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My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic Season 7 |OT| Is this still a fad?

This image is a national treasure. There's about 10 things I can point to that's wrong with it.


The full version isn't much better

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DemWalls

Member
So, I was going to write that Parental Glideance was very good, and that this Josh Hamilton guy is definitely promising, but then I read this:
Josh Hamilton (Previously best known for working on Avatar: The Last Airbender, Legend of Korra, and the new Thundercats show)

Even though I don't know much about Avatar, its reputation precedes it, so I guess this explains at least a bit of this episode's success. Just like knowing the author(s) of yesterday's episode explains a lot about its quality :p

Parental Glidance:

Wow, they just spent an entire episode awkwardly avoiding saying anything about Scootaloo's parents.

Honestly, I didn't find it awkward at all. I actually think they tackled the matter as openly as possible for a show of this kind.

And I guess that's the closest we'll get to a confirmation that Scoot's parents are dead and buried. That, or they're an awful and possibly abusive family.
 
I'm normally not a big RD fan personally, but I really loved Parental Glideance. It's right up there with Tanks for the Memories as one of RD's best episodes ever imo- which makes sense seeing as how it was apparently written by a former A:TLA writer.

Hope we see more episodes from Josh Hamilton this season.
 
"Fluttershy Leans In" follow up. Like I mentioned earlier, this episode is surprisingly light on fan art, and most of what is there is pretty simple by the standards of this fandom. It remains to be seen if this will be the case for all future episodes, or if it's just this one. If this persists, then it's possible fan artists are getting overwhelmed by all the episodes coming out. But on the other hand, if it's just this episode, then that's another similarity to last season's "Applejack's "Day" Off".

PREVIOUS EPISODE
Even after my last post, there's still stuff for "Rock Solid Friendship".

Kites Are Cool
S7E4
Starlight and Maud
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Comics
Gathering
Rock Solid Friendship Follow Up

NOTES
I forgot to really go into this in my previous post about the episode, but it was really neat how the story didn't actually involve Fluttershy being a doormat to the experts, and as soon as she realized they were acting against her wishes, she confronted them about it. That said, I feel like that actually made the story make less sense. If Fluttershy was a doormat but learned to stand up for herself, then that would have naturally led into the moral. Even if Fluttershy still didn't have a plan, it would have felt more like the experts were taking advantage of Fluttershy, and the audience's sympathies would have been with her more.

Actually, that makes me think. Is it possible that the episode originally was about just that, but then they decided late in the writing process that it would be too repetitive and it would be better to show Fluttershy's development? And the removed scenes could account for the slow pace. Plus, it was weird that the climax involved the animals destroying a building that Fluttershy already concluded was bad; if Fluttershy was trying to convince herself that the experts were right about the building, then that happened, it would make a lot more sense to include it.

On another note, a lot of people are theorizing that the giraffe really is as intelligent as ponies, but she didn't know the right place to go and had a hard time speaking due to her cold.

SCREENCAPS
Medicine cabinet
Head against door (embedded) - Being a not-unicorn is suffering.
Fluttersheye lens - smile
Fluttersheye lens - nose
Sheet in mouth (embedded)
Chart close up
Snake butler, Hard Hat, and Wrangler
Snake butler and Dandy Grandeur
Final sanctuary
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YouTube captions
Wine expert
Pinkie stop

GIFS
Angel's parkuor
Angel in pain
Fluttershy and the stuck door
Fluttersheye lens (embedded)
Giraffe entrance
Bear nail clipping
Rude Angel
Angel and ducklings
Raccoon Kart
Fluttershy reacting to Raccoon Kart
Confident Fluttershy
Rainbow wiping her tears
Fluttershy being adorable (embedded)
Pinkie on the tire swing
Ducks in a row
Rainbow and the magic cup
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FAN CONTENT
This seems like a less awkward title than Fanworks.

Fluttershy and Friend
Giraffe Cuddles
Flutter with the Sloth - made a week ago
Daring Do and the Giraffe - made a week ago
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Pinkie and the Giraffe - made a week ago
Drab
Rude Giraffe - made a week ago
Poor Tia, she just wants to be the little spoon for once
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Giraffe
Lola's New Tree
The Door is Stuck - No wonder she was having a hard time opening the door if this is the human equivalent of what she was doing.
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Comic
Talk to Me
 
Alright, time for my complete thoughts on the episode:

As I said before, this is the first episode written by newcomer Josh Hamilton, and it was a very impressive first showing for him. There's a couple minor and debatably major issues I had with the episode but a lot of them are ones you can likely infer by just reading the episode blurb promoting it. Reading through everyone's thoughts when it was revealed you can see that most people didn't have high hopes for this one because the premise just sounds like it could be miserable. But it is managed fairly well and has both humorous and heartwarming moments that generally are a hallmark of a good episode of MLP. Overall this is definitely the best Dash episode of the past couple seasons and you could argue further then that. Josh has made a strong first impression and I hope that he can maintain this level of quality in his future episodes.

On to the black bars:
There's two major issues I had with the episode: First that some of the jokes felt a bit to "immature" to me. The opening scene with the CMC as well as Scootaloo's nonstop screeching when she first meets Rainbow's parents are two pretty big examples of this but they weren't alone and quite a few of the jokes fell flat for me. None of them were particularly major and for most people it likely won't be a problem but it was a bit distracting at times for me. Secondly and pretty much the major one you saw coming from the episode description is that Rainbow's parents are a bit much at times. I've never been a fan of cringe comedy so those parts were awkward for me but fortunately that is mediated by it not being a massive part of the episode and that for the most part the people observing it for the most part don't react too negatively to it, with the obvious exception being Rainbow.

