Chris (from 4chan) interview questions


                                            Thank you again for taking the time to go through with this. The document is split into different sets of questions, and while you're by no means obligated to answer all of them and especially the last group is more comprised of smaller nitpicks, it would be nice to hear your thoughts and what you can share of how things went back then. Some of them may overlap, so if you answer something at one point feel free to then ignore it later. Note that we are looking both for your own thoughts as well as answers about the writing process and how the fic got to be the way it is, where those may be found. While many elements of WoE were found to be questionable, to be charitable about them, it's obvious Jetfire (and you) didn't set out to write something bad. So when something is brought up, it'd be interesting to hear what you can tell of what he was trying to achieve in those parts of the fic, and what the major writing and editing decisions that led to those aspects turning out the way they did were. To start with, some general questions about working on the story:


                                            Now that you've (presumably) reread the fic, what are your overall thoughts on it?


                                            Had you read Dangerous Business when you offered to help with WoE? How far along was the fic when you started looking it over?


                                            More of a personal curiosity, but how familiar were and are you with the works WoE more explicitly draws inspiration and elements from, namely Tolkien's and Lovecraft's works?


                                            How was working with Jet? What was he like, broadly speaking? What were his general attitude and thoughts regarding what he wrote and the quality of it?


                                            What exactly was the extent of your involvement with the story?


                                            Was there anything in particular you and Jet disagreed on? Were there any notable changes made because of your input, and any things that weren't changed despite you wishing otherwise?


                                            If you could go back, is there something you'd do differently with regards to helping with the story? Is there anything that you were able to convince Jet to do away with that you ultimately regret now, or conversely something you wish you'd managed to get through to him?


                                            If you have gone through our discussions during the clubs, is there anything that stood out there and isn't asked here that you'd like to address? And what did you think of those discussions in general?


                                            Then, some more specific questions regarding larger elements of the story itself. Feel free to address both your present thoughts and what came up at the time during your talks with Jet. Some of these incorporate multiple smaller details, cited alongside them, feel free to both answer the broader question and address each individual example as you wish. Not that some elements may also be featured separately in the later section if deemed noteworthy enough.


                                            What was your and Jetfire's approach to consistency of details as the story was incrementally written and published? Did Jetfire ever edit already-released chapters to fix things like this, and in general what was his attitude regarding changing previous details? Why not change trivial and non-plot-relevant elements retroactively, rather than leave the fic feeling inconsistent on those fronts? How many of these did you play a part in having changed? Examples of things that this would have applied to: Shining's magic color, the use of "pegasuses" vs. "pegasi", population and army numbers, the lack of line breaks in the first third of the fic, Twilight claiming she's tired of running away when in fact Elbert has always been the one doing so.


                                            Similarly, but important enough to be by itself, did you ever feel like the power levels of different characters, Elbert especially, were inconsistent with themselves and relatively to each other? Did Jet ever have anything to say on the matter? Nightmare Moon being comparable to him also comes up and feels unjustified, but in general the story to the club's readers felt all over the place with how strong different characters are or aren't, did you ever get the feeling it was so or bring it up to Jet and did he ever have something to say about that?


                                            Some parts of the story seem contrived to force the plot in a certain direction. Did you and Jetfire discuss choices like these during the editing process? Why did Jetfire decide to go ahead with the version as it's published? Examples of this are: Celestia ignoring Falalauria's urgent warning about the deer officers announcement in Canterlot, news of the dead town taking weeks to reach the protagonists, the pronghorns being ignorant of Equestria's situation despite Celestia dating Clive and him being present at the announcement in Canterlot, Celestia never calling for allies herself, the possibility of changeling infiltrators being brought up yet them still gathering information after Luna claimed the guards would be scanned, Elbert letting Celestia flee after he has her pinned.


                                            Elbert's attitude specifically: He eventually claims he has been toying with the cast all along, and yet he's only suffered continues defeats. He gets beat by Pinkie at every turn, and never seems to have developed a plan to beat her. This is touched in other questions too, as it's a core element of the story, but in general: What were and are your feelings on the way he acts, and what of it was discussed during the writing process if anything?


