The Writing of The Bonds of Love Update · 12:33am Sep 2nd, 2021
Hello, everyone! Sooo… It’s been a few months since I finished The Bonds of Love, and I promised I’d discuss my writing process for the story just like I did with its predecessor, A Day for Family.
Good news: I’m still doing that. I don’t like going back on promises, and I want to finish this “Writing of…” thing before I properly focus on any next major project.
Bad news: It’s taking way longer than I initially thought. Which, at this point, might be a running trend for me personally: Expecting something to be easy only to be slapped in the face with how difficult and time-consuming it actually is.
As for why it’s taking so long? Simple: The Bonds of Love is over 300k words long, and I’m talking about everything. And when I say “everything,” I mean E V E R Y T H I N G!
Sure, there’s the stuff you guys already know I’m going to discuss: Smolder’s poem, the nightmare sequence from Ch.6(Stagnation); the Gallus-Stream romance…
But I’m also talking about IRL inspirations for the story, why the chapter lengths got so long; how horribly mismanaged certain parts of the first few chapters were…
And then we’ve also got other stuff to discuss such as the original version of Chapter Two before it got split into Ch.2(Reprieve) and Ch.3(Expression), the fact that a similar chapter split happened SIX MORE TIMES throughout the story; the original theme of Ch.7(Pride) and what inspired it…
Oh, and we can’t possibly forget do address:
Silver’s lost diary, the O&O scene, alternative chapter titles, what I initially intended to do with Peppermint(Patty) Goldylinks, why the Drama Club’s play was named “The Epoch of Majesty Serendipity Daydream” of all things, the alternate script for Ch.4(Optimism), why the Ponyville Clock Tower, bowling alley, and aquarium all became possible dating spots Gallus looked into, Gruff’s scrapped cameo in Ch.7(Pride), why the 2nd Date took so long to happen and why Gallus and Silver almost broke up during it, Gavin’s scrapped cameo in Ch.12-13(Serenity), what—or rather: who—inspired how cheerful, caring, and loving the hippogriffs and seaponies were, both to each other and to Gallus, Terramar’s unnamed sweetie, why Silver started calling Gallus “Sweetie” in the first place, the Ocean Flow subplot, why Gruff didn’t appear in the Epilogue; Glorious Pearl’s original design and name…
As well as:
Silverstream’s whole paranoia arc, Gallus’ nixed personality arc, his and Sandbar’s scrapped cutie mark discussions, Yona’s tremendously minimized role, Edith’s completely nonexistent role, Discord’s underutilized cameos, both Ocellus’ and Smolder’s subplots, the confusing mess that is T.B.O.L.’s timeline, the absolute dumpster fire that is T.B.O.L.’s first three chapters, behind-the-scenes IRL stuff that happened—some fine, others very much not fine—and had to work through; and the most important unimportant fact of all: Why the F
does End Zone even exist.
Yeah. Like I said, I’m talking about everything.
And to put it bluntly, there’s over 300k words and 16 total chapters to talk about. So far, I’ve been discussing each chapter individually in mostly 5k+ word long sections, but after finishing said sections, I then have to spend more time arranging everything to be as coherent and understandable as possible. All the while, I still have IRL stuff going on like work, editing for a friend; other issues I don’t want to talk about yet…
And while I obviously will have more to talk about with some stuff than others, I want to talk about everything equally and thoroughly. And maybe not that many people are interested in all of this, but I owe it to those who are interested to be as thorough as possible.
All that junk aside, I have thankfully made plenty of progress.
Currently, I have finished discussing Chapters 1 – 5 as well as all of the pre-planning I went through before I even started writing at all. Most of it needs more editing, but for now, it’s pretty good.
It’s also roughly 30k words long so far. 
… Yeah, not knowing when to shut up and stop writing appears to be another running trend of mine, and if this pace keeps up, I’m probably gonna have to split the “Writing of…” into chunks. 
No matter—I’ll deal with that when I get there, but for now, I got my sights on discussing Ch.6(Stagnation) next—a process that fills my heart with naught but dread and vexation, the reasons for which will be revealed in said chapter’s discussion. 
