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Commander_PonyShep

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Everything posted by Commander_PonyShep

  1. But at the same time, it also removed Twilight's friends out of the equation. The whole point of the show is Twilight's friendship with her friends, which eventually explained the Rainbow Power re-imprisoning Tirek, restoring everypony's magic, and even building a new castle-tree in the middle of Ponyville, complete with thrones for all of the Mane Six plus Spike. The alicorn magic was designed to show how every other magic is futile compared to the magic of friendship. Plus, Discord was with Tirek at the time, so he would've explained to him that there was a fourth princess anyway, even without the window painting.
  2. So in Twilight's Kingdom, Princesses Celestia, Luna, and Cadence thought transferring all their magic into Twilight would be a good idea. Not only would they hide it inside her, even though she would eventually be discovered in a window painting, but they would also believe that all that power would be enough to defeat even Tirek. They would even go far as to make Twilight keep it a secret from her five friends, for the sake of "protecting" them. Unfortunately, as the big, dumb Dragon Ball Z-style battle between Twilight and Tirek proved, alicorn magic is ineffective against someone like him, compared to the blue box and the friendship-powered Rainbow Power contained inside... in other words, just a simple-yet-strong friendship between Twilight and co., period. So why? Why is it that Princess Celestia makes so many wrong decisions? She keeps telling Twilight to fight alone, like in The Crystal Empire Parts I and II, but in the end it was Spike -- and Twilight's faith in the purple dragon -- that saved the Crystal Empire from King Sombra. And that goes for Equestria Girls; Twilight was told that she couldn't bring her friends into the human world without "disrupting the balance of the other world", and yet she turned to her friends' alternate human selves as a temporary alternative when doing battle with Sunset Shimmer.
  3. Well, there was the Queen Chrysalis fight in the comics, where Twilight's friends are reduced to hostages/moral-support, while Twilight fought Queen Chrysalis alone. Hell, if anything, the Twilight/Tirek fight was also probably a repeat of that aforementioned magic-fight in the comic as well. Twilight's friends are all leverage to get Twilight to cooperate with the bad-guys. In other words, they're damsels-in-distress, which Anita Sarkeesian spent three entire episodes of "Tropes vs. Women in Video Games" arguing against, and what Lauren Faust (and Meghan McCarthy in some ways) have been fighting against as well with MLP.
  4. Not while this tweet renders your argument almost invalid: How? It hints that Classic Pony Twilight will return as the main-protagonist, and not be substituted by her alternate self.
  5. I once had to suffer that same problem in Dragon Ball Z, you know. Too many supporting characters were reduced to extras and were frequently and brutally murdered to advance the story. Meanwhile, Goku has to constantly go up one level of god-mode after another to defeat the equally-overpowered villain, even though it takes him over a million episodes to do so. There's also a phrase that describes the huge majority of the DBZ supporting cast as well, even though they're mostly male and the phrase mostly applies to women. It's called "Woman in the Refrigerator", and Twilight's friends might as well be amongst those stuffed in the refrigerator for the benefit of her story-arc.
  6. No, seriously! You thought Spike was useless? Try all five of Twilight's friends. They might as well never exist in the show, and it wouldn't make much of a bucking difference, because they're that disposable!
  7. Why? Because I have that constant fear that Twilight's friends will be useless and disposed of, thus rendering the show's friendship message meaningless. So I made a comment here: http://www.equestriadaily.com/2014/05/rainbow-rocks-set-for-september-2014.html And, one of the people responded with this: In other words, Twilight is going to shove all of her friends by the sidelines like she always does, just to make way for their cheap, humanized rip-offs in Equestria Girls 2. If anything, the Mane Five might as well be brutally murdered and unable to come back, while Twilight becomes the one and only main-protagonist who instantly resolves everything with her alicorn magic, because she has main-character powers and not her friends.
  8. It's called Crunchyroll.com: http://www.crunchyroll.com/ Technically, it allows me to stream anime for free, or with a subscription to help me get rid of advertisements. Here are some of the anime I'm watching so far: Attack on Titan Kill la Kill Sword Art Online Fairy Tail Puella Magi Madoka Magica Cardfight Vanguard Dragon Collection Surely, the anime on this website can help me expand my horizons beyond MLP. That, and probably Littlest Pet Shop.
