Thanks and Giving

Well it's been a bit too long since I last updated this thing so I may as well throw up a post. It that line reminds you of vomit then you get the idea. I have just finished so much turkey and yams that i feel like i'm about to split. In the immortal words of Luis CK: "the meal isn't over when I'm full. The meal is over when I hate myself!" Stupid Thanksgivving making he gain stupid wight because I don't get any stupid exercise at my stupid job. Grumbel grumble piss piss moan moan!

Fig 1: I'm so mad that I don't have anything to be mad about.

In all seriousness I actually havn't had that bad a time. I could't get any time off so i was working noon to about 10:00pm both thursday and friday, but i did get to see my folks in the morning when they came into town. I also just finished cooking and then eating a big thanksgiving dinner with my roommate and girlfriend. I've also written about 1000 words on the next chapter of WMHB!

Fig 2: That after thanksgiving feel

I would have written more this weekend but I really was not fit mood to do so. not that I don't try to get into a groove, but something really through me off the weekend and it's still affecting me a bit. It all started when i sat down to catch up on the stories that I follow here on FimFiction. When i have a free weekend to write, i normally like to catch up on reading before truing to the pen, and this time i finally decided to buckle down and read the ladt four chapters of 'Background Pony' by shortskirtsandexplosions.

Fig 3: The one about this pony \/

don't get me wrong, 'Background Pony' is definitely one of the best fics I have read on this site (and I've read a lot in my time), but in my humble and perennially correct opinion, the author f*cked up the ending. I'll try not to give any spoilers, but here goes. shortskirtsandexplosions builds this really deep, complex and compelling nerative around Lyra's condition and the secrets that come with it. then at the end, when she is faced with a devils choice and it seems like her hero's journey has all been for naught, she makes what is, I believe, meant to be a tragic and self sacrificial decision.

Fig 4: Good authors make heroes of us all!

Now self sacrifice is all well and good when it leads to the creation of something better than ones self, but in this instance I don't think that's what happened. Lyra chose what I felt like I as a reader was supposed to believe was self sacrifice for the greater good, but I wasn't buying it. She had been shown a vast new perspective on her reality and she gave it up. what she should have done is chosen to fight for the truth of a brighter world that the main antagonist 'her' was keeping from everypony. Yes there are costs to such actions and yes, sometimes those costs are unimaginably high, but when a hero finally uncovers a flaw with the world or is confronted with the prospect of a brighter world, I believe it is the hero's duty to correct that flaw and persue that vision, REGARDLESS of the cost. THAT"S WHAT MAKES THEM HEROES!!!

Fig 5: Hero's duty

Needless to say this is not what shortskirtsandexplosions wrote. I can't hold any grudges ageist him (I do just alittle) as it was his story to tell and not mine. But reading the ending of a story that due to it's quality I had become deeply invested it really put me into a funk that I'm only just now pulling back out of. so rather than do writing on the scale I was hoping for this weekend my mind kept runnign over the end to 'Background Pony' and how i thought it should have ended and why I thought that way.

Fig 6: It was almost exactly like this

this is why I can't write or even read grimdark or most sad stories. The effect on my is really quite potent and lasting, to the point that i feel the need to rant my frustrations out to any of you who actually have dared to read this far down my blog post. regardless I'm slowly leveling out and I'll try to make up for lost time this week. no promises though, as I've lost my carpool to work and now need to take the buss. a situation that will add another two hours to the time I spend working or commuting. Balls. On the bright side though I'm going bird hunting this comming weekend with my brothers and dad and it's going to be a blast!!! Pheasants and chuckers here I come!! at least that will put me in a positive mood, though I won't have any time to write. Oh well, you win some you lose some!

Fig 7: ALICORN TWILIGHT AS LUCKY NUMBER SEVEN!!!

Peace!