One-Punch Man is back, but the resuts are mixed

Hero may not be drawn to scale

Show: One Punch Man, Season 2

Genre: Animation, action, comedy

Network: Hulu

Premiered: April 9th, 2019

So what do you get when you cross an awesome series, massive hype, and a premiere date that keeps getting pushed back to the far side of the universe every few months? Probably the explosive powder keg of edgy chatter that accompanied the release of anime phenom One-Punch Man's second season. Penned by the exemplary manga writer (and not-so-exemplary artist) ONE, this brilliantly-paced, satirical superhero yarn struck the 2015 anime world with the force of a meteorite, battering its adversaries with the overwhelming might of its strong story and fluid animation. For anime fans and casuals alike, this 12-episode buffet sated a TV hunger they never knew they had, and the withdrawal after it left the airwaves proved almost unbearable to the many viewers starving for more. But with no announcements and hardly a word from the creators, fans clung desperately to the hope of a future release like a life preserve until finally, an announcement two years back heralded the beloved series’s triumphant return. Or...it would have, until word got out that studio Madhouse, the artisans behind Season One’s dazzling spectacle, won't be returning to the drawing board. Instead, JC Staff - a group not exactly known to dazzle fans with the power of their presence - took the helm. This move was decried as the end of the world even before the season premiere, but is the switch to a different studio really that crucial to spoiling such a beloved, acclaimed show? Let's find out...

Synopsis

In a world filled to the brim with monsters, alien attacks, and other threats to the safety and welfare of mankind, Saitama looks like just your average hero for fun, sweeping in to rescue folks from the world’s myriad dangers in between bargain shopping and vegging out on his apartment floor. But Saitama isn’t just your run-of-the-mill, pajama wearing caped crusader; through a “rigorous” training method, he somehow accidentally became the strongest being in existence, capable of killing any villain he comes across with just one, lazy punch. Unfortunately, the wages for this phenomenal power are paid in baldness and boredom, and as the threats pile on and would-be disciples land on his doorstep seeking the secret to his power, our hero bumbles through his existential ennui with a dry wit and one desperate yearning: to find a foe strong enough to give him that one good fight.

The Good

I’m dodging the giant pink animation elephant in the room for now and just going to say that OPM Season 2 is still the same show at heart as before. The characters we all know and love are back, and bless 'em, they haven't changed a bit. Saitama is as lazily indestructible as ever, though he now thoughtlessly doles out common sense wisdom to everyone he meets, morphing him into some latter-day Bodhisattva and captivating some of the best of the best in the hero biz. This season finally gives a proper introduction to one of the series' more popular characters: the psychic diva Fubuki, or “Hellish Blizzard,” as per her hero name. The stunning, green-haired beauty has been a fan favorite since her debut in the webcomic, and her rendezvous with Saitama sheds a bit more light on the dodgy politics saturating the hero world. At the same time, it still adheres to the series's absurdist comedy, rooted in elaborate setups which lead to hilariously anticlimactic conclusions. Episode three showcases this brilliantly, with a serial escalation of fights and hype behind one particular character, only to see him get one-punched - or "one-chopped," in this case - like the Saitama afterthought he ultimately is. And speaking of scuffles, the battle between Genos, Saitama’s chief “disciple,” and the bald hero’s self-proclaimed ninja rival Speed-o'-Sound Sonic, possessed a fluidity and cinematography that exceeded my expectations, and the third episode's spotlight on Garou, the monster-obsessed antagonist this season, propels this kernel of competence into something approaching wonder.

