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[Conkersbadfurday]

Finally got around to the new episodes! Gogo dailymotion.

I enjoyed both of them on the whole, though the first one felt a bit forced somehow. It's strange how Twilight has a ton of problems--misunderstanding social queues still, major anxiety attacks over stupid shit, etc--yet is kind of...boring. For a bit she was one of my favorite characters, but now she's just too much the voice of reason, even when she's being unreasonable.

I did like the scenes with her and Cellestia though. They were kind of stupid and irrational, but in a good way.

The other episode I liked more, even if Trixie was just a huge bitch throughout. I couldn't tell if she was acting like that just to get a rise out of Starlight or what, but it got a hair grating. That being said, it also felt a bit more natural, and I don't want Trixie fully "reformed" by any means. It's nice to see she's still got some of the bitchiness that made her interesting back in season one.

It's also kind of cool to see how Starlight and Twilight react over problems. They lose their shit in very different ways.

I will say, Pinkie Pie was insufferable. She was one of my favorites in seasons one and two, and now i kind of can't stand her. She's gone full-blown annoying.

Standout character through both was Spike. He's the bomb, and he continues to be the bomb, except when he's poorly written Hopefully that's few and far between this season, since man, sometimes the writers really fuck him up.

I didn't like how in Celestia's flashback, she mentioned a
"special group of ponies" and the "Mane 5" were already hanging out together.

This was def my biggest problem with that episode. The idea that Cellestia had specific ponies in mind for Twilight to befriend is honestly creepy as hell.

 

[brian577]

I do wonder though how Spike didn't freak out and seemed to already know about the table vanishing when Starlight went to go talk to him in the kitchen. Writer's slip-up, perhaps?

He was standing at the end of the hallway watching.

 

[UberTag]

I do wonder though how Spike didn't freak out and seemed to already know about the table vanishing when Starlight went to go talk to him in the kitchen. Writer's slip-up, perhaps?

He was standing at the end of the hallway watching.

Spike was just relieved his comics didn't get teleported away. The dragon has his priorities straight.

 

[Rhomega Beta]

I will say, Pinkie Pie was insufferable. She was one of my favorites in seasons one and two, and now i kind of can't stand her. She's gone full-blown annoying.

I agree. I thought she could learn to actually contribute to the puzzles instead of standing around cheering.

 

[SpacePirate Ridley]

I knew about the movie, but I didnt know they were actually going to throw bucks into animation and start shadowing and making it look less like the TV movies.
I need to watch most of season 6 still.

 

[Chained Prometheus]

He was standing at the end of the hallway watching.

Ah, I missed that. My bad then! lol

 

[How About No]

oh hai pones

Edit V Guess I'm not sleeping tonight

 

[Fat4all]

oh hai pones

 

[SigmasonicX]

Huh, more than 50 posts already. I figured this thread would get more attention than the season 6 thread, but I didn't expect this much. I'm making this post without reading everyone else's comments, so if some argument broke out, this won't take that into account.

Celestial Advice
I enjoyed this episode a lot. Nervous Twilight is always great, and I enjoyed the visions and flashbacks. This could perhaps count as a Celestia episode, but that's why on my bingo card, I made sure to specify it should be a Celestia POV episode.

About helping the changelings, you know Twilight, that's probably something you should be doing yourself. Speaking of which, one of the side changelings had an annoying voice.

The dragon vision was great, with Ember and Starlight doing the Predator greeting. It's nice to see confirmation that Twilight has, indeed, set up an information exchange with the dragons. Oh, and Ember appeared, so that's one bingo space.

The Sunburst vision was only lacking a horrifying monster reaching out of the portal. Also, from the way Twilight was acting, she definitely thought through that spell before.

I loved Celestia's flashback. Her delaying sending Twilight to Ponyville for as long as possible does explain things.

Discord was fun here, especially once it was made clear that he was bothering Twilight because he wanted Starlight as his roommate and was bad at getting that across.

Everyone so readily accepting Starlight not wanting to go yet was a bit odd. At least charge her for rent, Twilight.

All Bottled Up
Inconvenient Trixie is now canon! I have to say, self-centered and barely cognizant of problems she's causing works well with her. I laughed at Trixie going, "You look, what's the word... luk-bah-lah," while sticking her tongue out. I also liked her food obsession. Also, LOVE! There it is! Trixie called Starlight the pony she loves! Not going to consider that a bingo space for "LGBT+ acknowledgement", though. I'm glad that Trixie appears to be sticking around as a side character.

It was nice seeing an escape room be showcased. The Mane Six song was decent, but it went on a bit too long for its purpose as an ironic contrast to Starlight and Trixie's situation. I was totally expecting them to come back to the castle arguing about not breaking the record

This was another really enjoyable episode.

EDIT: It looks like the main point of contention with the former is how much everyone's quick acceptance of Starlight staying brought down the episode, and with the latter it's if Trixie was too annoying. I was fine with the former, and actually loved the latter, so I liked both episodes.

EDIT:

 

[DemWalls]

This was def my biggest problem with that episode. The idea that Cellestia had specific ponies in mind for Twilight to befriend is honestly creepy as hell.

And that's great, I'll stick to my headcanon of Celestia secretly being a total bastard for whom Twilight is nothing but a tool. The master plan, as they call it, for her is far from over.

