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ghostfacekiller39

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Blog Comments posted by ghostfacekiller39

  1. This is a tough episode for me to get a feel for. On one hand, I liked Rainbow Dash's conflict and the opening is a classic. On the other hand, I dislike the way Rarity's portrayed and that makeup she wears at the end is probably the worst thing I've seen on the entire show. In the end, there are other episodes I'll spend my time re-watching. Nice review annihilation of the episode.

    In terms of Rainbow Dash, I actually find her to be an undoubted strong point in this episode. Best part, no doubt. Her conflict and development were probably at their all time highs thus far, with only "Wonderbolts Academy" coming to mind as a potential competitor.

     

    Of course, that just adds to the travesty as I really love to see characters get great development like this. It's just so unfortunate that they had to deconstruct another character to get her there - and it wasn't needed, really. Rarity didn't have to play that role and it probably would've actually had a stronger impact on her character as a whole in both giving her development and showing how strong she can really be had she saved someone who had bullied her as a kid instead of her relatively newly acquired friend who's all of a sudden being a bitch with butterfly wings.

     

    Just so much went wrong around her that it makes me sad to think how much I would've liked this episode for the good it did Rainbow Dash. It just ended up feeling like a Phyrric victory in terms of writing quality.

    • Brohoof 1
  2. Eh, Pinkie already had a spell all ready to do exactly what Twilight wanted it to do. It's not hard to see why she would have simply opted to use it rather than spend a considerable amount of time looking for a safer spell. 

     

    I don't know if M.A. Larson ever redeemed himself to you after this episode, but at the very least, the one thing you have to give him credit for is being the one most committed to making sure that Twilight's abilities were balanced and that she was never too powerful for her own good. 

     

    Natasha Levinger sure as hell didn't care about that.... :okiedokielokie:

    I actually typed up this review from memory because I'd rather risk getting called out on misinformation than actually force myself to sit through that monstrosity again :lol: So I wouldn't be surprised if I missed something.

     

    Granted, the spell was called out for being dangerous and they seemed to have no trouble finding a safer one, so I'd rather question her line of reasoning.

     

    I will be honest and say this was a weaker flaw, but it came across as a cheap attempt to get her and her friends up there anyway and thrust Rarity into the role she played during this episode overall, which was unnecessary. It played a huge role in setting up what didn't need to be setup, basically, and that led to even more harm to be done to a great character than need be.

     

     

    Larson isn't a bad writer and I'm not one for grudges. He just really dropped the ball here, though.

    • Brohoof 2
  3. Gosh, I'm so sorry. :(   

     

     

    It's funny you should mention this. Ironically, the wing spell Twilight uses in this episode is one of the spells I often point to as an argumentative defense when explaining the scope of how fucked up the breezy spell was. 

     

    There are three things in particular that separate this spell from the breezy spell. 

     

    (1) It had an established balance. It was going to wear off in three days. 

    (2) Twilight actually got Rarity's consent before casting it on her  :okiedokielokie:

    (3) The wing spell was not a dues ex machina since it did not solve the problem of the episode. 

    Granted, my criticism of the spell was more on her casting it before really trying to find one, then finding a safer solution for the rest of them afterwards :lol:

     

    If it was going to be that easy to find she should've attempted to find one before going all out risk like that.

     

    • Brohoof 1
  4. I feel as if I must disagree with you here, DQ. 

     

    Your entire argument is based on this assumption:

     

     

     

    Three words: Cut — it — out! Bronies don't fucking care if the show deviates or breaks away headcanon, whether it's their own or a collective. They only care if the show executes their story well. All they care is the following:
    • Is the story solid and making sense?
    • Do the background ponies actually have a reason to be there, or are they there just to pander to older and younger demographics?
    • Does the story not mock its fans and the fanon, longstanding or otherwise? The IDW comics have already done something similar: The mocking of brony critics throughout the Reflections Arc, including having Pinkie Pie (one of the most likeable characters) acting as the vessel for the mocking. Here, the main comics jumped the shark.

     

     

    All they care is the following:

     

    These clearly are your thoughts. What you care about and what you want to see. That's perfectly fine, of course. I can't help but find fault in this point, however, as it's assuming that every single person in this fandom thinks in this manner. 

