Plans for the Summer, and a Pondering on Fandoms. · 8:22am Jun 28th, 2019
An update to prevent any worrying, and to line up everything scattered throughout previous blogs first.
I'll be taking a break from writing pony fics for a while, focusing on a Niko story I've been meaning to do for years. I may edit my Pharynx Monster Hunting fic in the meantime, to re-submit to EqD, but that's not certain. I'm getting close to one million words on this site alone, I kind of want to hit that milestone as a writer doing something else. I'm stagnating, rehashing the same ideas over and over, and part of the reason for that is that I'm haunted by the same thoughts over and over again.
No progress on my goals in Blender, unfortunately. Can't seem to get in gear at all, or make concrete enough plans to get anything done. Same on other personal projects, really. I'm thinking I might do the NaNoWriMo thing in July, to crank out a first draft of something nice and early. IT course is going well, though, I can start applying to jobs soon-ish, hopefully someone will have me around September. But I'm not holding my breath.
Once the Niko fic is done and written, I'll return to work on my Changeling Blood sequels, possibly a further shortened version of them. I have a few more random ideas, oneshots might be on the horizon, but all that will be after I'm done with this non-pony stuff. Who knows, maybe I'll get new ideas when I catch up on the Seasons.
Speaking of which, I've been having mixed thoughts about this fandom. It's been mixed for a while, but lately things have gotten worse. "There is no point in joining the discussion, because no one will listen, so just stick to stories and make sure they don't upset anyone," is the message that keeps playing in my head. Maybe it's the procrastination talking, or the confidence leak again. I don't know when I'll catch up, or if I even want to anymore. What if I start watching it, and I don't see any of the things everyone else sees?
I'll leave you with an example: I keep hearing about how the writers leave all these loose ends and engage in bad writing, but what's the earliest example that stands out to you? What's the earliest question left unanswered that snapped you out of your immersion? I ask because for me, it's one from the very first two episodes. I've just grown accustomed to it, and expect it as an inherent flaw in the show. We were never getting Avatar On Hooves, even Filly Funtasia's better at it that FiM in my opinion.
Anyway, that as an aside, I might expand on those thoughts if there's enough interest.
Oh, and one more thing: if you happen to be playing Dota Underlords and you run into a player called Wise_Cracker? If you're going to beat me, at least do it with something funny. Because I sure as bales will. Six Scrappy bonus, y'all, fite me 
For me, it was how the the eventual talents of the CMC were hinted at (Scootaloo and driving/scootering, Sweetie Belle and singing, Apple Bloom and construction), yet 4 seasons later, their talent is helping other ponies find their talents.
That and how the end of the second episode seemed to hint at it being a MAGICAL FILLY show. Instead, we got a slice of life/ "there are many ways to be a girl" show with occasional parental bonuses thrown in to ease the burden of any parents who are forced to watch it because their little baroness has taken the television remote hostage.
I think I would have preferred Twilight to not become an alicorn. It served no real purpose and if I didn't know any better, was an accident on Celestia's part, as Twilight never learned (or retained) the lesson about failure ("It happens and sometimes, there is nothing that can be done except learn from it for your next attempt"), so Celestia pulled out Starswirls Unfinished Incantation, hoping that THIS would be the thing that teaches her Faithful Student about failure. It also makes it hard to find ANY Twilight Sparkle merch that is not Alicorn Twilight.
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Not a very early one then. Also, I thought it was kind of clever in hindsight, a little sleight of hand if you think about it. It's not the things they're explaining that's their talent, it's explaining in and of itself. They demonstrated their talents when trying to help each other out.
But that's just, like, my opinion, man.