IMPORTANT TAGS
Analysis -- Art -- Fanfiction
Speculation -- Practice -- Fandom
Episode Review
All of the Ponyscopes! [source]
Alright pony fandom, we need to get on shipping these immediately.
Tauries is obvious. I’m thinking Aquaricorn and Librago too. Maybe Manticore (Leo/Scorpio) and Cances. I also like Lancer though, since they both like costumes.
I’m not gonna ship Gemini cause I find that weird, but someone will. Not sure about Sagittarius but he’s a cutie.
This post probably isn’t necessary. But I’ve thought a lot about exactly what shipping is and why I do it, and I felt like writing down my thoughts on it. Writing down my unnecessary thoughts is a thing that I do, as you all know.
I first started thinking about how I would define “shipping” when confronted with someone saying they ship a canon pairing. It wasn’t something I’d never heard before, of course, but I remember being struck at the time by how strange that seemed to me. My experience with shipping had always been with characters who were not canonically in a relationship, but whom I would like to be in a relationship. So I wasn’t quite sure what it meant to ship a canon pairing, as it seemed like your work was sort of already done for you. And it occurred to me that, say, “I ship Princess Cadance/Shining Armor” doesn’t mean quite the same thing as “I ship Appledash.”
So I started thinking about what it means to ship a pairing, and I think it can mean a lot of different things depending on the person saying it and the pairing in question. And here’s what I came up with for all the different things it can mean to say “I ship these characters,” keeping in mind that these are not mutually exclusive:
and of course the details they revealed at comic-con were fan service
they’re trying to get us EXCITED, so they picked the details that will do so most easily
they’re not gonna have the big sdcc reveal be “so in the fifth episode of the season, applejack learns a lesson about loyalty” or “rarity and sweetie belle grow closer as siblings” or something
if the writers were going to make the show nothing but pointless fan service they would’ve done it over the course of season 2 after faust left, but instead season 2 had even stronger writing than the first season without adding much more fan service
This is a good point. I personally don’t care about Trixie or Octavia even a little, but it makes sense that they’d release those details and not others. These details should not be thought of as “This is what season three is going to be all about,” but rather, “This is a PR move that we’re doing to get the largest number of fans excited.”
And honestly, if stuff is gonna be spoilered I’d rather have it be this trivial fanservice instead of major plot points and character development. I really want to see that stuff but I want to see it when I watch the show and not read about it on tumblr.
I feel like season two was all about figuring out how to write for both their demographics. To me it had sort of a rocky middle but after that they started really shining and producing episodes that, to me, felt more mature while still staying fun and kid-friendly. And the fanservice they started adding was mostly just a few visual gags that didn’t detract from the show at all. I’m confident that season three will continue this trend.
I talk a fair bit about headcanons here, whether that’s headcanons for how Fluttershy feels about Rainbow Dash or how Equestrian culture feels about sex or how certain magical aspects of the setting function. The show invites this sort of speculation and it’s a lot of fun to discuss it with you all! But there’s something I’ve been wondering.
When we say something is headcanon… just what does that mean?
A tempting answer might be that it means “I think that’s how it really is.” Fluttershy really loves Rainbow Dash, for example. But it’s really just pictures and sounds that come out of my computer. Unless one is prepared to say that Equestria really exists somewhere then this definition can’t possibly work.
But it’s something LIKE that, I think. Headcanons are theories. They’re systems of ideas that attempt to explain past events and, perhaps, predict future events. But it’s sort of strange to have theories about things that don’t actually exist. If the theories aren’t about a real Equestria that exists out there, just what are they about? Let’s consider a few options.
So ponett made this thing with which we can rate all the main six ships. Instead of just doing an overall rating I decided to make things unnecessarily complicated and rate them in four different ways: sexiness, cuteness, drama, and comedy. Those are pretty much the four things I like to see in my shipfics!
You’ll note that they’re rated on a scale of good to best. There are no bad options. None. This is particularly important on the cuteness scale because dear god deciding who’d be at the bottom of that list was painful.
