On shipping and choices · 6:11pm May 19th, 2015
Hi guys.
Welp, I'm looking over the comments on the last chapter, and it's mostly positive. Unfortunately though, there's a couple readers out there who apparently don't like the shipping that's dropping into the story. And I'm fine with you saying that, although it is of course a little saddening to find that my choices in storyline have turned away readers. To those people, I'd just like to say sorry.
Now, to hopefully avoid similar disappointments in future, I've ammended the description slightly to contain the shipping details as they are at present. The 'who', is, due to it being more-or-less a surprise, currently spoilered, although that may change in future. I'm actually wondering whether it's necessary for the 'who' to be there at all, but at this point I'd rather be safe than sorry. Outside the spoiler, it just says that there's going to be shipping/romance between girls, which on it's own doesn't really say a lot, seeing as most of Equestria's population is made up of mares. Is this a good move, do you think?
I'll be honest, I'm not very confident with my writing choices- you've probably noticed how I'm questioning myself in the authors notes half the time. The overall storyline is actually well set by now, and I'm happy with it, but many of the individual details are not. I've still got doubts over the romance aspect of the story in particular, and about how best to write it.
Hopefully, when it comes to it I won't let you guys down. I'm going to do my best not to, at any rate. Wish me luck!
- drebom
Edit: After answering a comment from Timetravelling Pony, i think I'd better lay out properly what my thoughts are on shipping in the story. Simply put, I'm not sure of much. Although Pinkamena has a crush, that's not the focus of the story. The focus is most definitely the personalities vs the doctor. However, I also wanted to look at everyday life for the trio as well, and how it would be affected by the events of the story. The idea of Pinkamena having a crush appeared whist I was writing and stuck itself into that part of the story. It fitted in well enough, so I kept it.
I don't know, truly, how far into romance territory the story will actually get. Most likely not a lot, although there may be a sequel sometime that expanded on this part of the narrative. Pinkamena has a crush, she'll likely tell her headmates at some point, but acting on it, and how much? That's something I haven't decided on yet. It would certainly be a challenge to write, especially seeing as I'm trying to keep as much of the story as realistic as possible. And multiple personalities would make romance kinda awkward. Pinakmena's feelings will drive some of her actions, but how much impact they will have on the story as a whole is, again, undecided. Heck, PP might not end up with content that would justify a romance tag, and if that ends up being the case I will naturally remove it. Feedback from you guys will filter into any decisions I make, though.
Don't doubt yourself. You can't please everyone. Personally I am looking foward to this ship and think it's a great idea. You have already proven yourself with this excellent story so far, so just keep doing what you feel is best!
Not everyone likes everything, so trying to please every last person isnt worth it.
Don't doubt yourself and just keep doing what you're doing. It's your story after all, so you should write it how YOU want it to go ^_^
3080785 Shipping definitely isn't going to be the main focus of this fic. Maybe in a future one, but not so much here. PP is most definitely about multiple personalities vs crazy antagonist, it's just that I always intended to look at everyday life for the trio as well. Pinkamena getting a crush was, honestly, something that just happened, and it fitted with what I was trying to do so I kept it in. There's probably going to be some loose ends in the romance dept. when this story ends. Heck, I'm not sure of the details, so maybe it'll stay completely unresolved. I'll be exploring Pinkamena's feelings definitely, but the actions, if any, that she takes on them is still rather up in the air. This is something that I'm going to be asking for feedback on when we get to the potential start for shipping in the story. I'm trying to play this realistically, so it's definitely not going to be simple to resolve the situation.
And believe me, you're not the only one worried over how many ways it could go wrong!
I think it's an interesting shipping idea myself, and I'm looking forward to seeing what you do with it.
As for the quality of your work, it's quite good. There's nothing about it that sets off my perfectionist tendencies, the characters and their interactions don't have me rolling my eyes and wishing you'd get on with it, and I'm excited to see each new chapter.
Take that for whatever it's worth.
Bloody double post...
I'm really not a fan of the shipping you chose, but I liked everything else in the story. I saw the romance tag going into this so I knew something was coming but I was hoping for something else I guess. I'm still going to be reading but I'll probably do my best to skip over the romance parts.
Well I like this ship I don't know what there problem with it is but anyway can't wait to read the rest of the chapters
To reiterate:
cdn.pursuitist.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/cruise-ship.jpg
I REALLY like the idea of Pinkamina having a crush/romance. It's a very complicated idea but in a good way in my opinion. There are so many factors that go into such a topic that it can bring about many different scenarios, the biggest and most obvious obstacle being that her body is not only hers, it belongs to 2 others as well. That's just one example of interesting problems, but there are so many more! Making it its own sequel would work well, because something like that has to be its own story, otherwise it would get lost between the lines of other problems and lose its shine. But, that's just me rambling...
I like the idea of shipping in the story especially if the pother personalities like other ponies or one or more don't have any romantic aspirations at all.
Think if Mena likes Twilight, Surprise or Pinkie likes Dash or Big Mac, and the last has no inclinations towards any body.
That has lots of interesting conflicts especially for those other character who find one personality likes them romantically but not the others and if they then have to deal with having two or three ponies vying for the attentions of one body but three different ponies (in terms of personalities).
I think that has a lot of possibilities for drama and I am not certain how to resolve them.
So in other words I think this was a good idea.
You know , I still remember one of the first thing I said when I started reading the story and saw the romance tag "Uh , Pinkamena and Twilight would make a cute , if complicated by it's implications , couple."
(we need a glorious rant smilley... with Luna.)
I stand by it. Do it , for all the shipping connoisseur shall remember it if done right !
(And well , I shall help you with any feedback you need on it as well.)
I would vastly prefer it if you saved the ship for a sequel or side-story. That way those who like it could read about that and those who don't (such as myself) could … not. It seems at present like it's not really essential to the main storyline, so that shouldn't be too hard to manage, right?
Anyway, I do like the basic idea and I want to read more, but the ship is definitely offputting.
Awww, I was hoping to start seeing some shipping soon, and that the doctor was kind of a side thing. I mean, he's stuck in the Everfree, Ponyville has guards all over, he has wanted posters up, the whole town knows him and knows he is after Pinkie, and he doesn't seem like a fairly sane, or charming stallion, so getting allies is gonna be hard. I just don't see him as a threat, so was hoping the shipping stuff would come into play and he'd be more of a minor speedbump along the way.
More curious on that due to the thought of 2-3 personalities trying to like the same pony at the same time, what issues that could bring up, how it'd end up working out, how Twilight would respond and act. It just seemed like an interesting thing to see explored and written.
In conclusion, I'll continue to read, but the shipping tag and the oddness of the relationship in this story is what drew me in so I hope it is picked up, or done later on.