Shipping Thread

@Ranch  
Older? I was talking about the early fandom era’s spikebelle ships being made specifically because the writers and artists didn’t want to ship sparity because of the age thing. Usually it was show accurate spike and sweetie.
 
These works typically existed just to either write clop, substitute rarity with what they see as a younger version of herself or to try and basically get the ‘spike liking rarity’ problem out of the way so the creator could insert whatever lesbian ship they planned to write/draw rarity into. Too often would you find a spikebelle shipper who didn’t really care about the characters involved in this ship all that much. Back then, it was usually Applebloom people who cared about the age gap tended to ship spike with. That’s kind of flipped the past few years. Its too bad really. I like sparity but I would be remiss if I stated I didn’t miss Spikebloom.
 
Either way, modern spikebelle shipping does tend to take into account that Sweetie and her sister are two different ponies. They handle this ship with way more respect to the characters involved, moreso than too many of the early shippers did.

@Meanlucario  
This is the meme I was referring to.  
 
Consent is good but sleeping with an eel isn’t my cup of tea. That’s what I was trying to comment on. Just wanted to clarify myself.
 
@Background Pony #0EC1  
Honestly, it’s the fact that Sweetie Belle and Rarity are different that makes the ship so much fun.
 
And for my final statement:  
Spike is the best harem protagonist. Brave, kind, active and generally respectful. He’s not OP and he’s funny. He earns his harem, even if he only has eyes for one girl. Dammit, I want this anime to exist.

@Brass Beau  
Inremember Big Mac used to be that for a segment of the early fandom too. Then he went and got a girlfriend (later wife) and the whole harem route for him was cut short.

@Background Pony #0EC1  
I wasn’t around for the early Mac harem but Cheerilee and Fluttershy seemed to be the two (non-incestuous) choices.

I used to ship ZecoraMac but somehow did a permanent transfer to LunaMac. Unfortunately I could never think of a suitable partner for Zecora.

@Ranch  
I don’t know why but a bat pony version of Sebas from Overlord is too amusing to me. It just feels like it “fits” somehow.

@Brass Beau  
The bm harem was usually divided into two catagories, wholesome romance or raunchy clop. For the former, it was usually cheerilee, fluttershy and pinkie’s sister and one or two more. The latter was literally him bedding the whole town. Too many big mac must = big memes usually meant he was prime candidate for the role of alpha stud in a lot of heat season based fanfics. Then Sugar belle came along.

@Ranch  
I’m just sayin,’ if the reason Sparity is bad is because, forget the fact that he’s a fictional baby dragon, he’s a representation of an underage character and that makes it pedophilia, then think about what all these characters are representations of and then apply the very same logic.

@Phantom Rider  
An older business woman using the affections of her friend’s son (from a teen pregnancy no less) as free manual labor? Well when you put it like that…

@Brass Beau  
Son? Twilight was probably less than double digits when he was hatched? If sparity’s bad because of the implications, mama twilight’s even worse.

@Background Pony #A3D8  
Hard to say how old Twilight was. She could be anywhere from five to fifteen. And Spike could be eight to eighteen years old. The timeline is kinda funny like that. S’why I generally avoid attaching real world representation or implications to the characters. Things get real weird when that happens.

@Brass Beau  
The Mane 6 are implied to be fairly similar in age, and only Fluttershy resembles Spur, who was stated to be 11-13, so they were likely around the CMC’s age (9 according to Jim Miller and 7 according to Lauren Faust, likely 7 in S1 and 9 in S5) when they got their cutie marks. This is further supported by Applejack saying she was the last in her class to get her cutie mark, which may or may not be the case with the CMC as well. (Well, Pipsqueak, but maybe he’s a lot younger)
 
As for present day ages, I’d say that, at the absolute youngest they could be, Twilight’s 16th birthday was Magical Mystery Cure, though her 16th was probably closer to the pilot. At least, that would make sense from a trope standpoint. That means Spike would be at about the same age as the CMC give or take a year.

@Wiimeiser  
By that math I wasn’t too far off with Spike’s age. I still think Spike being technically an adult rather humorous. Especially with a fic idea I had where he’s the B point in a type 5 Triang Relation with Rarity and Moondancer.

@Brass Beau  
I know, bu I think it’s only half a meme, since it is clarifying what is giving and isn’t giving consent. And if it’s your thing or not isn’t the point nor matters if it’s your cup of tea or not in a discussion of if it’s bestiality or not.

Age just makes everything confusing. I Just keep it simple: Flurry = baby, cmc = young, spike somewhat older I think, mane 6 adult, filty rich = middle age, granmy smith = old, Celestia and the rest of the immortals = ancient.
 
As for shipping, numbers are even less meaningless. I’m certainly not going to go after someone else for shipping what they want. I remember a few years back when SweetieMac became a thing for a brief while. It was kinda funny tbh, especially since a lot of those works made SB the dominant one in that ship. Whatever ships may arise, I’ll usually suspend my real world interpretation and just see if I like it purely based on the characters involved.

@Background Pony #0EC1  
Sweetie Belle and Big Mac? That’s an interesting ship.

@Phantom Rider
 
Lol in that case every disney movie about talking animals is bestiality.
 
Bestiality is a human fucking an animal. Not two animals fucking each other.

If I’m honest in some cases I base their ages on Equestria Girls. Because I assume those ages go by human standards. I just find that easier. The CMC go to school in the same building as what I assume are highschool students. Meaning the town in EQG is so small that the highschool is probably also a middle school.
 
If the CMC are in middle school that means at most, for them, its a 3 to 6 year age difference. Granted a lot of this is just me spitballing theories for my own preferences. For example I don’t think Equestria even bothers with “highschool” as we know it. You go to school to learn enough to not die from stupidity. So history, math, science, basic magic etc, then you get your cutie mark and from there either enter a trade/become an apprentice or go to magic college. There are places of higher learning for non unicorns as well but it’s optional, like college you don’t have to go.
 
 
@Background Pony #A3D8
 
A lot of us think dragons mature slower than ponies. But still even if Spike is 13 and Rarity is 16/17 that age gap is still pretty fucked up and wrong. Age gaps mean more the younger you are, and mean less and virtually mean nothing the older you are. 3 to 4 years to a child is a lot of mental development.
 
Granted with my headcanon, if dragons don’t mature slower, and he matures at the same rate as a pony, then he doesn’t have to wait too long to be romantic with Rarity. But it’s unfair to both of them to have to wait, which is why I ship Spike and Gabby. Believe it not I shipped them right after the episode Gabby premiered in. Not the episode that sort of soft shipped them itself. I was pretty happy when that episode happened though.

@Brass Beau  
I think it was mostly a meme from a popular clop that came out around then but it got more traction than a crackship like that normally would.

@Ranch  
Seeing what the Dragonlands are like, I think dragons mature relatively quickly to keep the population up.

Throwing this out there. Would you consider Minuette and Time Turner a strange ship?

@Brass Beau  
No more than most background ships.

@Brass Beau  
Only if you view them as siblings. But some people love incest and all that.

@Brass Beau  
No ship is a strange ship around these parts. Incest, princest, even selfcest. All are welcome.

@Sparx  
Never considered they could be siblings. Still, her excitable personality mixed with his methodical but easily frazzled demeanor sounded like a fun mix.