My Little Pony XXVIII: In the Crazy of 40.000 Posts, There is Only Pony!

[Titanium Fox]

*Snif snif*

Ahh, love that new thread smell.

I have a quick pony-related D&D story...
Be warned, you may think I'm a terrible person.

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Myself and a group of friends regularly use our lunch hours at school to meet in the English room and play a quick D&D battle. No overarching story really, just killing things.

Anyway, I was flipping through the DMG, to the index page where all monsters are listed by CR. Scrolling down the list, I saw an entry for Pony. 1/4 CR.

I said, "F**k it, you guys are attacked by a herd of ponies."

It was 12 ponies vs. four 2nd level characters. I didn't have any pony-esque minis, so I just threw 12 random ones in the middle. A nearby Brony, who wasn't playing, decided to name some of them based on the mini.

In all, he found minis for AJ, FS, TS, PP, and Derpy. The party won, but AJ nearly killed the party fighter, Derpy was murdered by the Hexblade, the bard stabbed Fluttershy, and Pinkie and the rest escaped.

When Derpy died, the watching Brony was almost in tears. When Fluttershy was hit, we were crying together.

I should not have done that.

That's okay. I'll have a happy D&D Pony related story to counter this Wednesday. I'm shipping Ponies in my campaign!

[TheAmishPirate]

They are fun, indeed. The reactions, I mean.

Adorkable characters are just as much fun to roleplay, as it turns out. Got a fairly good one going on in the main pony RP that manages to find himself in awkward situations on a hilariously regular basis. The reactions are just as amusing when you're the one reacting. Everypony wins!

Eyup! I get tiny frissions of excitement from several of the folks here. I enjoy picking your brains. :3

I still remember way back in thread 16 or so when you nailed most of my major character traits, with the same casualness of relating the weather outside. I was equal parts delighted beyond belief, and freaked out that some man with green words was stalking me...

[SiuiS]

Oh, hi new thread. Didn't see you there.

New Thread: Well, hello yourself, Sugar~

Also, forgot to clarify.
The "hologram" in question wasn't a hologram at all.
It was a 30 foot tall stone monolith, whose structure, substructure, atomic structure and molecular structure were all the same, such that breaking off a piece just sort of created a new entire thing without diminishing the original.

And several times, one of the characters explained this by saying "It's a hologram. It [explanation of fractals], so that's why it's a hologram."

Maddening

"H-Hey! Don't take her side!"

I'd point you to the picture of my incubus ponyself, but it's one of the worst drawings I've done and is saved only by Baron Awesome as Dmitri being Awesome.

-

Proof that I'm actually working on stuff and not just stringing my fellows along.

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Since the moon wars, the Sun Princess has steadily been more tyrannical, methodical, and cruel. Over the last few decades she has also descended into depravity and madness; in her paranoia, she has begun ruthlessly hunting down and arresting random ponies, Charging them with treason and conspiracy. Equestria is an iron-clad shamble, it's infrastructure supported by a small fraternity who formed amongst the courtiers and royal guards.

Unbeknownst to the Princess, or the guardsponies, the moon is an entire plane rather than a barren, rocky satellite. Strewen with ancient ruins of a past civilization, and roamed by those of monstrous mien, creature and pony alike. The Princess has been banishing ponies, griffons, diamond dogs, even dragons, and on the moon a society of sorts is forming.

The dragons, messengers and guardians of the moon's limited wealth, have formed kingdoms. The ponies, caught between moon monsters and stacking slavers, have formed their own outposts. What magic is available has been used to eke out a lunarial existence, and the rarest of dragons - the messengers - remain allied with ponykind. Supplies and food trickle in through dragon's fire, supplying the Lunarian elite with supplies to feed their lust for power. Kingdoms form. Factions rise. The land itself seeks to extinguish those who tread too heavy upon it, and you, either a veteran of the moon or banished to it, for crimes real or imagined, must forge your way in this strange new land — if you can survive your stone prison.

Welcome to


DUNGEONS
(In the Place You Were Banished To)
&
DRAGONS

[Grif]

I go to bed and wake up in a new thread.

Wut.

[Eakin]

You are a horrible, horrible person. :(

The only way to make amends is to post lots of pony pictures.

Alternatively, borrow the same models again and throw the same party against a bunch of Dire Wereponies with spell casting levels.

Softserve's question #2 (no idea about question 1): I would compliment her on how elegent and refined her mannerisms are. She puts a lot of effort into that.

