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Jan
22nd
2019

Help with Season 9 story ideas · 4:48pm Jan 22nd, 2019

Some questions to help me us think of ideas for season 9 stories.  This is a lot of questions, so if you can't think of an answer for a question, just skip it.

For Starlight Glimmer and each of the New 6 (Gallus, Ocellus, Sandbar, SIlverstream, Smolder, Yona),

  • If you wanted someone to guess what character you were thinking of, and could only tell them one word, what would that word be?
  • What do you like about that character?
  • What does that character want?
  • What does that character worry about?
  • Anything else you want to mention?  For instance, Nyronus said, somewhere that I can't find now, that the main reason Silverstream is the way she is, is that she spent most of her life in hiding.

For each of the New 6,

  • What is that character's role in the New 6?  For instance, the MLP wikia says, "Among the Young Six, Sandbar is portrayed as the easygoing "straight man" to counterbalance his friends' more eccentric personalities."

Extra credit:

  • How is Smolder different from Gallus?
  • How is Silverstream different from Yona?
  • How is Silverstream different from Pinkie Pie?
  • Are Ocellus and Smolder gendered?

Questions for Scribblefest:

  • How does that character feel about Tirek?
  • How does that character feel about Cozy Glow?
  • How does that character feel about Starlight Glimmer?

Handy New 6 reference sheet, stolen from http://mlp.wikia.com.


P.S.-- How can I insert vertical whitespace after a list?

Comments ( 13 )

I suppose I should answer my own questions.

Gallus

  • One word: grumpy, or maybe loner
  • Gallus may have a racial inferiority complex because all the other species seem to be happier.
  • Role: The wild card?

Ocellus

  • One word: shy
  • Why do I like her? She's sweet & vulnerable. I always think she needs a hug. Does that count as liking?
  • Ocellus worries that she's a monster.
  • Role: She seems to be the brains of the group, but this doesn't benefit them as much as it could, because she won't speak up.

Sandbar

  • One word: chill
  • I like that he's the only character in MLP without some major dysfunction.
  • Sandbar doesn't want anything, dude.
  • Sandbar don't worry.
  • Role: The voice of sanity.

Silverstream

  • One word: enthusiastic
  • I like that Silverstream is always positive and cheerful, though she's often just this side of annoying.
  • Silverstream wants to try new things.
  • Silverstream still worries about the Storm King.
  • Role: mostly comic relief

Smolder

  • One word: abrasive
  • Smolder wants to be tough.
  • Smolder is afraid of being a sissy.
  • Role: To instigate tension & conflict; to call out bullshit.

Yona

  • One word: enthusiastic
  • I like her optimism and enthusiasm.
  • Role: mostly comic relief, but see Ed's comment below

Starlight Glimmer

  • One word: Twilight autistic
  • She worries that she's evil.

Smolder is an extrovert and Gallus is an introvert. Smolder is more of a rebel, while Gallus is more of a loner.

Smolder is definitely gendered if you've watched the show. She's female, but is afraid of seeming weak, which is the primary reason she acts masculine (even moreso than her being a dragon).

Even though I like the idea of weird bug gender, Ocellus seems pretty female to me.

Silverstream and Pinkie are both genki, but that's where the similarities end. Silversteam is always excited and takes joy in very simple things: partly this is because being above sea level is new for her, but it's an endemic part of her character because this just isn't how people react to novelty in real life. Pinkie Pie has never hugged stairs, and is frequently non-excited and sometimes depressed or disappointed. Silverstream isn't anywhere near as crazy as Pinkie Pie and she doesn't break the fourth wall or have any of Pinkie's odd cartoonish powers. She's not "strange" in the ways Pinkie is. She's also one of the least well-developed characters in the entire show.

I love your new bio line.

Sandbar is portrayed as the ... "straight man"

not in all the fanart I've seen! :rainbowwild:

Yona's interesting because she isn't conflicted in the ways you'd expect.

Yona doesn't worry about being strong because YONA IS YAK AND YAKS ALL STRONG. And unlike Smolder, Yona doesn't worry that owning being a girl will make her less strong because YONA IS YAK AND YAKS ALL STRONG.

Where Yona is conflicted is that she was raised by right bigots who believe YAK WAY IS BEST, but she was sent to study pony ways. And now she has pony friends, and friends of other species and she is learning all about their ways. And somehow she has to learn all about these new ways LIKE ELDERS TELL HER TO, and to stay friends with all these new creatures yet still be YAK LIKE ELDERS AND ANCESTORS.

5000963
I couldn't put my finger on it before, but I think what you said is why Yona's my favorite of the New Class. It's such an interesting conflict for such a simple-seeming character.

Starlight Glimmer

  • One word: brainwash
  • Since Sunset Shimmer's in another universe, Starlight does a good job of fullfillng the redemption role. Also, I like that she's unafraid of being blunt with ponies like unicorn Twilight
  • She wants to be accepted and she's afraid of the evil she's capable of.

