#anyway my thoughts on the new mlp movie: it seems fine

[heckyeahponyscans]

What’s your opinion on the later seasons of the G4 TV show? And does it still feel like it falls under the same MLP you grew up with? I’m curious :D

This is going to be very long, so I apologize, but Tumblr allows you to auto-shorten long posts on your dash now, so here we go.

Growing up I loved G1 My Little Pony, it was my favorite toy. But I didn't watch the TV show regularly. (I did see parts of The Glass Princess and The End of Flutter Valley, which influenced my play, but they were multi-parters and I never saw the full plot.) So although I have a lot of nostalgia for G1, it's disconnected from MLP 'n Friends / MLP Tales.

Anyway, I also collect Transformers and most Transformers shows last three years or less. And watching MLP FIM I was like, "Well, now I know why."

Most stories end soon after the protagonist achieves their goal. Like the original Star Wars trilogy ends with the evil Emperor being defeated. Disney’s Cinderella ends with her marriage to the prince.

That's because the struggle is the interesting part of the story. We want the protagonist to have a happily-ever-after but we don't want to watch it play out decade after decade. Conflict drives stories.

From what I've heard, the show runners did not expect FIM to be renewed for a fourth season. So at the end of the third season, they gave Twilight Sparkle the ultimate triumphant moment and had her become an alicorn. Great!

Except. Then the series was renewed. And they had to keep going.

There are some later season episodes I really like, for example the one with the kirins. I liked Starlight Glimmer and her arc. I loved the friendship between her and Trixie.

But looking at the later seasons as a whole, they really degraded as they went along.

The writers did not know what to do with Twilight Sparkle as a princess. They tried to be meta about it, like "whoooa, SHE doesn't know what she's doing!" (And I love the "You'll Play Your Part" song, it brings a tear to my eye.) But lampshading the problem doesn't solve it.

Also, it was becoming less and less realistic for the main cast to still need lessons about basic social skills. So they brought in a pony who DID still need to learn them: Starlight Glimmer. As I've said, I liked Starlight, I thought she was a good addition.

The writers also created the cutie mark mission table, which was a fun excuse to send the cast to new locations and meet new creatures.  But for some reason they decided all the missions had to revolve around friendship. And I just . . . I don't understand why they took the name of the show so literally. Just let the friendship part be "We're the Mane Six, we're best friends" instead of "Hello griffons, we're here to teach you about friendship! You idiots." It was so weird, they felt like pony missionaries going out to proselytize to the heathens.

Why couldn't the table have just summoned them for problems like "Hey, the volcano's going to explode, find a way to stop it before it kills the endangered ferrets living in the valley below"? There are times when it's fine for problems to be purely physical. Like when you've run out of character-driven conflicts for your main cast.

As all this is happening, the rest of the Mane Six were gradually achieving their goals. Rainbow Dash joined the Wonderbolts, Rarity opened more boutiques, the CMC got their Cutie Marks. Okay, sure. The show couldn't string the ponies along forever.

But this goes back to the happy ending problem. The main conflicts / goals that had been driving the characters were getting wrapped up. So NOW what do you do with them?

Somewhere in all this the Movie happened. And I loved it. I wish they'd added Tempest Shadow to the main cast. That's all I have to say about the movie.

I have the impression the Movie toys didn't sell as well as Hasbro expected, though. I don't have any proof of this, but they seemed to reel back the toyline after it. Whatever the case, the show saw a major change with the introduction of the Student Six and the School . . . of Friendship.

Really? Really? The reason Twilight needed friendship lessons was that she was antisocial. Average ponies shouldn't need them. They should've made it a regular school instead of creating this weird implication that ponies (and other creatures) need to learn friendship in a scholastic environment. But whatever, the name of the series was Friendship Is Magic so everything had to be directly friendship-related forever I guess.

So, my feelings about the friendship school are complex. I think they were trying for a soft reboot. They knew they'd run the well dry with the Mane Six so they tried moving them to a support role. Which isn't a bad idea. Also, I always thought it would make more sense for Twilight Sparkle to become a professor rather than a princess. It fits her personality / interests. So Twilight as a teacher--yes!

But then the rest of the Mane Six also became teachers? Uh huh, I'm sure Applejack had plenty of time for that on top of running a farm full time. I wish only Twilight had been a teacher. The students could have interacted with the rest of the Mane Six after school and on weekends.

Okay, moving on to the Student Six: this is going to sound weird, but I think they would've fit G5 better than G4.

G4 was more cartoony (which I don't mean as a putdown), everything was very exaggerated. The Student Six were more nuanced. Gallus was stubborn, but he wasn't "the STUBBORN one" in the same way that Fluttershy was "the SHY one", you know what I mean? Being nuanced characters in a goofy world hampered them IMO. I never felt like I "got" them, although I did like them.

The other weird thing is they had no support from the toyline. Only two had brushables, I think. And only one brushable apiece. Meanwhile Hasbro was still shilling Pinkie Pie like their life depended on it. I would love to know what led to this situation. Maybe Hasbro had planned more Student Six toys but pulled them back because the Movie toys didn't sell well enough?

Then we get to the final season, which was just a mess. So Discord disguises himself as Grogar, purposely breaks a bunch of villains out of jail, and demands that they enact a villainous plan against the Mane Six. (And one villain is a baby pony? Why tho?) As the season progresses the writers hint that the villains (aside from Discord) are beginning to feel camaraderie for one another.

In the villains’ final appearance the Mane Six point out that they've discovered the magic of friendship--ha ha, just kidding! The Mane Six nuke them with magic, turning them into statues forever.

It's bizarre. The writers absolutely CLUNG to the idea of friendship through the whole series, we couldn't escape from it. Friendship letters, princess of friendship, friendship table, friendship school! But in the climatic moment, when the transformative power of friendship would've made narrative sense and given a satisfying ending, when it would've justified the whole premise of the show . . . the writers were like "Nah, let's just blast the bad guys and call it a day."

My guess is they wanted to "subvert expectations". God I'm so tired of that trend. If people anticipate the end of your story arc, it's because you properly set it up and foreshadowed it. The end of a story shouldn't be a jumpscare.

BTW Discord doesn't face a single consequence for encouraging a bunch of supervillains to murder his "friends", gosh no the Mane Six just can't stay mad at that scamp.

Anyway, that's how I feel about the later seasons of FIM.

#My Little Pony #Friendship Is Magic #G4 #MLP FIM #FIM #long post #I removed my previous complaints about Flurry Heart b/c honestly she showed up so little that she might as well not have existed #so she's kind of a null factor

[bmpmp3]

so i was watching the new mlp movie and with kids movies and kids media in general, one thing i like to do as an adult is try to view it from the perspective of: “would i like this if i was a kid” ‘cause like, obviously i also think about if adult me likes it too or if i think its well made but a kids movie is made for kids so it should be appealing to them first and foremost right? in my opinion at least

anyway yeah i always like to keep in the back of my mind the opinions of my 10 year old self while watching childrens movies but like also. if i was 3rd grader in 2021 and i saw A New Generation i absolutely would have watched this movie a lot but specifically so i could play out a way more serious and melodramatic high stakes version of the story and worldbuilding with my toys as i was watching. i would have made the antagonist some big menacing shadowy king of whatever and there would be at least 4 main character death fakeouts (possibly an actually death but maybe they got brought back through the magic of pokemon tears or something). the main character would have been replaced with a talking cat with fairy wings (dont worry about it) who solves all the problems and gets all the magic powers ever.

so maybe i should take my 10 year old self’s opinions with a grain of salt? or maybe that kid was right. maybe that is what childrens media should be like

#i wrote a disney fairies fanfic exactly like that when i was like 9. talking cat main character included. she had every talent. #i think i still have the word doc somewhere jdksfjfsds i dont think i got past 1 'chapter' (2 paragraphs in 72 size font) tho #girl my tastes as a kid were so like dramatic. stop being quirky and cute mr cartoon character the evil lord is coming to kill us all #i didnt want any grounded in reality low stakes shit i wanted high concept high fantasy i wanted drama i wanted BLOOD #straight up i think the reason i liked bratz rock angelz more than any other doll based movies was cause the like climax? #in the subway with evil simon cowell was pretty intense so it like bumped it up for me despite it being relatively grounded. sorta #i dont remember a lot of specifics of that movie sorry fsdkjfk #anyway my thoughts on the new mlp movie: it seems fine #it feels incredibly dated like both musically and conceptually like a relic from 2018 and im not so sure about the character designs still #(i like it mostly but i dunno about the lips and how forward facing the eyes are. the heart hooves are great) #(the toy designs look okay but i wouldntve liked them if i was a kid. i didnt like g3 as a kid tho so like) #(take child me's opinion with a grain of salt lol i woulda liked g2 a lot and maybe g4... only the small ones (lps kid)) #(also i think hitch should have been a different colour or maybe a more green shade of yellow rn he looks too much like sunny imo) #it leans kind of heavy on g4 lore and im not so sure about that but maybe in the age of streaming it aint too bad #i know i definitely woulda found that fun as a kid like ooouuugh same world but like hundreds of years apart ouuuughhhhhh yes #what ruins will we explore....familiar ruins......loved that shit as a kid (and also now tbh) #the plot was pretty rushed since they were doing so much to set everything up in 90 minutes but eh its not the worst #the plot itself....not so sure about all these prejudice allegory fantasy stories chief. im sure they can be done well but man. #it is very easy to fumble the ball with this kinda thing. this one specifically didnt feel like the worst one ive seen at least #like i said i would have watched this movie a lot as a kid tho so yknow hdjklfjdskldf #like the thing is i would have noticed its a little weak in a lot of areas and i think because of that i would watch it specifically to #play out my own stories with my toys and flesh out the weaker parts with the little nuggets of worldbuilding they gave us #thats what happened with the first tinkerbell movie (its not a bad movie by any means but you gotta admit its the weakest) #(its like a tv pilot episode plot in movie form) when i was 8 like i knew it was flawed #kids can tell. but sometimes they like flawed stuff anyway dlksjfkdlsfd #and on the opposite end theres lots of kids media i think is very good and maybe i even like it now as an adult but like i would have HATED #as a kid like i did not like courage the cowardly dog as a kid. i didnt get it. i think its good now (although it still doesnt grab me orz) #and like i liked adventure time as a kid but i didnt like the direction it went it it was too mature for me #and man. steven universe is great. i would have loathed it as a kid jdksjfds too introspective for little me qwq #i dunno its interesting to think about sometimes! kids tastes can be complicated

[pink-pony-mod]

My Thoughts on the G5 Movie

I seriously considered making a video on this, but the moment passed, so I’ll just put out my thoughts here. Spoiler alert for the movie.

