Arbitration of the Ideal

Tangerine Blast's recent blog post riffing on Eldena Doubleca5t's "What your favorite (series) ship says about you" series reminded me that I wrote up something along those lines weeks ago and never actually posted it. Let's fix that.

Note that I limited myself to the Mane Six (and Sunset) for the sake of maintaining my sanity. There are a lot of potential ships in this fandom.

Appleshy: You wanted to ship Fluttermac, but either prefer F/F ships or bowed to canon.

Applepie: You have researched genealogical terminology just to confirm that these two may be cousins, but they’re not related by blood.

Rarijack: You think Rollercoaster of Friendship is the greatest thing to come out of G4.

Appledash: You are a firm believer in the inherent eroticism of athletic rivalry. Also, you loved the finale.

Sunjack: You’re always a sucker for strong, independent women who don’t need no man.

Twijack: Your ideal relationship dynamic is "barbarian-wizard.”

Flarity: You feel no relationship is complete without at least three layers of petticoats.

Flutterpie: Your ideal relationship dynamic is “introvert-extrovert.”

Flutterdash: You are a firm believer in the inherent eroticism of childhood best friends.

Sunshyne: Your ideal relationship dynamic is “repentant bully-forgiving victim.”

Fluttertwi: Your ideal date involves spending a whole night together without saying a word to one another.

Pinkiedash: More than with any other pairing on this list, your ideal relationship dynamic is marrying your best friend.

Raripie: You insist there’s nothing sexier than social intelligence.

Sunpie: You love the idea of the magical alien from another universe being the normal one in a relationship.

Twipie: You love adorable clusters of neuroses so much, one day you were like, “Hey, you know what’s better than one adorable cluster of neuroses? Two adorable clusters of neuroses.”

Raridash: You’re always a sucker for celebrity power couples.

Sunsarity: You feel that a life without drama is not a life worth living.

Sundash: You are a firm believer in the inherent eroticism of the power of rock.

Twidash: You never miss an opportunity to point out that jocks are just sports nerds.

Twiset: You still call Starlight Glimmer “Diet Sunset.”

Sciset: You still call Timber Spruce "Diet Flash Sentry."

Raritwi: Either you follow Monochromatic or you are Monochromatic.

Comments

[SockPuppet]

I've gotta say, I've been thinking "Twilight//Sunburst" and "Scootaloo//Terramar" lately. TwiDash and RariDash are both in my top tranche, too, however.

[The Voice in the Water]

These are delightful. Alternatively, for SciSet: You're a big fan of organic chemistry.

[Captain_Hairball]

Flutterdash: You are a firm believer in the inherent eroticism of childhood best friends.

It's more of a princess/knight thing, but sure, I'll take it.

[Captain_Hairball]

Oh. THAT guy.

My favorite Star Wars ship is Firespray/YT-1300. I don't think he covers that one.

[semillon]

Raripie: You insist there’s nothing sexier than social intelligence.

It's true

[Dragon Turtle]

5191650
I’ve been thinking a lot about Ocellus/Smolder, probably thanks to RainbowDoubleDash.

[Jake The Army Guy]

Flarity: You feel no relationship is complete without at least three layers of petticoats.

f'naaaaaaaa

[archonix]

Honourable mention: Lunajack: you wanted to write Twijack, but you're too much of a hipster to follow the crowd, no matter how small it is.

[Undome Tinwe]

Raritwi: Either you follow Monochromatic or you are Monochromatic.

I just came here to have a good time laughing at people shipping other ships and honestly I'm feeling so attacked right now.

[Speckle]

You really need to do stuff like this more often

[Flutterpriest]

Raritwi: Either you follow Monochromatic or you are Monochromatic.

[Herald of Opera]

5191672
I consider it intellectual laziness on FoME's part, but I'll forgive it because he's presumably saving it for adult's card games (as opposed to children's card games, although I wouldn't turn a Yugioh edition down)

[Darkstarling]

SciSet: You’re fine with a history of heterosexual experimentation, you just wish she hadn’t insisted on scientific rigor.

[Crack-Fic Casey]

I would ship Sunshyne purely based on the name.

[Crack-Fic Casey]

5191686
I consider it to be a joke, because it's very clearly just a joke.

Jackass.

