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Sunny Fox

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  2. Sunny Fox
    Just as a friendly note of warning, if you are currently watching or aiming to watch Hazbin Hotel, now on Amazon Prime Video, the following addendums apply...
    #1: Um, what are you waiting for? Go see it, it's awesome, support the official release and all that good stuff, just be aware it is for mature audiences only, if you didn't know already.
    #B: You won't want to read any further, because this is the section of the old-timey-blog-map that bears the legend, HERE THERE BE SPOILERS.
    and Point the Third: Comedy comes in threes, baby!
    So you have been warned. If you get spoiled from here on out, that's on you, dawg.  (Note to commentors, please use spoiler tags, just in case  I ain't gonna, cause this here is my bloggity-blog, see?)
    Here's my thoughts....
    Lucifer is the original Fallen Angel... no one in Hell can kill an angel, so Lucifer is de facto the strongest being in Hell because he is invulnerable, not necessarily because he has the most power. Although, yeah, he probably has power out the wazoo too, given that he has existed since the dawn of time... but that's a discussion for a different happy day in Hell. Even Sinners as powerful as Alastor has shown himself would be unable to take Lucifer out... except now we know there is a way to kill an angel. More importantly Alastor now knows it as well. He might see a way to get all the way to the top of the foodchain, as it were. A chaotic situation like an all-out war with Heaven would be his best chance to kill Lucifer and pin it on Heaven and the angels during the confusion. Thus he takes the throne and keeps himself safe from any reprisal from, say, a certain Princess of Hell...
    He wants to end the Status Quo, after all, and what better way than to take out the Big Little Man himself. (You'll get it if you watch the show ) It also might be why he told Mimsy to beat it, to keep Charlie thinking he's there to keep the Hotel's Redemption Project going, and prevent interference. 
    So, waddaya think? Do you think Alastor is scheming what I think he is scheming? That he is scheming something is without question. He's had a hidden agenda since the start, and now he might have set his goals even higher since gaining this new intelligence.
    Stay sunny side up, everyone!
  4. Sunny Fox
    So, you're probably aware by now that I didn't find Amending Fences quite the magnum opus that many other fans did. Nor did I find much to enjoy in the character of Moon Dancer (Moondancer?), whose emotional struggles strongly resonated with many bronies.
    Nor Minuette, for that matter, but in her case, it's more a matter of personal taste. I don't like people (or ponies) who giggle incessantly; that sort of thing annoys me. "C'mon, let's fly! *giggle* Get it?" No, Minuette, because that is not a joke. Twilight can fly, you can only run. Neither of you are fleeing, so "let's fly" really isn't a pun.
    But back to Moondancer. I didn't see a shy pony hurt by somepony's thoughtlessness just when she was starting to open up to the world. I saw a pony who is unfairly projecting her own insecurities and feelings onto Twilight, without Twilight even knowing about it.
    If she wants to attach expectations to Twilight without so much as making an attempt at cluing her in, then it’s her own fault if Twilight doesn’t meet those expectations. Yet the episode wants to pretend that Twilight is at fault for this. The writers, and even Twilight herself, are too quick to attach blame to Twilight for MD’s own neuroses. Twilight even says at the end “Back when we were in school together, you invited me to a party. I was so focused on my studies that I didn't show up.” Which is a blatant contradiction of what we saw in the pilot and the flashback based on it. (I'll build more of a point on this later.) MD herself never invited Twilight anywhere. Twilight got a backhanded invite from a different pony. MD set up the party for Twilight, but she didn’t actually invite Twilight, and made no effort to ensure that Twilight knew that it was important to her. As far as I can see, Moondancer inflicted all this on herself.
    tl;dr: The source of Moondancer's emotion distress is not Twilight's thoughtlessness, as implied; it's Moondancer's own expectations of what amounted to a secret test of friendship that Twilight "failed".
    Is my point becoming clear at all?
    Leaving all that aside for the moment, the premise of this episode is one that looks really good on paper. Twilight realizes she was a bad friend in the past, and finds out that her behaviour at that time hurt somepony else, who is still suffering because of it, and she apologizes and makes amends (which is what "mending fences" means, so the pun in the episode title also makes little sense.) Great idea! Sign me up! I just think there were a few problems with the execution of that premise. So, in the spirit of being constructively critical rather than just critical, I offer a few suggestions for alternative routes that the writers could have taken that would ameliorate said problems. Even if you, dear reader, remain convinced that the episode's "problems" are not such, I would say that no writer is perfect, and so no episode is perfect. There's room for improvement, even if you love the episode with all your heart.
    First, I feel the episode hamstrung itself by making the scene in the pilot, where Twilight blows off the invitation to the party, to be the cause of Moondancer taking the psychological blow that the episode focuses on. Why? Because, quite simply, Moondancer was not in that scene. So even if she knew it was organized by Moondancer, Twilight really had no way to know that declining to go would affect Moondancer so badly - at least not without a sense of intuition and empathy for other ponies that she at this point lacks. It's asking her to be aware of something she couldn't have been known, and then punishing her with blame for her justified ignorance.
    So how to fix this? You can still leave that scene in and have it work, but if you're going to rewrite the past anyway, why restrict yourself to what we've seen before? Have a flashback to earlier in the day, before Twilight started reading her history book, where she meets with Moondancer, and Moondancer does actually invite her to her party. She could even say "I'd really like you to be there!" Go the whole hog, and have Twilight actually agree to go! Maybe she then tells Spike about it, so he goes to arrange his gift (neatly sealing up a plothole in the pilot, by the way, namely why Spike knows about the party, when it seems Twilight didn't until she was told by Twinkleshine.) Then later, Twilight gets caught up in her reading, runs into the aforementioned trio, and decides her research is more important than the party, leading to her saying they don't have time for presents and parties, even though they're on a break.
    Now we have Moondancer actually inviting Twilight herself, and Twilight betraying her trust by going back on her word to attend, which something I would actually agree that Twilight should be blamed for. It's a bit of arc welding that could easily have been introduced, and would fully justify Moondancer's emotional pain.
    There are some other issues that could have been fixed with little effort.
    1. The scene where Twilight imagines how Moondancer would have reacted to her no show isn't a flashback, and so we have no real way of knowing if that's what really happened or not. I mean, push comes to shove, I'd probably accept it as accurate, but it grates on me that we have an imagine spot rather than a flashback. How to fix this one? Have Minuette describe it as a flashback of her own. She's basically the main mode of exposition elsewhere in the episode, why not here?
    2. Leave out the "I don't even remember my friends' names" running gag entirely. It takes up time unnecessarily, quickly becomes exasperating, and goes against both the idea that Twilight considered them her friends in the past and that Moondancer would have attached so much emotional significance to Twilight. In particular, "Twilight Twinkle" is a red herring in the context of the episode.
    3. Use the Cutie Map to start the episode off, rather than using Spike's random comment. You don't even need to include a scene of her checking the map, just have her say "the map sent me to Canterlot". (Yes, yes, "show don't tell", but if time is an issue, this could be used instead) Then Twilight arrives, determined to fix somepony's problem, only to find she caused it in the first place. That would seem much more impactful to me, and drive the lesson home to Twilight more naturally than as it stands.
    So, those are the tweaks and changes I would have made to this episode. I've tried to justify them as much as I can, and I hope they sound reasonable. If you can think of anything I've missed, or you want to denounce me as a cynical cretin, feel free to comment.
    Oh, um, hello, Moondancer... that is a big stick, isn't it?

    *THWACK!*
  5. Sunny Fox
    Before I take on the Season III episodes, I wish to first talk about a few of the more controversial issues raised. To start, I want to discuss the issues that some fans have with Sombra.
    I don’t think he was that bad a villain in many ways. The ironic thing here is that Sombra, easily the most disparaged villain of the series, is the only one who did not give the Mane 6 victory on a silver platter. He loses despite, and not because of, his actions, none of which are stupid. I wish that I could say as much for Nightmare Moon, Discord and Queen Chrysalis. The other point is that the Mane 6 only won through a series of very lucky coincidences that no villain, no matter how savvy, could have predicted or planned for.
     In part, I understand why he gets a bad rap, because he is (on first viewing) a very poorly characterized villain. He simply isn’t shown to have the depth of the other villains. His lines are extremely limited, and he didn’t get to do much in the episode itself before blowing up. One thing he did do, however, is disable one of the only two ponies who are keeping him out of the Kingdom he wishes to retake. And I don’t think that’s an accident.
     Here’s my reasoning. He couldn’t have known the Mane 6 were coming. He has been camping right outside the empire, trying to get in. Shining Armor did know the Mane 6 were coming. When he left the city, Sombra would have seen him first. Being a unicorn himself, he would know that Shining Armor must be the one keeping him out, since the Crystal Ponies don’t have the magic necessary to protect themselves without the Crystal Heart. All of this makes me think that Sombra was there to attack and disable Shining Armor, who as far as he knew, was the only one stopping him from reclaiming the Crystal Empire. That implies that Sombra is not just an animalistic shadow (har har) of his former self, as some claim, but a reasoning, self-directing villain, as much as can be claimed for any of the other foes the Mane 6 have faced. His plan, if indeed that is what we are meant to assume it is, is not only clever, but it works. At least, it would have if Shining Armor were the only unicorn protecting the Empire. So that runs counter to the claim that “he doesn’t do anything in the episode”.
    The thing about Sombra is that most of his villainy and planning was set up before the episode even begins. He removed the relevant page from the one book mentioning the Crystal Heart. The entrance to where he kept the Crystal Heart was hidden and only someone with dark magic could open it. None of the crystal ponies have horns, and presumably they have no magic. Even if they did, it's far more likely to be light magic. The next trap, a door leading to the victims worst nightmare is more fiendish still, because it's triggered by using dark magic, which the victim would already have been primed to use because it got them results a little bit earlier. It's also an insurance policy against a pony having dark magic skills to begin with. The only way to escape it is to have someone else come and snap you out of it.
    Sombra also created a delaying staircase that Twilight just happened to have a spell to deal with, which she had never demonstrated before this episode. Then at the end of that, he had an alarm set up around the Crystal Heart to let him know someone had found it. It's not an automated trap, though. When Twilight triggers it, we are given a brief glimpse of Sombra reacting and then casting the spell to trap Twilight. So, again, Sombra is acting and doing things in the episode. This also hints that he might have even stronger magical power than Twilight does. He's savvy enough not only to consider the possibility of her teleporting, but also has the power to override her when she tries it.
    So Sombra plans intelligently and craftily, destroys information vital to his enemies, is strong enough to negate the magical ability of both Shining Armor and Twilight, actively targets those who stand in his way and only has victory snatched from his grasp due to pure luck on the part of the Mane 6.
    First, it's lucky that Rainbow happened to bump into the librarian pony just as she remembers the real Crystal Heart. It's lucky that Twilight just happened to bone up (stop sniggering, please) on gravity spells for her "test". It's lucky that her last-second dive for the Crystal Heart ended up not with her grabbing it, but instead knocking it away from the trap. And last, certainly not least, it's lucky that Spike was around to save everyone.
    Spike is the key to victory throughout the whole episode. He breaks Twilight out of her Demon Door trance; his own experience with it clarifies how it works; he points out that the staircase is just a delaying tactic, and finally, he's on hand to grab the Crystal Heart while Twilight is trapped.
    To summarise, Sombra's pre-planning and actions in the episode would have resulting in him winning if not for the interference of Spike, a healthy dose of unanticipated good luck for the heroes, and a last second wife-toss, all of which is enough to ruin anypony's plans.
    I feel saddened that fans allow his lack of discernable personality (beyond that of being an evil dictator with an unhealthy fascination for dark crystals, of course) to distract from the fact that he was actually very effective at being villainous.
    Keep chasing those dark crystals, everyone.
  6. Sunny Fox
    I don't know if you've noticed... but I don't show my enthusiasm for things quite in the same way my sister does. - Maud Pie
    The Mane Six are gathered outside Sugarcube Corner to meet Pinkie in the pink before dawn, wondering why she called them to meet her so early in the morning. She invites them in, and they find she's been a tad busy cooking...

    ♫ In the Big Rock Candy Mountains,
    There's a land that's fair and bright... ♫
    Many courses of rock candy later, the Mane Six have tooth pains and stomachaches, but Pinkie really wants them to choose the best flavours so that they can make best-friend rock candy necklaces with her sister Maud, who is coming to visit. It's a tradition between the two sisters, and Pinkie wants her friends and sister to share it together. She explains the origin of this tradition via art shift. She also mentions that she and Maud have been sending the necklaces back and forth since she came to Ponyville.
    In the next scene, the Mane Six and their pets are waiting at the picnic, Rarity wearing a gigantic crystal rock hat, which is falling apart. One crystal lands in the muffin bowl. As they discuss their anxiety that everything will go well, Pinkie appears and announces that she and Maud have arrived. It takes quite a while longer for Maud herself to appear, though, and her pace is best described as sedate, in contrast to Pinkie's rapid bounce.
    Not only is her walking sedate, her overall demeanour is very placid. She pauses a while before she speaks, and when she does speak, it's in a rather flat monotone. Twilight welcomes her and introduces the others. Rarity then steps forward to ask her about her dress and what it "says", only for Maud to point out that it doesn't "say" anything. On account of being a dress. Ahem. Burn? Rarity retreats. Next, Applejack tries by introducing the pets. Maud has her own pet rock (natch), named Boulder.
    Couldn't resist. 
    As the picnic erodes on, Applejack offers Maud a muffin. She eats the rock that dropped in earlier instead, pronouncing it "crunchy". Now this is the point at which I first started to "get" Maud. She's soon to complete her Rockterate in Rock(et) Science, so she clearly isn't stupid enough to mistake a rock for a muffin. I think she did it deliberately, as a gag. Then she was probably wondering why her jokes were not going over well with her new acquaintances. See, she's not the "opposite" of Pinkie Pie in personality. She's just as wacky and fun-loving as her younger sister. The difference is that she expresses herself very differently.
    Rainbow Dash comments that Pinkie said Maud likes games, and Maud suggests they and Boulder play "Camouflage". It's like hide and seek, only waaaaay more intense. They spend the rest of the day looking at all the rocks in the nearby areas, trying to find Boulder. After hours, Maud announces she's found him... he was hiding in her pocket. Again, this seems like straight up trolling by Maud, and again, it doesn't go over well.
    Fluttershy suggest they call it a day, due to popular pet demand, and Pinkie, Maud, Gummy and Boulder say their goodbyes. Despite the rather stilted first encounter, Twilight suggest that maybe meeting in a big group was making Maud shy, and that one on one will work better.
    First up is Rarity, who tries to design some clothes for Maud, only for her to choose a dirty old dishcloth. Then when Rarity brings a bunch of them, she says this one will do and drapes it over her back. This is high quality trolling, especially since she stays deadpan when Rarity actually laughs at the joke. But she stops before the gag goes too far, and before Rarity spends actual time sewing the dishcloths together.
    On a nature walk with Fluttershy, we again meet Hummingway the hummingbird, and get introduced to a species of spider that Maud seems to have taken an interest in. Maud says she was looking at the rock.

    He's taking it pretty well. (That flower must be a spider-orchid.)
    Next is Twilight's turn. Maud mentions she likes to recite her own poetry. You'll never guess what the topic is... yes, existentialism, nihilism and the absurdity of being, what else?  At Applejack's farm, she helps with cider making by "peeling" apples with a rock. She still seems to be wondering why her rock-based humour isn't working. Rock tossing with Rainbow Dash also reveals a similarity to Pinkie Pie... Maud hurls the rock so far it pretty much creates a nuke. So she seems to have Pinkie's reality-bending powers, at least as far as rocks are concerned. RD concedes defeat, only for Maud to troll her by claiming she doesn't like winning.

    Pinkie, have you been into the poison joke again?
    When they gather at Pinkie's to start making the necklaces, the group are forced to tell Pinkie that they don't feel it would be honest to make Best Friend Necklaces, because they just haven't clicked with Maud. Pinkie's mane deflates a bit, but she says she understands, leaving the rest feeling very guilty. Back at the library, a newly reenergized Pinkie bounces in to say she's figured out something to bond everypony.
    It's a giant obstacle course with something for everypony, including a giant rock tower to slide down. As Pinkie demonstrates each part of the course (applesauce slide for Applejack, shiny fabric pile for Rarity, a book wall for Twilight, a poker game of critters - I'm sure Maud would win that hands down... haha, get it, hands? - for Fluttershy, a cupcake wind tunnel for Pinkie, the rock slide for Maud; and the whole thing is a race for Rainbow), she gets trapped on the rock slide, and the giant rock at the top starts to slide down.

    Boy, talk about your rock and your hard place...
    Before any else can react, Maud springs into action, flying through the obstacle course, leaping into the air, and drilling the rock into harmless pieces with her bare hooves. Showing the most emotion she has yet, she tells Pinkie that she went a bit overboard trying to make her friends Maud's friends. She decides to spend the rest of the time at the rock farm. Pinkie goes with her, leaving the rest to contemplate. As they talk, they realize that there is something to bond them with Maud...
    When the two Pie sisters arrive at the rock farm, the Mane Six are waiting for them. They apologize for the rocky (heh) start to their relationship, and explain that their mutual love for Pinkie Pie will be their bond, and ask to try again. When Maud still sounds the same as before, Pinkie points out that she is really excited, she just doesn't look it. A week later, and at the train station, the Mane Six each give Maud a necklace they made. When Pinkie and Maud trade theirs, Maud opens a box filled with every necklace Pinkie ever gave her. Only Twilight is around to see it, and she asks why Maud hasn't eaten them. Maud responds that she doesn't like candy...

    ...but she does love Pinkie Pie...
     
    Thoughts on this episode
    There were 3 squees in this episode. That's too many. I'm really having to look hard for negatives here, because this episode is virtually perfect.
    Maud is delightfully funny, being so perfectly deadpan. As I pointed out, though, I think it's more of a issue of her introverted outer shell masking the chaos that's really going on inside. She isn't that different to Pinkie Pie inside, but as she herself says, she expresses it differently. Maud is a small pool that goes deep, hiding a lot under a calm surface.
    This episode is more of a character study of Maud than anything. No major events take place, no morals as such are learned, unless it's the moral of letting others express themselves as they want to. The constant rock puns were amusing in the low key way that Maud herself is amusing. This sort of humour is very much in line with what I like, so I found it very entertaining.
     
    Pros: Simple plot. Some very dry humour. Maud looks awesome, whether smiling or not.
    Cons: Too much squeeing.
     
    Final Rating
    5 – Celestia Rank: A great episode. It will be re-watched frequently.
    4 – Luna Rank: A good episode, but with one or two problems that prevent it from being great.
    3 – Spike Rank: An average episode. Positives and negatives are balanced.
    2 – Discord Rank: Worth watching once. After that, turn it to stone and put it in the garden.
    1 – Nightmare Moon Rank: Send it to the moon!
     
    Stay rocky side up...
  7. Sunny Fox
    “Forgive me if I withhold my enthusiasm.” – Princess Luna
    What Happens
    It’s Nightmare Night (a.k.a. Hallowe’en) in Ponyville, and Spike (in a dragon costume) is impatiently waiting for Twilight as she puts on her robe and wizard hat. (And beard, and bells.) When she does show up, Spike is confused as to who she is dressed up as. Twilight tells him that she has dressed up as Star Swirl the Bearded, and asks if he ever read that book on Obscure Pony History she gave him (Nice call forward to Dragon Quest!)
    Spike is saved by the doorbell from having to answer, and opens the door to find some adorable fillies requesting candy with the traditional Nightmare Night chant; “Nightmare Night, What a fright, Give us something sweet to bite!” Also present is Granny Smith, acting as a chaperone, and Pinkie Pie, acting as one of the kids, who demands candy of her own. There is also Pipsqueak the Pirate, a young stallion recently arrived from Trottenham, who is having his best (and first) Nightmare Night ever.
    As Spike and Twilight head into Ponyville, which has been converted into a candy carnival, Twilight complains that no-one has yet guessed the inspiration for her costume, and musing on creating a study group (what else) to remedy this lack… of knowledge of a self-described obscure (meaning not well-known in general) period of history. Running into Pinkie and the foals again, Twilight listens to Pinkie and Pipsqueak for a while, until a Shadowbolt-costume-clad Rainbow Dash uses a storm cloud to scare everyone with a thunderbolt, and they run off again. Twilight remonstrates with Rainbow, who brushes off her concern by saying it's just a prank and flies off to find more victims, even as Spike chokes on a piece of candy.