                                            Did you ever take notice of weird sexual allusions through the fic? Elbert is repeatedly compared to 'a bull in the prime of a rut', Falalauria flashes him her tail in their fight, remarks are made about the three deer sisters' relationship, there are notes comparing things to the act of castration, some interactions between characters are oddly worded even when unnecessary.


                                            Did it ever feel to you like Twilight was acting OOC with her show self, and inconsistently with what the fic itself claims?


                                            Did it ever feel like different parts of the story were too different in tone? Like different elements clashed on that front? For example: the villain's witty attitude contrasted with the seriousness of the situation, the stark difference between the epic fight between the deer elders and Elbert and the cartoonish one between him and Pinkie right after, Fëanor being condemned yet everyone agreeing he was ultimately in the right.


                                            On a similar note, did it ever feel like, in deliberately parodying certain things in certain parts, the story was unintentionally undermining its own more serious elements?


                                            Did you ever feel like Jet was going too far with Tolkien references? A lot of names are directly taken from his works, quotes are lifted or adapted, and some elements are very close parallels, like towns and battles often resembling Minas Tirith. Other examples include but are not limited to Fëanor and Fingolfin, Gothmog, Annatar, Ancalagon, etc;


                                            How did Jet, if he did at all, justify or address trying to comply with the canon show events between DB and WoE despite the possible differences? Namely, Rainbow being attuned to the Dreaming yet everything concerning Discord still playing out the same? Similarly how did he try to justify the events of late Season 4 and onward also happening despite how different the M6 are by the end, specifically Tirek seemingly still destroying the library and therefore Discord still betraying his friends?


                                            How do you feel about the handling and insertion of religious themes within the fic, both in-universe and on a meta level? What of the way they sometime seem to overtake the prose in ways that seem alien to the setting? For example: Elbert is often described with adjectives such as 'unholy' or 'infernal', Celestia casting divine judgement on ponies, the incessant faith theme repeated through the fic, the deer carrying their sins as a species until the ending absolves them.


                                            Celestia choosing to wait and let the Elements train rather than confronting Elbert violently: Did you (both back then and now) feel the story did a good job establishing why, and in general handling that topic? Did her complete inaction even as Equestria was destroyed raise any eyebrows, and did Jet have any comments on it? And later, did you feel her claimed knowledge of the Elements and of things Fëanor had claimed and were instead wrong fit with her previous actions and lack thereof?


                                            Did you have any thoughts on the pacing in the early portion of the story, and the casualness with which characters seem to act after Elbert has revealed himself?


                                            Conversely, did it feel to you, either on reread or doing your work on it back then, like Jet was rushing through the last portion of the story? Rainbow's ascension happens rather quickly and without as much behind it as what the others went through, the final fight is abandoned halfway through, what happened between Twilight and the deer elders between her passing out and her return to the empire is never addressed.


                                            Did you ever personally feel that the more gruesome elements of the story were going too far? We get descriptions of dead corpses, torture chambers, charred bodies, Rainbow breaking her bones and being tortured.


                                            Did Jet ever mean to elaborate on 'battle magic', and were there ever talks of how it is and isn't addressed in the story?


                                            Next, here are some questions about more specific elements and scenes that still drew a lot of discussion and attention.


                                            Celestia's speech scene is a major point of contention. If you've looked over the club you should know. Just most everything about it, from most characters involved acting in ways that feel rather silly (Celestia ignoring Falalauria's warning and Lala herself not looking in the future sooner) to the whole premise (the deer being slavers and the specific language used on the topic) to the consequences (ponies going as far as choosing Elbert over the other deers), especially regarding Twilight. What all happened around it on your side? Did you have any doubts about it? Did Jet have anything to say? Did it go through any major or minor changes?


