Phoenix Flamez is a kindly citizen of Appleloosa, having recently moved in shortly before the Gyaos attack. Thankfully unharmed and with the town back on the way to recovery, her mind drifts to other matters. It's then she had a chance meeting with quite possibly the most unique being Appleloosa has ever encountered.
And kaiju don't dance.
Made as a gift to a good friend and valued member of the Amalgam'verse group, FallenAngel5414 or simply just "Angel" as some fellow readers know her as. Hats off to you all for you support of her and all bows granted to the artist herself.
-Tarb
That was awesome!!!
Very very cute.
Loved it and is it me or am I detecting a future shipping in the future?
Cute
Nice short story. It covers a hanging plot point (how Rodan learned to control his new body) in an entertaining way.
That said, I have a slight issue, not with the story, but with the comments.
Getting on soapbox now...
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What's with the shipping? Can't a couple of purely platonic cross gender friends have a meet and greet story? Why is it that some people jump on the shipping so quickly? Really, when you think about it, the Kaiju are in a separate Class from just about all the other characters; you have to get to the level of Subphylum to have any commonality on even a genetic level. I know their sapient, but really, shipping these characters is like shipping an Iguana with a House Cat.
At least with the ones with a Pony form share, in their current body, the species of their hosts. In their case, it at least sort of makes sense for them to start to form connections. With Spike, being raised by Ponies has clearly affected his standards of beauty; hence his one sided crush on at least one pony. With Rodan, the only way he might have biology-driven romantic feelings for someone would be if , say, Gilda or some other female griffon shows up. Even then, it would be a stretch.
Sorry, but all this shipping, especially with what clearly is, for the purpose of the story, a one off throw away character, really gets to me. Can we please, for once, let friends just stay friends?
Getting off the soapbox now....
Could you consider making another chapter or 20 more? Irys seems to be enjoying your stories along with Megalon (unsurprising)
7673836 Okay first off I only mean shipping as a joke unless the author says otherwise. Well now I feel bad....
7673850
Sorry. It's not you specifically. It's that I see this happening all the freaking time, and not just with crossovers. Having the third comment on a story be shipping where the story was just about friendship was a slightly larger then average piece of straw added to a massively overloaded camels back. In other words, the one broke said back.
Again, sorry about the rant.
7673836
Jacen, buddy, I'm gonna level with you: Have you SEEN This fandom?!
Who HASN'T been shipped with someone? I think it's safe to say that nearly ALL of the mane six have been shipped with each other at least more than once in the fandom.
And even our Big-G has been SHIPPED.
Overall though, this was an especially cute story Tarb. Angel is lucky to have you as a good friend. Twilight Sparkle would be proud.
It's so nice of you to go out of your way to write a story for a friend.
Gotta say that the interaction between Phoenix and Rodan was absolutely adorable. I really liked the stargazing segment and the training part made me laugh. It was a wonderful short story for the holidays.
Why must you mess with our feels?! WWWWWWWWHYYYYYYY?!
Hahahaha! Dude, You made my day with this cute little story! I love how Phoenix is portrayed in this, she's both adorable and Funny!! Thank you for this! You are a really great friend!
Prereading, half-drunk comment: go Rodan! Hope this come out enertaining. Full review to follow, I will possibly be sober.
BRILLIANT!
Dance Off!
Phoenix Wins
FRIENDSHIP!
This was wonderful Tarb, daily interactions between friends is always good reading material for me.
So this was a cute little story, and I really appreciate what Tarb did for his friend. I had seen that first picture before I believe, and I think the story that Tarb cooked-up to around it was well done.
I like that Rodan was having trouble mastering the use of six limbs. I mean we have four, (five of you consider the neck) extremities that we tend to manipulate simultaneously. It's hard for me to fathom having to deal with an extra set of arms like Goro, let alone wings.
And it's funny, and I'm not sure Tarb meant it like this, but I think dancing would actually be a very effective method of helping someone in this condition, coordinating different body parts into rhythmic motion.
Phoenix being a stage dancer in a old-west style town is a pretty entertaining gimmic, she seems like an endearing character.
So the picture that we absolutely must get, is one of Rodan dancing! Either in the desert or on stage.
7673836 thats-normal.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/seinfeld-serenity-now.gif
Not to dogpile, but I would like to say that "shipping" extends to platonic friends. I mentioned some time ago that I shipped Rarity and Anguirus, but as friends. I thought they had some interesting chemistry together, with Anguirus playing the straight man to her whimsical self.
