Harmony Theory Chapter 34 · 5:24pm Aug 12th, 2016
The new chapter of Harmony Theory is finally up. It marks the official end of the planned 'Part 2' of the story. A special thanks to Razalon and Coandco for their pre-reading services. Another big thank you to my significant other, who also does pre-reading in addition to a heap of other great things. I have a great fear that I'll write a chapter where I descend into nonsense babbling and just don't notice, these fine people ensure that if it does happen, none of you will ever see it.
A while ago HydrusBeta created another wonderful picture to go along with the story. This one is of the scene in Chapter 33 where an Inverted Charisma is attacking Astrid and an injured Star Fall: 
Now, I'm gonna talk about the writing of this chapter, so if you haven't read it yet, spoilers ahoy.
First of all, I know how long it took me. This is not the first time a chapter of this story has taken such a long time to complete, but it's one of the ones I feel really badly about. Part of that comes from how excited I was to write this one. It's a pivotal moment in the story, the end to Part 2 of the tale (the title for part 2 in my notes: 'getting the band back together'). I've been sitting on some of these scenes since before the first chapter was published. Which, wow, is a long time ago. So, because I was really eager to tell this part, I'm disappointed it took so long.
The reason it took so long, though, is that this was a very hard chapter to write. Partially due to good old fashioned writer's block, and partially due to some of the very difficult decisions I had to make regarding pov characters and action sequences. I re-wrote several scenes multiple times with different pov's just to get the right 'voice' for it. Calumn's reveal is especially notable, as it was hard to write mechanically as well once I'd settled on the perspective it needed to be told from (there's some clever obfuscation there that, if you can remember the distant past of chapter 3, might seem familiar).
The hardest part, though, was writing the death of Charisma. She is an incredibly interesting character, and I emotionally invested in her to a surprising degree. Especially since I knew her death was coming up, and that her sad, violent tale couldn't really end any other way. Of the villains of this story, she was probably the most human (er... equine?). Both Umbra and Cash are very inscrutable in their motivations. Charisma just... really wanted to kill people. She was crazy only in the way that she felt the need to kill others, she was perfectly aware of her actions and their moral implications, fully willing to admit that what she did was evil. The tension that creates –to know you're doing wrong but being unable to stop– is fascinating to watch. I wanted to do justice to her story, but I also didn't want her story to end.
So I second-guessed myself. A lot. Not just on Charisma's death, but over the whole rest of the story as planned. I tried to find ways that Charisma could survive, that she could be put out of commission for a bit and then returned on the good guy's side. The friction between her and the rest of the heroes as they tried to work together... well, that alone presents a bounty of story opportunities. I wanted to see more of her, to keep her story alive. Yet that would be a betrayal of her character.
She would never join the good guys. There is no redemption for her. Incarceration or attempts at rehabilitation would only lead to more deaths. The happiest ending she could get is the one I gave her. She can't hurt anyone else again, and, miraculously, she is loved.
Charisma is dead, and unlike Max Cash, she's not getting back up again. However, that doesn't mean this is the last we'll see of her. The Elements still have mysteries to reveal...
Anyways, I hope you enjoy what I've written!
-Sharaloth
I saw that picture awhile back and recognized it. Now to go read the chapter.
Once again, I went "Holy &*%$!" several times when I saw this updated, and need to drop everything else to read it.
Oh, I bet. One of the most difficult things for a writer to do is put an end to a character they have an attachment to. Especially one like Charisma, who has so much potential. I'm not entirely sure what you're implying by that last part, but I'm excited to see what you have in store!
This is what I get for reading the blog before the story.
Going off what you say in the blog, though... nothing short of burning her cutie mark off of her soul would have allowed Charisma to change. And that's the kind of change that's in many ways practically the same as a character death. (Except you'd have to write a boatload of "I just had a piece of my brain torn off" characterization to follow up.) I don't envy getting stuck on a decision like the one you did.
I'm glad you killed off Charisma. She really had to go. I love how you wrote her, but she needed to die.
Now I'm just excited for Fluttershy's introduction to everything. I hope it's a bit more comprehensive that Pinkie'so, but then again I understand there isn't too much for Pinkie to react to due to how she acts.
I think you made the right choice, regardless of the interesting plot points redemption might have provided.
While I truly enjoyed the chapter, why did you keep Cash alive? You had closure, and it felt as if you were going to focus the story and shift it to Umbra in a Sauron the Deceiver kind of way.
The ending just threw me for a loop.
I'm so glad you resisted the urge and killed Charisma off. Anything else would have rung false, and, I bet, would have caused a bunch of readers to metaphorically throw the fic across the room and stomp away in anger, never to return. (I know I would have done that.)
people r still kinda pissed u kept cash alive tho
Am I the only one who was excited to see Cash come back from the dead? I was disappointed when I thought the third act might have just one villain, the remorseless pure evil type no less. Cash is probably my favorite big baddie of all time, and I can't wait for the scene in the future when he realizes that he didn't have all the facts straight like he thought!
NOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!! ARGHHHHH!!! Why in Celestia's name did I start looking at the comments here before reading the chapter?! Now I know Charisma's gonna kick the bucket.
I shoulda known better. I'm gonna stop now and go read the chapter, lol.
Thanks for showing my art in your blog again, Sharaloth. It's always a pleasure illustrating scenes from my favorite story! Looking forward to reading this chapter!
Can't wait to see what happens in the next chapter with cash and rainbow dash, that was a really big cliffhanger