The Gang of Five
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Messages - Malte279

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81
General Land Before Time / Journey of the Brave (LBT 14)
« on: October 29, 2015, 11:57:57 AM »
I agree that giving it the benefit of the doubt may be the best thing to do, even though I share some of the skepticism (guess my position on Bron is well known and his inclusion makes it very unlikely that the new movie will be particularly respectful about the original or the setting of the early sequels). Nevertheless, nobody had seen any new installment coming at all and I am going to see it before deciding whether to like it or not like it. In case I end up disliking it, I do hope that as many others as possible do like it. My own sentiments for LBT are by now somewhat detached from further movies so I reckon a poor movie wouldn't hurt me as much as it would have ten years ago. On the other hand I am quite confident about my ability to still cheerish and rejoice over a new movie in case it is a good one.

82
Starday Wishes / Happy Birthday GreatValleyGuardian!
« on: October 26, 2015, 06:17:37 AM »
A happy 28th birthday to you GreatValleyGuardian! :yes
I hope that the wishes of last year turned true and that so they will in the upcomming year. To that effect, health, success, happiness, friendshp, luck, peace, love and occupation to you :birthday

83
LBT Fanart / Contest: Win a custom designed LBT Patch!
« on: October 21, 2015, 05:47:32 PM »
Congratulations somerandomfangirl! You really deserve this :yes
Your image captured just the kind of emotional moments which I really love in the land before time movies and along with the wish for more references to Littlefoot's mother in the movies (a wish I share) it also shows the sticking together in this very emotional matter of the three who remain of the original herd.

84
1988 Theatrical Release / If this were remade.
« on: October 18, 2015, 05:01:41 AM »
I don't tend to think in ranking categories with terms like better, best, worse or worst, but I agree with Kacie that one should keep an open mind and not presume to rank something too much before having seen it (or before it is anything more than a hypothesis for that matter :lol). A remake (I think it is highly unlikely that there will be one though) would be, for better or worse, different and for me that is sufficient reason to be curious in case it ever came to pass. Even if a remake was made that people would agree upon to be better than the original, it wouldn't make the original any worse than it is now. Nor would a worse remake make the original any worse. From this perspective there doesn't seem to be much to loose, but seeing that the original is rather awesome the idea of a remake that was even "better" would be an encouraging thought :)

85
Starday Wishes / happy birthday NEWORDER!
« on: October 15, 2015, 07:13:24 PM »
How could we ever forget :)
You are one of the first who ever were here and even if you haven't been around for a while everyone is always welcome to return to this board :yes
I will always remember those early days of the GOF with gratitude to "the few" who were around back then already and contributed to the community really taking off in the following years.

86
Starday Wishes / Happy birthday, Dalekdino
« on: October 15, 2015, 12:06:14 PM »
Congratulations for completing the first quarter of a century :)
I hope that you have a great celebration today and that your 26th year of life will be one of health, success, happiness, friendship, luck, peace, love and occupation :birthday

87
Starday Wishes / Happy birthday, EggStealerGirl!
« on: October 13, 2015, 03:57:27 AM »
Congratulations EggStealerGirl,
I hope that you have a great celebration today and that your next year of life will be one of health, success, happiness, friendship, luck, peace, love and occupation :birthday

