Friday, September 30, 2011
Portraits
Tuesday, September 13, 2011
Anticipation and Rantings
I'll begin today with the hype... SEASON 2! It's just 4 days away and the anticipation is killing me! There's so much I'm looking forward to seeing and I can't wait to find out what happens with all the characters, especially ones we barely know in canon, so far, like Princess Luna. Fanon has written her so vividly, that I'm anxious about how the writers will actually portray her. I know I'm not alone in that. People from production have said that 'they feel we'll be pleased with her.' I doubt this means that they have "caved" to the fans' interpretations, but perhaps it does mean that some fic writers were pretty close with their portrayal. I hope so. I've really gotten a soft spot for the fanon Luna.
The other major thing right now is the season 2 spoilers Hasbro's been tossing on their Facebook page, and the snippets of show already appearing thanks to some enterprising individuals. Some of them do well to pique interest a bit; "grayed" characters and funky brown rain. I can handle a little teaser, but full-on spoiler clips of Dischord?! Come on!! I'm trying my best not to see any of that. Half the fun of the story for me is enjoying the surprise and reaction it creates. I don't want to know what all that is before it even airs. It would diminish the appeal. I've decided to actively avoid going to my usual image sites for the next few days, just in case more major spoiler stuff is there (which people on EqD say it already is). At least the Equestria Daily staff has been kind enough to ponies like me who don't want the surprise ruined and have been actively warning or hiding links on their site.
I don't know why people are so obsessed with spoiling every detail of every thing before it comes out any more. This goes for shows, movies, and especially video games. The second any speck of upcoming material gets into the hands of one of them, they proceed to .dat hack and pick apart every single detail, and then broadcast their findings to everybody on the web! I have to lump all the FiM blooper videos in with this as well. The shows were picked apart, frame by frame, and every little mistake pointed out. Seriously, what do we gain out of that? Can't we just enjoy something without it being dissected, or its flaws pointed out, or being compared to something else? Knowing every detail about all this stuff is just taking its mystery or even its magic away. I mean, whatever happened to the excitement of self-discovery? I guess a lot of people are just more interested in instant gratification than adventure.
As to my "adventure", it remains to be seen how I will manage it. Unfortunately, the only down side I have to the new season is its new time slot. Weekday episodes of Friendship is Magic are now a half hour earlier, and I miss part of them by the time I get home from work. Saturday episodes (which are when the new stuff airs first) are at 9am and I'm at work every other one during that time. I'm really hoping they have a showing later in the day, otherwise, I'm at the mercy of those who would upload episodes. The sad part is I work this Saturday, so I'll miss the first showing of the new episode (video sharers don't let me down!). I really just need to find good quality copies and torrent them, at least until Hasbro makes the full season 1 DVD. (A pony can hope, right?)
The other major thing right now is the season 2 spoilers Hasbro's been tossing on their Facebook page, and the snippets of show already appearing thanks to some enterprising individuals. Some of them do well to pique interest a bit; "grayed" characters and funky brown rain. I can handle a little teaser, but full-on spoiler clips of Dischord?! Come on!! I'm trying my best not to see any of that. Half the fun of the story for me is enjoying the surprise and reaction it creates. I don't want to know what all that is before it even airs. It would diminish the appeal. I've decided to actively avoid going to my usual image sites for the next few days, just in case more major spoiler stuff is there (which people on EqD say it already is). At least the Equestria Daily staff has been kind enough to ponies like me who don't want the surprise ruined and have been actively warning or hiding links on their site.
I don't know why people are so obsessed with spoiling every detail of every thing before it comes out any more. This goes for shows, movies, and especially video games. The second any speck of upcoming material gets into the hands of one of them, they proceed to .dat hack and pick apart every single detail, and then broadcast their findings to everybody on the web! I have to lump all the FiM blooper videos in with this as well. The shows were picked apart, frame by frame, and every little mistake pointed out. Seriously, what do we gain out of that? Can't we just enjoy something without it being dissected, or its flaws pointed out, or being compared to something else? Knowing every detail about all this stuff is just taking its mystery or even its magic away. I mean, whatever happened to the excitement of self-discovery? I guess a lot of people are just more interested in instant gratification than adventure.