 

[Fat4all]

And that's great, I'll stick to my headcanon of Celestia secretly being a total bastard for whom Twilight is nothing but a tool. The master plan, as they call it, for her is far from over.

fucking dumbledore all over again

 

[DemWalls]

fucking dumbledore all over again

I was thinking of another character, but Dumbledore may be an even better comparison. Always forget the revelations about him in the later books.

 

[SigmasonicX]

Yeah, I suppose the revelation that Celestia was planning for Twilight to befriend those five in particular was a bit much, and I didn't like the implication that they were already all close friends, since I enjoyed how season 1 implied that wasn't the case at all. Still, I take it more as a shorthand that Celestia knew Ponyville generally had friendly ponies and the Main Five were shown as an example, not an exact demonstration of how it went.

Trailer for "A Flurry of Emotions" that once again features sleepless Shining Armor. I like that this series depicts a family where the father is doing a lot of the childcare. Also, per the title, there's a flurry of emotions.

Its writers are new: Whitney Wetta and Sammie Crowley, who both work on The Loud House and other shows. After season 6, it's nice that we're getting more female writers.

 

[PaulloDEC]

I enjoyed both of today's episodes. "Bottled Up" was probably a bit livelier and funnier, but "Celestial Advice" was sweet and interesting too. Got a good few out-loud laughs from both episodes too.

I'm a fan of Lewis and Songco's work in general, so I'm pretty happy with how things are looking so far.

This was def my biggest problem with that episode. The idea that Cellestia had specific ponies in mind for Twilight to befriend is honestly creepy as hell.

Easy enough to just chalk this up as another result of Starswirl's time travelling. "Journal of the Two Sisters" dedicates an entire page to pointing out that he knows what the star on the Tree of Harmony represents (and that he has knowledge of the future in general) but that he isn't telling. Who knows what he let slip later on?

Stained glass windows > medals

Not to mention the fact that they were rocking the most valuable bling in Equestria from the second episode.

Anyway, it's good to finally see Spike showing an actually likable character, although I understand if others don't feel the same. It only took 6 seasons or so.

The writers often seem to disagree about how to write Spike. You get the ones who think of him as bumbling comic relief, the ones who emphasise his youth and naivety, and the ones who play up his competent "Twilight's #1 assistant" traits. I'm very much a fan of the latter.

Wow, it's crazy that I had way more posts in OT2 than all of OT4 combined.

I'm guessing OT2 happened right around the S2-ish fandom boom; the numbers on that one are absolutely massive compared with any of the other threads.

I will say, Pinkie Pie was insufferable. She was one of my favorites in seasons one and two, and now i kind of can't stand her. She's gone full-blown annoying.

Pinkie is a bit of a tricky one. It's often the case that when a writer doesn't have anything in particular for her to do they'll suddenly go "Oh shit, Pinkie hasn't done anything this week! I'd better make her pop up and say "Sparkly Warkly!" or something." The under-five crowd probably eat that shit up, but it doesn't do a lot for me.

When she's the focal point of an episode however, the results are often (IMO) fantastic. Season 5 was absolutely packed with great material for Pinkie; "Lost Treasure of Griffonstone", "Party Pooped", "The One Where Pinkie Pie Knows" and "Hearthbreakers" all served the character really well.

 

[Conkersbadfurday]

And that's great, I'll stick to my headcanon of Celestia secretly being a total bastard for whom Twilight is nothing but a tool. The master plan, as they call it, for her is far from over.

Was just having this conversation with someone. It certainly makes some level of sense, but like someone else pointed out, Season 1 is nice in that it brings EVERYONE together.

The writers often seem to disagree about how to write Spike. You get the ones who think of him as bumbling comic relief, the ones who emphasise his youth and naivety, and the ones who play up his competent "Twilight's #1 assistant" traits. I'm very much a fan of the latter.

True. The latter is the best. I like him when he's being snarky and pointing out how stupid the plot or characters are acting.

Pinkie is a bit of a tricky one. It's often the case that when a writer doesn't have anything in particular for her to do they'll suddenly go "Oh shit, Pinkie hasn't done anything this week! I'd better make her pop up and say "Sparkly Warkly!" or something." The under-five crowd probably eat that shit up, but it doesn't do a lot for me.

When she's the focal point of an episode however, the results are often (IMO) fantastic. Season 5 was absolutely packed with great material for Pinkie; "Lost Treasure of Griffonstone", "Party Pooped", "The One Where Pinkie Pie Knows" and "Hearthbreakers" all served the character really well.

Pinke Pie episodes range from great to exhausting. She's so fucking manic that it can be hard to keep up. I did like the Griffen episode, but not the Yak one. Same with "...Pinke Pie Knows." I'm maybe in the minority here though where I mostly didn't like season 5. I feel like that's where her character really started to grow old.

 

[Trigonometrize.]

Just watched the second episode. I'm loving this laid back approach to the "season openers" as opposed to the usual big bad threat. And this is coming from someone that generally liked the high-stakes stuff. Ironically though, so think the biggest problem with All Bottled Up was I was expecting a bit of a bigger effect of the mad spell than Granny Smith, Bulk Biceps and some lady get red eyes, lol. Eh, small effect for small story I guess.

