Sassy Sweet

So yeah, I am not exactly new but awhile back, around June or July, someone hacked me and pretty much destroyed every aspect of my online life.  I mean we are talking about deleting the bigger stuff like blogs and folders in Google Drive to logging in to a bunch of my accounts whose passwords were saved and creating havoc to get me banned.  It took a ton of explaining and figuring out just what was affected and where.  I guess that MLP forums was not on their top priority to create chaos on and it sort of got lost in the shuffle.  I feel bad for saying that but at the same time, it is great because no one here thinks I am crazy.  Lol, they'll just think that I was lazy for a few months.

But having spent so much time away... I feel like I should re-introduce myself.

I started watching MLP as a kid, collecting every pony I could (including some knock offs).  I guess that will give a hint to how old I am but one should never ask a lady her age.  When I had my oldest daughter, Friendship is Magic started coming on not long after.  At first I started watching it out of nostalgia and used it as a kind of babysitter while I did stuff around the house.  It wasn't until A Canterlot Wedding did I really start to pay attention.  Sure, it was fairly obvious that this MLP was not like the MLP I grew up with but that episode got me hooked on actually watching with her.  Before, all the big bads of MLP you got from movies and the smaller baddies were... well... pitiful.  I loved the music, I fell into a deep obsession over Chrysalis because if you think about it, she was /./ <-- that close to winning.

As she grew, so did her interest in the franchise.  We got picture books, chapter books, comic books, etc.  

I have also always been an avid roleplayer so when Roleplaying is Magic hit, I was head over heels and was part of a Skype group where we sort of managed a pen and paper game.  But all good things must come to an end and when RiM closed up their shop and the show continued, we sort of threw our hands in the air because there was so many little subtleties before that were up in the air and open to interpretation that slowly became set in stone or retconned.  I started looking for a place to do pbp online but all of the sites I found were really kiddie and full of either really immature people or teens... then there was also the dark side that I will spend very little time on; I will never hear clop the same way again.

Anyways!  So yeah... I have two "ponysonas".  Clio is my nerdy side (and first ponysona/character) and Sassy Sweets is my outgoing side.  I've been working on a side project called Tall Tales that some people will call insane.  It gives a lot of history and fleshes out details of the ponyverse.  I love writing.  I also love all things art, even though I am horrible with it.  I can't draw a stick figure but give me an outline and I'll paint/color you something on Lisa Frank meets Picasso.  This means drawings of my OCs will pretty much be bases.

I guess that's it, enough for a hi again sort of thing.

9 hours ago, Blue Diamond said:

Nothing inherently wrong, but people know how to make a character who actually has experienced tragedy. It comes down to writing horrible characters. I'll stick to OC's with tragic pasts in the mediums when I say this ... almost no OC with any horrible event in their formative years is written with any depth or substance. The author comes across as entirely self-indulgent, or they haven't diversified their narrative consumption enough to see how better writers do it. 

The best tragic characters should have traits or attributes that accomplish one of three things ... 

1. Build something relatable into the character that readers see in themselves. It's a back door into empathy even if someone hasn't experienced the specific life storm they have. 

2. If you don't go relatable, go inspirational. Shit happened to the OC in the past? What if the OC already tackled it and succeeded. They can still have shades of it through a nuanced personality description, but by and large people will respect the character who has been to hell and back and is no longer dreary, angry, bitter, and an emotional wreck. Inspire people. 

3. If it is a tragedy and you are writing the character, FFS read about what happens when people go through something similar. Lost a parent? Disabled? Lost a spouse? Read books that have characters that went through that. Talk to people IRL or online that have dealt with a similar tragedy. If you are self-inserting your own life ... be careful. You may think you know what you feel internally, what it is like to go through the hurricane of emotions that is born from loss ... but if you do that you need to 'write outside' of your own head. You basically need to be a hella good writer and are competent at employing various elements of narrative style. 

It isn't that the concept is bad that can turn off the ideal viewer, it's the mediocre use of the craft that makes people dismiss it as not worth their precious time. 

 

I very much agree with this particular post and this thread in general.

