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Placodont90
[20878846]
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# Statistics
Favourites: 3902; Deviations: 3; Watchers: 8
Watching: 277; Pageviews: 4703; Comments Made: 413; Friends: 277
# Comments
Comments: 106
Here's a little something I thought you might like.
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I don't know if I forgot to delete the fabourite message or if it's a new one, so thanks for the fav
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Some of Earwig's other siblings are quite different from him and share wildly diverse opinions. His younger brother Caustic Speech is a staunch republican who believes that the whole concept of Equestrian monarchy should be done away with altogether and that the Equestria should be a fully democratic state. Earwig's other younger bro, the baby of the family, is Artful Speech who is basically a beat poet who stands to inherit little from his parents' title and is not concerned with manners or high society but prefers to live a bohemian lifestyle in the inner city of Manehattan away from the starchy atmosphere of Hoofington along with the rest of the family. He had a slightly younger sister, Dainty Speech who was killed in an attempted hostage-taking situation by members of a criminal-run Nightmare Cult as retaliation for the family's politics, wealth, and involvement in an Alicorn Society (Blood Cabal). Honeyed Speech (Earwig) is the oldest in his family and therefore holder of the title of baron.
City of Camelon: temple of the moon god holds the Horn-Ring of Solomane which binds the spirit of a powerful Efreet that can grant unlimited wishes to whomever wears it. Earwig is currently trying to figure out how he could obtain the ring, considering that it is guarded by fearsome sirrush guards who patrol deep within the temple's labyrrinthine halls.
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I could see Earwig having a bedroom just like this:
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That kind of decor would be right up his alley, what with being a classy baron and all.
His Desert fortress would have a feeling and look similar to this:
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The scenery of the Myst games was a real influence on my world building because of its variation and mix of the best of real world and fantasy geography.
At some point, I see Earwig taking up in the ruins of an old Sun temple, either in an uninhabited part of Equestria or some other allied country. He would use this as a base of operations and also try to plumb its ancient inscriptions for some arcane spells or locations of powerful artifacts. I can imagine him and Hoodwink actively trying to beat each other to a certain artifact and having multiple confrontations as they try to take possession of it.
I imagine it looking like this after Earwig made some "homey" additions:
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Ha! I like the way you think. That would be a hilarious joke cutie mark if I get some sketches done.
Well, Earwig is still willing to steal young foals away from their families and hold them in a prison while he eavesdrops on their frightened whispers and secret conversations, so I wouldn't say that I've toned his nastier side down too much. Earwig is capable of many good deeds, true, but his reasons for them are never altogether altruistic, so anytime he appears to do something heroic, take that as a sign he is planning something for the future...
I should also mention that he is not averse to using some very unpleasant methods of operant conditioning and coercion as long as it doesn't "hurt" anypony. Earwig may utilize some very cruel methods to break down certain social defences of his "test subjects" such as singling out a more defiant individual to act as a scapegoat by withdrawing a pleasurable/appetitive stimulus from a whole group for something the one foal did wrong and then having the other foals find things to criticize them about until the formerly defiant one may break down entirely and submit to any criticism of their behaviour as reasonable. This is what I mean by some of his less pleasant "social experiments".
Earwig can use his powers of speech and persuasion for more than just flattery and sweet talk. He can also tear down the egos of ponies with his razor-sharp tongue and utilize verbal demoralization. Think of what Fluttershy did to Pinkie and Rarity in Putting your Hoof Down. Earwig would probably think she was being generous compared to the acidic comments he could come up with.
Mind you, he's far too much of a coward to do that to anypony in his real form, even to children, so he will use a disguise transformation to make himself seem like a far more imposing and authoritative character than he would seem normally. Or, even worse, he might make himself seem like a very pleasant and kind old pony but then proceed to stab his victim to the heart with a venomous remark.
You see, his definitions of pain and suffering may differ from that of another pony's to the extent that what Earwig views as good and right another may see as grossly unjust and cruel. As I said earlier he may only define true suffering as physical, and neglect the emotional or mental effects of his "experiments". I suppose, in some ways, he lacks empathy for non-physical suffering in part because of his own overwhelming fear of physical suffering or permanent injury or death.
The thing is, he isn't being cruel for the sake of being cruel, in his mind. He actually thinks that these experiments will help socialize the Night Bred into more productive and pleasant members of pony society by breaking down their "cold-demeanored" defences. After breaking down one of his charges, he would probably attempt to comfort them in some way and assure them that whatever they were upset about wasn't their fault as part of his elemental kindness. But that wouldn't make his previous actions any less evil for doing so.
I personally think that one can be thoroughly evil without killing or even necessarily physically hurting someone.
He sees himself as a beacon of hope for ponykind by ridding them of the Night Bred menace and in that sense is a "well intentioned extremist" but as is usually the case with all extremists, he can be truly vicious when he wants to make an ideal become reality.
Also, Earwig is a dreadful liar and manipulator when it comes to those he seeks power from. He never gave Celestia the slightest hint that anything he did in Camet would be illegal or even immoral in Equestria but convinces her that he was a lone voice in the government crying against brutality when in fact he was committing his own war crimes, just not in a manner that could be as easily measured or judged.
His talents in persuasion are not just useful for making things sound good. He could just as easily incite a mob against somepony just like Mark Anthony did to Brutus and the other assassins in Shakespeare's Julius Caesar.
I suppose that Earwig's biggest flaw is that he is a hypocrite and is willing to do things in a certain way that he wouldn't tolerate others doing in another way.
One example of his hypocrisy would be the way he would seek patronage from other nobles who lacked alicorn ancestry yet he belongs to an organization (the Blood Cabal) that was founded for the express purpose of keeping those families of alicorn blood in positions of power while keeping others without alicorn blood disenfranchised by means of intimidation, which could sometimes be violent.
I see him as being a deeply unpleasant character but still having likable traits. He would have plenty of "pet the dog" moments due to his moral code but quite capable of doing things that would disgust any reasonable pony. But again Earwig is rarely reasonable.
Oh, and I'm also quite sure that Earwig would be an inveterate perv: [link] Shapeshifters often are. I mean really, how many frustrated stallions who could literally be a "fly on the wall" wouldn't sneak into certain mares' dressing rooms or showers? Mind you, that wouldn't mean much as they are almost always naked anyways but then Earwig is kind of eccentric like that...
His actions are only good or kind when he feels that it is required by the code of harmony he follows and otherwise he would see nothing wrong with abducting and terrorizing children or deceiving others to their great detriment if it's for the "greater good" of ponykind.
Speaking of his fears, I suppose that death without recognition is one of the things that can truly terrify Earwig to the point of paranoia. One of his fears is that he will leave nothing behind that will testify to his existence. This is part of the reason why he is so dead set on advancing to Count, Marquess/Marquis, or even "Prince".
