madjazzed:

chad-buskin:

I think the thing that gets me the most about Detective Pony is the fact that there are three Pony Pals.

Dirk has three friends.

One Pony Pal (Pawnee) is implicitly identified with one of Dirk’s RL friends (and his guilt about his relationship with said friend) through the alcoholism schtick.

Dirk’s Detective Pony is the story of three innocent children being corrupted by Dirk’s insidious influence… and the happy ending is one in which Dirk and his influence are entirely removed from their lives.

I HAVE SO MANY FEELINGS ABOUT DETECTIVE PONY

but right now I just want to talk about how sonnetstuck’s Dirk wrote himself into the story WAY before Dirk Strider the antagonistic author insert character shows up, because Acorn is also Dirk. he’s identifying with the pony, and projecting his own feelings of guilt and self-hatred, as well as his fears. that’s why Acorn is terrible, murderous, doomed to hell and deserving of judgment, as well as powerful and legendary–he’s Dirk’s self-aggrandizement and self-loathing in equine form. and there’s the issue of control–Acorn’s position as a pony of godlike
power who lets himself be mastered by Anna, his owner, is also really
reflective of Dirk’s very much suppressed desire to belong to his
friends–that is, to be subject to them in a way he can never
consciously allow himself to be, to let them guide him, make decisions,
&c so that he doesn’t have to–he feels as though he
always has to be pulling the strings, he can’t let himself trust
them to take care of themselves, let alone him–but deep down, he wants
to be able to let them take the reins.

so removing Acorn from the heroic role
he apparently occupied in the original text reflects back on Dirk–he’s not a hero, he can’t measure up to the
image of himself he has cultivated and performed for his friends. by rewriting so that Acorn doesn’t solve the mystery or save the day, he casts doubt on his own abilities, and by making Acorn
a reprehensible mass-murderer, he symbolically knocks himself off the pedestal completely. Acorn-as-Dirk implicitly makes the same suggestion that is
later made explicit with the comparisons of Dirk-Strider-the-character
to the minotaur and the serpent: Dirk is a monster.

BUT unlike Dirk-the-character, Acorn is distinguished by a single virtue: he fucking loves Anna. he is utterly loyal, devoted, & protective of her, and it’s mutual–a genuine, profound bond. they care deeply for each other, to the point of willingly sacrificing everything, and the Pony Pals stick together, too, even when it means following Anna into hell. and that’s the only real meaningful thing in the horrible world of Detective Pony, the only source of hope, the only thing that ultimately stands between the world of the text and its utter annihilation.

the magic of friendship, if you will.