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This makes me really angry for some reason, like when people tried to fanon away Luna's voice. But this time it's even more pathetic, honestly, is this really necessary? It's such a minuscule difference that if I where one of the animators who wanted to please the fans by showing her eyes I'd be pretty insulted by this.

I guess It's high time I whipped this out again.

Falkreath's Jarl, maybe. Been following this guy's work on Skyrim…All I can say is soon

PINKIE PIE EEZ BEZT ORK!!!

Best tumblr ever?

Best tumblr ever.

Ok, for a serious discussion now.
This is something I just want to get off my chest and discuss with you guys.
Noticed some new shipping pics in the KYM image gallery for MLP. Usually, I can tolerate it to some degree. But I'm starting to see some differences…
My question is, do you think that there's a difference between how good and bad a ship is?
I mean, (not gonna post pics in fear of mods), but I saw a particular one with Fluttershy and Pinkie Pie dancing (Careless Whisper by George Michael starting going off in my head). Simple dancing, and a lot of good emotion to it. Not suggestive; just a cute and innocent image.
Then I see this stuff that goes way down there. Not exactly R34, but just like a whole lotta sensless making out and suggestive stuff. Now this, I am not a personal fan of, but I can tolerate it unless it gets too ridiculous.
So what do you think, is there such thing as "innocent" ship images, or is all of it bad?

@ Unknown

This has been covered before, but I'm not sure if you were here at the time. I can't point out the page though. Basically, the thoughts of the thread are half and half.

I personally feel the same way. Things like dancing, light pecks on the cheek and all that appeal to me, but nothing suggestive. Many others like BSoD and Algernon (if I remember right) feel the same way. If you decide to go onto page 69 (which I wouldn't recommend considering your post) you will see that others like stuff beyond that.

Somewhat related to the topic. I've posted this before, but I'm posting it again because I find it insufferably adorable.

This is maybe the dumbest ship ever (yes, its a ship, josesco said so himself), but I like it for some reason. Maybe I like bread more than I thought. Who knows?

I wish there was a baguette store near where I lived. I'm hungry.

I tried for 10 minutes to do a tl;dr on why we ship ponies, but the truth is I honestly have no idea. It has something to do with human nature.

Unknown Unknown wrote:

Ok, for a serious discussion now.
This is something I just want to get off my chest and discuss with you guys.
Noticed some new shipping pics in the KYM image gallery for MLP. Usually, I can tolerate it to some degree. But I’m starting to see some differences…
My question is, do you think that there’s a difference between how good and bad a ship is?
I mean, (not gonna post pics in fear of mods), but I saw a particular one with Fluttershy and Pinkie Pie dancing (Careless Whisper by George Michael starting going off in my head). Simple dancing, and a lot of good emotion to it. Not suggestive; just a cute and innocent image.
Then I see this stuff that goes way down there. Not exactly R34, but just like a whole lotta sensless making out and suggestive stuff. Now this, I am not a personal fan of, but I can tolerate it unless it gets too ridiculous.
So what do you think, is there such thing as “innocent” ship images, or is all of it bad?

Well personally I think there is a huge differance between good/bad ship. For one, some shipping makes sense. Rarity-Spike for example and Dr.Hooves-Derpy.
The way I see it, if it makes sense, its a good ship. Doesn't matter if heterosexual or homosexual. I don't judge. Any 'crack pairings' i.e pairing just for the hell of it, is a bad ship.

As a terrible artist, I've "shipped" characters. RD-Soarin Rarity-Spike Dr.Hooves-Derpy but I never drew anything explicit, just romantic and simple stuff. Like a hug or something. (I drew Derpy hugging Dr.Hooves after he gave her a rose and certain people classified it as shipping)

There are definately "innocent' ship images. Anything cute, that makes sense would be "innocent".

My opinion on shipping and R34:
I don't really care. Someone likes R34? Fine. Someone doesn't like R34? Fine. I don't care. I see it, I don't do anything, keep on scrolling.

But Ill tell you one thing: simple, romantic stuff (a hug, a simple kiss) definately moves a picture forward. More people will like it, more people will favorite it. Anything sad and/or romantic gets a picture more views.

@Muffinator & Ivan
Thanks for the opinions. I have to agree with both of you.
Unfortunately, I didn't really get my question answered by page 69 I saw raps about shipping and a whole lotta ship images, but nothing really that answered my question unfortunately.
So the question still stands for others who want to comentate.

And I have to say it again: my first fic's up for anyone who wants to read it on FIMFiction. The name's We'll_Never_Know, and its the only story on there. There was a link earlier if you want.

