Results 31 to 60 of 1468
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2017-06-15, 11:26 AM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Mar 2011
- Gender
Re: My Little Pony XCVII: Cheerilee's Lonely Hearts Club
It's hard for me to pick just one, but Twilight Sparkle and Applejack are the standout choices for me, with Flitter as chief background-pony waifu.
I have to whole-heatedly agree with you about Edding's early work (though I think I'd count the Belgariad/Malloreon and Elenium/Tamuli as separate series. I remember discovering Eddings in highschool and to this day he remains one of my favorite authors of all time.
That being said, though, having read the gods quartet you sadly didn't miss much.
Spoiler: God Quartet SpoilersIn the end the whole conflict is resolved with time-travel shenanigans rendering it so that the previous three books never happened, and it was handled in the most clumsy anti-climatic manner possible. Which, unfortunately, was par for the course for the series as a whole.If brute force isn't working, that just means you're not using enough of it.
When in doubt, set something on fire. If not in doubt, set something on fire anyway.
My Homebrew
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2017-06-15, 11:35 AM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Jul 2009
- Location
- Garreg Mach Monastery
- Gender
Re: My Little Pony XCVII: Cheerilee's Lonely Hearts Club
Declaring my Waifu on my W41F-U forms...
Obviously best: Celestia.
Clearly best: Celestia.
Secret best: Celestia.
If I can't pick the same pony, it's Celestia/Luna/Pinkie I suppose.Last edited by Derjuin; 2017-06-15 at 11:51 AM.
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2017-06-15, 11:59 AM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Jan 2016
- Location
- SCP-1912-J
- Gender
Re: My Little Pony XCVII: Cheerilee's Lonely Hearts Club
I've read most of his books, and the cut-off point for me it the Belgariad. Everything after it has a recurring theme of "capricious female characters and the male characters who are slaves to her whims". It's especially bad if the woman has any position of power, as the medieval lands his stories all take place in have feudal chains of command hard-baked in. I can't prove it, but I'd bet a pretty penny that we saw the influence of his wife interfering with his writing; I'd also bet the only reason that Belgarath the Sorcerer was relatively free from such meddling is that he placated her by making her officially co-author for all later books.
Plus, while it's well-written, the ideas behind The Malloreon sound like bad fanfiction. Remember the Ultimate Choice that would determine the fate of the universe? Well, now there's a new Ultimate Choice that will determine the fate of the universe for real this time, guys. I've also introduced love interests for the single heroes, including one that was only assumed dead but was actually alive and hiding for centuries. Also, the villian is a woman whose skin tone is the night sky. ORIGINAL CHARACTER, DO NOT STEAL!Avatar by Coronalwave
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2017-06-15, 12:21 PM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- May 2008
- Location
- Orlando, FL
- Gender
Re: My Little Pony XCVII: Cheerilee's Lonely Hearts Club
Huzzah! Our planet's destroyer has returned!! :D
Spoiler
Yeah, I'm rather happy that things stayed calm for the most part around here. Sucks about your camper falling apart like a... thing without glue or something. Locally for me it's just been raining every day. Kinda getting old when you have to mow your lawn weekly. Oh look, dark clouds already...
Spoiler
Do you need more than one?
I'm not sure I see a difference between Obviously and Clearly and whatever other ones there are.
Spoiler
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2017-06-15, 12:40 PM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Nov 2006
- Location
- England. Ish.
- Gender
Re: My Little Pony XCVII: Cheerilee's Lonely Hearts Club
I always found Eddings a mixed bag.
The Belgariad and Elenium were good stories, but having read the former I was starting to pick up on his style in the latter.
Then he started producing sequels to them that suffered from the usual problem of effectively rewriting the previous story to get the new one to work.
Then there was Athulus, which managed to encapsulate all the character flaws and bad writing into one book, and the Elder Gods, where I read the first book and stopped, because the overload of character and plot was too little for me.Warning: This posting may contain wit, wisdom, pathos, irony, satire, sarcasm and puns. And traces of nut.
