PianoOfMuffins

My least favourite episodes for Season 1 are: Stare Master I found the characterization of the CMC incredibly irritating and overbearing in this episode, to the point I couldn't stand them. Thankfully it was only this one episode. It's all very repetitive, and doesn't hold my interest like other episodes. The CMC misbehaves for Fluttershy, then again, and again... While an interesting mythological creature, the way the cockatrice was portrayed was just... weird. A bit too off the road for my liking. Also, Flutters lives right next to a forest containing such creatures, and which can turn you to stone on a dime? I find it odd she would even want to take up residency in such an area! And poor Twilight, being turned to stone herself, and then a slimy old snail rudely making its way across her. That moment was also perhaps just a bit too much if you ask me. The episode as a whole just feels somehow off, and out of tone with the rest of the show in general. It's not one I've come back to many times. A Dog & Pony Show The structure of this episode seems all over the place for a start. We have a flashback where it's not needed, and a whopping three imagination sequences, which severely break up the pace. Granted, Spike's imagination sequence of saving Rarity was amusing, but shouldn't we really be getting on with the story? It doesn't move things along at all. Which brings me to the pacing. Some of the scenes go on for too long, such as the Mane6 and Spike actually making their way underground in the first place, and then some go much too fast, such as Twilight all of a sudden remembering Rarity's gem finding spell, which seemed too "easy" and should have presented more of a challenge in the search. The writing for the Diamond Dogs never really resonated with me. The potential for them to be hilarious was there, and while there were some amusing moments with them, I can't help but feel they were rather wasted as characters. There was so much more that could have been done with them. Rarity's whining also was dragged out too much, and was also another problem factor in the episode's pacing. There's probably more I could go into, but those are some of the reasons I have watched this episode far less than others. It could have been something more, that's what I'll say.

I have a soft spot for G3's "A Very Minty Christmas" in particular and the character of Minty herself. She's just so lovably silly and a bit wacky! And that dorky laugh Tabitha did for her is always very amusing, although I think the funniest occurrence of this would have to be in the first G3 episode, "A Charming Birthday", where Minty has brought KImono to the castle, turns around and looks back at her, and does the most hilarious laugh I've ever heard! Thistle Whistle is also very likeable, and enjoy her little moments of sarcasm and slightly rebellious nature at times. It's a shame the pegasi were dropped seemingly in favour of Hasbro wanting to bring focus to the "all new super duper unicorn ponies" toy line. I also agree Puzzlemint is a great character, despite only having a large role in one episode, and has that awesome British accent! But then, it was Tabitha again after all! As for G1, I can't say I have any favourite ponies from the era, as I just can't get into it that much really for the most part. (People are then like, "So you kind of like G3, but not G1? Is wrong with you man?" !!!)

Fill-untasiers!!! What else of course?

In the meantime, I would highly recommend "Legends of Equestria", the fanmade MMORPG. It's still in development right now, and they're holding another open server event (April 18-20). Last time in January, I had great fun playing the game for the short time I got to, exploring the beautifully and accurately created areas of Equestria, creating and customizing my pony character, messing about with other people, hanging out at the dance parties at Sugarcube Corner... Basically it's all good! Well, for what was an open alpha anyway, and am sure it's only going to get better and better as development goes on. Their site and forum are currently down for maintenance and all, but you can still hit them up on FB for updates. Trust me, if what you want is a fully 3D free-roaming pony game, where you can take part in varying activities and just hang out with other people, then I think you may just find something to like. Be ready for April!

"A Very Minty Christmas" I actually like to a degree in particular. Not amazing by any means, but I find it to have a surprisingly half decent story (too rushed though unfortunately) and some genuinely good humoured moments. Yes it has some girly and mushy moments, but in my view the least of all G3 movies and episodes. Note this was also the very first truly full-fledged G3 tale (after a small spat of mediocre "episodes" which were packaged with the toys), and I would say even shows quite a bit more effort in the story and dialogue than perhaps anything thereafter. Although the second movie "Princess Promenade" I would also say is noteworthy for having half decent material throughout, just not all that consistently among the muddled events that make up the overall product. From "Runaway Rainbow", the third movie, I started to see a dip in what quality there at least was, even if only a modest amount, and then the generation's material just continued to spiral downward to quite the car crash of an ending. When it comes to characters, Minty I found to be particularly likeable, and is actually perhaps the most believable of all G3 characters, because she actually had personality. She's delightfully silly, offbeat, and a bit dorky - whereas all the other ponies were indeed extremely one dimensional for the larger part, with only exceptions here and there, such as the character of Wysteria showing emotions of distress and sadness over the whole prospect of becoming a princess in "Princess Promenade". Otherwise, extremely cardboard characterisation for a large majority of the time, albeit with breakthrough's time to time. Is G3 plain awful? I would actually say no. Can it be awful? Yes, but not always. Would I recommend watching any material? Well, you may get at least some sort of enjoyment from the first two movies in particular, "A Very Minty Christmas" and "The Princess Promenade", if you're willing to give them a chance. As for the other material on offer, if you don't get even a smidge of enjoyment from the aforementioned movies, then perhaps G3's just not for you to any degree after all. But give it a chance first, just to see what you think - you know, just how you gave G4 a chance, right?

