Fic recs, July 3rd: Pandoraverse edition! · 1:07pm Jul 3rd, 2016
Got a couple more days left in that audiobook, so there might be minifics on the horizon again. But first, the neeeeews.
For the poetically inclined, darf has published a chapbook! He's also open for non-porn story commissions.
If you don't keep up with Equestria Daily, be sure to check out this interview they did with Somber. I especially love his response to the "would you change anything" question:
If I had three extra years and the guts to do so, I’d have Blackjack die after 33 and finish the story with Scotch Tape and Rampage.
I WOULD HAVE SO MUCH RESPECT FOR THIS, JUST SAYIN'.
In audiobook news, Goombasa has done a reading of the infamous Would It Matter If I Was!
"What's the Pandoraverse?" you ask. Well, it's like the Kilalaverse in that it's about future offspring OCs of an artist's favorite pairings, centering about Twicord and their half-draconequus daughter, Pandora. It was suggested to me after I did the Kilalaverse blog, at which point I realized it was a separate 'verse, created by the artist Lopoddity, and grabbed the first handful of fics I could find. (It's also the reason I wrote Jugemu! c.c) Head below to learn more.
H: 0 R: 2 C: 2 V: 1 N: 2
King Stuffypants the Alicorn and the Land of Draconequuses by alarajrogers
Genre: Comedy
Discord takes an opportunity to tell his daughter a 'story' about where she came from.
To start off, I am entirely uninterested in the ship central to this 'verse. The only pony I ship Discord with is Celestia. Maybe Luna. I really can't stand seeing him with anyone else, because I don't see him as a romantic or sexual being. That said, I'm here for Pandora, and she's just precious as fuck in this story, being young and all. I was impressed by Discord, because despite playing the daddy role, he really sounds like himself. I was furthermore impressed by the fact that he just busts into a second story in the middle of the first one, and also by the fact that it's a perfectly chaotic take on Tikki Tikki Tembo (or Jugemu, if you will). This does trip over itself occasionally, throwing in bits of explainy headcanon or fandom references that don't add much. But despite the lack of dialogue tags, it's quite easy to follow, and rather a lot of fun to watch Discord weave this totally bullshit story out of nothing while his daughter eats it up. It just walks a very fine line between "cute and funny" and "excess jokes".
Recommended If You Like Cute Stuff
And That Made All the Difference by Between Lines
Genre: Kilalaverse
After two Twilight Sparkles disappear unexpectedly, two universes go in search of them.
Two stories in and we've already crossed the streams! :V But yes, this is an excuse to get Pandora into the Kilalaverse, where she meets a couple of half-siblings-from-another-dimension and has all kinds of wacky hijinks with them. Along with getting to see her in action as an adult, we also meet Illusion, son of Discord and Celestia, who I believe was the one character I couldn't identify in Guy Talk. Unfortunately, if this is the way Pandora acts generally, I can't say I like her much. <.< She swears like Littlepip, acts like extra-wacky Pinkie Pie with Discord's powers, and never shuts up. Thankfully, Starburst is the other main character, and she serves up a heaping helping of being 300% done with Pandora's shit. Alongside this is the two Twilights interacting — I'll admit, it took a while to figure out which was which, but it's worth it for the Sparity debate! — and the very interesting place they end up in. When this gets into the down and dirty, with Pandora and Starburst bouncing off each other while trying to rescue their mothers, it's pretty great. Otherwise, it's like one of those crossovers the author is considerably more enthusiastic about than the audience. I just wish I had a better idea of who, exactly, Cupcake is. I won't say I didn't enjoy this, but other than the fight-then-make-up scene, I just wanted to kick Pandora every time she opened her mouth.
Recommended If You Enjoy Either of These Verses
Loathing Courtship by Wikia
Mature: Sex
Genre: Humanized
After losing a bet, Pandora has to take her rival to prom.
So weird to see a high school AU that doesn't have anything to do with EQG. Anyway, this story introduces us to "Bruce" — that's honestly his pony name — who is canonically Pandora's rival and sometimes-love-interest? It doesn't matter: he's a jerk, you already know how I feel about her, I just did not care about either of them as this story progressed. The writing is very plain, with character sheet-style descriptions and frequent word usage issues ("mix-matched"). Honestly, the only thing I liked is that Cupcake calls her "sir"; I wish that had happened in the previous story, because it's great. But the big joke is that Pandora and Bruce hate each other, so of course they have sex, and I might have appreciated that if I gave half a darn about either one of them.
