A Completely Normal School Board Meeting is Complete! · 9:42pm Sep 5th, 2022
A Completely Normal School Board Meeting is complete! If you haven't read it yet, check it out here. Spoilers below!
Wow! Thank you for reading! I’m going to talk about some of my thoughts on this story and its development. Trust me when I say that there is more to discover with this story than what I write here, of course, and I hope someday you perhaps give it another read-through with a different perspective. It's also very scatterbrained and unedited, so I apologize if its unreadable. Anyways, thanks again!
Development/Inception
I really love 12 Angry Men. It’s probably my favorite movie of all time. The original concept for this story—12 Angry Men but with Sunset as the perpetrator—stayed consistent from the start, but it underwent many changes.
For one, I initially wanted to start out with 12 characters, not 7 like we ended up with. Considering how much it took to balance the cast in this story, I’m glad I didn’t extend it any further. I had initially planned Discord to simply be there in the role of the 7th Juror (the guy antsy to leave for the baseball game, if you’ve seen the movie) and eventually get told to shut up and get serious instead of just being a jokester. I had wanted the role of the 8th juror (the first to object) to go to Fancy Pants initially, but he quickly became more meek and docile as my initial thoughts wore on, and I ended up demoting him to just another member of the Board. But beyond that, much of the story wrote itself—the cast was quite set in stone. I cut out a few extra people (including Hoity Toity, Mayor Mare, VP Luna, and Dean Cadance) to streamline the story a lot. All of those characters could have brought interesting perspectives and interesting arguments, but I felt like there wasn’t enough in their character to warrant a full role in the spotlight—the folks in this story were already unevenly balanced after all.
I also took a year-long break in the middle there. Sorry about that! Life happens, but I’m glad I had a lot more time to think about it. I promise I never forgot this story!
Characters
I’d like to talk about each character and how I came up with them. These are not my complete thoughts on them by any means, just quick little blurbs that might help you see how I approached their development.
Discord - The 8th Juror - Magic
Isn’t Discord just a funky guy? Everyone who “Equestria Girls”-ifies him always puts him in a pinstripe suit—well, not if I have anything to say about it! This guy is in a dreamcoat, a walking gaudy quilt, basically somewhere between The Sixth Doctor and Sun Ra. Imagining him in the role of the 8th Juror was too fun of a twist for me not to do. This is a Discord fresh out of reformation, and he is struggling between his old habits and his desire for friendship—which, when he hears about Sunset, strikes a chord of empathy in him. He mellows out the antics as the story goes on and by the end, I think we’re seeing the genuine Discord—a jaded, ancient soul that had made more mistakes than he can count, but is at least flirting with the concept of improvement. His magic is evil, chaotic, and wrong, but he eventually drops all that and uses it for some good.
Granny - The 9th Juror - Laughter
Granny Smith is the heart of this group, in my opinion. She’s the most direct translation from 12 Angry Men, a clear inspiration from the 9th Juror (The old man, second to vote to spare the boy), and as such, there isn’t as much to her character as the others. The subtle references in The Alternate Land to her alternate self reveal what is in my opinion a deeper sadness inside of her and a hole left unfilled, which makes her want to spare Sunset. I also think AJ talked to her beforehand and convinced her to give Sunset another chance, but that’s just me. Also, her being the first one to swap sides and the one to connect Sunset as homeless makes her arguably the most silently important member of them all.
Shining Armor - The 5th and 6th Juror - Loyalty
Shining is definitely my biggest deviation from the source material. Frankly, his scene in Friendship Games is a little odd to me (and a little weird with the age gap between him and Cadance if he’s just a fresh alumnus), so I aged him up a little and made him a police officer to keep it relevant for the plot. Shining doesn’t realize how connected he is to this case, and when it hits, it hits him hard. Still, his innate sense of justice doesn’t let him swap sides so quickly, and I think abstaining was an interesting twist by making him not have to compromise on either side of his ideals. His relationship with Twilight (poor SciTwi! It made me sad to write that bit about the dance) is also the most valued part of his life currently, and he realizes his loyalty to her is more important than strictly following the board policy, or curtailing to their every whim in order to make a good impression on Celestia. Ironically, by not picking a side, he stays truest to himself. Of course, by the end of the story, he is quite convinced that Sunset should stay.
