Truffles

1 hour ago, Ganondorf8 said:

Not sure if Hasbro is willing to talk about death considering they did go out of their way to dodge that subject during Friendship is Magic. If anything, they are likely to dodge it again though I'm not sure in what capacity since we still know little of what brought about this new Equestria.

I'm wondering about this as well. If most (if not all) of the Mane 6 are dead it's going to be rather hard for the movie to avoid the issue since Sunny and her friends are going to be following the lives of Twilight and the rest pretty closely.

If Hasbro really doesn't want to have any notion of the Mane 6 having passed, then the alternative is for the Mane 6 follow in the hoofsteps of the Pillars and due to some great calamity they had to trap themselves in limbo (or some other convenient place or time to tuck them away), thus avoiding any messy deaths of their heroes. The CMC and any other fan-favorites who don't have convenient long lifespans will likely have their ultimate fates ignored to avoid G5 from becoming too dark.

2 hours ago, Jeric said:

A possible element is that it’s not as surface level as we may be thinking. It may just be that the races might be passive aggressive, with the distrust lying under the surface. Or, probably more likely, the elimination of magic has something to do with it. What if “no magic” also means no magical beings like the Wendigo? 

I just presumed the mood of ponies had reached a state of equilibrium once again, like they were before the events of the founding of Equestria. The Windigos only seem to appear when there is active discord. But you bring up a good point that they may not be able to appear anymore anyway since magic has left the land. (There's a bit of a mystery then why magic was still working when the three tribes were separate so long ago, but perhaps there is another factor at work here?)

It makes for an interesting moral dilemma for our new heroes, however: If they bring magic back to the land, that likely means all the bad magic returns as well. My guess that will factor into the message of the movie - that one can't simply sweep bad things under the rug and pretend they don't exist. Good has to be actively maintained and it simply has to exist alongside the bad. Perhaps Twilight set up a constitutional mechanism as best she could to keep what she had built working, but the ponies took her plan for granted and the ideals that were fought for fell into disrepair?

Heh, perhaps Boulder even borrowed from itself and Twilight tried to make an improved version of the device that caused problems in "Rainbow Roadtrip" but it too eventually failed?

11 minutes ago, Califorum said:

That is very true. Maybe Twilight is now a sort of god like Mufasa was in the Lion King after his death, and she will speak to the characters in visions or in the sky. 

That's interesting. When I first started watching FiM S1 and 2 I thought to myself that Twilight and her "apostles" have saved Equestria so many times she's going to become a religious figure in the far-off future. And this was before she became an alicorn at the end of S3. It doesn't seem like that happened, though Sunny (and maybe Hitch) proves she does have her little group of die-hard future fans.

The part of their adventure that has been revealed so far that is most intriguing to me is the jewel heist. Presumably, Hasbro learned their lesson over Twilight's stealing in the 2017 movie (even if it was plausibly in-character for her to attempt it) so the heist poses an interesting conundrum: How to make a heist morally acceptable even though it involves stealing?

One way to resolve this is to make it a jewel that has already been stolen and Sunny and the others are trying to get it back to their original owner in exchange for their help.

While the movie could create a new jewel for the sake of a plot, it would be more interesting if it was one we already know of and ties in with Sunny following the stories in her journal about the Mane 6's past. So what's out there:

• I'm  skipping the Elements since they were destroyed and there's no indication Twilight ever attempted to put them back together - though that is still a retroactive possibility.
• The Crystal Heart, which is presumably de-powered and has become nothing more than something pretty to admire. Cadance and Flurry would appreciate having this property returned to the Crystal Empire, presuming the whole place isn't buried under snow. If I was to assess their mood, it would be one of depression and getting the Heart back might be the spark they need to believe again.
• The Bloodstone. Here Ember enters the picture, and her attitude is kind of interesting because I never got the feeling she was fully onboard with Twilight's plans even though she was happy to help. A future Ember without any power to control the dragons would leave her indifferent to other's problems, especially if they aren't even her species. She would be willing to make a deal with Sunny if they get the Bloodstone for her, even if it still lacks its magic.
• The Fire Ruby - my personal favorite. (No surprise, right?) If Rarity gave Spike the Fire Ruby back to him before she passed and it was stolen from his hoard, that could make him very bitter and indifferent to the problems ponies are having - and would make for a good explanation why he didn't try and stop the downfall of the society he and Twilight created together.
• Am I missing anything? I think that's all the major jewels in G4 that could tie into bringing an old character out of "retirement" to partake in Sunny's quest.

As for other immortal characters, I believe Fluttershy, while welcoming a long life at first, might feel like she is going against nature, which she loves so much. So at some point I think she would request Discord stop keeping her immortal. And I think he would follow her into death. Besides, I think Boulder would like to avoid the issues Discord presented over being able to solve any problem, even though he did eventually present his logic in S8 and 9 over not helping every time. But I wouldn't be surprised if we saw and heard from him in flashback stories in the TV series.

I think Thorax is likely gone; there never was any hint changeling leaders live forever. Celestia and Luna might still be around, though aside from a plot device keeping them locked away, I can't imagine them ever becoming bitter and giving up on Equestria. Same goes for Twilight, though if she was to be anything, she'd be even more depressed than Cadance and Flurry Heart over what had happened.

I suppose Hasbro's other big conundrum is their aversion to having heroes die. It sounds like they've tried to sidestep the issue by pushing G5 into the far future, but I don't see how they can avoid talking about the Mane 6 dying if Sunny is so enamored with them and is following in their hoofsteps by following the events in the journal. At least not without a plot device that puts them in stasis or in some portal off in another dimension.

