My most faithful student
First, allow me to extend my most heartfelt sympathies. Even with as long as I've lived, I can only imagine how you must feel after such a shocking discovery.
That being said, you and I agree on a very important point: Restraining Gary Stu in your basement is most certainly "a bit excessive."
Please understand that I don't mean to belittle what you are going through. I simply seek to remind you, my student, that matters such as this have a procedure that generally must be followed. Feeling Gary has wronged you is one thing. Electing to imprison him within your own home is rather another.
I am willing to grant you likely suffered a minor lapse in your better judgment given the nature of your revelation. It has happened to far more experienced ponies than yourself. In fact, considering that the last time you uncovered suspicious activities of this magnitude it lead to the discovery of the imposter Cadence, part of me almost wishes to applaud your initiative. I am most definitely impressed that you elected to try and talk this matter out with Gary himself prior to contacting me.
Nevertheless, I must request you release Gary Stu from the basement.
(Twilight, I have no doubt that your jaw just dropped upon reading that. Please finish reading before you begin dictating your rebuttal to Spike.)
Innocent until proven guilty is the basis of Equestrian law, my dear student. It is one matter to show Gary had knowledge of events to come. It is quite another to prove that he took advantage of said knowledge for the sole purpose of stealing others' glory and defrauding ponies of admiration, thanks, and other rewards that should have gone to another. Even then there is difficulty in establishing exactly what laws he has broken (Though the moral bankruptcy of his character would certainly be apparent in that case.).
Granted, his attempts to flee when you confronted him about the situation do not paint him in the best light. Still we must act in the interests of justice and that means properly investigating your accusations.
At time of writing, I have sent a detachment of the Royal Guard to collect statements from yourself and Gary, as well as these "story disks" you and Spike discovered so that I may study them myself. While Gary Stu is not to remain detained in the basement, you are certainly under no obligations to permit him to stay at the library. In fact, given the situation, it might be best if he sought lodging elsewhere in Ponyville for the time being.
Once that is done I have an important task for you, my faithful student. From what you wrote it would seem yourself and your friends would be the greatest victims of Gary's actions. While I review the story disks and deliberate with Princess Luna on this matter, I ask that you inform your friends and fellow bearers of the Elements of Harmony about your discovery. As friends to both yourself and Mister Stu they deserve to be aware of what is going on.
Plus, any opinions or insight that they offer might be important in settling this case.
You are a smart, capable, and honest young mare, Twilight Sparkle. Whatever your feelings towards Mister Stu might be at the moment I trust that you will keep this situation contained to only the involved parties. Unless Gary Stu is proven beyond reasonable doubt to be a fraud it does nopony, least of all yourself, any favors to begin spreading stories about him. Make sure your friends are aware of this as well.
I am trusting you, Twilight Sparkle.
Your caring teacher,
Princess Celestia
P.S.
If you have completed that paper about your modifications to Haycartes' Method then I would, of course, greatly appreciate it being included with the disks.
P.P.S.
Not that I mean to pry, but why do you have a specimen research slab in your basement?
P.P.P.S.
Spike? You are right, Twilight and I both taught you better than to nose around in others' belongings. You have my (and I'm certain Twilight's) thanks this time since it lead to an important discovery. I am giving you an Official Royal Warning not to do it again, however. You are far too nice a dragon to fall into bad habits.
Sister,
It would seem the secret to Gary Stu's seemingly miraculous problem-solving abilities has been discovered.
I'm not yet certain if it's better or worse than some of the possibilities we discussed.
It will arrive from Ponyville shortly. We should meet over it as soon as possible.
Sincerely,
Celestia
Finally!
This conundrum has been driving me crazy. Especially given his lack of magic (And ergo lack of connection to Equestria's collective subconscious! Would that I could have just walked his dreams...).
Inform me as soon as it arrives. I have been looking for an excuse to leave Blueblood's company for an hour.
Luna
Very interesting! Keep it coming. I'd love to see an interaction between Gary and Celestia. Maybe even Luna, too.
8352965
Do you know Ariel Castro?
He's a dude that kidnapped 3 women, held them in his home beat them, raped them, etc for ~10 years. This was resolved for about 4 years ago when one of the women managed to get in contact with his neighbors Angel Cordero and Charles Ramsey who managed to rescue them.