As to my "adventure", it remains to be seen how I will manage it. Unfortunately, the only down side I have to the new season is its new time slot. Weekday episodes of Friendship is Magic are now a half hour earlier, and I miss part of them by the time I get home from work. Saturday episodes (which are when the new stuff airs first) are at 9am and I'm at work every other one during that time. I'm really hoping they have a showing later in the day, otherwise, I'm at the mercy of those who would upload episodes. The sad part is I work this Saturday, so I'll miss the first showing of the new episode (video sharers don't let me down!). I really just need to find good quality copies and torrent them, at least until Hasbro makes the full season 1 DVD. (A pony can hope, right?)
Friday, September 2, 2011
(notes from the writer)
I worked on Moonlight's template some more tonight. Mostly on the color and design of my cutie mark. It's freaking hard to draw using a mouse, I'll tell you that much! I found that Gerneralzoi's Pony Creator program on DA is a great resource for templating. It's easier for me to work with ideas when I can actually SEE them in front of me. I used it to come up with a workable model of Moonlight and was able to color match the background of the cutie mark using Photoshop. The hard part is going to be coming up with suitable accessories and being able to successfully draw them onto my model. As for the mark itself, I've been using my Mark I version as my avatar for blogger. I messed with it until I got a version that I could tolerate until I could refine my skills and come up with a more suitable version.
Thursday, September 1, 2011
Past Sins: reflected
The other night, I finished reading Past Sins; a fan fiction by the author known as Pen Stroke and his assistant Batty Gloom. Normally, I wouldn't devote an entire entry to one of these, but this one is warranted. There are few in our part of the fan base that have not been exposed to, or at the least, heard of this powerful piece of literary art. People who don't read fan work or on other sites that don't host these things may not know much about it, but I'd wager even they have stumbled upon a discussion, a piece of related artwork, or a mention of it in some way.
So, what is it about this particular fiction that makes it stand out? Well, perhaps I should lay the groundwork first and build it up from there, starting with a brief overview of the story itself. (If you haven't read Past Sins or you hate spoilers, skip over the next paragraph.)
The story comes out dark, right from the start. A cult of Nightmare has ponynapped Twilight Sparkle and taken her to a secluded part of the Everfree Forest. In the process of the ritual, they cut her and use some of her blood to complete a complex resurrection spell which is supposed to revive their fallen queen. The spell is in the middle of being cast, when it is interrupted by Princess Celestia herself. The forces of light as it were, disrupt the spell and either capture or scatter most of the cultists. All seems well until Twilight returns to the site of the ritual the next day, to find a frightened and injured little filly in the same area. The shortened version of the next several chapters is that this filly turns out to be a partially resurrected Nightmare Moon, but without all the evil of the original. She's just a blank slate, with a body and a legacy of the most evil creature in Equestria, but nothing more. Twilight decides to adopt this child as her own, giving her the name Nyx. She raises her as her own daughter, all the while trying to fight the possibility of who this filly really is while keeping the truth of her origin a secret. She grows, and makes friends and becomes a sweet and lovable daughter. At the same time, the remaining cult members are trying to find her, and eventually as her origin becomes known a struggle begins for what to do with her, to include Celestia. At the climax of the story the cult retakes its prize and succeeds in fully recreating their queen. The latter chapters follow mainly Nyx as she's forced into the role of an evil queen, even though she has no true evil intentions. She does what she feels she is obligated to do, and a lot of chaos and pain is created in its wake. At the last parts of the story, the true evil is exposed and Nyx finally stands to do the right thing, nearly costing her life. The conclusion, brings redemption, and restoration, but the innocence is gone forever. Ultimately, it writes a happy ending.
(OK you can read again.)
Now, one thing I can say about this story, is that it has this amazing ability to evoke emotion! The authors seem to have a knack for that. I would find myself laughing at scenes and literally crying in others. I've had few things in my life ever do that so easily. I would find myself obsessive in anticipation of a new chapter, and whenever one finally did come out, the excitement would be huge.
