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Dark Qiviut

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  1. Dark Qiviut
    http://livestream.com/davenporttheatre/daddylonglegs
     
    A Broadway musical is being streamed online for the very first time. This one is Daddy Long Legs, which I attended last month, and it's excellent. The Davenport Theatre, which plays the musical, is airing the stream.
     
    Go see it!
  2. Dark Qiviut
    Many of my friends here know about what I went through last year, but for those who don't, I have a thread in the Life Advice forum for the members to see. The day prior to Thanksgiving 2014, my family learned that my youngest aunt's lung cancer (a non-smoking form in which she battled since August that same year) had become terminal, so on Thanksgiving, Mom and I spent several hours seeing her, talking to her, and watching a few clips of Passover 2014. On December 3, 2014, my aunt died at the age of 62 after a five-month battle. Today marks her 64th birthday.
     
    *sigh* And her birthday feels bittersweet. I remember all of the good times I had with her, and I know that she wants me to celebrate her life… But at the same time, how quickly she went from alive and spunky to dead at such a young age in just a few months is still too tough to fathom. I still can't believe that she's gone. I still grieve over this; and losing another family member (one of my cats due to a chronic lung ailment), and my stepsister and mom having health crises (stepsister had to have surgery to remove a [thankfully benign] tumor attached to her thyroid, my mom needing an appendectomy due to appendicitis) makes the grieving more painful.
     
    *sniffle*
     
    Happy birthday, Auntie.
  7. Dark Qiviut
    If you want to see the rest of the progress, head here for the start and eventual revisions of the character design and here for the pose examples and layout beginning.
     
    Now the layout's in more progress. Here's the general layout.
     

     
    To explain the design, there's a transparent drop shadow to make the stones feel more "grounded." If I had one drop shadow for Wise Ox and not for the ring of fire, then there's no point for one.
     
    The other is the touch of adding a drop shadow to the pop-up/screen above the campfire, using Silver-Quill's idea for this piece. Unlike him, the drop shadow is now above the screen and perpendicular to the campfire rather than on an angle. This is intentional: The light source is below the screen, so it makes more sense for the DS location.
     
    I have a few facial expressions in mind, but I have a couple to start.
     
    First, his reaction to The Cutie Map:
     

     
    But what if it's an episode like Rainbow Falls?
     

     
    Depending on the passion (how much he likes or dislikes) or the quality of the episode, the background and fire color change. Some of you know my feelings for the episode, so I won't answer here.
     
    If you have anything to say about its progress (and want to suggest some ways to help improve it), feel free to comment below.
  9. Dark Qiviut
    Many of you may be familiar with Daniel Powter's song, Bad Day. For those who aren't, here is the link:
     

     
    Around 2010, after Mom and I had dinner at a Thai restaurant one Friday night, Mom began to sing the song's chorus:
     

    As she finished the chorus, a fifties-something-year-old man, who was leaning on a store wall, heard her and replied, "Yeah, I had a bad day."
     
    Gave us a ton of laughs then. Still gives us a ton of laughs. XD
  10. Dark Qiviut
    On April 2, 1915, Bill Alexander was born. A World War II veteran on the German side, he was captured and painted portraits of the Allies' wives. Once WWII was over, he immigrated to North America where he would spend the rest of his life. One of his greatest treasures was reviving alla prima (now called the wet-on-wet technique), a technique many of his mentors past and present use today. One of them is the late Bob Ross, whose twentieth anniversary of his death will be on July 4. Although Alexander died in 1997, he still remains an impact because he proved to all of us as artists and painters that it is possible to paint a great picture and not have to go to art school for so long. There are so many episodes featuring many of his greatest paintings. The show where it all started, The Magic of Oil Painting, can be found on YouTube. That show helped climbed the technique into popularity, where he won a Daytime Emmy.
     
    On the 100th anniversary of his birth, The Alexander Art Company's website posted a tribute video to the late Bill Alexander, and I would like to share that with you.
     

     
    I never got to meet him (I didn't know he existed until after he passed away), but I can still feel his spirit whenever I watch an episode featuring him and Ross's art.
     
    You made an impact, Bill. May your impact last till the end of time.
     
    And with that, here's an episode of Magic of Oil Painting, courtesy of electrotherapy.
     
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jFnuc-Kxl7I
  11. Dark Qiviut
    Not many of us can live to such a ripe age, but Yogi Berra proudly can. On this day ninety years ago, Hall-of-Fame catcher Yogi Berra was born. One of the best in the game, he fielded his position amongst the best of anyone. But his hitting is also legendary: He retired with a .285 average, 358 home runs, and 1,430 RBIs. As a player, he was a three-time AL MVP and won the most rings of any Major Leaguer: thirteen (ten as a player, three more as a coach: 1969, 1977, and 1978). He also holds one of the most prestigious All-Star records by being an 18-time All-Star: 1948-1962 ('61 and '62 had two ASGs). After retiring for good in 1965, he was elected to the Hall in 1972 and had his #8 retired alongside mentor and Hall-of-Famer Bill Dickey (making it the first time a number was retired twice).
     
    Aside from his days on the field, one of the most modern areas of Yogi Berra's lore is his Yogi-isms. One of the wittiest and most intelligent men to ever play the game, he always came up with various lines, and they all make some level of sense once you think about it. The line I quoted in the title is one of his most famous. My favorite is "It ain't over till it's over." There are plenty more here.
     
    In 1987, he was the star in a Miller Lite commercial, where his brilliance shined to the masses.
     

     
    My most memorable Yogi Berra moment happened on July 18, 1999, the day David Cone threw his perfect game. To celebrate Berra's rekindled friendship with George Steinbrenner and welcome him back, the Yanks celebrated Yogi Berra Day. They gave him a 1998 World Championship ring, and he caught Don Larsen's ceremonial first pitch. The fact that Cone's perfecto happened on that day makes it so special.
     
    Happy birthday, Yogi!
  14. Dark Qiviut
    The Adventure Begins is marked as the epiphany of the Brenner Era. Being the 70th Anniversary special of The Railway Series, Brenner and crew revisited Thomas's beginning days on Sodor. There are plenty of really well-done Easter eggs to attract older fans (the classic music remixes, the "70" on Thomas's bunker) without pandering to them. It's not a total retelling of the first two books, but instead an adaptation. It takes the first two books and "revises" them in a way that better streamlines the CGI era.
     
    However, the suspension of disbelief gets nullified whenever Henry appears in the special, as he's the biggest flaw. There are two big reasons.
    Throughout, Henry was seen in his post-Flying Kipper shape. His new shape symbolized a critical evolution to his character both physically and psychologically. Initially, he was really vain and wouldn't leave the tunnel for really selfish reasons. Then he was shown to be really unreliable and needed special coal just to function. His accident and temporary relocation to Crewe to be reshaped helped him grow as a character. It was possibly the most important arc in Season 1 and the early books entirely. Yeah, it's been a common complaint, and there have been defenses over it (including the painstaking way of rendering the train, so calling it "laziness" won't work). Nevertheless, when both the writers and animators work so hard to execute the special and make it appeal for both the young and old equally, seeing him like this is really glaring.
    Henry's characterization in the special is arguably the worst of any cast member in the Brenner Era.
     
    I can talk about the symbolism of Henry's transition from his old shape to new, but that's small compared to his contrived portrayal. The main reason why Henry trapped himself inside the tunnel was due to his severe vanity. He was afraid of the rain because he saw himself to be more important than his passengers, hence the "lovely green paint with red stripes" repetition. In both TRS and Come Out, Henry!, The Fat Controller had a really strong reason to punish him. Now, by turning his vanity into a severe case of actual aquaphobia/ombrophobia, TFC's decision to seal him in the tunnel suddenly has huge implications. Rather than punishing Henry for his vanity, he punished Henry for something beyond his control. This makes TFC appear callous and unfit for a leading man on the Island.
     
    Also, the naming of the actual tunnel suddenly has big implications. One of the biggest flaws of the entire series (yes, even the books) is how mean-spirited it can be. Each time you hear Gordon's Hill or Henry's Tunnel, you're being reminded of the negatives of that character's actions. Awdry named it "Henry's Tunnel" for geographical circumstances, but continuity is also hammered in over the head. Turning Henry's vanity into a legitimate fear makes the Island feel evil as a narrative.
     
    More importantly, Henry's ability to overcome his fear of water plays heavily in Thomas's character development. Initially, he was a cheeky, impatient misfit prone to making several big mistakes. Right after coaxing Henry out of the shed, he becomes a cheeky, impatient character, yet a little more mature and more sure of himself. Henry's flanderization has been a serious problem over the years under HiT because this isn't him, and it's still there. In Henry's Hero, his fear of bad coal was in character because it was backed up by continuity — broken continuity, but continuity nonetheless. Here, there's no such excuse.
     
    When you have to change a characterization to fit the plot, then the writing quality drops. Unfortunately, Henry's flanderization undermines the legitimacy of Thomas's epiphany and character development. Rather than becoming a sweet moment, it turns sour by being forced.

  16. Dark Qiviut
    Rodney Dangerfield is one of my all-time favorite comedians. Known affectionately as the King of One-Liners who "don't get no respect," his self-deprecating jokes are too good to pass up.
     
    Here's some of his magic from The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson.
     
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FVQB9N__pdc
  17. Dark Qiviut
    Last year, HiT Entertainment's Railway Consultant, Sam Wilkinson, uploaded a revised Thomas & Friends map of the Island of Sodor to the Sodor Island Forums.
     
    If you look at the upper-left hand corner, one of the more interesting railways is the Small Railway, which is connected to Duck's branchline. Starting in Arlesburgh West, a trio of miniature engines would roll along a short little railway that the standard and narrow gauge engines can't get to.
     
    In TRWS, there are three (and later four) small engines: Mike, Rex, and Bert.
     

     
    Mike is in red, Bert in blue, Rex in green.
     
    They would make another appearance under Christopher Awdry's penmanship and introduce a fourth, named Jock:
     
    http://vignette3.wikia.nocookie.net/ttte/images/a/a6/TeamworkRS4.png/revision/latest?cb=20140109035238
     
    Despite their popularity, their very small sizes made them apparently unable to be introduced to Thomas as a model.
     
    Well, there's a REALLY HUGE spoiler coming up!
     
     
     
  18. Dark Qiviut
    Back when I was in my late-teens to my early-twenties, I was really into anime and anime fanfiction. Besides Digimon, other anime that captivated me over the years were Escaflowne, Monster Rancher, Yu-Gi-Oh, Sonic X, Naruto, S-Cry-Ed, and Cardcaptor Sakura. Some of them I'm still a fan of today.
     
    One other anime I grew to liking was Inuyasha. Great worldbuilding, decent comedy, and decent characters. (I, however, despise Kagome in the anime because her characterization and power to sit Inuyasha are greatly bastardized. But Shippo's my most hated overall for being very obnoxious and unlikeable.)
     
    Natural for me, I went to look for fanfic. One of them was by an author named Kristine Batey (known in many corners of the Inuyasha fandom, including Mediaminer, as "Bachan"). Her writing was really good. She knew the characters, how to convey emotions, how to make readers laugh hard, and the craft of writing altogether. Over ten years ago, she worked on a fancomic called "Hero in the 21st Century"; I never read it, but I heard it's good. You can check it out on your own volition, but it's for mature readers only, so I'm not linking.
     
    Suddenly, in late-2004 to early-2005, she stopped working on her her projects, and for very good reason.
     
    On June 17th, 2005, Bachan passed away from breast cancer at 53 years old. When she died, she left a very gaping hole in the Inuyasha fanfiction fandom, one that never closed. It's really sad, too, because she was apparently dedicated in her work, and I say this as someone who had no idea her work existed until a few months after her death. When the LJ community fanficraves was at its peak, I joined and recommended one of them to the community, called Animal Passion. To this day, it's still the funniest fanfic I ever read.
     
    Later this year will be the tenth anniversary of her death, and that hole is still gaping even though the Inuyasha fandom has grown. Because I'm reminded of it, I can't help but shed a tear for two reasons. One: Because she left this world way too soon. Two: Because she left an amazing legacy in the Inuyasha fanfic fandom, and I'm sure she's making everyone who's gone laugh, cry, and cheer anytime she publishes a story.
     
    I may need to read Animal Passion again soon. RIP, Bachan.
  19. Dark Qiviut
    Recently, the Chicago Film Archives obtained classic footage of Wrigley Field back in 1938.
     

