Today is a Good Day To Die -- commentary and thoughts · 1:50pm May 8th, 2014
Okay, okay. Guys. Guys, listen to me. I’m not angry, I’m just disappointed. Guys. Listen to me.
Guys.
Alichorn.
I mean, come on, it’s not that hard. I’ve been waiting for someone to make that pun since the very day that story was posted. None of the proofreaders, editors, prereaders, or people who comment have said it. Yes, Sparkler got kind of close, but still.
Anyway, that’s finally out of the bag. Let’s talk about Today is a Good Day to Die.
I don’t have much more to say about the story, I just wanted to point that pun out. However, I guess that talking is never bad, is it? And it’s been more or less two days since it went out of the featured box, so it’s a good time to do so, too.
I had the idea of a fic in which Celestia dies a couple weeks ago, but never really started it, until three days before posting it. I had a prompt and an idea, but the actual execution was lacking. I needed a tone.
Then a comment in another story of mine came along (or rather, I thought about it – I think that I had already read it before coming up with the idea of Today is a Good Day to Die) that said that I lacked Monty Python’s wit in my humor. I replied to the comment, but that’s another story: the thing is, Monty Python came to my mind.
And then I remembered a book by P. G. Wodehouse (Leave it to Psmith) and, even though it’s completely different to what I ended up writing, I can say I had that in mind too while writing the fanfic. It has this extremely English brand of humor, full of wit and contrived situations, with characters being classy and ridiculous at the same time. It stroke me as a good way to write a story.
Celestia and Luna are also really interesting characters. I see both as benevolent leaders; immortal beings, wise and honest and good and all that, but still being very close to a normal pony. I find the idea of both being a little less formal when they’re alone adorable, but they still act like Princesses, because that’s who they are. Sisterly love is a particularly cute and interesting thing to investigate – but seeing how immensely complicated the relationship between Luna and Celestia can be…
Let’s make a list: they’re immortal thus they only have each other in a certain way, Luna betrayed Celestia a thousand years ago and feels guilty about it, Celestia imprisoned her sister for a thousand years and feels guilty about it, it’s been a thousand years since they saw each other, Luna is dealing with the differences between the past and the present, they still need to rule the land so you can imagine them as being busy, they’re put in danger every three moons… Yeah. Kind of deep, isn’t it?
So I thought that nah, a fic talking just about their relationship would be too much, and extremely boring. I enjoy interesting characters immensely, and most of my readers can tell that I try to create somewhat complicated/original personalities for the ponies I write about in my stories (that’s the best part about background ponies: you can play with them as much as you want!) However, a good personality is wasted if you only focus on it.
A good characters shines better, or so I think, when you let it live an adventure on its own. Then you let it do whatever rows its boat, and bam, suddenly everybody understands it far better than if you write a thousand words story detailing how immensely cool it is.
Of course, Today is a Good Day to Die is a comedy, so I more or less left all the dramatic elements between the sisters out. I tried to show them comfortable with each other, more relaxed than usual, but still being more polite than any normal pony. Because they’re royalty and a lot of stuff happened in the past, yaddah yaddah, who cares? It’s a comedy, people should laugh at it, not analyze what the protagonists feel. Blargh.
Oh, and I refused to use the nicknames “Tia” and “Lulu”. Nothing against those terms, really, but I feel like they’re overused. And yeah, they’re not canon.
Nothing else to say, really. I think that the fic is better not explained. It’s a comedy, it has a huge anticlimax, and I don’t really think I should explain why I chose to leave it like that. It has something to do with what death is to Celestia, in the end. For some reason, people find that confusing (“wtf” comments are pretty common in that story), but, eh. I guess I can see why. It’s absurd humor.
Ah, I also purchased House of Leaves recently. I think that inspired why Celestia realizes she’s going to die, sort of. That book is amazing, you should read it. Weird as hell, but still cool and all that.
And… yeah, that’s it. This is a pretty short blog post. Weird.
Still, as a wrap up thought: I really liked this style. I’m probably going to write more comedies like that. I already have a couple ideas, but only time will tell.
Oh, and hello to my new followers. Thanks for following me and all that stuff. See ya!
2088626
Fixed!
House of leaves has been on my real life read later list for like five or six years, and I feel bad about not getting to it because the moment I first read about it on Wikipedia, I knew I would love it. (I've recently realized that I've been a MLP fan in the making for some time, considering I've always loved magic realism but didn't realize it until I read 100 Years of Solitude in high school. )
I had a discussion a while back about why necromancy turns peopleinto ass hats . Why can't I have a necromancer anatomy teacher?
I watched Monty Python for the first time this week. If you wanted the story to be as anti climatic as the movie, you win,
2088745
I'm assuming you mean Monty Python and the Holy Grail? Then yeah, that's part of the main reason why it was like that.
More comedies like this would be awesome.
Today is a good day to die... for science!
2088748 We watched it in English class. The teachers face was in constant facepalm.
This could be a little less gender specific, couldn't it?
2091560
If you're pointing at a grammar issue, then welp, I'm a spaniard, so maybe I fucked up.
If you're talking about something else, then it's obvious I'm talking about both feminine and masculine characters. The word "character" in my mother tongue is masculine, tho, so I tend to think about annonymous characters as men. Blargh.
2091723 It was the latter (second) paragraph that I'm getting at, on it still referring to males and females even when it doesn't quite say so.
I am disappointed that there are no funny jokes all over this blog post...
Actually, keeping to a calm tone after 9k+ words of funnies is a welcome change. Thanks.
True, but if you exchange for a comedy, you need to find a way to stop it from going stale, which gets harder as the story goes on and on.
Since Monty Python got brought up: sure, those guys made feature-length versions of their material, and the insanity easily matches, if not surpasses what goes on in this fic. But the big difference is that the characters in Python are more or less "genuine", i.e not pants-on-head retarded. And even if they are "dumb," it's usually a very obvious lampooning of something specific, instead of just someone being dumb for no reason...
Case in point: it's funny if Celestia and Luna crash a funeral by messing with the corpse because "omg why is this event so depressing, we should liven things up a little". It could subtly imply that both of them know the whole "dying" thing is nonsense, but Celestia is still feeling weird that day, and Luna doesn't want to leave her sister hanging, so they partake in silliness together. But seeing them honestly act like a pair of doofuses is just... come on...