  9. All this time, I've been ranting and coming up with excuses as to why the Twilight/Tirek fight scene doesn't work for me. And, the reason I keep doing this is because I have a constant fear that Twilight's friends will become irrelevant and useless, and might as well be brutally murdered to advance her character-arc. I've had that fear before in past episodes (and comic book story-arcs) come to fruition. Shining Armor and Cadence save Canterlot instead of Twilight's friends. Twilight fights Queen Chrysalis alone, while her friends are reduced to leverage/moral-support. Spike is the one who saves the Crystal Empire. Twilight's friends couldn't accompany her into the mirror because "all six Elements of Harmony entering the mirror would disrupt the balance of the other world". And now, just recently, the Twilight/Tirek fight scene, which is constantly compared to my most hated anime series, Dragon Ball Z, right down to the same problems as that series, such as a useless, irrelevant and disposable supporting cast and an overpowered main-protagonist Mary Sue. I have that constant exacting standard that the Mane Six all make equal amounts of contributions to saving Equestria, and if that doesn't happen then it's a betrayal to the show's friendship motif, even if it's somepony else who helps Twilight save the world, and thus restoring the friendship motif. The reason is because I grew so accustomed to DBZ turning the main-protagonist into a Mary Sue, and all of his friends into disposable extras, that I didn't want any other anime series to fall into that pitfall (alongside the other one where the fights drag on for too long, and the villains are generic psychopaths with no reason to blow up entire planets other than that they can). DBZ was one of the many examples of a sequel/franchise running out of ideas on what to do with itself, and so resorts to cheap, unhelpful tactics to raise the stakes. Killing off and disempowering supporting characters. Making the main-villain overpowered at the expense of a personality. Making the main-hero overpowered as well. Dragging the fights for too long and making them lack any variety other than just "planet-destroying energy beams". The only good I can say about this is that, at the very least, other anime that were inspired by DBZ would eventually fix most of those same problems, like One Piece and Fairy Tail. But even then, DBZ is nothing more than an inferior sequel to an otherwise superior manga/anime series that could've premiered on Toonami before DBZ, not after. And, it's that same kind of thing I keep fearing in MLP. Twilight's friends all get killed or disempowered in some way, while Twilight alone becomes the number one solution to almost absolutely everything, like the Mary Sue that she is. And, they make the main-villains overpowered as well, like what they did with Tirek. To me, the show is no longer about friendship, but rather who has the highest power-levels in the universe, and those who have low-to-nonexistent power-levels all go to die or become disempowered. In other words, nothing but that "survival of the fittest" bull-crap that made DBZ so bad for me. In fact, there's an entire episode of Extra Credits that revolve around such a thing I described, called "Spectacle Creep", which you can watch here: Technically, Spectacle Creep is the need to raise the stakes so ridiculously sky-high, that you run out of creativity and imagination on what to do with all that. DBZ was one example of Spectacle Creep, due to all the tactics I've mentioned above, and it's now what describes My Little Pony, where there's even more of a need to up the stakes at the expense of its own friendship motif. Which is why, when you think about it, I'm just ridiculously obsessed with this. I have Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder, in that I have that constant compulsion to rant about all the aforementioned stuff, hoping that the writers would read my blogs and fix the mistakes made in the MLP show. I need psychological help more than anything, and if I don't get it, I'll probably keep on doing this and annoying you to death about it until the show's series finale.
  10. Okay, so I'm coming up with millions of excuses explaining why the Twilight/Tirek fight scene doesn't work for me. The real reason is, again, because it made Twilight's friends useless and disposable, and Twilight overpowered and Mary Sue-like. And, that's the same problem with DBZ; in order to raise the stakes, many supporting characters are killed or disempowered, while Goku's power-levels climb so high that it's incomprehensible. At the very least, some other anime that were inspired by DBZ worked to improve on its mistakes. One Piece, for example, had shorter, but more varied fights, and with the exception of the Whitebeard War arc, all of Luffy's friends -- even the weaker ones like Nami and Usopp -- still retain relevance and work together with him to defeat the bad-guys, even though their job is to fight the quirky mini-boss squad while Luffy handles the main-boss.
