Apr 15, 2025
To:Elukard
Thank you for reading this all the way to the end. In regards to Silas, I left my central thoughts on him in my reply to Orionless, but I'll elaborate a bit more on his role in my reply to you. But first off, I want to address the pacing of the story.
I actually feel as though the length is just right, as anymore would feel like I'm adding stuff simply for the sake of padding. It's clear that Silas ended up being more popular than I imagined, which is likely the reason the expectations for him to do even more arose. Though in terms of cut content, the Silas arc was originally planned to take a bit of a different route, which likely would have led to more chapters being in it. Originally, Silas was going to approach Ivy and without rewriting her mind, manipulate her into committing the heinous atrocities she did. She still would have ended up executed for her crimes, but this time, she'd be terrified and screaming how Silas tricked her up until her final moments. There were quite a few reasons I ended up scrapping this idea. First, Ivy ended up being so well received by readers, it inspired me to take a different angle with her character than originally planned. Back when I had that original vision of the Silas arc, Ivy was nothing more than a typical bully. She had no hidden cute side, nor was she even Jeter's favorite character. Positive fan reception to her though led to me revising her character which naturally meant the original arc would be revised too.
As for why it was the way it was, I felt it was the more logical direction to take. When Silas was given the opportunity to write the arc, he didn't know how long he'd have to do so. Thus, his strategy was to start with making Ivy irredeemable and offing her in one fell swoop, as if he delayed doing so, he risked Jeter waking up and coming back to retcon away what was happening. For example, if Silas instead started with the trial and then Ivy committing the heinous acts, had Jeter woken up before Silas could kill off Ivy, he would have written things to have the evil Ivy be an imposter, and the real one captured, but breaking free to appear in court and unmask her fake as Silas' accomplice, landing both her and Silas in prison instead. I hope that better clarified things in regards to the story. Once again, thank you for reading and supporting this series. I hope you enjoyed it.
