tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8184562969471581744.post5247831250757330244..comments2024-03-04T02:09:30.979-06:00Comments on One Man's Pony Ramblings: Fandom Classics Part 120: TyrantUnknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger14125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8184562969471581744.post-31577986932776385162015-08-02T13:18:44.875-05:002015-08-02T13:18:44.875-05:00If your goal was to write a story where many of th...If your goal was to write a story where many of the things in it make no sense, I certainly can't fault you for failing on that count. This is probably a story that simply requires more fandom context than I possess to properly grasp.<br /><br />Sorry I didn't "get it;" hopefully next time I review a story of yours, it'll be one I'm better able to understand!Chrishttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11581572699330155065noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8184562969471581744.post-45382525472392412192015-07-30T17:56:05.236-05:002015-07-30T17:56:05.236-05:00If I had to write with my mouth I would probably r...If I had to write with my mouth I would probably replace chalk with prime rib and strawberry lime Jones soda.SVnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8184562969471581744.post-57584148215656338352015-07-29T23:14:20.459-05:002015-07-29T23:14:20.459-05:00If you had to write with your mouth, wouldn't ...If you had to write with your mouth, wouldn't you find a substitute for chalk?Holly Oatshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01703437987958922954noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8184562969471581744.post-15856314408044471692015-07-29T19:19:26.310-05:002015-07-29T19:19:26.310-05:00One of the insurmountable problems in this fic is ...One of the insurmountable problems in this fic is that Twilight seems to think that having a military fight and die on your behalf doesn't count for anything if you don't personally take part in combat.Icy Shakehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00490981784760484964noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8184562969471581744.post-2421169778335835502015-07-29T19:16:39.314-05:002015-07-29T19:16:39.314-05:00Having read it, and even with the benefit of two a...Having read it, and even with the benefit of two author's notes and the comment over here, I have trouble seeing much of a point. I guess it's about authorial fiat and how misusing it can result in contradicting characters' nature? But that arises in most genres, and in fact is one of the things fanfiction exists to allow. <br /><br />But worse is that I don't see this holding up as a story, so without heavy explanation (and even with) all I see is a bad story. The logic doesn't hold together, even after you account for there intentionally being no logic at all; in fact it actively undermines the point trying to be made: even if Twilight wasn't intentionally trying to rule with an iron fist and never personally fought in putting down the rebellion, well, allowing her army to keep on fighting a war she don't intend to pursue a victory in doesn't reflect well on her either. Letting the guards fight to their deaths trying to delay the attackers actually seems like the kind of thing associated with an evil tyrant, raising for me the question if Twilight is a severely unreliable narrator here, too deluded to see that the revolution was actually in the right. <br /><br />Frankly, a better format for this reaction would have been either a blog post, where you can just say what you want to say, or a comedic satire/parody that hits the ridiculous points as they come. This . . . there was no <i>there</i> there, and simply pointing out that you can write something without any logical underpinnings and have it be true anyway within your own story doesn't do anything to convince that that is the case for other stories in the genre (which I hadn't been aware of until now), certainly any more than for plenty of other AU ideas. Icy Shakehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00490981784760484964noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8184562969471581744.post-44694026792692777162015-07-29T19:15:18.337-05:002015-07-29T19:15:18.337-05:00This comment has been removed by the author.Icy Shakehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00490981784760484964noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8184562969471581744.post-41609810156055397402015-07-29T17:08:49.242-05:002015-07-29T17:08:49.242-05:00As I recall, Twilight thought she might be able to...As I recall, Twilight thought she might be able to save her friends; she didn't straight-up trade them for defeating Tirek. That may seem like a subtle difference, but is is a very important one, IMHO.<br /><br />Anyway, I strongly disagree with the review and faved the story. It even partially inspired me to write my own (double) subversion of the Tyrant Twilight trope.iisawhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11454386148259666080noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8184562969471581744.post-62036143280051560612015-07-29T13:40:42.383-05:002015-07-29T13:40:42.383-05:00Your complaints are about equal to that of virtual...Your complaints are about equal to that of virtually every nay-sayer out there for this particular story. Not that it's particularly wrong, mind you. I've long learned to accept that a lot of people don't get the real intention of the story, translating all the 'assumptions' to 'the author expects you to make this conclusion,' which is not what I was doing at all. The real purpose behind the many things that make no sense lies in the very fact that they make no sense... much like the trope to which I was reacting. I figured that if an idea isn't going to make sense in the first place, why not go all the way with that theme?