New California next. A few comments on this one though: This one was very hard for me to try to cover in good faith because it was so clearly "not for me" that I couldn't properly connect with it like so many people could. I tried to highlight the more positive things I had to say as much as I could to at least somewhat offset this There are several things I cut for time (Xenith, Spike, the Twilight Society, Topaz, Gawd, Arbu) and my opinions on them are as follows: good, fine, strange, mediocre, mediocre, bad. Hope this helps This is the first video I've done on something that hasn't been in a visual medium, so the pacing might be off a little bit. Apologies if this is true and I'm not just in my own head Anyway ye hope you enjoyed my silly little exploration into this strange titan of a story. Have a good day, see you in Cali 🌴
I gotta say I found NC decent if compared to a regular game and incredible for a mod, I like that they used charisma for the dialogue checks more often then the base game even if those interactions were cringe and the luck check with the supernatant made me laugh which is impressive to me
Even as an enjoyer of MLP Friendship is Magic/former fan and a fallout fan this is not for me either. Mixing settings has lost its appeal on me because it strongly contrasts what I like about the settings. As it stands what you have described with the story's problems and its sheer length I have really no interest in getting into it.
Thank you for this! While I disagree on most points, I am just happy to see someone review this story seriously. Also your suffering is very enjoyable!
“Its very hard to do a gunfight in writing” Theres a reason why most ttrpg actual plays do not do huge amounts of combat and focus on characters most of the time
Not a good comparison because TTRPGs still have the RPG element at play, which is something a book can't really have. A D&D paladin still has stats that he uses to in combat and i can have fun making builds for him, for example
@@funninoriginal6054 In addition most TTRPGS are actually wargames with social RP-Elements. In fact the focus on narrative is relatively new all things considered and prolly comes from CR and similar DnD shows. Giving a false perception of what most tables are probably like. Edit: Hence the name of DnD. Dungeons and Dragon's the focus was rarely on the big narrative but more on dungeon delving and dismantling a cult (usually through combat)
That wasn't true until Critical Role came through and made everyone realize the best parts of TTRPG actual plays is watching characters develop in real-time in mostly unscripted fashions, with combat serving as a spectacle story beat rather than something that happens randomly in accordance with an encounter table like in most games. Even then, Critical Role has *more* combat than most, and is all the better for it.
@@nananamamana3591 honestly I disaagree. The RP aspects of games like DnD is pretty exhausting if it isn't broken up by some combat or non-rp encounter like puzzles and such. It is mostly person dependant. But imo systems like 5e and similar are horrible to have a narrative focused campaign set in. Additionally I see a ton of games fall apart because the DM wants to capture the essence of CR, but fail as combat and non-rp encounters like traps and puzzles are a core part of the expereince. Arguably more important than the character development. From my personal experience. You have around 1 or 2 people loving the RP aspect of the game but games that only focuses on the narrative can really fall apart because narrative is a bit to hard to balance about 80% of players that from my experience enjoy different aspects of the game. You have powergamer, shy people, tacticians, etc. And only focusing on narrative can leave a large part of players behind.
@@reksravenThe first Call of Cthulhu rpg edition was in 1981(And let me tell you, you wouldnt be doing much dungeon delving in that one) CR didnt invent the concept of roleplaying in rpgs. Ttrpgs are on themselves people wanting to add more roleplay to their wargames, that was the entire point initially.
Well, you're slightly wrong about the lockpicking being something only pip can do, but I don't blame you on that. There's a running gag about littlepip running into already picked locks or at one point even a lock with a jammed pick broken off in it if I recall, though it was minor enough I'm hazy on the specifics. I'm pretty sure these happen around fillydelphia, and based on the dualism between her and another character I'm pretty sure the implications behind these scenes are meant to be that Redeye is the other, previous lockpicker who roamed through filly before he decided becoming a slave lord was more his style over adventuring.
Just want to say: I appreciate that you ACTUALLY give this time as an actual piece of fiction with things to actually read into. A lot of videos like this resort to "HAHA isnt fanfiction CRINGE" with absolutely nothing deeper to it.
I mean, the fanfiction in question *is* cringe, but not because it’s fanfiction, it’s because it’s just not very good at balancing the two worlds it’s trying to put together, or really telling a story in general
@@funnatopia704 uh oh someone’s big mad that their favorite fanfiction isn’t very good (one of the admins of equestria daily literally said that it only got popular because it was posted at the exact right time and otherwise it was nothing special)
@@FloofMother honestly while i disagree with you in every aspect imaginable ill still respect your opinion and also have to add on it was still a better fallout story than 4 and hit the enviromental vibe better than 76
the thing about writing style, is that it captured the feeling I had as a kid playing fallout 3. Simple joys of exploring things and all. But I can see how it would be annoying in written form, instead of an audiobook.
Still suprising how well Kkat was able to blend them together. Though, FoE: Project Horizons was able to keep my interest more then FoE itself. Atleast go me interested in the Fallout franchise.
This story is unironically what got me into Fallout. I frankly think this is a great story. Not just a great fanfiction, just a really well written story in general.
Your point that this is very much a pony fanfic with some Fallout instead of an even mix of the two was always something that made me wonder what it would be like if a Fallout fan with zero interest in MLP read it, and I guess this answers it, they'd absolutely despise it lmfao.
My First Fallout was New Vegas and the moment someone told me that there was a MLP Fanfic, instead of being a close-minded F*** like some are now, i chose to read it. I got to chapter 40 or so and have been working on my own Fallout Equestria content.
@@billeastwood597it's difficult when it has a lot of MLP stuff in it and not so much fallout. I mean they are talking about flying unicorns controlling the sun and moon how do you explain that away
Fallout equestria is one of my favorite books of all time, but I wouldn't wish project horizons on my worst enemy. I read it so you don't have to it's shit 1 out of 10 would not read again.
