Sigh, today I saw the top of my head in a shops security tv. My head shows through my hair in places...I'm definitely going bald at 23.

Which reminds me, trying to get a pony with a shaved mane to look right is hard. Hardest thing I've tried to draw so far.

edited 8th Mar '13 10:05:31 AM by ApplelightLimited

So she's German?

I always make my texts grammatically correct as well. Except when I deliberately screw it up as part of a joke. Or autocorrect.

@Blissey: I dunno, with her Reality Warper powers and general insanity, I don't know if Pinkie would qualify as "safe".

Belldandy confirmed for dubbing Celestia in JPN

Oh wow. That's a great casting choice.

If Belldandy for Celestia, then Urd or Skuld for Luna, and ??? for Cadance and Chrysalis?

Tavi in frills

edited 8th Mar '13 10:43:26 AM by AceOfScarabs

As someone who recently binged on the Oh! My Goddess anime, I support this decision. And I'm beginning to have ideas for a fanfic named "Oh, My Little Pony". Which probably already exists.

edited 8th Mar '13 10:43:50 AM by Kayeka

I try to keep everything correct, but sometims I mistype.

I'm useless with V As. Who's this now?

A voice actor who played the lead in a rather venerable and long running magical girl franchise. I can't say much more then that since I'm not all that familiar either.

Well, the SCP has a different standard for "safe" than most. They'd classify a nuclear warhead as "safe" (assuming it wasn't leaking radiation).

Still, they're more likely to classify her as "euclid" (aka "This thing is too unpredictable for us to properly asses but at least it's not actively threatening anyone") than "safe". She definitely dosn't dserve a "keter" (aka "This thing is actively working towards our destruction") rating.

Ah, I see...still clueless here.

Anyway, today's effort◊. Done between classes. I'm getting there...the idea at the moment is to make Aerobat look muscular and strong without being too bulky.

@Apple: Celestia's JPN dub actress is the voice of Belldandy from Oh! My Goddess.

edited 8th Mar '13 10:59:59 AM by AceOfScarabs

Scratch that, I mistook Apple's comment.

edited 8th Mar '13 11:07:00 AM by kegisak

Even in a storybook

Proof of Cadance's story

Love and Tolerance, lol

edited 8th Mar '13 11:08:12 AM by AceOfScarabs

Well they can't contain Pinkie if she wants to leave anyway. But I guess they contain her by giving her lots of friends to hang out with.

Great, now I'm imagining Pinkie trying to befriend SCP-682.

@Ace: Oh wow, I was not expecting the book to have a Derpy shout out.

edited 8th Mar '13 11:33:44 AM by JapaneseTeeth

Apart from his CM, I think I'm done with Batty. I'm going to try and perfect the doc now.

Looking pretty good Applelight, still not sure about the cutie mark though.

Anyway, I have started spring break just in time to finish my Applejack character analysis. I don't really think it's as good as my Pinkie one, but I hope at least some of you find it interesting.

Applejack

Out of the Mane Six Applejack is probably the most “normal” of the lot. She doesn’t have much in the way of outlandish and/or flashy abilities, and her personality traits are not as “extreme” as her friends are. However this leads to some mistaken assumptions that she is static or free of flaws. She does have her flaws, and she did change to overcome those flaws overtime. However the way this was done probably ended up hurting Applejack’s long term appeal and flexibility as a character. Why is that? Well it’s really quite simple. Applejack is a character that peaked early in the series and had her character arc wrapped up in the middle of the second season in a rather disappointing fashion.

The Applejack in the first season, while in many ways the same, was quite different from the Applejack of today. She was generally much more ornery and confrontational, and had a greater sense of self-pride. The latter characteristic was probably what got her into the most trouble with the others, particularly when confronted with the similarly large egos of Rarity and Rainbow. What makes Applejack’s pride distinct from that of Rarity and Rainbow Dash is that while the other two often go through periods of self-doubt and a need to prove themselves, Applejack is completely self-assured not just in her abilities, but in her views. While we see the obvious issues that this can cause by making her blind to her limitations and weaknesses(her stubbornness in Applebuck Season), it also makes her blind to many of her own faults, sometimes more so the others.

