Fic recs, November 1st! · 3:40pm Nov 1st, 2013
12. That's what happens when I'm busy saving up reviews for something. Sorry to dump so many stories on you guys so close together, but I don't want to let this journal collect any more. :B
H: 1 R: 4 C: 3 V: 2 N: 2
Little Princess by Cobalt Swirls
Reading by Scribbler
Genre: Sad
You know when a story is tagged sad and starts out with rain, you’re not dealing with high-concept literature. The author of this story really wanted to drive home the sadness of the situation, so everything that Applejack does in the first third or so is punctuated by modifiers of emotion. Honestly, I sort of blanked out the whole thing. The situation is this: Apple Bloom is bedridden with some undisclosed disease, that is suggested to have claimed her parents, and Applejack ran away from her sometime in the past when she was needed. Applejack tries to live up to her mistakes while enduring a tongue-lashing from Apple Bloom. I can’t say I found this terribly interesting. Bitterness doesn’t sit well with Apple Bloom’s character, nor does cowardice with Applejack’s. I think this situation could have worked, but it needed more setup, and too much in this story is just outright told to lend weight to anything that’s said. And of course, it does that Sadfic thing that really peeves me, which is ending on a happy note. If everything’s hunky-dory by the end, why bother with the tag? Nothing is sad about that. Skip this one.
Not Recommended
One Bowl of Soup by The Incognito Brony
Reading by Scribbler
Genre: Trixie Returns
Trixie heads to the Ponyville dump to retrieve what’s left of her shattered wagon and meets Applejack. Things don’t go as expected. What was great about this was the suggestion that, post-Busters, anypony, especially a pony like Applejack who’d been directly humiliated by Trixie, would show Trixie no small amount of kindness and hospitality upon her return. I was also surprised that this didn’t go deeply into Trixie’s undoubtedly tragic backstory, as these sorts of stories tend to. There’s a really tantalizing suggestion of what Trixie’s cutie mark doesn’t mean and the final scene with the book, and that’s about it. Mostly, this is just two mares having a conversation, with Trixie trying to figure out why AJ’s being so darn nice to her, and Applejack for her part just sort of taking Trixie being Trixie in stride. I will say that I’m sad it wasn’t shipping. (I have Scribbler’s choice of cover art to thank for putting that idea in my head.) I mean, it would definitely work as a setup, and there were a lot of ship-teases in the way certain things were worded. Speaking of which, if you do decide to delve into this one, beware of massive amounts of LUS, and especially the irritatingly frequent and entirely baffling references to Applejack as “the blonde”. I could not wrap my head around that particular turn of phrase; it doesn’t seem to work in a pony setting. For what this is, it’s not bad, and it’s somewhat refreshing.
Recommended as an Original Take on an Old Trope
Precious Gem by OleGreyMane
Reading by Scribbler
Genre: Coping With Loss
I hate Spikity shipping, as I have long said, so let me tackle that aspect of this story first: I actually don’t hate what's here. It’s given in no few words that any suggestion of a romance between them later in life was merely rumor, scurrilous or otherwise, and that Spike had actually tried to avoid an active relationship with Rarity. The best part is, there doesn’t need to be a romantic angle for this story to work, and highlights why the concept of Spikity as a deep and true love relationship is so extraneous to the MLP mythos. All we need is a deep friendship and the loyalty that comes with it, which Spike has demonstrated on the show with more than just Rarity or Twilight. So, this is a short tale of Spike as an adult dragon overseeing Rarity’s death and funeral. And while I generally hate pony funerals as quick and dirty ploys for “feels”, this one stands apart from those I’ve experienced before. Spike spends the ceremony fuming over the nobles and fashion designers who’ve attended to say kind words and make themselves look better now that she's no longer around to dissuade anyone from thinking otherwise. I thought that was a really realistic look at high-society life (the deconstruction of which is one of my favorite tropes in the show), and I much appreciate it. Spike even comes to a realization of how flawed Rarity was, which is just fantastic. That said, if there’s anything that falls flat, it’s the vast majority of his thoughts that we get to see. Almost all of them are very overt or explainy, and are the closest this story gets to manipulating reader emotions. Not to overuse a word, but they felt extraneous, and most of them could have been done away with. In the end, I didn’t expect to like this, but it went in directions I hadn’t anticipated and was all the stronger for having done so.
