>>6625
And a happy anniversary to FiM! 10 years. Wow that is too long. It's hard to believe that it has been 10 freaking years and as someone from 2011 I did not think that this would still be a thing back then.

And /endpone/ a chance meeting between 3 anons still being something is even freakier. So, as L23 says in this video, its time to return home on this 10th anniversary to FiM. After the Derpi drama and general chaos of 2020 it's time to put that aside and return home to /endpone/.

To all of the posters and lurkers, from once and awhile visitors to regulars I wish you all a happy and wonderful ten years of FiM's existence. Let us dive into the future!

Especially you BO... wherever you are

Seaponies and Merponies can work well togather if you ask me.

So, this post basically sums up why they are technical shitpost. I mean, look at this:

https://youtube.com/watch?v=iakTl9SZTTY [Embed]

Everyone, literally everyone who has mentioned them or at least, see any material related to them, any fan will reply with the 3 insanely famous words that would make them memorable.

Ladies and gentlecolts, the utter definition of a visual shitpost that would last less than a minute yet it has been stuck in the minds of the fans for so long.

Taken from the special "Firefly´s Adventure" (or Rescue At Midnight Castle) released in 1986, MLP would mark the greatest definition of a toy commercial nature that happened during the 80s. But even on top of that toy comercial nature, not only this species would appear out of nowhere with the spotlight of a minute. The purpose of this little moment right here was the ultimate marketing movement in order to sell a toyline directly at your face.

The reasons why this species is at its core the embodiment of a toy commercial shitpost is that, as Hasbro couldn´t convey the aquatic environment in order to sell more toylines, they called the sea ponies. Like that, they comes from a pun that would barely justify their existence whose purpose was simply to fulfill the bath toys. As if Hasbro didn´t have enough ideas to sell all the cheap merch, they would create them,insert them for a very short amount of time and hit the button of automatized sales, conquering your bathroom.

They look exactly the same between each other, they don´t have limbs and even Megan and AJ felt dumbfounded as soon as they noticed this alien appearance out of nowhere.

So technically, their entire existence was just all that simple. Just create a catchy song that would last a minute and call it a day, we have to sell the merchandising as much as we can.


Don´t believe that these were introduced by trying to make much effort. Unlike for example the villains (Tirek, Grogar or the Smooze), seaponies were basically the fictional embodiment of Hasbro´s orders for selling toys.

However, fans, while revisiting the previous generations, they have found this little gimmick somewhat and memorable. So much that the joke became a meme that would constantly appear in any comment section (Deviantart, Derpibooru, Youtubem social media...). As soon as you saw any underwater stuff that would reference them, you would get flooded with the first line of this song.

So, you would see them for this special that aired in 1986 and you would never see the seahorse version of it beyond this gimmick.

Easy comes,easy goes. That´s exactly what happened and the short term plan that was applied by Hasbro didn´t get any relevant impact in which they would use them again. In the wiki however, there were mermares that appeared in generation 3.5 but considering that said "gen" isn´t seen in a good light (not even among the hardcore fans who are interested in revisiting the archives dare to talk about this).

Their impact was almost non existent and unless I have the number of sales that occurred in 1984 (in 1986, the special aired on TV, I´ve got to fix this) when it comes to this toyline, this species mattered from almost zero to nothing despite being the pilot special that would introduce this 1st generation.

Do you see any appearances beyond the pilot and very short cameos (The Magic Coins) from this species? Well, I am advancing to you that they were absolute absent in the following decades.

It wasn´t until someone called Lauren Faust would get some inspiration of this gen while creating what would define the 4th generation. Even when she wasn´t around and left the team while producing the 2nd season, you can still see that gen 4 displayed an interest for reviving the 1st generation. Tirek would make his debut in Twilight´s Kingdom (S4 E25-E26) and the Smooze would appear (in a very different manner though) in Make New Friends but Keep Discord (S5 E08)

As for the fans reception, it didn´t go beyond the usual meme really. In fact, you look at the tags of the gen 1 characters and all of them are surpassed by a remagined version of them ,by using Lyra Heartstrings as the biggest icon instead (without any limbs whatsoever).

So there it goes the whole impact that happened throughout the years.That´s their entire legacy that was left and you see at those characters and they don´t even surpass the two digits. Most drawings related to this species have recreations of gen 4 characters applied to the seahors design. Because after all, they eyes and their appearance left a weird impression.

Now, there were plans to introduce them in gen 4, back in the golden years even.

However, ask yourself this question? Do you think that they would have received the gen 4 designs that appeared in 2017?

Technically, when one is talking about the gen 4 designs, that person is correct and anyone would understand that said person would be referring to the designs that made their debut in the 2017 movie. Just that... it´s not 100% correct. Gen 4 displayed several attempts that would come in several formats.

Namely two formats:

-Under the Sparkling Sea in 2013, a visual book whose story consists in the mane 6 visiting Aquastria and their designs would resemble more the body that appeared in gen 1
- IDW comics.Issues #3 and #13-14. For issue #3, you would get the hippocampus design (that is to say, they would add here the limbs: fish tails and front hooves) and for #13-#14, they would revive the gen 1 design with the artsyle of gen 4. As the cover suggest, they would translate quite well into the gen 4 universe.

However, this species is the closest thing as requesting an artist to draw anthro ponies: how do you draw their bodies? What are the characteristics that everyone should draw and thus, reach a consensus on how their design should be the standard for everybody?

Because of this, the development and attempts to revive them have turned out to be inconsistent and there were failed attempts. There was a small amount of interest in order to bring them back again but they weren´t a priority. In fact, because of this, the word merpony (mer is sea in French) would exist and thus, you would distinguish the seahorse design of gen 1 from the hippocampus design that could have been portrayed in gen 4. However, there is also a tricky question over here, unlike the seahorse design, you wouldn´t have any reference in order to draw merponies and you will see fan content in which they appear with hind hooves and the design of their tails could be quite diverse.

So, while there were attempts and plans to bring them back, they weren´t a priority nor Hasbro would see them interesting enough in order to give them another try.

