My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic

[Reply #680 on:]

This is the upload I'm currently waiting for to finish processing...

It's a straight cut and paste job, complete with adverts (apparently), but I would actually almost advise that everyone watch it, because apparently something happened during the advert break, without the knowledge of which, no pony-related meme for the next week or so will make any sense...

/edit - am I allowed to link to that BTW?

[Reply #681 on:]

I'm not sure.  The one I just finished watching was a pretty low quality one, which is a shame because the artwork is easily among this episode's strengths.

Okay I'm probably going to be a minority here.  I enjoy this episode but... here is my spoiler-tastic opinion on it.

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It had pacing problems to hell and back.  I'm going to compare it to A Canterlot Wedding and Return of Harmony, in that this episode felt a bit lacking compared to those two.  For one thing, a lot of this episode dwelled on elements that while were mildly interesting, were not worth sacrificing time developing the new villain.   Really, the invasion should have begun at the end of part 1, and less time should have been spent setting up the fair.   While the fair provided fun things for each pony to do, I think it was a bit of a mistake to make this a solely Twilight episode, since we not only had the Mane Six as well as the two Princesses, but new characters Cadence and Shining Armour ended up being underused (which is a massive shame, since we are probably only going to see those two characters once or twice a season, if we are lucky, so I felt a bit cheated that they ended up mostly being backbenchers this time.  Canterlot Wedding was also a Twilight episode but made better use of its ensemble cast (except Luna, unfortunately).  The songs also were nice, but weren't as catchy or as memorable as Canterlot Wedding.  

A pretty good episode, but could have been so much better.  I certainly love the artstyle of teh Empire (I especially liked that it seemed to be modelled after Crystal Tokyo from Sailor Moon, using a similar layout).  The villain ended up being fairly pointless, and the climax was resolved pretty quickly, and it never felt like the "darkest hour" it should have been.  The "keep the Crystal Ponies distracted" plot line should have been done away with or been made a bit more flexible, as it dominated the episodes too much, and felt a bit too much like "Slumber Party Panic" from Adventure Time.   The artwork was gorgeous, but the pacing problems are very bad.  

[Reply #682 on:]

The one I watched was pretty good quality other than I had to turn my speakers up all the way.

That being said I'm glad the show it back. I'm not really in a critical mood right now so I'll come back for discussion later.

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My favorite moment was Armour launching Cadence to get the crystal, it was just a funny visual.

[Reply #683 on:]

The one I watched was pretty good quality other than I had to turn my speakers up all the way.

That being said I'm glad the show it back. I'm not really in a critical mood right now so I'll come back for discussion later.

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My favorite moment was Armour launching Cadence to get the crystal, it was just a funny visual.

Agreed that was easily one of the best moments for the episode, if not the best.

In a nutshell my opinion is...

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It feels like a poor man's Canterlot Wedding.  It's not a bad episode.  It's a good episode and deserving of its status as a two parter.  The problem I have with it is that it is seems to borrow too many elements from Canterlot Wedding, only not do them so well.  The pacing problems also effectively neuter what would have been a villain as memorable as Discord and Queen Chrysalis.  Instead he rarrghs and rarrghs and makes his presence felt in the background.... and when he finally breaks free, and the show finally reaches what should be its boiling point.... it's quickly resolved in a fairly anticlimatic fashion.  I liked this episode and enjoyed it.  I wanted to love it (and not just because of all the pretty crystals), but for these reasons I just couldn't.  There were many superfluous scenes involving the fair and Twilight's angsting that should have been left on the cutting room floor, since they end up undercutting the villain, and spoiling much of the urgency that episodes like this need to function.  I wonder if it would have been better for them to bring back an established villain like Discord or Queen Chrysalis, rather then drop in a new villain that is killed off before he be fleshed out or be a true threat.

[Reply #684 on:]

I wasn't going to ramble, but then I realised I have anyway - lol. Here's the ramblings in dot point form :P (sorry, no screenie reviews, I'll reserve that for Futurama eps) Brought to you by gakgakgakgakgakgakgakgak...

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Just a test?! I know I've seen it as a spoiler, but I do like the Lesson Zero vibe I'm getting from this whole sequence, and Spike deciding that he should be honest (although not without protection, lol)

Luna is best princess *squee* Although she is representing doubt, it gives for what seems like foreshadowing, in fact the entire scene and several quotes are very foreshadow-y 'next level'?!

Something's missing wouldn't it have made more sense to take the Elements of Harmony with them?!

King Sobra Is menacing in his first appearance - but I would have like to have seen Shining Armours struggle with him - perhaps with Twilights help? Eh.

