#especially not if it will give me more mlp cases (which I want but the boss boss does not for some reason)

[queerhawkeyes]

just had my annual review. think I was too defensive over my project goals and geographic focus given that there is very little oversight over my day to day work and nothing stopping me from keeping the focus I currently have once the review and new goals are written and approved. so I might have just been unnecessarily confrontational for no reason.

[weaselbeaselpants]

kind of related but not- I'm genuinely sorry to be posting so much or about Lily Orchard, guys. Prior to Courtney coming on and telling us her story I was mostly just taken aback and angry with Lily as "one of those critic types" in my circle of vision.

It sucks -and yeah I know other critics don't want to hear this+Lily will use this fact as an excuse to discredit ppl's complaints abt her. but I think a lot of us were initially exposed to Lily because they knew of andor were fans of her cartoon criticism content. In my case I knew Lily from her days of Bronydom and have watched her make more and more meanMEAN material even w it's not about internal fandom dramacallouts. Back in those days and up to last year I could say of Lilly the same thing I'd say for a lot of people who annoy me online: I think she's a bully. Which is still bad, it's just not 'criminal', inherent. Comparing her to Rebecca Sugar, Lindsay Ellis, Contrapoints or VivziePop would be stupid as she really doesn't have even half the portfolio or wherewithall as any of those people -or even Zena and Poppy, not that they're angels. Lily was/is annoying because she'd use other people's genuine concerns and talking points. There's a certain takenupbyaltlight-term that I begrudginly would love to use for Lily that REALLY hits the nail on the head with her, be it as a fan, a critic or an activist. But I won't use it. Not because it's untrue, but because it's used by the same people who write her kiwifarm pages and misgender her and clearly couldn't give a crap about her if she didn't make them "lol"

But then, I actually looked at some of Britt's receipts and skimmed bits and pieces of what remains of Stockholm (I think you all already know this but @britts-galaxy-brain the links are missing now). For years, I'd known and listened to others honestly harp on Lily as some kind of counter-initiative for her going after their fav foalcon people. I assumed it was more of the same. It's not. Lily 100% wrote cp and is trying to hide it. No not fiction abt young adults that delves into erotic and sexisms; not stuff with aged-up child characters being big boobied of themselves thru the gaze or r34 artists. She wrote cp.

Essense of Thought's and that one hour long video talking about Stockholm were the first real horrifying revelation. Then I read through Brittney's saved messages from Lily and 'Tara'. Then I saw Patch's video.

THEN, Courtney came out and told everyone on here and her server everything we needed to know. I don't abide by everything Courtney says, especially about her abusers but I mean they're her abusers and please stop asking her to like the children who're valued more than her in the lives of her abusers, or at least maybe vent openly not to Courtney directly about your fear for those kids Cameron has. Yeah, I'm also concerned but idk there's got to be a better way to handle this. Anyway, as previously stated, I believe Courtney, Britt, and Patch. There's no way that those people have faked that stuff. I've heard kind of stretched explanations being true, but there's no way Stockholm was "edited by pedos" like Lily's saying it was I know I'm missing a few folks in there but I believe a lot of people have been genuinely victimized by LO and aren't just acting out of transphobia, bigotry.

Of what I can attest based on what I've seen, I KNOW that Lily Orchard wrote 'fluffy' foalcon and is saying she didn't, and also that the woman hates the word "queer".

Of what has been shown to me, I fully BELIEVE Lily Orchard is an abusive, sockpuppeting predator. Not only that, she's hiding behind other predator's existence to lie to her audience of other abused people to convince both them and herself that she couldn't possibly be a predator.

In 2013, what was 10 years from now, there was a controversy in the MLP fandom where a minor rose a (not undeserved) stink abt the askblog Princess Molestia and how it was making light of r*pe, intentionally or not. To counter this, a bunch of mouthbreathing bronies took it upon themselves to prove they weren't creeps by threatening the underrage sa victim, making r*pe porn of her while other mouthbreathers basically said "yeah put she's [the minor] annoying so it's the same kind of evil we're doing, really". Centrists.

Why this matters to me is (CW. CW. CW) you can find a post from Tara Callie, who was almost certainly one of Lily's alts at the time, admitting she found the r*pe art of Pinkiepony "hot", all the while Lily herself was publicly denouncing Pinkie's treatment by the fandom.

Lily Orchard is an awful human being. She does not have intrusive thoughts or fears of acting on those intrusive thoughts sometimes, like me and other people do. She has sexual and violent urges that she hides enough form the public to not make her followers suspect anything. She's twofaced and takes out her probable self-hate by attacking other predators. She's all deflection and lies. I can not believe a thing that vile woman says. Neither should you.

The biggest means of fighting her I think we all can do of is refusing to use her critical tag w we talk about her. Spam her "own tag". Enough hiding and denying who this terrible bigoted abusive woman really is.

Because really, her thoughts on glubshitto or whoever from Owl House are HARDLY the worst of it. Not even.

[baby-zakarii]

Regressor Rohan Kishibe Headcanons!

Wanted to write them down for a looong time and I finally did! Also set somewhere between diu and tskr??? Idk honestly

💚Rohan started regressing at 16, right after his manga got published. At first it was quite surprising (and embarassing) for him, he didn't know what was happening to him. Even after doing research about age regression he still wouldn't really tell anyone about his coping method - anyone who eventually found out did it by complete accident. Although currently only a few people know about his regression, they are all really supportive (Morioh is full of kiddos and you can't convince me otherwise lol)

💚His age range is 1-6 years old. He regresses mostly involuntarily, but sometimes he'll do it willingly just to relax a bit, usually after several hours of work. He has a special little corner in his studio in case of suddenly regressing - it has a soft blanket, some toys and pillows

💚He doesn't have a cg, but sometimes he lets others babysit him. Koichi is always eager to help Rohan after school (although Rohan usually won't ask because of his pride). They also have playdates together when they're both small

💚His other babysitter is Kyoka! She's very blunt when it comes to his regression, asking him if he's small at random moments. Sometimes she basically drags Rohan over to his baby corner when she sees he's overworking himself

💚Baby Rohan is a very creative kiddo. He loves coloring, drawing and finger painting. He has a big set of art supplies for children as he tends to be quite clumsy and usually makes a mess and/or breaks something - and that something won't be his luxurious overpriced pen!

💚He needs to be supervised while making art though, he gets so carried away that he starts drawing on walls, floors and even himself

💚If he's too tired to draw, he likes watching cartoons! He appreciates different artstyles and is the biggest "cartoons are not just for kids" believer. He especially likes mlp and ghibli movies

💚He has a lot of plush dolls and loves playing with them. He gets all kinds of tiny fashionable clothes for them and runs pretend fashion shows! Sometimes he even does tea parties (top secret!) (Josuke isn't invited.)

💚Rohan is way more sensitive when in baby headspace. He gets overwhelmed easily and usually doesn't even know what caused it. The best way to help him is to give him his comfort item (like a favourite toy) and let him cry it out! This dude need a good cry!

💚He's also suprisingly easily to spook... He may be a horror writer, but he's not immune to his own genre lol

💚His biggest fear are windows. He cannot sleep next to them or stand too close when he's small - it reminds him of that night with Reimi. All windows must be closed and babyproofed!

💚Rain is scary to him for the exact same reason (dripping noise...), soft music and his dolls usually helps him calm down during storms

💚He absolutely loves baths. Won't leave the bathtub for hours, has all kinds of fancy soaps, shampoos and bathbombs... and uses them mercilessly to create "potions" or do his "selfcare routine" which is just pouring random liquids all over himself. Also, bath crayons are obviously a hit with him, he'll use half a box per bath though

💚Soooo fussy about bedtime, he often has trouble relaxing enough to take a nap. He may throw a tantrum because he's actually too tired to fall asleep. When he's in baby headspace, the best solution is swaddling! Koichi unfortunately isn't able to help Rohan with that - he's a teenager, he can't swaddle properly, let's be honest - so they just cuddle when they are both small and fall asleep together, often with other Morioh littles too! Kyoka on the other hand did excessive research and is a swaddling pro, she can stop Rohan's sleep deprivation fit in seconds by wrapping him like a baby artist burrito

💚💚💚💚💚

I have many thoughts abt him, so I might write more in the future hehe! This is your sign to babify your fave character, they need it! Go give them a blankie, a paci and some kissies and cuddles🍼❤️

[bon-is-gone]

https://www.tumblr.com/bon-is-gone/748757237890170880/fluttershy-so-yeah-i-made-mlp-infection-au?source=share

*perks up* found this trend a while ago and I loved seeing mlp infection aus...idk why but I think mlp horrors are the best horrors! Like human horrors make me feel uncomfortable but replace the humans with colorful ponies and I wanna see it! (My random guess is, not knowing if I'm right or not, because I'm scared of it being transmitted to humans?) Anyway, now I'm curious about it!

What are the stages? How did it begin? You planning to make a bunch of art for it? Write a story via comic or written or as I've seen some do...videos? Or just draw a bunch of ponies infected? Sorry if I'm pushy or nosey...just fluttershy went from 0-100 so fast in your pics of her and looked so good...she looked so cute before infection and terrifying after! You have a great artstyle! I just had to learn if this was a one hit-thing or if it will bloom into a story or something!

AGDHAGDHSGDHAGSHGA I STILL CANT GET USED TO THE FACT THAT PEOPLE LIKE MY STUFF AND IVE BEEN HERE FOR A YEAR NOW HDGAJGXISHDJ THANKYOUTHANKYOYTAHNKYOUTHANKYOU-

Ah yes, my favorite subject

Dying ponies with rabies 😌

Imma try and answer all the questions amigo, however I'm writing this in 2 in the morning with a sh*t ton of adrenaline from the fact that you asked (I'm gonna have a heart attack oh lord) so do forgive me if I missed one-

Oh ehem-

Stages

So the sickness which I took for this au is Rabies! Which I think a lot if you might know what it is. Ofcourse, this is a more messed up type of rabbies. There's only 3 stages since the person transforms quickly(in a 1 day). 1st stage: after the pony gets bit by a subject with rabbies they start feeling weak, tired and nauseous. They also all of a sudden get scared of water 2nd stage: the ponies body starts to hurt, usually specific body parts feel the most pain (for example with fluttershy its her front hooves), which then start to get longer, stretching. 3rd stage the ponies body becomes disfigured, they become extremely aggressive and blood-thirsty, foam will start pouring out of their mouth and completely forget who they were before.

How did it begin?

Some chemist pony probably tried to find a cure for different types of sickness in the mlp world but instead made a potion for the missed up rabbies. He tested on some animals and one of them escaped. The animal got to fluttershy(because she's always with animals so she shall be the first victim) and bit her. The infection would continue on with twilight who wanted to go check up on her but instead got attacked.

You planning to make a bunch of art for it?

Oh buddy. OH BUDDY- I already nade some sketches of how twilight and Pinkie pie are before and after getting infected. I do want to draw some background ponies with those meters (you know those ones with like "hunger: 50%" or something) specifically this guy

SILVER ZOOM 😎 I found him whilst browsing the mlp wiki for background ponies and omg I LOVE HIS DESIGN AJGDHSHDHWHDHDH

Also this fella

Crystal earth gives me "I FELL INLOVE WITH AN EMO GIRL" vibes and I'm DIGGING IT

Write or make a story/comic/video? Or just draw a bunch of ponies infected?

I'm not a writer so hard pass on the story. Comic would LOVE to do that, however I'm not used to drawing ponies like, at all, So it takes me a really long time to get the look right(especially with all the different angles of the head, yikes). Now, the video? Hell f*cking yeah. I planned on making a video 100% doing it like people do on tiktok (or in my case youtube because I am not going to that wretched place, no offense to anyone who goes there) but never made it since I got sidetracked with other stuff lmao. So currently I will stick to just solely making art, but I will make a video about it no doubt. Complete story? Probably not.

