Widdershins

Ee-hee-heeee! Was so giddy for this back when he first mentioned he'd finally do one! Got worried too with how dire he ended his last episode. Been keeping up on Youtube with his stuff & until your link didn't even occur to me that he had a website too! Haven't found any comic book stores around where I am to ever get any of the MLP books myself, except for a few of the micro-series, but these chapters definately needed a review! Glad to see Viga make her first appearence but I doubt we'll see much of her as she doesn't seem the sort to confine herself to Linkara's tradition of dramatic story arcs. Also. Owlbears are now cannon. Get to work on it show designers! Heh Heh, Bleh.

I like to think I have a sort of special talent when it comes to character creation. But before I start rapid firing off OCs, there's one habit I seem to make frequently that has me wondering. I've heard many a complaint over characters that are too overpowered or too perfect, that some flaws are good, but can this be taken too far the other direction too? If a character is too incompetent, helpless or otherwise ruins pretty much everything they become involved in does that come to grate on the audience after a while? For example, there's Troubleshoes, Silverquill's OC Clutterstep and, dare I mention it, Ditzy-Doo "Muffin" Hooves. That is one major complaint I heard of Troubleshoes's episode is that focusing too much on his clumsiness made the humor & focus of the episode seem a bit too mean-spirited. Not to mention the whole debacle over "Derpy's" perceived offensiveness. Where's the line between an adorable oaf & an open threat to their society & a drag on the story?

Well now, in my case I think it's easier to go by what I wouldn't! I am not the most...shall we say, active sort? Not to mention my tendency to panic whenever my feet would leave the ground would rule out being a pegusai. And trust me, you don't want to know what'd happen if I was given the capacity to channel magical powers. Veritable floods of butterscotch pudding eeeeeverywhere! Alicorns are pretty much functional mutants in my view of things and as I said, power to the power mad ain' gon' do no good to nobody nohow! So guess that leaves me with being an earth pony! Considering their inclination towards physical prowess, maybe that'd give me enough confidence to leave the house and go...shuck a tree or whatever them farm ponies do! .....Wait, was Dragon an option? Ooh! Ooh! OOH!!

Firstly, to answer your questions, yeah, you do bring up a valid point. Testing the morals of the main characters is the best (and easiest) way to create conflict & foster growth in said characters. Though as many brony reviewers have undoubtedly brought up, rely on this too much & you make them look weak & wishy-washy. Generosity I have a hard time placing, as I find it hard to separate from loyalty & kindness. Judging by the examples given in the show however, it seems to carry a connotation of self-sacrifice. Something Nightmare Moon clearly balked at when she refused to share time with her sister & enforced her will upon the populace at large. Agree whole-heartedly with you on that point! Loyalty, as I see it, is somewhat like honor. Wanting for the greater good & thinking of others. The opposite of this would be taking from others & considering yourself the greater good. When Tirek showed up broken & clearly hating the world it became apparent that he viewed himself as the only being worthy of wielding any power at all. I cast my vote for Tirek as the Element of Avarice! I agree to deception opposing honesty. The entire basis to Chrysalis's species is looking like other ponies, about as far from being true to yourself as can be! Maybe if Chryssy was honest & walked up to the front gates with a "Hey, my hive is going hungry, can we borrow a cup of love? We promise it'll likely not hurt much." we could've avoided the whole hullabaloo, but hey, wouldn't have had an episode then! Kindness is a bit much like generosity. Willing to give & not expecting a reward, but more of a focus on trusting in others. Sombra was cruel, yes, there's no denying that, but that was when he was alive. The crystal ponies knew very well what he was capable of and when he came back as a...uh, smoke monster there was no way of stopping him. Sombra used those around him & only saw them as objects to take from. Sombra wasn't just an example of it, but an embodiment of fear. Going so far as to have a magical doorway to paralyze you with your worst fear; odd how he'd keep that under his throne where only he could get to it... As for the opposite of magic, well...I sort of see magic as a tool. Sure magic can be used for good or for ill, but it's meant to help. You could use that hammer to build homes for the homeless...or bash someone's skull in with. But the point is to HELP. When Starlight Glimmer showed up in her episode, it was her town, her way of thinking. There was one side to be on, and that side was hers. We still see this a bit in her personality, as she's the pony more reluctant to try new experiences and the first to offer criticism or get in the way when things aren't going a way she's comfortable with. As the opposite of magic & the Element of (for lack of a better word) Order, my vote is for Starlight Glimmer! *cough* Mayadere pony is best pony *cough* And lastly, Laughter! Way I see it, laughter is sort of its own opposite. If we use Pinkie Pie as an example, the show means laughter as a means to spread happiness, yet still being responsible to know that sometimes, you don't have to be at 100% full-bore ecstatic joy to be happy. The opposite isn't so much as being unhappy, but happy for the wrong reasons. Laughing at the EXPENSE of others, rather then with them. That is what we get in Discord. When he separated the girls in his debut episode, he did so because they would have ruined his plans, and his fun. As we saw in Starlight's parade of alternate timelines, if Discord had his way, everypony would be his puppets & playthings. I vote Discord as the Element of Manipulation!