However, there could have been a turning point in which they would change their decision for creating them. Ironically enough, seaponies didn´t appear in the show first or at least, not animated until 2017. There was a design that would appear before them and we have to go to Equestria Girls.

Here it comes the biggest plot twist that could have changed their ideas.

While Rainbow Rocks didn´t appear beyond a few theaters in the US, one cannot deny that the sequel of Equestria Girls would get a much better reception than the original. Mostly because of the redemption of Sunset Shimmer, which would forge the path of reformation of other characters later on Friendship is Magic.

However, there were apparently three new human characters that would come as the villains: the Dazzlings.
What made Rainbow Rocks more successful among the fanbase were the songs that Daniel Ingram composed, the redemption of Sunset and these villains right here. Both Adagio, Sonata and Aria would shine by singing songs that would corrupt other people and thus, cause disorder, chaos and conflicts. Beautifully sung and appealing but genuinely a cold headed move from their part.

Turns out that in the end, they would reveal their actual bodies and thus, you can tell that their amulets hold Equestrian magic, mixing even more the dynamic that fans were used to seeing in Friendship is Magic.

If one reads the wiki, Hasbro didn´t have plans for seaponies despite acknowledging the mermares from the 2013 visual book. However, given that EQG would soar with this 2nd movie and gain a lot of popularity within the community, testing the waters that EQG could offer even more than a one time special, one of the reasons why it shone were the sirens. In fact, you look at their songs and the number of reproductions of Under Our Spell among other reach millions, becoming even as popular (or even more) than This Day Aria.

This would pay off with Shadow Play in season 7 (episodes 25-26) and the Legends of Magic arc, where you can see that Starswirl banished them from the magical land, justifying in hindsight their existence.

But the designs were there. They would look close enough to the hippocampus design and perhaps, this could be the turning point for considering a production with the aquatic species.

Even if we discarded all the previous comics and the visual book that were released before 2017, one would still be incorrect because the gen 4 designs didn´t exactly look like the ones that ended up appearing in the final product.

First of all, we have to consider that around 2015 , there would be plans for a movie unrelated to EQG, so this means that there were at least two years behind the development of such production. It ended up being distributed by Lionsgate. I am mentioning this detail, not because it is superfluous, because the MLP The Movie (2017) could have been distributed by Sony. I don´t have the emails that Meghan McCarthy sent to the Japanese company but the seapony word appeared in between the paragraphs and one of the reasons that could have prevented this offer was that the Sony employee asked what the word alicorn meant.


So, avoiding a very serious bullet, the production was already happening while they were finding another distributor (Lionsgate), and this implies that there were several concepts.
For example, Tempest was going to be called Cosmos at first. Look at that leftover name now because it would be later be used for the red draconequus that would end up in an IDW arc.
Same applies to this species. The characters that would define the design first would be both Queen Novo and Skystar. After those two, the rest of the species would follow their body type. Supposedly, the movie was going to have more action, saving Equestria because of them, but that would end up being discarded so the mane 6 would save the world instead (with more violence by the way, this decision could have changed the age ratings)

And you look at their concept art, both in the hippogriff and seapony form, and you can tell a few differences, especially in their mouths and the colors. They still had the body type defined though: the fish tails, the front hooves with fins, the small bioluminescent light and the dorsal fins (applied to the cutie marks of the mane 6) would stay the same in the final design. Just that they looked too alien and thus, the art department had to change the perspective and suit them more for this universe. Otherwise, we would have ended up with an even more exotic orthodox design that only the changedlings could reach at the time.

Not only the plot changed, the concept of that new place also changed. Seaquestria, while exotic, was meant to be a prison and not the main hub for this civilization where they would hide from the Storm King.

So, after all these changes in design, concept and lore, you would get a slice of it with a russian poster that said "A new world". This means that there was a part of the map of Equestria that was yet undefined: the South. After the movie, the world managed to reach its completion except for a few locations that would appear in seasons 8 and 9.

As soon as Skystar reveals herself, she introduces their species with a small backstory. Now, here is an important question: canonically, hippogriff banished themselves from the land (Mt. Aris) and they would live in Seaquestria as a second home in order to survive by using just a pearl. The lore is pretty simple: use a necklace or the orb in order to change both earthly and aquatic bodies, therefore, they would gain a lot of versatility. No dirty tricks nor any complex explanations. Just as simple as activating the magical rays in order to cause the transformation. Just think for a second that they were banished because of the King but...

wouldn´t that be an allegory as well that they disappeared from the franchise for three entire decades? If they were seen as a myth in the universe, it´s because they managed to exist but there weren´t any serious plans to go further and put them on the table. So, that story which Skystar introduces could be perfectly understood as a meta reference of Hasbro saying to the viewer that they weren´t taken into account until his production.

Either way, the Russian poster delivered a preview of Skystar swimming with Rarity and Rainbow Dash. Her design was still a beta one because her mouth didn´t get the form a beak, it ended up being rounder than that but her colors were exactly what one would see in the actual movie.

All doubts about their designs were cleared up as soon as they announced the voice cast, with a couple of vectors. Furthermore, the throne room would be perfectly displayed in Spring of 2017. All the previous concepts ended up being friendlier,welcoming and one of the last species that would be introduced in this 4th generation. Very late to the party, but I ask this:

would their designs end up being the same ones that we have received if the movie was released earlier (for example 2013, when the fanbase was still explosive and MLP was seen as a fad)?

I let that question sink in...

The movie was released and it grossed around 60 million (61.3 to be precise) and well, considering that MLP didn´t appear in the big screens since the 1980s, this is a huge feat.

Nonetheless, would this production make all these characters popular? Not exactly. In fact, teyo were introduced pretty late in order to cause an influence among the fanbase. Many new characters were introduced at once, with a pretty fast pace and not much time was left for them to shine on their own.

So, considering the short amount of time and the speculations that were around this movie, while many enjoyed this movie and saw them several times at the cinemas, it didn´t cause that huge legacy...mostly because the fad was over.