One thing that I will say that was handled fantastically in this episode was the Wonderbolts themselves. All too often they are either portrayed as being ineffectual or outright jerks so Rainbow can end up looking better. Here they're relatively understanding of Rainbow's situation and several times make accommodations for it, including creating and performing a special routine to help Rainbow make things up to her parents. Their cooperation with the situation and not vilifying Rainbow's parents for clearly going overboard in their cheering makes it a lot more tolerable when it happens. And although her outburst was definitely on the extreme side it is totally understandable why Rainbow is so frustrated. I did criticize the episode earlier for its jokes but several of them did hit too. The hit percentage might not be as high as other greater episodes but there's enough comedy here to keep you entertained through the awkward or exposition-heavy parts of the story. Also the voice actors for Rainbow's parents (Sarah Edmondson as Windy Whistles and Jason Deline as Bow Hothoof) did an amazing job voicing them as well.

Overall as I said before it fills the show's bread-and-butter quite well, and although I might not be as crazy about this episode as others it is still a very strong showing and has me interested to see the future episodes from newcomer Josh Hamilton.



"Fluttershy Leans In" follow up. Like I mentioned earlier, this episode is surprisingly light on fan art, and most of what is there is pretty simple by the standards of this fandom. It remains to be seen if this will be the case for all future episodes, or if it's just this one. If this persists, then it's possible fan artists are getting overwhelmed by all the episodes coming out. But on the other hand, if it's just this episode, then that's another similarity.to last season's "Applejack's "Day" Off".


I think it's a little of both. There's not too many memorable scenes or characters to make art out of for the episode and on top of that I imagine a lot of them are watching the treehouse broadcasts and have moved on to the newer stuff already.
 
I was thinking for part of Parental Glideance that
the parents were actually just super fans that were delusional and/or lying to get close to Rainbow Dash. I think it was a pretty solid theory for a while.

The full version isn't much better

CuCF9Ul.jpg

All I will say is that I love how Scootaloo Terry appears in all four panels but doesn't say a word and that Zecora King Zebra is wearing Spike's hat from Secret of My Excess.
 

PaulloDEC

Member
That German comic is a riot. Terry best pony.

Onto Parental Glidance:
it fucking rocks. Really, really good. After this and Flutter Brutter, future pony family episodes have a lot to live up to.

Honestly, I didn't find it awkward at all. I actually think they tackled the matter as openly as possible for a show of this kind.

And I guess that's the closest we'll get to a confirmation that Scoot's parents are dead and buried. That, or they're an awful and possibly abusive family.

Pretty much.
I can't see "Scootaloo has shitty parents" being something the writers would call into existence, so the orphan theory remains not only the strongest one, but really all but confirmed at this point.

I'm normally not a big RD fan personally, but I really loved Parental Glideance. It's right up there with Tanks for the Memories as one of RD's best episodes ever imo- which makes sense seeing as how it was apparently written by a former A:TLA writer.

Hope we see more episodes from Josh Hamilton this season.

I'd have almost bet money after finishing the episode that it was a Dave Rapp jam, so seeing a name I'd not seen before was a big surprise. Hope we don't have to wait for Season 8 to see more from Hamilton!
 

UberTag

Member
Onto Parental Glidance:
it fucking rocks. Really, really good. After this and Flutter Brutter, future pony family episodes have a lot to live up to.
This was the best episode of the season BY FAR. Immensely entertaining. I also didn't realize until now that Andrea Libman was voicing Fleetfoot. She's got a bevy of voices in that arsenal of hers.

Pretty much.
I can't see "Scootaloo has shitty parents" being something the writers would call into existence, so the orphan theory remains not only the strongest one, but really all but confirmed at this point.
That said, it was a delight watching Scootaloo fangirl over meeting them and to have them reciprocate at the end of the episode after she delivered her report. She may be an orphan but there's an adoptive family ready and waiting for her should she want one.
 

PaulloDEC

Member
This was the best episode of the season BY FAR. Immensely entertaining. I also didn't realize until now that Andrea Libman was voicing Fleetfoot. She's got a bevy of voices in that arsenal of hers.

It's either this or "Rock Solid Friendship" for me so far. Very different stories, but both immensely entertaining in their own ways.

That said, it was a delight watching Scootaloo fangirl over meeting them and to have them reciprocate at the end of the episode after she delivered her report. She may be an orphan but there's an adoptive family ready and waiting for her should she want one.

Scoots' part in this story was a really cool surprise for me. I was expecting a lot more Dash, but the balance they struck was actually just right.
 
It's either this or "Rock Solid Friendship" for me so far. Very different stories, but both immensely entertaining in their own ways.

Same. Pinkie was a little grating at times in Rock Solid Friendship, but I loved Maud and Starlight's interaction in that episode.

As for the whole Scootaloo element of Parental Glideance, I'd love to see her be officially adopted by RD's family somewhere down the line, though I dunno if we'll ever see that. Either way, it was great to see how quickly RD's parents bonded with Scootaloo and took a liking to her beyond just their mutual adoration towards RD.
 
I Saved Equestria And All I Got Was This Lousy Balloon.
It's Twilight Sparkle's balloon! (said in worst Southern accent)

Besides, King Zebra is a Celestia tier scrub, so the reward is only appropriate.