                                            Related to the previous question, what of the whole 'sins of the father' theme that permeates the deer/pony interactions? Did you feel it was justified for ponies to hold a grudge over something so ancient, and for some of the deer themselves to claim they were right in doing so? What of the way the ending implies deer were absolved of this sin, as if it was in fact something inherent to their species? What of the fact that no deer is revived at the end, seemingly not even the innocent ones?


                                            Elbert being shown Rarity's vision: This gets more problematic deeper in the fic one gets. Did Jet ever establish how much Rarity actually saw, did you ever have doubts about the whole thing, and did he ever try to justify it beyond arguing for Elbert's arrogance? He's supposedly shown his own defeat(s), and it's later said that Rarity even Saw things going worse if he'd sent someone other than her to Canterlot, yet he still plays along all the way through. Did you ever feel as if it should have been handled differently, and did Jet ever say anything on the matter?


                                            The theme of 'faith' that permeates the fic, by Jet's own admission: Did the topic come up while helping him? Did he say anything about it?


                                            The battle in Manehattan and later on the ones in the Empire and the final one felt like lacking in cohesion, like they're more pockets of actions with no real sense of a full scale battle with formations and fronts, sometimes resulting in confusing scenes or events. Was this brought up when the fic was being written?


                                            Numbers. By the end Equestria is established to have multiple millions of citizens, yet in a desperate scenario where everyone who can fight is asked to fight they only muster less than 10% of that number. Was this brought to Jet's attention at all? What about the deer's fighting population being comparable to Equestria's, yet their entire population having fit next to Ponyville?


                                            Twilight being apparently stillborn, and revived by magic. Did you have any thoughts on it, or Jet anything to say about it?


                                            The "Fluttershy disappeared for years after falling to the ground" part. Jet (tries to) deal with her parents later on, but did he ever say anything about it? Did you? Was he not thinking of child Rainbow's and everyone else's reaction, or did he just choose to ignore it?


                                            Was there any discussion behind the scenes regarding how clearly unwell, oozing darkness Pinkie Pie is just left to wander around without medical attention and is only tentatively stabilised by Celestia once, and never again?


                                            How did you feel about the way Jet handled Falalauria's future sight and her allowing for sacrifices to happen in the name of a better future? What of the whole "multiple futures exist, but only one true future" concept?


                                            Opening a chapter with a school lesson right after it was established that school is closed for summer: How did that get through? And in that scene, was there any discussion about deers still losing their antlers in winter as a plot point, and its ramification over the fic's setting and history?


                                            Did it ever occur that ponies seem to alternate between being very innocent creatures, even more so than in the show, and being perfectly okay with gruesome things? Sometimes Fluttershy doesn't know what 'mortal' means, other times everyone nods along as Luna recounts beheading dragons. Rarity is against killing one chapter, and incinerating changelings by the dozens the next.


                                            Balrogs. What were your thoughts on both using the name in the first place, and making them so much like the movie's interpretation of them?


                                            Balrogs, part 2. Any thoughts on comments on the wild difference between their first showing against the deer elders, and the way they're then easily dealt with in the Empire and beyond?


                                            Was there any reason given, or any question asked, as to why Elbert, after always previously teleporting his armies to where he wished to fight, decides to slowly march his troops to the Empire instead?


                                            How do you feel about Fëanor being sent to Hell?


                                            Late into the fic, the prose seems to develop more of a style, suddenly inserting things like "o'er" in the narration itself and in parts feeling like it's going for something more akin to Biblical narration. How deliberate was this, and what were your opinions on it if any?


                                            At points throughout the story there is an effort to insert moments of levity and humour during more grim fight scenes, such as a joke being made of a pony next to Mr. Cake being killed by a spear. How did you feel about these?


                                            Lastly, here are some smaller and more specific bits about the fic that nevertheless raised some eyebrows:


                                            What was the deal with Jet insisting on describing known characters and elements, at least towards the start? Did that ever come up?


                                            Was there any deeper reason why Celestia and Clide were made a couple? It opens a few inconsistencies and doesn't seem to contribute much to the story.


