Well, it's mostly a couple of users that really are admirable in the dedication they put to writing such lengthy posts. Then there are others like me whose posts are little more than drive-bys, due to my English not being very good but especially because I really feel like I have little of worth to say 😅
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My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic Season 7 |OT| Is this still a fad?
- Thread starter SigmasonicX
- Start date
Well, it's mostly a couple of users that really are admirable in the dedication they put to writing such lengthy posts. Then there are others like me whose posts are little more than drive-bys, due to my English not being very good but especially because I really feel like I have little of worth to say 😅
SigmasonicX
Member
Join us and you too shall write essays examining the difference in character between pony Twilight Sparkle and human Twilight Sparkle @_@
ShinySylvee
Member
I think the real takeaway here is that the Twin Peaks OT is populated by nothing but casuals. You're not a true fan unless you write college thesis statements on individual episodes.
In all seriousness a lot of the major posts are a small handful of people going back and forth with each other with others occasionally joining in. I think it's a testament to the show though that we can spend this much time talking about the show and still be having relevant discussion. Hell I could probably talk for hours about a couple of the characters from the show.
For what it's worth there's a trailer for the upcoming theatrical movie releasing today so if you're interested you could check that out, if only to see less then 3 minutes of video cause us to post massive walls of text hyperalayzing what the role of GlimGlam will be in the film.
On my phone so I can't really respond well to others.
Trigonometrize.
Member
I'm honestly more interested in Celestia and Discord's roles in the movie than Starlight. Celestia will most likely be her usual "go do dis for me please," but Discord is more unpredictable. You could probably put de Lancie's name up on the poster with the other stars if he was in the movie.
Conkersbadfurday
Member
So the trailer just dropped, I guess. The Facebook account for MLP shared it at any rate.
Man I do not like the new designs/animation. Granted a change after almost seven years is going to be hard to swallow, but damn. There's something so not right about how everyone looks.
Man I do not like the new designs/animation. Granted a change after almost seven years is going to be hard to swallow, but damn. There's something so not right about how everyone looks.
ShinySylvee
Member
I thought it looked really good, although I'm on my phone so quality is iffy. It's got a lot of visual differences from the show though so I could see being put off by that.
SigmasonicX
Member
Trailer thread.
CGI looks terrible, but I like how everything else looks.
This thread is probably better suited for deep analysis than the trailer thread, BTW.
EDIT: Discussion is fine in both threads.
CGI looks terrible, but I like how everything else looks.
This thread is probably better suited for deep analysis than the trailer thread, BTW.
EDIT: Discussion is fine in both threads.
Chained Prometheus
Member
Oops, my bad!
Here's what I said in that thread...
I wonder if this means the S7 finale is going to heavily feature Starlight again?
I'm hyped for this movie, animation looks sooo good, aside from still-rough CGI parts, which I can live with.
Anyway, thanks GAF for letting me discover all the corners of imagination. I'm 30 years old and don't care. Soon I'm going to finish Samurai Jack re-watch, South Park is still good, then it's all about MLP. It's all about the good stuff in life, no matter the genre or medium.
I just don't like cartoons that are made with only kids in mind. They're made by grownups and should be universal. At least the best ones are.
Also, lol @people who are judging tastes and pop culture choices, never had a sliver of respect for such individuals.
Anyway, thanks GAF for letting me discover all the corners of imagination. I'm 30 years old and don't care. Soon I'm going to finish Samurai Jack re-watch, South Park is still good, then it's all about MLP. It's all about the good stuff in life, no matter the genre or medium.
I just don't like cartoons that are made with only kids in mind. They're made by grownups and should be universal. At least the best ones are.
Also, lol @people who are judging tastes and pop culture choices, never had a sliver of respect for such individuals.
SigmasonicX
Member
Nice to see you join this thread! Are you catching up, or have you not started the show yet?
Anyway, the trailer excitement has taken up too much time for me to look at the new comic. I'll read it tomorrow.
Oh, I might even check out the comic.
I'm catching up actually, literally started the show couple of weeks back. Will put it back on my schedule full time as soon as I finish Samurai Jack!
Trigonometrize.
Member
Fun fact: I googled "My little pony animation" to get reference shots of the show to look at and this image popped up
Thanks, google.
Thanks, google.
So, the trailer!
I found the art to be kind of a bummer. Someone suggested in either this thread or the movie thread that the characters look like those puffy plastic stickers, which I think is bang-on. Way too heavy on the shadowing/highlighting of character edges, which looks to me like an (at least partially) automated process of some kind. I'm struggling a bit with the looser, hand-drawn characters themselves too, but after seven years of the extremely precise TV models I figure an adjustment period was probably due.
Backgrounds are lovely, but they're also a huge departure from the look of the show, which widens the style-gap between them and the very simple, outlined characters. The 3D doesn't bother me much, besides that it adds an extra layer of visual discontinuity.
Oh, and Twilight's new crown sucks.
On the plus side though, Luna finally has a throne! I really liked both of the sidekick comedy moments (Spike puffing up and the little villain guy's delivery of the pie line). Oh, and Party Favor's cameo was neat. Pleased to see Starlight sneaking in there.
So yeah, we'll see. All my dorky, fannish complaining aside, I'm sure it'll be a fun, energetic romp.
I found the art to be kind of a bummer. Someone suggested in either this thread or the movie thread that the characters look like those puffy plastic stickers, which I think is bang-on. Way too heavy on the shadowing/highlighting of character edges, which looks to me like an (at least partially) automated process of some kind. I'm struggling a bit with the looser, hand-drawn characters themselves too, but after seven years of the extremely precise TV models I figure an adjustment period was probably due.
Backgrounds are lovely, but they're also a huge departure from the look of the show, which widens the style-gap between them and the very simple, outlined characters. The 3D doesn't bother me much, besides that it adds an extra layer of visual discontinuity.
Oh, and Twilight's new crown sucks.
On the plus side though, Luna finally has a throne! I really liked both of the sidekick comedy moments (Spike puffing up and the little villain guy's delivery of the pie line). Oh, and Party Favor's cameo was neat. Pleased to see Starlight sneaking in there.
So yeah, we'll see. All my dorky, fannish complaining aside, I'm sure it'll be a fun, energetic romp.
Infinite Justice
Member
Saw the trailer and its looks so weird as some parts look fucking awesome while other parts doesn't.
Michael Pena seems on point so far and the Storm king is showing his wacky side already LOL
Also shoutout to Starlight having a cameo at least.
Michael Pena seems on point so far and the Storm king is showing his wacky side already LOL
Also shoutout to Starlight having a cameo at least.
SigmasonicX
Member
It looks like one of those cheap cartoons used to get YouTube ad revenue by constantly appearing as a recommended video or in a "kids cartoon" playlist, as described in this thread. Since none of them give a fuck, they let their creeper sides slip through constantly.
My Little Pony: The Movie Prequel #1
I'm tickled by the fact that cat houses look like giant versions of actual cat houses.
Well, I guess Strife isn't the secret main villain after all. That's good.
The art is good, and the Storm King, as presented here, is a fun character. I like the justification we have for his decision to have a comic relief second in command. The fact that we don't have any characters we already know means it's hard to really connect to what's happening, but it's a continuous story, so the other issues should help with this.
Silver Quill's review points out that even the Storm King's fourth wall breaking serves to demonstrate his desire for control, by controlling how the narrative presents him, which is pretty clever. This also serves as a through-line for mood shifts.
I like when a villain is shown having a hard time against an antagonist separate from the heroes, since showing them overcome an obstacle can make the hero's encounter with them more interesting: see Jojo's Bizarre Adventure part 4 and on. However, this also has the danger of making the villain look weak, which sort of happened when he got attacked by pirates. We'll have to see how he defeats them.
From your review, I thought Storm King's narration worked well enough, but he definitely doesn't feel like a Celestia level threat. That's probably where the magic gem comes in.
SigmasonicX
Member
First, huge news about Hascon on September 8! The panels include
* A sneak preview of the film.
* Oh, and season 8 premiere preview! Before season 7 even finishes! Wait, what?
That's... pretty baffling. Will the preview just not spoil anything about the season 7 finale?
On another note, Pinkie Pie Says Goodnight: Silence.
And this is cute, the fictional writer of Ponyville Mysteries, Penumbra Quill, interviews with ED. Wait, hold on, what's this?
This day is full of surprises. The actual person being interviewed is Mike Vogel, BTW.
Anyway guys, it's finally time for some
As a starting point, here's ED's analysis. I don't include every picture from it below.
Movie trailer
German trailer
It's weird, I had big problems with the shading when I first watched the trailers, but now I'm... just not noticing it, I guess? Ponies are weird.
One bit of news from the analysis is that the song from the trailer isn't actually one of Sia's like I suspected, but rather "Off to See the World" by Lukas Graham, made to tie into this movie. So that's another celebrity tie in. From the way he worded his tweet, it doesn't look like he watches the show.
Canterlot had a pretty massive redesign. For one thing, it's a lot pinker, though I feel like the image quality is making it just a bit pinker than it actually is. We can also actually see the town, for once. The cynic in me knows that all this is to better tie into a pink Canterlot playset, but this also appears to be to better contrast with the towns the heroes encounter outside of Equestria.
