My Little Alicorn: Final Thoughts on Kuchen · 9:13am Mar 16th, 2012
NOTE: THIS POST CONTAINS SPOILERS. YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED.
Well, if the excessive mentions of friendship and rainbows weren't a big enough clue, the Kuchen subplot has been finished. There's no guarantee the guy won't pop up again (and believe me, he will be mentioned next chapter), but the actual mystery has been resolved. So, did it turn out all right?
Well, yes and no. On the one hand, I love the idea behind it, and it gave Twilight some more importance in the plot. But on the other hand, the thing pretty much wrecked Prince Blueblood's plot, and probably ran on longer than it should have. Much like this fic. *badum-tish*
So here, I just wanted to post some more about how things worked out, what I meant versus the crap I put out, etc. In other words, you are free to ignore it. I mean it, go ahead. Just go outside and do something productive.
...
Let's begin.
As mentioned last blog post, Kuchen was born because I wanted to connect Pinkie Pie with the Arcanus E Draconus. But I also wanted the readers to play along, so I went searching for another word for "pie" that could clue the observant in early. I then stumbled across "kuchen," a German style of cakes that also had a pie variant. It also doubled as a red herring, since if someone just directly translated the thing they probably wouldn't catch the joke right away. Of course, just about everyone did, but hey, it was fun.
Kuchen's backstory was the next thing to be filled in. Originally, he was just a very powerful unicorn that tried to overthrow Celestia, and got killed for his troubles. Of course, this hardly made for a captivating tale, so I decided to change it to him being one of Celestia's students before Twilight. And just for an extra kick in the pants, he would have turned evil after trying to help Celestia free Luna from Nightmare Moon. Either way, he always ended up with his neck snapped by Celestia, and passing on into his children to seek revenge.
Originally, he was going to actually be researching the Elements of Harmony. Celestia herself would not know what the last element was (since she had no friends and lost any power over it when Luna was banished), leaving it to Kuchen to learn what. Unfortunately, this left me with no way to make him turn evil. So, I actually decided on having him try to travel back in time Quantum Leap-style, only to end up in Luna's body while she was turning into Nightmare Moon. He would then snap back into the present, filled with Nightmare Moon's evil and a bit of her power, and then go on the warpath to bring down Celestia.
This was dumb, so I threw it out.
Finally, I settled on the plot that made it into Chapter 10. Kuchen would be a pony elevated from peasant stock to Celestia's personal student, brought in to help Celestia free Luna, only to lose everything, go mad, and finally die. By then, his story had morphed from a straight horror to what I hoped would be something of a tragedy. That's why the early parts of Chapter 10 have so much comedy. We got to see a mischievous colt go from rather carefree days to absolute rock-bottom over about thirty pages. Even then, though, a lot of things got cut because the thing was running too long. This included his actual wedding, his leaving Canterlot, a few snippets of his crimes, Stormwind hanging out with his family, and a rather more graphic description of Stormwind's death.
And that was going to be the end of it. Kuchen would remain in Pinkie's mind forever, the plot would never come up again, and everypony would move on. Except, that wasn't really a resolution. We knew who Kuchen was, and we knew he had a very weak possession on Pinkie, but he was still there. Why shouldn't he contribute more? And thus, we got the stuff from the last two chapters.
This also worked out somewhat, as it allowed me to explore something else I had been setting up much more thoroughly: the connection between Kuchen and Twilight. You see, one thing about Twilight is she's a tad on the crazy side. Even before Season 2, she was prone to panic at the slightest thought of something offending Celestia, to the point where she helps cover up a birdnapping because her loving mentor might coldheartedly banish one of her friends. And then came Lesson Zero, which solidified Twilight as a certified nut when stressed. But in all those cases, she had caring friends, a loyal dragon assistant, and a loving mentor to pull her back. Kuchen had none of those things, and it was all thanks to Celestia. Instead of sending him out to make friends, she locked him away from the loved ones he had and forced him to work on a secret project.
A few bits that were cut from Chapter 14 would have built on this even more. Kuchen would have found more and more of Twilight's memories, but each one would directly contrast with one from his story in Chapter 10. Instead of getting stuck with tutors, Celestia would bring Twilight up to speed herself. Instead of locking Twilight away to study, Celestia would encourage her to find friends. And so on. It probably would have made things a lot stronger, but I wanted the focus to remain on Celestia and Luna. There were also plans to have felt versions of the other ponies in Pinkie's head, as well as representations of the other Mane 6. (Twilight would have been an egg with purple glasses. I never settled on the others.) But when I was writing the scene out, it just didn't gel together, so I sadly removed it.
And then there's the big thing: Kuchen's redemption. Some say it wasn't deserved, that he hadn't really deserved to be pardoned like he was. Others say he should have just died right there. And still others said the whole thing was pointless and wanted more Celestia and Luna hissing at each other.
