Chromatic Arpeggios · 1:36pm Dec 7th, 2019
I recently moved all my EqG tracks to my commuting music flash drive. (It’s my driving drive! 
) And while actually listening to lyrics without visuals to distract me, I realized that certain songs perfectly demonstrate the five color philosophies of Magic: the Gathering.
Look, I have a theme, I’m sticking with it, and this is a great way to explain a complex idea in a form that everyone here can understand.
White
Note: The opening is what building up verse counters looks and sounds like.
Unsurprisingly for this series, a lot of songs espouse white values: harmony, community, cooperation, and so forth. But the cafeteria flash mob is an especially notable example. The entire message is about moving past superficial differences to come together into a cohesive whole for the sake of a goal that supports the greater good regardless of any individual qualms. Particularly when it comes to supporting a literal angel-princess; white is all about nobility, hierarchy, and quasi-divine winged women.
For a more negative musical example of white's values from the show proper, see ”In Our Town,” where the importance of community over individuality is taken to horrifying extremes. Starlight may be more a cult leader than a communist, but the song was still based on Soviet anthems, and communism as a political philosophy is ironically a lot more white than red.
Blue
Not exactly surprising, but very blue. Twilight’s motivations may be more emotionally driven, i.e. red, but everything from the instrumentation to the sequential experimentation to the obsession with perfection captures the essence of the color of science, progress, and technology. Twilight even gives herself flying for a turn, to say nothing spending the whole song literally assembling her massive win condition combo in the middle of a Rooftop Storm.
A negative example from the show is Pinkie's Wonderbolts Rap. Here, blue copies another color’s musical style without the support necessary to make it work, then tries to make it educational. Not as evil as Starlight at her worst—arguably—but certainly obnoxious.
Black
Fittingly enough, the black and white examples act as mirrors to one another. (The colors tend to do that.) Where one cafeteria song brings people together for a common cause, the other incites individual ambition at the cost of that cohesion. Themes of ruthlessness, competition, and corruption take a happy student body and hit it with an autoimmmune disease. The fact that it’s all for three emotional parasites only emphasizes the swampishness.
For a positive example from the show, see the Smile song. Yes, really. The essential paradox of Pinkie, at least from a Magic: the Gathering standpoint, is that her greatest personal ambition in life is to make other people happy. Them being happy makes her happy, and so the cycle continues. She is able and willing to do anything to make you smile. And as the rest of “A Friend in Deed” demonstrates, she’ll do it whether you like it or not.
Red
This was the song that inspired this entire blog. For all that Dash Speed Forces her friends to safety in the video, the lyrics emphasize themes of independence, self-expression and -determination, speed, passion, and living in the moment that are red at its best. Even the title of the song, “Run to Break Free,” could well be the philosophy of several red-aligned Magic factions. (Plus, if friction had been more of a thing, red’s recklessness and short-sightedness would’ve been on display as well.)
”Blank Flanks Forever” is the perfect negative Equestrian example of red music. That same independence is used spread dissent against the establishment through an argument backed by gut feeling and sounding confident. Said rebellion peters out into barely doing anything when the horrifying implications of Rumble’s argument come back to bite him; red has never been one for the long game.
Green
Yes, a shopping mall is one of the least green locations imaginable. But where white embraces communities, green deals with ecosystems. The difference lies in green’s more holistic perspective. It appreciates the cascading effects of a single shift, which is why it can hesitate to change willy-nilly. But when it does act, it can be the flap of a butterfly that spirals into a hurricane. Or a random act of kindness that cascades into a mallwide burst of positive energy.
We don’t even need to leave the human world for green’s dark side; we just need to look to Gloriosa Daisy. ”We Will Stand for Everfree” is green’s stubborn refusal to change in lyrical form, reacting to threats against long-held tradition with instinctual hostility and mutated flora. And, perhaps worst of all, completely failing to understand why everyone else isn’t embracing the beauty of nature over all else.
Those who know the color pie are welcome to offer further, possibly better examples, or to argue against my own stance. Everyone else who made it this far is welcome to ask questions or just ask why I bothered to post this. 