Twilight taking the girls to an escape room when everyone thought it was a Vacation escape is absolutely hilarious. The song was good fun if a little superfluous.

I love it when MLP deals with what I consider essential friendship problems like communication. It's so much more valuable and easily applicable than say It's About Time's message of "don't stress out too much about the future." Well, actually stressing out just means you are at least acknowledging your problems and are probably working to resolve them, right?

 

[SigmasonicX]

Episode fanart from today's Drawfriend. More in-depth follow up post coming tomorrow as usual.

Celestial Advice
Almost there...
Celestia is laughing
Some future

All Bottled Up
The images in this order sort of tell the story of the episode
The Great and Powerful Tea Cup
Teacups and Disappearing
Starlight RAGE
Trixie + Glimmer

 

[SpaceCadetKeon]

Dammit I liked both episodes. And here I was thinking I was all but done with the show. XD

And lol @ Spike washing all those teacups.

 

[draetenth]

Mixed feelings about the episodes. I did enjoy them, but they felt a little over the top (too many stares directly to the screen, trixie running from the cart and it still manages to find her...).

I thought earlier on that Celestia was going to say went through the whole thing herself with Twilight (though, shouldn't someone who's lived 1000+ years have experience with that?), but what really ruined it for me...

I didn't like how in Celestia's flashback, she mentioned a "special group of ponies" and the "Mane 5" were already hanging out together.

Season 1 gave the impression through episodes like Griffon the Brush Off and Read it and Sleep Look Before You Sleep that the Mane 6 were a group brought together by their new common friend, and that logically some of them had no reason to be friends before because they are different and had to strengthen their friendships among each other as much as with Twilight.

^ was this ^. I did like Twilight's visions though...

I liked how Trixie and Starlight mocked Twilight and friends and their singing only for the singing to cost them a record (and again with them looking directly out the screen).

I liked the reference to the muscle pony working two jobs.

I can't say I'm a fan of Trixie (just indifferent).

The animation is top-notch imo.

 

[SigmasonicX]

EDIT: Related comic

 

[DeadPhoenix]

Episode 2 was a blast, surprisingly in large part due to Trixie. The escape room thing was pretty great too, and really unexpected.

 

[ShinySylvee]

Alright I've got a rewatch under my belt and have let my thoughts sit for a bit so here's my full thoughts on the episodes at the moment:

First up is Celestial Advice. As the name would imply this is definitely the most love Celestia has ever gotten in an episode. She plays a fairly significant role in the overall story and has quite a bit of fleshing out that we haven't seen before. Cynics will likely point out that something like this is long overdue and should have happened several seasons ago but at this point anything is appreciated and the stuff we did get was really good. I found the scenes with Twilight, Spike, and Celestia to be really fun to watch, seeing all the silly scenarios and Spike's reaction to them was great. And Celestia's counseling of Twilight felt very fitting and as said previously added another dimension to her character that she really needed. Her flashbacks worrying about Twilight were definitely the highlight of the episode for me.

This is why it's unfortunate that all of this ends up being largely pointless. All of that consoling and talk leads to them basically pulling a U-Turn at the last second and saying "just kidding none of that is happening." This is pretty disappointing honestly as I really felt that there was a pretty massive topic that could have used a serious answer. That topic being what are their actual plans for Starlight's character? Is she going to get her own element and have the Mane 6 expand to the Mane 7? Is she going to get shipped off to some corner of Equestria where she'll be barely seen from again? There's a lot of things they could end up doing with her so it's just weird that their response is basically "yeah it's a pretty big issue what happens next for her. Ask us again about it later." The writers appear to be just as clueless of what the future holds for Starlight as Twilight is which isn't exactly comforting to know. There's some speculation you can make as to why they still aren't spilling the beans on what is planned for her but the end result is that this episode largely fails at the main thing it on the surface seems to be trying to accomplish.

All of that could have potentially not been THAT bad if the way that they re-established status quo was good. Maybe rather then Starlight strait up coming out that doesn't feel comfortable moving out and doing her own thing Twilight notices that she looks unhappy with the plan of her moving on and has a heart-to-heart conversation where they discuss what Starlight eventually wants to do with her life. She could talk about why she doesn't feel ready to move on yet. Or possibly they put their heads together and figure out that the best thing for Starlight right now is to just stay where she currently is. I get that it's what happened with Celestia and Twilight but it just feels weird that Twilight is trying to plan out Starlight's whole life without even once considering asking Starlight what she wants to do. What we end up getting though is 4 lines of dialog that pretty much negate any progress this episode might have been building towards. I think most people figured that they wouldn't actually be moving Starlight away but the way they got to that was extremely sloppy and rushed. Overall this is an extremely massive issue that I feel might be enough for many people to write the whole episode off.

And honestly that would be a shame because aside from those issues I think the episode is fantastic. The decision to not have an epic 2-parter opener feels unusual given what has been established so far but I think it really paid off here. All too often the major accomplishments and game-changers that happen in the season finales don't get their dues because the show is already off to set the characters on another adventure. The low-key opener here allowed the writers to show the actual effects that they had in the previous episodes and stop to celebrate what was accomplished. It was just really neat seeing Starlight, Trixie, Discord, and Thorax actually getting the fanfare they deserved for what they did, especially since that has rarely happened so far in the show. There were quite a few simple interactions with characters that I found enjoyable to listen to. And Discord does a pretty good job at moving the plot over towards its destination, although it's weird that no one seems to call him out on his crap.

