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[SigmasonicX]

Responding to old posts, but first, some news.

The official preview for "A Royal Problem" is out and it apparently spoils the climax, as a heads up.

And at BookCon 2017, Tony Fleecs revealed this movie tie-in art, which appears to be the subscription variant covers of the comic movie miniseries put together.

Honest Apple

I had no idea having Rarity thrash metal on a guitar was something I needed in my life.
She's just chock full of hidden talents.

I could have done without Andrea Libman's Lily Lace delivery. I think highly of her range and versatility but this fashionista voice came off as somewhat of a misfire.

I enjoyed hearing Maggie Blue O'Hara cameo on the show as Strawberry Sunrise. I've been a long-time fan of her work since the early days of Monster Rancher.

Was interesting to see Spike swoon over Rarity for the first time in a while.

As for the episode as a whole, it was rather formulaic. We've seen this plot and these story beats before.

Rarity shredding reminds me of this old comic with Rarity practicing archery (BTW, it's a shame this artist never finished this series). The idea is that Rarity, in contrast to Twilight, has fine control over her magic and is very precise and accurate with it. We see signs of this in the show, particularly with her dressmaking and small scenes like in "Sweet and Elite" where she's carrying several bags while Fleur de Lis only carries a few (which I remember because that scene was cited for this), but it hasn't been explicitly pointed out. Granted, Rarity specifically uses her hooves to rock out, but the same logic applies, since she uses her hooves for making dresses often.

The fashion designer voices were rather stereotypical, but I thought it was fine given what they were.

The stuff with Spike was odd, particularly since he didn't show up in the rest of the episode. It has felt like a while since he swooned over Rarity, and it seemed like maybe he was finally moving on, but I guess not.

So first up we got the new (Canadian) episode Honest Apple. We have another new writer, Kevin Lappin, who is certainly the most unusual new writer we've gotten this season. His previous work are as Script Coordinator on The Exes, Production staff on Gary Unmarried, and most recently as a writer on Mike & Molly. So yeah, this is only his second show he's written for and his first one that isn't live-action. Watching through the episode I was getting some sitcom vibes from it but that isn't necessarily a bad thing. The episode has a chill and laid-back feel somewhat similar to episodes like Castle Mane-ia, Pinkie Apple Pie, and Saddle Row Review, and I really like those episodes. Nothing earth shattering here, no major emotional scenes. But I had a lot of fun with it, and that's all I can really ask. For the most part I thought the characterization made sense and worked well. I liked all the continuity nods that it had which is pretty impressive for someone that just started writing for the show. Lappin definitely knows the show, which is promising. There's a couple minor issues with it but they didn't bother me all that much. Overall I had a fun time with it and it's definitely one of my more liked episodes this season.

A lot of people appear to be taking issue with AJ even being a judge in the first place but I feel like the episode explains it well so it was never an issue for me. AJ has a completely different perspective when it comes to clothing and it's one that was shown in the episode to be one that was often lost by the fashionistas. Cool looking clothing is nice, but it also needs to be something that you can actually wear, and disco ball clothing isn't really something that anyone would actually use. I do feel like the episode itself could have shown off why this perspective was needed better by having some payoff of her improving the clothing designs by making them more usable after realizing her mistake and being more constructive with her criticism. Also while it was nice seeing Photo Finish and Hoity Toity I wish they had more of a role in the episode besides essentially being there to react to what AJ is saying.

I believe this is the first time I've disagreed with you on an episode so much, particularly regarding the characterizations making sense. Though I do agree that Photo Finish and Hoity Toity didn't have enough to do. The former in particular really needed an over the top scene, but nothing came close to her classic moments from "Green Isn't Your Color". I'm not saying that every character should live up to their first appearance, or that she should have sung Picture Perfect Pony (wow, so few views), but I'm pretty sure this is her first speaking role since season 1 outside Equestria Girls.

Honest Apple

Premise didn't work for me. I just can't see Rarity being foolish enough to choose Applejack to judge a fashion contest. And to be clear, that's what it is; fashion, not clothing. Clothing needs to be practical, but fashion is as much art as it is anything else. Practicality really doesn't enter into it, and Rarity would've known that. On top of that she knows Applejack, and nobody should've been shocked when AJ delivered exactly what was asked of her.

The lesson AJ learns about tact is a good one, but you don't hire someone for their practicality and honesty and then bitch later that they were too practical and honest.

Rarity on guitar was a strange choice too. Actually, the whole running gag with Pinkie and the guitar was. Funny at times, though.

The story would have made a lot more sense if Rarity specifically held the contest specifically to design practical yet still fashionable clothing. In retrospect, the entire thing with the guitar was really odd, in that it didn't tie into the story at all, yet a lot of time was spent setting it up. It feels like the writer had that idea for a joke, and just found a place to shove it in.

Honest Apple:
You know, if you're going to get someone has a fashion judge, maybe you should show them some prior work and have them judge that. We Could Have Avoided All This.

I suppose that is what they were doing when they had Applejack look at Coco's disco dress. They didn't heed the warnings.

Let's try this again...
(images)

I haven't watched that short in a long time, but I recall not being impressed by the keytar music. So Pony Rarity wins again!

Bleh, didn't really like Honest Apple (other than the surprising Rarity guitar scene).

It may not be a bad episode, this episode managed to hit a cringe spot where I get uncomfortable watching so it was hard for me to focus on this episode.

In a rarity, I actually support AJ for once. I share her same views on fashion. TBH, I didn't really like how over the top they made AJ and how they made her the bad guy "given how hard everyone works" (dick move taking AJ to the strawberry lover to prove your point Rarity). You can think fashion is shitty and impractical, but acknowledge that hard work was put into it and people like it. AJ was right in that it was her opinion and she was brought on for her honesty. She could have done that without it making it seem like she was unappreciative of the work other put it...

Today's episode is easily the worst of the season (no, I don't dislike Royal Problems enough to put it at the bottom).

AJ and Rarity are just totally out of character in this episode. AJ isn't tactless enough to just start destroying someone else's work. And Rarity isn't stupid enough to want AJ to judge a high-fashion competition. A more practical fashion show, sure, but not with competitors who think disco balls make for good fashion.


I did absolutely love the scene with Strawberry Sunshine though. That's some tactical precision truth bombs being dropped and wonder how long Rarity has been sitting on that bombshell.

I agree with both of you that Applejack not acknowledging the hard work put into the outfits was particularly out of character for her. Especially when she was outright told that each feather on that hat was stitched on one at a time, and she destroyed it anyway. Compare this to how Sweetie Belle acts in "For Whom the Sweetie Belle Toils" and realize that Applejack is less mature than a filly who messed up a headdress with the intention of hurting its designer.

 

[Ogodei]

The episode was most enjoyable in its last quarter, though i agree it's a problem that could have been solved ahead of time, or at least after Applejack's first transgression by talking to her about where the line is.

That said, AJ vs Strawberry pony was delightful.

In terms of AJ's character arc, it's fair to point out that she's never had a scenario so far where "more honesty" wasn't part of the solution.

A Royal Problem next week, yay!

 

[UberTag]

Rarity shredding reminds me of this old comic with Rarity practicing archery (BTW, it's a shame this artist never finished this series). The idea is that Rarity, in contrast to Twilight, has fine control over her magic and is very precise and accurate with it. We see signs of this in the show, particularly with her dressmaking and small scenes like in "Sweet and Elite" where she's carrying several bags while Fleur de Lis only carries a few (which I remember because that scene was cited for this), but it hasn't been explicitly pointed out. Granted, Rarity specifically uses her hooves to rock out, but the same logic applies, since she uses her hooves for making dresses often.

My favorite example of the above phenomenon is still Rarity's full-fledged Pinkie Pie impression from Season 6's Gift of the Maud Pie which she completely commits to WHILE still holding a camera in place with her magic.

She boasts uncanny precision with her magic and it's a trait that really ought to come into play solving a crisis sometime although I really don't mind it continuing to remain an established background talent.

 

[ShinySylvee]

I believe this is the first time I've disagreed with you on an episode so much, particularly regarding the characterizations making sense. Though I do agree that Photo Finish and Hoity Toity didn't have enough to do. The former in particular really needed an over the top scene, but nothing came close to her classic moments from "Green Isn't Your Color". I'm not saying that every character should live up to their first appearance, or that she should have sung Picture Perfect Pony (wow, so few views), but I'm pretty sure this is her first speaking role since season 1 outside Equestria Girls.

Haven't watched it since the episode first aired (It was released on the same day as Dance Magic which stole my attention) but I remember liking the tone of the episode and found myself having a good time, which I think is largely why I was able to overlook a lot of the problems it had. I felt like most of the behavior was explained decently well in the context of the episode at least and nothing really took me out of it. It was a silly and fun episode and sure if you wanted to pick apart every detail you could have a lot to find fault with but again nothing really bothered me that much and I thought that after overlooking the problems there was enough fun stuff there to keep me entertained. Reading through other people's opinions on the episode (both here and elsewhere) I'm in a pretty clear minority here but I certainly didn't think it was remotely in the realm of episodes like Mare Do Well or Princess Spike.