  11. You know, what I noticed regarding the S4 finale is the fact that both the Rainbow Power and Rainbow Castle are receiving mixed opinions, while the big, dumb Twilight/Tirek fight is receiving the most spotlight for its violence, dark themes, and DBZ-level stupidity. The reasons include the following: The Rainbow Power scene was rushed and instantly resolved the conflict, which makes the Rainbow Power no different from the Elements of Harmony. The palace replaced Twilight's library, killed a part of her identity and replaced it with a new one (just as it did her library), doesn't fit with Ponyville very well, and isn't as homely as Twilight's old library. Both the Rainbow Power and Rainbow Castle are designed to sell toys, and nothing else. But let's see what might happen if we were to defend both: The Rainbow Power fitted better with the show and its motifs than the big, dumb Twilight/Tirek fight, and restored relevancy to Twilight's five friends, unlike said fight where the girls could just as easily been brutally murdered (not just have their magic stolen) and stuffed into the refrigerator to advance the story, a la the entire supporting cast of Dragon Ball Z. The palace reflected Twilight's new role as not only princess, but also the spreader of friendship. Plus, her friends receive thrones of their own, so that they could retain even more of their relevance as Twilight's little helpers. Can anyone else defend the Rainbow Power and Rainbow Castle like I did?
  12. For one thing, MLP is not comparable to DBZ, because the latter is for men while the former is for girls. If anything, DBZ could've just as easily been compared to some other Hasbro franchise, one meant for boys, like Transformers, which also originally hailed from Japan like DBZ. MLP, on the other hand, is more comparable with Sailor Moon, because it's a girls' series like Sailor Moon, one that revolves around love and friendship between multiple females instead of just absurd power-levels (except in probably the later Sailor Moon story-arcs, but I repeat myself). So why compare a girls' series like MLP with a boys' series like DBZ? That's like comparing Optimus Prime with Usagi Tsukino: Neither of them have anything in common, because they're targeted to different genders. I mean, sure, there are superficial similarities between DBZ and the Twilight/Tirek fight, but MLP should be compared to Sailor Moon, while DBZ Transformers, because of their target audiences. Hell, if anything, that's like comparing Littlest Pet Shop with Breaking Bad, even though neither of them have anything in common. Littlest Pet Shop is just the story of a teenage girl who designs dresses for pets, each with their own unique personality quirks. Breaking Bad, on the other hand, is about a chemistry teacher making a career of cooking and selling meth. It's also like comparing Dora the Explorer with Game of Thrones; the former is just a simple pre-school show that teaches Spanish, while the latter is an overly complicated, violent and sexually-charged medieval-fantasy political intrigue story with no good guys or bad guys. And, while we're at it, let's also include Totally Spies and Attack on Titan, which, again, are also incomparable because of their TARGET AUDIENCES!!!! Seriously, I could've mentioned that problem a long time ago, alongside the whole "Twilight's friends were rendered disposable while she herself becomes a Mary Sue" argument I keep beating to death.
  13. For me, it has to be the big, dumb DBZ-style fight-scene between Twilight and Tirek, because it almost reminds me of one of the worst, most overhyped, and most milked-to-death anime to have ever been crapped out of Akira Toriyama's imagination. It tossed aside everything that made the MLP show good in the first place, to be as stupid, over-the-top, and violent as possible. Plus, Twilight's friends were irrelevant and could have just as easily been stuffed in the refrigerator, not only by having their magic stolen by Tirek, but also by being outright murdered, especially in front of Twilight. And that's what the majority of DBZ was like as well; it's simply Toriyama running out of ideas on what to do with Dragon Ball, and so he resorts to all sorts of cheap tactics to advance the story, like violently killing off characters over and over again and dragging the fights for a godly amount of chapters/episodes.
  14. Really, with the Rainbow Power forms, the only thing left for the writers to do is to create a new villain whose power-levels match the Rainbow Power. And, in order to do that, he/she would need to hail from an alternate dimension or planet where the magic is enough to match even the Rainbow Power, and can even blow-up entire planets a la the Death Star and the majority of DBZ villains. In other words, Spectacle Creep: And, according to that video I posted, when you resort to increasing the stakes to the breaking point, you run out of ideas on what to do with your story and resort to cheap, unoriginal tactics to keep the story going. Dragon Ball Z suffered from that problem, as it was marred by long, draggy, repetitive fights that lasted too many chapters/episodes, and supporting characters getting stuffed in the refrigerator over and over and over and over again. But, if I were to find some good in the Rainbow Power, it's that at the very least, it made Twilight's friends relevant again, right after that stupid fight scene between Twilight and Tirek, that tossed aside all notions of friendship between Twilight and her friends, for the sake of over-the-top violence and spectacle.