Recommended
The Thousand Year Romance of Clover the Clever by Benman
Genre: Shipping
This is a really tight, really fast-paced story about… a relationship between Clover the Clever and Smart Cookie. (Hmm, why does that sound familiar? :V) Kidding aside, this story is amazingly clever. It reflects a true understanding of the nature of the world setting that Benman was able to incorporate as many ideas from the show as he was able to in such a short period of time. Some may yearn for more detail — the sentences are purposefully choppy, and being so sparse means they have to focus just on what’s most important, so entire adventures blow by in a line or two — but what’s here is just about perfect. I found it delightful for one, and even if you’re not into shipping, I think you can at least appreciate the motivations at play here.
Highly Recommended
Pest Control by Rust
Reading by Scribbler
Genre: Who Would Win?
This story opens at the end of A Canterlot Wedding, rehashing Chrysalis's defeat the reader. It does, however, get a few things right: though the scene from the show plays out in its entirety, we see it from Celestia’s POV, and it also fills in what Luna was doing at the same time (namely, watching from the ceiling). Still, it's far too much introduction. The purpose of these scenes is to orient the reader to when, exactly, a story is taking place, and any minor details, changes or additions that should be in the front of their mind as they read. Other than Luna’s actions, the opening scene presents none of this and could have been condensed significantly. It does accomplish one other thing, which is setting up the feeling of the rest of the story: turn back, ye seekers of plot, for there is none here. Oh, there’s a few minor attempts at worldbuilding — mostly focused on changeling and pony magic, though Chrysalis does at one point mockingly call Luna “Auntie Lulu”, and who knows what that is meant to signify — but the bulk of this story is just a knock-down, drag-out brawl between Luna and Chrysalis and oh my god is it awesome. Sure, the writing isn’t the best I’ve seen — this one might be worth listening to instead of reading, because Scribbler really did a bang-up job with all the sound effects — especially when it comes to the horribly cliched dialogue thrown back and forth during the fight. But watching two extremely power beings deck it out with trees? That’s fucking exhilarating. And yes, Luna does go Nightmare Moon, complete with JRPG-styled transformation sequence (which doesn’t stop it from being awesome); that and the horribly transparent method for Chrysalis’s eventual defeat would be my only complaints outside the show-heavy introduction. Again, this is not a piece for people looking for depth or character development. It’s just to answer the question of who would win in a fight, in about the most fantastic way ever.
Recommended for Action Fans
Pro Corvo by RavensDagger
Genre: Clash of Cultures
Hard to rate, this one. It starts off on a really sour note, with a couple of poor opening paragraphs and a first scene made entirely of short ones. It just never recovers from that, which is a shame. The author has done a wonderful job setting up two cultures for tragic (and hilarious) misunderstandings, and it’s really fun watching Noble Eyes’ plan fall apart because he’s misinterpreted the virtues embodied by the Elements of Harmony. The ravens’ mindset and way of life are just completely alien to the ponies’, and the culture clash works wonderfully. Unfortunately, along with the bad first impression, this seems to be one of those authors who can’t resist the “Wouldn’t if be cool if?” urge. This story is riddled with awful puns (a pet peeve) and just enough referential humor to get under my skin. So while this is a good comedy, and I liked that about it, I can’t say I really enjoyed it overall.
Vaguely Recommended
Twilight’s Mom Has Got It Going On by Esle Ynopemos
Reading by Scribbler
Genre: Shipping Comedy
I don’t usually read story compilations, which makes me feel bad, since the one on my clop account is pretty popular. The one that features this piece, as it turns out, is based on the Thirty Minute Ponies prompts and apparently has a unified theme of being about Fluttershy, if nothing else. As for this particular entry, well, it’s a quick scene ending in a single joke, but oh my god did I laugh at the end. It just goes to show that it’s all about delivery. If you like the idea of watching Fluttershy in a highly awkward situation with Twilight’s mom, do read this. And can I just say for a minute that I don’t think I’ll ever like the name “Sparky” for Twilight? I mean, it does make sense that in her household, with her mom having the same first name, they’d come up with some method of quickly differentiating mother from daughter, but it just doesn’t sound right. I think I saw it first in a TwiPie fic, and I didn’t like it then, either. Granted, I didn’t like “Twily” when I first heard it in the show, but at least that rolls off the tongue. Oh well, whatever, just sidetracking for no reason.
Recommended
My Mommy by Serina
Reading by Scribbler
Reading by VisualPony
Genre: Dinky/Derpy
I’m so sick of this story. I’ve read it so many times and it never changes. Cheerilee reads a report written by Dinky about how great her mommy is, and how misunderstood and mistreated she is, and oh my god don’t they just love each other so much, time for feels now. Blegh. I do love Dinky as a concept because she gives Derpy some grounding as a character, and yes, seeing them being cute is just wonderful, but is getting an actual story out of the idea too much to ask?