Princess Celestia - The 1st Juror - Honesty
Both of my stories have now featured an undercover Celestia, as well as a Celestia/Principal Celestia mixup. I guess I just really enjoy that concept, haha. And yes, Twilight addressing Princess C correctly before the big reveal was intentional because I think Twilight can just tell that sort of thing. Celestia was a necessary addition to come in and mediate Discord’s antics, as a few people mentioned. I think it kept the story on track and was also a nice mid-story twist. Of course, what appeared to be a strike against Discord actually was his greatest asset; I suspect that conversation between the two consisted of a harsh reprimand followed by a “fine, I’m here to fix this now, too.” Celestia struggles with her honesty throughout this whole story, and her entitlement is paralleled with Blueblood’s quite a bit as well. What Celestia really needs is to let Sunset go—at the end of the day, folks are right that she basically blackmailed the board into letting her stay, even if they were won over by other reasons.
Fancy Pants - The 2nd and 12th Juror - Kindness
As mentioned previously, Fancy Pants was shifted out of his role as the head star, and I think I probably didn’t give him enough time to develop, honestly. But he didn’t have much to do: the guy was a little bit weak and a pushover and all he needed was a reminder that he can be kind to set himself straight. This is a bit of deviation from pony Fancy Pants, but I like to think our human Fancy Pants grows into that confidence later on in his life. His conviction near the end of the story shows that he does have a heart of gold, at the very least.
Filthy Rich - The 4th Juror - Generosity
Despite how much of a strong opponent he is, Filthy is not a villain in this story. The guy is just a genuine analytical thinker that follows what he understands about the policy to a tee, and that’s respectable, much like the 4th juror in the original story. However, he does have to eventually grapple with his greed and his compliance in allowing Sunset to stay homeless. Knowing what we know about his daughter and her issues with being a bully, I’m sure it didn’t sit well with him to see Sunset in such a sorry state and realized he needed to help her out when he could. This led him to weave the policy loopholes together–he sort of willed those connections into forming to soothe his own mind. For some reason, I enjoy writing characters that are the perfect balance of sleaze—he’s not a horrible person, but nobody’s really rooting for him.
President Blueblood - The 3rd and 10th Juror - Forgiveness/Empathy
What is there to even say about Blueblood? Such a strange character, one who appears briefly early on in the show and then fails to ever make a substantial appearance again. I think some people may believe I portrayed Prince Blueblood a bit too harshly in the end there, but ultimately (and I say as humbly as possible), this is my story, my interpretation, and my portrayal of how these characters act. Prince Blueblood is an arrogant jerk (a ponified Karen, if you will), but President Blueblood is a lot more complex. He struggles with his anger, his authority, and the nepotism he both benefitted from and suffered under. I wanted to keep the amount that Blueblood was bullied vague—to me, he has been on both ends of it, victim and perpetrator, just like Sunset. The show usually doesn’t get that morally gray with its characters, because it’s a lot harder to hand out a moral when we see someone do both good and bad things (without ever “swapping sides” clearly like Sunset/Starlight). In fact, one of the few times I recall a good character doing something bad is when Discord relapsed with Tirek, and I found it interesting to include that subtle struggle he had with his own demons in this story. But I digress.
What exactly motivated Blueblood to change sides is intentionally open—he may have been forced into it, he may have genuinely struck an empathetic chord with Sunset and realized she should stay, or something else entirely. Either way, something changed within him when he confronted the multiverse’s perception of himself. Much like Sunset, he has work to do, but I think he will end up okay.