[SiuiS]

I still remember way back in thread 16 or so when you nailed most of my major character traits, with the same casualness of relating the weather outside. I was equal parts delighted beyond belief, and freaked out that some man with green words was stalking me...

Oh, pish-posh. It's only stalking if you notice the tunnel network under your bed or that that weird noise you hear when you first wake up is me diving out of sight so you won't know I'm watching you sleep.

:D

I go to bed and wake up in a new thread.

Wut.

There are worse places to wake up.
or better ;D

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[Tectonic Robot]

Guys! Apparently Lix wasn't a bronette by the second page of the first pony thread!

Wow, you guys handled things differently back then, didn't you?

[PhantomFox]

Discussion question that may or may not be research for something!
What kind of brother-sister relationship do AJ and Mac have? What do they think of each other? How do they get along? What causes them to not get along? How do they resolve their conflicts?

[Pokonic]

Ahh, yes, a new thread. Oh, the fun we shall have.

For some reason that made me think of "Applejack of the Julii". has there ever been a crossover between Rome and MLP?

Not yet, anyway. Yet....

Oh, I can see it now!
For one, the way leaders are elected are much more stable. With the fact the royal family has god-like powers, they could claim to be gods in any case without anyone none the wiser. Celestia is much safer, power wise, than any other before her.

Rather than follow the plot of the exellent tv show, I would rather have it go along the lines of this: Luna, always being the explorer of the family, is given near-total control over the country by Celestia al la Cincinnatus during a massive crisis in which the military is in dire straights and that many native peoples are raiding/atticking settlements on the borders. While she is gone for a few years, the situation back home begins to get better. However, when Luna comes back with a still large army and is seen as a hero by the people, Celestia belives she is starting a coup. While this is not the case (or is it!), poor communication always kills, and what will happen to a group of six young but noble ponies and one young greek (dragon) scribe remains uncertain.

Cue fanfic.

Blueblood is a Caligula stand-in. Because we need another reason to hate him.
Oh, Griffons are the German tribes and zebras are african stand-ins. That, and Camels make invading the eastern places a whole lot harder. (GASP!),

Gah! I need to start writing again. With copius use of spellcheck, of course.

[Beeskee]

Avatar stuff:

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What did you found?

1) Lifeforms on Earth attacking humans as one? We win. Humans, a handful of civilians with single-shot rifles cleansed America and Australia out of big life in decades. Stick a band of professional soldiers with 30 mm guns instead and it should be massacre. In some respects, the Avatar battle was stretching believability more than Ewoks. Now that I think about it...

The main problem with it, I guess, is that today, a handgun is more than enough to kill any animal. 30 mm cannon is enough to punch through battle tanks. Give handguns 100 years, and even shots from handguns should turn these big animals into paste, while cannons should outright turn them to mist. Simply, no flexible skin has the right to be tougher than tank armour. If it is, for some reason, why there is not a Pentagon Armour Design Committee on Pandora examining the hides, and why humans haven't adapted by bringing in anti-armor bullets designed for the task? It looked like someone entered godmode for animals, seriously.

Cameron had it right in his previous movie - Aliens, where a handful of marines laugh at a threat Xenomorphs supposedly are, then proceed to massacre every single one, despite Xenomorphs being more dangerous than Pandora animals by far, despite far worse terrain to fight on, and despite 50:1 numerical advantage the aliens have - and all this without mechas, gunships, rockets and autocannons.

2) Trade? I made the mistake of reading he storybook hoping it would make sense of some of the plot holes. Turns out, yes, company did try what you propose - brought all sorts of goods, knowledge, culture, everything. That's why Avatar project existed in the first place - company dumped billions of dollars into creation of better diplomats, opened language schools for Navi, they tried everything. Storybook makes Navi look like ignorant savages that ignored every single offer made, no matter how good, out of spite.

3) And, what was the final straw for me, in storybook Unobtainium is a component needed to create room-temperature superconductors, implications being its usage was needed to sustain Earth's ecosystem, by allowing to cut down pollution and decrease energy losses in failing infrastructure, allowing brighter future for the planet, instead of total collapse. It wasn't so expensive because it was vanity item, but because it was like selling medicine to terminal cancer patient. So, nope, I don't have any sympathy to aliens sitting on it and unwilling to trade, sorry, greater good and all that.

