Griffons are a race we’ve seen very little of in the show, that’s for sure. As such, it seems only natural for imaginations to go wild at the very thought of them! Being what they are (part bird, part lion, and all awesome, apparently,) it seems unsurprising that griffons have become sort of the coolkids of the OC horde. However, they have also become infamous for being just this: go-to “cool characters”. In this case, the many assumptions about griffons have caused them to become little more than excuses to create an OC who’s all action and violence. Well, not to rain on your flock, but Griffons are far deeper than that:

--Not all Griffons are vicious

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In fact, there’s almost no evidence within the show to indicate that they’re vicious at all. The most that they seem to be is occasionally unpleasant to be around, but that can be explained with a later point. What I mean to say is that it’s highly overdone, the idea that Griffons are these tooth-and-nail (beak-and-nail?) ruffians that are born into a savage land, or whatever. If anything, it seems, rather, that griffons behave very much like ponies do. On that note, there’s also a lot of assumption saying griffons are carnivorous, which means they would need to hunt. However, I should make note of the fact that thus far, we’ve seen evidence not just against that, but rather to the contrary: Out of Gustave la Grande, we got a very particular salivating reaction when Pinkie Pie described the desserts. All of these desserts were not only grain based, but would have been inedible to him if he were a pure carnivore. The simple fact that he COULD eat it without issues indicates otherwise. As such, it indicates to me that Griffons are, at least, omnivores, and thusly do not NEED to be vicious hunters to survive.

--They probably can’t outfly Rainbow Dash

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Gilda may compete, but unless she can pull off a Rainboom, something tells me she wouldn’t be able to beat Dash. Just so, I’d take it as a general rule that just because a Griffon looks cool, doesn’t mean that a Griffon could whop a decent Pegasus. Once again, I’d go with the “Equality of Races” Rule. In other words, a Griffon’s ability and mastery with flight is probably on the same level of a Pegasus with equal amounts of practice. Now mind you, that’s only taking into account flight capability, not other aspects, such as, perhaps, strength. After all, we did just take the talons of a bird and slap it onto a lion.

--Griffons are misunderstood!

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In this case, I mean it! Now, it’s time to use a tie-in outside the show. The original mythology says two pivotal facts about griffons we can apply here. One: Griffons and horses have been enemies since before time. This is a tie-in with how griffons seem to be so… well, full of pride and make a habit of intimidating ponies. Two: They are very proud creatures, and insulting them usually results, according to the folklore, in death. However, this is ponies, so we can scratch out the ‘death’ part. Gilda, for example, reacts negatively when Pinkie Pie attempts to arrest Dash’s attention. Rather than Gilda just being a jerk, what you witnessed could also be perceived as a reaction to a breach of respect, in which case, in Gilda’s view, Pinkie neither had Gilda’s respect enough for partnership, nor did Pinkie have respect for Gilda and Dash’s partnership by butting in. I consider Griffon behavior to be based upon a generational deep-seeded sense of chivalry, its backbone being respect and honor. As such, you could say, to that effect, that rather than griffons being mean and haughty, what you could be reading into is a genuine sense of nobility that ponies are simply perfectly ignorant to. Food for thought.

Anyhoof, I honestly don’t have much to say about Griffons. All I can advise is this: develop griffons as you would any regular pony, as they seem to be, in the show’s sense, very similar in ability.

(Shorter entry this time, done by request.)