I live on the west coast but I work 2-11 PM and often work overtime. As a whole my entire sleep schedule is fairly skewed and I usually wake up around 10-12 AM each day

She boasts uncanny precision with her magic and it's a trait that really ought to come into play solving a crisis sometime although I really don't mind it continuing to remain an established background talent.

Honestly I feel like historically the writers of the show in general are afraid of having Rarity do stuff with magic that would be considered impressive because magic is supposed to be Twilight's thing. Off-handedly I remember the fashion show Rarity put on in Suited for Success and some spell she used to appear as a Crystal Pony in the Crystal Empire 2-parter but other then that I can't remember her really doing much more then levitating stuff. Since Twilight was supposed to be extremely powerful I imagine the writers might have been afraid of showing Rarity even being better at one specific aspect of magic, (Rarity's super unique gem finding spell was fairly easily replicated by Twilight) but now that Starlight exists and Twilight is no longer the undisputed king of it I hope that now they can feel more comfortable showing areas of magic that Rarity might be more skilled in. Also since she's already training Trixie it would be cool if Rarity could take some magic lessons from Starlight, framed as some sort of bonding activity since most of her interactions with the Mane 6 have been doing things that they enjoy rather then Starlight likes.

 

[Conkersbadfurday]

bit behind on the episodes now, but I just watched "Hard to Say Anything." Was alright. Interesting to hear Big Mac talk a bit more. Sing too!

I was legit glad the other pony stopped the surprise kiss though. Like, that was creepy to the max.

Also enjoyed the love potion callback.

 

[SigmasonicX]

My favorite example of the above phenomenon is still Rarity's full-fledged Pinkie Pie impression from Season 6's Gift of the Maud Pie which she completely commits to WHILE still holding a camera in place with her magic.

https://derpicdn.net/img/view/2016/4/3/1123540__safe_screencap_pegasus+olsen_peggy+holstein_rarity_the+gift+of+the+maud+pie_spoiler-colon-s06e03_animated_background+pony_behaving+like+pinkie.gif[/IMG

She boasts uncanny precision with her magic and it's a trait that really ought to come into play solving a crisis sometime although I really don't mind it continuing to remain an established background talent.[/QUOTE]

I hadn't noticed the camera part of that scene, pretty impressive on Rarity's part.

I recall that in the lead up to season 4, I imagined a potential upcoming enemy could be some creature or pony that's immune to magic, in order to make things more even between now-alicorn Twilight and the rest of the Main Six. I thought a neat way for them to beat it would be for Rarity to tangle it up with threads, making sure her magic didn't get close enough to be nullified, which would tie into her magic precision.

I also think it would be neat if Twilight noticed how skilled with magic Rarity actually is and tried to force magic lessons on her, which could lead to [s]RariLight[/s] nice bonding moments.

[quote="ShinySylvee, post: 239101647"]Haven't watched it since the episode first aired (It was released on the same day as Dance Magic which stole my attention) but I remember liking the tone of the episode and found myself having a good time, which I think is largely why I was able to overlook a lot of the problems it had. I felt like most of the behavior was explained decently well in the context of the episode at least and nothing really took me out of it. It was a silly and fun episode and sure if you wanted to pick apart every detail you could have a lot to find fault with but again nothing really bothered me that much and I thought that after overlooking the problems there was enough fun stuff there to keep me entertained. Reading through other people's opinions on the episode (both here and elsewhere) I'm in a pretty clear minority here but I certainly didn't think it was remotely in the realm of episodes like Mare Do Well or Princess Spike.
[IMG]http://i.imgur.com/oCpzv8S.png[/IMG [/QUOTE]

Interesting to hear you talk about not picking apart every detail, haha. But anyway, you like what you like. Though I say I like it around as much as "Mare Do Well", I hardly feel the same anger that I did when that episode first aired, and it certainly doesn't seem like the fandom does either. The fan content at least is more interesting than what came out of "Mare Do Well", I feel. Just look at what's below.

[QUOTE]I live on the west coast but I work 2-11 PM and often work overtime. As a whole my entire sleep schedule is fairly skewed and I usually wake up around 10-12 AM each day[/QUOTE]

Huh, I thought for sure you'd be in a different time zone. That's kind of an unusual work schedule, but I won't press on it. I assume you meant to say you wake up at 12 PM, not AM, otherwise I couldn't imagine a crazier daily schedule.

In any case, about the livestream, there doesn't seem to be much interest, so I probably won't bother.

[QUOTE]Honestly I feel like historically the writers of the show in general are afraid of having Rarity do stuff with magic that would be considered impressive because magic is supposed to be Twilight's thing. Off-handedly I remember the fashion show Rarity put on in Suited for Success and some spell she used to appear as a Crystal Pony in the Crystal Empire 2-parter but other then that I can't remember her really doing much more then levitating stuff. Since Twilight was supposed to be extremely powerful I imagine the writers might have been afraid of showing Rarity even being better at one specific aspect of magic, (Rarity's super unique gem finding spell was fairly easily replicated by Twilight) but now that Starlight exists and Twilight is no longer the undisputed king of it I hope that now they can feel more comfortable showing areas of magic that Rarity might be more skilled in. Also since she's already training Trixie it would be cool if Rarity could take some magic lessons from Starlight, framed as some sort of bonding activity since most of her interactions with the Mane 6 have been doing things that they enjoy rather then Starlight likes.[/QUOTE]

Yeah, they don't emphasize Rarity's magic skills because that's Twilight's gig. Given that, it is interesting that even from the start, she's still low-key better at magic than most other unicorns we've seen. Starlight teaching Rarity magic could be interesting, but... [s]RariLight[/s] I think Twilight and Rarity need more scenes together, and Twilight teaching Rarity could emphasize Twilight's role as a teacher more.

[quote="Conkersbadfurday, post: 239103762"]bit behind on the episodes now, but I just watched "Hard to Say Anything." Was alright. Interesting to hear Big Mac talk a bit more. Sing too!

I was legit glad the other pony stopped the surprise kiss though. Like, that was creepy to the max.

Also enjoyed the love potion callback.[/QUOTE]

Yeah, the surprise kiss attempt is probably one thing Sugar Belle had to give Big Mac a talking to about once they properly started dating. But I'm not sure if him succeeding would have negatively impacted their relationship more than her waking up to his smoochy face.

But on another note, [URL="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rAlgXrbNPTY"]holy crap this video[/URL].
[IMG]https://derpicdn.net/img/2017/5/15/1437367/small.gif

 

[Trigonometrize.]

It's said pretty early on in the series that an individual unicorn's magical abilities are tied (and somewhat limited) to their special talent. Since Rarity is a dress-maker, her spells are probably mostly limited to levitation but also being able to be much more precise and in-control. Would explain why she's able to hold the camera in place so effortlessly.

Edit: Found the source! (Ep106, Boast Busters, 1:20)

Spike: 25, Twilight! 25 different kinds of tricks, and counting! I thought unicorns were only supposed to have a little magic that matches their special talent.

Twilight: True for ponies whose talents are for things like cooking or singing or math, but what if a unicorn's special talent IS magic?

Spike: Like you, Twilight!

...though this was all the way back in season 1, so maybe they've ditched that idea and Starlight can have some magic lessons with Rarity.

 

[ShinySylvee]

Interesting to hear you talk about not picking apart every detail, haha. But anyway, you like what you like. Though I say I like it around as much as "Mare Do Well", I hardly feel the same anger that I did when that episode first aired, and it certainly doesn't seem like the fandom does either. The fan content at least is more interesting than what came out of "Mare Do Well", I feel. Just look at what's below.



Huh, I thought for sure you'd be in a different time zone. That's kind of an unusual work schedule, but I won't press on it. I assume you meant to say you wake up at 12 PM, not AM, otherwise I couldn't imagine a crazier daily schedule.

In any case, about the livestream, there doesn't seem to be much interest, so I probably won't bother.



Yeah, they don't emphasize Rarity's magic skills because that's Twilight's gig. Given that, it is interesting that even from the start, she's still low-key better at magic than most other unicorns we've seen. Starlight teaching Rarity magic could be interesting, but... RariLight I think Twilight and Rarity need more scenes together, and Twilight teaching Rarity could emphasize Twilight's role as a teacher more.

Without getting too meta into analyzing my own analysis of things, I generally watch stuff to enjoy it, and then once I've seen it and have an opinion on it, I try to figure out why I feel that way. I don't go through an episode with a magnifying glass and a fine-toothed comb trying to pick apart everything I found good or objectionable. I observe it, formulate an opinion on it, and then try to quantify why I feel that way by whipping out the magnifying glass and comb to find examples to back my opinions up.