Now If I went back in time and had my future knowledge and my choice of rather than using any other method of trying to save them my choice is literally just wait for the moment Amanda Berry starts screaming, not bother waiting to see if Cordero hears her and instead "play the hero" by doing exactly what Cordero did?
My future knowledge knows Cordero would've heard her and got Ramsey but rather than wait and see if anything changes I just cockblock Cordero.
That isn't being a good person or a hero.
That isn't protecting the timeline.
That isn't even being a friend.
That's just inserting yourself into other people's greatest moments of heroism and moments of growth for the sake of making yourself look good.
Oh and for the record, no one even came close to saying he should stop existing or kill himself.
Where did you even get that? The people against him are against him because he's using others' lives and their moments to prop himself up and worm his way into their lives rather than getting to know them as actual people.
He's had time to build up trust. He's had time to admit he had future knowledge. Instead 5 seasons later the only reason they found out about it is because of someone accidentally invading his privacy.
comedy wouldnt be a bad idea if you are gonna have it often in your story.
of his character
I suppose Comedy could be one route, but I honestly would rather a story such as this be taken more seriously.
It would be a nice break, truly, from all the 'Stu/Sue' deconstruction fics that only focus on parodying it, and not truly taking meaning from it.
But that may perhaps just be my own feelings on the matter.
Are we gonna get a letter written by Gary Stu? Or at least get to read his statement? That'd be an interesting read.
Good chapter.
Celestia took the best course of action, all things considered.
Why?! Why can I only upvote this once?!
8354382
This is both an incredibly callous look on things as well as a disturbing scenario you've brought up. In it you say you'd, with a time machine at your disposal, let these women be imprisoned until the time they were originally saved. Gary didn't wait while other people suffered(aside from possibly Cadance, and god only knew where that mare was), he was there as these things occurred. Hell, he stepped up to the plate and even altered things by standing by Twilight at the wedding when everyone else turned their back on her, likely because he couldn't let Twilight be hurt like that.
There are other things to consider of course. First, just because things happened a certain way in the movies doesn't mean it will happen here. In that case, the foreknowledge is less than useless especially if you share it. This doesn't become less relevant as things still occur. Luna's return does not guarantee Discord's release. If you helped with Luna and then the next enemy was Tirek, what would you say then? Oops?
We also have the issue of wandering off to explore Equestria when things of great importance are occurring in Ponyville. What if something goes wrong? What if something went wrong and Rainbow Dash was killed in an accident your presence could have prevented?
Finally, as to admitting he knew what was going on; how do you even start that discussion? These are people he may have come to care about, people he knows need to experience some of these things so they are ready for the next test. He can help and he seems to do so from what we're told, but he also can't just take care of it behind the scenes. Thus he's there with them, a little extra bit of insurance that things turn out right. I don't like that he's being a bum, especially If he's not using this time to look for a way home through research, but I won't damn the guy either.
So many questions raised and need for more details, which I expect will be answered and filled in, in the coming chapters.
The biggest issue being whether Gary is a glory hound who stole the destiny of others or a good samaritan trying to help who's getting dragged deeper into things than he wants.
They found Gary in the Everfree forest when Nightmare Moon returned. How could the guy NOT help out when he knew what was going on and he was RIGHT THERE. So this event doesn't factor into things as far as I'm concerned. Everything that comes after is another story.
Did Gary make an extraordinary effort to befriend the Elements and actively work to get himself invited along every time an event he knows about is going to happen? Is he super boastful and full of obvious pride in regards to how much he's done for Equestria? Does he soak up the admiration and revel in it?
-or-
Did Gary get assigned to live with Twilight so she could help him integrate into Equestrian society and also surreptitiously study him and his world and make sure he's not a danger? Did he try to avoid getting involved in events while dropping small bits of helpful advice? Would the Elements badger him to come along until he relented because they actively wanted him there?
Royal Wedding / Changeling Invasion Scenarios:
Gloryhound Gary: Gary makes sure he gets invited and does everything he can to stop the invasion himself. Gary is the primary hero who rescues Cadance, outs Chrysalis and generally saves the day.
-or-
This-isn't-my-story Gary: In the weeks leading up to the invasion Gary reads some books on rare creatures and species. After finding an entry on Changelings he comments on finding them fascinating and asks Twilight if she has more books on them. Gary tells Twilight once or twice that she should read some of these books on Changelings because "it's incredibly fascinating." Gary then tries to decline going to the wedding because he doesn't know the bride or groom and would feel very out of place. Twilight insists and won't take no for an answer. Gary is stuck going to the wedding and knows that he cannot in good conscience completely avoid helping.
