(sigh) I hope you guys enjoy the season finale. My friend wants to go to the city for her birthday to see the Cherry Blossom festival and it just so happened to be 21st. Now I definitely don't want to pass up this opportunity, but it's never same watching the episode after it's initial broadcast. I had to do the same thing with Lesson Zero when I went to Comic Con.

edited 7th Apr '12 7:38:16 PM by AkoSiKuya32

Sucks that you'll miss the episode. But on the other hand I would love to see a cherry blossom festival. There are worst things to distract you.

It is pretty similar, isn't it?

Yeah, at least you'll miss the episode to actually see something else. I've missed a few episodes because of dumb stuff like getting a haircut.

I heard that the aliens in the original Wot W were actually pretty weak and would probably have lost if they came 50 years later.

@Ginger: The War of the Worlds aliens are some of your favorite villains? Really? I don't remember them having much of a plan, they just overwhelmed us with superior firepower.

Yeah, but I atually liked how a few of them were taken out in the original book (unlike the ridiculous force fields of all the later adaptations)

It gave em a chance to be vincible while still INCREDIBLY menacing, and dear god are they menacing

I like scheming villains and I like enigmatic menacing villains... The Martians are the latter

edited 7th Apr '12 7:39:24 PM by gingerninja666

@ils: Haha! If only. Luna would make for a great teacher of stars.

@Storyyeller: We have our show in a dome where we project the night sky. Afterwards, if the sky is clear, we view stars through a telescope. Now, since I'm a pegasus you might be thinking, "Orion, why don't you move the clouds out of the way so you can see the stars?" Well, the pegasii that control the weather don't like it when other pegasii move the clouds around for non-weather reasons.

Also, night people who are going to sleep.

So, I guess I missed the big discussion of characters being smug earlier. I think a lot of people are confusing "self-confidence" with "smugness". You're allowed to act as if you did a good job without it coming off as arrogance. If you weren't, then there would only be two types of people: egotistical jerks and people with no self-esteem.

I know, and I think Twi goes a bit far... just me though

edited 7th Apr '12 7:44:42 PM by gingerninja666

Hush now quiet now it's time to go to sleep

Good night ponies.

I still don't see that at all. She's just happy to see that she's contributing something to the situation. She's confident in the fact that she knows the proper way to approach the matter at hand, and in this case, she's entirely right. It's not like she belittles Pinkie or anything, she just points out that Pinkie's assumptions are unfounded.

Goodnight.

edited 7th Apr '12 7:48:03 PM by JapaneseTeeth

I remember getting to look at Saturn with a giant telescope after a planetarium show, but you could barely make out the rings. I was spoiled by the Voyager pictures.

The rings were making Saturn look fat, so she decided to lose a few of them. True story.

I think Twilight was in that sort of playful sort of semi-smug confidence, it was funny seeing her swipe Pinkie's Sherlock garb and be just as apt to it as she was. She was probably just revelling in that she wasn't being the 'silly' sidekick anymore.

Good night stevebat.

As for villains ginger, my taste is very picky. I tend to prefer sympathetic comedic villains, however if they become too pitiful I start to lose empathy for the heroes or feel they are 'bullying' them, so having them surprise them with a Not So Harmless moment whenever it seems they're becoming too much of a laughing stock. Basically a balance of karma and sympathy, a villain that's menacing enough to be cheered against, but charming enough to be liked as a character. Beware the Silly Ones through and through.

A LOT of it plays into the sympathy of the heroes however, part of the reason I'm not big on Villain Protagonist / Hero Antagonist setups. I NEED to root for the heroes to some degree (this maybe where this 'smugness' problem comes in, especially against a sympathetic villain).

The more I think about it, the more Discord fits this territory perfectly really.

edited 7th Apr '12 7:58:13 PM by Psi001

This video is really weird (Warning: Has nothing to do with MLP): [1]

But I also didn't get a smug tone from Twilight. I do enjoy Hero Antagonists though. I find them fascinating.

Well Twi did say she'd read a lot of mystery novels, maybe she was just trying to stay in character.

Hero Antagonist characters tend to be dull for me. You always feel like you're missing something that could make the scenario a lot more complex.

A media with a normal hero can have the hero be the protagonist but still have an expanded and depthful universe as well as a sympathetic villain at times. A Villain Protagonist show on the other hand tends to skew everything so you get the villain is the sympathetic character and you don't root for anyone else.

It's a huge reason I think The Dreamstone was a waste of potential for example. The pilot had Rufus as the protagonist and utilized a more balanced wholesome development of it's universe similar to FIM. The show afterwards was about the Urpneys however so everything else was Out of Focus or drained of character. Akin to the previous analysis I also felt the Urpneys were too pitiful without the heroes getting proper Sympathetic P.O.V..

edited 7th Apr '12 8:15:37 PM by Psi001

Ah yes, Saturn. As of now, Saturn's rings are starting to widen up.

@Storyyeller: Voyager pictures? -looks up Voyager- -Jawdrop.jpeg-

Oh you're in character right now?

You're right Ilse. That was really weird.

Does anyone have a gif of Twilight blowing bubbles with that pipe? She was even cuter with that than Pinkie was.

Nope all I got is this.◊

You're just going to eat that winners ribbon Pinkie? You don't think the Cakes will want that?

Well wait a couple of days and they can get it back...if they still want it...

edited 7th Apr '12 8:10:45 PM by Psi001

She probably spit it out afterwards, sort of like how the Parasprites spit out the apple.