In which we're on the road again.
Chapter 33
- Finally, a spell Velvet can't do. And no, cosmetics is not tangentially related to music or medicine. You're all crazy.
- Why is it that 90% of scenes with Homage revolve around sex?
- I still don't understand the pegasus anti-war sentiment. Why aren't any of the other races complaining? They're all fighting in the war, and as far as we know so far, Equestia hadn't instituted a draft (unless I missed that detail).
- Random water fight? Random water fight.
- You know, Equestria is a big place. The Enclave can't have the whole sky covered with guards, can they? It probably wouldn't hurt to pop above the clouds and avoid the storm.
- I don't think even our technology can preserve food for 200 years. I still don't quite get how ponies jumped to sci-fi tech in a few decades.
- Non-ponies can't wield the Elements of Harmony? That's rather arbitrary.
- What are they going to do with that Crusader AI anyway? It probably still thinks that it needs to kill all of the ponies in the Stable.
- Just how many Steel Rangers are there out there? No new armor has been produced in 200 years. They can't have that many left to use.
- If you cared so much about dieing with dignity, you wouldn't have tried to make your self immortal.
- At least he had the good foresight to record the request. I doubt the Steel Rangers would care though.
- Of course the zombies remember how to attack things on sight.
- I suspect some Good Thing You Can Heal fueled Body Horror coming up. Probably applied to Pip.
- Necromantic radio waves? You have got to be kidding me indeed.
- Don't tell me Cottage had weapons built into his damn chair! Why would you not check it out before you gave it back to him?
- Well, that was easy. I forgot Pip had those shutdown codes.
Thoughts on Chapter 33:
Not much happened this chapter. They're back with Steelhooves, and Cottage Cheese's goal is now impossible. The main bulk of things here is the exposition of just how deadly Canterlot is. I don't even want to know how deadly magic radio waves are supposed to work.
Chapter 34
- The backups only last for five years? Why not just tie the non-crusader automation back in to the main systems instead of the weak backup systems? The Cursader only managed repairs and adjusted the number of living ponies in the stable. Unthinking automation could handle the necessities of that.
- And the automated defense kick in. Lovely.
- Neurotoxin? What is this, Aperture Science?
- Non-lethal incapacitation? Apple Bloom is the best.
- Wouldn't making hoof-mounted blades out of those claws work better for Xenith's style of fighting?
- You know, they've mentioned the fact that Velvet's rather obsessed with that Fluttershy orb quite a bit. Why isn't anyone calling her out on it?
- Wait, the Enclave didn't actually take power until well after the war was over? How did they convince nearly every single pegasus to leave Equestria then, if they weren't in charge?
- Real bandits, and not just raiders? That's new.
- We'd gone a whole chapter and a half without too much angst. We've been overdue.
- Pinkie Pie would plant surprise parties on the roof.
- Wait, Gummy is still alive? That sucks. He was such a cool gator.
- The Steel Rangers are trying to maintain good PR? A little late for that, don't you think? I do hope the unicorn ranger lives. She seemed alright.
- And she didn't. That sucks.
- I guess this is the only good town outside New Appleoosa?
- Why exactly is lockpicking such a strange skill? Eh, video game logic.
- I was wondering about the cows. I guess only one head is intelligent?
- Is there any point to these audio logs? They don't seem to be giving any important exposition.
- From angst to moral outrage. We're running the whole gambit here today, aren't we?
- Stupid ponies dieing stupid deaths. That seems to be the way things go here.
- So the old pony knows how to pick locks? Interesting.
- Arbu ponies were cannibals, eh? Time for more moral outrage.
- Yep, moral outrage. You'd think Homage's information networks would pick up on the merchants' information on the cannibalism.
Thoughts on Chapter 34:
Mostly action this chapter. Action and moral outrage. Pip appears to be turning into a sort of Spirit of Vengeance here, which is sure to cause her even more problems as the outrage switch flips back to angst. I'm not sure where Pip's character is going at the moment. She's all wishy-washy, trying to be morally white in a place where every action has a grey consequence for someone else. I would have though she had this sorted out long ago, but I guess not.
Comments
Seraphem
Since: Dec, 1969
Jun 17th 2012 at 2:56:30 PM
Basically while there was no official draft, there was a lot of unofficial pressure from a number of 'celebrity' pegasi like the Wonderbolts and RD to recruit as many pegasi into the war as possible, as well as pegasi being used as the front line or infiltration troops and tending to suffer the highest casualty numbers. And it wasn't ALL the pegasi that felt that way, not even clear if it was a majority of them, but it was a large portion of there leaders that felt that way.
And the radio thing is from the games, Canterlot is one giant expy of the Dead Money add-on to New Vegas, there you were forced to wear an explosive collar with a twitchy remote trigger that would go if you got to close to a radio for to long. She just adapted it for being deadly without the collar. It's not a radio frequency that is deadly, it's the sound the transmitters are emitting, it's basically a massive magical Brown Note. And even normal sound waves of the right frequency and power can mess a person up.
Cloudsdale got nuked, the pegasi closed up the sky to prevent the Zebras from being able to aim at them, they looked down saw a wasteland and the leaders that were scared into waiting, Enclave came to power and once it was safe to go back, they kept the common pegasi convinced it was still a hellish wasteland of instant death.
manual dexterity is not all the great when you got hooves
Arbu is prety much the point where Lil'pip realizes she HAS been "wishy-washy" as you put it, and really gets serious about doing shit right. yes it's a bit late in the story, but it's pretty much the major point of CD for her.
Sereg
Since: Dec, 1969
Jun 18th 2012 at 4:00:05 AM
"And no, cosmetics is not tangentially related to music or medicine. You're all crazy. "
One of the skills I learned in University is the way to justify everything being related to everything else. XD
"•Why is it that 90% of scenes with Homage revolve around sex? "
Point, but at least it's funny.
The pegasi were taking the heaviest losses.
"•You know, Equestria is a big place. The Enclave can't have the whole sky covered with guards, can they? It probably wouldn't hurt to pop above the clouds and avoid the storm. "
It's more that they don't know where the guards are.
"•Non-ponies can't wield the Elements of Harmony? That's rather arbitrary. "
I agree, but Spike isn't sure anyway.
"The main bulk of things here is the exposition of just how deadly Canterlot is. I don't even want to know how deadly magic radio waves are supposed to work."
Canterlot is Everything Is Trying To Kill You, the city.
"Why isn't anyone calling her out on it? "
They will.
I was not happy with Littlepip here, but she gets her act together.
Unknownlight
Since: Dec, 1969
Aug 8th 2012 at 7:58:11 PM
This live blog has been really entertaining for me to read. Keep it up! =D I'm looking forward to your opinion on the ending.