  15. Originally, the old Golden Oaks library was a part of Twilight's older identity as a bookworm. But now that the library is gone and replaced by a palace, it means that an old part of Twilight had died with it, and a new part of her took its place. If anything, I get the feeling that Twilight Sparkle is no longer allowed to be herself. She no longer has free will, and can't read as many books as she used to, not just because her library is destroyed alongside every book in it, but also because she now has to run all of Equestria as its Princess of Friendship inside her new palace. Hell, the writers might as well give Twilight immortality as her next "reward" for saving Equestria or completing a test. Then, in the series finale, we cut to one-thousand years into the future, where we see an immortal Twilight Sparkle eternally mourning the deaths of all five of her friends (and kind of, sort of Spike, because he probably died of old age, too). As for the design itself, I'd have to wait until Season Five to see if it warms up to me. In the meantime... Littlest Pet Shop Season Three!
  16. I wasn't the only one who considered DBZ the most overrated thing on Earth: http://www.themanime.org/viewreview.php?id=245 In that review, reviewer Carlos Ross considered it a mediocre anime for all the reasons I've described. To him, it's nothing but build up to nearly non-existent fighting, and characters getting murdered and disposed of over and over again. There's almost no emphasis on story, the fights dragged for too long and lacked variety, and the reason for all of those problems is because it's a darker sequel to what was originally a comedy. Now, compare that to Tim Jones' review of Classic Dragon Ball: http://www.themanime.org/viewreview.php?id=565 He considered the original series superior, because up until DBZ that series lacked many of the problems its sequel had. Why? Because it was the original. It came before DBZ and was the first series to have ever been written and developed. Its fights were shorter and had more variety, and the numerous characters spent more time actually developing as characters than getting brutally murdered too frequently and repeatedly. And, as expected from originals, it was far superior to its crappy sequel series, which again is nothing but repetitive, draggy battles and characters getting violently murdered.
  17. I would be able to believe that, if people didn't care more about the big, dumb fight scene that tossed the show's own core essence aside to rip-off an already-awful, overrated anime series, than they do the Rainbow Power scene. Dragon Ball Z represented everything that was wrong with the 90's, alongside the Comic Book Dark Ages, like Shadow the Hedgehog years later. It was a dark, gritty sequel to what was originally a lighthearted parody of martial-arts anime like Fist of the North Star. And, as such, it resorted to a huge variety of cheap, pitiful tactics to make itself that way, from murdering supporting characters frequently to the point of stuffing them in the refrigerator, to dragging fights for over a million chapters/episodes to the point that they become tiring and repetitive. And that's all anyone will ever remember the Season Four finale for: The dumb fight-scene that strips itself of its own friendship motif for the sake of ripping off an anime series that, as I said before, represented everything that was wrong with the 90's.
  18. As I said, DBZ is nothing but repetitive, draggy battles and characters getting murdered over and over and over again. People comparing that stupid Twilight/Tirek fight with DBZ just gives me bad memories of how awful that series was. Hell, the rock music? The constipated narrator? The way DBZ was dubbed in America to make its already "extreme badittude" even more so? That was during the 90's, when American comic books deliberately abandoned sincere and honest optimism with juvenile, superficial "maturity" through extreme angst and badittude. And, DBZ's stupid edginess just added more to that problem. That era was called the Dark Ages, and you can learn more about this crap here: EDIT: Another video that came long before that: Technically, while DBZ wasn't a reboot, but rather a sequel, it was a darker take on what was originally a comedy/adventure. And, as the Comic Book Dark Ages proved, dark, edgy themes usually collapse on themselves and get reduced to crap. Same with the Twilight/Tirek fight, IMO, because it threw away everything that made MLP good in the first place, e.g. the friendship motif, for the sake of becoming like DBZ, Shadow the Hedgehog, and the majority of 90's era comics combined. Trust me, I know this because I had a favorite video game character, Sonic the Hedgehog, reduced to dark, gritty "maturity" bullcrap with games like Shadow the Hedgehog, Sonic '06, and Sonic Unleashed. I'm not saying Friendship is Magic needs to be more like Generations 3 and 3.5, all I'm saying is that there's a fine line between fixing problems from Gen 3/3.5, and turning My Little Pony into Shadow the Hedgehog.