Overall there was a lot to like for me in the episode and your enjoyment is largely going to be dependent I feel on how much anti-climactic bait and switch ending bothers you. If you're willing to overlook the fact that the episode does nothing to advance the overarching story forward despite that appearing to be the main point of it then there's a lot to like here. If not then I think that it will be a massive black eye for your enjoyment of it.




On to All Bottled Up. The episode has more frequent but less devastating issues then Celestial advice although it also has more high points as well. As per usual with the pairing Starlight and Trixie's excellent chemistry carries the episode, which is interesting that 3 different writers/writing pairs have managed to get it so right. (Nick Confalone in No Second Prances, Vogel/Haber in To Where and Back Again, and Lewis/Songco in this episode) It's just a ton of fun watching them play off each other. In this episode the dynamic is that Trixie causes problems due to her acting immature and not taking things seriously while Starlight struggles to cope with this behavior. One of the larger issues with this episode is that Trixie skates closely with being too awful. Her shenanagins are a lot of fun to watch but at times it's taken a bit too far and although everything she does is totally in character for her it can be frustrating seeing her completely oblivious as to how her behavior might negatively impact her best (and at this point possibly only) friend. I was mostly able to stomach it but I could imagine others might not.

As for Starlight she had (yet another) pretty strong performance. What I always really like seeing from her is behavior that reminds me of back when she used to be a villain, and there were a couple moments in this episode that were reminiscent of her old self. The big moment I remember is when she reused her expression that she used to interrupt Twilight's friendship speech back in The Cutie Map. Her temper that had been sometimes shown back when she was a villain hadn't really appeared so far in the show post-refomation and it was cool to see it brought back.

The B plot about the Mane 6 just feels out of place. Don't get me wrong, I did enjoy it a bit and upon re-listening I'm kinda digging the song, but the whole thing kinda feels like episode padding or that Lewis and Songco really liked escape rooms and had to find some way to crowbar them into an episode. The idea might have been for it to be a parallel of Starlight and Trixie and would show how productive communication can help you overcome obstacles (as hinted at by the song being interjected with Starlight and Trixie not working together well) but it REALLY didn't pan out. The concept isn't terrible but I feel like they should have either made the room escape its own episode or tried to incorporate it better into the themes and moral of the main plot.

Aside from that there's a couple other minor nitpicks I had with the episode. Having Starlight's anger manifest into a red storm cloud was really distracting and her literally bottling her anger felt a bit too on the nose. The song's lyrics were really uninspired and there were a couple lines of dialogue (especially the ones that tried to make parallels between the two plots) that I thought were really weak. (This is largely why I initially assumed it was a comparatively strong effort from a weaker writer rather then a strong writer that had a couple of bad lines) Overall the episode has grown on me a bit, although I think I still liked Celestial Advice a bit more.



All in all a pretty strong start to the season. Both episodes had their issues but I found both of them to be pretty funny and very enjoyable to watch. However, going into this season my issue was not whether previously strong writers (Such as Nick Confalone and Lewis+Songco) were going to deliver good episodes. The big question mark was whether the rest of the writers were going to be able to fill the vacancy of Haber and Vogel and maintain a decent level of quality for the rest of the episodes. Season 6 in particular had a major problem where you could for the most part easily guess the quality of an episode by just looking at who wrote it. Pretty much all of MLP's current writing staff is people from season 5+ since McCarthy is working on the movie and Polsky has departed from the show. They need to keep finding strong new writers to keep the show going strong, and they've definitely had some hits and misses.

 

[DemWalls]

The writers often seem to disagree about how to write Spike. You get the ones who think of him as bumbling comic relief, the ones who emphasise his youth and naivety, and the ones who play up his competent "Twilight's #1 assistant" traits. I'm very much a fan of the latter.

I prefer to call the third characterisation "snarky sob", but yeah, obviously I agree.

Was just having this conversation with someone. It certainly makes some level of sense, but like someone else pointed out, Season 1 is nice in that it brings EVERYONE together.

It would make sense if we weren't talking about MLP
Nothing serious about that message. If only the show could take that route.

 

[DrForester]

Sunshine + Lollipops + Rainbows = 2

 

[SigmasonicX]

Sunshine + Lollipops + Rainbows = 2

Jeez, Equestria math is intense.
(also, it's a reference to the song "Sunshine, Lollipops, and Rainbows" for those unaware)

 

[Rhomega Beta]

Sunshine + Lollipops + Rainbows = 2

You know, it might have been easier for Twilight to make friends if the class didn't have an odd number of students.

 

[SigmasonicX]

First follow-up post of the season!

But first, another official Rarity's Boutique short, about Fashion vs. Function. Oddly, it seems to cut a few seconds too early at the end before going to the show logo.

