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Hidden Scorpius XI


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  • 407 weeks
    After watching "Flutter Bruther."

    Wow. So this is the most adult episode from MLP. Finding a vocation is a hard thing to do, especially with a crippling fear of failure.

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    1 comments · 460 views
  • 411 weeks
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  • 425 weeks
    "Looking for an update"

    Hello anyone that reads this blog. Sorry I've been inactive so much on this account, it really pains me not having worked on anything related to "Power Rangers: Guardians of Harmony." I've been focusing a lot on "Persona SH" with both writing and mapping-out, not to mention I've been trying to push forward a chapter for my collab. Emphasis on trying.

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    6 comments · 471 views
  • 434 weeks
    Observations on "The Cutie Re-Mark."

    I hear people everywhere saying that Starlight was willing to go through her revenge even though she knows what'll happen to Equestria. But people seem to keep forgetting that Starlight outright calls what Twilight showed her bullshit (not literally, mind you). Starlight is not convinced at all that her intervention of the timeline actually brings the destruction of Equestria. Whether she doesn't

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    5 comments · 382 views
  • 436 weeks
    About "Hooffields and McColts."

    So, I hear a lot of bronies talking about last week's episode, one that is based on one of the most infamous real life feuds in history. I think it had some good jokes and some weak points, but it was certainly a good episode. However, one thing that I keep noticing is that people compare this episode with what is considered by most to be the worst episode of Avatar: The Last Air Bender.

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    0 comments · 309 views
Nov
16th
2015

About "Hooffields and McColts." · 1:44pm Nov 16th, 2015

So, I hear a lot of bronies talking about last week's episode, one that is based on one of the most infamous real life feuds in history. I think it had some good jokes and some weak points, but it was certainly a good episode. However, one thing that I keep noticing is that people compare this episode with what is considered by most to be the worst episode of Avatar: The Last Air Bender. But I honestly think this is an unfair comparison. Sure, the plot of both episodes is fairly similar, but there are huge differences in some vytal details. So, I'll stop beating around the bush and tell you why I think "The Hooffields and The McColts" is different than "The Great Divide." (Warning: There'll be spoilers).

First off, in "H&M" the conflict between the two clans could be summarized a misunderstanding born from miscommunication. Grub Hooffield and Piles McColt both wanted to start a colony in the Smoky Mountains, but each of them wanted to do it their own way without talking it with each other. Things went from absentmindedly getting in the way of each other, to maliciously sabotage each other, to downright assault and warfaring, which inmediately drove each newly created clan to the opposite mountains. HOWEVER! Jump to present time and neither Ma' nor Big Daddy actually know why they're fighting for in the first place. This is just a case of "Mokey sees, Monkey does," where each of the clans was born into a mentality of hating the other clan, and when baby Hooffield/McColt asked why they're fighting the McColts/Hoofields, their papa just answers "They know what they did," without saying what "what" is. It was when they learned "what" from the unbiased eye of the animals living in the Smoky Mountains was that the two Clans made up and forgot the whole fighting for winning.

Now, in "TGD" the Gaang cross paths with other two feuding clans: The Gan Jin (regal and refined) and the Zhang (barbaric and brutish), that completely hate each others for the way they treat each other. Because the Gan Jin and the Zhang have to cross the Great Divide, a dangerous cannon, at the same time, Aang offers to act as the neutral party and help both clans through while also figuring how to end their dispute, so he sends Katara and Sokka to acompanny each clan and learn why they hate the other.

Now, I want to try something. I'll tell the events differently than how they were told in the actual episode. In the show, we learn the Gan Jin's reasons for disliking the Zhang before we learn the Zhang's side of things. I'll do the other way around.

First, the Zhang tell Sokka about their ancestor, Wei Jin, a regular earthbender who found one day a man passed out near "The Western Gate." The name of this man was Jin Wei, a Gan Jin earthbender. Jin Wei was injured but was still reaching towards a "Sacred Orb," a Gan Jin treasure, but when Wei Jin tried to assist Jin Wei, Jin Wei refused, saying that returning the Orb to the "Eastern Gate" was more important than his life, and asked Wei Jin to return it. Wei Jin did as asked, but before reaching the Eastern Gate and the Gan Jin village, the Gan Jin intercepted him and arrested him for no apparent reason. The Zhang would never forgive the Gan Jin for this injustice.

However, the Gan Jin have a different story. They explain that both Gates and the Orb are part of a Rite of Redemption their people celebrated. At one instance, Jin Wei was told to perform this Rite, but when he was about to cross the Eastern Gate with the Orb in hand, he was assaulted by a Zhang thief named Wei Jin, who then took the Orb away out of greed, stealing Gan Jin's most sacred treasure and disgracing Jin Wei. The Gan Jin would never forgive the Zhang for this act.

So before continuing with this rant, I'd like to point out that this marks the first essential difference between "TGD" and "H&M." In TGD, both sides know their reason for hating each other, while in H&M, none of them have an idea of why they're fighting.

Back to Avatar. After Katara and Sokka tell Aang what they learned in a completely biased and vague way and after the conflict almost reaches a breaking poit, Aang "recalls" the actual events that happened more than 1000 years ago because he was present. Jin Wei and Wei Jin weren't enemies, they were twins, they only had eight years when the event happened and they were just playing a ball game, where the orb was just a ball and both gates were the goals. Jin Wei ran with the ball to his goal until he tripped on his own, dropping the ball. Wei Jin then took the ball, but accidentally stepped out of the field, earning him a time out. Nobody attacked nobody; it was just a ball game between to children.

After learning of this, the Gan Jin and the Zhang realized that their feuding was stupid and made up for good. All is good except for one thing:

Aang is a FUCKING LIAR!

He made the entire thing up, whereas in "H&M" it was the truth as told by a neutral party (or at least they don't botch it saying it is a lie).

So yeah, there were several points I wanted to get across with this rant: First, that the difference between the MLP episode and the A:tLA one are both the reasoning behind each side's hate toward the other and the way the conflict was resolved.

Second, and this is something that I feel a lot of people overlook, I wanted to point out that, the way both stories are told make it seem that the Zhang are being victimized because of a misunderstanding. The Gan Jin believed that Wei Jin stole the Orb from Jin Wei, when the Zhang claim that Wei Jin just retrieved it with the full intent of returning it. This whole conflict could have been resolved if both sides told each other their own version of the story. The Gan Jin would have realized their mistake and the Zhang would have received an apology. The Zhang, despite their brutish appearance, didn't do anything wrong and just resented the Gan Jin's extreme prejudice.

Heck! Even when both sides brought food to the canyon in spite of being told not to, which in fact caused their guide to get injured by one of the monsters. The Gan Jin reason that because the Zhang wouldn't heed the warning, they should also bring food with them; while the Zhang explain that because the Gan Jin think so low of them, they brought food with them assuming that the Zhang would do the same in spite of the warning, so they did. Not exactly helping their case, true, but still, the Zhang are just reacting to the Gan Jin's prejudice.

Anyway. I'm sorry for this rant, but that is a point I really wanted to get across.

Any thoughts?

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