Fic recs, December 1st! · 11:54pm Dec 1st, 2020
Scribbler's newest reading is the Descendant's Bailout!
Local coolguy I-A-M could use a little help this month!
Wanted to post so I could signal boost that, so here's five random stories off my RIN! Been adding a lot to it lately. Also, no idea if I'll be able to finish this next reader blog before the end of the year. c.c Also also, Flash Fiction Online appears to be borked, so no idea if that will happen either. Maybe the old editor took her ball and went home? Or the new one's gone mad with power? Who knows. (EDIT: As of posting this, it's been fixed, so I'll just read those later I guess.)
But hey, I hit a review milestone! :)
H: 0 R: 3 C: 1 V: 1 N: 0
If Horses Had Gods by Ponky
Genre: Slice of Life
Twilight asks each of her friends if they believe in God.
I honestly regret deciding to read this story. The best thing I can say about it is that the first chapter assuaged my main fears, that Twilight couldn't ask about God without some understanding of "God" as a concept, which we never see in the show. Well, that and it doesn't seem to take any real side in its exploration of various real-world belief systems, for all that placing the nihilist chapter directly after the 'standard Christian' chapter absolutely sends a message. Mostly, I just don't know what the point of this was, since it comes to no conclusion. Preaching would honestly have been a better path to take, since at least it would be saying something instead of just "believe whatever you want, I guess". It's just bland, for all that I'm not interested in fomenting drama. It's possible there was no way this story would satisfy me.
Vaguely Recommended
Celestia Is Dead (And We Killed Her) by hamster wizard
Genre: Dark Comedy
I mean, she's not getting up.
I don't know if this actually counts as satire, but it is funny as hell. The deadpan delivery just snowballs into utter absurdity the longer the story goes. (And then devolves into realism; Luna would definitely laugh that hard.) This helped wipe away my irritation at the last story.
Recommended
Scrambled Serenity by Ice Star
Reading by Lotus Moon
700th Review of 2020!
Genre: Rom-Com
After a long absence, Discord appears with a surprise for Celestia.
May lightning strike me for saying such a thing, but I had kind of wanted this to have more comedy and less romance. c.c;; Like, it's pretty funny, and the Drama tag doesn't quite feel right, but Celestia and Discord are together at the start of the story, and listening to her call him "Dissy" was nauseating. Still, even as I make this complaint, I kind of feel like I'm being ungrateful and nitpicky. Just enjoy the damn Dislestia, PP, you liked this story.
Recommended for Shippers
Equestria Girls: The True Story by SigmaSonicX
Genre: EQG Parody
There's just something about the mare who stole Twilight's crown.
Hey, you guys remember that time I wrote a story about Twilight thinking all her soon-to-be friends were hot? This is that, but for the first Equestria Girls movie, with more anime jokes. And also Twilight and Rarity are already dating. I was immensely pleased. :D
Recommended
In Colour by Seer
Genre: Sad Romance
Blindness was not what Rainbow Dash expected it to be.
Well'p, that's two things I've read today that've brought tears to my eyes. ;_; No easier way to get me into waterworks than to tell me the story of a dying pony, but this is even better because of the circumstances of Rainbow's decline and the presence of Applejack. But don't get me wrong, this is Flutterdash (at least, I hope it's not also Appledash, that would be even more sad!), and it's probably more sad than shipping, but ugh, it was really good.
Recommended
So, I'm flattered that I got another recommendation... but I admittedly got bummed when I saw what the review actually was. I hope you don't mind me explaining why.
There are two things here that stood out to me. The first is that this work is explicitly not tagged as a comedy, and this isn't the first time I've read this in one of your reviews. I think this is the third story of mine that has not been comedy-tagged that you've reviewed and said you wished it was a comedy, and that seems to color the whole review. More than that, it seems to be the review. One of the huge reasons I wrote this story was to take an idea that would be milked for a comedy and write it as seriously as possible (without venturing into dark/sad content). This feels unfair towards works that were never intended to be comedies and are not labeled as such.
Maybe it's just me not reading things right, but the second bit is one I can't get a clear impression of. Do you think the drama tag doesn't belong, or something else? If so, what made a story about characters having realistic relationship talks/anxieties/etc not romance-drama?
Did you specifically want a how-they-got-together story? Or did you think it was one by the description? I'm not sure if you feel I mislead you here, or you just personally don't like stories where the characters are in a pre-established romance.
That's... kind of what I was going for in terms of overly dorky pet names. That, and Discord just doesn't feel like a constant full-name-basis character.
That's the thing... I kind of feel like my story was just nitpicked, and I'm not even entirely sure why. You said you liked this and even did so enough to recommend it, but this doesn't read like a recommendation. If this was a comment (without that last line), I would genuinely think you hadn't liked my story (but still not be sure why).
Also, I included in the author's notes that I revised this story on 11/17/2020. Out of curiosity, did you read the unrevised version or the new one?
I knew the first one sounded familiar, but I had to go back and find my old review of it before I remembered it. Anyway, I don't agree about the story not having a message. It has a very clear message, and in particular the fact that that nihilism chapter takes the form of angry angst (Rainbow is clearly not a happy pony, and Ponky liberally uses cue words to tell us that she's mean and unpleasant) rather than that of one spoken by an actual nihilist should tell you what the author thinks of that approach. I mean, hey, I'm not a nihilist either, but confusing an entire school of thought with generic teen edginess is... well, the author has done better work in his other stories, is what I'm trying to say.
I was just going to say I'm sure I'd read a review of that first one before, but then Chris already handled that.
Good, reliable Chris.
5408324
I just read it today, so it's the right version.
Ahh! I can definitely see that as an angle. I felt like the drama just wasn't quite thick enough for the tag to be used, while there was still quite a lot of funny stuff to be had. And the setup is so funny, it just seems like it should naturally be a comedy, but now I get why you didn't tag it that way.
Little of column A, little of column C? :B I was expecting more of a one-night stand kind of thing, rather than an established relationship.
I'm sorry I nitpicked so much, I do mean it when I say I liked it. D: Also like... I grabbed four stories off the bottom of my RIL, and three of them were yours, so you've been writing a lot of stuff that really grabs my attention, if that helps.
5408391
Yeah, I definitely got that sense of "took a philosophy course once". :/
5408419
I’ve always used the drama tag to cover stories that had a range of tones for stories focused on emotion, introspection/relationships, and also because “comedy/sad” is an icky combination. (I miss when fimfic had ways to prevent contradictions in genre labels.) Comedy feels incredibly misleading for a story just because it has some jokes, and I just don’t see why the drama tag can’t be on stories that still have a sense of humor at times.
When it comes to the second part, I don’t really know what to do. I really like pre-established romances because so much of fimfic is devoted to how they got together stories, and unless that seemed like it was conveyed in the description, I’m not sure what I’m able to do as a writer. Unless the description was misleading you in some way, I just can’t make expectations going in the same as going out of the story.
Especially since I usually try for the opposite.
5408514
Admittedly, my usual line against pre-established relationships is that non-shippers won't be into the story, but that's more for recommendations than personal taste. I guess I just had no idea what to expect, so congratulations on subverting my suppositions! :O
5408554
Huh, really? I've read a fair amount of romances that certainly work for non-shippers and feature an established romance. Bookplayer's stories come to mind.