Feb
8th
2015
What Eventually Happens to Brad · 5:00am Feb 8th, 2015
How Rainbow Rocks should have gone.
Okay, I'm taking a . . . let us call it a break . . . while I put my dungeon punk magical girl novel Rag & Muffin into final draft form. That means, sadly, that I'm probably not going to be finishing The Mixed Up Life of Brad. You may proceed to boo and hiss.
I would be willing to hand this off to someone who wants to take it over. Alternatively, I could post, with proper spoiler warnings and whatnot, my outline for how it was going to go.
(You might all be cheesed off by the ending I was planning anyway.)
2778150
I guess I could have been more clear, but, yeah, that was my point. I could do that instead of revealing the end to everybody.
(Hint: Celestia is really Grogar.)
2778151
Why do all your stories end the same way? This Celestia/Grogar thing is too left field, man.
2778174
As I've explained before, I simply use what's in the expanded universe canon. You probably missed G. M. Berrow and Katie Cook's collaboration with Mary Jane Begin on the explosive bestselling pop-up book, My Little Pony Slayer: Mares and Madness, in which Grogar returns, shanks Rainbow Dash, and goes on a killing spree through the dark, trash-strewn alleys of Fillydelphia before possessing Celestia in order to rot Equestrian society from within, the greedy and wealthy pegasi of the "Black Capital" Cloudsdale being the only ones with enough political clout to thwart his dastardly aims.
2778176
Can we please have a real answer?
2778188
Tsk. I only did the Celestia/Grogar thing once. I have no intention of repeating it, though making it a running gag around here apparently hasn't worked so good.
What happened that you can't finish it?
2778192
Inability to focus on multiple projects simultaneously.
2778194
Ah, well it was fun while it lasted. Thanks for the words.
Flash died in the end.
2778191
To be honest, I didn't realize you were joking. Grogar!Celestia was so unexpected that I couldn't shake the feeling you were going ot try again.
If nobody else will, I'll put my hand up.
I'd like to see a resolution to the Mixed up Life of Brad, even if the ending does turn out be as troll-tastic as I'd expect.
I'd be interested to see a spoiler of your final plans.
As an aside, your last blog and this one paint a very mixed picture of whether you're saying goodbyes and farewells and ending your time here, or if you plan on returning. Should we be expecting finishes to your various incomplete works, or simply accept they're either on indefinite hiatus or permanently cancelled?
2778275
In spite of my jokings here, it's not intended to be troll-tastic, no. The development I have planned is, I think, based on what's already in there. No sudden rug-yankings. But it still might not be the ending people want, I suppose.
(Hint: mermares enslave all of Equestria and Brad becomes Electra's personal groomer.)
2778284
Uh . . . yeah, I'm wishy-washy like that. I might be around, really; I'll probably repost occasionally from my other blog. But aside from a final chapter for Demon Slayer, I really don't have plans to finish anything.
(Hint: the butler did it.)
Oh well, it kind of went off the rails the last couple of chapters anyway. Still the fundamental concept was interesting and fun to muse on. That was the last story of yours that I was following so, hope your novel goes well for you and thanks for what you wrote for the fandom. Best of luck and cheers.
Oh come on. This fic made me not hate Flash/Brad. It actually inspired me to write one of my own Flash-centric fics. I'd offer to take it over, but I am nowhere NEAR good enough to match your quality. (Plus I have my own stuff.)
And I had so many good Brad puns too!
Brad Company
Bradical
Give us Today our Daily Brad
Braduation
Don't Get Mad, Get Brad
That's just stuff off of the top of my head.
I want to say that I for one always knew Celestia was secretly Grogar, from the moment I saw that smug grin on her face, you're just the only author willing to call her on it.
2778296
Really? I thought the whole point of Brad's story was to skewer the idea of pony/human relationships. I'd rate a romance story that turned out to have little romance in it to quite high in the troll o' meter. "Hey we're in Equestria! Ooop, better separate you two. Enjoy that party Brad! Oh, not enjoying it? LUNA KIDNAPPING YOU 'OUGHT TO FIX THAT!" But hey, I love it anyway. As far as I could guess, the story would end when Brad realises that he's made a horrible, horrible mistake and then hooks up with Human!Dash.
Or the sea ponies could launch a 'coup. I for one, welcome our new aquatic overlords.
Then again, I've been tossing up the idea of doing a long, indepth review of the the Life of Brad, simply because of how much emotion it's drawn from me. You're a fantastic writer, Deej. A lot of what you've written has forced me to stop and think about certain things, even if it's just me thinking about WHY I disagree with something. Yes, even in a story like this. So much of it is just... vivid. Ooop, I feel a rant coming on...
Brad, for instance, is a fantastic deconstruction of the typical HiE protagonist. He's a teenager, in love with one of the main six, she loves him back and he gleefully jumps into Equestria... thinking nothing of the very real consequences. He's immediately thrown around by the waves upon landing, Twilight is in hot water and nobody gives a damn about Brad, or worse, takes him seriously. Well, nobody except Twilight, Rainbow Dash and maybe Celestia (who needs to maintain distance during these proceedinsg as it is).
Were Brad a mature protagonist, he may have been able to resist this, push back against the waves, but he can't. Best of all, we KNOW that he's immature, not because you tell us, but because of how much he's led around. He really is a tragic hero. Seriously. He's ready to throw his life away for someone he loves: that's heroic. Yet he doesn't realise that he's hurting his family or that may not really be capable of loving Twilight: that's tragic.
Alright, now, as for villains: Lovestruck. Jesus Christ, Lovestruck. I've rarely felt loathing for a character as much I've felt for her. Not even taking into account the possible canonical status of 'The mating habits', her actions, beliefs and capabilities are pure nightmare fuel. In my eyes she combines the worst qualities of Big Brother, mind rape and good intentions paving the way to hell. The worse part? Her belief system is entirely valid in her alien mind.
And for that, I must applaud you! It's good to have such strong emotions sometimes, because I means that I can step back and analyze why I feel that way.
So yeah... I've perhaps said more than I really should on this subject.
Boo and hiss.
In all seriousness, I figured this would be the case. Regrettable but inevitable, given the indefinite hiatus. If you can't find anyone to take up the reins, I would like to know what your eventual plans would have been.
Unfortunately, I don't think anyone on the site could quite match your (cracks open electronic thesaurus) orotund style. Still, even unfinished, it's one of the best not-so-serious stories on the site. Thank you for writing it.
I really hope you find someone to take this Fic over if you can't finish it.
I'd like to see the outline that you were hoping to follow. Loyal did this when he cancelled his Archmage series, and I felt that it gave a nice bit of closure to the whole saga, in a way that didn't leave me disappointed to not have been able to read the rest.
2778296
If possible, I would choose the onewho wrote the alternative ending of A Mighty Demonslayer Grooms Some Ponies to continue your work. I think he/she would be perfect for the job.
2778296 *Grins* Who says being incredibly decisive is always a good thing?
Glad to hear you'll not be leaving us entirely. I'll start trying to peep in at the other blog since I'm really interested in seeing what Rag and Muffin are going to get up to. Definitely wouldn't mind seeing updates here if they won't make you feel too tempted to fall back in with us louts.
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Heh, heh. He and I would kill each other. We respect each other and appreciate each other's work, but we're also probably two authors who would come to blows if put in a room together.
2779275
At the very least, I think I'll probably be putting up teaser posts here for a lot of my stuff over there. Next up I'm going to write a review of Jupiter Ascending, a good, workmanlike popcorn movie that has finally ruined my faith in movie critics, who've panned it mercilessly for no reason I can see.
2780086 Sounds like fun to me n_n