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tm2dragon

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About tm2dragon

  • Birthday 1983-11-29

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  1. Merry Birthiversary! 

  2. Fanfiction is one of the backbones of just about any fandom, but sorting through it all can be a freaking nightmare! Bronies have a well-organized and dedicated site in FimFiction, but most other fandoms aren't so lucky. Everything is crammed into just two sites really (fanfiction.net and Archive of Our Own), and navigating them can be a chore. First, 99% of what you find is GOING to be yaoi; great if that's your thing, annoying to slog through if not. Then there are the innumerable bad crossover fics, dark fics, self-inserts, etc. All can and HAVE been done very well in the past, but most of what you'll find isn't really up to an avid reader's standards. Unfortunately, ordering by popularity is rarely a good option, as you'll inevitably find that being "popular" doesn't necessarily mean "well written". You can check the TVtropes fanfic recommendation pages and occasionally turn out something you'll like, but those usually very limited and skip a lot of great stuff. You can ask a friend who's an avid fanfic reader for suggestions, but we don't all have those. You can try checking the fanfic-talk threads on the SpaceBattle or other large forums, but some of those are thousands of pages long and super intimidating for a newbie. Worst case scenario, you end up just reading bits of various stories to see if they appeal to you, but that means countless hours of reading stuff that you'll mostly end up dismissing (and even if you find something interesting, a good start doesn't necessarily equal a good story). I'm honestly out of ideas myself. If I want to find a good "Kingdom Hearts" or "My Hero Academia" story, I look at the sheer volume of what's available, get intimidated, and give up almost immediately. I've gotten too used to just having popular fics pop up in a neat sidebar for me and sorting through just a few new stories each day, and can't bring myself to spend an afternoon searching a massive archive for a single story to entertain me. So, what do YOU do when you're searching for something to read? Is there a place you go to get recommendations? A method you use to help make browsing more effective? A special site you visit? I'm eager to hear what you have to say! P.S. Please note that I'm not dumping on "bad" fanfictions here; just pointing out that there are a lot of readers who are very picky, either due to limited interests or high standards.
  3. I really REALLY want to watch this episode! T_T Sadly, can't find a version that doesn't have the subtitles burned in (can't turn them off, they're part of the video), and they are SUPER distracting! Am I the only one with this problem?
  4. I did manage to find that actually! ^^ It was a good start, but seemed a bit limited when it came to starting long-term discussions. Threads rarely seemed to be more than 4 posts long, so the social and discussion aspects didn't seem to be quite what I was looking for. ^_^; I also wasn't sure how well it accepted discussion of fanfiction outside the MLP fandom (seriously, fanfic recommendation threads are AMAZING, and finding an active forum that offers them is one in a million!). Still, while it's not quite what I was looking for, but it DOES look like a place where I could at least contribute something to our community. (: Thanks for sharing, I'll be sure to give it a shot!
  5. Hello all! Sorry in advance, as I'm a bit long-winded, but I hope you stick around long enough to read my full question. ( ; Also, apologies for the sloppy formatting. I'm actually quite good at it normally, but this interface is being difficult with me; for some reason hitting the enter key DELETES the previous paragraph, and trying to add formatting (such as bold or italics) to a highlighted section instead alters the entire paragraph. Don't ask me why the Enter key worked correctly the first few times I hit it, cause I have no freaking idea. >< Anyways, onto the heart of the matter! I've been away from active online-socializing for quite a while, and I'm still struggling to get back into the flow of things. There have been a quite a few hiccups along the way (turns out Aspergers applies to ANY kind of social interaction, in person or online...who knew?), but I think I've figured a few things out. See, most of my forum posts on various sites have been me asking for advice, requesting help or information in one way or another. It's become clear that what I REALLY need to start doing is to come at this from the other direction; I need to GIVE something to online communities, rather than take. Sadly, I have very few skills to offer. In fact, only two really come to mind! First, I'm very much a thinker, and am decently skilled at getting my thoughts across (likely DUE to my long-windedness). Second, I've got a very good grasp on media and analysis (what works, what doesn't, the places where an artist excels, and the things holding them back), so can probably offer some helpful thoughts and tips on various subjects, even though I can't put that knowledge into practice on my own. SO! I think the best way for me to contribute, especially in a fandom so focused on artist endeavors like this one, is to find a place where I can share and discuss various ideas, tips, tropes, critiques, and other aspects of art...most specifically, writing (the one artistic field I don't COMPLETELY suck at)! Unfortunately, I've had trouble finding the right place to do so; I've found a few spots on this site where people can share and discuss specific artistic works and fanfiction, but not any where they can offer advice or assistance, or discuss the craft and the work that goes into it. Is there a sub-forum I missed for such topics? If not, (and I know this is a bit of a forum faux pas), can anyone suggest another active site with a large community where I could help contribute in this way? I also wouldn't mind discussing the artistic aspects of other forms of media, such as animation, drawing, game mods, etc. Thanks for reading, and for any suggestions you can offer!
  6. Happy birthday! :icwudt:

