Ghost Mike's Ponyfic Review Monday Musings #106 · 6:00pm March 25th
In Monday Musings’ early days, if I was lacking in a suitable blurb opener, I would often reach for whatever I’d been watching or playing lately. I kind of retired that after a while, mostly because they tended to not be what my regular readers are interested in, and largely only elicited shrugs of the “I don’t care for it” variety. Well, this time, it’s too dear to me to hesitate: on Friday, I saw the musical adaption of my favourite Disney Animation film, Aladdin.
Given the 1992 original is probably second on the list of things I’ve seen the most times in my life (first would be a battered Monsters, Inc. VHS 
), I was even more primed than when I saw the UK & Ireland tour of The Lion King two years ago to mentally compare it to the film as I watched it, evaluate how well they adapted it to a different medium and accounted for such, and how the additional songs slotted in both in quality and stylistically blending in with the originals. Both a blessing and a curse, of course. Seeing an expanded version of the tale, especially with some of the material unused from the original film put back in, is like reading a novelization of a film you’ve seen countless times: familiar, fresh, but often unmistakably “off” all at once.
There’s also the elephant in the room, that more so than almost any Disney animated featured, Aladdin is designed for the unreality of 2D cel animation, in everything from the Genie’s malforming to the brightly candy-coloured colour scheme, to much of the storytelling and comedy being executed primarily via visual pantomime. As the disastrous live-action remake proved so readily (if not outrageously disastrous, muse the live-action Beauty and the Beast, The Lion King and The Little Mermaid with much envy even further in the trench). Even though the Lion King musical defied the odds in switching from animation to theatre, making the new format entirely its own thing (helped by the very high quality of the new numbers), I was not foolish enough to assume the same was true here.
Now, I knew anything that was nearly that bad, or even just mediocre, was off the cards – the musical seems to have mixed-to-positive reviews, and Broadway critics are noted for being very stingy with their praise (likely it's the high ticket prices for theatre, I’m no connoisseur of the form). And it’s run uninterrupted on Broadway for ten years – shows don’t do that unless word-of-mouth is stellar and long-lasting, and people go back to it. So, how did it fare?
It was good. Not great, but good. The sort of thing I’m glad I saw, and enjoyed it, and was mostly able to be immersed in. Sometimes my attention wandered (tiredness could have played a factor: it might have been better to not see on the last day of a working week, but the weekend instead, though this was the best date for my siblings who took me as a gifted-as-Christmas present), and while I think a lot of smart choices were made to adapt the film to the stage (and some less-smart ones), the recontextualisation away from comedy and adventure foregrounded the story and characters arcs in ways they weren’t designed, depth-wise, to be held up to. Even as my favourite Disney film, I’m well aware Aladdin is using comedy and adventure to paper over some plot issues and character depth in its leads, and at a 2-hour runtime with less of those things to disguise it, they stick out more.
Lion King’s musical wasn’t immune from this either – there as in the film, Scar stole the show and Simba is closer to a functional protagonist than an awe-inspiring one – but this wasn’t nearly as visually flashy, so there wasn’t as much pizzazz to distract. Outside of a jaw-dropping projection effect for the Cave of Wonders (something Lion King did maybe 5 times) and of course the carpet ride that is a true “how did they do that?” moment even when you know now, it was mostly just splendid costumes, backdrops and props (though I do get the feeling this touring version is stripped down slightly from Broadway or West End, being its first time here).
I did mention a lot of smart decisions were made in retrofitting the story. Chief among them are swapping Genie’s pop culture references for wordplay and stage showmanship – “Friend Like Me” is greatly expanded from the film, with a whole new second half, and the obvious standout number. There’s also changing Iago from a parrot to a snivelly yes-man that, while occasionally running afoul of a little going a long way, quite successfully recontextualizes much of Jafar’s scenes into basically pantomime villains. The more standard plot scenes with Aladdin, Jasmine and the Sultan walked a tightrope in injecting occasional sass and wit to the mechanics, but largely succeeded in putting over the business.
