Oh, I perfectly agree that there is absolutely nothing wrong about mixed ethnicity pairings, that goes without saying. Sadly, there still exist people who believe differently...

That's why I thought that having the Draconequus as the Big Bad had some uncomfortable consequences.

Thanks for the comment on the signature! I don't actually speak German at all — it's just that some time ago I read, and enjoyed, Wittengstein's Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus. An interesting book, but I found that the final proposition (Whereof one cannot speak, thereof one must be silent) was exceedingly bleak. So I found the original German quote, and changed the last word from "schweigen" (to be silent) to "singen" (to sing).

I have no idea whatsoever about what "gleek" means, though...

edited 10th Feb '12 9:12:25 AM by Carciofus

Yeah, I never got any "racial mixing" vibes from Discord; he's a mix of every creature because he represents the idea of chaos: everything gets thrown together in a haphazard manner. He doesn't really look a like a crossbreed; he looks like Frankenstein's monster. Not to mention that only the Buffalo and Zebras seem to be stand-ins for actual ethnic groups. The dragons and griffons are just kinda there.

edited 10th Feb '12 9:13:24 AM by JapaneseTeeth

I don't think it's that bad/unusual for a children's cartoon to make an ethnic joke. It's just apart of the adult jokes a lot of cartoons make to entertain themselves because they know it will probably just go over a little kids head.

Yeah its fine when you hear a racist joke in the form of a very conventional phrase ("It's because I'm ___ isn't it?!"), but it's not okay when it's presented seriously.

Discord didn't give me any impression of those sorts. Because he was made up of parts from various creatures, I just guessed that he was a Chimera.

Hehehe, racist jokes

In retrospect, given that Pegasi and Unicorns have special abilities, assuming that zebras might also have some sort of special power really isn't bad of an assumption...

Zecora's forte is brewing potions...

I'm almost tempted to say alchemy.

I always assumed it was alchemy, too.

So, I'm still working on a Tabletop campaign involving the Mane 6. My friend and I came up with an interesting exchange between Twilight (who's the DM) and the rest:

edited 10th Feb '12 10:02:43 AM by KarlKadaver

O_O

I didn't realize the Ponies were so racially insensitive towards humans.

Considering nopony's ever seen a human before, they're just going by what they see on the internet.

So, they think that we're constantly copulating?

Yes.

I hate how they always over-exaggerate fandom minorities, even though they only comprise a very small part of the fandom.

Going back to my Pony/Portal crosses...

There's only two positions left: The Companion Cube and Cave Johnson.

Obviously, there's Smarty Pants/Companion Cube, but what about Cave Johnson? Hmm...

The only person that could possibly match Cave would be Discord, but I already gave him Wheatley...

Like AJ says, "It only takes a few rotten apples, sugarcube."

edited 10th Feb '12 10:48:39 AM by KarlKadaver

Well, it just ticks me off how they tend to accentuate the negative, but keep banging on about it cause they have nothing else to work with. In effect, they just constantly repeat their argument and stubbornly refuse to modify.

Make Discord cave, but make Wheatly Blueblood

Unrelated to the current topic, but I've gotten my 60-year-old father into loving the show's music. He has actually requested that I play the songs in the car when we're on roadtrips.

I love my dad.

Crowning Moment of Heartwarming.

Derpy is the Oracle Turret. She's different.

Wrote this for the WTG and figured I'd post it here. It's pretty standard shipping, AJ/Twilight in this case. I've always had a vague storyline in mind where Twilight gets a crush on somepony and freaks out because it's shaking up the friendship status quo, and she feels like she's doing something bad by having special feelings for one friend that she doesn't have for the others. I'd like to expand it and explore that more, but I don't have the time. -_-

I've just discovered that Yudkowsky added a My Little Pony cameo to Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality. Here (scroll down for it).

It's very short, and I am less than convinced about what it's trying to say about peer review*

Yeah, academic publishing has a lot of problems, not last the fact that universities and academics are paying through the nose for access to papers that academics have written and other academics have reviewed. There are some interesting ongoing experiments on changing that, in fact, and it's a bit of a hot topic right now. But peer review, in itself, is indeed essential for scientific research.

, but it is sort of vaguely amused me.

edited 10th Feb '12 11:31:20 PM by Carciofus

Ooh, this is going to be a delicious episode.

Oh my god... MY BODY IS READY.