Bad Luck WoW · 10:51pm Dec 26th, 2013
Let this be a lesson to myself. Never upload chapters under 4,000 words with issues intended to be resolved in the next chapter. I mean seriously, I'm getting slammed for writing Rainbow in character. How do you possibly move around that? You should be thankful to Knight of Cerebus who deterred me from the initial draft of this. Spoiling a little to give the readers hope, Applejack and Rarity are going to be talking to Twilight soon about this issue, so the arguments come from neutral parties as well. Hopefully this'll wake up a few people who think I'm just trying to hurt Twilight. Believe me, I'm much more obvious about it.
So please, feel free to let me know just why it is your so mad at Rainbow's Reaction, because I thought I did a good job trying to capture "engineer vs traditionalist."
I liked it, thought it was well within the bounds of her character to get worked up about something like that. Don't know quite why people are getting quite so worked up about it....
Ehh, I didn't comment or down vote or anything, but I cannot say my reaction was positive, primarily because Dash's in-show reaction to Twilight getting wings was "another flying buddy!" and not "how dare you steal what makes me special!" I don't really see her responding much differently than that reaction writ large.
I'm not really terribly interested in a rehash of the 1920s-1980s arguments against things like assembly lines, automation and computers. It is a topic that, in almost all respects, causes me to roll my eyes and tell people to cry more and find something new to do.
Progress. Sit down, shut up, and allow the world to move on. Adapt or die.
i felt that, while she once again charged in without getting all the facts, she did have a right to react that way to the spell. i mean, if she had just let twilight explain why she made the spell, she wouldn't have any reason to be mad. but instead, she rushed off without thinking(again!)and made twilight feel like a horrible pony. so, while i feel that her reaction was just fine, i'm really hoping twilight throws it back in her face at some point.
Wasn't that bad.
Rainbow felt a bit too vindictive, but it was at least in character for the story.
~Skeeter The Lurker
Well I can't really say anything, I liked it and I understand her reaction.
Can't really see why people disliked that
I remember I had a similar issue with a fic of mine from long ago. People in general don't like hiatuses and they strive to see more in terms of constant continuity with frequent chapter updates. Also depending on how long a hiatus lasts for, most people would have likely forgotten some details in previous chapters, so with the sudden in-character vindictiveness of Rainbow Dash some people are likely frazzled by it.
Not to mention, it's just so hard on the author to put life back into a fic after a long time of being absent. Usually people just get a tad pissed off that the writer didn't update for a while and then don't want to get bugged with story-related blog posts
)
(Hehe... that's what sorta happened to me. It was definitely the most exciting reader mob I've experienced thus far
I'm still considering if I could even continue a hiatused fic since I know these kinds of things happen. As a general rule of thumb to incur less wrath from disgruntled readers I would say frequent updates are the way to go. Otherwise just post when you feel like it, it's your story after all
To me the story has taken a strange turn with the latest chapter. I hadn't previously assumed that this was such an easy and permanent spell. It strikes me as odd that Twilight has effectively invented an artificial pegasus spell and doesn't seem to think it is a big deal both in game changing racial dynamics and in a holy-shit-I-created-new-life sense.
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This for the most part.
I think you did a good job with the arguments. And I think too few people give Dash the credit she deserves.
Too many go: "Slippery slope"'*eyeroll* on Rainbow's arguments.
This is a discussion need to have. You need to look into and think about all possible outcomes, Twilight didn't.
Rainbow's argument is a bit excessive, yes, but it still needs to be brought up countered.
If I might voice an opinion, I feel that its not the issue of the presentation of the argument, rather the time of presentation, seeing as Christmas (at lest from my experience) always involves grandparents or other family members arguing that homosexuals are an atrocity, all Muslims are terrorists, the United States is a Christian nation, the youth are useless, the poor should fend for themselves, the new pope is a communist in cahoots with Obama, women should hold no power, progress is bad, and science is a bunch of Marxist hooliganism. And then we come here, and we get the same thing. It energizes our response to stand up for Twilight (progressive) and strike down upon Rainbow (traditional). It's a perfect argument. It's a slippery slope argument, a tactic that is used when arguing, and the entirety of the argument makes sense. But the time of presentation was such that all the progressive thinkers would strike down upon the traditionalist to vent frustration.