Lots of familiar faces here. As Shiny said over in the trailer thread, this goes a long way in making it feel more like "our" My Little Pony. Or rather Our Little Pony, I suppose. We Are Borg identifies Berry Punch, Lyra, Apple Fritter, Apple Cobbler, Red Delicious and Caramel Apple. More here, linking because the tiny ponies are too small to see when embedded. I recognize Trixie and Minuette.
Trixie! And Starlight as some missed in the trailer thread.
Source
Whiteboard drawings usually don't mean much, but Twilight is pretty clearly presenting something about Celestia and Luna's relationship to the sun and moon. Perhaps this means that will come into play somehow in the story, if the movie feels the need to explain it.
Tree Hugger! Previously, I thought that one tree stood out for being unusually flat, but now I see it is actually meant to be a cutout of a tree. Note the actual really-detailed tree next to it. We also have a Twitter icon and copypasted squirrels.
As DrForester pointed out in the trailer thread, Skystar has feet now. As pointed out on other forums, promotional material has talked about Skystar being out of place under the sea, so perhaps what we're seeing here is actually her true form as a hippogriff!
Also, note how every non-pony character is huge compared to the ponies. They're really emphasizing that these little ponies are actually little; something I feel often doesn't come across well in the show, since we tend to only have other ponies to compare to.
Here we have not just Bulk Biceps but also Octavia, being tossed away by him. You can barely see her cutie mark (full size), but not her bow tie, oddly enough.
People were telling me that the other princesses were in the trailer, but I didn't realize where until I read ED's follow up. You can see them at full size, with Celestia, Luna, and Cadance. As I've said before, I feel like Cadance would have been really easy to exclude from this whole thing, to make the hierarchy a bit easier to understand. I have no clue what role she'll play in the movie, but what I'm hoping for is a part where she's carrying Flurry Heart, enemies attack, and she tosses Flurry Heart to Shining Armor to go fight them. Shiny stands there for a moment, then realizes what happened and rushes off to fight too, handing Flurry to Sunburst or whoever.
Anyway, the throne room has gotten a redesign, notably with Luna finally getting a throne too. I wonder if this will be reflected in season 8.
My Little Pony 64. I really hope this is incomplete.
I figured that some side characters would get lines, but Party Favor of all ponies was a huge surprise. Also, manual reminder that Party Favor is a unicorn.
As the ED article points out, all scenes of Twilight with her crown take place before this, since she doesn't have her crown here. Also, Spike is riding on Fluttershy, unusually enough.
Yeesh, I don't remember this part. Tempest is pretty menacing here, and I guess she can still use magic after all. Glows are coming from her harness, so that's probably how.
Spike's cheek fins are transparent now.
Background seaponies are kind of boring. Also, male seapony in front.
Skystar seems pretty excitable, and that's a cute pose.
Pretty neat shot.
Twilight is holding a spear or staff here, possibly the Storm King's staff.
What the Trojan cake looks like before the pirates burst out of it. This is in Canterlot, so this is almost definitely the final battle.
Photo Finish! It looks like part of the story will involve Twilight still being uncomfortable with her fame and status as a princess.
Sonic Rainboom, with Rainbow's hooves glowing red from the air resistance.
You can see that Celestia and Luna have different entrances at the top.
I hadn't even noticed until ED's article, but these are Pulp Fiction cameos! Of Vincent and Jules.
From the German trailer,
I like this shot. Also, the absence of Twilight points to her likely being captured and needing to be rescued.
You know, I was planning on doing more than just commenting on what ED already posted, but this took longer than expected as is.
* A sneak preview of the film.
* Oh, and season 8 premiere preview! Before season 7 even finishes! Wait, what?
That's... pretty baffling. Will the preview just not spoil anything about the season 7 finale?
On another note, Pinkie Pie Says Goodnight: Silence.
And this is cute, the fictional writer of Ponyville Mysteries, Penumbra Quill, interviews with ED. Wait, hold on, what's this?
Wait, what?!
This day is full of surprises. The actual person being interviewed is Mike Vogel, BTW.
Anyway guys, it's finally time for some
As a starting point, here's ED's analysis. I don't include every picture from it below.
Movie trailer
German trailer
It's weird, I had big problems with the shading when I first watched the trailers, but now I'm... just not noticing it, I guess? Ponies are weird.
One bit of news from the analysis is that the song from the trailer isn't actually one of Sia's like I suspected, but rather "Off to See the World" by Lukas Graham, made to tie into this movie. So that's another celebrity tie in. From the way he worded his tweet, it doesn't look like he watches the show.
Canterlot had a pretty massive redesign. For one thing, it's a lot pinker, though I feel like the image quality is making it just a bit pinker than it actually is. We can also actually see the town, for once. The cynic in me knows that all this is to better tie into a pink Canterlot playset, but this also appears to be to better contrast with the towns the heroes encounter outside of Equestria.
Lots of familiar faces here. As Shiny said over in the trailer thread, this goes a long way in making it feel more like "our" My Little Pony. Or rather Our Little Pony, I suppose. We Are Borg identifies Berry Punch, Lyra, Apple Fritter, Apple Cobbler, Red Delicious and Caramel Apple. More here, linking because the tiny ponies are too small to see when embedded. I recognize Trixie and Minuette.
Trixie! And Starlight as some missed in the trailer thread.
Source
Whiteboard drawings usually don't mean much, but Twilight is pretty clearly presenting something about Celestia and Luna's relationship to the sun and moon. Perhaps this means that will come into play somehow in the story, if the movie feels the need to explain it.
Tree Hugger! Previously, I thought that one tree stood out for being unusually flat, but now I see it is actually meant to be a cutout of a tree. Note the actual really-detailed tree next to it. We also have a Twitter icon and copypasted squirrels.
As DrForester pointed out in the trailer thread, Skystar has feet now. As pointed out on other forums, promotional material has talked about Skystar being out of place under the sea, so perhaps what we're seeing here is actually her true form as a hippogriff!
Also, note how every non-pony character is huge compared to the ponies. They're really emphasizing that these little ponies are actually little; something I feel often doesn't come across well in the show, since we tend to only have other ponies to compare to.
Here we have not just Bulk Biceps but also Octavia, being tossed away by him. You can barely see her cutie mark (full size), but not her bow tie, oddly enough.
People were telling me that the other princesses were in the trailer, but I didn't realize where until I read ED's follow up. You can see them at full size, with Celestia, Luna, and Cadance. As I've said before, I feel like Cadance would have been really easy to exclude from this whole thing, to make the hierarchy a bit easier to understand. I have no clue what role she'll play in the movie, but what I'm hoping for is a part where she's carrying Flurry Heart, enemies attack, and she tosses Flurry Heart to Shining Armor to go fight them. Shiny stands there for a moment, then realizes what happened and rushes off to fight too, handing Flurry to Sunburst or whoever.
Anyway, the throne room has gotten a redesign, notably with Luna finally getting a throne too. I wonder if this will be reflected in season 8.
My Little Pony 64. I really hope this is incomplete.
I figured that some side characters would get lines, but Party Favor of all ponies was a huge surprise. Also, manual reminder that Party Favor is a unicorn.
As the ED article points out, all scenes of Twilight with her crown take place before this, since she doesn't have her crown here. Also, Spike is riding on Fluttershy, unusually enough.
Yeesh, I don't remember this part. Tempest is pretty menacing here, and I guess she can still use magic after all. Glows are coming from her harness, so that's probably how.
Spike's cheek fins are transparent now.
Background seaponies are kind of boring. Also, male seapony in front.
Skystar seems pretty excitable, and that's a cute pose.
Pretty neat shot.
Twilight is holding a spear or staff here, possibly the Storm King's staff.
What the Trojan cake looks like before the pirates burst out of it. This is in Canterlot, so this is almost definitely the final battle.
Photo Finish! It looks like part of the story will involve Twilight still being uncomfortable with her fame and status as a princess.
Sonic Rainboom, with Rainbow's hooves glowing red from the air resistance.
You can see that Celestia and Luna have different entrances at the top.
I hadn't even noticed until ED's article, but these are Pulp Fiction cameos! Of Vincent and Jules.
From the German trailer,
I like this shot. Also, the absence of Twilight points to her likely being captured and needing to be rescued.
You know, I was planning on doing more than just commenting on what ED already posted, but this took longer than expected as is.
DrForester
Kills Photobucket
You know...
They're not going to Transformers 86' the entire cast (though, I still think there's a chance Celestia and Luna get killed).
But I wonder if they are going to end Canterlot. Move the capitol of Equestria to Ponyville.
They're not going to Transformers 86' the entire cast (though, I still think there's a chance Celestia and Luna get killed).
But I wonder if they are going to end Canterlot. Move the capitol of Equestria to Ponyville.
SigmasonicX
Member
The celebration scenes with the sky pirates, Skystar, and Capper are almost certainly the ending, and it looks like they happen in Canterlot, so likely not.
I doubt there will be any lasting changes to the TV series from the movie, other than perhaps design changes that are carried over.
Come to think of it, we haven't seen the CMC yet, have we? It would be really neat if their designs were updated to make them a bit older-looking, and that got carried over into season 8.
SigmasonicX
Member
Yeah, now that I've gotten used to it, it's actually a bit jarring going back to show screenshots. While I doubt they'll switch up FiM's art style at this point, I don't think it's unlikely for a G5 show to switch to this. Disney shows already use ToonBoom, but Hasbro isn't Disney, so I imagine a TV show using it would have to cut some corners and thus wouldn't look nearly as fluid as the movie, though.
