Worst pun ever, future race in Season 4, or both? · 10:08am Jul 17th, 2013
While looking up references for the animation, I came across an old tutorial by David Ward. It got me thinking about the following:
-we know there are other races and nations in Equestria.
-we know the Equestria Games will be coming in Season 4, possibly as a two-parter.
-we know the writers have a fondness for puns, like fruit bats and timberwolves and Saddle Arabia.
Now, suppose the Equestria Games have events designed around weather control? Say, pushing clouds, busting clouds, exercises like we saw in Wonderbolts Academy. It'd be kinda dull if it was only pegasi and griffons, no? It seems to me there should be a third race, at least, capable of flight. Getting naga in as a race works, with coatls as their flying class, but I'm leaning towards something a little more cute and cuddly yet awesome and recognisable. I can only assume the writers would, too.
So here's an idea: suppose you had a race of deer -- cute hooved creatures, like ponies -- who were able to fly -- like pegasus ponies or griffons -- and who served the purpose of weather control -- meaning griffins would basically be airborne Earth ponies in their home land-- who show up for this event? Wouldn't that be something?
And what would this race be called? Must you guess?
Raindeer.
Bonus points if their fur colours are all hues of blue, or cloudy whites and greys, and there's one who's air superiority blue (yes, I will keep linking that until it supplants red and black colour schemes). Extra bonus points if their tails (and possibly added manes, like that flying snake guy from Aladdin once) are clouds and their antlers look like lightning bolts.
I mean, really, just think of the puns, especially with Rarity. A selection:
"Dear goodness." - "Why, thank you, I try."
"Oh, dear, this can't go well." - "What do you want me to do about it?"
"Could you get that for me, dear?" - "No problem, pony." "I have a name." - "As do I."
*while citing* "Dear Princess Celestia." - "Gosh, everyone wishes they were us, don't they?" or "She finally got the operation?" (less likely, but funny nonetheless).
Don't pretend this can't happen, you know it can, you bloody well know it.
Rain Deer. I like it!
...actually, now that you say this...
And those puns at the end better happen somehow.
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? What if I turn out to be wrong 
? Maybe I should I get a design and look into patenting it 
? Do I slap them in a fanfic just to ensure bragging rights? If I'm right and I get a C&D before the episode airs, that'd be hilarious 
. If I'm wrong and people tell me I should expand on the idea... what then? 
You know, part of me wants to get return to that tutorial and make a 3D model of the thing to slap on DA or Youtube. But what if I turn out to be right
On that note, I'm still waiting for a new unicorn colt in this show, and if I have any say in it, it's going to be a Live Wire proxy, dammit!
I've seen pics of what happens with the only two Ponyville unicorn colts in the movie, and I'm seriously starting to wonder if I'm allowed to get offended by it. It bugs me to no end how the boys in this show aren't just in the minority, but poorly represented. Maybe I should blog about that topic sometime 
Hmm...
And yeah, those puns... seriously, with what they pull with that mule character, they can't use deer and not have this sort of thing happen, especially with Rarity on the roster. On top of that, it'd be new toys.
But to be fair, at least part of me just wants to prove you can have flying reindeer in a story that doesn't involve a fat guy who brings presents
. I'm a huge fanboy for Niko and the Flight to the Stars, but that movie's greatest flaws are the Christmas elements; It could have been a much better movie if it hadn't had Christmas tacked on. And those gave it the biggest complaints anyway.
What was my point again?
I. Love. This! It's all great, and that part about the clouds and lightning antler was the icing! Even if they don't appear in the Equestria Game, headcanon accepted.
I'm already thinking about how I might include your deer and raindeer, and if that happens, I'd definitely credit you with the initial idea. If that's okay with you, of course.
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Free publicity? Yes, please
I'm not sure if the lightning antlers would work, but at least a jagged shape would do. When I mean the cloud mane (and again, don't know if this would look good at all), I'm thinking of somethng like Entei's flowing mane, that looks like cloud material, or Malcho. I looked it up, and it's in the Aladdin episode 'Rain of Terror' that that flying snake gets clouds for hair and wings, it's on Youtube.
Edit: it seems to be only his tail tuft and wings, turns out. On non-winged deer, I'm guessing the mane could still have it, definitely the tails.
