Discords and Delays · 4:55pm Jan 20th, 2013
A fairly quick update, to explain why the new chapter of In Her Blood is taking so stupidly long. It's all Discord's fault. He turned my computer into a stapler. It's a pretty good stapler, but still not too fair an exchange, I feel.
But really, to those of you who're waiting, the delay for the new chapter is because it's a big one. Party scenes are enormous fun to write, but they do have a way of racking up the word count. It's at about 8,500 words at present, and will probably finish up at around 10-12k, although it could be more at this point; I honestly don't know. It's very likely at this point that it'll be split up into a part 1 and part 2 when it's finished.
So the bad news is that this chapter's taking longer than most, for which I apologize. The (hopefully) good news is that when it is published, it'll be as 2 back-to-back chapters.
So yes, apologies for the wait, hopefully it'll be worth it. The story isn't dead, and your patience is much appreciated!
Also, I feel like I'm poking a slightly contentious issue here, but I must confess I didn't actually feel the ending of yesterday's episode was rushed. A rapid conclusion, yes, but it didn't strike me as rushed because it's been set up properly earlier, wasn't a pulled-out-of-nowhere moment like the book in Too Many Pinkie Pies, and was actually pulled off well by the VAs. (I know everyone's rightly talking about the awesomely begrudging "Friendshipismagic," but for me, the "Well played, Fluttershy," line had to be one of the best deliveries in the series so far.) I've seen a surprising amount of hate towards this episode (which seems to be a rather sad trend for this season's episodes), but it was actually one of my favourites this season, and I think it knocked spots off, say, Spike at your Service. It was right up there with Magic Duel and Sleepless in Ponyville, for me at any rate.
Tl:Dr, John De Lancie is awesome, and I'm an opinionated git.
Pony on, despite the fact that the entire world appears to be covered in snow right now.
I have to agree with u on the ep :D
You know, that's fair enough. I loved the episode, but yeah the ending was fairly abrupt, it suffered from the 22 minute time slot, but it also set the possibility for future Discord, which I'm always happy for (and judging by John De Lancie's attitude to the whole Ponies thing, I'd feel it's a very possible thing, I just hope they can figure something out so it doesnt cost so bloody much to get him on :P). The characters were spot on, and really all it needed was more time to flesh out everything that happened in the episode. Maybe the ending wasn't rushed, but the pacing was wicked high (again a problem with only having 22 mins to do it).
"Friendshipismagic" is exactly what it's supposed to be, a begrudging line with cringe-worthy value, and I was very happy with Fluttershy in this episode (as opposed to previous episodes, where she only tried to be a hindrance to the plot development). She even pulled a bait and switch that got me believing (I was having the same reactions as Rainbow was), and all in all, that was clever. Also the fact that the episode parodied the Stare was great, and showed it to not be this "be all, end all solution" that Fluttershy has.
I too am disappointed with the reaction to this season on the whole, because frankly, it's been wicked great, with great highs, and no lows, only "meh's" (Spike at your Service, for example). I prefer this season as a whole to the last season as a whole (though there were some awesome episodes last season, there were also some painfully underwhelming, and even terrible ones). Of course, this is just my opinion, so take it as you please.
Also I wish I had snow. ;~;
I agree... both wholely and partially (if that's possible...)
More specifically I agree that "Well played, Fluttershy." was the best line in the episode.
But as for the partial agreement... I feel that this was a very slightly rushed episode, though I realize, better than most, that this is merely a gateway episode. It is obviously leading on to future appearances of Discord, which means more development, therefore, I'm happy with the episode.
I'm fine with a longer wait. It will give me more time to catch up on my other reading projects.
I liked the episode, but i think it would been better if they had made this into a two parter because it was a very rushed ending imo atleast
I share your opinion to a great extent. I really enjoyed the episode, as I did Sleepless in Ponyville and Magic Duel.
Discord was just plain awesome, Fluttershy was totally adorable (okay she always is), all the other main ponies got some good screen time as well. Yes, the pacing was high, and yes, the show can easily manage to become 30 minutes weekly I think, but....
A rushed ending is when I am "wait, wut did just happen?" and just a good episode leaves me with a feeling "Awww, it's over already..." Yesterday's episode totally belongs in the latter category for me.
I also don't know why there's so much hate for this season, because apart from Wonderbolt Academy (now THAT was a rushed ending) and maybe the Apple Family song, this season hasn't let me down a lot.
tldr; this episode was awesome
I loved the "well played, fluttershy" line too,
I have to say though, if the personification of chaos can be tamed by one pony being his friend for 2 days he was, quite frankly, a lot less impressive than when he was around last time. Angel bunny was less of a pushover in this episode than Discord was.
I see where the hate for this series is coming from, the first few were great: sleepless, crystal empire, one bad apple and too many pinkies were good.
The last few have been a bit of a cop out, especially in the endings department. All of spike at your service was so OOC it hurt, the mane 6 collectively cant beat 3 timberwolves (But can individually take on Ursas, dragons and Gods)? Then they abandon AJ to a monster?
I think fanfic has warped peoples expectations, a good fic may have 60k to 200K plus words to work on character development, sweeping story arcs, interactions and relationships with real emotions ,time for exposition, introspection and space for a characters actions to be seen in context.
If you tried to film most of the top fanfics you would have a 4 hour movie, the canon episodes are more like one-shots limited to 5k words, they can be amazing but the writing has to be very tight to get it right.
Imagine "To many pinkies" with 32 Real pinkies and not just one dimensional copies, Twilight just killed 31 Pinkies! how did they feel? were they scared? what did they think about? What about Pinkamena D Pie, canon Pinkie is a complex character and Rainbow at least knows about it. What does it mean to be the real Pinkie? how did her friends feel watching Pinkie die over and over? Twilight isn't a bit traumatised by doing this?
A fic can give a level of depth that the show just cant rival.
The best I can hope for is that they don't mess with the characters to much and try to maintain there own continuity ("I renounce the dragon way of life" / "I'm going mental and am now useless at housework because of the Noble Dragon Code")