My Little Pony LVI:S Has Left the Playground!

[Forum Explorer]

Spoiler

Show

ships sunk:
Anything with Tom. He was brutally murdered and his heart put on display as a distraction

New Episode

Spoiler

Show

New headcanon

Spoiler

Show

That reminds me, I'm really surprised we didn't hear one outraged gasp from Rarity about Twilight's obviously poor job on that crystal heart. AJ was obviously too polite to criticize it, but I would have expected Rarity to offer to make a better one

New episode

Spoiler

Show

Presumably they ran out of time/Rarity didn't have the raw power to speed carve crystal. Rarity had the good sense to know that this was not the time.

[Eakin]

S3

Spoiler

Show

So, what is that book that Luna conjured at the end? I guess we will see.

The horrible truth behind the book

Spoiler

Show

On dark magic

Spoiler

Show

One thing I find amusing is that a lot of ponies are talking about how Sombra wasn't developed enough, even joking about redeeming him like here or mostly just saying he was a boring do-nothing cloud of evil.

But, at the exact same time, everypony is getting worried over the fact that Twilight whipped out some dark magic, even though all we saw was a shadowy visual effect and no change to Twilight's personality or any danger of corruption at all.

Dark magic

Spoiler

Show

I'm just so used to dark power being inherently evil or corrupting in just about every work of fiction out there that the absence of the trope threw me in this case. Especially since every other form of super magic in the series seems to have some sort of emotional component

[Raz_Fox]

Well, I caved in and got the little iOS app. I'm Raz_Fox, for anyone who wants to add me.

Also: oh my goodness are the little instrumental versions of the various pony songs soothing.

[Soras Teva Gee]

The horrible truth behind the book

Spoiler

Show

Dangerously close to being headcanon'd...

Spoiler

Show

... followed by the revelation that Equestria is 3 trillion bits in the red and the biggest chunk to the Griffon King and the Dragon Bank. Then the Mane Six must travel the world running down an elaborate scheme to beggar Equestria.

MLP: Accounting is Magic!

[MCerberus]

Dangerously close to being headcanon'd...

Spoiler

Show

... followed by the revelation that Equestria is 3 trillion bits in the red and the biggest chunk to the Griffon King and the Dragon Bank. Then the Mane Six must travel the world running down an elaborate scheme to beggar Equestria.

MLP: Accounting is Magic!

Spoiler

Show

Actually, Equestria is fine, but Celestia is just angry that her MAD CAKE LUST is being denied because the 35% of the budget that usually goes to cakes is being mostly redirected towards the weekly rebuilding of Ponyville after a disaster.

[Madcrafter]

Spoiler

Show

Magic, presumably.

Spoiler

Show

Ah a wizard did it, the best answer to every question. Why did he not just escape earlier though. Surely he didn't need the excuse of the crystal empire coming back to escape from his icy prison.

Spoiler

Show

Actually, Equestria is fine, but Celestia is just angry that her MAD CAKE LUST is being denied because the 35% of the budget that usually goes to cakes is being mostly redirected towards the weekly rebuilding of Ponyville after a disaster.

Spoiler

Show

Aha, no wonder they saved the crystal ponies. They must need the slave labour for themselves for work on all the construction projects, and balance the budget that way.

[Anarion]

*eyeglow twitch*

I'm going to generously assume you are suggesting that is what somepony would suggest, as if anyone did suggest anything that innane as a reason, I would have to literally invent new ways in which to inflict pain, as no method currently exists that would hurt enough.

Your interpretation is correct and your magnanimous generosity most appreciated. I do so enjoy living.

Spoiler

Show

As far as Sombra goes, he's clearly a mixture of Power for the sake of power and/or good old fashioned megalomaniacal sadism.

He was probably always a giant douche. Learning powerful dark magics that relied upon and fostered the negative emotions probably...didn't help. The power they granted could only have corrupted him further.

And frankly, I figure being imprisoned for a thousand years doesn't seem to have helped his mind much, I kind of liked how there was an implied difference between the Dark Mastermind who created the Door and so on, and the cackling entity of pure idiot malice that was barely capable of stringing a sentance together, let alone a decent monologue.

