Welcome to WAR! I am SwordTune, the manager, representative, only employee, and sole proprietor of “We Are Reviews, SP.” Fresh off the factory line, today we have a review for “Keep Your Chin Up and Your Expectations High” by FamousLastWords. 

EKeep Your Chin Up and Your Expectations High

• MLP: FiM
• Romance
• Slice of Life

Sandbar is a bit insecure about the size difference between himself and his wife, Yona. However, he learns an important lesson from a friend about what it really means to be a stallion.

• Braeburn
• Little Strongheart
• Sandbar
• Yona

FamousLastWords · 5.2k words  ·  197  4 · 2.9k views

Plot Analysis: “Keep Your Chin Up and Your Expectations High” (don’t expect me to write that out every time) keeps its plot concise and to the point. There is a single problem, Sandbar’s insecurities with his masculinity, and a direct solution. In a resolution that would make Twilight Sparkle proud, an inspirational pep-talk from Braeburn addresses and alleviates his concerns. 

Characters: For a short story, Keep Your Chin Up has a dense cast of characters. Aside from the four who are central to the plot and message, Silverstream and Gallus are featured as well as side characters. Their happy relationship acts almost like a foil to Sandbar’s internal worries about his relationship to Yona.

I must profess to generally neglect Sandbar when I think or consider the Young Six. And personally, that makes it very refreshing to see an interpretation of his character a few years after the end of the show. It gives off a similar sensation as the series finale, where we can find hints of their lives happening beyond our perception as readers and viewers.

Dialogue: The story’s plot and character strengths do end up causing a slight weakness in its dialogue. But it’s not a bad one, rather it is an overused one. In order to fill the audience in on what has happened behind the scenes, dialogue between the characters exposits context information rather than present two friends meeting again. Of course, this happens mostly as characters meet each other, and it isn’t a constant. However, the story also very short, and each character introduction takes up a larger portion of the story than a novelette. 

Very infrequently, I find the story had odd word choices for its dialogue. This largely comes from Yona, as her imperfect speech can be difficult to consistently write with. But it’s not limited to only her. Sandbar at one point, when talking to Braeburn, asks “was that your wife?” rather than “was she your wife?” It’s an unnoticeable detail, and without context, both can work, but at the moment I expected “she” instead of “that” and it caught my attention.

Overall: 10/10. This story exceeded my expectations, which perhaps is a sign that I should keep my expectations high. For fans of anime and/or Netflix, all I need to tell you is that I am reminded of Beastars when reading this. For everyone else, here is the long version. “Keep Your Chin Up” poses two core questions: What does it mean to be masculine in a relationship? And how do interracial (interspecies in this context) couples overcome existing barriers between their peoples? 

The story addresses these questions with an internal solution. It acknowledges that external pressures do affect how a couple feels about their relationship. Yet Braeburn’s advise asserts that you cannot change what others think about you and your loved ones. You can only change what you do, and thus only the happiness of the couple matters. Conveniently, Sandbar’s worries about his masculinity are resolved with his worries about interspecies relationships. I think it’s interesting that they are not separate. Because Yona is a yak, and thus naturally larger stronger, he is insecure about his own status. Accepting the differences between their species automatically alleviates his masculinity worries. And it makes me interested to see the author tackle a situation where the two issues are separated a little more. 

The length prevents it from exploring further into this topic, and from the personal experiences of people I have known, it is never so easy as to simply keep your head down and focus on yourself. But that’s fine because it doesn’t try to overextend itself and tackle larger problems of interracial/cultural relationships and families. It addresses the significant starting hurdle of the self, one that has to be overcome before getting to the harder questions.

For the Author: I have very few recommendations for improvement. Aside from the aforementioned word choice, which is purely stylistic, the only suggestion I would have is to allow yourself more room to write. The pacing would have worked just as easily with seven thousand words instead of five, but with more room to write, you could better develop the character’s feelings as well as the themes of the story. 

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For the Reader: Just read it.

<For archive purposes: 10/10>

7449583
Thank you so much!!! I really appreciate this review and that you enjoyed the story! I'll definitely your words to heart and get back out there to keep improving and writing more content that people can enjoy!

You rock and thanks again!

7449583
So... we've finally got another masterpiece among the great ones. Neat.