Destoroyah also got shipped in a protective-mama relationship with the CMC.
I know we tend to only think of shipping in a romantic sense, but that is only one facet of the concept.
[nice soapbox by the way ]
I think you have the wrong color there. It looks like Rodan is talking, not Phoenix. Also, I hope Phoenix pops into the main story. She is a delight and Rodan and her make a great ship. Plus, she's single, as far as I can tell lol
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7673916
Allow me to present exhibit a:
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The following contains material that may not be appropriate for all ages. Reader discretion is advised.
Yet again, even more fing romantic shipping. What's fing next? The Plunder Vines with a Fing Hi R Demon? Twilight's fing library with Biolante? Canterlot Castle with The fing Shatterdome?
F. I just gave the shippers ideas, didn't I? Very well, a Curse upon the Shippers: may the first to try to ship the Plunder Vines with a Fing Hi R do so in person. The X-rated results should be quite entertaining.
Considering my reaction to this forum, my feelings on shippers should be clear. They are also not likely to be exclusively mine based on other entries to the forum. So, please, can we give the fing shipping a break?
The preceding contains material not suitable for all ages. Look under the bars at your own risk.
Frankly, I think everyone can agree a rant like that is better then acting like a Scottish Reviewer who's hat got dirty.
7683197 I can appreciate your frustration, since the shipping occupies so much of the audience reaction. It can get a bit annoying, I get it. Especially since it's mostly dudes in here, gabbing about match-making like a couple 'MLP target demographics' when they play house.
But it's mostly a subjective thing. I personally haven't really felt the chemistry between Anguirus and Ki Seong, despite it being the planned ship.
7684042
Thank you.
When the author spends time to build a relationship and shows the various interactions leading to said feelings developing, then I have no problem with it. Junior's interaction and growing connection with Luna? Wonderful. Destroyah's growing maternal relationship with the CMC? Fantastic. Rodan and Mothra's friendly demeanors leading to easy positive interactions with those they meet? Understandable. X and Aria? Nicely done.
Anguirus and Ki Seong feels a bit forced, mostly due to how rushed it seems; there simply isn't enough on screen interaction to explain the strength of their reactions to each other. I do feel the general interactions between Anguirus and the rest of the MLP cast feel natural, mostly because his awkward reactions to their various eccentricies feels natural. Then again, the behaviors of the regular cast are well known to us, so we only have to fill in one part of the equation.
What gets to me, though, is when someone, either as a lazy writer or an armchair commentator, decides to jump from casual acquaintance at best strait to "the babies would be adorable" with no time spent building any romantic interaction between the characters; doubly so when at least one of the characters is unlikely to be capable of romantic feelings with the other. Not to beat a dead horse (pun not intended), but none of the Kaiju were even mammals before arriving, much less ponies. Heck, one was an insect that reproduces asexually, and another is evolved from an anaerobic micro organism and is debatably not even a member of the animal kingdom. There is no good reason for these characters to be attracted in any romantic way to any pony. That is not to say they cannot become friends or easy acquaintances, but there is a huge difference between friends and a romantic couple.
I admit, there are parts of the fandom that are a lot worse; I only wish you would be surprised with the number of people that want an orange unicorn turned human to be in a lesbian relationship with a human girl just because they would look cute together. At least some of the EQ girl stories admit to the fact that Sunset would feel zero physical attraction to humans (though a few do go on to build a closer then friendship relationship based on mental and emotional interactions,) but more then a few cast Sunset as secretly in love with one (or more) of the other girls with zero interaction to justify the attraction.
I admit, a lot of my reaction has been primed by stumbling upon a group dedicated to "Anon-A-Miss" stories, some of which are very well done, but not a few are filled to the brim with bad shipping for shipping's own sake. Like I said before, a lot of straw piled onto an overloaded camel; sooner or later one straw will break it's back.
Please don't take my reaction personally, but it would be nice, just once, to not have a well done story be used as shipping fodder, especially for a fundamentally unrealistic ship. I swear, at times I wish I had a few hundred metaphorical Harpoon ASMs to bring to the comment sections of these stories. Since many of these "ships" are barely rowboats, even one Harpoon would be overkill, but even so, it would be oh so satisfying....
Something tells me that Rodan is going to be doing a few jigs when the Gala gets underway.