Guys…Guys…Guys….

I am so sorry….So sorry

I enjoy funny shipping and cute shipping to a certian extent, and then today I discovered cool shipping that is also cute and kinda funny.

wtf I'm more into shipping than I thought I was

Personally, I find light shipping to be absolutely diabeetus-inducing and lovable. WhiteDiamondsLtd is amazing at doing this, and coincidentally, she's also my favourite pony artist. She ships RarityXApplejack like crazy,but the way she does it is completely nonsexual, and portrays them as simply a bit more than good friends. "Friendshipping" is the term. Here's an excellent example.

The only thing that makes a ship "bad," per se, is its fanbase. If all that particular fanbase does for those characters is draw porn and write adult fanfics, that's a bad ship.

However, if the fanbase sees the characters as more than simply characters for our own amusement, and fleshes out their personalities, their strengths, their weaknesses, their inner selves, and makes them lovable and relatable, well, that amount of effort speaks for itself.

I started out as an anti-shipper, but then I realized shipping doesn't necessarily equate to r34. If done properly and gently, it can add a whole new dimension to our very own little girls' show.

I don't particularly care for suggestive images and the like, but as long as they have some basis, I can tolerate them. It's just that a lot of these pictures don't.

TL;DR: A bad shipping is centred around human enjoyment. A good ship is centred around the ponies' personalities and development.

verbose, where are youuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu

verbose, where are youuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu

Don't let the calm demeanor and regular but not as frequent posting fool you. I'm in the midst of some serious paper writing and will be until Friday.

As such, I can't give much thought to the whole good ship/bad ship discussion.

I love whitediamonds as well, because there is something more to many of the two-pony relationships that doesn't have to be sexual or explicit;

For example, I like most of you guys, but being honest, I'm feel like I'm better friends with some of you more than others. I think that it's hard or unnecessary to show two ponies having a closer than average relationship with another, especially given that broneis are a thing now, without there being speculation that there are homosexual undertones in a girls' show.

But it's nice to see close relationships that aren't necessarily of a romantic or obviously sexual nature from characters that we've come to know and love.

As for what makes a good ship or a bad ship, I think it's largely subjective, but I think how much sense the pairing makes.

DiscoPie? Yeah, sure. At Discord's best, anyway.
Rarijack? Of a sort.
PinkieDash? Already canon I mean IT WOULD MAKE SENSE BUT I DON'T SHIP THEM

Can't really think of ones that just don't make sense. Twilight doesn't seem to be particularly shippable with the mane six in my eyes, but I don't know. I'm not much of a shipper.

Go with what other people are saying. I am not on my A-game, and this is not a topic I know much about.

Oh, needs moar ponu.

And then the battlefield was divinely fabulous.

You guys covered this rather concisely.

IvanP91v wrote:

But I'll tell you one thing: simple, romantic stuff (a hug, a simple kiss) definately moves a picture forward. More people will like it, more people will favorite it. Anything sad and/or romantic gets a picture more views.

Twins the Comatose Vegetable wrote:

A good ship is centred around the ponies’ personalities and development.

Verbose wrote:

As for what makes a good ship or a bad ship, I think it’s largely subjective, but I think how much sense the pairing makes.

I really don't have anything to add to that. When it comes to personal preference, I agree with these statements the most. Also, I'm no wild and crazy shipper, but these are my favorites, based on the above criteria:

Because who doesn't love these two?

Hey, you have to admit, their interactions thus far would make for some decent romantic comedy, if you like.

Seriously cute.

Like I said, those are my favorites. Don't read too much into them.

@Explosive Lasers

Here, have some more Applejack!

And Fluttershy!

Posting this because adorable.

(Joins in this discussion)

I enjoy light shipping, as Twins said. It can be extremely cute and just d'awwwwwww worthy. I tend to keep fairly non-crack pipe shipping favorites, like Rarity and older Spike (actually, a huge fan of this, even have a fan fic in progress), but that's not the point.
Although I don't mind r34 pictures, I do have to agree on the pointlessness of some of them. Some are just things you look at and go, "Who the hell would draw that?"
But past the strangeness and sometimes awkwardness of certain pictures, some of them are extremely well drawn.

Ah, shipping discussion again. It's just like I say:

Sensibility dictates avoidance but our curiosity craves it. It’s just so interesting to talk about.

We did indeed have a chat about this recently as others have pointed out. I believe that page 79 is the page you are looking for

There I explained how I felt about shipping in full. But most of it points back to what Verbose and Twins were saying.

