Ace O. Jade

Story: The story was simple, and nothing particularly new. the EqG series has never been particularly remarkable for anything groundbreaking stories, though, so I didn't really expect this one to be different. The conflict they created was passable, but I think they could've done better. Ultimately, I don't think that they really surpassed or fell behind the other movies. 6/10 Characters: The characters were fairly consistent with what's been written for the previous movies. Nothing particularly new to report on this front. This movie delegated the Mane Six to the background a tad more than usual, and gave Sunset Shimmer the spotlight for most of the movie, but I'm not sure if it ended up being interesting enough to justify doing this. Regardless, the characters are all still there, and they're not out-of-character at any point. 6/10 Music: I enjoyed 2 songs from this movie. I was actually really surprised, because up until now I thought that the soundtrack for EqG was the primary reason to watch the movie, and I thoroughly enjoyed almost all of the music from all three previous movies, but less than half of the music from this one interested me. 4/10 That averages to 8/15, which is just every so slightly above average. At the end of the day I wasn't bored by the movie, and it managed to hold my attention for the entire runtime, but that's about it. I'd say that both Rainbow Rocks and Friendship games were better.

Honestly, I felt that this episode was done sloppily. This is the only episode of MLP where I consciously thought during the episode, "This must be a new writer." I looked it up and apparently this was the writer's (Gillian Berrow) first episode writing. I felt like the dialogue was amateurish and way too on-the-nose, even for a show aimed at children. Stuff like Pinkie's flashback about her promise to Mr. Cake, Rarity's line about ponies who ruin surprises, all of Featherweight's and Mayor Mare's lines, the dialogue about baby carrots, etc. was way too circumstantial, specific, and out-of-place for the sake of trying to be funny, testing Pinkie's mettle, or alluding to Twilight's surprise at the end, and I just wasn't buying it. That being said, I still very much enjoyed the episode, and there's definitely potential for this writer to improve.

I numbered and color-coded the points I plan to respond to. 1. I think you're underestimating the yaks' durability and overestimating the pegasi's. Firstly, these are warmongers from the far north. They can stand far more bad weather than you seem to be giving them credit for. Think the Russians any time someone other than the Mongols have tried to invade them; no one else can compare to their durability when it comes to weather. Meanwhile, these weather threats you seem to assume the pegasi can pose are far less durable than they need to be. We've seen what it takes to break apart a pegasus tornado: a single pegasus out of line, or some sharp objects (like cymbols) thrown in the mix and the entire weather structure falls apart, the latter possibly killing many pegasi in the process. Even the simplest of anti-air weapons, such as a thrown bola, could disassemble a formation like you're proposing which has no defense and requires perfect precision and teamwork. 2. This entire point seems to assume that all unicorns have this magic, when in actuality barely any do. I already mentioned that unicorns only have a small amount of magic relative to their Cutie Mark. Remember back in "Boast Busters" when Twilight had mastered a whole 25 spells? This was far more than any normal unicorn would have at their disposal, and was only possible because Twilight had a magic-related Cutie Mark. The average unicorn wouldn't be able to utilize any of the spells you mentioned, and would be little better than the average human in a war-environment. 3. I still think you're giving too much power to the alicorns. Celestia and Luna, these two most powerful alicorns you've mentioned, fought eachother at full strength when Luna was empowered, and the result was... a small castle was partially destroyed? That's not a lot of collateral for a battle. Twilight, the Element of Magic, hasn't displayed any battle capabilities herself past a shield that was able to block a normal unicorn's spell blast. Oh, right, she did fire completely ineffective spell blasts at a bear. Long story short, the alicorns have never displayed any capability of the power you're saying they have, except for when the four of them had their power combined in Twilight. In fact, they're easier to take out than you think. Starlight, a normal unicorn (albeit much more proficient in magic than most), completely erased Twilight's power and the power of five other ponies at the same time. Additionally, we don't actually know that the yaks don't have magic. Other races do have magic, like the Zebras and the Changelings. At the very least, they would have had to have fought adversaries that have magic before, considering they are warmongers in the universe they're in. They may very well have magical countermeasures with similar effects to what Starlight displayed. An alicorn would do much more damage than the average pony, but the four of them likely wouldn't be able to stop a yak army themselves. 4. Actually, we don't know that the yaks don't have any of those. In the episode, we saw a whole four yaks, and none of them displayed those capabilities. That in no way means that they cannot, however. Okay, flying yaks seem weird and that's probably not happening, but magical yaks or yaks with weapons intended for war don't seem far-fetched considering their universe and their society, respectively.