7684343
hahaha
hahahahaahah
HAHAHAHAHAHA!
well, you are quite welcome good sir. [adjusts monocle]
I would say that the relationship between Anguirus and Ki Seong probably feels forced, because it's the original intended ship for the story. To mean, Tarb designed them to develop feelings for each other as part of the plot, and that's whether you or I feel the chemistry or not. So if one does not, then it's logical to perceive it as being contrived. Now I'm not aware of anyone having an issue with the ship, it just perhaps does not connect to us as organically as the others. And in that way I feel a bit sorry for Tarb.
When you talk about the unsubstantiated shipping, I think you're talking about fans really think/hope that there's something to go on. Which can be delineated from those who are just taking a swing at fantasy pairing. I mean, how much of the MLP fandom ships members of the Mane 6 together? Why? Because "Friendship is Lesbians" for some ungodly reason.
So I think your speaking to those who are a bit more adamant in their pairing. And I can see one getting irritated at the height of the shipping, which I think was a bit back during the Xenilla/Sombra arc when he had all that tension with Blade Dancer, and Junior was having his awkward interactions with Luna.
To address your point about their being attracted to ponies, I've talked about this a few times in my reviews. It's my theory, that being transformed into Equestrian bodies has altered their physiology, and thus, everything that effects. They now have hormone glands reacting to stimuli as biology would dictate them to, and subconscious emotional processes. In short, they're not Kaiju in pony costumes, they really are experiencing love, and desire, and remorse. Xenilla is not a space-reptile bonding with a pony, he's a pony, bonding to another pony. Their newly acquired biology is responding in a perfectly natural way.
So while I see your point about their conscious mind telling them not to develop romantic feelings, I submit to you, that their biology is telling them: "Nigga, you betta get up on that shit".
And I would say the same for Sunset in the Human world. Her unconscious biology should respond to the appropriate stimuli, for example, human males. This may perhaps create a conflict with her conscious experience and what she is used to feeling. Though, as some of our colleagues on Derpibooru theorize, she may yet retain more of her *traditional* romantic inclinations, despite her human physiology.
I tend to take any shipping a la carte, and I enjoy some more than others. Regards any shipping I do, I have a general rule against any homosexual shipping, and I try to keep the ships I do validate, to a utilitarian minimum.
Though sometimes the shipping is a part of the story. For example in mine, there are ships that are essential to the premise, and serve as motivating forces behind multiple characters. A few other minor ships serve purposes for the plot, and one very small one in fact, is of tremendous importance. So as far as story writing goes, I'd class it as just as much a device as anything else.
Of course I don't take any of this personally, I think we're having a rather enjoyable, high-brow discussion here. And don't worry. If you need any missile firepower, you might say I've got a few in hand...
7684343
Something you were very keen on with this comment chain was how it makes no sense physical attraction to occur between beings with vastly different true forms. The answer I gotta give to that is.... What physical attractions? Yes I'm aware this is a factor in a lot of crossover and shipping stories but honestly I don't really see it here. Of all the attractions or interactions I've done that people have taken as romantic, none of the lasting or serious ones were based off physical appearance. The only ones who were like this was Mane-iac getting the hots for Gigan (sorta) and Blade Dancer eyeing up Godzilla Junior. This isn't to say the other potential pairings thought the other was ugly, but there was a clear difference.
Mane-iac to Gigan was written as just lust and as a parody of shipping tropes as the set up was intentionally extremely fast and over weird circumstances. As for Blade Dancer and Junior, it isn't to bash on BD for having some lust of her own for being attracted to Junior's unicorn body; but when she saw him in his true form and was thrown out of the loop it was showing she clearly didn't know what she was getting into. Thus when BD eventually starts feeling some attraction to Xenilla despite having a very good idea of what he actually looked like, it was based off an emotional and intellectual connection between two parties whom had come to respect one another. The same could be said off Luna's interactions with Junior, which only really kicked off after they'd grown past their mistrust of one another and saw how similar they actually were (and I note this is after Luna also saw his true form). Heck, with Aria and X's hook up I made a point for Aria to mentally note he wasn't anything exceptional, they grew in attraction while both out of their natural forms; and for a vast majority of the time they interacted X was covering most of his face.
I might not have been intentionally writing romance for good chunks of this and it just kinda spun off that way for some, but when they were taken for such regardless of if that was my intent or not; I can see them at least making sense because a vast majority of them are on the mental level. Basically while I didn't set out to write a lot of shipping or romance, I didn't think it was too off the wall when it got taken for such since I kept it asexual.