There are no words Pffft, I expected Rarity to be ecstatic, but I found it more hilarious that Applejack and Rainbow Dash were poking fun  

Pinkie Pie antics What can you say? It's Pinkie Pie! But what really got me was the Fluttershy disguise - gave me a heart attack and then I couldn't stop laughing

Books Oh Twilight, lol

Collective squee!

Erm Not sure what to say for the next bit... lots of plot? Er, storyline   Also, good spot for the cliffhanger.

[part 2]

Facepainting! As a face painter myself I was disappointed there wasn't any ponies (other than Pinkie) with their face painted xD

Speaking of Pinkie has she been put down as the comedic relief in this? - I'm thinking perhaps RD was meant to be as well, but she comes down as a little brash, seriously who hits Fluttershy?!

Dark magic was freaky when Celestia did it, but Twilight?! I'm glad they didn't have her eyes open, that would have been a little much.

What is with the Stairs?! All the dark magic trickery is very clever though.

WHAT is Berry Punch doing in the crowd?! Who stuffed up that badly? A flat coloured earth pony among shiny Crystal ponies *facepalm*

Gravity spell is win, so is Raritys hat (looooool)

Fling a Princess, save an Empire.  

I don't like the idea of Sombra disintergrating. They perhaps should have stripped him of power, but not shattered him ><

Such a cute moment between the princesses <3

Good things are better where they're a Rarity *wink* Brace yourselves, shippers are coming.

I was not prepared for a reprise... but (and don't hit me) I think it's better than the original.

And when I first watched this, I was squeeing with joy at the song and then the pull back to the Princesses WITH THIS BOOK



The ads spoiler'd it a bit, but yay more foreshadowing!

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The spoilers they gave us for the rest of the season have made me psyched, especially for the Scootaloo episode and the Wonderbolts ep.

And as much as I sorta knew about the Pinkie Pie episode, my face was like this anyway:

(except I have one face, lol)

[Reply #685 on:]

Too many spoilers, Tastes like Fry.  The thing you marked is less of a spoiler then what you didn't!

[Reply #686 on:]

Fixed! Sorry ><

[Reply #687 on:]

Yeah I agree TLF in that I wanted Luna to be part of the episode and that one screenshot you got there is mighty curious.

[Reply #688 on:]

At least this should get those Luna is exclusively nocturnal people to shut up.

I wonder if this marks the beginning of an ongoing attempt to give Applejack (& Spike) more moments of competence/significance in the show.

I got a laugh from the fact that Rarity somehow convinced that pony to wear the last "hat" she made.

[Reply #689 on:]

The horror!

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Hope you don't mind the added spoiler tags.  ~ Xanfor

The Crystal Empire was good.

Too bad King Sombra was defeated so easily.

Some good fan fictions could come from this.

Like even if his body is destroyed it could fully regenerate back or his evil spirit possess a new host.

Also:

It could be an interesting scenario if let’s say in a parallel universe that King Sombra won thus consuming the entire world with fear and hatred.

Would could that mean?

No cannon: (Could be good for a fan fiction) Perhaps a world filled with bitterness, slavery (concentration camps), and war (rivers run red with Pony blood and stuff), with only the odd few not completely consumed by fear and hatred.

A world under King Sombra rule only hope may be MLP Ponies from yet another parallel universe to liberate from tyranny under King Sombra.

King Sombra minions corrupted Ponies turned evil (much like Orcs) with red eyes or something that eat meat and other non corrupted rebellious Ponies that stand against King Sombra.

And to make even King Sombra even more evil let’s say he likes to eat children.

[Reply #690 on:]

I got a laugh from the fact that Rarity somehow convinced that pony to wear the last "hat" she made.

She made it work.


As for King Sombra assuming a new host,  I now have images of Twily looking on in tears as her brother becomes King Sombra.   Or better yet, Princess Cadence's head spinning round, vomiting green goop and screaming that everyone's mothers suck carrots in hell.

[Reply #691 on:]

Loving the fan speculation about Sombra's fate in general, plus Luna's perceived role in this season, and Twilight's destiny and what not; what was that book at the end? Glee!

Thing is that if Sombra doesn't appear again, then unfortunately it reflects badly on the episode, because he just wasn't developed enough. I know it's a kid show but even by its own standards, the character was quite thin when the buildup was so huge and he had so much potential.

Ah well, still really enjoyed the episode. Twilight's quest and the resolution was suitably epic, I felt; lots of lovely little visual gags too. Really looking forward to the rest of the season

[Reply #692 on:]

ED review.

