FanFic Review: I Can Smile · 8:55pm Mar 22nd, 2018

Hello, brothers and sisters. I am Madness and welcome to my kingdom.

I've been thinking a lot about the Dazzlings lately. Several of my future fics have to do with them and they were the starting point in my fics gallery here; i.e. Saving the Siren. They are definitely some of my favoritest characters not just in MLP, but in general. And one thing that you should always do when planning to work on something is look over things like it. Like, if you're wanting to produce kids' cartoons, you should look over a bunch of them to see what works and what doesn't. So, obviously, I've been looking at a lot of fics starring our favorite sirens. One that stood out to me is, as you can guess, the fic I'm reviewing today, I Can Smile by Eyeswirl the Weirded (Awesome username btw).

So, what is it about this fic that stands out? Well, let's take a look.

The fic revolves around Sonata who is actually not that dumb here. Well, she is dumb, but not as dumb as she's usually depicted. In fact, she actually is quite deceptive and good at manipulation. On top of that, the story is about here trying to accomplish her evil plan by pretending to befriend the Rainbooms just to rob them dry. This is completely different from any other depiction I've ever seen for Sonata in the best way. Mostly, she's this stupid, whiny womanchild. And I gotta say, it's quite annoying. I love Sonata, but when she's constantly whining and acting like a brat, her charm quickly runs off into the sunset, leaving an unlikable Sonata behind. And whenever she's depicted as actually being evil, she ends up being a straight up psychopath. A bit extreme, don't you think? Heck, my depiction of Sonata in the original Saving the Siren, while better than a lot of other depictions of her, was still too dumb and emotional to the point it got annoying. Sonata is a surprisingly hard character to write.

But here? Sonata is dumb, but not that dumb. She's evil, but in a over-the-top cartoon jerk type of way. And while she does get redeemed in the end, it comes naturally from the kindness the HuMane 7 show her. And her depiction makes her the perfect target for this fic's glorious love of slapstick. Talking of which...

The fic takes the classic slapstick comedy route and combined it with the comedy cliche of the bad guy unwittingly getting owned by the oblivous good guy's actions, which just so happens to be one of my favorite comedy cliches. Slapstick is one of the finest works of comedy and it's at it's best when the victim has it coming, be it the person being a jerk or just bringing it on themselves, which Sonata is both here. So, we have a fantastic formula here! What does the fic with it? Well, let's examine each chapter.

Oh, but before I do, I also have to mention the subplot regarding Aria and Adagio (sort of). Adagio locks herself in her room due to a vicious argument that transpired right before the fic starts, feeling genuinely hurt by it. Aria ignores her at first, but eventually gives in to her newfound conscience and tries to help an unresponsive Adagio. It's a nice change of pace from the rest of the story and manages to be genuinely sweet and sad. It also gives us a version of Aria and Adagio that I haven't seen elsewhere either.

Most of the depictions I see of Aria has her be this really gruff I-Hate-Everything kind of person and a lot of times it involves her being incredibly violent. Like, there's a fic that retells Rainbow Rocks with Aria as a psycho with an addiction of punching people in the throat... Okay. And there was another where she takes being a Tsundere to the next level by performing wrestling moves on boys she likes (Which should be funny, but... Double standards much?). I never understood that. She was certainly snarky and picking fights with Sonata, but nothing about her signaled her being violent. Is it because she dresses in a punk rock style? That's like thinking Rainbow Dash is gay because she's a tomboy- Oh wait. (rolls eyes) Aria here, while she starts out quick tempered and gruff, steadily changes as her concern for Adagio grows. She then acts as a good sister to Adagio and Sonata which is good change of pace. This is actually a lot like I've portrayed or planned to portray Aria as I see her to be the most mature of the three and to have a major soft side that she likes to hide.

As for Adagio... Well, her depictions are... interesting. There's a lot of variety when it comes to how she's portrayed. Arrogant, controlling jerk? Total psychopath? Caring big sister? Sexual predator? Adagio has it all and more! But the Adagio here, while not unheard of elsewhere, is still a rare find. We don't see much of her as she spends almost the entirety of the fic in her room, out of site. The things that were said during the big argument really got to her and she just locks herself up until the last chapter. Not much to be said, but it is nice to see Adagio's vulnerable side. I tried to show that in Saving the Siren, but she handled that by going psycho-crazy-bonkers. Locking herself in her room like a teenager who just got dumped by the hottest guy in the school is a different approach that I haven't seen anywhere else.