Ok, so first off I get the impression that A New Generation is NOT a sequel to Friendship is Magic. Yes, the Mane 6 appear as toys in Sunny’s foalhood, but they are featured literally nowhere else--hoofmade toys, at that. This is what makes me think that G4 was effectively bed time stories told by Sunny’s father just to teach her about racial unity.

I’ve only watched the movie once, but the only G4 reference I saw besides Sunny’s stuff was the Wonderbolts poster in the abandoned airport (?), and that alone could have been a historical fact that her father brought into the stories, just like Twilight’s cutie mark being the generic symbol of magic, seen in the stained glass window. It’s not the first time a few thousand years have passed in the MLP universe, so it seems strange that there would be zero references to the Mane 6 or other Princesses in said monuments or others’ memories/stories.

Also, why did her father make a night-light out of a perfectly cut diamond artefact that he supposedly just found on the floor somewhere?

Anyway, bluntly put, I feel like G5 is not up to G4's standard, but as far as modern kids' movies go, it's alright. G5 is different enough to stand out as its own universe, while retaining that relatable identity that set G4 apart from previous generations. Honestly, it's worth one viewing, because if nothing else, the hair simulation is amazing.

I think it was the right call to set G5 in modern times, with TVs and smartphones, as it makes the world more accessible and gives you some fresh new avenues to explore, like giant robots. What I loathe about it was the instant inclusion of instagram or tik-tok or whatever Princess Influencer was using, because it’s exclusively targeting that brainless tween crowd of “I like think I like, haha, smiling poo is funny”. Also, did a single person actually think about the designs of these phones? Because you see them being held with a special hoof-clip, looking down on them like they’re doing something, despite standing on their three other legs, like... are all ponies telekinetic now, and can use these phones with pure brainpower? Because they sure as hell aren’t swiping, not that swiping would even work, as touchscreens work on heat sensors, not pressure, so hooves wouldn’t do shit. This is ponies having human scissors all over again.

The music was extremely lacking, I thought, just generic pop; mass-appeal crap. But I suppose we shouldn’t be surprised after all those tracks they forced into the G4 movie’s credits, which I’m sure would have been ham-fisted into the film if the higher-ups had any say in it. There is some decent genre variation throughout, with the angry mob song being legitimately good (shame about the mid-song “joke”, though), but ultimately the music strikes me of the forgettable-at-best, annoying-at-worst sound-alikes from the Equestria Girls webseries.

I’m still not on board with the human-like faces for the ponies, but they do look better in motion than the promo stills. The models and backgrounds are superb, but the animation has a generally cheap, Illumination look to it, with the lip-synching never seeming quite right to me. As I said before, the hair is incredible, and I wish I could have seen it all better, but the wide aspect ratio gave our smaller TV severe letterboxing, so I missed out on a lot of the fine details.

The characters... well, they’re fine, generic young-adult-novel characters. You’ve got Twilight 2.0, who instead of slowly learning about friendship, is desperately trying to find it. You’ve got Pinkie Pie 2.0, or perhaps 0.5, as her energy has been toned down and stripped of her fourth-wall-breaking powers (perhaps for the best, now that she has a horn). You’ve got Rainbow Dash 2.0, though she’s practically a reskin, just with less ego. You’ve got her sister, Rarity 2.0, who traded in any skill for maximum vanity. And you’ve got Fluttershy 2.0, who is now male and a yandere to the animal friends, who eat it up. And would you look at that, Twilight is an alicorn in record time (though I’m sure it’s temporary. Rainbow Power 2.0? She did have the mane change). Oh, and Applejack is forgotten, but everybody is used to that by now. And no seventh wheel Spike, thankfully.

Honestly, the characters are fine, if far more muted than our previous cast. I’m sure that will change over the course of a TV series, but even from episode one, G4 had much stronger defined characters. G5 is just kinda... a bunch of ponies... They’re kinda equal in terms of skill, bravery and smarts, with Izzy being the only to stand out as the funni pone; again, very much like the G4 movie, which became the Pinkie Pie and Twilight Sparkle Variety Hour (not that I’m complaining, but boy did that movie have so much wasted potential, forcing too much into a single story).

Now, if the G5 series wants to prove me wrong by visiting ancient ruins of Canterlot or meeting the immortal Twilight, I would accept it with open arms, but I think this universe is just too different to the previous generation to include it like that. Unicorns are no longer the social elite and scientists, but forest-dwelling elves. Earth ponies are no longer country bumpkins, but industrious innovators. And pegasi are no longer... ... What were they besides weatherponies? ... Well, they’re the elites now, who... Uh... Use social media and... music and... stuff. Wow, and I thought earth ponies got the short end of the stick. Anyway, it’s a basic humans/wood elves/high elves situation, and I’m sure there will be orcs as soon as the series starts to give them a common enemy, because this is a generic fantasy adventure now, racism and all.

And look, ponies have their own Terminator movie! Isn’t that funny? For the, like, 5 solid minutes of screen time it gets... At least the tennis ball wasn’t the big ha-ha funny that all the promo stuff made it out to be. And I really do appreciate all the failed attempts throughout the movie, from repeatedly losing the pegasus gem to the gems doing nothing together. Of course it was obvious there was a third gem from the moment they were introduced, but at least there was some kind of friendship is yadda-yadda, rather than just magic artefacts. Now, WHY are there artefacts? WHY did the races hate each other? Who was to gain from the ponies losing their magic? Because it kind of seems like they were just left to their own devices. Perhaps the rest of the pony-world is enslaved without them knowing? Perhaps we will get to see non-pony creatures at some point? I certainly can’t wait to see griffons with the new graphics. All things that I’m sure (I hope) will be answered in the series, whatever that may be.

Anyway, that’s all I can think of for now, so I’ll leave it at that. I’ll make another post if I think of more.

#review #my little pony a new generation #G5 #MLP G5 #literature

[purfectmlpblog]

...alright fuq it lemme explain my thoughts about the finale spoilers lol

Don’t worry, I WILL be posting this under a read-more so PLEASE turn away and ignore this now (especially with some “spoiler” tags on if you use ‘em) if you don’t want to be spoiled for the finale until it officially airs. I just can’t contain my thoughts no more after ponderin’ them and who knows when it’ll officially air in English (’cause slow schedules can be a pain to deal with lol) sooooo... yeah you’ve been warned xp 

...Ooooh boi, well admittedly I kinda skimmed through what the whole plot was about behind the last three episodes (I was moreso focused on all the stuff happening for “The Last Problem” so lol), but I’ll try to keep it brief for the most part:

-So... that whole thing about Grogar being the last “big bad” was just a total lie... since apparently it was just Discord masking himself as the guy just to give Twilight one last battle to face? ...Ehhh, I get that he apparently had “good intentions” but this just seems to be pushing it too far even for Discord’s standards tbh... like these are his friends now (including Fluttershy, his best friend) so why would he allow this much risk to be thrown at them for the sake of just teaching them a valuable lesson about overcoming obstacles? ._. Then again, this IS Discord we’re talking about so him pulling some shady stuff like this is to be expected, I guess? Idk...

-As another twist to the trio of bad guys... NONE of them get redeemed at the end (not even Cozy Glow... who again, is nothing more than a whiny child compared to Chrysalis and Tirek :P), as they all pretty much get blasted with the same stone spell that Discord was under for what I can presume to be forever. I mean... had Sombra been placed in Cozy Glow’s position then I guess I’d be a bit more satisfied with this kind of ending for them instead of feeling questionable about it (’cause again, Cozy’s young age ^^;)... but at the same time, for what it is it’s at least a refreshing change of pace from just having them all instantly forgiven and befriended by all the main heroes. Now that would’ve been cringey... >_<

-We got a reaaally big group of cameos from many past ponies/other creatures from the show to aid in the final battle, including Sunset and a few of the MLP movie characters like Tempest, Capper and Skystar! o.o A shame that Captain Celaeno couldn’t have been added along with them but still, pretty cool to see that particular trio regardless along with my girl Sunset ❤️ about time the main show acknowledged her importance to Twilight -.-

-Moving onto the big finale itself, “The Last Problem”, we cut ahead to I presume to be a couple decades or so since the last episode... where Twilight and her friends are all grown up and leading their own lives as Twilight’s pupil (Luster Dawn, was it?) comes to prepare herself for her own first friendship lesson. Surprisingly, unlike past finales it’s not so much a really heavy or action-packed episode but more of a “relaxing breather” kinda filler... yet still pushes the feels the more we get to see the aged-up cast and realize how this truly is the end for our heroes :(

-We’re also given a nice flashback to Twilight’s coronation as Equestria’s new leader, though it didn’t go according to plan it still provided some heartwarming feels to teach that friendships will always remain solid even if some end up moving far away. Awww ;w;.

