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The Second Opinion

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  1. The Second Opinion
    I think medically, that's deemed "schizophrenia"
  2. The Second Opinion
    Eh, I don't think that's all that big, unless there's a side to this I haven't seen. To me and most of the fans I've come across, Friendship is Magic is one of the better 2-parters and Ticket Master is fine, but nobody put up much of a fight when I pointed out flaws in either of them. While her "power of friendship" speeches were miles better than the same kind of speeches from Yugioh, they could still be pretty gushy. I did like season 2 a little better than season 1 myself, and I think season 3 being such a step down was more a case of the team just blowing it than the show being lost without her. I guess this is the other side of the story to what I just finished saying, but I do think there were many perks to being the "experimental" phase, with a certain sense of enthusiasm and genuineness. The reworked songs from famous musicals, the Benny Hill references, and the animation gags like Twilight bursting into flames were all genuinely enjoyable touches that just don't happen anymore. And on the flip side, I thought the first half of season 4 spent a lot of time working its way back up, with a lot of forced episodes more interested in the scenarios it could put the gang in than in how it could explore them. (And I'm not even talking about Rainbow Falls, which I actually liked in spite of its sloppiness.)
  3. The Second Opinion
  4. The Second Opinion
    Well, just the ones that I probably won't be using as the subject of anything in the near future; Pinkie Pie was hilarious in Filli Vanilli, and the hatred for it is a classic case of missing the joke, which was making fun of the "isn't it great that everyone will be watching your every move while you're onstage?" trope. What's more, this is an ironic shame, because the show has used that trope before, with Fluttershy doing it to Rainbow Dash in Sonic Rainboom, Photo Finish and Rarity doing it to Fluttershy in Green Isn't Your Color and Hearth's Warming Eve, ect. and because the trope itself is REALLY stupid. (Yet it, of course, never got any backlash.) Season 4 wasn't much better than season 3 until it got to Pinkie's Pride. Pinkie Pie's existential crisis in Pinkie's Pride was a lame bid for melodrama in the last episode that called for it. Rarity only has 2 great episodes, and neither of them are from season 1 (or include songs). And of course, I just started a thread and did a video on For Whom The Sweetie Belle Toils hurting Sweetie Belle as a character, so there's that.
  5. The Second Opinion
    You just had to make me remember that I remember Lizzy McGuire... That does sound pretty close to my conclusion (save for the part about Rarity needing to rethink giving Sweetie Belle a finished product), but I will say that it didn't help their case that they tried a little too hard to weave in the 5th birthday party as a grudge that was totally always there.
  6. The Second Opinion
    Granted, the season 3 finale was the only one I thought was anything less than great for this show, but I'd probably have to put Best Night Ever/Grand Galloping Gala in third.
  7. The Second Opinion
    Well, one of the points I tried to make in the video was that her past actions also suggested her real feelings weren't in that vicinity either (the bit on Sisterhooves Social and all that). Growing and changing is still a legitimate possibility though, just one that, as they depicted it, is sort of a shame when you were as genuine and likable as Sweetie Belle was.
  8. The Second Opinion
    Actually, now that you mention it, I kinda thought Apple Bloom was more of a blank slate than either of them. Granted, up through Stare Master, they were pretty much all the same character, but after that, Sweetie Belle really started to convey realistic motivations for someone who would actually be as good natured as she was. And Scootaloo definitely seems to have a less confident version of Rainbow Dash's mindset, someone who wants to be the biggest and the baddest, rather than someone who likes to think she already is. And on the flipside, new characteristics can still be bratty ones.
  9. The Second Opinion
    I have a segment on my series I call "Viewer Appreciation Corner," where I ask fans to send me their artwork and videos on Friendship is Magic, so I can announce my picks for favorites at the end of every month (one winning artist and one winning video director). I figured I may as well start a forum to make submitting easier, so feel free to post your stuff here if you'd like a well-earned nod. Note: Anything can win once, so if your submission isn't chosen the first time you send it in, feel free to try it again. The first winners were announced at 2:42 of this video, if you'd like an example:
  10. The Second Opinion
    Yeah, I did offer her growing up as a possible explanation myself. But if that really is what they had in mind, I think the particular route they chose decreases her likability in a big way (for the moment at least, since her next episode could still take her in a much more appealing direction).
  11. The Second Opinion
    How can anyone not pick The Failure/Success Song? Of all the pointless excuses to sing with pointless non-lyrics, pointlessly attempting to dramatize whatever emotion they wanted to convey and dragging it out until the face-palming stupidity of the whole thing was beyond any... Erm, yeah, that would probably get my vote.
