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[Trigonometrize.]

That episode was fantastic. So many funny moments. I laughed out loud at Applejack's final "I could've told her that" comment, and there was another pretty understated yet hilarious joke that I loved. Actually, watching it again, I'm not even sure if it was supposed to be a joke but I thought it was funny. Anyway, when Pinkie is talking with the vet the vet is going through all of these technical terms that might indicate something is amiss with Tank and Rainbow Dash, and then a couple seconds later when Pinkie asks if that's everything the vet's just like "Well there's this" and it's an x-ray of tank with a giant pie in the middle of Tank's stomach. I just thought it was great that the vet was being coy at first but was still playing it straight when she handed Pinkie the obviously incriminating evidence.

 

[DemWalls]

Maybe liquor is a known Christmas drink there while eggnog isn't? I don't know.

Better to just drop it, really. Parsing the meaning of a random episode of Uncle Grandpa is an easier task.

To be fair, the episode was oddly harsh compared to "Slice of Life" and even "Once Upon a Zeppelin". Even if you aren't offended, it isn't strange to wonder if you were meant to be. I hear there's more interesting stuff in that video, but I haven't gotten around to watching it yet.

See, I think that's the point. Due to personal inclinations, perhaps, but I didn't see anything in the episode that I actually considered so harsh that it made me think "Should I be affected by this?"
Clearly there was a fair bit of exaggeration for comedic purposes (probably), but all I saw was a series of more or less friendly jabs at the fandom - my favourite one being the old mare saying that Twilight was better before she got wings - but nothing that I perceived as actively mean spirited.

But you know, I'm certainly not the one to come and tell someone how they should feel. Still, I have to say that such differences in perception fascinate me.

Ahem, anyway, you'd figure the fandom would celebrate canon lesbians. Also i'm pretty sure Slice of Life was making the same implication about Octavia and Vinyl as it was about Lyra and Bonbon.

Lyra and Bonbon, sure. About their relationship, Slice of Life is as blatant as it can get. Can't say I felt the same about Octavia and Vinyl, though, I think they came off as 'simple' roommates there. Maybe I'm underestimating the writers, but if they wanted to implicate anything deeper between those two, I think they would have been a little more... overt.

 

[Chained Prometheus]

Secrets and Pies
Yup, that sure was a lot of innuendo. And that sequence revealing that Rainbow did all this just to see Pinkie happy is pure shipping fuel.

This was a really fun episode. I liked seeing Pinkie be analytical again, even if she needed way more evidence than necessary to figure out what was going on. But then again, I suppose she has just that much faith in her friends. It actually is pretty remarkable how the party planning lair and all that implies were introduced so late in the series, during season 5, yet it's had such a consistent impact on her portrayal.

Crazy Pinkie at the end was good, and it was nice to see it handled in a different way from "Party of One", yet still be funny. Actually, come to think of it, I'm surprised they didn't repeat the Pepe Le Pew gag used in "Griffon the Brush Off" and "Party of One", since both involved her chasing Rainbow.

With Rainbow's pie at the end, it's now confirmed that she is the lethal chef of the group, not Twilight like some assumed before.

I liked that with the lesson being about honesty, Applejack was offended that no one asked her about it.

With Pinkie providing a crazy number of training sessions Rainbow has had with the Wonderbolts, I was kind of hoping for her to reveal something ridiculous like that it's been 20 years since Twilight came to Ponyville, and ponies just age slowly.

If I have one complaint, it's that they revealed that Rainbow wasn't eating the pie way too early. There should have been some ambiguity. Granted, that wouldn't be an easy change to make, with so many gags based around how obvious Rainbow was being about the whole thing.

Overall, definitely a fun episode. And those pies looked good.

Yeah, I never really shipped RD/Pinkie before. This episode sold me on the idea entirely. They're absolutely hilarious together.

 

[ShinySylvee]

When I saw Josh Hamilton's first episode, Parental Glideance, I thought that he had a lot of potential and if he did an episode with a less offputting premise he could make a truly incredible episode. After Secrets and Pies I definitely feel like I was right on the mark. Secrets and Pies is an instant classic, and will definitely go down as not only one of the best episodes of what has been a very strong season, but one of the best of the show's entire run. At the surface it draws immediate comparisons to Party of One with the idea of Pinkie being suspicious of her friends and losing herself over it, but it also brings back memories of Rarity Investigates as well with Pinkie's interrogating near the beginning of the episode. Despite the similarities to the two though the episode stands on its own two feet (four legs?) and does enough to distinguish itself from the two. Pinkamena doesn't reappear here and unlike before her suspicions end up being correct, at least the part where Rainbow is only pretending to eat her pies, not that she's a poorly drawn version of herself that shoots lasers out of her eyes to destroy pies. As for the comparisons to Rarity Investigates the interrogations play out very differently as well. Investigates had real stakes making the investigation matter, and the humor largely came from Rainbow reacting to Rarity's obsession over weird details or Rarity constantly changing outfits and examining how she looked. In Secrets and Pies the humor is derided from just how absurd the whole thing is as well as that the episode for the most part plays it strait-faced, like when Pinkie is interviewing the vet for clues and trying to piece together the meaning of Rainbow's visits there and at the end the vet just pulls out an X-ray with a pie clearly visible.

Similarly to Parental Glideance Hamilton does a great job making sure that individual parts of the story don't drag on for too long. I think it would have been easy for Pinkie to have spent most of the episode constantly jumping to the wrong conclusion to what was actually going on, or for Pinkie to spend a lot more time trying to catch Rainbow throwing the pie away. But both of those sections are kept to a fairly reasonable length and as such neither feel like they drag on for too long or overstay their welcome. The episode feels fairly fully featured despite it's incredibly simple premise and never really feels like it's trying to drag things out to get to the 22 minute mark, something that many other episodes with similarly simple plots have struggled with.

Speaking of which, the episode itself feels very reminiscent of a season 1 episode, and I mean that in the best kind of way. The simple plot and simple moral is a bit of a change of pace from the standard fare that the show has moved on to. And even as someone that has been a general fan of the direction that the show has headed, it's nice that episodes like this still exist as a change of pace. There's 26 episodes in a season not all of them have to push the overall narrative forward or give character development, there's plenty of room for both of them.

That being said if there was one weak point of the episode, it would definitely be the moral. Not only is it extremely simplistic but it doesn't really feel that impactful overall. It definitely feels like it's taking a back seat to most of the jokes and that combined with how obvious it is makes it feel weak, especially since I feel like Parental Glideance did a much better job at having a moral. It didn't ruin the episode for me but it does feel like a very weak aspect of an otherwise fantastic episode.

The jokes in the episode were definitely among the best in the series. It's one of the most consistently funny episodes that the show has had. There were only a handful that didn't land. Hamilton has always been a very funny writer but this was on another level for me. It's a serious contender with Rock Solid Friendship as the best episode of the season for me.

Yeah, I never really shipped RD/Pinkie before. This episode sold me on the idea entirely. They're absolutely hilarious together.

Oh got the shippers are multiplying. Clearly this means that Sigma has been putting some subliminal messages in his posts to magically turn us into shippers. It's only a matter of time before it gets me too.


If I did ever partake in any of that heresy, I would argue that Twilight + Rainbow is a better ship as shown by Testing Testing 1, 2, 3 and Top Bolt. Or I would mention that Rainbow's true love is herself. (Now I want to see a crossover where all the ponies get to meet their human versions)

 

[SigmasonicX]

Look, I hate to tell you guys, but this episode clearly demonstrates that Rainbow doesn't like pies. Ergo, F/F shipping is no longer possible.

(Well, unless you make it so that she can have a romantic attraction to pies but not a sexual one, which does allow for... I think I'm stretching this metaphor too far)

 

[Chained Prometheus]

Look, I hate to tell you guys, but this episode clearly demonstrates that Rainbow doesn't like pies. Ergo, F/F shipping is no longer possible.

(Well, unless you make it so that she can have a romantic attraction to pies but not a sexual one, which does allow for... I think I'm stretching this metaphor too far)

Well no, Rainbow doesn't like pies. The question is still out there as to whether or not she likes "pies" tho- oh god, I can't finish that joke without laughing.

This episode was amazing. I can't wait to see what Josh Hamilton does next season. I do hope he branches out to the other main players in the show next time though. Both of his episodes so far have been Rainbow Dash-focused, which isn't bad as he delivered two of my personal favorite RD-related episodes, but I'd love to see what he could bring to the table if he wrote an episode on say Trixie or Starlight.

 

[draetenth]

Actually surprised that Soarin' didn't appear at all except on Pinkie's bulletin board.

Wasn't Soarin' one of the three wonderbolts PP was questioning?

Also, that PP scene where she was trying not to blink is even creepier as a gif...

 

[ShinySylvee]

This episode was amazing. I can't wait to see what Josh Hamilton does next season. I do hope he branches out to the other main players in the show next time though. Both of his episodes so far have been Rainbow Dash-focused, which isn't bad as he delivered two of my personal favorite RD-related episodes, but I'd love to see what he could bring to the table if he wrote an episode on say Trixie or Starlight.

He did Triple Threat. It was a pretty funny episode but I felt like there was a lot of stupid going around. Starlight was in that one but as more of a supportive role. He's definitely proven himself so far so I wouldn't be surprised if they give him something like Perfect Pear or Royal Problem, and by that I mean an episode that's highly anticipated due to people clamoring it for years. He's shown so far that he's pretty good at characterizing both new and established characters, with the big exception being Spike, so I feel like he would be good at doing most the stuff they throw at him. I doubt he'll end up doing the 2-parters though since Haber and Vogel are going to be back for the next season and Haber has written all of the past 2-parters since Cutie Re-Mark.

Wasn't Soarin' one of the three wonderbolts PP was questioning?

Was going to say this but totally spaced. Also forgot to mention but Vapor Trail and Sky Stinger were in the background of one of the scenes too, which was cool to see.