The Bad

...Do I really need to state the obvious?  Fine, here goes: the animation quality, at least for some parts, gets stuck somewhere between “hot royal mess” and “something my sick dog fertilized the lawn with last night.” I'm leaving the fight scenes out for now, since that's an equine of an entirely different hue I discuss down below. Rather, it's what JC Staff does - or doesn't do - with its characters when they're not bleeding or in mid-punch that will leave you scratching your head. For one, it is very lazy; often, the characters are mere still shots with their mouths flapping, veering entire scenes to a level of uncanny artificiality that'd make the Stepford Smilers blush with envy. It doesn't help that for the first two episodes, the folks at JC Staff leave a lot to be desired with their fight scenes. Sure, Genos and Sonic’s epic showdown actually lives up to the overused adjective, but Saitama’s clash with Blizzard and her crew drew little more than a snooze out of me. One blatant gaffe I noticed during their fight made it look like Blizzard suddenly teleported to near Saitama’s head from over thirty feet away, ready to swing in with her box cutter, instead of the desperate charge it had been accurately depicted as in the manga. This was the only part of the fight that elicited more than a yawn from me, though I don’t think “snorting while trying not to laugh” is what JC Staff was shooting for. Beyond the laziness, and short of the best of the action scenes, the animation is passable, if not stellar. Still, fans can’t resist comparing it to the magisterial ease of the past season’s visual accomplishments, even with mundane matters like facial expressions. Madhouse managed to etch the personalities of each character into every tick and twitch of their faces, and every slump of their frames - even Saitama, who ain't exactly the most expressive guy around. But seeing these beloved characters rendered so dully gave a shock to the system of long-time fans, and I doubt the phenomenal first season would have sparked nearly as much acclaim had JC Staff been manning the ship from the get-go.

The Ugly

The animation.

All joking aside, the animation quality, particularly as it concerns the fight scenes, roams all over the map. Had this review gone up before the third episode, I would have judged it an unqualified bad; the hero clashes in the previous two episodes didn't inspire much beyond disappointment, Genos vs. Sonic aside. But then they drop episode three, and surprised everyone with a startling growth spurt from out of the dregs. Garou's curb-stomp across the faces of dozens of heroes reached a height of skillful depiction the naysayers would have thought impossible when the studio released its announcement trailer some time ago. It doesn't quite approach Madhouse's mastered fluidity and seamless execution, but JC Staff pulls off a valiant effort nonetheless, and has a knack for manipulating shadow and lighting to the service of high-octane movement that surpasses even their eulogized predecessor, and in my opinion, this style better fits the somewhat darker tone of this season. The reason I don't count this as a definite good is that we just don't know what to expect in the upcoming episodes: JC Staff may continue the upward march, shattering every negative expectation like the force from Saitama's apocalyptic fists; or they may slide back to the wonky mouth work and still images of before. It's anyone's guess at this point. Besides that, almost every scene so far has been lifted straight from the manga's pages. This is great, on the one hand, since ONE is, if nothing else, an outstanding storyteller, so you can’t go wrong with keeping faithful to the source. But too much faith can shutter the creative juices, and dogmatic adherence to the manga might prohibit JC Staff from making the acceptable breaks from the printed page necessary for every adaptation.

Tune In or Tune Out? 

Tune In. Never mind the seesawing animation quality, never mind the broken pedestal or ruined, mostly unreasonable, expectations; at the end of the day, this is still One-Punch Man, one of the best manga series to come out of Japan in the past decade. ONE's humorous tale of a superhero world beholden to image and devoid of meaning and the caped baldy who wanders that mire carries an evergreen resonance to modern life, no matter what package it comes wrapped in. JC Staff's style may, to old fans, feel like a bitter pill to swallow, but given some time and an open mind, it might still prove just what the doctor ordered.

"The Order" is nothing groundbreaking, but still a good deal of fun all the same

...Could you stop staring?  Please?

Show: The Order

Genre: Supernatural Drama

Network: Netflix Original

Premiered: March 7, 2019

From Buffy the Vampire Slayer down through The Vampire Diaries and the host of its descendants, few television genres can claim the same degree of bloated over-extension as the tangled web of productions known collectively as "the paranormal drama." Whether we’re talking vampires or werewolves, ghosts or witches, or all of the above, you can’t throw a stone anywhere in TV Land without hitting someone baring fangs or weaving a magical incantation while tenaciously necking with a gorgeous co-star in between P.E. and Chemistry 101. Netflix, of course, had long ago planted its bi-colored flag atop this mound of fecund dollar returns, with The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina and Stranger Things but the more circulated shows in this genre falling under its established corporate stamp. And into this nexus of internet savvy, media business, and supernatural fantasy they toss yet another original series: The Order, created by Dennis Heaton, which premiered on March 7th and aims for a slice of the lucrative paranormal pie with an attractive cast and a little twist on the supernatural drama which adds some pop to its wardrobe. Okay, so I’m a little late to the party — as in, nearly a month late — and I'm sure everyone who’d been hellbent on watching it had probably binged it the very weekend it came out. But to the one or two of you out there who missed the memo, or have been buried under Netflix recommends for the past several fortnights, if you’ve missed this little morsel in your lists, it may be worth taking up now and giving the old college look-see.