<br /><br />But alas, that goal got lost in translation, and that's my own fault for not providing a proper explanation in the Author's Notes. Regardless, I appreciate you taking the time to review the story in the first place and don't hold it against you that you felt so negatively about the whole thing. The story's not going to be good to everyone (even those who 'get' it).PaulAsaranhttp://www.fimfiction.net/user/PaulAsarannoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8184562969471581744.post-67091888123289068162015-07-29T13:32:24.873-05:002015-07-29T13:32:24.873-05:00Nice picture you linked in the header there, by th...Nice picture you linked in the header there, by the way. I don't quite understand the reasoning behind having a bin full of mini chalkboards with the words "good" and "bad" pre-written on them when you already have a giant chalkboard in place, but I'm no Ponyfic Reviewologist. Maybe it's because they don't have any actual chalk or erasers to write with, so they need to reuse old chalkboard parts instead. Such are the sacrifices for illuminated reading lists, amiright?<br /><br />The colors and lighting are nice though. I can tell what time of day it is right off the bat!SVnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8184562969471581744.post-69558858126691973592015-07-29T13:17:49.363-05:002015-07-29T13:17:49.363-05:00I don't know how it goes in the story, but if ...I don't know how it goes in the story, but if it were me I'd probably rebel against her Mary Sue levels of unjustly earned importance and hoity-toity pseudo-intellectual quasi-pandering geekism.<br /><br />"Down with the tyrant! Nobody is buying it! You're making everyone associated with you look worse by comparison! All the hyphenated words needed to describe you aren't leaving any for the rest of us!"<br /><br />Jokes aside though, from the review, I feel like this story is the literary equivalent of, "Nuh-uh!" when a friend says they're better at jumping rope than you are. They needed an oppressed people and a rebellion to fit the mold of the usual Twyrant fanfic, but then when it came to Twilight actually being a tyrant, they just answered "false" instead of "true." Any explanation or justification would fall flat because the foundation of the whole thing is moot. It's an uninspired response to a minor irk in a small subgenre of unfiltered fanfiction that's an offshoot of an iffy concept from a single episode of a cartoon whose main focus is selling toys to children. I've seen stories with worse motivations, but to be something worthy of independent merit, you've got to aim a lot higher than that.<br /><br />But I haven't read it, so who am I to say? All I've got to ride on are my previous experiences with this kind of thing, and I've certainly been wrong before.SVnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8184562969471581744.post-59851922560075920302015-07-29T13:02:15.740-05:002015-07-29T13:02:15.740-05:00"It also requires that one accept that ponies..."It also requires that one accept that ponies as a group would engage in a violent civil war on the premise that Twilight is a murderous tyrant... despite all evidence to the contrary, for years."<br /><br />Well, if the ponies are human analogs... have you seen some of the accusations flung at Obama by the stars-and-bars crowd? No reasoning seems necessary. ProfessorOats was making a joke above, but it's not far from the mark.iisawhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11454386148259666080noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8184562969471581744.post-38740928191042861292015-07-29T04:32:15.827-05:002015-07-29T04:32:15.827-05:00Oh, sure, blame the victim! Not like it isn't...Oh, sure, blame the victim! Not like it isn't hard enough for political leaders to come forward without people questioning their behavior or defending their would-be assassins and dissidents. I know, it's gotta be the wings, right? What right-minded citizen wouldn't revolt after seeing her preen those things? She was practically asking for itHolly Oatshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01703437987958922954noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8184562969471581744.post-27916244208815971832015-07-29T03:49:03.932-05:002015-07-29T03:49:03.932-05:00Wait, so if Twilight has a policy of total non-vio...Wait, so if Twilight has a policy of total non-violence towards all ponies, then how <i>did</i> the rebels decide she was a murderous tyrant? What <i>were</i> ponies rebelling against? This is still Equestria, right? Ponies don't start bloody revolutions for nothing. Twilight must have done <i>something</i>.DannyJhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13273313206696087395noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8184562969471581744.post-79983201696895713562015-07-29T01:28:36.822-05:002015-07-29T01:28:36.822-05:00"... there's not a legitimate case to be ..."... there's not a legitimate case to be made for one side."<br /><br />Is that a challenge? Part of me wants to attempt it, but a bigger part of me is lazy, and a third part keeps looking at the list of crap I'm supposed to be doingHolly Oatshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01703437987958922954noreply@blogger.com