Friendship is Dragons 3: Canterlot Wedding

[keybounce]

Previous threads:
https://forums.giantitp.com/showthread.php?243721-Friendship-is-Dragons
https://forums.giantitp.com/showthread.php?562773-Friendship-is-Dragons-number-2-it-s-over-500

This is a screencap RPG game based on MLP. It's not 100% strictly in-order, and at least one major scene was done with all-new drawings by a reasonable-well-known pony artist.

We are currently at the Canterlot Wedding. One of the main characters, the girl who plays Twilight, has a brother getting married, and both of the two are RPG'ers. We've seen in an earlier strip that the brother has been playing the same pony homebrew with a different GM, and now we get to meet Fiance and Fiancee'. (err, what are the names for the male and female versions?)

http://friendshipisdragons.com/comics/1399
Here we see our heroes (heroines?) getting ready to do the same divide and conquer party prep we've seen at the Gala, but this time they are the official prep ponies, not trouble making outsiders. What could go wrong?

[keybounce]

I really wonder where some of these screencaps come from.

Today we see a wonderful twist. As much as Cadence is showing those "evil eyes" from the wedding episode, here we see that Cadence and Shining have explicitly made a one-shot for the main 6 players to figure out, even if that means suspecting them.

So we have a pretty much out-of-character confirmation that this Cadence is playing an evil character for the players to figure out.

[Rogar Demonblud]

Fiance is male.

Fiancee is female.

Like a lot of French words, an e on the end makes the word feminine. Un and une. Blond and blonde. Louis and Louise.

[keybounce]

So I did get it right.

Is Fiancee spelled with an accented final e, or a plain final e?

[Rogar Demonblud]

Accented, I think.

[Cazero]

Fiancé(e).
The 'feminine' final e is never accented.

[keybounce]

Wait, you pronounce the feminine E with an accent, but spell it without?

[Rogar Demonblud]

The accent is on the first e, not on the one that makes the word feminine.

And I'm now remembering why I didn't continue with French past middle school.

Anyway, on topic, you think AJ's player is suddenly kicking herself?

[Rogar Demonblud]

I think I'm liking Cadence better than much of the main cast so far.

[keybounce]

I like things like "Out of character, may I say that I like that?"

[keybounce]

And she continues to show the difference between a loving person, and a jerk of a character.

Maybe the twist is just that Cadence is a cruel pony, not a changeling?

[Rogar Demonblud]

That kind of wrecks the second half, what with Twilight bonding with her future sister-in-law over a little flank-busting.

[Rogar Demonblud]

A 19 isn't enough to pass? Now I'm remembering DCF and the guard monster hitting Roy's AC on a 2.

[keybounce]

"Watching my actual brother and his actual fiance' pretend to have a pre-marital squabble".

That's a really good summary of the twist happening here.

We've ruled out changelings.
Anyone have any guesses?

[Rogar Demonblud]

After the whole thing with Prince Blueblood I'm not ruling anything out.

[keybounce]

Oh dear ... we see what "Cadence" is doing now.

Attempting to disagree results in a headache.
If Cadence then succeeds in an opposed roll, she both dominates the target and eliminates the headache.

[Rogar Demonblud]

The first does lead to the second.

I wonder if we're going to see the introduction of a new organization to replace the Guild as an opponent.

[Rogar Demonblud]

Yeah, a tactical (social) retreat is probably in order here. I wonder how they're going to set up the Twilight goes it alone part of the third act, since the in-strip Six are on her side.

[Rogar Demonblud]

Apparently I'm an idiot. I didn't expect Spud to use team loyalty to explain why they were in the bridal party. And even a barbarian will wear a froufrou outfit it it leads to flank busting.

[Rogar Demonblud]

Can I just say that this is my second favorite group of gamers (second only to the Darths and Droids crew), in at least part because they can keep IC and OOC well separate.

[Rogar Demonblud]

The distinction between MAC/SA in character and out of character continues apace. I no longer have any idea where this is going, but I'm definitely enjoying the trip.

[Rogar Demonblud]

Hey, Twilight actually entered on cue! Now to see how Spud is going to twist the end of episode 1 and set up episode 2...

[Rogar Demonblud]

For some reason, today's strip reminded me of Roy's line from the start of the bar brawl in BRITF: "Well, I guess one of us was bound to make this spiral out of control. It might as well be me this time."

Was that your reaction too, Keybounce?

[keybounce]

I'm not sure what BRITF is, but I'm thinking more along the lines of "If this is a mind controller, there's no telling who else is controlled. If I don't convince people, you will at least be able to tell who else is controlled."

[Rogar Demonblud]

You're on this site and you don't know Blood Runs In The Family, aka Let's Make The Postman Cry?

[Rogar Demonblud]

Yeah, that went about as well as I expected. I'm not sure if the crux of this arc is the actual episodes or TS's player getting some issues worked out.

[Rogar Demonblud]

And I have an answer. It would be nice if I could relate to my own siblings half as well as these pony players do.

[keybounce]

Which OOTS arc was Blood runs in the Family? Was that dear Dad, the undead cleric that was friends with Durkon, until ... not friends, and "Do you remember the present that my wife gave me on my last birthday"?

[Rogar Demonblud]

Yup. From them landing on the Western Continent until they flew off in the airship.

[keybounce]

I love these images. I did not realize Twilight had that smile, nor the reactions that Cadence had.

I have to re-watch this episode.

[Rogar Demonblud]

Good news. It's probably going to be rerun within the next week on at least one channel.

