Just a Face and a Caption: Embodiment Of Virtue

This◊ is the current pic - the protagonists of My Little Pony. The caption informs us that they "each embody a social virtue", but without it... they're just colorful horses; even with a list of their virtues there's no guarantee you could match them all up. (plus it's not even linked to the work page)

Is there anything better that could go here?

edited 5th Mar '13 10:37:46 AM by Prime32

Please CamelCase your article name. Click the little icon like this◊ immediately above your post, and you can fix it.

Image was only recently added (2013/Feb/25). Definitely doesn't illustrate shit. If you had images of them actually exemplifying their traits, that'd be one thing, but while it's not hard to illustrate something like Generosity, Kindness, Laughter or Magic, more esoteric or dialog-related traits like Honesty or Loyalty would be a lot harder to convey. Probably better off finding another source entirely.

edited 5th Mar '13 10:58:56 AM by ShadowHog

Agreed. Pull first. Suggestions later.

Yeah. +1 to pull.

I wouldn't object pulling.

Pull. Fan Myopia ahoy.

Pull

Pulled. (Although I'm pretty sure I botched up the second line of the typical "this image has been pulled" tag.)

edited 5th Mar '13 12:02:30 PM by ShadowHog

As the original uploader of that image, I see where you're coming from and can agree. I actually did try to look for an image that more clearly conveyed the relationship between the characters and the virtues, but there wasn't really much to be found. In the end I settled with the best I could find from one of the two works employing the trope that I'm personally familiar with (the other one being the Ultima series of CRPG:s - I think way more people are familiar with MLP today considering the highlighting the brony movement has received in public media).

Which brings me to my question: does anyone actually know of a better example? How important is the article image anyway?

Edit: I should also mention that I also selected the article images for Embodiment of Vice and Virtue/Vice Codification (a portrait of Scrooge and a screenshot from Ultima IV, respectively). Are those OK?

edited 5th Mar '13 1:00:58 PM by Anbalsilfer

The important part about the images is that they illustrate the trope. It's less important they they actually are an example, and it doesn't matter at all if it's a well-known example or not. We generally prefer to have images, since they usually add something to the trope page, and may illustrate the trope quicker than reading the text (in particular when there's a lot of it).

I like the one on Embodiment of Vice. The Virtue/Vice Codification can be improved (especially quality-wise), but isn't harming the page.

I'm not crazy about the Scrooge pic. The one on Virtue/Vice Codification is good but could stand to be larger, as the text is a little on the hard-to-read side.

Let's keep to one page to a thread. This thread is Embodiment of Virtue, not ...Of Vice.

Agreed. I dunno if this is any better than the old pic, but it's on the page in the Web Original section.

I also put a larger version of the pic on Virture Vice Codification.

edited 5th Mar '13 4:06:19 PM by Willbyr

Can't read the text on those without squinting.

There's also a dA watermark on the image covering up Esmerelda, which kind of hurts it.

Damn, and the individual images are watermarked, too...alright, scratch those.

Are there any character portraits from the Ultima series that would do nicely?

There's loads and loads of pictures of saints and martyrs. Shouldn't be too hard to even find funny ones.

For example: Discount camels, cheap! You can trust me, I have a halo.◊ For my next trick, I'll need a member from the audience...◊ They said you couldn't preach to birds, but I showed them! Bwahaha!

edited 5th Mar '13 9:37:05 PM by justanid

Saints and martyrs are not the same thing as this trope - they're held up as exceptional examples of various virtues, not living incarnations of them.

Enlong: I searched for example images from the Ultima series as well. I couldn't find anything, except images of the symbols of the virtues, i.e the rose of compassion, goblet of honor, scales of justice etc. While that could probably qualify it would probably still be too vague, and the ideal example would be a depiction of characters who represent their virtues, I think.

Noaqiyeum: Actually, characters standing out as exceptional examples of virtues can be enough to make them qualify for the trope. They needn't be anthropomorphic personifications of them. An ideal example of this trope is however a model where a number of different characters are chosen to represent different virtues, usually through their natural tendency towards those virtues. (This is my main gripe with the Disney Princesses example - the associations seem somewhat arbitrary, and they are definitely not as intended by the authors). An image of a single character that seems to represent a virtue would be ok, I guess, but it would be far better if an example could be found that highlights the fact that virtues and their associated representatives usually comes in sets.

To return to MLP examples (which are waay easier to find thanks to the size of the fanbase), would either of these qualify?

[1]◊ [2]◊

Honestly, I've tried to avoid captioned images that include "magic" for clarity since this is obviously not regarded as a virtue outside of the MLP universe. I've been looking for a version that reads "friendship" instead, but haven't been able to find anything. That's one of the reasons why I went with an uncaptioned version in the end.

edited 6th Mar '13 2:27:27 AM by Anbalsilfer

The first one can work. The characters themselves don't exactly scream their virtues, but some of them seem sort of like they fit. It would also be possible to cut out some of them (magic, moon, and sun).

Edit: Does this work?

edited 6th Mar '13 2:52:21 AM by AnotherDuck

That version may make a bit more sense to readers who aren't familiar with the show, but to those who are it's likely to be rather confusing, for a number of reasons:

1. The relationships between characters and the six "elements of harmony" (including "magic", which stands in-universe as a sort of symbol of friendship) is explicit in the show, and introduced in the first episodes of season 1. They follow as a recurring theme throughout the show.
2. Twilight Sparkle, whom you have cut out of the picture on account of her representing "magic", is the closest thing to a main protagonist the series has, and she is considered an inseparable part of the "mane six" (being the six uppermost ponies in the original).
3. The relationship between Cadence and love is not explicit in the show, but rather arbitrarily introduced by the artist. Also, Cadence is not introduced into the show until the very end of season 2, and her very presence as a symbol of love may be semi-spoileresque considering what those episodes are about.

Would it be possible to credibly and aesthetically simply change "magic" into "friendship" in the original, and simply cut Luna, Cadence and Celestia (the bottom row) out of the picture? If we could do that, I think the result would make pretty good sense to familiar and unfamiliar readers alike.

Would at least need the right font to even try to do it well enough.

Could also do it with just all of them, though that'd make it rather large, as well as partially not making that much sense to non-fans.

edited 6th Mar '13 3:18:43 AM by AnotherDuck

I don't think that image is illustrative — honesty and loyalty aren't there, and the others are weak.

Not really keen on 21.