#fluttershy sweep

[doodle-dragons]

finally finished my mane six redesigns! ive been toying around with these for ages now. height comparison and design notes under the cut!

earth ponies are naturally stocky, with tough hooves covered only partially by their fetlocks. very strong tails which they can use to sweep or whack things. their snouts dont curve like other ponies

pegasi are typically lithe, with hollow bones. their coats are thicker than other ponies, designed to keep them warm at high altitudes. their hooves are covered by a thin layer of velvet to keep them protected during flying. they also have excellent hearing! hence their longer ears

unicorns are considered graceful and beautiful. they have cloven hooves, and long fetlocks. their hair tends to be wavy. their have long tails that serve only for aesthetics. they have shorter, more smooth snouts. they also, regardless of gender, have beards!

each of the pony races have a "heart mark" on their back left hoof, which first appears as a simple heart at birth, and later changes to match their cutie mark more closely

applejack; her tail is kept short to avoid it getting in the way of work. the green in her mane comes from her pear blood. her cutie mark is meant to look like a quilt piece. similarly, her handkerchief is filled with references to her family and loved ones. lastly, her hat has stitching of a gem and a heart

fluttershy; i gave her a very deer like appearance, and markings on her wings to resemble birds. her ears are a bit longer, to resemble a bunny! she has small wings that are really only good for gliding. shes part unicorn (idk i just thought itd be cute if one of her parents was a unicorn) she used to keep her mane long but rarity was horrified by how many twigs and leaves she picked up, so she convinced shy to cut it. she quite likes it!

pinkie pie; PIEBALD PINKIE. gave her blue stripes to bring cotton candy to mind. her design is very asymmetrical which just feels very pinkie! even her eyes, they heterochromatic. the left being blue, and the right yellow. she keeps her hair up most of the time so it doesnt get in her way (during baking, party planning, baby sitting, ect) ALSO FAT PINKIE RIGHTS

rainbow dash; i wanted her coat to resemble the sky, hence the markings on her legs. her mane and tail are kept short to keep them out of her way. she is rarely seen without googles, as she wears them when she flys to protect her eyes

rarity; FAT RARITY RIGHTS. ahem. her eyes are green (small play on being green with envy) and she has poor eyesight, so she wears her glasses regularly. honestly, hers is pretty simple but i wanted it to be elegant, and beautiful

twilight sparkle; her design more closely resembles the sky at twilight now. deep purple fading into golden yellow. i had to keep her pink, but swapped purple in her hair for yellow cause the rainbow power ups got One thing right (also lends more cohesion to her design) becoming an alicorn granted star markings across her coat, which you can see constellations in! (only two but.. shush) i also changed her hair to resemble equestria girl's scitwi more. its just a cute look

[tubapun]

Was thinking of doing a "who's the most butch?" thing with the Mane 6, but I realized there'd be too much of a sweep, so how about a more challenging version of that concept?

Setting for a week for max discourse

Link to the other butch pony poll

[shapes-23]

Mane 6 + Spike ranked by in show popularity contest.

7. Fluttershy - Blasphemy I know, but when you keep to yourself in a small cottage by the woods your not exactly the most famous person in the world.

6. Applejack - The apple family ALONE boosts her above fluttershy, seriously they're everywhere.

5. Rarity - I know she's a famous fashion designer but like, how many of you know who Vivian Westwood is? Exactly. Fashion people will know but others won't really care.

4. Rainbow Dash - Famous athlete, legit the fastest pegasus, her popularity will be akin someone like Lionel Messi or Usain Bolt.

3. Twilight Sparkle - Princess of Equestria. Genuine royalty, the reason she's not first is because she's still quite anti social, she's kind, welcoming, and polite, but she'll probably prefer being left alone more then anything else.

2. Spike - Sleeper Pick I swear I'm not bullshitting, Spike will probably have the votes of The Crystal empire, The Dragons and The Changelings that's a whole empire and TWO FUCKING SPECIES.

1. Pinkie Pie - ...It's Pinkie Pie. She sweeps.

...I'm probs very wrong roast me in the comments or something idk

[rarilight]

And They Were Roommates

Ficlet for @pr3x inspired by @punkitt-is-here wonderfully hilarious Sigma Mare Rainbow Dash's comics.

___

In Rainbow Dash’s humble opinion, it was very cool for Fluttershy that they were now roommates. Sure, it sucked that the cottage was under renovation due to some freak firestorm, but until that was fixed, Rainbow was determined to make sure her dear friend lived the GOOD life. 

We probably need more furniture, Fluttershy had suggested, which Rainbow didn’t understand—what else would you need besides a fridge, a sleeping bag, a chair, and a TV—but she wasn’t about to say no to her friend. 

Taking on the task of finding furniture while Fluttershy did the sweeping she insisted on doing, Rainbow Dash took off into town and came back thirty minutes later with the mother of all sweet hauls. 

“Hey, Shy, check this out!” she exclaimed excitedly, slamming open her door and dragging in her loot. “We’re set for life!”

Fluttershy flew in from the kitchen, delighted. “Oh! Let me see.”

And see she would, as Rainbow proudly dragged in: 

Four milk crates of varying sizes

Several cinderblocks with 2x4 plank shelving

A standing lamp that was all twisted in a super cool way

A big plastic table that had the SICKEST graffiti on it

And that was it

“Oh,” said Fluttershy. 

“Right?!” Rainbow exclaimed, slamming a hoof on her new table. “Can you believe all this shit was FREE? They were, like, outside this house and stuff!” She puffed up her chest. “We’re lucky I saw them before some bozo took them first, huh?”

Fluttershy didn’t say anything and just stared at her new furniture, probably overwhelmed by how awesome it was. Which was great, because Rainbow loved making Fluttershy happy. 

“Where should we put these?” Rainbow asked, wanting to include Fluttershy in the process. Mi casa es tu casa stuff and all, you know? She gestured to the table. “Let’s figure that out first.”

Fluttershy gingerly approached the graffiti’d table, inspecting it before focusing in on something written in the center. 

“Uhm,” she said, softly. She looked to Rainbow. “That’s a bad word.”

Rainbow blinked. Looked at the word. Back to Fluttershy. “That’s a bad word?”

“Uhm, yes,” Fluttershy said. “A really bad word.”

Ah, fuck, Rainbow thought. 

“Uuuuuuuh…” she said, calm and collected because she was calm and collected. 

She could still save this. Right. She just had to THINK, which she was really good at. Okay. The other day when they were at Rarity’s house, Rarity’s table had this long stretchy tablecloth in the center going from one side to the other, length-wise. Rainbow thought it was stupid because it was, like, fifteen inches wide so it didn’t cover the entire table, but Fluttershy said it was nice. 

So she needed something like that. 

And then it hit her. She had one.

“Wait, I’ll be back!”

She rushed into her room and came back with something she bought once that happened to kinda work like that. Colored like the rainbow, it was called a ‘Runner’ and she’d bought it at the store to help her run. It didn’t, though, and she couldn’t return it, so she stashed it in a box in her closet. 

But, now, finally, it had a use. 

Quickly, she placed it on the table and was stoked to see it perfectly covered the bad word, even if it looked just as stupid as Rarity’s. 

“There!” she exclaimed, hopeful. “Better?”

Fluttershy nodded, pleased. “Oh, yes. That works for now.”

Nailed it, Rainbow thought, pumping her hoof in the air while Fluttershy went to one of Rainbow’s Boxes of Stuff. 

