The Inspiration of Otolo · 5:52pm Aug 15th, 2020
For those of you not acquainted to Otolo, she is a little brown bird in Equestria's Ray of Hope that befriends Raymond and makes him her pet becomes his pet. Well, when I first started writing EROH, I knew that after I was done, I would write a blog post about all of the cookie crumbs, nods, and foreshadowing for those who complete it. However, once I wrote down "Coal Dust", I realized that, for all intents and purposes,
Otolo's inspiration story isn't a spoiler. So, here it is.
I live in the second story of my house, and have three windows, one blocked by a house and two blocked by a tree. My desk is right in between the one blocked by a house and one of the tree blocked ones. over the spring and early summer, I got to watch a group of pigeon chicks grow, and halfway through my writing of Tea, they began taking flying lessons. One of them keeps flying up to my window sill and sitting at the window, pecking it. I would reach my hand out to the little bird and it would fly off, until one day, it didn't. I was happy about that, until it instead tried to peck me through the glass. That's where the idea of Otolo sprung into my head.
I knew I wanted Ray to have a companion, but I'd always thought along the lines of Timberwolves or hawks. I realized something though. EROH isn't about the clichés, the fourth wall breaking, and the expected romances (whether love related or otherwise). It's something more serious, and genuine. So serious, in fact, that a sarcastic little brown bird becomes one of the main character's best friends. In all seriousness, Otolo is supposed to represent more than sarcasm and being a pet. I leave it to you, reader, to interpret her meaning, and I hope you do.
On a side note, in nine days I will have been on this forum for four months, a huge milestone. I have lots of things planned for that day, and I hope you're all just as excited as I am for it to come.
Thank you for sharing this.