[BBTS] Bronies Beyond the Stars V4.0

Looksie what i just found http://lobo93.minus.com/mRnyMHnXWO45X

 

Oh hey man, I also found something:

 

For those in the Temp Server Convo, may wanna check the most recent message.

For those who are not in the temp server Convo, feel free to request an invite. The only prerequisite is that you already be part of the Clan, or at least have sent an application to join the Clan to the Clan account.

 

Hey guys, how come when you're full of awe, it's bad, but when you have some awe, it's really good? (Think about it)

Anyways, I know you guys have been busy, but you wanna talk about how to make a good Spike episode(Amending fences was good but he wasn't the main focus)? We can talk about his character now and the setting in which he'd shine and so on, it'll be fun to hear your opinions! I'll just say right now that he needs more substance, 'cause his character motivations are only towards: Twilight, secondary friends, greediness, and taking the easy way out which can be attributed to greediness(unless it involves the other two). Other than that, we have nothing of his own actual character besides that he's grown up as a pony, which means that he acts like them(besides being exempt from most of the song numbers if he's been in any), and that he likes to hang out with his own gender because he's a guy.
The physical traits we're given is mainly the male part and he's short but has magical breath, yet one of the most admiral characterizations is that he's never left Twilight hanging(maybe, but I can't think of anything right now) which is more than Rainbow Dash can say for herself. This is, in my opinion, why he can't shine right now: because his most notable character traits need Twilight. It's never just Spike, it's almost always Spike and Twilight and/or Spike and dragon girl from the IDW comics that I really need to read. His loyalty has turned into bravery many times, and he can even be Rainbow's replacement if he had wings(now that I think about it, he was Rainbow's proxy at the end of the return of harmony lol). If we exemplified his bravery trait and tone down the ability to mess up everything(or use it as a tool for learning instead of making the same mistakes over and over again), then all we have to do is put him in a situation that puts him away from Twilight(aka Mrs. Plot convenience) and pit him against his own conflicts like they touched on at A Canterlot Wedding.

Or maybe I'm wrong, but still, everybody's been shouting useless at Spike and I'm tired of it. He's getting better, but at least we can think of something to give him an edge in character development besides...

 

To be fair, Awful USED to simply be an adjective form of Awe. (ie. respect + wonder or fear) It's only due to more recent usage that it's definition changed to what is essentially the opposite. (disgust) As to why this happened, I have no clue, but it stands to reason that, at some point in the past, awesome and awful were synonyms.

I think the issue DHX has had with Spike episodes isn't that they don't know how to present Spike as a good character, but that they don't know exactly what challenges would be most fitting for Spike's character. If anything, the most successful episode in that right was Secret of my Excess, as it played to a weakness Spike himself didn't know he had, because he didn't grow up with dragons. Of course, they're really beating that horse to death, considering greed has been the conflict in about half of his episodes. However, I don't think separating him from Twilight so he can face a conflict alone would be the best course of action. (in fact, they already did that in Just for Sidekicks)

Personally, I think the best course of action would be to play on his loyalty to Twilight, and bring a conflict from that. There are two possible ways to do this that I can think of, though I'm sure others exist. The first would be to mix Spike's greedy flaw with his loyalty to Twilight. This was attempted in Princess Spike, and ALMOST executed well, but it kinda fell flat when he was punished for the decisions he made out of loyalty rather than greed, not to mention the fact that he was never really faced with a Loyalty OR Greed decision. The other, however, hasn't really been touched on yet, and that's having Spike's personal judgement differ drastically from Twilight's. So far, Spike's judgement will usually fall in line with Twilight's, as Twilight's never really made a call Spike completely disagreed with. The closest he ever got was in, as you brought up, The Crystal Empire. But even in that, the call was Twilight's, not his own. Either having Twilight's judgement impaired like it was in Lesson Zero, or giving Spike knowledge that Twilight is unaware of, would both be a good way to pull that off.

 

In Sidekicks, Spike was seperated from Twilight for less than a few minutes and presented the same problem people have with episodes like that: He was played down because he was next to and outshone by a god of some sorts. My problem is that his loyalty has been played out and is a recurring theme, yet has never been any more than what he is. He's good in sticking to her and going above and beyond, but I've never seen him really challenged by it. Added to that is, like you said, he does it so often that it feels off putting since it's his only internal struggle besides greed that they've played upon.

I agree that separating him from Twilight isn't the only option, but that it's something that we haven't had since the pet episode, and Spike's character feels like he needs a handhold in many or most occasions, so it makes sense that if we take Twilight out of the story for a bit, the weight of the situation(unless it has to do with pet simulator 3ds) will feel heavy and be more Spike related than a Mane 6 problem.