It will also be weird if any movie-introduced characters appear in the show. They'll all look so out of place!
Anyway, in case everyone forgot, there's a US premiere today.
In the US
Equestria Girls special - Movie Magic (aired in Poland on May 21)
The Equestria Girls have been specially invited by A.K. Yearling to go on the set of the upcoming Daring Do movie and they are overjoyed. For super-fan Rainbow Dash, watching behind the scenes as her favorite heroine comes to life is a dream come true. But when a rare and important prop from the set goes missing, putting the movie on hold, Rainbow Dash's dream becomes a nightmare.
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 – 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.
10. A Royal Problem - 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!
11. Not Asking for Trouble - Pinkie Pie visits Prince Rutherford and the Yaks. While there an avalanche falls on the entire rustic village of Yakyakistan. Pinkie Pie suggests that she go to get the other ponies to help but the proud Prince and Yaks refuse.
1. Dance Magic - When Rarity finds out about a music video competition, she's eager to convince her friends at Canterlot High to enter the contest. The girls soon learn that Crystal Prep Academy are also interested in participating in the contest. The students at CPA have many more resources and are better dancers! Will they be able to pull together and make a winning music video?
And "Movie Magic" in a bit.
UberTag
Member
Juniper Montage would have gotten away with it, too... if it weren't for those meddling kids and their dog.
SigmasonicX
Member
Movie Magic
Do people in this universe care if the skin color of the actor doesn't match the character? Since it's even harder than in this universe. You know, I bet the arguments about Jesus's skin color are absolutely fantastic in Dougworld.
Dash's super speed seriously sucks. Like I said in my Legend of Everfree review, I swear she was faster before she gained it.
I heard about the Power Ponies (why still ponies?) costumes being forced in, but wow, that's really forced.
Again, Dash's super speed seriously sucks. How is she stuck in that room?
I'm amazed, Scooby Doo is actually better about providing clues without making the culprit obvious.
I wasn't a fan of this episode. Even in some other show about high school teens, this would be mediocre. Juniper is bland and terribly motivated even for a Scooby Doo villain, so the fact that she not only returns, but becomes a huge magical threat, which we know from official synopses, is baffling. Wind Rider from "Rarity Investigates!" being the cause of "The Cutie Re-Mark" would make more sense! At least he'd have a reason to stop the Sonic Rainboom. I can't even say the character interactions were good, because they just came off as really dumb here.
Not only do they have a talking dog, but they're also a rock band, making them just like every Hanna-Barbera ripoff of Scooby Doo. The scenes of Dash chasing Juniper desperately needed a looping background.
Do people in this universe care if the skin color of the actor doesn't match the character? Since it's even harder than in this universe. You know, I bet the arguments about Jesus's skin color are absolutely fantastic in Dougworld.
Dash's super speed seriously sucks. Like I said in my Legend of Everfree review, I swear she was faster before she gained it.
I heard about the Power Ponies (why still ponies?) costumes being forced in, but wow, that's really forced.
Again, Dash's super speed seriously sucks. How is she stuck in that room?
I'm amazed, Scooby Doo is actually better about providing clues without making the culprit obvious.
I wasn't a fan of this episode. Even in some other show about high school teens, this would be mediocre. Juniper is bland and terribly motivated even for a Scooby Doo villain, so the fact that she not only returns, but becomes a huge magical threat, which we know from official synopses, is baffling. Wind Rider from "Rarity Investigates!" being the cause of "The Cutie Re-Mark" would make more sense! At least he'd have a reason to stop the Sonic Rainboom. I can't even say the character interactions were good, because they just came off as really dumb here.
Not only do they have a talking dog, but they're also a rock band, making them just like every Hanna-Barbera ripoff of Scooby Doo. The scenes of Dash chasing Juniper desperately needed a looping background.
ShinySylvee
Member
I don't know why they even had Dash and Twilight wearing their medallion things. None of the other characters apparently decided that they should be wearing them and their powers actually made the plot make less sense with Dash not being able to catch up with a normal person despite having extreme speed. (They tried to pass this off as Juniper knowing the backlot and having an advantage there but why even give Rainbow the speed in the first place if it's not going to really help)
Also if you thought Juniper was bad here, don't worry. She's even worse in Mirror Magic.
Moreso then anything else I feel like Movie Magic is just really boring. I thought the visuals could be cool at times with all of the backstage scenes and movie sets but that's really the only positive I can think of for the episode, other then that there wasn't anything that actively made me hate it.
SigmasonicX
Member
Oh! You know what would have made this episode amazing? While Rainbow is chasing after Juniper, they should have inserted a montage song, with it occasionally cutting to the Rainbooms playing their instruments in front of a groovy background! With looped animation, of course.
They should have gone full Hanna-Barbera, instead of taking half measures.
Wait, holy crap. I would usually wait until the roundup to post something like this, but
This slowed down GIF shows that Twilight is just as fast if not faster than Dash using her speed necklace! Dash really does have the worst power!
I would respond to old posts from when "Movie Magic" aired in Poland, but... I basically covered everything already ¯\_(ツ
_/¯
I talked about an Equestria Girls TV series and Sunset as a side character back then, and there's nothing more to add to actual episode reactions.
So, I suppose I might as well just do the followup now. Then, I can focus on movie art tomorrow.
*looks at Derpibooru art for "Movie Magic*
*half of the first page is labeled suggestive*
Hmm...
(If you want to know, most of it is just screenshots with dirty jokes as captions, particularly Chestnut on the phone and this Twilight shot that looks like Rarity looking at her butt. The rest is legitimate suggestive fan art.)
NOTES
In another thread, someone posted that they expected the cloaked figure to be AK Yearling / Daring Do, who is sabotaging the movie for reasons involving her adventures. First, kind of surprised some people didn't see the Scooby Doo mystery aspect right away. Second, that could have been an interesting misdirection.
I do actually like the outfits everyone wore as extras in the movie. I'm surprised they put in the effort to make them for such a short scene.
In that Twitter thread explaining how "Dance Magic" was actually written before Legend of Everfree, there was the usual creepy question from a fan, this time asking why the Indian dresses the characters wore didn't expose their bellies. I thought that was just random, but now I have context, I guess.
Wait, I just realized. Does this mean that in Dougworld, anyone can play any race? Since the Humane Seven were supposed to blend into that Indian setting.
SCREENSHOTS
Power Ponies pose that happens to have Rarity looking at Twilight's butt
Shot by shot Rainbow tackling Twilight (embedded)
Movie outfits: Rarity and Sunset
Movie outfits: Applejack
Movie outfits: Pinkie and Spike
Movie outfits: Twilight
Movie outfits: Fluttershy
End of episode Dashface
GIFS
Pinkie's magic hair
I could post GIFs of everyone failing to catch Juniper, but nah.
FAN CONTENT
Sunset Shimmer
Sunset Mane-iac by VanillaGhosties
Sunset Shimmer by rvceric - Evokes Shantae.
Juniper Montage
Fearless Juniper - Made a week ago.
Juniper by shaxburt - Made three weeks ago.
Sorry for ruining your movie - Here's some gold. Made a month ago.
Other
Movie Magic by kikirdcz - Made three weeks ago.
Dance Magic
"Dance Magic" x Mario Kart 3DS Wuhu Town remix by KingSpartaX37 - I take back my earlier complaint, now "Dance Magic" is stuck in my head. Well, the part covered in this remix.
Sunset by tyuubatu
A Royal Problem
Sibling Fight
Daybreak
Starlight and Tiny Twilight
Princesses Laughing
Not My Mentor
Life-size Daybreaker plushie
Rock Solid Friendship
Silly Maud, that's clearly not enough string
It's a rock shaped like Lyra Heartstrings!
Other previous episodes
SugarMac Commission by CaptainPudgeMuffin
Horn Bump
Celebrate Father's Day with the Dash Family - This is part of a charity art book where artists were given different holidays, so it isn't actually late.
Speak softly and wear a nice hat
Best Aunt Ever
Pointy Ponies - Not Asking for Trouble
Comics
A Royal Problem - Not so Sweet Dreams
Honest Apple - The Valley Girl and the Goth
EDIT: Added one more "A Royal Problem" fan art.
They should have gone full Hanna-Barbera, instead of taking half measures.
Wait, holy crap. I would usually wait until the roundup to post something like this, but
This slowed down GIF shows that Twilight is just as fast if not faster than Dash using her speed necklace! Dash really does have the worst power!
I would respond to old posts from when "Movie Magic" aired in Poland, but... I basically covered everything already ¯\_(ツ
_/¯I talked about an Equestria Girls TV series and Sunset as a side character back then, and there's nothing more to add to actual episode reactions.
So, I suppose I might as well just do the followup now. Then, I can focus on movie art tomorrow.
*looks at Derpibooru art for "Movie Magic*
*half of the first page is labeled suggestive*
Hmm...
(If you want to know, most of it is just screenshots with dirty jokes as captions, particularly Chestnut on the phone and this Twilight shot that looks like Rarity looking at her butt. The rest is legitimate suggestive fan art.)
NOTES
In another thread, someone posted that they expected the cloaked figure to be AK Yearling / Daring Do, who is sabotaging the movie for reasons involving her adventures. First, kind of surprised some people didn't see the Scooby Doo mystery aspect right away. Second, that could have been an interesting misdirection.