My personal feelings aside for the moment, this fiction exploded in popularity shortly after the first few chapters were released! Part of it's initial intrigue was an amazing multi-image cover art which highlighted several implicated parts of the story to come, some of them downright dark. I know it's been said a million times not to judge a book by its cover, but the readers simply could not resist the curiosity it generated. Once they started reading it, the majority of them became hooked on its premise and fell in love with the tiny protagonist, myself included.
Over the next several weeks, into months, the story's popularity began to generate bits of fan art, and a giant discussion thread that would go on to thousands of posts. In an eerie mirror of the brony community's history, people began to take sides on it, some praising it and its authors while others berated its quality and attacked the nature of the story and the characters themselves. At times it became an all out flame war; in my opinion, a very dark and sad representation of what we should be like. Ultimately, the consistent attacks by the critics on various points of the story, mainly about certain characters not being in proper character and the constant bickering that Nyx was too "Mary Sueish" (A term I've learned all about thanks to the tropers who have been analyzing the story) prompted a massive re-write by Pen and Batty, right in the middle of the story. This came as a huge surprise to a lot of the readers, and while a lot of those readers felt that the authors caved to the demands of the complainers, the authors maintained that they fixed what they already had second thoughts about, and felt it important to make the story as good as their fans deserved. Nevertheless, the re-written chapters and bits of the story were met with mixed feelings. Some felt the changes were much improved and others preferred the original material. More bickering about this continued but ultimately, it simmered down. You just can't please everypony.
Once things finally began moving ahead again, the next month would write out the final several chapters, and bring it to its final conclusion. People were pretty set in their ways by this point. Fans would rave about it, and haters would continue to berate it, and anything related to it. Either way, it had made its mark on the community. Sadly, I think the only casualties of the war it created, were the authors themselves. They tried so diligently to bring something amazing to their community and had to suffer a lot, in its effort. I feel for them, truly. I know they're taking a break for now, and I don't blame them. I just hope it doesn't hinder them from writing more stories. I haven't read a thing yet by them that I haven't loved.
So, now we are at the end of it all. No more chapters will be written on this amazing tale. I feel like with all the publicity it spawned, it will most certainly not be easily forgotten. For those who loved it as much as I did, it leaves a permanent imprint on our memory. Most profoundly though, it created an entirely new character, who has become so popular, that she joins the ranks of fanon and will likely remain there indefinitely. Critics, mostly the elitist/purists, will continue to flame and berate everything they see of Nyx, just because that's all they seem to be able to do. They seem to have such a sore flank over OC (original characters) and I can't figure out why. All the characters were OC once, and what's wrong with a little creative imagination? This is, after all, fiction... not to mention FAN-made in the case of this story. I won't dwell on that subject here, though. I plan to write an entire entry devoted just to that subject.
Until next time my dear readers,
Never be afraid to share your dreams.
Moonlight Ballad, Bard of Equestria
So, what is it about this particular fiction that makes it stand out? Well, perhaps I should lay the groundwork first and build it up from there, starting with a brief overview of the story itself. (If you haven't read Past Sins or you hate spoilers, skip over the next paragraph.)