    Rainbow Dash! That was not very Paragon!

    Renegade for life!
    Actually, Spike is perfectly ok (a digestive tract used to shiny rocks presumably would hardly notice candy getting stuck in there) and the two run into Applejack (dressed as the Scarecrow from Wizard of Oz). She guesses Twilight is dressed up as a country music singer (I suppose ZZ Top?) and then invites them to “Bob for Apples”… at least until Derpy pulls the plug on that operation…

    Literally!
    Mayor Mare is also getting in on the festivities, and invites the foals of the town to follow Zecora, who has also been included. I really love this, as it shows that Zecora has now been accepted by Ponyville in general. Zecora uses her magic to create green mist illusions of Nightmare Moon, and explains to her charges (and us, the audience) the symbolism behind the holiday. The costumes are used to hide from Nightmare Moon, and the candy is supposed to placate her hunger, so that she doesn’t gobble up all the little ponies. When Pipsqueak asks the natural question of why BOTH are necessary (hiding everypony and giving candy – shouldn’t either work as well on its own?), Zecora totally dodges the question… pretty much saying “because we said so”!  Parents, amirite?
    At this point, a sinister wind starts blowing, and from the Moon, a mysterious chariot (pulled by everyone’s favorite sub-species of pony, Bat-Ponies!) appears, within which rides a mysterious masked pony. Pinkie leads the fillies (and Zecora, for that matter) in a panicked run back into the Ponyville Square (Candy Mane cameo!) and the chariot follows. Leaping down from inside it, a mysterious dark-coated, star-spangled-banner-maned pony pulls off her hood to reveal herself… Princess Luna!
    Using her EPIC CAPS LOCK VOICE, Luna announces her intention to convert Nightmare Night from a celebration of Nightmare Moon to a feast… which Pinkie takes to mean that Luna will feast on the ponies, again leading a panicked stampede. Although Luna tries to clarify that she comes in peace, her appearance and demeanour only end up frightening everypony. Taking this as a rebuff of her (in her mind) friendly overture, Luna leaves.
    Twilight, who seems to be the only one who realizes that Luna is trying to reconnect with pony society at large, finds her in the shadow of the statue of Nightmare Moon (nice visual metaphor there) and introduces herself. Luna immediately recognizes her costume as being a (pretty accurate) rendition of Star Swirl, and compliments Twilight on it. Twilight tries to clarify that she isn’t actually Star Swirl, but Luna is fully aware of who she is, and remarks on the events of the pilot episode viz a vie taking away of dark powers. At this point, she also reveals that she has been using the TRADITIONAL ROYAL CANTERLOT VOICE, because it was standard behaviour before her corruption and banishment, and she is unaware of how scary it makes her seem. 

    Haha! Mine sister has nothing on mine Double-Nostril shots!
    In an effort to get Luna to lower her vocal volume, Twilight takes her to see Fluttershy. Despite Fluttershy’s reluctance sheer terror, it seems like Luna might be getting the hang of the Indoor Voice, only for Pinkie to come along with the foals and misconstrue the situation as Luna stealing Flutter’s voice, leading to another screaming stampede.
    Undaunted, Twilight takes Luna to Applejack, and despite a bit of a false start, Applejack actually helps Luna loosen up and just have fun, which naturally brings the ponies of the town closer to her. Luna even gives permission for the ponies to call her by her first name, never mind the Princess part. On their way to Bobbing for Apples, Luna sees Pipsqueak accidentally fall in. She rescues him, but comedic timing ensures that Pinkie arrives just in time to (you guessed it) misconstrue the situation as Nightmare Moon gobbling up Pipsqueak. Even he buys into it, which really upsets the Princess, and her anger undoes all the progress she has made, again causing the Ponyvillians to be frightened of her, and a bit of a riot breaks out… Having had enough, Luna declares Nightmare Night “cancelled forever!” and leaves again. Twilight tries to talk to her, but Luna is disconsolate over the recent events, and entreats her to "Leave me be, Twilight Sparkle..."

    Twilight, realizing that Pinkie is the one she really needs to convince that NMM is gone and that Luna is no longer evil, lures her into an alley to engineer a meeting. Luna and Pinkie seem to be on the verge of a breakthrough, until Rainbow tries to prank them again, the bolt of lightning frightening Pinkie and causing her to scream “Nightmare Moon!” and run away. Twilight teleports to block her and finally pins Pinkie down… only for Pinkie to reveal that, duh, of course she knew Princess Luna was good all along, but isn’t it just so much more fun to let yourself be scared on Nightmare Night? This gives Twilight an idea, and she tells a morose Princess of the Night to follow her and follow her lead…
    As the young ponies offer one last offering of sweets, Luna (in her Nightmare Moon persona) appears and claims their candy instead of their lives, before reverting to her natural appearance… however, since she joined in on the scary fun, she finds that the young ponies (especially Pipsqueak) actually do like her, and want her to return next year, Nightmare Night or no, to scare them again. Hearing this, Luna declares Nightmare Night to be back on the agenda! A delighted Pipsqueak runs off to share the news…
    As Twilight voice-overs the moral: “Even if somepony seems scary, it doesn’t mean they are… they probably just want friends as well” (Home Alone, anyone?), Rainbow tries to prank her and Spike again… only to get a thunderbolt up the plot of her own, courtesy of Princess Luna, sending her flying away, while Luna, Spike and Twilight all share a laugh...
    Thoughts on the Episode
    This has Luna… that alone makes it a top notch episode. It’s also the first episode that we see the “true” form of Luna in her role as Princess of the Night, having not seen her since the events of the pilot, when she presumably was Brought Down to Normal after being blasted by the Elements of Harmony. The fact that we see her as she will be for the rest of the series going forward is one I have used before as a counterpoint to the idea that the comics take place in the same continuity as the show, and I stand by that. But back to the episode…
    One of the twists is that Pinkie was fully aware that Princess Luna was not the same entity as Nightmare Moon, and her constant screaming and running away was just her playing into the atmosphere of the celebration… which is fair enough, but couldn’t she have at least clued someone else in on it? Plus, it might be contradicted by the Raindow-Delivered-Lightning-Flash… if she knew Luna wasn’t scary, why did the lightning bolt in question make her run? (And apparently, lay an egg…)
    Speaking of Rainbow Dash, she really did seem to be channeling the Shadowbolts here. I can understand using a storm cloud to prank others, but she showed literally zero concern when her actions put Spike into a bad (potentially lethal) situation, and when she ruined the “reconciliation” of Pinkie and Luna for a cheap laugh for herself. Learn to read a room, why don’t you, Dashie? She gets her comeuppance at the end, which is great, but I really didn’t like much of her behaviour in this episode. She comes across as mean more than anything. Of course, this is still Dash before the major part of her character development, so perhaps I'm asking too much of her for where she currently is in her personal journey. (Either that, or Nightmare Night enables G.I.F.T. behaviour.)
    Highlights/Quotes
    Spike continually comments on how Mayor Mare would be scary, if she weren't dressed as a clown, complete with rainbow wig.
    Spike: The rainbow wig just kills it for me...
    Nobody knows who Twilight is supposed to be. (Retirement home pony, Beardo Clown - the "o" is NOT silent, country music singer)
    Twilight casually swings Fluttershy's door closed before she can bolt for safety.

    The things I do for Luna...
    Pipsqueak tugging on Luna's mane:

    D'aaaaaaw!
    Pros:
    THE TRADITIONAL ROYAL CANTERLOT VOICE!
    It’s got Luna, and back for her first appearance since the pilot.
    Seeing the ponies, particularly the CMC, in their costumes was awesome.
    Zecora is clearly a part of Ponyville now.
    Candy Mane!

    Cons:
    Pinkie almost ruins everything.
    Rainbow Dash acts like a jerk.
    No Rarity, and Luna often sounds less like herself and more like Rarity (wait, why is this in the Cons section, again? )
    Final Rating
    5 – Celestia Rank: A great episode. It will be re-watched frequently. (Ironic, no?)
    4 – Luna Rank: A good episode, but with one or two problems that prevent it from being great.
    3 – Spike Rank: An average episode. Positives and negatives are balanced.
    2 – Discord Rank: Worth watching once. After that, turn it to stone and put it in the garden.
    1 – Nightmare Moon Rank: Send it to the moon!
    This episode is one of the greats, and it totally holds up after all this time. Episodes like this made Season 2, if not the best, at least in my top 3 Seasons of Friendship is Magic.
    I’m not sure how this isn’t part of the blog already. I either left it out when reviewing the rest of Season 2, or it fell through the cracks after one of the server updates. I’m pretty sure I did a review of this one much more timeously, and rewriting this review is giving me flashbacks to when I was writing that previous version… but do you think I could find it anywhere on the interwebs or even my own hard drives, USB drives, etc? Nope. So. This is what you got. I hope it was an enjoyable read. Princess Luna is best princess, don’t even front. Feel free to comment, like and follow, and I hope to see all of you again soon. 
    *Ahem*
    STAY SUNNY... SIDE... UP!
  8. Sunny Fox

    Cartoon Show Classics v2.0: Invader Zim

    By Sunny Fox,


    Cartoon Classics
    Tallest Purple: Weren't you banished to Foodcourtia? Shouldn't you be... frying something?
    Zim:                Oh, I quit that when I found out about this!
    Tallest Purple: You "quit" being banished?
    Tallest Red:     The Assigning is over, Zim.
    I will stop there (for now), because I could quote from Invader Zim all day long.
    And happily, this is the next Cartoon Show Classic I will be delving into. Invader Zim (IZ) is the brainchild of Jhonen Vasquez, creator of the comics Johnny the Homicidal Maniac and Squee, the former about a, you guessed it, homicidal maniac, and the latter about a kid he once traumatised. This is a man with a uniquely dark view on life and society, and while largely toned down in comparison to the comics mentioned above, IZ  shares the twisted influences of its creator. This ultimately led to the show being cancelled after 2 seasons for not appealing to Nickolodean's core demographic, but also led to its massive popularity among older teenagers and adults who watched it growing up. I was one of those older teenagers, so this cartoon has a special place in my heart. So I'm gonna review it, and you all get to come along for the ride with me!
    The Setting
    IZ takes place (mainly) in a future version of Earth that features a somewhat technologically advanced but intellectually and socially regressive society... the kind where children go to Skool (sic) to learn something (it's not usually clear what) that will hopefully make them less of a burden on an already burdened society. (Yes, I am using the word society quite frequently, but since a lot of the show is basically a commentary on our real life society, I won't apologise for it. )
    However, Earth is not alone in harboring Not-so-intelligent Life. You see, out in space, an alien civilization is busy conquering... the Irken Empire, led by its sinister leaders, Almighty Tallest Purple and Almighty Tallest Red. They share the distinction of being the same height, and by virtue of being the Tallest of their species, co-rule their race from the flagship of their Big Spaceship Gang Armada, The Massive. Of course, following the theme of the show, they are rather stupid, barring some occasional moments of brilliance/competence, and are actually figure heads, while the Irken Control Brains are really pulling the strings of Operation Impending Doom 2 - a bid for Galactic Domination. At the forefront of this plan are the Invaders, assisted by their robotic SIR (Standard-issue Information Retrieval-slash-thermos) units. An Invader's job is to disguise themselves and blend in with the inhabitants of other planets while learning their weaknesses and working towards their downfall. All of which makes them more Infiltrators than Invaders, but I guess "Infiltrator Zim" simply wouldn't have the same ring to it. (Actually, that sounds more evil/sinister/badass to me. )
    It is during the Great Assigning of Invaders to their target (read "victim") planets that our eponymous villain-protagonist arrives, having seen the proceedings on the news. Despite the bit of dialogue above, the Tallest agree to assign Zim to a planet (although secretly, they just want to get rid of him, and are sending him to an area of space they think is empty) and guess what, it's Earth where he ends up, along with a companion robot the Tallest put together on the fly, not wishing to waste resources on him. This is GIR (no one knows what the G stands for, not even GIR.) 
    Back on Earth, while scanning the skies, a young human worm-baby boy named Dib Membrane catches the tail end of the transmission, alerting him to the fact that something is coming to Earth from beyond the stars... thus is set up the beginnings of an epic battle of freedom vs tyranny. This, my friends, is the beginning of Invader Zim.
    The Characters - The Bad Guys 

    Zim (Richard Horvitz)

    The appropriate reaction...

    If you wondered why Operation Impeding Doom 2 is so called, meet the reason that Operation Impending Doom failed in the first place. Yup, Zim singled-handedly ended the Irken's first attempt at conquering known space, by going on a destructive rampage on an alien planet with a gigantic fighting robot. Well, the planet was alien to us, at least, not alien to the Irken race; it was their home planet he was on at the time. Here is an excerpt from his trial:
    Control Brain: Invader Zim, for single-handedly ruining Operation Impending Doom...
    Zim:                "Ruined"?! I blew up more than any other Invader!
    * Red spits out his drink *
    Tallest Red:    You blew up all the other Invaders!
    (Hey, I didn't promise not to quote anything ever again!)
    Zim, while considering himself the best of the best when it comes to Invaders, is actually a downright incompetent fool with delusions of grandeur, a bumbling moron whose sheer stupidity is matched only by his own ego and love of snacks (Insert your own joke about any relevant politicians here.) His plans are always extremely convoluted and at times downright illogical, such as pumping cows full of human dookie (a word that gets used A LOT in this series), and that's when he can even remember them. In short, he is his own worst enemy, even more so than his putative rival, Dib Membrane (see below).
    GIR (Rosearik Rikki Simons)

    I'm gonna sing the Doom song now... ♫ Doom, doom, doomy! Doom-do-do-doomy! ♫

    With all the raw processing power of a gumball, paperclip, loose screw and two pennies in his head, GIR is Zim's robot assistant. Not so much stupid as easily distractible, but also that too, GIR goes along with Zim's plans much as a younger kid brother would, and it's a 50-50 chance whether he will aid or hinder whatever plan Zim has cooked up. Despite being a robot in a dog suit, GIR loves to eat all kinds of food, and he isn't picky about what or whether it's currently still alive or not (again, 50-50 chance). He occasionally goes into Duty Mode, and becomes much more competent, although these intervals usually don't last very long, and the one occasion it does, he becomes a very scary little robot indeed. He is hilarious, and you will quote everything he says.

    Zim and GIR in their disguises.
    Tallest Red (Wally Wingert) and Tallest Purple (Kevin Hamilton McDonald)

    Tallest Red:     See, told you they'd like the lazers...
    Tallest Purple: Everything is "lazers" with you. I'm telling you, smoke machines are what the people really... wah-ow, my eye!
    *Crowd cheers*
    Tallest Red:     See?
    As explored above, these guys are large (well, tall) and in charge, ostensibly. Taking it easy at the top, they generally cruise around in The Massive, gobbling snacks and ordering their lackeys to get them more snacks, while occasionally taking over planets and turning them into parking structures, food courts or whatever they feel like at the moment. Having thought they'd gotten rid of Zim, they are rather put out when he calls them after reaching Earth. Zim, of course, is oblivious to their contempt, and firmly believes they admire him as much as he admires himself.
    The Robo-parents

    Welcome home, Son!
    Created as part and parcel of Zim's home, the Robo-parents are there to help sell the Masquerade. How effective they are is a bit of an open question, not only because (as with most Irken technology) they sometimes malfunction, but because human society at large seems determined to overlook the obvious signs that there is something deeply wrong at Zim's house.
    Zim's House (With Robot AI)

    Blends in like a chameleon... on crack.
    A character in its own right, Zim's house is part cover, part evil base, with a long-suffering AI in charge. Like most Irken technology, its effectiveness in aiding Zim in his conquest is rather hit-or-miss, but at least it keeps the rain off of Zim (said rain due to pollution being caustic to Irkens - this is a plot point in an episode). 
    The Good Guys
    Dib Membrane

    A budding paranormal investigator, Dib by chance overhears the Great Assigning via radio signal, and is one of the few people on Earth who knows (or cares) that Zim is an evil alien bent on enslaving the human race. His attempts to prove this are always doomed to fail, most due to the sheer stupidity / oblivousness of the people of this world. Although he also has a deserved reputation of "crying wolf", which has done him no favours in the believability department...
    Skoolkid:              What's wrong with you? All you talk about is aliens and ghosts and seeing Bigfoot in your garage...
    Dib (Defensively): He was using the belt sander.
    Despite this, Dib is firm in standing against Zim and his various plans for world conquest, no matter the cost to himself...
    Oh, and he might be a clone of his father...
    Professor Membrane
    Earth's smartest scientist, Inventor of Super-Toast, Hater of Santa Claus (long story) and father (possibly) to Dib and Gaz, the Prof nevertheless is unable to accept that things such as aliens, ghosts and other supernatural phenomena are real, which they clearly are.
    Gaz Membrane (Melissa Fahn)

    Twilight *Sparkle*, she ain't...
    One of the few who know of Zim's real identity and plans for the Earth, Gaz simply doesn't care that he wants to destroy Mankind because, as she puts it, "he's so bad at it." Gaz is unpleasant, surly and dismissive of her brother (and everything else in life, apart from her video games)... and that's before you get on her bad side. PRAY YOU DO NOT GET ON HER BAD SIDE!
    Ms. Bitters (Lucille Bliss)

    "As I was saying, the universe is just doomed, doomed, doomed, go-home-now!"
    Dib and Zim's teacher, Ms. Bitters is well-named. This is what Gaz would probably grow up to be in a few decades time. An old woman, Ms. Bitters is bitter, strict with her students and possibly not even human.
    Skoolkids

    The rest of Dib's class are not exactly intellectual powerhouses, and they often get pulled unwillingly into the war between Zim and Dib, but most of them seem pleasant enough.
    Final thoughts
    The sheer brilliance and insanity of this series needs to be seen to be believed, and I would highly recommend it (if you haven't already seen it somehow) to anyone who appreciates a little bit of black humour. Those with sensitive constitutions, however, need not apply. Despite being a cartoon, it can be a bit disturbing and even gruesome at times. There is also a movie on Netflix subtitled "Enter the Florpus", set a while after the end of the series, which is also highly recommended. As usual, feel free to comment below, if it takes your fancy. 
    Well, it's 2021! Let's hope it's a good one, and as always, I encourage you all to stay sunny side up!
  9. Sunny Fox

    Cartoon Show Classics v1.0 - ReBoot

    By Sunny Fox,


    Cartoon Classics
    Hey, everyone, your friendly neighbourhood Sunny Fox speaking... so I thought I'd start a new series on my blog... Cartoon Show Classics. This will basically be an exploration of the cartoon shows I grew up watching, delving into setting, characters, story lines, etc and why I feel they were awesome, while still being aware of their faults (every show has them, after all). While I may occasionally delve into the creators / context in which they were created, this really is not supposed to be the Wikipedia Lite version of these shows, but more my own opinions and feelings about them. While definitely being beasts of different colour, please don't be surprised if one or two anime manage to sneak in with the more western style of cartoons. It will take me a while to ramp up, and the release schedule may be a bit all ova da place, but I hope you like it. First up, the nearest and dearest to my heart: the amazing world of ReBoot. (That's the name of the show, it's not a reboot of anything, those pretty much always suck. Anyhoo...)
    I come from the Net… through systems, peoples and cities… to this place… Mainframe! My format: Guardian. “To Mend and Defend.” To defend my new-found friends; their hopes and dreams. To defend them from their enemies…
    <<Music and Clips from the current season>>
    They say the User lives outside the Net, and inputs Games for pleasure. No one knows for sure… but I intend to find out… ReBoot!
    The Opening Narration by Bob – For the first two seasons, anyhow…
    The Setting: Mainframe and the Net