Perhaps that's why Discord came along on that very day in "Three's A Crowd". He secretly wanted to see the most brilliant of all museums dedicated to his fine self!

Appropriately enough to this subject, could this little moment from the latest episode be considered as canon pony heights? (Cap totally not stolen from Seth)

Re-iterating from my post above, I don't think there'd be any harm in having other G3 characters make the transition into the current programme as background ponies at least, or even as occasional minor roles. For those who don't even have a partial liking for the previous generation, and also those who don't know a thing of it, such a concept for these parties would I'm sure go just about unnoticed! Now if we started having a plethora of G3 characters, here there and everywhere, having main roles all of a sudden, then that would no doubt be a cause of controversy. And I will say we perhaps do have enough leading characters already, all of whom are very strong characters overall for that matter (part of the reason I of course watch in the first place after all!). But as for background and maybe minor roles, I truly do think that would be not all much of a problem.

I really like your designs for Toola and Starsong. They're a very logical transition, is how I'd put it. Not to mention creative too of course! However, if Minty was brought back in, I'd very much prefer for her to look something like one of these designs for example: I'm actually very surprised at this point no other G3 characters have at least appeared in the form of background ponies. It's obviously not going to be DHX's first priority, but nonetheless it would be a nice little treat now and then for G3 fans (both full and partial fans of the era). I'd totally be for that at the very least. I also don't think there'd be any harm in very minor roles now and then, nothing forced of course, just along the lines of what we've already seen for the likes of Lyra, Rose, Bon Bon et al. You know, just little speaking roles here and there, acting as essentially "other citizens of Ponyville". But in Minty's case in particular, considering she was the first G3 character (leaving aside of course the topic of Pinkie and Dash) to be particularly prominent in the earlier G4 merchandise, gaining both a standard brushable figure and mini blind bag, I do wonder if everyone's favourite sock-collecting pony was in the consideration pile, at some point, to appear in the programme in some form, if even as just a supporting role. Perhaps yes, perhaps not, and maybe it's nothing more than a case of just someone over at Hasbro liked her enough to be inserted into the G4 line? Does make me wonder what the case is there though still. Why did Minty have a brushable prototype kicking about so early on and no other prominent G3 character? Anyway, those are just some of my thoughts. Now go and purchase a new pair of socks as a birthday gift for Minty, it would cheer her up after so many years of neglect.

For whoever knows the G3 character I refer to, does anyone else get Minty vibes from the greenish (aqua green? whatever) cheerleader pony's colour scheme? Heck, even the pink and white mane kind of. Yeah yeah, bleh, but it does remind me of her at least.

Likely this has been pointed out by literally the whole world before, although I still couldn't help but make a "thing" out of this: From 4:06 into the episode.

My favourite pony is Minty. I definitely overlooked Rainbow Dash in the beginning. For quite a while, she just didn’t stand out to me. I don’t know why exactly, but I would say it was partially due we didn’t really see her true character highlighted until “Sonic Rainboom”, which was much later into the first season. But still then, she hadn’t yet become a favourite. My fav Mane6 character first became Rarity, but after watching the programme for a good further amount of time, and of course coming to know the characters more, my fav became Dash. Don’t know how it went that way exactly, I mean, she used to be my second least fav, but now has become my Best Pony. I guess she really is just 20% cooler after all! In the beginning, it went: Rarity Twilight Applejack Fluttershy Rainbow Dash Pinkie Pie But gradually became: Rainbow Dash Rarity Applejack/Twilight Fluttershy Pinkie Pie Other than Apple and Twi becoming an equal third for me, I also notice one distinct change in particular there.