Not Recommended
How to Handle a Rope by A Hoof-full of Dust
Reading by Scribbler
Genre: Couple Time
Much as I love Lyra in all forms, I’ve recently become aware of a certain fondness for authors and stories that try to give Bon-Bon some actual character. She’s really got as much to go off of as Lyra: the changing voice, the way she behaves in Call of the Cutie and Putting Your Hoof Down, as well as her name and cutie mark. It’s just little nudges like that that are all a clever author needs to bring a character to full life, and I’m sad that so few do. What Hoof-full does in this story is go even further: he changes things up. We actually don’t get much of Lyra, despite this being in her POV, but she gets to play the role of supportive rock for a very distraught Bon-Bon who is rightly upset over neglect of her craft and pigeonholing of her purpose by other ponies. The way Lyra works through Bon-Bon’s tantrum, the way she knows exactly what to say and do to calm her down and put her at ease: that’s all I ask for from LyraBon fics. This is a wonderful look at a loving couple… With a really strange title. That has nothing to do with the story. And confoundingly, is not meant to, I asked. :B
Recommended
But You Surpass Them All by Pascoite
Reading by Scribbler
Genre: Slice of Life
Reading this, I realized that I’ve always been in the camp that thought Applejack’s parents were dead. In a post-Apple Family Reunion world, it’s easy to forget that this perspective was once fanon, and we actually didn’t know. Unfortunately, reading this story in that world absolutely blows its central premise out of the water: all you have to do is look at the cover art to know why it’s tagged Sad. The rest is a perfect storm of “not to my tastes” and “not good”. For starters, it’s dull. We follow Applejack and Twilight around Ponyville as AJ prepares every last detail of a Mother’s Day picnic for her family. Along the way, she has a scene with each of the mane six, meets a cast of original characters that I did not find endearing, and tells so many “mom stories” that even if you didn’t know her parents were dead, you’d have to by the end. (Side note: Why did she haggle so harshly for the vegetables, even going so far as to play the "They're for my mom" card, and then insist on paying the other two vendors more than their asking price?) Speaking of which, the picnic scene features a blink-and-you’ll-miss-her appearance by Granny Smith (I literally did miss her and wondered where the heck she’d come from when she started talking) that does weird things to the revelation that they’re picnicking next to the graves of AJ’s parents, a reveal with absolutely no weight to it at all. I was just glad to be done with it finally. I will say that the tail end of that scene, where AJ speaks through tears to her mother, was really heartfelt and easily the best part of the story, but nowhere near enough to carry it. I think this one will just have to be filed under “past its prime”.
Vaguely Recommended
For the record, Pascoite wrote a really excellent "AJ's parents are dead" fic for the last writeoff, so I know he can work with the concept. More on that story once he cleans it up and submits it here!
Wow, you read a lot, don't you? How dare you drop all these fics on us at once! Feel my anger! Feel my wrath! 2menacing4u!
I guess I shouldn't be surprised that you gave a ship your coveted 'highly recommended'. I'll check it out. :V
As for the others, well, I guess I'll just have to plow through them one at a time. There's no way I'll be able to keep up with you at this rate.
That's pretty much been my impression of everything I've read by Rust. Not always great literature, but it nails awesome to the wall.
2 hits and a sincere thank you!
Thousand year Romance and Twilight's Mom added to the list, and I'm so glad that I'm not the only one that Surpass didn't appeal (hehe... peel) to.
Post-reading update: Twilight's Mom was exactly what it was sold to be. Like a single long-form joke with a punch line that actually works. Liked it. Thousand Year Romance was dull as rocks. That subtlety thing I like so much? Not so much as a whiff of it here—it's like reading the grocery list of the plot.
This seems like as good a time as any to ask: So what does the "C" stand for? I get that it's the one for "recommended for such-and-such niche", I just don't get the lettering.
> Pro Corvo
Man you're just bitter because of the "murder" thing. :V
Crows totally need a singular collective noun. A single crow is a "suicide."
> Much as I love Lyra in all forms, I’ve recently become aware of a certain fondness for authors and stories that try to give Bon-Bon some actual character.
