The Final SoaP Post! · 4:00pm Dec 6th, 2012
Now that SoaP is done, I'd like to take this opportunity to point out a few of the issues that I or others have with it. Continuity, time compression, inconsistencies, character bias, that sort of thing. I don't know how many other people actually noticed these things, but I spotted them, and my conscience won't let me rest until I've addressed them.
Soulgaze Inconsistencies
Pinkie Pie's soulgaze, when compared to the others', looks really out of place. Firstly, only she and Twilight appeared more than once in their respective mindscapes. In Twilight's case, it was to represent the dichotomy in her behavior; she's obsessively ordered one minute, then messy the next. In Pinkie's, though, it doesn't really make a lot of sense. The only real "split personalities" are her normal, cheery self and the gloomy, alternate side from "Party of One". The only way I can think to explain it is that Pinkie's mind, like most things about her, explicitly defies understanding.
This also applies to the other issue with her 'gaze: she (or at least part of her) conversed with Twilight. Nopony else, not even Twilight herself, managed to pull that off, even when she knew it was coming. Now, I don't exactly subscribe to the idea that Pinkie can break the fourth wall, but that would conveniently close up this little inconsistency, so that's what I'm going to go with.
Unlikely Timing
This is an issue that kept popping up while I was drafting things out. I have very little sense of scale, and that applies especially to things like time and distance. It doesn't help that we're given no official information about where everything in Ponyville is, or how far away any two given buildings are. As such, I have no idea whether or not the times I gave for Twilight's various journeys across town make sense. I could, if pressed, probably justify any given issue with timing by saying, "Oh, she was in a hurry" or "she was enjoying the scenery". In any case, no-one else has called me out on it, so it may be that I'm not as far off as I fear.
Favoring/Dismissing Certain Characters
This is by far the subject that has drawn the most ire. I've received a number of comments and messages about my lack of attention to a certain character. The time has come to address those complaints.
I definitely should have given Rainbow Dash more focus. She only got a few lines of dialogue, and barely played any plot importance at all. It's entirely my fault, and I'm deeply sorry to both her fans and to Rainbow herself.
Nah, I'm just messing around. I know that far more people wished for Spike to get his own soulgaze. As to why I didn't do that, well, I don't really have a good answer. He's a rich and complicated character, and having Twilight soulgaze him would have been good for them both. I can, of course, come up with reasons why she couldn't have 'gazed him (the spell only works on ponies, Spike is too young for his character to have crystallized, etc.), but I could just as easily have made it work. The reason I have to settle on, and it's definitely not going to impress many people, is that Spike never seems to be included in the Mane Six's other activities, so why should this be any different?
On a different note, I noticed that I gave a great deal more attention to Rarity than is perhaps fair. This is almost certainly a result of my own personal preferences showing through. Not much I can do about that but to recognize it.
Miscellania
Almonds. In Pinkie's chapter, she gave Twilight a cupcake that tasted slightly almond-y, then claimed it was filled with cyanide. I read somewhere online that cyanide, or at least one form of it, may smell vaguely like almonds. Obviously, the cupcake didn't actually contain cyanide, which means that the flavor was deliberate. I'm not sure why I'm bringing this up, but there was something about it that still seems off to me. I think it's probably a safe bet that Twilight knows her chemistry. Once Pinkie Pie mentioned cyanide, she would have connected it immediately with the almond taste, causing her to panic and making the prank that much more successful. How, though, did Pinkie know enough about different poisons to pull that off? I guess she could have looked it up (or it's just another instance of Pinkie Pie being herself).
Alliteration. It's hard. My vocabulary is, I like to think, rather advanced, but I'm no thesaurus. Writing with odd stylistic restrictions is not something I'm in the habit of, which is why I'm not a poet. Rhyming, too, is rather a pain; speech for Zecora would be quite a strain. (That sentence took five minutes to write. Like I said, I'm bad at this)
About almonds. There are bitter almonds and sweet almonds that are separate plants. Cyanide smells like bitter almonds. Extract of sweet almond is a common ingredient in confectionery icing.
Yea, my version of Pinkie can do all sorts of crazy things, but she doesn't understand them anymore than anypony else, she just doesn't care. One of these is she can literally anything, no matter how little sense it makes. I had to come up with something considering I only feel comfortable writing in first-pony, and that's what I came up with.
I thought Twilight's own mindscape was a bit... anticlimactic, compared to the others.
Quite funny considering the fact she's by far the most developed and multilateral character.
Almonds contain a slight amount of a chemical that when ingested becomes cyanide.
However, the shear weight you'd have to ingest of raw almonds alone just to off yourself goes a way of explaining why cyanic-acid related deaths are not any higher then they currently are.
Once blanched, however, the compound is largely destroyed and you can eat them to your hearts content.
Apricot seeds are an even more potent source.
Meanwhile I do hope you explore Spike at a later date, maybe Celestia as well.
On that subject, I do find it strange that Twi had no Spike, Celestia or Shining Armour allusions, shrines or tributes within her mind's scape.