Earwig is from a long line of barons who have stayed in the same rank and have remained with the same meagre holdings for one thousand years while other noble families, some not even of alicorn blood, have been elevated to the heights of "Prince" or "Princess", for instance a certain "neice" of Celestia who is to be married soon...
The Speech Family has kind of a big pun about it in a way. The title baron is
Oh, and part of the thing about rescuing an enemy would be that he would use it as part of his whole deceptive plan. Earwig sees the world as balancing out in a number of ways and that it is reasonable to commit some truly awful acts as long as you balance them out with some really good ones. He sees it as a kind of insurance actually. If everypony knows that you are a good-for-nothing creep then it will be much less likely that anypony will come to your defence if you are accused of something or help you if you really need help. This is why Earwig would never mistreat his mooks (such as his Desert Kin guards). He sees them as being an investment for the future and tries to be as affable and genuinely friendly with them as he can muster because one day, when he is dangling by his hooftips from the top of a high precipice with his wings (if he ends up having any) and magic incapacitated he can call for help and hopefully have enough good will build up that somepony somewhere will save him from falling to his doom rather than standing by and smirking while he plummets onto the jagged rocks below. Not a typical villainous thought process but understandable considering what happened to Rousing Speech. In fact, I see the cause of his ancestor's demise as part of the reason for his "genre savvyness". He learned from those mistakes that led to Rousing's early grave and applied those lessons to his life so that he wouldn't end up the same way. Earwig wouldn't really save an enemy for a truly altruistic purpose but rather to balance his own "karma" in a way that if he were in the same situation he could possibly expect the same in return. Kind of a less moralistic version of the golden rule. This might also be influenced by how said enemy would respond to being saved. He would be much more motivated to save an enemy with a "good" or "neutral" alignment than another "evil" enemy. He could often expect some measure of gratitude or reciprocity from the former but would have little to gain from doing anything to help the latter. Earwig doesn't do good things because he wants to, the opposite in fact, he saves ponies he would be happy to see gone forever because he believes that he has to, in order to keep himself from becoming irredeemable and therefore more likely to die "unshriven" by karma if you will. It's his own defence mechanism to keep himself from becoming a complete monster and falling prey to the kind of horrid demise that complete monsters oft come to. Of course, complete monsters often end up this way because of how their actions turn everyone against them. Earwig knows this and instead decides to reject those actions even if he would honestly love to murder or torture somepony something that a powerful shapeshifter would have no problem doing.
The other thing is, many of the most evil people in real life were capable of being loving family and caring friends to some while acting as mass executioners, murderers, and torturers to others. Earwig isn't nearly as bad as some of those people but he is discriminatory in how he treats certain creatures because of his lifelong biases. He would be horrified if someone were to kidnap the foals of a family of alicorn blood but would be noticeably less concerned if it was a non-alicorn descended noble family and wouldn't even bat an eyebrow if they were non-nobility. And of course, he is willing to do the exact same thing to the Night Bred that he would roundly condemn being done to a family of alicord descent.
Basically, he is a pretty unpleasant stallion who has a lot of "pet the dog moments" regardless. Earwig is indeed a bastard but not a total bastard at the same time.
For example: Earwig can be a bigot at times but can learn to see things from another's point of view if he is exposed to them for a long enough time. He still views the Night Bred as a dangerous nuisance but after his experiments in Camet he also comes to see them as real ponies, capable of real fear and suffering rather than the black-hearted, unfeeling monsters he originally saw them as. This also shakes a few of his preconceptions and longheld beliefs about the world which kind of causes him to go a bit nuts and begin to think that everything he's worked for is useless and that harmony means nothing
As for being a threat, I mentioned that Earwig wouldn't purposefully harm or kill anypony except in self defence which is true, but I never said that he wouldn't make it seem like he would kill somepony who came after him or for that matter that he would make it possible for other ponies to get themselves killed by their own stupidity. For instance, his secret desert base would likely be packed with all manner of death traps and harmful magical security devices to kill or incapacitate intruders, after all, this is Camet and assassins and murderous bandits abound and Earwig would likely be less concerned if intruders were to fall victim to their own hubris rather than his purposeful murder of them.
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Sorry for not writing back sooner, the comments page on my devart account seem to be messed up by the large number of replies.
You asked what Honeyed's special talent is, well... I suppose that his talent is getting others to change their minds or opinions. He is adept at all kinds of persuasion and can easily talk the average pony down from their intellectual or moral positions with ease. He is a smooth talker like the Flim Flam Bros. but nowhere near as confrontational or jerkish. He is the type who could sell you clearly inferior merchandise for an exorbitant price and make you think that you practically stole it from him. He would make an excellent salespony. Honeyed could also serve as his own defence attorney.
He has a way of weaseling his way into the corridors of power through his manipulative sweet talk and genuinely friendly demeanor. True to the spirit of the show and his ideas of Harmony, he indeed believes that "Friendship is Magic" but his uses for it are obviously less altruistic than the main cast's.
Speaking of his persuasive nature, how do you like the nickname "Earwig" for Honeyed Speech? The name comes from the slang verb to earwig meaning either "to attempt to influence by persistent confidential argument or talk" or "to eavesdrop". Both of these definitions would fit with what I have planned for his actions and character.
Knowing that many ponies use familiar names rather than their birth names I thought that it would make sense for Honeyed to have one too. Also, Honeyed is kind of hard to say out loud... just try saying it several times quickly.
I imagine that Honeyed Speech is his birth name and that his other relatives have similarly themed birth names such as Garbled Speech, Flowery or Flow'ry Speech, Caustic Speech, Artful Speech etc. All of them are descended from alicorn baronial families but few if any of them would actually be alicorns.
The idea of Hoodwink in the cartoon having multiple illusory personas or occupations would be neat as a concept. Actually, considering Honeyed/Earwig's tendency to be somewhat of an actor himself, if they were ever to cross paths, I could see him and Hoodwink being antagonistic counterparts to each other. Illusionists and shapeshifters can both change their appearance though the one does so in pretense whereas the other literally changes who they are.
Plus they are both on quite different sides of their particular situation: Hoodwink is an outlaw Night Bred thief looking to gain influence for himself under Princess Luna. Earwig is an already influential Grand Vizier and Baron who is trying to make himself more powerful at the expense of others, especially the Night Bred and Luna.
As for why Earwig/Honeyed Speech would need a disguise? Well, I suppose that he is something of a coward or at least non-confrontational, and he wouldn't want to be seen in public doing anything that might make him noticed, at least not yet. He only has an interest in promoting himself once all of his life goals are fulfilled.
