So a week ago (September 4, 2019) was the 20th anniversary of the day that I fell madly in love for Misty. It was a significant date because not only did I have a strong attraction towards Misty for almost 14 years, but because it marked the date that I began to become attracted to fictional female characters. It's not necessary a sexual attraction, and in fact more often than not it was a strong sense of admiration for that particular character. It was in 2005 that I coined the term "Heart-Melters" to describe the warm feeling that I get when thinking about the character, but really the era began on September 4, 1999. Since then I had written about these characters multiple times, starting with a post on Nintendo NSider titled "The Heart-Melters Gallery." Over the subsequent 14 years I've had six more characters join the ranks of Heart-Melters. I wrote about ten of them in 2010 to celebrate the 5th anniversary of the original NSider post and later in 2013 I wrote about two other characters that became Heart-Melters during the turbulent 2012 year. Since then I haven't done very much writing about the Heart-Melters, but that doesn't mean the Heart-Melters have been dormant. In fact, two more characters have joined the ranks. I've just been too lazy to write actual induction posts, but with the 20th anniversary of my crush on Misty coming and going, I figured I should stop procrastinating and write the two, especially since one of them have become one of my favorites.
These induction entries would be very much like the previous ones I had written back in 2005. I would present a short biography of the character, and then write about my experiences with said character leading up to the moment where they become a Heart-Melter. Once they become a Heart-Melter, the period of time where they are an active Heart-Melter would become known as the "age." And finally, I would present a rudimentary ranking of the Heart-Melter compared to the others in three domains: Intensity, or the strength of my attraction towards that character; Duration, or the length of time the character spent as a Heart-Melter; and Recurrence, or the level of attraction that I maintain towards the character once their active age had ended. After that I tally up the ranks to get a score. Like I said, it's very rudimentary
Anyways without further adieu, I give you the 13th and 14th members of the Heart-Melters Gallery.
ROSALINA (ROSETTA)
It was the night of the Star Festival, a holiday in the Mushroom Kingdom which coincides with the arrival of a mysterious comet that passes over the planet once every 100 years. Mario had plans for a special night with his beloved Princess Peach, but once again Bowser ruins the fun and sends Mario flying out into space. He wakes up on a strange planet where he meets the mysterious but beautiful Rosalina, the keeper of the observatory aboard the Star Festival comet. She informs Mario that Bowser had not only kidnapped Princess Toadstool, but he had stolen all of the stars powering the Comet Observatory. She sends him on a quest to rediscover the power stars, aided by her companions the adorable little Lumas. As Mario goes around to different galaxies to collect the power stars, he learns more about poignant history behind Rosalina. She was once a young girl living on the planet where Mushroom Kingdom now sits. She finds a lost little Luma, and together they go on a trip to search for the Luma's missing mama. As the journey spans longer and longer, Rosalina makes the stunning realization that their quest was an allegory for her own tragic lost. Yet amidst her despair the Lumas come together to help Rosalina realize that while she had lost her former life, she had found a new family. Touched by her tale, Mario helps Rosalina out by making her part of his family as well.
Rosalina's Influence
I had been a big fan of Mario's 3D games since the release of Super Mario 64. Unfortunately in the decade after Mario 64's release there really were only two 3D Mario adventure games: Mario 64 and Super Mario Sunshine, the latter game which I really enjoyed, but there were elements that I despised, such as the hated blue coins required to get all 120 shines. The Mario spinoff games like Mario Kart and Mario Tennis were fun, but there was nothing like a rousing adventure. The release of the Wii brought some promise that there would be a new Mario 3D adventure game, and that was eventually realized with the announcement of Super Mario Galaxy, which had been in development since even before the announcement of the Wii console. As news about the game trickled out throughout the 2007 year, one item that caught my attention was the reveal of a mysterious new female character. The initial reports were very vague. I thought that she looked a lot like Princess Peach, except that she had long bangs that obscured her right eye, giving her an aura of mystery.