    Did you ever wonder if the characters in your favourite game had their own sentience? Their own lives, their own experiences, beyond just what happens in the game itself…? Well, that’s pretty much what ReBoot is about – the world inside your computer, where the games you input for pleasure are a life-and-nullification reality for its inhabitants. Set inside a computer called Mainframe, the series deals with the adventures and escapades of the inhabitants of the computer, visualized as a modern city with skyscrapers, parks, office buildings and restaurants, floating in an infinite sea of energy. The people of this world are divided into sprites, who are more human looking, and the decidedly less so binomes. Mainframe itself is merely one System within the broader world of The Net. No prizes for guessing what that represents. Our main character, Bob, comes from a more advanced System merely referred to as the Super-Computer, and is frequently faced with the reality that Mainframe is decidedly less sleek and sophisticated than what he is used to. (Think of it as Ponyville vs Canterlot.)
    One of the main conceits of the series is that Mainframe at large is aware that something called the User (aka you and I) exists, but is so much greater than and removed from their current reality so as to seem positively Lovecraftian in nature. What is certain, though, is that from time to time, the User sends Game Cubes to the city. Any part of the city, as well as those who live there, that end up inside the Cube are trapped in the Game and forced to battle the User (or more specifically, an avatar controlled by the User) for their very existence. If they lose, the section of the city where the Game Cube sits will be destroyed, and all the inhabitants will become Nulls, mindless slug-like creatures with very little semblance of who they once were.
    What keeps this from being straight up horror is that there is something the Mainframers can do when trapped inside a Game. By double tapping their icon (a badge-like thing that contains their Personal ID – long story, will explain more later…) and intoning “By the power of Grayskull!”,  I mean “ReBoot!”, the Mainframer's appearance is altered and they can access information and equipment from the Game Cube itself, putting them on a more even footing with the User. So, if you ever were on the verge of winning a game, but then the computer “cheated” and got the best of you… well, now you know why!
    Apart from the User and the Game Cubes, the world of Mainframe presents many challenges and dangers for our heroes to overcome. These include (of course) our villains, but there are also tears (pronounced like tear in paper, not as in crying), glitches in their world that appear as shining orbs of light, radiating enough energy to wreck a room. Guardians, such as Bob, can either repair tears, or harness the energy to create portals to other Systems. (This is pretty much explained all within the first episode, so no spoiler warning for you.) And there are a few more surprises to be had, too.
    As the series progresses, it moves from being very episodic in nature, with occasional double episodes, to having long continual story arcs, as the characters change and develop… sometimes so much as to be virtually unrecognizable… but that is a story for another time. For now, let me introduce you to our cast:
    Our Heroes
    Bob, a.k.a. Guardian 452

    Our hero and protagonist (plus opening narrator) Bob arrives in Mainframe just prior to the events of the first episode. Bob is a Guardian, basically an elite kind of police officer.  The two main facets of the Guardian Code (To Mend and Defend) pretty much sum up his two main tasks within Mainframe… to fix tears and to defend the general population from the actions of viruses (not viruses as in it-that-shall-not-be-named - here viruses are humanoid characters, like sprites.) His companion Key Tool (unique to Guardians) is named Glitch, a Do-Anything Robot that sits on his wrist and does most of his work for him (you’ll see what I mean). Bob is known for being very intelligent in a lateral-thinking, flies-by-the-seat-of-his-pants kind of way. He’s not big on planning, but generally astute enough to handle whatever comes his way so as to seem like he had it in control the whole time. This is pretty much the opposite of the way that Dot (described below) does things, so it’s a source of much of the Belligerent portion of the Belligerent Sexual Tension between the two in the earlier parts of the series.
    Despite the opening narration, Bob never really does attempt to learn the truth about what the User is, possibly because it's literally impossible for him to do so. You can't casually call up Cthulu and ask him if he exists, now can you?
    Dot Matrix

    Dot Matrix (named after an old type of printer) is an entrepreneur and business owner of (eventually) most of Mainframe, although her main business is Dot’s Diner, a popular fast food joint and one of the most frequently visited locales. An intelligent, no-nonsense kind of person, she likes to have everything planned down to the fine details, to a point where it can become unhealthy (a focus of some episodes). She does through planning and foresight what Bob does with quick wit and athleticism. Although when called upon to do so, Dot has shown a few times that she is force to be reckoned with, Action Girling it up with the best fiction has to offer. Underestimate her at your peril. (Oh, and her voice actor, Kathleen Barr also voiced Trixie - so if you want to hear her as an actually enjoyable character, definitely watch ReBoot! Hmm? What's that? No, I will not stop taking potshots at Trixie! Silly rabbit.)
    Enzo Matrix

    For the first two seasons, Enzo fills the tagalong kid archetype. Dot’s little brother, he is wide-eyed and idealistic, and really looks up to Bob, frequently leaping onto him to knock him over and sit on his chest while babbling a-mile-a-minute about the latest events and aspiring to be a Guardian. Despite being prone to making mistakes and looking before he leaps (he is a kid, after all), Enzo is at heart a good sprite who wants to help his sister and Bob keep Mainframe safe. He is also lonely due to having few other sprites his own age to play with. He does have a companion of sorts, though.
    Frisket

    Why do I hear "Back in Black" playing in my head? Oh, well...
    Frisket is a large gold and metallic red dog that, while feral, has adopted Enzo and generally hangs around him when not off on his own. (He also has an engine under his nose – just thought you might like to know that.) Frisket is willing to defend Enzo to the death, but he really doesn’t like Bob, and will growl at him or chew up his stuff if given the chance. While he is unable to talk (although he clearly understands what others say to him) and is entirely canine in behaviour and mannerisms, he is in fact a sprite. He has a great sense of smell he can use to track others, and he is strong enough to catch a cannon-ball in mid-flight, as well as prevent an ABC, a kind of flying tank, from lifting off (until the tailgate breaks off, that is…) Despite his great qualities, he is not someone Enzo can relate to on an intellectual or emotional level. Enter…
    AndrAIa

    A second season arrival, AndrAIa is a young game sprite, an artificially intelligent game character that Enzo meets and befriends in her introductory episode. Being a denizen of a game, AndrAIa is doomed to leave Mainframe when / if our heroes win… luckily, she thought to download a backup version of herself onto Enzo (specifically his icon), allowing her (or this version of her, at least) to exit the game and live within the “real world” of Mainframe. Since the game in which she originated was set in the ocean, her clothing and accessories have a Little Mermaid, under-da-sea kind of aesthetic. She also has scaled skin, gills and poisoned barbs for fingernails, but all in all, she’s a sweet and naïve girl who quickly attaches herself to Enzo, becoming his inseparable companion thereafter.
    Binomes

    The binomes form the bulk of the population of Mainframe, and therefore serve as background characters, for the most part. Binomes, representing the zeroes and ones of binary machine language, come in two principal types. Zero binomes are basically balls with arms and legs and have two eyes, while One binomes are three stacks blocks, with a single eye and mouth on the top block, arms coming from their middle block, and legs attached to their lower block. Both types of binomes can come in both genders, and there really is not much to distinguish one from the other – except in certain cases, such as…
    The Crimson Binome aka Captain Capacitor aka Gavin

    A software pirate (which in this world means “pirate” with all the trappings thereof), Captain Capacitor is the one binome leader of his ragtag crew of rapscallions and Captain of the “Saucy Mare”. After initially being introduced raiding Mainframe and stealing things, he eventually becomes a useful ally.
    Mr. Christopher (See image above)
    Captain Capacitor’s first mate, Mr. Christopher is rather timid, and is always keeping a running tally of potential profit vs. damages/downtime/resource management.
    Princess Bula

    An Amazonian one binome, Princess Bula is taller than most sprites, and bulkier, to boot. She speaks with an exaggerated slow and simple voice, but is physically a match for even Bob. She is also not really a princess, but no one is brave enough to tell her different. (Oh, and Kathleen Barr voices her too… it’s probably why she talks the way she does, so it’s not so obvious it’s the same person.)
    The Pirates
    Perfectly piratical pirates, they’re all about swilling grog and leaping to trim the main mast when shouted at. A number of them get names over the series, but all in all, they’re pretty much the same character.
    Villains
    Megabyte

    One might expect that in a digital world viruses would be the villains, and indeed they are. The first villain we are introduced to is Megabyte, voiced with delightfully elegant, yet still palpable malice by the late, great Tony Jay. Megabyte is Faux Affably Evil to the nth degree. He is well-spoken and largely Large and In Charge, presenting the façade of a gentlemanly Mafia don. Scratch the surface just a bit too much, though, and he can transform into a rampaging beast  who will roar and claw his way through his foes with either spikes that he can grow from the backs of his hands ala Wolverine, or just his elongated finger nails, ala Lady Death-strike. Not only superspritely strong (he can pick up and shake this world’s version of a tank like a toy), fast (he ran down the tank in the first place) and endurable (nothing he is subjected to even shows him down for long), as well as incredibly intelligent in his own right, he also has a veritable army of binomes and military vehicles that he has corrupted into his service. Megabyte is the driving force of much of the conflict throughout the entire series… just as a good villain should be.
    Hack and Slash

    Megabytes Elite Enforcers… for a certain value of “elite”, at any rate. Your typical Dumb Muscle duo, Hack and Slash are a team of a red and blue sprite that look like top heavy robots with ball bearings for feet. While also being extremely strong, they tend to ruin whatever plan Megabyte has going due to their incompetence and lack of intelligence. It isn’t really until later seasons that they exhibit any real differences in behaviour. Slash (blue) is voiced by Garry Chalk (i.e Optimus Primal) and Hack (red) by Scott McNeil (i.e Rat-trap). While they fear and obey Megabyte, they are by no means as evil as he is, and eventually start exhibiting a kind inner nature (especially Slash).
    Hexadecimal

    Where Megabyte represents the far extreme of Order, Hexadecimal is his polar opposite, representing Chaos. Her powers are varied and fairly reminiscent of Scarlet Witch from the Marvel franchise. She can levitate at will, use telekinesis and create and launch gigantic blasts of red energy. She also shows an ability to control Nulls to a degree. Her power is often described as “transfinite” within the show, which pretty much means she can pack more of a punch than any other being, while still being limited. Her main feature is her face… or perhaps, lack of one. She wears a Tragedy/Comedy type mask that is static, her changes in expression for the most part taking place between scenes, or in jump cuts. If ever “shown” on screen, the actual transition is hidden by the movement of her arm or hand, usually with a subtle "whoosh" audio cue. The expressions she shows range from just slightly Uncanny Valley to utterly Nightmarish (just see her pictures above). She is simply Mane-iac levels of bonkers, which is usually why she doesn’t just wreck the show, either losing interest/focus or being manipulated into undoing her own works. She also has a pretty obvious crush on Bob, which may or may not be a plot point in any given episode. Her companion / familiar is Scuzzy, a combination of pet cat and looking glass. (Pictured below)

    Daemon
    A so-called Super-Virus introduced during the events of Season 2/3, but unseen until Season 4. To go into too much detail would be to spoil a lot of the series, but she is extremely powerful, able to brainwash almost anyone into serving her.
    Supporting Characters
    Phong

    The de facto leader of the system (its Command Dot Com), Phong has great wisdom and a deep understanding of the computer world, which he will bestow upon anyone… who can beat him at Pong, his favourite game. Although this does become less of an issue as the series progresses. Perhaps because Bob totally crushes him every time we see the two play. His two favourite phrases appear to be “Oh, dear…” and “This is not the Super-Computer, Bob”. He plays a sort of Confucian mentor, often making cryptic statements and calling sprites who are not his children “my son” and “my daughter”.  He also looks more like whatever ET is than a regular humanoid sprite, but he is still one of the biggest forces for Good in the series.
    Mike the TV

    While he ostensibly belongs to Bob, who really, really regrets losing the remote, Mike is a sentient, animate TV with legs. He is frequently loud and annoying, prone to using his screen/face to show infomercials such as “Bucket ‘o Nothing for just 99.99.99!” He also moonlights as Mainframe’s main reporter / news announcer. Although he does get on the other characters’ nerves most of the time, he has in the past stepped up to the plate to assist our heroes. And sometimes he just flat out creates disasters, but we'll get to that.
    Mouse

    An in-universe Hacker, Mouse is originally introduced as an antagonist hired by Megabyte to do covert acts of a nefarious nature. She also has a history with Bob, the two of them having clashed before in the Super-Computer, and Bob even managing to “arrest” her, despite her skills. After vanishing (literally) for a few episodes after her introduction, Mouse eventually returns and joins in as an anti-villain and eventually an ally of the protagonists. She also has a katana... And a ship... named "Ship"... look, nobody said she was creative in naming things. She also has a Southern drawl.
    With all of our main (first season) cast introduced, I think this is a great stopping point. I’ll save a summary of the episodes for next time, and there will probably be some kind of wrap-up and general discussion before I most onto the next show I’d like to talk about. For some reason, I have a lot of time sitting at home these days, so expect those when they arrive.
    So, have you watched ReBoot? If so, what are your thoughts on the series? If you didn't... might you like to now? Any other general comments of encouragement, condemnation or .... no, pretty much just the first one, please.
    Stay safe, stay healthy, and of course, stay sunny side up!
     
     
  10. Sunny Fox

    #TwilightDidNothingWrong

    By Sunny Fox,


    Season 4
    (Except for the things she possibly actually did wrong)
    So, in Amending Fences, Twilight goes back to Canterlot to make nice with her former Canterlot friends, who she feels she wronged by leaving Canterlot for Ponyville. Most of her friends forgive her, but Moondancer wants nothing to do with her, instead pretending not to care about renewing the friendship. Of course, there is more to the story, and Moondancer is secretly harbouring resentment for Twilight skipping her "little get-together in the west castle courtyard," as shown in the first episode. Things come to a head when Twilight brings Pinkie in to put together a party for Moon Dancer, upon which Moon Dancer lets Twilight know just how much she was hurt by Twilight's no-show at Moon Dancer's party all those months ago. There is ultimately reconciliation and a happy end.
    Now, a lot of fans related really well to Moon Dancer, seeing in her an innocent pony hurt by an insensitivite act committed by somepony who is ostentibly her friend, and who became a recluse who had given up on friendship because of the bad experience she had. And that's fine. I'm not trying to convince anyone to not feel empathy for Moon Dancer. But I will explain why I personally don't feel Moon Dancer's story connected with me in the way the writers intended.
    First, we are presented with the idea that Twilight was wrong to forgo the party for a study session. As I see it, Twilight had zero obligation to attend the party. It's an invitation, not a summons. If she wants to spend her time with old dusty books instead, that's her perogative. And while she didn't know at the time that Nightmare Moon was due to return, she did seem to have something on her mind. She was reading history, but asks Spike to find a book on Predictions and Prophecies, which obviously is about the future. So she had a reason to decline the invitation: something had caught her interest and she wanted to learn more, which is typical Twilight. But even if she hadn't had a reason, I still feel it's unjust of both the audience and Moon Dancer to blame her for doing what she had every right to do. In the case of Moon Dancer, it's even more egregious for her to feel wronged, since she should have understood Twilight's decision. They are so similar, after all. I also think it's a bit unfair of Moon Dancer to expect Twilight to be more social just because she decided to be. And let's be real here, Moon Dancer didn't even bother to invite Twilight personally. Twinkleshine did the inviting. We don't even know if the invitation was on Moon Dancer's behalf as we are never given any evidence for such being the case. How was Twilight supposed to know that Moon Dancer was putting any kind of emotional attachment to her attendance? This could easily have been avoided if the writers just added another flashback to Moon Dancer inviting Twilight, and having her agree to attend, and then going back on that agreement when she saw the Elements of Harmony mentioned in her book. Then we would actually have Twilight going back on her word to a friend, and that would go a long way towards making Moon Dancer's reaction more justified. As written, this episode has Moon Dancer forcing responsibility for her own emotional well-being onto Twilight without letting her know about it or agree to it, and that makes it her own damn fault when she then gets hurt. (Consent? What is that?)
    Now, leaving her friends without even saying goodbye and then never contacting them; that I agree is a pretty crappy thing to do. If Twilight did anything wrong, this would be it. In fact, if the episode had made that the focus and that action was Moon Dancer's beef with Twilight, I might have found it more emotionally resonant. (It wouldn't negate all the bad writing, but it would have improved my outlook on the episode as a whole.) As it is, the party snub angle just muddies the water and makes the message of the episode weaker. What is the message now? "You are justified in making someone else your emotion crutch without their knowledge or consent"? "If somebody snubs you, take it so personally that you become a recluse and shut out everyone else from your life"? And more, that you're justified in doing so? This is pretty much what Moon Dancer does. How am I supposed to feel sorry for her when her reaction is so totally out of proportion to the "offense"?
    Another reason why the "Twilight hurt Moon Dancer by not going to her party" plotline doesn't really work is that all her other friends did attend that party, including the three that Moon Dancer herself points out as being the original reason why she wanted to be more outgoing in the first place. They even invited her out a few times after the party and she turned them down, because one pony (who wasn't even the impetus for Moon Dancer coming out of her shell, let's remember) didn't attend. That's simply self-sabotage, and it's not justified for the reasons I outlined above. While we're on that topic, I'm not entirely convinced the party was intended as a party for Twilight specifically. It's never stated to be the case. Even if one can infer it from context (arguable at best), that still doesn't change the fact that Twilight was unaware of the fact, and still had the right to decline to attend even if she were aware. 
    The writing also suffers from other issues, even seeming to work against itself at points. It wants you to believe that these ponies were Twilight's friends, but then makes a few jokes out of her not remembering their names. Here's a friendship hint - if you need your assistant to list the names of your friends, you don't have any friends in the first place. Heck, I can reel off two dozen names of friends I had in high school and university (I'm 37 now) - Twilight couldn't remember four (after at most a few months / years). They even make the point that Twilight had no photos of her Canterlot "friends", as she had with the Mane Six. So, you'll forgive me for being a little bit skeptical of the supposed friendship. There's also quite a lot of retconning to make this former friends angle work at all. Previous episodes make it pretty clear that Twilight didn't consider friendship important until she went to Ponyville, and she previously stated that her brother was the only pony she considered her friend before meeting the rest of the Mane Six. Now we're supposed to swallow the lie (which is exactly what it is) that she had these ponies she considered friends in Canterlot. All in all, I'm simply not convinced that the relationship between Twilight and those ponies was anything close to friendship.
    As another example of what I tend to think of as manipulative writing, we see again the scene from the first episode, with Twinkleshine telling Twilight about the party and Twilight declining in favour of studying. In this episode, the scene is cut short, ending with the other ponies watching Twilight running off. The original scene had the ponies remarking on Twilight's lack of social interaction. The lines excised are as follows:
    Twinkleshine: "Does that pony do anything except study? I think she's more interested in books than friends."
    Twilight: "I know I've heard of the Elements of Harmony."
    I guess they didn't want to remind us that Twilight didn't go in for friendship back then, did they? Or that she was actually going to research the Elements of Harmony, thus giving her a valid reason to decline the party invitation... you know, beyond exercising her own free will. It's literally a few seconds of extra footage, so I doubt they cut it for time considerations. There's a difference between evoking and manipulating emotion. This lands squarely on the latter side, and I don't appreciate it from the writers. To be honest, it makes me kind of angry.
    To conclude, there are many problems with the writing and characterization of this episode, which preclude me from being convinced of the emotional story the writers are trying to tell. There are fans who do find it convincing, and really, I'm glad that someone at least could get edification out of this episode where I can't. Still, I feel that Twilight is being unfairly blamed for Moon Dancer's (to my mind) self-inflicted emotional pain, and I will defend her on that count.

    Until the next time I bloggity-blog, just remember: always accept any invitation. Somebody's self-worth might be on the line! That's totes on you, friend! Oh, and stay sunny side up, as always!
  11. Sunny Fox

    #TrixieDidNothingWrong

    By Sunny Fox,


    Season 1
    Coming up next millenium, on a Very Special Episode of Sunny Side Den:
    A recently created thread is sparking a heated debate about Trixie! And her (mis)treatment at the pointed ends / of the writers' quill pens... (Do they still use those? Why did that last sentence sort of rhyme? WHY DO WE PARK ON DRIVEWAYS AND DRIVE ON PARKWAYS?! So many Questions!™) But I have cut through the Gordian Knot™ of argument and counter-argument to arrive at THE TRUTH!™ Sad! Sick! Believe me!
    And here, in all its glory, is the ultimate truth, justice and the American way! (which, by the by, appears to be "outsource all your voice acting needs to Canada!")
    Guys, I think we all know who the real cause of all Trixie's #Totally #Unfair and #Not #At #All #Poetically #Justified #Woes is... one scaly S.O.D. (Son Of a Dragon) at whose clawed feet we can lay the blame!

