The chronicles of Project Horizons : Chapter 14

Another whining chapter and at this point, I am running out of things to say. Should I remention how much of an hypocrite BJ is being by both whining about her coming to terms with being a killer, an executioner while, in the same breath, kill dozens of lives in the purest gorey fashion ? Should I talk about how self-destructive she is obviously being by drinking like an alcoholic and overdosing on drug injections ? This characterization of Blackjack is unfortunately going in circles.

Let's go.

As I said, it is an angst chapter and as such it means that the vast majority of it is spent on Blackjack hating herself and putting herself in danger to avoid thinking about it and, yes, the fiction is acknowledging that she is running away from her issues but I am also here to say that she's been doing this for the last fourteen chapters ! I would love to say that this is a deep and gut-wrenching characterization of a poor Stable mare who has to come to tems with the fact that, yes, she is a killer and a damn good one at that. I'd love to praise this slow spiral of self-destruction as this suicidal mare is trying her best in a world where everyone wants her dead, raped and mutilated in any order. However, I can't, because I can't empathize with this character and I'll be the first to admit that yes, I'm sure that people that suffered from the same condition finds her damn relatable but I do not. I only see someone doing the same mistakes over and over again, doing the most vile actions (what should I call a mare splitting a pegasus in half in a drug-induced rage ?) and still saying she's a bad pony with no redeeming quality.

What I want for BJ is to fucking decide who she is and this fiction is taking far too long to make it definitive. Is she someone to kill without remorse or someone to kill only when absolutely needed ? Does she have compassion in her body or is it just a self-righteous sense of justice a la LittlePip that will continue to blur the line between those two characters ?

Moreover this time lost in her head doing nothing but hesitating over tens of thousands of words don't make it more compelling, simply more repetitive and it does take away from having some development for the other character. Glory has been mostly silent for the whole duration of this chapter and it made us focus on BJ and her hallucinations.

I don't think I have to restate that BJ realizing she's been horrible to P-21 by treating him like property in the past makes no sense as nothing made her realize how horrible her Stable was. If anything, I'd say the Wasteland proved that it was a better place. Why didn't we see BJ talking to P-21 like he was property in the actual fiction ? That should have been what should have woke her up a little bit. Yes, P-21 did mention that a stallion couldn't refuse a mare if he wanted to but BJ clearly didn't care. Why not talk about the beating up ? The fact that they were second class citizen ? Yes, the Overmare treated her like shit but she was the Overmare, a character so made to be paranoid and evil, it was basically nothing we could derive from a general, reasonable perspective. BJ suddenly realizing the errors of her endoctrination (even so far as to admitting that she was eating ponies) doesn't feel earned. Breaking away from something so deeply ingrained in her psyche should be the focus of a whole scene that would then have some ripples in the long term. Here, it just so happened that listening to one recording of her old self made her realize how fucked up everything was.

This evolution doesn't feel earned and the part that is the most natural, her whining, is repeated ad nauseam but I guess the fight scenes are still entertaining for the most part, even if completely devoid of stakes.

So what actually happened in this chapter : we discovered a new Stable. Empty, showing more of the fuckery that is Stable-Tec. We saw Leo Zodiac being somewhat more skilled than her sister but he eventually had to run away because he is just a throw away villain I could barely recognize and we met Rampage, super zebra Reaper and somewhat new ally of BJ. I could say that I like that Rampage was introduced as one of the most powerful Reaper on par with Deus in an earlier chapter but aside from that, this chapter was pretty bare.

Closing thoughts : P-21 wasn't found in that chapter so I hope the next one ? Here's hoping Rampage is the character I need to have some actual fresh perspective in that bundle of self-flagellating victims.