Rain Gryphon

Not really in the mood to write much ATM, but...

In context, "You didn't make an appointment!" was a thoroughly bad-assed retort.

Celestia had a brief, golden opportunity to simply lunge, and drive her horn through Tirek's heart. It would have been a wonderful way to win without magic.

I saw Gilda a few times in the crowd scenes. I was hoping to see more of her.

Twi's astral mane and tail are still bang-cut. -}:=]

So, I opened up a container that I think has been sealed since 2002 or so, and found... Old-Ass Art! I remember drawing a lot of this, and just haven't seen it in years. None of it's really great, but it brings back memories, and like Grizabella from Cats, I'm finding that I can smile at those again. I currently don't have a scanner, so I just propped 'em up and photographed them. I may go back and do a better job, plus there's more art in storage, I'm sure. I need to create more stuff. I feel happier and better in control when I do.



I used to be a huge Rescue Rangers fan, and Foxglove was a solid favourite. This is ink on heavy paper, from Dec 1999.

*****



Generic, rather awkward skwirl girl from Jan 2000. I think this and Foxglove both ended up in a small press fanzine called Sheepette Gazette.

*****



Ralph the camel, from Jan 2000. This was because I had this boxed set of pastel sticks, and was screwing around trying to decide what to do with them, or if I even liked them. Ralph the Camel is from this song that I and one of my weird friends made up when we were 12 or so:

Ralph the Ca-mel!
He is e-vil!
He is here to spoil your Monday!
Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday!
Ralph the Camel!

For some reason, I stuck a mane on him, so he ended up looking kind of like a pony, but he's still a camel. An evil, purple camel.

After not seeing it for 17 years, I find that I kind of like the heavily stylized manner of it.

*****



Baby Dragon in the Milky Way. This is pigma pencil on Bristol, probably from summer of 2000. When I was little I used to love Casper the Friendly Ghost (until it finally dawned on me that he was dead, and then it got a bit weird). I had a View-Master reel set of Casper, and one of the pictures was Casper in the Milky Way, talking to an anthropomorphic star. That fascinated me. Thirty-five years later, my fascination with that scene gave birth to this. It's awkward, but I love the bright colours, and it somehow did manage to evoke what fascinated me about that scene.

*****



Dragon with Naughty Bits (Findra named it that). This is pigma pencil on Bristol, probably from summer of 2000. Just a generic dragon. I have a thing for big eyes, if it's not obvious.

*****



Sea Star. Pigma pencil on Bristol, definitely autumn of 2000. Sea Star was one of my MLP OCs (Personal Ponies, they were generally called back then). She lives in that castle with a bunch of her friends. I really like the leaves to the upper right. I had a maple right outside my window, and did those from life.

I'm really glad I found this one again!

Like Rabs noted, that was just about perfect. Any prior weakness in the season is more than swept away by the finale.

*****

During the first half, when Twi announces that she's going to go dwell in the Castle of the Sisters, my first reaction was to wonder who'll be the new librarian.

*****

"You're a Princess. You'll play your part." can have several interpretations, all operating at once.

*****

G1 Tirek had (and used) the power to transform Ponies into very large, fierce Dragons. That would have been an interesting temptation to have laid before Rainbow Dash, I think, although considering that she turned down the Shadowbolts, I doubt it would have gotten that far.

*****

Twilight's reaction shot when she realizes that Tirek has just blown up her library with all of her books inside is priceless. The volcanic rage that follows is such a contrast to the usual sweet, self-conscious little Twilight, but perfectly in character. The willingness to allow the characters to be themselves is one of the things that I like best about FiM.

*****

I'm somewhat embarassed that I didn't see the Rainbow of Light coming.

*****

After Tirek blasted all of his power at the Six hanging there in the Rainbow of Light's protection, and they just continued to float there, completely unaffected, his cry of "How can this be?!?" was just so corny and entirely 80s. I'm sure that was on purpose. I've become spoiled by FiM and expected a more emotionally realistic reaction, probably just a silent "Uh-oh... This isn't good" expression in a closeup, right before he panicked.

