New Lunar Republic · 8:00am Jul 23rd, 2014
When I see the NLR in fanfiction, I think "misplaced patriotism". Some brony is appalled by the notion that a seemingly non-democratic nation is doing well. This can't be. Democracy has to save the day. So let's turn best princess into the leader of a democratic wave that will oust the foul regime. Preferably with guns and other military hardware. It doesn't help that whenever I see the New Lunar Republic and the Solar Empire in a fanfic, I've never seen the Solar Empire portrayed in a remotely positive light.
But that's an ungracious way to look at it. I joined this fandom late: during the lull between the season 1 finale and season 2. I don't know how many of the memes and whatnots emerged. I don't know why Derpy Hooves is such a big deal, or why the brown stallion in the background is Doctor Who, or why they're an item. I don't know why the NLR is the NLR. Maybe its a Star Wars thing, or a His Dark Materials thing. Perhaps someone could care to enlighten me?
Heh...you think you joined the fandom late. I was only introduced to the series this year and I'm in my 20s. I don't really understand why alicorn Twilight is a big deal or why there is so much hatred for Flash Century Neither one changed much about the series. Flash Century had maybe a half dozen lines in EG and less than five minutes screen time in season 4.
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It's Flash Sentry. A lot of people say that they don't like how he has so little personality and didn't have much of a role in the movie. That's true, but I'm guessing that the most vitriol comes from people outraged that he's the subject of a passing crush from Twilight Sparkle.
It all came out of 4chan, the early bronies used all the memes to annoy the shit out of /b/.
And when someone is looking into the fandom, he is bound to come about these things, and that's how it became common knowledge.
[url=The trope "Draco in Leather Pants" explains this situation. ]http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/DracoInLeatherPants Well liked evil characters or refromed characters couldn't have possibly been that bad, so fans downplay that characters actions or blame the actions on someone else. In a lot of head canons Luna's fall was partially or completely Celestia's fault. In extreme cases in other fandoms this leads to people believing Lord Voldemort's attempted genocide of muggle born wizards was right, or that the Fire Nation being successful in committing their genocide was the right thing for everyone.
It's a classic, the empire is evil because it's called the empire deal. and usually a joke, I have yet to see someone who really follows this, it's just meant as a side thing, and by really follows it, I mean has this prespective of Celestia as being fundamentally a dark queen, with Luna as the hero. (I've read some ideas that say marriage is required to be a queen/king. that is the case sometimes) Celestia is seen as almost the herald of government regulation, being a complete control freak and micromanaging the ponys lives., I can see this happening with say twilight but not celsetia. I personally just like the logos, and Luna, so I keep an eye out for new posters and stuff.
Like many things in this fandom, before the New Luna Republic was a concept used in terrible fanfiction, it was the idea of a musician who made a really good song. iamnotacleverpony was one of the very early brony musicians (who isn't in the fandom anymore), who is best known for having created a song called "For The New Lunar Republic" which was an instrumental piece that got a billion remixes at the time, and which I'm pretty sure was what inspired all the NLR vs. Solar Empire fics. Although the idea itself may be older than that.
This is the song:
Its history is kind of a similar case to Rainbow Factory, which before becoming a controversial fic about Dash grinding fillies into multi-coloured paste was a fairly popular and frequently-remixed song by WoodenToaster/Glaze, which initially contained no actual references to anything dark beyond the fact that something bad happened in the factory. Sequel songs by both Glaze and other artists, such as "Awoken" and "Pegasus Device", would only later solidify the premise of the fic as being the something bad that the songs referred to.
This is the nature of having a multi-talented fandom. Any fan work can potentially inspire an adaptation or homage in another format. Upheaval gets fan art. Eakin's time loop trilogy inspires a song. A series of pictures about the hypothetical children of the main six inspires a series of fics. Fluffle Puff is a popular Tumblr blog, and its artist makes it into a series of animated shorts. JanAnimations makes Adventures of Button Mash, and suddenly Button Mash fics start showing up.
It's like a big circle. Every idea that begins somewhere will eventually make its way somewhere else. NLR is just one of many examples of that.
She was spotted by /co/ early on, and like many things on 4chan, proved popular enough to be spammed elsewhere. I wouldn’t normally direct someone to Know Your Meme, but their Derpy Hooves article, at least, is accurate enough.
He has the same hairstyle as the David Tennant, the guy who played the 10th Doctor and appeared around the same time. (No, really, that’s it.)