    If Spike hadn't said "Look, unless an Ursa Major comes waltzing up the street for Trixie to vanquish, I am not gonna believe a word she says, and neither should you!", Spins™ and Slains™ would never have gone looking for one. GAAAASP! Does his evil know no bounds? When will just vengeance fall upon the one who truly deserves it?
    This is something that cannot be denied! Grab your pitchforks, ready your torches! We must punish the perpetrator truly responsible for the totality of Trixie's torrid treatment! (Alliteration never gets old for me... for you, eh, YMMV.)
    Brought to you by the Trademark Corporation™ and your friendly neighbourhood Sunny Fox!
    PS -
     
  12. Sunny Fox
    Girls, can you explain why I look like I’m getting married at the bottom of a pit? – Cheerilee
    Hearts and Hooves Day (the Equestrian version of Valentine’s Day) has come to Ponyville, and love is in the air. Sweetie Belle, Apple Bloom and Scootaloo are busy creating a giant greeting card to give to their teacher, Miss Cheerilee. This construction involves large quantities of paper, lace, glitter and paint. Despite the rather haphazard method of its creation, the finished product looks oddly professional… and far too large to fit into the envelope.
    At school, Cheerilee thanks the girls for their gift. Sweetie surmises that she must have gotten an even better present from her “Very Special Somepony” but Cheerilee reveals that she is currently single, stunning the fillies. Despite their protests (and a rather put-upon expression from the teacher), Cheerilee insists she is content with her romance situation, and that the good wishes from her friends and students is enough for her.

    Then Sweetie got an idea. An awful idea. Sweetie got a wonderful, awful idea. (Yeah, I know: wrong holiday. What of it?)
    Sweetie decides the Crusaders should take it upon themselves to find a worthy stallion to be Cheerilee’s VSS, and they quickly head out into Ponyville to find the perfect match. Their search takes the form of a song, sung mostly by Sweetie herself, as they consider and ultimately reject all of Ponyville’s single stallions left and right. There are a few noteworthy images during the song. (Oh, hai, inspiration for Button Mash) Including the first outright acknowledgement of death in Equestria… yup, the “too old” pony is a priest officiating at a funeral: you can see the casket on the right of the screen. The other rather noteworthy entrant in the potential partner pageant is the stallion who is “too strangely obsessed with tubs of jelly”. Eventually, they come to Big Mac, who they find doesn’t have any plans for HnHD, and decide he will be the one. Apple Bloom points out that Big Mac is shy and probably wouldn’t make the first move on Cheerilee. They then decide to set up a picnic at the gazebo, to set the mood and get Cheerilee to make the first move instead.
    After the picnic is all set up, Cheerilee appears. The girls had brought her out, saying they need help with identifying a tree… an apple tree. Cheerilee is understandably confused. Just then, Big Mac also arrives, having come to fix the gazebo. The fillies then try to leave them alone, hiding in the bushes. Cheerilee looks long at Big Mac, leans in, and they think their plan is working… only for Cheerilee to point out something stuck in his teeth. “Oh, come on,” indeed, Sweetie Belle. Bonus points for the record scratch. The music sounds distorted afterwards, too.
    The two then head off in opposite directions, leaving the fillies flabbergasted by failure. Cue Twilight… who bumps into them while reading a book. She mentions that the holiday was started by a love potion, piquing the attention of the CMC, who borrow the book and then book it before Twilight can recommend any other reading material. She is not pleased.
    The CMC prepare the potion, and again call out Big Mac and Cheerilee, passing the potion off as punch they want the two to taste test. Cheerilee explains to Big Mac that she’s entirely aware that the three fillies are attempting to set them up, but they decide to humour them anyway and drink the “punch”.

    Punch drunk. Love.
    The delight of the CMC at their plan coming to fruition is quickly cut short by Cheerilee and Big Mac becoming Sickenly Sweet Sweethearts, complete with baby talk and pet names. At least Big Mac is saying more than his customary "Eeyup" and "Nope". On the other hoof, given what he is actually spouting, maybe that would have been preferable.
    Thoroughly weirded out by the lovebirds, as it were, the CMC retire to their club house to found out what went wrong… only to discover it went horribly right instead. It turns out the original love potion was given by a prince to a princess (interestingly, the princess in question is depicted as an alicorn) but they were so busy being in love that it ended in the destruction of their kingdom. Apple Bloom has a rather dark imagination, we find, as she imagines the results of Big Mac not being able to farm and Cheerilee not being able to teach being an epidemic of poorly educated and starving ponies. However, Sweetie explains that the spell can be broken if they can prevent the couple from seeing each other for an hour. Sounds like a plan…
    The fillies find Big Mac and Cheerilee at Sugarcube Corner, making even Mrs. Cake uncomfortable with their PDA as they share a milkshake… or would, if they could stop insisting the other take the first sip. When Mrs. Cake mentions wedding bells in the near future, Sweetie gets another idea… using preparations for a wedding as a pretext for keeping the sweethearts apart.
    AB and Scoots take Big Mac to get a diamond, and Sweetie takes Cheerilee to Carousel Boutique to get a wedding dress. Sweetie traps Cheerilee in the fitting room, while Apple Bloom stalls Big Mac by refusing all the proffered diamonds. A moment’s carelessness means that Big Mac escapes her. AB sends Scoots to inform Sweetie while she tries to stop Big Mac’s pronking progress. However, not even tying a rope to a house is enough to stop him.

    And this is exactly the sort of thing that drives Berry Punch to drink…
    At the Boutique, Sweetie is distressed to hear the news, but gets another idea on spying some nearby shovels. They quickly dig a pit trap for the suitor, and Big Mac calls out for Cheerilee just before falling in. Hearing her snookums’ voice, she busts out, veil and all, and heads for her beau. The CMC try to stand in her way, but she simply bowls them over and leaps into the pit. Fortunately, the two were kept apart long enough to end the spell, leaving a very confused Cheerilee to ask what in Equestria is going on and why she is getting married in a pit.
    The CMC come clean and admit that they made a big mistake trying to force the two into a relationship. Cheerilee thanks them for their concern but she and Big Mac agree the three need to be punished by doing all of Big Mac’s chores (presumably just for the rest of the day.) They also pretend to be going on a real date, just to mess with the fillies some more. And off they stride into the sunset together…
     
    Thoughts on the Episode
    Oh, Sweetie Belle, why do you do things? Without her bright idea to set up Cheerilee with somepony, none of the hijinks would have ensued. Although to be fair, only her first (well, and second, but that was more of a group decision) idea really backfired, the rest of her suggested courses of action actually did assist in ameliorating the first blunder. I think it would have been a little better for AB and Scootaloo to have come up with some suggestions that helped solve the crisis too, since as it is the episode is rather heavily weighted towards Sweetie. She is my favourite Cutie Mark Crusader, though, so I’m not going to object too hard to it.
    I thought the cringe aspect of the enforced relationship was pretty well handled… the way the two acted under the influence of the love poison was just balanced enough that it didn’t become too annoying, but still did enough to make it uncomfortable… which is as it should be, considering the CMC used literal date rape tactics on both Cheerilee and Big Mac. I’ll give Apple Bloom a point or two for being the only one to actually question whether they should be doing this. Pity she was so easily convinced to proceed.
    In the end, the fillies can be given a bit of a pass for overriding Cheerilee and Big Mac’s free will, since they are fillies, and such lapses of judgment due to immaturity are easier to forgive than in somepony you could reasonably expect to know better. (Looking at you, Starlight Glimmer!) The important thing is that they did learn their lesson, and they didn’t get off scot-free. Props to Cheerilee for assigning them some sort of punishment and not just letting it go.
    The moral is a little bit meta, since it seems to be a subtle rebuke to the habit some fans have of pairing up ponies without regard to whether it would actually make sense for them to be together. A little bit of romantic speculation is fine (I do it myself sometimes), but I disapprove of the lengths some fans will go to in shipping. See the “Die for our Ship” entry on TV Tropes for examples of the kind of things I mean. But back to the episode itself.
    As I mentioned above, there were a lot of stallions not usually seen around Ponyville during the song, which seems a little bit odd if you think about it, but hey, songs in the show have always needed some leeway in terms of realism. At least it gave the animators an excuse to experiment… although perhaps some experiments were not meant for ponykind to know…

    A very jarring image, that.
    Speaking of jarring images, the scene in Sugarcube Corner is possibly the most suggestive in the show to date. Dat cherry… And then there’s the shots of all three CMC fillies straddled by Twilight… That one gave me some “Hiiiiii, gurllzzz!” flashbacks. Brrr.
     
    Highlights/Quotes
    Watch Cheerilee’s expression when Sweetie asks about her not having a VSS… Single people everywhere can relate.
    The song is pretty darn funny… watch for that split second of morbidity, though!
    Cheerilee leans in towards Big Mac… soft romantic music plays…
    Cheerilee (dreamily): Big Mac…?
    Big Mac: Yup?
    Cheerilee (normal tone): …you have something stuck in your teeth…
    Sweetie Belle (In the distance): OH, COME ON!!
    When the love potion recipe calls for a Pegasus feather, Sweetie casually yanks one out of Scootaloo’s wings.
    Cheerilee’s Foe Tossing Charge towards Big Mac… then she leaps towards him with an expression of joy… until she realizes they’re about to collide face first…
     
    Pros: A good moral that works both in universe and out of universe. Some pretty funny things happen.
    Cons: Perhaps a bit too Sweetie-centric. Unsettling implications if you think about it too much. Carousel Boutique, but no Rarity? For shame!
     
    Final Rating
    5 – Button’s Mom Rank: This episode has got it going on.
    4 – Big Mac / Cheerilee Ship Rank: It seems like it should work, but there’s something not quite right…
    3 – Button Mash Rank: Worth inserting a coin or two, but nothing super special.
    2 – Hugh Jelly Rank: Once taste is enough, then put the lid on the jar.
    1 – Love Poison Rank: For your own sake, don’t ignore the pony skull on the label…
     
    And once more, we get to see a familiar holiday done the pony way, and it is sweet! Not a perfect episode, but still probably one of my favourites featuring the CMC. Next we have an episode that is somewhat less romance themed, A Friend in Deed. Join me next time as we greet a new character and welcome him to Ponyville. Until then, stay sunny side up!
     
  13. Sunny Fox
    I hate to admit it to myself, and I’d really hate to have to admit it to my friends, but… I love this book! – Rainbow Dash
    Twilight, Rarity and Pinkie are watching as Dash practices some of her precision flying. However, during a particularly difficult maneuver, Dash loses control and crashes into the ground, breaking one of her wings in the process.
    Confined to the Ponyville Hospital to rest and recover, Dash finds herself going nutty from boredom. When she complains about this to her friends during one of their visits, Twilight grabs a book from the library cart entitled Daring Do and the Sapphire Statue, and suggests Dash read it, as it’s one of Twilight’s favorite series of books and the protagonist, the eponymous Daring Do, is a lot like Dash herself.
    While she holds off for a while, she is eventually driven to open the book and start reading. Quickly becoming absorbed in the story (a basic Indiana Jones knockoff) she is surprised and embarrassed to find she does actually enjoy reading after all.
    As she works her way through the story, her friends occasionally come to visit her, but she is so hooked on the book that she would rather get rid of them… by means of messy mealtime manners, gratuitously giving up at games and shamelessly simulating slumber.
    Unfortunately for Dash, her wing heals pretty quickly, and she is discharged from the hospital before she can finish the book. After unsuccessfully attempting to persuade the doctor she is still injured, she resolves to break in. However, the new patient in her bed thinks she is a thief, and sounds the alarm. The doctors, nurses and night watch-pony all give chase, waking up the whole of Ponyville with the hue and cry.
    Finally cornered, Dash comes clean about her new literary habit, expecting that she’ll be made fun of, but Twilight assures her she’s just as cool, whether or not she is a reader. She even agrees to let Dash read her copies, and the episode ends with Dash curling up with the second book in the series.
    Thoughts on the Episode
    This ended up being one of the shortest summaries of an episode I’ve ever done. I could pad it out by including the story of Daring Do, but really, if you just say “Indiana Jones as a pony”, that’s all you really need to know. Not that the story within the story isn’t competently told, but there really is not very much you aren’t going to predict ahead of time.
    One of the better parts of the episode is how it weaves the story into Dash’s experience, which can get pretty surreal, such as when the menacing villain Ahuizotl gives his nemesis DD a bright and cheery greeting in Pinkie’s voice. There are a few other times this sort of linkage is done, which is really very cleverly interwoven.
    The humour in this episode is mostly quite subtle, like Dash getting bored within a literal minute, and her antics in trying to get rid of her visitors. Less subtle is the joke that drops after the chase: while trying to catch the “thief”, the hospital staff appear to be accompanied by a tracking dog, complete with excited barking. On bringing Dash to bay, the barker is revealed to be a pony in a straitjacket, one of the hospital patients. The joke does make me laugh, but it also makes me feel a bit uncomfortable. Making fun of the mentally ill is not something I would condone, but perhaps the very silliness of the idea vitiates the offense.
    The moral is standard, but appropriate considering the brony fanbase: like what you like, and don’t let how others’ perceptions of it dissuade you. Overall, the episode is just a fun romp.
    Highlights/Quotes
    Rarity describes a good book as “almost as good as silk pajamas”. Guess what she’s wearing when woken up?
    Pinkie has one of her moments:
    Pinkie: Yeah! I love reading, and my head isn't even close to the shape of an egg! It's more the shape of an apple, or maybe an orange, but a big orange! More like a grapefruit really...
    Pros: Some good jokes. The two main stories are interwoven well. An unexceptional but fine moral.
    Cons: The Daring Do story is bog standard, even though it’s set in a jungle. A possibly insensitive joke about the mentally distressed may offend some.
    Final Rating
    5 – Daring Do Rank: A great episode. A tip of the pith helmet to this one.
    4 – Circle of Jungle Cats Rank: A good episode, but might have a weak link or two somewhere.
    3 – Housecat Rank: Aww, it’s so cute about how hard it’s trying. Not succeeding, but trying.
    2 – Easily Escapable Death Trap Rank: Worth watching once. After that, assume it all went to plan and leave the room.
    1 – Ahuizotl Rank: Hand it off to someone else, fast!
    Well, that was short! There’s just not that much to cover in this episode, I guess. You are of course welcome to point out anything you think I missed, or make any other comment you wish. Next time, Love (Potion No. 9) is in the air… until then, stay safe, read a book, and stay sunny side up.
  14. Sunny Fox
    He’s Flim, he’s Flam, we’re the world famous Flim-Flam Brothers: Travelling Salesponies, non pareil! – Flim and Flam
    Fluttershy gets an involuntary early morning wake up call, courtesy of Rainbow Dash. After a bit of embarrassment and blushing, Fluttershy is quickly hustled out into the pre-dawn dark of Ponyville. Rainbow Dash is in a hurry to get her and Flutters to Sweet Apple Acres, because today’s Fighting Day – fighting for a share of the Apple family cider, that is. RD explains that Pinkie Pie usually gets there first and buys more than her fair share of cider, which ends up depriving RD of her allotment when the cider sells out.
    Despite her determination to defensively defuse the disastrous dearth of delicious drink, this year looks like more of the same, since not only is Pinkie camping out at the front of the line, but she mentioned the idea to most of Ponyville, so the line is already super long. Then Pinkie rapturously gushes about how good the cider is, and how she hopes it won’t sell out before RD gets some! A bit later, the Apples open up the cider shop, and Pinkie, as is her wont, buys about a dozen mugs. Of course, the cider sells out just as RD reaches the front of the line.

    “The only thing more delicious than that cider are your tears of misery, Dashey!”
    Suddenly a machine drives into view, with two ponies atop. These are the brothers, Flim and Flam, and they introduce (via song) their invention, the titular machine, which they boast can provide enough cider for all of Ponyville. All they need is the Apple family’s eponymous product, and 75%  of the profits.
    Since this would lose money for the Apple family, they refuse to accept the deal, leading Flim and Flam to drop their affable façade and show their ruthlessness. They declare that they’ll simply become competitors instead, and drive the Apples out of business… and out of their farm and home, too.
    Eventually, the two sides agree to a cider squeeze off, a competition on who can produce the most barrels of cider, with the winner getting exclusive rights to sell cider in Ponyville. Mayor Mare agrees to be the referee, and Time Turner agrees to be the, um, timer turner. And so a battle commences: good old fashioned pony power vs. machinery and magic.
    After the Flim Flam bros take an early lead, Twilight asks if the Mane Six are allowed to assist, a judgment which Mayor Mare defers to the pair. They confidently claim that they don’t care if the entire kingdom of Canterlot assists the Apples, it being a lost cause. So the Mane Six join the fray… Fluttershy helps AJ knock the apples down, Pinkie and Apple Bloom catch them in baskets, Rarity and Granny Smith sort the good apples from the bad (Or as Rarity puts, the lovely from the horrid #RarityIsBestPony), Rainbow Dash assists Big Mac running the treadmill to crush out the apple juice, and Twilight magically stacks and tallies the barrels as they come out.
    It works so well that the Apples start catching up, shocking the FFB into action. They speed up their machine, but it starts sucking up entire trees along with the apples, causing the quality control to reject all input. In desperation, they switch off the quality control, allowing them enough throughput to win the competition.
    RD shows her loyalty by intending to fight for her friends, but AJ sadly agrees to the forfeiture of the cider rights and hence the farm itself. The FFB laugh in triumph as the Apples sadly drift off, the rest of Ponyville mourning along with them. The FFB start to sell their cider, but due to them switching off the quality control, the resulting mess is undrinkable, and an angry mob gather around them. Seeing which way the wind is blowing, the two quickly hightail it out of there, leaving in peace the Apples to sell the cider they produced during the competition.
    RD is again left just missing out when the cider runs out yet again, but Pinkie offers her a mug from her purchases, making peace, while AJ dictates her letter to Celestia. (Reproduced here in its entirety, because it’s just that damn good…)
    Dear Princess Celestia… I wanted to share my thoughts with you. [clears throat] I didn't learn anythin'! Ha! I was right all along! If you take your time to do things the right way, your work will speak for itself. Sure, I could tell you I learned something about how my friends are always there to help me, and I can count on them no matter what, but truth is, I knew that already too.
    And so the ponies raise a mug together.

    A good head but an ugly mug... and AJ is there too!
    Thoughts on the Episode
    Boy, everypony is greedy in this episode. Pinkie is greedy, buying far more cider than is fair. The Apples are greedy, since they allow this, when it would be extremely easy to implement a one-pony, one-mug policy. It shows they care more about the money they make with the cider than having their product be enjoyed by the most ponies. The Flim Flam brothers are greedy, wanting the lion’s share of the profits, when it would have been far more sensible to accept an equal portion or even slightly less, since without the Apples’ apples, they have no ingredients to work with.
    Speaking of the brothers, they’re quite a good addition to the villain roster. I hesitated a bit to actually categorize them as villains, rather than simply as antagonists, in the original sense of the term. Even as ruthless and greedy as they are, that alone doesn’t really tip them over the edge into villain territory. What does is how much delight they take in beating the Apples, even taunting them and laughing at their misfortune. Despite their name, they don’t really engage in any real dishonest behavior, unless you count trying to pass off as their cider what they made from the Apples’ produce. And their designs are pretty interesting. They are much taller and slimmer than the rest of Ponyville, in the style of Fleur de Lis, and their outfits are taken from The Music Man, the same movie being referenced in the song the brothers sing. As usual, Daniel Ingram’s composition is deluxe. There are plenty of funny things going on in the background, too.

    A point I’d like to make regarding the song. The chant of “cider, cider, cider” which repeats through the verses highlights a rather subtle theme that the episode explores… the power of mob mentality. In this episode, it both helps to set up the conflict and resolve it. Firstly, the song has bolstered the desire of the ponies for more cider, making it necessary for the Apple family to actually take the FFB’s bet. The smarter thing would be to just ignore the pair and pack up and go home. After all, the FFB have no product without being able to use the apples, or at least would have to find another source, cutting down their potential profits. But with the crowd already disappointed with the Apples due to the cider shortage, that option gets closed off.
    But mob mentality is also what ultimately saves the day. Due to the FFB cider being ruined, the brothers have to clear out smartish to avoid things getting ugly for them, leaving the Apples with the de facto right to sell their cider. The moral of the story may be “quality beats quantity”, but this other underlying thread in the episode deserves to be highlighted.
    Now let’s look at some bad behavior by other ponies. First, while Dash is, as usual, loyal and prepared to defend her friends, she also contributed to that negative mob mentality I noted earlier. When she is left ciderless, she inadvertently becomes the mob ringleader. She’s also shown as being much more eager than anypony else to get some of the FFB’s cider during the song – after initial skepticism, I must add in her defense. I think she can be forgiven, though, since her heart was in the right place, and her behavior was a result of her understandable frustration at losing out on the cider, largely due to Pinkie's careless greed and the Apples’ lackadaisical approach to selling.
    Pinkie also gets the Bad Behaviour Ball. First she buys way more than her fair share of the cider, and then she goes on to talk to Dashy’s face about how great the cider is and how she hopes it doesn’t run out, which it obviously will, thanks in part to her! Again, though, she manages to redeem herself by actually giving Dash a mug of cider at the end.
    As you could tell from the plot synopsis, I like the ending. Rather than a generic restatement of the moral, it actually bucks the usual trend of the show and provides amusement. Speaking of morals, I loved the bit when Twilight offers to help and AJ simply says “I’d love the rest of my family to help.” A far cry from the pony who almost ruined Ponyville through stubborn refusal to accept help in Season 1. I like when something like this is shown to actually have stuck and not be ignored. And speaking of amusement, there’s the opening bit when Rainbow Dash pulls off Fluttershy’s bedclothes, and she blushes and covers her chest, despite the fact that the ponies hardly ever wear clothes anyway. Funny, if not making a lot of sense when scrutinized. Horses don’t have pectoral mammaries. Although covering the correct spot would mean that the scene would not have gotten past the censors, so this is just a case of me being pendantic again.
     