9 hours ago, Steve Piranha said:

I dunno, doesn’t seem like Hitch, since that stallion is clearly older . He’s Sunny’s dad I guess 

I agree the height difference is an issue, so I could be wrong. But there also could have been a decision to either age up Sunny or otherwise make her the same height as Hitch between the time the animatic was done and the 3D models were finalized. All the other clues still point to that stallion being Hitch, and the closeness the two of them exhibit makes me think they're siblings or otherwise related (like him being her dad as suggested). It's only in very rare circumstances where a studio would make two of the lead characters a couple right out of the gate simply because it's not as marketable.

To get back on topic, I wonder how Izzy's apparent lead in being the favorite will compare to Boulder Media's other breakout favorite - Kerfuffle? I guess we really won't know until we get to see more of Izzy in action.

On 2021-02-25 at 10:38 AM, Neoeryn said:

And the old enemies aspect.. The only "old villains" I can think of are the ones we saw at the end of the G4 finale, or we're going to possibly get some from the older Gens as well.

It could be the article is referring to the other pony races here - that is, so much time has passed with everyone living separately they consider the other tribes their enemies. It could also be referring to the other species, too. If ponies couldn't even get along with each other, then it stands to reason they'd feel even more hostile toward the likes of dragons and griffons.

On 2021-02-25 at 10:38 AM, Neoeryn said:

As seen from the animatic, which could be the possible G5 opening, we see a stallion -most likely her father

I have a hunch that's probably Hitch - due to him zoning in on Rainbow Dash's cutie mark (and by all accounts he seems to share her personality) and that he has a star cutie mark - which matches the imagery on his uniform. This is probably one of the musical numbers in the movie, perhaps giving the audience the introduction as to why these two ponies are such big fans of the Mane 6.

8 hours ago, Jeric said:

Is that Starlight or Twilight as a figure. The coloring looks like Starlight. 

In the shot of Sunny looking in her bedroom mirror? Third figure from the left in the collection of the Mane 6 looks like Twilight.

2 hours ago, Will Guide said:

You do know I want to know more about that stallion. Is he a sibling to Sunny? Best friend who stays simply just friends with them throughout the whole story without it having to be romantic? After all the shippers will end up doing that sort of work for them.

1. I do like his coloring.

2. What leaked musical animatic?

The one shown here in part 1 of What We Know here in the forums:

Even with the rough sketches I can make out that's Sunny and Hitch. Especially Sunny since her braids are visible in the sketches. I'm loving the fact that Hitch has his collection of Mane 6 figurines under glass. Now that's a fan if I ever saw one, lol.

And I really do hope they're brother and sister. It would be a new dynamic to have two of the main characters as siblings in recent MLP lore. While Twilight and Spike were theoretically siblings in the early seasons of G4, they didn't make it official until season 9. And until then there was always that nagging question as to whether he was family or was just a really good assistant.

11 minutes ago, Neoeryn said:

Not sure how Sunny would've gotten access to it, unless she snuck into Canterlot and it was put on display somewhere... Unless we may possibly get Discord in G5 and he kept it?

Sunny having Twilight's Friendship Journal in a non-magical modern pony society would be akin to a non-celebrity human having something like the Holy Grail, lol. It seems like almost everyone has forgotten Twilight, Spike, and their friends or thinks they're just fairy tales and were never actual beings that existed. So it may be that she simply came upon it somehow and that book is what drives her quest to travel Equestria to try and restore the magic that was lost.

6 hours ago, Neoeryn said:

It could be that, as the book looks really old, and it looks like there could possibly be tabs or cards in between some of the pages? Or it could be the pages are falling apart.

It looks like the Friendship Journal Discord helpfully handed to Twilight at the end of S4 where he bookmarked all the important parts in it for her.

Izzy for now, solely based on her poking her head into frame and giggling in the teaser. Hitch could also be a favorite if he turns out to be a nice guy and not stuck up like he comes off as in his various poses. The things he has going for him are:

1. He's got Sunburst's coloring pattern in his coat which is absolutely gorgeous.
2. He's a brony like Sunny since the both of them are singing the praises of the Mane 6 in their leaked musical number animatic.

13 hours ago, Cirrus. said:

Even after seeing the stuff released today, I'm still getting the vibe that the characters showcased are younger than the Mane 6

I definitely get a sense these new characters are teenagers, especially after seeing Sunny's bedroom decor and the characters' relative height compared to that of the pegasus guards in that one shot. Also making them younger than the G4 Mane 6 would fit in with Hasbro's desire to better hit their target demographic.

1 hour ago, Will Guide said:

What a nice little teaser.

It reminds me of a promo for a fake show I once saw on a Family Guy gag. Shoving buddies. 00:16 from the start of this video

You're not really friends if you're not shoving each other around. XD

I loved the expression on Sunny's face when her brother and/or friend shoved too hard and knocked her off-balance. It's good to see the animators know their stuff.

Wow, I forgot about that leaked animatic. That really does lend credibility to the idea that Sunny and that stallion might be siblings (or really close childhood buddies) and the both of them long for the days of when Twilight and her friends ruled the lands with harmony. Great stuff, thanks!

EDIT: Oh and in case anyone's wondering why I feel like they're siblings, check out this teaser with them roughhousing:

On 10/18/2015 at 5:43 PM, Music Chart Fan said:

Furthermore, why is Pinkie in danger of telling random ponies in Ponyville about the surprise? Would they really be excited about that news? Why would the average residents of Ponyville care that Shining Armor and Cadance are having a baby, considering that it's unlikely that they know Shining Armor or Cadance personally or that those two do anything that directly impacts their lives?

My take is the ponies in Ponyville would care because there is a general amount of fame around all the princesses. So the news of cadence being pregnant would be enough to make them excited and possibly spoil the surprise to Twilight.

And it only took about 6 years to come up with a response, lol.

As you saw from my rewatch commentary, I no longer think this episode is flawless. But I still enjoy it to a good extent.

