Paul's Thursday Reviews CCLXXXVIII · 8:58pm Mar 24th, 2022
Ah, my first review blog from my new home. You know what’s nice about not living in an apartment?
It’s quiet.
At least in my new neighborhood. I do feel sorry for one of my neighbor’s kids, though, who complained that “everyone keeps to themselves and that makes this place boring.” Kid, that’s my idea of paradise.
The new locale has also reminded me of my intrinsic “don’t be a bother” personality. I noticed the other day that, despite no longer having neighbors just a thin wall or floor away, I still walk on the balls of my feet, still carefully handle doorknobs, and still won’t listen to my computer/TV without headphones. It’s as if I like the quiet so much I’m loath to disturb it. I wonder if I’ll get over that in time?
No point to all this. Just noting some of my personal quirks.
In unrelated news, Mike Cartoon Pony has started a regular Monday review blog. Mike’s pre-read some of my more recent stories and I can say he knows what he’s talking about. I couldn’t help but recognize the blog’s style. If the loss of the Royal Canterlot Library and Seattle’s Angels disappointed you, perhaps Mike can help soothe those wounds.
Now then. To the reviews.
Stories for This Week:
What a Strange Little Colt by Lynwood
Bowl Cuts Are For Heroes by TCC56
Ashes by Trick Question
In the End These Things Matter Most by Bico
Samudra's Journal by vren55
Total Word Count: 189,521
Rating System
Why Haven't You Read These Yet?: 0
Pretty Good: 5
Worth It: 0
Needs Work: 0
None: 0
What a Strange Little Colt
105,064 Words
By Lynwood
Requested by Explodingkitten55 and Lynwood
There are many things a weather pony can expect on the job. A bloody and broken foal near death is not one of them. Rainbow Dash discovers one such foal outside of Ponyville and rushes to save him. Now she finds herself involved with a little pony who is… quirky. He’s got a funny accent, he says nonsensical words like “hell”, and has a gift for profanity. She’s not sure where he’s from or how he got there, but he’s clearly been through a lot. What kind of pony would she be if she didn’t try to help?
This is one of those tiringly common “human gets sent to Equestria in a pony’s body” stories. They’re a dime a dozen, so an author has to bring something special to the game if they hope to strike big, be it an excellent writing style or some special twist. In this case it’s a twist, which is not that Gabriel is a fully grown adult human in a child’s body, but that he comes from a war-torn alternate earth timeline in which America – and quite possibly the entire world – has been ripped asunder by war. The exact nature of this war is unclear, both in terms of its scope and reason, but it’s at least suggested that it came about due to Earth running low on natural resources. Regardless, the point is that Gabriel has lived a life of bloody conflict.
This story works well in a great many ways. Gabriel is smart and capable, but he also has significant flaws. He’s not some fixer who comes to Equestria to solve its problems, he’s an interloper (to use the story’s term) trying to make his way in a world that he knows he doesn’t belong in. Meanwhile we’ve got a social worker who thinks Gabe is a victim of foal trafficking and trying desperately to help him recover, a Rainbow Dash who is letting her motherly instincts get the better of her, a princess who is suffering terribly from a bad decision, an investigator hell-bent on saving her regardless of the price, and a pre-alicornication Twilight swept up in his destructive, fanatical earnestness (aside: not clear when this is set, but it’s at least prior to Magic Duel).
This all combined to make the story much better than I anticipated. Gabriel is interesting as a character, and how the others react to his odd behavior makes for much of the drama of the story. It’s especially interesting that he’s an adult in a child’s body but nopony knows that, so they keep trying to treat him as a child, which leads to a lot of conflict in the story. You can’t blame Gabriel for keeping mum on his origins though, and as he slowly comes out (albeit vaguely) about his past it gets hard not to feel for him. Lynwood did a great job writing a character suffering from extreme PTSD in a world where violence like he’s seen is unknown. His interactions with Diamond Tiara in particular and how they seem to affect her are great.
Then you’ve got the investigator, who comes around hunting for Gabriel (without knowing at first that Gabriel is who is looking for). This guy got painted as the villain of the piece. I wouldn’t blame anyone for disliking him for the way he manipulates Twilight into cruelty, his unwillingness to acknowledge Gabriel as an individual, and his die-hard refusal to even consider the possibility that Gabriel isn’t dangerous. This leads to the crux of the story, developing a potentially permanent rift in Twilight’s and Rainbow’s friendship. And yet when you consider the very real stakes and what might happen if he fails… Well, I consider this to be one of those “without condemning or condoning” scenarios. At any rate, it leads to one of those tense standoffs where either option you pick is bad and nobody can possibly come away happy.