I'd like to get in on this if you don't mind

1) They do mention the toughness of the animals. Also I know some people theorize that we are reaching the point where weapons technology will simply stop advancing due to overkill. Why design a better gun when the current ones will pretty much always kill their opponents anyways? Besides that we wouldn't do as well as you think. Not that we wouldn't win due to having a numerical advantage and a tech advantage. Nearly every animal on Earth has the ability to do severe damage to a human. If they attacked us in an orginized manner entire cities would be wiped out. Perhaps even entire countries. After all its easy to wipe out animals when they only fight back on an individual basis

2) I haven't read the storybook but I imagine the Navi were just like

"Sure all this stuff is nice but we don't actually want any of it. We are in fact very happy with our lives."

3) In fairness the part that makes me facepalm on the human side are these two things:
a) "lets go through the costly and morally difficult process of forcing the natives off their land instead of just going to a different source of Unobtanium. I mean we only travled light years already a few more hundred kilometers is just too much effort."

b) "Hey the scientists whose sole job and expertise is studying the fauna of Pandora have made a new discovery! Lets dismiss them as tree hugging doped up hippies. Its not like they haven't done years of research as well as being some of the smartest people we have"

4) finally there weren't that many humans on Pandora. Only a few hundred at least. Dispite being outnumbered by nearly every Navi on the planet they not only won they came within spitting distance of killing the hive mind of the entire planet. If Unobtanium is a truely can't live without it resource then we'll be back. And in greater numbers!

I'm not saying it doesn't have plot holes and shortcomings, just that dealing with a "living planet" (a planet that operates as one big organism) is a lot different than dealing with a "living" planet like Earth (a planet with living things on it) - even though our ecosystems are balanced, etc, it's way different. I played a ton of Alpha Centauri ('Civilization' on a living planet) so I'm basing most of what I assumed about Pandora on that. It held up pretty well though.


1) Re: Earth critters. Fair enough, but you don't get troops on every street corner. For every group of absurdly-overarmed folks or gun-nut with illegal assault weaponry in his or her basement, there's at least one suburb with a sudden shortage of SMGs. By the time the military can respond to a situation there, a bunch of animals have killed everyone.

And yeah the critters on Avatar were supposedly very tough compared to Earth. Then again, there are places on Earth I would not want to go unarmed and unescorted.


Rural areas do have lots of weapons in terms of rifles, etc, apparently most people who live in the countryside or agricultural area own at least one rifle-type gun, from what I understand from talking to folks who do live there. Rapid-fire weapons are less common though, outside of the occasional anti-government enclave. The population density is lower too, so people can't as easily gather in groups for defense. Guns also jam, need to be reloaded, and stop firing once their operator is dead. You also need line-of-sight. Unless your home has a military-style firing bunker, you're either exposed or have a blind spot in some manner. If you're up on the roof, remember hawks are trying to tear your eyes out or knock you off while the bears try to climb up and kill you. None of the animals are fighting each other or trying to kill each other, nor are they stopping to eat you, they're just slaughtering victims and moving on to the next target. In large cities, every rat in the sewers rises up all at once like a tidal wave made out of teeth and claws. Machine guns help less against them. Unless your inner-city gun store or military surplus store sells operational flamethrowers plus fuel, you don't get those. You also need to survive long enough to reach said store. Suddenly it seems less of a sure win, right?


2) I didn't bother with the book, I liked the movie but I had the feeling that the book would ruin it for me.

Honestly, there should be something on Earth that we could trade to another civilization, no matter how alien. We might have to set up special facilities to make it, but there's gotta be something. The problem is in thinking we would know what aliens want, or what is 'best' for them. What we would need to do in reality is find out, through careful negotiation, diplomacy, and generally, acting like the BEST of humanity rather than the worst.


3) I didn't read the book or screenplay, the most I did other than watching the movie was to google "unobtanium" as it pertained to Avatar. According to what I read, it's used for FTL starships among other things. Room-temp superconductor makes sense. IN the movie they said it was only found on Pandora, so I can understand why humans didn't simply go elsewhere.


4) Humans were definitely in short supply on Pandora. They could have gone all-out in terms of 'scorched earth' policy but probably realized it was suicide by that point.

Applejack Of the Apple Clan

Applejack of the Clan Mc'Apple.

If I remember correctly, Faust wanted her to be a queen, but apparently the executives wanted her to be a princess (and violet, apparently, but at least that isn't part of the show). She's still very much the "high queen" archetype, though. Sorry for ruining your big DUN moment.

Pink girls' toys sell better.

And "Queens are evil" apparently.