And I might as well go ahead and reveal this now: I’m re-editing The Bonds of Love on top of all of this. I go over why in the “Writing of…” but suffice it to say: The first few chapters are rough. Very. Rough. And some of that roughness continued further into the story.
Don’t worry, the story of The Bonds of Love is entirely unchanged; I’m only going through and fixing the various grammatical issues I find. And believe me, I found plenty. Ch.2(Reprieve) alone had over two hundred mistakes I needed to fix, minor and major. 
So that’s another thing taking time to do…
On a brighter note!
For those who haven’t yet seen it, Johnerose126, the same person who made the Glorious Pearl art, has blessed us all with a new cover for The Bonds of Love!
Full disclosure: I always hated the original artwork since it was just a picture of Gallus and Silver walking, nothing that conveyed anything about the actual story. In fact, I had first wanted to find a picture with all of the Student Six in it and with Gallus and Silver featured more prominently. Sadly, I found no such artwork like that, and as a result, I settled with what we ultimately got.
I actually intended to discuss this very fact in the “Writing of…” but now you get it here: A preview of what’s to come, I suppose. 
Thankfully, Johnerose126 is amazing; seriously, I can’t thank them enough for this! 
I already provided links to both the new cover art and Johnerose126’s DeviantArt account in the story’s description, but here it is again:
Here’s the link to the Cover version: https://www.deviantart.com/johnerose126/art/The-Bonds-of-Love-COVER-889056152
The full image version: https://www.deviantart.com/johnerose126/art/The-Bonds-of-Love-889054653
Johnerose126's DeviantArt account: https://www.deviantart.com/johnerose126
And here's their Fimfiction account too: https://www.fimfiction.net/user/361090/johnerose126
And as I also said in T.B.O.L.’s description, go show them some love and appreciation; they absolutely deserve it!
While we’re on the subject artwork, I finally cracked down and got myself a Profile pic:
The reason I went so long without one is I had intended to draw an OC or something and use that as the Profile pic, but since I no longer have any plans to do that, I’m gonna settle for a picture of Twig in a vest. Because Twig is adorable, and I love Netflix’s Hilda—if you haven’t watched it yet, go do that; it’s amazing!
In other news, I got my bike fixed, so I’ve been riding that when I can, I’m gonna give PC gaming a try soon, and I’m also trying my hand at Pixel Art. Nothing major yet, but I did make this for my mom’s birthday:
And that’s about everything. I’m sorry that the “Writing of The Bonds of Love” is taking so long, but I thank you all for your patience regarding it. And while I can’t quite give a set due date for when I will finish it, I hope and pray it will be within the next few months. I do not want to still be working on this thing come 2022…
Nevertheless, thank you all once again for reading both this Blog Post and The Bonds of Love, and I hope you all have a wonderful day!
Also, as of this comment, I've yet to update the chapters of The Bonds of Love that I've re-edited, but I plan to do that soon. I forgot to mention that.
Personally, I'm just glad to see some actual activity from you. Actually, I really need to re-read The Bonds of Love sometime in the first place.
Plus I still need to finish rewatching the show itself...
5576618
Aww, thanks.
And yeah, I do need to find something more to do on Fimfic when I get done with the "Writing of..." I dunno, maybe I can do MLP episode reviews or something as well as writing? In any case, how've you been doing?
5576631
I... exist. And my existence won't be ending anytime within the next decade (at least if I have anything to say about it).
Honestly though, I'm not too bad, but I'm a little frustrated with myself. I became an animator like, twelve days after I first commented on The Bonds of Love, and that's taken up a lot of my time from then to now, even though I only really started putting out in the last couple of months due to some animation contests, which also means I haven't really done much, if any writing in nearly a year now, though I'm starting to get myself back into it since I have a reprieve from animation contests.
As I hinted earlier, I'm rewatching the show (right at the end of Season 2 now, only got Canterlot Wedding left. I kinda ended up skipping Boast Busters and Putting Your Hoof Down, but aside from those and Fame and Misfortune I have watched every episode and will watch every remaining episode) to get all my lore and characterization straight for my major fics. I've said it before, but it's so easy to lose sight of the true magic of this show and forget why we love it, but every time I actually watch it I fall in love all over again. It's similar thing with Pokémon, honestly.