                                            How did Jet reconcile, if it was brought up to him, the more scientific approach to astronomy (the planet orbits the Sun, the universe is full of stars) with the fantasy aspect of Celestia and Luna embodying and moving the (new) Sun and Moon, or even the fact that the previous ones were 'killed'?


                                            Any comments on the hints of Bon Bon and Lyra's relationship and the odd insistence on the latter's weight and the former's involvement in that?


                                            How did you feel about the weird half-meta, half-in-universe nature of the "A Note on" chapters?


                                            What are your thoughts on the decision to incorporate different human languages (real and fictional) as deer languages?


                                            Did the topic of Jet's insistence on including Spike ever come up?


                                            In the Cloudsdale chapter, was there any discussion about how no one thinks to check for Elbert where the rainbows are kept, despite them knowing he was likely going there?


                                            Were there plans for more scenes of changelings infiltrating pony society?


                                            Did Jet ever mention the story being influenced or inspired by Harry Potter in some things? Some elements feel very similar, others certainly are but may have been just the result of cultural osmosis (the Thestral, mainly), but it's unclear whether a deliberate inspiration was there too.


                                            Metamorph as a character feels underutilised, only appearing in a couple of scenes and having a handful of lines. Was he meant to be used more through the story?


                                            Likewise, were there any plans or talks of having Discord be more involved in the story?


                                            Why does Zecora live in a forest full of deer if she hates them?


                                            Did you have any thoughts on how similar Manehattan was to its irl inspiration?


                                            Did you have any thoughts on the brief mentions of the abuse Pinkie suffered as a child?


                                            Did Jet forget about Ropey (Applejack's magical rope the deer gave her) from Dangerous Business?


                                            Did it ever feel like some descriptions in some scenes were unclear? I'm thinking specifically of the scene in Manehattan with the area supposedly walled off by the giant spiders.


                                            How did you feel about the way Fëanor was portrayed? Did you find his deliberately manipulative actions to be too unsubtle at any point?


                                            Was there any discussion of Rarity's power level within the fic? Of why Elbert chose to make her a soldier, and of why she appears as one of the strongest magic users towards the end of the fic?


                                            When Canterlot is attacked, Twilight seems to be surprised at the notion of evacuating the city. Was this discussed back when it was written?


                                            Did you have any thoughts regarding Fluttershy's character after the ponies retreat to the Empire?


                                            Was the mentions of Sirens meant to imply Equestria Girls and its events are canon to the story?


                                            Many secondary show characters are forgotten about or not addressed when all of Equestria's population is on the move, be it the Wonderbolts or the Main 6's pets or others still. Was part of this a conscious decision not to bloat the story, and is there someone you wish had been acknowledged, even briefly?


                                            What are your thoughts on Nordeshang's original name, "Schwarzkrieg"?


                                            Pinkie and Fluttershy, as well as Trixie and Metamorph and many other servants of Elbert's, happen to be nearby when the big fight between him and the elders takes place. While it's not hard to assume Elbert on one side and Nordeshang on the other were keeping them safe, is it something that was thought of and discussed during writing?


                                            At points it felt like characters would speak in ways that wouldn't fit for the sake of delivering information. Was this ever an impression you got, or something that was brought up?


                                            Is the name Elbert in reference to something specific that you know of, or merely a name?


                                            What did you think of the closely recurring joke about Spike's manners in Applejack's chapters?


                                            Did you have any thoughts on Twilight and Shining's sibling cannon during the Crystal Empire siege, specifically?


                                            Was there a reason behind choosing to establish that Rarity had not visited her family after being reformed and before riding away from the Empire?


                                            Did it ever feel to you as if ponies' ability to fight, even when it came to the untrained or barely trained ones, was too great?


                                            Why does Twilight know a torture spell?


                                            Celestia's faith is presented as a literal empowering force in the final fight. Any thoughts on this, back then or now?


                                            Did it ever feel like the final pre-dreaming confrontation between Elbert and the Elements is repetitive?


                                            Any comment on Jet namedropping Prismacolor, an actual irl brand, at the climax of his epic fantasy story?