That's a question that's been bothering me for a while now. As I have plans to make my own persona of one, there is very little to go on what a draconequus actually is. From what we've seen of Discord he is clearly one of, if not THE most powerful being on Equestria. But I get the feeling we can't entirely trust completely in what Discord says, as he does seem the sort to grant himself titles of godhood or reinvent his backstory frequently to suit his whims in a very Joker-esque fashion. Have heard rumors that one of the semi-cannon books mention something about a whole race Discord once belonged to. But I find that somewhat dubious as this world is already taxed just trying to contain just one Discord. My own headcannon is that draconequui are some sort of inorganic, inter-dimensional travelers not unlike the Planeswalkers of Magic the Gathering or the Q continuum that Discord was originally based on. Just that different dimensions have different rules of what counts as existence so a Draconequus has to keep replacing their body as they age eventually becoming a being of pure thought inhabiting a self-made chimera. Look forward to your turns of logic! -WDRSHNS

Now don't get me wrong, I love Celestia & Luna. Mostly Celestia. But the whole alicorn thing bothers me a bit. If there was a species of immortal god-like creatures, surely we'd see a lot more around. Since they'd likely reproduce faster then they died off, eventually the land would be blanketed in them. Even should some past villain had wiped out their species in a bid for power (which does happen a lot in dramatic storytelling & the show's writers could easily pull off) It's likely that the the whole race having been god-like would have been able to take proper precautions to avoid conflict & a handful manage to avoid the culling. Neigh, my headcannon (and just pure speculation at that, do with it as you seek fit) is that there are two types of alicorns: Ascended & Pseudo-alicorns. The former having been earned & usually granted by a more powerful Ascended, while the latter being not much more then an inherited mutation. This latter being what I view Flurry as (Think I might have just called a baby a mutant...Huh.) Her father being a rather powerful unicorn from a lineage of rather well-known magic users & her mother having originally been a Pegasus, according to a slightly off-cannon book, Flurry simply just accidentally inherited both of her parents' dominant traits. And likely, within time her powers will level out to a point where it will be like she never had flown or done magic. Infant abilities having been proven to run rampant since the Cakes' infant outflew Scootaloo. When Celestia mentioned that one hadn't been born, she's likely alluding to the fact that as a mutation its usually more common for the wings or horn to be underdeveloped to the point where one is lopped off in favor of the stronger attribute and it's discretely done away with and not mentioned except for embarrassing parental facts. Much like humans occasionally growing tails or an extra finger. Don't have any proof for this theory of course, but I like to think that once ascended the alicorn's older, more favored trait grows faster then usual. As I see Luna flying more often then her sister & Celestia's horn is significantly longer. Anyone else notice that since her ascension Twilight's horn seems to be getting longer? .....not that I spend a lot of my time staring at mare's horns of course.