     
    Above is a film produced by Jacob Glick, a Ukrainian immigrant born in 1898, who own cigar shops around the city. His daughter, Diane Berolzheimer, and her husband donated ninety-three rolls of film to the Chicago Film Archives, and this was one of them.
     
    This film is very historic is some capacities.
    Back in the 1930s and '40s, there was no such thing as a batter's eye. People would sit in the view of the pitcher, catcher, hitter, and home-plate umpire. Only in the 1950s did batter's eyes come to existence. This footage features a BE-free Wrigley Field.
    Back in the day, many people came to the ballpark well-dressed, and there are shots of men smoking cigars, which you'll never see in the baseball grandstands anymore.
    There aren't many shots of Wrigley Field just after the ivy wall was installed in 1937. This is one such shot.

    According to YT commentators (posted with evidence), the game was on April 22, 1938. Opening Day against the St. Louis Cardinals.
     
    You can read more about it in this DNA Info report.
  20. Dark Qiviut
    Author’s Note: This is Part 3 of my Rainbow Rocks review. Click here for Part 1. Click here for Part 2.
     


    Intermission  
    Rather than approach my conclusion immediately, I'm going to end this segment on a bit of a somewhat positive note, and there are three more I want to highlight.
     
    Vinyl Scratch.
     
    Unlike last time, the fandom references don't cross the line into pandering. The one that came closest is Vinyl Scratch, but it was brilliantly executed.
     
    How? Look at the images below.


     
    The only way for the Sirens to activate their spell is to have them hear their song. When they sing, their victims' negativity gets trapped into their pendents. Vinyl Scratch didn't take off her headphones anytime, so she can't hear them and be locked under their spell. This is a glaring oversight on the Sirens' behalves, thus dooming their plans.
     
    Some have called this a DEM. Well, RR isn't safe from one, but Vinyl isn't one of them. Since her presence is already established, Vinyl isn't a get-out-of-jail-free card here. Actually, the headphones are a cleverly placed MacGuffin, but one where you must focus on the background to recognize.
     
    Welcome to the Show.
     
    It's no secret that a good final battle can end a film on a high note, and it succeeded. After the idiotic scene under the stage and a really sluggish pace to the finish line, the script finally begins to pick up.
     
    Despite the major flaws I pointed out, one thing it does really well is present the film with stakes organically. Plenty of tension flowed throughout thanks to the Sirens' imposing magic. As weak as they are as characters, they're extremely active and take advantage of everyone's feeble minds. Let's Have a Battle foreshadows the eventual tension early, while Under Our Spell improves on that by escalating the tension.
     
    Their version of Welcome to the Show is their most evil song in the entire film, and its approach is extremely active. With the audience incapacitated, the Dazzlings no longer felt they were worthy, but do you think the Dazzling would release their choke hold on their audience? Not at all. Hence their intense vocalization and commands.
     
    Their music? Easily some of the best in the movie. Several emotions resonate out of the electronic cues: evil, relief for finally ending their painstaking journey, bitterness or anger for how long it took, lust for complete attention, and eagerness to spread their power beyond simply the stage at Canterlot High. If anyone was going to confront them, it was conform or die.
     
    Contrarily, Fluttershy's song is extremely upbeat. Unlike the generic Shake Your Tail! and obnoxious Awesome as I Wanna Be, the lyrics have plenty of personality while being varied. It's confrontational without breaking character, brave, extremely confident, and (most importantly) hopeful. Their fights are behind them, and no loss of hope is bringing them down. They not only believe they can beat the Sirens. They know they can beat 'em.
     
    And the subsequent battle wasn't merely pretty, either. It was aggressive, and both sides actively went after each other. With the future of Canterlot High at stake, the Mane Six and Dazzlings used their musical powers to try to dominate the other.
     
    In Part 1 of my review, I pointed out how Sunset's redemption wasn't rushed. Her path ended here the second she touched that microphone. If her friends were gonna beat the Sirens, Sunset couldn't stand idly in the background. She had no choice but to confront them and help her friends.


    There's one word to describe the final feeling here: triumphant. The barrier that haunted Sunset for the whole film was finally breaking down. Previously, she told the Dazzlings she changed, but there's a difference between telling and showing, and the Dazzlings' subsequent mind games tells the viewer they're aware of it. She wanted to help, but felt so doubtful in herself, she believed butting in only screw things up. 
    This connotation becomes visible when she interrupts Awesome as I Wanna Be. With the light beaconing over her and being booed off the stage, it crushed her and enforced her belief that being inactive and letting her friends take care of the music for her was best for the Rainbooms and herself.

    Two important themes here:Sunset Shimmer was ready to truly embrace the Magic of Friendship. With her friends insulting and yelling at each other in front of her, she assumed the Magic of Friendship meant being angry at each other and letting petty things get to them. When they got mad, it broke her down.
     
    Now that the Mane Six are together, cooperating, and organized, they're prepared to fight, and Sunset feels that connection. With her in the background, does it mean she's neither a true friend nor worthy of being a part of the team? Absolutely not! She's as much of the team as the others. The final meter pinpoints the Dazzlings' biggest flaw in their plan: their overreliance on popularity. Without an audience, the Sirens' plan is for naught. They had to have their audience love their music so their powers grow more powerful and become more threatening. Earlier in the song, the Rainbooms called that out, but approached it passively. Sunset's accusations were active and aggressive.

    So, why isn't it the best part of the film? Blame the sluggish, safe, contrived journey for killing the momentum.
     
    Obligatory Derpy.

     
    When tensions mount so much, it can get rather overwhelming. Derpy's innocence when performing her saw blade is a cute, clever, and innocent method to ease it. Not to mention the musical choice is perfect for her! <3
     


    Conclusion  
    Last offseason, Hasbro competed with Monster High with a "spinoff" of Friendship Is Magic: Equestria Girls. Sales notwithstanding, the first was a sorry disaster that deserves no praise whatsoever; if it weren't for some decent execution of smaller details and being a limited release, it'd be a contender for a Raspberry.
     
    A few months ago, Hasbro released its sequel, Rainbow Rocks. Any hopes of it being a monumental improvement are dashed immediately when the movie spewed extremely heavy exposition, sucking out any anticipation so fast, it'd take a miracle to completely revive it. But Rainbow Rocks did retrieve some of it. There are plenty of really subtle improvements, such as incorporating fandom references without crossing the line to pandering, a much better lineup of songs, exponentially better animation, and insight on Sunset's retconned personality and eventual development.
     
    Simultaneously, Sunset's character took a major hit when her past self was absent other than through generic exposition, mean-spirited comedy, the rest of her friends acting like idiots just to make her look better, and the obvious Deus Ex Machina that unnecessarily brought Twilight back into this world. Meanwhile, the Dazzlings are threatening, and their active responses to any threats respect the Ancient Greek roots while sanitizing it for kids. Unfortunately, their potency was lackluster as a result of Adagio and Aria being generic and identical characters in two puppets, Sonata containing a contrived personality, thoroughly forced dialogue, and abundant exposition. That said, animation is fantastic with refined details to make the visuals extremely impressive, and the pacing Sunset's evolution from timid and ashamed classmate that fell from grace to hero is paced really well. On the other hand, the rest of the movie is incredibly slow with plenty of padding.
     
    So, is Rainbow Rocks a good movie? No. Quality-wise, it's about as bad as Filli Vanilli.
     
    Do I still hate this overall spinoff? Absolutely! And I still dislike this movie.
     
    Is it an animated atrocity as Equestria Girls? No.
     
    Rainbow Rocks is broken, but not one of FIM's bottom-fifteen episodes. There are many solid moments that can be utilized in future installments, and charm seen in the main series exists in varying spots. Yes, to bear repeating, Sunset Shimmer now has a chance to really be a breakout character, but it's not there yet. However, ample opportunity's available now when there wasn't any prior. Minutely, this spinoff is heading in the right direction.
     
    Now, can Equestria Girls improve in its next installment? Well, only if DHX stops being lazy with their continuity, plot holes, and characterization of Canterlot High and the HuMane Five. Next time, buckle down and put a hell of a lot more effort into it so the whole movie is good and not a few things! So we'll see what happens next.
     


    If you want to read Part 1, click here. Click here for Part 2.
  21. Dark Qiviut
    Author’s Note: This is Part 1 of my Rainbow Rocks review. Click here for Part 2. Click here for Part 3.
     

    It's no secret that I hate this spinoff.
     
    Back when newer details emerged out from the leaks, my blasé opinion of it turned incredibly negative because, as a feminist, it went completely against the pro-feminist values of the show, Lauren Faust herself, and My Little Pony as a franchise. (I'm surprised how I didn't get angry over Flash Sentry at the time, which is different compared to now.) I had no hope for it, and my predictions came true and then some. Not only is its writing worse than Rainbow Falls. It also eventually overtook Rainbow Falls as my most hated "episode" of the show.
     
    Then the Rainbow Rocks shorts were published, and there was very little that changed my feelings towards it. Music to My Ears is really good, but almost all of them lacked the charm that FIM inherently has. As a reviewer, I decided to watch Rainbow Rocks to see if there were any improvements. After two initial watchthroughs, I thoroughly disliked it, but decided to go back to get somewhat of a better understanding. The final verdict? Rainbow Rocks is a haphazard, obnoxious mess, but varying degrees of effort offer hope for its future.
     

    Strengths
     
    Technical Improvements.
     
    In the last movie, the animation's errors were very glaring. Albeit crisp and clean to look at, the behavior of the anatomy was extremely rigid. Their running, walking, and bending lacked any naturality nor proper mobility. This is especially a problem in three areas:
    The characters running in front view. When their legs, ankles, and knees bent up, it looked incredibly awkward, as if DHX had plenty of trouble to make it look good without remaking the puppets. You can really see this problem in Music to My Ears when Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle run toward and past Vinyl Scratch: from the side and three-quarter view, it's fine.
    The walk cycle lacked any sense of bounce. Take a look at how the ponies walk. There's a lot of bending, and the mobility of the characters is smooth and natural. But when the humans walked, their bodies were completely straight and inflexible.
    The classmates' robotic dancing to conclude Win the Crown. Need I say more?

    To point to the main flaw of the animation, it lacked one of the biggest principles: squash and stretch.
     

     
    You can read more about it here, but in animation, the purpose of the squash and stretch is to create a fluent, exaggerated effect of the object. The squash and stretch helps liven up the characters beyond just their lips or objects. The way they act and move develops a personality, and squash and stretch accentuates this process.
     
    This technical detail is visible in Rainbow Rocks. Their walk and run cycles are very natural because they aren't so stiff. In particularly the walk cycle, there's a subtle bounce as they walk. You witness this improvement very early when the Dazzlings exit Sugarcube Corner in the prologue, and it continues elsewhere in scenes like Pinkie's kitchen with Maud in the middleground. It never lets down…well, except one point, which I'll get to.
     
    Adding to that is the movement of the clothes and hair. Each time the characters move, their hair sways. Or when Rarity pulls in her line of clothes, it doesn't stay still. The clothes on the hangers sway a bit until it stops, reminding the audience how inertia doesn't stop a object that suddenly stills.
     
    Along with the natural walk and run movements, there's a lot more care to the little expressive details. In EQG, the main animations were there, but the lack of polish made the flash animation very plain. Now that DHX knows how to work with their puppets, they can play more games, and the high degree of refinement reveals that.
     
    I already described the more refined movements of the hair and clothes, and I'll analyze two specific examples.
     
     
    Lighting isn't like a blanket. It shines wherever it wants to and casts a shadow when not. In the kitchen, DHX wasn't putting a blanket on the darkness with a ball of light and making the characters too bright. They observed where the light would logically hit their hair, faces, limbs, and rest of the room. Here, the main light source is the lamp above the cutting table; when Sunset showed up, the light from the fridge temporarily becomes a secondary source. The transition from light to dark was first introduced in The Show Stoppers and used prominently in Sleepless in Ponyville. The drawback is how the sharp transition ruins the rounding effect and flattens the shapes. In season four, DHX/Top Draw introduced the blur to their animation, which smooths the transition from light to dark better and recreates a more believable illusion of depth.
     
    More importantly, this technique solidifies illusions of tension, mystery, and concentration. Twilight is all alone in the kitchen, trying to concentrate. The absence of light brings our attention to the subjects and puts our focus on specific points of the scene. In Equestria Girls, this ability to try to create the rounding effect was lacking, mainly the confrontation in the dark hallway and the climax.
     