So I wanna talk about this because something I keep seeing mentioned in reference to "Party Pooped" is that the Yaks and their declaration of war did not actually pose a serious threat. Personally, I think that that analysis is all wrong and--based on the information the show has thus far provided us--should a war between yaks and ponies break out, the yaks would ultimately win. The comments to which I'm referring to may be wrong, or I may be wrong, or there may be no way to tell, but that's the fun part about forums. So, let's have a discussion about it. First, I wanna talk about this assumption that Celestia, Luna, and alicorns in general have some godlike or incredible power and they alone would be enough to defend Equestria from almost any foe. I think this assumption is incredibly incorrect and that alicorns aren't as powerful as everyone thinks they are. To start, let me bring up the point that in this history of the show, the alicorns have successfully defended Equestria twice, and failed to defend it every other time danger has presented itself. The first of these two times in particular are when Celestia defeated Nightmare Moon after her initial transformation, which was an occurrence of alicorn vs. alicorn and not something from which we can gauge relative alicorn power. The second time was when Cadance, combined with Shining Armor, defeated Chrysalis, a foe who had previously ousted Celestia. Cadance didn't even defeat her alone, she required help. Ultimately, the Alicorns have been defeated more times than not; Chrysalis defeated Celestia in a matter of seconds, Twilight, wielding the power of all four alicorns, only stalemated Tirek, and Twilight couldn't stop a normal unicorn from escaping. The princesses were both take out by plants, for pony's sake. Ultimately, despite the fandom seeming to believe that the princesses have godlike power, they've failed to consistently utilize any power they have to defend Equestria, and historically have relied on the Elements of Harmony, a resource which would not have been available at the time of the Yak-Pony War. To paraphrase Rainbow Dash in "Princess Twilight Sparkle Part 2", "Without the Elements of Harmony, how are we supposed to defend Equestria?" "But what about the Rainbow Power they used to defeat Tirek?" Well, I'll admit it's a possibility they could use that, but I find it to be an unreliable assumption to make seeing as they haven't displayed any ability to call upon that power again, despite situations arising where it could be used (i.e. The Bugbear attack or when Pinkie came face-to-face with that arctic beast). The second thing I'd like to argue is that the fandom seems to assume that the average pony would be more valuable than the average yak as a soldier, considering the flight and magic. What the fandom seems to be forgetting is that this is not the human world, and those skills are considerably more common-place. Unicorns would barely have any magic at all applicable in a war environment, as Twilight said herself that the average unicorn can only use a little bit of magic relevant to their Cutie Mark. Additionally, we have no reason to believe that yaks DON'T have magic, they simply never displayed the use of any. While I don't have any reason flight wouldn't be useful for war (it very much would) the yaks live in a world inhabited by Pegasus, Griffons, Changelings, etc. They must be used to dealing with flying enemies and have developed anti-air weapons, considering they are historically warmongers. "What about ponies that are especially adept at magic, like Twilight, Trixie, and Starlight?" They would probably be the biggest opposition to the yaks, alongside the alicorn princesses (who I would weigh to be generally their equals in terms of offensive strength, give or take). But they alone cannot fight an entire army. They would put up a good fight, but they would ultimately just be flat-out outnumbered. Heck, Twilight plus five friends took their sweet time dealing with a flying bear. An army of weathered soldiers would destroy any small line of spellcasters. Which brings me to my third point: YAKS ARE HISTORICALLY WARMONGERS. This was stated by Applejack in the recent episode. I mentioned the comparison of the average yak to the average pony earlier in the context of soldiering, but that's just it: the average yak IS a soldier, while the average pony isn't. Yaks have much more experience (as far as we know) waging war than ponies. While it is true that the pegasi were originally a militaristic society (as displayed in "Hearth's Warming Eve") that was a long time ago and based on what we have seen of modern pony society, that nature has been abandoned. While it is also true that the Royal Guard exists, we have only seen them engage in war-like activity once, during the Changeling invasion of Canterlot. They lost big-time. While I'm not saying it would be a one-sided slaughter, I'm saying I'd place my bets on the yaks to ultimately beat the Royal Guard. Those are the three main points I wanted to make. In summary: I think the yaks would beat the ponies in a war, and I've based my argument on the information we can take from the show so far. This is a forum thread, of course, and I'm completely open to discussion and friendly argument, so let's talk about it. Who do you think would win, and why?