…
Tell a lie, there’s also the fact that Time Turner has been depicted with and without wings which some Doctor Who fans have latched onto; The Doctor’s “regeneration” into different white males is somehow equivalent to changing racial phenotype at a whim. (No, I don’t get that either.)
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There’s multiple reasons. Some are butthurt because Twilicorn not being all‐powerful contradicts their head‐canon, some people heavily resent anything that reeks of executive meddling,¹ and some people hate Twilicorn because it was poorly done.²
Another case of executive meddling (above and beyond the whole back‐alley abortion that is Equestria Girls) and a forced love interest at that? Why so shocked at the hate?
1. Twilight is instantly enamoured with him despite not knowing a damn thing about him and having never shown interest in either gender before this. The whole romance aspect was abysmally executed from start to finish and either should’ve been rewritten or simply cut.
2. Flash himself has zero characterisation and his only act of any substance was being little more than the Deus ex Machina to get Twilight off the hook for the things Sunset Shimmer’s framed Twilight for with her photographic chicanery.
3. Equestria Girls was shit.³ Flash’s shoehorning into S4 rubbed our face back into Equestria Girls’ existence and canonicity when those of us who detest it were trying our very best to pretend it never happened.
4. Flashlight is a terrible ship. Like anything it can be done well, but that rarely happens. Most fail to take into account the fact that she got a crush on his human incarnation and just ship her with his pony counterpart. Which in itself is just unsettling; would you immediately seek out an alternate universe version of the man or woman you had a mild crush on if the version you had the crush on was inaccessible? Fuck no.
¹ I partially fall into this camp; while executive meddling can be a good thing in this case it compromised the quality of the show in a short‐sighted and ultimately in vain attempt to use FiM to bust their way into a niche Mattel already filled better.
² I primarily fall into this camp. Magical Mystery Cure, like Equestria Girls, was written without serious forethought and has foreboding implications. The entire episode taints Twilicorn.
³ That’s objectively speaking, by the way.
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I agree, it seems to be more 'Twilight is my waifu', although most of the complaints listed as reasons are reasonably valid.
The idea that Luna would start a democracy is much less tenable since she's depicted as forcing eternal night on everyone despite the fact that nobody wanted it but her.
A benevolent eternal monarch would actually be the best system of government because it would take control out of the hands of greedy people interested in their own short term gain (where every government eventually goes - some just faster than others) Sadly, we don't have anyone that is immortal, so democracy is one of the best systems for us.
Ok, here's a bit of the not NLR related stuff you asked about...
1: Derpy. Derpy was originally an animator's joke or mistake, resulting in a background pony in the first episode having her eyes look in different directions. People fixated on this, seeing it as both cute and silly, while not overly insulting. Like many intentional Easter eggs though, the fans started looking for other mistakes/jokes throughout the series, and found (to everyone's surprise) that the animators were making a lot of them. Over time, folks built up ideas and head cannon with personalities that they found (and expressed to others) enjoyable and endearing.
BUT the big deal with Derpy Hooves/Ditsy Doo, came when she got a speaking line. The famous "I just don't know what went wrong" in a slow/clueless voice stereotypical of reduced mental function... THAT became a HUGE point for lots of people. It was the first instance of the show (and pretty close to the first case of ANY kids show of this caliber) depicting a well recognized character as being 'retarded.' Second, since Depry was well liked due to fan-cannon, it brought direct interaction to the main cast. Third, and this was the spark on the proverbial powder keg, DHX/Hasbro, AFTER THE INITIAL AIRING, re-recorded Derpy's line and re-released the episode on Netflix, etc, with a 'less offensive/politically less insulting' voice.
In other words, they made the episode, thought it was cool, showed it to test audiences (who also thought it was cool), got passed censors, aired it, and then realized that some folks might be upset by the character... but since it was already there, with a huge following, they couldn't remove Derpy... so they removed the vocal portion to try and offset the small (but vocal) crowd of people upset at the 'retard pony'... which set off everyone else who saw it as a cop-out and insult to people who might be similarly afflicted in real life.
Derpy, besides all that, was recognized as a fan-favorite by Hasbro, and the animators started actively hiding her in episodes. The result was a kind of eye-spy/Where's Waldo in most of the episodes, trying to locate the (now officially recognized) wall-eyed pony.