    Highlights / Quotes
    If you watch carefully during the song, while the rest of the Apple family look uncertain, Apple Bloom is smiling and very much enjoying the performance.
    RD is about to get some cider, when AJ lassos the barrel and accidentally knocks her mug out of her hooves, spilling the cider on the ground.
    Rainbow Dash: <With a mouthful of cider-mud> “Is this some kind of cruel joke?”

    Yes, Dash, yes, it is: the writers' cruel joke.
    When Twilight announces they're catching up to the Brother, Flim does a spit take right into his brother's face.
    Pros: Good villains in design and demeanour. A nice twist on the Letter to Celestia pattern. A surprisingly subtle secondary moral. Some really sad moments. A rarity: a moral from a previous episode is actually remembered.
    Cons: Some bad behavior by some of the ponies.
    Final Rating
    5 – A Proper 1420 Rank: A great episode. To be savoured at every opportunity in your community.
    4 – Sweet Apple Cider Rank: A good episode, but something in there disappoints slightly.
    3 – A Glass of Water Rank: An average episode. Nothing too good or bad.
    2 – Mine’s got Rocks in it Rank: Worth watching once. Just don’t break your teeth.
    1 – Flim Flam Jerk Cider Rank: Dreck.
    And that is the last episode to focus on Applejack for a while. Next up is Read It and Weep a.k.a. Dash’s Single Target Sexuality Eggheadedness. Come and read my words about the words that Dashy reads, next time around. Until then, make any comments crass, complimentary or contrarian you like (only not the first one, please), and stay sunny cider up.
  15. Sunny Fox
    I just don’t know what went wrong! – Derpy
    The episode opens with Applejack racing around a rodeo course set up on her farm, while Apple Bloom cheers her on. During her jump over one of the fences, her hoof just clips the obstacle, unnoticed by AJ herself. She finishes by tossing a bale of hay, to applause from her little sister. Apple Bloom is enthused and gushes about how good AJ is and how she’s certain to take first prize at the Equestrian Rodeo.
    But AB isn’t the only one with expectations… Ponyville is organizing a grand send-off for their potential champion, and RD is helping put up the banner, with “assistance” from a certain blonde, grey-coated pony with bubbles for a cutie mark. Just managing to dodge a bolt of lightning, RD utters the historical line, “Now, careful, Derpy!” Said pony is jumping up and down on a cloud. She leaves off with that, but her clumsiness makes trouble for RD as well as damaging Town Hall further than the lightning did. Despite the setbacks, AJ manages to thank Mayor Mare and the town for supporting her, and pledges her winnings to help make repairs, before setting off on the train to Canterlot.
    A while later, and the Mane Six and Apples are waiting to surprise AJ with a Congratulations party. However, she doesn’t show, instead sending a telegram to say she’s delaying her return. The Apples are distraught, but our heroes vow to find AJ and bring her back.
    They proceed to Canterlot and ask around at the rodeo grounds as the rodeo crew pack away, and eventually, they are pointed to a town called Dodge Junction. On arrival, Pinkie needs a tinkie, and manages to find AJ almost immediately when she races to the station outhouse, catching her just coming out. (Is this the first mention of such necessities in the show? I think it is, but feel free to contradict me in the comments if I’m wrong.)
    Applejack is less than enthused that her friends have tracked her down, and she tells them that after the Rodeo, she decided to spend time in Dodge Junction for a change of scenery, and to farm something other than apples, namely cherries. They meet with AJ’s new boss, Miss Cherry Jubilee, who speaks of AJ winning so many medals at the Rodeo that Miss Jubilee offered her a job on her cherry farm.
    AJ entreats the others to return to Ponyville, but they refuse, suspecting that there is more to AJ’s decision than she is letting on. They take jobs sorting cherries as AJ works the conveyer belt, and make small talk in order to persuade AJ into revealing her secret. She won’t budge, however, and starts trotting too fast in agitation, leaving Pinkie and Fluttershy increasingly overwhelmed by the rate of cherry arrival. When Fluttershy desperately yells for her to stop, all the cherries end up flying at AJ, covering her completely in pulverized cherry.

    Momentum is a harsh mistress…
    She leaves in a huff, and the rest decide they need to stop pulling their punches; cue a staggered zoom cut on Pinkie Pie...
    In the orchard, AJ is bucking down the cherries, and Pinkie comes to help. After a while, she starts to talk, and just doesn’t stop. Eventually she wears AJ down, and she agrees to tell the Mane Six what the truth of her situation is, but asks if she can put it off until breakfast tomorrow. They acquiesce, on condition that AJ makes a Pinkie Promise™ on it, which she reluctantly does.
    The following day, AJ is nowhere to be found. Pinkie, furious at the broken Pinkie Promise™, leads the charge to find her. They catch up with her at the station, forcing her to flee in a horse drawn carriage. The Mane Six load up in a cart pulled by RD and Fluttershy and give chase. Pinkie manages to leap onto AJ’s carriage and demands an apology for the broken Pinkie Promise™. AJ claims she didn’t technically break the promise, since she specified “at breakfast”, to which she never went, unable to face the prospect of revealing what actually happened to her. Pinkie accepts her half-apology for the time being, and leaps back to the Mane Six cart, knocking Rarity and herself out. They are left behind as RD can’t waste time turning around to retrieve them.

    Well, Pinkie, here’s another nice mess you’ve gotten me into.
    AJ decides to cross just in front of a train, hoping it’ll cut off the Mane Six Three cart. At this, the team pulling her carriage abandon her for endangering them. AJ turns back to gloat about her escape, but RD and Fluttershy just fly the cart right over the still passing train. AJ tries to run, but RD tackles her, knocking her bags open and sending all her medals flying. AJ finally tells them the truth: she won many medals, but none of them were first place. She also didn’t win any prize money. Feeling like she let Ponyville down, she wanted to work for Miss Jubilee to earn the money instead. Fluttershy and Twilight assure her that having her home means more than having her win or bring home a prize. Even RD can’t quite maintain her stoic exterior.
    Applejack goes home to meet her family and in voiceover, gives her friendship lesson report: Winning isn’t everything, and your family will love you regardless.
    Meanwhile, Rarity and Pinkie are heading home via handcart, Pinkie talking all the way. Rarity is not happy, and intends to give RD a piece of her mind when they get home.
    Thoughts on the Episode
    This used to be my favorite episode. I still like it a lot, but there are better episodes since. Let’s get the home-invading pachyderm out of the way first. This episode led to an unpleasantness that would come to be known as Derpygate. Basically, in the wake of the episode, there were scattered complaints about the portrayal of Derpy, claiming that it was offensive to the differently-abled, which lead Hasbro to change the scene. The RD line naming her as Derpy was removed, her eyes were slightly straightened, and all of her lines were redubbed. This was despite the fact that there were many more positive reactions to Derpy’s canonical inclusion, including from many differently-abled fans themselves.
    For myself, I definitely understand the anger and frustration of Derpy’s fans. While I think the new voice for Derpy (yes, I’m still considering it her name – it was broadcast originally as that) suits her better – and better matches her earlier line in Applebuck Season – removing the name and altering the eyes are not changes I support. As is so often the case, the vocal minority get their way. I’m sure they thought they were doing the right thing, but that doesn’t mean it was. Slice of Life went so far as to credit her as “Muffins” instead of Derpy. There is a certain amount of sense to such moves, however it might rankle. Hasbro want to protect their image, and to that end, they sided with the seagulls. It would have been more admirable if they had had the balls to stick to their guns, though. (Pardon the mixed metaphor there.)
    Moving on, this episode offers a lot of entertainment. There are a number of lovely minor touches. First, for Applejack: the fact that she didn’t have a perfect run on her own farm hints towards her falling short of first place. Quality foreshadowing, that. Then there’s the bit where AJ thinks the train is going to stop the pursuit… if you look carefully, you can see past the train where Twilight just tilts her head slightly, as if to say, “You’re kidding, right?” just before RD and Flutters fly over. AJ’s expressions are great too, from her pleased but embarrassed blush at being complimented, to her stubborn “you ain’t getting nothin’ out o’ me” face. She also delivers some great lines, especially at the end. She just sounds so frustrated and dejected over her lack of a first place finish, you really feel her pain.
    Pinkie also gets in on the act, so much so that this is almost a Pinkie episode. Her antics while holding it in are a rare example of good toilet humour (What? It’s not quite an oxymoron; that style of humour is hard to pull off well, but not impossible.) There’s also that ominous zoom-in on Pinkie along with “dun dun dun” music, contrasted as it is with the cute and silly image of her licking up some spilt cherry pulp. Not that it isn’t justified, since she shows that her prattle can be weaponized, although her dialogue is pretty funny on its own. But perhaps the best part is her nonchalant “Rarity catch me!” line as she leaps backwards at an entirely unprepared Rarity… watch out for Twilight’s duck, it’s awesome.
    Some other good points: Cherry Jubilee has a great design and voice, and seems really nice all around. The poor mailpony gets snubbed by Twilight, but at least he gets a slice of cake courtesy of your friendly neighbourhood Pinkie Pie. Some great lines, apart from those already mentioned, also stand out.
    In summation, there's a lot of good in this episode, and not all that much that is bad. I wish the original version had been kept, but even with that caveat, this episode is just really entertaining and on point for all the characters.
    Highlights/Quotes
    Anything Pinkie does in this episode.
    The end scene is pretty hilarious, with Rarity darkly swearing some sort of revenge for RD for abandoning them, while Pinkie just keeps repeating her cherry product names.
    Pros: Pinkie is hilarious. Very good Applejack expressions and line delivery. The small details just add so much.
    Cons: Derpygate… which is not a con for the episode itself, so it doesn’t affect the rank! Neener, neener!
    Final Rating
    5 – Blue Ribbon Rank: A real winner. It will be re-watched frequently.
    4 – Red Ribbon Rank: A very good attempt, but falls just short of glory.
    3 – Rodeo Clown Rank: An average episode, assuming you don’t have coulrophobia. Not bad, not great.
    2 – Cherry Rank: Nice once in a while, but too much may make you ill.
    1 – Calamity, Mane Rank: Fails at the first hurdle.
    From an AJ episode, we change tacks and charge straight into... another… AJ… episode……. huh. At least the rest of the Apple family gets more screen time in this one. Plus new villains will be introduced… we may be in trouble! Nonetheless, nothing can stop the Smooze nitpicking! Join me for my next review… Super Speedy Cider Squeezer 6000. Until then, comment if you wish, and as always, stay sunny side up!
  16. Sunny Fox
    Now how in thunderations is one of them twins a unicorn and the other a pegasus? – Applejack
    The Mane Six are all at the hospital, waiting to see the new foal born to the Cakes. However, Sugarcube Corner appears to have been having a two for one sale, since the foal turns out to be twins… and one is a unicorn and the other a Pegasus. Applejack wonders how that’s possible, but Pinkie is distracted by the prospect of having two new playmates. She also tries to celebrate their 0th birthday, to Nurse Pinkheart’s chagrin. Rarity and RD both mention that the babies may show bursts of unusually strong magic and wing power respectively.
    Cut to a month later, and Pinkie is having great fun with her new little friends, and also learning a bit about babies, including the need to change, feed and burp them. She has little interest in those things, though, just wanting to play some more.
    Suddenly, the Cakes remember a huge order from out of town that they had forgotten about. Strapped for time, they decide to find a baby-sitter, pronto. Pinkie volunteers, but they are reluctant to use her, not being sure she understands the difference between being a playmate and a caretaker. They ask each of the other Mane Six, but they all have good reasons why they can’t help… well, except Rarity, who just refuses, but is flattered that they considered her. With no other choice, they entrust the twins to Pinkie, and rush out.

    Abandonment anxiety ensues.
    The twins immediately start crying, heedless of Pinkie’s attempts to quiet them. They only stop when Pinkie accidentally knocks a bag of flour onto herself, something they find hilarious. Pinkie’s savvy enough to see where this is heading. She tries bathing, feeding and changing, making a mess of each one due to the mischievous antics of her youthful charges.

    Pound Cake used Water Gun!

    It’s Super-effective!
    Twilight at one point comes to offer her help, but a tactless remark puts Pinkie’s back up, and she icily declines the offer of assistance, shutting the door in Twilight’s face. Realizing that Twilight’s comment about some ponies not being up to the responsibility is a pretty accurate description of her, she decides to get tough. And it seems to work, as the twins capitulate to Growly Pie… until her back is turned and they vanish from their crib.
    Suddenly the tone shifts, the house becoming dark and eerie with a sinister shadow sliding about the ceiling, and Pumpkin Cake’s chewing on a squeak toy echoing oddly. The shadow reveals itself as Pound Cake, who can now fly. He proceeds to drag Pinkie all over the house when she tries to get him down. Pumpkin also gets in on the act with magic, phasing through obstacles, using telekinesis to get her toys, and even levitating, ignoring all Pinkie’s efforts to stop the two from running riot.
    Finally overwhelmed, Pinkie gives up and sits bawling in the middle of the room. This checks the twins, who realize they may have gone too far, and they cut the antics, even pouring flour on themselves to cheer her up. An understanding with her charges achieved, Pinkie puts them to bed and then cleans up the entire place.
    When the Cakes get home, she shows them the twins peacefully sleeping. They are astounded at how responsible Pinkie has proven herself in their absence and offer her the position of “go-to babysitter”. Remembering how tough a challenge the twins actually were, Pinkie balks, but hearing them say her name in their sleep convinces her to agree.
    And all’s well that ends well.
     
    Thoughts on the Episode
    A pretty heartwarming little tale of Pinkie learning to be responsible for baby ponies. I don’t have kids myself, but I imagine the scene of Pinkie just crying tears of frustration at disobedient infant antics would hit home for many parents. But I think anyone can feel bad for her and understand what she’s going through.
    The episode is loaded with Pinkie Pie sight gags, such as teleporting through viewing windows in the hospital, jumping out of cakes way too small to actually hold her, and even being both the stand-up comedian and rim-shot artist at the same time. However, it doesn’t help her against the twins’ onslaught. The flour running gag was used well, even coming back around in the end when the twins use it themselves to serve as an apology / cheer up move.
    Oh, that line from Mr. Cake… Some fans have speculated that his delivery of that line and the sheer illogic of the given explanation means that he’s trying to cover up the real reason for the “anomaly” implied in the episode quote: namely, Mrs. Cake’s infidelity. However, I disagree; and for more reason than just “this is a family show”… Since there are no male alicorns, the only way for the twins to get pegasus and unicorn genes would be if Mrs. Cake was unfaithful with a pegasus and unicorn simultaneously. That stretches the bounds of plausibility, if *ahem* nothing else. I think the handwave was telegraphed by Mr. Cake’s explanation – it doesn’t make sense in terms of real world genetics, but they’re going with it anyway, and the line is simply lampshade hanging.
    I know some people are instantly turned off by baby episodes, and to be fair, this episode doesn’t really do that much to subvert the usual plot points, so I can understand why it might be off-putting to some. I don’t really figure it’s enough to make the episode unbearable for me, but I can see the criticism as valid.
    The other criticism I’ve heard is that Pound and Pumpkin are simply too strong in magic and flying respectively to be credible, especially since young unicorns such as Sweetie Belle and filly Twilight are shown to have to try really hard to get their magic to work. It was pretty clearly spelled out that unicorn babies have odd magic surges, which is enough to explain it as far as I’m concerned. And since pegasus flight ability can be considered magic in its own right, I have no problem with the Pound Cake side of the equation either. Again, it’s not something I’d personally mark the episode down on, but I get why it’s a problem for some.
     
    Highlights/Quotes
    Pinkie (to Pound): This is a crib. It is only to be used for napping. sleeping, and on occasion, with permission, as an pretend old-timey western fort.
     
    Pros: Some good visual gags. D’aaawww levels are off the charts.
    Cons: Episode is about babies, with the usual tropes that apply.
     
    Final Rating
    5 – Rarity Rank: An episode that truly brings me joy. I cannot recommend it strongly enough.
    4 – Luna Rank: An episode I enjoy, despite some flaws. It might not be perfect, but that’s fine too.
    3 – Derpy Rank: An average episode for me. It engenders no strong feelings one way or the other.
    2 – Discord Rank: An episode that is not to my taste, but others might find it worth watching. Once.
    1 – Trixie Rank: Ursa Minor bait. I would avoid this episode at all costs, and suggest you do the same.
    Hi again! It’s been a while since my last review, hasn’t it? How y’all doing? Next up is an AJ episode, and one I like. However, it did create somewhat of a scandal at the time. I’m sure you FiM veterans will know what I’m talking about, but I’ll go into more depth about it in the review, for those who might have only joined the fandom recently. Until then, stay sunny side up!
  17. Sunny Fox

    Jack vs Aku – Part Two (Episode CI)

    By Sunny Fox,


    Samurai Jack Final Season
    And here, at long, long last, we are: the final episode of Samurai Jack. When last we left him, it seemed Jack had finally been beaten by the shapeshifting Master of Darkness… and Daddy’s Little Destroyer. Let’s see how this all pans out…
    What Happens
    Throughout the land, all the various peoples and groups that Jack had encountered gather around their viewing devices in dread, because Aku is making an announcement. Aku uses the opening from previous seasons to preface his gloating. Then Aku himself appears, showing off the captured Samurai Jack and his sword. In order to break the spirit of his subjects for all time, he is broadcasting live his final victory in finishing off Jack… if only he could decide quite how to do this momentous event just right…
    Jack pleads with Akushi to fight, but it seems to have no effect, and Aku finally decides to let her have the honour of killing his defeated enemy. However, before the final blow is struck, the armies of every group still able to put up a fight attack Aku’s tower. In the ensuing battle, Jack is blasted free. He tries to get the sword while Aku is distracted by the others, but Akushi stops him.
    While able to inconvenience Aku to a degree, the armies of good are unable to actually do any significant damage, and Aku even starts using his evil to create an army of his own. Things seem to be looking bleak for our heroes, but then the Scotsman’s ghost arrives with the red-haired, reindeer-riding cavalry!

    Scotland! F*ck yeah!
    Using a set of mystical ghostly bagpipes to transport his daughters through the sky, and to launch an attack powerful enough to affect Aku himself, the Scotsman reunites with Jack, naming each of his daughters and offering Jack his pick.

    I think the last one’s name is Ovalylongag…
    Jack demurs and shows the Scotsman his new girlfriend… but, said girlfriend still being a black blob of Aku’s evil at this point, the Scotsman is less than impressed.
    Aku, frustrated by the attacks on him, launches himself into the sky and rains down spears of darkness, to devastating effect. The armies of good are being routed, until the Scotsman uses his bagpipes to create a shield, and even destabilize Akushi. Jack is caught inside Akushi's roiling black blob, and struggles to reach Ashi, who is still fighting the ocean of darkness. It seems like they will lose the struggle, and Jack desperately shouts to Ashi that he loves her.
    Ejected from Akushi, Jack lands flat on his back, and Akushi begins to choke him to death. (Now there’s an erotic asphyxiation meme waiting to happen.) Then her hold on his throat loosens as Ashi, empowered by Jack’s confession of love, manages to overcome the evil, reverting to her black catsuit look. Aku orders her to kill Jack again, but this time she is in control and denies Aku as her father. He attacks and she fights back with the same powers that Aku has, like eyebeams and shapeshifting. It seems her victory over Aku’s compulsion hasn’t severed her access to his powers. All his powers… as Jack and Ashi both quickly realize, that includes time travel! Ashi stretches her arm to grab and return Jack’s sword. Then she uses her screech powers to make a portal back to the past and, as Aku realizes with despair, it’s one he can’t interfere with or destroy.
    Back in the past, the initial fight between the as-yet-nameless Samurai and Aku plays out as before, with Aku sending him into the future… however, Jack and Ashi arrive back in the following moment. Aku chokes out what will turn out to be his final words, “You’re back already?!” as Jack wastes no time using his sword to cut down, trap and then destroy Aku once and for all.
    Soon after, all the people the Samurai trained growing up, as well as all the citizens of the Empire, are gathering for his wedding to Ashi. As she walks down the aisle towards him, she suddenly stumbles and collapses. Jack runs to embrace her, as she tells him what is happening: since Aku was killed in the past, he never donated his evil essence to the Cult in the future and thus Ashi was never born. She fades away, leaving Jack clutching her empty wedding kimono.
    The disconsolate Jack rides his horse through a misty gloomy forest. He sits down by a tree and mourns. A ladybug lands on his hand, and he slowly smiles with renewed hope and lets it fly away, as the sun comes out and lights up the same trees that Future!Aku had destroyed. The screen fades to black as the title “Episode CI” lingers.

