MLP Rule 34 Update: July 2014 / Misunderstood Monsters · 5:33am Jul 11th, 2014
[Disclaimer: While this blog post discusses Rule 34 statistics, it doesn't contain explicit imagery, embedded links to pornographic material or excessive coarse language.]
It's the tenth of the month, so you know what that means. That's right! It's time for another in-depth analysis of clop! 
My previous Rule 34 blog posts are available at the following links.
August 2012 / At the rate things are going...
September 2012 / Famous Bronies
October 2012 / Digimon
November 2012 / Equestrian elections
December 2012 / Top 11 Hottest Animated Women
January 2013 / General porn statistics
February 2013 / Touhou review
March 2013 / Season three wrap up
April 2013 / Idolm@ster
May 2013 / OC woes
June 2013 / Ribald Rivalries
July 2013 / A major announcement
August 2013 / Rule 34 Origins
September 2013 / Equestria Girls Review
October 2013 / Three years of MLP:FIM
November 2013 / Season Three Episode Retrospective
December 2013 / Twilight Sparkle's Rival
January 2014 / Passing the Bechdel Test
February 2014 / CP Atone
March 2014 / Loli and Stitch
April 2014 / The Binding of Wonder Woman
May 2014 / Cybersix Showdown
June 2014 / Sailor Moon and he Celestial Sorority
Without further ado, here's the latest data from Rule34.paheal.net!
As of July 10, 2014, here's the state of Rule 34:
Pokemon still holds the lead with 79,618 images. 1,535 new explicit images were added during June, giving Pokemon a 1.9% increase in porn from last month.
My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic is in second place with 55,428 images. 1,682 new explicit images were added during June, giving My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic a 3.1% increase in porn from last month.
Touhou is in third place with 49,768 images. 975 new explicit images were added during June, giving Touhou a 1.9% increase in porn from last month.
DC Comics is in fourth place with 24,491 images. 208 new explicit images were added during June, giving DC Comics a 0.8% increase in porn from last month.
Street Fighter is in fifth place with 18,743 images. 395 new explicit images were added during June, giving Street Fighter a 2.1% increase in porn from last month.
Naruto is in sixth place with 18,384 images. 158 new explicit images were added during June, giving Naruto a 0.8% increase in porn from last month.
Marvel Comics is in seventh place with 17,530 images. 121 new explicit images were added during June, giving Marvel Comics a 0.6% increase in porn from last month.
Sonic Team is in eighth place with 16,964 images. 356 new explicit images were added during June, giving Sonic Team a 2.1% increase in porn from last month.
Digimon is in ninth place with 12,901 images. 367 new explicit images were added during June, giving Digimon a 2.9% increase in porn from last month.
Super Mario Bros is in tenth place with 11,617 images. 303 new explicit images were added during June, giving Super Mario Bros a 2.6% increase in porn from last month.
Street Fighter is not losing fifth place to Naruto without a fight. During the last month, the gap between the two series increased from 122 to 359. Looks like the first round of porn production goes to Street Fighter.
Now that we've gone over the monthly update for the top ten porn producers, it's time to analyze the latest data regarding Rule 34 images for the mane six.
As of July 10, 2014, here's the state of Rule 34 for the mane six, according to Rule34.paheal.net:
Twilight Sparkle
has 8,289 images. 260 explicit images were added during June, giving her a 3.2% increase from last month.
Rainbow Dash
has 6,899 images. 182 explicit images were added during June, giving her a 2.7% increase from last month.
Fluttershy
has 6,493 images. 217 explicit images were added during June, giving her a 3.4% increase from last month.
Pinkie Pie
has 5,998 images. 165 explicit images were added during June, giving her a 2.8% increase from last month.
Rarity
has 5,440 images. 199 explicit images were added during June, giving her a 3.7% increase from last month.
Applejack
has 5,251 images. 178 explicit images were added during June, giving her a 3.5% increase from last month.
For the second time this year, Pinkie Pie has garnered the least amount of new porn from amongst the mane six. (The previous month was March.) One wonders just how much longer she can hold on to fourth place with her shrinking smut statistics. Maybe clop artists are no longer enamored by her brand of humor. Somepony should punish Pinkie Pie until her porn production improves.
Special thanks to Infinion, who made these amazing graphs of the data I collected.
To start off with, here's the master chart of the top ten Rule 34 producers.
This chart represents more than three years' worth of Rule 34 data. In order to more closely examine the numbers, Infinion has broken the data into more manageable semi-annual charts.
Oct. 2010 - Mar. 2011.
Apr. - Sept. 2011.
Oct. 2011 - Mar. 2012.
Apr. - Sept. 2012.
Oct. 2012 - Mar. 2013.
Apr. - Sept. 2013.
Oct. 2013 - Mar. 2014.
Which brings us to July 2014.
