GaPJaxie Reviews: Passing Familiarity · 8:37pm Jan 14th, 2022
Back in 2017, I wrote a story called Familiar. It's about love, death, robots, and an AU Rainbow Dash's painful coming of age. I consider it one of the best things I've ever written.
This year The Hat Man wrote a story called Passing Familiarity. It's about love, death, robots, and a pony called Turing Test having a painful coming of age. It is set in a universe heavily inspired by Familiar. It is fanfiction of my fanfiction.
This story was hard to review. On the one hand, getting fanfiction of my fanfiction is an honor. I was delighted to see it published, and even before I opened it my first impulse was suggest that all my friends should read it. On the other, as I read it, it was hard to detach myself from the world I'd created. Passing Familiarity is based on my story, but it isn't one of my stories -- it's THM's and it's full of moments that reflect his unique take on storytelling, characterization, and the setting.
Lots of moments, in other words, that made me spit up my little pony soda and go: "That's not how that's supposed to work!"
I thought about doing a side-by-side comparison, but nobody -- least of all the author -- wants to hear my detailed analysis of how I would have done it. Writing should be evaluated on its own merits, not in comparison to anything else. Lots of my best MLP fanfiction deviates far from the tone of the show, and I don't regret that for a second.
So, pretending I haven't read the original story, it's time to review Passing Familiarity!
Passing Familiarity is the story of Turing Test, a robotic servant made to fulfill her master's every whim. Traditionally, when their pony master dies, Familiars decommission themselves. They were created to serve, and with no master, they have no purpose. Why would they want to keep living?
But Turing Test's master had a last request. She said she loved Turing, and wanted her to live, and asked Turing to keep on living without her -- to be more than a servant, and become her own person.
When we meet Turing in the first chapter, she's doing her best to fulfill this command, but even at a glance we can see that her mindset is all wrong. She isn't her own person, she doesn't even really want to be her own person. She's still a machine that exists to execute its master's orders; the master who she adores merely happens to be dead. And as she boots up every day, puts one hoof in front of the other and goes through the motions of "being an independent pony," there isn't a moment she doesn't wish she hasn't been given that command. She's alive, but she has nothing to live for. She eagerly awaits death.
Enter Gadget, the pony who lives alone in an abandoned factory, who refuses to keep robotic servants and declines to be waited on hoof-to-mane. In a world where every pony is entitled to live like a princess, she makes her own bed and brews her own coffee. Turing is fascinated by this aberrant pony, and follows her -- first like a dog, then like a friend.
Turing was made to be a servant. Being helpful to others feels good. She enjoys making breakfast, she enjoys cleaning, she enjoys telling biological ponies how great they are (all biological ponies are great, her programming says so). Of course, Gadget likes having a new friend, she likes hot coffee being ready for her in the morning, and it is kind of nice that the bed is made for her.
But she wanted a friend, not a servant. In fact, the entire reason she moved into her remote factory and isolated herself was because she didn't want what everypony else had -- a life of indolence.
Can Gadget help Turing be her own person? Can Turing help Gadget find a way to be a part of society instead of hiding from it? Or are they doomed to inevitably destroy each other?
The story has three endings, which explore three different answers to those questions. Ending C is the happiest, but ending B was my favorite. You'll make your own judgements.
Overall, Passing Familiarity is a delightful character piece. Turing and Gadget's complex relationship is well established, and their problems have no simple solutions. The main characters are well realized and easy to empathize with. By the end, I wanted to see them both happy, but I was worried that their relationship was fundamentally unhealthy and all the good intentions in the world couldn't fit it. I think that's a sign of rich characterization; protagonists with more than one layer.
If I had to criticize it, I would say everything outside the main characters feels a little flat. It sometimes feels like Turing (and later Gadget) are actors on stage, performing against a cardboard backdrop. Their performances are delightful, but the story keeps such a close focus on them there's no room for anything else. While you don't have to have read Familiar to enjoy Passing Familiarity I think reading the original story first will enhance your enjoyment, because it explains things about the world in detail which are only mentioned (pun intended) passingly in this story.
Overall, I'd call Passing Familiarity worth reading for everyone, and particularly notable if you find robots compelling characters. The Hat Man has a well-earned reputation as that guy who writes good stories about robot horses, and Passing Familiarity has all the elements that make his stories compelling, along with a few novel twists that make it distinct from his other works.
Also the little horses kiss. 
Five years, and I still remember Familiar. Can't say that for many stories. I'll check this one out.
Real Gs remember Celesti’a, first among slaves, from the writeoff draft
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Ngl makes me feel good that someone other than me remembers that
5627507 I also remember Rainbow’s second familiar being named Ol’ Sloppy-Toppy ans being addicted to paint fumes. Not sure why you changed that.
Is this romantic modernism or a modernist romance?
Or that time Rutger Hauer and Dan Rather were in a band together?
you got a lot of good settings but familliar is the one I revisit the most
"and all the good intentions in the world couldn't fit it."
"and all the good intentions in the world couldn't fix it."?
I'm glad you, overall, liked it. :)
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"Five years, and I still remember Familiar."
"Five years"
...
[checks]
Ah, well, my feeling was right: it isn't that old!
...
It's... only about four years, three months, and some days!
...Yep, time still doing that "passing" thing, looks like... er... Pun in context not intended. :D
How can you prefer ending B over ending C? You monster!
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I claim creative licence.
"Four years, three months and something!" doesn't work nearly as well as an an exclamation of astonishment than "Five years!" :b
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You may have a point, yes. :D