Afterword to "Seeking" · 12:02am May 6th, 2022
It’s done.
I spent more time researching for “Seeking” than any other fic I’ve written. Many hours were spent referencing the Bible, learning Hebrew words, and diving down Wikipedia. Given the sensitive subject, I needed to ensure accuracy, lest I misrepresent a tradition.
Outlined in late 2020 and not finished until now, this story is a labour of love. I hope you found the story as stimulating to read as I found it to wrote.
Spoilers below the break.
I was unsure how to tag this story. There is light profanity, some drug references, and a few sexual references. But those themes are mild and could be eliminated. They are included in the interest of faithful representation: these are elements of how teenagers (and young adults) talk. In that sense, T is the right tag, although it could be edited down to E.
But is the story not for a mature reader? No matter your belief, this story contemplates a different belief. It’s necessarily uncomfortable.
Heck, the characters would find the story uncomfortable to read. Twilight, over Fluttershy. Rarity, over Pinkie. Fluttershy, over Applejack. Applejack, over Fluttershy. Rainbow, over everyone.
Hey, it’s not all bad. Pinkie would love the story.
I expected kneejerk offence and drive-by downvotes. It takes maturity to contemplate beliefs other than your own. Whether or not they influence your own, it’s taboo just to have the conversation. So in that sense, this story demands maturity.
Of course, tagging as M would misrepresent “Seeking” and cause it to be missed by those who filter out M fics (like Fluttershy and Applejack).
Let’s talk about bias.
There is no such thing as an unbiased author.
That’s no reason not to try, when it counts.
“Seeking” does not endorse any particular theology, in or out of universe. As Sunset observes, none of these characters can know their beliefs are true. But the characters aren’t two dimensional cutouts from the Encyclopedia of Philosophy. They each have their reasons to believe what they do. None of them are fully orthodox even within their own traditions.
I seek to present religion as the characters see it, in the language they would use to describe it. That will necessarily differ from religion as Filly sees it and the language Filly would use. If I was successful, you don’t know anything about what I believe or don’t believe, and that’s the way it should be.
No, I’m not telling you, but you are free to speculate.
However, one bias is worth discussing: the story has a distinct Jewish and Christian focus. I am a product of the English-speaking world, and shallow or inaccurate representation seemed worse than no representation. That’s also an in-universe explanation: Equestria Girls appears to take place in an English speaking part of North America, where Christianity dominates religion beside an assimilated Jewish minority.
In one draft of the epilogue, there was a Muslim Sunset, but the exotheology got too complicated ever for me. After the original sin questions Fluttershy raised, it seemed unwise to keep pushing my luck with human religions on the border of Equestria. (In what sense might a magical unicorn born in Equestria, in fact be born a Muslim, obligated to revert and to visit a city on Earth? I wanted to make it work, I really did.)
The lack of broader representation is my main regret for this story.
This story is explicitly about the relationship of queer people and religion, particularly Christianity as observed in Canada and the United States.
Yes, that means most of the Equestria Girls are explicitly queer.
That’s just complying to canon.
(Jury’s out on Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash. There’s a hint for one of them, though. Can you spot it?)
This format of religious fic has prior art in “If Horses Had Gods”. In some respects, this is an Equestria Girls adaptation of that format. Some of the characterizations align between the two stories, and some do not. At risk of pride, I find both worth reading. Structurally, the story’s framing resembles Oroboro’s Sunset Shipping Project. Krickis in her Who We Become series has depicted a Christian Shy with some similarities to this Fluttershy – that’s not too related but you should go read Who We Become anyway for more queer vibes.
Thank you to FanOfMostEverything for prereading, encouraging me to follow through with this fic despite countless moments when I was ready to throw in the towel, for many fruitful discussions feeding into the story, and for their overall positivity and relentless optimism about my horsewords. They may be a fan of most everything, but this filly is a fan of theirs.
Thank you to Gay For Gadot for her encouragement on an early draft, and the joke about the kosher status of Sunset’s hair.
Thank you to Nonchalant for their support throughout the writing process and generally being the best Nonnie a filly could ask for.
Thank you to fourths, who has shaped the way I see religion.
Thank you to my Fluttershy, for her kindness.
Thank you to every person, religious or otherwise, who has shared their tradition with me over the past few years.
And if you like: thank you to God, without whom this story would not exist.
Glad I could help.
5655657
You're the best uwu
This fic was one of the best on the site. I kid you not.
Awesome sauce.
5655661
Aww, thank you c:
5655662
no problemo
I made some edits to our draft,
take a peek lol
I was pleasantly surprised at the civility of the comments section! It was a nice change of pace!
5655681
Me too
Well done. You have achieved your goals. While I wish the ending was a bit clearer, this has overall been one of the more enjoyable fics I have picked up in a while. I m religious myself, but love exploring other faiths and non faiths and loved the diversity that was represented here, as well as the respect you treated each girl and their beliefs with. Overall, great tale and hopefully it inspires more fanfics to explore similar topics in the future
Great job! Regarding the lack of diversity in religions, I think that worked for the story in the end. It served to demonstrate to Sunset and the reader that even among very similar religions, there can be big differences in how they're practiced or not practiced. And keeping the audience in mind, you'd have to spend a lot of time explaining the non-Christian religions, as you had to do with Judaism. Also, even given this is a cartoon horse girl world, it would have stretched credulity if everyone had a completely different religious background like that.
Plus, for example, even as a Hindu myself, I'd feel uncomfortable presenting a Hindu character in this format. Aside from a couple shared holidays, how it's practiced very much varies region by region, family by family. With Christianity and to a lesser extent Judaism, you can assume readers won't think this is the end all be all of what the religion you're writing is like. That wouldn't be the case with other religions. And I wouldn't want to write every girl as a different kind of Hindu since I'm just not that involved in the religion.
So yeah, sticking to two general religions (and the lack thereof) was the right move.