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Dowlphin

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  1. Dowlphin
    I was watching this tiny cut I made from the show:
     

     
    and suddenly realized:
     
    Giving Pinkie Pie the tickle treatment would render me unable to stop, even if I wanted to.
    I thought: It would be a vicious cycle and the metaphor of turbocharging came to my mind.
    Then I realized that the metaphor is more appropriate as I thought at first, because the thing that prevents a turbo engine from blowing up is the so-called "wastegate".
    And what will ultimately happen if you keep tickling someone which will put an end to any kind of fun? ... A wastegate opening.
    Not sure how effective that would be specifically in the case of Pinkie Pie though. Her element of harmony is among the most powerful forces in the universe.
    (Maybe that's why the Nazis couldn't resist using tickle torture, haha. Perhaps they were performing experiments in order to create the deadliest joke ever which would make people die laughing.)
    But I digress.
  2. Dowlphin
    A message pops up on the deviantART page:
     
    "It's important to have an up-to-date email address. Can we still reach you at the following address?"
     
    This is one of those things that make me shake my head. One of the things that bother me about dA is the absence of the very basic and common feature of getting notification of new messages via e-mail. Few websites make an e-mail address as unnecessary as dA does. And now they want to ensure that they still can reach me under the address in my profile.
     
    I'm actively using that account, but for some reason they still ask this. And hey, here's a very straightforward way to check whether the e-mail address is still valid AND actually signal at least a tiny amount of factual usefulness of that address: They could have sent me an e-mail! (But that wouldn't be as bothersome and coercive as that big space-waster on the website.)
     
    It makes sense that they're getting unsure about whether e-mail addresses actually still exist since they're not using them for anything. It also explains why they're saying it's important. Because it's not at all apparent (and neither is it convincing).
    This even makes me wonder why they're requiring an e-mail address for registration in the first place. ... Or what's the actual reason for asking this. But they'd be damned if they told me. After all, they are the ones asking the questions, right? It's not like the users deserve the respect of being informed about the why. Just answer it and don't ask questions. Don't think.
     
    And yes, I have a very finely tuned bullshit sensor. That stuff starts small, but tends to grow on you. When information given is scarce, it's usually very deliberate.
    The mindset that this is feeding also makes people click on ad banners that say "Click here to claim your prize!".
    When cashiers at the supermarket ask for people's ZIP code, can you imagine how many give that information like a robot, without even forming one thought about why someone would want that information from them or should have it? And the cashiers are not saying what it's for. They merely form the demand of the information and expect the customer to comply. (They could even make a profit selling that information and you wouldn't know it.) Whenever I witness a scene like that, it feels a little creepy.
    If you think the idea that a zombie army will eventually overrun society is absurd, how about the idea that that army is already marching everywhere?
  3. Dowlphin
    Since a Youtube video response to his review...
     
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ya7wi-9E0p8
     
    ...is currently not feasible for me and Youtube comments are too limited, I'll respond in written form. I'll directly address Adam here, so don't get confused by the "you"-form.
     
    I will try to condense this into relatively brief paragraphs so it doesn't become too lenghty.
     
     
    Hi Adam!
     
    I enjoyed watching your Iron Man review a lot.
     
    As you said, EqG is a different kind of movie, resulting in an accordingly different rewiew. But you still apply the same standards to EqG as you do to other movies.
     
    Have you never interacted with the fandom regarding to EqG? Not seen the trailer or pictures before? Because you say when you first saw the humanized forms, you were kinda shocked.
    You also said you really can't understand why Hasbro did this, while the pony show was such a success. Did you never hear of the thought that Hasbro sells toys and spends money for the show and movies in order to sell toys, and that they wanted to sell a new line of dolls? This is almost naturally occuring. Also, never heard about the thesis that Twlight became an alicorn so tha Hasbro can sell more types of toys?
    If Hasbro decided to sell toys using conventional marketing, the awesome show MLPFiM wouldn't exist, so in a way, it's a win-win situation.
     
