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Dark Qiviut

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  2. Dark Qiviut
    Besides Apples to the Core, if there's one thing I can't praise enough, it's the way Pinkie was characterized. She's crazy and zany, but some differences:
    Her humor and zaniness have a purpose. They're not random to fill in time.
    Her zaniness actually keeps her more grounded into the story. Compared to many other episodes this season, she's more toned down.
    There's genuine joy in her character.
    She's not always being happy and wild. Pinkie's a very complex character with a wide range of emotions that makes her her. The fact she was also very disappointed and upset at the end is refreshing for her as of late.
    She's treated as someone with intelligence! (FINALLY!) Pinkie's not stupid or random for no reason. She's both smart and competent, and PAP respects her!

    Easily her best role since her human counterpart in Equestria Girls!
     
    ———
     
     
    Source: S04:E09 - Pinkie Apple Pie
  8. Dark Qiviut

    What is a fandom?

    By Dark Qiviut,

    Lately, one thing I've been reading, including on here, is how they're fans of a product, but "not in the fandom."
     
    Let me explain what a fandom is.
     
    To quote the basic definition of "fandom":
    That's it. By being a fan of something, you are in the fandom by default.
     
    You're a fan of a sports team? You're in the fandom of the team you follow and league operating under it.
     
    You're a fan of anime/manga and the creative process of it in general (a.k.a., an otaku)? You're in the otaku/anime/manga fandom.
     
    You're a fan of a celebrity? You're in the fandom of that celebrity.
     
    You're a Mario fan? You're in the Mario fandom.
     
    You're a Sonic fan? You're in the Sonic fandom.
     
    You're a Whovian (fan of Dr. Who)? You're in the Whovian/Dr. Who fandom.
     
    You're a brony (fan of FIM)? You're in the FIM/brony fandom.
     
    You're a fan of a fanmade comic, video, or story? You're in the fandom within that fandom. I'm a fan of the well-done, in-progress brony comic, Twilight's First Day, so I'm in the TFD fandom within the brony fandom.
     
    Well, you get the gist by now. By being a fan, you are in the fandom because you contribute to it by expanding its fanbase. Just because you're not active in the fandom mainly, if not at all, doesn't mean you're not in it. It means you're passively involved in the fandom.
     
    So what does have to do with the short opener?
     
    Not only is "I'm a fan, but not in the fandom" contradictory. It's factually incorrect. "I'm a fan, but not in the fandom" is also very pretentious.
     
    By the way, by being on sites like this one and posting in FIM-related topics, you're contributing to the brony fandom in some way by expanding the forums and Poniverse's empire. (If you talk about other products in small doses, even from a nostalgic point of view, then you're contributing to those fandoms, too.)
     
    The second the "I'm a fan, but not in the fandom" lie is quit being preached, the better.
  11. Dark Qiviut
    Instead of creating a pony for my ponysona, I decided to use an animal fitting of my handle. Because "qiviut" is the Inuit term to describe the underfur of a muskox (shed and then sewn — usually handmade — to make hats, scarves, sweaters, and coats), I decided to use a muskox for my ponysona.
     
    My character profile is located below.
     
    Link to my deviation.
  15. Dark Qiviut
    Copy and paste the link of the post (or page where it is), blog, or profile to Google.
    In Google should be a green link under the clickable link. Click on the arrow next to it to reveal the dropdown menu.
    If the dropdown menu says "Cache," click on it to reveal a "snapshot" of your work from sometime ago.
    Copy the text and paste it in place.

    (If you can't, you can report it to staff and see if it's stored in their archives.)
  18. Dark Qiviut
    Did you ever have to wait so long for something you waited for to be released? That's what most of the fandom did during the long hiatus between Seasons 3 and 4. Then, when released, people flocked to the TV screens and online streams to watch some new pony. I did the same and waited to see how McCarthy and crew handled their episodes. While there was plenty of good, plenty of bad pushed Season 4 two steps back, making this an incredibly average season so far.
     
    Pluses:
    Very strong animation, composition, and more variety of facial expressions. The biggest improvement here has been the use of light and shadow, creating a more believable atmosphere. I guarantee you, if the scene where Twilight looked down at a hurt Celestia was in the season-one style, it would've looked incredibly jarring.
    There are more great, realistic, in-character consequences to really stupid stunts. One of my biggest gripes with past seasons is the lack of logical consequences to some really stupid behavior and stunts. There are more consequences as a result so far.
     
    Castle Mane-ia's best moment was the dark humor and chaos implanted on FS, Rarity, AJ, and RD from trespassing Celestia's old castle.
     
    In Bats, Act 3 (most of it) was very good in part because the Mane Six suffered nasty consequences for physically altering a pest's characteristic (Flutterbat, the orchard becoming a nightmare, Applejack forced to sacrifice the competition to save FS).
     
