Explanations · 12:30am Oct 2nd, 2013
Hello, MoreX25 here,
Now that almost everybody who are following this story have already read Chapters 10 and 11, I think it’s time to explain what the heck is going on and what went down when I wrote them.
You could say that Chapter 11 is an embellished dramatization of the planning process for the entire ‘VS Technology arc’ and the whole chapter revealed a lot of personal truths, but I’m getting ahead of myself.
First let’s go back to chapter 7 – All aboard the ship!
After I finished that chapter, two things happened: One I announced a Hiatus and introduced Fluttershy into the story. Let’s talk about FS first.
As XeroM said in CH 11, when I was finished with CH7, I was ready to move forward with the story like normal without FS been present. I was going to give an off-handed explanation that the Cleaning efforts were over and FS returned home. That was the plan, but a lot of you guys were really excited about what would happen now that FS was added to the mix, so my plan was shot down.
At the time I wasn’t really worried about that to do because the story was in hiatus and I could take time to think about something. But once again as XeroM said, I couldn’t go on with my planned Hiatus. I couldn’t leave you guys for months without anything. Deep down I was afraid that with the Hiatus you will all forget about my story. (stupid, I know! But that’s what I honestly felt)
So the moment I have enough free time, I rushed out next chapter, which was Road Trip. By that time, I already had read your comments and some expectations you guys had. I knew I had to feature FS in at least ONE revenge scheme before I could let her go.
At first I was tempted to go for the “VS George Washington” episode, but I felt that it would’ve remained almost unchanged from the original episode despite adding Pinkie and FS. So I decided to go for the next episode that was “VS Technology”.’
Now, I’m going to stop here for a second to clarify something about my writing; I ALWAYS plan what will happen, before I even write a single word I watch an episode and take note of the most important or prominent things I wish to include, these are my key components.
After the key components are set, I think of all possible scenarios, plots and directions the story could take, and once I chose which one are the most suited for the story (the qualifications been: if it is funny, add character development, or it’s a logical step forward from all previous chapters). This becomes my guideline.
Once I have my guideline, I begin writing and fill the blanks between components. Now during this time, things can still be susceptible to change; I could come up with something that I never planned for, for example, many of the jokes from “Not Save From the Water” (Which nobody noticed the joke on the title -_- ¡) and the “Dan drowns” scene were spur of the moment.
Now, back to the story:
While I was setting my key components and thinking up possible plots (one was to have Fluttershy in various ‘cliché’ romantic anime troops with Dan and have PP jealous of FS, despite the fact that all of those were just accidents and misunderstandings), but then I suggestion was made: “FlutterChris.”
I liked the suggestion and recklessly skipped some steps of my self-imposed process. I really didn’t think it through and rushed the chapter out. After the expected responses of “Isn’t Chris married?”, ”How will this end?” I just told myself not to worry and that I would find a possible ways to just end FS’s Crush without just letting it fall to the side, but the more and more I planned for the next chapter the more I realized that I was writing myself into a corner.
The whole crush plot had to have a satisfying ending, and I had some ideas, but I didn’t like them very much. It didn’t need something big, just something that made sense.
Then the ‘throwing an axe to Elise’ scene came to me and a whole lot of ideas came to my mind. And that’s where the idea for Chapter 10 came from, before I even began writing Chapter 9. I could kill-off Elise and save myself from having to think of some way to break FS crush.
But I knew that I could never get away with that kind of twist. Like MoreX (in chapter 11) said, it was too dark and depressing. Not only would I had to change the rating to mature, I’d had to add the TRAGIC and DARK tags.
Not to mention, it would be a complete 180° turn of what had previously been written. The whiplash would’ve been big and some readers would’ve quit reading and with good reason. The story was a Romantic Comedy between Pinkie and Dan, people wouldn’t want to read something that came way out of left field.
Despite all my reasoning, the temptation of writing Elise death was so big, the idea keep gnawing in my brain and wouldn’t leave if I didn’t write it down. Remember all of this was before a single word of Chapter 9 was written.
It was a ‘battle’ between what was expected against the desire of playing with those expectations.