I do actually like the outfits everyone wore as extras in the movie. I'm surprised they put in the effort to make them for such a short scene.
In that Twitter thread explaining how "Dance Magic" was actually written before Legend of Everfree, there was the usual creepy question from a fan, this time asking why the Indian dresses the characters wore didn't expose their bellies. I thought that was just random, but now I have context, I guess.
Wait, I just realized. Does this mean that in Dougworld, anyone can play any race? Since the Humane Seven were supposed to blend into that Indian setting.
SCREENSHOTS
Power Ponies pose that happens to have Rarity looking at Twilight's butt
Shot by shot Rainbow tackling Twilight (embedded)
Movie outfits: Rarity and Sunset
Movie outfits: Applejack
Movie outfits: Pinkie and Spike
Movie outfits: Twilight
Movie outfits: Fluttershy
End of episode Dashface
GIFS
Pinkie's magic hair
I could post GIFs of everyone failing to catch Juniper, but nah.
FAN CONTENT
Sunset Shimmer
Sunset Mane-iac by VanillaGhosties
Sunset Shimmer by rvceric - Evokes Shantae.
Juniper Montage
Fearless Juniper - Made a week ago.
Juniper by shaxburt - Made three weeks ago.
Sorry for ruining your movie - Here's some gold. Made a month ago.
Other
Movie Magic by kikirdcz - Made three weeks ago.
Dance Magic
"Dance Magic" x Mario Kart 3DS Wuhu Town remix by KingSpartaX37 - I take back my earlier complaint, now "Dance Magic" is stuck in my head. Well, the part covered in this remix.
Sunset by tyuubatu
A Royal Problem
Sibling Fight
Daybreak
Starlight and Tiny Twilight
Princesses Laughing
Not My Mentor
Life-size Daybreaker plushie
Rock Solid Friendship
Silly Maud, that's clearly not enough string
It's a rock shaped like Lyra Heartstrings!
Other previous episodes
SugarMac Commission by CaptainPudgeMuffin
Horn Bump
Celebrate Father's Day with the Dash Family - This is part of a charity art book where artists were given different holidays, so it isn't actually late.
Speak softly and wear a nice hat
Best Aunt Ever
Pointy Ponies - Not Asking for Trouble
Comics
A Royal Problem - Not so Sweet Dreams
Honest Apple - The Valley Girl and the Goth
EDIT: Added one more "A Royal Problem" fan art.
ShinySylvee
Member
So some people had issues with my previous picture of the MLP movie poster at my local cinema, calling me a coward for the low quality picture. After watching another movie (Baby Driver, first 2/3rds are great the last 3rd is meh movie is still totally worth seeing) I rectified this. Here's an unzoomed version with best pony thrown in for good measure. What do I win?
Conkersbadfurday
Member
Wow, "Movie Magic" was absolutely abysmal! I called the villain about five or six minutes into the damn episode, but even without that, it was just a boring as hell 22 minutes. I don't think anyone acted interesting the entire time.
"Dance Magic" was a ton of fun too, and everyone was written so well. This was, well, what I expect from Equestria Girls to be honest.
Juniper's (that was the villain's name, right?) end goal was so fucking stupid, too. "Maybe I can be the star if this one quits!" Bitch, can you even act? You're too young for the part, no one knows who you are and movies are sold on star power, and also you're a dumb.
The best part of the episode was her getting kicked off the set. It was like the one believable thing to happen.
"Dance Magic" was a ton of fun too, and everyone was written so well. This was, well, what I expect from Equestria Girls to be honest.
Juniper's (that was the villain's name, right?) end goal was so fucking stupid, too. "Maybe I can be the star if this one quits!" Bitch, can you even act? You're too young for the part, no one knows who you are and movies are sold on star power, and also you're a dumb.
The best part of the episode was her getting kicked off the set. It was like the one believable thing to happen.
SigmasonicX
Member
ShinySylvee
Member
If I weren't lazy I'd edit the picture with the text "I publicly embarrassed myself and all I got was this fan art"
I largely had issues with the love plot of Baby Driver. I found that story to be way less interesting then the driving story that they were going for and didn't have much investment in the girl. Also I felt that the plot got increasingly stupid near the end.
In particular Kevin Spacey's guy going from refusing to give Baby even one tape in exchange for a bunch of money to giving him all of them, a bunch of money, and giving his life for the guy because he had a girlfriend just felt stupid as hell.
Yeah I wound up very disappointed by this episode since the previous one was an extremely strong proof-of-concept for me that showed that the series had potential so having such a boring episode as the follow-up was a major let-down.
I finally watched the english version tonight with a friend and I don't recall the subbed Polish version actively pointing out that Juniper couldn't actually act. In the english version the director dude just strait up says that she can't act and that she's way too young so yeah even in this show's universe her plan makes absolutely no sense.
Also already touched on this before but those set designs that they briefly ran through in the chase scenes looked so cool. Despite being the overall weakest episode I will say that I liked the animation here the most. That first scene with them shooting the movie looks beautiful. Ironically despite Mirror Magic being by far the most anticipated episode of the "trilogy" and the one with the highest stakes I feel like it has by far the weakest visuals of the 3.
SigmasonicX
Member
Hey hey, I think you're underselling the grade A "avatar worthy if it wasn't for the tail fin making the image too tall for you to really parse Rarity at avatar size" quality of that image *arms crossed*
Let's just ignore the fact that it was an image I already had on hand and thus took no effort to get.
I figured that's the issue you had with the last third. Baby Driver spoilers:
It is true that the story became more straightforward and generic toward the end, but I thought it was exceptionally well done. Jon Hamm (Buddy) was a very menacing antagonist, and you could understand why he'd come after Baby in particular. The only particularly odd character moments were Kevin Spacey (Doc) turning friendly, as you mentioned, and Debora going with Baby so willingly. I was willing to accept the former because despite himself, Doc viewed Baby as a son, and when he saw Deborah, he realized that Baby wasn't just seeking to escape, but had a chance at happiness. It's Deborah's actions that I'm less easily willing to accept as realistic. I found her and Baby's interactions earlier in the movie charming, but I didn't think they formed a strong enough bond for her later actions.
==
This probably deserves its own post instead of being included with my movie trailer roundup, since I imagine you guys will have a lot to say about this. An interview with MA Larson snuck under the radar almost two months ago. At 42:30, he talks about his role on the show. I only listened to his answer to that question, so there might be more interesting stuff in there.
* There's an episode coming up with his name on it, but it isn't really his episode. He considers his actual last episode to be "Amending Fences".
* He would have liked to stay on the show, but things have changed too much for him.
* Lauren Faust was an artist who worked on the episode from start to finish. He would just write the script and his role was done, and he would just answer to her. Now, he gets notes back from various people, and things change in his scripts without him being informed. This is just how it works in any other show, but the way it used to work is what drew him to sticking with the show in the first place
* He wrote the first Discord episode and did story editing for season 5, and wasn't involved at all with Discord turning good. He implies he didn't learn about that until he started working on season 5.
* In the original script of "Make New Friends but Keep Discord", that scene where Discord is about to throw Tree Hugger into another dimension was much more dramatic and dark--as in, it was innuendo for killing Tree Hugger, and Fluttershy had to desperately talk him down. He was disappointed that the final version of the episode diminished the threat with a sock puppet.
* MA Larson feels that if there isn't the danger of Discord snapping at any moment and turning evil again, there isn't really a point to the character.
It's disappointing to hear that working conditions on the show have changed such that he's no longer interested in writing for it. I imagine the biggest source of this view is his experience with "Magical Mystery Cure", the final version of which is significantly different from what Larson actually handed in. I don't necessarily agree with his view on Discord, but it is a tough balancing act making his turn to good sincere while still retaining his edge. I don't think making the ending of "Make New Friends but Keep Discord" even darker would have served the episode well--people already think him being forgiven for his actions was a stretch. Plus, the sock puppet was hilarious.
Trigonometrize.
Member
Hearing Larson talk about the show that way is really disheartening. It'd be super cool if they changed the production format back to court him back. He was one of my favorite writers, second only to Amy Keating Rogers. Obviously this is irrational since the show demonstrably doesn't need him.
Trigonometrize.
Member
So Movie Magic... what. The hell. Was that.
First thing that sums up my thoughts on this episode is that scene where Rainbow Dash is chasing down cloaked Juniper. There's nothing exciting or interesting about it. It's literally just flat shots of running down hallways one chasing the other. At least give us something, even if it's unoriginal, like the hallway of inexplicably connected doors gag or RD running into stuff and comically falling down. The characters also point out how the cloaked person seems to know the layout of the building really well and that's how she's getting away SEVERAL times, but can anyone point to something Juniper actually does to demonstrate this? Anything at all? Show don't tell, guys. To top it all off, there was some really bad jazz music playing in the background and it just sounded awful.
Later on there's another scene with RD again chasing down the cloaked person (repetitive, but that's beside the point), and as soon as she gets into a well-lit, open area, all of a sudden she's scared for no reason at all. You're Rainbow Dash, dude! Why the fuck are you scared? There needed to be something that spooked her initially and from that point on it would've been believable to have her on edge. And they do eventually have her run into the totally-super-spooky prop thing in the closet, but at that point, everything in the scene is out of order.
This may sound like nitpicks, but go back and watch the scenes with these criticisms in mind and think about what they could've done better. If your story is going to be some rote Scooby-Doo plot, the scenes that get you through that need to be fun or atmospheric or something. Everything about how these sequences were composed were either flat, wrong, or flat-out wrong.
