You know who I just realized Blueblood reminds me off? Zapp Branigan. Not that he's stupid, just that his ego is friggin HUGE. Niether of them have ever had to do an honest days work in their lives and doing manual labour seemed to teach Zapp some humility. For a while at least. Then he organized a mutiny from inside the ship's laundry room, wrestled control away from the one-eyed captain, locked HER in the luandry room brig and declared war on his eternal nemesis, the Neutral Planet.

... What were we talking about again?

edited 4th Aug '11 4:20:11 PM by WillKeaton

I just thought of something:

If we forget for a moment, that it was Executive Meddling that changed Celestia from a queen to a princess, and Blueblood from a duke to a prince, and considered their titles 100% Canon. What if, TECHNICALLY, Celestia wasn't the ruler of Equestria? It was an honour that she shared with her sister, aswell as all the other Princes and Princesses. They only allow her to call most all the shots beause she's the oldest, smartest, and most powerful, when in actuality they have just as much of a say in Pony politics as she does.

Maybe something happened in Equestria long ago, and the Royal family vowed to never formally have a Queen ever again.

Just a thought.

edited 4th Aug '11 4:26:38 PM by gingerninja666

^Interesting. Knowing how most fictional nobility work, though, it'd be an absolute nightmare of intrigue - even moreso than usual.

That's actually a pretty neat idea, it would make them essentially a high council...a non-elected Parliament. I know there's a term for that, but I can't remember what it is.

Hm... a Diet? Oligarchy of some kind, anyway.

edited 4th Aug '11 4:33:31 PM by RedSavant

I wonder if Blueblood ever has anything of substance to say during their meetings?

What do you mean, "A nightmare of intrigue?"

edited 4th Aug '11 4:40:42 PM by gingerninja666

I think Blueblood would need a dose of Humble Pie. Maybe getting trapped in the body of a less-attractive pony and in a lower-class situation.

Also, Word Of God is that Blueblood isn't actually related to Celestia, and while royal, is just "some random Douchebag."

edited 4th Aug '11 4:48:57 PM by Pannic

^^Almost every fictional nobility I've ever read about is a hotbed of alliances, feuds, monopolies, spying, poisoning, lineage gambits, and other things like that - exactly what you'd expect when a bunch of people with ambition, money and a paucity of morals are crammed into one line of succession, and that's when their best shot at power is to depose the current royal family and come out on top in the ensuing civil war. If they actually had some say in government, I can only imagine - votes on certain matters would be traded as currency or held as bargaining chips, with the rest of Equestria being subject to the currents of the peerage.

^I would love to see that 'random douchebag' quote. =D He's related to her, but very distantly - which apparently is still good enough to be nobility.

edited 4th Aug '11 4:50:34 PM by RedSavant

That's assuming that the other princes and princesses are just as big a dicks as Blueblood

Correction: "a."◊

No, I do remember Faust stating that he was the descendant of her cousin, or something to that effect - still technically related, just very, very distantly. The sort of thing that any noble would desperately cling to.

I recall I once read a fairy tale - it was about the crown prince of a kingdom, who insulted an old woman who was herding pigs and got him dirty. It turned out the old woman was a witch, who took away his memory and made him think he was a swine herder(so he would be amongst the pigs, where he belonged). He ended up going through a huge pile of crap, like traveling for miles and miles on foot, getting assaulted and robbed, learning to fight, and he eventually got rediscovered as the prince, and became a really good king, but never got his memory back. I sort of figured that might be a good parallel for what should happen to Blueblood, almost. Except that, I think Blueblood should remember what he was like before.

edited 4th Aug '11 5:05:25 PM by kegisak

So I'm working on a second PMV Purgatory video. The clips I've made so far:

Another Bohemian Rhapsody parody getting cut off, this time using Pinkie in Party of One when she's under the spotlight after interrogating Spike

A part of the "I'm Your Biggest Fanatic" episode of Spongebob with various clips of Scootaloo and Rainbow Dash (if anyone knows the episode, it's the scene where Kevin keeps telling Spongebob to do things like jump off a building and punch himself in the face)

Iron Maiden's Flight of Icarus set to Rarity in the Best Young Flyers Competition

The only idea I have for another clip is some random scene dubbed with Mario music and sound effects. Any other ideas?

edited 4th Aug '11 5:19:27 PM by JackOfAllTrades

RE: Blueballsblood's redemption

I'd demand justification for his attitude towards Rarity during the gala. I'd want a reason why he's such a selfish snob of a prince. Then you can start feeding him humble pie, or somesuch.

Because with understanding comes forgiveness, and all that jazz. Lacking that, it starts to feel like revenge of some sort, rather than redemption.