That’s when I thought of some troops I really like, the dark twin and the multiple personality. Though Multiple Personality Disorder is a serious topic that shouldn’t be mocked lightly, I grew up with cartoons where when played for laughs, it’s funny!
The dark twin, came from my enjoyment of bad guys in video games and anime. The toughest enemy is always the one who is exactly like you but with different set of values.
Then the idea of XeroM was born. Just the idea, not the character herself.
If I played the ‘I didn’t write that’ card I could get away with Chapter 10 and the whiplash it would cause as long as the status quo was preserved in the end.
That’s the reason Chapter 10 and 11 came at the same time, I wasn’t going to taunt my readers with a dark twist and cliffhanger without giving them something to calm their doubts and possible anger/disgust. Ch 10 was going to turn heads and make eyes go open and Ch 11 would provide an explanation and the return the status quo.
Now with all of that planned, (thought some details were still sketchy) I wrote chapter 9 with the intention of leading up to Ch 10 twist in mind.
I knew that for that to work I would’ve needed to end in a cliffhanger, leaving the audience speculating Elise’s fate. But that presented a problem: those who had seen the episode the chapter was based on, would know that Elise was safe, besides the fact that my story is a romantic comedy, there was no way in hell that I would ever kill off someone.
So I decided to leave a little message, telling you guys what Elise fate was. Unfortunately, nobody caught it. The clue was in Dan’s ramblings. I knew that it was going to be too easy had I written the message just backwards. So I decided to write in Spanish. I was sure at least some of you guys would know Spanish and figure out the message, but I guess my plan was harder than expected.
Now with chapter 9 finished and with the guideline for Ch 10 completed, all I needed to do was to write the explanation for Ch 11.
Now here was when Xerom passed from an Idea to a character (and plot device).
At first Xerom wasn’t going to be an entity with its own body. It began as a separate personality that supposedly would write stuff when MoreX was asleep. I played with the idea for a while, but I decided to change it, because I couldn’t make a confrontation between two voices inside a same body seem entertaining while not being a complete Deadpool rip-off.
Then XeroM went from a different personality to a dark twin of mine.
As I was setting the key components, I was planning how MoreX would defeat XeroM. From the very beginning the confrontation was going to be a verbal one and end with one flashy finishing move. This was because I didn’t want to write a lengthy fight scene, or make my character seem like a Gary-Stu.
XeroM was supposed to be my complete opposite; he would revel in destroying MoreX’s hard work and make everyone turn on him. But the more I think about it, XeroM actions seemed to made little sense and not really interesting. So I made him a girl and THAT changed everything.
Xerom passed from being a simple dark twin to something completely different, which in turn change my idea for MoreX too.
MoreX could be seen as just an avatar for me to use to insert myself in the story; that was what he was supposed to be; but he also became something more.
Chapter 11
In this chapter there are two characters claiming to be MoreX25; one man and one woman. And both are right, both of them are MoreX25, they are both me. But they are not opposites.
They are one person’s(me) values, ideas, feelings and morals separated by halves. But the values, ideas, feelings and morals weren’t distributed equally or polarized. This means, in theory, that both halves may hate the same thing, but one side hates it a little less than the other. And that is without taking in consideration other sets of values that may intensify or diminish their opinion of the same thing.
By this point, you may have asking yourselves:”Wait! Doesn’t that make them entirely different beings instead of being sides of the same person(you)?” and to that I have to say: “Probably!”
The one thing that connects them is their memories (my memories). Since both of them came from the same source they have the same exact set of memories. But again, their different set of values affects how they react to those memories.
Not to mention their gender: the Male is more logical side while the female is more attuned with emotion. Still, this doesn’t mean that the male part is incapable of emotions or that the female can’t think logically. It’s just the ‘part of the brain’ they are more attuned to.
Take for example their first meeting.
The Female (‘F’ from now on) is the one who is constantly changing her emotions and attitudes when the Male (‘M’) arrives. M though surprised, he remained the calmer one, thinking things logically, while F was enjoying her theatrics.
