Past Sins ~ Pen Stroke's Masterful Creation? Or Imminent Downfall?

My oh my this shall be a very interesting blog post. In fact I might add it may be just the way I see Past Sins now, compared to how I saw it back then. So to those of you who either despise, love, or somewhere in the middle with Nyx, do not worry. This isn't necessarily a rant that is meant to attack Pen Stroke or his story. It's just my own opinion towards one of the famous stories that FimFiction has to offer. So in regards this can be taken as both as my own foresight as to the story's futures, as well as Pen Stroke's. While also retaining to a review in a sense of words. This question that I'm going to ask is, more or less, inspired by the user SpitFlame and his/her own opinion towards Pen Stroke's story. So without further adieu, let me begin this blog post.

A note before I begin; this may answer questions for why Nyx shall not be in my own story anymore for you Kingdom Hearts fans. Another blog post will be made with all this information as to why Nyx worked so well in another story of mine. And also to say again; this is my opinion. Those who love or hate, or just in the middle of this popular story on FIM are entitled to either liking this story, disliking this story, or those who are somewhere in between. Thank you and I hope you enjoy.

Now let's begin with the first story, Past Sins. To admit, my first ever fan fiction story I've ever taken the pleasure in reading was actually this very story. This was the very first serious story I actually took into account before I even began to write fan fiction. And so with some praise I will admit that I did look up to this story as I inspired to be a writer of fan fiction. And at the time before I even began to write, I would have argued that this story was one of the best stories hands down. I might have gone as far as suggesting that Nyx was one of, or maybe even the best original character I have ever seen in a long time. Although me being me back then, I hardly knew what I was even talking about.

So once I fully began to write, after my first year my view of it had not changed all that much. It was still one of the best stories that I have ever read. Nyx, however, began to change in my year one of writing view. She slowly became less and less interesting. Now don't get me wrong, the part when she changed into Nightmare Moon was awesome, and it was even more cool when she actually began to change on her own rather than somepony convincing her to change.

But now it has been two years since I have officially started writing; so now the question would be how do I view it now? In short, I do believe that Past Sins is a great story. Although now parts of it have certainly changed in my view and it has slowly dimmed to be a story that I feel that you read once and soon you can't really read it anymore after that. But Nyx, unfortunately, did not fully return to my eyes as this great Original Character that I first saw her to be. She's... become bland in my eyes. The only redeeming aspect of her was that she was able to revert back to her normal personality by opening her eyes to what she was doing. It may have taken sometime but she did it and all in all she did a wonderful job in doing so. But other than that she is just like Fluttershy. She's cute, maybe a bit shy and cries a lot. But that's all she really is. She can be brave when needs to, but in the end she'll revert back to that personality where she just is easy to upset.

Cute as she may be, that's not enough for me to fully like her. A character needs to have more than just a cute exterior for me to fully invest my feelings into them. Nyx did manage to pull that off, and of course Pen Stroke did an amazing job. But one thing I did notice, as SpitFlame did in his opinion was that the writing did end up becoming a little... odd at the near end. It didn't have the same impact on me as my first time reading it. Rather it just feels too simple and the ending scenes, like the big fight scene with all those creatures from the EverFree. That made Nyx way too powerful. Sure she had Nightmare Moon's power, but even then I feel she has a limit to what she could do and it was just felt like Pen Stroke was trying to make her out to be a strong pony.

Now does this make Past Sins bad? Certainly not. Heck there are possibly stories out in FIMFiction that might be worse, and I probably have no clue about them. But it does subtract from Past Sins itself since this story as I would say now is... an alright story. I'm not going to say it certainly is one of the best anymore, that much I can guarantee.

So how about the second sequel to this story, Pen Stroke's Winter Bells? I'll admit that this story definitely was another favorite of mine back then. Although nowadays I do find that it was again, alright in the sense that it is about the same to my liking as Past Sins was. Slice of Life stories are slowly becoming more and more of my favorite types of genres because they relate to real world problems that we face today. And Winter Bells is certainly one sequel that I do admire for it. Although the gripe I have with this one, although however minor it may be, was the sudden inclusion of Discord at the end. You don't just throw in characters willy nilly whenever you feel like it, especially at the end like that. Discord wasn't even a huge importance to this one and Pen Stroke's decision in including the God of Chaos sounded more like he just wanted him in there.

