Strawberry Jelly Reviews: It's a Dangerous Business, Going Out Your Door · 7:00pm Jul 18th, 2015
Strawberry Jelly Reviews:
It's a Dangerous Business, Going Out Your Door
By Jetfire2012
Rating: T
Genre: Adventure, Alternate Universe, Fantasy, (Debatably Crossover)
What can I say? I'm a sucker for epic adventure stories about man vs. the world and even more so when it comes as a surprise. It was a little while back when I noticed its sequel, “Besides the Will of Evil”, on the featured list and I had to ask myself why it sounded so familiar: Apparently it had been sitting in my read later list for quite some time.
I'm not exactly one of those fangirls with Lord of the Rings or the Hobbit, but I did thoroughly enjoy them in both film and novel forms. With the name of the story being a blatant reference, I was admittedly holding the story to a high standard from the get-go while keeping my expectations of it meeting said standards low.
Color me surprised when I found that I genuinely enjoyed the story! The characters were interesting, the world was beautiful, and the plot – although being a bit dry – was executed well. Besides, I didn't want my first review of a story to be scathing, I'll save that one for next week.
Characterization:
Twilight Sparkle: Twilight is actually one of the minor characters in this story and at the source of the conflict. It's rare the story lets us see her, Zecora, Pinkie Pie, or Fluttershy, but when they do she acts about what you'd expect considering the situation. Not much to say more on this, though.
Rarity: Now this came out of left field for me, considering Rarity is my least favorite of the main six and not even in my top 10 characters in general. It's not that I think Rarity is a bad character, but I just can't connect with her personality despite Generosity being perhaps one of my biggest personality traits. This story had given me perspective and actually made me connect with her. At no point does she seem out of character, mind you, but it's more of that the author digs past the surface that even the show writers sometimes forget to do. All in all, she ended up actually being my favorite out of the main three the story focuses on, plus she becomes super close friends with what equates to Equestrian Elves, so that's a thing.
Applejack: Being my second least favorite of the main six, Applejack ended up also surprising me, albeit to a lesser extent. She kept true to her trait of honesty and like the other characters, had proven that there was more to her than just being the personification of her element. Arguably, I found that this story was mainly about her, or at least her subplot gripped me the most as I'm a sucker for romance, especially when it's subtle, slow building, and more implied than anything. Now before you get your knickers in a twist, the OC she's actually paired with feels like an actual character you'd find in a novel and not some self insert or mary sue so to speak, but we'll get to him later.
Rainbow Dash: While writing this, I just now noticed how the story focused on the three characters I disliked most out of the main six and made me fall in love with each of them again. Rainbow Dash is probably the only character who is the most stagnant in development, at least in character but not in skills/abilities. Basically if you like Rainbow Dash on the show, you'll find she made the transition unscathed. She does show that she's less than perfect though, admitting that she has a couple fears and faults. Unlike the other two main characters, she gains the coolest power in her journey and her scene where she was learning it was the most visually appealing scene out of the whole story, save for maybe the Shimmerwood.
Lady Falalauria: Apart from having a name that makes me think of Christmas Carols (I feel like it's a reindeer pun, but she's not a reindeer), here's a character that basically screams “This is pony Lord of the Rings”, considering she and the other Deer are blatantly elves. She offers probably the largest amount of world building and can arguably be considered the most Mary Sue character in the story because her seemingly omnipresent powers, but her delivery is just so beautiful that I can't tag her as such. She's basically the same tier as Celestia in terms of the power of knowing, but refusal to act herself. So, if you like Celestia, you'll probably like her. She also teaches Rarity her unique ability, which comes across as the least impressive of the three powers each main character learns.
Niles: Niles is best pronghorn. He's one of three pronghorns that teaches Rainbow her unique power. He comes across as an entertaining guy and brings his own little bit of world building by listing different nations and glossing over their relations. You learn that the Pronghorns are basically the ultimate Fed Ex delivery guys. I'd also like to mention Clive and Audrey, but they have the least characterization of the Pronghorns and don't really have enough to merit their own section without just repeating what was said here.
Pronghorns also all have fun names with alliteration.
Ashtail: The first meeting we get with the world outside of Equestria comes at the hooves of this pony. He comes across as a bit of a dick initially, but you quickly learn the Dale Ponies are xenophobic because they have the ultimate inferiority complex to pegasi and unicorns. I kind of hated him at first, but he quickly redeems himself as he gets to know the main characters, and Applejack in particular. Now, when I reviewed Applejack's character earlier, I mentioned she had a love interest. Ashtail ends up not being what he first seems in a twist that you have to literally be blind to not see, but it causes a bit of strain of the newly forming relationship and inevitably ends without being settled, only with the elusive answer of “we'll figure it out later”.
All in all, the guy is probably my favorite OC in this story apart from Niles due to his character development. Oh, he also teaches Applejack her unique power for the story.
King Hammer Hoof: This guy's name probably says enough. He's the source of the xenophobic nature of his subjects, and while I hated the guy as Ashtail described him, I did a quick 180 upon seeing him. Hammer Hoof is not depicted as a villain, as he shouldn't be, but as a king who does what he must for his people. Now, he's going to be a guy that you either love or hate depending on what kind of personality you like and his xenophobic views seem a little flimsy, but he's okay over all.