As the release date crept closer, more information about this brand new character came out. She was to be called Rosetta in Japan, and for the US release she was given the name of Rosalina. The rest of her history was also kept secret, including any possible connection she might have with the familiar Princess Toadstool. I thought that Rosalina had a very pleasing design, but as I played the game on demo kiosks at Gamestop, I was more interested in the fascinating new gameplay which incorporated gravity in a unique way as well as the spin attack. I made sure to pre-order the game, and got it as soon as I got off my work as a substitute teacher on its US release date of November 12, 2007. I was immediately engrossed in the game, so much so that I had collected 70 stars and beaten Bowser before the day was up. (It would take another three days for me to collect all 120 stars). I really liked the character of Rosalina, so much so that I installed her as my Facebook profile picture from November 15, 2007 - January 14, 2008, yet she never did get to the point of being a Heart-Melter. It was likely because she was a non-playable character in Super Mario Galaxy. I could stand and look at her, but she spent the majority of game just standing at her pre-ordained spot.Rosalina was an unlockable character for Mario Kart Wii when it came out in April 27, 2008, and while I had pre-ordered that game as well, I never did play it all that much, even when I unlocked Rosalina. I was spending most of my time playing Super Smash Bros. Brawl, which had come out a month before Mario Kart Wii, and there was nothing about Rosalina at all in the game, not even a sticker. I was hoping to see more Rosalina when Super Mario Galaxy 2 came out on May 23, 2010, but her role as a guide was replaced by a fat-tub-of-goo purple Luma, and you really didn't get to see her until you sucked so much at getting a certain star that she appears in spirit form and guides you through the star. Considering I got all 120 stars in one sitting (it took me 27 hours), I did see her quite a bit, but once again it wasn't the same as playing as her. And getting her to appear on the Starship by completing The Perfect Run was even harder. By then I was in medical school, and I didn't have a Wii with me. Besides spending an entire day playing through Super Mario Galaxy 2 using the Wii of my friend's roommate, I didn't really have much of a chance to play other Wii or 3DS games where Rosalina made an appearance, such as Super Mario 3D World or Mario Kart 7, until I got a 3DS in 2013. I had Mario Kart 7, but played that even less than Mario Kart Wii.
One of the biggest challenges of Super Smash Bros. for the Nintendo 3DS came with the revamping of the Classic mode (known as Simple in Japanese). Instead of difficulty levels getting split out to Very Easy, Easy, Normal, Hard, Very Hard like in previous games, the new game featured a difficulty gradient ranging from 0.0 to 9.0, with 0.0 being super easy and 9.0 being incredibly difficult. I struggled mightily with characters I thought I was good at, such as Yoshi and Kirby. I eventually found that I was doing better using Rosalina than some of my previous favorites. I began to focus my efforts on beating 9.0 with Rosalina, and finally succeeded on October 12, 2014. With that Rosalina instantly became my favorite character in the 15-year history of Super Smash Bros. I was soon setting every record in the game with her (with the exception of Home Run Contest). I completed my first 9.0 run where I never lost a single life using Rosalina, even before I beat 9.0 with any other character. I was able to beat 9.0 on the Wii U version using Rosalina. I scrambled to purchase a Rosalina Amiibo when it first went on sale in late-January to early February 2015, and soon found myself fighting that Rosalina Amiibo. I began to challenge myself to see if I can beat 9.0 with every single character, and in order to do that I would practice using Rosalina. I was spending hours upon hours playing Smash Bros. And on July 2015 I made the stunning realization that Rosalina had finally become a Heart-Melter.
The Age of Rosalina 1 (July 2015 - January 2016)
The fact that Rosalina became a Heart-Melter never really changed anything. It is entirely possible that she had melted my heart before July 2015, but I wasn't prepared to admit it until then just because she would be the 13th Heart-Melter, which kind of worried me because I have some triskaidekaphobic tendencies. Nevertheless I continued to play Smash Bros. at unhealthy levels. Besides trying to beat 9.0 with several characters, I also took up the challenge to beat my Rosalina, Kirby and Yoshi Amiibos at every single stage, which became quite difficult because the Amiibos were able to learn to adapt to my tendencies. Before I challenged them I would play Smash Run (Field Smash in Japanese) and then beat 9.0 with Rosalina as a warm-up. If I lost to the Amiibos I had to go through 9.0 again. I became quite proficient at beating 9.0 because as hard as the characters were they were nothing compared to my Amiibos. That challenge eventually died down as the game kept updating, which ruined my replays, and I really picked up the attempts to beat 9.0 with every character. I did surprisingly well considering how hard 9.0 is, but a lot of that probably came from the fact I completed it using Rosalina so many times, that as long as I can get to the final boss I had a good shot of beating it.