"The main skill of a good ruler seems to be not preventing the conflagrations but rather keeping them contained enough they rate more as campfires." Rogar Demonblud
"Hold on just a d*** second. UK has spam callers that try to get you to buy conservatories?!? Even y'alls spammers are higher class than ours!" Peelee
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2017-06-15, 01:11 PM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Jan 2007
- Location
- Derby, UK
- Gender
Re: My Little Pony XCVII: Cheerilee's Lonely Hearts Club
I'll grant you that Eddings does tend to write just a little bit sort of on the female-side of sexist, which I find a bit aggrevating in excess (more so now than twenty years ago when I first read it, I'm much more equalist now than then) - but no more than I find, say Batman's sense of superiority aggrevating. And the banter is entertaining enough. (I am, however, not hugely fond of Polgara or Ce'Nedra, come to that. I suspect were we - especially in the former case - ever to meet, we would barely be able to stand being in the same room as one another, even leaving aside the alighnment issues. I have noted that Applejack and I would get along about as well as matter and antimatter (and not in a good way) and polgara is sort like AJ but worse.) Edding's earlier works tended to be better (though I don't find the Malleroan or the Tamuli to be lesser than the Belgariad and the Elenium myself); the Belgariad was slightly better than the Elenium; Althalus was not quite as good, and I could see Eddings was just starting to get a bit repetative in his stock of characters. The Elder Gods, I got through to book three and gave up.
I don't remember much about them, actually, except that they were repetative. Except for the single most egregious smug-female-moment (which is a bit of A Thing) in his entire works. I forget the names of the characters, but they were having some sort of dicussion about needing wood for building some siege engines of something. And of of the female characters smugly suggested that the legionaries or whatever have "all those shapr swords, don't they?" With the implication that they should use the legionary's weapons to cut trees down.
At which point, I dearly wished to be there so to say "yes, of course, duck. And then, after we have succeeded in breaking all of the weapons of our legionaries, what do you propose we do...? Swords are not wood axes. Hell, battle axes are not wood axes. And, I think you'll find, reforging all the weapons you just broke will require more wood that you have gained by breaking the weapons in the first place. Next suggestion?"
That actually may have been the bit that broke me, actually.
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2017-06-15, 01:49 PM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Mar 2011
- Location
- California
- Gender
Re: My Little Pony XCVII: Cheerilee's Lonely Hearts Club
Well, finished with Gundam Seed this month.
Now I'll imagine Flay saying "This is the worst possible thing".
Spoiler: Va previous roles, ignoring ed and double ddBadly drawn helmet avatar drawn by me.
Rest in Peace:SpoilerMiko Miyazaki, Thanh, Durkon- Order of the Stick
Krunch- Looking For Group
Bill- Left 4 Dead
Soap Mactavish- Modern Warfare 3
Sandman- Modern Warfare 3
Ghost and Roach- Modern Warfare 2
Gabe- Dead Space 2
Dom- Gears of War 3
Carmine Brothers- Gears of War series
Uriel Septim VII- Elderscrolls Oblivion
Commander Shepherd- Mass Effect 3
Ned Stark- Song of Ice and Fire
Apple Jack's parents
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2017-06-15, 02:58 PM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Dec 2011
- Location
- South Korea
- Gender
Re: My Little Pony XCVII: Cheerilee's Lonely Hearts Club
First of all, I wholly approve of your choice of Waifu, dear sir. I salute you.
My declared Waifu, seriously best Waifu among all the Waifus I have ever declared
Spoiler: This will surprise nopony, I presume
The fact that I did that on short notice (literally, I started writing this post, decided I needed a picture, thought against re-using a piece I already did, and executed a new one on the spot) would prove my dedication to my waifu, I think.
But since a new way of looking at the characters, as friendship candidate, has been suggested, here's my answer to that as well: Shining Armour. I'd love to have him at my gaming group; think of all the D&D fun I'd have!
This (and your profile picture) inspires me to draw Princest fan art...
Spoiler: Wall of text on my musings on the "Waifu" phenomenonOn the matter of why people declare Waifus, at least in my case it's a sort of "My name is Meto and I support this character" deal. AFAIK, in the East Asian cultural sphere (especially Japan), fan club are built around the whole "Waifu" and "Husbando" phenomenon (with Idol group fan clubs posting birthday celebratory ads on national radio and subway station billboards), so I believe myself and my compatriots are just utilising that "way of showing love" for our Bronydom stuff. I'd presume that cultural phenomenon then jumped cultural spheres along with the whole Anime thing.
PS: Regarding the East Asian way of Fangirl/boy-ing, "for-fun" arguments on the relative attractiveness of characters usually resemble the form parents argue among each other about whose child is better than everyone else's (something really common in East Asia, I tell you). As someone who actually partakes in the phenomenon, I think that resemblance is deliberate, so basically, my theory is that the whole "Waifu" thing is just a carry-over from the East Asian way of showing support.
