So, because it's No-Pics Thursday (January 31st, 2019) today, you know what that means...
It's time for the Weekly Fanfic Recommendation LINK-SWAP Game thread to continue!
Anyways, THE RULES (read 'em carefully):
Post a link to a fanfiction you like (can be your own as well - it's okay to self-promote), with or without a short blurb.
Important: Reply to someone else's post with a link to a fanfiction you think they might like, based on their choices.
Put each of your choices in a separate post if you want to make sure to get a recommendation based on each one. You may reply to someone else's reply, either to you or to someone else. Please make long discussion threads, they introduce a healthy bit of exploration and can help us find new interests! And that's it!
PLEASE COMPLETE BOTH STEPS 1 and 2. Don't just show up and ask for recommendations if you're not willing to provide any. I'll start the first few threads myself, and reply with a gentle reminder if you forget.
IMPORTANT NOTE. Thanks to /u/BookHorseBot (many thanks to their creator, /u/BitzLeon), you can now use the aforementioned bot to easily post the name, description, views, rating, tags, and a bunch of other information about a fic hosted on Fimfiction.net. All you need to do is include "{NAME OF STORY}" in your comment (without quotes), and the bot will look up the story and respond to your comment with the info. It makes sharing stories really convenient. You can even lookup multiple stories at once.
Ready? Set? LET"S GO! Also, feel free to self-promote in here!
New subreddit for mlp pixel art: https://www.reddit.com/r/pixelpone/
Hi there! It's Thursday again and that means another chance to talk about what's been happening around here and how you feel about it!
Same as every other time, feel free to discuss whatever it is you'd like regarding our little subreddit good or bad. If you're unhappy we'll try our best to fix whatever problem you're having!
If you want to talk about the MLP fandom in general, that's fine too!
But some people may not want to talk about comics or anything else that hasn't happened yet, so you should be nice and hide those conversations from those people by using the spoiler tag.
If you don't know how it's as easy as making an emote:
[It has ponies!](/spoiler)
Becomes: It has ponies!
And if you're not wanting to discuss the subreddit or community specifically you can also check out the weekly off-topic thread here!!!!!
This is the thread for discussing anything pertaining to Fanfiction in general. Like your ideas, thoughts, what you're reading, etc. This differs from my Fanfic Recommendation Link-Swap Thread, as that focuses primarily on recommendations. Every week these two threads will be posted at alternate times.
Although, if you like, you can talk about fics you don't necessarily recommend but found entertaining.
IMPORTANT NOTE. Thanks to /u/BookHorseBot (many thanks to their creator, /u/BitzLeon), you can now use the aforementioned bot to easily post the name, description, views, rating, tags, and a bunch of other information about a fic hosted on Fimfiction.net. All you need to do is include "{NAME OF STORY}" in your comment (without quotes), and the bot will look up the story and respond to your comment with the info. It makes sharing stories really convenient. You can even lookup multiple stories at once.
There are always things about the show I want to talk about, but I'd rather not always dedicate an entire full blown thread to it or it's never the right time to mention because no one would care. Maybe it's a thought that could be answered quickly enough to end discussion or something insignificant and stupid brewing in the back of your head for awhile! Anything you want to throw out to r/mylittlepony and say your piece!
Is there anything you've wanted to mention lately but never got around to it? Anything you want to speak up about for a bit? Any pony topic at all?
So there has been a LOT of talk concerning the exact nature of Cutie Marks over the 8 seasons this show has been on air and Season 5 is where a lot of people began truly questioning the idea behind the concept because of a certain somepony who created a false ideology behind getting rid of one's cutie mark and special talent.
We were first taught about Cutie Marks way way back when the Cutie Mark Crusaders were first introduced where getting your Cutie Mark was seen as your passage into adulthood, or the equivalent of a Quinceanera, and we learn that one's Cutie Mark represents something about the pony it is on. One gains their cutie mark once they find and learn what their special talent is. For the Cutie Mark Crusaders themselves their special talent is helping others. It is a truly altruistic talent of theirs that does not exclude their other talents that they have like: Sweetie Belle's singing ability, Scootaloo's Dare Devil antics, Apple Bloom's potion making, but their true talent is helping other people.