[Dave Bryant]

Excellent list, though Baron called out plaintively from the other room, “But what about Fluttercord?”

[Arkonfleight]

You forgot the truest ship of them all: Trixie x A Mirror.

[Crack-Fic Casey]

TwiLestia: Tou'be gotten into a lot of arguments over wether the age diffrence counts when one half is immortal.

[rdaniel_76]

Raritwi: Either you follow Monochromatic or you are Monochromatic.

I laughed out loud at that one!

[The Iguana Man]

Dangit! I was really hoping one of the posts/videos in this chain of inspiration would be serious so I could make this joke:

What your "what your favorite x ship says about you" post says about you:

Any: "Only my OTP and my ships are good and perfect, every other ship is dumb and garbage and stupid and stop enjoying them!"

Damn this fandom for being too light-hearted, civil and self-aware!

That said, on a (slightly) more serious note, this did remind me of a little of an experiment I thought of trying, though never really got down: making a list of one way each intra-mane-six pairing are the same and one way in which they are diametrically opposed and seeing if people could identify each ship from that similarity/difference, to show how each ship is distinct and some of the dynamics they could have that would attract certain people. I'm not sure what the ultimate point would be, but I thought it might be interesting

[Herald of Opera]

5191769

TwiLestia: Tou'be gotten into a lot of arguments over wether the age diffrence counts when one half is immortal.

And even more arguments over whether the age difference counts when both halves are immortal, because that's been the case for roughly twice as long at this point. Honestly, they just have to wait for that half plus seven or whatever to work out in their favor, they have time. (But because Twilight will not outlive her friends we need RariTwi now that Spike is with Gabby; this is what my annoyance was for, by the by. All the other pairings got at least a hint of the dynamics and what potentially makes them work worded in a manner that humorously lampoons how it shouldn't. RariTwi just got us pointed towards someone who's famous for writing RariTwi.)

[Herald of Opera]

And now, for something more positive from me:

Fluttercord: You remember Vetinari's speech on the evil at the heart of existence, but couldn't figure out what was supposed to be evil about it. (For those who still haven't read the best book series of all time, it involved a mother otter feeding her pups a live salmon and its roe. Mother and child feasting on mother and child.)

[darkszero]

Raritwi: Either you follow Monochromatic or you are Monochromatic.

And it's a this point that I went searching for an upvote button.

And indeed jocks are just sports nerds :P

[FanOfMostEverything]

5191672
That kind of reaction is how I know I properly captured the original's style.

5191677
I ended up coming up with a whole other batch shortly after posting these. I'm planning on posting those next Saturday.

5191686
Fun fact: I considered making Yu-Gi-Oh and Hearthstone versions of Cosmos, but couldn't think of anything that would work properly.

5191754
Preview from next week:

Fluttercord: You think Disney’s Beauty and the Beast would be a perfect love story if they'd just cut out the Stockholm Syndrome.

5191784

Damn this fandom for being too light-hearted, civil and self-aware!

You're welcome!

[Monochromatic]

media1.tenor.com/images/a14ca1c8c9c2427b8ac8d1e27c3cf49a/tenor.gif?itemid=7487938

[Boltstrike58]

Sunflash: You're annoyed that nobody bothered to give Flash a personality, so you said "Fine. I'll do it myself. "

[Herald of Opera]

5191843
Could we have a few words about why the ship works, seeing as both lists simply pointed in your direction instead of actually providing any like they did for most of the other pairings?

[The Iguana Man]

5191839

Fluttercord: You think Disney’s Beauty and the Beast would be a perfect love story if they'd just cut out the Stockholm Syndrome.

I'd have gone with "if the stockholm syndrome was reversed", but that's probably a bit too squirrelly a phrase.

[Monochromatic]

5191866
they look cute together

[Tangerine Blast]

Hahaha these are all great! I actually debated doing that some joke for pinkiedash cause its just... so true

[Darkstarling]

Sunsarity: You would ship Sciset or Raritwi except you are a firm believer in the inherent eroticism of art.

5191839
5191868

if the Stockholm Syndrome were reversed

I came to say exactly this.

Though, in all seriousness, I have opinions on why treating Beauty and the Beast that way is a very superficial reading...

Make sure that your coloration of Discord's name is completely inconsistent.