On 7/12/2015 at 7:00 PM, Music Chart Fan said:

I'll admit I'm not sure what Luna might have done pre-transformation that would have caused Equestria in general to suffer, considering that it seems to me like even Luna as Nightmare Moon did very little to interrupt the day-to-day lives of the average citizens of Equestria. But, of course, since Luna seems to be inflating her relatively minor misdeeds in her mind and feeling overly guilty about them, any pre-transformation misdeeds would be included in that.

Yeah... I'm still calling shenanigans on the part of the writers. If Luna had been causing great harm pre-transformation, she would have stated that in this episode. Instead, she only feels guilty for what she did to Equestria and the Mane 6 post-transformation. Which - amounted to nothing, really. Lol.

On 6/14/2015 at 2:57 PM, Music Chart Fan said:

So Bon Bon says she captured the bugbear, so it presumably was in captivity...somewhere...but it escaped

She says it escaped from Tartarus "years ago" and has been on the loose until now. Since a little more than a year has passed since the beginning of the series, it can be surmised it escaped before the time Tirek escaped when Cerebus left his post. Tartarus doesn't seem all that secure, does it? Lol.

15 hours ago, AlexanderThrond said:

I think she has a foot in both. It's hard for me to tell exactly how much time has passed over the course of the show, but I do think it was enough for Ponyville to become her new home. It's also worth noting that she won't be experiencing Canterlot the same way she did before going to Ponyville: she'll be living in the royal castle, and her relationship to the normal ponies of the city will be completely different

I agree that's she'll have her hooves in both places, and that's why it was notable that Canterlot was her former and once-again home. My feeling from some of the comments was that she'd be miserable being away from her life Ponyville, and I just wanted point out that she still had ties there. It's true she won't have the life she once knew as a kid, though that is true for pretty much anyone who has grown up and returned to live in their hometown. (Admittedly, going from flying kites with your two brothers to ruling the nation with one of them is a pretty big change, lol.)

8 hours ago, Senko said:

Maybe but there's a difference between grew up at X and home is X. From what we've seen Twilight's entire childhood was books, studying and raising Spike whereas Ponyville is friends, party's, wonderful memories and home. Just look at the fact of how hard losing the Golden Oak Library hits her compared to her literally dancing with joy at being allowed to move to Ponyville in the first place. She may have grown up in Canterlot but Ponyville is where she found a home.

I look at Twilight's life in Canterlot vs. Ponyville differently. For me, her life in Ponyville was akin to the time we as humans spend in school. I remember how much I disliked school, similar to how Twilight initially disliked moving to Ponyville. But like Twilight, I was surprisingly upset over having to say good-bye to pretty much everyone I knew since kindergarten when it came time to graduate from high school. For many of us, we only get to see those friends once every year or even ten years during class reunions. Twilight gets to see her old friends every moon and swap stories inbetween the business of running the empire. And those meetings don't preclude the possibility of her flying/teleporting  over to Ponyville for surprise visits, something we saw Celestia do from time to time.

And there's evidence she has plenty of fond memories growing up in Canterlot that don't involve books. She did a whole song about it at the end of season two, and we got another glimpse of how happy her life was with her family in Sparkle's 7. Plus I feel like now that she's fixed the problems she created with Moondancer, she and their little group of friends can become closer again. Not to say they'll be a replacement for the ReMane 5+Starlight, but it will certainly help her not be as miserable as some have theorized.

I guess if I were to summarize my take on all of this is it's the audience who is feeling the pain of their separation more than she is feeling. But then again I didn't get particularly emotional at the end of this episode because of all the jumping around from past to present. For me, the most emotional scene this season was Big Mac's wedding a few episodes back, probably because that was a tighter arc like that of the CMC getting their cutie marks. Second would be the last scene at Pony Joe's, but I'll save my thoughts on that when I do "The End of the End" commentary.

8 hours ago, Senko said:

Twilight only gets one chance to have friends like the ones she made in Ponyville all else aside in the future they're going to be different because she'll have more experiences and will be the princess first and the friend second. Look at how she and Celestia tend to view their relationship differently or even her and Luna. I really dislike the fact that even if the writers/producers//Hasbro felt she had to take over she wasn't allowed to see the friendships to their natural end first before she had to become the ultimate figure of authority in Equestria. I feel she permanently lost so much by having to take on this role too early.

I agree that she was dragged into this new job too early, and perhaps doing the fast-forward at the beginning of the season would have made more sense and allowed a narrative of how much closer the Mane 6 had become since the end of S8. But I suspect it was a matter of resources at DHX. The older characters we saw in the montage were simplified versions that only had to be good enough for a few seconds of screentime. For an entire season of aged-up characters, more work would have to be put into the models. The directive was always she would become ruler at some point, and without the show doing a Simpsons and going on for 30+ seasons (which very few wanted) in order to show the continued growing bond between all of them, it pretty much had to happen as it did this season.

1 hour ago, Music Chart Fan said:

Yeah, I'd like to think that Twilight wasn't that bad, even at the beginning of the show, to the point of her being dismissive or a know-it-all right to Princess Celestia's face as she's trying to explain an important lesson. But I suppose that Luster Dawn's relationship to Princess Twilight may be different than Twilight's more deferential relationship to Princess Celestia, and as you point out, the writers may have been trying to replicate Twilight's generally more snarky/exasperated attitude in the early part of the show.

Since I watched seasons 1 and 2 mixed together, I didn't see at first how rude Twilight was in season 1. Once I got the S1 and S2 DVD's and could watch them separately, I was shocked at how bitchy she could be at times to those around her, even after she stated she couldn't stand ever leaving her new friends at the end of episode 2. I guess it's a good sign of character growth that she wasn't as bad in S2, since having 9 seasons of often seeing her devolve into "Mudbriar Twilight" would have not allowed for her to become as popular as she is.

