Motion Paradox

Ooh! They're having another poll! I'm hoping that Applejack & Rarity will be announced soon (Fluttershy is already planned for release at the end of the year, I'm also hoping to have a job there by then so I'll be there when the boxes come in) I actually just bought Rainbow Dash yesterday (I got Pinkie a few days after the release, though it's lucky I got there when I did, they had only gotten her a few days before and had already gone through half of them) so now I'm all caught up

Personally, I always thought the episode wasn't so much about religion as being about respecting other's world view/personal beliefs/lifestyle or rather, not trying to impose your own on another person; during the episode Twilight is the only one that refuses to accept Pinkie's ability and tries to prove that there is either a scientific explanation for it or that it was simply wasn't real but eventually decides to drop the issue and accept it as a part of who Pinkie is. This would be a good lesson for both children and adults: Children because a number of the children watching would be near the "age of not believing" and the stage where one thinks that if they don't believe in Santa Claus and the like anymore, neither should anymone else (I remember when I was 4 or 5 my friend Olivia forcing the lack of an Easter Bunny on me). And Adults because many problems in the world have been caused by one group forcing their way of seeing the world or their way of life onto others; the crusades were about this, the famine in Ethiopia was caused by missionaries going to Ethiopia and telling the people living there that they should abandon their method of food production in favour of agreculture which the land there generally isn't able to support, a number of people suffer health problems because they follow guidelines based the dietary needs of others which aren't compatible with their own (my mother, for example can't have grains, dairy, and most plants because of her allergies and wouldn't be able to survive following the government's guidelines because of her allergies)