To get an idea of how far My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic has come since its premiere, here's a chart highlighting the monthly numerical and percentage increase of MLP porn.
For those who desire a more consolidated look at the raw data, here's the numbers for the top ten porn producers, as well as their monthly increase.
Now let's take a look at the Rule 34 stats for the mane six. Here's their master chart.
In order to discover what these numbers mean, we'll need to delve deeper. In order to do that, we'll break down the data into semi-annual chunks.
Oct. 2010 - Mar. 2011.
Apr. - Sept. 2011.
Oct. 2011 - Mar. 2012.
Apr. - Sept. 2012.
Oct. 2012 - Mar. 2013.
Apr. - Sept. 2013.
Oct. 2013 - Mar. 2014.
Which brings us to July 2014.
For those who desire a more consolidated look at the raw data, here's the numbers for the mane six, as well as their monthly increase
For those who have been reading the My Little Pony comics from IDW, the most recent story arc involved Twilight Sparkle and her friends being transported to a mirror universe Equestria populated with morally-inverted characters.
The narrative focused on evil versions of the royal sisters and a good version of King Sombra.
Ironically, Sombra received more character development as a good guy in the comics than his corrupted cartoon counterpart. The mirror universe Sombra even had a romantic relationship with Princess Celestia!
Mirror universes share many similarities with dream sequences in terms of stories which are devoid of any real consequences. An alternate reality allows the writer to explore "what if" scenarios without jeopardizing the continuity of the main universe. What if all the heroes were evil and all the villains were good? What if the genders of all the characters were reversed?
Mirror universes and dream sequences both suffer a similar stigma. If the story has no impact on the primary universe, it can be difficult for the audience to become invested in the narrative. There are exceptions to every rule, of course. For a TV series like Fringe, a parallel universe plays an integral part in the story. 
The dreamstates of Inception had real world consequences. 
These concepts aren’t the primary focus of this blog post. I merely used King Sombra's kindly counterpart as a springboard to discuss a subject which has become increasingly popular in recent years: Villains who are re-imagined as misunderstood heroes.
One of the most recent examples of this trend has been Disney's Maleficent. [For those who haven't already seen the movie, the next couple of paragraphs will contain minor spoilers for the first half hour of Maleficent. Scroll past the next Maleficent poster to avoid spoilers.]
The titular character is the same evil fairy who cursed Princess Aurora in Disney's 1959 animated adaptation of Sleeping Beauty. The Maleficent film aims to “set the record straight” and reveals that nearly everything about the original story of Sleeping Beauty is a lie. The film begins with Maleficent's tragic past. As a child, she was a guardian of the forest who protected its magical inhabitants from the encroachment of man. One day, a human boy named Stefan enters the enchanted forest. Stefan is fascinated by Maleficent, and she's equally curious about him. The two of them become friends, and over time, their feelings for one another grow stronger. Maleficent and Stefan eventually share “true love’s kiss.”
As time passes, Stefan becomes obsessed in his pursuit of power and forgets all about Maleficent. King Henry desires the riches held inside the enchanted garden of fairies. He launches an attack on the forest, which is thwarted by Maleficent and her army of magical creatures. The King is humiliated and vows revenge. On his deathbed, King Henry decrees that whomever can bring him proof that Maleficent is dead, will be crowned the next king. Stefan goes back to the forest and meets with his childhood love. He drugs Maleficent and cuts off her wings. Stefan presents them to the king, and is crowned king himself. Upon discovering that her precious wings have been taken from her, Maleficent is thrown into a fit of rage and despair. She vows revenge on the man who betrayed and physically violated her. Welcome to Disney's version of I Spit on Your Grave.
Maleficent draws inspiration from a previous attempt to recast the villain as an unlikely hero. Based on a famous book, this Broadway play features a green-skinned main character who is shunned by a conformist society and eventually defies a corrupt ruler. I'm, of course, talking about Shrek the Musical.
But seriously.
First published in 1995, Wicked was adapted into a Broadway musical in 2003. It tells the origin story of the Wicked Witch of the West and portrays her as a sympathetic character. She's ostracized for her green skin, had parents who hated her, and takes care of her wheelchair-bound sister. A traditionally-animated adaptation of Wicked is rumored to be in the works.
Wicked inspired people to re-imagine villains in a more sympathetic light. For example, in Disney's Aladdin, what if Jafar was really the good guy?
After all, the Sultan of Agrabah is a doddering old man who spends his time playing with toys while homelessness and poverty run rampant throughout his kingdom. The royal princess is delaying her marriage obligations and assaulting potential suitors with her tiger. One could see how these events would test the patience of any Grand Vizier. On top of that, the Princess runs away from the palace and bumps into a homeless, thieving liar named Aladdin. This concept was explored further in a full-fledged musical parody called Twisted.
During the play, there's even a musical sequence where Jafar meets other "misunderstood" Disney villains, including Maleficent.
