I’ve decided that becoming an alicorn should come with a cost, different for each pony. Ascending to a different form won’t be so easy, right? Cadence ascended from a pegasus to alicornhood in her early teens- I imagine she and Shining are late 20s-early 30s now
When she got her horn she lost the ability to recognize and mentally picture the faces of ponies around her/herself. I think it’s called Prosopagnosia? For most this would be an easy price to pay, in return for immortality and all the other powers that alicorn royalty possess! It’s pretty rare that one would be required to recognize somebody purely on their facial features, after all.
Unfortunately for the Princess of Love, being saddled with an enormous and unexpected transformation is only worsened by it :( what happens when her loved ones grow old and pass away now? They’re young enough, she has time, but how much? What if she can never remember their faces? Her husband’s face? What would her subjects think if they knew their embodiment of love couldn’t even picture her spouse’s face anymore?
She spends a lot on portraits of him in an attempt to memorize- a manifestation of her immense anxiety about outliving her family. She refuses to have children (Flurry Heart comes along in a different manner) because she doesn’t want to saddle them with that baggage. Two things happen that require her to sort all that out later:
-Twilight becoming an alicorn, which gives Cadence mixed feelings. On one hand she grieves for Twi’s eternal future, which they can bond over. They have the same struggles now. Twilight has Cadence to talk to when she can’t get used to her wings, or her new responsibilities are heavy, or maybe when one of her friends becomes just a little too sick for her liking and she realizes for the first time that one day it could happen again and they might not recover. On the other hand, it could be just a little bit nice to know she won’t be alone…
-When Chrysalis invades the Crystal empire, she impersonates Shining Armor instead of Cadence (my AU gives alicorns a power boost lol). Starving changelings can’t keep their forms perfect all the time! Cadence lives a nightmare for a while of her subjects raising alarms that Shining looks a little different somehow, but no matter how hard she tries she can’t see it. Even after forming her shaky alliance with the changeling queen, it makes her uneasy knowing Chrysalis could take his form again if she wanted.
Ok as for this mess! Princess Luna isn’t the only alicorn to have a nightmare form :] Cadence has one too! This is Heartbreaker. I haven’t finalized her design yet, but I do like her a lot… in this form Cadence’s usual flowing hair changes to mimic a torn wedding veil, her horn turns to an arrow, and she generally takes on the characteristics of a neglected pet bird. Somebody get her some enrichment and a beak trim so she quits plucking her feathers :(
Sketch form that I recycled bits of instead of tossing it in the WIP graveyard ⬇️
Thank you to everyone who has been sending such kind messages, I promise I really do read them all, even if I can't reply, but while these messages are wonderful (and really. I mean it. just the nicest and most heartfelt things I've ever seen) the sad fact is they don't change my situation. But you can change it. You can help me.
If you know my situation, if you want to help me, please write to Glitch Productions. They are the only people who can, and I believe, might, be able and willing to save me. SMG4 has ignored me, even through a legal letter. I have no hope that they will do otherwise, but Glitch are a different case and I think they just genuinely don't know I exist. I have sent them a message, to no reply, but more messages means more of a chance they will notice. IF you are on twitter please message that way, I closed my account there years ago, and please be polite: I am not asking for hate, even if I've received it.
Even a short message will help. I need numbers, I need voices. My own voice is being drowned out, but you can speak for me as well.
For some points on the plagiarism under the read more (what I collected/organized while building up an email to send):
1) TIMELINE
RGB was created long before, over a decade before Mr. Puzzles first debuted.
(*RGB's first appearance may have been 2011, was a little iffy on that)
2) UNDENIABLY UNCANNY RESEMBLANCE
The number of traits, some uniquely specific to and representative of RGB's design, that are copied in Mr. Puzzles design are too many to be chalked up to 'just a coincidence'
Especially when you look at the designs of all of the other TV head characters out there - I collected as many as I could find (though I'm sure there's more) and none of them come even close to sharing the number of similarities that these two do.
3) TV MODEL AND DESIGN CHOICES
While looking up references for older TVs, I found that for the exact TV they're based on (small retro box TV with knobs in the upper right of the TV and an antenna) most of the references didn't have a vent on the side of them like RGB and Mr. Puzzles do.
I looked up 4 different reference terms, and still had to scroll a while before I found one that matched exactly (above collection just a general sample/example of types of TVs I found). Unless my browsers are wigging out, either the pictures that would come up for these kinds of TVs were different in 2023, or this exact combination of features are just not very common for this style of TV. If that's the case, it may be a bit strange to design a character with those features together.
Here's where that distinction is important: Mr. Puzzles as a character doesn't have much of a reason to go with this design over other styles of similar TVs. But RGB does. The vents on the sides of RGB's head aren't just an aesthetic choice - they're included as a legitimately integral part of the story-line (Negative RGB). The same can be said for a number of other choices Modmad has made, down to individual items of clothing, that show just how much thought and intention and consideration went into every aspect of RGB's design.
Which makes it that much more frustrating to see him get plagiarized in such a careless manner by people who don't even seem to put much care into their own character (common criticism I've read that SMG4 fans have had about Mr. Puzzles and his 'arc').
4) OTHER PEOPLE, EVEN THOSE WHO HADN'T HEARD ABOUT THE SITUATION FROM MOD, NOTICED
This has been noted by fans of both series since Mr. Puzzles first came out.
Some people may have found more points than this, but these are what I stumbled upon. Hopefully helps bring a little more context to the situation.
Fight the (literal) evils of a 9-5 in a mystery/love story/allegory for at least two things!
I joined a 3-week game jam and ended up uhhhh co-directing/writing/designing an RPGMaker game with the incredible artist Kazuriae ?? and its out you can play it :D
turnnoffyourmind
jacobvanloon
vaporwave
theartofmadeline
tangentwithtanner
dededos
kianamaiart
baratheonpilled