Synopsis

We're introduced to Jack Morton (Jake Manley), a baby-faced freshman who's “fresh” in every sense, standing over his mother’s grave while he reads aloud a letter fulfilling his apparent lifelong ambition of getting into the illustrious Belgrave University, a school with old money rules and more than a few dark secrets. But for Jack and his maternal grandfather (Matt Frewer), his acceptance isn’t a cue to start a four-year binge of parties and student life. They are men on one peculiar mission: enter Belgrave, infiltrate a secret and powerful fraternal society centered in the campus known as "the Order," and find a way to strike at its mysterious leader Edward Coventry (Max Martini), who also happens to be Jack’s biological father and the supposed nefarious scoundrel behind his mother's demise. But there’s more afoot than mere skulduggery from an oligarchic secret society; the Order hides a darkly magical secret, and as Jack falls deeper into a web of supernatural intrigue, he gets locked in a paranormal conflict way outside what he signed up for.

The Good

The best thing The Order has going for it is a delightful and irreverent sense of humor. Unlike the flood of supernatural series spilling over Netflix and other stations’ time slots, The Order approaches the supernatural with a casual air and a delightful sense of whimsy that somehow avoids reducing or trivializing its inherent danger. Jack doesn’t stumble into the paranormal ring as a hopelessly naive newcomer; though the world of magic and werewolves slips a teensy bit outside his grandfather’s preparations, Jack takes it, if not quite in stride, than with a great deal more grace and wit than the average schmoe. I know “likeable” is about as bland and nondescript a compliment as you can make of a character these days, but the glove definitely fits, and watching him bumble his way through college is more joy than irritation thanks in no small part to Manley's effortless charisma. Jack's misadventures merely set the beat to this deliciously off-key drummer, where the supernatural gets introduced and incorporated with all the flare and gravitas of a dorm inspection, and several tense moments defuse on a cheeky quip or turn of the phrase. Rather than grounds for pulling my hair out, these moments of lightness add flavor to the broth, like the comically PC tour of the modern college campus where freshmen receive both a rape whistle, and a “how not to rape” pamphlet. The show knows not to take itself too seriously, and yet avoids falling into the trap of (overt) self-aware pastiche like the million or so similar series gunking up the airwaves and interwebs. In that happy medium, The Order finds a contrasting voice to the myriad of dark, paranormal, Grimmified fairy tales littering the market.

The Bad

Unfortunately, this lighter shade does come with a few bad palettes. For one, there’s the all-encompassing cheese factor to consider whenever anything like this series pops up. The dialogue, while whimsical and pleasant most of the time, can veer into the obnoxious on occasion. This mainly comes to the fore with Jack’s awkward and janky “romantic” slog with Alyssa Drake, a fellow Belgrave student, campus tour guide, and his eventual superior once he joins the Order, who's played by the generally charming Sasha Grey. Their dynamic feels forced and stiff, like two neophyte thespians reading their lines and the implied emotion thereof on each others’ foreheads. I know they’re supposed to be in college, and trust me, I remember just how little the maturity level of an inbound freshman can differ from the high school knuckleheads they evolve from. But their chemistry sizzles with all the pop of a damp towel, and as entertaining as they are separately, they looked the polar opposite of dazzling at every turn of their screen time together. Thankfully, this little gaffe remains the only stink I’m willing to point out. Adjusting your expectations for this series (it is a paranormal teen drama/thriller, after all) means letting go a bit of the critical scalpel and suspending any comparisons to genre titans and path breakers, like the aforementioned Buffy or The Vampire Diaries.

