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dalekandrews Dalek Ahnd Since: Jan, 2011
Dalek Ahnd
02/19/2013 00:06:27 •••

Sweet Mother of Davros...[JDR's fics]

...Where can I begin?

Let's start with the good qualities this author has. She can hook people. She can get them interested in a story. She can write well, and she can write a lot. She is also a very good artist.

Now for the actual criticism. The author is fixated on her worldview, and has an extreme intolerance for anything that even hints of contradicting it. She cannot take criticism, and deflects all significant questions or simply ignores them. She is inflexible, and unwilling to admit that she might be wrong.

In her stories, she constantly proyects her own troubles into them. This is not necessarily a bad thing, but the way she has these problems "solved" -by having her characters drink a vial of "Potion" that magically whisks any personality problem they might have, and moving to some magical place where nothing bade ever happens- is more than slightly disturbing.

The ponies in her stories are out of character, which is standard fare on TCB fics, but they are so far off the mark that it's not even funny. The ponies here are seemingly incapable of evil -even to defend themselves- which not only makes them into a species of Mary Sues, completely ignores canon ellements, such as Trixie, the Flim-Flam brothers, Diamond Tiara and Prince Blueblood, and even the mane cast on occasions. On the flipside, humanity is constantly portrayed as an entire species of greedy, violent barbarians full of fanatism and hate, which is quite impossible since if it were true, we would have wiped ourselves out a multitude of times in 40000+ years of history.

Quite literally everything bad in her stories stems from humans. The HLF is human, the PER is composed of former humans, the pony jerks are descended from a former human... the list goes on.

And let's not even start on the subject of her Celestia, who screams God Mode Sue so loud the martians can hear it.

However, the true epitome of her attitude is the story Ten minutes: Aftermath. In it she completely diregards the personality of the main human character, makes the main conflict of the original story moot, introduces an unnecesary romance, and strips away the feeling of struggle that made the original so great. And that is why I so despise her stories: There is no struggle against the dark, no final moment of resistance, no finest hour.

And who likes a story like that?

DialgaX Since: Jan, 2001
07/31/2012 00:00:00

You forgot how anvilicious her stories are. Aside from that, you landed right on the mark.

dalekandrews Since: Jan, 2011
08/01/2012 00:00:00

@Dialga X: I ran out of room.

EX-TER-MINATE!!
ZeniTheWonder Since: Jul, 2010
08/06/2012 00:00:00

"introduces an unnecesary romance" To be fair, there was a romance in the original 10 Minutes, but it was more tragic and less important to the plot.

That said, you hit the nail on the head, especially the last bit. My biggest problem with these stories is how the characters are handled. Most character development happens instantly and before we can really learn about a character. They pull a 180 the moment they drink the potion or see Celestia or Equestria- no build up, gradual growth, or journey to teach them. Honestly, I had a hard time remembering who some characters were because the moment they converted, they all were very similar in terms of views and personalities with only one or two traits to differentiate them. To say nothing about how most of them become Soap Box Sadies who immediately fear/mock humans as "barbaric monkeys/violent apes/etc." no matter what they believed as a human and despite the fact that some of them were humans a few minutes before they adopt this attitude...

shoboni Since: Oct, 2010
08/07/2012 00:00:00

I haven't read but I agree with the "humans all suck, and ponies are flawless" thing being stupid. It's a contradiction because if humans were all bastards worlds like Equestria wouldn't be imagined in the first place.

TheMoiderah Since: Oct, 2012
02/18/2013 00:00:00

"And who likes a story like that?"

Unfortunately, a lot of people. Be afraid, Ix. Be very afraid.

Asger Since: Feb, 2011
02/19/2013 00:00:00

Kinda one of the main things about Fi M is that the ponies do have problems. Every episode. Some of them being worse than anything we have to deal with in the real world (I don't recall any reality warping lunatics running amok recently.)

So it really baffles me that TCB authors treat Equestria like the swellest, most perfect place in the universe. Sure it's nice but it's not the utopia Chatty and others think it to be.


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