Hoodwink wants to reclaim his family's lands, yes? Well Earwig already has lands and the noble title of a baron but as his inheritance is quite tiny, he wishes to first make himself rich and influential outside of Equestria and then return with some important scientific discoveries in order to convince Princess Celestia, his distant relative, that he should advance in the peerage. This is part of the reason for his odd "experiments" involving the Night Bred.
Earwig is a very cagey individual and doesn't let on much about his true feelings toward anything as he is ever concerned about offending someone who may proove helpful to him in the future. One example of this side of him is the guarded fortress lab he has in the desert outside of Camet's main city. He keeps his activities there secret and even the Pharaoh doesn't know exactly what goes on there.
If Cartoon Hoodwink was to play the part of a famous pirate outlaw, you could bet that Cartoon Earwig would style himself a dashing privateer and pirate-hunter with a letter of marque from the Pharaoh or some other monarch. Earwig would take his fake job much more seriously though and would actually start to believe in his role, suffering from delusions of grandeur. This would be fitting for their respective roles as an illusionist and a shapeshifter, one deals in pretense while the other deals with creating reality. Actually, Earwig would almost certainly transmogrify himself into a muscular, swashbuckling stallion with an imposing frame and strikingly handsome features, being the vain creature he is.
I imagine Cartoon Earwig's character outfit would include a prim bicorn hat and powdered wig with a frilly, lacy cravat around his neck, whereas Cartoon Hoodwink would have more typically gaudy "piratey" garb. I could see the younger Hoodwink pretending to be a Jack Sparrow-like lovable rogue whereas the older Earwig would assume the role of the dandyish, lead-from-behind captain and hypocritical buccaneer working for the powers that be.
I imagine that Honeyed/Earwig is genre-savvy but not in the same way as Hoodwink. Whereas Hoodwink is truly genre-savvy in using others perceptions of reality against them, Earwig is only superficially savvy, thinking that he knows how things work, though Hoodwink could run circles around him and kick him in the flank while he is in his self- aggrandizing mode.
In another situation, I could see Hoodwink as a slippery French spy and Earwig as the stereotype conniving and supercilious German officer complete with a pointy pickelhaube or peaked cap, monocle, and cigarette holder like so:
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Considering that he is the descendant of alicorn barons, the evil German aristocrat theme would work well with him... The actor in the pictures, Erich von Stroheim, actually looks alot like how I pictured a humanized Honeyed Speech/Earwig minus his moustache and a couple decades older.
One odd thing about Earwig is that he actually can be genuinely kind to somepony who is suffering or having problems. For instance, he would never hurt the foals he kidnaps and would chew out and fire any of his guards who would dare to mistreat his precious "charges". Around his desert laboratory/fortress where he studies the captured Night Bred, he would act like a friendly family doctor, listening to their needs and giving the frightened foals anything they wanted, honestly trying to be their friend. He would probably act like that goofy doctor from Secret of My Excess and try to be their "pal". Although I can see many of his Night Bred charges responding like Spike did too... [link]
Much like Hoodwink had attributes that, had things turned out differently, could have made him the Element of Honesty; Earwig could once have been the Element of Kindness, had things aligned differently and had he not started to lose his way with unethical experiments...
This is, again, due to his deep-seated belief in the old code of Harmony, even if he doesn't follow it in many areas of his life.
Weirdly, in some ways he has similarities to Hoodwink in the way he is devoted to a certain ideal but feels that his talents are wasted where he is and that he doesn't live up to that ideal as well as he should. However, they are very different in other areas.
As I said, in the cartoon they might make good counterpart antagonists as they would probably hate the crap out of each other despite the similarities. What with them being on opposite ideological sides and all... The Thief, Spy, and Illusionist vs. the Kidnapper, Mad Pseudo-scientist, and Shapeshifter. It could be interesting if Earwig/Honeyed Speech got his own tumblr...
Although Honeyed/Earwig fails in the long term to complete his research and is forced to flee Camet to Ewe-ropa (fantasy counterpart Europe with ovine theme) and then to Equestria because of the Revolt, he is kind of a Karma Houdini, in that he is never brought to trial for his crimes, as he kept his studies secret and freed all the Night Bred foals before blowing up his lab and all his leftover research notes.
In fact, he shows documents detailing his official opposition to Roughshod and Arbit-Raris' violent actions to Equestrian Immigration Authorities as proof that he was an opponent of the regime and escapes being extradited. Also, few ordinary Camelites knew who he really was as Earwig always kept out of the spotlight. I see Earwig/Honeyed as a Villain with Good Publicity: [link] as well as a behind the scenes kind of bad guy.
I am also now thinking that Arbit-Raris is merely deposed and imprisoned for life rather than being executed. It fits more with the style of the show and I want to tone down most of the grimdark elements. I'm still not sure about what happens to Roughshod though...
Earwig later becomes a centrepiece of Canterlot social life and seeks to ingratiate himself with Celestia (she doesn't really know what he was doing). I'm toning down his extreme casteism as it doesn't fit with some of the other aspects of his character. If the alicorn thing proves too Gary Stu-ish I could still have him be a powerful unicorn who still knows he's descended from alicorn nobility.
I've decided that his reason for wanting to study Night Bred behaviour was to find a non-lethal, non-debilitating way of assimilating them physically and magically into the "proper" pony hierarchy. He was unable to find sufficient support or funding in Equestria as nopony believed that it could be done and he knew Celestia wasn't too interested in forcibly changing any of her subjects' way of life, not to mention the fact that any such experimentation on other ponies would be thoroughly illegal. He decided that he would seek patronage in another land, somewhere he could easily hide his activities and which had many test subjects...
Earwig was convinced that finding a way to "tame" the Night Bred into respectable ponies would give him fame and fortune and change the Princess' mind on the subject of assimilation, as well as inflating his family's rank in the noble peerage. After all, he is only a comparatively lowly Baron, but when his new discovery vindicates his theories, he is sure that he will make Count or even Marquess.
I imagine Earwig/Honeyed Speech having a similar voice style to this guy: [link] They both share a number of personal affectations and are somewhat similar in personality although their motivations are different and Earwig wouldn't be quite that fussy. I imagine him to be quite humorous at times and, despite his war criminal status, to utilize the Too Funny to Be Evil trope: [link]
Earwig would likely play up his facade as the good doctor role to make himself seem trustworthy and genteel and he is not the kind to fall prey to an engineered or accidental public confession like some villains (he's far too repressed and self-righteous to let something incriminating slip past his lips) Earwig is still rather easy to bother though and I'm sure that if Hoodwink gained any position of power, he would enjoy helping Luna and other enemies of the lesser alicorn baron make his life miserable...
