Ponyfic Roundup reviews summary, #51 to #60 · 9:42pm Nov 30th, 2016
Previous: 1-10 | 11-20 | 21-30 | 31-40 | 41-50
You're getting two batches in two days -- but don't imagine this is going to be a regular occurrence! The summaries here cover PRs I posted from the start of April 2015 to the middle of June that year. In this collection, you'll find my least favourite Cold in Gardez fic (which still gets four stars, though only just). This is probably a good time to remind folks that I score stories simply on how much I personally enjoyed reading them.
Other fics reviewed during this period include Spring is Dumb, Anthropology and The Celestia Code. Two stories in this batch have been deleted since I reviewed them; it's always sad when that happens, whether or not the author feels able to explain the reasons. Anyway, off we go. Past the break for more!
PR 51 -- 1 Apr 15 -- Fics I Thought I'd Like Edition
Customer Disservice by Estee: ★★★★
The Glass Blower by Cold in Gardez: ★★★★
Beneath your feet, what Treasures by TheJediMasterEd: ★★★★
Of Angels by PaulAsaran: ★★★★
PR 52 -- 15 Apr 15 -- Spotlight on Mother of Invention
Mother of Invention by zaponator: ★★★
PR 53 -- 22 Apr 15
The Birds and the Bees by Scantrel: ★★
Discord's Day by SpinelStride: ★★★
Eljunbyro by Imploding Colon: ★★
A Diamond and a Tether by PatchworkPoltergeist: ★★★
No, I Am Not A Brony, Get Me Outta Equestria! by BronyWriter: ★★★
Spring is Dumb by HoofBitingActionOverload: ★★★★
PR 54 -- 29 Apr 15
A World Without Kindness by billymorph: ★★★
Civil Twilight by PresentPerfect: ★★★
Listen by Taialin: ★★★
The Mane 6 vs. the Islamic State by CategoricalGrant: ★
Mr. Brannigan's Ghosts by Moose Mage: ★★★★
Simply Rarity by Somber: ★★★★
PR 55 -- 6 May 15 -- Spotlight on Anthropology
Anthropology by Jason The Human: ★★
PR 56 -- 13 May 15
The Writing on the Wall by Horse Voice: ★★★★
Rarity Has a Book on Her Head by Majin Syeekoh: ★★★
I Will Follow You Into The Dark by Closer-To-The-Sun: ★★
The Dragon's Riddle by horizon: ★★★★★
Buck that! Bleep this. by Noble Thought: ★★★
PR 57 -- 20 May 15
The Princess of Books by anowack: ★★★★
P3 Project Episode 1: The Emergency by Bookish Delight: ★★
Her Final Flight by palaikai: ★★★
A Voice in the Dark by Blueshift: ★★★★
PR 58 -- 27 May 15
Part of a Pantheon by DannyJ: ★★★
Scootaloo's Mind by mehperson: ★
Who Needs to Talk? by Peter Yellowhammer: ★★
Angel's Promise by Starlight Shadow: ★★
PR 59 -- 3 Jun 15
The Celestia Code by iisaw: ★★★★
To Not Be Different by punzil504: ★★
...And Borrowing Dulls The Edge Of Husbandry by Softy8088: ★★★
For a Very Special Somepony by Emylia Hawke: ★★★ (author now known as "Will-Owl-the-Wisp")
PR 60 -- 10 Jun 15
A Cup of Joe by The Descendant: ★★★★
Isn't it Great to be Different? by BronyDerp117: ★★
Fluttershy's Garden by SilentWanderer: ★★★
Wonderbolt by WovenWord: ★★★★
By the Fireplace by Jingle: ★★
Aha! I remain safe from review-having-had.
(Also, thank you for this organization! I will likely poke through these someday, and I know it's a lot of work to go through.)
I have noticed that Cold in Gardez sees Rarity as an amoral, uncaring bitch. He has her act like one in every story in which she gets a chance to make a significant choice on any issue of love or friendship or kindness. He claims to like her, but I sure don't like his Rarity, and I don't think the others would like her if she behaved like that.
In my world, after Rarity first grasped her power of social manupulation and -- at 14 -- used it to ruin the life of her seducer, she faced a major moral choice. She could have continued to use her abilities to harm others, and essentially climbed to the top on a mountain of victims (the Night Watch might have gotten her but she didn't realize it at the time) or forsworn using her powers for evil again.
My Rarity chose good over evil, and became one who advances herself through cooperation and mutual gain. I get the impression that Cold's choose evil -- but if she did, I don't think she could have attuned to Generosity.
4323906 But will that status continue the whole way through? Ah, that would be telling!
And you're welcome. There's some self-interest involved, since I live for comments (on stories or otherwise) and this has been attracting a few, plus it'll be a useful reference for me as well. But I'm very glad if others find it useful too.
4323910 Interesting thoughts, though this is the only CiG story where I find myself quite so uncomfortable with Rarity's portrayal -- but then I haven't read very many considering how many he's written. I don't think there are any prolific writers here for whom I've done more than scratch the surface of their work.