 

[Chained Prometheus]

He did Triple Threat. It was a pretty funny episode but I felt like there was a lot of stupid going around. Starlight was in that one but as more of a supportive role. He's definitely proven himself so far so I wouldn't be surprised if they give him something like Perfect Pear or Royal Problem, and by that I mean an episode that's highly anticipated due to people clamoring it for years. He's shown so far that he's pretty good at characterizing both new and established characters, with the big exception being Spike, so I feel like he would be good at doing most the stuff they throw at him. I doubt he'll end up doing the 2-parters though since Haber and Vogel are going to be back for the next season and Haber has written all of the past 2-parters since Cutie Re-Mark.

Oh he did? Huh, yeah that was a bit of a disappointing episode overall, but as you said, that's probably due to Spike being one of the few main characters in the show that Hamilton seems to not be able to write well. That said, he did have some great comedy with Starlight and Twilight. Especially that scene where they're arguing with Ember.

 

[Trigonometrize.]

Oh he did? Huh, yeah that was a bit of a disappointing episode overall, but as you said, that's probably due to Spike being one of the few main characters in the show that Hamilton seems to not be able to write well. That said, he did have some great comedy with Starlight and Twilight. Especially that scene where they're arguing with Ember.

Does any writer know how to write Spike well though?

 

[Fat4all]

once there was a spike named Dragon

he was the worst spike anyone ever knew

then you fell off a cliff and landed in sour cream

that was an OK day

the end

 

[Chained Prometheus]

Does any writer know how to write Spike well though?

Good point.

Though admittedly Spike seems to work alright as a side-character in a lot of the more recent episodes when he gets to be sassy, especially if he's working off of Twilight or Starlight. I can't think of any episode focusing on him specifically though that I ever really liked much though.

 

[Trigonometrize.]

Good point.

Though admittedly Spike seems to work alright as a side-character in a lot of the more recent episodes when he gets to be sassy, especially if he's working off of Twilight or Starlight. I can't think of any episode focusing on him specifically though that I ever really liked much though.

I think either Princess Spike or Equestria Games is my favorite Spike episode, neither of which are fantastic or anything.

Does anyone have good Spike fan fiction they can pass my way? Seven years later and there really aren't any good official Spike stories I've seen.

 

[ShinySylvee]

I've sort of talked about it before but the big problem with Spike is that aside from him being a faithful assistant and liking comics there isn't a whole lot of concrete stuff about his personality. Sometimes he's a complete dick to Twilight when she's having issues. (Winter Wrap Up is the first one that comes to mind) Sometimes he's super supportive and nice. He doesn't have a fully defined personality like most of the Mane 6 has, so it usually ends up being what is needed. If they need him to act like an idiot so the episode can have conflict, then he can do that. If they need him to be fairly competent and sensible to have him play the strait man to Twilight's or Starlight's insanity he can do that too. In the case of Triple Threat he needed to be stupid so they could have the plot move forward. If Spike did the sensible thing and just talked it out with them (and to an extent if Twilight or Starlight suggested he do this and had him follow through on it) then the episode wouldn't even exist. The premise itself necessitated Spike being a moron so it's not really anything that I hold against Hamilton.

I think either Princess Spike or Equestria Games is my favorite Spike episode, neither of which are fantastic or anything.

I found it. I found the one person that likes Princess Spike.

In all seriousness Princess Spike gets my vote for the worst episode of the series. Spike essentially gets put into an extremely shitty situation where there is no actual good move and then they try to act like he's the bad guy that needs to learn a lesson. As for good Spike episodes Inspiration Manifestation and Dungeons and Discords are pretty dang good for me.

 

[SigmasonicX]

Similarly to Parental Glideance Hamilton does a great job making sure that individual parts of the story don't drag on for too long. I think it would have been easy for Pinkie to have spent most of the episode constantly jumping to the wrong conclusion to what was actually going on, or for Pinkie to spend a lot more time trying to catch Rainbow throwing the pie away. But both of those sections are kept to a fairly reasonable length and as such neither feel like they drag on for too long or overstay their welcome. The episode feels fairly fully featured despite it's incredibly simple premise and never really feels like it's trying to drag things out to get to the 22 minute mark, something that many other episodes with similarly simple plots have struggled with.

Yeah, that was something that impressed me about the episode. It could have gotten repetitive very easily, but it managed to change things up while still sticking to the central premise and without slowing things down or making Pinkie spend too long trying to open a door.

Speaking of which, the episode itself feels very reminiscent of a season 1 episode, and I mean that in the best kind of way. The simple plot and simple moral is a bit of a change of pace from the standard fare that the show has moved on to. And even as someone that has been a general fan of the direction that the show has headed, it's nice that episodes like this still exist as a change of pace. There's 26 episodes in a season not all of them have to push the overall narrative forward or give character development, there's plenty of room for both of them.

I agree that more straightforward stories like this are good every once in a while.

That being said if there was one weak point of the episode, it would definitely be the moral. Not only is it extremely simplistic but it doesn't really feel that impactful overall. It definitely feels like it's taking a back seat to most of the jokes and that combined with how obvious it is makes it feel weak, especially since I feel like Parental Glideance did a much better job at having a moral. It didn't ruin the episode for me but it does feel like a very weak aspect of an otherwise fantastic episode.

The moral as presented, of just, "lying is bad," was indeed simple, but it's clear that the actual lesson was more lying to keep people happy can hurt those people when it gets revealed. "Leap of Faith" had a similar lesson, but that had Applejack reveal her lie on her own. This focused more on the fallout of the person being lied to discovering on her own.

Oh got the shippers are multiplying. Clearly this means that Sigma has been putting some subliminal messages in his posts to magically turn us into shippers. It's only a matter of time before it gets me too.


If I did ever partake in any of that heresy, I would argue that Twilight + Rainbow is a better ship as shown by Testing Testing 1, 2, 3 and Top Bolt. Or I would mention that Rainbow's true love is herself. (Now I want to see a crossover where all the ponies get to meet their human versions)

TwiDash is pretty alright.

There actually is a blog that's about humanized male Rainbow Dash x Equestria Girls Rainbow Dash. It's weird.

Wasn't Soarin' one of the three wonderbolts PP was questioning?

Also, that PP scene where she was trying not to blink is even creepier as a gif...

Ah, I just did a quick search of Soarin's images on Derpibooru, and there wasn't an image of him during that questioning scene. Regardless, the episode didn't involve his love of pie.

I can't think of any episode focusing on him specifically though that I ever really liked much though.

What about "Gauntlet of Fire"? He was even competent the whole episode in that.

==

Pinkie Pie Says Goodnight: Backup Plan - Silver Quill is making comics for the Canadian airings this time too, but... is there anyone who actually decided not to watch the leaks but will watch the Canadian airing? Anyway, this comic features Pinkie's friend to the north, Cadance, revealing her true nature.

Also

 

[Trigonometrize.]

I found it. I found the one person that likes Princess Spike.

In all seriousness Princess Spike gets my vote for the worst episode of the series. Spike essentially gets put into an extremely shitty situation where there is no actual good move and then they try to act like he's the bad guy that needs to learn a lesson. As for good Spike episodes Inspiration Manifestation and Dungeons and Discords are pretty dang good for me.

The problem is he starts taking advantage of his position rather than just trying to do his best to help along the way. Even if he was in a shitty situation he probably could've gotten himself and the rest of Canterlot out of it had he admitted to Cadence when she confronts him what he'd gotten himself into — the point is that he couldn't because he was being selfish at that point. And the group forgives him fairly quickly anyway, so it's not really that bad.

I found Princess Spike entertaining mostly when Spike was trying to actually help and before he started taking advantage of the situation. Everything he did he tried to do level headed-ly, but it still made everything worse, but in entertaining ways.

The one thing I really didn't like about Princess Spike was Fancy Pants. He's pretty smartly written in Sweet and Elite, but in this episode he's more just like your average rude Canterlotian.

Speaking of least favorite episode, mine is actually also a Spike episode (at least in terms of FiM; I hate Movie Magic more): Spike at Your Motherfucking Service. Every time I watch it I ALMOST want to give it a pass because it has some fairly entertaining slap stick moments like Spike pumping AJ up with a bellow or the part where I think it was Rainbow Dash does the Timberwolf growl, but I just CANNOT get past Spike in that episode. You talk about Spike being morphed into whatever the writers want him to be, and I agree, and SAYS is the biggest offender of them all IMO. A dragon code that Spike has never talked about before and should have no attachment to considering he's spent his entire life in pony society and the one time he stopped by dragon land he pretty much dismissed their culture being the driving force of the episode? Spike being awful at chores despite that literally being his life for no reason other than to make AJ more uncomfortable? That shit wasn't even necessary; all you had to do was make AJ uncomfortable with him doing stuff for her and that would've been enough. Hell, it might even had been better if Spike was a little too competent and was infringing on the work AJ likes to do herself.

Timberwolves looked like ass.

 

[Trigonometrize.]

So today because I was really bored I did one of those character sorters except I edited someone else's code for MLP episodes and movies. I did everything up to Uncommon Bond and Shadow Play cause I haven't watch those yet. This took forever (995 "battles") and was really painful because making tough decision after tough decision really wears on you after a while. Or at least me.

Anyway, so then I imported the results into an excel sheet and then gave #1 163 points, #2 162 points, etc. until little ol' Movie Magic got a big fat zero. Then I divided those totals by season by the number of episodes in each season and voila: a scientifically(?) produced ranking of the seasons of MLP. The results were... about what I'd expect.

Seasons 2 and 4 being in the top 2 was no surprise to me, but 7, damn. Lookin' cool at #3.

1 is surprisingly low for how highly I think I think of season 1, but I guess there were just too many middling episodes.

Here's my top 20 individual:

 

[Rhomega Beta]

Everybody loves Princess Luna

 

[SigmasonicX]

Everybody loves Princess Luna

The endings of these are always the best part. And it ties into what we discussed on Friday!

On another note, when the episodes were leaked, the scripts were too, and we can see that the ending was originally a bit different.