The story comes out dark, right from the start. A cult of Nightmare has ponynapped Twilight Sparkle and taken her to a secluded part of the Everfree Forest. In the process of the ritual, they cut her and use some of her blood to complete a complex resurrection spell which is supposed to revive their fallen queen. The spell is in the middle of being cast, when it is interrupted by Princess Celestia herself. The forces of light as it were, disrupt the spell and either capture or scatter most of the cultists. All seems well until Twilight returns to the site of the ritual the next day, to find a frightened and injured little filly in the same area. The shortened version of the next several chapters is that this filly turns out to be a partially resurrected Nightmare Moon, but without all the evil of the original. She's just a blank slate, with a body and a legacy of the most evil creature in Equestria, but nothing more. Twilight decides to adopt this child as her own, giving her the name Nyx. She raises her as her own daughter, all the while trying to fight the possibility of who this filly really is while keeping the truth of her origin a secret. She grows, and makes friends and becomes a sweet and lovable daughter. At the same time, the remaining cult members are trying to find her, and eventually as her origin becomes known a struggle begins for what to do with her, to include Celestia. At the climax of the story the cult retakes its prize and succeeds in fully recreating their queen. The latter chapters follow mainly Nyx as she's forced into the role of an evil queen, even though she has no true evil intentions. She does what she feels she is obligated to do, and a lot of chaos and pain is created in its wake. At the last parts of the story, the true evil is exposed and Nyx finally stands to do the right thing, nearly costing her life. The conclusion, brings redemption, and restoration, but the innocence is gone forever. Ultimately, it writes a happy ending.
(OK you can read again.)
Now, one thing I can say about this story, is that it has this amazing ability to evoke emotion! The authors seem to have a knack for that. I would find myself laughing at scenes and literally crying in others. I've had few things in my life ever do that so easily. I would find myself obsessive in anticipation of a new chapter, and whenever one finally did come out, the excitement would be huge.
My personal feelings aside for the moment, this fiction exploded in popularity shortly after the first few chapters were released! Part of it's initial intrigue was an amazing multi-image cover art which highlighted several implicated parts of the story to come, some of them downright dark. I know it's been said a million times not to judge a book by its cover, but the readers simply could not resist the curiosity it generated. Once they started reading it, the majority of them became hooked on its premise and fell in love with the tiny protagonist, myself included.
Over the next several weeks, into months, the story's popularity began to generate bits of fan art, and a giant discussion thread that would go on to thousands of posts. In an eerie mirror of the brony community's history, people began to take sides on it, some praising it and its authors while others berated its quality and attacked the nature of the story and the characters themselves. At times it became an all out flame war; in my opinion, a very dark and sad representation of what we should be like. Ultimately, the consistent attacks by the critics on various points of the story, mainly about certain characters not being in proper character and the constant bickering that Nyx was too "Mary Sueish" (A term I've learned all about thanks to the tropers who have been analyzing the story) prompted a massive re-write by Pen and Batty, right in the middle of the story. This came as a huge surprise to a lot of the readers, and while a lot of those readers felt that the authors caved to the demands of the complainers, the authors maintained that they fixed what they already had second thoughts about, and felt it important to make the story as good as their fans deserved. Nevertheless, the re-written chapters and bits of the story were met with mixed feelings. Some felt the changes were much improved and others preferred the original material. More bickering about this continued but ultimately, it simmered down. You just can't please everypony.
Once things finally began moving ahead again, the next month would write out the final several chapters, and bring it to its final conclusion. People were pretty set in their ways by this point. Fans would rave about it, and haters would continue to berate it, and anything related to it. Either way, it had made its mark on the community. Sadly, I think the only casualties of the war it created, were the authors themselves. They tried so diligently to bring something amazing to their community and had to suffer a lot, in its effort. I feel for them, truly. I know they're taking a break for now, and I don't blame them. I just hope it doesn't hinder them from writing more stories. I haven't read a thing yet by them that I haven't loved.
So, now we are at the end of it all. No more chapters will be written on this amazing tale. I feel like with all the publicity it spawned, it will most certainly not be easily forgotten. For those who loved it as much as I did, it leaves a permanent imprint on our memory. Most profoundly though, it created an entirely new character, who has become so popular, that she joins the ranks of fanon and will likely remain there indefinitely. Critics, mostly the elitist/purists, will continue to flame and berate everything they see of Nyx, just because that's all they seem to be able to do. They seem to have such a sore flank over OC (original characters) and I can't figure out why. All the characters were OC once, and what's wrong with a little creative imagination? This is, after all, fiction... not to mention FAN-made in the case of this story. I won't dwell on that subject here, though. I plan to write an entire entry devoted just to that subject.
Until next time my dear readers,
Never be afraid to share your dreams.
Moonlight Ballad, Bard of Equestria
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