EDIT: It occurs to me that some of you may not know the significance of "Cadence" in that comic. There's actually a pretty interesting story behind it. For season 2's "Luna Eclipsed", we were told in a convention panel about a deleted scene where Twilight brings Luna over to Rarity for her help to make her seem more friendly. Rarity goes overboard on her dress and makeup, so Luna gets upset and rips it off. Pinkie passes by and screams that Nightmare Moon is eating a princess. The "Cadence" vector is a remnant of that scene, and it also points to the fact that Luna actually was going to continue to use her season 1 design for well into the development of that episode.
 
First, some movie stuff.
Daniel Ingram shows off the MLP Movie music studio - Nothing too interesting for someone like me, but some of the audio nerds in ED's comments seem hyped. Also, there's a song with a "fun groove" that has the lyric "know" somewhere in it.

And here's the cover of the IDW trade collection for their Movie miniseries.
MLP%2BMovie%2BPrequel.jpg


The character arrangements seem random, but who knows, there might be some meaning.

Legends of Magic #2 - Rockhoof
This continues the framing story with Sunburst reading Starswirl's collection of stories, but this time he's reading a story to Luna. I like the way they interact, with Sunburst getting intimidated by her outbursts and declarations. At the end, I like how Luna declares the lessons acceptable, and permits Sunburst to tell her another story sometime.

canterlot_voice-01.png


The way the "original" story of Rockhoof is presented makes me think it's going to be shown in the show in some fashion, since it seems to assume familiarity from the reader. However, even if it isn't, we get enough to clearly understand the story and what it's meant to represent to ponies, and it was neat seeing this pony fable that everyone was already familiar with. Even the "as you know..." element was understandable, since Sunburst couldn't be sure Luna knew the story, and she couldn't be sure Sunburst knew her version of it.

Anyway, the "sequel" was fun. My big worry about this comic series was that it would be hard to be interested in the new characters, especially without known ones to fall back on, but Rockhoof and the Mighty Helm were likable.

That said, I'm still unsure about the next issue.

EDIT: "Fluttershy Leans In" CENSORED Edition - Much of this one is weak, but some parts did make me smile.
 
I feel like I got a bit of whiplash fron these episodes being back-to-back:

Forever Filly:
Sweetie Bell: "I've grown up, Rarity, why can't you see that?"
Parental Glideance:
Scootaloo: "i'm doing a report on my heroes at school"

Props if they would've
changed Sweetie Bell and the other CMC to look somewhat bigger at the end of the episode, like the audience had been stuck seeing them the same way too, but that would've been a lot of work, introduced some issues, and most importantly impacted toy sales.

Also interesting to see
the Mane 6 suddenly seem very busy with their own lives. Does add a lot of fuel to the idea that the "New Crew" is being prepped to become the focus after the movie and end of this season.
 
Slightly different Equestria Girl special synopses, translated from Polish. The only one with anything new and interesting is, of course, "Mirror Magic".

Translation:
Sunset Shimmer returns to Equestria to find a new journal.
In her absence, looking for get revenge Juniper Montage found a beautiful magical mirror that could not only teleport the ponies to another universe but also make them disappear trapped between the two worlds.
Suddenly Mane 6 disappear.
Do Sunset Shimmer will discover the secrets of the mirror and save the Equestria Girls?

So yeah, everyone except Sunset and presumably Starlight is kidnapped.

On that subject, a UK EQG comic briefly has Coloratura, and perhaps more importantly, reveals SciTwi's Canterlot High outfit.

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She seriously should have just stuck with the Crystal Prep outfit if that was the alternative.

Oh, and following up on the Terry comic, here's what I mentioned before, the comic with Prince Leon, and also Blueblood Vladimir.
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Translation:
And Rarity finally walks in the ball room like a fairy princess !
But as she gets near to the prince’s throne, she discovers … a 4 years old little pony! «Let me introduce you Leon, my little cousin. » announces Celestia.
«Today, I’ve been impressed by the strength of your dreams and by the sacrifice you made to realize Rarity’s. As a reward, I’m inviting you at a private banquet. Rarity, you’ll be able to dance all night long with … my nephew Vladimir. I heard you’d like to meet him, wouldn’t you? » The princess adds with a smirk.

I had forgotten if Leon was an alicorn or not. Given that this predates the Terry comic, I guess this is our first alicorn besides Celestia and Luna. The rest of the comic seems to have been lost, though. I can't find it anywhere. Though I don't think there's much else notable about it.
 
I went to Canterlot Gardens in Cleveland once, but that was way the hell back in 2012.

That's the only con I've ever been to. It was pretty fun, though if I remember wasn't there some drama behind the scenes?

Doesn't matter though, I got to get Lee Tockar to do his Ravage voice, so everything was right with the world. And that script reading panel was amazing.
 
I don't do Cons

I'm a shut-in

I wouldn't go that far, but I'd be uncomfortable even in a general nerd con, let alone a Pony convention. When the movie comes out, I'm considering looking up local meetups to watch the movie, just so I can avoid them, haha.

Speaking of which, synopsis for one of the prequel chapter books.
e42c38be1ab37e62e92044d0736b1a50.jpg


While Princess Twilight Sparkle is busy with preparations for Equestria's first ever Friendship Festival, a foreign power is planning its attack. The Storm King has sent his most trusted lieutenant, Tempest Shadow-a Unicorn with a broken horn-to scout her former home. But Tempest wasn't always eager to do a villain's bidding...

Find out how a sweet and kind pony became one of the most feared throughout the land and get ready for My Little Pony: The Movie, coming to theaters October 6, 2017! Join Twilight Sparkle, Rainbow Dash, Pinkie Pie, Applejack, Rarity, and Fluttershy on the adventure of their lives!

I wonder how much this will overlap with the comic prequels, and what will be depicted in the movie itself. I'll be disappointed when it turns out Tempest didn't break her horn by walking into a door without looking.

