At the End Commentary: Chapter 28 · 7:30am Jul 15th, 2013
This entry contains spoilers for its corresponding chapter of At the End. Be warned...
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I’ve been finding Crafter chapters increasingly easy to do, and this was no exception. This one, however, did have an extensive delay in posting due to me moving out of my ██████ apartment.
The title for the chapter, Words, came from the notion that he is finally getting a reasonable grasp of their language. He’s still a rookie and misses a lot of words, but he can carry a reasonable conversation if you don’t mind it being a little one sided due to him not talking. I kinda fudged the increased capacity a little in two ways. A total of a week has passed since the story has started. That gives him plenty of time to learn more words, due to his company is mostly scholars and soldiers, disregarding the Mane Six cast. I feel like I accelerated his growth a little more than what one is capable in such a short time span, but I feel that the discrepancy is negligible.
It’s also where I began another important piece of info dump: his own views on his ability to craft. Crafter chapters are dirt easy because I am a creator and thinker myself. One of my first thoughts about a lonely god would be: “Is this worth it?” He has great power and the ability to build truly wonderful things, but if he is his own audience, would the end justify the work put in? This chapter is when he starts to doubt his own work and traditional purpose.
His own reactions to the cast came next. Twilight is much like him, a shy thinker and philosopher. She’s also the one responsible for the bulk of the Crafter’s knowledge due to her own expansive library. The amount of effort she puts into their communication, along with her own enthusiasm, makes her one of his initial favorites.
Pinkie scares him a little. Despite his propensity to act and not sit still, there has always been a reason for his actions. Pinkie doesn’t need such a reason and her bountiful energy reserves make him uncomfortable. She likes him well enough, but he’s just not used to Pinkie’s hyperactivity.
Fluttershy is still timid to see him, mostly because he looks a lot like the one who nearly assaulted her. She keeps coming back because she doesn’t believe he’s a bad guy, but her fearful nature prevents much else. Rainbow Dash carries an empathy for her longest friend, and is passively hostile to him as a means to protect Flutters. Applejack, being a pony with staunch traditions, views him as more of a disruption more than anything. She carries the typical personality concerned with function over fashion. He is either with them or against them. Until his actions prove otherwise, as they do later in the chapter, that is what she sticks to.
Rarity likes him, but her overt curiousness and complete willingness to treat him like a normal person/pony makes him uncomfortable in a means similar to Pinkie. Pinkie and Rarity both treat him like a friend, but each in their own way. Pinkie wants to throw parties and have fun, while Rarity just tries to treat him as an equal. His initial discomfort with the mare is because he is so unused to such a thing. Barricade treats him like an occasional accomplish, maybe even a battle buddy. He’s never had an equal.
It’s also where he displays his discomfort with the unicorns. I don’t get into it too much, but they’re studying his powers. Diamond Solitaire, ever the scholar, is one of his most avid fans. Soon after, he talks to Twilight and displays the first instance of cross linguistic communication. This:
means thought or question. Simply put:
?
One of the biggest points of interest was that he learns the truth about the Royal Guardponies: they’re not all complete assholes. That one time in chapter 9 where Brimstone is up to shenanigans induced that fear of their armor. Twilight and Applejack showing him a helmet was the beginning process to get him used to them. The act of Barricade knocking over the helmet symbolizes just how unnecessary his long-standing phobia truly was. Jetstream, the one who scared him, was (unknowingly) possessed by Brimstone and an exception, not the rule.
After a little more scenery porn, something I am getting increasingly better at, the Crafter is finally introduced to the townsfolk after such a long time. The citizens view him as more of a curiosity than anything, especially after he is done meeting Lyra and Ambrosia. Lyra likes him, as does Ambrosia, although the later has a few more carnal reasons to like him.
I’m not sure what made me make Ambrosia physically attracted to him. It was one of those instances where the scene wrote itself. Some of you may have seen the alternate scene of chapter 29 concerning Rarity. The underground scene was one of four scenes I had planned since the start of the story. That was the first, Ambrosia being his employer was the second, and the other two have yet to occur. I had always wanted Ambrosia to be a boss or fellow employee of the Crafter, but I never solidified a personality for her. He is certainly a lot bigger than her and fairly exotic by pony standards, but my mind started conjuring images and scenes for me and I just went with it. The story was already there and I just wrote what I saw. I even managed to throw in a little reference to George Takei in there.
As I just said, this marks the return of Lyra, who we haven’t seen in quite a while. Her introduction was a tongue and cheek reference to her usual scenes in the show, meaning she can usually be found jumping up and down. She couldn’t see him due to her status as a civilian, but now that he’s not considered as dangerous as he once was, she is allowed into town under military supervision.
This also marks the first major piece of foreshadowing I have used. Pinkie has once of her “doozies”. Chronologically, the Crafter doesn’t know why she does that. However, the words you as the reader see are written in the past tense. These are words he writes in his journal from the future. As the Crafter chapters are in first person, he is the omnipotent voice of God and simply retelling past events. He knows the context of her shudders and what the “doozy” is, but is not saying what it is just yet in order to keep a coherent narrative. It’s a clever way for me to use a loophole in story telling while still keeping the story itself chronological. He gives a cryptic warning that something bad happens in three days and the topic wears heavy on his mind.
The job Ambrosia wants him to do is simple: fix the wall Barricade bucked him through. Given his own vast conjuring and crafting powers, such a job is simple by his standards. Getting started might even take more effort than actually finishing the job. He does so and to their satisfaction, another symbolic gesture. By rebuilding the broken past, he’s showing the possibility that he can help them grow a common dialog.
i never did get his building abilities in this chapter, due to the fact that only 1x1x1 metre blocks are available to the crafter.
does he have the ability to make Redpower-like "micro" blocks or is it something else that im not getting, because im not sure i would like a 1 metre thick wall in my building.
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Uhh......oops. I'll take care of that later.