Dan Vs. The Mirror and The Shadow

So, it should be obvious to some that the Director is based heavily on Kreia, a character from KOTOR 2. Part-way through Dan Vs. The Magic of Friendship, it becomes evident that Kreia is more of an entity than a person, and desperately wants to change that. Even her name, Cleo, is an acronym for Collective Living Entity Omnipresence, the spirit of Equestria itself destined to periodically destroy and rebuild the world of magic, friendship and ponies. She's a symbol for the creative process in the real world having an impact on the fictional world, the duality of destruction and creation, that one begets the other.

But before that, she was something else entirely, and the final revelation of her true identity is slated for Episode 25. We're on Episode 21 at the time of writing this, and it's going to be a ride all the way there.

Now, part of the Director's story has already been fulfilled, and with that, new threats have arisen to challenge Dan and friends. They've gone through a couple redesigns, but that's the way writing goes. One of the new villain/antagonists Dan must face is a pony assassin simply known as Visor. Short for supervisor, advisor, etc., Visor is a mysterious pony that has been recruited by a group of assassins to manipulate, capture, enslave and sell other ponies. He sees the shadowy methods of his organization as simply business as usual and shows no pity or remorse for mercilessly and coldly executing those that get in the way. The GenoHaradan as they're called, another forgotten group borrowed from KOTOR, believe that they can control the course of events and history itself through assassination, manipulation and profit.

Visor himself, or herself, is entirely a mystery as he frequently changes his/her identity from one pony to the next. He's a good villain, a pony that could be any pony, only identifiable when he chooses to reveal himself or herself. He could be using the appearance of a close friend, even a princess, or be completely invisible, listening in without you noticing. His only real weakness is that assassins have targets, thus they can be drawn out with the proper bait.

But not every villain can be faceless, and so I've finally found a good way of linking assassins and Director together with the introduction of a new antagonist for Dan to have fun with.

So, canonically, the Exile in KOTOR 2 destroyed Malachor V and finally reconciled their past, putting an end to the echoes of regret they felt. But there's another ending to the game, if the player chooses the dark side, and this ending is considered non-canon. Perfect for me to use!

Dan Vs. has always been about second chances and things you don't see on the show. What goes on behind the scenes. It's hard to extrapolate on happy endings because they're so... happy. It's not just the sentimental value attached to them, and there is quite a bit of that usually, it's also the fact that you have to explain how things go wrong and that's an extra step. I'm one guy doing this for free in my considerably limited spare time, so I take shortcuts where I can.

What if the Exile had been evil? And a guy, as the player can make them? It fits perfectly for my plans for the story, so I'm hoping to introduce them fairly soon.

The Terran Empire will be a larger enemy for Dan to face while the Dark Exile and the Sith Assassins will be another one of them. The mirror and the shadow. After all, don't most people think of magic as just smoke and mirrors?