-As for the “Grown up” designs themselves... I’m kinda torn, tbh lol

On one hand, I do like Rainbow’s, Fluttershy’s, and AJ’s older looks just fine. AJ’s especially gives me the feels looking at it ‘cause of the shawl... really hits in that poor Granny Smith is no longer around by this time :( at least she’ll always keep her memory strong in her heart ❤️

As for Twilight, Rarity, Spike and Pinkie... ehhhh ^^;. Rarity’s sparkly shawl is rather pretty though that big grey steak in her hair kinda clashes too much with the regular purple imo, Pinkie’s beehive look could’ve been fine if they just took out all that random junk in her hair, and while part of me kinda likes the “ethereal princess-y” vibes of Twilight (despite the rather dark implications that she’s gonna outlive her friends now ;-;)... the fact that she still sounds like her old dorky self when speaking kinda kills the effect for me... plus idk if only a couple decades in the future would be enough to make her this tall as an alicorn, I mean even Luna (who’s older than her) is alot shorter so it’s just a little off-putting to me to see her so “Celestia”-sized ^^;. And as for Spike... yeah, I don’t even know what’s going on there, so... let’s just move on, please lol.

So then we get to look over how everyone else in Ponyville’s doing, with so many new species living there now, some old kiddos grew up like the CMC and the Cake twins, Starlight and her friends (plus the Student 6) continuing to run the friendship school together, and apparently some canon couples started to thrive during this time too including Lyra and Bon Bon, Big Mac and Sugar Belle, and... Pinkie and Cheese? o.o 

...Um, wow lol Wasn’t really expecting that considering that most of Cheese and Pinkie’s previous screentime together (which was only in like, two episodes?) wasn’t really that romantic from what I can recall, but guess the writers decided to just throw it in anyway ‘cause it’s a popular ship? lol I mean, not like it’s a bad one or anything but it still feels a bit randomly-placed in a narrative sense imo ^^;

Speaking of their daughter (Lil Cheese, I think?), while I do think she’s cute, part of me is kinda disappointed that they didn’t really get more creative with her design like they’ve done for Flurry Heart and the Cake twins :c. Color-wise she looks okay but... why just make her a recolor of her mom’s filly design? .-. Even putting her hair in some pigtails or something would’ve worked better imo.

-Some more design nitpicks I had were certain weirdly placed hairstyles like Pumpkin Cake’s and Diamond Tiara’s, as well as why Gummy the alligator just looks like he resized into a giant than legitimately grew into an adult lol. Also this might also be nitpicky but why exactly is everyone (minus Twilight) so old-looking with grayed hair and/or eye bags (ex. Rarity and Sugar Belle), when a couple of them have school-aged children at this point? .-. Hell, even most of the Mane 6′s parents didn’t look this old (including Twilight’s, and they’ve got a granddaughter lol), so I’m kinda confused by this type of design choice tbh.

-I don’t really remember if they explicitly stated what happened to the old princesses during this time since they didn’t show up again, nor what the final fates of Shining Armor and Cadence were (save for a brief shot of Flurry Heart having her own stain-glass window in the throne room). Idk, just would’ve been nice to have gotten more explicit about that ‘cause I don’t wanna think of these poor royals being gone now with just Twilight being the leader now ;-; 

-I guess there was also a couple “implied” ships thrown in too like Fluttershy and Discord (though that one might be more “loose” to interpret, depending on how much you like the ship) and apparently AJ and Rainbow Dash seem to be having something “deeper” going on considering they specifically walked in together when all the other Mane 6 walked in individually into the throne room. Hmmm...?

-And lastly after a bit more filler and than a montage song of the Mane 6 harmonizing together one last time, we get to close off the entire episode, season, and series with one final shot of the heroes standing on a sunset-y hillside together, saying goodbye to Twilight’s student who goes off on her own friendship adventures... and then the screen fades to a book closing as a call back to the very first episode of the series over 9 years ago... where the exact same book opened up to start off our beloved show to begin with T-T

....aaaand yeah my feels exploded over again, sorry T-T. Despite the lil nitpicks I had here and there (and how I wish certain plot holes could’ve been handled better in hindsight), this was still a really sweet and thoughtful way to end MLP: FiM with one last batch of fluff like this... the end of a good 9-year run of the show which’ll surely leave a special place in every fan’s hearts, including mine ❤️

Though again, like I mentioned before I still won’t be considering any of this actually “canon” in the main universe I’m setting up, which is all basically an AU at this point since I haven’t really been keeping up with the show as frequently to care much for sticking with the main canon :p. For my fellow content creators, please don’t be afraid to keep working on your own next gens and such btw, even if some of it might be contradicted in this particular finale I’d say anyone is free to make their own interpretations however they want, canon or no canon~ ;p

  Hope y’all understand that well and I hope you guys have a great rest of your day! 😃 

#mlp spoilers #purfy chat #long post #mlp season 9 spoilers #mlp finale spoilers #spoilers

[bronyinabottle]

SCHOOL DAZE THOUGHTS

We have now reached the 8th season of the show. The 2nd to last season before things are over for good. We only have 50 episodes left after this two-parter now. Let’s hope they can make at least most of those count.

Every season opener of MLP tends to set the tone and/or set up some kind of arc throughout the season. And this season’s theme seems like it will center around this School of Friendship Twilight opens up just a day or more after the end of the Movie.

Which speaking of which, oh yeah in case there was ANY sort of doubt that the movie was going to be canon to the show or at the very least be given the Equestria Girls treatment of “Ignore it ever happened, not even a significant character name drop”. Within the FIRST TEN SECONDS they explicitly reference something that happened in the movie. About 30 seconds in, Tempest is mentioned and even told what she’s doing while also telling why she likely won’t appear much if at all this season (I suppose the real reason is they probably couldn’t afford Emily Blunt for too long but good to have something in-universe at least). Reminder that we still have not heard Sunset Shimmer get named in any episode of the main show while within the first minute of the first episode that takes place chronologically after the movie both references events and names a significant character. That’s the clear proof you need to determine a movie canon. Equestria Girls might be considered canon by the Staff and by now probably accepted as such for the most part by the fandom as well. But until something like Sunset appearing or at least mentioned in the main show, or at the very least the mirror makes a cameo appearance in the spot it does in Twilight’s castle. Then there’s going to remain that little seed of doubt of Equestria Girls may not be canon the main show. But in it’s own universe where the main show is canon to it. Even the appearance of the Sirens in the Season 7 Finale, while surely significant is hardly as confirming as what the first minute of this episode did for the MLP Movie. I’m not saying myself that EQG is non-canon, as by now I think it’s at least a little clear that it is. But they haven’t made it any easier to really say EQG has much of an impact on the main show. There’s room to doubt events of the EQG series happened, there isn’t any for the MLP movie after the first minute of this episode.

But anyway, time to get to the point of the episode. Twilight is opening a friendship school that isn’t just for ponies, but also many other races/species in Equestria in an attempt to spread the ponies way of friendship to regions outside of Equestria. It’s an interesting idea, time will tell how it all goes down. There’s some execution of it that might be a little questionable by making all of the Mane 6 the only teachers in the school. Some have already brought up that obviously some of the Mane 6 already have full-time jobs of some sort. Rainbow’s a Wonderbolt who’d likely have to be called in for shows and such sometimes, Rarity owns a business so weighing that and being a teacher sounds kinda difficult, AJ works on a farm with so many chores to do, etc. Perhaps it could of been better if they had included more teachers other then the Mane 6 to have available, mainly already fully established characters. I can’t exactly speculate which ones would work as some may have the same issues of bringing in some of the Mane 6 as teachers. Another solution would be to have new characters, but that does come with the problem of character overload. There was already a lot of new characters with the students as well as the EEA’s leader. Imagine having a full slate of new characters for the purposes of teaching as well. That’d be an absolute nightmare to try to cram that all in a 44 minute special in terms of introducing both teachers and students. At least with the Mane 6 we already know them well, even if that comes to the detriment that there would be cases where the characters would be far too busy to teach. But maybe they’ll have substitutes for when they can’t come in? That could be a potential solution. Overall though we’ll just have to see how this season plays it off and maybe even how the Final Season coming up continues on with the school as things wrap up to overall determine how well they execute this idea. It has potential for some fun stuff, but it could also turn up to be a disappointment. We’ll see how things go down.

On to the EEA though, I’ll touch on a certain subject later in this thing with them. But right from the get go when Twilight is giving her presentation you can tell something’s not quite right with the committee. And that’s before we find out about something later in the episode. Besides the admittedly hilarious closeness to one of the most despised gaming companies (Or even companies in general) EA, it’s mostly old ponies giving a skeptical glare as whomever is presenting their idea. Chancellor Neighsay (Voiced by the well-renowned voice actor Maurice LaMarche, famous for being the voice of The Brain from Pinky and the Brain. Neighsay’s voice is even strikingly similar, though not exactly like The Brain’s) being the towering figure that him alone sounds like he just has that exterior about him of a really skeptical person. He skims through Twilight’s proposal, and then presumes that Twilight’s school is about protecting the ponies way of life from dangers rather then Twilight’s plan of having Ponies get to know different creatures from outside Equestria. This obviously foreshadows the big plot point with Neighsay later, but I’ll get to that when I get to that.