First off, just going by MLP fandom OCs, the level of the character is normally reflected in the age of the person behind the screen.  Yes, if you have some 10 year old playing an OC, then that character MAY be all sunshine and lollipops.  If not, then that tends to be sort of iffy depending on how much that person has gone through to properly pull from their backstory.  But if you have someone more mature who has a character with a tragic past, then the character they play is going to be more mature.  However, the same is true... you sort of have to have some sort of experience or really have a good idea of how to use your character's background.  Like @BlueDiamond said, there are several ways to use your backstory well.  Read books about the subject, talk to others who have gone through it, pull a little from your own past, et cetera.

It also depends on what is meant by "tragic".  To me, the orphan is a bit of a trope and a bit cliché because people who have orphan characters do usually just play the abandonment edge from what I have seen.  But AJ, Big Mac, and Applebloom are all orphans and has only really come up once or twice over seven seasons.  Fluttershy was bullied when she was younger and one could argue that that is where she draws her kindness from, by learning a lesson about how to treat others.  Same with the Cutie Mark Crusaders.  Even though they seemed to feel bad about it at times, they mostly just dusted their shoulders off and didn't let it get to them. 

I actually like characters who have a bit of tragedy, or at least experienced some kind of loss, because (and yes, the characters are fictional but still) makes them more realistic.  To me, it is the characters who have only happy stories and are always optimistic that make my brain hurt.  There isn't really a way to relate because nothing is like that, not in real life and though MLP is lighter, we have seen that bad things happen.  Bad ponies do exist and while quite a few of them have changed for the better, some of them seem to stay the same (Flim and Flam) or we don't really hear from again (Suri) but the ponies who were around them learned from their mistakes.

First off, what is your definition of "dating"?  I know it may sound like a stupid question but apparently, it does have different meanings to different people.  Some people define dating as seeing other people in a non-committal way and say they are "in a relationship" if they are only seeing one person.  Others refer to just flirtatious texts and phone calls as them dating someone.  But anyways, to the point and regardless, the answer would be yes.  You, yourself, may be ready for marriage and someone else may be as well, but that doesn't mean the two of you would be able to make a marriage work between you.  You may find out you have different goals in mind, different ideas of just what marriage means, and say... even if you want kids, you may have different ideas on how to raise them, and what happens when your kids don't work out like they did in your head?  When you find out that your two-year-old is way smarter than you are and can get into every single thing that is baby proofed?  And do you even want someone who agrees with you all the time (and risk getting bored) or have someone who challenges you (and risk arguing all the time)?  And then what about really huge unforeseen circumstances no one wants to think about.  Serious illness or injury?

Marriage is not something to be taken lightly.  My husband and I have been together going on 15 years, only 5 of them married, 13 of those living together with 2 of those years be living with roommates.  Lol, we started dating in high school but it was soooo not the typical high school sweethearts love story.  We've probably been through most of the ups and downs possible in our relationship (including that one "hypothetical" about the kid being smarter than the both of us and having to change up our parenting styles).  We have some pretty major fundamental differences.  Politics, philosophical beliefs, hobbies, social styles... but we work in spite of it all because part of our bond was the fact that we built up trust and understanding through all the experiences we went through while dating.

1 hour ago, Aya. K. said:

What if you want to be in a relationship, but you have already decided that you do not want to marry because you think the concept of marriage is ridiculous?

But yeah, you should get to know them first. Everything else would be stupid. 

 

Eh... it depends.  The concept may be ridiculous to some but then there are some awesome legal benefits that come with it (and science has even proven physical and emotional benefits).  Why do you think same-sex couples fought so hard to be able to actually get married, not just be content to live with civil unions and domestic partnerships?  Outside of the whole, they damn deserve the same treatment but that is a whole nother topic. 

So to begin with, I'm not exactly sure where this goes on the forums.  This seems to be the best place for it but if it needs to be moved, I'm totally okay with that.

These are just the main tools and resources I use on a regular basis.  I can barely draw a stick figure, so I mostly use line arts and bases.