Not Recommended
The Thinking Tree by Pegasister107
Genre: Cute
Usually Pandora's father would take her to exciting places to teach her about chaos. Today, it was only a tree.
Straight up, the author's note lets you know English is not her first language, and it shows. If you can't deal with writing like that, move along. If you can, well, this has a lot more cute father/daughter interaction like that first story, not to mention Discord actually taking fatherhood seriously for once. That said, the narrative isn't very well structured, jerking around between ideas again and again. It's still pretty cute, and there's a line near the end that made me laugh aloud; not sure it was meant to, but whatever. Meant for the truly forgiving.
Vaguely Recommended
Coronation Pandemonium by KingMoriarty
Genre: Drama
Pandora is finally going to become the princess she always wanted to be, and everything will get better.
I ended up liking this one a lot more than those previous because it actually gives Pandora something to do. She thinks princesshood is going to make all her problems go away, and oh, sweet summer child. There's not much more to it than that, honestly, but it's such a pleasant departure from what I've read until now that I can't help liking it. (Also I think there are hints of Pandora/Cupcake shipping, like what's up with that?)
Recommended
Dox's Egg by biasedeyes
Genre: Comedy
After laying an egg, Paradox visits his 'twin sister' for help.
And now we're versing a verse! I really don't know what to make of it, though. It's more an idea than a story, and it rushes itself to boot. There's potential for comedy here, but it would need to be handled with a bit more aplomb to work out right.
Not Recommended
The Annual Canterlot Bake-Off by Between Lines
Genre: Comedy
This year, Cupcake is determined to win.
So I gathered all of these stories by searching for "Pandoraverse" and "Lopoddity" in the regular browse function, never realizing there would be a group. Of course there's a group. So while everything's been organized by publication date up until now, here's one more story, and one more ping for Between Lines, because I want to read about Cupcake, goshdarnit. And so help me, I actually laughed at something Pandora did, hallelujah. Actually, Pandora's perfect in this, energetic without being annoying. I think she really does need a foil, and usually Cupcake just goes along with whatever she's doing. As for the story itself, it moves along at a good clip, but gets a little too clippy near the ending. Still, I like the rivalry Cupcake has with Dinky and again, any story that can use Pandora to good effect gets my vote.
Recommended
So what have we learned? I like Lopoddity's art, and the characters are just fine in that context (Pandora's mom has got it going on), but I'm less enthused reading about them. No offense, but when a picture paints a thousand words, you can at least pretend those words are good. I like the idea of Discord having a kid and trying to be a dad. I still hate Twicord. I can't say I'm a fan of Pandora, but some of the supporting cast may be worthwhile. (>tfw Skyla) I think I'll stick to Kilalaverse stories, given the choice.
Is there, like, a link to any of this art?
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Here ya go! :V
Cupcake is the maud-like daughter of Pinkie and Discord and Pandora's best friend; they are somewhat in lesbians with each other. You would know this if you spent half an hour looking through the Tumblr, you pleb!
*insert litany of miscellaneous expletives and unflattering statements*
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I say, sir, this is a fanfiction review blog! We do not concern ourselves with art.
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There's a Tumblr? <.< Sweet crap.
And yeah, someone told me she's a CheesePie kid, which, chalk up another ship I dislike. I wish I was a beloved visual artist so I could foist my horrible ships on other people. :| I like her, though; I feel like she's what Maud could have been, which is to say unflappable and interesting. Maud and Pinkie just don't bounce off each other the way Cupcake and Pandora do.
Man, seeing my stuff in context is a little tough XD
I RUINED THE PANDORA LITERARY UNIVERSE. I AM ITS MATT WARD.
4065144 Would it matter if there was?
No, wait. Wrong story.
There's another one I read where someone gets kidnapped and Pandora and cupcake go and look for them in another dimension but it was just very poorly put together like random but in a dumb way but not trying to be dumb like my stories are dumb but I do that on purpose.
Right when Project Horizons Chapter 33 was released, I remember posting a comment praising Somber for his courage in killing Blackjack. I still feel self conscious about that to this day.
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This is the kind of on-the-spot reaction I want to see. :D
But honestly, seeing the story continue with Rampage learning about herself and Scotch Tape trying to reconcile her as a mother figure or whatever she sees her as (most likely from Scotch's POV, if Homelands is any indicator) would have been just great.