Jasmine in particular is a curious case: the script flirted with extra dialogue of female independence and liberty as you’d expect from a 2011 book musical adapted from a 1992 animated film from conservative Disney, without going so far as to have it really change the fairy tale plot more than marginally (which is, at any rate, a trade-up from the inspirationless and corporate-mandated tweaks in the same direction the ‘19 film made). And the expected reduction of the action scenes left her with fewer active moments (Jafar is defeated in five minutes of storming as the Genie’s new master; no false romantic seduction of him by Jasmine while Aladdin goes for the lamp!). But her performer put her business over so well, a razor-sharp yet charming no-nonsense sort, and so effortlessly sang like a pro (Aladdin isn’t even close during “A Whole New World”), to the point that she elevated her material the most. Genie and Jafar and Iago may be more entertaining, sure, but they’re designed to be. Jasmine was one of the few areas where actual character depth resonated quite strongly. Not that Aladdin himself was a non-entity or anything, but he is basically the “aw, shucks” nice kid. Mostly due to the replacing of Abu with three human thieves (scrapped characters from the original film and inventions of Howard Ashman when the film was his baby), whose schtick, while not grating, did wear thin at times, and with his sparring partners able to talk back here, he’s diminished even a bit further.
I will say this: unlike what I’ve heard about the stage Beauty and the Beast, which reportedly got too concerned with trying to capture the film’s glory and thus didn’t breathe, this reimagining does have a lot of fun and imagination in the various changes small and big it makes along the way, enough that it is mildly successful at being judged as its own thing. A test the company’s live-action remakes fail at spectacularly (The Jungle Book and Pete’s Dragon excepted), so it’s worth noting. The obvious jokes (largely not reusing lines from the film, which I commend) had such enthusiasm and savvy from the crew and cast that they mostly sold, there are just enough poignant moments that, while it’s largely just playing for the mind of a child, it’s not just a sound-and-lights show. Easily the best “new” number is the “Proud of Your Boy” ballad to Aladdin’s deceased mother axed from the original film along with that subplot after legendary lyricist Howard Ashman died (two other songs were also brought back for the three thieves; I knew all three already from expanded film album and deleted scenes), and Aladdin’s friendship with Genie remains the show’s true heart about the romance.
Later, while I can’t be sure it’s the same on Broadway, “A Whole New World” went for the carpet simply circling the stage airborne rather than soaring out into the audience (Carpet’s only appearance in the show: understandable, if a little heartbreaking given he’s my favourite character in the film), and came up stronger for it. And while the four outright new songs are mostly bland, they evoke just enough of Howard Ashman’s legendary ability with songwriting to not feel like a total embarrassment. Having lyrics from three different generations of songwriters in Ashman, Tim Rice on the rest of the film after he passes, and the new numbers here blend together isn’t easy! Though it is telling, is it not, that both many other patrons and my siblings were humming the melodies of “Friend Like Me”, “Prince Ali” and “Arabian Nights”, Ashman’s three original masterpieces, frequently during the intermission and the trip home. 
The full range of songs for the Lion King musical was so good I actually listen to cast albums every now and then: this is more the sort I might do occasionally as a curio, least for the whole thing.
Overall, the musical was still one of those productions where the frenzied highlights stand well above the rest (even the film is mostly just getting through setup until the Genie appears, and that’s doubly true here), and even apart from the medium transition, some other highs are lost. And you don’t forget you’re watching something where the content is aiming primarily for the minds of kids. But it delivered enough of a rush to be a mostly-delightful whirlwind, feels largely confident in being its own thing, and if it’s got some bumps along the way, both of its own and inherent to the film or emphasised more than it (the super-short climax doesn’t make Aladdin’s arc land on the most graceful of notes), and especially of dithering over what aspects and tone unused from the film to reinstate (too much was changed after Ashman’s death in 1991 for any stage version to “revert” to his vision), it mostly glosses over to be satisfying. Maybe not quite a diamond in the rough, and the film will remain my go-to, but I wasn’t disappointed except in marginal details.
Now, if only Disney Theatrical Productions could send their reportedly fantastic stage version of The Hunchback of Notre Dame on a UK & Ireland Tour… I also wouldn’t mind Hercules, which I’ve heard good things about.
Onto the week’s fics, and whoa boy, is that a lopsided word count balance, even for this month’s week that’s getting a novel in. Not even 7.5K from the other four fics. Not that I think that’s an issue – point of fact, some of these fics make their short length work marvellous wonders (if maybe not magic carpet ride levels, heh). Have at ‘em, folks.
This Week’s Spectral Stories:
Wednesdays Are Sacred by Aragon
The Master of the Meta Deck by marmalado
It’s The Thought That Counts. by Hotel_Chicken
Menace to Propriety by PatchworkPoltergeist
Celestia's Secret Secret Room by naturalbornderpy
Weekly Word Count: 51,463 Words
Wednesdays Are Sacred by Aragon
Genre: Slice of Life
Mrs. Cake, Mr. Cake, Cake Twins, Pinkie Pie
1,000 Words
May 2022Winner of the Fluff Category in the 1st Thousand Words Contest
Not many people have noticed that Pinkie and her friends never seem to have any threats to deal with on Wednesdays. The Cake sure have, as they’re partially responsible. Even when said threats consist of killing unholy demons discreetly in their kitchen.