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Sorry for not writing back sooner, the comments page on my devart account seem to be messed up by the large number of replies.
You asked what Honeyed's special talent is, well... I suppose that his talent is getting others to change their minds or opinions. He is adept at all kinds of persuasion and can easily talk the average pony down from their intellectual or moral positions with ease. He is a smooth talker like the Flim Flam Bros. but nowhere near as confrontational or jerkish. He is the type who could sell you clearly inferior merchandise for an exorbitant price and make you think that you practically stole it from him. He would make an excellent salespony. Honeyed could also serve as his own defence attorney.
He has a way of weaseling his way into the corridors of power through his manipulative sweet talk and genuinely friendly demeanor. True to the spirit of the show and his ideas of Harmony, he indeed believes that "Friendship is Magic" but his uses for it are obviously less altruistic than the main cast's.
Speaking of his persuasive nature, how do you like the nickname "Earwig" for Honeyed Speech? The name comes from the slang verb to earwig meaning either "to attempt to influence by persistent confidential argument or talk" or "to eavesdrop". Both of these definitions would fit with what I have planned for his actions and character.
Knowing that many ponies use familiar names rather than their birth names I thought that it would make sense for Honeyed to have one too. Also, Honeyed is kind of hard to say out loud... just try saying it several times quickly.
I imagine that Honeyed Speech is his birth name and that his other relatives have similarly themed birth names such as Garbled Speech, Flowery or Flow'ry Speech, Caustic Speech, Artful Speech etc. All of them are descended from alicorn baronial families but few if any of them would actually be alicorns.
The idea of Hoodwink in the cartoon having multiple illusory personas or occupations would be neat as a concept. Actually, considering Honeyed/Earwig's tendency to be somewhat of an actor himself, if they were ever to cross paths, I could see him and Hoodwink being antagonistic counterparts to each other. Illusionists and shapeshifters can both change their appearance though the one does so in pretense whereas the other literally changes who they are.
Plus they are both on quite different sides of their particular situation: Hoodwink is an outlaw Night Bred thief looking to gain influence for himself under Princess Luna. Earwig is an already influential Grand Vizier and Baron who is trying to make himself more powerful at the expense of others, especially the Night Bred and Luna.
As for why Earwig/Honeyed Speech would need a disguise? Well, I suppose that he is something of a coward or at least non-confrontational, and he wouldn't want to be seen in public doing anything that might make him noticed, at least not yet. He only has an interest in promoting himself once all of his life goals are fulfilled. Hoodwink wants to reclaim his family's lands, yes? Well Earwig already has lands and the noble title of a baron but as his inheritance is quite tiny, he wishes to make himself rich and influential outside of Equestria and return with some important scientific discoveries in order to convince Princess Celestia, his distant relative, that he should advance in the peerage. This is part of the reason for his odd "experiments" involving the Night Bred.
Earwig is a very cagey individual and doesn't let on much about his true feelings toward anything as he is ever concerned about offending someone who may proove helpful to him in the future. One example of this side of him is the guarded fortress lab he has in the desert outside of Camet's main city. He keeps his activities there secret and even the Pharaoh doesn't know exactly what goes on there.
If Cartoon Hoodwink was to play the part of a famous pirate outlaw, you could bet that Cartoon Earwig would style himself a dashing privateer and pirate-hunter with a letter of marque from the Pharaoh or some other monarch. Earwig would take his fake job much more seriously though and would actually start to believe in his role, suffering from delusions of grandeur. This would be fitting for their respective roles as an illusionist and a shapeshifter, one deals in pretense while the other deals with creating reality. Actually, Earwig would almost certainly transmogrify himself into a muscular, swashbuckling stallion with an imposing frame and strikingly handsome features, being the vain creature he is.
I imagine Cartoon Earwig's character outfit would include a prim bicorn hat and powdered wig with a frilly, lacy cravat around his neck, whereas Cartoon Hoodwink would have more typically gaudy "piratey" garb. I could see the younger Hoodwink pretending to be a Jack Sparrow-like lovable rogue whereas the older Earwig would assume the role of the dandyish and detestable lead-from-behind captain and hypocritical buccaneer working for the powers that be.
I imagine that Honeyed/Earwig is genre-savvy but not in the same way as Hoodwink. Whereas Hoodwink is truly genre-savvy in using others perceptions of reality against them, Earwig is only superficially savvy, thinking that he knows how things work, though Hoodwink could run circles around him and kick him in the flank while he is in his self- aggrandizing mode.
In another situation, I could see Hoodwink as a slippery French spy and Earwig as the stereotype conniving and supercilious German officer complete with a pointy pickelhaube or peaked cap, monocle, and cigarette holder like so:
[link]
[link]
[link]
Considering that he is the descendant of alicorn barons, the evil German aristocrat theme would work well with him... The actor in the pictures, Erich von Stroheim, actually looks alot like how I pictured a humanized Honeyed Speech/Earwig minus his moustache.
One odd thing about Earwig is that he actually can be genuinely kind to somepony who is suffering or having problems. He would never hurt the foals he kidnaps and would chew out and fire any of his guards who would dare to harm his precious "charges". Around his desert laboratory/fortress where he studies the captured Night Bred, he would act like a friendly family doctor, listening to their needs and giving the frightened foals anything they wanted, honestly trying to be their friend. He would probably act like that goofy doctor from Secret of My Excess and try to be their "pal". Although I can see many of his Night Bred charges responding like Spike too... [link]
Much like Hoodwink had attributes that, had things turned out differently, could have made him the Element of Honesty; Earwig could once have been the Element of Kindness, had things aligned differently and had he not started to lose his way with unethical experiments...
This is, again, due to his deep-seated belief in the old code of Harmony, even if he doesn't follow it in many areas of his life.
Weirdly, in some ways he has similarities to Hoodwink in the way he is devoted to a certain ideal but feels that his talents are wasted where he is and that he doesn't live up to that ideal as well as he should. However, they are very different in other areas.
As I said, in the cartoon they might make good counterpart antagonists as they would probably hate the crap out of each other despite the similarities. What with them being on opposite ideological sides and all... The Thief, Spy, and Illusionist vs. the Kidnapper, Mad Pseudo-scientist, and Shapeshifter. It could be interesting if Earwig/Honeyed Speech got his own tumblr...
Although Honeyed/Earwig fails in the long term to complete his research and is forced to flee Camet to Ewe-ropa (fantasy counterpart Europe with ovine theme) and then to Equestria because of the Revolt, he is kind of a Karma Houdini, in that he is never brought to trial for his crimes, as he kept his studies secret and freed all the Night Bred foals before blowing up his lab and all his leftover research notes.
