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The Second Opinion

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Everything posted by The Second Opinion

  1. New review coming out this afternoon. Looking forward to getting everyone's feedback!

  2. Purely id based, but I'd honestly love to see Don Bluth get another chance. Some might see it as a gamble based on his track record, but I think he's pretty much solid when he has a good story/writers to work with. And NOBODY has more experience with traditional animation or more respect for it as an art form. Plus, he'd be willing to go with whatever the writers think up without watering it down and maybe even come up with a few ideas of his own to make it even bolder. And it doesn't hurt that he's a personal hero
  3. I think the bottom line, if it helps, is that if Rainbow flew the same distance in less time than Spitfire, she's faster than Spitfire. And we know that she gained ground on Spitfire to lose by that marginal distance, because we saw that Fluttershy and Bulk didn't keep it that close.
  4. This was an interesting episode for the fanbase not to like all that much...
  5. For awhile, it was Sweetie Belle for me. I definitely fell for how genuinely sweet and rambunctious she was. But I thought For Whom The Sweetie Belle Toils tried to pull a "new direction" for the character out of nowhere, so for now, she's sort of slid into second place, behind Scootaloo. That's pretty interesting to hear, because most of the people who watch my stuff seem to prefer Scootaloo. Before now, I was under the impression that Sweetie Belle was just "the one in the middle" to most fans. (So I'm kinda glad to hear that I wasn't the only one who kinda liked her.)
  6. Sweet and Elite. I wanted to see if the show was really any good, so I looked up a "best episodes" list and picked it because it sounded like a "good example" type episode. I wasn't actually too impressed at the time :/
  7. This episode was my latest review to date. I have to say, I thought it was far and away Spike's best episode so far! I thought it was one of those simple episodes that had a really strong sense of what it wanted to be. Although, yeah, it might have gone on autopilot a little too much for me to say it's a great episode.
  8. Now: I'd like to think I've come a long way. I work for Channel Frederator now, and they definitely require you to refine your approach and try harder to work with your viewers - Then: At the start, I was just a humble guy with a camera giving my rambling feedback, thinking this show would never grow on me -
  9. A reindeer in the snow? Well, at least now she's (wait for it) 20% cooler, if not more.
  10. Thanks very much! I think so too. And hey, you can never have too many friends, right?
  11. I hope so too. Thanks for the welcome and the tip! Good to know! And I suppose you could see it that way, but infiltration doesn't really work if you can't at least get into the spirit of things a bit
  12. As far as I've noticed, a lot of Fluttershy's potential has yet to be realized (we've seen many times that she's more capable than her fear of the spotlight would allow her to prove), but the character pretty much seems all there. The meek, "you first" attitude is typical of people who don't have a lot of faith in their own capabilities or self-worth, and we saw that her childhood classmates spent a lot of time taking both away from her. Taking solace in "cute" things and constantly being nice could suggest that she was sheltered more than she was taught to stand strong, but the genuine fascination with what she does and the way that she's legitimately good at being kind suggests it really is her personality. And the lashing out in Putting Your Hoof Down doesn't really change my mind on that. A lack of self-worth is a heavy burden to bear, and shedding it can be a little too much of a relief sometimes, making you feel entitled to build yourself a little too big above others. The fact that she went back on it the second it occurred to her that she was now the inflicter, and the fact that she's slowly gotten better at asserting herself since then through being validated, makes me think that's pretty much all there is to it. Now granted, there's a lot we haven't gotten the back story on, but at the moment, I don't see it as anything on a different level than the other characters. We don't know, for example, where Pinkie Pie got her party cannon, or exactly when/why Rainbow Dash dropped out of flight school, or what it was like for the Apple siblings to grow up without parents, especially the two who must have had time to get to know them before they died. It just doesn't leave an essential gap. (Well, okay, maybe that last one does.)
  13. There is no limit to the ugly side of human life. Many great men have observed this and chosen to condemn humanity for it, to make bitterness and conetempt their companions. I side with the men who say that it simply is what it is, a complex existence with limitless possibilities, good or bad. And according to the latter, the key to peace of mind is knowing what is real and what is an illusion. The dark side of humanity is real. The notion that it must affect us, the people with no control over it, is an illusion. The way people treat you is real. The power it holds over you is not. (If everyone decided the people treating them badly were worthless and forgot about them tomorrow or just stayed as far away as they possibly could from them, they wouldn't lose very much.) We're programmed to react based on how we're treated, but because of this, we live under the illusion that we always have to do so, when in fact we have the power to cut ourselves off from it and seek out better treatment, one step at a time. If you agree with this at all, I hope you can begin looking for more positive environments to draw from. Your friends who commented before me seem like a good start.