On Sombra

Spoiler

Show

I like your interpretation, but I also think he didn't get enough screentime to really draw any conclusions here. It's just as likely that he still possessed his wits and just thought that his old traps were perfectly good and simply following the Xykon theory of "apply force until resistance=0" was the best plan.

The horrible truth behind the book

Spoiler

Show

They're a government, balancing their budget isn't a requirement.

Dark magic

Spoiler

Show

I'm just so used to dark power being inherently evil or corrupting in just about every work of fiction out there that the absence of the trope threw me in this case. Especially since every other form of super magic in the series seems to have some sort of emotional component

Dark magic

Spoiler

Show

It's possible, sure. What I was pointing out is that it's weird to be freaked out over a dark magic visual effect when Twilight uses it a couple times and seems fine, but then look at the giant shadow cloud banging against Cadance's shield and go "meh, not that powerful or interesting." It's the same corrupting force, and if it's a problem for Twilight, it should be a problem that it got all over Shining's horn and infiltrated a big part of the Crystal Empire before they banished it.

Well, I caved in and got the little iOS app. I'm Raz_Fox, for anyone who wants to add me.

Also: oh my goodness are the little instrumental versions of the various pony songs soothing.

Adding you.

Now, go post in Gathering of Mists!

[Aotrs Commander]

Also, I do believe that whilst there is some crossover between the Villain-Sadfic crowd and the Ironhoof tendancy, they are different things and don't inherantly go together. The common theme is exploration via subversion.

Except in fanfiction, it generally really, really isn't. It's frequently nothing more than an excuse in which the author can bash the authority figure (which almost always makes me that the author is a teenager who just doesn't like being told what to do) and/or to elevate a villainous character (for whom the author has a ship as frequently as not). And in some quarters, these such "subversion" fictions outnumber the "normal," canon(-ish)-style ones, and that's what annoys me [I]most[/]. It's not a clever subversion when everypony does it.

This is true of pony - though perhaps not as bad as some fandoms (there's generally less bashing, period, from what I've seen in pony) - it's true of Naruto, it's true of Star Wars (sometimes, most infuriatingly in the EU canon), it's especially true of Harry Potter, and I'm just tired of the whole concept.



It can, very occasionally be done well (I've read a few Snape fics where it has been - but usually, those have been mature enough to not make Dumbledore/Ron more evil than Voldemort and Draco/Bellatrix¹ into saints at the same time.) But that is a rare occasion, even in proportion to, not the bulk of fanfic, the proportion of good fanfic.

Spoiler

Show

As far as Sombra goes, he's clearly a mixture of Power for the sake of power and/or good old fashioned megalomaniacal sadism.

He was probably always a giant douche. Learning powerful dark magics that relied upon and fostered the negative emotions probably...didn't help. The power they granted could only have corrupted him further.

And frankly, I figure being imprisoned for a thousand years doesn't seem to have helped his mind much, I kind of liked how there was an implied difference between the Dark Mastermind who created the Door and so on, and the cackling entity of pure idiot malice that was barely capable of stringing a sentance together, let alone a decent monologue.

Spoiler

Show

I hope so. We need more unambiguously Evil villains (and frankly, leaving pony aside for a moment, a few more unambiguously Good heroes wouldn't hurt; I am so weary of GREY.)

I am just so sick, tired and above all BORED of people trying to grey-ify everything. Magneto and his ilk are just not that interesting. Xykon and Tarquin, for example, are far better villains. They're not misguided, or hard-done to; they are what they are because they do know the differentce between right and wrong, they just don't care. That's so much more evil than some well-intentioned numpty who, if graced with even the slightest sense of genera-savviness, would realise the idiot-ball is firmly glued into the inside of their skulls. I find ignorance and stupidity objectionable at the best of times, and I really, REALLY hate willfully ignorant stupidity.



People say "Evil for the sake of Evil is not realistic", which is just plain wrong because their ARE people out there like that. (I'm one of them for crying out loud.) It's rare, it's not common, but then again, neither are heroes and villains, and I'm just tired of tacticitly told that I shouldn't be because people are too monumentally imbecilic and close-minded to not truly see the world around them.

Also, a purely theoretical question, What on earth do you get out of Being Evil that makes you so protective of it?

Too fundemental a question for me to answer in any way meaningful to you, as I'm a necromancer, not a philospher. It's like me trying to explain blue to a creature that has never seen.

