Adapting to Change · 4:11am Dec 9th, 2018
So, chapter three of Marked for Evil just got published, and this is the first chapter where I really made a big change from the movie or musical. In fact, I made two. I'll talk about the Canterlot trip in the blog post for next chapter, and right now, I kind of have imagined three blog posts to go with chapters three, four, and five talking about what I changed when adapting, what I added, and what I got rid of. So, let's talk about change. Also, we'll be spoiling chapter three and also big plot points from original(s).
I think I'll also hold off on talking about changing JD and Veronica into Sunset and Starlight, because that's a really big change, and it would work better if we were talking about it after Sunset and Starlight really started to diverge from their movie and musical counterparts.
Instead, let's talk about the party and homophobia! Hooray! Normally, I like ignoring LGTBT persecution and writing stories that take place in utopian societies where people don't care if you're queer or not, but Heathers was set in a decade kind of infamous for homophobia, and it's kind of a plot point when it comes to "dealing" with Kurt and Ram/Hoops and Score. So I decided the best option for the story was if the school very much cared that Sunset and Starlight were lesbians instead of just ignoring it.
I also had an issue where JD isn't present for one of the biggest scenes in the movie/musical, which is a real problem if you changed things up so JD is your PoV character (It's also a problem if your PoV character blows himself up at the end, but we'll get to that change when we talk about characters). So, obviously, I needed Sunset to attend the party so she can witness Rose and Starlight falling out, and I figured that that would make a pretty decent impetus for the falling out (especially since Martha... if she exists, she and Starlight were never friends. Sorry, Martha fans, but I ran into the issue of Sunset not caring about Martha at all, and it also running counter to Starlight having a friendless childhood and still being really hung up on Sunburst leaving her).
Also, while JD could get down with killing Heather despite interacting with her for maybe thirty seconds before their final encounter, the audience needed to see her being at least a little awful so they could be down with Veronica deciding turning Heather's accidental death into a suicide and not see her as a complete monster. Which meant I needed to have Rose interact more with Sunset than her movie and musical counterpart ever did.
I wanted to lean into homophobia, needed Sunset to witness Rose and Starlight falling out, and needed us to see Rose as kind of bad (But not irredeemably so), and all that added up to making Rose not approve of Starlight dating Sunset at all and giving her the choice of "Either abandon your girlfriend or go burn with her, but you can't be a member of the Flowers while being with her." It's personal, all but guarantees Starlight will fallout with the Flowers, and villainizes Rose.
Anyways, I could ramble on about this shit for hours, because I really like Heathers, but that will have to wait until next time when I talk about the issues I faced adapting one of the darkest films and musicals I'd ever seen to MLP without completely embracing the grimdark. Hope these blogs are kind of interesting.
I'm glad you're posting these, they make for interesting reading
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Thanks, I'm glad. I always love behind the scenes stuff where people talk about creative choices. And it's good you commented, because I was getting a little disheartened due to lack of comments in the story and in the blog.