Short Review: Actually, I'm Dead · 1:33am Jan 8th, 2016
Wrote this after reading the latest chapter of Actually, I'm dead, written by Wave Blaster and nightwalker. Wanted to post it as a comment, but it ended up being a bit ridiculous for what I had intended. Instead, I decided to post it here.
TL;DR - It's really good, but at the same time not my cup of tea, so can't stand it.
I have a terrible habit of not reading the tags of stories.
As such, when I went into the story, I had a mostly blank mind. I knew the premise, I had some kind of inkling as to how it might end up, but otherwise I had no idea what would happen.
I cannot get behind this story. I avoid stories labeled "dark" for a reason. They simply are not my cup of tea. As such, I do no have much experience reading dark stories, nor do I have much of a comparison to make between this story and another, but my opinion is all the same: This story is dark. It is dark and draining and knows exactly which direction it wants to pull the viewer.
It never gets lost in where it wants to go. It targets a point and flies to it like a bird to its nest, dragging the reader along for the ride. It's quite a well-written story, which is why I stayed until chapter 14 before I stopped and attempted to get my thoughts down on a webpage before they escaped me. It knows how to develop it's characters, how to show emotion, how to create connections between these characters. It displays a Trixie that is more developed and interesting than any of the mane 6 canonically. The reader will want to know more about Trixie, they will want to see what will happen next, as they are forcefully pulled from here to there, whether or not the like the insistence.
However, in the end, it is a dark story. It is not a story about hope, but one of moving on, or rather, the lack of ability to. Death signifies a time of passing, where one soul journeys one way from the realm of the living to the plane of the dead. Of course, Trixie isn't allowed to, and it is the problem that the story presents us. The narrative leads to believe that there is some form of hope for Trixie to reach either existence instead of being stuck in-between, but every time hope is stolen from the reader's grasp, leaving a feeling of being dragged down that only negative emotions can leave. And it never lets up. There is not one moment where Trixie's fate or future looks up for too long. She dies, she goes through depression, she makes friends, she rebuilds her non-life... and then she dies again. And then she lives again! It is certainly a wild ride, but a ride through a series of dark tunnels right through the center of the Earth.
Never the less, the problem I have with this story is that there are no signs of letting up. The readers are presented with a problem, but as soon as a solution rears its head, it gets beaten back down by the plot. The readers are at the edges of their seats again and again, wondering if this time the story will actually lead them to something a bit brighter, but it never happens. They get pulled down again. Of course, that's all a part of the story's theme. Will there be a end? Does Trixie ever find peace? Is there going to be a happy conclusion. It is unfair that we are presented with a conflict that never has any signs of conclusion. Ever. Ever ever. Not ever. The Alicorn Amulet seems to be the strongest magical artifact in existence, but has never been written about in any form of accessible Equestrian resource, and can seemingly do the impossible, such as resurrect the dead, re-resurrect the dead, and teleport anywhere it damn pleases.
With how the story reiterates on how Trixie can't escape death, or her broken life, many times over, the tone can't go anywhere except further downward towards darkness. Of course, this is my problem, so if you don't mind darkness, then I heartily recommend "Actually, I'm Dead".
Although I can see from where most of these impressions come from, I think I need to point out something that, apparently, I haven't made clear enough in the story: It is about hope. Or, at least, about never surrendering.
You see, for me, in the same way the M!Six represents archetypes of their Elements, I wanted to give Trixie something similar, and in her case, it's about perseverance. This is the reason the plot seems like a collection of hope spots, becase they are meant to show that, even if taken down, Trixie is not going to say there and will get up again.
Of course, this is not gratuitous, and although I don't want to spoil anything, I can assure you that the story was never meant to drag everyone down, but rather show everyone that even being down, there's no reason to stop trying ad call quits. This is what Trixie is about for me, a pony who simply doesn't know how to surrender. The best example of this is the fourth part Chapter 6 when Trixie decides to act the part of being dead and stay in the Library's basement like a corpse, but her own memories and feelings force her out of underground, to the surface where a friend is waiting for her.
Anyways, I just wanted to add my two cents on the matter.
P.S.: Can I put a link here in the story's description and announce it on my blog? I feel the readers, new and old, could use a counter-point of view.
3675761
Sure, go ahead.