It Is Recommendsday, My Dudes #47 · 8:07pm Feb 9th, 2022
You know, I missed this fandom's early days. I was around very briefly, but missed almost all of the excitement and creativity that were spawned out of those first moments when all anybody had to go on was an episode or two and forty billion headcanons. While the launch of G5 hasn't gotten quite the same uncontrollable burst, it's still brought a lot of new characters, ideas, and situations to the table. And while these aren't the first G5 fics I've offered up (I did that the first week of December's new author focus) I think these are probably my favorites.
Lead on the docket is Jarvy Jared's The Parable of the Toymaker.
Now, I'll say right from the start that I adore stories like this: ones that take a small background detail or character and builds up a story around them. Because, you see, this takes a look at the Mane Six dolls that Sunny has in her room at the beginning and asks: In a world that's forgotten the lessons of friendship and the unity of ponykind, where did six dolls of mythical figures from a variety of tribes come from?
And so we get this story: talking about how Argyle Starshine approached the master toymaker Master Mallet, his painter daughter Maple Craft, and the apprentice Easel Chisel. How he brought a book of carefully researched myth, legend and rumor to the master, asking for six wooden dolls of extremely specific design - design considered heretical, if not outright dangerous. And about the ripples that knowledge shot through the four ponies' lives.
Even beyond the quality writing, this story hits that sweet spot I mentioned: it builds the world and uses the sparse things we know to create depth and backstory on what hasn't been revealed yet. It gives us some looks into the new Equestria through non-main character eyes, particularly how Argyle's (and later Sunny's) strange ideas are seen. Plus the characters that are created have a wonderful feel to them - the author does a great job at making them feel human in relatively little space just by the details of how they speak and act. All in all, one that's grabbed my complete attention since it started a week ago.
On the other side we've got Halira and How I Became My Mother.
This one grows from a simple concept: Queen Haven is playing a role. She's the Queen, and every minute of her day is that role - keeping her ponies calm, inspiring them forward, pretending everything is fine with wires and harness and fake smiles. And someone had to teach her that. It could only have been her mother - a mare she swore she would never be like, even as Haven became just like her mother anyway.
This one's a great dive into Haven's character, using that lens. A change from what we see in the movie, but a believable one: after all, a young royal rebelling even as she's taught to put aside her own thoughts and feelings for the duty of her people? We've seen that before, and it's a strong message.
The first half mostly sets it up, showing Haven's youthful rebellions and seeing the world her own way. The second leans heavier into trying to bring those same lessons to Zipp and Pipp, even as she wistfully sees so much of herself in them. It's a beautiful character piece that gives Haven's words and actions a ton more depth, and yet still feels pretty accurate to who she is presented as. I can hardly wait for the last chapter (or two, if the author's statements about wanting to explore the idea more pan out.)
New or catching up? Try Recommendsday: The Index for your story needs!
More G5 fics that deserve more traffic, nice! Bit surprised to see them both be incomplete fics, even if both are almost complete and one is guaranteed to finish in a few days. But I'm not complaining, this is a good spotlight!
I happened across How I Became My Mother by chance on the day it was first published, and I've been hooked since. A little less with time – truth be told, the last few chapters suffer from issues I'd expect in a more novice "filling in the gap between canon scenes" chunk of storytelling, not least mostly regurgitating onscreen scenes. But to that point, the depth and explanations by slight-of-hoof into Haven's character were exquisite. Hopefully the author doesn't lose momentum before they can crank out the last two chapters, though the 17-day gap since its last update is a mite concerning, given update gaps were only a few days otherwise (though there was one 18-day gap, so only mild alarm right now. And also for the implications of the author largely improvising the fic's content, though that not's a detriment by default, necessarily.
I'm glad Parable of the Toymaker is here, because I'd noticed that myself but passed because it was incomplete. Thanks to this, on top of reassurances as to its quality, and seeing there's more chapters, I notice by the author's blog the schedule means it'll be complete in a few days! So thank you, TCC56, for picking up the slack where I would have forgotten about it. It looks to hit my sweet spot – natural organic expansions on unexplained lore in the film, wonderfully engaging OCs (I'll trust your judgment on that), all wrapped up in a cozy little prequel piece. Enough for me to be excited for it, despite highlighting the G4 -> G5 connection that is almost always a drag.
This is why I tune in to these every week. You always get a treat! And as for the G5 explosion in creativity, I'm sure we'll see a brief surge with the special in May, and then more consistent output following the show. A series is just so much more conducive to providing fan content inspiration than a film.
You humble me, TCC56, by naming me in this post. But I am glad you have found Parable a lovely story.
I'm trying something new with this story - well, a lot of new things. I'm trying to avoid putting much authorial thought in anything surrounding it, as I want to see how others will react to it. Thus, I've been careful not to really comment about it beyond the initial promotion. I also tried to give it a specific kind of voice, in an effort to overcome the natural barrier of story - in other words, I tried to authenticate it in the best way that I knew how.
In my eyes, Parable is a true story, despite being one of fiction. I'm glad that it appears that this is a sentiment shared. You've pointed to the "lifeness" of the characters, which is definitely something I was striving for - how to create life in a small space. I think this is true. And I also think, were it not for the way the story was "told" to me - by Maple, or the Maple who speaks through the story - that lifeness would have been very hard to achieve.
Thank you for recommending my little fairy tale.
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Halira has a habit of doing that, she has something like half a dozen stories going right now, and she writes whichever one comes to her, sometimes jumping around, sometimes sticking to one for a long period. Right now we're seeing her write There's a Monster Pony Outside My Window on the Pandemic Discord server, at some point she'll get back to this.
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I'd agree - and most of what you say echoes my feelings on the piece - but I'd argue that while those scenes feel that way that they're still needed. Weaving the elements of the now with Haven's past wouldn't feel quite right without the perspective of the scenes we know.
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Thank you for writing it.
And also damn you, that was not how I expected the next chapter to play out!