The chronicles of Project Horizons : chapter 46 & 47

I find myself in a strange situation where I have read two chapters but I don't think I have anything of substance to say because they almost solely were action-based. So let me change the format for this double BP and let us talk about a couple of things : "Why do PH fights bore me ?", "Why do I say that they are stakeless ?" and some little details coming from the chapters themselves in order to keep you up to speed with the recent developments.

Let's go !

So let's answer the first question. The figths in Project Horizons lacks three things for me to care and I'm going to develop each points : charming characters, the feeling that they can die or fail and creativity. The first point might be the more contentious as my dislike of BJ and most of her friends are personal but I don't care what happens to them. The reasons for that are plenty too but let's start with the obvious ones : there are too many characters that are barely developped or are just cardboard cutouts (Boo is the frail mascot, Xanthe is the shy religious nut, Psychoshy is just a shy "I wanna belong" tsundere and Stygius is a walking fuckboi, just to name a few.)

Yes, Project Horizons suffer from having a bloated cast that I don't care about. You could kill half of it right now and that would make no change for me or for the how the team works. What does Stygius bring to the team aside from being handsome and to be the kind of character everyone wants to fuck ? The guy has for sole motivation to bone BJ because she's cute. What is compelling here ? Hell, even Xanthe is in the same boat : she screams that she is cursed and that she has to follow the Maiden of the Stars if she doesn't want to be unhappy. That's it. She could be an interesting character who uses the kindness of BJ against herself and would try to kill her because BJ remains the very representation of evil for her. I fear I'll have no such luck.

So too many characters without enough personality for me to care is one thing but there's also the issue of the balance of power. The characters in PH, BJ being the first offender, are far too powerful for the world they are in. Even with countless advantages on their enemies side (number, weaponry, military experience, home advantage, etc), they always end up winning and defeating their opponents wholeheartedly. I do not remember a single instance of BJ & friends fighting against an enemy and failing at what they were going for. Sure, sometimes a random character like Nurse Graves will die but while they might be correct characters (in the sense that they have a bit of development), they don't create any true empathy because now I know that Somber likes to create tertiary characters just to put them through the grinder. I don't like characters that are created to spit exposition and die.

This last point about BJ & co being too powerful for the world they are in (especially BJ since she's usually the one that can handle situations that are hugely in her "disfavor") links perfectly to the second question : Why do I consider those fight scenes stakeless ? Most fights in PH are stakeless in the sense that I don't believe the characters can fail as said previously but also because I don't care about the characters and... because the stakes presented are weightless. The stakes are solely built around the survival of the characters which is fucked with me since most characters are not interesting to me but let me try to clarify :

If the team was to die, aside from their deaths, what would be lost ? Their quest about EC-1101 ? Honestly, we still don't really why it's that important to the plot aside from some vague things about the end of the world. I don't know why they should continue their adventures except because... they're the heroes ? I don't care about them, their quests or even the Wasteland at this point : GB is behind everything and he wants to destroy ESG. Big fucking deal. Sure, I still don't know why he acted like he did and I fear I am not ready for what's in store for me...

As for the creativity aspect : most of the fights looks and feel the same with BJ. Slipping into SATS, Sword, rince & repeat. Sure, she'll get thrown around a bunch, but now that she can heal and repair super fast, she can eat tons of damage without even wincing. Some fights are cool because they force Somber to be creative like the mutated dragon back in chapter 4 I think or the Hydra. Even the flaming ghoul here could be said to be a creative fight scene but it was also a far too long scene (which completes the reasons why I don't like his fight scenes.) It goes on and on and on for hours and nothing new is learned.

Now for some details regarding the two chapters : BJ decided on a whim to go and fetch Silver Spoon, hoping she would deal with the feral ghouls (which is a fucking stretch, how the fuck did you get her to accept to walk back here ?) and Silver Spoon is a Deus Ex Machina who saves the group life from certain death because she was the only one who could save them at the time with the "Inspection" excuse. It's a cope out and Silver Spoon is here just to spit some more expostion about how Pinkie Pie wasn't the one calling the shots but a GB liaison called Quartz. You'll take a bit of "GB is awesome and everywhere" with your denigration of the Mane 6 ?

We also learn that Shears is Snips (what a shock) and he can cast zebra magic on a whim, making BJ's soul suffer because she's also a torture fetish doll. Oh and BJ is now connected to Unity thanks to a brain tumor she's had for no god damn reason on top of us learning that she has two healing talismans and two repair talismans both coming from Zodiac and Deus' corpse. Riveting stuff.

We also learn that... shocking... Rampage is a result of Project Eternity. Didn't I call it like... as soon as Rampage came into play ? Did it really deserve that much of a build up ?

In any case, they ignited a balefire bomb : CLIFFHANGER.

Closing thoughts : Less meaningless fights and chapters, please. It makes my job harder.