Present Perfect vs. Swayback Mountain · 8:26pm Dec 28th, 2013
(As this was my second chance for FarnesyFudge, I'll start with the critique of the reading.
Simply put, I can’t stand the constant interruptions. Also his Applejack voice is horrendous. His regular voice is good enough that I’ll be happy to hear him collaborating with others, but I’m going to skip his personal readings.) (Here's another by Savrin Drake.)
Butterscotch Sundae's Swayback Mountain is undoubtedly one of the biggest shipfics ever, and especially in the context of Rarijack, which is a favorite pairing of mine. So it is with a heavy heart that I have to say I found the story disappointing.
But let's start with the title. I've never seen Brokeback Mountain, though I'd really like to, so I have no way of knowing if this is a ponification of that movie, or if the title is simply meant to evoke images of forbidden love and cowboys, which this certainly possesses. I have to assume that references to the movie in fact stop with the title, given that a pop culture punchline near the end of the story is actually a quote from a completely different source (and believe me, I hated seeing it regardless). So we'll leave that thread to rest here.
At its heart, this is a romance novel, which speaks not only to the direction in which the plot goes, but the quality of the relationship as well. Rarity and Applejack are thrown together under the vaguest of pretenses: Applejack is crossing the Swaybacks to attend a rodeo, and Rarity is coming along because she needs berries that only grow there so she can fashion better I guess. That puts them into the same situation. The situation then becomes even more tenuous as a rogue storm comes in, necessitating the sharing of a tent after the river swells and there's rescuing of ponies and/or hats therefrom.
The plot, as I suggested, is quite thin. The conflict revolves around Applejack being mad at Rarity for saving her hat and then getting sick, which requires AJ to miss the rodeo in order to take care of her. The relationship revolves around nothing so much as Rarity Always Loved Applejack, and now you understand why I was so disappointed in this.
So let's take a look at some of the contrivances at play here. I mean, let's get really down into why this story doesn't work beyond "it breaks one of my cardinal shipping rules". Number one: freak storm. Given that these mountains are explicitly stated to be a long way away from Ponyville, I must have missed just how colossal a fuck-up the weather team had to perpetrate in order to get it out there. (And no, "Ditzy Doo" is not a sufficient excuse. Using her as a walking punchline is fairly lazy.)
Applejack's relationship to her father is a big part of this story, and Rarity recognizing the importance of her hat was actually a good thing. It's not that going in after it was silly though, it's that she goes in after it after having already been pulled from the river once. I couldn't believe as I was hearing it that that was actually happening. I suppose it provides support for Rarity's eventual confession, but well...
Honestly, this story would have been so much stronger if Rarity and Applejack had discovered their feelings while trapped together and dependent on one another. Jumping right into Rarity loving AJ was bad enough, but this relationship becomes downright exploitative on Applejack's part by the end. I honestly cringed through the climax, as they move from the confession to snuggling to kissing and implied sex. Applejack takes advantage of Rarity's feelings to get a one-time thrill. Why did this have to happen? To fit with the theme of the movie? To deliver that awful Las Vegas reference? Applejack tells Rarity they should do it once because they're so far away from everypony else that no one will know. And afterward, there's no real sense that AJ got anything out of it beyond the physical. There's no real setup for why she would even behave that way. So ultimately, the "main event" leaves a sour taste in the mouth with a lot of unpleasant implications.
2/5
This may have been the first big Rarijack fic, but it's by no means the best. (I would give that honor to Rarity's Rodeo, but then I can't remember having read any others.) It suffers somewhat from not having aged well, but mostly trips over itself with a contrived relationship that leaves a lot to be desired.
I remember being very enthraled with The Party Hasn't Ended, which made me favor Twipie as my favorite ship until Read It And Weep came out. But I suspect that fic has also aged poorly and I won't like it if I tried it again.
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I too loved it, and it turned me on to PinkieDash (it wasn't Twipie :B) as it did so many people.
But I'm 100% willing to bet it hasn't aged well either.
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I'm getting my shipping terms mixed up!
BSS writes the pairing well in other fics.
This was my most enjoyed ship back when I enjoyd shipping.
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It's story number 157.
It's old. D:
I need to read more of her stuff.
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The vast majority is fluff. Borderline forced plot. And has not aged well at all. I still appreciate the spirit in which she writes, but the stories themselves have lost their appeal. To the point that on my last annual audit of my likes and faves I switched half her stories from like to dislike due to how much they grated on me now that the characters are so much more fleshed out in canon. I was actually banned for doing so until I cleared up why I did.
BSS's stuff just emanated "fun" and enjoyment. It's too bad she doesn't write anymore. Not that I can blame her. I sure as hell am having a hard time working up the "fucks" to write for this fandom/series anymore.
We all have to remember that this is also the exact definition of a February fic: a shipping story where the conflict revolves around one pony not wanting to admit they have feelings for a pony that
alwayshas reciprocal feelings. Nowadays we have fics built into the 60k and much much larger territory just to ship pones, which honestly shows how much the fic writing community has really grown.1659363
ohyeah!
What made this particular February fic kind of awful is the fact that AJ never reciprocates except physically. So she basically uses Rarity, and that's just horrid.
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I try to work up the "fucks" by writing for the sake of the story I'm working on and the people who'll read it, not my love for the show. Still, I'll admit that giving less of a fuck about the show certainly hasn't helped how much I've been writing.