Why You Should Read "Five Score, Divided by Four" (if you haven't already...) - - - Middle Shelf #2 · 11:23pm May 24th, 2015
Five Score, Divided by Four
So this comes from the pile of popular oldies that you can look up just by adjusting your browsing filters, somewhere near the top of the heap. I hadn't heard too much about it for how popular it apparently was, but what I had heard was a little controversial. Not Xenophilia-level controversy, of course, but more like the entire fimfiction community (or maybe just the site staff) collectively decided to sweep the whole thing under the rug and disavow that they had ever approved of such stuff. It's a really weird story of a story, and I don't know of anything else like it.
Now, I've only been here for about a year, so I wasn't around for this fic's heyday. But it doesn't take too much analysis to figure out just why this story was so popular. It's actually one of two reasons, but it's the one that people think of when they push this thing back into the archives.
Five Score is the ultimate brony wish fulfillment story. Forget waking up in Equestria, forget waking up in Equestria as a new pony or in some pony's place. No, in Five Score bronies (in their own homes, mind you) start turning into the very characters they love most, physically and mentally. I really want to avoid giving out any spoilers, but there's no limit on who can be affected. There are literally dozens of side fics to Five Score, just because the story can easily be written for (nearly) any character from the show, and the whole gradual transformation of random people into random cartoon characters in any random place on Earth makes for infinite story possibilities.
But that's only one reason this story got so much exposure. It's actually very good. Sure, it's one of the messiest (maybe even the most messy) on the Middle Shelf, but every time I yelled "Question Mark!" at my phone, I was grinning like an idiot and bouncing on my toes (not for the wish fulfillment, for the next reason coming up). I think the little frustrations of catching the constant typos and errors actually fed my excitement about the story the text was trying to tell. Maybe a little messiness can be a good thing, if your story is immersive enough.
And boy is Five Score immersive. I haven't cared this much about a half dozen main characters (some of them get less attention than others, but there are more) since... (checks the Shelves...) Wow. I don't think I've ever read a fic with such a large cast that still keeps me invested in everyone it wants me to. The retelling of the basic story from so many different perspectives, the very human and believable reactions from the different personalities, they all combine to give this story an epic scope of the sort I haven't seen since The Immortal Game, with less than half the action.
The last chapter of the story is an afterward by the author, TwistedSpectrum, who has some really interesting things to say about his story. He hated writing, but had a bunch of complaints about the pony authors he read. So when he wanted someone to make his idea into a story, he decided to do it himself, the way he would want it if he was reading it. It's a great way to approach writing, and I admit it's not one I share, though I really should. TS also does a very good job of portraying the world, the internet, realistic reactions to familiar fantasy tropes from our fandom, and human interaction that makes you care.
There is an 18+ version of this story, which is something I've only seen once before, with Diary of a Madman. I took a peek at the more clop-ish Five Score, though, and found something different than just cutting out the more adult stuff. I'm not entirely sure which one was written first, but TwistedSpectrum has my respect for re-tooling both versions of his story to fit both audiences equally well. The changes (like a brony character looking up clop instead of clean fanart, or admiring a pony as sexy instead of just cute) makes for changes to the story itself, leading to different story elements.
For instance, in the "tame" version there is a couple (who I won't name here) who find themselves attracted to each other after their transformation when they wouldn't before (for serious reasons), but aren't comfortable acting on those thoughts as they're still not comfortable with their transformation and the more personal changes that come with it. They talk about maybe getting together after the craziness is over, but they very carefully keep things chaste and skirt intimacy only occasionally, and emotionally.
In the 18+ version, as you might imagine, at the beginning of their interactions post-transformation, they both put aside their insecurities to give in to their lust and curiosity, and go all the way right from the start. But once they start to settle into something like a normal life, they realize their relationship is starting to become more than physical, and they are faced with the same serious questions about their identities, but at different times and in different ways. Instead of "I'm scared I might start to be attracted to this," it becomes "Holy crap, I can't believe I just did that. What's wrong with me? What am I becoming?" Along the same lines, the relationship between the two characters, the way they interact, is different between the two versions, but it's done equally well in both. Both versions give the same couple different chemistry in different ways, and I'm more than impressed by TwistedSpectrum's ability to do that. He may say he hates writing, but there's no denying he's got a knack for it.
Five Score, Divided by Four is a fantastic, epic urban fantasy of a fanfic, with superbly-written characters and a story that keeps you cheering every chapter as you find out what's going on and what that means for the heroes and the world around them. TwistedSpectrum proves he has talent by telling the same story twice over (for those who care enough to read both) to suit two different audiences, and giving each version the respect the story deserves. Don't go into the "tame" version expecting a G rating. It's still definitely PG-13 at the least, but at least it doesn't have actual clop, and gives a less frank window into the free time of a bunch of Millennials fresh out of college.
Man, I made that sound really bad, huh? Don't listen to me about the rating stuff. Just listen to me when I say Five Score is definitely worth your time.
Aurora out! (More Crisis after OC Slamjam probably, if anyone cares)