88
General Land Before Time / Wow! LBT 10 was like that?
« on: October 12, 2015, 11:58:46 AM »
Welcome to the GOF :)
Quote
1) when Bron left, Mama Longneck was pregnant - Bron says "I knew we were going to HAVE a child" meaning that she had not given birth yet. A pregnant Longneck would be a colossal risk to travel with, especially as it was just Bron alone; if she got hurt or went into labour on the journey, she'd be a big risk - the noise would attract predators from miles around. Or, what if from lack of food on the journey, she lost the baby? Or what if Bron got injured and couldn't protect her and she died when attacked? Yes, where she was would have been dangerous, but there were lots of Longnecks around to protect them until they got separated by the Earthshakes.
I don't see how that would justify Bron's leaving his pregnant wife.
Quote
2) Bron doesn't KNOW Littlefoot is alive; he stumbles across him by sheer accident. He mentions that he met someone who was able to tell him what had happened to Littlefoot's mother, but could not say whether Littlefoot was alive. For all Bron knew, his child had died some time after being born. Bron knows the child was born, because he says that he searched for Littlefoot, and Bron would probably know when his child was conceived and due to be born, but he doesn't know if the child lived/escaped a Sharptooth, etc.
I disagree. For all Bron knew he didn't know anything about his child and there is absolutely no explanation whatsoever why he didn't go for the Great Valley which (according to the original movie) was where everyone was heading. Bron gave up without having taken the most reasonable step. Why he never went to the Valley remains unexplained. Just assuming for the own child to be dead without even being given any false information to base that assumption on seems like a rather cold hearted approach for a father to take, especially in combination with his not looking at the place where he must have known his wive was heading.

I may well be somewhat unfair in blaming Bron for all this. The truth comes down to the makers of LBT 10 not caring one bit about the original movie and continuity. When trying to apply any "in story explanations" however I really don't see how Bron's actions respectively lack of actions can be justified.

89
General Land Before Time / Why Petrie doesn't sing during "Always there"
« on: October 11, 2015, 09:55:49 AM »
Maybe because "Bestest Friends" really refered to the "bestest friends" which included Petrie, while the implication of "Always there" was that it was about the parents, living or dead, who were not physically there and even dead in case of at least one mother. In case of death rather than parting Petrie's grammar might have easily be taken the wrong way.

90
Starday Wishes / Happy Star Day, Fyn16!
« on: October 09, 2015, 07:12:01 PM »
A happy second Schnappszahl birthday to you Fyn16 :)
I wish you a 23rd year of health, success, happiness, friendship, luck, peace, love and occupation :birthday

91
Visual Art / Origami
« on: October 07, 2015, 05:50:38 AM »
I can only encourage you to do so. Funny thing is that whenever one folds something people seem to be under the impression that one must have had decade lasting training by an old wise samurai in some Tibetan monastry or something like that...  :lol ...while in fact I got to keep telling these people that it is not nearly that difficult to learn. And even to develope own figures is not so tricky. I did one of Ducky for example (got no picture ready to show of Origami Ducky at the moment).

92
Visual Art / Origami
« on: October 06, 2015, 05:30:07 PM »
Last August I picked up origami (paper folding) as a hobby. The hobby is really beautiful and relaxing though it has the downside that by now my entire place is somewhat littered with paper cranes, owls, kangaroos, elephants, giraffes, horses, dinosaurs, squirrels, all types of paper flowers etc.
Combining this hobby with the MLP fandom I recently created some print designs for MLP character origamis. Here are some results:

Last weekend I was at a larger bronie meetup for the first time and of course I had some of these prints along to teach anybronie interested how to fold the characters. It was well received and I got asked if I could do a discord origami too.
For that one I couldn't rely on any existing folding instructions on which the mane6 origamis were based (though I did change the instructions for paper horses a bit in order to get unicorns and pegasi / alicorns too), but I got some ideas and this is my first (alas wingless) attempt at an origami Discord:

93
Silver Screen / The My Little Pony - Friendship is Magic Thread
« on: October 06, 2015, 06:14:42 AM »
On brotherhooves social:
As a matter of fact they DID notice, Animeboye. The way it is presented I don't think Big Mac's crossdressing actually fooled anypony (except perhaps for that elderly judge). The CMCs, and Rainbow Dash clearly say so to Big Mac before the games even start and the judge who disqualifies Apple Bloom and Big Mac also leaves no doubt about the fact that they had seen through this from the beginning:

Apple Bloom: I should've known you'd eventually get busted for bein' a stallion!
Judge:Oh, no, we've known all along. The Sisterhooves Social has always had a loose policy when it comes to what counts as a "sister". But we do have a strict policy when it comes to sportsponyship! In your "sister's" desperation to win, he used brute strength to physically take out the competitors. Uh, that kind of behavior is not just unbecoming of a lady, but quite frankly, of anypony! And for that, you two are hereby disqualified!

