Yo.

Rules run like this: You place a topic in the end of your comment about what you'd like to discuss. If people want to discuss that, they reply to you and away you go.

Opening topics are as follows:

1) The Scootaloo Episode.

Yeah, it might have had Scootaloo in it, but please: lets all bitch about Luna.

We now have three of her. I mean, I we have season one Luna, season two Luna and now season three, "I haz dark secrets" Luna. That's... that's too many Lunas to keep track of. Make it stop!

2) Style: how do?

I got asked this recently, and it's a decent question. I'd like to know other opinions on it, so. Here we are.

I replied (well... will reply) that style is one of the most important things an author works on after they've mastered all the tricky grammar shizzle. After you've gotten how to speak correctly downpat, you start work on the "how to say things the way I want to say them" stuff. You develop your own voice.

For me, my voice is in descriptions, enough so that dialogue is painful in that I have to give up the reins. I generally try to focus on efficiency and beauty over clarity and simplicity; in effect, the sound of my sentences is more important to me than what they're saying.

And because writers love to talk about their writing, tell me about your style. How do you think you write, and what areas do you loosen some slack on because of it? And if you're not that self-aware yet, then shediggity.

3) The Fimfiction updates.

I love most of it. Hated the ultra large comments, but they've gone. The downgrading of the feature box appeals to me as a reader, even if it handicaps me as an author. The colour scheme is... dull, granted, but apparently talks are going on to bring back the sepia. Fingers are crossed.

Oh, and I'm torn between epic Zecora and epic Celestia. Which banners are you guys currently flying?

And with that said, lets get talking.

533714

1) I'm not sure I see a contradiction between these Lunas. At least I can fansave them: Season 1 Luna is weakened Luna before regaining her full magic and mojo. Season 2 Luna is Luna adjusting to the modern world. Season 3 Luna is fully adjusted Luna returning to her old job of kicking nightmare butt, as in "Mistress of the Night." Having written that, I couldn't be more happy with Season 3 Luna. Now if she's revealed to be practicing dark magic while lounging in sultry poses on her daybed high in her solitary fortress, surrounded by her hissing, bat-winged wraith ponies, I'll squeal like a fangirl.

2) Style is an elusive and tricky thing. I think you're right that the author must master grammar before he worries about style. The best way to develop a good style, I think, is to read lots of books with good style, which means once in a while putting down the fan fiction and paperbacks and picking up the classics. I'm moving through The Three Musketeers at present, and I think any budding author could make a good exercise out of picking that novel apart both for the things it does wrong, which are many and glaring, and the things it does so, so right, which make it a classic.

533714
1. While I'll say the Scootaloo episode was perfect in finally giving the poor kid some love, you want Luna? I'll give you Luna. It fits that, as Princess of the Night, she would also watch over those who dream. Maybe she senses which dreams are the worst nightmares and intervenes when necessary. What really struck me about this is that, for those who follow my story, I actually posted a similar situation in my last posted chapter back in November, (Well, it won't say it was back in November since I'm very nitpicky and go back to edit little spelling or grammar errors I missed, but it was back in November) and it almost played out the same way: main character cornered by a fearsome beast, Luna obliterates it, appears before the character and offers counsel. I made a guess on how to do it weeks before the episode aired, and the episode confirmed it. How nutty is that?

http://www.fimfiction.net/story/34838/34/living-in-equestria/chapter-34 Here's the chapter itself if you want proof.

533724

1) I dunno, then. Maybe it's just my headcanon, but the contradiction between season two and season three Luna is... pretty glaring to me. Season two Luna feels a lot more in line with a gauche, "desperate for attention/a little love" version of Luna. She was far more of a vulnerable, loveable thing than the cold Luna we met at the start of this season and who cropped back up in Scootaloo's dream. I could not imagine the Luna of season two chiding a frightened child who thought she was a monster from that filly's nightmares. That's... heartless, tbh. Season Two Luna was uncertain about where she fitted in and uncomfortable with balancing her role as a princess with her desire for "Love and admiration". Season three Luna is a bit like Batman: Dark and terrible. Season two's Luna felt like one battling with a tragic flaw; season three feels like one who's utterly comfortable with it.

I'd also argue that Season one Luna is a blank slate. It's mainly how she got so popular: a major figure with little to no exploitation of her character, but what was there seemed promising. People just dove right on in.

2) Agreement. I generally venture round through the late 19th/early 20th century for my reading materials. There's just something awesome about an era where one empire started to fall and another started to rise whilst both speaking the same language. So many conflicts, changes and dynamics going on, and all wrapped inside literature. I love it.