    Focus on the hands in the first image, for it comes into play in the competition.
     
     
    In the first movie, Twilight's adaptation to her human was extremely rushed. Since Twilight lived as a pony throughout her life, it made no sense for her to adapt to her human form so quickly. To make it worse, instead of treating the transition with grace, Twilight's incapability to function as a human was the butt of several jokes that died after Spike pushed open the school door.
     
    Rather than retconning it, Twilight retains some pony tendencies (the other her inability to write or spell). This time, it's not written as a throwaway joke, but a legitimate dilemma that only contributes to the conflict. No matter how hard she tries to write a counterspell, she screws up partially because she can't write without her horn. Whenever she stands on the stage and gets nervous, her hands curl up to a fist akin to a pony's hooves.

    The first movie lacked subtlety in their animation. Equestria Girls: Rainbow Rocks's never forgot it, and that's a HUGE improvement given the size of the project.
     
    Music variety.
     
    Listen to the songs from the prequel. While the messages are very different, their compositions are extremely similar. This Strange New World/Time to Come Together and Equestria Girls/This Is Our Big Night/A Friend for Life are very samey. Combined with a lack of creative, catchy rhythm beyond just one, the music feels really safe and merely panders to tween girls.
     
    Here? The tones and compositions have a lot more variety. You can hear a substantial difference in the way they not only play, but structured, also. And that's really hard considering the genre. Modern pop music's greatest flaw is its limited delivery. But RR is able to bend it, yet not break, but not having one song feel identical to others, even when their tones are similar, like Let's Have a Battle, Under Our Spell, and the Dazzlings' half of Welcome to Our Show.
     
    Another magnificent strength is their catchiness. Many of the songs' meters are very sharp and follow along a very bouncy rhythm. By making the songs catchy, they become memorable, and you'll want to either hum or sing along. The intro song, Under Our Spell, and Shine Like Rainbows fit into that category.
     
    Most importantly, the songs greatly impact the story. Except its most popular song, every single in-narrative song in EQG is during a montage. While that's fine in general, they were there for no reason other than to rush the pace and fill dead space. Instead, Rainbow Rocks takes a more direct approach to the songs via a thorough musical narrative.
     
    Two very hilarious jokes: the photobomb and Rarity's Daft Punk costume.
    What helped make the photobomb work so well is how it's something Spike would really do. Whenever teens gather together and have fun, one is to take pictures of themselves through selfies as a way to remember their day. You can tell that Rarity, Sunset, and Fluttershy were having fun and wanted to take it as a way to show it. But knowing Spike's mischief, 'twas great timing.
    Daft Punk is very modern pop culture, but this joke came as a big surprise, and her retort is classic Rarity. The Daft Punk reference is such a great under-my-radar accentuation to the joke that even a few years from now, it might never age.
     
    This film isn't kind to Rarity (or any of the M6, for that matter). This is easily her finest moment ahead of the photobomb.

    A more straightforward story.
     
    One of Equestria Girls's biggest problems is resolved by streamlining the story. Previously, its biggest goal was retrieving Twilight's crown, but there were so many subplots that came and went far too quickly, so the story lacked any focus. We know the final goal, but without a solid middle, the journey becomes empty and pointless.
     
    Here, the focus is much tighter. You know exactly what the Dazzlings planned, so you know the final goal, too. But the HuMane Five have to figure out how to defeat them, so they plan their way through the Battle of the Bands. Because the structure is much simpler, the audience has a clear idea where it's going, how long it'll take to resolve, and not get interrupted by too many unnecessary subplots.
     
    In fact, there are four subplots in Rainbow Rocks.
    The HuMane Six are great friends out of the band, but when they plan to form as the Rainbooms, they have no chemistry. Too many people want to get involved, but some characters' egos are far too inflated, marginalizing their talents. This started really early when Fluttershy wanted the Rainbooms can play her song, only for Dash — the self-proclaimed leader — to reject it.
    Sunset Shimmer's redemption. Following the prequel, she was justifiably an outcast thanks to her longtime cruelty. Only her friends supported her through the length, while the Dazzlings play mind games in order to deepen her self-doubt and cause more inner conflict with the Rainbooms.
    For the duration of the film, Fluttershy anxiously wanted to play her song. But Dash constantly rejected it because she felt it lacked energy and fervor; and the audience was reminded of it until they finally played it in the climax.
    Twilight's mission to write the counterspell, which I explained in the animation segment above.

    All of the subplots don't come ago in the span of a couple of minutes. They intertwine with each other, last for the length of the movie, and directly impact the conflict. As a result of having them intertwine, the conflicts behave like a semi-natural part of the story instead of an idea shoved at the last minute. The polish allows for a more coherent narrative to flow from beginning to end.
     
    But can it be done better? Could it be simplified and streamlined more? Definitely on both, and we'll get to that in Part 2.
     
    Resolution of one major question mark.
    (Link to the quoted passage.)
     
    Pay attention to the bold. When Twilight tried to go to the school to sleep, Pinkie changed that very quickly by arranging for a slumber party. Despite being resolved in the form of a joke, it's extremely self-aware from its obvious meta commentary. McCarthy nor any of DHX never stated what Twilight Sparkle did was stupid beyond recognition, but it implies how DHX realized it and wanted to put an end to it for good. It reminds me how Andrew Brenner from Thomas & Friends hilariously concluded Henry's Special Coal discontinuity in King of the Railway (a point railway consultant Sam Wilkinson suggested he keep in even though Brenner wanted to remove it).
     
    Well, until a certain Christmas comic took matters into its own hands…
     
    The other is the collective following of the students in the cafeteria makes a hell of a lot more sense. Sure, EQG (Cafeteria Song) was catchy in all, but do you really think every single person would be immediately swayed by a group of teens, particularly during a time right after Sunset Shimmer, Snips, and Snails cyberbullied Twilight? In the sequel, the Sirens were able to fix this problem by using their powers as a way to manipulate the crowd into turning against each other.
     
    Sirens' lore.
     
    Back when teasers appeared, speculation was aplenty about who the Dazzlings were. One of the theories was how they were Sirens because their beautiful voices, excellent ability to sing, and sensual bouncing of their hips seduced the crowd into being followers. According to their mythological background, Sirens are Greek mythological femme fetales who used their beautiful singing voices to lure nearby sailors to shipwreck onto their land. As beautiful as their voices were, they were also incredibly evil, but also too adult for a family-friendly product like FIM. So, it was altered and sanitized to make appropriate (think how Disney sanitized Snow White, Cinderella, and Sleeping Beauty), and it really works conceptually.
     
    Yet, albeit a much cleaner version, it doesn't disrespect the lore. Part of what made the Sirens who they are is their ability to seduce others. If the Dazzlings couldn't seduce the audience, then DHX could've told us they were Sirens, but they truly weren't, thus disrespecting the foundations of collective European mythology.
     
    Patience to maturity.
     
    Magical Mystery Cure was very divisive for the terrible execution of a rushed Twilicorn concept. Second-most was Keep Calm and Flutter On for three reasons:
    The pacing to redeeming Discord is incredibly rushed.
    The writing decisions to make Discord a neutral character at least was handled terribly. Celestia's logic to why she wanted Discord released is extremely flimsy because she indicates how she wants to control Discord, and harnessing the Mane Six (and Fluttershy) to do it without guidance makes her look like a tyrant. When Fluttershy explained her tactics to "befriend" Discord, she blatantly played with his emotions by saying she only wanted to be his friend to control him.
    In total, Keep Calm's moral of friendship is how you must manipulate others and take advantage of others' weaknesses just to turn a new leaf. This is where Twilight's Kingdom did a much better job executing Discord's permanent switch to the good side: because he fell for Tirek's mind games, he understood both his big mistake and how much they cared (t an certain level). The fact that Twilight forgave him even though he betrayed her in front of her other friends is a testament to her character.

    In Rainbow Rocks, Sunset Shimmer's path to redemption wasn't rushed. From the get-go, she had a ton of trouble fitting into the rest of Canterlot High, and for good reasons outlined earlier. When everyone justifiably couldn't stand her, Sunset grew humble, and she concentrated a lot on her reputation, which ate her up. In the cafeteria, she felt very worried that the Dazzlings knew a lot about Sunset's reputation, resulting in resting her cupped head on the table.
     
    The transition to her growth began with her conversation with Twilight in the kitchen, easily the best point in the film. Earlier, when Sunset extended her arm to help Twilight, she resisted because of what happened prior. That night, they had a really casual, if not awkward, conversation in the kitchen, helping to ease whatever tension they had left. Twilight couldn't figure out how to write the counterspell, but Sunset assured her she can do it.
     
    But where it truly solidified occurred in two spots: at the end of the kitchen scene and after Sunset interrupted Awesome as I Wanna Be.
    Even though they broke down whatever tension prior, Sunset's confidence that Twilight can write her counterspell (possibly to the point of raising expectations too far for everyone's own good) foreshadowed eventual tension later on. Their forced smiles indicate an unease in the chemistry. For Sunset Shimmer, this is especially so, for she spends most of her time backstage.
    Prior to Dash's debut song, to buy themselves time, they decided to play some of their weaker songs so the Dazzlings had no idea what hit them. Unfortunately, that planned was nearly ruined when their Equestrian magic nearly came to life. Sunset realized this and broke up the song.
     
    Big mistake.
     
    Everyone booed the living hell out of her, and Sunset was really embarrassed. A great path to redemption and development is how you don't succeed every time. Sometimes a character has to screw up. For her, in a BIG way, for it nearly cost them a trip to the finals.
     
    To highlight this mistake more, everyone grew very cross at her and, for that time, completely forgot about the counterspell. But Sunset was very justified in her actions, because it kept them ahead of the curve. When the climax hit, it was Sunset's time to make up for lost time and prove her self-worth.


    If you want to read Part 2, click here. Click here for Part 3.
  22. Dark Qiviut
    Author’s Note: This is Part 2 of my Rainbow Rocks review. Click here for Part 1. Click here for Part 3.
     

    Weaknesses
     
    Forced exposition in the prologue.
     
    One of the golden rules of telling a really good story is "show, don't tell." Too often, this show tells a lot of exposition, particularly in some of the worst episodes like Daring Don't, Bridle Gossip, Rainbow Falls, and MMMystery. Two of the more popular ones, Maud Pie and A Canterlot Wedding, were really burned by how much the characters had to tell everything to the viewer. Maud Pie is one of the most fascinating because key details were exposited all over: Its volume not only killed any momentum it had, but it also preceded the lack of narrative clarity as well as unfortunate implications in the final moral.
     
    The fact that you got the audience to introduce the villains first and see them behave actively is an excellent way to introduce the conflict. But that momentum was killed the minute this happened:
     
    *whistles* Time out! The camera and sickly green coloring — a connotative color of evil — focus on their pendents, so it's obvious they're up to no good. The pendents themselves offer a glimpse over what they want. You can tell they're powerful, look for more power, and (if going by continuity, as this film expects us to) are definitely not from this world. Simply by introducing the viewer to angry voices immediately creates tension.
    I said this perhaps two hundred times, and I'll say it again to those who haven't read any of my reviews yet. By telling so much exposition, the momentum in the script screeches to a halt. Words are powerful, and it's especially true in a script. Here, instead of wondering what the Dazzlings want to do, you know everything about them — along with their past — two minutes in.
    Ink Rose already said this in Tommy_Oliver's commentary about the movie, and it bears repeating here. The moment the trio spoke, any subtlety they had left vanished. When you tell us how evil you are the second you're introduced, you lack credibility as a character, and the momentum to build the characters further into the narrative really becomes stilted.
     
    Some of the best villains in the history of cinema didn't info-dump on the audience. In The Hunchback of Notre Dame, Judge Claude Frollo was a massive racist and ruled Paris like a dictator, but what helped him remain incredibly ambiguous are how he decided to take care of Quasimodo in the bell tower and held an honest belief that he was doing the right thing. Aladdin's Jafar is exactly the same thanks to his suave dialogue, yearn for what was in the Cave of Wonders, tense yet hilarious relationship with Iago, and lack of knowledge about his cobra staff; even though the narrator spilled plenty of details, Disney's writers were very sneaky in their subtle tricks.
     
    McCarthy's introduction to the Dazzlings is equivalent to a hammer banging on a wall. You saw the villain, and you read their proverbial biographies in the middle of the pages rather than the beginning.
    The exposition is cringeworthy. When you exposit correctly, you add a subtle layer of depth to the story. When done INcorrectly, though, the rich blue water drains until you see the sand underneath.
     
