Thanks for removing the cut! Now prepare my essay in response to your essay :D
Okay so I have theories about this: if Pinkie is aroace, of course she'd feel terrified of Sunset not hanging out with her as much/devaluing her in comparison to a romantic relationship! That's something that aros, aces, and aroaces have to deal with all the time, and it sucks (sucks pegasus balls, you could say lol). Of course friendship is magic and friendships are just as important as romantic relationships (even if it takes Sunset a little while to realize that). It's really sad that in real life romantic relationships are valued so much more than friendships, but at least individual people can choose to do the opposite.
That's one thing that Bevin and I talk about all the time - the way society values romance compared to all other relationships. There's a sort of hierarchy that unfairly prioritizes romantic and sexual relationships over platonic, familial, or any other kind of relationship out there.
Which isn't to say that they're not different - I definitely value my partner in different ways than I value my best friends or family or community members - but the constant prioritizing of one kind over the other sets everyone up for a worse time, whether romance is for you or not.
A great example is your theory here! If most of the population pairs off, anyone who isn't paired off (voluntarily or not) can get left behind. It doesn't have to be that way, but it can be, and you're right, it absolutely sucks!
Sunset's hypervigilance after seeing the light? Poor baby, how did she not realize that you needed therapy sooner (I know it's because she ignores her emotions lol).
Right you are - and I love that you noticed that trauma response. Our girl's been through a lot, huh?
As someone who’s from the Southern United States, no one actually says genuine like that lol, we pronounce it the normal way! People only do that on TV lol. I posit that Applejack sees Rarity acting French and decides to be as stereotypically as-seen-on-TV Southern as possible to joke around/maybe lightly make fun of her lol. But then again Applejack’s walking around using biscuits and gravy as a catchphrase so it could just be her lol.
Hahaha! I love this note - AJ's "countryisms" really aren't always accurate to how people talk.
What would be interesting would be to see what local dialect she's the closest to. Like, in terms of the accent used, the choices of words -- obviously not many people are as cartoony as she is in real life, but like, where in the south would AJ be from if she was from somewhere in specific?
There's such a diversity in the South -- sometimes that can be overlooked!
Also love your headcanon that she's just laying it on thick to mess with Rarity.
I thought that it was out of character for Sunset to not be jealous of Timber in the scenes that take place before EFTD…until I thought about it more and realized that it's because Sunset doesn't see Timber as a threat. Because he's not here, and that just made me really sad
I agree on both counts! :D It IS out of character, and Timber isn't around...
I really appreciate how Twilight wears suits in your stories. You're literally the only fanfic author that I've seen write that! Twilight already wears masculine clothes like bowties, but I guess Twilight wearing skirts all the time throws people off. Or they're conflating wearing masculine clothes with having a masculine personality I guess (and Twilight's personality isn't very masculine, despite her interest in STEM).
Aww I'm glad you like that!!
Yeah, it feels appropriate because we've basically only seen her in bow-ties and ties in her casual wear. Granted, all the girls have worn dresses before, so I'll never say it's out of character for her to wear a dress or skirt, but I've seen her in masculine semi-formal wear a lot so it feels like she basis her style on academia.
The comment about how much time has passed was so natural, it took me a while to realize that it was a way of establishing how much time has passed since the breakup without exposition dumping!
Gotta sneak it in where I can!
Also, Twilight taking Rarity hyper-literally makes me laugh. Poor sweetie!
I just tried to give you what I would've wanted for myself back when I was a writer! I adore your stories (I absolutely love character-based writing, and you're amazing at that). It's so much fun to analyze them!
Awww, you're fucking awesome, thank you! It's kindness like what you're doing that makes the world a better place, in my opinion!
And it's funny, because part of the reason I'm so passionate about writing is to give people the kinds of stuff I've dorked out over in the past - paying forward the fandom, you know?
It's a big cycle of love and being dorks together, and I love that :D
Also, hell yeah for being an essayist and former writer!! I will say too: knowing you're in college, the former writer part is completely understandable haha - a lot of people lose touch with hobbies/passions like reading and/or writing during college because there's just... a neverending amount of reading and writing, and when you do have free time (which never quite feels free because you can always somehow do more studying or homework), then your brain craves rest, or at least variety in how it's being used. I would 1000% support you either way if you regain your love for writing after college - for now, enjoying your college years is the main thing!!