“Maybe there’s something here we can put as a centerpiece,” Fluttershy suggested. She opened the box, stared at it for a moment, and then pulled out a nail gun. “What’s this for?”

Rainbow snorted. Wasn’t it obvious? 

“To hang posters, duh.”

“O-Oh, dear.”

____

[brideofdiscord-rewritten]

Bride of Discord Chapter 6: The Decision

the next day, now the beginning of the next month Kimono knocked quietly at the door of the hut. The gentle roll of her hoof on the oak door gave way to the clinks of hanging metal decorum and the rattles of wood hanging next to the shiny wind chimes. There was the audible announcement of her dear friend. The door opened, notably without creaking.

"Kimono dear, please, come in! Sit down with me and let's begin."

The pony loved her peaceful greetings. "Thank you very much for inviting me here. I'm sure that you can give me all the facts without bias, from outside of ponyville."

"In that case, please be wary, what I will tell you is quite scary! Discord has angered me too, so unbiased fact I cannot give you!"

Kimono snorted. "If I get caught with fake news you're coming down with me!"

"no my friend, you're sorely mistaken! If you are caught I won't be Forsaken!"

"YOURE COMPLICIT! THERE CAN BE NO WITNESSES!"

They howled in laughter as they pretended to square up, before they stopped only because zecora nearly knocked down a jar of roots.

"Ive known the week's chaos as the product of discord's reign throughout equestria from letters. I wrote much down whilst touring ponyville. But I have no idea what happened at the canterlot castle, nor do I know what is happening in this forest."

Zecora spoke slowly, so as to give the pony across from her time to write it all down for the archives. kimono was the keeper of all pony history, and did her best to upkeep her reputation as the mare to go to for knowledge. Zecora looked on as she scrunched her face, stuck her tongue out, and attempted to focus and knew she could be a pony that learns around her. They were mutualists and learned from each other.

Her train of speech of interrupted with Kimono's questions.

"and what of his demands?"

Zecora tensed and scratched her chin. "A bride he demands, as well as land. His next demand is awfully unique. They can't use the elements to defend the meek."

Kimono sipped her Rooibos mango tea.

"and what would he want- in a PLOTTING manner, with a bride?"

"A "plotting manner" is precisely the issue, to hurt his bride I don't think he'd wish to. Perhaps it's love the creature seeks? I don't know, to me he won't speak."

"it has to be somepony... Somepony who can handle prolonged isolation."

"Applejack sent a letter a while back, saying that fluttershy's about to crack. She considers marrying the draconequus. Apple's trying to disparage this wish."

Kimono frowned, her eyebrows screwing up into a sympathetic expression. "Maybe fluttershy thinks it'll bring her purpose. When ponies make big decisions such as this, a sense of inferiority or insignificance is the root cause."

"if that's where the decision resides, she should know she's made great strides."

"Let's send her a letter, I will help you!"

Another 30 minutes passed and betwixt tea, parchment, and ink the ponies sent Fluttershy a letter of comfort and as much advice as they could give. Zecora advised Kimono to sweep the path leading up to where she lived, for fear of evil forces affecting her. Of course, not before sweeping her own porch and blowing up on it cinnamon from her hoof.

"Applejack, some pony has to go with him. What choice do I have?"

"There are plenty of ponies in Equestria! It doesn't have to be you!"

"But how many do you think would be willing to go?"

"I…well…"

"This is my choice, Applejack. I can take care of myself."

"I know you can, Sugar Cube. I've seen you face up to a manticore and a full-grown dragon. But Discord…" She sighed. "Look, I just don't want you to get hurt, and I know the others don't wanna lose you to that…"

"If I don't go, no one will. The sun will never be in your pastures again!"

Applejack stared up at her friend with blurry eyes and then hung her head. "I can't stop you shug. I want'cha to be happy with the rest of your life, y'know."

"I can be happy this way applejack." The mare lifted her friend's head with her gentle hoof, caressing her Cheech as gently as she could while a small tear soaked into her coat.

"Just…promise me you'll write. And even if he don't let ya see the letters, just know I'll still be writin' em."

The cold and unyielding castle they housed felt warmer.

Fluttershy embraced her friend. "I knew you'd understand, Applejack." When she pulled away, she smiled smugly. "So what's this with you and rainbow? You've both been going to Rarity's more often!" The farm pony bolted upright

Applejack turned beet, (or rather apple,) red. "It ain't nothin'! Really! It's just an idea!"

"What would THAT be, applejack?"

"Rarity really likes us both real bad, but she dont wanna date just one mare. It's this poly-whatsit thing..." her very ears seemed to flush red. "Me and dash ain't dating, but we're both... goin steady with Rarity. It's kinda embarrassin'. Ya can't tell any pony, ya hear?"

Fluttershy giggled. She squealed in awe "Cross my heart and hope to fly, stick a cupcake in my eye! You're just like a filly again!"

Applejack nudged her shoulders.

Fluttershy said nothing and headed towards her room. Applejack caught up with her before she could close the door.

"Fluttershy," she called, "whatever you choose, I just want you to know…"

She turned to her. "Yes?"

"You…you just might be the bravest pony I've ever known."

Fluttershy smiled, knowing that it was always the truth with her. "That really means a lot to me, Applejack."

That night, she slept lightly, slumped over a large circular pillow, and a small parchment wrapped in her hooves. of, and the words that her friends had written: "He may not be an angel from above,but perhaps what he needa is love" The words soothed her. The more she thought about it, the less worried she was. She was scared, but never terrified. She liked to think it was all true. Discord is an animal just like her, so he surely has a heart, doesn't he? And hearts are the symbols of love.

Twilight gazed out her window. The sun hadn't risen in the week leading up to this month. The moon seemed to fly away from the earth. There was nothing left amongst the clouds. There was nothing. This was the before, the dreamscape.

A cry from Rainbow Dash interrupted her thoughts. "YO EVERYONE! Twilight! You'se not gonna believe it!"

"What is it?" the princess demanded.

"It's Fluttershy, she's gone! She freakin' did it!!"

Twilight didn't waste a second and followed the pegasus to Fluttershy's room. Rarity, Pinkie, Applejack and Spike surrounded the empty bed. The dragon held a note in his claws. The unicorn removed it with her magic and read it aloud:

"Dear Fluttershy,

Do not let the needs of the few outweigh the needs of self. In turn, the needs of your mind being filled will save everyone who matters. Go to the draconequus, if it's truly what you wish. He's not be an angel from above, but perhaps what he needs is love."

Every pony turned suspiciously towards Applejack, who bore the expression of a foal who'd eaten a lemon for the first time.

The cowgirl stomped her hoof. "She did it! She gone and did it! I tried to talk her out of it, I really did! She made me Pinkie Promise not to say nothin' before she did it!"

"Calm down, Applejack. What happened?"

What would've been daybreak. The sun should've illuminated the foggy dew kissing the plants that reached towards the great pink-orange heavens. Instead, there was what only looked like night.

She took a deep breath and looked up at them with tears in her eyes.

"Hello?" she called out weakly. "Anyone home?"

Fluttershy stood at the cave entrance. A part of her was telling her to turn back, but another was telling her to go in. She had to do this for her friends, for the princesses, for Equestria. She inhaled deeply and walked in.

It was dark, but that's not what frightened her. She had the feeling that he was going to jump out at any moment. Stop it, Fluttershy, she told herself. You need to be brave.

"Well, well, well."

She yelped in surprise and spun around to find the draconequus standing over her.

"If it isn't the Element of Kindness herself? How nice of you to drop in!"