It was compounded by an apparent name change in Winter Wrap-up where she was referred to as Ditsy Doo. Thus, more firestorm as folks got up in arms about such an intrinsic part of a character (especially in the name/life related Equestria) being blatantly altered for outside reasons. Of course, many have pointed out that nicknames, pet names, and jibes can (and have been) used in the show, so both Derpy Hooves and Ditsy Doo might well be non-contradictory... something like calling a person "Fat Head" or "Butterball" rather than...say.... "Bob."
The "Muffins!" aspect came from a joyful voice, barely able to be heard during one of the scenes with food where Derpy is present. (If I recall, it was when Applejack was exhausted and made the Baked Bads that got everyone sick... but It's been a while.)
2) The Brown Stallion with an hourglass butt-tattoo. <smirks> Ok... this one is so intentional it's actually pretty awesome. The stallion you're talking about was a background pony with a pallet swapped design used throughout the show. There are a few major differences though, between him and all the other clones.
First, whatever genius animator cooked him up was clearly having a great time. Throughout the episodes (and even seasons) many MANY little jokes have been hidden that relate him to the character portrayed by David Tennant as "The Doctor" of Doctor Who fame.
He is often seen wearing a collar (no shirt required for ponies) and tie/bowtie. His mane resembles Tennant's iconic haircut. He often has a relaxed, almost knowing expression on his face (look carefully, it's actually a little different than the other nearby ponies). He often reacts a little differently to 'events' than other ponies nearby, almost as if he's expecting them. He seems to always be present in exciting/dangerous scenes with villains (background ponies are/were often nothing more than pallet swapped random ponies, but it fits in with the Doctor Who mythos). He 'does a lot of running', which is a direct reference to Doctor Who and was made into a visual gag in Hearts and Hooves Day (watch the pony that is "too splashy").
Additionally, unlike most of the other pallet swapped background ponies, THAT stallion's cutie mark shows up a number of times on unrelated ponies... (nothing new there), but unlike other swap-clones, many of these ponies are in important places/events and have designs which correspond to the other incarnations of The Doctor (who 'regenerates' rather than falling to death, resulting in a new appearance).
Adding to this, the flash assets for both the show and various official games refer to him as DrH, Dh, Dhooves, or DrHooves... THAT's pretty blatant. In the show, he was called "Time Turner", but that fits in as well as The Doctor is a "Timelord"... which is further corroborated by the inclusion of flavor text such as "He is in control of Ponyville's clocktower" and "He's never late, minding the seconds as they go by."
In the card game, miniatures, vinyl figures, and other media, he is clearly named "Dr Hooves" or "Dr Hoof".
A further fan-tease came with Babs Seed's premier song in the scene where she steps out of the theatre's screen... in the seats, Dr.Hooves can be seen wearing the iconic red/blue 3d glasses of the 80s/90s... which The Doctor used in the TV series to see time stuff that stuck to time travelers.
The BBC (the company that produces Doctor Who) even ran a joking commercial pointing out that The Doctor often visits other worlds and even dimensions, noting a recent development as a pony.... can't get much more obvious than that.
The Doctor is also known for taking a "companion" along for his adventures. This companion is almost exclusively female, and serves as both a friend and occassionally a moral compass for the nearly ageless, nigh immortal Timelord. Derpy fits this role and personality perfectly.
The Derpy/Doctor Hooves connection has been built up though by the fans primarily. A set of stories/radio plays are still available which have stayed quite true to both characters and fandoms which has cemented this in many minds.
And in case there was need for more, there's even a scene with Dr.Hooves and Roseluck strolling through the edge of the Everfree... a direct reference to what most claim to be the closest The Doctor has ever had to a portrayed relationship... one with a feisty blond named.... Rose Tyler.
I've now talked too long, but the other comments got the NLR stuff for ya. Have fun!
I'm currently wiping out my best friend playing the Lunar Republic, I'm the Solar empire.
Medieval 2 total war hotseating, with forum posts using RP, pictures, music and all!
A nerds wet dream that, he even betrayed the loving light that is our sun!
You are correct on everything, even I portray the solar as slightly tyrannical behind the scenes
I joined late during season 2 as well, I love everything you wrote about here as it speaks to me even though origins does not quite make sense.
Its just fun
You joined late?
I don't know I feel that coming in at the end of Season 1 and before Season 2 is still a bit more early. I know a lot of people joined during Season 2.