     

    I'll put it bluntly, I can't really say I think you're of the authority to speak for such a large group of people in this manner unless you've asked every single person in this fandom what they care about in this show and those 3 things were their response - which, you haven't, because I know for a fact you didn't ask me :P 

     

    Furthermore, while I do agree that it is a poor argument as to why one would avoid the episode all together, I do think that many would have a sense of dread and nervousness about this episode because of the very reason of fanon being broken, particularly those who have grown attached to the personalities of the background ponies.

     

    I know for a fact that I get really nervous before a Rarity episode airs. I get shaky, my arms and legs feel like I've just run a mile, etc. I worry about her being written poorly like she was in "Sonic Rainboom" among other things, as I don't like seeing her deviate so far from the character I've grown to love. I'd place money on this being why many would feel the same way about this episode - they've grown attached to the personalities the fandom themselves has imprinted on the character. It's quite literally one of the only explanations as the only general background pony that's been given a canon personality in the show that I can think of, and please correct me if I'm wrong and I'm leaving one out, is Derpy Hooves. It's either the personalities they've been given by the fandom or the character design, but I digress on that last note.

     

    They've grown to cherish the personalities and whatnot that these ponies have been given. That much is clear, as background ponies in this fandom are quite popular and you'd be hard pressed to look through a thread on these very forums without a background pony appearing in a signature or an avatar. Many of these ponies haven't had a single canonical speaking line, either, so it's all up to what lines they have been given in fanfiction, fanmade videos, what they're being drawn as doing in fanart, etc, to give them the personality that makes people like them. What if these personalities were to be destroyed by canon? That would be a huge game changer for the fan's enjoyment of the product, no doubt. It wouldn't be the same character they've grown to enjoy and care about, it'd be something completely different, and it wouldn't go away. It'd be stuck as canon and there'd be no way around it.

     

    And like you yourself have brought up in the past, DQ, writers aren't allowed to look at 3rd parties for inspiration. It's a safe bet that they don't know every nook and cranny of the personalities the fandom has imprinted on each individual background pony and that they just have a base knowledge of what the fans have come up with. If that is the case and they do their jobs within the rules and don't use 3rd parties for direct inspiration, the probability of them messing up in this regard is rather high. They can't know everything, they can only know the bare basics based solely upon what they cannot avoid seeing. They could mess up the personalities that the fandom has grown to cherish rather easily, actually, and there's a chance it wouldn't be for the better.

     

    Sadly, I can't say I can agree with your points here DQ, as it all traces back to the fans of the background ponies finding their enjoyment in these characters through headcanon in the first place - whether it be their own or collective fanon, and seeing that enjoyment be toppled down by irreversible canon is something that I can understand people being upset over. Just like there's no going back with the Star Wars prequels, there's no going back once this ship sets sail. They either hit it or miss it with each individual background character, and when their personal enjoyment of something is being put at risk like this, it's easy to understand why some people might be nervous as to what this episode has to offer them :please:

    • Brohoof 2
  5. There are times when I think the comic writers nail the characters, and there are others when they drop the ball dramatically. Then you have the frustrating moments when they have a tantalizing idea like giving Rarity a motivating fear of being forgotten and not needed, only to use that great character driven aspect to create a one-note villain.

     

    They do this with RD too, but instead of focusing too much on a stereotype, they make her comic relief and foul too often which (IMO) turns her into a completely marginalized character. Then there is Twilight. I honestly thik they don't know what to do with her at this point.

     

    I do still read and enjoy them, and when they nail Rarity the hit the ball out of the park. The frustration is still there though.

    I can see what you mean. They are very hit and miss. It just seems to me that they swing at pitches in the dirt far more often than they do knock them out of the park :P

    • Brohoof 1
  6. If Flash Sentry was a "parody," then it would've been executed far better. The audience doesn't see any joke in FS's character status because neither movie plays it out to be one. They both write Flash to be very important to the story, and unlike his clumsiness, his attitude isn't played for laughs, and several scenes featuring him are dire.

