the ending gets a little sappy though, and a I said, I think it gets a bit too awkward at parts

goodnight freeman

Night Freeman.

Yeah, cute multi colored ponies are easier to show to older viewers when they are having psychotic anal retentive breakdowns about ticking clocks.

@ginger: The bit with them talking about their Aesops I admit was a bit sappy, but otherwise I thought the ending was genuinely cute and meaningful. It also added a bit of extra depth to Twilight and Spike's relationship (well placed after an episode where it seemed he could be rendered obsolete by an owl).

edited 25th May '12 8:28:11 PM by Psi001

A thought occurred, when Twilight was stripped of her sense of friendship she still kept hold of Spike. Why?

@ginger: Hussy's style of writing is... odd. First of all for the bulk of the first bit he wasn't technically writing it himself so much as taking in requests and shaping the story around that. Then he got an idea and basically devoted his life to it. Literally. The comic is all he ever does. So at least you know he's passionate about the story, and not simply showing off.

That said... he does show off. As far as prose goes his writing is deliberately stilted and self-referential, almost hispter-ish in how frequently he resorts to Sophisticated as Hell. There's no denying that he's a good writer, but he does occasionally sacrifice story for the sake of doing something really fucked up with the english language. And of course plot-wise he's still largely doing shit as it comes to him without editing, so he views it more as a passion piece that people happen to like than something he's taking seriously, and that comes through in both his writing and how he treats the fanbase. He will alter the path of the story if he thinks it will fuck his audience over, and that they deserve it.

Basically, Hussy is a troll. The story is one giant, enormous trolling attempt, but without the cover that most attempt. Take from that what you will, but know that at the end of the day Hussy is doing this much more for him than for the audience.

I was saddened that they didn't let Spike keep in that section of the letter

Anyway. I'm off to bed. Night guys.

goodnight ginger sleep well :)

Ah, Lesson Zero. The one with the ending lesson that is really the wrong one to apply in that situation despite the writers intent.

Even if he was no longer his friend he was still her assistant.

edited 25th May '12 8:32:34 PM by Mio

@kegi Thank you for making it clear in my mind that I will NEVER EVER touch anything that arrogant asshole writes EVER AGAIN!

@kegi: I'd actually disagree with that. We're getting plot reveals right around now that tie back to the beginnings of the comic; no way he's just making this shit up as he goes along. And he's proven incredibly grateful to the fandom - there's a little speech he made for the second anniversary that I can dig up.

^Jesus, fine. 'Night, folks.

edited 25th May '12 8:33:21 PM by RedSavant

@ginger: No worries.

Fair enough about his treatment of the audience; I never said he could be nice to them or appreciate them, just that he really seems to enjoy trolling the ever-loving shit out of them. I simply get the feeling that at the end of the day he's writing the story much more for himself than his audience, and he's just grateful their enjoyment allows him to do so.

Also, didn't know that about the story, haven't read since the scratch/reset thing. But even still, it's entirely possible for him to be mostly making it up and very, very skillfully tying it all together. He's been doing this thing for years after all.

edited 25th May '12 8:37:20 PM by kegisak

@ginger: Nighty night.

Well Spike's addition didn't really add anything meaningful. I mean we've already learnt how super awesome Spike is.

The hug beforehand made up for anyway. Arguably the first point Twilight was admitant to how much she depended on him.

edited 25th May '12 8:36:50 PM by Psi001

@chadaman I think spike is more a part of his family than a friend

pretty much what fallen said, Twi sees him more as a little brother then a friend.

@Mio Ignoring a friend's problems and leaving them to self destruct is the right thing to do?

edited 25th May '12 8:37:45 PM by PerpetualLurker

@Lurker: It may have been more the fact it was placed a bit more significantly over Twilight's obsession Aesop, despite the others' actions being far more reasonable than her's. There isn't really a lot to say Twilight actually learnt from her mistake in hindsight really.

I suppose that may have been unintentional, and perhaps they were just trying to show how devoted her friends were (and also give an opening the change in Friendship messages) than make it a more blown out moral.

edited 25th May '12 8:42:08 PM by Psi001

Goodnight, everybody who's going to bed.

@Red: I don't think it's so much planning ahead as much as he's just really good at reusing past elements. There are some things that I don't believe for a second he planned from the beginning Like Betty Crocker being evil. I'm sure there are some elements, but on the whole he basically writes the story by reading fan theories and either incorporating them or deliberately subverting them. He's making up a lot of it as he goes, he's just good at doing so without creating contradictions because he leaves a lot of the rules of the universe really vague.

Night Japanese Teeth.

I'm not going to bed yet, just saying goodnight to everybody who is. There were like 4 or 5 on the past few pages.

Yeah, kegi is half-right. He does it primarily because he enjoys it, the fandom was just a nice surprise. He honestly doesn't do things to piss people off that much. The "trolling" as people call it are mostly just revealing things that are meant to be completely unexpected.
Also, a lot of the current events are probably because he had to relook at the story for the book releases. The author comments in the second book talk about him remembering things to bring up. Not necessarily all of them, but a lot.

@JT. One of the author notes specifically mentions that it was originally meant to be a gag, if I recall.
And I took too long to type and this conversation appears to have ended. Oh well.

@Lurker: I'm really not convinced that there was anything they could have done to help here.

Regardless, the lesson really feels like it absolves Twilight of any responsibility and unintentionally comes across as enabling.

@Psi "Don't freak out over things" wasn't the lesson that episode. The lesson was what was in the letter at the end: You shouldn't ignore your friend's problems just because you think they're silly.

@JTeeth: Yeah, but tell me how Gamzee spending the kids' lives instilling a pathological fear of clowns and puppets in John and Dave arose organically.

Whatever. I'm off for the night.

edited 25th May '12 8:43:13 PM by RedSavant

@Japanese Teeth: Oops, sorry. I'll probably have to go in a minute anyway though.

I admit one occasional problem for Twilight is that they occasionally treat her lessons too sympathetically or as someone else being a huge pivot in it (for Winter Wrap Up for example, she screws up big time, only to find out every single other pony has done worse). It is subverted a couple times however, in Griffon The Brush Off for example she is the only one who is actually given a straight up moral, compared to Pinkie or RD who are usually the ones playing up and have an Aesop rammed into their heads.

They did sneak in the obsession moral quick in Lesson Zero though, albeit with Pinkie and Rarity pointing it out instead in their usual hamminess.

edited 25th May '12 8:47:57 PM by Psi001

goodnight red