Man, what a throwback. I remember being in high school and absolutely devouring FO:E in like 4 days, being entirely obsessed with how it resonated with my own interests, and even tried working on my own FO:E content. I still hold it as a cherished piece of fanfiction, and I come back to various FO:E projects every so often to check up on them to this day.
I've gotten back into FO: E and attempting my own fanfic, as someone who's never played Fallout its a little difficult, but I honestly just enjoy survival stories and hope to focus on the bonds folks learn to grow in a world where trust can be so fragile. Basically hoping to minimize the neat to talk about looting and firefights, but honestly I enjoyed that aspect of the original FO:E story bc each fight felt like a little bit of an arc for the story
Regarding Littlepip being the only pony in the world able to pick a lock, as much as it pains me to say that might actually be a thing borrowed from the source material in Fallout. There are _few_ named characters in the mainline series (prior to 76 at least; idk that game) who are explicitly skilled (rather than having to assume via profession) at picking locks, I'd wager barely into the double digits (and even then, that number's inflated from the forgettable Thieves' Guild of 1 and companions; and of that latter group all but three were introduced in 4 which didn't exist at the time of this fanfic being started and the one from 1 can literally only pick a single lock), and even fewer instances of anyone but the player characters actually picking locks on-camera. If you invested in Lockpick, it wouldn't be that hard to get the impression that your player character has at least a unique talent for this, and considering what you said about the fanfic being like a unabridged FO playthrough in text form it wouldn't surprise me if the author noticed this quirk and decided to incorporate it explicitly into the text. I could be wrong as I'm going mostly off memory, but skimming search results for various variations of "lockpick" on the Independent Fallout Wiki it seems I mostly have it right when I say lockpicking is mostly a player character skill. This is not a defense of the fanfic don't get me wrong (if anything it's the contrary; this is noticing an arguable flaw in someone else's work, then deciding to include it unmodified and unquestioned into your own writing), it's just that when you mentioned that lockpicking is Littlepip's unique Mary Sue ability, my brain drew a connection between that and the unabridged LP writing you remarked on and I realized something about these games I don't think I ever noticed before.
the the fics defense, most people have no hands, those with telekinesis rarely focus on the spell enough to mess with the pins. like seriously, tell me how a pony would pick a lock?
@@stm7810 weirdly with their hoof they have have some weird fantasy abilities just like in MLP where ponies can write and do all sorts of things with their hoof or even their mouth/tongue
The most notable memory I have regarding Fallout Equestria was when I purchased the print edition and found out it included a mid-chapter side story consisting of Littlepip and Homage clopfic. Why...just...why?
nice seeing a fallout equestria review from someone outside of this niche fandom strangely enough, I agree with most of the points you made about the book. I tend to see it as the worldbuilding book for the other fallout equestria books. I hope to see some other review of them sometime in the future, there's potential for a lot of videos after all: - project horizons (the longest and most controversial, you either love it or hate it (lots of gore, pain, misery and sex) lots of anime references too, it pushes the fallout equestria tropes very far, a bit too much for me but I'll let you make your own opinion) -murky number seven(also very long, hard to get past the first few chapter because of the misery that is also very present in this one but one of the most liked from the people that read it and my favorite, great character building, worldbuilding and a compelling story to go with it) -pink eyes (one of the shortest, and a very good one, a happy and at the same time extremely sad story, it can and will make you cry, one of the top stories for sure) -heroes (last and least known member of the "big five" I'd describe it as project horizons lite, it has a similar energy to it but never goes over the top with it, it also has very different plotlines that are very good, it has a clunky beginning but once the author finds their pace a fey chapter in, it's really good -the crysalis (an underrated gem with compelling characters a well written plotline and combats that are more interesting than the ones in most combat heavy fallout equestria as we see other aspects of it than simple gunfights)
Man, I would've probably checked those out back when I was into FoE, but I feel like I am way too old for them at this point. I did read Project Horizons (which I did like, ow the edge aside) and Pink eyes. Maybe in the future.
I'd recommend Viva Las Pegasus and Gardener. The former is a mafioso drama derived from New Vegas (still interesting though, and one of those where the main character is a dude who just wants big things without ‘imma a hero imma doin gud stuff‘ vibe), and the latter is just a short story about goodie stuff but done and portrayed better than usual.
So ive read FOE, FOE: Project horizons, Pinkeyes and most of Heros. Never had the time for Murkey number 7 and there was no audio book of it and i know next to nothing about the crysalis. since im a mega fan of FOE i guess i should put them on my bucket list.
I binge-read Fallout: Equestria circa 2012 when I was in secondary school in my huge early brony phase and I loved it. I didn't necessarily have excellent taste in literature at the time so it blew my mind and was this perfect read. I actually think you make several good points and I appreciate that you covered it in good faith rather than just "OMG ponies are cringe amirite guys?!"
as a huge fan of fo:e, this was a fun watch and i enjoyed the points that you made! it was interesting to see how some of the exploratory aspects and fights were so lacking in value to someone who wasn’t already a fan of mlp. i also totally agree with your assessment at the end.
Speaking as one who greatly enjoyed Fallout: Equestria, and even wrote a story directly inspired by it... this is an excellent and fair analysis, and showed me a lot of flaws in the story I hadn't really thought about before. Good video.