I think it is a nice sign for a very open minded and liberal Equestria that ponies didn't just call Big Mac out for this from the start but probably viewed it the way Sweetie Belle summed it up:

Sweetie Belle: It's sweet he wants to help you out like this. Weird, but sweet.

Many of the looks Big Mac got were quite priceless though :lol

I think the episode did quite a good job in combining sensitive matters (like how much it bothered Big Mac that he was not looked up to, even ignored by his little sister anymore) with some really hillarious scenes. Also I think it was a very good decision that they were discqualified (after Big Mac) went all bulldozer mode rather than declared winners. Not winning made Apple Bloom's rediscovered appreciation for her brother a lot more powerful.


On Friendhip Games
In general I don't really warm up to the Equestria Girls films. I'm not saying that they were poorly made, and it is clear that the makers put a lot of effort into letting everyone of the main characters have a scene to shine. But there was almost nothing surprising or unexpected in the film. Villains always seem to have evil tatooed all over their faces. This of course is something that MLP can be accused of too, but I would really enjoy a subtle villain for a change, one who comes across as friendly and likeable until in some utterly unexpected act of treason or the like he or she drops the mask.
Also I think that Sunset Shimmer is becoming a little too much of a Mary Sue. She acts almost perfect all the time rather than sporting any of the hilarious flaws or quirks which every one of the other main characters has. True, she does always try to ask for advise from Twilight, but that too comes across as modesty rather than the kind of insecurity that could be viewed as a flaw and true, she does loose her temper with that world's Twilight at one point (but only after she endangered everyone and Sunset Shimmer immediately regrets). Maybe one could bring up some other points against my view here (I pray you do), but I feel she has become the closest we got to a Mary Sue in this franchise.
Also I think when that world's Twilight was corrupted for a moment and tried to tear open the border between the worlds one could have made it all A LOT more powerful with just a little change in the motives of "evil Twilight". In the movie all she gives as a motive is greed for the powerful magic in equestria. How much more powerful would it have been if instead it had been her motive to try to get to Equestria, no matter what, because almost all she ever experienced in her world was being lonely and bullied? I think there are a number of bronies who could relate to such a "get to Equestria no matter what" kind of motive much more than to the blunt and overused "I want magic power!"

94
The Fridge / The Fight To Try Again?
« on: October 02, 2015, 02:51:24 PM »
I'm 31 one now and haven't ever been in any romantic relationship whatsoever. Not even held the hand of anyone. It is not because I was deliberately avoiding relationships, but I'm afraid I either don't appeal much to the fairer gender or am too cautious about letting my guards down. Probably a combination of both :(

95
Starday Wishes / Happy Birthday Malte!
« on: September 27, 2015, 07:33:04 PM »
Thank you all very much :)
Looking back at the year past it is a bit of a mixed picture. I have had some really very dark times last winter and while the presentations I hold really give me a lot in terms of spirit and sheer joy, the failure of some projects (not enough people signing up for my excursion to Waterloo to take place) and most of all the continued lack of success with my applications in combination with a frequent treatment of applicants like they were beggars is taking a toll.
On the other hand the past year has been one of immense creative activity and exploring of new shores and getting to know more people.
I am curious to see what the next year will bring.