  14. I have a segment on my show called "Viewer Appreciation Corner" where I ask viewers to send me their fan art and/or videos on the show so I can announce my picks for favorites at the end of every month. This was one of the first winners:
  15. Well, it did involve a lot of arguing with myself. But turning into Diamond Tiara... yeah, point taken.
  16. I wasn't all that impressed with season 3 overall when I reviewed it, but this episode is a big exception. Not only was it my favorite of the season, it might get my vote for best Pinkie Pie episode.
  17. This one was a pretty decent episode. Personally, I think they should consider bringing up the holiday again and doing another special. There's definitely enough options for a plot left open, especially since this one was mostly about the play, instead of the main characters.
  18. Ah yes, good times (except maybe for turning into Suri) Much appreciated! It's definitely an interesting phenomenon, as you pretty much summed up. In my case, I wasn't unwilling or (at first) even reluctant to be tough on it. In fact, sometimes I was exactly that. But in the end, yeah, even I ended up conceding that it was among the best shows of its kind airing today. It's definitely an accomplished creation.
  19. Thank you! Definitely glad somebody pointed this out to me. And yeah, I can definitely vouch for Channel Frederator. Just my first month working with them already seems to have improved my work in spades. Maybe I'll start posting my videos here in the blog section
  20. This is actually my favorite Applejack episode (at least, among the ones in which she's not sharing the spotlight with someone else). As the first episode to focus on a single friend, I thought it introduced a lot of what the show would make its name on; Pinkie Pie, for one, is at her most delightful here, and the bits like Rainbow Dash's catapult were great little bits of innovation. Plus, season 1 definitely seemed to have the best grasp of Applejack, exploring what flaws she does have while still letting her be sort of the rock within the group, the most dependable and the most sincere. Her post-season 1 episodes were a gradual decline, in my opinion, not just because they reused the same flaws but because they didn't seem to care much about growing or exploring the character while doing so.
  21. With Rarity kept offscreen throughtout act 2 (except in the characters' imaginations) I actually thought this episode ended up being more about Spike - or at least, just as much about him. And for that, while I still thought it was only decent, it was still probably Spike's best episode all the way through season 3. But Rarity kinda returned the favor by stealing the show in The Secret of My Excess.
  22. Hey, thanks a lot! I'm definitely looking forward to getting involved around here.
  23. My Favourite Mane 6 Pony: Rainbow Dash How did you find MLP Forums?: How you became a fan of My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic: You'll probably get a kick out of this story. The first time I heard about bronies, it was from my girlfriend in college complaining that her friend had become one and was trying to get her to watch the show with him. It wasn't the best possible first impression (especially for a guy raised in a house where both parents considered Sunday football and amateur wrestling family traditions). Plus, when I met this guy, he seemed like the kind of carefree goofball I was expecting, and I ended up assuming that bronies were some sort of cult based on irony. But when I heard that they really just thought the show was that good, I actually didn't have too much trouble believing it. As a hopeful up-and-coming movie and TV critic, I was well aware that animation had crossed age and gender barriers before (Avatar: The Last Airbender, countless movies from Studio Ghibli, etc.). Flash forward to when I finally checked it out, and I didn't actually think it was anything special at first. I started with Sweet and Elite, and out of context, it seemed like the same old My Little Pony - smarter and better made but the same show none-the-less. But after a couple more episodes, I warmed up to it just enough to get curious. What was the big secret to the phenomenon? Did the show really deserve the following? And most interesting of all, why were so many bronies saying that the third season and the first movie had jumped the shark? I ended up starting a series of v-logs reviewing the show episode by episode. I wanted it to be a big "is it or isn't it?" type series about whether the show was any good, as I had no intention of ever becoming a brony. But it grew on me very quickly. In context, it didn't take me long to see how good the show was, not only at general creativity but at portraying and exploring its characters, even (horror of horrors) making me identify with them - Rainbow Dash in particular. Not to mention that Pinkie Pie was funnier than anything I'd seen in a long time. It soon became clear that my series was for fans of the show who wanted to see a fresh reaction and a new perspective. In spite of this, my own reaction was sort of complicated. As a viewer, I still didn't quite think it was good enough to place alongside my all time favorite shows, but as critic, I was absolutely fascinated. This was probably the only show I'd ever seen succeed so well for the reasons it did. It was a beautiful example of the barriers that can be crossed when you focus on character first and gender second. So in my own way, I was hooked, and I kept looking for ways to make my series better, trying everything from commentaries to Channel Awesome style reviews. Then, I got a message from Channel Frederator saying they wanted me to make videos for them. So yeah, My Little Pony is my job now, and I couldn't be happier. (Though I do sometimes look back wondering how the heck this happened.) But it's clear that if it's going to work, I need to start getting more involved in this fanbase and seeing a wider range of opinions. So here's looking forward to getting to know you guys!
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