Nice.
frankly for it to be fraud there has to be something he is legitimately fraudulent at, which at current is lacking....
maybe he had foreknowledge on events, but this is not a legal or illegal gambling event, did he claim to save equerstria only not to deliver? not really. no matter how it goes he has not committed a fraudulent act, the most celestia can do for whats been done is glare at him.
Let's make an example.
Suppose you find out that someone have a foreknowledge of some great disaster way before it happen (like 9/11, or the 2004 tsunami in indonesia, something like that). Not just that, but this guy have also a direct connection with high level of government of the place where the disaster will happen.
And you find that this guy, rather than use this information to prevent the disaster or minimize the damage, use them to put himself in a position where he can 'heroically' save some of the victims, victims than, and this is important IMHO,by the information he own would have been saved anyway, even without his intervention.
To be specific, Gary knew that Discord would have freed himself, all he had to do was ask Twilight to send a letter to the princess to bring together elements and bearers at the place and zap him into stone the moment it happen. So many hassles avoided,
And not just Discord, even Sombra, crysalis, the parasprite swarm, the ursa minor rampage, and so many other. He could have avoided or at least contained many them but he chose to let the situation mature (and for example, let his 'friends' being mindraped by Discord) and then jump in with the solution, to make himself a hero.
Yeah, the guy is a jerk.
And just because something is not against the law, doesn't mean it is right.
Celestia and Luna on this moment can at most very emphatically ask Gary for explaining everything from beginning and honestly.
And there is a lot of possibilities. Gary probably still has some seasons for foreknowlegde, that can be utilized. Also it's very lucky for Celestia that Twilight did not saw episode where she somehow has wings, or even worse "Magical Mistery Cure". That would derail timeline as we know it.
8354745
You forget about one thing. There is no calendar in episodes, that say exact days of events. Gary know how to respond, but he can't say when it will happen. Yes he has chronology, but nothing super precise. How do you imagine warning princesess about Discord, if you don't know exact day? Okay, he could say "it will happen, when CMC will have a trip to Canterlot.". And now it raises a question "HOW do you know that?".
Certainly an interesting story idea so far, but I would suggest to the writer to have Gary Stu show up sooner rather than later to make it clear whether they're a normal guy or a huge creep, that way the comments section doesn't turn into a flame war.
8354763
Flame wars in comment sections are one of more interesting things, until they are cultural and at least minimaly academical. It's good to exchange different visions on things.
8354748
Yeah for real. I'm also glad that reason has been seen from Celestia. It's great that the author had looked at the comments and is taking the feedback seriously to make a good fic.
8354763 Too late. This is probably one of the most inflammatory fics I've ever read on this site in long time.
8354382 Damn going with that route really? I'm certain the victims of Castro would give fuck less as long as they aren't raped any further. Same for the ponies. As long as the result is the same.
8354609 You there! You are asking rational based questions! Do you not know his name is Gary Stu?!!!111 Wharblegharble!!!!!11
8354415 Only the author knows where to take this. I assume it's going to be a 50/50 open to interpretation ending where are supposed to debate endlessly about if he is in the wrong or not.
8354745 But by doing that, the girls never mature, even with Gary Stu helping. Better to have him "allegedly" glory hound and they grow anyway.
8354684 I know, good luck convincing the rest.
Honestly, if I was pulled into garys place I would have done the same. I could not risk telling the lokals becuse
1. Alien trust is hard to earn, how would the lokals reakt when someone unknown spills your entire life history and what is suposed to happen.
2. To know the future is to change it. The characters will not behave like they should if they did know possibly making the situations worse. The future was when you did not exist so you watch and guide to make sure that future events unfold the way they should or you want them to.
3. The risk of something not adding up to a fictional story that closly resembles the real world is to great to risk. what would happen if you told the ponies about the invasion and the changlings were friendly and instead asked for help?.
I wonder if Twilight saw a DVD with her becoming the Princess of Friendship and is now in full panic mode. She might do something now that won't make it true, or she doesn't want it. That would be kind of hilarious (except for Celestia). The princess schemes and plans Twilight's entire life through and because of the DVD's of Gary she won't get her fourth Alicorn.
