Number62

Let's not forget teenagers who can regress in terms of sensibility.

Still, I think there are at least a few sensible kids (and maybe teens as well), so the "better" cartoons might as well exist for their sake.

Only one way to find out what will happen next.

So they gave you the wrong food and overcooked that? I have to wonder how a mistake like that could get through.

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas!

I think Disney is better off trying to remake the movies that didn't so well like Atlantis, The Sword in the Stone, and The Black Cauldron as those movies are in more need of some kind of fix. Then again, while I didn't care for those movies, someone who likes/loves them will probably cry foul if any of those were announced for a  remake.

Time to go for 888 brohoofs, then.

@AlexanderThrondI was against Twilight being an alicorn because I felt that there were too many by that point, and I didn't want the show to keep adding more just because it could. Then I figured that Twilight being an alicorn could open up opportunities for the show to talk about them, but too bad that's not what we got.

As for Twilight wanting to be a princess, you're right in that she hardly aspired to be a princess. Maybe she could eventually find a reason to be one, or maybe she'll realize that's she didn't know that's what she wanted. I feel like they could make it work if they're smart. Overall, I do also agree that the show didn't give much of a reason for her to be a princess. And I doubt there was anything Twilight could actually learn from Celestia.

It could work if they give a good enough reason. Maybe Twilight was so inspired by Princess Celestia that she would jump at the chance to lead Equestria. Or is this more about Twilight possibly long outliving her friends?

Doubts about if she would actually make Twilight a princess or if it would be done well?

According to these posts on reddit and this, the glitch affects the SD card and not the save data, and the glitch isn't very common. I've played Pokemon Sword, and I haven't encountered any problems. I probably should have reformatted the SD card just in case, though.

That kinda reminds me of myself in regards to this show. There are things that I liked about it, but the mistakes are too prominent for me to ignore. Still, I don't kick others for liking this show, or at least I try not to.

@Emerald Heart

I don't know if you still need help, but I think this video may be useful.

Have you tried tutoring? Another option is Khan Academy.

You're welcome!

Quote

I dunno, people have brought that complaint up with every one of their later episodes, but I find them funny and relatable so I don't really mind it. I kinda feel like the alternative would be to make them distant and unapproachable - that is, boring. Plus by season 9 I was not invested in the show's continuity at all. It's interesting when it works, but it usually doesn't, and a lot of those seemingly out-of-place episodes in season 9 are ones I found pretty delightful. 

The real alternative would have been to stop clumsily dragging them around. As for continuity, I didn't need the show to be continuity-heavy, but I don't know if ignoring the continuity says anything good. Maybe as long as the episodes are enjoyable enough, then it might not be an issue. Of course, I didn't find their episodes that enjoyable, and the other episodes with the main characters don't interest me that much.

Quote

Although I am starting to wonder what Luna being banished to the moon for some thousand years did to her relationship with Celestia. 

You already know what I think of this.

Quote

I mean... to me, that's Equestria Girls, which has its own set of problems, though I have liked it much more than Friendship is Magic lately. 

I haven't kept up with EQG for a while, and all I've seen are the first 3 movies plus a few shorts tied into those movies. From what I have gathered, the movies aren't that different from the 2-part episodes, and I don't care for the shorts except for that one with Vinyl Scratch.

Quote

My point is that even before "Celestial Advice," something more down-to-earth and relatable was the main thing I wanted from the princesses.

I'm still the same, actually. I wanted to get to know them as "people." Even if I wanted to see them in action, there's still more to them than that. And as always, it;s still too bad the 2-part episodes exist.

Quote

I dunno, I tend to just roll with the punches as far as this show goes, though that might be because I'm most interested in the mane six. By the time season 8 came around, I was incredibly desperate for some major change to the show's formula, and I felt that the school did refresh the show in some important ways. 

I do wish the princesses got their own episodes more often, but I would have wanted them to act like they did in "A Royal Problem" and "Between Dark and Dawn," so I'm not sure we're in agreement there. 

Well, my favorite character happens to be Princess Celestia, though it's really mostly in concept. I knew that she wasn't a main character and thus wouldn't get a huge number of episodes, but it still didn't feel like the show gave her or Luna enough respect. I don't think their two episodes were bad, but I am bothered about the two acting like they barely knew each other. Even though I hated "Between Dark and Dawn," it's mostly because it felt like a season 1 or 2 episode thrown into the show's last season, and their final episode should've been about something else and not some childish squabble over differing vacation choices. I'm more likely to think well of it had it come much earlier with appropriate changes, of course.