EDIT: Pinkie Pie Says Goodnight: Get Together
 

PaulloDEC

Member
I don't do Cons

I'm a shut-in

Same here, just substitute "shut-in" for "Australian".

Although I do dislike large groups of people too.

I wouldn't go that far, but I'd be uncomfortable even in a general nerd con, let alone a Pony convention. When the movie comes out, I'm considering looking up local meetups to watch the movie, just so I can avoid them, haha.

I've already resigned myself to watching after everyone else. I don't know anyone locally who likes the show, and I'm not sure I'd want to go with a group of fans anyway.

Speaking of which, synopsis for one of the prequel chapter books.
e42c38be1ab37e62e92044d0736b1a50.jpg


While Princess Twilight Sparkle is busy with preparations for Equestria's first ever Friendship Festival, a foreign power is planning its attack. The Storm King has sent his most trusted lieutenant, Tempest Shadow-a Unicorn with a broken horn-to scout her former home. But Tempest wasn't always eager to do a villain's bidding...

Find out how a sweet and kind pony became one of the most feared throughout the land and get ready for My Little Pony: The Movie, coming to theaters October 6, 2017! Join Twilight Sparkle, Rainbow Dash, Pinkie Pie, Applejack, Rarity, and Fluttershy on the adventure of their lives!

I wonder how much this will overlap with the comic prequels, and what will be depicted in the movie itself. I'll be disappointed when it turns out Tempest didn't break her horn by walking into a door without looking.

It'll definitely be interesting to see if the show's fragile canon can stand up to comics, books, TV and film all interacting!
 
I had never heard of this person, but I looked up their channel and this is awesome.

Mid-2017 and still no final version. Still, it is pretty neat.

Today's episodes are:

In the US
6. Forever Filly
When Rarity surprises Sweetie Belle with a special day together filled with all of her favorite activities, she quickly learns that her little sister is no longer the little foal she used to be.

In Canada
8. Hard to Say Anything
When the Cutie Mark Crusaders discover that Big Mac has his first crush, they vow to help him win Sugar Belle’s heart before Feather Bangs does it first.

Episodes that can be discussed freely
1. Celestial Advice - Twilight Sparkle agonizes over Starlight Glimmer’s future and receives some much-needed advice from her very own mentor – Princess Celestia.
2. All Bottled Up - While the Mane 6 are on a friendship retreat, Starlight Glimmer loses Twilight Sparkle’s friendship map. Afraid her anger might get out of control, Starlight Glimmer casts a calming spell while the ponies search for the lost map.
3. A Flurry of Emotions - After planning a jam-packed day, Twilight Sparkle also agrees to babysit her niece, Flurry Heart. But with Flurry Heart along for the ride, Twilight Sparkle struggles to maintain her title as 'The Best Aunt Ever' while keeping Flurry Heart out of trouble!
4. Rock Solid Friendship - When Pinkie Pie learns that Maud might move to Ponyville, she does everything she can to make sure her sister sees that it has more to offer than just rocks.
5. Fluttershy Leans In - Fluttershy is determined to make her career dreams come true with the help of some very special ponies. But when her true vision is not being executed properly, she must find a way to stand up and fight for her ideas.
And "Forever Filly" in about an hour.
 

UberTag

Member
Hard to Say Anything

Was this the first episode ever without a Mane 6 appearance of any kind?

I was assuming Big Mac was going to crash and burn given how one-sided his advances were and how oblivious Sugar Belle seemed to be - outside of her love of desserts - but love found a way.

There were plenty of amusing facial reactions from the CMCs in this episode. And Feather Bangs made quite the vivid impression.
 
Hmm, I assume today's Canadian episode wasn't too exciting?

Forever Filly
In between the spoiler bars last week, I saw comments about how Rarity was really annoying in this episode, and I didn't really see that when I watched. I suppose some might think it was contrived for Rarity to suddenly feel nostalgic, but it seemed realistic enough. Rarity giggling about how the CMC now have "clients" and even serve mints felt natural, and honestly, kind of echoed my thoughts. I was expecting Rarity to get really over the top with forcing Sweetie to do things, but Sweetie went along with everything well enough and didn't get embarrassed.

It was nice to see them acknowledge that Rarity should be really busy with her three stores. It doesn't make much sense that she hasn't spent a day with Sweetie Belle in a long time, given how we've seen her lazing around Ponyville in previous episodes this season, but whatever. Actually, come to think of it, "Celestial Advice" had her at a formal event. In "All Bottled Up", the Friendship Retreat was planned out in advance. She wasn't in "A Flurry of Emotions". In "Rock Solid Friendship", she was getting gems for her clothes. In "Fluttershy Leans In", she was there on invitation from Fluttershy. So I guess we haven't seen her just lazing about this season yet. Never mind then.

I was glad that they didn't have Sweetie Belle go in the, "God Mom Rarity, I stopped liking that like a year ago!" direction or have her act like she did back in season 2's "Sisterhooves Social". They demonstrated that Sweetie was more mature by actually making her more mature. If this episode happened back in season 2, you just know they would have had Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon come across them during the photo session and mock Sweetie Belle, shaming her like Apple Bloom in "Family Appreciation Day" from that season. This Sweetie Belle definitely wouldn't have let that bother her.

The stuff with the dog was perhaps a bit too on the nose, but it worked well enough. And given that this is another episode whose moral is mostly aimed at adults, this allows it to connect better to children.

