 Souldin 1/31/12 . chapter 6Never was it part of any plan of mine but I have now unintentionally set a pattern for my reviews for this fanfic; that pattern being that I now have consistently reviewed this fanfic every two chapters of its duration. Funny how, if someone were to look upon the reviews of this fanfic they will think that I meant to review every two chapters and that the pattern within these reviews was not my own forgetfulness to review. Anyway I have little idea of what I just wrote and whether it has any relevance to your fanfic at all so I'll just get onto the part of the review you want to read, the praise and criticism.
Praise first, this is really, really well written. It's a poor way of saying it but I find it works, your details are great, you actually describe the scenery of places from the show that fans would be familiar with (many writers use this as an excuse to not describe the location), and your range of vocabulary deserves a round of applause. All the scenes of these two chapters have been paced gloriously, never rushed at any point but never dragging itself out for too long, and the layout of chapter 5 remains as strong as ever. It's a shame to see it missing from the final chapter but it would have been unnecessary. Also visible in great quantity in these last two chapters are the amount of references to the show and its previous events. Some of them were small such as the exploding twice joke and others actually had an impact such as the hiding place being the schoolhouse bell, but all of the references were neat to spot. It’s also safe to say that the characters were in character.
With your story I have so far struggled to come up with criticism for it, and the majority of which I did point out was minor at best. Unluckily for you, with these last two chapters I can actually point some out, as while I do not consider this a review of the whole story (just to note I soon plan to review the story as a completed whole over on Fimfiction later, this is simply a review of the quality of chapters 5 and 6) these last two chapters do address two key points in a story and points of which could have been better. First, unlike what I was expecting there was no big twist, I have literally been caught off guard by expecting the unexpected. To explain, while I knew the premise was focusing on the rather unoriginal plot of Scootaloo being an orphan I was expecting this fanfic to surprise me with something new, with a new twist in the cliché (such as Scootaloo not being an orphan but a runaway or something of the sort, something a little different). So I was a little disappointed at the lack of originality in how it played out. The second point is that the key moment of Pinkie convincing Scootaloo to trust them, as well as how they solve the orphan situation, feels weak. It’s accomplished too easily and doesn’t carry much intensity or weight to it; it lacks the emotional depth that Pinkie Pie’s flashbacks have.
There are a couple of things I would like to further praise about this short but finely polished gem as well as a couple of blemishes I would like to point out in order to avoid people thinking this story is faultless but the things I wish to say are things that take the story into account as a whole. This review is not where I’m looking at the story as one big piece, which is a review I will leave for later. While I hope you can look forward to my future comments on this story for now I will say that, while it is not the most original of premises, it is brilliantly executed, helped by superb writing and characterisation, as well the unusual but somehow fitting choice of using Pinkie Pie as the one to help Scootaloo. Great job, keep up the good work! |
 side-fish 1/23/12 . chapter 5wow. you're very updated. lol did u wait 'til last weekend's episode to write this :D?
nice update anyway. i like how u put just the right amount of emotion in every chapter. it's warm but not heavy.
i wonder how scootaloo will react on pinkie's story. and somehow, that white unicorn u mentioned. that must've been rarity or something, right? somehow, i get the feeling this gonna be more than just about scootaloo and pinkie and that you might actually be detailing your version of how the five met. |