Let us contrast that to a certain Trouble Shoes, one of the ponies that started the whole Cutie Mark debate to begin with Starlight, where his Cutie Mark appears to be Bad Luck incarnate. Now this can be debated both in and out of universe, he got his cutie mark when he was entertaining the judges at the rodeo, and his bad luck could be entirely of his own making thanks to his massive size and clumsiness in a world built for ponies half his size. But the CMC later show him that he has a talent for entertaining ponies and he gets a job as a Rodeo clown entertaining people like he has always wanted.
Some people say that Cutie Marks just show other ponies Who they are. Others say that Cutie Marks define what you are. I personally fall on the issue that though one may have a cutie mark it is what you do with your special talent that defines you. One only need look at Starlight to figure that one out.
So let me get this out of the way. . . I both love and hate Discord. Discord at his best is a clever, manipulative, teasing, entertaining jerk of a fellow who doesn't pull his punches in his jibes and cutting humor all while chaotically affecting the environment to his instant whims.
And at his worst he is a possessive, cruel, envious, quick to anger, petulant, child when he does not get his way or is not invited to something.
And while a lot of that can be chucked up to his being new to friendship, and especially with those who are affected by the passage of time, other bits do not. Take . . .oh 4 random episodes that show these extremes. In Season 8 we actually have examples of both of ends of the spectrum so let's start with the good shall we not?
I ranted about how much of a Jerk Discord was in "The Break Up Breakdown" where Discord was annoyed at Big Mac's love affair with Sugar Belle interfering with their guys night and so he sought to break them up. Not by actually doing anything mind but by being a bad influence and friend. We later see however that if not for Discord manipulating things in the background that Sugar Belle and Big Mac would never have talked to one another and make up. He put their happiness over his own and all in his own chaotic way.
And then there was "A Matter of Principles" in the same season where Discord put the lives of the STUDENTS in danger at the School of Friendship several times, to the point of being banished by Starlight, all because nopony asked him if he wanted to help at the school. And he was rewarded for his actions!
And finally we get that middle ground way back here in season 5 that the Unofficial Episode Discussion are watching now in "Make New Friends But Keep Discord" we see Discord at his absolute most petulant and cruel and possessive. . .and yet. . .I do not hate this depiction of Discord. Is he acting like a child? Yes. Did he learn his lesson? Yes. Did he get off with a reward? No. Instead FLUTTERSHY yelled at him until he finally got what he was doing wrong and got him to apologize to everypony.
And that's an interesting thing no? Early Post redemption Discord has always struggled to find a place in the mane cast and until the Season 4 finale he just coasted along and never really considered just what it meant to be "reformed" and what true friendship meant. I have seen some argue that it is not until the Season 6 finale that he learns the true value of friendship and depending on others but that is a debate for another time I feel as it culminates in Starlight's story arc as well.
I blathered for long enough. What do the rest of y'all think? Did I raise any salient points? Do you have something to note or add or argue? Let me know in the comments below.
This post is a sequel of sorts to a broader question I submitted several months ago. Unicorns are able to cast magical spells that can perform a wide variety of actions, from simple levitation to self-defense to transforming an apple into a chariot. We all know what magic can do and what it looks like on the screen, but what is far more difficult to imagine is just how magic works. That is, what does it feel like to cast magic as a unicorn?
I got a wide range of interesting responses when I asked this several months ago. The one that I want to key in on today was one which /u/Logarithmicon gave fascinating insight on. Consider the following thought: imagining unicorn magic as like computer programs. In the same vein, imagine the unicorn as being a computer programmer, with her horn being a computer.
What do we know about magic? I'm copying from my earlier post here:
Computer programming is something that can be taught and learned. Computer programming is certainly something that one can get better at with practice, and you'll typically have to learn a little programming if you go into any kind of science, technology, engineering, or math field – but for some people, computer science is their chosen field, similar to how for some unicorns, magic is their special talent.
Furthermore:
Indeed, there are a variety of programming languages which computer programmers will use to write their code. The code that you write will then be interpreted or compiled, then executed. Imagine there being a "programming language" of sorts for unicorn magic, which unicorns can read, write, and execute via their horns.