Until he feels like writing a fic again, and his judge-studying schedule allows for it, this is as recent a Aragon fic I can look at (having already covered in Monday Musings #39 the only other one he’s done in the last four years, for Ancestral Tribute). Next most recent is just over four years old, pre-pandemic, practically a different era. It is fitting, then, that this should feel so much like one of his comics.
It’s obviously quite different in execution, the word limit sees to that. In both dialogue tags and many of the more “sure, why not?” outlandish ideas he’d normally have characters waxing poetry/black comedy on for several panels instead basically be stated once. Regardless, the statement that this is a feel-good story holds true: the background adult humans of EqG doing what they can behind the scenes to make the shonen anime trope lives of the Mane 7 that bit easier infuses the whole fic (it kind of is an equivalent of “Slice of Life”, from a certain point of view), and while it is very unconventional fluff, it inspires the same positive feelings as that stuff does.
Oh, and the actual meat of how the story goes about expressing all this is sublime too. Using an in media res opening to get through the word limit quicker and allow comedic timing of Pinkie and Mr. Cake talking while nonsensical details of the demon Mrs. Cake has pinned in the kitchen are cross cut (plus how they pinned it), that would be enough for most authors. There’s several more like that, and they flow effortlessly. Honestly, even the best entries in these contests usually still feel like they’d be stronger at a longer length, but I really don’t feel like this is losing anything from that restriction. And it still makes a wallop of an impression all on its own. When a story does both those things, I take note.
Great stuff that creeps up on you both while reading it and after the fact with how immaculately constructed and executed it all is. Even when ostensibly not a comedy, Aragon still makes fics that are funny and sweet in equal measure.
Rating: Really Good
The Master of the Meta Deck by marmalado
Genre: Comedy
Twilight, Pinkie
1,000 Words
June 2023
For some odd reason, Pinkie is really good at the new trading card game that’s captured Equestria’s interest. Figuring it’s nothing she can’t beat, but determined to win her way, Twilight decides to adapt to the situation, and use an unconventional strategy for her deck.
Of course, again the force in card games known as The Meta, strategy can only get you so far.
As I have played the specific card game being lampshaded here, and for a long, long time (even if not the current meta in several years), I am perhaps tailor-made to get all the specific “ah, that mechanic is this, and that’s this card” references in the glimpses of play in Twilight and Pinkie’s endgame we get here*. Though the primary cadence of the moves here, which boil down to Twilight just barely missing game on her turn, and then Pinkie making an assbuttpull to turn a long shot for winning into an guaranteed finish, will work for people who have played any card game deeply.
* And more besides: the game’s online variant (an Equestrian anachronism I’m willing to let slide for this version) having an easily-exploitable glitch to always win coin flips being my favourite in-joke. I see what you did there, marmalado. 
Which is good: anyone can do a bunch of nerd-isms, but it takes more effort to get at the mentality behind card game players and playing an uphill battle against a pro. Throwaway lines to Pinkie’s ace card being in every top deck right now yet not being banned, and Twilight mentally running through what counterplay she can make before Pinkie renders that all null and void with her big play, complete it.
It’s even enough to make it work for the card-game adverse, painting a hilarious if realistic picture of what the top levels can look like to outsiders, a convoluted and mangled mess where the barrier to entry feels high to begin with, and more so when you play against a pro. Doubly-so with the coda of what Twilight does after the game.
It’s a very simple story, but it hit all the right buttons for me. Cheerfully fun ditties are sometimes all you need. Though the concept and no-frills-attached execution should make it work for anyone.
Rating: Pretty Good
It’s The Thought That Counts. by Hotel_Chicken
Genre: Random/Slice of Life
Kerfuffle, Torque Wrench
2,232 Words
December 2020Reread
Life in Hope Hollow has been good since Twilight and her friends brought the colour back into their lives. It’s been especially good for Kerfuffle and Torque Wrench, both productive ponies with booming business and lots to keep them busy. Which is a known enough fact that others have done what they can with helpful gifts. Sometimes too helpful, as they’re about to find out together this Hearth’s Warming.