Silly names hinting or outright telling what pony does for a living is a byproduct of MLP show. It was always like this in there. For example, Red Heart is a nurse, Mayor Mare is a mayor, Lyra and Octavia are both musicians one of them plays, you guessed it, lira, Vinyl Scratch is a DJ (who btw was a DJ PON3), Daring Do is an adventurer, etc. It is more centered on MLP because it is a "what if" apocalypse happened in MLP. It just HEAVILY borrows from Fallout, but all-in-all a stand alone MLP fanfiction. When I read it I didn't know what Fallout was exactly, I never played it, only watched few times how my cousin plays it. I was pretty happy with how it turned out. Now do Project Horizons. Just kidding. This abomination is hard to read. It isn't particularly bad, but just hard to read.
For a Fallout fan's perspective on FO:E, that isn't tainted by being into MLP, this is a great criticism. As you pointed out the story is messy and jumps around from goal to goal and antagonist to antagonist often. The Worst thing is that it can be incredibly graphic for absolutely no reason and it's jarring to say the least. Glad you gave credit where credit is due when interesting characters or ideas were explored. It's a very fair perspective even with things I personally disagree with. Littlepip for example I understand why you'd find her annoying but i complete disagree on calling her a Mary-Sue. Purely because she has enough faults that other character actually call her out on, like her dangerous level of curiosity or as you mentioned her chem addiction and self hatred. Still great video and very fair criticisms overall Ramble . Also if you think FO:E was too long, messily structured and overly graphic don't go anywhere near Project Horizons. As much as I love it, It's all of those turned up to 11. Murky Number 7 is really great though but almost twice as long so again I couldn't fault you for keeping far away.
This is a really nice surprise, Fallout Equstria is the book that shaped me into who I am today. Very well structured video, and you raised some very good points, even if some things you notice are explained in the show, but this is clearly from point of view of a non-brony, so it's still intetesting to listen to. Also, as several already pointed out, if you want a "better" version, read FoE Project Horizons. It's not really a sequel, it's basicly exactly like fallout 3 vs new vegas. While the original was written by kKat, at the time amateur writer, PH is written by collage profesor. It explores everything into even more depth, adds brand new characters, new story beats, but it's also very much wild wasteland. And if the lenght of PH is too much (1.8M words), there are many other amazing stories from this world. Murky number seven, a story of pegasus born into slavery trying to earn freedom. Pink Eyes, story of canterlot ghoul kid who's trying to find her mommy (it is absolutelly amazingly written comedy). Starlight, a story of alicorn after [spoiler for FoE] trying find herself. The world of fallout equestria is amazingly rich, and, thanks to lost lawsuit from bethesda and hasbro with author of FoE dead tree, is legaly it's own thing, meaning even more people can add to this amazing world
I love to see someone seriously covering Fallout Equestria. It's a bit silly, but this book shaped me to a very large degree. Got me into writing and the Fallout Equestria fandom kept me sane during an extremely dark time of my life. It's a flawed work now that I look back it being older, but I still deeply love it. Oh yes I also used to have a massive crush on Red Eye as a teenager, I know this and now you have to too.
I loved this book growing up. Took forever to read but honestly helped me quite a bit with my own struggles, gave me a new lens to look at things theough, which at the time I really needed. It also got me into fallout, something I didn't even know was a thing till reading FoE, which, given that FNV is one of my favourite games now, is something I'm not complaining about! Whilst we may not agree on some things it's nice to hear someone from outside the mlp space talking about the story constructively. Was very interesting to hear your take on it. Keep up the good content, look forward to seeing your next video:3
I'd recommend reading Murky Number Seven if you ever decide to read anything else related to FoE. It's more story focused and delves a lot deeper into Fillydelphia and Red Eye from the eyes of a trapped slave seeking his freedom.
I personally prefer Project Horizons to Murky Number Seven, but it is kind of a hot mess so it's understandably polarizing, not to mention absurdly long.
It is very noticeable than this fanfic was written early in the show run. Mainly because further in the show we get introduced to new nations and species, this fanfic maybe was written (or planned) before the end of seasons 2, because at the end of that season we are introduced to the changelings, a race of shapeshifters who employ infiltration in the same way than the institute. But also because in season 5 we are introduced to starlight glimmer, starlight herself is not that important here, what is important is that her evil plan to defeat twilight consisted of traveling back in time and ensuring that the chain of events that led to twilight meeting her friends never happened, the consequences of this is that a villains of previous seasons ended up winning. The first timeline we are shown is one where equestria is in a war against the cristal empire, in the original show the cristal empire was under threat of king sombra, the main characters defeat him and the nation become an ally of equestria, but in the new timeline sombra manages to enslave the ponies of the cristal empire and send them to invade equestria, while the scenes of the actual fighting scenes are kinda silly, what isn’t taken as a joke is the effect of the war and how equestria spend every resource to continue the fight, the town of ponyville is deserted because everyone was either drafted to fight in the war or is working in some factory producing food or armor for the soldiers. Eventually twilight travels back in time but starlight managed to win again, causing another timeline, and that’s a cycle that repeats multiple times in that couple of episodes, finally twilight decides to drag starlight into the future she created and show her a future where… everything is dead, twilight and starlight stand in a place that wouldn’t be out of place in fallout, hell there is a couple of fanart where little pip watches the 2 from a distance or even confuses starlight for a raider and guns her down. In the end twilight convinces starlight to surrender with a speech check. The thing is, if fallout equestria had been written in… let’s say 2016 maybe the fanfic could had worked with those elements, either fallout equestria would take place in the last timeline given that is a wasteland already or fallout equestria could be a continuation of the king sombra timeline, revealing that the war continued escalating until both equestria and the crystal empire nuked each other, maybe including the changelings as an equivalent of the institute.