     

  7. I may actually have to disagree with you here. Sure, it wasn't promoted as much as the bigger movies (Marvel, Star Wars, DC, etc.), but it still got the word out there fairly well. There were posters in theaters, big signs up in stores, I walked by the TV and saw a trailer on more than one occasion, and my Mom even heard them talking about it on some of her talk shows before it hit theaters. When my MOM knows there's an MLP movie coming out, I think that's a good sign they did their job. I saw more ads for this than about 90% of what hits theaters. Of course, that could just have been my area. Just because my Target had signs and a display case right when you walked in doesn't mean the ad complain was as successful elsewhere.
  8. And yet, the fandom's opinion of the movie itself is likely not the biggest factor here. The first Equestria Girls movie got some actual HATRED from many Bronies, and relatively few of actually loved it.......of course, Rainbow Rocks turned all that around, but that is besides the point. Equestria Girls was getting more of a response in the are and story department after it's first showing than this big theatrical release....a movie we can mostly agree more of us enjoyed. Not sure why that is.....whether the fandom has shrunk, grown lazy, or our enthusiasm was held back by the more critical negativity the film attracted. Hopefully, things gain momentum as more people get to see the film, and ideas start to sprout in response to it.
  9. I'll admit that "Be Prepared" is the better number on nearly all fronts, but Tempest's song could have pretty easily fit in to a Disney flick somewhere. A little bit of tweaking on the lyrics and pacing and you could have had a true classic! As it is, I still found it to be a fantastic song, easily my favorite MLP piece since "The Magic Inside".
  10. The fact that Tempest is getting more attention than the other characters was kind of inevitable, all things considered. She had more time on screen, a more eye-catching design, a better musical number, not to mention a back-story. There just wasn't enough time in this movie to get attached to more than a few characters.....it was overbloated as is. How much do you want to bet that more parents who'd never seen the show before left remembering Tempest's name then they did Fluttershy, Rarity, or Applejack's? ...........whatever the case, I have to admit that there is just something about Fizzy that grabs your attention and makes you curious to delve deeper. Sometimes, all it takes is an engaging design to grab our fascination (Vinyl Scratch, Derpy Hooves, Octavia, etc.), and when you add an actual CHARACTER on top of that.......yeah, Tempest was ALWAYS going to come out as the most popular new character in this thing, hands (hooves?) down. Even without my above points, sometimes the "rule of cool" comes out victorious......and she was FREAKIN COOL.
  11. Not sure about the PUBLIC impact, but I worry a bit about the practical non-reaction from fans. If this movie had come out five years ago, I have little doubt we'd be drowning in fanfiction, songs, and more gorgeous art then we could ever hope for. So far, I've read maybe ONE fanfic from the movie that I found entertaining.....on a similar note, FIMfiction hasn't even bothered to add tags for any of the new characters yet. >< Is this because the movie didn't inspire people the way the show does? I'm really kind of worried that the real reason our response seems (relatively) subdued is because our community has lost it's momentum. This feels like a more lack-luster response on our part then back when the Equestria Girls movie came out!
  12. I'm not sure about the Royal Guard, but Shining Armor is pretty easy to explain. He is TECHNICALLY co-ruler of the Crystal Empire. While his position might be a formality, considering he already has MASSIVE experience being in command, I'd assume he plays an active part in running the place alongside Cadance. My guess, things were too busy up in the Empire for both him AND Cadence to take off for a few days, so he stayed behind to hold down the fort.............or you know, maybe Flurry has a cold and he's playing nursemaid. The Royal Guards........yeah, no excuses there. That was an oversight on the movies part. ^_^; Maybe they were afraid that if there were guards with spears and such around, they might have to show something APPROACHING an actual fight, and didn't feel comfortable with that in their ratings?
  13. Sorry if this is the wrong area of the forums, but it was the closest place I could find to ask this question! I have trouble reading on computer screens, so I almost always download fics I want to read off Fimfiction and place them on my Kindle Paperwhite for reading. It used to work like a charm, but a few months ago I noticed that it had STOPPED including formatting, and is now just transferring words and paragraph breaks. I still get punctuation and all that, but italics, bolds, underlines, etc. are all missing now, simply showing as regular words, indistinguishable from the rest! Writers and readers on this forum no doubt understand just how much intent can be lost without these tools, so I'm eager to find a way to get formatting back. I've tried all the different download options I can thing of, including going through secondary formatting programs to transfer fics onto the kindle, but no luck so far. Any insight or suggestions? Thanks fellow Readers and Writers of pony!
  14. I just learned that there was a one day sale of a "My Little Kaiju" shirt. https://www.riptapparel.com/graveyard/my-little-kaiju-2/ I want one........SOOOOOO BAD! I'm male, and my size is an XL. If anyone can point me in a direction to get my mitts on one of these beauties, I will love you forever and EVER! Pleasepleaseplease I MUST own a shirt that crosses my two favorite things of all time!!!!
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