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[Araph]

Holy shit it's definitely Luna

"CITIZENS OF BALMORA BEWARE!!!!"
"THE DOOMPOCALYPSE IS UPON YOU!"
"HAVE AT THEE, VILE VILLAINS!"
"HA HA! THIRTY POINTS!!!"

She's not just messing around, that's how she talks! 'Ha ha, thirty points'? Mo' like 'Ha ha the fun has been doubled', amirite? 'Have at thee' is totally some old English-ish thing Luna would say. Also, her speech is blue and echo-y.

"Maybe even a bit socially awkward. And kind of loud. No indoor voice."

"Still, she had that forbbiden fruit kind of appeal I just can't resist. Imagine if the big-boobed hot girl had a younger sister. You know you're not supposed to touch her or else she'll beat you up, but you still want to. That was SexyWithers all over."

Loud? Or ROYAL CANTERLOT VOICE?

Older sister->Celestia. Also known as THE PONY IN LORDBUCKET'S AVATAR I MEAN COME ON

Guys, SexyWithers is Gamer Luna.

EDIT:

: "The girl was a borderline lunatic, really."

Heh. Lunatic.

[WillowLuman]

I have to agree with syvarris. At the beginning, Michael's bronyism just seemed like characterization, not a GM promise that "hey guys this is gonna be about ponies." I think you can concede that most us of came here for Morrowind, not ponies. Basically, imagine that you read all the way through Lord of the Rings, only for Invader Zim to come in at the end. You'd feel duped, wouldn't you? Like the entire story was an elaborate setup just to make an Invader Zim reference. It'd be as if the deeper narrative thread you thought was there the whole time turns out to be an appeal to go watch Invader Zim.

Now, there are degrees to this. If the pony theory is true:
-Best case scenario: these characters have pony aspects because they originate from aspects of Michael, and Michael is a huge fanboy.
-Similar to above, but this whole thing is a trippy spiritualistic, introspective coma/fever dream and the pony aspects show up because they're strong in Michael's psyche
-Worst case scenario: this has been entirely about MLP the whole time, and putting Michael in Morrowind was just a means to an end for someone in that franchise.

[Putnam]

I think you might be mildly exaggerating the pony influence? It's still mostly Morrowind.

[Araph]

Basically, imagine that you read all the way through Lord of the Rings, only for Invader Zim to come in at the end.

To be fair, we're reading a forum game in which a random guy from a world very similar to ours is thrown into a video game world that operates in ways that are similar to the actual game, but still very different. Canon has been defiled already, and whether or not there are ponies as players, internal consistency is still, well, consistent. The only other data point we have is Michael's insertion into the world, which means no matter what happens next it still forms a straight line on the internal-consistency-graph.

Also, it's LordBucket's game, so he can kinda do whatever he wants with it. We're trying to draw conclusions from what's happened, and this is just the theory that fits nearly perfectly with what's happened.

I think you might be mildly exaggerating the pony influence? It's still mostly Morrowind.

That's very possible, but from what I've seen, every possible PC we've met has corresponded nearly exactly with a character from MLP. Combine that with the fact that one of Michael's first characterizations was that he's a brony and how LordBucket has explicitly said that he's planned something out that is internally consistent starting from the beginning AND that he's said we've missed things, it makes me feel the theory holds water.


EDIT: Also, sorry if I'm getting really vocal and obnoxious. If I am, let me know and I'll stop it. I just got really excited over the prospect of solving plot puzzles, whether or not they're dependent on harebrained theories.

[gman8181]

I'm not a fan if mlp but I don't understand what the big deal is. LB put in massive amounts of time to put together this forum game and he doesn't exactly get anything out of it.

Not to mention he had delivered on the Morrowind aspect. Who cares if he introduces a bit of something else be enjoys into it?

[WillowLuman]

I think you might be mildly exaggerating the pony influence? It's still mostly Morrowind.

Indeed. All I'm saying is, it would be disappointing if the theory was true, and I was outlining scenarios from least disappointing to most disappointing (the best case one wouldn't be too bad, actually). I'm not trying to change the story, I'm just saying I'd be disappointed.

Best case (least disappointing) IF the theory is true would be the resemblence being due to some aspect of Michael being represented in these characters. Worst case (most dissapointing) would be if it turns out this whole thing was machinated by a MLP character. That would be the worst because it would mean the Morrowind aspect gets entirely subsumed by the MLP.

Not saying it's internally inconsistent either, but if it's about ponies, the evidence at the start is only obvious in hindsight so it's not fair to say we should have known going in. And I think the biggest cause of vehement objection to the pony theory is fear that it's the second scenario. Though I think LB is a better writer than that.

[LordBucket]

it's LordBucket's game, so he can kinda do whatever he wants with it.

No. I'm just the GM. I'm responsible for the world. It's up to you guys what you do with it.

[Baffler]

I may have misspoken. I'm not eloquent enough to put it into words myself, at least not without ending up saying something else entirely, but I just think it would be disappointing for a Morrowind LP with a great story to suddenly morph into something very different. It would be like finding out at the very end of Game of Thrones that Darth Vader was somehow pulling all of the strings.

[LordBucket]

It would be like finding out at the very end of Game of Thrones that Darth Vader was somehow pulling all of the strings.

Reread Conversations With Vivec.

Compare and contrast what Vivec said with what Divayth and Yagrum said.

Consider the implications.