    How?
     
    a. The lack of subtlety, which I just explained.
     
    b. None of their lines feel natural in any way. The characters' reactions feel extremely plain and forced. Sonata's slang lacks fluidity. Aria shows little personality other than one note (matter-of-fact). Adagio is the clichéd leader who must retain patience with her fellow friends.
     
    This problem becomes more visible once they witness the Elements of Harmony. Adagio Dazzle's reaction makes no sense given how long it's been since they sensed any Equestrian magic beyond theirs.
     
    c. All of the characters know who they are and their goals, so it makes no sense for them to say it again. The only reason the audience gets to hear that is to tell them they're evil.

    Sunset Shimmer was factually a terrible villain and doesn't deserve any praise whatsoever, but one thing it did decently is introduce Sunset Shimmer with some subtlety. Unfortunately, everything about her collapsed the moment Canterlot High showed up and turned her into a generic, one-dimensional alpha bitch.
     
    Unfortunately, the exposition doesn't end there. It continues with the Mane Six as well as Sunset Shimmer's mission to redeem herself, which I'll get to later.
     
    Plot holes & contrivances.
     
    Even though Rainbow Rocks solved some problems, it created several more.
    In the last movie, it was the friendship between the Mane Six that triggered the Magic of Friendship whether Twilight had the crown or not. When Twilight left for Equestria, so did the Equestrian magic (the pony ears, hair extension, wings, and tails).
     
    For good reason. The movie implies that magic from Equestria has no business in the human world. Their magic is considered very dangerous there, so having it there opens Pandora's Box from systematic abuse. When Twilight lost her crown in the human world, "the balance between the two dimensions was at risk." With the portal closed, Equestrian magic is locked out.
     
    So why the hell did Equestrian magic appear whenever the Rainbooms played music? Given the connotations from the prequel, to have it reappear without Twilight and an open portal between the two worlds blatantly disregards continuity.
    Sunset Shimmer's book is a blatant Deus Ex Machina and breaks the alternate world's lone hard-lined worldbuilding rule left. When Sunset Shimmer abandoned her studies, this means she abandoned them. The only reason for her to return was to retrieve the crown (which is both odd and stupid considering she was locked in the human world, so she ought to have no idea the Element of Magic exists), so she can help conquer Equestria. In the middle of the film, everyone couldn't figure out how to defeat the Dazzlings. They wished Twilight could return to help, but couldn't do anything other than congregate and mope because of the closed portal, a portal that can only be activated via a natural phenomenon.
     
    …Then out of nowhere, Sunset has the solution to reopen it? When the portal is closed, it's closed! Contact between the two worlds is stifled because the magic to connect them is blocked. You can't connect the two worlds without opening them.*
     
    Thus, it makes no sense for Twilight to not only retrieve Celestia's copy of the DEM, but also have the mirror in her castle in the first place. Last time she went, she had a good reason to go. After she left, she completed her mandatory mission and had no other reason to return. Last time we saw the mirror, it was in the Crystal Empire. When did the mirror get relocated and why was it relocated? Not once was any motive explained whatsoever, and this isn't a minor nitpick. Without the mirror, Twilight can't travel through, thus making her journey and subplot moot.
     
    Yet, the plot hole worsens when Twilight is suddenly able to magically reopen the portal. Again, the portal is a magical, innate phenomenon that can only be opened once in between a specific amount of time (and "moons" is a timeline the writers use as an ambiguous handwave). Instead of researching, Twilight is able to perform cartoon logic to reopen the portal by force.
     
    So now that Celestia's copy of the book is capable of re-opening the dimension, why didn't Celestia tell her about it in the first place? Princess Celestia has a copy so they can communicate with each other. As her copy is in sync with Sunset's, they know where the other is. Apparently, Sunset brought it with her, so you can make an educated guess that either she used it in the human world at least once before (after all, she never hinted that she ditched it permanently), and Celestia's copy can locate it. Therefore, Twilight and her friends could research a solution to forcibly open the portal, thus making all the tension — contrived to start — more contrived.
     
    In other words, there was no need for the audience to heed the "thirty moons" warning because it was bullshit from the start!
    A contrivance from the first movie returns. No, it's not one of the biggest clichés in high school dramas (conversation between main protagonist and main antagonist in the conveniently dark hallway). It's how the Dazzlings know everything about Sunset Shimmer.
     
    a. They acknowledge the fact that she and the rest of her friends aren't affected by their spell and want to trigger their hate much more differently. But despite knowing their magic, they never explicitly had any knowledge about Sunset Shimmer, nor did the audience witness anyone conversing with them about her past evil.
     
    b. Let's say they did know about her background. But wouldn't that also means they must know about how Twilight was a pony who ventured into CHS in order to retrieve her crown, thus invalidating EQG's plotline of keeping her true identity concealed?
     
    In that case, why didn't they show up during the battle when Sunset, the HuMane Six, and the rest of Canterlot High were incapacitated?
    The reason the Dazzlings' magic doesn't directly affect the HuMane Five is the Magic of Friendship lives inside them. When they abandon their Magic of Friendship, their hate clouds their judgment, resulting in such a weak position that grants the Dazzlings the ability to eat their magic and restore to their former glory.
     
    One HUGE problem. None of these five have ties to Equestria other than their pony counterparts. Their pony counterparts live in Equestria, and they each have innate magic. This includes Sunset Shimmer, who abandoned Equestria for the human world. Because just about every character in the human world has pony counterparts, shouldn't they have Equestria magic, too? Wouldn't this contrivance result in either affecting everyone with the Dazzlings' spell or not?
     
    Nope. Only the HuMane Five contain innate Equestrian magic. In this spinoff, the Magic of Friendship only works for the sake of the plot at given times. In this case, performing music, which this movie never explains how it works. Why does the Magic of Friendship ONLY function when playing music? As they're capable of enabling it at other times, shouldn't they be able to activate it anytime when they command it?
    One drawn-out contrived scene of "humor" that I'll get to later.

    Transparency of plot holes.
     
    The abundance of plot holes in EQG completely broke the movie just after VP Luna interrogated Twilight. Despite my hatred for the film, being so thoroughly angry at just the ending was pointless because the whole movie was a lost cause.
     
    But what pisses me off about the plot holes in Rainbow Rocks more than in EQG are these:
    Sometimes a story can and will have a plot hole. Will the writer always catch it? No. It's up to the editor to find out, inform the writer, and correct it. If she or she can't, it's up to the critics to address the plot holes to inform the writers and overall audience about it.
     
    But when you acknowledge the plot holes and then promptly ignore them, that's not a possible oversight anymore. That's being LAZY!
     
    Part of what makes a really good story is the ability to shed some sense. It may not always have real-world logic like ours, but it must still be presented in a way that's clear, sensible, and something your audience can buy. Comedy works exactly the same way, only with a dose of surprise on the side. Often, Friendship Is Magic can execute really fresh comedy, as seen in Party of One, Return of Harmony, Pinkie Pride, and Testing Testing.
     
    These handwaves don't prove that quality. And the comedy attached to them both (Dash's dismissiveness and Twilight's nerdy explanation) isn't fresh, period!
    What makes lazy writing such a huge cardinal sin of narrative is its objective treatment of the audience. When you write lazily and know you're submitting lazy writing, you're telling the audience they have no intelligence whatsoever. You hope whoever watches the story eats up whatever explanation the characters spew out of their mouths, defends it like no tomorrow, and excuses it "just because." Friendship Is Magic and its team are well above this and repeatedly prove their ability to raise the bar in feminine-centric, family-friendly television. DHX presents no suitable excuse nor wants to: Excusing bad writing is a betrayal of trust. Rainbow Rocks excuses its own plot holes shamelessly and laughs at the audience for seeing them.
    For there's humor attached to these plot holes, the humor is lazy, too. I'm not throwing around hyperbole when I state this type of humor is lower in the lowest common denominator meter than fart jokes.
     
    "Why?"
     
    Glad you asked.
     
    Notoriety from fart jokes comes from its abuse. Today, many writers who publish scripts to shows with a young base demographic believe the only method to make people laugh is to gross the audience out and pander to them…though lazily written flatulence jokes can also be found in adult entertainment like Eight Crazy Nights. When you write and acknowledge an extremely lazy joke, you're exclusively relying on the notion that the audience is stupid enough to laugh once it arrives. That's the only way for a joke like this to work, while fart jokes can still be used freshly if given enough effort.

    The fandom as a collective unit doesn't like the word "pandering" too much, but this is classic pandering to the LCD. You don't handwave contrivances like these. It's disrespectful to your faithful audience, newcomers of all ages, adults, kids (especially the film's marketed demographic: tween girls), Hasbro, and DHX's collective writing talent.
     
    Forced comedy.
     
    Last movie, the true blights of the comedy come from hammering in how Twilight is an alicorn princess trapped in a human body, writing the characters in as idiots, brony pandering, and Twilight being bullied by Sunset Shimmer. Besides that, the comedy was surprisingly passable. (
    is perfect!) 
    Unfortunately, Rainbow Rocks's comedy is much weaker than its predecessor.
    The meta jokes above are a disaster for reasons just explained.
    During Sunset Shimmer's journey to redeem herself, one of her inexplicable trials was to tolerate the constant reminder of how evil she was last time. Far too often, her friends accidentally put her into a rut by rubbing it in. One joke may be enough, but that might be pushing it. But when these jokes are constant, the behavior becomes mean-spirited. What's done is done. Sunset Shimmer regrets it. Adding salt to the wound without provocation turns the joke from semi-mean to cruel. The HuMane Six — the main characters besides Sunset — devolve from likeable characters to accidental antagonists, and Sunset becomes more sympathetic as the audience can no longer tolerate having the humor be hammered in.
     
    This type of humor ages faster because it's so dependent on knowing the prequel in order for people to understand it. This film relies on you to be familiar with EQG in order to get this plot, and the humor is no exception. If you watched the first movie or comprehend it completely, then you'll understand it. But if this is his or her first foray into FIM, then its context gets lost in a sea of obvious mean-spiritedness. The Mane Six are lent a terrible first impression to newcomers, which hurts the growth of the brony fanbase.
    Solid characterization and/or intelligence of characters are/is often sacrificed to deliver the humor.
     
    During the HuMane Six's side of the plotline, more than a dozen comedic spots took place. Unfortunately, so few of them worked because the intelligence, life, and three-dimensionality that helped make each of them memorable is absent. By flanderizing the characters or making them OOC, the humor quality dips.
     
    That's not to mention when characters have to be stupid, and not an endearing form of stupid, either. The Dazzlings' villany potential crashes prior to the opening credits, but their personalities degrade more and more each time they quipped with each other, especially Sonata Dusk (whose ditziness is relied on).

    When you must sacrifice character and writing quality to execute the humor, the humor becomes really contrived. The scenes would've been greatly improved if there was either more attention on the personalities or no humor at all.
     
    And a couple of examples really come to mind.
    Again, the Dazzlings' forced chemistry, but the most obvious come from when they talk with Sunset Shimmer as they tour CHS and after Trixie and the Illusions trap the HuMane Seven.
     
    What really made the former so forced is how obvious the Dazzlings spilled their evil to Sunset. Adagio, Aria, and Sonata never relented their sinister smirks, spoke with artificial sincerity to Sunset, and kept talking about how much they loved to control others' emotions through their singing.
     
    The latter?Congratulations for reminding us what we already know. Only Adagio's line is suitable for this scene. The rest are moot.
    That drawn-out scene of Twilight practicing to sing with the rest of the Rainbooms breaks continuity. During the musical numbers, Twilight sang really well. Even in the first film, she sang well before a captivated crowd in the cafeteria, which helped contribute to her near-unanimous vote count to be the princess of the Fall Formal.
     
    Not to mention…what about the animated shorts, which were claimed to be some kind of "prequel" to RR for giving the HuMane Five the band's foundation? Do they matter, as well? Apparently, by the performance of Shake Your Tail! — the best song of the shorts, yet second-worst of the film (behind Awesome as I Wanna Be) — the movie doesn't think so: No hint of them exists.
     
    But if it wasn't transparent enough. The balloon pops during the climax after Twilight reaches an epiphany of how she never needed to write the counterspell, after all. If it took that line for her to realize they only needed to play as friends to defeat the Dazzlings, then why did the movie hammer in the idea that Twilight must write one? What was the purpose for at least three scenes — at night in the kitchen, backstage, and a montage during Under Our Spell — devoted to drawing such a conclusion, anyway?
     
