Talking a bit more about character redesigns and rewrites. [SPOILER WARNINGS FOR PONY-ME/PONY-ME THE REBOOT]

This is another post about Samantha. Click below for spoilers. :P

Alrighty alrighty! So, you may remember that in the original 2017 release of Pony-Me, Samantha Hayes referred to Pinkie Pie as a "glitch" that needed to be "fixed".

A good chunk of her backstory was poured into the idea that she'd originally stayed out of the simulations to instead help keep things running, but later on, while chasing down Pinkie Pie for being too sporadic, inadvertently trapped herself in the simulated Equestria. This also came with the idea that she was constantly fighting for control over her own body with Pinkie, with both sides more or less threatening to overwhelm, or even destroy the other.

Yeah, that's not happening anymore.

The first reason why this plot point didn't make the cut in the reboot is 'cause it just doesn't fit. Neither Pinkie nor Samantha really have much, if anything even remotely related to a vengeful persona. It wouldn't make sense for them to be locked in constant battle for control, especially when Samantha's personality ultimately turned out to be quite similar to Pinkie's anyway.

The second reason why it won't be returning in the reboot is that, to be honest, I feel that I was able to execute the concept far better in Splintershard when it came to being a central plot point. Sure, Emily and Starlight aren't always fighting for control over their shared body, but the annoyed mentor/snarky student dynamic they've got fits pretty well in my opinion.

Lastly, I rewrote Samantha from the ground-up. New backstory (obviously), new character arc, and so on. The main thing that's been kept is that she's still got that same poppy attitude based on Pinkie Pie. Instead of becoming frustrated at, and later hostile towards Pinkie Pie, she instead sees Pinkie as more of a tool of sorts. Funnily enough, in a way, the dynamic between her and Pinkie is actually reversed in a way, as now instead Pinkie is one of the AI-based characters that Lisa/Twilight is friends with, with the caveat that Samantha can log in at any moment using a regular ol' headset and either sit along for the ride in Pinkie's body, or take it over herself. Pinkie may or may not be aware of this, but given her fourth-wall breaking tendencies, I'm assuming in this story that she'd be fine with it.

Samantha's current backstory still places her as a high-level employee of the company that Professor Argall built, though instead of the generic-sounding "TechSIG", the company has instead been renamed to "HybridEye Technologies". I came up with it last year in business management class. It sounded way cooler.

So anyway, continuing on. Rather than being a former CTO, Samantha retains the role, and in fact, the story explicitly states that Professor Argall has long-since retired already. We won't be seeing anything much as far as him pressuring Lisa to become CEO goes. Samantha still actively works on the simulation. There is indeed a failsafe method of disconnection that is triggered by the network outage, and for non-permanent "standard" users like herself, there is no need for the exit method in the first place since they can just take off the headset and put away the controllers.

Now then, a little about some other characters.

Did you know that Melina Daalmans was originally meant to be the villain in Pony-Me? Yeah, that definitely never happened. After I realized that, I started setting up Roger Ascher to be the antagonist instead, taking the cold, corporate tone of Melina and adding a little bit of hostility, as seen in his attitude towards Samantha in the original Pony-Me. Again, that idea fell right through, so instead of anything exciting we ended up with a little story about corporate infighting over whether Lisa or Roger should be CEO. Woohoo.

Andrew Smith is now relegated to being a background character. He did practically nothing for the overall plot in the original Pony-Me, as all he really did was let Lisa stay a night, do a bit of volunteer work, and then just kinda... exist for a few more chapters before being unceremoniously sent off due to "homesickness". Also, he existed mainly for a "Mr. Smith" joke, of which I don't remember whether or not I ever actually wrote into the story.

We'll be getting a duo of new characters: Night and Chrissi/Selene and Rosanne. As part of a move to give Pony-Me a proper ending instead of the meandering limp to a somewhat open-ended ending, Selene has been integrated into Lisa's backstory. While I won't reveal too much, I will say that she is a former top employee of HybridEye who kinda went bonkers. Short to say, she's now seeking to destroy all that Professor Argall has created. Simulations included. Yes, both her in-simulation and "real-life" names are references to Nightmare Moon. Not 100% sure whether she'll be referred to by the full "Nightmare Moon" name or just the shortened "Night", though.

Rosanne, similarly, starts off as Selene's partner-in-crime and protege of sorts. She too was a former employee, but left by choice on good terms to seek a more "exciting" life. This leads her to Selene. While Rosanne's moral compass is very much in that grey area, the time she's already spent with Selene has already proven to be more annoying than fulfilling. Unfortunately, however, she at this point is more or less tied to Selene, who relies on Rosanne for money, food, housing, etc. thanks to her rich family. She'd very much like to leave Selene behind, but is afraid of what could happen if she does. Eventually, however, she decides that enough is enough, and runs away in the cover of the night from... Night (ba-dum-tss) to warn her former company of Selene's plans to launch a second, potentially far more devastating attack on the simulations. At this point, she meets Lisa and begins to cooperate-- if not to save herself, then to protect the ones she cares for--Andrew Smith, her brother.

Yup. Andrew's only relevant in the reboot through a pseudo-protagonist whose story is likely going to be unveiled like halfway through the story.

Anyway, it's 2:51 in the morning and this blog has probably given me a healthy boost in wordcount for NaNoWriMo. I should sleep.

Comments

[Babroniedad]

Wait, blogs count? Ah man!
JK! Yeah 100% agree you've nailed it in Splitershard. Really enjoying that dynamic.
I can't wait to read all this. It sounds awesome.