Since there was no blog post on Wednesday, how about a special one today? It's not like tomorrow's is going to take more than thirty minutes to put together. (/sarcasm) So let's look at one of the all-out most famous fics in the fandom, JasontheHuman's Anthropology, and see if I can dig my grave even deeper!
SYNOPSIS:
Ever since she was a filly, Lyra has known that humans are real. It would just explain so much about Equestria society, from the technology they use to how the handles on the doors are designed. Her friends and family, however, think they are mere myths, and Princess Luna is rather adamant that they never existed. Is there something even greater going on?
REVIEW:
Anthropology is one of those stories that can be very cleanly divided into three acts, each of which seem to encompass their own theme, characters, and general mood. This is both to the story's benefit and detriment.
The first ten chapters of Anthropology are excellent. The writing is great throughout the story, but JasontheHuman goes beyond simply being technically proficient and shows incredible creativity with a tired concept like Lyra being obsessed with humans. Her beliefs are given actual credence through little oddities in the show itself, and the narrative is woven through the actual episodes, with Lyra sort of just doing her thing while the main plots were running. It also has a fantastic representation of her relationship with Bon-Bon, and avoids so much of the cliché that runs with the two characters. If these chapters encompassed the entire story, or if it kept this sort of style throughout, I would have counted Anthropology as among the absolute greats of the fandom.
But then Lyra finds out she's actually human, and goes to the human world to live with other humans.
I hesitate to apply the term “Jump the Shark” to anything without the benefit of a great deal of hindsight, but the story completely jumps tracks and becomes much worse for it. The world Lyra runs into is almost sickening in how utterly perfect she is. Nobody bothers to actually question this strange person who has absolutely no conception of human society, nor seriously delve into her background for a very, very long time in story terms. Lyra is able to instantly hook up with a rock band and become a hit, meets people who are absolutely wonderful and perfect to her, and anything remotely pony related gets shoved under a bus for ten chapters.
The third act tries to liven things up with Discord breaking into Lyra's world to wreck havoc. There are some good moments, like the Mane 6 reacting to the human world's quirks and everyone's reaction to the chocolate rain mess. But the story continues to meander about for a while before ending on a hideously open conclusion, made even worse by JtH's refusal to do a sequel.
That's what makes me so frustrated with this story. The second act doesn't feel at all like a FiM fanfiction, and instead like some dreamy world a thirteen-year-old girl dreamed up to escape from her harsh real life. It doesn't have to be a hellish nightmare (just look at Chatoyance's comments to see a representation of her seriousissues with the human race), but it just doesn't feel real. There are some good ideas sprinkled throughout, but in the end, it just feels boring. And compared to the excellent opening chapters, it's just a real letdown that this was meant to be the meat of the story.
FINAL THOUGHTS:
I will not call Anthropology a bad story, because it really isn't. The writing is great throughout and there are some really good ideas peppered through even the worst parts. Rather, it feels like it lies about itself and tries to claim it'll be a totally different story than it becomes, and not in a very good way. The stuff JtH jokingly considered to be the longest prologue ever was head-over-tails greater than the actual story, which just felt like a really lame story written by an emotionally-confused tween. The three acts feel so at odds with each other that it's a rather jarring experience.
So no, I don't consider this one of the best fanfictions of all time. It's good, but I don't think it totally deserves all the fame it receives.
He's said that he initially meant it as a parody of the "human in Equestria" cliche, which I imagine is why this version of the human world is so disgustingly perfect. My thought is that he probably ended up taking the story a tiny bit more seriously than he'd first intended, so that kind of stuff didn't end up fitting well with the finished product.
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