And that was just. Two. Scenes. Don't even get me started on the bizarre stuff like the candy bar... joke? Subplot? Motivation? I'm so baffled at what the point of that was.
And there were nooooooo characters in this episode, just character models and voices that contribute to the plot. Did anyone have any interesting, unknown qualities come to light? Any vulnerabilities? Any progression? Anything at all?!
And then why are they called the power ponies? They're not ponies, they're humans, so it doesn't work at all, but they decided just to do it anyway. What?????
I might've missed it, but what was so important about these plastic-ass "artifacts"? Just order new ones and get over it!
This might be the worst thing I've seen out of FiM and Equestria Girls. Spike at Your Service made me groan, Slice of Life bored me, but this... this was something else.
First thing that sums up my thoughts on this episode is that scene where Rainbow Dash is chasing down cloaked Juniper. There's nothing exciting or interesting about it. It's literally just flat shots of running down hallways one chasing the other. At least give us something, even if it's unoriginal, like the hallway of inexplicably connected doors gag or RD running into stuff and comically falling down. The characters also point out how the cloaked person seems to know the layout of the building really well and that's how she's getting away SEVERAL times, but can anyone point to something Juniper actually does to demonstrate this? Anything at all? Show don't tell, guys. To top it all off, there was some really bad jazz music playing in the background and it just sounded awful.
Later on there's another scene with RD again chasing down the cloaked person (repetitive, but that's beside the point), and as soon as she gets into a well-lit, open area, all of a sudden she's scared for no reason at all. You're Rainbow Dash, dude! Why the fuck are you scared? There needed to be something that spooked her initially and from that point on it would've been believable to have her on edge. And they do eventually have her run into the totally-super-spooky prop thing in the closet, but at that point, everything in the scene is out of order.
This may sound like nitpicks, but go back and watch the scenes with these criticisms in mind and think about what they could've done better. If your story is going to be some rote Scooby-Doo plot, the scenes that get you through that need to be fun or atmospheric or something. Everything about how these sequences were composed were either flat, wrong, or flat-out wrong.
And that was just. Two. Scenes. Don't even get me started on the bizarre stuff like the candy bar... joke? Subplot? Motivation? I'm so baffled at what the point of that was.
And there were nooooooo characters in this episode, just character models and voices that contribute to the plot. Did anyone have any interesting, unknown qualities come to light? Any vulnerabilities? Any progression? Anything at all?!
And then why are they called the power ponies? They're not ponies, they're humans, so it doesn't work at all, but they decided just to do it anyway. What?????
I might've missed it, but what was so important about these plastic-ass "artifacts"? Just order new ones and get over it!
This might be the worst thing I've seen out of FiM and Equestria Girls. Spike at Your Service made me groan, Slice of Life bored me, but this... this was something else.
SigmasonicX
Member
They really needed to go full Hanna-Barbera, not take half measures. And yeah, I can't think of anything that actually demonstrated her use of set layout knowledge to avoid Rainbow Dash. Like Shiny suggested, all this could have been easier to accept if they didn't have Rainbow bring along her geode!
Yeah, that stuck out to me as particularly odd too.
Yeah, this is another reason why I believe there was some rush in the development of the second two specials. They had the ideas for a theme, but didn't spend the time to properly adapt them.
Hey now, Dash was the idiot and Twilight was the smart one! And Pinkie was silly! That's all the character we need, right? Right?
Dougworld is oddly horse obsessed. The artifact props were personally provided by AK Yearling, so it's implied that they're the real things. That she gave to a movie crew for some reason.
"Movie Magic" is definitely the most baffling episode with everything going wrong, but it didn't elicit any anger at characters. But it really depends on mood which is worse.
Alright, time for the the movie trailer followup. The screenshot and GIF sections have more bits of analysis.
On a related note, the French movie trailer is out and the visuals are the same as the US trailer, except when it shows the guest star names, they instead have the character names. Because again, no guest stars in the dubs. It has the same shading issues as the US trailer, so take that however you wish.
TRAILER THREAD NEWS
Movie is 99 minutes long, official GIF maker, interview with Emily Blunt
German trailer
US and German trailer comparison
NOTES
As a reminder, the special effects are actually hand-drawn by Michael Gagne (The Iron Giant and more), apparently even on ones, meaning that instead of using the same image for multiple frames, every frame is different. You can particularly see this with the tornado GIF below.
SCREENSHOTS
First, cameos.
Vinyl Scratch, or rather her leg
In the background of the fish fight scene, you can see a pig person and porcupine person
On the stage, you can see Rarity, Spike, Coco Pommel, and Sassy Saddles (embedded) - You know, it is remarkable how we can identify these characters so easily at this resolution. Given the presence of main characters, I imagine Twilight is going to fly down to them and we'll get a better look. Plus, it's one thing to include Minuette in the background, but Coco and Sassy have pretty unique designs, so surely they'll be showcased.
Night Glider from Our Town (embedded)
Also, you can see this throughout the trailer, but that shot of Twilight shows that pony hooves are now heart-shaped.
The specific inclusion of Coco and Sassy makes me think. I've mentioned before that Rarity will be among the hardest of the Main Six to properly portray in the movie, so perhaps they will actually reference the fact that she owns multiple stores and emphasize her business side. In the trailer during the final celebration, many have noticed how Capper glances at Rarity, which points to them interacting previously in the movie. My prediction is this: Capper hits on Rarity (causing some strife with Spike) and she turns him down, but they end up bonding as friends over making clothing, since it will turn out he made his vest himself. Capper reveals that his dream was to open his own clothing store. After the events of the movie, Rarity gives him money to open his own store in a cat town.
YouTube captions!
Tempest's true demands for Twilight
It's all Pinkie's fault
Oh, that's what they're celebrating
There's a wrestling match going on in the background
Fan edits
Posted by DrForester in the trailer thread already, which should be a clue about what it involves for those who hadn't seen it
Emily Blunt
Pinkie orders a state of the art special effect
Comparison with the show
And lastly, official image tweeted by the movie Twitter account (Derpibooru)
Twilight would definitely tell that joke.
GIFS
Keep a look out for Michael Gagne's effect art.
Seapony transformation
Sonic Rainboom
Pretty fireworks - I wonder what's with the line between the two.
Tempest Kick - Looking now, her jumping up and her kick are clearly different scenes.
Group hug - TFW you realize you'll never be snuggled by both Rarity and Fluttershy at the same time.
Caked Twilight - I didn't pay much attention to this before, but Rarity's reactions are great. I also like Fluttershy's head following each layer falling.
Songbird's dancers
Falling crazy Pinkie - You can see Rarity flailing "Sonic Rainboom" style in the back.
Fish fight
Storm King hug - Tempest has an angry expression at the very start. I'm guessing this scene is while the other Main Six are coming to Twilight's rescue, and they're reacting to everyone beating up the grunts.
Trixe, but also headbanging mare
Cupcake attack
Tornado - Best place to see the hand drawn effects animation.
Gruesome murder
Bulk Biceps - Note that all but one of the ponies make graceful landings.
Seapony hug - I wonder why Twilight is absent.
Songbird posing - Note that she follows the same "love the camera, hate the camera, love the camera" pattern as Rarity. Also, this is in direct contrast to Sia's actual gimmick, where she shies away from the camera.
Skystar's actor credit pose - Her glowing antenna is neat.
Canterlot attack scene - Looking at it, it's pretty clear that Tempest kicking that gem isn't what blows up the ground, but rather a purple magic blast. Perhaps Storm King is able to absorb Twilight's attack and redirect it.
Party Bird - Seizure warning.
FAN CONTENT
You know, it's weird, ED doesn't seem to be posting movie art in their Drawfriends at all. Unless they're posting it in the spoiler section that also includes "The Perfect Pear" art, but that would be stupid and inconsistent because movie art was mixed in with regular art in the past... yeah, that's probably where it is.
In any case, most of the art is sourced from Derpibooru, which means no fine control over sizing. I'll just list the artist names for most of them, since most titles are just the character name.
Tempest Shadow
No surprise, she's gotten the most new art. Myke Greywolf drew some art, but he said in the trailer thread he was going to post it himself, so I'll hold off on that.
moozua
chikkiarts
MomoMistress
stickaroo
Lunar-White-Wolf
cinnamon-bird
rougechi
LeffenKitty
Praquina
RanhKinh
Plushie by Fire-Topaz - Her Storm King symbol glows in the dark.
And not really fan content, but here's a sketch by Andy Price (Derpibooru).
Songbird Serenade
Kamachann
emberfan11
Rockarboom
Capper
All of these are by Deroko.
Capper
Welp
Not to be caught - I know we see him vestless in the comic, but it's still kind of weird.
Celaeno
shelltoon
IhasJessie-Kat
PassigCamel
orca - Source Pixiv account has NSFW art, so linking to Derpibooru.
Main Six Seaponies
But enough about those new characters, we can't forget about the classics! As seaponies!
Fluttershy Siren
Spikey Formation
Rarity Seapony
I was going to post a bunch of art from Anastaseal, but it turns out her art was actually made months ago and just is being uploaded onto Derpibooru now. This is just for post-trailer art.
Other
He had a wife, you know
Twilight by dressella
Rainbow Dash and a bottle of rum
Previous episodes
You know, I feel like previous episode art just feels more natural at the end.