Reddit commentators are saying this was likely a reference to "Cupcakes", and was cut for that reason. Plus, while I don't think we've ever seen Rainbow eat pie in the show, she has definitely eaten cupcakes.

EDIT:

So today because I was really bored I did one of those character sorters except I edited someone else's code for MLP episodes and movies.

Do you have a way to put that program online? Though I could have sworn there was already one of those online somewhere.

 

[Trigonometrize.]

The endings of these are always the best part. And it ties into what we discussed on Friday!

On another note, when the episodes were leaked, the scripts were too, and we can see that the ending was originally a bit different.

Reddit commentators are saying this was likely a reference to "Cupcakes", and was cut for that reason. Plus, while I don't think we've ever seen Rainbow eat pie in the show, she has definitely eaten cupcakes.

EDIT:


Do you have a way to put that program online? Though I could have sworn there was already one of those online somewhere.

I was literally going to the goof off song as I read your post because I knew that somewhere in Pinkie Pride someone fed Rainbow Dash cupcakes. Was about to post the link and everything and then I saw the gif.

Hey, what do you know. There are plenty of these things out there for pony. Still, all the ones I clicked on were unfinished. The 4chan-looking one only goes through season 6 + it doesn't combine two parters which is dumb IMO, and the other one that pops up only goes through season 5. His does look cleaner than what mine looks like right now, so I'm stealing his.

Alright, here's a link to a basic sorter with everything through Shadow Play and all the movies. EDIT and here's a link to the same sorter but with random ordering. Just download that and run it with your browser.

The 4chan one is nice 'cause it has all the images and descriptions, but no season 7, so

 

[ShinySylvee]

There actually is a blog that's about humanized male Rainbow Dash x Equestria Girls Rainbow Dash. It's weird.

That sounds hilarious. Is it actually shipping or them just hanging out?

The problem is he starts taking advantage of his position rather than just trying to do his best to help along the way. Even if he was in a shitty situation he probably could've gotten himself and the rest of Canterlot out of it had he admitted to Cadence when she confronts him what he'd gotten himself into — the point is that he couldn't because he was being selfish at that point. And the group forgives him fairly quickly anyway, so it's not really that bad.

I found Princess Spike entertaining mostly when Spike was trying to actually help and before he started taking advantage of the situation. Everything he did he tried to do level headed-ly, but it still made everything worse, but in entertaining ways.

The one thing I really didn't like about Princess Spike was Fancy Pants. He's pretty smartly written in Sweet and Elite, but in this episode he's more just like your average rude Canterlotian.

Speaking of least favorite episode, mine is actually also a Spike episode (at least in terms of FiM; I hate Movie Magic more): Spike at Your Motherfucking Service. Every time I watch it I ALMOST want to give it a pass because it has some fairly entertaining slap stick moments like Spike pumping AJ up with a bellow or the part where I think it was Rainbow Dash does the Timberwolf growl, but I just CANNOT get past Spike in that episode. You talk about Spike being morphed into whatever the writers want him to be, and I agree, and SAYS is the biggest offender of them all IMO. A dragon code that Spike has never talked about before and should have no attachment to considering he's spent his entire life in pony society and the one time he stopped by dragon land he pretty much dismissed their culture being the driving force of the episode? Spike being awful at chores despite that literally being his life for no reason other than to make AJ more uncomfortable? That shit wasn't even necessary; all you had to do was make AJ uncomfortable with him doing stuff for her and that would've been enough. Hell, it might even had been better if Spike was a little too competent and was infringing on the work AJ likes to do herself.

Timberwolves looked like ass.

There were a lot of fundamental problems with the episode. Mentioned it before but Spike was put into a situation where there was no "good" move. If he just let those people carry out their stuff then they would have likely woken Twilight which was his one big thing he was supposed to prevent happening. And him telling them to put it off ended up backfiring in ways that would have been very difficult to predict. Sure the stuff needed to be taken care of for a reason but it's pretty unfortunate that they all failed in the couple of hours that Twilight was sleeping, and it's hard to really blame Spike for not seeing that coming. Furthermore the only two ways that Spike could have dealt with the problems is either by just saying Twilight said it (because they delegates absolutely refused to listen to anything else) or if he asked one of the other princesses to help out. Realistically that probably would have been the best option for him to do but the episode doesn't even acknowledge this. Hell Cadence was constantly checking up on him and knew what was going on but never offered to help.

And the short montage of Spike using Twilight's title selfishly makes up such a short portion of the episode that it feels like it was just added in there as a flimsy justification for Spike getting his just deserts at the end. The worst part of it though is that the parts where he's acting selfishly and is clearly in the wrong have nothing to do with all of the problems that he caused. All of the problems arose from when he was forced into actually taking charge because Twilight was sleeping and they needed answers. Furthermore Spike acting like an asshole there doesn't really even feel like it's actually part of his character. The only other times that he's acted like that are in other Spike episodes where they need to give him character flaws to base the plot around.


Some brainstorming as to what I would do to fix the episode:

> Same setup of Twilight needing to sleep or be otherwise preoccupied so she can't solve the problems.

> One of the delegates comes up to Spike and asks for Twilight to help solve a problem. Spike says that she's sleeping and won't be up for a while. They ask Spike what he thinks they should do because he's her assistant and knows her well. Spike obliges, giving uninformed advice because he doesn't know much about the issue.

> More people show up and it's the same deal. Spike tries to help out by giving bad advice and he eventually decides that he's going to go around and see if there's anyone else that needs help. He's largely doing this out of a drive to help out Twilight by taking care of a bunch of her duties while she's asleep.

> Things start going south. Eventually Cadence notices what's going on and confronts Spike about it. He explains that he wanted to help out Twilight by taking care of her duties while she was asleep. Cadence says that it's nice of him to care for Twilight that much but he shouldn't be trying to take things on that he doesn't understand. She points out that she was open for the whole day and would have been more then willing to help him out if he had asked.

> The two work together to fix all of the problems that Spike caused earlier as Cadence teaches him more about doing that kind of stuff. When they explain the situation to the people that spike previously tried to help out they're largely understanding and help him fix all of the stuff too.

> Twilight eventually gets back and the event goes off largely without a hitch. Cadence says that Spike has something he wants to say. Spike explains that he learned that you don't need to do everything by yourself and that if you look around you can find all sorts of people that will help you out.


I always kinda liked Spike at your service. Sure there's a shitload of stuff wrong with it but a lot of the jokes were kinda funny for me.


Speaking of episode ratings there was one done by Reddit almost a year ago. They do one for each season about a month after the season is finished airing. They'll be doing the season 7 one within a month or two but I thought I'd post the previous year's one again since it's kinda related for those that haven't seen it already. link

Here's my top 20 individual:

Well, that's certainly a list. I don't think I've ever seen someone rank Crystal Empire and MMC so high and Return of Harmony so low.


Since I had way too much time I took the thing as well. It's really hard ranking a lot of the episodes that didn't leave much of a lasting impression. Also after the first 100 or so selections decision fatigue REALLY starts to set in. At any rate mine is here.

 

[SigmasonicX]

That sounds hilarious. Is it actually shipping or them just hanging out?

Here you go. It does ship them, and since the humanized male Rainbow Dash is named Rainbow Blitz, the blog and ship is called Dash Blitz. The artist sometimes posts episode-related art on the blog, which is how I came across it. Doesn't look like it's updating too frequently, but it did update about a week ago.

On another note, the current official singer for Luna, Aloma Steele, actually teamed up with brony music producer Jyc Row for a song, "Onward". It always surprises me how the show crew collaborates with the fans sometimes.

As for Trig's program, I might get around to that later this week. EDIT: Oh, Trig, it might be a good idea to post it on the Discord channel.

 

[Trigonometrize.]

Speaking of episode ratings there was one done by Reddit almost a year ago. They do one for each season about a month after the season is finished airing. They'll be doing the season 7 one within a month or two but I thought I'd post the previous year's one again since it's kinda related for those that haven't seen it already. link



Well, that's certainly a list. I don't think I've ever seen someone rank Crystal Empire and MMC so high and Return of Harmony so low.


Since I had way too much time I took the thing as well. It's really hard ranking a lot of the episodes that didn't leave much of a lasting impression. Also after the first 100 or so selections decision fatigue REALLY starts to set in. At any rate mine is here.

Time for some HOT 🦄 HORSE 🦄 TAKES 🦄

Oh yeah, now I remember that reddit analysis being posted here. I think it's a little silly that it rates the writers in the way that it does though — I don't like Crystal Empire for the writing, for example. And speaking of, let me explain: I think TCE is the peak of the direction the series was once going in of having really well put together scenes of an adventure. This whole sequence for instance does a really cool job of establishing the threat that they're going to be facing. The weird noises they're hearing, the way Sombra pops out of nowhere as soon as Shining Armor realizes they're in danger, the cinematography of going from a really wide shot of Shining Armor facing the giant storm cloud to a POV of it converging on him and a quick cut to the team running away — there's so much in little moments like that in Crystal Empire that make it an engaging adventure. Is there anything besides the movie that has a better grasp of building tension and giving everything an oomph?

I also always liked the look of the Crystal Empire, but then as the episode progresses you can see the shield protecting it wither away more and more.

The mane 6 were really entertaining as well, all doing their best to keep the crystal ponies occupied as long as possible. I particularly enjoyed Rarity making hats from nothing. And spy Pinkie going undercover as Fluttershy and then Fluttershy stepping on her costume and not knowing what to make of it was also all great.

I always thought it was really contrived how specific Celestia is about Twilight's "test." You gotta do this alone or else. Literally what. But it made for some cool songs. The final couple shots during the song reprise is some of the prettiest images from the show IMO.

My explanation for MMC is just look at my top 9. Four out of those nine are the musical episodes. That tells you a lot about what I want.

MMC would be #1 if it dropped the tacked on Twilicorn stuff. A musical episode about everyone's cutie marks getting switched and Twilight getting all sad but writing a spell to make everything better? What a fun idea for an episode. And it was a fun episode, but it got weighed down a lot by the confusing modus operandi of the spell and virtually no explanation of what it means to become an alicorn beforehand.