But anyway time to get to the new students! I’ll leave a thoughts on each of them

Sandbar: I think I need to get to know Sandbar in more episode to really know what he’s about. But he’s fine thus far. And hey for once Vincent Tong gets to voice a character that’s NOT a love interest nearly universally hated by the fandom! (In case you’ve forgotten, he’s voiced not just Flash Sentry, but also Prince Blueblood and Feather Bangs)

Gallus: Gallus seems like a neat griffon granted he’s going to be a bit jerkish being that’s what most Griffins seem to be. But he’s obviously going to be the Dash in the group of friends in terms of sticking up for them when they need him.

Yona: A clumsy Yak that has a few endearing qualities for sure, I know not everyone’s a big fan of the Yaks, but I feel Yona may have potential to be more tolerable then most of the other yaks.

Smoulder: AKA The newest ship for Spike pretty much. Maybe some people thought Ember is just a little too old for Spike. If so, then Smoulder might be their answer. She’s obviously still older then Spike but she’s still closer to his size. So might make it a bit easier to see a ship between them.

Ocellus: Well ain’t she a pretty adorable changeling. Not too bad design for a nu-changeling either. Plenty of potential of fun situations for a recurring changeling character so we could see some good things from her later too.

Silver Stream: She’s perhaps my favorite out of the multi-species six. And not just because she’s connected to the seaponies from the movie. She’s full of energy, and her excitement for mundane things like stairs is charming and meant as kind of an odd to the fish out of water tropes we saw back in The Little Mermaid when forks were called Dinglehoppers. I’m certainly excited to see more of her after this two-parter

As we progress we get the natural events of what happens when a school about making friends seem to focus more on being a boring normal school with teaching guidelines that doesn’t quite work for every one of the students. Especially the non-ponies involved. And the group we saw earlier skip out on what happens to be the most important day for Twilight to show the EEA how things are progressing. But what happens as a result when Neighsay discovers the non-pony student that is no doubt a big subject that anyone surrounding the very volatile political climate right now could see this as quite awkward.

There’s no way around it, Neighsay is pretty much a racist. As soon as he sees there are non-pony students he sees Twilight as not going by his standards that the positive teaching be meant only for Ponies. And thinks other species are not as capable of learning friendship like Ponies can. There have been episodes before that are vaguely or could be considered from a point of view a bit political. Some episodes even are hit with political controversy even if that might of not been the intention. But it feels like in this case it is very intentional, especially in this volatile political climate. This is very much the equivalent of a high-up bureaucrat shutting a school down because the school is allowing students from places that either been enemies in the past or have otherwise rejected co-operation that benefits their country more and letting them mingle with those inside the country. I wouldn’t be surprised if in many red states if their parents were watching the episode with their kids. They’d turn off the TV and tell their kids to do something else knowing very well what this episode was implying. I wouldn’t even be surprised if there are kids who are now no longer allowed to be watching the show or buying MLP toys because their parents see this episode as attacking political beliefs. It honestly makes Neighsay perhaps one of the most realistic, and because of that one of the more scarier antagonists in the show. Neighsay’s not exactly a villain, he’s not trying to take over the world but he’s nonetheless someone with beliefs that is at odds with the message of Friendship for all that the ponies often try to send. And it’s likely he’s probably not the only pony in Equestria like that if he got such a high position. Despite the ponies having dropped their racism in the past for each other’s type since Hearth’s Warming Eve. It seems to have shifted at least for some regarding non-pony species. There’s some understandable reasons why for ponies to distrust them such as Dragons terrorizing ponies, Changelings only having recently been made mostly good but the Canterlot invasion as well as kidnapping all the princesses and the rest of the Mane 6 is likely still a sore spot about them, Yaks are destructive and don’t have the best tempers, Griffons seem non-caring about a lot of things, etc. But in a society that seems to be easily forgiving, apparently there’s some ponies unwilling to give the same 2nd chance that they gave formerly evil ponies even if they did worse things then any of the non-pony species did. Looking at Starlight especially, nearly ripped the ENTIRE present timeline but is given no more then a slap on the wrist, yet we don’t see Neighsay challenge the fact she’s involved with the school. He demonstrates far more anger that they just included non-pony species into the school when those students themselves and even the older representatives that brought them there didn’t really do anything to harm Equestria. It’s this very type of hypocritical feeling that has come out in recent political firestorms.

I don’t want to get too further in this, as I’ve for the most part avoiding posting about politics on my modblog. I do not want to get into any political debates, that’s not what I use Tumblr for even though there are certainly a lot of blogs that ARE very heavy political wise on Tumblr. But that’s not why I chose to use Tumblr. I just want to have fun giving my thoughts on things I’m excited for and episodes of MLP, and making fun little sprite comics of stories I want to tell. This is a brief escape from the minefield that is today’s politics where there’s no winning no matter where you stand. I’m only mentioning this now, because it’s kind of an unavoidable subject after this episode. There’s just no sugarcoating it to the point we can deny it’s at least somewhat political.

Heading into Part 2, I did really like the scene of Twilight trying to be cheered up by her friends. It doesn’t exactly work, but it really shows how much Twilight cared about the school that not even her friends could do much to really help how down she feels that her school was closed. It’s an entertaining scene to me too. Can’t exactly pinpoint why. But it’s a good scene.

Small note, but I found it amusing Pinkie has a themed cannon for each of her friends. Even Starlight and Spike. I don’t even know why she does, but it’s funny.

A fun note to see that the throne room in Celestia’s castle (Or should we say Celestia and Luna’s) has changed to the look it has in the movie. Luna finally has her own throne again and everything. Kinda cool.

And what will undoubtedly be the meme of the episode, Silverstream’s fascination with Stairs. Although there are a few occasions that maybe Silverstream should of seen Stairs earlier. Like in the school or even earlier in the same castle they were hiding in. And I believe the Mane 6 go down a pretty huge amount of stairs to find the entrance to the sea pony kingdom. Though I think maybe the reason for that is for most of Silverstream’s life she was a sea pony. We don’t know how long the Storm King was threatening the places outside Equestria. It could very well be an entire decade. Long enough for Silverstream to mostly see things that were underwater rather then the stuff that is normal on the surface.

Speeding up a little, we know Twilight and the others find the students. And then stand up to Neighsay. (Though Maurice has already said this won’t be the last we see of him) And finally get the School put in the direction that it should be. Setting up the rest of the season with the new non-pony characters that I think at least a few will become new fan favorites. It’s a nice start to the season, some things certainly got political and that’s not going to be an easy conversation no matter what. But we got some neat new characters and the rest of the season to look forward to.

Next time is yet another Maud Pie episode. I’ll seeya then!

[digikate813]

Let’s Talk About: My Little Pony The Movie! (spoiler free)

The wait is over. It’s finally here, and if you’re reading this, chances are you have already seen it or are going to go see it. I haven’t done written reviews in a while, but when @marvelandponder contacted me and asked me to participate in a big collab of written, spoiler free reviews of this movie as part of her Year of Pony celebration. How could I say no to that? I’m not sure, because I didn’t, and that’s why this is here. There will be a spoiler-ific episode of “Let’s Talk About” coming up, but if you don’t want the movie spoiled for you, this is the place to be.

 This movie has been hyped up for a long time. Not only because My Little Pony is getting another chance at the big screen, but just the fact that the show has become big enough to attempt this, since movies based on existing cartoons kind of died out a while ago due to poor performance, With the exception of Spongebob, but that’s about it. So after all of this waiting and so much riding on this movie, how did it turn out? It’s pretty good, I had fun.

 Chances are, if you are a fan of the show already, kid or adult, you’re probably going to enjoy it just fine. With one exception, it doesn’t really try to cater to a mainstream audience or the kinds of things that are typically in animated kids movies lately. It’s very similar to big episodes of MLP like A Canterlot Wedding, Twilight’s Kingdom or To Where and Back Again. Just with a lot more time and resources to work with.

 The biggest and most obvious upgrade, is the animation. I’m not gonna lie, when I saw how the characters were gonna look in this movie, I wasn’t thrilled. At first, it just looked, too round to me or something. But once I saw them move, all of those fears melted away. The trailers were already impressive, but the movements and expressions of the characters were so vibrant and fluid. And the camera! Oh my gosh! Did anyone else notice how smooth the camera panning was in this movie? It was beautiful.

I think it’s going to be tough to go back to the show after this, because while I know Flash is a very helpful and creative tool for animation, this just looked amazing. And while this was still done in a program, technically, it’s beautifully put together. I don’t think this is going to bring back 2D animation, but if this movie does well enough, maybe it will convince studios to try it every now and then. Because there was still CGI in this movie. Mostly for backgrounds and mapping environments, which improved greatly from the trailers. It look so much better now. And the airships are, fine. Reminds me of the ones in Avatar. Definitely noticeable, but really only distracting when they first show up.