@@Orlando_Furioso Why are you acting like being a brony wasn't a thing that happened to a fair portion of the internet during the time of 2012~-2016? 4chan blew up the show, and it crept outward into many aspects of internet culture. Many content creators on early youtube were, or became, bronies, and many brony content creators have now gone on to be professionals in the industry of animation, voice acting, and music. Bronies are literally the Enclave Remnant, living totally normal lives now, having fought for a cause so ancient now despite it happening within the last half century.
Was a pony fan for 3 years at the time I read FoE. I knew nothing about fallout, but heard FoE was god-tier amazing. Really enjoyed the book, got into reading a lot, mostly on fics based on that universe. FoE Project Horizons, even being one of my favourite stories, is something I wouldn't recommend if you didn't like Littlepip. The protagonist complains even more and finds herself in less believable scenarios. You most likely aren't going to do another pony fic, especially a longer one, but I still have to shine some light on my favourite fic of all time FoE Murky Number Seven. He is a slave in Fillydelphia - the slave city run by red eye. The main appeal I had in it was how grounded it was. From all the magic and abnormalities the original FoE had, here we have just a story of a slave trying to escape. He is a nobody, a background NPC that you'd shoot just to end his own suffering. I'm not that good at convincing, so I'm just gonna ask - read at least the first chapter. At least the description of the story.
6:19 Dang, the stuff that went over my head because I listened to the story when falling asleep. 12:43 What? The point was about not loosing one's self in retaliation to violence. 25:45 Gaston 47:46 Yah, she's more like a parody of her character from the show.
Y'all are fucking mad trying to make this poor man read Project Horizons, I read a little of it and didn't hate it, but there's no way in hell lime is gonna enjoy it given his criticisms of the original. Read Murky Number 7 instead, its focus is a lot narrower which lends itself better to characterization. It's definitely one of my favorite pieces of pony fanfiction and easily better than the original
@@ramblelime Seriously, though, thank you for taking your review of the fic seriously. Most just write it off as 'hurr durr cringe'. I'd definitely tune in for more FoE content but whatever you end up doing your FoE video has earned you a new sub!
So the thing about the Goddess being an "evil villain" "muhahaha" "foolish mortal bow down to me" trope is because Trixie (the pony who fell in the vat) was originally this way (pretty sure whatever is in the alicorn formula is partly evil because on their own away from the Goddess' grip they're kinda psychotic and sadistic with their power. Also we do meet Enclave citizens wdym? There's a couple that come down after the battle at New Appaloosa
Yeah the Goddess is one of those aspects of this story that really only works if you're familiar with the source material. Trixie was a fan favorite, a sort of bumbling girlfailure anti-hero who you can't help but love. So finding out who she is hits you like a ton of bricks and hearing about the path that led her there becomes so tragic, and the context of her relationship to Twilight directly informs who she became. But without that context she's kinda just some random schmuck they brought in off the street.
@@AceOfBlackjack I'm assuming we're talking about the same Enclave citizens? The ones that visit New Appleloosa after the Rad-Boom? One of them mentions calling her Senator? Yeah, those are in the original fic.
You did bring up how multiple organizations exist and end up crossing over each other's boundaries all the time. Remember that the CIA, FBI, ATF, and NSA exist.
Fantastic review. I read it back in 8th grade when I had... no friends and a ton of time. And again about 2 years ago at work. This story is... a product of its time that's for sure. You really hit the nail on the head about how much of it was filler. It's no wonder I was able to listen to it at work and mostly follow along. Just... all of your points are right. Hearing an outsider cretique is great cause over the years it was people in the community just saying "Oh it's so good!" and that's more us enjoying the little sub-community about it and ignoring glaring issues. It's all flawed but we're having fun. Dosen't mean I haven't been waiting for a proper review like this for like 8 years though. I can't thank you enough for giving it a shot. Been in the MLP community for 11 years and for anyone to give some of our content a genuine chance makes me so happy. You were able to look past every stereotype and story you heard and still tried. Even if it isn't the best, I'm glad our weird little world of ponies gave you something to do.
Nice video. Thanks for taking a look into this work. A few responses/arguments I made throughout the video: 1: The fights could get a bit repetitive, but Kkat changed things up enough for me to keep my attention. Helped that I was listening to the audiobook and imagining it in the game setting. 2: I won't disagree that Lilpip could be seen as a Mary Sue, but I don't think that the lockpicking is an example of that unless you include every Fallout protagonist, ever. I view her as a fallout character in an equestrian dlc. Makes a lot more sense that way. 3: The overly detailed horribleness is kind of off-putting and unnecessary, but I think I understand where it came from. It's a juxtaposition between the prewar era and the post war era. Also, if you go into a raider nest or a supermutant den you'd see the same stuff (flayed bodies in cages, bags of miscellaneous meats, dismembered people, etc) you just gloss over it in a visual medium since it doesn't take long to look past it to the next fight or objective instead of needing to read several paragraphs to get there. 4: Your dislike of Lilpip is noted. Eh, nothing is for everyone. 5: Weirdly enough, the side content was some of the best stuff for me. Again, definitely helped that I was listening to an audiobook, which made things more dynamic. The side content is also where a lot of the character interactions and character development happen.
i'm glad i listened to your whole video and allowed myself to agree with you on a lot of points, internet culture has kinda trained me to instinctively react negatively to criticism of something i'm a fan of, and unlearning that attitude and accepting that just because I like something doesn't mean it's good has taken a while. really looking forward to the new california video!
Omg lmao. As a brony seeing you do a video on this is hilarious and makes me so happy at the same time. Been seeing your videos for years now. Still remember the April Fool's lmao.