Additional Bits
As just mentioned, I could give my exact interpretation of why Blueblood chose to vote yes, but I’m not going to write it out here. I intentionally left it open, so each person can view it in their own way with the evidence of their choice. I’ll let you fill in the blanks on that one (I also don’t know if I could articulate in a more eloquent way than just, say, reading the story). And if the conclusion you reach isn’t adequate enough for you, that’s okay by me. I hope it didn’t ruin the experience for you.
You might have noticed that each member represents an Element Of Harmony—oh, I did it again! In fact, I filled this story with parallels to the first EQG movie. Each character here, however, has failed to live up to their chosen element. It’s only when they realize this that they attempt to make things better.
That’s an interesting bit to build off of, actually—each character failing to live up to an element. When writing this story, it became very clear that in our world, Sunset would have been expelled (no second chances here!). Any attempt I would make to bridge the gap during planning would feel as if they were all obviously ignoring what she actually did, which couldn’t work on its own. Instead of ignoring this, I chose to lean into it and have the characters grapple with what they expect to occur and what is actually going to happen. That’s why Discord is the main protagonist of this story—he cuts out the rationale and rejects any reasoning. He and Celestia are going against the law, the policy, and even logic at times in order to save Sunset. But that’s why they’re perfect for the job. When chaos and order combine, logic is left in the dust.
That may not be satisfying to some folks that hoped for a genuine legal drama, but, well, this is My Little Pony fanfiction. I just wanted to write a fun story that hopefully made you think a little bit and fills in a few interesting gaps in the show.
Where are they now?
Well, this story is intended to squeeze into the mainline canon, so Sunset goes on to join the Rainbooms, compete in the Friendship Games, visit Camp Everfree, etc. I like to think she was declared an emancipated minor, and Princess Celestia partnered with Barnyard Realty to give her a new home (it has a loft for her bed and everything!). Granny Smith lives out the rest of her days helping out at school and the orchard, Fancy Pants sets up several charity funds and initiatives through the city, Filthy Rich expands his business to sights unseen, and ‘Police Chief Shining Armor’ certainly has a ring to it. President Blueblood doesn’t like to think back on this day often, but whenever he encounters a problem student, he pulls that old pipe out of his pocket and blows a few bubbles (despite having never filled the thing once), just to think. And when Sunset Shimmer walked across the stage at graduation, he gritted his teeth and shook her hand extra hard before giving her a diploma. She barely noticed though, because her eyes were locked on one small corner of the audience, where a man in a patchwork coat and a woman oddly resembling her principal watched on with pride. The rest, dear reader, is up to you.
In Closing
Feel free to tell me what you thought about the story and if you thought the arguments were amazing or completely bogus, or anything else that comes to mind. I promise I’ll respond!
Thank you for reading, really. I consider myself to be a bit selfish when it comes to my writing: I’m only writing the stories that I want to read (turns out I’m pretty okay at that, in my unbiased opinion). But I also wrote this for other people to enjoy, to have a glimpse into what is going back and forth in my head. I think this might be it for me, at least in regards to long-form works. I started writing back during the pandemic when I had a lot of sudden time on my hands, and I don’t regret a thing about it. But just as Sunset is going to find out, life goes on, and I have more pressing things to attend to. I’m not logging off for good or anything—truthfully, I have one final long-form story in mind, I just don’t know if I’ll ever find the time to write it. Someday, though! (Probably when no one is around to listen, knowing my luck!) And, hey, I’ve contributed damn near 150k words to this website; not much compared to some, but nothing to scoff at either.
For those of you that read Out of This World, thank you for giving my odd little story about a mishmash of characters avoiding their destinies a shot. And for the folks coming from A Completely School Board Meeting, thanks for following my ragtag group who held the destiny of one troubled girl in their hands. I hope we’ll see each other on the same path some where, some when, some day.
Cheers,
Mouse-Deer
I liked the story, good characterisation and realistic arguments. I have to say I liked your other story more though, but that may just be a preference for AUs and Sunlight stories.
