Grimdark

Fallout: Equestria by Dark Brother 16 on 2014-09-30 22:57:00 UTC Reply

So, I was surfing the Internet in my spare time yesterday, and I found a completed story Crossover called Fallout: Equestria. I'll give you three guesses as to what the crossover is with.

I only got through Chapter 1, but I wanted to share it with everyone. Here it is.

http://www.equestriadaily.com/2011/04/story-fallout-equestria.html

One of the best fanfictions ever written. by World-Jumper on 2014-10-05 07:47:00 UTC Reply

I would give money to to author for her hard work, if I knew of any way to do so. However, I have posted a much longer rant on why I adore this thing, so I will just link to it here. If that is not enough for you, here is a review by one of the best fic reviewers in the fandom. Are there flaws? Yes. Is it for everybody? Celestia's mane, no. Is it worth your time? Absolutely.
A criticism of "Fallout: Equestria." by PoorCynic on 2014-10-02 03:45:00 UTC Reply

WARNING: The following post contains vague spoilers for "Fallout: Equestria" and serious spoilers for the Fallout series. Proceed at your own risk.

It's been a while since I read the "Fallout: Equestria" series, so I will admit up front that I might be misremembering some aspects of it. However, I'm not writing this post to talk about the minutiae of the story. I want to present why I believe that this story does not execute the crossover concept well. "Fallout: Equestria," in my view, fails to understand key aspects of both My Little Pony and Fallout. Especially Fallout.

First off, My Little Pony. I felt that the characterization of the Mane Six (who appear in various flashbacks sparked by stored memories) was exaggerated to fit the concept of a Fallout-colored universe. They felt flat to me; exaggerations of the character's most notable qualities slathered with a grim paint. The decisions they make in the story don't gel with what I know about them from the show (and that is taking into account when the story was written in relation to the show's production).

The story's relationship with Fallout is even more tenuous. For all its destruction and horrors and war that never changes, Fallout is at its core a story about hope. We see in that series -- particularly in Fallout 2 and Fallout: New Vegas -- a world that may scarred and nasty, but at the same time is mending. People are surviving. Civilization is recovering. In Fallout 3, that's admittedly a bit harder to see (and I feel like "F:E" takes the most inspiration from that entry). But even there, the audience has hope. In "F:E," the only real suggestion we get that the world might repair itself comes at the very end. Up until that point, the audience is continuously hammered with the point that almost everything is terrible and almost everypony is suffering.

Yes, player choice in the video game does mean that you can potentially make things even worse. But consider what we know about the canon of Fallout. We know that the Master's army from the original game was destroyed. We know that the Enclave's plan to dose the world with a modified Forced Evolutionary Virus from the second game was stopped. This implies that ultimately the characters from those iterations of the games were forces for good (for the most part). I admit that's an area up for debate, though.

There are also other problems with the story that don't necessarily extend from the canons involved. The characterization of Little Pip, for one. I found her constant angst to become rather grating as time went on, especially considering the amount of praise she receives from others. The pacing of the story is also really rough. You can get away with padding and side-quests in an open-world video game; not so much in a written story.

It's not the worst thing I've ever read, but neither does it necessarily deserve the praise it has received. There's just too much wrong with it, in my mind.

PC

Interesting... by Dark Brother 16 on 2014-10-02 04:23:00 UTC Reply

... Does it deserve to be PPC'ed, or whatever the phrase is, then? Because if it has good aspects, but has rather big flaws, that may put it up for grabs, especially if you're suggesting that Little Pip is a Sue. Right?

No. by PoorCynic on 2014-10-02 04:39:00 UTC Reply

First, I never said that Little Pip was a Sue. I said that she had a questionable characterization. Had I believed she was a Mary Sue, I would have said so.

Secondly, I would argue that the story is far too long to make an effective mission out of. It's longer than War and Peace, if the Internet is to be believed.

Finally, we don't (or shouldn't, anyway) make missions out of stories because we believe they "deserve" it. It comes down to whether we can think we can make something entertaining out of the original story.

On F:E by Ekyl ((and Dann)) on 2014-10-02 07:25:00 UTC Reply

((Dann here: I'm posting this on behalf of Ekyl because his internet is being silly and insisting that the Board doesn't exist when he tries to post things.))