Okay, but what about colorless? Not songs, but in general. We mostly think of those cards as a mechanical nessesity as opposed to a philosophy, but there are multiple colorless characters. Karn and Ugin clearly have opinions, but how does one wrestle an 'everything matters' mindset?
EDIT: Wait, nevermind, I got it!
The Sweep Song perfectly represents the Eldrazi. Catchy and memorable, yet bereft of meaning, it exists only to fill the void, much like the Eldrazi themselves. Their sole purpose is to push aside and erase all else, until they are all that remains. Much like the song, once it gets stuck in your head on infinite loop.
What? FomE, taking something from another franchise and connecting it to MtG? Why, that's NEVER happened before, and I would like an explanation immediately as to why so would do something so blanantly out of character.
oh my god
I dont play Magic: The Gathering (I'm more a YuGiOh man) but it certainly is an interesting thought
Bit of an odd choice maybe, but for a positive variety of Black's values how about What More Is Out There from Friendship Games?
Black is about ambition, opportunity and amorality (though not necessarily immorality).
In this song Twilight displays a little superiority (if not arrogance) coupled with a (deserved in this case) disregard for her fellow Crystal Prep students, along a desire to leave the others behind. In any other situation that would sound evil, in this case though?
Is it just me........or did Twilight sing "I think I'm going to piss myself" in "Mad Twience"? How the HECK did that get past censoring?
5165776
"Pinch," as in "pinch me, I'm dreaming."
5165777
oh lol. NOW I hear it. XD
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To be fair, I heard the exact same thing when I first listened to it
Dewd, I like this. The panel at BronyCon about similar themes was fun, too. I will forever remember my time with Magic fondly, if increasingly distantly.
And this is also a good reminder of the plethora of comparatively less-tapped later EqG material. I appreciate the cohesiveness that it seems to demonstrate, and it’s rich with concepts that could scaffold reams of fanfic.
The challenge, perhaps, as with the Young Six (and Miller’s current contest), is that this stuff is just less well-known within the fandom. There doesn’t seem to be as much of an outcry for fics based on latter-day EqG shorts as earlier material, perhaps in part because people haven’t seen them. But I suppose part of what we can do is produce fics that are good that might help direct people to them.
Just got me thinking.
I can definitely get behind this sort of thing, as I have a strong tendency to view practically everything through the lens of Pentachromatic Philosophy.
My own views on the Five Colours actually differs slightly from Wizards', from what I've seen of in their articles, but don't contradict them. The biggest one of these being Black.
* At first, I used Sauron for this, but he's actually an example of White/Black extremism, being a corrupted force of order. I thought about Morgoth taking his place, as he was Sauron's corrupter, but his only motivation is corruption. Voldy is so wholly self-absorbed and puts so much effort into not-dying that he fit my view of Black perfectly.
So, I was going to come in here and say a positive example of Black is "Get to the Other Side"
But on a repeat listen just to ensure I didn't embarrass myself, it's more Rakdos than pure Black. It is still about ambition and being willing to so anything to achieve it though, so I don't think I'm too far off.
Setting aside for further perusal of things I didn't know exist.
Also I like Green. When I actually played MtG I ran a full green deck built around super boosting Primordial Ooze into an unstoppable monster with every modifier, dozens of tokens, and healing myself for huge amounts every turn.
I forget, did you ever do cards for Rainbow Rocks? Because I really want to see a Form of the Siren enchantment.
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I disagree with Legion on that, mostly because I see the Geth as a very White faction. They are so dedicated to community that they don't even have a Self per say, just a temporary point of view depending on exactly which programs are making them up at any given time. And Legion, while generally a good guy at the end of the day, still puts the survival of the Geth in the forefront of his priorities to the point of being fairly manipulative.
Interestingly, the Geth as a whole are White/Red. Aside from having a gestalt nature to the point of utter dissolution, they also place an extreme value on self-determination. Geth Heretics, on the other hand, are White/Black. They worship the Reapers and accept their offers of technology out of ambition and desire for power.
Actually, of all the factions, it's the Reapers that are colorless. Their ultimate goal is to maintain the cycle of extinction, for it's own sake. While they do in a sense seek to preserve the destroyed civilizations in theory, in practice their methods show they have no real interest in this or understanding of why it might be considered important. It's simply a goal they can check off as 'accomplished'. I'm actually of the camp that the imperative intelligence behind the reapers wasn't actually an AI at all, just a sophisticated VI with a lot of processing power that got it's hands on mind control tech. All the real thinking was done by organics and AIs enslaved to it's orders and directives.