It’s also important to note that I already disagree with some of these. I am a fickle shipper.
Metasquee - (v) The act of enjoying seeing a friend’s OTP, because it makes you think of them, even though you don’t ship that pairing yourself. (See also: degrees of shipparation.)
example: “Oh wow I’m a Flutterdash fan but I’m totally metasqueeing over this Twinkie Pie pic. I know someone who would love this.”
How Do Ponies Work?: babysealburritos: Depression with a touch of Ponies I saw your recent…
Depression with a touch of Ponies
I saw your recent post about depression and would love to have your opinion on this!
If what you’re wanting is my opinion on whether or not ponies can be used to cure depression then I would say that the answer is no.
If you’re…
I still think that’s misconstruing what occurs a bit though. Depression, chronic depression, especially brought on by other mental disorders, is not something you can really cure to begin with. You can cope with it, find a way to live a successful, happy life despite it, but you don’t really cure it.
Read More
Even if you could argue you could cure it though, ponies by themselves aren’t going to do that for you. You don’t make your life better by doing something easy and hoping everything works out—trust me, I’ve tried going down that path and it doesn’t do anything but go around in circles. What watching ponies can do, however, is provide you with opportunities, opportunities upon which you can then act. You can make friends, be inspired to create works of art, have social contact you might not have been able to have otherwise, and generally you can make your life better.
Well, yes, obviously you have to choose to do something about it. None of this just happens on its own. I certainly never intended to imply otherwise.
Depression with a touch of Ponies
I saw your recent post about depression and would love to have your opinion on this!
If what you’re wanting is my opinion on whether or not ponies can be used to cure depression then I would say that the answer is no.
If you’re asking whether or not I think that ponies can be used to prevent suicides or allow for a temporary feeling of relief from depression I would say from my own experience that yes it can be a positive influence.
I am by no means an expert when it comes to depression; I am merely someone who has had a lot of experience dealing with it first hand. However, having also dealt with a situation where I thought I was “cured” from my depression only to have it come back with a vengeance really makes me worry about people who claim to have been cured by ponies.
Read More
When it comes to claims of being “cured” of depression by ponies I think it really depends on what exactly what they mean by it. If they mean it’s a happy thing that distracts them from their problems for a little while, then yeah, I don’t think that’s a permanent cure (though I think there’s still some value in that too). But if they mean the show inspired them to create something, or that through the show’s messages or its community they’ve made friends when they had none before, then I think we’re at the level where it really can permanently affect someone. Not necessarily enough to make depression go away, but maybe enough to get the ball rolling in that direction.
It’s something I struggle with myself. And I do honestly feel that there’ve been measurable improvements in my life and my outlook because of the show and its community. I certainly don’t think it should be seen as a cure-all that makes all problems go away, but I think it can definitely help.
Ask Futashy is actually a really cute blog.
This has been today’s installment of “words I never expected would come out of my mouth.”
My Alter-Ego’s A Jerk. I hate her.: alexanderkrizak: donnysboy: alexanderkrizak: babysealburritos:…
Shipping two mares is all I do…
Wait.
Maybe this is my calling to ship three mares. That must be it.
WE MUST GO SHIPPIER.
SHIP ALL SIX. EVERYPONY LOVING EVERYPONY ELSE.
And…
Cloudy Skies made me a believer in RainbowPieShy. As well as AppleShy. And, really, a lot of other things.
Oh lookie there, even more things to add to my “read later” box. At least I won’t be pressed to find fics to read during the hiatus. (still gonna clutch to my OT3, though)
I really like Cloudy Skies! Where Earth Meets Sky was the fic that made me like Flutterjack. They just did a sequel recently and I still need to read it.
Also for an OT3 I’m pretty much into RainbowPieAnypony because oh wow would I ever want to be that third pony. That sounds like it would be amazingly fun.
(Source: unpopular-pony-opinions)
Artistic analysis of My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic for the purposes of understanding how and why it succeeds and how this can be applied to other works, as well as other thoughts about the show and the fandom surrounding it.
Also check out my art tumblr here.