But then F mentions HER to M, (HER being a real person who I really had a massive crush on); M is surprised that F knows about his crush, and has a stronger reaction to those memories than F would ever have.
The reason why M isn’t aware of F like she is of him is because the idea of two persons being the same is highly illogical. He operates in real-world logic and physics; while F is more open minded to the more magical in whimsical things in the world. (strangely enough, when I explain this out loudit sounds like F is the good side while M is the bad side.)
F isn’t exactly evil, or even bad, she is very impulsive and doesn’t take in consideration the feelings of others when she does stuff, but at the same time she deeply worries about what people thinks about her. She seeks approval of others; she craves for others’ adoration and wants everyone to congratulate her for her work.
And that is reflected in “her work” when she wrote 3 chapters despite the story being in hiatus. She didn’t write those because she wanted to destroy the story or ruin it. In her mind she was doing what she felt was right. She gave readers what she thought they wanted and tried to surprise them by playing with everyone’s expectations.
M, thought presented as the Good side, isn’t exactly in the right either. He prefers logic to guide his judgment and actions, but at the mention of F continuing the story WITHOUT him made him overly worried at HIS work and what people thought of it now; his logic should be over things like that but he can’t help it.
That is a trait that both halves have, but where M reacts with short bursts of annoyance and anger that end the moment he tries to calm himself thinking logically; F deals with the same feeling differently, depending if she feels she has control of the situation or not. This results in M been sometimes meek meek and other times cold and distant while F reacts with jokes or with real worry depending on the situation.
When M reads what F wrote, he lashes at her with for what she did, but mostly for the fact that she DID instead for what she WROTE. Then his anger focus on what she wrote, rationalizing every mistake she committed.
F reacts with jokes and taunts feeling great about her work, but when M keeps on pointing out his gripes, F tries to fix it feeling the need to please M despite moments ago mocking his writing skills and ideas. Instinctively she feels that M approval equals everyone else’s approval.
She tries to fix it, changing the dark and tragic for something more akin to what M said he and the readers wanted, but with the way she thinks; she feels that if she use what she thinks is popular, and funny while being different, she could please more people and with it please her other side.
Though F fixed her work, M is still displeased. He berates her for using clichés and pandering to people he believes aren’t there, and for derailing the story; throwing her work back at her face.
F now that she felt rejection twice, she reacted with anger and tried to defend her work and ideas by elevating her own work over his, in an attempt to misbalance him and reclaim some control of the situation.
M shots down her attempts and calls her claim of popularity petty and tags her as a panderer, bringing her down even more. Then he berates her some more by saying that her pandering to the fans derailed the story and that it was an insult to the VISION of the AUTHOR (me).
Ironically, (or is it hypocrite-ly?) M doesn’t realize that he is committing the same sin as F. He doesn’t realize that conforming to a status quo and staying within the readers’ expectations of the story is a form of pandering; and rejecting her ideas was an insult to the AUTHOR’S (my) vision because F vision is by extension the AUTHOR’s. And M doesn’t realize that the AUTHOR’s original vision could have change with time.
M comes to the conclusion that he is the REAL MoreX and in order to distance himself more from F he names her XeroM. This makes F to lose balance and falls into despair.
Then M decides to get rid of F. He does so by sending her to a ‘Woolie Hole’ (which name was chosen just for a joke, the place itself could’ve been named anything else).
But if you remember what I said earlier, banishing F should’ve been impossible for M. He operates in real-world logic and physics; sending someone away into a Woolie Hole goes against his very logic nature.
So what does this mean? Simple, that M didn’t banished F, F let herself be banished. In fact, the hole by itself didn’t drag her in, she let go of herself.
M’s intention was to get rid of F and make her disappear. But since the two of them are a part of one being, doing so would be akin to suicide. So instead of banishing her away, she ended up trapped inside of him and merged back into one.
The moment the two of merged together would’ve resulted in M and F becoming MoreX52, but that wasn’t the case.
M accepted that they two of them were part of the same being, two halves on the same being. But what he didn’t realize is that it shouldn’t have been parts. They became one body but they didn’t become one in mind, and that’s because of M’s logical mindset.
