snakcbar · 9:47pm Nov 14th, 2019
Wow I have a bunch of new followers time to scare them away by talking about how much i LOVE SANDBAR
God, I love Sandbar
First of all, I want to relay the idea that the Young 6 all start off (emphasis on the starting off) as not only archetypes, but the ideals of what a young individual of their race should be. Silverstream is a noble, eager to explore the world, and very tall. Smolder is tough and aggressive. Yona likes to smash. Ocellus is kind and conscientious. Gallus is a bratty bitch—
So, what is Sandbar?
Well, he's actually interesting to me because he's the only member of the Young 6 that's actually subversive right off the bat (emphasizing this again, right off the bat—I know that the other members grow as season 8 develops)
Sandbar's chill, relaxed nature is actually pretty unlike most ponies. Aside from like, Tree Hugger, there aren't many ponies that are introduced in the show that you can't immediately pinpoint as hyperactive, socially awkward, or just plain crazy.
I think Sandbar is the glue of the Young 6. He's pretty familiar with friendship and respecting others, being a pony, but he also serves as a sort of rock for the others to ground their crazy on.
He's kind of like Applejack in this regard. They're both characters who know themselves and their own limits well, and they (in my opinion at least) are the most interesting when they're interacting with others.
Like, Gallus and Smolder and Ocellus and Silverstream and Yona all are interesting by themselves. It would be interesting to see them just..talk about whatever they wanted, because their circumstances in life, their personalities and their view on things is just a really cool thing to see.
Sandbar and Applejack are both characters that we don't ever really need soliloquies from. We already know where they stand in most given situations.
Here's the thing, though. I feel like a lot of people want to call them boring because of that. But they're not. At least, I don't think they are.
Okay, so, first thing. A character doesn't need to be extreme to be compelling, given the right circumstances.
The whole gist of a lot of Applejack episodes have her take her dependable qualities to the extreme. She'd do anything for family? Well, let's see how far she'd be willing to go. She's a hard worker? What if she had an impossible amount of apple trees to harvest?
To be vain and talk about my own work for a second, part of the goal with Friends Who Molt Together was to push Sandbar like how Applejack was pushed in Applebuck Season. I don't know if I completely succeeded with the execution, but I think that having Sandbar take care of his incredibly sick friends while forsaking his own mental wellbeing helped to illuminate a little bit depth into his character.
Again, Sandbar nor Applejack are the coolest thing to look at on their own. However, you put them at odds with other characters, and they're suddenly just as animated as all the others.
Which kind of leads me into my next point. I don't really have this planned out, I'm just writing this on the fly, but—
Second thing! Sandbar is just super cute. He's a pony! He's cute.
Which sounds a little simplistic, so let me elaborate. When I was doing my last rewatch of the series, and we got to the episode What Lies Beneath, I was over the fucking moon. Cool Tree of Harmony holograms, Smolcellus ship fuel, just having another Young 6 episode in general...
But what really surprised me was this moment where Sandbar does his cute little horse collapse when he goes to sleep at the episode, and I was so smitten with how adorable that was that I replayed it like, three times, to the chagrin of the people I was watching it with.
"Wow," I said. "Sandbar is really cute, huh?"
And it hit me that Sandbar had been cute the entire time and that I was totally sleeping on this adorable turtle horse because I was so distracted by the pretty colors and characters of his friends.
So I started paying more attention to him, and the more that I appreciated his little moments in each episode he featured in, the more I appreciated his character in general. He has these little quirks and stupid tendencies like a lot of other characters, but he doesn't really call much attention to himself because he's not very extreme about it. But they're there. They're just subtle.
I just think that it's so...closed off, for the lack of a better term, to call a character boring just because they're not as obvious or loud as others. I can appreciate Sandbar's chill vibes.
I don't know, dudes. I'm not very good at arguing my points unless I'm being galvanized into anger by someone, and it's a chill Thursday afternoon at the time of my writing this, so I'm sure that this is coming off as vague and not very eloquent, but I said that I'd try to blog more, so here's the blogging
Okay, I'll admit that he can be pretty fuckin' stupid (how fucking high was the guy during Uprooted?), but, you know, everyone has their shortcomings sometimes
In conclusion, Sandbar is a good boy
Please appreciate him, because it's nice to have something solid and grounding around when you're dealing with hyperactive hippogriffs, crazy yaks, angsty griffons, angry dragons and smelly changelings all day
If you got this far into the blog then I'd like to thank you
please enjoy this picture of a bat's arms coming out of a sanctuary worker's pockets
That last image would be creepy if I didn’t know about bats and knew that the overwhelming majority of them are harmless. Heck, I think even actual vampire bats tend to avoid feeding on people.
Plus many bats a cute.
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CUTE!!!
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Yeah vampires bats actively avoid humans not sure why though I just know they prefer cows that and they're fucking adorable.
Firstly, bats cute!
Secondly, I agree. I like Sandbar. He had to grow on me because, like you, I didn't really pay enough attention to him at first, and then once I started actually watching him, I noticed how sweet, dependable, and adorable he was. He *is* a good boy. ♥
Not my favorite Student Six, but he cool.
you take that back
ocellus is a properly washed buggo
she is not smelly
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i want to hold hands with one
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good 👏boy 👏
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smelly
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R O O D
also sandboi indeed a qt
he's only bland by comparison to his friends
I LOVE THIS. This encapsulates a lot of my feelings about characters that get labeled "boring." I think a lot of times, people just aren't good at noticing quieter, calmer characters.
(Heck, maybe I also sympathize because I'm "boring")
Regardless I LOVE TURTLEBUTT. 💚
Thanks for posting this!
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You know who else loves Sandbar? His boyfriend Gallus! <3
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THAT IS ALSO TRUE
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