As an aside, I think one of the biggest problems a lot of bad analysts I've seen have is that they are largely focusing on definitively proving if something is good or bad rather then trying to explain why they felt the way they did about something personally. (If you've ever seen MysteriousMrEnter he is a textbook example of this problem. His review of 12 oz Mouse is particularly horrible in this respect)

What all of that means in the context of this episode is that I liked the episode because I liked the laid-back and silly tone of it and found some of the gags funny. There's not much you can do to try to articulate why those things are good since they're so subjective.


For my shift I work at a warehouse and process items that are already received and prepare them to be moved into stock. We're in step 2 of the 3 step process of placing items into stock so we come in a bit later. And yeah 10-noon although it's usually closer to 10.


Honestly the idea initially formulated out of an excuse to see my two favorite characters have an episode together but I think it would make sense. The trouble with Twilight doing something like that is you would have to ask the question "why now?" Rarity and Twilight have known each other for years and are probably more busy now then they have been in the past. I agree that Rarity and Twilight could definitely use an episode with each other (To my knowledge the closest we've gotten to a Rarity Twilight episode is both of the Dragon country episodes) but I feel like something like a map episode would maybe make a bit more sense. (Speaking of which unless the finale is a map episode I think the only one that is going to happen this season is going to be Royal Problem which means it wouldn't have called on the mane 6 once)

It's said pretty early on in the series that an individual unicorn's magical abilities are tied (and somewhat limited) to their special talent. Since Rarity is a dress-maker, her spells are probably mostly limited to levitation but also being able to be much more precise and in-control. Would explain why she's able to hold the camera in place so effortlessly.

Edit: Found the source! (Ep106, Boast Busters, 1:20)

Spike: 25, Twilight! 25 different kinds of tricks, and counting! I thought unicorns were only supposed to have a little magic that matches their special talent.

Twilight: True for ponies whose talents are for things like cooking or singing or math, but what if a unicorn's special talent IS magic?

Spike: Like you, Twilight!

...though this was all the way back in season 1, so maybe they've ditched that idea and Starlight can have some magic lessons with Rarity.

They've pretty much entirely abandoned that sort of idea with Starlight being able to teach Trixie about how to do Transfiguration and Teleportation in All Bottled Up. I've said it before but one thing you have to consider with this show is that it's written by a bunch of different writers, and that a huge chunk of the creative staff that worked on the earlier seasons don't work on the show anymore. And consistency has never been a massive priority for the show so generally speaking I don't really put much value in that kind of stuff.

 

[UberTag]

As poorly received as Honest Apple has been, one positive takeaway from it that could turn into an amusing running gag would be if other episodes in the future that inevitably tread in the "pony acts stubborn for 20 minutes until they learn an obvious lesson" waters also have the stubborn pony brought before Strawberry Sunrise so she can deliver an immediate truth beatdown.

Make it like a once-per-season meta joke type thing.

 

[SigmasonicX]

As poorly received as Honest Apple has been, one positive takeaway from it that could turn into an amusing running gag would be if other episodes in the future that inevitably tread in the "pony acts stubborn for 20 minutes until they learn an obvious lesson" waters also have the stubborn pony brought before Strawberry Sunrise so she can deliver an immediate truth beatdown.

Make it like a once-per-season meta joke type thing.

Source

By the way, it looks like Strawberry Sunrise has actually been a background pony since season 2, but her cutie mark was different.
From "Hurricane Fluttershy" - Jeez, good thing Fluttershy didn't try to talk to her.
Strawberry Sunrise vector - You can see she originally had one strawberry and grapes.

And her name has appeared in both the comics and card game. It comes from the toys.

 

[Conkersbadfurday]

So as is normal, I guess I'm the outlier as I enjoyed "Honest Apple." I can't argue with any of the flaws pointed out, only that they didn't really bother me this go around. It was an obvious, "well AJ shouldn't be doing this setup but here we go" from the getgo, so when Rarity went, "SHE IS PRACTICAL AND WE SHOULD RESPECT THAT" i shrugged because that was the best we were gonna get.

She's also not wrong >_>

Which is maybe why I was on board. I get fashion as an art, but I also don't get it, so every complaint AJ had I was like, "yeah that's pretty on point."

Then she destroyed that hat and she became a bitch D:

I think there's kind of a systemic problem with AJ episodes in that she's always dialed up to 11 to showcase the point in a very ham-fisted, obvious way. It's either she's stubborn, honest, family, or APPLES, and there's very little nuance. She's def better as a secondary character, much like Spike.

Oh well.

 

[SigmasonicX]

Let's try this again...

https://derpicdn.net/img/view/2017/5/14/1436473__safe_screencap_rarity_honest+apple_spoiler-colon-s07e09_animated_guitar_guitarity_guitar+solo_metal+as+fuck_solo.gif[/IMG[/QUOTE]

You should know that image is broken because Derpibooru replaced it with a higher quality version. The original image profile page will redirect to the new one, but not the embedded image. I wish they didn't do this precisely for that reason. [URL="https://derpibooru.org/1453722"]Here's the new link[/URL].

[B][U]NOTES[/U][/B]
I realized that having a separate section for the previous episode didn't make much sense. Instead, I'll have subsections in each section for the episodes I'll cover.

[B]Hard to Say Anything[/B]
During [URL="https://derpibooru.org/1449168"]this scene[/URL], I hadn't noticed Sweetie Belle's reactions. She really was crushing hard on Feather Bangs. Plus, the groupies are adorable.
[IMG]https://derpicdn.net/img/2017/5/29/1449168/thumb.gif

And here's what the CMC were saying when they were talking over each other.

Honest Apple
Rarity picking up papers for Spike is another example of her precise magic control that we've been talking about.

One odd thing about Rarity not knowing about Coco Pommel's new store occurred to me: last time we saw her, Coco was Rarity's employee! Also, it's kind of unusual that the show continues to bring her up when they aren't allowed to actually use her name. It's a good thing Rarity and the other fashion ponies are the type to address her as Miss Pommel, but Applejack calling her that is a bit odd.

Strawberry Sunrise has proven to be fairly popular, but given that, there's less art of her than I expected. If she was introduced in season one, she'd have been a meme queen with a ton of art. Actually, that would have gotten annoying fast, never mind.

SCREENCAPS
I think I'll just go ahead and link the Round Stable post with screenshots from now on. Linked below are things that aren't in the link or I want to particularly point out.
Smug Strawberry

... That's it. You can see the dresses and such in the link.

GIFS
I love reversed GIFs.
Reversed Rarity helping Spike with papers (embedded)
Pinkie stuffing the guitar in her hair
Apple Bloom lifting her bonnet
Photo Finish kiss
Hoity Toity kiss
Inky smiling normally
Lily Lace being criticized
Lily becomes possessed (embedded)
Reversed eating: Strawberry reveals her special talent (embedded)
Strawberry apologizing
Angry Apple
Pinkie smacking the ground
Lily rerorero loop
Inky trying to smile (embedded)

FAN CONTENT
Hard to Say Anything
Still no remixes of "Battle for Sugar Belle" as far as I can tell, but here's a song inspired by it. It actually remixes "The Perfect Stallion" and "Our Town" for some reason, switching to different genres for Big Mac and Feather Bangs.

The Love Triangle
SUGAR SUGAR
A Million Times NO
KISS

Bimbettes
To Capture or to be Caught? - Warning, legs bending like humans.
Fond Feather, Swoon Song, and Dear Darling
Passionate Ponies

Comics
Words of Wisdom
Hard to Say Anything FOLLOW UP

Honest Apple
A ton of art has been made for Inky Rose, so I'll have to be more selective than usual for her. Though Rarity rocking out got a ton of art too, it does come out to less total than Inky.

Inky Rose
Inky Rose, Goth Pony Fashionista - Made three weeks ago, and actually before the artist watched the episode.
Inky Rose by Evehly - Made three weeks ago.
Inky Rose by Novaspark

Inky Rose by Alvh Omega - Made two weeks ago.
Inky Rose by Archegosaurus - Made two weeks ago.
Inky Rose by Eljonek - Made two weeks ago.

Inky Rose by FanaticPanda - Made a week ago.
Inky Rose humanized by JonFawkes
Inky Rose by Plotcore

Rarity rocking out
Rarity Rocking Hard - Made three weeks ago.
Coloratura Wallpaper - Made three weeks ago. All of Applejack's love interests are pretty good on the guitar, huh?
RarityThrash - Made three weeks ago.

Ratch - Made two weeks ago.
Rarity Shreddin' - Made two weeks ago.