MOVIE STUFF
Might as well dump the two bits of movie fanwork I have saved.
Seapony Twilight (bunch more at the link)
Tempest Shadow

NOTES
From "Celestial Advice", there's a huge continuity error in Celestia's flashback that I didn't notice until I saw someone else post about it: Filly Twilight doesn't have her cutie mark! She got it before she ever started Magic School, if you recall. Perhaps this clear gaff can be excused as Celestia's memory blurring things together, which can then be used to justify the other odd things about the flashback.

Since it was never actually posted in the thread, here's "Best Friends Until the End of Time". This was almost definitely intended to be self-parody, evident right from "queasy-queasy" in the first line, but elements of it just didn't land as well as it should. In concept, the fact that everyone broke into a song just because they solved an escape room should be hilarious, but they let it play out too long for the joke to work. It should have been shorter and/or cut to Starlight and Trixie more often. Still, this is an adorable and catchy song.

Surprisingly, there don't seem to be any half decent remixes yet. I guess it will still take time for everyone to get back in the rhythm. FAKE EDIT: Oh, never mind. Two down below.

SCREENCAPS
Celestial Advice
Rarity Spike (embedded)
New logo (embedded)
Andy Price's OC
Thorax and the new changelings' eyes have irises, if you look closely
Group hug
Spike dancing with Sweetie Belle
Twilight's mirror
Starlight's mirror
Needs "Roundabout" and a "To be continued..."

YouTube captions!
Spike's thoughts
Spike's thoughts 2
Trixie's true form
Changeling's thoughts

All Bottled Up
Jeweler pony from this episode is the sister of the one from "Hearts and Hooves Day"?
Luk-bah-lah (embedded)
Angry Starlight
Mare yells at cloud (embedded)

GIFS
Celestial Advice
Twilight saluting and teleporting
Discord receiving his medal, I didn't notice his ears flapping before
Luna trying to give a medal to Thorax
Pinkie helping Luna
Discord bringing Starlight to Twilight, I didn't notice the Groucho Marx glasses falling on Thorax
Twilight needs to use the lady's room
Doggie Twilight dragging a scroll
Changeling swatter (embedded)
Flurry Heart clock
Satan summoning (embedded)
Plant high five (embedded)
Wing hug
Pinkie's party vacuum

All Bottled Up
Trixie hug
Dash's solution to the locked room, an edit
Fainting Starlight
Inconvenient Trixie (embedded)
Trixie feeding
Bouncing Pinkie
Through the seasons
Infinite ponies (embedded)
Great aim (embedded)
Trixie's LOVE

FANWORKS
Celestial Advice
Twili
Laughing Princess Celestia
Twilight Fantasy
I Didn't Want You to Go

Graduation Getaway
Happy Cely
Under Her Wing
Small Twilight
Bookhorse and Glammyglam

Comic
Novel Fantasies

All Bottled Up
New Obsession
Teacups
Teacup!
All Bottled Up

Crimes Against Nature
Maelstrom of Anger
Trixie's New Pet
She's a Little Trix-pot

Comic
Teacups Equestria

"Best Friends Until the End of Time" remixes!
JTH remix - A bit plain, but decent
うすうすベア/fractilx (UK hardcore style) remix - repetitive and loud at the start, but it gets better about a minute in

 

[Choppasmith]

So late as always! Saw the premiere the other day. Man, I was so shocked that they weren't doing some grand big two parter. When watching the first episode, I kept thinking, "Chrysalis is going to pop up any second, right? Oh! Celestia laughing? It's gotta be Chrysalis!" I kept waiting for a big moment and it never came.

I'm not disappointed or let down or anything. It was a good episode. Just... surprised. I'm just so used to the big epic two parters that it just feels weird NOT having one more than anything else, I'm glad there's no dumbing down or Broken Aesops on anyone here. It feels like a natural progression.

Once I was done reeling from the first episode, I really enjoyed episode two. It's hard to believe a fan favorite one-off like Trixie being promoted to full fledged supporting character. I never cared much for her back then but I LOVE her now. Also loved the idea of taking a common metaphor and making it literal.

This season's off to a good start I'd say.

 

[UberTag]

My current Fave Five pony rankings...

1) Rarity
2) Sweetie Belle
3) Trixie
4) Fluttershy
5) Starlight Glimmer

I'd like to include Diamond Tiara but I can't justify it given that she's been reduced to an afterthought since reforming her antagonist ways in Crusaders of the Lost Mark. Perhaps she can adopt Starlight as an honorary big sister so we can get the two of them to join the CMC, Rarity, Applejack and Rainbow Dash for an episode sometime.

 

[AlexFlame116]

Haven't seen MLP (had to stop in the end of season 3) ever since I left for the special work I had to do for two years (three years now) so when I found out that FiM is still showing new seasons I got curious and went to YouTube to watch a random clip. What did I see?

I saw Discord seething with rage when he found out that Fluttershy was kidnapped by the changelings. Discord. Furious! I couldn't believe it!

Now I'm really intrigued again! But do I want to go back down that hole?

 

[Mighty Chin]

Patton Oswalt had a funny little bit on My Little Pony in one of his Specials Clapping for Talking.

 

[SigmasonicX]

Haven't seen MLP (had to stop in the end of season 3) ever since I left for the special work I had to do for two years (three years now) so when I found out that FiM is still showing new seasons I got curious and went to YouTube to watch a random clip. What did I see?

