Story Reviews » Reviews! Round 58 · 6:16am Dec 10th, 2014
Seattle's Angels is a group that promotes good stories with low views. You can find us here.
Csquared and alexmagnet found themselves, as all people do at one point or another, hanging by their feet over a pool filled with ravenous sharks. Csquared heaved a tremendous sigh.
"This is balls, dude."
Alex nodded in agreement. "Yup. But..."
"But what?"
"You know what might help?"
"...What?"
Alex grinned like the devilishly handsome man that he is. Opening his mouth, he began to sing in a voice that was not unlike scratched Sega-CD disk.
"Oh-whoa-oh Oh-whoa-oh,
We didn't know that we fell.
Oh-whoa-oh Oh-whoa-oh,
Now that we’re inside this hell.
Blindsided by this trap,
Hanging our hands, fighting our straps.
We didn’t know that we fell.
Oh-whoa-oh-oh
Now that we’re inside this hell.
We’ve got the fics, makes you read ‘em.
Got the horse that makes you need ‘em.
We say ‘Read!’ you say ‘Why should I?’
They’ll make you laugh, make you cry!”
ROUND 58
The Dazzlings were banished from Equestria a long time ago. What did they do before enrolling at Canterlot High? Only Sonata Dusk remembers, but as it turns out... they did quite a lot.
“No! It’s not always me who does the remembering, like sometimes it’s you or Adagio. I think it’s totes random, but I’m not a numberist or whatever.”
Despite my initial assumptions, it turns out that Rainbow Rocks was not entirely about Trixie. While this was somewhat upsetting to me, it did give us a trio of (literally) rockin’ villians whose powerful singing is only matched by Adagio’s powerful hair. I’ve always liked the idea of sirens, and I was super excited to see them in Rainbow Rocks. Needless to say, I was not the only one. Having only been out for a few months, there’s already dozens upon dozens of Dazzling fics… of varying quality. Look, it was hard to actually find four worth reviewing that weren’t waaaaaaaaay over our view limit. But we did it anyway! Suck it, everyone besides Csquared and I!
[yet more evil laughter]
Anyway, what’s so great about The Years of Ar and S? Well, dearest reader, let me elucidate the reason for you. You see, besides doing a really excellent job of building up a really unique and fascinating history to the Dazzlings, this is also one of the few fics I’ve seen on Fimfic that actually manages to be a proper tragedy. Tragedy might not be tagged, but make no mistake, this is a tragedy. It finds the Dazzlings arguing in a museum, Sonata seemingly the only one who remembers their checkered past, and tells a really interesting story about love and pride.
I think besides this actually being a sincere tragicomedy (though the comedy is mostly limited to Sonata being Sonata), my favorite part is in the way Sonata tells the stories of their past. Each one feels unique and different, and it’s told in a weird, almost fairytale sort of way, which so damn cool. It feels like you’re reading a mythological story with the sirens playing a central role in each subplot, and, it turns out, that’s kinda what happens. No matter how far they get separated from each other, they always end up together again, and they always lose, even when they’re trying to be the heroes.
I don’t want to spoil why exactly this is happening to them, but all you really need to know is that this is a fic that does Dazzling backstory justice. There’s an interesting little romance subplot too that is so subtle I didn’t notice until about 3/4ths of the way through, though it actually ends up playing a pretty major role. Look, if you need anymore convincing, let me reiterate. This is a good tragedy. It’s not that fake-ass tragedy where people are just sad because they lead such tragic lives. This is a classical tragedy in which a character’s downfall is caused by their own actions, and it’s beautiful. Just… seriously, even if you haven’t seen Rainbow Rocks, go read this.
“But Star Swirl must have sent them there ages ago. How come they're just surfacin' now?”
A lot of people seemed to think this was a big issue in the movie, that this question was never answered. Their goal, however, was to stop the sirens from wreaking havoc at Canterlot High. What they’d been up to since Star Swirl banished them was largely irrelevant to that goal. But now we’ve moved beyond the movie, and I want to know everything.
The Years of Ar and S does a pretty fantastic job of explaining just that. It opens with the sirens confronting Star Swirl, trying to convince him to leave them alone. Each tries to tempt him in their own way, and their methodology really reflects their character well. And though the names are different—Anguish, Rage, and Suffering—it’s easy to tell who is who. This holds true for future scenes as well. No matter what names they’re using, Adagio is still easily identifiable as Adagio, and so on. So if nothing else, the characterization is strong and consistent.
