Interesting AKG Fan Theory. · 8:51am May 12th, 2015
I feel kind of cheap doing this so early in the morning, but screw it.
The theory concerned the ending. Particularly the shadow claws that dragged Seraphim Glare to his Afterlife.
In fic I established what these were. The souls of those few of Glare's victims who WERE, in fact, what he claimed. Evil. Creatures of Darkness as it were.
But a reader came to me with an alternate explanation. And it was a cool one, in my opinion.
He thought that, since I said I wanted to give you an ending that was everything you wanted, the shadows were supposed to represent the hatred of the readers toward the villain of the story.
I... am NOT that clever.
I'm going to be honest here. Glare's defeat went through SEVERAL revisions. The whole "Split Elements" thing came up well after I started writing. Originally I was going to have Discord be released from the stone prison that he was shoved in in chapter seven, and have him banish Glare to the moon or something. Then I decided I wanted this to be the Mane Six's win, then I thought "It's a shame Star Swirl's family couldn't be in on the kill..." Then I counted, and realized I had six main characters in the past, and six in the present. Thus the idea of the Elements being Divided came up.
But I knew that wasn't enough. I wanted this to leave more of an impact than "Rainbow Laser." So I thought that sending glare to hell would be a good start. I still wasn't sure how to do it until I talked about it with my brother.
In joking around, He said "You know, with all the billions of ponies he killed he might very well have protected us from some fairly nasty villains. After all, not EVERYONE is a good guy! Bit like sandblasting a soup cracker, but he gets results."
And that's where the idea sprang from. The idea of the vengeful spirits of the villains that never were.
The idea of the readers themselves wanting a piece of Glare... That never occurred to me.
I have heard it (or things like it) done. In the Animal Man comic, Animal Man became self aware and could in fact see the reader. That plotline was resolved by him speaking with his author. And it was really well done.
But to answer your question, no. That was not the intention. I need to be a better writer than THAT to get that meta.
That being said though, that was a really good idea, SweetCaptain77. You should find a way to write about it.
Huh. Noice!