Friendship is Dragons
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Page 117 - Table Turnabout
Author Notes:
Notice: Guest comic submissions are open! Guidelines here. Deadline: January 27th, 2023.
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58 Comments:
Compare the dialog to page 57. Twilight is the brunette in the purple shirt, Applejack is the ginger in the cowboy hat, Pinkie Pie is the curly-haired blonde in the pink shirt, and Fluttershy is the pale-skinned long-haired blonde. That leaves Dash and Rarity, who didn't speak... and Dash is pretty clearly the hoodie-clad dark-haired one with a near-perpetual scowl just going from her attitude. So Rarity must be the black girl with glasses.
Rarity is the black one because of the irony of having a white unicorn be black. Also, Twilight has a similar haircut to her player.
And since Rarity is a fashionista, and it is very much in style for black women to wear white fabric with colored rhinestones, it would only logically follow that Rarity must be black for her fashion sense to align that way.
Yes I think about this way too hard.
On the matter of Twilight having a similar hairstyle, so do all the others. Rainbow Dash has layers. Applejack has a braided ponytail. Rarity has the tight curls (though only of her bangs), Fluttershy's hair is extremely long and straight. And of course Pinkie Pie's is curly.
I always figured that she'd be Asian, since her eyes are shaped rather more almond~like than the others, her hair is dark and (This is not trying to be racist, I swear!) she's a natural business woman.
Funny, I would have thought that Fluttershy and Pinkie, considering their hair colors, would have been redheads.
That seating arrangement seems a bit odd. Rarity, Twilight, Applejack, and Pinkie all crowded together on one side while Dash takes up the entire other long side all to herself. Is she supposed to be so anti-social that no one wants to sit by her or something?
It's a classic staging trick. In real life, people spread out equally, but in order to get several peoples' faces visible together, you jam everybody on one side.
Quoted from the artist, Jovey4, on the comic's deviantART page: "Well I did it mainly because of the composition work to squeeze pinkie in one more panel~ it's also a perfect replica of my own table during D&D sessions since the table's up against 3 walls, so the person in RD's seat has a hard time getting out if there's another person on the other side" :)
I like how we can't see the GM. Also now I want to see their reactions to Pinkie when she suggested the limerick, I don't remember which page that was.
That's a Chrysalis Mini, not NMM. Still awesome, though.
No attempts at crazy hair color, but despite that, everyone's immediately identifiable as their characters.
Funny thing: just a couple of days ago, I was griping to some of my friends that almost every "humanized pony" pic I'd seen depicted the entire Mane Cast as white.
Funny thing: just a couple of days ago, I was griping to some of my friends that almost every "humanized pony" pic I'd seen depicted the entire Mane Cast as white.
I like it, and particularly that the humans aren't drawn exactly as the ponies in human form, but have subtle traits of them. That actually jives more like how players build characters in my experience. :D
My only thought is to add more minis on the board to make it look better, but eh, its a silly nitpick.
My only thought is to add more minis on the board to make it look better, but eh, its a silly nitpick.
I like the Fluttershy way her player bites her lip. Rarity's glasses are also a nice touch.
And when I saw Rarity.... It's ok I fought the urge.
I think the best things about this page are Fluttershy's player and RD-player's faces in panel 3. The whole page is a treat, though.
I'll say this. Whenever I hear a person's voice on the radio or on a cartoon, I imagine them looking a certain way.
-Then when I see what the voice-actors really look like it freaks me out, because they look nothing like what I'd expected (perhaps because they just seem too real when I dream in anime-inspired counterparts? I don't know).
So, what I'm saying is that this comic freaked me out like it freaks me out when I see the real face behind a voice.
Maybe that means the characters looked too realistic to me - no idea (but then again, I was also opening the page expecting to see colorful ponies with rainbow colored mains - so I guess anything would seem more realistic than that. Huh).
All in all, I did like figuring out who each character was - but I also would have liked to see the GM behind the curtain.
-Then when I see what the voice-actors really look like it freaks me out, because they look nothing like what I'd expected (perhaps because they just seem too real when I dream in anime-inspired counterparts? I don't know).
So, what I'm saying is that this comic freaked me out like it freaks me out when I see the real face behind a voice.
Maybe that means the characters looked too realistic to me - no idea (but then again, I was also opening the page expecting to see colorful ponies with rainbow colored mains - so I guess anything would seem more realistic than that. Huh).
All in all, I did like figuring out who each character was - but I also would have liked to see the GM behind the curtain.
Pinkie's player is my favorite. She's nothing like I imagined and yet so, so fitting.
Besides the weird seating arrangement (four on one side, while Fluttershy and RD get their own segments?) I really enjoyed this one.
Besides the weird seating arrangement (four on one side, while Fluttershy and RD get their own segments?) I really enjoyed this one.