When I said I would've been more receptive of the school if the show was different, I meant the show would have to be changed almost completely. No alicorn nonsense, no status-quo-changing-two-part-episode nonsense, and no end-of-Equestria nonsense. I still think Twilight could open a school of friendship even in that kind of show.

Quote

As with many things in this show, my view is that I prefer how these one-off episodes present the princesses to whatever the two-parters do with them. 

I'm the same, actually, though it's too bad a number of 2-part episodes exist.

I might be too fixated on the 2-parters, but that's when the princesses tend to get the most attention. They don't really get their own individual episodes very often. One reason I might be too fixated on those episodes is because they influence how the show changes and what the show may try to do next. For example, I haven't seen much of season 8, but I did see "School Daze," and I'm actually not against Twilight opening a school of friendship. Hell, that might even have been a good way to make use of her position as the Princess of Friendship, and it also shows her spreading her passion and appreciation of the concept. However, I felt that the show should have completed certain other tasks before trying this, and thus I didn't care much about the school. I'd probably have been more receptive toward the idea if the show was almost completely different.

I mentioned their vacation episode because it doesn't really line up with how the princesses were portrayed over the course of the show. I suppose what I should really say is that their portrayal as a whole doesn't make a lot of sense, and that episode doesn't help their cases. And of course we can agree to disagree. I was wondering what exactly your perspective of all this was and why.

Quote

My favourite Celestia moment in season 1 is probably that prank she pulled on the Cakes. That's why I like what the show has done with her lately. She has an endearing personality. I like Celestia and Luna as characters, so I would not want the show to "exclude" them. 

I do agree it was a nice moment for Princess Celestia in season 1 because it showed a "less royal" side to her, but I can't really like or maybe even accept the show's more recent offerings of her because of all the blunders it made regarding her. I might have been more accepting if the show didn't mishandle her so often.

As for Luna, I'm wondering if I like her as a character or more for her possibilities, not unlike Celestia (and the show by extension). Celestia has a somewhat definable personality: she's kind and approachable, and she has a relaxed disposition despite her royal position. I'd comment on her as a teacher, but she has barely been one in the show. Luna is kind of the same, but to a smaller degree, which makes her less interesting because those traits are less defined. Funnily, I do think Luna did more "teaching" in the show because she interacted with the CMC in their dreams. Princess Luna may have her personal issues, but those issues are worthless because the show didn't play with them.

I know the two have their preferences of activities in their vacation, but I even have some issues with how the show handled them. Celestia likes thrilling activities and could confront danger if she wanted to, but that looks weird when I also remember that she's incapable of handling supervillains. I mean, handling supervillains is pretty different from those other activities, but if she were incapable, then there'd be no reason to exclude her from the 2-part episodes in the first place. Luna preferring relaxed activities seems a bit random when she was being pretty excited at the beginning of "Between Dark and Dawn." And since she has to handle "intense dreams," her exclusion also becomes nonsensical.

And I suppose you're right that the show doesn't have to exclude them. I felt that the alicorn sisters (and maybe Cadance as well) should have been distant royal figures who deal with their own issues and adventures, and they would also have no connection to the main characters so the show wouldn't need to create and fail with their 2-part episodes. I know I wouldn't have been as demanding to see an alicorn blasting a bad guy into oblivion, and the show could just stick to its preferred slice-of-life stories instead.

Quote

I would go as far as to argue that the adventure-type episodes aren't that "ambitious" at all, which is why a lot of them are so mediocre. Like, "The Cutie Re-Mark," for instance. Sure, it's expansive in scale, and it does try to say something profound about Starlight Glimmer, but it's mostly just laser beams and lightweight what-if scenarios. They're not interesting as fantasy, because the show's mythology is so half-baked, and they're not suspenseful, because the storytelling is so formulaic and predictable.

I thought the season 9 finale was impressive because it's one of the only times the show has generated actual tension. 

I'd talk about "The Cutie Re-Mark," but I think you've heard/seen me go on enough about it.