Luckily for us, there’s more.
These scenes, coupled with that strong characterization, all build up to a beautifully tragic story. No matter what roles they take, no matter what morals they try to follow, no matter how much they may try to avoid each other, the sirens are doomed to fail. To fail together. That is their curse, that is their punishment, and it’s really quite beautiful in just how tragic it is.
As an immortal, Sonata never thought she might someday run out of time. But a supernatural encounter on a quiet back road will show her just how precious a mortal's life is.
A cheap-looking trilby, at least one size too small, was perched on top of his head.
Y’know, as I’m reading through all these fics, and then checking them again while I write these reviews, it occurs to me that all of them involve some sort of Dazzling “origin” story. They all deal with their backstory in same… except for Long Live Sonata Dusk. I don’t know if that means anything, but take that how you will, I guess. It’s just something that I noticed. Anyway, seeing as it doesn’t deal with Dazzling backstory, what does it deal with? Well, that question is a little more difficult than you might imagine. If nothing else, Long Live Sonata Dusk lives up the “LSD” part of its acronym.
Shoulda called the fic “Death Comes for the Archsiren.
All right, so the basic premise of LLSD is that Death shows up and tells Sonata that her time is up, and he’s inexplicably dressed like some random schlub from the local improv comedy theater. This whole fic is so bizarre and weird that I couldn’t help but love. Funny at times, and dark at others, it’s entertaining throughout. I mean, there’s a bit where Sonata and Death are diving in his minivan and he starts singing what sounds like a Steely Dan song, and it just gets weirder from there.
I don’t really know how to explain what happens in this story, because it’s such a trip, but I can at least say that I enjoyed reading every bit of it. The character interactions are excellent, as is the dialogue, and Sonata feels just the way I like to see her. She’s not a complete fool, but she’s also not catty or aggressive, like Aria or Adagio. It’s not exactly how she is in Rainbow Rocks, but I think I’m okay with that given what she was like in the movie led to a seemingly endless series of bad taco joke memes and far too many fics about Sonata being “random.” It was like Season 1 Pinkie Pie all over again, but thankfully not as aggravating.
Anyway, if you like a good dark comedy (I want to say it’s vaguely Christopher Moore-esque), then you should definitely check this out. It’s funny, creepy, and more than a little strange.
I’m not entirely sure what I expected from this story when I started reading it, but it certainly wasn’t what the story gave me.
I hadn’t yet read a story by Horse Voice when I stumbled upon Long Live Sonata Dusk, but I had heard a lot of things—good things—about him. People told me he’s really good at writing [Dark]. In hindsight, that probably should have clued me in.
Long Live Sonata Dusk opens with the revelation that Sonata Dusk is dying. Or perhaps she’s already dead. Either way, Death has come to pick her up. And that’s where I start to both question the events of the story and get rather creeped out. See, Death isn’t depicted as the stereotypical grim reaper with the long, black cape and a scythe. No, he actually kinda reminds me of this guy:
Creepy, right?
You’d think Death wouldn’t look like that. It just didn’t sit right with me. But it helped set the tone for the story. Nothing after Death’s description really felt right. Everything felt a whole lot creepier, even though beyond Sonata’s supposed death, nothing creepy was really going on. Turns out Death fancies himself a musician and played Sonata a song to get her expert opinion. But because of Death’s description, I couldn’t help but wonder if this was some elaborate prank and/or kidnapping plot. It just didn’t feel right.
This contrast of Sonata’s almost-blind trust in Death and the feel that these events aren’t quite right builds up quite nicely to the ending. I left the story entirely creeped out but satisfied in what I had read. It left a stronger impression on me than most stories of that length have any right leaving.
STORY 3
Welcome to the Show, by DWK
In the aftermath of their defeat, Aria Blaze and her siren companions struggle to figure out what to do with their lives.
“Oh, I dunno, Sonata,” Aria said [...] “it’s almost like there’s a pattern here…as if Tuesdays happen with some sort of predictable frequency…”
If I’ve said it once, I’ve said it, well, at least once. I love sarcastic, snarky, mean characters, and this fic is just full of that kind of sarcastic snark that I crave. Aria is my favorite of the Dazzlings, and for a good reason. She’s easily the most in-line with my ideal character. But Aria, in this story, is something more than I could’ve ever wanted. Not only is she mean and sarcastic, but she actually has a lot of depth. She grows and changes according to actions and events that happen because of, or to her. Almost like a real character!