Having not read other people's views, and spoiling the movie at all beforehand, this is me going in completely afresh about what I thought of the movie. Some first thoughts are that it felt rather flat an amount of the time, and I couldn't help but get that "uncanny valley" feeling throughout. A strange little movie in ways, and feels more like it was made to sell the dolls rather than completely stand alone on its own merits. Now to some of the qualms I simply have to get off my chest. No doubt others have brought up most, if not all these points before, but again, this is just me going in afresh. * How could Sunset Shimmer know for sure the crown would work outside Equestria? What if no power carried over at all? Or at the very least, how did she know precisely how to wield the "evil" power at all? Did Celestia teach her such things, did Shimmer read up on material she shouldn't have been, or what? Yes, Shimmer makes a statement to Twilight about the crown having powers in another world, but I still feel this is all glossed over too much. * So every 30 moons, okay, regardless of how long that is supposed to be exactly in the first place, what if say someone just happened to lean on the statue, completely unawares, when the "portal" was active? That's right! Humans into Equestrian ponies everywhere! Come on in guys! Actually, what if one of the accidentals met Lyra and told her of the secret world? Oh how happy she would be... * Spike a dog? No really, what? It just doesn't seem logical. Surely he should have also simply turned into a human? And furthermore, it's not like he's Twi's pet in the first place, and doesn't even fall into the category of pet animals, such as the likes of Gummi, Winona et al. It's just such a strange decision. Was it simply so Spike could be the pet dog with Twi's doll in the toy line, or was it mutually agreed this was a good idea to roll with? Admittedly, the concept of Spike being a dog is amusing, and had some humorous little moments throughout, but it's still not what I would have gone with. * The "romance" between Twi and Placeholder would actually make me roll my eyes at times. Argh, so clichéd and tired. Actually, the concept is kind of strange now I think of it. I mean, in particular, Placeholder then knows Twi's a pony at movie's end and yet still... yeah, whatever. * Twi’s just lucky Celestia didn’t ask her about being a new student. But then, unless of course this parallel world version of Celestia already “knew”... (Did her pony counterpart come to visit one day perhaps?) But wait, when Luna was questioning Twi in her office, did she not check for Twi’s behaviour record or anything? Oh fine, let’s just say Twi’s really lucky. * And back to Placeholder for a moment. So it’s stated he was Shimmer’s ex, a few weeks ago the breakup occurring. How did they even come together? Surely Placeholder would have known Shimmer’s reputation of being the school so and so? Either he was giving her a chance (oh how nice), or is just really, really dumb – or dumb enough to give her a chance. * The pacing is unbalanced. One example in particular is that Dash doesn’t appear until freaking 37 minutes in! Ultimately, she then doesn’t get to do quite as much as the other girls due this. * Speaking of Dash, I just didn’t quite dig her big scene. Especially when she gushes, “The Fall Formal Princess should be someone with heart and determination. You proved that you got ‘em both.” *Obligatory hug and cheers all round* Egad, it’s just too heavy-handed for me to bear! * The last act felt rushed. I mean, Shimmer had an entire army of teen drones, and never actually set them out to do any bidding. She had plenty of time to do so, whether to begin sending them through the portal, overpower Twi and the others before they were even able to unleash the boom on her, or whatever. And yet it’s like she literally forgot in seconds just what she had at her disposal. Also, I question Shimmer’s motivation. She says it’s Equestria she wants, and not the little school. Does she not know about the world? * Oh, and don't think they quite nailed the look of Celestia and Luna. Can't quite put my finger on it, they just look, I don't know, off. *** So after all that, I bet you’d think I hated the movie, right? Well actually, no. It’s just unfortunate there were so many things I found wrong with it. Whether it was major plotholes, contrived circumstances, pacing, odd production choices - looking at the movie as one whole piece, it’s not the prettiest picture, but it does have some good. There are scenes that are entertaining, little moments of amusement, and seeing everyone in human form I did get a kick out of to a degree (although Granny Smith, the nightmares). DHX does a wonderful job of animating once again, with fluid, lively and overall excellent character movement, peppered with plenty of nice little touches throughout. The voice actors all put in stellar performances as they always have, and never once sound unnatural, despite even the most heavy-handed of scenes and lines. The scoring is topnotch as always and a couple of the songs in particular I can’t deny I found catchy. So while the script and movie overall I would not consider gold, it does still manage to hit some marks and be genuinely entertaining in part, albeit just along what is an inconsistent and rather bumpy road throughout the 73 minutes that are. To be kind, I’d give a score of 6.5 out of 10.