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Re: Fillyfooler and Coltcuddler:

I just figured they were 'cutesy' names for female ponies who liked female ponies, and male ponies who liked male ponies, and that age preference was independent. I don't see ponies as being peodphiles except for humorous references like ohdatcheeriliee. I still crack up at the two posts that end with Celestia calling her a naughty little pony.

---

I definitely cringed most of the way through episode 3, the first time I watched it. It was more enjoyable the second time through.

I think the only thing that really still bothered me even after a second viewing was

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Rarity calling Twilight a drama queen behind her back.

That said, I think the episode was mostly ... well, 'fan service' minus the sexual connotations. All the neat things they stuffed this episode full of are clearly intended for the older fans of the series, and here we are not liking it.

I think this was supposed to just be a fun episode for the FiM team to make, I don't see it as being the new standard. At least, I hope not. Episode 1 and 2 of the new season set such a high bar that it's going to be tough to keep up with that, one reason why I think this episode may have been to blow off steam and be silly, funny, and give the fan community a lot of material to work with.

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I think I missed an "Honesty" RP post while reading. I only skimmed a little, but maybe I missed it.

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Not pony: (Edit: In an effort to keep this from taking over the ponythread, nopony else respond please. I'm sorry I posted it, I'm just stressed.)

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How do you talk to someone who is, not just deeply religious, but the kind of religious person who thinks evolution is not true? Other than "not doing so" - which I think may be the best option actually, I already have a headache thinking about it. Feel free to PM me or direct me to a more appropriate thread.

I'm the kind of person who will go do research even when I think the other person will just outright reject what I am saying. "3.5 billion years of fossil records" was already not good enough, I don't know what else I can say. I am not really looking forward to spending my drastically reduced free time research all the counter-arguments just to have them dismissed or ignored.

I hate talking about science to religious people who think that things like "evolution" equals "god doesn't exist", and I really hate being the jerk that I apparently have to be to discuss it "properly" - outright saying "no you're wrong lol" rather than my default mode of trying to be understanding and listening to their point of view when they have no intention of doing the same.

Bah. I need a hug.

[Mystic Muse]

So, everything from "The originals are in fact great" to "Extended complimenting of her dresses, aesthetic design and her mane."

[Grif]

By the way, picture fitting Cain discussion we had last thread:

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Most fitting. I bet that's Amberly right there.

There are worse places to wake up.
or better ;D

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[/color]

Why am I in bed with Princess...?

[Kris Strife]

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"Ah, but they won't *want* to find me, not with what we'll be doing under the bed!"

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"Or maybe they'll just consider it a cry for... help." Leo grins, showing off his unponylike teeth. "Besides, it doesn't seem like your house is safe now. Of course, I COULD always take you all someplace your Twilight can't find you..."

[Eakin]

I definitely cringed most of the way through episode 3, the first time I watched it. It was more enjoyable the second time through.

I think the only thing that really still bothered me even after a second viewing was

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Rarity calling Twilight a drama queen behind her back.

That said, I think the episode was mostly ... well, 'fan service' minus the sexual connotations. All the neat things they stuffed this episode full of are clearly intended for the older fans of the series, and here we are not liking it.

I think this was supposed to just be a fun episode for the FiM team to make, I don't see it as being the new standard. At least, I hope not. Episode 1 and 2 of the new season set such a high bar that it's going to be tough to keep up with that, one reason why I think this episode may have been to blow off steam and be silly, funny, and give the fan community a lot of material to work with.

Wait, we didn't like episode 3? Did the hive mind send out a memo that I missed? I liked episode 3.

I think it stands in the same tier as the better half of season one episodes. Maybe not the top 5 ever or anything, but average or better compared to what came before it.

And is just not discussing evolution with this person not an option? Agree to disagree? Because there's no reason to make yourself miserable and you won't say anything that's going to change their mind.

*hugs Beeskee*

[Capt. Ido Nos]

I am this close to doing something that I've never done before:

Donate to a tf2 server.

Pony Fortress 2 is such a great group to play with, I've consistently had the most fun. But... I've never given money to a server before. And I have a SUPER weird thing about not breaking perfect records. Hrmble...

[SiuiS]

the question, Beeskee me hearty, is why do you have to argue with a zealot? Because honestly, if it's not important, just say politely, "fine. I won't throw my understanding of things in your face, if you promise to do the same. Golden rule and all that."

If that won't work, well, consider attacking their base of stability. Claiming evolution isn't possible is tantamount to...
Oh, well darn.