While Twisted is a parody, Maleficent proves that Disney fully supports the notion of revisionist history. Other re-imaginings are in the works, including a Disney Channel original movie called Disney Descendants. The premise begins in a modern-day fantasy world where all the Disney fairy tales share a collective universe. The kingdom’s worst baddies have been imprisoned on a forbidden island with all the other villains, sinister sidekicks and evil stepmothers. After 20 years, the son of Belle and the Beast makes his first proclamation to free the children of the villains and offer them redemption. These villainous descendants are allowed into the kingdom to attend prep school alongside the offspring of iconic Disney heroes. However, the evil teens faces a dilemma. Should they follow in the footsteps of their evil parents and help the villains regain power or embrace their innate goodness and save the kingdom?
Going clockwise from the top left, we have the son of Jafar, the son of Cruella de Vil, the daughter of the Evil Queen from Snow White and the daughter of Maleficent.
This has some truly disturbing implications. The fact that Cruella has a son means that at some point someone had sex with her.
Does the carpet match the drapes? What's her expression when she orgasms?
The whole premise for Disney Descendants sounds strikingly similar to Ever After High, which also features the children of fairy tale characters who must choose whether or not to follow in the path their parents took.
Kristin Chenoweth has been cast as Maleficent in Disney's Descendants, although she looks more like Rita Repulsa.
Chenoweth also played Glinda in Wicked.
And while we're back on the subject, Idina Menzel played Elphaba, The Wicked Witch, in Wicked. She also voiced Elsa in Disney's Frozen.
The two characters have more in common than the first two letters of their names. Elphaba and Elsa are both shunned by society for being different. They both sing a show-stopping musical number about empowerment. (Defying Gravity and Let It Go, respectively.) They both have a concerned friend who tries to help them. (Glinda and Anna, respectively.) Frozen certainly drew more inspiration from Wicked than from Hans Christian Andersen's The Snow Queen.
The Disney fairy tales are often viewed as the definitive version of these timeless classics. When they adapt a relatively obscure story like the Snow Queen, it's best to stick to the original story as close as possible. If the audience has no point of reference going into the film, there's nothing to subvert. This would be like if Wicked came out, but the Wizard of Oz was some obscure story as opposed to one of the most iconic films of all time. Wicked works in subverting expectations because the audience is already familiar with the Wicked Witch of the West. When you see her as a likable protagonist, it's unexpected. You can't surprise the audience by making the Snow Queen an unlikely hero if no one knows that she's supposed to be the villain.
The protagonists of the Snow Queen are two children named Gerda and Kai. After the evil Snow Queen abducts Kai, Gerda goes on a rescue mission to save him. On her travels, Gerda meets a witch, some talking crows, a princess and a band of robbers, including a little robber girl. Frozen was praised for having two strong female leads, but the original story had more than half a dozen prominent female characters.
Disney can change The Snow Queen to be more like Wicked if they want, but the film ended up with one serious flaw. Namely, the antagonist. There was a time when Disney villains were the stuff of nightmares. The Evil Queen ordered for Snow White to be killed and her heart brought back as proof. Maleficent summoned "all the powers of Hell" to transform into a dragon. The Coachman from Pinocchio turned children into donkeys and sold them into slavery. Let's talk about why Frozen has such an underwhelming villain.
[Spoiler alert if you're one of the few people on this planet who still hasn't seen Frozen, the fifth highest grossing film in history.]
Prince Hans is probably the most forgettable Disney Villain ever. He doesn't do anything truly villainous until the last fifteen minutes of the movie. He has no real connection to the characters. I understand Disney was trying to poke fun at the notion of love at first sight, but his ultimate betrayal would have more weight if Hans and Anna were closer. Maybe after Elsa locks herself in her room, young Anna and Hans could become friends. They grow up together and she falls in love with him. Hans might have to move away for a time in which Anna has to deal with loss again. She still carries a torch for Hans and is so happy when he returns that she doesn't realize his motivations towards her have become more sinister. (Shades of Maleficent and Stefan, anyone?) Hans doesn't have an iconic villain song. "Love is an Open Door?" That's weak sauce compared to "Poor, Unfortunate Souls" or "Hellfire." Hans manages to swing his sword one time before he's defeated in the final battle. He doesn't get the traditional Disney death by falling, or any death at all for that matter. He's merely imprisoned, which is actually a fitting end for such an underwhelming and inconsequential villain.
Arguments have been made that Hans is one of the best Disney villains because he's so unassuming. He's not outwardly evil like so many Disney villains. He gains the kingdom's trust and feigns compassion for the royal sisters. When he finally reveals his villainous intentions in the last act, it's done privately to Anna. There's no monologue before the masses. Hans is extremely subtle with his scheming. It's a fair point, but this subtly comes at the expense of all other facets of what makes a memorable villain.