Wrong Pony - Text says, "Hang on... you're not Fluttershy..."
Snuggling with Fluttershy - You know, I would actually prefer her dance practice outfit as her default one, but that's mostly because her current default is so boring. Plus, having her wear dark colors would be an interesting contrast with what people expect from her pony self. Plus, actual pants.
Equestrian Power Pony Girls
Trigonometrize.
Member
5 seasons and a movie later and they're STILL that far away from kissing? Some friends...
Ears now are holes.
Twilight horn big.
Mouths + noses definitely look better in the show's style, but it's not too bad or anything.
SigmasonicX
Member
Also of note are that Twilight's horn parts her mane instead her hair warping around it and the separation between the different colors in Rainbow's hair is messier. Twilight's a bit taller, but that's due to her becoming an alicorn and is like that in the show too. In the "Lesson Zero" image, I hadn't noticed all the heart shaped trees in the background before. As for kissing, as I pointed out on Saturday, that's for Equestria Girls.
Related, trust no one, not even yourself.
The show Rainbow comes from "May the Best Pet Win".
In the news, the first two books of Ponyville Mysteries have both been released, which seems odd to me.
EDIT: Whoops, I was going to say something about the mouths but forgot to. I actually do prefer the more prominent noses in the new designs. It does a better job emphasizing mouth expressions and objects held in their mouths. This further distances them from actual horses, but they crossed that bridge a long time ago.
ShinySylvee
Member
Man you make it sound so appealing. Too bad I already have an avatar that I already like. (Also it's an image I've already seen before too)
There's a lot there to talk about. (I didn't watch the interview just basing my stuff off what other people said about it) But what I will say is that firstly I remember Nick Confalone complaining about how they were freelancer writers and that DHX wouldn't actually hire them on. I'm legitimately curious as to how MLP's writer turnover rates compare to other shows. Hearing Larson complain about how the show interacts with writers isn't the first time I've heard it. Given how massive of a role writers play in the quality of the show it's disappointing to hear that they aren't treated the best.
Secondly, a lot of his Discord stuff reads to me as him being attached to his creation and being bothered by him not being portrayed the way he envisioned him. Honestly with his original vision of what Discord was supposed to be he should have never been reformed in the first place if he has the chance of going crazy and screwing everyone over. To a degree they do have to water him down a bit if he's going to be kept around willingly by Celestia. A thing to keep in mind is that with a bunch of writers working on a show it's inevitable that someone is going to use a character created by someone else and maybe have them act differently then how they were originally portrayed. Ironically I think that Larson is one of the most guilty of this with his presentation of Trixie in Magic Duel.
@ Movie Magic as I've said before it was too boring for me to get offended by it. Don't get me wrong, the whole thing is extremely poorly made with few redeeming qualities outside of the visuals but aside from Juniper's reveal for why she did what she did nothing really pissed me off. Rewatching it though it's a lot worse then I originally gave it credit for. There's a lot more examples of flat out bad writing then has been pointed out here although I don't feel like combing through and reciting all of them.
Also the villain's name in the Daring Do movie was "Stalwart Stallion." It's not really explained but the whole universe is extremely horse-based for some reason.
@Movie stuff my theory was that the group would run into Capper who they would identify as someone that would be useful for them to have on their team. For some reason he doesn't want to work with the Mane 6. (Take your pick: "I don't want to work with ponies", "the bad guys are too powerful nothing I can do will stop them," "what's in this for me?" ect) Rarity steps in and whips out her pony charm and does a song and dance for Capper, with him joining in with the song partway through. He ends up convinced and joins the team afterward. My reasoning as to why I think this might happen is because I think it's really important that all of the Mane 6 end up playing an important role in the movie and since it appears the primary thing that they're going to be doing is recruiting allies it makes sense for me for all of the characters to help in that regard. In the trailer we can see Rainbow having a swordfight with Captain Celaeno and then her fistbumping Rainbow later. Given his dapper attire it made sense for Rarity to be the one to be paired with him, and given that he's already looking at her in unrelated scenes that looks like they're definitely going to have some relationship. Also Capper does get a song in the movie so I figure him singing it when he's recruited makes sense. But really this is just fanfiction invented by me so it could play out an entirely different way.
Also the featuring of Pommel and Sassy Saddles might point out how they plan on introducing the Mane 6. With there being the massive celebration it makes sense that all of the Mane 6 would be helping out in some way. They could introduce each of the Mane 6 by having Twilight check up on their preparations for the event. Rarity would be working with her store managers to help make the dresses for the event which could set up that angle of her character. Furthermore it's the exact same setup they used to introduce the Mane 6 in the very first episode and it insures that each character gets their own scene to establish themselves for new watchers. It seems like a pretty good way to introduce people to the characters while also being a nice callback to the very first episode for the fans.
SigmasonicX
Member
I'm sure Paullo keeps better track of this, but it seems like MLP is pretty good about keeping writers around. Practically everyone I can think of who is no longer writing only stopped because they moved onto bigger things. Larson is writing his Pennyroyal Academy books, Rogers was poached by Disney, and McCarthy was promoted out of non-movie writing duty.
As for Discord, that's the impression I got too. Discord was originally intended to just be a villain, and a lot of the details that made people want him to become a recurring character wouldn't have been introduced until after the writing stage. His voice acting and the various visual gags with him, for instance. Since Larson was, of course, heavily involved in the writing and not so much the other parts, his mindset regarding the character is focused on his intended portrayal. Plus, let's be clear, his reformation was bizarrely rushed from the start, what with it being the result of a teenage fan whose parents happened to be well known TV writers coming up to the crew during a convention in 2011, within months of "The Return of Harmony" airing (see the citations in MLP Wiki's page for "Keep Calm and Flutter On", though it doesn't cite the convention part I definitely remember reading), and after he wrote the outline, it got fast tracked to a script, I hear within days; that could have definitely left a bad taste in Larson's mouth. There was something going on with season 3, which I suppose can also explain the odd way Trixie was handled by Larson in "Magic Duel", and his bad experience with "Magical Mystery Cure".
Sometimes even more horse themed than Equestria. See Wondercolts instead of Wonderbolts.
It seems like the major new characters will each form some connection with one or more of the Main Six.
Celaeno - Rainbow Dash, after each deciding they're worthy fighters.
Capper - Rarity, from how he looks at her in particular, and Rarity does seem like the one most inclined to interact with a roguish character.
Skystar - Promotional images have shown her with both Twilight and Pinkie. From what we've seen of her, her personality seems like it will be closer to Pinkie's, but I suspect her character's journey will be meant to parallel Twilight's too.
Queen Novo - Hard to say, but likely Twilight.
Tempest - Twilight, because evil counterpart.
Grubber - I suspect he'll be a character that doesn't really interact with the ponies, but will turn good at the end to be on the winning side. But if he does interact with anyone, it's likely Pinkie.
Storm King - Probably just Twilight.
Songbird - I don't think her role will actually be large enough to interact with anyone much.
Left out of that list are Applejack and Fluttershy. I imagine the movie crew will feel it's fine to just have Applejack tie things up, shout countryisms, and kick things. I've said before that they'll have to be more careful about they handle Fluttershy, or else you'll have the audience wondering why they bothered to bring her along. Still, as of yet, I don't see room for her to have a major subplot.
As for using festival preparations to introduce each of the Main Six, from the trailer, the scene with Twilight and Fluttershy being hugged by a bear is probably exactly that for Fluttershy. It even has Tree Hugger, a side character connected to Fluttershy, like the possible Rarity scene.
SigmasonicX
Member
Legends of Magic #4 - Flash Magnus
Going in, I'm still curious what if any connection this guy has with Flash Sentry.
I mentioned this in reaction to the preview pages, but Starlight plopping onto the bed and forcing Sunburst to read to her is adorable. In fact, have two images just for that.
Given what little we are told about it, the tale of Flash Magnus defeating a dragon will almost definitely be Rainbow Dash's story in "Campfire Tales".
In addition to Flash Sentry, it looks like we also have ancestors for Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy, through Nimbus Dash and Bella Breeze (name relates to Zephyr Breeze, who is Fluttershy's brother). That said, we don't see any particular personality traits that connect with present day characters, even from Magnus. EDIT: You know, probably should include a picture of them.
It's interesting that both this and Rockhoof present the protagonists as not being the leader of their respective teams, but rather having to work under an authority figure. In neither case is the leader presented in a negative light, but the hero is able to see something that they aren't able to. If I may use this to analyze what pony society values, it seems like they believe that while authority figures should be respected, the ponies under them still have a lot to offer that they can't, and you shouldn't be afraid of using your own judgment. I feel like this does generally line up with what we've seen from the show.
The myth itself was decent, though we didn't see too much of Flash Magnus's personality other than him wanting to save people. We got a better sense of his captain's character, really, and I thought he was more interesting. The strife between the pegasi and griffons was neat to see, and I liked the idea of the pegasus military having to deal with rogue storms. I was a bit disappointed that there wasn't any particular trick to stopping the storm, with the main conflict being about them not being able to help with the storm while it was still in griffon territory. That said, I did like how the core of the story was using military might to rescue people, rather than vanquishing some foe.
Given what we know about ponies, it's a bit odd that they would more strongly value the story where Flash Magnus defeats a dragon over the one where he saves a village of griffons. Starlight complains that it's unrealistic, but we don't get the details of what she objects to. Perhaps the reason why ponies don't spread this tale as much is precisely because it paints pegasi as being so much better than griffons.