All good things would come to an end someday, and with Rosalina's status as a Heart-Melter, that came in January 2016 when Hyrule Warriors Legends (Zelda Musou: Hyrule All-Stars) came out for the 3DS. I had enjoyed Hyrule Warriors when I played it on my sister's Wii U in Thanksgiving 2015, and imported a full two months before the US release. By then I had put over 500 hours into Smash Bros. for the Nintendo 3DS and was ready for something new. Even though Corrin (Kamui) and Bayonetta had just been released and those were the only two characters I had left, I pretty much switched completely over to the world of Hyrule Warriors. After that Rosalina fell into that level of purgatory where she is one of my favorite characters, but she is no longer quite at that level of being a Heart-Melter, at least for the time being.
The Age of Rosalina 2 (December 2018 - January 2019)
There was initially some rumors that Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS / Wii U would be the final Smash Bros. game, but with the announcement of a potential new console in 2015 there was some speculation that there will be a new Smash Bros. game, especially after the Switch became a smash hit after it was released in 2017. And indeed by March 2018, a year after the Switch's release a new Smash Bros game was teased during a Nintendo Direct. There was still no definitive answer as far as who would be returning, whether some characters would get dropped like they did in some of the previous releases. Another Nintendo Direct three months later provided the answer: EVERYBODY will be returning in addition to several new characters. While most people oohed and aahed about how Ridley is finally in the game, I was of course more excited about getting to play as Rosalina again.Unfortunately for us Rosalina fans she is not readily available at the start of the game, now called Super Smash Bros. Ultimate. In fact only the eight fighters from the original Super Smash Bros. game from 1999 were available. One could unlock characters by playing Smash battles or trying to work their way through the World of Light single player stage. I opted to take the World of Light path, and little did I know that Rosalina would not be appearing until you reach the World of Darkness, more than halfway through. And in order to get there you had to defeat a four-star difficulty spirit battle where you had to fight three Mega Men back-to-back-to-back. I hate facing Mega Man with a passion, and so I went in with Yoshi not knowing what to expect. I did okay defeating the first Mega Man, but had accumulated significant damage by the second. In the end I was just using the Hip Drop/Butt Stomp/Down-B and hoping that I wouldn't get hit with an up-Smash. Remarkably enough that was enough for me to beat the stage on the first try, and Rosalina was a cinch in comparison.
With Rosalina back I had free reign to use her in the rest of the game. It felt great to be able to play as her again, and I did feel my heart melting again. It soon got to the point where I felt comfortable enough to declare a second "age" where Rosalina was an active Heart-Melter once again. Unfortunately while Smash Bros. Ultimate had a multitude of characters, the game modes weren't quite as fun as it was for Smash Bros. for the Nintendo 3DS. In fact the experience soon got old, and by March I had moved on to other things. The second "age" had ended, but there's no denying that Rosalina had taken the crown as one of my favorite Nintendo characters of all time.
Rankings
Duration: 5 - There calculation of duration is more easily quantifiable, because I am able to compare when a particular "age" began and when it ended. It's a little bit more questionable with Rosalina just because it wasn't an abrupt onset like with several other Heart-Melters, and it was more of a fade-in and fade-out. Still, even if you took the dates that I had given that was a good eight months with Rosalina as an active Heart-Melter, and that is enough for her to rank ahead of Elizabeth Patterson and behind Sheena Fujibayashi for fifth.
Recurrence: 5 - This is another category that is difficult to quantify, although it is easy to separate them into two tiers. There have been only six Heart-Melters to have a second "age" after their first one ended, and Rosalina is one of them, so that is enough for her to be in the top six. The two months of the second "age" is a little bit on the shorter side, and even if she gets some extra credit for being somebody that I really like even when she's not an active-Heart-Melter it may not be enough to pass Sheena Fujibayashi for fourth. Still, fifth is not a shabby showing.
Overall: 16 (4 out of 14) - This is probably the least scientific calculation of all, because I merely added up the rankings and doesn't give any thought as far as weighting each of the categories. Still Rosalina has a strong showing as she is one of only four Heart-Melters to rank in the top half of each of the rankings. That allows her to pass Elizabeth Patterson who ranks ahead in Intensity, but falls short in Duration and Recurrence, as well as Sheena Fujibayashi who ranks ahead in Duration and Recurrence but finishes quite a bit lower in Intensity. Which is fair because I've liked Rosalina a lot ever since I first saw her back in 2007, and that has to be worth something.
---------------------------------------------------------
EQUESTRIA GIRLS RAINBOW DASH
(EQG RAINBOW DASH)
Who is she?