Thought M accepted the idea of the two of them as one, he believes that F is a part of him, but still needs to be under control and suppressed. His mind rejected the idea of a complete merge because what would’ve meant losing his identity and sense of self. It doesn’t matter how similar he would’ve been after the merge, in his mind he would’ve stop existing.
Now MoreX25 is just an incomplete version of my true self, who adopted M’s personality as the TRUE self.
And in the end, I think its better this way. Had he merged completely, his mind would’ve ascended beyond this fictional status and would not be able to serve as my Avatar.
Hope this answered all your questions! If you still have a question or a doubt, you can leave a comment below and I’ll try to answer the best I can.
TL;DR
MoreX and XeroM were created for me (the author) to eff around and say funny stuff in the comments and author notes.
Also It let's me write stupid wierd stuff as bonus scenes and side chapters.
If you see a reply, comment or author note like this :
Morex: bla bla bla
That's my character MoreX talking. He believes he is the real me and the author of the story.
If a reply or comment doesn't have and added name on the side. That's me, the real me, not fooling around, (Althought I might say stupid stuff too.)
I like turtles...
me too, turtles rock
I personally like this idea. It may be a little confusing, but in a way it makes sense. I was actually a fan of both sides of the story (the dark part and the lighter part) although i did feel that FlutterChris was morely getting in the way of DanxPinkie. I love your story none the less. Keep doing what you do. Your doing great
...Tortoise. Forever.
1388892>>1388901>>1388934>>1388928
just added a TL;DR note. If my whole explanation become too convoluted.
Also yes turtles rule. My favorite are the one's who talk, walk on two legs, eat pizza and practice ninjitsu.
1389157
Gaaah!
my head hurts....
Huzzah for schizophrenia!
Alright, let start by saying that this isn't a personal attack, but a criticism based on observation.
Your explanation makes everything confusing, and chapters 10 and 11 together makes everything contrived. You don't just present a well written chapter like that, and then retcon it. It's like giving someone a gift that it turns out they really liked, and then taking it back, saying it wasn't the gift you were gonna give them.
And chapter 11 started off with me doing a double-take of what had happened. There was an open discussion about a personal debate you were having with yourself about the previous chapter, and the announcement that you were retconning it seconds after it was posted. If that's the case, then why did you post chapter 10 in the first place?
There are better ways to handle the situation, is what I'm saying. If you feel that the chapter doesn't fit with the story, then you shouldn't post the chapter. That doesn't stop you from writing it, in fact, if you're in the mood to write, write a scratch chapter about whatever you want. That's what I do. I have tons of chapters and stories saved to my google drive that I know will never see the light of day for many reasons. They are there, though. And if you want your readers to see what could've happened, then that's why you have bonus chapters or deleted scenes, or whatever you want to call them.
1390320
...
mmm...:
This is the last time I try to make a joke and pretend I'm insightful and ****.
Part of the 'joke' was that the explanation wasn't suppused to clear much and only leave you with more questions, but as alwats over elaborated jokes end up dying pretty fast.
But some of the things I wrote were true. The way I plan before I write stuff is true. And MoreX and XeroM in ch11 was just my mental debate (over embelleshed) during the writing process.
As for CH 10 itself, that too was an attempt of a joke. The whole road trip arc was never suppused to exist in the first place. I just wrote it with the intention of leading up to that joke chapter 10. I wanted to play with peoples expectations by killing off elise. but I knew that doing so would wreck all my future plans and discourage some readers. So I made the joke and next chapter I undid it.
as simple as that.
MoreX and XeroM were just plot devices use to try and explain to the readers, while fooling around in the first place.
1389703
Mine too
I like Xerom! Shes Awesome
Can you please tell me which chapters are canon and which are not? I'm having a hard time understanding here.
1392974
Short answer: Chapter 10
Long answer: All of them, but the universe was rebooted and altered by my avatar MoreX so that Chapter 10 wouldn't happen. But that doesn't mean that that Universe stopped existing. It is still exist somewhere out there as an alternative timeline.