It's funny you should mention doing episode reviews, I was also considering adding that particular skill to my resume. Thinkin' I'd use an animated changeling for an avatar, with proper lip-syncing since I use Source Filmmaker. I'm not really the analytical sort, but I do value logic and have a very particular point of view that I honestly wonder if the world might need right now. All the same, I'd love to see your point of view on individual episodes too! Honestly, I might be a bit too positive for some people. Or sarcastic when it comes to how people reacted to certain status quo shakeups.
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And I'm glad you do!
Awesome, I'm happy for ya! Sorry about it being so time-consuming for you though; did you at least win any of those contests?
That's me with Gravity Falls, Hilda, and weirdly enough, Haikyuu.
That sounds cool; I'd love to see something like that.
I've been kicking around to idea of making a Youtube account for a few years now, and if I ever did, I'd love to do a full retrospective on G4 as a whole one day. Though that's nothing but a pipe dream currently, so I figured doing episode reviews would be the next best thing I could try. That said, I'd certainly love to see you try that out too; I'm always interested in knowing what other people think about, well, anything, including MLP. And if our conversation regarding Gallus' nightmare sequence was any indication, I can already tell I'd love to know what your thoughts are.
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There's only been two so far, and the results of the second one don't go up until tomorrow. Didn't do too well in the first, but I think my second entry will go ever better. I'm hoping for at least top 3, but honestly, I'm more hopeful for some constructive criticism from the people holding the contest.
There's nothing to really lose, honestly. YouTube doesn't cost anything except time.
I think a full-on retrospective of G4 would hold more meaning with a full series of reviews concerning it, honestly. The way I'm currently doing things, I'm gonna give my full thoughts on every season in a blog post on my account here on FiMfiction, then go into more specifics with videos on individual episodes.
As a side note, I really wish there was a better set of models for the reformed changelings. The only option available has the wrong type of eyes, improperly named sliders (which means the auto lip-sync won't work without a lot of invested time on my end), and visible nostrils on a species that doesn't actually canonically have nostrils. There's a really good model for unreformed changelings that's both accurate to the show and looks really adorable, plus has 4 color pallets built into the model, which I'll be using for my videos if I do go ahead and make them, but I'd have liked a better model for the love beetles.
5577028
Fair enough. Here's hoping you do place in the top 3!
Again, that sounds awesome! I'll definitely check those out whenever you get around to doing them. Sorry about that changeling model issue though.
5577099
Turns out I didn't even make the top eleven out of all 44 entries.
It's ultimately not a huge problem. Once I can save up enough I'll find someone to commission for higher-quality models. And unreformed changelings are still adorable, especially in 3D.
It actually makes me really excited to see how the Changelings will be presented in G5, whenever the writers decide to reintroduce them. Official pony models are much better than the fan-ones from G4, and honestly the G5 ponies are so adorable it's almost frightening to imagine how cute Griffons and Hippogriffs and Dragons and Changelings will be!
5577101
Darn, sorry.
True.
Let's just hope we won't have to wait till seasons 5 and 8 for literally anything to be done with the non-pony races this time.
5577117
Indeed. I've said it before, but not sure if I said it to you: At the end of the day the only real problem I have with G4 overall is that the non-ponies were kinda left to the wayside in canon, especially the changelings who only got three actual focus episodes, one of which was also a dragon episode, despite Ocellus being a main character upon her introduction in Season 8. And then Ocellus helped us learn about Changeling Hearth's Warming... and then that's it.
About the only truly bitter thing about the School of Friendship to me is that Ocellus never got her own focus episode. Not one. Like even the worst seasons of Power Rangers have given every Ranger at least one focus episode. Ocellus though, in a slice-of-life show where her cuteness is more than welcome in the spotlight? Nothing.
Seriously. Poor, sweet little 'Celly.
