#sso rewrite

[jorvegian-goddess]

So me trying to fix/rewrite the Soul Riders and their magic system led to researching the philosophy of souls in ancient Greece... just another day in the office

[whiteteecup]

Anne Von Blyssen

Anne is one of the soulriders. When summer started she was away in Germany to do a dressage competition with Concorde. While there things went south. The others just belived she was gone for longer but after awhile they became worried. She comes from old money and kinda acts like old money. Even if she can sound like a snobb she is gently by heart with the ones closest to her. Anne has high ambitions and strive to be the best in her own abilities in dressage and showjumping. Anne's moodboard is individual pics bc I couldn't make it fit into the format that I use. Enjoy :)

For Anne I took heavy inspiration from starshine legacy. I will not base her outfits from sso. She may wear something like it but her everyday/school/social outfits are based on these pics.

[sso-montana]

Ok quick question just how the actual fuck do the soul rider and soul steed connections work because it's clearly not based on a single pair of souls being reincarnated and finding each other over and over again

Like there can be multiple generations of soul riders at once which okay it seems that every soul rider has their "own" incarnations of their soul steeds so it's clearly a generational thing that every I'd say 20-30 years there's a new group of riders

This means the reincarnation cycle should be based on the soul steeds life span which brings it's own set of problems like what if one of them gets killed (the Concorde incident) and it also would mean they have regular horse life spans which... you have talking magical horses surely they can live longer than your average horse next stable. They also seem to reincarnate pretty soon after they die if not right after they die, probably works like the avatar circle in atla. It's also pretty well established that there is only one guardian horse of each circle at any point in time. There can't be two starshines at once.

But there can be two (possibly three depending on how old the members get) incantations of soul riders at once

Elizabeth and Anne's mom (previous sun and star) were both still very much alive and kicking when Anne and Lisa (current sun and star) were born and bonded with their horses and discovered their powers and-

Do the previous soul riders just get weaker? are they just as powerful? How does it work??? TELL ME SSE TELL ME

[bullbobb]

I have such a love hate relationship with tss!time because like I hated him as a small child and just like most Steve saga characters he’s wasted potential and just plain bad, but at the same time AGH in my head he is AWESOME! In my head he can be literally sooo cool!! And then canon exists

[ald3r-wolfcak3]

Oh wow, so I am no artist in any mean and I just recently started experiencing with those early 00s MTV /Cartoon Newtwork looking doodles and since I already did a post of "rewrite or rework" on the og ssl story here some "redesigne"

[shiroselia]

Good evening, Star Stable Fandom. Wanna read one of my short ficlets about vague concepts I can't be bothered to write into a more coherent piece at the moment?

And also maybe be consumed by my Aideen/Garnok propaganda?

[starbornsoulrider]

^ plays star stable just to rewrite it now

[equestrianequivalent]

Happy new year, you're not getting rid of me yet! Please enjoy the first QuintSum chapter of the year >:)

[regancastlelion]

deadass, I was having issues deciding what Reggie would do with her life, since I'm writing new lore for her. but then I saw the new riding camp jacket and had the most brilliant idea.

[burgiethewriter]

More main story spoilers

There’s something funny about Linda calling us from the middle of the Forgotten Fields while her horse is standing right in front of us. The assumption is probably that she was there the whole time but I like to include downtime between quests in my canon so I guess he just got bored of watching a tree grow and wandered off all the way over to the ranch

[windforestsso]

Sky is quite mature most times. But can be pretty petty agaist few individuals.

He is very protective over Moa. My idea is that many of his previous riders either got an early death or abonded by the druids when they werent needed anymore.

So after being reborn from Catherines horse he become resentful of the other soul horses for often getting to live out their life with their riders while Sky often getting seperated from his.

Sky would attack his 'siblings' without hestitation if it meant Moa would be safe.

He doesnt like Evergrey at all. While Fripp and Elizabeth he cant forgive even if he dont really hate them.

As for missions, he will go where ever Moa goes, but he just want her to have a happy and peaceful life and gladly take her to wander the wilderness to get away from people.

for ur sso ocs who have a soul horse with a humanoid sort of brain, how does ur soul horse oc feel about everything? are they brave and loyal to your oc and being a hero saving the world or whatever challenges you face, or are they anxious and worried, or stoic or disinterested, whats ur soul horse oc's personality and lore?

ive talked a bit before but winterborn (junis horse) was a rescue to the south hoof ranch as a foal abandoned in the snow. he grew up alongside juni but hes veeery comfortable and doesnt want to go on missions or do anything difficult or scary, he just wants to lay in the sun and eat lots of food and have silly times with his friends and family. in the case that he can talk to juni, he will whine about having to do any kind of work but still do it if she tells him its important, including dangerous situations, he wouldnt leave her behind, he would just hate it the whole time lol

[whiteteecup]

Linda Chanda

Linda is one of the soulriders, she is in the moon circle and her powers are related to time, she often has visions but she can't control them. Linda is a curious person and her curiosity often puts her in trouble She loves to read and lose herself in the fictional world, her favorite book is Peter Pan Her horse is Meteor and they compete in showjumping together.

