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

KuroiTsubasaTenshi Since: Dec, 1969

Feb 26th 2014 at 9:37:32 AM

Despite the sort of pseudo-clone syndrome going on, I'm finding just the discussion of P-21 and Glory here more interesting than Velvet and Calamity in the original. Not really sure about Blackjack vs LP, though, which is almost interesting in a meta way, because LP doesn't set a very high bar.

IcyShake Since: Dec, 1969

Mar 1st 2014 at 7:53:06 PM

"Vanhoover"? Let me guess: New Vegas trade location at Hoover Dam made of a bunch of vans, which Megamart is, I suppose, based on? On my first read, I was thinking something else, since it also works as a horse pun, and I've been trained to see them more than other ones.

They recognize her because she has "Security" written on her barding. Sure, there could be other unicorns out there with something similar, but I think that this is a smaller example of narrative convenience that probably shows up pretty frequently across media.

I didn't know that the "casserole" bit was an NV reference; I've only played 1 and 2. Now I feel a little silly for not knowing it. But I thought it was one of the better-integrated references in early Horizons, in any case.

Yeah, there are some real similarities between Glory and Velvet, but she's more Missed-the-Joke than Prissy Whine, and I think tends to be less passive-aggressive.

Oh, you did take up my suggestion, at least for the chapter! Well, I won't give anything away, but you did get through the scene with the Rarity figurine.

I thought that the way Four Leaf wasn't made an acronym a little weird, myself. There isn't a good reason from a protocol standpoint to have her name not abbreviated, since her association with the author would identify him. Best guess is it's that same familiarity which breaks out in full force with the farewell note.

I know it happens, especially in the stuff you liveblog, but really, how can you have a story (or at least a plot- or character-oriented story, as opposed to one more focused on, say, atmosphere) with protagonists who never fuck up? Seems terrible. But I guess that's why it shows up here.

(But how does that work in HP, in particular? Harry blows it all the time, and the supporting cast does, too, if perhaps to a lesser extent due to the structure of the story.)

Anyway, I enjoyed it as ever and look forward to the next installment, whether that's more PH or HP or something else.

Pannic Since: Dec, 1969

Mar 1st 2014 at 10:25:22 PM

Oops. That's a Freudian slip on my part. Vanhoover is the location in my shitty fic. I'm gonna fix that.

As for the Harry Potter remark, let's just say that a lot of terrible fanfic authors who turn Harry into a Gary Sue who breezes through all his "problems" with nary a conflict.

IcyShake Since: Dec, 1969

Mar 2nd 2014 at 3:56:28 PM

Oh, okay on Vanhoover.

As for HP, I get that that happens. But I have to wonder whether it's something that the authors are aware of; do they think that getting through everything without much challenge is a feature, or do they believe that their characters really are facing meaningful difficulties? I guess it probably depends on the author, and you'd need to read between the lines of each story's presentation to really make that call.

Pannic Since: Dec, 1969

Mar 2nd 2014 at 7:02:24 PM

From the author's notes on Partially Kissed Hero, the author does seem to genuinely believe he's got an epic conflict going; he frequently talks up how dangerous Dumbledore is as a villain (despite the fact that he's frequently shown to be more or less impotent as Harry frequently trounces and murders him).

But really, I think that what it comes down to is that they put so much of themselves in the protagonist that they can't bear to have anything bad happen to them. The hero always has to win. The concept of the hero losing, or better yet, being the cause of their own problems, seems a foreign concept.

IcyShake Since: Dec, 1969

Mar 4th 2014 at 3:57:55 PM

So, the entire basis of the classical tragedy?