But this is Equestria, so of course everypony came away happy regardless. I’m not sure what to think about that. I feel like the story could have been much more powerful if the ending hadn’t gone the way it did. Which isn’t to say that the ending is bad. Not at all, I’m pleased everything worked out. I just feel like the story could have been stronger otherwise.
But in the end, I really only had a couple complaints. The first is that I feel like more could have been done with the whole Scootaloo thing. Yes, Gabriel does kinda-sorta address it and things cool down, but I wish we could have seen Rainbow Dash address it. Directly. With Scootaloo.
Then there’s Sweetie Belle, who forms an immediate crush on Gabriel. This is no secret, everypony teases her about it and Gabriel even acknowledges it in private with Rainbow Dash with a shortsighted explanation for why her crush is pointless. But it’s never resolved. Once we get to a certain point in the story, Sweetie’s crush (and Sweetie herself) stops being a topic entirely.
I get it. This is not a story about Scootaloo or Sweetie Belle. Maybe the sequel, which Lynwood claims is going to come out eventually (where have I heard that one before? *pointedly ignores mirror*), will address these topics in better detail. Still, I wish I could have seen something more definitive for these topics.
This ended up as a compelling piece for a variety of reasons, not least being the no-win scenario at the end and the delightful relationship growth between Rainbow and Gabriel. Well written, interesting characters, tense situations. I’m glad it was recommended and am pleased to do so to all of you as well.
Bookshelf: Pretty Good!
Previous stories reviewed for this author:
New Author!
Bowl Cuts Are For Heroes
3,649 Words
By TCC56
Silverstream joins Stygian and Mudbriar on a trip to the Dragonlands, where Maud Pie is the commencement speaker for a rock conference. When they get there, they are surprised to find that Maud never showed up. Time to be heroes!
I chuckled.
I chuckled frequently.
This is a silly story in which our three oddball protagonists work to rescue the *ahem* helpless princess. It was written entirely for the sake of making us smile, and I see nothing wrong with that. I loved that I could hear the characters’ signature voices throughout. Except Stygian, but that’s only because I found him unremarkable in-show and thus don’t recall what he sounds like in the first place.
If you’d like to read a fun little story that is delightfully show-like in its delivery, this will do the job.
Bookshelf: Pretty Good
Previous stories reviewed for this author:
The Trixie Clause — Pretty Good
Ashes
13,757 Words
By Trick Question
Sequel to The Knight and the Knave
In The Knight and the Knave, we learned that Princess Celestia suffered a brief (and rather flammable) mental breakdown after learning of Luna’s uses for the Tantabus. In this story, all the stress and strain has led her to finally admit something to Luna and her student: she has no recollection of anything that happened in the millennium prior to Luna’s return from the moon. She wants those memories back. She has no idea what the consequences of such a decision might be.
As always, this is a story built around a major twist. Also as always, I have no intention of revealing what that twist happens to be. It’s an interesting one, to be sure. The only catch is that I’ve seen a similar one from this author already, so it wasn’t as… impactful as it could have been.
Which is not a point against the story by any means. It’s all about what Celestia went through in the last thousand years, albeit in a vague manner. It is also about her relationship with Twilight and Luna and the lengths she is prepared to go to for that relationship. Last but not least, it is evidence that for all her immortality, Celestia is a pony perfectly capable of making grave mistakes and suffering terrible agonies.
Another great piece by the FIMFiction leader in unexpected (and sometimes damning) plot twists. I can think of no reason not to recommend it.
Bookshelf: Pretty Good
Previous stories reviewed for this author:
The Price of a Smile — WHYRTY?
The Knight and the Knave — WHYRTY?
The Clarity of Darkness — WHYRTY?
Familiar — WHYRTY?
The Phoenix Festival — Pretty Good
In the End These Things Matter Most
18,162 Words
By Bico
Sequel to Love Is Blind; Friendship Closes Its Eyes
Apollo and Oasis are the children of Turquoise Blitz and Anthea, which makes Spike, Rarity, and Fluttershy their grandparents. When they discover that Turquoise has started seeing another mare after the death of Anthea, they of course have to investigate. They never imagined that mare would be their dear Aunt Nidra, daughter of Princess Luna. At least one of them is not happy about it.
Or, to be succinct: Spike’s son has returned to the dating scene.
This is the third part of a trilogy focusing mostly on Luna’s daughter Nidra, Princess of Slumber, and her love for Spike’s/Rarity’s son, Turquoise. Her desire for him is foiled by her best friend Anthea though. The first story was about her deciding to wait out Anthea’s life in hopes of getting Turquoise afterwards, which I still think had a terrible “life lesson”. The second story reviewed the friendship of the three throughout Anthea’s life, revealing that as much as Nidra pined for Anthea’s husband, the two of them remained steadfast friends to the end. This, then, is the inevitable conclusion the first story promised: Anthea is gone and, after both have had time to grieve, they decide to start trying things out.