Rock Rarity
Get Ready To Rock
Through the fire and the flames

Strawberry Sunrise
One of the best new characters - Made two weeks ago. I don't get why "are" is abbreviated.
Strawberries beat Apples - Made two weeks ago.
Smug Strawberry - Made a week ago. Based on the Smug Wendy's meme.
Strawberry Sunrise

Lily Lace
Lily Lace by paskanaakka - Made a week ago.
Lily Lace by raikoh

Contestant combinations
Humanized contestants - Made three weeks ago. That bit in the top right is Starstreak being killed by AJ's insults. A bit off topic, but the source blog is kind of weird, apparently shipping humanized male Rainbow Dash with Equestria Girls Rainbow Dash.
Lily Lace and Inky Rose getting along - Made a week ago. Linking to Derpibooru because the source blog is NSFW. DeviantArt upload, but it uses Equestria Girls coloring.
Inky Rose and Moonlight Raven - Linking to Derpibooru because the source blog is NSFW. Moonlight Raven is from "Canterlot Boutique" if you don't recall. The text says, "Your work speaks to my soul."

Oh right, Applejack's here too
Fashion Queen - Made three weeks ago.
Judged Apple

Comics
Strawberry Sunrise Hates Your Fruit
Humanized sketches - Similar to GlancoJusticar's old episode sketches, but with a more unusual art style.

 

[Trigonometrize.]

Has Tara Strong ever sung as Twilight?

 

[SigmasonicX]

Has Tara Strong ever sung as Twilight?

Just "Sweep Sweep Sweep", to my knowledge. It would be kind of weird for her to be the singing voice now, but it would be neat if she ever covered one of Twilight's songs.

 

[draetenth]

Does Tara even sing? I'm not really the type to follow actors and I know she does a lot of characters so maybe she has...

 

[PaulloDEC]

Does Tara even sing? I'm not really the type to follow actors and I know she does a lot of characters so maybe she has...

I have a vague memory of Tara being asked that in an interview and responding with a mock-indignant "Of course I can sing!" Not sure why she never has on MLP.

 

[SigmasonicX]

I have a vague memory of Tara being asked that in an interview and responding with a mock-indignant "Of course I can sing!" Not sure why she never has on MLP.

The better question is which voice actress on MLP isn't good at singing. Tara sings less than you'd expect given her insane filmography, but she notably played Huntress in Batman: The Brave and the Bold and was one of the singers of this song. As for why she doesn't sing on MLP, that's because unlike the rest of the main cast, she isn't in Canada. She actually records separately from the rest of the cast, who otherwise all record together, and her lines are recorded over the phone.

Canadian streaming service Rogers on Demand has "A Royal Problem" and "Not Asking for Trouble" in HD, so no more waiting for iTunes for that.

This upcoming Golden Book looks adorable. It's likely an adaptation of "A Flurry of Emotions".

Also...

EDIT: Don't know how I missed this last week.
Hard to Say Anything CENSORED - Basically just turns the subtext into text, so this one is pretty good.
And from this week.
Honest Apple CENSORED - As opposed to the above, this one is pretty forced. At least until Strawberry Sunrise.

 

[DemWalls]

Contrary to some other episodes, I hadn't seen Honest Apple when it first aired in Canada, so I have just caught up.

All in all, I didn't dislike it, I just have to turn a blind eye to the fact that the premise itself makes little sense. Applejack was a total ****, but she's a secondary character, so I'm not that bothered.

Loved the three designers, Inky Rose especially.

 

[SigmasonicX]

Applejack was a total ****, but she's a secondary character, so I'm not that bothered.

Spoiler

It took Applejack over half the day to realize what you meant.

MLP Movie Halloween costumes by a company called Disguise. The masks are creepy, but the wigs and dresses seem alright. They come in child and adult sizes.

Some books were released today.
Elements of Harmony Volume II, covering seasons 4-6. Apparently while the first volume did have some neat background details, this one is just recap. Plus, apparently there are a bunch of errors.
Equestria Girls: Magic, Magic Everywhere, adapting the three specials. You know, the ones that haven't aired in English yet. Were they supposed to be put up on Netflix before this came out?

And more details for other movie tie-in books! Where Equestria Comes to Life seems potentially interesting, with augmented reality ponies. At least the CGI model on the cover looks alright.

And remember when I posted that Equestria Girls comic from a European magazine that had a Coloratura cameo? Here it is in English, along with one more. It looks like they might be adapted from the upcoming online shorts, since I can't imagine they would actually put effort into making these new vectors, but the addition of "EPIC FAIL" everywhere makes it amazingly obnoxious.

 

[Fat4all]

 

[SigmasonicX]

I should specify, the pony CGI model looks alright, not the horrifying CGI child with a strange mouth and eyes that certainly isn't a real human in a low quality image.

Legends of Magic #3 - Mistmane
Like the previous issue about Rockhoof, I get the impression that this character will appear in the upcoming episode "Campfire Tales", due to how vague they are about the "original" legend. Applejack seems like she'd tell the Rockhoof tale, so perhaps Rarity would tell Mistmane's tale. The idea of a pony giving up her beauty to save others falls right in line with her cutting off her tail back in the second episode. Don't tell me that means we'll hear about Flash Magnus in that episode from Rainbow Dash.

I liked that Starswirl enchanted the book so that it keeps telling you to go outside until you do, but is that English text I spy? Well, I suppose we have seen English text in the comic before... and, oh right, there was "Welcome Princess Celest" in the show. Alright, I guess English text isn't that unusual in FiM.

The timelines of Canterlot Castle and the Castle of the Two Sisters are confusing as hell. Who was using what castle when, and in what order were they built?! The story of how the Castle of the Two Sisters was built from the The Journal of the Two Sisters is even pretty similar to what was here, with a manticore getting upset about the construction, Luna talking to him to resolve the issue, thus discovering her ability to talk to animals, and having forest creatures help make the castle.

Regardless, on its own merits, I liked the story of the comic. Mistmane is an interesting hands off mentor, though she was perhaps a bit too hands off in a story ostensibly about her. It was clever how the issue subtly tied together Mistmane's hands off approach and Starswirl's initial attempt to keep the princesses safe with a fortress of a castle. Luna was adorable and was appropriately childish.

That reminds me, it's weird that one of the alternate covers showed her as an adult with Mistmane. Synopses, and thus the covers, are make well before the comic is actually completed, so this means at that stage, Luna was still supposed to be older or it wasn't concretely determined which Luna was going to be used. One notable example of the synopsis and the comic not matching up is the Power Ponies comic special. The synopsis mentioned someone from Equestria coming to help, when no such thing happened in the final version. The writer confirmed that Spike was supposed to get sucked into the Power Ponies world and help them, but he was removed when he proved to be an unnecessary complication to the story.

Silver Quill's opinion largely matches mine. Though I did read his conclusion (not the details) before deciding to buy this.

There was also a preview for a graphic novel called Surfside Girls: The Secret of Danger Point. Art seems alright, but the panels are huge (Xbox huge, as they used to say) and the story barely progressed in the preview, so I can't really say anything about it.

==

MLP movie toys are appearing at Target already on clearance, which I normally wouldn't bring up, but it made me realize: they had to create brand new vectors to match the movie art style, yet Starlight has her old hairstyle. How weird.

And speaking of the movie, the international poster looks so much better than the US glitter bomb.

 

[Fat4all]

I've noticed Hasbro bundling a lot of stuff recently, like blind bags and smaller figures.

 

[ShinySylvee]

So just going to throw this out there, apparently an Australian company called Foxtel is going to be broadcasting episodes 12 and 13 on June 20th and 21st. Additionally, they actually released a plot summary of the episodes which pretty much spoil the entire thing. Because of how detailed the summary actually is, I'll just link the EQD post here.

Also apparently Daniel Ingram, the composer for most of the musical numbers in the show, has written 5800 pages of orchestra parts for the MLP movie. First, that's usually one of the last things done in production so the movie appears to be finishing up production. Second, given how massive the score for the movie is that might explain why the main show doesn't appear to be getting many songs this season.

 

[SigmasonicX]

So just going to throw this out there, apparently an Australian company called Foxtel is going to be broadcasting episodes 12 and 13 on June 20th and 21st. Additionally, they actually released a plot summary of the episodes which pretty much spoil the entire thing. Because of how detailed the summary actually is, I'll just link the EQD post here.

Also apparently Daniel Ingram, the composer for most of the musical numbers in the show, has written 5800 pages of orchestra parts for the MLP movie. First, that's usually one of the last things done in production so the movie appears to be finishing up production. Second, given how massive the score for the movie is that might explain why the main show doesn't appear to be getting many songs this season.

And to think I went into this season thinking it would be better about early airings than season 6. Wait, are those episodes airing on weekdays?

I figured a big reason why they held off on airing "The Perfect Pear" is because they wanted to do something special to announce William Shatner (not sure why on "Discordant Harmony"), so I'm surprised they went ahead with it anyway. I haven't looked at the summary, but if it's that detailed, they must have had someone sit down and watch it just to type it up. How weird.

As for the movie score, it should be noted that he's doing the background music too, not just the songs, which explains the sheer amount.

