Suzaku

What I liked: - The Dude - Lyra and Bon-Bon PAINSTAKINGLY EMPHASIZING "BEST FRIENDS" instead of being lovers. I mean they say it so OBVIOUSLY that it's like the writers were trying to say "NO THEY ARE NOT LOVERS". - I like how they explain Bon-Bon having two names - Shining Armor and Cadance - Celestia and Luna fighting - Button Mash on the turntable - Gummy contemplating life - The Twicane - THE EFFING CHANGELING What I DIDN'T like: - Steven Magnet at the spa - Doctor Whooves's terrible accent. The Doctor Who references, while appreciated, seemed forced rather than natural. - Vinyl Scratch and Octavia living together. It looks like Two-Face's house. Overall, though, it didn't really seem like a real episode so much as a fan-made episode.

My seven-year-old niece got a whole set of ponies because my brother's girlfriend's dad is some regional product manager or something like that and can get them for free. When I got home from church yesterday, she came running to me with an armload of ponies and said she had "IMPORTANT QUESTIONS!" for me, then proceeded to hold up each one and ask me what her name was. She has not stopped playing with those ponies except to eat or sleep Her favorites are Twilight Sparkle, Celestia, Rainbow Dash, and Pinkie Pie

I think the only things I really liked about this episode are Bulk Biceps (his personality and his lines) and Derpy's front-and-center reappearance. Am I one of the only ones who LOVED Bulky and his quirks? But while I love Derpy's grand return, I am wondering why they didn't use Twilight as a replacement. Why give her wings if we never get to see her USE them? This wasn't one of my favorite episodes simply because the plot was very cliche, and because it really seems like Rainbow Dash has to keep re-learning the same lessons over and over again. For being the element of loyalty, RD's loyalty to her friends is called into question way too often.

I went back for some groceries I'd forgotten to get yesterday and ended up grabbing two more Funko Mystery Mini ponies. I got Pinkie Pie and a glow-in-the-dark Vinyl Scratch. This works well with my Octavia now.

I just got a starter deck for the CCG (the Applejack and Twilight Sparkle one, what else?). My local grocery store also started carrying Funko Mystery Minis. I would have been happy no matter which one I got. It turned out to be Octavia, so yep, still happy!

Even though Applejack is by far my favorite pony, I still found myself agreeing with her for more than just that reason. It's pretty heavily implied that the vampire fruit bats are like a swarm of locusts - they consume everything they can, then move on. Now the Equestrian economy is not really fleshed out, but it's also heavily implied that apples (and various apple products like cider and pies) are the only source of income for the Apple family AND that Sweet Apple Acres is the only source of apples for all of Ponyville. So now enter a swarm of creatures that will ultimately ruin the Apple family, with the only promise being "bigger and better" apple trees next year. Now, I don't know anything about how it works in Equestria, but here on Earth it takes approximately FIVE YEARS for an apple tree to start producing fruit. So if the entire Apple family orchard is decimated by the bats, it'll take five years to get those new trees. And that's IF any of the seeds actually sprout - remember, they're not being buried, so birds and other animals can freely grab them. Yeah, the Apple family will probably have plenty of fruit from their current trees once they produce more apples, but what is the Apple family supposed to do in the meantime? In this episode, as well as in the previous one, Fluttershy really seems to have a complete disrespect for her friends. In "Power Ponies", she doesn't get mad when her friends are in trouble. And now, she shows a callous disregard for the Apple family's sole source of income. It doesn't even seem to register in her mind that the orchards are important to Applejack and her family. Conversely, Applejack freely gives up a prize-winning apple in order to save Fluttershy. Fluttershy's idea to create a sanctuary was fine, but the problem was HERE AND NOW, and not something that could be shunted aside while they built a sanctuary. The issue had to be addressed quickly, and Applejack's method was really the only way of handling it at the time.

I love giving my OC ponies theme songs. I have six of them that I write fanfiction around. My own Mane Six and their "Elements of Virtue". Rising Phoenix is a pegasus pony with oversize wings that have caused her a lot of trouble - both making it difficult for her to fly and also earning her the ridicule of her classmates. Her theme song is "Tori no Uta" (Bird's Song) from the anime Air: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8VIdn21SSu8 Cherry Blossom is an earth pony who got her cutie mark very late in life due to an accident that left her hospitalized for a long time. Upon her recovery, she had a long uphill battle to become physically fit again - she ended up stronger than before and discovered her calling which led to her starting her own cherry orchard. Her theme song is "If Today Was Your Last Day" by Nickelback (haters gonna hate): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-ffZ3av7vEw Purity is a very quiet and introverted unicorn who is blessed (or cursed) with the ability to see the future - but she sees multiple futures at once and has difficulty distinguishing between vision and reality. She spends most of her time in meditation in her garden, lost in visions. When she interacts with others, she often ends up responding to what they MIGHT have said instead of what they DID say. Her theme song is "Book of Days" by Enya: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=goKLnMbnidU Timberfall is an earth pony who is very in tune with nature. Raised in a family of woodcarvers and lumberjacks, Timberfall preferred to coexist with nature rather than bend it to his will. His theme song is "In Perfect Harmony" by Within Temptation: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xF5bADlrhTc Knight Sky is a pegasus who enjoys flying as high as possible (higher than most pegasi can manage), generally choosing to flight at night and contemplate the stars from the first twinkle at sunset to the last dying glimmer at sunrise. His theme song has no lyrics. It is the end credits song from Apollo 13: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S-WRKeSerUE Excalibur is a brash and impulsive unicorn who has trouble controlling his magic when his emotions run high. Paired with a short fuse, losing control of his magic is not a rare occurrence. He is very fiercely protective of his friends and most of his (controlled) magic is used to defend the weak from harm. His theme song is "Savior of the Dreaming Dead" from Homestuck: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VXRN_P9miUc

