Friendship is Dragons
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Page 1533 - Poking the Premise
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Newbiespud
13th May 2021, 6:00 AM
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Twilight: So I read about this OTHER MacGuffin in the frozen north...
The idea of a player questioning the need for a really powerful magic item is a bit foreign to me. Curious to see where this argument goes. :3
Though if you haven't seen the final season of the show, the question does actually come up there too.
Though if you haven't seen the final season of the show, the question does actually come up there too.
Never mind the last season of the show it comes up in the very first episode. And the first arc of the comic. "The spirits of the Elements of Harmony are right here."
It usually happens when you realize said powerful magic item is against your alignment/personality, has a bad side effect, or you have a better option that fits same magic item slot.
Or, for those of us who play HERO: It has the "Independent" limitation¹, which sometimes results in players looking for a way to get rid of it that earns them the equivalent in XP.
1: A -2 limitation that means if you lose it, it's gone. As opposed to a more typical Focus which you will somehow be able to recover or replace.
1: A -2 limitation that means if you lose it, it's gone. As opposed to a more typical Focus which you will somehow be able to recover or replace.
Of course it also cuts to something I think about whenever people debate how Celestia seems to rely on Twilight to do everything, that however much Twilight believes and reveres Princess Celestia, it pales in comparison to how much faith Celestia has in Twilight to always succeed in the end.
And yeah, Twilight questioning the need for the elements catches me a bit off guard too. Not sure where she's going with this.
Honestly reminds me, of this time a friend of min ran a deeply Final Fantasy/TalesOf flavored setting, involving magical Elemental crystals controlling the worlds elements, with one being cracked at the starter villain at the beginning...
Game did not last long, as the ever-mentioned Dave did not seem on board with the idea that the ENTIRE WORLD was so fragile, an entire element could break because some level 3 jackass defeated the crystals Guardian and smacked it with a big rock, and went at length about why it was thematically stupid.
Years later, I'm doing something similar, but they won't even Hear of these things till level 10, and all Six are claimed by a Dragon(which are... WAY more of a big deal in my setting then most) so even getting to see them are unlikely...
... And nothing short of a Dragon would even be able to damage them, much less destroy them(and they would regenerate in time)... They are functionally primary gates to the Elemental planes(fire, water, earth, air, and the Positive and Negative energy planes), as well as the primary Anchor for them in our world... Aswell as the main nerve centers of the worlds Magical Leylines, being a massive, important part of magic being so prevalent...
There's also Transitory Crystals representing the Transitiry Elemental Planes, which are far less valuable, powerful, and CAN be destroyed(they would still Regenerate in a few centuries)...
This entire thing is a example of how questioning MacGuffins can lead to refinement and repurposing of ideas... Even if only One of the Crystals comes up, at the very end, when your going to stop the Endboss.
Game did not last long, as the ever-mentioned Dave did not seem on board with the idea that the ENTIRE WORLD was so fragile, an entire element could break because some level 3 jackass defeated the crystals Guardian and smacked it with a big rock, and went at length about why it was thematically stupid.
Years later, I'm doing something similar, but they won't even Hear of these things till level 10, and all Six are claimed by a Dragon(which are... WAY more of a big deal in my setting then most) so even getting to see them are unlikely...
... And nothing short of a Dragon would even be able to damage them, much less destroy them(and they would regenerate in time)... They are functionally primary gates to the Elemental planes(fire, water, earth, air, and the Positive and Negative energy planes), as well as the primary Anchor for them in our world... Aswell as the main nerve centers of the worlds Magical Leylines, being a massive, important part of magic being so prevalent...
There's also Transitory Crystals representing the Transitiry Elemental Planes, which are far less valuable, powerful, and CAN be destroyed(they would still Regenerate in a few centuries)...
This entire thing is a example of how questioning MacGuffins can lead to refinement and repurposing of ideas... Even if only One of the Crystals comes up, at the very end, when your going to stop the Endboss.
There are two key things to bear in mind about Celestia:
1) She literally has a thousand years of experience running Equestria. Even if the current era of the show is exceptionally volatile, chances are excellent that she's encountered and dealt with something similar to just about anything that comes up, and has plenty of perspective on how things can be dealt with or recovered from. So, yes, she has faith in Twilight and her friends, but she also understands that their failure wouldn't (usually) be the actual end of the world.
2) She is grooming Twilight as a potential Princess and possible future ruler of Equestria from the beginning, and a big part of that is letter her make, and learn from, her own mistakes while there are safety nets in place, so that she'll be ready (and confident in her own abilities) when the time comes for her to take over.
1) She literally has a thousand years of experience running Equestria. Even if the current era of the show is exceptionally volatile, chances are excellent that she's encountered and dealt with something similar to just about anything that comes up, and has plenty of perspective on how things can be dealt with or recovered from. So, yes, she has faith in Twilight and her friends, but she also understands that their failure wouldn't (usually) be the actual end of the world.
2) She is grooming Twilight as a potential Princess and possible future ruler of Equestria from the beginning, and a big part of that is letter her make, and learn from, her own mistakes while there are safety nets in place, so that she'll be ready (and confident in her own abilities) when the time comes for her to take over.
Good thing grooming a pony is different from grooming a child.
Don't forget 3) She's known to sometimes have prophetic visions, and it's ambiguous how common and informative they are. We know just enough about the subject to make it always plausible that she did a certain thing because a vision of the future told her to.
Or, if you're like my party, your Chaotic Netural bard realizes the sentient Neutral Evil sword can't talk to its wielder unless they attune to it, so they dunk on the sword by gifting it to the Lawful Good war cleric with a warning so that it has to watch as it's used to defeat the cult it helped create :D
Players questioning the need for a powerful magical item/artifact raise so many red flags it looks like the parking lot at a Huskers game. And is almost as good as 'Can I play a Malkavian?' for getting my paranoia running.
As for Luna vs Celestia, well, I have some theories. And if I had art skills, I'd consider trying a filler comic for Spud.
As for Luna vs Celestia, well, I have some theories. And if I had art skills, I'd consider trying a filler comic for Spud.
I have given up a few powerful magic artifacts because dangerous, did not fit at all with play style or alignment, or was worth more to me as money.
Also party recently kind of gave up magical nuke due to diplomatic relations and apparently it being illegal to walk through a city with a magic nuke? Who knows. We did negotiate so it is more jointly-owned and can be used against some of our actual enemies.
Also party recently kind of gave up magical nuke due to diplomatic relations and apparently it being illegal to walk through a city with a magic nuke? Who knows. We did negotiate so it is more jointly-owned and can be used against some of our actual enemies.
What is it about your ability to catch screencaps? Panel 1 -- Celestia looks semi-giddy, sort of eager and excited, while Luna is almost ashamed or embarrassed? What episode was this -- I actually don't recognize the early ones from screencaps until we get into the action, and if you're mixing three episodes like people are expecting...