Paint Programs

Not free, but totally worth it
Paint Tool SAI - If you're like me and you have a laptop or tablet with a touch screen, this is definitely worth shelling out a little bit of money for a software license.  Unlike Photoshop, which is also totally worth it but needs a monthly fee, this is just a onetime payment.
(*NOTE on SAI:  An online friend of mine who is also into GFX work said they managed to find a free version of SAI.  However, it lacks most of the "premium" tools that I think make it worth paying a little for.  If you do have the bravery and time to go looking for this one, be very careful where you download from.
Deviant Art P2U bases - Deviant Art has some really awesome P2U bases out there.  Unfortunately, some of the best ones art strictly SAI and/or Photoshop.  Though there are many that will work on GIMP with some extra effort and hassle.)
Corel Painter X - Okay, so this is probably a good chunk of money and I wouldn't suggest getting it if you are only wanting to do Pony OC things.  There is also one hell of a learning curve; changing one little thing can cause your computer to go insane.  

Free Art Programs
I use GIMP for raster pictures and editing bitmaps.  I actually prefer GIMP because it allows for actual pixel control
Inkscape/Ponyscape is good if you're working with vectors.  I just started playing around with these, but it would probably be ideal for a "final product" type of image.  Depending on your level of techie knowledge and GFX and basic skills (I can't draw a circle to save my life), there can be a pretty big learning curve to Inkscape.  I really suggest reading all of the tutorials with the program and this place has some extra.
Paint.NET, I can't say to much on right now.  I just started peeking around at it myself but it seems pretty good so far.  It's free, less hardware intensive than GIMP, easier to learn than Inkscape.  And it has a layers function, yay!

For Colors
I'm a big inspiration person.  A lot of my "ponies" start off from other images.  I have a weird process of finding an anime picture, nature painting, whatever that I like first.  Sherwin Williams has a program called Chip It.  It is far from perfect, because it only uses paint colors that they carry to come up with palettes.  It starts out with 5 colors, but you can use "Edit Colors" and it will show you 10, which is good because you'll almost always get some for of white or black.
The bad part?  It doesn't give you HEX or RGB codes for the colors, which is where http://html-color-codes.info/colors-from-image/ comes in.  Upload an image, pick an area of the image and it will zoom in.  Pick your pixel and you'll get a color code for it.
Depending on your paint program, you may have to use either HEX or RGB.  You can use http://www.rgbtohex.net/ (which also flops to hex to rgb) to get color codes.
Here comes the fun!  I absolutely adore http://www.colourlovers.com/! I use it a lot for inspiration.  If you have a basic idea in mind, Colour Lovers can help you pinpoint palettes (using five colors) that work well together.  It also has a good section of basic shapes that you can use for putting together a Cutie Mark.
And to take it one step farther, for things like shading and gradients, I use http://paletton.com/. It's actually more of a tool for website design, but I use it for more details on palettes.  It is also good for more basic palettes too since you can get monochromatic, adjacent 3, color triad and tetrad.  You can use the "preview" and it will give you an idea of how your color pattern will look on different backgrounds.  I see people getting crap for using certain colors because they "look bad".  Well, maybe they do if you're looking at them with a highly reflective white background which can make them seem more neon.  But if you're on a darker page, like a DA upload with transparency, your eyes may perceive them in a less intense way.  (Random Rant: Not saying that there aren't some colors that are just garish together, but one thing I learned from web design is that there are a LOT of things that can affect how one's eyes perceive light and color.  And it doesn't help that someone's eyes are usually as unique as they are and where someone may see blue-green another person might see greenish blue.  Yes, there is a difference and it can be very frustrating.)

Clipart for CMs if you totally suck at drawing
OpenClipart.org is good if you have a program that can open SVG files.
clker.com is a personal favorite because of the different file types available and a filter engine.
Clipartlord.com
Sweetclipart.com
Mycutegraphics.com (also has background, color pages, and animated gifs which can be useful)
Free-clip-art.com
Webweaver.nu free clipart section.  It doesn't have a search filter, but you can look through basic categories.
pdclipart.org has some good stuff of varying quality
I personally enjoy WikiMedia Commons (commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Main_Page) because if you can't find something, you can always request an image.
I also have sunk to ferreting through clipartpanda.com.  There is no search which is a pain but it looks like it just grabs popular clipart from around the web.  Quite a few of these have their links on the image itself, so you can sort of website hop.
Also, if you see an image on one of the pay for clipart sites like fotosearch or 123rf, try looking at clipartall.com using the same tags.  There is a very good chance that it will come up without a watermark.  You can also use Google Images (mentioned below for different reasons) but be prepared.  If you search by a watermarked image, you'll likely find that the first results are watermarked versions of well but I have also seen where a non-watermarked image will pop up too.