Same principle for deer could apply. But I guess it all depends on what design they'd use: most cartoons tend to make them look like white tail deer, not raindeer. Big, round nose, not the flat ones like in the Niko movies. Short, fluffy tail can easily be replaced by a fluff of cloud, or the tuft of white fur on the belly. There's definitely room for it in the show's aesthetics, at least.
Anyway, might decide to model one for practice. In the meantime, have fun with the idea, that's what it's there for.
1216788 Hey, what do you think of the idea of hippogryphs being the griffon version of unicorns?
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Well, I'll address the matter in full when/ if I get a final design for Rain Deer, but bear with me, because it's a general problem:
The big flaw that's in the idea of Raindeer right now is the lack of possible visual cues. Hippogryphs being the griffon equivalent of unicorns have the same problem. What do I mean by this?
Try watching Cars, and tell me how it is you can tell one car is faster than the other. Not going faster, just being faster, being more athletic or trying harder. You never see anyone making any real effort to pick up speed, no visual cues. Watch 'Boast Busters', 'It's About Time' or 'Cutie Mark Chronicles' and 'Magical Mystery Cure' in short succession and look at how much effort Twilight needs to make to have a spell work in contrast with how much power starts flowing into her once she's receptive.
The problem with Raindeer right now is that, as they're described now, there's no real visual cue to say they can fly, aside from that they can. If there's a speed competition, you need a way to show that they're making an effort. Again, not to beat a dead horse, but that was one of my problems with Magical Mystery Cure: they made a spell work like it does in Harry Potter or Charmed. It's a copout, and it dulls any sense of drama or sympathy if things 'just happen by magic'. It makes the world less believable and reduces the stakes to nothing.
If a character has power, which they developed through effort, using said power should take effort, purely from a storytelling point of view. You need to be able to show they make this effort, which is a character design issue. Raindeer don't have wings (yet), but they might have cloud tufts on their hooves. In that case, it's a matter of protraying them as hovering and running in the air (like they do in most Santa Claus movies) to show effort.
Griffons have a very clear musculature, you can show their strength being used by muscle tension as well as their facial expression. Unicorns (excepting MMC) have a magic glow purely for the benefit of the audience. In 'Green Isn't Your Colour', no one responds to the magic glow surrounding Fluttershy when she messes up the catwalk. In 'Return of Harmony', Spike is the only one who plainly sees the greyness of their friends. Twilight squints hard in concentration and even buckles when she has to do a hard spell.
Hippogryphs, on the other hand, don't have a horn to channel power through. Now, I'll be the first to admit a creature of magic doesn't need a separate limb to do magic (chaoist and all), but it does raise questions from a design and story-telling point of view:
If hippogryphs can do magic, how do you show they are using it?
There's a couple of options, obviously:
-glowing eyes. So far that's only been used in cases of posession (good or bad), so that wouldn't work for standard everyday magic. Except if they're shamans, then it's 'kay.
-glowing body. Hasn't been used yet, implies magic as a full-body skill (which is a portrayal I'm all for supporting), and can lead to some good visuals (like a 'gryph sinking into the ground as it tries to lift a huge weight in front of it).
-quick bursts of energy. Simple enough to show some light travelling up the spine and making the eyes glow for a second, before shooting out a quick bolt to do whatever. Makes it distinguishable from unicorn magic, can be accompanied with a deep breath for added effect.
But do you notice the issue with all these options? None of these things are limited to hippogryphs. If you use the same style of magic on a zebra, well... no worries, it works too. And that kind of makes the race feel cheap in comparison. It can be done, sure, but it needs to feel distinct from the other magic races we've seen so far.
So, the obvious remaining option is... hand gestures and invocations. They have talons and opposable digits, they have the pony backside that might have some sort of cutie mark equivalent, but more fluid, like runes coming out. I could definitely see a hippogryph throwing spells around as their cutie mark changes to show the element they're channeling, but that'd be too complicated for the show, at least for repeated animations. My best guess is they'd just have a base cutie mark that appears and disappears as they channel any sort of magic. That'd make it unique to them and still fit the show look and feel. It would also allow for some tense moments with an enemy hippogryph: if the cutie mark is showing, that's the equivalent of drawing the gun for an attack. Think of the possibilities: a crowd of hippogryphs, and our heroes have to sift through the blank flanks to find a dangerous criminal or something. The mechanism allows for some good scenes you can't have otherwise, making it serve a story.
