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[Armok]

... and suddenly the bay12 community seems almost as awesome as it was 2 years ago.

Also made another one of these:

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

[Sordid]

FOR !!SCIENCE!!

On a slightly related note, anyone else bothered by some of the bullshit that seems to creep into the show? Like genuinely psychic Pinkie, Fluttershy using aroma therapy, etc?

[GlyphGryph]

Well, this IS a world where magic is real and its up to the civilized people to physically change the seasons.

But yeah, it does bother me a bit sometimes.

[Sowelu]

FOR !!SCIENCE!!

On a slightly related note, anyone else bothered by some of the bullshit that seems to creep into the show? Like genuinely psychic Pinkie, Fluttershy using aroma therapy, etc?

Oh, the whole psychic thing plus THE MAGIC OF FAITH AND BELIEF has been hashed over waaaaaaaaaay to death on the internet already.  Pinkie was always a little 'special' though.  I mean hell, she throws a successful surprise party for Twilight the instant she first sees her (successful for everyone but Twilight, but hey).

You're also dealing with a pegasus unicorn that raises the sun and moon, a factory that makes clouds and rainbows, a pegasus that can break the sound barrier, quite a few critters that can be defeated by music, poison plants that apparently have sentient magic, and any of a thousand other things.

Yeah Pinkie is a little bit OP, but eh, giving her a superpower isn't entirely out of line.  I mean, basically everyone on the main team except for Applejack and /maybe/ Rarity are already god tier, why not give poor earth pony Pinkie something awesome?  She kinda needs it to keep up, and with the mass quantity of weird stuff she knows that she doesn't have any right to, I figure that her weird psychic twitches can be used to explain an awful lot.

[Sordid]

I wouldn't mind it so much if it was used that way, but is isn't. It never came up before that or since, it was a throwaway plot device only used once with the express purpose of hammering home the message that "just because there's no evidence doesn't mean it's not real, you have to choose to believe in it". That's just a pure bullshit line that's only used by those who peddle bullshit, as evidenced by the fact that they chose something that's not real to illustrate it!

Also, Applejack is a goddamn hay-chewing, apple-bucking, freckle-cheeked, southern-accented goddess and I don't care what anyone says.

[Jackrabbit]

Hey, the way I see it, it's a devious idea. Kids will see useless medical alternatives and psychics in the same context as magic and unicorns and flying ponies. They'll grow up wishing it was real, but it'll be reinforced in their mind that it's not. Thanks, MLP!

[Sowelu]

Not quite the same.  Just because you can't EXPLAIN it doesn't mean it doesn't exist.  There was evidence all over the place; Twilight just didn't want to look outside her worldview at all.  The message that kids would pick up on is "Keep an open mind, and don't dismiss things that are actually happening out of hand just because they don't mesh with your preconceptions".

But now we're getting that argument in my thread, and seriously, it really is beat to death.  So I probably shouldn't go there.  :X

[Jackrabbit]

Yeah, good point. And I was going to continue but you're right, this really is a dead end argument.

[Aqizzar]

Also, Applejack is a goddamn hay-chewing, apple-bucking, freckle-cheeked, southern-accented goddess and I don't care what anyone says.

Preach it.  The accents and writing are great, I love hearing anything she has to say because it's always just so corny.  Ditto when she starts arguing with Rainbow, since they're voiced by the same person.

[Sowelu]

Pinkie Pie and Fluttershy are a single VA, too, IIRC.

[Sordid]

Not quite the same.  Just because you can't EXPLAIN it doesn't mean it doesn't exist.  There was evidence all over the place; Twilight just didn't want to look outside her worldview at all.  The message that kids would pick up on is "Keep an open mind, and don't dismiss things that are actually happening out of hand just because they don't mesh with your preconceptions".

But now we're getting that argument in my thread, and seriously, it really is beat to death.  So I probably shouldn't go there.  :X

Yeah, pointless.
I still wish they'd used something that's actually real to illustrate that point, though. The problem with it is that the evidence does exist only in the cartoon, not in real life, and it's not like Twilight applied any form of critical thinking to it even in that context. If you listen to the letter to the princess she dictates at the end, it basically translates to "you can believe whatever you want, and if anyone points out that it's nonsense here's a handy way you can dismiss them", which is exactly how the whole "just because you can't explain it doesn't mean it's not real" line gets used in reality by people who believe in nonsense. It's promoting woo and ways of thinking that lead to believing in woo, that's what it is. Just bugs me.
But yeah, let's leave it.

Also, Applejack is a goddamn hay-chewing, apple-bucking, freckle-cheeked, southern-accented goddess and I don't care what anyone says.

Preach it.  The accents and writing are great, I love hearing anything she has to say because it's always just so corny.  Ditto when she starts arguing with Rainbow, since they're voiced by the same person.

On a tangentially related note, if anyone can think of an Applejack scene that would make a good animated avatar, please tell me. I used Rainbow because the scene makes for a good animated loop, but I prefer Applejack, plus I keep confusing my own posts with Sowelu's because of it.

[Fayrik]

On a tangentially related note, if anyone can think of an Applejack scene that would make a good animated avatar, please tell me. I used Rainbow because the scene makes for a good animated loop, but I prefer Applejack, plus I keep confusing my own posts with Sowelu's because of it.

Same.

Surely there's quite a few good shots of her kicking apple trees, would that not be good?
...That, or I'd have a still of her tucking that tree into bed.

[dragonshardz]

There's one of AJ going "wooooOOooooOOOooo" somewhere on Ponychan. Ask there and the'll deliver.

[Armok]

FOR !!SCIENCE!!

YES! I've passed the great test of character design where you can figure out the characters personality from the looks!

###

I'd love to join the pinkie keen debate, but I haven't actually watched that far yet. I'd just like to inject two things thou:
Given the many properties of an Eutopia that Equestria has, it's very likely that it has others as well, such as game type balancing. My theory is that earth ponies are given COGNITIVE powers, such as pinkie keen. Applejacks is probably related to coordination and agility.

Also, we here have an enormous amount of extremely strong and general evidence that excludes huge areas of hypothesis space. This is the STRONGLY DOMINANT reason you shouldn't believe certain kinds of things even if someone you trust sincerely tells you to. Things like "physical laws don't have exceptions, no exceptions", "¨there are no irreducibly mental (=supernatural) phenomena", "Due to huge flaws in the way human brains work, billions of people CAN be wrong, and frequently are. You can't even trust your own brain.". We have no reason to belive Equestria and ponykind have similar overriding principles.

[Silfurdreki]

What's this? You people start an interesting discussion, and decide to end it while I'm asleep. That's just unfair.

Anyway, for the record, that episode bothered me a bit too. Not specifically that Twilight finally believes in Pinkie's twitch predictions, that's perfectly reasonable in a setting where the the seasons are changed by magic, the weather is made in a factory in a city made of clods and the sun and moon are raised each day by quite real and alive ponies. the thing that did bother me is Twilight's letter to Celestia in that episode, with the whole 'Sometimes you just have to have faith' thing that's already been noted.

On a tangentially related note, if anyone can think of an Applejack scene that would make a good animated avatar, please tell me. I used Rainbow because the scene makes for a good animated loop, but I prefer Applejack, plus I keep confusing my own posts with Sowelu's because of it.

There's one time (I think in the Trixie episode) where AJ does some lasso tricks that might work as an avatar.