    You said there was only one song that was really defining, captivating, not just background music. Did you forget the party cleanup musical? And the celebratory music near the end? This makes at least three musical numbers.
     
    You said to a non-brony, EqG will look dumb as hell. Well, cou can just make a guess or an estimate, and the same might applies to many non-bronies and the show.
     
    You seem to still be very attached to superficialities if you are bugged by the human form so much. Personally, it was just slightly new to me but didn't bug me at all once I realized it's our beloved ponies under that skin. Also, with all the transformative magic going on in Equestria, I'm very used to seeing shape changes.
     
     
    You called the students' Opinion change in 36 hours about Twily crap? Well, the effect of slander is fleeting when facing solid positive impulse like their uniting mensa musical. They might not even have taken it serious, but just amusing and based on not really knowing her. This is actually quite realistic. And since you admit that after the musical, you'd probably have voted for them too, why is this still an issue for you? You have an inner contradiction there. Two different parts saying two different things. (I'd metaphorically call it mind vs. heart, and cutting the heart some slack can be a great task, because the mind is about control, and the heart can only flourish when the mind can sacrify a part of itself.)
     
    The speedy re-befriending was probably due to play time constraints. I've seen this in other types of movies without ruining it. And while one might doubt that some simple intrigue and malevolent meddling could drive friends apart for years like that, I'd come to realize that proper communication is one of the biggest problems pretty much everywhere. Sunset Shimmer just knew well how to push their hidden buttons. It's not unrealistic at all, albeit a bit frustrating to watch maybe.
     
    Exactly what about that demon/gargoyle is Disney? They're mythical creatures ... just like manticores. Need I say more?
    What else would you have considered 'better' in that scene?
     
    I don't find the movie sillier than the show. Remember (just to name one example) Steven Magnet? The silliness is part of what makes the show so enjoyable and fun.
     
    And then even the magically revealed wings, ears and tails are bothering you? These are attributes of our beloved ponies in their original shape, so I don't see what's the problem here? It's totally awesome!
     
    As a sidenote, you explained everything quite detailed in that part, as if expecting the viewer to not have seen the movie already, but this would mean you are consciously making the review an undeclared spoilerfest.
     
    All the oddness in regards to credulity of the people at the school, how they are relatively quick to accept all the magical stuff going on, as fas as I can say this is almost the norm in the movie world, without characters continuing to freak out about these things at length being the exception (and very enjoyable to watch because it's more realistic). I think this would have ruined he flow of the EqG plot.
    Yet, the writers did that event with talking dog Spike to slightly defuse this disbelief, and even in a comical way.
     
    About the imporance of high school: That's just a personal priority-applying, because many opportunities to do things right are provided there, and that's what the movie encourages. The view that high school is not that important might be a belief system that works for people who had a very rough time there, but ironically especially those people can benefit greatly from the message of the movie.
    Even so, I'd say EqG is about as much about "surviving high school" as Buffy the Vampire Slayer is.
     
    You say people will not like the movie if they haven't seen the show. But you cannot know that, because some people would never have believed they end up loving the show, but did.
     
    EqG has all the important stuff from the show. The other things are mostly just superficialities and technicalities, and when those things are bugging you, it means that MLP has sent you on a spiritual journey and you're driving over the potholes now.
     
    To clarify, I'd say that MLPFiM is very much an antithesis to Star Trek, in the sense that the latter is very much about intellectual virtue, where analyzing every detail with the expectation to come to a realistic explanation is elemental, while the former is very much about putting that in the background and letting the heart rejoice. Sometimes it's almost bordering on mindless pleasure.
     
    An example of a show that pleases both heart and mind quite well: Firefly
    An example of a movie that does neither well: Abrams' Star Trek
     
     
    If you can find something positive and personally helpful in these words, then I'm happy.
     
    If not, I'm still happy, because ponies.
     
    Feel free to leave a comment here (doesn't require registration) or on your video page or in my Youtube mailbox if you like. Or ask Spike to send it directly if he's around.
     