While Starlight felt a bit out of character at the start, I liked her reaction to the story, wishing to know the truth behind why pegasi and griffons started training together, and also Sunburst pointing out how he and Twilight are rubbing off on her. In fact, Silver Quill suggested that what we saw at the start of the issue was Trixie's personality rubbing off on her too. Perhaps she's more impressionable than we thought.
Silver Quill's review points out a lot of details in the art. The scars and damaged armor on the pegasi, the lack of wear on the griffons (showing they're more bark than bite), the color changes near the storm, and of course, the storm design itself. And for once, I looked into the story more deeply than him! Not that that's a good thing...
Overall, the chapter was alright. I found the Starlight/Sunburst interactions more interesting than the main story.
Going in, I'm still curious what if any connection this guy has with Flash Sentry.
I mentioned this in reaction to the preview pages, but Starlight plopping onto the bed and forcing Sunburst to read to her is adorable. In fact, have two images just for that.
Given what little we are told about it, the tale of Flash Magnus defeating a dragon will almost definitely be Rainbow Dash's story in "Campfire Tales".
In addition to Flash Sentry, it looks like we also have ancestors for Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy, through Nimbus Dash and Bella Breeze (name relates to Zephyr Breeze, who is Fluttershy's brother). That said, we don't see any particular personality traits that connect with present day characters, even from Magnus. EDIT: You know, probably should include a picture of them.
It's interesting that both this and Rockhoof present the protagonists as not being the leader of their respective teams, but rather having to work under an authority figure. In neither case is the leader presented in a negative light, but the hero is able to see something that they aren't able to. If I may use this to analyze what pony society values, it seems like they believe that while authority figures should be respected, the ponies under them still have a lot to offer that they can't, and you shouldn't be afraid of using your own judgment. I feel like this does generally line up with what we've seen from the show.
The myth itself was decent, though we didn't see too much of Flash Magnus's personality other than him wanting to save people. We got a better sense of his captain's character, really, and I thought he was more interesting. The strife between the pegasi and griffons was neat to see, and I liked the idea of the pegasus military having to deal with rogue storms. I was a bit disappointed that there wasn't any particular trick to stopping the storm, with the main conflict being about them not being able to help with the storm while it was still in griffon territory. That said, I did like how the core of the story was using military might to rescue people, rather than vanquishing some foe.
Given what we know about ponies, it's a bit odd that they would more strongly value the story where Flash Magnus defeats a dragon over the one where he saves a village of griffons. Starlight complains that it's unrealistic, but we don't get the details of what she objects to. Perhaps the reason why ponies don't spread this tale as much is precisely because it paints pegasi as being so much better than griffons.
While Starlight felt a bit out of character at the start, I liked her reaction to the story, wishing to know the truth behind why pegasi and griffons started training together, and also Sunburst pointing out how he and Twilight are rubbing off on her. In fact, Silver Quill suggested that what we saw at the start of the issue was Trixie's personality rubbing off on her too. Perhaps she's more impressionable than we thought.
Silver Quill's review points out a lot of details in the art. The scars and damaged armor on the pegasi, the lack of wear on the griffons (showing they're more bark than bite), the color changes near the storm, and of course, the storm design itself. And for once, I looked into the story more deeply than him! Not that that's a good thing...
Overall, the chapter was alright. I found the Starlight/Sunburst interactions more interesting than the main story.
ShinySylvee
Member
There's a lot more writers then just the most famous ones though. Corey Powell, Josh Haber, Natasha Levinger, and Scott Sonneborn are all writers that I thought had a lot of potential but only stuck around for a season or two. One thing I will say is that most of the top writers right now feel like they're massive fans of the show which helps insure they'll stick around. Lewis and Songco, Confalone, Berrow, (I swear she's a good writer) and Vogel (Who will be coming back in season 8) are all major fans of the show (Aside from maybe Lewis+Songco I haven't looked up interviews with them) which is why I think they're usually very good at making episodes that fans can enjoy.
At the end of the day I'm glad they reformed Discord since I thought he was a fun character and although it's to a degree a betrayal of his original character idea I'm fine with it. I think you might be going a bit too deep on trying to justify Magic Duel though. I mean it's not like Larson hasn't made mediocre episodes before. I feel like Magic Duel's bigger problems are based on Larson trying to make an episode that pandered too hard and relied on a bunch of contrivances to get all of the big plot points he wanted. (A magic duel where Twilight is actually the underdog, a magical training montage, stakes that actually matter)
I think those connections are pretty accurate. Honestly my biggest fear for the movie is that it'll be another "Man look at how amazing Twilight is she's a princess now isn't she wonderful? also she has some friends too BUT isn't Twilight great?" kind of deal that Season 3-4 were filled with and the show has generally moved away from. McCarthy has a tendency to focus on one main character often at the expense of all of the other ones in her major stories so I'm hoping there's more of a balance here, which I think is more likely given that they have a couple other writers on board as well. To Where and Back Again did a wonderful job at making each of the 4 characters that went on the mission feel like they actually contributed greatly to the success of the mission, and I'm hoping something like that can be achieved in the movie as well. Since the movie is supposed to be introducing the Mane 6 to a bunch of newcomers to the series I feel like making sure all of them get a chance to shine is essential to the story. Honestly though it probably won't matter all that much even if the movie does end up being extremely Twilight-centric. Canterlot Wedding and Rainbow Rocks were both largely focused on one character with substantially less emphasis placed on the others and those turned out very well.
SigmasonicX
Member
I suppose, but I haven't gotten the sense that they are no longer interested in writing for the show, but rather that they weren't given script commissions. Plus, writers have been known to disappear for a season or two before returning. Again, Paullo probably has better insight into this. I believe you when you say that Berrow is a good writer; I was merely pointing out earlier that episodes like "Fluttershy Leans In" aren't unusual for her, judging from summaries of some of her books. I recall some Lewis and Songco interviews from back in season 5, and they were pretty excited about the show. Besides, I imagine they wouldn't have them be in charge of season 7 if they weren't fans.
I've liked reformed Discord, but one comment I saw on the other board shows the problem with him: most of his episodes work well in a vacuum, but when you try to connect them all, it's hard to see consistent character development. Though really, I suppose "Twilight's Kingdom" is the main source of that problem. It was a necessary story for Discord to try out becoming evil again, but they haven't followed up on it well.
I admit, I was stretching on "Magic Duel", but season 3 does have a pattern of episodes showing signs of needing another draft, even from writers we know are good. I do actually like that episode, with its only real shortcomings being that there isn't really a straight line from the ending of "Boast Busters" to the start of this episode--it sort of feels like Larson was using the "Trixie is Twilight's ultimate rival" fanon to fill things in--and that we didn't get enough of the Humble and Apologetic Trixie at the end. Plus, later, we ended up not getting a straight line from the end of that episode to "No Second Prances", but that's irrelevant.
Given that there are seven main characters from the start, plus all the others that join them on their quest, there's no question that the emotional core of the story will lie with Twilight alone, with the others merely playing supporting roles. However, I think McCarthy is well aware that everyone else needs moments to shine. She probably knows about the criticisms regarding her two-parters too, given how "The Cutie Map" was written while she was still story editing for season 5 and every two-parter after season 4 has broken away from the pattern she followed (even though "The Cutie Re-Mark" still focused on Twilight, it's quite different from previous two-parters). Like I've mentioned before, I think Rainbow Dash, Applejack, and Pinkie Pie will be easy enough for an unfamiliar audience to understand without any particular focus on their characters, and the ones they really have to put care into are Rarity, Fluttershy, and Spike (who I've neglected to mention before). Those three have the danger of people asking why they bothered to bring them along if handled improperly; Pinkie has this danger too, but people are more forgiving of wacky comic relief. And those are characters that McCarthy has been good at writing in the past.
Plus, we can tell from the trailers that Twilight gets captured by the villains at some point, so the others have to rescue her, which surprisingly hasn't really happened in the show or EQG up to this point. I imagine this will be used to showcase the others taking charge.
==
On another note, Adam Conover of Adam Ruins Everything was asked to "ruin" bronies, and here's what he said.
That's a pretty nice statement from him. Also amused that some people still care enough to ask random celebrities things like this.
Trigonometrize.
Member
Yeah, I don't know what that person was thinking with that question to Adam. If you're unfamiliar with things he actually talks about on his show, it's mostly objective misconceptions about things in (American) society. "Adam Ruins My Little Pony/Bronies" would be pretty out of place next to "Prison," "Immigration" and "drugs." Even if you were to try and do it on bronies or any fanbase, all it would and could be is cherrypicking examples of people doing stupid things that are probably not representative of anything.
SigmasonicX
Member
Well this is kind of interesting. Hasbro has started an official companion show for MLP, similar to Talking Dead and the like (or Bronies React if you prefer), with two little kids watching an episode and reacting (in a highly scripted way). The first episode is for "Not Asking for Trouble". What's neat is that the hosts are both a little girl and a little boy. I'm definitely not the right audience for this, but this is smart of Hasbro. Weird that they're doing this now, with the hiatus coming up, and for the newest US episode, though. Plus, it looks like it's only going to be six episodes total.
HasCon brand experience for MLP details. At the convention, you can get a ticket with access to events and rooms themed around a particular franchise, and this is what you get for the MLP ticket.