Antagonists who revel in their own debauchery are becoming a rare commodity in these days of moral relativism. Pixar villains, like Lotso from Toy Story 3 and Syndrome from The Incredibles, often come prepackaged with tragic backstories. They're broken souls who went astray as opposed to forces of evil. Disney has embraced revisionist history in many of its recent films, which often includes attempts to understand, and occasionally redeem, the villains. Consider Mother Gothel from Tangled: She's a witch in the original fairy tale, but in Tangled she’s a selfish, passive-aggressive and manipulative mother figure. Part of what makes Tangled so compelling is the emotionally abusive relationship Gothel has with Rapunzel.
In this respect, Disney's decision to distance themselves from classic villain motivations is a welcome change. It allows for new stories to be told and explore new kinds of relationships with more psychologically complex characters. Wreck-it Ralph is another relatively recent Disney film which questions the roles heroes and villains play.
In spite of these improvements, something has been lost as well. Classic Disney villains weren't complex. They didn't need to be. They were frightening and charismatic. It seems like nearly every villain these days is being depicted as a misunderstood good guy.
Next thing you know, they'll try to make Adolph Hitler into a sympathetic character. (Oh, wait. Mel Brooks already did that in The Producers.)
With all this talk of villains, I think it's only fair to examine one of fiction's oldest antagonists and see if he doesn't deserve a little sympathy.
Grendel, for those who don’t know, is a book which was first published in 1971 and tells the story of Beowulf from Grendel’s perspective. Beowulf is the oldest epic poem in the English language and has been studied and analyzed for more than a thousand years. If any villain could be revised as a sympathetic character, it’s Grendel. Unlike Maleficent or the Wicked Witch, Grendel, in the original epic, was more a victim than he was a villain. He’s merely defending his territory from the raucous loud parties of the humans in their meadhall. After he's killed by Beowulf, his mother comes out to avenge her son's death. It’s a real tragedy.
What's fascinating about the 1971 Grendel novel is that it doesn’t attempt to portray him as some tragic hero, but rather as a genuine villain. If anything, Grendel is more evil in the novel than in the original epic. In the poem he’s just a brutish monster for Beowulf to dismember. In the novel he’s a nihilist with chronic depression who envies humanity.
"The world resists me and I resist the world." -Grendel
That's not to say that Grendel is unsympathetic. There's a stark difference between the Grendel-centric story and the Maleficent-focused film. Stories like Grendel make the villain relatable, but they don’t attempt to justify the villain’s actions. Stories like Maleficent and Wicked feel compelled to turn the villains into unsung heroes; martyrs on the wrong side of history. To keep things in perspective, Maleficent in Disney's Sleeping Beauty was the embodiment of evil.
Her motivations are encapsulated in a quote from Sleeping Beauty which claims that Maleficent doesn’t understand love and "probably isn’t very happy.” It's simple, but sometimes simple is all that’s required. Villains are often more menacing when they remain a mystery.
Grendel's defining moment comes when he's visited by a dragon who tells him that life is meaningless and that it’s his destiny to be a monster. The futility of his existence allows him to relish the death and destruction he causes. Grendel doesn’t kill people out of necessity so much as because he enjoys to kill. That being said, he’s shocked by humans who make war and waste so much food by leaving all the dead soldiers to rot. He’s intelligent enough to philosophize with the humans about the nature of evil. His relationship with his mother is also very humanizing. She’s barely able to speak, so Grendel carries on conversations with her by himself. It’s quit compelling. It will be a miscarriage of justice if Andy Serkis never ends up playing Grendel. Crispin Glover was okay, but he can’t compare to the master of motion capture. In addition, it should be noted that the 2007 Beowulf film was a retelling of the epic poem. I want Andy Serkis to star in an adaptation of the 1971 novel, Grendel. 
One reason why audiences don’t revisit the story of Grendel very often is because it isn’t very pleasant. Grendel is a dark and morbid tale. It’s bleak, hopeless and claims that, in the end, nothing will amount to anything. Beowulf only appears in the last two chapters, although he's never mentioned by name. In the last few pages of the novel, the image of Grendel running through the woods and dying alone as he screams out for his mother is chilling, to say the least. For those who are interested, Grendel was adapted into an animated film in 1981.
Instead of defining characters as heroes and villains, we should instead view them as protagonists and antagonists. One way to write compelling villains is to make them a shadow form of one of the main characters.
This doesn't always have to be done so literally. It's important to remember that a good antagonist doesn't need to be evil. They just need a trait which is the opposite of the protagonist. We can see this in a few antagonists from My Little Pony.
Sunset Shimmer is a sinister shadow of Twilight Sparkle's studious nature. While Twilight was able to find a balance between her studies and her friends, Sunset Shimmer chose to isolate herself from others in her search for power. Lightning Dust is an example of what would happen if Rainbow Dash's ego went unchecked. While Rarity is generous, Suri Polomare manipulates those around her for selfish reasons.