Suddenly, the ground beneath her disappeared and Fluttershy screamed as she fell through a hole. She landed with a thump and looked around to find that she had landed in the same spot that she had fallen.

"How did…?" she stammered.

Discord laughed maniacally. "Oh, that was priceless!" He wiped away a tear. "So what brings you here, horsey? Come to negotiate some more?"

Fluttershy struggled to stand, as her knees were shaking. "Well, I have come to negotiate something…" the term "horsey" made her blood boil.

"Strange that Twilight would send you to try to reason with me. Well, you can tell your precious princess that I will only take a bride and that's final!"

"And a bride you shall have!"

Discord stared at her, shocked at her sudden outburst. "Is that so? Well, where is the lucky mare?" His outfit appeared as that of a game show host.

Her teeth started chattering. "R-right…h-here."

He blinked. "Say again?"

Fluttershy closed her eyes and straightened up. "I will be your bride."

For a long while, there was silence and she opened her eyes to see his face full of confusion. Then he erupted into a roar of laughter.

"Oh, I get it! This is a joke, right? Alright, who put you up to this? Twilight? Maybe that prankster Pinkie Pie?" She did not respond. "Rainbow Dash?"

"They…don't even know I'm here. Well, they should by now. I left them a note."

"Why would you leave them a…? Nevermind!" Buzzers and Foghorns pelted her ears. Flashing colorful neon lights and confetti brightened up the scenery.

He would have never expected her, the pegasus afraid of her own shadow, to accept his offer. Actually, he was beginning to think no pony would come forth at all.

"And no pony put you up to this?"

She shook her head. "This was my decision. But…" She backed away nervously. "If you'd rather have some pony else…"

"Now hold on!" She jumped as he appeared behind her. "I didn't say I wasn't interested."

He circled her, studying her carefully from every angle. Comedically, of course; with an oversized magnifying glass he examined her like a crime scene. He'd never stand there and check her out like a pervert. He lifted the mare's hoof and studied her well kempt horseshoes. Her hooves, which had been through so much for years, perfect because of this hunk of metal.

"hey now, where'd you get that made? And does it come in more sizes?" He popped off his hoof and showed her the size 13 mens' label.

Discord had to admit, for a pony, she wasn't that bad to look at. Her silky pink mane was well-groomed and smelled of honeysuckle, her big teal eyes, though closed now, were almost adorable, and her voice was sweet as honey. This must have been a trick of some sort. There was no way this pony could have come out of her own free will, but he knew she wasn't a trickster. Besides, when was he going to get another chance to do this!

He poofed a giant boom box now held above his head as he stood there, in a white snapback, open white button up shirt, and baggy white pants. The boom box blasted throughout the air, making the nearby corvids fly away in sheer awe of the smooth R&B caressing their pathetic bird lives.

"You'll do," he said with indifference. "But are you certain this is what you want, my dear?"

°°I vow, To never call you out your name

I vow, To treat you as me the same°°

Fluttershy looked up at him boldly. "If I were to go with you, you will keep your promise and let the princesses go?"

"My dear," he said with a bow, "you have my word."

°I vow, To cover that with love actions and words

I vow, To talk to you sincerely°

"And…my friends?"

"Will never hear from me again."

She gulped. "Nor me?"

He stooped down to her, his face just inches from hers. "Of course they can talk to you! It's just that I would have to send you back, and that's against our agreement! So, letters will have to do. Don't you want your every need catered to?"

°°To bow down at your feet, Not to worship you as a God, But as a queen°°

"Catered to my every need?"

"If we are to be married, what's mine is yours. If it is in my power, I shall give you whatever you desire. Call it a prenup."

She could not tell if he was serious. Being offered whatever she desired did sound tempting, but why would he do that for her? Perhaps Zecora and Kimono were right. Maybe he was desperate for a companion.

Seeing that he was getting to her, he placed his hands on her shoulders. "So what'll it be, my dear?"

It didn't matter. Equestria needed the princesses returned. She breathed in.

"I'll marry you."

"Excellent!" He leapt excitedly into the air.

"Now where are the princesses?"

Instead of answering, he smirked. "Why don't we make it official?"

He snapped his fingers and a box materialized in his paw. He opened it to reveal a sparkling diamond ring. Intricately carved within it was words.

"Oh dear," Fluttershy muttered.

He chuckled. "I'll ask again. Will you marry me, my dear Fluttershy?"

"Fluttershy, don't!"

The pegasus turned to see Twilight racing towards them, the others running behind. The song

°Me and you Against the world, No matter what comes up before us baby-° the music abruptly stopped.

"DUDE I THOUGHT YOU WERE JOKING!" Rainbow shook fluttershy. Applejack carried dash to the ground and kept her as close as possible.

Discord stopped them all with his magic. "Do you mind? I'm in the middle of a proposal here!"

"Put them down!" Fluttershy begged. "Please, just let me say goodbye to them!"

He rolled his eyes and released them from his spell. Fluttershy rushed to Twilight's side.

"you shouldn't have come after me, I'm grown! I know what I'm doing!"

"We couldn't let you go with him!" the unicorn bellowed, pointing accusingly at the draconequus.

"You don't understand. I have to do this."

"No, you don't! There has to be another way!"

"If I don't do this, Equestria's doomed for all eternity. I'll be doomed! This is the safest option."

"But do you have any idea what this monster might do to you?!" Pinkie shouted, "he might just lock you in a tower!

"Now, THATS A harmful stereotype-"

"No pony chooses my fate but me."

"Fluttershy," Rarity pleaded, "you can't possibly marry this…beast!"

Discord dramatically clutched his pearls.

"I'm sorry, but this is my decision."

"But Fluttershy," Pinkie sniffed. "We'll never see you again."

She looked at her friends sadly. "I know."

"We'll find another way to get the princesses back!" Twilight insisted. "I'll even go in your place! We'll…"

"She's right!" Applejack interrupted. They all turned to her in shock. "Fluttershy's the only pony in control of her destiny. If her decision is to save Equestria, we should respect that decision." She walked up to her friend. "You take care of yourself, ya hear?"

Fluttershy nodded and embraced the earth pony. "Make sure my animals get everything they need."

"Of course, Sugar Cube."

"Fluttershy," Rainbow started to say as she flew down to her. "You can't…you won't…"

She hugged her childhood friend. "You stood up for me so many times. Now I can return the favor."

She hovered over to Rarity. "You can keep my clothes, if you like."

The unicorn was astonished. "Darling, you can't expect me to…" She stopped as she too received a hug. "Don't be silly. I'll send them over."

Fluttershy then turned to the pink earth pony. "Pinkie Pie, I…"

Pinkie let out a wail and flung her hooves around her neck. "Don't forget us, okay? I mean even if you'll never see us again, don't forget our names! I mean it's easy to forget a pony's name after not seeing them for a while and…"

"I won't forget you, Pinkie."

She sniffed and hugged tighter. "I know."

Once Pinkie had loosened her grip, Fluttershy turned to Spike. Before she could say anything, he wrapped his arms around her legs with a whine. She then looked up at Twilight, who was on the verge of tears.

"I'll be fine," she assured her. "I promise."

How can you possibly keep that promise?" the unicorn choked.

"You know how good I am with creatures." The rest she said in a whisper. "I think I can tame him."

"But…but…"

"For equestria."

She nodded and embraced her. Discord was about ready to gag.

"Hello?" he called, waving the ring box. "Waiting for an answer here!"

Fluttershy pulled away from her friends and courageously faced the draconequus. She stuck out her hoof and uttered, "Yes, I'll do it."