[Rogar Demonblud]

It's a real head twist going from Full Frontal Nerdity (http://ffn.nodwick.com/?p=2158) to this strip (http://friendshipisdragons.thecomicseries.com/comics/1436).

[Rogar Demonblud]

Hey keybounce, got your popcorn ready? It's showtime!

[keybounce]

Pinkie just dropped some off.

[Rogar Demonblud]

Okay, now I'm scared about what these five will get up to without TS to rein them in.

[keybounce]

Part 2 begins.

Complete with the DM asking Cadence for advice on how to have party fighting without player fighting.

And even more "where did he get those screencaps from?" questions.

[Rogar Demonblud]

Yeah, that's complete PC behavior. Twilight has bad bouts of that.

[keybounce]

Slightly off topic, but the other major ongoing fanfic -- The Changeling of the Guard -- has also reached the wedding (finally), at about the same time.

[Rogar Demonblud]

Yeesh, I forget sometimes how different comic Twi is from series Twi. "I'm just gonna start blasting at random, 'kay?"

[Rogar Demonblud]

And now we're back to rational Twi, definitely taking inspiration from Feeling Pinkie Keen.

[Rogar Demonblud]

I wish my first meeting with the future in-laws had gone this well.

[Rogar Demonblud]

To quote one of the comments on the newest strip, Not this flankhole!

[keybounce]

So this is a great plot twist. For part 2 of Canterlot wedding, instead of just replaying the normal show, the rest of the ponies are investigating the castle -- cut to Twilight's Seven, with Rarity and Rainbow Dash dealing with Flutter's brother.

[Rogar Demonblud]

Zephyr might be even less likeable in the comic than in the cartoon.

[Rogar Demonblud]

Forward planning by a wise DM!

[keybounce]

I love the whole dungeon exploration bit here.

[Rakaydos]

"I've got a brother like that.
"Oh, you wanna-"
"No."

Doesnt Flutter have... family issues that she's private about? I thought I remembered there was something about that hanging in the background when they tried to get her to open up, early on.

[Rogar Demonblud]

The Stare is her channeling her mother, so yeah, there are things in the background. She reminds me of some kids I've known who're recovering from emotional abuse.

[Rogar Demonblud]

I was wondering how Spud was going to include them.

[Rogar Demonblud]

That's the kind of thing you can only do if the GM is willing to just close the rulebook and say Go for it.

[keybounce]

"ohh, does she have like an awesome evil villain musical number?"

I really have to re-watch this episode.

[Rogar Demonblud]

The comments made a good point about the randomness of the CMC fillies showing up all of a sudden.

[Rogar Demonblud]

Incoming fight in 5...4...3...

[Rogar Demonblud]

And the dramatic reveal!

[Rogar Demonblud]

And the villain drops the cloak of normalcy. Odd that AJ's the one bugged by it.

[Rogar Demonblud]

Cadence's player is having waaay too much fun not to share.

[Rogar Demonblud]

Shining snarking from off panel seems familiar somehow. Like I've seen it in another comic one or two dozen times.

[Rogar Demonblud]

Well, that helps to explain why Cel was useless this time. In the show, there are times I thought a newborn foal could take her hostage.

[keybounce]

The comments on-site had an interesting take, comparing her to Superman and his speech when fighting Darkseid.

Think of it as, someone who channels the power of the sun has, at full strength, a minimum target of a full country. "The Badlands" are what's left from her last full-strength attack. She has to tone it down, and overcompensates to avoid overkill.

[Rogar Demonblud]

Yes, this does sound like an excellent time to shed anything that'll slow you down.

[Rogar Demonblud]

A simple page, but a nice one, both in imagery and narration.

[Rogar Demonblud]

Goomba Stomp!

[Rogar Demonblud]

Multiple Pinkies. We just cued up that episode, didn't we?

[Rogar Demonblud]

Just get on with the fight already. I want to see how they justify an automatic Sparkle gun.

[Rogar Demonblud]

There's a word for this. Trans-something. (https://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0064.html)

[Rogar Demonblud]

It's fun to see (http://friendshipisdragons.thecomicseries.com/comics/) Fluttershy win. And it makes even more sense for comic-Dash to do that than show-Dash.

[keybounce]

I never realized until now -- the changelings could be confused, and not know who was who.

They don't have a hive-mind speech.

They cannot recognize a non-changeling on sight.

They are OP in most fanfics.

[Rogar Demonblud]

It may not be sight based. Given that they feed on love (*urk*), they should be able to sense that pony is a disguised changeling because they have no love to feed on.

And AJ got bugpiled.

[Rogar Demonblud]

Twi is going powergamer again.

[Rogar Demonblud]

Yeah, not even ponies can make mass combat less of a grind.

[Rogar Demonblud]

"Invasions are exhausting."

"That's kinda the point!"

Somedays, the dialogue in this comic is just choice.

[Rogar Demonblud]

Ooo-kay, I did not see that coming. Twi's player just outsmarted most of the people I've gamed with.

[Rogar Demonblud]

I love that 'brain rebooting' shot of Cadence in the last panel.

[Rogar Demonblud]

Cue Huey Lewis and the News.

[Rogar Demonblud]

Uh-oh, Twi's scheming again.

[Rogar Demonblud]

Fellow Playgrounders, Page 1500! (http://friendshipisdragons.thecomicseries.com/comics/)

[Rogar Demonblud]

Nice discussion between Twi and SA in the last panel. Sounds like the two players have worked out some issues as well.

[Rogar Demonblud]

I was not expecting Dash to be the one to go there. (http://friendshipisdragons.thecomicseries.com/comics/)