Poor Petty Pony Politicking · 5:09am Feb 26th, 2017
Before I start, a quick disclaimer: I'm not going to be talking about actual politicians or anything in modern-day. This is all grounded in fiction. It's also somewhat related to Fullmetal Pony, but really only the process and not the progress. With that out of the way, let's start!
Ah, crap.
Over the last couple of weeks, I've been playing through Dragon Age: Origins. I'm on an RPG kick, and it has been six years since my first playthrough of this game, so I figured "Why not?" Well, I'm currently at the part of the campaign where I need to sway voters one way or another in a series of favors, fights, and falsehoods, all in the name of naming someone the King of the Nugs. (It's actually the dwarves, but c'mon, the nugs are more appealing.)
Needless to say, it's the most boring part of the game thus far. I'm trying to keep track of which candidate has which generic dwarf-face and why I don't want him to claim the throne, all while running from one end of their mountain city to the other just to deliver a message. Then I gotta repeat the process because "Sorry, but you'll need to give this quest token to another NPC you haven't met yet."
It's the part of the game where I stop after an hour of running around, rather than the three hours I probably did when I began.
But then I got to thinking about Fullmetal Pony, as I often do during the day (seriously it's almost as often as Ikusa, please send help). A lot of my current headflies are buzzing ideas about power plays and how Luna should behave, In particular, I'm getting ideas for how much of an authority figure Luna should be, since this is a story where she's been the sole ruler for generations. It goes without saying that she knows her business, so it makes sense to have her be the boss.
Pfft, I'm even tossing around a scene where she stops a guy's heart. Literally stops his heart. Like, uses her super princess mind-bullets to keep his heart from beating while Shining Armor and company look on. And who could blame her?
So what's this got to do with Dragon Age and Nug-Kings and not mixing up Dwarf Jack with Dwarf Jenny? Well, I just noticed how I feel about each separate storyline and how I approach their politics. While Dragon Age's political backstabbery is boring from where I sit, the powers at play within FMP are actually quite interesting. Possibly because I know nothing about actual politics so I'm playing all of this by ear, but interesting nonetheless. In addition to the whole heart-stoppery that I'd like to use, I've also got plenty of subplots involving Luna, Cadance, and all of their shenanigans. There's enough ideas and potential here for me to confidently write entire chapters with just one or both of them. And one of them isn't even a princess yet!
It makes me wonder how different I'd feel about Dragon Age's approach if I saw things from the royal's point of view. It can't be easy to wield that much power, and it would certainly take a stone-skinned psycho to actually want something like that. I already have an idea of how things will end up by the time I finish with all these dwarf shenanigans, and it's surprisingly more in-line with my FMP ideas than I originally thought. Which also means I might stand to learn a thing or two if I paid attention to the game during all of this.
Still, that doesn't mean I'm going to give up all of these wonderful scenes just yet. Whether or not they appear in the first book of FMP, I really want to see how these scenes fit into the overall narrative. There's a major plot in the works involving Luna, something much better than any ordinary subplot. And I'm hoping to have Cadance be an unwilling hero of her own caliber by the end.
(Speaking of unwilling hero, I'm still chipping away at the archetype study. Bit by bit, but only when the inspiration strikes. I want at least one more section done before I submit anything. Hope it'll be good!)
Anyway, where was I? Hmm...how about I get back into the habit of posting a cool pony with each blog I make? Lessee...
Magic Fact: I've been on a Weight Watcher's program since January, and god do I miss baked goods.
~Leo
As a baker's son who spent a few years as an unofficial taste tester, I don't really eat baked goods if I can help it. Unless it's a curry puff, they taste fantastic right out of the oven. All crispy and savory...and I'm unintentionally torturing you, aren't I?
My bad