Seath's size problem. · 2:49am Apr 20th, 2019
I figure it's time I stop being annoyingly silent on an issue many have asked about and confirm that yes, I'm listening:
As many have, rightfully, pointed out I've been rather inconsistent with depicting Seath's size. I've had him small enough to be able to fit in spaces only normal sized folk and ponies would be able to fit in, yet also big enough to tower over everyone else with no mention of how he's able to do both simultaneously.
If you want the honest truth, the early chapters where this cropped up the most were a case of me falling victim to the age old trope of writers having no sense of scale. It genuinely never occurred to me that Seath's size does not 'fit all' to the environments I placed him in, at least not until it was pointed out to me several dozen times.
What I want to know is, to anyone who's been following me and read the entire series from beginning to now, is this something that'd benefit the story if I were to go back and fix every chapter? I'm painfully aware that if I want to correct the size issue at this point I'll be doing a LOT of changing which, if I must be honest, was another reason I left it as is until now. A third was if I'm going to go that far, should I go back and change the other aspects I got wrong (such as constantly mentioning Seath has eyes when he actually doesn't)?
Putting that aside, assuming I do tackle the height issue, I need to also ask the following:
What makes more sense to make Seath 'fit' people's expectations? Should I have him remain giant, or have him be able to shrink and grow as needed? If the former, how big should he be? Big enough to match what's suggested on the series cover image? Or is that too big for him to still be able to interact with Twilight and the other ponies?
Does anyone perhaps have a completely different solution to cover for the size problem of our favourite scaleless drake? I'm open to any and all suggestions.
Considering his EXTENSIVE research, I think him being able to size shift would be plausible. He would likely use some form of magic to do so IMO.
Dude, I've never once thought it was an issue. Honestly I hadn't noticed it until this post. Really I don't think it's something worth worrying about too much and I personally think it's insane to expect you to go back and find and fix every detail where this issue would pop up. I say just do as you have been and don't worry about it.
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Same, Seath's size is a challenge in of itself and ''having no sense of scale'' is by no means really a problem when the story is this good, and also considering the challenge it would otherwise provide because of his size, it's just not worth the headache bud (I hope I wrote this right).
I have never played a Dark Souls game, so I don't know how feasible this is, but is it theoretically possible that Seath can phase himself slightly out of alignment with the universe with his sorcery and pass through solid matter?
With some kind of restriction that makes it impossible to use in combat of course. Maybe he feels everything that he passes through or passes through him, and movement above a certain speed can potentially wreck his concentration enough to force him to phase back in with objects in very bad places? Like a spear halfway through his heart?
I noticed his size changing depending on where he needed to be, but honestly thought it was intentional on your part, something that he just did without ever really thinking about it, so you never felt the need to exposition that particular aspect of his physiology.
I mean, shit, he's quite possibly a few steps shy of being a freaking god, and he probably is one of the most learned beings in his world, so manipulating his own body size to suit whatever the circumstances required would be automatic as breathing for him once he learned it (if it wasn't just a thing for him to begin with), and about as difficult.
Honestly, simple shape-changing is likely among the least aberrant things he knows how to do. 'tis simply that, being a dragon, his pride would not allow him to even consider being anything else. But running his face into a doorframe, being unable to reach something important due to his sheer bulk, or being dwarfed by unnecessarily imposing architecture would also be a blow to his all-important pride.
So, he is always just the right size to ominously loom over his surroundings, without ever appearing awkward or out of place. He's probably not even consciously aware that he's doing it anymore, being reminded only when he follows Twilight inside and she reacts to him going from being several stories tall to only three or so times as tall as Celestia in the blink of an eye.
I actually never notice the size thing.
I know that he was big from the picture, but I never thought of him as big as the picture. The size I thought of him was like Reshiram from the Pokemon movie Black and white. That image has kinda stuck with me. 
Agreed on the range of his powers ability to modify his size. I would suggest editing out mentions of his eyes though; that seems like it would be a less extensive edit, but for those of us who haven't really experienced his character outside of this story, I, for example, didn't realize he didn't have eyes until you mentioned it here. It doesn't seem to come up as part of his in-scene characterization enough to be memorable.
Also, DnD has size change spells as a level 1 spell; other uses of magic in popular fiction also typically use it cheaply, such as in Disney films.
Well, size shifting can be seen as a type of magic albeit a forgotten one. Think of how Gwynevre met mortal worshippers or how Gwyndolin had changed the shape of the tomb room
A quick and dirty would be that he can shrink himself and return to normal size. If he teaches this to Twilight there can be Tiny Twi shenanigans. Otherwise, go back and fix it, make rooms bigger, squeeze through doorways etc.
Firstly, you shouldn’t fix this problem in the earlier chapters until you’ve completed the whole story. It wouldn’t be fair if everyone reading it has to wait 10x longer than the standard time it takes to upload. That said, fixing these inconsistencies would be much appreciated.
Secondly, don’t make it so that Seath can shrink and grow whenever he pleases. If you’re running into size problems, then I think making doorways bigger to accommodate his size would make better sense, and is less lore breaking.
Thirdly, I suggest making him retain some form of size difference if you want to reduce his size. Everlasting dragons were meant to be towering beasts the size of large buildings. So I think making him at least tall enough to easily pick up a pony would make the most amount of sense.
He's the next thing to an all-powerful being over there. Being able to fit into impossible spaces is kinda normal at that point, and it would also explain how he can realistically run any sort of lab if he can change size.
But certainly, please finish the story before going back and editing the previous parts, whatever you do pick. Do you have any idea how many stories just end with the notice "I'm now editing chapters..."?
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Perhaps I'm lucky but I've yet to run into a story here that ends that way. Most of the time a series I'm reading just stops at a random point with no commentary from the author on why they gave up on it.
That said, fear not, while it may be currently taking me longer than I'd like to keep posting new chapters, I have no plan to stop. I have to finish this series somehow, and while it's going to take me a looooong time no matter what I'll keep going till either something ends me or the site is taken down...though if the latter does happen I'll probably just switch over to fanfiction.net or something.