...So yeah, I really hope G5 doesn't wait too long to reintroduce the other creatures of Equestria and beyond. I mean, I know the show is "My Little Pony", not "My Little Assorted Mythological Creatures + Yaks", but still.
5577129
While I would say there were other things the series could have done better, this is most certainly one of the show's most egregious mistakes, no doubt.
Yeah, S8 is really...weird, to put it mildly. It introduces the School of Friendship, the E.E.A., and this whole new cast of characters which included both the Pillars and an entirely new species in the Kirin, and then proceeded to try its absolute hardest to not focus on said new characters whatsoever, and then once we get to S9, all attention is on getting Twilight on the throne and the Legion of Doom running amok.
Like, I know S7 got some criticisms for focusing too much on the secondary, non-Mane Six characters, but I can't imagine the writers, or Hasbro, would want to backtrack as hard as they ultimately did for some simple criticisms alone... Seriously, I'd love to know what went on behind the scenes to result in Rainbow Dash getting FOUR episodes focused on her, compared to Fluttershy's two and Silverstream, Sandbar, and Ocellus' zero.
And let's also hope that if/when they do get reintroduced, we won't get a repeat of: "All non-ponies are savages that must be taught friendship by ponies because they couldn't possibly understand the concept of being kind to one another otherwise." Because G4 loved portraying every non-pony race as either violent and destructive(Dragons, Yaks) or toxic and hostile(Changelings, Griffons) until the ponies specifically came and "Enlightened them to the Magic of Friendship." And any species that didn't get treated this way, the writers never used for anything(Buffalo, Hippogriffs/Seaponies).
5577391
I mean, I'm not saying the show was flawless except this one thing or anything. But it's the only flaw I can't really forgive or overlook, since it's both the flaw that affects my enjoyment of the show the most and because it's the most likely flaw to be repeated. Again, the franchise is My Little Pony, not My Little Assorted Mythological Creatures + stupid Bovines, so it's entirely "justified" in a manner of speaking that non-ponies are left to the wayside, but it's highly vexing and in my opinion not really that hard to manage if you've got any real idea what you're doing.
Poor management from the bigger big-wigs and a dim hope that Hasbro might let them have another season or two than they ultimately did, is my guess. Honestly, the show's worst decisions all seem to have come from Hasbro setting rules and limitations that ultimately only hindered what the writers could do. But then they'd also planned to end things at Season 3, only for Hasbro to let them make six more seasons, and seeing as there was plenty of potential that got wasted in the end because of the hard 9-Season limit Hasbro suddenly decided to enforce with no further haggling, I feel it was ultimately just that their options were artificially limited or they impulsively made bad choices ("Growing Up Is Hard to Do" for example, was a really dumb idea to execute in Season 9, but it would've worked back in Season 5, where it was supposed to be made) due to time, budget, or skewed priorities.
Watching Season 9's premier, at least the first scene, strikes me as a special oddity of skewed priorities. The whole deal is blatantly played for laughs, but passing on crown and all its burdens is kind of a big deal that you don't just freaking drop on someone like a crate of anvils. Twilight and Company were groomed for the role from Season 1 Episode 1, but the announcement in-show was done in a really dumb way that I think partially colored people's perception of it. It should've been discussed in a relaxed, private setting over some calming tea, but for some reason the showrunners prioritized comedy despite blatantly being very out-of-character for the princesses to deliberately try to trigger Twilight like that. Like I get being eager to retire, but Celestia darn well knows better than to let her eagerness for something overwrite common sense.
Um... No, actually?
The races were generally destructive or hostile until the heroes stepped in, but outside of the Yaks (who are honestly just the worst anyway), it took members of those races to "enlighten them to the Magic of Friendship". Thorax, Ember, even Gilda (and more importantly Gabby) already had the spark of friendship in them, and they're ultimately the ones who led their peoples to become better and embrace basic sapient decency. Sure they needed a little help from the ponies here and there, but Ember and Thorax at least did most of the work just by existing. Spike and Starlight gave them a bit of a push, but that's about the limit of pony handiwork there. Thorax especially, since in terms of reforming the changelings, all Starlight really did was point at the Cinnabug and encourage him to be his sweet-hearted self even in the face of death. I mean yeah, he was inspired to leave the hive by watching the Mane 6 whoop the buggy butts of his kin, but honestly I don't think that was really necessary for him to do what he did in the end, it just made things a bit faster by giving him a clearer picture of what the end result could be.