Sure, Silverstream would be integrated as one of the students in the next two seasons but unlike the kirins, this species wasn´t new. There were several factors why they haven´t managed to impact all that much:

-The fanbase had shrunk since 2016 and the hope for the movie trying to reunite the old fans was not a successful attempt
- The lack of promotion coming from Hasbro, relying too much on the word of mouth
- The short amount of time for the new characters. Only Tempest managed to domain the popularity polls and thus, ended up being the fan favorite of the bunch.
-This species was fresh but still old. People were used to seeing seaponies, just not in this form. So technically, you are seeing the same old same but with a new perspective. So they weren´t all that exciting because the fans were already familiar with the seaponies despite not seeing them before in the show.

And the trickiest question of all of them:
https://www.equestriadaily.com/2018/01/top-10-things-we-wished-for-that.html

Were they actually fanservice or just another marketing plan coming from Hasbro? While this time around, the toys were properly designed and not just as bath toys, were fans actually all that prepared/willing to get this new version?

I am mostly asking this because while the amount of weirdness that they caused in the past, the confusing terms and designs while fans were trying to draw them and the fact that the MLP fad was gone by the time the movie was released...were we all that passionate beyond typing the meme lines in the comments?

Perhaps the change from a meme perspective to a more serious perspective, integrating them into the world so late could clash and even reshape the ideas of certain people. So, in the end, they have ended up being in the land of nowhere.

While they received a positive reaction, it didn´t impress all that much nor managed to cause any big legacy. Sure, the impact is bigger this time around but they are quite niche and still, one doesn´t exactly know where to put them. They are meant for secondary material but even griffons, changelings or even the completely new kirins would induce more passion coming from the fans.

The greatest relief out of this production though is that they finally put to an end the uncertainties related to their designs and integrating them into the land of Equestria, just from the very start of season 8 (School Daze).

By appearing a few times more as hippogriffs most of the time, they would become established instantly, clearing up all the doubts for any further production related to them. Even IDW, as they were becoming loyal to the show around 2016-17 (not sure in which issue they started to set their stories closer to FIM standards), they got rid of the previous designs and displayed two images of Novo both as a hippogriff and as a seapony with the 2017 body this time around. This appearance stated that said transformation could happen literally anywhere without making any effort. So, they displayed the exact same process with Silverstream in School Daze.

The new locations wouldn´t appear until the 6th episode and the entire species wouldn´t act again until the finale.

So perhaps, the biggest advantage that they´ve got here is that standardization of their weirdness and exoticism to a more normalized version that would pop up with more often. This complicated process proves how the concept was floating in limbo for so many years that one wonders if Hasbro used them as a last resort in order to not run out of idea for a new toyline for the movie. Well, this time around, those toys weren´t intended for the bathroom but still, the delay of their debut in this gen proves that they weren´t taken as a priority at first.

Same for the fans. They were interested in seeing the content related to them, by replying over and over the comment but keep in mind, the community took them as a gag that would end up being really popular, so much that the species would gain some spotlight, but still a gag after all. Nobody intended to reach that far nor take them seriously.

SO, 2017 ended up being the year zero for them except that they had set a precedent.

Just that said past IS NOT the one that a FiM fan is nostalgic for. Their creation happened in 1984-86 and 31-33 years later, they would take the next step accordingly with the 4th gen standards.

So technically, while this species has lasted waaaaay longer than for example, the changelings or the kirins, despite appearing in a special and in the big screen (which is quite substantial if you ask me), they haven´t taken off all that well. Sure, they were seen as a highlight and delivered a fun moment in the movie with the song, just that perhaps the circumstances around the release didn´t accompany a greater legacy than it actually delivered to the community (or even remotely in pop culture).

So I end up stating the same conclusion: this thread is a joke.

Not because of how the thread itself is presented but how the content focused on it has been taken as such from the very beginning,both from the company and from the fans. One cannot tell how much of a fanservice wish they were for the community nor how much Hasbro was interested in using them for their toylines. I cannot distinguish the percentages of this approach.

They come from the past BUT it´s not the past that a FiM fan would cherish nor be nostalgic for in this 10th anniversary (because remember, their reintroduction happened in October 2017). If anything, this species comes the closest to the evolution of MLP throughout these 4 generations. Taken as a laughing stock at first and then, when there is more effort put into them, one doesn´t know how to react and one is left stunned/confused.

The thread focuses on a joke that was made 3 decades ago and a variation of the original. But the roots of said joke are still the same, it´s like trying to make a meme earn something meaningful and a context out of a dust particle. While they are older than many other creatures that would appear later in this franchise, their only relevant lifetime has only consisted in these 3 last years. Perhaps now in 2020, it´s the best time to post them. Sure, there is more content and plenty of art has been featured on EQD...

...but they are still niche. Because despite being popular with that gag, they didn´t have anything solid settled in order to inspire the community nor offer anything serious to the franchise.


So,there it is. Their backstory and the explanation of that statement.

>>6671
with the rest of the images and slighly more spoilers, but no less vitriol

>>6677
>These two on the left in the bathtube

Must be. Seems the pink one is Pisces, not sure about the green one; but they're of the Zodiac clan, one of the "factions" to use Fallout-NV terminology, that the main-char has to deal with at various times.

>Embarrassement as Hippogryphs or as Seaponies
Hippogryphs primarily, because they look so extremely thin and delicate, where they should be more robust and durable than their griffon cousins.
Also, while I don't exactly mind that the seaponies of gen-4 look more like tropical fish than manatees, it emphasizes the delicate nature of this race, which feels a bit off. And of course, Gen-4 doesn't have seaponies, because those are hippogryphs whose queen has control of a shape-shifting artifact, and in keeping with their delicate natures, decided to hide where they couldn't easily be found rather than any variation of standing their ground, which also goes against the common lore of "normal" hippogryphs. Their beaks are so small as to render the faces to be normal horse muzzles.

Contrast these with Silver Quill, a show reviewer who created a hippogriff OC before there officially was such a thing, and it's certainly keeping with how such creatures should, in my mind and that of a number of fan-artists, always have looked like.

>>6680
>Gen-4 doesn't have seaponies, because those are hippogryphs whose queen has control of a shape-shifting artifact,
except claiming this bold statements does raise other problems.

