Now, Hear Me Out: This is Gonna Be a Lot of Information · 2:27am Apr 10th, 2014
There are multiple things I'd like to discuss in this first blog post, the first of them being a more serious one. As you might be able to tell from If You Give a Little Love..., the issue of sweatshops, especially in the context of child labor, is one that I am very passionately against, and this is why I'd like to spotlight something that might help you feel a bit better when you get embarrassed or even a little guilty when buying brony items. I know it takes a lot of guts for someone to go into a store for the first time (or even the thirty-seventh time) with only an MLP item in their basket. I'm a young woman, and so I admit the stakes might not be as high for me due to society's standards. People tend to brush it off or even to think of it as cute. But to all those others out there, especially men, I offer this statement: Hasbro is a consistent winner of "most ethical company"-type awards.
Seriously. Stop laughing. I know the whole ButtonGate thing ticked off a lot of people (myself included), but there's a lot more to them than that. Just look at this website. Ever since the '90s (!), Hasbro has had a strict code of ethical conduct, including fair wages and, sure enough, labor laws that guarantee that no children are working on your to--er, brony memorabilia. Babs's story is a lot of the reason I've obtained the followers I've had--they've doubled in just over a week alone. I'm not saying this to brag, but to show that I know how much you care about this, so take solace in the fact that absolutely NOTHING MLP-related, not even things produced by third parties. (Now, I did see a Squinkie-like Rarity toy that did smell suspiciously like paint, but I'll give them the benefit of the doubt, and it looks totally fine as long as I don't hold it too close to my nose.) So as much as we bronies like to portray Hasbro as the "evil conglomerate out to ruin all our fun," we also need to remember their good qualities as well. They brought magic into our lives. (Okay, okay, now all this talk is leading to me thinking about the Lego Movie, and it's hard to think seriously while doing that. If you don't know why, I'm not giving you any spoilers for the ending. Just take my word for it that it has a lot to do with this situation.)
In honor of this, I'd like to hear some of your reactions as to what your favorite MLP product is. Personally, I'm a fan of the Funko figurines. While I do have a vinyl Trixie and she is pretty awesome, I have to give a slight edge to the Pop line for essentially being adorable chibis of the characters. I have a Fluttershy, Derpy, and Twilight, and Twilight especially resembles her baby self from the show. The eye style they use for the figures is just like the MLP baby pony eye style. Hnnnnng! I'd love to see an Applejack and Rarity so that those fans can be made extra happy, and for myself, I'd like them to come out with Luna and Celestia ones. Heck, Cadence would be good, too. Then I could have a chibi princess army!
With the surprise success of If You Give a Little Love..., I'd like to get the next part out to you as soon as possible. However, this could mean slight delays for my other two series that I'm working on. Don't despair, though: I'm writing the next EqOpp (Equal and Opposite) at the same time as IYGLL Part II. It's going to be a side story told from the two captives' perspectives, mainly Hyacinth, as she hasn't had too much screentime yet. The chapter title for that will be called Mission (Out of) Control, and the next two titles for IYGLL and Separate Ways? are Rarity Seeks the Seeds of Justice and The Teacher and the Apple respectively. SW? will likely be the last of the three to get its new release, but CheerileexBigMac shippers rejoice: there will be a ship tease that'll make the wait worthwhile!
I'm also working on a series of unrelated one-shots all centering around the theme of "love lost and regained." A warning in advance: both could be controversial, as one is set in the EqGverse and the other has *gasp* biblical allusions. The EqG one is less of an issue, though, since it's more of a challenge to give Sunset Shimmer and Flash Sentry some more complexity (and Flashlight haters: this is a SunSentry fic, so that crisis is averted). As for the other, the allusions are done because it's a fanfic about Celestia and Luna's origins, and the depiction of them as "gods" ticks off some people because it's overdone. So, I'm making a subversion in that it's going to have more of an Adam and Eve motif in that Luna was made as a companion for Celestia due to her living for 500+ years without one of her kind. While I am in fact Christian, I'm not doing this to assert my religion, but rather as a stylistic choice considering that the two major allusions done in literature are mythological and biblical. In fact, the story will revolve much more around the sisters, Celestia in particular, and the god(s?) that made them will be shrouded in "divine mystery." These are the only two I have planned, but if I come up with any more, I'll let you know.