The Ugly

Good lord, you may as well call this show Your Mileage May Vary: the Series. Though The Order is low-key and innocuous enough to escape the type of hard-nosed scrutiny that leads fans along divisive extremes, so much of its content can be a hit or miss for practically everyone. Is Jack a funny, enjoyable main lead, or an irritating, bland, cookie-cutter protagonist; does the mystery of the plot invite intrigue and speculation, or is it a snooze fest out of place with the rest of the story?  The fact that it doesn’t take itself as seriously as other shows of its kind, while a supreme strength in my eyes, may invite legitimate accusations of derailment due to breaking the atmosphere and heaping piles of cheese atop it. Seriously, there’s something for everyone to love or hate in equal measure, with only your mood to decide which way the windsock blows at any given moment.

To Bing or Not to Binge

Knock yourself out and Binge to your heart’s content.  Yes, the show’s derivative, and yes, it's a hot ticket to Cheesyville at its very worst, but that’s as close to a nadir as you’ll likely get. There’s no ground to break here or new paradigms a-shifting; just good, old fashioned comedy-drama, with a refreshingly irreverent eye on the paranormal. Speaking as someone a little miffed by the borderline apocalyptic tone so many of these series flash like a Boy Scout badge, I find it The Order's fresh humor and fresher protagonists must welcomed divergence.

March Releases

March Releases

So what does the first month of spring have in store for us?  Well, besides a certain - ahem - divisive superhero movie from Marvel, a couple of other potential gems that may get lost in the controversy.  Spring seems to bring out the action affectionados, as aside from the aforementioned obligatory spandex jam, Western fans are getting their fix with The Kid and Never Grow Old, while period pieces The Highwaymen and Mission of Honor look at Bonnie Clyde and the Battle of Britain, respectively, through a pulse-racing lens.  Meanwhile, quieter, more contemplative flicks abound as well, like The Mustang, about a prisoner reconnecting with his humanity through taming an unbreakable bronco; and Five Feet Apart, a romantic tale of two cystic fibrosis patients in love, which puts a different twist on the whole "forbidden love" paradigm.

For the gamers,  action-adventure icon Devil May Cry premieres with its fifth entry, along with the latest installment of Team Ninja's fanservice display fighting game series Dead or Alive.
To catch up on these and more entertainment releases, check out the links below, as always.

Movies

https://www.movieinsider.com/movies/march/2019 

Games

http://www.ign.com/games/upcoming?time=1m 

Books 
http://www.bookreporter.com/coming-soon 

Music 
https://uproxx.com/music/new-albums-coming-out-this-month-march-2019/

Television
https://www.tvguide.com/coming-soon/

See you at the movies! 

 

Fan fiction Spotlight: "The Killer Rarityverse"

 

Yup, face of a real killer, this one

Ah, the bizarre, turbulent paths serendipity can take us down when on the wings of an internet Wiki walk.  One minute, I’m searching up YouTube videos in my downtime between writings; next thing I know, I’ve spent a near full day reading through the strange, dark, tragic world of fanfic writer BronyWriter’s Killer Rarityverse.  This nasty little string of bloody pearls latches around one thought: What if Rarity, the resident fashionista and gem hound of Hasbro’s demographic-smashing hit My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, had a secret life as a conflicted serial killer?

 If “My Little Dexter” sounds to you like the kind of gross, unappetizing blend your 5-year-old would cook up during one of her “experiments” in the kitchen, well, you’re not alone. I never fell into the MLP bandwagon despite my stated love for all things animated, my familiarity with it bound to a couple of episodes and its presence in every dark crevice of the internet for nearly a decade. Also, though a connoisseur of the dark and serious (“bittersweet” is basically my “happy ending”) I’ve never found “grimdark” to be up my alley. It comes not so much as an offense to my sensibilities as an offense to good writing and storycrafting; like all too many Western horror flicks, the writers get more wrapped up with blood and the myriad carved configurations one can make out of someone’s intestines than with creating meaningful violence in service to their flimsy excuse plots.  And this goes double when the grimdark eyesore trails from the keyboard of an amateur fanfic writer.

But The Killer Rarityverse, ahem, “bucks” the trend. Though filled with its fair share of blood and intestines, the stories shine a bigger light on the psychological turmoil of its characters and the fallout of what happens when one commits such an unspeakable sin. Combine that with BronyWriter’s adept penmanship, and this series morphs from just another polished, grimdark turd into a rare obsidian gen - one whose luster lingered with me far longer than I expected.