 And because this is a movie about traveling outside of Equestria into different kingdoms, this gorgeous upgrade gets to bring new exotic locations to life. And it does an exceptional job at that. If there is one thing fans have been itching for the most, it’s expanding on the world of MLP. And I think Meghan McCarthy and the team knew that going into this. That’s pretty much the main point of this movie. Using their extra runtime to travel the world, meet new creatures, and go on an epic quest that they couldn’t do on this scale in the show, even in a 45 minute two part episode.

 So let’s talk about the new characters they run into on their journey. Now I’m just going to cherry pick my thoughts here, cause again, I’m avoiding spoilers, but the best thing I can say about all of these characters is that, they don’t make the story feel crowded. I thought they did well at moving from one location and one group of characters to another. While most of them don’t have much depth to them, they all have their place in the story and add a lot to the world outside of Equestria. While still being fun, eccentric personalities in their own right. Especially with how tough it seems most civilizations have it outside of Equestria. The pirates were cool, the sea ponies were fascinating with very interesting designs, Kristin Chenoweth’s character was, for lack of a better word, very bubbly (shut up), and I was really, really nervous about Capper, but he turned out to be very charming and whenever he was on screen, he stole the show. Taye Diggs should consider pursuing voice acting further. He’s great at it.

 The only one I wasn’t crazy about was Grubber. No disrespect to the voice actor, but he just seemed kind of shoehorned in. Just there to eat and add some annoying one liners for the trailer. It was really the only time I felt the movie was pandering. But you know what makes up for that? Tempest! Tempest was AWESOME! Again, I can’t go over everything I love about Tempest without spoiling things, so here are some bullet points. I found her to be an intimidating threat, I like that she was just the right hand mare of a bigger threat in the form of the Storm King, which is something we haven’t really seen on the show before, and maybe it’s because a million OCs before her have done this, but I didn’t realize what a big deal it was her horn was broken until I saw the characters reactions to it. It’s something else that makes Tempest stand out form the crowd. As soon as I saw her, it looked like Tempest was scientifically designed to be the bad-ass character that fans would adore, and it looks like it worked. It did for me!

 In fact, the voice for Tempest and most of the celebrity characters were, really good. When you get a celebrity to be in an animated movie, sometimes it can be tough to separate the voice from the actor, and believe it’s the character’s. That and it’s a form of acting that they aren’t used to. But this worked really well. It felt natural, they all turned in excellent performances, and for the most part, if you hadn’t told me who was voicing the characters, I wouldn’t have noticed they were celebrities. Especially Liev Schrieber as the Storm King. Oh my God. He was so great in that role. And once again, our returning cast members turn in the same level of charm, charisma, endearment and emotional weight that they have for the past 7 years. And the songs were awesome! I’ve listened to some of them more times then I’d care to admit over the past couple of days.

 There’s really not much else to say about the story or characters without going into spoilers, so, overall, this movie was a good time at the movies. When I saw the trailers, I was hoping to get a fun, globe trotting adventure and that’s exactly what I got. Better in some areas, not as great in others, but I think anyone who’s going in actually wanting to see this movie, will enjoy it a lot. While I understand people not getting into this movie, I do think, from what I’ve seen, that some critics are being too hard on it. It’s nothing groundbreaking, but it’s a big step up from where we were the last time the pastel ponies were on the big screen. It has a wonderful spirit to it, that it inherited from the show we all know and love. I can’t see anyone who isn’t a kid or a big fan getting much out of this movie, or sway them to “join the herd”, but I think if you’re willing to leave your stigmas at the door, you might have a good time at an enjoyable movie. And sometimes, that’s all I ask.

 Besides, it looks way better then that weird goose movie! Did anyone else get that trailer in their screening? What the hell was that?? Anyway, good movie, go see it in theaters if you can. Or buy it on DVD when it comes out. Please don’t pirate it.

And while you’re at it, check out the other members of this collaboration and their reviews!

MarvelandPonder

Mr-Mikail

#My Little Pony #Let's talk about #my little pony movie #review #MLP:FiM

[squeeb100]

I feel like I haven't thoroughly enough talked about the mlp movie. It came out months ago and nobody cares what I think but I've been thinking about it a lot recently so I'm going to share my thoughts anyway. I don't have that much to say really other than that I enjoyed it. It wasn't a great movie, but it was fun.

CHARACTERWISE: The new characters were AWESOME. I'm super in love with Tempest, who is relatively deep I guess? None of these characters are but we're in talking pony world this is as nuanced as it gets. Capper is a handsome, handsome, gallant fellow and Storm King is great--I would complain that there wasn't enough of him in the movie, but honestly he's there the perfect amount. He's the straight man in a world of colorful ponies, and he's hilarious and somehow friendly while retaining his sinister aura, but any more of him would be irritating.

The unfortunate trade-off for some great new characters is less use of existing characters. The mane six (outside of Twilight) feel very inconsequential (compared to the series). Rainbow Dash sings a song and makes a friend, Pinkie Pie sings a song and makes a friend and it has actual bearing on the plot. Twilight flip-flops between some different and weird moral grounds and her character seems unusually fluid and insubstantial, and the other three do...n o t h i n g. They're just...there. Rarity effects the end game by giving Capper some buttons, which is helpful, but the rest of the time she, Applejack and Fluttershy are there to make jokes, fill screen space, and represent their respective flanderizations.

That said, in spite of how weird Twilight felt at times, she frequently is a strong lead character and I liked her in the movie. The lack of the other characters is understandable and unless they're your favorite, the writing is strong enough that a visual cue from the character is enough to feel like they're helping. Songbird Serenade is adorable. I hate Grubber.

ANIMATIONWISE: Oh boy. So, good things and bad things, again. I can't stop laughing about how VARIED the animation quality is from character to character. TEMPEST IS WELL ANIMATED. She looks amazing. She's expressive without looking too weird, and while the other ponies have a similar range of motion, they somehow come off as less expressive. The head animator for Tempest did really well. I think people got so used to animating ponies, however, that something with Capper's build became something of an enigma. Although he has some really fun moments of animation, he moves really stiffly at others. This is partially the style, which looks more expressive on a pony that an anthropomorphic cat, but it's a little jarring sometimes. The blend of 2D and 3D also ends up odd at times. The shading looks really good in some shots and makes the characters look like puffy stickers in others. Overall, the animation is great, though.

SONGWISE: There are some really good ones in this movie, but there are also some that I can't remember at all. "I'm the friend you need" is fun musically and lyrically, but "open up your eyes" really takes the cake. The lyrics are okay but the COMPOSITION is AMAZING. It has the same fun nuance that Capper's song did but it's so huge and foreboding and full of character. It's clearly a villain song, and it's a damn good one!

STORYWISE: It's fine. Everything comes together at the end, though the pacing felt weird. I also watched it in odd little chunks which may have contributed to that feeling. There are a couple plot issues and deus ex machina situations that I won't get into but it was coherent. It's not meant to be a masterpiece, it's meant to be fun. It accomplishes this handily.

I ended up liking this movie a lot in spite of it's awkward moments. It's fun and if you're a fan of the series you'll like it. Otherwise, you'll like it less, because it's not intended to bring in new demographics. It's to grab money from existing fans and young children.

#mlp the movie #i talk too much #analysis #review #kinda

[nostalgic-blood]

THAT MOVIE THO.

spoilers under the cut of course

Yeah yeah yeah pacing issues, too much cool stuff crammed into a movie with too little time to spare for many characters including AJ and Flutts who unfortunately made no friends and thus, had they not been in the movie nothing would really have affected the plot. They were there for MORAL support okay. Also my favourite gag wouldn’t have worked without Fluttershy. I wish I could watch it again to refresh my memory, but basically they were stowaways on an airship full of pirates, and the pirates find them and threaten them, like eating them or scarring them or SCARRING THEM EMOTIONALLY, and each threat is tailored to a specific pony, and the emotional one focused on Fluttershy. That was great. I loved that gag.

Also the plot was like, simple. EXTREMELY SIMPLE. bad guys show up. Run away from bad guys. search for macguffin that can defeat the bad guys. Bad guys capture good guys anyway. FRIENDSHIP IS POWER THAT CAN DEFEAT--well no, not in the giant rainbow beam smashes into bad guy kind of defeat. The bad guy actually died, and there was a lot of fighting in the climax. Huh.

Well anyway the world building was very good which I normally would never even comment on because when it comes to MLP I usually don’t give two shits about the lore. For instance in season seven they’re introducing a whole bunch of mythical legends that while might be interesting on their own, are presented in a such a way that the episode tends to be a complete bore. What do I learn about Rarity or AJ in an episode where all they do is tell campfire stories? There is no focus on a conflict or any moral lesson (except the small ones in the stories themselves) and little interaction between the main characters. I was so bored by that episode. The Daring Do episode fared even worse and somehow they shoehorned it as Pinkie’s legend (??!!?) despite Pinkie having not read any Daring Do books and having little reason to be on this adventure. (This doesn’t even begin to describe how much Daring Do being real is one of the weakest aspects of the show itself, but I digress)

The only episode that was an interesting way to depict a legend was the Fluttershy episode because figuring out who this historical healer was, was important to curing and preventing the spread of a horrible deadly illness, so that one had great and suspenseful setup with a lot of development for Fluttershy. And frankly I think in terms of legends themselves Fluttershy’s was the least interesting, but because it was framed by a really good episode about Flutters it was the best one.

Oh right I was supposed to talk about the movie.

