It Is Recommendsday, My Dudes #50 · 10:22pm Mar 2nd, 2022
As I've said in previous blogs, sometimes the topic to just falls into my lap.
This week's might on the surface seem to be war fics - that would be incorrect. It's more the consequences of war fics. Too damn many of the warfic crowd only care about the blind HOORAH cinematic bull, or if they do look at the consequences? The looks tend to be rather shallow and the literary equivalent of "I'm sad :( :( :(" without embracing what that means.
Today's two selections are both the first in a series that approaches the subject with more sobriety and thought than the average. And it's helped that they're both written by damn good authors.
The first of those authors is the Barcast's own Flammenwerfer with (and to likely no one's surprise) the masterful The Flower Mare.
First of a trilogy (with two side stories), it starts simply enough: The CMCs are doing a school project to make a flower arrangement. To do that, they need flowers. They want something big and special and different - so they skip the Flower Trio's shop and go to see the weird new mare who arrived in town recently to sell flowers. Which is how they meet Schneeblume, an immigrant from far off Alemaneia.
But of course Scootaloo senses an adventure and sticks her nose deep into places where it shouldn't be - until she finds Schnee's uniform from the Equidae Continental War.
And then with resignation, she tells the children too young to experience it what war was like.
The follow-up stories delve deeper in as Schnee opens up - and finally reach a finale with some of the best catharsis I've had the pleasure to read. And the characters feel... well, I don't have a better way to put it. They feel appropriately German. When <REDACTED SPOILER> has a conversation with Schnee in the third story, I can practically hear my grandmother-in-law (who immigrated out of Germany just after the war and still tells stories of taking shelter from Allied bombing raids) saying those same things in that heavy, Black Forest German accent she's never lost.
And the story itself hits hard. Particularly lately, when the latest generations have lived through the Long Peace and have a distance our parents and grandparents (and great-grandparents, you damn kids) lack. It should hit hard. The character emotion in this piece is just stellar and it gets me every time. I won't do it a disservice by saying more where it says plenty, and with greater skill.
Following that, we have My Neighbor, a work by the ever-popular Antiquarian.
One of four this time, the story has a bit of a fantasy/reality blend: it's the Equestria Girls world, but also ours as well. So magical horse teenagers, but in a world where, say, the events of WWII, the Great Depression, and so on still happened.
The thread of the stories follows Mr. Arrow, a neighbor of the Apple family. An old man, lonely as the world's moved on and his life's slowed down. Then one day, there's an incident next door - and you're all smart enough to guess which one - and Mr. Arrow does just one little thing to help.
From there, the stories blossom outwards. The first is a wonderful piece that establishes the relationship and shows the way a little bit of kindness spreads out. But the others are just as impactful - putting the girls we know and chatter over into situations from our own world. Much of which go back to Mr. Arrow's past and the things he's dealt with, particularly back in the war.
The first stands on its own perfectly, I think, as a tale of good people doing good. But the rest add to it in wonderfully complex ways - Their Neighbors is particularly relevant right now, and I think something a lot of folks can relate to.
In all, it's typical Antiquarian: well-written, packed with character, thoughtfully given to context and telling an important story.
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