Difficulty · 7:31pm Mar 4th, 2015
One thing has been getting to me ever since the Realization chapter of Rise of a Dragonslayer. It's a question of how the universe of the story functions, and ultimately decides what's going to happen. The question I'm haunted by is rather simple really, how do you make something challenging for someone with the power of Ornstein?
My first idea was simply make it difficult to attain that level of power. Alright, but even if Revan had the strength of Ornstein in Anor Londo, it's quite a large bit of power, especially if used properly. So I still have to ask myself, in a world like Equestria, who but the Princesses themselves could ever hope to stand up to Revan?
Some might say pegasi could prove troublesome, I mean they're naturally resistant to lightning, right? Okay, sure. They gotta be resistant to lightning to work with weather. Though she's working /with/ the ponies, so that's out of the picture.
Another thought is that perhaps the lightning miracles Ornstein would use against a dragon was so specialized to absolutely destroy scales, that it's just a really strong magical attack against anything else. The games prove otherwise quite easily, undead get shrekt by Ornstein's lightning either way.
The final thought is that perhaps the lightning works to get past the dragons' scales, but then Revan has to actually wound the flesh underneath the scales. Valid idea, but if I ever changed to a new enemy for Revan, I'd be asking myself this question all over again. It's kind of reached a point where normal Equus forces simply wouldn't be enough, and that some outside force would be required to give Revan any sort of challenge.
That thought leads to, what if something from the Dark Souls universe also appeared on Equus? Well, even then, Revan would have rather little difficulty handling it, this is Ornstein's powers we're talking about, he's pretty much a Lord, essentially a demi-god. Nothing touches Ornstein and gets away with it. So even the Dark Souls universe doesn't quite work. So what could possibly challenge our lightning wielding friend? It's a question I have a feeling I'll be grappling with for a while now.
Hydras, and make it so that the heads are VERY weak against lightning, and the rest of the body not, and if they have got 1000000000 heads it will be hard to get enough electricity for all.
And you forgot something:
The princesses are not the only mighty force.
Heck, all of Equus is a friggin' pool of magic!
You can have somebody invent a deadly animation-spell to control corpses (not just dead, but also living and made out of other materials) and use them as his minions!
A golem just has to be stoned, and he would be grounded for some time.
Sorry, couldn't resist.
That's how you can deal with the OP-lightning-problem.
Any other problems?
2849177 Yes, this is exactly what I needed. Someone who can slap me across the face with something I couldn't think of. I also know the Princesses aren't the only mighty force, you got Discord, and you got Tirek. Problem with using them is Tirek doesn't return for over 1,000 years yet. Discord? Still deciding on whether it's before or after his first being stoned. Large forces formed through magic, wait... I'm an idiot. Enchanted armor against lightning, and suddenly Revan may as well just be an extremely strong opponent, still bound to the movement speed of a normal being. *Facepalm* Someone please slap me.
I think you may be going the wrong way about it, how about something they can't fight against, like the perception of ponies/ some emotional thing/ etc. Remember Revan is powerful the ponies around them are considerably less so, but emotions affect everyone.
2850126 I had thought about that, it was something I was most definitely going to use, though I felt there had to be some other challenge outside of just emotional ordeals.
Bring in something from another universe, perhaps? Bring in other Displaced. Evil Displaced, like the Triad of Madness, (yôu know, Jack of Blades, Alice). Plus, you can also have Revan get pulled into other stories. Ask other authrs if they'd be willing to collab with you. That way you can get additional material, but not actually related to the plot, buying you time to work on the main story. It would also probably boost your views, since you'd possibly be bringing in readers of other Displaced stories.
2849615 *slap* Enough?
Yes?
I don't think so
*slap* *slap* *slap* *slap*
Do you feel better now?
2851183 Yes, much. Thank you.