Celestia: "I sentence you to be banished for destroying my schemes for my faithful student!"
Luna: "Are you mad, sis?"
And then there is it again like in chapter 1, people accusing Gary without having PROOF. Seriously guys, is this how judgement works for you? Assume something and judge the one responsible without trial, because that is what you WANT to believe? Hopefully you will never work in court, many poor people would already land in prison without receiving a fair treatment from you. For the hundreth time, maybe it was immoral what he did, maybe it wasn't. Perhaps he never did anything to hunt for glory and that's just Twilight's own opinion, because she based it upon on an alien cartoon. BUT no matter what will come true there exists no law that dictates how people have to behave. Morally questionable or not.
It's called free will. People can behave like the greatest idiots and you can despice them as much as you desire. They still can do it and you can't force them to behave just so that you don't feel offended. That's life.
Meh, I'm interested to see to which extend his DVD's will go and how much he spoiled Twilight's future without having the intention of even doing such a thing.
8355247
Your first paragraph describe, why exactly Gary hadn't right to say anything. Twilight anscencion was matter of highest delicacy and if Twilight would have even suspition, that it's prepared for her, that would probably make it impossible.
Also if such knowlegde, that Gary know future, get out, he becomes ultimate target for villains, either for elemination or kidnapping, to force this knowlegde out of him. Try imagine Chrysalis finding out that Thorax is traitor, before he even desert. Or Tirek finding out truth about Harmony Box.
8355489
Indeed. And well, that's exactly one of the biggest problems (no matter in what media) when some ruler/master/teacher/plant, whatever plans other beings life without consulting them in the first place like they are toys. They just play god themselves and have many excuses and say phrases like:
"You proofed yourself worthy of being granted <insert whatever the clueless MC should receive>."
or
"I always believed that you were destined for greatness."
or the favourite...
"You are the chosen one!"
Such schemes need tons of shadow play and the patience of a saint to pull such things off. I don't like it in general if characters are "forced" into their situation without being asked by people they trust their whole heart with.
It's very underhanded to "play fate" and pull strings from the distance to "guide" the one who trusts you into the "destined position" if it's in fact no "fate" at all, but the own selfish desire. There is nothing "fateful" in such situations where "destiny" is in reality some calculated plan of another. No matter how benevolent the one responsible might act, it's still very wrong on many levels to do such things.
But hey, moral is subjective and defined after everybody's own opinion and feelings. What one may define as "the greater good" is for the next random person an "act of greatest cruelty".
For people saying he's not a glory hound did you notice how Twilight Sparkle said the one who did almost all of the work in saving the Crystal Empire was Gary Stu?
Despite the fact that we know the person who was supposed to do most of the work in saving the Empire was Twilight Sparkle. Despite the fact that we know the person who is supposed to get almost all of the glory at the end of the day was Spike.
But let's talk about this "preserving the timeline" nonsense people are trying to tote.
Let's be real. The way people are saying "preserving the timeline" is just a different way of saying "I have a hero complex".
The way the people talking about "preserving the timeline" make it sound that if the story goes off in a way that you,or rather Gary Stu, don't know then it'll be inherently worse. Except, Gary Stu doesn't know that. Unless Gary Stu has powers that allow him to see different outcomes of the future he only knows the ONE outcome. And not only that but it's the outcome of a timeline in which he doesn't exist and definitely isn't consistently being the hero.
Not only that "preserving the timeline" is ultimately a futile effort. At least when you're using the television show like Gary is. What happens when he runs out of episodes? What if Gary is like us and has only seen up to half of Season 7. What after that? How can he preserve a timeline that Gary doesn't even know from that point on? What happens if the show is cancelled or just ends? What happens with Gary then especially if the "real" Equestria keeps going and problems keep arising? With Gary constantly inserting himself as the hero people are going to rely on him and when his ability of "foresight" runs out?
And, inserting yourself into the timeline so blatantly like Gary completely defeats the entire purpose. You want to preserve a timeline but you put such a major divergent such as a seventh/eighth cast member? Maybe if he stop inserting himself right after the first two episodes but he's been doing this consistently. The only reason those timeline stories continue directly on the timeline is the same reason Fall of Equestria "works", because the creator says so. By all rights, constant interference should be creating effects whether small or big and cause an effect the OCs wouldn't know about.