[Reply #693 on:]

Sombra was an effective villain, simply due to the fact that we knew absolutely nothing about him except that the crystal ponies were absolutely terrified of him. This lack of any personality, motive, and backstory also makes perfect sense, since he only exists as shadow.

What I also find impressive about these two episodes are the obvious indicators of an ongoing story arc. In my head, I'm imagining that it also has something to do with all these thousand-year-old enemies returning practically simultaneously.

[Reply #694 on:]

When [spoiler]a certain personage[/spoiler] was falling at the end of the episode where was Rainbow Dash?

Also, given what King Sombra was able to set up in the way of magical traps and/or defenses (not to mention that they're still functional 1000 years later) it puts into context just how far Twilight Sparkle still has to go before she can be ranked amongst the truely great practioners of magic.

[Reply #695 on:]

Nevermind RD, I was wondering why Rarity didn't grab Spike with her magic! Would have been a nice little shipping thing and not the Rarijack shipping fuel that was thrown at us in the form of a pun... although I must admit I lol'd before I facepalmed.

*searches for s3 memes, do you know what I find?

[Reply #696 on:]

Giddy Up Brony

Has anyone seen Pinkie Pie crazy face from Too Many Pinkie Pies?
 

[Reply #697 on:]

I HAVE BEEN LOOKING FOR THAT SONG EVERYWHERE!

Ahem. Thank you. <3

And yes, good episode. I won't give a ridiculous review - but I can say I enjoyed it. Was slightly disappointed there wasn't a seven part harmony Pinkie Pie song, with the Pinkies singing all the parts x]

[Reply #698 on:]

It's weird because Pinkie my second least favorite of the ponies, so this episode started out cringe-worthy but for some reason there was a good balance of Pinkie realizing the consequences of her actions and me not being the only one being like "damn Pinkie Pie (x100) is annoying". Although I find it funny how blah-ze (sp?) everyone was about the sudden appearance of all the Pinkies especially considering the weak explanation for how they came about. Like I kind of appreciated how there's this false beginning with Twilight trying to perform a spell and Pinkie keeps getting in the way, but how she actually multiplies herself doesn't make that much sense.

[Reply #699 on:]

Cartoon logic.

Since when has Pinkie ever made sense? And magic is very common in Equestria - why can't an earth pony know about this lake?

Also, I would be more concerned about how she bends physics to her will. But then again... cartoon logic.

[Reply #700 on:]

I feel like Cartoon Logic is kind of a throwaway response, but sometimes that is the best answer.

[Reply #701 on:]

[Reply #702 on:]

Since when has Pinkie ever made sense? And magic is very common in Equestria - why can't an earth pony know about this lake?

Twilight is very knowledgeable about innate unicorn magic, but surprisingly ignorant about earth pony magical folklore. This is the third time Pinkie has possessed information Twilight hasn't.

Zmithy: Shouldn't the magical duplicates be disintegrating into ectoplasm, not bleeding?

[Reply #703 on:]

Depends on your headcanon.

On the one hand, people are saying that the mirror pinkies were just copies and not real ponies (the angle that the show tried to present), but on the other, they were quite clearly sentient beings with their own thoughts and feelings who ceased to exist after Twilight went all trigger happy on their asses.

A "soft, safe, absolutely kid friendly" ending would have been the pinkies all agreeing to jump back into the pool. Having Twilight explode them with her magic laserbeam of exploding death certainly made the episode more disturbing however you look at it.

"Stare at the wall or die!" is a great concept, it should be in a horror film or something. I'll settle for having it in an episode of MLP though.

It was certainly the episode with the most grimdark potential out of the entire series so far, and that's even without thinking about what happened to all those animals Twilight turned into oranges, or the possibility of the real Pinkie being trapped in the pool.

[Reply #704 on:]

The way I see it, the copies were merely shallow automatons animated by magic. The test worked because they were so shallow, as was evidenced by them showing no concern for Pinkie's friends -- not even being able to remember their names. Staring at a wall wasn't difficult for the real Pinkie at all, because she was an actual sentient being, not just a construct.

[Reply #705 on:]

^ I see it the same way as Xanfor, although the whole way in which Twilight returned them to the lake was a bit dramatic with the magic making them swell. They should maybe have had a Star Trek beam effect.

Since when has Pinkie ever made sense? And magic is very common in Equestria - why can't an earth pony know about this lake?

Twilight is very knowledgeable about innate unicorn magic, but surprisingly ignorant about earth pony magical folklore. This is the third time Pinkie has possessed information Twilight hasn't.

3? What other than the Parasprites did Pinky know about?

[Reply #706 on:]

Possibly Pinkie-sense, I think?

