1000 Upvote Milestone: Man Cannot Live On Tea Alone · 4:00am Sep 8th, 2017
Man Cannot Live On Tea Alone just got its 1000th upvote. It's pretty incredible to hit this milestone on a story again, so soon after Rarity Snuggles Everypony reached 1000. So, here's the why and the how of Man Cannot Live On Tea Alone.
Have you ever fallen in love with a piece of art?
I think it's something everybody experiences, and I hope it's fairly often for most of you. Often, a piece will just strike me. Typically because it has a story that I can immediately imagine in my head. The cover art for Man Cannot Live On Tea Alone was one of those moments.
Look. Just... look at this picture. It's a WIP piece by the incredibly talented SunBusting on DeviantArt. They were incredibly kind in granting me permission to use their art for my cover art, especially considering the nature of the piece as a work in progress. Please, follow that link, and go give their DeviantArt page a look and maybe even consider following them.
I think that, for a work in progress piece, it's lovely. Breathtaking. Something about the soft colors, the watercolor effect, the energy of the lines, all comes together into this... incredible thing. I often envy artists for their ability to convey with a single piece the feelings that it took me 7000 words to articulate. Not to say that their work is easier—in my opinion, it is far more difficult!—but everything you need to know about Rarity as a character, everything about her as a pony, and the emotions of that character in that moment, is perfectly captured. Look at how her head is tilted. The placement of her hooves. Her smile, her eyebrows, how the tea is almost spilling. She's enraptured with whomever sits across from her, totally taken in by this moment.
Say what you will, but there's an undeniable beauty and allure to Rarity that is captured in this picture. I'm aware that many think of Rarity as a problematic character, and I agree with that assessment; but I find that her flaws add depth. For all that she can be grating or bitchy, she can just as quickly become graceful and generous. She may put on airs of nobility, which some would use to accuse her of being 'fake', but her heart always ends in the right place. She learns, she grows, she changes. She's by far the most developed character of all the Mane 6, in my opinion. I think only Sunset Shimmer comes close to showing similar levels of personal growth and character development.
But, I digress. I can talk all I want about how I think Rarity is best pony, but that isn't the point!
The point is that this picture tells a story, and that story has two sides. On one side, we have Rarity. Staring with this intense interest across a table, looking into the eyes of somepony—or somebody—who is commanding her full attention at that moment. I could have written this story from Rarity's point of view, and it would have been fun...
But who was the character that sits across from her? A stallion? A mare? A... man?
I read a lot of Human In Equestria fics. They're a guilty pleasure, and I encounter many, many poorly written ones with stupid protagonists or poor characterizations, or jarringly out-of-character actions to create a romantic plot. I won't name names, and to be honest, there are so many stories that fall into this category that it'd probably be impossible to point to one. There are a scant few good Human In Equestria stories out there, and they typically take a human and do something weird or interesting to add a twist, and typically don't shoehorn in a plot about romance. HIE and Romance is a difficult pairing to do well.
Romance is my forte. I love writing cute things about cute ponies falling in love with other cute ponies, and I've done many permutations of this, with OC's (Overpinking It, anyone?), Canon Characters (Consider The Coconut!), and many others. I'd never dared to tackle the dreaded HIE fic, and the even-more-dreaded HIE + Romance fic. But this piece of art inspired me.
So, 7000 words later, here we are. A stand-alone HIE story with a sequel that is equally popular and well received. Make no mistake, though, this first story is everything I wanted it to be. Jake (named after Jake The Army Guy) is my attempt to create a character that is witty enough to be Rarity's equal in many ways, but he also is somebody that has lived two lives. Rarity is a mare of two faces - her social side and her personal side - and Jake is a mirror to her. He has a life before he came to Equestria, and then his life after; his second chance, if you will. He's fragile, for all the bravado he puts on. He's only recently recovered from a downward spiral that nearly took his life, and he's recovered through the grace of a lot of magic and therapy with some of the strongest and smartest unicorns and alicorns in Equestria. There's a gruffness and a crass attitude beneath his genteel airs, similar to Rarity. Jake is, in some ways, a foil to Rarity (though I use that definition very loosely), and vice-versa. They contrast one another in interesting ways, which makes their relationship interesting and adds depth to their interactions. Jake's hesitance to jump into a romantic relationship with Rarity, I feel, is the most realistic piece of the puzzle that I've put together. There's lots of angles here, which makes me love writing them together.
So, there you have it. Man Cannot Live On Tea Alone. 1000 upvotes.
Thank you, so much, for your love for this story, and thank you to those of you who have read on into Man Cannot Live On Coffee Alone. It's been great fun to continue, and I'm very happy that the second piece of this story has been so well received.
A final note: SunBusting has updated the WIP piece. Here's the continuation, a still-unfinished work:
I'm excited to see the final piece.
Congratulations on that amazing milestone!
Congrats on the 1000 my dude, your stories definitely deserve them.
Thanks for showing us the updated pic as well, and for your thoughts on the drawing. I confess, I may have some ideas to do with drawings myself, but I guess it'll take me some time.
I definitely love reading your stories, and I'm glad you're still updating them.
Congrats once again!
One other cool aspect of this piece. Rarity's eyes are pointed to by the border of the light, curving reflection on the table, her horn, both her forelegs, and the sun's light rays all pull the viewer's eyes in towards that center. The eyes dominate the scene because, unlike the rest of the piece, they are sharp and in focus, plus the eyes are dynamically contrasted by the layers of black and white around them.
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Good eye! Absolutely spot on.
Congrats :D
Congratulations as you deserve every single one of them.
Massive congrats on the 1000 my dude. I totally get what you mean about inspiration striking you from something like the picture.
I think it is a perfect match with the story too.
For what it's worth, I've loved every minute so far. Jake is a really interesting character, and fledgling relationship with Rarity is excellently depicted and - at least where marshmallow horses are concerned - is very realistic in its' tentative movements and progress, piece by piece as they get to know one another, and that is one of my favourite bits of any romance fic, especially an inter-species one like this as well.
Massive congratulations in getting this far, and you deserve to feel as proud as you do!
You deserve everything you've earned! My respect to you, sir.