Live Blogs A (positive) Re-Read of Fallout Equestria and Side Stories.

Seraphem2014-04-04 05:57:45

I really don't understand why people fault the zebras for believing that. It makes perfect sense.

Failure to put information in context of what the characters know versus what the audience knows and to account for cultural mindset differences

The whole situation with the valley always bugged me. Taking Trollestia as canon really rubbed me the wrong way ("Hey, remember that time where you got evil super powers and almost starved or froze everyone to death? Yea, totally gonna make a tasteless joke about that."). The text also explicitly states that the Zebra convoy had Legionaires (emphasis on the plural), which have been stated to be soldiers. Escorting civvies or not, I'm not sure what other response they could have possibly expected when they approached an enemy stronghold with a covered convoy and an armed escort. Did it never occur to anyone to try avoiding being spotted by possibly hostile forces?

On the other hand, I feel like the rest of the stuff with the zebras (not the Equestrian propaganda, mind) was rather beautifully tragic. Here they have this belief that the stars wish the world destruction by causing fighting. So okay, war breaks out and the stars are probably off somewhere cackling madly about the carnage. Seems a bit odd that they wouldn't realize they're basically playing into the stars' hands (hooves?), but maybe at this point they feel things haven't gotten too out of control.

Fast forward and they realize they're losing. At this point, they could stick to their beliefs and refuse to play the game anymore and enter for reals negotiations. Instead, they're so self righteous, they don't realize they've become the perfect examples of the star touched, and respond by giving the world the middle finger and setting off their balefire megaspells. Therefore screwing the world over and doing exactly what the stars wanted. Oops?

Well, this wasn't full on Trollestia, just her pulling a little prank, which we know she's not above doing. And she even admits in the end that it was wrong, and seeing that she was doing stuff like that was one of the things that made her step down.

And from the way it was described, it's possible the convoy had no clue what it was doing, all they were doing was heading away from battle, tring to get away from the frontlines and wondered into the school. And even if it had legionaries, doesn't mean they were smart, they could have just been some basic grunts tasked with being bodyguards. According to Xenith they only had one actual high rank/skilled zebra commando, and he was there only because his family was in the convoy.

We really just don't know enough to be sure. but it's possible that they simply wondered near the school accidently, getting lost, and soon as they saw it was filled with ponies just did a collective "okay what do we do now?" not sure how to proceed, while the ponies activated he defenses before they figured it out. Way to many ways it could have played out without knowing more details

And as to them suing for peace, keep in mind, while I agree with all your poits, they still saw Luna as being C'thulhu, and saw their own genocide as better then living under her control. So Peace was never an option for them.

I'd think such a sensitive topic would be right out for anything that could be considered a "little prank." Especially since Luna's response felt rather passive aggressive to me (and rightfully so).

Well, even with one veteran zebra commando around, he should have been taking charge. And given that his motive was protecting his family, I would have expected him to be extra vigilant and say "Whoa, guys, that's stupid, don't do that!"

It may not have been, but going by their beliefs, a peace offering and refusing to continue fighting would have been the way to give Luna'Thulu the middle finger. Instead, they gave everyone but Luna'Thulu the middle finger and played directly into the plan they perceived her to have from the start.

In short, in that AU, the stars were probably pointing and laughing for centuries.

Exactly, on the pointing and laughing. That was part of the tragedy, in trying to avoid it, they played right into The Stars plan (if they were real).

How many wars ever simply stop becuase one side decides not to fight anymore without having been defeated? Yeah woldn't work

And as to the convoy, the impression was it all happened to fast for any pony or Zebra to really have time to figure out what went on. Yes if they had just stopped and thought it out, things might have worked out, but they didn't have time.

Again, it was seeing just how far she was going with her pranks, and the general attitude about them that in part convinced her she was unfit to rule anymore.