Anyways, I do mean ambitious as expansive in scale. I mean, Equestria is in danger, lives are (possibly) threatened, and huge status quo changes often result from the 2-part episodes. This is quite different from Pinkie's friends turning down her party invitations or whatever happens at one of Rarity's shops. Those kinds of larger stakes appeal to me as I am curious as to how a bright, colorful, and generally positive show would handle something out of its usual element. Too bad the results are - well - not good.

Quote

I did enjoy how seriously the alicorn mythology was taken in season 1, even though it was mostly kept mysterious. That mystery is probably why Cadance never bothered me, though Twilight becoming an alicorn annoyed me because it didn't make much sense. By the time Flurry Heart came around I realized that the mythology wasn't really the point of the show and probably wouldn't amount to anything interesting anyway. Honestly, I reached a point where I was mostly annoyed whenever the show made a big deal about alicorns. I no longer find them interesting.

I would say that Princess Celestia was at her best in season 1, and even then she didn't appear often and can appear questionable at times. Too bad that was the best they could do with her.

If they weren't going to bother with the alicorns, they should at least have stopped making a big deal about them, and they could've done that by either excluding them completely (the better option while also taking less effort) or making them more commonplace especially among average pony citizens. I hate wasted potential, and that's what I remember most about this show.

Quote

At a certain point I might have enjoyed the show more if the adventure-type stories just went away. 

Same.

Quote

I do think the two-parters can be fun, but mostly as spectacles. For the most part I tend to like them despite the show’s underdeveloped mythology, though there are some fun ideas; the more they try to seem like serious fantasy, the less interesting they are to me. In particular, the first two premieres seem fairly non-serious regarding those elements. 

I just don't like that their more ambitious efforts are hardly ever their better ones. The only 2-part episode I genuinely like is "Friendship is Magic" despite its bad dialogue and rushed pacing especially in it second part. "The Cutie Map" was okay enough for me, but the execution of the episode wasn't nearly as interesting as its ideas. I either hate or am indifferent to every other 2-part episode.

Quote

What do you mean by “brought in”?

Exactly that. The show introducing new alicorns.

Quote

It obviously doesn't help that the fantastical elements are of major interest to me.

I should word this sentence better. The fantastical elements were the biggest draw of the show to me, especially when I first saw the season one 2-part premiere. I didn't expect them to have some deep and expansive mythology, and I didn't expect the show to build on it constantly, but I am still disappointed by whatever the show attempted.

Quote

I also have never considered My Little Pony a serious fantasy series and generally don't see how it benefits from trying to be one.

I would've been perfectly fine with it being a slife-of-life show. The problem is that it isn't always that as it has teased more fantastical elements. And when it has tried to use those more fantastical elements (i.e. 2-parters), it doesn't succeed.

Quote

Twilight becoming an alicorn and a princess would be a lot more coherent and meaningful if those things were at all relevant to the show's focus, but that also speaks to how irrelevant those events actually were to Twilight from an emotional perspective; it still wouldn't be anything she ever seemed interested in, so why should I care? 

Then Twilight becoming an alicorn and a princess were meaningless events. I don't like these kinds of shallow and arguably desperate attempts to look more ambitious because that makes the show look clueless instead. It's more reason for the show to have only stuck with slife-of-life stories and not bother with whatever they do in 2-part episodes (and stuff like "Magic Sheep", but I digress).

Quote

So I don't really have the same priorities as you regarding this show. 

It obviously doesn't help that the fantastical elements are of major interest to me.

Quote

Cadance being an alicorn has no real bearing on what I think about her. I just like her and would have loved to see her personality further developed. 

I think Cadance seemed like a nice and fun character, and I would've liked for her to be given more to do. I just don't think alicorns should be brought in willy-nilly because they are (allegedly) special. If they weren't, why are alicorns not more common in Equestria?

I meant expanding on the lore of alicorns. They're said or at least implied to be something special and important, but they're ultimately just there. I can't even say whether becoming an alicorn did anything for Twilight, so the fact that these alicorns exist feels pointless. Thus, I don't agree that the show handled Celestia and Luna well, and I personally hated "Between Dark and Dawn". Were the sisters major characters in "The Summer Sun Setback"?

Even though Cadance didn't get quite so much attention from the show, that might have been a blessing in disguise for me.