Yes, it’s going to be nothing but Salem Saberhagen gifs.
Welcome to the Show might be the best of the four Dazzling fics we’re featuring here. In terms of story, characters, and interactions, it’s certainly a strong contender. I like a lot of it, and I can say without a doubt that I enjoyed reading it (though it’s still incomplete), but despite all that I can’t say it was my favorite. It’s definitely the darkest story, and I mean that in an emotionally dark way. Adagio drinks herself into depression, Aria smokes and drinks, and the whole thing feels very… well, very Trainspotting I guess, or at least has similar aspects.
I think these elements can be done well, and are in fact done well in this story, I just don’t particularly care for them in my fics about colorful cartoon characters singing songs and shit. It will always feel out of place to me, no matter how well done it is, but that’s really the point here. Despite the fact that I dislike these things, this story is still just so damn good that it didn’t matter. It never stopped bothering me that Aria curses like a sailor or that Adagio is physically abusive to Sonata, but it did make me really happy when I saw them start to grow.
Now, an important thing to note about this story is that it is incomplete, but it seems to be updating rather frequently so there’s a good hope that it will actually finish and not just peter out of existence, which is good because where it leaves off at the end makes me very eager to see it continued. There’s a lot of promise here, and even just what’s there now shows a lot of growth for Aria’s character in particular. Anyway, if you’re not too squeamish about My Little Pony characters drinking themselves under the table (and not in a funny way), or shouting expletives at each other, then I’m sure you’ll enjoy this. It’s pretty damn good, and hints at the future chapters promise a really fulfilling character arc. Oh yeah, and the siren backstory is pretty cool too. Shoo-bee-doo, bitches.
There was a short argument regarding the inclusion of this story for this round. Something about almost too many views but not quite, there has to be another Dazzlings story out there to keep with the theme, and we’ll get fired if we feature this thing that has this many views already. The argument ended with, “We're doing this one by virtue of it being not a huge pile of shit, and, in fact, pretty good.” And there might have also been mention of no one else doing Aria fics.
In discussing other potential stories for the round, it came up that a lot of people screw up dialogue. It’s not written as though it’s the character talking; it’s written as though it’s the author talking. The characters, for the most part, all sound the same. That’s a large reason why both of us enjoyed this story so much. The characters sound distinct. They’re clearly different from the others. On top of the excellent dialogue, the relationships between the sirens are developed wonderfully in the aftermath of Rainbow Rocks. Aria’s pent-up anger interacting with Adagio’s wallowing in drunken self-pity, for example, is handled wonderfully.
But then DWK upped his game. He did my favorite thing: He added in world-building. So not only is he building up the Sirens’ relationships in the present, he takes a step back to the past, and starts building up their relationships there. From their origins before they were sirens to their duel with Starswirl and currently up through the early days of their banishment to human world (Do we have an official name for the world of EQG? I feel like “human world” just doesn’t quite cut it.), DWK provides an excellent backdrop for current events. This backdrop serves to make current interactions and conflicts much more impactful. It seems like everything in this story is there to build up the characters and their interactions, and man oh man is it working. The characterization has been pretty splendid so far.
Of the 39 stories I’ve read that involve one or more of the sirens, this one is easily my favorite and arguably the best. And it features Aria, which is something more stories should do. To make everything even better, there’s supposed to be an update today soon. No pressure.
STORY 4
To Be Adored, by MarvelousTK
A tale of three young seaponies who only want to be accepted, and the path they take to be adored.
Once they were away from the group, the elder seapony drew her close with a sympathetic look. “Adagio,” she said softly, “we need to talk.”
Of all the fics in this round, this one might be the hardest for me to recommend. It’s not because it’s not good, it is, and it’s not because it’s not interesting, it is. The problem is that the other fics we’ve featured in this round so far just better at a lot of the things To Be Adored tries to do. Don’t get me wrong, To Be Adored is still an interesting look at the sirens’ backstory, and it provides believable, and somewhat tragic, origin for their becoming “Dazzlings”. It’s just… in a round where there are three really excellent stories already about one character or set of characters, the fourth one has to be really unique or really good, and it’s unfortunately just pretty good. Boy, I’m doing a terrible job selling this. Lemme try again.