When Princess Twilight Sparkle of Equestria gets her crown stolen by the nefarious Sunset Shimmer, she follows the offender into a magical mirror that serves as a portal to another unknown dimension. In order to recover the valuable relic, Twilight and her faithful number one assistant Spike enters the portal and finds herself arriving into a strange new world populated by bizarre bipedal creatures with hands instead of hooves that congregate in a place known as "Canterlot High School." She finds that in order to reclaim her crown, she must defeat Sunset Shimmer in a popularity contest for Princess of the Fall Formal. It is a daunting task, but she is assisted in the endeavor by five girls that bears a striking resemblance to her own friends back in Equestria in both name, appearance, and personality. One of these "Equestria Girls" is Rainbow Dash, a tremendous student athlete who is the captain of just about every sports team at Canterlot High, and yet also finds the time to serve as the lead singer and guitarist for her band the Rainbooms and work a part-time job at a sporting goods store. Even if she has somewhat of an ego, she is still fiercely loyal to her friends, and is a master at motivating others. Her initial brushes with magic from Equestria gave her the ability to grow wings and fly, and later encounters gives her the ability for super-speed, which she uses initially for mundane tasks but eventually masters it enough for her to come to the aid of others, just like a superhero. While the other Equestria Girls didn't share Rainbow's zeal for crime-fighting they have become an indispensable part of Canterlot High. Just imagine what they can accomplish in college.
EQG Rainbow Dash's Influence
As I had detailed in my induction post for pony Rainbow Dash, I became a Brony, or a fan of the show My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic outside of the target demographic, in September 2012 after watching the show on Netflix. I came into the fandom at an interesting time, during which its identity was beginning to coalesce, but also when it was dealing with several so-called crises. One of the major events that divided the fandom was the rumors that Twilight Sparkle would become an alicorn princess, which indeed happened during the Season 3 finale "Magical Mystery Cure" which aired on February 16, 2013. Fans who were around at the time can still remember the fury directed at Alicorn Twilight, not the least of which was the implication that Twilight would outlive her friends. The level of both support and vitriol directed at the episode's writer M.A. Larson soon became somewhat of an inside joke. As time passed the emotions associated with Twilight Princess died down, but then the fandom found another piece of news to rage about: the Equestria Girls spinoff. The rumors of the toyline had been present since Hasbro registered "Equestria Girls" as a trademark in December 2012, and later reports came out that the toyline was targeted at "older girls; teenage and above" would be associated with a TV movie. However, no actual images were available until March 2, 2013 when the New York Times did an article about Hasbro and their expansion into new media. The article included an image of the Equestria Girls design. Instead of ponies, they were humanized characters with their cutie marks on their cheek. The fandom came down hard on the designs, criticizing it for the cheek cutie marks, the skin tones, the fashion choices etc. Later information such as Spike being a dog in the Equestria Girls world did not help the fandom's perception of the new spinoff. There was plenty of speculation as to how the spinoff would play out, and while there was a lot of butthurt, some fans went with a wait-and-see basis.
I was one of those fans that went with wait-and-see before passing judgment on Equestria Girls. I was still at a point where I wasn't sure if I would be in the fandom long-term or if it was something that I'll be into for a few months before my interest passes by. Either way, I wanted to relish in being a fan as much as I can. So when I found out that not only was the Equestria Girls movie playing in theaters across the country, but one of the theaters nearby me in Longview, Texas was showing it, I wasted little time in pre-ordering a ticket, and I was there during the first showing on June 22, 2013. And it was surprisingly not bad. Yes, the story was a little bit hackneyed...okay, very hackneyed. And the songs were not very memorable with the exception of "The Cafeteria Song" (Helping Twilight Win the Crown). Yet I was impressed by how pleasing the character designs were. Yeah, I had already known that they were not complete horror shows from a teaser trailer that was released in May, but watching the full film I thought to myself that it was something I'd grow to like. One of my biggest concerns from the initial image was the alien skin colors, but it wasn't all that dramatic in the actual movie. I was sufficient satisfied that I went for an encore viewing a few weeks later.