Again thank you so much for asking! It makes me super happy when people ask me about my stuff or just opinions on anything. (I did not get held enough as a child God damn-) and no worries about being pushy! (You weren't honestly)

This was Bon, signing out

[charmsponies]

Some Rambly Thoughts About Custom G1 Ponies…

Okay sorry in advance: Rereading some of these thoughts I am a little bit mean tonight. but i do not care lol I am ranting for fun.

I am A little annoyed at those types of people who criticize anyone who makes MLP G1 customs because they think its immoral to customize a vintage toy since they arent made anymore (….you could say the same thing about like, g4 since thats over now, but okay).

It is perfectly fine, and even good, to customize a vintage toy at times.

Most customizers are smart and will seek out “bait” (damaged) ponies to customize. If they’re already broken or damaged, customizing it is like giving it a new life, even if theyre not restoring it to be exactly how it is before. In fact: Sometimes it may be cheaper to customize a pony than restore it!

For example: The pony I made my extraterra custom of was Moondancer. She had cut hair and no cutiemark, her glitter for her cutiemark had completely faded away. Now, ive restored a moondancer before so I actually have everything i would need to have fixed her, but like. lets say i wasn’t a restorationist who had all the materials: I would have to pay for each of the hair colors I need (about 15 bucks when you factor in shipping) and then another 15-20 bucks to buy the rehairing tool and needles and then 5 bucks on quality glue and a few more bucks on zipties to retail her and then id have to buy glitter. I personally buy biodegradeable glitter but the kind i get is a little expensive especially since i have to get it shipped from overseas so im paying like 20 more bucks- Moondancer is one of the most common ponies and typically sells for around 15 bucks total o-o. Not that I don’t see value in restoring common ponies (I will restore at least 1 of every pony so that I can add her to my collection, no matter how damaged) but like. Most people don’t wanna throw all their money away to do that for a cheap common pony when they COULD put their money into those same supplies (hair, tools, paint, ect) and have fun making a cool new unique piece of artwork.

2. Even if the pony isn’t damaged: Is it your toy? Is that YOUR toy that the person customized? No? It was their Own Toy That They Paid For With Their Own Money? then shut the fuck up its not your business what they do with their toys 😭 Yeah it would hurt my heart if someones out there buying expensive rare ass ponies just to customize them when there are cheaper alternatives to certain poses (like if someone customized a night glider when they could have just used like, posey or someone for the pose) but its not my business because its not my toy and I accept that people can do whatever the fuck they want with their own property.

And anyways, most customizers DO care about vintage toys and will seek out the more common ponies with the poses they need, I don’t think anyone who is truly invested in the pony fandom uses ultra rare ponies for their customs UNLESS theyre already damaged, in which case I just see it as giving it new life. Also, customizers utilize projects like the HQG1C project or Basic Funs ponies, so you dont Have to use vintage toys to actually make a g1 custom anymore.

but I also dont think people should be shamed for using vintage bases. It can be convenient if you have bait ponies laying around. Especially since sometimes there Is No Good Alternative. like for example: I would love to make a custom of my pony design for Gregory Fnaf, but I would need a kinda rarer hard to get pose (the baby brother ponies with the molded hooves). I personally won’t make any customs unless i can find a damaged one, but if i COULD find a damaged vintage baby boy i would absolutely use it because whats the alternative when some poses are just flat out rare :(

Also to the people who just hate vintage customs in general: Sorry but youre boring. You dont like fun new designs in the g1 style? You want everything to be made with current toys? My autism makes me think about ponies 90% of the time, and for 99% of the time im thinking about ponies, i forget g4 and g5 even exist because im so focused on the older gens. Not everyone cares about the new stuff. You dont like the older gens or people using their creativity to make art relating to the older vintage gens? Youre boring as hell, sorry

Final thing I wanna say: this rant is inspired by many posts complaining about customs but the one that made me the most mad was someone complaining about G1 customs and then finishing their post with “and you could TELL that it was their first time making a custom like that :/ “

Fucking excuse you? Customs are an art form, plain and simple. And everyone has to start somewhere. do you think my first ever custom pony was any good? (for anyone curious its not one ive posted on this blog, it was a fakie) hell no I made many mistakes! But you shouldnt shame or insult people for their art, we all start somewhere and frankly you’re just mean.

[clownishcliche]

A few updates.

the mlp infection au

art related posts

possible projects

MLP INFECTION AU

Alright, so starting on the first topic of the MLP infection AU.

its not been scrapped, i can promise that. I'm just currently figuring out the list of characters i wish to use. i originally had a few background characters like Octavia and vinyl scratch that i wanted to use. but, that was Plan A which is well on it's way to being scrapped. I'm more on the lines of thinking of using Plan B which is using OCs. it puts less limits on how i want the character to act vs. how i can make them act. because if i do a canon character i want to make them act correctly.

plus, i have 0 access to anything passing season 4 on MLP:FIM. i quite literally just checked all my streaming services.

but i have 3 OCs ready in case i decide to use Plan B which is most likely what I'll end up using. I'm currently working on character design and then ill figure out what exactly the infection will be. I've been brainstorming a couple of ideas for the infection so.. no worries on that bit i guess. watch me do all this and end up scrapping this :']

ART RELATED POSTS

There's not currently any Homestuck art related posts coming.. actually let me see what ive been working on real fast. bc i cant remember.

Ok so i have an OC introduction in progress which relates back to this post.

I have some old OC redesigns coming. 12 to be exact. maybe 13 or 14 if i can find some more old OCs.

on a separate note: I might start writing a few things... just stories and junk. i also might be posting some creepypasta art. if i feel like it idk.

POSSIBLE UPCOMING PROJECTS

Ive got a few possible projects upcoming.

I have a homestuck comic i want to make with my homestuck oc's but it would in no way EVER fit in canonically. plus ive probably got too many OP species that i wish to use.

on another hand i want to make a pages for diseases i have in my little world ive made. and i want to make a comic about that whole world too {which would likely end up in me mixing my homestuck AU with that to make things more interesting.} but either way id still need to flesh out some characters more and make sure everything makes... some kind of sense.

these are highly unlikely to ever happen because i get severely anxious about posting my works[especially my writing]. but hey if youd like to see any of this or give me some suggestions im willing to listen.

anyways. i think that about covers it all.

-byeeee

[scipiosmith]

Hey scipio, I am genuinely curious: what made you want to do a team shuffle in SAPR?

Looking back at the previous stories you wrote makes me curious why you made them join certain teams. Like weiss with flash, russel and Cardin.

If you had to start over again would you team shuffle again or just keep it the same?

The reason I started writing SAPR was because I couldn't find any rewrites that didn't retain Volume 3's conclusion, with Pyrrha going up to the tower, fighting Cinder, and they dying. It became clear to me that if I wanted to see Pyrrha survive in a long-form work then I would have to do it myself.

I wasn't sure originally how exactly I was going to do that, until I settled on a crossover as a way to bring in an overpowered character who could face off against Cinder and save everyone (I'd noticed that overpowered OCs got looked down upon, but crossover characters got a lot more leeway). Hence the MLP crossover and the presence of Sunset Shimmer, who I chose because... because I wasn't very familiar with RWBY, I wasn't sure I would get the characters, and so I wanted a character I knew intimately whom I could rely on as a crutch in every sense.

Having made that decision, doing a team shuffle made sense for my objectives (plus, I'd read a very good fic called Infighting, Insanity and Social Ineptitude, which was one of my inspirations to write SAPR): Sunset and Pyrrha would be on a team together, so that Sunset would be motivated and in position to save Pyrrha; I wanted the story to be Arkos so having Jaune on the team as well made sense; and then Ruby... I thought I might like Ruby best out of the Team RWBY members so having her on the team seemed like a good idea at the time.

Having done that, and assembled the titular team, it was then necessary to do something with the remaining members of Teams RWBY and JNPR to get them into fours. Again, having read Infighting, Insanity and Social Ineptitude, the pairing of Yang and Nora had worked well there, plus Ren and then finally Dove to round out the team (again, Infighting, Insanity and Social Ineptitude).

Once I'd decided that this would be not only a crossover but a fusion, pairing Weiss with Flash was a rather obvious decision to give Sunset something to be very upset over, while also adding Cardin and Russel created the idea of an antagonist team for the early part of the story.

Blake... it's kind of funny to look back now but I didn't really get Blake when I was planning out this story. I didn't like her very much, I didn't envisage a big role for her, so I decided to stick her in with the most minor of minor characters and then Adam could murder her at some point and that would be that. The way that she ended up taking over the whole fic to a great extent is definitely a case of a character rebelling against their assigned role in the story.

If I was going to do it all over again I would have Weiss be the final member of the titular team (Team SSAP? Team SWAP?) instead of Ruby; I never liked Ruby as much as I thought I would, and I plain don't like her now, so I would give Weiss a bigger role and have Ruby stuck as a minor character not doing very much.

It may seem strange to say but I would keep Blake where she is, because I think that her starting off with this very minor team, rather than for example being on Yang's Team YRBN to begin with, helps with the journey that she ends up going on, with SAPR and especially with the Atlesians.

[just-miru]

before i go to bed,

i request content of one of my favorite ships.

anyways- do you have any silly headcannons for you and dave??

i am so normal about this question right now...

so so normal...

hehe, what i am about to tell you is pretty much canon, actually :0 but i would love to hear your headcanons for us :D

uhm, ok, so-

i don't even know where to begin, so it's gonna take a while to answer-

it's gonna be all over the place too-

:0! one of our joke songs is (nsfw as fuck-)

because it's funny- i mean... at least in our silly heads it's funny and thanks to this

most of the time we both share a single brain cell

silly man really loves animals, especially rabbits and horses! even so, we have a silly cat together despite Dave being alergic to them- he just really loves the furball and- *sobs* they are very cute and my silly heart can't take it-

when he thinks no one is around watching or listening, silly texan man sings Firework by Katy Perry at the top of their lungs (based on this) :D

texan man loves hugging me from behind and resting his head on my back whenever they have the chance and i just- aaaahhh!! :DD

Jeremy teased the hell out of us both before we got together-

i just teased him back about you, hehe :D

but every time your silly teased my silly, Dave would just pick up fights in which they both just throw stupid insults at each other until one of them breaks down sobbing (it was Dave who cried and that because Jeremy insulted his very beautiful and very natural blonde hair-)

here's a visual representation of it

we both have the same love language which is physical touch :D besides this, another one of my silly ways to show my love and appreciation is through quality time spent together, and another one of Dave's is gift giving!

silly bastard man actually makes the gifts himself! be them drawings or silly crafts he makes out of wood and other things they can find around.

he likes to show off and try to impress me so much, you have no idea- but he manages to fuck it every time.

Dave is basically the living embodiment of

"this one is for you!"

*misses*

like- he tries so hard to be smooth that he ends up making a fool of himself but in the most adorable way possible and- i just love him so much :D

oh! i think i have an average amount of clothes, but i always switch up between my two comfort outfits :0

having said this, when we are bored, Dave likes trying the clothes i barely wear and he makes it like a fashion show, kinda

some clothes are kinda big on him, but others fit him just perfectly and-

and he's just so-

*dreamy sigh* he's so pretty <3

i have a dress and some skirts i wore once (if at all), and Dave rocks the absolute hell outta them!

speaking of clothes and fashion, he tried to teach me to walk on platforms and heels a few times.

it was a disaster-

i think i said something about it a few times, but both my babygirls, Dave and William, act like the silly below so often-

it's funny 'cause i can just be sitting at a table, staring at a wall while my head is completely empty and the bastard would go wild awooga-

bastard man Dave like to be held <3 he's the little spoon most of the time, if not every single time we cuddle

my body is like his personal bed, actually and my chest is the pillow-

just like William, whenever i am cooking, Dave's job is to sit o on the kitchen counter and be pretty, but-

in William's case is because he is too lazy to actually help me cook but he still want to keep me company.

on the other hand, when talking about the texan bastard, it's because he would mange to set the kitchen on fire without even trying-

he set his cereals on fire more than the normal amount, i can't trust him-

his favourite mlp ponies are Apple Jack (what a surprise-) and Rarity and mine are Rainbow Dash and Pinkie Pie :D

bastard man snores so loud- he's lucky i love, otherwise i would make him sleep in the bathtub-

he joins me when i call William babygirl, which annoys the babygirl in question so much-

when working at the pizzeria, he randomly grabs me by the hand and starts swinging me to the beat of whatever song is playing and i- *screams in gay*

aaaahhh- i honestly don't know what else to say- i have so many ideas at the same time and i can't grasp any of them :'D

maybe if you have silly questions about us and stuff? :0 feel free to ask away :D

ayo, manged to finish (?) :D i had no idea how to start only to have no idea how to finish-

hope u enjoyed :D

[glapplebloom]

Is Ahuizotl truly a good guy or a villain?