    More of that and less of the shit seen in episodes like MtBPW (Dash), MMMystery (Rarity, Dash, FS), OBA (Babs Seed), Sweet & Elite (Rarity), Ponyville Confidential (M6 sans Rarity), TMMDW (M6), and Games Ponies Play (M6), I'm in.
    Great music, both the background score and songs. Need I say more?
    For the most part, a greater respect of continuity. There are continuity references literally in every single episode this season. Some of it subtle, but most of it is really in your face. For the most part, it's respected. Bats, for instances, clearly uses The Stare Master, Putting Your Hoof Down, Dragon Quest, and Keep Calm and Flutter On as a base for the spell enacted in Act 2. Flight to the Finish references both Sleepless in Ponyville and Games Ponies Play to brace the script and song.
    Having the Power Ponies stay stuck by having a henchcolt spray the ponies after every few minutes was an extremely clever twist that parodied one very big drawback in superhero stories: the villains leaving them in a bind and then forgetting about it.
    Excellent visual comedy on Polsky's behalf.
    The Elements of Harmony have been discarded. While great to start with, they were now the "go-to" device for the M6 if something big and evil comes along and the writers. Seeing the EoH sealed away in the Tree of Harmony was a change the writers desperately needed, and I fully support it.
    Rarity. Easily the brightest spot this season after being relegated to the middleground and back in Season 3.

    Minuses:
    For the most part, the pacing has been TERRIBLE. One of the biggest reasons why Princess Twilight Sparkle is so weak is how poorly paced it was. First, it was too slow. Second, it was too fast. The poor pacing makes for a very lacking story, and like in Keep Calm, MMC, and EQG, it did here.
     
    For Daring Don't and Power Ponies, part of what made the two extremely weak was the pacing. The former had way too many other problems and, despite liking it a lot, made it easily the worst episode so far. Power Ponies is my most favorite episode this season, but it was extremely quick, and you can tell McGowen, Fullerton, and McCarthy hurried the script by hammering the self-deprecating "useless" plot every four minutes. Even the end of Flight to the Finish, which was well-paced earlier, had a really snappy ending.
     
    Only two episodes have a consistently good pace so far: Castle Mane-ia and Bats.
    Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon are one-dimensional notes again. The fact that they have no personality besides being flat bullies didn't help Flight to the Finish at all. If anything, it underminded Scootaloo's quest to fly.
    When continuity was disregarded, it made the episode (and humor) questionable in quality. Daring Don't has some gigantic continuity issues (swapping the meta reason why Daring Do was a RD recolor from a storytelling perspective, for example), and Twilight Sparkle's retconned incapability to fly was extremely artificial.
     
    Also, the "predestiny" subplot was shoved in again in PTS. The characters have free will, and despite their names, they grew independently. Actions and consequences were their results (internally and externally). The "destiny" concept (which was forced into MMC for the Twilicorn climax) contradicts this. Destiny doesn't choose you. You choose your own destiny.
    The community feel (something seen from Season 1 to about the halfway point of Three) is missing. One of the most important things to do in showing a story is to describe the background life. When it's not there, the setting becomes barren. Besides Princess Twilight Sparkle and Flight to the Finish, there's literally no interaction with the rest of the community. It's focused only on the main characters, as if the background characters don't exist.
     
    To see what I mean, it's not just Derpy not appearing besides the opening. Popular background characters like Bon Bon, Lyra, and Rose Luck are absent, too.
    Zecora being written as the Deus Ex Assistance for the Deus Ex Machina. One thing I tend to not like about her as a canon character is how she's sometimes there to be the "get-out-of-jail" card, similar to the old "invisible-loop" from Thomas & Friends years ago. The roles from her that actually satisfy me these days are Luna Eclipsed (for setting up the chilly mood) and Magic Duel (for she gave Twilight advice, and the two had to work it out to get Twilight to concentrate and intellectually grow). More of her from LE and MD and less of her from episodes like PTS and Cutie Pox.
    Actually get the continuity rolling. After PTS, Castle Mane-ia and PowerP are the only two episodes to clearly reference the chest. One of the biggest flaws from the development of the Twilicorn was its poor foreshadowing: After episode two, it wasn't referenced again until it was dumped on us in MMC. If you leave the audience hanging too long, then they won't eagerly anticipate the development anymore. It'll only become frustrating and make them wonder if the team can really develop a very cohesive storyline.
    Sometimes, the references from series one through three are so blatant, they stick out too much. Continuity is very important when telling a proper story, but tell it too much, and you demonstrate a lack of faith in your storytelling capabilities. Tell it sparingly — don't force-feed the audience by turning what should be a strength into a distraction.
    The Twilicorn's development stagnated. She underwent a very big change in her life by ascending from a student in Ponyville to one of Equestria's elite. It wasn't followed through completely, and since Castle Mane-ia, her development to prove her worth has been eschewed. I was in limbo when asked whether I support the Twilicorn or not, but if Twilicorn's development remains at a standstill for too long, I'll be forced to lean to "not supporting it" because they didn't handle her ascension well at all.
    Although the M6 often show up collectively, most of them are inactive. Daring Don't a huge example, making everyone minus Twilight, Rainbow, and Pinkie background ponies. Bats, PTS, CM-ia handle the group much better, but they need to be front and center more. This was something S2 did right: They spent time with the characters they needed and didn't include the ones unless there was a purpose. Sisterhooves Social, PYHD, SiP (season three, I know), and DQ did well with this.