It's interesting that you pointed our Luster doesn't seem as enthralled with Twilight as Twilight was with Celestia. I feel that's a nice little nuance to Luster's character that will make things interesting as the fandom moves forward writing stories for the two of them.

1 hour ago, Music Chart Fan said:

It's in the scene where the Mane Six all cry together about Twilight's having to move to Canterlot, and Spike reminds them that "you should be more worried about missing the train to Canterlot!"

Thanks!! And you know what? Because the one Spike is holding is the only one with the detail of numeric hours on the face of his stopwatch, I'm just going to assume that one is canon and all the others are due to lazy artists. (Also, once again Spike pulling stopwatches out of his "Dog and Pony Show" secret pockets he has in his thighs or rump, lol.)

LOL on the 8 and 16 hour clocks. That would be great for computer programmers, though, if the day had sixteen hours in it since us programmers like power of two numbers due to how the binary system works.

Whew. Finally getting around to some more detailed thoughts on the last episode of the series.

As I said earlier in the topic, I liked the finale. (Comments about E24 and E25 I'll put in their proper topic at another date.) As for "The Last Problem," it did what I always hoped the last episode would do: Let the show wind down properly rather than cutting it off right after the evil-gets-defeated/reformed-climax. Such an ending would have been unsatisfying after 9 season run. The fact that they even did a fast-forward was even more than I could have hoped for. I thought we might get something like that in the last few moments of the episode, but to wrap a whole story around Future Twilight and Future Spike (see what I did there? Lol.) was unexpected.

Having said that, the structure of the flash-forward to flashbacks comes off as a little choppy. While I loved the detailed view we got of the future, the jumping back and forth didn't allow for me to settle in with the "new" characters. I felt like I didn't know them even though their personalities and voices were more-or-less the same. And not having the ReMane 5 appear in their future forms till the end was a little disappointing. While it was clear they needed to hide them to keep Luster Dawn insisting "friendships fade," I couldn't help but wonder if it was also to keep the audience guessing as to whether the ReMane 5 had passed on by the time this episode takes place.

In the end, the ReMane 5 do show up and allows the biggest reveal as to how their lives turned out. Pinkie's outcome is the most apparent, while the pairings of Appledash and Fluttercord are left a little more open to interpretation. Rarity's is the most obscure since the only confirmation is she continues to be a successful businessmare, having expanded all the way to Yakyakistan. There's no indication she ever married like she wanted to in S1, no indication of foals, and no indication any relationship between her and Spike rekindled. Of all the main characters, they left hers the most open to interpretation by the fans. I imagine those who didn't like this episode due to the constraints it put on the future characters' lives at least appreciated Rarity's ambiguous future.

And speaking of Spike:

On 10/13/2019 at 10:35 AM, DonMaguz said:

Edit: One nitpick I have is how they gave those broad shoulders to Spike, he's a dragon, he should look more lizardly IMO.

On 11/2/2019 at 11:03 PM, The Recherche said:

Spike is far too anthropomorphic and disproportionate.
...
Spike should instead be growing into a more traditional dragon, as was much more common in the earlier seasons.

This here. Agreed 100%. Anthro-Spike was a bit of a letdown, even though I get why they did it:

On 10/13/2019 at 6:21 PM, Senko said:

I found Twilight and Spikes new look to be slightly odd, Spike's match's his childhood dream dragon quite well

This comment pretty much explains it here, and there's plenty of evidence he's been working out to try and achieve that goal from his daily mirror checks, like this famous one:

So I get it. But it does seem a little odd how disproportionate his limbs have become:

His arms almost touch the ground, and his legs have barely grown at all. (My initial thought upon first seeing him was he was shaped like Gizmoduck, lol.) I suppose this could just be him going through the awkward "teen dragon" phase (teen as in physical traits, not actual age) since another dragon had these weird proportions:

Garble was also all torso and no legs with arms that seem too long. So hopefully Spike will grow out of this look at some point and resemble a more standard dragon, though his physiometry seems to indicate he might grow up to look more like Torch than one of the standard large dragons, like this guy:

(On a side note, I'd like to think this is the dragon from Dragonshy who took a brief wake-up from his nap to attend the coronation. :))

Still, I think they could have simply taken that Spike posing in front of Starlight above and used a scaled-up version, maybe with a longer snout, as his young adult model. It's certainly more dragon-y and less human looking. If it weren't for the movie, I'd still wonder where Spike's notion that he had to take on bipedal human characteristics as the image of "ideal masculinity" came from, but it's clear there's a bunch of anthro species in their world that we just don't see that often outside of the occasional Capper cameo or Iron Will.

What's more confusing is how Smolder managed to look like this:

She's older than Spike but managed to maintain her established serpentine look. Even that would have worked better for him, but like I said, it seems male dragons go through this awkward anthro stage during their early adulthood.

In the end I'm not too disappointed, however, since on the inside he's still the same sweet-yet-snarky guy we've known since S1.

Luster Dawn was okay, though I agree with @Music Chart Fan that she was a bit curt with her responses to Twilight and Spike's explanations. But then I think back to how rude Twilight was to all her friends in many scenes during S1, so this may have been the angle the writers were aiming for in order to show history repeating itself with this new protege.

The song was really good, and it's hard for me to decide whether I like this song or "A Better Way to be Bad" more. They're both excellent in their own right.

Some other interesting stuff I noticed in the final episode:

Aww. Shining Armor still showing some of that liquid pride for his little sister.

It was neat to see how far Pharynx has come in terms of empathy, actually showing concern for Twilight when she stumbled on the balcony.