And then there was the question of Rainbow Dash. Pony Rainbow Dash had joined the ranks of a Heart-Melter back on October 21, 1997...err...2012 as the 12 member of the Heart-Melters Gallery. As I mentioned above, I have some triskaidekaphobic tendencies...okay, a lot of triskaidekaphobic tendencies and I didn't want a 13th Heart-Melter. Which was somewhat of an issue because Rainbow Dash is a character in Equestria Girls, and to be honest she was incredibly awesome. In fact that was the first thing I had posted on Facebook after watching the movie: "Just saw Equestria Girls. Rainbow Dash is awesome! 
". She dominated Twilight with some awesome soccer moves, and stood up to Sunset Shimmer after Sunset's transformation into a horrifying winged demon. I could feel a strong sense of attraction towards EQG Rainbow Dash, but at the same time my triskaidekaphobia was sending alarms about a potential 13th Heart-Melter. And so my internal defenses did what any good ego did in the face of cognitive dissonance: I funneled that love into pony Rainbow Dash. Earlier that month pony Rainbow Dash had did what I thought was impossible and unseated Misty as a Heart-Melter, a role she had occupied since September 4, 1999. And yet even though she was blocked from being a Heart-Melter by my subconscious, there was a part of me that had a strong admiration for EQG Rainbow Dash. I made GIFs of some of her best showings in Equestria Girls, and incorporated her in my (ahem) fantasies at night as I wait to drift off to sleep.
". She dominated Twilight with some awesome soccer moves, and stood up to Sunset Shimmer after Sunset's transformation into a horrifying winged demon. I could feel a strong sense of attraction towards EQG Rainbow Dash, but at the same time my triskaidekaphobia was sending alarms about a potential 13th Heart-Melter. And so my internal defenses did what any good ego did in the face of cognitive dissonance: I funneled that love into pony Rainbow Dash. Earlier that month pony Rainbow Dash had did what I thought was impossible and unseated Misty as a Heart-Melter, a role she had occupied since September 4, 1999. And yet even though she was blocked from being a Heart-Melter by my subconscious, there was a part of me that had a strong admiration for EQG Rainbow Dash. I made GIFs of some of her best showings in Equestria Girls, and incorporated her in my (ahem) fantasies at night as I wait to drift off to sleep.
2014 would bring more to the Equestria Girls universe, and more EQG Rainbow Dash. A sequel to Equestria Girls was teased in January with new toy designs, and that eventually was confirmed on February 13, 2014 with a teaser trailer for a film that would be called My Little Pony Equestria Girls: Rainbow Rocks. While some met the news with a collective groan, I was actually pretty excited for the chance to get to see more Equestria Girls. This excitement only grew in the ensuing months with the release of a collection of online shorts showing how the Equestria Girls band was formed. While some of the films were admittedly mediocre (I'm looking at you Hampocalypse Now), EQG Rainbow Dash's film Guitar Centered, which was posted on April 4, 2014, was appropriately awesome. It featured EQG Rainbow Dash competing in a shred-off with Trixie for the chance to win a double-necked guitar. And of course EQG Rainbow Dash wins in the end with an awesome transformation scene, although she chose to stick with the guitar she had used in the contest. I had loved the film, posting it with the message "Oh, Rainbow Dash, you're just too bloody awesome " I was more than ready for Rainbow Rocks to come out. When the film debuted in theaters on September 27, 2014 I made sure to be there.
" I was more than ready for Rainbow Rocks to come out. When the film debuted in theaters on September 27, 2014 I made sure to be there.
And yes, I loved Rainbow Rocks. The storyline was a massive improvement over the first film, with the arrival of a new batch of villains (the Dazzlings) arriving to create discord between the student body accompanying Sunset Shimmer's slow and difficult attempts to win forgiveness for her villainy in the first film. The music was the centerpiece of the film, and while all but one song in Equestria Girls were forgettable, each of the 12 songs in Rainbow Rocks were highly catchy tunes, from the Dazzlings' haunting songs to even Snips and Snails' deliberately-awful rap. Yet the song that I really loved was EQG Rainbow Dash's anthem "Awesome as I Wanna Be," the first solo song by either Rainbow Dash in the series. It more than made up for a less than stellar performance by EQG Rainbow Dash herself with her ego and selfishness. I made sure to be present at the four subsequent showings of Rainbow Rocks at the same theater. The fact that Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS came out at around the same time and the Kansas City Royals were making a concerted run to the World Series made October 2014 an extra special month. Yet I was still hesitant on making EQG Rainbow Dash a Heart-Melter. That would change in 2015.