96
History Section / America didn't do everything in WW2
« on: September 24, 2015, 07:31:06 AM »
Aye, it is true that there is a very stong tendency in Hollywood movies in particular to depict the US as the single handed winner of WW2 without whom the whole world would have fallen into the abyss of fashist terror.
The truth (admittedly a truth that is easier to diagnose with the benefit of hindsight than it probably was at the time the war was going on) is that there wasn't any realistic chance for nazi Germany to defeat the Soviet Union or rather to conquer it, murder most of the population and thereby gain "Lebensraum im Osten" (space to live in the east) the way Hitler pictured in his disgusting schemes.
Many Germans underestimated the Soviet Union and its military capacities for several reasons.
First there was WW1. The revolution in Russia caused a Russian surrender at Brest Litovsk to terms Russian politicians probably would have never agreed to, but for the fact that on the one hand the German defeat was foreseeable so the terms were likely to be very temporarry and secondly because Lenin and others thought more in class rather than nationalist terms therefore attributing less priority to national interests.
Secondly there was extremely expensive Pyrrhic victory of the Soviet Union against the much smaller smaller Finnland in the winter war of 1939-1940 which contributed to the immage of utter incompetence of the Soviet military.
Last but not least the crushing Soviet defeats of Soviet troops in the first months after the German attack reinforced that image (though a good deal of these defeats is to be blamed specifically to Stalin's making the same mistake as Hitler did by issuing "don't give an inch" orders that allowed for large troop contingents to be surrounded and captured rather than draining the attackers with a prolonged fighting retreat.
Unlike in case of 1917 there was no significant opposition in Russia to launch any kind of revolution (Stalin's brutal murdering of anyone even vaguely suspected of dissenting in the 1930s had made sure of that), and moreover the genocidal war of annihilation committed by the German troops also worked to create a "do or die" kind of mindset against the invaders.
The war of annihilation launched by Germany pretty much left the Soviet population nothing to gain at all from a ceasefire or peace with Germany. Therefore even in the worst case of a capture of Moscow in late 1941 this would not necessarily have resulted in a surrender of the Soviet Union. Production facilities had been evacuated beyond the Ural (well out of reach of the German Luftwaffe that lacked any long distance bomber) and of course the weather conditions were working against the invaders too. Napoleon's capture of Moscow in 1812 was considered even back then as an example that the capturing of the capital was not such a matter of course cause for a surrender as would have been the case with most nations in Western Europe.
The Soviet Union's military and industrial capacity surpassed that of Germany by far and the quality of the arms too was (contrary to ocassional claims very good). The T34 for example was probably the best middle tank of the war, the Iljuschin Il-2 Stormovik one of the best planes for ground support (and the most frequently produced plane in history) and the Katyusha rocket launcher, in spited of limitted accuracy proved highly effective to prepare infantry and tank attacks and demoralize the opponents.
The American contribution to WW2 was important (this refers also to the lent and lease goods provided prior to the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor), very likely shortned the war by years and certainly ensured that large parts of Western Europe were not under the controll of the Soviet Union at the end of the war.
With regard to the outcome of winning and loosing however, the American contribution was not the decicive factor. The Soviet Union would have won even without the American entry into the war. Post WW2 Europe would have been entirely different however.
With regard to the losses the Eastern Front of the European theatre of WW2 was on an entirely different level compared to the western front. The losses of all western nations combined make for less than a tenth of the losses suffered by the Soviet Union (roughly 16 times the combined losses of both sides of the American civil war) and that is (get this!) only true if one counts the military death only ignoring millions and millions of civilians murdered in a genocidal war (and German losses on the Fastern Front were more than six times as high in the East than in the west and exceeded the total losses for the entire war in the west in every single year from 1941 to 1945 in the East.
Here is a graph to illustrate the difference (again, that one does not cover the millions of civilians brutally murdered who in terms of numbers again exceed by far the military deaths of both sides in the west):

Long story short, America's entry in WW2 did not determine its outcome, but It was absolutely crucial for the political landscape of post WW2 Europe an the world.