In case you couldn't guess, this fic has a lot of originality from the fics I've seen to stand it apart from the others. So, now that we have that out of the way, let's look at the chapters themselves.

The first chapter has Sonata, fresh off of telling her sisters (They're not sisters here, but whatever) off and has begun on her brilliant plan to get on the Rainbooms' good graces, rob them blind, take a train to the next town, and repeat. What a plan! She starts out with Pinkie and all goes good at first, with Sonata ending up legit liking Pinkie, but things go wrong when Sonata eats to much cupcakes which leads to her puking her guts out. But Pinkie had let the others know that Sonata was cool, so successful infiltration! Meanwhile, Aria finds the house surprisingly quiet and supposes the two others had just stepped out.

The second has Sonata trying to get Rarity's goods (not like that, you pervert) by letting herself become Rarity's assistant during this big sale thing at the mall. Unfortunately for Sonata, this leads to her becoming a temporary back mule and repeatedly getting trampled the crap out of by crazy shoppers (do I detect some Black Friday commentary here?). Meanwhile, Aria figures out that Adagio is still home and thinks that she must have a cold or something do to her faint sniffling. Though considering that Aria's inner thoughts also include hoping Sonata gets killed somehow, it's quite clear that she's kidding herself because... I don't know. Maybe she's scared of her emotions.

The third is Fluttershy's turn. After waking up on Rarity's couch and getting a gift from the fashionista, she meets the Flutter. Since she makes such great butter toast, Sonata decides to kidnap her and make her her buttered toast making slave... Okay. She agrees to help her at the Animal Shelter and gets her to release the dogs so she could stuff Fluttershy into one of the dog holdy things. What follows is Sonata failing, get her butt bitten repeatedly, getting mauled, a dog running off with her skirt and her chasing it only to realize to late that she was in public in her underwear, and she's just not having a good time. But things get better for her after Fluttershy gets her some bandages and sews her skirt for her. We then learn about how the Dazzlings met each other and how they gained power in a very interesting take on it. Aria, meanwhile, is still trying to ignore Adagio's state of being. Oh, and there's a racist parrot in this chapter too.

The fourth has Rainbow Dash and a soccer game. This results in Sonata actually having tons of fun... despite her face being a ball magnet... A soccer ball magnet! This is actually a nice shift in the Schadenfreude as the comedy doesn't come from Sonata getting hurt, but from everyone's reactions to her as she shrugs it all off. Meanwhile, Aria is still being a butt.

The fifth has Applejack and, what else, apple picking. And to the cowgirl's dismay, Sonata is an even bigger headache than Pinkie. And to Sonata's dismay, bees are not leprechauns. Meanwhile, Aria finally tries to get Adagio to respond outside of yelling at her.

And the sixth has Sunset Shimmer. This one is actually a totally serious chapter and it works super well! Aria finally opens up to Adagio and gets some kind of response from her while Sonata meets Sunset and, after being treated for her wounds, learns something that not only turns her mood around, but also finishes her movement into becoming a new better person.

The next chapter is all about the Dazzlings reuniting and starting their way to what I suppose is their redemption party.

The next is, well, their redemption party followed by a sort of epilogue to show how it's all held up.

And finally a real epilogue where... I don't know. Sonata admits her original plans to Pinkie and... Pinkie thinks she's got the hots for Fluttershy or Adagio or her? What? And Adagio and Sunset are dating... because yeah, that was necessary (not). And Aria thinks the whole thing was Adagio's plan all along? So... Aria's paranoid? I-I don't know. It's really stupid.

Anyway, the fic is done with great writing and characterization. It manages to give plenty of heartwarming moments that blend seamlessly with the comedy. And again, it has great humor, both from the slapstick and other elements including Sonata's inner thoughts... Well, up to the last chapters. At the end of Chapter 7 and throughout Chapter 8 and the epilogue, it kinda just devolves into nothing but sex jokes that honestly feel really out of place and are just cringey. Like, all this brilliance throughout the fic and then it just drops on the last act? Did it run out of fuel or something? And again, the epilogue is really stupid.

Regardless, this is a fantastic fic that has served as inspiration for me in my future endeavors of Dazzling writing. So, of course, I recommend checking it out. And be sure to show Eyeswirl some love.

Aaaand that's all for now. God bless you, bye bye.

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