I'll certainly grant you that Ember, Thorax, and Gilda could've done more on their own than we were shown, and Twilight's wording when talking about creating the School of Friendship certainly paints the other sapients in a negative light, though at the same time it's worth noting that 95% of the School's students are ponies until the timeskip, so obviously it wasn't her intent to stereotype non-ponies as unempathetic. And given that the School of Friendship is only shown as hosting more non-ponies than the Young Five after uniting with Equestria as friends for at least the next millennium and a half or so, I don't think the school can be used to support the "non-ponies = savages" idea, in case that thought crossed your mind.
...So, kind of a topic shift and this was wordy, but I think you can ultimately glean how my reviews will go based on this discussion so far. (Which I am open to continuing, not trying to shut you down or anything
) To summarize my perspective, I'm optimistic and forgiving, and expect the showrunners to learn from their mistakes, but I'm not here to just mindlessly praise everything. Ultimately it's a cartoon primarily aimed at children that tries not to alienate adults but can't be expected to cater to mature themes and the level of seriousness adults might prefer, so I'm willing to go easy on it and consider the intent of the author... but I won't just ignore what it comes off as, either. Our media, our art, should be taken seriously, but there is such a thing as taking art too seriously.
On that note... people often get their hopes up for something that's obviously never going to happen, and then they get whiny when it doesn't turn out the way they want. I'm an optimist, but I'm also a realist, and more than that I'm a fan of many media franchises/intellectual properties. Tempered expectations are important. Speculation is fun, but I never set my expectations beyond vague statements of "they'll probably have some cute bonding scenes where everyone gets to express themselves uniquely" and things like that. Sometimes I'm disappointed, but like CinemaWins' host, Lee, my question is always "did it entertain me?" and the answer is almost always "yes", and that's what matters.
And hey, if canon doesn't live up to the hype, fanfic writers often step up to the plate, sometimes knocking it out of the park, like you did with The Bonds of Love. ...And sometimes people screw up worse than canon ever could've, like literally all the "Changelings Times" rewrites that ultimately just throw out Spike and Shining Armor's characters for cheap excuses to not have a song and go out of their way to pretend the song was the important thing and not the f
ing Princess of Friendship offering her trust to her little brother and his new friend, with Cadence and Shining obviously giving their sister(-in-law) their trust on principle after she, you know, saved their wedding and all, not to mention is their very smart sister.
5577397
Ugh...
I think I need to catch up on some sleep because this is the second time I've tried replying to you only to forget at the last second to actually hit the reply button and accidentally posted the comment regularly.
Ah, I understand now. Sorry, I might have mildly misinterpreted what you were saying there.
Yeah, wasn't S5 at some point supposed to be the finale too before they changed their minds again?
I wholeheartedly agree with this! I don't have much to add beyond that; you hit the nail right on the head.
So, I originally wrote a whole paragraph explaining my stance regarding this, but honestly, it was pretty stupid. Instead, I'll simply settle for this: I don't think it was realistic that none of the other non-pony species understood the show's concept of friendship and had to be taught it by the ponies. Surely, Gabby and Gilda can't be the only griffons to prefer being nice to others, especially when it was the answer to saving their entire nation from ruin all along? Surely, Ember can't be the only dragon who appreciates the idea of compassion and loyalty, even regarding weaker creatures like the ponies? Like I said, it feels unrealistic and stills rubs me the wrong way to this day.
But like you said, tempered expectations are important. And admittedly, I think it's clear this particular subject is something my personal expectations weren't tempered for, and it colored my perception of the issue accordingly(As you also said, the School issue certainly didn't help matters). So, uh, sorry about that.
But thank you for correcting for me on the matter.
Hey! A fellow Cinemawins fan, cool!
Aww, thanks.
