New name for Sweetie Belle's in-game character · 10:43pm Oct 5th, 2014
Sweetie Belle's character is now named Dovetail, and her cutie mark now features a dove in flight instead of a swan.
A few days ago, when the story was first posted, someone criticized my use of "Swan Song" as the name for Sweetie Belle's character, saying that it seemed very self-inserty. The self-insert comment has been made a few times in regards to This Game of Mine, so I've been taking it very seriously, and I think my first step that I can actually commit to right now is to change her character's name--and, as a result, her cutie mark.
Originally, Swan Song was the main character from an adventure fic I was writing. For various reasons, the fic never got published. Eventually I ended up taking up her name, to encourage and remind myself that the fic existed and that I had this character I cared about, in hopes that it might motivate me to finally publish the story someday.
I decided to throw Swan Song into This Game of Mine as a reference to the other fic I never published. The fact that I was using it as my name had occurred to me, but since I personally barely identified myself as Swan Song, it was less intended to be a reflection of me and more of a "Hey, if I ever get that other fic published, wouldn't it be fun if there were a tangential reference to it in this one?"
Of course, now that public awareness of This Game of Mine has essentially fused Swan Song's identity to me, it's now just a reference that only I will understand (more-so now that the fate of the adventure fic is still up to question), and, more importantly, contributes another bulletpoint to the valid criticisms that This Game of Mine has been getting.
And so, the name has changed. I want to do this early on before we get too far into the future and her cutie mark starts becoming more important to the themes of the story. Marketing is important, and it'll be messy if I keep it this way now and decide to change it later out of regret.
Also, doves are prettier than swans. There, I said it.
And I still have my tangential-reference-to-my-other-fic-that-no-one-will-get because there's also a character in it named Dovetail. So yeah. Boom. Two birds with one stone. Hey, that's actually kinda appropriate.
I am a little worried about what this means for Swan Song's presence in my other fic, but at the end of the day, you can't fight the inexorable march of progress.
Wait...
Does this mean that TGoM no longer counts as a self-insert?
I didn't think it mattered enough for you to change it. It is almost the exact same thing as having your OC in a fic, yet people don't blink an eye at that.
Honestly I rarely look at the names of the authors I read from if I haven't favorited at least three of their stories. So from my perspective "Swan Song" seemed like the perfect in game name for Sweetie. With her special talent so obviously being singing Swan Song fits well, and since it sometimes seems like ponies names too closely resemble their cutiemarks I had almost come to believe that they would sometimes take on a new name after they've gotten they're cutiemarks. So in my mind I viewed the name and the mark as a wonderful mix of story and cannon content to make a character not only defined by one aspect, but rather by two.
Hey, don't take my comment the wrong way.
I don't think you should let it get to you, and as others have said the name is fitting in a way.
Ultimately, her in-game character's name is just one aspect of Sweetie Belle's overall character, so I don't think you should worry too much about it.
'Sides, I kinda like the name.
Sorry if I was kinda insensitive
Don't worry, Swannie, at least Yaerfaerda will have a Swan Song character.
2521943 It's been exactly one year since this comment and fuck you
Wow, that was a slow-motion fuck you. Almost like a fuck you that got lost in the mail.
2.bp.blogspot.com/-2HgivAR-kYY/VUkqi1BG6RI/AAAAAAAAHJ8/rjayzwKQ38A/s1600/snailmail2.png
And also, not quite. You were off by a few hours.