Tl;Dr: the argument is fine, but the timing was ill fated.
As someone that did comment on the story, I feel I should say that I didn't dislike the chapter and it was never my intention to make you feel like I didn't.
Simply put, I'm disappointed in Rainbow and not at all sympathetic to her arguments. As swimkid touched on, all her arguments make sense, but they scream slippery slope and even a few minutes of thought was enough for me to turn a lot of the arguments around. The only reason Rainbow got out of that without an earful from Twilight was because she, figuratively, shoved her friend into a corner and then browbeat and scared her into submission.
Rainbow is my second or third favorite from the Mane 6 but your characterization of her, while within the bounds of her character, leaves me unable to empathize with her. As I, and others, have said, her arguments make sense and I can understand where she is coming from. I just don't think she's correct on this one.
Deterred is an understatement. "Staged a mutiny out of raw hatred for it" is closer to what I did. Then again, you were right about how people would take the end of DHH, so it's not like I'm psychic. To me Dash's reaction will never be sympathetic. She raises some valid issues, but, being the colossal asshat that she is, issues them as an ultimatum or Twilight to kill her dreams rather than a wake up call and a plea to make modifications.
Agreed, under 5k+ is sooo not your style
.That's the difference about a book and a fanfiction, you need to wait the chapter get done, that's help to buil up tension but the lesser humans in despair
That's easy, Don't caring, give 0 fucks about it, you even said that you wrote her in character (that's funny, writing a character in character is as subjective as saying the cup is half full)
.but you have give that few people tips that you like to just hurt Twilight, Divenire for once, man, Twilestia? that's just mean
Summarizing: People are stupid, you should stop caring about and keep doing what you do. Cuz you are pretty good at it
Haven't read.
Are you sure those downvotes were from your readers? You posted a new chapter, after all, they damn well be from new people who didn't care for the first chapter or two.
And besides, you know how pissy people get when you delay updates. Actually... my readers are really cool about that. Hm.
Oh wow, popping over to those comments with a closer look I could clearly see a flame war hit. That's a shame, because for what it's worth, I thought Rainbow was completely in character.
If the problem is the "new" reaction from Dash, then you wrote her in the S3-S4 "mature Dash" type, rather than the S1-S2 "hotheaded Dash" type. Frankly I like the mature Dash you used better.
Twilight couldn't have been a problem, because she was sensitive to what Dash was saying, but wasn't just about to give up on what she'd previously stood for (that's more like what Fluttershy would do). Those conflicting feelings made Twilight feel weak or "ill-structured" (for lack of a better term) inside, and consequently she felt more uncomfortable and hurt. You wrote that in, I know for sure.
Can't appeal to everyone I guess. :/
What I want to know from these "adapt or die" people is how exactly is Rainbow going to adapt? If this scenario does come to pass, how is Rainbow going to keep up in a work force full of Unicorn/Pegasus or Earth Pony/Pegasus hybrids that have access to both races abilities?
What's the point of training to fly fast if it can just be magicked up?
People still need to have these arguments, because honestly, "HURRDURR U JUST DUN LIEK CHAENG" is just not good enough of a rebuttal.
So, Wiz, there's a fellow on the story right now who's kicking up a fuss with other readers and having himself a bit of a hissy fit, and he just unfollowed you. Think you might be able to talk him down, or no? If not, could you at least keep him from posting on the story again? He's been insulting some of your readers and defaming you and I.
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He PMed me and everything, so it's all good, but thank you for the heads up!
P.S. How goes your library of editing?
1663002 Wonderful. He probably had some less than pleasant things to say about me given I Am Satan for not wanting him to continue flaming people who disliked the chapter.
As for the library of editing, I'll be starting on the Wing Spell chapter this week.