    In all, while I've had a blast with Season 4, after looking through the episodes, the quality seems to be along the border. While no episodes are TERRIBLE, none are thoroughly amazing, either.
     
    Collectively, average so far. Hopefully, Rarity Takes Manehattan (and Rarity's ripe with visual comedy, something Polsky is excellent at) does something right with it.
     
    My current favorites regardless of quality (subject to periodically change):
    1. Power Ponies
    2. Bats!
    3. Castle Mane-ia
    4. Daring Don't
    5. Flight to the Finish
    6. Princess Twilight Sparkle
  25. Dark Qiviut
    As I'm in the middle of juggling between writing a review for Series 17 of Thomas & Friends and developing notes for a Railway Series/Thomas & Friends fanfic adaptation of FIM, my review won't be so long.
     
    Current strengths and various likes:
    The nerdy moment Twilight and Dash had as they explained various moments and scenes of the Daring Do canon cracked me up (and Pinkie following it clearly was a clever touch). As an out nerd, I've been on both ends of the spectrum (in in graphic design and FL9 diesels, out in bus specifications). Funny, yet extremely relatable. Best moment in the episode and so in character of them both.
    Dash fangirling Daring Do was something I could really see her do. Since Read It and Weep, you could tell how close Dash was paying attention to the series as well as all of the details surrounding the DD canon. The little winks of her knowledge and fanaticism from Spike at Your Service were quite nice and reflected the continuity of the series.
    Twilight actually uses her teleportation spell. Must be a holiday today.
    Another nice wink of the Indiana Jones series in the form of the Western map.
    It shows a connection fandom and creator has from here to others. Fandom is passionate, crazy, and wild. Sometimes for better, sometimes for worse. We've seen that so much in so many fandoms, namely sports fanbases like college football, baseball, ice hockey, and soccer.
     
    Likewise, the same applies to the people who authorize the canon. Creators and writers (both official and fan) do owe their fans. Without fans, there's no fandom, no popularity, no fame, and (for the pros) no money. Rowling wouldn't have been a billionaire if Scholastic didn't entice the public and help create the gigantic Harry Potter fandom. Besides the gigantic TV revenue that's scheduled to begin in 2014 (about $1.5 billion from ESPN, TBS, and FOX altogether per year), one of the biggest reasons baseball players get millions of dollars is because fans pay a bunch of dough to sit and watch their favorite teams and players play (and if you're a market like LA; St. Louis; New York; and Boston, win).
    "My mind is officially blown!" Obviously, Twilight.
    I like how Fluttershy called out her friends for suggesting to help Daring Do.
    Great animation, and the fighting sequences had nice action, humor, and tension. The fights were fast, yet paced well, and there was plenty of foreshadowing to the climax.
    Conceptually, it was a breath of fresh air as far as Dash-centered episodes are concerned. While previous ones focused on her ego and sensitivity, this one focused Dash about how much she wants to put it aside and aid her idol. It was a change of pace for Dash and felt both in character and real for her.
    Daring teasing Ahuizotl Owee-whoever-name-is and Dash's reaction were hilarious.

    Current weaknesses:
    Some parts of the episode when there was no fighting felt rather quick. Not so much to disturb the plot (and seriously, the pace here is objectively better than Keep Calm and Flutter On), but enough to miss the plot points and confuse the viewers.
    Dash played the fangirl too long. While she was shown a powerful lesson by inadvertently getting in Daring Do's way, she made up for it. And to be fair, she did think about what Twilight said to her as she followed her, talking back and forth about joining her idol and then doing the best she can to knock herself out cold after realizing she was behaving stupidly.
    Up till the end, pretty much every pony minus Pinkie was in on the action. Rarity, Fluttershy, and Applejack were background ponies for the first sixteen minutes of Daring Don't. It would've been better if Dash, Twilight, and Pinkie were the lone characters of the Mane Six in this episode.
    Daring Do was based on Indiana Jones, who welcomed help if needed (according to my research). While it backs up the book Dash read in RIaW (as well as her secret identity and distant location), DD, however, behaved similar to Batman and felt out of character as far as the source material is concerned.
    *rolls eyes at hearing the Wilhelm Scream*

    Overall, impressive work. Definitely my most favorite Polsky episode and quite possibly his best one in quality.
     
    P.S.: By the way…
     
    ———
     
     
    Source: S04:E04 - Daring Don't
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