And a final question for all the people talking about "preserving the timeline", will you purposely sabotage the main 6 should a divergence happens in which an "episode" goes off in a different but positive way?
Say Boast Busters comes along, will you goad the Mane 6 into heckling Trixie? Do it yourself? Will you give Snips and Snails the incredibly stupid idea to find a Ursa and bring it into town should they not come up with it themselves?
If Mysterious Mare Do Well comes along and Rainbow Dash acts more mature and doesn't get a huge ego, will you purposely lead events to inflate her ego? If Twilight and crew get the smart idea to just pull Dash aside and give her a mature sensible talking to will you dismiss it and go with the actual episode's plan?
What if Flim and Flam never come along? What will you do then? What if they're reasonable businessmen and Applejack isn't a stubborn traditionalist? Will you instigate that F&F are conmen even if the "reality" your in goes against that? Will you lead AJ into a dangerous bet for her farm?
Because if you don't are you "preserving the timeline"?
8354597
That is not what was said at all.
8355597
He said he'd go and wait for the woman to scream for help, intercepting her as she was making her way to the men who originally saved her and the other three. So yes, that is exactly what was said. That in spite of this foreknowledge he would let these women be imprisoned and raped for how long and then just save them in order to intercept the fame those two men were showered with.
8355530
Of course, not. Only somebody evil would sabotage good outcome. Gary Stu in this story, as I stressed in earlier post, tried to change Cadance wedding to better outcome by siding with Twilight and by this giving her more credibility on her accusations. So he wasn't only playing by script, but also trying to improve. If he tried it once, it is possible, that did it more times. For now we have not enough informations to be sure, but it was mentioned.
8355835
So at that point how would one say "preserve the timeline" if you're willing to let events stray from the path or outright changes the outcome/order of events?
8355865
It's not about following script, but about desire of good. Good person want good outcomes coming from live.
In this debate it mean: preserving of good, removing/repairing of bad.
In case of MLP history, it's really worthy of general preserving, because ~95% of outcomes in this history are mostly good. So most of time you need to play by script to achieve good things. Of course you can also try to repair this others 5%, if possible.
In case of any bad and tragic history, only moral thing would be using foreknowlegde to generaly overwrite it to better outcome.
8355887
"It's not about following the script" but the entire script of My Little Pony has positive outcomes for damn near everyone. So how exactly are you preserving it by inserting yourself as a factor? If he was to play by the script he shouldn't be inserting himself because the script doesn't need him to solve anything. They do it by themselves. He knows that because that's how the script dictates it.
And how exactly would you overwrite it for a better outcome? If you don't have a time machine or the ability to see how any of your major changes can affect the "script" you won't be able to tell if your fixes end up doing more damage down the road.
8355912
But he already is. In moment he met Mane 6 in Everfree, he changed story. Gary Stu Equestria isn't Canon Equestria, because he is in it. It's alternate universe already by this. How he can be sure that everything will follow same as in Canon, when it already is different universe?
You may say that this change is meaningless, but what if it isn't? What if it will derail good history of Mane 6? Then your lack of reaction is one of causes of it.
Second part of your responce is tricky. Yes, changing major events may end in unpredictable ways, but not all events are major.
Some are so separated, that change of them interact barely with other events. Like intervening with Trixie, so she won't lose her possessions and she will not want revenge. How you imagine bad outcomes of it, outside common unlucks for her, that can happen even if you don't intervene, because it is AU, not Canon?
8355616
He said if that was what he did, it would not be the mark of a hero, or of a friend, or of a good person.
Please read the comment again.
Whether Gary is charged with a crime or not, I think depends more on the details of the Equestrian legal system, then on his actions.
In many Monarchies on earth, doing anything against the crown is legal violation right there. Just by making Twilight upset that's plenty of justification for capitol punishment.
Even in democracies founded on the rule of law... Nearly every country cheats to some degree and they have crimes that you can charge anyone with, and if there is enough political pressure you'll be charged with it.
If you hold the Equestrian legal system to be a paragon of virtue that truly follows the rule of law. Then no Gary didn't break a law and he should be fine legally. If you image the Equestrian legal system to be comparable to human legal systems, he pissed off a member of the ruling elite. He's boned.