We at the court are here to decide the Case of Ahuizotl if he was truly a good guy in disguise or a villain the MLP Writers wanted you to forget. So let us take a look at his appearances in order by date.

Read It and Weep

His first appearance where we established he is a villain. Pretty clear cut, right? But there are two things to note: First, at this point of time we were to believe the Stories of Daring Do are fictional. It was even theorized at the time A.K. Yearling was Twilight’s Mother, thus her excitement to spread her mother’s work around. And Second…

Daring Don't

Rainbow Dash and Twilight Sparkle: A.K. Yearling is Daring Do! 

Thus at this point of time, we are to believe Ahuizotl is the villain because Daring Do said so. So let us take a closer look at this episode and see what Villainous Traits he had.

Daring Do: So let me guess: Ahuizotl has put you up to this? You're stealing the ring to give to him so his hold on the Fortress of Talacon will be good for eight centuries as foretold by prophecy!

Dr. Caballeron: Close, but... no. I'm going to sell this to him, make a bundle, and retire from archaeology in splendor.

Daring Do: [grunting] Caballeron, you fool! You're dooming the valley to eight centuries of unrelenting heat!

Key things to note: First, the Fortress of Talacon and the valley would endure eight centuries of unrelenting heat. Now exactly how big is this valley and how much of an effect it would even realistically have? The Largest Valley (according to Wikipedia) is the Great Rift Valley which is 6,000 km (3,700 mi) long but 220 km (140 mi) wide. And since we’re comparing the greatest valley, surely it's fair to compare the greatest jungle: the Amazon. It has 12 Billion Acres or 1,875,000 Square miles. Heck, the Tongass National Forest covers 17,702.784KM (11,000 miles) of coastline which is still over half of the Length of the Great Rift Valley, and that’s assuming the Fortress of Talacon’s valley is even that big,

Going back to the quote above, he is also willing to buy the artifact from Dr. Caballeron. Enough money to make him retire from archaeology, thus no longer a thorn in his side. If he was a straight up villain, he would have just killed him.

Rainbow Dash: How can we just stand by and do nothing? You know what's at stake here! Ahuizotl has sought control of the Tenochtitlan Basin since book three!

So what is the Tenochtitlan Basin? Well, Tenochtitlan is the capital of the Aztec empire while a basin is a depression, or dip, in the Earth's surface. So he’s basically trying to get a city that was sunken. Or maybe it's a fancy way to say valley. Well, if it's a Valley the size of Tenochtitlan, that would make it five square miles (or a little over 8 square kilometers). I doubt that an average sized jungle would be affected by a lot of heat in such a small area. 

Ahuizotl: [laughs] Oh, Daring Do, I will so miss your amusing laughter-jokes. Now, I must leave to commence the ring-placing ceremony to unleash eight hundred years of unrelenting, sweltering heat!

Now as we have proven size matters, let’s actually talk about what sweltering heat means. Sweltering, according to google, is extremely and uncomfortably hot. Now the average temperature in tropical rainforests (according to Google) ranges from 70 to 85°F (21 to 30°C). 85°F is considered uncomfortable. With 15 degrees more being considered extreme. Doesn’t seem to be too big of a deal for the forest, especially for an area so small. The only thing that would be affected by such a heat would be visitors.

Big combat scene

Pretty action packed, right? Ahuizotl with his 8 to 10 minions Vs the Mane Six and Daring Do. Wait, why does he have ponies helping him if it means sweltering heat for 8 hundred years? Can’t be that extreme if they’re cool with it. And let us not forget when they took the rings out of the altar it destroyed the ancient temple. An ancient building that has been standing there for who knows how long, destroyed. Wasn’t that an issue in a different episode?

Daring Done?

Pinkie Pie: [reading] "Wake Of Destruction: Daring Do Ruins Entire Village Marketplace!"

Rainbow Dash: [reading] "Dare Or Scare: Local Rogue Daring Do Involved In Frightful Fiasco"?

Pinkie Pie: [reading] "Daring Do Leads Bull Into China Shop During High-Speed Chase—"

A. K. Yearling: That's enough! [sighs] Everypony I tried to help is mad at me.

This does seem to be a trend with Daring Do. Even if her cause is good, she leaves a lot of mess in her wake. So what did she do in Somnambula?

Rainbow Dash: Daring Do thwarts Ahuizotl's evil plot to separate the Sister Crown Relics. And if it wasn't for her, the region would be cursed with eternal night, and the entire town of Somnambula would have sunk into the ground!

Sister Crown Relics? Eternal Night? Sunk to the Ground? This sort of sounds like it's related to the Princesses. Exactly how would separating them cause eternal night when you have a Princess able to move the sun around? In fact, prior to that…

Rainbow Dash: [squealing] This is so cool! It looks just like that village in your last book where Daring Do recovers the Doomed Diadem from the Wild Bunch Gang who chase after her through the desert!

So Ahuizotl hired a bunch of other people to get him artifacts. Which leads to my next point…

Stranger Than Fan Fiction

Ahuizotl does not go to the same lengths as Dr. Caballeron does to get revenge. There are two out of 4 Daring Do episodes where Caballeron was the main villain. And honestly 3 if you count…

Daring Doubt

This is the episode where it is revealed Ahuizotl was simply a guardian protecting the artifacts Daring Do and Caballeron were basically stealing. And considering he isn’t actively trying to ruin Daring Do on the same level as Caballeron and has been trying to find ways to keep her out, it is pretty believable. But let’s continue with…

Friends Forever #32

This is definitely his most villainous as he did boast about stealing the artifacts. But this is IDW whose track record for being in line with the original series is spotty at best. But there’s one more piece of evidence to bring up...

Ahuizotl in Mythology

The ahuizotl is a legendary creature in Aztec mythology. It is said to lure people to their deaths. Sounds villainous, right? But look at what Wikipedia says about its behavior... "The ahuizotl was the guardian of lakes, whose purpose was to protect the fish therein." "It was sent by the gods Tlaloc and Chalchiuhtlicue to collect the souls of mortals they liked." "Victims of the ahuizotl were said to be destined for the paradise of the god Tlaloc." A guardian? Chosen by the deities and those it takes are destined for paradise? Sounds to me there is a good guy in these stories. And two of those traits do match Ahuizotl.

VERDICT

Looking at the evidence presented, the lack of Ahuizotl perspective, the fact Daring Do can be seen as villainous to those who do not understand her reasons for doing why, and the fact he doesn’t actively try to ruin her like Callaberon, I find Ahuizotl being revealed as a good guy all along believable. Heck, if Discord can be considered a good guy why can’t Ahuizotl?

[bronyinabottle]

G5 MOVIE THOUGHTS FOLLOWUP - THE ANCIENT EQUESTRIAN ELEPHANT IN THE ROOM

SPOILER WARNING: THIS WILL GET INTO SPOILERS FOR THE G5 MOVIE EVEN BEFORE THE BREAK. IT HAS BEEN JUST OVER A WEEK SINCE THE MOVIE PREMIERED. BUT IF YOU STILL HAVEN'T SEEN IT, PLEASE SCROLL PAST THIS.

This is something of a follow-up to my thoughts on the movie. My thoughts on the movie were generally positive. Though much like the movie itself, the positive thoughts were on what it’s doing on it’s own merit as the start of a new generation of pony media. As someone who had followed Generation 4 from all the way in the middle of Season 1 to the ending of Season 9, the connection the G5 movie makes with the previous generation in the opening scenes are enough that it’s necessary to give a perspective from a G4 fan’s point of view. Again, I do want to say that G5 will be within it’s right to not have to answer so many plot things at once and try to stand on it’s own by exploring the characters and this new Equestria first.

That said, it shouldn’t be a surprise that the longer none of the questions G4 fans will have are answered. There is a huge elephant in the room with the unanswered questions from G4. And It is Hasbro’s fault in the first place for telling us it’s the same Equestria, There will be fans that are annoying about it from multiple angles, and there will probably be times where people who just want to enjoy G5 on it’s own just outright snap at anyone who wants their answers about what happened in between G4 and G5. Even if the person who asks the question is just genuinely curious and not being demanding there be answers. This is just the kind of thing that all fandoms that have timeskip sequels, especially ones where it overrides a happy ending where discussing with other friends can get dicey.

HAPPY ENDING OVERRIDES AND ALICORNS

Until we get an official answer from the show itself, we can only theorize with each other. Though theorizing about a happy ending override, regardless of how long it’s been and/or how sensible the theory is can start some heated discussions, Cause many were content with the happy ending of the original. While no realistic story ever has a happily ever after, a story within a fantasy land such as MLP’s can be an exception.

Let me give something of a comparison by bringing up another show. Avatar: The Last Airbender is perhaps my favorite show of all-time. And while it’s true I didn’t like the sequel series Korra as much as A:TLA. It wasn’t because of some happy ending override with at least half of the main cast from the previous series deceased. The Avatars themselves are just as human as the other characters in the world. Avatar’s still a fantasy world when all is said and done, but the way the world building is done still made it feel like it it was possible for the world to be in danger again by the time the next Avatar is grown up, most known Avatars had challenges they had to face. The Avatar series blends some form of realism but still manages to provide a fun fantasy world. It’s a case where it’s believable that the main legacy of Aang’s time as the Avatar aside from defeating the Fire Lord where he created Republic City would have it’s own fair share of problems that would be left to his successor to solve. Aang in turn was finishing the war that Roku failed to stop. So while I have my criticisms about Korra, none of those are related to the way the world is after the timeskip. It reasonably makes sense in the context of the Avatar universe.

In contrast, there isn’t much we know about the past of G4 and it’s a much more idealistic setting then in Avatar. Yes, ponies die with what I assume are human-esque lifespans for the exception of the Alicorns. But Friendship is Magic is a setting where the power of friendship is literal magic power that can save the day even when things look bleak. As a result it can get very sappy, but FiM is the kind of show you watch to put a smile on your face rather then go to for a multi-faceted plot. Most episodes of FiM are the kind of thing you see in a lot of other shows. But what brings most of it’s fans back even for the most overdone plots is the characters and their interactions. FiM’s lore is a lot less straight forward, and sometimes may feel not as consistent given there were so many different writers over the long span of time. That said, there is something about the series that sort of ties in heading into G5 and that’s G4’s history, and especially Alicorn lore. We don’t get a lot of either even back in G4, as the most we get is the founding of Equestria was through the Hearth’s Warming Eve story, and the knowledge that Alicorns like Celestia and Luna are at least older then 1000. Which is a huge gap compared to the Avatars that no matter how powerful, have similar mortality to our own. Throughout G4’s time, the debate about Alicorns have raged throughout the whole time even before things got really heated upon Twilight becoming an Alicorn in Magical Mystery Cure. Some went with Celestia and Luna being the only immortal Alicorns while Cadence and Twilight were somehow lesser Alicorns that aren’t immortal but maybe at least still a longer lifespan then their normal pony friends and family. Though as of Season 9, that may be turned on it’s head when in The Last Problem. Twilight eventually grows to Celestia-size as Celestia and Luna even retire to let Twilight succeed them. If Twilight is somehow a lesser Alicorn, why did she grow to Celestia’s size? Why did Celestia and Luna retire in the first place if they knew Twilight will not be as long lived as they are? Perhaps part of the reason G5 has as many questions as it does is because G4 itself created questions it never promised to answer.