I understand that they do it due to her cake devouring habits, but if she's any bit active/hyperactive/insane as her pony self is, she'd burn any weight gained that way pretty fast, regardless of her party food habits. I mean, she jumps almost everywhere she goes.
Also, usually it's Twilight that's drawn with a dark complexion. If she's a bookworm, she'd probably have pale skin, from all the time spent indoors.
Also, this is a player, not Pinkie. There is nothing that says she's as hyper and burns it off like her pony character would.
Saying human Pinkie should be thin because she's hyperactive is like saying human Fluttershy should be fat because she's meek and doesn't exert herself.
A rambunctious personality does not translate to fat-burning exercise. I'm really not sure where people get that idea.
A rambunctious personality does not translate to fat-burning exercise. I'm really not sure where people get that idea.
In my Head canon I have Pinkie having a form of hyperthyroidism as an explanation for her eating habits and hyperness.
Well not men, per se, boys. But still male. The only evidence to the contrary are the stuffed shirts.
Oh, and last panel, Dash=Gilda.
Now I'm genuinely intrigued by your comment, so I'd like to know something, as I seek for critiquing. How would you have gone about design-wise to make these characters look more feminine whilst retaining a realistic look?
I think it's mostly chins. Broader chins make a character look more male, and only a few of the chins actually have a thinner chin (FS 2nd panel, Rarity 3rd panel). While this is not true 100% of the time in real life (and maybe not even 50%), when dealing with cartoon characters, an artist has to work from caricature presidencies.
In addition I think the cheek bones are too high on a lot of them for a cartoon female. Jawline is too square on a lot of them.
Basically I think the artist has a lot more experience drawing males than females. I personally have the same problem when I try to draw males; they all look kinda like flat chested girls (and not in the bishonen way).
Don't take this as a "Everything sucks forever." You've got a lot of things going well for you. It's not unusual for an artist to struggle with drawing one of the two sexes of humans.
This was very helpful, Karilyn, thanks.
I knowingly made the chins less sharper but I can see that it was probably not the best option, but that's what helps ya learn, right?^^ Also cheekbones- never woulda thought of that m'self, that's something for me to look into! It's rather humorous, but I'm a little less-than-satisfactory when it comes to noticing very basic things as an artist~ perhaps a bit too detail-oriented for my own good, haha. Thanks for the critique!
I knowingly made the chins less sharper but I can see that it was probably not the best option, but that's what helps ya learn, right?^^ Also cheekbones- never woulda thought of that m'self, that's something for me to look into! It's rather humorous, but I'm a little less-than-satisfactory when it comes to noticing very basic things as an artist~ perhaps a bit too detail-oriented for my own good, haha. Thanks for the critique!
Keep in mind I have absolutely no artistic talent, so this is purely an "eye of the beholder" kind of critique.
Women can always wear a hat indoors. Only men remove their hats when coming inside.
Thank God. With the season over, the only thing I even could hope for is Friendship is Dragons to come back
I notice that even though the DM's right there, she's still speaking in a narrator box. This clearly means that behind the screen is a speaker phone, like from Charlie's Angels. Therefore the Mane 6 are Lauren's Ponies.
...Maybe there's a camera somewhere too.
...Maybe there's a camera somewhere too.
So, Pinkie Pie comes up with stuff Pinkie's player doesn't expect? If it was anypony else, I'd say this theory is crazy.
The point being: If I wanted this to become canon, I would've had a lot more say in it.
It's just funnier if you think of Pinkie Pie as that goofy fat friend that most groups have. Like that chick in the movie "Bridesmaids". However, Rarity's a bit iffy. With a mid-Atlantic accent, it's somewhat hard to place, but then again there are plenty of black French people, so anything goes.
I always felt that Rarity's "accent" was faked, or trained. She is from what is essentially a tiny rural area when she fancies herself a big city socialite. As such she gives herself a high society sort of accent.
Fluttershy's player looks mighty fine in that sweater...
>male author
>draws every woman as unattractive as possible
>beta white knight sjw faggot detected
>draws every woman as unattractive as possible
>beta white knight sjw faggot detected
Recognize this? This is the Fluttershy v. Manticore moment from page 57, but this time from the point of view of the players around the DM table!
WAY back when I first called out for guest comics, Jovey approached me with an offer to do some fanart - whatever I particularly wanted to see, he said. I replied: I've always wanted to see an artist's interpretation of the players. He's done some pretty impressive work, I'd say! (You can also see the full-res version on his deviantART page - this one's been significantly sized down.)
And with this, the sabbatical comes to a close! Thanks to all the readers for being so patient and supportive, and a special thanks to all of the guest artists and authors that kept this comic flowing with funny content! The My Little Pony fandom truly, truly rocks.
But for those of you that have been waiting anxiously for the main run of comics to return: Dragonshy is coming up next, only on the Hub- I mean, Friendship is Dragons. See you there!