Also, something I learned.  ALWAYS use Google Image Search (https://images.google.com/) to look at your chosen image for cutie marks if you didn't make it yourself.  When I first started trying to get my pen and paper characters online, I would just type a description in google and look through images until I found one that fit really well with what I had in mind.  And it turns out some of them were custom cutie marks on DA that people had paid for.  It is also helpful because sometimes you will run into the opposite.  One person who came to me had "paid" for what wasn't even a tweaked clipart piece that was uploaded YEARS before her custom cutie mark was made.  I still didn't use it anymore... but you'll find that, unfortunately, it happens quite a bit.  

Best tip I can offer is, sadly, go to google first and try typing in a term then looking through images but ALWAYS check your sources and terminology.  If you specifically search for Cutie Mark, you're going to get images from DA that were created for others.

Other Things
https://burner.bonanza.com/ - It isn't great and you may have to go in and do some tweaking up but this is pretty decent for removing white backgrounds from jpgs.  If you have a more complex image, like one with little swirls, you may have more of an issue.

Hooray for another fellow fatalist! 

 I found myself a little disturbed with King Sombra's FIENDship is Magic and the entire Seige of the Crystal Empire arc.  I mean, like you brought up, if you don't fit into their mold, they break you for the "betterment of society" kind of way.  If Princess Amore would just have been honest with Sombra and tried to help him rather than leaving him to his own devices... I'd be pretty pissed and go on a rampage too.  It set a whole series of events in motion that seemed to backfire.  Then you have Radiant Hope, who even though she was misguided in her intentions, was doing everything she could for a friend and the Mane 6 seemed to hate her for it. 

I'm thinking that it is 4:00am here and I should totally be going to sleep... but my head won't be quiet whenever I lay down.  Yay insomnia!

30 minutes ago, Whompy Whomperson said:

They should have released this as the original 2DS from the start 

 

I'm sorry but you just don't get rid of the clampshell design 

 

I'm in total agreement with this.  I can't use the 3DS for health reasons (yay seizures) and I absolutely despised the size of the original 2DS.  It was pretty unwieldy for me as an adult, so I can only imagine little kids trying to use it.  Also, it was almost impossible to find non-Nintendo accessories for it like covers and cases.  Even then, Nintendo seemed so focused on clampshell design that it just didn't put much out for the 2DS.

Two stories.

Perhaps my most traumatic animal attack came in the form of a family pet.  I forget how old I was exactly, maybe eight or nine. My grandmother had an American Bull (medium sized dog) that was totally freaking adorable.  For some reason, one ear stuck up constantly while the other drooped down.  I had practically grown up with her and there were times we would rough play and other times I used her as a pillow, she was always fine with either option until one night when I laid down beside her on the couch. I had been laying there maybe about an hour or so, not really moving much so I guess she just had a bad dream and turned around and bit me on the face.  It was pretty quick and she didn't latch on but apparently, any head and/or facial wounds will bleed profusely.  But it was also bad enough to give me a couple of minor scars, like, I have to point them out to someone for them to even notice.  So here I am, body covered in blood, my grandmother freaking out and cleaning off my face to see if she needs to take me to the hospital, and the only thing I am crying about is the fact that I thought the dog didn't love me anymore.  My feelings hurt worse than anything.