I suspect, the part of the answer, "because" is not going to be answer enough for you, but trying to form a more coherent answer (after several tries) is going to be more time-consuming than I think it's worth, and liable to be far too snippy to be constructive. And I think I've ranted enough.

Tell me Lich, what would your desk fetch on the open market were it too be sold.

I mean given its clearly heavily enchanted to somewhere around atmospheric re-entry levels take all this abuse and everything.

It's actually not. Even with Aotrs materials. We have to replace the command console every so often. Especially since he got made of mithril alloy...

Your interpretation is correct and your magnanimous generosity most appreciated. I do so enjoy living.

'S what I thought...

I don't think it counts until it's not just someone being silly. I also don't see how they could pull this off with this villain.

You would be horribly surprised how people can rationalise anything away. Someone will do it, I'm sure of it.



Y'know what? Let's tempt fate.

Spoiler

Show

If nopony on ponythread can find fanart/fanfic to the effect of unvillainising Sombra within the next two weeks² - which means you have to, while not actively search, point out and link anything you come across - I will be forced to read it, and I will draw a pony.

It will be a badly-drawn line-scribbled pony of dubious quality (as you're seen my drawing "talents" before), so therefore you can all point and laugh and rub it in both how wrong and how artistically inept I am.

¹Seriously, homicidal, tortuing manic Bellatrix gets made not-Evil usually because she's female and therefore a potential love-interest for whatever self-insert "badass" (sic) unlikable jerk Harry the story is about. So objectifyingly sexist for good measure.

²And I'll say that because these things can take time; my main point was not that it will happen immediately, but that it will happen, plus there is an outside chance we might get something more concrete in terms of canon in the next couple of weeks (even if just Word-of-Staff), so I'll give it some breathing room).

[Forum Explorer]

Spoiler

Show

Ah a wizard did it, the best answer to every question. Why did he not just escape earlier though. Surely he didn't need the excuse of the crystal empire coming back to escape from his icy prison.

New episode

Spoiler

Show

Icy prison? I thought he was banished to Shadow. Anyways you could just say that the entire icy wasteland was his prison which is why it was A) icy and frigid in Not!Winter and that's why the only the Crystal Empire was in danger, because it was the only place within the prison itself.

[Alabenson]

You know, part of this discussion (and another viewing of A Canterlot Wedding) has caused me to develop a theory explaining why Chrysalis imprisoned Twlight right next to Cadance; Chrysalis' intention was to sufficiently enrage Twilight that she wouldn't be thinking clearly when she uncovered the real Cadance and would subsequently beat the poor princess to within an inch of her life. It never occured to Chrysalis that Cadance would have a reliable way of proving that she was the real thing.

[HalfTangible]

Well, I caved in and got the little iOS app. I'm Raz_Fox, for anyone who wants to add me.

Also: oh my goodness are the little instrumental versions of the various pony songs soothing.

Wait, what app? Pony app? Playground app?

[DigoDragon]

I made this! (Scootaloo image, 1000x1300):

Spoiler

Show

So, I've been watching the FieryJoker do his reviews of all the My Little Pony episodes. Its nice to see it graded by someone who is neutral to the whole thing and he has some pretty funny jokes as well, even if some are a little over the top.

How many has he done? I totally didn't keep up with that...

The horrible truth behind the book

Spoiler

Show

I like my idea, but this one is good too. Love the expressions.

[Madcrafter]

New episode

Spoiler

Show

Icy prison? I thought he was banished to Shadow. Anyways you could just say that the entire icy wasteland was his prison which is why it was A) icy and frigid in Not!Winter and that's why the only the Crystal Empire was in danger, because it was the only place within the prison itself.

Spoiler

Show

He was turned into shadow, and imprisoned in ice/winter/whatever. Good point; I'd have to say directly around the crystal empire is a bit of an inconvenient place to have said prison, but maybe the princesses didn't have a choice of location for whatever magic they used.

This thread moves so fast.

[Tiki Snakes]

I did notice [spoilery]this link Whilst googling the character in question earlier, just before hitting image search.

Though having read it since, I'm not sure it counts.