Also, I believe it was on PonyGAF that someone pointed out a while ago that there isn't actually any in-show evidence that Rarity gets dates. Well now we have that balloon pony giving Rarity his heart, only for her to turn him down. It's not direct proof, but Rarity seemed comfortable about the situation. Actually, thinking about it, it probably wasn't on PonyGAF, but I already wrote this.

I thought this was a pretty enjoyable episode, though the relaxed pace and nature of the story means it doesn't particularly stand out. It's definitely the best of the Fox Brothers' episodes.

And with Rarity's Canterlot shop returning, there's another space on my bingo card. Speaking of which, the store is going through a winter to spring transition? This timeline, man.
 
Hmm, I assume today's Canadian episode wasn't too exciting?

Yeah I didn't really think so, although I seem to be a lot harder on episodes then most people. It was written by newcomer Becky Wangberg, who previously worked as an executive assistant on the Fairly Oddparents as well as a writer on Tuff Puppy and Bunsen is a Beast. Overall similar background to Crowley and Wetta from Flurry of Emotions, and a lot of the issues I had with them are showcased here as well. There's a decent amount of legitimately funny jokes interspersed through the episode and the episode pretty much gives you exactly what you would expect from the description of it, so if that's all you're really looking for then you'll go away satisfied. If you expecting anything more then that though, you're likely to be disappointed.

This definitely feels like a budget filler episode that didn't have a bunch of effort thrown into it. Pretty much all the assets in the episode were reused from other episodes. The whole thing is visually uninteresting because it's taking place in a town that is supposed to appear dull and boring. And I think there's like 9 characters in the whole episode that have any lines of dialogue. That's fine conceptually, putting less effort into episodes like this means there's more resources to dedicate to episodes like the upcoming Celestia+Luna one or the AJ's parents episode. But I feel like many of my issues with this episode feel like ones that are sort of tied to those factors, whether they were budgetary constraints or the writer just didn't feel like writing in more characters or adding significant changes to Starlight's Village's appearance.

When I first heard the synopsis I was excited because it would be featuring Sugar Belle. The whole village in general has been largely ignored ever since Starlight left it in season 5 aside from her returning and being instantly forgiven and them inviting her back for their festival. I was personally hoping that we might get to see more interactions with Starlight and the villagers, hopefully getting an on-the-record reason as to why they forgave her so easily, or failing that at least get to see more of Party Favor, Double Diamond, and Night Glider as I liked them in Cutie Map and would have liked to see how they've changed since their "liberation." It also would have been interesting to see the changes that have been made to the town, possibly making things more visually interesting by decorating things and painting their houses to give them more personality. Not only do I feel like it's a missed opportunity to develop some stuff that could have definitely benefited from some fleshing out, but I feel like the episode itself could have really used something like that to help with keeping the audience entertained. Looking back at Parental Glideance a large strength of that episode to me is that the cringey scenes of Rainbow's parents being obnoxiously supportive of her don't actually take up a massive part of the episode's runtime. In fact, roughly the first half of the episode is Scootaloo meeting Rainbow's parents and showing off Rainbow's childhood. This episode could have greatly benefited from a similar setup. If they spent a good chunk of the time showing off the town and its residents as well as how their lives have changed, I think that the scenes of Big Mac wooing Sugar Belle could have been much tighter because they could be shortened and had a higher concentration of jokes rather then having them be spread out through a longer period of time.

As for the characters themselves things aren't very good. Like Uber said there's no major characters in the episode. Sugar Belle had little personality to me besides liking to bake and her chemistry with Big Mac is almost non-existent. Feather Bangs comes off as probably the most interesting character in the episode but it would have been nice if they gave his more sympathetic side they establish at the end more development. If he does return I hope they focus more on that. Big Mac has almost no agency in this episode, basically just standing around and doing whatever the CMC tells him to. And the CMC have gone back to acting like 8 year olds again, which is especially jarring to me given the growth they showed in Forever Filly and Parental Glideance. Realistically you could have swapped out Sugar Belle for some other mare and you could have easily passed this episode off as a season 1-2 episode. Also like a lot of the CMC episodes you could have swapped all of their dialogue and nothing would have felt out of place.

Overall the episode isn't terrible but for the reasons I listed I feel like there was a lot of missed potential here and a lot of the things that typically make MLP episodes good are missing here. It's inoffensive and has some good jokes here in there but there's nothing particularly amazing here either. As I said in the unspoilered part of this post a lot of the issues that I had with the two previous Nickelodeon writers that they've brought on (not much character development, somewhat confusing moral, episode whose premise feels more suited for an 11 minute length rather then a 22 minute one) are shown here as well as a couple other ones that show the writer struggling to adjust to the differences between your average Nick show and MLP. With the right setup I think this writer could be alright but I'm not really holding my breath.
 

PaulloDEC

Member
I actually thought Hard to Say Anything was pretty good, and a better-than-average start for a new writer.

Not really much comes to mind to say about it; there were some nice lines for the Crusaders, and the musical battle towards the end was quite funny. Glad to see Big Mac getting a happy ending with Sugar Belle, who had apparently been hitting on him so hard it's amazing he was able to stay standing.
 
Man, Forever Filly was PAINFUL to get through. When Rarity has a bad episode, it's really, really bad.

If they had done the convo at the 16 minute mark at the 8 minute mark, they could have gone in some really cool directions with sisterly bonding; instead, we get some tired ass jokes about Rarity not understanding her sister. I don't mind this show being predictable because it's a kid's show, but i have limits.

Legends of Magic #2 wasn't any better, though I didn't actually finish the stupid thing. Got a few pages in and just couldn't find enough fucks to give to continue. Sucks too, since I at least had some fun with the first one.
 
