Time for more brony opinions! We are running a little low on these, so be sure to get yours in!
Expect these posts at 3:00 PM PST on Tuesdays. Submit yours by following the rules here.
This week's headlines:
- Why I Clop and Why You Should Not Hate Me For It
- Alternative Versions
- Why Discord SHOULD NOT Have a Backstory
- Was "A Canterlot Wedding" Based On Old Scottish Folklore?
- Will the MLP Movie Revive Traditional Animation?
And get your soapboxes below!
Why I Clop and Why You Should Not Hate Me For It
By: Stealthypone
Humans are sexual beings. There may be exceptions here and there but in general that is a fact.
In terms of sexuality, you don't chose what you are attracted to. It just so happens as it does, maybe evolving over time, but it's not a deliberate choice.
With that in mind, take these characters we all grew to love. Their human-like behaviour coupled with their sentience and also cute looks makes them very appealing to their audience - not necesarrily in a sexual way, mind you.
We see many aspects of their life, but one of the main things in life is not dealt with - and for a good reason, the show is still foremost for kids -, namely the one mentioned above: sexuality.
This is were clop-artists and clopfic-writers and whatnot come into play, they allow us a glimpse at what we do not see in the show itself and it can be highly rewarding to consume what they provide.
Not to mention that the quality of some of what these people create is beyond impressive from a purely artistic point of view, whether the content is to your liking or not.
Of course there is not only pony-clop, there is humanized and anthro and everything in between as well, so it's no surprise that there are many people who enjoy those things, even if they might not be "into ponies in that way".
The important thing is to keep all this away from people who do NOT want to see it and sadly that sometimes fails which is just sad and I understand why noncloppers would be mad about that.
But your average clopper is not going to rub his favorite explicit things into your face if you do not want to see that!
As with everything there is a small obnoxious fraction that would do that and that sadly puts all of us in a bad light.
Clopping itself, though, is not hurting anyone, it is no reason to be ashamed and no reason for others to bash you for it.
If you are NOT a clopper, I am sure you also have some fetishes yourself that you did not consciously chose to have, that others might maybe even consider weird or worse.
But just because they are unusual, would you want others to give you a hard time for having them?
So please stop calling cloppers sick or anything like that, can't we all just get along?
Alternative Versions
By: Yamiks
In season 5 finale "The cutie re-mark" we get to see different outcomes to the world if mane 6 never would have happened and I am not the only one to say this, but it was wonderful to see more of a serious side of this show. Sure it was more gritty, but even at that we get so much material for head-cannons and fan-fics it's insane.
While it's quite apparent as to which version I would have liked to live in, I still LOVED to see nightmare moons reality,aside from, at times, insane looking leader. I hate that writers keep portraying Nightmare as insane, but hey - it's a kids show, so villain must be apparent! Also batpones everywhere!
A rather weird thing was Flim-Flam version since I don't take them for a world conquering types, but what let me down was that there was no Trixie-verse. I know some people here sure would LOVE that!
People have discussed this topic already, but I find it fascinating since we don't have an episode like "Anthology of Interest" in Futurama. So which one of those alternative versions did you prefer more? Or perhaps you'd like to see a different one?
Why Discord SHOULD NOT Have a Backstory
By: Nicholas
Sheep here, first time doing one of these so I'll make this quick. I've been quite vocal about my fanboyism over Discord, definitely my favorite antagonist/reformed villain. Over the years more and more people have wanted to see Discord be given an episode going into his past before he took Equestria over. I did too at one point, but over time it became clear to me that from a writing perspective, it made sense to keep it ambiguous. I say that because Discord is a case of a villain where you wonder "Oh man what could make someone like THAT?" and in this case, it's better if it's left alone. A good villain I can think of that has a similar situation would probably be Cruella deVille. Do you REALLY care about what made her go completely bonkers to the point of wanting to skin puppies? My guess is no not really, you just want to enjoy watching her evilness. A lot of the best villains ever are like that in a sense and Discord fits that. Lets be honest if Discord was given one now after being around so long, I doubt it would satisfy anybody.
Was "A Canterlot Wedding" Based On Old Scottish Folklore?
By Fluttershypegasus
Some while after I became a brony, I read a book of folk stories. One stood out to me as familiar-"The Ballad of Tam Lin".
The story tells of a young woman, Janet. She is warned not to go into the woods, since there is a fairy there who steals away women (in mythology, 'fairy' meant 'supernatural entity' rather than "tiny winged person"). She goes into the woods and meets a strange man called "Tam Lin", whom she falls in love with. He was a human who was kidnapped by the Fairy Queen. He asks Janet to help free him.
The Queen takes Tam Lin across the woods, when Janet suddenly grabs him. The Queen has the ability to change Tam Lin's form to make Janet let go; he becomes a snake, other creatures and a hot coal, but because of her true love, she holds on and frees him.
This bears a striking similarly to "A Canterlot Wedding"-Cadence and Janet are the females who rescue their respective grooms using the power of true love from a wicked and magical queen with the power of shapeshfting.
Will the MLP Movie Revive Traditional Animation?
By: WanderPony
Traditional animation. The medium that every animation fan misses. Disney gave it a second chance in 2009 with The Princess and the Frog, but the film wasn't as successful as Disney wanted it to be, for whatever reason. Now traditional animation is very rare (if not outright extinct) in American feature film. Is there a chance of it making a comeback?
Yes. Yes there is. And we can look no further than the 2017 My Little Pony movie.
The film will be animated in ToonBoom, a program used by many current 2D-animated products, including the aforementioned Princess and the Frog, that can easily emulate the classic and timeless style we love. The film also has a possibility of being a big success at the box office (as My Little Pony is a popular franchise with a HUGE fanbase), and maybe it'll convince other studios (including Disney) to give traditional animation a third chance.
All we can do is wait and see what happens when the film is released.
