May
2nd
2015
Brace yourselves, Words are coming! · 4:10am May 2nd, 2015
Twenty one thousands of them. It's a monster.
As you can imagine, it wraps up more or less every secondary plotline I can think of, and pushes the fic into its climax the next chapter or so (I'd say the next, but damn those chapter lengths make me think twice). Almost cut it in half again, but not this time. Get yourselves some snacks and drinks, my beta has it in her hands. Though, give her a chance and some time, it was something like 50 pages in Word.
Hopefully, you guys will get your daily nutritious dose of wham and angst tomorrow or Sunday.
"Growing strong."
Wise Fire Cracker - The Rose of Fimfiction
i.imgflip.com/ky6p4.jpg
I think it says a lot about your story that I honest have no idea how I want it to end, let alone how I think it might end.
I don't think a good ending is possible, but there are several less bad endings.
Really the main goal, above everything else, is keeping Tom/Calx safe. That was Sam's self-imposed task that he keeps clinging to, despite his emotional rollercoaster of wanting to embrace being with Twilight Sparkle and the many other conflicting goals and tasks.
But Sam deserves to be happy too you know. I like happy endings but I can't really think of an ending that is happy, short of splitting everyone into two parts and living both lives simultaneously, while not plunging Equestria into war or bringing the end of the world. And even then, would it really count if the were split? The whole point is that Sam is Ventus, Ventus is Sam, they are now the same, for better or worse.
3036031 The Tragedy tag is there because there cannot be a good ending without the divine powers of the author killing all tension. So, on that front, you're right.
If I were to be a true jackass, Tom's safety would be precisely the thing that went wrong. Notice the conditional here.
Now, you bring an interesting point. You say that Sam deserves happiness. He's been a lying, plotting, manipulative, two-faced stallion for a long time now, restrained mostly out of self-interest and even his good sides are tainted by that toxic twisted mind of his.
Or maybe he just thinks of himself that way. Maybe he has walked on the path of his own redemption simply because he thought he should.So, my question to you is as follows: What do you think would make Sam happy? Him, not the his family, not Twilight, just him.3037815
If Sam returns to the real world with Tom and Eric, he'll regret what he did for the rest of his life. He'll always wonder. He'll always feel like he abandoned his duty, even if the duty wasn't originally his before he went there. He'll always feel like he is in the wrong body.
That's not even counting if Tom would try to go back again through other means later. Sam is doing it for Tom, but eventually Tom will grow up and may make the sacrifice moot.
If Sam remains Ventus, he'll always have to worry about the meta nature of where he is, that he could be changed through external means by the whims of fans or creators, or have threats appear from the same sources. Even without the meta nature, there are threats around the corner all the time due to the nature of the place. He'll have to deal with the Elders. He'll always worry about his human parents, even knowing that he'd far outlive them. He'll have his duty and Calx will grow into his, and whatever comes of Eric will come; they'll still remain friends. War will eventually come to Equestria due to the shift of balance of power. It'll be an interesting existence, where he'll have a major part to play, and he'll have all the relationships he makes in Equestria to help him.
There is no good answer. There is no even lesser of two evils. Either he negates the false Alicorns' presence and wonder what could have been for the rest of his life, or he embraces his new life and all the risks it contains, as well as the rewards.
He is over his head, and hasn't had a lot of choice about what happens. Earn your happy ending... that usually a tag line for stories with hard choices. But is there a happy ending?
Personally, I think he should remain. The damage to his parents is already been done, but he has a chance to stop damage from happening in Equestria, and living a happy life.
*edit* That's of course not including Tom in the equation. Tom always makes the choice even more difficult.