It’s a lot harder for Nidra than it is for Turquoise. After all, she can’t help feeling she’s stealing from her late friend.
Aside from the serious underpinnings of the story, there are plenty of lighthearted moments to keep things from getting too heavy. My personal favorites were anything involving Crystal Clarity, who is still my favorite Kilala-verse character. From her nutty pregnancy antics to her delightfully dramatic rendition of “innocent night walker who stumbled upon something she shouldn’t”, I loved her every scene. We’ve also got Oasis and Apollo, the latter of whom is determined to stop his father from dating at all, often in comical ways, and the former working against him with far greater (and more smug) success.
This was a pleasant story about healing, moving on, and self-awareness. I think it’s a nicely fitting conclusion to the series, and a fun read regardless.
Bookshelf: Pretty Good
Previous stories reviewed for this author:
Love Is Blind; Friendship Closes Its Eyes — Pretty Good
Love Is Patient — Worth It
Samudra's Journal
48,880 Words
By vren55
Sequel to Equestria’s Changeling Queen and the Abyssal Empress
Samudra of Aquestria wanted to be part of the Myrmidon Guard, the personal soldiers of Empress Panthalussa. To her shock, the empress selects her as a personal student and, ultimately, a replacement. Soon Samudra will rule the largest nation in the world, indisputable leader of the oceans. This is the story of her rule in her own words.
In Equestria’s Changeling Queen and the Abyssal Empress, Equestria is invaded by the super-OP Empress Tethys of Aquestria. She easily crushes Equestria, then goes on to achieve godhood by battling and literally consuming a Lovecraftian Old One. But there was one tidbit that came up a few times, something that defined Aquestria: it had spent the last eternity in a brutal civil war. Tethys was the new empress, having just killed the last one, who happened to be Samudra. vren55 apparently realized that a lot of readers might want to know what that was all about.
I have to give vren55 credit. This story took four-and-a-half years to complete, and I understand that towards the end the author just wasn’t “feeling it” anymore. Yet still they trucked on and finished the work, which is a lot more than most authors can claim (myself included). My hat’s off to you, sir.
Anyway, the story is told through entries in Samudra’s personal journal, starting prior to her reign when she is still the Twilight Sparkle to Panthalussa’s Celestia. Given what readers of the previous story know, you’d think this would begin with the war against the kelpies and Tethys. Instead, we are treated to something else entirely: the reveal that there are two Old Gods sealed in the ocean’s deepest trenches, and the ruler of Aquestria was specifically charged by their version of God to make sure these abominations never escape. Thus the first part of the story is about Samudra’s work in this regard, which involves nearly going insane due to psychological attacks and the assistance of a certain Mr. The Bearded (because who else?).
I really approve of this starting point. It puts Samudra’s position in stark clarity and lets us see her motivations. Her wholehearted faith that anything produced by the Old Gods must be irredeemably evil is an important starting point for later.
Then the kelpies start to appear. From then on, things start to go downhill, although not blatantly so. We get to witness the gradual, inevitable downfall of a nation and its leader. Samudra could be the poster child for good intentions paving the road to hell, her decisions steadily becoming more damning and brutal yet always sugarcoated with her earnest and, worse, wholly honest claims that they are necessary to prevent evil.
To be fair, when the species you’re dealing with can only survive by eating other sapient beings, it can be hard to react with anything but revulsion.
One of the most interesting bits is the revelation that the kelpies are constantly and rapidly evolving. And I don’t mean in strategies and tactics, although that happens too. No, the kelpies biologically evolve with every defeat. Where once they were every bit as dangerous as any other sea pony, they soon get to be stronger, more armored, faster, bigger, just all around better. Worse, their leader Tethys is immortal in that she is somehow reborn with every death (there’s no clear indication if the same is true for the other kelpies), and every time she does she becomes an even greater monster.
On the one hand, I really like how this justifies the OP nature of the kelpies in Equestria’s Changeling Queen and the Abyssal Empress. There’d been no explanation for it in that story, they were just better than everyone else by default and we were expected to accept it, city-sized empress included. That was a particularly bad move on the author’s part, so it’s nice to see vren55 address it in this way.
On the other hand, it creates a certain… problem for the world at large. The kelpies cannot lose. There’s no indication that after the two wars the kelpies have stopped evolving. And of course they’re multiplying. And Tethys is a god for all practical purposes. I’ve stated in the past that the events of the last story indicate that Tethys is now the last word on literally anything that happens and rules all the world. vren55 has tried to deny this, but looking at what this story reveals I don’t see how it’s avoidable. I’m not saying this is a bad thing per se – Tethys has been demonstrated to be an understandable and fair ruler, even if she viciously and brutally stole the role from its rightful owners – but there are a lot of long-term issues all of this creates.