Way I see that though:
Twilight = Unicorn magic
Pinkie = Gypsy magic

[Reply #707 on:]

[Reply #708 on:]

[Reply #709 on:]

Episode 3 spoilers ahoy!

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Evil cousin is evil. Or as Scootaloo put it, in a delicious Star Wars reference, "Babs went to the dark side"

But at least the playing field is even now. 3 bitches vs two dictionaries and a chicken.


Derp_________________________ ____________wat

[Reply #710 on:]

Finally!  Get to see what Babs looks like!

[Reply #711 on:]

What...accent...was that?

[Reply #712 on:]

Jeez, and I thought my bad Jamaican accent was bad.  At least it sounds like a bad impression of something.  That just sounded... weird.

[Reply #713 on:]

Bonk!

[Reply #714 on:]

Hmmm.  So so episode.  

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Was a bit too neatly resolved and didn't really show the gang getting bullied all that much.   I was also disappointed that Silver Spoon's nice side (that was hinted at in the last episode she made a major appearance in) wasn't shown, going for a stock "bullies are bullied themselves" trope.  What would they have done if Babs wasn't getting bullied?

I think it would have been interesting if maybe Silver Spoon thought the bullying got too far, and either ended up being conflicted, or had Babs Seed usurping her as Diamond's BBF.  Or maybe both Diamond and Silver get usurped as the Cool Kids, and get bullied themselves (of course they would go back to their rotten ways afterwards, it is a cartoon and cartoons always have reset buttons).  Or something.  I just thought this episode took a stock Aesop, but didn't do anything too interesting or useful about it.  It's an episode a lot of children can relate to, but everything done in this episode has been done before, and better.  I get they didn't want to be too preachy, but I think just about every character in the episode wasn't utilised particularly well.

[Reply #715 on:]

The CMC episodes always seem like they should be boring, but they never end up that way. The best parts of this episode were Scootaloo semi-flying, Sweetie Belle semi-using magic, the song, and the epic A-Team references.

[Reply #716 on:]

Babs was just weird and had about 2 lines throughout the entire episode as well as a creepy accent and that hair blowing tick.

There was something of an interesting theme going on with the bullies being bullied idea, but they could have taken it even further and expanded it into a message about positive self-esteem, by having the CMC understand that if you're being bullied, it doesn't mean that there's anything wrong with you, and that your bully is likely to be doing it because they're the one that is miserable and bitter.

Instead we got a "tell your parents" moral, which is reasonably good practical advice, but doesn't actually help victims cope with the long-term effects of feeling worthless etc. as a result of bullying.
In many ways typical female bullying and name-calling/ social exclusion is worse than typical male bullying since it's designed to be psychologically damaging, and that tends to stick with and hurt people for a lot longer.. so as a girl's show I was hoping there would be some sort of upbeat self-esteem based conclusion (possibly in the form of a Celestia letter, which would have been *perfect* for this ep) rather than Babs scaring DT / SS into the pigsty, which was still a vindictive and pretty generic ending.

I had the feeling while watching that it was one of the few sub-par writers who got given this episode, and after going back to check, sure enough, it was written by Cindy Morrow (haven't liked any of the eps she's written other than Hurricane Fluttershy). There's nothing particularly wrong with her writing, but the tone is generally off and often feels like it could be a G1 episode.

Also:

[Reply #717 on:]

I had the feeling while watching that it was one of the few sub-par writers who got given this episode, and after going back to check, sure enough, it was written by Cindy Morrow (haven't liked any of the eps she's written other than Hurricane Fluttershy). There's nothing particularly wrong with her writing, but the tone is generally off and often feels like it could be a G1 episode.

Sisterhooves Social makes up for any other disappointing writing on her part ever.

[Reply #718 on:]

Good for that pig. Good for that pig.

Oh and I liked the song.

You know I really would have liked it if they had gone to at least try to talk to AppleJack about this instead of trying to handle it on their own. It seems like that's always how a bullying scenario plays out. It would have been interesting if they had gone to her and somehow it happened that AppleJack started getting bullied or something. Just to show the CMC that it's not just a kid problem.

And again the accent really bothered me. It was like with last year's Halloween episode and they had Pipsqueak, who from what I could tell was voiced by an actual child (because his line reading was kind of awful). I think she was supposed to have some sort of Brooklyn accent but it sounded like she was doing that with foam in her mouth.

[Reply #719 on:]

Maybe i'm just splitting hairs but I don't see seeking retribution as being 'bullying' per se. It might be just as bad as bullying what with perpetuating the cycle of violence and all that but technically its not the same thing.

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And that's the best kind of not the same thing!

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Bite my glorious golden plot