We see this a bit in “Look Before You Sleep” where she is rather quick to get annoyed at Rarity for what is really a rather petty reason. Keep in mind that she initially does not mention that she is taking too much time on a simple job, but that she is annoyed at her need to “prettifyin” things. She’s actually seems to take it more personally in the episode then Rarity does (though that’s up to personal perspective). This would again get her in trouble with Rainbow Dash in “Fall Weather Friends” in which despite her being offended at Rainbow Dash’s obvious cheating and “win at all cost” attitude, she was more then willing too stoop to her level in order to prevent her from winning (a bit of a different goal then Rainbow Dash who simply wanted to win). This somewhat self-righteous and hypocritical streak would actually continue to color Applejack and Rainbow Dash’s interaction in the early parts of season 2 (see The Mysterious Mare Do Well, and Hearth’s Warming Eve, though your mileage will vary), it probably could have been developed upon further and effected more of her interactions with her friends, but that was not meant to be it seems.

The Last Roundup is a very important AJ episode as it is both a culmination of many of AJ’s flaws, and it’s also the last time we will really see them. We see AJ’s stubborn pride on display in full force, where she decides to talk on a monumental task believing that she could do it (and in fact does it quite well) but wound up biting off more then she could chew and ultimately failed in her primary goal to get the big prize money. When she fails she decides to find some other way to get the money and avoid this big strike to her ego by going with Ms. Cheery Jubilee. When her friends arrive she decides to stick to her original decision despite the fact that it is worse to leave her friends and family worried then to come home empty hooved and face the fact that she made a promise she couldn’t quite keep. While this is all great from a character perspective it does suffer from the rather glaring problem that the episode was ultimately not about Applejack herself, but about her friends reacting to her strange decisions. This had the effect of making Applejack’s character exploration a secondary concern to her friends trying to bring her home/confess her reasons when it really should have been about Applejack this whole time, especially when we get to Super Speedy Cider Squeezy 6000.

In the episode Super Speedy Cider Squeezy 6000 we get the somewhat infamous “I didn’t learn anything” letter. I was never really bothered by it at the time since it’s supposed to demonstrate that she has learned her and was able to apply them. However, for whatever reason, all of her flaws seem to disappear. From there on out she just seems pleasant and is generally just the “mature and sane” member of the group.

Now there is nothing inherently wrong with her being that way, but I feel it was a mistake for a number of reasons. First, it was poorly handled and abrupt change, especially after the incident in The Last Roundup. Second, it leaves out a lot of possibilities for further development in both her personality and interpersonal relationships. Third, with the kind of show that Friendship is Magic is, it limits her ability to star in solo, or even co-star in an episode.

Part of me wants to say that it’s one of the few times when character development was detrimental to a character, but it wasn’t so much the fact that she developed so much as it was poorly handled and poorly timed. Perhaps, they will find some different ways to develop Applejack in her current state, but until then I have to say that she is pretty much “done”.

Hi everyone, what's up?

Not much pony related. I've got a group project due tonight and I can't find my group.

Kikuko Inoue. Where do I actually remember what she sounds like? *checks list*

Ah, Sanae Furukawa. That's the one.

This depresses me. Not because it's bad, or because I disagree. But pretty much because I'm agreeing with this:

And in an ongoing series, I hate the prospect of not being able to further develop a character.

edited 8th Mar '13 1:05:00 PM by KylerThatch

I don't think she's necessarily learned her lesson, it's just that they don't show her flaws anymore.

Great analysis Mio.

Regrettably, you and Kyler are probably right. The writers seem to have settled AJ, and that's disappointing.

I think the problem is kinda like what Mio says, they basically figured out AJ's "trying too hard because that's what I think I should be doing" arc, but keep trying to do episodes based around that aspect of her character. There are certainly other things to be done with it (I still want an episode about the cast trying to take advantage of her work ethic and getting called out on it), but as is they can't do any more plots about "Applejack is too stubborn about doing things for herself". I wouldn't say she's done completely, but the writers do seem to be struggling to come up with another aspect of her character to build a plot around.

edited 8th Mar '13 1:23:14 PM by JapaneseTeeth