This is probably the funniest visual from the finale: Everyone forced to "drink" the applesauce in their glasses with Big Mac feeling sheepish over his miscue. (Now he knows that look AJ got from Granny when she messed up that apple trivia question, lol.)

Spike's devil-may-care attitude above says it all about how little this bothers him. XD

On 10/13/2019 at 12:32 PM, Justin_Case001 said:

I just don't understand why she couldn't rule from her castle in Ponyville.  There's no logical reason why she couldn't.

Political reasons, probably. She may be ruler, but she wants good relations with the other royals and it would be a slap in the face to them if she moved the capitol from Canterlot to Ponyville. Which, despite it having a castle, hasn't yet become the metropolis Canterlot is that dignitaries visiting from far and wide would come to expect upon their arrival. I could imagine in a century or so it may be feasible to move the capitol if Twilight still feels it's important to her to be back in Ponyville.

Though even that I think is unlikely. Twilight and Spike may have made Ponyville their home for some time, but we need to remember they both grew up in Canterlot. Spike for certain was born (hatched) there, and there's a good chance Canterlot is also Twilight's birth city. So even though Twilight was sad to be leaving her friends, there is a sense of home to the place she's returning to. Plus her parents are still there, too.

On 10/13/2019 at 12:32 PM, Justin_Case001 said:

Given the slow aging of dragons, I think it's safe to assume that dragons, like alicorns, are either immortal or have extremely long lifespans.

Mapping a dragon nap to a rough estimate of a human nap, I calculated dragons live to be about 25 million years old. That's close enough to immortality.

On 10/13/2019 at 12:32 PM, Justin_Case001 said:

The way they handled Spike is, for me, one of the greatest things they've ever done on the show, and by far the best part of the finale.  (Kinda thought he looked stupid, though.  Wasn't a fan of his aesthetic, but I think it's safe to assume that he will one day look like the badass big dragons like the one in Dragonshy.  One day, he's gonna be like Smaug, and Twilight will ride him.)

We're definitely in agreement here!

On 10/18/2019 at 5:35 AM, Music Chart Fan said:

Does Spike's saying that he doesn't need to bring the Power Ponies comic to Canterlot imply that Twilight and Spike aren't going to take all of their belongings to Canterlot? Does that mean that they plan to come back and stay at the castle in Ponyville at least occasionally? Will Starlight and whoever else lives in the castle (Sunburst?) have to do maintenance on Twilight's and Spike's stuff for whenever they come to stay?

My thinking was he simply didn't care about some of his old belongings anymore, and if they got thrown out/traded in Rainbow Falls he wouldn't care. I have to imagine he's taking all his comics that are considered collectibles, however.

It was nice that Spike realized how much leaving such items behind was bothering Twilight and decided to take it after all, even though he stated he was losing interest in reading comics.

On 10/18/2019 at 5:35 AM, Music Chart Fan said:

So are we to presume that these star spiders of Rarity's voluntarily agreed to this work load and these work conditions? Would Fluttershy approve of what's going on here?

I think Fluttershy actually helped here and told the spiders what Rarity wanted and they agreed to do it. Maybe Fluttershy paid them for their work in flies, lol?

On 10/18/2019 at 5:35 AM, Music Chart Fan said:

Wow, Spike has a normal clock with 12 hours marked, and an hour and minute hand. As I recall, the depiction of clocks on this show has been kind of all over the place.

That's interesting! What scene is that in? I'll want to go back and take a look. I remember you stating in another recent review the wonky hour counts the clock had.

On 10/18/2019 at 5:35 AM, Music Chart Fan said:

I can't help feeling that Twilight's position as ruler of Equestria is rather lonely and depressing. Luster Dawn tells Twilight that "as far as I can see, you rule by yourself now", and Luster Dawn is apparently unaware of the Council of Friendship. All of the Mane Seven - except for Spike, perhaps - are late to the Council of Friendship meeting, and almost all of them, including Spike, say something that suggests that they're really busy these days.

I would hope these missions Spike is doing is at the behest of the princess and that he's around to be her "royal advisor" more often than once a moon. He did state that his work as ambassador has become "a full-time job," but perhaps it was just this one mission of trying to strike a peace between the Diamond Dogs and Abyssinians?

On 10/18/2019 at 5:35 AM, Music Chart Fan said:

Is future Rainbow still a regular performer with the Wonderbolts? They seem like an organization that would place a high priority on athleticism, and at some point, I would think that Rainbow's aging body wouldn't be able to keep up. Or does she perhaps have a less strenuous part in the shows, akin to what Wind Rider would have done back in "Rarity Investigates!" before Rainbow took his place?

That's a good question. Since the montage showed her flying in the center of the formation, I have to presume she's still actively captain. (It's notable none of the other Wonderbolts are present, anymore. Presumably they retired.) It would be logical that Rainbow would put retirement off as long as possible since being in their squad was her lifelong dream, and by the tenor of RD and AJ's talk when they enter,  it still sounds like they're still active and competitive with one another. Also, Rainbow was the youngest team member so even if 20 years passed, she'd only be in her 40's. I admit I don't know what age the Blue Angels pilots are forced to withdraw from the squadron, however.

On 10/20/2019 at 9:56 AM, Justin_Case001 said:

I watched through the episode a second time with my mom, and I spotted something that I didn't see the first time around...

...

Oh well.  At least he wasn't actually in the episode.

Having Tempest in there was a nice touch, though. And look - in that same shot we even get to see Twilight's parents one more time.

On 10/25/2019 at 5:20 PM, Sh Pie said:

Middle-aged Rarity has a grey streak in her mane. Hmmm, I wonder if that means she's the oldest of the Mane 6?

I always thought she was (shall we say) the most mature of the Mane 6, so seeing the gray doesn't surprise me.