  12. The Second Opinion
    Thank you! Like I said in the video I paired with this, setting up threads here is a great way to make these subjects a two-way street. I'll be looking forward to more of seeing what everyone thinks. And yeah, that's another very legitimate possibility, that somebody decided they had a "better" vision for Sweetie Belle. That definitely leaves a lot hanging on her episodes next season. (And yeah, I guess if the pattern continues, Apple Bloom's Luna nightmare is due next season.) Very interesting. It'd be worth exploring if Sweetie Belle thinks Rarity is a better singer (assuming Sleepless in Ponyville wasn't their attempt to kill her voice with puberty), although that would leave the question of why she wanted to do designing instead, even though Rarity is also better at that, much more so. On one hand, I do think kids in these types of shows are made a little on the nice side, so we know they're "innocent." But I think the type of quality they gave Sweetie Belle, a genuine, unconcerned goodwill, runs a little deeper than that and, as I've witnessed firsthand, isn't always something you lose just by getting older and less niave. And yeah, with what we got as the alternative, I would have much rather seen them go that route. (Assuming they really did do it on purpose to grow Sweetie Belle up, that is.) But I do kinda like your idea of Luna's influence making her good at dealing with this problem. And I can also attest as the oldest of four that sometimes kids don't change that much growing up. My siblings were equally as bratty when they hit puberty, no more and no less
  13. The Second Opinion
    Funny enough, I did think they might have been going for a depiction of her getting older and changing into not quite the same character. (The voice actress is growing up too, after all.) It could explain her change in motivation, but yeah, it doesn't seem to be everyone's favorite idea. That's what I get for using my favorite example, instead of an easier one to summarize :/ Admittedly, I brought it up there as kind of an extra add on. But Toils told us Sweetie Belle has always been harboring jealousy towards Rarity and her capabilities, and she never actually lamented her own capabilities in Social, even when Rarity was directly attacking them. If she felt this need to prove that she was capable, surely she would have expressed some kind of longing there. But instead, she only noted the idea that she was "goofing everything up" offhand, without ever seeming particularly bothered by it, in and of itself. As you noted, it only made her feel the need for a sister who was fun and welcoming, like Apple Bloom had, not the need to confirm that she could do a good job on the chores she attempted. Something I pointed out in my video, actually, was that I could much sooner see this kind of thing happening with Applejack and Apple Bloom, even with the fact that they're depicted as getting along more easily. As you pointed out with Babs Seed, Sweetie Belle just isn't someone who seems to think quite like that. I don't think what's identifiable is necessarily always the same as what fits the particular character. Yeah, but this one seemd like it wanted to change her up a bit.
  14. The Second Opinion
    Actually, that's exactly what I brought up at the end of my video review. The one explanation I thought could hold up is that they're writing in a case of puberty and preteen angst, seen in Twilight Time and even perhaps in Sleepless in Ponyville, where her singing is suddenly terrible. But as I also pointed out, that doesn't mean you have to like it. As Cutie Mark Chronicles pointed out, characters don't always change when they get older, and the more earnest quality that Sweetie Belle had before was perhaps her most endearing trait. And meanwhile, there's a lot to dislike in her new depiction.
  15. The Second Opinion
    That puberty is a "get out of jail free" card? Eh, I've seen scarier Seriously though, bratty is bratty. Even with puberty, everyone is unique, with their own progression, and still has to take responsibility for their own shortcomings. (For one, everyone in the "mane 6" had different problems when they were young that fit their personalities, and for that matter, all of them save maybe for Applejack didn't change that much from then to the present.) Sweetie Belle stooped pretty low, for reasons she partly just clung to in the first place to make herself feel better - reasons the episode was just making up on the spot, at that.
  16. The Second Opinion
    8:33 to 9:51 - Yes, I do. So what's your response?
  17. The Second Opinion
    Ah, but now you're thinking of wanting to "impress" someone as a blanket description. When the end goal is to get Rarity to approve of her and want to spend time enjoying each other's company, does that really speak to the same need as wanting applause and praise for her talent, praise that she wants to go specifically to her and not someone else? Well, one of the points I tried to make here is that taking rejection hard is not necessarily the same as taking rejection hard AND in character. Yeah, I would never deny that we've never seen Sweetie Belle's ego. But it's usually been when somebody brought the fight to her. Jealousy to begin with isn't something I noticed before.
  18. The Second Opinion
    Yes, but is there any character action you couldn't apply that to? Do the specific actions really match the specific character? Has she though? She didn't mind losing the Sisterhooves Social or getting all gutter balls in bowling. Even in Sisterhooves Social, after being shot down four times, she decided bonding time at the social was the way to make it better, not some attempt to impress Rarity.
  19. The Second Opinion
    Time to look at where the fandom and I just don't see eye to eye. First on the table, Sweetie Belle's transformation into a total brat in For Whom the Sweetie Belle Toils.