My idea to fix MMC was always just to strip the third act out and elongate the middle part. Actually elucidate on how things went to shit for Ponyville instead of having a very suspend-your-disbelief timeline of things. Only problem is Celestia's Ballad is a big part of why the episode is great too, so I don't know how you incorporate that back in if you had to. I would probably just save that for Episode 14 that is solely about Twilight becoming a princess.

If I could be allowed a turn to pick on your list, why is Cutie Re-mark so high? I feel that episode while kind of entertaining, totally botched Starlight's redemption. I don't know if I've elucidated on this in the GAF community, but I always thought it was strange how it's this big, long two-parter going back and forth between the disaster futures and interactions with Starlight, but they shove the entire redemption arc into the last five minutes. You had all those little moments to give Twilight and Spike hints on how to reform Starlight and then while in the hypothetical futures they could discuss it and come up with a plan, but no, it just all happens at the very end with her Sunburst story.

Which, by the way, was also weird, because that story implies she really did have legitimate motivation to do her equal cutie mark thing, but in Cutie Map it seems pretty clear she was just doing it for the control. Which is it?

Here's my full list. I figured no one would be interested in all 164, but here it is anyway.

And I agree with you a lot of Princess Spike. I don't think it's great or anything, just best of the worst. Like seriously, what's a better Spike episode?

 

[ShinySylvee]

Here you go. It does ship them, and since the humanized male Rainbow Dash is named Rainbow Blitz, the blog and ship is called Dash Blitz. The artist sometimes posts episode-related art on the blog, which is how I came across it. Doesn't look like it's updating too frequently, but it did update about a week ago.

Ok yeah you're right, that is weird. I thought it would be pony+human but it's human+human and both of them look very similar and a lot of it's just fanfiction.


I finally managed to manually find the averages of the seasons (after figuring out I had like 7 episodes in the wrong season) and I ended up with this (The numbers aren't inverted like Trig so keep in mind that lower is better):

Movies/Specials 58.38 (Expected since they have way more effort put into them and I generally like the EQG series)
Season 5: 72.29
Season 7: 76.64
Season 6: 79.63
Season 2: 86.33
Season 4: 87.67
Season 1: 96.64
Season 3: 103.33


Overall not too surprising for me. There were a couple problems with the survey though. Up until the VERY end the survey largely asks questions regarding episodes that aired roughly the same time so for the most part you're mainly comparing episodes with ones from the same season or the one before or after it. As such the results bunch seasons together really hard in the middle. A lot of seasons have long stretches of like 20 episodes without being listed and then have 5 or 6 right next to each other. Some episodes I was only asked about an extremely small amount of times, like BATS which I think only popped up 3 times total. Also there was one point where I mistook Honest Apple for Where the Apple Lies and put it below 3 episodes that I thought it was better then and it ended up probably like 30 positions below where it would have if I didn't do that.

EDIT: Will respond to Trig's post in a bit

 

[Trigonometrize.]

Ok yeah you're right, that is weird. I thought it would be pony+human but it's human+human and both of them look very similar and a lot of it's just fanfiction.


I finally managed to manually find the averages of the seasons (after figuring out I had like 7 episodes in the wrong season) and I ended up with this (The numbers aren't inverted like Trig so keep in mind that lower is better):

Movies/Specials 58.38 (Expected since they have way more effort put into them and I generally like the EQG series)
Season 5: 72.29
Season 7: 76.64
Season 6: 79.63
Season 2: 86.33
Season 4: 87.67
Season 1: 96.64
Season 3: 103.33


Overall not too surprising for me. There were a couple problems with the survey though. Up until the VERY end the survey largely asks questions regarding episodes that aired roughly the same time so for the most part you're mainly comparing episodes with ones from the same season or the one before or after it. As such the results bunch seasons together really hard in the middle. A lot of seasons have long stretches of like 20 episodes without being listed and then have 5 or 6 right next to each other. Some episodes I was only asked about an extremely small amount of times, like BATS which I think only popped up 3 times total. Also there was one point where I mistook Honest Apple for Where the Apple Lies and put it below 3 episodes that I thought it was better then and it ended up probably like 30 positions below where it would have if I didn't do that.

EDIT: Will respond to Trig's post in a bit

Yeah, I was actually thinking about randomly distributing the episodes so things in the same season don't get clumped together. It was happening to me too, so I had to manually move around some things afterwards. When I was finished, Rock Solid Friendship, Secrets and Pies, Parental Glideance, and Perfect Pear were all next to each other. It seems to be just a natural thing that happens when you put them in order. Should I randomly reorder them?

My score for the Movies + EQG Specials was 37.5, so yeah, I am not an EQG fan.

 

[ShinySylvee]

Crystal Empire, MMC, and Cutie Re-Mark stuff

I sort of consider Crystal Empire and The Crystalling to suffer from the exact same problems, so it's funny to me to see one being so high and the other being so low on your list. The big problem being that the primary plot is genuinely interesting and fun, but the rest of the Mane 6 are basically forced to do busy work and are constantly distracting from the actually interesting part of the episode. I find the "ponies trying to distract the crystal ponies" plotline in Crystal Empire to be almost unbearable and massively drags the episode down for me. It's so unnecessary and the episode would have been much better for it if it was more focused on just Twilight and Spike navigating Sombra's castle. Similarly I find the Mane 6 trying to control Flurry Heart to be boring and the plotline with Starlight, Spike, and Sunburst to be pretty good. Generally I like the primary plot of Crystal Empire more but hate the secondary plot less in Crystalling. In reality I would probably put them fairly close to each other although they're 50th and 69th on the list that I made.


I get liking musicals but MMC is by far the worst musical for me. The songs are the worst selection of any musical including EQG, the plot is rushed to hell and back because they're trying to cram a 2-parter plot into one episode, the actual plot itself just isn't that interesting to me, and the Twilicorn stuff is really hard to watch.


Cutie Re-Mark is a really cool episode for me. I absolutely love all of the time travelling and alternate dimension stuff. (They succeeded in making Sombra cool, that's a feat in itself) Starlight is right up there with Discord as my favorite villain of the series. Her cockiness is really endearing to me because she's largely beating Twilight by out-smarting her rather then just being way more powerful. And I've talked about this in the past but while I do think that the reason that the episode gave for her being evil is weak in context and the friendship montage at the end was a mistake, I don't really have much of an issue with her being evil in the first place or being reformed. Starlight has been established as a character who's often emotionally unstable and will usually go way off the deep end trying to solve what for most people would be a fairly trivial or small problem. So her deciding special talents are evil because she "lost a friend" to one feels fairly in-character to me. If she didn't go crazy after losing Sunburst something else in her life probably would have happened that she wouldn't be able to cope with and would have caused her to do something similarly stupid.

I disagree that in Cutie Map they showed that she was just doing it for power. At the end of the episode after all of the ponies have gotten their marks back and she has no real power over them Twilight tries to explain to her why what she was doing was wrong and how her friends differences made her stronger. She instantly rebuffs this and despite having no real benefit to doing so she still tries to justify what she had done as being right. If she really was doing things just for power she wouldn't have any reason to keep up the facade at the end, and in Cutie Re-Mark she again still stands up for what she did even though she has no real reason to do so. She probably enjoyed the position of power that she had but at the same time she was at least in her mind doing all of the things because she thought she was right.

And that sort of ties into why I didn't have any issues with how quickly she ended up changing her mind. In her mind Starlight was in the right for running the town because it was the only way for friendship to happen and the Mane 6 had come along and ruined everything. And because of that her getting revenge by preventing Twilight and her friends from meeting was justifiable. At that point she had no clue what the true ramifications for doing that actually were. When Twilight shows the desolate future that was caused by her actions though it shows two things: that her attempt at revenge was going way further then she thought it would and that she was in the wrong. And that a group of different people's friendship was responsible for keeping the world safe, more or less disproving her philosophy. Since her actions were all based on the belief that what she was doing was justified the only two real reactions she could have to that is to either deny the evidence (which she temporarily does) or step down having realized that she was taking things way too far. Up until that scene Starlight is acting extremely smug and condescending towards Twilight and you can see her tone completely shift after seeing it. Just a couple minutes ago she was content with going through time loops forever but right after it she starts trying to justify her actions and threatens to break the time loop.

In short the scene where Twilight shows Starlight the desolate wasteland would have had an extremely powerful emotional impact on her and I can understand why she would be so quick to change her mind after seeing it.

Yeah, I was actually thinking about randomly distributing the episodes so things in the same season don't get clumped together. It was happening to me too, so I had to manually move around some things afterwards. When I was finished, Rock Solid Friendship, Secrets and Pies, Parental Glideance, and Perfect Pear were all next to each other. It seems to be just a natural thing that happens when you put them in order. Should I randomly reorder them?

My score for the Movies + EQG Specials was 37.5, so yeah, I am not an EQG fan.

Yeah randomizing them would probably help a bit. At the very least it would make things more interesting going through it since you wouldn't just be comparing episodes from the same season most of the time.

Also I find it interesting that you like musicals but don't like EQG. Is it just the setting?

 

[Trigonometrize.]

Okay, so here is the sorter link with rAnDoM ordering. It's not random in the sense that every time you open it it'll be different (I know fuck all about HTML), but it is randomly ordered so you won't be comparing "side-by-side" stuff the entire time.

Essay

I'm assuming you meant The Crystalling and not the Royal Wedding. And I only call attention to that typo because if you had said the Royal Wedding, I'd completely agree that it and Crystal Empire suffer from similar problems. They also have similar strengths. But anyway, I didn't think the B-plot in Crystal Empire was that distracting. I thought we got plenty of time in with Twilight and Spike exploring the castle; they went from the throne room, to the evil door, to the tower of stairs and then to the crystal heart at the top. That was plenty for me since the dark magic from the beginning of the episode was brought back, we get a sense of Twilight's fears, we see her do something creative and smart, and then have a little friendship thing at the top. It felt rounded out to me, so cutting to the other characters outside wasn't egregious.