I saw Discord seething with rage when he found out that Fluttershy was kidnapped by the changelings. Discord. Furious! I couldn't believe it!

Now I'm really intrigued again! But do I want to go back down that hole?

You think that's something, how about Discord getting jealous of Fluttershy's date new friend. Plus, there's Trixie now being a recurring character and all of "Slice of Life", including but not limited to Derpy and Doctor Whooves, and more.

On another note, July comic solicitations!

My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic #56
Christina Rice (w) • Agnes Garbowska (a & mc) • Sara Richard (sc) • Mary Bellamy (ric)

”Wings Over Yakyakistan" part 2 of 2. The dragon invasion of Yakyakistan continues and Spike and Pinkie Pie must find an unusual way to make peace before it's too late!
* Peace in Equestria hangs in the balance!

My Little Pony: Legends of Magic #4
Jeremy Whitley (w) • Brenda Hickey (a & mc) • Heather Breckel (c) • Zachery Sterling (sc) • Trish "Nanook123" Forstner (ric)

The legend of Flash Magnus is revealed as a courageous act is needed to overcome an out-of-control storm that threatens Griffonstone!
* A perilous path for Pegasi!

My Little Pony: The Movie Prequel #2
Ted Anderson (w) • Andy Price (a & mc) • Heather Breckel (c) • Tony Fleecs (sc) • Kaori Matsuo (ric)

As My Little Pony: The Movie nears, discover the new characters that will change the course of Pony history in this series! In this issue, an eccentric group takes to the skies on the search for adventure and treasure!
* Humor and danger abound in this issue!

The main series issue looks good. By the way, link to the full size awesome Ember cover. ... Wait, is Ember wearing a battle thong? Anyway, as a reminder, you can get larger sizes for all the embedded images by changing the "s320" to a larger number.

The Legends of Magic issue is about... Flash Sentry's ancestor? Did somebody want this?

The movie prequel comic seems like it will be about Captain Celaeno and her crew. Will every cover focus solely on the Main Six instead of the actual subject?

And more news.
Movie tie-in brushables include Starlight Glimmer, though I expect she'll just have a cameo at most in the actual movie.

And fanworks.
Pinkie Pie Cheerleader
Brand New Act
Starlight and Trixie

"Best Friends Until the End of Time" Sega Genesis remix
"Celestial Advice" and "All Bottled Up" CENSORED - This is probably one of the best sets of the episodes to apply this to.

Also, as a reminder, the FINAL ISSUE of Friends Forever is releasing tomorrow. It will focus on Celestia and Luna.

 

[Fat4all]

"Celestial Advice" and "All Bottled Up" CENSORED - This is probably one of the best sets of the episodes to apply this to.

AYYYYY

groovy

 

[PaulloDEC]

We got another glimpse at Neo-Canterlot on a random piece of merch today:

It looks pretty. I can't wait to see it on a screen rather than the side of a box of cards.

Haven't seen MLP (had to stop in the end of season 3) ever since I left for the special work I had to do for two years (three years now) so when I found out that FiM is still showing new seasons I got curious and went to YouTube to watch a random clip. What did I see?

I saw Discord seething with rage when he found out that Fluttershy was kidnapped by the changelings. Discord. Furious! I couldn't believe it!

Now I'm really intrigued again! But do I want to go back down that hole?

Of course you do!

 

[ShinySylvee]

Haven't seen MLP (had to stop in the end of season 3) ever since I left for the special work I had to do for two years (three years now) so when I found out that FiM is still showing new seasons I got curious and went to YouTube to watch a random clip. What did I see?

I saw Discord seething with rage when he found out that Fluttershy was kidnapped by the changelings. Discord. Furious! I couldn't believe it!

Now I'm really intrigued again! But do I want to go back down that hole?

Other people have already said it, but if the idea of Discord being angry about Fluttershy's kidnapping is cool to see for you then I would definitely recommend checking the later seasons out. There's been a lot of interesting developments for the main cast of characters over the past 3 seasons. Remember that party that Moondancer was throwing that Twilight didn't go to in the pilot episode? There's an episode dedicated to that and it's one of the best episodes of the show. I'll just say that there's a lot of cool things that happen in seasons 4-6 and if you think you're going to enjoy it you probably are. I can understand not wanting to go down the rabbit hole again in fear of getting back out but if you're worried about quality don't be: I would argue that seasons 4-6 are better then 1-3. Also if you are planning on watching it I would recommend steering clear of this thread until you're caught up. There's a lot of major plot shit we are talking about here that will likely give away some pretty big reveals for what happens in the show. Speaking of which:

I'd like to include Diamond Tiara but I can't justify it given that she's been reduced to an afterthought since reforming her antagonist ways in Crusaders of the Lost Mark. Perhaps she can adopt Starlight as an honorary big sister so we can get the two of them to join the CMC, Rarity, Applejack and Rainbow Dash for an episode sometime.

