Fanfiction Review: Paradise · 5:57pm Mar 20th, 2013
Blogger: http://blogofpony.blogspot.com/2013/03/fanfiction-review-paradise.html
Well, it's Wednesday, and it's time for another blog post. So let's look at SlyWit's classic Paradise.
SYNOPSIS:
Long ago, a herd of Earth Ponies were blessed with two foals, sisters both: Celestia and Luna. In that time, the three races lived in isolation from each other, mistrusting and hating anypony but their own, and that has nothing on the various predators that hunt and kill the ponies. In this harsh world, however, the two sisters will begin to undergo a startling metamorphosis...
REVIEW:
First things first, Paradise is unfinished. It's been in production for years, and is updated at a snail's pace. Still, the seventeen chapters that are available can be reviewed, and they alone are worth plunging into.
Paradise is a relic of an older fandom, when Celestia and Luna were full-blown deities from ancient times, but unlike a lot of other stories from this same time period, canon hasn't totally destroyed the story. The way the tribes don't trust each other is echoed in “Hearth's Warming Eve,” and Celestia and Luna slowly turning into Alicorns is reinforced in a way through “Magical Mystery Cure.” About the only thing the story doesn't address is Discord, and SlyWit still plans to address him in time.
As for the story itself, what makes it work so wonderfully is the imagination placed into ancient Equestria and the characters of Celestia and Luna themselves. The world presented here is a dangerous realm, full of danger around every corner. One of the early chapters poignantly details how Celestia lost her first and best friend, and her mother consoles her by telling how she lost her best friend, too. The unicorns are basically elves, living with their noses in the air and wanting nothing to do with anypony else. And the pegasi...are pegasi. Everything in this world is much harsher and colder, where one unlucky step might end with you getting bitten by a snake or torn into by a griffin.
And yet, the story never becomes purely morbid. For as harsh as the world here is presented, there is always an undercurrent of hope and joy, a sense that life will go on for all these ponies, and that makes the story truly alive. Far too many times, an author will be so focused on how dismal and hopeless things are that they forget that the world truly isn't a big ball of hopelessness, and that even in the darkest of times, a small light will always be shining. The world has a long way to go before it reaches what we see in the show, but we see the first steps throughout the story.
As for Celestia and Luna, the two are wonderful throughout the story. Their relationship is well-realized, and the way they interact with the world around them and the different ponies make them some of the very best versions of the characters I've seen so far. And the way they gradually change and become Alicorns gives the story a sense of rising from the mundane to the fantastic. In many ways, it feels like a much more intricately-realized interpretation of what “Magical Mystery Cure” was going for, with the two being thrown into a new situation and having to adjust.
If there is a flaw I noticed with the story, it's that things kind of meander about throughout. There's no real set objective for the ponies; they're more or less just going from one race to the next, learning about magic and flying and having adventures along the way.
FINAL THOUGHTS:
My issues with the story's pacing aside, this is a wonderful tale that I highly recommend. It's still not finished, but with its slow updating speed there's plenty of time to catch up. If you want a unique, engaging take on Celestia and Luna's origins, then this is the story to read.
I was estatic when I saw you were going to review Paradise. It was one of the first fanfictions I read and remains as one of my favorites, despite the update rate.
The way the Sisters are portrayed together is one of my favorite aspects of the story and makes me wonder just how NMM came about, if they were once so close.
I do agree that there are no real goals for them yet, although at this point in the story it doesn't really hurt it that much(in my own opinion).
As am I 934055, I enjoyed reading Paradise and though I am at time annoyed with the slow updates I am quite happy whenever a new chapter comes out. It was one of the first fics I read when I joined the fandom and to be honest one that had the biggest impact on the foundation of my headcanon, the idea that the Sisters were born Earth Ponies and became Alicorns later in life.
I prefer a story with no goal, it makes it more fun to read. And you forgot to mention that they had very different thoughts and names to some things due to the simplicity of their lives.
It is a very nice story, although it does update very slowly.
934084I share that head-canon as well. I think that it makes them more capable of empathizing with ponykind, rather than them always having been omni-potent God-Ponies.
Meh, I don't see that that is necessarily completely gone... that's how I view them at least.
Sounds like an interesting story though, although I would be really annoyed by the update rate, what's the point of reading it, if you have to keep rereading it everytime a chapter is posted to remember what happened between installments?
934118 I recommend you to read it. Most of its contents are memorable enough to remember. And it is a very beautiful story.
I'm a big fan of this one, I just wish it would update faster.
Like you said it's held up well, with only one exception in my opinion. While I love the "flighty" pegasi interpretation in the story, I have a hard time reconciling it with the militant historical pegasi we got out of the Hearths Warming Eve episode.
934160They could be organized into the much more militant group as the story passes. Besides, the Earth Ponies are still nomads and the Unicorns are arboreal dwellers. I don't the events of HW happen for decades at least.
934160 Maybe there was one pegasus who wanted total control and order to the pegasi race? Anything could be possible.
934167 Maybe even centuries.
934179That's even likelier, given the fact that the Sisters can live for centuries.
934167 Oh, I would certainly expect at least centuries to pass between were we are at in the story and the tribal era we've seen in the show, and that's plenty of time for some pretty major cultural shifts. It's just that when I look at the nomadic earth ponies and the forest dwelling unicorns, I can imagine the development that leads to what we see later on. But pegasi are almost the very definition of disorganization in the story, and for them to turn into the equivalent of pony spartans? That's quite a stretch.
Not that I'm saying it's impossible, and I expect SlyWit already has a plan for it that we'll all get to read about five years from now.
934207There would have to be some sort of power hungry dictator involved most likely. Either that or a Dragon attack. That would force them to organize themselves and become the Spartan tribe.
934219 Suddenly I got a mental image of a peagasus commander yelling something like "THIS! IS! SPARTA" (insert different land name) and kicking a unicorn or earth pony messenger.
934238THIS.IS.PEGASOPOLIS!
934115
Not that there are fics that have deity Sisters that empathize with the mortals.. though they tend to take Discord and the Long Night to make it work.
934301 What I meant is that it makes them more understanding of the Equine Condition, not that being nigh-immortal God-Ponies makes them unable to understand Ponykind, although I could see how i might have implied that. Having lived as a mortal, at some point in their lives, makes it easier for them to know their pains, their struggles, their hopes and their dreams.
Unless, I entirely misunderstood your statement and that you meant that there are no stories that have them as fully understanding and caring of the mortals. In that case, I'm pretty sure I've seen a couple of them floating around the Net.
934338
You are correct and I misread you fist post