Minty from G3 introduced into the show? Hey, we already have Tabitha St. Germain. All it would take is her stepping back into the role and... No? Oh well, here's a fan vector which I think is a great interpretation compared to the blind bag toy:

I really wanted Fluttershy to be allowed more time to shine with her rendition of "Hush Now, Quiet Now". Just when I was enjoying Flutter's soothing little lullaby, and I have to say Andrea Libman has a rather beautiful singing voice, and then Sweetie Belle comes along and does her thing! Perhaps Flutter will be given another chance to sing a sweet song someday... (ha, too many s's there?)

I feel Applejack's reasons for attending were the least selfish, actually, I would say they weren't even selfish at all. It wasn't just a case of "Oh I want to go because of this," it was more she really did seem to genuinely want to help out the whole family. In my eyes, if Twi had been only able to give one ticket after all, I really do think it should have been Apple.

In "Stare Master", I liked the brief moment Fluttershy got to sing in lullaby. So soothing it was, until Sweetie Belle went and ruined it! I was enjoying "Baby Cakes" up until the point where it really starts to fall into the repetition. In "Mare Do Well", when Snips says to Rainbow about the falling balloon, I found her answer amusing,"Yeah yeah, I've got a good ten seconds to spare." In "Spike At Your Service", erm, actually, I can't think of anything I really liked about that one.

As a child, I would have disregarded MLP:FIM as just another girly girl preschool show. There is absolutely no way I would have even given the slightest thought to viewing it, putting it there with the likes of Barbie and Dora. How glad I am the programme came out in more recent times and that I discovered it at the beginning of this year.

In the beginning, it went: Rarity Twilight Applejack Fluttershy Rainbow Dash Pinkie Pie But after watching the programme for a good 7 months now, and of course coming to know the characters more over time, it has become: Rainbow Dash Rarity Applejack/Twilight Fluttershy Pinkie Pie Other than Apple and Twi becoming an equal third for me, I also notice one distinct change in particular there. And as for Pinkie, oh I’m sorry little pink pony, please forgive me. It's not I don't like her, I like all the Mane6, it's just I don't quite enjoy her character as much as the others. Not to say she isn't entertaining of course, of which she very much is, and can be downright endearingly hilarious, but I suppose the way I'd put it is I just don't connect with Pinkie like the others. "Is um... is that okay?"

Looking at it realistically, I would say there's a good chance at this point in time there will be at least another season or two after the fourth. The programme's popularity and its merchandise sales are certainly high enough to warrant more new episodes for some time to come. Whether it will pretty much go on forever in the same vain as say The Simpsons, well, that would of course be great, but of course only as long as the story ideas didn't become stale, which in turn as a comparison, is just what happened to The Simpsons in fact for many years (only somewhat improving in more recent years). Either way, there is still so much untapped potential in MLP's characters and world, so the optimistic side of me says it very well could go on literally forever!

I definitely overlooked Rainbow Dash in the beginning. For quite a while, she just didn’t stand out to me. I don’t know why exactly, but I would say it was partially due we didn’t really see her true character highlighted until “Sonic Rainboom”, which was much later into the first season. But still then, she hadn’t yet become a favourite. My fav Mane6 character first became Rarity, but after watching the programme for some time now, my fav has become Dash. Don’t know how it went that way exactly, I mean, she used to be my second least fav, but now has become my Best Pony. I guess she really is just 20% cooler after all!

MLP is one of those extraordinarily rare programmes I quite happily watch through on a regular basis. I don't think a single week has gone by this year where I haven't watched any episodes! Usually with a show, I will watch an episode if I catch it on TV, or if I have DVDs/downloaded eps then I may watch them again every once in a while, but the difference with MLP is I watch it almost daily! Never could I have thought I would become so attached to a show featuring ponies, but there it is. I always start from the very beginning, and then watch through to the current end of the show again, over the days. I'd say I'm on my fifth or sixth run through for the year now (I've been a fan since about the very beginning of the year). S1 is my favourite season as a whole, S2 of course has a lot of great episodes too, but there's just something about that first season which always strikes a chord with me. S3 I was particularly a little let down by certain episodes, but the season was certainly nothing of a tragedy. Either way, it's a great programme, and there's only about 4 or 5 episodes which I always tend to skip (eg. "Stare Master", "Mysterious Mare Do Well"). Looking forward to eventually adding Season 4 to my gradual episode run-through's.