2015 would see the arrival of another Equestria Girls movie, Friendship Games, but the most significant event that happened with EQG Rainbow Dash becoming a Heart-Melter came earlier in the summer before the movie dropped. As you probably surmised, Rosalina became a Heart-Melter in July 2015, finally occupying the dreaded 13th Heart-Melter title that I had been avoiding for two years. I wasn't fully prepared to grant EQG Rainbow Dash full Heart-Melter status just yet. I wanted to see what she would be like in Friendship Games, just because she was so selfish in Rainbow Rocks. Her appearances in two of the teaser shorts were promising, but I wasn't getting the same sense of anticipation as I did with Rainbow Rocks. It didn't help that besides a premiere event in New York, there would be no theatrical release of Friendship Games in the US. I had to wait until the film is released in the US on Discovery Family, and even then I didn't watch it immediately, largely because I didn't have Discovery Family. And when I had actually watched the film, it was indeed not quite as good as Rainbow Rocks. Of course it is hard to top Rainbow Rocks which by that time had already become one of my favorite movies, but the storyline of a die-hard competition between Canterlot High and their rivals Crystal Prep was just a little bit too over-the-top for me. However, EQG Rainbow Dash had more than made up for her sorry showing in Rainbow Rocks. She had organized a pep rally to motivate the student body (and singing another solo song while she's at it). She showed enough skill at home ec to move onto the second round of the competition (although that was probably due to the fact she is a main character and got the benefit of the doubt). She rocked the motocross events, and showed tremendous courage in saving Sunset, Sugarcoat and Indigo Zap from the magical plant monsters. Yeah, I'd say she more than made up for her selfish behavior in Rainbow Rocks. And so I finally made the executive decision to split pony Rainbow Dash and EQG Rainbow Dash into two distinct characters (because they are separate characters) and made EQG Rainbow Dash a 14th Heart-Melter.
The Age of EQG Rainbow Dash (September 2015 - Present)
To be honest, even though EQG Rainbow Dash was nominally a Heart-Melter, things didn't really change. I was still focusing a lot of my love and attention on pony Rainbow Dash. (Now this didn't include the ahem...elaborate fantasies that I was having late at night after I went to bed.) A big part of this was just because my collection was largely focused on pony Rainbow Dash. There were EQG Rainbow Dash dolls, but they were the hideous Monster High ripoffs, which I dutifully brought because they were Rainbow Dash merchandise, but I certainly wasn't enamored with them. The only EQG Rainbow Dash item I had was a print of the EQG main characters done by the fan-artist ChibiJenHen that I had gotten signed by all of the voice actors (finally completing the collection when I got Ashleigh Ball to sign the poster during Ponyville Ciderfest 2015). That changed late in 2015 with the release of the Equestria Girls Mini figurines. These pose-able figures had a more chibi design that more closely matched to the designs in the cartoons. I wasted little time in buying one of EQG Rainbow Dash, and started carrying her around with me everywhere, at least until her leg fell off for some bizarre reason. By that time I had purchased the EQG Rainbow Dash Fall Formal Mini figurine, which was even better because it featured her in her Fall Formal dress.
Meanwhile the Equestria Girls series moved on with another movie in 2016, Legend of Everfree. The movie was set for a Netflix release on October 1, 2016. I made sure to watch the film as soon as it was available, but the release was marred by the fact that it came out on the day of my grandpa's funeral. (He had died on September 27, 2016...incidentally on the second anniversary of the release of Rainbow Rocks.) The Northern Virginia trip was also represented a change in my relationship with pony Rainbow Dash. I had the Funko pony Rainbow Dash figurine that I had carried just about everywhere since I bought it October 17, 2012. During the trip back to NoVA I had went with a few of my cousins to the Udvar-Hazy Air and Space Museum. When I returned I realized that I didn't bring pony Rainbow Dash. Given how much pony Rainbow Dash loves flight, it seems natural that she'd want to go to the Air and Space museum, so as a joke I made her very upset at me for leaving her at home. Little did I know that this joke would avalanche into something much bigger, one that would eventually allow EQG Rainbow Dash to take a hold of a position that her pony counterpart held a firm grip, although that day was still a few years away.