 

[draetenth]

I read the summaries of episodes 12 & 13 at EqD. If true, I think I may actually be looking forward to both.

 

[DemWalls]

I especially love how anti-brony and anti-Trump seem to be related.

 

[PaulloDEC]

I especially love how anti-brony and anti-Trump seem to be related.

Is there much overlap between the MLP fanbase and... whatever you call the people who support Trump?

 

[Lightning_Roller]

Is there much overlap between the MLP fanbase and... whatever you call the people who support Trump?

Apparently...according to them. Don't know why they think that though, considering I'm a democrat and despise Trump and his ilk.

 

[ShinySylvee]

Is there much overlap between the MLP fanbase and... whatever you call the people who support Trump?

I've actually did some digging a while back because I've heard about some members of the fandom engaged in, let's say less savory behaviors. I was confused as to how a show that is generally about acceptance and working together would be claimed to support far-right ideologies. Here's the first article I found by looking up MLP and White Nationalism:

link

It's a long an painful read, so I'll summarize what I believe his thought process as to how the show supports White Nationalism (this interview was before season 5 aired so keep that in mind)

> Equestria is shown to be an idealistic world (Not going to disagree here)

> Equestria borrows heavily from western culture (It is being made by people who live in the west of course it's going to have western influences)

> (Implied) Western culture is entirely about whiteness and everything that has ever been accomplished here was done by white people.

> The show is advocating for an ideal world by pursuing traditional (white) western values


Now I know what you're thinking. "Hey, what about the show's morals? Wouldn't those kinda contradict his claims that the show is advocating for White Nationalism by encouraging working together with other races and being accepting of different people?" Well he doesn't think they matter: "The actual happenings of the show aren’t of that much importance on an individual level." (Although his later blog posts have no problems bringing up episode morals if he believes they support his ideology) Honestly reading through his "intellectual journey to White Nationalism" I kinda feel sad for him. Like he's this really confused person that was very afraid of people that look different from him ("I do not feel comfortable around non-whites, mainly because they mostly harbor a desire to kill me for being whitey, on a macro scale if not a personal one") and is just looking for some philosophy that can help him make sense of the world. He talks about how he burned through like 7 different philosophies before eventually settling on the one that finally made sense for him. Of course, all my sympathy dries up when he starts talking about how he lives in a ground zero for white displacement because a lot of Muslims live where he does.

Honestly I think that a lot of the far right stuff in the fandom is just a byproduct of there being a lot of the people in the fandom that browse 4chan. The whole place generally does an extremely good job at normalizing horrible ideas because part of the people are just trolls that are trying to go for edgy shock humor by saying extremely offensive stuff, and there's another group that take those people making jokes as validation that they're right. The MLP fandom sort of started on 4chan, so it makes sense to me at least that there would be a small group of the community that believed in the alt-right movement that is generally fairly prevalent there.


In more exciting news, the trailer for the MLP movie is dropping soon. To get some clarification, are we going to be making the trailer thread the primary thread for movie discussion, (At least in the short term) or are we going to just talk about it there for a bit then move the discussion of the movie here? Personally I think that we should mostly keep the trailer thread for all the news and movie discussion so people that might be interested in the movie but don't follow the show can get all their info and discussion there. As I said before I could imagine a lot of people who don't follow the show but might be interested in the movie being put off by all the show discussion. Of course if all the people that post in the movie thread just end up being the people that post here there's no reason to keep it up but I think that it would make sense to post all the movie news there for people interested in the movie.

 

[SigmasonicX]

About the trailer topic, if there's enough interest from people who don't already go to these threads, I think it would be best to post movie news both here and there. The difference being that the trailer topic would just have big news, not small tidbits and promotional art.

About the anti BronyCon march, I highly doubt there will be significantly more Trump supporters at BronyCon than any other non-political convention would. I think the march organizers are trying to force a bad public image by having passers-by join in thinking it's more about being against Trump, and thus any counter protest or negative reaction from con-goers will be seen as supporting Trump. In the end, I don't think the march will get many people, so it doesn't matter much anyway.

About extremists liking the show, one has to consider that they are easier to spot precisely because of how unusual they are, just like fans of the show in general. There probably aren't really that many proportionally compared to other fan bases. And let's not forget that shows like Steven Universe have fans like this too. I feel a big reason behind views like those of the article you cited are that they like the show, but can't comprehend a way to fit it into their worldview, and thus come up with bizarre justifications.

 

[DemWalls]

Thinking that there are far rightists that also are Steven Universe fans is just hilarious. Anyway, about the trailer, let's hope Mike's tease isn't like Kamiya's "Next week... In gaming magazines..."

 

[SigmasonicX]

Pinkie Pie Says Goodnight: The Fourth Wall - Featuring Moon Dancer.

In preparation for tomorrow's episode, I'll go ahead and dump all the earlier episode art I have now. That said, although there's a ton of art for "A Royal Problem" already, I'm expecting that a lot of it will be pretty similar, meaning my roundup might have less than you'd expect. I prefer to showcase variety, and when there's a bunch of art of the same thing, I'll focus on the oldest art and the best art. I'm also curious how much new art will be made this weekend, since many of the artists that usually wait until the US airing have already drawn art for this episode.

Forever Filly
Somehow missed this one.
Rari Sweet

Parental Glideance
Summer
Humanized Family

Hard to Say Anything
Sugar Evening
Lazy Nap
Super Crack Ship - Showcasing because wat. The ship name is Cabelle, BTW.

Honest Apple
Designer Friends
Mangy Varmints - Applejack is saying "Get back here ya mangy varmints!"
Inky Rose in MS Paint - ... Yeah, I guess this was made in MS Paint.

Inky Rose
Salty Applejack - More Wendy's based humor.
POMF

EAT THEM
Strawberries vs. Apples - It took deep analysis to tell, but yes, that's her tongue.

Impressive 3D Guitar Rarity - Small version, still pretty big file size.
Pointy Ponies - Honest Apple

Comics
Hard to Say Anything Alternate - A bit dark.
Untranslated Strawberry comic by uotapo - I get the feeling this is some Japanese meme. The brown pony is a new company transfer and Strawberry offers strawberries while her mouth is stuffed.

==

Whoops, I planned on making this going into this post, but forgot to make it. Potential draft for a movie trailer thread.

<INSERT TRAILER LINK>
Older teaser trailer

Release date: October 6, 2017
Director: Jayson Thiessen (show director of Friendship is Magic)
Writers: Meghan McCarthy (former head writer of Friendship is Magic), Rita Hsiao (assistant writer for multiple Disney movies)
Produced by: Hasbro Studios, Allspark Pictures, DHX Media/Vancouver
Distributed by: Lionsgate

Guest stars:
Emily Blunt - Tempest Shadow
Zoe Saldana - Captain Celaeno
Michael Peña - Grubber
Liev Schreiber - The Storm King
Kristin Chenoweth - Princess Skystar
Uzo Aduba - Queen Novo
Taye Diggs - Capper
Sia - Songbird Serenade

In order to stop a threat to the town of Ponyville, the "Mane Six" &#8211; Twilight Sparkle, Applejack, Rainbow Dash, Pinkie Pie, Fluttershy and Rarity &#8211; must leave their home kingdom of Equestria, meeting new friends and overcoming challenges in the process.

This movie is based on the Friendship is Magic TV series, and every character from there will have the same voice actor as in the show.

Movie announcement thread, though note things have changed significantly since then, notably with the distributor and writer.

 

[SigmasonicX]

Today's episode is:
In the US
10. A Royal Problem (aired in Canada on May 20)
Starlight Glimmer is sent to solve a friendship problem between Princess Celestia and Princess Luna; when it's clear that the problem is that the royal sisters don't appreciate one another, Starlight impulsively switches their cutie marks!

Episodes that can be discussed freely
1. Celestial Advice - Twilight Sparkle agonizes over Starlight Glimmer's future and receives some much-needed advice from her very own mentor &#8211; Princess Celestia.
2. All Bottled Up - While the Mane 6 are on a friendship retreat, Starlight Glimmer loses Twilight Sparkle's friendship map. Afraid her anger might get out of control, Starlight Glimmer casts a calming spell while the ponies search for the lost map.
3. A Flurry of Emotions - After planning a jam-packed day, Twilight Sparkle also agrees to babysit her niece, Flurry Heart. But with Flurry Heart along for the ride, Twilight Sparkle struggles to maintain her title as 'The Best Aunt Ever' while keeping Flurry Heart out of trouble!
4. Rock Solid Friendship - When Pinkie Pie learns that Maud might move to Ponyville, she does everything she can to make sure her sister sees that it has more to offer than just rocks.
5. Fluttershy Leans In - Fluttershy is determined to make her career dreams come true with the help of some very special ponies. But when her true vision is not being executed properly, she must find a way to stand up and fight for her ideas.
6. Forever Filly - When Rarity surprises Sweetie Belle with a special day together filled with all of her favorite activities, she quickly learns that her little sister is no longer the little foal she used to be.
7. Parental Glideance - When Rainbow Dash's parents discover she's a Wonderbolt, they show up at every event to cheer her on. However, their unabashed enthusiasm proves to be rather embarrassing and pushes Rainbow Dash to the brink.
8. Hard to Say Anything - When the Cutie Mark Crusaders discover that Big Mac has his first crush, they vow to help him win Sugar Belle's heart before Feather Bangs does it first.
9. Honest Apple - When Rarity asks Applejack to be a judge in a fashion show, Applejack learns that an opinion, however honest, can still be hurtful.
And "A Royal Problem" in about an hour.