Man, Forever Filly was PAINFUL to get through. When Rarity has a bad episode, it's really, really bad.

If they had done the convo at the 16 minute mark at the 8 minute mark, they could have gone in some really cool directions with sisterly bonding; instead, we get some tired ass jokes about Rarity not understanding her sister. I don't mind this show being predictable because it's a kid's show, but i have limits.

Legends of Magic #2 wasn't any better, though I didn't actually finish the stupid thing. Got a few pages in and just couldn't find enough fucks to give to continue. Sucks too, since I at least had some fun with the first one.

I can understand not liking the episode, but I'm surprised you disliked it that much. It even managed to avoid having Sweetie Belle get embarrassed about Rarity's activities.

Legends of Magic #2 seemed harmless at worst, so I'd really like to know what bothered you about that, if you don't mind.

On another note, there's still stuff coming in for the first episodes of the season, so I'll dump those now before tomorrow's followup.

GIF Teacup
More advanced version of an image from a previous roundup
Pointy Ponies for episodes 1-2 - I posted the one for episode 3 earlier.
Pointy Ponies for episode 4
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Cup of grave
Mini Twilight
Twilight and Flurry
The Maud the Merrier
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"Rock Solid Friendship" comics
Just Another Day in Ponyville
The Pie Piper

"Best Friends Until the End of Time" cover by MelodyFinn
Remix by DolceTikky - This gets better once the piano comes in.
Time Lapse [PonyDub] - This isn't quite a remix or a cover. Instead, it's using segments of the song to recreate a different song, "Time Lapse". This is similar to the YTPMVs of old, but with longer show clips.
 

PaulloDEC

Member
Man, Forever Filly was PAINFUL to get through. When Rarity has a bad episode, it's really, really bad.

If they had done the convo at the 16 minute mark at the 8 minute mark, they could have gone in some really cool directions with sisterly bonding; instead, we get some tired ass jokes about Rarity not understanding her sister. I don't mind this show being predictable because it's a kid's show, but i have limits.

Legends of Magic #2 wasn't any better, though I didn't actually finish the stupid thing. Got a few pages in and just couldn't find enough fucks to give to continue. Sucks too, since I at least had some fun with the first one.

I find it hard to have any strong feelings about Forever Filly. Nothing felt wildly stupid or out-of-character to me, it just wasn't very compelling.

Legends #2 I really liked. Cute little story, and I could look at Brenda Hickey's art all day.
 

Ogodei

Member
Man, Forever Filly was PAINFUL to get through. When Rarity has a bad episode, it's really, really bad.

If they had done the convo at the 16 minute mark at the 8 minute mark, they could have gone in some really cool directions with sisterly bonding; instead, we get some tired ass jokes about Rarity not understanding her sister. I don't mind this show being predictable because it's a kid's show, but i have limits.

Yup, about all that needs be said here. No redeeming value to this one.
 
Hard to Say Anything... Hm. Not sure what I think of it as a whole and I need to rewatch it to make a full opinion.

However I love the whole reference to the Blondettes from Beauty and the Beast. They even had Belle, Jasmine and Ariel's hairdos for manes, just like the Blondettes did too!
 
Going to respond to comments about "Forever Filly" from last week. Removing the spoiler tags here for clarity, and people would otherwise skim past this post if they wanted to avoid Canadian episode discussion.

I didn't care much for it myself. I figured it would be the "parent/older sibling doesn't recognize younger child has grown up more since 5 years ago" plot. However, what irks me is the Dipper Well plot. The dog is lethargic the whole time, and all it needed was a bigger toy? We have 2 dogs that are about 11 years old, and they still love to play around and be loved with baby talk and going for walks and such.

Also, Rarity's voice sounds off.

One thing to remember about Equestria dogs and other animals is that they are smarter than the real world equivalents, so it's entirely possible they do care about being addressed by their real names and not being talked down to. But yeah, while the tiny squeaky toy makes sense, it's odd that the dog would lose interest in everything else.

I have "Gabby Returns" on my Bingo Card.

Should I count a picture of Gabby?

Well now that I know for sure you're talking about this episode, no. Though given your last bingo card update, you already decided against it.

On to specifics:

The opening scene I feel shows a lot of the promise and issues with the episode. Sassy Saddles goes from freaking out that they aren't going to be ready to actively advocating for Rarity to take the day off. Rarity's emotional outbursts feel so forced and unnecessary. Sure that's her thing but she's acting like Sweetie Belle has died. But at the same time after seeing them in Sisterhooves Social it's nice to see Rarity care so much about her sister and go to such extreme lengths to try to make her happy. I'm reminded a lot of her portrayal in For Whom the Sweeite Belle Toils where she was shown to be a caring sister that sometimes accidentally ends up hurting things accidentally.

Sassy stopped freaking out because she realized Rarity had already handled many things, and given that, it wasn't strange that she allowed Rarity to go. Rarity suddenly caring about spending time with Sweetie Belle so much was a bit contrived, but given the premise presented, that she was too busy to do so for a long time, it felt in character.

This heart as well as showing how these characters have evolved is what really helps make this episode for me. I liked the treehouse scene where Rarity makes a lot of parallels between Sweetie Belle's new job as part of the CMC with her own work, noting that Sweetie Belle has clients now too that she has to take care of. And the activities that Rarity takes Sweetie Belle on at least feel like something that a younger kid would really enjoy. I just wish that it didn't feel like the episode wasn't just avoiding outright showing how little Sweetie Belle was enjoying Rarity's efforts to Rarity as I feel like the episode is padded out and repetitive because of it. I would have liked to see less focus on Rarity doing things Sweetie Belle didn't enjoy and maybe a longer scene of them doing stuff she liked in the end.