PPS: The Japanese form of the phenomenon described above, which closely resembles the methods and rituals of the Western "waifu/husbando" phenomenon, is the "Ore no Yome(My bride)" declaration. The primary difference would be the heavy dose of self-deprecation inherent in the "Ore no Yome" phenomenon: the point is to be as cringy and icky as possible on purpose, in order to show "to what depths I have descended in my obsession over this character, all of you can't beat me!". This could be considered related to other similar phenomena in Japanese Otaku culture, such as "Pero Pero(a term denoting support, but literally is an onomatopoeic word describing licking something)" and "Itasha(literally sick-car, decorating your car with a certain character to such an extent it transcends all understanding of decency, or temperance)". That the Western Waifu phenomenon lacks this factor could be taken as evidence against my submitted theory.
PPPS: The Korean ritual that corresponds to the Japanese "Ore no Yome" would be "Choe-ae-ke", meaning "Favourite Character" literally. Note that this term has nothing to do with marriage, unlike Ore no Yome and Waifu. The Koreans do use the terms "Nae Booin(My Wife)" and "Nae Shinboo(My Bride)" quite similarly to the Japanese use of Ore no Yome, but the rarity of their use and the context associated with the terms suggests that they are direct appropriation of the Japanese term itself and should not be taken as the Korean prevalent form of this transnational phenomenon. The Choe-ae-ke ritual is however practically indistinguishable from Ore no Yome, mind you. I think the difference is there because marriage in Korean cultural understanding has very little attractiveness in this context. Korean usage of the term Booin is very much in the "ball and chain" category, something that is also notable in Japanese cultural understanding (hence why the Japanese Otaku culture uses Yome, bride, and not wife).Last edited by meto30; 2017-06-15 at 03:35 PM.
Unus Mundus, Una Veritas, Unum Imperium.
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2017-06-15, 06:25 PM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Apr 2009
Re: My Little Pony XCVII: Cheerilee's Lonely Hearts Club
I was wondering why the Eddings discussion was leaving a bad taste in my mouth but it had been so long since I'd read the books that I couldn't remember why until I read this. I mean, I read like 20 books of his and presumably enjoyed some of them but I do remember a bit of a downhill slope there.
Kind of reminds me of David Gemmal, who was a man with one really good book in his system that he happened to write 30 times.
Thank you very much for this, it was really interesting!
Though I have to warn you that Shining Armour is an abysmal choice for a gaming buddy. He has a baby now. If you've ever had a gaming friend who's had a baby you'd know it's no gaming for 2 years followed by erratic gaming forever afterwards. All my friends are having babies and it's terrible.
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2017-06-15, 06:40 PM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Dec 2011
- Location
- South Korea
- Gender
Re: My Little Pony XCVII: Cheerilee's Lonely Hearts Club
Drat, I forgot completely about that accident-maker. That's probably because I haven't watched any episodes since the midpoint of Season 6, and thus I had only one viewing of Flurry Heart (and there she was very forgettable, IMO). In that case I'll probably have to stick with Spike.
This imagination assumes this iteration of "me" has not watched the show MLP and thus there would be no awkwardness from me knowing a lot about the ponies beforehand.Spoiler: My imagined state of friendship with the major characters, if I ended up being dumped in Ponyville:Twilight Sparkle:I'll be thoroughly debriefed for my knowledge of human cultures and then forgotten about.She has Sunset for that so I'll be outside her sphere of consciousness.
Rarity: I'd doubt I'll make much of a conversastionist with her so I guess I'll just be recognisable by the sheer amount of clothing I'll have to order from her throughout my stay in Ponyville, assuming this goes on for extended periods of time.
Pinkie Pie: Of course I am her friend! Who says I am not her friend? We are best friends forever ever since I first ended up here! Tell her I said so! Wait, no matter, she's probably listening right now! Hi Pinkie, friend!
Applejack: Could be relation-less or good buddies depending on if I can befriend Big Mac? I do have high hopes on that, but still I'd presume my primary business with Sweet Apple Acres would be with the stallion, and with none of the mares.
Fluttershy: I guess I'll try to stay away out of courtesy?
Rainbow Dash: I'd be actively avoiding her like the plague, I'd presume.Unus Mundus, Una Veritas, Unum Imperium.
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2017-06-15, 07:10 PM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- May 2008
- Location
- Orlando, FL
- Gender
Re: My Little Pony XCVII: Cheerilee's Lonely Hearts Club
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2017-06-15, 08:55 PM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Oct 2014
- Location
- Disneyland
- Gender
Re: My Little Pony XCVII: Cheerilee's Lonely Hearts Club
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2017-06-15, 10:08 PM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Jan 2016
- Location
- Brinstar Depths
- Gender
Re: My Little Pony XCVII: Cheerilee's Lonely Hearts Club
Behold! The greatest and most powerful of all waifus! (And a seizure warning.)