The Crystalling on the other hand, oh boy. Plot-wise, it was very similar to Crystal Empire, but just go back and look at the setting. It feels very toned down and amateurish compared to how they built the setting to feel oppressive and scary in Crystal Empire. Personally, that was my biggest problem with it by comparison. It felt like a rehash with lazy execution.

I generally like focused stories (ironic considering I was fine with things being split in TCE), so I didn't like how it was Princesses vs storm, calm down the baby, Starlight reuniting with Sunburst, and some other bullshit I'm sure I forgot about. There's too much going on to the point where it doesn't feel like the episode's about anything, whereas in Crystal Empire they still got it across that it was about self sacrifice, even if the execution wasn't perfect. The b-plot never got in the way of that because it was just a b-plot, while in Crystalling, everything was more like competing for an a-plot.

Season 6 should've opened with a Slice of Life episode with just Starlight reuniting with Sunburst and that being it.

MMC had such good music, don't test me boy. But yeah, I liked the songs. I never really thought the MMC story was a two-parter, but rather the Twilicorn stuff just needed to go someplace else. If it was just about cutie marks getting switched around and we need to fix them, 22 minutes would've been fine.

I think I need to rewatch the relevant Season 5 episode's to continue the Cutie Re-Mark/Cutie Map conversation.

I'm not in the mood to go down the Equestria Girls rabbit hole right now to be honest. To b brief: I really like the first third of the first movie where it's just Twilight being cute trying to acclimate herself to the human world, but form there it goes completely down hill, it's only saving graces being Sunset Shimmer and Dance Magic. The world just isn't interesting, the mane five rarely get any good moments outside of "I'm hyper; I'm country; I'm athletic; I'm dress; I'm yellow." I really would've preferred if Equestria Girls just went in a completely different direction and was legit real world and not just Equestria with hands, feet, and breasts.

To get into why I don't like the music in EQG, it's important to note that I really, really value unique and varied uses of instruments in music. Ingram is pretty good about bringing that variety to FiM. Ballad of thee Crystal Empire has a COMPLETELY different feel from Pinkie's Present which has a COMPLETELY different feel from Morning in Ponyville which has a COMPLETELY different feel from Bats, etc. I never really get that from EQG.

 

[ShinySylvee]

Crystal Empire 2-parters and EQG stuff

My issues with the Crystal Empire (or virtually every story overall) doesn't have much to do with characters being "left out." You only tangentially brought it up but I felt it was kinda worth mentioning since this kind of thing is brought up quite a bit especially in 2-parter discussions. Honestly if a character doesn't have any real role in the story and isn't going to be doing much anyway, then usually I'd rather that they just get cut out so they don't have to waste screen time on them. Obviously if it's a Mane 6 adventure then yeah they shouldn't just remove Fluttershy and Rarity because they won't be doing much anyway, but under most circumstances if they aren't important to the story they can just be left out. For example I never really cared about all of the Mane 6 and princesses getting kidnapped off-screen in To Where and Back Again because the story isn't about any of them. Showing how they got bested by the changelings would have not had any real impact on how the story played out and wouldn't have supported the narrative in any real way. Also the plot literally could not have happened if they weren't taken care of because then the question would be "why aren't these other people taking care of it" and I'm fine with a couple characters being nerfed to some extent in order for a story to happen, and I feel like To Where and Back Again was a pretty important story for the character arcs of all 4 of the main characters.

For Crystal Empire I did really like all of the Twilight stuff. It was really neat seeing them explore the castle and the upside-down spell is one of my favorites from the series. And the lesson Twilight ends up learning is very important and appropriate for that point in the series. (Although it's kinda annoying that she seems to have to keep learning that it's fine to accept help from others) It's just that all of the Crystal Fair stuff brings it down REALLY hard for me, as well as the fact that Sombra is a really lame villain. It's extremely obviously just a bunch of busy work because their attempts to keep the Crystal Ponies happy has no impact on the actual story. Cadence would have been able to grab the heart from Spike even if they weren't being distracted. And the part where Rainbow forces Fluttershy to joust her and demolishes her is really obnoxious too. None of it was very funny for me either.

With the Crystalling at least the stuff they're doing at least has some bearing on the actual plot. Overall I do feel like it would have been substantially better if it was just a single episode focused around Starlight meeting Sunburst, but since the other stuff is mainly just uninteresting I find it easier to just ignore it and only focus on the Starlight/Sunburst plot which I thought was pretty good. For what it's worth it's also one of Spike's best appearances as well.


For MMC I felt like it would have still been a pretty mediocre episode even if you cut out the Twilicorn stuff. Basically it's just Twilight going around being super serious and fixing everything by figuring it out herself. There's no real moral to speak of, there aren't any jokes, the plot isn't very engaging since you know that Twilight is going to fix it, and since the whole thing is operating by its own rules there's not really any way to figure out how she will. None of the songs are particularly bad or anything but none of them are remotely near the top for me in terms of favorite songs from the show. If you take away the fact that it's a musical and that it's when Twilight becomes a princess it's a very dull episode for me. And the part where Twilight's like "oh wow everything is really weird I wonder what caused it. Oh maybe it was this spell that I cast last night that didn't seem to do anything and haven't mentioned so far because then the audience would expect things to be out of wack and I couldn't do the everything's fine song at the beginning" was really silly. (She said all of those words pretty sure) Again if you compare it to all of the other musicals that the show's had it's by far and away the weakest one for me. Pinkie Pride wasn't amazing either but Pinkie's Lament was a cool song and the part where Weird Al did the Polka version of Smile Smile Smile was awesome even though it was for like 10 seconds. Crusaders of the Lost Mark was a landmark episode that had a very satisfying conclusion to the CMC's goal of getting a mark, and the stuff with Diamond Tiara was pretty neat at the time even though the show has since been doing it's damnedest to pretend that she doesn't exist anymore. And Hearth's Warming Tail was a pretty good take on A Christmas Carol and had by far the best soundtrack of any musical for me.


EQG is sort of a guilty pleasure for me. I don't like the setting as much as the main show but it has its charm and I think that they do a decent job with it. The movies feel pretty chill for me and it's just nice seeing the same characters in a bit more familiar of a setting. And even Friendship Games is a fun movie to watch for me in a so-bad-it's-good kind of way. The big issues are Movie Magic (which is mainly just aggressively boring which is why it wasn't further down on my list) and Mirror Magic's second half of the episode which was just nonsense.


And that's an interesting take on the music that I haven't heard before. (And I mean interesting in a good way not as a substitute for "that is an extremely different opinion from mine" like I usually do) I feel like the EQG soundtrack does use a much smaller set of genres then the main show does. That being said there's been a couple songs that have felt fairly similar to me. Let the Rainbow Remind You and Friends Are Always There For You both give the same response to me, although that's likely because they fill similar roles. We Will Stand For Everfree, Luna's Future, and Open Up Your Eyes are also fairly similar in tone, as well as Pinkie's Present and One Small Thing. There's also Raise This Barn and Apples To The Core, although that's a bit expected. That being said I'm not a music dude so IDK.

You know what's really interesting though is that ignoring the finale of Season 7 (which I'm ignoring because I don't want to confirm or deny whether there's a song in it) they haven't had a song in an opener or finale since Season 5. Both of the two-parters in season 6 and the opener of season 7 didn't have one.

 

[DrForester]

I like the Crystal Empire a lot more than some of the other 2-part episode, but I still think it's pretty underwhelming.

I often mention how Celestia and Luna need more active roles in the 2 part episodes, well, in the case of the Crystal Empire, it should have been a Cadance episode. It should have been an episode about how she found the crystal heart and earned the right to rule the empire. Having her sidelined doing what Shining Armor did in just the previous episode was really silly. This should have been her chance to shine and introduce us to her better than Canterlot Wedding did. And of course the rest of the cast being sidelined planning a party (again, exactly what happened in the last episode).

And the whole "test for Twilight" thing was silly. I love MMC, but the major flaw isn't anything the episode did. It's what the season did. And what the season did is not build up to it properly. Crystal Empire was the only set up for it, and it wasn't a very good set up.

 

[Conkersbadfurday]

Good god there's a lot of reading to be done in this thread since I was last here D:

But the new Pie episode! It's...okay. The problem is, the latest comic was also about how RBD doens't like pies and Pinkie freaking out over it, so this felt like something I had already experienced.

Lot of the jokes fell flat because of that.

The comics really need to stop trying to tie into the episodes. It isn't working.

 

[SigmasonicX]

Good god there's a lot of reading to be done in this thread since I was last here D:

But the new Pie episode! It's...okay. The problem is, the latest comic was also about how RBD doens't like pies and Pinkie freaking out over it, so this felt like something I had already experienced.

Lot of the jokes fell flat because of that.

The comics really need to stop trying to tie into the episodes. It isn't working.

TBF, the comic was meant to be read after watching the episode, and it focused in a slightly different area, with Pinkie making absolutely sure that Dash doesn't like pie. While the episode focused on Dash's lie, the comic focused on the "friends like different things" aspect. Plus, the episode revealed pretty early that Dash really wasn't eating the pies, so there wasn't much to spoil. I thought both worked well, but I can understand finding it repetitive.