That said, they're definitely willing to break out the Black/Blue for their standard bag of tricks. So I'm not sure their philosophy really lines up with their methods.
5165735
And Sorceror's Broom is colorless! SWEEPLUMINATI CONFIRMED! WAKE UP SWEEPLE!
As for the "everything matters" transcendent side of colorless, one could argue the last song of the series might qualify, though that's really more WUBRG everything than colorless everything. Especially given how it shows that Twilight won via Happily Ever After.
5165740
I too am shocked and appalled by this flagrant and wholly uncharacteristic display. Fan should be ashamed of—
Hang on.
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And I didn't even mention the G-forces. All that sudden acceleration isn't good for non-speedsters!
5165748
Thanks for giving it a look despite it not being your card game of choice.
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That definitely works! It's arguably even more black in the unreleased duet version, given how Sunset reflects on how safety and social standing still don't leave her satisfied. She still longs for something worthwhile that she can put her all into. "Am I wrong for wanting more?" may be the blackest thing a hero can think. In both cases, they want to strike out and do something worthy of them. They just don't know what.
And it shows how they complete each other as kindred spirits and soulmates and goodLordbut they're shippable.5165925
They really, REALLY do complement each other. I swear they made Monday Blues specifically to make up for having dropped the shipping song for these two.
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Don't worry, based on the reactions I've seen, everyone hears that at first.
5165790
I don't agree with Firebrand on some of that panel, especially his stance on how Scootaloo got cheated with her cutie mark, but it was fascinating to see someone else's view on pony through the five-colored lens.
Play mooore.
In all seriousness, I respect your choices. Agree with them less so, but still.
As for later pony content, yeah, it does seem like a lot of people still on the site lost interest in the source material before it all came to light. Or they disliked it enough that they have no interest in using it. Or, with some of the EqG content, they don't even know it exists. It's not like anyone went out of their way to promote the online shorts. (Though I will note that I've personally written a story based on "Mad Twience." And the game Chibi-Robo. It was for a contest.)
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If you haven't seen it already, you may be interested in my reasoning for my Element-color associations.
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)
There's definitely enough persistence to make the knights of Lochthwain proud. Given Rarity's long nights in the workshop and the creative efforts in trying to bring her visions to life, one could argue it's actually a positive Grixis song. (Plus she's climbing a mountain to get to a beach. Pretty blue-red vibes.
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Yeah, Magic color philosophy's a fascinating topic to explore and apply. Mark Rosewater's articles on the subject make for a great introduction to the topic.
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See here for FiCG: Rainbow Rocks, though I will note there's no Form of the Siren. Also note that the card blog index is linked on my userpage, just under Overlooked Favorites.
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That Primooze deck lost to a blue-white hard permission deck. Everyone else could only watch and do damage control, but it's hard to build up to the unstoppability when your opponent can just yawn and say no every turn.
Also I don't have the most interest outside the current context. I don't have much interest in much outside of pony I'm afraid.
The wonderbolts rap links to "Mad Twience!"
I should probably preface the rest of this with the fact that I haven't played MtG since Invasion was the current block, and it was always kitchen table Magic, but my wife's played some much more recently, and the topic of chromatic philosophy is one that comes up from time to time.
I agree with most of what you've written here, but I have trouble seeing Pinkie and "Smile" as black-aligned. But I'll admit that I find Pinkie to be by far the hardest of the Mane 6 to classify in the color pie.
P.S. Sci-Twi/Sunset is a good ship, and miles better than Sci-Twi/Timber, which is gross.
To keep up with the Mass Effect stuff since it's on my mind now
Turians are solidly white, down to universal conscription and their willingness to break out the board-sweeper effects if it comes to it. You especially see this with the Miracle of Palavan, surviving command decapitation and a massive ambush with precision and swiveling effortlessly to a holding action. We also see the dark side of this, with their understanding of concepts like 'civilian population' being shaky and theoretical at best. Their vassals, the Volus, are similar.