As for developing good style, I'd agree that reading the works of others is crucial for finding it, but I'd also say that you need a helluva lot of introspection about it. Like, examining how you write and figuring out the way it works best. Finding the niche you're comfortable with: that sort of stuff.

533740

I see I'm outnumbered on the Luna front. Bah.

As for the similarities between the show and fanfiction, there's been a fair number of them this season. I'm guessing the fandom's finally reached critical mass in terms of fanon or something. Like, there's nothing else left for them to explore where we haven't already set up shop. Shizzle's crazy, y'know?

533747
Oh wait, that was sarcasm when you said let's talk about Luna? I'm sorry, I forgot to notice that part.

533748

Nope. Genuinely wanted to have a bitch about Luna.

I like the fact we've got a Scootaloo episode just fine, but... Luna's the thing that was most important in this. That, and her presence weakened the episode for me. Took the drive for Scootaloo's revelation outside of her and onto a Luna ex machina needlessly. I personally think the episode would have worked better without her.

533750
I suppose one could look at it that way, but Scootaloo thought her nightmares were real. How would you have handled her finally getting the nerve to swallow her pride and confess her fears to Rainbow, if you had been writing it, just out of curiosity?

I know people probably got this already, but I also figured out the reference with the Olden Pony and the rusty horseshoe. I saw a recorded stage performance of someone doing an impression of Mark Twain, and he told a story of a murdered woman's ghost calling out "Who's got my golden arm?", with the intent of speaking it quietly before scaring the crap out of everyone by screaming "YOU DO!!"

533757

Hmm. You'll have to give me some time to think of that. I can come up with a few about how to combat being frightened by your imagination, but pride swallowing is something I struggle with in real life. So... I'll have to process this. Be right back.

I explain away the difference between Season 2 Luna and Season 3 Luna thusly:

Season 1 Luna? Yeah, mostly just a scared girl sorry for what she had done.
During the events of Luna Eclipsed, Luna was a thousand years behind on the trends. Annoying, but no one told her, ya know? I wouldn't put it past Celly to have punked her into believing the RCV was still in use, too. So, what she did was she went out and got a copy of Rosetta Stone: Equestrian. She was studying it all the way up through the wedding, which is why she never heard the changeling swarms or the battle (she had her headphones on). At the end of the episode, she flies down, intent on showing off her newfound mastery of the vernacular, only to be rebuffed because she missed so many important things.
Season 3 is just Luna fully adapted, as she should be.

3. I'm starting to tolerate YouTube's new design, though I much preferred the old one, but the new look of this site is appealing to me better. I've currently hoisted the flag of Derpy.

3. I hated, hated, hated the new design yesterday, because I saw how broken the functionality was and how bad the design was for new writers—
And he went and fixed most of it in the 24 hours since, so I feel like a bit of an asshole today.

533757

There are many, many versions of the this type of folktale. "The Golden Arm" is an especially famous one. If you've ever seen those Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark books, they collect several versions of the same tale; in one it's a woman who picks up a bone to make soup and the ghost comes demanding its bone back; in another it's a grave robber harassed by a ghost for taking coins off a corpse's eyes.

533747

I admit I'm going to miss Needy Luna from Season 2, but I don't think that's something they could have kept going forever. It works in "Luna Eclipsed" by playing on the notion that Luna is dark and terrible but not so frightening underneath. This episode continues that idea, but depicts Luna as having gained more comfort in her role.

What you call heartless is what I would have played up if I were writing it; instead of depicting Luna as smiling and friendly, I would have had her blast the Headless Horse to oblivion and then appear even more horrifying than the monster she destroyed. "Face your fears" would have been not some friendly, chatty advice, but a thundering command. The goal would have been to make all the little tots watching at home wet their pants. Maybe I'm influenced too much by Sandman comics and The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath, but it seems to me that the mistress of dreams should not be nice. She should be terrifying.

This is my complaint, in fact, about all three princesses. I want Celestia to be more majestic, Luna to be more terrible, and Cadance to be more lordly, and I want their softer, goofier sides to be buried deeper.

I agree Luna overshadows Scootaloo in this episode; if I could edit it, I wouldn't eliminate her role, but I would cut the part where she appears in the moon behind Rainbow Dash's head while Scootaloo's awake. Since she had appeared in Scoots's dream only moments before, that amounts to no more than needless exposition. They should have shown Scootaloo wordlessly screwing up her resolve and confessing to Rainbow, and they should have let the audience draw the connection without Luna reappearing.

533714 #2 My style seems to shift depending on what I want to say. I think I approach each story looking for a different type of feeling to be presented, causing my writing to change each time. I would love an outside opinion on this though.

Merry Christmas and Happy Hearth's Warming!

561809 From me as well, Also, boxing day tomorrow.