Discord Teaches Philosophy by CrackedInkWell

When I claimed this story, I received a very strange request from the author almost right away. The question that was posed for me was not whether the story was good, nor whether it was well enough executed to be considered 'the best of the best'. Instead, he asked me to focus on why this story got so popular. The question came at a time in which I had just read it, and was already forming my own opinion on it. Therefore, I will have fun digging into the psychology that gave this story its success.

Before I had even opened up the main body of the story, the story's premise and description do well to make it stand out in the crowd. With so little free time these days, one can only read a few stories at a time, so they must be selective in what they peruse. Many will gloss over the details of stories before they make their selection.

With only a brief description, this story captures the essence of what a typical episode of My Little Pony. It makes the promise of delivering a unique situation for Discord that isn't often explored, yet is something that is expected of him all the same. It's the kind of premise some people might feel disheartened to not have thought of first. I can attest to this fact because I was one of those people when I read the description.

So that more or less explains the draw this story had. Its success, however, cannot rest solely on the draw. A story could still be a flop if its execution isn't done well enough to satisfy the promise it has made. What constitutes a story's success at this stage varies from author to author and the type of audience that is pulled in. Without going too much into the nitty-gritty, for it requires a more in-depth analysis to properly cover, the general consensus is that, at the minimum, characters must seem like themselves and there is something to distinguish the world around them. Even an archetype of the character, so long as it doesn't go against their core beliefs, might be enough to carry a story's popularity.

What does that say about this story's success, though? Does its popularity speak volume to the quality of this story? That would be a resounding yes!

The execution delivers its promise of a show-like quality with its design. The characters all had their quirks. Without going into details of the students, they all ended up being memorable in some way. Of course, there is still so much more a reader could learn about them, but they filled their supportive roles without feeling flat. It could have easily been done without developing their personality, but that added flavor shows the readers the author's care. This also made Discord shine all the more as well.

To be fair, the story isn't perfect. Its conflict, if you can call it that (it would be a mental conflict where one struggles to gain wisdom), doesn't provide much tension. Additionally, the plot was ultimately just rehashing of the old philosophy 'to think, therefore I am.' I can see why the author would ask himself why it became successful over that. However, my counter-argument to this is how Discord provides a unique spin to the debate with his powers alone, and the upbeat tone of their discussion provided an engaging read despite that lack of tension.

Where does that leave us now? We already know it showed great promise, its characters were well designed, and its tone was solid. How does that stack up in a review? Granted, the format of this review is a bit unconventional to allow me to try to answer the question of 'why did it work?', but even if I hadn't had to answer that, it still would have been unconventional for one, simple, fact.

It made me forget I was reviewing during my reading of it.

I read it...then, I read its sequel, almost all the way through until I was called back to complete this review. I hadn't even been asked to read the sequel for the sake of the review, nor was it necessary. Yet, the draw to finish that was there. I could probably nit-pick over something small here and there, but I don't think that would have provided useful insight.

The simple fact of the positives I mentioned as well as my statement is what yield this story its high score, and I am happy to accept this story.

Verdict: 9.5/10

Well... This is unexpected. At least thanks for giving me a straight answer and taking an interest in the sequal. (Side note, it's only partially edited so far.)

I will say, having one of my stories being accepted wasn't what I anticipated, but it's a bonus.

6600772

It's really hard to make a reviewer forget they're reviewing.