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Dalkrin-the-Wanderer

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  1. Dalkrin-the-Wanderer
    Arguably the most important part of a Cutie Mark is the Glyph, here meant to refer to the image depicted. It is from this that we gain the most significant indication of a pony's talent. That said, there is a fair amount of interpretation involved in reading Cutie marks. For example, Cheerilee's Cutie Mark, a Triune of Smiling Daisies is meant to represent her skill and passion for teaching. She described the mark in the episode "Call of the Cutie"
    What this tells us is that apart from the pure symbolism inherent in the Cutie Mark, a pony's personal understanding of it can play a significant role as well. This presents us with a bit of a Dilema. Using the system that I have devised would not give us the best understanding of a mark like Cheerilee's. The question then is this; How do we handle the subjective meanings of Cutie Marks?
    One possibility would be to simply disregard this aspect of Cutie Mark Interpretation as it makes the entire exercise a foregone conclusion if you already have an idea of what a Cutie Mark means. In it's capacity as a tool for character creation, this would be a perfectly tenable solution, but in it's secondary purpose of reading meaning from existing marks, this falls short. I recognize that it would be impossible to systematically derive the subjective meaning from a mark so I'm still left with the question of how to do it.
    As always, your input is welcome and encouraged.
  2. Dalkrin-the-Wanderer
    Cutie Marks are an important aspect of the show. They serve as a shorthand to help us immediately understand core aspects of a pony's personality or role, even if they are not given a speaking part in the story. They are often the most recognizable part of a character, to such an extent that when we see a familiar mark on an unfamiliar pony, we tend to take notice. Obviously this is a failing of the medium and not meant to be taken as significant but as a nerd and a Brony, I take it upon myself to be overly analytical of my perky pastel ponies and their society.
    While it's clear that very little thought was put into the overarching principals of Cutie Mark design by Lauren when she was Show Runner, I expect that some system can be established that can give a general overview of a pony simply by interpreting their cutie mark. I've been met with limited success in this venture so far in my post here but I feel like I'm missing some key aspects. So far, I have accounted for some basic elements of the Cutie Mark, namely the symbols and their position relative to one another but there is more I could use here.
    ultimately, I want to distribute this system to the four corners of the internet so that content creators can use it to create deep and complex characters with consistency, and to help stem the tides of the dreaded Mary Sues that plague our fan fiction.
    I intended to begin establishing meanings for Layouts, Color choice and contrast, Imagery and the circumstance in which the mark was earned. All of these things will help creators to home in on their Pony's personality. That said, I can't just make these things up willy nilly and expect them to work. I'll need to set up a database of cutie marks, both cannon an original to create datapoints which I can account for. Obviously some things will simply defy my attempts but I'm still game to try.
    I hope to conclude this project with an intuitive system that anyone can use.
     
    For your perusal, I offer an example of the kinds of things that this system could reveal about a character.
    I give you Shining Armor!

    His Cutie Mark is a Dark Blue Heraldic shield with a pink Six-Pointed Star nested inside. This star is Echoed from his sister, Twilight Sparkle. Above the Shield is a Triune of powder blue Five-Pointed Stars which are inherited from his mother, Twilight Velvet.
    A Shield is a clear indicator of protection and with the Six Pointed star Nested inside, this meaning is reinforced. The six-pointed star has a double meaning in this case as it is simultaneously a strong indicator of Magical talent and Mirrored by his younger sister which indicates her as very important to his talent in some way. The Triune of Five-Pointed stars would normally indicate some interest in astronomy, in this case, since they are Inherited from his mother, their Triune arrangement reinforces a strong affection for her.
    Taken as a whole, Shining armor appears to be a pony with a strong talent in magical protection who is very protective of his sister and loves his mother dearly.
     
    This system is still a work in progress and I hope to have more information to add to it soon!
    I'll keep you posted!
  3. Dalkrin-the-Wanderer
    So, I just put Abedias into the Character page and after a lengthy writing session to get it all out I post it only to find the formatting is completely borked!
    Any idea what's up with that? Am I just missing something Here?
     
    Anyway, on to another subject!
     
    I'm currently working on a bit of a project. If you've had any interactions with me it is more than likely that you already know about it but for those that don't, I'm trying to set up a systematic method for interpreting cutie marks that will produce interesting and deep characters based on a cutie mark image. Basically, put cutie mark in, get Awesome OC out! To that end, I would like any help you guys are willing to offer! Ideas, critiques or suggestions are welcome and I always enjoy trying my system out on new Cutie Marks to see how they match the OC you've already got
    So, anyone willing to help out or give it a try, I've got a post set up in Sugarcube Corner, or you can just PM me!
    That's all I have for now~
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