Now for the third story, The Road Home. Oh boy... how can I put it nicely. This story was... just a mess. Honestly there was just too much going on at once and let me tell you, I feel that this was Pen Stroke's worst sequel to Past Sins by far. It was an utter mess of a story, with Applejack and friends trying to furnish and refine Twilight's crystal castle to make it feel more like home. Of course it was also predictable at how it would go, being that problems would arise while Discord was off screwing around with Twilight, Cadance, Shining Armor, Spike, and Nyx by having them go through a Dungeons & Dragons type of style. The adventure aspect just seemed so forced and quite frankly, sometimes I wondered if Discord was purposely trying to kill them with how bad the situations he was putting them in. Again, this story needs a lot of fine tuning before I would fully appreciate it.

The story seemed to take itself way to seriously and I felt that Pen Stroke put this out at a bad time. Of course we all know what has happened since Twilight has gotten used to the castle in season five, plus with the fact that he was supposed to make it even before the episode revolving around Twilight's unwillingness to go near her castle, it just didn't feel like it came out at the right time. And to be add to the fact, this story just fell flat. Everyone one was... very uninteresting. The mayhem that Discord was causing Twilight and the others seemed so unnecessary. The refining of the castle and all the hijinks that Applejack and her friends were experiencing was so lackluster and not even funny. Basically it was one huge mess. Pen Stroke. I love yah buddy, but honestly. How much effort was put into this sequel?

I mean I can try and understand how he feels. Certainly with a story so popular the expectations that many readers have will possibly overwhelm even the sturdiest of authors. But this sequel, as I have mentioned before just felt like it was forced upon us, that Pen Stroke put time into it, but not the effort. But I do respect him for trying at least.

So what does this mean for both the Past Sins series and Pen Stroke himself? Well, for one I will say this, although this can be argued because of both the readers and desires some readers may have. Should Pen Stroke make a fourth big story relating to Past Sins? In my opinion, I believe no. This series has done some good to be honest, and I certainly looked up to it at an earlier time. However, because of how bad The Road Home was, I honestly feel that if he was to make a fourth sequel, and for it to be successful, that more effort and time would need to be put into it than what Pen Stroke's third sequel was like. Otherwise a fourth story would be pushing it.

So in truth, a fourth story in this series may actually collapse Pen Stroke's reputation, and possibly even ruin Nyx. Maybe not ruin as in, "She done forever", but more like she just would get less and less interesting as the series would progress. I mean that's one other gripe I have with Pen Stroke's, The Road Home. Nyx was seriously just so uninteresting. She was bland. She was boring. She may have somewhat of a new personality in it, but other than that I didn't even care for her that much.

I will add that Past Sins was amazing and did deserve its time in the light. But now with it aging as it has been, I feel there are so many better stories out there than this one. Honestly, that's why I'm afraid that Pen Stroke will continue with this series. In the end, its this old dog competing against other stories with fresher concepts than what was given to us in the Road Home. But is this the end for Pen Stroke? Well, certainly not. There are more stories he's making that I may have not taken a look into, but seem interesting. I feel that even if he does finish the Past Sins series with The Road Home, I'm certain it will be just fine. The reputation that this series has gotten is quite large. And it's a story that I will cherish. Maybe not for the same reasons as before, but definitely one that I will remember for a while longer.

Well, that's my opinion on the series. I find that it is charming in an old fashion sense for how old this story is, but with the attention it has gotten, I feel that the Road Home is the final story, or at least hopefully should be the last one in the series. However, if Pen Stroke could ever prove me wrong with a fourth sequel, I would be glad to make it higher on my list of favorite stories. But as of now, in the review sense of the entire series I would have to give it a... 6.5/10. There was potential for the third story, but honestly I feel like it just fell flat. It's one popular story that could end up being not so popular if a wrong move is made. But even if a fourth story is to ever come to past, I will at least give it a shot and see how it does.

Thank you all for reading and I hope to see you all again soon.