It Is Recommendsday, My Dudes #9 · 8:03pm May 19th, 2021
Sometimes, you just need to punch something.
And that's why we lead today with Hard As Diamond by jmj.
A bit of a departure for an author best known for horror pieces, Hard As Diamond catches us up with the colorful human version of Diamond Tiara. Now a young adult, she's taken the unusual path of professional mixed martial arts. The story does several flashbacks and introspective sequences to help it make sense, so don't sweat that part too hard.
But while a lot of the story covers Diamond's title belt defense and the raw brutality of the fight, the real focus is on Diamond's personal growth and experiences. It's a story heavily built around growing up, figuring out who you are and finding your path. Even if that path happens to be directly and repeatedly into a beefy woman's fist.
It's a great mix of character work and action together, combining to an excellent story that pushes through Diamond's character arc.
On the less bloody side of battle, we have Fighting To The Top by SwordTune.
In the EQG short 'Queen of Clubs', there's a four-second shot of CHS' Fencing Club with Sunset as a member. This entire story is built around that one quick moment. It follows Sunset at a regional fencing tournament (as well as in her preparations for it) and in particular her Crystal Prep opponent, Marionette Puppé.
As a whole, the story carries itself like a proper EQG episode - it hits similar notes, has that sort of feel and is just missing somebody turning into a magic-fueled monster by the end. Where this one really shines, though, is the use of fencing and its highly technical framework to build things. Combat helps create character, and fencing's more formalized systems allows for it to be used in a way that doesn't devolve into the chaos of a flailing battle. There's two sequels that are more character-focused, but I call this one the best for how well it uses the somewhat unusual backdrop to create and frame the characters.
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