EThe Station

• MLP: FiM
• Dark
• Mystery
• Random

Octavia loves the station. She can't get enough of it......

• Alt. Universe
• Human
• Octavia

My Little Epona · 1k words  ·  34  0 · 580 views

Back at it again with another short review! Hope y'all had a good quarantine easter... quaranteaster? Hm.

On this review we’re going to be tackling The Station, a story about a mysterious radio station that not everyone can hear.

The concept is intriguing and the execution is decent, but… I have one major, major, major problem with this story: it is pretty much a direct copy of the comic Midnight Radio. And honestly? I feel kind of cheated. Let’s hit it.

The plot of the story involves a mysterious radio station that plays strange music, and centers around Octavia as she talks about it. Midnight Radio is practically the exact same story. And… it’s not even Midnight Radio with ponies! It’s a human story!

So far all intents and purposes, this story is just Midnight Radio but with a different protagonist. With all of this being said, I can’t really critique anything plotwise because so much of it is the same as Midnight Radio.

Now the author does acknowledge in the description that they got the idea from a comic. I understand this idea, hell I stole the plotline of She Kills Monsters in writing Legend of Daring Do. But, I made a good effort to try and make it my own, to make it stand on its own legs without being dependent on the source material.

The author here… the author here doesn’t do this. There are so many lines taken directly from the comic that it doesn’t feel original at all. And I don’t just mean plot points. There are lines that are direct quotations from the story.

I want to say something nice about this story. But everything I can say should be attributed to the creator of Midnight Radio, not the author of this story. So… I’m sorry, but I got nothing.

See previous point. I can’t criticize anything because Octavia doesn’t act like Octavia. We can swap her with any other character in the world and the story would function the same. Vinyl Scratch is name dropped but doesn’t serve a function in the story.

Grammar was okay. Ellipses only need three periods, author uses four sometimes. Several words were completely misspelled. Pointed them out in my notes. Nothing else to say.

I’m bummed, man. Because I was excited to get into this, but then I read the ending and thought it sounded vaguely familiar. So I did some research and found the source, and the similarities are undeniable.

Being influenced by something is okay. Taking inspiration from something is also okay. But… this is neither of those things. It just makes me angry and upset because I was about to give praise to an author for a story that basically isn’t theirs. I don’t know. I’m just kind of bitter and upset right now and don’t have much else to say.

Please, just give credit where credit is due.

Next review will probably be Bastion Gambit. See you then.

Deuces.

If you want to read the story, read Midnight Radio instead.

I know you said in your work that you were ‘inspired by’ a comic, but… there are just so many similarities that I can’t call this your work. It just doesn’t feel like it. You can take ideas and change them, retell stories in new forms, and do a whole lot different to make something your own, but I really don’t feel like there was an effort to make it your own here. I’m sorry, but I just can’t rightfully say anything about this without feeling like I’m cheating the original author.
I don’t want to accuse you of doing anything and I’m not calling you a liar. Maybe you were just using more of the story than you realized, but… rightfully I don’t think I can give you any points here.

I do have my reading notes for your fic, if you would like to see them let me know.

Plot: -
Characterization: -
Grammar: -

Average: 0