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

You know, I always thought Atma Weapon's theme was one of the coolest in the game. So why is it so ugly in all the covers?

@Kyler Thatch: Who are Arizona and Velvet? Are they pony characters or are they from some other series?

I found an interesting fan theory about Vinyl Scratch and Octavia last evening, in that some people speculate that rather than being roommates or romantic lovers, they're actually sisters! This is based on their behavior with each other in "Slice of Life" combined with them having a house that is split into two sides. From what I remember, this was based on the idea that because of the way their house was split, it implied that without some deeper connection (such as being family), they probably wouldn't be living together. Although some of those arguments could apply to them being a romantic couple as well. I personally think the idea of them being sisters sounds like a fun idea and personally find it more interesting than the common fanon idea of them being a romantic couple or simply roommates, although if they were ever canonically confirmed to NOT be related I would be fine with it.

Vinyl Scratch and Octavia are sisters, but not biologically. Vinyl Scratch was originally Twilight's sister because she looks like Shining Armor and Octavia is a Pie sister and they both ended up being given up for adoption and they were both adopted by the same family and they grew up being raised as sisters together.

edited 14th Oct '15 9:56:52 AM by Rainbow

That's a pretty interesting concept.

CDRW: Maybe it's really difficult to do good covers for them? Not all tracks translate well from chiptunes.

Rainbow: They're the Applejack and Rarity expies, respectively, from Thems Fightin' Herds.

Once again I feel like shit. So get ready for me to be a whiny, shittty, angsty, self loathing, stupid piece of shit. Yay.

@Rainbow: If you're expecting a theory that involves not shipping ponies to take off, you're crazy.

Of course, if I expect people to not ship them if they are sisters, then I'm crazy.

Aw, what happened?

It's nothing. Just feeling like an awful writer and like I'm going to accomplish nothing in life.

So nothing new.

It's really nothing guys. I'm just feeling moody and angsty right now. No need to worry about me. Just hating my self.

I'm going through a similar thing myself. I feel like shit and I get pissed at the smallest of things. I've gotten much less tolerant of certain opinions then I use to be, even getting very hateful towards certain ones. So much for Love and Tolerance........ And none of my fanfic ideas will ever get written because I'm a shitty writer on top of being a shitty person.

edited 14th Oct '15 11:00:17 AM by marston

Lemme' just throw myself onto that pile of self-loathing and reactive personal qualms there...-tosses self-

Let's feel awful/meh together.

edited 14th Oct '15 11:01:40 AM by StarvingGecko

I may be depressed. I don't wanna say that though. I don't wanna diagnose myself with that. It could just be teenage angst I'm going through. Most likely.

I looked up some symptoms and they sorta match up. Sorta. They seem like stuff I'm having problems with nowadays.

But really, I think it's just a bunch of coincidences. Theirs no way I'm depressed. Right?

I... don't suppose there's anyone you could be talking to about this in meatspace instead?

If you aren't sure, you should probably talk to someone who actually knows the subject rather than a bunch of random people on the internet. We'll do what we can to cheer you up, but "posts on the pony thread" isn't a great criteria for seeking psychological advice.

@Crowfall: I don't necessarily expect the sisters theory to "take off" or become popular, it's just an idea that I personally thought would be fun if it was true. I personally have never been a fan of shipping Vinyl Scratch and Octavia romantically, mainly stemming from disliking the common fanon dynamic they have of being a bickering odd couple (and the idea that one can't like both classical music and modern dubstep), although I don't mind if other people like that pairing. So part of why I liked the idea is because it's NOT the common fanon portrayal the two usually get.

Well you know, there are fanfics out there that keep the dynamic and still have both of them come to appreciate both styles of music. I quite frankly find the pairing entertaining because of how polar opposites the two are. It's kind of like Twidash, Rarijack or anything involving Pinkie in that sense. If those latter three can be bickering odd couples without complaint regardless of whether shipping is involved or not, I don't exactly see what's wrong with the once common dynamic those two use to have.

edited 14th Oct '15 11:47:01 AM by marston

I'm not really a fan of the "bickering odd couple" dynamic in general for romantic pairings, so it's not just Vinyl Scratch and Octavia. It's just a personal preference, and I don't mind if other people like to ship them.