*****

I'm glad they didn't keep their Rainbow colouration. I didn't like that at all - very subdued, sombre colours, really, even if an elaborate design.

*****

Magnificent closing song!

*****

And Loganberry, I'm sorry that I spoiled Tirek for you! I was just that excited, though,when I saw that he was going to be the villain!

I really did want to see more of the Games themselves. That being said, I really liked this episode, despite that failing.

Why wasn't Applejack competing in some event? She's almost Rainbow Dash's equal in competitiveness. It would have been fun to see her in one of those goofy 'equine interest' editorials about the farmgirl going to the Games.

Considering that the third member of their team was Bulk Biceps, I'm guessing that RD and Fluttershy could have administered an historic drubbing to the Wonderbolts had they brought along a decent third.

I like that Rainbow Dash was happy having won silver. I liked her grinning and hoofbumping with Spitfire afterward. It pleases me to see athletes (even cartoon ones) behaving in a sane and sportsmanlike manner, and not this 'winning is everything' BS that is so often pushed these days.

I really, really, really liked the Gryphons! One was even purple!

The Gryphons had far and away the best flag, with its talon and lightning bolt.

Someone (not I) went through the crowd shots frame by frame, looking for easter eggs, and found Gilda! I wonder who she's cheering for.

"Mister the Dragon" never fails to amuse me.

Everyone but the Gryphons wear uniforms. Apparently being a Gryphon is enough to show which team you're on, or at least that Gryphons on that one team don't wear uniforms.

It's interesting to me that Spike is more than willing to take every last ounce of credit for his (minor and lucky) role in the downfall of King Sombra, but when he saves hundreds of Ponies by quick-wittedly doing something only he could have done, he's sincerely modest about it, to the point of being dismissive. People often act that way, and it's interesting to see it shown without dwelling on it.

When Spike is standing in the tunnel under the grandstands while the aerial race is taking place, I love that *vip!* *vip!* sound of the Pegasi and Gryphons rushing past. That's just the effect one gets at the racetrack. It really caught my attention.

When Miss Harshwhinny brings up the idea of a reward for his heroism, Spike wonders if it's possible to redo the opening ceremonies. That was easily some of the best voice acting I've ever heard. He's knows it's not a realistic request, and he sounds kind of ashamed of himself to be wanting that, but that's really what he does want. It's a very poignant moment.

Spike's lesson about learning to move past one's own failures is a good one as well.

A lot of people seem not to have liked this episode, but it worked for me.


Also, as a bonus, in rewatching 'Rainbow Falls', I find myself increasingly inclined to accept the idea (as some have expressed) that Ponyville is where Celestia sends the weird Ponies.

Recordings of old radio broadcasts involving flying saucers. Most are with contactees and 'saucer religion' people from the '50s, some quite fascinating.

*****

Outstanding comic with Pinkie Pie and Wind Whistler! Wind Whistler was always my favourite G1 pony!

*****

If I were threatening civil war, I don't think I'd be naming my faction 'the Red Shirts'.

*****

I slept all night and most of Saturday, having taken a 50mg dose of melatonin after not having used any for about two months. This was perhaps somewhat extravagent, and I still feel a bit sleepy, and not fully anchored in reality. Remarkably vivid dreams, though, which is what I do that for. Most of them dealt with travel, oddly enough.

*****

Undoubtedly the best headline I have seen in many weeks: Body of missing doctor Teleka Patrick accused of stalking a gospel singer 'found in lake'. The rather tawdry story, sadly, fails to live up to the (admittedly ambiguous) promise of a missing undead body obsessed with a random gospel-singing Naiad.

*****

Black Country locomotives of the mid-1960s. I thought of Loganberry.

