Fic Memorability: a Quick Look Back

One thing that all great stories have in common is that they're memorable.  Whether you love them or hate them, great stories stick with you, key scenes and emotions remaining locked in your memory long after you've read them.

Of course, lots of terrible stories are memorable, too.  So I'm not saying that being memorable makes a story great; just that being memorable is one of the prerequisites to a story being great.

With that in mind, today I want to look back a bit at my old 6-star reviews.  Excluding Binkie Pie and Project Horizons, it's been more than two and a half years since I've read any of those fics, and I found myself wondering how well I remembered those stories--and whether the stories I rated highly stuck with me as well as I might have assumed they would.

So, I came up with a few categories which broadly describe how well I remember these stories which I haven't read in years, looked through the 6-Star Reviews By Star Rating page, and sorted the stories accordingly.  Head down below the break to see which fics stuck with me, and which ones... didn't.

Fandom Classics Part 210: Forever and Again and Again

To read the story, click the image or follow this link.

Yesterday, it got close to 70 degrees.  Tomorrow, there's snow in the forecast.  What's a man supposed to do with this kind of this kind of schizophrenic weather?  Stay inside and read fanfics, I guess.  Head down below for my review of Titanium Dragon's Forever and Again and Again.

Episode Talk: S7E3, Flurry of Emotions

Well, did you all join me in watching that terribly disheartening mess they put on TV over the weekend?  Did you cringe, as I did, at all the missed opportunities, the flatly boneheaded decisions by those in charge, and the questionable calls?

I'm talking about the Wild losing to the Blues, of course.  Talk about a wasted year.

But from what I hear, there was another show in town on Saturday.  Head down below the break, and I'll tell you what I thought of that, too.

Mini-Reviews Round 182

So, I've noticed that since April first, despite my thorough and definitive (and definitely not tongue-in-cheek) trashing of it, Cold in Gardez's The Carnivore's Prayer has gained a total of four upvotes and zero downvotes.  God, it's like you guys don't even listen to me when I tell you that something is terrible and nobody should like it.  You know, like I so often do.

On that note, here are some short reviews of things I recently read.  Make sure you vote appropriately on the following stories (actually reading them is optional); remember, the only purpose of those green and red thumbs is to allow you, the reader, to magnify whatever summary judgement Chris renders!  Do your duty, below the break.

Fandom Classics Part 209: Changeling Courtship Rituals

To read the story, click the image or follow this link.

After yesterday, I'm still feeling overfull with the milk of human kindness (incidentally; that's always seemed like kind of a gross metaphor to me.  Human kindness is warm and fuzzy, and warm and fuzzy milk sloshing over a glass and spilling all over everything is a terrible mental image).  But I'll try to resist the urge to just go around handing out 5-stars like candy!  I know you all come here for OPINIONS, and I'm not going to let your generosity weaken them!

Though, I wouldn't mind handing out a bunch of 5-stars, since that would mean that I get to read a bunch of superb fanfics... well, sounds like a win-win, doesn't it?  Well, we'll see what happens.  In fact, we'll see right now!  Click down below the break for my review of Codex Ex Equus's Changeling Courtship Rituals.

HOLD THE FREAKING PRESSES

So I got home today and there was a giant box on my doorstep.  "Hmm," I said to myself, "What's this?  I don't remember ordering anything recently."  Then I remembered that PresentPerfect asked for my address not to long ago.  I assumed it was to send me a book (on those rare occasions when ponyfolk ask for my address, it's almost always to send me a book), but this box was way too big for that, and not nearly heavy enough.  What gives?

So I open it, and what do I see?

What.

WHAT.

WHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAT.

I... I don't even know what to say right now.  This is the most ridiculously, absurdly amazing thing that anyone's ever done completely out of the blue for me (okay, I assume it wasn't "out of the blue" for you guys, since crazy awesome plushies don't just happen on their own... but it was out of the blue to me).  And she's even got that gorgeous dress from A Hearth's Warming Tale!  

I'm honestly tearing up right now.  I'm touched that I've done something--even something as silly-sounding as "writing a bunch of fanfic reviews"--that you guys have enjoyed so much, and... okay, so this plushie is ridiculously nice, but even if it weren't... just the idea that you guys would all go out of your way to try to do something so nice for me, someone who you've never even met in person, is kind of overwhelming.

I can't put the words in the right order right now, so I'll just repeat myself: this is an amazing, wonderful, unexpected gift, and the meaning behind it is humbling.  Thank you, all of you who were part of this.  It's incredible.

Episode Talk: S7E01-02, Celestial Advice/All Bottled Up

Well, a new season has come, and I'm here to talk about it!  Okay, about 90% of what I'm here to do is post screenshots of Carrot Top, but that's good too, right?