If you wanted to try something with patiance in your pocket, I would suggest the modification named Old World Blues for a grand strategy game hearts of iron 4. It has some really nice ideas for expanding the fallout world outside of things that we already know from the previous games and implementing the non-used ideas from Van Buren. Oh and there is MLP mod alongside with Fallout Equestria as well if you want ;)
And after playing balefire blues (hoi 4 FoE) he will discover Equestria at war , the best mod of Hoi 4 (no bias) and he will complete his transformation into a brony. jk still check out Eaw if you have Hoi 4, fully automated luxury bisexual space communism awaits.
@@spolachs1251 For fuck sake I didn't even wanted to spew stuff about EAW and someone already have spoiled the thing XD But yeah I agree with ya mate, definitly would love to see some of the outsiders to breakdown the wordlbuilding and impressions on it but from Ramble I would love to see OWB. Him or Warlockracy
super cool to see this remembered after so many years! its a shame that while FoE worldlbuilding (worldmerging?) was genuinely interesting, the pacing, plot and characterisation fell somewhat short (likely since this wasn't planned to be as big as it eventually got). FoE Project Horizons did a far better job with both but i wouldn't blame you for not feeling up to it, especially since it's... what, twice as long as the original? still a delight to see you cover this piece of what's basically internet history at this point!
Honestly, I hardcore disagree about PH. It’s strongest feature is it’s worldbuilding, but especially later on everything from pacing to character development takes a back seat to getting a field trip through Somber’s playground. I still love it because the worldbuilding is that good, and the first 30ish chapters are insanely good in every regard, but after that things stagnate *hard*. Blackjack especially just spends the last 3/4s of the book spinning her angst wheels in progressively more dire and depressing circumstances and that’s it. Some side characters have better pacing because they never get the chance to go stale, but being stuck with Blackjack the whole way through makes it hard to say the character work is better than the original.
@@thomasyoung3342 i see your point! to each their own, i suppose - although i did read PH right after the original, so the contrast must have played its role, since the former is just... better written imo. i was never a big fan of 1st-person POV fic, but it's done well enough in PH to make me comfortable with spectating the world through Blackjack's eyes. that being said, Blackjack just works heaps better as an underdog archetype for me, and the "progressively more dire and depressing circumstances" part likely resonated with me at the time, so i enjoyed it along with the perseverance theme for her character. started rereading it recently, so i'm curious to see if my opinion will change!
So I was involved in a radio production of Fallout Equestria. It didn't exactly pan out but the lead actress had a LOT of fun with the more creative swears we had LIttlepip...uh...swear.
Im probably one of the biggest FOE fan out there (seriously, i have the stabletech logo tatted on my shoulder.) But i did enjoy the points that you made and it was nice seeing a outsiders perspective and not just a continuous echo chamber praising FOE as a flawless work of literature. I do hope that you will review Fallout Equestria: Project Horizons in the future. Berceuse in my opinion that is the best one. The best way i can describe it is that, Fallout Equestria crawled so FOE PH could be and Olympic athlete. It also adds to the existing story and dose improvements here and there. I also tell this to most people that when Fallout or MLP comes up in conversation. You dont necessarily have to be a fan of both MLP and Fallout to enjoy the universe of FOE.
Fallout: Equestira was the first fanfiction I read that made me realize fanfiction didn't have to be wish fulfillment. It was probably the "book" most responsible for helping me learn to look for themes in written works. It was such a big part of my life for a few years that I was part of Overmare Studios and worked on the Ashes of Equestra game. I love the book and can't understate how it much it helped further my reading comprehension. Even with all that I still found myself agreeing with nearly all your points. Calamity and SteelHooves were the two best written characters. Velvet Remedy was nearly forgettable and caused too much trouble for the group for me to truly like her. And I was very much reading more for the Memory Orb bits than Littlepip's story at a few points. As a fan of My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, I thought the pun names mirrored how the show handled things quite well and it made the story feel more in line with the MLP universe. I also read Littlepip's guilt complex as a motivating factor for her, but when trying to re-read the story, I find myself skipping those chunks of the text so I can't argue against you points there. A small amount of background on the rushed ending; other sources at Overmare Studios that had successfully messaged Kkat claimed that she saw the fanfictions of her work and didn't like where things were going with them, so she rushed her planned ending over something like the last 3 chapters. Doesn't make them any better, but does help explain why the Enclave is rushed past so quick. Kkat also supposedly said that looking back she wished she had allowed herself to use curse words in the first chapters of the book, and I suspect the "creative swears" Littlepip uses were originally conceived to help get around this and turned into a bad running joke. Again, doesn't change the text and death of the author, but it sounds like even Kkat might agree with you on those two points. I feel so sorry for you if you read chapter 20.5, which your Patrion plug implies you did. Also don't Read Project Horizons. It's not worth it. It's well writen and fleshes a lot of things out, but it's too long and not worth it overall. Lastly, you mentioned pictures would have made the reading easier. Well, I have a third edition printing of the book with an images that accompanies every chapter. If, for some reason, you still want to see those, let me know and I'll scan and get them to you.
Yeah, this is completely fair. If someone feels that the Equestrian-style naming conventions are more of an eye-roller than a fun little pun, or that Littlepip is an annoyingly whiny protagonist, FOE would be a slog to get through. That and the narrative criticisms are more than well-founded. Littlepip being the best lockpicker would be fine if she wasn't the only pony that knows how to lockpick, basically. I genuinely don't remember anything about Velvet Remedy other than her being extremely tempermental and self-righteous, which made her unlikeable a lot of the time even when she was making good points. Though I don't think that makes her a bad character per se, I've known people who are exactly like that: one personality trait at a time, only ever in the extremes. The Steel Rangers were unquestionably my favorite faction, with Steelhooves as a favorite character, so them being the most well-explored and well-realized facets of the narrative makes a lot of sense. I read this story in my mid-late teens and adored every page, though I will say I don't know how I feel about this story being my first "proper" experience with the Fallout franchise. I've only just this year played an actual game (New Vegas), which is a much better introduction so far. Good video, man! EDIT: Also, yes, there IS NO MORE TO READ. Project Horizons does not exist. It has never existed. Red and Black Alicorn OCs aren't a thing. Please GOD stop the pain.