One of the last things I have right now is that Spike isn't even a sidekick to a certain extent anymore- before the small reparations in Amending Fences, he is and will probably continue to be the comic relief. When people tell me that Spike technically saved the Crystal Empire, I remind them of one thing: That having a stain glass window is different than having character development. I love how he would go through so much for Twilight, but loyalty doesn't necessarily mean being the one to follow orders, and that's all his loyalty is from, not to a cause, but to a person- er, pony. I think that because he doesn't have much of one, he should be given one or at least not be spoon-fed through Twilight.

I think having Twilight's judgement impaired would be interesting in terms of what Spike would do, but it relies too heavily on having a situation where the other Mane 6 can't help, and having Spike be the only one who possess the skill or understanding to help her which, besides having a golden scene with him threatening her with quesadillas, will not do anything besides show that the Mane 6 are incompetent at the worst times. But if the writers can get past the plot contrivences, I think your situation can do good in terms of how powerful the lesson will be. I'm simply thinking in how the lesson can be made with more believability to his character and which gives more strength to the individual's problem rather than the multitude's or the many's. If you could think of more ways to influence the plot, or a setting/plot itself, that would be a great thing, but I have to go to sleep right now, thanks for the thought provoker, night!

 

A few of you may have caught when I brought certain people's attention to the private message group we have for the BBTS temp server. I would now like to explain my purpose for this here. Now, as I'm sure many of you are aware, a few months ago, I managed to pull together a Mumble server. Of course, this was a free server, and one of the strings attached was that, after a month of inactivity, the server would be shut down so the service could free up room for other people who wanted to get a free server from them. Needless to say, since we're waiting for the next big update to hit the (un)stable branch, I wasn't clamoring to nab a new server. However, I was recently made aware of a fairly new service, which goes by a rather amusing name:

​

Now, if you want, you can click the logo to be sent to their homepage and learn everything you could ever want to know about the service. But for those who don't want to, let me give you three reasons why I think this will probably be the best service we'll find in terms of voice/text chat.

1. Everything is completely free. No "premium accounts", no paid servers, nothing of the sort. Just a solid, free to use system.
2. It's super simple to use. Heck, you don't even need an account. You just enter a name, join a server, and boom, you're done. I would recommend signing up regardless, as it allows for more features, but the simplicity is really nice.
3. The accessibility. Seriously, it is AMAZING how accessible this thing is. You've got the program for Windows and Mac, and a planned one for Linux, which is typical, but nice. You've got a Mobile app for iOS and Android, which is even better. But possibly the biggest thing they've gt going for them? Web browser compatibility. That's right, you can use this program without EVER having to download ANYTHING. Combined with the fact that, again, you don't even need to sign up to start chatting, I'd go on record by saying that this is probably, hands-down, the most accessible voice chat service to date.

All that, and it's barely 4 months old. But don't take my word for it, join us over at http://tinyurl.com/bbtsdiscord and see for yourself.

Also, if either @ProsaurusRex , @MoshiMoshi , and/or @Zailiner desire to take on an administrative role in the server, I already have permissions set up and waiting for them should they choose to accept them.

 

Well, I came here to sell peanuts, but damn dude- I'd buy a used couch on a street from you with that wink and smooth text.

 

Discord truly is nice. The Quality of the voicechat is just as good as in teamspeak. You can have little avatars. The Chat gives you previews of any links and gifs are fully supported.
You don't ahve to voicechat if you don't want to since there's always the main chat channel. The only thing missing is a videochat. But that's not really needed.

 

Indeed. It's designed as an alternative to those programs such as mumble and teamspeak in terms of video-game groups, so adding a video chat feature would be somewhat redundant, not to mention probably double it's CPU usage. Because, and I don't know if you realized this or not, Discord is SUPER lightweight. It is barely taking more than 1/10 of what Skype is, and almost half as much as Steam. (bet ya $5 the ads are the majority of Steam's CPU usage in the first place)

 

I might grab that admin role, then. I'll have figure out how it works, but that should be too hard. It looks like a nice service, actually!

 

Alrighty. You should now have admin privileges.

 

It is nice. It's simple and free.
It's REALLY easy to set up stuff.

 

Is Discord just a coincidental name? Also:

♬Discord~ I'm howling at the moon, and sleeping in the middle of a summer afternoon~♬

 

I think so... But it's kind of fitting for something related to gaming.

 

Because gamers cause it?

 

I guess so .

... And you guys should use discord more. i'm always there ...but nobody else is

 

Alright then, but it feels a bit odd at first. Pretty sure I'll get used to it.