This isn't to say that the mane six are without their flaws. Their respective strengths are also their greatest temptations. Twilight Sparkle obsesses over her studies to the point of forgetting her friends, Rainbow Dash wrestles with her pride and Rarity struggles to overcome feelings of greed. This same principle applies to Fluttershy, Pinkie Pie and Applejack for their respective strengths and weaknesses.
The fourth season of My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic had a story arc revolving around the mane six remaining true to their convictions in spite of intense pressures.
The secret to writing compelling villains is to look at the heroes. What are they conflicted about? What are their weaknesses? In what ways do they need to develop as a character? Once you discover the weakness of a hero, all that remains is to personify that weakness in the form of a villain. External conflict stems from internal conflict. Look at villains as an extension of the heroes. An antagonist represents what the protagonist will become if they abandon their moral principles.
A hero fighting a villain is an extension of the duality that exists within all of us. Each person struggles between good and evil. That's why heroes are only as good as the villains they overcome.
Thanks again for reading to the end of this blog. Please feel free to share any comments or opinions regarding the the trend of re-imagining villains as unlikely heroes. I'll be back on August 10th with another Rule 34 update.
I saw shrek. It's never ogre. Inb4 copypasta. I'll read more in the morning when it isn't 2 am.
img1.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20140616203020/disney/images/thumb/5/58/Cast_of_Descendants.jpg/683px-Cast_of_.jpg
It's as if whoever in charge of the costumes was under the impression that they were filming a Kingdom Hearts movie. Just look at mister fingerless-gloves-and-too-many-belts in the upper right.
I just noticed something in the paired covers for the MLP comic:
i.imgur.com/4WlguXh.png
Who's this? Everypony else has a counterpart on the "Mirror, Mirror" half of the image, except for this shadowy figure...
Slendermane shouldn't have a hat, Mare-Do-Well doesn't have a tie (and all the Mane Six are accounted for). What's doing on?!
Do I even have to link them? I do, don't I...
[youtube=sTg5Ldqm8ME]
[youtube=yb2Dxqt1oag]
For those who might end up asking:
[youtube=lif5tVdxEN0]
Dang it...
[youtube=hpZy8VQaeHw]
The currently available earliest manuscripts of the tale of Beowulf were compiled in a time when that part of Europe was just beginning the process of switching from Paganism to Christianity. In that way its possible that the "Nothing will amount to anything" attitude is reflective of Pagans pursued their religious ideals of war, conquest and death on the battlefield, in a backdrop where in some cases the very gods they worship (I'm talking Norse in particular gods Thor dies fighting Jormungandr for instance. ) are prophesied to die to put an end to their otherwise rather Greek-god-like family-like disputes and plotting. And the rapes, don't forget the gratuitous rape of some of those stories.
A bit of nihilism once people get disillusioned with such tales and ideals is the least I'd expect to pervade such a society. (A lovely bit explaining all this can be found in the introductory section to Beowulf in Volume 1 of the Norton Anthology of World Literature, second edition).
As I've been developing a villain for one of my own stories, I came across a circumstance that diverges from what you've presented, and that circumstance comes from how I'm working on a rather morally grey story. I'd rather not get into specifics of the story itself, so forgive any vagueness on my part.
The hero(es, multiple characters went through with the same decision) is/are conflicted about a decision they've made and whether it was the right thing to do. The antagonist is above all else absolutely convinced that what they did was wrong, but at the same time they too feel a need for validating their decision on it. The difference between the antagonist and protagonists as I've developed them is that the antagonist will go to almost any lengths to assert and validate their decision as the right one, insisting on imposing it on others, lying, hiring thugs to threaten and harass those who try to contradict their lies.
The antagonist is basically so afraid of being on the wrong side of the tracks, they're willing to tear down the other side so that both sides look wrong, or that their own looks right. So in reflection of the weakness of the protagonists, who internally essentially worry about the terror of free will, that they will make a wrong decision. While the protagonists end up reaching the conclusion that the question of whether they are right or wrong will have to be answered individually upon each person they meet and impact because of their decision. The protagonists are willing to live to the consequences of this. The antagonist becomes obsessed with winning this moral gambit, he wants to control what individuals will decide is the right thing. The antagonist doesn't want to live with the consequences of their own decision.
On the face of it then, the villain outwardly looks a lot like a two-dimensional Disney villain of old, they lie, they're cruel, yet all the same compelling. The only difference I can really point to is that I see the root question and path that led them to think all those other things were alright.
I didn't need to think about Cruella de Vil's face when she cums...