In fact, he shows documents detailing his official opposition to Roughshod and Arbit-Raris' violent actions to Equestrian Immigration Authorities as proof that he was an opponent of the regime and escapes being extradited. Also, few ordinary Camelites knew who he really was as Earwig always kept out of the spotlight. I see Earwig/Honeyed as a Villain with Good Publicity: [link] as well as a behind the scenes kind of bad guy.
I am also now thinking that Arbit-Raris is merely deposed and imprisoned for life rather than being executed. It fits more with the style of the show and I want to tone down most of the grimdark elements. I'm still not sure about what happens to Roughshod though...
Earwig later becomes a centrepiece of Canterlot social life and seeks to ingratiate himself with Celestia (she doesn't really know what he was doing). I'm toning down his extreme casteism as it doesn't fit with some of the other aspects of his character. If the alicorn thing proves too Gary Stu-ish I could still have him be a powerful unicorn who still knows he's descended from alicorn nobility.
I've decided that his reason for wanting to study Night Bred behaviour was to find a non-lethal, non-debilitating way of assimilating them physically and magically into the "proper" pony hierarchy. He was unable to find sufficient support or funding in Equestria as nopony believed that it could be done and he knew Celestia wasn't interested in forcibly changing any of her subjects' way of life, not to mention the fact that any such experimentation on other ponies would be thoroughly illegal. He decided that he would seek patronage in another land, somewhere he could easily hide his activities and which had many test subjects...
Earwig was convinced that finding a way to "tame" the Night Bred into respectable ponies would give him fame and fortune, as well as inflating his family's rank in the noble peerage. After all, he is only a comparatively lowly Baron, but when his new discovery vindicates his theories, he is sure that he will make Count or even Marquess.
I imagine Earwig/Honeyed Speech having a similar voice style to this guy: [link] They both share a number of personal affectations and are somewhat similar in personality although their motivations are different and Earwig wouldn't be quite that fussy. I imagine him to be quite humorous at times and, despite his war criminal status, to utilize the Too Funny to Be Evil trope: [link]
Earwig would likely play up his facade as the good doctor role to make himself seem trustworthy and genteel and he is not the kind to fall prey to an engineered or accidental public confession like some villains (he's far too introverted and self-righteous to let something incriminating slip past his lips) Earwig is still rather easy to bother though and I'm sure that if Hoodwink gained any position of power, he would enjoy helping Luna and other enemies of the lesser alicorn baron make his life miserable...
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Sorry for not writing back sooner, the comments page on my devart account seem to be messed up by the large number of replies.
You asked what Honeyed's special talent is, well... I suppose that his talent is getting others to change their minds or opinions. He is adept at all kinds of persuasion and can easily talk the average pony down from their intellectual or moral positions with ease. He is a smooth talker like the Flim Flam Bros. but nowhere near as confrontational or jerkish. He is the type who could sell you clearly inferior merchandise for an exorbitant price and make you think that you practically stole it from him.
Honeyed could serve as his own defence attorney. He also has a way of weaseling his way into the corridors of power through his manipulative sweet talk and seemingly genuine and friendly demeanor. True to the spirit of the show and his ideas of Harmony, he indeed believes that "Friendship is Magic" but his uses for it are obviously less altruistic than the main cast's.
Speaking of his persuasive nature, how do you like the nickname "Earwig" for him? The name comes from the slang verb to earwig meaning either "to attempt to influence by persistent confidential argument or talk" or "to eavesdrop". Both of these definitions would fit with what I have planned for his actions and character.
Knowing that many ponies use familiar names rather than their birth names I thought that it would make sense for Honeyed to have one too. Also, Honeyed is kind of hard to say out loud... just try saying it several times quickly. I imagine that Honeyed Speech is his birth name and that his other relatives have similar birth names such as Garbled Speech, Flowery or Flow'ry Speech, Caustic Speech, Artful Speech etc. All of them are descended from alicorn baronial families but few if any of them would actually be alicorns.
The idea of Hoodwink having multiple illusory personas or occupations would be neat as a concept. Actually considering Honeyed/Earwig's tendency to be somewhat of an actor himself, I could see him and Hoodwink being foils to each other.
If Hoodwink was to play the part of a famous pirate outlaw, you could bet that Earwig would style himself a dashing privateer and pirate-hunter with a letter of marque from the Pharaoh. He would take his fake job much more seriously though and would actually start to believe in his delusions of grandeur. Of course Earwig's character outfit would include a cocky bicorn hat, as well as a double headed cigar holder like a certain other hook-handed captain... I could see the younger Hoodwink being a Jack Sparrow-like lovable rogue whereas the older Earwig would be the dandyish and detestable tyrant captain and hypocritical buccaneer: [link]
I imagine that Honeyed/Earwig is genre-savvy but not in the same way as Hoodwink. Whereas Hoodwink is truly genre-savvy in using others perceptions of reality against them, Earwig is only superficially savvy, thinking that he knows how things work, though Hoodwink could run circles around him and kick him in the flank while he is in his self- aggrandizing mode.
In another case, I could see Hoodwink as a First World War- vintage, slippery French spy and Earwig as the imperious and arrogant German officer complete with a pointy pickelhaube or peaked cap, monocle, and cigarette holder like so:
[link]
[link]
[link]
Considering that he is the descendant of alicorn barons, the evil German aristocrat theme would work well with him... (funny thing about those photos, the man in them is actually Jewish.) The guy in the pictures, Erich von Stroheim, actually looks alot like how I would picture a humanized Honeyed Speech/Earwig minus his moustache.
One thing about Earwig is that he actually can be genuinely kind to somepony who is suffering or in trouble. He would never hurt the foals he kidnaps and would chew out and fire any of his guards who would dare to harm his precious "charges". Around his desert laboratory/fortress where he studies the captured Night Bred, he would act like a friendly family doctor, listening to their needs and giving the frightened foals anything they wanted, honestly trying to be their friend. He would probably act like that goofy doctor from Secret of My Excess and try to be their "pal". I can see many of his Night Bred charges responding like Spike too... [link]
Much like Hoodwink had attributes that, had he chosen a different life, could have made him the Element of Honesty; Earwig could once have been the Element of Kindness, had he not started to lose his way with unethical experiments...
This is, again, due to his deep-seated belief in the old code of Harmony, even if he doesn't follow it in many areas of his life.
Weirdly, in some ways he has similarities to Hoodwink in the way he is devoted to a certain ideal but feels that his talents are wasted where he is, but they are very different in others. As I said, they might make good foil antagonists as they would probably hate the crap out of each other despite the few similarities. The Thief, Spy, and Illusionist vs. the Kidnapper, Grand Vizier, and Shapeshifter. It would be interesting if Honeyed Speech/Earwig got his own tumblr...
