Hazard Time

48 minutes ago, Dark Qiviut said:

Even more importantly, without animated movies like Snow White, it's possible the medium of animation may not exist today, much less evolve.

Animation would still have existed, the problem is that before Snow White, no one took it seriously.  Animated shorts were commonly made to play before actual feature films to keep the kids entertained, and nobody believed that it would be possible to hold their attention through a full feature-length film.  Of course, Walt Disney proved them wrong by making Snow White the first feature-length animated film.  Sure, it hasn't aged well and there are plenty of "not so progressive" tropes, but this was a huge milestone not just in the animation industry, but in the movie industry as a whole.  It showed that not only can you make an entertaining animated feature-length film for children, but that you could make money while doing it.

In terms of designing as aesthetic for your OC, I have a few pointers. 

• First, you want to identify your OC's personality/talent.  For example, if it's a Christmas themed OC, you'd know then to use Christmas colors, such as white, light blue, or green and red, etc. 
• Second, choose colors that match.  A good number of people, even those with little knowledge of color theory, like myself, will easily be able to spot a clashing color palette.  If you're not good at matching colors, then I'd talk to someone who is.
• Third, avoid using neon/oversaturated colors as your primary color.  When used in small amounts, such as for minor details, they aren't as terrible as most people would make them out to be.  It's only when your character's entire body is neon green that it becomes painful just to look at them.
• Finally, avoid using rainbow color palettes.  This is mostly a problem within the MLP community, since you have Rainbow Dash establishing the precedent.  I can understand that you might want to make your OC stand out, but it's also important to note that people are most likely to appreciate an OC that looks original.  Plus, on the vast majority of OCs, rainbow manes just look garish.

I'm so glad to see that others share my sentiment. 

Look, I get it, Lauren Faust promised and delivered on a show geared towards little girls that also had appeal to all demographics, and perhaps the first two seasons promised a considerable amount more.  However, what gets my goat is people who continue to watch the show yet make a big deal about how terrible it is.  I know someone who could go on and on for hours about how Celestia is actually an evil tyrant for "forcing" other ponies to think like her and that Chrysalis is the most relatable and moralistic character in the show, and it gets downright frustrating sometimes that he refuses to accept that this is just a kid's show based in a colorful utopia where black is black and white is white with very few shades of grey in between.

Not every kids' show can have the same impact as Gravity Falls or Steven Universe, and the sooner people accept this and move on, the better.

2 minutes ago, meme said:

Really I was talking about Pewds even saying the word lol

Ah, should have specified that, lol.

Honestly, while I don't know him that well, I think he just doesn't care anymore, especially with the MSM dogging him for everything that comes out of his mouth.  He has a fanbase of 50+ million people and not only did he survive a concerted smear campaign by the Wall Street Journal, but he came out of it even stronger.

In either case, it was an idiot move on his part, and he deserves the backlash he's receiving.  However, as you might have figured, I'm way more interested in someone abusing the legal system than what some asshole on the internet said. 

1 hour ago, meme said:

Why the fuck would he do that?

TL;DR - "We're complicit in the toxicity of this industry, so we're going to fix that by filing spurious DMCA's against someone whose only crime is that their morals disagree with our own!"

I feel as if a major misunderstanding in your post comes from a lack of understand of what gender is.  Gender is an abstract construct that provides a basis for your psyche.  For example, a masculine person might be more aggressive, less emotive, more assertive, protective, etc.  A feminine person might be more inclined to be compassionate, intuitive, emotional, etc.

It is because of this link to psychology that gender is not exactly an issue of biology.  The word you were looking for was "sex" which does have a basis in biology as it is the type of sexual organs you were born with: male organisms are born with a penis and testes and female organisms are born with ovaries and an uterus.

In this case, yes, the gems are sexless beings and, as far as we know, have no concept as gender, despite the fact that all of them present as female archetypes.  In the canon, this is not explained.  Outside of the canon, however, at least one of the writers for the show (I can't remember his name) has expressed his contempt towards the idea of a masculine gem.  Jasper and Ruby are the closest the show will probably come to a "male" gem.

You're acting like this person Shive'd you.  Sure, it's not fair that she refused to debate you, but is this a topic worth debating?  Both of you seem to have a dogmatic love for your respective characters, but after judging the content of both of your posts, I think it's safe to say that Applejacket made the better choice in agreeing to disagree.

This reminds me a lot of Wildstar, with it's crude yet comical atmosphere setting.

What exactly is the goal the entire station is atempting to achieve, if a company was willing to invest a lot time and money to set this up they must have had a reason, or a theory at least?...or perhaps we're not supposed to know?

 

What role would you likely be playing?

As was said above, Space Station 13's primary purpose is scientific research in multiple fields.  As the GM, I'll be holding all Command, AI, and antagonist positions in order to maintain control over the general direction of the RP.  For the OC that I'm slating to be the Research Director, however, I feel that trans-planar travel will be prioritized.

The first time I saw this episode, it was in MysteriousMrEnter's review of it, which you can find here: 

But yeah, while G3 had some really cute designs and is ultimate harmless and unoffensive to the 3 year old girls who watched it, it's about as bland as white rice.

Amazing story!  I've always wanted to go to a metal concert, but after what you described, I'd probably need some thicker skin before I consider that xP

The story of how Holy Wars was written, though, was a really interesting read.  However, it was kind of ambiguous as to who was escorted back to Dublin in a bulletproof bus, but I assume you meant the Catholics.