So... yeah, if they have a cutie mark that only appears when they use magic, and their casting of spells makes use of their hand-like talons, I'm all for it. If not, it still needs to address the points raised above to look good.
1218235 Ah, you forget, hippogryphs have antlers. I wouldn't like these lowing though, after all, Discord's antler and horn didn't glow when he did chaos. I don't like emulating unicorns with a fundamentally different creature anyway. As much as I am loathe to say it... their magic could... sparkle. *shudder* It honestly hurt to say that thanks to those damnable tween crap novels. That's the only reason though. A lot of images I've seen of hippogryphs (usually tamed by elves) have decorations trailing from the antlers. If the area around their antlers started sparkling as well as the affected target for some spells (such as telekinesis) it would accomplish the effect and seem mystical. Plus there were a lot of stars and such when Discord used his power. The only negative I can picture is people saying "oh, like in Twilight." No. God no.
The appearing and vanishing cutie mark idea doesn't really work in context of the show though. Maybe it would be different for another species but anything that could be accomplished with a cutie mark appearing and disappearing could be accomplished with a glowing horn. Then you have the issue of "Why not just have a horn or something and make it glow like a unicorn?" Yes it is the argument of the unimaginative but it is a point. There is such a thing as trying so hard to be different that you just end up being a rip off of the source.
I do like the idea of tufts of cloud being attached to Rain Deer hooves. They could even look like tiny wings.
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Well, at the very least the talons should glow. And maybe you had a different image of hiipogryphs in your head. I was basing it on what I'd seen on DA:
fc06.deviantart.net/fs70/f/2013/109/b/9/aqua_breeze_by_tomboytechnology-d62b53m.png
I'm told Lauren Faust had similar things in the art bible for the show, but I can't say for certain.
And I just said that the glowing horn is established to not be visible by ponies in normal circumstances, while a cutie markappearing and disappearing would, allowing for different scenarios than a horn would. It would also add to the design that a hippogryph discovers their magic along with their calling in life. But yeah, tastes differ.
As for Discord: Discord had that very same 'snap' magic I was talking about. It's easy for him, there's no way of knowing what takes a lot out of him and what's easy. For a regular race, you need something to show that.
1218647 Ah yes, upon investigating it seems that hippogryphs and hippogriffs are different creatures. The line seems to be drawn between World of Warcraft and everything else. I rather like the way they look with antlers though. Makes them appear more majestic.
asheskyler.deviantart.com/art/WoW-Hippogryph-191910380
sugarpeep.deviantart.com/art/WoW-Hippogryph-39745688
It also makes them a bit more visually distinct from griffins. The image you linked looks like what happens when a griffin and pony hook up. I personally dislike that.
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Find a show-accurate reference, then. But I can tell you right now that those things will end up looking like what happens when a griffon and a rein/raindeer hook up. That's just part and parcel to having mismash creatures, really.
1218668 I can't find a show accurate reference. Like I said, the WoW camp seems to be the one with antlers and then there is everything else. Sill think they'd look good with antlers though. Maybe I should draw it. You okay with black and white sketch?
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I can't do anything with any art, since I'm not using any making the deer model didn't work out today, trying again tomorrow), but feel free to do whatever
1218693 Oh, no I didn't mean to use for something. I just meant to look at. I'll probably have to do a few to find one I like.
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Sure, no problem. If nothing else, it might serve as a reference pic if I do get to 3D modelling some stuff. Topology is hard, man
It's not like the writers don't have easy access to a recognizable naming convention or anything...ho ho ho.
Yes. Yes I did. And I'm not even sorry. :P
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If this happens and there's an Equestria Games event called 'prancing', I'm blaming you. If they introduce a deer called 'Donny', I'll blame you too.
And if it turns out Rainbow Dash is related to one of those guys (you know the one), I'll just have a drink and laugh, not necessarily in that order
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I still wouldn't be sorry.
I'm liking the Reindeer gag, that's way fun.
That said, I'll be mightily disappointed if Bat Ponies don't make a re-appearance is S4 somewhere, because there are already enough things that need more bloody screentime.
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. Yeah, if they have flying on the Equestria Games (and they were going to hold them in Cloudsdale once, so why not?) the bat ponies would fit right in.
Crikey, I forgot all about those
Bonus points if they do an obstacle course with a callback to the bat from May the Best Pet Win. That would be awesome sauce.
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ooh, hadn't thought of that...I see we think on the same wavelength