See, any specific things I could say are against the board rules. I could phrase them as semi-religious examples of debate techniques, but that's still a violation of the spirit, if not the letter. I like Kpenguin and AverageJoe too much to do that :/

Um. Hm.

Ok, so.

If I tell you that the sun rises and sets over Equestria as an automatic function, and your argument is that that's impossible because it discounts the existence of Princess Celestia, I would rightfully point out that a thinking and intelligent princess would be clever enough to set up the automatic function herself, so that not all of her existence was consumed with sun micromanagement. Your argument defeats itself, because your argument requires Celestia to be too stupid to set up her affairs efficiently.

Thus, you are the one questioning the princess' capabilities, while I am in truth acknowledging her skill as beyond my own and unfathomable.
Does that help?

I want to say it's an exception that proves the rule, but that doesn't seem right.

[Eakin]

I am this close to doing something that I've never done before:

Donate to a tf2 server.

Pony Fortress 2 is such a great group to play with, I've consistently had the most fun. But... I've never given money to a server before. And I have a SUPER weird thing about not breaking perfect records. Hrmble...

Wouldn't that mean you would never do anything new because you had a perfect record of not doing it until you tried it?

Did I just suddenly make you REALIZE that trying anything new was "breaking a perfect record" and condemn you to a life of monotony, devoid of novel experiences?

EDIT: Re: debating super religious people:

I always tell people that I'll believe in God as soon as he lets us replicate the experiment His prophet ran in 1st Kings Chapter 18, 21-40

[Tectonic Robot]

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I think I missed an "Honesty" RP post while reading. I only skimmed a little, but maybe I missed it.

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Not pony:

How do you talk to someone who is, not just deeply religious, but the kind of religious person who thinks evolution is not true? Other than "not doing so" - which I think may be the best option actually, I already have a headache thinking about it. Feel free to PM me or direct me to a more appropriate thread.

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I'm the kind of person who will go do research even when I think the other person will just outright reject what I am saying. "3.5 billion years of fossil records" was already not good enough, I don't know what else I can say. I am not really looking forward to spending my drastically reduced free time research all the counter-arguments just to have them dismissed or ignored.

I hate talking about science to religious people who think that things like "evolution" equals "god doesn't exist", and I really hate being the jerk that I apparently have to be to discuss it "properly" - outright saying "no you're wrong lol" rather than my default mode of trying to be understanding and listening to their point of view when they have no intention of doing the same.

Bah. I need a hug.

I missed like 7 pages of thread, and I'm pretty sure no honesty rp happened during that time.

About talking to religious people who don't believe evolution happened:

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I am a religious person who doesn't believe evolution happened! Do you want to talk to me about it?

Edit: AAAAAAND I'm going to sleep now. Night ponythread...

[Capt. Ido Nos]

Wouldn't that mean you would never do anything new because you had a perfect record of not doing it until you tried it?

Did I just suddenly make you REALIZE that trying anything new was "breaking a perfect record" and condemn you to a life of monotony, devoid of novel experiences?

[Eakin]

There there. Let's turn it around though. You broke a perfect record of not watching kids shows about ponies by watching Friendship is Magic. And clearly that turned out OK. So you should go out and break as many perfect records as possible!

[TheAmishPirate]

There there. Let's turn it around though. You broke a perfect record of not watching kids shows about ponies by watching Friendship is Magic. And clearly that turned out OK. So you should go out and break as many perfect records as possible!

What about such records as "Days went without commandeering the popemobile for the purposes of driving off sweet ramps"? Where does this record-breaking end?!

[UrsielHauke]

*Snif snif*

Ahh, love that new thread smell.

I have a quick pony-related D&D story...
Be warned, you may think I'm a terrible person.

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Myself and a group of friends regularly use our lunch hours at school to meet in the English room and play a quick D&D battle. No overarching story really, just killing things.

Anyway, I was flipping through the DMG, to the index page where all monsters are listed by CR. Scrolling down the list, I saw an entry for Pony. 1/4 CR.

I said, "F**k it, you guys are attacked by a herd of ponies."

It was 12 ponies vs. four 2nd level characters. I didn't have any pony-esque minis, so I just threw 12 random ones in the middle. A nearby Brony, who wasn't playing, decided to name some of them based on the mini.

In all, he found minis for AJ, FS, TS, PP, and Derpy. The party won, but AJ nearly killed the party fighter, Derpy was murdered by the Hexblade, the bard stabbed Fluttershy, and Pinkie and the rest escaped.

When Derpy died, the watching Brony was almost in tears. When Fluttershy was hit, we were crying together.