    Keep going!
  4. Dowlphin
    My past experiences with support aren't really instilling confidence, but what I found out now is the icing on the cake.
     
    After the accidental deletion of my old profile by them and some kind of partial restoration, and me creating a new profile, the old profile name has most of the time been used for my comments, and this is also why I have been missing my avatar picture there.
     
    I figured this out today, and also that the old profile is still accessible, and then I noticed that someone else had been posting vulgar comments and added similar site links to my profile since a day or two ago.
     
    It's just the old profile. On my new one, nothing seems touched, thus this is not a client security issue. (And I take good care of that anyway, being versed in IT matters.) It looks more like someone who gained access to the old profile due to the restoration process is doing this.
  5. Dowlphin
    - The remixed intro theme doesn't sound very elegant to me. The voice glitching a bit 'hacky'. Although it seemed to be heavily inspired by brony music. Same with the nice intro animations. A lot of abstract playing with shapes and colors.
     
    - When Celestia mentioned that Sunset Shimmer might bring harm to the other world using the crown, one of the elements of harmony, I was amused by the pun... HARMony.
     
    - Spike following Twilight was pretty reckless considering what Celestia expressed a moment before.
     
    - Fluttershy's encounter with Twily and Spike is clearly a redo of the original one, but it seemed too mixed regarding Fluttershy's shyness level. First she's moderately shy, then totally, then back to moderate.
     
    - Trixie could at least have tried to cover up the inserting of the coin into the vending machine. She's purely imagining, not even trying to put on a show. Extremely lame, haha.
     
    - Getting the crown ... first extremely complex, then boiling down to ridicuously simple measures deciding the result. But that's not uncommon in the movie world, and I'm not saying it's diappointing, just that it's a bit old.
     
    - At roughly 1h1m25s they decided to cram a Wilhelm scream into the movie that totally didn't fit the teenage crowd there. Hommages should be done with respect.
     
    - Sunset shimmer called it a high school, although the school's name says it's a college (if I'm not mistaken. It might be that the college was actually a slipup.). I can only assume it was meant in a demeaning way, but that would be quie a lame way. Otherwise it was a slipup in the script. Is she really that pathetic that she tries to insult a college by calling it a high school?
     
    Generally, only few details bugged me in the beginning and it got better and better over time, and if you've watched that one extract with the mensa musical on Youtube, you're missing all the context. It's much more powerful when part of the whole plot. I was almost moved to tears by it.
     
    This movie is an invaluable influence for people of all type. It successfully conveys and lovingly celebrates the original message of MLPFIM.
    This humanized version also helps to make it even clearer that you can find people like the mane 6 in this world, too. This seems to be kinda unrealized when I hear people equaling Equestria to a land of eternal bliss or something... because it's obviously not. They have many of the same mundane problems that we have.
     
    The writing, especially the dialogue writing, is done very well. All characters act and react quite naturally and believable to events around them, and with that I mean based on the circumstances of the MLPFIM universe. After all, it's still supposed to be wacky, fun and magical. ... Well, OK, maybe with one exception where there was a somewhat forced misunderstanding, but it's nothing that couldn't happen in real life, too.
    I'd almost say this is a quality of writing I'd love to see in the show, because it's at least a tiny bit above that.
     
     
    P.S.: My impession becomes clearer and clearer that Pinkie Pie wields very powerful but subtle magic. Or is wielded by it, haha. Her character carries a profound message, almost an ambassador of what laughing and not taking life too serious can accomplish. In short: I just love her more and more!
     