Do I think these are all bad things? No. Not in the least. If anything, these are great! At least from the perspective of worldbuilding and plot possibilities. I like stories that leave such things open to interpretation, even if the author probably won’t be returning to them.
As for this story, I liked it. It’s a great showing of a ruler descending into hypocrisy, cruelty, and madness all in the name of “good”. In that way it’s a great compliment to its predecessor, which had the nation we’ve all come to accept as good and just falling and making us question if that’s as bad as it seems. As an aside, I feel obligated to point out that the story starts off a bit rough in the grammar department, although it improves dramatically by the end. I wonder if vren55 can handwave that as Samudra learning to grammar over her long, long life?
A good story and a nice conclusion to a particularly long (at least in terms of time taken to write) AU arc. If you’re interested in journal-style stories, this one might be up your ally. The only warning I can add is that it does allude to certain events of Princess Celestia: The Changeling Queen, but only a little. You should be fine if you haven’t read that one.
Bookshelf: Pretty Good
Previous stories reviewed for this author:
Equestria's Changeling Queen and the Abyssal Empress — Pretty Good
Princess Celestia: The Changeling Queen — Pretty Good
Equestria’s Changeling Princesses and the Kinsbane — Pretty Good
Remembering the Fallen — Needs Work
Bonus Review
A Fractured Song: The Broken Melody
367 Pages
By Vincent Yam, AKA vren55
Full disclosure: I was provided a free copy of this prior to its publication. It should be kept in mind that there may be changes between the copy I read and the copy that is presently being sold.
My apologies to the author for posting this a week later than promised.
Frances is a thirteen-year-old girl from Vancouver, and she is abused regularly by her family. Then, out of nowhere, she and her classmates find themselves in the magical world of Durannon, which is being invaded by monsters from the nearby nation Alavaria. The students, these “Otherworlders”, are asked to join the war effort as specialized mages in defense of humanity. Frances isn’t sure if a waste of space such as herself could be of any value, and so is very surprised when the leader of a powerful mage’s guild singles her out as a potential apprentice.
The first thing we have to do with this story is get over the opening principle, i.e. that a bunch of mages from another dimension are kidnapping thirteen-year-olds from their homes and drafting them into their war effort. Bear in mind these are supposed to be the good guys.
Still with me? Alright. So the good news is that the whole “kidnapping and drafting” thing isn’t as bad as it seems at first blush. The kids can go home and directly to the point in time from which they were taken by merely asking for it, without questions or consequences. This is magically reinforced, so the kids don’t even need to ask an adult for permission; they just tell the open sky they want to go home and it happens. It’s also noted that, conveniently, if they were to die in the line of duty then they’d go home anyway, none the worse for wear, due to safeguards in the magic.
You might ask, “if these wizards are so incredibly powerful as to pull all this off, why do they need these kids to join their war effort in the first place?” No answer will be offered. You’ll just have to roll with it.
Okay, so the opening premise is, to be generous, a stretch. But once you get past it, you may find a worthwhile tale.
The story centers around Frances and is set in two parts. The first is her year of training under the famed pyromancer Edana and how she bonds with her “Master”. The second involves Frances’s first two battles against the Alavari. Underlining both segments is the most important aspect of the story, that being Frances’s character growth. She’s a scarred child, suffering from severe self esteem and self-worth issues due to a lifetime of cruelty under her family and sister.
This is easily the most interesting part of the entire story. The author does a wonderful job depicting Frances’s emotional turmoil as she gradually comes to realize that her family’s actions were wrong, she didn’t deserve it, and Edana isn’t going to beat her for perceived slights. When you witness a thirteen-year-old child being uncomfortable with sleeping on a bed because she’s been taught she’s not worthy of one, it has an impact. More than the magic training and battles against common fantasy monsters like orcs and goblins, Frances’s recovery and gradual evolution is the heart and soul of Fractured Song.
Then we have the world of Durannon and its inhabitants. Edana is a war veteran-turned-teacher who struggles to understand her student’s needs. Acting as the deuteragonist, she serves as a pivotal figure in Frances’s recovery while doing a little growing of her own, and their relationship is a pleasure to behold. Side characters also crop up, such as the delightfully grouchy Igraine, potential mad scientist Ulric, and the enthusiastically battle-ready – one might even say bloodthirsty – Forowena. While it can seem like a lot of characters to take in, the author does a nice job giving most of them distinct personalities and quirks that keep them memorable.
