Historical Gaps, by The Cyan Recluse
Zero-ish spoiler summary: Equestrian history is full of forgotten civilizations, relics, and stories. Daring Do has learned many of them... but she's careful not to let too much truth into her stories. Some truths are better off lost.
A few thoughts: For all that this is, at its heart, a pretty typical take on soft Tyrantlestia ("soft Tyrantlestia" meaning that she's working for the greater good and regrets the measures she's taken), it does a nice job of not getting too dark for its own good. In addition, it uses its shifts from past to present and back to good effect, keeping the pace up through constant switches. It never quite reconciles "genocide-inflicter" with "Celestia," though--one's ability to accept that premise is likely to guide how much one can enjoy this story. It also has a fair number of editing errors (mostly missing commas and spellcheck errors); not enough to impede comprehension at any point, but a sufficient number to be a distraction.
Recommendation: If you enjoy tales about a more vicious past, and aren't put off by slightly shaky writing, give this a look. It's probably not a good fit for anyone who can't see Celestia committing mass-murder in the distant past, though--or at least, who can't provide their own explanation for how she's changed between then and the show's present-day.
Final Mashtination, by Rinnaul
Zero-ish spoiler summary: Button Mash wakes up one morning to discover that the universe is conspiring to kill him in increasingly unfair ways--every time he restarts
A few thoughts: While I may not be much for video games, I know all about unfair deaths--I've had more than a couple of characters unjustly done in over the course of twenty years of D&D-playing. So some of the ways Mash tries to deal with an unfair DM are entirely relatable to me, which really helped my enjoyment of this fic. Ending framing device notwithstanding, this is basically just variations on the summary's concept, but it's short enough (and has enough variations on that concept) to keep it from getting stale before it concludes.
Recommendation: If you're in the market for something quick and silly that takes death exactly as serious as gamers ever do, this would be an excellent choice. But if you aren't at least a little intrigued by the summary, it's probably not the fic for you--there's not a lot else here.
That Place Beyond the Sea..., by Skyblitz
Zero-ish spoiler summary: Twilight and Celestia go to the shore of the Eternal Sea. All of Twilight's friends have passed on--and unbeknownst to her, she now faces a choice.
A few thoughts: There's some really lovely imagery in this piece, with frankly beautiful descriptions (of location, especially) which are florid but fitting for the tone of the fic. Unfortunately, the rest of the story isn't up to the standards of those descriptions. The plot is one that I've seen in stories many times, the setup is over reliant on stringing the reader along, and far too much of the story involves quoting Enya. Not full block quotes of characters reciting lyrics, thank goodness, but enough lines from the LotR soundtrack to detract from the reading experience.
Recommendation: If you're still relatively fresh to the fandom and haven't burned out on this particular brand of immortality angst, and if you like your prose on the purplish side (but not inappropriately so), this would be a serviceable example of the genre. Otherwise, it's probably not the best fic for you.
I'm not the only one! I'm sorry that you hated "A Royal Problem," but so happy that I'm not all alone!
ReplyDeleteRelated to the last story, did the way various lyrics from "Into the West" contradicted details of the setting bother you? I love the song, but things like the moon apparently rising in the west always bugged me.
DeleteI wasn't that big a fan of it either. I mean, I didn't HATE it, but the ending was the only part that saved it for me. I liked the Daybreaker dream sequence and pretty much nothing else.
DeleteSee, for me, between the two dream sequences Luna's was far superior. No contest.
DeleteI'd have to watch both scenes again and compare to say which one I think is actually better in objective terms. But I enjoy flashy high concepts, and Daybreaker came along with exactly what I wanted at the end of an episode that had really lost me until that point. So that was my personal highlight. Honestly, I actually forgot about Luna's dream sequence entirely until you just now reminded me of it.
DeleteWhy exactly did you hate A Royal Problem? I mean you don't have to like an episode just because others do, but a little explanation would be nice at least.
ReplyDeleteSeconding this. As I said above, I didn't much like the episode either, but I'd like to hear Chris's thoughts in more detail.
DeleteThis is a vague suspicion, as I haven't actually seen the episode, but... my best guess is it's something to do with reformed-Starlight.
ReplyDeleteThat seems a pity. We've been overdue a Royal Sisters Episode for several seasons, and I would have been keen to see one at last. Sadly, not being a reformed-Starlight fan by any means, this feels like a missed opportunity.
