The chronicles of Project Horizons : chapter 43 & 44

This couple of chapters are... interesting to say the least. Interesting in the sense that, while I do not mind chapter 43 despite its dispensable nature, I absolutely am baffled by 44. The former gives an interesting look into the mind of Somber and Blackjack in the sense that it allows for me to make sure that he is aware of what people says about his hero (even if I regret that this chapter will ultimately lead nowhere). The latter however feels like... a X.5 chapter, in the sense that it feels like a shipfic suddenly forcing itself in the story. I'll develop that idea.

Let's go !

So I won't go scene by scene fir chapter 43 since there is nothing of note that happens aside from a few snippets of memories that aren't hers such as BJ seeing Garnet send Jetstream on a wild goose chase certainly to help a nuclear strike or Rarity and Fluttershy discussing around a clearly soulless husk in Hightower Jail, showing Rarity's experimentations on prisoners. Those scenes are informative but ultimately not very interesting since we already know that Rarity dabbled into Soul-based magic with the Black Book.

What I want to talk about is what this chapter is trying to do. It's essentially the "Pokemon was all in Ash's head" theory in that the chapter tries to make us think that BJ was a mental patient in an Hospital that invented the Wasteland as an escapist fantasy where she could both be the unstoppable hero and the vulnerable martyr with the persona of Blackjack. The fantasy would be a result of trying to cope with multiple traumas on top of the most damning one that her subconscious tries to hide to protect her. That's essentially what this chapter boils down to.

From a personal perspective, this chapter was interesting since I could see how Somber viewed Blackjack and while some explanations could still have relevance in the story, unfortunately I do not believe that BJ has created a persona so strong that she can represent the dichotomy that is advanced here. If I was in Somber's position, I would have built my fiction around the concept of the "unreliable narrator" where essentially we're confronted to a narrator that will lie and hide information to the reader by being what he is. For example, if Somber wanted to play on the idea that BJ was only a saint in her head, we could have had her "tell" us that she forgave her rapists only for us to learn later that she brutally murdered them.

It could have been interesting to see the slow dissociation between Go Fish and Blackjack but we don't know Go Fish so Blackjack is our only point of reference so this dissociation can't really happen. Sure, it would have made hard to make her look like a hero if we learn that her friends fear her and that she's persuaded to be this kind of martyr of the Wasteland but it could have made for an interesting character who does good things only as a byproduct of her horrible deeds, even to the point of making her say that she is doing better, her brain hiding the most horrible aspects of it.

I'm not exactly clear on where Bluebelle, Xanthe and others went after she went full berserk though. I suppose they left but that makes her surrendering to this conveniently placed hospital all the stranger... In any case, we also learn that the Dealer was GB's personal assistant that accepted to sacrifice himself to be linked to EC 1101 and counteract another conspiracy in the works during the war. Nothing more than that is revealed.

Continuing the little mindtrip, the chapter gets a bit less interesting with BJ having to literally fight her own shadow, in Jungian term. It's the classical fight yourself scenario because her mind is trying to protect her from the truth that is that... she killed a filly (Boing, the Crusader in chapter 3) under the influence of ESG. Now, hear me out, I know that is a huge deal for her (even though she did kill tons of kids before in Fluttershy's clinic and Stable 99) and I am not trying to diminish that fact. However, for the reader, that's not that much of a deal. As I said, she killed killed of her own volition in chapter 7 and 22 and was responsible for Scoodle death in chapter 3. Having 30K words to make that the big reveal and tell us that BJ is suicidal (no shit I don't think anyone doubted that fact) is counter-productive for two reasons.

The first is what I said before : it's more of the same and I honestly can't get shocked by that after all this time even for her. The second is... that she was controlled by an Eldritch creature that turned her mad wih bloodlust. As such, this death wasn't done consciously which makes it less interesting for the reader. BJ isn't becoming a monster because her nature is rising to the top and crushing her platitudes, she just was controlled/heavily influenced by ESG. There is nothing to gain from this event aside from the fact that she killed a filly that she somewhat knew the name of.