There were a few things I took issue with. For example, Frances came to Durannon with several other kids from her school, but after the initial jump these other kids are all but forgotten save for a few throwaway mentions to remind us that they exist. Consider that we know the names of at least two and Frances was being bullied back on Earth and one has to wonder why these kids aren’t having some real presence in the story. Perhaps that’s something the author is saving for a sequel, but for now it seems like a glaring omission.
Then there’s the entirety of the second battle Frances participates in, the execution of which was so sloppy and unprofessional that I’m sure officers in the real world would have been court martialed over it. The implementation is so bad that I find myself questioning if the author did any research at all on the topic, especially when I see spear units – you know, those soldiers specifically trained and armed to counter cavalry charges – getting effortlessly slaughtered by, wait for it: a cavalry charge. And then there’s the fact that the commanding officer of this army openly admitted to anticipating this attack days ahead of time and proceeded to do nothing to prepare for it. So not only do we have military units that were poorly trained, we also have a commanding officer intentionally putting her army in a terrible strategic and tactical position. And this is supposed to be Frances’s tactics teacher.
No wonder the humans can’t win the war on their own.
But even with that profound error in military judgment, I found this enjoyable. That is due entirely to interesting characters and Frances’s long and painful story arc. The end result is a high fantasy slice-of-life/adventure about a child discovering her independence, her self-worth, and her self-respect. I greatly appreciated Frances’s development as a character and her relationship with Edana, and I am very interested to see where the author intends to take these characters next.
Stories for Next Week:
A Diplomatic Visit by Evilhumour
Thirty Minutes of Fabulosity by Esle Ynopemos
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Paul's Thursday Reviews – Bingo Edition
Thank you so much for the very detailed reviews paul! And now I wish I could have made that Westfall pass a bit clearer *grumbles* as there was some context stuff that I wasn't able to get in.
The kids in Frances's story are indeed going to happen in the next book, which focuses on Frances reuniting with her old classmates. I was worried about putting them in the first book because I had a lot to work on already and I didn't thnk she would be ready to well, face some of her old bullies. So you're right on that.
But yeah I very much enjoyed your comments on the pre-pub copy and the review. :D Thanks so much
I will take that and be happy with it, because that's exactly what I was trying for. It was, as you said, just there to get a smile out of readers. I'm pleased that it continues to hold up.
okay, that first one sounds really cool :O
Congrats on the new house! Having a space that is wholly one's own goes a long way towards being comfortable I would say, though it certainly comes with its fair share of new trials. Gotta make sure everything's up to code and consistently working yourself now
.
. Your schedule and interest permitting, I'd love to request more in the near future!
My name's not up there, but I was the one who requested Bowl Cuts are for Heroes, and I'm glad it went over well
And here I was wondering why I suddenly had several new followers in the last 14 hours. What a great community this can be, eh? Makes you proud. Thanks a bunch, buddy!
Oh, stop it, Paul, you making me go all transparent here!
Hey, don’t look at me, it’s Fimfiction’s formatting!
Though it looked even more similar at first, until I plucked a few stylistic choices from Titanium Dragon’s discontinued review blogs (namely putting the fic picture, title and details in a quote box).
In any case, hope the flattery is appreciated. I’m sure more differences will pop up to differentiate the reviews and their layout as I go – I’ve already changed bits and bobs the last few weeks, and I’m sure I’ll continue to do so in the weeks and months to come.
While these Ponyfic reviews aren’t a direct response to that, their closure did accelerate my plans and ambitions for sure – I started building up a backlog of reviews a week after they shut, and a month later, here we are. Don’t know about soothing those wounds, but I’ll do my best!
Nothing this week I’ve read, though as I have read the precursors to Ashes, I’ll give that a go sometime. Ditto for Bowl Cuts Are for Heroes, looks like a funny little snack. And hey, one of Else Ynopemos’ collections of Mane 6 shortfics next week! Those are always a blast.
5646016
Perfectly understandable. I look forward to whatever is coming next!
5646113
Oh? That's curious. I usually make a note of who requested what. I guess that one slipped. Regardless, it was a good recommendation, and one I happily pass along.
5646164
The flattery is indeed appreciated. I didn't realize you were doing reviews until someone pointed it out to me just a few days before you hit up Good Morning, Cookie. I'd have promoted them earlier had I known. Good luck with it!
This... this is every isekai in the last ten years. All of them. While I was doing research for Star Overhead (the series not the fim fic) I noticed a disturbing trend in modern independent books. For every "fantasy" series self published, 90% of the protagonists are almost certainly displaced normal people who suddenly gain super powers in some magical world from flavors of tolkein to Kentaro Miura (Berserk). I makes me wonder if these people are like me and just publish their own books for the sake of it, or there's actually a market to appeal to here. If isekai is over saturated in its country of origin, would that make it doubly so for the US?