     
    P.P.S.: Here's my favorite screen from the whole movie. Not really a strong spoiler, but a moderate one, and maybe you want to see the beauty in context, too:
     
     
  6. Dowlphin
    His real mane... I mean name... is William Steele. He used to use the stage name of Will Steel, but then he fell out with his business partner John Cole, and as you know, steel without coal is just iron. That's how he ended up being known as Iron Will, and this change in his career made him become stronger than ever.
    Maybe it was the irony.
  7. Dowlphin
    I just realized something very special about the defining color of that pony that sometimes defies the laws of physics and deviates so nonchalantly from what is considered within the spectrum of normality:
     
    Our visible color spectrum ranges from red to violet. Red is the longest visible wavelength and violet is the shortest one. It's what you see in rainbows. BUT as you can see in the color palette of graphics programs, this is not the complete range. Blending together, outside of the would-be complete spectrum, are violet and red, resulting in pink. For our perception, but also wavelength physics, pink is not an extreme, not an in-between, but it is outside of the whole range.
     
    A rainbow spectrum: red -> orange -> yellow -> green -> turqouise -> blue -> violet
     
    The full color circle: pink -> red -> orange -> yellow -> green -> turqouise -> blue -> violet -> pink
     
    In the color circle, pink is actually the average of full red and full blue (purple being just outside of blue), but it's not contained in a rainbow, because of the wavelength range. Pink is the only full color that does not result from a mix of NEIGHboooring wavelengths OR a single wavelength if you will. Because while, for example, yellow light can be a mix of red and green wavelengths OR pure yellow wavelength, pink only occurs as a mixture. There is no pink wavelength. It is a mix and middle of two extremes.
     
    Isn't this exciting?!
  8. Dowlphin

    Elemental poetry

    By Dowlphin,

    Elemental poetry
    ___________________________
    ................................................................................
    ................................................................................
    ................................................................................
    ................................................................................
    ................................................................................
    .
    .
    .
    Honesty doesn't know jack about apples.
    .
    .
    .
    Loyalty makes a rainbow look dashing.
    .
    .
    .
    Laughter ensues when you try to eat pie with your pinkie.
    .
    .
    .
    Generosity is a precious rarity.
    .
    .
    .
    Magic sparkles in the twilight.
    .
    .
    .
    Kindness
  9. Dowlphin
    I made a new video based on an animated GIF:
     

    (Please share the video if you like it.)
     
    The AniGIF is on a Russian website:
    tabun.everypony.ru
     
    I went to that page and noticed animated ponies in the upper right corner.
    I reloaded the page and learned that they are randomly chosen.
    Then I accessed the page using Google Translate and all ponies were now changelings!
    tabun.everypony.ru in English
     
    (This is with my Opera 12 browser. I noticed that other browsers yield very different results, but still funny. My Internet Exploder 8 yields changelings on the Russian version and doesn't work with Google Translate. FlyingF..ox 20 doesn't give a pony at all.)
     
     
    P.S.: Please check out my Youtube channel. I've added many videos recently, but it seems very few people visit the art presenting section of this forum.
    http://www.youtube.com/user/Dowlphin
    Thanks!
  10. Dowlphin
    I was just clicking through someone's deviantART gallery. I came to this picture...
     

     
    ...and for some reason had a naughty thought about Pinkie Pie wanting Fluttershy to be a tree.
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
    Then I clicked to the next picture...
     

  11. Dowlphin
    I've been very active on my brand new Cheezburger account (mylittlebrony.com) lately and they have a feature to create a "site" in addition to the regular account profile. Based on recommendations in the help section, I sent a support ticket:
     
     
    The response:
     
    daily dose of laughs and fun
     
    daily dose of laughs and fun
     
    daily dose of laughs and fun
     
     
     
     
    This caused a little inner disharmony.
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     

     
     
     
     
     
    When I told someone in the PM section of another forum, it made me break the fourth wall. ... If that gives you any indication.
     

     
     
    -------------
     
    I calmed down relatively quickly though. ... Because ponies.
     
    I hope they can restore it.
    I think they can.
    The alternative would be too mindboggling.
  12. Dowlphin

    Pony joke

    By Dowlphin,

    The Mane 6 with Derpy are about to go on a road trip. Stuff is packed, the car is ready.
     
     
    Twilie: Let's go then!
     
     
    Derpy: I'm driving!
     
     
    Applejack: Shotgun!
     
     
    Derpy: WAAAAH! Okayokay, you drive!
     