By 2017 the Equestria Girls media franchise had moved away from feature films and had moved into the realm of shorts with occasional specials. The new format began with the release of a trio of 22-minute specials over three weekends in June and July of 2017. Later in the month the online short films began going up. During this busy month I noticed something interesting. In between all of the hubbub surrounding Adrian Beltre's 3,000th Hit, I was actually looking forward to seeing EQG Rainbow Dash in the Equestria Girls shorts than I was seeing new Season 7 episodes of My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic and the chance to see pony Rainbow Dash. Could it be that I loved EQG Rainbow Dash more than pony Rainbow Dash? Naaaaah. Besides, when My Little Pony the Movie came out in October 2017, I went and watched the movie in theaters 11 times in 11 different cities, even driving out to Cheyenne, Wyoming for the special tenth viewing. That was seven more times that I had seen Rainbow Rocks (although to be fair Rainbow Rocks only had four theatrical showings.)
Going into 2018, I publicly maintained my stance that while I liked EQG Rainbow Dash, I loved pony Rainbow Dash more. On a more private basis I really starting to grapple with the possibility that I could be loving EQG Rainbow Dash more. After all by then my fantasies had completely cut out pony Rainbow Dash and was focused primarily on EQG Rainbow Dash. In February 2018 I began imitating Horse News's Chelis, who is massively in love with Sunset Shimmer and is known to retweet pictures of Sunset Shimmer while saying "AAAAAAAAAAA." I began retweeting pictures of EQG Rainbow Dash and saying "AAA...AAA" with some random texts between the AAAs. Initially I was just doing stuff such as just naming the 300 Game Winners, but eventually it got hard to think of lists and just started blabbering about how beautiful and awesome EQG Rainbow Dash is. With the red hot rumors of Season 9 of Friendship is Magic being the final season, I could feel myself detaching even further from the show during Season 8, waiting weeks or even months before watching episodes, but I made sure to tune in to any new EQG short whenever they appeared on YouTube or Discovery Family Go. I also began watching the EQG movies again on Netflix.
On August 26, 2018 I went to visit my friend Amy in Houston after she had given birth to her daughter. While I was there I was watching Friendship Games which was downloaded onto my phone as the Rangers were getting crushed by the San Francisco Giants. As I was making the three-hour drive back home I began thinking about my relationship between the two Rainbow Dashes. I had loved pony Rainbow Dash for almost six years by that point. She is a great character who is as beautiful as she is awesome, but at the same time I was more excited to see EQG Rainbow Dash. I was spending more time thinking about EQG Rainbow Dash. And EQG Rainbow Dash is more human-like, which bypasses a lot of the original qualms I had about being in love with pony Rainbow Dash in the first place. There was no evidence that I loved pony Rainbow Dash more, and to continue to do so would just be me lying to myself. And so a little over five years after Equestria Girls debuted, EQG Rainbow Dash took over as the top active Heart-Melter.
The one problem with being an EQG Rainbow Dash fan surrounded by millions of pony Rainbow Dash fans is that there are a lot more media of pony Dash. Through August 26, 2018 there had been 187 22-minute episodes of Friendship is Magic, plus a 99-minute movie and a few pony appearances in EQG movies. Compare that to the four 72-minute movies with three 22-minute specials and two 40-minute specials and 68 online shorts which total no more than three minutes that make up the EQG series, and it's clear you've got far more pony than you do EQG. Similarly, there are also a lot more fanart of pony Rainbow Dash than EQG Rainbow Dash. So what is an EQG Rainbow Dash fan to do (besides fantasizing?) That's right, you get commissions! I've gotten plenty of pony Rainbow Dash commissions over the years, mostly of pony Dash in her Grand Galloping Gala dress. I realized that I could get commissions of EQG Rainbow Dash in whatever outfit or pose that I so choose. I could even get EQG Rainbow Dash wearing a wet dress to satisfy my top fetish. So in February 2019 I began commissioning pictures of EQG Dash getting wet while wearing my favorite wet dress: the little black chiffon dress Taylor Swift wore during her 2008 Academy of Country Music Awards performance of "Should've Said No." I've commissioned some of my favorite pony artists that also drew EQG, as well as some YCH commissions.
Alas the 2018 rumors that My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic coming to an end turned out to be true, and Season 9 would be the final season in the show. It's a sad moment and I could feel my interest in the pony side of things continue to cool. I still watched the new episodes, but the passion was largely gone, and it's possible that the "Age of pony Rainbow Dash" had ended just short of seven years. Meanwhile my love of EQG Rainbow Dash had merely intensified, even if the future of the Equestria Girls line is just as dire. I still admired her passion for life and her beauty. Who knows how much longer I would continue to be in love with EQG Rainbow Dash once Equestria Girls also comes to a close? It could be a quick end, but then again I had continued to maintain a passion towards Misty 10 years after her last regular appearance in the Pokemon TV series and 13 years after I stopped watching the show. So it's possible I could be in love with EQG Rainbow Dash ten years from now. All I know is that I need to make the most of things while it lasts.