@@peppermillers8361I'd say it does characterization and pacing (at least on the scene-to-scene level) better than the original, actually. However, it also cranks the edginess, the misery porn, and the juvenile dialogue up to 11. It also kinda jumps the shark after _that_ scene (you know the one). Power creep sets in; the scope starts to get way beyond but the author probably originally planned; the original cast gets roped in just to show how badass the PH characters are; the plot just meanders _hard_ for two more books; until finally by the end the main character is a literally invincible superhero fighting space demons while the author awkwardly kills off every character in a desperate ploy to keep raising the stakes. TL;DR Book 1 is great if you can stomach the edge, Book 2 is alright, Book 3 is when the problems start to become grating, Book 4 is whatever, and Book 5 is a Mass Effect 3 level stupid-ass ending that you don't read if you want your memory of the fic to be at all positive. Blackjack died when Shadowbolt Tower blew up. Nothing happened after that.
@@RunePonyRamblings I personally enjoyed the ending, but I kind of agree. It's also very funny that you mentioned Mass Effect considering one of the tracks from it was linked during one of the characters deaths. Very funny stuff in retrospect.
Cool seeing my favorite story be read, I understand it's not everyone's thing but for me it's favorite story writed. I do have some disgreements mainly from Little Pip, I see being skillful as just normal main stuff. We don't how Luke became more powerful then most jedi in a short amount of time or why Sherlock is just so smarter then everyone. All MCs need to be a bit special in order to be able get through the plot, just look at Fallout protags which Little Pip is.
Hey im really glad you actually did it, it's nice to see others outside of this strange merge of fandoms talk about it. And funnily enough I agree with most of the stuff even though i do like it. Great work love your videos, and if you do see this please have a good.
I listened to this thing as a fan of neither game or show, and came out intrigued in both, now a fan of both. I agree with most of what you said about this monstrous fanfaction, and it still kinda holds a part of me as what brought me into both fandoms, one having more of a foot in my life than the other. I even listened to it again after watching the show (up to wherever it was in late 2013) and enjoyed it more after understanding the characters as they are in the show, likewise after playing Fo3, both gave me more insight into the world of the fanfic.
The wasteland survive guide is made by one of the Brony fandom most beloved characters in the show and you And fallout equestria is a mix of the fallout franchise and a show about pastel colored pony’s in a world that is all about friendship and magic
The ministry of awesome is just a cover and there are multiple fallout equestria stories that add more lore to the original fallout equestria like fallout equestria project horizons, which is way more fucked up and would make you question your sanity and also fallout equestria falling shadows which is mainly about a mayor from a stable that lost more than she had losing her mayor friend her family her almost all her friends, and even having the enclave controlling her best friend and lots I mean lots of fucked up shit Oh and fallout equestria Falling shadows in heavily inspired by fallout new Vegas But the new Vegas is called New Pegasus
An addendum to this after watching the full video, I was more of an MLP fan than fallout so it makes sense I liked it so much. But I also listened to the audiobooks rather than actually read them which also skews my perspective
Reading this as the first fanfiction I ever read and because of its ties to Fallout, I really enjoyed it, and got quite into the community around it. I *still* play games with people I met there 10 years later, and it is with those people I started several hobbies I greatly enjoy to this day. It also existed in the gap between New Vegas and Fallout 4, which definitely made it more appealing than it might otherwise have seemed because I was desperate for Fallout. I entered into the pony scene as a result for a short time as well, but it didn't stick like Fo:E did. So yep, it's definitely not a greatly-written story, but I think there are some things to note that explain - to an extent - a lot of its problems. It was written serially, as with most fanfictions. It was originally just a fun little thing the author threw together, but it got popular and expectations grew and they kept writing beyond its initial scope. This causes a lot of the tonal and narrative flow problems as you point out, and feedback directly affected the writer's style over time for better and worse. And of course, that it is written in the manner of an imagined Let's Play is deliberate and made it fun and easy to read for the young me - it's probably pretty-maddening to read as a fully-formed adult. There is a novelty to going through a gameplay loop in text, but it gets repetitive without the feedback of a video game's systematic support. The Halo novels have a lot of that as well, and re-listening to those later in life they weren't as good in parts due to that sort of writing. Lastly, it is in many ways an adaptation of the now-popularly-maligned story and world of Fallout 3 and a love-letter to it, so it inherits many of its flaws unapologetically. It wasn't nearly as popular to hate on Fallout 3 for its nonsense when it was written and that can perhaps be construed to mean our standards have risen for narratives and settings to immerse ourselves in. You probably would die if you forced yourself to read what is often considered its successor in Project Horizons, much less compose a cogent video about it. I never finished it thanks to being very busy with schooling during its writing, but you would not enjoy what it does do better for the quantity of what is carried forward from the original into it.
Omg you have no idea how excited I was to see a new upload from you! Also love the English professor look you have going on in this! Where did you get the tan button up you’re wearing?
you summed up my feelings on this fanfiction perfectly, there are so many things in it that feel like it has so much potential, but it falls flat in so many ways.
I just finished Fallout Equestria today and feel this review does the book justice. Despite how Velvet Remedy was described and I can see his point, she's still my favorite in the story. But man, the last chapter tore at my heart strings a lot. Was glad in the end Homage sorta had a happy ending with Littlepip.