Discord smiled in triumph as he zapped the box away. The ring then reappeared on a chain around Fluttershy's neck. The draconequus cackled as he scooped his bride-to-be in his arms. The ponies watched in horror.

"If you hurt a hair on her head…!" Rainbow warned.

"I assure you, she won't be harmed. Now, if you'll excuse us, we have a wedding to plan!"

With a final triumphant laugh, Discord vanished with Fluttershy and in their place, the three princesses appeared, their horns restored to their heads.

"What's happened?" Luna demanded. "Where's Discord?"

The ponies burst into tears. Applejack was the only one with the strength to speak.

"He's…taken a bride."

Their eyes widened. "Who?" Celestia asked. In receiving no response, she beseeched her student. "Twilight? Who did he take?"

The purple alicorn buried her face in her hooves, knowing her friend was gone because of her failure as a princess. "I'm sorry, Fluttershy…I'm so, so sorry!"

[ponysongbracket]

Equestria Girls Song Tournament: : Results of Round 1

Warning: long post, many stats

The three biggest landslides were Awesome as I Wanna Be (86.80%), What More Is Out There (88.28), and My Past Is Not Today (90.09)

Impressive that Awesome As I Wanna Be was that big a sweep, considering that a) it isn't a full song and b) it wasn't going against a song described as "Bad" in its own title.

The three closest matches were Life Is A Runway beating Legend You Were Meant to Be (52.88%, 101 to 90), We've Come So Far beating the EqG Opening (52.17%, 84 to 77), and Shake Your Tail beating True Original (51.35%, 72 to 76)

The first upsets were So Much More to Me vs Invisible, and Rise Up! vs A Friend for Life (both C tiers beating A tiers)

Below is how many songs from each movie entered the tournament, and how many remain.

Equestria Girls* : 7 | 2 Rainbow Rocks : 11 | 9 RR Shorts : 5 | 4 Friendship Games : 6 | 6 Legend of Everfree: 6 | 4 Digital Series : 12 | 5 Summertime Shorts : 6 | 1 Specials : 4 | 1 Openings : 5 | 3 *including the cut song

Friendship Games fared the best (though 2 of the 6 songs were given byes) while Summertime Shorts did the worst

Below is the same as above, but for how many songs are sung by each character

The Rainbooms* : 13 | 8 Sci-Twi : 6 | 3 Rainbow Dash : 5 | 2 The Dazlings : 4 | 4 Sunset Shimmer : 5 | 3 Applejack : 2 | 1 Rarity : 2 | 1 Twilight (pony): 1 | 1 Fluttershy : 1 | 1 Pinkie Pie : 1 | 0 *only includes songs where they are performing under that name. There are more songs with most of the main characters singing that I'm not counting here

Round 2 Starts Tomorrow!

[pinkhairswagtourney]

i'm not trying to be rude, but why haven't the ponies been paired up? are you pushing for a pony win??

i know it might seem that way, but i've actually been avoiding putting them against each other because when i started this second tourney, i said i wouldn't have repeat matchups. pinkie and fluttershy faced off in the first tourney, and it was a pretty heavy sweep. i didn't think this would be an issue since both of them were eliminated pretty quickly last time ;;;

[baby-tart]

Fluttershy Sweep

[dumbasswhatever]

Fluttershy sweep btw

[sexy-orhotobjectgikinka]

Whats your favirote reason someone voted a charaxter in???

"i wanna see people saying airy sweep in the tags"

"Fluttershy's objectsona /j"

[glapplebloom]

Let’s see how I would fit this story into GLAB while making it more accurate to the show.

It’s the second Spring-Sproing-Spring Party since last year. So many things that bounce. And even though the girls got their Cutie Marks they’re willing to help with the invites again, especially since they’re helping a Pony who seems really into bouncing. But that’s when the Pie sisters come in. They seemed more upset than usual, though Applejack still greeted them and introduced them to the others. They’re looking for Pinkie Pie because this is a Pie Family Emergency.

When Pinkie showed up, Limestone was the one to break the news about the Rock Farm failing as a business. Ever since the Princess Dress fad, the next fad to sweep Equestria was Jeweled Walkways from the Crystal Empire. And them getting jewels from there means nobody wants stoney Walkways from them. Hearing the news, Pinkie Pie ends the party, shocking everyone. They meet up in the Apple Household to continue the discussion.

They figure with Pinkie’s connections they could find someone to help turn their farm around. Applejack was about to suggest growing something, but recalled that the landscape is not good for plant life. Rarity suggests marketing, but considering the time and money required to pull it off would be too late. Pinkie Pie suggests throwing a Rock Concert. Limestone thinks the idea is silly, but Maud does bring up the point that a lot of ponies do show up when Pinkie Pie throws a party. Marble agrees in her own way.

Limestone, being outvoted, agrees to the Rock Concert. Limestone helps Rarity and Fluttershy with the decorations, Marble helps Applejack with making treats, and Maud Pie is responsible for building the concert with Rainbow Dash. As for Pinkie Pie, she gets working on her connections. First, getting in contact with Cheese Sandwich. Between the two of them they pretty much know every creature on the planet.

With Limestone and Rarity, Rarity wanted to bring in Gemstones but Limestone vetoed the idea. Having jewels as decoration would give the impression of them selling jewels. When Rarity asks for suggestions, Limestone shows Rarity how the natural rocks can be beautiful on their own. This impresses Rarity who would like to try adding these to future designs. So right off the bat they got new customers.

With Marble and Applejack, AJ tries to ask Marble for ideas on what to make. Marbe decides on rock candy covered apples. She knows a method to give apples the look of being rock candy while still being edible. Applejack is amazed at how skilled Marble is at this. Meanwhile, by the time Rainbow Dash arrived with some help, Maud was finished. The stage looks so impressive thanks to the numerous kinds of Rocks Maud used as the foundation and decoration. It was an impressive display.

The concert was a success and the Rock Farm was saved. People want to get these displays for themselves and even Rarity has some fashion ideas. Seeing all this gives Applejack some ideas for when she has to set up a show in the future. After all, it does seem like it's similar to setting up a rodeo. 

So the changes you see I made were to make it more sister focused. I couldn’t see either one be left alone and actually help. Maud would be too stoic, Marble would be too shy, and Limestone would be too aggressive. With the Parents taking care of the farm, I can see it with them asking their neighbors for help. I also shortened the conflict and had more interactions with the sisters with the other girls. Also to set up Maud’s possible move to Ponyville.

[ikeameatballspoisonedme]

I regret to inform you that I have been brainwashed into the Pony Cult and I think Fluttershy is the best pony (and Flutterdash sweeps)

[proficshy]

I just went on an anti blocking spree and my dash has never been this quiet. FI.NA.LLY.

[ponysongbracket]

MLP Song Tournament: Results of Round 2

Warning: Long post. Many stats

The three biggest landslides were Smile (93.77%, 256 to 17 votes), This Day Aria (92.54%, 670 to 54), and Raise This Barn (82.47%, 334 to 71)

The three closest matches were The Seeds of the Past vs Say Goodbye to the Holiday (50.90%, 163 to 169)

The Pony I Wanna Be vs The Magic of Friendship Grows (50.52%, 190 to 194)

And, surprisingly, This Day Aria Reprise vs Celestia's Ballad (50.28, 178 to 180)

It's surprising how This Day Aria (Reprise) went from one of the biggest sweeps last round to the closest match this round, just barely winning by two votes.

