Some thoughts about The Weak, and some art

Before we start, there's something about The Weak that is self-contradictory. It exists both as a tribute to Jetfire's work ("Dangerous Business" and "Will of Evil") and as a tie-in short story to my Swordpony fanon. But while Swordpony contains elements of Jetfire's fanon, they are decidedly different headcanons.

So... The Weak is me trying to have my cake and eat it, too. However, while these two fanons have gone in different directions, they still share something important: the idea that nature in the world of Equestria is broken, hence ponies needing to tend it and manufacture their own clouds (though I'd argue that it's possible they merely prefer artificial weather in modern times). Jetfire was the first, as far as I know, to craft a profound explanation for this unexplained part of the show. And let's face facts, an impressive amount of the guy's fanon has made its way into the show's canon. To list all of it would take a second journal entry.

And yes, fanon. That's the word I'm sticking with, having originally gotten into the fanfiction scene on FF.net. "Headcanon" is just so much more unwieldy. But enough of that.

The Weak is a story very much inspired by sitting at the knees of war veterans I've met in my own life, and hearing what they had to say. It's not a story about action, adventure, or fantastical magic warfare in an ancient world, though it does contain these things. It's a story about the tragedy that befell this minotaur on one specific night of that war, how it affected him and his current relationship with ponies, and what lessons ponies themselves can learn from it all.

It's a story about darkness, yes. There is blood, and death, and the violence claims lives. But there is also light. There is hope. This is a story that takes place in Equestria, after all. And it ends with a quote from Martin Luther King Jr., one I originally heard not from MLK but from an episode of the West Wing. Another tribute. Seems I've a lot of them. But this one was doubly appropriate, I'd say. It's a quote that needs repeating from time to time.

Now for something only slightly different.

At least two people have asked me since The Weak went up if I'd ever write of more about Bismuth and Co. in the wild fantasy days of The War. Now, despite having had ideas for such stories and the delightful pulpiness they could embody, there's just no reason to ever do them. Simply put, they'd contradict The Weak's themes, being entirely about the action and crazy battles he was in. We'd have to rewind further and see an angrier, less wise Bismuth. Plus I already summed up several of his other war stories within The Weak, where they gave appropriate context on himself or other characters.

That said, we've not seen the last of Bismuth. The minotaurs of the Swordpony fanon are a wild bunch with a lot of history.

And though I shan't be story-ifying the exploits of that not-so-merry band of bull-men, there is always... Art.

First up is Bismuth as I imagined him, with a fancy axe of emerald and bronze (plus little bronze horn bands). It took a while to settle on that style of horns. At first I was stuck on these ideas:

Too Midna.

Too puny.

Been wanting to do this for a long time. It's a parody of the album cover for Lay of Thrym. The idea had to be done, there was no stopping it.

Asterius is Leaderaur, there's no escaping it. I like to think that a bunch of minotaurs fighting a troll looks similar to the Bugbear fight in episode 100 of the show, that kind of Looney Tunes horsing around (hyuck) just gets me right in the funny bone. So in this scene, Asterius whooping a troll single-handed beats the hell out of his warhammer (which is possibly silver), but when he lifts it in his white right hand he gets his demoralized warbands all pumped up again.

The troll, meanwhile... well, I can't shake this hilarious idea that the troll design from the MLP comics is a kind of troll that likes to give its siblings playful concussions during childhood, eventually graduating to beating their siblings with rocks and clubs for everyone's entertainment (even the victim's). In short, they like getting their heads banged on. It's a terrifying thing to watch giant troll children at play.

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To end this journal I'd like to thank a couple people.

There was an "epilogue" of sorts to The Weak that's already written, sort of an alternate ending if you will, that I'd like to thank BlueBeacon for helping me with. Though I've ended up not using it for its intended purpose, dear sir-man, rest assured that your help did accomplish something, and I've got a place for it in another story.

And a while back, before I went on an unexpected vacation to no-internet land, a guy did an audio reading for the story. I quite liked it, so I'd like to throw out a HUGE thank you to CreepyPastaSalad for putting in the time to make that, and let you all know that yes, it will get you to work if the traffic's busy. CPSalad does a good job distinguishing the various voices in his dialogue, even correcting some of my more egregious errors and proving that I didn't quite hit the mark when I formatted this story to resemble an oral one.

You can find the audio reading here! >>>>> Click it, CLICK IT

Comments

[Corejo]

Those drawings... wow.

[Wisdom Thumbs]

3341671

Many thanks, I just wish I could access deviantart for long enough to upload it. Maybe get some criticism, you know? CC always helps.