Tag: mlp:fim

Krixwell JaceLeave a comment

I always like to discuss the concept of sympathizing in writing. I’ve seen people who love it, I’ve seen even people who are scared of it, because they find it dangerous. Like it is somehow dangerous to humanize broken, damaged people. It is exactly what will help us reflect, as a race, I feel. Washing away social constructs requires you to understand them and, yes, even sometimes sympathize with terrible people. Its why I loathe tumblr’s constant hate parades against people sometimes.

Lets use a recent unnamed case for example. Lets say an artist is showing off his defensiveness towards pedophilia or being homophobic. You DO NOT solve this with indifference, but neither with pointing at their flaws or shoving hate and death threats, calling them names. You talk, you understand and you make them understand too. You take away the US vs. THEM mentality instead of fueling it.

Hell, its why pedophilia is such a problem anyways! Because we dont TALK about it, we shove it under a rug, we dont educate our children and we MEDICATE, arresting people who DO IT, instead of PREVENTING it, treating it like it is, a mental/psychological health issues, taking it out by the root. These people, all kinds, are outcasts and they know it. We bring them in instead of pushing them out, because we are oh-so-faulty on seeing the transition between person with problems to person causing problems. Taylor, and Worm, is itself a PERFECT character study for this. 

Yeah, I agree with a lot of this.

This sort of thing is part of why I like shows like Steven Universe and MLP:FiM. They both make most of their villains sympathetic but misguided, broken people whose better sides can be brought out, and whose flaws can be mitigated, with a little help from people who care for them. It is a good thing to write your villains as people, in general, which was one thing I praised Interlude 11e for.

Yet, as you mention, it’s something I’ve heard of Steven Universe getting criticized for doing with the “big bads” of the show, even though it’d be straight up out of character for the show to not do it.

(Steven Universe is far better than MLP at executing this. The prevalence of the “evil switch” in major villains is one of MLP:FiM’s biggest flaws as far as I’m concerned, but the core idea is present and prominent.)

I do think it’s important to stay aware when you sympathize with these people, though. I can sympathize with Hookwolf, or Purity, or Coil, but I should keep in mind what sort of people they are while I do so.

Also, I personally think pedophiles are closer to the “person causing problems” end of the gradient, at least if they act on it in some way. Which does not require it going as far as actually having sex with a child. However, “bringing them in instead of pushing them out” might in some cases be a better solution. A lot of things should be treated on a case by case basis, and this might be one of them.

Krixwell JaceLeave a comment

Bradley looked to his left, sizing up Menja.

I think she’s already done a decent job of sizing

herself

up.

image

“Think you can fight her without embarrassing us?  If you think you can do it, you might just have a place as one of our lieutenants or as a leader of one of our warbands.”

Potentially going straight to a leadership role like that isn’t bad after three days on the team. Besides, Hookwolf didn’t even say he had to win.

“I’m no coward,” Bradley replied.  He turned to Menja and adopted a practiced fighting stance.

Well, at least you’ve got the mindset. Do you have the skillset too?

Krixwell JaceLeave a comment

I was trying to get you to guess who the other Candidates/not!candidates for the circus were. We already had Oni Lee, Bitch and Armsy as invites and Labby-rinf as a noninvite. Who out of the cast we’ve seen is sociopathic enough to get a nice look? Who’s ominous enough?

Ah, that’s fair.

Hmm… While Burnscar <=> Spitfire turned out to be a red herring, I do think the pattern of Slaughterhouse members going after people they can relate to holds up, so that could help out here.