This round as a whole was very close, with the average win margin being 62.85%, which is even closer than the Quarterfinals of the Brony Bracket (and this is Round 2 !). This is because many of the top tiers that swept last round (A Kirin Tale, Better Way to be Bad, etc.) went against popular songs (Flim-Flam Brothers, The Perfect Stallion). I'm guessing that next round won't be as close.

There were 11 upsets this round, all of which were a Tier 3 song beating a Tier 2 song (despite the tough competition, all the Tier 1s hung on). The biggest landslide of an upset was Luna's Future beating Rainbow (79.01%, 51 to 192)

Below is how many songs from each season entered round 2 and how many move on to round 3

Season 1: 7 | 4 (57%) Season 2: 9 | 6 (67%) Season 3: 8 | 6 (75%) Season 4:13 | 7 (54%) Season 5: 8 | 2 (25%) Season 6: 5 | 3 (60%) Season 7: 3 | 1 (33%) Movie   : 6 | 3 (50%) Season 8: 2 | 2 (100%) Season 9: 3 | 1 (33%) Promos  : 1 | 0 (0%) Other  : 2 | 0 (0%)

Here is the above but for specific episodes

Magical Mystery Cure      : 5 | 3 (60%) A Canterlot Wedding       : 4 | 3 (75%) Pinkie Pride              : 4 | 2 (50%) A Hearth's Warming Tail   : 4 | 2 (50%) Crusaders of the Lost Mark: 3 | 1 (33%) The Mane Attraction       : 3 | 0 (0%) Filli Vanilli             : 2 | 0 (0%) The Crystal Empire        : 1 | 1 (100%)

And for what character sings each song

The Mane Six   :12 | 7 (58%) Pinkie Pie     :10 | 4 (40%) Rarity         : 6 | 3 (50%) The CMC        : 6 | 2 (33%) Twilight       : 5 | 2 (40%) Applejack      : 4 | 4 (100%) Fluttershy     : 4 | 2 (50%) Rainbow Dash   : 3 | 2 (67%) Starlight      : 3 | 2 (67%) Cheese Sandwich: 3 | 1 (33%) Queen Chrysalis: 3 | 3 (100%) Coluratura     : 3 | 0 (0%) Celestia       : 2 | 1 (50%) Flim and Flam  : 1 | 0 (0%)

Not much too surprising, for the most part these are pretty close to how many songs in total moved on (just over half). Notable exceptions are Season 5 7 and 9, The CMC, and Cheese Sandwich losing disproportionately, Coluratura/The Mane Attraction and Filli Vanilli being completely eliminated, and Applejack and Queen Chrysalis never losing.

As for how my taste conforms to Tumblr's, 34 of the songs that made it to Round 2 are saved to my Music folder*, and of these, 20 made it to Round 3

*this is higher than I said in the last announcement because I downloaded a few more songs

As for my 11-year-old self, 3 of their saved songs made it to Round 2, and all 3 moved on*

*like I said last time though, 2 of those 3 were given byes and haven't even entered the tournament yet

Round 3 starts tomorrow!

[daydreamrulez]

My Little SunShim

Chapter 15 - Training (Part 3)

(Sunset and Rainbow Dash train with this background song. Play the song and read while the song plays.)

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=6CJ96LGGP6w

Sunset and Rainbow are done with their stretches and warm ups. Sunset is ready to practice her fighting skills with some help from Rainbow Dash.

“Thanks for letting me help you with your training Sunset. You’re a super awesome friend.” said Rainbow Dash.

“Awww. You’re welcome Dashy. I’m so glad you’re helping me with this. I need to be stronger and more flexible than Demon Shimmer.” said Sunset.

“So true. Now let’s get started.” said Rainbow Dash.

“Okay.” said a determined Sunset.

(Sunset and Rainbow Dash train with this background song. Play the song and read while the song plays.)

Sunset and Rainbow Dash are staring at each other and they took a bow. They positioned in a fighting stance. Sunset closes her eyes and takes a deep breath.

“You can do this Sunset! Always believe in yourself. We love you.” Ghost of Daydream said in Sunset’s mind.

Sunset opens her eyes and dodges Rainbow’s punch really fast. Rainbow was shocked.

“Woah!” Rainbow Dash exclaimed.

Rainbow Dash does a few punches and kicks and Sunset blocks every punch and kick really fast.

“Keep it up Sunset. You’re doing super great.” said Rainbow Dash.

Rainbow Dash throws a few punches and kicks again, but Sunset dodges them super quickly.

“My God! Sunset is really good!” Rarity exclaimed.

Rainbow threw a punch and Sunset does a black flip in the air while being in front of the sun dramatically. Her friends was all in awe. Sunset does a superhero landing. Sunset stands ups and Rainbow does a kick. Sunset bends down and does a sweep kick and causes Rainbow to fall to the ground.

“Oops! Sorry about that.” Sunset helps Rainbow Dash up.

“What are you talking about? THAT WAS SO AWESOME!!” Rainbow Dash exclaimed.

“Thank you.” Sunset blushes.

“You’re very welcome. Think fast.” Rainbow throws a punch and Sunset caught it.”

“Wow! That was super impressive.” said Rainbow.

“Thanks.” said Sunset.

“No Problem. Now let’s see how fast you are.” said Rainbow Dash.

Sunset and Rainbow Dash are about to have a little race to see how fast Sunset is! Rainbow will not be using her super speed to run! That would be cheating. Sunset and Rainbow are on their marks and are ready to go. 5 of the humane 7 are cheering for Sunset and Rainbow.

“Are you ready for this Sunset? We all believe in you?” said Rainbow Dash.

“I’m always ready for anything?” said a determined Sunset.

Rarity holds up a gun. “Ready. Set.” Rarity fires the gun at the sky and Sunset and Rainbow Dash starts running.

“GO SUNSET AND RAINBOW!!! GOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!” Pinkie Pie cheered loudly.

Sunset and Rainbow Dash are running across the beach. Sunset was behind Rainbow. Sunset was panting and she starts to remember the time where she was having a tough time running and catching up with the others. That was on the day where Rainbow Dash was helping Sci-Twi with her anxiety about the cole miner’s daughter play.

“No! NO!!! I can’t let that happen again!!!” Sunset said with determination. “AAAAAAAAAAH!!!!!!!!!”

Sunset didn’t give up. She starts running fast and running past Rainbow Dash. Rainbow was stunned. Sunset made it to the finish line. She won and everyone cheered for her. 6 of the humane 7 picks up Sunset and toss her up in the air a few times and cheered, “HIP HIP HORRAY!! HIP HIP HORRAY!!”

“You did it Sunset! I knew you can do it! You were so awesome!” said Rainbow Dash.

“That was so amazing Sunset! We’re so proud of you.” said Fluttershy.

“Thanks everyone. I couldn’t done this without all of you. You guys my best friends in the world. I love you guys forever.” said Sunset.

“Awww!!! We love you too Sunset.” said 6 of the humane 7. The humane 7 shed tears and got together for a group hug.

“You’re the very best Sunset. Always believe in yourself and always listen to your heart.” Rainbow points at the left part of Sunset’s chest.

“Thank you Rainbow Dash.” said Sunset.

“You’re very welcome SunShim! THINK FAST!” Rainbow throws a a wood board high up in the sky and Sunset jumps up super high and did a karate chop on the wood board.

“HIIYAAAAH!!!” screamed Sunset.

The wood board was chopped in half and Sunset does a superhero landing. 6 of the humane 7 cheered for Sunset. Sunset and her friends knew that they’re almost ready.