DT's reformation is my opinion the worst offender of the "Lets reform villains so we can have a happy ending" trend that the show has had. I'll generally defend most of the reformations that have happened over the show's history as either feeling like natural parts of their character arc (In the case of Luna and Starlight) or they've done enough interesting things with them post-reformation that it's still worth it. (IE Discord or Sunset) Diamond Tiara's reformation feels like it exists as a trophy to justify the CMC getting their cutie marks. I would say it's pretty fitting that they earned their marks by turning their number 1 nemesis into a good guy. But as far as DT's character goes it really messed things up. There's no real buildup to her reformation outside of the episode it happens in which makes it look forced. And it really shows that the main purpose of her face turn was to make the CMC look good because they don't seem to have a clue as to what to do with her character now. She's been more or less AWOL since it happened because her main purpose of existing before in context for the narrative of episodes was causing conflict for the CMC and can't she really do that anymore. Her character isn't doomed to failure though, they just have to put in serious effort to re-establish her character as a good guy and give her a reason to appear in episodes. Sunset Shimmer was by most people's account a really mediocre villain and they turned her into one of the most generally liked characters in the series. Diamond Tiara can be a strong character too they just have to actually dedicate an episode or two to show how her new outlook has affected her role in the show rather then just ignoring her because she can't be used for the previous purpose she had. She's right up there with Princess Cadence for characters that I think could REALLY use an episode dedicated to fleshing them out.

 

[Trigonometrize.]

Best Friends Until the End of Time has been stuck in my head all week. Reminds me of the good ol' days of Winter Wrap Up

 

[SigmasonicX]

(Diamond Tiara stuff)

Yeah, I am pretty surprised that they haven't done anything at all with Diamond Tiara since she turned good. Especially since her mother had speaking roles in two season 6 episodes.

Best Friends Until the End of Time has been stuck in my head all week. Reminds me of the good ol' days of Winter Wrap Up

Yeah, on Monday, it was going through my head so often that I felt queasy-queasy.

On another note, we have information about when the first Equestria Girls special will air! In Poland! It's apparently airing there on May 14, and the title translates to "Dance Magic". Presumably no relation to either David Bowie or Kingdom Hearts. According to the ED comments, there was a soundtrack-only song from Friendship Games with that title, sung by the Shadowbolts, so the special is possibly about them. Anyway, if this airs in Poland before the US, it wouldn't be the first time an Equestria Girls thing is shown outside the US first.

Friends Forever #38 - FINAL - Princess Celestia & Princess Luna
It's sad to see this series go, because there's still so much potential in odd pairings to showcase. However, a consistent problem is that for many issues, they went with obvious and/or boring pairings, particularly due to their insistence on almost always including one of the main characters. Still, the issues that worked really worked.

As for this final issue... it was alright. Some bits were amusing, but Celestia and Luna felt neither in character nor any different from each other. It was just two ponies arguing, and nothing about them felt particularly Celestia-ish or Luna-ish. Crystal Ball's potions and the giant animals were also odd plot points. Plus, it's really really text heavy, which seems unusual given that it was written and drawn by Andy Price, who is mainly an artist, so you'd think he'd go for more "show, don't tell" style. This would have been fine for a normal issue, but as an ending, it wasn't satisfying at all. That said, the art was as great as ever.

Silver Quill's review is much more positive. I don't know, maybe I'm just in a weird mood.

Overall, the Friends Forever issues that I recall particularly liking are 2 (Cutie Mark Crusaders and Discord), 3 (Celestia and Spike), 6 (Rainbow Dash and Trixie), 8 (Applejack and Rarity), 12 (Pinkie Pie and Twilight Sparkle), 13 (Rarity and Babs Seed), 20 (Discord and Luna), and 29 (Rarity and Maud Pie). Huh, laying it out like that, the series was definitely running out of steam as it went on.

 

[PaulloDEC]

Best Friends Until the End of Time has been stuck in my head all week. Reminds me of the good ol' days of Winter Wrap Up

Yeah, on Monday, it was going through my head so often that I felt queasy-queasy.

I'm with you both, especially Sigma. Starting to get a headache.

 

[Orin GA]

Why do the writers keep having the mane six/spike bring up starlight's past. It was funny the first time, but now it seems like everyones gotta get theirs in. Wake up editors!.

 

[Slamtastic]

Why do the writers keep having the mane six/spike bring up starlight's past. It was funny the first time, but now it seems like everyones gotta get theirs in. Wake up editors!.

Kids are dumb and have short attention spans, and no one watches cartoons week to week in continuity /networkexec

 

[Ogodei]

Kids are dumb and have short attention spans, and no one watches cartoons week to week in continuity /networkexec

Pretty sure even kids stream their shows as the predominant form of viewing, such that serialization is not the ill it once was with children's shows (leaving aside the fact that comic books do it all the time and that Japan's done it since forever), but cartoon execs will be cartoon execs.

 

[Trigonometrize.]

Why do the writers keep having the mane six/spike bring up starlight's past. It was funny the first time, but now it seems like everyones gotta get theirs in. Wake up editors!.

I think it could be a good opportunity for an episode story idea. Making fun of someone or poking fun at someone for something, even when they appear to be okay with it at first, can get really fucking old really fucking fast. It grates and grates, and in my experience, people are mind-numbingly bad at recognizing when "a joke" is actually upsetting to someone and dropping it.

Maybe Rainbow Dash and Pinkie, the most likely perpetrators, shell out one too many jokes about Starlight being evil still, and through the whole episode she's holding it in, at the end she loses it. I think it could be a pretty potent.

