• Member Since 24th Jun, 2012
  • offline last seen Sunday

scoots2


I'm a writer of fluff, kibitzer, and especially interested in canon AU: Equestria Girls, the comics, etc. They are fun to play with.

More Blog Posts181

  • 239 weeks
    Follow-up on that stalker thing

    He seems to have gone quiet for now. I'm assuming the admins managed to smack down all of those alts. I haven't seen any new material on Tumblr or DeviantArt, either.

    Speaking of DeviantArt, here's the reply I got from them:

    Thanks for getting in touch!

    A member of the DeviantArt staff has reviewed this situation, and we have taken appropriate steps to resolve the problem.

    Read More

    5 comments · 444 views
  • 242 weeks
    Just so you know...

    There's a person on here who has been creating alts and harassing me. I keep getting posts like "why have you stopped talking to me? Tell me what I did. I need closure." I'm also getting PMs along the order of "yo, why are you ignoring X? I thought you were friends."

    Read More

    13 comments · 506 views
  • 248 weeks
    I lurk

    I know some people have asked why I won’t say anything, etc., but the truth is that I lurk. I sign in to see something, usually to re-read Rage Reviews. There are some things I can’t see unless I’m a bonafide member over a certain age. And then I just don’t ever log out, but I’m not “here” and ignoring anyone on purpose.

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    6 comments · 406 views
  • 327 weeks
    Some people make themselves very, very unhappy

    Haven't been around much, but then, you knew that. Busyness, health issues, and frankly a whole lot of depression. Even ponies weren't interesting me very much anymore. I had a ticket to go to EQLA and a party that same weekend, and I did not go to either.

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    26 comments · 783 views
  • 381 weeks
    Hey guys guys guys

    So, hi, you haven't probably seen much from me, and that is primarily because I have been sucked in again by my primary fandom, Harry Potter. Which isn't surprising, considering that I help run a convention and teach a course on it and am the school's club's faculty advisor and have given talks on it for, oh, over a decade.

    So for me, for the last few months, it has been mostly about:

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    12 comments · 712 views
Aug
5th
2016

This is the problem. This is why we can't have nice things. · 11:04pm Aug 5th, 2016

For just this one image, I'm not linking on purpose. It's easy to find. If you do, please do not give the artist grief. He's received more than enough. I'm using this as an example.

But this is a primary example of anti-shipping and why it doesn't work.



I have nothing against SoarinDash. In fact, when I was writing Looking Glass World, I invited people to play Hunt the Ship. I try hard not to use more than one ship per fic and not to sneak them in. It tics readers off. But part of writing is letting the chips fall where they may and letting characters have a certain amount of freedom. It was perfectly possible to read in FlutterCheese, CheeseWiz, FlutterDash, SoarinDash, and DashPie without trying hard, and I'm sure there were more. Every time I thought, "hang on: someone might see some romantic tension there!", I shrugged my shoulders and thought, "so what?" I went ahead and let my characters have some chemistry. I don't want to control readers. I want them to have fun!

This, though:

First of all, it's out of character for Soarin', who is a very nice, laid back stallion. He's pretty mellow for a Wonderbolt. He also takes being a Wonderbolt seriously, and while he might get sidetracked by cute mares or pie, he wouldn't pick a fight with a civilian and make the Wonderbolts look bad. Spitfire might even suspend him for behavior like that.

Second of all, what did Quibble Pants and Zephyr Breeze do to deserve being beaten up? Zephyr's got a big head and imagines that Dash has a thing for him, but it's clearly not returned at the time of the episode. That's part of what makes it funny. It's even funnier that Fluttershy's parents also think Dash has a thing for Zephyr. And if you ship FlutterDash, it's even funnier than that. Dash has been coming around for weekend lunch with the Shys since forever, and they're too dense to realize that Dash does not play for that team and has a thing for Fluttershy.

As for Quibble: well, you could see it both ways. They're definitely friends. They had a whole lot of fun at the convention, and if ponies had the internet, they'd maybe keep up once in a while. But I don't see that they HAVE to be shipped together.

But most important of all: I don't believe in "rewarding" guys (or ladies) for violent, jealous behavior. It treats Dash as some kind of prize or trophy, instead of a mare who can make her own decisions, thanks. If I were in her horseshoes, that stallion would be the absolute last I'd pick. I wouldn't even want to be friends with him after that. (I'd also probably pick the nerd, because that's the way I roll, but that's just me).

It's interesting that in the comments, there are people making snotty remarks about how this is typical of SoarinDash shippers, and other SoarinDash shippers apologizing. There's no need to apologize, IMO, but it's something to think about.