Partially, you are right that the conversion can perfectly be activated with the necklace for any of them (this applies to anyone in general who uses the artifact) and they are capable to do so. In fact, as soon as they got rid of the Storm King, they returned to Mt.Aris, their actual home where they had been living before the attack. So this means that their actual nature is the land part and they only escaped to water as an emergency, impersonating the word of the seahorses to themselves over time.

On the other hand, what do you have to say to those that didn´t return by choice? Then, things don´t look so black and white because some of them got so used to that routine that it would feel alien to them to go back to their roots. Despite having the artifact completely at their disposal for anything, wouldn´t you classify them as non seaponies because they don´t live in the exact same routine in comparison with those who live in the mount (not to mention that some of them were being raised during the exile)? In this case, you would put your neck on the line with your no gen 4 seaponies statement.

By the way, the show could have exploited this question of an intrusive species occupying lands in which they do not belong. That would have been a neat plot device. I am not sure if this was planned out there...I´ll have to check it out.

>>6680
>Hippogryphs primarily, because they look so extremely thin and delicate, where they should be more robust and durable than their griffon cousins.
I don't think their design is bad, in fact in the hands of the right artist look rather elegant, but I can understand the nature of this criticism. We've seen other creatures translated to pony with far more of their mythical features preserved and them being hybrids would open up a lot of possibilities plot wise.

Speaking on Hippogryphs, it is from my understanding that they are relatively new creation compared:
https://www.britannica.com/topic/hippogriff
>Hippogriff, a legendary animal that has the foreparts of a winged griffin and the body and hindquarters of a horse. The creature was invented by Ludovico Ariosto in his Orlando furioso and was based on a proverbial phrase about crossing a griffin with a horse that was used to signify an impossibility or incongruity.
https://sacred-texts.com/neu/orl/index.htm

Random side note: Derpi's tagging on the topic confuses me. They have a Hippogriff and a "classical Hippogriff" but with the discription stating they are their own species. Yet, aren't classical ones a hybrid? More confusing is that they have both a G4 Hippogriff and the very OC you cite as examples of classical Hippogriff so I don't understand what the differentiator is here.
https://derpibooru.org/search?q=Hippogryph&sf=id&sd=desc
https://
https://derpibooru.org/tags/classical+hippogriff

>but they're of the Zodiac clan, one of the "factions" to use Fallout-NV terminology, that the main-char has to deal with at various times.
Definately them:
https://twibooru.org/987023
>Hoofington’s favorite clan of assassins, the Zodiacs.

>>6683
>Just that the circumstances didn´t help and Hasbro didn´t do much afterwards. So, I would say that their state kind of falls in a halfway point. They have delivered the most complicated part of reintroducing them (the process of normalization) but they have failed to connect them with any official material that would be stuck with the minds of the fans. I mentioned earlier that Rainbow Rocks would do the job for giving EQG a new opportunity to a spin off that was lackluster or pointless before its release, so something like that sequel is what one would need in order to earn a very serious impact within the community.
In an earlier time they would've been used simply because: new stuff. Look at this color guide that even includes the jelly pony for example. Now though they would have to stick out or someone in the fandom coming up with a meme with them and it spreading. I wonder if a sequel on its own would've done it if they were still merely a element within a wider, somewhat clustered class?


>In fact, pic related has been featured today on EQD and all I see is praise.
But is EQD a low bar though unlike /mlp/ will tell you, they do have fights over stuff just like the rest of us...

>>6685
>i lik seapony
good for you!

>hippogryphs look okay but you hav a point
Basically my point

>enco means nothing without "e"
???

meanwhile I'm drowning in laughter because a misprogrammed AI sequence is talking about gay hobbit unicorns on 8Kun. Not the board dedicated to the letter number 17, but the pony board, where he seems to have wandered for reasons unknown.

Happy nightmare night, /endpone/ for tomorrow we write. Those of us that write. And tonight we laugh at odd computer glitches.

Alright, I am going to post these pictures that I uploaded before over here ( >>7257 and >>7193) so you can tell that they have actually been registered on the boorus. These serial numbers come from Ponybooru (in case that you are wondering about it) and this should prove that I am not inventing anything about spreading the distribution of this material to Philomena/Booru on Rails´system. They are verifiable and you can check them out on Zizzy´s altbooru.

In addition to this, has Derpibooru developed a system in which they get rid of Deviantart´s watermarks?Because these two images display that said system has its inconsistencies at getting rid of those watermarks so I am asking myself if they have actually set it up at some point and I haven´t noticed it until now (or maybe I am an actual newfag when it comes to sourcing pics from Deviantart)

I can´t tell exactly why, maybe I am getting hallucinations but, whenever I check the whole visit for the entire tag on Deviantart, a handful of images pop up out of nowhere and others that I saw before just don´t apear. Either it´s me because of seeing the whole gallery several times and skipping images that actually appear but do it with a very small thumbnail or the algorithm is messing up with me.

These changes don´t happen with images that are popular and get plenty of likes/comments but it seems that this subtle rotation happens with images that hold a pretty low amount of favorites (normally between the range of 3-8 likes) and basically no comments on the entry itself. This raises my eyebrows but whatever the reason is behind these arbitrary/random occurrences, they are getting compiled and bookmarked anyway.

Pics related stand as those examples that pop up along the way but I didn´t get to see at first (just like >>7303 and >>7292 follow in the same vein)

Perhaps these pictures could need a slight edition for improving the lighting or the contours. I have attempted to improve them from the original versions but I didn´t find those attempt to be very convincing in my eyes.

So, if the alternative doesn´t even offer anything remotely interesting, then it´s better to leave them as they are. Save Spike, these are all the characters that you see in the movie scenes (and the original ones that the artists drew in the first place)

>>7464
I raise you Kelp Mane pone and some weird aquatic cousin of Silver Spoon.

>>7526
> you have a much more positive humble reaction towards the exposition on EQD of this pic.
Explain?

> I am curious about the idea that you hold when it comes to those elements. Are you referring to her jewelry or just the physical body?
Scales. The detailed illistration also reminds me of how a lot of artist draw fish and other sea creatures.