    Just because it's a parody doesn't mean it's going to be executed well, DQ :P Some parodies can fall flat and fail to serve the purpose they were intended to serve, and, after watching the video posted up above, I can believe this to be the case - especially when the parody of the Gary Stu high school romance would be a tough one to execute in a setting that isn't solely comedy. Not that I am saying this is the case, but I can believe it to be after listening to the points made in the video above and comparing Flash Sentry's portrayal/screen time (or lack thereof)/development to other characters who were intended to serve a big purpose in the series, and as Twilight's implied crush, that's a big purpose in of itself, movie or not :P Those were extremely amatuerish writing mistakes made with his character and, considering that we're discussing people who don't come home from school or work and type this up, but instead were deemed talented enough to build careers off of it, I can't roll with it as being by accident. Either they were totally trying to destroy the quality of the movie (which is a bad idea, as that'd more than likely get them fired) or they weren't taking his character seriously and were more than likely forced to add him in there by Hasbro, a la Twilicorn.

     

     

     

    • None of the writers are allowed to read fanfiction or witness anything fan-created at all. MA Larson revealed in a panel that every single writer must sign a contract saying they won't use third-party inspiration for any of their episodes. Fanfiction of any kind is third-party inspiration.

    Furthermore, dunno if this is really the case either. While being unable 3rd party inspiration is definitely a thing, I can't say that bars them from using 3rd party inspiration for their stories entirely and being unable to use 3rd party inspiration.

     

    Keep in mind that there's been several allusions and references to other television series, movies, and real life events in FiM. Those could be considered 3rd party inspiration just as much as fanfiction. Drawing inspiration can be one thing and blatantly ripping it off can be something entirely different, but in general "don't use 3rd party inspiration" =/= "you can't look at 3rd party inspiration." Unless it is explicitly stated that they are not allowed to look at fanworks and whatnot, then I don't think the 3rd party inspiration rule is intertwined with such. Especially since the 100th episode is going to be centered around background ponies, and they'd have no way of knowing that is an appeal to use to the audience if they didn't look at fanworks. I can't say that's necessarily the case either.

     

     

     

    Jerry Peet excuses Twilight's attraction for his looks because "it happens all the time." In other words, it's okay for Twilight to be out of character because this kind of stuff exists.

    Keep in mind that the this is a high school setting with the timeline making them high schoolers in age as well. High School romances aren't generally deep and meaningful and are generally based on a physical attraction, and I can attest for this as a high schooler myself. Furthermore, with age comes experience, as the old saying goes, and while in the FiM universe they are young adults who are no longer in school, in the EQG universe they are teenage girls. There is a big amount of growth to virtually every single person on the planet during that age gap between teenager and adult and EQG Twilight isn't old enough to have experienced it quite yet.

     

    Lastly, crushing on a character based solely on a physical attraction doesn't automatically make the character shallow. You said it yourself right here -

     

     

    • Trenderhoof… *sighs crossly* Everything about him is so unlikeable. His personality is obnoxious. He's incredibly rude. He relies on trends just to fit in. How the bloody hell did Rarity ever get the crush on him? (Her crush on Blueblood gets a pass because she didn't know his personality at all, while Simple Ways indicates she knew his personality.)

    First off, Trenderhoof sucks and I'd love to take a Louisville Slugger straight upside his cranium. That's not what we're paying attention to about this point that you made, however:

     

     

     

    (Her crush on Blueblood gets a pass because she didn't know his personality at all, while Simple Ways indicates she knew his personality.)

    Rarity has proven herself to be an extremely deep and complex character, if not moreso than Twilight. She is far from being a shallow character and, even before the ample amounts of development she received, she still was far from being a shallow character, yet she gets a pass and then you immediately say this isn't the case with Twilight. I can't understand why this is the case, as Rarity has always been one to judge by inner beauty before outer beauty when it comes to the people she has in her life, and that was evident when she went off on Blueblood in that very episode that they met, because once she saw how awful he was, she wanted nothing to do with him. So this just leaves me asking "Why differentiate between the two characters so much?"

     

    To put it bluntly, I can understand why one could assume him being a parody character after comparing and contrasting his shallow and flat character with the products the exact same writers had put out beforehand and I can't see why any of the points you just brought up rules out this potential possibility :huh: I can actually see where they'd make a parody of the trope that Flash fills, as he not only fills every negative stereotype involved with his archetype, but he turns it up to 11 :P

     

    Just my two cents on that matter, at least :) He strikes me as a poorly executed character whether he is a parody or not, but I can't see where something like that could slip quality control so badly without it being at least a little intentional :please:

    • Brohoof 1
  7.  

