It Is Recommendsday, My Dudes #52 · 8:05pm Mar 16th, 2022
Well now. This marks a full year of this blog series. I'll admit, it's been a fun ride so far. Having the chance to bring a little light on to some deserving stories and authors has been great, as has the excuse to re-read some of my favorites before putting them up. It's been a blast, and thank you all for joining me along the way.
To kind of celebrate the anniversary, I've been saving two authors for a while. They're both favorites of mine and this is a perfect opportunity to put them into the spotlight. And, by happy happenstance, some of my favorites among their stories share a common theme.
The first of the pair is Post Negative Comments Only, by the famed Estee. And this one's a favorite for a lot of reasons.
It starts deceptively simply: newly ascended to the throne of the Crystal Empire, Princess Cadance is frustrated. The crystal ponies are doting on her every word and deed - to a ridiculous, fearful extent. After a lifetime under Sombra's tyrannical rule, they're terrified of her displeasure and leap to appease her slightest implied whim. And she hates every bit of it.
Then she runs into an unexpected character: Iron Will. As a minotaur - a race with a history as slaves - he has come to the Empire to help in his unique way. Namely, trying to help the crystal ponies cope with their new freedom and find stability in their lives. And after he and the Princess talk... well, unfortunately Cadance takes the wrong idea away from him and things rapidly spiral out of control.
While that description reads like a comedy, this story is not. Sure there's a few chuckle-worthy moments, but the core's quite serious. It all revolves around that shared trauma the crystal ponies have, which is an aspect I just love. It's one of the darkest parts of the show's canon if you put any thought into it - the show doesn't (for obvious reasons), however. A lot of authors also either don't touch it or gloss it over - it's rare to see someone competently delve into the Crystal Empire's history of slavery, mind control and terror.
Which is what happens here. It's a great focus on the repercussions of that history and the lingering problems. Just getting rid of the big bad doesn't solve everything and there's a lot of great storytelling in the aftermath. It helps, too, that Estee's brought it to light with an extremely unusual pair of main characters that manage to still get an amazing interplay that makes complete sense for them both.
As per usual for Estee's work, it's beautiful.
For the second one, I'm going to put up my usual Not Safe For Work flag because, well. While it isn't Mature-tagged? Massive amounts of profanity.
Because the second story on the anniversary docket is 👏 Let 👏 Wallflower 👏 Say 👏 F*ck 👏. By, of course, Scampy (and co-authored by the similarly talented Gay For Gadot).
It starts out relatively simply - Sunset having a cute evening in with Wallflower. It escalates a bit as some of the details of Wally's ugly home life get revealed, culminating in the two moving in together. Things start to kick off proper in the second chapter as Wallflower starts to explore her newfound freedom - Sunset encourages her to break out of that past by violating one of her mother's rules by saying a swear word.
So she does.
And things get out of hand.
Now, most of y'all know I love Scampy's work in general - she's amazing at writing stuff that's compelling but deeply discomforting. Despite the relatively campy title and elevator pitch, this is one of those. It's a silly concept that hit some deep emotions and uses those two ends of the spectrum to really help it dig into the reader's skin.
Because like today's other story, there's a lot of trauma here. And removing the source doesn't magically solve everything - it lingers and festers. And in the end, has to be treated on its own over time. Both end with beginning to solve the problem. This story, though, is the far more visceral and personal of the two, and you can really feel the author's direct experiences shining through in the writing. It hurts a bit to read and makes me squirm - much like a lot of Scampy's works - but that's good. It's appropriate. This sort of topic material should make the reader uncomfortable.
That's why it's good.
my favorite part is when she says fuck
Outstanding authors both. Happy Recommendaversary! (Er, almost. I suppose that would be next week.)