It's interesting that both you and Conkersbadfurday wanted to see more of Rarity and Sweetie Belle doing activities they actually enjoyed, because the thought didn't occur to me at all watching the episode. Well actually, at the end, I did think Sweetie was going to take Rarity to one of those experimental plays she talked about during the puppet show scene, so I was a bit disappointed when that wasn't the case. While it would have been nice to see that, I don't think spending a significant chunk of the episode on that would have been the right move. In order to create a conflict, it would have involved Rarity not understanding Sweetie's interests, which as is, wouldn't have naturally followed from the preceding parts of the episode, and wouldn't have been that interesting, I think; at least not much more than what's present. I would have liked a "Sisterhooves Social" style ending montage, though.

Many people have pointed this out elsewhere but Rarity definitely was taken up to 11 in this episode to the point where she might grate on people. And although I feel like the moment when you realize how Zipporwhirl's storyline ties in to the one between Rarity and Sweetie is an amazing feeling the secondary plotline does nothing interesting up until that point and drags the show whenever they focused on it. The episode definitely is a Fox Bros episode and unfortunately despite a really strong concept I feel like it only lives up to part of its potential. A better writing team probably could have made this episode a classic up there with Sisterhooves Social and For Whom the Sweetie Belle Toils but as it stands there's some good and some bad and although I definitely think it's a massive step up from P.P.O.V. and AJ's Day Off it's hard not to ask "what if a better team got their hands on this episode?" Everything being said I liked it and I hope that this can be the new baseline of quality for Fox Bros episodes going forward.

I did like how Sweetie Belle was able to use her own experiences with Rarity to come up with a solution to the dog problem. Not only is it a good way to tie the stories together (if a bit common) but it's also a good demonstration of how she has grown. I do agree that this episode certainly could have been handled better by other writers.

I enjoyed Forever Filly... but then it would have been a surprise if I didn't seeing how Rarity and Sweetie Belle top my fave pony rankings.

The fundamental problem with this episode is that it's wholly disposable. There are a handful of Friendship is Magic episodes where there's an obvious moral premise that are otherwise paper-thin and they just hammer the day's lesson over and over again until the characters finally clue in and realize what the audience figured out for themselves two acts prior.

The best part of this episode was everything in the first act until the obvious conflict was introduced. Which is unfortunate because I love the Rarity-Sweetie Belle relationship dynamic and all of the good points from this episode came before they interacted. Contrast that with Sisterhooves Social which highlighted that dynamic and then introduced an inventive solution to the episode's core conflict while still having other things going on like the Apple Bloom-Applejack relationship, the fun sister bonding obstacle course and Granny Smith being silly.

So this episode came off as a shallow failure... and yet I enjoy these characters so much I didn't mind it all that much. Tabitha doing melodramatic over-the-top reaction takes will never not amuse and delight the hell out of me.

Incidentally, I rewatched Simple Ways for the first time in a long while earlier today and was surprised to see Rarity went so all-in with her farm girl shtick that she wiped off her iconic blue eyeshadow. It's literally gone for that entire segment. She couldn't be committed enough to take out her false eyelashes to completely sell it but we know she has a hang-up about those. But I was surprised to see the eyeshadow gone because it's ever-present at every other time and she doesn't adjust it to match her wardrobe.

I hadn't thought about it, but I suppose despite the premise, the episode really didn't do much with Rarity and Sweetie Belle's interactions. It was almost entirely just Rarity explaining the thing they used to do together and Sweetie being uninterested. Given that, I think I understand better why people would dislike this episode.

As for the "Simple Ways" thing, I hadn't noticed that. Interesting detail.
 

UberTag

Member
As for the "Simple Ways" thing, I hadn't noticed that. Interesting detail.
Rarity sans her trademark eye shadow as she takes "commitment to a bit" to a new level.

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Incidentally, I was mistaken about Rarity not being seen without it any other time.
Obviously, she had yet to adopt her daily makeup regimen as a filly as it's missing in all of her flashback scenes as well.

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Andrew J.

Member
I quite enjoyed "Forever Filly". Only thought Rarity's behavior seemed totally unreasonable when she declared to herself that Sweetie Belle was just being ungrateful, which only lasted for about two minutes before she changed her mind and didn't even result in her doing anything.
 
I can understand not liking the episode, but I'm surprised you disliked it that much. It even managed to avoid having Sweetie Belle get embarrassed about Rarity's activities.

Legends of Magic #2 seemed harmless at worst, so I'd really like to know what bothered you about that, if you don't mind.
"Forever Filly" proved that Sweetie Bell could be, and is, a good character. But Rarity's I-don't-understand-anything was done before in "Simple Ways", which I almost didn't finish. This one wasn't as bad as that, but it was just really predictable. A few minutes in and I knew I was in for ten or so minutes of bad jokes, Raritiy not getting why she was being annoying, and the generic consequences of that.

YOU GREW UP AND I DIDNT NOTICE? NO WAY?

That could have been an interesting episode had that been the first thing Sweetie Bell pointed out. Like, it almost went that way when Rarity saw she had honest to god clients and honest to got success at being a therapist at the age of like six.

Instead we got Sweetie Bell sighing over ice cream, puppet shows, and fucking balloons. It was boring in the worst ways boring can be.

With Legends of Magic, I'll admit I wasn't exactly sober when I tackled the issue. What got me was that it was yet another "let's tell a story about lore!" story, but the lore wasn't interesting. At least the first one dealt with characters I care about; this one was about some dumbass with a fucking shovel. I couldn't make myself care.