Although Honeyed/Earwig eventually fails to complete his research and is forced to flee Camet to Ewe-ropa (fantasy counterpart Europe with ovine theme) and then to Equestria. He is kind of a Karma Houdini, in that he is never brought to trial for his crimes, as he kept his studies secret and freed all the Night Bred foals before blowing up his lab and all his leftover research notes. In fact, he shows documents detailing his official opposition to Roughshod and Arbit-Raris' violent actions to Equestrian Immigration Authorities as proof that he was an opponent of the regime and escapes being extradited. Also, few ordinary Camelites knew who he was as Earwig always kept out of the spotlight.
He later becomes a centrepiece of Canterlot social life. (I'm toning down his extreme casteism, as it doesn't fit with some of the other aspects of his character. If the alicorn thing proves too Gary Stu-ish I could still have him be a powerful unicorn who knows he's descended from alicorn nobility)
I am also now thinking that Arbit-Raris is merely deposed and imprisoned for life rather than being executed. It fits more with the style of the show and I want to tone down most of the grimdark elements. I'm still not sure about what happens to Roughshod though...
I imagine Earwig/Honeyed Speech having a similar voice style to this guy: [link] They both share a number of personal affectations and are somewhat similar in personality.
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Earwig/Honeyed sort of has two faces, the affable public lecturer and socialite and the bitter, unappreciated (in his mind) genius. He is largely upset that Cadence's family has surpassed his own in Celestia's favour and that he has to seek favours and patronage elsewhere outside of Equestria for his experiments on Night Bred social behaviours.
As an alicorn of noble blood, who still remembers the stories of what the Night Bred did to his ancient relatives, these studies are personal to him and this causes him to make some rather immoral decisions.
Part of the reason for Earwig's fall from grace was that Princess Celestia determined that he was using his position of power to coerce assimilated Night Bred families in Equestria to take part in his research experiments (studies of unique physical features, reactions to various stimuli compared to regular ponies etc.) by threatening them with termination of employment in the Kingdom's service or worse if they didn't comply.
I'm going to assume that Celestia wouldn't approve of one of her lesser nobles threatening her subjects behind her back and without making a big deal of it, she cuts off his funding, citing abuses, and Earwig and his family are left without that generous source of income.
Since they are all bankrupt aristocrats by this point, and in need of money, this leads to some bad feelings between Earwig and the rest of his family who see him as sacrificing their livelihood for his own selfish desires.
After the loss of her patronage and donations, Earwig travels to several different foreign kingdoms looking for sponsors for his life's work and he is often successful but he finds his greatest admirer in the Pharaoh of Camet who is enthralled by some of the foreign lecturer's many ideas.
The Pharaoh offers Earwig a position as a royal vizier and makes him the Royal Tutor to his son, Prince Arbit-Raris.
As you can probably tell, I do see him as kind of being the instigator of many of Camet's woes in the years that were to come and so he may be seen as the "mastermind" behind the scene. However, Earwig has a lot of problems later on and, of course, he ultimately is not successful in achieving his dreams though he is a Karma Houdini in some ways.
His goal in life was to demonstrate that he could "tame" the Night Bred's dark nature and bring them into full communion with the rest of pony society through social engineering and breeding the darker natured characteristics out of them.
He hoped that being able to show Princess Celestia the true value of his scientific work would cause her to take him back with full honours and allow him to restore his family's prestige and mend the broken bonds between them.
There are exceptions to his chronic jerkassery though and he has a way of becoming close to those he spends much time with, the young Arbit-Raris being the most notable example.
Earwig is quite contradictory in a number of ways. While he kidnaps young Night Bred foals from their families and imprisons them in his fortress for the purpose of studying them, he is not terribly cruel to them otherwise. They are all well fed and looked after and he allows them to form little groups of friends as if he were running an orphanage of sorts.
He offers them all the amenities they would be able to get at home, maybe more. In fact, the younger and more trusting ones who aren't trying to constantly escape and who don't outright reject his overtures of "friendship" he may come to see as his own foals, with him as their semi-aloof "god-like" adoptive father.
If he does have some issues with the Night Bred, it wouldn't apply to foals as he sees them as innocent and malleable. He would try his best to use his powers of persuasion on the captured foals who were older or more cognizant and resentful of their situation but they would maybe still have a learned dislike of all alicorn nobility from their parents. Whatever the case, Earwig's little reign of terror only lasts several years before being toppled and all the foals are happily reunited with their parents eventually.
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Sorry again for not writing back sooner. I was in need of sleep myself. How are you anyway?
I can definitely see Hoodwink having issues like that and it does sound like it would work well for him. I especially like the idea of him being devoted to keeping his word as a defence mechanism.
As for Honeyed, again, I'm still working out certain aspects of his character and background as well as his design, but I now feel that if he isn't truly evil that he certainly skates the line between lawful neutral and lawful evil.
The difference between Good, Neutral, and Evil is often defined in fantasy contexts basically as being a measure of how someone interacts with friends, enemies, and strangers under various circumstances and how willing they are to hurt or kill people to get what they want.
Again Honeyed is generally neutral in regards to how he acts with friends and relatives. He probably wouldn't betray anyone close to him unless he was himself threatened with serious harm. However, there are few who are close to him to begin with. Despite having an active social life within the palace, he has a hard time connecting with anyone due to his rather frigid personality and rigid moralistic views.
I imagine that Honeyed occupies a position that is something like a Grand Vizier to the Pharaoh. He sort of subverts the typical Evil Vizier role in that while he may very well be evil and a vizier, he is not looking to overthrow the monarch or any such thing. The Pharaoh is one of the few creatures Honeyed actually really cares about and he wishes instead to mould him in his image like he would act towards his own offspring if he had any.
He isn't interested in "hurting" anypony by his definition but, of course, what counts as "hurting" might depend on the perspective of who is judging his actions.
He wouldn't purposefully do harm to Night Bred who came under his control, but you have to question the morality of anypony who seeks to change the physiology and biology of a whole race just to fit his conception of right and wrong.
He is more of a "casteist" than a racist. His "Harmonism" has much more in common with the rigid birth-based Caste System of India than any Western definition of racism.
Honeyed Speech, King Arbit-Raris, and Captain Roughshod are all "villains" but not all people or creatures defined as villains are necessarily evil, though they often are. Honeyed is basically an example of the well intentioned extremist type of villain, but more about him later.
Pharaoh Arbit-Raris is gullible, pompous, self-important and the sort of antagonist easily led into evil ideas without being fully aware of their full consequences. Which may make sense considering that he is still quite young (around the main six's age) and probably shouldn't even be ruling a kingdom yet. Most of his ideas aren't even of his own making but fed to him by the opposing duo of Honeyed and Roughshod.