  • Bonesaw: Might look for someone unpredictable and brutal? Skidmark, maybe? I don’t know. Skidmark just suffered an embarassing defeat, too, and might not be unpredictable enough. Hookwolf is certainly also an option. Bakuda would’ve been perfect, but she’s currently a zombie in prison on the other side of the continent, so that won’t work.
  • Shatterbird: If we assume the trend of personalities being vaguely related to powers and themes – Siberian being wild, Jack being edgy, Bonesaw being fiery (though less so than she initially seemed), Pinkie Pie being pink and Mannequin being unhinged – then Shatterbird might be flighty. Unfortunately, the only pre-existing character I really associate with that was Oni Lee, and we’ve seen what happened with him. Maybe she’d try to find someone with power over glass, or the power to shatter things? No one really comes to mind, though, assuming she’d go for someone who’d fit into the team.
  • Crawler: (By the same logic, Crawler will probably be quite creepy. A creepy crawly, if you will.) I suspect their power is similar to Night’s in some ways, so I think Night would be a good candidate for their nomination.
  • Hatchet Face: Probably won’t get a chapter. Might get a nomination, though, depending on how strict this group is – and I don’t exactly expect them to be all that big on rules, though I don’t think they’re as loose as the Merchants. If he does get to pick someone, he might go for a Brute. Lung would’ve been a good option, but he’s not around anymore… Hm, Hookwolf is a Brute with a penchant for larger bladed weapons than what Oni used. Maybe Hatchet Face would go for him, rather than Bonesaw.
  • the Newbie: All I know about the Newbie is she’s good at finding people. Not much I can speculate from there.

Beyond that, I don’t really know. There are a lot of morally gray or black people in Worm, but I can’t think of all that many surviving Brockton Bay residents that would fit into the Slaughterhouse, even after these Interludes have proven that their standards for evilness are lower than I expected. Hookwolf remains a primary candidate in my eyes, and a couple other former E88 members could fit in nicely, but beyond that…

¯_(ツ)_/¯

Krixwell JaceLeave a comment

krixwell-liveblogs:

Have you noticed that the perspectives we did see were Bitch, Theo, Labyrinth and Armsmaster?

Uh, yes? I know I can be a bit silly sometimes, but I’m not sure how I could miss that. Are you suggesting there’s a pattern to it?

I guess you could use the first three to make a BLT sandwich. Maybe Armmaster’s the arm that lifts it, and the next four POV characters will be two slices of bread, a plate and a mouth. And finally we’ve got Pinkie Pie to provide the secret ingredient. Delicious!

Krixwell JaceLeave a comment

Have you noticed that the perspectives we did see were Bitch, Theo, Labyrinth and Armsmaster?

Uh, yes? I know I can be a bit silly sometimes, but I’m not sure how I could miss that. Are you suggesting there’s a pattern to it?

I guess you could use the first three to make a BLT sandwich. Maybe Armmaster’s the arm that lifts it, and the next four POV characters will be two slices of bread, a plate and a mouth. And finally we’ve got Pinkie Pie to provide the secret ingredient. Delicious!

Krixwell JaceLeave a comment

None of it hurt as much as it felt like it should have.  More serious wounds didn’t tend to, odd as it was.

Tiny papercuts, on the other hand…

Colin tried to laugh, and found he couldn’t.  He could feel blood flowing into his mouth and throat through the gaping wound in his face.

He let his head hang forward, so the blood could mostly flow out of his mouth.

He tried to move forward, lunge with his knife, but he couldn’t pull his shoulder from the wall, even though the blade was no longer pinning him there.

Huh, that’s odd.

Was it a lack of physical strength, or something mechanical, flesh and bone shoved into the hole in the wall?

Could very well be the latter. ¯_(ツ)_/¯

Krixwell JaceLeave a comment

Krixwell, you madman. I’m pretty sure you just chose to use ponies to make that Weymouth joke. Oh, and random fact- the term “grimdark” actually originates with Warhammer. “In the grim darkness of the far future, there is only war.”

Pfft! Nah, that one just came to me on the spot. 😛

(Hm, maybe it would’ve been called Weymuzzle Mall?)

The actual reason I chose to use ponies was that I realized how well Cupcakes fits in with these Interludes. We meet a brutally violent, somewhat deranged person who has fun doing what she does, and we get to know this person through a separate POV character.