What started out pretty ordinary turned quite interesting when this story pivoted towards both ponies being disappointed with the thoughtful gifts the other got for them that pertains to their main livelihood. The story seemed well posed to be on the route towards a nuanced moral of how to tell others that those same gifts don’t mean what they used to, and you have too much of them. Not the most original, but it’s certainly more nuanced than such fluff holiday pieces usually get.
But then, it kind of punts, settling for both just saying why they don’t like it, admitting that the holiday doesn’t do a lot for them, and finding solace in that. Which would be fine, that’s still nuanced but it’s an awful quick wind-down for the setup. More distracting was that, while Torque’s reason for not being so hot on her gift comes out, Kerfuffle’s reasoning is basically just a tease, in dialogue and her own thoughts, that demands the viewer to want more, but we don’t get it. And that tease is delectable, so it’s extra frustrating it’s basically unanswered.
With a little disappointment from the raised expectations from the way the fic seemed to be going, it’s harder to ignore the prose lapsing into sufficient but bland talking heads, and not the most consistent application of the Minnesota-style accent for the Hope Hollow ponies. It’s no rougher than your average capable holiday fluff piece, but I found it a bit more disappointing.
Also, bit of a random misleading Random tag, the fic your perfectly ordinary sedate holiday piece of characters talking their feelings out.
Rating: Passable
Menace to Propriety by PatchworkPoltergeist
Genre: Comedy/Drama/Slice of Life
Diamond Tiara, Spoiled Rich, Filthy Rich
44,189 Words
July 2018-January 2019Reread
In continuity with The Silver Standard, What Riches Still Await (Reviewed here) and Diminishing Returns (Reviewed here)
Diamond Tiara’s been a good filly since the school election. Immaculate behaviour, keeping the grades up, even the family therapy, she’s done it all without complaint. Something she’s having trouble holding her tongue about now, what with Spoiled Rich having turned a planned day of stepmother/stepdaughter bonding into shadowing her job as a wedding planner. But, this is the last day of good behaviour before the contract they signed permits Diamond to choose any pet she wants. And it just so happens that, among a cage of boring thoroughbred doves being prepared for the ceremony, she spots a beady-eyed specimen with a dangling neck that, despite being incapable of anything useful, speaks to her.
This story is not tagged as a sequel to The Silver Standard, and that is technically true, but it’s a lot closer than either of the prior Rich family one-shots in that universe by PatchworkPoltergeist I’ve covered here. What Riches Still Await was a standalone prequel with every bit of context from Silver Standard fully reintroduced (naturally, being when Spoiled and Filthy first meet), and Diminishing Returns mostly got by with just scattered references to the wider depth afforded to Diamond in the larger work, plus the greater Silver family. In terms of content, this borderline-novella novel is perfectly comprehensible on its own – for the attentive reader, there’s nothing that matters for context that isn’t reintroduced at least in shorthand – but it does still carry “sequel to a story you missed” syndrome at times. Not to mention the greater range of bits and details that just are and don’t land for a while because you’re expected to know them.
The proof: I think I read this before The Silver Standard, and my memories of this were that it was a kooky story about Diamond antagonising her stepmom with a cantankerous bird as her pet. How wrong of me. Now that I have read that doorstop masterpiece of Ponyfic (over three years ago now, but I remember enough), I can properly see how well it retains the breadth and depth of Patchwork’s approach to high society foals and their mindsets and interpersonal relationships with others, far beyond just “snob”. How much it gets at what a proper mending of bridges between these interpretations of Diamond (a smart filly, but a filly) and Spoiled Rich (still a terrible pony but one who is honestly trying to do right by Diamond) would be, without sacrificing their characters in the process. Honestly, even though Patchwork doesn’t seem to have conceived this until Silver Standard has finished, it very much feels like an extra epilogue focused just on the Rich family, only separate due to both the switch of perspective characters, and sidelining all the subplots and characters surplus to this story’s goal (Silver Spoon herself only appears in flashbacks, for one).
That’s not to say it isn’t still a kooky delight, especially with the handle that is the dove Menace II Society (yes, and there’s a logical in-universe reason for the name that’s just perfect). Bird shite and a wedding cake mishap abound, and you can expect frantic reactions from Fluttershy’s animals when visiting her. Not to mention all the sly and witty dialogue from both the two featured ponies and the other character at the inciting incident wedding. But it is still closer to a dramedy than a comedy, and unquestionably to its benefit. The bird is acting so sickly that death is suspected on the adults’ part (no “A Bird in the Hoof”, this, though something on Menace’s part does ironically echo Philomena there), so there’s the usual “child in denial” aspect to play with too.
