Dark Qiviut

Hasbro, get your security together, FFS!

Haven't started writing Part 10 of my EQG1 rewrite draft, and I'm thinking of concepts for Rainbow Rocks and Friendship Games rewrites.

I've been really against the sexist attitude in the toy industry for months now. But one of the worst cases is reinforcing the stigma that only girls can and should play with dolls. Why shouldn't boys play with dolls, too?

When a great chunk of your jokes are trendy pop culture and dead memes, your humor is shallow. PPG 2016, I'm looking at you!

Said it once before, and I'll say it again. A real hot dog's supposed to have ketchup on it!

Bacon is overrated. Nothing but overly salty and/or greasy grossness.

All the disgusting lolicon ain't gonna be around too long. I'm reporting all the posts.

I don't FIM has ever had such a massive downward quality swing one episode later.

The Perfect Pear is the best episode of the show for being heartwarming, respectful to the audiences, and executing a very daring concept.

The very next episode, Fame and Misfortune, is the worst of S7 and may be in the bottom-five of the series. The more I think about it, the lower and lower the ranking.

1. Equestrian celebrities harassed and abused, an overly cynical and crass tone that contradicts the show's proactive themes and morale
2. Long-established background ponies being out of character
3. All of the (adult) fans are quarter dimensional and represent offensive and nasty geek stereotypes
4. A broken premise that checks off fandom talking points without contextual sense and attention to continuity
5. All of the antagonists are Straw Fans/straw characters. Shallowly-written, broken characters designed to be proven wrong out of plot convenience
6. Two broken morals (the characters singing a loaded statement and suggesting an enforcement of stereotypes is okay to teach to kids)

A question: What are your thoughts on the Spongebob TV film "Truth or Square"?

https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2020/06/swine-flu-strain-human-pandemic-potential-increasingly-found-chinese-pigs

…You’re joking me, right?

Tangled is great. Princess & the Frog is great. Frozen is great. Moana is great. Zootopia is great. The Revival Era is one of the best Disney eras of all-time. You can argue that it's every bit as good as, or better than, the Renaissance.

Weird, but cute, seeing pictures of cardboard cutouts in Dodger Stadium's expensive seats behind home plate.

Must be a holiday today. We actually have a match five minutes into Raw!

Non-Compete Clause really sucks. No bad episode has aired since.

Daring Doubt is underrated.

Just from the episode writing itself, name me your least-favorite and favorite FIM writers.

Bronies in Japan rated Applejack as one of their favorites* Not surprising. Japan has a fine taste in background ponies. XP

Boyz Crazy done.

No way to cut it. Aside from their often-animalistic behavior, Sev'ral Timez and their five members are nothing more than quarter-dimensional, boy-band stereotypes. There's nothing about them to actually differentiate from each other, sans the clothing and outdated, 1990's jargon. Their "personalities" are flatter than cardboard and can be shared from any of them aside from their clothes and slang. Jargon/slang is repeated way too often, flattening the dialogue and aging the gags real quickly. Every joke from them comes from being associated with the Dreamboat sub-stereotype of boy bands, acting like animals, or both without any extra dimension behind them; they're quick, shallow, forced, and repetitive. You can have one of these characters, add more dimension to make the character rounder, and write out the others entirely. Because they lack creativity, it's very difficult to care for them and their desires to be free from Ergman Bratsman. All five being trapped in a large hamster cage makes Bratsman really evil and controlling, but because he doesn't appear so often and is written out 2/3 of the way through, he loses his presence as a threat.

Other jokes related to the A-plot don't work, too. Candy ramming into the soda vendor was pointless, and Grenda making out with a Sev'ral Timez cover was cringeworthy.

Unfortunately, Mabel's desperation for keeping them in the Shack becomes contrived, too. Sure, every guy she liked ended in separation, but the episode doesn't do enough to show us why being around them matters so much to her. Being confined to a short braiding scene and a montage ain't enough. Give more time to grow Mabel's attachment to them. How? Maybe she helped them learn how to eat and drink, talk without relying on forced slang, new clothes to scream individual personalities for each, being able to walk on two feet instead of four all the time. Sure, the pacing would be pretty quick, and the beginning might have to be cut a bit, but Mabel helping them grow up and adapt within maybe a day or two would help her feels like she contributed to GF society and made their lives better. They'll feel indebted to her, and vice-versa. So when she does let them go (probably to a new house to something), freeing them will break her heart, but be the right thing to do.

However, they keep their animalism and are released into the wild. Candy's line of them not lasting a day made their release really unsettling. Sev'ral Timez has no idea what food, water, trees, dirt, daylight, or probably a bathroom are. One of them almost choked to death from swallowing a tape dispenser. The forest of Gravity Falls is very dangerous, and they're completely unprepared to survive out there. What if they come across a bear, cougar, rattlesnake, or a supernatural demon? They can't defend themselves, 'cause for all we know, they don't know they exist. Mabel not forcing them to live in her room was the right idea, but the implications aren't thought out at all.