Perhaps most critically:
This leads to a variety of interesting questions and thoughts:
lift(object) function and the release(object) function in the library. These functions have already been implemented for you by previous wizards and sages: you need only to abstract them away as levitation.
Note: I also posted this on my Fimfic blog and elsewhere in an MLP discussion forum, so if you see it twice ... eh.
Okay, so I've finished season 8, and I've got to say, it surprised me. For such an old show (especially one that's had difficulties with executive oversight stepping on the team's toes frequently) season 8 still managed to not only have some great episodes, but some solid characters and even more interesting lessons and concepts. But out of all of those, the one that shocked me the most, and ended up being my favorite character of the season?
Gallus.
That's right, the griffon member of the Student Six. Because they (the creators) played a very daring game with his character, one that caught me by surprise and increased my respect for them several notches. Sands, I'm surprised the execs or even maybe the censors didn't catch wind of his character background and go "No way. Absolutely not. You cannot put that in a story meant for all ages."
Why? Well, it goes back to what the school introduced this season is, and why Gallus is there.
Basically, the School of Friendship is a diplomat's school. Students from all over the place, coming together to learn together and build connections between them. Sponsored by ... well, we assume the Equestrian Government, since I'm not sure where else the funding would come from (they certainly don't tackle this one in the show). But that means the student's tickets are paid by scholarship (and they do mention this). Each nation Equestria knows, meanwhile, is asked to send a student to participate.
And, like in diplomatic schools of old (there may be a more proper term for them, but that's how I've always named them) we get a fairly predictable spread. Silverstreak is there because she's the niece of the queen of the hippogryphs. Connection to a royal family. Yona, IIRC, was suggested to be a relative of Prince Rutherford. Ocellus is a changeling nymph who is fascinated with other cultures and very brainy, making her a natural pick. Sandbar idolizes the Mane Six. Smolder is Dragonlord Ember's younger sister not related to Ember, as it turns out, but apparently important enough for some reason to have caught Ember's attention. At the very least Ember chose her for some reason.
Yeah, all of them have connections. Important ones. And then there's Gallus.
Gallus is there because ... he's an orphan. No, wait, that's not the worst part. He's there because the room, board, and education are free, and so the griffons shoved him off there so that his lack of a family wouldn't cost them any more cash.
Yeah. Worse, they made him completely aware of that. It's outright acknowledged and discusses in the season's Hearthswarming episode.
Whoa. Yeah, for a show that's "family friendly" that's actually pretty, well, dark. Not the orphan bit, we've all seen a TV show, even for kids, where there's an orphan character. But usually it's played light, with jokes being made about it or a TV cliche like "Oh, life is great because I don't have any family to worry about ... just kidding!"
Gallus doesn't get any of that at all. Instead, we basically got the eternally unwanted foster child. An orphan who's been shoved off from group to group because he's "expensive" only to be told that he's being shipped across the country to another nation simply to save everyone else a few bucks, because it's a paid scholarship so he can stop costing everyone else money.
Yeah, told. He's fully aware of how unwanted he is and trying to deal with it. Celestia's Beard, MLP, talk about a heavy topic! Most shows would rather run a clip episode then tackle a subject like this. And yet ...
Season 8 did. Not only that, but it gave it some weight and dared let it be part of Gallus' character. The moment that episode aired, all his prior behavior and attitudes from his very introduction made sense. As did his torn nature between actually befriending those at the school and staying disconnected and aloof.
And once that connection was made, Gallus went from "hey, new character" to quite possibly the most interesting character of the season for me. Plus, I have to hand it to the writers for MLP right now. They are not lacking in ambition. Episodes touching on subjects like racism, divorce, even parental issues where parents refuse to see that their children have become adults? That's one thing, but Gallus' situation is a couple of levels beyond that.
There's been talk of the next MLP "generation" or show, even season being a sort of Fraiser-style spin-off that follows the Student Six, and I have to admit that if this is the kind of thing it'd work with, I'd watch it. Gallus' background caught me completely off guard, but then threw me for a second loop with handling that actually acknowledged it and worked with it, rather than dodging like just about 99% of television I can think of. And at a family-friendly, all-ages level too.
Gallus: Best griffon. Claws down.
Even if it totally doesn't fit into the DGS canon at the moment, this character makes me want to make it do so.