97
1988 Theatrical Release / Has anyone tried to restore the ending?
« on: September 19, 2015, 04:32:22 AM »
Both versions have their merrit. The merrit of the version as we know it is that the Great Valley is really presented in a splendid manner and a as a final after which any further narrative might appear a bit "attached".
However, the original version would have made a very dramatic point with Littlefoot ranking the friendship with the others higher than the Valley and turning back in spite of their preceeding quarrel. The quarrel also give a basis for Littlefoot being as discouraged as he is when encountering the cloud image of his mother (right after not only the triumph over sharptooth but also the unexpected saving of Petrie, moments that is when such a down spirited mood for Littlefoot can be explained (sheer exhaustion) but still appears a little out of place.

98
1988 Theatrical Release / LBT on DVD
« on: September 18, 2015, 10:05:29 AM »
And also the recent comming of of actual deleted scenes material (I'm talking about the snake scene recently presented in the outcut scenes section) goes to show that even after all this time it is unlikely but still quite possible for something to come up (same as LBT 14 used to be for that matter :smile).

99
Silver Screen / The My Little Pony - Friendship is Magic Thread
« on: September 12, 2015, 05:19:13 PM »
My opinion on this episode (blackened to avoid spoilers):

I think this was a very solid episode. It didn't inspire me as much as some others from season five, but it also didn't have anything bad about it. After some minutes I had some expectations where it would be going and while some expectations turned true (I expected Sassy Sadles to end up in charge of the boutique in Canterlot and for Rarity to return to Ponyville), other expectations did not (I thought that the focus would be a choice between living your dream in Canterlot on the one and not moving away from your friends on the other end). I think that the problem they came up with was more original and better to solve. The mass production without creativity (one of Rarity's very likeable qualities) element is something I had not foreseen. There have been previous episodes (mostly about Rainbow Dash) in which the matter of moving away from friends to live ones life's dream might have been addressed, but I think that it may be a good thing they didn't focus on that. The risk with such a focus is that it might end up with either a "deus ex machina" solution (along the lines of bringing the previously not available means for the lifedream to ponyville) or else with a moral that would have a somewhat bitter "life's dreams OR friends, you can't have both!" kind of moral that would really not sit well with many I think.
On a sidenote, I found some of the other dresses from Raritie's collection much better looking than the one inspired by the stained glass window
;)

100
LBT Fanart / Contest: Win a custom designed LBT Patch!
« on: September 12, 2015, 08:07:11 AM »
I'll cast my treestar in the ring hoping for many others here to cast theirs.
Thank you very much for holding this competition here Rocking Scorpion :yes
This is a sketch I just made:



I always felt that the land before time sequels dealt a little too one sided with the whole "accept Chomper issue" by never really allowing Littlefoot to have any seriously uneasy feelings about it and by presenting Cera as a bit of a jerk for addressing a matter that is kind of legitimate to address, seeing how most beings are rather attached to their lives. I never blamed the makers of LBT too much, especially because I don't have a totally satisfying solution for the whole predator and prey by nature's design issue either (the closest I got would be if it was possible for an adult Chomper to live on scavenging only, but this too would probably not be addressed in a show for kids).
Nevertheless I would have liked to see at least some more reflective moments about it all. Littlefoot after all lost his mother to a sharptooth and he and the others in turn killed that same sharptooth. There is a bit of a discrepancy between the fact that LBT 5 had the first of very few references made to Littlefoot's mother in the sequels but that it doesn't draw the line towards the relationship with Chomper so prominently featured in the same movie.
The image here is meant to depict a somewhat more reflective moment and therefore I put a lot of symbols in with references to the original movie. We got the big sharptooth footprint in which Littlefoot and Chomper are standing, we got the cloud image of Littlefoot's mother, we got one treestar in Chompers hands. There is that gap, that might be a reference to the mysterious beyond entrance in the second movie but that can also be seen as a bit of a "you don't really know what lies beyond the ridge" symbol with the cloud image of Littlefoot's mother there. Another "beyond" reference is there with the dinosaur bones in the background which may also be seen as possible remains of a prey of the one in whose footprints Littlefoot and Chomper are standing. With all these gloomy elements however there is also the growing tree and the bright circle peeking out from beyond the cloud image.

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