That said, the implied length of Celestia and Luna’s rule still presents G5 with a problem that will be asked everywhere. Even if we go with the possibility that most of the Mane 6 have passed from old age, you still have to answer something about Twilight. If Twilight is also dead, how long did she live? Did she at least have an over-1000 year reign as Celestia did? Was perhaps Luster Dawn chosen to be her younger co-ruler if Luster herself ascended at some point? The kind of things that might actually force G5 into a corner when it comes to Alicorns despite the fact G4 never had to, especially now that Sunny may have just become one herself. This is once again, another of the traps Hasbro put the writing team through by having them put it in the same world. G5 thus not only adds questions about what happened in between the Generations, but also now has to inherit what remained unanswered in G4. That is a VERY tall task on a team that will likely just want to do their own little fun pony show. It’ll raise expectations too high, and there will be annoyed fans regardless how they spin it. Which could have all been avoided if they set it up that this was an entirely new world, or made G4 a fictional story (With all the references to it being mainly merchandise for a really meta look at things) in the G5 universe. You’d still have people complaining about it not being as good as G4 probably, but the approach they went with added more gasoline to the fire whenever G4 Vs. G5 debates happen in the MLP fandom. And inter-fandom generation fights are never fun, just ask the Pokemon and the Sonic fandoms how that turns out (Even though there’s no Generation number count for the Sonic franchise. You could say Gen 1 of Sonic was the classic era. Gen 2 was the Sonic Adventure Era. Gen 3 was the “Dark Age” Sonic 2006-Sonic Unleashed era. Gen 4 the Sonic Colors and Generations era. and Gen 5 the current Sonic Forces and Team Sonic Racing era. And then of course there’s also the different TV shows and comic books that also have their own fans that can be at each other’s throats).

There isn’t going to be an easy solution to something that will no doubt have fans on the edge on their seat even if they will be left to hang on that edge for a longtime before G5 starts to give some answers. I think I’ll at least bring up 3 things that will probably be part of the discussions of just what happened between G4 and G5

(More after the break)

1. AND THEN EVERYTHING CHANGED WHEN THE FIRE NATION AN UNKNOWN THREAT ATTACKED

With G4 being considered Ancient Equestria. It’s probably safe to assume this is at least 1,000 years after G4. And 1,000 or more is a really, really, long time. Where anything could of happened, including *GASP* a villain actually winning at some point (Or at least, did some lasting damage even if they were ultimately defeated). Though I think even with that possibility, there has to be a sense that the villain didn’t defeat the Mane 6 while the other members aside from Twilight were still alive. If Twilight was at some point defeated. Perhaps the villain struck when Twilight was most vulnerable. You could also have it that Twilight somehow sacrificed herself to defeat a large threat. She saved Equestria one last time, but at the cost of even her long-lasting alicorn life. With the populace left on their own to continue life without Twilight, but the loss of their longtime leader too much for Equestria. Thus a slow decline happened.

As for who the threat was it’ll probably be a while if we ever know. Perhaps the real Grogar showed up at some point and was truly a harrowing threat to deal with. Or something entirely new. Maybe it wasn’t even a villain, but a catastrophic natural disaster. Whatever it is, if this is the case. We’d have to deal with the sad thought of something being too much for even Twilight to handle

2. TWILIGHT BECAME DEPRESSED/JADED AFTER HER FRIENDS PASSED. POSSIBLY EVIL TOO?

This would basically be the cliche sadfic ending. Where after everyone of the Mane 6 has passed. Twilight just never felt the same afterward. Though I do feel like there is the slight counterpoint that maybe Twilight would still have Celestia and/or Luna (maybe, again we’ve never ever gotten full confirmation of how long Alicorns live. Just assured that it’s more then 1000 years) and she’d most certainly still have a full grown Spike and any of her friends descendants. Death is always a sad reality, but you have to wonder if Twilight would have prepared herself by the time that comes. Twilight would have not gone as far as she did without the rest of the Mane 6. But while I’m sure it would be a tearjerking moment, it’s not like Twilight wouldn’t have other friends she made throughout the generations. Celestia and Luna also must of gone through the same thing living for more then 1000 years, yet they seem pretty fine. So while the subject of “immortality blues” is prime for sadfic material in the fandom. It feels like there’d have to be more nuance then that, if this were the reason the time between G4 and G5 led into each other.

Supposedly, this theory is picking up some form of steam. To the point that a head canon is rolling around is that it was actually Twilight who sealed the magic away in the first place for one reason or another. Essentially making Twilight, in a huge plot twist, a villain in G5 or at the very least someone who took the magic with them into some form of Limbo very similar to Starswirl and the other founders during the Season 7 finale. I… personally don’t know how I’d feel about that. They’d have to be very careful with the execution of such a twist. And I’d want more nuance then simply Twilight getting sad about the deaths of her friends. At the very least, it’d likely eventually get to a point where this villainous incarnation of Twilight is reformed and probably becomes a recurring character from then on. But the writers will have to tread very carefully if this is the direction they take.

3. G5 IS AN ENTIRELY DIFFERENT UNIVERSE/TIMELINE. JUST FOR THE MOST PART THE MAJOR EVENTS OF "ANCIENT EQUESTRIA" STILL HAPPENED

Perhaps this last one really gets into a more desperate side to deflect any possibility that the ending of G4 could of deteriorated into what the world becomes at the start of G5. I know there will be plenty that will be too frustrated with the lack of satisfactory answers that they annoy people in the comment sections, getting into situations where sometimes the only answer to those people will be others that just want to watch G5 as a fun show with a “cope”, “read a history book”, or “deal with it”. But honestly, there can be a case here. As I mentioned in my thoughts in the movie. There are visual details on characters and/or lore that while they may seem minor, to the point that even if they do ever answer important questions such as what caused magic to disappear and/or what happened to Alicorns like Twilight. That the staff may ignore completely because they think it’s too small of a detail to bother including. But the most nitpicky fan can and will latch on small excuses into why it can’t be the same.

Let’s begin with the one-sided Cutie Mark. Again, while it’s true that previous generations made this a tradition. And it was only on one side on the G4 toys as well, as the actual reason it was on both sides in the G4 show was because it was easier for the flash animators. That said, it’s still a big pony design inconsistency. Because regardless of it was only to make things easier, it became a staple because of how long G4 lasted. So it was still so weird to see early screenshot and artwork of G5 characters with grown ponies with no mark. When that wasn’t possible in G4, as it turned out it was because the one-sided cutie mark returned. But one side as opposed to both sides is still a significant difference. Similarly, the horns and wingtips being a different color then the coat may also be a significant difference. Of course I know it can be just waved off as art style difference, as the art direction is no longer based on what Faust wanted the ponies to look like. It’s still plausible enough for someone to discredit it as truly in continuity with G4. Cause even for those that are on the side of “More then 1000 years is a long time, anything could of happened” it’s a lot harder to argue against inconsistencies such as cutie marks only being on one side unless they switch gears to the meta explanation of “G4’s double sided cutie mark was not intentional, at least at first”. But from what most people saw in the G4 show, G4 ponies had marks on both sides. And the G5 ponies don’t. It’s again, quite nitpicky. But it’s enough to start a case that at the very least, the ancient past of G4 is not 100% the same G4 we saw in the show.

Speaking of not the same G4 we saw in the show, another possibility is that G5 actually came out of an alternate timeline. Where perhaps the last two seasons did not happen. If perhaps it’s a timeline where major events in the show either ended anywhere between the end of Season 4 or the end of Season 7, then it starts to feel a little more possible. (Supposedly, the tree of harmony in it’s Season 9 form that might counteract it. But then again it had none of the treehouse architecture and was all wood. Which ironically may lead into it leaning more that the G4 show isn’t the same continuity). If the events of the Friendship School nor everything else that leads to the ending we saw in The Last Problem. It’d be a lot more palatable because the pretty much implied world peace ending with non-ponies in the mix included is discounted. There’d still be questions even in this scenario, like did Celestia and Luna still retire in this timeline then. And regardless if they did or not, the show would still be burdened with the question of what happened to the Alicorns. But it’d at least solve the most pressing question with the peace of The Last Problem being squandered. Because perhaps in this timeline, the Mane 6 never went that far. Perhaps it would imply some sort of indirect failure in that case. But this is perhaps a scenario they had a similar foreign policy as Celestia did. Not really hostile to anyone, but not intervening even in ways that could be helpful. Heck, if we go far enough in saying that G5\s G4 (As confusing as that may sound) was different from what we saw in Friendship is Magic, what if there were differences even early on for one reason or another? With how vague the connection is, we only know that the Mane 6 were friends and Twilight still became a princess at some point. From there. potentially a lot of other things may have gone differently other then that.

Again, saying G5 is a completely different universe/timeline is probably always going to sound like a desperate way for people who cannot possibly believe the ending of G4 eventually led to the start of G5. And I’d understand why that’ll annoy people who just want to watch the G5 series on it’s own merits. But it really wouldn’t be entirely the fans to blame for that attitude. G4 lasted a whole decade, many got attached to the characters/world we saw that had about the happiest ending it could possibly be. It should naturally make people unhappy that in a few ways it’s stomping over a happy ending for this fantasy world that many watched to escape from the realities of the real world.

Even with the long time allotted of 1000+ years or more, that’s made complicated by the implied long lives of the Alicorns from G4. Only opening up that can of worms further by seemingly making Sunny an alicorn. There’s a debate on whether this form is permanent, but if it’s NOT permanent. That arguably adds yet another addition to the list of reasons it may fall out of continuity. The only time we had a temporary Alicorn transformation (outside of Animation errors, or dream sequences like Big Mac’s) was when Cozy was an Alicorn after receiving some of the magic from Grogar’s bell. But even in that case, Cozy’s wings were not more like a glowy hologram like Sunny’s wings seem to be. And even if it is permanently on Sunny now, the design for Alicorns is too different. Adding onto the one-sided cutie marks, and different colored wings and horns. So the G5 writers may actually be stuck in a lose/lose situation when it comes to Alicorns after the ending of the movie. I think whether Sunny is permanently an Alicorn or not, they may not elaborate enough about it. And it’ll be among the headaches in the comment section (Though may at least be a reprieve from the political discussions G5 are going to have on occasion I imagine.)

Hasbro chose to try to say this is the same Equestria, and a new show needs conflicts to solve. But from the perspective of some G4 fans… it forces a world they loved, to get torn down into arguably a more divided world then even the Hearth’s Warming tale. Which said tale seems to have been implied to be from before Princess Celestia and Luna were around (Based on the lore of the unicorns being the one to raise the sun and moon) and thus yes. Somehow, if everything that happened in G4 is canon to G5. Then the world peace in The Last Problem in just a thousand years or so become worse then even Celestia’s sole rule.

RESPONDING TO “READ A HISTORY BOOK”

I’ve mentioned before, you can try to point to World History to point why this is a realistic take. But again, we don’t have an ancient civilization from 1000 years ago that we look up to as the pinnacle of peace in the world (Like I said, the Golden age of Ancient Greece and/or Rome still had slavery and brutal wars). That has literally never happened. What was shown in the Last Problem very much looked like it was that for Equestria. I feel it’s a terrible interpretation of time, especially in regards to the context that the leaders of Equestria tend to live for at least more then 1000 years to imply things would just go backward like that.

CONCLUSION

The movie on it’s own merits is a good start for the generation, though at the same time. It’s going to have some hard questions that’ll often be no-win situations for the writers. They can choose to ignore the G4 questions, understandably trying to tiptoe around as many cans of worms as possible which would allow them to do whatever the heck they want with G5. Maybe even getting a few stragglers frustrated with no answers to just shrug and continue watching anyway if the show entertains them enough. Or they can certainly try to at least give some answers on the biggest questions (What happened to the magic, and/or what was the fate of G4’s alicorns) but risk having an answer that just adds even more questions.