I LOVE this song. It remains one of my favorite songs in the series because of the excellent delivery - the fact that a single person can sing two parts so clearly opposite and yet similar just sends chills down my spine. Plus the fact that it is a very emotional, almost operatic song makes me love it even more. So since the singer obviously worked hard to make sure that there are two very separate individuals singing, I have to choose a favorite line from both Cadance AND Chrysalis. And since I love the song so much, I have to pick entire stanzas. For Chrysalis, I have to go with her second stanza. The thinly-veiled sneer in her voice and obvious malicious intent is beautifully delivered. There is also a lot of power in her delivery of the line "but I still want him to be all mine" - which I would probably call my favorite line if I were forced to pick one and only one. For Cadance, it's definitely her second stanza as well (the one right after the aforementioned one by Chrysalis). The sense of urgency, desperation, and ultimately love in her voice (absolutely helped by the wonderful instrumental layer) is the high point of the song for me. Both stanzas show a lot of power, but very different kinds of power. For Chrysalis, it's control - a power used for domination and despair. For Cadance, it's love - a power used to give her hope and courage.

I would not mind a more fleshed-out appearance for these two for a couple reasons, but I would hate it for another. For one thing, I love background ponies, but I mostly dislike the fanmade personalities of the background ponies. For example, I think the fandom giving a clearly musically-oriented pony an obsession with humans rather than even MENTIONING her musical affinity is rather (for lack of a better word) stupid. I also dislike the fandom's tendency to ship EVERYTHING. "Lyra and Bon-Bon are often in the same shot together - they must be LOVERS!". I think a canon appearance as more than a background pony would help to dispel these unfortunate memes. But I would also not like it because they are BACKGROUND PONIES. They're put in the background as filler, and they're not really MEANT to have fully fleshed-out characterization. Imagine if we were told the names and personalities of every single extra in a movie. Having a speaking role or two is just fine (Bon-Bon has had five that I can recall offhand), but anything more just seems wrong.

I kind of have a problem with it in the show because it seems to dismiss other sentient species as nearly being non-entities. I mean, having Spike use the term "everypony" is EXTREMELY awkward because, not being a pony, he is implicitly excluded. And since ponies clearly have bodies and standard numbers, using "everybody" or "everyone" would be perfectly acceptable. As for in the brony community, I take issue with it for the sheer fact that just because we are fans of the show does not make us ponies ourselves. Some bronies may not have a pony OC - they may have another species OC, or no OC at all. Therefore the term "everypony" seems implicitly exclusionary to them as well. It also seems to distance bronies from non-bronies, rather than being the all-inclusive "love and tolerate" group that we should be.

I did not like this episode. The whole "Daring Do being a real pony and not just a story character" seems so random and unbelievable. I mean, how does this fact get unnoticed by the ENTIRE POPULATION OF EQUESTRIA? Surely SOMEPONY would have noticed all the Indiana Jones stuff going on in Equestria. And if it was so easy for Twilight to find out her address, why hasn't some other rabid fan figured it out too? It just seemed WAAAAAY too far-fetched. In my opinion, Daring Do should have stayed a work of fiction. Then there are a few continuity things that bothered me: - When Daring Do fights Caballeron's henchponies, her right foreleg is injured and she wraps it in a splint and flies off. The splint and injury are gone for the remainder of the episode and no one questions this. For a while, I thought this meant that all of this was just an elaborate show that A. K. Yearling puts on for rabid fans. - If that ring was required for the ritual to take place, considering how easily Daring Do smashed it in the end, why did she not just smash it in the first place thus making sure the ritual could NEVER happen? Why go through all the trouble? ... Then there are the Wilhelm screams. I counted two of them. I think Wilhelm screams are extremely lazy on the part of the sound crew.

This makes me extremely happy. AJ is definitely my all-time favorite. One of these days I want to get a big plush of her and cuddle it. Because Applejack is cuddly. ... I'm gonna carry around my AJ miniature in my pocket all month in support of this.