Not really "Reformed Starlight" but more Starlight has a Hammer, and all problems look like Nails.
DeleteI've got a lot of sympathy for the episode, because it's a larger-stakes episode version of what I put Monster through when Scootaloo and Diamond Tiara were fighting. :)
To be honest, even as someone who groans out loud at the mere mention of Starlight's name, she was far from the worst thing in the episode.
DeleteIf you ask me, I think the episode's cardinal sin is the characterisation of Royal Sisters. The whole plot revolves around them both repeating the worst mistakes they ever made, as if neither of them learned anything from their last "falling out." It's character regression of the worst sort. And the fact that it's Celestia and Luna backsliding in such a manner makes it a thousand times worse.
DannyJ: Yes. Less so specifically on Luna's end, in that she is still portrayed as the lesser of the two and one can rationalize part of her actions based on that. But from Celestia's end, why hasn't Luna been put in a role that has her interact with LITERALLY ANYONE WHO IS AWAKE? My god, this is the easiest imaginable step to take.
DeleteAlso, Celestia, please don't make BS assertions about how you AND EQUESTRIA NEED LUNA MORE THAN ANYTHING IN THE WHOLE DAMN WORLD when anyone who paid attention to the first few minutes of the series could tell you that's not true, based on the fact that 1) you apparently did fine without her for a thousand years and 2) Equestria did fine without her for a thousand years, and in fact was not even aware of the fact it was missing anything.
Celestia definitely came off worst in this, but no way am I giving Luna's characterisation a pass. She supposedly felt so guilty about Nightmare Moon and turning against her sister that she tortured herself with a dream demon for YEARS in recompense. And now she's back to her old petty jealousy just because Celestia didn't notice her flowers? Does she WANT to go back to the moon?
DeleteMy word. That sounds genuinely bad. Now I'm really interested in hearing Chris' take on the episode in detail, because up until now I thought that it was a generally well-received entry, especially since it got a bucket-load of complimentary posts.
ReplyDeleteI'll be interested to see as well. This episode's gotten a very positive reaction even from fan segments who are tiring of the show, so I was surprised to see not just ennui but actual hate of it. Though it seems a lot of that stems from 1) hating anything without Starlight in it, sight unseen, or 2) frankly, expecting more of the show than might be reasonable (characters being oblivious to things the audience has no trouble figuring out is a long-standing staple of kids' shows, after all).
ReplyDeletePerhaps I'm imagining things, but between my time spent on YouTube, and blogs such as this, I've noticed a peculier trend: namely, that the "YouTube Reviewer/Analyst" crowd and the "Fanfic Writer/Reviewer" crowd hold opposing opinions on many episodes; Analyst crowd loves episodes like "Bats!"/"Royal Problem", Fanfic crowd hates them. Ditto for things like Twilicorn, Reformed Discord, or whether the show had gotten better or worse since season 3. I've always been curious, could it perhaps be due to a difference in audience demographics? Are the tastes of people who are drawn to the writing and critique of fanfiction so different from those who review/analyze the show itself, that it leads to many of these opinions becoming, for want of a better term, factionalized?
ReplyDeleteNot sure why the reply function has been broken all day, but this is in response to Grymnoire above.
ReplyDeleteI think the fanfiction community is harder on the show because they have a more firsthand involvement in storytelling. Others are more likely to be forgiving of flaws in an episode, if they even notice, because they haven't had it hammered into them what the dos and don'ts are. Plus the fanfiction side is writing for a different demographic. Both authors and readers are used to more depth and subtlety than the show can expect kids to pick up on, and the show has more restrictions on what it can do. So I'm not surprised some aspects of writing are better in the fanficiton community than the show staff (not that they're incapable, just that they have different goals and constraints placed on them), and the fanfic people have trouble taking a step back and adjusting their expectations. Basically, we're spoiled.
Also, fanfiction has continually, if not consistently, come up with better ideas than the show, and better ways to explore characters, settings, etc.
DeleteSee also: the official comics. Though again very much stress continually, not continuously.
DeleteWell, that's embedded in what I said. The show has more restrictions, many of which we're not privy to, defining what stories they can tell, not the least of which being something a very young audience can digest.
Delete