Hmm, for me I'm fine with the premise, the main issue I take with it is that some of it seems a bit....fan work-y Namely the fact that they made the girls high school students despite the original show referring to them as adults; they mention themselves being mares multiple times indicating that they are at the age of adulthood and the comment from Canterlot Wedding shows that they age at a rate fairly similar to humans. Not to mention that half of the Mane 6 Ponies own their own homes and since original worlds often borrow from the culture of the region they're made in they would have to be in their early twenties since that's the age they would be able to enter into a contract, then Applejack & Twilight also live in their place of business but Sweet Apple Acres was built by Applejack's great grand parents so it either belongs to Granny Smith or was given to her while the Library seems to be set up so the Librarian can choose to live there. I also don't care for the fact that they didn't completely humanise them; the fact that they retain their pony ears is a bit odd as is the "tail hair". And of course the fact that they weren't given human colouring, I can understand why they did it; it would have been difficult to make it work since they either would have had to make the cast relatively diverse (and let's face it, some ethnicities simply do not suit certain characters) or they would have had to follow the Ponies are Caucasian, Ponies with Asian features are Asian, Zebras are African etc., which I personally would not have minded since I follow that rule myself but I know a number of people would have probably objected to having nearly every character in the series be of European decent, even if they made them "European Diverse" and had them all be different types of European (and if you recall Hearths Warming Eve, all of the three tribes were based on European cultures so they could make it work). But still, just because I understand why they did it doesn't mean that I have to like it. On that note I actually like that they didn't put horns on the Unicorn girls, I do agree that they should have some sort of indicator but I would rather have a mark like Lady Amalthia in "The Last Unicorn" since a Human with a horn on her head looks a bit odd to me. Still they'll probably have a magic wand or something along those lines. I also admit that I'm actually completely fine with their build, I know that a number of people have said that they don't like how thin they are claiming that they look annorexic, but then again Milky Way and the Galaxy Girls are similarly thin and nobody objected to their designs, it's stylised and even if you point out that a little girl may not realise this, they will realise that most Humans aren't bright pastel colours either so (really give little girls a bit more credit, having been one myself I speak from experience when I say we aren't all little sheep who will pursue any ideal waved in front of our faces. I can also say that we aren't as aware of out lack of figures as you may assume and by making a huge issue of it you're creating the very problem you're trying to avoid). Granted I am slim so I may be a bit biased but if they're slim because their active and not because of dieting having thinner Human characters would be a good example, with obesity being so common these we shouldn't be telling children that it's fine if you're 50 pounds over weight (because really, it's not healthy for anyone) and it can be done in a positive way so that people don't feel that they're defective because they're over weight but realise that there's room for improvement and that they don't have go in the opposite direction and deticate every moment of their lives to achieving physical perfection (because really, as a toy collector some of the reactions I've seen are odd, namely one that implied that it's only acceptable to be active if you have aspirations to become a professional athelete, not for the sake of self improvement which is probably message that could cause more problems for society). A lot of people have hidden behind the "alternate beauty" movement when their bodies aren't really meant to be as heavy as they are and claiming "I'm my own person, I don't need to fit some cookie cutter mold" and ignore that they're also damaging their health. Not to mention it's a bit unfair to rain on somebody for being thin, even in these days it isn't easy having any sort of perceivable advantage, including a smaller build; when you have a disadvantage if somebody teases you you're allowed to snap back at them, but when you have an advantage you aren't allowed to do that and people are less sympathetic and view complaining about being needled for it the same way that most would perceive somebody from a wealthy family complaining that the car they got for their birthday wasn't the model they wanted (Even I have experienced this to a degree and I was home schooled). For example if somebody isn't academically skilled and is teased for it they can then snap back at them and call them an "egg head" or something to that effect, but if a gifted person is mocked for their ability they would be given all sorts of grief if they snapped at the person antagonising them and called them stupid. I suppose what I'm trying to say is that it's silly to hate a character's design because they're slim and to assume that they will be vapid and shallow because of it, especially since people have been alright with similarly built characters in the past, even looking back you never see somebody shaking their head at a slim character from the past the way you see people doing with, for example, "The Chinese Baby Jell-o Ad" But moving along I also don't understand why so many people seem to object to the fact that they wear skirts, really if they behave the same way they always do what difference does it make if they choose to wear skirts or not? Their skirts are loose so they won't impede