On another note, got around to watching that MA Larson panel. Only watching the first video, though.
* No shock, he didn't talk about the episode before (and deleted his tweets on the episode airing day, which he doesn't mention) because he didn't want a witch hunt.
* The original premise already had the ending, where the crowd doesn't learn anything.
* It sounds like Larson's first version had everyone get angry at Pinkie, and Pinkie blows up at the townsfolk, so they realize they were wrong. They come into Pinkie's home to apologize, and sing "Smile Smile Smile" to her, as a reference to It's a Wonderful Life.
* It isn't an early script that got edited, the episode we saw is exactly what Larson wrote, but he didn't understand the point of the premise. So it isn't the case that Starlight was swapped in for Spike or anything.
* He absolutely isn't upset at fans for looking too deeply into the show or anything, and he doesn't want anyone to get that impression from "Fame and Misfortune".
* "The writers" is a misconception: the credited writers for an episode are the only writers. They don't have a writers room.
* Oh, the Pennyroyal Academy series by Larson has a third book, wrapping up the trilogy.
* They did ask Larson to come back for season 8, but he asked for a raise, and didn't get it.
* He only got two notes back from Hasbro for "The Cutie Mark Chronicles", but got pages and pages of notes for "Slice of Life".
* Luna's Royal Canterlot Voice and old speaking style came from Hasbro notes; they had a completely different speaking style for her originally.
* Since writers are segmented from each other, keeping track of character development is difficult. He wouldn't know how to write Luna or Discord now.
* "Flawless" was originally just Twilight singing solo about her friends. As far as he can tell, Twilight's first stanza and random small lines are what remains of what he wrote.
* "Fame and Misfortune" originally had a Celestia be present when Twilight brings in the journal. She goes, "Hmm, the journal, the thing that replaced all those lovely friendship letters I got." As the girls ignore her and talk about the journal, she says, "Well, I'll be going. I hope you enjoy your journal."
* Larson kept trying to add Celestia to episodes, but her scenes kept getting cut.
* He wrote the crying chain reaction scene in "Tanks for the Memories".
* Larson considers Discord's desire to ruin Twilight's life a fundamental part of his character, which is one reason why he's dissatisfied with how Discord has developed.
* To make "Slice of Life", Larson looked at the characters' appearances in the show and came up with his own conclusions, such as "Why does Bon Bon have a different voice every time, and why is she also called Sweetie Drops? She must be a secret agent!" The outline he wrote for "Slice of Life" included hyperlinks for references.
* Larson did ask a fan, Foal Papers, for help regarding fan references. "I cooked them up and ate them" was indeed a reference to Ponies With Hats, though Larson himself doesn't know what it means.

Late "Secrets and Pies" followup later.

 

[DrForester]

* Larson kept trying to add Celestia to episodes, but her scenes kept getting cut.

God bless this man.

 

[Conkersbadfurday]

TBF, the comic was meant to be read after watching the episode, and it focused in a slightly different area, with Pinkie making absolutely sure that Dash doesn't like pie. While the episode focused on Dash's lie, the comic focused on the "friends like different things" aspect. Plus, the episode revealed pretty early that Dash really wasn't eating the pies, so there wasn't much to spoil. I thought both worked well, but I can understand finding it repetitive.

Happened with that one comic with the dude looking for magic flowers and crap. It's just really jarring that not only are they really trying to make the supplemental material less supplemental, but they're screwing up the release schedule of it.

 

[SigmasonicX]

Happened with that one comic with the dude looking for magic flowers and crap. It's just really jarring that not only are they really trying to make the supplemental material less supplemental, but they're screwing up the release schedule of it.

They were pretty good about having the comic release the Wednesday after its respective episode until recently (though this was hard to notice due to the leaks). If you look at how episodes were revealed for the Canadian airings, which appear to reflect production order, then the intended order was:

17. Daring Done
18. A Health of Information
19. To Change a Changeling
20. It Isn't the Mane Thing About You
21. Once Upon a Zeppelin
22. Marks and Recreation
23. Secrets and Pies

Then I assume
24. Uncommon Bond
25-6. Shadow Play

While this would have fixed the release date of "A Health of Information"'s tie in, this still wouldn't have helped "Secrets and Pies", so I don't know what was going on there.

 

[ShinySylvee]

The comics really need to stop trying to tie into the episodes. It isn't working.

On paper I like the idea of the comics tying into the episodes of the show over the previous stuff which felt like it didn't even take place in the same continuity of the show. Some of the Legends of Magic stuff was pretty good, especially the one about Somnambula. The trouble is that a lot of the mainline stuff just feels like it's just the episode it's based off but a second time. And a lot of them coming out before the episode proper is certainly not helping things either. Some things that I think could have been neat to see off the top of my head that would have tied into the season as well:

> A comic tied to all of the Wonderbolts parents. Maybe they all meet Rainbow's parents. Perhaps some of the other Wonderbolts can relate to Dash since they had similar problems.

> A comic between Triple Threat and To Change a Changeling where they show Thorax being more assertive and convincing the rest of the hive to change as well.

> The next big scheme by Iron Will, picking up right where Once Upon a Zeppelin left off.


Of course with all of the leaks and schedule shifting it would be very difficult for the comics to release in a timely manner which is one of the bigger problems.

 

[SigmasonicX]

On paper I like the idea of the comics tying into the episodes of the show over the previous stuff which felt like it didn't even take place in the same continuity of the show. Some of the Legends of Magic stuff was pretty good, especially the one about Somnambula. The trouble is that a lot of the mainline stuff just feels like it's just the episode it's based off but a second time. And a lot of them coming out before the episode proper is certainly not helping things either. Some things that I think could have been neat to see off the top of my head that would have tied into the season as well:

> A comic tied to all of the Wonderbolts parents. Maybe they all meet Rainbow's parents. Perhaps some of the other Wonderbolts can relate to Dash since they had similar problems.

> A comic between Triple Threat and To Change a Changeling where they show Thorax being more assertive and convincing the rest of the hive to change as well.

> The next big scheme by Iron Will, picking up right where Once Upon a Zeppelin left off.


Of course with all of the leaks and schedule shifting it would be very difficult for the comics to release in a timely manner which is one of the bigger problems.

Yeah, the only tie-in issue that felt like it particularly built on the episode it tied into was the "Discordant Harmony" one, featuring Pinkie Pie, Princess of Chaos. The "Secrets and Pies" one was good, but it just covered similar territory to the episode. I guess the "Not Asking for Trouble" tie in two parter did at least make the Yaks look competent, though the second part made everyone look bad.

No tie in comic for "The Perfect Pear" makes sense if they didn't want the synopsis or cover to spoil anything about the episode, and a follow up for "A Royal Problem" would have covered similar territory to #50, but "The Times They Are a Changeling" could have used a prequel or a follow up, and they should have had more appearances from the parents besides their part in the "Not Asking For Trouble" tie in.

The ideal is that the comics follow up on things fan reacted strongly to. Of course, there is some difficulty in knowing that before it airs. Hasbro seems to have thought "Not Asking For Trouble" was going to be big, since that's what they used for the mid-season finale and made the first companion show (with kids commenting) focus on that episode. I'm sure that in retrospect they wish they made a comic for "It Isn't the Mane Thing About You" featuring Punk Rarity.

 

[ShinySylvee]

Yeah, the only tie-in issue that felt like it particularly built on the episode it tied into was the "Discordant Harmony" one, featuring Pinkie Pie, Princess of Chaos. The "Secrets and Pies" one was good, but it just covered similar territory to the episode. I guess the "Not Asking for Trouble" tie in two parter did at least make the Yaks look competent, though the second part made everyone look bad.

No tie in comic for "The Perfect Pear" makes sense if they didn't want the synopsis or cover to spoil anything about the episode, and a follow up for "A Royal Problem" would have covered similar territory to #50, but "The Times They Are a Changeling" could have used a prequel or a follow up, and they should have had more appearances from the parents besides their part in the "Not Asking For Trouble" tie in.

The ideal is that the comics follow up on things fan reacted strongly to. Of course, there is some difficulty in knowing that before it airs. Hasbro seems to have thought "Not Asking For Trouble" was going to be big, since that's what they used for the mid-season finale and made the first companion show (with kids commenting) focus on that episode. I'm sure that in retrospect they wish they made a comic for "It Isn't the Mane Thing About You" featuring Punk Rarity.

I'm not sure how you'd really make a comic on Punk Rarity though that didn't feel like it was just covering the same topic as the episode. That being said it definitely has been one of the more memorable things this season and their focus on Not Asking for Trouble is a bit on the weird side.


Speaking of weird apparently two women got in a fight for a seat at the MLP movie. For some reason it's been going around and I guess the good news is that it wasn't men doing it. Not really a whole lot of details besides that it happened but there's the EQD post for it here.


Also just want to say that Greg from Rainbow Dash Presents certainly has some hot takes. You know things are bad when even 4chan is saying he's being ridiculous.

 

[SigmasonicX]

I'm not sure how you'd really make a comic on Punk Rarity though that didn't feel like it was just covering the same topic as the episode. That being said it definitely has been one of the more memorable things this season and their focus on Not Asking for Trouble is a bit on the weird side.

I was thinking more a story that happens to take place while Rarity still has her punk style. Maybe one that contrives a reason for every other Mane Six to go punk, such as to form a band, with Rarity as the lead guitarist.

Speaking of weird apparently two women got in a fight for a seat at the MLP movie. For some reason it's been going around and I guess the good news is that it wasn't men doing it. Not really a whole lot of details besides that it happened but there's the EQD post for it here.


Also just want to say that Greg from Rainbow Dash Presents certainly has some hot takes. You know things are bad when even 4chan is saying he's being ridiculous.

For the first, my reaction is also, "Glad it wasn't two guys."

I don't know what's going on with Greg, so I can't comment other than to say I'm not surprised. It never seems like these fan content makers can settle with, "I don't like the direction the show is going and that's fine."

"Secrets and Pies" followup.

NOTES
Cheerilee mentions that hamsters can't eat pony food like pie. Because that's exactly what horses eat.

Well, I haven't seen anyone anywhere post any scenes of Rainbow Dash eating pie, so I guess they really did manage to uncover this weird little detail.