I liked the first three episodes enough, although I wasn't sure about the programme until "Applebuck Season". And until that point, I also stayed in the mindset, as I often do when trying a new show (from the beginning at least), of, "Shows are almost never at their strongest from the very beginning. They can take a while to pick up." And I'm glad I kept to that. I still remember, at some point during my viewing of "Applebuck Season", I thought, "Yes, this is going to be a great show to watch through." I found the character of Applejack genuinely endearing, and the portrayal of her inner struggle was done very well, being remarkably convincing - not something I would have expected from a programme called "My Little Pony". So yes, that was the episode which cemented the deal for me.

Just my thoughts on how my feelings towards the characters of Apple Bloom, Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo developed in time, and what I think on the cutie mark emphasis aspect of the three. Growing to appreciate the CMC as en entity I wasn't the biggest fan of the CMC at first, especially from their characterisation in "Stare Master", although this possibly could have come down mostly to Chris Savino's writing. I am thankful the team quickly redeemed them in the next episode, "The Show Stoppers", almost instantly making them much more likeable from the get-go (even though I did find the episode to be somewhat repetitive there for a while) and also bringing back the "real" Sweetie Belle from the previous episodes. In fact, thank Celestia that Savino wasn't handed the reins to writing EVERY story featuring the CMC! While I can't say he can be blamed entirely, there is still no doubt he would largely have had influence over their portrayal in "Stare Master", of which I found them to be unfortunately largely irritating. I think I very well would have skipped every episode featuring the CMC if things had continued this way. However, even though I found the trio likeable enough in "The Show Stoppers", it still took a while for me to truly warm to them. Only until viewing a number of S2 episodes they were featured in did I gradually end up coming to like them a lot more, in fact almost as much as the Mane6 in the end. "Hearts & Hooves" was certainly one of the episodes that specifically made me become a fan, a story in which I found them to be, frankly, utterly charming and even hilarious at times ("Oh come on!" as the infamous quote goes!). From being unsure of them at first, to now always looking forward to just what they're going to get up to next. The CMC are here to stay and I'm happy to say I'm completely for that. *** Cutie marks and their emphasis I fully appreciate and embrace how it ended up being that every episode starring the young 'uns didn't always be about earning their cutie marks. That would have gotten old real fast. I do wonder what it would have been like if the show had gone that way though. Would it have been a good or a bad thing? Would the focus of trying to earn their marks every time round have always been enjoyable? I would say it would have become very redundant soon enough. I mean, that's why we read books, watch programmes etc right? To be entertained by an all new story each time, not essentially the same thing over and over again. Furthermore, I am very happy the CMC were further developed into as well rounded characters as the rest of the main cast, rather than just remain a one trick pony act. Sure, so Apple Bloom had already been shown to be an interesting and well rounded enough character in S1's "Bridle Gossip" and "Call Of The Cutie", however, I have to say, I was a little concerned there for a minute she was simply going to fall into becoming a one-dimensional character along with Sweetie and Scoot, simply always being after their cutie marks. The vibes I originally received after their initial set-up from the end of "Call Of The Cutie" was "We're gonna be the Cutie Mark Crusaders - THE END!", of which exactly just this was completely emphasized and expanded upon, being the entire main basis for "The Show Stoppers". The writers and the rest of the team obviously saw fit that this wouldn't work forever, but it does certainly work when it is the emphasis of an episode on occasion. It's a much smarter, less repetitive and all round better way to go. *** Overall I grew into being almost as much a fan of the CMC as the Mane6, largely thanks to episodes featuring them after S1, and am happy they continue to receive just as varied stories as anyone else, as opposed to only ever being portrayed as wishing to earn their cutie marks, of which things quite possibly could have gone that way. The CMC, what are your thoughts on them as characters? Do you appreciate them or not so much? Were you instantly a fan or did it take some time? What do you think of the initial emphasis on their cutie marks and how it is now only just one element of them overall? Fire away!

I still think the Italian opening is far better. Nicer choice of footage and comes off as being quite reasonably carefully chosen, the song is very catchy and even has an air of epicness to it, and is a piece I never tire of hearing (even though I don't know what they're saying!). The Japanese intro though, I don't know, just didn't click with me. The song I found very repetitive and boring, the footage choices seemed largely random, and overall I just didn't really like the intro all that much I'm sorry to say. Not dreadful, but the English and Italian intros both trump it if you ask me.