  20. The Second Opinion
    One thing I decided I want to do with my series is challenge the fandom on the spots where my opinion seems to split from the general consensus. And first up is my contention from my review of For Whom the Sweetie Belle Toils: I think it altered Sweetie Belle into kind of a brat. The video where I make my case can be found here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T1672_3bg-I This forum is for debating whether it's true, to see if anyone can refute me. To summarize the case I make in the video; 1. Sweetie Belle was never portrayed as a competitive sore loser before: Even when she did attempt to shine and it didn't work out (The Show Stoppers), she was, at most, disappointed in herself for not being as good as she wanted to be. She never lashed out because she was angry at not getting recognition for its own sake. So even if this episodes entire premise holds up (which it doesn't, see #2), her reaction would have been glum and silent, not angry and vengeful. 2. Her jealousy complex with Rarity comes across as made up for the episode: The only two examples of one sister "stealing the spotlight" from the other, as Sweetie Belle complains, are both from the episode in question, and the one that apparently sewed the seeds for this conflict - the fifth birthday party - doesn't have even the vaguest of connections to anything we'd been shown before. Sweetie Belle was never portrayed as jealous of Rarity, nor intimidated by her, and even when Rarity flat out told her in Sisterhooves Social that she was doing a bad job, she became frustrated with the rejection, not the lack of credit. 3. Sweetie Belle, of all characters, was perhaps the least egoic of the entire main cast: Among the characters concerned with impressing someone else (or timid over their inability to do so) Sweetie Belle would probably be the last one on the list. Where even Pinkie Pie can fall to pieces when she thinks she might be losing her friends' appreciation, it took Sweetie Belle several direct conflicts in Sisterhooves Social just to start getting down on herself. And even among her friends, she's been the least concerned with failing to impress (taking her failure to bowl in The Cutie Pox better than Apple Bloom, etc.). A direct contradiction to her easy-going, fun-loving character - without clear progression - felt jarring and unfitting. While I do think there are possible explanations for her behavior, like preteen angst changing who she is, it does make me appreciate her less as a character. But then, that's my take. What's yours?
  21. The Second Opinion
    This is cheating a bit, as I actually thought the scene in question was pretty bad. But I did think the first part of the episode was gold and the rest could have been as well, if only... I thought the scene from A Friend in Deed (season 2) where Pinkie Pie first meets Cranky the donkey could have been MUCH funnier if Cranky had been comically responsible for his own suffering at Pinkie Pie hands/hooves, instead of Pinkie Pie just being clueless and inconsiderate. If, say, Cranky had demanded a new wig "as fast as possible," ignoring and shouting over Pinkie Pie trying to warn him what the fastest way is, and then Pinkie had climbed up a flag pole and yelled it to the entire town, that would have been funny. Having her do it just because it's the worst move she could have made comes across as head-slappingly dense and mean spirited.
  22. The Second Opinion
    Hm... Spike and Discord are probably the best male characters, but they're not ponies (other than Discord's head), so moving on... Shining Armor definitely has some potential set up for him, but so far, he's mostly been played as a Gary Stu, so no. That leaves Big Mac, pretty much the only regular cast member left to be invested in, and Cheese Sandwich, the only one to elevate an episode to a whole new level of great. I do like how Big Mac packs a fair amount of character into limited dialogue and good character at that, suggesting he's more capable and aware than his introverted nature would suggest. But Cheese rivals Discord for how good a job they did adapting a celebrity persona, so I think I'll have to call it a tie.
  23. The Second Opinion
    I wasn't too fond of the direction they took Sweetie Belle here myself. Same as this thread, most of the people who commented on my review plead immaturity in her defense, but I dunno. Her behavior in Sisterhooves Social was immature. This time around, it just genuinely didn't seem to be coming from the same character. (And it didn't help that the episode made up stuff like the 5th birthday party to convince us, which was almost a blatant contradiction of their relationship as seen so far.) Of course, I also thought Luna kind of saved the episode, but I already went over that in the review here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CDhjV876U_c (Warning: It was my first with Channel Frederator, so it's definitely a little wordy and not structured especially well.)
  24. The Second Opinion
    Hm... well, I do think deconstructing small logical inconsistencies in the premise like this is something that could be done to just about every episode in the entire show. In my own review, my biggest problem with this one is that it felt rushed, that it didn't string the events of Discord's victory or the gang's comeback together nearly as effectively as it could have. But that's not the same as "sucks" to me. It's a triumph of creativity in individual moments, just mediocre in its pacing and plotting. Of course, that was still enough to have everyone lining up to defend it from me, but I'm not one to exaggerate just to defend my point. It contains some of the show's greatest work, but puts it together a little too sloppily to be its greatest episode.
  25. The Second Opinion
    Spike makes a celebrity appearance in the Equestria Games. So why is this episode about him, again? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aQhcL_OVG_A
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