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6/15/2025, 4:22:27 PM
I can't believe it's not (really) Discord, in
>/FSBC/
It's five minutes past bookclub time as I start writing this, so I haven't actually finished the fic. I pause right before the epilogue. But I believe that's enough to write the post, and I'll finish it right away!
So, I should start with what I missed from last week. And the truth is, it was really good! Both of the mini-arcs last week were pretty great (not great-great, but pretty great), and I thought that everything the fic wanted to do there simply worked. It is not the most sophisticated story, with deep character arcs, etc. But stories are allowed to be light and simple reads, provided they don't mess that up. This one most certainly didn't. Both Star Swirl and Clover are fun to read, each for their own reasons. I need to take back some of my praise for the implications of Luna's banishment—sadly, it was less clever than I thought it'd be. It still makes for a nice side point to add some characterization to Starswirl and why he's the way he is. I also liked how much this fic respected canon—from the bugs to his big MMC spell, it all fits really nicely despite being set ~900 years before the show.
And I guess there's the Wasponies morality debate in the fic.
Back to the characters, this is a fantastic Starswirl. You really feel just how powerful he is and the burden of his age, decisions, and various pacts and dark magic he'd studied and/or bargained with. The scene where he lets out the blood magic to save Clover was honestly a pretty good and dramatic, tense action scene. Despite that, he's so fundamentally Pony that it all works really well in a ponyfic. Everypony here is very pony, actually, Clover's parents notwithstanding. Even the cultists. I must also disagree with the anon who said that Starswirl has just one flaw—the old mage's moment of doubt showed it the best.
Putting this all aside, I figured out what the fic is. [Random] here isn't just for the first part of the fic; it's there to show that we'll be doing all kinds of genres and stories in the fic. Most of them are connected alright. The mixing of genres, cool ideas, and was executed well. The chapter where Clover takes a particularly tame Shoggoth for a walk was the funniest part of the fic by a lot, and the escalation of the final "Salt is hydraphilic" joke killed me. Some other jokes are great, too. Actually, the fic leans very heavily into the absurdist kind of humor, and that's nice because I liked it way more than the [Comedy] gags from week 1.
This is all very disorganized, and I might do a follow-up post once I digest the fic a bit, but in general, I liked it. Some parts are better, some are bad, and it'd have been way better if the author didn't put his IRL family issues into the story (or at least something that reads like it A LOT), but I left an updoot. Pleasant little story that I don't regret reading.
Next week, The Creature and The Knight!
https://www.fimfiction.net/story/567461/the-creature
(1/2)
>/FSBC/
It's five minutes past bookclub time as I start writing this, so I haven't actually finished the fic. I pause right before the epilogue. But I believe that's enough to write the post, and I'll finish it right away!
So, I should start with what I missed from last week. And the truth is, it was really good! Both of the mini-arcs last week were pretty great (not great-great, but pretty great), and I thought that everything the fic wanted to do there simply worked. It is not the most sophisticated story, with deep character arcs, etc. But stories are allowed to be light and simple reads, provided they don't mess that up. This one most certainly didn't. Both Star Swirl and Clover are fun to read, each for their own reasons. I need to take back some of my praise for the implications of Luna's banishment—sadly, it was less clever than I thought it'd be. It still makes for a nice side point to add some characterization to Starswirl and why he's the way he is. I also liked how much this fic respected canon—from the bugs to his big MMC spell, it all fits really nicely despite being set ~900 years before the show.
And I guess there's the Wasponies morality debate in the fic.
Back to the characters, this is a fantastic Starswirl. You really feel just how powerful he is and the burden of his age, decisions, and various pacts and dark magic he'd studied and/or bargained with. The scene where he lets out the blood magic to save Clover was honestly a pretty good and dramatic, tense action scene. Despite that, he's so fundamentally Pony that it all works really well in a ponyfic. Everypony here is very pony, actually, Clover's parents notwithstanding. Even the cultists. I must also disagree with the anon who said that Starswirl has just one flaw—the old mage's moment of doubt showed it the best.
Putting this all aside, I figured out what the fic is. [Random] here isn't just for the first part of the fic; it's there to show that we'll be doing all kinds of genres and stories in the fic. Most of them are connected alright. The mixing of genres, cool ideas, and was executed well. The chapter where Clover takes a particularly tame Shoggoth for a walk was the funniest part of the fic by a lot, and the escalation of the final "Salt is hydraphilic" joke killed me. Some other jokes are great, too. Actually, the fic leans very heavily into the absurdist kind of humor, and that's nice because I liked it way more than the [Comedy] gags from week 1.
This is all very disorganized, and I might do a follow-up post once I digest the fic a bit, but in general, I liked it. Some parts are better, some are bad, and it'd have been way better if the author didn't put his IRL family issues into the story (or at least something that reads like it A LOT), but I left an updoot. Pleasant little story that I don't regret reading.
Next week, The Creature and The Knight!
https://www.fimfiction.net/story/567461/the-creature
(1/2)
Page 1