Thankfully, the B-plot saves it from completely tanking. Dipper's wild theory of Robbie hypnotizing Wendy fits in his character and continues to progress their rivalry, but he also feels justified. The CD, packaging, and way he sang to her made him suspicious. Stan believing Dipper foreshadows the future of the series (and calls back to Tourist Trapped's last scene of Stan sneaking off behind the soda vendor). The episode subverts the accusation of hypnotism to Wendy being rightfully mad at Robbie for plagiarizing another band. She's justified to break up with him. Though she acted misandrist towards Dipper, it's not hard to understand where she's coming from. Wendy was betrayed one too many times and doesn't appreciate Dipper's lack of foresight after she felt hurt. Kudos to Stan for giving Dip words of encouragement after he felt terrible for what he did. There were also two really great jokes here:

1. Stan spitting his soda in Dipper's face after the song may be a mind-controlling scheme when rewound.
2. Stan ramming into a blocked road.

Even though the B-plot's good, the awful A-plot really sinks this episode.

Grades:

1. Tourist Trapped: A-
2. The Legend of the Gobblewonker: C+
3. Headhunters: A
4. The Hand That Rocks the Mabel: A
5. The Inconceiving: C+
6. Dipper Vs. Manliness: A-
7. Double Dipper: B
8. Irrational Treasure: C
9. The Time Traveler's Pig: A
10. Fight Fighters: A
11. Little Dipper: B-
12. Summerween: A
13. Boss Mabel: C+
14. Bottomless Pit!: B-
15. The Deep End: B-
16. Carpet Diem: A-
17. Boyz Crazy: D+

Anyone with a sense of soul should be HORRIFIED by Trump's tweet of a gif (made by a racist Redditor of his cult) of himself attacking "CNN."

Currently, I find Keep Calm and Flutter On to be a hell of a lot better of an episode than Just for Sidekicks.

'Twas a matter of time before somebody decided to donate $5,000 to Them's Fightin' Herds! ^__^

Summerween is a type of gem that would make the writers of Courage the Cowardly Dog salivate. Being Halloween, it ain't fun without being creepy, and the Summerween Trickster is a horri-licious delight. He shows how creepy he can be, both from his physique and swallowing that poor child whole like an egg-eating snake. The Jack-O-Melon may sound silly, but the Trickster's presence and usage of it as a clock turns it into an hourglass of life or death.

Yet, there's a great contrast of wanting to impress Wendy. Despite being twelve, he wants to grow up as quickly as possible and not embarrass himself in front of both her and Robbie. In what could be just one creepy kid-friendly slasher episode, it adds great subtlety into his conscience. He wants to go to the party, but doesn't want to disappoint his friends or Mabel. "What am I gonna do?" and how he said it really add that depth into the conflict without telling you directly to your face.

But it isn't only just staring at Mabel's scrapbook and Summerween poster. Occasionally, he stares at his watch. By doing that, he reinforces his wish to be there without wanting to hurt Mabel's feelings. However, can you blame her when she finds out he plans to ditch them once the candy's collected? Not at all. Mabel wants to have fun and be scared — y'know, live like a little kid.

The one real flaw in this episode, and which Mr. E is on point with, is Mabel admitting to Dipper she wanted to trick or treat with Dipper so bad because she doesn't know how many she'll be able to do left. On one hand, it breaks some of the suspense from the scene; there's a lot at stake here, including the threat of death, and it doesn't feel like the proper time story-wise to insert this fear. Conversely, it also shows another personal side from Mabel. Although Dipper wants to show like he's growing up to Wendy and himself, Mabel's the opposite of that. It's foreshadowed (although a little too subtly) by how she wants to live this trick or treat night to the fullest in Act 2.

Soos's decision to start up that bobblehead toy was really stupid, but it got some much-needed consequences for him, leading to the battle and eventual admission by the Trickter to just be appreciated. At the end, the Tricker turns from really creepy and terrifying to sad and personal. How fitting for Soos to eat him up (including what looked like his heart — talk about black comedy).

Overall, an excellent episode, one of GF's best.

Grades:

1. Tourist Trapped: A-
2. The Legend of the Gobblewonker: C+
3. Headhunters: A
4. The Hand That Rocks the Mabel: A
5. The Inconceiving: C+
6. Dipper Vs. Manliness: A-
7. Double Dipper: B
8. Irrational Treasure: D+
9. The Time Traveler's Pig: A
10. Fight Fighters: A
11. Little Dipper: B-
12. Summerween: A

The more I listen to In Our Town, the more layers of creepiness arise. Quite frankly, this is the darkest FIM song. Much, much darker than This Day Aria.

Phil Robertson of Duck Dynasty is a homophobic, Islamaphobic, and racist scumbag. His hate speech is an insult to the the South, the Bible, and the religions based off the Bible, period.

Personally, in season five, I'd like to see more episodes approach the morals similar to season three. No moral/friendship reports. Keep the morals subtle. Let the story flow through. Don't spill it directly to the audience.