Honestly, I've always felt most people's problem with that episode was it felt the issue was resolved far too quickly than was believable. Just because they've come to accept Thorax means them no harm and merely wishes to live amongst them as a friend and ally doesn't mean everyone is going to be comfortable around him(He hissed at Flurry, accidentally or no; you'd think Cadence would be a wee bit hesitant of him going near her baby again, but she's not). I personally thought it was fine, but the issue totally deserved a follow-up episode(Or at least a line or two about Thorax winning over some leftover neighsayers).
I'm gonna admit: I did a little smack on my forehead when I read this because that was my initial idea before settling with just the two of them. I mean, it's called The Bonds of Love, literal story about a bird learning to keep, appreciate, and expand the love for himself and others around him, but I caved in after thinking that that's what my other piece was as well. *sigh*
Welpers, still turned out pretty good anyhow. c: Much appreciate the shout-out, but lad, again, it's your work that really shines. It's just really damn well written. I didn't even catched any of the grammar mistakes you mentioned, but I will note that the way this story goes is sort of like Netflix's BoJack Horseman: the first part starts off a bit slow, it's building, getting the tone right, but that's just to get the ball rolling until it goes faster and faster and before you know it, you're witnessing the work of a genius.
Anyway, I really can't wait to see the thought process you went through! I always find it interesting to learn why creators do the things they do in a project, makes me appreciate their work more! Congrats on that Pixel Art of yours as well as your bike (you're gonna enjoy it)! Take the time you need, I ain't going anywhere! <:3
5577408
Heck yeah!
I'm actually considering that if I do review MLP episodes, some of my favorites might just get done in the CinemaWins style, if my editing program is up to the task. 
That same problem crops up in every fix fic I've read aside from TheOwtcast's Walk Where There Is No Path story and its sequels. All anyone ever does is have Shining be a dick for a few short paragraphs and throw out Spike's song in favor of often out-of-character speech that sometimes takes potshots at the other characters like Spike is some kind of bitter roast-master who hates the ponies. Nobody ever tries to show Cadence as being cautious of Thorax or bitter or anything, all the reluctance and anger is Shining's, because... reasons!
There definitely should have been a follow-up episode though, if for nothing else than showing Thorax living in the Empire peacefully before the finale threw him into the role of leading the changelings. At the very least it would've been some fun cuteness with the ultimate cinnamon roll.
5577792
Well, LittleshyFiM already does a CinemareSins series; I'd say it's about time someone finally gifts the fandom with a CinemareWins series!
While Spike most certainly can be a roast-master when he wants to be, the type of situation that happened in that episode deserved to be handled with a degree of seriousness and respect, even if in the form of a song, not cheap comedy.
As for it's why usually Shining Armor that gets the D
ck treatment, I'd say that's a result of the scene between Shining and Spike where he makes his "No such thing as a good changeling" stance known. And while that scene was there to emphasize to Spike how difficult it would be to get Thorax properly accepted for being a changeling, the fact it was delivered through Shining specifically, and with such fervor, resulted in him coming across as just generally anti-changeling(Which some might very well just conflate with general bigotry).
I mean, it makes sense why Shining and everypony else at the time would be anti-changeling, but since we never got so much as hint of a follow-up, it feels like Shining had a possible subplot set up(Him being anti-changeling) without ever getting any pay-off for it(Him apologizing to, let alone interacting with, Thorax). So, for a lot of people, it's easy to jump at the chance to "Fix" that by showing Shining as even more anti-changeling for a while before ultimately concluding with him learning how not to be. And while an idea like that obviously has quite a lot of potential, any and every idea is entirely execution-dependent.
None of this is helped that much by Cadence - and both Starlight and Sunburst for that matter - being such non-entities in that episode...
Not to mention more time spent in the Crystal Empire. Lord! That place needed so much more screentime!
5577444
On the bright side, we got two amazing pieces of your art!
But in all seriousness though, don't worry about it; frankly, I'm just ecstatic The Bonds of Love finally has some proper cover art at all. I seriously can't thank you enough for that. 
As happy as I am that they didn't effect your particular reading experience, believe me... There were a lot of mistakes.