     
     
    If anypony would like to make a comic out of this, feel free to do so. Just show me the result.
  13. Dowlphin
    Today I'd like to try and inspire you a bit. It might be somewhat lenghty, but I will come to the point. If many people read this, it would make me very happy.
    Feel the Magic!
     
     
    We see what we want to see. We see what we are looking for.
    Curiosity enables us to see more and more.
     
    I realized that MLPFiM is very much like what spiritual masters tend to say about sacred texts: It is all in there. It is a complete guide. You just have to see.
     
    I encourage all bronies to take the show as a guide for self-betterment, because I frequently see bronies act contrary to what the show conveys, forgetting lessons or maybe never having noticed them in the first place. Many still maintain a good distance to parts of that show that they love. It's almost ironic. This show is awesome, but then again, it's "just a show"? Well, that depends on YOU. We are the creators, the deciders, the inspirers.
     
    MLPFiM contains everything you need. Take as much as you can handle!
     
    The show says "Friendship Is Magic". Here's a little mind game: How can you believe in the magic of friendship if you don't believe in magic?
     
    Here's another irony: Sceptical people might discount magic as "You're fooling yourself. It only works if you believe in it.", thereby completely missing the amazingness in that - because something that works MERELY by believing in it is ... truly magical, haha.
     
    The drive to explain phenomena through rational and empirical examination is a reality-manifesting belief system just as magic is. It is a choice of a personal path.
     
    Imagine three mysterious things happen in a row that seem unexplainable. They, together, help someone solve a problem they have been hoping to resolve, with perfect timing.
    Now, even if you manage to find an empirical explanation for how those events came to happen, then you're still faced with why three in a row. Strange coincidence. Then you might want to use the help of statistical probability and such, and it gets more vague and imprecise. Then, if you are satisfied with the explanation you found, you are still facing the reality of those events having happened with the right timing to solve a problem. You can go after these things farther and farther, and it gets more and more difficult to find waterproof explanations. At some point, when it comes to the big questions about life, the universe and everything, when you are confronted with things like eternity or time, it will bring your rational mind to its knees.
    Now if you trace this back, you might wonder whether there is any objective middle ground at all for how far it is worth tracking these things.
     
    When the mind gives up obsessing over attaining answers that are based on its beliefs about reality, ... magic is allowed to happen. Because our deeply rooted, unconscious beliefs are manifesting reality.
     
     
    OK, so let's get more practical.
     
    I love to make animated GIFs, caption pics, videos and other stuff from the show. A while ago I made an animated GIF, as described in an earlier blog entry:
     
    http://mlpforums.com/blog/819/entry-4449-how-pinkie-pie-broke-the-fourth-wall-into-this-reality/
     
    As described there, some amount of chaos was unexpectedly introduced into the making of that picture, and it turned out to be the most popular aniGIF I had ever made. Note that I absolutely identify with Pinkie Pie at my core, that the picture was about her and that it was taken from the episode "Feeling Pinkie Keen". You see where this is going? Pinkie Pie's unexplainable premonition and Twilight Sparkle eventually giving up her denial?
     
    But hey, this is just a TV show right? It's not real!
    Haha, OK, if that's what you choose to believe and manifest. If you don't want that awesomeness to be part of reality, go ahead.
     
    Some time after that, I had an idea about a crossover video between Game of Thrones and MLPFiM.
     

     
    The idea was just to edit together two scenes. That was what my mind came up with. But in the process of making that, it evolved. I realized how perfectly I could use Spike's voice for the GoT dragon, and the video material was just enough to make it happen. There were also some other synchronicities involved; stuff that just fit with uncanny millisecond accuracy as if designed just for this.
     
    And it became by far the most successful video I have ever made. It got 17000 views in the first five days! And from the feedback it became clear that the popularity stemmed mainly from the dragon lipsync part, which apparently was entertainingly unexpected.
     
     
    So in a way I feel thankful and blessed to be given experiential feedback like this; that I come up with a basic idea, just an initial impulse, and then I keep the reigns loose and allow the magic to happen.
     
