The chronicles of Project Horizons : Chapter 5 · 9:49pm Oct 27th, 2018
The fifth chapter of Project Horizons is upon us and with it, more confirmation of the utter "Indiana Jones"-like style of adventure and some welcomed evolutions of character relationships. However, I have to say, I am not quite sure if I dig the idea of having one brain for three people. Let us go and have some fun.
So with this chapter, we are introducing to the faction of the Finders and, as Scoodles, told us, they essentially only care for caps and nothing else. They are rough and a bit barbaric on some aspects but they essentially are a merchant confederation which serves as the heart of Hoofington since many a faction seems to roam around in their bases to buy informations, items and the likes. So far we didn't learn anything more than we already knew which is a bit sad but nothing that I consider an issue.
What I do find strange however is that... the team wants informations on the document but not on Sanguine ? I mean, I am sure that it's an important information to have but is it really the most pressing one ? Shouldn't they like to know where Sanguine is ? What his troops are ? What his deal is even ? It is really jarring to have characters establish that their goal is to find and kill someone and not... ask for his location when they are in an information hub ? I mean, if at least it was part of the reason why they needed caps, it could be fine but the question isn't even asked. There really is a disconnect here which feels very video game-like (The player putting aside the main quest).
The humor remains very Indiana Jones-like with daring adventures and almost comical punch lines thrown left and right which is not an issue for me at all even if it does come with the idea that... the fight will be inconsequential and just a pretext to show off some cool moves from our team of slayers. However, this will to go into action without preparations is extremely jarring with P-21 who is supposed to be the brain or Morning Glory who is supposed to have a medical background. Let's take an example with this chapter : the fight against the radscorpions.
In this context, the group needs caps to decrypt the document and so they accept a few missions, one of them being to kill some radscorpions to harvest their poison glands. They go to fight them without anyone suggesting that they should buy a few antidotes before going since, well, they don't have anything against the poison. Blackjack can be excused (for now) for being her usual dumb self but Morning Glory knows what an anti-toxin is and P-21 is supposed to be the brain of the group. Why do I focus on this ? Because Morning Glory gets stabbed by a tail of a radscorpion and so they don't have anything to take care of it.
I won't talk too much about the utter stupidity of the scene where the medical pony says that she only feels lightheaded after the stab because of the blood loss. It was borderline brain-damaging to witness.
So, since they didn't prepare, they have to run for Ironshod Firearms and... I have to get a little bit angry about the tone deafness of the fiction for this very part. When they realize that MG could die of the poison, the scene is tensed and BJ has flashback of Scoodles dying, she's rushing towards her only plan : the medical facility in Ironshod. The scene is dramatic and, here's the very line that follows :
"Ironshod Firearms; I could have worked for these ponies. I really could have. Just looking at the faded pictures of firearms sitting over desks was enough to make my insides moist."
It instantly broke my immersion. I don't care that BJ wants to make joke to keep her mind off her friend slowly dying. Of all jokes you needed to do, you made a sex joke without context for the reader to properly understand it. Above being tacky, it's completely forced. If she has the energy to make jokes, she should focus on her mission. It's one of the first truly infuriating moment in the fiction. You have to take into account the tone of your story and PH has this nasty habit of going back and forth between moments of levity (sometimes badly introduced like this one) and moment of dramatic tension.
On another note, I really find strange that P-21 is so... educated in the art of creating an antidote based on a few mumbles of a delirious pony, hell he even sterilized the needle with a flame and... where did he learn that ? He has literally been a fuckboi all his life... Please don't do the "He read books" argument like Pip did in FO:E. It's stupid and a cop-out.
I don't have much to say about Trottenheimer and his works since it's still a bit nebulous for now but I am a bit intrigued by what this forced reference to Oppenheimer will bring to the table since there is the premisses of the project Horizons being discussed.
My last comment will be on the whole "Hoofington was the heart of everything". I don't mind it but it does feel like "Since FO:E went to all of the most prominent towns, I have to say the only one they didn't go to was incredibly important !" Then again, we'll see how it plays out. However, I do think there's a bit of an issue with continuity since, if I recall correctly, Four Leaf is supposed to be extremely Pro-zebras and yet it did interact with a city that vowed their lives to eradicate the town ? Seems a bit strange to me but then again, I don't have enough informations, we'll see how this town being the nevralgic point of the war is going to offer us something fun.
Closing thoughts : Three ponies, one brain. Also, let's try to make our fights a bit more meaningful, it's starting to feel like fights are only meant to be spectacles without any stakes (or manufactured stakes.)
Missed this the first time, but wanted to quickly point out: not asking about Sanguine wasn't indicative of them putting aside the main quest. I'll grant that unless you want to give a lot of credence to the characters, it's a spot of bad writing, but not of the sort described. Remember, their plan for finding etc. Sanguine went through figuring out what EC-1101 was and why he'd want it--something which they actively pursued in that conversation. What's missing is just a reason for them to not exhaust more direct questioning first, or a quick back-and-forth that gives a little information but not much that's actionable.
So--BJ and/or P-21 look dumb or afflicted by tunnel-vision, but they are following the goals they'd set up, using the plan they'd discussed previously.
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I would counter that... doing bounties in one of the most crowded place ever to accumulate 10K caps for the decryption to take place isn't a smart decision in regards to their goal. They could and should have asked "Who is Sanguine ? Where is he ? Who are his lieutenents ? Does he have a goal ? Who can I trust ?" and so on and so forth. Proof that it was stupid to even think about accumulating bits in the main hub of Hoofington when Homage is busy making her promo and telling to everyone where she is, Deus show up in chapter 7 !
What you're seeing here is a continuation of the author making his characters complete dummies for the sake of the plot or drama and it's not an isolated incident. Remember they went fighting radscorpions without buying an anti-venom ? Remember how, in chapter 8, they don't even ask about what a dragon is before jumping into the fray ? Yes the fight was cool but there's a common pattern : there is no preparation, no group thinking aside of the tunnel-vision we've seen.
Need to kill radscorpions ? Let's go kill them. Need to fight a dragon ? Let's go kill him. There should be a step of "How do we go about this ?". At the very least, when Pip fought a dragon she was surprised to see it was one and had to fall back on being 'smart'. So yes, decrypting the document is part of the plan but so is "staying alive" and "getting to know your enemy".