Draft for one comment. · 4:26am Mar 19th, 2022
For TCB: Rewrite of 1996
Warning, the comment below is arguing for realism with viruses and mutation, if you dislike it, then you can give me a thumbs down and move on instead of replying with a single comment stating your displeasure from me asking for some basic logic and realism in a story that goes perfectly with the goal of the pony wanting to manipulate humanity with no issues.
I think Mr. Author forgot or didn't know that Viruses are unpredictable, can mutate very quickly with varying effects, and don't have hiveminds. Prancer's goal of using a virus to "root out the evil's of humanity" sounds ok on paper, but in practice, the virus can mutate away from its purpose or go to the extreme contrary to what Prancer wanted. Especially if this virus is magical in nature and multiplies much faster than any known virus, which can cause even more havoc. If this virus is supposed to make humans more empathetic and kind....what's stopping the virus to increasing their capability for it until all the humans can do is be nice? Unable to experience negative emotions? It will quickly end up being jarring and creepy. This "Going from point A to point B with no deviations or extremities" scenario the virus goes in isn't exactly how it will go, at all. Weaponizing viruses to achieve your goal of Utopian future would have a higher chance of backfiring on you if anything. Having the virus being able to spread across infinite timelines is just asking for trouble to brew. Viruses don't have a kill switch, Bacteria do.
The most insulting thing about this is that the virus is shown to mutate with ONLY positive advantages to it. No, just because it's magical in nature doesn't mean it can only get positive mutations. Most mutations are neutral, with many mutations being harmful making the beneficial ones be the smallest amount. It is illogical for the Prancer Virus to give only positive effects for it to spread easier, and not have a tank load of harmful mutations that humanity and all animals into much more dangerous creatures. This is a common problem with many media, this story is not an exception. They focus solely on viruses as the sole method of infections, when there's multiple types of infection types to choose from. They focus on "Can potentially spread fast" part of viruses so much that they forgo the other types despite them being better fitting to the situation and forget that faster spreading means more mutations that must happen. Media treats viruses like they are bacteria, as in they spread while maintaining one specific purpose throughout most of it's existence. Do they do this on purpose only because virus sounds more intimidating?
The second half of the story is a series of "Telling, but not Showing" of the events over the course of a single year. the virus overtakes humanity in only one year with zero resistance or fallout from mass negative mutations. It's like the author was getting tired of the story and wanted to end it as soon as possible or didn't want to write any technical terms anymore.
You can't have viruses that spreads extremely rapidly, but not have it undergo massive amounts of mutations that may or may not go against the creators wishes. It was shown that Prancer had no control over it once she finished initially making it. Where are the consequences of making a virus that is the fastest at spreading ever?
This stories lack of basic knowledge on how viruses or mutations work is troublesome. Even more so when the author decided to have the pandemic start in China, this hasn't aged well at all. But it's kind of fitting given the author's character.
The author clearly does not have the ability to think through everything; as you point out, such logical deductions would force the novel to go an entirely different course, which is not what the author planned, and as a result, it will not take place.
cookie clicker
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What makes it even worse is that after I made that comment I learnt that there’s two different types of viruses, RNA and DNA viruses; neither of which fits the authors description of what a virus is. RNA is unstable, but can produce many mutations that can both benefit or hinder it, while DNA is stable and can fulfill its original purpose, but is inflexible.
Mr Author apparently thinks that viruses can both be stable, but also still produce mutations very fast.....wut? Like he didn’t even need to go down on this illogical route, he could’ve gone with a DNA virus and gotten the same results; well, except for the virus going too far with making humans nice and empathetic to the point that’s the only thing they can express.
Clearly, he’s played too much plague.inc and based his story solely from that game, not doing any actual research when he could’ve easily gotten info he needed about viruses.
I think “didn’t take place” would be better wording since ya know, the fic already happened.