    I once experienced my meager musical skills multiply when I found someone who provided a musical lead.
     
    Get your mind out of the way and let it flow!
    (This, as a brief sidenote, is also how zero point energy generators work and why mainstream scientists have trouble wrapping their head around the concept.)
     
    Taking the Daoist principle of Yin and Yang as a model, the world is currently still in a phase of Yang dominance. Control rules, actively influencing things, pushing things into motion, not very able to let things develop on their own.
     
     
    Let me point out that profound mind-freeing spiritual realizations are usually accompanied by uncontrollable laughter. And Pinkie Pie with her non-caring for reality and playful breaking of the fourth wall represents the element of laughter.
     
    Twilight Sparkle clearly is a wizard - a well-read one - and her expertise is 'thunder magic'.
    Pinkie Pie is a wizard, too, but not really well-read, which is an advantage for her subtle but profound branch of magic. Her expertise is the influencing of reality by willing things to be. She's a bit like one of those long-bearded masters in the mountains who smile all the time, because they see no reason to take life so seriously. ... Well, except when she has her Pinkamena phase, haha. Nobody's perfect.
     
     
     
    So ... how much are you ready to believe in? Can you let go, free up a part in yourself and allow the values of the show to become an integral and guiding part of your being?
     
     
     
    Here's a basic magical training exercise:
     
    Next time you see a rainbow, find the point where it touches the ground. If you can do that, you have become better at practicing magic.
     
     
     
     
    I'm still at the very beginning of this exciting and difficult journey, but wanted to share with you the humble experiences of success I had and give you some background info on what fuels me.
     
     
     
    Thanks for reading!
     
    Please feel free to comment and tell me what's on your mind!
  15. Dowlphin
    Hay Bronies!
    Here is something I wanted to share with you.
     
    Pinkie Pie is very dear to me. In a way she is representing a part of me that needs more expression. I embrace her spirit and welcome her nature into my being.
     
    Lately I have made many animated GIFs and some caption pictures from the show. Half of the time I didn't look for specific scenes, but did other stuff and noticed them in the process.
     
    That one time the idea came to be to make an aniGIF out of Pinkie Pie's final twitchatwitch scene. In the process, I got the idea to make a caption pic out of it.
     
    The animation consisted of merely two frames. Free picture space was scarce, so I arranged the caption text around Pinkie Pie. Eventually, the text was all one vector layer. Now all I did was to copy that whole vector layer into the other animation frame, which naturally has identical dimensions. I saved both and when I loaded them into the animation program and did a preview, I saw this:
     
    Pinkie Pie twitchy
    Now my initial reaction was:
    "WHAT THE HAY?! WHY?? THIS-IS-NOT-SUPPOSED-TO-HAPPEN! THIS WAS A SIMPLE COPY&PASTE!!!"
     
    And indeed how could this happen? Every one of the three text segments had been misaligned in a completely different direction, resulting in that slight text jitter.
     
    A few moments later, a second thought occured:
    "Oh hello Pinkie Pie! Sorry I didn't recognize you at first!"
     
    Because I suddenly realized that this 'happy accident' had made the whole caption pic so much better! It now truly reflected Pinkie Pie's spirit and habit of fourth-wall-breaking: She is so on edge that she even makes the caption text jitter!
    Pinkie Pie, you are so random!
     
    Not only does the final result DEPICT her breaking the fourth wall in an unusual way (as usual, haha), but the very fact that this picture came to be like that constitutes her breaking of the fourth wall into this reality, too! By giving that caption text a little nudge, she made it perfect in a way my limited mind could not have conceived.
    Well played, Pinkie!
     
    Later some doubts crept in about whether I should have taken the idea further and made that text jitter a lot more, but I quickly realized that this would lessen the effect and reduce the 'depth' of the whole thing, the depiction of how the text is supposed to be still, since it's not in the same layer of reality, but how Pinkie Pie has that habit of having a more or less subtle effect on other layers.
    She's jumping all over the place, not caring for that boooring! idea of "reality".
     
