).Broad Horizons 5: Clear Skies · 1:39pm Jun 30th, 2013
As it stands Project Horizons is possibly the longest story in the extended fandom, clocking in somewhere over 1000000 words.
Which means I'm about to do a hell of a lot of talking as I try to muddle through all of its good points, its weaknesses and everything else.
But before I do...
Well spoilers ahead, not as many as I intended when I started, but maybe some.
This was intended to be my much lauded awaited maligned something-or-other full disclosure post, and I will be disappointed in each and every individual among you who reads this without having first read both Fallout Equestria and Project Horizons to date. Except I won't because I didn't end up spoiling much in the end. But still you should read them if you can find the stomach. (I think I said that before, I sound like a broken record)
Fallout Equestria's strongest point, in my opinion, aside from it's good characterization, and awesome plot is it's world building and the way it flawlessly blends the worlds of Fallout and FiM. I've said that before, I'll say it again. Project Horizons does not do this. It does not even come close. Doesn't mean it's bad, or that the world building is bad, but it serves as a useful comparison point. In Project Horizons, despite the area covered physically being smaller, the heroes are comparatively much smaller than the world they inhabit. In FoE, the way heroes go from slightly better than average to terrors among men is well encapsulated and excellently translated into Little Pip's journey. In Horizons the heroes start smaller and end bigger, in a darker, scarier world. Hoofington really comes across as a dark, scary, terrible place to live. And the point I'm trying to make here is that it's not advisable to compare the two, FOE is a brilliant crossover fanfic of Fallout and Friendship is Magic, while Horizons is a brilliant fanfic of that fanfic.
Somber takes a lot of license with the original FoE, but not nearly as much as he could have. He toes the line, and some small details are discontinuous between the two, but mostly he designed the story to be read after FoE, not as an expansion of that universe. What keeps him from taking more license is his worship of Kkat. I don't use that word liberally, if you go looking you can find what I'm talking about. I'm focusing on the author here, but the an understanding of Somber is very important to understanding why I enjoy the story as much as I do.
Somber writes in a way that is very relatable to me. The things he enjoys, the tropes, the conventions, the ideas, themes and metaphors are all things I enjoy generally. His story arcs appeal to me, his character arcs appeal to me, his sense and use of scale appeals to me. I used his story as a way to survive deep depression because as he was writing it Somber was surviving deep depression. I love Project Horizons. I love the plots within plots, I love the long winded tendency to the ridiculous, I love the intense bursts of sadness punctuating the general misery and despair held up by pillars of dry, dark humor and the ridiculous. I love the way even when things seem too far gone, the heroes and heroines will always find a way, even when tone dictates that they really shouldn't, and I love that every second they aren't actively winning, they're losing.
It's not a story everyone can read, or indeed, everyone should read but if you can stomach it, it's worth it on so many levels.
I feel like I should talk more about this, but there really isn't much to say when I pare it all back. I could showcase some of how dark the story is, or how it compares to the original but I don't really need to, it would be redundant. Maybe sometime, I'll make some time to talk about all the parts of it that hurt in detail, or more of what I love about it. Wow, this is a total letdown.
I know there's more to say here, so this probably won't be my last post on the subject and anything else will probably be a bit more indepth. So you can look forward to that I guess.
Something's not right here.
Anyway, I'm calling it a night. More posts later.
Travel well out there.
