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Achievement unlocked: Finalist. (Reach the finals one time.)
I know words on the Internet don't always transfer emotion correctly, but I'm super excited to have gotten this far! Honestly didn't see this coming based on the reviews I got.
I know words on the Internet don't always transfer emotion correctly, but I'm super excited to have gotten this far! Honestly didn't see this coming based on the reviews I got.
These last few days have been crazy. Like, I knew they were going to be crazy what with travelling 600 miles home from my university, but I hadn't counted on two riders in my car, getting lost, getting a flat tire somewhere in Tennessee, and having my phone (which functioned as my GPS) die on me while we were on the road. Apologies for starting and not finishing reviewing my slate. But, hey, it's over. I'm safe at home for another 10 hours or so, and I didn't make the finals (no surprise there based on my personal Writeoff history and the reviews this round). So, without further ado...
After "After Party": A Retrospective
>>FanOfMostEverything >>ChappedPenguinLips >>FrontSevens >>Monokeras >>CoffeeMinion >>Trick_Question >>Shadowed_Song >>Xepher
Pure personal philosophy and headcanon this was, and it really showed in its poor characterization. I'll begin by breaking down the headcanony parts.
Pinkamena Diane Pie is first seen (timeline-wise, at least) eking out a miserable existence on her rock farm. This chapter of her life ends, of course, when she sees the rainboom, smiles, and subsequently decides she "wanted everyone she knew smile, too." Hence, the divide between Pinkamena Diane Pie and Pinkie Pie in my mind. (Yes, I'm aware of the existence of Cupcakes, et al, and no, I was not intending "Pinkamena" to be interpreted that way. Perhaps another addition to the growing list of oversights.)
I'll admit, Pinkie Pie was my least favorite character in Season 1. She was weird. She was random. She was unpredictable. She was wild. I didn't understand her and frankly, I didn't try to. I am and always have been very logical. To me, Pinkie was just the "comic relief and side gag" character.
Upon rewatching the Smile Song, however, I caught something that had I had previously excused away as a "random Pinkie Pie song." Her life's calling, her mission statement, her reason for existing on the planet, is spelled out right in her song. "There's one thing that makes me happy, makes my whole life worthwhile/ And that's when I talk to my friends and get them to smile!" For once, I understood Pinkie Pie. (Well, as much as anyone can be expected to.) This pink pony can be anypony she wants to be, but she chooses to be Pinkie Pie because she knows it will make others happy, and that's the story I wanted to tell. Unfortunately, "After Party" did a rather poor job of doing that. I'm now considering a first-pony slice-of-life style rewrite where Pinkie goes about her day suppressing her depression while spreading cheer to others.
The philosophical undertones highlighted in this story (mainly by Rarity) can be reduced to four questions I ask myself probably too often to not have sufficient answers to them:
1. Who am I?
2. Who do I want to be?
3. Why aren't those two the same person?
4. What can I do to make them the same person?
I guess I kind of just projected those questions/feelings onto a "what if" scenario where Rainbow and AJ hit Pinkie a little too close to home. Perhaps I projected just a pinch too much of my own emotional fragility that I similarly mask with a positive demeanor, a "game face," if you will. Character choice from there on out (both the map and the meetup) was a significant contribution to the shortcoming of this story.
Thank you all for reading and reviewing. I promised myself and my readers that I'd get another chapter of History Lesson over on FimFic ready to publish soon, so I'll reluctantly have to opt out of reading and reviewing the finals. Good luck to the finalists, especially the ones ranked high on my slate!
After "After Party": A Retrospective
>>FanOfMostEverything >>ChappedPenguinLips >>FrontSevens >>Monokeras >>CoffeeMinion >>Trick_Question >>Shadowed_Song >>Xepher
Pure personal philosophy and headcanon this was, and it really showed in its poor characterization. I'll begin by breaking down the headcanony parts.
Pinkamena Diane Pie is first seen (timeline-wise, at least) eking out a miserable existence on her rock farm. This chapter of her life ends, of course, when she sees the rainboom, smiles, and subsequently decides she "wanted everyone she knew smile, too." Hence, the divide between Pinkamena Diane Pie and Pinkie Pie in my mind. (Yes, I'm aware of the existence of Cupcakes, et al, and no, I was not intending "Pinkamena" to be interpreted that way. Perhaps another addition to the growing list of oversights.)
I'll admit, Pinkie Pie was my least favorite character in Season 1. She was weird. She was random. She was unpredictable. She was wild. I didn't understand her and frankly, I didn't try to. I am and always have been very logical. To me, Pinkie was just the "comic relief and side gag" character.
Upon rewatching the Smile Song, however, I caught something that had I had previously excused away as a "random Pinkie Pie song." Her life's calling, her mission statement, her reason for existing on the planet, is spelled out right in her song. "There's one thing that makes me happy, makes my whole life worthwhile/ And that's when I talk to my friends and get them to smile!" For once, I understood Pinkie Pie. (Well, as much as anyone can be expected to.) This pink pony can be anypony she wants to be, but she chooses to be Pinkie Pie because she knows it will make others happy, and that's the story I wanted to tell. Unfortunately, "After Party" did a rather poor job of doing that. I'm now considering a first-pony slice-of-life style rewrite where Pinkie goes about her day suppressing her depression while spreading cheer to others.
The philosophical undertones highlighted in this story (mainly by Rarity) can be reduced to four questions I ask myself probably too often to not have sufficient answers to them:
1. Who am I?
2. Who do I want to be?
3. Why aren't those two the same person?
4. What can I do to make them the same person?
I guess I kind of just projected those questions/feelings onto a "what if" scenario where Rainbow and AJ hit Pinkie a little too close to home. Perhaps I projected just a pinch too much of my own emotional fragility that I similarly mask with a positive demeanor, a "game face," if you will. Character choice from there on out (both the map and the meetup) was a significant contribution to the shortcoming of this story.
Thank you all for reading and reviewing. I promised myself and my readers that I'd get another chapter of History Lesson over on FimFic ready to publish soon, so I'll reluctantly have to opt out of reading and reviewing the finals. Good luck to the finalists, especially the ones ranked high on my slate!
>>Lamplighter
Welcome! (In a non-creepy, not-Starlight's-village sort of way)
In Writeoff! In Writeoff!
We can set you right.
You can't have a badfic
If you never write.
Welcome! (In a non-creepy, not-Starlight's-village sort of way)
In Writeoff! In Writeoff!
We can set you right.
You can't have a badfic
If you never write.
Well, I won. I set a goal, and I achieved it. ERBoE landed me in the finals. Thank you all for reading and reviewing. I will be able to better respond to your reviews when I am at home instead of in the break room here at work.