Spoiler
Accept no substitutes.
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2017-06-16, 02:59 AM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Nov 2006
- Location
- England. Ish.
- Gender
Re: My Little Pony XCVII: Cheerilee's Lonely Hearts Club
Well, that's because until the Elder Gods, Edding's work was enjoyable, even when it was visibly going downhill. The fun in his writing was the way he played the characters off against each other, and the way he deliberately worked with, and occasionally subverted, standard heroic tropes.
While I don't care much for the Mallorian (+ following books) and the Tamuli, they were enjoyable reads at the time and if a reader really liked the Belgariad or Elenium I would still suggest that they read them, with the caution that they aren't as good.
Likewise, The Redemption of Athulus is still enjoyable, just rather creaky once you see how Eddings structures his stories.
The problem was that with the Elder Gods the well had run dry. I couldn't get invested in the characters (his strength), so the rest fell apart.
Out of interest, which one? I remember The Jerusalem Man and Legend as being quite good, and The Knights of Dark Renown as being OK, but I never saw any of them as being copies of the other.Warning: This posting may contain wit, wisdom, pathos, irony, satire, sarcasm and puns. And traces of nut.
"The main skill of a good ruler seems to be not preventing the conflagrations but rather keeping them contained enough they rate more as campfires." Rogar Demonblud
"Hold on just a d*** second. UK has spam callers that try to get you to buy conservatories?!? Even y'alls spammers are higher class than ours!" Peelee
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2017-06-16, 06:55 AM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- May 2008
- Location
- Orlando, FL
- Gender
Re: My Little Pony XCVII: Cheerilee's Lonely Hearts Club
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2017-06-16, 09:21 AM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Dec 2006
- Location
- Ashland, Kentucky
Re: My Little Pony XCVII: Cheerilee's Lonely Hearts Club
Ponies not only make ME want to be a better person than I was before they entered my life, they make me want to HELP OTHERS be better people too.
And that is a GOOD thing by any definition.
full size avatar
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2017-06-16, 09:30 AM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- May 2008
- Location
- Orlando, FL
- Gender
Re: My Little Pony XCVII: Cheerilee's Lonely Hearts Club
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2017-06-16, 02:20 PM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Jul 2009
- Location
- Garreg Mach Monastery
- Gender
Re: My Little Pony XCVII: Cheerilee's Lonely Hearts Club
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2017-06-16, 03:11 PM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Mar 2011
- Gender
Re: My Little Pony XCVII: Cheerilee's Lonely Hearts Club
This month is starting to make me feel like my family has triggered a gypsy curse of some kind or something. First, my mother falls and shatters her kneecap, which means she's essentially going to be bedridden for over a month. As a result of this I had to take an unpaid day off from work today because the movers who are supposed to take my things down to Florida were supposed to come today, since my father had to take my mother to a follow up doctor's appointment and someone needed to be here. Of course, the mover's couldn't come today because their truck blew its transmission, so now they'll probably have to come on Sunday, after I've already left.
TLDR, I need a hug.If brute force isn't working, that just means you're not using enough of it.
When in doubt, set something on fire. If not in doubt, set something on fire anyway.
My Homebrew
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2017-06-16, 03:28 PM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Jan 2016
- Location
- Brinstar Depths
- Gender
Re: My Little Pony XCVII: Cheerilee's Lonely Hearts Club
Last edited by Miltonian; 2017-06-16 at 03:28 PM.
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2017-06-16, 04:38 PM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- May 2008
- Location
- Orlando, FL
- Gender
Re: My Little Pony XCVII: Cheerilee's Lonely Hearts Club
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2017-06-16, 05:46 PM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Jan 2007
- Location
- Derby, UK
- Gender
Re: My Little Pony XCVII: Cheerilee's Lonely Hearts Club
Naturally. Ouch. And I thought my week could have been better. My commiserations.
In a slightly more positive vein, some good news to report for once. While at the gardener's world show today, they had a mechanical horse ride-doofer for the charity riding for the disabled. Mum had a good go on it. (I did not. I've read enough books that go on about the unpleasantness of riding horses for the first time and my pelvis-burn-hole problem is still not quite at 100% which would have put me off, even if I was inclined in the first place...!) It's not quite the first time she's been on a horse for thirty-odd years, but it is almost. And, as we commented, she couldn't have done that this time last year (as some of you may remember, she'd not long had her stroke). In fact, both me and Mum think she's actually better now in most respects than she was before her stroke; for whatever reason - the determination, the re-wiring of the brain or the system reboot essentially - her FM is not nearly as bad as it was before.
