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Real-time notes from watching MLP episodes (starting with G1)

Entries in this blog

Reflections

See * for disclaimer, and explanation   I'll be honest, this one was a bit of a slog. There's lots of 'stuff' going on in this comic arc, but the parts that seem relevant to worldbuilding are so fractured and the order of events seem confused. There are a couple of references dropped into the arc by the creative team that seems to indicate they did this deliberately to mess with analysis. Which makes anything derived from this arc suspect. That's annoying to me. If you don't care about continu

Fhaolan

Fhaolan

Twilight's Kingdom

See * for disclaimer, and explanation   Twilight's Kingdom Part 1 & 2 (May 10th 2014 2 x 22 minutes)   Part 1   A lot of 'official' stuff is taking place in the Crystal Empire this season. This brings up three possibilities, the most obvious being it's just a coincidence and we're simply not seeing all the important political happening in Canterlot. However, it's also possible that Celestia is very deliberately pushing the political focus to the Crystal Empire, either to speed up their

Fhaolan

Fhaolan

Equestria Games

See * for disclaimer   Equestria Games (May 3rd 2014 22 minutes)   Bulk is using the classic cartoon representation of barbells. In fact, that style is historic but in a weird way, and it took quite a bit of research to find anything out about them. They're usually depicted as being made of iron, and during the Victorian period many were as iron was far more plentiful then. And in many cases the carnie strongmen cheated by using hollow ones. Still heavy as all get-out, but not as heavy as th

Fhaolan

Fhaolan

Friends Forever Volume 1

See * for disclaimer   Friends Forever Volume 1 (Microcomic Issues 1-4, January 22nd, February 26th, March 12th, April 9th 2014)   Issue 1: Pinkie Pie & Applejack: The Pie's the Limit   Pinkie is to compete in the Equestria Super Chef Competition. This appears to be a separate event from the National Dessert Competition that the Cakes participated in back in the MMMystery on the Friendship Express episode. I'm assuming that the 'Hedge Maze Center' is a pun and I just don't know the bas

Fhaolan

Fhaolan

Rarity and the Curious Case of Charity

See * for disclaimer   Rarity and the Curious Case of Charity (Novel, April 8th 2014)   I was going through these books, because there were a couple of instances where the books revealed facts that showed up in the regular show some time later. I'm not entirely sure that's ever going to happen again. This book, while it has a quite reasonable characterization of Rarity, doesn't reveal any background information about Rarity. Mostly it's puns.   The author, G.M. Berrow, likes creating citie

Fhaolan

Fhaolan

Bookworm

See * for disclaimer   Bookworm (Comic Issues 15-16, January 15th, February 5th 2013)   Jumping right into this one with no preamble. Giant cocoons in the orchards of Sweet Apple Acres. Interesting. Specifically they're being referred to as cocoons, which means they're covered in silk fiber. There's still a chrysalis in there (not Chrysalis the Changeling Queen, silly), it's just covered in a cocoon.   Pinkie seems to be referring to them as beans, which meaning the ones she's seeing aren'

Fhaolan

Fhaolan

Friendship Ahoy!

See * for disclaimer   Friendship Ahoy! (Comic Issues 13-14, November 20th, December 18th 2013)   The Mane 6 are off to Horseshoe Bay for a day a the beach. Horseshoe Bay is on the official map, just below Baltimare.   Characterwise Fluttershy is suffering from the same problem she had with the Breezies.   Wait... why are the pineapples up in palm trees? Pineapples grow on bushes... Oh, Applejack has just decided on a weird way of delivering pineapple juice to Rarity. She seems to be doi

Fhaolan

Fhaolan

Under the Sparkling Sea

See * for disclaimer   Under the Sparkling Sea (Illustrated Novel, April 23rd 2013)   I wasn't going to do this one, as I was limiting myself to the show, the comics, and a few of the books that turned out to be referenced in the show itself. However, I discovered recently that this book was referenced in the comics, so it's valid. Though I'm going through it now, I'll put it into the jumplinks on the side there as being in the publish date.   It also has taken me awhile to get this one, d