 

[SigmasonicX]

I think it could be a good opportunity for an episode story idea. Making fun of someone or poking fun at someone for something, even when they appear to be okay with it at first, can get really fucking old really fucking fast. It grates and grates, and in my experience, people are mind-numbingly bad at recognizing when "a joke" is actually upsetting to someone and dropping it.

Maybe Rainbow Dash and Pinkie, the most likely perpetrators, shell out one too many jokes about Starlight being evil still, and through the whole episode she's holding it in, at the end she loses it. I think it could be a pretty potent.

That was actually already one of the things Starlight got angry at Trixie for in "All Bottled Up". "Stop bringing up my dark past!" and all that.

 

[DrForester]

Problem with the Celestia and Luna FF issue is that every time the two have been paired up in a comics story it's for a bratty-sister story.

Move on. Let them solve a problem instead of be the problem.

 

[Trigonometrize.]

That was actually already one of the things Starlight got angry at Trixie for in "All Bottled Up". "Stop bringing up my dark past!" and all that.

Well, the bulk of her anger was at Trixie just being incompetent and facetious, and the lesson was about communicating when something is making you upset. Starlight was the most at fault was the tone I got. The story I proposed I think is more about the fault falling on the aggressors rather than Starlight because a lot of time someone being the butt of a joke is rightfully too scared to speak up. Also, it would be a good way to put to rest the referencing she has to endure.

 

[SigmasonicX]

Problem with the Celestia and Luna FF issue is that every time the two have been paired up in a comics story it's for a bratty-sister story.

Move on. Let them solve a problem instead of be the problem.

Even with the comics, we still haven't actually had a story where Celestia and Luna get along and work well together, outside of them being quest givers. Heck, even as obvious as it is, we haven't actually had an official story where Luna has a heart to heart talk with Celestia about the whole Nightmare Moon thing. For the final Friends Forever, they should have ended on a more emotional note, and that would have been a good way to do it.

Well, the bulk of her anger was at Trixie just being incompetent and facetious, and the lesson was about communicating when something is making you upset. Starlight was the most at fault was the tone I got. The story I proposed I think is more about the fault falling on the aggressors rather than Starlight because a lot of time someone being the butt of a joke is rightfully too scared to speak up. Also, it would be a good way to put to rest the referencing she has to endure.

"All Bottled Up" still covers much of the same territory that a story just about Starlight getting upset about frequent references to her past would. She chose not to say anything to Trixie about how much she was upsetting her, until it all burst out. If such an episode went the route of Starlight getting sad about how the others didn't trust her, that would be similar to Rainbow Rocks. And if it went the direction of Starlight trying to get them off the subject, then it would be like "Newbie Dash". It could also go in a similar direction to "What About Discord?".

As for the referencing, I haven't rewatched season 6 yet, but as I recall, most of the time it's brought up by Starlight herself, not someone else. And in season 7, only Trixie brought it up so far, IIRC, and as mentioned, Starlight got angry at her about it.

 

[ShinySylvee]

As for the referencing, I haven't rewatched season 6 yet, but as I recall, most of the time it's brought up by Starlight herself, not someone else. And in season 7, only Trixie brought it up so far, IIRC, and as mentioned, Starlight got angry at her about it.

To my knowledge:

Crystalling: Starlight explains her backstory and Spike completes it, so Spike actually is the one that mentions it directly but Starlight brought it up.

Later on there's the part where she actually comes out to Sunburst. To my knowledge those are the only 2 direct references.

No Second Prances: Starlight mentions it a shitload through the episode (Her fear of other people knowing about it is why she is driven to Trixie in the first place) and to my knowledge no one else does.

Hearth's Warming Tail: Spike brings up her village when Starlight remarks that Snowfall was going overboard with trying to remove Hearth's Warming.

Spice Up Your Life: Spike mentions that Starlight's time traveling is why the cutie map wasn't working.

No Second Prances: Not mentioned directly I believe

To Where and Back Again: There's quite a bit of discussion of her past but pretty much all of it is brought up by Starlight's words or actions.



So it was brought up unprovoked by others a couple times but it wasn't an epidemic or anything, and the majority of them are Starlight bringing it up or someone else mentioning it because it was pertinent to the situation and not to rub it in. Also in my defense for being able to recount this I've rewatched those episodes with 2 other groups of people who were watching it for the first time.

 

[PaulloDEC]

Hell yeah. Coming in August.

 

[Fat4all]

Same team who did the Art of Equestria, ya?

fucking awesome

 

[SigmasonicX]

This movie's going to have so many hair blowing in the wind scenes.
That art is really nice. If the movie looks half that good, it will be quite something. Also, Flutterjack is an unexpected ship to showcase >_>

Also, ED has started showcasing IDW Pony comic sales, but as this thread is largely about, it should be noted that these numbers solely refer to how much comic stores bought based on preorders three months ahead. This does not include digital sales or volume sales, and my understanding is that a large number of these comics are actually sold through school book fairs, so this is far from the full picture. Regardless, the MLP books are on the upper end of IDW's offerings in terms of sales. Basically, there's zero reason to panic.

EDIT: Pinkie Pie Says Goodnight: Red Tape