It was leading to rabbit holes of character arguments that spiraled into hellish domains where finding a feasible 'out' for Sunset grew dire indeed. After several attempts I've decided to just rip out the rootOn Zubu and Gilda · 7:43pm Mar 3rd, 2017
I thought it high time to bring up something that has been on my mind for a while, especially so since the last chapter; should Zubu and Gilda be reduced to the barest minimum possible within the story?
There is potential in them for a very boilerplate heroes journey as Gilda learns magic, gets into trouble, and goes on her quest to get vengeance for the death of Blinka (does anyone even remember that now, I wonder...). Plans and set up have the White Apes, Zubu and Gilda being brought to Phoenicia, the pair escaping/being released and then infiltrating the zebra capitol. All which would be well and good... if Myths and Birthrights was about Gilda rather than Twilight and Co.
Given the nature of stories posted online, without the limitations on word counts levied by print mediums, it is still more than doable to have all those sections and scenes. But, it isn't if they are becoming a weight around the rest of the story. Is my time far better served by focusing on the other arcs. Maybe give the words I would have used for Zubu and Gilda to fleshing out Canterlot? Maybe go back to the Halla... Hahaha, no, just kidding there! The Halla have been even less interesting. 
At present, Zubu and Gilda have sections in chapters 3 and 4 that have character development for them both, but otherwise are rather disconnected with the events in the rest of the story.
What are your thoughts?
Should I keep the Zubu and Gilda arc intact? Or skip most of it and instead only bring back the pair once they tie closer into Twilight and the rest of the story? Getting rid of them entirely would be a disservice for those who do enjoy them.
I think it would be a bit overkill to get rid of them completely. Maybe not show the entirety of their journey, but rather make some "snapshots" of their journey?
Flashes that line up with the cronology of the rest of the story would be fine. Brief one-two paragraph sections of action roughly inserted during other actions/conversations would be interesting. Give an overview of what's going on with those two without having to drill deep.
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An interesting idea. Perhaps a page, maybe two, here and there, done 'in media res'.
Showing their critical scenes while implying various stages of their journey are being reached might be enough.
Anyway, I'm fine with their sections even if they seem pointless or disconnected. If they become intertwined in important ways with Twilight and friends later on then I would prefer to not have them be dumped on us already developed later. As long as the alicorn filly is involved it's not THAT much less connected than Trixie's arc, and hers was just fine.
Personally, I like Zubu and Gilda. Particularly Zubu. The only issue is that the story is already balancing a half dozen plot threads before you take them into account. I should be sorry to see them go, but I would understand a slightly reduced page count for them.
Brief cutaways showing their progress sounds good to me. They don't get in the way, but we don't forget they exist- though I still remember Blinka.
#JusticeForBlinky
you could make it small snapshots or have a spinoff about what they done, and do
I am too biased against them to give a proper answer, but I will say this: I find the Halla to actually be more interesting than them.
I've already commented on the most recent chapter, but I might as well comment again in more detail.
As I said, Zubu and Gilda are disconnected by and large to the story on whole, and it makes it difficult to follow or understand (in my opinion) what's actually going on. Moreover, it features characters that arguably don't really hold my interest all that much; this isn't to say they couldn't evolve into something more interesting, they just aren't so right now.
I mean, even your description of the proposed hero's journey strikes me as disconnected to the much greater story of alien alicorns showing up on the disc. Which, lets be honest here, is a significant core of the story as is, and presumably always will be. Yes, Gilda encountered the third filly (Beaky I think?) but this hero's quest isn't even about her, it's about an OC avenging an OC's death. Yes, I know Gilda isn't technically an OC, but she's not exactly a well developed character either. In certain contexts, I'm sure it'd make a fine story, just not here. I mean, even from the perspective of worldbuilding the storyline is isolated; I'm having trouble remembering, but as far as I can remember, Gilda and her friend are introduced launching into war, the alicorn falls, soon after they get attack and her friend dies and Gilda winds up with the zebra. Its not just isolated from the the plot of the story, it feels isolated from Ioka on whole because she's literally sitting in a crap shack in the woods with McCrazy pants.
I kind of think that it would have been more interesting if Gilda had made it back to her roost with the other griffons, ended up in some sort of important decision within the hierarchy due to the alicorn filly only responding to her, and finding herself in a tight place when her superiors are demanding she turn the foal into a weapon to win the war. Or something.
I don't think they're necessarily a burden to the story, so to speak, its only that it reminds me rather unhappily of how the Wheel of Time series was, at times. It wasn't that these side stories were bad, but I found them kind of uninteresting when I'd much rather read about the important characters who actually seemed to matter. I think brief snippets might be for the best, but unless the story is going to quickly integrate into the story it almost should be its own story, like the Queen in the stone
In a side story with them!