SCREENSHOTS
Delivery Mare Derpy
Vapor Trail and Sky Stinger cameo
Pie in tortoise
Bulletin board
Pinkie pointing
Edit - OBJECTION
Pinkie in Dash's bed (embedded)
Random Lightning Dust poster
Pinkie face while giving pies (embedded)
Pinkie face while waiting for Dash to eat
Pinkie face while keeping her eyes open 1 (embedded)
Pinkie face while keeping her eyes open 2 (embedded)
Pinkie face while keeping her eyes open 3
Pinkie face after Dash gets rid of the pie

GIFS
Pinkie mixing chocolate and chocolate milk - Usually you do this with chocolate and normal milk.
Pinkie train and Twilight laughing
The first pie distraction
Pinkie writing with her hair
Pinkie laughing in her lair
Montage of Dash getting rid of pies
Follow the money
Evil Pie Hater Dash destroying pies
Pinkie skyward scream
Reversed - So that's how you get out! (embedded)
Pinkie rolling an apple
Pie chute
Reversed - How Pinkie gets her pies (embedded)
Daring rescue from a pile of pies
Pinkie face while asking Dash to eat the pies (embedded)
Pinkie getting angry about not seeing Dash eat the pies
Dash super speed
Horrific concrete pie
Dash does it all for her smile
Pinkie hugging Rainbow too tight (no she isn't)

Once Upon a Zeppelin
Twilight in a hat winking and waving to Cadance
Iron Will has the right idea about what to do with Twilight

FAN CONTENT
Still not much art of this or last week's episode. I guess it's more the movie than the leaks that are distracting people.

Laser Dash by ServerChan
Pie Delivery by StarBlaze25 - Maybe not connected to the episode, but the name and timing fit.
pie dash by replacer808

Eat this Pie, Dashie by Doodle-Mark - Pinkie says this, but a bit more harshly.
Rest in Pies by AssasinMonkey
Pinkie Pie Will Never Blink by Joakaha

Pie for Dashie by xXMarkingXx
I can't stop drawing themmm by WanderingPegasus
Lazers and Pies by JonFawkes

Destroyer of Pies by Tsitra960
Care For A Pie by saturdaymorningproj
I HATE PIES!!!! by LiaAqila
Homing Pie by pheeph

Once Upon a Zeppelin
Family Sparkle by liniitadash23
What it's like to meet Tara Strong at a con by tsitra360

Star Tracker by Taneysha
Tracking Stars Wallpaper by Sutekh94

Daring Done?
Somnambula by Setharu

Movie
Edgy horse wife by ThePossumFace
Tempest Shadow by iheartjapan789
Sia by Madacon

You Already Know What Time It Is by VanillaGhosties
Shattered by JekiDrawings
Open Up Your Eyes by Firimil

Tempest by KeryDarling
Tempest Shadow by PlagueDogs123
Tempest Shadow by Koviry

Tempest by griffsnuff
Tall Dark and Hoofsome by DocWario - New OTP!
Tempest by OhHoneyBee

Gift III by Bajanic
Tempest Shadow by erica693992
Electric by Lopoddity

Music
Flawless (Cyan Lightning Remix)
Dance Magic (Cyan Lightning Remix)
Best Friend Until The End Of Time (PONE177 Remix)
You're In My Head Like A Catchy Song cover by Sterling Fusion

And this is a remix using various songs, but it does include "Flawless", so might as well put it here. Besides that song, it's EQG and seasons 1-3.
Journey by Hirosashii

 

[ShinySylvee]

I was thinking more a story that happens to take place while Rarity still has her punk style. Maybe one that contrives a reason for every other Mane Six to go punk, such as to form a band, with Rarity as the lead guitarist.


I don't know what's going on with Greg, so I can't comment other than to say I'm not surprised. It never seems like these fan content makers can settle with, "I don't like the direction the show is going and that's fine."

"Secrets and Pies" followup.

So what would be the plot then? Would it just be Battle of the Bands from Jimmy Neutron? Something tells me you just want it to happen so there could be some fan art of Punk Rarity with Punk Twilight...


Long story short, he uploaded about a 5 minute video for his "Peel Off Nanalizes" series where he says that Rainbow was too stupid to be a Wonderbolt because they're based off the Blue Angels which need training to fly their planes, and that her learning stuff by flying like she did in Testing 1 2 3 was unrealistic or something. Then he offers an alternative where the Wonderbolts want Rainbow because she can do a Sonic Rainboom so they try to give her an easy test to pass where she just has to not eat candy for an hour. Rainbow keeps failing and realizes what they're doing so she eventually starts intentionally failing. They wait for her to sleep and then pass her then and so she gets mad and tries to sabotage their routines. He defends this by saying that it's bad but it's intentionally bad so it's better then what we got. At the end there's some attempted mic drop moment where he says that he expects people to react negatively to this but Rainbow Dash is just a flash rig so getting upset about it is silly and that he expects a bunch of people will just disagree with him because there's some negativity going around the show.

Even though he doesn't sound to angry or vindictive in the video I trust you can figure out why some people took offense to it. I was largely surprised that he uploaded another pony video. He said before he was just going to do his NAS series and just be done with it but then this video came out which was surprising.


Also I like how all but one of your movie pictures are just Tempest. She's like a 3rd of the uploads to Reddit right now she's really popular.

 

[SigmasonicX]

So what would be the plot then? Would it just be Battle of the Bands from Jimmy Neutron? Something tells me you just want it to happen so there could be some fan art of Punk Rarity with Punk Twilight...

No "you got me" this time, I really was just thinking of that comic arc, Night of the Living Apples, where they turned everyone into a vampire like Fluttershy.

Long story short

Yeah, it sounds like he's just trolling for attention now.

Also I like how all but one of your movie pictures are just Tempest. She's like a 3rd of the uploads to Reddit right now she's really popular.

TBF, I do also have a bunch of Skystar art I'm saving until after the season ends due to spoilers. But yes, also even more Tempest art.

Speaking of Tempest

 

[ShinySylvee]

No "you got me" this time, I really was just thinking of that comic arc, Night of the Living Apples, where they turned everyone into a vampire like Fluttershy.



Yeah, it sounds like he's just trolling for attention now.



TBF, I do also have a bunch of Skystar art I'm saving until after the season ends due to spoilers. But yes, also even more Tempest art.

I never saw that one but it sounds pretty silly. Honestly the comics obsession with stuff like trying to given Luna super important parts despite her barely appearing in the show and them and them bringing back things that were popular but only appeared in the show once (like Flutterbat) always put me off of them. It felt like they were largely existing to pander to fans rather then them being stories that actually felt like they could take place in the show's universe. That wasn't the case with all of the stories but a lot of them (Especially stuff like Siege of the Crystal Empire) felt like the writer's fanfiction. And when I hear the premise of "all of the Mane 6 get punk haircuts like Rarity and make a punk band" it makes me think of the stuff that turned me off of the comics to begin with. I can understand the appeal of that kind of thing and I don't want to disparage the people that enjoy that kind of stuff but it's not really what I'm looking for in the comics.


I don't get the impression that he's trolling, just that he's become extremely disenfranchised with the show which is a big deal since it's been such a massive part of his life and he's trying to cope with it. He made a couple of posts on /mlp/ and this was one that kinda shows his mental state pretty well I feel:

It's just rigs. As in it's just a show. As in things are out of my control and it's not like any of the characters are necessarily going to be doing anything or staying in character. As in Dash is sometimes pretty stupid, and sometimes she's not, and she was depicted as a Savant once then never again.

As in it doesn't actually matter to me all that much what's "true" about Dash because it a fiction spanning seven years handled by numerous different people and all of fiction is a lie to begin with.

I feel like he really should just move on but the trouble is that his new stuff that he's doing called Jaycartoons aren't getting great views. His Rainbow Dash Presents stuff regularly got 1 Million+ views, and his MAS stuff all got over 100k. The most viewed of his Jaycartoons has a little over 23k and most have around 10k. The trouble is that he's a fandom guy now and usually the only way you can move off from one fandom is to jump to another. And it's not like he isn't trying either. He's been doing blog videos, he did Lets Plays for a pretty long time, he's got a patreon set up too. None of it has really caught on. All of them have views between 5k and 25k. IDK it's kinda sad because he went through all this trouble to teach himself how to animate so he could prevent his MAS videos from getting taken down and now he's not really able to turn that skill into much success since he wants to move away from pony now.


It's just that the amount of content for her seems to me more then all of the other characters combined. Most of it is pretty good at least but I haven't seen a whole lot for the other characters from the movie. Looking at Derpibooro there's almost 1500 pieces for her and the second highest is Capper with less then 500.



Also sort of tangentally related but League of Legends does a monthly blog post where they talk about the upcoming champions and reworks that they have planned. This is a screenshot of the blurb for the next champ they have planned (no pictures yet) and their choice of words is a bit interesting to say the least. I guess it's worth mentioning that a bit back they did a line of champ skins based on magical girls and had a PvE mode to go along with it. One of the lines that the announcer said when you won was "Friendship is Magic" but the whole event had a big friendship theme given that it's based on magical girls so I figured it was mostly a coincidence.

 

[Conkersbadfurday]

So what would be the plot then? Would it just be Battle of the Bands from Jimmy Neutron? Something tells me you just want it to happen so there could be some fan art of Punk Rarity with Punk Twilight...


Long story short, he uploaded about a 5 minute video for his "Peel Off Nanalizes" series where he says that Rainbow was too stupid to be a Wonderbolt because they're based off the Blue Angels which need training to fly their planes, and that her learning stuff by flying like she did in Testing 1 2 3 was unrealistic or something. Then he offers an alternative where the Wonderbolts want Rainbow because she can do a Sonic Rainboom so they try to give her an easy test to pass where she just has to not eat candy for an hour. Rainbow keeps failing and realizes what they're doing so she eventually starts intentionally failing. They wait for her to sleep and then pass her then and so she gets mad and tries to sabotage their routines. He defends this by saying that it's bad but it's intentionally bad so it's better then what we got. At the end there's some attempted mic drop moment where he says that he expects people to react negatively to this but Rainbow Dash is just a flash rig so getting upset about it is silly and that he expects a bunch of people will just disagree with him because there's some negativity going around the show.

Even though he doesn't sound to angry or vindictive in the video I trust you can figure out why some people took offense to it. I was largely surprised that he uploaded another pony video. He said before he was just going to do his NAS series and just be done with it but then this video came out which was surprising.

His new plot idea was pretty goofy but the presentation was funny. Shame his Jay Cartoons aren't taking off, since they're usually a nice quick laugh.