  19. Here's another thing. You know how Spike is always considering himself the most useless member of the group, and wishes to be useful? Twilight's friends could've been the same way, desperate to help their own friend and leader but unable to because of her own level of power. Hell, that could've came up in Equestria Girls as well, where they get left behind for five humanized knock-offs of them.
  20. I would be able to believe that the real magic comes from Twilight's friends, if she didn't become the number one solution to everything while her friends get kidnapped, disempowered, or -- god, forbid -- killed. That, and people care more about the Twilight/Tirek DBZ knock-off fight over the message of "godlike magic means nothing compared to the magic of friendship".
  21. Look, man. Here's what's going on with me, and it's not just because I'm a whiny, entitled fanboy on the level of the Mass Effect fanboys regarding ME3's ending. I'm suffering from depression, as a result of me taking drugs like Fluoxetine and Strattera. Nothing is interesting me anymore, not even going for walks to the park. Hell, my potency barely even exists! So, I take out my depression on the Internet even if it reduces me to a troll. That, and I just don't see the popularity to DBZ, if it's nothing but slow-paced, meandering and repetitive fights and characters being stuffed into the refrigerator over and over and over again. EDIT: Also, what about the Rainbow Power scene? That made Twilight's friends useful and relevant again, unlike before when they were stuffed in the refrigerator to motivate Twilight's fight with Tirek.
  22. You're just making this worse, you know. If Tirek sucked the Mane Five of all their magic, then that's another example of "Woman in Refrigerator", which again, had been the majority of Dragon Ball Z.
  23. Here was my experience watching the Vegeta story-arc in DBZ: "Those six Z-Warriors all share the same superpowers as Goku, and yet they're 'weaker' than Vegeta and Nappa? Why can't they save the world in Goku's stead?" Since then, it had nothing more than become a frequent-as-hell problem. The show is nothing but supporting characters getting brutally murdered over and over and over again because their "power levels" are "weaker" than Goku's. Hell, if anything, there's even a trope that describes this kind of crap. It's called "Woman in Refrigerator", and despite the name, it can also be applied to men as well, like Vegeta and Krillin during the Frieza arc. Technically, characters have to be disempowered and brutally murdered to motivate the main-hero to fight back. Thank God and Celestia alike for the Rainbow Power scene, because at least it empowered Twilight's friends through the magic of friendship. DBZ didn't promote friendship at all, because too many of Goku's friends became disposable and killed violently over and over again, like they might as well be stuffed in the refrigerator like the women that they are. And even if it did, the long, draggy, repetitive, and retarded fights would've gotten in the way.
  24. It's because it made Twilight a Mary Sue, while her friends were so disposable, that they might as well just die in the most violent fashion in the world, just like her library. That's what DBZ is like, in-general. It's nothing but supporting characters getting murdered over and over and over again, while Goku, Vegeta, and their sons become the Mary Sue saviors of the universe.
  25. Here's a review of Dragon Ball Z that sums up my feelings of this bullcrap: http://www.themanime.org/viewreview.php?id=245 All everyone ever cares about is this stupid Twilight/Tirek fight scene, which rendered Twilight's friends just as obsolete as Goku's non-saiyan friends. And, that fight scene could've been even worse if it dragged on for five episodes, or worse, an entire season!!! Which is why I'm thankful for the Rainbow Power scene, which redeemed Twilight's friends for being useless and disposable. The whole point of the show is the magic of friendship, and that stupid fight scene went against it because Twilight solo'ed Tirek while her friends were reduced to disposable extras. It might have made it darker and more violent, and as a result answered the complaint that Generation Three lacked conflict. But it also reminded me of one of the most overrated anime franchises to have ever been crapped out of Japan, where the entire supporting cast is reduced to extras, while the main-protagonist becomes the number one, ultimate solution to everything. I'm just so f***ing sick to death of that stupid fight scene, and the way everyone keeps hyping this bulls*** to death. The show is called Friendship is Magic for a reason, and the stupid fight scene proved that alicorn magic was nothing compared to that of friendship. And yet people are loving this bullcrap more than the Rainbow Power scene. I know I keep repeating myself, but this is how I feel right now
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