This one’s not even a joke. It’s just true.
All right, here’s the deal. The Years of Ar and S is my favorite of the bunch because it has, to me, the best Dazzling backstory. Long Live Sonata Dusk is just so freakin’ weird it’s hard not to love. Welcome to the Show is just strong all around. And then we get to To Be Adored. It’s a good fic, and don’t take that likely. It was hard to find four Dazzling fics actually worth highlighting, and this one made it, so take that for what you will.
Adagio’s character is strong here. We see her life as a seapony who can’t sing, and it tears her apart. She basically sells her soul to the devil for some magic trinkets to allow her to do the one thing she always wanted to do, sing. In its own way, To Be Adored is a bit of a tragic story as well. Adagio’s own pride and ambition end up bringing not only herself down, but her friends as well. It’s sad, in a way. Honestly, I think I would’ve liked to have seen more to this story. There’s a decent air of mystery around who it was that gives Adagio her gems, and we don’t really see how they go from being seaponies to being in the human world. I don’t know. I’m not particularly attached to this story, but it is undeniably good.
I mean… I guess that’s all I have to say about that.
Last one, I swear/
So far, every story has taken place after Rainbow Rocks. No matter how much backstory they may (or may not, as is the case of Long Live Sonata Dusk) show us, they all take place with the same events in recent memory. That is not the case here.
To Be Adored takes place during the events leading up to the sirens becoming the sirens. It stars Adagio Dazzle, a young seapony who wants nothing more than for her singing to please everyone. Unfortunately for her, though, her singing apparently wasn’t any good, and she wasn’t able to join seapony society proper. She was relegated to some remedial school where they teach seaponies to sing properly.
It turns out this is a pretty big deal. See, in seapony culture, singing together in harmony was everything. It was a sign you were a true seapony. And there’s what makes this story pretty great. It builds up and establishes seapony culture through Adagio’s—and later Aria’s and Sonata’s—failures to live up to its standards. It’s an organic, fluid process that helps to make Adagio’s struggle all the more impactful. So when they fall all the way to rock-bottom and presumably become sirens, it really hits you just how desperate they were to simply be accepted.
Because it world-builds through its characterization, it’s able to establish a lot of culture and ideas in a very short period of time. The story is only a little more than 3k words, after all. It’s quite impressive that the story was able to accomplish so much world-building and characterization in so little time and still make it all feel so natural.
The door to the room swung open with a loud bang. “What the hell is that screeching!?”
Alex and Csquared turned to look at who had entered. “Oh, hey, what’s up?” said Alex.
Pav shook his head. “What is wrong with you guys? You got caught in the shark trap… again?”
Csquared shrugged. “I wanted to be with my family.”
“And you?” said Pav, nodding towards Alex.
Alex stared silently for a long time, then said, “...What?”
Pav shook his head, sighing.
Feel free to visit our group for more information and events, and to offer some recommendations for future rounds. See you all next time!
I shoulda just let go when he started singing.
Okay, all Dazzlings round, that explains a few things. But alex? Question. When did you turn into this?
2643975
Scootaloo Dies a Bunch changed me.
The Years of Ar and S sounds to my liking. On the list it goes.
2643985
On second thought, I don't want to know anymore.
Wait wait wait wait wait!
Both published only a month ago and already significantly passed the 1,000-view threshold. I'm guessing good, underviewed Dazzlings fics were really hard to find?
[pressure intensifies]
I am seriously getting fed up with this community. I'm not the best reviewer, and I sure as hell am not the best author. But I try, dammit. And I give and I give and I give, just trying to do my part. Just trying to improve my little corner of the world. And invariably, someone has to go and hit me right where it hurts. I'm not asking for fame. I'm not asking for praise. All I want in return from this community, for all the blood sweat and tears that I put into it, is one simple favor:
Do not use my shark trap without permission.
Like, seriously, is that too much to ask? If you ask me first if you can use it, I will probably say okay. Otherwise, please don't touch. It seems so simple, in my mind. Such an innocuous thing, more a sign of civility and respect than any sort of owed favor. But no. Every Celestia-damned time that I go to check on the thing, it's pool parties and showtunes and amateur film hour.