I should not have done that.

Love. It.

I am a D&D player myself, and My occasional DM, who is an avid Warhammer player as well, has seen fit to paint his Warriors of Chaos general, who rides a pegasus, in the colours of Rainbow Dash.

When I saw this, I nearly passed out.

This is why I play Warhammer.

What has happened to me?

[SiuiS]

There there. Let's turn it around though. You broke a perfect record of not watching kids shows about ponies by watching Friendship is Magic. And clearly that turned out OK. So you should go out and break as many perfect records as possible!

Get META! set the perfect record o most perfect records broken! As soon as you claim to have done it, you'll fail because there are so Many more to break, breaking your own record, allowing you to make the climb again and breaking it again!
It's an infinite feedback loop! So much recursion, Nopony could possibly deny you the title! They'd be lost forever in the explanation!

The perfect crime...

[Eakin]

What about such records as "Days went without commandeering the popemobile for the purposes of driving off sweet ramps"? Where does this record-breaking end?!

Clearly not until after that particular record is broken, because that would be awesome.

Let's say right before he breaks the perfect record of not being sentenced to jail time for actions taken while breaking previous perfect records

EDIT

Get META! set the perfect record o most perfect records broken! As soon as you claim to have done it, you'll fail because there are so Manu more to break, breaking your own record, allowing you to make the clim again and breaking it again!
It's an infinite feedback loo! So much recursion, Nopony could possibly deny you the title! They'd be lost forever in the explanation!

The perfect crime...

I have a perfect record of headaches whenever I think about Russell's Paradox too.

[Anarion]

This thread title, it is the best thread title. When I say I loled, I mean that my body was physically compelled to laugh out loud and I could not resist it.

HELP

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"Aw you know, nopony in particular, just somepony about your age who I think you'd love an opportunity to become good friends with. With the proper encouragement. And, if I do say so myself, the proper encouragement has been set in place."

*Doorbell*

"Go answer it. You wouldn't want to be tardy "

1) I think so with their flexiwrists.
2) I REALLY LIKE YOUR MANE!

at #2. I can only read that in Sweetie Belle's voice now, and I find it terribly creepy to imagine Sweetie Belle complementing Rarity's mane. Gah.

Ho ho! And I see the Ponyhammer theme won out! One of my thread suggestions...becoming reality! Must...not let....power....get to head....Everyone! Bask in my radiance!

Um, Blood for the Cupcakes for the cupcake god, ponies for the pony throne!

That's okay. I'll have a happy D&D Pony related story to counter this Wednesday. I'm shipping Ponies in my campaign!

Although I have no particular story, I did get my entire gaming group to watch the show and pretty much everyone enjoyed it, although they're in that category of people who watched it and liked it but never quite found Equestria Daily or the amazing art and community and I can't quite get them to commit further.

Discussion question that may or may not be research for something!
What kind of brother-sister relationship do AJ and Mac have? What do they think of each other? How do they get along? What causes them to not get along? How do they resolve their conflicts?

Well, evidence in episode 4 and generally suggests that they run the farm together, so they're in business, which implies a pretty good understanding of each other's working strengths and weaknesses. It also seems like they enjoy some fun at each other's expenses, but probably are pretty uncomfortable talking about emotions or similar mushy stuff with each other.

Avatar stuff:

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Rarity calling Twilight a drama queen behind her back.

That said, I think the episode was mostly ... well, 'fan service' minus the sexual connotations. All the neat things they stuffed this episode full of are clearly intended for the older fans of the series, and here we are not liking it.

I think this was supposed to just be a fun episode for the FiM team to make, I don't see it as being the new standard. At least, I hope not. Episode 1 and 2 of the new season set such a high bar that it's going to be tough to keep up with that, one reason why I think this episode may have been to blow off steam and be silly, funny, and give the fan community a lot of material to work with.

---

I think I missed an "Honesty" RP post while reading. I only skimmed a little, but maybe I missed it.

---

Not pony:

How do you talk to someone who is, not just deeply religious, but the kind of religious person who thinks evolution is not true? Other than "not doing so" - which I think may be the best option actually, I already have a headache thinking about it. Feel free to PM me or direct me to a more appropriate thread.

Spoiler

Show

I'm the kind of person who will go do research even when I think the other person will just outright reject what I am saying. "3.5 billion years of fossil records" was already not good enough, I don't know what else I can say. I am not really looking forward to spending my drastically reduced free time research all the counter-arguments just to have them dismissed or ignored.

