Steel Accord

40 minutes ago, Brobot said:

Ok so he's either a Pegasus that's not super competitive, or a earth pony that follows the norms.

Then he could be a Pegasus, it could bring up some unique interactions with other Pegasus cause he doesn't fit the normal "competitive conqueror " mindset.

It could be. The question I’m struggling with is less the conflict he has or doesn’t have with the wider culture as much as which better serves the character’s goals of pursuing lost arcana of an obscure lifestyle.

5 minutes ago, Brobot said:

Honest;y think he should be a Earth pony just with a Pegasus mindset, ya know what I mean?

I know what you mean but I disagree. The character's not meant to be super-competitive or itching for a fight.

I have this fic that's been cloying at the inside of my head for a long time now. I've come back and forth to it, it got me started on writing to begin with. Now, my protagonist is meant to travel across Equestria and look for the small bits of lore that refer to philosophical or ideological fighting systems. Hard to do in a world where magic solves most dangerous problems and violence at all rarely comes up in their history. My question is, would it make more sense for this quest to be undertaken by an earth pony, or pegasus? It seems like a comparatively small change but part of it comes from having already written a lot of scenes with the assumption that the hero is a pegasus and only reconsidered later it might make sense for him to be an earth pony. Here's a little this or that.

Pegasus:

-Flying adds new and cool dimensions to fighting.

-Wings are another set of limbs to use.

-Very specifically warrior and athletic cultural traditions.

Earth pony:

-Strong and athletic.

-Folksier traditions lend them to the kind of mastery through repetition frameworks of Kung Fu and really all martial arts.

-The Mighty Helm show they too have a distinct warrior culture of their own. One that prominently features weapons. 

Pegasi have a lot of physical possibility but not much spiritual rooting, while earth ponies have more limited instruments but lend themselves to the ideas a little better. Adding on to this is that there's a subtle soldier vs. warrior angle between the two. Or to put it more accurately, soldier vs. guardian. Pegasi descended from an explicitly Roman-esque society of warriors and conquerors, where the Mighty Helm were more like a chivalric order. It also comes into how they treat conflict. Pegasi are more naturally competitive and looking for a challenge where earth ponies tend to be a little more laid back and only throw down if their homes or families are threatened. Again, that latter viewpoint is very martial arts code of always seeking to avoid a fight rather than go looking for one.

So yeah, I'm kind of torn on this. What do you guys think?

On 8/21/2017 at 11:47 AM, GoldieS said:

I suppose, but my problem is this: After creating a villain, I feel as though the more they pop up, the less omnipresence and 'looming specter' they become. They just end up becoming another random character instead of the big bad villain they're supposed to be. Not sure if that makes sense at all. 

 

You can still make a villain scary even if they appear somewhat often. The key there is making each scene they appear in seem more threatening than it was before they showed up. Make the characters uncomfortable to think about them and on edge when in their presence. Of course, you have to make that fear justified. A villain who shows up to be scary and do nothing else, looses that effect. It's not how much we see them, it's WHAT we see of them.

So I've tried at various times to have a romance RP with Fluttershy. Some of them went all the way, a lot didn't, but both had one thing in common. None of them rang "true." Inasmuch as it felt natural for Flutters to fall for my characters. Maybe it's me, my OCs tend to be very "adventure focused" swashbucklers or martial artists, great for Daring Do (who I had one of my better romance RPs with) not so much for Ms. Shy. At the same time, she's shipped all the time with Big Mac and Rainbow Dash. The former is decidedly old school manly, if not exactly an action hero, while the latter IS an action hero who relishes in death defying feats and flies first, asks questions later. When written well in fanfics, the relationship comes off as natural. With Fluttershy being attractive because of her gentility and purity and she to her partner for their strength and will.

So I don't see how at least two characters of my own that exist in between those emotional ends, being both willing to take action but not on a hair trigger with more of a reserved sense, would be incompatible with Fluttershy. On the other hoof, meaning no disrespect to anypony in particular, she hasn't been played well in my experience. Seems like most play a simplistic or season one premier version of her rather than the more developed version of her now.

Do any of you guys have good RP experiences with Fluttershy as a romantically involved character? How was she played well? Was she paired with a character that wasn't a treehugger (literally or metaphorically)?