But I find your analisys of this new trend in villiany interesting. It's kinda bittersweet having lost the classic 'evil for the sake of evil', cackling madman psycho villian. On one hand, those are often some of the most entertaining to watch, but on the other, and specially when it comes to media targeted to young people, the aversion of Black and White, Us and Them mentality, even if it's replaced by White and Grey morality, has the inherent message that no one does bad things for the sake of bad things.
I think this is demonstrated by the differences between the book version and the movie version of Count Olaf. He's the main antagonist of the 13 book series A Series of Unfortunate Events and it's 2003 adaptation, in which he is played by Jim Carrey.
[BTW, here there be spoilers for those]
In the movie, he's depicted as a slightly insane, hammy villian bent on fucking up the lives of three almost saintly orphans in the pursuit of stealing their fortune. He forces them to be his butlers, tries to have them run over by a train, murders the orphan's uncle with snake venom, and their aunt by throwing her to a school of carnivorous leeches, forced the youngest orphan (a baby) inside a cage hanging from a tower while trying to marry the eldest (14) one, and it's revealed that he burnt down their manor, and thus murdered the orphan's parents.
In the books he also does most of that, while adding various kidnappings, more arsons, impersonating the administrator of a hospital and a detective, having his goons whip people with a giant noodle, leaving his goons for dead when they weren't useful for him anymore, poisoning the population of a small island with poisonous fungus spores, which most likely led to the deaths of everyone but one person, and decorating his submarine uniforms with the face of a crappy poet. But, as the series go on, the Baudelaires themselves succumb to Greying morality, some of his backstory is ambiguously revealed (he claims to not being responsible of the fire at Baudelaire manor, and that the Baudelaire parents murdered his parents during a performance of La Forza del Destino with poison darts.) and he finally dies after helping Kit Snickt give birth, he ends up being, while not justified in his actions, sympathetic enough that the Baudelaires give him a tombstone.
Aside from the clop info, this is a good reference for how to write villains. Book Marking.
2273942
It's a ponified version of the Observer from the TV series Fringe.
derpicdn.net/img/view/2012/12/3/171623__safe_comic_ponified_idw_spoiler-colon-comic_background+pony_fringe_observer+%28pony%29.jpg
The writers of the MLP comics are apparently big fans of Fringe, since they've included several subtle references to the series.
derpicdn.net/img/view/2013/4/25/307904__safe_rarity_idw_wheat+grass_flax+seed_fringe_spoiler-colon-comicm03.jpg
You just game me greater insight on how villains work AND kept me updated on clop rankings, you never fail to impress. And with that in mind, could I beg you for more blog posts? They are so entertaining, but they never last long enough.
2274032
Is there any subject in particular you'd like me to discuss?
2274039 You're the pro, and whatever I come up with wouldn't be half as good. So I'm just going to be greedy and lazy and just ask for more. ^^ keep up the good work!
2274040
Will do! I'm definitely in favor of producing more content.
I was intrigued by Disney Descendants until I saw it was live-action. High school drama is hard enough to take seriously as it is. Adding silly wigs to the equation isn't going to help.
As for villains into heroes, one of my stories here was trying to do that, as well as give some characterization to King Sombra. Unfortunately, I kind of fell off the wagon there. I'm definitely going to have to revisit it.
Twisted was pretty awesome. Also, a more likely story than a peace loving sultan and honest thief in times like those in our world. At least far as a person who got close to the king in order to help his ailing people anyways, and that whole sultan taking his pregnant wife into his harem who would give birth to the only princess.
As usual, you always bring up some amazing topics alongside these r34 data. Hopefully one day we'll win out against the Pokemon porn.
I have yet to see the new movie Maleficent. But I am a serious fan of Wicked and even as a child, The Wizard of Oz always felt wrong to me. I rather love that back story to the Wicked Witch. I really hope that rumor of a Wicked Movie is real, but I question that since it uses the voices of characters from the original plays who retired already. It COULD be possible Disney brings them all back, least some. I hope the rumor is true in any case but I'll take that with a grain of salt for now.
Speaking of heroes and villains, I wonder what more crazy villains we'll see in S5 now that each individual mane 6 can go Rainbow Power Super Pony on their own without the others. Will we FINALLY get an episode to rival the powers of friendship and harmony? 6 v 1 premiers are just not gonna cut it anymore. Twilight Sparkle steals the show too often and overshadows the other 5 and a half characters. It's time TWILIGHT ends up taking a backseat for her friends to save the day for once.
Not sure if you've read the original Sailor Moon manga arcs, but in those they had quite a bit of fleshing out for the other scouts AND tuxedo mask, who in the show ended up just being near worthless outside of being a love interest. Everything from daddy issues to forbidden love to actually being able to stand in the spotlight more often. Twilight's friends need that next season.
Now if we can only get some more episodes with actual sense of adventure and action with the CMC and their rivals Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon. If they want people to pay attention to those characters then they really need to start showing us more and telling us less.
