Sequel to Under The Sparkling Sea! · 7:12pm Oct 8th, 2015
Don't ask how I feel. Terrible. But meh. There is good news from New York Comic Con! There will be a sequel to Under The Sparkling Sea. And it has dragons:
The Dragons of Dazzle Island!
Source: Equestria Daily.
If nothing else, it will have gorgeous art:
I'm a big fan of Under The Sparkling Sea. For one thing, it gave us sea ponies and a world for them to live in, and for another thing, it is just SO PRETTY. And this one might give us some additional food for dragon lore! I wasn't very excited about the way dragons have been treated in the comics, or at least the Spike ones: the Spike/Luna and the most recent Spike/Zecora one. I'm putting this under a spoiler in case you haven't read either, but it only really refers to the Spike/Luna one. I have never been convinced of the idea of a whole separate Dragon Town in Manehattan. Yes, I get why they did that, and it was a very nice idea, in a way, and it enabled them to tackle diversity in comics, which is a super important issue, but it just runs against everything we know from the show.
In the Daring Do books, if I'm remembering this right, we got some more ideas about lots of dragons in remote, as yet largely unexplored areas: an idea that there are actually FIVE different types of dragons on the five islands of Scaly. And I love the idea of there being dragons that are sort of "off the map"--a place that ponies never or seldom go to. It would be even more awesome if they weren't all jerks like the ones we've seen.
Anyway, as usual, the way I look at it is as fodder, not required reading for fanfic writers. You can't reconcile all of the extended universe stuff with the show. You can't always reconcile the show with itself. Due diligence is important, but not to the point that you break your brain. Here's my feeling about Equestria, the canon AUs, and continuity, neatly lampshaded by Katie Cook and Andy Price:
Note the upper left corner.
FRIENDSHIP GAMES SPOILERS FOLLOW.
Just as a coda: it has been quietly driving me crazy watching people theorize about Friendship Games, and especially that there MUST BE exact equivalents of everypony and everything on either side of the mirror. That doesn't seem likely. We've seen "humans" with no pony equivalent and the reverse. There's no guarantee that Abacus Cinch has an Equestrian equivalent, or even that she'd be a pony if she did. I kind of like it that she's a purely EG villain: one from the low magic universe of EG, who has no idea about magic or what her prize pupil is messing with. There's not necessarily a "human Sunset Shimmer," and we do know what the Dazzlings are in Equestria. They're not ponies. They're Siren-like monsters.
Exact mirror image parallels aren't necessary, and they are, in my opinion, boring.
Also, OMG, this is a real thing that I must have:
No kidding, you guys, I'm seriously tempted, but I'm doing a lot of travel soon and I just got a new IPhone, and I think spending on toys will have to wait.
...okay then.
I'm looking forward to seaponies, but gosh I really think I'm alone in having, like, no interest in dragons or dragon lore or any dragon stuff. Far as I'm concerned all this will do is clog up this site even more with fics that do nothing but wank over how "kewl" dragons are. At least Spike and Random Dragon OC #57 won't be the only outlet for it anymore, I suppose.
Meanwhile, I've noticed a lot of the "mirror image" stuff you're talking about tends to come from people who like the characters that EQG serves up but having to deal with humans is like an affront to their existence, or something. It's slowly showing up in the fic fallout from Friendship Games and, yes, the result is boring as sin at best, and ruins those characters at worst.
I do really like the idea of there being one of everyone on both sides of the mirror, but, I dunno guys, maybe you could cast some of those characters you like as griffons or buffalo or cows or zebra maybe? You don't just have to draw/write exclusively pony versions of every new character EG gives us! There are so many other sapient species. Mirror image parallels are "boring" a lot of the time because no one wants to put the work into making them separate people with shades of their other selves, rather than "that character I like exactly as they are but as a pony/human now." Or even worse, "that character I like but eeeeeeeeeeeevil."
Dat picture, tho. Speaks volumes.
That doesn't stop people from engaging in Olympic-level mental gymnastics in order to explain simple continuity errors. ("Therefore, Granny Smith is several centuries old!" No, shut up, stop being stupid.)
Agreed. Such a thing might even be declared illogical by Mirror Universe Spock. (Bonus sinister beard included!)
Ermahgerd! Sugarcube Corner? Pinkie and Gummy? Cheese and Boneless? What a play set!
Oh, good, maybe we'll actually learn something interesting about dragons. Still disappointed with Dragon Quest and its portrayal of dragons sans Spike...
When it comes to continuity errors, I just go for the explanation that makes more sense to me.
Meh, if there's not a pony/human counterpart for everybody, I guess it doesn't really matter within the context of each of the stories. Doesn't mean I'll stop wanting to see what EQG Cheese would look like.
Speaking of Cheese, it seems he's having a bit of a toy surge lately. That pleases me greatly.
Oh man, now I totally want Abacus Cinch to be a dragon.