My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic (Live Reactions & Discussion)

Well, not about as a whole- it's one thing that happened early on. The story as a whole seems to be a look at Culture Clash, largely through the relationship of Bucky, Derpy and Berry Punch, and then some political messes that come of that. But it's over 2 million words so I'm not sure if anyone but (maybe) the author knows it all.

Like, I also thought of it after your race war question. It goes into some detail early on about the PO Vs of the different tribes, which is kind of neat, but there's enough confusion that it doesn't seem like an united Equestria could have lasted.

...Who's Dinky Hooves? Is she really Derpy's daughter?

Dinky is the fanon name for a grey unicorn foal that fanon likes to hold as Derpy's daughter.

In spite of the fact that Dinky and Derpy didn't even appear on-screen together until partway through season 5.

And notably not in "Slice of Life", the deliberate love-letter to the adult fandom.

She grabs everyone with vines, shoves them in buildings, outright smothers her brother in the things. It's a wonder he didn't suffocate to death.

And it's hard to describe her wrecking the camp as "accidental" when it occurred as a consequence of her deliberately smothering the camp in murdervines.

Gloriosa's plan is a version of that "put someone in stasis to prevent them from dying" thing (is there a trope for that?) only applied across a wide area. Attacking the kids is basically when the one who did it in the first place is desperately trying to put them back into stasis, even if it kills them (only without the killing).

edited 28th Apr '17 6:05:44 PM by LordVatek

With murdervines? That's not stasis. That's just crushed to death.

It's not a perfect analogy.

She didn't grab anyone with vines until after they started trying to destroy the wall.

Anyway, it seemed pretty clear that she was trying to protect the camp - she just didn't have good control of her powers and/or got carried away.

edited 28th Apr '17 6:28:37 PM by storyyeller

Headcanon of the day (though I'm just being lazy by building off Tobias's):

Pony Vinyl Scratch and Human Vinyl Scratch are mute and they have two different ways to communicate:

1. Normally, they communicate with hand gestures when it can be done with simple gestures like waving your hands, pointing, etc.

2. Now, I assume that Human Scratch, if she has to communicate more complicated things then can be done by simple gestures, uses sign language with Octavia as occasional translator. (Please tell me if I'm wrong about Human Octavia and Human Scratch being close enough for Octavia to be her translator or if it's likely for Octavia to know sign language.)

3. Pony Scratch, however, doesn't have hands. I assume that she uses magic to communicate. Perhaps by making words? I don't know.

edited 29th Apr '17 8:22:59 PM by fredhot16

There's at least one fic where pony Vinyl is mute and can use her magic to form words in the air.

like the family from Samurai Jack's 4th season?

Realistically, human!Vinyl would probably just type on a tablet or phone to talk.

Wouldn't that be annoying? She couldn't have had a phone all her life so she had to have learned sign language. Is typing on a phone better then sign language for conversations?

edited 28th Nov '17 10:17:59 AM by fredhot16

The Scratchtavia segment of "Slice of Life" does a good job showing how Vinyl communicates with gestures as a pony.

The thing is that it depends on the exact reason why she doesn't talk and her background and circumstances. But the show writers clearly put no thought into that, so there is little point in us trying to figure it out.

If you consider pure probabilities, the most likely explanation would be that she's from another country and hasn't learned English yet or is too embarrassed by her limited English to talk much. But that's probably the least likely to be canon.

Anyway to answer your question, Vinyl probably wouldn't have learned sign language unless she is deaf, and even then, it's by no means guaranteed (in real life, most deaf children don't learn sign language due to the ignorance of parents, doctors, etc.). She might use some kind of home sign though.

edited 28th Apr '17 7:23:49 PM by storyyeller

I am compelled to take note that a deaf person would very likely not get into music as their defining trait like Vinyl Scratch does. Granted, it's not impossible, there's at least one deaf composer in music history. But I think it's more likely that she's mute by choice (or at least due to some different condition) rather than because she's deaf.

I believe the fanon is that she's mute, not deaf.

On a side note, most deaf people are also "mute by choice". It's a bit of a dilemma because if you can't speak well, people will think you're an idiot, but if you can, people will forget that you're deaf and get annoyed when you ask them to repeat all the time.

Yeah. While there's a running gag of her not hearing people, it's because of her headphones. She can pretty clearly hear, as evidenced both by her profession as a DJ and by actual instances of her conversing with others.

"Slice of Life", for instance, has Octavia criticize Vinyl for her poor choice of remix. "That's not really appropriate for a wedding, is it?" Vinyl clearly hears and takes this to heart, then tries again with something a bit more appropriate.

This whole exchange would be nonsensical if she was deaf. She seems to be mute, but she can clearly hear.

edited 28th Apr '17 7:35:53 PM by TobiasDrake

It is unlikely, but I highly doubt there is a specific condition that the writers intended her to have, so any speculation on the subject would have to go outside the show. Besides, I didn't say that I thought she was deaf, just that she would be unlikely to learn sign language otherwise.

It's not the most convenient way of communicating for a mute person, considering most people don't know it. Unless she had a translator, but she clearly doesn't at all times.

Given how much she hangs out with Pinkie, it's also possible that she doesn't speak because she's just gotten used to Pinkie talking nonstop.

I was responding to Kyler.

...who I now see was riffing off something you said. What I get for skimming, I guess.

edited 28th Apr '17 7:43:00 PM by Wryte

Haha, someone finally made a trope page for My Little Pony: Totally Legit Recap.

I was never particularly big on Vinyl and Octavia to start with, so I'm really up for whatever as far as that interpretation goes.

Anyway, I need to get to sleep.