On 10/27/2019 at 3:36 PM, doomie-22 said:

It doesn't help that the finale strongly implies that Twilight and Spike will be subjected to having to watch all of their friends slowly one by one in only a few short years due to all of them dying of old age while they're forced to go on living.

Spike has had to live with the fact that he would outlive all his friends since Dragonshy. So I'm not sure how things are much different except that now he at least has a family member who will always be there for him and Twilight has him to always be around for her.

On 10/27/2019 at 3:36 PM, doomie-22 said:

The bad thing about "The Times They are a Changeling" is the fact that it completely rewrote its own lore just to make this plot work.

What lore are you referring to? The continuity between it and "A Canterlot Wedding" was on target as far as I can tell.

On 11/8/2019 at 9:04 PM, frida said:

now we only had bad adult versions of them very badly made, and Yona EXAGGERATLY large.

Yaks are naturally large, and she doesn't look any larger to me than her relatives. I think the issue with adult Yona is her eyes were kept large relative to the size of her head. All the other adult yaks from previous episodes have eyes that are smaller (and most of the time hidden) and it appears to me in order to save time they simply took Yona's head and scaled it up and pasted it onto an adult yak body.

15 minutes ago, Music Chart Fan said:

But on the receiving end, would an ever-larger swirling cloud of smoke and magic form over the course of many seconds (or more, depending on how long it takes the scroll to burn), with the receiver perhaps looking on in horror, until the mile-long scroll pops into existence all at once?

After reading that, I now have this image of Spike as a band geek and being pretty useful for doing TP parties. (Equestrian toilet paper counts as parchment, right? )

On 10/9/2019 at 9:32 AM, Dark Qiviut said:

Since he wasn't alerted of Big Mac's proposal plan, he became giddy and impatient (with a great mariachi reference [taking a page from Star Trek: TNG])

Ha! I totally missed that ref! Here I thought it was a ref to The Three Amigos, but the colors and style of the mariachi suits is unmistakable in retrospect. XD

On 10/9/2019 at 9:32 AM, Dark Qiviut said:

BTW, how apropos for Lyra to propose by dropping on one knee like a human.

Good catch. And its notable she does this since Big Mac and Sugar Belle do it differently just a few scenes later.

On 10/9/2019 at 9:32 AM, Dark Qiviut said:

For the first time all series, they're aware of the consequences. By working with Sugar and helping her to find Big Mac, they feel like they can make up for at least some of it.

It was nice to have the CMC get another important role after some of the issues and regressions exhibited with the CMC in "Growing Up is Hard to Do." Here, they acted how I would have expected them to act post "The Last Crusade" - as mature fillies crossing the threshold of being bright, young women.

On 10/9/2019 at 9:32 AM, Dark Qiviut said:

This time, he (and Granny) returns to the very same site, stands beside the other Apples and Burnt Oak, and gives Big Mac his unconditional blessings, closing another gap that caused a massive, increasingly bitter divide between himself and his mother-in-law.

This, in addition to the music, is the other reason the wedding scene is so emotional for me. It was truly moving to see Grand Pear get to experience the wedding of his grandson-in-law after missing the wedding of his daughter and son-in-law the first time.

On 10/9/2019 at 9:32 AM, Dark Qiviut said:

Fortunately, no pony tasted them

Yes. XD The infamous baked bads incident in S1E4 forever canonized that dragons have stomachs made of steel.

On 10/9/2019 at 9:32 AM, Dark Qiviut said:

Pairing it down the essentials was all they needed, something Discord comprehended well beforehand.

Discord, Voice of Reason. Now that's a switch....

Some of that VoR stems from him being cynical, and I suppose I could go back to "TB-U, B-D" and turn Spike's own words against him: There, Spike first calls out Discord for being cynical. But Spike may be just as cynical for matters not relating to romance since his roles as the VoR over the years could be construed the same way.

On 10/9/2019 at 5:01 PM, Music Chart Fan said:

Big Mac says "I don't talk much, so I want to SHOW Sugar Belle how committed I am". But if he doesn't talk much, then wouldn't it be all the more meaningful for him to talk about his commitment to Sugar Belle?

I suspect because his words have gotten him into so much trouble in the past that he'd want to avoid using them at all costs, thinking they could cause problems again no matter how well-intentioned they were. Not that planning a crazy scheme to drop hints to a proposal is any better, mind you. XD

On 10/9/2019 at 5:01 PM, Music Chart Fan said:

Spike says "Sugar Belle's gonna love it!", but I don't know if he can be trusted, since he's probably blinded by hopeless romanticism.

That's for sure, lol. He may have said Sugar Belle, but its likely he was just thinking about what he would have liked himself. I guess if Gabby ever wanted to propose to Spike, setting up a bunch of gems with clues attached to them would be a good way to make it memorable for him - provided she could accomplish such a task any better than Big Mac could. XD

On 10/9/2019 at 5:01 PM, Music Chart Fan said:

Spike has burned books and newspapers before, and it's possible that that was because he had no thought of sending them anywhere. However, this still may not explain how, way back in "Griffon The Brush Off", Spike sends scrolls to Celestia by hiccuping fire on them, when he doesn't seem like he's intending to send them at that time. And I'm not sure if the material needs to be "parchment" specifically in order for Spike to send it. Spike sent and received tickets to the gala way back in "The Ticket Master", and the tickets were shiny and didn't appear to be made of just "parchment". And Spike has sent scrolls that are closed with ribbons and what appear to be metal seals, so those don't seem to be purely paper material.

Hmm. These are all excellent points.

He must do something with his power to determine whether it will burn or send, otherwise there would be a great many objects (including one roc) that would have been teleported away somewhere. That would explain how he burned Twilight's book in "Owl's Well that Ends Well." As for "GtB-O," I suppose perhaps he had been thinking about sending those scrolls to Celestia at some point so their destination was already predetermined during his hiccup barrage? (After hearing some tidbits from the Series Bible while I was on vacation that got out during the leaks, it could be that S1 episode was written with the knowledge contained in that document in mind. Apparently he was supposed to be the only dragon left and he would uncover new hidden abilities as the series went on. But at some point that idea was scrapped.)