[WillowLuman]

I may have misspoken. I'm not eloquent enough to put it into words myself, at least not without ending up saying something else entirely, but I just think it would be disappointing for a Morrowind LP with a great story to suddenly morph into something very different. It would be like finding out at the very end of Game of Thrones that Darth Vader was somehow pulling all of the strings.

A better way to say would be after finding out that the Game of Thrones world has been a planet in Star Wars the whole time, you look back and see clues that are completely obvious in hindsight. It doesn't make it any less jarring, simply because the premise you thought you knew and knew you loved has been consumed by something else.

In retrospect, I think someone is indeed pulling strings, but the most obvious candidate would be Azura. She seems to have much more of an influence in this world than usual. Of course, that might be too obvious.

Bear in mind the ponies theory can be correct without literally meaning that MLP canon is directly involved. As per the original wording of the theory, they may simply be patterned on MLP characters, rather than due to those characters themselves playing Morrowind. As I said, this may be a product of whatever metaphysical process put Michael here in the first place.

Looking over the evidence, another possiblity arises: this world might in fact revolve around Michael. Not in the sense that he's the most important person to culture or geopolitics, but metaphysically, with lots of emphasis on the "Meta". Most of this evidence comes from Vivec. From his point of view, Michael literally came into existence at the start of the narration, just to enter this game. But he also implied the converse:

: "What about the Ministry of Truth?"

: "I'm not holding it up. From my point of view, it's been hovering a couple hundred feet from the ground for the entire history of the universe."

This implies that, from Vivec's point of view, this world came into being (with all the history presumably forming retroactively) around the same time, just so Michael could enter it and be the protagonist of this forum game.

Furthermore (and remember that we only have a single data point for this one), it's still possible that Michael's death resets the world. LB never explicitly denied it, just cautioned us to avoid dying since the implications of other possibilities of what could happen upon our death are horrific. And I'm not eager to get us killed again. But it is a possibility.

[GlyphGryph]

If awesome and wolfy are not around, find more out about our new friend, and if he seems potentially useful, ask him if he'd be interested accompanying us on an adventure.

[WillowLuman]

BTW, I fully support maintaining cordial relations with as many people as feasible. Something just always seems to push us to sociopathic pragmatism.

[LordBucket]

GM Comment:
Yes, let's get some action votes in. Anyone else have suggestions? I'd be willing to start the next episode tonight, but just glancing over bolded comments from the past few pages, the current count looks to be roughly:

(3) Talk to people you don't know where they are
(2) Make inquiries around Seyda Neen
(2) Hang out with Draren
(1) Go grind skills
(1) Go to Pelagiad
(1) Go to Bella Manor

[WillowLuman]

Well, chances are our friends are still hanging around Seyda Neen, or at least people who know where they headed/what happened are still here. So let's take care of business around Seyda Neen before we go anywhere else.

[IronyOwl]

Inquire at people far braver than we were
Grind crabs
Chat with Draren

In roughly that order.

In particular, I'd like to find out what Draren does for a living. He's presumably just some common laborer or peasant, but what exactly does that entail?

In any case, I approve of encouraging him to better himself, on us or otherwise. If he's interested I'd totally be down for having him come harass slaughterfish with us.

I have to agree with syvarris. At the beginning, Michael's bronyism just seemed like characterization, not a GM promise that "hey guys this is gonna be about ponies." I think you can concede that most us of came here for Morrowind, not ponies. Basically, imagine that you read all the way through Lord of the Rings, only for Invader Zim to come in at the end. You'd feel duped, wouldn't you? Like the entire story was an elaborate setup just to make an Invader Zim reference. It'd be as if the deeper narrative thread you thought was there the whole time turns out to be an appeal to go watch Invader Zim.

I may have misspoken. I'm not eloquent enough to put it into words myself, at least not without ending up saying something else entirely, but I just think it would be disappointing for a Morrowind LP with a great story to suddenly morph into something very different. It would be like finding out at the very end of Game of Thrones that Darth Vader was somehow pulling all of the strings.

A better way to say would be after finding out that the Game of Thrones world has been a planet in Star Wars the whole time, you look back and see clues that are completely obvious in hindsight. It doesn't make it any less jarring, simply because the premise you thought you knew and knew you loved has been consumed by something else.

I'm with Putnam in not really getting all this. If I start reading a Star Wars novel and a Lannister shows up halfway through, I'm not likely to feel cheated and betrayed. Even if it turns out to be Emperor Lannister who's working on a planet-sized Voltron rather than a Death Star, I'm not sure why I'd mind unless the transition was extreme or poorly done. If Azura turns out to be an incarnation of Luna, would that somehow invalidate all of Morrowind and all the Morrowinding we've done so far? If the Nerevarine is ponies, would you say this has all been for naught?

This implies that, from Vivec's point of view, this world came into being (with all the history presumably forming retroactively) around the same time, just so Michael could enter it and be the protagonist of this forum game.

Furthermore (and remember that we only have a single data point for this one), it's still possible that Michael's death resets the world. LB never explicitly denied it, just cautioned us to avoid dying since the implications of other possibilities of what could happen upon our death are horrific. And I'm not eager to get us killed again. But it is a possibility.

I don't see how it could have reset, though, because we were still doing roughly what we were doing at the time. What parts of it would be "resetting" exactly? Not us, or the people around us, or the things we've done, as far as we can tell. Nor anything we've noticed, not that we've noticed a ton.