I get review copies of comics because I review them, so I get A LOT of comics. At this point I really gotta be invested or it isn't worth my time. This one really wasn't. I still have it on my harddrive though, so maybe I'll try again.
 
With Legends of Magic, I'll admit I wasn't exactly sober when I tackled the issue. What got me was that it was yet another "let's tell a story about lore!" story, but the lore wasn't interesting. At least the first one dealt with characters I care about; this one was about some dumbass with a fucking shovel. I couldn't make myself care.

I get review copies of comics because I review them, so I get A LOT of comics. At this point I really gotta be invested or it isn't worth my time. This one really wasn't. I still have it on my harddrive though, so maybe I'll try again.

Huh, I didn't know you were a comic reviewer. Do you have a site where you have these reviews, and have you been writing reviews of the MLP comics there?

About your complaint with the issue, I don't think the lore stuff is going away, since that is the central premise. I myself am only buying the issues on a case by case basis, since as you hinted at, most of these stories don't even have known characters to fall back on.
 
Huh, I didn't know you were a comic reviewer. Do you have a site where you have these reviews, and have you been writing reviews of the MLP comics there?

About your complaint with the issue, I don't think the lore stuff is going away, since that is the central premise. I myself am only buying the issues on a case by case basis, since as you hinted at, most of these stories don't even have known characters to fall back on.
The site isn't mine, but I do have a site I write for. I dunno if it's copacetic to link it or not.

I don't always review the MLP comics, though I try to. Basically them and the Image stuff are what I attempt to cover, but life gets in the way. What i don't review I tend to talk about on the website's comic book podcast.

It's less of a deal than it sounds in that it isn't really much of a deal. :p

If it's cool to link the site I will.

But I"m fine with the lore stuff as long as it's framed in a way that's engaging or about something I care about. This one didn't hit that mark, but I also had like four other comics to read that day because of that aforementioned podcast. It got pushed aside.
 
The site isn't mine, but I do have a site I write for. I dunno if it's copacetic to link it or not.

I don't always review the MLP comics, though I try to. Basically them and the Image stuff are what I attempt to cover, but life gets in the way. What i don't review I tend to talk about on the website's comic book podcast.

It's less of a deal than it sounds in that it isn't really much of a deal. :p

If it's cool to link the site I will.

But I"m fine with the lore stuff as long as it's framed in a way that's engaging or about something I care about. This one didn't hit that mark, but I also had like four other comics to read that day because of that aforementioned podcast. It got pushed aside.

The Terms of Service has a rule against self-promotion, but in movie and game review threads, there are professional reviewers that are GAFers who post links to their reviews. I would imagine linking to your comic reviews would be fine. The ToS clause specifically calls out creating a new thread for it and using referral links to generate revenue, which you presumably wouldn't be doing.

But if you feel that's too risky, that's up to you.
 
The Terms of Service has a rule against self-promotion, but in movie and game review threads, there are professional reviewers that are GAFers who post links to their reviews. I would imagine linking to your comic reviews would be fine. The ToS clause specifically calls out creating a new thread for it and using referral links to generate revenue, which you presumably wouldn't be doing.

But if you feel that's too risky, that's up to you.
It's maybe less that and more that I've been doing this for like three or four years now and become disenchanted with it. It's just a thing i do now, and it's not like the reviews are always good.

/shrug. Last MLP comic I reviewed was the first Legends of Magic. I've attempted the others but didn't have anything of real interest to say so stopped. Or in the case of the last Legends of Magic book, I didn't finish.

http://wethenerdy.com/my-little-pony-legends-of-magic-1-review/

For the curious. If a mod has problems with this, I'll gut the link and be on my way.
 
No worries, just feel free to post a link whenever you actually review one of the comics.

Today's episode is:

In Canada
9. Honest Apple
When Rarity asks Applejack to be a judge in a fashion show, Applejack learns that an opinion, however honest, can still be hurtful.

Episodes that can be discussed freely
1. Celestial Advice - Twilight Sparkle agonizes over Starlight Glimmer's future and receives some much-needed advice from her very own mentor – Princess Celestia.
2. All Bottled Up - While the Mane 6 are on a friendship retreat, Starlight Glimmer loses Twilight Sparkle's friendship map. Afraid her anger might get out of control, Starlight Glimmer casts a calming spell while the ponies search for the lost map.
3. A Flurry of Emotions - After planning a jam-packed day, Twilight Sparkle also agrees to babysit her niece, Flurry Heart. But with Flurry Heart along for the ride, Twilight Sparkle struggles to maintain her title as 'The Best Aunt Ever' while keeping Flurry Heart out of trouble!
4. Rock Solid Friendship - When Pinkie Pie learns that Maud might move to Ponyville, she does everything she can to make sure her sister sees that it has more to offer than just rocks.
5. Fluttershy Leans In - Fluttershy is determined to make her career dreams come true with the help of some very special ponies. But when her true vision is not being executed properly, she must find a way to stand up and fight for her ideas.
6. Forever Filly - When Rarity surprises Sweetie Belle with a special day together filled with all of her favorite activities, she quickly learns that her little sister is no longer the little foal she used to be.

EDIT: Pinkie Pie Says Goodnight: Mother's Day
 

UberTag

Member
Honest Apple

I had no idea having Rarity thrash metal on a guitar was something I needed in my life.
She's just chock full of hidden talents.
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I could have done without Andrea Libman's Lily Lace delivery. I think highly of her range and versatility but this fashionista voice came off as somewhat of a misfire.

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

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

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