As for the ribbons, seals and foil coatings, maybe we can use the 1994 Terminator Time-Displacement Machine logic and like that machine where it can only send biological matter or matter contained in biological material, perhaps because the seals and ribbons are attached to the parchment they also get sent along with it to the destination? I dunno, I'm reaching here, lol. This episode showing Spike consciously planning a destination and specifically mentioning parchment was good enough for me to finally get at least a little bit of canonization as to how that message-sending power works.

On 10/9/2019 at 5:01 PM, Music Chart Fan said:

Is today an important anniversary of Big Mac's and Sugar Belle's first date or something? (That could explain why both of them coincidentally were planning to propose on the same day.)

That's what I'm thinking, and it unfortunately was accidentally edited out of the script during a rewrite for time.

On 10/9/2019 at 5:01 PM, Music Chart Fan said:

Spike says "If you were a hopeless romantic, you'd know that was the only logical choice". Somehow "logical" doesn't seem like the right word to be using there. Are hopeless romantics generally known or considered to be "logical"?

Spike's been around Twilight all his life, so a Twilight-ism like using the word "logical" in an incorrect situation seems plausible.

On 10/9/2019 at 5:01 PM, Music Chart Fan said:

It's an interesting parallel that both Big Mac's and Sugar Belle's proposal schemes involve 21 things - 21 apples on the map to be hidden around Ponyville and found by Sugar Belle, and 21 desserts in which Big Mac will find the words of Sugar Belle's proposal. I don't know if there's any particular significance to that number.

I wondered about that too, though SB does say to the CMC at the end of their talk that it will actually be 22. But it would be neat if the 21 was a significant value, like the number of moons/months the two of them have been together. It would give the audience some sense of the amount of time that has passed since "Hard to Say Anything."

On 10/9/2019 at 5:01 PM, Music Chart Fan said:

Why is Spike even sampling the desserts anyway? They're clearly not his, and being made for somebody else. I can't imagine going to a bakery and sampling a completed baked good that I hadn't bought and was not invited to taste.

It's a bad habit of his, he's been known to do that before. The most blatant example being his crawling up through the middle of Gilda's cake in the aforementioned, "Griffon the Brush-Off." I suppose because he's several years older now, he should know better. But at least it's not as bad as his butt touching the food. XD

On 10/9/2019 at 5:01 PM, Music Chart Fan said:

So Discord, Spike, the CMCs, and Mrs. Cake were telling this whole backstory to...Applejack, at the wedding? Did nobody tell Applejack about all of this earlier? And how much time passed between the proposal day and the wedding day without Applejack's knowing about all of this?

My guess is AJ only found out right before the wedding that there were some shenanigans that went on leading up to her brother proposing. Perhaps Discord spilling the beans right before the ceremony just because that's his nature? So knowing AJ, she would have wanted to hear every detail right then and there. So she lined them up and had them explain their parts in the events that nearly became a fiasco. That's what I think, anyway.

On 10/24/2019 at 1:36 PM, Hierok said:

Big Mac probably didn't want a big crowd, just like his mother and father. 

^^^ This 100%.

The characters that were there on Big Mac's side of the family helped him fall in love or helped his parents fall in love. Sugar Belle's side included close friends to balance out the ceremony.

As for Starlight I still contend she wasn't there because she didn't want word of her attending a wedding to get back to her nosy father and have him writing her with questions as to when she was going to tie the knot herself and with who. 

On 10/16/2019 at 12:19 PM, JCKane said:

Though, makes me wonder, did I miss the 'climax' of Spike's crush on Rarity in that episode I missed?

Episode 19 dealt with that.

On 10/18/2019 at 12:12 AM, Dark Qiviut said:

A nitpick, but the adults are looking a little older than what they show. They're all at least in their mid-thirties if not closer to 40, but the giant bags under their eyes make them look like they're older than Bow Hothoof or Windy Whistles. Lighter, smaller, subtler lines under their eyes may work more to better match that range.

Those lines reminded me of Soarin, who has the same thing going on under his eyes. He's still able to fly for the Wonderbolts so he can't be too old, and I'd like to think the same is true for the ReMane 5. As for Bow and Windy, maybe they're big on wrinkle reducing creams? 

I've been on a road trip that began shortly before the finale aired, and since trying to type a long set of comments on a mobile device isn't my idea of a vacation, I'll say a lot more after I return next weekend. (I also have more to say about The Big Mac Question.) But I did like the remaining 3 episodes and was happy to see the series end with a proper denouement.

I suspect Twilight's coronation will go down in history as the only one where the new ruler of Equestria started her reign by falling off the tower balcony the moment she became ruler. 

16 hours ago, Justin_Case001 said:

"Discord was basically the same."  Lol.  Brilliant. 

The meta is strong in that Granny.

That was my favorite line from the episode. I suppose that counts as pandering since its something the fans bring up all the time, but, eh, I don't care.

When the title was revealed for this episode, it was pretty evident this would be about a marriage proposal. The only question was who was doing the proposing in a matriarchal society (answer: both, lol) and which characters would appear. I figured Spike would be in it, and I hoped Discord would be in it as well since he appeared in the last SugarMac outing. Little did I know this episode would turn out to be a direct sequel to "The Break-Up, Break-Down!"