Krogan, in contrast, are Red Green. They're all about passion and physical might. Even their religion is their narrative of survival on a world of beasts where they are prey, and expanding to conquer their world. They also show the end result of this philosophy, with Tuchanka reduced to a nuclear wasteland. In the face of the Genophage, a number of individual Krogan have also taken a deeply selfish, Black, live for today outlook.
Salarians are all about science and espionage. They don't really get the concept of a fair fight, consider a formal declaration of war to be stupidity, and would rather destabilize their opponents with assassinations or blackmail than fight at all. Blue/Black.
Asari have a reputation as the diplomats and artists of the galaxy, and their military strategy can be summarized as 'more than the usual number of ninjas'. They also tend towards a holistic viewpoint, and being generally elvish. White/Green.
Humans are ambitious, fractious colonizers with a disciplined military and a tendency to pull together when the chips are down. Unfortunately this also manifests in xenophobia. Red/White.
Hanar, at least the ones we see, tend to be ambitious traders. They also have a strong religious tradition. When they saved the Drell from an apocalypse they used that tradition to effectively enslave them, leaving the Drell as a whole convinced that the situation was nothing of the sort. White/Black
Quarians have a very community oriented migratory fleet, and a long tradition of salvage and improvised engineering to keep it running. White/Blue/Red
Elcor are nomads travelling in herds, even in the space age, with a few cities as manufacturing centers and spaceports. They are community minded, and extremely physically powerful. Despite that you'd never know it most of the time. Green/White.
Batarians are, by the time of the game, an extremely dysfunctional and corrupt government barely holding on by the skin of it's teeth through slave labor and purges. Solid black.
Rachni are deadly giant insects, their contribution to the war against the Reapers is actually engineering, and they use 'psychic powers' that the Salarians insist are induced quantum entanglement that they're sure they'll solve any day now. They also show a certain affinity for necromancy. Green/Blue/Black
Geth are, as discussed, Red/White. They are communal to the point of having no individual self, with any Geth 'individual' being the gestalt of the thousands of nonsentient programs running on their platform that will dissolve as soon as the components transfer themselves. And they value self determination to the point of flatly refusing the Reaper's offer of advanced technology until they are pushed to the brink of extinction.
Geth Heretics, on the other hand, embraced the offer. Black/White.
Reapers are a very colorless faction, on the whole dispassionate and mechanistic in their attitudes. They also fill a similar role to the Eldrazi, cosmic horrors from Deep Time and Dark Space with far more going on than their simple physical presence. Even in the pretends-to-be-hard sci-fi of Mass Effect the Reapers are implied to in some way embody the civilizations they were built out of. That being said, their actual tactics are very Black/Blue. A focus on Necromancy and Mind Control. But that is definitely subordinate to their overall philosophy and impact on the setting.
I'm noticing there's an awful lot of white among these factions. I don't know if that's a problem. But a lot of the species really are very community focused. It's a consequence of living in a galactic society.
5165934
Perhaps someday I will again. I’m now in a place with at least one game store with a bustling scene, so it’s at least possible. I’d enjoy it.
Making it fit? Aye, there’s the rub.
Actually, what would be great is if Magic could keep rolling for another twenty-thirty years or so, thus letting me pick it back up in retirement. I would unironically love to be the weird grandpa throwing down on Friday nights.
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Any race without a strong communal instinct will fail entirely without ever seeing space.
Mass Effect Characters. I'm assuming Paragon type choices, because frankly the alternative is stupid. Spoilers below.
Garrus starts off as White/Red and deeply conflicted about it. Garrus, C-Sec Renegade is not a good Turian, but he can see the merits. By the time of ME 2, though, he's gone through despair at getting his team killed and has been spending his time inflicting ironic deaths on the gangs of Omega. Archangel is solid red for passion and revenge.
Liara is an archaeologist and pure biotic, brilliant and curious. She's good enough to step into the role of the Shadow Broker seamlessly and keep the information flowing, not to mention seeing the data ghosts of the Reapers when no one else could. Deep Blue (heh).
Tali is a talented engineer and scavenger, and very passionate about her opinions. She's very loyal to the fleet, but her personal approach to supporting it is more individualistic even when leading a team. Red/Blue.