Still, I wouldn't recommend "have a stroke" as a treatment for fibromyalgia - bit of a cutting off noses to spite faces sort of thing...!
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2017-06-16, 08:54 PM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Dec 2011
- Location
- South Korea
- Gender
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2017-06-17, 12:19 AM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Apr 2009
Re: My Little Pony XCVII: Cheerilee's Lonely Hearts Club
Badass warrior with emotional problems joins heroic nature-worshipping tribal resistance to stand against encroaching evil empire, with help from astrally travelling wizards, until heroic last stand. It's not even analysis, it's a plot point in his books that there are multiple universes with the local evil empire trying to wipe out worship of the Source.
Like, the book is actually really good every time he writes it. But it's always basically the same book.
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2017-06-17, 12:09 PM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- May 2008
- Location
- Orlando, FL
- Gender
Re: My Little Pony XCVII: Cheerilee's Lonely Hearts Club
To give you an idea of how humid it is today, my lawnmower's engine was flooded with water. And it was sealed in a plastic tarp.
So pumping the water out of the motor was fun. And by fun I mean mowing the lawn in that much Florida heat is just lethal to a non-earth pony. :o
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2017-06-17, 12:17 PM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Jan 2007
- Location
- Derby, UK
- Gender
Re: My Little Pony XCVII: Cheerilee's Lonely Hearts Club
While doubtless chilly for those of you in hot places by comparison, right here, it is unpleasantly hot and stuffy today as well.
As I'm finally cracking and buying Cities: Skylines Mass Transit, perhaps playing on a snowy map will somewhat alleiviate the heat that my aura doesn't entirely compensate for...
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2017-06-17, 12:58 PM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Jan 2016
- Location
- Brinstar Depths
- Gender
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2017-06-17, 04:58 PM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Nov 2006
- Location
- England. Ish.
- Gender
Re: My Little Pony XCVII: Cheerilee's Lonely Hearts Club
I can't speak for the rest of his work (the three I mentioned are the only ones I have read), but that description as a whole doesn't really fit any of the three books I mentioned.
EDIT: Which makes sense - they are his early work, so while they might contain the individual ideas they are still different enough to be, well, different.Last edited by Manga Shoggoth; 2017-06-18 at 04:47 AM.
Warning: This posting may contain wit, wisdom, pathos, irony, satire, sarcasm and puns. And traces of nut.
"The main skill of a good ruler seems to be not preventing the conflagrations but rather keeping them contained enough they rate more as campfires." Rogar Demonblud
"Hold on just a d*** second. UK has spam callers that try to get you to buy conservatories?!? Even y'alls spammers are higher class than ours!" Peelee
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2017-06-17, 06:39 PM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Mar 2011
- Location
- California
- Gender
Re: My Little Pony XCVII: Cheerilee's Lonely Hearts Club
Spoiler: Gundam Seed English VA as pony characters
You know I swear that Gundam Seed Destiny will be an improvement if Gilda is on the team than pink-haired super soldier who somehow fall in love with a guy who killed her sister.
And Kira Yamato being voiced by Ed and Athrun as Double D.
Sorry for Japanese Va but PLANT being led by Whitebeard from One Piece and Master Asia from G Gundam.Badly drawn helmet avatar drawn by me.
Rest in Peace:SpoilerMiko Miyazaki, Thanh, Durkon- Order of the Stick
Krunch- Looking For Group
Bill- Left 4 Dead
Soap Mactavish- Modern Warfare 3
Sandman- Modern Warfare 3
Ghost and Roach- Modern Warfare 2
Gabe- Dead Space 2
Dom- Gears of War 3
Carmine Brothers- Gears of War series
Uriel Septim VII- Elderscrolls Oblivion
Commander Shepherd- Mass Effect 3
Ned Stark- Song of Ice and Fire
Apple Jack's parents
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2017-06-17, 09:34 PM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Dec 2005
- Location
- In the playground
Re: My Little Pony XCVII: Cheerilee's Lonely Hearts Club
I don't get it, if you guys are going to pick the human race for the extra feat and skill point, why not at least pick the desert variant for the +4 racial bonus on Fortitude saves made to resist the effects of hot weather if you're going to live there? Doesn't fix everything admittedly, but making the saving throws at a bonus is always nice.
Spoiler: Also
Spoiler: Got the whole moon, in her hooves...
There is no emotion more useless in life than hate.