I feel bad for him in a way, because he's got a great sense of humor, but he's so tied to a property he clearly doesn't like anymore and it's fucking him over. I hope he finds something he likes that does well though, because I want to keep watching his content.

I generally like his Peel Off videos too, though this latest one felt more like he rambled on about a half baked idea for five minutes instead of an actual analysis of any sort. Which is strange given how much time has to go into making the animations/editing.

 

[SigmasonicX]

It felt like they were largely existing to pander to fans rather then them being stories that actually felt like they could take place in the show's universe. That wasn't the case with all of the stories but a lot of them (Especially stuff like Siege of the Crystal Empire) felt like the writer's fanfiction.

Well, I mean, the comics are basically fanfiction, since none of the writers work on the show. In contrast, the chapter book writers also write show episodes, and are directly referenced in dialogue (but are largely ignored by fans).

If the comics aren't expanding on popular characters that aren't getting much attention in the show, or following up on things fans found interesting that the show won't revisit anytime soon, then I feel like that's a waste of opportunity. This is something the comics are able to do that the show can't, due to how far ahead the show crew has to work.

While I'm not always a fan of the execution, a big part of the appeal of the comics was precisely that it would "go there" and wasn't afraid of doing big things. Chrysalis returns mere months after her introduction (as opposed to years later)! A story delving into Celestia's past and an alternate mirror dimension! Sombra's backstory and his return! Compared to licensed comics for other TV series, it really helps to make it feel like there's a point to reading them.

It's just that the amount of content for her seems to me more then all of the other characters combined. Most of it is pretty good at least but I haven't seen a whole lot for the other characters from the movie. Looking at Derpibooro there's almost 1500 pieces for her and the second highest is Capper with less then 500.

Well, I mean:
* Female, which automatically gives her more art than comparable male characters. See Vapor Trail compared to Sky Stinger.
* Villain, which allows for menacing poses.
* One of the few movie original characters to get meaningful development.
* Easily shipped with Twilight.

All that adds up.

Also sort of tangentally related but League of Legends does a monthly blog post where they talk about the upcoming champions and reworks that they have planned. This is a screenshot of the blurb for the next champ they have planned (no pictures yet) and their choice of words is a bit interesting to say the least. I guess it's worth mentioning that a bit back they did a line of champ skins based on magical girls and had a PvE mode to go along with it. One of the lines that the announcer said when you won was "Friendship is Magic" but the whole event had a big friendship theme given that it's based on magical girls so I figured it was mostly a coincidence.

Major games have been sneaking in pony references since 2011, so I wouldn't be surprised if that was still happening here. That said, I don't expect the actual character to have that strong of a link.

January comic solicitations

My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic #62

Ted Anderson (w) • Andy Price (a & CVR A) • Sara Richard (CVR B) • Jennifer Meyer (CVR RI)
Canterlot is on the verge of being given to... the Griffons? Twilight, Raven and others will have to act fast to save the seat of pony royalty!

My Little Pony: Legends of Magic #10

Jeremy Whitley (w) • Tony Fleecs (a & CVR A) • Brenda Hickey (CVR B) • Low Zi Rong (CVR RI)
New dangers plague the legendary ponies, but with the help of a new member, they may be able to overcome the odds long enough to meet their true foe!
* Legends of the past inspire the ponies of today!

With the main series issue, I didn't expect a main cover like that. For those without in-depth knowledge of background ponies, Raven Inkwell is a pony best known for appearing as a unicorn assistant to Celestia, which is what the comics have gone for. She has also appeared as an earth pony in Ponyville, though.

The Legends of Magic issues continue to be vague about what's actually going on. From the main cover, it looks like the deer might be involved somehow.

 

[DrForester]

Dang. I was hoping that Anthro-United Nations arc might let Celestia and Luna have a well needed adventure. Guess not. Will be nice to see Raven again though.

And those covers are great.

 

[The_Kid]

Can I get an invite to that discord? The link in the OP has expired.

 

[SigmasonicX]

Can I get an invite to that discord? The link in the OP has expired.

Oh, didn't realize that could happen. Quote for the new link, now checked to never expire. Already replaced the links in the OP and movie OT OP.

 

[ShinySylvee]

His new plot idea was pretty goofy but the presentation was funny. Shame his Jay Cartoons aren't taking off, since they're usually a nice quick laugh.

I feel bad for him in a way, because he's got a great sense of humor, but he's so tied to a property he clearly doesn't like anymore and it's fucking him over. I hope he finds something he likes that does well though, because I want to keep watching his content.

I generally like his Peel Off videos too, though this latest one felt more like he rambled on about a half baked idea for five minutes instead of an actual analysis of any sort. Which is strange given how much time has to go into making the animations/editing.

Honestly if that sort of plot was just in one of his Rainbow Dash or MAS videos I wouldn't take much issue with it and might have found it a bit funny. The trouble is him trying to present it as an alternative to something that he thought was bad, and even though he thinks his idea isn't very good and he's just sort of ambivalent to everything and isn't really seriously suggesting it, the context makes it look like he thinks it's what should have happened. It also doesn't help that he's had a strong tendency to attempt to disarm his critics by saying that they're just fanboys or are in denial rather then actually addressing the problems people have with what he's saying and how he's saying it.

Rainbow Dash Presents is one of my favorite Youtube series ever, the guy can be funny. The trouble is that it's hard to use his current base to do other things because most people only care about him doing pony and his other stuff just strait up has not attracted an outside audience.

Watching through some of his Jaycartoons and it's not hard to see why he's not really growing his audience though. The animation is extremely barebones and visually uninteresting. You compare it to something like asdfmovie which uses even less detailed models but looks way more alive. Now obviously ASDFmovie takes way more effort to make if release schedules are anything to go by but honestly a lot of animation on Youtube (and animation in general) is about the visual presentation, and as far as the stuff that Greg himself animates the very best that it ever gets is slightly above passable. It's hard enough to make a living off animation on youtube in general without extremely massive amounts of Patreon support so I think his way of trying to make it is by releasing just a video every week or two but outside of his diehard fans I don't think people want to watch a bunch of mildly funny poorly animated shorts every week. Also his humor is alright but I don't think it's enough to carry a video, his Rainbow Dash Presents stuff worked partly because he was telling a story and so if some bits weren't funny it wasn't a big deal because it looked good and there was a story to follow along with. A joke doesn't work in a short and it's not worth watching.

Idk it's really hard for him and I'm not sure where he can go from here.

More comic stuff

I get that's a lot of the appeal to many of the comics, it's just so much of it is so unfeasible that I can't really take it seriously. If it doesn't even remotely feel like it's grounded in the show's continuity then I don't see much of a point in tackling it because it's going to have no bearing on anything that happens in the show. I'd prefer stuff like Legends of Magic, which are stories that would happen in the show's universe but are hard to really tell in the framing device of an episode because they have to be based on one of the main characters. Another advantage of doing comics is that it's a lot easier to do action then in the show so they can tell more action-packed stories. Something like a Daring Do adventure would be a really cool thing to do in a comic and would make more sense. Stuff like the Friends Forever series was also pretty good at times too. But when most of the epic stories in the comics are "Tirek escaped from Tartarus and he's back for revenge. But he's not alone. He also brought along his even more evil twin from another dimension Nega Tirek along to help him out. Will Princess Luna and the Mane 6 be able to stop them?" it's kinda hard to take them seriously at least for me. I can understand why it would appeal to some but it doesn't interest me.


Also about the Legends of Magic solicitation I'm pretty sure that my original assumption was a bit off. It looks like the story is likely going to be stretching over a bunch of comics, possible the 6 that are supposed to wrap up the series. One thing I will say is that if you want to go into the season finale COMPLETELY spoiler free, you might want to put off reading the arc until you've watched the finale because the comic series talks about some stuff that relates to it. It's not a MASSIVE deal but if you want to go in completely blind you've been warned.

The comic itself was pretty cool. It's part one of many but it's setting the table decently well and the story itself is intriguing. The (Comic spoilers)

Spoiler

Sirens weren't as memorable as their Rainbow Rocks counterparts but they're very beautifully drawn and are threatening enough adversaries. I hope we can see more of their dynamic that they had in Rainbow Rocks as the story progresses.

 

[SigmasonicX]

Hmm, I guess I'll hold off on reading it, then. Weird that they'd go so far as to spoil the finale in the comics.

 

[ShinySylvee]

Hmm, I guess I'll hold off on reading it, then. Weird that they'd go so far as to spoil the finale in the comics.

It's not that the comics really directly explain the plot of the finale, it's just that the story ties in with it a fair amount (the comic series is a prequel of sorts) and that some of those details might tip you off about how the finale will end up playing out. All of that being said, it's nowhere near as spoilery as just reading the short blurb for any given episode of the show, and it's MLP if you've been paying attention for the past 7 years you can probably do a decent job at predicting every major plot element before it happens anyway. If anything I would hazard a guess and say that the season finale is likely going to spoil the comic series way harder then the other way around, especially since only one of the issues will have been released by the time the finale airs. All that being said I still brought it up because if you REALLY want to go into the episodes completely unspoiled (and if you've already read the episode descriptions you aren't really unspoiled anymore) then it might be better to wait on reading it.

 

[SigmasonicX]

It's not that the comics really directly explain the plot of the finale, it's just that the story ties in with it a fair amount (the comic series is a prequel of sorts) and that some of those details might tip you off about how the finale will end up playing out.

I see. I get the impression that if things were released as intended, and we didn't know anything about the finale besides the synopsis, then this comic issue could be read on its own, and then when you watch the finale, you'd go, "Oh! I recognize that from the comics! That's neat!" Sort of like the previous Legends of Magic comics before we learned about "Campfire Tales". But now that everyone's saying that the comic has spoilers for the finale, it will be impossible to read it without looking for that.

Well, it's only a bit less than two weeks, I can wait.

Speaking of the comics, this new cover for #62 is a lot of fun.

Based on this Norman Rockwell art.

EDIT: Oh, and I suppose it's worth bringing up in this thread too that last week was MLP:FiM's seventh anniversary. I made a week-late art post for it here.