    So beautiful, it almost makes me forget the writers tearing my heart out and stomping on it...
    Thoughts on the Episode
    And thus the curtain falls on Samurai Jack. It’s been a long ride, with many ups and downs. I’m glad that we got this final Season to resolve Jack’s story, but… sob… They killed Kenny ret-goned Ashi!

    You bastards!
    In a way, I admire the sheer brass testicles / ovaries of the writers that led them to go this route, but… why? Why can’t we have nice things?! I didn’t think something like this would happen, really, even given how dark Season 5 could get. This… this was just mean-spirited. And it’s not like it was a necessary consequence of time travel, either. You can’t simply resolve the grandfather paradox by erasing Ashi. If Ashi didn’t exist, Jack would never have gone back to the past, thus wouldn’t have been able to kill Aku and thus make Ashi not exist. (I’m not going to do the cross-eyed joke! I’m not in the mood.) And then there’s the fact that Jack still remembers her… unless the ending scene is meant to imply that the memory of her faded away eventually, just as she did – unlikely with the way the scene was shot and how Jack’s expressions were shown, but still something your mileage could vary on. Speaking of delayed-reaction reordering of timelines, that’s another weird thing… why did it take so long for Ashi to be affected? Just so that the timing could be even more sucky for our poor hero? Dick move, writers, dick move. I mean, I can understand making the artistic choice they did, but I really did want Ashi to get her happy ending with Jack. I'm just really sad I didn't get to see my prediction come true... instead, heartbreak. But I'll live.
    If I were able to rewrite the ending, it would go like this… Jack and Ashi arrive in the past the moment BEFORE the Samurai gets sent to the future. Jack and the Samurai team up to take out Aku, and kill him with a super-cool double magical sword strike. As Aku dies, Ashi feels Aku’s evil leave her, as before, but as Jack tries to help her up, their hands go through each other.
    Jack and Ashi realize that preventing the Samurai from going to the future in the first place means they, the second copy of the sword, and the future timeline of Aku’s reign (coincidentally, virtually the entire series itself) all will cease to exist. After taking a short time to explain to the Samurai what would have happened, they start to fade away. Jack and Ashi redeclare their love for each other and share a final kiss as they fade out of existence, saddened but consoled by the fact that they are leaving existence together. The Samurai revels in his victory over Aku and the celebrations begin.
    Jump ahead a while, the Samurai is married, with a new born heir being held by the new Empress, wife and mother… who just happens to look a lot like Ashi. Bam! Perfect happy ending… Ashi still goes out, but now so does Jack, who now never had to suffer those 50 years of despair. We can still have our victory at a price without leaving the hero to suffer alone. Since the Samurai was never affected by Aku’s time travel, he ages perfectly normally, thus removing the question mark over whether or not Jack is still immortal. The Prophecy of the Guardian’s time portal is also resolved by never actually having happened, so the inconsistency of Jack’s older appearance in that vision vs the events of Season 5 is reconciled. All tied up with a neat bow, thank you very much! It’s such a pity the writers didn’t consult me, I coulda set them straight… sigh.
    Other thoughts: So in the end, the Guardian was apparently killed by Aku. I had hoped we might see him one last time… even if it were merely a flashback to witness the battle between them. Seeing the various friends Jack had made reappear en masse makes his absence even more notable. At least the Scotsman got his chance to shine and reunite with Jack.
    Oh, the irony… Aku managed to destroy all the time portals, yet still sowed the seeds of his own destruction by “blessing” the Cult of Aku. This lead not only to Ashi being born, meeting Jack and helping him regain his determination to destroy Aku, but also equipped her with the exact necessary power to negate all his efforts at preventing Jack’s return to the past. Add in the fact that he could have won if he had simply done to Jack what he did to the Scotsman a few episodes earlier and the Pie of Irony is complete, ready to throw in Aku’s flaming-eyebrows, fang-mouthed face. Heh.
     
    Overall, Season 5 has been a fun but bumpy ride. I give you my thanks for joining me on this journey. I may or may not write a review of the whole of the season/series at a later time, and I think I should probably start on FiM Season 7 like I’ve been saying I’ll do for the past couple of months. Please look forward to it, and join me again in the future. In the meantime, feel free to give your own perspectives in the comments. How did you feel about how the season wrapped up? Do you think my ending would have been better? (Because I do.) What did you enjoy most about the season? What did you enjoy least? Share your thoughts. And until the next time we meet, stay sunny side up!
  18. Sunny Fox

    Jack vs Aku – Part One (Episode C)

    By Sunny Fox,


    Samurai Jack Final Season
    Why does this episode make think of John Lithgow and Sylvester Stallone? Huh… Anyway, the penultimate episode of Samurai Jack is upon us! Let’s see how the lovebirds are doing...
     
    What Happens
    Following on from the last episode, Jack and Ashi are kissing. However, the romance is dampened by the fact that they still have slug juice in their mouths, causing them to separate and spit the taste out. Reassuring each other that it isn’t a reflection on the kiss itself, they decide to get clean. While Ashi, still wrapped in Jack’s gi, goes to find some suitable clothes, Jack heads outside the ship and luckily finds a broken pipe to use as a shower. Ashi, now clad in a green one-piece dress, appreciates the view of Jack nekkid, but leaves his now-clean gi where he can find it.
    The two both manage to find some bugs in the desert to cook for dinner that night, despite being chewy and rather unappetizing. Jack reminisces on the beauty of the valley where he grew up, before Aku returned, and mentions that he thinks that he will only ever have the memory, which saddens Ashi.
    We switch back over to Scaramouch’s journey and Scarry has coopted an octopus to serve as his body. He finally finds Aku’s spire, and despite an automated recording from Aku that he is not currently receiving visitors, proceeds inside. He convinces Aku to talk to him and tells him about the issing-May ord-Sway of ack-Jay. Aku is pleased to hear this, and restores Scaramouch’s body as reward for bringing the good-bad news. They dance.

    Do the Robot!
    In the morning, Ashi wakes to find that Jack has left her behind in secret and follows his trail again. (Note the separate beds… I guess a kiss is as far as they went… pity) Jack walks through the desert, and finds himself in a familiar place… the wreckage of giant robots all around. As he clambers over them, he comes to a destroyed time portal and sees some familiar red sun-glasses broken on the ground. It seems the Guardian and his time portal are no more. (Ah, man. I had hoped to see him again. I guess prophecy is not infallible…)
    Ashi arrives and soon, so do Aku and Scaramouch. Aku does his usual “fooooolish Samurai!” bit, until Jack unsheathes his sword. Scaramouch barely manages to protest before Aku blows him up… this time for good. (He just got… Scarasmooshed… )
    Jack tries to attack Aku, but the Shogun of Sorrow avoids him easily, despite being distracted by something that smells like him, but isn’t. Aku then turns to Ashi… As it turns out, Aku did once visit the Cult of the Daughters, and even contributed some of his evil (from his hands, I might hasten to clarify) for the High Priestess to drink, thus impregnating her with Ashi and her sisters. (So the name “the Daughters of Aku” turned out to be literal. I must confess, I didn’t see that one coming…)
    Ashi is unable to control her body, attacking Jack with a purloined sword. After they trade a few blows, Aku fully releases the evil within Ashi, turning her into a black-clad clone of himself, with GREAT FLAMING EYEBROWS! The fight resumes, Akushii being much stronger and faster now. Jack still manages to graze her with the sword, releasing the good part of Ashi long enough to beg Jack to kill her before she is again subsumed.
    However, Jack cannot bring himself to do it, and drops his sword. A triumphant Aku holds it up as Jack collapses before Akushii and… WATCH OUT!

    Thoughts on the Episode
    You see, Friendship is Magic: that is how you do a cliffhanger! I always disliked the habit of two-parters in FiM being aired together… it leaves no time for tension to build. And for now, that is where I will leave it. Comments welcomed, and look forward to a bumper review when this whole shebang is all wrapped up. Stay sunny side up!
  19. Sunny Fox

    Jack’s Swag (Episode XCVIX)

    By Sunny Fox,


    Samurai Jack Final Season
    In this episode, another of my theories goes belly up (I sincerely hope), and I’m forced to make some retractions… what do you think of that, Jack?

    “Drinks all around!”
    Oops, wrong Jack. Anyhoo, let’s move on to the seventh episode of Samurai Jack, Season 5. Fish heads, tiger heads and Stanley Kubric inspired imagery await us…
     
    What happens
    A gigantic monolithic ship is hit by asteroids and crash lands. Next we see Jack and Ashi in a desert city. Jack samples some of the local cuisine and gets his head transformed into a fish. Ashi is less than enthused, but luckily it quickly wears off. They board a gigantic camel, along with a large number of tiger-headed aliens.
    In the crowded quarters, Jack and Ashi are pushed together, and it gets a little awkward… we see quite a bit of UST between the two as they try to avoid touching hands and any other bits, in fact. The will-they-or-won’t-they-tête-à-tête is interrupted as they are attacked by the tiger aliens, and forced to escape out a window. They swing down to the desert on the reins and continue on foot.
    A gigantic sandstorm begins, and they seek shelter in the crashed ship from earlier, which is revealed to be huge. They make their way deeper and end up getting lost, when something starts chasing them. Ashi gets bitten by a venomous slug, forcing Jack to suck out the venom.

    So, here’s Jack sucking on Ashi’s… um, ashi…
    Oh, by the way, “ashi” means “leg” in Japanese, so get your mind out of the gutter! You’re blocking my light. As they continue on, they find themselves being stalked. Their enemy is revealed as a colony of slugs like the one from earlier that form a giant monster.

    “My God… it’s full of slugs!”
    Jack eventually finds an armoury with a device that can destroy the monster, but the critical part of the explanation is lost when Jack is distracted by Ashi accidentally discharging a blaster into the wall. The two take the device and move on, Jack desperately trying to activate it.
    Ashi, having armed herself with a double headed sword and a shield, once again takes point as Jack struggles to use the device. The slug monster attacks them again, and Ashi ends up losing her outfit to its attacks. She feels no real qualms about fighting in the buff, but Jack certainly does and is forced to use his gi to cover her. When Jack admits he has no idea how to work the device, they trade roles back and forth. They finally manage to activate it just as the slugs swarm all over them. The device makes the slugs explode, leaving the pair alive, panting from exertion and covered with slug goo. Perfect time for a Big Damn Kiss!

    "Romance in Samurai Jack? Surely you can’t be serious!”
    “I am serious, and don’t call me Shirley.”
    MAKE OUT!
    Thoughts on the Episode
    On Jack and Ashi’s blossoming romance: *sigh*… the Rule 34 squad is going to have a field day with this episode. Which brings us to my first retraction: I was also wrong that Jack and Ashi would be revealed to be father and daughter. At least, I really really hope I’m wrong about that, because otherwise… ewww.    Even worse, Ashi technically already fulfilled the first part of the Electra Complex double whammy, when she killed her own mother. We can probably take it as read that there is no familial relation between the two, because surely that would be a bit too squicky even for this season.
    With that caveat, I don’t really object to Jack and Ashi getting their freak on together. Sure, there’s an age gap and a probably even larger experience gap, but they’ve been through a lot together in a short space of time, and Ashi’s speech about how he saved her life and showed her the truth of Aku’s evil gives them bonus relationship points. Plus there’s a hint of real world psychology in the way they ended up, ahem, sucking face. Known as Misattribution of Arousal, in situations that involve a heightened arousal of the nervous system, the signals generated by fear, exertion or similar can be misinterpreted as physical attraction. How much this works in reality is up for debate, as with so much psychology/sociology research (the “squishy” sciences), but it’s a good enough working theory. Ashi not feeling any shame about fighting naked is a pretty clever touch, given the revelation that she always fights essentially naked, and Jack’s reaction to her nudity is adorable and in-character too. So all in all, the romance angle is pretty well justified in my mind, but YMMV.
    Since I’m in a retracting mood (I’m assuming Jack is not, at this point )… uh, do you remember my review of Episode XCIII, in which I opined that the tiger-wolf subplot was unnecessary and didn’t contribute? Well, whoops. Second retraction: that was foreshadowing for this episode that the tiger guys would try to kill Jack.

    This might also have been a bit of a clue, in hindsight.
    In other news: I liked the villain of this episode, a non-sentient hive-mind of venomous slugs. There’s been a great variety of foes for Ashi and Jack to fight this season, so the creativity category gets a solid ten out of ten. This show has never had a problem with creativity and it’s good to see this is still the case.
    In the category of things to question, I’m not sure how much I liked the fish-head scene. It seems rather out of place… although, one earlier season episode had Jack being magically transformed into a chicken by a bad tempered wizard, so perhaps it’s more a return to form i.t.o. the comedy? It just seems odd given the darker tone of Season 5, so maybe the contrast is responsible for this seeming like a Big Lipped Fishhead Moment.
    It also seems a bit odd to dedicate a whole episode to forging Ashi and Jack into a Battle Couple. Fun though it was, it didn’t really change much in the grand scheme of things, making it seem like filler. There again, it avoids the whole Avatar: The Last Airbender issue of keeping the leads’ romantic relationship up in the air unnecessarily, so perhaps the episode deserves its place in the lineup.
    To sum up, this was definitely an interesting turn of events, but I’m not entirely displeased by it. It’s good to see Jack having things going his way after how much he’s been suffering, and they do make a good couple… assuming as always that certain theories are wrong. Jack will one day be an emperor, after all, and an emperor needs an empress. In fact, I foresee the final scene of the season showing Jack and Ashi in the past, with their newborn heir as the ultimate happy ending… make it sho, numba one!
    And with that, little remains but for me to invite you to comment as you will, and as always, hope that you stay sunny side up!
  20. Sunny Fox

    Jack’s Journey (Episode XCVIII)

    By Sunny Fox,


    Samurai Jack Final Season
    In this episode, questions are answered and unexpected characters make their reappearances. Join me as we rejoin Ashi and Jack on their quest to regain the Sword of Evil’s Bane…

    No, not that one…
    So let’s jump on our oversized budgerigars and have a look.
     
    What happens
    The episode opens in the past, as Jack Classic climbs a mountain pass, escorted by the cutest little mountain goats that ever did goat. At the top he finds some old stone pillars and (wonder-of-wonders!) a working time portal… and it’s not guarded by an African-American Blue Warrior…

    No, not that one…
    Jack leaps into the portal and it seems like his quest has finally been achieved… until, in the ultimate Dick Move, Aku reaches in and plucks him out of the time portal. Casually blowing the time portal to pieces with his eye beams, Aku gleefully informs his nemesis that that was the last one in existence and taunts him about how he almost made it back to the past this time. Enraged, Jack leaps at Aku, but the villain, leery of his sword, avoids his attacks and transforms the goats into gigantic evil minions to occupy Jack while he escapes. Still blinded by his anger, Jack doesn’t recognize these as the same goats who accompanied him earlier and he kills all three. Seeing them return to their normal forms, but still quite dead, Jack is horrified, and drops his sword. One of the pillars falls and knocks the sword into the pit where the time portal once was. Jack is left unable to anything except watch it fall into the darkness.
    Back in present day, Jack and Ashi ride a gigantic budgerigar (if you’re unfamiliar with the term, a budgerigar is a kind of small parrot – err, except that this one is, ya know, gigantic and all…)

    We’re gonna need a bigger Speedo(TM) to smuggle this one…
    The Australians out there should get that joke. They descend into the hole to look for the sword but are unable to find it. Ashi wonders if someone took it, but Jack, seeing the bones of one of the goats he killed, is sure that the sword abandoned him when he killed innocent creatures in his anger. He decides he needs to go on a spiritual journey to retrieve it. They return to the top and Jack sits near the edge of the cliff to meditate.
    Meanwhile, Ashi is left to guard his back, and it’s a good thing she’s there… an army of orcs has arrived to kill Jack. Ashi makes like Gandalf and blocks the path. Despite being derided for thinking “one little girl” is enough to defeat an entire army, she promptly does just that… However, the army is merely a distraction… an assassin slips past and starts to climb towards Jack.
    Ashi reaches the top first, courtesy of your friendly neighborhood giant parakeet, and is confronted by an unexpected enemy… her mother, the High Priestess. The HP tries to get Ashi to turn on Jack, but having seen the truth of things, she refuses, and they fight. The HP proves a strong opponent, but when she gets a chance to leap towards Jack’s unprotected back, Ashi throws an arrow through her and she plunges over the cliff. Exhausted, Ashi collapses.
    Meanwhile Jack makes a trip while tripping and reaches a temple with a small old monk who asks him to make tea. He does so, but when the monk tastes it, he declares it bad… Jack is not balanced internally, and therefore cannot make good tea. HalluciJack reappears and he’s once again the crazy version. He screams imprecations at the old monk and tells Jack to force him to give the sword back. Jack finally realizes that HalluciJack is the reason why he is no longer worthy of wielding the sword… or maybe we should call him… Mad Jack! Dun dun DUN! Eeeyarrrk! Gesundheid! Yes, Mad Jack is back! Jack faces off against the manifestation of his own negative emotions, and with Eye Beams of Understanding, destroys Mad Jack. This brings him back into inner harmony and he meets the three gods Ra, Odin and Vishnu. They not only return his sword, but they also use a clothes beam…

    No, not that one…
    …to restore his previous look.

    Shave and a haircut… three gods, 50 years and a secret test of character!... TWO BITS!
    Returned to reality, Jack is finally, truly truly truly outrageous back! He finds Ashi and revives her and she compliments his new (for her) look. Where to next? Aku! WATCH OUT!

    Thoughts on the Episode
    Well, a lot of interesting parallels with previous episodes are on display here. Of necessity, I’ll need to explain one or two things that happened in the previous seasons for context. First of all, there was an episode that featured Mad Jack… a being Aku manifested from Jack’s own anger; think Dark Link. He had all of Jack’s prowess and was essentially unbeatable in combat. Jack’s solution to this was pretty much the same one as in this episode… he calmed himself down and got rid of his anger, thus causing Mad Jack to fade away. My previous theory re Omen and HJ is therefore wrong, but I’m happier with it this way. It provides us with a great callback. Okay, so maybe it isn’t literally Mad Jack back, but it’s close enough for government work.
    Second, there was an episode where Jack was lured into a graveyard and attacked by zombies resurrected by Aku, who actually managed to steal Jack’s sword from him and pin him down. When he tried to stab Jack with the sword, however, it simply bounced off without leaving so much as a scratch. Jack then says that “in the hands of evil, [the sword] could never be used to harm an innocent,” before reclaiming it and forcing Aku to flee. Is there a contradiction here? Perhaps not; Jack is not evil, so he can harm innocents with the sword. It could also be that the transformed goats were given a veneer of evil by Aku, and this by-passed the protection enough that it could kill them, leaving them still dead when they reverted. Thus the heartbreak. Speaking of, this incident could help explain why Jack was so distraught when he thought the children from two episodes previous had died, and why he didn’t bother to check first. It’s still a question mark for me, but less of one now.
    The sword continues to display some measure of sentience and mystical power, literally vanishing from the world when its wielder was deemed unworthy to wield it. I mean, heh, what does it think it is, Mjolnir? Come to think of it, Odin WAS instrumental in its creation, so that kind of makes sense. Hmm... Well played, writers… well played.
    So here’s a bit of a discussion point – given that the High Priestess displays quite the serious skill of her own in fighting Ashi, who curb-stomped an army of thousands single-handed, why did she not simply join the Daughters when there were still seven of them and assist them in crushing Jack? Did she think she had to stay behind in case they failed and she would have to replicate the feat of having sextuplets? This seems like a serious case of Villainous Stupidity on her part. Poor form, writers… poor form!
    Well, at any rate, Jack has his sword back, HJ/MJ and HP (probably) are toast and Ashi is still alive. Aku’s days appear to be numbered… in fact, only three episodes remain! Join me again for the next episode of Samurai Jack Season 5. In the meantime, leave your comments below and remember to stay sunny side up!
  21. Sunny Fox

    Jack Tracking (Episode XCVII)

    By Sunny Fox,


    Samurai Jack Final Season
    The fun fun fun continues with the sixth episode of Samurai Ashi… I mean, Samurai Jack Season 5. While Ashi tracks Jack’s journey, a villain unexpectedly returns, on a journey of his own. Will the villain’s dastardly plan succeed? Will Ashi find Jack before he does something irreversible? Isn’t it weird how the word “irreversible” is itself irreversible? (Well, not if you want it to make sense anyway…) Questions, questions! And the answers lie below, so let’s leap right in…
     
    What happens
    We rejoin a concerned Ashi riding on an airship. She is attacked by two large hooded creatures who have heard her asking about Jack’s whereabouts. She dodges them and tells them she is trying to find Jack to help him. They reveal themselves as two of the Woolies – a race that Jack saved in the previous seasons. We get a flashback to the relevant event. (Get used to that happening in this episode.) A staff member of the airship tells Ashi that Jack got off in this area, and she immediately leaps out of the airship. She uses her sickle-onna-chain to slow her descent into a forest and continues on her journey.
    Back in the destroyed village from the first episode of Season 5, what is left of Scaramouch reactivates and rejoices in being alive, baby… despite being just a head and neck, which reduces him to moving around at the pace that a bunny hops. Or perhaps the pace that a fox trots.