The funniest is... I was driven out of my own vehicle by a damn tiny ass little bird.  It was actually my husband's truck that I had been driving.  The electric window was broken so it would slip down about half way into the door a lot.  You could push it up, and he was the only one who could get it to stay in position for awhile.  I had driven it earlier that day and of course, hit a bump, window slid down.  When I went to run to pick my daughter up from school, I got in and cranked up and this evil little thing flew up at me from out of nowhere.  I freaked out and managed to open the door, literally falling out onto the ground.  I left the door open thinking maybe it had just gotten stuck in there and couldn't figure how to get out.  It.would.not.leave.  Then I figured, okay, maybe I just scared it so much it doesn't think it is safe so I opened all the doors and went back inside.  Came back out an hour later (after having to call my mother who lived all the way on the other side of town to get my kid) and looked around.  I didn't see it so I started to get back in to run to the store.  Same thing as earlier only this time when I got out, I saw it go under the seat.  Now with a grudge, I went to reclaim my car.  I banged around on the seats and watched as it went from one area to another.  I didn't want to hurt it, but I wanted it out.  Again, it would not leave.  This little bird that was the size of my fist just kept hopping around in nooks and crannies that I didn't even know existed.  Finally, it flies up into this hollow area that was behind the cupholders and under the radio (again, some place I didn't even know about till I saw it go up there).  Banged around on it, turned up the radio to try to chase it out with noise, cranked up the car to try to scare it out and nothing.  Luckily, I had a neighbor who worked on cars a few doors down from us.  He came down and had to start taking my front console apart.  I saw that this little demon bird, that ended up attacking both of us when we pulled off the console as it flew out (finally), had started building a nest there.  It didn't look like it had fully made a home yet, but there was straw, grass. and a few twigs.  I felt sort of bad at first as I cleared it all out, because I could understand the fact it was just trying to defend its home.  But then as we were piecing the console back together, it went after my neighbor and actually pecked a piece of flesh off the back of his neck.  Then I just realized the thing was some crazy, evil, demon bird that hated me.

I am so sorry, but I can't help but laughing at anyone who says "Why can't Twilight keep up with Flurry?!" and finds that it doesn't make sense.  For one, most of the time Twilight was caught off guard by her antics.  But also, for anyone who has babysat a baby/toddler knows that 90% of the time, the kidlets somehow manage to make everything batshit crazy despite your best efforts.  And especially when they lose their whammy.  Then it becomes an "Abandon all hope" deal.

I'll admit to being one of the Flurry haters.  I think her design is way overdone.  I immediately eye-rolled at the born an alicorn since it seems like through the show (and books) that alicorn status has to be earned.  Even though Faust isn't with the show anymore, she said that she never planned to have any other "princesses" and to me it seemed like the introduction of the "regal sisters" in the first episode made it sound like even Celestia wasn't born an alicorn (but since the term alicorn wasn't even used til season 3, maybe it wasn't even an idea then).  And in one of the books, Cadence was a pegasus before becoming an alicorn (totally off topic, damn that transformation must have hurt).  But back on topic... yeah, I was not a fan of Flurry Heart from the get go, but I do sort of tolerate her in this episode.  Mainly because while yeah, she's super powerful, the super powerful was used for stuff kids do.

I'm also extremely sympathetic to Shining Armor and Cadence in this episode.  Even though there still wasn't much substance given to either of them, I thought it was nice to see them out of their typical royal roles.

My favorite of the episode has to be the Pies, lmao.  Spike gives them a run for their money but I think that whole little scene with the broken toy and two baby ponies putting the fear of god into Flurry, the all powerful alicorn born creature, was hilarious.

Starlight gets a lot of hate on some forums but she is one of my favorite characters now.  I get that MLP is a kids show but they also have a lot of adult fans and she is the most realistic of all the characters.  "Reformations" should take time.  Not just "You showed me the path to friendship and everything is wonderful now!"  I like that she is hung up on a lot of her past actions and still isn't as totally happy-go-lucky like Twilight.  I am okay with Discord because it is pretty clear that while he might try with the others sometimes, it is pretty antagonistic with everyone but Fluttershy.  And he has to stay chaotic because with a name like Discord, what else can you do.  And this is the Trekkie coming out in me but, c'mon, John de Lancee?  Discord is the MLP version of Q to a perfect tee.  And it helps that I'm a Fluttercore shipper.

The hardest thing for me was the instant transformation of all the changeling drones.  Thorax spent probably the equivalent of months in the Crystal Kingdom soaking up love and when he first appeared, only his wings were different.  Then in a room where almost every one of the major players were out of it, boom, total way too colorful changeling transformation.  But maybe I'm just not too happy with it because it destroyed a lot of a head canon but s was mentioned, there is the posibility of more hives!  I do like the fact that Chrysalis didn't accept Starlight's offer of friendship.  I don't see her as the evil queen sterotype because in every episode she has been in, she has just been trying to take care of herself AND her hive.  But yeah, she's just below Tirek level to me with the chip on her shoulder and need for revenge.  Plus, she has always been my favorite villian and I hope to see more of her and hopefully way more of the changelings.