their ability to move freely, and looking at how the characters are built they'll cover well enough so we aren't constantly seeing their bloomers. It's silly to assume that they will all be 2 dimensional girly stereo types just because they wear skirts it doesn't even happen in real life; I don't even own a pair of pants, and while I do have a number of typical girl hobbies like collecting dolls, but I'm also skilled in math, have learnt a second language, enjoy video games (especially puzzle ones), watch action movies (including those without a romantic subplot) and during an incident once when the my house's alarm went off and we thought it was an intruder I had my kali sticks when neither my dad nor the son of my mum's friend who had to stay with us at the time (note said friend was in the army and his son plays football for his school) did anything to deal with it beyond phoning the police (in the end it turned out that it was just the back door being blown open). But I take equal amounts of pride in my more typically girly traits as I do with the traits that are less so Remember the lesson from Dog & Pony Show, there's a difference between being feminine and being a girly stereo type; just because you give feminine traits to a female character does not mean that you're being sexist or that the character is automatically inferior to, for example (doubly so when these girly traits are superficial), a purely tomboy character (in fact you could argue that this line of thinking is sexist as it basically says that you think a girl cannot achieve her full potential if she embraces anything girly, even if that's not your intention. It's also similarly biased to say that a male should not like something associated with females, often doing things that put you in a position of perceive inferiority is frowned upon while doing something that raises you above your current positioned is applauded; think of the message that sends when a person is supporting a girl liking masculine things but shunning a boy who likes feminine things). Actually, when I think I about I don't think I've seen females rejecting girly things be as common place in any other part of the world as it is in Canada and the United states, I'm going to bring up Pokemon for a bit because I think that this part of the issue is similar to the reaction I saw from some when the female trainer from Heart Gold & Soul Silver was first announced. There was some disapointment that they did not reuse the female trainer from Pokemon Crystal, especially since the female trainer in the first generation remake games was the unused female trainer that had been planned for the original but couldn't be included due to limited technology but somebody actually went so far as to start a topic about how much they hated the female trainer's design and that she would have to choose the boy trainer to avoid having to use a pink and white set of Pokegear (which ended up being a moot point since you choose the colour) and considered both the pink Pokegear and the female character's design to be sexist. According to this person and some of the others who replied to their post the new girl trainer was too girly and while the original female trainer "looked like she could take care of herself" the designs had become progressively more girly with each generation and that this one "looked like she would start crying if she tripped and fell or broke a nail" and that female trainers in general have been reduced to eye candy. I could understand being upset if choosing the female changed the game so that the story became simpler or the game were significantly easier, but in every game the female trainer goes against gym leaders and the elite trainers, captures Pokemon most people never even see (provided you don't botch up and faint it), takes down a crime syndicate and saves the world just like the male trainer, even if she wears a puffy hat with a giant bow on it or carries a pink Pokegear. Not to mention that generation has Whitney, the Gym Leader who not only uses cute Pokemon exclusively but models her gym to resemble one, and yes she cries when you defeat her and loves cuteness, but she also has one of the most formidable teams of the Johto gym leaders with her Milktank only having one attack that you can completely block (Attract never gave me any trouble since most of my team is Female) and we see in the remakes that she feels a need to better herself. I see the issue of everyone assuming that the girly designs used in Equestria Girls will make it into a shallow teen-girl feature as being similar to reactions some had to the girly trainer design; really, look at the designs for the Ponies as they normally are, they're cute. No matter what other adjectives you use for them they are cute, it all has an asthetic that does appeal to many girls, if the original design can be cute and have good depth then this can be....relatively cute and do the same? Colourful talking Ponies doesn't automatically mean tea parties and playing dress up, so why does having thin girls that wear skirts automatically mean having the depth of a coffee spoon and fawning over boys? In short I don't especially like the asthetic, but I'm willing to give the rest of the content a chance, it's just one movie and the music is written by Danial Ingram, how bad could it possibly be? Oh, and as for the issue of what Discord could be in that world, I could imagine him either being as he is now, or similar to The Phantom in the show Flying Rhino Junior High. For those who aren't familiar with the show the basic premise is that these four children have to use their knowledge of science and/or history to defeat a man who lives in the basement and uses his giant computer to change the school or something in it to fit the lesson taught at the beginning of the episode (The best analogy I can think of is what Magic School Bus could have been like if they gave magic to an antagonist)

