Fanfic Reviews – short edition · 2:44am Jul 17th, 2015
So, here is the deal: I have a crapton of pending reviews on my queue, things I read sometimes over an year ago, and simply don't remember enough to write anything in depth. The problem is that I feel bad about simply deleting these, and they haunt me whenever I try to write other reviews, making the whole reviewing process take much longer than it should. So I decided to simply gather them all and post those in batches whenever I knew I wouldn't have time to write a full post. These are much less structured than my typical reviews, and should probably be taken just as an overall impression of these fics. Below you will find:
Night Guards
Just Like Her
A moment in the Sunlight
Three Hundred and Fifty
Ghosts
The Familiarity
Worth It
Too Far
Sweetie Brick
Luna Eats an Oreo
In the Beginning
The Final Hearth’s Warming Eve
Figments
The Fires of Friendship
Sometimes Never
The Morning War
A Timely Encounter
Scores are on a 0~10 scale, and this time are more subjective than ever!
Raugos – Night Guards (Reading by Greenlitsky) – Adventure
The rise of Nightmare Moon as seen by a pair of her guards.
This is a very nice portrayal of Luna's transformation into Nightmare Moon. Not only it avoids the pitfall of “angsty teenager Luna” (specially considering when it was published), but it also manages to show her actions as simultaneously wrong and understandable. She comes as fairly relatable in her jealousy, born out of Celestia's callousness and some influence from Discord, but also her personal decisions. It has the result of not removing her responsibility, while still making it fit a larger narrative.
However, it succeeds mostly because it isn't really Luna's story, but how Luna's actions affected others – Namely her two Guards "Hammer" and "Anvil", whose interactions and characterizations are fantastic. It is a story that has a lot going for it. Sadly, it dragged quite a bit, and many of the character’s decisions were quite baffling.
Oh, and the two Bonus chapters are pretty fun, an interesting look the consequences.
7/10
Bad_Seed_72 – Just Like Her – Slice of Life
Sweetie Belle gets into Rarity's makeup kit.
Eh, this one felt way too much like an author soapbox, using Rarity as a mouthpiece – Even if she remains in character while doing so. It was also way too by the numbers, solving everything too neatly. That made the plot, both in content and in progression, little more than perfunctory. Otherwise, the characterization and writing were ok, serviceable and unobtrusive. I do think the main conflict is interesting, but it felt contrived to fit the soapbox.
3.5/10
ArcheonZ – A moment in the Sunlight – Slice of Life
Princess Celestia entertains a small colt in the throne room
This is a fairly generic Slice of life fic, but it does sit on the higher end of the scale quality wise. It doesn’t do much, but is a pleasant story. The characterization of Celestia is very good, and you get an interesting view of her routine. The OC colt was great, as well as her assistant. And I do have a thing for portraying Celestia as lighthearted, with little patience for ceremony.
6/10
Void Chicken – Three hundred and Fifty – Sci-Fi
In order to save Sweetie Belle, Twilight Sparkle travels to the future, and now has to find a way to go back.
This is a very cute story. It is overtly sci-fi, providing a nice view of future Equestria. However rather than just using the characters as a way of showing ideas about this possible future world, it works as a way of exploring Twilight's character and her relationship to Celestia and Spike in light of this. The time travel is well executed and not gimmicky, particularly the final twist, and the character interactions are interesting and well realized. However, it is also quite confusing, employing some weird time skips, and I remember some of the plot choices as being really weird.
8/10
Ponydora Prancypants – Ghosts – Folktale
How Bat Ponies integrated with Equestrian Society.
Now this is something else, a great headcanon for bat ponies. In particular, I love the idea of a civilization at the margins of the stygian. The writing is another strong point, constantly powerful and poignant. Sadly, it is limited by the short-story format, but is great for what it is.
9/10
Obselescence – The Familiarity – Sad
Rarity faces the remains of Sombra’s conscience.
Sombras was well written, but the way everything interacted with canon felt inconsistent. Rarity's characterization was a mixed bag, since her voicing was spot on, but her actions weren't entirely in character. That might have been because her personality was getting mixed up with Platinum's, which seems plausible, but isn't necessarily supported by the text.. The way Sombra is affected by Rarity was interesting. In the end, it has good ideas, but didn’t actually use them for anything that could get a reaction from me.
6/10
Pascoite – Worth It – Character Study
Twilight debates the merits of immortality
Probably the best take on the subject possible – but sadly, this is a very uninteresting subject. The “Twilight is super depressed because all her friends will die and she won’t” fics infuriate me to no end, full of half-baked emotions and terribly forced drama, but this one actually works, even if it doesn't remove itself from that mold all that much. I like the characterizations, and Spike is used very well. However, I still think it falls somewhat flat, even if I doubt that the concept itself could ever accommodate much more. Still, very solid given what it is.
7/10
KnightMysterio – Too Far (Reading by Scribbler) – Sadfic
Diamond Tiara bullies Dinky to the point of Suicide.