Then there's Roughshod, the Desert Kin pegasus, who is probably the closest to a Complete Monster on the list. Though his society is somewhat tolerant of brutality to begin with, Roughshod is just seen as overstepping the moral boundaries of that violence a bit too far. This becomes apparent in his willingness to kill even foals and calves among others in his brutal repression of civilian populations protesting the Pharaoh's rule.
He is noted for his "loyalty", but it isn't loyalty to others like that of Rainbow Dash but something different. It is more of a loyalty to an ideal, like how Honeyed Speech is loyal to his perception of Harmony, though Roughshod's ideals are quite opposed to Honeyed's in a number of ways.
He is truly loyal only to those who earn his respect, which is difficult to do. It's also possible to lose that respect. And if somepony is no longer worthy of his respect, in his eyes, then they are no longer worthy of his loyalty either. Like how Rainbow Dash rejected Gilda for showing herself unworthy of her friendship but in a far more consistent manner and, one might argue, for more practical reasons. Basically he is loyal only to two entities: an ancient, unwritten ideal of honour and sacrifice and the loyal troops who follow him.
Roughshod is like the patriarchal Afghan warlord who may love his daughter, but who murders or "executes" her by stoning to death because she is accused by her family of acting or dressing immodestly and so staining the family's good name and prestige. Everything Roughshod would do would be based on his perception of "honour". Nowadays, most of the horrible things he does would be considered evil by modern standards in both Equestria and most of the other Desert Kingdoms.
Even within antediluvian and harsh Camet there is a sense of revulsion at the extremity of his actions in the modern day, but at one time they would have been considered nothing out of the ordinary for a Camelite leader to commit.
Basically, almost everything he does that is considered evil would be considered so because of simple values shift over time. Roughshod just didn't get the memo that things have changed. Whether that justifies his actions are up to whoever is judging him.
Roughshod sniffs at Honeyed Speech's ideas of Harmony and thinks that they are nothing more than the babblings of a sickly, sad little creature that couldn't defend himself from a mouse if he were stripped of his magical powers and yet derides those who help keep him in power as savage killers.
Roughshod is a reactionary personality and doesn't believe in or approve of any form of modernization or reform but he will still suppress a crowd of rioters protesting against said reform because he doesn't approve of any sort of revolution or social unrest either.
Part of the reason Roughshod tries to insinuate himself with the Pharaoh is to counteract what he sees as the poisonous influence of Honeyed Speech's alien and foreign ideas and his smooth talking.
Roughshod, unlike Honeyed, wouldn't care less about what happens to the Night Bred of the kingdom either way, unless there were any among his troops, in which case he could certainly exert his influence with the Pharaoh to make an exception in their case with regards to Honeyed's "experimentation". (It's not quite as sinister as it sounds and it's nowhere nearly as traumatic or harmful as the things the lesser alicorn nobles did in the past. No painful procedures or magic operations but a rather boring, drawn-out series of tests that involve observing social interactions and utilization of special powers in a controlled environment.)
I suppose all three of my villain characters could be considered fairly nasty in their own right but comparatively harmless without a system to take advantage of.
The thing is, most evil is collaborative. The worst things that mankind has ever done has been done by groups of people working together. The worst regimes of the 20th and 21st centuries so far, all had thousands of people who were willing to help them achieve their goals.
Often they had people working for them that had very different ideas of what they wanted from the regime but they all still ended up being cogs in an evil machine that ground up countless lives like hamburger.
This is how I see my three villains, they all have at least a few admirable features as well as many hateful ones but no one of them is singularly responsible for the suffering they cause but are all equally to blame. There's no concept of a villainous "mastermind" in my concept. Just a big snowball of bad ideas and cruelty.
I don't even know why I'm writing this to be honest. It might just be catharsis for me for various reasons. This is sounding like a terribly sad and oppressive concept for a MLP fanfic isn't it? It's like I'm recreating Saddam Hussein's Iraq in the world of marshmallow ponies and I feel kind of bad about it... On the other hoof, it could illustrate how events like the Reign of Nightmare Moon could get really ugly... Also how a regime could transform itself from a seemingly benign cabal of oddballs into a truly fearsome force. Not all evil regimes come to power with armies of darkness and stereotype villainous cackling after all.
P.S. I'm planning on modifying some of Honeyed's superficial features like his mane and colour to make him more distinctive and look less like a real life person. He'll still keep the pyramid-stache and pince-nez specs though.
Also, how would I send you a sketch to vector? I'm sorry, I really am bad with computer-y stuff. ):
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The difference between Good, Neutral, and Evil is often defined in fantasy contexts basically as being a measure of how someone interacts with friends, enemies, and strangers under various circumstances and how willing they are to hurt or kill people to get what they want.
Again Honeyed is generally neutral in regards to how he acts with friends and relatives. He probably wouldn't betray anyone close to him unless he was himself threatened with harm. However, there are few who are close to him to begin with. Despite having an active social life within the palace, he has a hard time connecting with anyone due to his rather frigid personality and rigid moralistic views.
I imagine that Honeyed occupies a position that is something like a Grand Vizier to the Pharaoh. He sort of subverts the typical Evil Vizier role in that while he may very well be evil and a vizier, he is not looking to overthrow the monarch or any such thing. The Pharaoh is one of the few creatures Honeyed actually really cares about and he wishes instead to mould him in his image like he would act towards his own offspring had he any.
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Actually, I already know the importance of references and shapes. Heck, without them I wouldn't have any idea how to sketch anything at all. It's mostly things like shading and depth that I have trouble with. But still, thanks for the advice, I can always use tips even if I already know them. They help me remember that I'm doing something right. Oh, and thanks so much for the reference pics, they should really help.
"hoof him his ass" I'm sorry, I LOLd hard on that one, it just sounds so funny and wrong using equine terms; it must be because of the weird innuendo some members of this fandom use... I like your idea of Hoodwink's cornered rat method to escape.
It's interesting thinking up ideas for morally complex characters, Honeyed is definitely a villain though he's not a completely evil one. Some of his ideas are very dangerous and, by my standards, thoroughly evil but he is "neutral" in some ways.
Society often judges people on their actions rather than their thoughts but Honeyed doesn't actually often act on his hateful feelings himself. He honestly believes that he represents true peace and harmony despite looking down on those who he should represent.
I should mention that I used the wrong terminology by describing him as a pacifist. The only kind of pacifist he might be would be a situational pacifist and even then he has ideas that would put him outside of that camp. He just opposes violence the same way any social "reformer" would.
He would definitely support a war of defense if his interests were attacked by an aggressive enemy, but he is himself against wars of aggression or preemptive wars for any reason, believing them to be dishonourable and against the laws of Harmony. He opposes torture, execution, and assassination for the same reason. However, forced population transfer or political apartheid of pony races by law? Perfectly fine or even laudable to him as long as there is no torture or extreme violence used against the innocent.
