ShopDreamUp AI ArtDreamUp
Description
MLP (c) Hasbro
This chapter was a doozy, let me tell you. This is, so far, the single largest chapter I've written to date, clocking in at over 15 thousand words, 30 pages in Word. This is far and away larger than the 10-12k I tend to average writing Book 2. Of course, there's a good reason for the massive size. This chapter contains three big fight scenes, the closure to the Zilch & the Crusaders arc, and a guest appearance from an old friend from Book 1.
This was one of the more challenging chapters to write too. Zilch's final fight scene was difficult, mostly for the hyper-kinetic way it happens (three guesses who she's fighting), and I needed to introduce two new characters in such a way they seemed powerful, but not insanely so. Hell, I even think I managed to show what I've been saying since square one about Zilch, that she's NOT so overpowered, the team just had the wrong ponies to fight her.
Anyway, on to other news. There may be a slightly longer than usual pause between this chapter and the next one. Nothing is wrong, I just have some vacation time and won't be able to write on my usual schedule. if at all possible, I'll catch back up with my 2-3 week release pattern, but it may be 4 weeks. I'll still have access to respond to comments tho, so don't worry about me.
As always, comments, feedback, and critiques are welcome.
- Polecat
G-doc link: [link]
This chapter was a doozy, let me tell you. This is, so far, the single largest chapter I've written to date, clocking in at over 15 thousand words, 30 pages in Word. This is far and away larger than the 10-12k I tend to average writing Book 2. Of course, there's a good reason for the massive size. This chapter contains three big fight scenes, the closure to the Zilch & the Crusaders arc, and a guest appearance from an old friend from Book 1.
This was one of the more challenging chapters to write too. Zilch's final fight scene was difficult, mostly for the hyper-kinetic way it happens (three guesses who she's fighting), and I needed to introduce two new characters in such a way they seemed powerful, but not insanely so. Hell, I even think I managed to show what I've been saying since square one about Zilch, that she's NOT so overpowered, the team just had the wrong ponies to fight her.
Anyway, on to other news. There may be a slightly longer than usual pause between this chapter and the next one. Nothing is wrong, I just have some vacation time and won't be able to write on my usual schedule. if at all possible, I'll catch back up with my 2-3 week release pattern, but it may be 4 weeks. I'll still have access to respond to comments tho, so don't worry about me.
As always, comments, feedback, and critiques are welcome.
- Polecat
G-doc link: [link]
© 2012 - 2024 TCPolecat7
Comments41
Join the community to add your comment. Already a deviant? Log In
"Sometimes, ignorance is the best weapon to prevent atrocities. If a pony does not know such a concept exists, he or she is less likely to stumble across it themselves."
I thought this statement interesting. Interesting enough that I refused to comment upon it until I had a chance to think about it overnight. And if I hadn't made that choice, I would merely have my first reaction, of vehemently disagreeing. Inventing atrocities is easy; all the base ingredients like murder, torture, rape, et cetera are already familiar, so it's mostly a matter of mixing these ingredients together in sufficient quantities. And it's not like anybody hears about an atrocity and thinks, "I should do that, it sounds like fun." Atrocities happen because some individual or group in power has no sympathy for another group, and goals that they think are best accomplished by doing terrible things to that group. On the other hand, spotting atrocities in time to stop them is hard. It's natural to not believe such things could happen here. They're the sorts of things that happen to other people, in less civilized times and places, if they happen at all. And so you dismiss the warning signs and ignore the stories of what's going on, until it's far too late. Unless you know exactly where that sort of thinking leads. And so here is where knowledge has an effect. It makes people more prepared. Not as prepared as they will need to be, if they one day need to be prepared, but it's better than nothing.
Is this belief influenced by my being Jewish? Indubitably. Am I affected by having met Holocaust survivors? Obviously. Am I wrong? I doubt it. I'm better informed if anything.
But is it relevant? After some thought, probably not. Because 'Tia doesn't use "atrocity" the same way I use the word. She couldn't, to call what was done to Zilch, and only Zilch, an atrocity. And that makes all the difference. Cases like this, the goal has to be to make the victim suffer. And that is going to be meaningfully limited by the perpetrator's creativity. And it doesn't matter how many depraved things you can think of, you'll never expect them to happen to you until one actually does. Unless you're unfamiliar with the abstract concept of cruelty, knowledge of specific instances is (except in very rare cases) not going to help you spot when somebody means you ill. It is possible to psychologically torture somebody in such a way that they don't realize you're torturing them, but if we discard the ways that involve a certain amount of brainwashing, which would make foreknowledge useless, and the ones where the victim knows they're being tortured, but not by whom, we're left with a very exclusive group of very difficult techniques. And I think those are best kept unknown.
I thought this statement interesting. Interesting enough that I refused to comment upon it until I had a chance to think about it overnight. And if I hadn't made that choice, I would merely have my first reaction, of vehemently disagreeing. Inventing atrocities is easy; all the base ingredients like murder, torture, rape, et cetera are already familiar, so it's mostly a matter of mixing these ingredients together in sufficient quantities. And it's not like anybody hears about an atrocity and thinks, "I should do that, it sounds like fun." Atrocities happen because some individual or group in power has no sympathy for another group, and goals that they think are best accomplished by doing terrible things to that group. On the other hand, spotting atrocities in time to stop them is hard. It's natural to not believe such things could happen here. They're the sorts of things that happen to other people, in less civilized times and places, if they happen at all. And so you dismiss the warning signs and ignore the stories of what's going on, until it's far too late. Unless you know exactly where that sort of thinking leads. And so here is where knowledge has an effect. It makes people more prepared. Not as prepared as they will need to be, if they one day need to be prepared, but it's better than nothing.
Is this belief influenced by my being Jewish? Indubitably. Am I affected by having met Holocaust survivors? Obviously. Am I wrong? I doubt it. I'm better informed if anything.
But is it relevant? After some thought, probably not. Because 'Tia doesn't use "atrocity" the same way I use the word. She couldn't, to call what was done to Zilch, and only Zilch, an atrocity. And that makes all the difference. Cases like this, the goal has to be to make the victim suffer. And that is going to be meaningfully limited by the perpetrator's creativity. And it doesn't matter how many depraved things you can think of, you'll never expect them to happen to you until one actually does. Unless you're unfamiliar with the abstract concept of cruelty, knowledge of specific instances is (except in very rare cases) not going to help you spot when somebody means you ill. It is possible to psychologically torture somebody in such a way that they don't realize you're torturing them, but if we discard the ways that involve a certain amount of brainwashing, which would make foreknowledge useless, and the ones where the victim knows they're being tortured, but not by whom, we're left with a very exclusive group of very difficult techniques. And I think those are best kept unknown.