vinyl shows some Italian heritage, especially in her language as she constantly switches back and forth between English and Italian (don't worry, there are subtitles), so much so that little Octy even starts to pick up some of the words.

While it doesn't totally set it aside from other fics, a vast majority of the characters in the story are all based on characters that are in the show. From Twilight and Celestia, to ponies seen in Appleloosa, to members of Octavia's ensemble seen at the Gala, you're never really left being confused by who's in the room having conversations. That is, of course, if you can get around the fact that all the characters in this story are totally humanized and therefore have humanized names.

Applejack = Jacqueline
Pinkie = Patricia
Harpo = Harshavardhan Parish Nabarunmandhu (try saying that 5 times fast... or once)
Beauty Brass = Beatrice
Dinky = Diana
Lyra = Laura

Not everyone has their names changed (such as Rarity, and of course Octavia) but if you have a hard time matching faces to names already then this might irk you.

...

+ New environment for OctaScratch
+ Good length without ever seeming to get too dull
+ Love Vinyl's Italian rants
+ Author actively seeks input and suggestions from the readers to put into the story
+ Appears to have a healthy amount of time in between chapters. Not too long so that people think the story is dead, but not too short so that chapters are short or seem rushed

- Changes to the names can make it difficult to remember who's talking early in the story