Another thing is if your family is always judging you harshly then even if they do judge you harshly for liking the show it won't be any different from how things usually are for you, so why should you worry about it? They're judging you now when they don't know what you're doing so it couldn't make the situation any worse and may improve it

(What? Somepony had to post this) But I'm looking forward to seeing some of characters that result from this, it should be a lot of fun (-^u^-)

She isn't an official Pony, none of the Pony generations had anything with that shape (the proper term for something like this is a "Fakie") A lot of companies have have made their own Pony toys and toy molds including better known toy companies as well as small no-name toy companies (these usually are sold in dollar stores and can have....unfortunate names such as "Demon Donkey"....No really, this one exists). Some types of fakies are actually famous among collectors such as Remco and Totsie. Then some companies even managed to buy the official molds when a previous generation ended so those fakie Ponies look like official ones apart from their colours and symbols

I think Pinkie's name was meant to be a parody of amish names since her family and their rock farm have a similar archaic feel On that note I know that a number of people have used Belle as Rarity's last name (with the idea being that she doesn't use her family name but Sweetie does) and Apple as Applejack's (Apple Family) and I remember seeing a story where Fluttershy's family name is Poseysfilly

I don't have my copy of the 5th issue but I did read a scan that somebody put up just over a week ago and I really enjoyed it. First of all I've never really read American comic books, there have been a couple of series I've read that spin off of non-comic based franchises, but never anything with longer story arcs like this one. As such I don't know very much about comic tropes so I've enjoyed the book as it is without "I've seen it before" being an issue. Either way, visually the book is amazing. The artwork has both beautiful and adorable parts and I enjoyed how they told the story, it would be amazing if this ended up being made into an episode later on. Though I don't understand the comment of Rarity being out of character through, she seemed fine to me (in fact, let's quickly take a look at everything she does in this) -First we seeing her complaining about the nightmares she's been having like the others are and wearing a pair of sunglasses: We already know that appearances are important to her so it would make sense that if she hasn't been sleeping properly she would wear sunglasses to cover up the dark circles under her eyes, especially since a Pony's eyes take up most of her face. -During the sleep over we see her forcing Rainbow Dash into having a makeover; Again this isn't really surprising, we saw her do this to Applejack during "Look Before You Sleep" -During the nightmare sequence we see that her's relates to her friends abandoning her which some have speculated is why she was chosen, she's the only one that doubts her connection to her friends: Twilight's nightmare is that Princess Celestia won't be her teacher anymore which we've seen in numerous episodes as being a concern of her's but she would still have her friends supporting her, Applejack's is that she'll let her family down which again we've seen is an issue for her but again she would still have her friends, Fluttershy's is that her animal friends will run away from her but she would still have her pony friends, Rainbow Dash's is that she won't be able to join the Wonderblots or fly as well as she can but again she would still have her friends to support her and Pinkie's was that Ponies wouldn't find her funny (but then the one's she knows well would still care about her) while Rarity, if she lost her friends would only have her family and she doesn't seem to have the same depth of connection to them. And it does make sense that she would be concerned; one of her biggest faults is that she can't manage her priorities, she often starts out wanting to do the right thing but then ends up being side tracked and she frequently struggles with balancing what she wants to do with what she should do which causes her problems that the others often have to help her with. I could see how she would end up in a situation where she would think that they would get tired of her faults without realising that she has a number of good points that off set them and think that as soon as somepony who has her best traits without any of her faults that they would take her place. -Finally her friends are confident that she'll be able to last waiting until they can rescue her and for the most part she is able to until she sees what her captors look like; if you recall in "Dog & Pony Show" we saw that she was capable of taking care of herself after being abducted by the diamond dogs and Rarity was confident that she could wait until her friends came to retrieve her until the Nightmares actually approached her. Which makes sense, in Dog & Pony Show if worst came to worst Rarity could have just used her magic to break off a stalagtite and knock the Diamond Dogs over the head, while the nightmares, first of all, don't seem to be solid and secondly probably have some sort of magical power which would make them much harder to take on (not to mention they are probably more intelligent than the Diamond Dogs were) Personally the only concern I have is with the 3rd part's mention of Spike playing a role in saving the day, just because I wouldn't want this to end as a role reversed version of Secret Of My Excess. Mainly because it would feel more complete if the other girls helped to change her back; it would address the concerns that probably caused Rarity to be corrupted in the first place (because really, if your friends still try to save you when you're pocessed by evil forces you know they care about you). Compare having the friends you were sure would abandon you because of your faults come to rescue you resulting in your being changed back to normal to a 12 year old with a possibly one sided crush on you coming to save you while your friends are in the same general area but aren't with him

Well if we go by my closest friends with Pony selves I would either get a writing cutie mark (which I wouldn't be horrible at, though not particularly great), a rabbit cutie mark (but my friend does want to do character design so it wouldn't be too far from what I want to do) or no cutie mark (one of my friends is a sea pony and sea ponies don't actually have cutie marks). Still it would be interesting for whoever ended up with mine since of the four of us I'm the only Unicorn (well I suppose I lean toward directing than actual animating) But if we go by me personally, I would probably end up with something in physical medicine. More than the opposite of a talent I have it's based on myself as a whole; anything medical makes very uncomfortable so it would be one of the things I'm least suited to (and thinking about it, the cutie marks everyone ended up with weren't so much the opposite of their talents as a talent that goes against one of their personality traits; animal care requires a type of quiet leadership Rainbow doesn't have, being an entertainer requires being more extraverted than Fluttershy is, while Pinkie has become more responsible over the course of the series running a farm is something we know from her cutie mark story she isn't suited for, sewing and any type of designing job requires an eye for detail and what works together that we know from "Suited For Success" Applejack doesn't have and managing weather seems to involve focusing on what the end result should be rather than the details of how it gets to that point which Rarity obviously had difficulty with)

I hope so, I missed last year's winter wrap up so I've been looking forward to another

I presume this is the place to post this Will there be another Winter Wrap Up this year? And if so when will it be? Also when will the next Iron Pony Competition be? Will it be annual or just years with the Olympics? Finally why was there no badge for participating in the Running of the Leaves 2012? There seemed to be one the first year and having another could have been nice Thank you for anyone who answers (^u^)