It seems like after this point, everyone will be effectively on the same page regarding show spoilers, since no one seemed particularly interested in talking about "Not Asking For Trouble". I imagine some of you are itching to be able to talk about this without spoiler tags.

Source

 

[DemWalls]

I imagine some of you are itching to be able to talk about this without spoiler tags.

Source

I just wanted to post the best scenes from the episode, hands down:

Forget that purple nobody, Luna is best fruit-eating princess.

 

[Ogodei]

'Tis a shame Daybreaker was only a figment of Starlight's subconscious. Or maybe it's foreshadowing of the season finale?

Luna's dream about her teeth falling out was genuinely creepy and dreamlike.

 

[DrForester]

'Tis a shame Daybreaker was only a figment of Starlight's subconscious. Or maybe it's foreshadowing of the season finale?

I hope not. One of the few things I liked about this episode was them working in an evil Celestia alter-ego without Celestia being evil. Hopefully, in the unlikely case the show ever lets Celestia solve a crisis, the do what the comics and books have done and show her as being able to harness her anger in a righteous fury.

 

[T8SC]

When I was growing up, this was a show (and toys) designed for young girls, those aged from around 4 to 11. Reading this thread makes me think you lot aren't 4-11yr old girls, so whats changed, is this some new South Park/Simpsons style version of MLP or something?

 

[ShinySylvee]

When I was growing up, this was a show (and toys) designed for young girls, those aged from around 4 to 11. Reading this thread makes me think you lot aren't 4-11yr old girls, so whats changed, is this some new South Park/Simpsons style version of MLP or something?

4-11 year old girls are still definitely the show's primary demographic but since the show has garnered attention from people of other ages and gender (largely due to it being a surprisingly well-made cartoon that doesn't usually feel like it's talking down to its audience) the show's writers have generally been more willing to write episodes that deal with subject matter that might at least partially go over their target demo's heads. (One episode was about 3 of the characters playing D&D and a couple of the morals in the latest season feel like they were being directed at the parents presumably watching the show with their kids rather then the kids themselves. And I can go down the list and highlight a bunch of moments from the show that is clearly intended for an older audience but you get the idea) It's for 4-11 year old girls in the same way that Disney movies are for kids: that might be the primary group of people they expect to be watching the show, but the whole thing is made with the intent of entertaining everyone, not just little kids.

Also for a lot of people the show's world building and lore is way better then it has any right to be. As ridiculous as that sounds that stuff is at least partially why I'm so interested in the show.



In unrelated news, I've been waiting to change my avatar until this episode finally aired in America. It's probably going to be temporary but after seeing the episode I wanted to have a Daybreaker avatar at least for a little bit.

 

[Rhomega Beta]

This episode does disprove my theory of Luna being awake during the day, as most of her previous appearances have been in the middle of the day when she would normally be sleeping.

 

[T8SC]

4-11 year old girls are still definitely the show's primary demographic but since the show has garnered attention from people of other ages and gender (largely due to it being a surprisingly well-made cartoon that doesn't usually feel like it's talking down to its audience) the show's writers have generally been more willing to write episodes that deal with subject matter that might at least partially go over their target demo's heads. (One episode was about 3 of the characters playing D&D and a couple of the morals in the latest season feel like they were being directed at the parents presumably watching the show with their kids rather then the kids themselves. And I can go down the list and highlight a bunch of moments from the show that is clearly intended for an older audience but you get the idea) It's for 4-11 year old girls in the same way that Disney movies are for kids: that might be the primary group of people they expect to be watching the show, but the whole thing is made with the intent of entertaining everyone, not just little kids.

Also for a lot of people the show's world building and lore is way better then it has any right to be. As ridiculous as that sounds that stuff is at least partially why I'm so interested in the show.

I see. I know what you mean when you refer to the Disney stuff and having, lets call it "adult content" that goes over the kids heads.

That has satisfied my curiosity, I don't think it's the type of show for me but it takes all sorts to make the world go round. Enjoy

 

[Conkersbadfurday]

I think on a world building level, and maybe a character level too, "A Royal Problem" was not a good episode. However, I had tons of fun with it. Twilight and Starlight were pretty funny, and Starlight's approach to the two gods of the planet made me laugh.

But the show has really reduced Cellestia and Luna down from their god status to something too mundane, I think. I don't sense any power or anything really special out of either. Even Cellestia's day job shenanigans were pretty dumb.

Hell, the final climax with Daybreaker could have been solved by someone shaking Starlight awake. Welcome to solving 100% of all nightmares.

Luna's teeth falling out was solid though.

 

[Trigonometrize.]

The far right, anime/brony/whatever correlation thing people do based on anecdotal evidence of people's avatars is so stupid. That anti-rally thing is just bizarre.

 

[SigmasonicX]

This is late because ED didn't put up a good episode link. I had to find one myself, and then email them to use it.

A Royal Problem
Thanks to ED's terrible policy of including images that don't seem like spoilers in Drawfriends, they sometimes put in Daybreaker images because it isn't uncommon for people to make Nightmare Moon Celestia art. Of course, no one would find it suspicious that they all look like each other and use the same name, and all came out after "A Royal Problem". And, you know, often include the episode number in the name. So because of that, the big shock of the episode wasn't her appearance, but rather the fact that the story didn't involve Celestia actually turning into her.

Starlight also did less than I expected, and Celestia and Luna's epiphanies were due to her being a victim in her own dream. The cutie mark switching spell also didn't seem to really do much other than make them go, "Well, might as well switch roles." I was expecting Starlight's actions to cause Celestia and Luna to actually turn into their respective evil forms, and while Twilight cowers, she manages to talk both of them down.

Given both of the above, I have no clue what DrForester was so upset about. It seems like this would be right up his alley. I guess I'll find out when I actually look at everyone's posts.

It's disappointing that a lot of this episode is stuff we've already seen in the comics, from the Luna micro-series issue. Though I haven't read it in a while, I think this episode did a better job at showing why Luna's skills wouldn't apply as well to Celestia's role than that issue did, since the comic presented her in an over the top manner that didn't make it seem like she was doing her work in good faith. But the weirdest part is the apparent lack of staff to help Luna. This would have been the perfect spot to include Kibbitz, though I understand he would have unnecessarily distracted from the story due to the time needed to introduce him, plus he would have resulted in fewer interactions between Starlight and Luna. Also, Celestia saying that raising the moon is easier than she thought was odd; it would have been better as "even easier than I remembered."

Twilight was great in this episode. And music box Twilight is another thing from this episode that ED thought didn't count as a spoiler in Drawfriends.

If there's one opinion I have coming out of the episode, it's that it was overhyped. I thought the episode did a lot of good things, but from the huge blocks of spoiler text, I was expecting a lot more. I think this is one of those cases where my feelings will be better defined in my later posts.

EDIT: Oh, now a guy asking about why people like the show is here, not when I was already getting ready to write a big post about it but then decided otherwise. And he's gone now anyway. EDIT 2: Eh, maybe I'll respond to him anyway. I already have other big posts to write today, so later.

EDIT 3: By the way, every Canadian version of this episode had terrible quality. Is that really what all you guys watched three weeks ago?

 

[ShinySylvee]

I see. I know what you mean when you refer to the Disney stuff and having, lets call it "adult content" that goes over the kids heads.

That has satisfied my curiosity, I don't think it's the type of show for me but it takes all sorts to make the world go round. Enjoy

That's reasonable. Even though I think the show is great I understand it's not for everyone.

The far right, anime/brony/whatever correlation thing people do based on anecdotal evidence of people's avatars is so stupid. That anti-rally thing is just bizarre.

Serious question: Has anyone seen an internet shitlord with a Rarity avatar? (Ok not a serious question) For some reason I always feel like they either have Rainbow or Pinkie avatars. Also what I find really funny is that I see way more pony avatars browsing other threads on NeoGaf then I do in this thread. Before I changed mine today Sigma was the only one that posted here with any remote amount of regularity.

This is late because ED didn't put up a good episode link. I had to find one myself, and then email them to use it.

STUFF

EDIT 3: By the way, every Canadian version of this episode had terrible quality. Is that really what all you guys watched three weeks ago?