Unrelated to that, congrats on the house. Hope it treats you well. Having a good sized space to yourself is great if you're into the crafty stuff. God knows my room is filled with paints, empty boxes, and half built model kits.
5646189
Isekai is not exactly a favored subject of mine, so I am unaware of its trends other than that I usually avoid non-ponies in a pony world because it's so mind-numbingly common. That being said, I find it odd that your comment equates "the protagonists are almost certainly displaced normal people who suddenly gain super powers in some magical world" with "discovering her independence, her self-worth, and her self-respect". These seem like wholly separate things.
And thanks! My biggest problem right now, ironically, is figuring out where to put what I already have. My apartment had a lot of shelves and the like built in, but this place? Outside the kitchen it's just walls. So now I've got a lot more space but no actual storage, and it's going to take a while to fix that.
5646195
Ah, sure. The granddaddy of the modern isekai (and possibly the best one at that) is called Mushoku Tensei, or Jobless Reincarnation.
Tell me if this sounds familiar: A man, worthless 40 year old shut in degenerate who lives with his parents is suddenly kicked out after a bad run in with his father. While wandering aimlessly in the rain, being outside for the first time in something like 20 years, he happens to see a group of high-school girls carelessly walking into the street. He dies in a car wreck, saving them from an oncoming truck in the process.
The very minute his conscious starts to fade, he wakes up as a baby in the arms of a new mother. Now 'Rudeus,' he grows up all over again complete with the memories and personality of his old life. He's magically gifted and brilliant (more by being actually 45 instead of 5) and looks to be a prodigy. But, then as his parents try to get him into the outside world, he's haunted he the trauma that left him inside his parents house in his previous life and falls back into the same state of mind. It's only with the help of somebody who is willing to give him a hand, and him realizing he must have the courage to take it, does he start to recover. And that's like, the first six episodes/volume 1.
By their very nature, all isekai are either power fantasies or redemption stories, and every last one of them tends to follow this pattern set by MT without much deviation.
As far as storage goes, if you like simple cube cubbies, I have about 27 of these in my room. They are excellent, hold a good amount of weight, and can be constructed and deconstructed in a few minutes. Mine are filled with gundams and pony paraphernalia, and sometimes even pony flavored gundam paraphernalia.
5646210
Heh. The 'killed in a car accident' is certainly familiar.
You didn't really answer the question, which was why you made "normal person gets reborn with superpowers" equal to "journey of recovery". You're on a separate but parallel road from me with this topic.
Still, I get what you're going for on your particular road, which is that all Isekai stories are identical. In which case, you're wrong about What a Strange Little Colt in at least one aspect: main character Gabriel has no special powers or anything of that nature. He's a pegasus and he can't even fly. If anything, he enters Equestria with more handicaps than advantages, ignoring the fact that he's a 25-30-year-old man in the body of a twelve-year-old colt.
But this all leads to another big question: if a character enters a new world and doesn't grow as an individual, what else can the story offer a potential reader? What's the point of the story? I'm not saying it has to always be the same, I'm merely raising the inevitable question your points brings up: what other paths does an Isekai story have? How can an author pull a "normal person goes to different world" scenario and not follow the same beats? Do we make the whole concept pointless by not having the character grow? Do we give them no special place at all? Then why have the character change worlds in the first place? It sounds like the person changing worlds isn't the protagonist. I mean, supposedly protagonists are meant to evolve in order to be interesting and sell the story. If that's not what the character who changed worlds is doing, there's no need to focus on them or even bring up their world-hopping in the first place.
If an aspiring author wants to write an Isekai and be original and unique, how do they do that?
5646210
Regarding the storage cube, those look more like they're intended for display purposes, which is not what I need. I need cabinets, chests and the like, things for putting stuff away. Besides, they look all modern and such. I'm more of a rustic guy. You know, stained wood and such.
I appreciate the suggestion, and they look mighty useful, but alas, not what I'm looking for.
5646221
Sometimes, they definitely skip the whole 'growth' part which is where it becomes just an indulgent power fantasy, most of which often do feel pointless. coughs in sword art online. The pinnacle of hot trash to represent this would have to be 'in another world with my smartphone' which is basically just that, take away the depth, keep the shallow details, and call it a day.
Clearly, there is verity in isekai and all of the above are excellent shows, but by all accounts, a majority of isekai follow the MT beaten path for some reason. As a matter of fact, if seems like every other nameless forgettable isekai is indeed just another bad MT clone.
To make something original, I suppose you don't even have to get rid of the core of the story, i.e. character grows and gets over emotional damage then uses the new life to better himself, but change what the surface looks like in some quirky way a la the hero with a thousand faces.
To sum it up properly:
Git gud, scrub.