That last group doesn't require the MLP pass.
Official ponifications. What a world we live in.
Speaking of which, despite HasCon, there's still an MLP panel scheduled for San Diege Comic-Con on July 21, 10:30 AM - 11:30 AM PT. There will be a look at the rest of season 7 (betting it's a "preview clip" of "The Perfect Pear"), a sneak peak at the movie, and the usual Q&A.
And lastly, Pinkie Pie Says Goodnight: Excited. Probably the most straightforward one in a while.
HasCon brand experience for MLP details. At the convention, you can get a ticket with access to events and rooms themed around a particular franchise, and this is what you get for the MLP ticket.
That last group doesn't require the MLP pass.
Official ponifications. What a world we live in.
Speaking of which, despite HasCon, there's still an MLP panel scheduled for San Diege Comic-Con on July 21, 10:30 AM - 11:30 AM PT. There will be a look at the rest of season 7 (betting it's a "preview clip" of "The Perfect Pear"), a sneak peak at the movie, and the usual Q&A.
And lastly, Pinkie Pie Says Goodnight: Excited. Probably the most straightforward one in a while.
ShinySylvee
Member
I've never really been a fan of Magic Duel. As I've said before it pretty much took all of the personality that made me a fan of Trixie in the first place away. The Alicorn amulet doesn't make any logical sense and just feels like an excuse to have Trixie be an actual villain rather then just a normal troublemaker as well as coming up with a way for Twilight to be the underdog despite being vastly superior to Trixie at magic. Why is such a powerful artifact just being randomly kept around in some dude's shop? Why hasn't someone that was actually evil taken it and tried to take over the world if it's so easy to acquire? Zecora is a Zebra who presumably doesn't have any magic why is she teaching Twilight about magic? Also Trixie's apology feels dirty and comes right out of left field. She shows absolutely no remorse (or change in personality whatsoever) when she takes the amulet off for the rest of the scene. If the amulet was making her evil why is she still acting horrible once she takes it off? Then she shows up at the end and says that she's really sorry but then immediately tries to guilt trip Twilight into forgiving her which just makes it look that Trixie is just trying to save face rather then attempt to atone for her previous fuckups. Sure a bunch of this is just nitpicking but the whole narrative just disintegrates the second you start thinking logically about it. Also the whole thing just feels like pandering to me and I generally don't like pandering.
Little girls really like their princess stories so yeah I think they'll be playing the fact that Twilight is one up big time, as we've already seen from the trailer. My guess is that Twilight gets captured as part of a plan and then everyone else moves in and fights the army. (In the trailer there's a clip of the pirates busting out of a cake, which might have been part of the plan) Having the story emotionally focus on one primary character can help newcomers to the series be invested as I imagine it would be easier to be invested in one character then a group of 7 or an entire nation. My guess is that the Storm legion (is that their name? Can't remember if they've been given one) is after Twilight since presumably the other princesses will be captured or otherwise taken out of commission and Twilight will be the last one for them to capture to take over Equestria. (Sure a lot of people aren't wild about this prospect but let's be honest you kinda expect it at this point)
That being said although I do imagine Twilight will be the emotional anchor for the story I would hope that the rest of the gang plays a major role in helping her through it and saving the day. One problem that I always feel plagues Fluttershy in these kinds of stories is that her big thing is animals and so the writer has to choose between having to crowbar animals into the story for her to have something to do (Hooffielts and McColts is a great example of how this can go horribly) or just have her not do anything of consequence. Her other major distinguishing trait is her being more accepting then the rest of the cast but coming up with scenarios where this makes sense isn't easy. In the case of Discord it makes sense because he's an asshole that screwed over the Mane 6 hard the last time they met so it's understandable they don't remotely trust him. In Cutie Map Fluttershy's willingness to trust people is shown as more of a flaw but her warm reception of the village is used to their advantage which isn't something that can easily just be inserted into a normal story. Rarity is the most artistically creative member of the group, has an immaculate attention to detail, and also has her pony charm. She has several ways that she could be useful for helping solve problems, although unfortunately aside from EQG1 she almost never does anything of consequence in stories centered around the Mane 6. I think that if the writers put in a decent effort to make Rarity feel useful they won't have problems with achieving that. Honestly I'm more worried about AJ and Fluttershy.
UberTag
Member
Man, it's really hard to argue against any of these points.
Any chance we can retroactively remove Magic Duel from Season 3's list of recommended episodes in our OP guide?
I'm not sure Trixie's redemption arc is even dependent upon it.
Hmmm... so there's a hiatus after Mirror Magic airs this weekend and still no North American airdate window for the two episodes that aired on Boomerang in Australia, eh?
They're just asking for people to be spoiled on The Perfect Pear, aren't they?
SigmasonicX
Member
There are definite flaws with Trixie's portrayal, and I think Larson was intentionally evoking the fanon that Trixie is Twilight's ultimate rival to fill in the gaps. Teaming her up with Starlight was the best thing they could have ever done for her, since that seems to have finally put an end to her Vegeta fan depiction. It's funny, but even Faust fell into that same trap, what with her mentioning that she saw potential in Trixie to become a new Nightmare Moon like figure.
I wasn't bothered by how easy it was to get the Alicorn Amulet, since it isn't an unusual plot point to have powerful artifacts show up in random shops, though they could have handled it better. I thought Zecora was handled well, and she was teaching Twilight more about control and trickery than actual new spells. I accepted Trixie still acting evil without the amulet as her getting caught up in one-upping Twilight; the corruption is what caused her to torment everyone else outside of her match with Twilight, which she didn't really do after that. I agree that Trixie's apology was rushed.
I don't think Twilight is being played up because she's a princess necessarily, but because she's the main character and the leader of the group, and it's easier to emotionally connect her to a "save the world" story. My guess for Twilight being captured is that it wasn't part of a plan, other than perhaps Twilight giving herself up to save the others and her having faith that the others will save her.
I think we have to accept that the movie probably won't showcase what makes everyone interesting, but it will try to make everyone useful. With Rarity, to make her useful without getting too out of character, you do have to lean into what makes her interesting, so she's good to go. For Spike and Applejack, I expect they'll act as the de facto leaders when Twilight is kidnapped, and Applejack will probably kick and tie up a lot of grunts. For Fluttershy, yeah, that probably means talking to animals, and likely a scene where she unexpectedly beats up grunts with bear massaging techniques, since it will be hard to depict the traits that make her interesting in the context of the movie. Actually, I'm amazed we haven't gotten a callback to that scene from "Lesson Zero" yet.
There are still a lot of enjoyable things in that episode, I feel. Trixie's spells are fun, Zecora is useful and interesting, and the way Twilight beats Trixie is quite clever and a good use of her friends.
I plan on starting voting for the season 6 episode guide next week, and I think it makes sense to re-vote on the previous seasons after that. That said, "Magic Duel" was added to the guide well before season 6 started, and there isn't exactly much competition for a slot in season 3.
Yup, no more episodes have been scheduled. That said, the comic has matched up surprisingly well to what episode aired at that time, with the previews for #54 and #55 coming out the weeks that "Fluttershy Leans In" and "Not Asking for Trouble" respectively aired in the US. #56 continues the "Not Asking for Trouble" tie in, but #57 in August ties into "Discordant Harmony" and #58 in September ties into "A Health of Information". That works out only if "Discordant Harmony" airs in early August, which means that's likely the end of the hiatus. Or late August, for those who already watched the next two episodes.
I strongly suspect that they did not plan for the Australian airings, if only because I find it hard to believe they wouldn't want to make a big event out of "The Perfect Pear", especially with William Shatner involved. In fact, they haven't even officially announced that Shatner is in that episode yet, have they? That was likely planned as a big announcement during SDCC, but who knows if they'll still do that and pretend no one has seen the episode yet.
Anyway, on to the start of the hiatus for everyone else!
In the US
Equestria Girls special - Mirror Magic (aired in Poland on May 28)
As the pages in her journal run out, there's only one thing for Sunset Shimmer to do: return to Equestria to get a new journal! There, she meets Starlight Glimmer and agrees to bring her back to experience life at Canterlot High. But while Sunset Shimmer was away, a revenge-seeking Juniper Montage finds a beautiful hand mirror enchanted with Equestrian magic. Not only can it provide a window into another land, but if you push the right button, it can also make things disappear into limbo, trapped between the two realms!
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 – 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.
10. A Royal Problem - 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!
11. Not Asking for Trouble - Pinkie Pie visits Prince Rutherford and the Yaks. While there an avalanche falls on the entire rustic village of Yakyakistan. Pinkie Pie suggests that she go to get the other ponies to help but the proud Prince and Yaks refuse.
1. Dance Magic - When Rarity finds out about a music video competition, she's eager to convince her friends at Canterlot High to enter the contest. The girls soon learn that Crystal Prep Academy are also interested in participating in the contest. The students at CPA have many more resources and are better dancers! Will they be able to pull together and make a winning music video?
2. Movie Magic - The Equestria Girls have been specially invited by A.K. Yearling to go on the set of the upcoming Daring Do movie and they are overjoyed. For super-fan Rainbow Dash, watching behind the scenes as her favorite heroine comes to life is a dream come true. But when a rare and important prop from the set goes missing, putting the movie on hold, Rainbow Dash's dream becomes a nightmare.
And "Mirror Magic" in a bit.