Two further thoughts; I always assumed that the vast majority of fanfiction was infact written by teenagers or at least people in their early twenties. I have no basis for this, it's just my unfounded assumption, so that wouldn't be at all surprising. I'm also of the sneaking suspicion that average brony fanfic writer age might skew a bit higher, which would directly correlate with the relative lack of bashfics. This is equally unfounded and based on less than zero research.

Evil for Evil's sake;

Spoiler

Show

I'm not sure that's what Tarquin even is. He's not particularly wedded to Evil on a philosophical level. He just wants to live like a God. Power fantasies, desire for luxury and power and so on and so forth. Personal gain and indulging in his compulsive belief in narrative tropes, they're all motivational doodads he has. With the new addition of lasting fame after death if he can play the Elan part of his plans right.

Xykon? Unless I'm missing something, Xykon is merely a powerful sociopath. He's just unwell, really. I'm not sure he could carry the Order of the Stick as it's sole villain either. Without Redcloak as a foil and the various other villainous types who come and go, he'd get old a lot faster.

As for Magneto in particular, that's a complex question. After all, he's pretty much not one character but two, depending on which writer-faction is ascendant. There's the frothing super-evil, who does nothing but snarl and pose and I could quite happily never encounter in fiction again, and the more complex take on him as an extremist who would rather destroy humanity than allow it to genocide his people, even if that means making the first strike. The times when the latter version has been ascendant were some of the cooler issues and storylines I've read and I much prefer this take on the character than the frothy lunatic they keep periodically reverting him to.

Essentially, what I'm saying is that Magneto is a terrible character whenever he is portrayed as Evil for Evil's sake. Given any depth at all, I find him infinitely more compelling.

I don't really know anything about Bellatrix. Though, being played by Helena Bonham Carter can't have hurt.

As for your self, well, that's a much more tricky subject that I think I'll pass on dissecting for now. Suffice it to say, that Bleakbane the Lich is one of the few characters/people I've encountered who makes such a big deal about Being Evil. Plenty of characters act evil, but they rarely make a big deal about it unless they are directly aligned with a cosmic force of some kind, (See MUMM-RA, THE EVER LIIIIVIIIING! for details).
Infact the only one that springs to mind is a talking mattress with the catchphrase; "Don't Laugh, I'm Eeevil!"

[Beacon of Chaos]

Season 3

Spoiler

Show

[BlasTech]

Wait, what app? Pony app? Playground app?

Pony app by Gameloft. City builder of ponyville kind of thing.

I've been having alot of trouble with the Gameloft ID thing, I've invited a half dozen of you guys to be my friends, but the game doesn't want to sync correctly. Maxtronaut appeared in my friends list yesterday, but disappeared today. I still have no idea what happened to Siuis and Braz who seem to have accepted my friend invite.

Long story short, I go "UGHHH" like Twilight every time Spike comes to me with another Gameloft social interaction based quest.

[Silverraptor]

The horrible truth behind the book

Spoiler

Show

That was hilarious!

How many has he done? I totally didn't keep up with that...

He's done the pilot of Season 1, the pilot of season 2, the canterlot wedding, and is now up to the sleepover episode of season 1.

[Forum Explorer]

So I started to read my first new villain fan fic.

Spoiler

Show

And I am so so so sick and tired of the whole Luna was tricked into becoming Nightmare Moon thing.

Why does everypony feel the need to go; "it wasn't Luna's fault." It's so annoying!

This must be how Bleakbane feels all the time.

[Weimann]

He's done the pilot of Season 1, the pilot of season 2, the canterlot wedding, and is now up to the sleepover episode of season 1.

If you like that, may I also suggest Professor Penn's Pony Perusal Program? I think he's pretty good, particularly the editing and summary of the episodes.

[Trixie]

So, after watching Ep in HD:

S3 (Black Book)

Spoiler

Show

Head Canon- Its Celestia's book of hotties she has on call

Spoiler

Show

So, you're saying she has binders full of mares?

S3 (Ponies)

Spoiler

Show

Slaves?
To me the Crystal ponies seem to just be an Earth Pony subrace with shinier coats. I think it's more of their location living in the Crystal kingdom that gives them their gem-ly appearance than anything else.

Spoiler

Show

I'd even say they were regular Earth Ponies, 'crystal' being just a nation. Spike also turned into crystal version, so they were probably just affected by residual magic.