But it's more than a sequel to one of the best episodes from last season - it's the end of both the whole SugarMac storyline and Guy's Night Saga. And ending them as a trilogy somehow seems fitting. And making "Hard to Say Anything" the start of a trilogy somehow makes it seem better in retrospect. (As least for me, I kinda doubt many will agree, lol). It's easier to look back on the events of that episode and laugh when you know how good everything turned out in the end and the events of that episode now seem like wacky stories the two of them can tell to their kids.

Yeah... Spike can claim he wasn't going to eat the diamond in that ring, but unfortunately we know from "Just for Sidekicks" his tongue has a mind of its own. And that drool is a dead giveaway his stomach was getting ahead of his brain.

I wonder how long Big Mac had to save up for that wedding ring? I suppose the ubiquity of gems in Equestria probably makes wedding rings less expensive than they are here. It could also be the farm has become a lot more profitable since they started working with the fruit bats.

I liked all the callbacks to previous episodes. We got to see Spike's spooky Pinkie Pie-esque psychic powers again, the same ones he had in "The Break-Up, Break-Down." (Though I imagine Spike would just say he's being observant, and I suppose there may be merit to that having been raised by Twilight.) And we had Discord recalling his chocolate rain and long-legged "laporidae" from his first appearance. That was similar to his reminiscing to his hedge maze puzzle in "Dungeons and Discords," and having this continuity-of-callback was another nice way of tying the two sets of three episodes together.

It was funny how the episode switched things up by having Discord be the voice of reason in various segments of the episode, while Spike panicked over everything needing to be perfect in the name of romance. (But can you really blame a hopeless romantic, though?)

I also found it amusing how Discord can just teleport around town now and no pony even raises an eyebrow over it.

I'm trying to compare this Discord to Discord from "The Break-Up, Break-Down" and whether he's less likeable here. He did cause a lot of damage due to his apples-run-amok and applezilla, but he also meant well. But in the former, he was being pretty rude trying to get his pals to play O&O with him, even though it was their fault for tricking him into appearing. So I'm still on the fence.

When I saw this episode opening with a close-up of Spike talking to the audience, I was ready to give it a loved rating right then and there. (It's also the closest I'll ever come to having a face-to-face conversation with my favorite character, lol) I also loved the emotion they managed to coax out of his Flash puppet. The animators really have mastered their tools to the point it practically looks like fully hand-drawn animation. Many an animated TV series has usually suffered in terms of animation quality as the episodes stack up, so it's great to see the artists at DHX going out at the top of their game.

Who wants to have hand gestures made at them with their own hand?

Visual gag aside, I want to know if Spike knows how to manipulate Discord's claw from past experience of them playing O&O together, or does Discord's claw jump at any opportunity to show its disdain for its host?

I swear Big Mac looks chibi-fied in this "The Three Amigos" reference. He's so cute!

Spike, on the other hand, looks like he's having flashbacks to the hug he received from Starlight just a few episodes ago.

Ded dragon.

This initial exchange between Spike and Mrs. Cake was hilarious:
Spike:  "Eugh! Did somepony else bake these?"
Mrs. Cake: "No. Why?"
Spike: "No reason."

Spike tries his best to be diplomatic, but the sardonic tone in that last line shows he wasn't completely successful. Later, when Mrs. Cake yells at him for burning the food, his defenses go up and he doesn't mince words in regards to the quality of the baked goods. (I would have lol'd if he had referred to them as baked bads, even though back then he didn't have any issues eating such things.) I know some have criticized Spike for being rude to her, but I disagree because of the reasons stated above. (And that's not the Spike fan talking in me - I had no qualms about criticizing him over how he dropped the ball in "Dragon Dropped".)

This is my favorite visual gag from the episode. The comedy beat they inserted between Spike's "successful" teleportation and the ensuing inferno cracks me up every time I see it.

This scene finally establishes some ground rules for Spike message-sending power: He notices the notes are on parchment and says sending that material is his specialty. So it seems his power is limited to just that - he can't send objects or living things with his fire - which is something I wondered about all the way back when I started watching this show. Furthermore, his power isn't limited to sending notes to just the princesses. Since he had a random assortment of baked goods on the counter, it means he only has to visualize where he wants to send them.

So when he sends messages to Celestia, Luna, Cadence, or Twilight, he's really thinking about them appearing next to them. So he really is a kind of maildragon like he stated a few episodes ago since he can send letters to just about anyone or anywhere he is familiar with. And I suppose if he was feeling nasty he could visualize the parchment re-materializing inside some enemy's throat instead of next to them, but he's a nice dragon. (Right? Right??)

I still believe he was granted his power by Celestia, and presumably she also gave him the ability to receive messages through a spell she casts that activates that power.

Uh oh. Lesson Zero Mrs. Cake is emerging! XD

Looks like Apple Bloom has been taking leaning lessons from Discord! (Sweetie and Scoots are unimpressed.) I want to think this was another callback to "TB-U, BD."

Sweetie Belle has seen too much. The scrunchy mouth doesn't lie.

Discord has a heart! Who'da thunk it. (Fluttershy, actually. And Spike, too.)

Discord wasn't the only one showing off his liquid pride at the wedding. I got all choked up, and it was strange because up to that point the episode was all about the laughter. And yet, that background music, the wonderful callbacks to "The Perfect Pear" and invocation of Big Mac's parents all brought it to an amazing emotional climax.

I love AJ's dress and her braided mane. It seems like the costume she wore in the "Hearthswarming Eve" play, but I'd have to go and check.

It didn't go unnoticed that the ReMane 5 nor Starlight appeared here. Considering it would have been simple enough for the animators to add them in, I have to think the attendees we saw were by design. It would make sense knowing both Big Mac and Sugar Belle would want a very small wedding, and it appears they only invited a small number of family members and their closest friends. (Spike, Discord, and the trio of Our Town ponies should be honored.)

Anyway, amazing episode. Definitely my favorite of the season. Not a bad way for the series to go out before the finale!