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Mar
10th
2017

Review #72 - Fate must be Cruel only to the Kind, Like a Paulownia · 6:00am Mar 10th, 2017

EDIT: This counts as Thursday, March 9th, 2017's review.

Well, I'm just gonna start off with a promotion:
-Flashfic - A group by Loganberry where you write flashfic. Take a look at it guys, do it.

Fate must be Cruel only to the Kind by Fluttercheer
Like a Paulownia by CentipedeGhoul

As always, I will put down my recommendations, but I truly hope that you to make the choice on whether to read a fic or not yourself.

Fate must be Cruel only to the Kind by Fluttercheer
(Drama, Sad, Slice of Life)
Dreams. They are fragile like a bubble.
Crackle Pop knows this very well. He knows it since he has discovered his special talent and earned his cutie mark. He knows this, because his special talent is to destroy dreams. Not the dreams that are only there at night. Manipulating those kinds of dreams is Princess Luna's domain. No, Crackle Pop was good at destroying the ambitions of ponies. What such a special talent should be good for? Crackle Pop asks himself this question too. He doesn't know the answer, all he knows is he can. Sometimes it was a good thing. Sometimes, there was a pony will ill intentions, dreams of revenge, perhaps. Then he was the pony for the job. In other cases, though, his special talent destroyed the dreams of ponies who meant something to him, good dreams that didn't create any harm. Ponies refer to their special talents as their destinies, but for Crackle Pop, his special talent is a dark and cruel fate. It had hurt his friends, his teachers and his neighbors. It had never hurt his family, though. This changes on the day fate forces him to ruin the longtime dream of the kindest pony he knows and the pony that means the most to him.....

Review
Wow, that is a LONG description... like, wow. Anyway, this one is mostly a slice of life story, though there is quite a bit of drama. The level of sad in this one is debatable, and I did not find much in here. I can see how some readers would think it sad, but I don't find it to be. I feel like talking about a minor character first, also known as Chirpy. Man do I hate Chirpy's name, it sounds too much like Derpy even if they are related. But, Chirpy is a really good representation of a ten-year-old. So hopeful, insecure, and easy to grind her dreams into oblivion. Oh, wait, that isn't a thing people normally say. For the small amount of time she has in this story I really enjoyed her. Now for the main character, Crackle. Crackle, while he does tease Chirpy like a real brother would, also really cares for her. This caring is quite evident in his reasons for doing things, and it makes him seem like a real character. Nice job, author, nice job. I just want to mention Derpy for a bit, because I really like her in this fic. While building the cart, the author uses Crackle to mention how Derpy makes her eyes normal. This I really like because I see it as making progress with focusing. This, in the minute time she had "on screen," actually established her as a real character with her own personality for me. This thing is now getting long, so I shall just say that everyone else is pretty good, too. The best thing about the characters, though, is how they interact with one another. Truly great characters.

The greatest weakness would be that it is focused on the characters, which means the narration is sub-par. The narration's failures overshadow the characters a bit, which therefore fails to immerse the reader into the story fully. In other words, it is more like reading something that seeing it play out. Hope this makes sense.

Recommendation: Recommended. (Though it does have drawbacks in the narration, the characterizations are amazing. The story arc is also pretty good, though in some ways I wish Crackle didn't win the race).


Like a Paulownia by CentipedeGhoul
(Equestrie Girls, Slice of Life)
After losing his family in a car accident, Starburst resorts to a life of solitude and a job at the Sweet Shoppe, with the world's most easily excitable baker as an acquaintance. The last thing he expected was a challenge . . . a bet that would bring him back on a path that he left behind years ago as well making sense of his emotions.

Review
I don't like reviewing incomplete stories, but the author requested it, so... lols, while reading this I kinda sorta forgot it was supposed to be the EQG universe, so now I feel dumb. But it is quite the slice of life fic. But, as there are only four characters worth mentioning, and only two of them important, I will start with Starburst, the main-character. Starburst is... an interesting character. He seems to carry a large amount of grief and self-blame with him, I'm not so sure about the self-blame, but I find him to be that way. Pinkie in this one is an enjoyable Pinkie. She is less random than the show/ movie version, and more caring, or understanding. She also tries to cheer up/ distract Starburst in a real way, not some weird party-canon blast. The other characters are slight spoilers, so spoiler text: Flim and Flam. These two are really well written. I like them because they are less annoying than in the show, but still just as annoying. Yes, I realize that doesn't make sense, but it's true. The only gripe I have would be the greatest weakness.

And the greatest weakness would be that it's a little hard to follow at times. It seems like there is a bit too much the author is attempting to convey at one time. Keep in mind, however, that this is a weaker version of this problem. I'm not really sure how to describe it more than that, but if you read it you will know what I'm saying. This is also, sadly, near impossible to fix other than a full rewrite.

Recommendation: Worth Reading/ Recommended. (This is, despite its drawbacks, a pretty great fic so far. Looking forward to more!)





Random stuff at the end of this blog:
My thoughts while pre-reading stuff:

And then, my entry into the practice flashfic prompt, "Waiting Time." You know, that flashfic group I promoted up at the top. Also, yeah, yeah, yeah... bad quality... I wrote it in 10 minutes.:

I am waiting.
Can it be time?
No, it is not time, I must wait longer.
I have been waiting for years upon years.
I am no longer sure what to do.
All I have left are my thoughts.
Such lonely thoughts.
Sometimes they speak to me, those thoughts. I know because I can hear them. The voices in my head. But they never tell me just what they mean.
I wish they would speak clearly, those little thoughts. Those betrayers, those worms. They tell me to have hope one moment, and that I am forgotten the next.
Stupid thoughts. I want them out of my head!
But no, I must wait with them. They are my only company in this void of waiting. This vacuum of wanting.
I must wait longer. Wait for someone to open the door and invite me to leave. To leave these thoughts behind.
Soon.

Comments ( 1 )

Like a Paulowina looks really interesting, despite the problems you found with it. I may well track that to read when it's done, as long as it doesn't end up being 300,000 words or something. Nice to see a new author writing, too.

I find it amusing that that meme image about punctuation marks uses no punctuation marks. Okay, I'm easily amused. :P

Thanks for the (second) plug for Flashfic! :twilightsmile:

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