>Novo must be charismatic enough for maintaining it for basically most of her fan art.
Her more relaxed face maybe anti-charismatic but her personality more than makes up to command authority with it.

>>7593
>Have a seapony for it.
thanks. In return, I am not simply delivering another picture but also something that...should make someone think deeply about it.


>>7583
>You are both hereby disctracted

we aren´t the only ones though. It seems that the lovely tunes hold a much larger range than anyone could have predicted.

https://www.equestriadaily.com/2021/05/interview-writer-celeste-bronfman-on-my.html

I swear, if I see a mention of /endpone/ out there in any other site, turning into an influence for inspiring others... maybe I should seriously consider what boundaries this whole ride holds. It seems that there aren´t any limits in terms of creativity at this point (not even the official sources of content are free of this pattern)

Careful with what you wish for, because it could turn into a reality and bounce back even harder than the intentions that one delivered in the first place.

>>7566
>Hail Princess Luna of the seven seas and defender of /endpone/ from lower quality series of other hasbro franchises!
maybe she will defend us from other lower quality series that come from Hasbro. However, she is surely making a HUGE effort to step into the sea without leaving none of us indifferent

>Really, this pony is cute and I needed something to replace the long overdue april fools post
....when your replacement of that April Fools Joke becomes the actual joke that turns into reality (sort of)...

I appreciate your excitement, Bridgefag but...it makes me wonder if anyone out there would think that the header was actually all that relevant that people could mistake their first impressions of this oard. Don´t get me wrong, she looks gorgeous (just like these pictures), just that I ask myself if any random lurker could feel inspired for coming up with future content because of that header.

It would be too much of a coincidence...but one never knows about the powers of a PoLS...

>>7658
I dig it!

>>7658
>Apparently the halfway point between full-pony, and full-human, is the seapony.
So, it means Seaponies are the synergy, the ultimate in between form.

>Progeny recreates phylogony,
Haven't heard of that one; I have heard of the saying "ontogeny recapitulates phylogey. Is it related?

>but this image amuses me even so.
I know shepherd 0812 is known for these anthro to human charts and it seems like... I could be wrong, but I almost recall encountering one of his in a unexpected academic space or something? I mean like one of the long PDFs of research I sometimes skim through.

I certainly didn´t imagine that a secondary species would inspire other artists to recreate the works from each other. Sure, you may have seen this practice plenty of times throughout the whole decade but when it comes to one of the most recent additions to the franchise, you would imply that the first image couldn´t create anything worth sharing in public (that is to say, material that is meant to be edited and post it on the other thread).

However, it feels truly satisfying to see how an amateurish Skystar picture can turn into it a high quality image, getting featured on EQD overnight.

Posting some less common Seaponies!

Goodnight /endpone/

So, let´s... eerm, get started with an eclectic essay that I don´t know where I should begin. I am trying to set this out but I think that I will have to sort of improvise along the way and try to...erm, gather all the things and topics that I want to expose over here and try to make out this personal project.

And now, one would raise a question. The reader would get confused by reading this, right? How is it possible that one implies that, after making a thread for my personal claim of doing a project for me, I am exposing a personal side of me all over again?

Well, the thing is...being raised in a very twisted and difficult environment that would take me long posts and paragraphs for explaining this context, I will try to keep it MLP related all the way through.

I stated that /endpone/ was my...personal project and I had implied at first during its growth...that fame and popularity would solve all the things for a means to an end. I thought that it would get rid of the problems and perhaps from the outside, I would have attempted to feel better by lying myself (and the others) that self-servicing independently and just thinking of my own personal interest...it would have solved all these issues, all my thoughts that I have been keeping inside (yet along I have been unable to hide them).

This essay might not be all that enjoyable to read (even though Bridgefag and two more users have praised a twisted episode spotlight such as the one that I did for A Health of Information....which I deeply appreciate and personally didn´t expect to receive from it so bluntly). However, that doesn´t mean that carrying out a project like this makes me look like a good person or someone that you would look up to. It doesn´t work that way...

I will spoiler something for all of you: being outside the leadership/creative direction for this board throughout this last year.... has turned out to be the healthiest choice and perhaps, my energies and my emotional burnout has driven me to leave this project aside. Mostly because I have had to accept that this wasn´t personal and other users would have to define this board instead. I have wanted to take control of the thing but I have been assuming that I cannot handle that role (either by personal circumstance or just pure burnout and mental exhaustion).

It´s a matter of acceptance and I personally don´t want to continue the path that I was going for back in 2018. I have had to take a rest from all of this even though I have always been lurking. So, this essay kind of blends between a mental thoughtful exercise and a project that you deserve to know and I am affirming it in public.

Let´s embark onto the matter and you will see...the actual project that I have been (partly) concealing since January.

So, with /endpone/ out of the equation, what was my personal interest? What did I hold from the inside that I wanted to share and hid under the rug when other people got involved here?

Well, this thread in question reveals what I have been setting up and considering the lack of spotlight coming from other circles, namely /mlp/.... I have to admit that I resorted to this board as a means to an end for posting them freely without any consequences. How is it possible that this thread was created so late, after 3 years of starting the 2nd era for this board? Well, lack of personal security and low self-esteem. I am boiling down all the issues with those factors and they should explain my decisions for the most part.

However, there was a... technical problem related to this species: Back in later 2017, there was barely any material to share over here. Therefore, the length of an average thread wouldn´t be enough for fulfilling the standards by posting good quality pictures of this species all the way through

This technical factor basically justifies why a thread of this kind wouldn´t have thrived on /mlp/, /endpone/ or basically, anywhere else. There weren´t many pictures to share in public and I fell short of them quite soon with other threads that didn´t deal with them in question (sharing the pictures on the first thread that would give birth to the NMAiE general). You cannot make something popular among the chan/anonymous circles if there is no content to rely on. That works for the mane 6, the princesses, Chrysalis, Star Light, Trixie and so on. Those characters can hold up and maintain a very good quality of visual material all the way through if the fans involved wanted to share the top material and felt like doing so.

This previous paragraph shows that said factor breeds a lot of trouble for making this secondary species from turning into a popular choice. Now, what do I want to transmit here? Why is this important? Why have I decided to not rely on /endpone/ for this project?