There was also this discussion even earlier in the thread too

So anyway, I'm back in a position where I can post on this thread again rather than just my user profile. I briefly skimmed the last several pages and noticed all the awesome discussion I missed out on. Looks like this thread has been going fine without me.

I see Ivan is here again. Finally we don't have to guess if the new users are you anymore! Hooray!

Now we just need Cite to show up and this will be like a huge family re-union

Why isn't she in the kitchen making you a sandwich?

Best ship is quality porn.

@Unknown Unknown
Here is the compalation of the shipping/R34 pages.
Enjoy!

@RandomMan
LolFutashy

@Shipping
You probably know, but I love all shipping. Cute like FlutterPie or TwiDash, canon like SpikexRarity or FlutterDash, and most other ones, no matter how horribly creepy or disgusting they are. (However I tend to hate it when Big Mac, Caramel, or Braeburn are in a straight shipping.)
Every part of shipping is likable to me, cute, canon, sexy, creepy, "makes-sense," "doesn't-make-sense" and is done for comedic purposes. But that's just my opinion and I try not to force it anymore.

@Discussion:

I tolerate shipping, some more than others.. I don't really actively partake in it, because that's just not my style, and because I tend to find that a lot of people avoid it.

However, I do enjoy friendshipping, and developing characters/relationships beyond what we're given in the shows. Characters can be furthered developed with shipping, and when it's used in that way, I can stand by it. For example, I'm sure Derpy and the Doctor have been fleshed out a lot more than they would have if the ship had never existed. Same with Lyra and Bon-Bon.

Personally, there are ships I love the shit out of. RariSpike, Lyra and Bon-Bon, Derpy and the Doctor, etc. All the ones that are either canon, or generally accepted. I, personally, don't really enjoy much of the Mane Six shipping, but what are you gonna do. Bittersweet, one of my favorite fanfics, had implied shipping between RD and Pinkie. But it was subtle enough to just be interpreted as friendship, if you tried. It also greatly helped the development of the plot, and characters beyond just RD and Pinkie.

I think most of the people here are all on the same page in tolerating shipping. I mean, it's not bad in and of itself, it's the people that overdo it that are bad.

Oh, and there's also comedy ships that rock. Like RainbowXSink, TwilightXBooks, etc.

So, I think it's all in good fun, and can be used beneficially to help the development of a character. It needs to be done correctly. If used incorrectly, we get characters like Spitfire, who has gone from a professional athlete to a goddamned seductress, with no support from the show itself (other than the latex costume, which Soarin' wears, too).

It all comes down to how it's done, really, and who it's between. Generally, the fandom supports ships that make sense, to some degree, and they generally become larger.

Just like FlutterMac. However, they became too attached to that ship, and when there was a hint of canon possibly interfering with it, they flipped their shits. Which, while an immature reaction by itself, was even more ridiculous when it ended by implying that Big Mac and Cheerilee weren't dating, or anything like that. So, the supporters of that ship made a shitstorm out of nothing.

That's the power of shipping in a fandom. When something becomes so widely accepted, shit tends to get tossed around when something screws with it in the show. Same with Derpy, Vinyl's eyes, etc.

TL;DR: Your move, Verbose.

Dropping more adorable bombs.

@Shipping

I agree with Connor here. I prefer shippings that are filled with cuteness and and humour in them.I also enjoy some of the erotic moments. Not all of the clopfics I stumbled upon at the FiMFiction are fully related to their gender, most of them are majorly concentrated to romance and such, even though they are rated mature. It's like after going through the 'sexy' parts, then come next is the most d'awwwinnng and hnnnnggging moments you have ever read and BOOM, all your naughty thoughts are gone and is replaced with love and care.

I hope no one hates me for my opinion

This page get belongs to my fellow night ponies.

Edit: It is way too harder than it should be to find new artwork of these guys.

Also, I agree with Giga's comment below, which is why Rarity and Spike is also a decent ship, if a little on the… difficult… end of things. Also, even though it's basically canon (speaking of which, no one's yet mentioned Cadance and Armor in this discussion, how funny), it's always been peculiar to me that the show's creators would ship someone they refer to as a "baby" with a pony who is not. Very odd.

@topic:
The only time I enjoy shipping is when it doesn't feel manipulative of the characters, when it's natural and doesn't conflict with canon personalities and interactions. Shipping main characters will almost always feel manipulative and… well… fanficky because we know the characters so well we can tell when they're being bent to the writer's will.