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Ah, I see. Well, of course that's going to be more expensive and sounds like a trip to Ikea or Home Depot is in your future. I also had commissioned my brother to make something like my cube cubbies out of wood with a 3x3 15inch cubed cubbies, which is more like an open dresser. Holds my paints, my skates, and motorcycle equipment, while also supporting one of those very same constructed cubbie cubes on top of it. Similar but bigger, sturdier, and more unwieldy. It's what's underneath the cubes on the right of the picture in the previous post.
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An Isekai discussion? Definitely going to say my two cents. But first, congrats on the house, Paul! Time to make your domain your own!
Now, speaking of Isekai, it's been frequently pointed out that it's just a modern word for an old concept. By the "definition" of Isekai (which is literally just "another world" if you go straight with the translation or "someone ends up in another world" if you extrapolate) Narnia is very much an Isekai. Most people don't think of it as such, just considering it fantasy, but Narnia is a story about a bunch of kids getting lost in this fantasy world.
Where Isekai gets its negative reputation (one that is, in my opinion, well-earned, and I do not like the genre as a whole) largely comes from two things: The first is its endless wish-fulfillment (and everything that entails) the second is its common overlap with litRPG elements for ease.
The first one is very much a hit or miss for readers: You're either into the rampant wish-fulfillment or you aren't. The majority of the Isekai stories out there—and there are tons, just this morning of the seven new webcomics that have appeared on one radar I follow, five are Isekai—are just wish-fulfillment, with bland, undefined, everyman (or woman) protagonists that the reader can slot themselves into and poorly designed settings and additional characters that exist only to make the protagonist awesome despite their mediocrity. These are stories where the protagonist will be awful, for example, at interacting with others and a social outcast, and so the "other world" they end up in will be one where their anti-social behavior makes them suddenly appealing to everyone and the social king. Wish-fulfillment being wish fulfillment, these people often end up powerful, with a harem, told how much of an unappreciated genius they were, etc etc etc.
Take this and combine it with the second most common Isekai convention right now, which is "litRPG" to explain the world, where the character is very clearly inside a game and they can just grind or exploit their way to the top using rules that may or may not make sense. A "litRPG" is a setting where people have literal hitpoints, where someone can change someone's mind by just having a slightly higher charisma score, etc. They're very clear tabletop or video games, and the characters often exploit or abuse this with exterior knowledge.
Now, neither of these conventions has to be bad. There are plenty of well-done wish-fulfillment stories that have characters struggling to accomplish or even changing and growing to develop new wishes. And there are plenty of well-done stories that are "litRPG" that use their conventions in clever, wonderful ways (such as Order of the Stick) to tell unique stories. Or jokes.
The issue is that a lot of Isekai stories look at that, shrug, and say "That looks like hard work" and instead deliver yet another bland wish-fulfillment with litRPG elements because the audience that doesn't care does not care and will consume anything. Isekai in general is sort of what would happen if Twilight became a genre. It's bland, mass-produced mush that sells because the audience consuming it does not care how contrived or bland it is, they just want the wish fulfillment. This has a self-reinforcing effect where the "standard" of Isekai keeps slipping, as new creators see how little work it takes to make an Isekai that ends up making money anyway, and so new content creators pump out something quick, dirty, empty, and cheap, and that still makes money, so the bar drops lower next time. By the time you hit the bottom of the barrel, you've got the "light-novel-Isekai-litRPG" market, thousands upon thousands of cheap, easy to produce novellas for sale online in dozens of places that are "professionally published" (we're not even talking indie, but publishing house" that are full of typos, use RPG-sourcebook stat sheets to describe their characters and setting rather than, you know, a written description, and sell for a buck or two ... and still sell like mad because the people consuming this stuff do not care.
So yeah, the genre's gained a bit of notoriety for being chock-full of poorly written, ill-conceived, lazy schlock because ... it is. And the people who consume this sort of stuff are, no joke, buying several novellas of it a week or more. Are a lot of them immediately forgotten and left by the wayside? Sure! But a lot of them are just digitial and disposable, churned out by author stables at a rate of a few new ones a week. It's like a strange sub-genre of Romance in that it plays by a lot of the same rules: endlessly thirsty audience willing to spend a few bucks a week on the same exact story over and over again.
Anyway, this isn't to say that Isekai, litRPG, and this type of wish-fulfillment can't be good. Obviously there are great stories that tackle the conventions and do so in a manner that actually involves depth, development, and utilization of the conventions. The "problem" is that like with Romance, if a story does that it often puts the audience off and the story won't do as well. Exploration of the themes, honest critique, more than the bare-bones plot, etc, isn't what a vast amount of the audience is looking for, and so they'll eschew it in favor of another schlocky story. Which means that a lot of content creators tend to avoid delving deeper, since it's not as profitable, and the newbies see the reinforcement and create more schlock ...