Fhaolan

Fhaolan

Inspiration Manifestation

See * for disclaimer   Inspiration Manifestation (April 26th 2014 22 minutes)   Ponyville Foal and Filly Fair. Sounds like a festival specific to Ponyville. In RL, 'foal' maps to the human term 'child' as in all stages of life prior to puberty. We've not really run into what the ponies call the stage of life between puberty and full adulthood (what would map to human teenagers), and there isn't a horse term equivalent. Colt and Filly as terms apply to horses of the appropriate gender pre-adu

Fhaolan

Fhaolan

Trade Ya

See * for disclaimer   Trade Ya (April 19th 2014 22 minutes)   I was planning on doing the Friendship Ahoy! arc in the comics next, but I discovered something in that comic that required me to read a *different* book that I had not originally intended to do. I read the comics and MLP books through a Kindle app, and for some reason the app is crashing on that one book to such an extent that it won't even let me open the Kindle app at all anymore. So I'm going to continue on with episodes unti

Fhaolan

Fhaolan

Testing, Testing, 1, 2, 3

Testing, Testing, 1, 2, 3 (April 5th 2014 22 minutes)   I haven't done these in awhile, as I've been busy doing other things (pony and otherwise). So I'm making the effort to catch up again. Because of that big gap, I'm going to re-iterate my disclaimer:   My intent here is not a review or a critique. That's not what I do. Instead this is watching the various episodes of My Little Pony with the intent of pulling out any details that can help inform the worldbuilding around the setting itself

Fhaolan

Fhaolan

Leap of Faith

See * for disclaimer   Leap of Faith (March 29th 2014 22 minutes)   Big Mac has the floating ring again. Is he actually a weak swimmer, or does it just amuse him?   Heh. Big Mac showing his sense of humor again. He's getting a lot of characterization this season.   So is Granny for that matter. So she was a shallow diver when she was younger. It used to be called 'high diving', like they are here, but due to a different event being adopted into the Olympics under the name 'high diving',

Fhaolan

Fhaolan

For Whom the Sweetie Bell Toils

See * for disclaimer   For Whom the Sweetie Bell Toils (March 22nd 2014 22 minutes)   For Whom the Bell Tolls. Everyone keeps saying it's Hemmingway, but it isn't. Hemmingway took it from a meditation of John Donne from 1624. The meditation is all about how everyone is interconnected, and any loss is a loss to all. Not really relevant to this story except in the most vague sense.   Applique is basically a small decorative object added to the main piece. It can be *anything*, as long as its

Fhaolan

Fhaolan

Maud Pie

See * for disclaimer   Maud Pie (March 15th 2014 22 minutes)   Starting right off with absolutely modern safety goggles. Normally made of plastic, these are often used for liquid or small particle protection. Sometimes they come with little filters on the sides for very small particles, but that's not quite as common.   Making rock candy is actually a pretty simple, but tedious in it's way. You're basically making a sugar/water solution (a syrup) and then spending a week or so precipitatin

Fhaolan

Fhaolan

Somepony to Watch Over Me

See * for disclaimer   Somepony to Watch Over Me (March 8th 2014 22 minutes)   Summary: Apple Bloom yet again has to put up with Applejack the Control Freak.   From the muttered voices, it sounds like Granny Smith is doing most of the talking.   As Tudor as the various buildings in Ponyville are, it's interesting to see that some of the beams are curved. That's more typical of regions/cultures with lots of shipbuilding. In this case it would be beams salvaged from ships, or ones that tur

Fhaolan

Fhaolan

Pony Tales Volume 2

See * for disclaimer   Pony Tales Volume 2 (Microcomic Issues 7-10, August 22nd, September 11th, November 13th, December 18th 2013)   Only four issues in this one, unlike the six in the previous volume.   Cutie Mark Crusaders   Wait, Cutie Mark Tattoo Artists? Who the heck let the CMC near them with needles and ink?   Sweetie Bell channeling Derpy's dangerous rump here.   Interesting cave formations. Due to the cubic shape it looks like this entire area has been carved. Maybe this is

Fhaolan

Fhaolan

It Ain't Easy Being Breezies

See * for disclaimer   It Ain't Easy Being Breezies (March 1st 2014 22 minutes)   The Breezies are about to come through Ponyville. Fluttershy went to study them in a prior episode, but the rest of the cast hasn't seen them yet. Obviously this is not part of their normal migration pattern then. What's changed that they're coming through Ponyville this time?   Native land; reinforcing that this is not part of their normal pattern.   Mariachi band? Cute, we've not seen references to Mexica

