"Not a Monster" Extra Stuff · 9:58pm Oct 14th, 2014
With all the questions being asked in the "Not a Monster" comments, I figured I might as well make a blog while also telling you a bit about how the story came about. I'll try to make it as spoiler-less as possible as it does involve Rainbow Rocks.
After watching Rainbow Rocks, I immediately fell in love with Sunset's reformed personality. Along with that, out of the many reforms in the series' history, I thought that it is the most well done. I greatly appreciated the fact that instead of making everything all good and happy with her after the first movie, they actually included feelings that she was going through and how the other students treated her. I thought it gave her character so much more depth with they showed that she was still dealing with the fact of what a horrible person/pony she used to be, and doing everything in her ability to better herself and make up for what she'd done. I knew immediately that I had to write something involving exactly that, and what better than a story in my favorite genre, romance. Considering the fact that the setting was High School, I also pushed myself to make it as "teenagerish" as I possibly could.
Around the time that Rainbow Rocks had been released, I had been reading/playing quite a few Ren'Py based Japanese visual romance novels. This is where I took a lot of my inspiration for the protagonist and story styling (minus the decision making, of course). Nearly every visual novel that I read involved an angsty teenage protagonist who was forced to move to a new school for some reason or another. He was always either somewhat on the nerdy side or just a completely average guy, nothing special. Going to a new school meant a new life, and meeting who ended up being the perfect girl, even if it was a little unbelievable. Throw in a few bumps in the road, some minor, some major, and you have a visual romance novel. It's starting to sound familiar, right?
Now, onto the questions:
Was the protagonist a self-insert? No, although after moving on to college, I have come to accept the fact that I was an angsty little bitch in High School, and even will admit that sometimes I still can be. That doesn't mean the angsty protagonist of the story was based off of me though, because we were all angsty in high school. He's meant to be your average, nerdy, slightly awkward teenager.
Does the protagonist have a name? Is protagonist anon? No name, if you really want to say he's anon, go for it.
Story Length/Pacing? Get used to it, most of my fics are like that, short and sweet.
Sequel, sequel, sequel? I actually do have a few ideas for a sequel set after Rainbow Rocks. Perhaps I'll even include everyone's favorite waifu, Sonata Dusk.
As for you, MLai, hopefully you'll take a look at this blog. You sir, are a good critic, and thank you for actually doing such in depth critiquing.
I take your comparison of the fic to Catcher in the Rye and Twilight as a major compliment, considering the fact that one is a timeless classic and the other has done incredibly well in sales and popularity. Yes, I was totally going for the teenager vibe as I said above.
Sunset's personality? Yup, that's exactly how she acts in Rainbow Rocks. I was going completely off of that.
As for your complaints involving the unbelievably of such a relationship ever happening/unbelievable aspects in the plot itself, I was going for the unbelievable. I wanted a happy ending. As I said above, I was also basing the style off of Japanese visual romance novels, stuff like that happens all the time in them.
Finally, I just wanted to thank all of you for the likes, favs, comments, and support on this story, and a big thanks to those that followed me. It's funny, the first fic of mine that actually did somewhat well was written after the first Equestria Girls, it was also the first shipfic/romance I ever wrote. It's nice to write another EG fic and see that its doing so well.
Dream
It's really unfair how people were incessantly downvoting almost the entirety of MLai's comments. It isn't like he was insulting you or the story.
Regardless, I loved the story and can't wait for the next! (Especially considering how Sunset's recently moved WAAAAAY up my favorite pony list
)
2533128
I can understand, because I was being quite bullish in my comments, whether or not you think my reasoning was valid. But that's 1 more reason why I use SS as my avatar, so whatev.
@ Author:
I haven't seen RR yet, but I've seen all the trailers/shorts, so have a pretty good idea what kind of arc Sunset'll be having in the film. I can say in advance that while I'm very glad she's...
(1) Not a cameo.
(2) Has to deal with the repercussions of her past.
I will not be glad at how fast and how completely she turns face. Things like changing oneself takes time; I think the fimfic Long Road To Friendship does it pretty well. And that criticism unfortunately carries over into any author who uses Sunset's "reformed character" as his self-explanatory canon. I can't say you're wrong, since the movie did it... but I can keep on ranting about all the ways I don't like it.
I know kids watch the movie, and Hasbro has plans for a EqG TV show (possibly starring SS, yaaaay), so ofc RR SS has to be whitewashed... But at least the writers could have retained her edge, even if subtly. For example, even though SS was trying to be nice, the Dazzlings should not have been able to put her on the back foot during the school tour. Sunset Shimmer loses something if she loses her badassitude along with her villainy. It's like saying Catwoman becomes a shrinking violet when/if she ever decides to go straight.
And yes, I got heavy Japanese VN vibes from the story. I didn't remark on it because it could be perceived as an insult by some. And yes, if your teenager vibe was intentional, then it was done very well. I don't like Catcher In The Rye but not in the literary sense; I do accept that it's classic literature.
2533936 Fair enough.