Reviewing this also lets me finally talk about how Patchwork writes these rich snobby fillies, as opposed to the adults around them, and it is glorious. You never forget Diamond Tiara is a kid, yet at the same time, a balance is threaded showing how smart and sharp she is while still being prone to the rash, judgement-clouded moments that can explain away some of her moments in the show (and have in The Silver Standard). More impressive is the greater compassion she’d learned since “Crusaders of the Lost Mark” without doing a 180. The Riches essentially suck at redemption and change with each other, but they are trying, and in the pair of chapters that’s just Diamond and Spoiled in the house alone, ignoring, yelling and finally understanding each other (somewhat) better than before, the prickly edges make for powerful character material.
Through all that, the blend of Diamond’s observations, sharply parsing characters’ actions, Spoiled’s own razor-sharp moments, the humour of the bird, one-off characters or choices for scenes that give them colour, and aberrations in the structure that seems strange but pay off big time in the end make for that rare thing: a fic that’s both funny, dramatic, heartfelt but never sappy, and just a impressive thing to read. Even the fact that, in incident, it is totally a novella, and basically every chapter takes its sweet time with what happens, barely registers off how engrossing it all is. Hay, it even makes a 8K epilogue chapter work wonders to what is, in itself, an epilogue.
Some power is understandably lost if you haven’t read The Silver Standard – as the capstone to Diamond’s arc there while also feeling like a relief after all the drama she’s endured, it’s cathartic – but if you have, this is quite the capstone. Not the masterpiece that fic was, it’s too modest in its ambitions, but it’s not disappointing in the slightest either. Somewhat underread (barely 2K views, and actually Patchwork’s least-read story before two fics she wrote last year after a four-year-plus hiatus from writing), likely off the confusion to lots of casual readers over the fics it’s linked to and how, and being too long for a quick dip like the other two, it’s still a gem even if it’s rather unheralded.
…Man, I’m sad now I’ve worked my way through all of Patchwork’s fics on the Riches, leaving only The Silver Standard to do. And there isn’t a hope in hell of my reviewing a 296K fic anytime in the near-to-mid-future, as that’ll take even longer than just rereading the thing (the amount of note-taking and balancing for a final review really add to a fic over time). Just take it from me – and the hundreds of others – that it’s one of the fandom’s greats.
Rating: Really Good
STRAY SPOILERY OBSERVATIONS
- An example of how the context can lose a reader who doesn’t know The Silver Standard: the final chapter of a therapy session has the therapist be a blind pony, and it’s introduced in such an offhand, uncommented on manner that I presumed it was a detail from the last chunk of that doorstop. But nope, some searching through the last part of that to check proved that not so. It threw the fact off all the more: for all I approve of it not being made a deal, literally everything about this fact plays out like the reader should have known it even though they couldn’t have. It’s not the only such example of this, though it’s the only one that actively broke my immersion.
- An example of both preserving characterisation while being funny comes from the last line, where the Riches go out to celebrate by buying ice cream. A franchise, that is. And Diamond’s begging is not about what flavour, but a startup or established and how much % she’ll be allowed. Though right at the end, it’s a great barometer for how much you’ll dig the fic, and indeed, Patchwork’s approach to the Riches in general.
- Patchwork’s fics are the kind where even if you know there’s deep-seated reasoning for characters’ actions and motives that you’re not getting – and her writing is so layered and complex that this happens even for scholarly ol’ spiritual me 👻 – they still feel right and true. Spoiled’s eventual explanation for why she didn’t stick up for Diamond when the other of the bride at the wedding earlier put them both down is one such example, where a lot of her motives for honestly doing the best for a pair of newlyweds explain it, and it’s enough to make the parts that aren’t still feel right enough for me to not question them.
Celestia's Secret Secret Room by naturalbornderpy
Genre: Comedy/Random/Slice of Life
Twilight, Celestia, Luna, Royal Guard
3,042 Words
April 2019Reread
A royal guard has just let slip that Princess Celestia has a secret secret room she sometimes retreats to for hours on end, somewhere only she knows to go and can’t be disturbed. With the right incentives, Twilight coheres enough out of him to be able to tail her mentor to this place and find out just what goes on there.
Unless one spots the sequel in the suggested fics, the fic doesn’t give away what the secret is. Which, alas, makes talking about it hard, as Twilight gets to the room a third of the way in, and everything thereafter is spoiler-y. Not that I think the punchline is all that important: most of the fic plays out like it’s not obvious, but Twilight lingers too heavily on her false assumption for the actual answer to not be abundantly clear. At the same time, that heavy lingering did make another third of the fic basically a waiting game for the clear.