[fimflamfilosophy]

Characters: Tearing Each Other Together

After the world-sweeping success of my previous article (forty notes on Tumblr, wow!) and being driven out of my house due to mold for the second time in two months, I think the time is right to add another essay to the subject of character design and writing. But what’s left to say after having definitely solved the entire process of character writing the last time?

Well, suppose you can figure out the emotional state of one person. That’s well and good, and oddly harder for people than you might imagine. And I think the reason it’s so hard is because in virtually any show you’re not going to be given a character in a vacuum to learn that process from. They have some story, something they’re trying to overcome, and other characters they’re bouncing off of, and the actual process of conflict is more complicated than knowing who your characters are.

Hate, Love, or Indifference, It’s All A Struggle

So what’s the essence of a story? There’s some motive that’s trying to be achieved. A conflict. And I can’t stress this enough. Conflict. Because it’s one thing if you say your main character is a kid who wants to be the best Poke’mon trainer and completely another to have that be a concrete objective with a satisfying story and conclusion. Wanting to be the “best” isn’t actually conflict. It’s a dream. Being forced to travel the known world to acquire eight gaudy pins that probably cost twenty-five cents each to manufacture? That’s conflict.

And not only do you have to travel the world, you do so with a shrill red-head who explicitly hates you because you trashed her bike, and a sex-starved pervert whose life dream is to make Poke’mon mate with each other for a living. And that’s important. Without Misty and Brock, Ash’s journey is a lot less interesting for a lot of reasons. Misty calls Ash out every time he messes up, and aside from being on a watch list, Brock is a helpful older character who tells Ash, and therefore the audience, what’s what.

But let’s back up, because people understand the benefit of Brock and Misty at a basic level, but when you’re starting off, how do you know who those people should be? Well, every show, from sitcom, to comedy to drama, does its best to balance personalities against each other so there’s always some sort of conflict possible between them.

Now, “conflict” doesn’t mean they’re trying to kill each other. It could mean they’re falling in love with each other. Maybe it means they don’t have much in common but have to work together over long hours in isolation. The idea is simply that there’s something to overcome between these people. Misty thinks Ash is stupid - that’s a conflict which is often leveraged to push Ash forward. Brock, however, has a reactive role in the show, only functioning in conflict when a womanizer who grovels at the feet of ladies Ash is already helping anyway.

It’s odd because if Misty were older she would be set up very well as kind of an “opposites” romantic torture device with Brock. They’re even depicted as professional equals, which would have made their levels of expertise and experience more balanced. Had they been closer in apparent age, a “will they won’t they” romance would have fit adequately, with Brock’s constant hitting on other women serving as a major, hopeless, long-lasting roadblock to a serious relationship between them; it would work especially well because Misty is established to have an inferiority complex to her prettier sisters. It also might help explain why Brock hung around so long. But as it was, Brock’s main contribution to the inner dynamic was to act as a mediator, caretaker, and mentor.

But circling back to Brock’s dream of Poke’mon husbandry. Well, on the meta level that’s why he doesn’t leave. Because it’s not a motive, he’s not taking steps towards it, and it’s not going to happen, it’s just a dream. Until it does happen, anyway, and then they wrote him out of the show - but we’ll dig more into this later.

Balancing Imbalance

The best place to look to see good conflict set ups between characters are popular sitcoms. Consider the show “Frasier”: it ran for eleven seasons and revolved mainly around the personal spats of Frasier, his brother Niles, their dad, and the dad’s caretaker, Daphne. Frasier was arrogant, Niles was insecure, Dad was an earnest roughneck, and Daphne was well-meaning. Frasier and Niles were also elitist pricks at times so they couldn’t even always agree where to eat together, much less with their father who was happier having a burger with ketchup.

Every episode had some central motivator; an ice fishing trip, a joint investment, an awards ceremony - but these things were just catalysts to the main conflict, which was almost always something between characters. We’d seen it time and again, that Frasier and his Dad would come to blows over differences in taste. Niles would try to court Daphne while torn by his commitment to his failing marriage, over and over. But the pithy banter and the way they resolved it would always be new, so people watched this show, episode after episode, for over a decade.

And the simple beauty of it all was that each of the characters had something to do with each other. Whether it be filial obligation, lust, sibling rivalry, friction between introversion and extroversion, or taste in food, they always had some source of conflict to make a show out of. Niles and Frasier were both psychiatrists, but from different schools of thought and different working environments, so they even had chances to butt heads academically and professionally. It was rich with writing opportunities and it’s not any wonder it lasted so long.

Another sitcom, “New Girl”, which was about a group of roommates, had a good dynamic set-up between two characters, Schmidt and Nick. Nick is a messy slob and Schmidt’s a type A neat freak, creating a really obvious source of conflict to work with. But then they had a third character, Winston, who they lampshade as the token black guy. 

Now, the joke that Winston is the “black friend” has pretty much no legs, so in the early seasons you see him acting as kind of a third party mediator, or maybe a wild card, and it winds up being funnier when Winston is unhelpful. So as the seasons went on, Winston gradually lost his damn mind. He becomes a cop and meets a woman so that he’d have some character growth and dynamic, but also develops into a man who would burn a building down as a prank. The writers had no idea what they were doing with him and he gradually flew further and further off the handle.

Don’t get me wrong, I really liked Winston as a character. Aside from being funny in the show, watching the writers gradually unglue him from sanity was its own meta comedy above that. I knew they were doing it on accident, but having such a good time with it that it was just going to keep getting worse. In fact a major component of the finale for the whole show is an insane thing Winston does. They wrap the show on the note, “Winston is crazy”. And it all happened because they didn’t figure out what Winston’s conflict was at the start. He didn’t have a source of conflict with anyone, so the man became a living breathing embodiment of conflict in general.

Your Story Ends With the Conflict

Now, the catch is, in any type of fiction, whether a video game, a roleplaying session, or a sitcom, the story ends when the conflict does, because if the conflict is over there’s nothing more to tell! It used to frustrate me to no end back when “My Little Pony” was popular and the other nerds on the internet used to ask, “How many times must Fluttershy learn not to be shy, or that being shy is okay? When will she overcome all that she is and eliminate the core element that creates conflict for her?”

The answer should always be that the character will learn their damn lesson when the show ends or when they’re written off it. If you are sick of seeing a character and don’t want to see them any more, the best thing to do is close out their issues, because once they have no conflicts, they have no story, and there’s no point in doing a show about them. Asking Fluttershy to stop being shy is asking to say goodbye to her, because she's a cartoon and her job is to entertain kids by being neurotic and yellow.

People think they’re so smart when they say they’d solve all a character’s problems if it were them. In the finale to the first season of Poke’mon, for example, Ash decides to gamble his whole championship run on Charizard, who’s a self-absorbed bitch of a creature that ultimately throws the match and leaves it an open question whether Ash might have won if he’d left the team primadonna sitting on the bench.

Some viewers see that and complain it’s the dumbest possible thing Ash could have done, but it’s probably one of the single most brilliant things the Poke’mon writers did in the grand scheme, because think about where it left us. Ash didn’t achieve his goal of proving he’s “the best”, but it feels like a fluke and if he got another shot, he might make it all the way. This gave the show a gateway to more episodes with Ash still having something to prove and a dumb mistake indicating he still had a lot to learn. Because he didn’t win, his story hadn’t ended.

In some cases shows can end characters just by addressing some dream goal they’ve been expressing since the first season. In the case of Brock, they intentionally removed him from the show by introducing him to some girl who was willing to work with Brock in the animal husbandry business. He’d been traveling all this time, his dream opportunity fell into his lap, and he was gone. What reason would he have to refuse, and why would anyone stop him? And of course, Brock’s dream job was incompatible with the central plot elements of the rest of the show, so that was it!

