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For bronies' consideration
3 years ago
Scribbling nonsense all across the board like jaguars leaping from trees of leather bodices encasing aged withered corpses whose eyes dazzle with the light of one million and three silver satellites flying over Los Angeles hiding illegal immigrants from Irish potato farms built atop the golden ruins of El Dorado filled with demonic Ewoks hurling tremendous tankards of tons of Tylenol at the panda bear ninjas that hide around every corner of the magic square building trying desperately to pull up its skirt and set roots on another cubic square inch of the board upon which I am scribbling nonsense.
Use "cavalum," a creature of Portuguese myth, to refer to batponies.
The concept of "thestral," near as I can tell, is one wholly made up by J.K. Rowling, and we have no need for any of that nonsense.
This notion was brought to my attention by Type Writer, which prompted me to do some research of my own and I found some compelling evidence.
I'm aware that expecting bronies to break from tradition is a huge ask but even if it weren't for certain people being hack authors of bland YA novels I'd still rather use a term derived from actual mythology than something that was made up for a prolific entertainment property.
The concept of "thestral," near as I can tell, is one wholly made up by J.K. Rowling, and we have no need for any of that nonsense.
This notion was brought to my attention by Type Writer, which prompted me to do some research of my own and I found some compelling evidence.
I'm aware that expecting bronies to break from tradition is a huge ask but even if it weren't for certain people being hack authors of bland YA novels I'd still rather use a term derived from actual mythology than something that was made up for a prolific entertainment property.
Draco Icefang
~dmdracomoondragon
Obviously, I never did much research, since I wasn't aware the thestral was her creation, rather than being an actual mythical creature. I actually appreciate this being brought to my attention, as I have no respect for that woman anymore. I'd much rather have a better name to use. ^^
Public domain creatures are certainly fun to use.
Ibragim
~ibragim
I didn't understand anything... But very interesting.
Voxxynn
~voxxynn
Ah, etymology is such a rabbit hole. "Thestral" is clearly enough a morphing from "kestral" despite the creatures themselves being more akin to winged "kelpies" in their design, making it weird that the "k" was the part of the word left behind. Of course, now that "thestral" has entered relatively common use to describe "pegasus, but evil" it is very unlikely that it will change. Personally, If i got to rechristen them, I might go for something like "chirasus" or "chirocorn", something that rolls in the bats order. But I'm not known for originality. "Cavalum" at a glance feels horse related due to the "cava" root but I wouldn't really expect bat wings from the word alone. Although, it certainly is better than "thestral" I would expect that to be a subspecies of hippogryph with more hawkish features. I will now put "this" in quotations because Ive used too many already.
cboy
~cboy
Uh...didn't the show establish the batponies as Threstrals?
NonUberis
~nonsequitur
OP
There's no canon name. Flutterbat excluded, they only have appearances in two episodes in the whole show and scant cameos in the comics, with no explanation ever given to their nature.
Draconic25
~draconic25
I almost never talk about MLP anymore and even when I do it's even more almost-never about batponies but I will try to remember cavalum! :O