    How is he going to do the Fandango, now?
    With his phone destroyed, he shoulders the burden of giving Aku the news about Jack’s loss of his sword in person, and legs it, since he has some news he needs to get off his chest. You’ve got to hand it to him for being resolute, folks! You wouldn’t think he had the stomach for it! He’s not totally ‘armless yet! Okay, I’ll stop now. For every body’s sake.
    Ashi sees a group of Akubots riddled with arrows on the retreat. The archers responsible for the robot rout confront her and ask if she is a friend or foe of Jack’s. When she says she is the former, they lead her to their village complete with giant Jack statue and relate their tale (by flashback, natch). They were tricked by Aku (slight “retcon” there, I’ll come back to it) into gaining superlative skill at the cost of being enslaved to protect a magic Wishing Well. Jack defeated them and destroyed the Well instead of wishing for passage home, and thus freed them. However, they haven’t seen him recently, so she continues on.
    Scaramouch finds a port, and tries to board a ship. He is stopped by a bouncer (oh, the irony!), who won’t let him on because he’s just a head, and when he boasts about being Aku’s favourite bounty hunter / assassin, is pointed to a sign that lists him as #3. He finally gets on board by bribing a guy with a shrunken head into letting him use his body. Once they part ways, Scarrie opines that the guy looks kind of like a talking penis… Yes, he uses the actual word “penis”. We’ll come back to that, too.
    Back to Ashi, who hears rave music and travels down to Funky town. When she asks a party-goer if a Samurai came this way, a spotlight shines down on her. The DJ (who is YARC - Yet Another Returning Character) asks the obligatory “Friend or Foe” question, and then plays a tribute track to Jack, telling how, well, just guess… Yup, you got it in one… how Jack saved them once. They all dance the Jack Dance and make S shapes with their fingers, before sending Ashi to the next checkpoint.
    Said checkpoint is a clear water spring with a waterfall and pool and all. Ashi remembers a particular childhood ceremony, where was dumped naked into a bunch of presumably not entirely mundane coals, thus creating her catsuit by burning it directly onto her skin! She enters the pool and uses a rock to scrape the catsuit away. Since this leaves her naked, she creates a dress using the plant life around her to replace it.

    I guess it’s the latest spring fashion! (The joke works in two ways! )
    Scarrie is enjoying his cruise, albeit with a few bumps along the way, but he manages to locate a phone and get through to Aku. Before he can spill the beans re Swordless Jack, though, he gets into an argument with some dogmen about the noise they are making, and is thrown overboard. Aku hangs up, never realizing how close he came to getting the information he needed to hunt down and destroy Jack once and for all. Huzzah! Good going, Scaradouche! You see, Lone Star, Good will always triumph, because Evil is dumb! Or something like that.
    Ashi finds a bar where she meets Da Samurai (YARC), who is now the bartender, and has been for many years. She hears how Jack defeated many of the bar patrons in the past, and even taught Da Samurai what it really means to be a samurai. The group is also graced by a cameo from Demongo the Soul Collector (YARC). Leaving the bar, she runs into a shadowy figure who directs her towards Jack (YARC?). She finds him sitting in a graveyard with a bare blade in front of him. The Apparition, who is finally officially named as the Omen in the credits, appears and floats over to her, telling her she can witness, but not interfere. When she asks what she is to witness, Omen responds “the end.” The Omen then tells Jack he has been dishonoured by his failures, and he must therefore commit seppuku.
    Ashi tries to get through to Jack as he prepares to disembowel himself, and the Omen fights with her. Overmatched by the spirit in strength, but agile enough to evade his attacks, Ashi continues to remind Jack of all the people he has helped over the years, and the lives he has saved (including hers.) Nothing seems to help, and the Omen declares “No more words!” but Ashi finally reveals to Jack that the children he thought he had helped kill are still alive. This breaks Jack out of his suicidal depression and he quickly puts paid to the Omen.
    Jack compliments Ashi’s new look, and thanks her for her help. She asks “What now?” and Jack replies, “It's time to find my sword.” Aww, snap! Looks like Aku had better… WATCH OUT!

    Thoughts on the Episode
    Let’s first deal with the ever-classy Scaramouch, and the “penis” line. Umm… yeah… for the record, I did NOT expect that sort of line in Samurai Jack. Ever. I kind of had to stop the video for a minute after that and simply... marvel. By the way, how does a robot even have the context for that sort of comment? All he should have down there is plastic underpants and a trademark! (I will wuvs you forever  if you can tell me where that reference originates! )
    He got very close to ruining things for Jack, but luckily, his cocky attitude (heh) got him in enough trouble that he wasn’t able to get the message across to Aku, so sighs of relief all around. "Evil will oft evil mars", indeed. If he had just been polite to those he encountered, he would have succeeded and that would probably have been curtains for Jack before he could get his sword back.
    Speaking of the sword, I’m glad that Jack is finally back on track as far as defeating Aku once and for all goes. While my suggestion that Ashi might have to sacrifice herself to bring Jack back to the land of the living was incorrect, (although she did risk being killed by the Omen, so give me half points, okay?) she might still have to do so to retrieve the sword. I hope not, though; killing her off after she finally came over to the Light side would be pretty cruel. Blood, eyebeams of death and mentions of male reproductive anatomy aside, I don’t think Season 5 is going to go that dark.
    Next, as I contemplate Ashi, there’s that whole thing with the origin of her form-fitting catsuit. It appears to be less a garment and more, well, wearable charcoal. This reveal pretty much means the Daughters have in fact been wearing little more than black body paint this entire time, which is just odd to contemplate. I mean, freedom of movement I can see as being an advantage, but what about modesty, huh? They aren’t Doctor Manhattan, with his "withdrawing from humanity" excuse, is all I’m saying. Plus the logistics of it all… how do the Daughters go to the bathroom or deal with menstruation or any of that? On second thought, maybe it doesn’t need to be thought about too much.
    I like Ashi's new look, particularly the Expository Hairstyle Change. It makes her look even more Asian, which brings me to a Wild Mass Guess: could Jack, somehow, be the FATHER of the Daughters of Aku? I admit it’s unlikely that the High Priestess was impregnated by Jack, given the whole “we have to kill the Samurai” deal, but it would certainly put an ironic spin on Ashi’s quest to kill him and subsequent conversion to being his ally. Then again, "[50 - Ashi's Age + nine months] years of no progress" + young man's body = rather big need for stress relief... intriguing... It's probably just my imagination running wild again, but time will tell.
    Ashi’s journey is a textbook example of a Continuity Cavalcade, with many appearances from characters featured in episodes from previous seasons or YARCs, as I decided to call them. It fulfills two purposes… it expands the knowledge of newcomers to the series and serves as a nostalgia buffet for fans like me. Best of all, because of the first point, it’s not actually fan service! Slice of Life, take note! Again, I note the distinct lack of the Guardian, but there are still four episodes to go, so plenty of time for him to reappear. Perhaps once Jack actually defeats Aku, he will age a bit (not the full 50 years, but a decade at least) and his appearance will become more like it was shown in the relevant episode, and we'll have a final Jack / Guardian showdown. Or maybe that’s all going to be retconned. Again, not much to do about it but wait and see. Genndy Tartakovsky, don't fail me now!
    Speaking of retcons, the archers mention that they found out after the fact that Aku was the one who cursed them. If I remember the episode in question correctly, the Well was a Jerkass Genie that had nothing to do with Aku: it granted wishes, but always in some kind of twisted, monkey’s-paw-esque way. The archers wished for unbeatable skill with their bows, which they were given... in return for becoming mindless slaves conscripted into protecting the Well. Jack decided he couldn’t risk his wish to return to his own time being corrupted in the same way, and therefore destroyed the Well instead. This episode says it was Aku’s doing all along… which I find somewhat unsatisfying. It’s not like Aku is the ONLY evil being in existence, and having it all bad stuff somehow trace back to him seems unnecessarily trite and simply bad writing, in the final analysis. Oh, Well. (Heh.)
    A quick word on the Jack Track; I blame that on Tara “Twilight Sparkle” Strong, as she provides the voice of Ashi. I guess she can’t appear in any series where there isn’t at least one musical interlude. In seriousness, though, I used the word “blame”, but the song isn’t that bad, and to see Ashi just having fun dancing for once was very heartwarming. Plus lots of hot swaying bods to look at.

    Why isn’t Scaramouch at the rave? Because he had no body to go with! Dah dum TISH!
    This episode again had no HalluciJack. Maybe the Omen and HalluiJack were connected in some way, so once the Omen had Jack ready to commit seppuku, HJ was no longer necessary. Maybe we’ll never know, but some clarity there would be appreciated. (Yes, I know I’ve implied in the past that “mystery is good”, but I want this particular thing explained, dammit! So sue me.)
    Again, this was a good episode, niggles aside. Plenty of call backs, more Scaramouchy goodness (as it were), Ashi getting a new outfit to mirror her change of heart, and best of all, Jack’s finally got his game face on, and is determined to find his sword, defeat Aku and get back, back to the past! And Sunny Fox will be with him each step of the way!
    Until the next episode airs, feel free to make your mark below, tell me what you think, and don’t forget to always stay, as they say, sunny side up!
    PS – I guess I should get around to reviewing Season 7 of MLP at some point… I'll keep you updated, y'all. Mwah!
  22. Sunny Fox

    The Scotsman’s Back (Episode XCVI)

    By Sunny Fox,


    Samurai Jack Final Season
    And he got biz-zay! It’s a whole family of Supers Scots!
     
    What happens
    Three armies arrive at Aku’s tower, one army of tanks, one army of rhino-riders and one army of statuesque red-headed Scottish warrior women. These are led by the Scotsman, Jack’s old buddy… now literally his old buddy. Although he is now grey-haired, one-eyed and wheelchair-bound, the Scotsman hasn’t lost his pep, and is delighted to have found Aku’s lair. After seeing what his daughter is wearing to the battle, he tells her and the others to cover up, producing a mass groan of “Da-aaaad…!” They obey him and cover themselves, promptly to uncover themselves again as the Scotsman gives the order to charge.
    The tanks and rhinos advance and launch missiles at Aku’s tower, while the Scots charge, the Scotsman's wheelchair being pushed by Scottish Daughter #1, Flora. Inside, Aku demands to know what all the noise is, and is told by his computer’s voice – no doubt on loan from Invader Zim – that he is under attack. Unzipping his vid-window, Aku is delighted to see some enemies he can crush – which he does, literally; he shapeshifts into a ball and simply rolls over the first two armies.

    Miley Cyrus, eat your heart out!
    Seeing this, the Scotsman realizes that the attack was foolhardy and instructs his daughters to run for it while he distracts Aku, who is aiming to complete the slaughter. The Scotsman taunts Aku, calling him a scared baby hiding in his crib, terrified that Samurai Jack is still out there inspiring people to resist him. Aku cuts him off by way of laser eyebeams, leaving behind the Scotman’s skeleton for a moment or two before it crumbles to dust. Aku is satisfied at first, but then gets depressed again at the reminder of the Samurai and goes back to his tower.
    The Scottish Daughters mourn the loss of their father and pick up his broken sword as a memento, but then his ashes stir and the Scotsman’s ghost appears. The Scotsghost is delighted to note he is back and back in his prime, no less. His answer to his marveling Scottish Daughters as to how this is possible? Why, Celtic magic, o’ course!


    Magic runes, laddie! All them fancy eye beams will get ye nowhere!
    The Scottsghost vows to raise another even bigger army and to find Samurai Jack to lead them.
    Meanwhile, Ashi and Jack are still on that island. Ashi has a vision of the High Priestess urging her to complete her mission and kill Jack, but she argues with it instead, saying she wants to know the truth. The HP accuses her of always being the weak one, but the vision ends.
    Ashi then gets to ride on Jack’s giant snake… wait, let me rephrase that… Jack summons a sea serpent to swim them to the shore, and says farewell to Ashi. She continues to follow him, however, and when he stops for the night, she demands that he prove to her that he is the good guy and Aku is the bad guy. Jack refuses, not believing she is able to let go of her long-infused hatred enough to accept the truth. She is angry at this, and makes as if to leave, but Jack changes his mind and tells her he will prove that he is telling the truth if she follows him tomorrow.
    Ashi lies on a rock looking at the sky and asks if it is true that Aku made the stars, but Jack tells her the fairy tale that his mother taught him about two children, Sun and Moon, who rode a phoenix and shot arrows into the sky to make the stars.


    D’aawww! Who’s a cute little anthropomorphic representation of a heavenly body? You are! Yes, you are!
    The following day, Jack and Ashi travel to a field of jagged rocks with a single tree. He tells her that this field used to be covered with those trees, but Aku destroyed them, leaving but one left as a taunting reminder of what he had done. Seeing she is still not convinced, Jack takes her to a space port, where a gang of exiled criminals have just docked. An official of Aku allocates them land that is already occupied by innocent, peaceful people, and it is implied the criminals will simply dispose of them when they land.
    The two end up in a village that has been destroyed, and all the children kidnapped. Ashi is finally convinced of the truth of the evilness of Aku, and they attempt a rescue, but the children have been given implants that allow them to be controlled and turned into an army of mindless beserkers. Jack tries to fend them off while Ashi tries to locate the controlling device. She does, but is trapped and electrically tortured by the operator while the children continue to attack Jack in a frenzy, who is unable to fight effectively due to his need to hold back. Ashi manages to free herself, knock out the operator and shut down the machine.
    This causes the children to “short out” and collapse. Jack, horrified that he and Ashi might have killed them all, gives a scream of denial and slumps down. The Apparition appears and tells Jack, “It is time.” Jack simply agrees, and walks off into the green mist. Meanwhile, Ashi comes back down to find the children lying there. She cradles one of them and is delighted when the child stirs. The rest start waking up as well. Overjoyed at their triumph, Ashi looks around for Jack, and is anguished when she can’t find him. She starts calling for him, for the very first time using his full name. Annnd… WATCH OUT!

     
    Thoughts on the Episode
    Huzzah! for the return of the Scotsman! I always did like that guy, and although I knew he would reappear (Thanks, Internet, for spoiling that! #sarcasm), it did me good to see him still fighting the good fight. Not a smart fight, mind you, but a good fight. And boy howdy, are his little swimmers strong! Every one of those Scottish ladies is his daughter. His poor wife! I assume she has passed by this point, since he doesn’t mention her. Classic cranky old father behaviour when he harangues them all for dressing like “ye was going to a dance!” and making them cover up, however briefly. Tension breaking moment of humour there, I like it, I do like it. The Scotsman is just hilarious in general, though. Seeing Aku effortlessly plough through two armies… “Ye know what, this was a bad idea!” Gee, ya think?
    Now all we need to complete the roster of awesome is for the Guardian to return. Aku claims to have destroyed all the time portals… but I think he missed that one. Because Jack has to go back to the past somehow, and that portal was the only one that came equipped with a prophecy. Although how that vision of an older Jack defeating the Guardian gels with the current situation of Jack’s current status as the Ageless, we’ll have to wait and see. Anyhoo, previous Season tangent ahoy! Gotta get back, back to the past present!
    I’ll admit my flabber was ghasted when the Scottsman was blasted. My gob was thoroughly smacked. After waiting so long to see his return, I felt it was a very unceremonious, nigh ignominious death. I mean, I know Season 5 hasn’t been puppies (with laser-beam eyes or otherwise) and rainbows (on fire or otherwise), but that seemed rather bleak even for the darker and bloodier tone the new episodes have got going on. Sheesh… Luckily, he soon comes back as the Scotsghost, so that turned out all right.
    Speaking of ghosts… while we don’t get a HJ appearance, we do get the Apparition… and boo yah! I was right about him being some sort of “Jack joins his ancestors in death” deal. In the wake of the “death” of yet more innocents, this time children, and believing himself partially responsible, Jack finally agrees it’s time to leave this cruel reality, shuffle off the mortal coil, join the Choir Invisible, pine for the fjords, yeah, you get the idea.
    I’m not quite sure I feel about that. Yes, Jack isn’t exactly a paragon of stability these days, but to just assume that all the children had died without even checking to make sure seems a step a little too far. With such good writing as we’ve been treated to up to this point, this particular development seems forced. I guess it ain’t SJ S5 without a cliffhanger ending. And the operator’s speech about “children are gullible and therefore easy to control”, while ironic in being delivered to Ashi, doesn’t really make much sense given that, y’know, the village kids are literally being controlled. It’s not at all the same situation as Ashi’s.
    Those nitpicks aside, though, this episode was fine. Perhaps not quite as engaging as some previous episodes, but Ashi is now on the side of right, Jack is off communing with his dearly departed, the Scotsghost is raising an army and things proceed apace towards their conclusion. And just one more review to go before we’re all caught up! Will Ashi find Jack? Will she have to remain behind in the world of the dead in order to send him back to the land of the living? Will Batman ever get rid of that bomb? Questions, questions!
    Please leave comments, commendations or condemnations below, if you consider that course congruent with your conscience. Chocolate chip cookies, you’ll have to send by courier. Stay sunny side up!
  23. Sunny Fox

    Jack’s Backpack (Episode XCV)

    By Sunny Fox,


    Samurai Jack Final Season
    I’m getting a sinking feeling that the theme naming of these entries is going to become harder to pull off... and speaking of sinking feelings, let’s check in with Jack and Ashi!
     
    What happens
    Jack falls from the sky, hitting a few branches on the way down that slow his descent enough for the snow to cushion his impact and save his life. When he regains consciousness, he leaps up in panic, swinging a spear around in case of attack (STOP! Hammerspace! ...Oh, God, I’m old…) The only creatures in sight are some crows, and Jack calms down a bit. He notices a blood trail, and follows it to find Ashi, lying as if dead. The crows begin to caw at him, Jack hearing it as a chorus accusing him of murder; in defiance, he shouts back that it was the Daughters’ choices that lead to their death, ending the latest hallucination… but not the last one we’ll see in this episode.
    When he gets close to Ashi’s “body”, she leaps up and attacks him with her sausage-onna-bun sickle-onna-chain (actually, the former is generally considered to be more lethal than the latter). However, on her own she is quickly defeated and left dangling wrapped up in her own chain again. She verbally lays into Jack once more, but when he just stands there watching her swing, she eventually runs down. Jack tells her she is confused about the respective locations of Jack and Aku on the spectrum of morality, and muses that he has met machines programmed with Aku’s lies and hate, but never a human. Ashi is having none of it, however, having been warned by the High Priestess that Jack is deceptive. Tricksy and false, precious, yesss.
    Their “conversation” is interrupted by a colossal worm devouring them and half the nearby landscape. Even while falling towards the monster’s maw, Ashi is still trying to cut down Jack, which pretty much just annoys him at this point. She knocks herself out on some of the floating debris, and Jack grabs her as they enter the body of the creature, Jack slowing their descent with his feet.
    After setting her down, Jack rests for a bit, only to hear joyous laughter from an awoken Ashi, who praises Aku and rejoices that Jack has finally been defeated: they’ve both been devoured and are in her opinion already dead. Jack replies that he has been inside giant beasts before and escaped. A group of large bugs approaches, and Jack uses the chains still wrapped around Ashi to make her into a backpack, to her annoyance.

