Live Blogs Pannic Reads Stuff He Hates

Pannic2012-06-30 18:18:12

In the event that you just clicked this more or less at random and have pretty much no idea what this is, allow me to explain:

Fallout: Equestria is a fanfiction, a crossover between the Fallout series of video games and the cartoon My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic. It may be the single most popular fanfiction in the entire fandom of the latter. The story is 45 chapters long plus an epilogue and an afterwards, clocks in at a word count higher than War and Peace (unless I'm mistaken one tragically misguided fan put the story on Wikipedia's "list of the longest books ever" page. Obviously it was removed), and has a large fanbase of its own, spawning fan art, fan adaptations, music, and even fanfiction of its own.

Fans have praised it for worldbuilding: the story actually does not go for the usual "character from video game meets ponies" premise a lot of lazy crossovers opt for, and instead works it into the backstory how we get from the universe in the show to the post-apocalyptic radioactive wasteland that we recognize from the Fallout games. Or I would recognize it if I'd played the games. As it is, I am waiting for a sale on Steam or GOG. The main characters of the story are all original characters, and they have been praised as "OC ponies done right" and "the best OC ponies in the fandom." In any case, the protagonist Littlepip is fairly instantly recognizable to many in the fandom, whether or not they've read the story. The story's length also qualifies it as something of an "epic." In any case, it has had praise heaped on it and is considered by many to be the best fanfic in the FiM fandom.

At this point, I have cleared chapter 13. I do not think the story deserves the praise it receives. I view it as horrendously overrated. As I go through the story, I will detail my problems with the story, along with general mockery.

The general Fallout: Equestria thread did not approve of my incessant riffing on the story and suggested I take it to a liveblog. Well, that's what I'll do.

A note that for the parts I have already read (the first thirteen chapters), I will be largely dealing from memory. As such, they will most likely not be as detailed as when I return to the stuff I haven't read. In any case, let's get started. Hopefully this isn't redundant as Perpetual Lurker is also doing a liveblog.

EDIT: It seems my complaining cannot be confined to a single fanfic. As such, I have decided to turn this into a multi-story liveblog!

Comments

Seraphem Since: Dec, 1969

Jun 18th 2012 at 3:07:19 PM

No it's not inconsistent, she is those things, but she SUCKS at coming up with plans ahead of time normaly. But she's good at just winging it. Which is great becuase there are so many random things that can go wrong, any plan she makes is sure to get FUBAR'd at some point, so better to just go in with a general idea and adapt.

Also, no the STORY never tries to tell you to feel anything, it is all how Lil'pip feels about it, and yeah could she just ignore it like everyother action hero, yeah, or hey people can have conflicting emotions and thoughts about stuff, and it's never said we're supposed to see Lil'pip as pefect, quite the opposite.

Seraphem Since: Dec, 1969

Jun 18th 2012 at 5:33:27 PM

ook but mean there. thing is Kkat doesn't write Lil'pip like a action hero, or any other character archetype, she just tries to show what an ordinary pony would be like, and yeah there's unnoticed hypocrisies, little lapses in uudgemnt, conflicting emotions and thoughts, but all that does is make Lil'pip seem more real, not just "Our Hero" which is why ading on your own little names for the characters is a bad idea, you can get cought up in your own label for them and fail to see the full picture past that.

Pannic Since: Dec, 1969

Jun 18th 2012 at 11:40:44 PM

Sometimes I feel that it doesn't go towards making the character feel more "real" and that a lot of things just seem like they're contrived, or the story is trying to have it both ways or she's just being a dick. I mean, okay, I can get the drug addiction thing and that driving her to steal from an orphan. It's a big dick move, but it's believable on account of her character flaw (This won't stop me from making fun of it, because "hero steals from orphans" is honestly just too good to pass up. Please, you gotta let me have some fun with this).

But then you have things like her cowing Velvet Remedy into helping her murder someone. That bit there really bugs me in particular and if I continue this liveblog I'll go a bit more in-detail when I get there.

Sereg Since: Dec, 1969

Jun 19th 2012 at 1:50:55 AM

"She's generally short, to the point, and snarky. Yet in the narration she's kinda waxing poetical - somehow I can't see these descriptions and stuff in her actual dialogue, which makes me wonder why this story needs to be in first-person."

This makes FAR more sense once you reach the end, where you find out why Littlepip is telling us this.

"But we have both Appleloosa and New Appleloosa"

You'll be amazed at how common this is IRL. I'm talking multiple suburbs within the same city here.

"but the problem is that Our Hero has been established as a character who works on being resourceful and using her intelligence, for example the when she talks Monterey Jack our of robbing her. Now she apparently resorts to the Indy Ploy. Just seems inconsistent to me. "

Not to me. She never planned her conversation with Montery Jack. She just winged it.

Luke Skywalker was a rebel and Neo was an anti-hero. Both very different types of characters. I appreciatd Littlepip's concern.

Personally I was furious with Littlepip about Arbu. I've never been angrier with her. I was entirely on Calamity's side there.

"This is my problem with the melodramatic narration. Like mentioned earlier, a first-person narration should generally be to get us in the character's head and really show us how they feel, but there are a number of points where it seems like it's the author telling the reader how to feel."

Again, makes sense when you realise that the entire story is Littlepip's propoganda. Good intentioned propoganda that I agree she was right to do, but still.

"Yep. This is our new character, the token straw pacifist. "

People are supposed to disagree with straw characters. I actually like Velvet a lot and agree with her often.

Seraphem Since: Dec, 1969

Jun 19th 2012 at 1:39:13 PM

and she was never intended as a straw anything, 'straw' something requires the author to intentiaonly be using her to prove a point and the what she supports is false. Yes her nature is rather Stupid Good, and it's made out that it's a bad thing for the wasteland, but ti's also made clear the very fact that she can't safely be as peaceful as she wants is the real issue.

sargecadet Since: Dec, 1969

Jun 24th 2012 at 4:14:20 PM

LP isn't inconsistent. Pragmatic, definitely. She uses Indy Ploys when she doesn't know enough about the situation to make a real plan, but also has an amazing Batman/Memory-wipe Gambit later on that's just pure damn genius.

Arbu. Frickin Arbu. That's an easy one to get hung up on. Too much time was spent on the morality of LP's actions there.

theonebutcher Since: Dec, 1969

Dec 19th 2012 at 12:40:58 PM

There's a German City called "Neunitz" translatable "Newto(w)n" and "Neu-Neunitz" "New-Newto(w)n" there isn't a mile between the two.

NTC3 Since: Dec, 1969

Apr 22nd 2013 at 7:37:14 PM

On an unrelated note...

"That book also made me hate elves"

Pure win here! Elves are so much of a Sue race there that I actually cheered hard when the Galbatorix's general offs the elven queen in the final book.