Wrex goes through one of the biggest evolutions in the series. He starts off as deeply cynical and selfish. But the thing is, Wrex is also a perfect example of the phrase "Inside every cynic is a disappointed idealist." The reason he's so bitter is because he tried to unite the Krogan and his clan before, and he failed and was betrayed by his father. When Shepard gives him hope he tries again, and succeeds. That brings out a community focus really unusual among modern Krogan, and reignites his old passion. Wrex, Bounty Hunter is pitch Black but Wrex, Urdnot Battlemaster is White/Red. "Speak when spoken too, Uvenk. I'll drag your clan to glory whether you like it or not."
Kaiden and Ashley I feel bad for listing together, but for these purposes they match. Both career military with a passionate streak. Kaiden is more White with his command role (and healing) while Ashley is more red with her love of poetry (and damage output) but colors aren't straitjackets and they're each best represented as multicolor.
Second Game:
Jack: The Psychotic Biotic starts off angry, impulsive, and violently destructive with a cynical streak a mile wide. The idea of anyone actually caring about her without being out to use her in some way is completely foreign, and she reciprocates. Black/Red. After a lot of character development, however, it's possible for her to settle from a holocaust to a forge. Jack, Biotic Mentor is Red. Still passionate, but now she's actually got something to care about she's lost the nihilism.
Miranda: The details of her outlook and her loyalty change, but her colors don't. Miranda, Cerberus Operative is White/Blue for her team buffs and counters, plus her sense of organization and insight. Miranda, Cerberus Renegade is the same after having started including aliens in her list of 'people'.
Jacob: White/Red, like most career soldiers.
Kasumi: The best thief in the galaxy is a very positive black with shades of blue. She knows what she values, and she has a life that gives it to her. She just doesn't value power, or money beyond what she needs to live comfortably. She's incredibly technically competent, and will move heaven and earth for the few people she cares about or for revenge.
Mordin: A salarian biologist that would do the Simic proud. Blue/Green is the only way to go here.
Legion: A very unusual instance of the Geth. While remaining loyal to the Geth as a whole, he is designed to operate independently and continues to place Self Determination over Survival in conflict with the Reapers. A very cool, methodical Red.
Zaed: A bundle of rage held vaguely together with stitches and a flamethrower. Yeah, solid Red here.
Thane: A deadly Drell assassin, a more contemplative and nuanced kind of Black. Like Kasumi, he has found balance with the traditional selfishness of Black through an understanding of what it is he really wants. And, in his case, he wants to do something good before he dies.
Grunt: Grunt, Pure Krogan is Red/Green though combining directed rage with physical perfection. Grunt, Maw Slayer has mastered his rage and found a more holistic view of war and conflict. He's Green.
Samara: Samara, Justicar Huntress is pure White, and a fine example of both the benevolence and fanaticism that can come with it. This doesn't change when she completes her quest to kill Morinth. Samara, Oathbound Justicar is much the same but with less of a burden.
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Oh yeah, I forgot. Please find another word to use, as that's a pretty severe ethnic slur.
I've always thought that (pony) Twilight is clearly monoblue at the start of the series and white-blue by the end; Applejack and Fluttershy are monogreen; Rainbow Dash and Pinkie Pie are monored. To me, Rarity's the hard one to pin down. Blue/red for creativity, black for her ambition and significant self-aggrandising streak, and yet her generosity seems more white-style altruistic generosity than red-style "you tugged on my heartstrings" or even green-style "we're all a big community" generosity.
I'll note also that Loyalty in MtG can be either red or white. White if you're loyal because you believe it's the right thing to do; red if you're loyal because it's what feels right to you. Loyalty as epitomised by Rainbow Dash? Definitely the red kind.
The MtG colours in songs is a delightful question. I wouldn't have pegged “What More Is Out There” as black, though I can sortof see the argument... it is all about seeking self-fulfilment. Maybe red or even green. That's a hard one.
