Q & A Followup for Seven Year · 3:37pm Apr 10th, 2019
Well, you sent them in, and now I'm going to answer them. Thank you all to those who participated.
First up we have BronyRanger who asks:
Have you ever been accused of being too nit-picky in your reviews?
Most definitely, though not usually ever too harshly. Recently, AManUndercover commented that my reviews were not unlike those of the Nostalgia Critic and asked if I was inspired by him. I was a little, mostly in the form of using clips to reference other works, but he was definitely never my biggest inspiration. I still try to balance my opinions against other things, and I sometimes try to see if there were things others noticed that I didn't that might affect how I saw the episode overall.
Next up is Sparkle91 who asks:
If you live in Equestria, who would you be interested in having a relationship with?
That's a tough one. Well I'm tempted to go for some of the obvious ones such as a mane six member or a princess, I feel like trying to keep up with their quirks and personalities, not to mention overall lifestyle would be quite stressful. I'd probably go for a bit more of an unconventional approach and go for Cheerilee. Now that Big Macintosh is with Sugar Belle she looks like she could really use someone to love. I might also be willing to wait until she reaches adulthood and have a relationship with Diamond Tiara, largely because I imagine she'd still have some concerns about being as bad as her mother and would need a special somepony to help assure her that won't be the case.
Whinfree is next and asks:
What is your favorite kind of 🍪?
For the most part I prefer just plain old pepperoni on a standard crust, no flavored crusts and no other toppings. That being said, I do tend to like deep dish pizza no matter how offers it, and I have sometimes had butter cheese or garlic herb flavored crust. If we're talking about brand name pizzas, there's quite a few but my all time favorite definitely has to be Jets. While they're undeniably famous for their deep dish pizza, I'm actually a real big fan of their round pizzas which never get anywhere near as much attention. And if you're wondering how I feel about pineapple on pizza:
Secret Stream simply asks:
If you lived in the MLP world, what kind of creature would you be? (Changeling, hippogriff, pony, etc.)
As cool as it might be to experience life from the point of view of a creature like a hippogriff or a griffon, I'm definitely going for pony. The world just seems naturally suited to them. If I had to pick a particular species of pony to be, I'd go for earth pony since earth ponies are criminally underrated. They can be pretty strong, and have ties to nature itself.
The Castaway Pariah jokingly asks:
Did you remember to brush your teeth this morning?
I did. In fact, as of lately I've been brushing my teeth constantly so they'll stay healthy and so my breath doesn't stink.
taddy1012 asks:
Who do you ship
Gosh, that's a tough one. There's lots of ponies and non-ponies that I ship, and to list them all would be to keep us all here forever. I can list off some of them though. I ship: CheesePie, Sparity, FlutterCord, CelestiaxMirrorverse Sombra (and for sheer amusement, DaybreakerxNormal Sombra), GallusStream, SoarinDash, SugarMac (given the developments in Season 8 it seems like a good ship), StarBurst, Diamond TiaraxPipsqueak (I think it could work), LyraBon, OctaScratch, and somewhat ScootaBelle (RumbleLoo was fine for a time, but given recent developments with Scootaloo and Rumble's appearance in "Marks and Recreation" the ship seems like it would be a lot rockier).
Bronycommander asks not one but two questions, which are as follows:
What is your favorite Background filly? And do you Stay After Season 9? I will definitly do, Finishing all my Stories
Favorite background filly would definitely have to go to Dinky Hooves, even if the show seems intent to just toss her in with whatever background ponies it feels fit to use (sometimes she's with Derpy, sometimes she's with Carrot Top and Noteworthy, sometimes with she's with unnamed ponies). And oh yes, I am definitely sticking around after Season 9! The show may end, but that doesn't mean the fandom has to. Think about it, think of all the other fandoms out there that survived on far less content and without the Internet or social media to help them stay organized. Heck, some fandoms survived before computers were in widespread useage and you had to type up or write up fanfics by hand. Do you know how many other shows and fandoms would've killed the kind of longivety that this show was graced with, and the creativity the fandom has displayed? I for one don't see said creativity dying down when the show ends, if anything it will pick up in intensity since it'll be up to us content creators to fill the void.