As for the New Lunar Republic... I don't understand them. For one thing if you're following a princess you're not a republic, you're still a monarchy. I feel the Lunar Republic is 1) popular because it's riding on Luna's coattails and 2) because of what you mentioned about democracy.
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I know EG was awful. It was a bad idea that was executed poorly. There are many things that don't make sense in the movie. Why do the CMC girls attend a high school? Why does Photo Finish attend high school? Why does absolutely nobody react to Sunset Shimmer becoming a goblin-like monster or Twilight, Fluttershy and Rainbow growing wings spontaneously? Why do Fluttershy and Rainbow get their wings, but Rarity doesn't get her horn? Would that really look any sillier than winged humans?
I know executive meddling can be really, really bad. I'm a fan of the Spider-Man comics so I've been through the outrage of the editorially-mandated One More Day storyline (Spidey literally makes a deal with the devil).
The thing is though, I don't care that Flash Century showed up in season 4. He was never mentioned by name. He never had a speaking part. Twilight never acted like she recognized him. As far as I'm concerned that orange stallion is just another background pony, EG in-universe was just a terrible dream and the Flashlight ship (which is the worst name for a ship) is just the same as a Twilight/OC ship.
It appears as though everyone is forgetting, or just hasn't found, the dark side of the New Lunar Republic. There are actually many people who like and role play and what not with the New Lunar Republic, who view it as evil because they believe that Nightmare Moon returned and is simply disguising herself as Luna. Some of these being people who follow the idea that when Nightmare Moon first appeared, she created the Lunar Republic to counter her sister's kingdom and now that she's returned, created the New Lunar Republic as a guise of turning good and fighting the, sometimes false, sometimes true, tyranny of Celestia. I personally like to think of it as it is only being called a republic because ponies have learned to fear such a name as monarchy or empire from Celestia's tyrannical actions so, while being called a republic, Luna still runs everything and has the other "leaders" as her advisers and underlings. Also, she has learned from her previous mistakes, namely becoming Nightmare Moon and trying to bathe the land in eternal night which was mostly caused by her immaturity, and is now a good leader, maybe not the best, but good. The Twilicorn subject has even sparked a whole "factions" craze and there are people who follow the New Lunar Republic, the Solar Empire, I forget what they call Cadence's but it's very small from what I've seen, and the Kingdom of Twilight I believe they call it. It just follows the rule of "if it exists, people will follow it."
The history of the "NLR" thing goes back to a group on "Flankbook".
Still meh, think it was just some silly RP group, but like always trolls and gullible people make it into a big thing and take it seriously, thank god all the "serious" celestia hate passed some while ago, but you can still find people who consider even the shows Celestia a tyrant.
2310028 eg was not awful by any stretch. at most it was mediocre, though i partially enjoyed it because it created a character that had far much more to explore and the idea of there being alternate wrolds than equestria we know of.
i always hated that solar empire, luna republic thing. it is always misguided and lopsided. often enough just raw, visceral celestia hatred is used to create it too.
with derpy hooves well it is people noticing the silly looking pony in the backgroudn, and realizing it keeps appearing. like any other background pony bronies attach some identity to her.
personally the primary variant i like is derpy hooves the mother of dinkie and amethyst. dinkie her biological child, amethyst her adoptive daughter. genrally portraying derpy hooves as a climsy but very good natured character overall.
From what I've learned, it started off as a joke or something (maybe a piece of fan art? I have no idea...) that began to escalate, and has now reached a sort of "fanon status." The reason I like it is because apparently, based on what I've read, it isn't just the traditional "oppressive autocratic empire vs. democratic rebels that bring freedom and justice" idea. Both sides point fingers (hooves?) at each other and blame whatever current problems Equestria may have on the other. The New Lunar Republic says the Empire keeps ponies under control against their will and blinds them from the truth, while The Solar Empire claims the NLR's accusations and promises are nothing but propaganda to gain power of its own.
If you take a step back and look at them both, it almost feels like it's actually two tyrannies trying to gain control of the same nation, with one cloaking itself in the guise of majesty and (I suppose) conservative values, while the other claims it's "a new way, a way of freedom, the system ponykind always deserved to have."
Personally, I think that if someone can't decide which side to support, then maybe they should realize that, despite their appearance and their claims, each one has an alicorn princess at its head...
Then again, that would probably just lead to a boring division between Celestia and Luna fans...