But yeah, one thing I REALLY like and thought was a possibility in the MLP universe were sky pirates or at least sky sailors or whatever, and HERE THEY ARE, EXISTING! And BEING PIRATES! AIRSHIPS ARE A THING! They even had one in the newest MLP episode. I knew they existed for a long while (one appeared in a small moment during Rarity’s song in Sweet and Elite back in season two) but they were never really utilized until this movie. I don’t know how i feel about tons of all anthro-looking creatures though. I always assumed the world of MLP was all these quadrupedal creatures and if they did stand on two legs it was because they were hybrids with human-like pieces such as minotaurs. Or dragons, but let’s not talk about them.

But here it’s this anthro-cat, and some anthro-fishmen, and then anthro birds, and the big bad is okay because he looks like a primate of some sort, so it makes sense, but the rest of em... ehhhh. I guess since they went OUTSIDE Equestria it makes sense there are a much larger variety of creatures/races, and maybe Equestria is the just the one with the most four-legged equines, but...

Also I think we almost had enough screentime with these new characters to like them. Almost. I was starting to like them, but it wasn’t to the point that if these characters suddenly decided to help the mane six that it’d be 100% believable. Since there wasn’t much time devoted to each of them, the fact that catman decided to side with them just because Rarity in those few precious seconds fixed the hem of his shirt was a little less realistic or believable as it could have been. I get what they were trying to do, but if more time was devoted to it, it would have had much more impact. The pirates especially I thought maybe they would blame the Mane Six for leading to the destruction of their ship, but they were actually really reasonable for pirates that when we first saw them were about to eat them. They realized straight away that the real reason their ship exploded was because their boss sucked.

I could totally believe the Princess Seapony!Hippogriff thing siding with them though. She was just lonely and wanted friends. There were no ethical issues to get in the way at all like murderous pirates or conmen. The fact that the queen did not join them made sense though, since Twilight royally fucked up.

Speaking of Twilight I see a lot of people complaining she was not very Twilight in this movie, doing things that opposed the message of friendship. It made sense to me that she fell back to her more logical, rational way of life though. As they were journeying to find the Queen of the Hippogriffs, normal singing happy friendship methods to solve problems wasn’t really working. They befriended this cat man but he actually just wanted to sell them and was using them. Then they changed the ways of the pirates, but in doing so led the enemy straight towards them. I can see how Twilight thought this wasn’t like Equestria, the land of the colourful happy pastel ponies and their usual modus operandi wasn’t gonna work here. She was desperate! But due to the amount of time they had they could not spend a lot of time emphasizing this, so it may have come off to some people that Twilight was acting a lot more malicious than she is.

Another thing is this movie is clearly not for some random person to walk into a theatre, sit down, and just start watching like they’d understand the movie if it were just a standalone thing. There isn’t much time used up at all to introduce our characters and to make a blind audience care about them. It only really works if you’re already attached to the characters and know who they are, so it really wasn’t a good movie to attract casual moviegoers or anything like that. 

I think another comment complaint is how helpless the ponies are especially when they are outside Equestria. This I thought was odd because we have Twilight who still had her magic which could basically solve anything and do anything if the plot demands in the show. Or Rainbow Dash who is supposedly faster than mach 3 or whatever, but neither of these two used their overpowered abilities effectively throughout the movie, almost like the movie forgot that Twilight could teleport or Rainbow Dash could escape.

But anyway all of that is moot. Why is all the above moot? Because we had a movie with a clear beginning, middle, and end. There were decent songs and a pretty good score. It’d otherwise just be a normal run of the mill 6-7/10.

BUT THAT IS MOOT BECAUSE PINKIE PIE WAS AMAZING IN THIS MOVIE. AND I WATCH MLP FOR PINKIE PIE. SHE IS THE NUMBER ONE REASON I AM INVESTED IN THIS FANDOM AT ALL. AND SHE HAD THE MOST FOCUS OF THE MANE SIX AFTER TWILIGHT.

The biggest issue I always had with adventure episodes which were usually the season premieres and finales of the show was that it was always heavily Twilight focused with the other five on the wayside. I did not want to watch a movie where Twilight solves the problem herself and her friends are hostages, or out of commission, nor not themselves, or otherwise not doing anything that affected the plot. They were just along for the ride. Yes unfortunately this ended up being the case for two of the Mane Six, but that’s just another side-effect of them not making this movie longer or utilizing what time they had effectively. (We could have had less new supporting characters or something, idk)

But luckily for my biased-self it was Pinkie they chose to focus on. When they don’t focus on Pinkie and she isn’t important she’s usually just the mindless comedic relief, which was always a depiction I hated of Pinkie. Equestria Girls Pinkie is exactly this, and that’s why she’s my least favourite in the EG Universe. This is fine if Pinkie’s comedy was actually good, but usually they aim for lolrandom humour when that happens. Pinkie’s comedic moments in the movie were much more often hit than miss. I didn’t really dislike any scene with Pinkie at all! At no point did she seem overly obnoxious. Maybe the time when she was trying to play I Spy, but the rest of the Mane Six were audibly exasperated with her so they were self-aware how obnoxious she can be at times, lol.

Also yes, she did ruin some moments too like a few others. And by ruin I mean, the Mane Six are trying to do something and have a perfectly good plan to do so, but one of the characters do the thing they’d always do and it’d ruin the plan. For Pinkie that was just yelling out loud in the marketplace trying to find help, this led them to being conned by the cat man and almost being captured. Then Rainbow ruined everything when she went overboard trying to turn the pirates by showing off her Sonic Rainboom, which is a very loud and flashy technique catching the bad guys’ attention and ruining their plans. Finally Twilight ruined everything when she straight up tried to steal the pearl. So at least it wasn’t ONLY Pinkie... and all of them to me seemed perfectly in-character or made sense for that specific context anyway.

A good example of an adventure episode where Pinkie isn’t very important but has great comedic moments is the season five premiere. She’s the first to notice the odd smiles and has great expressions and reaction faces to the weird town they’re in, and when the Mane Six are being brainwashed she has some great dry humour as well. Still funny when not even trying to be funny! A good example of an episode where Pinkie is not effective whatsoever at being comedic relief is the season three premiere. Pinkie’s just being really loud and screechy. Even if I did like the flugelhorn bit where she yells “FLUGELHORN” into a flugelhorn while trying to play the flugelhorn.

I think the reason why this movie gave such focus to Pinkie over the other five instead of someone else is that Pinkie is the most popular character among the target audience. All the little girls adore her. She’s definitely not the most popular among the brony community, but I’m glad the little girls have great taste! Also Twilight messes up and SHE gets captured, not all her friends at once! It is her friends who she alienated and ostracized that came to the rescue instead. I like this because even though Twilight is the Princess of Friendship now, it doesn’t mean she’s some flawless individual who is the end-all and be-all to friendship. She is the princess because she has many great friends, and they all complete her. It doesn’t make sense for a princess of friendship to not be doing things with her friends. That’s like Luna with no moon, or Cadance without a husband.

Also while Tempest whatever has a much better backstory than Starlight, I still find it a little annoying that MLP has a habit of infodumping a villain’s (that is meant to be redeemed) backstory blatantly in our face, and now we have to feel sorry for them and completely understand their motivations. I thought her villain song started out strong but fell apart when it just jumped into her backstory like that. Again, if the movie had more runtime we could have explored her backstory and motivations in either much more subtle ways, or with more depth, or not all at once. Still despite her edginess she was one of the more fleshed out new characters, so I’ll give her that. 

The movie actually reminds of two fanfics I’ve read that have sky pirates and a world outside Equestria. In one, the villain is trying to find and kidnap the protagonist for their dastardly deeds, just like in the movie trying to kidnap Twilight for power, and the cast runs across faraway lands to escape. The other just has a bunch of sky pirates. I love those sky pirates. I made a sky pirate AU for ponies once that if I weren’t so invested in my RWBY AU powered by 1000% salt I might actually attempt to write. SKY PIRATES!!1!11!!!

It’s like the movie was pandered directly to me. Good Pinkie content and sky pirates. Yay! So, with all that bias included I’d give the movie a solid 8.5/10. But that’s just me personally. If Pinkie ISN’T your favourite character or you enjoy more complicated plots with more unpredictability you might rate it a more objective 6 or 7 out of 10.

8.5 tho. Just for Pinkie. PINKIEEEEE!!

#here i am ranting again ~ #i thoroughly enjoyed the movie tho #gr8 movie would r8 again #text!post #rant!post #mlp!shit #spoilers

[the-e4b]

Gee, look who’s back to quote unquote making “commentary” on us.

Long story short: After Jojo’s post on Josephine McCarthy accusing Keyframe (because that’s all he can do these days, make assumptions and “commentate” on the bronalysis community because he’s that of an nuisance) of “breaking copyright laws” because she’s selling shirts with her fan art on it and taking a neutral stance mind you on the matter (basically saying it’s sort of a grey situation when it comes to selling fan art of existing IPs), the fucker decided to again, decide to commentate on us.

Also apparently he says “bronies are breaking copyright laws” because of the fan art and shit.

Hey puto McCarthy, if that’s the case, then so is everyone. Including that once shirt you had that parodied the Straight Outta Compton movie logo.

But please, do enforce how bronies are bad for doing fan art and that equals copyright breaking.

Anyway back to his video.

So again, Josiphine thinks that Key’s breaking “copyright laws” (and that’s there’s no grey area either by some logical reason) because she’s selling shirts with existing IPs on it. Now here’s the thing, that within itself would be a problem..if she was selling it as her own.