The length's certainly an issue, but I don't think it would necessarily preclude a mission. It would definitely make it much, much harder to make an interesting PPC story out of the fic though; I've thought about how I would tackle this a few times, and it'd probably have to be towards the end of a story arc spent building up to Fallout: Equestria, maybe even require a collaborative effort to take it down. The question at the end might be if it's worth the effort, but as tricky as it could be I think if good enough writers put their heads together they could figure out a way to make a good mission/story out of it, hopefully without it taking for ever or the mission itself being ridiculously long!

The bigger concern is the possibility that sporking F:E would throw the Board into civil war. Last time I said I didn't like this thing the bronies around here acted like I said I kick puppies for fun.

That would be me, mostly. by World-Jumper on 2014-10-05 07:38:00 UTC Reply

I do feel sorry about that whole mess, by the way. Feel free to hate it, I don't care. People love and hate different things, and to be fair, there are very valid criticisms of the fic. However, I just cannot see how it could possibly be missionable. But that is a can of worms I do not want to open again. So, let us agree to disagree, and know that Marvin and Printowrthy will stand in the way of anybody who tries to kill that fic.

That last comment makes me want to kill it more. (nm) by Ekyl on 2014-10-05 11:32:00 UTC Reply

Since World-Jumper isn't here to say it: by Iximaz on 2014-10-01 16:58:00 UTC Reply

It's awesome!

I actually haven't read it myself, but I keep meaning to. I've heard a lot of good things about it.

Speaking of WJ, has anyone heard from him lately?
I never have understood why this dreck is so popular. (nm) by Ekyl on 2014-10-01 12:39:00 UTC Reply
Fallout: Equestria is awesome! by James Shields on 2014-10-01 04:06:00 UTC Reply

There is also is a spin-off called Fallout: Equestria- Pink Eyes that is also pretty good. It obviously shares the world and lore of F:E but features a different story than Littlepip's. Puppysmiles is the cutest undead filly "living" in the Equestrian Wasteland that you will ever meet... wait, that's probably the most weirdly specific superlative I have ever written as well... Glaurunging Overly Narrow Superlatives!
Grimdark by Dark Brother 16 on 2014-10-01 00:59:00 UTC Reply

Also, I have an announcement to make!

I'm thinking of writing a Grimdark fic for no other reason than to make it into a mission that I will do. I have some questions to ask, first, though.

1. First of all, am I even allowed to do that?

2. Second of all, what source material can I find? I know of Cupcakes, Cheerilee's Garden and Apple Acres Massacre (I think that's what it's called).

3. Is there any definable formula for writing a Grimdark? Is it basically just anything that's dark and disturbing with no limitations or barriers?

4. When I write it, where should I put it? The Pit?

Not to be overly negative... by Ekyl on 2014-10-01 12:41:00 UTC Reply

...but writing up an entire fanfic just for the sake of missioning it seems, I dunno, not so much cheating as more time and effort than it's worth. Surely there's plenty of regular badfic without adding to the pile for the sole purpose of writing a mission. It's not so much "are you allowed" as "is there a point."
Answers. by Desdendelle on 2014-10-01 08:23:00 UTC Reply
1. Not that I know. As far as I know, the only time when someone missions something they wrote is when they wrote the badfic before joining the PPC and want it sporked. Otherwise, the closest thing I can think about is what Huinesoron did - he wrote a couple of purposefully bad fics for others to mission as part of his "Ispace Wars" story-line.
  2. In the grim darkness of the future, there is only war.
  3. Related to what you mentioned above, Cupcakes isn't grimdark. It's a darkfic. Grimdark is basically a 'verse that everything in is screwed up and hopeless (see WH40K. There's a reason why the phrase comes from its tagline).
  4. Generally speaking, both AO3 and the Pit host fics.

Ooo! I've heard about that one! by eatpraylove on 2014-10-01 00:50:00 UTC Reply

I just finished reading Chapter One, and I'm kind of excited. Definitely bookmarking that EQD page so I can read it later.
Re: Fallout: Equestria by Lunar Dusk on 2014-10-01 00:08:00 UTC Reply

Oh my gosh, I'm wasn't the only person in the world not to have read Fallout: Equestria!... Well, now that you've read it, I guess I am...
I'm always feeling like a minority when this story comes up.