The Format Informs the Conflict

If you want to write something but you aren’t sure when it’s going to end, you need a concrete, long-term conflict that’s not just going to go away. For example, in “Scooby Doo and the Thirteen Ghosts”, there were thirteen ghosts. By design, that show should have ended after Scooby Doo found all thirteen ghosts. It actually ended earlier than that because it was cancelled, but you get the idea. When you have a finite goal, your run time is going to be finite as well.

At least in theory. In “JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure” they establish at the beginning of one season that everyone’s magic powers were based on the Tarot. Now, I don’t know the Tarot off hand, but as the show went on I knew that sooner or later they’d run out of Tarot cards, and in my mind I assumed the season would be over when the Tarot ended. But then I got a good chuckle when a guy showed up and his powers were based on a totally different theme, because I knew the writer had realized he’d stumbled into something good and wasn’t ready to end it. He invented a cheap excuse to keep going! And I think if “Scooby Doo and the Thirteen Ghosts” had been successful they’d have managed to unleash a whole lot more than thirteen ghosts because Hannah Barbera was not exactly a studio with a lot of shame.

Character conflicts like those in sitcoms are a great way to have conflict perpetually, because people don’t really change that much and there’s no reason why most of the fundamental friction shouldn’t be there indefinitely. But of course, character-driven conflict is going to be secondary in an event-driven show. “Jojo” actually does have a lot of character conflict, but the plot is primarily about the battles and the journey - if all the fighting ended Jojo’s characters probably couldn’t carry a sitcom, at least not without some serious hard work, a little genius, and a touch of elbow grease.

For event-driven conflict, you’ll want to establish a target - a moving target if you don't know when the story ends, and that can be pretty difficult. Old action shows and comics used to do it by having a rotating cast of villains, so that after one was defeated another would show up tomorrow, and it was assumed these guys regularly broke out of prison, or they escaped in rocket pods, or whatever, and they’d be back later with a new goofy scheme. In these cases you tend to find reactive heroes; they patrol the streets until a lunatic in tights and a garden-themed hat shows up and transforms everyone into people-shaped topiaries somehow.

For active heroes, you need to establish something that requires a lot of structure, like Ash’s journey to win the Poke’mon League. In every country he visits, they all have this asinine rule that you have to go to eight unique locations and kick the ass of someone who disadvantages themselves with an easily-countered mono team that all have the same exact weakness. You can’t be accepted into the League if you haven’t proven you own a water Poke’mon to utterly flatten the fire gym! Let’s be real, this nonsense is probably designed intentionally as a money gate - most people run out of cash before they qualify. Either way, it ends when Ash wins the league, and he lost the league so the show could keep going.

For roleplaying games, the same rules apply. With your players, you’re either going to establish a reactive goal - an adventuring guild hires a bunch of colorful salarymen with silly accents to go to a dungeon as part of their nine to five job - or you need players to set an active goal for themselves and keep the realization of that goal beyond their reach until you’re ready to end the game.

The Active Hero Acts

In my younger years, I learned to roleplay in almost exclusively player-driven games where we were expected to come up with our own goals and pursue them ourselves, but I’ve discovered that is stunningly rare in most roleplaying circles. Your typical D&D player likes to play the salaryman with a funny accent who doesn’t have to worry about the venturous part of adventure. His boss told him to go to the Cave of Everlasting Wonders and Torturous Screams, recover the Sword of Bad Portent, and then hand it over to the department of magic items where they’ll file the paperwork to get it delivered to the patron that wanted the sword for some reason. No need to have your own motives.

But what if you want to play a crime fighter who actually, you know, busts up all the crime? Clearly you can’t just wait for crime to happen passively - you’ve got to go after people. Act instead of being reactive. Purse snatchers are small time and in a more grounded setting the guys you’ll catch by being passive are just grunts being hired out by someone - usually kids in a lot of cases. You have to seek out the bosses.

Making an active character to fit into any setting can be challenging, and I’ve seen quite a few pitfalls. I think one of the funniest motives is always “the guy who wants to go home” due to its obvious failure condition. A lot of stories are about everymen who just want to get out of trouble, but those stories end when they get out of trouble! In many books, movies, shows, or roleplaying games, you’re almost always going to find opportunities to send that guy home, and you’ll have to either conveniently ignore it, switch motives and decide not to go home, or end the whole story with going home. These characters only work where the story is happening to them and it's all out of their control.

I’ve also seen my share of the “quirky genius inventor/scientist”. When someone designs a character mistaking a dream for a motive. They dream of building a better mouse trap, you see. That’s their inner conflict. And while this is a real world conflict, it’s difficult to make it a good story because actual science and invention involves a lengthy quantity of controlled experiments. You breed hundreds of fruit flies, expose them to nicotine, and try to isolate the gene that causes nicotine resistance. It can be fascinating work at its level but sometimes the most exciting part of your day is when you give yourself a steam burn cooking the fly food. The “quirky scientist” in fiction is usually more of a mentor, and if he insists on staying in his lab doing his work then he’s not even a main character - he’s a guy who explains fruit flies to the audience and then is never heard from again. Other times he’s the asshole who invented the story’s whole problem.

I once played in a game with “the quirky scientist who wants to go home”, and man was that a frustrating ride. The game itself was about occult magic and demons, and for most of the game the scientist was experimenting with teleportation magic to go home and was focused on that above the goal of finding and eradicating demons (the game’s premise). And when he finally met a boss demon that could teleport him home to his lab, he went! We wound up retiring a character who, to be honest, was barely even interested in the main subject of the story. Had he been in a film or a show, they’d have cut the character after the first draft because he served no purpose and wasted screen time.

So how do you make sure your character has a working, proactive goal, in a nutshell? Establish a goal that can be achieved by the character within the framework of your story through action by leaving his house (or after burning his house down so he can’t go home), and then make sure the goal is big enough that it will take many broad steps to get there - those steps need to be concrete and visible, not things that would happen off-screen. Most importantly, tie that goal into the main premise of the story, so that reaching the end of the story generally may achieve what the character wants.

If You Aren’t Trying, It’s Not A Trial

Okay, I understand that last bit probably requires more unpacking. But think of it this way. There’s a writing structure referred to as the “Hero’s Journey”. Basically it goes like this: the hero is forced into adventure, he meets friends and goes through trials, he hits his lowest point, he is reborn into a better man, he ends the conflict, story over.

What I’m talking about specifically right now are the trials. The “wacky inventor” is usually presumed to do all his research off screen because most media likes to focus on the results of the invention and the conflict. But if you were to focus on the trials of a scientist, it’d actually be about procuring research grants and potentially materials. You wouldn’t watch a show about a man who checks gene A-235 for nicotine resistance in flies, then goes on to A-236, then A-237.

If I were to write a story about a researcher, here’s one thing I might do: the researcher fails to find what he’s looking for in gene A-235, and when he goes to seek a grant to look at A-236, he finds one of his colleagues has convinced the university that the protagonist’s research is a dead end. Hearing this, the researcher realizes he’s about to lose his lab, so he writes a bit of a lie into his report on A-235. He says it may prevent cancer.

Now, the protagonist is, deep down, a good man. He thinks this will generate some buzz at the university and get him more funding, but he’ll do a follow-up and show the data doesn’t hold up. After that he’ll ask for money for A-236 and everything goes back to normal. But disaster strikes. His article, which was only supposed to show up in an obscure research journal, gets picked up by a major news network and winds up being spread all over. Suddenly he’s “the man who cured cancer”.