(source: I'm a few years out of college now; although ironically never left campus because I work there now to help students haha)
Character development is the best thing ever, seriously. I really appreciate how slow and natural it is too, as someone who has trouble being vulnerable like Sunset. It's really inspiring to see her change.
You and Sunset both deserve the time you need to be vulnerable!! It's hard stuff, especially if you've been hurt (and who hasn't??). She's working hard on herself, even if she doesn't realize it for part of the story.
The other thing I will say about character development: Sunset clearly is aware that she was a a whole other person when she was in her last relationship. How does she go from learning how to be a friend to learning how to be in a different kind of relationship? That's the crux of Eros for me, or one of them. I wanted to know how a girl like her would open herself up again - and with the other stories being set after Sunset and Twilight got together, we weren't going to get to see how that happened without going back in time haha
I do wonder why the swear is specifically pegasus balls lol…did you want to avoid the stereotypical earth pony racism? And because unicorns are associated with purity? It would be out of character for Sunset to criticize unicorns…I guess pegasus’ are connected with Poseidon, and he's definitely a sex fiend, so it could be that lol (and I feel like Princess Twilight would be scandalized by Sunset cursing at all lol).
Canon, that's so good, omg.
I think I chose pegasus balls mostly because the specificity gives it a little more punch than if she'd said it sucks. Also, yeah, the weirdly sexual image that it conjures up both feels appropriate and makes me laugh a little
You'll find a large number of the smaller choices in my stories are because they make me smile, and that tends to be a good indicator we're onto something haha!
Aww, thank you! I absolutely adore writing essays, so I basically treated my comment like I was writing one lol. I only discovered most of this stuff after reading the chapter twice! I love rereading and rewatching things to discover things that I missed the first time around.
SAME! Rereading and rewatching things to catch new things about it is so fun!! And hell yeah, your essays are so thoughtful, I love this!
It's really interesting to think about what Sunset and Flash's relationship could have looked like. How much did Sunset make out/have sex with him to ignore her feelings? And it's doubly interesting to think about how you can still see the effects of her mindset back then on her relationship with Twilight now, even though she's made so much progress.
All of these are such good questions - you might get the info you're looking for. Some of which will be in Eros, some might be in another Ex Files story ;)
I'm really glad to hear that, I worry a little about her sometimes. She draws all day for work and then comes home to draw some more…I can see that leading to burnout really easily, even though she loves it. I know that I quit reading and writing anything for fun (I still read fanfics obviously! I just avoid reading nonfiction books and published fiction books. And I don't write fanfic at all now) a few years ago because I read/write all day for college…why would I want to do that more? But I guess this comment is writing and I'm obviously having a blast reading Eros, so I do still read and write lol. I hope that drawing for this series doesn't feel too similar to work for her.
Awww it's so considerate of you to think about her!
I'll let her speak for herself in terms of her experiences with drawing for work vs. drawing for fun @bevinbrand.
On my end, I 1000% support her taking care of her health and wellness. She's my best friend first, collab partner second.
It's really cool seeing Rarity being more feminine here, before she became more masculine/confident in EFTD. I guess with her being a cheerleader it would make a lot of sense for her to have this pressure to be stereotypically feminine. Rarity probably knows that she's bi, but maybe she thinks that as a lady (since that's how Rarity would describe herself lol) it wouldn't be prudent to ask someone out?
I do wonder if Rarity ever dealt with internalized biphobia in her life (believing that ladies could only date princes when she was younger lol). Or maybe she always believed that other people could date whoever they wanted to, but not her as a lady. But she believes that if she asked Applejack out, she'd be “betraying” the core essence of what she thinks a lady is. She wouldn't think she can be someone who asks other people out, especially when she's not dating men. I could be completely wrong with the internalized biphobia thing since she's obviously really amazing with queer people now.
I personally consider the Equestria Girls versions of Rarity and Applejack as bi because of their crushes on Ragamuffin/Dirk Thistleweed respectively, but you could easily make the argument that they're any sexual orientation!