I admit, the story core is Twilight dealing with the fact she's alicorn when she lived as a unicorn all her life before her 21st birthday. And the arrival of the Gaea alicorns as well. All in your story description. Cutting them out would be not the best. Yet snippets of their journey wouldn't be adverse to me. You have Twilight and crew on the quest, the rest of the main 6, the royal herd, and Co. back home. Zeus, Hades and Soir in Prance. And now you're bringing Zebrica more into focus.
If Gilda and Zubu are important later in the story (supporting cast or antagonists), then snippets/flashes --- maybe as an interlude where appropriate --- would work. If it's really just a separate part of the story and they'll maybe get honorable mention like Rarity is/was, then I'd suggest splitting it off into a companion fic like you've done with The Rariad. Let those who are interested read the supporting material, those who aren't get to stick with the main story and maybe later if they want to know "how did Gilda get so badass anyway?" they can go back and read the side stuff.
Not only will that help the fic keep focus (one of the problems I sort of had with the old versions of this was the lack of focus/separate storylines and the glut of OCs) while still giving you outlets for those ancillary storylines.
My concern with leaving their story in is that we already have a lot of plot threads. Personally, I don't really care about Zebrica or Gilda.
But that is just my opinion.
Snippets or a side story is my vote.
Reducing the amount of story time devoted to them would work fine. There are at the current part of the story very disconnected from everyone else so showing little of them until they become a bit more connected is probably for the best. I suspect that it will take quite some time before they become more connected with the rest of the story which is another reason not to spend much time on them in the meantime.
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Thank you all for your advice and thoughts. What I am leaning towards is a few vignettes of a page or two each where appropriate. Maybe down the road expanding them into a side story for the Anthology. This has been a big help.
There's a lot going on already and they don't add anything to the core plot of the story. Not to say that they aren't interesting but I don't believe they belong in this story. Perhaps a side story for when you want to drink a different creative juice for a little bit?
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That sounds like a good solution to me. Looking forward to more chapters.
I haven't read the latest chapter yet, but yes, I still remember Blinka. I feel like if Zubu and Gilda are going to play a larger part later, we should see parts of their journey. Either that or give them an entire chapter after they reappear. Say if Rainbow sees Gilda again and asks what she's been up to, We would get a chapter that details all her exploits. Something along the style of The Queen in Stone, but condensed to one or two chapters.
On that note, you could always use a similar layout to The Queen in Stone and make a full side story. I assume since both Gilda and Twilight's group are heading to Zebrica, they could cross paths and swap stories.
I suppose it's no surprise that I'd say I wouldn't mind (would prefer it, in fact) if their presence was reduced to the bare minimum that's required to remind us of their existence (and if it were an option, I don't think anything of value would be lost if they ceased to exist altogether
)
Of all the plot threads and characters vying for attention in Myths (of which there are many), I find them to be the least interesting (both in present and in their future potential, prior to running into the main cast) and with least importance to the actually important happenings on the disc.
You are certainly right that, thanks to the nature of fanfiction, you can technically include everything and not worry about running out of space. But at the same time, as has been mentioned, Myths already has a very large cast and many plot threads that need constant prodding along. And when that number becomes too great, the story runs the risk of becoming disjointed and fragmented, rather than a coherent and mutually supporting greater whole.
And in a world where, I'd argue, even Twilight is already suffering from lack of sufficient screentime and character development because of how many threads you are trying to cover at the same time, I'm not sure if it's a good idea to try and add one more ball to juggle when there are much more important fish to fry. The maximum word count of a fanfic might be infinite, but the word count per chapter and frequency of updates do have a tendency of putting a more practical cap on it - and I know that at least I wouldn't be happy to find out that these two have stolen a notable part of an update when more important characters and plot threads could use that word count much better.
That's my two bits on the situation
If you want an entirely honest answer- that particular story should be minimised. There's already enough plot threads competing for space in Myths, and adding more onto Gilda's plotthread is going to end with her eating up more than her share of the focus.
If you want an ideal answer- figure out a way to make it work without ANY of the journey being addressed, have things happen the way you want them to happen, and write Gilda's story in a new story. That way, Myths doesn't get bogged down by mostly-irrelevant gilda-ventures, and you can still fully explore her story. I'm not sure this is possible, but I know it's the option I would attempt, so take it as you will.
Magical mishap teleports all the out of focus characters (like Spike) there, forcing them to work together, and maybe something good will come out of it...
Just kidding. I don't really know. Maybe hurry their journey and use it to introduce Zebrica's history, places and characters, so once Twilight's party gets there, the narration will not have to make stops for details.
I would like to see what is up with Zubu and Gilda. I have been around this story for too long now to not want to at least know what is going on with them.
That said if you want to do what you did with Velvet Sparkle and give them a parallel story I would be happy with that.