-I have two brothers.

-I loved the Vinyl Scratch Tapes

-My ponysona is a pegasus from Canterlot

-I love ALL of the Mane Six

On 7/10/2018 at 3:25 AM, PiratePony said:

I applied to teach in this state again, this time at a Catholic school.

Twilight would be proud.

On 7/10/2018 at 3:25 AM, PiratePony said:

And on top of that, my wife and I are expecting

Congratulations and God bless my man!

Two younger brothers. They're my best friends.

On 6/17/2018 at 6:17 PM, Longhaul said:

I did, when I was 11.  My dad was active in it at the time and signed me up.  I didn't have the discipline or the desire to really get good at it and I eventually viewed it as a chore until I  dropped it about a year later.

Why is that exactly? Why was it a chore and why did you lack the discipline?

I ask because my practice is a passion of mine I could never grow bored of so I’d like to see the other side of that coin.

I'm a casual fan. I couldn't tell you a lot of bands I listen to but I love the song "Dirt on my boots." As well as "the Devil went down to Georgia," but come on, everyone knows that song. Admittedly, and this is something I kind of hate to admit because it makes me a hypocrite, I started listening to it because it had such a bad rap. Both of my brothers made fun of it as a one note genre for simpletons and the rest of the country conflated country music with everything they hated. (Such as even passively expressed patriotism. Can't be proud of the U.S.A these days apparently. ) So I started listening to it. Which is reactionary logic which I hate but I don't regret the decision even if I regret the reason for I made it.

If you have any recommendations OP, I'd love to hear them.

@AJ2489

3 hours ago, AJ2489 said:

Johnny Cash and Aaron Tippin are two that come to mind whose music I've liked.

Oh wait, I take one thing back about not being able to name bands and artists, I LOVE Johnny Cash! Man in Black all the way.

"God's gonna cut you down."

"A Boy named Sue"

"The Man Comes Around" SO good!

3 minutes ago, GeekySonic said:

Fallout 3, because it got me into the series and I absolutely adore the lore and feel to it.

I also wanted to put Fallout 3 on my list for the same reasons. (Plus legitimate connection with the father character that I could map to my relationship with my own Dad. And not a small dosing of burning patriotism in my heart.) In keeping with the OP's wishes though, I narrowed down my list.

5 minutes ago, GeekySonic said:

Halo Reach for being the first game (and among the few) that made me teary-eyed.

To its credit, Reach did get me to care about characters in the series who I unanimously see as victims of a tyrannical regime. No small feat.

One of the first games I completed all the way to the end. More than that though it was a bonding experience for my brother and I. We played the multiplayer sections a lot and for the final story sections, we both switched back and forth between the characters along with our third brother who played the Knuckles section. The final battle was particularly fun, with the soundtrack, stakes, and my brother and I passing the controller back and forth to one another the same way Sonic and Shadow were trading places fighting the final boss.

An unforgettable video game experience. Keep in mind, the games we'd played up to that point were Goldeneye, 1080, and Banjo Kazooie. Nothing with a more in-depth story that wasn't tongue in cheek. This would set the precedent for my experiences later in life.

My first Zelda game. Sure, I had played Ocarina at my cousin's place but it didn't stick with me. This did. For a number of reasons. As a young kid who grew up on a small island, this kind of touched a particular nerve with me. It hit close to home and made it seem like Link's adventure across the sea could be my own. It really was an adventure as well, that grand music that played as you glided across the waves of a seemingly endless ocean, little dots off in the distance that could be another thing to explore.

Once the discovery was done though, there was a quest to be had, one that scaled up and got bigger at the plot progressed. It started out humble, tag along with pirates, rescue sister. Then you find a magical talking boat that says he'll help you get your sister in exchange for also ousting the very guy who kidnapped her. Then you start collecting magical do dads and encountering ancient demi-gods that hint at greater powers at work in your quest. It just goes up from there. By the time the final battle has come, where you started from is staggering to consider yet it feels natural because the escelation was well paced.