Mostly because.... I would have become an utter annoyance (or at least, that what I assume about myself by letter myself to get carried away from it)

Yes, posting them over and over...wouldn´t have made them very popular in the first place, considering how limited the impact that this board has been holding for years and how homelike it feels because of its tiny number of users. That is to say, no matter how many times I would post them here, it wouldn´t have made them popular and thus, that move would have turned out to be foolish and I would have (most likely) ended up being considered obnoxious or would have delivered a fanatic impression in public. Not a very good idea. One has to act smarter than this and the results would have been absolutely pointless while earning an infamy for relying on them repeatedly.

Thus, I have wanted to repress my passionate thoughts about them and I still keep a formal appreciation towards them without expressing my enthusiastic mindset outwardly. There are many private ways to transmit that feeling but still delivering a public impact throughout the passion. How does this work?

Let me explain and speak out about all of this...

It´s turned out to be a project that has its elements of stealth, anonymity and constant moves of playing around pseudo-fake sense of popularity. I am mentioning pseudo-fake because for these uploads to happen, other people must have drawn them first and thus, it implies that this species wasn´t as unpopular as it seemed. However, what this whole project takes that to another level: it exploits all the popularity that it has been holding by making its picture bigger in comparison with other tags.

Unlike kirins, griffons or changelings, as those species are supported by the main institutions of the fanbase (namely EQD, /mlp/, Fimfiction and the Philomena sites) and they have a considerable amount of popularity, I don´t have the need to focus on them because they are already sustained by those circles. Thus, other people will care about them instead by inertia because there are already many fans to give some support and praise. However, with this one, we find ourselves much more limited and there is way less room for doing anything in general.
Everything is more scattered, obscure and a smaller sense of passion/hype towards this. There are no noticeable circles that boost/withstand a guaranteed group for exploiting the popularity. Thus, between the lack of desire coming from Hasbro for promoting them so late and the fact that fans didn´t hold as much interest towards them (even though it has always existed, just that the noise didn´t break the invisible barrier of praise and thus, this was kept in the underground or just simply there, as secondary material).

So, how do I prove the passion that I hold inside? Well, not by delivering comments in public. Instead, I have been increasing the tag number with all kinds of pictures. 3800 pictures doesn´t seem too relevant. However, surpassing the barrier of 5000, that number might sound more promising and thus, people might imply that this increase might make them seem more relevant for getting the attention from the artists. Do you see where I am going with this?

What I mean with these explanations is that I have resorted to the VPNs and anonymity so I would build an impression that this species is a greater business than it is in reality. Do you know the line of repeating the same lie over and over so people believe in some part of that discourse? Well, that political strategy (a very efficient method of propaganda that still works out to this day) has been applied but not in the sense of conveying ideas. That´s the basic concept but I am not transmitting political ideas because keep in mind that i haven´t commented bout any of this in public. Therefore, we are talking about =artistic ideas that artists would find encouraging and thus, they would see as a good investment for drawing this material in the future==.

Thus, this method doesn´t simply display a short-term effect (distributing the images from DA and FA to Derpibooru and adding up to the numbers) but also, I would induce rewards for the artists that draw them, so I would make them feel accepted and encouraged to keep going with this kind of content more often.

This is very important: I couldn´t display my identity because otherwise, those artists would point at me and see that the one who is requesting this material comes from either a single person or a very reduced group of fans. By resorting to anonymity, I CAN deliver a fake impression that way more people from behind are interested in this kind of content (the real objective here).

That is to say, I have come up with a snowball effect that could build a post-truth... in the purest sense of this term.

A post-truth that makes the mirage bigger than the actual image.

But, said image could be either fake or eventually real. Playing around with a grey area that people cannot point at anything in specific but at the same time, said mirage has to exist in order to make it look more solid than it is. Artists will voluntarily decide how to shape it in the end. By making these uploads, it´s like the equivalent of requesting something with a commission...but I am not asking for anything in specific other than the species itself. Therefore, artists don´t know what I am asking for except undefined ways that they decide to deliver on their own.

Now, let´s take a little break for the reader. Think about all of this.

...

Ready? Well, then you should have had enough time for raising one question:

Derpibooru has uploaders that do the same tasks. How is this supposedly any different? And that´s where the ""magic"" starts.

It doesn´t simply come from the fact of gathering underground pictures that are left behind among the crowded number of pictures displayed on Deviantart. It doesn´t simply consist in picking up the works from an artist who has been unaware of the existence of Derpibooru for distributing the images. It doesn´t simply deal with the fact that I have had to check every single image with the Reverse Search feature so it could be approved by the site staff without merging both the original upload with the new one (it doesn´t add up anything for the tag number) ...

It ALSO tackles another aspect that people tend to overlook: the tagging system. For every single image, I mean almost (if not) all of them, have around the range of 20-30 tags so those new images can be perfectly located and be transferred to the alternative boorus from the very beginning before exporting them. If I added the tags later on, said changes wouldn´t get exported. Thus, I have had to do all the work during the upload so those copies/imports would have them too (because it would only benefit Derpi in that case). This part is extremely important because I have seen uploads that only display the bare minimum number of tags and that makes them hard to locate in the end.

The main purpose of this tagging process aims to locate them easily, increasing the chances to draw a greater amount of attention from anyone and making them easier to locate in different ways

When can you notice my influence with the tags? Back in January, my first upload happened to be the Aqua Shine picture (originally uploaded in 2015 >>7182) but hold on, it doesn´t end up there. Not only these pictures are easier to spot, but also, it turns out that, by uploading them on Derpibooru, it draws the attention of EQD too. Not many images (out of 1000, a small fraction of them) have made the cut but for those that actually do, you would notice on the Deviantart entries how the numbers of favourites, views and comments increase because of this redistribution of content.

Now, I must also mention the problems and obstacles that I have found with this project. Not everything turns out to be pure gold here and things might not get to the point that one would love to see. The river´s flow might not reach the ocean with enough force for arriving there without running into different altitudes, changes or stuff along the way.