I feel bad for you because it sounds like your first viewing of this episode was extremely heavily influenced by how you thought it would play out based on others reactions to it. For what it's worth, I think the main reason why there was so much discussion about the episode is largely based on the fact that there's a LOT to talk about. It's not like episodes like Honest Apple or the second EQG episode Movie Magic where not a whole lot of cool stuff worth mentioning happens. Even if you didn't like the episode it still leaves some sort of impression on you.

Also only true pon fans are willing to watch 360p episodes with watermarks everywhere just to get it a month early. And if you think that was bad the EQG episodes were even worse because you had subtitles on top of lower quality and watermarks.

 

[DrForester]

Given both of the above, I have no clue what DrForester was so upset about. It seems like this would be right up his alley. I guess I'll find out when I actually look at everyone's posts.

Rather than read my wall o' text, here's the 3 part short version.

1. Starlight still forcing magic upon others. She has absolutely zero respect for others and that she continues to throw magic tantrums when things don't go exactly how she wants shows absolutely terrible character development.

2. Celestia and Luna are way too stupid in this episode. The early conflict of them being too swamped to notice little things the other is doing was a good one. But then it turns into a pretty stupid "We've been sisters a few thousands years and I have no clue what you do". Implying that these two have never talked before. Never talked after Luna came back. That Celestia did absolutely nothing to help reintegrate her. Basically shows that these two are completely ignorant of the other and after everything they've gone through have learned absolutely nothing.

3. Celestia and Luna have no ownership of their problem. They are not only unable to solve the problem, but they're shown as being totally incapable of even recognizing it. I think the comics have overdone the sister conflict with these two, but in those issues, there's always some ownership and recognition of the problem.

The Simple Fix: Let Celestia and Luna see there is a problem. Have them summon Starlight because they know she can do things with Cutie Marks, or since Wesley Glimmer just HAS to play a big part, have her ASK. Let Celestia and Luna see there is an issue, praise Wesley on her idea, and consent to having their cutie marks swapped. Gives Celestia and Luna some ownership of the problem, and allows Starlight to show that she's not a sociopath with no regard for others.




3.5 Not so much a direct fault of this episode, but there was much fanfare from Hasbro before S7 started that there would be more tie-ins between the comics and the show. Well, someone decided we needed not one, not two, but THREE bickering royal sister's stories in a 3 month time-span. And this episode was easily the worst of the three. Is there no other story they can tell about these two other than having them be jerks to each other? After waiting 7 years for these two to get an episode, I wanted something where they solve a problem, rather than one where they ARE the problem. They get defeated by bad guys so often, is it wrong to want a story where, just once, they showcase their strengths?

There were a few things I did like. Daybraker had a great design, and I liked them working that in without having Celestia turn evil. But the negatives far outweighed the positives for me.

 

[draetenth]

1. Starlight still forcing magic upon others. She has absolutely zero respect for others and that she continues to throw magic tantrums when things don't go exactly how she wants shows absolutely terrible character development.

2. Celestia and Luna are way too stupid in this episode. The early conflict of them being too swamped to notice little things the other is doing was a good one. But then it turns into a pretty stupid "We've been sisters a few thousands years and I have no clue what you do". Implying that these two have never talked before. Never talked after Luna came back. That Celestia did absolutely nothing to help reintegrate her. Basically shows that these two are completely ignorant of the other and after everything they've gone through have learned absolutely nothing.

So, just watched the episode (for the first time) and pretty much agree with DrForester here...

1. On top of this, it appears even her dreams get to be OP.

2. With Luna banished for 1000 years, you would imagine Celestia would have more knowledge about the night and what's is involved... Given her ignorance, I guess ponies just fended for themselves at night in their nightmares for 1000 years...

3. I'm starting to get annoyed with Twilight's worshiping of the Princesses. It's getting quite creepy. She's a princess herself now, she doesn't need to go so overboard.

 

[Trigonometrize.]

Serious question: Has anyone seen an internet shitlord with a Rarity avatar? (Ok not a serious question) For some reason I always feel like they either have Rainbow or Pinkie avatars. Also what I find really funny is that I see way more pony avatars browsing other threads on NeoGaf then I do in this thread. Before I changed mine today Sigma was the only one that posted here with any remote amount of

I think you're on to something as Rarity is the best pony. Though kind of ironic that they haven't taken to her considering how pure white she is... jk...

I haven't changed my thing in years. If I changed it more regularly it would probably be a pony at some point.

 

[UberTag]

I concur with the above well-reasoned individuals. This forum needs more people with Rarity avatars.
Who wants to adopt this one?

 

[SigmasonicX]

I guess I'll just address today's posts first. I'll check later if the older posts have anything still worth a response from me. Going with this one first.

When I was growing up, this was a show (and toys) designed for young girls, those aged from around 4 to 11. Reading this thread makes me think you lot aren't 4-11yr old girls, so whats changed, is this some new South Park/Simpsons style version of MLP or something?

I should clear up that while adults like this show, it is not because it has a notable amount of adult jokes. Some early fans tried to justify their interest this way, but they were reeeaaally reaching. The furthest adult jokes go is the occasional side character that's based on one from an adult movie like The Big Lebowski, or the usual reference to something before the target audience's time, like a part referencing the I Love Lucy chocolate scene.

The biggest reasons why people like the show, I feel, are that it's cute without being annoying about it, and it has relatable and likable lead characters. Sure, the lessons do sometimes go more into things better suited for adults, and the characters grow a surprising amount, but that didn't really start happening until the later seasons. The cuteness and the characters mean that even when an episode is bad, there is something to enjoy, and the fandom can leap from that to create all sorts of fun fan content. Take last week's episode, "Honest Apple", which I didn't enjoy much at all, but it had one unexpected and funny moment, and introduced multiple characters with interesting designs and fun personalities. This meant that fans had a lot to mine for fan content and discussion, although less than from a better episode. From this, you might assume I'm saying the fandom is a big part of the appeal, and I suppose that's true, but it wouldn't be as enjoyable without the show as a base, you know.

Let me tell you about how I got into the show. Back in 2010 and 2011, NeoGAF had animated avatars, so both here and in other places, I was seeing GIFs from the first season of the show (which started late 2010) posted everywhere, either as an avatar or as a response. I didn't think too much of it, and even thought it was from an anime instead of My Little Pony, but then I read this Shortpacked comic. The author, David Willis, has since expressed regret over his role in cultivating this show's fandom (years ago, not sure what he thinks now), but it got my attention. I was well aware of the fact that the 80's My Little Pony cartoon wasn't actually that far off from He-Man and the like, what with satanic centaurs and goat warlocks and such, so a new show being good actually didn't surprise me much. Still, it would be a couple more months before I actually decided to check out the show, on an otherwise slow weekend. I think it was in response to the show being banned on 4chan (yes, that happened).

As I mention in this post, here's what I posted on GameFAQs (though I lurked NeoGAF, I didn't have an account) in a general topic. Between the below posts, imagine some light ribbing.

12 hours without a post?

Anyway, decided to check out the first episode of that new My Little Pony series that's causing such a hubbub (because it's on The Hub, you see) on the intratubes. The characters are all unique and likable, the art style is appealing, and for show aimed at very young children, it has a complex story (by which I mean it actually has a story). I could definitely see this appealing to adults, particularly those that would be forced to watch it with their children, but it's amazing that it got to the level of being Banned On The Internet.

I like it well enough, but I probably wouldn't watch any more episodes after I finish watching what's already out. But then again, I do like it well enough to bother watching the episodes that are already out.

--

Second episode... did I really just see two fights (albeit very short ones), the latter of which is actually resolved by clever use of powers? Also, I wasn't aware that the show has songs, but surprisingly, I don't mind that much.

Edit: Third episode... did they really just play a Jimmy Hart Version of the Benny Hill theme during a chase scene?

--

If it confirms my manliness, I did get worn out after four episodes.

--

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h7PGKcikaGY

I don't see how anyone can hate a series that has this.

And **** I CAN'T STOP

--

My Little Pony and Deadly Premonition make for a surprisingly effective pair.

===

As you can see, you start off watching a few episodes, just thinking it's OK, and maybe you take a break for a day, but then suddenly you get the craving to watch more, and suddenly you're looking up clips on YouTube, and then you start looking at fan art, and then you start writing long posts responding to everyone in the thread.

I do recommend giving it a chance. We even have a recommended episode guide in the OP, if you're interested.

Probably not as detailed as what I was going to write for this post, but there it is.

I just wanted to post the best scenes from the episode, hands down:




Forget that purple nobody, Luna is best fruit-eating princess.

Honestly had no clue there were fruit jokes in this episode. I only went with Twilight because there weren't any "The One Where Pinkie Pie Knows" GIFs on Derpibooru that demonstrated the right mood. Well, actually, there was this:

But I couldn't find it there without text. Maybe this can be used for when "The Perfect Pear" airs and you guys won't be able to talk about it outside spoiler blocks for about two months.