S4 was too up and down for me. I didn't find myself excited to tune in for every episode, it just felt like you KNEW which ones were going to be bad. Season finale, Trade Ya, Twilight Time, Filli Vanilli, Pinkie Apple Pie, and of course Pinkie's Pride, were some of the best episodes that season. There were certainly many memorable moments in small bites in other episodes, and still many that were good, but those mentioned above just felt the most natural and felt epic. So much friendshipping and chemistry all around. I wish we had more of those.
Here's to more r34 pony and a better season!
All I can think of is asking why the 10th of each month do you post these blogs?
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Because My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic premiered Oct. 10, 2010. (10/10/10) I went back and looked at how much porn had been generated in the first month of the series, from Oct. 10th to Nov. 10th. I've proceeded to do it for each of the following months up to the present time.
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The sad truth is that it's going to take a long time to surpass Pokemon. My Little Pony typically generates more porn than anyone else on any given month, but they usually only surpass Pokemon's monthly production by a small amount. If My Little Pony consistently garners 150 more explicit images per month more than Pokemon, it will take more than 13 years to catch up to them. In order to beat Pokemon by this time next year, My Little Pony would need to churn out 2,000 more porn pictures than Pokemon each month for 12 months.
The Sailor Moon mangas I've read had quite a bit of flesh, but probably not the kind you're talking about.
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Thanks for all the wonderful comments!
2274421 Two of my favorite characters in the series. Ha, yeah. Not the fleshing out I meant. But that works too.
Sailor Mercury brought out my love of nerdy girls. Though I think Gadget did that honestly. :p
Sailor Jupiter is tall, athletic, and a tomboy. My first gf in middle school was basically a more southern version of Jupiter.
The made kid me very happy when they got screen time, that's for sure.
Btw, do you still have any plans to write any stories? Maybe a tragic, fucked up romance between Diamond Tiara and Apple Bloom/Scootaloo? (aged up?) or something. Or something comical like you did with Fluttershy's talking vagina? Or a darker comedy like that Crystal Empire fic.
I wish you wrote more stories.
Do you happen to be a fan of Metal Gear Solid games? There is a new game coming out called Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain, where you play as a former hero (Venom Snake, a.k.a. Big Boss) in the process of becoming a villain. He contrasts with his mentor, The Boss, who held her own ideas and beliefs different from her disciple's. In turn, he also contrasts with his son, Solid Snake, another hero in the series. The player defeats Big Boss as Solid Snake in the first two games before playing as Big Boss himself (in his younger years) later on in the series. MGSV is the story of how he descends into madness on his quest for revenge. It will go into detail on how he transitions from being the protagonist of several MGS games into being the antagonist of the very first two entries in the Metal Gear series.
Hideo Kojima, the creator of the series, wants players to "go along" and empathize with Big Boss as he descends into villainy, and to understand why he does what he does. But he also wants the player to be able to step back from what is happening and to see that what he does is morally wrong. Kojima compares him to Walter White from Breaking Bad.(http://www.metalgearinformer.com/?p=14655)
I am keen to see how Big Boss's story will be told. How will he be depicted? How will the player be able to sympathize with him, yet condemn his actions at the same time? It's interesting to note that many fans of the series view him solely as a misunderstood hero who becomes known as a villain in the series because he's a victim of circumstance and controlled media portrayal (one of BB's enemies in the game is Cipher, an American intelligence agency that influences the media). Just how far off the deep end must Big Boss go before players become appalled at his actions? I know of a few fellow fans who can already see the few characteristics that set him apart from Solid Snake. However, I am eager to see how MGSV unfolds, as this kind of storytelling phenomenon is unprecedented in video games (as far as I know).
Thoughts?
The bit on villains felt a little all over the place, but was interesting none the less. What I think is rather funny is the supposed backlash against recent Disney villains, for being too complex and having too much of a sympathetic backstory to be truly evil, while I remember that the biggest complaint by critics against The Lion King, The Little Mermaid, etc., was that the villains were too outright evil to be taken seriously. Ah, how times change...
That said, NO ONE DOES A VILLAIN SONG LIKE GASTON:
2274401 Well I never would have guessed. How fascinating!
How long does it take you to make these things?
I wish I could favorite journals. Every month, you deliver an intriguing and thought-provoking post covering a very diverse array of topics. And you even discussed Grendel! How excellent.
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Me, too. I feel really bad. I need to strike while the fandom's hot! I have dozens of story ideas swirling around in my head. It's just so difficult to devote time to writing when my work schedule of late has been so demanding. I work full-time in addition to ten hours of overtime. It doesn't leave much free time.
I wrote out a synopsis for a Celestia and Luna clopfic with Tirek. I felt such a drive to work on it. My heart ached when I saw what little time I had to flesh it out.
Any advice on how to maximize what little writing time I have would be appreciated
Thanks for your kind words.