First of all, we have to consider that not all the artists display a predisposition to share their content beyond the places that they have resorted to in the first place. However, many uploaders have ignored this part so I am far from being the only one who has committed this practice and even complained about the entitlement of not sharing their works to the community. This prevents way more the fact that as soon as their Deviantart profiles get deleted, said image would vanish along with their accounts.

Artists have the choice to make it into a DNP list, which absolutely blocks anything that any other person could do with their works in terms of distribution. This has become an utter pain because not only I have had to find the unregistered images, resorting to the reverse search feature and add 20-30 tags. On top of that, the whole process can be absolutely fruitless because of the fact that one might not check out whether said artists were in the DNP list or not.

I have wasted my time on several uploads because of this and I had to close the tab instantly and move onto other pictures. Besides, there were a few hybrid pictures in which I put both the merpony and seapony (g4) tag because some images weren´t all that specific for describing them as purely gen 4. Thus, I have resorted to both options in case that I had found some doubts with the psychical characteristics in their bodies.

Secondly, we have to consider that this relies on the social aspect and the community consists in social interactions and phenomenons that are out of reach for anyone. This implies several things: one can enjoy any image, chapter, music or whatever material that one could mention here…but if it doesn´t work out for being shared among people, this doesn´t become as fulfilling for being served to one single person.

That is to say, despite keeping a lot of fondness and passion for doing all of this, I have also reached the point of exhaustion and there were a few moments in which I questioned what my purpose was while doing these tasks. I have had to find motivations and plenty of eagerness in order to refresh and keep my brain motivated. Considering that part of the plan consists in being anonymous so other fans would imply that said material would be popular (creating a fake impression), it would mean that said contribution would remain unrecognized.

Thus, the reader might imply that I am lying because I don´t have any register to back up that I have uploaded these pictures (well, there is a way to figure it out: whenever you check a seapony pic, click the Related button and you might see the same seapony images. It means that the IP/uploader has had to be the same and thus, there is a correlation among them). I have recently uploaded a few pics in case that someone would call me out but even then, those pics are minuscule in comparison with what I have uploaded anonymously behind the scenes.

I have stayed present within the community…but I guess that I simply work for the wall as another brick that simply fills up the empty spots of this wall that weren´t taken into consideration.

As for the last but not least important aspect, I have found my expectations clashed with reality. What do I mean with this? When I upload a picture, I envision the possible rating that it might have. For some pictures, I have unfortunately seen a way lower score than expected and for others that seem average or don´t transmit nothing extraordinary to me, it surpasses the score that I had personally set up in my mind.
Ultimately, more like talking about MLP, it seems that I am presenting about a sociological study and how investments work without actually doing any of that.

Predicting the real results beforehand is difficult and thus, one has to consider a wide margin of uncertainty and consider the number of variables. I must say that most of the content was very low-key and no way they would have made any social impact on people to a greater degree.

However, if one wants to find diamonds, one will deal with tons of rocks before getting the valuable products. That material serves its purpose in order to make other rare/top quality things more precious and thus, everything contributes in order to build a whole project…even if the most glittering parts haven´t come out yet (if they even turn into a reality in the first place. One has to keep some sort of faith in order to maintain a hopeful perspective)

So, despite the flaws and problems that this process has implied, not everything has to sound so negative. If I didn´t like what I was doing, then I wouldn´t dive into this project nor would get deeply immersed and involved in getting committed to make this obscure yet very limited move.

The most fulfilling parts happened when an artist shared a pic on the Deviantart site and one would get to see the fun and joy from them. Same with the comments that other fans would give in return. While I haven´t created anything, I saw myself a little bit reflected because…who knows about the possible impact that any picture can give at the end of then day? How can anyone measure the amount of inspiration/passion of all of this?

I have also come across very valuable content as if they were hidden gems because of their lack of tags in order to spot them. It felt like digging in a mine and one would have to get through by using other alternative tags that would make these images visible. Seeing them so well organized and ordered on the boorus, so properly structured with a bunch of tags that make them way easier to identify…yeah, it seems small but it is really appreciated for finding material. These little details just facilitate the process for find them and thus, this reorganization improves the whole experience…

An experience that is recommended to be enjoyed during nightly periods. Considering that these pics mostly take place underwater, the cold colours require less visual effort to look than the hot ones. For nightly periods in which the eyes might struggle to look at anything, this material is more likely to not overstay its welcome and thus, they might induce a sense of relaxation and comfort to the viewer.

I have had some funny/unexpected stories out of them such as getting 9 pictures featured on EQD in one single gallery (and thus, I would play a small game for myself in order to see the highest score that I could get in that regard) or how the seaponified versions of any character can be easily mistaken/regarded as MLP content. Sure, Hatsune Miku or crossovers with other franchises might be easy to ponify (and thus, they would have their own pony versions). However, I took some risks at times. In particular, I want to spotlight this hybrid picture in which said seapony looks like a koi fish with a fire mane. You would imply that this image would be related in some way but far form the truth, it is just the fusion between Rapidash and Seaking (for those who are Pokemon fans, this might bring you a little smile).

No one bothered to check out the tags from the original source (none of them were about MLP whatsoever). The seaponified version however, seems to have delivered an impression to be an organic gen 4 seapony and thus, it´s been disguised as such, an outsider that made the cut without tackling MLP at all…yet the appearance looks so close to it that fans haven´t raised any suspicion towards it.

What do I want to convey with this? Well, no matter what you use (even for gen 5), this species can ADD UP to the original material and fuse it smoothly with this concept. As long as the basic characteristics remain there, it can be considered as a well-settled standard that adds more content for the characters themselves while also adding up to the species on its own. This species doesn´t exclude anything nor anyone so, it is absolutely malleable for the purposes that any artist can express with any character.This small detail can become very appealing at some point because, no matter what any artist does with them, said material will be constructive and not exclusive.

At the end of the day, my personal interest has sort of become a collective one that is reinforced by sharing it with other people. Does it mean that this leverage was selfless or selfish? Does all of this make me look a hero or as a villain? I just…don´t know, time will judge my actions eventually.