    Presenting: AshiUshiro! Stylish and practical! Get yours today at your local GIANT WORM!
    She still tries to sabotage Jack, even as he fights, but a glancing blow from an enemy knocks her unconscious. Jack defeats the monsters and escapes further into the kaiju. During a rest period, Jack hallucinates some more (I’m getting tired of typing that word at this point), having a conversation with a British-sounding puffball and then HalluciJack. HJ scoffs at him for “getting involved” again with Ashi, and reckons that he should just give over trying to convince her to join his side and simply leave her to her own devices. Jack notes that Ashi is resisting him not because she is inherently evil, but because she’s been fed lies her whole life; she’s essentially an innocent victim. He also blames himself for the situation, since he never found a way to defeat Aku and return to his own time. While Ashi watches Jack argue with himself, another kind of bug monster abducts her, and Jack is forced to rescue her. Then back on his back she goes as the journey continues.
    Various scenes of odd Parasites Of Unusual Size ensue, until Jack and Ashi find themselves close to an exit from the monster (That’s good!)… pity it’s located over a pit of acid. (That’s bad.) However, various flying creatures are in the same area. (That’s good!) But so is a giant predatory flying fish. (That’s bad.) Barely avoiding the predator, Jack and Ashi are shot out of the exit, escaping the kaiju and landing in the sea. Luckily, there is an island nearby. Jack drags Ashi to it and then sits down to rest and recover. Ashi, seeing him with his guard down and his back turned, manages to find her sickle and creeps towards him. However, a ladybug suddenly flies past. Ashi remembers the High Priestess crushing one that found its way in the Cult's cave, and notes that this one lands on Jack's hand. He simply smiles and lets it fly away. Comparing his behaviour with what she has been taught he is like, she finds she is unable to kill him. She drops the weapon and hugs her knees while she contemplates and… SHE DOUBTS!
     
    Thoughts on the Episode
    I laugh at Ashi and Jack’s first conversation. “You are very troubled…and very confused,” indeed. It’s a minor laugh in a rather dark season. In retrospect, the whole getting swallowed thing was ultimately fortunate for Jack. Actions speak louder than words, and Jack’s continual heroism in keeping Ashi alive really hits home for her in the end. Not to mention the ladybug scene. Throughout Ashi’s appearances, there’s been one aspect of her nature that is highlighted: her curiosity. Curiosity is the bleach to indoctrination’s mould. A curious person asks questions and their eyes (and minds) are open, so they are the hardest to pull the wool over. Once she saw that Jack’s actions gave the lie to the picture of him she had been painted, she found it impossible to hold to her belief in his evilocity (Yes, I know that’s not a real word, just go with it). Of course, while she can’t simply kill him out of hand anymore, she still doesn’t fully trust him. She’s simply considering the new information she now has about him.
    While Jack is quite right about her being a victim of a slanted worldview and therefore blameless, he doesn’t seem to have extended that logic to the Daughters he has already killed. Or perhaps he has, and that guilt is just hidden. Will we see Jack having hallu – grrr… visions of the Daughters in a later episode? Perhaps he reasons that despite their innocence, at the time he had the choice of him or them, and can lay the blame for their deaths at the feet of whoever raised them to hate him. Questions, questions.
    Obligatory HalluciJack cameo is obligatory. Quite strange how he notes that Ashi has disappeared before Jack notices. Is HJ really a product of Jack's mental strain, or could it be somehow independent? A ghost Aku cursed him with that tries its best to get him to just "end it all"? I'm probably overthinking things.
    Jack inside a giant monster: been there, done that, got the furry-back armour. Still, Ashi is now at least entertaining the belief that Jack isn't the evil she was told he was, so the interlude didn’t happen without reason. We are moving right along to the reappearance of everyone’s favourite Celtic warrior, so I’ll see you in the next episode, and don’t forget to stay sunny side up!

  24. Sunny Fox

    Jack Attacks Back (Episode XCIV)

    By Sunny Fox,


    Samurai Jack Final Season
    Rivers and caves and wolves, oh my! Welcome back, loyal readers! Today I look at the third episode of Samurai Jack Season 5. There’s quite a lot to get through, too, so let’s not waste any more time and dive in like we just got stabbed in the gut and found a river!
     
    What happens
    Following Jack’s first battle with the Daughters of Aku, he is left bleeding out while floating downstream.
    After the shock of going over a waterfall, Jack regains consciousness long enough to grab onto a log, and is later startled by a frog sitting on the log that shouts, “They’re coming!” causing him to panic. Jack finally gets to shore, leaving a few patches and handprints of blood. Finding a cave, he drags himself into it, finally pulling out the dagger from his stomach before collapsing again. HalluciJack returns, looking a lot more monstrous this time.

    Here’s JACKIE!!
    (And yes, I know they used this joke in the show.) He taunts Jack about having killed a human for the first time, not simply a robot… although he also points out that Jack has left literal piles of robot corpses in his wake, (at least one of which was sentient, which is pretty close to killing a living person). Jack is so weak he can barely speak, much less argue with his alter-ego. HalluciJack continues, saying that the rest of the Daughters will still be coming after him, and that he will have to kill them, or let them kill him instead… or is that exactly what Jack is counting on? Jack denies it. The white wolf from the previous episode also comes into the cave, but sensing that Jack is a kindred spirit, the wolf doesn’t attack, instead allowing him to share the den. Pulling himself together a bit, he uses a piece of bone and some plant fibres as needle and thread to stitch up his own wound. Jack continues to spend time with the white wolf as they both recover from their injuries. The wolf helps Jack find food, licks his wounds and even curls up with him on cold nights. Eventually, the wolf is back to its full strength, and sets out, leaving Jack to ponder.
    Jack has a flashback to his childhood before the return of Aku, when his father, the Emperor, had his carriage/palanquin/whatever-they-used-in-ancient-Japan-to-cart-around-Royalty attacked by bandits. After killing all the guards, the bandits call him out. The Emperor calmly tells him them to leave peacefully, or they will be killed. When the bandits refuse and attack anyway, the Emperor slaughters them in seconds. Jack is watching through a gap in the door, and has his face splattered with blood. Later on, the Emperor cleans Jack’s face, and tells him that everyone is a product of their choices. This memory gives Jack the resolve to fight the Daughters, even kill them if necessary.
    Meanwhile, the Daughters have managed to find their way out of the collapsed temple, dragging the body of their dead sister. However, they simply dump her body and leave, stating that “Death is failure.” The remaining sisters travel down the river, finding the occasional evidence of Jack’s trail, following it into the forest. While in the forest, they see a deer. Having never been outside their Cult’s temple, however, they are unsure exactly what it is, presuming it’s a minion of Aku. Then the larger buck steps into the open, and they conclude this is a stronger minion, that will kill and eat the smaller deer. Instead, the two start nuzzling, which totally surprises and even weirds out the Daughters.
    As the Daughters stalk closer, they hear Jack’s voice from the trees. He gives them the same ultimatum his father gave the bandits, to leave or stay and face their “destiny”. Ashi retorts that “Our destiny is your death!”, and they reject his offer. Jack suddenly bursts out from under the snow, using handmade spears to kill three of them in rapid succession. The remaining three Daughters team up and manage to hold their own for the most part. However, Jack has prepared the terrain too well, and after a running battle, they have a final showdown on a fallen tree over a high cliff face. Forced by the narrow arena to face him one on one, the Daughter quickly find out that Jack still outclasses them individually. The first sister (who uses a spear) he fights barehanded, eventually throwing her off the tree, presumably to plunge to her doom. The second sister attacks and Jack punches her so hard her neck is broken, and she too falls. The final sister (Ashi, who else?) manages to put up the strongest fight, but even she is ultimately defeated and left dangling from her chain, losing her mask in the process. She goes into a furious tirade against Jack, insulting him, and vowing to never stop trying to kill him. Jack is unmoved and calmly unwraps the chain from his arm and lets Ashi drop, still screaming imprecations. He breathes a sigh of relief… then the tree below him snaps off and he too falls.

    I guess he forgot to… WATCH OUT!
     
    Thoughts on the Episode
    Jack hallucinates a lot in this season, doesn’t he? The frog, the haranguing from HalluciJack, the weird blood-trickling-everywhere scene when he meets the wolf; the list goes on. I think this is justified due to his 50 years of induced mental issues, plus massive blood loss. No, really, with all the blood spilled it’s a wonder he has any left in him five minutes in. Although HalluciJack does state that the wound itself is not the reason he becomes so weak and feverish (“You’ve survived worse.” Yes, but not on-screen, HalluciJack!), but instead the realization that he has killed another human being for the first time. This episode confirms that up to this point, Jack has only fought or killed robots, certain previous season episodes about bounty hunter team-ups notwithstanding. Hurray, we can stop arguing about it now! And it only took 13 years, too.
    The white wolf returns! As I mentioned in my previous episode review, the parallel story of the wolf being included in it strikes me as unnecessary. Here he actually plays a role in helping Jack to survive, so he has a valid justification for inclusion. In my opinion, the wolf’s appearance here in this episode would have worked equally as well had it been the first time we saw him. We know who the wolf is and how he was injured, but I would have preferred the air of mystery. It would have worked well with the frog, too, to create an “even nature wants Jack to survive” theme. Ah, well, their story, their blatant symbolism and unnecessary clarity, I suppose.
    The interlude with the Daughters and the deer is simultaneously amusing and saddening. It highlights just how ignorant the Daughters are of the world they are supposedly trying to defend by killing the Samurai. The one Daughter opining, “I don’t like it!” when the deer are showing affection makes it clear just how little affection the Daughters have experienced themselves in their lives, to the point where it’s an alien and uncomfortable concept to them.
    Moving on to Jack’s flash back – once again, the sheer beauty of the animation and the skill of the writing are demonstrated – the colours are fantastically vibrant, and the way Jack and his father share a moment of quiet awkwardness in the wake of what would definitely be a shocking experience for a young child is simply wonderful storytelling. The expressions let us experience the emotions of the two better than any dialogue could. And the father’s explanation of what happened and how it was necessary, even if unfortunate, is exactly how a good father would discuss a difficult topic with a young child. Choice and consequence: people must decide their own path and they have to accept the outcome of their choices. And if that means you have to kill them to defend yourself and your family, then that’s their responsibility, not yours. How good a moral that ultimately is, is an exercise left to the reader.
    Jack’s rematch with the Daughters is awesome. Jack shows just how skilled a warrior he is, and turns the tables on them perfectly by ambushing them in turn. Reality Ensues: training from birth is not effective as 50 years of fighting experience, not to mention Jack’s own extensive training with multiple weapons. Only as a group do they have any chance of defeating Jack. A thought here about the Daughters: they do clearly know how to work together and fight as a unit, as their Ashura mode shows.

    Maybe it’s actually the Dazzlings in disguise?
    I like the way Jack uses his battle experience to good effect to lure them out to where he makes his stand, choosing a place where the terrain nullifies the advantage of their superior numbers, allowing him to basically curb stomp them one by one. Ashi is the only one who manages to injure Jack when alone, and even then it was more that Jack was allowing her attack to hit so that he could use the chain against her.
    Ashi’s final tirade against Jack smacks of a child throwing a temper tantrum, and Jack clearly treats it as such. He barely bothers to listen as he unwraps the chain and drops Ashi. That he follows her in free fall a few moments later is quite ironic, and gives us a downer ending (pun intended). It was not something I expected, to be honest, so good for you, writers! On another note – Jack definitely kills the first three sisters, and the one he punched probably died immediately, but apart from Ashi, there was one more sister he simply tossed off the tree, who by rights should be alive. Although she fell into a different place than it seems Jack and Ashi did, and may therefore have made landfall in a rather more fatal fashion. Still, it’s possible she might return.
    This episode crammed a lot in: Jack’s recovery, his flashback and the final fight, but it managed to do it all with aplomb. If the previous episode had a gripe-worthy element or two, this episode pretty much redeems all of that. Plus yay for white wolf survival! This fox approves. Season 5 goes from (slightly lowered) strength to strength. Join me again soon as we find out who will be dropping in on the next episode. Same fox-time; same fox-blog.
    Stay sunny side up and don’t forget to WATCH OUT! (Like Jack did.)

  25. Sunny Fox

    Jack’s Attacked (Episode XCIII)

    By Sunny Fox,


    Samurai Jack Final Season
    Here we go with the second episode of Season 5, featuring the first fight between immortal wandering Ronin Jack and the team of warriors dedicated literally from birth to slaying him, the Daughters of Aku. Things are going to get interesting...
     
    What happens
    The first part of this episode allows us to catch up with an old friend: the Shapeshifting Master of Darkness, the Emperor of Evil, the Shogun of Sorrow… the one, the only, AKU! After waking up, while dealing with dirt-tracking delegations and socializing with scheming scientists, Aku tries to brush aside any mention of the Samurai, saying he no longer cares whether Jack is still running around, and sinks back down out of sight.
    In actuality, though, he is very much in despair and depression over the issue. He has a conversation with a psychiatrist version of himself, lamenting the fact that his plan of destroying all the time portals and letting old age defeat Jack for him has backfired so horribly, since Jack no longer ages.

    Special Offer: Two LARGE HAMS for the price of one!
    He wonders idly if there is not someone out there who will take care of the whole having-an-immortal-mortal-enemy-thorn-in-his-side issue for him.
    Cut to Jack, as he is ambushed by the Daughters, who wreck his bike and attack him with such speed and ferocity that he can barely even track their movements as they hit from all sides. In the melee, he loses his Tuning Fork Sword to one of his attackers. Pressed to his limit, he manages to use a belt of grenades as a smokescreen and hides under a metal dome (wreckage of a giant robot Jack easily defeated earlier in the episode) as it begins to rain. And enter HallicuJack – a version similar in appearance to Jack as he had been in previous seasons, his hair still neatly tied up, clean shaven and dressed in his signature robe.
    Jack and HalluciJack have an argument as HalluciJack claims that these new enemies are too strong for him, and he should just give up. Jack responds that his opponents are only nuts and bolts; he has been in seemingly hopeless situations before, but then finds a way to survive. HalluciJack counters that that was when he still had his sword, and further states that he just wants this to end and that their ancestors are waiting for him to join them. Jack sees the Apparition again, but behind it, he sees the entrance to a temple. Ignoring HalluciJack’s certainty that he’ll be killed before he reaches it, Jack sprints for the entrance and its promise of safety, the Daughters soon following.
    Jack goes to ground in the darkness, but rather than searching for the needle in this temple haystack, the Daughters instead hide themselves to lure him out. After a period of stillness, Jack attempts to sneak out again, but can’t avoid encounters with the Daughters. Eventually, he runs into a giant cavern filled with sarcophagi and the remains of an unknown Warrior King and his armies.

    He keeps them up his sleevies…
    Jack hides in one of the sarcophagi, and the Daughters regroup in order to stalk him. After a tense game of hide and seek, Jack is discovered and the fight resumes. Finally, the last of Jack’s armour is destroyed, leaving him clad only in a loincloth. He manages to gain some distance and runs desperately through the corridors seeking escape. One of the Daughters (the one who took his Tuning Fork Sword) cuts him off, but with only a single opponent to face, Jack manages to take it back and in one swift counter-attack, slits her throat. Her mask falls apart, revealing the face beneath. Jack is horrified to realize that what he thought was just another machine was really a human being. He also discovers that she managed to stab him with her own dagger in the last moments of the fight. Bleeding heavily, Jack drags himself towards the end of the corridor, leaving a long smear of his own blood on the stone. He uses the Tuning Fork Sword on the walls of the corridor, and falls into a fast-flowing river, just as the temple explodes and partially collapses. Jack floats face down in the water, bleeding aaaand… WATCH OUT!
     
    Thoughts on the Episode
    Savvy readers may note that the summary makes no mention of the white wolf fighting the tigers. I left it out because one – it interrupts the flow of the summary unnecessarily; and letter number B – I feel it didn’t add anything to the episode itself. I know that the wolf’s story parallels Jack’s own struggle against the Daughters, and that the wolf himself reappears in the following episode, but symbolism for its own sake, particularly blatant symbolism, can be distracting and actually detract from a story. And I think it kind of did here. Also, we know Jack will survive, so showing the wolf apparently dead after the battle with the tigers doesn’t even work as misdirection. Still, these are relatively minor gripes. Back to the episode itself.
    Yay! Aku’s back, too! And we get to see his take on the whole situation, which is “yup, this sucks”. The psychiatrist version of Aku is pretty funny, seemingly being more eloquent than Aku himself, even though it doesn’t make that much sense, considering it IS Aku himself. While the original voice actor of Aku, Mako Iwamatsu, unfortunately is no longer with us, the new guy, Greg Baldwin (thanks, IMDB!) does a pretty good version… not perfect, but then, Mako was one of a kind. I had kind of hoped that Aku would remain unseen for a while longer, to make his eventual return to the small screen more impactful, but since we already heard him on the phone, I guess him being The Ghost in this season wouldn’t make that much sense. Greg Baldwin has bills to pay, too, you know. This scene does serve to give a bit of light humour amid the rather dark tone of the rest of the episode, so there’s that, I guess.
    This episode being mostly a running battle with Jack against the Daughters, there isn’t much to talk about apart from the HalluciJack scene (a rather darker mirror of the earlier Aku segment) and the hide-and-seek scene, so let’s go over those.
    The fact that the Apparition appears when the HalluciJack part of Jack mentions suicide firms my opinion that the Apparition is the representation of Jack’s desire to end it all, which he struggles against. There’s a bit of libido / destrudo dualism there – while the word libido has been co-opted to mean “sex drive” in common parlance, it’s probably more accurately described as the desire for life, as opposed to the desire for death – and making an external representation to portray an internal struggle is pretty common in fiction. Stinker HalluciJack is going to be a fixture from here on out, though, so we’ll have a chance to discuss him again further down the line.
    The scene with the cavern and the Daughters hunting Jack down is simply wonderful, and perhaps the best part of this episode – the music ratchets up the tension beautifully (the music is almost too beautiful) and Jack’s terror is highlighted here, but I do have one or two questions. First, I didn’t quite understand the firefly bit. Does that represent Jack’s fading hope the closer the Daughters come, or did the firefly somehow lead them to him – which doesn’t make sense since it was inside with Jack. Secondly, exactly how do the Daughters all gravitate to the correct sarcophagus, if the firefly was inside and didn’t lead them there? Any explanation would be welcome, since I don’t quite understand that part.
    The final fight with the single Daughter provides us with the non-robotic reveal, and reaffirms Jack’s superiority – while outclassed by the Daughters as a whole in this episode, one-on-one he is still the better warrior. In fact, the final stab the Daughter gets in probably would have been avoidable had Jack not been in a blind panic and already at the tail end of his strength from the previous fighting. This scene also cements the tone shift by actually presenting real, red, non-oil blood being spilled for the first time – on both sides. We’ve seen Jack get scratches now and then before, but actual messy, bleeding abdominal stab wounds is a first here. It’s done so suddenly that the blood is legitimately shocking on first viewing. Well, unless you’ve been watching the previews or adverts, it would be. It’s fortunate for Jack that the sister he faced had his TFS: convenient coincidence is convenient.
    Another honourable mention for the scenes fought in darkness, lit up only when steel strikes sparks. It’s simply beautiful to watch and gives an idea of just how skilled the fighters all are… just not quite skilled enough on the Daughters’ side, as the above paragraph demonstrates.
    Overall, despite some question marks, the second episode of Season 5 is pretty solid. The Daughters are set up as a legitimate threat to Jack’s life, his continual struggle with pushing himself on despite having little hope and running more on pure stubbornness to survive than any kind of end goal helps us identify with and root for our favourite samurai, and there is even a little comic relief from everyone’s favourite Architect of Annihilation Aku to keep the mood from getting too bleak.
    And that was episode, still bringing the thrills. I’ll be back to give my thoughts on the next episode real soon. Complain or compliment below, you know the drill.
    Stay sunny side up, y’all, and remember to WATCH OUT!

     
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