Prior to this season, my favorites list included 7 episodes (I know, what an odd number) and as Pinkie Pie is my favorite Mane 6 BY FAR, almost all of them were Pinkie-centric, with one exception. However, at this point I currently have 9 favorites, so two episodes from this season are now on my favorites list. 1. Party of One (In my opinion, the show has gone nowhere but uphill from Season 1, but no episode has come close to this Season 1 masterpiece for me.) 2. Baby Cakes (I'm like the only person I've met that liked this episode by the way.) 3. Too Many Pinkie Pies (Close tie with Baby Cakes.) 4. Testing, Testing, 1, 2, 3 (Prior to Season 5, the only non-Pinkie Pie episode here :okiedokielokie: . Don't ask me how it managed to beat out 3 Pinkie Pie episodes, I can't really explain.) 5. Pinkie Pride (So many songs, Weird Al Yankovich, a pony that can stand up to Pinkie Pie in a goof-off!? Just wow.) 6. Slice of Life (Pure fan-pandering, but executed about as beautifully as fan-pandering can be executed. I was really impressed.) 7. Maud Pie (Awesome to see some relatives of Pinkie's.) 8. Lost Treasure of Griffonstone (A fabulous Pinkie/Dashie-centric episode which somehow managed to make me like Gilda. Good job.) 9. Pinkie Apple Pie (This episode actually just barely makes the list, and might eventually get tossed from the list altogether. I dunno.)

One of my favorite parts of this fandom are the blind reactors. I love watching people watch the episodes. For some reason. (It helps me feel like I'm part of a community and not so alone.) Anyways, I've already watched the Season 5 premiere. Three times. I'm about ready to start watching blind reactions to it. Problem is, none of my favorite reactors have uploaded reactions, or seem to be going to for a while. (Most of them, like DYWTBA_Brony and Equestria's Reflections, have very good and understandable reasons for this, so please don't think I'm complaining.) So, I was wondering if you guys know of anybody. Any good blind reactors out there I might not have heard of? Maybe someone who's videos are well worth watching, but they're somewhat obscure? Preferably someone who's uploaded a reaction to the Season 5 premiere? I know there are a few reactions by people I haven't seen before up there already, but I figured I'd ask and see if there's anyone you guys know of who's particularly worth watching. Thanks for your time.

Oh. Woah. The ponies better be going there at some point. At least, Dashie would love it if they did.

Alright, that's fair enough. It certainly was odd that when the Mane 6 lost their cutie marks, they started losing other core parts of their personalities (Applejack's country-isms are the main thing I'm citing here, as Pinkie Pie's erratic personality is tied directly into her talent/cutie mark). The only explanation that comes to mind presently is that Starlight Glimmer's "cutie unmarking" purposefully takes away extreme personality traits in addition to talents/destinies, and in addition it probably takes away anything else that could lead to too much individualism. It is noticeable that aside from the scene where the three dissenters are revealed, the equalized townfolk did act almost identically to one another, especially Double Diamond and Party Favor when first welcoming the Mane 6. Essentially, I think that Starlight Glimmer didn't take away talents, she tried to take away every aspect that could lead to large degrees of individualism. That includes personalities in addition to talents.

This is certainly an interesting thing to notice, but I think that this viewpoint is incorrectly looking at a pony and their cutie mark as two separate entities, when really they're both components that when put together create a whole single entity ("Your cutie mark is a part of who you are.", as the show has reiterated plentifully). In actuality, I think it goes something like this: Every pony has a special talent, or destiny, or whatever you want to call it. This is a core part of who that individual is. When it is discovered, they get their cutie mark. This cutie mark is not actually the embodiment of this ability, but more a representation of it; the ability is still wholly part of the pony. What Starlight Glimmer did was not take their cutie marks away, but she took away that part of their being. The cutie mark, again, was simply a representation of this part. The fact that the CMC still don't have their cutie marks is not because they haven't gained a special talent yet, as I believe your viewpoint is implying, but because they haven't discovered what it is yet. When they do, they haven't necessarily gained it, they've had it all along, but they gain a cutie mark as a representation of it. I think looking at it in that light sort of clears up the issue you're talking about, but perhaps I'm misunderstanding what you're trying to say.

Thanks for that, I was wondering. That scene was just such a blindside that My Little Pony suddenly has introduced a "conform or be reconditioned" society to a previously-unseen extreme, and I loved it so much.