I hate talking about science to religious people who think that things like "evolution" equals "god doesn't exist", and I really hate being the jerk that I apparently have to be to discuss it "properly" - outright saying "no you're wrong lol" rather than my default mode of trying to be understanding and listening to their point of view when they have no intention of doing the same.

Bah. I need a hug.

/hug

Here's my best piece of advice, which basically applies to talking to anyone about anything. Ask them questions. Be honestly curious, maybe even surprised when they have views that differ from yours. Ask them why they think that way, and maybe point out or ask them to explain inconsistencies in their own positions. You may not think you got anywhere, but they might go home afterwards and really think about that conversation. You never know.

Wouldn't that mean you would never do anything new because you had a perfect record of not doing it until you tried it?

Did I just suddenly make you REALIZE that trying anything new was "breaking a perfect record" and condemn you to a life of monotony, devoid of novel experiences?

EDIT: Re: debating super religious people:

I always tell people that I'll believe in God as soon as he lets us replicate the experiment His prophet ran in 1st Kings Chapter 18, 21-40

You did just make me realize that I enjoy breaking perfect records .

[Beeskee]

Wait, we didn't like episode 3? Did the hive mind send out a memo that I missed? I liked episode 3.

I think it stands in the same tier as the better half of season one episodes. Maybe not the top 5 ever or anything, but average or better compared to what came before it.

I just over-emphasized my point to be a little silly. Sorry if I offended anypony. I've seen a lot of folks saying they didn't like it and a lot of folks saying they did, (here and elsewhere) so it's not a matter of "zomg everyone hates it" - I just feel sorry for the folks who made it when I see negative opinions, after really thinking about how much effort they must have put into all the meme references and giving fans what they thought the fans wanted.


Religion (warning this could get messy)

Spoiler

Show

And is just not discussing evolution with this person not an option? Agree to disagree? Because there's no reason to make yourself miserable and you won't say anything that's going to change their mind.

*hugs Beeskee*

Yeah, I don't particularly want to argue. I do enjoy discussions, and I am open to hearing the other person's point of view. I need to learn to be more of a jerk sometimes though, in terms of just stopping things before they get worse. The first time they mentioned religion I should have just said "I don't talk about religion with other people" and I wouldn't have to deal with it now.

D'awww. *snuggles* Yay ponyhugs. I feel better already.

the question, Beeskee me hearty, is why do you have to argue with a zealot? Because honestly, if it's not important, just say politely, "fine. I won't throw my understanding of things in your face, if you promise to do the same. Golden rule and all that."

If that won't work, well, consider attacking their base of stability. Claiming evolution isn't possible is tantamount to...
Oh, well darn.

I don't *have* to argue with them. I don't *want* to argue with them, even. I'd much rather hold a decent conversation with them, with both sides open to discussion and a greater understanding of each other. I'm trying to be PONY. Live up to my ideals. Etc.

If I tell you that the sun rises and sets over Equestria as an automatic function, and your argument is that that's impossible because it discounts the existence of Princess Celestia, I would rightfully point out that a thinking and intelligent princess would be clever enough to set up the automatic function herself, so that not all of her existence was consumed with sun micromanagement. Your argument defeats itself, because your argument requires Celestia to be too stupid to set up her affairs efficiently.

Thus, you are the one questioning the princess' capabilities, while I am in truth acknowledging her skill as beyond my own and unfathomable.
Does that help?

Yes, that actually helps a lot.

That's sort of the way I feel. I don't subscribe to any particular religious belief, since I feel that IF there is something 'greater' going on, all the religions in the world combined are still too narrow to encompass even a fraction of it. Plus, if there is a god, it's way more impressive for her/him/it to go *snap* and, 16 billion years later, the remanents of exploded stars are sitting around holding a conversation about the nature and origin of reality.

EDIT: Re: debating super religious people:

I always tell people that I'll believe in God as soon as he lets us replicate the experiment His prophet ran in 1st Kings Chapter 18, 21-40

Sounds interesting. I think a lighter will suffice for my side of things.

I missed like 7 pages of thread, and I'm pretty sure no honesty rp happened during that time.

About talking to religious people who don't believe evolution happened:

I am a religious person who doesn't believe evolution happened! Do you want to talk to me about it?

Edit: AAAAAAND I'm going to sleep now. Night ponythread...

No worries about the RP, we'll play later.

"I don't talk about religion with other people." Hah! There, I did it.

G'night.


