Fic Reviews IV · 7:28pm May 28th, 2014
Catching up on my old reviews (I still need to work on my PCaRG backlog and do some editing for people, but those take more effort) because I’ve been a bit depressed lately and haven’t been in the mood to write TBTK or my other WIP fics.
Something New
by dirty little secret
Mature, so no link.
An attempt at a clop trollfic that didn’t work out as the author intended because too many people just outright liked it. I’m among those people. If you like clop and don’t mind some R63, it’s a pretty good one. LunaShy, by the way.
How Not to Bake a Cake
by All Secrets and Lies
A cute (and often corny) TwiPie makeout session, triggered by Twilight being a failure at cooking. If any of that sounds appealing, give it a read. Though this being the author’s only presence on the site, and surprisingly few likes/follows/comments for the view count it has, I’m curious as to the story behind this one.
Oh, but I AM Weak and Helpless
by Flint Sparks
Completely random Fluttercord sex comedy. I’m pretty sure I’ve repeatedly voiced my dislike of Discord shipping, but this is about the only way I’d accept it—non-serious, completely OOC, and totally random. I will grant, though, I can almost imagine Fluttershy pulling some of the things she does here, but more with somepony she’s already intimate with, rather than to convince a friend to become intimate.
All for a Smile
by Starlitomega
More TwiPie. This time a bit of Sad as Twilight is trying to cope with a loss, and Pinkie tries to help. Well, that’s the backstory anyway. Just go read it. It’s a small one-shot, it’s not like you have anything to lose.
Dance Lessons
by Princessofthenight
RariLight this time. As silly and cliche as any romance can be, but it’s still cute and enjoyable. Much like the previous entry, if you like shipping at all, you might as well read this. It’s not like it’s a major investment of your time.
Okay, Rule 63, Anthro, and a very unusual ship. If those things haven’t turned you off, then check this one out. An accidental romance develops between Applebuck (Applebloom) and Elusive (Rarity)—the former aged up a bit—and then things get complicated. It’s pretty consistently funny, and the romance isn’t half-bad, either, though special note goes to pretty much everything Scooter says being funny.
Most importantly for me, it avoids a major characterization issue I usually see in R63 fics. Normally, the R63 versions are either written exactly like the originals, or else they’re so different from the actual characters that they might as well be OCs. In this case, the characters are definitely different from the originals, while still remaining recognizable as alternate versions of them.
When There’s Nothing Left
by Nalis Faber
A dark future for Equestria, where Twilight is working some sinister scheme involving experimenting upon other ponies. I get a bit of “Researcher Twilight” vibe from it, but without the gratuitous gore you’d normally associate with a grimdark blog. Furthermore, Twilight here seems to have some end goal in mind, and I wouldn’t be surprised if she was using evil means to achieve a wholly benevolent objective.
There’s also an author OC insert, but he seems to be playing a “cameo background pony” sort of role, so I have nothing to object to, there.
Honestly, this one was pretty bad. It’s random in the bad way, where things seem to just happen with no rhyme or reason. Characters are exaggerated and switch emotions at the drop of a hat. Nothing in it really feels true to Equestria, and the writing itself is nothing spectacular, either.
Evil Belle’s Revenge
by Akumokagetsu
Nothing special here, really. Akumokagetsu’s “Evil Belle” series is basiclly built upon a single joke—Sweetie Belle is trying to be evil and intimidating, but is bad at it because she’s just too nice and sweet. For the first one or two stories, that was fine. They were cute and funny. But at this point, the joke is wearing a bit thin, and things are drifting away from the original slice-of-life absurdity to a more random sort of humor.
Diamond Tiara Goes Too Far
by Yukito
This is a harmless little story, but… well… As Doug Walker explained in a recent video, comedy is, at its heart, about subverting expectations and surprising the reader/viewer. While there are many ways to accomplish this, the deceptive title is a very common one. I’ve reviewed one or two before—”Daring Do and the Golden Shower” comes to mind. In every case, the story takes a phrase with a literal meaning and a figurative one, implies the relevant meaning is the figurative one, and then instead reveals that the literal meaning is the one being used.
“Daring Do and the Golden Shower” suggests an erotic story about a urination fetish. Instead, it’s about her having a shower with extremely expensive fittings installed.
“Diamond Tiara Goes Too Far” suggests a story about the titular character going to an extreme in her bullying. Instead, she literally fails to stop moving at the correct point.
The problem is, that’s such a common gag that it’s ceased to be surprising to us, and thus, ceased to be funny. Instead, we’re left with a fairly pointless story where nothing notable really happens.
Fluttershy Goes to the Dentist
by housedoc
And this is a random comedy that works. It actually feel more like a Slice of Life with comedic elements at first, which is appropriate as it’s expanding upon a plot thread the show left hanging. Of course, it gets sillier as it goes on, reaching proper Random levels about the time the Big Mac stuff comes up. Still, a fun story.
And then some stories really should have the Random tag. This one amounts to a series of junk mail/spam parodies featuring MLP characters, and concluding with a pretty straightforward pun. I’ll put this one into the “Not much to it, but nothing wrong with it either” category.
I really should come up with a rating system if I’m going to be doing things like that, though.
Discord Finds an Easy Button
by JakeAndDollars
And this one is Random in a very different sense. This is the “poorly-written Pinkie Pie” variety, where the entire story is pretty much a Mad Lib, things happen just because, and the characters are OOC any time that would make it easier to make a joke.
Remember how Pinkie Pie was in “Daring Don’t”? You know, “National Random Holiday Party Day! Woo-hoo!” and “ You might say the secret ingredient is... a secret!”? It’s kind of like that.
Or “Ren & Stimpy”. That’s another solid comparison.
If those two things appeal to you, have at it. I didn’t care for it, though.
Insult to Inquiry
by LDSocrates
Who likes crack ships? How about crack ships that spend most of the fic justifying the relationship? Now, how about crack ships that do this, and manage to make a better case for their utterly bizarre pairing than most normal shipfics?
Seriously, if the idea of taking a pairing that would normally only come up while trying to troll a shipping discussion, and then turning it into an honestly-good romance sounds at all appealing to you, this is probably worth the read.
There, those are caught up. It will probably be a while before I do another one, though, since I don't spend as much time reading as I used to
Hey, someone else has read Fluttershy Goes to the Dentist! I was pleasantly surprised with that fic when it first came out.
Also, your link to Flint Sparks' page is broken.
2153259
No idea what you're talking about. Flawless blog post is flawless.
There wasn't a major typo in the last entry, either.