The Barrier That is Shining Armour (On the Road to Canterlot, Slight Spoiler) · 4:49am Jan 20th, 2016
This blog relates to a decision I've made in regards to "On the Road to Canterlot" and is a small spoiler about the story yet a major decision regarding the story itself.
For those who followed the link from the story must be asking themselves or wondering why Shining Armour, such a major character in the obstacles Chrysalis face is absent from the story. About why he has no chapter to focus on him and no doubt his reaction to seeing Chrysalis again. So anticipating that I have decided to flesh out my reasons within this blog.
While I had initially planned to include him as his own chapter and for a long time still wanted to. However in the end I chose to bypass his reactions, his reasoning at times felt too similar to Spike’s reaction even though the details are widely different.
My reasons is based on the fact that as a character Shining Armour is motivated and defined differently, however within the context of canon; he is flat. His appearances within the show are sparse and his character has seen little development. In contrast Spike is often present and in snippets we have seen his character grow. I am aware that on the other hand, fanon has greatly expanded on Shining Armour and what drives and defines him. This is something that is possible for this story yet it is harder to push within my story without a lot of expositions and rapid summary that felt out of place.
This story was actually finished over a year ago; the delay lay largely in my attempts to write in Shining Armour. Yet I could not; to write him in felt jarring. It was one of my barriers to posting the rest of the story. Within the story we have seen small glimpses of his character, but not enough to warrant writing him in his own chapter without taking some time to try and quickly define him and in the style of the story it wouldn’t have worked well.
As I wrote the story, I wanted it smaller in scope which is partially why the story is largely set in Ponyville. This is why the cast all had their own moments with Chrysalis, to develop her better as a character while contrasting and defining a bit more of the cast.
While I know people will likely not agree or be rather upset, I felt that Shining Armour needed something to try and explain his character which would have greatly shifted the style of story I was going for. As well unlike the others, he would not have had the same chances to have a more private conversation with Chrysalis and instead I would be attempting to voice multiple characters’ thoughts all at once further muddying his views and the story I wanted to tell.
I know this may be upsetting for many, but this is my decision. As fitting as it would have been to include Shining Armour, it was not working out and I did not want this story to linger on endlessly while I tried to insert a character that I find ill-defined within canon or try to rush a more defined fanon background that felt out of place.
I must agree with excluding him, as you said the story was set in Ponyville so having him there would have been jarring and required a much larger chapter then the rest to explain and would have thrown off the pacing of the story.
I do thank you for taking the time to explain your reasoning clearly and addressing something such as this.