8356306
Good god, that was my issue with it in the first place! He was comparing Gary's actions against doing that(coming in just before the original heroes). All of these issues in the story are resolved within a day. Two if you want to be stingy with the SSC. The only one that I don't recall being handled that easily took a very specific set of circumstances he can't help with that gave the girls the keys to the chest, allowing the defeat of Tirek.
He can't save someone he doesn't know about and pushing Chrysalis with no proof would have ended up with him in prison and Chrysalis possibly taking off unhindered, maybe with Shining armor in tow. The wedding is the only incident I can think of where he could have saved someone early, and even then not even Twilight knew about it till a few days in advance.
I'm not saying this guy's a hero, I just have an issue with this quest to tar and feather someone who might have followed along and made sure nobody was hurt.
8356373
My issue was that you misrepresented what kztxl7 said in their comment.
Yes, adding a comedy tag would be good. There is just so much dark humor to be had in this situation, and I could see you having Celestia and Luna especially give in to the power of SNARK.
I'm hoping we find out the reactions from each of the alicorns and element bearers. And the reactions will likely run the gamut because there are so many ways to react to this personal matter. I could see the responses on a spectrum of:
Fluttershy: "Ummm. I suppose... I don't really mind, really. I mean...he didn't hurt any pony, right? Oh, I'm sorry. Am I supposed to be mad? I just don't think I can do that...sorry again..."
Gary: "Oh! Uh...thanks, Fluttershy."
Luna: "Do you realize the true depth of his crime? What he has robbed from all of you? We ponies are nothing but the sum of our experiences: what we have learned, our mistakes, our successes. This monster has stolen all of this from you. By depriving you of your true lives, he has stolen from your very souls. I would rather pardon a serial murderer than withstand one more moment of his continued existence. ENOUGH! I will free his soul from his mangy carcass with fire. I will drag his soul to the furthest depths of Tartarus with my own hooves. May he spend eternity contemplating his folly. Stand aside, sister. Justice will not wait. My unbridled anger will cleanse this taint from the face of Equestria."
Gary: "SNRK!! 'Unbridled' PFFFFFFTTTTT!!!!"
8356373
And there is the problem with Gary Stu.
If Gary Stu was merely playing observer and watching each scenario unfold and only intervened if the scenario deteriorated horribly beyond what he knows went on in the show then I'd have no problem.
But from the way Twilight and Spike are presenting this, Gary has inserted himself in episodes as the solution and voice of reason. He's been turning himself into the Big Hero or using moments to share in the glory that he has no business being a part of. It doesn't sound like he's waiting to see if they can solve the problem like he knows they should be able to do.
You can say "oh he was alongside Twilight in the wedding" but it also means he was siding with the person that the end of the day he knew was right so he gets to also share in the glory of being in the right.
I know Cordero was going to hear Berry's cries for help. And I know he would've gotten help from Ramsey. All I had to do was watch from the sidelines and made sure everything went according to how it was supposed to go. If things start going wrong then I start nudging things to the proper path and only intervene should things start going wrong. Not cockblocking people of their moments of heroism and personal growth for the sake of my ego.
This goes to my tracking folder.
The timeline is already fucked up just by him being there
Also with princesses taking his mlp discs if they watch they will only fuck up things since a lot of stuff would probably go wrong if they see the future. The real question here is gary did all that because his presence would change things so he wanted to make sure everything went well even if he had to insert himself on the episodes ? or did he do it because he is a scumbag gloryhound ? I do hope he is someone that was trying to help instead of the obvious "he is scum" angle . At least it would be different from all the mary/gary sue gets rekt fics around.
When was this?
And why hasn't Gamefreak made a Pokemon of it yet?
Or for that matter why hasn't Hasbro made an episode featuring it?
8356567
It's speculated that Pegasus eyesight is extremely good. As in, up there with birds of prey to allow them to see things while moving at high speed. There wouldn't have really been a good time to slip away to follow from a distance during the first incident even if you're willing to walk through the Everfree without someone watching your back. Even if you did walk out there you'd have to avoid two individuals with eyes like hawks, then slip away unnoticed and try to get back before someone notices you're missing. He didn't get one of the elements, and I honestly wouldn't be surprised to find out his name isn't Gary. Read Consequences of Unoriginality for another person who used the name as a placeholder.