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That's fascinating! Thanks for adding to the discussion! Video games allow players to not only sympathize with a villain, but to also play as them!
I stopped paying attention to the MGS series after Snake Eater. All I knew about MGS V was that the horses pooped in real time.
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If stories can be favorited and groups can be joined, why not allow people to follow blogs on FIMfiction?
Thank you for the kind words. I put lots of time and effort into each update. I'm glad you find them so informative.
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I spent most of July 9th writing this. I compiled research in the first week of July. Why do you ask?
Maybe I need to set strict weekly goals for myself in order to churn out more stories. Even something as small as 1,000 words per week would be more than what I'm producing now. Working 50 hours per week puts a damper on the free time I have to write. I'll try to be more consistent, but it's probably going to be a slow process at first.
2275503 I ask because this looks like a lot of freakin work. XD
Hmmm...
Personally, I prefer the newer style of Disney (and by extension, mainstream) villain. It was all well and good when I was a kid, but now, I find it hard to suspend disbelief at a character of pure evil, especially just for the lulz. It doesn't mean that they have to be sympathetic, but realistic shouldn't be too much to ask for, insofar as the world's setting is concerned.
Personally, I think the weaker villains in MLP are the ones with nothing but pure malevolence. Discord, Sunset Shimmer, and the other minor villains you discussed, as well as NMM to a certain extent, are so much better for being realistic than Sombra, Chrysalis, and the like.
I agree that truly evil villains have a place in our collection of stories, but I think that for the most part, that section can stay in the past. It's not like it's going anywhere.
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It's a labor of love... and porn stats.
2275456 I don't know. What little time I had when I worked that many hours found I barely even had time to make food for myself since the travel between going to work and back was over three hours in the day itself. Jobs are extremely hard to come by in my area and many don't offer enough to pay the bills. So going out of county or state was rather common. Used to spend almost 300 out of my 760'ish check a week at the cafeteria at work and whatever was quick to make.
How did I make time for things I wanted to do? Well, that's hard. Is yours a more paper work demanding job? Physical labor? Best I can say is work in gdocs. Write as much as a skeleton of a story as you can one a day. If you can even clear out 30 minutes you can get some fast stuff done. Show your prereaders and editors what you got, next day see if they left comments in your gdocs and continue to add to a scene in one of your many events.Luna wakes up hornySomething happens in the castleLuna breaks into Celestia's bedroomSomething happens hereTirek sucks the juices out all poniesMore stuff happens
Work on the scenes you have down in your head. Like if you don't have any ideas what to do with any particular scene like Luna wakes up horny], you go to work on the one scene you already have planned out in your head, like, Luna breaks into Celestia's bedroom] instead, going into detail about how Luna bursts through the doors of Celestia's bedroom and asks her if she saw the same visions she had come to her, Celestia could give her a knowing smile and she admits to being horny too and have an epic morning sex scene. Before going into why Luna was really there. You've written plenty of epics so this is like "duh" factor for you but you get the idea.
Just an hour a day to get a rough scene out and let your guys give you their opinions and suggest ways to improve on a scene you did work on while you're out at work/sleeping. Just let them know you're really tight on time so they won't always get a reply back? I don't know.
I min max my time. Have to between friends and responsibilities vs what *I* want to do. So I hope you somehow manage to make a more efficient routine. If you can set aside anything 30-60 minutes you can have a good solid one-shot out in a month or so. It's like a ramp up time thing. Further you get the faster it can go.
You should see how meticulous my pal Mudpony plans his stories and fleshes a scene out. It looks like a lot of work, but it turns out to be the most time efficient way to work on stories.
Anyhow, I do hope your job takes mercy on you someday to allow you more peace of mind.
2275465
Just replace Luna with Octavia in that pic, and you're golden
brown.Snake Eater is a great game, and is the first game in Big Boss's journey. Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots was released after it, but chronologically takes place after Sons of Liberty. It's important in its own right, but is not as relevant to MGSV as Peace Walker is. Consider getting MGS4 if you have a PS3. If not, you can get the HD Collection for either PS3 or Xbox 360, which has MGS2: Substance HD, MGS3: Subsistence HD, and Peace Walker HD. Peace Walker is the relevant one to play; it takes place chronologically after Snake Eater, and leads right into Ground Zeroes, which is itself a prologue to The Phantom Pain. (Edit: forgot to mention that Subsistence HD itself contains the original Metal Gear and Metal Gear 2: Solid Snake. So the HD Collection is 5 games in one.)
That is, if you're interested. Don't mind me; I'm a huge MGS fanatic. But if you won't consider getting MGSV for the story or the graphics, at least consider it for the gameplay:
I shouldn't be so hyped for a video game, but I can't help myself.
An amazing look at the changing face of villainy, and the source of so much of my sorrow. You are awesome at these sorts of things. I love stats, even if I'm bad at math.