World of Chaos, Chapter 20 · 5:10pm Apr 16th, 2012
NOTE: IF YOU HAVEN'T READ THE MOST RECENT CHAPTER OF WORLD OF CHAOS, I ADVISE TO NOT READ THIS. IT CONTAINS POSSIBLE SPOILERS
I haven't posted a blog in about a month, and I do have to say, I wish it was under different circumstances. Apparently, the most recent chapter (more specifically, a single scene of it) has caused many of you to get... lets go with the word "upset" with me, the story, or both. If you are one of those people, then this blog is for you. If you are not one of them, then it really isn't, but you can read it anyways.
First, I want to say that I am sorry if you were blindsided by the sudden shift toward the grimdark style. I wrote this chapter a week or two ago, and I was very wary to post it as is. I knew that it would upset a lot of people, and I was afraid that I would lose readers, not because of my own ego, but because I feel like that if I upset someone enough to have them stop reading, I am doing that person a huge disservice. I was hoping that the anger would be direct towards the character Xavier, but apparently my hopes were dashed by the reaction that I am seeing from a few of you. I passed the chapter off to my editor with a note about those sentiments, and whether I should change the scene entirely, and after he stopped strangling me (he was mad at me as well), he agreed with what I was saying in the sense of it would piss people off. However, he also mention that as long as the scene served a distinct purpose, and wasn't there just for the sake of making the story dark as hell, then it was acceptable, even if I pissed off readers. To this point, I am truly sorry.
However, I would like to (somewhat) defend myself. First, the story is, and always has been tagged (since at least chapter 7) as sad. The world that the mane six are in are in is a very very bad place, and I am doing my best to display that to its fullest. Was this single scene a little to far to be considered merely sad? Possibly, but taking away this single scene, the story stays (so far at least) well within the "sad" category in my opinion. Tragedy doesn't really fit anywhere, and doesn't even fit the scene itself either. Dark definitely fits the scene, but the rest of the story itself is not nearly considered dark, and as such, the entire story shouldn't be considered as such. Think of it like the "comedy" tag. Sure, there are various comedic moments in the story, but I definitely do not consider this story a comedy in the slightest, but merely a serious one with light hearted humor to lighten the mood a little. That said, I did my best to censor the story the best I could on this scene, and I like to think that I did a good job, while still keeping the impact and implications needed.
Second, and this is the point I want to make sure I drive home, I KINDA warned the readers back in the chapter "Onward Bound" in the Author's Notes that "Part 2 is going to have some much darker elements to it." Did I understate this? possibly, and maybe I should've expressed this stronger, but I feel that I did give enough warning, and that, if nothing else, everyone should've been bracing themselves for the dark moments. And I admit, what I did to Pinkie is probably the darkest one can go without actual writing out scenes like that or gore.
As for how this story is going to progress, For those who are upset enough to leave, I urge those who haven't left to give it two or three more chapters before leaving, which will allow me to resolve a few of the side plots that are concerning the dark moments, and while I will not guarantee that any will resolve positively or negatively, it will at least bring closure to the situation. I refuse to deviate from what I have planned (I've had the next ten chapters outlined for the past two months), but I will do my best to pump out the next few chapters a little earlier than the normal "once a week" sort of thing, so that you all don't have to wait a month to resolve these side plots. Also, I know I have turned into a broken record saying this, but this is BY FAR the darkest this story will get. We will get back to happier (relatively speaking) moments in a few chapters.
However, if any of you do choose to leave the story, I promise that I will not be upset. I know I have upset a few of you, and if you choose to leave, I respect your decision. While I do urge you stay, and I wish that those who have been with me to stay till the end, I will not try to force you to stay.
As an "I'm sorry" gift, I give you this song, One Last Letter, written and made by "Aviators". It only KINDA goes with the story, but either way, the song (and the artist itself), is damn good, and I urge you to listen to his stuff.
Would making an Author's note at the very beginning with some kind of warning be a good idea for this chapter in particular, giving a fair warning that there is content that is dark, or would it not really help?
72719 Wasn't the previous chapter warning enough? It's ridiculous to even think there was another way out of that mess at that point (bar a really obvious Deus Ex Machina, of course). I mean no problem if you do (might as well since you want to avoid a Dark tag) but it seems kind of redundant to anyone that reads the story without skipping chapters.
Oh and I hope Xavier goes through some sort of unimaginable pain and then dies a VERY slowly
72719 I will start this comment with a reply to your quick additional comment thingy. I do not believe it is necessary for you to highlight this one chapter in particular, as you already explain that there will be some dark moments within part 2 of your story, and as such the readers were already warned of this. Furthermore if you highlight this one particular chapter as being particularly dark then some readers will skip it despite the importance it has to the development of story, setting, and character.
Now to comment on this blog post of yours. I will say that your recent chapter, and the event that transpired (I will not say scene as we never got to see it which is what I would classify a scene as), made me upset...which is a good thing. The whole point of a story with a Sad genre tag is that at some points it will make the readers sad and in your recent chapter I felt sad for Pinkie thus you succeeded at the entire point of that moment. If the implication of Pinkie being raped and suffering severe trauma from it did not make me sad then either you had failed at executing the affects well enough or I would simply be confirmed as heartless.
Before I continue on commenting on your defence I will make my stance on this subject even clearer. As disturbing as this chapter is I can't help but love it. It is of amazing quality, made me feel for the characters and truly demonstrated how much darker the ponies world has become. In the previous chapters it never felt serious enough in that aspect, their world was a worse place but not horrifying in any way, but this chapter truly showed off the villainy that has began to emerge. That is not to say that Rarity's loss of a horn was not saddening but that was due to a battle against an Ursa Major, a natural predator with no evil intent behind it and something that was plausible back in their before world. Chapter 20 demonstrated the evil that is now ruling over the world, and for that I enjoyed it.
First I do not feel there is anything for you to feel sorry about. Was I blinded sided by chapter 20's sudden shift? Yes, but the surprise gave it greater impact emotionally, and making your reader feel emotion is better than them not feeling any. Second, I do feel some anger towards Xavier but not a great deal of anger because I expected him to do this, it's within his tyrannical lord archetype and I was never fond of him to begin with. I tend to judge characters more so on whether they are interesting and less so on what moral side they stand on. Anger wasn't something invoked from me by this chapter, sadness was the greatest emotion, enjoyment following and shock third.
The rest of your talk in this blog is stuff I can't really comment upon other than fair enough and good point. It will make me happy to see the joyous moments return however the inclusion of the darker themes in chapter 20 were worth it and will hopefully prove their worth even more so through the development of characters and the world around them as the story progresses. I will obviously continue reading this story; I love it far too much to stop. Cheerio!