It's very fascinating to see an outsider to fo:e actually give it a thorough look and a chance, I'm always very happy to see one of the most defining pieces of media for me getting attention, even if you don't enjoy it. While I'd love to see you cover Project Horizons at some point I fully understand if you'd rather move on from wasteland ponies. Some things to note about Fo:E though, the story itself was never really fully planned, like most fanfic the author did stuff as she went along rather than having a cohesive plan from the start which is why the story is A) Overly long and B) Messy, it's also why there are so many combat/loot scenes as the story was not released in a finished state all at once but rather, again like most fanfic, it was released chapter by chapter at a semi-regular pace over the course of several months. This is important to note because the experience of reading it with long breaks between chapters is very different from reading it as a book and its an experience that can't really be replicated. Project Horizons by contrast did... mostly, have a cohesive plan from its inception so it ends up being a much better experience to read as a single, albeit absurdly long, book. Anyways thanks for covering the niche thing that I really like, cheers.
I have no idea how, after describing Fallout Equestria like this (which I find fair) you go on to describe Project Horizions as having a plan and being a more cohesive experience.
@@moonblaze2713 because believe it or not it did have its ending planned, it just uh... got sidetracked, but unlike the original Horizons always had a thing that was driving the plot forwards and leading somewhere. That's why I said it mostly had a cohesive plan
Disagree with the planned part of PH. PH is even more messy and tacked together than the og FoE. Infact SPOILERS btw. One of the chapters where blackjack supposedly "dies" was actually a chapter where backjack died and we continue the story through the eyes of another character. But since BJ was so well liked and the author grew attached to them as well. She was kept in the story. BJ herself as a character is what I would describe as "so bad she's good" type of character.
29:15 Maybe I've lost my marbles since I've not read the story since it was still being actively written, but I swear blind there were also other elements to the worsened relations between the two nations. One of which was ideological conflict and the other an international tragedy. Iirc the Zebras' beliefs held that the Moon and Stars were evil, and that the return of Princess Luna (who initially DID return as an EVIL villain: Nightmare Moon) and her resuming her role in co-ruling Equestria was like the Devil Himself had appeared. THEN there was a tragic misunderstanding that resulted in the deaths of essentially schoolchildren of a private school founded by Luna, which was spun as a deliberate act of war against Equestria by, well, racist publicists.
I'll say my experience with Fallout and Fallout Equestria is very unique. First I'd only ever played Fo4. Second, I started with Fallout Equestria:Project Horizons. For someone who hates reading, I was really lucky to find it in audio book form. I was coming from the MLP already so I was defenitelity the target audience. I appreciate the full review even if I'd rather not hear it.I do want to write eventually and FoE:Ph/FoE are things I've listened to sever times over.
The note on lockpicking is a very odd nitpick to make. The argument shares the futility of complaining about lockpicking in the games: Why is every lock that the Lone Wanderer or the Courier not already picked? Obviously, because it would suck. Yeah, in two whole centuries since the war, pretty much every single lock in the bomb-out ruins of the old world would've been picked or destroyed, and looted, long before our player character would've come across them. But, they remain locked, so the player has something to do. Would the story have been better if, every time Littlepip came across a safe, it was already open & empty? No. In fact, the primary way she acquires memory orbs is via locked safes, without it being a rare skill in the wasteland, there wouldn't really be a natural way for her to come across them. On the note of nobody else in the wasteland having learned the skill, that's not entirely true. Littlepip does occasionally come across empty safes or picked locks, but since there's nothing there anymore, it's quickly just dismissed as "looted". But for a more specific example, at the midsection of the story, there's an entire area that she discovers has already been pilfered at some point by someone who was also skilled at lockpicking. She has trouble restocking supplies because every single safe or medical box she comes across has already been emptied long ago. In fact, when she finally finds a safe that's still shut, it turns out that her "rival" had so much trouble with the lock that they tried to force it, and broke the lock. So no, it's not that nobody has the ability, it's just that it's rather uncommon, and a good lockpicker is ever more uncommon.
Dang I was looking forward to this video but it’s a shame to see that you didn’t vibe with fallout equestria. I do think that you are way too harsh on Little Pip as a character and that dislike negatively coloured on the rest of the story. In particular your criticisms calling her a Mary sue are odd and seemingly based only on the fact that she can lockpick things when as a character, even if you don’t like her, she is complex with various faults that balance with her strengths. But I do have to agree with you about the goddess. The master is my favourite fallout villain and just an extremely well written character besides and the goddess is no where near that level. Honestly Trixie just isn’t the kind of character who can support a role like that. Anyway good video despite my gripes with it looking forward to the new California review and keep up the good work.
I’ve read a lot of these, there’s the Godzilla x mlp fanfiction that I’m pretty sure is actually endless because the reading guide is like 50 pages, there’s talons and tails that throws a few school children from a dark fantasy novel called wings of fire in to the how to train your dragon Netflix cartoon, do I even have to explain how that’s a bad idea, and finally there’s a mlp jojo crossover I found where the cast of mlp are forced through the first 4 arks of jojo and there’s a weird scene where koichi said that queen chrysalis doesn’t believe in love to one of his class mates at school.
Dude, if you enjoyed the fanfiction you're probably going to enjoy reading a side story of it called Project Horizons, it's 1.8 million words long iirc, and I've heard people describe it with this quote: "Project Horizons is like marmite, if you don't like it you really hate it, but if you like it you really really like it." And that rings so true, because Project Horizons takes everything about fallout Equestria, cranks it up to eleven and sprinkles anime and wild wasteland on top of it, it can be pretty enjoyable, I've also heard the "Heroes" side story is pretty good too, there's also some new ones that I've read recently that are also pretty good if you enjoyed Project Horizons, like Blue Destiny, which goes balls to the walls crazy and hides a very well written story behind a facade of humor.
