Death has happened in the show, too. TPTB confirmed that Sombra was Killed Off for Real. So killing someone off in the comic wouldn't deviate from the show as much as you might think. Just don't overdo the darkness.

I could save it for the real bastards.

I usually prefer any inclusions of violence to have some sort of consequence. Bit then again, I usually tend to grittier fare and I realise that any actual lasting violence or harm goes against the spirit of the show. On the other hand, to have a truly thrilling adventure, you need to introduce an element of peril. You can still have ramifications resulting from violence without showing explicit violence, though. So there's no need for blood or guts flying all over the place.

edited 16th Jul '13 2:26:00 PM by Thirikal

Death is one of those things, in my opinion, where you have to pay really close attention to what you're saying when you use it. Especially if you're going to have it deliberate on someone's part, because if that someone is a hero it kind of implies the dead deserved it, which by proxy can be taken to preach that X class of people deserve to die. Now, if you do go only for the truly evil you're not exactly gonna offend many people, but even so.

Consider the case of One Piece: Eichiro Oda deliberately chooses not to kill any of his villains because it doesn't really prove anything, except that Luffy happens to be stronger. In order to make the good guys actually win, he demolishes the bad guy's morals and proves him wrong.

@Syd Let's not forget Applejack's parents

BTW whats TPTB?

edited 16th Jul '13 2:25:09 PM by MorningStar1337

There could always be the peril of accidents, traps, dangerous creatures etc. The fear and threat of death could be used frequently I suppose.

Sigh...when will I actually do this fic...it's been a whole year for god's sake...

edited 16th Jul '13 2:23:38 PM by ApplelightLimited

@ Morning: The Powers That Be.

Ah. Thanks

Of course, the more fantastic and magical the violence is, the more you can get away with. Twilight got turned to stone by the cockatrice; Platinum, Hurricane, and Puddinghead all got frozen in ice—and because these deaths were magic, they could be undone with no lasting harm. Not to mention Twi's alicoronation: the cartoon doesn't dwell on it, but it's entirely possible that Twilight died there and was brought back in a new body.

Wow...that never occurred to me...then again...she did go to an 'odd' place...wherever the hell that place was.

edited 16th Jul '13 2:30:57 PM by ApplelightLimited

Twilight got turned to stone by the cockatrice

Twilight Sparkle went to the Everfree Forest and got stoned, then Snails left a trail of goo on her face.

Some ideas:

One crew mate is poisoned by a highly venomous creature/plant. They will die unless an antidote is administered quickly, and they swell up horribly in the meantime.

Broken and dislocated limbs do occur.

More serious weapons can be wheeled out, but mostly for intimidation purposes.

I'd say don't go beyond Avatar's level of character deaths. It can happen if suitably dramatic and death does occur in backstory, but few onscreen deaths.

Amusingly, "The Stars Will Aid in Her Escape" accidentally predicted that place. Over a year in advance.

@Meta: Backstory deaths also get some slack for some reason.

But yeah, I wouldn't use death as a plot point unless you give it it's proper weight.

http://www.derpibooru.org/214386 Now I want to see Timbermare in MLPFIM.

I'm OK for foul language. There's plenty of mild sounding british curses to use.

Like git for example.

And show of hands...who thinks Twilight died?

edited 16th Jul '13 2:56:41 PM by ApplelightLimited

I have a strict "No main character deaths" policy when it comes to fanfics. They can get badly hurt, yes, but I'll never outright kill them.

Hell, quite a few of the villains I created for an RP-turned fic I do with a friend end up getting redemption in one way or another.

edited 16th Jul '13 2:57:45 PM by SomeNewGuy

I was gonna kill off a major character in my fanfic. But I decided against it because the story's supposed to have a completely unambiguously happy ending and the death of a main character's brother would just hang too much of a cloud over it.

Not enough evidence either way.

now that deserves to be in the tumblr

@ Applelight, I can't say, I've yet to get around to viewing the episode with her ascension to Alicornhood.

Barely pony related, but this video was linked in another thread, and when I saw the guy's moves at the 48 second point, my first thought was "He's doing the Sweetie scoot!"

Thanks for the chat tonight folks. I have to sleep now. Night.

I'm with Meta on the Twilight thing. We simply don't know enough about what happened to call it either way. I mean, yeah, her body vanished, but we don't know whether she teleported to another plane, got turned into raw magic and remade, died and came back, etc. We only have speculation.