Fic recs, April 14th: Darth Link 22 edition · 1:44pm Apr 14th, 2022
The lack of exclamation point means more bad news. :/ Once again, I take it upon myself to memorialize an author who we've recently lost with a look through some of their stories.
Fact is, I didn't really know Darth Link, and yet the news of his sudden and accidental passing hit me kind of hard regardless. I'd only read a few of his stories beforehand, but I think he was just one of those names I always saw around the site, no matter where I went, just being a cool, fun person. You hate to lose someone like that. :(
And I maybe didn't pick his best works to review here? These were pulled just sort of randomly, by what sounded interesting. So, apologies for that, it's not the greatest memorial blog, but I did on the whole enjoy reading what he's left us.
H: 1 R: 2 C: 3 V: 0 N: 1
Post Nuptials
Genre: Drama/Light Shipping
Tensions ran high during the royal wedding. It's going to take some time, talk and understanding for things to cool down.
By the time I got into chapter 2, it was clear to me what this was: a fixfic. This story very doggedly pulls together every misstep of characterization from seasons 1 and 2 and either explains or apologizes for it, sometimes both. And yet? If I'm gonna read a story like that, I'll very much appreciate it being as nuanced as this is. Yes, this is hellbent on cramming every last episode detail it can into itself, but the larger than usual word length means there's a lot more time to explore the characters' reasonings and interactions. Just from the first chapter, I knew this was going to be good. Are there missteps? A few, mostly chapters with more than one POV. But there's also some great Momlestia feels, and Spike's motivations for what he does were something I very much appreciated, with solid child logic. And yeah, there are a few more romantic bits, which was weird since there's no tag, but it's not a focus. And it's extra good because this is Darth Link's first fanfic. I'd say he did a pretty bang-up job!
Recommended
Wedding Bell Blues
Genre: Random Shipping Comedy
As it turns out, "Cadance was replaced by a changeling" was not a sufficient explanation for what had just happened.
I am of so many minds about this story. I laughed out loud more or less through the entire thing, yet the author even states that toward the end, he kind of lost track of where he was going and ended up unsatisfied with it. Despite having been started right after season 2, this wasn't finished until just a few years ago, and the final chapter is titled extremely well. Also, the humor is not exactly greeaaat? This is ten years old, I'll just spoil the setup: We've got Shining x Chrysalis, and Cadance x Twilight, and in both cases, the story is about the Sparkle sibling being pursued unrelentingly by the aforementioned mare. Cadance's approach is really borderline not okay, while Chrysalis is portrayed more like your standard Crazy Girlfriend. (Though I have to say, despite not liking either of these pairings, the comedy kept me in the story.) There's also a really good G3 Rainbow Dash joke — possibly the only one I've ever seen — that nevertheless spirals into over-the-top weirdness that might get a little uncomfortable by the end? There's a lot of "women are from Venus, men are from Mars" shit in here is what I'm getting at. And given the underwhelming ending, it's kind of hard to look back on the whole thing with as much enthusiasm as I had in the first few chapters. Still, there's a lot more jokes in here than what I mentioned in the review. Kind of worth it.
Recommended If You're Not Bothered by That Kind of Thing
Aftermath of the Games
Genre: EQG
After the Friendship Games, Twilight Sparkle has a lot of new things to deal with. Like… friends.
There's nothing quite like starting a six-chapter story and seeing a note at the end of the first that says "this will only be three chapters". I think it goes a long way toward explaining why this kind of gets muddled in the middle. The first half is really good, exploring Sci-Twi's psyche post-Friendship Games and doing a lot of legwork in making her her own character distinct from Princess Twilight. (The most interesting decision? Sci-Twi's parents are dead.) But once pony Twilight shows up, it turns into a mess of infodumping and somewhat questionable takes on canon. I mean, chapter four is literally nothing but explaining all this new stuff that's apparently happened post-season 5, just not on screen, and it's a lot to take in. The end result really dilutes any effect the final chapters might have had. And of course, there's a sequel that will never be finished. :( I do think this is better than the sum of its parts, but only just.
Recommended
Outrage
Sequel to Post Nuptials
Genre: Drama
Twilight Velvet deserves an explanation for what happened at her son's wedding.
This is really more of an overdrama, if you ask me. Twilight's parents storming through the castle, shouting at ponies, fighting with Applejack, you name it. Understandably upset because no one will tell them what's happened, they nevertheless are acting on not even half the story the entire time, and I found it rather tedious. As a sequel to Post Nuptials, it really only serves to let us know what Luna was doing while Celestia was sleeping, which was talking to Twilight's angry parents, there you go, now you can skip this. :/ I get what he was going for, it just needed as much nuance as its predecessor.
Not Recommended
The Golden Touch
Genre: Comedy/Dark/Action
Desperate for revenge, Queen Chrysalis gains her ultimate weapon: The ability to turn anything she touches to solid gold.
Aw geez, this is… Mnf, so, the first two chapters are hilarious. Queen Chrysalis fits her "delusional, over-the-top evil idiot" role quite well, and her plans are complicated by the presence of her daughter, the adorable and completely useless Pupa. Then the invasions start up, and this story kind of really wants to be a dark action/adventure with pulse-pounding battles of life or death between Chrysalis and the Mane Six. There is some comedy in there, but it's not balanced well enough to make this a dark comedy. The end result? It feels like two stories were mashed together, and their parts do not mix at all. The tone is the issue, swinging wildly from ridiculous comedy directly into "you just turned my friend to gold and we don't know if that can be undone so she might as well be dead". I'm a fan of comedies that become serious toward the end, but this does not achieve that in anything like a natural manner. Plus, I have to mention at this point, I'm not sure Darth Link ever had an editor, because all of these stories so far have been chock full of fairly obvious typos, and this one is no different. <.< There was a lot of promise here, but whatever you come into this for, you'll likely find yourself dismayed that the other story is present.
Recommended Only If You Don't Mind Serious Action in Your Comedy
Forty-Two Troublesome Trixies
Genre: Comedy
Spike's nice day alone in the castle is interrupted by the Great and Powerful Trixie.
Aw, now this is great. :D Just pure slapstick hilarity, brought about by Trixie accidentally reducing herself to a few dozen single-minded tiny clones. It's good opportunity to recreate some classic scenes, and Spike always delivers in these kinds of situations. This one, I have no caveats for, you'll like it!
Highly Recommended
Let's Have a Battle
Genre: EQG Action Comedy
The Rainbooms are really in for it after the Sirens find a way to become an even bigger problem than before.
So, this is really great. Ridiculous concept, fantastic comedic timing, and great action scenes and "meanwhile" cutaways used for even more comedic timing. The problem? Look, there's usually a reason a person doesn't want to be credited as a commissioner with a fanfic. And the more I read this story, the more I noticed the visual focus returning to the same details over and over, the more I started to realize: this is someone's fetish. And if I could have just ignored that, this would have been great, but nooooo… And no fault of the author's, either. :|
Recommended Only If You Don't Think About It Too Much
I really enjoyed The Random Royal Funeral. It's not very long, but I greatly enjoy the comedy.
Very sad, though. I was looking forward to more on several of his stories that I've been tracking.
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5650731
I was actually going to include that story in these reviews, and then I realized the timing might be inappropriate. :C So I'll publish that one at a later date.
That's a shame, I really enjoyed several of his fics!