BrawnyBold asks rather interestingly:
Is your profile pic your OC? If so, what is his name and other info? (Not talking about your personal info, just your OC’s)
Yes it is. His name is Josh "Joseph" Hooves. He's an earth pony stallion who lives in Ponyville and runs an odd jobs shop, but otherwise he's pretty obscure. He has a family that consists of two younger brothers (both pegasi), a unicorn mother, and an earth pony father. He's in roughly his mid 20's and has lived in Ponyville since he was an adult.
Now my good buddy Foal Star (who I've been honored to proofread and edit some of his works) asks:
if you could choose who would you permanently regress in Equestria and what age would they be.
There's a lot of worthy candidates in my opinion, but if I had to pick one I would go with Spoiled Rich. And since this is permanent regression (meaning she would never go back to who she was before) I'd go for probably newborn status, maybe a little older (about a year or so so that she could walk and talk a little). I feel like as much as she might initially be subjected to a lot of humiliation, public and private, in time with Diamond Tiara and Filthy Rich helping to raise her she could grow up to become a nicer pony than who she was before. In a way it would be not unlike the age regression fics "A Spoiled Foal" and "Spoiled Re-Training".
And finally, through PM we have Brony kaju soldier who proposes these six questions:
1. What do you think of some fics portraying Spike as a Hulkish character?
2. Did you write fanfics before joining FIM?
3. Who's your favorite villain?
4. If you could be a writer for G5, what would you do?
5. What are your expectations for the rest of S9?
6. Do you think there'll be an EQG special involving the girls graduating?
Let me answer each question in the order it was asked, so as to ensure you're not confused:
1. Haven't really seen any of such fics. I suppose I can understand the idea behind making Spike this super macho, masculine character given how much he is picked on and belittled in the show. But I feel like trying to compensate for that by making him a super masculine figure is a betrayal of his character. It's just not who he is.
2. Sort of. I did toy with my own idea for a Digimon Adventure 03 long before Digimon Adventure Tri was ever a thing (I still have yet to see any of the movies either dubbed or subbed, so I can't vouch for their quality) but it was written in script format and I never published it on any fanfiction websites. I did also at one point do a loose adaptation of a YouTube train series called "The Full Bucketneirs" but again I never published it on any fanfiction websites.
3. There's a few different categories for that:
Best overall villain of FiM remains "The Cutie Map" Starlight Glimmer for me. She had enough of a presence to ensure she stuck with us, her motives were fine for their minimalistic emphasis (they were shrouded in mystery, a good mystery at that), and she proved to be the most competent villain because she left nothing to chance. Plus, once she was exposed it was not the end. Any leader who loses power in the way Starlight does does not willingly relinquish their grasp on power and step down. Even if they know that their days in power are limited, they will still try to do as much harm to others and to themselves as they can. It also made sense not to chase after her when she fled, the mane six didn't come to the village to depose her, they came to solve a friendship problem. And the problem was the villagers themselves.
If we're not allowed to count reformed villains, then Gladmane is my pick for the best. He's the closest we're likely to come to a villain who doesn't seem himself as one and has a valid reason to think so. I could easily see him making him the argument that "If I didn't do these things, somepony else would. Isn't it better if they stay and work for me? Rather than inevitably end up as pawns for somepony else?". I still think it's a bit of a contrivence how he got Flim and Flam broken up, and his plan seems doomed to failure in the grand scheme of things because what happens when the performers argue so much that they can't come up with new routines and audiences grow bored of the same old stuff? If Gladmane truly cared about his establishment and reputation, he would be willing to let his performers pursue their talents wherever they go, counting on new talent to replace the old so that everything stays fresh.
Disney villains are in a league all their own. And of the bunch my absolute favorite is Gaston. Not just because of his catchy song ("No one gets a song stuck in your head like Gaston") but also because at first glance he's not the kind of guy you would expect to be the villain. In his world he probably sees himself as the heroic prince who's going to save the damsel (Belle) and be married to her. But as we come to see throughout Beauty and the Beast, Gaston is incapeable of thinking about anyone but himself. He can't understand why anyone would ever reject him, and when he sees the Beast he sees an opportunity to attack and kill an innocent soul that the villagers had never even heard of before, all because Belle refused to marry him. His death may not be the most dramatic or memorable, but for a guy like him it seems fitting and ironic. He just gets knocked off the castle ledge and falls to his death. No final blaze of glory, no sacrificing himself for the greater good. He isn't even killed by the Beast's hand. In fact, he's already killed the Beast, and now karma has finally caught up with him.