Shield Maiden: A supporting character to Ashtail, but a good one no less. It's a shame the author probably could have removed her and not lose too much in terms of plot, but she definitely gave the Dale Ponies personality. Being a mother, she delivers world building on Dale Pony society and is depicted as someone completely loyal to her people, but a good person. She, like Ashtail, comes across as being a bit of a jerk, but redeems herself when we see the main conflict of the story arc.
The Good:
Apart from my obvious love for the characterization, the story does stand on its own as a story. It starts out with a very slice of life feel to it as Twilight tries to teach Rarity how to teleport, but it results in an accident that leaves Twilight in a rather nasty predicament. This is the source of the journey and conflict, as the main six decides they need to hunt down a miracle cure, which Rarity, Rainbow, and Applejack end up volunteering for.
As far as the pros of this story go, they are so abundant that I actually don't think I want to waste the time listing them all off, so I'll just make note of a few major ones.
As I've said earlier, I had low expectations for this story, so the moment that come up the first mountain range, I wasn't exactly immersed but I wasn't bored either. Once they reach the peak, the first threat occurs and foreshadows an interesting character power for Applejack, but once the encounter occurred I was a bit more interested in what else the story would throw my way.
Gildedale is the first land we see outside of Equestri and is the longest of the three arcs the story has. The conflict is good, the resolution feels like something that would've been on the show (minus the battle scenes earlier in the arc), and the Dale Ponies are all redeemed at least to some degree.
The following arc is Rainbow Dash's, where we meet Niles and the other Pronghorn. It's delivered well, having been foreshadowed enough in the story that it feels like a good payoff for keeping us interested.
Shimmerwood is the last arc, having a twist that foreshadows the sequel story in such a way that it leaves a lot to your imagination. If nothing else, it's definitely enough to make you want to read the second one. With the Deer, I actually want there to be a story to explain their history with Celestia and Luna.
The humor of the story is pretty hit or miss, but some of it does at least give you a slight smile or the occasional snort. An example of this would be the running joke of how Rainbow Dash refers to Pegasi as Pegasuses and pretty much everyone remarks that they think she's wrong (which Rainbow is technically correct, I suppose). With the jokes, you can tell the story isn't meant to be comedy, but at least tries and does well for the most part.
Oh, and keep an eye out for Chekhov's Gun. Almost everything seen and said has a point in the story, so don't expect too many dead ends.
The Bad:
Alright, so the story isn't perfect despite how I've been practically drooling on it up until this point. A big problem I have is with Lord Hammer Hoof. It just feels a bit too convenient that he does the complete 180 after Applejack solves the Dalespony's problem, causing the king to seemingly lose all Xenophobia. I mean, I like how he's not a complete tyrant nor completely unreasonable, but he just seems to be a bit too willing. I guess the arc needed to come to a close, but I would've rather it just been more of a return to the status quo but with a little less apprehensiveness. Baby steps, so to speak.
I would also bring up that the Gildedale arc of the story takes up most of its run time, but I think this is probably for the best as the other two arcs wouldn't do as well if they were stretched out. It just kind of makes the story feel like it's more of Applejack's versus the other two's. Anyway, this brings me back to the Falalauria arc (aka Lady whose name rolls off of the tongue like a mouth full of thumb tacks). She's old buddies with Celestia and Luna, keeping true to the idea that elves live ludicrously long lives, but the Deer as a whole kind of piss me off. It's not a glaring issue, but I'm just a little tired of seeing elves in their stereotype, I guess? They act with unfathomable schemes and have that personality that hits the uncanny valley. They're basically Tolkien's elves if they were watered down for good measure and then watered down some more.
The thing that left me with a bad taste in my mouth was the end. While the climax was good, the resolution was great, the very end which was more of an epilogue kind of hurt and not in a good way. It just felt like Celestia was too detached considering she had just learned of her star student almost dying. I know it gives a bit of foreshadowing to a major plot point in the sequel, but it feels like the story could have done without it; granted, it does foreshadow some big plot points in the sequel.
I'm well aware of how nitpicky I'm being, but in a story that's otherwise a diamond, a few chunks of coal are that much more noticeable. Besides, I needed to fill up “The Bad” slot with something.
The Ugly:
As far as the imagery goes for this story, it is pretty much unmatched. The only 'bad' part I guess would be early on while our heroes are still in Equestria, but considering we already know what everything looks like, it's not too egregious of a crime. The descriptions of everything past the mountains are flawlessly executed however, as the author tells you enough to create the image but skips out on over telling. All in all, It's a Dangerous Business, Going Out Your Door is a big fan of showing and not telling, which pays off by making this one of the best stories on this site I've read in quite some time.
Conclusions:
Characterization: 9/10
Story: 6.5/10
Visuals: 10/10
Overall: 8.5/10
So, should you read this story? I'd say yes as long as you go into it expecting an adventure story with heaps of characterization and world building, but if you want something that's explicitly romance or comedy then you're better off looking elsewhere.
Also, I'm well aware this review isn't too top tier, it's just there was surprisingly not much to be said on this story, especially in terms of the bad.
Never even heard of this story, but it's on my read later list now. Thank you for the review. If I didn't know better, I'd say this was definately NOT the first one you've done. Good job. I eagerly await your next.