I want to do more, so arbitrarily picking Friendship Games since that's where I've started: “CHS Rally Song” is very white-tinged-with-red, white in the Orzhov “loyalty to our team” sense. “ACADECA”, for all that the visuals are academic achievement, lyrically is all about posturing and putdowns, verging into unnecessary cruelty: somewhere on the Rakdos-Orzhov spectrum. “Unleash the Magic” is black as can be for Cinch's motivation, but manipulator that she is she's using very blue motivators to persuade the mono-blue Sci-Twi, and Sci-Twi's lyrics are all blue too. And finally “Right There In Front Of Me” is extremely green, at least as green as “Good Vibes”, and satisfyingly making the soundtrack touch on all five colours by the end.
Yay, this is fun
5165996
) is their obession with language and politeness, which requires for outsiders incomprehensible amounts of rules. If that isn't Azorius, I don't know what is.
With most of the races I'm sharing your opinion, but there are some were I would use other colours:
Volus: They are the merchant race. They even trade clan members on their home planet. They are a nicer, areligious version of the Orzhov. They need to be White-Black.
Hanar: The most important trait of the Hanar (at least in my rembering
Quarians: I don't see the Red. Your explanation also doesn't make them sound red. Sorry.
Elcor: I don't think white is necessary. Yes, they like community, but colours are allowed to philosophically dipp into allied colours without becoming multicoloured. I think similiar about the black of the Salarians, but I'm willing to concede there.
Rachni: I would think they are Green/White/Blue. They are hiveminded and generally peaceful beings, and that is green-white to me.
Reapers: Them I think of as Green/Blue/Black. Their cycle is born of a desire to preserve, to prevent change and out of fear of the artifical. They are a destroying swarm, assimilating their falen opponents and experimenting with natural things. They are Golgari with Simic grafted on them.
To whoever downvoted 5166191, come on man. She's shown enough willingness to ignore downvotes that you're better off insulting her to her face like I do. (For the record, the slur is "colored" and even then requires additional context not present here; if you had a point you'd be sending it to someone who can actually change things and given that I literally linked Tumblr there he'd be more likely to listen too)
5167008
I think she was actually talking about "gipped." Which, to be fair, does have enough problematic etymology that I changed it after she pointed it out.
Granted, given how she never actually said what she meant, I had to guess.
5167010
Yeah, "gypsy" is the equivalent of the N-word for a minority that not enough people realize is real for it to be policed to the same extent.
5167010
I did, I didn't think to mention the exact word. Herald has just been stalking and sniping at me for weeks now.
5167024
The mods have already told you you're wrong about that. That you not only tried to argue with them but went full six-year-old about it is emblematic of why I keep making those jabs.
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Or, hear me out, you could not make the jabs.
5167162
If I go too far, the mods will tell me because that's the whole point of having mods. As it is, they've been consistently taking my side.
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Or you could stop stalking me and knowingly circumventing a block, and starting shit for zero reason in random places. FOME asked you to stop. Stop.
Tell your friends to do the same as well.
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If any of that were true, the mods would tell me. As it is, they've specifically told you it's not, publicly and therefore where I could see it. My options are to remind everyone equally publicly of this fact or simply report you. And come to think of it, why not both?
Also, I genuinely don't know what "friends" you're talking about, but I'll use this as an open call for them to do actual friend things with me instead of or in addition to this stuff.
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Herald, this is an ultimatum. I don't want to block you. You have some truly fascinating ideas and I'd love to see what you do with them. But you are being an ass. This isn't the first time I've asked you to lay off. Your defense is literally "I haven't been arrested yet, therefore I'm doing nothing wrong."
I am giving you one. More. Chance. Any further unprovoked aggression against Fluttershy in one of my comment sections and you'll have to do it elsewhere.
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Sorry. I just won't talk anymore. I already pretty much ditched all other writing because of stuff like this.
5167189
Fair enough on the "being an ass" point; the mentioned report includes an admittance of shared fault because I've certainly been heading in the direction of the line regardless of whether I've actually crossed it.
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I genuinely can't figure out what this downvote is supposed to mean. Especially in tandem with the lack of any kind of thumbs on my other comments in this blog. If it were in tandem with everything else also downvoted, that's a typical drive-by and makes sense. If everything else had been upvoted instead it's a "
Hitleryou did nothing wrong" and would only work because I'm the type to actually think things like that through. As is, it's just a failure to communicate.