The movie is a decent start for a new generation if you only view it as a pilot for a new series, but if you view it as a sequel to Friendship is Magic. There are certainly problematic issues with that currently. Maybe the special in Spring, or the eventual Series will cover some of this but it does leave fans waiting a while for answers that they’re not promised to get, or at least not as quickly as they’d like. Remember when I mentioned that I may view some of this similarly to how I was about Starlight Glimmer after her sudden redemption at the end of Season 5? With many questions I wanted to know about Starlight before I could really accept her as a recurring character? (And not really fully coming into terms with her until I expanded on her myself in a story for I Dream of Twilight Sparkle) This may be how I have to view the connection of G4 and G5.

They can go one of two routes: At least try to give as much of a clear explanation as possible. Even if it’s one that doesn’t exactly answer everything, at least giving a good try may help with those who have questions remaining in relation to G4. If instead however, they go the Season 6 Starlight route of just about ignoring all the questions fans have, it’ll make things frustrating for many. At least with Starlight, she wasn’t the major focus in every episode. That said, Season 6’s job was to endear us more to her reformed character. Now with G5’s setup, it may be running well into a corner where they must try to answer what happened in between G4 and G5 or else you end up making a lot of fans lukewarm or worse to your series. Starlight’s reformation and then lack of ability of Season 6 to explain more about Starlight to us was a divisive moment. And G5 involving G4 brings over the same kind of feeling but on a larger scale because now it’s in the very premise of the generation’s plot, it’s less avoidable compared to one character. Because even when it comes to episodes that will not further the plot and it’s just a fun friendly moment between the members of the mane 5, this movie is how they met and thus the not fully explained premise would always be looming over like a large shadow. It probably doesn’t help that they’re basically starting with a reformed Starlight-esque moment when it comes to introducing it’s premise AND on top of that something similar although certainly with at least a lot less backlash then with Alicorn Twilight since it came so soon. Though I do have to think there will be people who think this was way too soon to be ascending Sunny, since at least we got to see Twilight’s journey to Alicornhood (Even if you weren’t a fan of the episode she ascended in). Sunny arguably does earn her Alicornhood through implied years of working to unite the ponies. But it can still feel too soon when you had 2 1/2 seasons worth of episodes before Twilight did, while Sunny did so within one movie.

Someone’s ultimate thoughts on G5 might end up being what they are looking for in this new generation. If they’re looking for just about everything new. The movie provides plenty of that with new characters, new locations, and a more modernized world compared to G4 Equestria (Even if G4 Equestria had it’s own fair share of electronics it looked like, such as video game machines). If you’re in this for the G4 references. Aside from the very beginning of the movie, you’re kind of stuck doing a where’s waldo for most of the movie. And no guarantees you’ll get much more then that later. As I said in the trailer thoughts, the G4 stuff could very much be just Hasbro trying to bake it’s cake and eat it too. With a world that feels like it should be it’s own thing, but they didn’t want to commit entirely to that. So they shoehorn G4 in as the ancient past without giving a proper explanation to how point A (the end of G4) got to point B (the start of G5). It’s only been about a week since the movie premiered, but there is just so much to digest. And for those looking for answers to the G4 elephant in the room, may feel like they get nothing but metaphorical tummy aches for a long time.

I’ll end this off by having a message to both people who already feel like they’ll be fans of G5, as well as people like me who were fans of G4 and have concerns about where G5 may be doing to it’s legacy.

For the G5 fans, as I mentioned in the trailer thoughts. I still hope that it turns out ultimately good. I don’t know where things will go from here but the G5 movie taking in context that it’s basically a really long series premiere, had some genuinely enjoyable moments. At the same time, I hope anyone in the G5 fanbase can try to understand why G4 fans have the concerns that they do. I’ll repeat, G4 lasted a decade and was the absolute peak of MLP’s popularity. There will be a lot of people attached to that world, and understandably upset about the implication that it got torn down into how the world is at the start of G5. If they’re really annoying about it, I can understand why you couldn’t hold the urge to snap at them to “Get over it” just try not to snap at the ones who are just asking curiously. I’m personally not going to spam comment threads with “THIS DOESN’T FIT WITH G4!” or “HASBRO ANSWER THESE QUESTIONS PLEASE”, but I would be lying if I were to say I’m not just as curious about what those type of fans want to know too.

And as for G4 fans like me, if G5 ever upsets you in some fashion. It’s ok to stop watching and just stay quiet whenever you find yourself in a conversation about G5 and only participate in G4 matters in the fandom. This is a natural evolution of a fandom’s lifecycle where eventually a direction a franchise is taken to a place some others don’t like. So you’re only left to mainly talk with those who prefer an older generation and/or incarnation. Just because G5 has started and even though Hasbro says it’s the same world as G4. You can still do G4 content by itself and ignore G5. If you still have the inclination to do stuff with G4, do it. Generation 5 is not stopping people from still drawing the G4 characters, or writing more stories about them, or even if you don’t feel you’re that creative. Support artists who are still drawing G4 ponies, and/or rewatch some of your favorite episodes of Friendship is Magic that give you a smile. MLP has lasted since the 80s, and while for the most part to Hasbro it’s to sell toys. Toys, and the shows surrounding them’s purpose is to make the people watching or playing with them smile. From the little girls in the 80s to the much more diverse both gender-wise and age-wise fandom that came out of G4. The cute ponies are supposed to make us happy, and it’s ok to get back into a comfort zone if perhaps a different part of Ponies don’t give you the same feeling or even upset you in some way. Also as a vice versa to my message to G5 fans, try as best you can not to provoke those enjoying G5. If the G5 movie and/or episodes makes them as happy as your favorite G4 episodes/movies you should let them be. Many of us had to deal with that crap just for daring liking a pony show at all early on in the fandom. Try not to add to the toxicity as best you can. G4 is not going to be forgotten, the fact Hasbro decided to try to make it in the same universe actually has the side effect of making sure of that. Cause maybe you have fans that enter the MLP franchise through G5 curious about what happened in the past. And thus, they can be led to watch the previous generation. New G5 fans could potentially also become new G4 fans and friends. In other words, friendship… is still magic!

[ponyguru]

Tonight I watched all of He-Man: Revelations and most of Centaurworld (I watched the first three episodes like, a week ago?) and I have ... opinions. (And it’s 4:37am, might as well share them while they’re fresh!)

(Warning, this got very long and ranty, sorry for stretching out your dashboards if that’s even still a thing anymore?)

He-Man was entertaining, but it did feel like (as someone with like, less than a passing knowledge of the characters) someone’s super-angsty fanfiction more than like ... a continuing series. They killed off multiple well-known, beloved characters, to drive home the point of how SERIOUS and how HARDCORE this series is, and instead it felt like being a little kid in the 80s watching Optimus Prime get murdered to sell more toys. Like, WHY DID THEY DIE? Oh right, to show the viewer how SERIOUS the bad guys are! And to give the other characters things to angst over, to show you they’re no longer just shallow 80s muscle man stereotypes to sell toys! But then you gotta wonder, where will they go from here? Who’s even left to continue the storyline? Is it still He-Man if half the supporting cast is dead?

Like I said, I’m not a He-Man fan by trade, but aside from the pointless murder, it did seem like it delved into the backstories that a lot of people have probably wanted since the 80s, and it made some very interesting points. So, hey, maybe it’ll be beloved by its fans! And it was very entertaining, especially as someone who wasn’t a childhood fan so I didn’t have a lot of nostalgia that I had to watch die. It doesn’t end on a happy note, there’s definitely the ‘what if the villains WON’ theme going, so maybe my opinion will be less dour when the next part comes out. (I did like that it focused more on the female characters, which was a very unexpected change, and in that aspect I felt it was very well written; that could explain why I’ve heard other screechingly negative feedback elsewhere online, heh. He-Man fans probably don’t appreciate the heavy preference paid to Teela.)

Centaurworld was ... well, I watched the first episode with my mother, which was a Huge Fucking Mistake. I heard that it was a thrilling combination of something akin to Adventure Time and a more serious cartoon like Avatar, and instead I got 10 minutes of that, and then 16 minutes of continuous ass, fart, and poop jokes, combined with a couple of great tunes and a lot of tuneless recitative style “songs”.

If you follow this blog, you probably know toys; you know the Poopsie Surprise toys? The ones which were so obsessed with uncomfortably sexualized poop/fart/barf references that entire scholarly articles were written about the sexualization of children with scatology-themed toys? Yeah, that’s what Centaurworld felt like, almost the whole time. Like just ... an uncomfortable amount of poop/butt/fart “jokes”, to the point where it felt like it had to be one of the writer’s fetishes. Like, it was clearly not funny, and the main character is clearly uncomfortable with it ... and it just keeps going.

I say jokes in scare quotes because jokes are supposed to be funny, and a lot of Centaurworld just wasn’t funny. You could tell it was meant to have jokes, but it was very much dated early-2000s type humor, I want to guess? The kind where it’s not so much ‘setup-punchline’ but the more ‘awkward reference awkward reference awkward reference drawn out wooooord’ type of “jokes”. And most of those “jokes” were just - you guessed it - drawn out references to butts, or farts, or some combination of the two. I felt like an aged boomer watching it. I like to think I’m hip and with the times, but it felt like it should be aimed at a middle schooler - but like, an oversexualized middle schooler? It was uncomfortable to say the least. (One character talks to his farts, claims they talk back to him, and he addresses them as ‘Daddy,’ while another character expresses how uncomfortable that is, and implies he has “issues” to unpack. Because that’s hilarious, I guess?)

Centaurworld did, beneath the heavy layer of scatology, have an intriguing storyline. A warhorse from a LOTR-style world is thrown into a wacky Adventure Time-type land made up of silly centaurs, and has to try and find her way back home. It was thrilling at times, if you could slog through everything else that beleaguered it. There were some really good jokes! But I couldn’t quite muster up a laugh, because I was still wondering when the next butt reference would sneak in. After ten terrible jokes, the one good joke couldn’t manage to lift me from the depth of despair I’d sunken into. It really only felt like the show got ‘tolerable’ around episode 7 (out of ten!!!!), which was an episode heavily focused on cats. (Which, again; wasn’t the internet very much about LOLCats in the early 2000s?)

If six episodes of a ten-episode series is nigh-intolerable, is it a successful show? Should you bother watching something that is 60%+ garbage? (And DON’T FUCKING WORRY, the poop/butt/fart jokes continued UNTIL THE FUCKING FINAL EPISODE.)

I suspect that, if there was a “goal” for all of the fetish stuff (beyond fetish stuff for fetish sake), it would be to illustrate to the viewer how uncomfortable the main character feels in this strange new land, and for us to share in her discomfort. Which, fine, sure! Secondhand embarrassment is definitely a trope. But the sheer uncomfortable volume of the poop/butt/fart jokes clearly went way beyond mere discomfort, and veered into ‘why is this coming up so much, is someone getting off on this?’ territory, at least for me. A couple butt jokes an episode, fine, okay. Entire five minute bits devoted to farts and butts? Entire songs about butts? I start questioning why it’s such a beloved subject for you to write about.

Plus, and I may be reading into this too much, but several of the only Black-coded characters felt racist. I’m talking neck-snapping, tribal body paint type racism, although only one got the exaggerated “soul” type music to sing, which I guess is a relative win? (Waterbaby and Judge Jacket, if you’re wondering who I’m referencing. One of them is a literal hippo centaur, giving us shades of Madagascar.) It wasn’t obvious, but combined with everything else, it felt ... bad. (There are multiple other nonwhite voice actors who aren’t stereotypes, so maybe it was just a bad case of ‘trying to represent different culture while being clueless white people’, who knows?) There was also some classic fatphobia, with one of the villains being shown as a fat neckbeard collector/nerd. Wasn’t that relevant in - wait for it - the early 2000s? They redeem themselves very slightly by having maybe two other characters who are visibly fat, but one of them is also viewed as an antagonist.