He doesn't kill or hurt others himself and he wouldn't have others kill for him except in defense of self or way of life. He is actually deeply upset that Roughshod has led his protege, Arbitraris, into the ways of militant aggression and murder which he detests as out of line with Harmony.
As you can see, he is quite the complicated character in terms of his morality. He could probably be justly accused of picking and choosing from an outdated social code (Pre-reform Harmony) with violent aspects and a pseudo-pacifistic moral ideal. Whether or not he's a bad guy all depends on how you define "hurting" others.
Actually, Honeyed's rejection of aggression and violence is really kind of nonsensical if you think about his other ideas (esp. regarding the Night Bred) and spiteful character, but this is a result of him being rather naive about real life due to lack of practical experience and being insensitive
In some severe cases, Honeyed may drop his moral shield and truly wish to make his enemies suffer, even if just for a short time while he is particularly enraged or bitter. However, he usually becomes conscious of his feelings and will mentally or verbally berate himself for allowing his negative emotions to destroy his own "harmony within".
This may happen especially when the alicorn is unable to justify his reasoning, which is one of the most important things to him. He always has to have an answer to a question about his beliefs whether it comes from within his soul or from somepony else.
If Honeyed Speech cannot justify his core beliefs in light of something new or unexpected, expect him to go a bit insane. And by insane, I don't mean stereotypically cartoon crazy. I mean that he will become very sombre and melancholy and his mind will go to a very dark and unpleasant place. A place he knows is dangerous and contradictory to his cherished ideal of Harmony but which he is still drawn to anyway.
In this dark place in his mind is where Honeyed keeps his suppressed violent and cruel fantasies. Such as what he would really like to do to his enemies but feels he could never do because of his moral code. Murder, torture, genocide and other very, very icky things not fit to discuss in polite conversation. Stuff that would make the very worst of the Nightmare Wars and the ensuing reign of Nightmare Moon look like a cheery summer picnic.
You can usually tell when he's in this state because he will nod his head and body slowly, as if in a trance, while barely breathing, keeping a perfectly placid, faraway expression despite being clearly agitated. If he had to snap out of it to deal with others, he would trot briskly around seeming very tense yet being abnormally cheery and affable with a creepy, Sweeney Todd-like smile on his face and an eerie look in his eyes like he was leering at something miles away.
This would be the equivalent of the madness brought on when other ponies are unable to fulfill their desires or fail at something that means a lot to them. The misnamed Cutie Mark Failure Insanity Syndrome as it is sometimes referred to as. Being unable to justify his beliefs or actions would be to Honeyed Speech what being unable to keep his word would be to Hoodwink, possibly worse. It would erode his faith in the code of Harmony and cause him to seek solace in the less moral part of his soul.
In this state Honeyed would probably imagine himself to be an all-powerful God of Anguish and Misery, raining all manner of calamities upon his foes. He would imagine himself as being like the Greater Alicorns of Old: Almighty, immortal, and majestic, an escape from his own pitiful, degenerated mortal body which he despises and hates.
However, this would only be a temporary affliction, I imagine, and he would return to normal after having given his subconscious a cathartic workout. But he would hate himself for giving reign to his inner passions and would suppress that side of himself even more as a result.
He would never actually want to do any of the things he fantasizes about because it goes against everything he holds dear and believes in, but it still is a part of him and though he is physically weak for an alicorn he certainly has enough mental, political and magical power to make some of his inner desires a possibility. The question is, I guess: Would he be more evil for having those thoughts at all or is he more of a noble for resisting them?
God, I think I'm writing the most patently disturbing alicorn OC ever. A lot of these ideas just come out of my head as I type, so if this sounds pretty crazy, that's because it is.
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Interesting that you should say the Night Bred, just like other ponies, would be scared of things larger than them...
You see, I kind of imagine some of the Desert Bred Earth Ponies as being trainers of wild animals (like Applebloom's lion tamer talent in the Cutie Pox). Day Earth ponies can control and breed domestic creatures, Night Bred can do the same with monsters, whereas, in my mind, the Desert Earth ponies are adept at controlling large wild animals such as lions or elephants as well as the usual domestic beasts. I can see the Camelite army using this to their advantage as the Haradrim did at the Battle of Pelennor Fields: [link]
I imagine that Camelites pulling something like that could pretty effectively mess up a Night Bred battle plan if they were able to pull it off in an organized and unexpected way. Mind you they would probably only be able to do it once but it probably would make a good first impression. Even if they were defeated it would probably act as a decent distraction to acheive other objectives.
Actually, I already know the importance of references. Heck, without them I wouldn't have any idea how to sketch anything at all. But still, thanks for the advice, I can always use reminder tips even if I already know them. They help me remember that I'm doing something right.
"hoof him his ass" I'm sorry, I LOLd hard on that one, it just sounds so funny and wrong using equine terms. I like your idea of Hoodwink's cornered rat method to escape.
It's interesting thinking up ideas for morally complex characters, Honeyed is definitely a villain though he's not a completely "evil" one. His ideas are very dangerous and by my standards thoroughly evil, but he is "neutral" in some ways.
Society often judges people on their actions rather than their thoughts but Honeyed doesn't actually act on any of his hateful feelings himself. He honestly beleives that he represents true peace and "harmony" despite looking down on those who he should represent.
But he doesn't kill and he wouldn't have others kill for him. He is actually deeply upset that Roughshod has led his protege, Arbitraris into the ways of violence and murder which he detests as out of line with harmony.
Roughshod on the other hoof, doesn't have any "evil" motivations, really. He just is super loyal to the Pharaoh whom he is bound to serve because he believes that it is in accordance with natural law. He also believes that a true Pharaoh has the ability, right, and obligation to squash those who would challenge his authority. These are not his own special personal ideals but merely the normative ideals of his profession and society. Basically, he's just doing his job. But therein is his "evil", he's loyal to the point of doing anything he is commanded to do including murdering civilians and other nasty stuff that would be impolite to mention.
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I have kind of an odd fan fiction idea of a Nightmare Period proxy war being continued in a Fantasy Equivalent of the Near East and Europe between the Moon worshipping sheep of the city state of Tambelon (Canon city from an earlier MLP generation movie which was the abode of the antagonist, Grogar, an evil ram necromancer) and the Sun worshippers of the Camelite Empire (Of my own invention and based in equal parts on the Assyrian Empire, Persia, and Ancient Egypt). I could see my version of the Tambelonians keeping extensive records of their allies, Nightmare Moon and her servants.
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thank you very much for the fav, i really appreciate it!
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