Rankings
Duration: 3 - The exact moment of EQG Rainbow Dash becoming a Heart-Melter is up for debate, just because my feelings towards her has been so conflicted for the longest time. I currently name September 2015 as the official starting date of her becoming a Heart-Melter, but it is possible to make the argument that she should have been an argument as early as June 2013 when I watched Equestria Girls for the first time. However, even if you take just the date where EQG Rainbow Dash became a crush (August 26, 2018) it has been going on for over a year, and that in itself is enough for her to jump into the #3 slot.
Recurrence: 3 - Recurrence is a little bit hard to gauge because EQG Rainbow Dash has never not been a Heart-Melter since she was officially claimed the status back in 2015. Things are a little bit different from Sheena, Rosalina and Mona in that their first "ages" were relatively short but there was enough passion for a second "age" to begin. Nevertheless, I feel that being a Heart-Melter continuously for four years is worth even more, so I'm putting her at the #3 spot.
Overall: 9 (3 out of 14) - EQG Rainbow Dash ranks #3 in Intensity, Duration, and Recurrence, and the same characters are ahead of her and behind her. There shouldn't be any doubt as to where she would rank at this point in time. However, who knows how much longer EQG Rainbow Dash would remain a crush much less a Heart-Melter? It could end relatively quickly and she would stay at #3, yet over the next few years my love for her could remain strong and steady during which who knows? She could ultimately become the Queen of the Heart Melters!
----------------------------------------------------------------------
So these are the last two inductions. Like I said that brings the overall total to 14. I mentioned the rankings for Rosalina and EQG Rainbow Dash, but I might as well show off the overall rankings.
Intensity
14. Kiki
13. Amelia McBride
12. Mona
11. Buttercup
10. Tomo Takino
9. Sheena Fujibayashi
8. Seung Mina
7. Shiori Fujisaki
6. Rosalina
5. Kaho
4. Elizabeth Patterson
3. EQG Rainbow Dash
2. Misty
1. Pony Rainbow Dash
Duration
14. Mona (March 2004, January 2007, less than 1 month)
13. Kiki (December 2003 - January 2004, 1 month)
12. Amelia McBride (July 2012 - August 2012, 1 month)
11. Tomo Takino (November 2006 - December 2006, 1 month)
10. Kaho (February 2005 - May 2005, 3 months)
9. Shiori Fujisaki (April 2002 - August 2002, 4 months)
8. Seung Mina (July 2001 - December 2001, 5 months)
7. Buttercup (June 2002 - November 2002, 5 months)
6. Elizabeth Patterson (July 2004 - January 2005, 5 months)
5. Rosalina (July 2015 - January 2016, December 2018 - January 2019, 6 months)
4. Sheena Fujibayashi (July 2006 - September 2006, August 2011 - January 2012, 7 months)
3. EQG Rainbow Dash (September 2015 - Present, 4 years)
2. Pony Rainbow Dash (October 21, 2012 - July 2019, 6 years and 9 months)
1. Misty (September 4, 1999 - June 2013, 13 years and 9 months)
Recurrence
14. Tomo Takino
13. Amelia McBride
12. Kiki
11. Buttercup
10. Kaho
9. Shiori Fujisaki
8. Elizabeth Patterson
7. Seung Mina
6. Mona
5. Rosalina
4. Sheena Fujibayashi
3. EQG Rainbow Dash
2. Pony Rainbow Dash
1. Misty
Overall (intensity rank as tie-breaker)
14. Kiki (39 points)
13. Amelia McBride (38 points)
12. Tomo Takino (35 points)
11. Mona (32 points)
10. Buttercup (29 points)
9. Shiori Fujisaki (25 points, 7 in intensity)
8. Kaho (25 points, 5 in intensity)
7. Seung Mina (23 points)
6. Elizabeth Patterson (18 points)
5. Sheena Fujibayashi (17 points)
4. Rosalina (16 points)
3. EQG Rainbow Dash (9 points)
2. Pony Rainbow Dash (5 points)
1. Misty (4 points)
No comments:
Post a Comment