She doesn’t own the MLP brand nor any other brand that’s being sold, and it’s fan art at that too.The fan art doesn’t look exactly like the show’s style too.

That’s what prevents it from being C&Ded to say the least because it’s not merch from the show itself.

Now I know Ephrom heard of the Jan Animations controversy that lead to Jan having to cancel Button’s Adventures because copyright.

See here’s the difference between Keyframe’s art and Jan’s animation style:

JAN’S WAS THE FUCKING EXACT TO MLP.

THAT’S what bothered Hasbro. Button’s Adventures looked EXACTLY like the show’s style and that’s what prompted them to go full blown Corporate on Jan.

Yes there are also fan animations that look like the show too, but Jan’s was getting immense exposure because it looked so alike to the show.

Key’s more stylized perspective on the characters and pretty much does fan art of them.

One of the other problems with Jan’s project was that he acted like he owned Button Mash.

Don’t believe me?

Look at him getting pissed off at the fact Button’s cameos and later on in the MLP Mobile game. He flat out acted like he owned Button Mash despite the fact all he really did was popularize the character (before the C&D ruined the Mash and lead to Derpibooru developing some sort of hate towards him).

Ephrom also says there’s no “grey area” for artists to do commissions for fans who wanna see their favorite characters done by them.

what.

Again, are you saying fan art is bad in general, because if that’s the damn case, then not just Hasbro, but ANY corporation would have shut down any convention that sells fan merch/fan art and by some extent, they would have started shutting down all artists who commission.

“GUYS GUYS, BEING A HIT MAN IS A GREY AREA”.

…YOU ARE A FUCKING IDIOT.

HOW DOES ONE COMPARE “ARTIST COMMISSIONS” TO “HIT MAN”.

How do you computer.

Because really, that’s all it is. Fan material, Josephine. and Yes, some companies are fine with fan material, and some will shut down certain things because of it (Nintendo shutting down those Pokemon fan games recently?), but that’s why it’s a grey area.

Or what, because it’s Keyframe, a bronalysis member, you need to bitch about them to seek attention.

“’Keyframe the…’ DEFENDING. I SAID DEFENDING”.

You legit still think that and I want to drown in hot water, dear god you’re so stupid.

He then goes on to say how we’re quote unquote “never been neutral” and that “they’re biased” because of the Jerry Peeters stuff.

Look who’s talking.

Who’s biased against political arguments because he’s a liberal and constantly attempting to look smart when all he does is look like those people 4chan mocks.

Who’s biased against ANYONE that Jerry Peet despises and goes onto tagging them on twitter and harassing them because of it.

Who’s biased against GoldenFox because of ONE REVIEW and proceeds to mock and poke at his interest in dressing his sona in drag.

Who’s biased whenever someone critiques Jerry Peet.

Because really Josine, if we were really that biased, I’m pretty sure we would have gotten into arguments with other uses like you have repeatedly.

Once again, you take what we say, twist it to fit your standards of logic and make it seem that we’re the idiots while you’re some genius.

Really, can you for once just fucking quit while ahead?

I’m gonna let Jojo give his thoughts too so here’s he.

I want to rid myself of your obnoxious biased dribble by blasting the infamous live version of My Bloody Valentine’s “You Made Me Realise” with the incredibly loud “holocaust section”.

Being an artist, having several friends who are artists… I can see why DP is annoyed by the absurd accusations thrown at us by a Cyberbully Apologist.

 Conventions are a good place for artists and vendors to gain some credentials and earn some dosh for new supplies or to help pay for groceries. So what you are suggesting, SifFroJo is that major conventions not allow people to draw so they can earn their keep.

It’s funny because you forget, Xain the one person you don’t hate because he likes the taste of the Canadian sausage also has been paid by people to draw ponies. Such as Jerry and his fiance Lizzie, The NeoCon Bogeyman Josh Scorcher.. THE LIST GOES ON! Xain made the original Josh and Jerry pony puppets for their respective reviews and yet you brand someone so close to the God Emperor as a criminal?

I knew you were made of crappy stuff.

-JoJo & DeafPony

#siffrojo #ephrom josine

[russetm]

20 facts! I was tagged by @sl-walker

1. I pace, like a lot, I probably spend at least an hour everyday pacing back and forth in my room. I put on music and claim I’m “dancing” but srsly, I’m just pacing, I have done this my entire life.

2. I went to a Quaker sleepaway Summer camp for many years as a child called Friends Camp in South China Maine. It was probably the high point of my New Hampshire years, (it was less of a magical retreat during the Cape years as I had like actual friends I could see but it was still great). On a funny and related note I meet another UU years latter who went to a different Quaker summer camp and I’m now curious if this is a thing of UU’s going to Quaker camp.

3. I was a vegetarian from the ages of like 12 until maybe 15? 16? I only stopped because my mother said she wasn’t going to cook me separate meals any more and “No M. just mashed potatoes does not a dinner make you have to have something else as well.” and h.s. me wasn’t going to make her own meals so I just stopped. (I was also a never super serious about it anyways, like if we were out to eat and I didn’t like the veg. options I’d just order meat, and I have never been able to turn down baked kibbeh or kababs from Ed Hyder’s)

4. I went to 3 elementary schools, 2 middle schools, and 1 highschool.

5. I’ve been on staff for the same anime con for 15 years, even though I’m mostly out of anime and for the most part am not that interested in anime any more I just keep going back, I’ve made a lot of friends there, and I still like it even if I find a lot of it overwhelming and frustrating.

6. I have on more than one occasion hitch hicked around Worcester.

7. I was at Bill Clinton’s second inauguration, I was 13 at the time and its probably the thing I least remember from that trip, it was a flurry of excitement, I got to travel alone from MA to DC to spent time with my cool Aunt, and her cool boyfriend, and my super cool arty Great Aunt, and we got to go out to cool museums and do all sorts of neat things so a boring parade and what to a 13 year old me was just a bunch of boring adult speeches really didn’t stick much in my mind compared to all the other stuff. I also seem to recall the day being miserable cold for just standing around.

8. I was heavily involved in Piping Plover and Herring Conservation when I was in late elementary school and middle school.

9. I was tricked into seeing Titanic in the theater and I have never truly or fully forgiven the people involved.

10. from the age of 11 until I left the Cape I volunteered at the Cape Cod Natural History Museum and it was a lot of fun, its where I met my best friend. (we’re still pals, not counting family she’s the person I’ve known the longest.)

11. I once almost drowned in an undertow as a child (not a rip tide I know the difference) I was a slight and small child, and we were on a rocky ocean side beach and as I was getting out of the ocean a large wave broke over me causing my to loose my footing and go under, and then I got tumbled by the undertow, couldn’t get my feet under me because the rocks kept shifting, my parents had to come and fish me out of the surf.

12. I haven’t shaved in 11 years and even before that I only shaved twice a year, for my ex’s birthday and Christmas as he liked it and it was something I could do for with minimal effort, he really didn’t like it that I hated shaving.

13.  I have, and I will again watched and read things that I know will irritate me for just that reason. Sometimes I just like to have something nice and harmless to focus my irritation on.

14. I have never had poison ivy and seeing as the cape is covered in the stuff and I spent a lot of time running around in those woods that is an impressive feat (or I’m just not allergic to it, but either way)

15. I’ve only had 2 cups of coffee in my life, the first cup I thought was pretty ok, but I was also exhausted and hungry so I’m sure that anything would have tasted good then (it was a regular dunks, a friend bought it for me because he thought I could use a pick me up) the second was from Starbucks and I did not like it and nothing I did to it over at the stuff to put in coffee bar made it any better. I have also only ever made 2 pots of coffee, the first was an unmitigated disaster (sorry) the second one came out ok and it was for my Besties bridal shower.

16. I enjoy collecting things, I always have, when I was a girl it was neat looking rocks, sea shells, animal figures, post cards, model horses (I still have a bunch of my Breyer horses floating around by my old MLP’s are long gone) and what ever else caught my fancy at any given moment. Now its tea cups, I love my beautiful and lovely little tea cups that are all different from each other, I use a different one every day (tea pots I’d less say I collect and just happen to have a few) and yarn craft supplies, I have a fair assortment of different knitting needles and crochet hooks. (and sorta books and movies/tv shows, or a figure of some kind that has caught my fancy) (also I want to get rid of all of our dishes and slowly rebuild a collection of mismatched dishes so I can have a more of a collection of beautiful and practical things in my life, but it would drive Boyfriend to distraction having everything being that not matching)

17. Sometimes I get argumentatively irritated with how people talk about Cape Cod, espesh P-town. People seem fundamentally unable to understand what a tourist economy does to a place, particularly a tourist economy that is only on for half the year and that huge swatch of the cape enforce a quaint and rural look. I haven’t lived there full time in like 20 years and I still get riled up over the tourists and stuff.

18.  I technically learned how to knit when I was a young girl, but it didn’t stick, partially because my mother thought it would be a good idea for one of my first projects to be mittens made on dpn’s and I just found the whole thing to be confusing and gave it up and never really thought about it again other than “damn my mom makes some really cool stuff” but I picked it up in earnest in my very late teens or very early 20’s (I know for sure I was knitting by 22), and I taught myself to crochet shortly there after. Other crafts have come and gone over the years but playing with yarn has been a good companion to me.