5191866
To see why it works, read anything by Mono

They're both driven, ambitious, and intelligent, but it comes out in different ways. They're a study in contrasts, while still having a strong core of common ground. And yes, they are adorable together.

[FanOfMostEverything]

5191843
And we're grateful that you do.

5191898
Thanks again for spurring me into posting this.

5191904
I knew i forgot something. The Sunships were thrown in after the fact. Sunsarity and Sundash have been added. Thanks for the poke.

[iisaw]

Wunnerful!

TwiSci (In Twilight's castle): You really like the color purple!

[Herald of Opera]

5191904

They're both driven, ambitious, and intelligent, but it comes out in different ways. They're a study in contrasts, while still having a strong core of common ground. And yes, they are adorable together.

This is the third response and the first actual answer (Mono is part of the count but not part of the problem because she's probably running out of ways to say it by now). That you could snark and do that in the same post is apparently impossible for other people? And heck, I'd take just the snark over the people whose only contribution is a downvote on things I assume they disagree with but I can't even be sure of that much, and of course there's also the parts where I'm saying so many completely different things that I can't possibly be expected to know which parts any given downvote is actually aimed at. (And if it starts looking like it's aimed at my very existence as is occasionally the case, that's not feedback I can or should act upon)

TL;DR: what happened to talking out our problems like adults oh wait the EQG cast does that semi-regularly and they're teenagers. And apparently posting that you feel insulted is good but posting why you're feeling insulted is bad? (Insults are verbal attacks)

[Herald of Opera]

I can't help but laugh at whoever decided to downvote my comment giving various reasons why downvoting me is pointless. It basically confirms they didn't even read the comment, just saw it was me and clicked the down-thumb.

[Lurks-no-More]

Rarijack: You think Rollercoaster of Friendship is the greatest thing to come out of G4.

Well... I wouldn't say it's the greatest thing, but it is pretty dang great.

[Shilic]

I'm vaguely offended by this. I've have you know that I refer to Starlight Glimmer as "The Green Ranger" because that's what she is and I refuse to hear any arguments to the contrary.

[Herald of Opera]

5192311
It's "Sixth Ranger" you genwunner. (Upon further research, he was at least the first case of the trope even in the original Super Sentai)

[FanOfMostEverything]

5192353
Counterpoint: Starlight is a Seventh Ranger.

[Herald of Opera]

5192367
Counter-counterpoint: Ninja Storm had their fourth and fifth rangers fit the "Sixth Ranger" mold better than their actual sixth. It's jargon and it applies to her.

[Crack-Fic Casey]

5192376
Do you have non pretentious setting? Is that an option for you?

[Herald of Opera]

5192394
Does making fun of other people being even worse and/or a different kind of bad count? Considering the closest such people are whoever keeps downvoting a comment explaining how downvotes accomplish nothing...

[Crack-Fic Casey]

5192407
...Do you actually think people dislike comments because it's an attempt to change someone's mind?

[Herald of Opera]

5192495
No, they do it because it's easier than actually having a point.

[Crack-Fic Casey]

5192512
Yes, and large droves of the Internet aren't worth making a point to.

[FanOfMostEverything]

5192512 5192554
Alright, you two, this discussion is going nowhere fast. Let it go.

[CoffeeMinion]

B-but everybody missed the most important one.

FlashLime: You are CoffeeMinion A mAn Of ExCeLlEnT tAsTe

[_Undefined_]

While I personally do not ship Sunset Shimmer and Twilight Sparkle, I do see how they're cute together.

For those who do ship the two (looks directly at FoME), is there a specific Twilight Sparkle that deserves to be with Sunset? Or is either one acceptable?

[Crack-Fic Casey]

Twinkie: You think both halves of the ship should be the crazy one and the sane one at the same time.

[Shilic]

5192353
5192367
Oh, I'm fully aware the trope is Sixth Ranger, not Green Ranger, but: A. Starlight is the seventh, not the sixth, B. The Green Ranger was the first instance of the trope in Super Sentai, and C. The Green Ranger arc of Mighty Morphin is just about the only Power Rangers/Super Sentai media I've ever seen, so that character not only sticks out to me, but is the only "Ranger" instance of the trope I'm particularity familiar with