Shameless self-plug: did you read Fugue State back when it got Vaulted? (Your reviews totally should have some sort of index. c.c)
1471547
Not that you need a second on those recommendations, but I happen to have read 'em both too:
> Thousand-Year Romance
Ben's definitely got a talent for fairy-tale-esque compaction of grand, sweeping stories into super-tight delivery. It drives me a little crazy sometimes — like the show, he knows when to dangle loose threads that get your mind going on the untold bits — but that's part of why I find the finished product worthwhile.
> Twilight's Mom
Implies a lot that it can't fully cover in the space it has, but definitely worth the two minutes.
This story isn't for everyone, but I will defend it on the basis of a Chris-type rejection ("I didn't like it, but people who like X may enjoy it") versus actively dissuading people from reading it. I don't know if that's the intent, but the language makes it seem so. After all, there's a substantial difference between "I didn't like it" and "It was bad."
I suspected you wouldn't like this story, since it doesn't fit the style of ones you typically do like. The only two people before who left any comment as to what they didn't like about it said the same thing: "It's just a shopping trip." Aside from the fact that the shopping trip ends only 1/3 way through the story, so that most of it isn't a shopping trip, this misses a lot of what's going on behind the scenes. Maybe that's my fault and maybe not. To be sure, people may like the story anyway, even if they miss that. So while I've only had two people explicitly make this criticism, I've also only had one person explicitly spell out that he saw all the subtext.
First off, it's pretty much just a character piece. There's no overt conflict, and people who need that in a story won't find it here. And that also means that it relies on forming a close bond with that character to appreciate the nuance; if the reader doesn't get drawn into the character, the story has nothing for him. And banking the entire enjoyment on making that connection is a calculated risk. Readers will either be engaged or utterly bored; there isn't much middle ground. All this story was intended to do was to define Applejack's feelings about her parents, how deep they run, and how much her friends care about her that they want to help as much as they do. I just wanted the reader to come away with a richer picture of Applejack as a character.
Next, what seems obvious here wasn't necessarily when it was written, and you did make that point. I wrote this about six months before the Apple family reunion episode, and while I certainly wasn't going out on a limb to assert that Applejack's parents were deceased, it wasn't a given like it is now. When it was written, that outcome may have been met with mild surprise, but I couldn't assume that a fandom conceit would match the way canon played it. So while the ending seems like a foregone conclusion now, it wasn't so when it was written; at that time, it wasn't even yet public knowledge that this episode would be made. For that matter, it's also never been established how widespread this knowledge is. Probably the other four that have lived in Ponyville a long time know, but a relative newcomer like Twilight? Maybe not.
Lastly, what is this subtext that at least one reader saw (hopefully more)? Well, look at all the characters Applejack meets during the day. With the exception of the fancy store's cashier, whom she doesn't know at all, and Radicchio, with whom she's barely acquainted, everyone knows exactly what's going on, wants to help, yet gives Applejack her distance.
The answer is that Radicchio wasn't helping her at least, and was trying to take advantage of the situation at worst. The others are established as friends of hers, and both try to give her a good deal; she appreciates the gesture and reciprocates. That's the conflict: Applejack really needs an emotional outlet this day, but she's too proud to allow herself to have it, so her friends all give what help they can while playing the old "we all know what's happening, but we don't talk about it, so we can pretend it's not there and let Applejack keep her dignity" game. Applejack struggles all day long with needing to vent and not feeling like she can. And in the end, she does keep it all bottled up inside. She can only let off steam in the way she'd originally planned, and everyone who knows her allows that by leaving her alone.
All the characters know what's happening but one, that is: Twilight. She essentially is the reader. She's just as clueless as to what Applejack's doing and why, then she learns all these personal things about her friend and comes to appreciate her more. And when she learns that last important thing, it all comes together, and she knows she can best be a friend by not being there. This story is more about Twilight's process of discovery than Applejack. She's the one who grows. Is that too subtle? I don't know. I can't tell how many readers saw it.
Not everyone will like a strict character piece. Not everyone will connect with that character. And that's fine. I suspect stories that are fairly polarizing on their faces tend to do better in ratings, since people can determine pretty clearly ahead of time whether it's something for them or not, and then only the ones to whom it appeals will read it.
No, this story isn't for the broadest appeal, but for those who like mood setting, I hope they would enjoy it. I'm not going to keep score on notable names who liked or disliked this story (to be sure, there are some on both sides), because it's not particularly illustrative, and a notable name doesn't necessarily warrant increased weight for an opinion. The only one I will pull out is to say that Skywriter liked the story precisely for its character moments, which is the effect I wanted.
In any case, I'm sorry you didn't like it.
