Director's Cut: One of Them · 6:33pm Jun 28th, 2024
Damn, it feels like ages since I last did one of my behind-the-scenes AKA “Director’s Cuts” blogs. For those that never read them, my "Director’s Cut" blogs are where I talk about the, well, behind the scene stuff of a story. Such as where I got the idea for it from, unexpected changes done during writing, noteworthy edits, and any thoughts I had or even still have about something in the story.
So let’s begin!
First off, how ‘One of Them’ came to be. I had been waiting to write a Starlight Glimmer & Spike story for a long time. Those two are an underrated duo IMO and a surprisingly few stories center around them. I can’t remember exactly when the idea for this story came, but I think it first came to me 2 years ago and I just kept it in mind. Late last year, 'One of them' was one of three stories I had put up for a vote to be one of two stories I would write next, which it barely finished last in. I thought about putting it up for vote again, but once I started thinking it would make a great story for Starlight Glimmer Day, I chose to save it for Glim Glam’s day.
As for any changes that happened as I wrote, emphasizing with Starlight about not always being asked by the Mane 6 to tag along with them was one. It was something I didn't envision, but it just happened on its own when I was writing. It made it even more fitting for Spike to be the one having the talk Starlight needed to have, so I left it in.
Now for any notable cuts and edits made. How Spike told Starlight about Twilight’s ‘Lesson Zero’ freak out originally had a more dramatic tone; Spike even said he wasn’t sure if Twi would have appreciated him telling. I eventually changed it when I thought about how bluntly he reminded Starlight of her “dark past” during the Season 6 premiere, and the tone of voice he used back then fit the tone he used when he summed up the Lesson Zero Fiasco in ‘One of Them’.
Another notable edit was to how the story ended. Originally, Spike told Twilight he gave the rundown to Starlight about her Lesson Zero freak out, which made her shout “You told her what’?!” to end on a comedic note. But I eventfully changed it to what it became to have the story end in a bookend.
And fun fact, the nachos mentioned in the story made me buy some chips and cheese to make my own nachos. I don’t think a story I have written or read ever had that effect on me before.
To end things off, about a month after I had submitted ‘One of Them’, Uz Naimat submitted a story with a similar premise called 'Relapse', which takes place during the “Every Little Thing She Does’ episode (Or ELTSD for short) unlike my post-ELTSD story. By coincidence, it has more or less what could have potentially happened if Spike didn’t try or failed to cheer Starlight up in ‘One of Them’. I won’t say much else about it for spoiler reasons, but Relaspe is really good and I definitely recommend checking it out if you haven’t already.
Ta-ta!