So, once again, guys: don't anti-ship, and if you have to, don't go the violent, jealous, route. It makes you, your character of choice, and even your ship look bad.

Comments ( 9 )

Just...wow...Wow...And this is why shipping at times can be pretty bad...Especially we have OTP-ers like that...And as said, this goes against what Soarin' is normally depicted as, heck I would more imagine Zephyr being a Wonderbolt fan and just to see one...would be enough to make him faint out of joy. Quibble...I don't know, could be funny if Soarin' and him were related. But again, I do have my own OTPs but...I am not so...defensive.

I'll add to this that I don't think Dashie would appreciate the assumption that she's a prize to be awarded by a contest between others which she did not herself hold. (She might love the idea of stallions competing for her attention, because it just proves she's as awesome as she thinks, and she likes the notion of competition, but she would be the one to decide the form of the competition and judge the winner -- remember when she was looking for a pet?) And I don't think that the form Dashie would pick would be "You all fight." She's competitive, but that's not the same thing as "brutal."

You said it much better than I ever could have. While I don't like some ships, I try to avoid being confrontational about it and merely focus on the ships I like. And as for Rainbow Dash ships, I'm actually a fan of a number of them, SpitDash and RariDash both examples of ships I'm fond of. So despite not liking some ships, I accept that some people highly adore them and may not enjoy the ones I like, but that's how I see it.

A couple years back, I had anti-ship tendencies myself. But, I've come to the point where I can see potential in most ships that I come across (with a couple exceptions). When the person enjoying a certain ship's material is constantly harassed and called out for that content and has to face regular demands to justify their appreciation of that media, then the other party needs to step back and ask what they even want from this confrontation they keep perpetuating. They need to ask themselves if they will be satisfied with any given answer and if not, they need to disengage and deal with their own issues instead of forcing other people to answer for them. No ship, or any aspect of a fictional universe, is important enough to treat another real life human being badly.

"I guess we don't have to agree on everything to get along."
- Quibble Pants

4134159 Congratulations! You have won one (1) Internet. Please use responsibly.

4134200
Know any stores that take Internet? Most I've gone to are pretty material based. (:rainbowlaugh:)

*sigh* To quote a renowned philosopher: "Eeyup."

I'd be lying if I said I didn't see this sort of thing coming. It's kind of inevitable... but I'd also be lying if I said it wasn't depressing as all get out. I am speaking as someone who doesn't hold much feeling one way or the other about SoarinDash, hasn't been too bothered by its more... vocal proponents and was more amused than he probably should have been when Quibble came along and made some slight waves. And yet even I feel the need to say: You are not helping!

Much as I dislike the passive anti-shipping that pops up constantly around new or less pervasive pairings, it's better than this. I cannot wait until the whole business settles down and the not-at-all-insecure extremists settle into their little one-sided cold wars against anything not-my-OTP, as invariably happens.

It's also worth remembering that these are just the extremists, and the majority of SoarinDash shippers, like any shippers, are reasonable, intelligent people who are either not bothered by so-unspokenly-called "threats" or simply decide work on their own ship rather than attacking others and who have produced some wonderful works of art, writing, etc...

I apologize if that last bit came across as patronizing - I know I don't need to remind you or most people of this fact. I just felt the need to remind myself.

Edit: Also, on a purely artistic level, what exactly is Soarin supposed to be doing to those two? At first I thought he was supposed to be holding Zephyr's tail in his teeth and using him as a club to hit Quibble, which would on its own be ridiculous (and I doubt the artist was going for ridiculous). Doubly so, actually, since in that position he'd only be holding onto a couple of strands of hair, implying Zephyr has the strongest hair in the universe. Maybe that's what the lines on his Cutie Mark are.

But looking again, he's clearly got nothing between his teeth and isn't actually doing anything. So I guess the implication is that he's just finished beating them up and they're running away. Except that doesn't work because Quibble is bent over backwards with his back legs in the air, no legs on the ground and all his weight on his chin and neck. That means there must have an impact or a force to send him into that position. Is the implication that the sheer anger of Soarin's glare is physically striking him or are we seeing Quibble's childhood gymnastics training coming out in a time of stress?

Also, presumably unintentional, but Soarin is, in fact, looking directly at Quibble's arse. And looks like he wants to bite it. Again, this amuses me more than it should.

Just wrote my own blog entry about the topic, 'cause I really had no idea that it was getting this bad.

I'm just not a tremendous fan of shipping in general. I don't go out of my way to read, write, or draw shipping, but at the same time, I don't go after those who do. Is it really so hard to ignore things you don't like? I don't find it very difficult. This is just pettiness, through and through.

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