mcity

I got paid for some prints today.

That makes me officially a professional artist.

I suppose I'd better go change my deviantART status WHOOPS I ALREADY DID.

That said, I did something I regret today. I got a little snippy to someone I shouldn't have, because I was pissed off at myself for making a mistake.

Also, I find myself getting pulled right back in to the Social Justice on Tumblr, when I should be Working on the My Little Pony: Friendship is Magical Girl project I'm on.

You don't need to give them big words, for starters.

I read what's probably an unhealthy amount of fanfic. One of the trends I've noted is the whole smart people=big words thing, even when the character in question does not talk that way in canon. Notably, Twilight Sparkle from My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic.

As far as I can recall, almost every time Twilight appears, even if only for a few seconds, she

1. Learns something.
2. Teaches something.
3. Organizes something.
4. Tries to understand something.
5. Some combination of the above.

The show is remarkably consistent with this. Take "A Friend in Deed", where Twi shows up for about five minutes. She spends all of them reading a book or advising Pinkie Pie. That's 1, 2, and 4. These traits became even more important in Season 2, where Twilight became one of the main cast instead of the main character of the series. And since they couldn't resort to the old glasses+sweatervest=smart symbolism, they were forced to pay special attention to how they wrote Twi, especially since they couldn't have her busting out the big words on a show aimed mostly at kids. I can't really remember how Twilight was characterized in it, but Lilpip of "Fallout: Equestria" similarly shows herself to be a clever and resourceful protagonist by being clever and resourceful.

You know that gag where the smart person says something in technical language, and then the regular folks get others to explain it? MLP's used that gag exactly once in two entire seasons. But fanfic has her using big words all the time.

There is a reason the pollysyllabic genius is rarely the/a primary protagonist. Even Holmes has Watson. One notable exception is Cryptonomicon, which has two really smart guys, WW2 Cryptographer Lawrence Waterhouse and modern day computer guy Randy. Waterhouse is, as his dialogue, actions, and thought processes show, really smart. And more than a little eccentric. He doesn't talk quite the same way as everyone, but is still accessible. Even his contemporary, Marine Cpl. Bobby Shaftoe, is fairly smart himself. Randy is a 90s guy, and he talks just like everyone else unless it gets technical, and so, more or less, do his colleagues. Here's a sample of all three!

Pinkie Holmes by ~u63r on deviantART

I REGRET NOTHING.

Drawn after “Mmmystery on the Friendship Express”.

Note that they specifically acknowledge that they knew Korra would never be gay.

It's also very sad that one's only interest in the show was that one thought it might have a lesbian in it. Or at least an asexual you can pretend is really lesbian. This is just as shallow as someone choosing not to watch a show because it has gay people in it. Heck, I'm a conservative Christian, and my default reaction to gay characters is "ehh", unless it reaches fanfic levels of the new guy being the morally ambiguous bisexual former lover/professional partner of the main character who finds his estranged (also evil) brother and wears a ridiculous coat with no shirt.

And that's why I don't watch Torchwood.

Pinkie Pie's strange abilities, such as breaking the fourth wall and behaving like an archetypical cartoon character, only work when it would be funny.

Which is not the same as your apparent belief that her using them automatically makes things funny.

-J

Disney had Middle Eastern, Native American, Asian, and even Hawaiian lead female characters before they had a Black Disney Princess.

What was that about them not being diverse?

In "The Last Roundup", we finally get to hear "Derpy Hooves". She's klutzy and has a "idiot" voice. More specifically, she has the same type of voice as Ed from "Ed, Edd, and Eddy". She is wildly popular in fandom because of an animation mistake in her eyes, and then fans liked her, giving her the name. This episode had the name confirmed.



Now, of course, some people are saying her portrayal is ableist.

More specifically, the eyes, combined with her "stupid" voice, general klutziness, and now canon-confirmed name resemble a stereotype.

( look, torches and pitchforks )

( spoilers! )

-J

The Law and Order crew were intervening in unrest at my old high school, with Cyrus Lupo, Connie Rubirosa as a cop, and SWAT teams.

I was in it, and was getting harassed by one of those actors who's in everything playing secondary characters. He was the head of the SWAT teams.

He said to his guys that the people you have to watch out for aren't the Michael Westens (Burn Notice), but the The people who are Westen to Westen. Via dream logic, I understood that to mean if Mike's fanboys had their own fanboys. Think the Cutie Mark Crusaders from My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, now imagine they had their own sidekicks. Or imagine these guys had their own imposters.



Heck, I doubt BN's Sugar could lead a Sunday School group through Disneyland. Just imagine what would happen if he started fooling around with automatic weapons. Imagine the narration.

"Look, when you're making an elaborate sting to take down a drug dealer, you need stealth, cunning, and something he wants. He wants drugs. We can use the drugs to get him into, like, a vulnerable position, and BAM! Leave him for the cops."
"Sugar, that's kinda vague."
"So we'll improvise. It always works for Mike!"
"But he's a guy who used to be a spy."
"Look, I know we're not as good as him, but how hard could it be?"
"Are you trying to get us killed?"

Powerpuff the Movie
by *tjota on deviantART

And the sequel.