Originally, Twilight would have let what's left of Kuchen dissolve into nothingness, causing her to have a fight with Pinkie once they return to reality. When I looked at it a second time, though, it just felt too cruel, and way too out-of-touch with the show. So, Kuchen was spared.
And personally? I think it fits Pinkie's character perfectly, especially as outlined in the "Smile" song. She wants everypony around her to smile and be happy, and is always willing to see the positive side of things. So, when she sees what little remains of a pony melting away, and after being told that he basically has no friends or anypony to care about him, she steps in and gives him a chance. She may have been arguing with him only moments before, but even then she just wanted him to stop being such a mean guy and just have some fun. The mere fact that Kuchen was melting to begin with meant the hate that had kept him around for so long was starting to fade
So yeah, Pinkie gave him a chance. He accepted, and was given another chance as one of the ponies in Pinkie's endless party. As for the rest of the Pie Clan, well, Kuchen is gone. He now only exists inside Pinkie's noggin, and when she finally passes on, so does he and all the others. It might be a long time, but they will finally get the peace they deserve. But until then, they have a heck of a party going on!
As for Celestia's role in what happened, she was pretty much the catalyst of it all. She gave Kuchen a promising new future, and then stole it from him when it no longer suited her purposes. That being said, all she wanted was to correct a mistake of her own. She just chose an incredibly dumb way to go about it. Part of the reason Celestia treats Twilight like she does is because she can see the potential inside her, and doesn't want to make the same mistakes. Hence the very close connection between the two.
So yeah, that's about it. It was a fun plotline to be sure, but I'm glad it's over. And soon, this fic will be over as well.
Thanks for reading, and see you later.
Poor Kuchen
But at least he's happy now (?)
Still rather curious about the other ponies inside Pinkie's head
Twilight as an literal egghead? Would totally pay for that
although, I still feel Kuchen's redemption was resolved too quickly since his backstory took multi-chapters to establish.
But I respect the author's idea of keeping Kuchen and would hope and pray that somehow Celestia can find it in her heart to make a proper apology to Kuchen for her part in Kuchen's path to madness.
Keep up the good work, with hearts
It's always interesting to see how other authors work through their stuff. Makes me feel less alone.
Anyway, keep up the good work, man.
and thus whole universes can rise and fall at the drop of a pen. I think you made the best choice possible.
I'm really happy that Kuchen got a happy ending out of this. Can't wait to see where the story goes from here.
It's going to end soon?
NOOOOO!!!!!!!
Writing - a process!
I think the only thing missing was that it wasn't emphasized more in the story, the cause of his redemption. It did come a little quickly.
idk if there's 2 posts of this blog so i'll post my comment here as well since i don't see it on this page :l ......
those people are stupid and you shouldn't listen to them , especially when they're talking about such stupid ideas
the kutchen sub plot played out quite well and im pleased with how it ended , some more enthuses could have been put on twilight's understanding of the situation of kutchen's "redemption" , pinky asking if he's sorry , short pause , makes friends , and is then rejuvenated and the whole mind possession thing over seemed pretty forced , but it was very gratifying to see something nice come out of all the cruelty of that subplot , you had me worried for a moment when twi made that promise with him and got the cure she needed but then went total bitch mode and was like nah im going to let you die anyways , that would have felt more out of character if pinky hadn't stepped in then the book burning incident.........
....in retrospect , why did you make that whole scene with a freaking royal porn collection in the first place?.......
but wasn't it mentioned somewhere by kutchen that his mind....spell thing was still in effect in other pie members when saying he had a few generations left before fading completely? you're saying now that pinky in the only one?......
also , i came across a pic last night that can be used for a scene with kutchen , already posted on the fic on EqD
"hey guys i found a pic that looks like a scene from this story with kutchen how does one go about adding media links or such to stories on this site?...... "
hehe also feel the need to mention , was listening to some of the heavy songs from apollo justice while writing this , the music fits really well i find , if you ever look at getting audio in with the story i would recommend checking out that soundtrack lol........
I thought the way you handled Kutchen was PURE GENIUS!
Recall that the VERY PILOT of this series has a mare who would freeze the world in a slow an lightless death, due to a psychotically broken mind, driven by insane jealousy, be not only turned good and purified of her evil, but also forgiven, and offered friendship.
THAT IS THE MOST WONDERFULLEST, MOST PERFECTEST direction that Pinkie Pie could have taken this, and Twilight was a genius for realizing that what helped her own friends in the second season opener, might awaken the broken Kutchen from his degradation of mind.
Celestia did do wrong to Kutchen, and he broke.
Some people seem to have forgotten what this entire series is actually all about. For shame! I'm incredibly disappointed in their unwillingness to embrace the heart of MLP:FiM's philosophy when applied to a fanfic.
Despite what he did, Pinkie and Twilight found a way to bring peace to a restless spirit and purify it of it's evil.
Don't you let the haters influence you, pg13fresno!!! They don't deserve your attention!