The chronicles of Project Horizons : chapter 20

The story seems to have went back on tracks after a long and unneeded detour but what we are learning in this chapter is something that either barely makes sense or in the contrary, seems convoluted. Extremely so. However, I think my biggest issue might come from the characterisation of Edge McEdgy whom I think is simply poorly handled.

Let's go !

Let's start with Edge McEdgy, also known as Rampage and I'll try to explain in details what I found problematic with her as a whole. Recently, she was bombarded with tons of little details that doesn't make her deeper but more and more of a dark and edgy victim. Let's recap what we know of her : She is an impulsive, suicidal and self-harming drug addict that cannot be killed by any conventional way, she has an extremely tacky cutie mark that tries hard to sell that she's fucked up, she killed two foals in cold blood one of them being her own kid and she seems to have another soul inside of her that acts as a Dr Jekyll and Mister Hyde. She also became a Reaper after killing her daugther and failing to kill herself multiple times. You perhaps noticed that from what I listed, never once did I mention anything that didn't make her a broody victim. Because her character is just that : to be a victim that has some banter from time to time with BJ.

I do not care for Edge because for me to have some sympathy for a character, I need to see a character, not a constant stream of "Look how edgy and broody and badass she is." As original as being unkillable can be, she also has nothing special about her. We already have a broody unstoppable killer in the person of BJ. We already have at least three other victims in this group and I was hoping that Edge wouldn't be defined as one. Perhaps you noticed : P-21 is the victim of Stable 99, traumatized by how he was treated and (supposedly) by the death of his lover, Glory is the victim of the Enclave that branded her and made her a pariah and BJ is a victim of the writing that makes her a fucked up individuals with absolutely no moral compass except "killing kid is wrong" since I already shown how the "I'm not an executioner" line was utter nonsense.

Rampage brings nothing new to the group except another "mystery" that Somber seems to confuse as "interesting" character traits. The only reasons Edge is remotely interesting is so we can learn why Big Daddy is interested in BJ and if she's a creation of one Project like the Eternity one. That's really too bad because it's clearly not the little jokes she makes with BJ that'll cement her as something else in my mind that "an edgy character that is suicidal and yet can kill half the wasteland". I'm sure she'll eventually grow past that but for now, she's just boring as a character.

As for the scene where Edgy and BJ fights and where the latter is ready to kill the former, it's a boring scene that throws criticism at BJ about how she didn't try to find an alternative solution than a mercy killing. It's interesting because I would counter that the dilemma back in chapter 6 was so quickly done that anyone, reader included, barely had time to think about different choices but then again who am I to judge ? It feels more like the author is mentionning criticism that we were adressed to him but don't do much aside from that. The scene ends with an EXTREMELY jarring tone where Rampage and Glory are making jokes about her being reborn as a filly. Just next to the crushed body of Thorn.

On a side note : BJ is really acting like Mother Theresa. Someone tells they didn't do it, she believes them and wants to continue wandering the Wasteland with them. Sure, it's not like she just proved to be a liability. You do you, BJ. I'm sure it's not fabricated drama.

Oh, and we now know for certain that BlackJack helps the Wasteland just for her own self-gratification. Sure, let's add "selfish and egotistical" to the list of problems I have with this character. Just between "hypocritical", psychopathic" and "in heat". I don't know why Somber thinks those are endearing character traits. Because she's doing it for a noble cause ? Because she harms herself and angst constantly ? Because people with low self-esteem can see a mirror of their own experience with her ? I don't know.

Now for the zebra history lesson. I am not really sure how it makes sense. So as zebras evolved into a more sedentary civilization they grew envious of Equestria because... Because. Then they just wanted a casus belli to start a war. Why not ? However, what doesn't make sense to me is the back and forth with coal and gems.

What we are meant to understand is that Equestria needed a huge amount of coal, which meant that the Zebra would divert almost all of their coal supply towards Equestria while Equestria would provide gems for the zebras. This would mean that the coal industry in Zebraland would die as they would focus on Gem-based industry (which I find to be strange since I don't get how gems are used for anything but weapons, what energy fuels their industry ?) However, what I don't get is why Somber is trying to tell us that the first 9 years of the war basically were battles at all when it is clear that the Zebras only looked for a casus belli and where in dire need of gems ?

Somber has a really hard time explaining how two nations relying heavily on the source of energy the others have survived for nine straight years without issue or even a civil war. I commend that he tries to explain it and that it is insanely hard to make sense of the story that Kkat tried to tell since it was highly incoherent but I think that it makes less sense than before now. As a friend of mine told me "In both FO:E and PH, the war should have been over by month six".

Also, I have the feeling that Littlehorn is another conspiracy-based incident and that's starting to make me a bit angry. How many times will Somber show such disrespect for the original story ? Is it so hard to just try and fill the gaps ? Is it necessary to change everything to make your story stands out ? Damn, I'm defending FO:E. The irony.

As for the memory orb, if my theory of Maripony being Twilight and Twilight getting rid of the kid to give it to Marigold is true then I think we are in front of the most convoluted story ever made. However, I have no proof yet. All I can say is that... Fluttershy put a kid into a mare that was going to space two weeks from now. The fuck ? Why wouldn't that cause for concern for Marigold who could have simply lost her dream or for Fluttershy since the baby could be harmed ? Also, did Fluttershy decide that Marigold having her career ruined by a scandal was a good replacement for Twilight's or whoever the fuck it was ?

As for the copy of the Black Book... Somber is tiring me. FO:E can't have anything unique with him. He's so desperate in making his story stands out that even the Black Book needs to be duplicated ? By making Hoofington the core of the Wasteland, he's actively making all of FO:E's story completely anecdotal and even irrelevant at times. Pip wants to clear the sky to break the propaganda of the Enclave, well PH says that there already was some Volunteers that wanted to help the surface and it is a government funded group, so there wasn't much to break from the get go.

No matter, at least we're going back to Stable 99. I heard that chapter 22-24 is a pillar of this first book.

Closing thoughts : Does respecting the source material and not trying to one up constantly that much of an issue ?