S3 Villain

Spoiler

Show

There's some trashing of Sombra on other sites for just being a cackling snarler who can only say slaves,crystal, or noooo. But, it occurred to me that unlike Luna or Discord before his imprisonment Sombra was a mortal unicorn. Can you imagine being stripped of of your physical form and all the sensations that go with it then being imprisoned immobile for a thousand years? Its probably too dark for a kids show but its possible that most of Sombra's mind was gone and a primal drive for conquest and vengeance was all he had left.

Spoiler

Show

Upon thinking, do we even know all he can do is snarl? Maybe it's just his shadow form that is not good at talking? When he reformed into pony body at the end, he seemed to lose that problem. What you describe, stripped and imprisoned seems to describe Discord better than Sombra.

Also, yeah, bet you 50 bits he can reform after being dispersed, like true shadow.

Speaking for too dark for child's show, I raise you Nox and Qilby

S3

Spoiler

Show

So, what is that book that Luna conjured at the end? I guess we will see.

Spoiler

Show

For 20% more irony I'd say the book is a dark, sparkly tome...

Spoiler

Show

Copy of Twilight

[Welf]

Spoiler

Show

I'd even say they were regular Earth Ponies, 'crystal' being just a nation. Spike also turned into crystal version, so they were probably just affected by residual magic.

Spoiler

Show

Maybe a sub-branch of earth ponies?

On a side note: I wonder of dragons are their natural predators. They seem to be made of chrystal, and Spike loves to eat gems.

[Dusk Eclipse]

So I started to read my first new villain fan fic.

Spoiler

Show

And I am so so so sick and tired of the whole Luna was tricked into becoming Nightmare Moon thing.

Why does everypony feel the need to go; "it wasn't Luna's fault." It's so annoying!

This must be how Bleakbane feels all the time.

Spoiler

Show

I completely agree with you, it does become annoying after a while..

[Aotrs Commander]

So I started to read my first new villain fan fic.

Spoiler

Show

And I am so so so sick and tired of the whole Luna was tricked into becoming Nightmare Moon thing.

Why does everypony feel the need to go; "it wasn't Luna's fault." It's so annoying!

This must be how Bleakbane feels all the time.

Exactly!

It's really aggrevating, isn't it?



Just to reiterate a point: one of the very first things I said when I joined ponythread was to express disatisfaction with how the fandom at the time was almost entirely sympathising with Luna solely on the basis of a few tears and one line of dialogue; especially when many were simultaneously blighting Celestia with the tyrannical Ironhoof dictator label as was commonplace at the time (again, with the "good authority figure is evil/villain is just misunderstood).

And it annoyed the crap out of me, because there was no balance. Virtually no-one aside from myself seemed to think Luna had a) deserved less mercy than she got from (possibly) trying to kill the entire world (which was a whole other long debate we don't need to have again) and more importantly, b) could have just been going to plan B, shedding a few crocodile tears, while quietly planning a way to regain her powers/off Celestia a little down the line. Because, if the brony fandom is anything to go by, if Luna had been actually Evil (not just Nightmare Moon), that plan totally would have worked; one two-second scene and the fandom was eating out of her hoof with little justification, and the ponies themselves didn't seem to have thought of the potential danger.

I don't think I've seen any significant fics tackle that sort of angle even now.

Not that I haven't warmed considerably to Luna (especially after her season 2 appearance!) since, nor would I ever espouse that as canon-that-should-have-been, because what we got was much better; but it is just a point worth noting in passing.

[Pokonic]

Y'know what? Let's tempt fate. .

Bleakbane: If I am correct, you said you would draw something if someone found something depicting Sombra in a positive light if someone posted it within a two-week period.

Ready your pen.

[Forum Explorer]

Exactly!

It's really aggrevating, isn't it?



Just to reiterate a point: one of the very first things I said when I joined ponythread was to express disatisfaction with how the fandom at the time was almost entirely sympathising with Luna solely on the basis of a few tears and one line of dialogue; especially when many were simultaneously blighting Celestia with the tyrannical Ironhoof dictator label as was commonplace at the time (again, with the "good authority figure is evil/villain is just misunderstood).