Link to my work:

[sso-montana]

Claire Moonbeam

I could burn your motherfuckin' village to the ground I do not roll over like a motherfuckin' hound I could crack your skull between these motherfuckin' thighs I could doom your lineage with one look from these eyes

Kiki Rockwell: Burn Your Village

Claire belongs to @dumbhorsegameblog

[ald3r-wolfcak3]

STARSHINE REWRITE THINGS;

Lisa after got in fight with Anne, Lisa have to got to theraphy. She dispise the idea but her therapist is a really sweet lady, who let her rent about anything. Also the one who reccomend her to go to the stables, since her "friends" hanging there a lot.

Linda and Anne are childhood best friends which they did not broke even tho Anne is the "mean, rich girl." Anne invite Linda to the stables and watch her practice and Linda invite Lisa to go. Lisa don't want to ofc, but after school she hop on the bus with Linda and Anne.

They meet with Alex at the stables, because Alex doing some part-time job. She helps to fix fencies, feeding the horses and other little things. They step inside the stable together where Lisa got intruduced to the girl'a horses.

Meteor is a Dutch Warmblood, who really likes eating. Meteor sometimes dear to stole from the othera.

Concorde is pure-breed Hannoverian. She is elegant, and very calm but can be cheeky tome to time.

Tin-can is a draft pony mix. No one has an idea what's is in his bloodline but everone knows he can do any hard work without breaking a sweat

And lastly, there is Starshine. A blue and silver colored Jorvik Wild. He was find by Herman. Starshine is very sick, he is unable to stand more than an hour.

The girls tell Lisa if someone won't buy him soon the stable have to put him down. Lisa feeo angry, furious even. Why no one wants to help a sick horse? Just some medicine and a good diet and Starshine would be the happiest horse ever!

Lisa in rage, open the stall and give an apple to Starshine. The horse eyes shine and able stand up to eat the apple.

"Eat, shitface" said Lisa with a grimace "Or you will be glue"

[natduskfall]

The villains cannot win because SSO doesn't want them to. It's like they want to drag the game out forever.

I want to talk about Darko, coz that is what I do. There is so much potential for him to be interesting. SSO told us that Darko is head of "Nightmare institute", but they never elaborate or follow up on it. It's a throwaway thing. In the Saving Anne quest, he mentions the Dark Sun before Alex zapps him, but yet again that is never followed further. And I like the idea of him wanting to take over DC and "dethrone" Sands, yet being under pressure from Sands. Maybe the generals hate him, and are more powerful then he is, yet are his subordinates. But SSO never shows us anything, never follows up on the concepts it spits at us.

Another thing I don't know how to grasp, but want to talk about, is Darko's powers.

He is written to have some amazingly powerful and unexplained powers. And still he fails to catch us in Pandoria. Because SSE won't let him win, and the cutscenes and writing of scenes are horrible.

He can access Pandoria, and he is not affected by the sickness. He can teleport within Pandoria. They establish Darko as someone who can easily teleport. And yet the thing we do upon meeting him is another damn race. Coz that seems to be SSE's favourite gameplay mechanic. Or at least it used to be, before the new direction SSE has been taking the game in, thank god. It's almost like the new "game onboarding" makes fun of this by having Alex wanting MC and Linda race to see who gathers firewood the fastest, and Linda shooting it down. Anyway, MC somehow gets back to the Secret Stone Circle™, where Darko shows us his ability to somehow freeze the Soul Riders in place. Where did this come from, and why didn't he use it on MC before even revealing himself to them? In the new version of the game, he doesn't freeze MC, which makes the whole scene where he walks up to the keystone while Fripp talks to him even more jarring. MC just standing there and not doing anything. Darko not attacking Fripp.

I am really annoyed with that quest still, and don't know how to grasp this, or explain more eloquently. But this post helped me a lot. There are no stakes in this game.

Can We Discuss Narrative Incompetence?

I want to go off on this thought a little longer, but it would be a hard tangent from the previous post I commented on about male characters in SSO being written to be incompetent (that's the summary of the thought) to go into this, so it's its own post now.

It is so frustrating because there is a purpose for narrative incompetence. It can help regulate tone, and lower the sense of threat, both of which are important for this being a kids' game. It can provide comic relief and relieve tension. But it has to be handled with balance.

The glaring problem with overusing narrative incompetence in a character who is supposed to be taken seriously, which the villains of a story should be, is that it will eventually circle back onto the main characters. Because if the villains are utterly incompetent, then why can't the heroes defeat them already? And if we add on the layer of issues with SSE's current stance on feminism and girl power : if all of the men are too incompetent to do anything, then what does it say about the competence of the women who still haven't stopped them?