Oh, and happy Easter, I guess, if you're into that sort of thing.  But below the break, we talk about only the important stuff: my opinions--arranged mostly as a mass of "here's something I think"s rather than as a cohesive review or summary--on the S7 opener!

And Carrot Top.

Below!

Mini-Reviews Round 181

In case you somehow haven't seen this elsewhere, the Royal Canterlot Library is looking to refeature an author, and we're giving everyone a chance to vote on what fanfics better represent their authors than the ones we actually featured!  The nominations have died down, so even if you were following before, now's a good time to go through the thread and vote for the stories you think best "correct the record."

Also, I hear something pony-related will be happening over the weekend.  Of course, so's Easter, so we'll see if I get to it before Monday, i.e. in time to post about it when it's still at least vaguely fresh-ish.  For now, though, we'll still have to content ourselves with fanfiction... so head on down below the break for my reviews of some of the good (hopefully!) stuff!

Fandom Classics Part 208: The Centerpiece of My Collection/The Collection of My Centerpiece

To read the story, click the image or follow this link.

The NHL playoffs start today, so reserve a comfy spot on your couch: the first round is multiple games every day, so you're going to be there a long time!  And if you don't already have a rooting interest, consider my Minnesota Wild a viable ponyfan pick.  Why, you ask?  Well, they are basically Carrot Top: the team.  Consider:

1) They've tried their best, but they're not quite there,
2) They kicked a puck and say it's just not fair,
3) [They're] A simple team living simple dreams.

So I'm high on the Wild in a way I haven't been in years, if only because "a rumor that's not quite as it seems" would seem to promise that our record of postseason futility against the Chicago Blackhawks will finally come to an end when we inevitably meet them in round two.

So, hockey talk over; let's talk about fanfics!  Click down below the break for my thoughts on Geldon's The Centerpiece Of My Collection / The Collection Of My Centerpiece.

Reviewer Reviews: Titanium Dragon

Over the weekend, I was introduced to long-running webcomic Gastrophobia, which I've been dutifully archive bingeing on since.  A comedy/action comic that's much heavier on the former than the latter, set in ancient Greece, with just enough mythology gags to make me feel smart when I read it without feeling like it's all going over my head?  Yeah, that's a good'n.

But if you're more interested in fanfiction than in Amazonians, then perhaps you'd like to learn a little more about one of the other fanfic reviewers that are out there trying to separate the wheat from the chaff in a doomed quest for horsefame for the benefit of you, the prospective reader?  Head below the break for my thoughts on Titanium Dragon's fanfic reviews.

Mini-Reviews Round 180

These days, I rarely read incomplete fics.  The fact is that there are so many finished works out there that there's little incentive to take a chance on something that might never be finished--and let's face it, unfinished fics are an ever-present risk one runs when reading incomplete stories.

But that's not to say that I never read incomplete stuff!  So head down below the break, and take a look at my thoughts on three still-in-the-making stories.

Fandom Classics Part 207: A Pony Walks Into a Bar...

To read the story, click the image or follow this link.

Why does AJ have a bunch of red Solo cups sitting next to her?  She's clearly perched at a bar; why would a bar be using disposable cups?  It doesn't look like they're set up for beer pong or some other one-off activity; just what is going on here?  I do not have an answer; all I know is what I've reviewed.  And today, what I've reviewed is A Pony Walks Into a Bar..., by chief maximus.  Check out my thoughts, below the break.

Mini-Reviews Round 179

Well, that was fun.  Doubly fun for me, actually; I was out of town for a friend's wedding on Saturday, so it was a doubly great day!  But one day's enough; let's get back to my normal M.O., shall we?  Short reviews of stuff I recently read, below the break.

Your Much-Anticipated April 1st Review

Hello and welcome to a very special April 1st edition of One Man's Pony Ramblings!  As you all know, I mostly write reviews of fanfiction around here.  But let's face it; there are a lot of ways to write a review, and I've been sticking with my particular idiom for over five years now.  It's time to branch out, if only for one day, and try something a little... different.

That's right, today only, we'll be experimenting with a RAGE REVIEW!  Surely, the ideal format to calmly and rationally discuss my feelings about a work of fiction.  But of course, a rage review is traditionally directed at an awful story.  Well, no worries there, either: I found a teen-rated gorefic (always guaranteed to be edgy!) written in 2012 (when standards were often lax) by an author who's notorious for taking his ponyfic personally (just look at his short bio for proof).  Should be a real trainwreck, alright.

So, head on down below the break for the most brutal takedown this side of an MMA ring!

[But first, if I may pause to be serious for just one moment: I'd like to preemptively thank both the author, and the RR folk, for being good-humored about me poking fun at their fic and their reviews, respectively.  I hope y'all will take this exactly as seriously as I did]

Now, onward, to my review of...