Well, they don't necessarily have to be non-comical...

The Flim Flams being the Flim Flams, I don't think we can take it as fact that they were the ones who invented that machine. Given that I like to think of them as two halves of one whole Harold Hill, I like to imagine they won it off an actual inventor.

Also, any time we've seen more modern technology, ie fans and the like, it seems to me there's been an Earth Pony to do with it. Although that may be extrapolating.

edited 25th Jan '13 10:09:15 AM by kegisak

I'm with Blissey on that one, and for the same reason - my characters grew from use, and even now, when I roleplay it's amazing how much my characters change and grow when I compare them to their character sheets.

Sorry, I meant non canonical.

@ Blissey

Good point.

Also, Ditto what Red and Blissey said. Trying to force it isn't going to end well. Let the characters develop in whatever direction they do.

I also agree. It's through experiences that characters develop.

Well I'll try.

And speaking of inventors, time to reintroduce you all to my Earth Pony inventor who builds machines powered by soda pop. He's a shout out to both Scotty from Star Trek, and Franky from One Piece.

EDIT: He's also a bit like a fantasy dwarf.

Though as I write this...maybe he should be a combo of Franky and Usuop.

edited 25th Jan '13 10:20:08 AM by ApplelightLimited

see, you're already overthinking it. Just stick with "inventor that makes soda pop powered creations" for now and see what happens. let him be his own character instead of a combination of other characters.

edited 25th Jan '13 10:24:33 AM by Blissey1

I may not be a writer, but my recommendation? Just jump in and write. The rest will be dealt with as it comes.

Oh hey, this just came to me!

He's a dwarf pony right? Except he's a bit of a runt. The typical dwarf pony is a massive, muscular and bearded tank. He's...kinda skinny, and can't grow a proper (by their standards) bread. But he's smart.

It fits a theme of the crew being 'odd ones out' from their home communities.

edited 25th Jan '13 10:34:28 AM by ApplelightLimited

I just realized, Applejack, Rarity, and Rainbow Dash have appeared in every episode this season. Of them, AJ is the only one to have a speaking part in every episode.

Applejack is the new main character.

so he looks like a regular old earth pony?

And also too repetitive.

Quoted for irnoy.

@ Blissey

I...guess.

Reminds me of that one Dwarf Fortress pony mod that added a trio of dwarfy pony races. They were weird as hell, but fun. And Fun, too.

edited 25th Jan '13 10:45:20 AM by Lopiny

I have too ideas actually:

1. His 'hold' made it's fortune mining truffles. Bare in mind, there are species of truffles that are, pound for pound, worth more than gold. Until Hogz raided and destroyed it, carrying his family off into slavery. Thus like a Dwarf hating the Greenskins, he hates all Hogz. But this seems way too dark for the setting.

2. He's an exile from the gild of engineers, because his unorthodox machines fail to meet approved practices. And he caused a huge suds explosion too.

I am a (fanfic) writer and I definitely agree with this. Some amount of planning is good, but one eventually reaches a point of diminishing returns, and the planning just becomes a way to procrastinate on actually doing.

For the story I'm writing, I had an outline for what I wanted to do, and a very vague idea for my ending. Feedback from my pre-readers made me completely overhaul my planned ending—and this was feedback just on my first chapters. I hadn't told anyone how I planned to end the story, but comments about "What the heck is the significance of this?" made realize that a bunch of Cow Tools in my story could be repurposed as Chekhovs Guns.

Even aside from pre-reader feedback, some of the characters changed as I wrote them. I needed a minor antagonist for a scene in the first chapter, and I picked Cloudchaser solely because I really like her mane. Then I reused Cloudchaser in a later chapter, because I wanted to show that she wasn't a jerk 24/7, and she ended up coming across like she was just unhappy with her job. Then I used that as a punchline in a later chapter. And Carrot Top! I didn't have any personality planned for her, but feedback helped me turn her from the Straight Man into a prankster in her own right, and the sort of pony who can say ridiculous things with a completely straight face.

@Applelight: Blissey has a point. One thing I've noticed about your brainstorming things is that while you have a lot of interesting ideas, you're constantly trying to stuff new things in and rethinking everything without ever actually getting started on the story. I'd say just nail down the absolute core of his character (the stuff that you know you aren't going to change), start writing with that as a basis, and add or remove the other stuff as the story requires.

You're all right. I think I need to go away for a bit to do this properly too.

Yeah, you're fumbling around with ideas way too much. Just do something already! Stop asking for input from us before you've even done so much as write a line of dialog.

edited 25th Jan '13 10:57:53 AM by PerpetualLurker

Hey, it's not necessarily a bad thing. You could have a thing where he gets upset that ponies always think he's an just earth pony.

but yeah, like everyone else is saying, just go to it and start writing already!

edited 25th Jan '13 11:05:20 AM by Blissey1

This will be my last post here for a while. I'm off to try to do something constructive.

Bye.

@Applelight: Good luck. We'll be able to give much more useful feedback once we have something solid to give feedback on.

I thought about what roles the mane 6 would have if they were a Five man band {Er, Six Mare Band. Whatever}. This is of course just my personal opinon.

•The Hero: Twilight Sparkle.

•The Lancer: Applejack.

•The Big Guy: Both Applejack {She's listed on the page for that trope, anyway} and Rainbow Dash.

•The Smart Guy: Rarity and Twilight would both fill this role {For some reason I can picture Rarity having some shades of this}.

•The Chick: Fluttershy. who would probably also be The Medic.

•Tag Along Kid: Pinkie Pie.

Thanks.

edited 25th Jan '13 12:00:59 PM by marston

I would switch AJ and RD's role. As for Pinkie, I'd just say she's the Tag Along Kid and call it a day.