Anyway, I was disappointed enough with the show to feel like I should say something, so - there it is. Centaurworld did have some good moments, some lovely songs, and there was some really heartwarming and tender character development that I liked, sandwiched between huge swaths of discomfort. There might be a season 2 (there shouldn’t be, LOL) and hell, I will probably suffer through it because I want to see what happens to them. But I can’t recommend that anyone else do the same, in all good conscience. It’s not good. It’s just not. But if you have 5 hours to kill, there’s worse stuff out there?

If you want to watch one episode to see the best of the series, I recommend episode seven, “Johnny Teatime's Be Best Competition: A Quest for the Sash.” It’s themed after the CATS musical, and the extended number at the end gave me shades of MLP or Fashion Star Fillies. (I found an official clip of the song posted here.) There’s also other lovely songs in the series, but you’d have to suffer through entire bad episodes to see them. The lovely “You’re Okay” shows up in the very first episode, so if you’re curious give that a watch... just be aware it never gets better, only worse.

This series genuinely upset me, because I wanted it to be something much better, and there were glimpses of it; you just had to try and close your eyes to the obsession with butts and farting to see pieces of what it might have been.

One notable fact that I thought was kind of like ‘wow, oof’ was that Meghan McCarthy, of MLP:FiM fame, was a story editor for Centaurworld. And considering how MLP went downhill in later seasons, I gotta say I’m wondering if there’s a commonality there. Maybe her fetish is bad writing? There’s worse fetishes to have, AS CENTAURWORLD CLEARLY DEMONSTRATES.

[kryativelogos]

The Young Six's Elements

Hi hello! Since MLP G5 is coming out soon, I thought it’d be fun to explore and discuss the Young Six’s elements from G4! This may or may not be long based on how you look at it. I would also say spoilers but guys, this show ended nearly 3 years ago.

Let’s get something right off the bat, these elements will be different from the Mane 6′s for two reasons: (1) the Pillars had different elements from the Mane 6 which leads me to believe they are stemmed from one another but not 100% identical and (2) that based on the colors from S8E26 when they pulled out the artifacts, Gallus isn’t- magical, not in the old-fashioned way that Twilight or Starswirl is at least. So I will be coming up with “new” elements that encompass the Young Six’s character while staying true to their predecessors. I also want to focus on the idea that each of these groups had an underlying goal, the Pillars were protecting a ‘primitive’ time for ponies, while the Mane Six were focusing on relationships between ponies and later extending out to other species. I want to believe that the Young Six’s goal would be to strengthen relationships between different species and unifying them under friendship based on how they’re all different species themselves and are connected to the rulers somehow.

Gallus - Guidance Gallus glowed purple, which means he is most closely related to Twilight (Magic) and Starswirl (Sorcery). Which might not make much sense here since again, while he is considered a magical creature, most creatures in the MLP universe are considered as such (and honestly the definition of what is and isn’t a magical creature is a completely different discussion all on it’s own). But because Twilight’s strongest magic is ✨The Magic of Friendship✨ I’m going to run with that. In S8E22 Gallus’ fear was being closed in / tight spaces, which I personally believe this to be physically closed in but also metaphorically closed off from people around him. In S8E15 Gallus explains that there really isn’t much of a family at home and that he really believes he found his family in the Young Six. So I picture him as both the leader of the Young Six because of Twilight’s and Starswirl’s own status of their groups and also that he values family the most. I want to also add that in the future (S9E26), he also becomes a guard for Twilight’s Kingdom. I believe that because of this, Gallus is basically ‘the head of the family.’ He is the supporter, the protector, and therefore is the one that would want to guide and help others around him to the best of his abilities. He even showed this while helping Silverstream conquer her own fears in S8E22. Gallus is the element of Guidance because while every-creature is capable of learning and making mistakes on their own, having someone there to help and just support them is always something nice.

Ocellus - Inspiration Ocellus glowed white, therefore closest to Mistmane (Beauty) and Rarity (Generosity). Ocellus’ fear (S8E22) was being feared again - as a species - and being “ugly and hideous” because she looked like Queen Chrysalis. However, the beauty Mistmane represents is not skin-deep, it’s the beauty within a person and Ocellus learns to love herself as a ‘reformed’ changeling - you can see this in S8E1 when she tries to pretend to be a dragon and pony to blend in and learning to just be herself and share her talent to help in the best way possible (see S8E2 + E9 at least). Her generosity comes from her love of learning and studying, giving her time and love to help the other students study and share the information she learns with others (S8E22). I see this as almost being a mentor or tutor, and giving your time for others is the greatest form of generosity in my opinion. This is why I believe Ocellus’ element would be Inspiration because as a changeling she is inspiring others through teachings and also sharing her past with others, and potentially shapeshifting into other creatures to show them all what they can be.

Silverstream - Curiosity I think Silverstream’s might just be the easiest one to explain. She shares characteristics of Laughter (Pinkie Pie) and Hope (Somnambula). Silverstream's past involves the Storm King and hid all her life underwater, so the problem here is she doesn't know anything above the water until the King's defeat (see MLP: the Movie). So when she is above the surface, she's constantly interested in everything (see S8E22 where she gets excited over plumbing) and wants to learn about everything. She gets excited over everything (see S8E2 for excitement over stairs) and this is a really good tie into laughter as part of her core characterization. Hope is also a really indicator for Silverstream because she and the rest of the hippogriffs really believed that staying underwater was the safest way to keep from the Storm King's rule. It wasn't until his defeat did the hippogriffs ever had a sense of hope of being able to live back on land. Curiosity is Silverstream's element because of her desire to learn.

Yona - Courage Yona is honest (AJ) and strong (Rockhoof), we didn't even need to know her elemental predecessors to know that. However, while her development as a character really isn't all that deep, we do see a softer side is S8E22 and S9E7. In S8E22, Yona can be seen terrified of spiders, but instead of just conquering her fear by smashing the spiders, she takes that extra step to befriend them instead, asking them for help to get out of her current situation. In S9E7, Yona is worried about embarrassing Sand Bar at a dance (I can't remember the name of the event sorry). She goes out of her way to learn everything 'the pony way' so she can fit in better. While this whole thing makes sense, it strips away Yona's identity of being a yak and that the dance was adapted to suit all creature. It takes real courage to step out of your comfort zone to change for someone, but also more so to just be yourself. Seeing that in Yona in both scenarios and also seeing how she can admit that she's scared of flying/falling (S8E1/2?) takes real courage. Because of her honesty, I think she wouldn't be afraid to speak her mind - or hesitate - and in that sense can also be quite courageous especially if it's something they don't want to hear (see basically every episode where there are consequences to not telling the truth). It takes courage to step out of the comfort zone and I think Yona really encompasses this idea.

Smolder - Integrity You may be wondering: Yona and Smolder have their elements backwards! Not quite, and here's why: Smolder's elemental predecessors are Flash Magnus (Bravery) and Rainbow Dash (Loyalty). I think it was a fun addition how her element is strongly tied to dragons (see S7E16) since the beginning and it's a nice touch. Smolder is the roughest of all six members and while she shares a lot of personality traits with Rainbow Dash (like being cool) she's also very honest with herself. In S8E22, Smolder's fear isn't really a fear and more of a wake-up call to herself. She likes cutesy things. She admits it and even joins the cheerleading team which is considered a more feminine sport (S9E15). I think it's really interesting how she also evokes characters to be more true to themselves such as Garble (S9E9) and even Rainbow Dash (S9E15). With these ideas in mind, I think Smolder's element is integrity for the sole reason that she is just really good at making people realize that there is no reason not to be true to yourself. She sees how other creatures perceive dragons, and does her best to allow characters like Spike and Garble be the dragons they want to be (liking pony-things like sewing and pillows S2E21 and S9E9 for Spike and slam poetry for Garble S9E9). How these tie to her predecessors is as such: it's brave to be yourself in a world (or in this case, species) that may not appreciate the full you, and it takes a loyalty to stand by your side while you admit to yourself who you truly are.

Sand Bar - Patience Finally, we have Sand Bar. Sand Bar was the hardest and yet easiest of the six to come up with an element. He has the least character development and also not a lot of personality aside from being very chill and being a really good ally to the other creatures. Because of this, I think he is the element of patience. His predecessors are Healing (Meadow Brook) and Kindness (Fluttershy), and both are key in being patient. This pony took his time with the other creatures, sharing his culture and making them feel welcome. He went out of his way to find Yona and listened to her, making her feel better by letting her know how he felt (S9E7). It was interesting to see the juxtaposition between Yona and Sand Bar, since Yona is very impulsive while Sand Bar is a 'go-with-the-flow' type pony and this just confirmed the idea that he is very patient, especially if he [romantically] likes Yona of all creatures. Aside from that though, there isn't many other eps I can reference that can support this decision. FINAL THOUGHTS--- So with everything said and explained, overall I think these elements are really necessary for both friendships but also could be helpful for them to be ambassadors or something along those lines to their kingdoms or go around helping stop feuds among kingdoms. The idea that these elements could be used to stop evil through artifacts is also something that could be further explored into although there's not much I could look into since there wasn't much information about all of them to begin with. One final thing, this is all just my interpretation and obviously can be up for debate, I only ask that if you do want to counter or even bring more evidence to the table that you do it kindly. I thought about this for a long time and tried my best to provide references as much as possible, so please respect that! Other than that, thank you for reading up to this point, I hope you enjoyed it and maybe sparked some conversations!

[weaselbeaselpants]

I have a lot to say and not enough time to say it. It hurts, but ya’ll know what this is about so if you want my full fandom retrospective opinion thing guys, here.

I’ve been following Vivienne’s art and career since I found her on dA in 2009. I’ve basically grown up with her and have a wide range of opinions up and down her collective work. I must stress that I do not know her as a person and no matter how critical I get in my personal time if I somehow met her in real life or converse with her online again (like, back in the day we went back and forth. She was pretty nice to me), I’d be humble and congratulate her for her success.

Critique does not, EVER equate to attacking people.

But

the reason I don’t call myself a VivziePopVivzmind-fan is the exact same as to why I don’t like the proud use of ‘anti’. Let me try and explain -

The vast majority of Viv fans are just that: fans. Viv’s one of their favorite artists and they’re happy for her and obviously defensive when some mouth breather pops into their fan discussion calling her and all of them trash. Quite a lot of the Hazbin fans I know in my circle of friends are all pretty accepting and agree on the problematic notions and implications of her work.

HOWEVER, there’s a vocal minority in the VivziePop fandom that were and still are toxic. Their specific interest in Viv back in the day was toxic...and now that she’s moved on into a successful career I doubt they’ve gone away, considering the things I’ve heard. These people - they’d flood Viv’s comments sections and stuff with messages like they were talking to her when they weren’t and they’d unironically call her a god in a way that feels like gaslighting, ex: “I’ll NEVER be as good as you Viv! My art is just sooooo unpopular oh god you are incredible no one will ever like you as much as meeeee”. It made me uncomfortable. It made me not want to be around her because these people took Viv’s role in their lives so seriously and their demand for her attention...it struck a nerve.

These same fans have been around long enough to see actual shitlords - the likes of Kiwifarms and tapatalk wikis - come in and actually harass Viv. Viv’s been sent revenge porn by sick freaks who think they’re funny and believe she deserves it. No. In my non-name fan bystander opinion, Viv’s got some shit to work on, but no one deserves raperevenge porn. EVER. It was genuinely bad and yes Viv and her base have every reason to NOT TRUST these communities. Unfortunately, when these incidents happened, these particular fans took it upon themselves to gatekeep the fandom and act like Viv’s unofficial guard against any kind of decenting opinion of her, all without her say so.

((to the critics who will be all “but Viv or Faust said THIS to their fans-”, like I said, Viv’s far from perfect but regardless of how much she prolly wanted people to side with her I’m gonna guess that she didn’t want people sending transphobic death threats to DollCreep. Again, and this is coming from a bystander here, I have a feeling Viv knows about some of the toxicity but doesn’t know how/want to address it - which is a conversation all it’s own.))