Why you whant redeem characters like Blueblood or Gilda?

I know some interesting or fun chacters, that can be good idea but with such characters like those ? Maybe before any redemtion you should try make them more interesting?

For redemption to work, they must be interesting by default. The viewer needs to want them to be redeemed before they'll accept the redemption. This, I think, is what Blueblood lacks over Gilda and Trixie. Trixie was fun to listen to, because she was a large ham. Gilda had an element of history with Dash that made her more interesting. Blueblood, by comparison, is very, very flat.

So yes, He would need to be built up before he could be redeemed, and I think that could make him interesting. The other option is to make him wholly unlikable, then have circumstance beat the shit out of him until the audience begs you to stop.

Gilda also is not that interesting for many fans.

I even think that she should retunr only to show more jerk side and RD should deal with her. That could provide some good development for Rainbow Dash.

We've had this argument many times. People like different characters. Some may want to see Gilda redeemed, others may not. The same goes for Blueblood, Trixie, and the Diamond Dogs. (plus probably many others to come)

Personally, I like to think that every character has a decent shot at redemption, because it fits the overall tone of the show better. Plus, antagonists turned good guys are almost always interesting.

For example, I think, Gilda is the most human character in the entire show. You don't, and that's ok. Different tastes are what makes this fandom so fun to be a part of

edited 4th Aug '11 5:50:09 PM by gingerninja666

I just said that better use Gilda for RD Character Development - facing old friend, choosing for who to be loyal and other stuff.

And what do you meant that Gilda is most human character of the show? I can only see in Humans Are Bastars way.

I have to agree that Gilda's only "more human" if you're taking a somewhat cynical view of humanity, since the only thing she's closer to than any of the main cast is "a huge jerk forever", and I don't have time for that kind of cynicism in a show about talking ponies.

There's something Gilda and Trixie both lack on the path of redemption; both their stories need closure. They both ran away when faced with their flaws, and so they're both missing something important. They've got entire stories the rest of the cast hasn't even heard yet.

As a matter of good form, they should ideally both have an entire arc, but the show is overwhelmingly not arc-based and I'm not holding out for that to change. I can see Blueblood getting what he needs for his development from... what he is... to not-so-bad in one episode much easier than either of them, specifically because he's such a flat character; he never had the buildup to begin with, so he doesn't need any closure either.

edited 4th Aug '11 6:08:50 PM by TurnwaysFlip

more it seemed like she was a massive jerk that genuinely wanted to be a good friend to RD. While her sense of humour was cruel, and her personality was mean-spirited, her actions in front of RD, especially at the end felt really human and realistic. It's that feeling you get when you're slowly starting to realize that your once loyal friend has started to drift away from you. She felt sad, threatened, angry (at both RD and her friends) and in denial, all at the same time. Even as she was leaving, she still tried to keep her relationship with RD open, showing that she still wanted to be friends with her, and wasn't merely going to discard her as soon as she became "lame" in Gilda's eyes. Still, this is just my interpretation of her. Yours wouldn't be nearly as optimistic

Also, instead of a plot where RD learns to be loyal to her new friends. Why not a plot where she learns to be loyal to BOTH the new, and the old?

edited 4th Aug '11 6:15:53 PM by gingerninja666

The antagonists haven't been particularly endearing. I've found them all irritating, though NMM less so.

The show did do an arc, with the Grand Galloping Gala, but it was just more stretched-out/scattered. Theoretically, they could do one or two episodes where they run into Gilda/Trixie again, and they come off as less of a jerk the second time around, and then an episode to close the arc, and scatter those across the next season.

All the emotions you just described are extremely petty and selfish.

^Petty though they are, they're very human - and no, that's not a cynical view of humanity; that's objectively true. People like that exist, end of story.

In any case, it's that pettiness that makes Gilda interesting. She's not villainous in a hammy, grandiose way like Nightmare Moon or Trixie are; she's just a person who's petty and unpleasant, for (and your mileage may obviously vary) understandable reasons. Understandability breeds interest, in my opinion, and interest breeds desire to see the character explored - and the most common way to explore an antagonistic character is through redemption. Everyone's a sucker for some good, healthy catharsis, after all.

Exactly. That's what makes it human to me. Humans are petty, they are selfish, we also have a hard time changing the way we act once we've gotten used to it. Even when our friends are there to help us. These traits don't mean that we're inherantly bad. Even the lowlifes of the world still have something that they care about, and that thing could be what ultimately changes them

ninja'd that also sums up exactly why I love Gilda

edited 4th Aug '11 6:36:40 PM by gingerninja666