Some people take games very seriously and games are a huge part of their lives. They could be someone who critiques games, someone who aspires to be a game tester, someone who aspires to make their own game, or maybe they are just super passionate about games.

 

I mean if we're going to criticize something, how about the ridiculous amount of people whose talent is "music" or "art". There are an insane amount of ponysonas with those said two talents.

If you read my post, you would see that I made a specific concession to people for whom video games are their occupation.

Also, I kind of agree with you there, though someone who plays an instrument or draws frequently can consider that a talent.  Still, my general rule of thumb is that your special talent would be whatever subject you could speak the longest about.

Hm I'm glad whom chose to respond is informed. And yeah I know how it happened wasn't unintelligent or anything. Just I think ignorance is a large problem these days so it comes to my mind alot lately as its a source of quite some fallacies, or motivator for some as well/rather.

 

So why did Nero think Christianity was evil? Was it just disrupting his order, or were they like executing people who didn't obey Sabbath or something, or are you unaware of what exactly it was that prompted Nero to act as he did?

 

And for the audience, Nero is '666' spelled from I think it was Hebrew's alpha-numerical system? Or roman? Anyways scholars found the book of revelations was essentially written in code to warn of Rome's persecution of them at the time.

When Christianity first began popping up, the Romans had no idea what to do with it.  Roman culture revolved heavily around the idea of mos maiorum, or "Ways of the Ancestors".  In this way, one could consider them to have made an ideology out of cultural conservatism, looking up to that which was old and steeped in tradition as righteous.  As such, the Romans had a considerable respect for the Jews of Judea, and even after they were reduced to a colony under the direct control of Rome, the Romans never meddled with their way of life in the way the Greek Seleucids did (Banning the Torah, outlawing circumcisions, desecrating the temple of Jerusalem by sacrificing swine to Zeus, etc).

As such, when Christian communities appeared throughout the modern day Levant, North Africa, and Turkey, the Roman authorities had no respect for their rites or traditions.  In fact, up to that point, there hadn't been a precedent in Roman law that dictated how entirely new religions would be treated.  However, if there was one thing about Christianity the Romans disliked, it was the sort of "civil disobedience" it demanded.  For example, Christians refused to make sacrifices before the statues of the Roman emperors, and when threatened with torture and execution, they gladly accepted it with open arms.

In case it wasn't abundantly clear, despite their claims of being civilized folk, Roman culture was founded on violence and bloodshed.  The various provinces and colonies of the empire were kept in line by fear, as anyone who openly declared rebellion against them could expect to be tortured and executed in a public manner if they allowed themselves to be captured.  What Christianity encouraged, a desire to bear witness to the martyrdom of Jesus Christ, challenged Roman authority, and that was something they could not allow.  As such, the persecution of Christians devolved into a witch hunt as people turned on their neighbors, denouncing them to the authorities who simply asked them nicely if they were Christian.  If they said no and promised to make an offering to the emperor, they were let go, as very few Christians in those days would denounce their faith or make sacrifices to the emperor.

However, the more the Romans persecuted the Christians, the larger their population grew.  Eventually, some Christian theologists hatched the brilliant idea to try and grant their movement legitimacy and even protection under mos maiorum.  How did they hope to do this?  By co-opting Jewish heritage of course!  They opened up the Old Testament, pointed to all the passages that referred to the Hebrew people, and said, "Look!  Does it say anywhere in here that the Hebrews were Jews?  Of course not!  They were Christians!  You've been persecuting the wrong guys!"

This claim was met with mixed results, to say the least.  Still, it was just one of several events that would later widen the schism between Jews and Christians, culminating in almost two millennia of persecution and oppression.

As someone who took an introductory course on the History of Western Civilization, I feel that I should clarify a few points that you made.

Each Abrahamic religion gained power and influence due to reasons specific to it.  For the first iteration, Judaism, it loosely translates to "The Way of Life of the Jewish People".  The Old Testament explains more than just what their religion is about, it also describes the way society is structured, what the social hierarchy is, what the laws are, etc.  From this, scholars are able to get a glimpse into what ancient Israelite society looked like.  I saw you mentioned Gilgamesh, and it's funny you bring that up.  Aside from the Great Flood that was taken from the epic, the Old Testament also seemed to have taken inspiration from Sargon of Akkad, who claimed that he had been found in a basket of reeds on the banks of the Tigris.

Christianity, on the other hand, had its own appeal amongst Roman citizens and those colonized by them.  For those who had been colonized, it gave them a reason to stand up to the establishment, to give witness to Jesus' martyrdom, and refuse to accept the power of the Roman state.  Even amongst the Romans, themselves, it found a following amongst women and the poor, who found themselves at the bottom of the ladder in their society and saw the accepting nature of the Christians as a way to be something more.  Of course, this was all reversed once Emperor Theodosius I made Christianity the official religion of the Empire, but when it was still an underground cult that was being relentlessly persecuted by the Pagan authorities, it held an allure.

As for your talk of Heaven and Hell motivating people to accept the word of God, well of course.  Why else should people worship you if they have no reason to?  How do you convince someone to shirk the traditions of his/her forefathers without making the claim that his old ways are wrong and your new ways are right?

I really don't think the majority hates this season.  Even back when I still had an account on Tumblr, there was overwhelming support for this season.  Sure, MLP is no Steven Universe or Gravity Falls when it comes to the writing, but if you just learn to appreciate it for what it is, I don't see why people would have such strong feelings of hatred over this season.