I have been doing all of this so I would partly contribute to gathering more material for /endpone/ because otherwise, I would fall short for delivering material on this general. In a way, I have been indirectly influencing on the board without actively taking part on it. I have ended up turning into a lurker because of the burnout that I have been holding for years. Taking the leadership by accident and leading the way for others is difficult and I have stayed away from the public eye (even if I remain mostly anonymous here)

This burnout has led me to see other things with a different perspective, enjoy my free time with my loved ones and talking intensively with them. I have resorted to them because I have been going through a very difficult (yet revealing) part of my life that has turned around my vision about many things inside my family and thus, the last thing that this board needs to see is an entire blog of a pure rollercoaster that I have been facing from the inside and among the familiar circles (changing radically overnight at some points). I have resorted to very close people so I would receive deep mental and emotional help for going through everything that has occurred to me for these last few months.

However, I have moved from one burnout to another burnout…and I have also run out of content to upload. There might be new pictures or underground pics that remain hidden out there but I have registered a good portion of them.

This is why I have respected the choices of people leaving and getting into this ride. I have to respect their personal choices in the same way that others respect mine. In this case, I have stayed away from the public eye because I have had nothing interesting to say nor offer and hearing about my complaints/personal issues is not a proper matter of interest for this board to be honest.

This is what one would call it as creative bankruptcy. More like I haven´t had the right mood for doing so and even before all this series of events, I displayed some serious signs of abandonment (for example, I struggled to find motivations before embarking on season 9 reviews back in 2019 or the episode spotlights that served as a way to provisionally provide some sort of activity around here)

I should make very clear that I have needed to find my way to disconnect from this and even, stay a little bit healthy by rediscovering my mentality and how I should approach things in the future. I have wanted to share this essay right here because a couple of users wondered about my existence around here and they deserve to know about me and even provide something in return like this…

But /endpone/…is something else that I cannot consider as something personal but rather,as a ride that stays alive on its own. As a consequence, I have presented my own personal project (or small contribution) that I have been delivering on my own in silence, with intended obscurity in order to make it work. For the first time, I reveal here what people might have suspected by checking the boorus and you are the fortunate ones to be aware about this.

This time, I don´t have to reveal who I am…because I have a gallery dedicated to them and I have uploaded a few pics on Derpi.

I hope that this revelation (or personal expression) serves for getting something valuable out of it…

There could be two ways for delivering a PoLS.

One is the PoLSeapony that transmits the comfy aquatic vibes with a certain sense of cuteness displayed on the images that I am attaching to this post.

But...
>>7943
>That happens sometimes, yeah.
not only we get some high-pitched moments that cause a haunting sense. We can go much further than that...

Alright,so perhaps...I should tell you about what has been happening behind the scenes and how much of a change this year has meant for this... interesting evolution.

>>7980
>Ultimately carrots, I'm unconvinced you did anything beyond riding a wave of anti-G5 sentiment.

I must clarify that gen 5 artworks are as valid as the ones from gen 4 as well as the material from previous gens. There is a point that works for this species: as long as it keeps the hippocampus body,it will work out (unless that a new design decides to replace the established one from the 4th gen). Does gen 5 bother me in this regard? Well,any artist can have any freedom,take feedback and inspiration from everything that they consider in their minds and express that with something. You never know what can get materialized but combining gen 5 with seaponies...that mix exists.


>Although tagging what you upload correctly the first time will indeed alleviate a LOT of frustration other ponies would have felt otherwise.

This is what I wanted to post for these last few days before the end of 2021. I have a screencap from December 31 of 2020 and the results for the seapony (G4) tag were under the 4k mark (to be truly specific: there were 3871 registered pictures on Derpi). If you check out the tag on this Christmas holiday, you will see that said number has increased up to 5500. As a consequence of constant uploads from Deviantart to Derpi and the tag revisions from past artworks, the species already delivers a much more solid baseline while its progress has been slowly sneaking into a more relevant league while it has been surpassing other iconic tags that were more popular than this one.

The greatest gift that one can provide here is what all of this has entailed,the artworks that spring up from this boost, how old material gets revised and revisited with a different approach,how it slowly crystallizes among fans/artists. I may not be able to draw anything that is worthy of inspiration but for sure, amplifying the distribution channels might help at contributing their popularity in some way.

However, those expectations might occur or not. The only reality that can be actually proven here is what already exists on the internet so, considering how badly this species needed some artworks in order to keep this around,I think that any fan deserves to have a secured method to see and appreciate all these pictures. Even if some of them don't offer anything in terms of value,perhaps anything might inspire someone else in the future. All of them add up for this considerable number that appears in this day and age on the boorus.

Just enjoy what you have,folks.

I hope that you are experiencing a wonderful night out there.

https://desuarchive.org/mlp/thread/38224843/#38235299

<seaponies
>makes no sense. there's no dedicated seapony fandom

That person might be right,there is not any dedicated fandom for seaponies but it's not like anyone needed its existence either. It hasn't had any,why should it even exist in the future? One doesn't need a specific dedicated fandom for them yet any user can perfectly enjoy the content related to them at anytime...


...if one manages to expose their appeal in the first place. I will make sure that a few background uploads make a small difference in this regard so it becomes a little bit more likely to see them with the proper instantaneous mediums that ease their exposure.

There wasn't any fandom dedicated to them back in 2017 when they made their debut and it definitely doesn't need one in 2022.

Just content or at least,a few fresh pictures to appreciate every now and then. With just that,it will be more than enough.

>>8251
>what is a fandom?
There was a thread on /tg/ where some author was writing lewd backstories about various DnD creatures, how they lived, bred, and could have sex with humans.

A fandom is more than an agreed upon "style" - and how many styles are there of drawing, say, gnolls? But what they share is the understanding of where they came from, their culture, their mannerisms. Just try to find a gnoll wearing a top-hat and a monocle!

Aside from "in the sea", where to seaponies live? What are they like? Lyra would have us believe they're very musical, but maybe that's just one pony's fantasy?

Lyra has a fandom because we know she likes hands; "Sea ponies" have ... one song, and no one but Lyra sings it.

>>8391
PoLSeapony acknowledged.