The chapter ends with BJ dealing with some Harbingers and going on her merry way. This chapter was a nice change of pace but ultimately, this entire chapter is dispensable and you could remove it without having to change a lot of things to make 43 and 45 connect.

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Chapter 44. I'm still trying to process the utter stupidity of this chapter because honestly I don't get how this could possibly have happened if not for some sudden lust on the part of Somber.

So one of the first scene is BJ meeting a super ninja zebra that destroys an army of Harbingers on his own and might be the Legate that Lancer was talking about in chapter 42. It's a brief character introduction and it's clearly an enemy of BJ but then again, having a super powerful zebra is necessary to have a little conflict for our Terminator.

Then we have Stygius, The Radhog Fucker, and batpony. He essentially is handsome but cannot talk in any way that can be understood by normal ponies since they use ultrasounds. Essentially, BJ wants his D because he's handsome and she wants him to fuck the rape away and he definitely wants his pussy. That's why he kisses her after less than ten minutes of meeting her and she's all flustered and such. They leave together and BJ sees nothing wrong with being that aroused and ready to fuck someone that isn't Glory without making it clear that they are an open couple to her. I'm sure this will have no repercussion whatsoever. It's not like it's just a cheap way to create drama and a... naive way to make someone get over rape when said rape happened a week ago.

Then they find GB's house and essentially : we learn that GB made Fluttershy have a miscarriage because he screamed a mare's name during sex that I heavily think is Luna's. It's hilariously bad and no matter the explanation of "She was stressed and fragile and this was the last straw", you can't make it less funny. I won't go in more details than that but damn, Somber, you had 1000 ways to get the same point across without the hilarity of screaming another's name during sex in front of your pregnant wife.

Stygius and BJ have sex. She's happy. She gets past her rape experience and she doesn't think that Glory will be against it because she's nice but she doesn't have a dick.

We also learn that GB... is the one who gave a backchannel to the zebras for her betrayal and theft of the megaspells. Sure, he said he didn't want her to do it but what we can essentially see is : because he screamed another mare's name during sex, she lost her kid and he is the one who helped her doom Equestria. It's another way to make GB at the root of every single thing in existence. Even that he couldn't be bothered to ignore.

We also get a scene where we learn that the white crystal in Folly was actually a Moon Stone and that MoonStones seemed to make Star Metal melt perhaps saying that the spirit inside the Moon is stronger than ESG ? I don't really know. We'll see more of it later I assume. We also have a scene where we see GB talking down to Celestia who can't apparently go see Twilight and talk to her. This scene is another scene that makes a canon character look like a joke just to try and make GB look superior. Nice, we needed more of that. Any other show characters you want to strip of all intelligence, backbone and dignity to suck GB's cock Somber ? Oh, and GB doesn't want to kill Celestia but is ready to do it...

We also have some... lore about how Gems in Equestria are magical because of the life energy in it coming from the death of multiple creatures or ancient beasts like dragons. Essentially, when ESG crashed into Earth, he killed so many things that their life energy went into the gems. It's an interesting thing but it makes me wonder heavily how the zebras used Gems before meeting Equestria since we know that gems outside of Equestria are just plain old gems without power. I don't have enough information but I fear that it's going to be an issue for me later.

Also, Somber tries to make GB a sympathetic villain that seems torn and have some tragedies in his life like the death of his daughter and so on. However, from my point of view, he fails. That's fucking Sanguine all over again. You can't make a tragic character by sprinkling a life of villainy and contempt with some moments of "humanity". Sanguine didn't become a better character because the rock crushing of a hundred ponies was explained by him wanting to have his family again. You can't make GB actively try to undermine his own government because he somehow know everything there is to know better than everyone else somehow for an obscure plan I'm sure will be very... interesting.

Closing thoughts : From interesting to baffling... PH in a nutshell.