19. As much as I can be super pretentious about tea some times (“Oh, I drink loose leaf tea and I have special little things for it ah-blahblahblah(I’m aware of how I sometimes come off)) I’m actually not that fussy about it, bag tea, loose tea, cheap tea, fancy tea, pellet tea, I don’t care, I’m just happy as long as it is tea. And I’m not one to whip out the thermometer going “oh for this style of tea the water must to only be heated to a blahblah temperature and one one degree more and only steeped for exactly 2.34 minutes or you’ll ruuuuuuiiiiiiin it” what ever, put the tea in the hot water, it’ll be fine, if the tea should in theory have less hot water wait a bit before putting tea in. it isn’t rocket science, we don’t need exact precision its going to be fine, and then I’m going to steep my tea again, because that shit can be expensive and you can get more than one use out of your leaves.

20. I don’t enjoy playing most video games but I’m usually pretty happy to watch someone play a video game.

so I’m tagging anyone who wants to do this.

#momo answer questions #sl-walker #this took me forever #i've been very antsy today so I just kept having to get up and walk around my apartment

[midnight-strider]

Taking a risk and looking for feed back as well as opinions

Back during the time between S3 and 4 of MLP FIM, I decided to dip my toes into the realm of Fan diction writing once again. I say once again, because I wrote one YEARS back, talkin early 2000s for Command & Conquer, but it was horrible and was never posted on a C&C site due to never really being a full chapter and just plain bad. The spark of creativity hit again during Kung Fu Panda 2 & the TV show and I did post a chapter on DA to rather positive favor but never continued due to getting distracted, worried, and other things (it was a romantic fiction between a OC and Master Tigress.....don’t just me, angry women are attractive. May come back to it too...). Now fast forward back to between S3-4 I was nervous as I know alicorn ocs are unpopular due to how easily overpowered or whatever they can be, but I forge ahead because I love making a OC of each race of a fantasy/sci-fi series I really love if each race is unique and appealing. So, with my OC thuroughly thought out and a story fully formed in my head I start turning out five-ish chapters only to stop when the S4 finale blows a idea of mine, involving Discord, out the window. Anyway, seasons pass and I wish-wash between how I should proceed and make it believable, along with how closely it sticks to current show events/cannon.

Well, with the end of S6 and the more recent movie I’ve gotten the creative urge and spark again along with deciding to update it to about the current show events while possibly leaving out the changeling reform, or having it be a splinter between true changelings and abnormals. Anyway, that said, the story is about my main OC Midnight Strider, who is both the main antagonist and in the second half protagonist. I decided I wanted to make a character and a story based on whaqt Lauren Faust had planned originally for S1 and Nightmare moon. The initial concept then turned into something more Jekyl and Hyde with a more lawful villain who truly believes in what he does despite being corrupted by his foolishness in thinking dark magic is not harmful. Through that corruption believing in a balance of good and evil that has become distorted due to the overabundant and long lasting harmony and thus deciding to bring forth a age of darkness to balance things out after seeing the rate of threats, thus ensuring something far worse is prevented. That’s just part of the first half of my novel/novella-esque fan fiction, the second delves into the Jackyl & Hyde aspects that involve literal facing of own demon along with romance. I’d say who his romance interest may be, but I’m debating on if it should be one of two candidates. One has a fair bit in common with him, though may draw ire due to just who it is and how popular this mare is due to her esteemed position. The other, is VERY new and draws from my liking of angry women who can  and has beat everyone by herself. (bet you can’t guess who I’m talking of lol) With a third section involving ramifications of the first and second parts along with a possible epilogue involving a future of how everything ended, Needless to say this is a big undertaking that in total may have well over 50, more than likely even more, chapters That being said, I’m going to post the prologue of this story and would love to see the feedback of not only the idea, but the prologue and if I should proceed/ I’d especially like to hear the thoughts of those waaay better versed in such things like @ink-rose-the-hylian , @tyandaga or @looneyturtle as they are experts in matters of character consistency and the like. But they by no means need to feel obligated to even respond as I’m sure they are busy and have better things to do. With all that said, here’s the prologue. Again, only looking for opinions, this is still under altering/changing and other stuff/

Princess celestia smiled as she walked among a field of flowers with her younger sister Luna in the canterlot gardens, enjoying a moment of sisterly bonding. They laughing, reminiscing about their youth while enjoying the idealic sunny day. They soon stopped and stared in wonder as the sky turned black and a strong wind began to blow, followed by ominous shadowy storm clouds that soon filled the sky as lightning shot out of them. Malevolent sinister laughing came from nowhere, coming from every direction, as a menacing figure cloaked in thick shadows formed before the surprised princess. The only notable features of the presence before her were faded bronze-ish gold eyes that pierced through the thick black shadow that made up it's form.

"Who are you, why have you intruded upon the castle grounds?" Celestia demanded. only to be met with more laughing. As she looked on at the occurrence, the shadowy figure shot a black burst of magic into the ground causing dark figures to rise up from it. Although hard to define, Celestia was able to make out a few. To her absolute horror, she could make out the appearance of her former faithful student and her friends but they were wrong, the exact opposite of how she knew them to be. The countenance of her student turned fellow princess was all so wrong, she looked prideful, arrogant and vain, nothing like how she knew Twilight. And her friends, they looked just as wrong and cruel as Twilight did.

"No....What have YOU done?!" Celestia barked at the shadow cloaked figure, which still refused to respond. After the initial shock she looked at the malevolent figure, her mouth turning into a stern and determined frown as her eyes narrowed, glaring at the shadowed figure in front of her before shooting a magicical blast, only to have it go right through the menacing visage.

The figure seemed to not even notice or care, instead shooting it's strange beam of magic once again after a few seconds. Although believing it to be aimed at her, instead Celestia looked in horror as the beam hit Luna who she soon realized had not actually moved since the figure appeared. "Luna!" Celestia cried out, "Are you..." Celestia was cut off as the princess of the night slowly started to laugh in a all too familiar tone, one that Celestia had hoped she had heard the last of for good. As Luna began to change, her coat slowly faded from it's dark blue color to black from her hooves up, eyes turning teal and irises changing from round to more slit like as she soon became Nightmare Moon. Smirking she walked over to the figure, standing by it's side as Queen Chrysalis and King Sombra appeared on either side of them. As Celestia began to step back, eyes wide in disbelief and shock,  trying desperately to not let the sheer dismay from what was unfolding before her eyes overwhelm her.

"Luna.....no....." Celestia said softly as she looked down at the ground, heart practically shattered, slowly raising her head after a few seconds toward the figure in a look of sheer hatred and eyes that would shoot daggers if they could.  "You....I'LL SEE YOU ROT IN TARTARUS!" Celestia roared in rage at the figure that was at the center of the events as She began to fire off more spells at the shadowy figure in a mix of anguish and rage at what it had done to her sister only to see them continue to pass through. Her look of anguish and shock grew into terror as darkness began to engulf the ground, seeping from the figure as the black mass moved toward her from where it and her sister stood along with the past threats she thought were either at bay or gone forever. She stepped back more and tried to retreat only to see the darkness heading toward her not just from her front, but from behind her as well as to her left and right, surrounding her in a hopeless situation. Now starting to Panic, Celestia spread her wings to take flight as the darkness closed in on her only to have her own sister, now Nightmare moon again, swiftly close the distance between them and grab hold, preventing her from getting up off the ground as the darkness slowly started to engulf her.

"Equestria is MINE!" the figure bellowed in victorious wicked glee, laughing along with the other foes that stood with it as the darkness enveloped her completely. "NOO!" Celestia cried out. Gasping as she woke, Celestia trembled while cold sweat ran down her face.

"Princess is something wrong?!" The guards that were posted at her door asked as they burst through the door. One, a Pegasi, had his spear firmly ready in one of his wings while the other, a unicorn, had his horn glowing at the ready to attack anyone. "No, no, I'm quite alright. Just a lil bad dream, must have been that last piece of cake I had before bed." Celestia said, playing it off with a dismissive hoof. "No need to worry, I probably just need to get some walking and a lil water before trying to sleep again." The princess of the sun added as she got out of her bed.  

"Are you sure, you seem to be trembling a lil and sweating. One of us could go get you one or we could both escort you if you like." The Pegasi asked. "It's fine, isn't a grown mare allowed to have a nightmare every now and then?" Celestia said with a light giggle, "Now, you two stay here at your station while I go get some water, I'll probably stop by and see how Luna is doing as well. After that I'll be right back, promise"

"Well.....I suppose...."

"Good, now you two stay here while I walk off this bad dream." Celestia stated before walking off from her room, much to the dismay and slight bewilderment of her guards. Once she was sure that she was far enough away where they could not see her, Celestia picked up the pace of her walking into more of a frantic walk as she headed to meet her sister who was watching over the surrounding area from an observation tower in the castle, making sure not to panic her sister's guards as well as she entered the base of the tower before hurriedly rushing up the stairs.

"Sister, What's wrong, You look horrible?" Luna asked in surprise as her sister charged in, causing her to turn away from looking into her telescope. "I Fear that all of equestria.....and you are in grave danger. We need to send for Twilight and her friends as well as Cadence, shining Armor, and Discord as soon as it is daybreak."

"What could be so dangerous as to require such measures, and why am I in danger?" Luna asked with a look of worry, concern filling her voice.

"I don't know yet, but I fear that we all are in grave danger if the dream I just had was not just a mere bad dream but a premonition." Celestia replied as she looked up into the night sky.

#MLP #MLP:FiM #mlp oc #My Little Pony #My Litte Pony Friendship is Magic #mlp fan fiction #midnight-strider