8356422
This is from him! I didn't misrepresent it, he is literally saying he could go back farther and save these women from this fate but he's instead going to wait just to be a jackass and steal the fame! There's nothing to misrepresent when the original author actually says this stuff. This was the entire reason I replied to his comment. Did he say he WOULD do this? No. The point is he's comparing this other man's actions to letting women be raped for years when you could have stopped it sooner, stepping in only to snatch the fame for the rescue from the original hero. As I said before, most of the issues that sprang up cannot be dealt with early and are resolved within a day. There's almost no room to take care of these issues early. There's no room for error.
From the comments, it seems your readers are not in universal agreement about what should happen here. I suspect that the straw that will push the consensus one way or another will not be reason or logic or facts...but rather, Gary's disposition. His personality. His intent. if you portray him as a a skeevy jerk, people will want to see this end poorly for him. If you portray him as kind and loving, and aware of the possibility for moral quandry here, but deciding that being certain that problems were solved for ponies as a whole was more important than caring about who received the credit for solving them...people may be more likely to want to see this end well for him.
I advise caution. How you portray him will instantly telegraph how the rest of the story will play out. if possible, you might consider keeping him out of the story. Keep him in custody. Tell this story through the eyes of the various ponies. There's no need even to even show his own words directly. Ponies can write to one another about his testimony. This might even be a good opportunity to employ Roshomon Style, and have the accounts of the same event given by two different ponies disagree with each other, so that the reader is left never entirely certain what really happened. But that's a difficult story to write. Only employ that trope if you're confidant you can pull it off.
Either way, if you ever do show us Gary himself, his own words as they were truly spoken...if you let us know what he was thinking when he did these things and what were the motivations in his heart when he did them...at that point, you the author must already know how this story ends. And we the readers, will not be far behind.
8354763
No, that's exactly why the author should not show Gary at all.
If he's portrayed as a creep, then the debate is over and the mystery is gone. Everyone will agree that he's in the wrong. If he's portrayed as well-intentioned, if he's shown genuinely caring for ponies and it's revealed that he lived in Twilight's basement because he was not motivated by fame, then suddenly it becomes more difficult to be very incensed by his choices. If the middle ground is taken, and he's shown to be an opportunist, neither a hero nor a villain, merely someone taking advantage of a situation...then suddenly we don't care as much what happens to him. And that's not a very good condition for a story.
His motivation, his character decides what this story is about. The moment it's revealed, we know how it ends.
It's far more interesting if we don't know.
I don't think this story is about Gary anyway. It's about Twilight. Gary is merely the premise that set this story into motion. The story is about ponies reaction to this, and their reaction to each other's reactions.
This story began with Twilight taking action, arresting a natoinal hero. This story began with Twilight being hurt that her friend was not what she believed him to be. Chapter two now shows us Celestia's reaction to Twlight's actions. Chapter three looks like it will be about the reactions of the rest of the mane six to what has happened so far. How will Fluttershy feel about Twilight tying her friend Gary to a concrete slab, robbing him of both dignity and freedom? How will the Element of Loyalty feel about it?
This story isn't about Gary. It's about ponies.
We don't need to see Gary.
8356594
My take on Gary is that he is someone who is "guilty" of Stolen Valor. In short, someone who isn't willing to work for their own glory but is willing to cheat the system to gain the respect that he craves. Note that the federal law defines for the actions to be a crime, some tangible or monetary benefit must be derived. It doesn't sound (so far) like Gary meets that definition.
8359244
That being said, I agree with LordBucket that this story should be centered around the ponies, not Gary. Their thoughts and reactions would be novel and interesting. Based on the wide range of opinions shown in the comments section, all that the author could do is let down some of the readers by explaining exactly what subset matches his personal vision.
Besides, we Bronies have all seen Gary Stu before and know his thoughts intimately...we see him every time we look in the mirror!!!!
Oh, ho ho. Posted right on my birthday. Thanks for this delivery, will keep on watching.
I just thought something regarding Gary and his intervention: What if things had never happened the way they did, (the normal canon way) had he not intervened? What if he's just keeping things happening the way they should be (Quantum Leap-style), because otherwise Ponyville would have been eaten by the Parasprites, or Queen Chrysalis would be ruling Equestria while Cadance was just a bunch of dry bones trapped forever in the caves under Canterlot?
8357621
You are misrepresenting it. You left out the rest of the goddamn comment.
Bolded emphasis mine.