@Jack Thought you might like to know that Bohemian Rhapsody has already been done (the synching totally fell apart at Applejack, though). The Deadale Wives skit has also been done in full.

I try to avoid sad (read one on ED and while it was quality, I also felt kind of depressed after) and grimdark (I can deal with darker and creepier, there's a limit and I'm pretty sure grimdark is well past that limit) fics myself. I tend to not want my mood to wander that route when dealing with ponies. Although I did end up reading a WTG entry that was marked normal but ended up more on the sad side and residual feelings didn't linger as long this time. Might have something to do with running into more and more sad+heartwarming drawings lately, too.

Continuing with my run of coloured ponies, tonight is fun with Pinkie Pie. My original plan was actually to do Applejack, but I couldn't get myself as inspired. Hopefully can think of something tomorrow so she can get her due.

I'm not sure how I feel about sad fics. I read 'Today, tomorrow and forever', and cried my eyes out at the end of it. I read the alternate ending, too, and I much prefer the first.

I suppose I'm obligated to say that I like them - I wrote a fic that essentially boils down to: Big Mac is adopted, and he meets his father for a few minutes, but it's completely by chance and, despite knowing it, neither of them says anything. At least one commenter said it made them cry(It's here, for the interested). I wrote another one, but it never made it up to Eq D.

So yeah, I don't know. I like them when they're done well, I guess? But I can say that about all genres, really. Except, I've never touched grimdark, with the exception of The Rocky Road, which is only barely grimdark at best. Almost cried at that one too, but that was back when I was still broke, so not quite.

Heh, actually, almost all of Jack Of All Trades's video ideas sounded like something I've seen on YouTube before, except the Apple Jacks one. Though maybe if I searched a little harder... This is why I've started looking to older My Little Pony series for inspiration, as the new show is SO popular that everything about it is pretty well played out by now.

I'm not a huge fan of sad fics, although I do think that they can be well done. It's just that I prefer action or comedy. It might also be because I'm not that awesome at writing stories that tug on the heartstings like that and it makes me jealous.

@Kuroi. Your pinkie looks cute Nice job @Jack go for it!

edited 24th Jul '11 8:48:58 AM by FallenLegend

^^I'm not very good at heart-wrenching, either. Best to leave that to the professionals (and the really good amateurs), I think.

...So, what's next oun our discussion plate?

Yeah, I knew about those for the most part. It's just that Fi M is so popular that I can't really find a parody idea that's already been done. Pretty much every idea I could think of for the video had already been done, including the ones I posted. Some of them I actually got from the original videos. Thinking of an original parody is kind of pointless by now

Besides, they're still technically my ideas, since I thought of them before I knew about the videos that already did them

EDIT: So I've been working on the video, and here's what I've done so far (there are changes from the original ideas I posted)

The opening of Bohemian Rhapsody put to the opening of the Cutie Mark Crusaders theme

Rainbow Dash Clips set to the Sonic Sat AM theme

Celestia clips set to Here Comes the Sun

Pinkie Pie interrogating Spike in Party of One set to the Breakfast Scene in Pulp Fiction

And that's all so far. Any ideas?

edited 24th Jul '11 10:54:13 AM by JackOfAllTrades

I cried myself to sleep.

I'm 39.

^It's healthy for you.

@Fallen Thanks.

Hmmm, for a topic change... how about we talk about how awesome Twilight Sparkle is!

She's awesome! She's my avatar.

Who's the artist for that avatar, Rhyme?

I like Twilight quite a lot. She's the hub of the main cast, and yet in some ways she's just as unstable as the rest of them.

I don't know actually my friend Imca did that for me as a part of WOAA (Not Au)

There's something highly endearing about her. She's probably the most consistantly unhinged pony out of the Mane cast, what with her freaking out half the time and always thinking that Celestia is more wrathful than she really is (I wonder if Twilight secretly supports Tyrant Celestia XD).

Although I have a personal dislike for how powerful she is, that's just a personal thing and it doesn't come up THAT much in the actual show

edited 24th Jul '11 12:09:54 PM by gingerninja666

I don't think Twilight is afraid of Celestia, per se; I do think she holds the Princess in very high regard and is terrified of doing anything that might disappoint her, whether Celestia would actually be disappointed or not.

Twilight is a silly pony.

I think the show handles Twilight's power pretty well. Even when it does come up in the show and she has to use her full power, she has to struggle pretty hard to use it. Any other show makes a character powerful by just having them do everything really easily.

I sort of like the fact that Twilight immediately jumps to the worst possible conclusion when she freaks out, especially when it's way outside the realm of possibility. I'm not sure why I like that, either, since I usually dislike pessimism, but in her it's cute.

^It's... well, it's odd. In any other case I'd be very concerned that the most powerful unicorn we know of is also high-strung and prone to jumping to conclusions, but since she very rarely tries to solve anything by pure force of magic, it's simply a cute character trait.

She doesn't jump to conclusions.

She teleports to them.

...

That wasn't funny, was it?

For me, I think what endears me the most about her paranoia is that it's often so naive. Like with Celestia she acts like a fearful child, which is adorable. Plus I think she has reason to be paranoid. Everytime she wonders if things would get worse or reassures herself that things couldn't go wrong, they do (yea, I know, rule of drama or something like that, but still ).

Also, seeing Twilight get excited and happy puts her on my top tier for cuteness.

As far as how power goes, I agree with Kegisak that they do it well. To add to that, seems like she's held back from using her full power by her skills still not being fully developed. The stuff she did during her freak out seemed far more intimidating than the stuff we've seen with her as a young adult.

There might also be a psychological block. I think she was pretty obviously scared of what was happening to her. Maybe she subconsciously - or even consciously - caps herself at something pretty far below her actual power level.

edited 24th Jul '11 1:01:14 PM by TurnwaysFlip

For me, I have a personal disdain for characters who have The Gift, it just feels like lazy writing most of the time, and leads to one of my most hated tropes Hard Work Hardly Works. but yeah, it is handled relatively well and only a few times has magic ever been the direct answer to the problem at hand.

I still found that mild Teleport Spam she pulled in Applebuck Season to be really weird and out of place, maybe she had a cramp XD

Twilight's Adorkable ness is one of the best parts of her character. She's either highly competent or borderline useless (Like in the sleepover episode, what was the deal with that?)

edited 24th Jul '11 1:19:37 PM by gingerninja666

That's generally what you see during mageheads. (I don't know if we have a trope for it, but I really think we should - I've Seen It a Million Times). A young spellcaster manifests their full power with no control over it, sort of thing, and it's only later that they start learning to use it properly. It's very rare that they go right back to that level of power.

I think that the sleepover thing was consistent with her character, just exaggerated. She's always been academically gifted; lots of book smarts, but her social life is so stunted that she has trouble interacting with other ponies normally. The sleepover is just an extreme example of that; the closest thing she's ever had to a really sleepover was probably reading about it.

Twilight's probably my favorite pony for that reason; I'm the same way. I'm an only child who lived pretty far away from all of my friends, so I didn't have (and still don't) have nearly as much of a social life. I channeled my isolation into learning to entertain myself rather than academics, but I can still sympathize with her plight. Because of that I enjoy seeing how she reacts to everything.

I've been reading The Ballad of Twilight Sparkle. I gotta say, "Friendship lubricant" is probably one of the funniest things I've seen from the fandom

Also, I love this line: "Looking at her friend, Twilight was less than pleased to see that Rainbow Dash wasn't taking notes as much as she was drawing Applejack all over one page."

That's both funny and really cute, considering Rainbow Dash's crush on AJ in the fic