Ultimately it's led to a genre tag that has a reputation, one that either immediately sells to a certain audience or gets a frown from anyone outside that audience before being put back on the shelf.
What's probably happen is that the current Isekai fad (yes, I think it's a fad) will eventually burn itself out and the genre will shrink and stabilize a bit before growing and moving away from endless "dime novels" that it basically is now. It'll be an interesting point in literary history, with it's stables of exploited authors and the birth of exploitative services like Royal Road (and almost certainly a few lawsuits before all is said and done), but it's not going to last forever.
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So... as the author of the isekai book that prompted the discussion, I"ll chime in.
To chime in on what I aimed to do with Fractured Song... sooo well I mean so...yeah, Fractured Song is totally an isekai. I own it, I confess to it, and I'm weaponizing the good and bad of the genre. If it makes any sense, I wrote Fractured because I got tired of all the aforementioned power fantasy and because I wanted to focus on developing a character who was trying to recover from trauma. Thus, I combined all the two and made Fractured, which is designed to play into the isekai genre and use its literary shortcuts when necessary (aka the whole transported into another world premise) mostly to hook those who like casual isekai. But then I hit them with the feels and the adventure and honestly the story opens up more like fantasy YA novel rather than an isekai litrpg (which i avoid like the plague).
Which is why I respectfully disagree with the statement:
If every isekai was about this why do so many isekai devolve into power fantasy where wish fulfilment as mentioned is the order of the day? There's no need for self-respect or discovery for independence and discovery for self-worth in those books. Yes, Mushoku tensei certainly follows that though I will claim that I've never actually ever read it, but I'd argue most other isekais I've perused before starting to write Fractured had no focus on character development. The most successful ones actually do have that character development and my focus on what Paul described has actually led to the most common comment/review being "damn this isekai actually focuses on character development" or something to that line.
I mean, okay so... this approach which I used which is to trick people in picking up what looks like a bog-standard isekai and then hit them with actual feels is probably not going to get me popular, but it's different and I think the way I'm going about it, which is to play into the frustration for those that want an actual story rather than the schlocky crap has promise. I mean, the story is currently serialized with six hundred followers on royal road https://www.royalroad.com/fiction/33024/a-fractured-song
SO... the genre I suspect, Isekai that is, has life. It might fall out of phase, or it might evolve like other genres. At least I hope so for my own benefit XD
TLDR:... I hope I"m getting gud and isekai sticks around for at least a little while longer
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Because, the good ones, the ones that last, don't. I watched three episodes of smartphone and I keep them in my memory (what little I can remember of them anyways) because of how hilariously bland and terrible it was. But when I think of things like Re:Zero or MT, Cautious hero, Shield hero, etc, they all contain the well thought out character growth and recovery from trauma that is to be expected from this genre. Things like Sword Art start with the promise of a grand adventure of people trying to become better and survive the horrors of their new surroundings while also learning about themselves and those around them for better or ill, but then lose that plot when the idea of the harem adventure takes over instead. The core of the genre is what makes it good, but the representation of the genre has been boiled down to its worst vices, a la smartphone.
A bog standard isekai can be good. As I'd say MT is the best of this genre, it is exactly a bog standard isekai. It's all the tropes, it practically started most of them, and all in all, it does them extremely well. Every square is a rectangle, but not all rectangles are squares.
As far as evolution or lasting power, we've had 'isekai' since the gospels if you really want to get into it. It's never going away, and it's constantly evolving. Hell, if you've got an audio book made, I'll read your book and review it myself.
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Well, I certainly wasn't expecting to spark such a large discussion on the topic. They've all been interesting reads. I knew that "non-pony goes to Equestria" was genre al its own, so common as to become trite, but I didn't know isekai itself was a common thing outside of horsewords, nor that it had developed a similarly poor reputation. I really need to read more original fiction. I was trying to do that last year, but realized that I devote so much time to horsewords that adding original fiction on top of it just wasn't feasible. I plan to cut down on that quite a bit come 2023 though, so maybe then I can get more involved with such things.
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I've got an uncle who can build all sorts of things out of wood. To date I am aware of him making cribs, dressers, rails... heck, I think he built all the cabinets in his home. He's a perfectionist, too, so all his work takes time but is top quality. I've considered paying him to build me a new desk custom for my house. I don't think I'd ask him to build anything else though, if only because I know it would take a while and I'd like to get things organized sooner rather than later.
Hey, thanks! What a great review! Makes me especially happy to see my story's strengths and flaws pointed out so well. Being busy out of my mind recently, I totally forgot about this, so it was a pleasant surprise. Made my weekend!
I'm working on it, I swear, it's just... taking a while...
Whoof.
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Eyyyyy