And it annoyed the crap out of me, because there was no balance. Virtually no-one aside from myself seemed to think Luna had a) deserved less mercy than she got from (possibly) trying to kill the entire world (which was a whole other long debate we don't need to have again) and more importantly, b) could have just been going to plan B, shedding a few crocodile tears, while quietly planning a way to regain her powers/off Celestia a little down the line. Because, if the brony fandom is anything to go by, if Luna had been actually Evil (not just Nightmare Moon), that plan totally would have worked; one two-second scene and the fandom was eating out of her hoof with little justification, and the ponies themselves didn't seem to have thought of the potential danger.

I don't think I've seen any significant fics tackle that sort of angle even now.

Not that I haven't warmed considerably to Luna (especially after her season 2 appearance!) since, nor would I ever espouse that as canon-that-should-have-been, because what we got was much better; but it is just a point worth noting in passing.

To be fair I've seen plenty of Elements of Harmony not working fics, or Nightmare Moon recorrupting Luna fics. Or Nightmare Moon just winning and being evil.

But yeah I've never seen your idea in paticular.

[Excession]

S3:

Spoiler

Show

Headcanon: the Crystal Empire isn't so much a city as a super-weapon, probably some relic of the Discord War. It used earth ponies as its power source, and the constant exposure to that shiny crystal field changed them into Crystal Ponies.

Cadance was recognised as the "Crystal Princess" after she caught the heart. Her cutie mark is the crystal heart. What's up with that? Direct descendent of the original royals? A new-born foal sealed in crystal and sent to Celestia (attached note: contents one alicorn, best before 1000 years from now) when the Empire fell?

[Silverraptor]

S3:

Spoiler

Show

Headcanon: the Crystal Empire isn't so much a city as a super-weapon, probably some relic of the Discord War. It used earth ponies as its power source, and the constant exposure to that shiny crystal field changed them into Crystal Ponies.

Cadance was recognised as the "Crystal Princess" after she caught the heart. Her cutie mark is the crystal heart. What's up with that? Direct descendent of the original royals? A new-born foal sealed in crystal and sent to Celestia (attached note: contents one alicorn, best before 1000 years from now) when the Empire fell?

Spoiler

Show

I know, right? I thought for several seconds that this was some out of the blue important plot point when she suddenly turned crystal. (Atleast until the rest of them turned crystal as well.)

[t209]

S3:

Spoiler

Show

Headcanon: the Crystal Empire isn't so much a city as a super-weapon, probably some relic of the Discord War. It used earth ponies as its power source, and the constant exposure to that shiny crystal field changed them into Crystal Ponies.

Cadance was recognised as the "Crystal Princess" after she caught the heart. Her cutie mark is the crystal heart. What's up with that? Direct descendent of the original royals? A new-born foal sealed in crystal and sent to Celestia (attached note: contents one alicorn, best before 1000 years from now) when the Empire fell?

Here's my theory for addendum

Spoiler

Show

Luna and Celestia were one of the offsprings from nobility from Three Ponies Tribes; they are either earth ponies, unicorn or pegasus. Then Discord came and used them as his genetic experiment. When Luna and Celestia were turned into Alicorns and probably sterile (Faust said that they had kids), only a few ponies test subjects survived. Cadence's ancestor is one of the non-alicorn survivors but carry alicorn gene and ruled crystal kingdom. Discord might implanted Nightmare Moon mode in Luna as a fail safe.

[Strife Warzeal]

Pony app by Gameloft. City builder of ponyville kind of thing.

I've been having alot of trouble with the Gameloft ID thing, I've invited a half dozen of you guys to be my friends, but the game doesn't want to sync correctly. Maxtronaut appeared in my friends list yesterday, but disappeared today. I still have no idea what happened to Siuis and Braz who seem to have accepted my friend invite.

Long story short, I go "UGHHH" like Twilight every time Spike comes to me with another Gameloft social interaction based quest.

I think you said you are playing from an android right? This is information that is only pertinent to the android version of mlp gameloft game.
After doing some research (gameloft forums) apparently the android version doesn't work properly causing such problems as, failure to connect to the friend-server-thingy, or idle ponies (apparently they're supposed to do stuff). Supposedly they are working on this, so the only thing we can do is be patient. Curiously if you interact through facebook, it works properly.


I know that feel, with spike.

[Maxtronaut]

Anypony else just have Gameloft completely disconnect? I can't even access my sister's Ponyville, and she's in the next room.