The chronicles of Project Horizons : chapter 16

I don't know what I hoped this chapter to be but it clearly wasn't this. A chapter which is a long extended fight scene with only a quick resolution of P-21's arc at the end. The thing that should have been the focus was barely mentionned and yet I have a ton of things to say about it and about the end of the "Deus Arc" so to speak. I don't like having so little good things to say about this chapter but then again, it is more of the same.

Let's go.

Let's tackle the least important stuff first which are both good and bad. I did like Blackjack's diatribe to U-21 to intimidate him even though intimidating a desperate male pony from a Stable he was a victim of really isn't that much of an accomplishment but it was a genuinely badass moment even if I still think that making U-21 pee on the floor of fear is really overkill when humiliating that "character" gives us no real catharsis. For the bad unimportant stuff, I have to say that the Zodiac are as anecdotal as I feared them to be. Adding pointlessly twelve bounty hunters and give them barely any personality before killing them off can only lead to unmemorable character (Taurus being incredibly transparent.) The twins had a cool gimmick but unfortunately... their atttitude still remains cartoony to me and they join Virgo in that sort of strange Wasteland where Blackjack cannot die.

However, the most crucial part that makes them feel alien is... that they are plot devices. Gem forgiving instantaneously BJ for killing her sister in quite the horrible fashion because "No biggie, we were trying to kill you" ? And then Taurus and Gem wants to make it up to her by helping her fight Deus ? It's quite the contrived setting to pull out of your magical narrator hat to have such selfless bounty hunters with no thought of revenge and who would prefer to die fighting Deus rather than kill the killer of their sister. It really was hard to believe and they still feel like convenient tools to be used againt Deus than proper characters. Side note : Telekinetic bullet are spells but they can't be magical as they are not magic bolts but a derivative of telekinesis and telekinesis makes tangible thing move remotely, I already didn't like that spell when it first appeared but I figured it worked like an air-pressure kind of deal. It seems that to PH, its actually a concentrated magic bolt. Don't see how TK is involved then. In any case, this spell is as OP as I figured it would be.

As for the fight against Deus... I really didn't feel anything from it and I think I know why. The fiction went too far in upping the ante of the battles BJ faced. Before Deus, BJ killed a Hydra, a dragon, another Reaper far more fearsome than Deus (between a flying abomination that can turn ponies to stone and who is as impervious to damage as Deus and a big cyberpony with big guns, I know what I prefer) and a huge amount of many factions... This fight feels like more of the same but inferior. This fight was supposed to be important for the story : BJ facing off Deus which was hyped as one of the most powerful Reaper that exists, the one who attacked her Stable and the first real enemy I, as a reader, knew.

Deus wasn't a character, he was glorified boss with a huge health bar but there wasn't anything to me aside from yelling "Cunt" and having big guns. He was supposed to be an unstoppable force and yet, I really didn't feel like this battle was more epic than any other and it felt dull... which bring me to another issue I have with Project Horizons : it constantly tries to one up itself but never puts the work to give meaning to battle. While I found the fight against the dragon cool, it was just a hurdle along the way likewise for the Hydra, there was no weight behind those fights but they were spectacular, at the very least. Deus should have had something to make it stand out but instead, I just felt like it blended with the rest.

Now, for the big one. P-21's end of the... arc. It was bad. Straight up. We were hyped for multiple chapters that P-21 was hiding something, his past was mysterious. We learned bit by bit that he actually had some hatred for BJ because she was a part of Stable 99 but now we also learned that she had personnally wronged him (I won't cover how that was poorly done, I already did in my previous entry) and it meant that this chapter was there for the confrontation. BJ broke free from her stupidity-induced amnesia and the reader is now completely aware of the past P-21 and the amount of hate he must be feeling : BlackJack and many mares raped him. He was treated like he was an insect, a piece of furniture. He lived every day knowing that he would be executed when he would past his expiration date and Blackjack had violently murdered, beaten to death, his lover the one who I'm sure was helping him survive in this hell.

We should have had something powerful. A true discussion where this hatred P-21 clearly had would be confronted to Blackjack's apologies... and yet, we didn't get that.

Instead, P-21 said the following and I'll dismantle it to show how stupid his reasoning compared to what we know of his past and accumulated pain, frustration and hatred :

“But for as long as I’ve known you, I’ve known you’re something special. You could have killed both of us out of spite. Out of sadistic glee; I know Daisy would have. You could have let Daisy take me. You could have left me for Deus when we fled 99. You could have killed Scoodle and blamed her for her death. You could have left the killing of forty psychotic foals up to me or Glory. You just fought the scariest fucking monster in the Wasteland while trying to defend three ponies that were out to kill you, Blackjack!

“Time and time again the Wasteland gives you the easier path and you refuse to take it. You could have just given EC-1101 over. You could have not cared about 99. You could have just left me to die. Or the Crusaders. Or Glory. You take the hard road no matter how damn much it hurts you, and I can only watch in awe that you keep walking it. And every time I think you’re going to do what’s wrong and easy, you surprise me. I couldn’t do it. I would have cut a deal the second I was alone outside 99. But you’re sticking it out, trying to find out what makes the damned thing so important.

*You could have killed both of us [His lover and him] out of spite. Out of sadistic glee; I know Daisy would have.