On the other hand, shipping background characters has potential to work respectfully within the context of the canon. Lyra x BonBon is probably the only 100% non-canon romance I'm ok with, becaus we don't know the characters, so who's to say they aren't in a relationship? It does have its limits of course, Scratch x Octavia is just silly, they're so opposed to each other it feels unnatural and manipulative. Even though we don't know the characters there are obvious things established about them that conflict with that kind of relationship. (Scratch and Octavia as comedy duo roommates however, see: 'Epic Wub Time', is brilliant.)

Oh my god, this

Posted in EqD anyway.

link

TAKE THAT, MOTHER-BUCKERS!

Fans of any pony besides AJ's status:

[ ] Owned
[ ] Super Owned
[ ] Pwned
[X] Thomas Nair's Karma Level

Status of their jimmies:

[ ] Unrustled
[ ] Rustled
[X] Zubat-level rustled

Prepare yourself.

Best ships are Bloomberg x Fluttertree, The Great and Powerful Trixie x a changeling disguised as The Great and Powerful Trixie, and of course, the lusty love triangle of Mister Turnip, Rocky, and Madame Le Leflour! SCANDALOUS.

On a serious note, do you believe that people may ship characters based on their self-image and preferences? That is to say, one individual represents them, the other has qualities that the individual finds attractive, and they ship them because they assume the characters most like them would have similar tastes. I've been contemplating this, and I think it could be a reason behind "crack pairings."

Edit:
Not related to our current discussion, but I found this interesting.

So I'm kinda lost in all this but i read the last page and saw that a lot you were talking about shipping, frankly i don't really see the point between match making characters from the show.

And when you ask me there are to types of ships. The Sensible ships like RairtyXSpike or FlutterMac and then there are the ships that don't make any fucking sense. Like…lets say something like….Big mac and luna. Now i know that there are a few people out there that like a ship like that but i don't see anything in it.

Now what ships do you guy's like and what ships do you guys hate?

But before i finish this, here's some woona.

Oh man, that has gotta be the best Tumblr….

PONIES ARE NOW IN SCP!!

WATCH OUT FOR THE PEANUT MAN! LUNA!!!!!!

SCP? What's that? I hear people talking about it a lot but i have no idea what it is.

Just look at this thread to find out what SCP is that I have linked.

So it's some sort of survival horror?

Yes, but you can't win, the game is about atmosphere though.

Now post what ever questions you have left in the thread I have linked to you so we won't derail this thread.

Ah, the old shipping discussion. Ground well covered, but I guess it wouldn't hurt to go over it all again.

Personally, I quite like shipping, but it's not like I go out of my way to find it. To me, it's a thing that just happens to show up from time to time, and when it does, I accept it and even enjoy it sometimes. The best kind is of course the adorable kind, like in those pics that Twins has linked a few times.

Since I've read a lot of fanfics (~150 or so), shipping's just something I'm used to. It would be impossible for me to get through that many without encountering it at least a few times. While I was initially wary of the 'shipping' tags on EqD at first, I soon learned that it's not always a bad thing to have in a story. There are a lot of great fics out there that have shipping in them, and in some of them I found that shipping even made it better. I've never read a clopfic or anything (and I plan to keep things that way), but I have read some shipping stories where things get a little intimate, and even that hasn't ruined it for me. If it's done for the sake of the story and not there purely so people can get off to it, I have the maturity to read through it without going into a nerd rage and leaving nasty comments to the author.

However, there are many fics where shipping can totally ruin it. For example, shipping is bad if it's included just for kicks, with no reason behind it, e.g:

Twilight gazed down on the defeated body of Nightmare Moon. The prone Goddess almost looked peaceful in this state. It was hard to imagine that this was the same monster that lead the attack on Canterlot only hours earlier. She took a few tentative steps forward, worried that her greatest enemy may still have some tricks up her sleeve. As she neared the body, the room was suddenly flooded with a blinding light. She fell backwards, recoiling from the sudden flash. She raised a hoof to shield her eyes, but the light left almost as suddenly as it came. Twilight jumped to her hooves as adrenaline rushed through her veins.

"Enough tricks Nightmare Moon! We need to end… this…"

Her voice trailed off as she realised that The Nightmare hadn't moved. However, her body now appeared to be radiating a bright glow. A flake of her body seemed to peel away, revealing a vibrant light within her. More pieces flaked away and gathered together until they formed a small whirlwind above her. Eventually, all that remained was a bright white orb below a great dark vortex. Twilight fell to the floor as she attempted to shield herself from the vicious winds. Her eyes darted around the room in a panic as she tried helplessly to find an escape.

