The Making of Fluttershy's Garden: Character Design · 9:14am Jan 5th, 2015
This is one of a series of blog posts about the making of Fluttershy's Garden, and contains unmarked spoilers. If you haven't yet read Fluttershy's Garden and its sequel, I would recommend reading them first.
0. Introduction
1. Inspiration
2. Character Design
3. Storyboard
4. Mechanics
5. Character Reactions
6. Ending
7. Loose Ends
8. Sequel
“The only real distinction between original and regular characters is that the former are synthesized specifically to unofficially integrate with the canon for the purposes of the story.”
When you use canon characters in a story, or even fanon characters, the job of character design has already been done for you. They already have a name, physical description, and personality.
Unfortunately, not all stories can be told solely with canon (or fanon) characters.
I have never been that good at creating original characters. And MLP's universe makes it a bit harder, since it has another important attribute for most characters, the cutie mark.
The story called for six original characters, two of them essential to the plot.
Spring Egg is the most important original character in this story. I would go as far as saying that, in this story, she is as important as one of the main six protagonists of the MLP:FIM universe.
Her role was to be Fluttershy's replacement, and later, her mother.
The choice of “pegasus” for her was obvious. She also had to be kind, since she had to replace Fluttershy in her role as the Element of Kindness; the story was written before the fourth season, so the Elements of Harmony still play an important role.
To make her more distinct from Fluttershy, I made her not be shy; she's an extrovert. That choice ended up being fortunate, since it heightened the perceived conflict between her and Fluttershy.
To be able to become Fluttershy's replacement, she needed to be good enough with animals. So I made her former occupation be a caretaker at Canterlot's zoo.
That left her cutie mark and name. The MLP universe often uses some sort of Theme Naming, and a pony's name is often related to her cutie mark.
I made her cutie mark be a bird's nest, which is an animal-themed cutie mark, like Fluttershy's; her special talent is ornithology and taking care of birds.
Even though I tend to be bad at naming, I'm particularly proud of her multi-layered Meaningful Name. Spring is the season of rebirth; the Egg complements her cutie mark, and implies motherhood. Both names together are an allusion to Easter eggs, with its own layers of meaning.
Now that I had a name, cutie mark, and personality, all that was left was the appearance. I sort of randomly picked some distinct colors; I was influenced by a popular depiction of a pony mascot for the Chrome browser.
A character does not exist by herself. The way she is perceived by the others is also important. Not every other character was going to like her; as one writing guide puts it, “Rainbow Dash may think she’s a spy”. Each main character had her own distinct reaction to the newcomer's arrival.
I needed a character to be Fluttershy's new father. To increase the perceived conflict, I made Fluttershy have a one-sided crush on him.
To contrast with Spring Egg, I made him an introvert. The difference is made clear on his welcome party: after the Mayor interrupts, he doesn't try to talk to anypony else, while Spring Egg talks (or tries to talk) to other ponies. (That this scene shows his introversion is one of the details I only noticed long after posting the story.)
I made him as generic as possible: brown coat and mane, likes a generic blend of coffee, and is a writer. That contrasts with Fluttershy's effusive description of him, highlighting even more her already noticeable Unreliable Narrator status.
His cutie mark and name are related to writing. Script is another term for cursive, so his name, Script Letter, means a hand-written letter.
I also made him be intelligent and kind. Both attributes become important in the penultimate chapter.
Even though Spring Egg is the most detailed character, Pebble (the “dead little colt”) is my favorite character in this story (and his chapter, my favorite chapter).
I had decided early on that Fluttershy would never remember what happened soon after her death. Pebble fills that narrative void, by showing Fluttershy (and the readers) what happens in that interval, and thus explaining how did Fluttershy find herself so far from her body.
As a little colt with no cutie mark, there wasn't much to design. His name conveys the image of a very small rock, one of those found forgotten among many other small rocks to the side of a path.
He's a One-Shot Character: he appears for a single chapter. His chapter is a bit of a Breather Episode, focusing on “adorable” instead of “sad” (for most of it, at least).
He would later be reborn as his own younger brother, Cobble, also a One-Shot Character. And that time, Fluttershy (now Flora) was able to save him.
The lost twins are the Chekhov's Gunmen of this story. The first time they appear, with their mother, is in the funeral scene; the character movements in that scene were choreographed so that Fluttershy would miss most of what they said. Their true role in the story is only revealed several chapters later.
Their design did not need many details. Enthusiastic young ponies (older than Pebble, but still blank flanks); complementary color scheme; nature-themed complementary names. Their mother appears only in a single scene, so she needed even less design.
Next post: Storyboard