Like, did you check the water pH levels before and after using? Did you bother to check which of my sharks have dietary restrictions? Did you ask me if I had a date lined up for tonight and was planning to bring her to the shark trap for some evening entertainment?
No. No, you did not. And I am sorry, but that is rude.
It was a pleasure to read the review of The Years of Ar and S. It's really good.
2644095 Can I borrow your pressure gauge? I found this beat-up looking lobster cage, and I'm trying to jury-rig a space helmet. All I need is a pressure gauge, a coil of rope, two nails, a flamingo's feather, and a mulberry iced tea, and I'll be good to go!
I'll buy you a new gauge sometime in the next decade, don't worry.
2644068
I've been using a rough 1500 view limit for years.
EDIT: I'll also point out that the threshold you're talking about is a guideline for recommendations in the thread. Not necessarily for us. For stories of 1000-1500 views, I prefer to find those on my own. They're high enough views that people probably shouldn't be recommending them to us and should instead focus on stories under 1k.
You've chosen an excellent batch of fics this round.
2644068
What Csquared said, but also yes... it was very difficult.
Darn it Netflix! Put Rainbow Rocks up already so I don't have to tiptoe around spoilers anymore!
What is your view limit?
2644311
You haven't been in this group for years. Your first round was Feburary 2013. That's slightly less than two.
Eh, screw it. I'm nitpicking.
And fair enough, I suppose. You have done >1000-view stories before (Ordem e Progresso comes to mind, though that was marred by extenuating circumstances), just rarely this close to the 1500 mark and never this recent.
Anyway:
The Years of Ar and S: Read Later
Long Live Sonata Dusk: Read Later
Welcome to the Show: Read Later and Seattle's Crypt
To Be Adored: Read Later
2644145
Yes good sir, you may certainly borrow my pressure gauge, because I am a professional and thusly I have several backups.
2644623 Much obliged! I'll make sure to pay you back sometime in the future! For now, I'm going space-chicken hunting.
2644439
Oops, I thought someone else grabbed this one already.
As you can see from the back-and-forth, there's no set code. Generally speaking, the prototypical fic we're aiming for has 1000 views or less (but we've wiggled up to 1500 or so), is more than few months old (but we've made exceptions), and hasn't appeared on any sort of spotlight like EQD or RCL (but we've made exceptions, and in extreme cases, EQD featured yet 200 views will be ammunition in favor of us featuring it). The short, hand-waivy answer is that each fic is taken on a case-by-case basis. This does occasionally lead to a few oddities or outliers, but I guess the mindset we have around here is more one of finding fics in the spirit of what we're looking for, rather than a rigid twelve-point checklist.
Welcome to the Show is the only one here that i actually read, and only because I filled in for RainbowBob for his Saturday Night featured. It's a great story through and through, and DWK has proven themselves to be a good writer in my eyes. Or, at least how to write a good Dazzling story, but still, hats off to him/her.
2644439
Like Pav said, we prefer rough guidelines that allow us to look at each story individually as opposed to hard and fast rules.
And in our defense, Long Live Sonata Dusk and Welcome to the Show collectively gained about 200 views from when we decided to put them on the round.
2644528
Meh, close enough to years.
Ohhhh, so this is where those favorites this morning came from. Thanks, you folks! I did consider the Tragedy tag, but decided it ended on too positive a note.
At first I was like
YAY more reviews!
But then I was like
All stories based on pony movie not show. Disappoint.
Guess I'll go read Moonstuck again.
2644701
Now my ears are burning. I'm very curious as to where people have been talking about my humble self.
It really does get kind of repetitive after a while.
That actually sounds like a pretty big twist. Given the emphasis of the show on Harmony, seeing characters who couldn't find their place because society had very strict rules for acceptance actually gives these villains an interesting counterpoint to the heroes.
2644384 There are some fairly good TV rips of it on dailymotion.
have you reviewed The Evening Sonata by Daniel-Gleebits if not you should very well done
2652302
That story has well over 5000 views. Our goal isn't to review stories that are already that popular. We look for stories that aren't popular.
2652353 oh ok i thought you just did reviews
2644095 If it weren't meta, I'd write a story about Scootaloo stealing your shark trap. That's how the community would give back: by taking.