Which brings us to this article. I wouldn’t call it a “review,” per say; I don’t believe I should apply that to hardworking fan creators who publish works for free at the cost of their personal time, unless one specifically asks me to. So I’ll dole out no ratings from up high, instead just a brief description of the stories, my impressions and their impact during my reading, and if and where they fell a little short of my expectations - a “critique plus,” if you will.

 I focus on five stories from the ‘verse, starting with the canon trilogy: The Secret Life of Rarity, the original story where Rarity makes one bad decision as a child (foal? Filly?) which forever alters her life and those of everyone connected to her; The Public Life of Sweetie Belle, which follows Rarity’s titular little sister over the course of two decades as she deals with the dregs of her sister’s madness; and lastly, Broken Blossom, the tragic tale of Sweetie Belle’s daughter Joyous Blossom as she comes of age amidst the dark shade of her aunt’s infamy, her mother’s many sorrows, and her own growing darkness. In addition, BronyWriter made two alternate universe fics I’ll cover here as well: The Word is Fear, a branch to the end of Broken Blossom in which a single act of mercy spirals into a horrible tragedy; and A Shadow Hangs Overhead, where we warp way back to the beginning and ask the series’ ultimate “what if?” -  how would events have changed if Rarity was caught soon after her first murder? BronyWriter penned other stories connected to the KR-verse, though in my opinion they lack the narrative clout to be included at this time.  Several stories made by other writers also exist that take place in the ‘verse and have earned his seal of approval, but I wanted to keep focus on BronyWriter’s own works, and in either case, I have not read them (the sole exception being a nice little number called The Penance of Rarity by King of Thieves, which not only had BronyWriter backing it as an editor, but also provided a nice epilogue of sorts to the main trilogy. Give it a shot if, like me, you’re a sucker for redemption stories, even if it’s a bit heavy-handed.)

 A few disclaimers, though; there will be blood, and lots of it. This applies especially to The Secret Life, but none of the stories skimp on the violence when called for. Remember: My Little Pony meets Dexter, and if you find anything in the latter show objectionable or rage-inducing, you might want to steer clear of this, particularly the first story. Also, the Rarityverse is dark, darker than most any work I’ve encountered with far greater violence, and even the most optimistic and least brutal of the lot will frequently leave you sad and tense in anticipation of an upcoming tragedy. So tread lightly if you get easily depressed. I will try to avoid spoilers for the curious as best I can, but that may prove difficult, if not impossible. BronyWriter welds the narratives between his texts into a tight coil, with most stories beginning exactly where the last one left off. This also makes reading them in order a must, though how I listed them here can offer a guide: the canon trilogy first, of course, followed by The Word as an alternate take on its conclusion, and finally A Shadow for the ultimate twist of fate. So without further ado, let’s get started.

The Secret Life of Rarity 

Young Rarity, an 8-year-old foal, had just started a new school. That would be scary enough, but soon, a trio of bullies personally choose her as their collective stress ball. After several weeks of unwarranted abuse, she finally got them suspended...only to confront them later in her special place of solitude where she flees to find some peace. Faced with their harassment and a potential beating, something inside the young child besides fear made her snap - and that day, only she left the forest alive.  So begins her long, dark trek down the path of a serial killer, her indulgence in her dark desires marching in step with her innocent adventures with her castmates, as the walls of her sanity and her divided worlds begin to crumble.