    I think it's no coincidence either that this whole AniGIF thing was about Pinkie Pie's twitchatwitch sense and how Twilight Sparkle kept resisting the idea and eventually had to give up.
     
     
    Dear Princess Celestia,
     
    today my good friend Pinkie Pie made me realize that friendship can not only transcend time and space, but whatever artificial barrier we make up in our minds, because true friendship comes from the heart.
     
    Your faithful student
    Dowlphin
     
     
     
    P.S.: I DON'T EVEN LIKE COFFEE!
  16. Dowlphin
    Firefly and MLP
    These two scenes always remind me of each other. It is the same archetype of the veteran/mentor true noble who treats the 'fools of the court' as they deserve. The one who can see through all the phony aristocracy, yet exist in it.
    I have a moderate suspicion that the MLP scene might have been inspired by the Firefly one. There are certain visual and thematic similarities.

     

  17. Dowlphin
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    Seriously, Celestia, "My defeat of Luna"? Could you maybe at least have said "Nightmare Moon"? (I don't know whether it is a good or a bad sign that Luna is even smiling.)


    "Who are you?" - Apparently the enemy-of-the-state information service isn't working that well. One would assume newspapers reporting on when the world has been saved once again and who to be careful about, hah. (Then again, that weather planner didn't exist before this episode, so he may be forgiven. )


    And here Chrysalis is re-using an old deception form. Same point. (Cynically speaking, why is she even using a disguise? )


    Discord says character development is so boring, and then we see that the opposite is true, when we get yet another re-heating of the story where they keep the truth from each other - yaaawn. Superficial action does not create inspiring depth. Not to mention Twi merely has to look out the window to see something is wrong (or hear the thunder of the lightning strikes), and one could reasonably assume that sunrising practice sessions might happen outside. (In fact it's an oversight that they heard the first strike but Twi didn't.)


    Pinkie Pie probably just remembers the old pattern and playfully, knowingly, goes along with it by reciting past foaly and set the stage.

     
    Compulsory frame capture: DIVINECORD

     
    "Even if I was an ACTUAL doctor I would have no idea what's wrong." - Ponder that statement for a moment.

     
    Yeah, tell Twilight what exactly happened. And don't leave out the part where ponies were mysteriously succumbing to sudden severe weakness or where an anonymous weather planner took over.

     
    She amusedly rolls her eyes. ... If she knew where Discord put that cloud, heh.

     
    Compulsory frame capture: WHEEEEEEEEEE

     
    Screw the "This is not a pipe" painting.

    P.S.: With that cutie mark, I nickname her Rookie.
     
    In the end as in the beginning - More biased night-dissing by saying night is actually bad/scary but the next day brings hope.
    Imagine if there was only day. That wouldn't work either. Profound lesson not learned.

     
    Praise the neight! 
     
  18. Dowlphin
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    What an amazing episode, very dear to me, beginning with the title, a nod to The Sound of Silence by Simon & Garfunkel(, a very poetical song about a frustrating superficiality in society preventing deep and meaningful communication), that is one of my favorites.
    I wrote this shortly before watching the episode:
    Loving people, sharing their flight from darkness.
    See the light. Walk alone.
    Footsteps like silent raindrops.
    I often feel like deep and meaningful relations are difficult when people let unpleasant things about others weigh ten times as heavy as pleasant ones. Almost like it's a seller's market with quantity over quality emphasis, always easy to walk away and pick other options, which is horrible to perceive, because that kind of pragmatism devalues human potential and cannot build a better world. Without idealism we are doomed. (Are you still reading, or skipped on to more pleasant things?)
    I cannot just succumb to that and deny half of what I am. That is no life.
    The episode also conveyed the poetical beauty of rainbows that I occasionally express (https://dowlphinblog.wordpress.com/2016/03/30/rainbows-are-life-writing-poetry/): A rainbow is a symbol of encouragement and hope; When the light stands its ground against gloom, when you have the contrast that makes you appreciate both, you experience the full spectrum in all its beauty. Balance brings health, and when light and dark are in balance, you are not tempted to perceive either one as an enemy. (People utterly consumed by darkness will regard the light as an enemy, and people who fled to the light in self-entrapping denial cannot handle to even look at the darkness.)
    https://www.deviantart.com/dowlphin/art/Hiding-In-Plain-Sight-712449414
    The more you flee towards the light,
    The more darkness you leave behind.
    Deny it with growing might
    And the night will turn you blind.
     
