One must wonder whether or not, swiggity swoogity.

4711523

4712725
Is that really a term? 'flank steak'?

4712796
Ah, I see. I guess I never really thought much about it since to me steaks are something I can barely afford to have.

4712796
We need better butchery classes in public schools!

4712725 In the show the refer to the rear as their flanks as that's where the cutie mark appears.

4715429

Unicorns are also factually wrong. And horses don't tend to be able to talk. The canonical terminology is the canonical terminology, and while flank refers to the middle of the barrel on the side of a horse in real life, in Equestria flank = buttock. The show has a lot of made up terminology that we tend to use in order to make fanfic feel more like the show.

4715429

The show's wrong.

Ahem. NO

Now that that's out of the way, here's why:

the fleshy part of the side between the ribs and the hip; broadly : the side of a quadruped

http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/flank (Emphasis mine)

be situated on each side of or on one side of (someone or something).

https://www.google.com/search?q=flank

the side of anything, as of a building.

http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/flank

All of these definitions relate to the side of something (in this case, a pony). Ponies' cutie marks are most visible from the side because they are on their sides. Calling up the definition of the cut of meat known as a flank steak is not helpful unless you are one of those idiots who writes gore fics about slicing up and eating ponies. If you are one of those, then you have more problems than I can help you with.

The show canonically uses the term flank to refer to the portion of the pony on which the cutie mark appears: http://mlp.wikia.com/wiki/Transcripts/Call_of_the_Cutie (ctrl-f, flank) Whether it is correct or incorrect in terms of butchery is not of any importance.

4712886 Fajita meat is most often made of flank steak. it's a very inexpensive, tough cut of meat that has to be marinated a lot to be any good.

Edit: Also Skirt steak, which is taken from that bit forward of the Flank. The "Plate."

4715478

Invented terms don't have to be wholly made up words, lots of real words get repurposed in fictional settings. In this case, in the setting of MLP: FiM, the word 'flank' refers to the location on the body where a pony's cutie mark appears. Whether or not the show writers were using the most appropriate word or not is a side conversation, and conceivably might make for an entertaining HiE/PoE story where a human and pony confuse each other for a few minutes, but when it comes to writing conversations and stories inside the setting of FiM, flank is the most accurate to the source material word to use for refering to the buttock/upper thigh of the characters.

4715478

Yes, I left the other part in because it was part of the definition. That does not make the part I highlighted any less correct.

You can continue to use terminology that is incorrect within Equestria in your ponyfic and continue to be incorrect yourself. I don't care, I liked exactly one of your fics after it received massive rewrites. The others which I have sampled have been pretty meh, and the rest I wouldn't touch with a ten-foot pole.

4715538

I don't care, I liked exactly one of your fics after it received massive rewrites. The others which I have sampled have been pretty meh, and the rest I wouldn't touch with a ten-foot pole.

Sorry, but you bringing in the fact that you don't like his stories just makes you sound like you're getting really petty over a rather dumb disagreement.

4715538

Quick, people are disagreeing with you on the internet! You gotta find more ways to put them down or else everyone will think you're wrong!

4716523
4717235
Nah, at this point it isn't a discussion or right and wrong. It's making fun of the silly pedantic fool. That he's wrong was demonstrated some time ago. That he is basically saying, "nuh uh, I'm right, the show is wrong about it's own terminology" isn't a discussion. It's a popcorn munching event.

4717705

Yes, and as such, it is wholly acceptable for people to lose all pretenses of civility in order to put the naysayer in his place. Indeed, we're all empathetic human beings, are we not? What do we care if the argument delves into tangential insults and indirect shots? We're right, and because we are right, everything we do and say is wholly justified.

You also might want to take a step back and realize that all of this is over a disagreement concerning whether or not the show uses the word "flank" correctly.

4719232
Rein in your horse, Mr. White Knight. The princess needs no saving.

4719250

She's in another castle anyway.

4719250

Pssh, you wouldn't know a princess in need if she came up and bit you on the ass. Er, and then said "Help".

4716523
4717235

To be completely fair, Kami kinda opened that can of words with his own "feel free to use it if you want" in combination with his "the show is wrong" remark. Gives it a rather snide feel to how he handles it. Granted, the shot Jondor took is quite a sight less subtle and a lot more snippy, but neither party is in the right with their conduct there.

4715478
4715538

The respective parties here are heavily advised to chill.

4717705

If they don't chill, pass the bowl.

4719271

4719276
4719277

Perfect.

4719271

Kinda long story about how I got here (since I'm not really a fan of the subject of this thread, nor am I a troll of those who are, so under any other circumstances besides what I was looking for I'd have ignored this thread), but now that this subject's come up, here's my opportunity to get an answer to a question that's long been bugging me:

Why do people always act like the flank and the rump (as they mostly call it in the show) are the same? As Jondor pointed out, the cutie marks are on their sides, like when the camera's positioned directly behind them, you can't see their cutie marks, and they never use them interchangeably in the show. Aside from Pinkie Pie in What About Discord, but that episode was unpopular and written by a bad writer, and in any event she's currently a goofball who isn't even funny anymore.

I won't pretend the show doesn't put some focus on the ponies' rumps from time to time, but the flank is the hip, isn't it? Or is there something I'm missing?

5880639

5880639

but now that this subject's come up

79 weeks ago.

But I'll bite, Mr. Not Troll.

Because people don't generally get into distinct and precise anatomical conversations. If you say you're checking out "dat ass" people will generally get the idea of what you're looking at/referring to. Doesn't matter too much if you're focused closer to the hip, the crack, the knees, or the middle of the back. On a pony, in canon terminology, where the cutie mark is/will be is the flank. If your eye drifts a bit in certain directions, you're looking at pony butt. It isn't that far of a drift. Most people think they're being clever by "claiming" to be looking at the flank.

Since the show also seems to avoid referring ever to pony butts, we don't have "official canon jargon" for it. Just like they also don't ever bring up fuck, shit, or damn. The closest they get is "Cadance is Pregnant" "The Cakes had twins" and "Pinkie needs to use the outhouse." The fandom is more crude than the show, and the show doesn't deliver. Fans are not noted for being clever students of etymology. So flank is close enough.

4715462 What the hell!? This thread is crazy. Also,
5880719 I agree.

5880719 I'm pretty sure they've said "rump" or "backside" a few times in the show, like in the Piggy Dance song (plus the aforementioned Pinkie Pie line), and there have been a few scenes I wouldn't have expected of this show, but your comment answers that question. Thanks

Sorry for coming in so late. If you want my story, I was checking to see if you could do NSFW threads on a non-NSFW group and this looked like a good thread to try to answer that question, and then the whole "flank" thing came up. Reason being, I started a group related to a part of the ponies that is a lot more family-friendly, which I have a standard fascination for, but I know there are those with a fetish for it. I don't want to discriminate against them and bar them from my group, so I wanted to know if they could post threads talking about it as a fetish on my group, which is non-NSFW.

So that's why I'm here in a thread I'd usually avoid so as to not give the impression that I either have an interest in it, or am trolling