It's one of the reasons that I've felt a particular disconnect with the overconfidence of the Soul Riders lately. Despite us seeing the absolute magical havoc the Dark Riders can cause, the Soul Riders are almost boastfully confident in themselves. In one of the recent quests with growing the seed for the Wild Weave, where we'd mostly been following Linda and the MC, they get cornered in a 2v1. And then Lisa shows up and tells Katja to scram, and Katja just does. Just like that. This also gets into the lack of definition in the full scope of the Soul Riders' abilities beyond "primary trope," but for the purpose of this discussion, it makes no sense for Lisa to be as confident as she is. Why couldn't the MC and Linda handle it on their own? It was a 2v1. Even with one of them protecting the seed, it's not an even match.

We are told over and over throughout the story that the druids, and thereby the current Soul Riders, are keeping the Dark Riders at bay. Not on the backfoot, at a neutral standstill. Worse, we see more examples in the story of the druids taking losses than we see examples of the Soul Riders winning. The lose of the Light Ceremony book, the capture of Lisa and Anne by Dark Core specifically, the Baroness feeling threatened enough by DC/Sands to imprison Linda, the death of Concorde, the death of Elizabeth, the kidnapping Justin for so long as to distract from dealing with the Light Ceremony book or rescuing Lisa and Anne, DC being allied with several witches as to have resources and allies that the druids don't, the discovery of Drakeonium, the restoration of three generals and the return of the fourth. To highlight on that too, the druids don't have any allies outside the druids currently. Tentatively they might have Ydris now, and Mrs. Holdsworth. But there is very little evidence in the narrative of how the druids are even holding their own with no outside help (in fact, there's now further division within the druids and the Keepers as these aren't the same thing) or ready supply of resources.

And yet when we interact with the Dark Riders and DC, they are largely incapable of stopping us in the moment. Their goons are inept, Darko is laughably emo and never shown as a serious threat (let alone shown any reason why he could unseat Sands), and Sands, despite his position as the current commander of Garnok's army, concedes his responsibilities to let his grandson escape. The latter would be an amazing point of interest to follow and talk about inner turmoil Sands is perhaps having now and internal shakeups within DC, but instead we have zeroed in on a cartoon villain level of evil that the other four must always be engaging in by monologuing and then being momentarily foiled by the MC. Because the villains can't be threats when we engage with them.

All of this circles back around to the Soul Riders and makes them look worse for not being able to handle these threats. They feel more and more like they are fumbling backwards into handling these issues, and it brings out their worse traits. Alex is incredibly clumsy and brash, Anne is almost mindlessly angry, Lisa's "eh"ness becomes more glaringly apparent, Linda seems excessively cautious. And none of these traits, individually, are bad. The exploration of them all would make sense in the narrative. Alex is afraid of letting everyone down but she struggles to be a forward thinker. Anne is justifiably upset about the death of her best friend and her imprisonment and desperately needs an outlet to direct that anger. Lisa is, as the party healer, always seeking to be the peacemaker and meet everyone at their needs, at the risk of becoming a people-pleaser herself and losing her identity. And Linda is a young person who can see the future, to include very likely the injuries (some of which are likely fatal) of her and her friends, to the point of fearing taking the wrong course of action.

Each of those would be fascinating to explore. But because the threat they're facing is so unable to actually feel like it's any danger, all of the Soul Riders' fears, their weaknesses and shortcomings, go unchallenged by the narrative. Thus highlighting their weaknesses over their strengths. There is no room to grow, because the force they are fighting against has not been serious enough that they've needed to. So they remain stagnant as characters, which is the worst thing for a main character to be.

And this isn't to say that so incompetent yet still able to pull off their goals can't be a seriously scary situation to be in. But that requires an incompetent head of the evil supported by a competent team of generals, of which we haven't gotten. All of the villains fluctuate on their competency on and off screen. And if the goal was to do this with Sands, Darko would have to seem more competent than him and he is not remotely close to being scarier than Sands. There is in fact no reason for Darko's character that couldn't be written in as being Sands. Every one of his scenes could be replaced and he could be written out entirely. That should say something about how useless he is as a character.

Circling back to the point about this being a broader issue with men in SSO not being able to be intelligent unless they're eccentric old men, this is incredibly damaging to little girls too. SSE has the prime opportunity to highlight healthy masculinity, men comfortable in being masc and femme and themselves, to show little girls (just to follow target audience) what healthy masculinity looks like so that they can set proper boundaries with the men in their lives. That doesn't require writing more male characters or not centering the female main characters. All it requires it writing the existing men in the story well. Showing them trying to help people, like the arcs I suggested for Justin training as a Wild Whisperer bonding people with horses, or Raptor taking over as a record label to help young women enter the industry like Lisa. And this is to gloss over entirely what it does to have those examples for little boys and how that is an important part of feminism too.

Because little girls do need to see those examples too. Most of them will grow up interested in men. That is just statistics. If they grow up thinking purely "men are just too inept to know any better" then we continue to prepare femme people to expect less than the bare minimum because "what else would you expect from a man?" And directly through that message, SSE perpetuates sexism and misogyny. And that message gets women killed every day.

[shiroselia]

While 36's storyboard is giving me the worst time of my life, have this preview for 36 out of context:

Intelligence is knowing that Elizabeth could've just learned about Herman being the last person to see Lisa and that's why she hasn't mentioned it before, Wisdom is knowing that that's fucking cope