4323910
I usually paint Rarity in very flattering ways, except for my M fic and for that T fic that should be an M fic, but exists because it was designed to hooftip the line for an inappropriate competition. And those are both stories nopony should ever read.
However, in Don't Say It, readers in the Writeoff violently disagreed on whether Rarity or Spike was the cad. I believe Bad Horse took Spike's side and Titanium Dragon took Rarity's. I'm slightly more sympathetic to Spike, but I think both characters are flawed, which is the point of the fic.
In any case, it's one of my least well-received fics, but that's probably because Sparity + Tragic = nopony will be happy with this story. Oddly enough, I love it... but my taste is questionable to begin with.
4324004
I personally thought it was a beautiful but sad story, and I'm a major Sparity shipper. It's quite possible that Rarity will never appreciate Spike romantically at the right moment for them to ever be together. There's both an age and a species barrier, and we don't even know how long it would take Spike to become sexually mature.
In my main Shadow Wars timeline they wed, but in many they don't, and that's despite the fact that I think vanilla Canon implies a degree of mutual romantic affection between them already. Not everything works out well, that's all.
But I don't think it's because Rarity is some sort of incredibly conformist, status seeking bitch. Possibly more on this later.
4324004
Specifically, Rarity is a status-seeker, but Spike is by adoption of higher status than her own -- he's the brother of an Alicorn Princess and a prince by marriage, and brother-in-law of a Ruling Princess; he's also a Hero of the Crystal Empire. Rarity is not all that conventional: she's a creative designer; and she's no bitch -- especially not to Spike.
4324131
I'm not disagreeing with you. Rarity has never once acted like she thinks she's better than anypony else on the show.
4324156
Oh no, it's not you who thinks that Rarity is a shallow status seeking conformist bitch; it's a lot of other writers. Including, I think, Cold.
The nastiest story Cold wrote about Rarity was actually a Raridash shipfic. It was set some years in the future. At this point, all the Mane Six were, or had been, romantically and sexually active. They had attained or suffered various events in their love lives: one or two of them had gotten married, and some were or had been in relationships short of marriage. Rainbow Dash had been in a particularly tragic relationship in which her beloved had died in a terrible accident.
All pretty much in line with their canon characters. Nothing that I would particularly object to as reasonable extrapolations of their futures.
Except for Rarity. Rarity was working like a demon, would periodically build up sexual tension, and relieve it by going to singles bars, picking up strange stallions, and having loveless sex that would end in her deliberately avoiding them in the future.
Oh, and Spike was nowhere to be seen in the story, not even hanging around Twilight. However, Sweetie Belle had a secret lover whom she would not let Rarity meet. In fact, she didn't seem to like her very much at all anymore. Hmm, I wonder what was being implied there?
It may be relevant here that I think that Sweetie Belle would be one of the ponies most likely to catch Spike if Rarity didn't. Their personalities have many attractive elements towards each other. The main reason it doesn't happen on the show is probably that Spike is stuck on Rarity.
4323906
Also... admission time. It's not actually that much work. It takes about an hour to set up each of these posts, but a lot of that is simply copying and pasting. The only times I have to add stuff is when stories have been removed, or when writers have changed their names. So time-consuming yes, but actually fairly easy.
But you didn't hear me say that.
4324207
Cold tries to stay true to the characters, but he generally focuses on the story and makes the characters fit the story he'd like to tell. I don't think he has a negative view of Rarity as much as she provides him with a Mane 6 character that can fit the dark elements of the story he wants to build.
4324647
I also see Rarity as the darkest member of the team, which is why I give her a tragic backstory including an early teenage seduction and miscarriage. I get this from the vanilla canon version of her; she seems like somepony who was once broken, and is still brittle from it.
In semi canon this is also true: she's the only one who gets broken by the Nightmare Forces in the IDW comics Nightmare Rarity arc; and I have them try again in Post-Traumatic. Notably in both storylines Spike and Luna are both instrumental in calling her back from the darkness: Luna, because she knows what it is to yield to darkness; Spike, because of their mutual love and friendship.
I could write a whole essay about the way in which Spike's friendship is extremely good for Rarity. At the highest level, Rarity knows that there is someone who has a very good opinion of her, even higher than the opinion she has herself, and that both allows her to consider herself good and impels her to strive to be a better Pony. At a fundamental level, Spike and Rarity are each others' Morality Chains; neither wants to let the other down.
Spike is actually one of the obvious reasons why Rarity wouldn't go full-on Looking For Stallion Goodbar, even if she became discouraged. That's why Spike had to be cut out of the scenario. It's actually to Cold's credit that he realized how much Rarity's personality change would horrify Sweetie Belle and Spike. Assuming that's what he meant to imply.
This goes much deeper than shipping them. I contend the friendship between Rarity and Spike would be good for both of them even if they never got together romantically. It's important to have a friend who sees and appreciates your better side: it helps you be a better person.