> I will say that I’m sad it wasn’t shipping
If I had a nickle for every time I've said the exact opposite about a story, I could afford to go to a nice restaurant tonight for dinner. A nickle for every time I've wished there was shipping wouldn't even cover a tip to the bartender.
In any event, I remember reading this story once, and as I recall I liked it well enough. I definitely don't remember pining for a make-out session at the end.
>This story is riddled with awful puns
No, you just hate funny things. You, and the commenters on my blog, and the RCL boys...
I guess you could say I'm your guys' pun-ching bag.
It constantly amazes and confuses me as to which of my fic readings are popular and which aren't. For the longest time 'Little Princess' was my top-voted fic and even I have to admit it isn't either my best work or my best choice of story. Sometimes I go intellectual with what I choose to read and tell myself that from now on I'll only do fics with perfect SPAG, dense plots and enough characterisation to sink a barge ... and then I find myself possessed of an irrational urge to read something schmoopy and cliched instead, even though I KNOW I, of all people, should know better.
What was my original point? Oh yeah: I'm not sure what it says about the MLP fandom that so much sadness-porn rises to the top of the ficcery pool while better stuff sinks without trace. Mayhap someone more intelligent than I has theories about it, but for my part I shall remain confused and trying to cater for all tastes with my readings.
I have the same issues with Derpy/Dinky as I have with shipping.
That said, A Voice Among the Strangers did it well.
1471473
im2spoop D:
1471487
I might have to check out more by him.
1471547
I will never understand you. c.c Glad you tried things out though.
1471693
C is for Conditional! :D Fugue State is on my to-read, and you can find my full list of fics reviewed, sorted by date, here.
1471974
I saw the subtext about everyone but Twilight knowing what was happening; the problem was, I knew what was happening too, so I was just dragged along for the ride, which made it feel like Twilight had Idiot Ball going on when it's possible she didn't. (It does seem that Pinkie doesn't spell everything out to her, or at least Twilight has enough sense to treat the situation with finesse, suggesting otherwise.) But that conflict was way too subtle. Maybe if I'd seen the description going into it I'd have been looking for it, but I wasn't.
I'd have given this a "Recommended for People Who Like Slice of Life" if I'd thought it had more going for it than just that. :/ Like I said though, your more recent piece takes the same idea and uses it a lot better. I do feel like I was maybe a bit harsh on this story, but that is only because I must hurt the ones I love. :B
1472033
You know what you know about shipping and puns, Chris. :V You know.
1472343
I wish I understood why this fandom was so gung-ho about "feels". ._. I do like it when a story wrings genuine emotion from me, but I despise being manipulated, and those that manipulate are generally pretty transparent about it. I chalk it up to an argument that unfortunately makes me look like an old man yelling for the damn kids to get off his lawn: This fandom is comprised primarily of young people, and when you lack life experiences, everything is new and thus amazing. Of course, those young people are going through junk I don't even have any idea of. Their lives are completely removed from my childhood, so there's at least a disconnect there on some level.
But you've got nothing to worry about. :B Of the 45 videos remaining my reading list on Youtube, 30 are yours (the rest are Illya Leonov's), and you've introduced me to so many good fics and fics-made-good-by-reading already. :D
1472576
Aw, squish. ^_^
Sorry, I think I snorted my Tango just then. IRL I work with teenagers and I'm constantly flabbergasted by how jaded and hard to please they are. While their lack of life experiences do account for some of the impressively stupid things they do (and I do mean IMPRESSIVE), very little of it comes with a dollop of amazement or awe at the newness of experience. Anything new is treated with suspician, derision or both (which is quite interesting to watch play out across their faces). Maybe it's just the area, or it's different outside the UK, or it's something in the water, but the ones I work with almost uniformly decry 'emotive crap' as ... well, emotive crap and the only 'feels' they're interested in are the ones behind the bike sheds.
I write this with the proviso that I do work in a pretty rough area, so I'm aware that this may not be typical of everywhere, but the majority of my university days were divided between frantic essay writing and doing research projects in dozens of secondary schools up and down the country studying adolescent cognitive responses versus peer-oriented behaviour so ... much to my chagrin, I don't think it is.
Which makes me sad.
Fucknuggets, I think I just talked myself into appreciating the overabundance of feels inthe MLP fandom.
1472843
It could be that you work with an unrepresentative population. I'm hardly representative either, but I always did the childlike wonder thing at that age. Also consider (and I hate to bring this up), the high level of shall we say social awkwardness that seems to run among bronies? At least some of 'em.
asdfghadlfkugadfuklYOU ARE TOO CUTE @_@