@Blissey: I read the first 20 chapters for pretty much the same reasons you mentioned and ended up dropping it, although that was more due to my distaste for Dark Fic than quality. It's well written enough, I guess, but it didn't really hook me. Although you're a lot less picky about fanfic than I am, so you'll probably get more out of it. I thought it was okay as long as it focused on the O Cs, but I didn't like how it handled the canon characters.

Also, if you're still looking for fanfic and not too averse to shipping, I'd like to know what you think of this.

Also Shameless Self Promotion Pagetopper.

edited 5th Sep '12 8:50:14 PM by JapaneseTeeth

JT: I'll put it on the to read list

I guess I'll give FOE a go. which fallout is it most based on? or is it just kinda the verse in general?

*looks it up*

Oh ffs, it's only on google docs!

And again, I thought it handled them fine. nothing jumped out as being so OOC that couldn't be explained by growing up, living, and dealing with about a decade or so of constant war when the very idea of war is antithetical to your very nature

someone has to have made a downloadable form of it. and mostly 3, with some elements from the rest added, but overall, it's the whole verse.

edited 5th Sep '12 9:05:39 PM by Seraphem

and there aren't even links to the previous/next chapter on the docs pages! At least the Thesalonica Legacy was polite enough to do that!

*grumble grumble*

well, I guess Dangerous Business didn't have links either...but it also wasn't over 40 chapters long!

Bad first impression I tell ya.

edited 5th Sep '12 9:07:47 PM by Blissey1

IIRC there's a full epub of it somewhere on Deviantart.

I'll just leave this here.

Also Snowcatcher is a crazy cat lady. She really is like Rarity.

No it's not! I read it ony my Kindle. In fact it's the only MLP fanfic I've seen so far that is available nicely formatted for ebooks.

...It's just not quite the same

I don't have a kindle!

edited 5th Sep '12 9:11:45 PM by Blissey1

@Syd: Dat preview thumbnail.

edited 5th Sep '12 9:13:55 PM by edvedd

Well you could also read it as a pdf.

bah, I guess I'll just download the pdf...

*follows pdf link to deviantart provided on ED*

*404*

%&@#! this story does not want me to read it...

edited 5th Sep '12 9:22:49 PM by Blissey1

I have very strong feeling about how that fic handled canon characters, but its an argument that's been had before and is detailed in my canceled liveblog of the story, so I won't rehash it here.

edited 5th Sep '12 9:16:25 PM by PerpetualLurker

So non plans to finish the story?

Nope. The incoming aftermath of Arbu and the fact that the Memory Gambit wasn't exactly hard to figure out in advance left me with no reason to continue.

LONG POST INCOMING

@Seraphem: My main gripe is that the mere fact that a war of that kind could even occur in Equestria to begin with signals a massive shift in tone from the source material to the point that I have no interest in following it. As I've said many times, I only really enjoy fanfic that stay true to the tone of the source material, and there no way you can possibly argue that FE does that; it simply introduces far too many grimdark elements from the Fallout series. It may be entirely true that their characterizations might make sense for a decade of constant warfare, but the mere fact that there's a decade of constant warfare (especially since we've seen what war looks like, and it's literally a pie-throwing contest) at all divorces the fic from the show to such a degree that I have no desire to read it. A good metric you can use to determine how much I'd enjoy a given fanfic is "to what degree could this story take place in the show itself?" and the closer to the original it is, the more I'll like it. If you only change one or two things, I'll probably be on board, but FE overhauls so much that it's like reading a totally different series. Basically, the tipping points for me are these two things:

1. The chain of events that causes the plot of FE to come about cannot occur in the show's canon unless you add a lot of thematic material to it that wasn't there to begin with. I don't care about all that extra material; when I read fanfic of a series, I want to see more stuff about that series. For instance, I honestly don't think that say, in the Equestria of the show, Nukes would ever be developed; the world leans too heavily in the Sugar Bowl direction for that. And as such, the fact that that happens basically signals a departure from the setting and characters that I grew attached to while watching the show.

2. Going off of that, the whole reason I read fanfic is to basically spend more time with the characters and setting I've grown attached to, and when the characterizations shift so much that they barely feel the same any more, that appeal is gone. In this particular case it's even worse, because the nature of the plot basically nullifies everything we see in the show. Stuff like Pinkie turning into a drug-addicted Big Brother or Fluttershy inadvertently creating nuclear weapons just turns me off the story, because if that's true, it means everything that the show includes all ended in disaster. Pinkie is an utter failure at being the Element of Laughter, and Fluttershy ultimately failed as an element of kindness. Basically, everything that happens in the show ends up getting nullified; every happy ending we saw turned out to be a lie and I'm not interested in reading a story like that. I don't care about Arms Dealer Applejack, I care about hard-working-apple-farmer Applejack.

And just to clarify, none of this necessarily makes it a bad story. Somebody without those hangups about canon could easily enjoy it; there's a reason it's so popular. I'm just saying that personally, I have absolutely no desire to continue reading it. It just isn't what I'm looking for in my ponies.

I'm just going to shut up now because this was way longer than I intended it to be, and I don't want to start up another one of these arguments.

edited 5th Sep '12 9:34:56 PM by JapaneseTeeth

Ok, I've started reading it. Someone wanted liveblogging? well, I can do live posting. Only one thing I feel the need to comment on for chapter 1.

The entrance from the outside world into Stable Two had been cleverly disguised as the door to a humble apple cellar. And by disguised, I meant that the person who built it had been building an apple cellar.

ok, that? I can get used to humor like that.

edited 5th Sep '12 9:38:28 PM by Blissey1

Meh. I'm okay with an "and then the world went completely to shit" story as long as there's a good point to it.

Yeah, I'm just not a fan of Dark Fic in general. If I wanted to read something dark, I'd pick up something that was dark to start with.

I hate to be that guy, but if you're going to liveblog it, we do have a liveblog section. I know I'm not the only person who isn't a fan of when the thread gets dominated by people talking about fanfic; we've spun off other threads for those.

edited 5th Sep '12 9:39:19 PM by JapaneseTeeth

I'm of the opinion that as long as peace, kindness, and friendship win out in the end, then it's not really betraying the spirit of the verse. even if it gets really dark and they have to work for it.

edited 5th Sep '12 9:38:49 PM by Blissey1

Okay, in Episode 17 now, why hasn't Rarity taken the hint that her cat hates her?

I mean, Opal would sooner allow a stranger near her than her owner...

You're lucky, then. I tend to be much more nitpicky.

Also, Have a colored Scootaloo sketch to offset my complaining.

edited 5th Sep '12 9:40:42 PM by JapaneseTeeth

Then season 3 turns out darker than any season before it, and everyone's world views fall apart.

Opal's just fussy and tsundere. All cats tend to be like that.

I don't even know how I'd react to that. Because then it would be canon, and I couldn't use that complaint anymore. I think my head would implode.