Gallus

  • One word: sardonic?
  • He's a good soul at heart, despite his sometimes brash surface. If I were to map him to a Mane 6 character, he'd be Rainbow Dash.
  • He wants to be near his friends, and is worried about being alone. That said, I think he also wants to maintain a sort of disinterested(?) reputation
  • Role: the blunt one (shared with Smolder, I guess I'm not sure what specifically makes the two different)

Ocellus

  • One word: bootlicker studious, maybe
  • She's adorable. She wants to succeed in her studies.
  • Role: she explains the things the group should know

Sandbar

  • One word: chill works fine
  • He just wants to hang out.
  • I think you've got him to a T.

Silverstream

  • One word: bubbly
  • I like that she's excited about everything in a very genuine manner.
  • Her culture's shaped by the tyranny of the Storm King, so yeah, he'd be her greatest worry.
  • Role: she's also the adventurous/curious one. She asks questions the group needs to know.

Smolder

  • One word: abrasive is perfect.
  • She wants to be respected. She's afraid of being described as cute and adorable.
  • Role: blunt one with Gallus. I guess Gallus is more cool and Smolder is more aggressive.

Yona

  • One word: impulsive?
  • She seems happy about most things, especially when hanging with her friends.
  • I feel like she doesn't really worry about much, maybe 'cause it doesn't occur to her.
  • Role: most endearing one :p

Actually, I think season 9 will be more about the main 6 than the student 6 -- with a splash of celestia/luna/cadance. As it stands now, one can have stories about the students, the diarchs, the crystal empire, the CMC, the ancient 6(starswirl and friends), the background characters of ponyville, even the unicorn 6 of canterlot. There are just so very many directions. Assuming they haven't lied about their plans to end it with this season though, it will likely come full circle and be mostly about the six who started it all.

In how many series could you pick from 100 characters in the series and be able to write more than one line for each one? You can actually reach 200 before you hit a true background pony. MLP has gotten just that broad.

  • If you wanted someone to guess what character you were thinking of, and could only tell them one word, what would that word be?

Several words I could use to describe Starlight could either describe Twilight or contrast her with Starlight, so the best word by default is probably "foil." A short list of more helpful words I considered, in pairs of one positive and one negative, is included below: curious and reckless ("I wonder if" and "I'll bet I could"), driven and over-confident (both "I know I can do the thing"), independent and impassioned.

I want to talk a little more about those last two. It sounds odd that she'd have an independent streak given the ludicrous lengths she went to to get friends (and we're using that term generously), but you can't deny that she prefers to solve problems her way and all on her own. "Impassioned" is really just a combination of two other traits I already listed, reckless and driven. And it's worth noting that one of those is positive and one is negative, reflecting the fact that her impassioned or impulsive decisions are a two-edged sword, capable of both untold devastation and a breakthrough nopony else has the drive to make.

  • What do you like about that character?

Initially, not much. She did cool magicy stuff but I didn't like her two second redemption or her rushed, shallow backstory, and the more I rewatched the S5 premiere, the more problems I found. But oddly enough, the biggest problem I had with her was messing with the timeline (my biggest pet peeve) because you just can't do that! "Time travel is for immortals and fools." --Professor Paradox, one of the Ben 10 series

But as I said, that was initially. The more I wrote for her, delved into her mind and motives, the more I saw. And the more I saw, the more fascinated I became. I said she was a foil of Twilight, but I was surprised at how deep the similarities ran...

  • What does that character want?

Above all else, Starlight Glimmer wants friends. She lost a friend as a filly. She called her villagers friends. Her villagers called one another friends. She tried to get the Princess of Friendship to join her. And when that Princess took her friends away and left her in a cave to "come out on her own," she wanted a fair trade--friends for friends. (Wish they would have used that line instead of "cutie marks for cutie marks.")

Starlight doesn't want friends for manipulation and power like Cozy Glow, but she feels in control of her own life that way. As a filly, something happened that was out of her control, and she's been trying to control the uncontrollable ever since.

  • What does that character worry about?

Starlight's own line "What if I haven't changed as much as I think I have?" (S6 E25) answers this question. She's afraid of still being that scared, lost little filly who made snap decisions because her world was falling out control, which led her to create a whole village of markless ponies so she would finally have friends; but of course that didn't work, so then she stole a scroll from the Canterlot archives and stalked Twilight for a month and then!-- (insert hyperventilating Starlight Glimmer here).

Anything else you want to mention?

Geez, I've already written a book. You want a sequel?

5001384

Starlight doesn't want friends for manipulation and power like Cozy Glow, but she feels in control of her own life that way. As a filly, something happened that was out of her control, and she's been trying to control the uncontrollable ever since.

Ooh. Nice insight.

Story idea:

Octavia takes all sorts of gigs. One gig is to busk in front of the Cakes' shop for a month in summer. But an old-time busker with a very incompatible style suddenly turns up and claims that's his spot.

Musical Guest: Tom Waits.

Title: "Pastries and a G-string (at Sugarcube Corners)"

5016745 Just curious... how many of your story ideas involve Tom Waits?

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