    Stand tall

     
    Twiley did a rhymey!

     
    Soft, gentle character development  ... kinda nice
    (Well, she could do that since the first episodes, but here she subverted a trope. And who doesn't love trope subversion? Right? )

     
     

     
    Gu-huuys! Can we please just be frickin' amazing for a moment?

     
    Sticks and stones are hard on bones.
    Aimed with angry art, words can sting like anything.
    But silence breaks the heart.
    - Phyllis McGinley
  19. Dowlphin

    New content of mine

    By Dowlphin,

    It has been quite a while without pony output for me and then recently two humble pieces in a row. I just wanted to share them here. (There must be a trampoline at rockfarm bottom, hah.)
    I'm curious about what thoughts the video triggers in you.
     
    Caption pic about anim error, found while browsing content for the videomaking below:
    http://dowlphin.tumblr.com/post/156365530982/i-have-no-nares-and-i-must-breathe-many-ponies
     
    Video edit:

  21. Dowlphin
    This episode reminded me again of how much of a metaphor the Changelings are. They are weaking a mask in order to receive love that they don't carry inside.
    Everything is energy, so it was only a matter of time and interaction that among teh troubled Changeling culture there would be born one affected by the best of Equestrian magic that is flourishing. I can empathize with Thorax. Being born with that difference can make it difficult to sustain oneself in an environment of takers. It was a bold step by Thorax to leave that, but he had witnessed the better alternative, so that is a powerful driving force. He is very lucky.
     
    Especailly the song lyrics raise awareness of the crucial difference between changing and adapting.
     
    He shouldn't be too optimistic about winning over the rest of his race though. They have a queen who is pretty much supreme commander and in such a power structure the efforts of the queen to perpetuate her relevance would stand against such change. In that way the queen is leeching from her subjects as her subjects are leeching from other races.
    It would need careful baby steps to break that up.
  23. Dowlphin
    One thing yet another episode shows is that the one thing Rainbow Dash is not is cool. Nobody is who is obsessing over it. It's a classical issue where one tries to compensate for an inner shortcoming with outside things that are not her. (Apparently I saw where this episode was heading.) When she manages to resolve that, she'll be cool. (I see this stuff all the time.)
    And hey, her fear of failure is well-known and again shown clearly in this very episode. That might go away if she focused less on apprearance and style. ... Maybe her admiration of the Wonderbolts, who are stunt flyers after all, contributes to that focus on style.
    When she does know what's important and acts on it, she's mature. But she's still not cool then, but actually more like Pinkie Pie. The two generally have a lot in common.
     
    Like the last episode, this is yet another full reset of (at least assumed) character development.
     
    Funny, when I see her so often associated in fan art with US patriotism and seen in collages with the US flag, I can't help but think of how the two have something in common, which is a lack of humility.
     
    The enjoyable part was in episode performance, the hilarious absurdity of her imitating the other mane 6 ponies.
     
    P.S.: Weird that they always have a filled trashcan ready at the runway, isn't it? And I'm also wondering why they started calling her "Rainbow Crash" and not "Rainbow Trash". She did specifically choose the trashcan for herself, so that's pretty fitting, haha.
     
    P.P.S.: LOL, I wrote this minutes before Pinkie brought this one up. I guess that makes this a pinkie scriptum. ^^
     
    P.P.P.S: I think Pinkie didn't actually want cotton candy. She just suddenly thought how funny it would be if the stand flowed over with it and then tried how far she can push the guy. xD
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