    Twilight's anticlimactic epiphany makes every single scene, conversation, or diversion dedicated to the counterspell filler and Twilight unneeded. She could've been cut out entirely, and the overall pacing would've been more solid by eliminating one needless subplot. The only reason she had to show up now is because the rest of the characters are too stupid to think for themselves.
     
    *In fact, Sunset Shimmer could've filled the void much better by using the book to communicate with Twilight, who could inform her about the Sirens and help her research for a counterspell. That way, you could bend its continuity, but you don't break it by respecting the phenomenon and forcing the Rainbooms and Sunset to solve the problem themselves.

    Flash Sentry Walking Cardboard.
     
    *sigh* If there's one character who doesn't deserve a following, it's this one. Flash Sentry has as little redeeming value as Snips and Snails because of who he is. A Gary Stu whose lone purpose is to be Twilight's love interest. A walking stereotype. A character both blander than boiled chicken and a complete betrayal of FIM.
     
    Flash was blander and flatter in Rainbow Rocks. It was bad enough last time because he was a sexist stereotype. Now not only does he retain that sexism. DHX didn't even try to redeem his character! It's as if DHX knows Flash's character jumped the shark, so they made him more useless as a protagonist and let the egg-eating snake swallow him whole. The only time he had any personality whatsoever was when he was under the Sirens' trance, but when they were defeated, he was back to his old self.
     
    And I didn't even mention nailing in the most obnoxious, clichéd piece of slapstick in MLP history. Other than after the climax, each time Twilight and Flash meet, they bump into each other. The only reason Twilight has the hots for him is because she likes his looks. She cares so little about his personality, and no chemistry between them exists. Twilight is a fully-fledged character whose personality is warped to make both films pace itself. The first movie forced in a romance so pointless, it'd change zippo.
     
    "A better love story than Twilight"? Until the snake throws up Flash Sentry, FlashLight is a serious competitor.
     
    One major animation screwup!
     

     
    Couldn't you rework the puppets to make them anatomically better?
     
    NEXT!
     
    The Dazzlings.
     
    Unlike Sunset, they were very imposing in their plans. Don't let their sweet singing fool you. It's a trigger that inches them closer to their full power.
     
    Conversely, a very imposing threat and villain doesn't always make for a good villain. Villains should be credible in how they act. Their motives should feel plausible. The characters should have layers of depth and be active rather than passive until the last minute. Make the characters show who they are, yet be full of unique personalities to make them interesting.
     
    The Dazzlings aren't close to being good villains!
     
    Firstly, thank their contrived characterizations.
    Aria Blaze and Adagio Dazzle are the blandest villains in the show (if counting the comics, too, blandest since Celestia and Luna from Reflections). Their dynamic is about as vanilla as vanilla can be. Their personalities are completely one-dimensional; if you hear one line from each of them, you heard their full personalities. Adagio is written to be the cocky leader. If going by Tommy_O's brief review, Aria is written to be the matter-of-fact smartass, which makes sense since she's extremely sarcastic and argues pettily with Sonata Dusk a lot earlier.
     
    But because that's what the script wants to tell is, it doesn't mean they showed it. These two are extremely flat with extremely predictable, mechanical dialogue. There's no flow from one line to another, and their lines come across as forced. With the exception of one moment in front of the cafeteria (Adagio grabbing Aria's vest to shut her up, thus ending any drama that could deepen their dynamic), they had no drama or conflict. If you scratch that scene out, then their roles can easily be swapped, and neither personality changes. When you're able to interchangeably switch them as characters, then your villains lack any development.
    On the other hand, Sonata Dusk is the most unique of the trio. She embodies comic relief through her vibrant, playful colors on her skin and hair and her dopey personality. (Hell, arguably the only one with some kind of personality at all.) She isn't an equivalent to Snips and Snails from last time, for she's her own character, and McCarthy didn't have to massacre their set characterizations for it to work.
     
    Unfortunately, her role is her biggest problem. Like Aria and Adagio, her dialogue is incredibly forced. This time, via dialect and slang as dated as Gilda. Each time she speaks, her comedic role's nailed in like Snips's and Snails's mic drops following their rap, degrading any opportunity for decent humor. On top of that, she's equivalent to Pinkie from Three's a Crowd or a bastardized Derpy with a dose of evil; almost all of her humor comes from her being absentminded, scatterbrained, or an idiot.
     
    But her arguments with Aria are when she's the most cringeworthy. Each devolve into sorry, childish arguments that should be long past them given their supposed length of time in this world. No, it's not that they can't have petty arguments; you can if believable. But these characters are adults trapped in teenaged bodies. They're not kids. So if you want Aria and Sonata to argue, don't have it them argue like two-year-olds. Give their arguments plausible background so you don't waste script space.
     
    Unfortunately, the only time she said anything worthwhile and funny occurred early, and it's no guess what it is:
    Secondly, their plan to take over the human world is incredibly plain because it's so clichéd. It's not necessary for every single villain outside of Sombra to only want to conquer Equestria and/or their own world. A good, unique villain should want more or something other than global conquest. For example, when Discord desired to conquer Equestria, he did so while staying true to his integrity and never had a true goal. Unfortunately, their goal is samey other than be a role reversal of A Canterlot Wedding.
     
    However, when the Dazzlings wanted to approach their goal, they let the audience know about it all the time! Count how often they (or the protagonists) exposit their ability to eat negativity or how they're close they are to conquering, either in conversation or song. Them telling about their plan so often irritates the plot, destroys any credibility they have as characters, and pads the runtime.
     
    Thirdly, how long did they live in the alternate world, anyway? Star Swirl the Bearded was alive at least a millenia ago, so the Sirens terrorized Equestria until they were banished. So…seeing as the timing between the alternate world and Equestria is syncronized, this means they must've lived in the alternate world for several centuries… Did they live as teens since they first arrived in the alternate world, or is it a recent disguise? Did Star Swirl regress their characters as punishment? Twilight's story explaining the history of the Sirens was only supposed to inform her friends about their power. But through the large gap between banishment and today, the backstory merely reveals more plot holes.
     
    Lastly, Let's Have a Battle (Of the Bands) is their weakest song. The morally ambiguous messages in the meters are great, but, yeah, subtlety's lacking. Ultimately, their speaking roles eventually become confined to exposition afterwards.
     
    Sirens, your lust for world domination is as obnoxious as EQG's fan pandering.
     
    HuMane Six (minus Sunset).
     
    Three phrases: flanderization, out of characterization, useless. The entire body, including Spike, regressed from last time. Rarity, Applejack, and Rainbow Dash are the biggest victims.
    Last time, the only time where Pinkie's characterization deviated from what made her likeable was when everyone was too dumb to figure out that Sunset framed them. Unlike the rest of the HuMane Five, the Bearer of Laughter's human complement got back on track and was actually really solid. After a season where she struggled outside of Too Many Pinkie Pies and Wonderbolts Academy, she was eccentric, random, but not without reason, and the gags were very in character.
     
    Here, she's completely flanderized. Like the others, she's involved in expositing at Sunset Shimmer's expense without provocation, too focused on partying, too screechy (especially her pony counterpart… ), and missing two of her most subtle trademarks: her patience and sensitivity. Do you really think she'd yell at Fluttershy for suddenly having the stage light flashed onto her or obliviously make Sunset feel uncomfortable after Sunset's already ashamed for what she did?
    Fluttershy's trademark sensitivity and timidity don't show up until specific points. Otherwise, it's hammering in her drawn-out wish to play her rejected song. Of the HuMane Seven, her dialogue is the most repetitive and lackluster.
    There are two asses in the Rainbooms, and AJ is one of them. If you wanna compare a past episode, the best choice is Look Before You Sleep.
     
    There's a difference between honest and rude; in RR, Applejack crosses that line. During all of their arguments, Applejack is the biggest perpetrator. She confronts head-on without consequence, and her actions create friction with the rest of the band. The most obvious is her on-and-off, yet aggravating, annoyance and eventual anger at Rarity for wanting to present a first impression. Whenever AJ snidely points out Rarity's desire to look nice and yells at her for it, deterioration of her character accelerates.
    As I wrote earlier, Twilight is a really studious in her field of magic, namely her passion to help others. Unfortunately, this adult pony retains her shallow crush on Flash Sentry, sucked at singing through the mic, and contrivedly reduced her expertise in the Magic of Friendship to not knowing how to write a counterspell.
     
    Why didn't she research any songs that could help her band defeat Adagio and company? Her friends are there for a reason. It makes no sense for her to lock her sloppy writing and ideas in the closet. How come she never asked her friends for help? Spike? Fluttershy? Rainbow Dash? Sunset Shimmer? Her first line of research is available, and we never saw her capitalize on any opportunity to correct herself.
    AJ is one jerk. But no other M6 character turned into an even bigger jerk in RR than Rainbow Dash. To call her unlikeable is putting her lightly.
     
    I mentioned this often, and it bears repeating. The biggest reason she was such a breakout character is how deep she truly is. Rainbow Dash's archetype is a tomcolt. Brash. Rude. Hard-headed. Oftentimes too hard on others. But Rainbow Dash doesn't follow the archetype completely. In fact, Faust gave her enough background to twist up the cliché and provide something new and fresh to the audience. (Considering the many girls and boys who show masculine and feminine qualities, respectively, all the most resident.) Several key aspects that make her so endearing include sticking by her morals if the key to accomplish her dreams compromise it, her extreme loyalty to those she cares for, her extreme sensitivity to a fault. Her flaws are balanced by several powerful strengths, all something every pro-Dash brony can really relate to.
     
    So what does RR!Dash have? A massive superiority complex. Her whole "personality" revolves around being a jackass to her friends and believing her talent is above everyone else. Instead of putting her friends above the band, she put the band above her friends.
     
    How?
     
    a. Bluntly critiqued their rusty musical talent, unsolicited, in front of Flash Sentry.
     
    b. Always called the band "my band" despite being corrected thrice.
     
    c. Every time Fluttershy asked about her song, Dash dismissed them in favor of others, including Awesome as I Wanna Be.
     
    d. Dismissed their contributions to the band.
     
    e. Insulted Twilight and accused her of trying to hog the Rainbooms over her.
     
    f. Awesome as I Wanna Be. It's completely possible to write a song that brings out the worst of a good guy, but don't reduce her to a less dimension than a shallow puddle of water. Instead, a repetitive and obnoxious musical score and shallow lyrics bloat Dash's insolent ego. Snips and Snails's rap was bad, but at least it was funny in a "so bad, it's good" structure.
     Clamp the excuses! FIM brings out characters who are in character, three-dimensional, and likeable. Only three episodes showed off Pony!Dash with a massive ego: May the Best Pet Win!, Mare Do Well, and Rainbow Falls. All of them very out of character. In the first movie, Dash was in character, yet really flanderized courtesy of her very shallow vocabulary. Her shallow vocabulary remains in Rainbow Rocks, but her attitude is much worse than last time by being uncharacteristically intolerable. In other words, she's flanderized and out of character. Having her be called out for it in her face is a good direction, and she corrected herself, but it's way too late to redeem her for this movie.
    *sigh* Rarity…what happened to you?! Where's the generous, loving fashionista that helped compete with Dash as the most three-dimensional character of the show?
     
    I think the Rarity side of this fandom can explain it, but I think I'll do it. Prior to Suited for Success, Rarity sucked as a character. Minus the pilot, several episodes featured her stuck up or childishly. Its biggest offenders: Boast Busters, Look Before You Sleep, and Bridle Gossip. Suited for Success is the first to truly capture her character, and subsequent appearances from episodes like Sisterhooves Social, Sonic Rainboom, Rarity Take Manehattan, Green Isn't Your Color, and Filli Vanilli.
     
    What makes her such an egregious offender isn't by how mean she is (she wasn't), but by her flat and predictable her lines were. One of Rarity's qualities is being able to sew dresses for her clients and friends. Once she creates a plan, her creative senses activate. On the other hand, Rarity is also very vain (Sonic Rainboom), a drama queen (Suited, RTM, LZ), extremely generous to a fault, a character with exquisite tastes and high standards, egotistical, and sometimes puts her work above the people she cares for.
     
    Rarity is generous in Rainbow Rocks, but only in one way: fashion. The majority of her dialogue and comedy is about clothing, especially in the second half of the film. When that's all she concentrates on, then you're not writing Rarity anymore. You're writing a shallow representation of her.
    Even Spike is a victim of character regression, but only out of pointlessness. Throughout, he was used either to exposit or accidentally put extra pressure on Twilight. Strangely in both, he's the best written M6 character, even in his weaker performances.
     