'Tis a shame Daybreaker was only a figment of Starlight's subconscious. Or maybe it's foreshadowing of the season finale?

Luna's dream about her teeth falling out was genuinely creepy and dreamlike.

You know, this is a good time to bring up my prediction for the finale. We know that comic arc with Shadow Lock ties into the finale, with this guy likely being the villain.

The comic story involves the villain at first only appearing in this one book that Shadow Lock finds, but then Shadow Lock inexplicably sees it pop up in other books, including books he was sure didn't mention the villain before. Shadow Lock erased his memory of details of the villain for a reason he can't remember. I have the theory that this villain actually has the ability to "retcon" itself into history, and at one point, Starlight will think, "Am I actually connected to this evil?" And so it is, she's connected to the evil, and then she thinks she is the evil, and so it is. Starlight turns into the villain, which ties into her persisting doubts about herself. Then she's saved by friendship, etc.

In unrelated news, I've been waiting to change my avatar until this episode finally aired in America. It's probably going to be temporary but after seeing the episode I wanted to have a Daybreaker avatar at least for a little bit.

It looks great! It must have been annoying having to wait three weeks.

This episode does disprove my theory of Luna being awake during the day, as most of her previous appearances have been in the middle of the day when she would normally be sleeping.

Were they really? Other than "The Crystalling", I can only think of her appearing in the evening, or during important moments like Tirek attacking. I suppose helping Cadance and Shining Armor is also worth staying up for. In any case, maybe she just needs a nap in the morning, and she's fine in the afternoon.

Serious question: Has anyone seen an internet shitlord with a Rarity avatar? (Ok not a serious question) For some reason I always feel like they either have Rainbow or Pinkie avatars. Also what I find really funny is that I see way more pony avatars browsing other threads on NeoGaf then I do in this thread. Before I changed mine today Sigma was the only one that posted here with any remote amount of regularity.

Most of the people with pony avatars who don't post in this thread actually wait until the season is on Netflix before watching it, or are otherwise far behind, from my understanding. And yeah, it is kind of weird that out of the top posters, I was the only one with a pony avatar.

I feel bad for you because it sounds like your first viewing of this episode was extremely heavily influenced by how you thought it would play out based on others reactions to it. For what it's worth, I think the main reason why there was so much discussion about the episode is largely based on the fact that there's a LOT to talk about. It's not like episodes like Honest Apple or the second EQG episode Movie Magic where not a whole lot of cool stuff worth mentioning happens. Even if you didn't like the episode it still leaves some sort of impression on you.

To be fair, there were other small non-pony things that added up to me not getting the PONIES feeling while intellectually acknowledging the quality, plus the fact that ED not putting up the episode link on time threw off my usual rhythm.

Going into the episode, my thoughts were:
* From people in this thread mentioning outside of spoiler tags how great Twilight was in this episode, I thought Twilight and Starlight would be sent by the map. When Twilight turned out not to be sent, I thought maybe the story would examine what would happen if a pony who wasn't sent on the mission tried to interfere, or that Starlight perhaps tampered with the map.
* I thought Luna and Celestia would actually turn into Nightmare Moon and Daybreaker, from the fan art. It only being a dream was such a surprise that I had to stop the episode for a bit to write the first part of my episode review.
* As mentioned, I thought Starlight played a much larger role in the proceedings, from DrForester's long rants. In particular, I figured that when Nightmare Moon and Daybreaker started fighting, Starlight would give an impassioned speech that would get them to realize their mistakes.

Also only true pon fans are willing to watch 360p episodes with watermarks everywhere just to get it a month early. And if you think that was bad the EQG episodes were even worse because you had subtitles on top of lower quality and watermarks.

Did the copy you watched have distorted audio? Since that's what ED was linking, and what every Canadian upload I saw used.

Rather than read my wall o' text, here's the 3 part short version.

1. Starlight still forcing magic upon others. She has absolutely zero respect for others and that she continues to throw magic tantrums when things don't go exactly how she wants shows absolutely terrible character development.

Sometimes being blunt is warranted, and it was treated here more as switching around name tags anything. Still, she was fretting a lot about her decision.

2. Celestia and Luna are way too stupid in this episode. The early conflict of them being too swamped to notice little things the other is doing was a good one. But then it turns into a pretty stupid "We've been sisters a few thousands years and I have no clue what you do". Implying that these two have never talked before. Never talked after Luna came back. That Celestia did absolutely nothing to help reintegrate her. Basically shows that these two are completely ignorant of the other and after everything they've gone through have learned absolutely nothing.

The way they were acting when they were switching jobs was largely out of frustration from having to play out the scenario Starlight set up for them. I think it makes sense that even after talking, Celestia and Luna would fall back into their old routine without realizing it, and while Luna would not want to turn into Nightmare Moon again, there would still be a buildup of resentment.

3. Celestia and Luna have no ownership of their problem. They are not only unable to solve the problem, but they're shown as being totally incapable of even recognizing it. I think the comics have overdone the sister conflict with these two, but in those issues, there's always some ownership and recognition of the problem.

The Simple Fix: Let Celestia and Luna see there is a problem. Have them summon Starlight because they know she can do things with Cutie Marks, or since Wesley Glimmer just HAS to play a big part, have her ASK. Let Celestia and Luna see there is an issue, praise Wesley on her idea, and consent to having their cutie marks swapped. Gives Celestia and Luna some ownership of the problem, and allows Starlight to show that she's not a sociopath with no regard for others.

At the surface, it was such a minor issue that it took someone watching from outside, who knew to look out for a problem, to notice it. It doesn't seem strange that they wouldn't notice the problem themselves. If Celestia and Luna acknowledged the problem existed, I don't think they'd need Starlight to switch their cutie marks.

3.5 Not so much a direct fault of this episode, but there was much fanfare from Hasbro before S7 started that there would be more tie-ins between the comics and the show. Well, someone decided we needed not one, not two, but THREE bickering royal sister's stories in a 3 month time-span. And this episode was easily the worst of the three. Is there no other story they can tell about these two other than having them be jerks to each other? After waiting 7 years for these two to get an episode, I wanted something where they solve a problem, rather than one where they ARE the problem. They get defeated by bad guys so often, is it wrong to want a story where, just once, they showcase their strengths?

There were a few things I did like. Daybraker had a great design, and I liked them working that in without having Celestia turn evil. But the negatives far outweighed the positives for me.

Like I mentioned before, I wasn't a fan of the last Friends Forever issue. The first Legends of Magic issue was good in the first half, but it got weaker once the monsters appeared.

And actually, Celestia was the one to solve the problem in the end while Starlight was just cowering. That reminds me, this probably does count as a Celestia POV episode for my bingo card after all. Updated bingo card at the bottom.

So, just watched the episode (for the first time) and pretty much agree with DrForester here...

1. On top of this, it appears even her dreams get to be OP.

2. With Luna banished for 1000 years, you would imagine Celestia would have more knowledge about the night and what's is involved... Given her ignorance, I guess ponies just fended for themselves at night in their nightmares for 1000 years...

3. I'm starting to get annoyed with Twilight's worshiping of the Princesses. It's getting quite creepy. She's a princess herself now, she doesn't need to go so overboard.

About Starlight's dream, it really isn't any different from one of the CMC's dreams. Celestia only had difficulty because she isn't used to helping in dreams and because the nightmare hit close to home.

About Celestia not helping with the night, that's what the comics and much of fanon have gone with, so it wasn't a surprise.

I didn't think Twilight was going too far with her comments. Her reaction to Starlight saying "princess" and "are wrong" in the same sentence (IIRC) fits in the context of her already being upset about the situation.

EDIT:

I concur with the above well-reasoned individuals. This forum needs more people with Rarity avatars.
Who wants to adopt this one?

I'm actually kind of interested in using this art as an avatar at some point, but that won't really help with the total number of users with pony avatars, haha.

Anyway, updated bingo card, adding the following:
* Map episodes get variation.
* Body swap episode, though this is stretching a bit.
* Celestia POV episode.

C'mon, Spike's mother!

 

[DrForester]

Sometimes being blunt is warranted, and it was treated here more as switching around name tags anything. Still, she was fretting a lot about her decision.

Changing nametags doesn't involve ripping something that makes someone special away from them by force.

I compare this to Steven Universe, and how it would be if Jasper was suddenly praised for forcing other Gems to fuse. I think it's terrible that this is a character trait she's now being praised for, rather than being something that's really, really evil.

this probably does count as a Celestia POV episode for my bingo card after all. Updated bingo card at the bottom.

I decided on my Bingo card not to mark this as a Celestia or Luna episode. This wasn't really a Celestia or Luna focus episode, but an episode featuring them as one of the episode's plots. Granted it's probably the only one they'll ever get, but well, it's my card.

http://i.imgur.com/01Q15FE.png

In the end, I would get one square and lose one square no matter which option I pick.

And based on synopsis we have so far, I've got Bingo once the next two episodes air either way.