In this Very Special Fanfic, we all learn a valuable lesson about why bullies are bad, and you shouldn't bully. I have very strong opinions about this type of story, and I try to avoid talking about these because, quite frankly, I respect the author's wish to write this type of thing, but I simply can't take them seriously. Yes, bullying is a real problem, one with which I have sufficient familiarity even, but really, who doesn't know that?
I can't reasonably talk about this story, and I am certainly not the intended audience. And other than that, it is just too by the numbers for me to really say anything deeper.
3/10
shortskirtsandexplosions – Sweetie Brick – Random
Sweetie Belle acts in place of several inanimate objects.
Why does this exist? It is something that barely qualifies as a joke getting repeated over and over, often resulting in a situation that sucks for Sweetie Belle. It isn't offensive or anything, just weird – even when seen as a troll fic it makes no sense. I'm having a hard time even considering it a story. I will give it one thing: Some of the early chapters are more clever about this premise than I expected, but most of the rest is either too mean spirited or repetitive to be interesting.
1/10
Ezio – Luna Eats an Oreo – Shipping
Luna eats an Oreo
That people write this kind of stuff doesn't surprise me, only that people bother to read it – I grabbed this one (as well as the above) in an ill-fated attempt at going through Fimfiction's most commented one shots at the time – and I gave up because I couldn't find anything that actually grabbed my attention. It isn't zany, it isn't funny, it isn't... anything. I only got a small chuckle at a joke about Celestia saying every videogame is a Nintendo, and destroying others when she hear their names, and that has nothing to do with the story and isn't anything more than a cheap gag. This might work in an animation, but certainly falls flat as a story. I mean, it isn't even good as a way to see Luna eating an Oreo. It is just offensively uninteresting.
0/10
Obselescence – In the Beginning – Creation Myth
Young Celestia walks through primordial Equestria.
This is a fic with some interesting concepts, but that doesn't fit that well with the rest of the show, or expands into anything particularly noteworthy. My biggest complain is that I found Celestia's thoughts too human. I like how the ponies appear by themselves rather than being brought to life by Celestia, and how it sets up the beginning of a day and night cycle.
7/10
The Princess Rarity – The Final Hearth’s Warming Eve (Reading by TheLostNarrator) – Sadfic
Scootaloo needs something special on Hearth's Warming Eve, and Dash is there to help.
This story is very deceptive, yet still incredibly straightforward. It is fairly generic Scootasad, and is done completely by the numbers. The plot itself is very minimalistic, and while it is sly with its twists, there isn't enough for the reader to be misdirected, like a twisting road built in the middle of an open field. The writing is another issue, very overwrought and emotionally manipulative. Overall I appreciate the intention, but the whole thing fell flat.
3/10
Obselescence – Figments – Character Study
What if the world is just part of Discord’s imagination?
Yet another fic with an interesting concept, but that doesn't do enough with it. It has plenty of issues, like how confusing the changing focus got, or just how boring Fluttershy is. I did like the reality shift in the middle, it was subtle and very well executed. I think the headcanon is intriguing, although too show inaccurate. Overall, a pretty simple story with big ideas.
6.5/10
Ponydora Prancypants – The Fires of Friendship – Friendshipping
AJ and Rarity look back at the circumstances that led them to stop being friends.
The main character in this fic isn’t a pony, but instead Applejack and Rarity’s friendship. This is one of those fics that was clearly written between S1 and S2, as seen in the situations being portrayed, and in the character development. It shows the author's inexperience at the time, with the writing suffering from lots of needless repetition and some gimmicky prose. However, for all its flaws, and for how apparent its age is, it is still a very substantial tale, with the theme of friendship shining strongly. The ending was particularly impressive.
7/10
Blueshift – Sometimes Never – Slice of Life
Luna and Celestia celebrates Luna's return from the moon.
This is an interesting idea, but its execution felt too stilted. I like their banter, but it lacks something that would make it shine.
5/10
Obselescence – The Morning War – Comedy
Creatures complain about how Celestia raises the sun.
Why is bureaucracy humour so prevalent in the fandom? Anyway, this is a decent comedy with some nice bits, if a little too dull overall. Celestia comes off as pretty OOC, but Luna and the OCs were good, and the writing is nice and unobtrusive.
6/10
Bob From Bottles – A Timely Encounter –
Applebloom receive three visitors from the future.
In many ways, this reads like a Blueshift story, with a zany concept and low key comedy that still generates big laughs, and great characterizations. The alternate historic paths make a lot of sense, and I love how, essentially, the CMC are shown as history's greatest monsters.
7/10
What's with the Google drive fic? O.o
Wow, I forgot how sad I was at the end of Three Hundred Fifty. Glad that one made it to your attention.
3245302 It is from one of Scribbler's readings. If I'm not wrong, that one was written as an audio play, and that is the text version. At least I couldn't find a fimfic version.
3270749
Okay, yeah, that's happened. :B