     

    The brony fandom is also more artistic than the majority, which could be another factor. There is a lot more Luna-themed drawings and songs than there are of Rarity (citation needed)

    I'll provide a citation, via Derpibooru's tags of both characters:

     

    aJUn6AB.png

     

    Rarity has 69696 images tagged with her, and Luna has 39415. I think Rarity has a slight edge there :D

     

    Just felt like I should clear that up. Thanks! :D

  8. I liked the episode, but it is one of those like Sleepless in Ponyville - people will fight to death to defend its honor for one or two things even though the rest of the episode sucked (Or in RoH's case, was just okay. Not good, not bad.)

     

    I don't think it is a bad episode, but I feel it falls quite short of being the Shakesperean Opus it is made out to be. I can respect you having the guts to call out problms in the episode despite knowing you would catch some flak. Keep it up, man :D

     

     

    • Brohoof 1
  9. With that being said, I don't think the Assassin's Creed version of that song necessarily betrays the artistic integrity of the original. It may go against the intended purpose of the song, but I don't think looking at it with a new take is necessarily a bad thing.

     

    Ordinarily I would argue that its acceptable to cover a song and try to create a different kind of feel than the original as its own art form

    Thing is, I usually don't have a problem with this sort of thing either. I'm all for that sort of thing, actually - in this very blog I brought up another cover of this very song that restylized an '80s new wave song into a 1912 ragtime tune while praising it. Thing is, when you take such a vital part of what makes the song great and modify it, you better execute it well.

     

    What made the original version great, in my opinion, was the contrast between the lyrics and the music itself, but with the occasional bright point to match the music surrounded by the dark lyrics. Light spots surrounded by darkness, and the fact it's played in a key that's usually reserved for happy, empty pop songs adds to the depth of it. Happy key, but the lyrics are contrasting for the majority of the song, but fall in line with the other parts. Seems happy by the song, but the substance is dark - but even in that darkness lies hope and happiness. That's what makes the original version awesome.

     

    This newer version is generic, however - there is nothing special about it. Nothing to make it anything other than a generic cover for a game or a quick buck. It's ordinary, it's plain, and in of itself not a bad song, but when you take a song that's essentially a piece of art and has beauty even in the lyrical structure, you're basically spitting on it if you turn it into something that's like this cover. It was executed okay, but not well - and they took it and made a song filled with emotion, soul, and complexity and made it into a brooding emo tune that sounds little different than most music out there today.

     

    That's my problem with the cover. Not so much the fact it was taken in a new direction as much as the way it was executed was brutally generic and did nothing but betray what made the original song great by turning into something like it is.

     

    • Brohoof 2
  10. Personally, I don't like it when people attack my opinions, but opinions are no exception to the universal law of respect - and that is that respect isn't given, it's earned. I used to be a rather bloodthirsty defender of Rarity back in the day, but if someone said they disliked her and gave a reasonable merit to it as opposed to disregarding canon or "I just don't like her," then I felt inclined to let them carry forth with whatever they were doing. It was a rare occasion when I didn't unsheathe the sword, truth be told, but it did happen before, because I could respect their line of reasoning - even if I didn't feel the same way. 

     

    That is how it is with many people in life. Unless they feel the respect is earned, they likely won't just hand it to someone. It is just the way of the wilds, I'm afraid, and it isn't always a good thing, but it isn't likely that it is something that will be going away anytime soon.

     

    Fortunately, I find many people who won't offer respect to your opinion will remain quiet on the subject, but that isn't always the case. My best advice is to try to keep a level head about it and don't treat them poorly or lose your temper, and either they come to respect your opinion for your use of politesse or they look bad for yelling at you despite your attempts to be peaceful.

    Just keep calm and carry on, my man :D

  11. I felt many negative things about this episode, but the worst thing of all is that I just felt it to be a gigantic waste.

     

    The concept was the perfect setup for exploring some of the relationships of the mane 6 further. All it needed to do was balance screen time and roll the dice.

     

    Instead, we get the 3 most common pair ups and an episode mostly revolving around Fluttershy and RD and everything else taking a back seat. So, not only did we get the safest, most common pairings, but we got very inbalanced screentime that ended up just being Fluttershy quietly stammering as RD acted selfish and disloyal. only to repent for her sins...yet again.

     

    We could've seen some lesser explored relationships - RD and Rarity, or Pinkie Pie and Applejack - but instead, we got slammed with bad writing and wasted potential.

    • Brohoof 2
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