I don't think he'd like project horizons, don't get me wrong I'd totally watch a video on it but all the things that he disliked in foe are the things that are cranked up in ph (my opinion might be tainted bacause I'm on the don't ike side of the marmite: the big amount of samey combat (the location vary but most combats are either blackjack or another character absolutely decimates the wave of mobs in front of them or bj gets beat up until a deus ex machina comes up) the ministries are even more mixed and lesss independant because of the whole O.I.A thing morning glory is very one note and like velvet remedy on overdrive most of the time the plot is very scattered and full of filler and always puts in new antagonists, plot points and stakes even more than in foe also half the story would have to be put on his patreon if he had to do it for pip and homage (jk) I think he might like the crysalis a bit more or maybe murky number seven since they are more character centered with a smaller cast and very dynamic growth (since his favorite part was steelhooves)
@@mares164I think he'd enjoy the chrysalis more as murky number seven is kinda long. While I enjoyed his (rather long) character arc, quite a few people I've talked to didn't like how the first part of the story where his character "is just constantly woe is me".
I think part of the issue reading it as a work is that it was written as a peruodical, as most long fanfiction is. So, a lot of its structure is probably more forgivable when it is a story of the week/month. Forget how frequent it updated. You have your action scene of the week, it gets less repetetive.
Man, i read this thing 5 years back and really enjoyed it then. Its interesting to look back and realize the stuff i kinda glossed over, good review my man. I uh, i do apologize for contributing to making you do it though
Oh also, now that you've finished the tactful fallout 3 fanfic, try project horizons, the unhinged fallout NV fanfic that's as heavy handed as a silverback gorillas
15:22 Idk why, I've seen this sort of joke hundreds of times but I can imagine mr. Ramblelime saying this all in one breath and that makes it funny to me now.
you hit the nail on the head at the start: this feels like a gameplay-based storytelling, and it's a fanfic about MLP:FiM first and a fallout after that. all of the point you bring up about "why does that overlap?" and "why the fact are thing are so bad is so much cussed on" is due all of them being counterpart to one of the episodes of the first season, season which had a "cowboy and indian" setup being resolved by trowing pies and becoming friends over that, season which had an episode about how each of the tribe working alone was so much counterproductive that a single day operation ended up taking much much longer (and later, halfway into production, had a whole "the noncooperation between the ancestor give life to literal spirits of cold and dead") and some such. the ministries walking all over each-other foot is stressed as the protagonist breackdown. the alicorn deity only works if you saw the original episode introducing the second component the big thing it did, it's that it bridged a lot of people that loved fallout but hhad already finished new vegas and all the related mods at the time to the pastel pony side, and pushed people to try their hand at apocalypse based storytelling, and storytelling in general, with the other big stories, and a few short hidden gems, to work and expand on the world created by kkat, which would be much more palatable to everybody it's a silly little story, which ballooned to titanic size and for a decade has been one of the Moloch of the fandom and the cause of just so much salt from the rough and tough fallout fan "that played BoS and Liked It". would have loved to be a fly on the wall at bethesda pr studio and see the mail team react to all of the angry mail asking for C&Ds, at least for the one actually sent to them in the end, even if friendship is magic or not, the important thing is bashing heads when needed, and bringing a friends to move all the loot!
You didn’t mention who her who velvet remedies great, great grandmother was there’s like a whole history with her lineage, which is why she’s a great singer, and why she cares so much
Plus, overlapping beurqcracies are a gairly realistic thing. The USSR and Nazis had lots of overlapping beuracracracies. The KGB was one of many intelegence agencies sometimes explicitly set with overlapping and conflicting authority. Ad hock ministeries would quite likely develop exansive overlap and duplicate functions. It takes a lot of complent management and cordination to prevent expansive mission creep.
I am absolutely in love with your content, as shallow as it feels to use the dreaded “C” word. From your gentle peppering of your own political leanings, your analysis on story construction and writing, to your idea on how the implementation of an idea could be better or worse. I’ve watched nearly all of your videos, and what’s wild is I’m leaving this heartfelt comment on the Fuck king Fallout: Equestria video.
You want more context to fill out the lore? Well good news for you! There's Fallout Equestria: Pink Eyes, Fallout Equestria: Murky Number 7, and Fallout Equestria: Project Horizons. That last one being 1.7 Million words long, There are even more then that, those are just the ones I've read. I've just started reading Fallout Equestria: Heroes. So much apocalyptic Horse lore fun! Best get on it and get back to us when you're done.
this video is amazing, i found your content through the New California video and i was overjoyed to see this in my recommended, i love how you actually interacted with both the fan-fic and MLP respectfully and as just a Fallout fan, anyways great video cant wait for the follow up on Project Horizons lol /)
I think the epilogue of FOE could been done without. It would've preserved some ambiguity to whether or not the character's actions would've impacted the world as they had intended without undermining the value of their sacrifice. Its really a damn shame that more fanfic authors don't explore that unwritten window of time between the end of the story and its epilogue because holy shit is the wasteland a dumpster fire by then. All the major factions have fractured into infighting, the center of economic production in setting has become a warzone, and refugees are flooding into the few major settlements that remained after the Enclave's attempted purge of the wasteland.
But have you read Project Horizon? Also, 6:00, what? Littlepip spent her whole life in a Stable. The point of the early combat encounters which aren't relevant to the main quest is to contrast the safety she used to have with the violence of the rest of the world. It's to confront her with hardship and force her to change. It's also to give the the opportunity to do good in the wasteland.