The Secret Life hits the ground running, bringing to bear BronyWriter’s strengths of characterization and a keen instinct for tension. The first seven or so chapters were a bit of a slog, to be honest, if only that they served mainly to introduce the premise and be a funhouse mirror to events which occurred during the show; how would Gilda the Griffin, The Great and Powerful Trixie, and other one-of antagonists survive the wrath of a homicidal Rarity for their hurtful but relatively innocuous offenses? (Spoiler alert: They don’t). It’s only as one and eventually more people she cares for uncover her secrets that the plot really launches, and BronyWriter shows his mettle.  Even if he did use Dexter as a close guide (and honestly, there’s no proof, and enough differences not to warrant the charge) the conflicts he spins bow solely to his own skill, and he strings together Rarity’s mental destruction with expert analysis of her character and motives while avoiding either explaining too much, or falling back on melodrama or deus ex machina. I can forgive some of the slip-ups in his writing at the beginning - or Rarity’s put-upon tendency to talk to herself -  as they did little to take from a tense, emotional saga. Still, I feel like I had encountered this story many times before - maybe because I have. If I could put a finger on one flaw for this Dexter-meets-MLP, it’s...well, that it’s Dexter-meets-MLP.  Though blessed with BronyWriter’s own signature style, The Secret Life retreads territory Dexter and similar shows have covered before, and better (I’m not knocking BronyWriter in any way - just pointing out that he’s one fan creator vs. a team of experienced professional screenwriters). Also, I think this tale requires the greatest familiarity with the show, since most of its edge and nearly all of its black humor stem from the blacklight it casts on known events from the series, which may leave non-fans drawn to the story’s intricacies (like me) a bit in the dark. Still, this roller-coaster rocked me to the core, and reached a poignant and satisfying conclusion. 

The Public Life of Sweetie Belle 

Sweetie Belle, Rarity’s 8-year-old sister, is left to wander the remainder of her childhood and the rest of her life in her sister’s murderous shadow.  As friends turn their backs on her and Rarity’s own circle collapses under the weight of her atrocities, Sweetie Belle feels put on the spotlight, dealing with a hostile town still grieving Rarity’s senseless butchery. As the years pass, Sweetie Belle endures this trial as best she can, but an altercation with an irate, drunken stallion lands her in therapy, where secrets long suppressed may blow her world wide open.

The Public Life is unquestionably my favorite story in the main trilogy and of the ‘verse as a whole. Sweetie Belle is a much more sympathetic character than her sister, and while much of The Secret Life consists of the dark romps of its villain protagonist in parallel to the show’s run, The Public Life features a original setting for BronyWriter to play with. And he doesn’t disappoint; while most fanfic writers fall short when forced to deviate from the source for an extended time, BronyWriter rises magnificently to the challenge, and delivers a well-paced, engrossing narrative without its predecessor’s reliance on gory suspense. But what really made this story for me was how it dealt with the fallout of Rarity’s acts - not just among her victims, but also her family and friends. Both Sweetie Belle and the other main characters are left with the difficult question shouldered by many surviving loved ones of some of history’s great monsters: how do you reconcile memories of someone you’ve come to cherish with the fact that they'd committed horrible atrocities? This burden falls on all the characters and in different ways, but it strikes Sweetie Belle the hardest since “loving sister” and “murderous monster” coexist uneasily in her mind for many years before she learns to accept the paradox and let it go. BronyWriter doesn’t offer easy answers to difficult questions, and he trusts his readers to accept that as well. I honestly wasn’t as fond of the ending, from the introduction of Joyous Blossom to the story’s conclusion. It all smacked a bit of an extended diabolus ex machina rather than a natural narrative outgrowth, but I appreciated BronyWriter’s tact with handling it all the same.  

 Broken Blossom  

Joyous Blossom, Sweetie Belle’s young daughter, gets put into the custody of the princess/goddess sisters, Celestia and Luna, following the tragic events of the last volume which separated her from her mother. Feeling alone and trapped while a vengeful parent cries out for her blood, the child already has a dark secret of her own hovering over her head, and as her life slips out of control, Blossom confronts one terrifying question: just how deeply does the legacy of her murderous aunt run?