I was also pretty impressed with how they handled the last part of the story, where they have to get around obstacles without magic and just had to rely on their innate "talents" and wits. 

And on a final note, I am absolutely starting to fall in love with Trixie too.  She managed to be both totally adorbs and maintain her usual level of spunk.

I hope to.  Though, I'm finding navigating a bit of an issue. 

First lesson learned:  Do it the long way, a lot of links in posts are outdated. 

Hoax or not, I doubt any committed relationship will ever make it to canon outside of the Cadence and Shining Armor pairing.  The show is centered on the Mane 6 and any one of them getting into a canon ship would be unfathomable since it would ultimately distract from the "friends are the greatest thing ever" plot.  Maybe Flashlight, but that has only ever been touched on in the movies and EQG world. 

I'll admit to not reading all eleven pages of replies and just skimming a few of the more recent and earlier ones... but this ship that has always sort of bothered me.  Spike is referred to several times as a baby dragon and Rarity is at least older teen if not young adult age range.  And when we have seen adult dragons, it just wouldn't make sense at all. even though it makes for some great breedables.  But even the best artwork I have seen of the ship sends a little cringe down my spine.  But of course, the writers will always throw a few bones out to the fans to keep them coming back. 

So, I am normally horrible at introduction posts because I tend to ramble on about things no one seems to care about and only briefly talk about the things that anyone does.

While I won't give away my age and risk becoming the said crazy chick I was afraid of looking like in the blurb above, I'll just say I am a happily married mother of two.  My oldest is 9 and my youngest is 8 months

And before anyone gets the wrong idea, I am an atypical (yes, I meant to say atypical) Southern Belle.  I use a lot of terms of endearment informally, so just because I may call someone sweetheart, hun, dear, babe... you get the idea... don't take it too personally.  First and foremost, it is not an invitation to flirt and second, I apologize if I offend anyone.  I'm not talking down to or belittling anyone.  So unless it is used in an obviously sarcastic way, it's just a habit.

I was growing up when My Little Pony was in its first golden age of popularity, then grew out of it, then got reintroduced to the FiM incarnation with my oldest.  I am currently kept there because, well, I totally love it now.  There is enough diversity of characters where just about any kid, not just girls, can have a character they relate to.  I am also kept there because of made up bedtime stories for my daughter that have sort of taken on a world of their own and turned into this strange project for both me and her  (The kid can design some gala dresses that would put Rarity to shame).

I have also been a pretty rabid roleplayer since I was a kid.  My mom was a hippie and she and her friends had a D&D group.  I had my first tabletop character at 10.  And then I discovered the internet and chatrooms.  I was pretty bad a first, but I'd like to consider myself pretty advanced now.  And no, I don't make RP posts with the same amount of informality I use in my normal posting habits.  But anyways, loves collided when a fellow parent and huge brony introduced me to Roleplaying is Magic.  I got in with a great group but when you have kids, they always take precedence and so it faltered.  I tried to bring some characters and stories online, but they didn't always translate well and either I found myself feeling like I was centuries old playing with a bunch of people who lied about their age so they could sign up on a forum... or other bad things.  (This is how I discovered what Clop was.  It was not a pleasant experience.) 

It also doesn't help when people want pictures rather than words and in my personal experience with the art and roleplay world, those who can't do... write.  Any pictures I may have of characters come from bases or were either commissioned/adopted from various artists on Deviant Art, or results of hours spent on the infamous Pony Creator.  Cutie marks come from a slew of stock vector and clip art sites.  I try to do some searching around before they are posted anywhere to make sure that I'm not ripping someone else off, but it doesn't always work.  So please, if you notice something that belongs to anyone else or feel like I'm "ripping off" someone else's character, please politely come to me first and let me know.  I promise, it isn't intentional but I also can't help that Jinx seems to be a hugely popular name for a bat pony who loves her tricks and jokes. 

I am also a pretty open book, but I also tend to be quite the lurker on forums I am new to unless I am intentionally sought out and engaged.  So, feel free to ask me anything that you may want to know.  This place seems to be pretty inviting so there is a good chance you may see more of me.