Thankfully, I've finally gotten around to do the re-edits for Ch.1(Transition) and Ch.2(Reprieve), so now I just need to do the same for the rest of 'em. 
While I'm by no means a genius, I'll happily take the compliment. Thank you.
Well then, believe me, my friend, you're gonna love what I've got in store.
5577827
I've had that thought too. It's actually rather disappointing that there hardly seems to be any CinemaWins pastiches, aside from one person doing GamingWins, which hasn't done many games or covered them very thoroughly.
The main thing keeping me from trying, aside from not really knowing if my editing program or editing skills are up to the task, is that I don't really have the experience Lee does in terms of cinematogrophy and such. I've learned a lot incidentally, but I don't know if that's really enough to do Lee's thing, even on a smaller scale.
Plus if I do the CinemareWins thing, I won't be able to use an adorable changeling avatar much, if at all.
Truer words will never be spoken. I could say more, but that I'm afraid it would quickly derail into me ranting about a completely unrelated show.
The Crystal Ponies and their culture certainly have a lot of blanks to fill in, despite getting seven full seasons to exist and plenty of episodes where things happened there. Honestly I forgot for a moment whether we even learned anything about their culture after their debut (I only just remembered The Equestria Games and The Crystalling while I was saying I didn't think we had). They're actually kinda like the Changelings in that regard...
Kind of off-topic but a Crystal Earth Pony filly will be important to the big fic I'm planning. I'm actually considering whether or not to introduce her early with a slice-of-life oneshot or something. She and a changeling colt are going to be the main protagonists.
5577853
Hmm? Perhaps you could format the video in the same style of Silverquill or Joshscorcher, where their avatars are predominantly on screen and clips of the show are shown in a window to the side; you could then leave a little space at the bottom of the screen to leave the subtitles for what you're saying while the Win counter itself remains in one of the top corners.
Okay, now you've got me curious.
What show are you referring to?
I'd say it largely depends on how you want to introduce them. Do you feel they deserve to have an entire side-story to establish their characterization, relationships, circumstances, etc.? Or do you feel you can establish all of this in a chapter or two of the main fic?
5577898
Wouldn't really feel Wins-y, though.
Neither Lee nor any CinemaSins people/pastiches use avatars at all.
That being said, I have considered the Silver Quill/Joshscorcher style. Most MLP reviewers do that kind of thing actually. In my opinion it's part of what their videos fun, though I don't think anyone does as much banter and slapstick as Silver and Josh.
Main thing I was thinking of doing though was imitating TheMysteriousMrEnter's MLP Review style. Mr. Enter, when he was reviewing MLP episodes, started using an Ace Attorney-inspired style in the middle of Season 2, where, accompanied by Ace Attorney SFX, he would go through the episodes giving or taking points (starting every episode at 5 points) depending on what he liked or disliked about it, with point scores being displayed at the end of the episode in various colors, representing how he believed episodes did objectively, and presenting how he felt about them personally through the colors.
RWBY. it was created by the once-living legend, Monty Oum. Filled to the brim with incredible ideas, the execution, even in the first three volumes where he was alive and aiding in the production, was never the best, and the execution of the many great ideas worsened further without him.
I actually compare RWBY and MLP FiM quite a lot. Despite being wildly different genres, totally different worlds aimed at different audiences, I find there's a lot to compare and contrast between them, mostly in terms of things like Season/Volume 3 ending with a huge shake-up to the status quo that made a lot of people quit the show, and how their primary creators didn't stick around after Season 2.
I find MLP to ultimately be the better show in pretty much every regard save the action scenes in RWBY's first three volumes, though later volumes quite easily submit their awards for decent fights to MLP. (Seriously, the battles with the Deadly Three in The Ending of The End are awesome, and while not as fast are far more creative, impactful, and genuinely fun than all of RWBY's post-Volume 3 fights)
Oh, I'll be establishing everything in the first two chapters, though most of it will be in Chapter 1 with 2 serving mostly as the introduction to the conflict and how the kids get involved.
...I think we should move this conversation over to Private Messages.
We're taking up a lot of room on this public blog, and the topic is seriously shifting.