YESSSS - okay, this is so interesting to me because I'm the opposite of her. My first partner was my high school best friend (non-binary, afab). Gender roles didn't matter as much, we actually switched who was more dominant and who was more submissive depending on the day (although I tended toward dominant).
Whereas now I'm a bi woman with a straight dude, and gender roles do come in. I was used to being in the other role. It was really interesting to see gender roles come into play when they weren't a thing before.
For Rarity, she's absolutely used to gender roles Mattering. I think she's waiting for AJ to play the masculine role -- but she doesn't have to!
I am? What, about the avoidant attachment style? Cool, that really interests me because avoidant attachment styles are caused by parents neglecting their kid's emotions by telling them to get over it or not talking about feelings with them. I could see Celestia doing that while she was raising Sunset, and it ties into why Sunset has such a hard time expressing her emotions and being vulnerable. I imagine Celestia after losing her sister to be kind of wary about getting too close to other ponies, so it would make sense if she indirectly passed that down to Sunset.
Of course Celestia didn't do it on purpose, there were more important things to worry about like preparing Sunset to fight in a war. And Sunset probably wouldn't realize it because she idolizes Celestia so much/the war environmentwas normalized for her, but it's cool to think of Celestia having flaws.
Sunset straight up does not have awareness of this, like you said, but Princess Celestia was loving and kind and a great mentor (and mom), but based on the ways Sunset and Twilight grew up to distance themselves from others, I really don't think Celestia taught them to be emotionally intelligent. And she only realized that when they were older, hence 'go make some friends, Twilight'
Twilight had parents of her own, so I think that's why she fared better than Sunset. Like, once Twilight's out in the world, she doesn't have as much of a problem being vulnerable and understanding empathy as Sunset did.
Personally, I think Celestia's fatal flaw is that she takes things on as her own burden alone. She must have realized at some point that Twilight would be stronger with friends because Celestia faced so much loss by trying to deal with things alone.
Lost her sister, lost her student, lost Starswirl (her mentor)...
There's no way she wasn't in grief, in my mind. And I think she really tried to take it all on alone because she's the leader of Equestria, and is used to taking things on alone. For the greater good.
Sunset swings both ways in all things, even though she would probably consider herself a top lol. (I really like the gifs by the way!)
I looked it up and yes! It still counts as foreshadowing, the order of events doesn't matter.
Huh! I learn something new everyday! :D
Yeah that seems to be a recurring theme in Eros…everyone giving up what they want to make other people happy. I'm interested to see how that'll pop up in the future!
Oh hi Chapter 2, I didn't see you there
You can see this in EFTD all the time, especially in how other characters react to Sunset (like Timber thinking it's weird that Sunset said that she wasn't a good friend when they were on the balcony at Cadence's apartment. And the scene where Sunset let Solstice go after he turned into a demon and everyone acted like she'd made the wrong decision. Absolutely love how Sunset's empathy turned into a flaw there, it's fascinating stuff!)
Sometimes people's greatest strengths can also be weaknesses, and vice versa! We love grey area and complexity!
Back when I was writing I really struggled with this (I just projected my own issues onto the characters I was writing, which obviously made them pretty out of character sometimes). The reason you can write characters that you don't like accurately is because of your empathy, and that's amazing! I'm trying to think about how the characters would act and not projecting my thoughts onto them when I'm reading Eros lol.
Thank you!! I tend to write a lot of characters I love, so that makes it easier haha
And I feel you, there's definitely a balance between writing the character as the character, and imbuing them with you. I think no matter what, there's pieces of you in all the characters you write.
I think what helps for me is that I'm focused on the emotion they're feeling, and feeling it to some extent with them. I listen to music as I write, so I get into the emotional headspace with them and so like, even if I wouldn't think or feel the way that they are in reaction to what they're going through, I still genuinely understand why they do.
And honestly, pieces of the writer end up in the characters without meaning to -- some of which I'm aware of, some I only realize later.
What's fun is when Bevin shows up in my writing, so to speak. We're best friends, so the way she thinks and feels about things can show up in certain characters - and she usually picks up on it and we laugh. Or cry, as the case may be!
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