    So, what about his scene when he opened the door? That'd be okay if the door hadn't swung inward (a door that was unlocked, BTW) and his friends hadn't lost intelligence for it to work.

    And this doesn't mention how all of the characters outside of Spike and Twilight had dumbed down dialogue. Of course, some had it worse.
     
    Sunset Shimmer's path to redemption.
     
    Other than Spike and Twilight, she was the only likeable protagonist. Her motives had merit, and she proved how she was able to move on with her life. Yes, she has much to learn, but she's on the way there. And her pluses earlier have plenty of merit.
     
    Unfortunately, the way her path was executed was extremely flimsy, and not all of it is her fault plot-wise.
     
    Sunset Shimmer deserved to feel very guilty for her actions. As generic a character she was prior, there's no denying how much she bullied others. When Twilight arrived at Canterlot High, she used Snips and Snails to help post a smear campaign online, a classic case of cyberbullying that'd result in being expelled (except Principal Celestia and VP Luna are as inept then as now). As Twilight foiled each tactic and only gathered a bigger following, Sunset grew more desperate by slandering Twilight into being blamed for the gym's destruction, bully Twilight in a bluff to retrieve the crown, destroy part of the school, and try to murder Twilight. She should suffer the consequences.
     
    But that's where the Elements of Harmony effectively died as a weapon that aided in making friendships. When Sunset Shimmer was defeated, her entire character was reset. This is completely different from what the EoH did with Princess Luna and Discord.
    Luna: A once graceful princess turned bitter and jealous, and there was no way for her to control it. Unless ome antidote was there to heal her, she was going to remain angry forever. The Elements of Harmony acted as medicine, healing her heart and ebbing the bitterness she had out of her.
    Discord: The Elements of Harmony turned him to stone and then freed him. KCaFO pushed him on the right path, but now that Fluttershy swore not to turn him to stone, he's free. When he realized who his true triends are, no outside dictatorial weapon forced him to make friends. He changed by himself.

    In Equestria Girls, the Elements decided to make completely change her character and use one of the worst, most contrived reasons why she was evil: she didn't know any other way to befriend others. By all counts, it was going to take a lot of work to fix Sunset's character and make her redeemable.
     
    As expected, DHX didn't succeed, but not completely.
     
    First, Sunset's cruel deeds are told continually. It's okay for the audience to remind that Sunset was "reformed" every once in a while, and it's just as okay for Sunset to be worried about her reputation. However, just like the Sirens, this movie shoves "Sunset was bad" right in your every three to five minutes.
     
    The constant reminders are at their most objectionable when they're reminded as a joke. In the first half of RR, these jokes are all over the place, and not always accompanied by a "no offense," either. Each time these jokes occur, the characters behave as if it was an accident. If you make this joke once, that's an accident, and this type of joke can work if treated with respect. But when they're frequent, the jokes become filler, and they don't act like an accident anymore, but implied maliciousness. Of course, this wasn't the jokes' intent, but the implications exist. (Only Twilight gets away with this passé joke because they happened when she wasn't around, and Sunset couldn't care less anymore.)
     
    It was less offensive when Sunset reminded herself of her deeds. The elements forced a severe layer of guilt and self-evaluation into her character, resulting in several self-introspections. When everyone glares at her, she gets so embarrassed and doesn't feel she can "live it down." Following the tour, she feared the Dazzlings knew her background, crushing her conscience. That said, it mildly risks devolving her into the "woe is me" trope.
     
    More subtlety, better spreading of her self-guilt would've improved the impact. Fewer "oops" jokes would've improved the dilemma and not turn the subplot into an early headache.
     
    Second, Snips and Snails are just as guilty as Sunset. By all accounts, they willingly aided her bullying of others. When Sunset transformed, the tools of FIM's canon stood alongside and were about to help lead Sunset's attack on Equestria. Why did nobody treat them with the same level of scrutiny and scorn?
     
    Third, she never had a trial that would test her loyalties, as well pointed by a brony named @. In order to make a character's redemption believable, there needs to be some temptation for her to consider jumping to the other side. If the Dazzlings offered something very tempting to make her reconsider her friendship with her friends, then you create a deeper internal conflict.
     
    What if the Dazzlings obtained some secret showing how Canterlot High nor the Rainbooms respect her? Their jokes eat her up, and she gets reminded again. Think about this: As the Rainbooms perform, she stands idle in the back. Because the Dazzlings are capable of playing solid mind games, maybe offer her a spot where she can co-lead Adagio's trio and help sing alongside? Or better yet, focus on her strained relationship with Celestia?
     
    Fourth, there's no connection of her past life in Equestria other than her book. Once, she was her prized pupil, and if going by comic canon (something the movies treat as part of the actual canon, unlike the main series), Celestia views her as a daughter she couldn't control and feels heartbroken that she couldn't help her. Rainbow Rocks doesn't present closure to the Celestia arc, which is really gaping to the series and spinoff itself.
     
    Fifth, in order to make Sunset look better, the other characters' personalities were reduced. Compare the shallow, flanderized caricatures of the HuMane Five with Sunset Shimmer. Sunset Shimmer's rebuilt character is multi-faceted, allowing her to react unpredictably. But her friends are cardboard cutouts, constricting them to specific reactions and behaviors like robots.
     
    This has been a problem with the series, too. In A Dog & Pony show, the Diamond Dogs are idiots to make Rarity look better. Equestria Girls is just as blatant, only executed through the Rule of Thirds.
     
    Whenever you reduce the quality of other characters to make the main look better, he or she doesn't look as intelligent as the writer believes. The HuMane Five are stupid to enhance Sunset Shimmer, so Sunset's credibility is damaged. Since they swallowed the stupid pills throughout the film, Sunset's arc is seriously damaged.
     
    Lastly, every bit of her past personality is wiped out, except once:
    Her exasperated, sardonic response to Fluttershy very early in the film is the only time her past character bled into her current. Otherwise, it's completely absent, and both halves are completely segregated.
     
    This is the problem's crux. Stemming from EQG's climax, Sunset's development lacks authenticity. In order for Sunset Shimmer to develop, RR had to completely reset her. Subtract that peculiar line, and her character's a 180. Before the movie began, her growth is automatically damaged because this isn't the Sunset people speculated and saw. Her life in the past matters as much as the present. Without the bad, you can't have the good. With the bad erased and her character acts like that half is retconned, all credentials for her to be a truly memorable character feel superficial.
     
    This Sunset Shimmer in Rainbow Rocks isn't her. It's a completely different character in her colors, clothes, and voice. Her character development skidded to a dead end and faced the angry shark before it even began.
     
    But it never quite jumped it. Despite harping on Sunset's execution, DHX deserves plenty of credit for reviewing her critically and trying to fix the problems. As sloppy as the rest of the story is, a lot of hard work was put into reworking Sunset Shimmer and mending the shattered ends. From a quality perspective, her character as a villain is beyond broken. Unfortunately, with her now as a protagonist, it's as if it doesn't exist anymore. If McCarthy or anyone else in the future shows a merger of both Sunset then and Sunset now, you can slowly transition her from the stereotypical bully into the selfless character with a desire to continue making amends so nobody else makes the same mistakes as she did. You can also retain that edge that Celestia and The Fall of Sunset Shimmer imply so she isn't a completely different character.
     
    Does Sunset have a long way to go before it's completely mended? Absolutely. Like what I wrote in Part 1, her path to redemption wasn't rushed; it flowed decently, and she had to make a mistake before atoning in the climax. And her conversation with Twilight in Pinkie's kitchen is a great evolution to her progress. If going by the side-canon like the Holiday Special, she's heading in the right direction. Hopefully, the Sunset/Celestia subplot will be resolved, as well.
     
    Transparent plot.
     
    Last time, the plot played way too safe in its approach. Rainbow Rocks is just as safe and predictable. Making the movie about a battle of the bands is clichéd already in the high school setting. The minute the flanderized HuMane Five appear for the first time, it was obvious to the audience that Sunset was going to help them save the day. The more she stood in the background, the more glaring the approach. I already talked how the prologue killed any speculation as to what the Sirens plan to use the Equestrian magic. Only a well-done journey could really make the ending as worthwhile as it should. Suffice it to say that it wasn't.
     

    If you want to read Part 1, click here. Click here for Part 3.
  23. Dark Qiviut
    The World Series will be underway in a few days, and there's no baseball in between, so I decided to put my end-of-year awards. The awards are as follows:
    Comeback Player of the Year
    Manager of the Year
    Rookie of the Year
    Cy Young
    MVP

    These awards apply to the regular season only, so postseason performances don't count, and these are my choices for the awards.
     

    AL Comeback Player of the Year: Wade Davis.
     
    Anyone remember how mediocre to poor he was last year in his first year with the Royals? He turned his season around. His swagger was back, and his sharp cutter made his high-90s fastball and mid-80s curveball more lethal. The Royals pen was amazing last year; he helped make the bullpen even better by making the game shorter. That 1.00 ERA, 109 strikeouts, 13.63 K's/9 rate, and no homers allowed aren't anything to sneeze at.
     
    Second-place: Nelson Cruz.
     
    Third-place: Phil Hughes.
     

    NL Comeback Player of the Year: Johnny Cueto.
     
    Last season, he only started eleven games due to injury. This season, he stayed healthy and had the best season of his career while pitching for a mediocre Reds squad. He went 20-4 (tied with Adam Wainwright for second behind Clayton Kershaw) with a 2.25 ERA (second behind Kershaw) and 242 strikeouts (tied with Stephen Strasburg for first).
     
    Second-place: Casey McGehee.
     
    Third-place: Justin Morneau.
     

    AL Manager of the Year: Buck Showalter.
     
    The year after going 85-77 (tied for third with the Yanks), he led Baltimore to 96 wins, their first AL East crown since 1997, and a twelve-game finish in their division. Boston, New York, and Tampa Bay were the three-headed powerhouse. This season, all three slumped terribly, and Baltimore took advantage. His leadership in the clubhouse ebbed on his players (at 211 home runs, the most by a wide margin [Colorado's second with 186]) and coaching staff.
     
    Second-place: Mike Scioscia.
     
    Third-place: Ned Yost.
     

    NL Manager of the Year: Matt Williams.
     
    With high expectations, the 2013 Nats missed the postseason outright, ending Davey Johnson's big-league career on a somewhat sour note. Matt Williams's old-school attitude brought back life in the complacent clubhouse. Overcoming injuries to players such as Bryce Harper and Ryan Zimmerman, he helped lead the club to 96 wins and their second NL East crown in three years. Although the season ended in disappointment, the Nats' future looks bright.
     
    Second-place: Mike Redmond.
     
    Third-place: Bruce Bochy and Don Mattingly (tied).
     

    AL Rookie of the Year: Jose Abreu.
     
    The Cuban defector made a splash in Chicago's South Side and became an instant sensation. With excellent power on both sides of the plate, he was in the top five in the Triple Crown: .317 average (fifth), 36 homers (third), and 117 RBIs (fourth). He sured up the heart of ChiSox's order; if he stays healthy, #79 may eventually be plastered on the outfield wall along with the other retired numbers.
     
    Second-place: Dellin Betances.
     
    Third-place: Yordano Ventura.
     

    NL Rookie of the Year: Jason deGrom.
     
    This little kid got called up the same day as Chase Whitley of the Yankees. In it, he was the first Met pitcher to record a base hit in 2014. Even though Billy Hamilton played a full season, his 25 caught-steals (compared to his 56 steals) and .250/.292/.355 (average/on-base %/slugging %) line hurt him dearly. deGrom finished with a 2.69 ERA and 2.67 FIP rate. With Matt Harvey scheduled to return next season, there's a front line of starting pitching for the Mets.
     
    Second-place: Billy Hamilton.
     
    Third-place: Gregory Polanco.
     

    AL Cy Young Award: Corey Kluber.
     
    If you told me who I'd vote for prior to the September game at Toronto, I'd vote for Felix Hernandez. But his poor outing hurt him considerably: Despite the scorer's change that lowered his ERA and gave him the ERA title, that series (and performance) cost them dearly. Corey Kluber solidified Cleveland's front-end rotation. His 269 K's is second to Detroit's David Price for the whole season, and he only got better as the season wound down. Altogether, an 18-9 record with a 2.44 ERA in 235.2 innings pitched. Not a bad turnaround for someone who had a sub-four ERA last season and might not've been in the starting rotation had Cleveland survived the Wild Card game.
     