Broken Blossom rounds out the canon trilogy, though I can’t say to my full satisfaction. The writing quality stayed strong, of course; BronyWriter has a knack for conveying even plotlines I care little for with clarity and emotional impact. The grief of Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon - minor antagonists to Sweetie Belle and her friends in the show, which gets carried over to this series and through adulthood - follows the tragic deaths of their children in the previous volume, and it strikes with a visceral fury, providing most of the emotional torque for the early parts. The main problem for me lies with Blossom herself; I couldn't form a connection with the character, either from The Public Life, or here. And you can’t just chalk it up to a case of “Fanfic Other Character Syndrome” with me; I’m not a fan of the show, so Rarity is only somewhat known to me, while Sweetie Belle might as well be a blank - and I imagine neither character remains close to their series counterparts. Blossom felt too far removed from the source of everyone’s misery, even if she also fell victim to it, and though I enjoyed the arc where she reconnects with a long lost relative, it felt too fleeting.  Afterwards, the story played up the “in the blood” trope I tend to find so unpleasant, seeing Blossom hallucinate her aunt, who pushes her to kill. It smacked of a narrative trick just to extend her suffering, though to be fair, I can’t say he wrote it poorly. In all, it’s not a bad story by any stretch, and even if the esoteric happy ending left me a little unsatisfied, I still enjoyed the end of the ride.           

The Word is Fear 

The series’ first alternate universe, it forks from the main storyline close to the end of Broken Blossom, after the young mare’s past crimes and present deterioration have been exposed.  Her family convinces her to give life a second chance, and with Celestia’s approval, she enters an extensive therapy program designed to quiet her troubled mind. However, as the system fails her and Rarity’s hallucinations turn more frequent and insistent, Blossom fears sliding into the same shade of monstrosity as her aunt and dragging the rest of Equestria into her own personal hell.

So one word can describe this story: tense. The Word is Fear keeps you on a live wire through the entire read, unsure of how this tragedy will turn out in the end, and keeps you more nervous than even anything from The Secret Life. I appreciate how BronyWriter cuts Blossom’s madness from a different cloth than her aunt's, which went a long way towards making her a more interesting and pitiable character in my eyes, even if I tend to find her particular flavor of crazy undesirable in most works. The story takes a step back from the centerpiece of character psychology and examines how Blossom’s actions impact the wider world and whips everyone affected into a heightened state of agitation. That said, though I liked this one somewhat better than Broken Blossom, that’s not by much; it still carries some of the issues I had with that story, and a few of the plot developments stretched beyond even my generous suspension of disbelief. As heroes fail and become near villains themselves, it got hard to stay invested even with my greater sympathy for Blossom. This is the only story in the series that got me close to uttering those eight deadly words (you know the ones) and I finished it more out of a sense of completion than anything else, despite the tight writing and tension and more interesting ending than the previous story.

A Shadow Hangs Overhead 

 Our last story breaks cleanly from the established canon, and dials back all the way to the very beginning. Young Rarity’s actions on that fateful day follow the same toxic course as in The Secret Life: a confrontation with her tormentors in the woods, which leads to a tragic act of fatal violence. But this time, one of them got away, which makes all the difference. As the authorities swarm in and take stock of what happened, little Rarity is about to head down another long, arduous path - very different from the one in the first story, but fraught with its own terrors and landmines set to blow her fragile recovery to pieces.

And now we come to my second (or third; I waiver between this and the original) favorite story in the series. BronyWriter takes the premise from The Secret Life and cleverly inverts it: instead of Rarity being a public face with a dark, murderous secret, she now clutches for some level of normalcy in her private life, while the rest of the world sees her as a killer. Why this works, besides BronyWriter’s skill, comes down to how he revisits difficult questions and emotions - in this case, grief, repentance, and when and how to move on from a terrible tragedy. One scene in particular cements this little gem in my heart - not only because it represents a wonderful piece of dialogue writing by any standard, but through the words of two of Rarity’s therapists, it makes explicit arguably the central question in this whole series: what makes a killer?  Are some people born wicked, or does it merely take a little pressure, a big helping of fear, and one really bad day to turn a face in the herd into a monster of God?  As typical, BronyWriter offers no easy answer to this, and we readers are left to decide on our own. Unfortunately, it probably has my least favorite conclusion in the series, largely the result of ending fatigue and a sense of rushing, but considering the wide gaps between the start and finish of the story, it makes sense.   

If this seems like an awful lot to write about for a fanfiction in a fandom I don't follow, well, I’m just as surprised as you are. But we shouldn’t dismiss a good story on account of any strange or unfamiliar form it takes. BronyWriter clearly stands out as a highly capable author, even in the stories I felt less than fond of, and I view the day or two this occupied my thoughts as time very well spent. Coming from a non-fan with only a tangential understanding of the source franchise, what better complement could I give?