D'aww! If the graduation took place after Twilight's 2nd coronation, Celestia shouldn't have much of a problem taking a trip over to the human world in her retirement, especially since she wouldn't really need Discord because Twilight hoodwinked the portal open since Rainbow Rocks. Discord would just be there to see the fruits of this story's endeavours, and see another fellow reformed villain succeed.
Again, loved the story (as well as the previous one). Won't hold you to it but I hope to see the third story you have in mind.
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That's cool, Out of This World was a far more ambitious project than this (I still don't know how I managed to write that much in such a short amount of time). This may only make sense to me, but I do consider this story to be a sort of thematic sequel to OoTW. I tread over similar ground, but from a different angle.
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Thanks. If my third story ever sees the light of day, it will be quite a while from now, because I don't want to leave folks with a year-long hiatus like this one :)
At the risk of tooting my own horn...
She'd be a pretty terrible princess of friendship if she couldn't recognize her friends when looking right at them.
Lovely stuff. Using the Elements as a framework for the characters, especially with Sunset's for Blueblood, was a stroke of genius. Thanks for the peek behind the scenes.
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Great minds think alike! And thank you for the flattering comments. I used the elements as a way to ground the story to its source material. I find it important not to stray too far from what makes the show unique, because I may as well just be writing my own story at that point.
This is something I almost mentioned myself. I admit, I have a soft spot for the character, most likely because of how much vitriol he's gotten thrown his way since that fateful episode.
Be that as it may, I want to say, I did like your story. It was done well on a technical level, hardly any mistakes, the writing flowed nicely and was evocative. You'd always have a good sense of the setup and the scene itself. I did notice Fancy Pants seemed poised to be the main character during the course of the first chapter, and that that was dropped with the second one in.
As noted before, My main issue really is with President Blueblood's turning. Because the other characters made sense to me. There was an understandable reason why they changed their position, even Filthy Rich. Blueblood was obviously the most intransigent obstacle. The final boss. And then leaving his reasoning vague, after the conflict had been built up so much, was a bit unsatisfying, because it felt like a refusal to commit right at the story's climax.
It may be heretical, but to be honest, I wasn't all that interested in Sunset Shimmer's epilogue. We all knew what happens to her. I kind of wanted to see the other characters and how the dealt with the fallout. Like Fancy Pants and his brother. And, yes, both Bluebloods. If a thieving maniac with dreams of world domination is worthy of having Celestia and Discord fight tooth and nail to make her life better, Pony Karen deserves it as well. Like I said back with the story, I don't think Princess Celestia, or Principal Celestia, took the time to actually talk to them instead of quietly assuming Blueblood will manage without any real guidance and then being angry and disappointed when he doesn't.
Addendum: That's when you type on little sleep... I also wanted to thank you for giving us this story and its very original and interesting premise.
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I appreciate you taking the time to engage with this story, really. Having someone look into your work from a thoughtful perspective (even if critical) is something I really enjoy. I think I may have described my intentions behind Blueblood's turning point a bit poorly; I don't think the reasoning is vague, I think it's optional on how deep one wants to look. The whole final chapter airs out his grievances and struggles; all of the evidence is in place, it's just up to the reader to decide what finally makes him jump over the precipice and swap his vote (there are plenty of wrong answers, but also wiggle room for those who want to read deeper into it or not). And as for the epilogue, I almost didn't write it at all because 12 Angry Men featured no epilogue whatsoever, and I wanted to keep things brief. Although Sunset was the center of the epilogue, it wasn't really about what happens to her next, it was about getting closure for the other three characters. Had I not wanted the epilogue to be as brief (I still think it's a little too long), I may have gone into detail about the other members, but they all received enough of a resolution that I felt no need to dive past what the last few sentences of The Alternate Prince gave them.
Thanks, liked it. I think I'll read Out of This World soon.
UPD. I read it, and I can say that I liked both stories. I love 12 Angry Men too, but I'm even more of a fan of One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest. I am writing a small study about this book and am using examples from sources like click here as a template to follow. I hope that in the near future, I will be able to publish my work because the next year, I plan to write my own novel, which I would like to present to the general public
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