The fic mostly banks everything on the cuteness of its concept, which is fine, but it tends to mug the cuteness of said concept in its featured moments a bit heavily, to the point of minor diminishing returns. There is a stretch towards the end that does try and bring some depth to the concept, but it mostly feels perfunctory. A final coda with Luna has a similar balance of cute gags and lines overmined with minimal variation.
Overall, not an unpleasant diversion – there are a number of amusing and witty thoughts and lines on Twilight’s parts – but it feels rather muddled and diluted in doing much with its idea beyond just presenting it as-is.
Rating: Passable
Spooky Summary of Scores:
Excellent: 0
Really Good: 2
Pretty Good: 1
Decent: 0
Passable: 2
Weak: 0
Bad: 0
ooo, love the aladdin writeup, your recap of it was super engaging to go thru! and, seems like a pretty good week this week; ive now got a couple more fics to add to the ever-growing backlog
Oh hey, I know some of these~
I did love Aragon's work (though that is applicable in most or all cases). The idea of the "normals" of the world coming together to help their saviors in a small but meaningful way, by means of silent conspiracy and putting their normal heads together to solve world-ending problems, is a delight. Despite being EQG, one could see that concept being applicable in both worlds. The bare taste of this wacky little headcanon makes me crave a series of shorts for the universe. I can see Mayor Mare awkwardly chanting to banish a demon they lured into Igneous' hat, the Cakes keeping silver cutting knives in case the werewolves return, the principals helplessly finding a hiding place in the school for Yet Another Evil Artifact while they try to figure out what to do with them all.
"We should just ask Sunset."
"No, we expect to much of her and the others already."
Secret Secret Room is... well, you said it best: an appeal to cuteness. More than the usual such fare, I think, feeling a bit sad and wistful. Though whether one likes it or not certainly depends on whether one enjoys such fics.
Menace to propriety is one of those fics that have languished on my RIL list, eternally pushed to back pages by new additions. Though reading the review, I am heartily interested by the notion of Spoiled being a wedding planner. Most fics cheerfully leave her as an irredeemable gold digger, so for her to have depth and complication seems quite fun. This looks to be a specialty of that author, so perhaps this will serve as a gateway for me.
"Wake up, Ghost Mike posted a review blog."
"So what? It's every—"
"It has an EqG fic!"
"
"
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I know it was a bit rambly and not too structured, more off-the-cuff thoughts. You can tell I adore the film and know it inside-out, and given it's, well, Aladdin, I presumed everyone reading this knows the film pretty well too. I looked back through and thought "1,500+ words? Maybe I should cut that". But couldn't make the hard choices, and decided to just let it go, being an opening blurb I'm not supposed to fuss over too much. Happy to hear you liked it!
Any week with two Really Goods is a pretty solid week! Well, unless the rest were all circling the lowest ratings, or something.
5773684
That's twice in the last five days that my supposed apathy to EqG has come up in the context of it being the first thing that leaps to mind when one thinks of me and Ponyfic. And like with there, I'm not sure how to feel about that…
I will just cite what I did there: that there are folks even more opposed to it than me, and with having reviewed now 26 stories with that series tag out of 569, or 4.57%. If an EqG story is good and carries endorsements, I may well read it. Which does mean, when an EqG story is here, that they tend to be quite solid – 12 of those 26 are Really Good or higher, and a further 9 are Pretty Good.
Also, that I'm surprised an EqG-centric author and reader like yourself (21 of 28 stories) would be following these blogs enough to note when an EqG story pops up. I suppose I'm flattered – must mean there's something here you like!
Read the first 2 chapters of Menace, since that was all that had been published when I got to it, and I really liked that much of it.
5773692
21 of 28? That means I have 7 pony fics too many!
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It is very true, though doing so would have changed the cast of adults participating and this way actually got more freedom out of it. So I didn't mind myself.
It was a rating dithering, and I think had I read it earlier in the blog's lifespan, when I was less burnt-out on these kind of cute fics, it might have managed the Decent. I dunno, the sad and wistful elements never quite came together for me.
Despite the fact that it doesn't exactly have 44K worth of content, if you get me, it still flies by, so interesting and the ideas and explored depths of the characters. Especially Spoiled – I basically can't read any fic with her from someone besides Patchwork at this stage, so thoroughly has her blend of someone who is a terrible pony but isn't a villain and who we can see trying to do best by those she treasures latched onto my mind. Power of fanfiction!