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Let me assure you, every ship in your stories proper are ones I have no issue with. Every lasting relationship was built up over time and developed in what feels like a very natural progression. The only ship that feels off to me is one that seems rushed due to lack of screen time.
Now, the out-of-nowhere ships in the commentaries, on the other hand....
7696412 So I am aware and glad to know. I was just bringing it up to assure you I was aware of the usual pitfall in writing romance and I sought to step around them. More importantly however, I was bringing it up as a point of development. In my original plan, I thought I couldn't write romance worth a damn. I had no faith in my ability to do it so I avoided the idea entirely. Then people started noticing and interpreting two characters as potential romantic couples and I took notice. Eventually it got to the point I decided "What the hay? Might as well give it a go.", and the result seems pretty good so far.
So this is just a remind to try not and get to worked up over the comments. Most of them are just all in good fun and harmless at work, or maybe giving some folks some ideas at best
PS: And I plan to fix the lack of screen time shortly
So what's the point of this fucking story? Just a tons of fucking OCS no one give a shit! I wasted my time reading this!
So the great storyteller downfall is making tons of random shit that no one don't know what the fuck is going on! Which shit is cannon and which is not? And it's too many fucking hints in this story! Cut that shit out already!
The first few read of the bridge is good until it gets "the hell is going on?"
7910860
... I made this as a gift to a friend who lost a close family member you fool. It's called being a decent human being and friend, which you'd have easily known about if you bothered reading the description.
For the hint element, I actually have cut it out but you seem to hate mysteries a lot for someone who has the word mystery in your name.
7684343 If fanfic interspecies stuff upsets you, then I can imagine that King Kong is worse. Or Iris x Ayana, for that matter. Or Komodithrax x Zilla. Kaiju crossing the species boundary is nothing new. Forced ships are no fun, but the whole species thing is relatively minor issue given the history involved.
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King Kong's attraction to humans was a product of the time and beliefs when the original story and movie were produced. It says more about the time then anything else, and was one way.
Iris x Ayana was a parasitic relationship disguised as a symbiotic one. Contrary to what some perverted humans might think, there was nothing sexual about that pairing.
As for Komodithrax x Zilla, that a case of two nominally unique animals (NOT sapient in the context of the show) that were apparently genetically close enough to mate with each other. This happens nature. They would need to be part of the same family t the least, preferably the same Genus if not Species, but it happens.
7916395 Iris and Ayana's relationship isn't romantic, but it smacks of sexual imagery. Regardless of it being an abusive and nasty bond, it's pretty hard to deny that Iris's character has some depraved sexual references. Looking past the obvious part where Iris makes Ayana heat up and take off some clothes before embracing her, there's also Iris's chest piece which is rather yonic, the fact that Iris is presented in context of the plot as a rival to the temple kid who has a crush on Ayana, that Iris's little coupling with her is presented as an exchange of genetic material(causing Iris to evolve), and that Iris spends most of the movie just lusting after Ayana and wanting her to get inside of its chest piece lends itself to a lot of sexual ideas. I would think it harder to argue that Iris doesn't have a kind of abusive and controlling sexual outlook as opposed to the opposite, it's practically a theme of the film for Iris to be a depraved sexual predator preying on her.
Komodithrax and Zilla didn't mate, they just adopted her egg. In essence the opposite of Iris's situation, it's all romantic and non-sexual as opposed to Iris who is all sexual and non-romantic. I would think it to require some kind of romantic sentience for them to make the decision to raise a hatchling together despite Zilla having no responsibility to do so.
50 Likes!
This small story is quite interesting and there is so much potential for it to grow.
Also, a bit of romance would definitely be great!
That was a fun read!
Just the mental image of the last scene made me snicker and gigle for hours
Before I read,
I have a feeling that by the end of this little tale I'll be shouting 'I ship it'.
I SHIP IT!
Can I translate this story into Russian?
8693582
You may, just cite this as the original and credit the people involved (like me as author as Phoenix as owned by FallenAngel).
Say that again and I'll have to put someone in an Aaaaaaaappenooosa!
I hate it when that happens!
This was just so damn sweet. Not much more to say beyond that, just really adorable, and so sweet of her to help Rodan out like that right away.
Very cute. Hope to see more Phoenix in the future.