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

Aug 12th 2015 at 3:24:51 PM

I'm still of the opinion that this sounds like a greentext story. All that's missing are the gratuitous second-person sex scenes.

IcyShake Since: Dec, 1969

Aug 13th 2015 at 7:20:39 AM

• And how do you know my name?

I'm going to go out on a limb and assume that this question isn't a result of the author making a joke, but forgetting that Pinkie told him her name.

• Uh-oh, it's the Welcome Wagon... my clothes will be ruined! Oh, well, sounds like an excuse to go meet Rarity! thought Joker as Pinkie Pie turned on her wagon and began her welcome song.

See, this looks like one of those cases where you'd expect a difference because everyone is a clothes-wearing biped who couldn't just hose off or whatever.

• It's not really a fashion emergency. It's more of an "I need more clothes" emergency.

But at bottom, it's a "Pinkie Pie is terrible" emergency.

• He's not eccentric. He's an unfunny dipshit with lame pranks and a skin condition.

And more than that, he didn't seem to do anything eccentric, or even dipshitty, in that scene. From what I could tell, it was a normal conversation. I guess it's possible to just be commenting on the older events, but I'd expect it to be more along the lines of "that asshole who assaulted us seems nicer by comparison once you get to talk with him."

• Side note: I really dislike that spelling of "ya'll," which doesn't match either the etymology or the phonetics I've ever heard.