Suddenly, the vortex stopped, leaving the dark powder hovering in the air. A few tense seconds passed, and the dust began evaporating into nothingness, as if it were being sucked out of reality itself. The glowing orb faltered for a second, before gradually shrinking and losing intensity. Twilight watched in awe as the strange scene unfolded. Was this another illusion? Maybe it was a trick; an attempt to lull Twilight into a false sense of security. As these thoughts flashed through Twilights mind, she heard a calm feminine voice ring through the room. No, that was wrong… it had come from within.

"Thank you, Twilight Sparkle…"

Twilight fell to her knees, staring at the minuscule light still hovering in front of her. She knew what it was.

It was the soul of The Nightmare.

What did this mean? Was this still part of the illusion? Maybe, or… what if Nightmare wasn't evil? What if she was simply being controlled by a malevolent power? Had she just freed her from a state of everlasting torment? She watched for a while as the orb faded away. A light breeze flowed through one of the broken stained-glass windows above, sending a chill through her entire body. Only now did she begin to feel the effects of their battle. It felt like her every muscle was screaming in agony, and every cut on her body stung like a thousand paper-cuts. She could worry about that later though. For now, she was content to simply watch.

And then suddenly, Rainbow Dash flew into the room!

"Twilight, that was so awesome, and strangely sexy too!", she said, as sweat glistened off her body.

"Rainbow Dash! I've missed you so much! Get your sexy, sexy flanks down here so we can make out."

So Rainbow Dash flew down to Twilight Sparkle and stared into her eyes sexily. She starting blushing as she leaned forward to make out. Then they made out and it was totally hot.

The end.

(lol, I had way too much fun writing that. You can probably tell that I don't do this very often.)

[Hell yeah, hit the character limit! See next post]

Wait you can't win? That's odd…and it's a first….

Anyway i truly fear what luna has to live with. (Shivers) My god…truly a horror…

Okay, I was exaggerating a bit there, but I have found fics a bit like that where the author felt the need to include shipping for shipping's sake. If you're telling a great story, don't take a break from it just to let the reader know that Dash and Pinkie are gay for each other, or that Fluttershy has a thing for Spitfire! It's completely irrelevant! It usually doesn't help the story at all, and can just seem out of place and a bit jarring.

I also don't like ships that make no sense, or ones that are just inappropriate. For example, SpikeXBlueblood is completely retarded. In every way. However, I'll bet that somebody has shipped them at some point. Also, I can remember there being a lot of PipsqueakXLuna stuff around after the Nightmare Night episode. While it was alright in the pics where he grew to be an adult before they started a relationship, the ones where he was still a child were just plain wrong. Things like ApplejackXBraeburn or ApplejackXMacintosh are also completely out of the question (I assure you that they actually exist).

Finally, erotic shipping isn't something I can enjoy. If I see a pic of two ponies making out (like in that Playbrony pic that everyone was spazzing out over about a week ago), I'm rarely bothered by it, but I also don't find it enjoyable. Same goes for R34.

Edit: Dammit Seal, you done posted you post inside my post! Would you mind deleting it and posting it again? Please? I mean, if you wouldn't mind.

Which post do you want me to delete?

The one in between my last two posts, if you wouldn't mind. You can just repost it after this one. If you can't delete that one now since it's taken so long, just delete your last post and I'll delete this one.

Thanks, btw.

Edit: Never mind, I don't think it can be deleted now. Don't worry about it.

This post is now useless. May as well make up for it by posting adorable Twilight pics.

D'aww…

I made a definition for ponies on the urban dictionary.

DID SOMEBODY SAY 'ADORABLE TWILIGHT PICS'?!

@Algernon
That story was rather, erm, strange.
But yeah, shipping is okay in my book to a certain degree. I don't actively search for it, but I see it once in a while (to be realistic with KYM, daily) on the MLP image gallery.
Now Random Man, plz don't ban me, but here's the pic I mentioned earlier:

See! Nothing wrong with it. Just a cute image. A lot of emotion in it too. I personally like this one. There's nothing bad being suggested, and it seems lovely.

Cute Twi?

Did somepony say cute Twilight Sparkle photodump?

(Twins will like this next one)

The Miracle of Life…..

Years Later…….

lol, self-immolation.

@Fridge Logic
Oh geez, if he can't handle Twi's birth, then we can be sure he's not having any children with Cadance.
Oh well, Royal blood line extinguished.

This page is seriously giving me diabeetus.

From 1 to Aliens, how true is this?

In regards to shipping, let me show you these charts:



We sure do love shipping everything.

Sir, it is potato.