    Second-place: Felix Hernandez.
     
    Third-place: Wade Davis.
     

    NL Cy Young Award: Clayton Kershaw.
     
    Need I say anything about his spectacular season? 21-3 record. A 1.77 ERA. Three K's shy of another NL Pitching Triple Crown. The first pitcher to strike out fifteen in a no-no and walk nobody! The definition of an ace. At only 26, he could just be starting. (Could he be the next 300-game winner?)
     
    Second-place: Johnny Cueto.
     
    Third-place: Adam Wainwright.
     

    AL MVP: Victor Martinez.
     
    I don't give a damn if he's a DH or doesn't have the sexy numbers. The MVP isn't about the best player, but the most valuable. How much he helped influence the game and helped his team win. Victor Martinez's improvement in his batting craft aided Detroit with Miguel Cabrera in his year-long "slump." His .335 average was second to Jose Altuve's .341 (the first Astro to win the batting crown). His .335/.409/.565 line is extraordinary for his age. But what helped him stand out over Mike Trout was the strikeouts. Trout struck out 184 times. V-Mart? 42. Ten more K's than home runs. From August 1 to the end of the season, he struck out ten times: seven in August, three in September. His ability to put the ball in play and excellent batting average gave Miguel Cabrera pitches to hit, and J.D. Martinez's offensive prowess helped give him pitches to hit, too.
     
    Second-place: Mike Trout.
     
    Third-place: Robinson Canó.
     
    Fourth-place: Dellin Betances.
     
    Fifth-place: Nelson Cruz.
     

    NL MVP: Clayton Kershaw.
     
    The stats are self-explanatory. The splits are more remarkable. In the games he started, LAD went 23-4. Everyone else? 71-64, a .526 winning percentage. If calculating it, about 85 wins in a 162-game schedule. Without him, the Dodgers might have barely edged out the Milwaukee Brewers for the second Wild Card, if not fail to qualify.
     
    Second-place: Giancarlo Stanton.
     
    Third-place: Andrew McCutchen.
     
    Fourth-place: Adrian Gonzalez.
     
    Fifth-place: Kenley Jansen.
  24. Dark Qiviut
    Due to time constraints, my reviews for Flatbeds of Fear, Disappearing Diesels, Signals Crossed, Toad's Adventure, and Duck in the Water will be much shorter.
     
    If you want to read my other S18 reviews:
    Thomas the Quarry Engine (old, U.S.)
    Old Reliable Edward (U.K.)
    Not So Slow Coaches (U.K.)
    Duck and the Slip Coaches (U.K.)


    Flatbeds of Fear:
     
    Strengths:
    The three strikes were used effectively. They were obvious, but developed the story nicely.
    The animation gave the audience extremely effective clues to what caused the whirring noise.
    Thomas, Emily, Salty, and Cranky were in character.
    "I don't want to hear the Flatbeds of Fear." The rhyming has been something many older fans don't want to hear because previous seasons really abused it, but this is a case that worked to prevent Henry from losing his boiler.
    The beginning and ending set the mood. It was a clever plot device by having the flatbed roll the camera in and out, thus beginning and ending the story respectively.
    Use of longer words: "sensible explanation." I'll get to this in a minute in the weakness section.

    Weaknesses:
    "Sensible explanation" was repeated way too many times. Vary the vocabulary.
    Although the Rule of Thirds was used effectively, they were still pretty obvious. This is especially the case for the next point.
    Henry was out of character. The old "worrywart" personality from Henry doesn't fit him one bit. By using characterization that doesn't fit the character, the plotline becomes contrived.
    One of The Afternoon Tea Express's biggest issues is the overreliance on the narrator. The same quality flaw applies here. Instead of the narrator saying the driver pulled him to the siding, how about letting the driver stop at the danger signal and ask Henry what was wrong? When Henry says the sound's making him scared, and he won't move, he asks the stationmaster to let them in on the siding.
    The "ghost story" isn't exactly that spooky. If anything, it feels incredibly short. Right away, we can tell this doesn't feel like a ghost story because we can assume otherwise. What makes the flatbeds of fear so spooky? Did it fall off a bridge, crash into a mine, derail, sink through the ground, or crash into a train behind them? Make it feel scary.
    This episode relies on a major cliché in entertainment: "The character is skeptical until he or she hears something that caused them to be skeptical of. He or she starts to believe it until someone reveals the root to the problem."
     
    Also, the fact that Cranky didn't clamp on the story did nothing except make the conflict too long.

    Without a doubt, the weakest story of the season. But not the worst. That I'll get to later.
     

    Disappearing Diesels:
     
    Strengths:
    "Some engines on the Island of Sodor give diesels a bad reputation." Extremely effective for two reasons.
    Diesel is an antagonist and is one of the diesels responsible for giving his style of engine a bad reputation. Him doing something cruel like shunting trucks into Percy gets the message down quickly.
    "Reputation." Great and effective use of vocabulary. The opening shows why, and the word isn't used again the rest of the episode.

    [*]Having Paxton be the other end of the spectrum gives the audience Diesel's foil. Diesel is an antagonist, while Paxton's loyalty to both diesels and steam locomotives and gentle personality bridges the tiring cliché between the two sides.
    [*]Unlike FoF, DD doesn't overtly rely on Moraghan telling the audience everything. There's quite a bit of silence in the episode, particularly the first chase sequence between Brendam Docks and the Scrapyard on Edward's branch line.
    [*]Compare the vocal performance of Kerry Shale (the UK voice) and Martin Sherman (the new US voice). Sherman was the most natural. Shale's voice acting came off as rather weak, as if trying to convey emotion but couldn't. Contrastly, Sherman did an excellent job portraying Diesel's deviousness, antagonism, despair, and confusion.
    [*]Reg only spoke a few lines, but there's plenty of personality, so he didn't need to do any more.
    [*]"I'm a truckload of sausages!" Talk about a very clever reference to Dirty Work/Diesel's Devious Deed. LOL!
    [*]There are two important morals:
    Just because you play a joke doesn't make it funny.
    Don't take kindness for granted.
    Conceptually, it makes sense to use both characters. Diesel is the kind of character to play such an insensitive trick to a lovable goofball like Paxton. Paxton, meanwhile, is a very sensitive character who cares for every engine.


    Weaknesses:
    This episode follows the structure of The Lost Puff perfectly. Even without the moral and chase, you get the gist of the structure: "Paxton knows something is wrong and roams throughout the island trying to locate something." In The Lost Puff, it was the "puff." Here, it's missing diesels.
     
    Besides, the "hiding" places were really stupid. Paxton chuffs by Sidney despite being in full sight, while he barely pulls up to two trains with a diesel as a header before backing up. If you're going to make Paxton worried, make the hiding spots convincing like Dart being lifted off the ground.
     
    Like what SkarloeyRailway01 and the main SIF review suggested, why not have Paxton just do his job instead? He can worry about the diesels, but they slowly dissipate as Rusty, Salty, and the others appear one by one.
    The second the narrator told the audience Paxton needed to refuel, it became predictable really fast. You know somewhere down the line (pun intended), Diesel would run out of fuel. By making it predictable, you suck the investment out of the story.
    The three kids standing on the crossing gates is a major no-no. No matter how much people don't get bothered by it, it's extremely dangerous to stand on it. Having them watch from anywhere else like a train station, bridge, or on the ground behind the level crossing would've worked much better. The only reason this isn't worse than Thomas quickly switching points in Old Reliable Edward is because the gates scene was incidental and doesn't impact the episode whatsoever.

    Despite its shortcomings, it's actually a pretty good episode.
     

    Signals Crossed:
     
    Strengths:
    As far as the concept is concerned, Toby's fear was in character this time. To quote my last post (with a change or two):
     There's been commentary about being afraid of the signals. He wasn't afraid of the signals; he was afraid of being run into because the convoluted Signal Gantry would cause him to get run over.
     
    But pay attention to "conceptually." I'll get back to this later.
    There's a really gigantic redesign of Knapford's front. I wrote this a while back, and I need to do it again.
     It was no surprise to see the gantry become an active role.
    Speaking of active, if going by UK canon, SC is Henrietta's first speaking role in the show since 1986. Here, she plays her most active role by far. While Toby's confused and later frightened, Henrietta plays the grandmother, reassuring Toby while being impatient herself and taking no nonsense when James antagonizes them.
     
    To summarize it, Henrietta almost stole this episode because her characterization was fully realized.
    There's way more human activity here in this episode. The quarrymen pressure Toby to move, while one of TFC's bodyguards whispers about the the broken signal, telling the viewers there's more to Sodor than trains and rolling stock.

    Weaknesses:
    Toby's fear is in character conceptually, but his response is not. Toby is an engine capable of standing up to himself and taking no crap from anyone. There's no need for him to suddenly hide behind a signalbox, lie to Henrietta and Thomas, and than have them result in swallowing his pride and confronting the signal.
     
    (This is one episode where having the driver and fireman active would've helped out. Unfortunately, his "character development" would've fallen apart if they did and make the whole episode shorter than the four-and-a-half-minute version.)
     
    Also, it's a shame he didn't call out James for biffing him and Henrietta. Doing this would've allowed the writers to edge Toby closer and closer to his true character.
    Three important characters were seriously unlikeable. Gordon, James, and The Fat Controller all talk to Toby like he's senile, tender, or new to the Island. They know how long Toby's lived there. Despite some very loose continuity, he's lived on Sodor since the first season. The REAL Toby knows his way around Sodor and wouldn't tolerate being talked down like that.
     
    Gordon may be impatient and pompous, but he's WAY too rude here, especially to a longtime friend.
     
    James bullies his way through Knapford and suffers no consequences for his dangerous actions. "I'll be running late" is no excuse for derailing his character.
     
    TFC babies him and has the Idiot Ball for a brain. Instead of immediately trusting Toby's instincts, the bodyguard had to act as a get-out-of-jail-free card to rush the ending.
    There's far too much repetition. You have the "You're the number seven brown tram engine," "Lookout! You silly old/little tram! And learn your signals," "I'm just a little steam tram," and "Everyone knows you're afraid of Knapford Junction." There's more to attracting your market audience than by reiterating phrases over and over again.
    Knapford is supposed to be the Big Station, but HiT and/or Arc really overexaggerated its hustle and bustle. If you want to hone in the story, at least give Toby and Henrietta a small break and the opportunity to cross. It's one thing to make Knapford Junction overwhelming. It's another to make the overwhelming feeling become cumbersome.
    The fact that Knapford Junction was retconned as a permanent setting for a long time is a big mistake by the writing team. By how the script tells the story, it's saying the old style of track was either never truly a thing or something that's been around for several years. If there was more backstory to how and when Knapford Junction was built, then you could delve further and have the team bridge the gap, Toby's overall fright, and the characters' responses to his confusion.
     
    This is why his fear is in character conceptually. By having this episode implicate Knapford Junction's a longtime, permanent standpoint in the series, Toby's fear feels extremely artificial: Since so many engines know how timid he feels towards it, wouldn't it make much more sense to have anybody confront him about it a long time ago?

    At this point, Flatbeds of Fear may be the weakest S18 episode. But Signals Crossed is objectively the worst one because it's a mess.
     

    Toad's Adventure:
     
    Strengths:
    Toad and Oliver are in character, and their West Country accents match their personalities perfectly. Oliver is puffed up in the smokebox by continually telling his story about arriving on Sodor. Toad was annoyed, and his desire to work hard works. It makes plenty of sense to see them act the way they did.
    Great comedy with Toad's and James's dialogue bouncing off each other. (Nice wink to the Little Western branchline, BTW.)
    This episode fixes the biggest flaw from Series 5's Busy Going Backwards (Toad's guard jumping clear when the Trucks broke loose). The guard left his cab and slammed his breaks hard. Even though the guard didn't speak, his involvement and Toad's utter concentration on not crashing made it a really big improvement.
     
    (I do, though, wish he shared credit, but that's nitpicking.)
    James was in character, too. Unlike most episodes this season, he wasn't an antagonist. He just ignored Toad's warning, causing him to be as puffed up, too. But he did learn his lesson, got the load to Vicarstown, and began a god friendship with the breakvan. It was pretty funny, too, for him to tell Oliver about his adventure on Gordon's Hill.
    Robert Hartshorne doesn't get much credit for his music in my reviews despite being consistently top-notch over the past several years. Well, changing that here, as his fantastic score once James's couple got dislodged and the near crash accentuated the tension and made it extremely nerve-wracking to watch.
     