I had already decided on this by the time I read the last part of Interlude 11c, so I was quite pleased to learn about the female newbie in the Slaughterhouse Nine – it couldn’t have been more perfect for my plans.

(By the way, “you shouldn’t look a gift horse in the mouth” is actually an expression in Equestria, being used as the moral of an episode. Considering the meaning of “gift horse”, that has some dark implications that I’m not sure the writers considered.)

Krixwell JaceLeave a comment

“A few seasons later, we learned that Pinkie Pie canonically does have a secret basement under Sugarcube Corner.” Does that mean the writers might have read that fanfic?

Absolutely. The writers of MLP:FiM are very aware of what goes on in the fandom and regularly make nods to it. Hell, the 100th episode, “Slice of Life”, is basically Canonized Fanon: The Episode, a wild ride that celebrates the fandom and the background ponies it has given so much love to.

And then later on there’s “Fame and Misfortune”, by the same writer, in which the Mane Six publish a book about their adventures and everything they’ve learned in the hopes of helping young ponies learn about friendship, only to have the ponies who read it create uproars for all the wrong reasons – flanderizing Pinkie Pie to the point of laughing at everything she says or does, trying to join Applejack’s family, ripping Twilight’s lessons because Rainbow Dash’s are cooler, generally criticizing everything as if it were fictional (”it’s not believable that you would be friends”)… In the end, nothing was resolved (even after this song), but the Mane Six found out they had genuinely helped a few young ponies, and they were happy with that.

Now if that’s not fandom commentary, I don’t know what is.

Anyway, to bring it back to the original question – Pinkie’s secret basement is used for party planning and doesn’t look anything like the place in Cupcakes, for obvious reasons, but yes, I’m 98% sure it was still a reference.

Krixwell JaceLeave a comment

April Fool’s Wrap-Up, April Fool’s Wrap-Up,
let’s finish our holiday pranks…

So! What the hell did I just read, the uninitiated wonder?

That, my friend, was Cupcakes, a My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic fanfic by Sergeant Sprinkles that is infamous for its brutality and its disturbing take on Pinkie Pie. The thing that hits about Cupcakes’ Pinkie is the fact that she’s almost entirely in character in terms of attitude while performing the grotesque and psychotic actions (that thankfully aren’t in character… right?). I think that was the point of the whole fic, really, to showcase how Pinkie’s enthusiasm can be twisted and creepy.

The fic is very well known in the fandom. It was the first fanfic to get rated on the fansite Equestria Daily as not only “Grimdark”, but “GRIMDARK AS FUCK”, marking the only context I’ve personally seen “grimdark” in other than Homestuck (though I’m aware it’s also used in Warhammer 40k). It has spawned tons of parodies, alternate endings and unofficial sequels, and various fanart, both silly and serious. Speaking of parodies, if you need some nightmare retardant, have this retelling:

(It ties in with an abridged series, so that’s why the voices are weird.)

As with the previous April Fool’s liveblog, this wasn’t blind. Amusingly, it still ended up feeling real to me at points, even though I relistened to the story just a couple days ago. Such is life, I guess!

It also wasn’t live. Right now it’s 2:52 AM on the night to March 30th, and I’ve been making these posts as drafts for, what, eight hours? Ten? I didn’t mean to do the whole thing tonight, sheesh. But yeah, I did it this way because I realized that Cupcakes is almost as long as Interlude 11c (it’s 252 words shy) and I had already been worried about my time on the day proper, since it coincides with D&D night. So if the posts have seemed to come a little quicker than they usually do, that’s because I’ll have just been spacing out the time between clicking the “post” buttons and not doing much else.

So yeah! I hope you enjoyed this “live”blog of “Interlude 11d of Worm”! I’ll leave you on this note:

A few seasons later, we learned that Pinkie Pie canonically

does

have a secret basement under Sugarcube Corner.