Maybe a bit predictable. Still, one of the things I love about this game is that the "world" part of the title feels accurate. Azeroth feels like a genuine world. I mean sure, magic, subways, and inter-dimensional rock ships, all coded with a decidedly exaggerated aesthetic. Yet it all doesn't fly apart at the seams because the cultures of the Alliance and the Horde, ridiculous as some might seem, remain internally consistent yet actually have evolved and changed over time. That's really the key to it all. Starting back in vanilla up to now, the world has undergone remarkable change, ancient foes defeated, massive government reformations, the gods themselves have abdicated their positions. As my mains, split between a Draenei Vindicator (Paladin) and a Pandaren Monk (because the Pandaren are unironically awesome and I will fight you on this!), I feel like I have been a witness to history.

On that subject, by the way, I ADORE the classes in this game, even the ones I don't play. Because they aren't just "warrior fights with swords, mages throw fireballs" and that's it. The classes actually have specific places in the cultures of their respective races. Your race selection limits your class choice to match that race's values. The class list expanded for various races precisely due to those internal changes over the years I mentioned. As a roleplayer, your class not only determines how you play, it determines how you fit in the world of Azeroth, what you want to say about yourself to others.

My first true RPG. The game that let me create an identity all my own. I could become the master swordsman, quick draw gun-slinging, heroic swashbuckler I wanted to be. More than that though, it also gave me characters I actually cared about. Hammer was a lot of fun, Garth was a badass, their banter was great together, most of all though it was the first game that gave me a family. Not just a sister like in Zelda or indeed in this game, but a wife and children.

For context, this was Alex, a unique NPC that came with an interesting backstory of a former suitor who took his own life and the vengeful ghost contracted me to break her heart. When the time came though, I couldn't do it and ended up marrying her myself. Said spirit actually understood and found himself at peace that she was happy. It was a nice happily ever after. That's when things get interesting, in order to rescue Garth, I had to become a guard for the bad guy. This was no snatch and grab, this was a deep cover infiltration that took several in-game years to accomplish. I had never seen a game do that, wretch that level of control away from me. I actually thought what would happen to Alex, would she be mad or even think I was dead? I was actually thinking about this while playing this section. By the time I returned, Alex had a little someone to show me, a little girl who asked, "are you really my Dad?"

More than any other time, I wished there was a "pick up and hug very tightly" button. I won't say anything further for spoilers but let's just say that no game since has made me more genuinely emotionally invested in seeing the villain fall.

On 6/14/2018 at 4:14 PM, AJ2489 said:

The techniques, Shukoki is very light on your feet, more for speed and technique rather than power ya know? 

(Sorry for the late reply.)

Keep in mind, "Kung Fu" is an umbrella term that covers a wide variety of different schools and styles. Broadly speaking there is Northern style and Southern style. My own Wah Lum technique draws its lineage from Northern Praying Mantis, for instance. (And again, neither are unified in technique or philosophy.) Northern style tends to favor kicks, quick stance transitions, and acrobatics. Southern style is more rooted, favoring close combat and hard strikes. If you watch Avatar at all, a good delineation is that fire and airbending have more in common with northern style while earth and water bending have more in common with southern.

3 hours ago, AJ2489 said:

My base style Is Shukoki but I'm branching into a Korean Martial Art called Tang Su Do, I always wanted to try Kung Fu, Whats it like? 

HEY! I also did Tang Su Do but I was like eight or something so I don't really count it. Well what are you asking exactly? What's the atmosphere? The techniques?

My base style is Kenpo Karate but I've been branching into Kung Fu as well. My experience has been more than positive, the study of the martial arts feels outright affirming for me.

18 hours ago, SummerOfGold said:

I sounded self-important in any way.

It did sound a little overzealous at parts but you're point was solid.

7 hours ago, Dreambiscuit said:

It seems there's a basic unwritten law of right and wrong that most people live by whether they're religious or not. Religion reinforces that understanding, makes us more aware and gives us good reasons to stay the course when we're inclined to slip a bit. Whether religious or not, everyone gets reinforcement and feedback from different things, so to the extent that religion, or a different aspect of life, is responsible for guiding someone along, is the degree by which one or the other is to be credited. It's different for everyone and people respond to different things. But I feel that being aware of God does more than just focus one's sense of morality, so in that respect I'd say everything is incomplete without God.

Something I said to a friend of mine is that we don’t act as we do because we’re looking for a reward that might not even come but because we believe in a greater order to life, we must be cautious of our actions or inactions since we don’t know what larger effect they may have.