As a note about me, I've never really paid much attention to the common fanon portrayals of the background ponies aside from reading about them second-hand on TV Tropes and maybe a few fanfics that catch my interest. I tend to get more interested in the background ponies once they get a notable canon portrayal, like "Slice of Life" did.

edited 14th Oct '15 12:24:15 PM by Rainbow

They don't have to be shipped together to get those interactions. Vitriolic Best Buds is a thing that's popped up in the show itself (See RD and AJ for example, or Twilight and RD).

edited 14th Oct '15 12:21:34 PM by marston

I don't like the Vitriolic Best Buds trope that much either, mainly because I don't think I would personally like being friends with someone I had a lot of arguments with or who teased me, unless they learned to stop doing those behaviors after we became friends. I know that some people probably do have relationships like that and enjoy it, but it seems like an alien concept to me, because my experience has more been with "teasing" being simply another word for bullying rather than friendly playful banter. It's also because I sometimes have a hard time telling when someone is being serious or when they're joking (probably because of my Aspergers), and if I'm not sure which it is, I tend to default to assuming that they mean what they say.

I'd also clarify that by "arguments" I don't mean simply disagreeing on something, but the kind that tend to involve angry shouting matches and personal insults. I'd understand if two people who were friends and/or lovers had fierce arguments some of the time, but when it ends up being the majority of their interactions, that just doesn't seem like an appealing relationship to me, in both real life and fiction.

edited 14th Oct '15 12:56:00 PM by Rainbow

Well, I just proved something I've suspected of myself for a long time. Brighter lightbulbs make for better moods. It's worth the twenty bucks for a flourescent bulb that's more than double the brightness of a 100 watt incandescent.

In general I tend to prefer fluorescent lighting, too. Although in my case it's less due to brightness and more due to the fact that incandescent bulbs or lamps tend to be more gold-yellowish, when I don't want the light to have any color.

The dynamic is still plenty there. From what I know, the silent Vinyl thing hasn't change much, if anything. She was like that since Rainbow Rocks and it's been fine.

I thik you're making more of a big deal than it warrants, marston.

Finally being promoted to the position you've been performing for almost a year... it fills you with determination!

I finally got officially promoted to Senior Test! Woo! Pay Raise incoming, even if it's only supposed to be a small one.

edited 14th Oct '15 1:20:10 PM by kegisak

Also, more on topic, AJ and Rarity don't really fit a Vitriolic Best Buds archetype anymore. In recent seasons they've become much more supportive and kind to one another, to the point where they genuinely seem to have one of the healthiest friendships out of all the main cast. They respect one another's interests and talents and know the best way to interact with one another.

I don't hold any illusions of Rarijack becoming canon, but goddamn if it doesn't look good on paper from what we're seeing in the show.

I don't really have any strong feelings on Vinyltavia, myself. I think that they work fine aesthetically, I suppose - as a couple they have a nice Butch/Femme kind of division thing going on, and I like their styles individually as well - but I don't think I care for the sense of schism that's generally drawn between them. Like Rarijack, I think I'd prefer them to interact in a way where they respect one another's interests and don't fight over them. And really, from what we've seen in show while they're different people there does seem to be some overlap. Octavia was perfectly fine with a remix of her classical music for the wedding, after all.

edited 14th Oct '15 1:25:24 PM by kegisak

Congratulations!

The difference is that with EGQ and pony stuff in general back then, none of the Background Ponies ever talked, and when they did the voices would be....... Odd {See Bonbon's continiously changing and bizzare voices she gets throughout the show prior to Slice Of Life for an example}. Hence why no one really attached to the idea of Vinyl being mute at that time, because by that logic so are almost all the other BG ponies. And how much you really care depends I suppose: If you didn't ever go and read a bunch of stories or watch fan videos about those two BG Ponies, then you'd be less likely to care. But all anyone ever writes about these days is Mute Vinyl, which for me completly ruins the dynamic those two had. It would be like taking Rainbow Dash and Twilight and making the former into a stoic super serious pony for no reason.

But whatever, I'm trying to not give a crap about that stuff anymore {Trying being the key word here}. There's really no point to it all anyway. At least the stories I read and loved won't be dissapearing anytime soon. I know I'm probably being overdramatic about it, but like Rarity I suppose that's a reccuring flaw of mine. Or maybe it's my inner moronic fanboy kicking in {Mind you, I was once apart of the side of the Sonic Fanbase that repeatedly bitched, whine and moaned about the damn voice acting, so I suppose some things don't truely change}.

Since I mentioned Sonic, let's change the topic to that. How about that Sonic 3 and Knuckles game? It's pretty damn awesome am I right?

edited 14th Oct '15 1:45:01 PM by marston