Has it been six months since I've posted anything? Yes, I guess it has. Jeeze. I've been drawing stuff, just posting them elsewhere. But I will fix that, by posting them here! It's uh, all pony stuff, though, so you have been warned!

Ah! Stop posting so many awesome pinups, FA!

No, wait, why shouldn't I want awesome pinups? Post MOAR PINUPS!

I'd mostly talked myself down from the Princess Twilight ledge already, but this essay by PixelKitties helped. Thanks!

I've been on the "Lighten up" side of reaction to drama regarding the show in every instance before this, so it was surprising -- and unsettling -- to be reading EQD last evening and feel the knot in my stomach grow tighter and tighter. I realized how ridiculous such a reaction was, and my subsequent anger at myself for being so riled up about it just made things worse. The sad, sorry truth is that I don't think I've ever been this emotionally invested in a television program and the characters that populate it, and I really didn't like the reaction I was having to this news. So, I turned off the computer, went and walked the dog, and tried to calm down. I mostly succeeded, though I did have a more restless night than usual. (Seriously? Can you believe such a thing? Man, I need a life.)

I do, in fact, trust the people running the show, because they haven't failed me yet. After considering my reaction, and what I was really reacting to, I think I've worked out why I reacted like I did. Almost all of them have to do with me, and none of them have to do with the people running the show.

First, I don't like spoilers; I really enjoy finding out what happens as it happens during the episode. I never read synopses, and I avoided even learning the titles of the episodes. I ultimately couldn't avoid the spoiler for "Magic Duel," but did avoid learning anything about the episode before I watched it. Although I could ignore the trickling of alicorn-Twilight images at the beginning, I couldn't escape the explosion yesterday and it, well... spoiled the episode. Of course I'll watch it. I may love it. Everything in it may fall together perfectly and I may say "Yes! That is exactly how this was supposed to happen!" But I can't and won't be surprised at this big reveal, and I feel that's taken away part of my enjoyment.

Second, I've been approaching the show from a storytelling standpoint that would be more appropriate for my demographic, not the target one. And, for the record, I'm WELL beyond the target demographic, and likely older than most people officially associated with the show, including the suits at Hasbro. So, I'm interpreting Friendship is Magic through the lens of more sophisticated and complicated techniques, which is not appropriate. There is, of course, plenty of nuance and subtlety in the FiM storytelling, but as PixelKitties noted, this is a show for children (mostly girls) between the ages of 4 and 10. This is an inherently good world, a world where talking to the bully ends the bullying, where honesty is not only the best policy but will be rewarded, and where kindness is the path to success. This is a world where Friendship is the most powerful magic, literally capable of overcoming every obstacle. It's this inherent goodness of the world that has been one of the most attractive things to me, an unrepentant cynic and misanthrope. The strokes in FiM have to be broader, and if I'm expecting a dark psychological drama filled with angst and failure, the problem lies with me, and not the show.

Third, this is, ultimately, a show intended to sell toys. I've told that to other people, and I need to take my own advice. Hasbro is always there. They may not make many demands, but the demands they make will be heeded. The creative team has been successful at minimizing that aspect, but they know who is paying the bills. I need to remember that. Shit, I don't have nearly as much merchandise as many, but the fact that I have any should tell me something.

Finally, and perhaps most tellingly, I approach the issue of Twilight's coronation and wings with a lot of my own baggage regarding friends and friendship. I've never had a group of friends like Twilight has in Ponyville, and even my best friends now are scattered across the country. People drift apart. Life's circumstances bring changes, even if you don't want them. Looking at her ascension this way, and forgetting my second point above, Twilight's new status really has the potential to change the group dynamic for the worse. Of course, when I think that I need to go re-read my second point. FiM is set in an inherently good world. Things will work out.

So, this has been cathartic! Thanks again to PixelKitties for writing her journal entry, and allowing me a chance to sort through my own thoughts on the issue.

Bring it on, Larson! My body is ready!

Now, I'm going to spend the rest of the evening with Chaos Space Marines.

With the upload of the final 11 strips, all 961 Fight Cast Or Evade strips that I, myself, drew have been uploaded. And it only took me seven-and-a-half months to do so! I hope you've enjoyed -- or are enjoying, or will enjoy -- them.

Actually, I've got 12 bonus strips to upload, but that'll come later.

But now, I can upload some more recent art!

 tabbiewolf is running a commission special, where she'll draw characters in corsets. I took advantage of this, and got both Portia and Fawn done in Tabbie's unique and fantastic style. Both are down in my Favorites (of course), but here are direct links:

Portia

Fawn

These commissions were worth every cent. I LOVE them! Portia looks elegant in her corset and long skirt, and her dark eyelids (something I never drew her with) add an air of smoky mystery. The swirls in her corset, the background and her hair all complement each other wonderfully. Fawn's pose is cute and coy, playful without being over-the-top (which is how I probably would have wound up drawing her; I have a bad tendency to crank up the cheesy vamp factor when drawing pictures like this....).

Go give TabbieWolf your money! You won't regret it!

So, when I let fightcastorevade.net expire, it was jumped on by squatters. Their registration of the domain name expires on May 22 of this year. Do you think they'll try to renew it? I'm thinking I want to re-acquire it, but it's not really worth anything more to me than the domain registration cost, so I don't intend to get into a situation where I have to pay extra to liberate it. Do any of you have experience re-acquiring a domain name after you let it expire?

So, I took September off to try to write a novel in 30 days. Sort of a National Novel Writing Month, but for the MLP: FIM fandom. I know, right? Anyway, I succeeded in writing more than 50,000 words in the thirty days of September, but didn't actually finish the story. I got to the very end, but couldn't finish it. I am trying to do that now, but don't have a deadline to meet.

Anyway, that took up literally every second of my available free time, pushing out things like paying my bills, let alone uploading old FCE comics here. Now that I've got that time back, however, I have resumed. Pushing them up at no more than ten per hour will take some time, since I've got nearly 1,000 of them to do, but I'm trying as quickly as I can.

Enjoy them as they come!

You know how to strike a severe blow to your newly-recovered artistic urges? Post your own really old art at an art site while browsing other artists' sites.