This particular breed of VivziePop “fan” holds so much toxicity in her fandom(s). They aren’t the only cause, but they’re there. They feel entitled to her attention and her approval. They creep me out. Having spoken to other much-less critical admitted fans of Viv around me, these fans appear to creep everyone else out and put the rest of the fandom on edge. They’re gatekeepers. They’re creeps. Like the bronies and SU fans of yestertodayyears, they know harassment exists and that people have crossed the line - so they think any means is necessary to prevent that is automatically good. I could pile together all the incidents and folks who’ve had bad runs ins with this aftershock of Viv-obsession, but I do have a life of my own and this post is already stupid long so I’ll just list out the biggest examples and provide receipts when asked.

Critical blogs have gotten RAPE and death threats because they don’t like Viv’s art. HonestZoophobiaCriticisms, a blog I interracted with back in the day, def got one. Now Viv’s opinion of crit-blogs is that they’re “bad takes” but I can assure you she doesn’t want that shit being said on her behalf.

I’ve seen young artists get blacklisted from sites and forums cause they so much as post a redesign. Viv and co get told through the grapevine that someone’s making hatespeech and so preemptively block said person (prolly cause they’re in the middle of WORKING and can’t deal right now) only to find out after the fact that no, it was just a kid drawing their version of her characters. There’s serious miscommunication issues within the fandom about who’s ‘good’ or ‘bad’ and once you get the actual staff involved in this game of telephone you’re begging for trouble. The problem acknowledged, however, it’s souly from the “Viv never did anything wrong camp”. No word is said about how ugly the fandom is under the surface it’s all one type of person’s fault and not complicated’. Blah

I’ve only ever had ONE obsessive ‘fan’ who’d stalk me, mock me, and then redraw my art just to get attention from me. That shit fucked with my head. As a follower hundreds of miles away from Viv who’s agreed/disagreed with her through the years - I absolutely believe her when she says she hates ‘creeps’ and that she doesn’t want anyone in her fandom spreading hate on her behalf. It’s the one thing about her I’m POSITIVELY sure of. Whether she believes that said underlying harassment exists and/or is even a problem within her fandoms is anyone’s guess. That’s not what I’m here for. I’m here to write stupid blog entries like this, talk about fandoms and media and how they and the real world affect one another, and rb fan art I like. I’m cautiously optimistic fan with a side of salt.

Mixed opinions and critique within a fandom CAN and SHOULD exist. Hazbin Hotel has been greenlit by a studio! It has a product line of merchandise you buy. Helluva Boss is getting eight more episodes this coming year (yeeee:3yeeee). Two of Viv’s properties are now products. Nothing is immune from critique. And in critique you will find a lot of people who are not ‘nice’. Critique or analysis doesn’t have to be nice. There will be, in Viv’s words’ ‘bad takes’ on her writing. Maybe they will be actual CinemaSins-styled bad takes or maybe Viv is just mad that people don’t love and feel inspired by her characters the way she wants them to - it’s a fact she’s going to have to get used to.

((TBH, I’m pretty sure she’s already realized that criticism of all types need to exist. It’s just that, again, her and the SpindleHorse staff are kind of overwhelmed by all matter of takes and opinions coming their way they kinda can’t deal weeding out the fair ones from the assholes, so she lumps them all together.))

Shitposters, ironic fans, unironic fans, critical fans, just critics of Hazbin and Helluva CAN and WILL exist. They should exist and not feel threatened by the megafandom. There are people out there who are one step further and rightfully bothered by Hazbin/Helluva’s use of incorrect symbols, portrayal of certain topics, and the response by creators. These people have strong opinions and are actually disgusted by Viv. They deserve to exist too and should not be vilified because, like me, they’re commentary doesn’t consist of anything personal towards the people at Spindlehorse or the fans of her works. They can rant, they can be professional, they can be petty and they can be fair. But they will exist. You have to deal with it.

I am an ADD/OCD ridden autistic woman with serious anxiety issues who has no one to talk to half the time and so only HAS my fandom to communicate with. But that’s just it - it’s a fandom. A community. You have to learn to not think souly of yourself and of others in a community. A fandom doesn’t exist just for you or any one person. You have the right to be angry and defend or be offended. And it’s in the spirit of that that I ask, prrraaaaaay even, that I please

NOT BE CALLED AN “ANTI-ANTI” for not liking the moniker?!

I DON’T TO BE AN “ANTI”. Not ironically, not unironically. ‘Anti’ should be for politics and shit like pedophiles, necrophiles, nazis, serial killer stans, Trump, racists, antisemites, terfs, animal abusers, rapists, and antivaxxers. Anti should only come into critical media analysis when these ethical issues follow suit IN TO fandom discussion. ((EX: Anime and MLP proudly waving their cp and non-con into the public eye; Hazbin appropriating cultural symbols which are not satanic; Basically anything that concerns John K or Butch Hartman.))

If your DNI list unironically consists of the entirety of one fandom:  CONGLATURATIONS! You have done the exact same thing these particular creepy Viv fans have done: monopolize the conversation. And yes, people I’m referring to, IT’S STILL A PROBLEM EVEN IF YOU’RE FIGHTING RACISM/SEXISM/HOMOTRANSPHOBIA.

There are hundreds of Vivziefans who ARE more critical, accepting of faults, interested in discussion and especially rewrite and redesign stuff who would LOVE to engage with you and give you a follow. There’s hundreds of people who no doubt agree with you!

But the thing I’ve seen these very proud AntiHazbinVivzieHelluvaWhatever blogs do is lash out at fans for continuing to like Viv and consume Viv’s art in a healthy way. What the actual fuck is your problem?

I get it. Say a crazy Hazbin fan gets on your case for even SUGGESTING Viv could be homophobic ((”SHE’SBIANDWORKSWITHGAYPPLblahablahblah”)). They get in your face, make some callouts, try to rile up support against you, leave disgusting harassment throughout your social media? Absolutely ban worthy. After that it’s perfectly understandable why you don’t want to engage with anything HHHBZPVivzierelated because you’re so fucking tired of being labeled an abuser or “just jealous” for having an opinion on a show you don’t like. I’m with you!

But,

A fan agrees that something in the canon is bad or that Viv did something they don’t like?

A fan likes your silly shitpost meme?

A fan asks if they can like Hazbin and follow you at the same time? 

A fan does fan art of something you don’t like?

If your response to any of these ^^^ things is to get LOUD and accusatory, Vivsplain them about how they’re an absolutely awful person to ever question YOUR opinion, or just block them without a second thought? You’re a petty, vendictive shit and you also need to learn to let things go. I’m sorry but you do. As I already said, Viv’s work is a brand at this point, not just the work of a singular person. As such, there are gonna be mixed opinions and you can’t judge every single one of these people by what they like. You’re a shitty critic with a shitty attitude and yes that will demean the value of what you’re saying. This is bad because, if you’re trying to point out how Angel Dust’s abuse IS handled terribly; gay rep in Viv’s work is weak and terrible; the show appropriates closed practices; the fandom makes excuses for predatory artists and creepy behavior and individuals who have sketchy pasts - I’M WITH YOU. WE NEED TO BE TALKING ABOUT THIS SHIT. JUST BECAUSE THESE ARE ADULT CARTOONS SET IN HELL MEANS THERE SHOULD BE ANYTHING CLOSE TO 2013 PONY-TUMBLR. <<<---- this shit is as important to me as it is to you and I really don’t like being called an abuser or apologist for saying “hey maybe blowing up at ppl for the shows they like ISN’T the way to go about this”. 

But I have, just like the good old days of 2015 Zoophobia of yore, been blocked because I admit to being tired of ‘Anti’ being equated to ‘critical’. Same with hater.

Critical DOES NOT = Anti+Hater. I’m fucking tired of people saying it does and I’m tired of people taking up the term as some weird form of fandom reappropriation. It’s stupid.

Tl;dr: Once upon a time, I was in a budding fandom for something I liked made by an indie artist I watched on dA. I wanted to be a bigger fan than I was already, but was told by toxic people within said fandom that I couldn’t be part of it for reasons they’d made up in their head about my ‘motives’ against Viv. My admiration for Viv or what I liked about Zoophobia didn’t matter because I thought the story was really rushed and people weren’t being truthful with how they really felt about it - ergo, I HAD TO GO. 

Flash forward 8 years later- My opinion of Viv’s body of work has changed but I still find myself in love with her style and some of her characters. I want to be on a forum or service that gives a healthy look at the problems there are with this series and fandom...and I’m met repeatedly by petty bs where people are again at each other’s throats. And yes, I do think it’s causing more harm than good especially when you insist there’s a “x person shouldn’t be trusted” mentality when fighting actual fucking racist, xenophobic, predatory bullshit.

[netbug009]

thanks for taking it seriously. tbh you talked about how you cared more about the final product even if the creator had questionable morals than who participated in it which made me suspicious. later you talked about how we should hold ben schwartz accountable for music and it felt like you only cared about stopping the support of people or content that only affected yourself. im glad thats not true and that your change is not superficial and am happy for you.

TBH you kinda read my mind of late. The whole situation with Music has been making me think a lot about that kind of thing. On one hand, I’m not sure that’s a 1:1 comparison, because even if you separate Music from its creator, Music itself remains a deeply ableist and bigoted work. I don’t think Music counts as a death-of-the-author issue the way reblogging a benign work from someone without benign views does. On the other hand, for me personally, Sia being ableist definitely ruined all of Sia’s work for me. I will not be able to enjoy her contributions to things I like, such as MLP and Finding Dory, the same way I used to. I’ll probably roll my eyes when her songs come up when I rewatch those films. I won’t pretend it didn’t impact my view and enjoyment of the work she’s in, and it would indeed make me a hypocrite to claim nobody else has the right to feel that way when they find out someone who created or contributed to a work is spreading harmful views.  That said, the way people interact with work is complex. I remain a fan of Danny Phantom despite Butch Hartman’s myriad of concerning views, including the classic “mental illness can be prayed away and is a sign of lack of faith” nonsense that has hurt me personally. I likewise see a lot of LGBT fans taking DP back, because those characters still mean a lot to them and they enjoy the work outside of what Hartman has to say about it. I also see trans Harry Potter fans choosing to distance that work from its creator as well as opposed to shunning it all together, and I don’t think it’s my place to shame them for that. That said, I ALSO don’t think it’s my place to tell people who go “Oh, I can’t enjoy this thing anymore, because of the views of its creator” that they’re overreacting.  Does acknowledging all of that make me a hypocrite for going so hard on Sia? Maybe. I try not to be. That’s kinda why I stressed that I’m upset with people supporting the film and its album specifically, despite the fact that I personally have no intention of supporting ANYTHING Sia makes in the future unless she backs up her recent apologies with actions (so far, it seems she lied about the actions she claimed she was going to take, so... keep digging that hole, Sia.) I’m also in the spot of formerly being a pretty bigoted person, and having people who chose to support my benign work despite it, and... while I can’t say this will always be the case, that gave me the opportunity to interact with a lot of people who made me question and ultimately change my views. I firmly believe that kindness when I might have not deserved it helped set me on the right path better than any amount of anger towards me did. So that’s another element that leaves me a bit conflicted on how to handle things like this. Maybe I was treated with more kindness than I deserved, and I certainly don’t blame anybody who chose to distance themselves from me completely, but I don’t think I would have ever broken out of the harmful mindset I was raised around without that, either. What one person may see as rewarding a bigot, another may see as rewarding someone for keeping bigotry out of what they create, creating a stark contrast between the success of something wholesome and something harmful. Sometimes I flip flop between those solutions myself.  I’m still learning, still trying to understand, still working to be accountable to my own feelings and the feelings of others. I’m still thinking about a lot of these things - I think online, we’re expected to be able to pull a very final and firm statement about what we believe out of a hat at any moment, and I’m not sure that’s always a good thing? Especially on something like this, which I think has more nuance than most people give it credit for, and most people make exceptions to their own rules about?  But I guess the one thing I’m sure of is I’m not going to assume that someone enjoying a work means they agree with its creator's views, and I hope people will give me that same understanding. I think the way a person connects to a work is deeply personal and may not always be consistent. Even if I can personally no longer enjoy anything Sia puts out because it’ll be attached to memories of “The Music Incident” I’m not going to assume anybody who streams Chandelier is an ableist bigot who doesn’t care about autistic people, even if in my anger and hurt that’s an easy kneejerk reaction to feel like jumping to. TBH, maybe saying Ben shouldn’t be allowed to work on other, benign things until he apologizes was a hurt, hypocritical kneejerk on my part. Maybe what I’m really upset about is the general lack of outrage about this film, because it’s just another sign of how little people tend to care about autistic people, and I’m desperately trying to find someone to “pay” for it. Maybe I just want that sweet, sweet validation of someone with a large platform standing up and saying “this is wrong, actually.” It’s a complex issue and one I’m very emotional about, which clouds my judgement, but... My goal when talking about Death of the Author isn’t to dismiss the hurt of people who feel a creator’s views have harmed them - it’s to help fans take back the good things in a work they love. I hope people get that and assume the best of me, even if I seem to be contradicting myself, even if I flat out DO contradict myself in anger and hurt. I’m far from a perfect person. Fandom is deeply important to me, it’s a major part of my life and often something I find beautiful, and at the end of the day I want what’s best for the people in it.  I wish I had a simpler answer for you, anon. 