She also canonically was a gold digger in this timeline, in her single days when the wedding planner gig was partly a path to finding a suitable rich husband. She was past her prime by the time she found Filthy, and her defences basically washed away. And the rest, as they say, is history.
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It definitely is hard to go back to a 'let's have her be a terrible pony yet also totally unthreatening so we can just metaphorically punch her over and over' take after reading an actual nuanced one (see also my early/mid tendency to write Blueblood stories).
Seems she wasn't a very good one.
5773692
Alright, to calm you down: I mainly remembered your supposed apathy to EqG because one time TCC56 wrote about one of my fics and you mentioned how difficult it would be for you to find something interesting from me.
I generally follow blog posts actively—I guess boredom?—and in both review posts before it was mentioned again, so I thought it would be funny to make a joke about it.
Sorry if it had upset you or made you feel defensive, I mean no harm with my jokes
Two Really Good fics, that I've already read! Oh well, it's not like I need to add more fics to my list.
The Aladdin show sounds fun! I'm a big fan of theatrical "magic" and I'm sure I would enjoy it a lot. I'm still hoping that the Disney/Ghibli relationship will mean I get to see the Spirited Away musical someday without having to go to Japan—and get insanely lucky in the ticket lottery!
I'm glad to see another reviewing echoing mine for Meta Deck. :D I've never been much of a CCG player, but hot dang does that story capture the complete essence of the hobby!
5773727
Oh, I wasn't upset or anything approaching that. Mostly just, "…Oh", because one doesn't like to be known for what they don't have much personal interest in, y'know? One likes to be known for what they like and who they are instead. Meaning something closer to "cheerful oddball" for moi. 👻
And for what it's worth, I'm sorry if I came across poorly from that time on TCC56's blog. As a fellow reviewer, peer and friend, I endeavour to chip in on each of his posts. Even though he mysteriously doesn't follow me.
And sometimes when neither of his chosen featured fics have any interest for me, my reluctance for vague "wishy washy" comments can lead to saying why in a manner that may not be read by everyone as the gentle statement it's written as.
Anyway, apathy is probably a strong word. Cool is maybe more accurate. And sure, FiM of course has plenty of characters and situations that don't excite me. EqG just has more of them, and that it switches to being about, well, humans in the modern world when I come for the ponies in fantasy (as well as the social situations) is chief among them. That it's also about high schoolers with a tinge of anime and magical girl aspects doesn't hurt either.
You can probably guess I don't care much for when Manhattan was introduced into the show.
At the same time, I completely understand that it's the fact that they are humans that is a huge draw for people, ditto for them being teens at such a fundamental stage of their life. So I don't begrudge anyone those pleasures. And as the fics I have reviewed show, you give me a well-endorsed fic, or a strong character piece, or something quality that can only be told with EqG (as opposed to a human AU; generally meaning it takes full, unique advantage of the parallel worlds gimmick) and I'll heavily consider it.
And I'm all for jokes. Even if this one made me take pause because of the label, it was clearly a joke. I didn't interpret it otherwise, in case my initial reply came across that way.
5773734
Pro tip, bud: if a fic you cover pops up in my space a month or two later, you can make a pretty good guess. 
Where do you think I found it?
I've also considered a CCG fic of my own at some point – not a comedic one-shot, more a slice of life that would make it comprehensible, and almost certainly an original one – but fics like these make me see, in a good way, that that's probably not a wise idea. Least in terms of audience reach.
5773730
Fimfiction's ability to add stories to bookshelves could break tomorrow, and it would still take you and unholy age to clear out the 24 million horse words in your Kindle bookshelf. Ditto for your Tracking one. You're right to be glad all the times my higher ratings go to fics you've already looked at, bud!
COVID difficulties excepted, it's been on Broadway uninterrupted since 2014, so assuming there isn't a stop-over in your Californian neck of the woods anytime soon, there's always whenever you next find yourself in New York. Doubtless the stage effects will be even more extravagant than what I got (some reviews of the Broadway version I've looked up say there was too much of that to the point of exposing the story's shallow depth all the more, for what it's worth).
Amen to that, it'll make the stampede for Book of Mormon tickets (which I've failed to get every time I've happened to be going to London since it went to the West End) look like a bunny parade. Given how much the Disney/Ghibli relationship is on thin ice these days for matters outside of Japan, what with them relinquishing distribution rights except for home media there, why they made the deal in the 90's in the first place, I seriously doubt it. We'll likely have to settle for one of those official stage recordings.