For anime villains, you just can't top Frieza from Dragon Ball Z. This guy is a condescending, cowardly slimeball who will do anything to ensure no one can oppose him. He has no quarrels killing anyone who dares oppose him and does so with the slightest provacation. To him it's all not a big deal, he expresses no remorse for anything he does and sometimes he even insists that what he does is justified (such as when he strikes and mortally wounds Vegeta, claiming he did it to shut up the prince up when he insisted on boasting about the Super Sayian legend). Yet when he is pushed to his limits, it doesn't take much for him to lose his temper and go berserk. And you have to give him credit, he sure is persistent. Not even death itself is enough to make him change his ways, he still is dead set on revenge. I'm still not completely okay with Dragon Ball Super adding him to the Z Fighters roster and him now being more or less one of the good guys. Especially when the whole point of Frost as a character is that Frieza could never be good no matter where he came from or who he claimed to be.
And for video game villains, Giovani of Team Rocket for Pokemon Red and Pokemon Blue as well as their remakes takes the cake. He is basically the boss of all organized crime in the Pokemon world (at least as far as Kanto is concerned) and is the only crime boss to lead a team that spans across multiple parts of the Pokemon world (in addition to Kanto, Johto and the Sevi Islands have Team Rocket branches, though it's not clear if Giovani knows of their existence). While his name is Italian and likely is an homeage to Italian mafia bosses (particularly The Godfather) given the games Japanese roots he's more likely based on Yakausa crime bosses (and probably has some gangster and cartel influences too). His motivation is simple, to him Pokemon are just a tool to be used for evil and he only wants strong Pokemon. Yet he is clever enough to conceal his actions so well that no one knows about the secret hideout beneath Celadon City. And even the Pokemon League is unaware of his double life when they make him the leader of the Viridian City gym (not even the trainers or the MC know who he is). In a lot of ways he's like the final boss of the games, because when you defeat him you have defeated the head of all organized crime in the Pokemon world, something that even the Pokemon League at the Indigo Plateu couldn't do. Compared to that, taking down the Elite Four and becoming the new champion seems like a cakewalk.
4. Well, I'd try to at least bring Lauren Faust back onboard. If I couldn't do that, I would at least try to use some of her ideas that never made into G4. Speaking of which, I would probably try to more directly tie G5 to G4 without making it so that you had to know about G4 to understand G5. That way the new generation could be inspired to check out the previous generation, without it seeming like a lazy way to piggyback off of nostalgia. And if the rumors are true about them aiming for a somewhat older and more mature audience, I'd definitely try to tackle more serious subject matter. Issues such as an identity crisis and coping with change, dealing with separation from loved ones, and perhaps a lesson that not everything ends happily.
5. That's hard to say considering S9 has only just started and anything could happen between now and when it all wraps up. Ultimately, I'm just hoping for a proper conclusion to the show that ties up all or most of the loose ends in a fitting way. I would also like to see each of the CMC get some final closure on their characters and a sense of what they're going to do (as well as finally address Scootaloo's family issue by giving her an actual family, even if it would run counter to my countless headcanon fics), and while it is a longshot I'd like one final appearance from Diamond Tiara that offers some hint at what her life's been like since turning over a new leaf.
6. Probably. Considering they've had at least two Spring breaks and one Summer vacation, I'd say they're getting close to that threshold. And if one believes the apparent rumor that they'll be keeping EQG running even after FiM ends, graduation seems like a natural way to free up the franchise from being tied directly to its parent show. Plus, I imagine that in the wake of what happened in Spring Breakdown, Sunset Shimmer is going to be devoting even more time to tracking down Equestrian magic and understanding how intertwined the human world is with Equestria.
And there you have it. I hope the answers are all to your satisfaction.
Nice to see another fan of Dinky. I just love her design and how she's portrayed as daughter of Derpy and Time Turner, with Sparkler being her big sister. Many of my stories are focused on that little unicorn, even have a self-made plushie.
5042149 That's quite nice. I forgot about the little detail of Sparkler being her big sister in some fanon works due to "Sisterhooves Social".
5042175
Thank you. Those little details just make it so much better
Hey, if you do another Q&A.... can you make sure to answer my question with this: What do you think of Bat Ponies? :3
Thank you for answering my burning questions. I do have a question in case you decide to do another Q/A. What do you think of villains teaming up with the heroes to face a bigger threat?