[monkey-network]

Good Stuff: Elements of Justice [Pt. 1]

My Little Pony, Friendship is Magic. Ace Attorney. To think around 7 years ago, a fan of both was able to combine the two to create Turnabout Storm, the multi-part youtube video series that weaved a whole tale where Phoenix defends Rainbow Dash in a murder trial in Equestria. It admittedly wasn’t a well-tight story, but I will never deny the effort that went into considerably one of my favorites fanworks in history. It wasn’t til’ 2019 where a spiritual successor has arisen by a new artist, combining the two series once again with new characters and potentially more new cases at hand. This is Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney x My Little Pony: Friendship: Elements of Justice, and I not only adore it, I smell the good potential.

This review is gonna do things differently, since case 1 isn’t complete yet there’s plenty to talk about so part 2 onward will depend on how far this is able to go. With that said...

It starts off well. 15 minutes in, the case is introduced, Phoenix and his crew are transported to the pony world, everyone’s freaked out and are caught up to speed before getting into the investigation factor of Ace Attorney before the trial starts in part 2. Great thing about this series so far are the designs; there’s certainly a lot to juggle but the creator managed to work out so much, from the character sprites to their personalities to their voices, all of which are really fitting even when Apollo and Athena aren’t in action.

I was genuinely surprised seeing the pixel sprites of DualDestinies!Wright, especially since I've never been used to full 3D Ace Attorney 

As for the story so far, it’s really solid. As the first case in this supposed series, it’s an easy murder trial involving characters from MLP where after the first part gave the characters time to put some pieces together, the remaining 2 parts will take place where the real action is in court. I say the key reason why this, and the premise, certainly works is that both were able to sell you on its drama beforehand. Ace Attorney comes off as the more mature of the two, but they’ve never been above being in more goofier situations. MLP Gen 4 on the other hand, while a young kids show, has always had this secret versatility where putting the characters in more adult scenarios, both in show and with fanworks, never feels out of place. It helps that most the characters in MLP themselves are adults with actual jobs so this probably wouldn’t have worked if they were kids. That’s why as graphic as the murder in question is, the creator went for it being a serious situation while you’re subconsciously remembering that we’re dealing with cute talking horses.

reminds me a lot of how Toy Story 3 worked so well

When I get down to it, it’s just Ace Attorney with MLP characters yet I very much appreciate the passion that’s going into this being a full on series, expanding on that original project. It doesn’t feel like a half assed attempt at making an Ace Attorney series, beyond a moment in the story where you have to suspend your disbelief a bit more, but a bonafide beginning effort to make a puzzle you can put the pieces together as you watch along. Everyone sounds like they’re invested in this, Blueblood’s rough voice aside, which makes it more investing than the simple merit of seeing these characters again. If there’s one major issue I have to point out, it’s mostly with the dialogue box. It takes up nearly a third of the screen and while that isn’t an issue with reading the text, 

I feel like it got in the way a couple times where the box either could’ve been sized down or move the image up

Another issue I kinda had was where there were times where I thought that what the characters trying to prove were obviously flawed yet they kept going with it, but at the same time it makes sense that they’d want to fill any holes in the plot as possible so knocking out theories adds up. Again, it’s about putting the pieces together by the end.

it is to say we’ve come so far

Overall, I genuinely want more and I’ll gladly wait for more to come. It’s a project where the creator knew what they wanted and have put the ankle in giving it just as much charm and care as before. It feels polished and a clear vision beyond the single big case. While nothing major has truly happened yet, I’m ecstatic seeing this in action to where I sincerely ponder how more it will do. The creator himself is looking to improve however possible so it’s pretty hyped to see what’s next.

[gay-slabies]

mod & character introductions!!

Hello, and welcome to our Countryhuman’s Ask Blog! This blog is one in which the mods (and there are eight of us) each have certain characters who we will write and draw for, meaning that asks geared towards certain characters will also be geared towards certain mods! The vague plot is that the characters all live together in one big house and just sort of vibe... This isn’t supposed to get too serious, y’know! 

Below the cut are everyone’s intros! Make sure to read them, because we all worked hard to get this blog up and running and we would like to be able to meet you all! The nicknames come from our Discord server, by the way, in case you were wondering about the oddity. 

The blog also only follows any of the mods who have a Tumblr, so check the Following list if you want to talk with us one-on-one!!

hi im cursed and im the person who cant draw for shit because i hvae to laptop with mousepad. Well ma'am, the lab results came back and This is hard to say but Your son tested highly on our simp scale Oh goodness gracious But doctor, what does it even mean to be a simp? Well son, allow me to explain- (Nacho: Cursed has America, Mexico, and Australia)

Hey, I’m Mango! As listed in the description, my pronouns are she/her. My acc is @strangled-mangoes if you have any personal questions :). The countries I’m doing are Estonia and Spain. Estonia is very chaotic,, shorts in the snow, crocs with socks... you know that guy I’m talking about. The “It’s not even that cold” guy,, him. (The poison. The poison for kuzco. The poison chosen especially to kill kuzco. Kuzco’s poison). Now Spain... he’s a little different. Okay, a lot different. He’s basically an ex-homophobe turned gay and is now protesting for trans rights. Sorry if that’s a little confusing, I’m bad at summarizing things haha

Hello!! I’m Moderator Nacho, the father of these hellchildren! I am Exe’s husband, but don’t let father and husband disallude you- I am biologically and mentally female uwu. Yes I use uwu. Call me a furry all you want. Your words are like bites from a baby that hasn’t grown teeth yet. Disgusting and harmless. ANYWHO, I am one who tends to go off on a tangent, but can still structure out a plot, as well as being more than willing to give people Big Answers to their asks!!!! Also... apparently I apologize too much. Besides all of that, the countries I will be answering asks for are as follows: Lithuania, The United Arab Emirates, China, Northern Native America, and Russia. If I misrepresent a country in a way you don’t agree with, then feel free to tell me! I will gladly listen and take what you say into account, especially if you are ethnically or religiously knowledgable on the country. My Lithuania... is a bit of a bitch, plain and simple, but it’s kinda valid, since he is Very Old. My UAE is a difficult bow to unravel- He’s very bigoted towards anything LGBT+, but Something happens to change that :). My China is non-binary and like 4000 years old... He’ll fuck anything that moves if he can convince it into bed, but he is also very formal and polite when he wants to be. My Native America is actually just the northern half, and she is... chaotic, to say the least. My Russia? Himbo. That’s all I need to say. He’s the very definition of a himbo. Look up himbo in the dictionary and it’s just a page full of pictures of Russia.

Hi yes hello, I'm Satan, and I say trans rights. I'm the only irish lad with these lads, and you already know my pronouns, they/them. I'll be doing Russian Empire and The Soviet Union, R.E has much inner homophobia, and Sov tries (and fails) to be badass. You cant run from being fluffy. And I'm also ace, and into girls uwu.(my least favourite skittle is purple)

Greetings all, I’m Mod Exe. You could also just go to call me the German-Soviet, young kinda boomer mother of like; 15 kids with a cat and a she/her husband. My pronouns are they/them with the occasional she/her mixed in. I’m tryna figure stuff out. I’m one out of three European Mods (Mod Satan and Mod Corn)! I might misspell stuff because out of all these freaks here, I’m the only one whose first language is not English. I apologize in advance. The countries I will doodle and answer asks from are West Germany, Third Reich, German Empire (Second Reich) and The Weimar Republic. My headcanons for them might be weird but hey, isn’t that literally all of us? That’s all I wanted to say already! Sincerely, Exe.

Hehejehehhehe Mod Void here! I’m your local otaku who knows absolutely almost nothing about the outside world, and is also Canasain. I draw a lot, and if you want to check out my underdeveloped and only just started ‘art’ blog, it’s @bluevoid27 . As stated in the description, She/Her pronouns! I’m also in charge of these beans: Antarctica, Greenland, Canada, Philippines, and Martial. My take on these characters may be a bit different from the most popular versions. Antarctica is still bean, but is presumably hiding a less pure version. Greenland is well, kind of overprotective of Antarctica, but is still a nice child who’s also NB. Canada is probably the one who’s been altered the most, let me tell ya, in Canada, we aren’t as nice as the stereotypes, so this version is a bit more reckless, still loves syrup, and has some sort of trouble showing he’s sorry (wow what a surprise!). Philippines is your classic Pinoy, karaoke master, hopeless jokester, and just a carefree dude in general. Martial is your angry Pinoy, with threats like “Gusto mo palo?” while holding up a sandal. He still resembles somewhat of his brother, but is way more aggressive and rough on the edges. Salutations, I’m Moderator Discord (no, not MLP, but the actual Apphuman)! As stated in the description, my pronouns are they/them/she/her (although I prefer they/them the majority of the time). I know way too many memes and vines for my own good, and I also have rather unusual headcanons! My account is @statehumans-maryland in case you have any personal questions, and the Countryhumans I will be doing are East Germany, South Korea, and Poland! • East Germany is a soft boi who loves his sister, West Germany, and h̶a̶s̶ ̶a̶ ̶b̶i̶g̶ ̶f̶a̶t̶ ̶c̶r̶u̶s̶h̶ ̶o̶n̶ likes his best friend, Poland! He is basically one of the most innocent and wholesome people you will find on this planet — plus, he’s a farmer’s boy, so that’s neat! • South Korea is someone who is rather worn down from the shenanigans with his brother (North Korea) causing all sorts of trouble and not exactly having the relationship with him, but he’s overall a very cheerful person (though he does well at concealing his inner turmoil) who is generally friendly with others and more than willing to take responsibility for his brother’s actions, as well as deal with the consequences for such actions (even though it’s very unjustified and unnecessary). He also has a polyamorous relationship with Martial Law and Japan. • Poland is the epitome of a gentleman and will never hesitate to correct himself should he make the slightest of what he perceives as “mistakes” in his mannerisms (though he’s very slowly slipping out of it because c’mon, this is 2020, ain’t nobody got time for formalities). Overall, he is a very good friend to have, has a fair bit of anxiety, and h̶a̶s̶ ̶d̶e̶e̶p̶ ̶f̶e̶e̶l̶i̶n̶g̶s̶ ̶f̶o̶r̶ ̶h̶i̶s̶ ̶b̶e̶s̶t̶ ̶f̶r̶i̶e̶n̶d̶ is very close friends with East Germany.

Mod Corn is currently busy, but has given us permission to add their intro later, so look for that!