Fhaolan

Fhaolan

Twilight Time

See * for disclaimer   Another case where the title gave me more ideas than the actual episode. Not that it was a bad episode, but it could have been about Starswirl the Bearded's time travel spells, Doctor Whooves, and a rainbow object episode. All at once! Yeah, I know they're not going to do Doctor Whooves without some serious legal bizarrity going on, but I live in hope!   Twilight Time (February 22nd 2014, 22 minutes)   Summary: The CMC discover that they can't borrow fame.   It's

Fhaolan

Fhaolan

Filli Vanilli

See * for disclaimer   Filli Vanilli (February 15th 2014, 22 minutes)   Summary: Fluttershy shakes it like she just don't care! ... What?   Milli Vanilli was an R&B pop act back in the late 80's, early 90's. Famous for a lip-syncing fiasco. It wasn't that they lip-synced though, because every pop act does that. It's that it wasn't even them on the original recordings that they were lip-syncing to. The pair on stage were not actually involved with the production of the music at any poin

Fhaolan

Fhaolan

Simple Ways

See * for disclaimer   Honestly, when I saw the title of this originally, I was thinking this was going to be an episode about Pinkie's family, as previously they were presented similarly to the 'Plain People', which includes most of the Anabaptist groups like the Amish, Mennonites, and so on. So I was in a way a bit disappointed, as I am very curious about Pinkie's actual family and want to know more about them.   Simple Ways (February 8th 2014, 22 minutes)   Summary: Rarity tries to impr

Fhaolan

Fhaolan

Pinkie Pride

See * for disclaimer   Pinkie Pride (February 1st 2014, 22 minutes)   Summary: A stranger blows into town, and Pinkie Pie's position as premier party pony is put into peril!   Ah, Appleloosa. Complete with the buffalo, which is good.   Cheese Sandwich, done up as Clint Eastwood's portrayal of the 'Man With No Name' (a stock western character) in the Dollars Trilogy (A Fistful of Dollars, For a Few Dollars More, and the most famous The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly). Like a lot of westerns,

Fhaolan

Fhaolan

Three's a Crowd

See * for disclaimer   Three's a Crowd (January 25th 2014, 22 minutes)   Summary: Twilight tries to spend some quality time with her sister-in-law Cadence. Oh, and Discord has a minor part in this.   Twilight received several pieces of mail, most of which look like modern envelopes, including standard-looking junk mail and bills with little plastic windows and large mass-produced labels. Except for Cadence's letter which is sealed with wax. I know for a fact that real modern post will rej

Fhaolan

Fhaolan

Rainbow Falls

See * for disclaimer   Rainbow Falls (January 18th 2014, 22 minutes)   Summary: Rainbow needs to qualify for the Equestria Games, but will she do so for Ponyville, or the Wonderbolts?   Honestly, I prefer the name Snowflake for this guy.   Not entirely sure how Brown Betties would be considered an athletic food. It's a layered apple cobbler, but sure, whatever.   While having him have difficulty flying makes sense with his physique, that calls prior episodes where he flies just fine in

Fhaolan

Fhaolan

Pinkie Apple Pie

See * for disclaimer   Pinkie Apple Pie (January 11th 2014, 22 minutes)   Summary: Pinkie discovers that she might be a distant relative to the Apples, and she and the family go on a quest to find the truth.   Never challenge Pinkie Pie to a game of Jenga.   Really, Pinkie's abilities seem to be connected to being able to manipulate the laws of probability. She makes the improbable guaranteed.   A ponyville snail? Snap? Snat? I tried listening to that line several times and I couldn't

Fhaolan

Fhaolan

Rainbow Dash and the Daring Do Double Dare

See * for disclaimer   Rainbow Dash and the Daring Do Double Dare (Novel, January 7th 2014)   I'm continuing to do these novels, as the prior ones each did have something interesting in them that was picked up by the show in some way. I'm not sure if that's going to continue to be true, but we'll see.   Summary: Yet again, Rainbow Dash has to prove she is the Daring-ist Daring Do fan.   Heh. Big Mac is also a Daring Do fan. And dabbles a bit in cosplay.   This author really like the id

Fhaolan

Fhaolan

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