if that is the official design to me it looks a bit...."Fan Work-y" Thus far the Mane 6 Ponies have been depicted as being young adults, probably in their 20s, and if it follows the same pattern that many other original worlds do it has many similarities in terms of culture which means that most of them would have to 21 or older since they wouldn't be able to enter a contract and thus could not own a house (True in Twilight's case Celestia probably arranged for her to live in the Library then Applejack's house was the first building built in Ponyville so she's living in her family home, and Pinkie we don't know her exact arrangement, but Fluttershy, Rarity and Rainbow Dash all own their own homes), but I suppose they could always wave it off as being a side effect of the Pony to Human spell that makes their Human forms a different age from their true forms. But I compared it to a fan image because a number of people have had Human versions of the Mane 6 be High School students, I don't really understand why to me it doesn't make sense, in addition to the point I previously mentioned, most of them either have their permanent job or are taking steps toward it and people who do continue a job they have in high school for the rest of their working lives tend to be either very successful or very unsuccessful. I suppose the logic behind it is that it's a case where you could easily have a mix of character types that may be difficult to have with college or university and somebody who is still school aged would be easier for children to identify with than somebody who has finished schooling started their career (though that still doesn't explain the fan works). Though I would have thought that Monster High would have a monopoly in terms of human characters with non-human colouring (and again a surprising number of fan works have made the Mane 6 Humans but left them with skin the colour of their coats) Still I won't object too strongly if whatever designs they have do something to dispell some of the (Other) Humanised Pony troupes that I'm not especially fond of, though if they do go with those colours and they've been transported to our world that could be interesting considering Applejack and Rarity are the only ones who are close to normal Human colours; can you just imagine explaining the others "Why is that girl pink?" "She has a mild sunburn" "And that one is yellow...." "She suffers from chronic jaundice" "And what about those blue and purple ones?" "They have a skin condition that makes them bruise easily"

It could end up being a special or the movie and hopefully they'll have it be that she becomes a princess and then decides to quit for now and decide later on or she needs to have her magical abilities inhanced for something and then she has to decide what to do later on. If it goes along one of those lines it could end up being an upgraded version of the g3 special "The Princess Promanade" where one of the characters ends up falling into the position which they haven't had for decades and is concerned that she won't be able to spend time with her friends as their equal or do any of the things she loves since she now has to be a perfect example. In the end she had all of her friends be Princesses as well so they would be equal again (resigning wasn't an option in the special because she had become friends with the one who named her Princess and he would have to go back to sleep if she resigned, but there's no reason why Twilight couldn't) and I think that could be the best way to handle it

I wonder why so many are concerned that it will effect her personality, in theory becoming a Princess does not come with a brain surgery procedure. For me the big concern is all of the depressing implications that come with this; they've always had the occasional work with Alicorn Twilight out living everypony else but there's going to be so much of it now that it's potentially cannon and I find that theory really depressing (It may seem a bit strange but I HATE being sad, I also have difficulty with the idea of letting go and just being in the moment so this does tie into some of my personal issues) . I wouldn't mind if it was just a superficial thing or if the other girls could become Princesses as well, perhaps Twilight would have the authority to crown them (can you imagine the shocked look on Blueblood's face if that happened?) and I suppose if all else fails Twilight could use age spells on them. But still, there are some depressing implications and it does seem like a strange thing to do with a series that is supposed to be about the bond between six Ponies considering this would basically say that only one is important enough to potentially live forever

Hmm, I'm not sure about Twilight becoming an Alicorn; I wouldn't mind if she were still a regular Unicorn but with wings as it's been implied that Cadance is, perhaps that in order to increase her level of magic she needs wings to increase her potential to store magic energy or is a symbol that Celestia and Luna acknowledge her as being their equal in terms of skill level or if she did become like the Princesses but everypony else was crowned too. The reason why is because of the implied immortality (or at least incredibly long life span) of Princess Celestia and Princess Luna; it seems a bit sad to have Twilight essentially become a Goddess and her friends not and she could easily end up back at seeing friendship as being pointless since she would out live all of them. True she could simply use age spells to keep them alive or would be able to crown them as Princesses after becoming on herself, but then there's also the aspect of going against the theme of the show by having the series be about the friendship shared by these six Ponies and having one of the most powerful magical artifacts being activated by their bond and then deciding that only one of them is chosen become a Princess and gain all of the related benefits. Though if they all became Alicorns I'd be fine with it Though I am disappointed that there won't be a Rarity episode this season (especially since there was that post about there being one....), unless the coronation is the movie and the 13th episode is a regular story