This reasoning is clearly something I can't understand coming from him. The violent murder of his lover was a year ago tops. You saw her killing him not by accident at all, it's not like she hit him once and he broke his neck, no. She purposefully beat him to death. Yes, she was scared for her life but there's a difference between an accidental killing and a violent murder. As such, the comment about killing the both of them out of spite... makes no sense : How is she noble by not being as bad as Daisy ? In fact, she is worse than her because Daisy never killed any males ! So saying that she's somehow special because she didn't kill him too seems extremely far-fetched and unsatisfying.

*You could have let Daisy take me. You could have left me for Deus when we fled 99.

The first part is interesting because it shows how utterly backwards is mentality is. You see, all this tirade is supposed to show how noble BJ is by always taking the hard road but there is a gap between being noble (which you could say, protecting him from the beating in chapter 1 was) and not being an asshole. He takes Daisy as a point of reference and honestly it makes look all of this very silly. Daisy was cartoonishly bitchy, so not being Daisy is proof of being a normal mare rather than being somehow noble. The second part must refer to the fact that he was slow and she helped him instead of leaving him in the dust. This is first real argument. Yes, she showed some kindness here but strangely he is not mentionning the part where she protected him from Daisy and Marmalade's beating quite strangely.

*You could have killed Scoodle and blamed her for her death.

This is getting dumb. She could have killed a child ? I don't know what kind of boogeyman he created in his mind but not killing Scoodle is hardly something noble (besides, why would she have killed Scoodle exactly ?). As for blamed her for her death... You find noble that she blamed herself childishly saying "I want to die" like some kind of baby ? Well, you have pretty low standards P-21. It's not noble, it's childish and she would have happily died to escape the guilt. Why not mention the fact that she actually pulled herself back from her hopelessness thanks to Watcher instead, showing her strength of character ? I'm not here to write the story for the author but if you want to praise BJ, stick to the obvious.

*You could have left the killing of forty psychotic foals up to me or Glory.

Oh this one is a tricky one. You see, there was no "third option" in the instance he is referring to. It was either "Kill them or do nothing, leaving them to their fate". As such, choosing to "not choose" would have essentially be a choice for doing nothing. As such she would have been bound to make a choice. Besides, P-21, you're the one who forced her to make the choice. Yes, she could have refused and live with the guilt of having let them to their fate. There was no "easy road" in that situation and trying to make it look like as if it was noble on her part feels really... undeserved.

*You just fought the scariest fucking monster in the Wasteland while trying to defend three ponies that were out to kill you, Blackjack!

I'd argue that Deus felt more like an expensive toy than the scariest monster in the Wasteland after the fight I witnessed but then again, he is free to feel what he wants. As for protecting ponies that were out to kill her... I really don't like how he frames that. Yes, she tried to protect those three ones who just so happened to be very honorable bounty hunters that feel bad... about trying to kill their target who murdered one member of their family. Are we not going to talk about the lives she didn't spare ? The raiders, bounty hunters, slavers she killed unceremoniously ? Oh, right, they were unnamed NPCs so it doesn't count. She is not noble because she tried to protect three assholes this one time when her killcount is far superior to her number of saved lives.

*Time and time again the Wasteland gives you the easier path and you refuse to take it. You could have just given EC-1101 over. You could have not cared about 99. You could have just left me to die. Or the Crusaders. Or Glory.

Of course, P-21. Of course, she could have made the choice to betray her Stable, her home and her mother by giving the file to a bunch of raiders out for blood who would have definitely stopped once they had their file. Of course, totally the kind of pony that was Deus. Or perhaps did he mean after she fled and before the bounty. Giving her Pipbuck would have been a death sentence : so there is no nobility in wanting to survive. I won't even grace the "you could have not cared about 99". P-21, buddy, mate, dude, bro : She has a mom that she loves, friend that she likes and despite the horror that was this Stable, it still was her home. I know you think of it as a charnel-house but believe me, caring about your home is not being special.

*****

Everything in that quote show a P-21 completely in awe of BJ... not being an asshole and being a somewhat decent person. However, I can think of a couple ponies that are far more dedicated and less hypocritical than her and more deserving of awe than she is. Nothing he said convinced me than she was something other than a decent pony (which I'll say is completely antithetical to the BJ of the audio recordings but whatever, I already said it didn't flow well).

Why is it an issue ? Because it feels like a cope out. Sixteen chapters of mystery and slow revelations. 150K+ words of P-21 being mentally unstable, flip-flopping on his personality and some actual high stakes being brought up to end with just two paragraphs of... this ? BJ you're special and awe-inspiring and I mostly forgive you and give you a hug ? I... I'm sorry but no. You don't write a character that's supposed to have such a deep hatred on a personal level for BJ, accumulating years upon years of hatred that would have reached a high point with the murder of his only love... to just make him suck BJ's cunt after three weeks outside seeing BJ being somewhat decent.

Besides, this scene gave me Arbu flashback, especially when Steelhooves says to Pip that "she was too perfect." I am not saying it's the same scene or that Somber copied it. I'm saying that the feeling I got was very similar to the one I got back then for those two similar scenes.

Closing thoughts : Project Chimera and Sanguine is a unicorn ghoul that drinks blood. A lot of names and irrelevant stuff. A disappoint end for Deus and an abysmal one for this particular arc of P-21... Let us hope Rampage and Glory can save this sinking ship.