*****

And so Wisconsin's tournament is at an end. I still get $7, which is better than 60 other people did :)

This may be only for American customers, but... If you sign on to your Amazon account, then go to the "Kindle Books" section, you'll see a link wanting you to sign up for a weekly spam letter about comic books. If you sign up for that, you get to choose one free comic book. Among the comics that they have in that offer is the first story arc collection of "Friendship is Magic", the one with the return of Queen Chrysalis. It is excellently presented. Every panel can be enlarged to see the details, and at the end of the book there are several short story arcs, and a lot of extra artwork, including the six covers that overlap to make a big picture. It's an excellent deal, available until March 30th.

The more I think about it, the less pleased I am with the Maud Pie episode. I liked the character, and her obsessive nature, and some parts of it were hilarious. I was disappointed at first that Tom the Rock ( "Here comes TOM!!" ) never got mentioned, but I can see how that whole incident is something they might not want to remember. On thinking further, though, Rarity's ability to find gemstones is surely the sort of thing that someone ought to have used to try to make conversation with Maud. She can also apparently eat quartz (or was that a diamond?) just like Spike (who was conspicuously absent). Again, as desperate as they were to start a conversation with her, that's the kind of thing someone should have jumped on.

This is the most dreadful thing. This little boy tried to kill himself (and tried seriously - this wasn't just wanting attention) because he was getting picked on for liking 'Friendship is Magic'. MichaelBrony623 is the twitter account, if you want to send good thoughts to his mother. She's tweeting realtime status updates on there. It's painful to read and think about, but I followed it anyway, because letting her know that someone's thinking of her and her boy is about all that I can do to help.

There's a lot of commentary on EQD about it, mostly to the theme of how they'd like to get revenge on the bullies, which is an understandable sentiment at such a time. Some of them are rather more thoughtful.

Luna Uses Caps, from FiMFiction, says:
There's a lot people can—and are going to—say about this. But the fact of the matter is, this is a child, not one of the adults. He doesn't think like us, nor is he as cynical. This is the product of hatred that we allow. If none of you can make a donation to this boy, though I have no affiliation/prior knowledge of him, I ask that all of you take something like this into account when living your daily lives. How you interact with people matters, and as a community, it is our responsibility to spread the knowledge of goodness we learn from here. I say this because I know that people, including myself, have made mistakes and hurt people. This is just another manifestation of what we do wrong being thrown back at us, and it hurts other people.

That's pretty much a restatement of the theme of FiM, but something that needs to be said aloud, and thought about from time to time anyway.

Several of the older Ponies are commenting, and this is something that strikes me as well, on just how godawful fragile kids seem to be these days. I don't recall hearing about any kid, ever, committing suicide when I was growing up. We also didn't have anything like the current moral panic over "bullying", although I suspect we acted every bit as badly as the current generation. Some kids (and some adults too) were assholes, and that's the way the world worked. Physical violence wasn't allowed (although sometimes it happened anyway), but if someone was making fun of you, you either ignored them or got back at them. As a society, we're training kids to treat minor annoyances as life and death situations, and this is what it leads to.

And, in a related vein - http://tvnz.co.nz/national-news/school-ditches-rules-and-loses-bullies-5807957

Taze 'im, bro! I saw the aftermath of this as I was going to the Giant Weasel. There were a single police car and a paramedic squad pulled up outside the Waffle House. I figured some medical emergency had happened in the restaurant, and felt vaguely sorry for whoever it was. By the time I left the store, the news trucks were there, so I looked to see what had happened. The fact that it was a villain getting his comeuppance makes me glad I was there to see it!

*****

I stopped by le Tarzhay on my way home to get some shorts, as the summer is now upon us. I found, in the men's section... My Little Pony tees!!!! Squee! They're the 80s design too, in a restrained manly athletic-wear grey with purple printing. I'm so thrilled! The friendly checkout lady (about my age) was delighted that I was buying it for myself, and that I knew the pony's name (Glory). This is the shirt I'd have loved 25 years ago, except I'm not sure if I'd have been brave enough to wear it in public back then. These days, I please myself :)