And as he’s trying to figure out how to navigate the issue, another researcher comes out and says that under peer review, he was able to replicate the results. He too shows that A-235 cures cancer! Now the hero isn’t sure. He becomes a celebrity and simply lies about his research because he has no real data, but try desperately as he might, in private he just can’t get the results the peer review insisted were there.

He struggles and struggles, coming to blows with his colleague who’s scrutinizing his research notes. Throw in a love interest who’s impressed with what this guy did, and actually I think I’ve just described the plot of some movie I saw a long time ago about faking cold fusion. I think Albert Einstein was a supporting character in it. In my version the twist would be the peer reviewer was also trying to get a grant by lying. Point is, the central conflict of the film certainly isn’t the scientific process, it’s all the crazy crap that happened on the way from point A to point B.

The story is in the trials. If nothing changes, if the character doesn’t have to change their way of life or go through anything special, it’s either not a story or it’s not your typical story. There are plenty of experimental films or well-regarded books that can make a certain banality become interesting. Stories that explain the simple struggles of day to day living for people on hard times. But the trials, the palpable challenges, that’s really the meat of it all. When you think of what your character should be doing throughout the story, he should be going through these efforts, these steps, these trials, all in the name of whatever his broader goal is.

Where You Start Affects Where You End

It also matters quite a lot when and where characters are introduced. A lot of tales follow some basic notes, and one of the more common elements is “crossing the threshold”, which prevents your characters from going back to their life before the adventure. It’s used because it compels the characters forward, as they have no other direction they can go. It can be anything: the character’s home town is destroyed, the character commits a crime, he accepts a contract, his mother dies - so long as it prevents him from going back. It’s especially useful in roleplaying games where you really need everyone to be driving forward.

In one such roleplaying game, I got in a spat with the guy who wanted to run the game because I was trying to make a leader character, but the game master wanted to base his game around a movie he’d seen with a single main character. He’d elected another player to be that main character, and explained to me he’d be starting the game after that character had already crossed the threshold and had begun his journey. This meant that everyone else were supporting cast and could go back to their normal lives at any time, because they were coming willingly from where they were and not really facing any drastic changes to their personal status quo.

I eventually resolved not to play in that game at all, because none of the character dynamics I wanted were going to work. It was supposed to be a “wannabe” superhero game, with the premise that everyone wanted to be heroes, except one player had already started the journey and it turned out another had already reached the end of that arc and was going to play a character that had been a hero going on years before the story began. There was no plan to really reconcile the narrative clashes.

If that game were to work as it was, without me being present, then the person playing the pre-established hero would have needed to take the mentor role. The other players besides the main character would have needed to be comfortable in auxiliary roles, and the group would have to play as though they were part-way into the story. Still learning to be a team but well past the initial stages of a plot, and they’d all need to think up reasons to be in this group individually on their own, because the threshold had already been crossed and they didn’t cross it together.

The friend running the game was actually dismissive of my advice here, arguing that I was overcomplicating everything with a meta analysis of narrative and structure when all we need is a basic drive to play, and I don’t think he realized he’d set himself up with a much more complicated game and less cohesive premise by going about things as he had.

The already established hero couldn’t be the mentor because a mentor character had already been created as an NPC. The auxiliary players weren’t really informed at the outset they’d be auxiliaries - especially not me who’d wanted to play the team leader. The player who’d been designated as the central protagonist didn’t want to lead or be the central protagonist. It could have worked, but it would have taken a lot more planning and many more concessions than a typical game.

In a more recent game, I’ve got another bit of an issue with the start misleading the general goals of the players. It’s a sci-fi game, and first, one player is doing “the quirky inventor scientist”; his current stated dream is vaguely to create transhumanist technology. He also wants to play the leader, so he established himself as the most important man nobody has ever heard of. He has spies in every major institution in the known galaxy and is a genius beyond comparison. He’s currently based in a rusting pirate ship in the middle of the space boonies doing nothing with his life save being the most important man.

Meanwhile, I set up a disgraced military officer with a revenge quest against his own nation. But the pirate crew my character joined turned out to not believe in structure nor leadership and they killed their last commander to have a system of “democracy”. My structure-minded character has tried to take the lead and drive us forward, but he runs into general deconstructive resistance and the “quirky scientist” wants to be the leader, but hasn’t yet expressed self-motivated goals.

It’s not exactly my most harmonious game and there’s quite a lot going wrong here, but here’s how it could have worked: first, establishing that the crew of the pirates respects no leadership places the entire crew in the precarious position of being “chickenshit” at the outset. That kind of incohesiveness is why a band of rogues gets easily defeated; it’s not the behavior of scrappy men of action, but hopeless men of inaction. A corrupted “democracy” collectivises failure while awarding success to whoever actually has the most power in the group structure - it protects the weak leaders from responsibility and disincentivizes good work by allowing those same men to reap rewards while offloading the burdens to those lower on the ladder. In essence, “If things are screwed up, blame the democracy. If things are good, I did it.”

What should have happened was the “quirky scientist” should have been in charge to start with, because otherwise he has no reason to be on board the ship. He’s the most powerful man in the galaxy, after all. If it were because he was financing the pirates to go on raiding and salvage missions relevant to his research, then it would make sense. He’d have a purpose and a position of leadership just as the player wanted. It would also establish the pirates have some command structure and a level of respect for it that allows them to function.

And the power struggle between the disgraced officer and the scientist? Perfectly reasonable character conflict that would drive actual, meaningful roleplaying and story. The scientist may bankroll the operation but the officer is the tactical talent and the two pull in opposite directions, as power-hungry men often do.

However, the opportunity to start with a sensible and meaningful social dynamic has passed, and on top of that the “quirky scientist” keeps his galaxy-wide power a secret, so it’s all kind of messy and “badly written” in the sense that most audiences would be generally rooting for the crew to fail, and they’d find the grand reveal of the scientist’s galactic power to be frustrating and unrewarding because it’s more of a plot hole than anything. So close on so many counts and yet so very far, and the opportunity to pull it together eventually is present but a more challenging and uphill battle than getting it right at the outset.

In The End, Did We Even Learn Anything?

Creating a character is easy, in my opinion. Creating a working story with a group of self-driven characters can be a lot harder. This is especially true of roleplaying games or of cooperation with multiple writers, where you need to be on the same general page with a committee. It can help a lot to establish the exact conflicts at the beginning, but as can be seen with Winston from “New Girl” or the later seasons of “My Little Pony”, what you have can morph beyond your control as things go on.

Sometimes you never had control in the first place. Sometimes you lose control because you conclude the original conflict of your story and struggle to find a new one - the brand is too successful to let go. Maybe an executive comes in and injects an idea that throws the entire balance of everything totally out of whack and now nothing works. Sometimes your friend thinks story structure is overrated. It’s a difficult juggling act.

So at the end of this essay did we even learn anything? It depends a lot on what you’re trying to do and what you wanted to learn. If you’re the more typical Dungeons and Dragons group, you don’t need to think much about this. Just make your characters and passively react to activities handed out by Dungeons, Dungeons & Co - your conflict is event-driven. Are you writing a sitcom? Well, balance a tangled web of conflicting character habits and write the ensuing disaster. Want to make a complex film about a group of highly motivated, proactive people with sophisticated individual goals that ultimately converge while still respecting their rich, conflicting, inner politics, and do all that writing as part of a team? Well, good goddamn luck, but with the right start and enough care you can make it happen.