My Fanfic Review on “The Symbiote” · 12:57am Apr 13th, 2019
My fourth fanfic review.
Gosh, I can hardly believe I’ve come to number 4.
Anyway, today I have decided to bestow upon you all a review of a crossover fic called “The Symbiote”. Written by SpyroForLife.
Here’s what it’s about, according to myself:
The Life Aura Center is one of Equestria’s top medical research centers. They’re the producer of spells and medicines that have cured many once-fatal illnesses, and they continue to produce quality technology and cures. No one could ever think that the company was doing anything unethical, but there is one who has her suspicions: Celestia.
Unable to go in without the employees and boss, Blazing Aura, constantly distracting her, Celestia sends Twilight alone to investigate in secret.
What Twilight finds at the center...is something that not only confirms her fellow princess’s suspicions, but also...
...has her meet and become host to a creature. A creature from another world that takes residence in her body, and goes by one very name: Venom.
Forced to stay together while searching for the rest of the alien crew that Venom came with, the two of them form an unlikely bond and alliance that changes their lives forever.
Personally, I’m not really into Venom. As a matter of fact, when I saw a trailer or two for the film of the same name that was coming out last year, I felt...crept out by the character, so I never went to see the film nor do I intend on seeing it ever.
However, when this story here suddenly caught my line of sight, I found myself pretty interested in reading it.
And you know what?
It turned out to be really fun, especially because it felt easier to read something involving Venom than watch something involving him.
With all of that said, the story was definitely an intense and dark one, what with the violent tone it had, such as the heads of bad guys getting chomped off by aliens. But, it was also pretty lighthearted in many parts, with some occasional humorous moments.
The dialogue that the story had was nicely worked. Much of it was really natural, and the lines given to each character fit their personalities like a glove. Some of it may seem to be the opposite of natural, and some of the lines given to Discord and Pinkie may need some fine tuning, but that’s okay. It’s nothing that some look-backs, as well as some pointing out from readers, can’t fix to improve things.
SpyroForLife also did a terrific job at making sure the MLP characters we know and love were in character, as well as giving amazing life to Blazing Aura and the Symobiotes/Klyntar, the alien race that Venom and his crew are a part of.
My absolute favorite parts of the story were the moments with Twilight and Venom, as well as the chemistry and growing bond between them. To me, they make an absolutely charming pair. Venom’s fondness for Twilight helped to really bring out how beautiful and adorable Twilight is, and his development from bad to good was brilliantly executed. Twilight’s growing perspective on what villains can be redeemed and what villains won’t want to or be able to see the light was also something really interesting to note, as well as how she feels about killing someone herself or failing to save an innocent from certain death. Her emotions on those matters were so real!
Now I’m not gonna lie, despite how much I enjoyed this story, there were some things in it that I didn’t like.
The story was definitely not without its use of cussing, which is something that I’m often less than enthused by. At least it wasn’t too recurring, but still...how is it ever necessary to begin with?
It isn’t just because of it being a lack of preference, really. Call me crazy, but I didn’t think some of the cuss words that were used were ones that would be natural for Equestrians to say. A big thing about it is that the world Twilight lives in isn’t supposed to be completely similar to earth to the point of not being an individual planet, so why make it similar in terms of language?
Another problem I found came in the form of two male homosexual dragons, who go by the names of Blaze and Scorch, and are the fathers of a School of Friendship dragon student named Pyro.
I have nothing against the people who are gay, really I don’t. The problem, however, is that the incorporation and use of the gay couple sorta just seemed too unoriginal due to how common MLP fanfic writers often seem to incorporate that sort of stuff.
The only other trouble I had was the violent tone it contained, but again, that’s just me. Kind of like with The Pony of Vengeance, really (which was the second fanfic I reviewed).
In the end, however, “The Symbiote” was something that I found to be really enjoyable, despite the setbacks I mentioned. One might say it’s even better than going to see the 2018 film about Venom.
So, I rate “The Symbiote” a complete 3 1/2 out of 5 stars. Originally, I planned on giving the story four out of five, but, I found the things I didn’t like about it to be too powerful.
Before I conclude this post, I’d like to give a special message to the author.
To SpyroForLife: I highly encourage you to make some sequels to this story, because after it ended, I’ve been wanting to see where things would be going from that moment on, such as if Twilight and Venom could go to outer space. The only thing I’d recommend for you in regards to your first story is to check for grammatical and punctuation errors.
Oh! And by the way, the credit for your 700th like goes to me. I was the one who gave that.
Outside of the note, I’d like to give a special thanks to GivingSpider and Dramamaster829, for helping me out when I needed them in carefully wording some things in my review, as well as for encouraging me for when it came to deciding for myself on how to go about my reviews for fanfics.
I hope to make fanfic reviews that will be absolutely pleasing and agreeable to everyone who reads them.
Huh. Well, the role of any kind of evil is different depending on the fanfic. The inclusion of evil does not mean the author advocates it. Evil is included for a reason. Swearing is understandable for people who have no other way to verbally express their emotions in a single moment. Homosexuality may be included to kind of round out the inclusions and get all the check boxes for different types of people. And violence may be included to show the kind of emotional trauma the characters have to deal with. I am good with any of those things appearing in a story, and doesn't detract from the storytelling at all.
On the other hand, who walks out of a movie theater saying "That was a good movie, but the only problem was they didn't say the F-word enough"? I agree, it's evil and should not be emulated.
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Thanks.
What did you think of the rest of it?
This sounds really good! It’s been on my read it later list for a while now, and I probably won’t get to it for a long time, but now I definitely will eventually!
Thanks for the review, and yeah there probably was a bit too much swearing, but mostly because I just see it as a natural part of Venom's language and Twilight picked up on it too. Definitely coulda been toned back though.
As for the dragon parents, I don't see that as really... notable? The MLP universe is super accepting. A pair of male dragons raising a child isn't any different from a male and female one doing it. I just felt like having it be two fathers with their son instead of a mother and father with their son.
Not really a big deal so I'm kinda surprised you pointed that out.
But I'm just naturally inclusive because people of all different genders and identities exist so. :V Eh, whatever.
Anyway, thanks again for the review and I'm happy you enjoyed it. :D I definitely need to work on certain character dialogue but I'm glad you liked it for the most part. Twilight and Venom's relationship was one of my favorite things to work on.
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You’re welcome.
I’m so glad you liked my analysis.
I hope to see more stories in the future.
By the way, who do you vision to be the voices of the Klyntar characters? What do you vision them to be sounding like?
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Venom and Riot I pretty much imagine sounding like their movie selves. As for the others, honestly I don't have particular voices in mind for them. Probably various degrees of rough, gravely voices, higher depending on their host. Like Hysteria has a singsong, high (comparatively) tone but it's still rough, kinda like... ya know what? Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, you know that crazy mocking way Bellatrix speaks, especially when she's running from Harry in the Ministry of Magic? Like that.
Whereas Scorn is more level-headed and I basically imagined her speaking like Celestia, just with a lower pitch. You can pretty much just take any of the voices of the characters they're bonded with and pitch them down, and that's how their symbiote speaks, just with their own vocal quirks based on their personality. Slasher talks kinda fast, Scream growls a lot, etc.
Sorry I don't really have better descriptions, it's just something I didn't put too much thought into. :'D
Eh, while Venom may be....creepy, some more modern versions of the character have made him more an anti-hero, especially as the symbiote is moreso influenced by the host. So, he's FAR more heroic nowadays, even been an agent of SHIELD IMS