    And then…ping.
    Dowager Hatt is absolutely hilarious with her terrible opera singing. Even funnier by being completely oblivious to the fact.
    Arc and HiT get credit for allowing engines from all eras to gather around while Toad tells his story. Like it or not, these characters are part of the overall railway scope, and ignoring them does nothing except unnecessarily retcon the show. It has a long, rich history albeit very rough, and it'd be stupid to ignore it. Major kudos there.

    Weaknesses:
    The episode behaves as if Toad never had an adventure of his own before. This was one of BGB's plot points. Toad wanted to go forwards and underwent a massive, tumultuous adventure down the mainline. It risks breaking continuity.
    Thomas was shoehorned into the episode. You could've plugged in any other engine, and nothing would've changed.
    The whole peril is completely pointless.
     
    Gordon's Hill doesn't have any trees that close.
     
    If James rolled over the thick branch, it would either crunch under his heavy wheels and/or derail the train.
     
    The "one engine per section" rule was blatantly violated and plugged in simply to highlight Toad's strong breaks and cause the peril.

    As a whole, a small improvement over Busy Going Backwards, but still rather rough along the edges.
     

    Duck in the Water (unofficial/essay format):
     
    Now THIS is what I expected to see. After how bad Signals Crossed was, Toad's Adventure did well, but Duck in the Water is where Series 18 gets right back on the rails.
     
    Just to get it out of the way, this is the first Thomas episode since The Switch to not feature Thomas anywhere. Not even a cameo. This is a very good thing because you don't need to pander to your market audience by plugging in the most popular character everywhere you go. Moreover, it's the first episode in a LONG time to feature Duck's branch line.
     
    Compared to his flanderization in SC, James is actually in character here. Sure, he's an antagonist here, but there's a much more solid explanation based on who he is (vain, cheeky, temperamental, impatient) and his justification (yearn for importance and belief that pulling trucks was below his strict standards).
     
    One of the bigger bugaboos in this episode is how Rocky kept swinging back and forth as James raced down Duck's branchline. I'm all for having Rocky swinging, but the animation emphasized it way too much. Rocky's a crane on Sodor, not a toy, and he swung like gusts of wind pushed him around. Moreover, James's crew shouldn't be so stupid in blatantly ignoring Rocky's cries for help; they operate the train for a reason, you know.
     
    Instead, how Rocky was stationary except when there's either a curve or have be improperly secured, which causes him to get his arm loose and knock the signal down? But if there's one thing this strike did, it gained a nice (albeit artificial) payoff: The grand narrative treated James's recklessness as wrong, hence the confusion and his consequences.
     
    The morals themselves work very well, even better by how they're organic and not hammered in:
    You're not going to do everything you like.
    Better to be safe and steady with dangerous work than quick and impatient.
    If you make a mistake, own up to it.

    Typically, winter on the Island is depicted as beautiful, cozy, and perfect. Arc really changed the mood and made it more realistic by making the winter somewhat warmer, bleaker, and gray, reversing the cliché. Plus, it works great narratively, for it allows Arc and Brenner to develop the conflict more organically.
     
    Then you have the dialogue. There's plenty of life in the characters: TFC, James, Duck, and Rocky delivered plenty of lines to blend together and create cohesive chemistry. Of course, the comedy is rather top notch, and there are many well-done visual and verbal gags, like James's cheeky pun to TFC of all people, Duck's glum gaze at the ducks, and James's increasing embarrassment when confronted by TFC.
     
    Compared to most stories this season, it's much simpler and focuses on slice of life with a little bit of adventure on the side. Sure, the adventure exists, but it's far more character-driven than anything else, hence the backseat on the action.
     
    Lastly, here's the synopsis:
    A response to the summary: The written previews don't do a very good job creating the anticipation of a really big accident. It took the expectations and reversed them. I don't know who submitted them, but whoever did needs to jot down a pen and write a more accurate synopsis. But this isn't a strike to the episode because the episode didn't set up those expectations.
     
    So, Duck in the Water is one of the better episodes of Series 18 at the point of airing, but let's see how well it holds up.
  25. Dark Qiviut
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wvoENvK14N4
     
    Like what I wrote in my review for Old Reliable Edward, UK users might not be able to watch it.
     
    Ever wish to see Thomas's coaches, Annie and Clarabel, become a very central role in an episode? Last season, Brenner presented them as motherly figures in Thomas' Shortcut as they warn him of his carelessness along his branchline and worry along the way. On the morning of August 26, 2014 (British time), Thomas's most faithful coaches take part in Paul Larson and Laura Beaumont's first S18 collaboration: Not So Slow Coaches. In what is one of the five from the Trouble on the Tracks DVD, the two coaches are taken on an accidental adventure that carries plenty of emotional dialogue despite some realism screwups.
     
    Strengths:
    Once more, the characterizations remain in character. Everyone spoke the way they were supposed to.
     
    If you're familiar with Annie and Clarabel, they definitely sound like they love Thomas and are faithful to them, yet are extremely pessimistic with his speed. Their motherly tendencies badgered into Thomas, who was chugging down his branch line.
     
    Speaking of Thomas, if you're into him being extremely cheeky and not Mr. Goody-Goody Two Wheels, just like Old Reliable Edward, this is your episode. Each line drips with a lot of personality. The little tank engine acts as both an ally and foil to his coaches, as his reestablished immaturity rubs them the wrong way.
     
    Where their relationship is exhibited best occurs really early. As Annie and Clarabel complained about how fast Thomas was going, he decided to be a little cheeky…by crawling down the line. So when they told Thomas to speed up, Thomas accelerated, only to switch gears and have Thomas repeat his ol' tricks. The whole exchange is extremely clever of the crew and very in character of the trio. I'll get back to this in a bit.
     
    The other important characters in NSSC, Charlie and Catlin, are also in character. The Playful Purple Engine tells his corny jokes (as usual). Like Connor, Caitlin is proud of her ability to travel while remaining competitive.
    Just because you're cheeky doesn't give you the incentive to not be hit with consequences, and they are abundant. Because Thomas played around on the rails, he learned how late he was to Dryaw. Then he had to hurry back to the Shunting Yard to arrive at the Ffarquhar Quarry (located at the end of his branch line, as reestablished in Thomas the Quarry Engine), which he did on time. Because his scheduling sucked, he arrived back too late to catch Caitlin, who pulled Annie and Clarabel across the island. That left him feeling very guilty for teasing them. Deservingly so, I might add.
     
    Of course, there's the slight, friendly ribbing at the end, so it isn't like it'll all go away.
    The episode really exudes the fear of Annie and Clarabel racing down the mainline and Thomas not catching up to Caitlin. Two exchanges between the coaches is where it works so well:
     
    As Caitlin pulls away from the Shunting Yard:And during the race with Connor:Think about it. If you're a pair of really old coaches with the occasional need to be painted so you don't look like a "beach hut on wheels," you won't want to go fast. Not to mention it brings Annie and Clarabel's complaining of Thomas's speed in full circle.
     
    Kudos to Theresa Gallagher (also the voice of Mavis) for giving both characters the enthusiasm and emotion needed to drive this character-centric conflict.
    If you're interested in the music, then Robert Hartshorne's musical scores work really well. His best is heard during the chase as his instruments reflect the desperation for Thomas to catch up before it's too late. Even better is how despite informing the audience of how frantic the situation is, it doesn't hammer everything in. When placed in the right context, it creates a more powerful message and doesn't make it so blunt that it tastes bitter or becomes cringeworthy to listen to.
    One of the biggest problems with The Afternoon Tea Express (also penned by PL/LB) was by how much the narrator was relied on, telling the audience every single thing about the story, from the danger to the speed to expressed emotions. There was no silence or independence from Moraghan. Not here. With plenty of room to breathe, Moraghan is used only when necessary, making the story better than it should.
    There's no clear moral to the story. When analyzing it to its simplest point, it follows the Fish Out of the Water trope, something this series has used a lot in the past, including the classics Thomas & Gordon/Thomas Gets Tricked and Wrong Road. You can't really locate the actual moral because it was placed so far on the back burner, instead focusing on the characters, action, and resolve.
    In the whole eight-and-three-quarter-minute episode, the only characters to appear are Thomas, Annie and Clarabel, Caitlin, Charlie, Connor, and Hiro. No other member of the "Steam Team," Sir Topham Hatt, or any other engine showed up, allowing the conflict's development more flexibility.

    Weaknesses:
    The engines' animation isn't very refined. To see what I mean, look at this chart from Wikipedia:
     

     
    The numbers you see are all part of the Walschaerts Valve Gear. Most large engines on the Island of Sodor have this configuration, including Gordon and Henry. Caitlin's and Hiro's styles are a little bit different, but operate the same way nonetheless. If you want to know what the key numbered parts are, click here for the information.
     
    Take at look at Caitlin's left valve gear:
     

     
    See the light gray bolt on her second driving wheel? It remains stationary as her wheels rotate.
     
    Now look at her other side:
     

     
    Her entire valve gear remains in one spot.
     
    Later in the episode, Hiro also has this same problem with his missing fly crank (the piece connecting the side rods to the fly-crank rod).
     

    There's some unnecessary exposition. To illustrate two examples (all underlined):
      Because she's so streamlined, it's obvious she's going to be fast. By having the narrator tell the audience, you're repeating the point and thus minutely hammering in her speed.
     
    Also, don't tell your audience (both primary and periphery demographics) her bolts are loose. Show them via a close-up of a few loose bolts on her wheels. Differentiate which bolts are loose and tight by having a workman like a driver or fireman review her. Although this might be a bit picky, don't you think having a streamlined engine with loose bolts speeding down the main line would be dangerous? If they become looser, then they could fall of and cause more confusion on the island. Preferably, I would leave Caitlin in the Shunting Yard, call in Rocky or the Breakdown Train to pick her and her tender up (who to tow? I'd choose Edward, Henry, or James because of their agility), and travel to the Steamworks altogether.
    Once more, Charlie tells a really dumb joke.But this is not where the comedy fails.
     
    What makes it miss the mark is by having both Charlie and Caitlin laugh at it, although Caitlin less so because of her chuckle. If Charlie found it funny and Caitlin not, then the joke might work because she could display a facial expression (maybe a sigh and/or eyeroll) that would reflect back at the audience, especially the older ones. No, Hartshorne's stylized "womp-womp" is way too subtle to get the joke across.
     
    Besides, wouldn't it be more sensible if Charlie told a much better joke? That way, Charlie's screwup won't feel so forced. He's capable of doing more than just tell awful jokes that merely pander to kids, as shown by Not Now, Charlie! and his cameo in Toad's Adventure. Sure, it'd still be contrived because his driver apparently allowed this to happen, but you'd at least correct half the mistake by not flanderizing him.
     
    Speaking of Charlie, after screwing up his job, he wasn't seen again. No signs of regret. No apology. No consequences. No nothing. Sure, it was portrayed as something he did wrong because it was an accident, but show him feeling remorseful for what he did. Don't force both kids and their guardians to create headcanon to resolve the plothole.
    As presented, the whole chase scene is implausible. From the second half onward, Thomas attempts to chase down Caitlin to retrieve Annie and Clarabel, who were towed along the ride. The whole goose chase kept on going until Hiro stopped Caitlin offscreen while she was on the Mainland. Instead of having Thomas chase Caitlin around the island, why not have him and/or Charlie race to the nearest signalbox and telephone instead? That way, traffic down the mainline can be halted as Caitlin is forced to stop at a subsequent red/danger signal. Then you can have someone — hell, maybe Thomas himself — retrieve his coaches and resolve the error. Or like what SkarloeyRailway01 wrote in his short review, have Thomas's driver alert the signalbox down the line, only to miss the warning as Caitlin races Connor. Having these little details would make the predicament much more plausible. While the chase is pure adrenaline and fun, it plods the pace, making the journey feel empty instead.

    During Series 17, the most controversial writer of the season was the team of Paul Larson and Laura Beaumont: They can write really well, write average, or write poorly. The Afternoon Tea Express was easily one of S17's worst. Not So Slow Coaches is one such episode that helps them maneuver back on the right track instead. With on-point characterization, plenty of stakes, a lack of obvious moral, and a good dose of karma, it's an episode that deserves some accolades. Yet, some obvious contrivances merely hold NSSC back from being one of its greats. Overall, a decent episode.
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