Hey guys. I have a question for you all. According to Christian philosophy and its many thinkers, where does morality come from?

Let’s say you have two people. One is a Christian, the other isn’t. Let’s just say both of them are polite, charitable, and honest.

Can we attribute the Christian’s behavior to their faith or is that actually under appreciation? On the other end, is the non-Christian more moral for not “needing” faith or is there some aspect of their morality that is incomplete without God?

21 hours ago, Manaka Hitomi said:

I've talked with my dad a lot with how I view things around the religion and after 2-3 years of our talks these days it feels like I've converted him mostly to agree with how I view the religion and usually any further talks just end up reinforcing this fact. It is also reinforcing my own feeling about how I view things and I've kinda accepted it that way.

My dad has been in our local church for like 30 years and in his words my talks with him have opened his eyes

And my views are mostly based on my own interpretations of the bible and some of them are quite heavily built upon some concepts that don't really have much of a connection outside of my thinking to the religions at all. My thinking is mostly based on the thought that if something exists it must have some kind of significance in the larger perspective.

Whatever floats your boat. I confess that when people get into "personal interpretations" I tend to get a little antsy. Which on the one hoof is silly because we all have personal interpretations of everything. One the other . . . Orthodoxy is a thing for a reason. No judgment, just a gut reaction on my part that doesn't affect you nor would I want it to.

22 hours ago, Manaka Hitomi said:

I would call myself a Christian though I think that i myself have ventured much deeper into some of the aspects in christianity so i dont really know if this what I've arrived at can really be called christianity maybe it is something else entirely.

Maybe you should talk to a priest or pastor about that. Or heck, some of the guys here are downright Theologians.

6 minutes ago, SwitchGuy2018 said:

I get your point of no comfort in EQG world, but..

I feel like you're missing the point I was trying to make, which is Some good fan fiction has brought more interesting things to that world. They help make EQG feel like a neighboring country with untapped potential. 

I always said wasted potential ideas in the canon show is just potentially good fan fiction waiting to be written.

 

I never missed your point. It's just not what this thread is about.

35 minutes ago, SwitchGuy2018 said:

@Steel Accord

As much as I love the "human world", I never called it "Earth", I call it "Equestria Girls World". Mostly because unlike our real Earth, the humans are just as technicolor as the ponies of Equestria.

To be fair, there's good fan fiction out that develops the EQG world more than the official EQG spinoff stuff. Some even give the world the name "Terra" to contrast with the commonly used fanon name of Equs for whatever planet Equestria is on.

Your response?

None really. As it wasn't the point I was trying to make in this thread. That being the feeling of love and familiarity in Equestria when contrasted with the sense of unease or at least less comfort when in the other world.

2 hours ago, Lunar Glow said:

Its nice to know that I'm not the only one that feels this way.  I think maybe it's because we were introduced to the "My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic" franchise in Equestria, and stayed there for a long while. I like to think of it as "growing up" there, so being released into this new world isn't as comfortable as the womb-like fantasy land we came from originally. I have noticed as well as I'm now more comfortable with ponies than humans (in regards to the show), but I agree with the other posts on this thread that I don't really view the EQG's home as "Earth." It is just as much as a fantasy land as Equestria, but with less familiarity. This is just how I personally feel, though.

Yeah that makes a lot of sense. Equestria was the world we got familiar with and understood and then we're thrown into this other world that's familiar to us yet at the same time, not.

To be clear, I didn't emphasize that the human world was Earth, I called it that with parentheses because it was a shorthand.

On 5/12/2018 at 3:32 AM, Dreambiscuit said:

Fancy Pants. Elegant, intelligent and follows his own mind. 

He is best pony in my mind. Seriously, my favorite of the non-Mane cast and my ponysona and him are friends for a reason. Such a cool character.

On 5/13/2018 at 3:10 AM, Lunar Glow said:

 

That is an awesome wedding dress for her. She looks cleaned up and beautiful but still herself.

On 5/13/2018 at 2:43 AM, Narcissus said:

I'd love to choose Fluttershy but I don't think I'd want to impose someone like me on someone I care about, like her. 

Fluttershy. She’s really someone special to me. The first fictional character I ever crushed on hard. I think she’d make a great wife and I would try to be a good husband to her.