Edit:

/hug

Here's my best piece of advice, which basically applies to talking to anyone about anything. Ask them questions. Be honestly curious, maybe even surprised when they have views that differ from yours. Ask them why they think that way, and maybe point out or ask them to explain inconsistencies in their own positions. You may not think you got anywhere, but they might go home afterwards and really think about that conversation. You never know.

D'aww, more pony snuggles. *Happy Beeskee hugs back*

Yeah, I did talk to them. For the past week actually. Mentioning "evolution" was my version of the "crazy test"* - when I asked them what their religion meant to them, I got the canned response. Seriously, they went stiff and everything and talked like a robot.

Edit2: * I tried to avoid saying this, I don't know of a better way to phrase it though. I'm sorry if anypony gets offended.. I was doing SO well too... I'm not going to edit it out though, I put my hoof in my mouth and I'll just deal with the consequences.


Edit3: I'm editing this so I don't keep bumping the pony thread with nonpony stuff. I did mention the bacteria thing to them. Their argument was that they found proof that evolution isn't real because some person said that one species hasn't changed into another... I was like "wat?"

[MCerberus]

Pony Fortress has added a Gummy sprite to the list of the end of round icons. It's the one in the suit with the hat.

There's also crazy Lyra.
This should make your decision easy :P


Also, I missed page one of the new thread *gasp*

[Kindablue]

If that won't work, well, consider attacking their base of stability. Claiming evolution isn't possible is tantamount to...
Oh, well darn.

See, any specific things I could say are against the board rules. I could phrase them as semi-religious examples of debate techniques, but that's still a violation of the spirit, if not the letter. I like Kpenguin and AverageJoe too much to do that :/

That's not necessary. Really, evolution is uncontroversial scientific fact, and you can prove it to any rational person without ever questioning their other beliefs. I'd look up the E. coli long-term evolution experiment for the single clearest example of it.

You'll win no arguments this way, but you can't go into these debates expecting to convince the other person that they're wrong on something that big in a 30 minute chat. The seeds are there and it's in their court to take the torch.

[Soras Teva Gee]

Behold! Things from the previous thread, brought back to grim life!

Ahahahahahahaha!

...perhaps the creepy/crazy Twilight bug is catching...

JOIN US, BE ASSIMILATED INTO THE HERD!!!

This is pretty much awesome...

We Love It
Would Make a Good Theme For Nightmare Night!

*Snif snif*

Ahh, love that new thread smell.

I have a quick pony-related D&D story...
Be warned, you may think I'm a terrible person.

Spoiler

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Myself and a group of friends regularly use our lunch hours at school to meet in the English room and play a quick D&D battle. No overarching story really, just killing things.

Anyway, I was flipping through the DMG, to the index page where all monsters are listed by CR. Scrolling down the list, I saw an entry for Pony. 1/4 CR.

I said, "F**k it, you guys are attacked by a herd of ponies."

It was 12 ponies vs. four 2nd level characters. I didn't have any pony-esque minis, so I just threw 12 random ones in the middle. A nearby Brony, who wasn't playing, decided to name some of them based on the mini.

In all, he found minis for AJ, FS, TS, PP, and Derpy. The party won, but AJ nearly killed the party fighter, Derpy was murdered by the Hexblade, the bard stabbed Fluttershy, and Pinkie and the rest escaped.

When Derpy died, the watching Brony was almost in tears. When Fluttershy was hit, we were crying together.

I should not have done that.

Nooo The Poor Ponies!

I'm more concerned that they were only represented by CR 1/4 stats

Totally Rarity and Twilight are just little ponies. They only have a 44 STR!

I am this close to doing something that I've never done before:

Donate to a tf2 server.

Pony Fortress 2 is such a great group to play with, I've consistently had the most fun. But... I've never given money to a server before. And I have a SUPER weird thing about not breaking perfect records. Hrmble...

Our own policy is never to pay to play.
No Matter What!
Held since the big MMORPG was Evercrack and holding steady ever since!

[Anarion]

That's not necessary. Really, evolution is uncontroversial scientific fact, and you can prove it to any rational person without ever questioning their other beliefs. I'd look up the E. coli long-term evolution experiment for the single clearest example of it.

You'll win no arguments this way, but you can't go into these debates expecting to convince the other person that they're wrong on something that big in a 30 minute chat. The seeds are there and it's in their court to take the torch.

Very much this. I'd also note that if people are even having these conversations, you're already dealing with someone who's willing to get outside of their insular world and deal with other people of differing views and beliefs. The worst fanatic probably wouldn't even be willing to talk.