But, a man can dream, as can a pony and a ghost.
5773738
Nah, not that I remembered it like that. More like a fact about someone, just like me having a hard time to get interested in FiM fics unless the premise sounds appealing (I came to this show through EqG and tried to watch FiM, but I just can't enjoy it. Watching episodes felt more like forcing myself to do it, so I stopped.) So I guess we're similar in being the complete opposite
Also, you're not these type of people in the fandom who have to go on a daily rent how EqG ruined the main characters and how bad it is (or act completely shocked and in disbelief finding out that some prefer human versions). Leaving Discord servers was certainly a good choice for one's emotinal stability
5773739
I've always privately assumed, but never wanted to take any credit
5773812
Fair – I once did do that with the timing of Logan looking at a fic not too long after I had, and it turned out it was on his list anyway!
I more meant that I usually take a month to two after I find a short one-shot that it was off the cuff to feature it here, given the backlog size. Much of a muchness!
The Disney musicals make me incredibly jealous of English speakers, because in Spain I don't think I'd enjoy them properly. I watched the Castillan Spanish dub of the original movies as a kid, so I know the songs in Castillan Spanish? But the musicals, when translated from English, are translated to Neutral Spanish, so the lyrics change, and are much more similar to the Latin American dubs.
Which makes absolute perfect sense; they're going to use the same lyrics for the entire Spanish speaking world, so you gotta find common ground -- but the Castillan Spanish version is extremely different from the others, right?
So it's just, incredibly jarring to listen to songs that you've known all your life but all the lyrics are different in little ways, and to my ear, they don't "rhyme" properly cause of it. I've tried listening to the recordings and I just couldn't get into it whatsoever. Big-ass shame, I must add.
Anyway! Glad to hear you liked my story! It was a very fun challenge, execution-wise; the 1000 word limit forced me to be as efficient as possible with the storytelling, and I had a lot of fun with it. I've heard before that it reminds people of my comics, which I guess it makes sense -- they're both written by me after all -- but the way the story is, I don't think I would've managed to make it work as a comic whatosever. There are a lot of high concept things going on in that fic; visually that would've taken so much fieldwork, jesus.
(Also I would've had to draw the demon. Woof.)
5773818
Interesting. In a weird way, that almost sounds like it's more of a problem because you know the movies and their songs in Castilian Spanish quite well; if you only had vague or no memories of them, you'd barely notice. And certainly not for any new songs (which is generally half of more of the list of unique songs in one of these).
Given your English is so bloody good these days, is it not feasible to watch/listen to these in their original English? Or is it still too much of a case of childhood memories of Spanish lyrics over this music interfering with them (in much the same way watching the original English dubs of the movies might be)?
Anyway, your experience reminds me of several things when it comes to adaptions of translations – like Harry Potter movies in Japanese missing book quotes or being unable to use them because of differing choices from the book translators/space for the dialogue in the actors' speaking – but in terms of being weirded out? Nothing will top for me the experience of seeing a US Dub of a Bob the Builder episode. This was back when preschool shows, if imported from other English-speaking nations to the US, would dub them to "teach the correct English" to little kids (thankfully, a trend that died by the time Blue came along, leading to many kids learning words in Australian, bless them) – never mind no other English-speaking nations did the reverse when importing from the States.
Anyway, the dialogue was literally unchanged except for different terms (trousers -> pants, you know), and one truck swapping gender for whatever reason, but it Still. Sounded. So. Wrong. And even knowing many American kids would have adored it in their youth, I couldn't get past it! Notwithstanding my opposition to America "having" to change media they imported.
An experience that, given the immense amount of time it takes even you to do one of your comics relative to just writing this, you'd think you'd apply to a degree on your comics going forward. But we both know it'll be yet another 150-panel doorstop next. And I, for one, wouldn't expect anything less.
I don't think people meant that literally. More accommodation for the medium transition, especially to swap all the thoughts to dialogue and such. In my case, I more meant the theory and technique and tone and sensibility of the comics, less the practical drawing time it might take.
As for the demon, you could have worked your way around that the same way you keep Discord and Fluttershy's actions in your latest one obscured or off-panel, just by having characters mention it or whatever. In an adaption that transitioned to the medium, I can easily picture one of your characters at the panel's side saying something to others regarding the demon they're holding back by their other arm off-age or whatever, all with your trademark deadpan expressions.